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Sharing our Learning Newsletter Spring 2020 1st half term
This half term we are all going on 'A Dinosaur Adventure'
Topic work
Wednesday 5th February—Gallery Day ( details of this will be sent later)
We will all be taking part in a literacy based project called 'A Dinosaur Adventure' which will incorporate a wide range of cross curricular activities including opportunities for music, art work, ICT, drama, maths, science, DT and imaginative play. This project will culminate in our rooms being transformed into prehistoric galleries for the day to showcase our work. The nursery and classes 2 and 3 will be working with Tan our creative artist on a dinosaur theme. We will also be having some special days as detailed below: Wednesday 15th January—Set Sail Day
Literacy in the nursery:
The children will enjoy a story session each day linked to the topic. These story sessions will often include the use of a wide range of puppets and story sacks to help stimulate interest and enthusiasm. All children will have the opportunity to select their own library book each week from a selection specifically purchased for this age group. They will continue to take home the nursery rhyme of the week. There will also be lots of opportunities to 'play write' especially in the dinosaur camp. A wide range of drawing and writing materials are always available on the drawing trolley. The children will be reminded to 'nip, flip and grip' their pen to ensure they have the correct grip. Children will be encouraged to recognise and begin to write their own names using a capital letter at the beginning only.
Literacy in Classes 2 & 3:
The children will continue to work in streamed phonics groups .This work will be consolidated by a variety of games and fun activities. During the Dinosaur Adventure we will be writing for lots of different purposes including lists, letters, notes and diary entries. The children will all be encouraged to form their letters correctly and to use their phonic knowledge to have a go at writing words. We will also be encouraging speaking, listening and drama skills throughout the project.
Maths in the nursery:
They will be looking at the number symbols 1 to 10 and practicing counting through games and activities including work on the computers. They will also start to make simple comparisons of height, eye/hair colour, foot size etc.
The children will sing a wide range of number songs and rhymes and again these will often be supported by the use of visual aids such as puppets and pictures.
Maths in Classes 2 and 3:
1 more or 1 less than a given number to 10/20.
We will be thinking about the following:
Identifying and discussing the properties of 2D and 3D shapes
Talking about ordinal numbers
Talking about measures and using the correct vocabulary—shorter, taller, heavier, lighter, longer etc.
Correct number formation
Estimating and sharing
You can help your child by:-
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Talking with them as much as you can about anything and everything.
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Sharing books together talking about the pictures, characters and words.
In reception classes – listening to your child read their reading book every night and practise their words.
Counting objects around the home.
Looking at and naming shapes and colours around the home and when you are out and about.
Practising putting on own coats and fastening buttons and zips at home to make your child more independent.
Encouraging your child to be as independent as possible when using the toilet and washing hands.
Please ensure all your child's clothes including gloves, hats and scarves are clearly named.
Enjoy singing the dinosaur songs and rhymes on the sheet provided
Taking part in the' At Home Challenge' details of which will be provided later.
Dates and events in school this half term
Don't forget - Religious Trail dates
Money and consent forms back by Tuesday 6th November please. Temples trip - Monday 19th November, St Edmunds Church Thursday 22nd November.
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Using Multiple Intelligence Theory to Identify Gifted Children
Carol Reid and Brenda Romanoff
In the sprawling Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, thousands of children identified as gifted are tackling challenging, real-world problems. They're doing so in curriculums designed for multiple intelligences.
Emmanuel showed promise when he entered kindergarten in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was a bright-eyed, attractive child of average size. But from the beginning, he didn't seem to enjoy school. He was absent a great deal. He got low scores on school readiness tests (for example, he could not identify colors and had difficulty with the alphabet). Yet, at times, he seemed eager to learn. He had a particular passion for math and worked hard in this subject.
When he entered 2nd grade, Emmanuel was recommended for the school's Program for the Gifted. The change was dramatic. He was the first child bounding in every morning. Given choices of what to work on, he often gravitated to his strongest intellectual areas—mathematical and spatial—while being exposed to activities that called for other intelligences, such as linguistic or musical.
Emmanuel loved the hands-on materials that he used in the interdisciplinary, problem-centered curriculum. His favorite part of the week was his time in the "flow room," where he worked with children from other classes and with materials that appealed to many different interests on many different levels. He became a leader in both his classroom and in the gifted program. He continues to thrive.
"Extraordinary Problem Solvers"
Emmanuel is one of some 12,000 to 14,000 students identified for our district's Program for the Gifted—about 10 percent of our total population of 2nd through 12th graders. The program is not new; it was launched in the mid-1960s. In 1991, however, the program for the younger children was transformed when we began basing assessment, curriculum development, and teaching strategies for grades 2-5 on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences.
The program for these children—who make up about half of all our gifted students—reflects the definition of intelligence that Gardner offered in Frames of Mind (1983): "the ability to solve a problem or make something that is valued by a culture." Gardner thereby proposed not only a broader identification of intelligences but also the demonstration of intelligence through finding and solving problems.
Anne Udall, former director of the Program for the Gifted, focused on this aspect of intelligence, shaping the services we offer and our own definition of gifted intelligence:
Gifted students demonstrate extraordinary problem solving in the intelligences. When presented with an open-ended or challenging problem, extraordinary problem solvers demonstrate creativity, critical thinking, and task commitment in order to reach a productive solution (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Program for the Gifted 1994, p. 5).
When gifted children attempt to solve a Chinese tangram puzzle, for example, they'll always be among the first kids in their group to complete six complex constructions. Further, they'll typically approach the most difficult and open-ended problems with enthusiasm and persistence.
The formats for the gifted program vary widely at our 83 elementary schools. At some, these students attend special classes for 90 minutes a week; at others, they attend a "problem-solving academy" that meets each month. At still other schools, students work in cluster groups of 8-12 children in heterogeneous classrooms supported by a program teacher.
The programs for grades 2-5 have certain characteristics in common. The teachers and administrators are designing situations in which students must use their creative, practical, and analytical thinking to solve actual or simulated real-world problems that correlate with curricular expectations. These problems may be structured or open-ended, enabling teachers to document students' thinking processes and production over time.
In applying Gardner's principles, we developed assessment, curriculum, and instruction simultaneously. As each evolved, one element affected the other—and continues to do so.
Fusing Three Philosophies
Our approach to gifted education for our younger students could easily apply to the learning of all students—and does to varying degrees in our schools. We believe that to be truly effective, curriculum, instruction, and assessment should fuse the three characteristics that are vital to all student understanding: in addition to using multiple intelligences, they should be problemcentered and thought-demanding. To elaborate:
[x] A multiple intelligences-infused classroom personalizes and deepens students' understanding by offering them many opportunities to explore significant concepts and topics on their own, to think about a topic in many ways, and to have different ways to make sense of what they find.
[x] A problem-centered classroom offers a range of topics that appeal to wide interests, engages students in personally meaningful problem finding and problem solving, and enables students to demonstrate understanding through authentic performance assessment.
[x] A thoughtful classroom offers students opportunities to develop a tendency to think critically and creatively. It also strengthens the ability to apply knowledge and concepts appropriately in new situations, and cultivates a reflective disposition.
Our participation last year in Harvard University's Project Zero Institute helped us to synthesize our problem-centered approach and our practices in teaching for understanding (that is, making sure students grasp concepts, skills, or principles sufficiently to apply them to new situations). David Perkins (Tishman et al. 1995), codirector of Project Zero, and Sandra Kaplan (Kaplan and Gould 1996) have been influential in our development of thought-provoking classrooms.
Ongoing professional training, demonstration teaching, and collegial collaboration form the cornerstone of our efforts to identify potentially gifted children and develop appropriate curriculum and teaching strategies for them. And we have found that scholarly thinking enlightens our teaching and makes it more creative.
Who Is Gifted?
To identify our younger gifted students, we use a problem-solving assessment. The assessment measures linguistic, logical-mathematical, and spatial intelligences through activities that call for creative, analytical, and practical problem-solving abilities. The process thus synthesizes the problem-solving approaches of Gardner (1983) as well as those of Robert Sternberg (1985), whose triarchic model for identifying, assessing, and teaching gifted children served as the basis for the Yale Summer Psychology pilot project.
Our approach is a departure from our state's more traditional standardized IQ and achievement tests. While we meet state requirements for gifted education by identifying the potentially gifted, we do it with less socioeconomic bias. As a result, about 26 percent of the 2nd graders we placed in the gifted program this year are from low-income families.
Our identification system has two phases: preassessment and assessment.
Preassessment. Program for the Gifted teachers conduct a series of model lessons in regular classrooms that provide opportunities for demonstration teaching and coteaching. During this phase, children solve problems similar to those they will confront during the assessment.
The lessons incorporate materials and activities that correlate with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, while focusing on linguistic, logical-mathematical, and spatial intelligences. They also address the analytical, creative, and practical aspects of intelligence through activities such as problem-solving with a map, math story puzzlers, and open-ended problems where students use any combination of intelligences and any strategies they choose.
Both the Program for the Gifted teacher and the classroom teacher take notes on each child's problem-solving behaviors, and examine and score their work.
Students save the work in a portfolio—a valuable item because it documents the child's problemsolving strengths over a period of time. The teachers jointly review the portfolio before deciding which students should participate in the actual assessment. They may bring in other information or student work as needed.
We have found that this collaboration encourages classroom teachers to develop curriculum and teaching strategies that enhance the students' problem-solving abilities.
Assessment. Trained observers—including retired and substitute teachers—administer the assessment in a casual classroom setting. There is one observer for every five children, and the observers serve on a rotating basis.
As the children engage in hands-on problem solving, the observers take careful notes on individual observation cards—a listing of problem-solving behaviors that Maker and colleagues (1994) have identified in their research. For example, here are some behaviors that we look for when children are working on the tangram puzzles—one of the tasks used to identify spatial and logical problem solving:
[x] Uses logical strategy for adding or substituting pieces without clues.
[x] Incorporates clues and new information.
[x] Solves complex problems quickly.
[x] Persists in difficult tasks.
[x] Seems excited and absorbed in work.
[x] Doesn't want to stop.
After selecting the most exemplary products produced for each task, the observers rate each student's total performance on a four-point scale: always evident, strongly evident, evident, or not evident. (Emmanuel was identified as a strongly evident problem solver in math and spatial intelligences and he showed evidence of linguistic ability.)
If a child receives scores of strongly or always evident in two out of the three intelligences, the team identifies the child for a variety of interdisciplinary services offered by teachers in the Program for the Gifted. These range from direct services, such as instructing students in small homogeneous groups, to coplanning and coteaching in classrooms.
Even though all schools have special programming for the gifted, these students obviously are gifted all week long. We must offer appropriate, high-quality services in every setting, including the heterogeneous classrooms where they spend most of their time. The student profiles that result from the assessments help teachers understand the students' strengths and personalize their instruction.
Our initial research indicates that within two years, students identified as gifted perform 17 percent to 20 percent higher on standardized math and reading tests than do students who were referred but not identified as gifted. But the benefits are not limited to the gifted students: As we work more collaboratively with classroom teachers, we find that we are creating problemcentered and thoughtful environments for all students.
Curriculum in Action: Food for Thought
An essential goal of learning is to explore and understand the connections among things. Our 4th grade curriculum for gifted students, called Food for Thought, centers on this goal.
Global themes/big ideas. The curriculum begins with a global theme that has had great significance for many cultures down through the ages—universal concepts such as change, relationships, systems, and conflict. Students explore big ideas or hypotheses related to the theme, first developing a series of big idea statements.
For example, one 4th grade class's global theme was "Systems." The teacher began by asking, "What would you most want your grandchild to understand about this theme?" Based on this question, the children decided to explore the following big ideas in their study of systems:
[x] Systems create order.
[x] Systems are interdependent.
[x] Systems work together to complete a mission.
[x] Systems can bring about change.
Thinkpoints. Next, teachers and students identify a problem-centered thinkpoint associated with the big idea—an important, engaging topic that has great depth and significance, leads to genuine inquiry, and can be investigated from a variety of discipline-related entry points or perspectives. Gardner's (1991) five entry points are narrative, quantitative, foundational/existential, aesthetic, and experiential/hands-on.
Our 4th graders chose "What can we do about hungry children?" as their thinkpoint. They investigated the question through the perspectives of various stakeholders: a nutritionist (experiential/hands-on), a journalist (narrative), an economist (quantitative), a legislator and a nonprofit agency (foundational), and an advertiser and a social activist (aesthetic).
Vital questions. Teachers must also be very clear about what they want their students to understand. Once teachers clarify the focus, they can then develop appropriate questions (vital question links) that explicitly connect the big ideas to the thinkpoint. This series of questions weaves throughout the curriculum, also incorporating connections between the entry points and content goals.
Our vital question links included
[x] What is a system?
[x] How do systems work together?
[x] What are my ethical responsibilities as a subsystem member?
[x] How do systems change?
[x] What can I do to change a system?
Understanding performances. Students demonstrate that they understand through hands-on activities with "minds-on purpose" (understanding performances that connect classroom content, thinking, and research). These activities call for rigorous content, thinking, and research skills, engaging students and helping them develop thoughtful, intellectual—even scholarly— dispositions. Understanding performances connect students' personal experiences and intelligences to rich, often collaborative learning. They range from structured exploration to open-ended "culmination."
For example, the teacher might ask
[x] As a legislator, identify any bias or discrimination in hiring or housing practices that results in people's inability to afford food.
[x] As a journalist, gather information to support a viewpoint about hunger that opposes your own.
[x] As a nutritionist, invent a food distribution system to help hungry children.
Authentic Performance Assessments
Authentic and reflective performance assessments—whether done by students, teachers, or community members—show students that they truly understand. Rubrics consist of clear criteria that correspond to the vital question links and content goals.
Performance assessments for our hunger study included reflective journals, a Kids' Cafe that students created to serve meals to hungry kids, and a presentation that the students made to their peers at our school district's annual Kids' Conference for community problem solvers.
Students write their responses in reflective journals and portfolio collections, enabling teachers to track their developing understanding throughout the study. Appropriate assessment should answer the question "So what?" and lead to the question "Now what?"
As we noted earlier, we developed our assessment methods at the same time as we were developing our curriculum and instructional approaches. We will continue to develop even closer connections between assessment and curriculum.
Because the multiple intelligences theory has helped us to recognize students' strengths, our teachers are better able to shape classrooms that truly engage children's curiosity and enable them to learn and create in many ways. Ideally, these are places where intriguing problems ignite children's passion for learning, crystallize their interests, and lead to purposeful action.
References
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Program for the Gifted. (1994). Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Program for the Gifted Handbook. Charlotte, N.C.: author.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1991). The Unschooled Mind. New York: Basic Books.
Kaplan, S.N., and B. Gould. (1996). Systems: A Thematic Interdisciplinary Unit. Calabasas, Calif.: Educator to Educator.
Maker, C.J., A.B. Nielson, and J.A. Rogers. (1994). "Giftedness, Diversity, and Problem Solving." Teaching Exceptional Children 27: 4-18.
Sternberg, R.J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligences. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press.
Tishman, S., D. Perkins, and E. Jay. (1995). The Thinking Classroom. Boston, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon.
Carol Reid is a Program Specialist and Brenda Romanoff is a Program Teacher at the Program for the Gifted, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, 700 East Stonewall St., Charlotte, NC 28202 (email: firstname.lastname@example.org).
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Published on Books for Keeps - the children's book magazine online (http://typo3.booksforkeeps.co.uk)
Home > Moon Bear
Moon Bear
Books Reviewed:
Moon Bear [1]
Issue:
200 [2]
Reviewer:
Valerie Coghlan[3]
New Talent: Editors Choice:
off
Media type:
Book
BfK Rating:
4
Bear bile, extracted from the gall bladder of black bears (moon bears), is in traditional Chinese medicine, credited with the ability to heal a myriad of adverse conditions, from cancer to hangovers. The bile is usually obtained by capturing bears in their native SE Asian countries. This appalling, though lucrative, practice is carried out in ?bear farms?, such as the one Tam, aged 12, is sent to work in when his father dies in a landmine explosion. Tam?s family has been exiled when their village?s land is seized in the cause of ?progress?. The death of his father means that Tam, too young for the hard work of farming the inhospitable land of their new home, is now the wage-earner for his family.
Moon Bear is not for the faint-hearted. Conditions for the caged bears in the city bear farm are brutal, and conditions for Tam, exploited by ?the Doctor?, his boss, are not good either. Nursing a sick baby bear gives Tam a purpose; the developing rapport between him and the young animal makes Tam determined that somehow he and his charge must get away from the farm, providing an edge-of-the-seat story as he struggles to outwit the cruel Doctor
Lewis delicately captures the misty, beautiful air of the mountain landscape of Laos and the contrasting bustling trafficfilled streets of the city. Description is not overdone, but anyone who has been to the magical land of Laos, or seen documentaries about it on television, will easily visualise the settings. This contrasts with the brutality of the conditions in which the bears are kept.
Moon Bear raises questions about the exploitation of indigenous people in the cause of modernisation and the exploitation of animals in the cause of traditional medicine. Tam?s story has a happy outcome, but it will rightly cause readers to reflect on issues such as these.
Source URL (retrieved on Aug '20): http://typo3.booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/200/childrens-books/reviews/moon-bear
Links:
[1] http://typo3.booksforkeeps.co.uk/childrens-books/moon-bear
[2] http://typo3.booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/200
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Historical Markers in LaRue County, Kentucky
Courthouse Burned
Marker Number: 591
Location: Hodgenville, Courthouse lawn, US 31-E
Description: Twenty-two Kentucky courthouses were burned during Civil War, nineteen in last fifteen months: twelve by Confederates, eight by guerrillas, two by Union accident. See map on reverse side. The courthouse at Hodgenville was burned by guerrillas Feb. 21, 1865. It had been used by Union soldiers as barracks. All of the county records were saved.
Originally erected June 28, 1963.
Subjects: Civil War, Courthouses Burned
First Baptism in KY.
Marker Number: 1114
Location: S. of South Fork Baptist Church, Hodgenville, US 31-E
Description: Seven persons baptized in Nolin Creek, 1782, first in Ky., by Rev. Benjamin Lynn who founded South Fork Church, the second church in Ky. Originally at Phillips Fort, 13 members. Moved to South Fork of Nolin, where church was constituted and cemetery located. Church has assumed style of United, Separate, Regular and Missionary Baptists. Later split by slavery.
(Reverse) Indian Fighter Grave - John Walters came to Phillips Fort in 1780-81. Commissioned Lt., 2nd Regiment of Ky. Militia by Governor Isaac Shelby in 1792. In local skirmishes, 1794 Battle of Brown's Run under Col. Patrick Brown, War of 1812. Was born April 4, 1770, Beacon Town, Pa., in valley of Monongahela. Died April 17, 1852, at home 21/2 miles south. Buried South Fork Cemetery, 1/2 mi. west.
Subjects: Baptist Church, Cemeteries, Forts and Stations, Shelby, Isaac, War of 1812
Hodgenville
Marker Number: 1096
Location: Hodgenville, KY 61
Description: Established in Feb. 1818, by order of Hardin County Court on 27 acres and owned by Robt. Hodgen, tavern keeper and native of Pa. He erected a gristmill on Nolin River, 1789,
within protection of Phillips Fort. Hodgenville had its first Post Office in 1826. It was incorporated in 1839 and in 1843, when Larue County was formed, became the seat of government.
Subjects: Forts and Stations, Post Office
LaRue County
Marker Number: 1115
Location: Hodgenville, US 31-E, KY 61
Description: Was established March 1, 1843 from part of Hardin County after debate over selection of name. An act to create Helm County honoring John LaRue Helm, then Speaker of the House, was amended by Senate to give the honor instead to Gabriel Slaughter. Compromise resulted in naming it Larue for those of that family who were among the early explorers and settlers of area.
(Reverse) County Officials-1843 - Joseph Abell, Abraham Miller, Thomas Brown, Lewis Reed, Squire LaRue, John McDougal, Marshall Scott and Jesse Rodman, Justices; Stephen Stone, Clerk; Jonathan F. Cessna, Sheriff; Wm. Elliott, Isham R. Twyman, Jediah Ashcraft, John C. Nevitt and William B. Read, Constables; James Redman, Jailer; William Cessna, Representative. Court first met on March 25, 1843.
Lincoln Knob Creek Farm
Marker Number: 120
Location: 6 mi. NE of Hodgenville, US 31-E
Description: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) lived on this 228 acre farm, 1811-1816. He wrote in 1860: "My earliest recollection is of the Knob Creek place." A younger brother was born here.
For more information, see Explore KYHistory: Abraham Lincoln Boyhood Home at Knob Creek
Subjects: Lincoln, Abraham
Lincoln's Playmate
Marker Number: 827
Location: Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, E. of White City, KY 84
Description: To the west, in Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Cemetery, is the grave of Austin Gollaher, 1806-98. Lincoln, while president, once said, "I would rather see (him) than any man living." They were schoolmates and playmates when the Lincoln family lived in this area, 1813 to 1816. Gollaher is credited with rescuing Lincoln from flooded waters of Knob Creek.
Subjects: Baptist Church, Lincoln, Abraham
Phillips Fort
Marker Number: 1098
Location: Hodgenville, Jct. KY 210 and Phillips Ln.
Description: A half mile east on North Fork of Nolin River is site of this fort, first settlement in Larue County, built in 1780 by Philip Phillips, surveyor, and company of settlers from Pennsylvania. Used as place of refuge from Indians, it was abandoned and removed about 1786, when it became safe for settlers to build homes. Nearby lie many pioneers in unmarked graves.
Subjects: Forts and Stations, Indians
Pioneer Methodist
Marker Number: 1186
Location: KY 210 at 462
Description: John Baird (Beard) was born 1768. In 1791, became a Methodist circuit rider in Maryland. Immigrated to Kentucky in 1795. Preached first sermon in this area at house of Phillip Reed, Aug., 1796, that led to organization of the Level Woods Methodist Church. He died in 1846. Buried in the family cemetery near Level Woods Church. "An able expounder of the Word of God."
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Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge CURRICULUM BOOKLET FOUNDATION
Academic Year 2018-2019 Academic Year 2019-2020
S. Elliss – Trust Curriculum Lead S. Elliss –Trust DHT: Curriculum Sept 2019
Review due: Sept 2020
Curriculum Intent
Curriculum Allocation
Supporting literacy and numeracy across the curriculum
Supporting Personal, Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural (PSMSC) education
Enrichment curriculum
ICT to support learning
SEND provision
More and Exceptionally Able provision
EAL provision
Subjects
* ART
* DANCE
* DRAMA
* ENGLISH
* FOOD TECHNOLOGY
* FRENCH
* GEOGRAPHY
* MATHEMATICS
* MUSIC
* PHSE (PSMSC)
* PHYSICAL EDUCATION
* RELIGIOUS STUDIES
* SCIENCE
* TECHNOLOGY
CONTENTS
Curriculum Intent
The curriculum at Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge School is rich and carefully constructed, relevant, aspirational and accessible for all. At MECE, students at all stages are provided with opportunities that develop confidence, broaden individual skills, deepen knowledge, and advocate academic excellence to promote a love of learning by fostering the intellectual, creative, moral and spiritual development of all students and to ensure they are fully prepared for the next stage of education and the working environment.
Preparing students for excellent outcomes that meet their individual potential sits at the heart of all we do at MECE. However, the curriculum is also about providing a wealth of opportunities for students to be the very best version of themselves; articulate, thoughtful, confident citizens who are ambitious for themselves and keen to contribute to the community.
The objectives for our curriculum are
* To meet the needs of our students and keep as many options open to them as possible.
* To secure the best possible academic results for all our students.
* To ensure high quality learning over time.
* To ensure substantial knowledge and language acquisition.
* To practise and develop transferable skills development
* To prepare students for the next phase of their education or employment and life in modern Britain.
* To develop well-rounded, confident and open-minded young adults.
The delivery of our curriculum is underpinned by:
* Rigour, high standards, coherence
* A core of essential knowledge in the key subject disciplines
* Freedom for teachers to use professionalism and expertise
* Memorable experiences which put learning in a wider context
* A wide range of opportunities for personalised stretch, challenge and support
* A range of rigorous assessment opportunities which support high quality of information advice and guidance for students and parents
* A rigorous programme for personal development and character education (including SRE and preparation for life in modern Britain)
* Varied option choices for all groups of students including the most able and SEND
* Varied progression routes for all students
Foundation
All students follow a common curriculum which is designed by the curriculum leaders and their teams to best support the learning required in KS4.
Core:
English (combined Language and Literature)
Maths
EBACC:
Science
Geography
History
Modern Foreign Languages (French)
Extension:
Art
Design Technology
Dance
Drama
Food Technology
Information Technology (IT)
Music
Physical Education (PE)
Religious Studies (RS)
PHSE
Curriculum Allocation
Supporting literacy and numeracy across the curriculum
Supporting the development of literacy and numeracy is the responsibility of every teacher and opportunities to support students will be taken throughout the curriculum.
Other strategies for literacy recovery are:
* On-line courses
* Small group work (usually with specialist TAs)
* Parents' information (face-to-face meetings and written information) so they can understand how they can support their child.
For those who arrive with low-average KS2 scores, monitoring in class through normal tracking and interventions will be provided if they are unable to keep up.
We will use data to diagnose precisely what students need to work on to improve (and also boost their confidence). Interventions are usually short term and highly focused. Some students only need one or two periods of interventions. A minority will need a more sustained period of support and we would look at the most appropriate curriculum for them.
Supporting Personal, Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural (PSMSC) education
Running through all of our curriculum, including the pastoral curriculum, are strands of Personal, Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural education (PSMSC) which cover themes such as:
* Emotional Wellbeing
* Citizen and Community
* Careers, Work Experience and Work Related Learning
* British Values
* Personal Health
* Risk and Safety
* Making and maintaining positive relationships
* Staying safe and healthy (including Sex and Relationships Education, Radicalisation and cyber-safety)
* Respect of self and others
* Equality and inclusion – especially tolerance, respect and understanding of people from protected groups, including those with different faiths and beliefs
* British values eg: rights and responsibilities, democracy and the rule of law
More details about our provision for PSMSC can be found on our website.
Enrichment curriculum
Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge offer a full extra curricula and educational visits programme.
All teachers contracted to work at Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge will be encouraged to offer extra-curricular activities or opportunities for students. Students will be consulted by school leaders and clubs, societies and teams will be arranged.
All trips/visits have clear learning aims and, generally, are linked to one or more curriculum areas. Where appropriate, two or more curriculum areas are bridged, which means that students "make connections" through the trip e.g. a Geography/Languages trip or a Science/Art visit.
The majority of trips/visits will be open to all students but some will be targeted at certain groups (with specific criteria):
* Career presentations and events – aimed at inspiring youngsters to consider different career choices.
* Subject-specific trips/events.
* Year-group specific trips/events.
ICT to support learning
The use of ICT is thoroughly embedded. The key principles are that:
* All teachers have access to IT in lessons as necessary - access to devices for preparation, IWBs in classrooms etc.
* All students have access to IT in lessons as necessary
* Students understand how to use IT in their learning effectively
* Students will become e-confident learners as part of the entitlement curriculum.
* Students' safety is not compromised by their use of IT.
* Parents will understand about how to help their child use IT efficiently and safely -we will give information as part of transition but also run sessions for parents at different points.
Processes and protocols will be rigorous to ensure that its network is safe, data is secure and IT provision is robust, using appropriate hardware and software solutions.
All students and staff will sign Acceptable use Policies and this will form part of the Home School Agreement signed by parents.
SEND provision
The Inclusion team work to support pupils with Special Educational Needs, and the teaching staff working with them. In-class support from Teaching Assistants, group and individual interventions, and a range of bespoke strategies, all reinforce the Quality First Teaching experiences of our SEN pupils in lessons. We work closely with parents, outside agencies, and the school's pastoral team to identify issues, and support pupils' learning needs in and out of the classroom.
More and Exceptionally Able provision
Principles
* All students are entitled to an education that is both stimulating and challenging and which allows them to progress at a rate that is commensurate with their ability.
* Some students will be classed as Exceptionally or More able based on their KS2 results in the core subjects.
* Some students will be identified as Gifted in one or more areas of learning at some time during their school career.
* Provision for Exceptionally or More Able and Gifted students is a matter of equality of opportunity.
* Provision for Exceptionally or More Able and Gifted students will help to raise standards for all.
EAL provision
Many of our strategies to support basic literacy support EAL students. In addition, we have other principles relating specifically to them:
* We celebrate linguistic heritage and ability in all.
* They sit next to students with a strong command of language
* All students are placed in appropriate groups for their cognitive ability
* They are encouraged to use dictionaries on IT devices and/or mobile phones (as appropriate) to support their work
* They are encouraged to research concepts in the target language if that helps while they are building up their language
* On transition, we will provide visual timetables, key word lists etc. to help them as necessary.
* We will work with parents to help them understand the language and culture of the school and signpost to English classes as appropriate.
* We teach academic literacy for the most able and EAL students
How can parents support their child?
There are many ways in which parents can support their child's progress including, but not limited to:
* Attend and participate in dedicated Parents' Evenings and Year Group Information evenings
* Engage in conversations with staff regarding the progress of your child throughout the year
* Encourage your child to discuss their learning with you.
* Support the completion of homework and revision by promoting a healthy and productive learning environment at home.
* Activate and be active on the parental Show My Homework App
ART
OVERVIEW
In Art students visual, tactile and other sensory experiences to communicate ideas and meanings. They work with traditional and new media developing confidence, competence and creativity. Students will learn to reflect critically on their own and each other's work developing the ability to give specific meaningful feedback. Throughout KS3 students will learn about how designers and artists develop their ideas through the creative process. They will develop an appreciation for Art and Design and its role in the creative and cultural industries that enrich their lives.
The study of Art opens the door to a wide range of careers in the creative, engineering and manufacturing industries. You will also develop skills, such as teamwork and time management which are highly prized by employers.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
AO1 Develop ideas through investigations, demonstrating critical understanding of sources.
AO2 Refine work by exploring ideas, selecting and experimenting with appropriate media, materials, techniques and processes.
AO3 Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions as work progresses.
AO4 Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and demonstrates understanding of visual language.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Assessment through the designing and making process that includes verbal and creative contributions. Peer, group and teacher assessments of developmental, final and concept ideas. Final assessment at the end of each project. Student evaluation and, where relevant, client evaluation / feedback of outcomes.
GROUPINGS
Students are taught in mixed ability groups
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Homework should take around 30 minutes. On occasion, more substantial pieces of homework are set to be completed over a longer timeframe.
Example Tasks: Collecting images; Drawing tasks; Researching Artists; Developing ideas.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Students will be given extended writing tasks throughout the year. Students must be prepared to put time aside to complete artwork outside of lessons, in order to achieve the best possible outcomes.
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Extra-curricular learning will be available through KS3 Art and Technology club.
Opportunities may arise to bring in a visiting artists and to work with students from Reading University. Opportunities to go on trips to galleries or see artists work are explored in foundation.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Pencil case with drawing and writing equipment, including 30cm clear ruler and a range of colouring pencils.
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
Look on SMHW every week to ensure homework is completed • Encourage LOOKING at objects, people, landscapes, really studying them and analysing the details visually with them • Discuss ideas with them ask them what they have found out about artists' work • Provide access to a camera and the internet • Offer technical help with holding, gluing, cutting up etc
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
www.technologystudent.com www.bbc.com/bitesize
TEXTBOOKS OR REVISION GUIDES
A wide variety of reference books are available in class.
We also encourage students to visit galleries and museums regularly to develop their knowledge of the subject.
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Mr Jon Watterson
COURSE CONTENT: Knowledge and skills
DANCE
OVERVIEW
Dance is an exciting and challenging subject, that has some-thing for every single pupil. Each term brings a new topic to the table, along with new dance styles and skills for the pupils to develop.
In this subject, pupils demonstrate use of physical and technical skills in an original and imaginative way with music. The visual and kinaesthetic learning methods can enhance pupil's awareness, motor-skills and processing. Dance can also aid those who find writing difficult, and prefer using actions to express their understanding and emotional intellect.
Dance at Chiltern Edge aims to support other subjects by correlating topics or consolidating skills in P.E, History, R.E, English and more. For example, in year 9 pupils explore the 1920's era in America including the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which brought about the well-known 'Charleston' dance style.
Be amazed at the level of confidence and self-esteem pupils can gain by watching their final performance at the end of each term!
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES (Applicable for year 7/8/9)
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Pupils have one lesson of Dance a week; formative and summative assessment structures will therefore be formatted into the following lessons:
* Lesson 3/4 – Formative/Self-assessment. Pupils self-assess their learning and performance so far; using the criteria to help suggest improvements to reach their target grade
* Lesson 6 – Summative Assessment. Pupils perform their dance and teacher assesses according to the assessment criteria and levels. Pupils are given WWW and EBI feed-back and their awarded graded.
* Lesson 7 – Formative/Peer-assessment. Pupils aim to take on the improvements from the summative assessment; feed-back is given on their progress from class mates.
GROUPINGS
Pupils are a class of mixed ability and gender.
For groupings within classes; there are possibilities through-out the term for pupils to perform in duets, trios, quartets etc. This will be decided based on the certain needs of the pupils within the class. For example; a High ability grouping that will have different objectives and tasks compared to a middle ability group. Other terms will require groups to be a mix of abilities and gender.
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Pupils will get written home-work around once a term, which will be either consolidating their learning from the term or researching upcoming Dance genres. This should take no more than 30 minutes. Pupils MAY be set practical home-work such as to practice certain performance pieces or choreograph material ahead of the lesson. Again, this will be no more than 30 minutes in a week.
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
MECE pupils will have multiple opportunities through-out the year to access extra curricula and enrichment sessions.
* From September – December; pupils can get involved in the main school production, in which they may audition to perform in a dance or a speaking role.
* From January – July; pupils have the opportunity to Key-Stage 3 Dance club in lunch time and afterschool sessions. These sessions can help develop co-ordination, strength, balance and flexibility, and enhance physical ability. These sessions are for ALL key-stage pupils of mixed ability.
They will learn choreographies and prepare for productions in the Performing Arts Easter Showcase and for the Summer Dance Show
* From January – July; Pupils can audition to be a part of the Edge Company Elite; were members are selected for specific performances in EdgeFest. The styles of dance performed change, therefore half term the department re-auditions to select pupils who have a particular talent or interest in the specified dance style.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Pupils are required to have appropriate kit for every lesson; this includes the usual stationary (pens/pencils etc) and:
* Leggings, sports trousers or /P.E. shorts
* P.E. top or sport top (no crop tops or offensive writing)
Pupils may also opt for:
* Sports bra
* Leotard
* Knee pads
* 1litre water bottle
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
* Reminding their children bring correct kit and water to every lesson and rehearsals
* Familiarising themselves with the school's code of conduct and behaviour expectations
* Regularly checking Show my Homework
* Keeping an eye out for news/letters or emails via School Comms about rehearsals/shows/trips
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
www.AQA.co.uk/SUBJECTS/DANCE
www.TES.co.uk
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Miss P J Gardner
COURSE CONTENT: Knowledge and skills
Sidi
'Sutra'
and diverse
dance the
slavery, political
History;
Slave
Politics;
the of
*
LINKS –
PSHE; Social and cultural factors, gangs
that of
events to
that
DRAMA
OVERVIEW
Drama is an important tool for preparing students to live and work in a world that is increasingly teamorientated. Drama also helps students develop tolerance and empathy.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
AO1: Create and develop ideas to communicate meaning for theatrical performance.
AO2: Apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance.
AO3: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed.
AO4: Analyse and evaluate their own work and the work of others.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Students are assessed termly on the unit of work they have been studying. In the main these assessments are on practical outcomes although opportunities are interwoven in the course that allow for written work and progress to be measured.
GROUPINGS
Mixed ability
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Homework is set at least once in the unit of work
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Students should ensure that they know lines as appropriate or otherwise prepare for lessons.
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
A large number of students are involved in the school show which provides the opportunity for students of all ages to be involved in a large production. There are opportunities both on stage, back stage and in the sound/lighting teams.
Opportunities may arise to bring in a visiting theatre company.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Standard school equipment only
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
* Going to the Theatre is a valuable experience for all and especially children.
* Show an interest in the subject, help with homework (but do not do it for them), discuss artwork and go to exhibitions.
* Find out about TV programmes, theatre productions, films, exhibitions relevant to your child's learning and enjoying them together.
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
National Theatre YouTube Channels – great videos about productions, acting techniques and styles.
Technical theatre and tutorials https://www.youtube.com/user/NationalTheatre
https://www.youtube.com/user/ntdiscovertheatre
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Tom Harte
COURSE CONTENT: Knowledge and skills
ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES
3
develop ideas through the medium of performance.
* To refine the students use of movement and facial expression as a form of communication with an audience.
* To encourage group work and further the students' social skills through social interaction, team building and problem solving.
Assessment: Use of Representation, Linear and Personification mime
Evacuation – Empathy and Characterisation Aims:
* To develop the students' knowledge of how to create a complete piece of drama.
* To allow the students to explore and develop ideas through the medium of performance using a variety of dramatic conventions.
* To develop the students use of voice, body language and facial expression as a form of communication with an audience.
* To encourage group work and further the
* To allow the students to explore and develop ideas through the medium of masked performance.
* To develop the students use of physical theatre as a form of communication with an audience.
* To encourage group work and further the students' social skills through social interaction, team building and problem solving.
Assessment – Performance following 6 rules of masks
Macbeth Aims:
* Realise extracts of Shakespeare in performance, with appropriate characterisation.
* Describe the difference between naturalism and non--‐naturalism without talking about the Unnatural.
* Experiment with and identify methods of structuring drama conventions.
* Make suggestions on how the work of others could be improved, using key words in their justification.
characters from,
Commedia
Dell'Arte and
Pantomime.
* To create physical characters from Commedia Dell'Arte.
* To perform comedy sequences from both Commedia Dell'Arte and Pantomime.
* To know and understand the links between Commedia Dell'Arte and Pantomime.
* To Learn a short script.
Assessment – Rehearsed Improvised performance using Commedia stock characters.
Play Study: Blood Brothers
* To learn lines of key scenes
* To understand the key themes of the play
* To be able to use narration in performance
* To understand what a prologue is and be able to determine its use
* To apply a range of dramatic techniques to and performance
students social skills through
* To apply the success criteria of physical theatre to their work.
* Become familiar with the plot of Oedipus.
* To use a variety of stimuli to form the basis of thoughtful and thoughprovoking drama.
ENGLISH
OVERVIEW
The English department aims to foster a real love for the creative aspects of English as well as develop the analytical skills pupils need in order to attain to their potential. English lessons deliver the national curriculum. Lessons are differentiated to meet individual needs, ensuring that all students are able to access the curriculum. Visual learning is embedded into the curriculum to enable students to understand, remember and apply key concepts. All students are entered for external accreditation so that on leaving Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge they have an English qualification. The department offers the AQA English Language GCSE, English Literature GCSE and Functional Skills.
English is essential for all careers. Being able to read with understanding, write clearly and accurately and communicate verbally with colleagues will be part of any job. Careers asking for English as a possible, specific qualification include teaching, publishing, journalism, copywriting, lexicography or writing. English would also be a useful qualification for those who want to be a librarian, or work in advertising, administration, the film industry, the media, marketing, public relations or social media/ web writing.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
Reading
A01: Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas.
Select and synthesise evidence from different texts.
A02: Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views.
A03: Compare writers' ideas and perspectives, as well as how these are conveyed across two or more texts.
A04: Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references.
Writing
A05: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts.
A06: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.
Spoken Language
A07: Demonstrate presentation skills in a formal setting.
A08: Listen and respond appropriately to spoken language, including to questions and feedback to presentations.
A09: Use spoken Standard English effectively in speeches and presentations.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Students will take a unit assessment each half term to ascertain levels of progression and to set next steps.
Ongoing formative teacher assessment /AfL
Periodic progress checks and assessments against the end of year outcomes or end of Key Stage outcomes.
GROUPINGS
Mixed ability in year 7. Ability Set in Years 8 & 9
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Set 1 x per week Y7 / Y8 30 mins Y9 upto 45 minutes
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION:
Private reading – students should try to read a wide range of fiction and non-fiction. Reading lists are available via the English Department.
Spellings – students will sometimes be given spellings to learn. They should also endeavour to learn the spelling mistakes highlighted by teachers in marked written work.
Guide them towards extra punctuation and grammar practice on
www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammarBBC Bitesize:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/z3kw2hv (English Language) BBC Bitesize:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/zykdmp3 (English Literature) BBC Bitesize:
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Students will have the opportunity to partake in creative writing competitions for county competitions.
Moreover, external speakers and authors of novels we will be studying, will also be coming in to work with the young people. To aid teaching and learning, trips to the theatre will be arranged throughout the year. Book clubs will also be available for avid readers.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Black pen, green pen, ruler, pencil, eraser
The Oxford English Mini Dictionary & Thesaurus (are useful to have available at home)
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
* Encourage wider reading
* Help with learning spellings
* Regularly check Show My Homework and discuss classwork and homework
* Visit museums, galleries, places of interest and encourage your child's curiosity / support them in developing a sophisticated vocabulary
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES:
https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/subjects/z3kw2hv https://www.edplace.com/Key-Stages
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Mrs Aneesa Hussain
COURSE CONTENT: Knowledge and skills
20
* Non-fiction elements including leaflets, letters, articles, speeches etc.
* Contextual factors affecting war
V, Antony and Cleopatra)
Disasters (Non-Fiction)
Blood Brothers (Play)
Introduction to Plays (Literature)
FOOD PREPARATION AND NUTRITION
OVERVIEW
KS3 covers both food science and food practical, giving students an understanding of food preparation, good hygiene practices and nutrition. It teaches students how to prepare a range of healthy meals, and practical skills that will
The course supports careers within the Food industry, in Sport and Nutrition, and Health and Social Care.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
Students will be assessed on their knowledge and skills in:
* Food preparation and Cooking (practical skills and H&S)
* Food Commodities
* Nutrition
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE, both practical, written and end of module testing.
Year 7: Healthy Eating
Year 8: World Food
Year 9: Ethical Issues in Food
GROUPINGS
Mixed groups of around 18 students.
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Ingredient preparation, recipe research, home learning and cooking projects and evaluations.
Homework should take approximately 30 minutes a week.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Students are encouraged to research recipe variations, watch cookery programmes and be aware of news articles that are related to the food industry
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Trips to farms, visiting chefs.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Ingredients required and containers to take home.
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
Involvement in planning and assisting with food preparation at home, shopping for ingredients. Visits to restaurants, looking at food labels. Watching/ reading food cooking programmes and articles.
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
www.foodafactoflife.org.uk, www.nutrition.org.uk, https://senecalearning.com
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Mrs Claire Ashley
FRENCH
OVERVIEW
More than 220 million people speak French on all the five continents. French is a major language of international communication. It is the second most widely taught language after English and the sixth most widely spoken language in the world.
France is the world's top tourist destination and attracts more than 79,5 million visitors a year. The ability to speak French makes it so much more enjoyable to visit France and other French speaking countries around the world. The study of a language is often considered by employers as a rigorous and useful pursuit and can be a real career asset, particularly in the world of tourism, communication and business.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
We aim to assess all 4 skills in listening/ speaking/ reading and writing. Students need to demonstrate they can understand key points in extracts of spoken and written French and communicate on GCSE sub themes such as Me, myself and Friends/ Home, Town, neighbourhood and region/ Free time activities/ My studies.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Students will be assessed each half term in 2-4 skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) on topics covered. There will be a mix of assessments tasks linked to new GCSE specifications such as questions and answers, match up exercises, describing a picture, role plays, translations and structured writing.
GROUPINGS
Students are taught in mixed ability groups in Years 7,8 and 9
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Homework is set once a week on Show my Homework and should take 30 min to complete. Typical homework tasks will include:
* Rote learning of vocabulary and grammar
* Vocabulary revision and practice using online websites
* Extended pieces of writing
* Creative tasks
* Translations
* Grammar exercises
* Watching short videos and answering questions
* Reading a text and answering questions
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Use vocabulary revision and practice websites. -
* https://www.memrise.com/courses/english/french/
* www.languagesonline.org.uk
* https://quizlet.com/login
* https://fr.duolingo.com/
* www.slownewsfrench.com
Read about French / Francophone culture using English or French websites.
Watch suitable French films or cartoons.
Read French children's books and fairytales
Research famous French-speaking people who have same interest as student eg famous mountainbiker.
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
MFL club Friday lunchtimes primarily for Year 7.
MFL clinic and catch up to support learners at lunchtime.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Pens, pencils, highlighters, rough book
Bilingual dictionary is recommended
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
* Test them on the meanings of French words when they have to learn vocab or grammar.
* Help them to manage their time when learning vocabulary: a little and often is the key.
* Help them develop learning techniques: look, cover, write, check is the method used in primary school. How can this method be adapted to help with the learning of a new language?
* If they are doing reading get them to summarise what the text/extract is about in English.
* Ask them what certain words mean – how spontaneously can they answer you?
* Ask them to present on one of the topics above and record them.
* Look through books and ask questions like, do you know how to correct this error? How did you improve this? How could you improve it further? What do you need to produce to access the next grade?
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
See under 'Extended Study Information'
TEXTBOOKS
Name: Equipe Nouvelle ISBN: 0-19-912449-3
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Mrs A Foster
*
Basic activities
*
Asking questions
Number revision
Opinions and reasons
*
*
GEOGRAPHY
OVERVIEW
"Geography is the subject which holds the key to the future" Michael Palin
The study of Geography stimulates an interest in and a sense of wonder about places, helping young people make sense of a complex and dynamically changing world. Geography lessons at Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge will equip students with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth's key physical and human processes. Students will be encouraged to question the world around them, become more independent learners through fieldwork, and develop well-balanced opinions rooted in current and contemporary issues.
Where will Geography take you?
Geography students work in a wide range of jobs (travel and tourism, retail, planning, education…) and many employers value the knowledge and skills that studying geography can provide, be it knowing how the world works, planning research and report writing, working in a team, using new technologies and communication skills.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Assessments will be carried out throughout the year e.g. end of unit tests, extended pieces of writing, vocabulary tests and interpretations of maps and photographs
Student will be required to complete a DIRT activity based on teacher feedback once a term.
GROUPINGS
Geography at KS3 is taught in mixed ability groups. One hour per week
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Students are set a variety of homework activities to help consolidate and reinforce learning and to allow students to practise geographical skills.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Geography is topical, so encouraging your child to watch the news and read newspapers will help inform them of the issues facing the world. Geography is full of opinions, so debating controversial topics is a way training the Geographer within! Download Google Earth to look at the location of places you have travelled to, find unknown places in the news, or locate places being studied in class. It is a great way to explore places. Using an Ordnance Survey map, ask your child to locate their home and the homes of others on the map.. You could also ask your child to plan a family walk or outing using the map.
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
For KS3 students there will be an opportunity to attend a club and participate in a variety of activities, for example, weather watching, geocaching and orienteering.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
A pencil, ruler and writing pens (green for 'improvement work') are essential in every Geography lesson. It is also useful to have the following items: sharpener, eraser, colouring pencils, glue stick, calculator, scissors, and highlighter.
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
See extended study information. Also, access Show My Homework (SMH) where homework, writing frames and revision checklists are uploaded.
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/subjects/zrw76sg
Explore these websites to extend your knowledge and learning of Geography
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Mr Yarwood
HISTORY
OVERVIEW
History is a fascinating subject which encourages students to consider the role of individuals, events and key themes and their contributions to our past. It offers parallels with our society today, helping us to explain current events and issues. Everyone has a connection with the past; it is about discovering which aspect of the past unlocks an individual's interest.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
* know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people's lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
* know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
* gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as 'empire', 'civilisation', 'parliament' and 'peasantry'
* understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
* understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Assessments will be carried out throughout the year e.g. end of unit tests, extended pieces of writing and source analysis
Students will complete one DIRT activity based on teacher feedback on one piece of work per term
GROUPINGS
History at KS3 is taught in mixed ability groups. One hour per week
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Homework is set once a fortnight
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
We encourage students to discuss ideas that they have studied in lesson time at home. We would also encourage you to ask your son or daughter about what they have studied in History as this will enrich the discursive element of the subject. Additionally, all students should try to watch or access international, national and local news in some form at least once a week to help them develop an understanding of the historical issues that influence the way we live our lives today. We may also suggest relevant films and TV programmes to watch during each topic.
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
For KS3 students there will be an opportunity to attend a club and participate in a variety of activities.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
A pencil, ruler and writing pens (green for 'improvement work') are essential in every History lesson. It is also useful to have the following items: sharpener, eraser, colouring pencils, glue stick, scissors, and highlighter.
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
See extended study information.
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader
: Mr Yarwood
COURSE CONTENT: Knowledge and skills
MATHEMATICS
OVERVIEW
Mathematics is a creative and highly interconnected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history's most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
Mathematics in an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. The programmes of study are, by necessity, organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
The teaching is structured such that we don't teach to the examination, we simply teach mathematics – and exam success in a consequence.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Students are formally assessed four times over the course of the year – twice in the Autumn term, and once each in the Spring and Summer terms. The assessments are just before the end of the first half term and then before the end of each term.
All students sit one non calculator paper and one calculator paper.
GROUPINGS
Year 7 - Maths is taught in mixed ability form groups for the first term, and then thereafter they are taught in sets most suitable to their ability. At the end of year 7, sets are formally reviewed, and any appropriate changes are made effective as of the start of year 8.
Year 8 – Students continue to be taught in sets most suitable to their ability. And as with year 7, sets are formally reviewed at the end of year 8, with any changes effective as of the start of year 9.
Minor adjustments to sets, if warranted, may happen during the school year when conducting an informal review. However, too many set changes can be disruptive and sometimes counterproductive, and as such are only done in exceptional circumstances.
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Students should expect to receive one pieces of mathematics homework per week which should last approximately 30 minutes each. Homework tasks are set at the discretion of the class teacher and will be set based on the progress within a topic. Tasks can range from question and answer based homework that consolidates prior classroom learning, activities set on www.mymaths.co.uk, investigations, improvement work in response to feedback, end of topic review tasks, or / and revision for upcoming assessments.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Often the most valuable, and yet often underutilised resource for students is their exercise book. Students should be actively encouraged to review their work on a regular basis, and especially when an assessment is approaching as students will often be provided with a revision list which will outline all topics that could be assessed.
Additionally, the school subscribes to mymaths - www.mymaths.co.uk . All students will be given a personal login for this website and this resource can be used to review learning done in class and also to complete online homework which a teacher can set on topics recently covered.
For a more open-ended selection of mathematics problems the nrich website is useful http://nrich.maths.org. Students should click onto the 'Lower Secondary Student Home' section where they will find a selection of problems suitable for a variety of levels and abilities. There is a live problems
section titled 'Open for Solution' which provides opportunities for students to submit their own solution to a regularly updated mathematical problem. The website publishes the best solutions each month, referencing and recognising the achievement of the students who submitted these!
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Students in both year 7 and 8 will have the opportunity to be entered for the UKMT (United Kingdom Mathematics Trust) Junior Maths Challenge which takes place in April. The maths challenge will allow students to solve problems and test themselves nationally against the ablest mathematicians.
Additionally, throughout the year, there will be opportunities for all students to use and apply their mathematical knowledge and skills through extended "rich tasks" that will help them to develop their functional skills. It is imperative that all students know how to apply the skills gained in lessons to solve real life problems. And this is especially important as the new GCSE specification places an even greater emphasis on the practical application of learned mathematics.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
In addition to the student's exercise book issued at the start of the academic year, the following pieces of equipment are essential in every mathematics lesson:
Blue / black pens, green pen, pencils, ruler, eraser, sharpener, glue stick, highlighters for marking (pink, green and yellow) and a scientific calculator (preferably the CASIO fx-83GT / plus or CASIO fx-85GT / Plus). These items, including the calculators are available in most supermarkets, stationary shops and online.
Geometry set to include protractor and compass for some lessons.
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
Encourage a positive and "can do" attitude towards maths
Ensure students have the correct equipment required for maths lessons
Help with functional skills – get your child to relate maths to real life situations, e.g. reading bus and train timetables, estimating shopping bills and finding best buys in shops
Help your child to read from an analogue clock and promptly recall times tables.
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
www.mymaths.co.uk https://www.bbc.com/education/subjects/zqhs34j
www.emaths.co.uk www.nrich.maths.org
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader:
Miss Mirza
39
COURSE CONTENT: Knowledge and skills
MUSIC
OVERVIEW
Music lessons at MECE are designed to enable all students to engage in practical music making activities encouraging their creativity and performing skills. Studying music allows students to improve their co-ordination skills, memory, team work, self-discipline and gives them an opportunity to express themselves.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
AO 1 – Perform with technical control, expression and interpretation
AO 2 – Compose and develop musical ideas with technical control and coherence
AO 3 – Demonstrate and apply musical knowledge
AO 4 - Use appraising skills to make evaluative and critical judgements about music
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Students complete a baseline assessment at the start of year 7 to assess their performing, composing and listening skills which is used to help create their flight path.
Students are then assessed at the end of every topic which cover the four assessment objectives across the year.
GROUPINGS
Mixed Ability
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Termly music homework which will evolve around the term's topic.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Listening to a wide variety of music outside the classroom to broaden experience and understanding.
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Workshops, peripatetic music lessons, pit band for School Production, EdgeFest, Performing Arts Showcase. There are also opportunities in the year to join enrichment trips to the theatre and concert hall.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Regular school equipment
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
Discussing and listening to a wide variety of music
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
Web addresses : www.musictechteacher.com
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Miss C Fay
COURSE CONTENT: Knowledge and skills
'solo' section using the
how choral music has musical element of rhythm.
progress throughout the history of music.
PHSE
OVERVIEW
PSHE education acknowledges and addresses the changes that learners are experiencing, beginning with transition to secondary school, the challenges of adolescence and their increasing independence. It teaches the skills which will equip them for the opportunities and challenges of life. Pupils are encouraged to manage diverse relationships and the increasing influence of peers and the media. PSHE education allows them to be more confident in addressing the challenges of effective learning and making a full and active contribution to society. At Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge there is a focus on drama, with the aim of delivering the majority of the content practically. This allows students to develop key skills such as confidence, team work, empathy and creativity, whilst engaging with important life topics.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
Assessment of learning:
The objective of each half termly assessment is to identify the progress and development of each students skills and understanding in a variety of areas. These areas differ depending on the unit of work but range from: working successfully within a group, understanding the impact they have on society, creative thinking, understanding the control and decisions they have with regards to friendships, sex, alcohol and drugs, developing personal resilience, knowing how and where to access support for mental health, developing skills to support peers with mental health, bullying, prejudice etc.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Assessment of Learning
Each half term long unit is delivered alongside a booklet which the students refer to and record in. Within each booklet is a units objectives page, teacher and students read through this together during the first lesson. The students self-assess themselves using the unit objectives, marking their current ability on the table. There are four levels: beginning, developing, secure and mastery. At the end of each unit the students repeat this process with a different coloured pen, to highlight their progress throughout the unit.
Assessment for learning
This is carried out in the following ways: mini plenaries, differentiated questioning and performance observation feedback (both teacher and peer assessed). At the end of each lesson students engage in a plenary task, which highlights their level of understanding and progressing during one single lesson. The majority of PSHE lessons incorporate drama and all students are given an opportunity to perform at the end of each lesson. Students are provided with peer feedback alongside teacher feedback, using 'What went well' and 'Even better if' structure. This provides students with direct feedback to implement next lesson, to ensure continuous personal development.
GROUPINGS
All year groups are taught in mixed sets for PSHE.
Group sizes range from 20-30 depending on total year group size, therefore the number of groups differs between year groups.
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Students are not directly set tangible homework tasks on show my homework. However, students are often left with questions to consider or small tasks (acts of kindness) to carry out before their next lesson.
Examples of these are: 'From now on, if you encounter someone making a prejudice remark towards someone else, whether it be race, sexuality etc., challenge them on it' or 'Carry out one random act of kindness this week e.g. compliment someone when you notice they are doing something particularly well in class, hold the door open for someone, cook dinner'.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Students also engage with PSHE and SMSC subjects within tutor time and assembly time. These programmes run alongside the PSHE curriculum and aim to support and solidify learning. Students are also encouraged to engage with leaflets, campaign materials and videos to further support their personal development. These are often provided by class teachers or tutors.
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Trips
Students are invited to attend community focused trips. For example: last academic year students went on a trip to meet with the company who are building a new housing development opposite the school. Students are invited to attend and help at sporting events within local primary schools, to help develop their leadership and personal skills.
Clubs
Student council – students can be voted into the student council by their peers. The student council consists of two students from each form group. The council is run by two year 11's. The students meet in their key stage once every half term and there is a whole school council meeting once every term.
Visiting Speakers
CAMHS sessions provided by outside professionals focusing on resilience.
Authors
Nurse leads sessions on Relationship and Sex Education
'Smashed Live' – Educational performance focused on the risks of underage drinking
'Under my Skin' – Educational performance based on self-harm
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Projector
Ability to show videos
Sound system
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
Engage in discussions focused on topics that students are learning about within their PSHE lessons. Parents are welcome to attend the CAMHS evening sessions at the school. These are run by outside professionals and each session has a specific focus. The aim of these sessions is to provide parents with strategies to support their children in specific situations, such as resilience, school refusing and selfharm.
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
https://www.pshe-association.org.uk
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Sarah Cheeseman
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
OVERVIEW
Chiltern Edge Physical Education curriculum is designed to inspire and engage all students and is devoted in allowing students to unlock their potential through sport, exercise and physical activity. At Chiltern Edge we have developed a reputation for supporting and encouraging all of our students to participate consistently and enthusiastically during curriculum time and establish healthy active lifestyles outside the taught curriculum. All students have 2 lessons per week and activities change every half term and cover a wide variety of sports and activities.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
Students are graded using the GCSE criteria for each activity. They build up the levels from 0-10.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Students will undertake a practical assessment at the end of every half term. Performance and capabilities are judged against performance indicators. Students are also expected to self-assess their progress in a written format as a preparation for GCSE requirements and to develop the use of technical language.
GROUPINGS
Single sex mixed ability groups. This is dependent upon the timetable.
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Students will begin to learn and understand key terminology from the GCSE PE specification and these will be set as homework on a termly basis.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Reading around the subject
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Students are encouraged to participate in sporting clubs as extra-curricular activities both at lunch time and after school. This includes fixtures and tournaments which take place outside the school day. The extra-curricular timetable can be found on the school website and within the PE department.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Students require the following equipment over the course of the year – all named.
* blue polo shirt
* blue shorts/tracksuit bottoms
* blue contact shirt – boys only
* blue football/rugby socks
* Sports trainers (not canvas shoes)
* White sport socks
* Football boots
* Gum shield* – recommended for contact rugby/hockey
* Shin pads
Students should change into PE kit for every lesson (even when excused) and ensure that a note is provided in the event of needing to be excused.
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
Encourage your child to lead an active and healthy lifestyle by attending sports clubs both within school and outside of school.
Support your child to make sure they have the correct kit for every PE lesson.
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
BBC Bitesize - https://www.bbc.com/education/examspecs/zp49cwx
Twitter - @ChilternEdgePE
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader:
Mr D Hunter
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
OVERVIEW
Religious education is essential to ensure students are respectful and understanding of others' views. The KS3 course considers ethical questions affecting individuals and society, as well as critically engaging with religious responses to the issues raised. A range of religious beliefs are explored, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism on a variety of issues, as well as an in-depth exploration of their faith and beliefs. Humanist views and responses to philosophical questions are also debated throughout the course.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
Students are assessed based on their knowledge and understanding of different belief systems, as well as their ability to evaluate the viewpoints.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
The assessment structure varies but can include:
* Responses to a statement which students evaluate from different perspectives
* A diary entry to show awareness of the impact different religions have on people's lives
* A range of questions that assess students' knowledge and ability to evaluate different viewpoints
* An essay style assessment, where a range of views on one issue are explored
GROUPINGS
RE at KS3 is taught in mixed ability groups. One hour per week
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Homework is set once a fortnight and should take around 30 minutes.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
* Guide them towards developing their understanding of religious issues
* Encourage them to research and find out about religious character
* Research and reflect on contemporary issues linked to religion in the modern world
* Useful websites: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ http://www.reonline.org.uk/
* BBC Bitesize: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/zh3rkqt
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
For KS3 students there will be an opportunity to attend a club and participate in a variety of activities.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
A pencil, ruler and writing pens (green for 'improvement work') are essential in every RE lesson. It is also useful to have the following items: sharpener, eraser, colouring pencils, glue stick, calculator, scissors, and highlighter.
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader:
Mr Yarwood
SCIENCE
OVERVIEW
The Foundation Science course has been developed to ensure students have a good grounding in key Science theory so that they are well placed to tackle the rigours of Combined or Triple Science at GCSE. In today's world where Science knowledge is crucial I believe that a solid foundation in all 3 Science disciplines is very important. The UK government estimate that for current Secondary School aged children, by the time they reach the workplace 53% of all new careers will be Science based.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
Assessment objectives will broadly follow the GCSE AOs to prepare students for the technical language and expectations of depth of understanding required for success:
AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, scientific techniques and procedures.
AO2: Apply knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, scientific enquiry, techniques and procedures.
AO3: Analyse information and ideas to interpret/evaluate, make judgements and draw conclusions and develop and improve experimental procedures.
ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE
Students will be assessed in each unit on:
- the development of their knowledge and understanding
- mathematical skills
- analysis skills
- competency in practical work
This will be achieved through mini quizzes, end of unit assessments and homework tasks. The use of teacher, peer and self assessment will be utilised throughout each unit.
GROUPINGS
In Y7 and Y8 students are taught in mixed ability groups.
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Homework is set once a week and should last around 30 minutes.
This might include:
- research tasks
- design tasks
- mastery questions
- revision for assessments.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
Please do watch out for optional homework on Show My Homework. These optional homework tasks are often competitions run by different companies or organisations nationally. We have a history of students winning national science competitions and sometimes even cash prizes!
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
STEM and Science club opportunities.
Enrichment visits to local Science-based employers (including laboratories)
Reading Astronomy Group workshop to support units on Space and Scientific Discovery.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Usual school equipment required including scientific calculator.
Students with long hair will be required to tie it back during practical work.
CONTACTS / ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Curriculum Leader: Ms K Hardman
TECHNOLOGY
OVERVIEW
Design and Technology is important in all areas of the modern world, from railway stations to space stations, adverts to inventions and yogurt pots to yachts. Without Design and Technology, human beings would find every task a great deal more difficult. The first computers required the art of invention and designers strive to create the next new and exciting thing. Design and Technology combines skill, talent and creativity and allows pupils to work in a practical way to problem solve, innovate and change the way we live.
This subject offers an excellent pathway to many careers. These range from direct pathways such as design, fashion, manufacturing and production to other areas such as retail, education, training, sales and marketing. There are in excess of 100 different career options that directly relate to Design and Technology, and the subject has a high employability rating.
Students will study for 3 terms in each year in rotation with Food Technology.
ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES
AO1: Identify, investigate and outline design possibilities to address needs and wants.
AO2: Design and make prototypes that are fit for purpose.
AO3: Analyse and evaluate:
* design decisions and outcomes, including for prototypes made by themselves and others.
* wider issues in design and technology.
AO4: Demonstrate and apply knowledge and understanding of:
* technical principles.
* designing and making principles.
GROUPINGS
Mixed ability no more the 20.
HOMEWORK INFORMATION
Homework is set approximately every fortnight. On occasion a longer, project based task might be set over a longer time frame.
EXTENDED STUDY INFORMATION
It is recommended that pupils read about prominent designers, such as Ettore Sottsass, Vivienne Westwood, Harry Beck and Charles Rennie Mackintosh (amongst others).
Further reading includes:
Alessi: Art and Poetry. (Cutting Edge) ISBN 13: 9780823011452
Childata: The Handbook of Child Measurements and Capabilities: Data for Design
Safety ISBN 0952257114 or 9780952257110
Design modelling: visualising ideas in 2D and 3D ISBN 13: 9780340663394
Designing the 21st century ISBN 13: 9783822848029
Icons of design: the 20th Century ISBN 13: 9783791331737
Memphis ISBN 13: 9780500019009
ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES
There will be opportunities for DT clubs, trips and visits within D&T.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Drawing equipment such as: set square, templates, marker pens, coloured pencils, ruler,
HOW CAN PARENTS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN?
Free CAD software is available online.
Visits to design museums, galleries and exhibitions help with the course content. Access to YouTube videos on production processes often help with knowledge. Any use of tools, equipment and workshops are helpful but not essential.
USEFUL ONLINE INFORMATION/ONLINE RESOURCES
www.Technologystudent.com - www.Mr_dt.com - www.Core77.com
CONTACTS/ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
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Final Rules New Federal Meal Requirements
On January 25, 2012 an announcement was made from the United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak and First Lady Michele Obama regarding the new requirements for meals served to school children enrolled in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.
The final rules were published in the Federal Register on January 26, 2012
Highlighted Changes from the current school lunch pattern
1) Milk Requirement
b) Fat free, flavored or unflavored
a) Low Fat 1% white only
All Grade Levels: 1 Cup Serving Per Day
2) Grain Requirement
b) Decreased portions by age group over the course of a week
a) All grains offered must be whole grain–rich by 2014
Grades K-5: 9 Ounces Per Week Per Station
Grades 6-8: 10 Ounces Per Week Per Station
Grades 9-12: 12 Ounces Per Week Per Station
3) Fruits & Vegetables
b) Increased portion sizes by age group
a) Students must take a fruit or vegetable to be counted as a completed meal
Grades K-8: 3 ¾ cups per week by volume
Grades 9-12: 5 cups per week by volume
Highlighted Changes Continued
4) Vegetable sub-group offerings (To be offered over the course of a week)
a) Menu's By Color:
Red/ Orange
Dark Green
Beans/ Legumes
Other
Starchy
See Attached List
5) Proteins – Meat/Meat alternate
a) Grades K-8 - 2 ounces per day 10 Ounces per week per station
b) Grades 9-12 : 2.4 ounces per day 12 ounces per week per station
Portion sizes must be adjusted by 20% for shortened weeks for each school day off that week
Other Lunch Specifications
1) Minimum – Maximum Calories:
Grades K-5: 550 – 650
Grades 6-8: 600 – 700
Daily amounts for a 5–day week:
Grades 9-12: 750 – 850
2) Saturated Fat ( Less than 10% of total weekly calories)
3) Trans Fats
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Practice 1:
Title of the best practice:
Blood Donation Camp
Context:
The year 2020-2021 was a year of panic Covid-19 Pandemic. In the history of mankind, this event will be noted and will not be forgotten by many generations. The global human life was disrupted and collapsed. Lakhs of people died and many were in need of blood and medicine for survival. In this situation, blood was an urgent requirement in all counties. In India, the situation was worst. In Maharashtra, the Chief Minister appealed to the citizens for donating blood.
Practice/Purpose
1. To make blood available to the needy in the Covid-19 Pandemic situation.
2. To create awareness of Blood Donation among the students and the society around.
Evidence of Success:
Every year our college organizes a Blood Donation Camp in association with PHC Chousala Tq. Dist. Beed. This year also the NSS volunteers, some college employees, and other volunteers from the village donated blood. Twenty Blood Donors have donated blood in this camp organized on 10-12-2020 at PHC Chousala.
Problem Encountered and Resources Required:
- Limited awareness among the society regarding blood donation
Best Practice I: Blood Donation Camp
Best Practice I: Blood Donation Camp
Best Practice 2:
Helping to the Victims of Suicidal Farmer Families
Context:
Our college is in a rural area. Most of the college students are from rural areas. The main occupation of the parents of these students is agriculture. Agriculture is a business dependent on rainfall. The entire Beed district falls in the drought prone area. Due to frequent drought conditions, the income of farmers is very low. Due to natural calamities like drought, barrenness, excessive rains, hailstorms as well as indebtedness, low prices of agricultural commodities etc. The reason is that today it is time for farmers to commit suicide. Farmers are committing suicide in Beed district and taluka. This matter is serious and considerable. The farmer who provides us with food is committing suicide. So we have to do something about it. With this in mind, the college's National Service Scheme is working to help the suicidal farmer family in Beed Taluka, especially in the college vicinity.
Practice/Purpose:
1. To create awareness of social situation in students.
2. To know the problems of the suicidal farmer family.
3. To try to solve the problems of the suicidal farmer family.
4. Rally to help the suicidal farmer family.
5. To arrange free education in college for the children of suicidal farmers.
Evidence of Success
Tasks: Social issues are discussed through the college's national service plan. The issue of farmer suicides is also discussed. The message that farmers should not commit suicide is conveyed to the villages through the Rashtriya Seva Yojana Swayamsevak. Awareness on this issue is created in this adopted village through a special camp of Rashtriya Seva Yojana. Special lectures are organized for this. Inspired by this discussion, the students voluntarily organize a help round every year to help the suicidal farmer family.
Every year our college arranges rally to make awareness of this issue and for collecting assistance fund from nearby merchants businessmen and social workers but this year due to Corona-19 Pandemic situation the college did not participate college students. Only the employees of the college donated the assistance fund of Rs 14000. With this donated amount the college purchased a Floor Mill and it is donated to the victims of the suicidal farmers from Roulasgaon Tq dist Beed.
Attempts are made to boost the morale of the family members of the suicidal farmers by giving them mental support. They provide information and guidance on crop planning, modern seeds, fertilizers, government schemes.
Problem Encountered and Resources Required:
- No sensitiveness of society towards the issue farmer’s suicide
- More financial assistance is required for rehabilitation of the victims of suicidal families.
- Govt. should frame policy to tackle the issue of Farmers Suicide.
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EXPLORE GEOMETRY WITH ABSTRACT IMAGERY
Grade Band: 2-3
Content Focus: Visual Arts & Math
LEARNING DESCRIPTION
Delve into the abstract world of Wassily Kandinsky! Allow your imagination to soar as you discover mathematical connections within Kandinsky images. Students will be inspired by the work of Kandinsky to create their own abstract art that incorporates geometric concepts and the elements of art.
LEARNING TARGETS
| Essential Questions | "I Can" Statements |
|--------------------|-------------------|
| How can you utilize visual images to learn about mathematical concepts? | I can create artwork inspired by Wassily Kandinsky that demonstrates my understanding of mathematical concepts. |
| | I can describe my artwork in terms of mathematical concepts. |
| Curriculum Standards | Arts Standards |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Grade 2:**
2.GSR.7.1 Describe, compare and sort 2-D shapes including polygons, triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and 3-D shapes including rectangular prisms and cones, given a set of attributes. | **Grade 2:**
VA2.CR.1 Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and symbols to communicate meaning.
VA2.CR.2 Create works of art based on selected themes.
VA2.CR.4 Understand and apply media, techniques, and processes of three-dimensional art.
VA2.CN.2 Integrate information from other disciplines to enhance the understanding and production of works of art. |
| **Grade 3:**
3.GSR.6.1 Identify perpendicular line segments, parallel line segments, and right angles, identify these in polygons, and solve problems involving parallel line segments, perpendicular line segments, and right angles.
3.GSR.6.2 Classify, compare, and contrast polygons, with a focus on quadrilaterals, based on properties. Analyze specific 3-dimensional figures to identify and describe quadrilaterals as faces of these figures. | **Grade 3:**
VA3.CR.1 Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and symbols to communicate meaning.
VA3.CR.2 Create works of art based on selected themes.
VA3.CR.4 Understand and apply media, techniques, and processes of three-dimensional art.
VA3.CN.2 Integrate information from other disciplines to enhance the understanding and production of works of art. |
**SOUTH CAROLINA STANDARDS**
| Curriculum Standards | Arts Standards |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Grade 2:**
2.G.1 Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, hexagons, and cubes. Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a | **Anchor Standard 1:** I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork. |
given number of angles or a given number of equal faces.
**Grade 3:**
3.G.1 Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombus, rectangle, square, and other 4-sided shapes) may share attributes (e.g., 4-sided figures) and the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilateral). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories.
3.G.3 Use a right angle as a benchmark to identify and sketch acute and obtuse angles.
**Anchor Standard 2:** I can use different materials, techniques, and processes to make art.
**Anchor Standard 4:** I can organize work for presentation and documentation to reflect specific content, ideas, skills, and or media
**Anchor Standard 5:** I can interpret and evaluate the meaning of an artwork.
### KEY VOCABULARY
| Content Vocabulary | Arts Vocabulary |
|--------------------|----------------|
| **Geometry** - Branch of mathematics that deals with deduction of the properties, measurement, and relationships of points, lines, angles, and figures in space from their defining conditions by means of certain assumed properties of space. | **Abstract** - Process of art-making that has reference to the real world but is distorted or manipulated in some way. |
| **Polygon** - A closed plane figure with at least three straight sides and angles, and typically five or more. | **Non-objective** - Process of art-making that has no reference to the real world; strictly composed of design elements. |
| **Quadrilateral** - A four-sided polygon | **Contrast** - Exhibiting unlikeness in comparison to something else. |
| **Acute angle** - An angle measuring less than 90 degrees | **Line** – One of the seven elements of art; a mark made by a pointed tool such as a brush pen or stick; a moving point |
| **Right angle** - A 90 degree angle | **Shape** (Geometric and Organic) – One of the seven elements of art; a flat, enclosed area that has two dimensions, length and width |
| **Obtuse angle** - An angle measuring greater than 90 degrees | **Negative space** - Empty space; the background |
| **Parallel lines** - Lines that will never touch | **Color scheme** - A limited number of colors used in an artwork |
| **Perpendicular lines** - Lines that intersect forming a 90 degree angle |
MATERIALS
- Images of “Composition 8” and “Red, Blue and Yellow” by Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky
- Drawing paper or tag board (9” x 12” sheets)
- Pencils
- Markers, colored pencils, oil pastels and/or tempera paint
INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
Opening/Activating Strategy
- Introduce this activity by having students look at an image of “Composition 8” or “Red, Blue and Yellow” by Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky.
- Have students engage in the 10 x 2 artful thinking routine.
- Students will work collaboratively to identify 10 things that they recognize in the image. Then, repeat the process; the second time, however, ask students to focus specifically on the colors and shapes that they see.
- Facilitate a class-wide discussion around students’ observations.
Work Session
Process
- Project Kandinsky’s “Composition 8” and “Red, Blue and Yellow”, side by side (use slide two of Wassily Kandinsky images). Direct students to work collaboratively to use math vocabulary and concepts to describe the angles, lines, and shapes found within these abstract and non-objective masterpieces.
- Students should draw/write their responses on sticky notes.
- Direct students to identify the polygons within these images and their defining attributes, including different types of quadrilaterals.
- Students should also look for examples of types of angles, types of triangles, and line relationships (parallel and perpendicular).
- Draw or project a large Venn diagram on the board. Students should place their sticky notes in the appropriate section of the Venn diagram.
Next, tell students that they will create their own abstract or non-objective artwork in the style of Kandinsky according to criteria set by the teacher. For example, criteria might include designs including a minimum of three different types of quadrilaterals, a triangle, a polygon more than four sides and angles, two right angles, parallel lines, etc.
Project “Composition 8” and “Red, Blue and Yellow” again.
- Ask students to make observations about how the space is used in the artwork. Students should notice that there isn’t much negative space or “empty space”.
Next, discuss the colors that Kandinsky used.
Project an image of a color wheel and discuss different types of color schemes: Warm, cool, neutral, primary and secondary.
Tell students that they will be using color to “color code” their artwork. How they do this is up to them.
- For example, all triangles could be cool colors, all quadrilaterals could be warm colors, and all polygons with more than four sides could be neutral colors.
Students will then draw their designs lightly on paper or tag board in pencil and then add color using marker, tempera paint, colored pencil, oil pastel, etc.
Upon completion of their artwork, ask students to describe their art using mathematical vocabulary.
**Closing/Reflection**
- Display students’ artwork on walls or place on tables/desks. Give students a “scavenger hunt” to find mathematical concepts in each other’s artwork.
- See if students can figure out how other students used color in their artwork.
**ASSESSMENTS**
**Formative**
Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, discussion of the mathematical concepts evident in Kandinsky’s artwork, discussion of Kandinsky’s use of color and space, and ability to apply mathematical concepts to creating a unique artwork.
**Summative**
- Students can create an artwork inspired by Wassily Kandinsky that demonstrates their mastery of mathematical concepts.
- Students can describe their artwork in terms of mathematical concepts.
- Students can identify mathematical concepts in each other’s artwork.
- Students can use color and space intentionally in their art.
**DIFFERENTIATION**
**Acceleration:**
- Have students identify the area and perimeter of the polygons in their artwork (grade 3).
● Have students use scrap materials found in the classroom to interpret their artwork in a 3D format by turning it into sculpture. Materials could include popsicle sticks, tape, cardboard, pipe cleaners, straws, etc.
**Remediation:**
● Provide students with specific concepts to look for in Kandinsky’s artwork using a word bank.
● Reduce/limit criteria in artwork to focus on fewer concepts at a time.
● Provide visuals with examples of concepts to support students.
● Allow students to work with a partner to create artwork.
**ADDITIONAL RESOURCES**
● [Vasily Kandinsky, Guggenheim Museum](#)
● [Color wheel](#)
● [Wassily Kandinsky images](#)
*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.*
*Ideas contributed by: Darby Jones. Updated by Shannon Green and Katy Betts.*
*Revised and copyright: August 2024 @ ArtsNOW* | e99b3c9b-5b18-4eb8-89ab-a51f3412c49d | CC-MAIN-2025-05 | https://artsnowlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Explore-Geometry-with-Abstract-Imagery-2-3.pdf | 2025-01-18T08:05:36+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2025-05/segments/1736703362385.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20250118055607-20250118085607-00825.warc.gz | 94,301,660 | 2,176 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.986326 | eng_Latn | 0.994118 | [
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Using Visual Representations: Engaging all students with the standards for mathematical practice
Notes
Math Activity 1
Use these dynamic visual representations to justify the conjecture:
If you make a parallelogram by collapsing a rectangle, then the areas of the parallelogram and the rectangle are the same.
Part 1: https://goo.gl/Wkh6Bw
Math Activity 2
Use your own visual representation on paper and pencil or dynamic math representations (GeoGebra) to justify this conjecture:
\[ a(x + c) = ax + ac \] is true for all \( x \), no matter what \( a \) and \( c \) are.
https://ggbm.at/ZXDHRgqs
Vignette: ELLs use gestures and diagrams
Participants: Mr. Lima, Fatu, Lena, Tiago, Anika.
Inspired by a conversation with students in the previous class, Mr. Lima posed the following argument to his bilingual students:
The area of a rectangle and a parallelogram are the same because if you collapse a parallelogram into a rectangle, the area doesn’t change.
Mr. Lima presented a student argument that was not yet mathematically precise, so that students would have the opportunity to provide refinements to it. After a few minutes in which students worked in pairs, Mr. Lima asked for volunteers and several students offered contradictory responses.
| | Mr. Lima: | Let’s start with you two, Fatu and Lena. |
|---|-----------|----------------------------------------|
| 2 | Fatu: | The area will be the same. |
| 3 | Mr. Lima: | Okay. How do you know? |
| 4 | Fatu: | Because we drew it and the formulas for area are the same. |
| 5 | Mr. Lima: | Why don’t you bring your notebook to the document camera and you can walk us through your logic? |
| 6 | Lena: | See the, base and the height are the same, so the area is the same. |
7 Tiago jumped up: But this is not what the argument said. It says what will happen as the rectangle flattens.
Inspired by conversation in Lara-Meloy, T., & Barros, A. (2000). Base × height: The transformation of a rectangle. *Hands On!*, 23(2), 4–7.
Fatu: Yeah. You can see that the parallelogram is flatter. You can make it really long, and it will still be the same area.
She drew another longish parallelogram with the same height.
Fatu: You see the triangle here (pointing to the triangle formed at the left side of the parallelogram), that’s the same one as here (pointing to the right of the parallelogram). So, the area stays the same.
Tiago: But if a rectangle flattens … it’s like a box. If you go all the way, it will have no area.
At this point, Tiago extended his arms and bent them at the elbow, simulating the sides of a rectangle. He then simultaneously pivoted both arms at the elbow until his forearms were making a line and the right hand was touching his left elbow.
With this gesture, Tiago expressed that the sides of the parallelogram were fixed and that flattening a rectangle was more like flattening a box, changing the angle. At this point, Mr. Lima stepped in to help students develop language to express Tiago’s idea.
Mr. Lima: Do folks understand what Tiago is trying to say?
Some students said yes, but others said no.
Mr. Lima: I want you to take a minute to talk to your partner to discuss what Tiago just said. See if you can make a diagram to help us understand what he said.
After a few minutes, Mr. Lima asked if anyone wanted to explain what Tiago was gesturing in words.
Anika: We agree with Tiago, and we disagree with Fatu and Lena. We made this drawing before, when we were discussing.
Mr. Lima: Remember to explain what Tiago said using his arms.
Anika: I was saying that it’s the same thing as what we said. If you squoosh a rectangle, the height is getting less, until there’s no more height.
Mr. Lima: How does this affect the area?
Anika: If there’s no more height, then there’s no more area.
Mr. Lima: Fatu, Lena, what do you think? Are you convinced?
Lena: I think we had a drawing that had the same height in the rectangle and the parallelogram. But Tiago is saying that the sides are the same, not the height. If you keep going, and you squoosh it all the way, the height gets smaller, and you end up with the top line of the parallelogram on top of the bottom line, so there is not area.
As this vignette shows, gesture and diagrams can both play an important role in ELLs’ participation in argumentation. Tiago’s gesture had been critical in helping students understand the conjecture they eventually articulated,
**As one pair of interior angles of a parallelogram gets smaller, the area of the parallelogram becomes less.**
The gesture had also been part of a justification for it. Mr. Lima had students articulate that gesture and justification in words.
Notes
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This project is funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number DRL-1417895. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. | 9dd79421-0b86-49e3-8542-f5949dfbe440 | CC-MAIN-2025-05 | https://bridgingmath.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/NCTM-2018-bridging-handout.pdf | 2025-01-17T11:09:24+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2025-05/segments/1736703362325.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20250117095906-20250117125906-00821.warc.gz | 141,187,097 | 1,348 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.989366 | eng_Latn | 0.998872 | [
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W.H. Davies
‘Leisure’
A HELP-SHEET FOR TEACHERS
Swansea University
Prifysgol Abertawe
(page 350–1 of Poetry 1900–2000)
| Section | Title |
|---------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 3 | Section 1: Biography of the Poet / Contexts |
| 5 | Section 2: Line-by-line comments on the poem |
| 9 | Section 3: Comments on the poem as a whole |
| 10 | Section 4: Four questions students might ask |
| 10 | Section 5: Photographs |
| 11 | Section 6: Links to useful web resources |
W.H. Davies (1871–1940) was born in Newport. In his twenties, he spent several years moving around America as a beggar, leaping on and off moving trains to get around, ultimately leading to the loss of his right leg in a train accident. *The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp*, which chronicles these experiences, was published in 1908. *The Soul’s Destroyer and Other Poems*, his first collection of verse, draws on his experiences of a down-and-out existence in London lodging houses, and was published in 1905. ‘Leisure’ appeared in his collection *Songs of Joy*, published in 1911. Supported and celebrated by literary figures such as Edward Thomas and George Bernard Shaw, as well as the Georgian Poetry anthology series, Davies published more than twenty volumes of poetry, as well as works of fiction and non-fiction. *Young Emma*, an autobiographical account of his courtship of his wife Helen Payne, was published posthumously in 1980. ‘Leisure’ is the poem for which he is most famous and which is most anthologised, but given how prolific Davies was as a poet, the body of his work inevitably moves in a wide range of directions. Beyond the celebration of a rural idyll in ‘Leisure’, for example, there are other poems which deal with the gritty urban reality of destitution and squalor he was familiar with, including, in *Poetry 1900–2000*, ‘The Inquest’.
The celebration of the simple life in ‘Leisure’, of taking time to understand nature, can be understood in a range of contexts. One of these is that Davies wrote a great deal of poetry about the natural world and was keen to celebrate it: ‘The Kingfisher’ from the Library of Wales anthology is among poems in this style and, in ‘Days That Have Been’, a celebration of nature is explicitly linked to parts of Wales. Davies’s 1927 book *A Poet’s Pilgrimage* documents a walk east through Wales from Carmarthen, while his early poem ‘The Soul’s Destroyer’ includes a long walk home from London to Newport. Davies’s poverty and the fact that he travelled so much on foot put him in a unique position to celebrate and value the natural world. This desire to celebrate nature was also deepened by his friendship with poet Edward Thomas.
Another useful aspect of context is that Davies’s early urban life of poverty and destitution in London, living among down-and-out characters in lodging houses, is a subject he writes about in a range of poems. It doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to think that Davies’s love for nature in ‘Leisure’ is part of a desire to escape the grim reality he often saw around him. As a result, it is possible to read ‘Leisure’, with its celebration of the simple life, as a poem with a working-class, left-wing political stance, which celebrates nature precisely because of Davies’s awareness of what the economic situation of his time and an urban existence did to people. In these lines from ‘The Soul’s Destroyer’, for example, he explicitly links the urban world with a grimness – in this case connected with alcohol – which causes him to desire an escape to nature:
One morning I awoke with lips gone dry,
The tongue an obstacle to choke the throat,
And aching body weighted with more heads
Than Pluto’s dog; the features hard and set,
As though encased in a plaster cast;
With limbs all sore through falling here and there
To drink the various ales the Borough kept
From London Bridge to Newington, and streets
Adjoining, alleys, lanes obscure from them,
Then thought of home and of the purer life,
Of Nature’s air, and having room to breathe,
A sunny sky, green field, and water’s sound;
Of peaceful rivers not yet fretful grown
As when their mouths have tasted Ocean’s salt;
And where the rabbits sit amid their ferns,
Or leap, to flash the white of their brown tails.
Title.
The title can be said to straightforwardly set out the subject of the poem. The poem is a celebration of taking time out to look around at the natural world, and from this point of view it is important that a positive word like ‘Leisure’ is chosen as opposed to something like ‘idleness’. ‘Leisure’ is also quite a big word in terms of economic, sociological and political thinking. How is ‘Leisure’ defined by a society and what is its exact relationship to economic productivity? The very fact that Davies, with a background of poverty, dares to write about ‘Leisure’, often seen as the preserve of a moneyed class, could be seen as a political statement.
Form.
The simplicity and directness of the poem’s message – that we need to take time off work and appreciate nature – is mirrored in several formal devices the poem employs. One of these is the repetitive structure of each stanza, as stanzas 2–6 all begin with the phrase ‘No time’. Davies is essentially building a rhetorical argument, imploring us to take time out, and repetition like this is effective, as it would be in any political speech. Another important feature is the use of full-rhymed couplets, and a third is the very regular rhythmic form, as the poem falls into iambic tetrameter: ‘What is this life if, full of care, / We have no time to stand and stare.’ Finally there is a simplicity at the level of vocabulary, for very few words in the poem are more than one syllable, and none are more than two. This simplicity and directness at the level of form and vocabulary may enact the poem’s message of embracing a simple life, but can also be read as having some political importance. If it is accepted that the poem’s desire to claim leisure and the beauty of nature for all, as opposed simply to a moneyed class, has a political dimension, then this political motivation may be mirrored at the level of language and form – which, in its simplicity and directness, can be read as an attempt to claim poetry for all of us.
The poem has some relationship to a sonnet, in the sense that it is fourteen lines long. A sonnet has a volta, though, a point at which the poem turns in a different direction, whereas Davies’s speaker appears to say the same thing continually throughout the poem. Again, this may be seen to enact the poem’s message, since the simplicity of the way of life it is expounding is made clear in the simplicity of the writing. If there is a turn, then it comes about in the final couplet, where the speaker returns to the poem’s opening and answers his own question. This circularity adds to the poem’s rhetorical impact.
Lines 1-6.
‘Leisure’ is in many ways a straightforward poem. In order to forward its argument that we need to take more time to look around us, it begins by asking ‘What is this life if, full of care, / We have no time to stand and stare.’ Opening with a question in this way is an effective way of drawing the reader in, implying that the speaker (or writer) knows more than we do, that the poem has something to teach us. The forceful alliteration of ‘stand and stare’, in its unchanging sound, conveys the moment of stillness Davies’s speaker is arguing for, and gives force to his idea that this really matters. The rhyme here sets up the simple binary opposition that Davies structures his poem around: a life ‘full of care’ versus having the leisure to ‘stand and stare’. It is interesting that Davies describes a life ‘full of care’ as opposed to a life full of work or labour. This means that, while the poem can be read, in the context of Davies’s writing, as about a working-class desire for leisure, the phrase ‘full of care’ is open ended enough to suggest all sorts of concern, which widens the poem’s scope and appeal.
In stanzas 2-3, the speaker begins to offer concrete examples of the sorts of things we miss in a life which is ‘full of care’. A series of concrete examples such as this is rhetorically persuasive, and the listing of negatives – things that we are not getting – makes the poem seem something of a cautionary tale. Without time ‘to stand beneath the boughs / And stare as long as sheep or cows’, we miss ‘Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.’ This second detail creates a sense of mystery – we want to know where those nuts are hidden! – which deepens the desirability of Davies’s simple life. Under the current system, it seems, human beings are treated worse than animals, and are not even allowed to ‘stare as long as sheep or cows.’ The way in which political systems and work can reduce us to a position lower than animals is of course subsequently powerfully explored by George Orwell in *1984*. The argument of this poem also seems to bear some relationship to the thinking of Robert Tressell’s 1914 working-class masterpiece *The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists*. It is perhaps important that Davies begins his examples in the poem with animals (cows and squirrels), living beings whom we can relate to and connect with, before turning to ‘Streams’, ‘stars’ and the personification of ‘Beauty’ later in the poem.
Lines 7-12.
These lines sustain the list of examples of things we miss by being so busy, deepening the rhetorical impact of the poem’s argument. What we are essentially missing, the poem argues, is a connection with nature, in which we might see, for example, how streams reflect the stars, as described in this beautiful simile: ‘Streams full of stars like skies at night.’ The simile seems to imply that we lack the time not only to look at the stream in the first place, but also to perceive its beauty, to appreciate the way it is ‘like skies at night.’
In stanzas 5-6, beauty is personified and feminised: ‘No time to turn at Beauty’s glance, / And watch her feet, how they can dance.’ Unlike the other examples – the sheep and cows, the squirrels, the stream – which are described in one short stanza before the speaker moves on, here we see two stanzas dedicated to ‘Beauty’: ‘No time to wait till her mouth can / Enrich that smile her eyes began.’ The poem has moved from small examples to a big idea here, and this may explain the extra time given to an abstract ‘Beauty’. It is also important in terms of the poem’s structure that this focus on a personified idea comes after the more immediately graspable examples of the animals and the stream, so that readers are guided into the poem before being hit with something a little more complex and summative. The fact that ‘Beauty’ is feminised can be read in the context of Davies’s presentation of and attitude towards women more widely in his writing. ‘Catharine’ and ‘Jenny’ are among poems which idealise his childhood friends, while ‘Nell Barnes’ and ‘The Bird of Paradise’ explore the lives of prostitutes whom he knew later in his life. ‘The Collier’s Wife’, ‘The Inquest’ and ‘A Woman’s History’, all anthologised in Poetry 1900–2000, offer a way of understanding Davies’s feminising of ‘Beauty’ in ‘Leisure’.
The other thing to observe about the presentation of ‘Beauty’ here is that she is depicted as looking. The poem has begun with the idea that we should have more ‘time to stand and stare’ and this act of looking is echoed by ‘Beauty’ looking back at us in these lines. Tellingly though, ‘Beauty’ doesn’t ‘stare’ – she offers us a ‘glance’, which we can miss, and the second reference to her looking – the ‘smile her eyes began’ – is again something subtle that, supposedly, we have ‘No time’ to see.
**Lines 13-14.**
In these lines, the speaker clearly answers the question with which he started the poem, stating, ‘A poor life this if, full of care, / We have no time to stand and stare.’ That the poem returns to its opening with exactly the same rhymes gives the ending a rhetorical effectiveness. Having taught us its lesson through a range of examples, the poem hammers home its message in this concluding couplet.
Just as the act of describing this life as ‘full of care’ in the opening, as opposed to full of work or labour, is an interesting choice, so too the choice of ‘poor’ as opposed to say, ‘bad’ or ‘strange’ is an interesting choice here. If one accepts that the poem can be read as claiming leisure for an underclass when it has traditionally been seen as the preserve of an elite, the other resonance of poor – not ‘bad’ but ‘connected with poverty’ – must be in play. The poem, starting as it does with an engaging question, moving through examples and coming to a clear conclusion, seems to want to persuade us of something: that we should take time out. But the lesson seems so self-evident, the advantages of a life of ‘Leisure’ so great within the poem, that one wonders why anyone would need persuading. The only thing in the poem preventing us from pursuing a life of nature and beauty is the life which is ‘full of care,’ and it’s therefore worth interrogating what this might be.
If the ‘poor’ life is a life of poverty, then the ‘care’ may be about work and money worries, and read in this light the poem can therefore be seen not as a piece persuading us to embrace a simpler life, but rather a piece protesting the fact that the working classes are denied this life; a piece claiming that work, and the economic and political system of capitalism, distances the working classes from the beauty of nature.
While much about Davies’s life and wider body of work – his experience of poverty, his exploration of the life of down-and-out characters, even the way in which money worries drove his enormously prolific literary output – would seem to justify a left-wing reading of this poem, it is interesting that politics is not front and centre in the piece. The word ‘care’ is sufficiently open-ended that a reader is able to attach to it whatever their concerns might be, financial or otherwise, encouraged by the speaker’s use of the plural first-person pronoun, ‘We’. It would be possible to read this pronoun as indicating a specific class, but the poem is open-ended enough for this to mean all humanity, and its immediate message, of taking time out to enjoy life and appreciate nature, is relevant to all. Importantly, that ‘We’ makes the poem’s speaker one of us, someone who knows he has to learn the very lesson he is leading us through; as a kind of teacher, the speaker of the poem is lent a humility as well as an authority, which increases the inclusiveness and charm of the poem.
‘Leisure’ is easily W.H. Davies’s most famous poem; it has been anthologised and re-anthologised, and has even been used in television adverts. This may be a result of the simplicity and directness of its language and form, and the universal appeal of its message – let’s all be a bit less busy, let’s look around at all this beauty while we can. It is known by readers who know nothing else of Davies or even of poetry, and has created an impression of Davies as a poet who prizes the simple life and the beauty of nature. While this is an important strain in his work, illustrated in poems like ‘The Kingfisher’, collected in *Poetry 1900–2000*, there is a wider body of work, much of which is far more in touch with the gritty reality of life in the twentieth century. In this context, it seems at least possible to see ‘Leisure’ as a classic of working-class literature, and its author as someone who prizes leisure and nature precisely because of his understanding of how a capitalist system can separate the least fortunate in society from the aspects of life which this poem idealises.
There is a great deal going on within the poem to make its attractive message memorable. The rhymed couplets in iambic tetrameter and the repetitive phrase ‘No time’ have a great impact. In addition, the poem opens with a question, moves from concrete examples, such as the more tangible animal examples in earlier stanzas, to the personification of ‘Beauty’, and concludes with a statement that echoes the poem’s opening. In addition, the language choices are simple and direct. While these techniques may explain the poem’s success in persuading us of its argument, it could also be concluded that, just as ‘Leisure’ suggests freedom should be there for all of us, so Davies’s linguistic and formal choices suggest that poetry is for all of us.
FOUR QUESTIONS STUDENTS MIGHT ASK ABOUT THE POEM
Why does the poem personify ‘Beauty’ and what is the impact of this?
How does the speaker persuade us to accept that a slower life, in touch with nature, would be a good thing?
What relevance does this early twentieth-century poem have to a life of social media and smartphones in the early twenty-first century?
Is this just a poem that says a slow life, surrounded by nature, is great, or does it have any other dimensions?
SECTION 5
(links active August 2019)
All links are clickable
PHOTOGRAPHS
William Henry Davies. Photograph uploaded by Literature Wales:
https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/36364
LINKS TO USEFUL WEB RESOURCES
The Poetry Foundation has a useful biography of Davies and suggestions for further reading:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-h-davies
The Poetry Archive has an interesting recording of Simon Armitage reading ‘The Inquest’.
https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/w-h-davies
The National Library for Wales details the Davies materials the library holds, and has a concise biography:
https://www.library.wales/collections/learn-more/archives-of-welsh-writers-in-english/w-h-davies-manuscripts
This BBC piece by Phil Carradice offers an overview of Davies’s life:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waleshistory/2011/05/wh_davies_welsh_super_tramp.html
A reading of Leisure by W.H. Davies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF0n7h-rpBo While the animation is perhaps a bit daft, the introduction Davies provides is useful in opening up more complex readings of the poem.
Davies’s interesting review of Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London:
https://www.newstatesman.com/cultural-capital/2013/01/confessions-down-and-out
The BBC have useful overviews of Davies’s life: https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/wh-davies/ and https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-15482428
August, 2019
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This is a painting by artist, Édouard Manet (1832 - 1883), Édouard Manet was a painter working in Paris at the end of the 19th century who enjoyed painting modern life around him. The place in the painting was called the Folies-Bergère, it was a theatre and bar where people would go to watch performances, socialise and buy drinks from Suzon, the barmaid in the picture. It might look old fashioned now but when it was painted over one hundred years ago it showed some of the latest technologies; it’s one of the earliest paintings to show us electric lights!
This painting is full of symbols that help us understand where we are. A symbol is like a clue that lets you know something about the painting; we could say the bottles at the front are a symbol that people are drinking or that the chandeliers in the background let us know this is a fancy place!
Manet showed this painting at a large and important exhibition in Paris called The Salon. At the Salon many people didn’t like the picture, they said a modern barmaid in a bar was not an appropriate subject for a painting. Do you think there are any stories that are not appropriate for paintings? In the hundred years since this was painted people have become more interested in the story of this place and the barmaid who worked there. Would you like to find the symbols and piece together her story?
A Closer Look:
With a partner use the questions below to take a deeper look at the painting and have a discussion about it. These questions are to help you look more closely at the painting, there are no right or wrong answers.
Do you like this painting?
What do you see?
Take a moment to notice everything you can see and tell your partner.
If you could buy one thing from the bar what would it be?
Look at the crowd, if you were there what would you hear?
People didn’t wash as often in the past. What do you think it smelled like?
Some people think Suzan is standing in front of a mirror, can you find the gold mirror frame?
If she is standing in front of the mirror where is the man in the top hat standing?
Look at her face, is she enjoying talking to the man in the top hat?
Can you find the acrobat? Look up!
Materials:
- A sheet of Paper
- Pencil
- Colouring Pencils (optional)
- A mirror
- Some of your favorite foods and drinks, your favorite cup to drink from
- Your favorite outfit or top to wear
- Something important to you (e.g. a toy, a decoration or a souvenir)
Activity 1: A New Perspective
We’re going to imagine we’re at the Folies-Bergère, we can hear the crowd and smell the smells and see the whole story from a new point of view.
Take a close look at the painting and pick someone in the picture you would like to be. You could be Suzon or the woman with binoculars or the acrobat or even an orange in a crystal bowl!
Think about what that person can see, imagine how they feel.
Try to draw the scene from this person’s perspective. Include as many details from the picture as you can to tell the story.
When you have finished show your partner your drawing - can they guess who you were pretending to be?
Activity 2: A Picture full of Clues
Manet wanted to tell us about the world he was living in by using objects, places and facial expressions as symbols or clues. You are going to make a picture that tells a story about you full of symbols and clues about where you are and what you like.
To Make Your Picture:
Sit in front of your mirror wearing your favorite outfit with your favorite food, drink and cup near you. Hide your important object somewhere in the room so you can see it in the mirror - like the acrobat’s legs at the top of the painting!
- Take a moment to notice everything you can see
- Look at the food and drink in the mirror, how does it make you feel?
- Look at your face in the mirror, does it show how you’re feeling?
- Look at the way you are sitting, Do you look happy, or excited or something else?
- Look at your hidden object, will people spot it? What will they think when they see it?
- Look at the room around you in the mirror, what can you see?
- Are there any other symbols or clues in the room that would tell people about you?
- Do you want to include these symbols or do you want to keep them secret?
- Make a drawing of what you can see in the mirror, you can even draw the frame around the edge to let people know it’s a mirror.
- Add colours with coloured pencils if you have them.
- Don’t worry about it being neat or perfect, when Manet made his picture people told him it was far too messy and now it’s one of the most popular paintings in the gallery!
- Once you have finished show your picture to someone in your house, ask them what clues they can find about you from your picture.
- Can you make another picture full of symbols you don’t like? How would it be different? | 0158189f-efd2-4da6-840f-bc42f8028f6a | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://courtauld.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/eduoard-manet-activity.pdf | 2022-05-16T05:34:48+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662509990.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20220516041337-20220516071337-00501.warc.gz | 249,641,718 | 1,078 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.998552 | eng_Latn | 0.998794 | [
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Short Summary
The Argentine Foreign Ministry announced on 28 March 2016 that it had gained international recognition of a claim to an exceptionally large continental shelf. But they were mistaken. Argentina had made a submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) on 21 April 2009 to claim sovereignty rights over the resources of the sea-bed. The claim covered all the shelf that spreads hundreds of miles to the east and south of Argentina. This included the disputed territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands that all sit on the continental shelf, far from the Argentine mainland. The claim also covered a section of the Antarctic continental shelf, an area where no government can exercise sovereignty. On 23 May 2016, the Commission made public its recommendations and only a small proportion of the Argentine claim was endorsed. This paper explains the legal regime and the political process that led the Commission to refuse to endorse the Argentine claim to the shelf around the islands controlled by the United Kingdom, and to a part of Antarctica.
The continental shelf can be understood as the continuation of the coastal land mass into relatively shallow seas, before the deep oceans are reached. It usually spreads out as a gently sloping area, until it drops sharply at the continental slope. The boundary of the shelf is defined in terms of the foot of the slope or the line where the depth reaches 2,500 metres or where the sediments from the coast thin out. It requires a great deal of scientific investigation to establish which of the criteria apply and where the boundary lies. The matter is simplified to some extent, by allowing all coastal states a minimum legal shelf of 200 NM (even if the geology does not justify it). There are also two alternative maximum limits.
The international law on the continental shelf is embedded in a major global treaty, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It defines the role and the status of the Commission. UNCLOS also declares the Commission’s recommendations are to be “final and binding”. The Commission is composed of 21 scientists and each submission is examined by a sub-commission of seven Commission members. The Convention and the CLCS Rules of Procedure forbid these scientists
from making any decisions about legal or political disputes. For this reason, the Commission instructed the sub-commission on the Argentine submission not to consider the shelf around the disputed islands.
In 1957-59, Argentina and Britain were among the twelve governments that set up scientific programmes in Antarctica for an International Geophysical Year. This led to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which suspended all claims to sovereignty in Antarctica. With the addition of other legal arrangements, this grew into the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), which created a global science observatory and wildlife reserve. In November 2004, Australia became the first country to claim a continental shelf in Antarctica. Governments divided into two groups on the question of how to ensure compatibility between UNCLOS and the ATS. However, they were united in arguing the Commission should not consider any claims. One group wanted restrictions “for the time being” and the other wanted permanent restrictions on any sovereignty rights. The sub-commission on the Australian submission was instructed in April 2005 not to consider a boundary for the Australian claim to part of Antarctica. Following such a precedent, the Commission had no choice but to refuse to consider the Argentine claim to a different part of Antarctica.
In April 2010, there were two other cases directly relevant to the Argentine submission. The Commission refused to establish a sub-commission to consider the British partial submission on the Falklands and on South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, due to the dispute with Argentina. The Commission also responded to a Norwegian submission on Bouvet Island and Queen Maud Land (part of the main Antarctic land mass). It did establish a sub-commission, but instructed it only to consider Bouvet Island.
In this context, it is not surprising that the Commission decided, in August 2009, in relation to the Argentine submission, that it could consider neither the disputed islands nor Antarctica. When the Argentine submission came to the head of the queue in August 2012 and a sub-commission was established, these decisions were reaffirmed.
The recommendations on Argentina were finalised by the sub-commission in August 2015; confirmed by the full Commission on 11 March 2016; and sent to the Argentine government just over two weeks later. The Foreign Ministry published a map on 28 March suggesting the whole Argentine submission had been endorsed. The Argentine and British press produced incorrect headlines about the UN approving Argentine claims to sovereignty over the Falklands. Nothing remotely justified these headlines. The maps released on 23 May 2016, in the Commission’s *Summary of the Recommendations* show two sectors had been endorsed. The first runs, from the Rio de la Plata boundary with Uruguay, south to the boundary of the waters around the Falklands. The other is a tiny area south of Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island. All data about the shelf around the disputed islands and adjacent to Antarctic was completely ignored and no boundaries for these areas were endorsed.
It remains a mystery how professional staff in the Argentine Foreign Ministry could fail to appreciate what was happening in the Commission. It was clear for over six and a half years, from August 2009 to March 2016 that the Commission would not and could not approve the whole submission. An even more important question for the Argentine political system is to ask how the Foreign Minister, Susana Malcorra, and her Deputy, Carlos Foradori, were so misled by the diplomats.
The South Atlantic Council was formed to promote communication between Argentines, British people and Falkland Islanders, in order to seek co-operation and understanding that might eventually
lead to a peaceful settlement, to the Falklands/Malvinas dispute, acceptable to all three parties. Neither Britain nor Argentina can separately gain any internationally recognised rights to exploit the resources of the continental shelf, in the south-west Atlantic, so long as the dispute continues. On the other hand, the Commission could endorse a joint submission, if the governments of Argentina and the UK were willing to agree pragmatic arrangements to share the resources. This story demonstrates how pointless it is to continue with ritualised conflict, based on a nineteenth century idea of sovereignty.
Introduction
In April 2009, Argentina submitted a claim for recognition of an extensive continental shelf and the right to control the resources of the shelf in the southern Atlantic Ocean. This claim was considered by the legally-responsible international body, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), and, in March 2016, the Argentine government announced its submission had been approved. It was widely reported in the news media as meaning the United Nations had recognised an Argentine claim to the waters around the Falkland Islands. While it is true the Argentine submission was approved, the release of the Commission’s Summary of the Recommendations on 23 May 2016 shows it is not true that the CLCS approved any limits to the shelf derived from the dispute about the Falkland Islands nor other disputed islands nor Antarctica. This paper will outline how a coastal country gains international recognition of its continental shelf and why the news reporting on the Argentine claim was substantially incorrect.
Defining the Width of the Continental Shelf
As knowledge of what resources are available from the seas has expanded and as the technology to exploit those resources have improved, governments of coastal states have wanted to claim control over the widest possible band of the waters around their coasts. All significant aspects of the use of the seas now come under an international treaty, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which was agreed and signed in 1982. This has established four borders, delimiting four areas of the seas over which each coastal state has rights.[1]
- **The territorial sea** extends 12 nautical miles from the coast. In this area, full sovereignty applies, to activities on the sea, in the air space above and on the sea-bed below, just as it does on the land.
- **The contiguous zone** extends an extra 12 nautical miles, to allow for policing of unlawful activity on the land or within the territorial sea.
- **The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)** extends from the territorial sea up to 200 nautical miles from the coast. There is sovereignty over fish, other marine life, oil, other minerals and other economic activities, such as production of renewable energy.
The continental shelf consists of the sea-bed and its subsoil beyond the territorial sea to the outer edge of the natural prolongation of the land, before the deep ocean is reached. There is sovereignty over minerals, other non-living resources and life on the sea-bed, but not fish in the seas. Coastal states have no other rights in the waters of the shelf beyond the EEZ and the air space above it.
The idea of the continental shelf, as the natural geological extension of a country’s land below the sea, is easy to understand, but defining its boundary is very complicated. Geologists refer to three areas:
the continental shelf, which slopes gradually away from the coast;
the continental slope, which starts a steep decline, to deeper waters; and
the continental rise, which resumes a gradual slope.
The geology varies substantially in different parts of the world. For example, along the whole of the west coast of South America, there is virtually no geological shelf, because the slope descends rapidly to a deep trench, reaching 8,000 metres depth, about 85 nautical miles (NM) from the coast. On the other hand, along the east coast, the Patagonian Shelf is only 200 metres deep, until more than 400 NM from the Argentine mainland. There is no simple way to draw a clear boundary to define where the continental shelf ends. In situations where the shelf extends more than 200 NM from the coast, the boundary is taken to the foot of the continental slope. This is defined as being where sedimentary rocks, washed down from the coast, become too thin. Alternatively, the foot of the slope is 60 NM beyond where its steepness declines most markedly. Delimiting such a boundary, requires a detailed survey of the sea-bed and the production of geological maps.[2]
UNCLOS provided a political solution to reduce substantially (but not eliminate) the need for production of extensive and detailed geological maps. All countries would have legal rights to a “shelf” extending to a minimum of 200 NM from the coast, whether or not a geological shelf actually exists. In addition, two maxima were set and whichever is the longest distance can be applied – the shelf can go up to 350 NM from the coast or up to 100 NM from the line marking a depth of 2,500 metres (the 2,500 m isobath).[3]
For Argentina, on the Patagonian Shelf, both the two maxima and the minimum apply. In addition, each of the different geological criteria apply. Starting from Rio de la Plata boundary with Uruguayan waters, the foot of the continental slope is defined by the sediments becoming thinner. Further south, the 350 NM maximum applies. Then, the alternative maximum applies and the boundary becomes 100 NM from the 2,500 m isobath. In the extreme south, the boundary south-east from Isla de los Estados (Staten Island) is the minimum of 200 NM from the coast. Finally, there is a small sector up to the maritime boundary with Chile that is 60 NM from the foot of the slope, defined by the greatest change in its gradient.[4]
**The Role of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS)**
When a government wishes to exercise sovereignty over the resources of the sea-bed and its sub-soil beyond the EEZ, UNCLOS requires it to submit detailed, scientific information for evaluation by a Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). The Commission is composed of independent, expert scientists, but at the same time it has a political structure. No two individuals can be of the same nationality; they are nominated by governments; and each of the five geographical groups that caucus in global diplomacy must have at least three members.
The Commission shall consist of 21 members who shall be experts in the field of geology, geophysics or hydrography, elected by States Parties to this Convention from among their nationals, having due regard to the need to ensure equitable geographical representation, who shall serve in their personal capacities.[5]
If a coastal state does wish to establish rights to a continental shelf beyond the minimum of 200 NM, it must take the initiative and submit charts plotting the shelf boundary, along with echo soundings, seismic tests and geophysical data, to support the claim. Then, a sub-commission of seven members is appointed. The members of the sub-commission cannot be nationals of the coastal state nor any other Commission members who have provided advice on the application. After a lengthy process of considering all the data, the sub-commission makes a recommendation to the full Commission. If the Commission approves the recommendation, the government can deposit the final definitive charts, with the UN Secretary-General.\[6\]
There are stringent conditions in the CLCS Rules of Procedure for maintaining the confidentiality of the data, presumably because it might have commercial significance. When a submission is received, only an Executive Summary is published. After a submission is accepted, only the charts and geodetic data (defining the shape of the sea-bed) must be made public. The deliberations of the Commission and its sub-commissions take place in private and remain confidential. Normally in the UN system, records of meetings are published, either verbatim or in a detailed summary. In the case of the CLCS, its deliberations remain secret and only the formal decision becomes public, in a statement by the chair of each session on the “Progress of Work in the Commission”. The privacy of meetings not only maintains confidentiality, but also minimises pressures upon the members of the Commission. Governments can make summary presentations on their case, in public, when a submission is first considered, and they can be invited to make “clarifications”, but they cannot be represented when recommendations are being discussed.\[7\] When the recommendation on the first submission, (by Russia), came before the CLCS, the UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs commented
the Commission would have to analyse a large volume of complex geodetic, bathymetric, seismic and geophysical data in order to verify that the geological and geomorphologic conditions supported the submission. … The results of that examination would prove that the members of the Commission had applied their expertise with complete independence and integrity, allowing no political considerations whatsoever to enter into their deliberations during the examination of submissions. The members would deliberate with regard only to the requirements of the Convention and the completeness and accuracy of the data and material submitted.
At the same meeting, one Commission member argued for a Russian delegation to be present when the recommendations on their submission were being considered. The Chair argued the Rules required the deliberations to be in private. The question had to be put to a vote and the Russian request was rejected by fifteen votes to three (with three members absent).\[8\]
Each coastal state had a time limit of ten years after becoming a party to UNCLOS, by which they must make their submission. The members of the Commission were elected in March 1997 and they started work in June 1997. Initially the CLCS had to define its procedures: in particular it had to specify its Scientific and Technical Guidelines on how submissions should be made. The Guidelines were adopted on 13 May 1999 and the first submission was made, by Russia, on 20 December 2001. It was clear that many countries, particularly developing countries, would not be able to meet the deadline of November 2004 for their submissions. Led by the members of the Pacific Island Forum, they proposed an extension of the deadline. In May 2001, a Meeting of the States Parties decided the ten-year period would start from when the Guidelines had been adopted, for any countries that had become parties before this date.\[9\]
The Legal Status of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
Although the text of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was signed by 119 governments in December 1982, it could not enter into force until one year after the sixtieth state had ratified or acceded to it. This occurred more than a decade later, on 16 November 1994. After that date, it has entered into force for any other state 30 days after they have ratified or acceded. In 1982, the US government refused to sign the Convention and they still have not done so, because they opposed the provisions for an International Sea-Bed Authority to regulate the resources of the sea-bed in the deep seas beyond the legal boundaries of each continental shelf. The United Kingdom Conservative governments of the 1980s and the 1990s adopted the same policy. The Argentine government had a variety of concerns about the Convention, in particular they strongly objected to Resolution III in the Final Act of the UN conference. This covered the application of the Convention to colonial territories and referred to the rights of the people, even where a dispute exists about sovereignty.\[10\] Argentina delayed signing the Convention until October 1984, and then did not proceed with ratification for another eleven years. Consequently, neither Argentina nor the UK were among the original parties to UNCLOS.
Argentina changed its policy under President Menem. An agreement with Britain, in November 1990, led to the creation of a bilateral South Atlantic Fisheries Commission and a further agreement in September 1995 brought exploration for hydrocarbons under a Joint Commission on Offshore Activities. A few weeks later, Argentina ratified UNCLOS, but with a strong reservation rejecting any connection between the main Convention and the Resolution on colonial territories. In Britain, policy on UNCLOS did not change until the formation in 1997 of a Labour government, which quickly acceded to the Convention. UNCLOS entered into force for Argentina on 31 December 1995 and for the UK on 24 August 1997. Consequently, for both countries, their deadline for making submissions was 13 May 2009, the end of the extended ten-year period.
Currently there are 167 parties to UNCLOS, but thirty members of the UN have not become parties: fifteen are small land-locked states and fifteen are coastal states whose governments have various political objections.\[11\] All the provisions of UNCLOS are binding on all the parties to the Convention, including both Argentina and the UK. Most international lawyers even argue UNCLOS is binding on all other states that have not become parties to it, because its provisions now have the status of customary international law.\[12\]
The Commission has been widely referred to as being part of the United Nations, but it is *not*. It has the same status within the UN system as many subsidiary bodies of disarmament, environmental and human rights agreements that are set up by separate treaties. These bodies are often serviced by the UN Secretariat, sometimes under a separate budget and sometimes, as for the CLCS, under the UN’s regular budget. The distinction between treaty bodies and UN bodies is not just a technical point. As noted above, the UNCLOS parties do not include all 193 UN members. In addition, four non-members of the UN are parties to UNCLOS.\[13\] The treaty bodies, such as the CLCS, are elected by and come under the authority of the meetings of UNCLOS parties. The CLCS does not report to any UN body. The “recommendations” of the CLCS have greater legal weight, under the articles of the Convention, than do “recommendations” of the UN General Assembly, under the articles of the UN Charter.
The Legal Status of the Commission’s Recommendations
The British government has been widely quoted in the press as saying “It is important to note that this is an advisory commission that makes recommendations that are not legally binding”. [14] This statement is quite simply false. No doubt the Prime Minister’s spokesperson, responding while Mr Cameron was on holiday in Spain, misinterpreted the word “recommendation”, because this usually does refer to non-binding decisions at the UN.
After the Second World War, an increasing number of governments claimed the exclusive right to exploit the resources of the sea-bed. In 1958, a Convention on the Continental Shelf was agreed, allowing exploitation “to a depth of 200 metres or, beyond that limit, to where the depth of the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of the natural resources”. [15] As technology developed, the 1958 Convention became obsolete and was eventually replaced by the 1982 UNCLOS. The aim of all the provisions in Part VI of UNCLOS was to stop the ever-expanding claims, to remove uncertainty and to fix boundaries. Governments would apply to the CLCS for recognition of their claims and the international community would, through the CLCS, “recommend” whether their submission does or does not “qualify”. UNCLOS unambiguously states
The limits of the shelf established by a coastal State on the basis of these recommendations shall be final and binding. [16]
If the government is dissatisfied with the recommendation, it can “within a reasonable time, make a revised or new submission to the Commission”. [17] The point remains that there is only a boundary when the government and the CLCS have agreed how the UNCLOS provisions can be interpreted in the light of the scientific data. Governments have had an internationally-recognised right to exploit the continental shelf since 1958 and an agreed mechanism to define its boundary since UNCLOS came into effect. The government’s submission to the CLCS, followed by a recommendation that it qualifies, is legally binding on the two parties. The coastal state cannot later claim to extend its boundaries further out to sea and all the other states, on whose behalf the CLCS acts, must recognise the boundary that has been approved.
Restrictions on the Authority of the Commission
It would be astonishing if a small group of geologists, geophysicists and hydrographers on the CLCS could take decisions about boundary conflicts, without any involvement of international lawyers, professional diplomats or politicians. UNCLOS clearly and explicitly forbids this possibility.
- **UNCLOS Article 76 says**
“The provisions of this article are without prejudice to the question of delimitation of the continental shelf between States with opposite or adjacent coasts.”
- **UNCLOS Annex II, Article 9 says**
“The actions of the Commission shall not prejudice matters relating to delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts.”
• *The CLCS Rules of Procedure, Annex I, paragraph 1*, says
“The Commission recognizes that the competence with respect to matters regarding disputes which may arise in connection with the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf rests with States.”
• *The CLCS Rules of Procedure, Annex I, paragraph 5(a)*, says
“In cases where a land or maritime dispute exists, the Commission shall not consider and qualify a submission made by any of the States concerned in the dispute.”
• *The CLCS Rules of Procedure, Annex I, paragraph 5(b)*, says
“The submissions made before the Commission and the recommendations approved by the Commission thereon shall not prejudice the position of States which are parties to a land or maritime dispute.”
These five legal statements leave absolutely no room for doubt. The Commission must not do anything that involves any consideration of a territorial dispute or any conflict about maritime boundaries between different countries. Nothing that happens in the CLCS can have any effect upon the outcome of such disputes.
The UNCLOS requirements did present a problem for governments involved in long-standing disputes. Claims for recognition of a continental shelf beyond the 200 NM minimum were to have been made within the ten-year period. This could have meant, when a dispute was settled *after* the ten-year deadline, no delimitation of the shelf in the disputed area would ever be recognised, for one or both of the parties. The Commission tackled this problem and at its Fourth Session adopted an annex to its Rules of Procedure, to provide options for submissions concerning disputed areas. Two or more governments can agree to make joint or separate submissions, ignoring the question of the boundaries between them. Alternatively, the Commission can consider partial submissions for undisputed parts of the shelf, leaving the disputed areas to be considered at some later date, even after more than ten years. These options still remain subject to the overriding principle that the Commission’s recommendations cannot have any effect on the outcome of a territorial or maritime dispute.
**The Question of Antarctica**
Before we can consider the limits of the continental shelf in the South Atlantic, it is necessary to understand the special status of Antarctica. Argentina and Chile have sovereignty claims on segments of Antarctica, based on Spanish claims in the fifteenth century. Britain declared sovereignty over the South Orkneys and Graham Land on the Antarctic Peninsula in 1908 and today calls this area the British Antarctic Territory. The diagram below indicates how these three claims overlap and have produced a set of dormant territorial disputes. Later in the twentieth century, Norway made a large claim to protect its whaling interests and France made a small claim based on discovery. The British Empire made further claims that were inherited by Australia and New Zealand upon their gaining independence. In 1959, all seven of these governments agreed to a treaty to suspend their rights to exercise any sovereignty over the territories they had claimed.
At the initiative of the International Council of Scientific Unions in 1952, an International Geophysical Year was held from July 1957 to December 1958. It stimulated new research activity in Antarctica: in particular, the United States and Russia established their first, permanent, research stations. The positive achievements of the scientific co-operation across the Cold War divide made the twelve governments that had participated in Antarctica during IGY decide to ensure “that Antarctica shall continue for ever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord”. They negotiated an Antarctic Treaty that was signed on 1 December 1959 and, after it had been ratified by all twelve governments, the treaty entered into force on 23 June 1961. Antarctica was defined as all “the area south of 60° South Latitude, including all ice shelves”. Argentina, Chile and the UK were among the original twelve countries. Since 1959, an additional 41 other countries have acceded to the Treaty. Seventeen have been recognised as “conducting substantial research activity” and joined the original Consultative Parties as full participants in the annual meetings. Another 24 Non-Consultative Parties attend the meetings, but do not participate in decision-making. The treaty was extended by an Environment Protocol in 1998. Two separate environmental treaties also apply to the continent: the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (CCAS) came into effect in 1978 and the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in 1982. A small Secretariat was established in Buenos Aires in September 2004. These arrangements are known collectively as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). Antarctica was brought under a global, legal and scientific, management system.[18]
The 1959 treaty agreed on “freedom of scientific investigation” throughout the continent and specified there would be exchange of information about research plans, access to each other’s research stations and free exchange of research results. The ideals of a non-political, global, scientific community were underpinned by three fundamental principles. All military activity in Antarctica was
prohibited; activities under the treaty would have no effect on sovereignty claims; and each Consultative Party could appoint observers, who could have “complete freedom of access at any time to any or all areas of Antarctica”, to monitor what was happening in the research stations. In 1992, the global status of Antarctica was acknowledged, by adding a new domain name – .al – to the Internet register of country domain names.[19] In international diplomacy, the normal way of asserting this package of provisions is to refer to the article of the Antarctic Treaty that suspends sovereignty:
**Article IV**
1. Nothing contained in the present Treaty shall be interpreted as:
(a) a renunciation by any Contracting Party of previously asserted rights of or claims to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica;
(b) a renunciation or diminution by any Contracting Party of any basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica which it may have whether as a result of its activities or those of its nationals in Antarctica, or otherwise;
(c) prejudicing the position of any Contracting Party as regards its recognition or non-recognition of any other State’s right of or claim or basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica.
2. No acts or activities taking place while the present Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or create any rights of sovereignty in Antarctica. No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim, to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in force. [20]
The wording saves face by saying sovereignty claims have not been abandoned. Nevertheless, sovereignty rights cannot actually be exercised. Antarctica has become a global science observatory and wildlife reserve, subject to no government’s sovereignty and accessible to all.
**Australia’s Submission and Other Claimants to Antarctica**
The seven states with dormant claims to territory in Antarctica might have each decided to make a submission to the CLCS covering the Antarctic continental shelf. All seven had become parties to UNCLOS before 13 May 1999 and therefore needed to meet the extended ten-year deadline of 13 May 2009, if they wished to claim a section of this shelf. Chile did not do so and therefore it must be assumed that Chile will never gain any sovereign rights over the Antarctic continental shelf. Three of the other six governments – Australia, Argentina and Norway – made submissions that included full scientific data for a shelf extending from Antarctic territory. The remaining three – New Zealand, the United Kingdom and France – made no submission covering Antarctica, but reserved their right to do so, at some later date. All these cases, except for Argentina, will now be examined, to provide a context for understanding the Argentine submission.
Australia was, on 15 November 2004, the first of the six to make a submission that mentioned Antarctica. This was accompanied by a Note Verbale, which asserted “the importance of the Antarctic system and UNCLOS working in harmony” and invoked the special status of Antarctica as an area where sovereignty has been suspended. Noting that Antarctica had an undefined continental shelf, the Australian government argued:
It is open to the States concerned to submit information to the Commission which would not be examined by it for the time being, or to make a partial submission not including such areas of continental shelf, for which a submission may be made later …
The Note concluded by saying Australia was taking the first option and requesting the Commission “in accordance with its rules not to take any action for the time being” with regard to the information relating to Antarctica.[21]
The Australian submission was added by the Secretariat to the agenda for the next CLCS session in April 2005. Even though the Australian government had explicitly asked for no action to be taken on its Antarctic claim, six other governments provided notes objecting to the submission. The first was from the United States, on 3 December 2004:
recalling Article IV of the Antarctic Treaty, the United States does not recognize any State’s claim to territory in Antarctic and consequently does not recognize any State’s rights over the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas beyond and adjacent to the continent of Antarctica.
Similar notes followed from Russia, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany and India. [22] The wording varied slightly each time, but the position taken was identical. These six governments were all making general statements of a much stronger nature than the Australian request to make no judgement on the claim: they rejected the claim. It was not a question of postponing consideration of the information by the Commission “for the time being”, nor accepting another partial submission could be made “later”, but the six were saying a delimitation of sovereign rights to the Antarctic continental shelf should never occur. Furthermore, they were not objecting just to Australia’s claim, but to “any State’s claim”. In response, the Commission decided to establish a sub-commission and instructed it “not to consider the part of the submission referred to as region 2”, which was based on Antarctica.[23]
On 4 May 2009, Norway also made a submission relevant to Antarctica, containing full scientific data “in respect of Bouvetøya and Dronning Maud Land”, (in English, Bouvet Island and Queen Maud Land). Bouvet lies north of the Antarctic Circle and the shelf area claimed by Norway is to the north-east of the island, so it is not covered by the suspension of sovereignty. Queen Maud Land is part of the main Antarctic land mass and does come under the Antarctic Treaty. A curious feature of the Norwegian submission is that it makes no mention of Norway’s third dependent territory, Peter I’s Island, which also lies within the Antarctic Circle, in the “Unclaimed” sector on the above map.[24]
Norway’s submission repeated the text of the Australian Note and they also chose the first option, requesting “the Commission in accordance with its rules not to take any action for the time being” on Queen Maud Land. The Norwegian Note asks the Commission “to consider the information submitted in respect of Bouvetøya”. [25] As with Australia’s submission, the United States, Russia, India, the Netherlands and Japan made strong objections, using the same language as before. On 9 April 2010, the Commission agreed it would establish a sub-commission on Bouvet Island and it would be instructed “not to consider the part of the submission relating to the continental shelf appurtenant to Dronning Maud Land”. [26]
The three countries with dormant claims that did not make a submission covering Antarctica raised the question in the context of unrelated submissions. New Zealand made its submission on 19 April 2006 and at the same time tabled a Note with the main text using identical wording to the Australians.
The Note concluded by saying New Zealand was taking the second option and its “partial submission” did not cover the continental shelf of Antarctica, but reserved the right to do so “later”, without indicating when this might be.\[27\]
In 2008-2009, governments rushed to make CLCS submissions within the time limit and the workload of the Commission increased dramatically. The United Kingdom made several “partial submissions”, for different territories. The first one, for Ascension Island was made on 9 May 2008. Although Antarctica has no relevance to the Ascension submission, it was accompanied by a Note Verbale on Antarctica. Again, its wording was identical to the Australian Note.\[28\] Similarly, France made a partial submission on 5 February 2009, covering two territories, the French Antilles (a set of islands in the Caribbean) and the Kerguelen Islands (in the southern Indian Ocean). As with Britain’s submission, Antarctic was of no direct relevance, but an accompanying Note Verbale repeated the exact arguments of the Australian note.\[29\]
Thus, we had five governments – Australia, Norway, New Zealand, the UK and France – arguing claims to the Antarctic continental shelf might be considered in the future. They were opposed by six governments – USA, Russia, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany and India – stating claims should never be made. However, they all expressed their commitment to the Antarctic Treaty System. In effect, they were all united in saying no submission should be considered so long as the Antarctic Treaty remains in force. The statement about “the importance of the Antarctic system and UNCLOS working in harmony” can only mean that the Commission, working under the authority of UNCLOS, must not override the suspension of sovereignty in Antarctica. The Commission did not take a position on the differences between the five Antarctic claimants and the six protesters, but it did decide not to consider the submissions relating to Antarctica.
**The British Submission on the South Atlantic**
The United Kingdom made another partial submission, “in respect of the Falkland Islands, and of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands”, on 11 May 2009.\[30\] By this time, President Menem’s term of office had finished and Argentina had gone through a period of economic and political upheaval. Under the presidency of Nestor Kirchner, from May 2003 to December 2007, followed by Cristina Kirchner until December 2015, relations between the Argentine and British governments severely deteriorated. This was primarily due to a sustained campaign by the Argentine government to attempt to mobilise domestic and international political support for their sovereignty claim over these islands. The British government responded with very assertive statements and actions. By 2009, there was no political possibility of the two governments taking the option of making a joint submission to the Commission.
In accordance with the Commission’s rules, the British acknowledged their submission covered disputed areas, in that they were “also the subject of a submission by Argentina”. In addition, they asserted
this submission and the recommendations of the Commission made in respect of it will not prejudice matters relating to the delimitation of boundaries between the UK and any other State.
and then went on to make what had already become the standard statement of the British position.
The United Kingdom has no doubt about its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas. [31]
A copy of the map submitted is shown below. Much of the boundary was drawn by the criterion of measuring 60 NM from points at the foot of the slope. There were three sections where it had to be limited by the maximum of 350 NM and three by the maximum of 100 NM beyond the 2,500 m isobath. For two sections the 200 NM minimum was applied. In the west, the boundary was measured from the Falkland Islands. Then, there is a boundary around South Georgia, a narrow, crescent-shaped island, 740 NM east-south-east of the Falklands. Finally, there is a boundary around the South Sandwich Islands that are, at the nearest points, less than 350 NM further south-east and consist of eleven volcanic islands, in a chain around 215 NM long. The three boundaries overlap, so that they form a single continuous area from the most western part of the waters around the Falklands to the most southern part of the waters around the South Sandwich Islands.
Source: UK Submission to the CLCS, Executive Summary, p.5.
The Executive Summary is very brief and much is left unsaid or implied.
1. In the west, the map shows a boundary between a Falklands 200 NM EEZ and an Argentine EEZ measured from the South American mainland. The boundary appears to be based on the Falkland Islands Outer Conservation Zone (FOCZ), used for fisheries management. It was developed pragmatically as part of the Falklands fisheries policy and has never been endorsed by Argentina. The disputed boundary is not directly mentioned anywhere in the Executive Summary.
2. As the shortest distance between the Falklands and South Georgia is more than 650 NM, one might expect a gap of open, unclaimed seas, between the boundaries around the two territories. In fact, the 2,500 m isobaths in each direction come close to each other. The maximum boundaries of 100 NM beyond these lines overlap and the gap is bridged.
3. While none of the South Sandwich Islands are within Antarctica – as can be seen on the map above – a large area of the shelf to the south of these islands is below 60° South, the Antarctic Circle, which is the boundary of the area covered by the Antarctic Treaty.
4. There is an unexpected curve cutting into the shelf to the west of the South Sandwich Islands. It is defined by 185 reference points (571 to 955) that are each described as being a “Fixed Point on a constraint line”. There is no mention, anywhere in the Executive Summary, what the “constraint” might be. In fact, this part of the boundary co-incides with a hypothetical EEZ around the South Orkney Islands.
Probably, all this was done in an attempt to minimise political argument with President Cristina Kirchner. If so, this tactic was successful, in that the British submission did not generate any “megaphone diplomacy” in the news media. Although the Executive Summary does not say so there are three separate territorial disputes with Argentina: the Falkland Islands; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and the location of the dormant claim to the British Antarctic Territory totally covering the area of the dormant Argentine Antarctic claim.
It is surprising that the question of Antarctica was not raised, in the CLCS proceedings, with respect to the British submission. A significant area, within the Antarctic Circle, mentioned above, in point (3), overlaps with the shelf defined by extension from South Orkney. In addition, if a boundary needs to be drawn from South Orkney, outside the Antarctic Circle, as explained in point (4) above, then why should it be a 200 NM EEZ boundary? The normal way to draw such a boundary would be *between* the South Orkney EEZ and the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands EEZ. The British map, copied above, has a sentence below it, saying “In accordance with the UK’s Note … of 9 May 2008, this submission does not include areas of continental shelf appurtenant to Antarctica”. This statement is of questionable accuracy, in using the word “appurtenant”, which refers to shelf projecting from land in Antarctica. More generally, the submission clearly does include large areas of sea-bed within the Antarctic Circle. None of the six governments that protested against Australia’s submission nor any other government made any comments on, let alone objections to, this aspect of the British submission.
The Secretariat responded, in the normal procedural manner, by reporting receipt of the submission to all UN members and UNCLOS parties and by publishing an Executive Summary on the UN’s Division for Ocean Affairs website. The notification also said the submission will be on the agenda for the CLCS Twenty-Fifth Session, to be held in March-April 2010. On 20 August 2009, the Argentine government sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General, saying it
categorically rejects the British submission and expressly requests that the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf neither consider nor qualify it …
The Argentine Republic categorically denies that there is any maritime delimitation between States, either established or pending, in the area of the Malvinas, South Georgia and
South Sandwich Islands. It therefore rejects each and every one of the limits that the United Kingdom attempted to trace or insinuated in its submission of 11 May to the Commission and in the accompanying maps and charts.
The Argentine Republic recalls, as it indicated in its submission to the Commission on 21 April 2009, that the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas are an integral part of the national territory of the Argentine Republic and that, being illegally occupied by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, are the subject of a sovereignty dispute between the two countries.\[32\]
On 7 April 2010, a British team – consisting of Christopher Whomersley, Deputy Legal Adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Lindsay Parson, head of the Law of the Sea Group at the National Oceanography Centre, plus some advisers – made a presentation of the submission to the full Commission. The presentation made reference to the Argentine note and “firmly rejected the claim of Argentina to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands”. The chair’s report on the work of the session concluded
Taking into consideration that [Argentine] note verbale and the presentation made by the [British] delegation, the Commission decided that, in accordance with its rules of procedure, it was not in a position to consider and qualify the submission.
In summary, the CLCS refused to consider the British submission, because it covered an unresolved dispute.\[33\] The Commission really had no choice: the submission raised several very difficult political and legal questions.
**The Argentine Submission**
The Argentine submission to the CLCS was made on 21 April 2009. It took much longer to handle, because it was administratively, scientifically and politically much more complex than the British submission. The Executive Summary started by outlining the history of Argentine policy on the continental shelf, going back to the first domestic legal action in March 1944 and recalling Argentina’s role as one of the leading countries in the development of the UNCLOS provisions. Despite its pioneering unilateral actions, the submission is firmly placed within the context of Argentina being a party to UNCLOS. The Secretariat responded on 1 May 2009, in the normal manner. Although the Argentine government had made its submission only three weeks before the British did so, this made sufficient difference for the Secretariat to place it on the agenda of the previous session of the CLCS, the Twenty-Fourth Session, held six months earlier in August-September 2009.\[34\]
In May 1997, a law had been passed to establish the Comisión Nacional del Límite Exterior de la Plataforma Continental (COPLA) (National Commission on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf), under the authority of the Foreign Ministry “and also composed of” the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Naval Hydrographic Service. Its purpose was to prepare a submission and it was supported by a variety of other government departments, along with national scientific bodies and three university departments. It should be noted that COPLA itself is an integral component of the Argentine government. In contrast, the comparable British body, the National Oceanography Centre, was at the time purely an academic body.\[35\]
The presentation of the submission to the Commission was made on 26 August 2009 by Jorge Argüello, Argentina’s Permanent Representative at the UN; Rafael Grossi, from the Foreign Ministry; Frida Pfrirter, General Coordinator of COPLA; and Marcelo Paterlini, a geophysicist; and a number of scientific, legal and technical advisers. A copy of the map, issued by COPLA to illustrate the submission, is given below.[136] In geographical and geological terms, the submission can be regarded as covering several distinct areas, with a high degree of overlap between some of them.
1. East of the Argentine mainland, from Rio de la Plata and the maritime boundary with Uruguay, to the waters around the Falklands/Malvinas Islands
2. A crescent, to the north-east, east and south-east of the Falklands/Malvinas Islands
3. West and north of South Georgia
4. South of South Georgia
5. West of the South Sandwich Islands
6. North, east and south of South Orkney
7. East of the Antarctic Peninsula and north of the main Antarctic land mass
8. A very small area south of Staten Island
Areas 2 and 3 overlap, as do areas 4 and 6, and also 5 and 6. In political and legal term, areas 2-5 are based on territory in dispute with the United Kingdom; area 5 crosses over the Antarctic Circle; the EEZ south of the South Sandwich Islands crossed over the Antarctic Circle; areas 6-7 are based on a claim to part of Antarctica; and only areas 1 and 8 are incontestably Argentine.
The Argentine Position on Disputed Boundaries
After the formal introductory materials, the Argentine Executive Summary is divided into three substantive sections.
- **G. End points of the outer limit**
**Uruguay** The Summary stated that the basis for a maritime boundary with Uruguay had been agreed in a bilateral treaty in 1973, but the continental shelf boundary had not yet been agreed.
“… taking into account that the maritime lateral boundary between the Argentine Republic and Uruguay has not yet been demarcated in the area between the 200 nautical miles from the baselines and the line [of] the outer limit of the continental shelves of both countries Argentina requests the Commission to formulate its recommendations applying Article 4 (a) of Annex I of its Rules of Procedure”.
The rule cited allows a request for a CLCS recommendation, “without regard to the delimitation of boundaries between those [neighbouring] States”.[37]
Chile The precise boundary is quoted from Article 7 of the 1984 bilateral, Treaty of Peace and Friendship.
• H Disputes
“In compliance with Annex I, paragraph 2 (a) of the Rules of Procedure of the CLCS, Argentina hereby notifies that there is an area envisaged by Article 46 of the Rules of Procedure”, as being under dispute, namely “Islas Malvinas, Georgias del Sur and Sandwich del Sur”. The Summary then quoted the Argentine Constitution stating the area is “an integral part of the national territory” and gave a very brief justification of the sovereignty claim. This was followed by a long quote of the reservation made, when Argentina ratified UNCLOS, objecting to Resolution III of the UNCLOS Final Act (see above).
• I. Description of the outer limit of the continental shelf
The final section gave a description of the geology of the shelf and the co-ordinates of all the points used to delimit the boundary of the shelf.
Both sections G and H were acknowledging that Argentina must conform to the provisions of UNCLOS and the Commission’s procedures for handling disputed areas. In particular, on the border with Uruguay and on the two disputes about islands currently under British rule, Annex I of the Rules was explicitly invoked. After a surprising delay of more than three months, the UK took up these questions and tabled a Note, on 6 August 2009, asserting its sovereignty over the islands.
The United Kingdom therefore rejects those parts of Argentina’s submission which claim rights to the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas appurtenant to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and requests that the Commission does not examine those parts of the Argentine submission – i.e. any fixed points greater than RA-481, except between fixed points RA-3458 and RA-3840. (Emphasis in the original.)
Three weeks later, during the Argentine delegation’s oral presentation on 26 August 2009, Mr Grossi objected to the British Note. He also repeated the statement that there was an area under dispute.
The Commission had accumulated too many submissions to set up a sub-commission on the Argentine submission at this point. Nevertheless, it took the decision that it would go ahead, when the Argentina reached the head of the queue. It also decided what would be its instructions to the sub-commission. The chair’s report on the work of the session concluded
Taking into consideration this [British] note verbale and the presentation made by the [Argentine] delegation, the Commission decided that, in accordance with its rules of procedure, it was not in a position to consider and qualify those parts of the submission that are subject to dispute.
In summary, the formal decision on the Argentine submission in August 2009 with respect to the islands was exactly the same as it would be eight months later on the British submission (see above). The Commission acted in accord with the British suggestion that it should ignore those parts of the
Argentine submission related to the Falkland Island and to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. In effect, the Argentine submission and the delegation’s presentation had given the Commission no choice, because they had accepted there was a dispute.\[38\]
**The Argentine Position on Antarctica**
An extraordinary feature of the Argentine submission is that the Executive Summary makes no mention of the Antarctica Treaty nor of the question of suspended sovereignty. Like the Australian and the Norwegian submissions, the Argentine submission was accompanied by a Note Verbale. This *did not* follow the precedent of the other claimants, using texts that were identical to each other. The Argentine Note of 21 April 2009,
> recalls … the importance of ensuring consistency between the Antarctic Treaty System and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea …
> The Argentine Republic also takes into account the circumstances of the region south of 60 degrees south latitude and the special legal and political status of Antarctica under the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty, including article IV thereof, and the Rules of Procedure of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.\[39\]
Unlike the Australians and the Norwegians, the Argentine Note did not directly request the Commission “not to take any action for the time being”. As was discussed above, Article IV of the Antarctic Treaty provides for the suspension of sovereignty and the Rules of Procedure of the CLCS dictate that no consideration should be given to any area that is subject to a territorial dispute. In effect, the reference to Article IV of the Antarctic Treaty implied acceptance that no action would be taken.
Before the Commission met to consider the Argentine submission, the United States and Russia each issued protest notes against the inclusion of an Antarctic claim. India, the Netherlands and Japan did so shortly afterwards. The British note of 6 August 2009 also covered the question of Antarctica. On this occasion, only part of the Australian text was used by the British and a position close to the protesting states was taken.
> … the United Kingdom does not recognise Argentina’s claim to territory in Antarctica and consequently does not recognise that Argentina has any rights over the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas appurtenant to Antarctica.\[40\]
It would appear that the pressure from the United States and Russia made the Argentines realise they could not attempt to hold out on Antarctica. During the oral presentation to the Commission, the Argentine delegate, Mr Grossi, referred to the Argentine Note, but went further by acknowledging
> … the Commission could not, in accordance with its rules of procedure, take any action, for the time being, with regard to … the Argentine Antarctic Sector.
The outcome was a clear rejection of the attempt in the Argentine Executive Summary to ignore the impact of the Antarctic Treaty.
Taking into consideration these notes verbales and the presentation made by the [Argentine]
delegation, the Commission decided that, in accordance with the rules of procedure, it was not in a position to consider and qualify the part of the submission that relates to the continental shelf appurtenant to Antarctica. The Commission decided that it will instruct the Subcommission, once established, to act accordingly.\[41\]
In summary, the formal decision in August 2009 on the Argentine submission with respect to Antarctica was exactly the same as it had been in April 2005 on the Australian submission and would be in April 2010 on the Norwegian submission (see above). The Commission’s previous decision, the text of the Argentine Note, the protest notes and the statement by Mr Grossi are of equal importance to the Executive Summary in interpreting the Argentine submission and the nature of the subsequent decision by the Commission. In other words, the Commission again had no real choice and it decided to ignore those parts of the Argentine submission related to Antarctica.
**The Work of the CLCS on Argentina’s Submission**
Argentina’s submission finally came to the head of the queue during the Thirtieth Session of the Commission and, on 2 August 2012, a sub-commission was appointed. In view of the time that had passed since the first presentation and the change in the membership of the CLCS, Argentina was allowed, on 8 August, to make a second presentation. This time the delegation was led by Mateo Estrémé, temporary head of the Argentina’s Permanent Mission to the UN. He reiterated the arguments about the islands controlled by Britain and tabled a brief Note objecting to the British arguments made in 2009. Mr Estrémé finally made an explicit, direct, Argentine request to the CLCS not to take any action on Antarctica. The Commission reiterated its instructions to the sub-commission not to consider the disputed areas nor Antarctica.\[42\]
The sub-commission worked on the submission from August 2012 to August 2015, during nine sessions of the CLCS. In this time it had a total of 38 meetings with the Argentine delegation, in order to gain additional data and verbal information. During the Commission’s Thirty-Eighth Session, on 15 August 2015, the sub-commission presented its conclusions to the delegation and a week later formally approved its Recommendations by a majority vote. They were then approved by the full Commission on 11 March 2016 and sent to the Argentine government on 28 March.\[43\]
**The Commission’s Final Recommendation on the Argentine Submission**
The Argentine Foreign Ministry issued a press statement on 27 March and held a press conference on 28 March claiming the full Argentine submission to the Commission had been approved. The Foreign Minister, Susana Malcorra, was overseas, but she made a presentation via a video link and said
This is a historic occasion for Argentina. We have taken a major step towards demarcating the outer limit of our continental shelf—Argentina's longest border and our boundary out into humankind.
The Deputy Foreign Minister, Carlos Foradori, chaired the presentation and said
In short, this is a sovereignty powerhouse, which is silently but constantly generating. I would like to highlight that this has been an intentionally designed policy – not an accident. It has been implemented even during the worst days in our economic history. . . .
This is a highly significant achievement, the conclusion of a historic project, and the result of team work. All Argentines should be proud. This is a reflection of Argentina’s unity.
There is some ambiguity on what areas of continental shelf might correspond to the wording of these triumphant statements. There is no ambiguity when we examine the COPLA statement on its website’s home page.
The outer limit of the continental shelf of the entire Argentine territory – continent, the South Atlantic islands and the Argentine Antarctic Sector – is made up of 6,336 points of WGS84 geographic coordinates.
Finally, the story in the Buenos Aires Herald, “Gov’t presents new map after UN approved expansion of maritime space limits”, makes it absolutely clear that COPLA and the Argentine Foreign Ministry were presenting a mistaken account of the Commission’s recommendation. The Herald included the following map beside its story, without any hint that the shelf around the islands and in Antarctica had not been endorsed.[144]
Source: Buenos Aires Herald, 28 March 2016
Gov’t presents new map after UN approved expansion ....
Given the incorrect presentation at the Foreign Ministry press conference, is not surprising that the media in Argentina, followed by the media in Britain, produced headlines claiming the United Nations had endorsed Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
- **Commission's ruling on Falkland Islands dismissed by UK**
UN commission says Argentinian maritime territory should be expanded to include disputed territory and beyond
*The Guardian* website, 29 March 2016 12.38 BST
• **FALKLANDS ROW:**
Now United Nations bureaucrats rule islands ‘lie in Argentine waters’
*Daily Express* website, 29 March 2016, 14:51
• **Falklands Islands:**
Argentina celebrates UN decision to expand its maritime territory to include disputed 'Malvinas'
*Daily Telegraph* website 29 March 2016, 9:39am
• **UN decision approves Argentina’s claims to Falklands’ territory**
*The Times* website 29 March 2016, 8:16am
The only newspaper that seems to have properly checked the story and written a correct interpretation is *Penguin News*, the weekly A4-sized local paper, produced in the Falklands. Their headline, on 1 April 2016, was
• **Continental shelf extension reports from Argentina wholly misleading**
Penguin News had an accurate news story, because they had used the UN Press Release covering the Commission’s report on its work. [45]
**What the Commission Actually Recommended**
The final stage of the work of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is to make public a *Summary of the Recommendations* on its website and this was done on 23 May 2016. The Summary starts with an Introduction, giving the history of the decision-making process in the Commission; reports what documents the Argentines submitted; and then outlines the work of the sub-commission. The title for the next section detailing its conclusions is
IV. Recommendations of the Commission with Respect to the Rio de la Plata Craton Passive Volcanic Continental Margin and the Tierra del Fuego Margin Regions
Leaving aside the geological description, we can see Section IV is dealing solely with the continental shelf protruding from the northern part of the Argentine mainland and from the southern coast of Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island. Section II describes how the Commission, (as explained above in this paper), instructed the sub-commission not to consider any other part of the submission. *There are no recommendations on the shelf around the islands nor on Antarctica*. At the end of the Summary, Table 3 reports all the co-ordinates from Río de la Plata up to RA-481 and Table 4 reports all the co-ordinates, from RA-3458 to RA-3840, for the Tierra del Fuego margin region. Figure 3, shown below, provides two maps showing these boundaries. These two maps endorsed by the Commission differ very substantially from the previous map publicised by the Argentine Foreign Ministry.[46]
Figure 3: The northern region of the Argentine Atlantic margin sector, referred to in the Submission as the Río de la Plata Craton passive volcanic continental margin region, left, (highlighted in red) and the westernmost sector of the combined continental margin to the south, covering the Tierra del Fuego margin region, right, (highlighted in red) (From presentation of Argentina PRESENTACION ORAL 08-08-12 ULTIMO 8 PM; slides 4 and 5, red highlights added by the Subcommission, subset extracted by the Subcommission).
Source: CLCS, *Summary of the Recommendations*, 23 May 2016.
The extent to which the Foreign Ministry mis-reported what had happened can be seen by comparing the map published on 28 March and the maps published in the Commission’s *Summary of the Recommendation*. However, it is not easy to make a direct comparison, so I have created a new map, which is shown below. I started with the COPLA map, which shows the same boundaries as the one issued by the Foreign Ministry. I then added in red the boundaries endorsed by the Commission, along with explanatory text. [47]
Conclusion
When the Commission decided in August 2009 to refer the Argentine submission to a sub-commission, the Argentine Foreign Ministry knew no part of the continental shelf around the islands under British control would be considered by the sub-commission. Equally, it knew at the same time that the sub-commission had been instructed not to consider the Argentine claim to an Antarctic continental shelf. The Argentine government had been forced to accept that, under the terms of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Antarctic Treaty and the mandate of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, its submission would not and could not be approved in full. Indeed, the legal situation was so unambiguous that the Argentine delegation did not even ask for the full submission to be considered.
Two senior diplomats and the head of COPLA (an agency of the Foreign Ministry) were present at the Commission in August 2009, when the decisions were taken to instruct the sub-commission to give no consideration to the parts of the submission related to disputed territories and to Antarctica. Another senior diplomat was present in August 2012, when these decisions were confirmed. Several others at the UN and in Buenos Aires would have dealt with the delineation of the continental shelf during the long process of working on the submission. The question arises, why did senior professional staff in the
Argentine Foreign Ministry allow ultra-nationalist illusions to continue for over six and a half years. An even more important question for the Argentine political system is to ask why the Foreign Minister, Susana Malcorra, and her Deputy, Carlos Foradori, were so misled by the diplomats.
The South Atlantic Council was formed to promote communication between Argentines, British people and Falkland Islanders, in order to seek co-operation and understanding that might eventually lead to a peaceful settlement, to the Falklands/Malvinas dispute, acceptable to all three parties. Neither Britain nor Argentina can separately gain any internationally recognised rights to exploit the resources of the continental shelf, in the south-west Atlantic, so long as the dispute continues. On the other hand, the Commission could endorse a joint submission, if the governments of Argentina and the UK were willing to agree pragmatic arrangements to share the resources. This story demonstrates how pointless it is to continue with ritualised conflict, based on a nineteenth century idea of sovereignty.
For further reading on sovereignty, see SAC Occasional Paper No. 11, Distributed Sovereignty and the Falklands Islands (Malvinas) Dispute.
Appendix I
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
Article 76 Definition of the continental shelf
1. The continental shelf of a coastal State comprises the sea-bed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance.
2. The continental shelf of a coastal State shall not extend beyond the limits provided for in paragraphs 4 to 6.
3. The continental margin comprises the submerged prolongation of the land mass of the coastal State, and consists of the sea-bed and subsoil of the shelf, the slope and the rise. It does not include the deep ocean floor with its oceanic ridges or the subsoil thereof.
4. (a) For the purposes of this Convention, the coastal State shall establish the outer edge of the continental margin wherever the margin extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, by either:
(i) a line delineated in accordance with paragraph 7 by reference to the outermost fixed points at each of which the thickness of sedimentary rocks is at least 1 per cent of the shortest distance from such point to the foot of the continental slope; or
(ii) a line delineated in accordance with paragraph 7 by reference to fixed points not more than 60 nautical miles from the foot of the continental slope.
(b) In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the foot of the continental slope shall be
determined as the point of maximum change in the gradient at its base.
5. The fixed points comprising the line of the outer limits of the continental shelf on the sea-bed, drawn in accordance with paragraph 4 (a)(i) and (ii), either shall not exceed 350 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured or shall not exceed 100 nautical miles from the 2,500 metre isobath, which is a line connecting the depth of 2,500 metres.
6. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 5, on submarine ridges, the outer limit of the continental shelf shall not exceed 350 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. This paragraph does not apply to submarine elevations that are natural components of the continental margin, such as its plateaux, rises, caps, banks and spurs.
7. The coastal State shall delineate the outer limits of its continental shelf, where that shelf extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, by straight lines not exceeding 60 nautical miles in length, connecting fixed points, defined by coordinates of latitude and longitude.
8. Information on the limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured shall be submitted by the coastal State to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf set up under Annex II on the basis of equitable geographical representation. The Commission shall make recommendations to coastal States on matters related to the establishment of the outer limits of their continental shelf. The limits of the shelf established by a coastal State on the basis of these recommendations shall be final and binding.
9. The coastal State shall deposit with the Secretary-General of the United Nations charts and relevant information, including geodetic data, permanently describing the outer limits of its continental shelf. The Secretary-General shall give due publicity thereto.
10. The provisions of this article are without prejudice to the question of delimitation of the continental shelf between States with opposite or adjacent coasts.
Appendix II
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
Annex II. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
Article 1
In accordance with the provisions of Article 76, a Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 nautical miles shall be established in conformity with the following articles.
Article 2
1. The Commission shall consist of 21 members who shall be experts in the field of geology, geophysics or hydrography, elected by States Parties to this Convention from among their nationals, having due regard to the need to ensure equitable geographical representation, who shall serve in their personal capacities.
2. The initial election shall be held as soon as possible but in any case within 18 months after the date of entry into force of this Convention. At least three months before the date of each election, the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall address a letter to the States Parties, inviting the submission of nominations, after appropriate regional consultations, within three months. The Secretary-General shall prepare a list in alphabetical order of all persons thus nominated and shall submit it to all the States Parties.
3. Elections of the members of the Commission shall be held at a meeting of States Parties convened by the Secretary-General at United Nations Headquarters. At that meeting, for which two thirds of the States Parties shall constitute a quorum, the persons elected to the Commission shall be those nominees who obtain a two-thirds majority of the votes of the representatives of States Parties present and voting. Not less than three members shall be elected from each geographical region.
4. The members of the Commission shall be elected for a term of five years. They shall be eligible for re-election.
5. The State Party which submitted the nomination of a member of the Commission shall defray the expenses of that member while in performance of Commission duties. The coastal State concerned shall defray the expenses incurred in respect of the advice referred to in article 3, paragraph 1(b), of this Annex. The secretariat of the Commission shall be provided by the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Article 3
1. The functions of the Commission shall be:
(a) to consider the data and other material submitted by coastal States concerning the outer limits of the continental shelf in areas where those limits extend beyond 200 nautical miles, and to make recommendations in accordance with article 76 and the Statement of Understanding adopted on 29 August 1980 by the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea;
(b) to provide scientific and technical advice, if requested by the coastal State concerned during the preparation of the data referred to in subparagraph (a).
2. The Commission may cooperate, to the extent considered necessary and useful, with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, the International Hydrographic Organization and other competent international organizations with a view to exchanging scientific and technical information which might be of assistance in discharging the Commission's responsibilities.
Article 4
Where a coastal State intends to establish, in accordance with article 76, the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, it shall submit particulars of such limits to the Commission along with supporting scientific and technical data as soon as possible but in any case within 10 years of the entry into force of this Convention for that State. The coastal State shall at the same time give the names of any Commission members who have provided it with scientific and technical advice.
Article 5
Unless the Commission decides otherwise, the Commission shall function by way of sub-commissions composed of seven members, appointed in a balanced manner taking into account the specific elements of each submission by a coastal State. Nationals of the coastal State making the submission who are members of the Commission and any Commission member who has assisted a coastal State by providing scientific and technical advice with respect to the delineation shall not be a member of the sub-commission dealing with that submission but has the right to participate as a member in the proceedings of the Commission concerning the said submission. The coastal State which has made a submission to the Commission may send its representatives to participate in the relevant proceedings without the right to vote.
Article 6
1. The sub-commission shall submit its recommendations to the Commission.
2. Approval by the Commission of the recommendations of the sub-commission shall be by a majority of two thirds of Commission members present and voting.
3. The recommendations of the Commission shall be submitted in writing to the coastal State which made the submission and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Article 7
Coastal States shall establish the outer limits of the continental shelf in conformity with the provisions of article 76, paragraph 8, and in accordance with the appropriate national procedures.
Article 8
In the case of disagreement by the coastal State with the recommendations of the Commission, the coastal State shall, within a reasonable time, make a revised or new submission to the Commission.
Article 9
The actions of the Commission shall not prejudice matters relating to delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts.
Rules of Procedure of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
Annex I. Submissions in case of a dispute between States with opposite or adjacent coasts or in other cases of unresolved land or maritime disputes.
1. The Commission recognizes that the competence with respect to matters regarding disputes which may arise in connection with the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf rests with States.
2. In case there is a dispute in the delimitation of the continental shelf between opposite or adjacent States, or in other cases of unresolved land or maritime disputes, related to the submission, the Commission shall be:
(a) Informed of such disputes by the coastal States making the submission; and
(b) Assured by the coastal States making the submission to the extent possible that the submission will not prejudice matters relating to the delimitation of boundaries between States.
3. A submission may be made by a coastal State for a portion of its continental shelf in order not to prejudice questions relating to the delimitation of boundaries between States in any other portion or portions of the continental shelf for which a submission may be made later, notwithstanding the provisions regarding the ten-year period established by article 4 of Annex II to the Convention.
4. Joint or separate submissions to the Commission requesting the Commission to make recommendations with respect to delineation may be made by two or more coastal States by agreement:
(a) Without regard to the delimitation of boundaries between those States; or
(b) With an indication, by means of geodetic coordinates, of the extent to which a submission is without prejudice to the matters relating to the delimitation of boundaries with another or other States Parties to this Agreement.
5.(a) In cases where a land or maritime dispute exists, the Commission shall not consider and qualify a submission made by any of the States concerned in the dispute. However, the Commission may consider one or more submissions in the areas under dispute with prior consent given by all States that are parties to such a dispute.
(b) The submissions made before the Commission and the recommendations approved by the Commission thereon shall not prejudice the position of States which are parties to a land or maritime dispute.
6. The Commission may request a State making a submission to cooperate with it in order not
to prejudice matters relating to the delimitation of boundaries between opposite or adjacent States.
*Annex I was adopted by the Commission at its fourth session, held from 31 August to 4 September 1998, and is available with the current version of the Rules in document CLCS/40/Rev.1.*
**Appendix IV**
**List of Documents in both English and Spanish**
This appendix will be provided with the final draft in a few days time.
**References**
1. For definition of the territorial sea, see UNCLOS in [English](#) or in [Spanish](#), articles 2-3; for the contiguous zone, see Article 33; for the EEZ, see Article 57; and for the continental shelf, see Article 76 (Appendix I, above) and articles 77-78.
2. The language in UNCLOS Article 76 is actually very confused, if not contradictory. In para.1, the shelf is defined as “the sea-bed and subsoil … to the outer edge of the continental margin”. In para.3, “The continental margin … consists of the sea-bed and subsoil of the shelf, the slope and the rise.”. Taking these two texts together, the geological shelf in para.3 is just part of the legal shelf in para.1. In para.4, “the outer edge of the continental margin” is defined as the first part of the rise, rather than all the rise, as is implied by para.3.
The diagram provided at this point is from the web site [Science Clarified](#).
3. See above, UNCLOS, Article 76, Appendix I, or the full text in [English](#) or in [Spanish](#). The diagram provided at this point is a very useful and comprehensive, but rather complex, “Continental Shelf Graphic”, in [English](#) and in [Spanish](#) on the website of the Argentine Comisión Nacional del Límite Exterior de la Plataforma Continental (COPLA) (National Commission on the Outer Limit of the Continental Shelf).
There is a more simple, but blurred diagram on the US government’s [Extended Continental Shelf Project](#) web page.
4. *Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf. Argentine Submission. Executive Summary*, [English version](#), pp.12-14, and [Spanish version](#), pp.13-14. Each version of the Executive Summary, but not the full submission, can be downloaded from the CLCS web page on the [Submission by the Argentine Republic](#).
5. The legal boundaries of the continental shelf are defined in UNCLOS Article 76 (4) and
(5). The role of the CLCS is given in Article 76(8) and Annex II. The quote on the composition of the CLCS is from Annex II, Article 2(1), and the regional distribution is specified in Article 2(3). Article 76 is given in Appendix I, above, and Annex II in Appendix II, above. Alternatively, see the full text in English or in Spanish.
6. UNCLOS, Article 76 (8) and (9), in Appendix I above, and Annex II, articles 4-6, in Appendix II above.
7. “Rules of Procedure of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf”, document CLCS/40/Rev.1, published in English and Spanish on 17 April 2008.
8. “Statement by the Chairman of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the Progress of Work in the Commission”, Eleventh Session, New York, 24-28 June 2002, document CLCS/34, long quote from paras. 9-10 and summary of the confidentiality question from paras. 18–28, published in English and Spanish on 1 July 2002.
9. The Scientific and Technical Guidelines of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf are in the English documents CLCS/11, Corr.1, CLCS/11/Add.1 and Add.1/Corr.1 and the Spanish documents CLCS/11, Corr.1, CLCS/11/Add.1. The ten-year deadline is given in UNCLOS Annex Article 4 (see Appendix II, above). “Background Information” on the extension of the deadline is given in Issues with respect to Article 4 of Annex II to the Convention.
10. It is difficult to find the UNCLOS Final Act. There are two links on the UN web page United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982, Overview and full text. One, labelled “Full text of the Convention together with the Final Act of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea” links to a PDF file that contains the Convention, but not the Final Act. Another links to a PDF file, containing images that are not searchable. The most useful, searchable copy is UN document A/CONF.62/121, available in English, but not in Spanish. Even this has a side-index panel and a “List of Documents” button, neither of which operates.
11. Data from UN Treaty Series, “Chronological lists of ratifications of, accessions and successions to the Convention and the related Agreements as at 02 January 2015”, unchanged as at 7 May 2016. The fifteen, non-party, coastal states are Azerbaijan, Colombia, El Salvador, Eritrea, Iran, Israel, Kampuchea, Libya, North Korea, Peru, Syria, Turkey, UAE, USA and Venezuela. The addition of 167 parties and 30 UN members that are non-parties comes to more than the total UN membership of 193, because the Cook Islands, Niue, Palestine and the European Union are parties, but not UN members.
12. It is not disputed that most articles of UNCLOS, including those on the continental shelf,
have become customary international law, because they are respected and implemented by all states. [See, for example, R. R. Churchill and A. V. Lowe, *The Law of the Sea*, (Manchester: Juris Publishing, 3rd ed., 1999), p.145, explicitly stating this.] There is room for debate on some articles that remain contested by “persistent objectors”. [See M. N. Shaw, *International Law*, (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 6th ed., 2008), pp.95-96 and Chapter 11 on “The law of the sea”, which has a somewhat more conservative approach.]
13. See note 11, above.
14. Quote from the Daily Express, Tuesday 29 March 2016, 03:19, updated 14:51, www.express.co.uk/news/uk/656284/Falkland-Islands-United-Nations-Susana-Malcorra-Argentina. There is a virtually identical quote in the Daily Telegraph, 29 March 2016, 5:11pm BST, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/argentina/12206652/Argentina-hails-significant-achievement-as-experts-back-its-claim-to-seas-around-Falkland-Islands.html and by Associated Press in the Washington Post, 29 March 2016, 12:25 pm, www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/uk-authorities-reject-ruling-on-falklands/2016/03/29/d62684fe-f5ca-11e5-958d-d038dac6e718_story.html
15. Article 1 of the Convention on the Continental Shelf, which may be downloaded from Vol.499 of the UN Treaty Series.
16. UNCLOS Article 76(8), in Appendix I, above.
17. UNCLOS Annex II, Article 8, in Appendix II, above.
18. Further information and all the documents, including the Antarctic Treaty, its protocol and the two conventions, are available from the ATS website. There is also a separate CCAMLR website. The seals convention has a minimal organisational structure: see the short briefing paper from the US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Fisheries Service website.
The quote in this paragraph is from the preamble to the treaty. Note that the lists of parties to the four agreements are not the same. Note also that the abbreviation ATS may be used either to mean the Antarctic Treaty System or the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) also have useful websites.
19. The Wikipedia entry .aq gives the basic information on the use of this domain name. The official Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Delegation Record for .AQ contains administrative and technical information. For more information on the domain name system, see Introducing IANA.
20. The ATS website provides a “Key documents” web page, with a link to the Antarctic
21. There is a CLCS web page with links to all the documents relating to the Australian submission on 15 November 2004, including the Executive Summary in English and in Spanish And the Note Verbale on Antarctica, which is available in English, but not in Spanish. Timor-Leste, on 11 February 2005, asserted there was a border dispute and France, on 28 March 2005, said there was a potential overlap with their submissions, but had no objection to the Commission considering Australia’s submission.
22. All six of the protesting countries are Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties and all, except the USA, are parties to UNCLOS.
23. The following were the six responses to Australia on the question of Antarctica: USA, 3 December 2004; Russia, 9 December 2004; Japan in English and in Spanish, 19 January 2005; The Netherlands, 31 March 2005; Germany, 5 April 2005; and India in English and in Spanish, 13 July 2005 (which was too late for the Commission’s session).
For the Commission’s response, see “Statement by the Chairman … on the Progress of Work in the Commission, Fifteenth Session, New York, 4-22 April 2005”, paras.20-27, published on 3 May 2005, as document CLCS/44 in English and in Spanish. The quote is from para.23.
24. See the Norwegian government web page, Norway’s history in the Antarctic. Note that the Norwegian government’s claim is still active. Its Regulations relating to the protection of the environment and safety in Antarctica, issued on 26 April 2013, cover Peter I’s Island.
25. There is a CLCS web page with links to all the documents relating to the Norwegian submission in respect of Bouvetøya and Dronning Maud Land, including the notes submitted by Norway and five other governments. The Executive Summary and the notes are available in English, but not in Spanish. The text of the Australian note is repeated twice: in a section of the Executive Summary with the sub-title Particular circumstances concerning Dronning Maud Land and in a separate Note Verbale.
The Norwegian submission, along with ten other submissions, was delayed due to the pressure of work. See the “Statement by the Chairman of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the Progress of Work in the Commission. Twenty-Fourth Session New York, 10 August-11 September 2009”, document CLCS/64, (footnote to p. 4), published in English and Spanish on 1 October 2009. On 9 April 2010, the CLCS decided to establish a sub-commission in the future, when the submission reached the front of the queue for consideration.
26. Notes from USA, 4 June 2009; Russia, 15 June 2009; India, 31 August 2009; Netherlands, 30 September 2009; and Japan, 19 November 2009, available from “Communications received with regard to the submission made by Norway … ” on the CLCS web page, in English but not in Spanish.
The decision on the Norwegian submission is in “Statement by the Chairperson of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the Progress of Work in the Commission”, Twenty-Fifth Session, New York, 15 March-23 April 2010, document CLCS/66, published in English and Spanish on 30 April 2010.
27. There is a CLCS web page with links to all the documents relating to the New Zealand submission, including the Note Verbale on Antarctica, available in English, but not in Spanish. The whole Note is identical to the one from Australia (cited above).
28. Although Ascension island is very important in providing a refuelling base for British flights to and from the Falklands, it is over 3,000 NM north of the Falklands and some 4,600 NM from the Antarctic circle.
There is a CLCS web page with links to all the documents relating to the British submission on Ascension Island, including the Note Verbale on Antarctica, which is available in English, but not in Spanish. The whole Note is identical to the one from Australia (cited above), mutatis mutandis to allow for the UK making further partial submissions.
29. There is a CLCS web page with links to all the documents relating to the French submission on the French Antilles and the Kerguelen Islands, including the Note Verbale on Antarctica, which is available in English and French, but not in Spanish. The whole Note is identical to the one from Australia (cited above), except that the English version reads as if it had been translated from English into French and then back again, resulting in slight differences in the wording.
30. There is a CLCS web page with links to all the documents relating to the British submission on the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, including the responses to it by the Secretariat and by Argentina. The Executive Summary is available in English, but no copy in Spanish was provided.
31. These two quotations from the UK Executive Summary, p. 3, are following the requirements of the CLCS Rules of Procedure. Annex I, paragraphs 2(a) and 2(b). See Appendix III, above.
32. “Note dated 20 August 2009”, available from the CLCS website for the British submission (cited above), in English and Spanish.
33. “Statement by the Chairperson of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the Progress of Work in the Commission”, Twenty-Fifth Session, New York, 15 March-23 April 2010, document CLCS/66, published in English and Spanish on 30 April 2010. The quote is from para. 60.
34. There is a CLCS web page with links to all the documents relating to the Argentine
submission, including the responses to it by the Secretariat and by a variety of other governments. The Executive Summary is available in English and in Spanish.
35. COPLA has an Argentine government website, both in English and in Spanish.
The National Oceanography Centre currently has a complex organisational status, involving collaboration with several scientific centres. At the time of the British submission, it was jointly owned by the University of Southampton and the Natural Environment Research Council, (an autonomous, government-funded body). See the About Us web page. It still operates within the dot-ac, academic web domain.
36. The proceedings in the CLCS on 26 August 2012 are summarised in the Chairs report (cited above), document CLCS/64 (paras.72-77), which is available in English and in Spanish. The map displayed here is from COPLA, but it is not identical to the one in the Executive Summary. Note that there is a small panel on the map saying the limits shown are the same as in the submission.
37. The Argentine submission cites Article 4 (a) of Annex I of the CLCS Rules of Procedure. See Appendix III, above.
38. There are links to these notes on the CLCS web page on the Argentine submission, which includes the British Note Verbale of 6 August 2009, (only available in English). The Argentine response on 26 August 2009 during its presentation to the CLCS is summarised in document CLCS/64 (cited above), para.74, and the Commission’s decision is in para.76. This document is available in English and in Spanish. The Argentine statement of a further response is in a Note on 8 August 2012 in English and in Spanish; and the British reply of 23 August 2012 is available only in English.
39. “Note from the Permanent Mission of Argentina addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations accompanying the lodgment of Argentina's submission, N.U. 139/2009/600”, dated 21 April 2009, available in English and Spanish.
40. The following were the six responses to Argentina on the question of Antarctica: UK, 6 August 2009; USA, 19 August 2009; Russia, 24 August 2009; India, 31 August 2009; The Netherlands, 30 September 2009; and Japan, 19 November 2009. All these notes are available in English, but not in Spanish.
41. Document CLCS/64 (cited above), available in English and in Spanish on 1 October 2009. The quote from Mr. Grossi is in para.73 and the CLCS decision in para.77.
42. The Argentine Note of 8 August 2012 is available in English and in Spanish; but the UK response on 23 August 2012 is only available in English.
The “Statement by the Chair of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the Progress of Work in the Commission, Thirtieth Session, New York, 30 July to 24 August 2012”, document CLCS/76, available in English and in Spanish, published on 5 September 2012, covers the Argentine presentation and the CLCS decision in paras.53-57.
43. The details of the sub-commission’s work come from the “Introduction” to the Summary of Recommendations of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in Regard to the Submission made by Argentina on 21 April 2009, available from the CLCS webpage for the Argentine submission and from “Statement by the Chair of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the Progress of Work in the Commission, Fortieth Session, New York, 1 February-18 March 2016”, document CLCS/93, available in English and in Spanish, published on 18 April 2016.
44. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Argentine Republic, Monday 28 March 2016 Press Release: 083/16.
The COPLA home page, headed “Argentina’s most extensive limit - Our frontier with mankind” is at www.plataformaargentina.gov.ar/en and their “Continental Shelf Map” is at www.plataformaargentina.gov.ar/en/mapaPlataforma_i
For the Buenos Herald story click here and to download the map click here.
45. United Nations. Press Release, SEA/203, 28 March 2016. This Press Release is not available in Spanish.
46. Summary of Recommendations, cited above.
For further reading on sovereignty, see SAC Occasional Paper No. 11, Distributed Sovereignty and the Falklands Islands (Malvinas) Dispute.
The views expressed in South Atlantic Council Occasional Papers are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by all members of the Council.
© South Atlantic Council, and Peter Willetts, May 2016.
Previous Occasional Papers are available at www.staff.city.ac.uk/p.willetts/SAC/OCPAPERS.HTM. (The capital letters in this URL must be used).
Any text on this website may be freely used provided that (a) it is for non-commercial purposes, (b) quotations are accurate and (c) the South Atlantic Council and the website address - www.staff.city.ac.uk/p.willetts/SAC - are cited.
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1. What’s in the text?
Markiere die Gegenstände, die im Text vorkommen.
☐ a. [Image of a book with a horse on it]
☐ b. [Image of a bowl of noodles]
☐ c. [Image of a tennis racket]
☐ d. [Image of a fish]
☐ e. [Image of a chocolate bar]
2. Questions, questions, questions!
Kreuze die richtige Antwort an. Es ist immer nur eine Antwort richtig.
a. What is Lisa’s favourite colour?
1. Lisa’s favourite colour is pink. [ ]
2. Lisa’s favourite colour is red. [ ]
3. Lisa’s favourite colour is orange. [ ]
b. What is Lisa’s favourite subject?
1. Lisa’s favourite subject is PE. [ ]
2. Lisa’s favourite subject is music. [ ]
3. Lisa’s favourite subject is English. [ ]
c. What is the name of the pony that Lisa rides?
1. The pony’s name is Donald. [ ]
2. The pony’s name is Charly. [ ]
3. The pony’s name is Stella. [ ]
d. Where does the hamster sleep?
1. The hamster sleeps in its cage. [ ]
2. The hamster sleeps in the garden. [ ]
3. The hamster sleeps in Lisa’s bed. [ ]
3. A grid about the Webbers.
Vervollständige die Tabelle. Die Beispiele helfen dir.
| | name | age |
|-------|------|-----|
| a. daughter | Lisa | 11 |
| b. son | Charly | |
| c. mum | | |
| d. dad | | |
Erzähler: It’s the first day after the holidays and there’s a new girl at school: Kim. She’s from Birmingham.
Kim: Hi, I’m Kim. I’m new here. Where’s my classroom?
Lisa: Hi, welcome to our school. Our classroom is there. Come with me.
Kim: Thanks for your help. What’s your name?
Lisa: No problem. My name is Lisa.
Kim: Lisa … that’s a nice name. How old are you?
Lisa: I’m eleven years old. What about you?
Kim: I’m eleven years old too. Where do you live?
Lisa: We live in a pretty house in Birdhurst Road and we have a big garden.
Kim: Have you got a nice family, Lisa?
Lisa: Well … I’ve got a brother: Charly. Charly is eight years old and he’s a little silly! My parents are nice. Their names are Michelle and Bill. We’ve got a hamster and its name is Donald. Donald is a crazy hamster and he lives in the kitchen.
Kim: Oh wow! I love hamsters.
Lisa: What about you? Where are you from?
Kim: I’m from Birmingham and I live in Park Road. I live in a flat with my mum and my parrot Katy. Parrots are OK but I love horses.
Lisa: Oh really? I love horses too. My hobby is horse riding. You’re a nice girl. Sit with me, Kim.
Kim: That’s a good idea.
Lisa: Oh, it’s 8 o’clock. Take out your English book. The lesson begins.
Kim: What’s the name of our English teacher?
Lisa: That’s Mr. Marty.
Kim: Is he OK?
Lisa: Yes, he’s nice. He’s our music teacher, too.
Kim: That’s super. I like music very much.
1. Is it in the text?
a. What is in the text? Tick ✓ the correct boxes.
b. What are they saying? Finish the sentences below the pictures. Attention: You only have to do the pictures that are in the story.
a. Hi! I’m Kim. I’m ________________.
b. These sandwiches are ________________.
c. This is our crazy ________________.
d. You’re a nice girl. Sit ________________.
e. I live in a flat with ________________.
f. What’s your pony’s ________________?
2. Right or wrong?
Read the sentences. Right or wrong? Listen to the text and tick ✓ the correct box.
| | Right | Wrong |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|-------|-------|
| 1. It’s Kim’s first day at the new school. | | |
| 2. Lisa and Kim meet in the classroom. | | |
| 3. Kim is twelve years old. | | |
| 4. Lisa’s brother is a little silly. | | |
| 5. The names of Lisa’s parents are Michelle and Bill. | | |
| 6. Lisa has got a hamster. Its name is Katy. | | |
| 7. Kim is from Birmingham. | | |
| 8. In the classroom Kim sits with Ben. | | |
| 9. The lesson starts at 8 o’clock. | | |
| 10. The first lesson is maths. | | |
| 11. Mr. Marty is the music and the English teacher. | | |
3. Who is it?
Tick ✓ the correct box.
| | Lisa | Kim |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|------|-----|
| 1. I live in Birdhurst Road. | | |
| 2. I love horses. | | |
| 3. My parrot’s name is Katy. | | |
1. What do they do?
a. What do the Webbers often or sometimes do at the weekend? Tick ✓ the correct pictures.
b. When do they do it? Write the day and the time (for example: Saturday evening) below the picture.
2. Right or wrong?
Tick ✓ the correct box.
| | Right | Wrong |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|-------|-------|
| a. Bill is tired when he is coming home. | | |
| b. The chocolate cake is for Charly. | | |
| c. The cheese is for the lasagne. | | |
| d. Bill wants to eat the cat’s snacks. | | |
| e. Bill eats a banana. | | |
| f. On Saturday morning the Webbers often go shopping. | | |
| g. On Sunday morning Lisa is invited to a Halloween party. | | |
| h. Bill doesn’t remember what he and Michelle usually do on Sunday evening. | | |
3. Sentences about the Webbers
Complete the sentences.
a. When Bill comes home, he is ________________________________________.
b. On Saturday afternoon the Webbers often _____________________________.
c. Once a month, Charly ___________________________________________.
d. On Sunday evening Michelle and Bill always __________________________.
1. What’s at the party?
a. Tick ✓ the things that Lisa wants to have at her party.
b. Write down the names of the things/activities that Lisa wants to have at her party.
2. Right or wrong?
Tick ✓ the correct box.
| Statement | Right | Wrong |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------|-------|
| a. It’s Lisa’s birthday next Saturday. | | |
| b. At Lisa’s party everything has to be pink. | | |
| c. Charly really likes pink. | | |
| d. Lisa wants a barbecue at her party. | | |
| e. Lisa doesn’t want to have any decoration. | | |
| f. Boys and men can wear other colours at the party. | | |
| g. Lisa would love to have a dog for her birthday. | | |
| h. The Webbers have already got one pet. | | |
| i. Lisa thinks that Lindsay is boring. | | |
| j. Lisa would like to have clothes in her favourite colour for her birthday.| | |
| k. Charly wants to call Lisa Mister Piggy. | | |
3. Who likes it?
Who in the family likes what? Tick ✓ the correct box.
| | milkshakes | pink | pizza | football |
|----------------|------------|------|-------|----------|
| Lisa | | | | |
| Charly | | | | |
| Michelle | | | | |
| Bill | | | | |
1. What’s in the story?
Kreuze die Dinge an, die in den Texten vorkommen.
a.
b.
c.
d.
2. Questions, questions, questions!
Markiere die richtige Antwort. Es ist immer nur eine Antwort richtig.
a. What kind of books does Lisa have on her shelf?
1. She has got books about hamsters.
2. She has got books about football and horses.
3. She has got books about horses.
b. Where is Charly’s room?
1. It’s next to the hall.
2. It’s next to Lisa’s room.
3. It’s in the basement.
c. What does Michelle look at when she sits in the living room?
1. She looks at the beautiful garden.
2. She looks at the pictures on the wall.
3. She looks at the birds and the cats.
d. Who loves Bill’s food?
1. Donald loves Bill’s food.
2. His family loves his food.
3. Nobody loves his food.
3. A grid about the Webbers’ rooms
Vervollständige die Tabelle. Die Beispiele helfen dir.
| favourite room of ... | white and red walls | pink walls | yellow walls | orange walls |
|-----------------------|---------------------|------------|--------------|-------------|
| Lisa | | | | |
| Bill | | | | |
What kind of room is it?
1. What’s first and what’s last?
Put the pictures in the correct order by writing the numbers from 1 to 5 in the boxes.
a. 
b. 
c. 
d. 
e. 
2. Questions, questions, questions!
Read the questions and complete the answers.
a. What day is Lisa’s birthday on? – Lisa’s birthday is on ________________________.
b. What is Lisa’s family doing, when she comes into the kitchen? – They are _______________.
c. What is Charly’s favourite breakfast? – His favourite breakfast are ____________________.
d. What is Lisa’s second present? – Her second present is ___________________________.
e. Why is Lisa so happy at the end of the story? – She’s happy because _________________.
3. What’s in the story?
Tick ✓ the things that are in the story.
a. 
b. 
c. 
d. 
4. Sentences about Lisa’s presents
Match the two parts of the sentences by drawing lines.
a. To get the fourth present ____________________________
1. one more present: a cat.
b. The third present is ________________________________
2. happy about the three little presents.
c. Lisa is not _______________________________________
3. Lisa’s dad goes into the garage.
d. At the end Lisa’s dad brings in _______________________
4. the presents.
1. What’s in the classroom?
a. Tick ✓ the things that the girls find in the classroom.
a. a red folder □ f. a red scarf □
b. a pencil case □ g. yellow gloves □
c. a rubber □ h. chewing gum □
d. a violet folder □ i. a yellow folder □
e. an old sandwich □ j. a pencil sharpener □
b. Tick ✓ the names of the girls who help Lisa.
a. Kim □ b. Rachel □
c. Leanne □ d. Claire □
2. Questions, questions, questions!
Read the questions and complete the answers. Answer in full sentences.
a. What is Lisa looking for at 10’clock?
b. What colour is the English folder?
c. Who is a bully in the beginning of the story?
d. What does Lisa find on the shelf?
e. What grade is Charly in?
f. Why does Charly come to Lisa’s classroom?
3. Sentences to complete
Finish the sentences.
a. Lisa needs her folder because ____________________________________________.
b. It’s a lucky day for Lisa because __________________________________________.
c. Mr. Marty doesn’t like it when ____________________________________________.
d. Rachel gets her folder back when she ________________________________________.
e. It’s a lucky day for Leanne too because ______________________________________.
f. Mr. Marty is not only Lisa’s English teacher, he’s also ____________________________.
1. A mind map about yourself
Complete the mind map about yourself. Look at Lisa’s mind map first.
- **my name:** Lisa
- **age:** 11 years old
- **hometown:** London
- **friend/s:** Kim
- **family**
- mother: Michelle, 34
- father: Bill, 38
- brother/sister: Charly, 8
- **pet/s:** hamster Donald, 3
- **favourite animal:** horse
- **favourite colour:** pink
- **hobby:** horse riding
- **favourite subject:** English
- **school:** Bishop Gilpin High School
- **teacher:** Mr. Marty
---
2. A text about yourself
Write a text about yourself in your exercise book. Use the information from your mind map for your text. Write eight sentences or more.
Start like this:
My name is … I’m from … I’m … years old.
My favourite … is … My hobby is … My friend’s name is …
1. Your dream room
Zeichne den Grundriss und die Möbelstücke / Gegenstände deines Traumzimmers. Beschriffe die Gegenstände in deiner Zeichnung wie im Beispiel. Du kannst die Vokabeln aus dem Kasten verwenden.
a wardrobe
a bed
a big TV
a football table
a swimming pool
white and red walls
a sofa
a fridge = Kühlschrank
a poster = ein Poster
a desk = ein Schreibtisch
a laptop = ein Laptop
a bookshelf = ein Bücherregal
an armchair = ein Sessel
a hamster/rabbit cage = ein Käfig für Hamster/Kaninchen
a mirror = ein Spiegel
a microwave = eine Mikrowelle
a fish tank = ein Aquarium
blue / green / red walls = blaue / grüne / rote Wände
2. An e-mail about your dream room
Schreibe deiner Freundin / deinem Freund eine E-Mail zu deinem Traumzimmer. Schreibe mindestens fünf Sätze. Du kannst die Wörter aus dem Kasten verwenden.
In the middle of my dream room there is / are ...
On the right / left there is / are ...
Next to ... there is / are ...
In the corner there is / are ...
My walls are ...
The favourite thing in my dream room is ...
Hi ..., I want to tell you all about my dream room. In the middle ...
1. What is Bill doing?
Schau dir die sechs Bilder von Bills Wochenende an.
Wähle aus dem Kasten die passenden Tätigkeiten aus und trage sie unter den Bildern ein.
- work in the garden
- eat spaghetti
- sleep on the sofa
- clean the bathroom
- cook dinner
- play on the PC
- listen to music
- go fishing
- dance with Michelle
- watch TV with Lisa
- play tennis
- sit in the garden
Friday 6 p.m.
Saturday 4 a.m.
Sunday 10 a.m.
cook dinner
Saturday 9 p.m.
Sunday 11 a.m.
Sunday 8 p.m.
__________________________________________________________
2. Sentences about Bill’s weekend
Schreibe nun fünf Sätze über Bills Wochenende.
Benutze die Informationen aus 1 und die Textbausteine aus dem Kasten.
| On | Sunday | Friday | Saturday |
|----------|--------|--------|----------|
| at | 11 a.m.| 9 p.m. | 4 a.m. |
| | 6 p.m. | 8 p.m. | 10 a.m. |
Bill
Example: On Friday at 6 p.m. Bill is cooking dinner.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
1. Lisa’s birthday party
Lisa is planning her birthday party. Look at her notes.
| What? | 11th birthday |
|----------------|---------------|
| Who is invited?| Kim, Leanne, Rachel, Claire |
| When? | Thursday, 2nd May, 3 p.m. |
| Where? | at my house: 10, Birdhurst Road |
| Food & drink | raspberry cake, blueberry muffins, strawberry milkshake |
| Activities | go to the cinema and watch a princess movie |
| Theme | Princess Party |
| Anything else | dress up as a princess |
1 theme = Motto, 2 to dress up = sich verkleiden
2. The invitation
Use Lisa’s notes and finish the invitation for one guest.
Dear ________________________,
please come to my birthday party. It’s on …
I hope you can come.
Love, Lisa _______________________
3. Your dream party
What would your dream birthday party be like? Fill in the grid.
| What? | |
|----------------|---------------|
| Who is invited?| |
| When? | |
| Where? | |
| Food & drink | |
| Activities | |
| Theme | |
| Anything else? | |
1. Write down the English questions.
2. Ask your partner and tell him/her to answer in full sentences. Then write down his/her answers.
| Questions | Answers |
|------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------|
| Frage deinen Partner/deine Partnerin, ... | |
| Example: | My dad is at work. |
| … wo sein/ihr Vater ist. | |
| Where is your dad? | |
| 1. … wie es ihm/ihr geht. | |
| 2. … wie er/sie heißt. | |
| 3. … wo er/sie wohnt. | |
| 4. … wie alt er/sie ist. | |
| 5. … was sein/ihr Hobby ist. | |
| 6. … was seine/ihre Lieblingsfarbe ist. | |
| 7. … was sein/ihr Leibgericht ist. | |
| 8. … was sein/ihr Lieblingstier ist. | |
| 9. … wie er/sie zur Schule kommt. | |
3. Swap roles: Now you answer your partner’s questions in full sentences.
Extra¹: Do the interviews again – this time you record it with a smartphone. Then watch the videos of your interviews – Are you happy with it? What can you do better? Try again and correct your mistakes.
¹Diese Aufgabe solltet ihr nur nach Absprache mit eurem Lehrer/eurer Lehrerin machen. | b8d34fb0-95a4-4a4b-819d-5a6d1e6f2d8d | CC-MAIN-2024-42 | https://www.netzwerk-lernen.de/downloads/vorschau/NWL/2020/2/NWL196322020_vorschau.pdf | 2024-10-14T14:26:07+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-42/segments/1727944255435.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20241014132752-20241014162752-00740.warc.gz | 789,914,064 | 4,375 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.936168 | eng_Latn | 0.996786 | [
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Nigeria recently surpassed India to become the country with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty: 87 million. Nigeria is oil rich and boasts Africa’s fastest growing economy. Yet six of its people fall into extreme poverty every minute.
This story isn’t unique to Nigeria. It’s echoed in other resource-rich countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola where an exploitative elite and multinational companies keep wealth from reaching the majority of citizens. By 2030, it’s estimated that 82% of the world’s poorest people will live in Africa.
This is the continent’s paradox: vast natural resources and mineral reserves alongside extreme poverty.
Historically, poverty has been predominantly dealt with as a lack of material resources or an income deprivation issue. Development work has focused on pushing resources to poor communities. Many have criticised the availability of “free money” though international aid, which they say has created a...
“dependency syndrome”, dishonest procurement and white elephant projects. Aid work has also been accused of fostering paternalism rather than partnership.
The reality is that poverty is about more than just money. If money alone were the solution, poverty would have ended: more than $50 billion was given as overseas development assistance to Africa in 2017 alone.
Without contextual knowledge, education and adaptation, foreign or imposed practices or resources cause new sets of problems. This is seen again and again across countries that depend on aid. For example, where food poverty was causing under-nutrition in parts of Malawi, financial aid has alleviated it. But that problem is quickly being replaced by diabetes and hypertension – because of a narrow financial solution to a complex problem.
We argue that tackling poverty requires a different focus, rather than just money. It requires partnerships and practices that promote learning, particularly in relation to cultural and self knowledge. Having communities identify their own problems, then collaborate to find solutions, is also crucial. Money has a role to play in partnerships, but projects shouldn’t default to depending solely on it.
**Driven communities**
Many of the factors that are blamed for contributing to poverty are not measurable in dollar terms or connected to income. These include people’s lack of choices, restriction of freedom, lack of skills, gender castes and barriers.
Understanding these issues and their complexities requires looking at poverty through a sustainability lens. This is a perspective that focuses on ethical and innovative ways to look at and use resources, share knowledge, and build community to affect positive change.
Our work with the Sustainable Futures in Africa Network has shown the importance of this lens. We’re an interdisciplinary collective of researchers, educators, and communities of practice that aims to build understanding, research, and practice in socio-ecological sustainability (which recognises the interconnection between social and ecological systems) in Africa.
We work from the understanding that because poverty is multifaceted, solutions to alleviate it must be multifaceted, too.
A number of the community projects we work with are engaged in poverty reduction practices but don’t focus solely on generating income. These projects are driven by communities on their own with existing resources; they rely on their own abilities and efforts that are not externally funded.
One example is ECOaction, which works in a slum community on the outskirts of Kampala in Uganda. Residents largely rely on collecting and selling discarded plastic bottles collected from across the city for small amounts of money.
With no resource other than time and vision, residents have built a community hall from recycled water bottles and an urban garden that grows food for residents and a chicken farm. Colourful murals and sculpture can be found around every corner.
In Botswana, the Sustainable Futures in Africa team is working with a community in Mmadinare to develop a project that will protect their farm land from wild elephants. This will not rely on, or generate, external funding. But it will protect the farmers’ and the wild animals’ interests.
There are other ways to build strong sustainable communities without external financial resources. In Taba Padang, a village in Indonesia, sustainable community forestry is helping improve human wellbeing. There’s also Boomu African Village in Uganda, where a women’s group participates in eco-tourism and invests back into the community. They have built a nursery school and trained other residents in their village to get involved in eco-tourism.
Other self-reliance projects centre on health. For example in Lesotho, volunteers participate in community home-based health care and fill the gap in the community health care chain.
**A new lens**
There is, of course, no one-size-fits-all solution that will end poverty. But aid in the form of donated money, from one place to another, is culturally, practically, and ethically problematic.
Money is not the currency of well-being, sustainability and community cohesion. More often, it’s a tool for influence and power dynamics that will favour the creditor. That’s why partnerships that rely on different types of resources and bring people together to design and act on context-relevant solutions can be such powerful drivers of change. That’s why for resource rich Africa, promoting self reliance would be key to eliminating poverty.
*This article was co-authored by Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil, who recently completed a residency at the University of Glasgow funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK. She is the co-founder of Abundance (www.abundanceworldwide.org).* | bb30a67e-a1be-476c-8550-02fd67f25fa5 | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/168562/1/168562.pdf | 2022-05-16T22:32:37+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662512249.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20220516204516-20220516234516-00094.warc.gz | 20,325,470 | 1,087 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.998555 | eng_Latn | 0.998726 | [
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One Trust, One Family
A great education has the power to transform lives
Message from our Chair of Trustees...
St Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scene in 1223. He staged a live nativity in a cave in Greccio, Italy, using local villagers and animals to bring the story of Jesus’ birth to life. His intent was to make the mystery of the Incarnation accessible, especially the poor and humble.
As we celebrate through Advent, the time of preparation and anticipation, we are invited to reflect on the deeper meaning of waiting. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan, reminds us that waiting is an essential spiritual practice: “We wait not because we are powerless but because in waiting, we are made ready.” It is through this readiness that we can embrace and embody the values of the Incarnation in our everyday lives. Our Trust is committed to ensuring that all our pupils, regardless of their background, have equal access to opportunities that reflect these incarnate values. This means striving to provide experiences that nurture not just academic growth but also personal development and social engagement. Our Trust highlights many ways that this vision is coming to life: from the transformative trips to Costa Rica for the students at St Benet Biscop, to the creation of a new library at St Aidan’s, which will serve as a hub of learning and imagination for years to come.
These initiatives are not merely material achievements; they represent the heart of our mission. They are a reflection of our Trust’s purpose in our communities. The work of the Trust is a testament to this belief, where every child can flourish and where the Incarnation is made real through our collective efforts. On behalf of the Board, may I wish you a joyous and peaceful Christmas and New Year.
David Harrison
Greater than the sum of our parts – SEN across Bishop Bewick
Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants (MITA)
Working together, we are ensuring that the best practice is shared and that we can offer support when it is needed.
This year we are looking carefully at the work of Teaching Assistants (TAs) and Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) who make a huge contribution to what schools can provide. These staff members are approximately 400 across the Trust, working alongside teachers to support the learning of children and young people, and also their wellbeing.
We know from evidence, collected over many years nationally, that how well children with identified SEND learn and develop is influenced by how well they are supported. This depends on many factors and not just about the number of hours that they are supported. Indeed, there is evidence that the ‘velcro effect’, where teaching assistants work solely with one student for most of their time in school, actually has a negative effect on their progress.
In July, we had a great day where TAs and LSAs from across school in the Trust came together in one place to start thinking about the areas to develop. This term, our headteachers and SENCos are attending sessions where they are thinking about what currently works well in their schools and steps that they may want to take to make sure that children and young people are supported in the best possible ways, and that their TAs and LSAs are confident and fulfilled in their work.
You can learn more about this journey in our newsletter in July 2025.
An update from the Chief Executive...
A great education has the power to transform lives
An important element of our mission at Bishop Bewick is to ensure the best outcomes for our children. Put simply, we want all our pupils and students to achieve the very best results they can, so they can pursue a fulfilling adult life and live out their true potential.
This work begins from their earliest years in school, and I hope you will enjoy reading the articles in this edition about the amazing work that is happening across our early years provision to ensure our children get off to the very best start. The work of our speech and language team is of particular interest to parents and carers as it recognises the importance of listening to their Trust’s vision of their children and explores ways they can help their children at home.
The results for KS2 across our schools continue to be strong. Outcomes in Reading, Writing and Mathematics have all remained significantly above the national averages. 80% of our pupils achieved the expected standard in Reading compared to 74% of pupils nationally (79% compared to 73% nationally), and Mathematics (77% compared to 73% nationally) also remain significantly higher than national figures. At GCSE our schools have improved in several key areas, including gaining grade 5 and above in English and Maths and with individual schools achieving very highly, particularly in grade 9-9. Early indications are that our results concerning the distribution of A level data, we will need to wait until the spring term to have this verified.
One of the most joyful days for headteachers and staff is A Level results day, where you see students you have known for seven years transform into adulthood, fulfilling dreams they may have held since childhood. There is a very uplifting article within this edition that highlights just a few of the many success stories. As you will see,
this journey began with their primary education and so their primary schools are also credited in this piece. Interestingly, the trend for more students to undertake high quality apprenticeships continues which is great news for them and our region.
Nicola Taylor, Trust SEND Lead
Each year we are seeing an increase in the number of children in our schools who are identified as having a special educational need, and we are working closely with and across our schools to support them to help children and young people to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Family Workshops with our Speech and Language Team
Nicola Head, Gemma East, Ellen Fleetwood
Our speech and language therapists have undertaken a number of family workshops to promote speech, language and communication development alongside families. Although children learn lots of language while they are at school, it is still extremely important to support children’s language development at home too.
The aims of the workshops have been to:
• Share information with families about how communication and language skills develop.
• Share strategies to support the development of speech, language and communication skills.
• Give families the opportunity to practice these strategies during play as part of the workshop with their child.
• Ask a speech and language therapist any questions families may have.
These sessions have been well received and attended by many families. In the most recent sessions, information and strategies were initially shared with families before children were invited in, so families could practice the strategies and see them being used in action while they played. The sessions are tailored to topics that are being covered in school, with a range of toys available to ensure all the children are engaged.
“We had many happy parents and two came back to tell me what they are doing at home with their children,” SENCo.
One family said “It was great to be able to ask questions and hear things we can do at home to help with our child’s talking.”
The team are looking forward to meeting many more families as part of their workshops.
Giving children the best start in life
Update from our Senior Director of School Improvement (Primary)
It may seem from the outside that the Early Years provides a very gentle and slow start to a child’s education. Playing with new friends, story-time, singing nursery rhymes, digging and splashing in the sand and water trays or riding around on tricycles outside can, on the surface, appear to be little more than babysitting sessions. However, activities in the Early Years Foundation Stage are designed to lay the foundations for future learning, wellbeing and success.
The key foundations of early child development are planned for through the three prime areas of Learning - Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development. During each activity, children experience feelings and develop a sense of self and others, they are physically engaged through their senses and movements and are learning to understand and communicate with others.
But it is the quality of adult interactions during these times that elevate planned activities to meaningful learning experiences. Skilled interventions by adults assist children to recognise, understand and manage a range of emotions through the day.
Feelings of excitement, curiosity, frustration, impatience, competitiveness and pride that arise through playing games or sharing resources can create a strong emotional dynamic within the classroom environment. But teachers use these opportunities to support children to harness these in a positive way so that they fuel curiosity, investigation and teamwork.
Encouraging children to climb, pedal bikes, play balancing games or complete craft or building activities are all designed to ensure that children have the physical development, core strength and fine motor skills required to sit at a desk and hold a pencil when the time comes to begin writing in a more formal way.
Similarly, constant conversations with pupils, playing word games, singing nursery rhymes and talking to children about what they are doing enables teachers to understand how well children understand simple instructions, and are developing the phonological awareness and range of vocabulary they will need to start learning to read.
When children leave Reception, their emerging ability to read and write may seem like a very simple first step in their learning. But the complexity of the challenge, and the skill of the teachers in laying these foundations should never be underestimated. The early years is truly where the magic happens.
Ofsted Updates...
In September 2024, Ofsted ended the use of single headline grades. This means that schools will no longer receive an overall judgement such as outstanding or requires improvement. During graded inspections, school will continue to receive a judgment for each individual sub-category such as quality of education or leadership & management. Ungraded inspections will simply report whether standards at the previous inspection have been maintained or not.
St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School, Wallsend
St Bernadette’s continues to be Good
‘Pupils, parents and staff all share a sense of pride in belonging to St Bernadette’s.’
‘Behaviour is a strength of the school. Classrooms are calm and purposeful. Pupils are curious to learn.’
‘This is a school all about raising aspirations and broadening life experiences. Parents appreciate staff who go ‘above and beyond’ to support their children.’
‘Leaders are committed to providing pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum that extends beyond the academic.’
‘Reading lies at the centre of the curriculum. There is a well-established phonics programme in school that is raising standards in reading.’
‘Pupils with SEND receive the timely support they need. Early intervention ensures that pupils’ additional needs are swiftly identified and addressed’.
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Benwell
St Joseph’s continues to be Good
‘The school is a warm and caring place where staff know pupils and their families well.’
‘Pupils are well behaved and enthusiastic about their learning’
‘The school is ambitious for all pupils to read confidently.’
‘The school’s approach to teaching phonics is highly successful.’
‘The school is well led and managed. Resources are carefully allocated to make the most of the skills and knowledge within the staff body’
‘The school has designed a curriculum that meets the needs of all pupils well, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Results in external assessments have been very positive over time.’
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, North Shields
St Joseph’s graded Good in all areas
‘St Joseph’s provides a happy, safe and nurturing environment for pupils. Pupils appreciate the pastoral support that school provides. Pupils at St Joseph’s are inquisitive and keen to learn.’
‘The majority of subject curriculums across school are well planned and sequenced. Staff subject knowledge is secure. Staff implement these curriculums in line with the school’s intentions.’
‘The school provides for pupils’ wider development effectively. Through a well-planned curriculum, pupils become responsible members of the school community.’
‘Leaders have carefully considered the provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)’
St Aidan’s Catholic Primary School, Wallsend
St Aidan’s maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection where it was graded Good
‘Pupils are happy at this calm and nurturing school… pupils are proud of their school and value the learning and support that they receive.’
‘Pupils benefit from a good and improving curriculum. Leaders review the curriculum carefully.’
‘Pupils are keen to meet the high standards that the school sets for their behaviour.’
‘The school has placed a strong emphasis on reading. It has introduced a rigorous early reading curriculum that is taught well.’
‘By checking pupils’ understanding systematically, staff have rapidly raised pupils’ fluency with numbers.’
‘Staff appreciate the training they have received and share the Trust’s ambition for their pupils.’
Catenian Public Speaking Competition 2025
Next year’s competition will be held on 23rd March at Sacred Heart Catholic High School, Newcastle.
It is a great opportunity for all children to learn about the important art of public speaking and to push their personal boundaries.
Information has been shared with schools about how to take part.
St Columba’s and St John Vianney welcome pupils back in their new temporary school buildings...
As you may have read in our most recent newsletter, two of our schools, St Columba’s Catholic Primary and St John Vianney Catholic Primary, have been affected by Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC).
In February 2024, the DfE announced that these schools were to be added to the National Schools Building Programme. This meant that they would ultimately be rebuilt, but that staff and pupils at the two schools would need to move into new, temporary school accommodation in the interim.
During March 2024, fully vetted by the two schools, the DfE, the local Authority and REDS10 (the contractor) to plan, design and build these temporary new school buildings. Due to the hard work and dedication from school staff and REDS10, work progressed very quickly, and in September 2024 both schools were able to welcome back pupils into their new accommodation.
Allyson Thorpe, Headteacher at St John Vianney said: “It has been brilliant to see the way staff and pupils have embraced the new school buildings. As a school family, the silver lining of RAAC is that we have shown what we can do despite the challenging factors and our children continue to come to school smiling and happy. I could not be more proud of all the staff and pupils at St John Vianney who have worked so collaboratively to make this amazing new build work for the good of all our pupils.
Despite the design process of this temporary building being challenging, the designers listened to the needs of our pupils. This has resulted in us having an amazing, personalised building including new technology, large classrooms and additional art rooms. The temporary building is a fantastic (and exciting new step), and I am confident that our children will all continue to grow and thrive during this interesting period of St John Vianney’s ever-evolving journey through time. We will be celebrating 500 years since the opening of St John Vianney in April 2025, so as we look to the future, we know that despite any and all adversary, together as a family of faith we can collaboratively rise above the challenge and ensure that all the children in our care continue to get the very best education.”
Rachel Quinn, Headteacher at St Columba’s said: “St Columba’s family are so happy to be settled into their new temporary home. The children have adjusted so well to their new environment and are loving the great space in classrooms, the fabulous new technology and especially the water fountain! We are incredibly thankful for all of the support from our parents and wider community. It also wouldn’t have been possible without our dedicated staff team who have worked so hard to move, unpack and set up the school ready for the children’s return. We feel very lucky to be part of such an exciting new adventure.”
This summer, more than 500 students in our Trust’s five secondary schools celebrated their wonderful achievements in A Level and Vocational A Level examinations. There is so much to celebrate, and each school’s website includes more information about individual and collective success. Below highlights a small sample of individual achievements. A huge well done to all of our school leavers and a huge thank you for you to all our amazing staff who have supported these young people on their journey of success.
**Sacred Heart Catholic High School**
- **Imogen** (left) attended St John Vianney Catholic Primary School before Sacred Heart High. Imogen achieved A*, A, A in Biology, Maths and Chemistry and is now studying Medicine at the University of Oxford.
- **Tiffany** (centre) attended school in Hong Kong before moving to Newcastle before Sacred Heart High. Tiffany achieved straight A’s in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and EPQ and is now studying Biological Sciences at Durham University.
- **Michelle** (right) attended Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School before Sacred Heart High. Michelle achieved A*, A*, A* in Biology, Chemistry, Maths and EPQ and is now studying Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford.
- **Ellie** attended St Michael’s Catholic Primary School before Sacred Heart High. Ellie achieved Distinction*, Distinction*, A in Health and Social Care, Applied Law and Sociology and is now going to be an Adult Nurse at Northumbria University.
- **Callista** attended St Michael’s Catholic Primary School before Sacred Heart High. Callista achieved straight A’s in Ceramics, History and English Literature and is now reading English Literature at Durham University.
**St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School**
- **Matthew** attended St John Vianney Catholic Primary School before St Cuthbert’s. Matthew achieved CTEC Sport Distinction, CTEC Business Distinction and CTEC IT Pass. Matthew is now undertaking an apprenticeship at Newcastle Racecourse.
- **Jamie** attended St John Vianney Catholic Primary School before St Cuthbert’s. Jamie achieved B,B,B in Psychology, History and Religious Studies and is now studying Psychology at Durham University.
- **Jack** attended St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School before St Cuthbert’s. Jack achieved A, B, C in Religious Studies (Draft Certificate of Sacred Heart High) and is now studying English Literature & Language at Newcastle University.
- **Eliot** attended English Martyrs’ Catholic Primary School before St Cuthbert’s. Eliot achieved B,C,C in Economics, Business Studies and Modern Foreign Language. Eliot is now employed as a Building and Quantity Surveying apprentice with MGBSD Ltd.
- **Mohamed** attended St Bede’s Catholic Primary School, Denton Burn before St Cuthbert’s. Mohamed achieved straight A’s in Biology, Chemistry and Maths. Mohamed is now studying Dentistry at Newcastle University.
**St Thomas More Catholic High School**
- **Caitlin** attended Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School before St Thomas More. Caitlin achieved A, A, A in English Literature, History and Psychology and is now studying Psychology at the University of Leeds.
- **Martin** attended St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, North Shields before St Thomas More. Martin achieved A, A, A in Geography and Mathematics and a Distinction* in BTEC Sport and is now studying Mathematics at Newcastle University.
- **Sophie** attended St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School before St Thomas More. Sophie achieved A*, A, B, B in French, Biology, Geography and a Distinction in Performing Arts and is now studying Geography at Newcastle University.
- **Daniel** attended St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School before St Thomas More. Daniel achieved A, A, B, B in French, Ethics & Philosophy and is now undertaking an Apprenticeship with North Tyneside Council.
- **Amelia** attended St Columba’s Catholic Primary School before St Thomas More and achieved B, B, C in Greek, Latin, Criminal and Ethics & Philosophy. Amelia is now undertaking an Apprenticeship with South Tyneside Council as a Payroll Assistant and has already been promoted.
**St Mary’s Catholic School**
- **Jimwoo** attended St Stephen’s Catholic Primary School before St Mary’s. Jimwoo achieved A*, A*, A*, A in Further Mathematics, Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology and is now studying Medicine at the University of Oxford.
- **Zarmina** attended Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School before St Mary’s. Zarmina achieved a Distinction in Vocational Business Studies (Double Award) and a Distinction in Vocational IT. Zarmina is now studying Management and Marketing at Newcastle University.
- **Jocelyn** attended St Stephen’s Catholic Primary School before St Mary’s. Jocelyn achieved A, B, B in English Literature, Biology and Chemistry and is now studying Medicine at the University of Nottingham.
- **Jack** attended St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Forest Hall before St Mary’s. Jack achieved C, C in Physics and Further Maths and a Distinction in Vocational IT. Jack is now completing an apprenticeship at the finance firm ‘Oliver Wyman’.
- **Karandeep** attended St Alban’s Catholic Primary School before St Mary’s. Karandeep achieved B, C, C in Psychology, Biology and Chemistry and is now studying Pharmacy at the University of Sunderland.
**St Benet Biscop Catholic Academy**
- **Joshua** attended St Peter and Paul’s Catholic Primary School before St Benet Biscop. Joshua achieved A, A, B in Geography, Maths, and Physics and is now studying Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford.
- **Oliver** achieved B, B in History and Religious Studies and a Distinction in BTEC Sport at St Benet Biscop. Oliver is now undertaking a Project Manager Apprenticeship with BT.
- **Lucy** attended St Peter and Paul’s Catholic Primary School before St Benet Biscop. Lucy achieved A, A, A, A in History, Religious Studies and EPQ, Biology, Chemistry and History and is now studying Dentistry at Newcastle University.
- **Jessica** attended St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School before St Benet Biscop. Jessica achieved A, B in History, Religious Studies and English Literature and is now reading English Literature at Newcastle University.
- **Abi** achieved a Distinction in Applied Business and Distinction* Distinction in Business Studies at St Benet Biscop and is now undertaking a Health Care Assistant Apprenticeship with the NHS.
School in the Spotlight...
St Aidan’s Catholic Primary School, Wallsend
Everyone at St Aidan’s loves reading! From weekly visits to our local library in Howdon, to our monthly reading challenges, to annual author visits and book fairs, there is always a buzz about books in our school. This term, we have been proud to open our very own school library.
Our library is the heart of our school and visiting it is one of the highlights of the week for our children. It contains a wealth of fiction, non-fiction books and magazines and a steady stream of new, exciting books seem to arrive weekly for our pleasure. Staff have a passion for reading and an excellent knowledge of authors and of fabulous newly released books and they strive to take every opportunity to make sure that we have as many different and interesting books as possible for all ages. These books reflect the population of our school, we have a wealth of multicultural books and other books that reflect, entertain and challenge everyone – as well as make their hearts soar!
Children use the library to read for pleasure and to select books to enhance the learning that is taking place in the classroom. It is a warm, safe haven of calm where they can go to reflect, socialise and cosy-up on the comfy sofas and be inspired. Children are interested in authors and want to connect with them and ask questions about their work, and have written to Anthony Browne CBE, new author Benjamin Dean, Ojijah Q. Rauf, Jon Klassen and Chris Riddell to name but a few.
We enjoy a seasonal book display, an author of the month selection and a classic book display where we can share our favourite books from our own childhoods (Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH anyone?). We also have a high quality reading area with the exciting addition of the ‘Read Storytime’ magazine as recommended by the wonderful Michael Morpurgo himself. We use every opportunity that we can to make contact with authors and have taken part in author sessions and video booths (including the legend that is Dame Jacqueline Wilson and Benjamin Dean) and in person, at our treasured local libraries (including Alistair Chisholm, Catherine Bruton, Hellen Rutter and Joshy Lacey).
Our library is already treasured by both students and staff but this is only the beginning, it is evolving and growing all the time to be a magical room that is accessible and special to all. We have had several parents as well as some high school students on placement volunteering to come in and listen to readers which has really boosted the buzz around the library.
We have also recently been successful in a bid for a grant from the Foyle Foundation to enhance our book stock even further - 1500 new books and to add more audio books and listening equipment. Another grant from The Jerusalem Trust will help us to add a selection of books to broaden children’s reading materials about Catholic Social Teaching and about putting our faith into action. This is what we always do, as our mission statement says: “Come in and learn with Jesus; go out and serve with love.”
“I love going to the library, I look forward to going all week. If you get cosy on the couch with a friend and share a book together, do you know that you both go to the place in the story?”
“I use the books in the library to find out more. I took a book from the library back to class and used it to draw the bones in our skeleton so that I got it right! The library helps me all the time!”
St Benet Biscop pupils enjoy once-in-a-lifetime experiences in Costa Rica - Bronwen Clear-Hill
On Saturday, July 6th, 2024, I joined 10 students and their parents at Newcastle airport for the start of our trip to Costa Rica. This journey began two years earlier with visits from Camps International, sparking interest and starting a fundraising campaign.
Our final stop was Como Negro, a wetland area known for migratory birds. Despite fierce mosquitoes, we survived with repellent and long sleeves. We spent our days cleaning and painting a community jetty, clearing paths, and planting in the community gardens. We also took a boat tour, seeing monkeys, toucans, and caimans.
After four incredible weeks, we returned to San José, exhausted but enriched. The students were outstanding, and the trip was a life-changing experience. Many are still in touch with friends from other schools and are planning future volunteering adventures. Best of luck to the teachers and students who are going to Cambodia in 2025.
Each student had to raise over £4,000, with additional group fundraising to cover transport costs. In Heatherdale over the years, the students baked, washed cars, walked, cycled, and swam for sponsorship. They worked weekends, set up easy funding accounts, sold cakes and school calendars, raising money for the trip.
The journey began with a flight to Heathrow and a 24-hour transfer through Montreal, finally reaching San José, Costa Rica. After a brief hotel stay, we travelled to Uvita on the southwest coast. We camped on the beach and spent our first days cleaning and preparing a local school for visitors, as well as working in a school and fruit garden. We had a special treat when Marvin gave us a tour of his spice trees and shared fresh coconuts. The highlight of Uvita was scuba diving and snorkelling at Cano Island, where we swam with turtles, sharks, and rays.
Next, we travelled to Amistad National Park, located on the Costa Rican/Panama border. Here, we worked on stabilising the banks of a local football field and visited a coffee farm and ice cream café. The climate was hot and humid, but the students adapted well. Our time in Terraba, home to an indigenous tribe, was another highlight. Despite heavy rain and mud, we helped clear forest paths, played football with the community, and learned about sustainable living from a local family. The last part of our trip took us to the Pacific coast, where we camped in hammocks on the beach and worked on the wildlife rangers’ buildings. We also went white-water rafting and had close encounters with them while snorkelling. After some challenges with accommodation, Camps International treated us to two nights in Monteverde’s cloud forest (complete with tarantulas and stick insects), where we enjoyed a coffee and chocolate farm tour.
Blessing of the Animals at St Charles’ Catholic Primary School
The Laudato Leaders at St Charles’ are responsible for modelling and helping pupils to live out the message of Pope Francis’ second encyclical ‘Laudato Si’.
As part of sharing this message, they have been working hard on their action plan for the Live Simply Award. St Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals and the environment, therefore for the final part of their Live Simply action plan, the Laudato Leaders wanted to celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on 4th October by inviting pets in to be blessed by Father Michael.
The Laudato Leaders worked with Mrs Binney to plan a Celebration of the Word. In addition to sharing information about St Francis and the work he did, they chose to read the story of creation as their main reading and celebrated by singing All Things Bright and Beautiful. They wrote letters to families and residents that want to join us on the feast day for our Celebration of the Word so they could be blessed by Father Michael. There was also the option to bring in photographs of pets to share on the focal point to be blessed.
On the day, everyone in school was very excited to be joined by Bientette the tortoise, Poochy the school dog, Frank and Luna the dogs and Nibbles and Truffle the guinea pigs. One pupil even found a worm at lunchtime to join the other animals for the blessing! The Laudato Leaders beautifully led the Celebration of the Word and Father Michael blessed all the animals, including photos, with holy water. All animals were well behaved and the children enjoyed the opportunity to pray and celebrate their love for animals.
“I love that we were able to include our animals in prayer because they are an important part of God’s creation.”
Year 1 pupil
After an inspiring worship, the Laudato Leaders are hoping to start a tradition at St Charles’ by holding blessing of the animals on St Francis’ feast day each year.
St. Vincent’s Catholic Primary School…
Primary schools didn’t need to wait for the DfE’s 2023 Policy Paper, ‘Sustainability and Climate Change’, to know that, ‘through education we have the privilege to be able to engage directly with children and young people who are passionate about the natural world, want to do their best to protect it and can influence their wider communities’. Indeed, Year4 pupils at St. Vincent’s have been engaging with the sustainability and conservation projects at Kielder Forest for over ten years.
Every year, towards the end of September, Year4 pupils spend two days in England’s largest forest focusing on two key environmental themes: river ecology and sustainable forestry.
At the Kielder Salmon Centre, the children are submerged (not literally!) in all the fascinating fishy facts about the Salmon Hatchery:
**What?** Hand-rearing salmon and trout.
**How?** Incubate-hatch-feed-release.
**Why?** To rebuild aquatic populations that are at risk of extinction.
Additionally, the class is also introduced to freshwater pearl mussels, one of the UK’s most endangered species, and discover how these clever clams can filter up to 50 litres of river water a day to improve the water quality for other species such as fish, eels and otters.
Back on dry land, the class is taken off-the-beaten-track to a Forestry England tree felling site. Here, children watch the two main machines in operation:
- The mesmerising Harvester takes a matter of seconds to fell a whole tree, strip it of all its branches and then place it, rather delicately, on the ground.
- The Forwarder, on the other hand, is the ugly sister of the partnership. This machine trundles back and forth sorting by size and stacking logs ready for transportation.
As a city school (we don’t have a tree or any real grass on site), St. Vincent’s pupils gain in so many ways from this exciting educational visit and we are sure the DfE will be delighted to learn that our pupils truly are, “passionate about the natural world” sincerely do, “want to do their best to protect it” and absolutely do intend to, “influence their wider communities”.
Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards at St Mary’s Catholic School
Last year, a group of 40 students from St Mary’s Catholic School completed their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.
The programme gives students the opportunity to flourish in ways that go beyond academic achievement, such as doing voluntary work within their local communities, improving their physical fitness through regular exercise and developing a new skill. A central feature of the award is its emphasis on expedition training.
The group at St Mary’s undertook a practice expedition in Edmundbyers, before embarking on the four-day qualifier expedition in the Yorkshire Dales.
During the two expeditions, students learned a great deal about self-reliance by cooking for themselves, setting up their own tents and planning walking routes across the countryside. In addition to completing the long walk each day, students were required to set goals for each day, write a video diary or producing a photo collection with a group mascot.
Without question, the expeditions are an exercise in physical endurance. They also enable students to develop a range of important life skills, including teamwork, problem-solving and resilience. Students needed to work together all the time, discussing different options when completing tasks and making collaborative decisions. This was a very important aspect of the expeditions.
When the students returned to school, they planned, produced and delivered presentations in small groups, telling an audience of parents, teachers and fellow students about their memorable experience on the two expeditions. The Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award is certainly more than just a qualification!
For participants, it is a transformative journey during which they develop self-confidence and independence, as well as gaining important practical skills. The sense of accomplishment and pride when overcoming challenges will stand the students in good stead well into the future.
We are so very proud of all of the students involved!
Our Schools, Our Stories: Sharing successes across social media - Rachel Dawson
At Bishop Bewick we are proud of the high-quality education provided by our schools, where innovation, dedication, and excellence thrive. Our schools are filled with stories worth sharing – from exciting events and student achievements to cutting-edge programmes that shape future success.
Through our online platforms, we can spotlight this remarkable work, celebrating our schools, staff and students, ensuring that the excellent education within Bishop Bewick is visible to a wider audience.
One way we celebrate our schools’ achievements is through showcasing stories on social media. Many of our schools already have vibrant social media profiles that actively engage their communities and highlight their commitment to excellence. Our online platforms not only showcase our schools’ academic achievements but also cultivate strong, lasting connections with local families and communities. A strong digital presence is key to showcasing what makes our schools truly exceptional – and it’s a powerful tool to share the positive impact of Catholic education.
It’s wonderful to see how our schools are bringing their stories to life on social media – from celebrating student achievements to sharing exciting school events and initiatives. Social media is a great platform to display the unique qualities of our schools, offering a real-time connection with parents, carers, and local communities.
By sharing updates, showcasing student events, and highlighting the values that set schools apart, we can offer a glimpse into our ethos and community spirit.
Not only does this create a welcoming space for families to connect, but it also strengthens bonds with current families while sparking curiosity and excitement from future ones – all boosting greater community engagement and recruitment!
We’d love to hear from you! Please send your stories, updates, and any high-quality images to firstname.lastname@example.org to be featured across our growing social media channels.
Together, we can elevate each school’s successes, strengthen our social media presence, and amplify the collective mission of our schools.
Sacred Heart Catholic High School
Fenham Hall Drive, Fenham, Newcastle upon Tyne. NE4 9YH
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1. **Rex, King of Carnival, Monarch of Merriment** - Rex’s float carries the King of Carnival and his pages through the streets of New Orleans each Mardi Gras. In the early years of the New Orleans Carnival Rex’s float was redesigned each year. The current King’s float, one of Carnival’s most iconic images, has been in use for over fifty years.
2. **His Majesty’s Bandwagon** - From this traditional float one of the Royal Bands provides lively music for Rex and for those who greet him on the parade route. One of those songs will surely be the Rex anthem: “If Ever I Cease to Love,” which has been played in every Rex parade since 1872.
3. **The King’s Jesters** - Even the Monarch of Merriment needs jesters in his court. Rex’s jesters dress in the traditional colors of Mardi Gras – purple, green and gold. The papier mache’ figures on the Jester float are some of the oldest in the Rex parade and were sculpted by artists in Viareggio, Italy, a city with its own rich Carnival tradition.
4. **The Boeuf Gras** - The Boeuf Gras (“the fattened ox”) represents one of the oldest traditions and images of Mardi Gras, symbolizing the great feast on the day before Lent begins. In the early years of the New Orleans Carnival a live Boeuf Gras, decorated with garlands, had an honored place near the front of the Rex Parade. The Boeuf Gras returned in 1959 as a magnificent papier mâché sculpture.
5. **The Butterfly King** - Since the earliest days of Carnival, butterflies have been popular symbolic design elements, their brief and colorful life a metaphor for the ephemeral magic of Mardi Gras itself. The invitation to the 1882 Rex ball added butterfly wings to the King of Carnival, creating the enduring image of “The Butterfly King.” The Butterfly King float, introduced in 2012, is the first new permanent float to join the Rex Procession in many decades.
6. **Title Float: “L’Ancienne Nouvelle-Orléans”** - The 2018 Rex Procession honors New Orleans as it celebrates its Tricentennial and presents elements of its rich history and culture. With a focus on its first century, float designs depict the people, places and events that shaped this unique American city. Beginning with float designs honoring “Father Mississippi” and the indigenous people who first lived here and concluding with a float depicting Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans, the 2018 Rex Procession colorfully illustrates the men, women and events that first shaped the Crescent City.
7. **Father Mississippi** - From ancient times, the powerful Mississippi River, like the other great rivers of the world, has inspired legends and myths. “Father Mississippi” is the personification of this dominant natural force, without which there would be no New Orleans.
8. **Chitimacha Indians** - The Chitimacha Indians and their ancestors inhabited the Mississippi River delta area for thousands of years before the arrival of French and Spanish settlers. Their society was strongly matriarchal—male chiefs were approved by female elders.
9. **De La Salle (1682)** - This bold French explorer first visited New Orleans in 1682 by sailing down the Mississippi River from Canada, claiming “Louisiana” for France. He tried to return with settlers in 1684 but poor navigation left him marooned in what is now Texas, where he died in 1687.
10. **A Streetcar Named Desire** - Streetcars are an important symbol of New Orleans, and this iconic float honors the best known of all of New Orleans’ streetcar lines. This iconic float depicts “The Streetcar Named Desire,” made famous by the playwright Tennessee Williams. It is the only Rex float not pulled by a tractor.
11. **Bienville and Iberville (1700)** - Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne (Bienville) joined his older brother Pierre (Iberville) on a voyage to explore the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River. In 1718 Bienville oversaw the founding of New Orleans, which eventually became the capital of French Louisiana.
12. **St. Louis Cathedral (1718)** - Within a year of the city’s founding a church was erected on this site. The cornerstone for the current cathedral was laid in 1789 after the Good Friday Fire in 1788 destroyed the first church. It became a cathedral in 1793 and is the oldest cathedral in the United States.
13. **Adrien de Pauger (1721)** - A French engineer and cartographer, de Pauger worked with Bienville to design a plan for the new capital of French Louisiana, a plan still largely preserved in today’s Vieux Carre’. He also designed New Orleans’ first parish church on the site of St. Louis Cathedral.
14. **Ursuline Nuns (1727)** - Fourteen Ursuline nuns arrived in New Orleans in July 1727, after a five-month voyage from France. They founded schools, hospitals and an orphanage. Ursuline Academy continues to fulfill their special mission to educate young women.
15. **The Royal Barge** - Reminiscent of a grand Viking ship, and complete with Royal Gryphon, the Royal Barge is one of Rex’s iconic permanent floats. This float is the last remnant of the Royal Navy, once a feature of each Rex Parade.
16. **Les Filles de la Cassette (1728)** - Recruited from convents and orphanages, these young women came to French Louisiana to marry eligible young men. They carried their possessions in small chests or casquettes, “cassettes” in French, and stayed with the Ursuline nuns until they were married.
17. **Yellow Fever** - This dreadful mosquito-borne disease was a grim reality of New Orleans’ first two centuries, with outbreaks nearly every summer. Between 1815 and 1905 over 41,000 citizens died, nearly 8,000 in the 1853 epidemic alone.
18. **Don Alejandro “Bloody” O’Reilly (1769)** - An Irishman who rose to power in the Spanish army, O’Reilly was the second Spanish Governor of Louisiana. He was known as “Bloody O’Reilly” because he executed leaders of the 1768 rebellion against Spanish rule in New Orleans.
19. **Our Lady of Prompt Succor** - Associated with the Ursuline nuns, and thus with the earliest years of the city, the “Patroness of New Orleans” is credited with many miracles, including the preservation of the Ursuline Convent during the 1788 fire and victory in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.
20. **Jean Lafitte (1780)** - The Lafitte brothers, Jean and Pierre, were pirates and smugglers who maintained a base in Barataria Bay and a warehouse in New Orleans. In return for a promise of a full pardon, Lafitte and his men helped Andrew Jackson defend New Orleans from the British.
21. **John James Audubon (1785)** - Audubon was a naturalist and artist who did some of his most important work in Louisiana. Though born in Haiti, he often identified himself as a native of Louisiana and described it as his “favorite portion of the Union.”
22. **Good Friday Fire (1788)** - Sometimes called “The Great New Orleans Fire,” this conflagration destroyed 856 of the 1,100 structures in the city. Because it was Good Friday, parish priests refused to allow church bells to be rung to sound the alarm.
23. **Marie Laveau (1794)** - Of African, Native American and French descent, Marie Catherine Laveau became famous as a practitioner of voodoo, selling charms and magical powders and telling fortunes. Her daughter, also named Marie, followed in her mother’s footsteps.
24. **Baroness de Pontalba (1795)** - Born in New Orleans, Micaela Leonarda Antonia Almonester y Rojas inherited a fortune when her father died. She became a successful businesswoman and oversaw the design and construction of the Pontalba buildings. Her father-in-law, Baron Pontalba, frustrated that he could not gain control of her fortune, tried to kill her, but she survived the attack.
25. **Louisiana Purchase (1803)** - Originally America only sought to acquire the city and port of New Orleans, but Napoleon faced major political and financial challenges and offered to sell all of the Louisiana Territory for just pennies an acre, doubling the size of the new country.
26. **S.S. New Orleans (1811)** - The advent of steamboats transformed the Port of New Orleans. No longer dependent on sails to move up the Mississippi River, commerce thrived. The New Orleans was the first steamboat on the Mississippi River, providing service between New Orleans and Natchez.
27. **Henriette DeLille (1813)** - Henriette was a free woman of color who was expected to enter into a common-law marriage with a wealthy white man, as had her mother. Instead, she became a nun and founded the order of the Sisters of the Holy Family, devoted to caring for the sick and educating children.
28. **Andrew Jackson (1815)** - By the time General Jackson arrived in New Orleans to lead its defense against the invading British Army, he was a seasoned military leader. Under his leadership New Orleans’ ragtag defenders were able to defeat the much larger British force. | <urn:uuid:4edb9a52-d341-492f-b892-cd8f7954a3d8> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.rexorganization.com/static/Downloads/2018/RexParadeNotes2018.pdf | 2018-12-11T00:02:19Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376823516.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20181210233803-20181211015303-00308.warc.gz | 1,031,422,812 | 2,012 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.99567 | eng_Latn | 0.996067 | [
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Math 4 (4th Edition)
An interactive approach to building your student’s understanding of multiplication, division, decimals, fractions, geometry, and pre-algebra. As students explore the biblical worldview themes, they will learn to interact with math on a real-world level. The ocean theme used throughout the course helps students to visualize and comprehend lessons.
Parts and pieces include a teacher edition, student worktext, student activities book, student activities answer key, assessments and assessments answer key, manipulatives packet, teacher manipulative packet, and a teacher’s visual packet.
Math to Reveal Creation
Students will identify five recurring worldview themes: (1) math shows our world is designed; (2) math helps people work; (3) math helps us meet others’ needs; (4) math helps us make wise choices; and (5) math has limits.
Developing Computation Skills
The student worktext and student activities book offer opportunities for guided and independent practice with math concepts. Manipulatives packets add a crucial hands-on element to the students’ learning. The more familiar they become with computation skills, the more they will gain from authentic learning activities.
Activities for Authentic Learning
Students will apply computation skills to challenges in order to develop problem-solving skills in real-world situations. As they work with activities and manipulatives, they develop automaticity in problem solving.
Course materials in Math 4 rely on a nautical theme to show how math plays an integral role in our world. Students will focus on creation by exploring the lives of Captain Bailey and his pet seagull, Clipper, and by using manipulatives that keep them in touch with the real-world.
Activities also include STEAM exercises that incorporate Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematical skills. These activities direct the students’ attention back toward creation.
Teacher Edition
The teacher edition uses manipulatives to build on the mathematical foundations of multiplication, division, and place value, and to develop the student’s understanding of geometry, fractions, decimals, and measurements. The practical use of the problem-solving plan is emphasized as well as the memorization of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. It also includes guides for the STEAM activities.
Student Worktext
The worktext develops problem-solving skills and teaches students to work out math problems accurately. Each math concept is demonstrated in clear examples before students attempt the exercise problems. Each chapter concludes with a chapter review and cumulative review to help students retain these math concepts. STEAM activities offer students the opportunity to work with Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematical skills.
Student Activities Book
The student activities book provides assessments of daily lessons, spiral reviews of previous concepts, and a chapter review and cumulative review for each chapter.
Manipulatives and Visuals Packets
The program includes a variety of visual and hands-on learning opportunities through student and teacher manipulatives and the teacher visuals. Packets include both student sizes for independent work and classroom sizes for use with groups. The teacher visuals include 45 colorful teaching charts for display purposes. | e37afb49-0a1c-47ed-b0c7-0908e36692cc | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.bjupress.com/pdfs/catalogs/math-4-overview.pdf | 2021-01-22T12:24:46+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703529331.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20210122113332-20210122143332-00533.warc.gz | 682,837,059 | 618 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.997027 | eng_Latn | 0.996982 | [
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EXPERT PANEL ON EDUCATIONAL UNDERACHIEVEMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND
ANNEX E
MAY 2021
Supporting the engagement of children and parents:
NCB report to the Department of Education Expert Panel on Educational Underachievement
January 2021
1. About NCB .......................................................................................................................... 3
2. Our understanding of your requirements and our approach ........................................... 3
3. Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Identifying and recruiting children and parents ............................................................ 5
3.2 Who did we speak to? ..................................................................................................... 5
3.3 Areas of focus for engagement activities: ...................................................................... 6
4. Key findings ......................................................................................................................... 8
4.1 Key findings: children ..................................................................................................... 8
4.2 Key findings: parents ..................................................................................................... 16
5. Summary and considerations for the work of the Expert Panel ....................................... 32
5.1 Summary of findings: children ....................................................................................... 33
5.2 Summary of findings: parents ....................................................................................... 34
Appendix 1: Breakdown of those SOAs where over 30% of children under 15 are living in poverty ........................................................................................................................................ 39
Appendix 2: Demographic information relating to children and parents engaged .............. 40
Appendix 3: Topic guides and session plans ........................................................................ 41
1. About NCB
1.1 NCB is a leading research and development organisation with a long and rich history of working in the children and young people’s sector and, through a wide and varied portfolio of projects, aims to positively impact and enhance the outcomes for the most vulnerable children in our society.
1.2 We involve children and young people meaningfully in our work: we actively involve children and young people in all our policy, research and evaluation work and we are experts in the use of methods to do this.
1.3 NCB does not provide services directly to children and young people and is therefore uniquely positioned in the sector to bring our expertise in the synthesis of evidence to inform policy and practice.
2. Our understanding of your requirements and our approach
2.1 NCB was commissioned to support the Department of Education’s Expert Panel on Educational Underachievement to seek, listen to and act on the voices of children and young people who have experienced socio-economic disadvantage, and explore the ways in which this experience has impacted their educational journey and outcomes. Our brief was to:
a) Identify a sample of children who have experienced, or are likely to experience, socio-economic or other forms of disadvantage, within the age group 0-11.
b) Facilitate a series of discussion groups to gather information from these children in relation to their views on education and learning, including: what works and doesn’t work at home, in school and outside of school to support learning; challenges and barriers to effective learning; and plans and aspirations for education and beyond.
2.2 While we acknowledge that the focus of the Panel’s work is on economically disadvantaged children, we also felt it was important to acknowledge the other groups of children and young people who,
evidence shows, experience unequal educational opportunities. A range of evidence clearly supports this approach, for example:
- Youth Scotland (2012) found that LGBT young people identified education as the environment in which they faced the most discrimination. 77% of transgender respondents had experienced homophobic, biphobic or transphobic bullying in school; 88% of those believed that it had negatively impacted on their education, and 42% left education as a direct result.
- CREU/Stranmillis (2020) reported that children from the Traveller community have generally negative experiences of school and many leave school with few qualifications and low levels of literacy.
- QUB (2015) reported persistently lower proportions of educational attainment for pupils with disabilities, pupils who have special educational needs, and pupils from a care background.
2.3 While our approach to the engagement of children and young people (detailed below) primarily sought to identify those in areas of social and economic deprivation, we also aimed to include children from the following groups in our sample:
a) CYP with Special Educational Needs
b) CYP identifying as LGBTQ,
c) CYP from the Traveller community and Black & Minority Ethnic Groups,
d) CYP who are care experienced or have experience of the youth justice system
2.4 Meaningfully listening to the voices of very young children (under four) requires a much more specific and hands-on research methodology, which was not possible in the timeframe and under the current COVID-19 circumstances. We therefore engaged with parents of 0-4-year olds as a proxy for very young children.
2.5 This report summarises the methodology undertaken, key findings from across the engagement activities, and details the key areas of importance which should inform the work of the Expert Panel.
3. Methodology
The following section details our approach to identification and recruitment of children and parents, the approach to engagement taken, and a summary of those children and parents who we spoke to.
3.1 Identifying and recruiting children and parents
3.11 While recognising that the scale of activities would not constitute a representative sample, we nevertheless undertook a targeted approach to recruitment to ensure that those parents and children who took part in focus groups were, as far as possible, from areas of high deprivation. To do this, we used the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI), which ranks Super Output Areas (SOA) according to the % of children aged 15 and under living in poverty (defined as 60% of mean income or below); this is often used as a proxy for Free School Meal data. (NISRA)
3.12 The table in appendix 1 details those areas with 30% or more children living in poverty (as defined above), and these were used as the target areas for recruitment. This does not provide a statistically representative sample, but does provide views from across NI, from the most deprived areas, and with a mix of urban and rural locations.
3.13 Link organisations within these target areas were then identified and approached in order to recruit children and parents. These included schools and youth organisations (to engage children) and Sure Starts, Women’s Centres and voluntary and community sector organisations (to engage parents). We also undertook some social media engagement to support identification of parents.
3.2 Who did we speak to?
3.21 Engagement took place via a series of focus group sessions, for both children and young people and for parents. Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, some of these discussions took place via Zoom while others were conducted face to face.
3.22 In total, we spoke to 99 children and 17 parents. To do this, we undertook the following specific activities:
• 4 x parent focus groups (3 online, 1 face-to-face) (16 parents)
• 1 x individual phone discussion (1 parent)
• 2 x online pupil focus groups in 1 school (Derry) (20 children)
• 4 x face to face focus groups in 2 schools (Belfast and Dungannon) (66 children)
• 1 x face to face focus group in a youth club (13 children)
3.23 The table included in appendix 2 provides a more detailed breakdown of children and parents who took part in engagement sessions, including demographics of the schools through which children were engaged.
3.3 Areas of focus for engagement activities:
3.31 All discussions were guided by age-specific topic guides, prepared in advance (appendix 3). Topic guides were informed by the following principles:
a) While it was important to identify what didn’t work well to support children’s learning, we also felt it was important for children to tell us what does work, where they have learned best and under what circumstances. We therefore took a positive focus in the discussions with children where possible, to compliment the work done with adult stakeholders and support the next steps in addressing educational underachievement.
b) In line with Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, children and young people learn across a wide range of settings and systems, not just formal education. We therefore aimed to incorporate lessons from activities and approaches taken outside of formal learning, for example in the wider family, community, voluntary and statutory sector youth organisations.
c) Learning begins from birth and even before, therefore in discussions with parents, we considered the antenatal period and home learning environment alongside more formal learning in the early years.
NATIONAL CHILDREN’S BUREAU
4. Key findings
The following sections summarise the key findings from discussions with both children and parents, and highlights areas which the Expert Panel may wish to consider in their work and reporting to the Department of Education.
4.1 Key findings: children
4.1.1 Learning at home: what works, and what would help more?
Children were asked to reflect on the things they enjoy doing at home, and that they feel help them to learn. Key themes include:
a) **Technology**: One of the most common responses given involved activities undertaken on computers, smartphones, tablets or gaming devices. Many of the children mentioned specific apps, games or websites which they enjoy using and said helped them to learn (e.g. Mathletics, BBC Bitesize, Rockstars, Bug Club, myON literacy app, Education City) as well as educational TV programmes. These types of activities mirror the things they like to do in their spare time, therefore make learning more fun and allow them to work at their own pace.
*Mathletics [commonly used maths computer game] helps you do maths related tasks and it is a fun way of learning.*
*Everyone can do Mathletics by themselves.*
Children also mentioned using the internet regularly to look up information to support their learning and help do their homework. When asked what might further help them to learn at home (and in school - see below), technology was a common answer:
*Playing maths games on your phone will help to learn better*
*Mathletics would help because sometimes I struggle.*
b) **The people around them**: Most children get help at home when they are doing their homework, with mum and dad most commonly supporting them. However, many children noted wider family members who spend time with them to help with learning, including aunts and uncles, grandparents, and older siblings.
*My godmother helps me – she is a teacher*
My granda (helps me learn) by walking the dogs with me
My older sister/brother help me with writing
This is an area where children felt they could benefit from more support. However, it is clearly a challenge for parents among their other priorities.
I think that my family would be able to help more if they didn’t work as much
c) **Reading**: Children specifically mentioned reading for pleasure as something that they enjoy and that helps them learn. This includes fiction and non-fiction books (e.g. Harry Potter, fairy tales, science books).
d) **Relaxation techniques**: Several children said that they use relaxation techniques to help them learn better, and for many, there was an understanding that their mood affects how they work. Children also noted that exercising and playing outside with their friends has a contribution to make to learning.
Thinking of the ocean/sunsets or something to help you feel calmer and to focus.
Putting on music to help you relax
e) **Homework**: While children aren’t particularly happy with doing homework, they recognise that it as being important and helping them to learn. Several children mentioned topics that they enjoyed, such as learning about the body, Egypt, learning the clock/time telling, and this, along with using apps, the internet, or worksheets printed off for them make homework more fun.
4.1.2 Learning at school: what works?
a) **Staff support**: Teachers, classroom assistants and other school staff such as music teachers and playground supervisors were mentioned as being helpful and supporting learning. They support children in various ways, through listening and talking to them, helping them work through problems in class, or looking out for them in the playground. Children also reported having good relationships with teachers and helping them around the classroom.
Mostly teachers help you. And I help them – to clean.
You can ask your teachers how to help with work.
Putting your hand up and asking for help helps you to learn
The classroom assistant helps me do different stuff, like draw more
b) Making learning fun: Lots of enjoyable activities were mentioned which also contribute to learning. When asked what subjects they enjoy, children reported a wide range, including maths, reading, spelling, writing and the world around us.
Some mentioned doing puzzles and quizzes, while others talked about the various computer games that they use to learn, as well as using the whiteboard which they enjoy. All of these activities make it feel like the children aren’t doing work, yet they are still learning. Technology also brings some independence for pupils:
If everyone had a device to look things up like definitions, this would increase our independence
Extracurricular activities also contribute to the wider learning experience; activities mentioned included art, music, singing for Christmas, playing with friends and gardening.
We are learning when doing fun stuff e.g. learning the song.
[Puzzles] help you learn, they are fun, and they make you think.
In the same way as at home, children also enjoy reading in school and would like to do more of this.
[I enjoy] reading books every day; we have class libraries but can’t go into the big school library as much.
c) Techniques to focus: As in the discussion on home learning, children recognise that they have to focus in order to learn, and they have various methods to help them do this. Several mentioned tapping their heads to bring them back to focus, while other techniques include using a fiddle toy to distract them, or thinking about other things.
Too much talk means we can’t focus on work because there’s too much going on around us and it’s distracting. So I refocus by thinking of something nice.
Several children mentioned food at school as something that helped them to learn, and one mentioned having toast at school if they hadn’t had breakfast at home.
d) **Practice**: Several children noted that they know if something is hard, they can practice it enough and it will get easier. They also recognised that homework gives them an opportunity to practice what they’ve learned.
*Practice makes you learn to do things better.*
*Doing things that you struggle with the most and doing them again and again [helps you learn]*
*Every time you do sums you learn more*
4.1.3 Learning at school: challenges faced, and what would help
a) **Teacher approach/attitude**: In the same way that strong relationships between staff and pupils provide support for the children to learn, children report poor relationships with teachers as a big challenge faced in learning. Some children reported stricter teachers who shouted at or disciplined children for reasons they didn’t understand.
*Lay back on the kids. Do not give them detention for no reason.*
*When teachers shout for no reason or give detention for no reason.*
*Teachers could help by giving a break to them [children] if they try hard and try their best.*
*If all the teachers could help you more than shout at you.*
Others reported feeling like teachers do not listen to them, or ask about their home life. One girl said she was being bullied and the school had not helped to address it, which was impacting her work. Another noted that sometimes the teacher doesn’t have enough time to support them if they are busy with someone else.
b) **Difficulty focusing on work**: the classroom environment can be a challenge for some children. It can be difficult to focus on work when there is noise going on around them, other children are talking and/or the teacher is having to raise their voice.
*When people shout, argue, or talk over each other it’s hard to concentrate.*
*People tapping on tables during lesson, turning around to talk to me*
During lessons I’d like to have no visitors e.g. opening and closing doors which is distracting.
Others enjoy some background noise, or prefer a mix of quiet and noisy, demonstrating that not everyone works best in the same way.
I like a bit of noise, it helps me as it’s a comfort that others are working
I would like them to play sounds of nature in class like waterfall, birds – helps me to concentrate
Another child mentioned struggling to sit still through the class, while another suggested that access to a ‘time out’ room would help them. One group noted that Friday afternoon is playtime, however they mostly take the opportunity to read a book quietly or colour in, and for some, this is quieter than usual and allows them to concentrate more.
Having a minute to think helps to learn
If on a Friday we had groups in different rooms for different work in class (not so many people in the room)
Several other activities were mentioned which help to focus:
Music countdown: before/after lesson to burn off energy e.g. high knees, fast feet/planks
Use Gonoodle [educational resource website] to do breathing exercises to get ready for learning
Technology was suggested as a solution for several of the issues raised above: noise-cancelling headphones to block out distractions, or laptops for each child so everyone could work at their own pace with earphones in.
4.1.4 Learning elsewhere: what works?
a) **Extended family and friends:** When asked where else children learn, the most common response was from wider family, including parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and older siblings, as well as friends and sometimes, girlfriends/boyfriends of older siblings. They support learning in two key ways; either by directly helping with homework, or by taking them out and about to involve them in activities.
My Auntie and cousin help me at their house/ my family members help when I see them/Your friend’s house- your friends can help/ at my granny/grandad’s house.
They help by doing homework with me
My Grandad has greyhounds and we take them to the track
b) **Other key people:** Several children mentioned doing homework at their childminders, while another mentioned a social worker as being someone who helps them to learn. A few others noted that they learn by helping out at a parent’s workplace (examples given include a shop and a hair salon).
c) **Clubs, organisations and local facilities:** A wide range of sporting and exercise activities were noted, including football, golf, swimming, Gaelic, hurling, ice skating, riding bikes, judo and dancing. Children also mentioned attending art groups, speech and drama, youth clubs, church or mass, going to their local library, summer camps, and entering competitions such as a Feis.
Children learn several additional skills at these various groups and activities, such as online safety skills at youth clubs and groups, or CPR and survival skills at various sporting activities.
*Entering the Feis – you have to learn a poem/song/musical instrument and perform on stage.*
*The activities are fun but you’re also learning because you have to practice.*
Within these, while the activities themselves are often educational, many children mentioned the staff, coaches or volunteers who work there and who help them to learn.
**4.1.5 Hopes for the future**
a) **Hopes:** When children were asked to think about their hopes for the future, a wide range of career options were discussed. These included:
Teacher, principal, pilot, policeman, makeup and nails/beautician, YouTuber, musician, nurse, doctor, architect, interior designer, artist, life coach/therapist, electrician, baker, pizza man, hairdresser, work in Caterpillar (like my dad), detective, vet, space scientist, builder, rock star, librarian, footballer, carpenter.
Not everyone had a specific career idea in mind; one noted:
*I’m not sure, it’s just important to be yourself*
b) **What would help achieve these goals:** Children were asked to consider what might help them on the path to achieving these goals. Responses included going to university or taking part in further study, and getting help and support from other people (parents, teachers, wider family, other school staff). Most children recognised the importance of working hard and passing exams to help them.
*Having someone who backs you up – family, teachers, friends;*
*Concentrating and doing exams*
*If I don’t pass the first time I will try again until I get it perfect.*
*Complete college and be good at certain things; pass exams.*
*Study until you pass your course*
c) **Challenges and barriers to achieving goals:** There were also some common barriers and challenges foreseen. Several children talked about money being a barrier to further study, seeing this as something that can increase inequality and an area where more support is needed:
*not having enough money, having to pay rent*
*not having enough time to do lots of jobs*
*[the government should] give out more scholarships for university, a lot of people can’t afford this and it’s not really fair, not everyone has the same opportunities as each other*
Others mentioned the impact of missing school, through illness or for other reasons, and having to catch up on lessons.
*If you are off one day and miss something really important – you might not get a job, you won’t learn very much.*
*If you skipped school for a long time and you would just forget what you had learned.*
Anxiety and confidence towards exams were also noted as a challenge they might face in achieving future career goals:
Getting nervous [before an exam] and feeling like you can’t do it
I’d be new [in a job] and not know anyone
Another group discussed the potential impact that their actions as children might have later:
If you have a permanent record (doing something bad) it won’t go away
4.1.6 General comments to the Expert Panel
Finally, children were asked for one key message to share with the Department of Education about what they thought would help children to learn. These messages are summarised under themes below.
a) **Technology**: Children felt that technology plays an important role in supporting them in education, however also realise that not everyone has the same access to devices and internet connection to help them do this. This has been brought further into focus for them over the past months given the COVID pandemic and the use of online teaching that children have been experiencing.
iPads and phones in school for every child or to share would help
Have Zoom calls so you can ask your teacher for help if the schools are closed.
Virtual art class
If you don’t have a computer you can’t access online learning
Faster internet connection
Online dictation and spelling (to allow children to look up words they are struggling with)
b) **Practical suggestions for schoolltime**: Children discussed a number of ideas which they felt would make the school day better and therefore help them to better concentrate and do well. These focused on:
- the wider school environment, such as having a longer breaktime, adding flowers and decorations to the surroundings.
• the activities undertaken in class and outside, including more homework (a common response!) and having more silence in class.
• approaches to pupil-teacher engagement, including finding new/different ways to explain things in class, and working on two-way communication, where teachers are listening to pupils as well as pupils listening to teachers.
• Supporting wellbeing, for example running a pupil of the day scheme, asking how children are feeling, paying compliments, and implementing a ‘rights respecting school’ programme.
c) **Practical suggestions for everyday life**: children also thought about the things that would help them to learn better outside of school, and again, comments here tended to focus on wider wellbeing issues, such as getting a good night’s sleep, trying not to worry about the future, not being afraid to try new things, and working on good manners and behaviours.
*Dream outside the box, to get there you have to go outside your comfort zone*
*Be confident! Put yourself out there and go after things you haven’t gone for before*
d) **Support from people around them**: As in all areas above, the people around the child are a key source of support, and children’s ideas for better helping them to learn include increasing capacity for those around them, both in a physical capacity sense, and in knowing what to say and how to better encourage and support children:
*I would like an extra classroom assistant and more support from teachers*
*Somebody helping you and telling you what they did when they were younger*
*Support and encourage us! (adults, families, teachers)*
*People to believe in you, share your belief, then your dreams will probably come true!*
**4.2 Key findings: parents**
During discussions with parents, a wide range of topics were raised. While the focus was primarily on education in the early years, parents were also asked to consider their longer term hopes
for their child/children, as well as any issues they felt stood in their own way educationally that they would like to be different for their children. While the target group of parents was those with very young children (aged 0-4), many of the parents who took part had older children, therefore reflected on their wider experiences in discussions. Responses are summarised below.
4.2.1 Learning at home: what works, and what would help?
Before coming into contact with formal education, children have already spent the very early years of their lives learning a vast range of new skills, and evidence shows the importance of this stage of learning in laying the foundations for later life. Parents were asked to reflect on their experiences of early learning, in terms of the home learning environment and the support and information they received in the antenatal period in regard to early learning. Common themes are highlighted below.
a) **Activities and resources:** While not all parents were familiar with the expression ‘home learning environment’, all were aware that the activities and interactions with their child taking place at home in the early years will be contributing to their learning. Common activities considered useful for learning included reading or drawing, playing with blocks or bricks or doing puzzles.
*I am just reading books. We are talking about what is there, what I am reading about. Or doing some puzzles, some blocks, something like that. Because he is too young. He’s just two. I think that is good enough for him. Like playing with him and reading books.*
*My wee girl loves drawing. She couldn’t draw at the start but after I asked her to follow my finger, she tried to follow my finger with the pen and now she can draw herself smiling face and she is drawing smiling face everywhere.*
Parents interviewed came from a range of backgrounds, and discussed the differences in the toys and resources they had at home. Some recognised they were more fortunate than others, however all agreed that in reality, expensive toys are not necessarily required, and that children are happy to play with whatever is already around the house.
*My wee girl had a tent of her own. I had to take it down. She never, ever played in it. And she made a tent from blankets and she played with this all day. Or even a box,*
like Christmas tree box, she just went to it and she’s playing with the box.
I am really aware that we are a resource rich family. And so we have lots of good things in our home to play with and to use. And I am very mindful of that. But I do think the thing that really struck me was the sheer satisfaction that she gets out of playing with things that are just pieces of rubbish.
Others reflected on how they are keen to get their children involved in helping them with everyday tasks as educational opportunities, rather than focusing on activities traditionally considered as play.
She wants to always wash dishes because she’s seen how I wash dishes and she has her wee steps and I put her at the sink with a few plastic cups and she’s washing dishes. She loves to do it.
Several parents discussed the importance of language in the early years in supporting children’s communication and building on imagination, with common activities including singing, chatting and narrating everyday actions. However, parents also reflected on how the importance of this may not be common knowledge, and that it can be exhausting and time-consuming constantly chatting and interacting.
Along with activities comes the imagination of language. That language rich environment. So lots of time to talk. Lots of time to chat, sing songs, tell stories, building on the language.
I think that there’s the motivation and the energy, and there’s also the knowledge of knowing why you would do this and why it might be important. I think those are two things that are important.
Physical activity was considered important by most in terms of early learning, however some families do not have personal outside space. Rather, they make use of local facilities like parks and playgrounds to help their child get fresh air and exercise.
b) **Knowledge and information:** Parents had different experiences in terms of the source and quality of information received to support home learning. Common sources mentioned include health professionals (midwives, health visitors, GPs), Sure Starts and antenatal education groups, however several parents noted they
received little information and have had to use common sense to work things out for themselves.
As a parent, I feel there’s not enough talked about play and why it is so important. How fundamental to your child’s learning it is. And it is not about getting them to read a book really early and it’s not about formal stuff.
It is about just having your mind opened a wee bit to the things that are the quality things to do together, to play together, is important. There are messages out there about read more, do more numbers, do more… And I just think that that kind of ‘do more’ message is not what parents need to hear. They need to know what the quality stuff is.
The social interaction you get whenever you take your child out is really important… bring your baby out to introduce them to other people. That’s not told to you by the health visitor. That’s just something you’re expected to know.
…I suppose there’s things that you don’t realise you are doing that are teaching them things. Like ‘oh don’t touch that, that’s hot’.
Several parents noted that health professionals in the early weeks and months were primarily concerned with feeding and weight gain for baby, rather than supporting wider learning and social or physical development.
The health visitor would have told you to use building blocks and jigsaws, those sorts of things. But that would have been it.
The health visitor was very obsessed about feeding. So she was kind of on my case about weight gain. But not asking anything about milestones or about anything else.
One mum had been to Getting Ready for Baby antenatal group, which combines antenatal check-ups with educational sessions, and noted that the information provided there was very useful and covered many topics including home learning.
That was amazing, I have to say. Because obviously being a first-time mum, you don’t know what to expect. And it was taking you through everything. And it was brilliant because it was all in one, so you weren’t going to all separate appointments
Family and friends are a common source of information for new parents, however several noted that they didn’t have this
opportunity and relied on existing friends or friends made through mother and baby groups to help them learn. This is a particular concern for newcomer families who do not have an existing support structure, and additionally do not speak the local language.
*I’ve a close family, so I’m really lucky that way, because I’ve always got family and friends guiding me too. But there are a lot of vulnerable mummies out there that don’t have a support structure with family and friends to give that guidance.*
The provision of information is a key concern for families for whom English is not the first language. Much of the information available is not available in translations, therefore inaccessible. For those in Sure Start areas, more information and guidance were provided, and often Sure Starts working in areas with high numbers of BME families have support workers and translators to support these families.
For many families, despite the knowledge they have about home learning opportunities, time pressures in terms of work, looking after other family members and doing essential household tasks leaves parents unable to spend the time they would like to with their child to support learning.
*I have found that I don’t have the time to sit down and do blocks and shapes and things, unless I take myself out of the house.*
*I find it difficult to set that time aside without thinking I should be doing this or... you know what I mean?*
For refugee or asylum-seeking families, there are very specific needs and challenges in supporting home learning. Many of these families are homeless, living in a hostel or in a situation of overcrowded housing for extended periods, and have no space or resources to support learning. The opportunities to do all of the activities above, in and outside of the house, are limited as they struggle to cope with often complex living arrangements.
*There is no proper learning environment. And there is poverty, and the child gets left behind in terms of things that other children take for granted like toys, a place where they can build Lego and all that kind of thing. And those things, all the children can have access to... when you are an asylum seeker it’s not available for you.*
4.2.2 Learning at preschool
As the first experience for most children in terms of formal learning, the preschool or nursery experience is a critical one. All parents who took part in the focus groups had taken up places at preschool or nursery for their child, or intended to when their child reached the right age. None would have considered keeping their child at home until primary age. Issues discussed include the priorities for choosing a particular early-years setting, the hopes and fears of parents as their child takes their first steps towards formal education, and the activities that they feel contribute most to children’s learning. These are summarised below.
4.2.3 Priorities for choosing preschool/nursery
When deciding on a preschool or nursery to send their child to, generally there were a number of options in the local area and parents were able to choose the best option to suit them. However, for others there was limited choice. One parent discussed her struggle to find a place for her daughter at preschool, noting the range of facilities available and the difference in quality, and felt she had had to settle for second best. Another discussed how asylum seeking and refugee families are often housed within a small area in Belfast, so find themselves competing with a large number of families to get a place for their child in the surrounding area.
For those who found they did have a choice of settings, the following were discussed in terms of priorities:
a) **Location**: a preschool or nursery close to home or within walking or short drive distance was one of the most important considerations for all parents, in particular those who work full time and have to drop their child off on their way to work. One parent had a family member as a childminder, therefore she chose a preschool closer to the family member rather than home to allow them to be picked up directly by the childminder.
*All mine [children] have just ended up being at the same school the whole way through because my childminder, it was one of her pickups and it was near and it was handy, plus it always had good reports.*
b) **Hours available**: several parents were limited by the preschools that had full time hours available, as this was the only way they were able to work and have their child cared for full time.
That was part of the reason why I picked the nurseries because they were full time and I couldn’t afford childcare.
Several parents discussed the inequality created by this lack of full-time places available:
*Nursery school isn’t a given that everybody can get a full-time place. And the experience of full or part time children isn’t equal, which shows when they’re going into school.*
For those who work full time, a part time preschool place means that further childcare arrangements must be made. This brings added complications in terms of practical arrange (pick-up and drop-off), not to mention increased childcare bills to make up the shortfall in preschool hours.
*I was thinking about the practicalities of trying to get them [children] from the preschool to the daycare and how’s that going to work. I don’t work in Belfast, I work somewhere else. And my other half doesn’t drive. I have a thirty-minute commute each way. I can’t do it. So one of the things I was looking at was a daycare that also had a preschool room.*
c) **Sure Start provision**: Most of the parents living in a Sure Start area had taken up the offer of Sure Start provision, and were pleased with this option. Again, these were close to home, and in addition, the parent (usually mother) and child/children were already familiar with the staff and setting, which brings an added layer of reassurance and general support for the family.
d) **Primary school connection**: For some, the primary school they preferred for their child had a linked preschool which would guarantee entry to the primary, so they chose that option.
e) **Family connections**: For those who still live in the area they grew up in, first choice is often the preschool or nursery they attended if it is still there (which for many it is). Several who had moved away expressed regret that they couldn’t do this.
f) **Educational approach and physical environment**: these were only mentioned as priorities by two parents. One chose a preschool primarily based on the quality of outside space available, as she didn’t have outdoor space at home and felt her child was missing out because of it, however also felt the wider approach and leadership would be beneficial.
We have chosen a preschool that has lots of outdoor space, because we don’t have that in our house. And as soon as I went to the preschool, I knew that that was the right environment that I wanted my kid to be in, because it was really nurturing, really green... And I could also see all the strategies. I knew that I was talking to two very well experienced nursery teachers who knew what they were doing.
g) **Integration**: two parents specifically wanted preschool provision for their children that offered an integrated environment. They noted that this limited their options and required travelling a little further than the closest option would have been. They had the luxury of doing this, but know that this may not be an option for all parents.
*We wanted somewhere that was more mixed, both religion wise and culturally. So that was probably one of our main motivating factors. But that limits where you can go.*
One mother discussed how she had moved house after the school year had started, therefore had little option for preschool and had to take whatever was on offer- this meant taking a playgroup place rather than nursery (which she would have preferred).
*Because of the move, my daughter was quite unsettled, and all that mattered to me was for her to be comfortable and settle in. But it was ‘who has any spaces left’ at that point. And it was really fortunate for me that their local playgroup had a space to be able to take her in. Later in the year, a nursery place came up, but I couldn’t move her at that stage, you could see that she was happy, she was busy, she was learning, she was making friends.*
4.2.4 Learning at preschool: What works, and what would help?
a) **Getting settled**: Parents understandably had concerns before their child started preschool, given that for many, this is the first time a child is away from family for long periods of time. Concerns were commonly focused on how their child would fit in socially, if they would make friends, and be happy there.
*I was afraid that she’s not going to interact with other children or she wouldn’t like the place. I had so many fears. But after that everything went so well and now I am very happy.*
I think whenever the kids start school or preschool, everyone is afraid about their kids. How they are going to feel? Comfortable, or if they are going to have some good friends?
Several parents had a common concern around their child not being potty trained in time for attending preschool, and there were fears that this may impact the child’s confidence.
For most, things worked out well, although a few found some initial difficulties in getting their child settled. Issues were resolved by working in partnership with supportive preschool practitioners. Overall, parents who took part in discussions were happy with the provision they had chosen for the children (for those with children of that age). There were a range of specific areas which parents felt are useful.
b) **Activities:** The range of activities undertaken in preschool, and the creativeness of practitioners, was felt to really add to any learning taking place at home.
A lot of the exploratory play was really good. That’s what he would have done in Sure Start. He wouldn’t have got to experience stuff like that at home, because both my husband and I work full time and we wouldn’t have had time to commit. They are great, aren’t they. Playing spaghetti and stuff you wouldn’t have dreamed of doing at home because you just didn’t have the time.
However, there was some disparity between what individual parents felt should be happening at preschool, the types of activities and the level of learning. Some felt that their child should be having more formal learning, while others felt there was too much focus on ‘teaching’.
Food provided at preschool/nursery was discussed as being an important factor, both for the social aspect in terms of children sitting down together and learning the routine of dining, and obviously for the nutritional value. Many parents would like to see this extended throughout the school years, as is the case in some other countries.
All of them having a wee meal. Even in the nursery, say it’s lunchtime at twelve o’clock, you see them all coming in with their wee dinners and sitting down and having their lunch with the teacher. I think that’s really important. I think a hot meal and them all sitting in a class, I think is important right up the whole primary school.
c) **Uniform**: Parents generally like the idea of a uniform, even at preschool, and agree that it brings an element of equality to the children.
*I think it’s a very good idea because some children don’t have enough money and don’t have beautiful clothes, and other children have gorgeous clothes. So that’s why it’s better if everybody has uniforms and everybody looks the same.*
Despite this, there were several issues raised. While most of the children wear tracksuits/jogging bottoms/tops rather than formal uniform at preschool, parents feel that the cost of official ‘branded’ sweatshirts can be prohibitive, and that a plain coloured jumper/jogger would be more affordable for all.
*She’s only three and a bit, and think it was £50 for her tracksuit, which I thought was awful dear. It had to be a branded tracksuit with the braiding up the side and school logo on. We could buy just ordinary ones out of Tesco. There’s no need for braiding and stuff on them.*
Several parents found it a struggle to get their child to agree to wear the uniform each day, and this adds to the stress of getting out in the morning. However, some also find that their child’s preschool doesn’t enforce the uniform policy, therefore undermining parents’ efforts to comply.
### 4.2.5 Learning at Primary school
Some of the discussion below reflects the experiences of parents with older children already at primary school, while other parts reflect hopes and concerns of parents when their child reaches that age. Again, common themes are summarised below.
### 4.2.6 Priorities for choosing a primary school
a) **Location**: As with preschool, choice of primary school is usually based on locality. Quite a few parents said their child would be attending the primary school they attended themselves, or a school that their cousins or friends are already attending. Many had chosen preschools/nurseries that were linked to a primary school so that they could ensure their child would get a place, and these are usually local.
b) **Class size**: One key consideration for parents was the class size, with many thinking that a smaller class size would provide their child with a better educational experience. However, for many, this was an ideal scenario rather than a realistic option for them given the school choices available.
*In the smaller school they have a small number of children in one class, so it’s OK. Teacher knows what every child needs, but in the big school they have bigger classes. But I don’t have that option.*
*My older son who was going to primary school, I choose the smaller school, and I will do the same with my youngest. It is better I think when there’s not too many people, not too many kids in a class. The teacher will have more time.*
### 4.2.7 Learning at primary school: what works, challenges and barriers envisioned
a) **School starting age and school readiness**: Several parents who attended school in other countries noted the difference in school starting age there, and felt that children here are too young to go to school at age 4. COVID has increased concerns in this regard, with parents of children who started primary school in September 2020 concerned at the impact on learning of their child missing out on the last months of their preschool year.
*I just feel that they were sort of left behind, that age group. Everyone was going on about kids doing their GCSEs, doing their A Levels and exams were cancelled. But the younger ones just lost out on so much.*
The lack of flexibility around school starting age was a particular concern for one parent whose son was born several months premature, and who she feels is not at all ready to start school at 4, even though he is in the acceptable age range. The lockdown and missing out on the end of his preschool experience has added to what is already a stressful time.
*I am really stressing about my wee son because I can see … I can see my friends’ children who were born the previous July, and these are big toddlers. My wee boy was born in the June so will be in the same year as those born the previous July, because it’s based on ‘born’ date rather than ‘due date’. But he’s nowhere near the same stage developmentally. All I would like is to have the option to do a simple deferral. Just to go a year later.*
Parents also had concern with the term ‘school readiness’, and were unclear what this means in reality for their child. They also noted that no child is the same, and given the diversity within a school year, felt it was unrealistic to expect all children to be at the same stage.
*You’ve got children that are practically a year apart, apart from a couple of days. Children that are born maybe on the second of July and other children whose birthday is on the thirtieth of June. And suddenly they are all supposed to be ‘school ready’ at the same time.*
b) **The transfer test:** Although post-primary school is a long way off for the children of those who took part, parents are looking ahead and have thought about the issues their child might face. The transfer test is a pressing concern, with many parents feeling this puts unnecessary pressure on children at a young age. The two separate tests (AQE and GL) also contributes to the stress and anxiety children are experiencing.
*See the test now, I don’t remember it being so traumatic. I sat my eleven plus. I don’t remember it being this big thing, do you know the way it is now? Now I am looking at kids and I’m like, there’s so much pressure put on them. Depending on what board the school is under, they have to sit so many different tests. I was like, how is that less stressful than what the eleven plus was?*
One group of parents discussed the culture of additional tutoring for children to help them pass the transfer test, and felt this adds an additional layer of inequality to the education system, while also adding to the pressure on children. Parents feel it will inevitably be parents who are better off who can afford to pay for tutoring, and this will perpetuate inequalities in those who attend grammar school. One transfer tests (AQE) costs money to enter, which for some parents may prevent their child taking part.
*Education is supposed to be free and equal for everybody and it’s not. Because if you are going to grammar school you are from more of a privileged background… Because you hear so many parents saying, oh my child has a tutor because she has to pass the AQE. But then I think as well, if it is not in them to pass it on their own merits, how are they going to cope with grammar school?*
c) **Homework:** Some of the parents in the groups had older children already at primary school, and had a discussion around the
amount of homework set. For some, this caused difficulties as they struggled to have time to support their child, leading to frustration.
*Sometimes it’s too much for the kids as well. Sometimes it’s too much because the kids are getting overwhelmed. If you spend more than 45 minutes on the homework, I think the child can’t really focus.*
Others would prefer more homework; this was particularly noted by two parents who went to school themselves in Poland, and were comparing the Polish and Northern Ireland education systems:
*But I will prefer more homework. Every time he comes back home he says he has no homework because he did it at school. In Poland, we had lots of homework. We were doing this for a few hours every day. Even on holidays and weekend, we always had homework. This is good, because it is training for our brain every day.*
*I agree... I would prefer more homework because the homework which my other son has, he does it at school and when he comes home he has nothing to do. So I have to tell him to read a book.*
Parents agree that the type of homework given is important, with some discussing how perhaps just reading a book or helping around the house might constitute ‘homework’.
*It needs to be worthwhile. My wee girl, her homework is they’ve to read a book every night. Maybe a wee fairy story or whatever. So she does try to do that. But they don’t be sitting slaving over history or anything. I don’t think that would be useful.*
d) **Extracurricular activities:** Parents are keen for their children to take part in extra-curricular activities, and feel that this contributes to a more rounded education. Primary school provides an ideal opportunity for them to try out new things. Sports were the most common activities offered, however not all children are interested in sport, and they would prefer a wider range of activities such as art or drama. Parents discussed the disparity in opportunities offered at each school, with some having a good range such as cooking, gardening, coding and film club, while others offer basic football or hockey.
*I find as well there’s a real lack of the arts in schools, especially at the minute, for children. When I was in primary school you got free lessons to learn an instrument.*
Loads of us in our class played instruments. And I am a really big believer that that is key to an all-round education... it gave me lots more opportunities in life as I grew up, that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Where schools do offer activities such as learning an instrument, the cost is a barrier.
I had wanted my daughter to sign up to play the flute. But it was something like forty pounds a month... no, more than that. Forty pounds a month for the instrument and then you had to pay for tuition on top of that.
There is a cooking club at school, but you have to pay extra, you know like a subsidy for ingredients and things.
4.2.8 Children with Special Educational Needs
Many of the parents who took part have had concerns or difficulties in terms of their child’s development at some stage, and many were in the process of seeking advice or support for potential special educational needs. Again, some of this discussion focused on older children already at primary school.
a) Assessment: Common issues reported include speech and language delays, dyslexia, and autism spectrum disorders. Parents reported the assessment and statement process as being lengthy and complex, and discussed the disconnect between education and health services. Yet children cannot be provided with additional support until this process is complete, therefore children may spend a long time struggling, which can have much wider consequences on their education and wellbeing.
[my older daughter] was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyscalculia. But she would suffer really badly with anxiety and low self-esteem. But it was due to the dyslexia and it not being diagnosed and she always thought, I’m stupid. She went through most of primary school, and was only picked up for support in P7.
Often, parents or preschool staff notice a concern in the very early years, yet many children are still awaiting a decision well into primary school. One parent shared her early concerns about her child having dyslexia, and having spent several years trying
to have her assessed, paid for a private assessment. Despite this, her child still receives no additional support.
*We paid for the assessment, got it done and then the Education Authority wouldn’t recognise it. They’ll only recognise it and give you support if the school psychologist gives you the report.*
b) **Provision of support:** Other parents were concerned that the need for children with special educational needs to have support in the classroom, and the delays discussed in getting this support, means that the other children in the class are not getting their share of attention from the teacher.
*There’s a lot of children with special needs in the school and the school isn’t given the funding to cope with them. And that absorbs a lot of the teacher’s and the classroom assistant’s time, to the detriment of the other kids.*
*You have a class of up to thirty-six kids and one person at times. That’s ridiculous. And you might have multiple special needs children in that one room. That’s just laughable. Nobody can do that.*
*My daughter, has dyslexia and she is now in P5. But she gets no support with it because there’s no funding for it. The meagre funding that they get has gone to whatever other children there are with more special needs. And yes, they need that as well, but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that my child needs it. So I think that’s a major concern.*
Parents recognise that one to one support is not realistic for all children who need it, but feel that the funding available could be used more creatively to support children.
*But even if you highlighted a group of kids that were in the class that you thought, OK, this group of children is struggling. If you were to group those children together and take them out and give them, as a group, one to one. So then you could have six kids in one class. That’s going to benefit six kids instead of one.*
For those parents who had received support for their children, early intervention was a priority, and they felt that staff within primary schools could play a greater role in identifying issues and helping children to get on the path to diagnosis and therefore support:
The classroom assistants need to definitely look out for these things a lot more, before it’s too late.
4.2.9 Learning elsewhere: what works?
a) **Outdoor space**: Outside of education, parents feel that parks are of particular benefit for young children’s learning. This gives them the opportunity to exercise, get fresh air and try out equipment which may support their motor skill development, while also providing important social opportunities.
*Well the likes of the park. It’s anywhere where he can be social. That’s what I like for my son. Because he is an only child. He does have cousins, but there’s no one around his age.*
*My daughter would mix with anybody and talk to anybody. So even if she’s in the park, she’ll always have somebody to play with.*
b) **Community activities**: For parents of young children, activities happening in the community around them are of high importance. They provide a good opportunity for their child to meet and engage with other people, while also allowing parents (particularly mums) to meet others in the area and in the same situation as them.
*Here in leisure centre in Dungannon there was loads of different programmes for the kids. There was one for example called Jo Jingles on Saturdays. And in the library there were activities every Friday, I think, or Thursday. I was in the library always.*
*I was actually going to every activity I heard about, because there is not much in this town. So whenever you hear, you just sign your child everywhere to make sure that she’s going to play with other children and she will have fun and she will learn things as well.*
4.2.10 Future hopes
a) **Subject/exam options**: The educational opportunities open to children were thought to be limited in terms of subjects offered and career choices ‘prepared for’. Some parents felt that the traditional route of GCSEs, A-levels, then university was not a ‘one size fits all’ model and that all post-primary schools should offer a range of options.
Rather than just focusing on all academic subjects, say by the time they are teenagers, there should definitely be more vocational subjects, say if they did want to go into electronics or plumbing or engineering, that they can do that. That it’s not just all university, GCSE, A Level.
They just go to the primary school and if they do their transfer it’s an academic path. And if they go to the secondary, I mean they can go on to university if they want, but there’s not an awful lot of options for children who are maybe not as bright or not as academic. So we need a fairer system that way.
b) **Child wellbeing:** Above all, parents wished most for their child to be happy, confident and free to choose their own path, rather than having specific career aspirations. An educational career that supports their child’s wellbeing is a priority, as is one that provides a range of options to help every child to do their best and to succeed in whatever they choose to do.
*Well I basically would like him to go to a school where he’s going to excel. I don’t want him to go to a school and struggle.*
*I would love him just to be happy and to be happy with what he is doing.*
They also felt it important that children are free to make their own decisions and mistakes, and to have the opportunity to change their mind in the future, and that their school/s were supportive of their choices.
*If he feels that he made the wrong decision, ideally there’s always options there. You can change your direction. If you picked something, it’s not in stone.*
*Everyone says, oh I want my son to be a doctor or a lawyer. But if he was a binman, there’s nothing wrong. Because some of my family are binmen. But if that was a career that he was happy doing, and was coming home and had a happy home, that’s what I would want for him.*
5. **Summary and considerations for the work of the Expert Panel**
This section provides a summary of the key findings from the research activities undertaken. This is not intended as a set of recommendations for the panel, rather, reflects the current educational priorities of the parents and children involved. These findings should be combined with the wider work of the Panel to inform the next steps to better support all children to learn and achieve equally.
5.1 Summary of findings: children
5.1.1 Learning at home: what works?
a) Using technology makes learning enjoyable, as long as children have access to the necessary devices and internet.
b) Having supportive family around children helps them to learn at home, by helping with homework and engaging in other activities.
c) Sometimes family do not have enough capacity to support children due to competing pressures.
d) Children enjoy reading for pleasure, but also feel this supports their learning.
e) Making use of relaxation techniques helps children to focus.
f) Children recognise that doing homework to embed learning is important (but it helps if it is fun!)
5.1.2 Learning at school: what works?
a) Supportive relationships with teachers and wider school staff, including classroom assistants and playground supervisors.
b) Making learning fun, using technology and engaging activities.
c) Minimising distractions in the classroom and providing children with techniques to help them to focus.
d) Allowing children opportunities to practice new skills and knowledge.
5.1.3 Learning at school: challenges to learning
a) Teacher approach to and attitude when engaging with children - a supportive, two-way relationship is important.
b) Distractions in the classroom mean some children have difficulty focusing on work.
c) Not all children work in the same way and would like options such as quiet break-out spaces, time out, background music.
5.1.4 Learning elsewhere
a) Extended family and friends support learning by helping with homework and by engaging in other learning activities. Other key people, such as childminders or social workers, can also support learning.
b) Clubs, organisations and local facilities, including sports, art, religious and voluntary/community groups add to children’s learning experience.
c) Relationships with staff or volunteers within these are often key, rather than the activity itself.
5.1.5 Hopes for the future
a) Children have a wide range of career aspirations, and recognise the importance of support from people around them, as well as working hard and passing exams to help them achieve their goals.
b) Challenges and barriers to achieving goals include financial concerns, anxiety/confidence issues, or missing school through illness or other reasons.
5.1.6 General comments: what would better support learning?
a) Children feel strongly that access to and use of technology, in and outside of school, would better help them learn.
b) Practical suggestions for improving the school environment, such as focusing on pupil wellbeing, recognising and supporting two-way communication between teacher and pupil, would create a better learning environment.
c) Practical suggestions to support wellbeing in everyday life, including helping children to get more sleep, worry less and build confidence, would also help them to learn.
d) Enhancing the capacity of those around children to better support them, e.g. providing more classroom assistants and helping adults to better encourage children.
5.2 Summary of findings: parents
5.2.1 The home learning environment
Activities and resources:
a) Parents recognise the role of the home learning environment, and are keen to support their child’s early learning.
b) Common home learning activities include reading or drawing, playing with blocks or bricks or doing puzzles.
c) Chatting, singing and storytelling are all important for learning, but can feel exhausting and time-consuming.
d) Parents have differing access to physical resources, however know that children can play creatively with any materials.
e) Parents appreciate that engaging children in everyday tasks around the house can be educational opportunities.
f) Physical activity is important but can be hindered by lack of outdoor space.
**Knowledge and information:**
a) Parents had different experiences in terms of the source and quality of information received to support home learning, and often had to figure things out for themselves.
b) They feel that not enough information is given on the importance of quality play for development, and what quality play actually means.
c) Common sources mentioned include health professionals (midwives, health visitors, GPs), Sure Starts, antenatal education groups, family and friends.
d) Health professionals prioritised information on feeding/infant weight rather than social/emotional or other developmental milestones.
e) For families with EAL, information in native languages is scarce.
**Challenges and barriers:**
a) Time pressures and competing priorities leave parents unable to spend the time they would like to with their child to support learning.
b) Lack of consistent information for parents means some are ill-equipped to maximise early learning.
c) For refugee or asylum-seeking families, the above pressures are multiplied- they often are housed in overcrowded areas with severe lack of space and resources.
**5.2.2 Learning at preschool and/or nursery**
**Priorities for choosing preschool/nursery include:**
a) Location: close to home, family or childcare provider is the top priority for most parents.
b) Settings offering full time hours are also prioritised- this is particularly important for parents working full time.
c) Sure Start provision, if available, was the top choice for parents in Sure Start areas and brings the added benefit of a wider support package.
d) Many parents still live in the area they grew up in, therefore had personal connections with a particular setting.
e) Some parents had a preferred primary school, therefore chose a preschool that had links there.
f) Educational approach and physical environment were only a priority for a few parents.
g) A few also prioritised an integrated setting, however this limited options.
h) A common concern was how the child would fit in socially, if they would make friends, and be happy there.
What works well at preschool?
a) The range and quality of activities undertaken in preschool, and the creativeness of practitioners, was seen to add to home learning.
b) Food provided at preschool/nursery or the opportunity to sit down together and eat builds social skills while also ensuring nutrition for all.
c) Parents appreciate a uniform to provide equality, however this can be costly and prohibitive.
5.2.3 Learning at Primary school
Priorities for choosing a primary school:
a) As with preschool choice, location is the top priority for parents and the criteria on which most base their decision.
b) Parents feel smaller class size would mean their child gets more teaching support, however this is not always an option.
What works, challenges and barriers envisioned
School starting age and school readiness:
a) Many parents feel that four is too young for formal schooling to begin.
b) This lack of flexibility is a particular concern for parents of premature children, who are already at a developmental disadvantage to their peers.
c) Parents are unclear what ‘school readiness’, means for their child, and feel it is unrealistic to expect all children to be at the same developmental stage at the same age.
d) COVID has increased concerns in this regard, with parents of children who started primary school in September 2020 concerned at the impact on learning of their child missing out on the last months of their preschool year.
**The transfer test:**
a) This is a pressing concern, with many parents feeling this puts unnecessary pressure on children at a young age. The two separate tests (AQE and GL) also contributes to the stress and anxiety. The AQE has an entry fee, which for some parents may prevent their child taking part.
b) The culture of private tutoring to prepare children for the test perpetuates inequality within the education system, as less well-off parents cannot afford this therefore their children are less likely to attend grammar school.
**Homework:**
a) Some parents feel the amount of homework set in primary school causes frustration for children and can be a struggle. Others would prefer more homework.
b) The type of homework given is important—perhaps just reading a book or helping around the house might constitute ‘homework’.
**Extracurricular activities:**
a) These add to overall learning, and are as important as academic learning.
b) There is inequality in terms of what is offered at each school, with sport the main focus in many schools to the detriment of the arts and other activities.
c) Where schools do offer activities such as learning an instrument, the cost is a barrier.
5.2.4 Children with Special Educational Needs
a) This is seen as one of the biggest challenges facing children in education. Common issues reported include speech and language delays, dyslexia, and autism spectrum disorders.
b) The assessment and statement process experience has been lengthy and complex, leading to delays in children receiving the support they need. This can have much wider consequences on their education and wellbeing.
c) Early intervention is critical but in reality, hasn’t happened for many. Some parents have paid for a private assessment; however, this has not been formally recognised therefore no support was given.
d) Parents are also concerned at the impact on the wider class if additional support is not there for those who need it.
e) Parents feel available funding could be used more creatively to support more children.
f) Parents feel staff within primary schools could play a greater role in identifying issues and helping children to get on the path to diagnosis and therefore support.
5.2.5 Learning elsewhere
a) Parks and public spaces give children the opportunity to exercise, get fresh air and try out equipment which may support their motor skill development, while also providing important social opportunities.
b) For parents of young children, activities happening in the community around them are of high importance, providing social opportunities for both parent and child.
5.2.6 Looking ahead and future hopes
a) **Subject choices and exams**: The traditional route of GCSEs, A-levels, then university is limiting for children; there cannot be a ‘one size fits all’ model and parents would like to see all post-primary schools should offer a range of options.
b) **Career options**: Children should be free to make their own decisions and mistakes, and to have the opportunity to change their mind in the future, with school/s being supportive of their choices.
c) **Wellbeing**: An educational career that supports their child’s wellbeing is a priority. Above all, parents wished most for their child to be happy, confident, and free to choose their own path, rather than having specific career aspirations.
## Appendix 1: Breakdown of those SOAs where over 30% of children under 15 are living in poverty
| Council Area | Urban or rural | SOA | Rank | % children living in poverty | Proposed area to target |
|-------------------------------------|----------------|----------------------|------|-------------------------------|-------------------------|
| Ards and North Down (1) | Urban | Central Ards | 22 | 30.5% | Central Ards |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (3) | Urban | Church | 9 | 35.2% | Lurgan centre |
| | Urban | Woodville_1 | 20 | 31.0% | |
| | Rural | Keady | 23 | 30.5% | |
| Belfast (12) | Urban | Woodvale_3 | 1 | 48.0% | North & West Belfast & Botanic areas |
| | Urban | Crumlin_1 | 3 | 39.6% | |
| | Urban | Botanic_2 | 4 | 37.8% | |
| | Urban | Duncainr_1 | 5 | 37.7% | |
| | Urban | Botanic_4 | 6 | 37.7% | |
| | Urban | Woodvale_1 | 8 | 36.3% | |
| | Urban | Crumlin_2 | 11 | 33.9% | |
| | Urban | Botanic_3 | 13 | 32.7% | |
| | Urban | Duncainr_2 | 16 | 31.2% | |
| | Urban | Ardoyne_2 | 18 | 31.0% | |
| | Urban | Woodvale_2 | 21 | 30.6% | |
| | Urban | Legoniel_2 | 28 | 30.1% | |
| Causeway Coast and Glens (4) | Urban | Ballysally_1 | 12 | 33.4% | Ballysally & Central Coleraine |
| | Urban | Central | 14 | 32.6% | |
| | Mixed urban/rural | Glentaisie and Kinbane | 24 | 30.3% | |
| | Rural | Castlerock_2 | 27 | 30.1% | |
| Group | Location | Number | Group details (age, gender) | School Demographics |
|------------------------------|-------------------|--------|-----------------------------|---------------------|
| Derry City and Strabane (3) | Urban East | 7 | | Creggan & Brandywell area |
| | Urban Strand 2 | 17 | | |
| | Urban Brandywell | 19 | | |
| Fermanagh and Omagh (1) | Urban Lisanelly_1 | 2 | | Inner Omagh (Lisanelly) |
| Newry, Mourne and Down (5) | Rural Crossmaglen | 10 | | Areas all close together, around the border. |
| | Rural Silver Bridge_1 | 15 | | |
| | Urban Drumgullion_1 | 25 | | |
| | Rural Creggan | 26 | | |
| | Rural Forkhill_2 | 29 | | |
**Appendix 2: Demographic information relating to children and parents engaged.**
| Group | Location | Number | Group details (age, gender) | School Demographics |
|------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|--------|-----------------------------|---------------------|
| Parents | Online-parents drawn from Belfast, Omagh, Derry, Dungannon, Craigavon | 11 | 10 female, 1 male (4 EAL) | N/A |
| Parents | Lisburn | 6 | 6 females (0 EAL) | N/A |
| School 1 (online-2 sessions) | Derry | 20 | P4 group (age 7/8) P7 group (age 10/11) | 63.4% of pupils received free school meals 78 pupils (27%) have some special educational needs |
| School 2 (Face to face- 2 sessions) | Dungannon | 46 | P4 (age 7/8)
P7 (age 10/11)
(26 girls, 20 boys) | 19.6% of school pupils receive Free School meals
197 pupils (24%) have some special educational needs
85.2% newcomer children |
| School 3 (face to face- 2 sessions) | Belfast | 20 | P4 (age 7/8)
P7 (age 10/11)
(13 girls, 7 boys) | 77.6% of school pupils receive Free School meals
29 pupils (30%) have some special educational needs
<5 newcomer children |
| Youth club (face to face) | Lisburn | 13 | Age 10/11
13 girls | Mixed backgrounds |
**Appendix 3: Topic guides and session plans**
**Parent topic guide**
| Area of discussion | Questions and prompts |
|--------------------|------------------------|
| The home learning environment | You all have young children, so you know how much they grow, develop and learn in the first few years. The ‘home learning environment’ is the combination of spaces, resources (toys, books, objects), activities and interactions that your child experiences at home. |
| | |
|---|---|
| | • Are you happy with the options you have available? Why do you say that?
| | • Do you have any concerns about your child going to school? If so, what?
| | • What do you think are the most important considerations? What makes a school a good learning environment?
| | • What if anything would better prepare your child to get the most from school?
| Learning elsewhere | Obviously, there are so many more people, places, organisations where your child has an opportunity to learn.
| | • Aside from preschool/school, what other organisations, people, places would you say have an important role in supporting your child to learn?
| | • How do they support learning? What do they do well? What do they not do so well?
| | • How could they better support your child to learn?
| | • Are there any lessons from other organisations that could be transferred to school?
| Challenges and barriers, facilitators and enablers | Thinking more widely about education and learning opportunities, I want to ask you about your thoughts on any barriers to children’s learning, generally and then for your own children, and anything that you think helps learning.
| | • In general, what do you think the biggest challenges are for children to learn?
| | • Do you think those issues are different in different areas/schools/groups of children?
| | • Are there any specific challenges or barriers which you think your own children will face?
| | • In general, what do you think makes for a positive learning experience for children? What helps them to learn?
| | • For your own child/children, what helps them to learn?
| Area of discussion | Questions and prompts |
|--------------------|-----------------------|
| | What could schools do better/more of to give all children the best possible educational opportunity? |
| | What could the government do better/more of to give all children the best possible educational opportunity? |
| | What could others do better/more of to give all children the best possible educational opportunity? |
| Hopes and wishes for your child | Looking ahead, we want to explore your hopes and wishes for your child, and how your own experience has influenced that. |
| | Is there anything you would like for your child in terms of educational experience that you didn’t have? |
| | What would have better helped you? |
| | What are your hopes for your child in terms of learning and education? Short term vs long term? |
| | Is there anything you think might stand in their way? And anything that might help them? |
| General comments | The Expert Panel will be sharing their findings with the NI Assembly to help improve the educational experience of all children and young people, but in particular those who have experienced disadvantage. |
| | If you had to give them one key message, what would it be? |
| | Is there anything else you would like to add? |
**Child topic guide**
| Area of discussion | Questions and prompts |
|--------------------|-----------------------|
| Learning at home | You spend lots of time at home (especially at the minute), doing lots of things like sleeping, watching tv, reading, playing games, doing homework. |
| | |
|---|---|
| | • Who do you think could help you better to do those things? What could they do? |
| General comments | The Expert Panel will be sharing their findings with the government to help them decide how to make learning opportunities better for all children, no matter where they live or what school they go to.
• If you had to give them one big message about what would help children to learn better, what would it be? |
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To many, the new year signifies a fresh start, and it is a common time to make resolutions for the year ahead. If you have a goal to improve your health, knowing how to start may feel overwhelming. According to the CDC, small improvements to health and well-being can yield positive results. For example, a five- to ten-pound weight loss can improve blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar. Getting enough sleep can reduce stress, improve mood, prevent illness, support weight management, and improve attention and memory.
Health outcomes are determined by a variety of factors, and lifestyle choices are a vital component. Some lifestyle behaviors that impact health include physical activity, eating habits, mental health management, sleep hygiene, and social connectedness. A commitment to making positive behavior change can improve health when the focus is on staying healthy, rather than a “quick fix.” If you are working toward better health, consider the following tips to help make lasting changes and maintain well-being long term.
» **Find Your Why**
One of the key ingredients to successful behavior change is understanding why it matters to you. Aligning your goals to your core values can increase personal satisfaction and commitment. Establishing an emotional connection to the goal(s) you want to achieve is likely to improve your motivation because you will have a determined sense of purpose. Once you have discovered why making a change is important to you, consider creating a visual reminder by writing it somewhere you will see it each day!
**Remember:**
Although the new year serves as the traditional time to set resolutions and goals, you can make positive change at any time throughout the year!
» **Choose Goals Right for YOU**
Not only is it important to find your “why,” but it is equally important to choose goals that align with your personal needs and values. The new year brings energy and excitement, which can make it tempting to jump on the latest trends. To avoid falling victim to societal pressures, try ask yourself the following questions:
» What are my primary health concerns right now?
» How does my goal connect with my “why”?
» Is this goal important to me? Or am I being influenced by outside factors such as friends, family, co-workers, or media?
» Do I believe I can accomplish this goal?
» Should I consult my physician about any underlying medical conditions before committing to this goal?
» **Plan**
Forming new habits and making lasting change takes time and commitment. Developing a plan can provide a structured approach to improve your health and well-being. A plan can be a helpful framework for your wellness vision, long-term goals, and short-term goals. It can help you identify and overcome
Did you know that January is also National Birth Defects Awareness Month?
» According to the CDC, every 4.5 minutes a baby is born with a condition that affects the structure or function of their body.
» For more information, visit the CDC Birth Defects Resources page.
Questions to Ask Yourself to Find Your “Why”
- What are my top two core values?
- What is important to me?
- A year from now, how do I want my health to improve?
- Why do I want my health to improve?
- How will my life be different with the improvements I aim to achieve?
- What will happen if I do not make any changes?
barriers, maintain accountability, and adjust based on your experience. Set yourself up for success by making your plan SMART.
» **Specific:** What is the outcome you want to accomplish? What behavior(s) will help you achieve it? For example, if you want to live a more active lifestyle, you might set a goal to walk for 20 minutes at least three times each week.
» **Measurable:** How will you measure your progress? What improvements do you want to see over time? In the same example, you might choose to keep an exercise log or use a wearable device to measure your progress, and you might aim to increase your walking frequency from three days a week to four within a month.
» **Achievable:** Consider using a confidence scale (e.g., 1-10) to assess whether you believe you will achieve your goal. If your confidence rating is below a 7, reevaluate the goal. What changes can you make to bring your confidence closer to a 7 or greater? Keep in mind that if you give yourself a rating of a 10, the goal may not challenge you to grow beyond your comfort zone.
» **Relevant:** How will this goal fit into your life right now? Ensure your goal is relevant to your current life. A goal that fits your priorities is more likely to succeed.
» **Time-Bound:** When do you plan to start implementing your goal? Is this a short-term or long-term goal? Hold yourself accountable by setting deadlines to aim for. Remember, it is ok to allow for flexibility when challenges or setbacks occur!
» **Start Small and Be Realistic**
After you have identified your plan, consider starting small. Many make the mistake of setting too many lofty goals for the new year and become frustrated or discouraged when they prove hard to achieve. To increase your likelihood of success, focus on one behavior at a time. As your confidence grows and new behaviors become habits, continue to add in other pieces of your plan. Be realistic and progress at a pace that is right for you.
» **Ask for Support**
Improving your health and well-being is a journey that will have moments of celebration and difficulty. Surrounding yourself with supportive people and ensuring access to wellness resources can reinforce motivation and accountability as well as strengthen your resiliency and commitment. Support can come in many forms including friends, co-workers, or family members. It can also come from professionals like counselors, physicians, or health coaches as well as employer-sponsored resources like employee assistance programs (EAPs).
» **Celebrate Your Progress**
Celebrate milestones, big and small! Progress toward your goals is progress toward improving your health and staying healthy. Your journey may have setbacks, and it is normal to experience challenges along the way to better health. Each opportunity is a chance to learn and grow. Celebrating your successes can increase motivation and boost confidence.
**Resources**
» National Staying Healthy Month (cdc.gov)
» Making Lifestyle Changes That Last (apa.org)
» How to Make Lifestyle Changes Stick (theheartfoundation.org)
» Dare to Lead List of Values (brenebrown.com)
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In keeping with British Science Week, the Science Bazaar Beyond’s theme is ‘Growth’. The My Bazaar Research Competition 2022 celebrates this theme with ‘How Science Makes Me Grow!’
Take part in our competition
how science makes ME grow
CONTENTS (click on titles to take you to a specific page)
HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES SUBJECT AREAS 3
SOME OF OUR RESEARCHERS 4
NOW OVER TO YOU 5
THE COMPETITION! 6
STORYBOARD TEMPLATE 8
PRIZES 9
MEET OUR MENTORS 10
MEET OUR JUDGES 11
WHAT ARE OUR JUDGES LOOKING FOR? 12
SUBMIT YOUR STORYBOARD 12
including Gyasi Sheppy from CBeebies House
HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES IS A HUGE AREA
It includes subjects like:
- Biological and Medical Sciences
- Sport
- Psychology
- Social Work
- Nursing and Midwifery Research
- Health Science
Our researchers and scientists often have to understand the science behind how things grow.
Click on the bubbles to find out more.
SOME OF OUR RESEARCHERS WILL TELL YOU A BIT MORE ABOUT THIS
I study the parasite Leishmania that makes people and animals sick. The parasite is very small. I watch it under a microscope to work out how the cell grows as this will help find a cure.
Dr Jack Sunter,
Senior Research Fellow, Biological and Medical Sciences
I research young children’s sleep. In Psychology we are working to understand how sleep helps us stay healthy, mentally and physically as we grow and develop.
Fiona Tierney,
PhD student of Psychology
I research plant cells using microscopes to see how plants grow and how we can make better plants to feed more people in the world.
Dr Verena Kriechbaumer,
Plant Cell Biologist and Protein Biochemist
I try to understand the growth of prostate cancer in black men and why black men are more at risk of developing prostate cancer than white men.
Dr Obrey Alexis,
Researcher in the Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery
I research how exercise and technology can help children and young people with cancer feel better and grow stronger.
Hayley Marriott,
Postgraduate Research Assistant on the EU Horizon 2020 funded FORTEe Project
My research consists in preventing people of all ages from getting sport injuries, especially when growing!
Dr Anne Delecrat,
Researcher in Sports and Exercise
NOW OVER TO YOU!
Can you tell us about the growth science you would like to do?
For example;
- What happens when **a baby** grows?
- How does population **growth** affect **the world**?
- Where does the **mass of a tree** come from?
Words in **blue** can be changed if you are seeking further ideas.
THE COMPETITION!
Are you a UK resident age 4 to 12?
If yes, we would ❤️ you to create your very own ‘how science makes me grow’ STORYBOARD
Read on to find out how to enter the competition
WHAT TO DO
1) Think about what Science makes you grow? Hint! Research it via the internet or at a library.
2) Write down the ‘science bit’ and check you understand it.
3) Try to explain ‘the Science bit’ in a story…
…you might want to invent an imagined character (human, animal or plant!) to help make the story more fun.
Meet Govind
4) **Govind Chandran** is a film and media lecturer at Oxford Brookes. Here are his top tips for creating an exciting storyboard!
**Tip 1**
Think of it like a very simple comic book of the movie! Fit the images into boxes or ‘frames’. Some comic-book films like Spiderman even use scenes from the comic books as their storyboards.
**Tip 2**
It only needs the key elements. You don’t need complicated backgrounds, just the characters and objects they might use. Keep it simple.
**Tip 3**
Use arrows! If a character needs to move, draw an arrow showing us the direction. This can even be a hand with an arrow pointing up showing that the hand moves up.
**Bonus Tip**
Have fun! There’s no wrong way to do a storyboard. It’s your vision!
5) Use the storyboard template below, to explain your ‘growth research’
STORYBOARD TITLE:
print this page (pp.8) to use for your storyboard
Storyboard template
PRIZES
11 TO 12 YEAR OLDS
FIRST PRIZE -
• a virtual certificate from Oxford Brookes University
• a £20.00 book voucher and a mentoring programme - see below
SECOND PRIZE -
• a virtual certificate from Oxford Brookes University
• a £20.00 book voucher
7 TO 11 YEAR OLDS
FIRST PRIZE -
• a virtual certificate from Oxford Brookes University
• a £20.00 book voucher and a virtual lab tour for you and your school class
SECOND PRIZE -
• a virtual certificate from Oxford Brookes University
• a £20.00 book voucher
4 TO 7 YEAR OLDS
FIRST PRIZE -
• a virtual certificate from Oxford Brookes University
• a £20.00 book voucher and a virtual lab tour for you and your school class
SECOND PRIZE -
• a virtual certificate from Oxford Brookes University
• a £20.00 book voucher
VIRTUAL TOUR OF A SCIENCE LAB
For ages 4-7 years and 7-11 years (Reception to year 6), the first prize will be a book voucher and virtual lab tour with Dr Maike Kittelmann, Senior Research Fellow in Developmental Biology and Bioimaging. The prize winner can undertake the virtual tour with their class if they are attending school.
I am interested in how fly eyes grow and how their final size is determined. We use scanning electron microscopes to look at the eyes of insects and spiders to better understand how they develop and function. This can also help us to learn about our own vision and human eye diseases.
Oh my what big eyes you have!
VIRTUAL MENTORING SESSION(S) ABOUT A CAREER IN SCIENCE
For ages 11 to 12 years (year 7) the first prize will be a mentoring session(s) with an Oxford Brookes Health and Life Sciences Researcher to talk about their research, your ideas and a career in Health and Life Sciences research.
MEET OUR MENTORS
Dr Sangeetha Thondre is a Nutrition researcher
Dr Shelly Coe is a Nutrition researcher
Stan Windsor uses digital technology to help people who are sick grow stronger through exercise
Dr Casper Breuker is a Biologist
Dr Georgia Cook is a psychologist who explores sleep in children, young people and their families'
Dr Mamdooh Alzyood specialises in infection control practices
OUR JUDGES
Dr Astrid Schloerscheidt
Astrid is the Dean of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences here at Oxford Brookes. She grew up in Germany and moved to the UK to study Psychology. She stayed to do a PhD and then worked at several Universities in the UK before coming to Oxford Brookes. Astrid has worked with students for over 20 years and is passionate about teaching and science.
It is a real honour to have been asked to judge this STEM competition on ‘Growth’. Acquiring knowledge about the natural world, from understanding the workings of cells that make-up living organisms to how plants, animals and people interact in big ecosystems is not only interesting but also important so we can ensure that the world around us remains healthy so that we can enjoy it for a long time to come. I am really looking forward to seeing the entries and all the creative and wonderful ideas that you will show us.
Gyasi Sheppy
Gyasi is the new regular Presenter of CBeebies House. He hails from Lisburn in Northern Ireland and has recently landed his dream job as a TV Presenter. Gyasi has been performing his whole life having worked on stage and screen in Northern Ireland and The Walt Disney Company.
Being asked to judge this STEM competition on ‘Growth’ is an honour. For young people to be exposed to science and learning how the natural world around them works is vital to their development. I look forward to seeing how creative and artistic these young people can be in showcasing an understanding of their chosen topics.
Dr Elsa Panciroli
Elsa is a Research Fellow at the Museum of Natural History in Oxford.
I’m really excited about this competition! The science of how everything in our world grows is amazing, and often baffling. I’m a Scottish palaeontologist, and I study the fossils of extinct animals as part of my research at the University of Oxford Natural History Museum. One thing fossils can tell us is how animals grew in the past. Different animals alive today grow at different speeds and patterns, and I want to find out how these patterns evolved over many millions of years. I’m especially interested in our ancient ancestors from the time of the dinosaurs, in the Jurassic. Did they come from eggs, or were they born straight from their mothers, like mammals today? How quickly did they grow up and leave their parents to look after themselves?
WHAT ARE OUR JUDGES LOOKING FOR?
There will be a winner in each of 3 age groups: 4 to 7 years, 8 to 11 years, 11 to 12 years.
We will be looking for;
Originality, Creativity, Scientific knowledge & understanding
The deadline to enter is 12 February 2022
Submit your form and storyboard HERE
Share your research ideas on Twitter or Instagram using #ScienceBazaar2022 once you have entered.
Check the competition rules below.
OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY MY BAZAAR RESEARCH COMPETITION 2022
Rules
1. The competition is organised by Oxford Brookes University.
2. Entry to this competition is open to persons living or attending school in the UK who will be aged between 4 and 12 years on Saturday 12 February 2022. Entry will be in 3 age groups, 4-7 years; 7-11 years; 11-12 years.
3. Entrants must submit an original idea (the work must be individual and the young person’s own work) for scientific research, including a question they would like to answer or explore and what interests them about this area of science. Entries can be submitted in any format that the entrant chooses, which can be shared on social media: Only entrants’ name and age and school will be published with an entry.
4. All entries should be submitted in English.
5. Entries should be submitted by a parent or carer by submitting the completed Google entry form, including the storyboard.
6. You can also share your research ideas on Twitter or Instagram using #ScienceBazaar2022.
7. Entry closes on Saturday 12 February 2022 at 20:00. Submissions received outside of these times will not be considered.
8. Entrants can only enter individually. Entrants cannot submit multiple entries.
9. Entries must be the entrant's original work and must not infringe the rights of any other party.
10. Feedback will not be provided on entries.
11. Entrants agree that the copyright for their competition entry shall be vested in Oxford Brookes University, provided the author is attributed.
12. By submitting an entry, the entrant’s parent or guardian agrees that Oxford Brookes University may at its sole discretion edit, adapt, abridge or translate the entry.
13. Entries will be judged on the following criteria: Originality, Creativity Scientific knowledge and understanding.
14. Entries will be judged by Oxford Brookes University Health and Life Sciences research staff. and the nominated Judges. Decisions will be final and no communication will be entered into.
15. Winning entries will be shared on social media.
16. Winners will receive a virtual certificate from Oxford Brookes Health and Life Sciences. For age categories 5-7 years and 8-10 years, prizes will be a virtual certificate, a virtual tour of an Oxford Brookes Health and Life Sciences laboratory with an Oxford Brookes Health and Life Sciences researcher and a book voucher. For age categories 11-12 years, winning entrants will receive a Health and Life Sciences research mentoring programme (max of 45 mins per session with an Oxford Brookes Health and Life Sciences Researchers to talk about their research, the entrants’ ideas and a career in science. They will also win a book voucher and a virtual certificate.
17. Winners will be contacted by email during February 2022 using the contact details they provided on entry. Winners will be publicly announced on Oxford Brookes social media channels during February 2022.
18. Oxford Brookes University reserves the right to disqualify any entry which breaches any of these rules or brings the University into disrepute.
19. Oxford Brookes University reserves the right to amend these Rules or cancel this competition at any stage if deemed necessary in its opinions, or if circumstances arise outside of its control.
If you have any questions about this competition, please email firstname.lastname@example.org
Have fun & Good Luck
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CAR SEAT SAFETY GUIDE
PROPER FIT AND INSTALLATION
Proper use of car seats helps keep children safe. Throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, children must use a child car seat until they are a minimum of 12 years old or 135 centimetres tall, whichever comes first. In select European countries (Germany, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and Switzerland) it is mandatory to use a car seat even longer and up to 150 centimetres in height. Children over the recommended maximum height must wear a seatbelt. Always check your car seat to make sure it is suitable for the height of your child.
In 2013 a new car seat regulation was introduced into the EU and UK referred to as R129. It was established to make child car seats easier to fit, provide better protection from side impact collisions and keep children rear facing longer.
When shopping for a car seat consider these five steps crucial to your child’s safety.
SELECTION
Find the best car seat for you
Choose a seat that best fits your child and your vehicle. Make sure features of the car seat are easy to use and understand, so you have confidence you are installing and using it correctly.
DIRECTION
Rear-Facing or Forward-Facing?
As part of R129, children must travel rear facing until 15 months. Many juvenile and automobile organizations encourage children stay rear facing longer to at least 2 years of age; in Sweden it is required that children stay rear facing until 4 years of age.
LOCATION
Tight install every time
The safest seating position is the one that works best for your car seat, vehicle and family.
R129, and specifically i-SIZE were developed for greater car seat and vehicle compatibility and installation with less room for error. I-SIZE only applies to ISOFIX seats. ISOFIX anchors are marked in your vehicle with this symbol. Check your vehicle owner’s manual to understand if your vehicle is i-SIZE compatible.
INSTALLATION
Read the manuals
Technology changes and manufacturers are always thinking of new ways to keep children safe. Be sure to read your vehicle and car seat manuals for proper instructions and to stay up to date.
PROPER FIT
Position harness straps properly
Always read your car seat owner’s manual for harness fit. In most rearward facing direction car seats, the harness should be level with or just slightly below the child’s shoulders. In a forward-facing car seat, the harness should be level with or slightly above the child’s shoulders.
The harness should always be tight!
The harness should be as tight as possible while keeping the child comfortable. No more than two fingers pressed together should be able to pass between the child and the harness.
Conduct the Pinch Test
You should not be able to create a loop when pinching using your finger and thumb on the vertical part of the harness.
SAFETY CHECKLIST
It’s easier than you think to ensure your child is properly protected in your vehicle, just follow this list!
- **Read your manuals**
Every car and car seat have different installation instructions, so make sure you read both.
- **Carrier only installations are a safe option for travel and especially convenient for ride shares and taxis**
Refer to your manual for instructions on how to get a proper installation.
- **Store loose objects in the trunk**
Anything unrestrained in the vehicle can be a projectile.
- **No bulky clothing or jackets under harness or shield**
Too much padding can give a false sense of tightness.
- **Make sure the harness is tight**
No more than 2 fingers pressed together should be able to pass between the child and the harness.
- **Check installation often**
Adjust harness, check tightness and review safety guidelines.
- **Choose the seat that fits your child’s current height and age**
As children grow, the types of restraints evolve (e.g., carrycot, infant carrier, toddler seat, booster seat). Always check your child’s height and the height maximum of your child seat.
- **Avoid air bags**
Children in rear-facing seats should never be placed in front of an active passenger air bag.
- **Keep children in the back seat until at least age 13**
It’s the safest place to ride.
- **Remember to register**
Register your car seat so you can be notified in the event of a safety recall and for other important product information.
*Qualify the MESA i-SIZE for a LIMITED LIFETIME WARRANTY simply by registering your seat.* Visit UPPAbaby.com for more info.
- **Always wear your seatbelt**
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Success in Literacy Reading Tests
UNDERSTANDING YEAR 5 COMPREHENSION
Excellent for all Students, Teachers, Coaches and Parents
Authors
Alan Horsfield M.Ed., B.A., B.Ed., Dip.Sch.Admin., TESOL, Teaching Cert.
Alan Horsfield has more than 35 years teaching experience in state and private schools in New South Wales and International Schools in Papua New Guinea. He was employed by UNSW (EAA) as an English Research Officer involved in the construction of school tests for English and Mathematics. Alan is a published writer of children's fiction, educational material and school texts.
Elaine Horsfield M.A. (Theatre Studies), B.A. (Theatre Media), Teaching Cert.
Elaine Horsfield has more than 25 years teaching experience in Primary Schools both with the New South Wales Department of Education and in International Schools in Papua New Guinea. She worked with secondary students as coordinator of the NSW Talent Development Project. Elaine is a published writer of children's poetry and educational books.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
- Acknowledgments iii
- Availability of books by the same editor & publisher iv
- Understanding Year 5 English Testing vi
- How to use this book effectively vii
- Test sources viii
- A brief summary of some question formats ix
- A practice test x
Year 5 Comprehension Passages and Exercises
These tests include narratives, poems, procedures, recounts, explanations, descriptions, cartoons and reports. At the end of each test there is also a valuable and well explained literacy tip.
ANSWERS - Reading Comprehension Tests 83, 84
ANSWERS - Literacy Tip Exercises 85, 86
“So it is with children who learn to read fluently and well. They begin to take flight into whole new worlds as effortlessly as young birds take to the sky.”
William James
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF SOME QUESTION FORMATS
Look at the nursery rhyme, *Mary had a Little Lamb*, as the text for a set of questions.
1. Mary had a little lamb
Whose fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.
2. It followed her to school one day
Which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play
To (4) a lamb at school.
Many tests are based on multiple-choice responses. You are given a choice of four (sometimes three) possible answers (options) to choose from.
1. Who owned a little lamb?
A Mary
B some school children
C a teacher at the school
D Mary’s parents
The question could have been framed so that you have to complete a sentence.
2. The lamb was owned by
A Mary
B some school children
C a teacher at the school
D Mary’s parents
Some questions may have to do with word or phrase meanings.
3. Choose the word that could best replace *laugh* as used in the text.
A shout
B giggle
C cackle
D joke
(Did you notice the different layout of the options? They were across the page.)
4. Which word would best go in the space labelled (4) in stanza 2?
A chase
B find
C follow
D see
5. Write the numbers 1 to 4 in the boxes to show the correct order in which events occurred in the rhyme. The first one (1) has been done for you.
1 Mary owned a lamb.
2 The lamb followed Mary to school.
3 Children at the school laughed at Mary’s lamb.
4 Mary went off to school.
Sometimes you might have to work out the sequence in which events occurred.
Some questions are called free response questions. You will have to write an answer.
6. What colour was the lamb? Write your answer on the line? ____________
Sometimes you might have to decide if something is TRUE or FALSE.
7. Tick the box to show if this statement is TRUE or FALSE.
Lambs were allowed at the school. TRUE □ FALSE □
There will be times when you will have to read the whole text and make a judgement.
8. You know that Mary was a kind person because she
A always went to school
B kept the lamb’s fleece clean
C let the lamb follow her about
D played in the snow with her pet
9. There might be a question about the use of language in the text.
The phrase: *white as snow* (line 2), is an example of a
A metaphor
B simile
10. Sometimes you might have to decide if, according to the text, a statement is FACT or OPINION (no example available from the text).
**Answers:** 1. A, 2. A, 3. B, 4. D, 5. (1, 3, 4, 2), 6. white, 7. FALSE, 8. C, 9. simile
Year 5 Comprehension Passages and Exercises
Each of the 40 passages has a set of eight questions - comprehension and language questions, based upon that text. Following the questions is a section called Lit Tip (short for Literacy Tips). These are gems of information that are intended to develop the child’s responses to Language Conventions questions arising in texts and tests. They may also be beneficial when answering questions in Language Convention (Grammar) papers or when completing Writing assessment tasks.
| Number | Text type | Title | Lit Tip | Page |
|--------|-------------|------------------------------|----------------------------------------------|----------|
| 1 | Narrative | Those Poor Plants! | More precise words than said | 2 - 3 |
| 2 | Poetry | The City Dump | Unusual plurals | 4 - 5 |
| 3 | Persuasion | Christmas Lights 1 | Phrases | 6 - 7 |
| 4 | Explanation | What is a Hammer? | The suffix ess | 8 - 9 |
| 5 | Report | Curtain Fig | Triple compound words | 10 - 11 |
| 6 | Folk tale | The Tsunami | Similes and clichés | 12 - 13 |
| 7 | Procedure | Sugarcane Milling | Gender | 14 - 15 |
| 8 | Description | Climb on Board | Singular verbs | 16 - 17 |
| 9 | Persuasion | Icecream Van Flyer | The prefix pre | 18 - 19 |
| 10 | Explanation | What are Verbs? | Tense | 20 - 21 |
| 11 | Persuasion | Dogs in Cars | Apostrophes for plurals | 22 - 23 |
| 12 | Poetry | What Will You Be? | Being precise | 24 - 25 |
| 13 | Narrative | The Skateboard | Metaphors | 26 - 27 |
| 14 | Explanation | What is a Quandong? | Collective nouns | 28 - 29 |
| 15 | Report | Precious Gold | Abstract nouns | 30 - 31 |
| 16 | Description | Bat-wing Cannibal Fly | Homophones | 32 - 33 |
| 17 | Explanation | Gone Phishing | Using question marks | 34 - 35 |
| 18 | Report | The Final Kombi | Analogies | 36 - 37 |
| 19 | Poetry | The Microbe | Possessive pronouns | 38 - 39 |
| 20 | Report | Origins of Tea | Being precise | 40 - 41 |
| 21 | Explanation | Redundancies | Singular nouns, final s | 42 - 43 |
| 22 | Persuasion | Christmas Lights 2 | Word building | 44 - 45 |
| 23 | Procedure | How to Whistle | Onomatopoeia | 46 - 47 |
| 24 | Review | Tokaanu Thermal Walk | Alliteration | 48 - 49 |
| 25 | Report | Where in Australia? | Comparative adjectives | 50 - 51 |
| 26 | Narrative | The Fly Trap | Euphemisms | 52 - 53 |
| 27 | Graphic text| Comic Strips | Writing addresses | 54 - 55 |
| 28 | Play Script | Summer Fun | Non sentences | 56 - 57 |
| 29 | Description | The Humble Spade | The prefix a | 58 - 59 |
| 30 | Persuasion | Letter to Editor | Persuasive text words | 60 - 61 |
| 31 | Explanation | Land Sailing | Brackets | 62 - 63 |
| 32 | Persuasion | Charlotte’s Web | Articles: a, an, the | 64 - 65 |
| 33 | Narrative | The Antique Store | Punctuation in speech | 66 - 67 |
| 34 | Procedure | Draw an Eiffel Tower | Slang | 68 - 69 |
| 35 | Report | Water Puppets | Legends, myths, fables | 70 - 71 |
| 36 | Procedure | Have a Safe Summer | Prefixes for numbers | 72 - 73 |
| 37 | Recount | Pro Hart | Interjections | 74 - 75 |
| 38 | Poetry | Bosley | Paired nouns | 76 - 77 |
| 39 | Report | The World’s Longest Cliffs | Using indefinite articles | 78 - 79 |
| 40 | Narrative | Yuri’s New School | Poor story beginnings | 80 - 81 |
Those Poor Plants!
“People poke fun at plants all the time,” Dusty finally said, with a sigh.
I felt confused so I shrugged. I wondered if he was joking. Was there a great gap in my education? I was about to find out.
“It’s how they talk about them,” explained Dusty as if it was obvious. Not to me.
“Take the word ‘lemon’,” he explained. “People call anything badly made ‘a lemon!’ Especially cars. How do you think that makes a lemon feel?”
I hadn’t really thought about it.
“Then there’s ‘couch potato’. Do potatoes like to be called lazy? No way!” Bindi chirped in.
“People say things without thinking. Corny, nutty, dill. It just goes on and on,” Dusty sounded exasperated.
“Not to mention rhubarb! Rhubarb! Rhubarb! Rhubarb!” Bindi stated angrily.
“Listen for the sniggers when someone says ‘leek’!” muttered Dusty, his head lowered.
“Hayseed!” growled Bindi.
“Cauliflower ear!” Dusty’s turn.
Bindi: “Raspberry!” Followed by a juicy, rude raspberry splutter.
Dusty: “Sucker!”
Bindi: “Gooseberry.”
Dusty: “Sour grapes!”
I was getting a stiff neck glancing from one to the other. It was like watching a tennis match.
“Wet-the-bed!” snapped Bindi. I hoped she wasn’t talking to me.
Dusty came to my rescue. “The name for dandelions, would you believe?” It doesn’t make you wet the bed!” he grinned.
“Not all the time!” muttered Bindi. Dusty and I both gave her a surprised glance.
From: The Green Ambulance Caper by A. Horsfield Jojo Publishing 2014
Understanding Narratives Circle a letter or write an answer for questions 1 to 8.
1. How does Dusty feel about the way plant names are misused?
He is
A amused B concerned C alarmed D miserable
2. Why did Bindi make a rude sound?
A she couldn’t understand the conversation
B she didn’t agree with Dusty’s comment
C she was trying to make her point about raspberries
D she tried to explain what a cauliflower ear was
3. If you read the whole story from which the extract was taken, you would expect the story to be
A scary B informative C amusing D controversial
4. Which line from the text is an example of a simile?
A Dusty and I both gave her a surprised glance.
B Followed by a juicy, rude raspberry splutter.
C Was there a great gap in my education?
D It was like watching a tennis match.
5. What does the word exasperated mean as used in the text?
A doubtfully concerned B slightly confused
C pleasantly informed D highly irritated
6. Which character had the least knowledge of nasty names for plants?
A Bindi B Dusty C the narrator
7. The word poke in the first paragraph is
A a verb B a noun C an adjective D a conjunction
8. What did Dusty and the narrator think Bindi may have done?
A wet the bed
B picked dandelions
C forgotten the explanation
D lost interest in the conversation
Need to try another narrative passage? Check the contents page.
Lit Tip 1 – Improve your literacy skills More precise words than said
It is easy to overuse the word said in story writing. More precise words are available which can improve your story writing.
Look at these three examples:
1. Jack said, “Go away.”
2. Jack snapped, “Go away.”
3. Jack groaned, “Go away.”
Examples 2 and 3 give the reader some insight into Jack’s feelings.
Find three better words than said from the text that help you understand how the speaker is feeling.
1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________
The City Dump
City asleep
City asleep:
Papers fly at the garbage heap.
Refuse dumped and
The seagulls reap
Grapefruit rinds
And coffee grinds
And apple peels.
The seagulls reel and
The field mice steal
In for a bite
At the end of the night
Of crusts and crumbs
And pits of plums.
The white eggshells
And the green-blue smells
And the grey gull's cry
And the red dawn sky . . .
City asleep
City asleep:
A carnival
On the garbage heap.
Felice Holman
Understanding Poetry Circle a letter or write an answer for questions 1 to 8.
1. When the field mice look for food at the dump they
A scurry about excitedly
B sneak around quietly
C wait patiently until sunrise
D find scraps immediately
2. How do the animals at the city dump feel at night?
A They are desperate to find food.
B They are annoyed by the bad smells.
C They are having a great time.
D They are tired and ready to sleep.
3. Which word from the poem rhymes with crumbs?
Write your answer in the box.
4. What are the seagulls doing?
A flying in circles above the dump
B looking for eggshells
C chasing the field mice
D avoiding the flying paper
5. The field mice are most likely to leave the dump when
A no food scraps are left
B the seagulls arrive
C the city goes to sleep
D dawn breaks
6. Which word best describes how people in the city react to activity at the dump?
A annoyed
B puzzled
C unaware
D interested
7. What would be another name for the pits of plums?
A nuts
B seeds
C stalks
D holes
8. The poem, *The City Dump*, makes a contrast between the
A seagulls and the paper flying over the dump
B food and the smells at the dump
C way seagulls and mice scavenge in the dump
D sleeping city and the busy dump at night
Need to try another poem? Check the contents page.
Lit Tip 2 - Improve your literacy skills
Unusual plurals
To make the plural form of most nouns you simply add an s: shoe / shoes
If the noun ends with a consonant + y, change the y to i and add es: baby / babies
There are some unusual plural forms. The plural of mouse is mice (as used in the poem).
Look at these singulars and their plural forms: tooth / teeth, sheep / sheep, man / men
child / children
Can you find the plural form for these nouns? goose ____________, wolf ____________
salmon ____________, woman ____________, cactus ____________, medium ____________
| No. | Title | Answers |
|-----|--------------------------------------------|---------|
| 1 | Those Poor Plants | 1. B |
| | | 2. C |
| | | 3. C |
| | | 4. D |
| | | 5. D |
| | | 6. C |
| | | 7. A |
| | | 8. A |
| 2 | The City Dump | 1. B |
| | | 2. C |
| | | 3. plums|
| | | 4. A |
| | | 5. D |
| | | 6. C |
| | | 7. B |
| | | 8. D |
| 3 | Christmas Lights | 1. D |
| | | 2. B |
| | | 3. A |
| | | 4. B |
| | | 5. C |
| | | 6. D |
| | | 7. B |
| | | 8. A |
| 4 | What is a Hammer? | 1. A |
| | | 2. C |
| | | 3. B |
| | | 4. D |
| | | 5. C |
| | | 6. B |
| | | 7. club hammer|
| | | 8. A |
| 5 | The Curtain Fig | 1. D |
| | | 2. D |
| | | 3. A |
| | | 4. D |
| | | 5. B |
| | | 6. C |
| | | 7. NO |
| | | 8. B |
| 6 | A Japanese Folk Tale | 1. C |
| | | 2. C |
| | | 3. A |
| | | 4. B |
| | | 5. A |
| | | 6. C |
| | | 7. A |
| | | 8. D |
| 7 | Sugar Cane Milling | 1. C |
| | | 2. B |
| | | 3. A |
| | | 4. D |
| | | 5. juice|
| | | 6. C |
| | | 7. B |
| | | 8. D |
| 8 | Climb on Board | 1. C |
| | | 2. A |
| | | 3. D |
| | | 4. B |
| | | 5. (2, 4, 1, 3)|
| | | 6. C |
| | | 7. B |
| | | 8. A |
| 9 | Ice Cream Van Flier | 1. C |
| | | 2. B |
| | | 3. A |
| | | 4. D |
| | | 5. C |
| | | 6. B |
| | | 7. D |
| | | 8. A |
| 10 | What are Verbs? | 1. D |
| | | 2. A |
| | | 3. B |
| | | 4. ate |
| | | 5. C |
| | | 6. D |
| | | 7. A |
| | | 8. C |
| 11 | Dogs in Cars | 1. A |
| | | 2. C |
| | | 3. D |
| | | 4. B |
| | | 5. A |
| | | 6. B |
| | | 7. C |
| | | 8. D |
| 12 | What Will You Be? | 1. A |
| | | 2. C |
| | | 3. D |
| | | 4. B |
| | | 5. C |
| | | 6. A |
| | | 7. C |
| | | 8. Toad |
| 13 | The Skateboard | 1. C |
| | | 2. D |
| | | 3. B |
| | | 4. D |
| | | 5. C |
| | | 6. exclaimed, added, declared|
| | | 7. A |
| | | 8. A |
| 14 | What is a Quandong? | 1. B |
| | | 2. A |
| | | 3. D |
| | | 4. D |
| | | 5. C |
| | | 6. A |
| | | 7. C |
| | | 8. B |
| 15 | Precious Gold | 1. C |
| | | 2. B |
| | | 3. A |
| | | 4. B |
| | | 5. A |
| | | 6. D |
| | | 7. silver OR nickel|
| | | 8. B |
| 16 | Bat-winged Cannibal Fly | 1. A |
| | | 2. two wings|
| | | 3. B |
| | | 4. D |
| | | 5. A |
| | | 6. False|
| | | 7. B |
| | | 8. C |
| 17 | Gone Phishing | 1. B |
| | | 2. C |
| | | 3. Example: phone|
| | | 4. C |
| | | 5. A |
| | | 6. D |
| | | 7. B |
| | | 8. A |
| 18 | The Final Kombi | 1. 63 |
| | | 2. A |
| | | 3. B |
| | | 4. C |
| | | 5. B |
| | | 6. D |
| | | 7. C |
| | | 8. A |
| 19 | The Microbe | 1. A |
| | | 2. C |
| | | 3. D |
| | | 4. B |
| | | 5. C |
| | | 6. B |
| | | 7. D |
| | | 8. A |
| 20 | Origin of Tea | 1. A |
| | | 2. B |
| | | 3. Szechwan|
| | | 4. A |
| | | 5. C |
| | | 6. B |
| | | 7. B |
| | | 8. D |
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23 February 2018
Ash Wednesday (February 14) marked the beginning of the journey of Lent. Lent is a time when we are invited to stop and reflect; a time to turn back to God and God’s call to be people of justice, humility, compassion and mercy.
Indifference to our neighbour and to God … represents a real temptation for Christians. ‘Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience’ (Pope Francis, 2015 Lenten message). ‘What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8). The voice of the prophets is clear. During Lent we are challenged to care for others through giving our time and resources to help those less fortunate (almsgiving), to prayer and fasting and to actions for justice.
The students of St Agnes Catholic High School have accepted this challenge – through prayer, giving to Caritas and raising awareness of injustice they are growing in faith and love.
Reflection
It is often said that we should give up something for Lent. The prophets call on all of us to let our consciences be troubled by the poverty, injustice and violence of our world and to act – to do something extra…however small.
Whatever we decide to ‘do’ or ‘give up’ for Lent, the important thing is that in six weeks time we have grown in our relationship with Jesus as individuals and as a faith community.
We Pray
This Lent may our hearts open to the cry of the poor and the cry of the Earth. May we respond with compassion and generosity to those we meet. May we be hearts of mercy and compassion in our world.
Staff Development Day - March 2
Next Friday is a pupil free day. Staff will be working with Dr Lyn Sharratt from the University of Ontario focussing on assessment practices and feedback to students. We are delighted that we have been able to access such an acclaimed educational consultant to further develop and grow as teachers.
Year 7/2019 Open Day
Our Year 7/2019 Open Day is fast approaching. I encourage prospective and existing families to come along to support St Agnes Catholic High School on Monday 5 March from 5:30-7:30pm. Enrolments are now being accepted for 2019.
Pace e Bene
Lisa-Maree Browning
Principal
Ok you have done it! Your children are back at school. You have had to find lunchboxes, schoolbags, notebooks, pencils, and pens. If they’ve grown a bit over the summer, a new uniform, along with the must-have joggers of the season, also might be in order. You might need to find room in your budget for an iPad, hotspots, and USB flash drives.
Then there are other back-to-school items. Those that don’t make the usual shopping lists but that are much more important for your children than any multi-subject notebook, scientific calculator, or smart pen. Unlike the lists you normally receive from school, my list is made up of things you already have and that are grounded in scientific research for improving children’s learning.
Here are 2 of them:
1. **Praise Children For Their Effort, Not Their Intelligence**
Most of us parents praise our children for being smart. We do it constantly. We do it because our children are bright and we think that telling them so makes them feel good and gives them confidence. We do it when we say, “You’re so smart,” and when we boast about their brain power to their grandparents.
This is a good thing isn’t it? No. Telling children they’re smart does not give them the confidence to take on new challenges or the self-esteem to persevere when they fail. Research suggests that telling children they’re smart might actually interfere with their ability to learn.
“What?” you’re thinking. It’s because repeated praise for being intelligent sends the message that intelligence is an innate and fixed trait. This leads children to discount the importance of effort. They reason, “I’m smart, so I don’t need to try as hard.” Children who are praised for their intelligence also become less likely to take intellectual risks and are more likely to give up when the going gets tough. It is more important for them to appear smart than to chance making mistakes and getting labeled as “dumb.”
Praising children for their intelligence also stymies their ability to deal with failure. When children labeled as “smart” fail, they reason they’ve failed because they mustn’t have the intellectual goods to cut it. In fact, some studies show that when “smart” children struggle, they are more likely to lie about their performance than to admit that they had trouble. Too much praise can be especially troubling for children who have had an easy time in the early grades but then run into subjects in high school that require some effort. When they begin to make errors, they don’t try harder or study more diligently because they believe that talent alone and not effort creates success. So they conclude that they must have been unintelligent all along. It’s at this point that many “smart” children throw in the academic towel.
In contrast to children who are praised for being smart, children who are encouraged for their effort come to believe that intelligence is a flexible quality that can be improved through hard work. These children feel that their success is in their control and therefore they are not stopped by failure. They interpret failure merely as a signal to try harder or do things differently. In fact, children who are encouraged for their effort often are game to take on demanding tasks and work to develop new strategies. In short, these children tend to go at challenges eagerly, persevere when the going gets tough, and show resilience after failure.
A few comments here and there aren’t likely to do any lasting damage, but the key is to praise children for their effort, their hard work, their persistence, and their strategies. Next time your son comes home with an A, instead of telling him how smart he is, praise him for trying hard. If he comes home with a lower grade than expected, be honest. Don’t tell him that he deserved a better grade because he is smart. Instead, encourage him to think through ways that he could improve.
2. **Make Learning Meaningful, Not Rewarded**
If you’ve ever promised your child a treat, some TV time, or another reward for finishing her word study homework, working on her science project, or writing her essay, then you know that bribes can get things done. What you might not know is that they also squash children’s drive to learn.
Children are born with a deep desire to learn. In fact, children’s drive to learn is so strong
that some consider it a universal human drive, like hunger and thirst. You can see this drive most clearly in infants and young children who are constantly observing, exploring, experimenting, and asking questions. They engage in these behaviours for the same reason we indulge in chocolate cake. It feels good. In psychology speak: learning is internally motivated. The “learners high” that children get from making new discoveries, learning new things, and mastering new skills spurs them to do more exploring, experimenting, and questioning so that they can learn even more things and get rewarded with even more good feelings.
As children’s knowledge and abilities become increasingly sophisticated with age, their learning brings them not only joy but also mastery. Mastery gives them the capacity to do new things and take certain risks with their know-how. Learning is a straight up reward cycle that if allowed to thrive, will persist for a lifetime. But it is possible to break this natural cycle by doing something as seemingly harmless as doling out rewards for children’s learning.
Can gold star stickers really undermine children’s learning?” you’re thinking. Yes. Decades of behavioural research has demonstrated that rewarding any behaviour that is internally motivated with external incentives reduces our natural drive to carry out that behaviour. The reasoning goes that when an intrinsically rewarding behaviour is reinforced with external incentives, like prizes, cash, or cupcakes, we begin paying more attention to the incentives and less attention to the pleasure that comes from doing the behaviour. This shift in attention brings about a shift in motivation to extrinsic incentives and disables the existing intrinsic motivation. When children are rewarded for doing something they enjoy, like learning, the reward alters their source of motivation from internal to external and they come to expect rewards for learning.
It is true that children will do more math homework and word study worksheets if we promise them chocolate, a superhero action figure, or videogame time. But in the process of repeatedly rewarding them for doing their work, they go from learning because it feels good to learning to get a special privilege or prize. Then the goodies, rather than any internal drive, come to motivate learning. Even enjoyable learning tasks can be turned into drudgery that children will do only for external incentives. Rewards for even play activities, like drawing and block building, can snuff out the fun.
But as a parent, boring projects or seemingly lame homework is not an excuse to offer up rewards. Rather it is our job to get our children to realize the real-world benefits of the skills these assignments are developing. The thing is, the motivation to learn doesn’t come from the process of learning. It comes from products of learning. And sometimes these products are difficult for children to see without our help.
The motivation to read, for instance, doesn’t come from the thrill of sounding out new words, writing out their definitions, and then generating a list of synonyms. The motivation for reading comes from being able to do meaningful things, like reading comic books and secret notes from your best friend.
So what can you do? Make sure that your children understand the real-world benefits of the skills they’re developing. Think of it this way. It is surely tough for a first-grader to understand why he’s being asked to memorize how to spell a set strange words, write them four times each, and then sort them into alphabetical order. But if his parents regularly read storybooks, street signs, cake recipes, and restaurant menus with him, then he’s likely to understand not only why his teacher is asking him to learn new words but also that reading can be good fun. Likewise, the motivation for learning math is not the excitement of rounding up whole numbers, estimating whether 8 + 9 is more than 20, determining the volume of containers, and finding the perimeter of a pentagon. It is driven by the real-world benefits of being able to figure out whether you have enough birthday money to buy both the cubby house and the family minivan, divide your jellybeans equally among your friends, know if your new water gun is too big to fit under your bed, and estimate how many bags of sand you’ll need to fill the new sandbox.
If you can help your children understand these sorts of real-world benefits of their new knowledge, then you’ve motivated their learning.
Ken Wolfe
SCHOOL FEES
We would like to make parents/caregivers aware that the incorrect biller code has been printed on the Term 1 School Fees Statements. For any parents/caregivers making future BPay payments, please use biller code 514695 (not the one on the statement).
For those who have already made a payment to the incorrect biller code, please advise our School Fees Secretary to ensure funds are receipted correctly (call 8882 0706).
Parents have the opportunity to take up the FLEXIBLE PAYMENT PLAN offer online. Forms have been mailed to you direct but MUST be returned for processing by 9th March 2018.
Should parents not return these forms by the due date, the family may receive a reminder notice.
Years 7-10 Assessment Handbooks are now available on the school website. They have also been placed on the school Moodle. These handbooks are designed to give students information about formal assessment procedures. Dates have been provided for all relevant assessments. Some assessment dates may be changed with sufficient notification of two weeks given to students due to changes in the school calendar.
Assessment is used to find out what a student needs to learn, how well a student is doing as a course progresses and how well a student did at the end of a unit. Assessment can be formal or informal. An example of informal assessment would be a teacher’s judgement of the work completed in class or participation in a particular activity. Formal assessment can include tasks such as assignments, exams, research projects, performances, portfolios and practical tests. Formal assessment tasks include information on the outcomes that are being assessed and an indication of what students have to do to achieve a given grade.
I have included an extract from the Assessment Handbooks regarding student responsibilities. It is important that all students familiarise themselves with them. These are as follows:
• Speak with the Teaching and Learning Coordinator if you are in doubt about the requirements of the Assessment Policy.
• Cooperate with the process of Assessment.
• Inform the school if you are to be absent on the day of an assessment task.
• Do not plagiarise (i.e. copy) other peoples’ work. Malpractice or dishonesty will lead to a zero mark.
• Ensure that any questions about marks, grades or comments awarded for an individual piece of work are resolved at the time the work is handed back.
• Demonstrate that thorough effort and achievement have been met for the requirements of that course.
• Complete all assigned work to the best of your ability.
• Complete the task on the set date that it is due. Penalties will apply for late submissions.
Students also have access to the Google school assessment calendar that outlines, on a term basis, all assessment dates. Students should familiarise themselves with these dates and make use of Homework Club that takes place every Tuesday afternoon between 2:30-3:30pm in the library to receive assistance from teachers in the completion of their tasks.
**IMPORTANT CHANGES TO THE HSC MINIMUM STANDARD**
From this year, Year 9 NAPLAN tests will no longer be available as an early way for students to demonstrate the standard. This change has been made to ensure NAPLAN remains focussed on its diagnostic purpose and to reduce unnecessary stress on young people.
Current Year 10 students who achieved a Band 8 or above in one or more of the 2017 Year 9 NAPLAN reading, writing or numeracy tests are recognised as having met the HSC minimum standard in that area/s and will not need to sit the corresponding online test/s.
For further information regarding the HSC minimum standard of Literacy and Numeracy please visit http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/hsc/hsc-minimum-standard
Laurence De Martin
**YEAR 7/2019 INFORMATION NIGHT**
Monday 5 March 2018
Tours: 5.30pm & Information Session: 6.30pm
Register your interest at https://www.trybooking.com/TZEZ
Our Lenten Journey theme:
“Return to me with your whole heart” (Joel 2:12)
This year the Australian Bishops have identified 2018 as the National Year of Youth. A year where we carefully discern how we as young people can be a life giving presence for our church and our society. Life can get very busy, but with the wisdom and tradition of the church, we have been given 40 days for prayer, fasting and almsgiving, a time to focus on our faith and to strive to be holy. As a community, this is an opportunity to refocus our gaze on Jesus this Lenten season.
In the library, Mrs Berman and Miss Brogan have created a special place where students can stop and write a commitment this Lent. Lent is a special time when we stop and think about how we can play our part in God’s hope for a world that is fair, just and peaceful. We think about our relationship with God, and how serving others draws us closer to God. We also think about the changes we can make in our lives, to be God’s love and mercy in our world, ensuring all people have a just future. To help us align our hearts to the meaning of Lent, Fr Alan Layt or Fr Pat Mullins SJ continue to support us by making Confessions available every Friday in the Prayer room that is open to all staff and students.
Our Lenten journey began with **Shrove Tuesday** as the Catholic Social Leaders hosted a fundraiser for Project Compassion by selling pancakes at recess. I’d like to give a big thank you to Mrs Balzan for her delicious St Agnes original pancake recipe and to her lovely cooks - Rhiannon Soans (10.7), Jeremy Parnell (10.6), Crystal-Rose Marsh (10.5), Bryan Gamo (10.3), Caitlin Adema (10.1), Kiara White (10.8) and Isobel McDonald (10.5) for their assistance. Our fundraiser was a true success and display of St. Agnes spirit.
The following day, Stage 4 and 5 held an **Ash Wednesday Liturgy** where we all had the opportunity to make a commitment to action, that we may open our hearts to Project Compassion, and live deeply the theme ‘For a Just Future’. During the distribution of ashes, the song “Hosea” was sung beautifully by Kathleen Sikuea (10.7) and piano played by Robert Apostol (9.1) and this song reminded us of the spirit of Lent; coming back to Christ who longs for our return back to him:
“Come back to me with all your heart
Don’t let fear keep us apart
Trees do bend though straight and tall
So must we to others’ call
Long have I waited for
Your coming home to me
And living deeply our new lives
The wilderness will lead you
To the place where I will speak
Integrity and justice
With tenderness
You shall know.”
As we have been marked on the forehead by ashes, a symbol of the beginning of Lent but also a symbol of our humanity and our need for repentance and forgiveness, may we take some time with ourselves and with our families to think of small ways each day to help us honour the meaning of Lent. I have found a Lenten Family Calendar from Loyola Press (https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/liturgical-year/lent/activities-and-resources/lenten-family-calendar) that you can download and make as a part of your Lenten journey this year.
I also want to share with you this year’s Lenten message from Pope Francis as he helps us to open our eyes to the true meaning of this season of repentance through prayer, almsgiving and fasting:
- **Prayer** enables our hearts to root out our secret lies and forms of self-deception, and then to find the consolation God offers. He is our Father and he wants us to live life well.
- **Almsgiving** sets us free from greed and helps us to regard our neighbour as a brother or sister. What I possess is never mine alone. I would also hope that, even in our daily encounters with those who beg for our assistance, we would see such requests as coming from God himself. If through me God helps someone today, will he not tomorrow provide for my own needs? For no one is more generous than God.
- **Fasting** weakens our tendency to violence; it disarms us and becomes an important opportunity for growth. On the one hand, it allows us to experience what the destitute and the starving have to endure. On the other hand, it expresses our own spiritual hunger and thirst for life in God. Fasting wakes us up. It makes us more attentive to God and our neighbour. It revives our desire to obey God, who alone is capable of satisfying our hunger.
(Source: MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR LENT 2018 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/lent/documents/papa-francesco_2017101_messaggio-quaresima2018.html)
The Breakfast Club have responded to the call for almsgiving by continuing to support students in providing toast, fruit and cereals every Tuesday to Friday morning from 7:40 to 8:10am. The Year 10 leaders have volunteered their time to serving students with a smile on their face and with a generous spirit. When asked “Why do you serve in the Breakfast Club?”, Rasha Ali (10.1) responded “It’s fun! and I really enjoy doing this. It gives me more purpose in coming to school every day”. Simple acts of kindness like this is what makes St. Agnes a place where all are welcome and valued as a member of our school community. I’d like to personally thank all the students who have dedicated their early morning’s to continue the work of Breakfast Club this year. We are always looking for volunteers so I encourage students from Year 7, 8 and 9 to sign up and be a part of this wonderful St Agnes original initiative.
Project Compassion Challenge: Which House is the GOATest?
As a school community, we are doing our part in bringing awareness of the wonderful work of Caritas Australia through the GOAT Challenge. Each House (Chisholm, Francis, MacKillop and Xavier) is represented as a village, whose aim is to buy as many goats as they can. Goats can provide a constant supply of income and nutritious food for a family through their quality milk, cheese and meat. One goat costs $50, so for every $50 earned by each House more goats will be raised for the House village. We encourage all of our staff and students to generously support our Project Compassion challenge this year as we know a small donation each week goes a long way. An update of the progress of each House will be shared every week via our school newsletter, instagram or facebook page. Follow us to see which House is the GOATest!
I pray that we may all have a reflective and prayerful Lenten journey this year.
Pace e bene,
Mrs Mary Reyes
National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence 16th March, 2018
Registrations are now open for the 2018 National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA) to be held Friday 16 March 2018.
This annual positive day of action provides a national focus for school communities to talk about the importance of ‘taking a stand’ against bullying and violence. Each official NDA school will have access to a range of downloadable resources and materials to make the day your own, including parent and student tips, lesson plans, classroom discussion starters to encourage students to say ‘Bullying. No Way!’.
Join the movement now and register for the NDA. All Australian schools are invited to register as an official NDA school and start planning early! The Bullying. No Way! website offers schools a range of resources, materials, lesson plans and classroom discussion starters to support NDA activities. For more information and to register visit www.bullyingnoway.gov.au
Vegetable Week and The Big Vegie Crunch 2018 for Primary Schools
Vegetable Week, featuring The Big Vegie Crunch, is back for 2018. Vegetable Week will run over Week 5 of Term 1 - from Monday 26 February to Friday 2 March 2018 - with The Big Vegie Crunch being held at 10am on Thursday 1 March.
Vegetable Week is a quick, easy and FREE school-based event that aims to increase students’ knowledge, exposure and positive attitudes towards vegetables. The Big Vegie Crunch is the exciting record breaking focus of Vegetable Week. It is an attempt to get as many NSW primary school students crunching vegetables together as possible. Last year 29,067 NSW primary school students crunched simultaneously. Help us to break this record in 2018! For more details on the event, and to register, take a look at the Vegetable Week and The Big Vegie Crunch webpage - www.healthy-kids.com.au
PRC 2018 Calendar of Events
A copy of the calendar can be downloaded via 2018 Calendar of Events for the Parents Representative Council (PRC). All parents and friends are welcome to attend.
From the Bishops Office
2018 Lenten Message from Bishop Vincent
To read Bishop Vincent's Lenten Message in full and watch the video, please visit: goo.gl/2F77m9
Pre-marriage preparation courses
The Life, Marriage and Family Office are again offering Pre-Marriage preparation courses for couples intending to marry. Couples are invited to book online to attend either a weekend course or individual couple preparation. The website for online booking is www.parracatholic.org/pmp. The dates for all courses in 2018 will be found online. Further enquiries: 02 8838 3460.
Walk the Lenten Journey on your mobile phone
The Xt3 Lent Calendar App 2018 is available for download on Apple and Android devices (search for Xt3 Lent) and can be viewed from the website: www.xt3.com/lent
The Lent calendar will run from Ash Wednesday to Divine Mercy Sunday. Each day will unlock a new video, meditation or podcast, to help you prayerfully journey through Lent. The theme for the Xt3 Lent Calendar 2018 is "Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus."
Volunteers Needed
Kimberley Catholic Volunteer Service in the Diocese of Broome, WA, requires volunteers to assist with the work of the local Church in the Kimberley. There are various important voluntary tasks: administration, building maintenance, gardening, shop staffing, cooking, cleaning etc. Placements are preferred for a period of 6 months. We are currently seeking caretakers for the Balgo parish. Accommodation and food is provided. For further details on how to be a part of this unique experience, and an application form, please contact: Volunteer Coordinator: Anneliese Rohr 08 9192 1060. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Swimming Carnival - 23 February 2018
OUR PARISH SCHOOLS
St Aidan’s
9 Adelaide Street
Rooty Hill
Ph: 02 9625 8404
Sacred Heart
23 Nelson Street
Mt Druitt South
Ph: 02 9625 8847
Holy Family
254 Luxford Road
Emerton
Ph: 02 9628 7272
St John Vianney’s
17 Cameron Street
Doonside
Ph: 02 9622 3426
EASTERN CREEK PIONEERS NETBALL CLUB INC.
How long has it been girls?
PLAYER REGISTRATION DAYS
PLAYERS REQUIRED
UNDER 6’S TO SENIORS
DATE 10TH & 17TH OF FEBRUARY 2018
TIME 4PM- 6PM
LOCATION AT OUR NETBALL COURTS
MORREAU RESERVE CHURCH RD ROOTY HILL
PLEASE CONTACT
ROBERT FITZGERALD PRESIDENT
0403 677 519
SONIA MCWHIRTER REGISTRAR
0425213080
DON’T FORGET THE ACTIVE KID PROGRAM
Win $500 for your school!
Write4Fun is excitedly waiting to award $500 to the school of the First Place Winner in our current writing competition! The winning student will also receive a cool $500! Simply have your students write a 500 word (or less) short story OR a 16 line (or less) poem on any topic and in any style and enter today. For more information visit www.write4fun.net | <urn:uuid:de82ba33-1ee1-49f9-b80f-0df51d1aa7d5> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://stagnesrootyhill.catholic.edu.au/-/media/Files/CEDP/Sites/Secondary/StAgnesCatholicHighRootyHill-Files/2018-Files/Newsletters/StAgnesCHSNewsletter23February2018.ashx | 2019-02-17T20:46:31Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247482478.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20190217192932-20190217214932-00108.warc.gz | 262,494,930 | 5,744 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.991825 | eng_Latn | 0.997879 | [
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Mission Statement
The mission of the Auburn Enlarged City School District is to develop citizens that are capable of meeting the challenges of their future by providing equitable, fiscally sound educational opportunities necessary to develop confident life-long learners.
Inclusivity Statement
The Auburn Enlarged City School District believes that people work best when their unique voices are heard and valued, their authentic selves are accepted and nurtured, and their individual needs are addressed. We are committed to providing an equitable environment where the social, emotional, physical, academic, and professional development of each person is supported through a multi-faceted lens of diversity, allowing for the affirmation of individuality. Through listening, learning, reflection, and purposeful action, we are better able to cultivate awareness, model respect, and empower one another to become empathetic citizens with a global mindset.
About Auburn
Auburn, located in the serene and visually beautiful Finger Lakes region of Central New York, is sited on the northern tip of Owasco Lake. The sole city in rural Cayuga County, agriculture and dairy are big business for the county with 891 farms and increasing revenue from agricultural exports valued at $65 million. Ranked #1 in acres of soybeans and value of sales of grains, oilseed, dry beans, dry peas, county agriculture is also rooted in significant corn production. The City of Auburn complements the area’s agricultural economic vitality with 18 farms and 69 “pick your own” near the city. The Saratoga Cheese Corporation built its facility in nearby Aurelius because the county is consistently ranked as one of the largest milk-producing counties in the state.
More about Auburn
Over the past few years, Auburn’s craft brewery enterprises have been nationally recognized as having several of the local and regional award-winning wineries. Just as importantly, Auburn, though small with a current population of 25,234, is a vibrant city rich in history, culture, and progressive social justice movements and the performing arts as evidenced by the Rev Theater Company and Auburn Public Theater. From The Seward House Museum to the Equal Rights Heritage Center, from the Cayuga Museum of History and Art and its Case Research Laboratory to the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, as well as the Tubman National Park a historical centerpiece complemented by historical notables interned at Fort Hill cemetery. Auburn, often referred to as “History’s Hometown,” has a diverse legacy of national heroes who called Auburn home.
People from Auburn
- Harry and Kate Freeman, established the first Black settlement, "New Guinea" in Upstate NY
- William H. Seward, served as Secretary of State under President Abraham Lincoln
- Harriet Tubman, a scout for the union army in the Civil War
- Dr. Jerome 'Brud" Holland, U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, and a university president, was the first African American to sit on the board of the New York Stock Exchange, chair the Board of Governors of the American Red Cross, serve on the board of several other major corporations, and was the first Black to play football at Cornell University
- Lydia Ann Moulton Jenkins, the first female ordained Minister for Universalist of Ontario, who was a Doctor of Hydrotherapy, suffragette and temperance leader
- Tah-gah-jute (aka Logan), chief of the Cayugas
- Theodore Case, established the Case Research Lab in Auburn | a51b44bf-35b4-4099-96d7-d5c3e4cf1d9e | CC-MAIN-2025-05 | https://www.boces.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AECSD-Recruitment-Flyer.pdf | 2025-01-18T08:21:52+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2025-05/segments/1736703362385.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20250118055607-20250118085607-00617.warc.gz | 716,003,224 | 691 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.994789 | eng_Latn | 0.995783 | [
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WHAT IS BOOKS FROM BIRTH?
Book Harvest’s Books from Birth program partners with select pediatric practices and health systems to send newborns home with a starter home library of 10 brand new board books. Healthcare providers present this home library packaged in a Books from Birth box that includes a onesie and additional resources that help families foster early language and reading routines from a baby’s first days. Books from Birth lays the foundation for optimal brain development in the first five years -- the precondition for a healthy childhood, school readiness, and a lifetime of flourishing.
WHY BOOKS FROM BIRTH MATTERS
- Literacy promotion and support from a family’s medical team increase active engagement in literacy activities at home including reading aloud several times every week, enjoying reading, and reporting that reading together is a favorite shared family activity. [1]
- Books in the home are the single biggest predictor of a child’s reading proficiency and long term success in school. [2]
- The American Academy of Pediatrics asserts that literacy begins at birth in the home, with parents. [3]
JOINING THE BOOKS FROM BIRTH NETWORK
Healthcare practices who are eligible to join Book Harvest’s Books from Birth network commit to:
- participating in the program for a minimum of 12 months;
- providing all families with newborns in the practice with a Books from Birth box containing 10 new specially-curated books and additional literacy resources;
- coordinating the attendance of clinic staff at learning sessions with Book Harvest;
- assigning a clinical liaison at the practice who conducts monthly check-ins with Book Harvest’s Books from Birth Specialist, to ensure fidelity to the model;
- providing monthly report of data.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095493/
[2] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100520213116.htm
[3] https://psmag.com/education/home-libraries-confer-long-term-benefits; https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/13201
ABOUT BOOK HARVEST
Book Harvest’s mission is to provide books every child, support for every parent, and literacy for every community. Since 2011, Book Harvest has provided more than two million books to families in North Carolina and beyond, ensuring that children grow up with abundant home libraries and parents have the tools and power to ignite and strengthen their children’s literacy. With programs that are grounded in evidence, Book Harvest believes that literacy starts at birth, in the home, powered by parents, and nourished with books. For more information, contact Jeff Quinn at firstname.lastname@example.org. | fe043cfe-a7cd-4520-b90d-6d452b489c5f | CC-MAIN-2025-05 | https://www.bookharvest.org/_files/ugd/b9ef69_48e6119833734e08aea3ddfa336bf103.pdf | 2025-01-25T13:45:54+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2025-05/segments/1736703699506.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20250125111848-20250125141848-00204.warc.gz | 692,449,257 | 534 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.997314 | eng_Latn | 0.997314 | [
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FACEBOOK AND ENGLISH LEARNING STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT
By
DALGIS MEJIA HUN
Dissertation submitted to the Instituto de Estudios Superiores en Educacion of the Universidad del Norte in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education
Tutor
HEIDY ROBLES
April, 2015
Barranquilla, Colombia
DEDICATION
To my mother, husband and son for all of their patience, support, and love.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank God who has filled my life with his grace and blessing. To my mother for taking care of my son while I was attending the classes; it has no price. To my husband Rodrigo, for always being there giving me his encouragement and support. To my lovely son Jose Fernando, for inspiring me to be a better professional and his example to follow. ¡No most of my time in front of the computer, boy!
Thanks to the Atlantic governor and his Secretary of Education for believing teachers can make a big difference if they receive training. Your sponsorship made my dream possible. To my tutor Heidy Robles, for empowering me every time I felt things were bad. Your patience changed my mind about doing research. Now I perceive this process as enriching and necessary more than difficult.
To the head of my school and its coordinators for trusting on my capacities and making the schedule adjustments to carry out my project. ¡Don’t worry it was worth doing it!. Finally, to my students for accepting being the center of my research. Your efforts are enormously appreciated.
# TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction .................................................. 8
1.1 Rationale ................................................. 9
1.2 Context .................................................. 11
1.3 Research questions ..................................... 12
1.4 Objectives .............................................. 13
2. Theoretical Framework .................................... 13
2.1 Engagement: Definition ................................ 13
2.2 Engagement considerations ............................ 15
2.3 Categories of engagement ............................... 16
2.4 Engagement and motivation ............................. 19
2.5 Tips and strategies to fostering motivation ........... 20
2.6 Engagement and active learning ....................... 23
2.7 Tips and strategies to promote active learning ...... 23
2.8 Conditions to promote the integration of motivation and active learning to get students’ engagement ........................................ 26
2.9 Concept of Mediation in the Socio cultural theory .... 27
2.10 Characteristics of mediation .......................... 28
2.11 Types of mediation .................................... 29
2.12 Human mediation ....................................... 29
2.12.1 Teacher as a mediator ............................. 29
2.12.2 Peers as mediator .................................. 30
2.13 Symbolic mediation .................................... 30
2.13.1 Language as a mediator ........................... 30
2.13.2 Technology as a mediator ........................ 30
2.14 Computer-assisted language learning (CALL): Definition ..........................31
2.15 CALL from the socio-cultural theory perspective ...........................................31
2.16 Computer-mediated communication (CMS) and language teaching ............32
2.17 CALL and language skills .............................................................................33
2.18. CALL and pedagogy ..................................................................................35
2.19 New Technologies: Web 2.0. Definition and characteristics ......................36
2.20 Web 2.0 and education ...............................................................................38
2.21 Social networks and Facebook: origins and definition ...............................39
2.22 Reasons to use Facebook in Education .........................................................40
2.23 The use of Facebook with academic purposes ............................................41
2.24 Facebook in language learning ..................................................................42
2.25 Advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook in EFL classrooms ..........43
2.26 State of the arts ............................................................................................44
3. Methodology ..................................................................................................47
3.1 Approaches .................................................................................................48
3.2 Data collection techniques .........................................................................53
4. Results .............................................................................................................57
4.1 Analysis of data ..........................................................................................58
4.1.1 Focus group .........................................................................................58
4.1.2 Surveys .................................................................................................72
4.1.3. Document collection ..........................................................................98
4.2 Triangulation of data ................................................................................116
5. Conclusions ..................................................................................................120
6. Recommendations ................................................................. 123
References ........................................................................... 126
Appendix A: Institución Educativa Técnica Comercial de Santo Tomás Saber 11 Exam English Results 2014 .................................................. 136
Appendix B: Engagement Scale Items ........................................ 139
Appendix C: Focus group questions ............................................ 143
Appendix D: Focus group transcript and analysis ....................... 144
Appendix E: Survey ................................................................. 157
Appendix F: Tabulated results of the students’ survey ............... 159
Appendix G: Survey analysis ..................................................... 171
Appendix H Facebook page messages counting .......................... 177
LIST OF FIGURES AND PICTURES
Figure 1. Action research cycle .................................................................52
Picture 1 ..................................................................................................100
Picture 2 ..................................................................................................102
Picture 3 ..................................................................................................102
Picture 4 ..................................................................................................103
Picture 5 ..................................................................................................104
Picture 6 ..................................................................................................105
Picture 7 ..................................................................................................106
Picture 8 ..................................................................................................107
Picture 9 ..................................................................................................107
Picture 10 ...............................................................................................108
Picture 11 ...............................................................................................109
Picture 12 ...............................................................................................110
Picture 13 ...............................................................................................111
Picture 14 ...............................................................................................112
Picture 15 ...............................................................................................112
Picture 16 ...............................................................................................113
Picture 17 ...............................................................................................114
Picture 18 ...............................................................................................115
Picture 19 ...............................................................................................116
Picture 20 ...............................................................................................116
1. Introduction
Information Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important tool in communicating with other people. This has impacted the way people interact not only with other people but also with knowledge.
In language learning, Web 2.0 has been a great help in the development of language skills and the enhancement of interaction among teachers and learners. The emergence and growth of commercial social media sites (SNSs) and platforms over recent years have also provided teachers with opportunities to explore novel ways of exploiting these technologies to help improve teaching and student learning. Thus, they have become an essential tool in language classrooms.
One of these technological tools that have lately become part of language classes is the social network Facebook which gives opportunities to increase students’ participation and involvement in the language classes, as well as to strengthen the teachers and peers’ affective bonds.
In Colombia, there are very few studies that explore this topic; in fact, schools have focused their attention on the disadvantages of accessing to it and on the contrary, have not explored yet how beneficial its use might be in the academic settings. This is why the present study may give EFL teachers some clues as to how to deal with the use of social networks with language learning purposes to encompass students’ motivation and engagement; to involve students in achieving the learning tasks and to develop a positive attitude towards learning.
The subject of this study is la Institución Educativa Técnica Comercial de Santo Tomás, a public school located in the Atlantic department. The participants are 34
teenagers who attend the 9th grade class. This context was chosen because of the low level of engagement and commitment these students have showed in the learning of the English language.
This paper is divided into five sections. The first of them comprises four items: The Introduction that provides an overview of what this research is about. Later, the Rationale attests the contextual concerns and academic reasons that inspire the choice of the topic of research. The Research Question has to do with the specific concern of the current study then, the General and Specific Objectives are presented.
In the second section, all the theoretical background of the dissertation is stated namely, Engagement, Mediation, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Social networks and Facebook. Then, in the Methodology section the type of study describes the procedure to design instruments, as well as the steps followed to collect and process data. The fourth section, the Results, contains a detailed analysis of the data collected based on the theory presented in the theoretical framework; this analysis is divided into some main subjects concerning the engagement categories and the students’ perceptions about the use of Facebook in their English classes. Finally, a brief section of general conclusions with pedagogical implications and a list of references and appendices complete the paper.
1.1 Rationale
The bilingualism project created by the last Colombian governments, has impacted the whole school communities of our country in different manners. First, the English teaching Standards were designed by some experts taking the Common European Framework as a reference to follow; thus their profound study as well as the necessary changes was done inside schools English programs to achieve the goals proposed there.
Then, the country’s English teachers took Language proficiency exams in our Secretaries of Education to be classified according to our English knowledge; the consequences: participate in the varied strategies proposed by either the National or Local governments to improve our English level until being certified with a B2 language level as a minimum. At the same time, finding out about the way English is taught became a need for teachers because methodology was recognized to play a relevant role in the teaching process taking into account the kind of students attend our classes nowadays, differ a lot from the ones used to do it in the past because of the Information Communication Technology (ICT).
In spite these actions were taking place at a fast speed, there was something in my institution that remained static as if nothing was happening. It was the students’ engagement in the English classes.
This aspect has been a concern English teachers have discussed about lately. Taking into account what learners express orally, as well as their attitudes and behavior in classes where just a few participate actively; assignments are done by a minority; the misconception this foreign language is difficult to learn is latent; and the low number of benefits they can obtain from learning it is reported, it might be stated the lack of motivation is one of the reasons to cause this problem. A research about this issue has not been carried on in my institution yet, that is why it has been determined to be the focus of this study.
After noticing technology has become part of students’ lives, and observing how easy to work with it is for them, it has been considered to use the social network Facebook as mediation to learn English with the purpose of determining how this strategy might contribute to the language learning process, due to the fact they use it in their everyday lives to communicate with their family and friends.
This study pretends to contribute to the research field in relation to the impact social networks might generate in the language classrooms. At this state it is important to mention in our country a few similar studies have been developed in this area, however, in our region not many of them have been done. That is why the realization of this dissertation might contribute in any manner to schools whose needs are similar to the ones my context has.
1.2 Context
The INTECSA (Commercial and Technical Educational Institution), is a public school that offers pre-school, primary and secondary education to almost 2000 boys and girls who live in Santo Tomás, Atlántico, and whose emphasis is the commercial field. Its mission is to train children and teenagers to be critical, democratic and supportive with the society they are immerse in, besides, to be competitive in their work environment.
The majority of its population belongs to the low socio economic stratum since their parents work in factories and their mothers are housewives, so the families’ incomes are not enough to support their basic needs. Some of this situation consequences are that most of them live with their grandparents or other relatives, that is to say, many people living together in one small house or apartment; besides, books cannot be included in their materials list because they cannot be afforded.
English is one of the subjects students learn at this school, it is studied in primary from the first until the third grade once a week, while in the fourth and fifth grade two hours per week. In the secondary (sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth) three classes are received and in the last two grades (tenth and eleventh) four classes are given weekly.
When students are in the eleventh grade, they take the Saber 11 exam; it is a standardized test thoroughly developed and published by the Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior (ICFES).
According to the Saber 11 exam 2014 results, most of our pupils are in the A- and A1 levels while two of them in the A2, and just one girl got the B1 English level of the Common European framework for reference of foreign languages. (See Appendix A). However, the results of all the subjects this exam evaluates were analyzed and English was rated in the fourth place, being Spanish and mathematics the ones with the highest scores, and physics and philosophy the ones with the lowest.
This research is focused on high school students who attend the ninth grade class in la “Institución Educativa Técnica Comercial de Santo Tomás”. Their ages range from fourteen to seventeen years old. Moreover, the class has sixteen girls and nineteen boys. The majority of them have studied in this public school since they started the sixth grade; while just a few studied their primary in the same institution.
Their English proficiency level is low, having in mind what they can do with the language, as well as their results in the diagnostic exam they took at the beginning of the year, they could be classified as A1 level students according to the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CERF). Their vocabulary is limited; words or short phrases are used to interact orally and in a written form while in relation to the listening and reading skills, the understanding is limited to familiar words or very basic phrases concerning familiar topics.
1.3 Research question
The primary research question addressed in this study is:
- To what extent the use of Facebook engage 9th students to enhance English at Institución Educativa Técnica Comercial de Santo Tomás.
1.4 Research objectives
A general objective and three specific objectives have been established to see the relation between the use of Facebook and the enhancement of students’ engagement in their English classes.
**General Objective:**
- Analyze to what extent the use of Facebook engage 9th students to enhance English at Institución Educativa Técnica Comercial de Santo Tomás
**Specific Objectives:**
- Describe students’ experience using Facebook in their English classes
- Identify categories of students’ engagement occurred in English classes using Facebook
- Describe the strategies applied on the Facebook tool that particularly engage students
2. Theoretical framework
The relevant literature to this study that is present in this chapter focuses on four main areas: engagement, mediation, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and social networks. Moreover, State of the art conducted in the same research area in other places of the world, as well as the results of those studies are shown at the end of this chapter.
2.1 Engagement: Definition
The term “student engagement” has its historic roots in a body of work concerned with student involvement, enjoying widespread currency particularly in North America and Australasia, where it has been firmly entrenched through annual large scale national surveys.
Alexander Astin was one of the first authors to publish a developmental theory for college students that was based on the concept of involvement. Astin, (1984 as cited in Junco et al 2010 p.2) defined engagement as “the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience”.
Today, engagement is conceptualized as “the time and effort students invest in educational activities that are empirically linked to desired college outcomes and what institutions do to induce students to participate in these activities” (Kuh 2009, as cited in Ally, 2012 p. 1).
According to this concept, engagement is composed by different factors, including investment in the academic experience of college, interactions with faculty staff, peers and participation in extracurricular activities. (Pascarella & Terenzini 2005 and Kuh, 2009 as cited in Junco, 2012).
Similarly, The National Survey on Student Engagement (NSSE as cited in Barkley, 2010 p. 4) defines it as how frequently throughout his college career, a student gets involved in the different in and out of the classroom activities related to educational practices.
In the same vein, college teachers tend to describe student engagement in two possible ways. The first is with statements like “Engaged students really care about what they’re learning; they want to learn” or “When students are engaged, they exceed expectations and go beyond what is required” or “The words that describe student engagement to me are passion and excitement” (Barkley, 2009 as cited in Barkley, 2010 p. 5). All of these concepts are related to motivation in essence.
The second way many college teachers describe student engagement is with statements like “Engaged students are trying to make meaning of what they are learning” or “Engaged students are involved in the academic task at hand and are using
higher-order thinking skills such as analyzing information or solving problems”
(Barkley, 2009 as cited in Barkley, 2010 p. 5).
Similarly, Conrad and Donaldson, 2011 and Parrish, 2009 (as cited in Wankel and Blessinger, 2013 p 34.) supported the last definition stating that “engagement is synonymous with active learning, social cognition, constructivism, and problem-based learning and involves increasing complexity, inserting the unexpected, and introducing new struggles for deep learning to occur”. This concept implies the connection between engagement and active learning.
Whether teachers think primarily of the motivational or active learning elements of student engagement, they are quick to point out that both are required. “A classroom filled with enthusiastic, motivated students is great, but it is educationally meaningless if the enthusiasm does not result in learning”. (Barkley, 2010 p.24).
2.2 Engagement considerations
There is a general consensus regarding a number of facets of engagement theory and research, such as:
- The primary theoretical model for understanding dropout and school completion with the necessary skills to access high education and/or the world of work is Student engagement. (Christenson et al., 2008; Finn, 2006; Reschly & Christenson, 2006b)
- Being engaged implies more than attend classes and perform academically, it requires aspects like working hard to achieve goals, enjoy challenges and learning. (Klem & Connell, 2004; National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine [NRC and IoM], 2004.
There is an association between the desired academic social and the emotional learning outcomes with student engagement. (Klem & Connell, 2004).
Engagement is a multidimensional construct—one that requires an understanding of affective connections within the academic environment (e.g., positive adult-student and peer relationships) and active student behavior (e.g., attendance, participation, effort, prosocial behavior) (Appleton, Christenson, & Furlong, 2008; Newmann, Wehlage, & Lamborn, 1992).
Student engagement is affected by multiple factors such as socioeconomic circumstances, racial and ethnic backgrounds, academic preparation, and generational experience (first-generation students versus students with university-educated parents) all have implications for level of student engagement (Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, & Terenzini, 2004; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).
The role of context cannot be ignored. Engagement is not conceptualized as an attribute of the student but rather as a state of being that is highly influenced by the capacity of school, family, and peers to provide consistent expectations and supports for learning (Reschly & Christenson, 2006a, 2006b). In short, both the individual and context matter.
2.3 Categories of engagement
Krause and Coates (2008), in their analysis of student engagement, identified seven categories of engagement: Transition, Academic, Peer, Student–Staff, Intellectual, Online, and Beyond-Class.
Transition Engagement Scale (TES)
This scale tends to measure the extent to which first year students engage with university life and experiences during the transition process. The Transition Engagement Scale (TES) gathers student views on three dimensions. First, it evaluates the success with which their institution’s orientation program achieved the goals of connecting students to people and services to support their learning and experience as a whole. A second dimension of transition to university includes course advice and student decision-making regarding subjects or units of study. A third area of the TES focuses on student identity and whether their expectations have been met.
Academic Engagement Scale (AES)
It is basically related to the student rather than the institution. It measures the capacity to manage one’s time, study habits and strategies for success. The AES comprises items pertaining to self-initiated study behaviors, contributions to class discussions and patterns of attendance.
Kuh, (2003 as cited in Robinson & Hullinger, 2008) stated it means the academic effort students are putting and includes some aspects like time spent studying, reading, writing, and before class preparation.
Peer Engagement Scale (PES)
This scale evaluates the capacity to develop knowledge in cooperation with peers, considering how important it is to the individual knowledge construction. Three different contexts in which such engagement occurs are comprised by the PES: in class, beyond the formal class setting, but with connections to it, and in the broader learning community.
Similarly, Kuh, (2003 as cited in Robinson & Hullinger, 2008) associates this category with collaborative learning which includes the students’ contribution to class discussions, working with their classmates and engaging in other class activities.
**Student-staff Engagement Scale (SES)**
The SES is related to the role academic staff plays in helping students to engage with their study and the learning community as a whole. Importantly, this scale comprises both behaviors and attitudes and perceptions.
“Student–faculty interaction relates to the nature and frequency of contact that students have with their faculty. Contact includes faculty feedback and discussion of grades and assignments, ideas, careers, and collaborative projects”. (Kuh, 2003 as cited in Robinson & Hullinger, 2008 p. 105).
**Intellectual Engagement Scale (IES)**
Intellectual engagement, in short, facilitates the development of cognitive and affective foundations for academic success. The IES gives students the possibility to express their motivation for and satisfaction with study. It probes students’ views on the extent to which their subjects provide intellectual stimulation and challenge. The scale also comprises a global assessment of students’ views on the level of intellectual stimulation in their course.
**Online Engagement Scale (OES)**
This scale reflects three main ways in which students engage online. The first set of items refers to use of the web and computer software to support learning and access resources. The second group of items focuses on the role of ICTs in promoting
independent and self-initiated learning. The third dimension of online engagement in this scale is that of communicating and building community using ICTs.
**Beyond-class Engagement Scale (BES)**
This scale includes items specifically related to extra-curricular involvement, for example in sporting or cultural activities. It also comprises several items intended to identify students’ sense of belonging and social connectedness with other students beyond the classroom setting.
A document with the items belonging to each category can be found in the appendixes section. (See Appendix B).
### 2.4 Engagement and motivation
After defining engagement, a term which has a close meaning is necessary to be mentioned. It is motivation. Barkley, (2010, p.27) claims “motivation is a theoretical construct to explain the reason or reasons we engage in a particular behavior”. On the other hand, Brophy, (2004, p.4) conceives motivation in the classroom as “the level of enthusiasm and the degree to which students invest attention and effort in learning”. These definitions imply an internal state, a concept that differs considerably from the external manipulation of rewards and punishment that was emphasized in early studies of motivation.
Today’s theories about motivation combine elements of needs and goals models and emphasize the importance of factors within the individual. Brophy (2004) and Cross (2001) observe that much of what researchers have found can be organized within an *expectancy × value* model. Students’ motivations are strongly
influenced by what they think is important and what they believe they can accomplish. First, they must expect that they will be able to perform the task successfully (expectancy). Second, they must value the task worth doing (value).
2.5 Tips and strategies to fostering motivation
According to Barkley (2010), teachers and researchers have found the following strategies useful to motivate students to be engaged in the classroom activities.
- **Expect engagement**: talk individually to students who are not engaged.
- **Develop and display the qualities of engaging teachers**: it does suggest that students will be more likely to engage in your class if you cultivate and display attributes of well-liked and respected teachers, such as energy, enthusiasm, passion, approachability, fairness, and optimism.
At this point it is also important to make students feel welcomed and supported. Skinner & Belmont, 1991 (as cited in Brewster & Fager, 2000) claims teachers should take time to get to know students as well as showing them how valuable it is to interact with them.
- **Use praise and criticism effectively**. Praise privately; praise in a timely manner with simplicity, sincerity and spontaneity; praise the attainment of specific criteria that is related to learning and specify the skills or evidence of progress that you are praising.
Concerning to the use of extrinsic rewards Brooks et al, 1998 (as cited in Brewster & Fager, 2000) to be more effective suggest to be given when they are clearly deserved and when they are closely related to the task accomplished. On the other hand, just as praise is not always helpful, neither is criticism always harmful.
Constructive criticism is most helpful and motivating if it is informational, based on performance criteria, behavior specific, corrective, prompt, given privately, and offered when there are opportunities for improvement (Wlodkowski, 2008).
- **Attend to students’ basic needs so that they can focus on the higher-level needs required for learning.** Especially important to the college classroom is being aware of students’ psychological needs and taking care to ensure students feel safe to say/write what they truly think or feel without fear of ridicule or criticism by either you or their peers.
Regarding the online environments, Conrad & Donaldson, (2004), consider the students’ needs identification at the beginning of the course is possible through the use of profiles and introductory activities bringing as a major benefit the design of activities according to the students’ learning styles. Besides, these authors believe allowing adequate time for completing the tasks is required, to avoid learners’ overwhelming, having in mind online communication takes longer than classroom communication.
- **Promote student autonomy.** It might be possible following these recommendations: provide meaningful rationales; give students choices among several learning activities that meet the same objective; allow students to decide when, where, and in what order to complete assignments; help students to use self-assessment procedures that monitor progress as well as identify personal strengths and potential barriers and provide opportunities for students to assist in determining evaluation activities.
Similarly, Brewster & Fager, (2000) propose to allow students to have some degree of control over learning using strategies such as: minimizing adults’ supervision over group projects and monitor or evaluate their own progress.
• Teach things worth learning.
• Integrate goals, activities, and assessment.
• Incorporate competition appropriately. While using competitions in classes, Brophy (1987, 2004) and Wlodkowski (2008) suggest: make participation in competition a choice; have the competition team-based rather than individual; establish conditions that ensure that everyone has a good chance to win; and make conscious effort to ensure that the attention is focused on learning goals.
• Expect students to succeed. Teachers who believe in their students and expect success are more likely to get it than teachers who doubt their students’ ability and are resigned to minimal or mediocre performance.
• Help students expect to succeed. One of the fundamental ways teachers can help students expect to be successful in their course is by ensuring that learning activities and assessment promote success through clear organization, appropriate level of difficulty, scaffolding of complex tasks, communication of standards, and fair grading.
• Try to rebuild the confidence of discouraged and disengaged students. Following are some of the Brophy (2004) recommendations that are generally applicable to students who seem predisposed toward expecting failure: help these students better understand themselves as learners; emphasize your role as a resource person who assists them in their learning efforts; combine empathy for these students with determination and confidence that they will meet established learning goals and set up “study buddy” systems so that low achievers can collaborate with higher-achieving students.
2.6 Engagement and active learning
“Active learning” is an umbrella term that now refers to several models of instruction, including cooperative and collaborative learning, discovery learning, experiential learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry-based learning. (Barkley, 2010).
According to the same author, active learning means that *the mind* is actively engaged. Its defining characteristics are that students are dynamic participants in their learning and that they are reflecting on and monitoring both the processes and the results of their learning. An engaged student actively examines, questions, and relates new ideas to old, thereby achieving the kind of deep learning that lasts. Active learning is fundamental to and underlies all aspects of student engagement. It promotes activities where students do more of the work.
Concerning to the promotion of active learning through the use of technology, Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996; Conrad & Donaldson, 2004; Lorenzo & Moore, 2002, (as cited in Robinson & Hullinger, 2008) claim technology is helpful to provide opportunities to stimulate higher order levels of thinking due to the fact asynchronous networks allow students more time to think critically and reflectively; multichannel communication promote thinking and learning communities are communities of inquiry to advance mental thinking.
2.7 Tips and strategies to promote active learning
Following are tips and strategies gathered from the literature that address various elements involved in promoting active learning (Barkley, 2010).
- **Be clear on your learning goals.** Once you are clear on what you want students to learn, you can make better decisions and choices about the kinds
of tasks that will best promote active learning. Salmon, (2002) believes it is also necessary for students to be clear about the purposes of the teacher’s e-tivities as well as the time they should allocate to working on them.
- **Clarify your role.** Today teachers must be more than a dispenser of information. Regardless of the role you decide to take, clarifying it for yourself helps you to be clear and consistent in your interactions with students. According to Mills, (2005) the use of technology has made the teachers’ roles become more diverse, being the teacher as a learner (learning with and from the students); instructional designer (learning how to teach his particular subject); instructional facilitator and coach (instilling in students the responsibility for their own learning); evaluator (evaluating not just the final product, but the whole process) and technologist (being confident in using and supporting students’ use of technology) the most noticeable ones.
- **Orient students to their new roles.** Multifaceted roles should be played by students who are technology users. Some of them describe by Mills, (2005) are: the student as active learner (being actively involved in his learning process); intentional learner (learn how to learn); learning manager (manage, monitor and evaluate his own learning) and collaborator (interact with their peers and teachers and contribute to his own and the others’ learning).
- **Help students develop learning strategies.** Previewing, summarizing, paraphrasing, imaging, creating analogies, note taking, and outlining are some of them.
- **Activate prior learning.** Think-pair and share or graphic organizers might be useful. According to Brewster & Fager, (2000) engagement is higher when the students’ prior knowledge is not just activated but, when the topics they are
studying are connected to the world they live in. In that way, schoolwork seems to be meaningful.
- **Teach in ways that promote effective transfer.** Use a variety of strategies to help students make associations; teach students how to recognize when to use a strategy at the same time you are teaching them that strategy and make sure students have learned the task well enough to transfer it.
- **Teach for retention:** learning should be moved from short-term to long-term memory: making an emotional connection to the information being learned and helping students make sense of what they are learning might make it possible.
- **Limit and chunk information.**
- **Provide opportunities for guided practice and rehearsal.** The amount of time and the type of rehearsal are factors that affect significantly the quality of the rehearsal. Therefore, monitor rehearsal carefully at first and give prompt, specific, corrective feedback to ensure the learning is correct.
- **Organize lectures in ways that promote active learning.** It is generally most productive to divide class time into short segments of about twenty minutes, introducing new material at the beginning, then giving students opportunity to process the new learning, and moving on to closure activities toward the end.
- **Use reverse or inverted classroom organization.** A combination of out of classes and face to face sessions activities can assure that class time is used for effective active learning strategies.
- **Use rubrics to give learners frequent and useful feedback.** They are used today to explicate and grade a wide range of learning tasks. “A rubric clearly specifies the expectation for the activity and the effort required by the student to achieve a desired score”. Conrad & Donaldson, (2004. p. 27).
2.8 Conditions to promote the integration of motivation and active learning to get students’ engagement
Barkley, (2010) proposed the following conditions to integrate elements of both motivation and active learning and thus contribute to the synergy that promotes increased levels of engagement.
- **Creating a sense of classroom community**. Educators propose that optimal, engaged classroom environments are those in which the teacher and students perceive themselves as members of a learning community. “The term *learning community* seems appropriate for two reasons. First, it places the emphasis on learning. Second, the term suggests that this learning occurs within a community—a group of people working together with shared interests, common goals, and responsibilities toward one another and the group as a whole” (Brophy, 2004).
Move away from an authoritarian role; promote class civility through the establishment of your classes’ rules; create a physical or online course environment that supports community; reduce anonymity; use technology to extend or reinforce community sending emails to students, forums; subdivide large classes into smaller groupings; involve all students in discussion and use group work effectively are some of the strategies proposed for building a sense of community inside classrooms.
- **Helping students work at their optimal level of challenge**. One of the fundamental principles of learning is that tasks must be sufficiently difficult to pose a challenge, but not so difficult as to destroy the willingness to try (McKeachie, 1994). Nevertheless, assessment, teaching students metacognitive
skills, and empowering students as partners in their own learning are three broad approaches to helping students work in their optimal challenge zones. In relation to assessment, Strong et al., 1995 (as cited in Brewster & Fager, 2000) suggest it to be provided in a clear, constructive and timely manner.
Some strategies for assuring students are appropriately challenged can be: assess students’ starting points; monitor class pacing; help students learn to self-assess; differentiate course elements to meet individual student needs and use scaffolding to provide assistance for complex learning support students until they can do an activity on their own.
- **Teaching so that students learn holistically.** A more inclusive perspective states that emotion, cognition and the physical body cannot be separated. In this sense, many educators today recognize that the body, heart, and mind are all involved in learning, and that all three make contributions to engagement.
Pick up the pace to hold attention; offer options for nonlinear learning; design courses to be inclusive; incorporate games; use different methods to teach students basically the ones where they participate actively and include learning activities that involve physical movement are some of the tips to promote holistic learning.
### 2.9 Concept of Mediation in the Socio cultural theory
Sociocultural theory is based on the concept that human learning is a social interaction process mediated by language and other symbolic systems. Vygotsky (1978), stated that knowledge acquisition occurred in two moments: first, through social interaction and secondly, inside the individual mental processes. We do not learn isolated, we learn with others in specific cultural contexts and through specialized cognitive tools that help us approach the surrounded world to comprehend it, transform
it and manipulate it; in other words, social interaction promotes, facilitates and enhances learning.
One of the greater contribution made by Vygotsky in the sociocultural theory is the concept of mediation. He defined it as the process in which “our sense of the world is shaped by symbolic tools acquired in the course of education and learning” (Kozulin et al, 2003, p. 4). In the same line, contemporary work on sociocultural theory has concentrated as well in this concept of mediation as an individual’s or other guided process which with the help of some resources or symbolic artifacts created within history mediate to reach understanding and acting actively in the world (Herazo & Donato, 2012; Lantolf & Throne, 2006; Guerrero, 2007). Put another way, mediation, then, is the support which takes place in the interaction between humans and symbolic tools among a learning environment. These tools mediate to enhance an active participation of an individual in his/her learning. That is to say, to be independent and foster a higher level of knowledge or cognitive development.
2.10 Characteristics of mediation
Another account in the concept of mediation lies in its characteristics. Mediations may occur when it is “continuously adjusted to learner’s developing understandings” (Herazo & Donato, 2012, p. 22). In that sense, the mediation can be contingent, graduated or social. It is contingent when the help provided by a more capable individual is given when it is needed. The mediation is graduated when within the guidance there is a progressive assistance toward the less capable learner. And the mediation is social when the help is constructive through a dialogue between the participants interacting in a cognitive task.
2.11 Types of mediation
Two types of mediation are identified in the sociocultural field. Kozulin (2003) outlines as the first agent of mediation the human and as the second one the symbolic mediator. When there is an involvement by an adult or an individual who is more capable and generates important changes regarding cognitive processes or performances of another individual, then, the human is the mediator. Whereas if there is a change in the performance of an individual when introducing artifacts such as numbers, music, art, language, formulae, graphic organizers etc., then, the mediator is symbolic (Lantolf, 2000; Kozulin, 2003).
2.12 Human mediation
2.12.1 Teacher as a mediator
Teachers can mediate through their talks or conversations in the classroom. Their role is of great importance since students’ achievement may take place when in their lessons; teachers ask questions, give directions or accept feelings and so on. However, this participation of the teacher in the interaction with his/her student needs to follow a hierarchical order. This leads to initiatives which result in more open and exploratory patterns of talk (Christie, 2002). Nowadays, teacher-student interactions invite students take more significance participation within English lessons rather than teachers. Besides, the negotiation of information between both participants is much more functional and dynamic. The teacher, then, is the mediator who facilitates the appropriation or internalization of concepts in apprenticeship zones created by the teacher and the student (Guerrero, 2007).
2.12.2 Peers as mediators
Group work interaction can activate learning (Herazo, 2002) and it is as well crucial for promoting student-student interaction. The mediation which takes place in such learning environment in the relationship student-student may result more concise than the teacher mediation. We often see that students may feel more confident working together and in those spaces of comfort, mediation tend to be more effective since the circle of interaction can be rather closer than the one between the teacher and the student. Guerrero (2007, p. 222) explains that “the origins of higher mental processes lay in the interaction between and among peers”. Thus, students’ talk or questioning in meaningful tasks, which are in groups, depicts a big opportunity to observe several learning processes resulting in great spaces for cognitive and language development.
2.13 Symbolic mediation
2.13.1 Language as a mediator
Vygotsky (1978) considered language as a symbolic tool that allows human beings to mediate between their minds and the outside world. This especially applies if the outside world means learning another language. He also expressed the mere role of a teacher is not enough to generate learning. Being aware of this fact, teachers are in a constant search to promote learning among their students, implementing strategies that help learners to mediate between what they know and they would like to achieve. Some of these strategies are logs, conferences, tasks and portfolios (Guerrero, 2007).
2.13.2 Technology as a mediator
The implementation of computers, for language learning, can be traced back from the 1960s. Later in the 1980s, with the appearance of Communicative Language Teaching and the development of microcomputers, learners had new possibilities for interactive learning. The 1990’s was characterized by the introduction of software
aimed at stimulating students’ engagement, critical thinking, creativity, and analytical skills. Currently, and due to the spread of the Internet, learners can make a much integrative use of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) to enhance their second language skills (Fotos, 2004 as cited in Guerrero, 2007). Today teachers use CALL in a variety of forms such as word processing, email exchange, multimedia applications, internet, chats, distance learning, etc.
2.14 Computer-assisted language learning (CALL): Definition
As a starting point we could mention CALL can be defined as any process in which a learner uses a computer and as a result, improve his or her language. CALL is a language learning and teaching approach in which the computer is used as a tool for presentation, assisting students, and evaluating material, and has an interactional element. (Beatty, 2003; Jafarian, Soori & Kafipour, 2012). On the other hand, Levy (1997) defined CALL as the computer applications searching in language teaching and learning.
2.15 CALL from the socio cultural theory perspective
The combination of technological development, computer networking, and theoretical developments in approaches to language pedagogy emphasizing on meaningful communication in authentic discourse contexts has led to a third wave of CALL within the socio-cognitive or sociocultural framework of language learning (Compernolle, 2009). This framework focuses on not using the computer to replace the teacher, but using the computer and other technologies to enhance language teaching within the broader context of the collaborative classroom by expanding the opportunities students have to communicate with other people. Socio-cognitive approaches to CALL have shifted the dynamic from learners’ interaction with computers to interaction with other human via computer (Kern & Warschauer, 2000).
Thus, the computer is viewed as a tool to facilitate human interaction and collaborative language learning.
According to Compernolle (2009) the cornerstone of socio cultural or socio-cognitive approaches to CALL and practice is technology’s capacity to serve as means of facilitating human interaction and communication. He also affirms that Web 2.0 technologies have expanded the potential for interactive participation through various forms of social networking, tagging, (co) authoring, and (co)editing enabled by user-friendly Web-based software. In turn, the number of possibilities for human interaction, information sharing, and online publishing made possible by Web 2.0 technologies is virtually limitless.
2.16 Computer-mediated communication (CMS) and language teaching
Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is “any form of communication between two or more individual people who interact and/or influence each other via separate computers through the Internet or a network connection - using social software”. (Mahmood, Huzaina, Ghani, & Rajindra, 2014, p. 71).
Kim (2008) considered that CMS could be used to increase the amount of input and negotiation. He stresses that CMS such as email, conferencing, on line discussion, and key pals may provide great benefit in language teaching and learning.
According to Kim’s survey, educators agree that CALL may contribute to language learning when it increases learners’ motivation, interaction, autonomy, and self-monitoring of their own learning process. This due to learners might focus their learning decision making on their own needs and interests, learning pace as well the use of wide range of activities.
On the other hand, as cited in Mahmood et al., (2014) Brown and Julian (2011) claimed that the majority of writing tasks assigned to second language (L2) learners tend to target an abstract audience and the writing generated is not meant for real or meaningful purposes. The emergence of Web 2.0 concepts has created a potential educational environment where students have access to a widely distributed, authentic audience with a simple click of the mouse.
2.17 CALL and language skills
CALL has been taking advantage of advanced technological facilities to create the highest interactive learning environments for activities that develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
Language skills are often integrated; however, CALL has separated them as individual objects of interest.
According to Hubbard (2014) since 1980 with the addition of sound to computers, and then digitized speech and video, as well as World Wide Web, listening has become a growth area for CALL. For learners it is possible to connect directly with the local culture of the language they are learning.
Speaking has been of two types: pairs or groups of students speaking to one another, or individual students using the computer to record their voices. Lately, the use of Skype and podcasting make speaking practice more similar to a face to face interaction.
In the area of pronunciation, there are some options like automatic speech recognition, the digital version of the tape recorder and speech visualization.
Online dictionaries, reading comprehension and other exercises, the learning of vocabulary among others have been the contribution of CALL to the reading teaching process.
About writing, the use of word processing skills, spell and grammar checkers, blogs, wikis and other collaborative strategies have been used. Using computer in writing classes allows learners to receive feedback both from the teacher and computer.
Computer provides the correct form of the erroneous word and structures that students have produced. Consequently, it seems writing is more error-free and cohesive sentences and texts can be produced by using computers. The learners will also become aware of the mistakes/errors they have made just as they type the sentences.
Many of the early disk-based CALL programs focused on grammar or vocabulary development because the applications were easy to program on computers. Hot potatoes are the most popular to do multiple choice, fill in the gaps and match exercises. Storyboard, in which an entire text is deleted and must be reconstructed, is another example.
About vocabulary, it is one of the most common applications, maybe because they are easy to manage and program. The area of data-driven learning aims to support students’ exploratory learning of grammar and vocabulary using computer applications to help them notice patterns in the target language, Concordancer is one of these.
It is also important to stress the employment of different technology-based tools such as computer, podcast, and chat for assessing language proficiency in EFL classrooms.
According to Bahrami (2011), the technology-based assessment incorporates innovative methods and techniques to measure language proficiency improvement. He mentions that there are several activities that teachers can use with the help of technology to measure and monitor their students’ achievements in language learning. The author considers that a successful assessment of different language skills should be highly authentic, valid, and reliable enough to be used.
2.18 CALL and pedagogy
Computer and instructional technologies are becoming an indispensable part of the learning and teaching processes. The role assigned to instructional technologies in foreign language instruction has also changed with these advances. It seems that the role of computer in education and pedagogical practices will become more and more significant and inevitable in the twenty first century. English language pedagogy benefits from using computers at every level of instruction.
As cited in Jafarian et al., (2012 p.139) Warschauer and Healey, (1998) stated that “from the beginning till today, the effectiveness of various CALL materials has been depended on pedagogical designs and the way teachers’ use these materials. When computers are appropriately used, they will improve the learning process in a different way.”
Warschauer (2004) points out that the progress of CALL has been accompanied with corresponding changes in CALL-based pedagogy; he claims that the current paradigm of integrative CALL is based on a socio-cognitive view of language learning.
From this perspective, learning a second or foreign language comprises the learning of new discourse communities. Thus, the interaction is seen as facilitating the students the entrance to these communities and the familiarization with the new genres and discourse. In this new order, Warschauer (2004) also explained that the content of the interaction and the nature of the community are substantial. Therefore, it is not enough to engage on communication to practice language skills. It is suggested that students should perform real-life task on the internet and solve real-life problems in a community of peers or mentors.
It is also important to mention the concept of multi-literacies pedagogy that includes a fully integrated view of technology’s place in the curriculum assigning a
central role to language educators. Their role becomes one of assisting learner performance, providing opportunities for learners to engage in meaning-making tasks, and fostering critical analysis of their own and others’ discourse and interaction in specific sociocultural contexts.
Another implication of this integrated approach to technology-enhanced language teaching is the role of student peers. New configurations for students-students and students-NS interactions made possible by these new technologies offer much potential for peer-assisted performance, whereby peers themselves become the primary source of learning for one another in the interaction over task of independent learning centers (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988, p. 16). Thus, tele-collaboration with NSs of the target language is possible.
2.19 New Technologies: Web 2.0. Definition and characteristics
Whereas Web 1.0 is considered a content-centric paradigm, Web 2.0 is considered a social-centric paradigm. That is to say, in Web 2.0 social networking, social media, and a vast array of participatory applications and tools are essential. Blessinger & Wankel (2013).
Web 2.0 is a term that is used to denote several different concepts: Web sites which incorporate a strong social component, involving user profiles, friend links; Web sites which encourage user-generated content in the form of text, video, and photo postings along with comments, tags, and ratings; or just Websites that have gained popularity in recent years, (Cormode, 2008).
The term Web 2.0 was created in the late 1990s as a way to describe interactive and social applications on the web (DiNucci, 1999 as cited in Wankel & Blessinger 2013). The authors claimed a social network with the web was first conceived by
bloggers, chat room enthusiasts and others who envisioned the web as an appropriate place to build a global community characterized by all its members’ collaboration and participation.
Bearing in mind the Web 2.0 characteristics, the following categorization of activities that can be done there is derived from a BECTA-commissioned review of Web 2.0 tools in schools (Crook et al., 2008):
• Media sharing. Creating and exchanging media with peers or wider audiences.
• Instant messaging, chat and conversational arenas. One-to-one or one-to-many conversations between Internet users. Instant Messaging is real time, synchronous conversation between two people via the Internet using a messaging client. Features of the various IM clients include presence indicators to show others when a user is online and a Buddy List of family, friends, and colleagues. Other features might include file transfer and the capability for video chat or voice chat.
• Social networking. Websites that structure social interaction between members who form subgroups of ‘friends’. Social networking technologies afford users the chance to interact, share themselves, and create content. Sites such as MySpace, Facebook, music-centered LastFM, image-centered Flickr, and others might allow a user to create a profile page complete with an image and other personal information; establish “friendships” or connections to others; and engage in conversations, or knowledge sharing/feedback. Thriving sites might have hundreds or thousands of users (or millions, in the case of MySpace), who have learned how easy it is to make connections online.
Some common features of software networking sites include the ability to leave comments, create links, assign keyword “tags” to data, and the opportunity to make connections to others.
2.20 Web 2.0 and education
According to Blessinger & Wankel, (2013) the use of Web 2.0 technologies have led to rapid changes in the way we teach and learn due to four factors: (1) These technologies are digital, making them highly versatile and integrative, (2) these technologies are accessible to anyone and anywhere there is an Internet connection, (3) these technologies are generally low cost or free, and (4) some learning theories have been developed recently greatly increasing our understanding of how to best apply these technologies in an academic setting.
It is important to mention Web 2.0 technologies are especially useful because they integrate with many other technologies such as mobile technologies and blended learning technologies to create a more seamless and transparent experience for instructors and students.
Web 2.0-based technologies have the potential to both enhance and transform the learning environment and make learning more interesting, more meaningful, and more authentic. All else being equal, implementing these tools can increase student motivation and academic achievement. (Tapscott, 2009 as cited in Blessinger & Wankel, 2013).
In conclusion, web 2.0 and blended technologies are being used in teaching scenarios with the purposes of increasing students’ participation due to the fact they provide authentic ways to learn the language; promoting students’ autonomy through their active participation in their own knowledge construction and fostering a sense of
belonging and global connectedness by using technologies that enable global interconnectedness and collaborative knowledge creation. (Woo & Reeves, 2007, as cited in Blessinger & Wenkel, 2013).
2.21 Social networks and Facebook: origins and definition
Boyd and Ellison (2007), defines Social Networking Services (SNSs) as some Web-based services that enable user to design a public profile or semi-public within a bounded system. They also states that social networking sites not only allow individuals to meet strangers, but also enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks. They claim that on many of the large SNSs, users are not necessarily looking to meet new people; “instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network” (p. 210). In general, social networking services are developing in an amazing rapid pace and excellently connect the individuals.
A social networking site is an online site that presents a platform used by individuals; it focuses on building and reflecting social relations in accordance with interests and/or activities. Some popular examples of social networking sites include Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Badoo and Google+.
In February 2004, a Harvard University student Mark Zuckenberg designed a web site called Facebook to help his peers to socialize online. At the beginning, people needed any university email account to be joined, that is why it was exclusive. Facebook later expanded to different educational settings (not only institutions from the higher education sector) from other countries too, and then to the general public (Hew, 2011as cited in Petrović N, Petrović D, Jeremić, Milenković, & Ćirović, 2012).
Facebook is a social networking site that has over 845 million active users (Protalinski 2012); it allows individuals over the age of 13 to create and upgrade personal profiles, updating it with personal information such as home address, mobile phone number, interests, religious views, and even data like relationship status, add friends, exchange messages and chat online.
In addition to creating individual profiles, Facebook users can also “designate other users as friends, send private messages,” join groups, post and/or tag pictures and leave comments on these pictures as well as on either a group’s or an individual’s wall (Grossecka et al., 2011 as cited in Petrović et al., 2012).
2.22 Reasons to use Facebook in Education
Research results indicate that most of the Facebook users are students. (Rhoades et al., 2008; Hoover, 2008 and Kolek & Saunders, 2008 (as cited in Aydin, 2012). One of the main reasons of this fact is the possibility students have to communicate with their family, friends and teachers through this social network. (Subrahmanyam et al., 2008 & Pempek et al., 2009 as cited in Aydin, 2012).
In relation to the teacher student interaction, Aydin (2012) stated Facebook contributes to an easier flow of communication between them. For instance, Berg et al. (2007) describes Facebook was used by one university to improve its relationships with students and personnel. O’Hanlon (2007) highlights how educators engage with and provide information to their students using this social network, while Sturgeon and Walker (2009) report that some of the most effective faculty members are those who create informal relationships with their students via Facebook.
On the other hand, Petrović et al., (2012) cited some characteristics which recommend Facebook as a tool that can contribute to the quality of education; some of them are promoting positive relationships among students and encompassing students’
motivation and engagement (West et al., 2009; Kabilan et al., 2010); involving students in the transferring of knowledge through learning tasks (Madge et al., 2009); developing a positive attitude towards learning and improving the quality of it (Pasek & Hargittai, 2009; Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010); developing interpersonal intelligence, as well as critical thought (Lampe et al., 2008); and building a community between students and teachers in and out of the classes (Selwyn, 2009).
As a summary, then, Facebook serves as a means to communicate, interact, share knowledge, maintain existing relationships, form new relationships, aid academic purposes, and makes learning possible (Mazman and Usluel, 2011).
2.23 The use of Facebook with academic purposes
According to relevant literature, Facebook impacts academia and academic settings positively (Villano, 2007); by opening up broad new worlds of learning for both educators and students, it is claimed to have the potential to be used for educational applications (Boon and Sinclair, 2009).
Research has indicated that Facebook can positively affect classroom practices and student involvement. Manzo (2009 as cited in Aydin, 2012) states the expansion of Internet access was possible during classes by permitting children to use Facebook. As they move up grade levels, they encounter and expect more complex educational content. Furthermore, Schaffhauser (2009) explores the experiences of two teachers who noted that Facebook and other social networks were helping to their students demolish previous barriers.
Studies on the educational benefits of social networking also focus on specific areas such as social learning, e-learning, environmental learning, business, art, and chemistry education. For instance, Greenhow (2009) notes that social networking can be utilized to insert new literacy practices in classrooms. Additionally, another study
(Durkee et al. 2009) examines the practical implications for teachers who incorporate e-learning and Facebook into their pedagogy.
Robelia et al. (2011) examine an application within Facebook that allows users to post climate change news stories from other websites and comment on these stories. They concluded that peer role modeling through interaction on this site motivated pro-environmental behaviors. A study conducted by Ramirez et al. (2009) focuses on the relationship between Web 2.0 technologies and learning, noticing the benefits a business context received from this. Furthermore, Shin (2010 as cited in Aydin, 2012) explores the means by which art educators could negotiate with the digital world, suggesting that art educators can enjoy the experience of the digital world’s creative flow for teaching and research purposes. Finally, after comparing students’ use of Facebook groups with that of educational discussion forums, Schroeder and Greenbowe (2009) found that students at a state university used Facebook more dynamically than they used discussion forums on an online community for Organic Chemistry.
2.24 Facebook in language learning
The implications of social networking services have developed in variety of areas and domains. Language Teaching is one of them.
According to some findings in a research carried out by Melor et al, (2012), Social Networking Services (SNSs) could be used to plan and develop language learning activities. Group brainstorming appears to be the most efficient one. Facebook is used to promote interactivity where learners may have the possibility to give their initial response, their first reaction to the topic being discussed. In the interaction, teacher should guide learners closely to assure coherence in the information that is shared by all the learners in class.
Research on Facebook’s use as an educational environment has also focused specifically on language skills—such as reading and writing skills—with regard to second and foreign language teaching and learning. Stewart (2009) describes the experiment of a high school librarian with a virtual literature circle using Facebook, with results that show a Facebook virtual literature circle can be an excellent teaching environment.
Similarly, Hamilton (2009) states that social networking can be a positive medium to connect authors, publishers and readers in an engaging way. Walker (2010) describes how social networks, as well as information and communication technology tools, could support and enhance literature circles. Regarding writing skills, Pascopella and Richardson (2009) discuss the integration of writing instruction and social networking tools to keep up with student interests. Finally, Kathleen (2009) presents research-based best practices and a sample writing assignment to illustrate a new model of composing in an online environment that is encouraging to teenagers. Given that teenagers did not appear to recognize their out-of-school writing as “real” writing,
2.25 Advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook in EFL classrooms
Facebook is an extremely convenient application that students and educators can access anywhere. Not all students have access to a computer or internet at home and by having mobile access to Facebook; students are able to access their accounts anywhere. Thus, the implementation of this tool has become more popular in EFL classrooms, inspiring at the same time to researchers to identify the pros and cons of its use in these specific contexts.
The use of Facebook in English as a foreign language classes might bring many benefits to students as well as to teachers. The familiarization of students with these technologies, the development of the language skills, the global interaction, the
possibility of enhance students’ responsibility and engagement and the maximization of peers feedback have been established as some of its advantages. (Melor et al, 2012).
The ability to promote active learning and collaboration may be also possible. (Malony, 2007 as cited in Pollara and Zhu, 2011). Besides; Facebook can be a very useful tool in the classroom as it promotes both target language uses while also promoting learner autonomy among language students.
In relation to the teachers, working with this social network enables them to: achieve a change in pedagogical strategies, attitudes and behaviors; establish efficient educational relations; accept the students as an interaction partner; integrate formative evaluation to the process; and develop knowledge and skills in order to perform efficient didactic activities. (Pollara and Zhu, 2011).
In contrast, the students’ distraction, the flourishing of inappropriate relationships between students and teachers in this media, possible abuse, cyber bulling and potential invasion of privacy, as well as the reinforcement of the copy and paste culture and how time consuming the design of activities could be were stated as its disadvantages.
2.26 State of the arts
In the last years, some researches have evidenced the positive impact the web 2.0 tools, especially the social network Facebook’s use has in EFL contexts, as well as how students’ interest and motivation towards language learning increase significantly through the implementation of this technological tool inside and outside classrooms.
Shih, R. (2011), in a Taiwan technological University implemented it as part of a blended writing course during eighteen weeks (this blended approach consisted of one-third of a semester of classroom instruction and two-thirds of a semester combining
Facebook, peer assessment, and classroom instruction). It was concluded, the application of the Facebook and peer assessment were effective since all the students’ groups made significant progress in their language level.
In addition, the students agreed that combining Facebook and peer assessment to evaluate and observe others' writings could highly enhance their learning. The results also showed that cooperative learning could improve the students' communication, friendship, trust, interaction, active learning, and learning attitudes. Additionally, this Facebook-integrated blended learning approach could effectively assist the students' English learning organization, grammar and structure, content, vocabulary, and spelling.
In other research developed by Promnitz-Hayashi, L.(2011), carried out a discussion about how simple activities in Facebook helped a lower language proficient class (twenty-seven students in their first year at a private university in Chiba, Japan) to become more comfortable participating in online discussions, giving their opinions and forging closer relationships with their fellow classmates. The study showed how when the teacher was posting questions, students’ answers were brief and cautious. However, once the students themselves began to form their own discussion questions the replies increased in length and the content became more detailed. As a result of students forming their own discussions on Facebook this enabled the learning to become student-centered rather than teacher-centered and they were able to develop not only their computer literacy but also their social competencies.
What had initially begun as an extrinsically motivated strategy proposed by the teacher, where students were able to receive bonus marks for participating, soon transformed into an intrinsically motivated as all 27 students in the class chose to participate in the activity. They gained more confidence and gave their opinions more online and by the end of the second semester, students were noticeably more interactive
not only online but also in face-to-face activities in the classroom. Students went from merely answering questions on the Discussion page to actually interacting on each other’s Walls, uploading pictures along with video, joining fan pages and also using the chat function independently, not only with their classmates and teacher, but also with other friends they had found on Facebook. It was also noticed that their interactions on Facebook outside the discussion activity were increasingly appearing in English. Some students even posted questions about grammar points if they did not know the correct word or usage.
Eren (2012) carried out a study at a university in Gaziantep, Turkey which lasted for one semester from September 2011 to January in 2012. The participants were 48 pre-intermediate level students, aged between 18-22 who were taking one-year compulsory English preparation from different majors like medicine, engineering and tourism. The primary purpose of this research was to explore students’ attitudes towards a Facebook supported language teaching.
The findings suggest that Facebook can be very useful as an educational tool. Students’ attitudes towards such an activity are mostly positive. Students welcomed using social networking site as a supplementary to the curriculum. Most students showed that they love spending time on Facebook and exercises, videos and other sharing in group are useful for improving their language skills.
Colombia has also been a scenario for this kind of research. A study was developed at a private university in Bogotá. This project was carried out with twenty two (22) students from an EFL level one group who were between 19 and 24 years old. Twenty one (21) of them were third semester nursing students while one of them was majoring in environmental engineering.
Facebook was the space chosen to provide opportunities for EFL students to engage in language learning experiences that complemented face-to-face sessions. Students identified a wide scope of beneficial aspects (both academic and social) linked to the use of this SNS in their physical classroom, for instance, learning from others and to learn from own as well as from others’ mistakes, being evaluated in a different way, being aware of what was going on in class. Additionally, other advantages of integrating Facebook as an add-on to the EFL classroom include providing students with a safe and anxiety-free atmosphere in which they feel free to share information with others. (Jiménez, 2012).
Finally, it is important to report a similar Colombian study. Morales, Fernández & Hernández (2014) conducted a research that analyzed the manifested pedagogical ideology in the scholar teaching of English using Facebook. One teacher and 107 teenage students who attended the 10th class in a public Colombian school were the participants. From a cultural-historical perspective, interviews to the teacher and to four students and a virtual ethnography which registered the interactions occurred in the Facebook page during one month were carried out.
The researchers found out that the ideological features that define real-world teaching tend to be translated to the virtual plane. Nevertheless, the use of Facebook offers potential affordances to the scholar activity system, such as the creation of particular social ties between teacher and students.
3. Methodology
In the following chapter, a detailed description of the methodology applied in this study is provided, as well as the rationale of the decisions that were taken. The approach and data collection techniques chosen for this research are explained.
A qualitative paradigm research is the most suitable one for this study since through it, to obtain comprehensive and descriptive data of what actually happens in my foreign language classroom without fixing a set of conditions or manipulating variables will be possible. Moreover, the goal of this research is far from making generalizations, but analyzing what takes place in its specific context. Being the data collector and analyze them, as well as presenting the final written report using a narrative description instead of a statistics analysis, supports the decision of choosing the qualitative approach to develop this research.
3.1 Approaches
There are different approaches of qualitative research being phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, narrative analysis, action research and case study the most common ones. A combination of action research and case study will be used to conduct this investigation.
Mills (2007, as cited in Mertler, 2009) asserted action research is carried out by people interested in the teaching and learning process with the aim of gathering information about how schools operate, how they teach, or how students learn. It is a systematic inquiry into one’s own practice.
Action research is developed by teachers on their own educational settings; its purpose is to improve their practices. It is a model which attempts to solve educational problems and make school improvements. The process of systematic collection of information followed by active reflection all with the anticipation of improving the teaching process is at the core of this approach. (Schmuck, 1997 & McMillan 2004, as cited in Mertler, 2009; Tomal, 2010 and Lodico et all, 2010).
Being a teacher who has identified her students’ lack of engagement in the process of learning English as a foreign language as a real life problem, and showing
interest in solving it through the use of the social network Facebook as a class strategy, are the reasons which let me assure an action research is going to be one of my study approaches.
According to Lodico et all (2010) there are two types of action research:
- Critical action research: aim at enhancing the lives of all persons, but especially those who are marginalized or who lack the power to improve their own lives.
- Practical action research: it is based in everyday practice and focus on making small changes at a local level.
Bearing in mind this study pretension, a practical action research seems to be the most pertinent because changing my teaching strategies to enhance students’ learning is one of its purposes.
The same authors stated to ensure immediate changes in educational practices; to focus the research on real-life problems; to promote collaborative learning communities and to enhance professional development of educators as some of the benefits teachers might obtain while carrying out an action research.
On the other hand, the case study approach has the purpose to understand complex phenomena in a deeper way. As the phenomena are so complex, not all of them can be studied, that is why the case should be limited or specified to be analyzed and described deeply (Merriam 2009; Lapan & Quartaroli 2012). As a consequence, this study has been limited to cover just one specific aspect of the social networks’ uses, which is how its use engage students to learn English; as well as one specific group of ninth graders.
Moreover, case studies focus on phenomena which are part of real life contexts, that are contemporary; they are also preferable used to respond to the how and why research questions, besides when researchers have little control over the phenomena they are studying and require multiple data collection instruments to be used as
evidence: documents, artifacts, interviews and observations (Schwandt, 2001; Yin, 2003).
Taking into account, the use of Facebook to promote the learning of English as a foreign language is the center of this research and considering the use of social networks a phenomenon that has been recently studied in the foreign language setting due to the increasing of its implementation as a learning mediation, the case study approach seems to be appropriated to be followed in this dissertation.
The participants of this study are 34 students (boys and girls) who are familiarized with the use of Facebook with social purposes, but it is the first time they use it with academic purposes. Most of them like to interact with their friends, watch videos, and listen to songs in Spanish. This class is heterogeneous because there are some who like English and participate actively in classes while there is a big number whose interest in learning the language is not so noticeable.
According to Merriam (2009) there are some characteristics that case study research share with other forms of qualitative research. Among them, its objective of understanding phenomena, having a researcher as the data collector and analyzer, and producing a descriptive paper as a product. However, the same author explains the case study can be defined by its special features. It can be characterized by being particularistic, descriptive and heuristic.
Particularistic means that case study focuses on a particular event, situation, program or phenomenon. Descriptive, since its end product is a complete or wide description of the phenomenon studied and heuristic because it contributes to the readers’ understanding of the phenomenon.
On the other hand, Stake (1981) claimed that knowledge learned from case study is different in other research knowledge in four important ways: case study knowledge is
1. More concrete and sensory than abstract.
2. More contextual
3. More developed by reader interpretation
4. Based more on reference population determined by the reader. In generalizing, readers have some population in mind.
Some advantages of case studies are its completeness, detailed contextualization, depth of analysis and the fact it may generate new hypothesis or understandings (Duff, 2008).
In relation to the different types of case study Yin (1993) established 3 different forms: Exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. In the explanatory the purpose is defining the questions and hypothesis of a subsequent study. The descriptive presents a complete description of the phenomenon inside its context and the explanatory presents data in terms of causes and effects.
Otherwise Stake (2005) proposed some types of case studies taking in mind the researcher’s interest: intrinsic, instrumental and collective. In the intrinsic, the researcher is interested in the particular case itself. In the instrumental, the case is of secondary interest since it facilitates our understanding of something else. In a collective or multiple case studies a number of cases are studied to investigate a phenomenon or general condition.
Hence, this study might be classified as intrinsic and descriptive due to this investigation is focused on the case itself and pretends to report the phenomena descriptively.
Research is a creative activity and every enquiry has its own unique character; it is also a systematic process thus the idea that it goes through stages, is important; besides due to its critical condition, there need to be procedures stage by stage for ensuring that the findings are trustworthy. The two approaches previously exposed, have some specific steps to follow.
Susman (1983) gave an elaborate listing about the way an action research cycle is conducted. He distinguished five phases within each research cycle (Figure 1).
Initially, a problem is identified and data is collected for a more detailed diagnosis. This is followed by a collective postulation of several possible solutions, from which a single plan of action emerges and is implemented. Data on the results of the intervention are collected and analyzed, and the findings are interpreted in light of how successful the action has been. At this point, the problem is re-assessed and the process begins another cycle. This process continues until the problem is resolved. (as cited in O'Brien, 2001).
In relation to case study, Yin (2003) proposed four stages:
5. Designing the case study. It relates to the definition of the issues or problems to be studied.
6. Conducting the case study. Data collection using multiple sources.
7. Analyzing the case study evidence. It consists of examining, categorizing, tabulating and testing quantitative and qualitative evidence to address the initial propositions of the study.
8. Reporting the case study. It means bringing its results and findings to closure.
In this study the process will start identifying and defining the problem to be solved having in mind the context and a diagnosis applied inside it. Then, some possible solutions will be considered until deciding which plan of action will be implemented. After some time of the plan of action application, the data will be collected using multiple sources to be examined, analyzed and lastly reported in a descriptive way.
3.2 Data collection techniques
The data collection techniques used, are determined by the researcher’s theoretical orientation, by the research questions and the form of evidence deemed necessary to answer those questions, by the problem and purpose of the study, and by the sample selected. Data collection decisions also depend on what the researcher plans to do with the data (Duff, 2008; Merriam, 2009).
Focus groups, surveys and document collection have been considered the most useful instruments to collect the data this research need. Their concept, boundaries and the reasons why they might be useful will be described as follow.
**Focus groups**
In a focus group a moderator guides a discussion to a small group of individuals to discover their thoughts and impressions about a specific topic. Open-ended questions are part of this informal technique (Johnson & Christensen, 2008).
A focus group is composed of 6 to 12 participants who are purposively selected because they can provide the kind of information of interest to the researcher. It can be homogeneous (composed of similar kinds of people) or heterogeneous (composed of different kinds of people).
Applying this research technique has the advantages of providing in depth information in a relatively short period of time, as well as, the results are usually easy to understand. The format of focus group is socially oriented, often creating a more relaxed feel than individual interviewing.
This instrument seems to be appropriate to hear the students’ perceptions about the use of Facebook to learn English since they could feel freedom to express their points of views, feelings and opinions in a non-structured manner. Moreover, the categories of engagement will be also identified through the students’ answers.
This informal interview took place on October 26th in a regular school classroom. Five students participated on it (one per each Facebook group). They accepted to be part of it in a volunteer way and they were selected by each group without any specific criterion. Another student recorded the whole conversation and sent it to the teacher’s mail to be transcript and analyzed. Its objectives were to identify students’ perception of this technological mediation and to identify the categories of engagement present on it.
It was completely done in Spanish to make students feel comfortable.
**Surveys**
The second instrument used to collect research data is a survey. According to (Freeman 1998, p. 94), “They are a set of written questions focusing on a particular topic or area, seeking responses to closed or ranked questions/options and/or open-ended personal opinions, judgments or beliefs. Used in non-face-to-face situations”.
Investing no much money on their application, collecting the information in a short period of time, at the same time as providing honest answers due to their anonymity character, are deemed the boundaries of this instrument.
The survey was designed to identify students’ perceptions about Facebook as a language learning mediator and to identify the categories of engagement present on it.
The first decision taken in relation with this instrument was to apply it to all the project participants with an anonymous character, to obtain honest answers where the possibility to express their ideas freely could be possible.
Because of the students’ English level and due to the importance the answers provided have, Spanish was the language chosen to be used in this survey.
Some drafts were necessary before the final version was approved by the tutor of this research; in its design process some similar studies were read to be used as a starting point. The items were organized bearing in mind the fact to put the ones who had a topic relation together. Finally, it is important to mention short ideas and simple vocabulary was also used to provide enough clarity and avoid any confusion. Just affirmative statements were written to the same purpose.
The participants were taken to a quiet classroom at the same time to complete the survey. No specific time was assigned to finish it and a general explanation was provided before its application. Questions to clarify doubts were welcomed. There were two parts in the survey; the first one had a Likert scale where students had the following options:
1. Totalmente de acuerdo
2. De acuerdo
3. Neutral
4. En desacuerdo
5. Totalmente en desacuerdo
The second part included a list of activities they developed in the Facebook page to mark the one (s) they liked the most and a justification to it should be written at the end. All the participants answered the survey, except one student who had dropped out the school one week before the survey was applied.
**Document collection**
Document collection are documents relevant to the research context, for instance, lesson plans, students’ writings, classroom materials, students’ records, etc.
According to Freeman (1998) archival data are produced by the teacher, the students, the administration, or the parents and are related to classroom teaching and learning. Its purpose is to reflect what takes place inside and outside classrooms.
Using this instrument has the advantages of not adding extra work to teaching because the material needed for the research already exists. Additionally, this process can allow the researcher to see and hear students differently since a descriptive perspective is involved while examining the information.
This technique will provide the necessary information to achieve the specific objective describe the strategies applied on the Facebook tool that particularly engage students through the analysis of the Facebook page registers.
The Facebook page created to be used for academic purposes at the end of July was the document analyzed to collect the information required for this study. The purpose of this strategy was to provide a solution to the lack of students’ engagement in my English classes. It was useful to describe the strategies applied on the Facebook tool that particularly engaged students.
The whole group was divided into five groups, having each one seven students, but the group number five just had six members. They were organized alphabetically
according to their first names (although in some cases this criterion was not possible to follow because some of the students spent more time in opening their accounts and sending me the invitation to be part of the group).
The page was used for four months. The activities were proposed by me as a teacher who assigned them with a deadline to follow and the necessary indications to do them. Some of them were individually, while others were designed to be in groups. All of them were related to the topics explained in the face to face sessions and variety as well as entertainment were some of their characteristics.
Feedback was provided by the teacher timely in order to be positive. Inbox messages were sent by students to clarify doubts. English was the language used in this page and rules were established to build a learning community.
4. Results
The results are presented in three sections: the focus group, the survey and the document collection analysis.
First, the focus group data are described according to the categories students’ likes and dislikes about the strategy; students’ interest in learning the language; challenges and difficulties while working in the project; different uses of this social network, a comparison between face to face and online English classes using Facebook, as well as the academic, peer, student – staff, intellectual and online engagement aspects.
In the next section, the survey’s findings are grouped according to the students’ perceptions about the Facebook activities; the students’ opinions about the implementation of this strategy and the academic, peer, student-staff, intellectual and online engagement categories.
In the last section, the Facebook page is analyzed and the data collected on it are presented bearing in mind the tips or strategies used to engage the students in the class through the use of this technological tool.
4.1 Analysis of results
4.1.1 Focus group
Five students participated in this focus group in a volunteer manner. The only requirement was to have one student per Facebook group, in order to know the impressions of them in a general way. One more student was present to record the whole conversation.
The conversation was based on 5 questions; the order was followed as it was conceived by the researcher. It was completely carried out in Spanish to make the participants feel relaxed and confident about what they wanted to express. The objectives of this instrument were to identify students’ perception of this technological mediation and to identify the categories of engagement present on it.
According to the objectives of this instrument, the students’ answers (See Appendixes C and D) were analyzed bearing in mind the following categories: *students’ likes and dislikes about the strategy*; *students’ interest in learning the language*; *challenges and difficulties while working in the project*; *different uses of this social network*, *a comparison between face to face and online English classes using Facebook*, as well as the academic, peer, student – staff, intellectual and online engagement aspects.
The first category *students’ likes and dislikes about the strategy* reports that 4 from 5 learners, who were interviewed, enjoyed doing the activities where new technological tools were involved. Some of these activities were: Activity 3: Find information about buildings and houses in the past. As a group, prepare a presentation
using technological tools and post it. Activity 9: In the groups I assigned, read the following newspaper’s article and create a mind map where you summarize the most important information you extract from it. Use [mindomo.com](http://mindomo.com) or any other technological tool and Activity10: Read information in English about a famous person’s accomplishments. Present the most important events in his or her life through an online timeline.
At the same time, their motivation to learn English was higher and their conception about learning a foreign language changed since now. One of them also considered it was easier for them to increase the language knowledge through this mediation. Turns 2, 4, 8, 11 and 14 supports the previous analysis.
These perceptions coincide with Herazo & Donato, (2012); Lantolf & Throne, (2006); and Guerrero, (2007) in relation to the definition of the term mediation like an individual’s or other guided process which with the help of some resources or symbolic artifacts created within history mediate to reach understanding and acting actively in the world. In this case, Facebook might be considered as a symbolic artifact which led students to enjoy learning English.
On the contrary, some of the aspects most of the students did not like about the project were the group work due to the fact some of them participated actively, while others did not; one of them considered time was not enough to do the tasks while another one stated internet access was a problem for her. Turns 2, 4, 8, 11 and 14 give account of the last analysis.
| Turn | Student | Answer | Categories |
|------|---------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|
| 2 | S1 | me gustó los trabajos tecnológicos… Me gustó también cuando la seño daba un largo tiempo para así buscar información sobre el tema. | Students’ likes and dislikes about the strategy |
| | | Lo que no me gustó era cuando ponían trabajos en grupo que algunos estudiantes no hacían nada y | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | | Online resources are |
| | | | |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | otros eran los que hacían el trabajo completo. | very useful for me |
| | | Peer Engagement Scale | Studying with other students is not very useful to me |
| 4 | S2 | herramientas tecnológicas como mindomo, prezi y otras más. También me gustó el Facebook porque porque … nos incitó a practicar, a aprender más inglés | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | no me gustó el desmotivamiento de los compañeros al momento de hacer los trabajos | Intellectual Engagement Scale |
| | | Peer Engagement Scale | There is not a positive attitude towards learning among my fellow students |
| 8 | S3 | lo que a mí me gustó fue que aprendimos a manejar herramientas tecnológicas en la web y también me gustó que nos interesábamos más a entrar a Facebook y ahí nos interesábamos por el inglés | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | lo que no me gustó fue que algunos estudiantes nos ponemos limitaciones por no saber manejar esa página web, lo intentábamos hacer en los recursos que tenía el computador como Word o powerpoint | Intellectual Engagement Scale |
| | | Online Engagement Scale | I am usually motivated to study |
| 11 | S4 | podíamos aprender de una manera distinta y que los estudiantes se incitaran más a ese idioma | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | No me gustó mucho que algunos estudiantes no hicieran los trabajos por falta de … acceso a internet | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful | Intellectual Engagement Scale |
| | | I am usually motivated to study | |
| 14 | S5 | a mí me gustó porque uno aprende más fácil el inglés y entiendo mucho mejor las canciones, mis canciones favoritas… | Intellectual Engagement Scale |
| | | no me gustó por un lado porque daban poco tiempo para enviar las actividades. | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | Learning at my own | |
Concerning to the students’ dislikes, even though the research literature widely acknowledges that the more frequently students interact with peers in the learning community in educationally purposeful ways; the more likely they are to engage with their learning (Gellin, 2003; Terenzini et al., 1999), in this study, student-student’s interaction generally speaking had a negative impact between learners due to the fact the interviewees complained not all their groups members showed the same level of engagement while doing the tasks.
In the second category, *students’ interest in learning the language*; all of them agreed that the use of Facebook in their English classes increased their interest in learning it. Some of the reasons exposed were the activities proposed were varied and interesting; the technological tools required were useful to learn in a funny way; and the methodology used to teach English was now more appealing for the students. In turns 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 there are the students’ opinions to evidence the previously described results.
| Turn | Student | Answer | Categories |
|------|---------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 16 | S3 | seño aumentó ya que nosotros los jóvenes hoy en día nos interesamos mucho por la red social y eso por eso nos ayudó a aprender al aprendizaje del inglés mediante las actividades | *Students’ interest in learning the language*
*Online Engagement Scale*
Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful |
| 17 | S2 | el uso de Facebook para las actividades nos permite aprender más cosas en casa que las que aprendemos solamente en el aula…entonces con esas con esas palabras nuevas que uno se va aprendiendo, uno va adquiriendo un nuevo vocabulario para el inglés a través de Facebook. | *Online Engagement Scale*
I regularly use the web for study purposes |
| 18 | S1 | antes puedo decirlo que el inglés me parecía aburrido, no le veía ese interés como ahora pero | *Student–Staff Engagement Scale* |
As cited in Jafarian et al., (2012) Warschauer and Healey, (1998) stated CALL materials are effective depending on their pedagogical designs and the use teachers give to them and that this appropriate use leads to a learning process improvement. This premise was evidenced in the implementation of the strategy since it was not limited to the use of technological or web 2.0 tools, but to the engagement of students in the learning of the foreign language through the proposal of interesting activities and appealing online methodologies.
About the third category, *challenges or difficulties while working in the project*, 4 from 5 students who participated in the interview considered material resources were a big difficulty since in most of the cases they did not have a computer to work at home, thus, cellphones constituted an alternative to do the activities, however their commitment could have been higher if they had had all the resources needed available.
In the other side, two of them asserted the lack of knowledge about technology was a challenge because it took some extra time and effort to solve them. Turns 22, 24, 26, 27, 29 and 31 follows to support what has been expressed before.
| Turn | Student | Answer | Categories |
|------|---------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 22 | S3 | mi dificultad a veces era entrar a internet ya que en mi casa ahora está el servicio suspendido y al ir a un café internet el acceso era muy lento… | challenges or difficulties while working in the project |
| | | | Online Engagement Scale |
| 24 | S5 | para mí mi dificultad fue fue que a veces uno trataba de enviar algo por Facebook y no dejaba sino que salía enviando y a veces enviaba un archivo que no servía para nada o solamente no lo enviaba. | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | | Learning at my own pace using online resources is not useful |
| 26 | S1 | pues como dijeron mis compañeros el problema de conexión al internet era demasiado bajo, algunos compañeros no tenían este recurso de tener un computador o tener acceso a internet en su casa y por eso a algunos se les dificultaba más enviar esos trabajos. Para mí también es el problema de conexión. Algunos compañeros no tienen internet, no tienen computador, entonces me imagino que será por eso. | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | | I regularly don’t use the web for study purposes |
| 27 | S2 | mi problema de conexión no fue como un problema de conexión sino como de compatibilidad ya que aquí todas… todas las páginas nos dan la opción de enviar el trabajo o compartirlo pero al momento de enviarlo o montarlo al grupo de Facebook no son compatibles con la aplicación entonces nos pide convertirlo a dropbox, mandarlo al correo, del correo a Facebook entonces es como muy …se nos dificulta mucho y algunos no tenemos, o no tienen la capacidad para por ejemplo para descifrar o resolver un problema con otro. | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | | I don’t regularly use web-based resources and information designed specifically for the course |
| 29 | S4 | en mi caso el problema más bien era de conexión era del artefacto tecnológico, el computador. Yo no tenía como ese material para poder subir los trabajos y eso me dificultó un poco en las actividades de Facebook. | Online Engagement Scale |
| | | | I don’t regularly use the web for study purposes |
| 31 | S4 | a veces entraba por mi teléfono pero hubo un tiempo en que se me dañó y falté un poco a las actividades y por eso no pude resolverlas | Online Engagement Scale |
With regard to the lack of computers at home or the internet access difficulties, what students stated to this respect confirms Reschly & Christenson (2006a, 2006b) point of view about the role the context plays in the engagement process. They believe
the role of context cannot be ignored. Engagement is not conceptualized as an attribute of the student but rather as an alterable state of being that is highly influenced by the capacity of school, family, and peers to provide consistent expectations and supports for learning. Thus, more participation in the project might have been registered if students had received school and family support in terms of material resources.
In relation to the fourth category, *different uses of Facebook*, it is necessary to state the differences between what they used to do in Facebook before the implementation of this academic strategy and during it.
Before this project was carried out by the students, all of them used Facebook just to chat or keep in touch with their friends; to check and follow what they were doing; to post their own pictures and to watch and comment the others ones. No educational purposes seemed to be included in this social network use. Turns 67, 69, 72, 73 and 76 support these statements.
| Turn | Student | Answer | Categories |
|------|---------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|
| 67 | S4 | yo solo lo usaba para revisar mis amigos, chatear y eso. | *Different uses of Facebook* |
| | | | *Online Engagement Scale* |
| | | | I don’t use the web for study purposes |
| 69 | S2 | yo antes usaba el Facebook como dicen mis compañeros para ver qué hacían mis amigos, las fotos que montaban… | *Online Engagement Scale* |
| | | | I don’t use the web for study purposes |
| 72 | S5 | yo anteriormente usaba el Facebook para chatear con mis amigos y revisar algunas imágenes y así con el tiempo me fui aburriendo que ya duraba semanas sin abrirlo … | *Online Engagement Scale* |
| | | | I don’t use the web for study purposes |
| 73 | S1 | …y yo como dijeron los compañeros, antes solamente entraba para hablar, comunicarme, montar fotos y cosas así | *Online Engagement Scale* |
| | | | I don’t use the web for study purposes |
The previously mentioned uses of Facebook agreed about the ones Grossecka et al., (2011) as cited in Petrović et al., (2012, p. 356) highlighted. They are “designate other users as friends, send private messages,” join groups, post and/or tag pictures and leave comments on these pictures as well as on either a group’s or an individual’s wall.
In respect to the uses of Facebook during the project, some of the students stated they posted their activities; read their peer’s comments; wrote their opinions about them and used them as guide to do their work. (Turns 37, 44 and 46).
| Turn | Student | Answer | Categories |
|------|---------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 37 | S2 | no, nunca lo usé para eso, ( preguntar dudas) siempre para montar, para compartir, comentar las actividades de Facebook y mirar que actividades había montado la seño para realizar | Different uses of Facebook<br>Academic Engagement Scale<br>I don’t regularly ask questions in class |
| 44 | S2 | si uno observa el trabajo del compañero que montó primero, primero el trabajo, uno puede corregir, copiar ideas o también mejorar las ideas, no tanto copiarlas sino mejorarlas y ver tratar de corregir al compañero de una forma respetuosa, no ni de burla, ni faltándole el respeto, haciéndole ver los errores y si uno tiene que ver el trabajo ajeno porque puede sacar muchas cosas de él. | Online Engagement Scale<br>I regularly use online discussion groups related to my study |
| 46 | S4 | yo si me interesaba, yo veía qué hacían mis compañeros algunas veces y ahí me como me fijaba en que era lo que yo tenía bueno y en qué me podía como ayudar | Online Engagement Scale<br>I regularly use online discussion groups related to my study |
On the other hand, three of the students pointed out they did not comment too much their classmates’ posts because they did not want to make any mistake. They felt
afraid to do it because they did not like to be mocked by the others. (Turns 38, 39 and 41). Another student explained he never read their peers’ work since he did not want to be influenced or to copy them. (Turn 48).
| Turn | Student | Answer | Categories |
|------|---------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|
| 38 | S3 | seño, yo de comentar, comenté como 2 o 3 veces por temor a equivocarme, ese es el problema que tenemos muchos y para preguntar dudas, o las dudas que tenía sobre las actividades y eso si lo usé varias veces. | **Online Engagement Scale**
Online discussion with other students is not very useful
**Academic Engagement Scale**
I regularly ask questions in class |
| 39 | S4 | yo no comenté muchas veces como dice mis compañeros el temor a equivocarme, también hacía como dice mi compañero nada más subía las actividades a Facebook, las publicaba y no interactuaba mucho en comentarios ni preguntando, cosas así | **Online Engagement Scale**
Online discussion with other students is not very useful |
| 41 | S1 | bueno, yo nunca comenté ninguna actividad que hicieron mis compañeros, si como dicen mis compañeros por temor a equivocarnos, porque si nos equivocábamos, al día siguiente en el colegio eso era como si fuera pasado algo, eso era una burla y yo nunca lo hice. No era porque no quería sino por temor, por temor a equivocarme y como dicen mis compañeros sólo lo hice para ver las actividades que ponía la seño, para resolverlo, nunca lo comenté | **Online Engagement Scale**
Online discussion with other students is not very useful |
| 48 | S5 | porque si le ponía interés a lo de otro, podría copiar ideas y yo no quería eso, solamente mis ideas | |
Appleton, Christenson, & Furlong, (2008) and Newmann, Wehlage, & Lamborn, (1992) claim engagement requires an understanding of affective connections within the academic environment. In this research, it was appreciated in the students’ disengagement caused by their fear to make errors and be ridiculed by their classmates since they preferred to avoid expressing their comments or points of views better. Their position is completely understandable and implies to apply group strategies to minimize these negative attitudes in the near future.
The last category, *a comparison between the face to face and the online English classes using Facebook*, all the interviewed students agreed in emphasizing it was the first time they used Facebook as an educational mediation, not just in English but in the whole subjects. They stated the experience was positive and interesting and they would like to use it again, since it helped them to learn more, to practice the language out of the classroom and to use different technological tools. (Turns 52, 54, 55, 57, 58, and 60). Due to the multiples advantages they found in it, one of the participants proposed students who belonged to different English classes to experience this academic proposal. (Turn 54).
| Turn | Student | Answer | Categories |
|------|---------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 52 | S2 | primero que todo en mi experiencia escolar, en mi vida escolar nunca habíamos utilizado Facebook para el aprendizaje del inglés ya que se debe a que de pronto a las situaciones de los colegios o los profesores que no están conscientes ni tienen el uso de la red social y nunca había utilizado el uso de Facebook hasta ahora y me parece bueno... nos ayuda a aprender más cosas en casa y nos ayuda a tener un mejor vocabulario, un mejor inglés fluido | *Comparison between face to face and Online English classes* |
| | | | *Intellectual Engagement Scale* |
| | | | I am usually motivated to study |
| | | | *Online Engagement Scale* |
| | | | Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful |
| 54 | S2 | pues si el aprender porque el inglés y aprender nuevas herramientas tecnológicas no sólo nos ayuda en el inglés sino para las otras materias o para la vida. El uso de Facebook me pareció chévere ya que esto es nuevo, nuevo muy nuevo para mí nunca había usado Facebook para las clases y me gustaría que los demás niños, los demás compañeros en lo de otros cursos usaran Facebook también para que aprendieran mejor inglés | *Intellectual Engagement Scale* |
| | | | I am finding my course intellectually stimulating |
| | | | *Online Engagement Scale* |
| | | | Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful |
| | | | Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me |
| | | |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | S3 | seño la verdad nunca me había interesado así por el inglés hasta ahora que veo el Facebook con ustedes y me pareció una gran experiencia ya que aprendimos de inglés y a la vez a utilizar herramientas de la web. |
| | | **Online Engagement Scale** |
| | | Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me |
| 57 | S1 | como dijo mi compañero esto nos ayudó a aprender mucho más inglés cosa que otros salones, otros salones no lo hacían, eh también nos ayudó como para no sólo para aprender el inglés en las clases sino también en la casa |
| | | **Online Engagement Scale** |
| | | Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me |
| 58 | S5 | bueno, a mí me gustó, a mí me gustó el uso de Facebook porque ya me motivaba a aprender más inglés, no como antes, antes que no lo usábamos, no me llamaba más la atención el inglés. Me llamaba y no me llamaba porque eran aburridoras las clases y ahora que tenemos el uso de Facebook ya puedo leer, aprender cómo se escribe y luego buscar la pronunciación |
| | | **Online Engagement Scale** |
| | | Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me |
| 60 | S4 | yo desde que entré al bachillerato me ha encantado el inglés, siempre me ha llamado la atención y siempre escucho cosas en inglés como música, películas etc. Con las actividades en Facebook me influenció mucho más porque en cursos anteriores nunca lo había usado y eso me pareció súper interesante porque ahí uno ve otra faceta de cómo puede estudiar inglés en casa, en la escuela y otros lugares. |
| | | **Intellectual Engagement Scale** |
| | | I enjoy the intellectual challenge of subjects I am studying |
| | | I am finding my course intellectually stimulating |
| | | I am usually motivated to study |
Tapscott, (2009) as cited in Blessinger & Wankel, (2013) pointed out web 2.0-based technologies have the potential to both enhance and transform the learning environment and make learning more interesting, more meaningful, and more authentic. This position is similar to the one found in this research in the sense that students perceived the use of social networks as interesting, engaging, and positive in general terms; probably, the implementation of these tools can increase students motivation and academic achievement.
These students’ perception is similar to the one Eren (2012) reported on his research when students welcomed using social networking site as a supplementary to the curriculum and expressed their love for spending time on this social networking performing different tasks to improve their language skills.
Concerning the identification of the categories of engagement present in the focus group interview, it might be reported the *online engagement* category was the one which has the highest record. Being *online resources are very useful for me*, *I regularly use web based resources* and *subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful* the most common ones.
According to Coates, (2006) Online experiences have come to play a critical role in contemporary campus-based learning. This statement is evidenced in this interview what leads to the inference not just universities or colleges have been impacted by online learning experiences, but schools too. It is relevant to claim such a significant event took place in this school by the first time inside the English classes.
The second category that reports a high number is the *intellectual*. The statements *I am usually motivated to study*, *I get a lot of satisfaction from studying*, *I am finding my course intellectually stimulating*, as well as *I enjoy the intellectual challenge of subjects I am studying* give account of how intellectually engaged students were during this academic experience. This finding represents a significant relevance in the foreign language learning process of this school students since as Krause & Coates, (2008) state the intellectual category facilitates the development of cognitive and affective foundations for academic success. As a consequence, it implies the number of students who fail this subject might be reduced due to the implementation of this strategy.
In relation to the other three categories: the *student-staff*, the *peer* and the *academic engagement*, even though they do not register too much presence in the students’ answers, it is necessary to mention them as follows.
The *student-staff engagement* with its statement *Staff tries hard to make the subjects interesting* shows the appreciation of the teacher’s role in the project to make
the subject more appealing to the students. To this respect Krause & Coates, (2008) state student perceptions of the learning environment and the commitment of academic staff to supporting student learning have a profound influence on student satisfaction and sense of belonging in the learning community. Thus, some evidence about the learners’ satisfaction might be possibly found throughout this research.
The *peer engagement* category shows through the items *study with other students is not very useful to me* and *there is not a positive attitude towards learning among my fellow partners*, how difficult group work was for the majority of the students. In fact, it was found as the aspect students disliked the most about using Facebook in classes. The information gathered in this focus group might seem not enough to provide explanations about this fact.
The *academic engagement* items *I regularly ask questions in class* and its opposite *I don’t regularly ask questions in class*, describe the different opinions students had about making comments, reading others’ comments and asking about doubts. While some of them reported its importance in their learning process, others stated they did not want to feel negatively influenced by them.
In regards to this category, NSSE (2005b) interprets some of these behaviors (e.g., I regularly ask questions in class) as evidence of the “active and collaborative learning” benchmark. However, the fact students preferred not to ask questions in classes might not be interpreted as not being an active participant, but being an outgoing person who is afraid of making mistakes in public and what is worse to be ridiculed by that as some students revealed in the interviewed.
After analyzing the information collected in the focus group, it can be concluded even though students had never used Facebook with educational purposes before; they
liked it in general terms since they had access to new technological tools and web resources that made learning possible. Moreover, they appreciated the kind of activities assigned because of their variety.
This positive impact led students to change their perception towards English learning since before working with this strategy, this foreign language was not such an interesting subject as it nowadays is. Thus, Facebook might be seen as a symbolic tool that served as a mediation to learn English in this specific context.
In addition, students considered they played an active role that was supported by the teacher involved and that learning was basically student-centered what brought as a consequence an increasing on their class involvement.
Another aspect that might be seen as relevant at this stage is how students changed their perception about this social network. They used to limit their use to socializing issues, but after being part of this project, they realized educational purposes were also possible to be given to Facebook with positive results not just for them as individuals, but for their peers as a whole group.
On the contrary, working with their peers, having access to computers and internet connection at home as well as the lack of knowledge related to how to solve technological problems, were found as the project difficulties or challenges.
To conclude, the online and intellectual engagement categories were significantly observed throughout the focus group conversation to reinforce this experience of using a social network to learn English might be conceived as useful, interesting, challenging and intellectually stimulating.
4.1.2 Surveys
This tool was applied to thirty three students at the end of the project implementation. All of them took it at the same time in one of the school classrooms.
Some explanations were provided before taking it to avoid any confusion and doubts were clarified as they were expressed.
The purposes of this instrument were to collect data to describe students’ experience using Facebook in their English classes and to provide information related to the categories of engagement. The questions focused on seven areas:
1. Students’ perceptions about the Facebook activities
2. Students’ opinions about the implementation of this strategy
3. Academic Engagement
4. Peer Engagement
5. Student-staff Engagement
6. Intellectual Engagement
7. Online Engagement
It is necessary to mention the other two categories previously exposed in the theoretical framework (Transition Engagement and Beyond-class Engagement) will not be analyzed since the items they include and measure do not correspond to the project purposes.
In relation to the first category, Students’ perceptions about the Facebook activities, the information analyzed in the surveys is the following:
For the item number one (See Appendix F figure 1):
“The Facebook activities were varied”.
Results show that 61% of the target population strongly agrees, along with the 36% who agrees which means that almost all of the students considered variety was one of the activities’ characteristic. Just 3% marked the neutral option and no items were recorded for the rest of the options.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree| 61% |
| 2. Agree | 36% |
| 3. Neutral | 3% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
For the item number two (See Appendix F figure 2):
“The activities proposed in the Facebook page were interesting”.
Results show that 46% of the population strongly agrees and 42% agrees. A 12% of the population was neutral about this item. Finally, there were no choices for “disagree and strongly disagree”. Most of the sample population seems to believe that the proposed activities were interesting to do.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree| 46% |
| 2. Agree | 42% |
| 3. Neutral | 12% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
The results about the item number three (See Appendix F figure 3):
"I consider the Facebook activities were funny"
The highest rate goes for "agree" with 37% of the population followed by 33% of teachers who strongly agree. Just a 21% were neutral with this item. 9% disagrees and there were no choices for strongly agrees. This result shows many students believed they had fun because of the activities.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree| 33% |
| 2. Agree | 37% |
| 3. Neutral | 21% |
| 4. Disagree | 9% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
The item number twenty nine (See Appendix F figure 29):
"I felt demotivated to do the activities proposed by my teacher in the Facebook group".
A total of 37% of the population indicated that they disagree along with a 27% who strongly disagree; a 21% are neutral, 12% agree, and a 3% strongly agree. Many students consider doing the activities proposed by their teacher in the Facebook group did not demotivate their learning process. A low percentage of the students reflect an opposite position (15%), while a considerable number of them show neutrality in relation to this topic.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree| 3% |
| 2. Agree | 12% |
| 3. Neutral | 21% |
| 4. Disagree | 37% |
The item number thirty (See Appendix F figure 30):
"The activities proposed made me lose interest towards the learning of English".
In relation to this topic that is connected to the previous one, results indicate that 46% of the sample population strongly disagrees along with 36% who disagrees. 15% are neutral. On the other side, just a 3% of agrees and with no record for strongly agree.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree| 0% |
| 2. Agree | 3% |
| 3. Neutral | 15% |
| 4. Disagree | 36% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 46% |
Bearing in mind the information results showed in relation to the activities characteristics, it was found the tasks proposed in the Facebook project to be done by students were interesting, varied, funny and motivated learners to study the foreign language.
To this respect, it is important to highlight students’ motivation to learn English increased through the strategy’s implementation. This fact might affect positively the learners’ academic results since as Dörnyei, (2001a, p.2) claims, when motivation is applied to a learning situation, “it is related to one of the most basic aspects of the human mind, and most teachers and researchers would agree that it has a very important role in determining success or failure in any learning situation”.
The Students’ perceptions about the Facebook activities category is also specified in the second part of the survey where students had to choose the activities
proposed by the teacher to be done in the Facebook groups that they liked the most, the results show the following: (See Appendix F figure 34):
*Writing about movies after watching their trailers* as well as *sharing songs and jokes* with 13% each, were the students’ favorite ones. The reasons of their choice such as they expressed were because the movie trailers task was short and dynamic while the jokes and songs were considered as funny and innovative.
*Solving a crossword* and *creating a friendship card* were voted 12% each. They believed the crossword motivated them to participate and the card let them express their creativity and feelings to their peers. This result confirms what Brophy, 2004 and Cross, 2001 stated when they affirmed students’ motivations are strongly influenced by what they think is important and what they believe they can accomplish since the participants considered showing affection to their peers as an important aspect to reinforce their classroom’s relationships, as well as solving crosswords as an easy task to accomplish.
*Creating some presentations* was rated with a 10%. This was because during this creation process, they had the opportunity to use different technological tools as well as web resources by the first time. At this state, it is necessary to mention most of the assistance provided came from the students themselves. The teacher just shared the links to access the different web tools and organized the class in groups to perform the task.
This result reaffirms what Tharp & Gallimore, (1988) conceived in relation to the role of student peers in the integrated approach to technology-enhanced language teaching. They stated these new technologies offer much potential for peer-assisted performance, whereby peer themselves become the primary source of learning for one
another. To my perspective, this interaction contributes not just to reinforce the relationship’s bonds, and to construct knowledge but to help students to gain autonomy.
*Making a drawing after listening an audio conversation* and *Making a mind map about a reading text* were voted by the 8% of the population each. Students considered them interesting and let them learn actively while learning from their own mistakes during this learning process.
*Writing their opinion about a proposed topic* registered a 7% of the sample population. They considered learning was promoted through this activity and learning from their mistakes was also possible while doing it.
*Reading and writing about their past activities* along with *completing a chart with information about friends and relatives* had a 6% of the total population. The reasons of their choices were the relation these activities had with their personal lives and the people were closed to them. That means affectivity was present in these two tasks.
*Making their life’s timeline* was the least voted (5%), however they considered this task was useful since they could explore and know different web tools. Through this result, one of the advantages of the Web 2.0-based technologies stated by Tapscott, 2009 (as cited in Blessinger & Wankel, 2013) was confirmed. This author believed Web 2.0 have the potential to both enhance and transform the learning environment and make learning more interesting, more meaningful, and more authentic. In our case, the use of these technologies was meaningful to students not just to learn the language, but to be used in their academic life.
To this students’ preferences regards it should be mentioned they liked short, dynamic, and innovative activities the most. Moreover, they enjoyed feeling an affective
connection with the activities in the sense it let them express their emotions. Finally, they loved the use of new technological web resources to learn English.
The last findings confirm Cohen and Payiatakis (2002) suggestion when they stated e-Learning has to be compelling and appealing to maintain the learner involved and interested. Further, learning experiences have to become memorable and motivational if they are to make a lasting impact on learners.
Another finding related to the activities is that even though some of them were not chosen as the students’ favorite ones, negative aspects about them were not reported which might mean learners’ attitude toward the language was basically positive. This position can support what Petrović et al., (2012) stated when one of the characteristics that recommend Facebook as a tool that can contribute to the quality of education is to develop a positive attitude towards learning.
About the second category *Students’ opinions about the implementation of this strategy*, it is necessary to mention the following items and students’ answers:
The item thirty one (See Appendix F figure 31):
"I would like to use Facebook in my English classes again"
64% of the population strongly agrees, along with a 9% who agrees which means most of the students would like to use this social network site as a tool to learn English again. However, it is still 18% of the population who is neutral, 6% who strongly disagrees and 3% who disagrees.
| Options | Percentage |
|-------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree | 64% |
| 2. Agree | 9% |
| 3. Neutral | 18% |
| 4. Disagree | 3% |
The item thirty two (See Appendix F figure 32):
"Making a comparison between the other English courses and this one, I was more motivated to learn English in the one where Facebook was used"
The 37% of the population of the sample strongly agrees, along with 33% who agrees, which means the majority of the students feel more motivated to learn English using Facebook. Other results indicate that 21% of students show neutrality, a 6% who disagrees and a 3% who strongly disagree. This result confirms the positive impact this technological mediation had in the students’ engagement aspect.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree | 37% |
| 2. Agree | 33% |
| 3. Neutral | 21% |
| 4. Disagree | 6% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 3% |
As another research finding, it can be declared students would like to use Facebook as an educational tool in their English classes again since they felt more motivated to learn the language in this course than in the face to face ones. This coincides with the results shown in Mazman and Usluel (2011). For them, Facebook serves as a means to network, communicate, recruit, share knowledge maintain existing relationships, form new relationships, aid academic purposes, and makes learning possible.
In relation to the third category, Academic Engagement, the survey reports the following items students’ answers:
Item number nine (See Appendix F figure 9):
“My attitude towards the learning of English became more serious and engaged while using Facebook”
This result shows that 37% of the population agrees and 18% strongly agrees. A 33% of teachers are neutral and 12% disagrees. There is not any percentage for strongly disagree. This result shows that more than the half of the students does believe their engagement level was higher while using Facebook to learn English. Nevertheless, there is 33% that preferred to stay in a neutral position about this item, which means their engagement needs to increase.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree | 18% |
| 2. Agree | 37% |
| 3. Neutral | 33% |
| 4. Disagree | 12% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
Item number ten (See Appendix F figure 10):
“I usually study English on weekends”
A 37% disagrees with this sentence and a 24% are neutral. There is 27% who strongly disagrees and a 12% who agrees. There is no record for strongly agree. This shows the tendency that motivated this research in the sense that studying at home is not usually done by many students. Just 12% of them spent some of their weekend time doing it.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree | 0% |
| 2. Agree | 12% |
| 3. Neutral | 24% |
4. Disagree | 37%
5. Strongly disagree | 27%
Item number twenty one (See Appendix F figure 21):
“I usually look for my English teacher’s help”
55% of the sample population agrees, along with 24% who are neutral. There is 18% for strongly agrees and 3% who disagree. There is no record for strongly disagree. There is the majority of the population that looks for their teacher’s help quite often. Just a 24% show neutrality about this item.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly Agree | 18% |
| 2. Agree | 55% |
| 3. Neutral | 24% |
| 4. Disagree | 3% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
Item twenty two (See Appendix F figure 22):
“I usually ask questions in the Facebook page about doubts or aspects that I don’t understand”
A total of 46% of the sample population are neutral, 21% agree, 18% disagree and 15% strongly disagree. There were no choices for the strongly agree option. A low number of students question others in the Facebook group about their doubts or aspects they do not understand, in contrast to a higher percentage who disagree with doing it. Besides, many of the students express neutrality in relation to this topic. This means posting their doubts was not usual while working on the social network site.
Some of the findings related to the *academic engagement* category are students usually look for the English teacher help, and consider their attitude towards the learning of English was more serious and engaged during the implementation of this project. On the other side, they don’t study English on weekends nor use the Facebook page to ask about their doubts or aspects that they do not understand about the class in general.
The previous statements lead us to claim the students’ engagement in general might be higher if they spent at least some time studying the language on weekends. Besides, the fear they felt expressed in the focus group in relation to posting their comments about their peers’ work and making mistakes while doing it, might have a connection with their reluctance to post doubts about the class in general. It can be inferred students in general terms lack confidence to express their points of views or positions clearly because of their peers’ reaction towards their language mistakes.
This finding confirms the importance of what Barkley, (2010) suggests when she explains the strategy *Attend to students’ basic needs so that they can focus on the higher-level needs required for learning* with the purpose to foster motivation. She claims it is especially important to the college classroom being aware of students’ psychological needs and taking care to ensure students feel safe to say/write what they truly think or feel without fear of ridicule or criticism by either you or their peers. It can
be concluded that probably this safety was not totally attended during the project, thus some students’ participation was somehow affected by it.
The fourth category *Peer engagement* is analyzed through the following items:
Item eleven (See Appendix F figure 11):
“I usually work with others when I have difficulties in English”.
64% of the sample population agrees and a 15% strongly agree, which makes a total only of 79%, against 12% who disagree, a 9% who are neutral and a 0% who strongly disagree, for a total of 21%. This high number shows that students believe cooperative work brings benefits to their foreign language learning process.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 15% |
| 2. Agree | 64% |
| 3. Neutral | 9% |
| 4. Disagree | 12% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
For the item twelve (See Appendix F figure 12):
“My peers’ collaboration helped me to solve problems while doing the Facebook activities”
43% of the sample indicates that students agree, along with 27% that strongly agrees, for a total of 69%, against a 9% that disagrees and a 21% that are neutral and 0% that strongly disagree. This supports the previous aspect in the sense that students prefer to ask for others’ help when learning problems arise, even in online environments.
In relation to the item thirteen (See Appendix F figure 13):
“Reading others’ comments motivated me to do my activities better”
A total of 55% of the sample population agrees and a 12% strongly agrees. On the other side, a low percentage that means 27% is neutral 6% strongly disagrees and 0% strongly disagrees. Thus, reading others’ comments seemed to have a high impact on the students’ motivation bearing in mind the percentage gotten.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 12% |
| 2. Agree | 55% |
| 3. Neutral | 27% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 6% |
For the item fourteen, (See Appendix F figure 14):
“Facebook made me actively assess my peers’ work and share with them.”
The highest rate goes for agree with 43%, followed by 27% who strongly agree, 18% who disagree, 9% who are neutral and 3% are for strongly disagree. This result indicates that most of the sample population believes to assess their peers’ work was
possible through the Facebook interaction. In contrast, a minority of the sample population thinks more interaction and assessment to their peers might be possible.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 27% |
| 2. Agree | 43% |
| 3. Neutral | 9% |
| 4. Disagree | 18% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 3% |
For the item number fifteen (See Appendix F figure 15):
“I usually study English with my classmates”.
31% of the students agree while the 30% are neutral. 27% of the targeted population shows a disagreement, 9% strongly disagree and 3% strongly agree.
This result shows many students do not study English with their peers. Just some of them agree with this fact, while others remain neutral about it. In contrast with a previous question where the majority of them express they study in groups and look for help when they have difficulties, it means working in groups is basically done when learning problems or confusions exist.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 3% |
| 2. Agree | 31% |
| 3. Neutral | 30% |
| 4. Disagree | 27% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 9% |
For the item number sixteen (See Appendix F figure 16):
"I consider studying English with others is useful for me".
This indicates a high rate in agreement with a total of 52%, and 24% who strongly agree. 15% are neutral and 9% are in disagreement. There is no record for strongly disagreement. This result shows a contradictory opinion since most of the students consider studying English with others bring many benefits to their learning process; however, they do not do it quite often. The possible reasons for this might be a good topic to be researched.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree | 24% |
| 2. Agree | 52% |
| 3. Neutral | 15% |
| 4. Disagree | 9% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
For number seventeen (See Appendix F figure 17):
"I consider I belong to a group of students who are engaged with the learning of English".
The highest percentage goes for agree with 49%, along with 30% with a neutral feeling. The rest goes for 18% of strongly agreement and 3% of disagreement. There is no record for strongly disagreement. This result shows many students consider their peers are engaged with the learning of English. However, some of them show their neutrality about it.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree | 18% |
| 2. Agree | 49% |
| | |
|---|---|
| 3. Neutral | 30% |
| 4. Disagree | 3% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
The findings related to the *peer engagement* category outline most of the students stated they worked in groups when they had difficulties in the language and that the help offered by their peers was really valuable to clarify doubts and learn. Besides, they considered many of the class members were engaged with the learning of the language.
At the same time, many of them recognized their peers’ comments motivated them to do their assignments in a better way and that through Facebook they could assess their partners’ activities, as well as to interact with them. This finding coincides in some way with what Shih, R. (2011) found in his research since his students agreed that combining *Facebook* and peer assessment to evaluate and observe others' writings could highly enhance their learning.
These findings also reaffirm Herazo’s point of view (2002) when he claims researchers often see that students may feel more confident working together and in those spaces of comfort, mediation tend to be more effective.
Finally, the last statements report the fact although students believed studying together is very useful for them, it is not so common for the majority of the class to do it. This seems a little bit contradictory in the sense that if an activity brings benefits to the learning process, it is supposed to be done frequently. An aspect to be researched in the near future might have arisen from this finding.
In relation to the fifth category *Student-Staff engagement*, the items and their results are reported as follows:
The item eighteen (See Appendix F figure 18):
“The English teacher was interested in my academic progress while I was working in the Facebook page”.
The highest rate goes for strongly agreement with 64% and 33% who agrees. 3% shows neutrality and there is no record for the other two choices. It is evident almost all the students consider their teacher showed interest in their academic progress while they were working in the Facebook page.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 64% |
| 2. Agree | 33% |
| 3. Neutral | 3% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
For the item number nineteen (See Appendix F figure 19):
“The English teacher checked and commented my activities frequently”
88% of the population strongly agrees along with the 12% that agrees. There is no percentage for the other options. This item completely evidences the teacher provided frequent feedback to her students.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 88% |
| 2. Agree | 12% |
| 3. Neutral | 0% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
For the item twenty (See Appendix F figure 20):
“From the very beginning, the English teacher expressed clearly the expectations she had from her students”
The highest rate goes for strongly agree with 79%, 18% agree, 3% neutral, and 0% for the other two options. This result indicates that almost all the students knew the expectations the teacher had about them from the very beginning of the project.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree | 79% |
| 2. Agree | 18% |
| 3. Neutral | 3% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
To this respect, Kim, (2008) defines the teachers’ role in CALL to become one of assisting learner performance, providing opportunities for learners to engage in meaning-making task, and fostering critical analysis of their own and others’ discourse and interaction in specific sociocultural contexts. The two characteristics mentioned at the beginning are the ones students might have found in their teacher while working in this online project since they valued her prompt assistance and interest in their academic progress. The last aspect related to the fostering of a critical self and others’ assessment was not profoundly included in the survey questions since they were limited to ask about how their peers’ comments influenced their motivation to work.
The sixth category *Intellectual engagement* details the following items and answers to them:
For the item number five (See Appendix F figure 5):
“I am usually motivated to learn English”.
The 40% who agrees plus 21% who strongly agrees shows the tendency that half of the students were usually motivated to learn the foreign language. The 39% showed their neutral position, followed by a 0% who disagree and strongly disagree.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 21% |
| 2. Agree | 40% |
| 3. Neutral | 39% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
For the item number six (See Appendix F figure 6):
“I was motivated to learn English using Facebook”.
A 37% who strongly agrees along with 36% who agrees shows the positive impact the use of Facebook had in their desire to learn the language. On the other hand, a 24% voted for neutral and 3% for disagrees, and with no choices for strongly disagrees. This lower percentage confirms the positive role Facebook played in the whole group.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 37% |
| 2. Agree | 36% |
| 3. Neutral | 24% |
| 4. Disagree | 3% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
For the item number seven (See Appendix F figure 7):
“Studying English through the Facebook page made me feel satisfied”
This shows 46% who agrees along with 30% that were neutral, 18% of students strongly agrees, with 6% who disagrees and no percentage related to no strongly disagreeing. These results show that more than half of the students (70%) felt the work done in the Facebook page to study the foreign language satisfied them. While the rest 30% preferred not to show a clear position about this topic.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree | 18% |
| 2. Agree | 46% |
| 3. Neutral | 30% |
| 4. Disagree | 6% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
The item number eight (See Appendix F figure 8):
"The use of the Facebook page for this class made me learn actively"
Here we can find 55% of the population who agrees and 18% that strongly agrees. 27% of the students were neutral and 0 percentages were recorded for disagree and strongly disagree. This result shows a high number of students who believe active learning was possible using the technological tool Facebook in their English classes.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree | 18% |
| 2. Agree | 55% |
| 3. Neutral | 27% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
Many students agreed the use of Facebook made them feel motivated, as well as gave them the opportunity to learn English actively. Moreover, they expressed their satisfaction about using this technological tool with educational purposes. These learners’ positions might be the beginning of their commitment to study the foreign language such as Krause and Coates, (2008) state unless students are challenged and challenging themselves to learn, it is unlikely that they are extending the frontiers of their knowledge, or forming meaningful, stimulating and enduring commitments to their study.
The last category *Online engagement* gives account of their items with their corresponding answers as follows:
For the item number four (See Appendix F figure 4):
“The features of Facebook, such as “like”, stimulated my interest to participate in the activities”.
The 40% of students agrees along with a 33% who were neutral. Just a 15% of students strongly agree. 9% of students disagree with this issue and 3% strongly disagrees. This result shows that half of the students felt motivated by the like options their peers marked on their works. On the contrary, the other half seemed to believe they were not influenced by the likes.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 15% |
| 2. Agree | 40% |
| 3. Neutral | 33% |
| 4. Disagree | 9% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 3% |
The item number twenty three (See Appendix F figure 23):
"The web resources are useful for my English learning"
58% of the students show a strong agreement, as well as the 30% that agrees. 12% of the targeted population shows a neutral position while the 0% was the number corresponding to the other two options. This result reflects the students’ belief about the usefulness of using web resources while learning English.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 58% |
| 2. Agree | 30% |
| 3. Neutral | 12% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
The item twenty four (See Appendix F figure 24):
"Learning English at my own pace using the web resources is very useful for me"
This indicates a high rate in strongly agreement with a total of 67%, and 18% who agree. 15% are neutral. There is no record for disagreement and strongly disagreement. The majority of the students express they consider useful to learn English at their own pace using the web resources while some of them prefer to stay neutral about this item.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 67% |
| 2. Agree | 18% |
| 3. Neutral | 15% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
The item number twenty five (See Appendix F figure 25):
"I usually use web resources with educational purposes"
For this item, the high rate goes for 40% who agrees and 39% are neutral and 21% strongly agree. There is not record for disagree and strongly disagree. This evidence 61% of the students use web resources to learn, however a high number of them prefers to stay neutral about this item which might means they do not do it quite often.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree | 21% |
| 2. Agree | 40% |
| 3. Neutral | 39% |
| 4. Disagree | 0% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
The item twenty six (See Appendix F figure 26):
"I usually use my e mail to contact my English teacher and classmates".
A 25% who agrees along with 24% who disagrees, 24% who are neutral, 15% who strongly disagree and 12% who strongly agrees, shows that not many students get in contact with their teacher through e mail; while a little higher quantity of them usually does it. A representative number of students in relation to the same aspect remain neutral.
| Options | Percentage |
|---------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree | 12% |
| 2. Agree | 25% |
| 3. Neutral | 24% |
| 4. Disagree | 24% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 15% |
The twenty seventh item (See Appendix F figure 27):
"I usually interact with my friends online to do my English activities".
This shows 37% who disagree along with 21% that strongly disagree. 24% that are neutral. It contrasts with just a 9% of the students who agree and the same number of them who strongly agree.
This result shows that an online interaction with their friends to do their English activities is not so common for students, which means that probably, they prefer to get in contact with their peers using a face to face environment.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 9% |
| 2. Agree | 9% |
| 3. Neutral | 24% |
| 4. Disagree | 37% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 21% |
The twenty eighth item (See Appendix F figure 28):
"The use of the Facebook page promoted the use of other technological tools".
Here we can find 52% of the population who strongly agrees and 27% that agrees. 15 of percentages were recorded for neutral and disagree: 6%. There is not record for strongly disagree. This result shows a high number of students who affirm the use of other technological tools were promoted through the use of the Facebook page. On the contrary, just a minority of the population disagree to this respect.
| Options | Percentage |
|------------------|------------|
| 1. Strongly agree| 52% |
| 2. Agree | 27% |
| | |
|---|---|
| 3. Neutral | 15% |
| 4. Disagree | 6% |
| 5. Strongly disagree | 0% |
With regards to this category, it was found students considered the use of the Facebook page in their classes promoted the use of other technological tools that were valuable to their purpose of learning English. Besides, it gave them the possibility to learning the language at their own pace.
These findings reports the same benefits Melor, et al., (2012) stated when he described the following items as advantages of using Facebook in English as a foreign language classes: the familiarization of students with these technologies, the development of the language skills, the global interaction, the possibility of enhance students’ responsibility and engagement and the maximization of peers feedback.
In spite of these positive statements, most of the students did not interact with their peers online while doing their English activities and just a few of them used the emails to interact with their teacher. These findings are in contradiction to what Kim (2008) considered when he claims that CMS could be used to increase the amount of input and negotiation. He stresses that CMS such as email, conferencing, on line discussion, and key pals may provide great benefit in language teaching and learning. This suggests more online interaction tools should be included in this project next time it will be carried out.
As a conclusion, in relation to the results provided by the survey, it can be stated it was possible to find out that students liked the activities proposed by the teacher since they considered them funny, interesting and varied. In addition, they pointed out they felt motivated and interested in doing the activities because of the previously mentioned characteristics.
In relation to the possibility to continue using Facebook in their English classes, they completely agreed to do it; nevertheless they believed their motivation was higher while they were using this social network to learn the foreign language than when they attended face to face classes only.
In terms of categories of engagement, a more engaged attitude was conceived by students to have in their English learning during the implementation of the project. They also let me know peer’s cooperation was valuable, especially when difficulties appear. However, they preferred not to post their doubts or difficulties in the group wall and don’t usually study in groups. Their classmates’ comments motivated them to continue working hard, even though their likes represented not too much contribution to it.
With regards to the teacher’s role, her assistance, the timely provided feedback, as well as her interest in the students’ academic progress increased their desire to do the assigned tasks. It was found they do not use their mails too much to get in contact with their teacher. It might be the face to face interaction is better for them.
As a final point, the possibility to use new web resources, to apply different technological tools, deserve to be highlighted. However, more online interaction with their partners and teacher might start replacing the face to face encounters which they still seem to prefer.
4.1.3 Document collection
The Facebook page constitutes an important document for the research due to the fact this is the action implemented to increase students’ engagement in the English classes. This technique provided the necessary information to achieve the specific objective describe the strategies applied on the Facebook tool that particularly engage students.
It was created and administered by the teacher-researcher and was used as a technological mediation during three months. Basically, ten different activities were proposed by the teacher to be uploaded and posted by the whole students.
The whole class was divided into five groups with 7 members each (except the group 5 with just 6 members). They were organized alphabetically according to the first letter of the students’ names in order to be objective. Clear instructions, examples, and deadlines were part of all the activities posted by the teacher.
The previously exposed organization aspects were taken into account with the purpose of *creating a sense of classroom community*. According to Barkley, (2010), the engagement concept implies a synergy between motivation and active learning, thus the teacher and students perceiving themselves as part of a community is the first condition to promote that synergy.
Other facts that support the teacher’s interest in building community are the assignment of individual as well as group work to promote cooperative learning (Malony, 2007 as cited in Pollara and Zhu, 2011 considered it as one of the advantages of using Facebook in educational settings); the anonymity reduction; and the use of technology to extent or reinforce community such as chats, or e-mails to interact with students. (Picture 1 shows a chat example).
In relation to chats and emails, some of them were written in Spanish while others in English. The teacher proposed students to use the foreign language to communicate their ideas, however, if they did it in their mother language, they were welcomed and answered as well since the most important fact was to create a social online learning community. It was found that interaction through these technological tools served to clarify doubts, remind dates, and strengthen the participants’ relationships among others. It seemed to increase students’ self-confidence as well.
The objective of this document collection analysis is to describe the strategies applied on the Facebook account that particularly engage students. The categories analyzed are related with the concept of engagement proposed by Barkley, (2010 p. 24) which states “A classroom filled with enthusiastic, motivated students is great, but it is educationally meaningless if the enthusiasm does not result in learning”. These categories are *the strategies to foster motivation* and *the strategies to promote active learning*.
The strategies to foster motivation
Brophy (2004) and Cross (2001) observe students’ motivations are strongly influenced by what they think is important and what they believe they can accomplish. First, they must expect that they will be able to perform the task successfully (expectancy). Second, they must value the task worth doing (value).
According to the previous finding, the strategies used in the Facebook page that fostered students’ motivation are the following:
1. Expect engagement
Barkley, (2010) points out teachers should expect students in their course to be engaged in learning, and resist settling for less because in a classroom environment, enthusiasm is contagious in the same way as disengagement has a deleterious effect on it.
One of the actions she proposes to be implemented is to talk individually to students who are not engaged. That is why during the whole process the action to post the names of the students who had done the activities or in the contrary the names of the ones who had not done them was implemented with the purpose to remind them how important it was for the class to appreciate everybody’s work. (Picture 2).
Picture 2. Watching movie trailers and write about them.
In some cases after reading these reminder messages, students posted their activities. When the disengagement was repetitive and students did not post their works, the teacher used to send writing inbox messages. This strategy seemed to work occasionally. (See picture 3).
Picture 3. Student giving excuses for not doing the activities.
As a conclusion, it might be stated through this research it was found the disengaged students’ participation increased when the teacher lets them know in an individual and personalized way using different technological resources such as mails or chats their contributions had a great value for the class.
2. Develop and display the qualities of engaging teachers.
Brophy, (2004) has found students feel more motivated to learn if their teachers display attributes such as energy, enthusiasm, passion, approachability, fairness, and optimism.
Bearing the previous precept in mind, models and examples of the required activities were created and posted by the teacher to show students what were the expected tasks results. This action brought as a consequence more students’ involvement because they considered the activity was approachable and possible to do. (Picture 4).
Picture 4. A mind map.
As part of the same strategy, regularly positive and encouraging messages were posted in each group page to foster students’ hard work. The following example (Picture 5) reflects how these messages provoked students’ reactions and comments.
The previous examples show students could be more engaged in their online classes if their teachers are themselves engaged.
3. **Use praise and criticism effectively**
Brophy, (2004) and Wlodkowski, (2008) (as cited in Barklye, 2010) state as some suggestions to praise effectively, to do it in a timely manner with simplicity, sincerity, spontaneity, and other signs of authenticity and to praise the attainment of specific criteria that is related to learning, such as noteworthy effort, care, perseverance, or demonstration of progress, and specify the skills or evidence of progress that you are
praising. The following picture 6 is an example of how praising was focused as the two authors previously mentioned suggested.
Picture 6. A feedback sample.
Praising might be seen as effective in general terms since the majority of the students highlighted the teacher’s feedbacks and comments because they were done timely, constantly and helpful to their learning process. Barkley, (2010) supports this positive conception when she states complimenting is basically used by teachers who care about students with the purpose of creating a positive and supportive classroom environment.
In relation to the opposite action, that means criticism, Wlodkowski, (2008 as cited in Barkley, 2010) points out it is most helpful and motivating if it is informational, based on performance criteria, behavior specific, corrective, prompt, given privately, and offered when there are opportunities for improvement. In picture 7 you will see an example which have most of the Wlodkowski characteristics.
In essence, the student’s reaction was positive even though he was being corrected. Thus, based on most of the students comments it might be conclude criticism could be constructive in essence as long as it is done correctly.
4. Incorporate competition appropriately.
To have the competition team-based rather than individual, and to establish some conditions where everybody has a good chance to win are the research based suggestions Brophy (1987, 2004) and Wlodkowski (2008) as cited in Barkley, 2010 propose to incorporate competition appropriately. Pictures 8 and 9 reflect how teamwork competition motivated students to post their work (all of the groups did the presentation, except group 4) and to vote for the best one after examining them. At the end, all of the groups received one vote each; however, they were winners because they gained knowledge and their peers’ support.
The previous pictures illustrated how positively a group competition might impact on students’ motivation since working cooperatively to achieve a common goal is rewarded here instead of praising just one individual as the best of the whole class.
5. Try to rebuild the confidence of discouraged and disengaged students
Three of the activities designed during the implementation of this project, were proposed to be carried out in groups. The main reason of this decision was based on the premise: to set up “study buddy” systems so that low achievers can collaborate with higher-achieving students. (Brophy, 2004). Picture 10 is an example of this strategy because the groups were divided according to the students’ commitment and academic results they had shown until that moment.
Picture 10. Assignation of groups’ sample.
Whether this strategy worked or not might be a little bit controversial because even though most of the groups posted their activities timely, one of the complaints students expressed in the focus group and survey was the group work could have been better if all the groups’ members were completely engaged in the assigned activities.
• Strategies to promote active learning.
Another essential element of engagement is the promotion of active learning. According to Barkley, (2010. p. 94), “Learning is a dynamic process that consists of making sense and meaning out of new information and connecting it to what is already known. To learn well and deeply, students need to be active participants in that process. This typically involves doing something—for example, thinking, reading, discussing, problem-solving, or reflecting”.
This concept inspired most of the pedagogical action proposed in the research where students played an active role and did most of the work having their teacher as a resource person who assisted them in their learning efforts. Pictures 11 and 12 give account of the participants’ roles being the students the most active ones.
Picture 11. Preparing a topic presentation in groups using technological resources.
Picture 12. Songs links post.
1. **Help students develop learning strategies.**
“Learning strategies are devices or behaviors that help us retrieve stored information as well as acquire and integrate new information with existing knowledge. Previewing, summarizing, paraphrasing, imaging, creating analogies, note taking, and outlining are some of them”. (Barkley, 2010, p. 98).
Summarizing and note taking were the ones basically developed in these online activities. (See picture 13). As a finding it can be declared, in a general sense they were conceived to be difficult for some students even if they were posted by most of them. In the reading activities, for instance the majority of the students summarized the texts ideas using the same words expressed in the texts more than their own ones. This fact might be seen as a lack of training in doing summaries in the foreign language.
2. Provide opportunities for guided practice and rehearsal.
The amount of time and the type of rehearsal are factors that affect significantly the quality of the rehearsal. Therefore, monitor rehearsal carefully at first and give prompt, specific, corrective feedback to ensure the learning is correct. (Barkley, 2010).
The following pictures (14, 15 and 16) illustrate how a grammar topic was learnt and retained by most of the students due to the activity proposed to rehearse it. (Watch movie trailers and compare them).
The previously mentioned aspects (time and feedback) affected the rehearsal positively since enough time to do the activity was given as well as a prompt teacher’s feedback was provided.
ACTIVITY 7:
1. Watch this video about the top 10 movie trailers 2014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iim9-ng7epY
2. Write a paragraph comparing them
DEADLINE: Wednesday September 17th
Picture 14. Watch movie trailers and making comparisons between them.
Picture 15. Student’s paragraph sample.
The amazing spider man 2, capétain america, the winter soldier, transformers, age of extinction, I find which are the most interesting, because I like movies of action, they are my favorite. The hobbit, there and back again is the worst, have ugly characters and I do not like this kind of movies.
Picture 16. Student’s paragraph sample.
The last finding leads to state providing different kinds of rehearsal activities and guiding students on time during this process might reinforce learning and increase retention.
Besides creating a sense of classroom community to guarantee the synergy between motivation and active learning, the two other conditions established by Barkley (2010) were promoted in this Facebook strategy. They were helping students work at their optimal level of challenge and teaching so that students learn holistically.
Helping students work at their optimal level of challenge.
One of the fundamental principles of learning is that tasks must be sufficiently difficult to pose a challenge, but not so difficult as to destroy the willingness to try (McKeachie, 1994, p. 353 as cited in Barkley, 2010).
Facebook activities were a challenge for the majority of them specially the ones related to the application of new technological tools students had never seen before. In
spite of their lack of expertise dealing with them, they tried to achieve the class goals.
(See focus group answers Turns 2, 4 and 8).
One of the teacher’s strategies was to organize the tasks according to their level of difficulty assigning the easiest ones at the beginning and the most challenging ones at the end of the project to increase students’ self-confidence. Pictures 17 and 18 illustrate this belief.
Picture 17. A guessing activity simple.
To conclude this statement, it is pointed out requiring students to do challenging tasks is helpful as long as its difficulty level does not destroy students’ wishes to do them. That is why providing the required assistance when needed is an essential role any teacher should play.
*Teaching so that students learn holistically.*
Basically the activities were designed for the students to play an active role; all of them required their production in terms of the communicative skills. Listening, monologue, speaking, writing and reading were included in the course. The incorporation of funny activities like solving a crossword, posting jokes and favorite songs, designing friendship cards among others support the concept of learning as the integration of mind, body and heart as it was conceived by Barkley (2010). (Pictures 19 and 20).
The participation of more than half of the students in this kind of activities, demonstrates students’ learning process requires more than knowledge acquisition but a tight connection among all the elements that constitute human beings.
To conclude the analysis of the Facebook page document results, it is possible to suggest the implementation of the strategies or tips to foster motivation and active learning perfectly compiled by Barkley, (2010) after reading some research on the field and interviewing colleges about their practices to this respect.
In spite of the presence of a low number of these strategies in the study, taking into account the positive impact they had on the students’ engagement in the English class represented in the students’ posts and comments numbers; in the active role they played; in the interest to share their work and appreciate their peers’ ones; in the acceptance and value given to the teacher’s assistance; in the use of new technological tools; in the application of learning strategies; in the self-confidence to express their feelings and opinions freely; it might be inferred the more strategies applied, the more enthusiasm and commitment to learn by students.
4.2 Triangulation
After conducting several instruments to collect qualitative data and according to the research question set at the beginning of the present investigation, some matches and mismatches statements were found through the analysis of these instruments. As it is stated by Lapan, (2012, p. 251) “triangulation, or finding agreement among evidence collected from multiple sources and using various methods, increases the validity and trustworthiness of findings”. Some of the findings are described as follows.
The evidence obtained from the students’ perceptions about the work developed in the Facebook page is totally consistent with the information gathered in the focus group and the survey report to affirm the students’ motivation to learn the foreign language increased through this social network use.
Some of the reasons to support this fact were the possibility to know and use different technological resources; the activities proposed described as innovative, funny,
interesting and varied; and the appealing methodology used by the teacher throughout the project.
With regards to the students’ difficulties, while in the focus group and surveys, many learners conceived group work as something they did not like since not all the students were engaged in the tasks as they were expected to be, the document analysis instrument reported the activities that were assigned in groups were posted by most of them in a prompt way. (See appendix). To this respect, it is important to highlight the study buddy strategy proposed by Barkley, (2010) which suggests making groups bearing in mind students’ academic abilities mixing the most advanced with the least ones to support them, was applied. It could be one of the reasons why the activities were carried out, no matter the students’ level of engagement.
Even though the challenges of working in this kind of project were just asked in the focus group interview, the internet access, as well as the lack of technological resources to do the activities should be taking into account. It might be stated that if students had had all the resources available probably, their participation would have been more active.
In terms of defining how this academic experience was, it was a unanimous answer to this respect. Most of them in the focus group and in the survey claimed they would like to repeat this experience again due to the positive impact it had on their language learning.
Concerning the *academic engagement*, the focus group and the survey answers confirmed their attitude towards the English classes was more serious and their level of engagement was higher in comparison to the face to face classes. At the same time there is match in both of the instruments previously mentioned with regards to the students’
participation in classes represented by their posts to ask about their doubts. It was found most of them preferred not to write this kind of comments. In the focus group it was reported the main reason for that was the students’ fear to be ridiculed by their peers.
This position was also stated in the focus group in relation to post comments about their peers’ activities. However, there is a mismatch in the survey since many of the students considered their peers’ comments motivated them to do their activities in a better way and in the Facebook page it was also illustrated in the fact that the number of students’ comments was high. (A total of 184 students’ comments. See appendix H).
As regards to the *Student-Staff engagement*, in the three instruments it was confirmed the teacher tried to make the subject interesting through the methodology and the activities proposed. Moreover, her prompt assistance as well as the timely feedback provided motivated students to share their works (A total of 174. See appendix H) and appreciate the others’ ones. In the document analysis it was reported the fact she posted models to be followed by students, motivated them to do the tasks no matter how challenging or unknown they were.
Regarding the *peer engagement*, a mismatch was found in the analysis of the three instruments. In the focus group it was reported that working with others was not very useful while in the survey a contrary position was shown when they said they worked in groups when having difficulties and that their peers’ help was valuable to clarify doubts and learn. The same perception was exemplified in the document analysis because the group assignments were posted on time by most of the students. To this respect there was found even though their position about working in groups is in general terms favorable, in the survey many of them reported they do not do it quite often.
Another category worth analyzing is the *Intellectual engagement*. The three instruments gave account of how intellectually stimulating the course was. In the focus groups students agreed they were motivated to learn the language and felt satisfaction from studying it due to the fact they found it intellectually stimulating. A similar statement was inferred from the survey’s answers when they stated this course provided them the opportunity to learn the language in an active way as well as how satisfied they were about using this social network with educational purposes. At the same time the Facebook page itself, illustrated one of the characteristics of the proposed activities were the challenge they represented for most of the learners.
To conclude this data triangulation the *Online engagement* category needs to be summarized. To this respect, in the focus group and survey the students claimed the use of web resources to learn English was really useful for them. They also considered learning the language in an online manner was of great value since the use of new technological tools was promoted through it.
It is important to mention the use of chats or e-mails as means of communication between teacher-peers and peers-peers. In the Facebook page it was found some students communicated with their teacher using inbox messages or sending e-mails. However, this number of students was limited. This finding matches with the information provided in the survey where most of the students agreed they did not use these online tools to interact with the others because of their preference to use conventional or face-to-face contact.
5. Conclusions
After the analysis of the data collected during this study, at Institución Educativa Técnica Comercial de Santo Tomás, about Facebook and the ninth grade students’ engagement in the English classes, it appears pertinent to make the presentation of the main aspects that emerged from this research. First of all, it seems relevant to explain that students’ interest towards the English class as well as their low involvement in this subject were the reasons that triggered this investigation.
Before the presentation of the conclusions, it seems important to mention the theories that guided me during this study. *Engagement* is considered as a determinant factor in order to facilitate students’ involvement in the foreign language learning process. It is conceptualized by Barkley, (2009 as cited in Barkley, 2010) as the students’ desire to learn, as well as their involvement in academic tasks where high order thinking skills are promoted. Some strategies to develop these motivation and active learning factors were suggested in this part. Moreover, the level of students’ engagement could be determined taken into account *seven categories* proposed by Krause and Coates (2008): transition, academic, peer, student-staff, intellectual, online and beyond classes.
Besides this, the theoretical framework also contains some literature related to *mediation* defined as an individual’s mental, social, and material activity which is shaped by tools that have been historically and culturally created to reach understanding and acting actively in the world (Herazo & Donato, 2012; Lantolf & Throne, 2006; Guerrero, 2007).
On the other hand, recognizing the role technology is playing nowadays in education, the Computer Assisted Language Learning approach in which the computer is used as a tool for presentation, assisting students, and evaluating material, and has an
interactional element, (Beatty, 2003; Jafarian, Soori & Kafipour, 2012) was recognized as relevant in this research. Finally, connected with the previously mentioned theory a vast information about the social network Facebook and the multiple advantages its application has inside educational field, especially in the learning of a foreign language, was taken into account too.
Now, I will present the conclusions by focusing on the objectives proposed. In relation to the first research specific objective which refers to the students’ experience using Facebook in their English classes, it was possible to find during the data collection process that learners perceived this social networking use as positive in general terms since they had the possibility to know different technological tools never seen before; besides, different tasks were developed enhancing their English learning. As a conclusion, it might be stated this symbolic mediation increased their engagement in the foreign language classes.
Another aspect found at this respect has to do with how English is conceived after the implementation of this pedagogical strategy. It might be stated nowadays students find the foreign language to be meaningful and interesting to learn due to the authenticity and variety of the activities proposed to be carried out, as well as the use of the language promoted with real and social purposes more than academic ones.
Working cooperatively to achieve goals was also part of this experience. Even though the process of working in groups, reading others’ activities and giving feedback to them in an online environment was not easy at all; making decisions, reaching a consensus, posting the activities having in mind the deadlines and giving support to others could be mentioned as some of the benefits obtained from the group work.
With regard to the second research specific objective posed which refers to the identification of categories of students’ engagement occurred in English classes using Facebook, it could be identified through the data collected that the transition and the beyond-class categories did not register any presence in this study.
On the contrary, *online engagement* category was the one who had a major presence in this project implementation. Most of the students agreed online resources provided in these classes were really useful for their English learning process, as well as the possibility to read and sometimes assess their peers’ work helped the class to increase their language knowledge and motivated them to do their best effort while doing the activities. However, assessment could have been provided in a more often and precise way by the students.
The *student-staff* category brought as a conclusion that the teacher’s role as a guide, facilitator and evaluator was played on time and in an appropriate manner since thanks to her efforts, the subject appeared to be more interesting and meaningful for the learners. On the other hand, the *intellectual* category was also noticeable, due to the fact learners believed the course was intellectually stimulating and this provoked as a result their motivation to learn the language more. It might be stated as a conclusion that now English seems to be a more interesting subject to study.
Regarding the *peer* engagement scale, a consensus was not reached by the students, because in spite of the fact some of them believed studying in groups helped them to clarify their doubts or solve their language problems, others considered working in groups was not a pleasant experience due to the lack of commitment of some of their members. To this respect, the teacher conceived cooperative work was useful because it led the students to work together in order to achieve a common goal, however more assistance needed to be provided to make it more productive and enjoyable.
The last category to be mentioned is the *academic* one. It was claimed their participation in the different activities and discussions was active in general terms and that the use of this social network to learn English implied the increasing of study hours at home. To conclude this aspect, it was also stated most of the students looked for the teacher’s help using private messages instead of the Facebook wall in order not to be criticized by their peers.
With reference to the third specific objective which refers to the strategies applied on the Facebook tool that particularly engage students, it could be concluded that there were some strategies applied with different purposes. First, some of them had as a purpose to foster motivation: expect engagement, develop and display the qualities of engaging teachers, use praise and criticism effectively, incorporate competition appropriately and try to rebuild the confidence of discouraged and disengaged students. Second, some strategies were used to promote active learning: help students develop learning strategies and provide opportunities for guided practice and rehearsal. Finally, other strategies to promote the combination of motivation and active learning were also applied: creating a sense of classroom community, helping students work at their optimal level of challenge and teaching so that students learn holistically. All of them brought as a result the increasing of the students’ engagement level and learning of English.
6. Recommendations
The results of this study could be useful to researchers working on different projects about the role of social networks in academic scenarios, especially in language classrooms, that is why some recommendations will be presented for future research and the implications for teaching that arose from this study.
Some recommendations might be stated. The first one is related to the instruments used to collect the data, specifically to the survey. It is suggested that two surveys: one before and the other after the strategy implementation, in order to contrast the information collected, should be applied better.
The second suggestion has to do with the work guided by the teacher in the Facebook page. More autonomy and informality should be promoted while developing this kind of strategies to involve students in a more independent and natural way. Besides, the self-assessment element might be included in the social network page to provoke students’ reflection about their engagement and learning processes.
The findings of this study indicated that students’ engagement in the English classes increased during the implementation of the social network Facebook as a complement of the face to face classes. A reason for this was the use of different technological tools while learning the language. Thus, an implication for teaching that emerged from this study is the importance of using technology with academic purposes what means language teachers should become familiar with different technologies, as well as learning how to handle and applying them in their contexts. This TICs implementation should reflect a planning process where goals, contents and assessment should be entirely connected.
Another aspect that arose from this study that is important to teaching practice is the use of focus group interviews. I found this instrument to be insightful because it constitutes a mechanism of self-assessment that makes students more aware of their language learning process. It is recommended that further researches could focus more on this tool as a data collection instrument for both the teachers and students so they can make decisions in order to accomplish the objectives of the course and to be more
effective it can be done at different stages of the year with different students, to collect more trustable information.
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|----------------|----------------------------------|----|----|
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| AC201424313896 | ROMERO ROCA YURLAYNE ANDREA | 44 | A- |
47,6
INGLES
Transition engagement scale (TES)
The orientation programs helped me feel like I belong in this university
The university orientation programs helped get me off to a good start
I really like being a university student
I was given helpful advice when choosing my subjects/units
I was satisfied with the range of subjects/units from which I could choose this year
University has lived up to my expectations
I am satisfied with the subject choices I made this year
Academic Engagement Scale (AES)
I am strategic about the way I manage my academic workload
I regularly study on the weekends
I regularly seek advice and help from teaching staff
Time spent on private study
I rarely skip classes
I regularly borrow books from the university library
Time spent in the university library
I regularly ask questions in class
I usually come to class having completed readings or assignments
I regularly make class presentations
Peer Engagement Scale (PES)
I regularly work with other students on course areas with which I have problems
I regularly get together with other students to discuss subjects/units
I regularly study with other students
Studying with other students is very useful to me
I regularly work with classmates outside of class on a group assignment
I regularly work with other students on projects during class
I regularly borrow course notes and materials from friends in the same subjects/units
I feel part of a group of students and staff committed to learning
There is a positive attitude towards learning among my fellow students
Student–Staff Engagement Scale (SES)
Staff makes a real effort to understand difficulties students may be having with their work
Most academic staff takes an interest in my progress
The teaching staff is good at explaining things
Teaching staff usually give helpful feedback on my progress
Staff tries hard to make the subjects interesting
Most of the academic staff is approachable
Staff is usually available to discuss my work
Staff is enthusiastic about the subjects they teach
One-to-one consultations with teaching staff are useful
I feel confident that at least one of my teachers knows my name
Staff made it clear from the start what they expect from students
Intellectual Engagement Scale (IES)
I enjoy the intellectual challenge of subjects I am studying
I get a lot of satisfaction from studying
The lectures often stimulate my interest in the subjects
I am finding my course intellectually stimulating
I am usually motivated to study
Online Engagement Scale (OES)
Online discussion with other students is very useful
Using email to contact other students is very useful
Online tutoring (electronic access to tutoring support) is very useful
Computer software (e.g. CD-ROMs) designed specifically for the course is very useful for me
Using email to contact lecturers/tutors is very useful
Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful
Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me
Learning at my own pace using online resources is useful
I regularly use web-based resources and information designed specifically for the course
I regularly use email to contact friends in my course
I regularly use online discussion groups related to my study
I regularly use the web for study purposes
I regularly use email to contact lecturers/tutors
Beyond-class Engagement Scale (BES)
I feel I belong to the university community
I really like being on my campus
I tend to mix with other students at university
I have made at least one or two close friends at university
I am actively involved in university extra-curricular activities (e.g. cultural, sporting)
I am interested in the extra-curricular activities or facilities provided by this university
FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS
1. ¿Cómo fue su experiencia con el uso de esta red social. ¿Qué les gustó? y ¿qué no les gustó?
2. ¿Consideras que las actividades hechas en el grupo de Facebook te ayudaron a interesarte más por el aprendizaje del inglés, ¿en qué medida?
3. ¿Qué dificultades tuvieron ustedes mientras estaban haciendo esas actividades en las páginas de Facebook?
4. ¿Alguna vez usaron Facebook aparte de para subir las actividades para preguntar dudas que tenían con relación a lo que tenían que hacer, o para hacer comentarios sobre los trabajos que sus compañeros hacían?
5. ¿Cómo podríamos comparar los cursos donde hayan utilizado Facebook con otros donde no lo hayan utilizado?
The interview had place while another event was being developed in the main patio of the school that is why in the audio tape recording some noises are present. However, the conversation was not interrupted at any moment and the transcription was done without difficulties. All the participants were sat in a circle form and there was a boy recording the whole conversation.
| Turn | Participant | Participation | Categories |
|------|-------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | T | ok, buenos días estamos aquí para conocer sus impresiones sobre el trabajo realizado en la página de Facebook en las clases de inglés. Primero que todo me gustaría saber cómo fue su experiencia con el uso de esta red social. ¿Qué les gusto? y ¿qué no les gustó? | |
| 2 | S1 | primero que todo buenos días a mí me gustó los trabajos tecnológicos cuando la seño nos ponía digamos … nos ayudaba a aprender el inglés, para practicarlo más, lo que no me gustó era cuando ponían trabajos en grupo que algunos estudiantes no hacían nada y otros eran los que hacían | **Online Engagement Scale**
Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me |
| | | | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | T | bien, vamos con la segunda pregunta que dice consideras que las actividades hechas en el grupo de Facebook te ayudaron a interesarte más por el aprendizaje del inglés, ¿en qué medida? osea el hecho de que tú usaras Facebook aumentó o disminuyó tu interés por aprender inglés? ¿Cómo? | **Online Engagement Scale**
Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful |
| 16 | S3 | señor aumentó ya que nosotros los jóvenes hoy en día nos interesamos mucho por la red social y eso por eso nos ayudó a aprender al aprendizaje del inglés mediante las actividades | **Online Engagement Scale**
Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful |
| 17 | S2 | eh nos ayudó mucho porque el uso de Facebook para las actividades nos permite aprender más cosas en casa que las que aprendemos solamente en el aula ya que hay muchas cosas en inglés, frases, canciones como dijo el compañero que a veces uno quiere saber y no puede y entonces con esas con esas palabras nuevas que uno se va aprendiendo, uno va adquiriendo un nuevo vocabulario para el inglés a través de Facebook. | **Online Engagement Scale**
I regularly use the web for study purposes |
| 18 | S1 | pues me interesó mucho más el inglés de muchas formas eh (.3) antes antes puedo decirlo que el inglés me parecía aburrido, no le veía ese interés como ahora pero eso ha cambiado pues las herramientas que ha utilizado la señor me parecen muy divertidas y a la vez nos ayudan, nos ayudan a entender mucho más el inglés y a practicarlo porque para eso para eso es que la señor nos está poniendo esos trabajos en Facebook para ayudarnos a que el inglés ... fluya más en uno | **Student–Staff Engagement Scale**
Staff try hard to make the subjects interesting
**Intellectual Engagement Scale**
I enjoy the intellectual challenge of subjects I am studying
I am finding my course intellectually stimulating |
| 19 | S4 | en mi punto de vista el inglés en mí aumentó porque a mí antes me interesaba pero en el uso de Facebook he aprendido | **Intellectual Engagement Scale** |
| | | | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | | un poco más y he aclarado un poco más mi vocabulario… he mejorado mi vocabulario y mi forma de pronunciar por medio de las actividades y todo eso. | I am finding my course intellectually stimulating |
| 20 | S5 | a mí me gustó por lo que como dije antes de lo que traducía, de lo que aprendía pedacitos… entendía los pedacitos de las canciones, también porque uno interactuaba con los medios virtuales ya sea por videos, este audio, imágenes y ahí uno se emocionaba más. En cambio antes solamente eran textos y conversaciones y me aburría y a veces ni escribía | Intellectual Engagement Scale
I am usually motivated to study Online Engagement Scale
Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me |
| 21 | T | osea que podemos decir que en términos generales en todos ustedes el haber utilizado el grupo de Facebook como estrategia para aprender inglés los motivó y podemos decir que hoy día su interés por aprender el idioma extranjero es mucho más alto. Bien. Nuestra tercera pregunta es ¿qué dificultades tuvieron ustedes mientras estaban haciendo esas actividades en las páginas de Facebook? | |
| 22 | S3 | mi dificultad a veces era entrar a internet ya que en mi casa ahora está el servicio suspendido y al ir a un café internet el acceso era muy lento, entonces la web donde trabajábamos para hacer eso a veces se ponía muy lenta y entonces las cosas no se guardaban o se borraban | |
| 23 | T | tuviste dificultades con la conectividad, con tener acceso a los materiales | |
| 24 | S5 | para mí mi dificultad fue fue que a veces uno trataba de enviar algo por Facebook y no dejaba sino que salía enviando y a veces enviaba un archivo que no servía para nada o solamente no lo enviaba. | Online Engagement Scale
Learning at my own pace using online resources is not useful |
| 25 | T | osea tu problema también es relacionado con eso. Tal vez la lentitud, la lentitud al subir los trabajos que se pedían | |
| 26 | S1 | pues como dijeron mis compañeros el problema de conexión al internet era demasiado bajo, algunos compañeros no tenían este recurso de tener un computador | Online Engagement Scale
I regularly don’t use the web for |
| | | | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | | o tener acceso a internet en su casa y por eso a algunos se les dificultaba más enviar esos trabajos. Para mí también es el problema de conexión. Algunos compañeros no tienen internet, no tienen computador, entonces me imagino que será por eso. | study purposes |
| 27 | S2 | mi problema de conexión no fue como un problema de conexión sino como de compatibilidad ya que aquí todas... todas las páginas nos dan la opción de enviar el trabajo o compartirlo pero al momento de enviarlo o montarlo al grupo de Facebook no son compatibles con la aplicación entonces nos pide convertirlo a dropbox, mandarlo al correo, del correo a Facebook entonces es como muy complicado a veces compartirlo al correo, montarlo a dropbox, montarlo otra vez, se nos dificulta mucho y algunos no tenemos, o no tienen la capacidad para por ejemplo para descifrar o resolver un problema con otro. | Online Engagement Scale I don't regularly use web-based resources and information designed specifically for the course |
| 28 | T | tú te refieres a que los problemas, las dificultades básicamente que tuvieron fueron tecnológicos, de pronto los conocimientos que tenían en informática eran limitados para lo que algunas veces les correspondía hacer, ok | |
| 29 | S4 | en mi caso el problema más bien era de conexión era del artefacto tecnológico, el computador. Yo no tenía como ese material para poder subir los trabajos y eso me dificultó un poco en las actividades de Facebook. | Online Engagement Scale I regularly use the web for study purposes |
| 30 | T | ¿dónde accedías a la página? si no tenías el computador, ¿qué herramienta tecnológica utilizabas? | |
| 31 | S4 | a veces entraba por mi teléfono pero hubo un tiempo en que se me dañó y falté un poco a las actividades y por eso no pude resolverlas | |
| 32 | T | osea tuviste fue problemas de acceso a la página | |
| 33 | S4 | Sí | |
| 34 | T | nuestra cuarta pregunta es, ¿alguna vez usaron Facebook aparte de para subir las actividades usaron Facebook para preguntar dudas que tenían con relación a lo que tenían que hacer, o para hacer | |
| | | comentarios sobre los trabajos que sus compañeros hacían? |
|---|---|--------------------------------------------------------|
| 35 | S2 | si ya que dentro del proyecto de que la seño nos dio estaba incluido eso de montar, compartir, y dar la opinión sobre el trabajo de los otros compañeros y sobre los otros grupos ya sea individual o grupal como la seño nos exigía esa cuestión |
| 36 | T | alguna vez lo utilizaste para preguntar, compartir dudas |
| 37 | S2 | no, nunca lo usé para eso, siempre para montar, para compartir, comentar las actividades de Facebook y mirar que actividades había montado la seño para realizar |
| 38 | S3 | seño, yo de comentar, comenté como 2 o 3 veces por temor a equivocarme, ese es el problema que tenemos muchos y para preguntar dudas, o las dudas que tenía sobre las actividades y eso si lo usé varias veces. |
| 39 | S4 | yo no comenté muchas veces como dice mis compañeros el temor a equivocarme, también hacía como dice mi compañero nada más subía las actividades a Facebook, las publicaba y no interactuaba mucho en comentarios ni preguntando, cosas así |
| 40 | T | te faltó en la parte de interactuar con tus compañeros y darle el valor y la opinión sobre lo que ellos hacían también |
| 41 | S1 | bueno, yo nunca comenté ninguna actividad que hicieron mis compañeros, si como dicen mis compañeros por temor a equivocarnos, porque si nos equivocábamos, al día siguiente en el colegio eso era como si fuera pasado algo, eso era una burla y yo nunca lo hice. No era porque no quería sino por temor, por temor a equivocarme y como dicen mis compañeros sólo lo hice para ver las actividades que ponía la seño, para |
| | | |
|---|---|---|
| 42 | S5 | yo tampoco comenté porque no me interesaban las actividades de los otros compañeros, solamente veía que cuando usted publicaba actividad número tal y no entendía pedacitos, los traducía con el traductor y ahí hacía la mía. |
| | | Online Engagement Scale
Online discussion with other students is not very useful |
| 43 | T | has tocado un punto importante y es que dijiste que no te interesaba lo que escribían tus compañeros o las actividades que hacían tus compañeros, ¿a ustedes les pasó lo mismo o no? |
| | | |
| 44 | S2 | no porque, si uno observa el trabajo del compañero que montó primero, primero el trabajo, uno puede corregir, copiar ideas o también mejorar las ideas, no tanto copiarlas sino mejorarlas y ver tratar de corregir al compañero de una forma respetuosa, no ni de burla, ni faltándole el respeto, haciéndole ver los errores y si uno tiene que ver el trabajo ajeno porque puede sacar muchas cosas de él. |
| | | Online Engagement Scale
I regularly use online discussion groups related to my study |
| 45 | T | ¿qué piensan ustedes, ustedes si se interesaban por ver o que sus compañeros hacían? |
| | | |
| 46 | S4 | yo si me interesaba, yo veía qué hacían mis compañeros algunas veces y ahí me como me fijaba en que era lo que yo tenía bueno y en qué me podía como ayudar |
| | | |
| 47 | T | ¿dime por qué tu desinterés en el trabajo de los demás compañeros? |
| | | |
| 48 | S5 | porque si le ponía interés a lo de otro, podría copiar ideas y yo no quería eso, solamente mis ideas |
| | | |
| 49 | T | ah ya. ¿Pero ni siquiera observabas lo que ellos hacían? ¿No? |
| | | |
| 50 | S5 | No |
| | | |
| 51 | T | entonces, podíamos decir entonces que fue como una estrategia que él utilizó, no ver lo de los demás como para no afectar lo que él estaba realizando, para no dejarse influenciar por lo que él estaba realizando. Bien. Por último quisiera que pensáramos en un curso de inglés que hayan experimentado anteriormente, donde no hayan usado Facebook, un curso donde no existió el uso de Facebook para aprender inglés y pensemos en este curso donde sí utilizamos la herramienta tecnológica de |
| | | Facebook, ¿cómo podríamos comparar estos cursos? |
|---|---|--------------------------------------------------|
| 52 | S2 | primero que todo en mi experiencia escolar, en mi vida escolar nunca habíamos utilizado Facebook para el aprendizaje del inglés ya que se debe a que de pronto a las situaciones de los colegios o los profesores que no están conscientes ni tienen el uso de la red social y nunca había utilizado el uso de Facebook hasta ahora y me parece bueno el uso de Facebook porque como dije antes, nos ayuda a aprender más cosas en casa y nos ayuda a tener un mejor vocabulario, un mejor inglés fluido y si me gustó la experiencia con el grupo de inglés y el uso de Facebook |
| 53 | T | ¿tú sientes que este curso con Facebook lo disfrutaste más que los otros? |
| 54 | S2 | pues si el aprender porque el inglés y aprender nuevas herramientas tecnológicas no sólo nos ayuda en el inglés sino para las otras materias o para la vida. El uso de Facebook me pareció chévere ya que esto es nuevo, nuevo muy nuevo para mí nunca había usado Facebook para las clases y me gustaría que los demás niños, los demás compañeros en lo de otros cursos usaran Facebook también para que aprendieran mejor inglés |
| 55 | S3 | seño la verdad nunca me había interesado así por el inglés hasta ahora que veo el Facebook con ustedes y me pareció una gran experiencia ya que aprendimos de inglés y a la vez a utilizar herramientas de la web. |
| 56 | T | ¿osea que disfrutaste te gustó haber trabajado en el grupo de Facebook |
| | | | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 57 | S1 | como dijo mi compañero esto nos ayudó a aprender mucho más inglés cosa que otros salones, otros salones no lo hacían, eh también nos ayudó como para no sólo para aprender el inglés en las clases sino también en la casa, nos ayudó a cambiar un poco más y como dijo mi compañero muchos cursos no tenían eso y simplemente me pareció muy chévere, si me gustó. Porque así aprendí un poco más y eso me ayuda a mí para muchas cosas porque hoy en día el inglés es lo básico en todo | **Online Engagement Scale** Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me |
| 58 | S5 | bueno, a mí me gustó, a mí me gustó el uso de Facebook porque ya me motivaba a aprender más inglés, no como antes, antes que no lo usábamos, no me llamaba más la atención el inglés. Me llamaba y no me llamaba porque eran aburridoras las clases y ahora que tenemos el uso de Facebook ya puedo leer, aprender cómo se escribe y luego buscar la pronunciación | **Online Engagement Scale** Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me |
| 59 | T | osea que te parece que es más, es más entretenido, que es más llamativo el usar el Facebook en las clases que no usarlo | |
| 60 | S4 | yo desde que entré al bachillerato me ha encantado el inglés, siempre me ha llamado la atención y siempre escucho cosas en inglés como música, películas etc. Con las actividades en Facebook me influenció mucho más porque en cursos anteriores nunca lo había usado y eso me pareció súper interesante porque ahí uno ve otra faceta de cómo puede estudiar inglés en casa, en la escuela y otros lugares. | **Intellectual Engagement Scale** I enjoy the intellectual challenge of subjects I am studying
I am finding my course intellectually stimulating
I am usually motivated to study |
| 61 | T | si yo les pidiese que definieran, ya para cerrar esta entrevista, que definieran el trabajo que han realizado este semestre, ¿cómo lo definirían? | |
| 62 | S1 | divertido y nos ayudó a aprender, como lo dije antes y lo defino en una sola palabra que es divertido, me gustó me gustó como trabajamos esa herramienta en Facebook y y me gustó | **Intellectual Engagement Scale** I am usually motivated to study |
| 63 | S5 | entretenido y mucho más interesante ya | **Online Engagement** |
| | | | |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | que llamaba más la atención porque ya los jóvenes de hoy en día muy poco les gusta revisar las libretas y usan más las redes sociales | **Scale**
Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful
Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me |
| 64 | S2 | yo lo definiría como motivador, innovador, ya que nos motiva a nosotros como dice el compañero, no sólo a mirar las tareas en la libreta sino a mirar las tareas en la red, en las principales redes sociales y e innovador porque nos muestra las diferentes herramientas tecnológicas que se pueden usar para el desarrollo de esas tareas y no simplemente las herramientas tecnológicas, sino las herramientas que trae normalmente un computador como dijo el compañero Word, Excel y powerpoint para el uso de las tareas, en la tecnología. | **Online Engagement Scale**
Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful
Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful for me
**Intellectual Engagement Scale**
I am usually motivated to study |
| 65 | S3 | a mí me pareció interesante, porque como vemos hoy los jóvenes como dije ahorita nos interesamos, más o menos por así decirlo en la red social que en estudiar y escribir que a veces ahí mirábamos nuestro Facebook y aprendíamos el inglés y nuevas herramientas, entonces me pareció interesante | **Online Engagement Scale**
Subjects offered online with no face-to-face classes are useful
Online resources (e.g. course notes and materials on the web) are very useful |
| 66 | T | osea que pudiste hacer, le diste otro uso a las redes sociales del que tradicionalmente le dabas. Hablemos un poquito de eso de pronto tu antes usabas, para qué usabas el Facebook antes y en la clase de inglés, ¿cómo ha cambiado esa visión que tienes de Facebook? | |
| 67 | S4 | yo solo lo usaba para revisar mis amigos, chatear y eso. Con el uso de Facebook en | **Online Engagement Scale** |
| | | cosas así | |
|---|---|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
| 74 | T | osea que te parece que la actitud de la profesora influenció un poco el interés que ella tiene de usar nuevas herramientas, influenció en que el interés de ustedes aumentara también | Student–Staff Engagement Scale |
| | | Staff try hard to make the subjects interesting | |
| | | Staff are enthusiastic about the subjects they teach | |
| 75 | S1 | Claro | |
| 76 | S3 | si señó mire, yo por ejemplo, antes paraba hasta cuatro horas, cinco horas de seguido en Facebook, chateando, viendo fotos, publicando, pero ahora no solo hago eso sino que me meto en la cuenta que tengo para esto y hago las actividades y traduzco lo que no entiendo que publican y pues me he interesado bastante en el proyecto | Intellectual Engagement Scale |
| | | I am finding my course intellectually stimulating | |
| | | I am usually motivated to study | |
| 77 | T | te has interesado más en aprender inglés | |
| 78 | S3 | Aunque en algunas no las cumplo en el tiempo que no es pero, | |
| 79 | T | bueno, muchísimas gracias por darme a conocer sus puntos de vista, la verdad es que ha sido interesante escucharlos y esperemos que realmente hayan sido más los beneficios que las desventajas de haber trabajado con esta herramienta tecnológica. Muchas gracias. | |
APPENDIX E
SURVEY
Objetivo: identificar la percepción de los estudiantes acerca de Facebook como mediador para aprender inglés
Escribe al lado de las siguientes frases el número que mejor describe tu sentimiento hacia cada una de ellas.
Totalmente de acuerdo (1) de acuerdo (2) neutral (3) en desacuerdo (4)
totalmente en desacuerdo (5)
1. Las actividades propuestas en Facebook fueron variadas
2. Las actividades propuestas en Facebook fueron interesantes
3. Las actividades de Facebook me parecieron divertidas
4. Las funciones de Facebook, tales como “me gusta”, estimularon mi interés por participar en las actividades
5. Usualmente estoy motivado (a) a estudiar inglés
6. Estaba motivado (a) a aprender inglés utilizando Facebook
7. Estudiar inglés a través de la página de Facebook me hizo sentir satisfecho (a)
8. El uso de la página de Facebook en esta clase me hizo involucrarme en el aprendizaje del inglés de manera activa
9. Mi actitud hacia el aprendizaje del inglés fue más seria y comprometida al usar Facebook
10. Usualmente estudio inglés los fines de semana
11. Usualmente trabajo con otros cuando tengo dificultades en inglés
12. La colaboración de mis compañeros me ayudó a resolver problemas presentados en el desarrollo de las actividades en Facebook
13. Leer los comentarios de otros me motivó a seguir realizando las actividades cada vez mejor
14. Facebook me ayudó a evaluar activamente el trabajo de los otros y a compartir con ellos
15. Usualmente estudio inglés con otros compañeros de mi clase
16. Considero que estudiar inglés con otros es muy útil para mí
17. Considero que formo parte de un grupo de estudiantes comprometidos a aprender inglés
18. La profesora de inglés mostró interés en mi progreso académico mientras usaba Facebook
19. La profesora de inglés revisaba y comentaba mis trabajos con regularidad
20. Desde el inicio del proyecto, la profesora de inglés expresó claramente las expectativas que tenía de los estudiantes
21. Usualmente busco ayuda de la profesora de inglés
22. Usualmente hago preguntas en la página de Facebook sobre dudas o aspectos que no comprendo
23. Los recursos que ofrece la web son muy útiles para el aprendizaje del inglés
24. Aprender inglés a mi propio ritmo usando los recursos de la web es de gran utilidad para mí
25. Usualmente utilizo recursos de la web con propósitos educativos
26. Usualmente utilizo el correo electrónico para contactarme con mi profesora de inglés y mis compañeros
27. Usualmente me reúno con mis compañeros en línea para hacer trabajos de inglés
28. El uso de la página de Facebook promovió el uso de otras herramientas tecnológicas
29. Me sentí desmotivado para hacer las actividades propuestas por la profesora en el grupo de Facebook
30. Las actividades propuestas me hicieron perder el interés por la asignatura
31. Me gustaría utilizar Facebook en las clases de inglés nuevamente
32. En comparación con los otros cursos de inglés, este donde utilicé Facebook me motivó más a aprender el inglés
De las siguientes actividades escoge la que más te gustó; puedes marcar más de una opción
- Elaborar dibujo a partir de audio
- Escribir tu opinión sobre tema propuesto
- Elaboración de línea de tiempo
- Elaboración de mapa conceptual a partir de texto leído
- Resolución de crucigrama
- Elaboración de tarjeta de amistad
- Escribir sobre películas a partir de trailers
- Compartir chiste y canción
- Leer y escribir sobre actividades realizadas en el pasado
- Creación de presentaciones
- Completar cuadro sobre mis familiares y amigos
Por qué
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
APPENDIX F
TABULATED RESULTS OF THE STUDENTS’ SURVEY
Objectives:
- Describe students’ experience using Facebook in their English classes
- Identify levels of students’ engagement occurred in English classes using Facebook
1. The Facebook activities were varied
2. The activities proposed in the Facebook page were interesting
3. I consider the Facebook activities were funny
4. The features of Facebook, such as "like", stimulated my interest to participate in the activities.
5. I am usually motivated to learn English
6. I was motivated to learn English using Facebook.
7. Studying English through the Facebook page made me feel satisfied.
8. The use of the Facebook page for this class made me learn actively.
9. My attitude towards the learning of English became more serious and engaged while using Facebook.
10. I usually study English on weekends.
11. I usually work with others when I have difficulties in English.
12. My peers’ collaboration helped me to solve problems while doing the Facebook activities.
13. Reading others' comments motivated me to do my activities better.
14. Facebook made me actively assess my peers' work and share with them.
15. I usually study English with my classmates.
16. I consider studying English with others is useful for me.
17. I consider I belong to a group of students who are engaged with the learning of English.
18. The English teacher was interested in my academic progress while I was working in the Facebook page.
19. The English teacher checked and commented my activities frequently.
20. From the very beginning, the English teacher expressed clearly the expectations she had from her students.
21. I usually look for my English teacher’s help.
- Strongly Agree: 18%
- Agree: 55%
- Neutral: 24%
- Disagree: 3%
- Strongly Disagree: 0%
22. I usually ask questions in the Facebook page about doubts or aspects that I don’t understand.
- Strongly Agree: 0%
- Agree: 21%
- Neutral: 46%
- Disagree: 18%
- Strongly Disagree: 15%
23. The web resources are useful for my English learning.
- Strongly Agree: 58%
- Agree: 30%
- Neutral: 12%
- Disagree: 0%
- Strongly Disagree: 0%
24. Learning English at my own pace using the web resources is very useful for me.
25. I usually use web resources with educational purposes.
26. I usually use my e-mail to contact my English teacher and classmates.
27. I usually interact with my friends online to do my English activities.
28. The use of the Facebook page promoted the use of other technological tools.
29. I felt demotivated to do the activities proposed by my teacher in the Facebook group.
30. The activities proposed made me lose interest towards the learning of English.
31. I would like to use Facebook in my English classes again.
32. Making a comparison between the other English courses and this one, I was more motivated to learn English in the one where Facebook was used.
Which of the following activities did you like the most? Give reasons
1. Make a drawing after listening an audio conversation.
2. Write your opinion about a proposed topic
3. Make your life’s timeline
4. Make a mind map about a reading text
5. Solve a crossword
6. Create a friendship card
7. Write about movies after watching their trailers
8. Share songs and jokes
9. Read and write about their past activities
10. Create some presentations
11. Complete a chart with information about friends and relatives
| Question Number | Totally agree 1 | Agree 2 | Neutral 3 | Disagree 4 | Totally Disagree 5 | Analysis |
|-----------------|-----------------|---------|-----------|------------|--------------------|----------|
| 1 | 20 | 12 | 1 | | | One of the characteristics of the Facebook activities were their variety |
| 2 | 15 | 14 | 4 | | | According to most of the students the activities were interesting |
| 3 | 11 | 12 | 7 | 3 | | Being funny is another feature of the proposed activities |
| 4 | 5 | 13 | 11 | 3 | 1 | Some of the students considered the I like function stimulated their participation in the Facebook group. Others showed a neutral position about it |
| 5 | 9 | 13 | 8 | 2 | 1 | Most of the students expressed they were motivated to learn the language. Some of them were neutral about it |
| 6 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 1 | | The majority of the students |
| | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | | | Facebook activities. Most of them use this help as a strategy to overcome difficulties |
| 13 | 4 | 18 | 9 | | 2 | Reading their peers’ comments motivated some learners to do their best |
| 14 | 9 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 1 | Evaluating their peers’ work was possible through the use of Facebook. Most of the participants used this tool during the course. |
| 15 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 3 | Studying English with their partners is an activity that just a few of learners do. Most of them showed neutrality about this item. |
| 16 | 8 | 17 | 5 | 3 | | Most of the students considered studying English with other classmates was useful |
| 17 | 6 | 16 | 10 | | 1 | Many students thought they belonged to a group where people are engaged to |
| | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | 21 | 11 | 1 | | | The teacher showed interest in the students’ learning process while they were part of the Facebook project according to all of the students |
| 19 | 29 | 4 | | | | The teacher often provided feedback to students on the Facebook page |
| 20 | 26 | 6 | 1 | | | From the very beginning the teacher stated what she expected from the students in the project, according to all of the students. |
| 21 | 6 | 18 | 8 | 1 | | Some students looked for the teacher’s help while working in this project. Others did not do it |
| 22 | | 7 | 15| 6 | 5 | Just a few of the learners asked questions about what they did not understand in the Facebook page. Most of them did not do it. |
| 23 | 19 | 10 | 4 | | | The majority |
| | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 12 | 16 | 5 | | | Learning English at their own pace thanks to the web resources was considered really useful for most of the students. |
| 25 | 7 | 13 | 13 | | | Using usually web resources with pedagogical purposes is done by some students. |
| 26 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | Emails are used by some students to get in contact with their friends and English teachers. Others don’t use it |
| 27 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 7 | Just a few of learners do group work online. Most of them don’t do it, they prefer to do it face to face |
| 28 | 17 | 9 | 5 | 2 | | The use of other technological resources was promoted by the use of this Facebook course according to the majority of |
| | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 9 | Most of the students were motivated to do the activities proposed by the English teacher in the Facebook group. |
| 30 | | 1 | 5 | 12 | 15 | The interest for studying the language was increased by the use of this social network with learning purposes. |
| 31 | 21 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | Many students would like to use Facebook to learn English again. |
| 32 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 1 | Many students were more motivated to learn English using this online course than the face to face ones. |
| Activity | Teacher’s Posts | Students’ Posts | Teacher’s Comments | Students’ Comments |
|----------|-----------------|-----------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| Activity 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 15 |
| Activity 2 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Activity 3 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Activity 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Activity 5 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 1 |
| Activity 6 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| Activity 7 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 3 |
| Activity 8 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| Activity 9 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Activity 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| **Total** | **34** | **39** | **39** | **35** |
| Activity | Teacher’s Posts | Students’ Posts | Teacher’s Comments | Students’ Comments |
|----------|-----------------|-----------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| Activity 1 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 16 |
| Activity 2 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 7 |
| Activity 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Activity 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Activity 5 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 12 |
| Activity 6 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| Activity 7 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| Activity 8 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Activity 9 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 9 |
| Activity 10 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 1 |
| **Total** | **31** | **46** | **45** | **59** |
| Activity | Teacher’s Posts | Students’ Posts | Teacher’s Comments | Students’ Comments |
|----------|-----------------|-----------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| Activity 1 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 31 |
| Activity 2 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 |
| Activity 3 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Activity 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Activity 5 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 6 |
| Activity 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 15 |
| Activity 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| Activity 8 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Activity 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Activity 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| **Total** | **38** | **40** | **38** | **67** |
| Activity | Teacher’s Posts | Students’ Posts | Teacher’s Comments | Students’ Comments |
|----------|-----------------|-----------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| Activity 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| Activity 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Activity 3 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Activity 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Activity 5 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 4 |
| Activity 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 1 |
| Activity 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Activity 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Activity 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Activity 10 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 1 |
| **Total** | **37** | **36** | **28** | **21** |
| Activity | Teacher’s posts | Students’ posts | Teacher’s comments | Students’ comments |
|----------|-----------------|-----------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| Activity 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Activity 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Activity 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Activity 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Activity 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Activity 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Activity 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Activity 8 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Activity 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Activity 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| **Total** | **26** | **13** | **13** | **2** |
**All groups post:**
- **Teacher’s posts:** 166
- **Students’ posts:** 174
- **Teacher’s comments:** 163
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"Self-concept" pertains to how individuals perceive themselves. The concept covers various factors, including their physical characteristics, abilities, social roles, beliefs, and values. It serves as the framework within which these facets of self are understood and integrated. This cognitive construct is a guiding force, influencing how individuals navigate and respond to life's diverse situations. Within this complex framework, self-concept unfolds across various dimensions, including self-image, self-esteem, perceived skills, competencies, and beliefs about personal qualities.
"Self-esteem" is characterized by a person's perception and affective evaluation of themselves. Positive self-esteem involves cultivating a self-image deserving of love, respect, and consideration while fostering feelings of competence in different areas of life. Self-esteem is a pivotal aspect of positive self-perception and healthy psychological development. It becomes the cornerstone for navigating life's challenges.
Positive childhood experiences, including positive parenting and other environments conducive to developing secure attachment, profoundly impact an individual's self-concept. Secure attachment, in particular, creates an emotional foundation that nurtures the development of resilience and positive self-esteem, shaping an individual's self-perception and contributing to the ongoing construction of their self-concept throughout life.
Positive childhood experiences foster resilience. Secure attachment, established in infancy, not only kickstarts the development of resilience but also continues to nourish and enhance this adaptive capacity as
individuals progress through life's stages. Children who experience secure attachment and have other positive childhood experiences tend to exhibit a heightened coping and recovery skills for stress and traumatic experiences. As an emotional buffer, secure attachment empowers individuals to confront life's challenges with enhanced effectiveness and adaptability.
The interplay between self-concept, self-esteem, and positive childhood experiences underscores the lasting impact of early emotional foundations. As individuals live and grow throughout their lives, the seeds sown in positive childhood experiences continue to bloom, shaping their ability to face adversities and construct a resilient and positive self-concept.
Even if one did not have the privilege of a joyous childhood, the narrative doesn't end in despair. The beauty of human resilience lies in our ability to transform and grow throughout life. Regardless of past experiences, there are tangible steps one can take to enhance self-esteem, cultivate resilience, and forge secure attachments. Through self-reflection, seeking support, and engaging in positive practices, individuals can rewrite their life narratives, breaking free from the constraints of a challenging past. The journey towards a fulfilling life involves continuous growth. With determination and the right resources, one can pave the way for positive outcomes and success despite earlier challenges.
Transform your self-discovery journey with "Self-Esteem: A Workbook" – a dynamic PowerPoint presentation packed with 30 slides designed to elevate your self-esteem. Use these thought-provoking prompts, insightful questions, and empowering instructions to guide your self-exploration through journaling, goal development, and problem-solving. Through this process, you can build a stronger, more positive self-perception. Whether seeking small changes or significant transformations, this engaging workbook is your roadmap to enhanced happiness and self-worth. Embrace the power of self-reflection and growth as you navigate each carefully crafted slide, unlocking the keys to a more confident and fulfilled you. Begin to see the difference in your life that starts with changing how you think and feel about yourself. | 3bb53f23-7f19-4a96-8a39-dec10a7ea44d | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.peggyferguson.com/_files/ugd/408b89_4a207590ff48430b8f0fe86c2b0d220d.pdf?index=true | 2024-09-12T22:58:24+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651498.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912210501-20240913000501-00809.warc.gz | 875,069,360 | 670 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.995053 | eng_Latn | 0.995649 | [
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FRUIT FUN!
TEACHER'S HANDBOOK
TREES FOR LIFE®
“Fruit Fun” is an adventure in learning about fruit trees. It is a versatile program that can easily be adapted to your own style and curriculum. This booklet is supplied with a variety of activities to guide you and your students through the adventure.
Together, you will discover how fruit trees help us and our planet. Your students will then share what they have learned with others, and make a positive impact on their world in the process!
The 1st step
Share the vision of Trees for Life with your students. The two pages following this Introduction can be copied to help explain how our tree-planting projects work. The illustrations give each child an understanding of how each child can fit into the Trees for Life family.
The fruit tree adventure begins:
Eight different fruit trees are represented in this booklet: apple, banana, jackfruit, lemon, mango, orange, papaya, and peach. These are but a fraction of the great variety of trees planted in Trees for Life projects around the world.
There are four pages of information and activities for each tree.
The 1st page presents a list of facts and interesting anecdotes that are specific to each fruit tree, and a cultural history of each to aid you in focusing on multicultural issues.
The 2nd page discusses nutrition facts and gives instructions for hands-on activities, giving a broader understanding of the fruits in relation to ourselves.
The 3rd page of each section is a coloring and activity sheet for you to copy and hand out to your students.
The 4th page is a card activity that you may also copy as needed. The following page discusses this activity in detail.
The card activity
A card activity concludes each lesson. It gives your students an opportunity to remember what they have learned, practice letter writing skills, use their creativity and share the vision of Trees for Life with others.
We suggest that the cards be copied on a thicker paper or card stock. When folded, they are self-mailers that require only a first class postage stamp.
The inside (the blank side) of the card can be filled with the student’s creative writing or artwork.
The front of each card introduces the tree studied in the corresponding lesson.
The back of the card briefly introduces Trees for Life, and gives the recipient the opportunity to support the child’s efforts.
Encourage your students to be creative in addressing their cards to family, friends, dentists, pen-pals … anything goes!
This activity allows students to share what they’ve learned with others. By doing so, they will make a real impact on their world and become important members of the Trees for Life family.
We hope that you and your class find this program both fun and rewarding! Questions, comments, stories, or pictures can be sent to:
Trees for Life, 3006 St. Louis, Wichita, KS 67203, www.treesforlife.org
Phone: (316) 945-6929 Fax: (316) 945-0909
How it Works!
Trees for Life asks a villager if he or she would like to learn to plant fruit trees.
The fruit trees grow in the nursery until they are strong enough to be transplanted (replanted in a different place).
Trees for Life provides the seeds and training to get the tree nursery started.
To repay Trees for Life the villager agrees to help a neighbor learn to grow and care for fruit trees by providing seeds, saplings and training.
The families pay for their trees by helping two others with seeds and training.
The trees are planted in the neighbor's kitchen garden, and they are trained to care for the trees and to grow more.
Soon most everyone in the village will know how to grow fruit trees. By helping others they are helping themselves. One teaches two. Very simple. Very effective.
One teaches Two...
this is how Trees for Life has planted millions of fruit trees all over the world!
You can use the same formula to spread the idea of Trees for Life all over the world!
Fruit Culture
Apples grow naturally in temperate climates all over the world. They were eaten by the earliest Europeans, and they spread throughout North America by Indians, trappers, and traveling settlers. Professional nurserymen like the midwesterner John Chapman (otherwise known as “Johnny Appleseed”) were especially helpful in planting apple trees in large areas of the country.
Fascinating Fruit Facts:
- Beautiful Arcade, Jonathan, Duchess, Granny Smith and Rome Beauty are a few names for apples.
- Relatively speaking … the apple tree is the first cousin of the pear tree, and also a member of the rose family!
- Up to 85% of an apple is water, so it is a portable food and drink all in one! It’s ready to go, and even in its own packaging.
- Apple trees can produce fruit for up to 40 or 50 years. There are at least 7,500 known varieties worldwide and 2,500 of these are in the U.S.
- We aren’t the only ones who eat apples. They get eaten by birds, deer and other animals who scatter the seeds, which then develop into new trees.
Fruitrition: Sugar
There are many kinds of sugars found throughout nature. They are divided into two groups: simple sugars and double sugars, according to their chemical makeup. The sugars found in the fruits we eat are simple sugars. The scientific names for these are “glucose” and “fructose”.
Glucose, sometimes called dextrose, is the more important of the two sugars because it provides a steady source of energy for our body tissues. Fructose is the sweetest of the two natural sugars.
Class Activity
With an apple core, a lettuce leaf, a piece of plastic, and a styrofoam cup, let your class discover the meaning of “biodegradable”.
Find a good spot outside to bury these items, and mark the holes (or, as an alternate, put them in aerated containers with soil in your classroom).
Have them discuss what they think will happen.
Then, in a month, go back and dig them up to see.
The apple and lettuce will have turned into soil, but the plastic and Styrofoam will probably still be there for hundreds of years.
Which is better for the earth?
Wordfind
AVKNIPETALSYE
NNYINEGARHYLT
IWTTQUCLIMBLA
MASEEERTSQAIER
AGLZEMHTDWRJD
LYSWBZCAFHDEY
SROSERRMBIISWH
JLEOAGAEXTNRO
FIDGEFTNPEUAB
PTUDYRSEEDSER
LSOECUASELPPA
CIDERIPRETNEC
BPIRETTACSNWX
Pick Flower Carbohydrate Fruit Cider
Biodegradable Seeds Applesauce Jelly Scatter
Pistil Vinegar Animals Stamen Petals
See if you can find ten more!
Graphing
With a blue crayon color in the percentage of water in an apple.
75%
50%
25%
Our class is learning about fruit trees. They give people food and they’re good for the earth. We want to help, so we made these cards to tell you the story of Trees for Life.
Millions of trees ago, one person had an idea—an idea that would help lots of hungry people help themselves.
This person started to teach people how to plant and care for fruit trees. Each person promised to teach two others so the work would multiply and help more and more people.
The trees would feed their families for a lifetime. People helped each other. They received hope, not handouts.
The program grew rapidly in India and spread to Guatemala, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. As a result, tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
The story of Trees for Life continues … and each one of us can write our own chapter!
Could you please join us as a partner in planting fruit trees
$25 will plant 25 fruit trees
$10 will plant 10 fruit trees
$ 5 will plant 5 fruit trees
Please send contributions to:
Trees for Life, 3006 W St Louis, Wichita, KS 67203
www.treesforlife.org
An apple tree produces nearly 10,000 pounds of fruit during its 40 to 50 year lifespan. There are close to 7,500 varieties world-wide. Much of an apple’s nutrition is found just below its skin, so taking this layer off really makes it much less appealing.
Fruit Culture
Nobody is quite sure exactly where they originated, but bananas are most likely from Arabia. They are now grown (and eaten!) in large quantities throughout the tropics - especially in Africa, where about half of the world's bananas come from. Many bananas also come from South America, where there is even a special word for the farm worker who cares for them - bananero. The leaves of the banana tree are so big that, legend says, they were human beings' first garments.
Fascinating Fruit Facts:
- Botanists (scientists who study plants) actually call bananas "berries". Their definition of a berry is a fruit with pulpy flesh surrounding several seeds. Other botanical 'berries' are watermelon, tomatoes, grapefruit, green peppers, and oranges.
- The bananas we eat don't grow from seeds. They come from baby banana plants growing from the roots of an adult tree. These baby plants or shoots are called "suckers".
- Banana trees can live as long as 60 years and produce 96 to 192 fruits every year. The height of a banana tree varies, ranging from three to 30 feet (one to nine meters).
- Banana "trees" are actually gigantic herbs! The "trunk" part of a banana plant is not woody, so it is not a true stem, as trunks are. The real stem is underground, and the above-ground part is called a pseudostem ("pseudo" is a Greek word that means "false"). It is made of overlapping leaf sheaths that are wrapped tightly together.
Fruitrition: Trace metals and minerals
Very small amounts (called “trace” amounts) of metals and minerals are good for our bodies. It is important that we ingest a variety of these to insure a healthy body. Fruits such as bananas and apples provide minerals and metals that are necessary for bone growth and development, strong body tissue, good eyesight, and strong muscles.
Class Activity
Drying fruits actually increases their sugar content!
You can dry banana slices in a warm/sunlit place by placing them on cloth-covered racks.
Cover the slices with another cloth (to keep away fruitflies and other pests), and check them every day.
When they are ready to be eaten, they will be smaller and discolored, but chewy and sweet.
Multiplication
On the top line, write the number of fruits a banana tree can produce each year. Below that write the number of years a banana tree can live. Multiply the two numbers together to find how much fruit a banana tree can make in its lifetime.
_____________ fruits
×_____________ years
_____________ total
Recipe
Here is a simple recipe for a thick & yummy banana shake that you can make at home!
1. Mash a very ripe banana in a bowl with a fork until it is soft and mushy.
2. Measure out one cup of ice cream into the banana mush, stirring and mashing until it is soupy.
3. Put this mixture into a 16oz jar, adding a 1/2 cup of milk. Put the jar lid on tightly, shake until it’s all mixed up.
Enjoy!
Our class is learning about fruit trees. They give people food and they’re good for the earth. We want to help, so we made these cards to tell you the story of Trees for Life.
Millions of trees ago, one person had an idea—an idea that would help lots of hungry people help themselves.
This person started to teach people how to plant and care for fruit trees. Each person promised to teach two others so the work would multiply and help more and more people.
The trees would feed their families for a lifetime. People helped each other. They received hope, not handouts.
The program grew rapidly in India and spread to Guatemala, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. As a result, tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
The story of Trees for Life continues…and each one of us can write our own chapter!
Could you please join us as a partner in planting fruit trees?
$25 will plant 25 fruit trees
$10 will plant 10 fruit trees
$5 will plant 5 fruit trees
Please send contributions to:
Trees for Life, 3006 W St Louis, Wichita, KS 67203
www.treesforlife.org
Banana trees can live as long as 60 years and produce 96 to 192 fruits every year. The height of a banana tree ranges from three to 30 feet.
Fruit Culture
Jackfruit trees are native to the mountainous areas of India and Indonesia. To be happy and healthy, the trees must have very hot and humid conditions all year round, which these areas provide.
Jackfruit is a staple food for the poorer people in tropical Asia, and is prepared in many ways - boiled, fried, or eaten raw. Even the seeds can be roasted and eaten!
Fascinating Fruit Facts:
- The fruits are large, oblong, and oval shaped, somewhat like a barrel.
- Just one jackfruit weighs about 40 pounds (18 kilograms) — and some can weigh up to 70 pounds (31 kilograms)!
- The skin of a jackfruit is rough with hard, pointed studs all over the surface and is brownish-yellow in color.
- A jackfruit’s flesh (the part that you eat) is soft and juicy and has large white seeds.
- The jackfruit has been discovered to have some medicinal purposes (as a blood-clotting agent) and has even been used in cloning research!
Fruitrition: Vitamin A (or “Retinol”)
The A vitamin, also called retinol, is a vitamin that is important to the retinas of our eyes. It helps us see in dim light. Not getting enough vitamin A could lead to retina problems like night blindness, or even blindness. Jackfruit is rich in Vitamin A, and baby jack trees are sometimes given away by eye doctors in India to prevent blindness in their patients.
Vitamin A is equally important for healthy skin, clear breathing, and fighting off infections. It also helps our bodies in the healing of wounds. It is stored in the fat of our bodies, and in the healing of wounds. It is stored in the fat of our bodies, while other vitamins we eat dissolve in water right away.
Class Activity
Let your class expand their knowledge of weights, using themselves as an example.
A jackfruit can weigh up to 70 pounds. How does each student compare in relation to a jackfruit?
Using a scale, let the students demonstrate this in relation to other common things, such as different fruits, stacks of books, or other objects found in your classroom or school.
Hidden Answer
Fill in the missing words in these sentences, then use the numbers as clues to find the hidden answer.
1. A jackfruit can weigh up to 70 __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __!
2. The fruit of the Jack tree is rich in __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.
3. Vitamin A helps our __ __ __ __ __ __ heal wounds.
4. Vegetable __ __ __ __ __ __ make good compost.
What is a Jackfruit to some of the people of tropical Asia?
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __!
Graphing
Color in the bar how much you weigh. Then color in how much a Jackfruit weighs. Compare the difference.
Our class is learning about fruit trees. They give people food and they’re good for the earth. We want to help, so we made these cards to tell you the story of Trees for Life.
Millions of trees ago, one person had an idea—an idea that would help lots of hungry people help themselves.
This person started to teach people how to plant and care for fruit trees. Each person promised to teach two others so the work would multiply and help more and more people.
The trees would feed their families for a lifetime. People helped each other. They received hope, not handouts.
The program grew rapidly in India and spread to Guatemala, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. As a result, tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
The story of Trees for Life continues…and each one of us can write our own chapter!
Could you please join us as a partner in planting fruit trees?
$25 will plant 25 fruit trees
$10 will plant 10 fruit trees
$5 will plant 5 fruit trees
Please send contributions to:
Trees for Life, 3006 W St Louis, Wichita, KS 67203
www.treesforlife.org
The jackfruit tree is huge. It can grow to a height of 65 feet. Each fruit weighs about 40 pounds—and some weigh up to 70 pounds!
LEMON
“the primitive toothpaste!”
Fruit Culture
The lemon is most likely from the area of East India, Burma, Japan, and South China. They also grow well in Brazil, Argentina and parts of the U.S. mainly the states of Florida, Texas and California. People used to brush their teeth with lemon juice instead of toothpaste.
Fascinating Fruit Facts:
- Oddities such as the Ponderosa weigh as much as 2 1/2 pounds (one kilogram)! And the “Turk’s head” lemon is said to be the size of a man’s head.
- A lemon tree could probably fit in your classroom. They only grow to be eight to 12 feet (two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half meters) high, but, then again, they are covered with thorns!
- The flowers of a lemon tree are magenta or red.
- In some areas, the flowers and fruit grow all year round, but in others they grow for only a few months.
- Lemons are made of 30 to 45% water. Compare this to 45 to 75% water in humans!
Fruitrition: Salt
While fruits may not taste salty, salt can be found in most of them! Actually, salt is present in a lot more foods than we may think. It is found in most of the fresh foods we eat, and even in our water.
Salt is used in all parts of our bodies. It is in our blood, our sweat, and our tears - you can even taste the salt in your tears when you cry. The salt that we eat in our foods is also called “sodium”. Since most of the foods we eat naturally contain sodium, we do not need to add salt to them at the table.
Class Activity
1. Your students can be fruit sleuths with their own invisible ink!
With a toothpick, write a message with lemon juice on a piece of paper.
After the “ink” dries, the message can only be read by holding the paper over a bright light bulb.
2. Lemon juice contains citric acid, which gives it its sour taste.
With litmus papers, let your students test the acidity of lemon juice and other common substances, such as tapwater, rainwater, soft drinks and milk.
Acids will redden litmus paper, while bases will turn red litmus blue.
Find where you live in the United States and mark it with a dot. Find the states where lemons are grown and color them yellow. Draw a line from those states to your home to see how far lemons need to travel to get to you.
Our class is learning about fruit trees. They give people food and they’re good for the earth. We want to help, so we made these cards.
To tell you the story of Trees for Life …
… Millions of trees ago, one person had an idea—an idea that would help lots of hungry people help themselves.
This person started to teach people how to plant and care for fruit trees. Each person promised to teach two others so the work would multiply and help more and more people.
The trees would feed their families for a lifetime. People helped each other. They received hope, not handouts.
The program grew rapidly in India and spread to Guatemala, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. As a result, tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
The story of Trees for Life continues … and each one of us can write our own chapter!
Could you please join us as a partner in planting fruit trees
$25 will plant 25 fruit trees
$10 will plant 10 fruit trees
$5 will plant 5 fruit trees
Please send contributions to:
Trees for Life, 3006 W St Louis, Wichita, KS 67203
www.treesforlife.org
The lemon tree is native to areas of East India, Burma, Japan, and southern China. Today the countries around the Mediterranean sea provide the best growing conditions for lemons.
Fruit Culture
Tropical Asia is where most mangoes are found, being of east Asian origin. They are native to areas of north India, Burma, and West Malaysia, where they have been cultivated for over 4,000 years. They now also grow successfully in Caribbean countries, as well as in Hawaii, California, and Florida, where they have grown since 1833. In India, the leaves of the plant are sometimes rubbed on the teeth to treat dental ailments.
Fascinating Fruit Facts:
- Mango trees grow as tall as 90 feet (27 meters) or more!
- Mango trees are green all year round and grow best in warm, rainy, tropical regions.
- The leaves of a mango tree spread out very wide. Sometimes they span 125 feet.
- Mangoes are used for many different recipes. They can be put in desserts, marmalades, pickles, preserves and chutney, a spicy relish made of fruits, spices, and herbs.
- Mangoes are found in lots of shapes, oval, spherical (like a ball), heart-shaped and kidney shaped.
Fruitrition: Starch
Starch is a white, odorless, tasteless substance that is found mainly in grains and cereals, but is also found in fruit. It is the most widely eaten carbohydrate.
Carbohydrates provide our bodies with energy. When inside the body, they are broken down into simple sugars. This does not mean that we should only eat simple sugars to give us energy. They would be used up too quickly! Starches stay in the body longer, giving us a longer lasting source of energy.
Class Activity
Living in the tropics, mango trees drink a lot of water.
See just how important water is to all plants in a simple experiment with bean seeds.
Place four bean seeds in each of four paper cups.
Give the first cup no water, the second one spoonful, the third 50 ml, and the fourth 100 mls.
Check them every day and compare the seeds.
Shapes
Draw and name four mango shapes.
Word Unscramble
Countries where mangos grow?
WAIHA ______________________
_________ __________
_________ __________
DOLAIRF ______________________
_________ __________
_________ __________
RENABIANC ______________________
_________ __________
_________ __________
SWET YAILASAM ______________________
_________ __________
_________ __________
Our class is learning about fruit trees. They give people food and they’re good for the earth. We want to help, so we made these cards.
To tell you the story of Trees for Life …
… Millions of trees ago, one person had an idea—an idea that would help lots of hungry people help themselves.
This person started to teach people how to plant and care for fruit trees. Each person promised to teach two others so the work would multiply and help more and more people.
The trees would feed their families for a lifetime. People helped each other. They received hope, not handouts.
The program grew rapidly in India and spread to Guatemala, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. As a result, tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
The story of Trees for Life continues … and each one of us can write our own chapter!
Could you please join us as a partner in planting fruit trees
$25 will plant 25 fruit trees
$10 will plant 10 fruit trees
$5 will plant 5 fruit trees
Please send contributions to:
Trees for Life, 3006 W St Louis, Wichita, KS 67203
www.treesforlife.org
Most mango trees are found in Tropical Asia. They are native to northern India, Burma, and west Malaysia, where they have been cultivated for over 4,000 years.
PAPAYA
“the melon tree!”
Fruit Culture
The papaya tree is native to the tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere, and is most commonly found in the tropical lowlands of central America. It is also planted to some extent in the southernmost, humid regions of the United States, such as the southern tip of Florida.
Fascinating Fruit Facts:
- Like the banana plant, the papaya is not a real “tree” according to botanists. But it is like a tree, having soft wood and palm-like, evergreen leaves.
- The papaya fruit contains an enzyme (called “papain”) that is used as a meat tenderizer.
- The fruit is round and ranges in weight from just four ounces (113 grams) to 20 pounds (9 kilograms) or more.
- A papaya is greenish yellow on the outside. On the inside, it ranges from yellow to orange, pink, or red, with black seeds.
- The papaya is sometimes called the “papaw” or “pawpaw”.
Fruitrition: Protein
Although most protein is found in nuts, beans, and meats, some can be found in fruits. Protein is what makes up most of our body parts; our muscles, tendons (which connect the muscles to the bones), cartilage (which act as cushions for the bones), brains, livers, skin, hair and nails.
Proteins are important to the many chemical reactions that take place within our bodies every day. If we do not get enough protein from the foods that we eat, our bodies take it from our cells - first from the fat cells and later from the muscle cells. This can lead to infections and sickness.
Class Activity
Papaya trees produce fruit after only six months and can be grown indoors. Your class can try to grow one with the seeds of a fresh papaya fruit from a grocery store or oriental food market.
We suggest planting four to 12 seeds in moist potting soil in a milk carton with a few holes for draining.
The seeds must first be rinsed in cold water to remove the gelatinous outer covering (preferably in a wire strainer) and dried in the shade.
Papaya seedlings grow rapidly, but some may die after they get to be about six inches tall. Re-pot each of the survivors in their own pots, and keep them in a humid environment to stay healthy.
Wordfind
PHSLIANS
QNUTSXIC
ISNAEBKA
PTSEEDSR
JRBEZQPT
LOORDFAI
SPNTLYPL
NIEGEDAA
OCSDAIIIG
DAMRYMNE
NLZKEUJR
ELIOSHDY
TMUSCLES
Find the following words.
Protein Bones Nuts
Tropical Skin Beans
Papain Nails Soil
Humid Cartilage Seeds
Tree Tendons Leaves
Muscles
Write your own definitions to the words that are underlined.
Protein ____________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
Tropical ___________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
Cartilage __________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
Tendons ___________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
Our class is learning about fruit trees. They give people food and they’re good for the earth. We want to help, so we made these cards to tell you the story of Trees for Life . . .
. . . Millions of trees ago, one person had an idea—an idea that would help lots of hungry people help themselves.
This person started to teach people how to plant and care for fruit trees. Each person promised to teach two others so the work would multiply and help more and more people.
The trees would feed their families for a lifetime. People helped each other. They received hope, not handouts.
The program grew rapidly in India and spread to Guatemala, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. As a result, tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
The story of Trees for Life continues . . . and each one of us can write our own chapter!
Could you please join us as a partner in planting fruit trees
$25 will plant 25 fruit trees
$10 will plant 10 fruit trees
$5 will plant 5 fruit trees
Please send contributions to:
Trees for Life, 3006 W St Louis, Wichita, KS 67203
www.treesforlife.org
The papaya tree is native to the tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere, and is most commonly found in the lowlands of central America. It is also planted in the southernmost, humid regions of the United States.
Fruit Culture
The peach tree has traveled far! It is native to China and was introduced to Persia by silk traders, according to legend. It was then introduced into Europe. Colonists brought the tree to the New World, and it was spread throughout North America by westward-bound pioneers. Now, peaches grow mainly in the United States and Italy. Greece, France, Argentina, Japan and Spain are also important peach production areas.
Fascinating Fruit Facts:
- The trees are “trained” to grow in a vase or goblet form.
- Peaches aren’t always peach colored! They also have white-flesh and yellow-flesh.
- Peaches that are to be used for desserts are “de-fuzzed” before they are packaged and shipped. This is partly because it makes them look better, but also because some people are allergic to fuzz.
- Undersized peaches are used to make pickles. Fruits that are too big, or have small defects are canned as sliced peaches or added to fruit cocktail mix.
- Peach trees have to spend at least 750 hours of the year in cold weather. In this case, “cold” means below 45 degrees Fahrenheit! This winter sleeping period, called dormancy, is necessary for the trees to grow healthy buds in the spring.
Fruitrition: Fiber
Cellulose, or fiber, is the name of the substance that makes up the walls of the cells in all plants. Lots of this can be found in fruits, as well as in whole grain breads and cereals, nuts, and legumes.
Our bodies do not digest fiber, but we still need a small amount of it to help keep our digestive system in good working order. It serves as “roughage,” which cleans out our digestive system, and helps the food we do digest move more easily through our bodies. Not enough fiber in the diet can lead to diseases of the digestive system or the circulatory system.
Class Activity:
The roots of peach trees, like the roots of all plants, help keep the soil around them from eroding (washing or blowing away).
Let your students simulate soil erosion to see for themselves what can happen. Using a screen over two pans, cover one with just dirt, and one with a section of sod, grass, or short weeds holding the dirt together.
Pour several cups of water over each one and observe.
Which one loses the most dirt?
Discuss how damaging soil erosion can be on a larger scale. What could happen if soil fills up the rivers and underground water sources, or if it blows away all together?
Labeling
How many words can you make from PEACH PRODUCTION
PEACH
Fruit
Seed
Skin
EARTH
Crust
Mantle
Core
Our class is learning about fruit trees. They give people food and they’re good for the earth. We want to help, so we made these cards.
To tell you the story of Trees for Life …
… Millions of trees ago, one person had an idea—an idea that would help lots of hungry people help themselves.
This person started to teach people how to plant and care for fruit trees. Each person promised to teach two others so the work would multiply and help more and more people.
The trees would feed their families for a lifetime. People helped each other. They received hope, not handouts.
The program grew rapidly in India and spread to Guatemala, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. As a result, tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
The story of Trees for Life continues … and each one of us can write our own chapter!
Could you please join us as a partner in planting fruit trees
$25 will plant 25 fruit trees
$10 will plant 10 fruit trees
$5 will plant 5 fruit trees
Please send contributions to:
Trees for Life, 3006 W St Louis, Wichita, KS 67203
www.treesforlife.org
The peach tree has traveled far! It is native to China, and it was introduced to Persia and Europe by silk traders. Colonists brought the tree to America where it continues to flourish.
ORANGE
“for food, fodder, and fragrance!”
Fruit Culture
The orange appears to have first come from Asia. Now, Brazil is the world leader in orange production, while the United States is second, with Florida being the number one state. Texas, Arizona and California are also important orange-producing states.
Fascinating Fruit Facts:
- The oil found in the rind of Bergamot oranges is used in the manufacture of perfumes in European countries, especially in Italy.
- There are four types of oranges: normal, navel (with a “belly-button”), blood (with streaks of red pigmentation) and acidless.
- Seedless oranges aren’t necessarily without seeds! They fall into this category if they have 6 seeds or less.
- Florida oranges are usually much juicier than California oranges because trees in Florida get more rain than those in California. They get more water to drink, so they have more to store in their fruits!
- There are differences in the taste of oranges even from the same tree. Fruit that can be reached from the ground is not as sweet as the fruit that grows high up on the tree. Fruit from the outside of the tree is sweeter than the fruit growing closer to the trunk. The ones that grow towards the sun are the sweetest; those that grow away from the sun have less sugar and vitamin C. The blossom end is even sweeter than the stem end!
Fruitrition: Vitamin C
Vitamin C can be produced in the bodies of many animals, but, unfortunately, not in human beings. Since we are one of the few animals who cannot manufacture it in ourselves, we must get it from our food. This vitamin is good for the growth and functions of cells.
It is important for strong bones and teeth, and helps our bodies fight off germs. Scurvy, a disease that causes bleeding gums, fatigue, easy bruising and hair loss is an illness caused by a lack of vitamin C.
Class Activity
1. Some oranges are used for perfume, rather than for nutritional value. Your students can make a pomander from an orange that has been dried in a warm place for two weeks, by pressing cloves into holes that have been punched into it with a skewer.
Tie a ribbon around it with a hanging loop, roll it in cinnamon powder, and let it hang in a warm, dry place for a week. Now it can freshen a closet or dresser!
2. Nature has divided oranges into segments by thin, see-through walls that have tiny, juice-filled vesicles.
Let your students examine the structure of an orange, using magnifying glasses, microscopes, and their senses.
Can they tell if the blossom end really tastes sweeter than the stem end? What other discoveries can they make?
Word Unscramble
What are five components of orange juice?
RUSAG______________
CADI______________
NEMGITP______________
TASL______________
ATWER______________
Maze
Help bring some water to the thirsty fruit tree!
Our class is learning about fruit trees. They give people food and they’re good for the earth. We want to help, so we made these cards.
To tell you the story of Trees for Life …
… Millions of trees ago, one person had an idea—an idea that would help lots of hungry people help themselves.
This person started to teach people how to plant and care for fruit trees. Each person promised to teach two others so the work would multiply and help more and more people.
The trees would feed their families for a lifetime. People helped each other. They received hope, not handouts.
The program grew rapidly in India and spread to Guatemala, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. As a result, tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
The story of Trees for Life continues … and each one of us can write our own chapter!
Could you please join us as a partner in planting fruit trees
$25 will plant 25 fruit trees
$10 will plant 10 fruit trees
$ 5 will plant 5 fruit trees
Please send contributions to:
Trees for Life, 3006 W St Louis, Wichita, KS 67203
www.treesforlife.org
All orange tree fruit are not created equal. Oranges from the outer branches of the tree, growing closer to the sun, are sweeter and richer in vitamin C than those found closer to the trunk.
Trees for Life
is a grass-roots, non-profit movement that helps people in developing countries plant fruit trees.
Each tree protects the environment and provides people with a self-renewing source of food.
The trees feed their families for a lifetime. People help each other. They receive hope, not handouts.
Since 1984, the program has grown rapidly in India and spread to Guatemala, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
As a result, tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
Suggested Reading / Further information ...
for teacher and student alike
Ancona, George. Bananas: From Manolo to Margie.
Clarion Books, New York, 1982. Follow the trail of a banana from Manolo’s home in Honduras to Margie’s home in the U.S.
Cooper, Elizabeth K. and Padraic. Sweet and Delicious: Fruits of Tree, Bush, and Vine. Childrens Press, Chicago, 1973. An illustrated book containing histories and biological information about a variety of fruits.
Dowden, Anne Ophelia. From Flower to Fruit. Thomas Y. Crowell, NY, 1984. A detailed, illustrated account of how flowers mature into fruits.
Earthworks Group. 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth. Andrews and McMeel, New York, 1990. Environmental facts and activities for kids of all ages who want to take care of our planet.
Johnson, Sylvia A. Apple Trees. Lerner Publications Company, Minneapolis, 1983. With color photos, demonstrates the growth and cultivation of apple trees and the development, harvesting, and storage of apples.
Moore, Eva. The Great Banana Cookbook for Boys and Girls. Clarion Books, New York, 1983. An illustrated cookbook featuring facts about and hints on how to select bananas.
Price, Lowi, and Marilyn Wronsky. Concoctions. E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., NY, 1976. Recipes for Creeping Crystals, Invisible Ink, Self-Stick Plastic, Grease Paint, Playdough, and Other Inedibles.
Schnieper, Claudia. An Apple Tree Through the Year. Carolrhoda Books, Inc., Minneapolis, 1982. A detailed book about the growth cycle of apple trees throughout the four seasons.
Silverstein, Alvin and Virginia B. Oranges: All About Them. Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1975. An illustrated guide to the growth and distribution of oranges, containing projects and recipes.
Wake, Susan. Citrus Fruits. Wayland Publishers Ltd., East Sussex, 1989. A colorful guide to citrus fruit facts and activities. | <urn:uuid:f7597f15-b4c1-455c-8338-1b3f9c14884a> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://treesforlife.org/sites/default/files/documents/Fruit%20Fun%20-%20teachers%20handbook.pdf | 2018-12-13T05:21:42Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376824448.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20181213032335-20181213053835-00588.warc.gz | 758,825,869 | 8,602 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.912381 | eng_Latn | 0.998065 | [
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Relic Yields Historic Discoveries
FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS, the Atlanta Civil War Round Table has fostered the study of the history of the American Civil War. For the most part, this has focused on Campaigns and Battles, and military and civilian leaders who led the Union and Confederacy through those troubled times. On occasion, though, it is worth our time and commitment to expand our sights and look at individuals who lived through these events as civilians, and simply survived (or some not) to live in post-war North or South. This is such a story, of a Georgia Plantation family and their slaves, all of whom lived through the War, in Atlanta, and then survived and even thrived afterwards.
John A. Dietrichs, Nov. 20, 2020
The Ponder House: An Historic Nexus
by John A. Dietrichs
Most of us interested in Civil War history have seen the famous Ponder House photograph taken just outside Atlanta, along the outer fortification line at the southern edge of what is now the Georgia Tech campus and Marietta Street. The elegant and beautiful lines of a two-story plantation mansion remain, but are marred by many artillery shell holes. One section of the second floor wall is blown out and trees felled by shot are around it. The bright white plaster finish is cracked and broken, exposing the brick beneath, and hundreds of bullet holes are obvious in the original black and white photograph, colorized in the famous image (Shown here on Page 1).
Second Photo of the Ponder House, 100 yards east of Fort Hood.
A second photo, also now colorized, was taken some 100 yards west of the house at Fort Hood, a salient where the east-west fortification line angled south. Sandbags can be seen around the bomb-proof for this observation point; a landscape of cheveaux des frise runs to the once magnificent gardens filled with boxwood and fruit trees still visible just north of the house. Two former wooden slave quarters, stripped of their lumber to strengthen the fortification line, stand naked and yet still retain some dignity in the foreground.
Continued, Page 3
The U.S. Army hired a civilian photographer, George N. Barnard, to photograph fortifications. He was attached to the Corps of Engineers who were mapping and recording the progress and destruction in war’s wake. Within days of Atlanta’s surrender on September 1, 1864, Barnard was photographing key buildings and streets in Atlanta, recording the conquering army with its horses, supply wagons, tents, and campfires as it went about the daily business of investing the city. Barnard also took three pictures from different vantage points of the ruined, yet once beautiful and stately plantation house of Ephraim and Ellen Ponder. The two images captured as almost no others the War and its impact on civilians in the South, and symbolically, the loss of wealth and a way of life for an entire class of people who had once ruled, and now would be ruled by Northern interests for a generation.
What’s in a Brick?
In August 2017, I was made privy to a cache of bricks that had been collected in situ from circa 1938 to circa 1971 by Beverly Means DuBose, Jr., who with his son, Bo, had amassed the single largest and most complete Civil War Collection in private hands by the time of his death in 1986. This collection is now at the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead, just northwest of Atlanta.
It turned out there were some 50 or 60 bricks lying unnoticed in a corner bin when the collection was moved to the Atlanta History Center in the 1990’s. My friend Bo found out that I had been collecting a few bricks over the last ten years or so, with all of 12 in my own collection at that time. Would I be interested in digging into this pile of crude, old hand-made bricks hiding in the basement’s back room in his folks’ house to see what they might be about?
After putting a flashlight on the bricks, we found that many were marked with the location where they had been found. The one that instantly captured my interest and imagination was the one with “Ponder House” scrawled on it in black ink. I held it in my hand and the Barnard images suddenly came to mind, the images I remembered focused like a laser when I realized I was actually touching a piece of the Ponder House!
I immediately remembered I had a 1938 street map of Atlanta, overlaid with the movements and landmarks associated with the siege, battles, and capture of the city. The famous artist and Civil War historian Wilber Kurtz had marked this historical gem, with a descriptive legend keyed to sixty circled numbers on the map. Number 57 was “Site of Ephraim G. Ponder House,” pointing to a particular block on the map. Now I could find the actual physical spot where the house had been!
I searched the internet for information about the Ponder House; several sites had some, limited, information. I contacted a friend and colleague of mine in the Civil War Round Table of Atlanta, Charlie Crawford, whom I consider the most knowledgeable living person I know concerning Atlanta’s Civil War history, and his comments were very helpful. He said, “Well of course you have seen the description Franklin Garrett had on the Ponder House in his ‘Atlanta & Environs,’ right?” Well, no, I hadn’t. It turned out that three fact-filled pages, 511-513 in Volume I, were just what I needed to continue the search. Garrett says of the Ponder House:
“…if still standing would be bound by the following streets, none of which existed at the time: North, by Third Street, N.W., South, by Oxford Street, N.W., East, by Guyton Street N.W., and West by Ponder Avenue, N.W. In addition to his home, Mr. Ponder erected, contiguous thereto, a number of substantial frame buildings for his slaves, and three large buildings for manufacturing purposes, along the Marietta Road.”
These same streets were shown on Kurtz’s 1938 map with #57 for the Ponder House. I found a website with information by Jack Kittle and a circa 1930 topographical map with footprints of contemporary buildings showing the streets named by Garrett, with Marietta Street just another block south. Center north on the Ponder block was the high point where the mansion would have stood; this high point had no buildings on it at that time. It is my theory that Mr. DuBose walked the area with his friend Wilber Kurtz, and possibly Franklin Garrett, and found the original foundations or at least some remnant bricks lying about on this knoll. Bo has several pictures taken in the 1930s of the three of them on forays to Georgia battlefields. Since Kurtz identified the mansion’s location by 1938, this was likely confirmation for Garrett’s book as well.
Continued, Page 6
As it happens, the third period photo taken by Barnard showing the Ponder House was from just south of the Marietta Road, now Marietta Street (Page 5), looking north east over the well-churned mud and dirt road, and offering further confirmation of the mansion’s location.
The best starting point to investigate the Ponder family and their history are the three pages in Garrett’s book on Atlanta. The owner’s name was Ephraim G. Ponder, originally a slave-dealer from Thomasville, Georgia. Late in life at 45, he married a young beauty named Ellen B. Gregory. Very little detailed information has been found concerning Ellen at this point, but she must have had a strong spirit with an iron will to complement her beauty. She is described as “beautiful, accomplished and wealthy” in her own right before the marriage, and “born about 1825.”
Ephraim Ponder was born November 17, 1808. They married in Sumter County, Georgia, near Americus, on December 8, 1853. Epraim was 45 years old, and Ellen was about 28. Most women in this time were married by 20 or 22—Ellen might have been considered almost an old maid, but clues in the record indicate she was probably something else, almost a Scarlet O’Hara type figure, strikingly beautiful, spirited, never short of male company, and quite a catch for Ephraim.
Having lived to this point on his plantation, Ephraim built a large, two-story house on property he bought in Thomasville at 324 North Dawson Street for his beautiful new bride, and they settled into married life. This house still stands today.
Ponders’ parents and siblings lived on large plantations in the Thomasville area, where cotton, corn, wheat, sugar cane, tobacco, molasses, and sweet potatoes were the primary crops. His property straddled the Florida and Georgia state lines, in Leon County, Florida, and Camden County, Georgia.
Continued, Page 7
While growing and selling crops from his land, at some point in the mid-1830s, Ephraim entered the slave trade, buying slaves he kept and those he resold for profit. There are numerous surviving legal documents concerning his slave dealings in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia from 1837 to 1855. Ephraim’s brother or uncle, James, (the record conflicts on this) lived in Duncansville, Georgia, and owned a slave who made “Negro shoes” that sold locally for one dollar a pair.
Ephraim had become wealthy and politically influential from the slave trade and plantation revenues at the time of his 1853 marriage. By then, he was a City Alderman in Thomasville, a thriving town and the seat of Thomas County. After marriage Ephraim immediately began construction of the Thomasville mansion, and he and Ellen moved into it in 1854.
At some point in 1851 or 1852, Ephraim purchased Festus Flipper, the slave who made “Negro shoes,” from his brother/uncle James for $1,180. At this time or possibly earlier, he recognized the value of acquiring slaves who were “mechanics,” as they were called, rather than simple farmhands. Mechanics included wheelwrights, blacksmiths, carpenters, boot makers, printers, and other skilled workers who could make or provide profitable goods and services. He clearly began to search for and buy other slaves with these mechanic skills, and likely had others who trained or were apprenticed into useful trades. By 1858, he had a well-established “Ponder Shop” in Thomasville where the products and services provided by these slaves were sold.
Sometime in 1857, Ephraim decided to move to Atlanta with his household, select slave craftsmen and their families. He bought approximately 27 acres from John J. Thrasher for $1,460 on November 25, 1857. The property was along the Marietta Road, just outside Atlanta’s one mile city limit. He then ordered construction of the mansion, two slave quarters, and three large manufacturing buildings where the slaves could conduct their business and manufacturing activities. While we can opine on the character of Ephraim Ponder the slave dealer, he had instituted a policy with these slaves while still in Thomasville that they would work a set number of hours each day for Ponder, but in their free time they could make products or provide services on their own, sell them, and keep the money for themselves and their families. This was the “task system,” a form of slavery that originated...
in the southeastern rice fields. This was somewhat unusual for inland slave owners at that time. It allowed participating slaves to learn how to save and handle money. The experience and ability gained in this arrangement helped slaves to successfully negotiate freedom after the War.
It is of special interest that an April 27, 1858 document survives detailing Ponder’s assets before moving to Atlanta. Reference is made to the Ponder Shop in Thomasville, and lists by name, age, skill (if any), and “complexion” of all Ponders’ slaves at that time. Also included are details of the Atlanta property purchase “…about one and one-half miles from the Atlanta Depot,” or the “0” mile marker, downtown. Forty-seven slaves are noted; of these, 14 men were “skilled,” 13 men had no skills, nine women without skills, and 11 children. It is not known how many slaves were transferred to Atlanta, but likely all the skilled slaves, their wives and children, and some others made the move. It is possible that the slaves without skills were “house” slaves.
Ephraim and Ellen moved to Atlanta and took possession of the completed mansion and property in 1859. The Atlanta Ponder Shop must have been an immediate success, because by late 1860, “White Business Owners” found competition from Ponder and his slaves most annoying, and demanded official action be taken by Atlanta’s town council. A resolution was presented on January 4, 1861, to levy a $100 tax on all slave craftsmen “…whose owners reside out of said City (limit),” obviously directed at Ponder in particular. Eventually the council tabled the resolution, an indication of the political influence Ponder must have wielded, impressively, after just a short time in Atlanta.
One of the Ponder slaves was Festus Flipper, who had been acquired in 1851 or 1852, and was a skilled carriage trimmer and shoemaker (leather worker). Festus and his wife, Isabella, had a son Henry Ossian Flipper in 1856. Henry wrote his autobiography many years after the war in which he commented that all was not peace and harmony at the Ponder estate:
“The mistress of this fortunate household, far from discharging the duties and functions of her station, left them unnoticed and devoted her whole attention to illegitimate pleasures. The outraged husband appointed a guardian and returned broken hearted to the bosom of his own family, where he devoted himself till death to agricultural pursuits.”
Continued, Page 9
In October 1861 Ephraim filed for divorce in Fulton County Superior Court. Among many allegations made in this petition were that his wife had committed adultery as long ago as 1854, only one year into their marriage, with “divers” (many) men; that she was a continual drunkard; that she had threatened her husband with a pistol; and that she used abusive language and treated him with the utmost disrespect. We might wonder if Ephraim left Thomasville for Atlanta with the hope of reforming his wife’s ways, but to no avail. Again, according to the petition, the joint property included the mansion and grounds, valued at $10,000, and slaves, valued at $45,000. The divorce was not granted until June 21, 1871.
Ephraim left Atlanta, presumably in 1861 or 1862, and lived out his life in Thomasville until his death August 19, 1874. He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Thomasville. Meanwhile, Ellen continued to live in the mansion, run the household, and presumably the Ponder Shop.
As already indicated, both Ephraim and Ellen were complicated human beings who certainly had their dark sides. However, it is known that in 1864, Ellen allowed or encouraged one of her slaves, John F. Quarles, a wheelwright and man with some education, to teach the younger slave children to read and write. This was a blatant violation of Georgia law, and punishable by imprisonment for the adults involved. Ironically, a Confederate reprint of Webster’s “Bluebook Speller” was used in these classes.
Continued, Page 10
As the Atlanta Campaign began in north Georgia in early spring of 1864, wounded soldiers began to trickle into Atlanta by train, requiring hospital care and time to recover. Hospitals and homes throughout Atlanta were filled, and by May some 19,000 wounded soldiers were being treated in the greater Atlanta area. It is known that the Ponder House and its outlying buildings had at least a 200 bed unit for temporary housing of patients awaiting evacuation via the railroads to points south and east. For this reason, and the proximity of Union troops, Ellen Ponder and some of her house slaves evacuated to Macon, and later that summer to Fort Valley, Georgia, leaving Festus Flipper in charge of the estate.
Shortly after the Battle of Atlanta on July 22 and before the Battle of Ezra Church on July 28, troops and artillery of the 20th Union Corps built trenches and batteries along the high ground at Howell Mill Road at 8th Street. From this vantage point, the siege of Atlanta began, raining shells on the downtown area. As the Ponder House, just inside the Confederate defense line, was also on high ground, there was a line of sight from the house to the siege line, and Confederate marksmen took up positions on the roof and second story to harass the Union lines. Taking offense at this, Brigadier General John Geary, Commanding the 2nd Division of the 20th Union Army Corps (under General Hooker), with two light batteries and several larger siege guns, leveled them at the Ponder House, and the fate of the house was sealed. It lay desolate and in ruins through the balance of the War until a divorce was granted to the Ponders in 1871. The house was then razed and the property sold at auction to various individuals. It is claimed that over a ton of shot and shell were recovered from the house ruins.
**Mysteries Begging for Research Remain**
More research needs to be done on Ellen Ponder’s life after she fled Atlanta – for the moment, the trail dies after she evacuated to Fort Valley. There were 65 Ponder slaves in Atlanta at the time of the surrender to Sherman’s forces. Their stories also deserve more study.
*Continued, Page 11*
Flipper Family Members Gained Prominence After the War
The Ponder slaves in Atlanta were given three benefits by their owners that most slaves never had. First, Ephraim acquired or was responsible for training many slaves in tradecraft that allowed them a degree of independence and self-reliance during their captivity. He also by chance prepared them for freedom after the War with skills immediately useful and needed by society at large. Secondly, Ephraim Ponder allowed these slaves to create or offer goods and services to the local community on their own time, and to keep the rewards (money) they earned and use it as they would. Finally, Ellen Ponder allowed slave children to receive an early education, which again prepared them for freedom and allowed them to progress and advance in the post-war society beyond most of their contemporaries.
Many members of the Flipper family became famous in their own right after the War. The eldest son of Festus and Isabella, Henry Ossian Flipper, became the most famous of the Flipper clan. He was the first Black man to graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point. Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper achieved many other firsts, and will deserve his own article at another time.
Former Ponder Slaves Who Became Prominent Post-War:
• Festus Flipper – Started and owned a successful shoe shop at 42 Decatur Street, making and repairing boots and shoes. He and wife Isabella were parents to many accomplished sons.
• Wife, Isabella Flipper – Isabella cooked for Union officers starting in the Spring of 1865, and later Isabella and Festus’ home became the first restaurant in Atlanta open to the public after the war.
• Son: Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper (March 21, 1856–April 26, 1940)—Due to his early education begun at the Ponder House, Henry Ossian Flipper thrived. He was a good student and attended Atlanta University during the Reconstruction Period. Georgia Representative James C. Freeman was key in his appointment to West Point, where in 1877 he became the first Black to graduate. Superintendent Major General John Schofield gave him a special tribute at his graduation for enduring racist treatment and trials during his time at West Point. He was later assigned to the 10th Cavalry, where he led one of the four all Black Buffalo Soldier Regiments. He was the first Black man to command regular troops in the U.S. Army. He wrote an autobiography *The Colored Cadet at West Point*, published in 1878. He then went on to great success in civilian life, and is now buried in the Old Magnolia Cemetery in Thomasville, Georgia.
*Son: Bishop Joseph S. Flipper – Became a nationally known leader in the African American Episcopal Church, and President of Morris Brown College in Atlanta. He founded the Flipper Temple AME Church, which stands to this day with his name.
*Son: Dr. Carl Flipper – Became a Professor at Savannah State College.
*Son, Festus Flipper, Jr. – Was a successful businessman and civic leader in Thomasville, GA.
*Son: Dr. Emory Flipper – One of the early Black physicians in South Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida.
• John F. Quarles – Wheelwright and teacher of the Ponder slave children. Went on to graduate from Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA, founded in 1852 and related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He was the first Black man to pass the Georgia Bar and practice law in Georgia.
Continued, Page 13
Atlanta 1864: A photo attributed to Barnard shows a captured Confederate battery on the northern defensive line manned by Union troops.
Abraham Lincoln wrote the following after winning a second term as President:
“Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this (Great War) as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.” Abraham Lincoln, November 10, 1864
This seems to point the way for The Atlanta Civil War Round Table in its approach to the study of this defining period in American History.
Immediate Past Atlanta Civil War Round Table President John Dietrichs adapted this essay for Battle Lines from his article “The Atlanta Ponder House Story,” which appeared in the Civil War News in December of 2018. In the time since, John has delivered a number of talks on the Ponder House, which is a developing story as he continues his search for answers to lingering questions.
Renewing Atlanta Round Table’s Educational Role
Immediate Past Atlanta Civil War Round Table President, John Dietrichs contributes this month’s article as the Round Table renews its commitment to the study of the Civil War for these times of Pandemic. The aim is to steadily offer materials of historic value to members in the pages of *Battle Lines*. This month we also feature a book review and links of interest.
A native of Atlanta, John graduated from Lovett High School which is located at the exact spot on the Chattahoochee at Pace’s Ferry where Confederate Cavalry General Joe Wheeler held up Sherman’s crossing of the river in 1864. John graduated from Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College) in Memphis, Tennessee in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. Immediately afterwards he joined the United States Air Force where he spent four and one-half years stateside, managing flight line maintenance of radar and navigational equipment on various aircraft. Since 1980 he has been involved in the environmental field, specializing in asbestos issues and working with hospitals, nuclear power plants, the Department of Defense, large national and multi-national companies, and other clients. For over 20 years, John taught environmental subjects at Georgia Tech and The Environmental Institute in Kennesaw. He has been President of his own environmental consulting company, SafeTech Consulting, Inc., started in 1984, and is now semi-retired.
John bought his first Civil War cannonball (from Kennesaw) at age 11, and now has three rooms and many nooks and crannies in his house filled with Military relics ranging from the late 1500s to the late 1980s, and a large library of historical and reference books. His love of history is an avocation, and collecting and the study of related history takes up much of his spare time. He is a Colonel in the Old Guard of the Gate City Guard of Atlanta, having been Commandant in 2014 and 2016.
Continued, Page 15
The President’s Corner: Our Meetings Continue
All,
We will now resume our meetings in the Zoom format on Tuesday, December 8 at 7:30 pm with Thomas R Flagel on the 1913 Gettysburg Reunion and his book *War, Memory, and the 1913 Gettysburg Reunion*.
I have heard back from most all of the remaining speakers and their willingness and availability to speak to us on a Zoom meeting platform.
**Our 2021 meetings are:**
- **January 12** with Stephen D Davis on John Bell Hood and his book *Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood*;
- **February 9** with Caroline Janney on War and Remembrance and her book *Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation*;
- **March 9** with Sandy Prindle on John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Assassination and his book *Booth’s Confederate Connections*;
- **April 13** with Matt Hulbert on How Civil War Bushwhackers Became Gunslingers in the American West and his book *The Ghosts of Guerrilla Memory*;
- **May 11** with Cory Pfarr on James Longstreet and his book *Longstreet at Gettysburg: A Critical Reassessment*;
- **June 8** with Stewart Bennett, who will speak about his new book on the Battle of Atlanta.
If anyone has any concerns or needs regarding how to participate in our future Zoom meetings (and I know I certainly do!) please reach out to me or any member of your Executive Board for assistance.
Also a reminder to please pay your annual dues so that we are able to continue to have these types of meetings.
Please stay as safe and healthy as possible,
Carlton Mullis
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An Educational Group
Architect Grant Moseley, Atlanta Round Table President (2018-2019), led our group to the benefit of 501c3 charitable status during his term. For this, ACWRT is classified as an educational organization. To lead us to a better understanding of what this entails, Grant recommends this article:
[https://smallbusiness.chron.com/501c3-educational-organization-60098.html](https://smallbusiness.chron.com/501c3-educational-organization-60098.html)
He will offer further insights in upcoming issues of *Battle Lines*.
Come Zoom With Us for Meetings
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-meeting
The Atlanta Civil War Round Table now has a Zoom account. You will receive an email invitation to join us for the December 8 meeting via Zoom. Many of us have become familiar with Zoom as the COVID-19 Pandemic has endured over eight-plus months this year. President Carlton Mullis suggests calling him or a member of the board if assistance with this new technology is necessary. You can also email member email@example.com There are many resources available online for learning to how to use Zoom, including the link above.
If you haven’t tried Zoom, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find a host of applications for this popular meeting format. As of press time, a few of our scheduled speakers have not confirmed Zoom availability but we will keep you apprised of any scheduling changes. Our meeting for November was cancelled in the wake of Hurricane Zeta. Now that the hurricane season has done its best to thwart technology, we feel assured that our meetings will continue without interference and look forward to seeing you when we meet again next week.
The folks at Zoom must feel like a parish priest from rural Indiana who gets up one morning to find that he is Pope.
Mary-Elizabeth Ellard,
Atlanta Civil War Round Table Chaplain
Nationally recognized as a mark of excellence for Civil War books, the Atlanta Civil War Round Table’s Richard Barksdale Harwell Book Award is deeply significant to all serious students of the Civil War. Named in memory of our founding president, Civil War scholar, editor and author Richard Barksdale Harwell after his death in March of 1988, the Harwell Book Award is determined by a committee of Round Table readers each year. The current chairman is Gary Barnes. The committee looks for the best book published on a Civil War subject for the preceding calendar year.
Born in 1915 in Washington, Georgia, Richard Harwell was raised in Atlanta where he obtained bachelor and post-graduate library science degrees at Emory. He served in World War II as the youngest commander of a Navy minesweeper. A college librarian and historian, Harwell worked at Duke University, Smith College, the Virginia State Library, Emory University, Bowdoin College and Georgia Southern and as curator of rare books at the University of Georgia. Harwell also wrote and edited books throughout his career. His focus on the Civil War began when he helped Margaret Mitchell research *Gone With the Wind*. Eventually he held the largest private collection ever assembled of that novel’s editions and memorabilia. Douglas Southall Freeman, biographer of Robert E. Lee and George Washington, chose Harwell to condense his multi-volume works on the two military leaders.
Hampton Newsom, winner of our latest Harwell Award for his *The Fight for the Old North State: The Civil War in North Carolina, January-May 1864* will be our speaker as soon as he can be rescheduled. North Carolina’s story in the final months of the war is often overlooked. Newson explains how the military events that ended the war affected social transformations and politics there. Besides opening up new historical perspectives, “*Fight for the Old North State*” is deeply researched and noted and an enjoyable read,” according to Harwell Committee Chair Gary Barnes.
Harwell Committee Review: Stephen Davis’ John Bell Hood
Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood by Stephen Davis
Fellow Atlanta Civil War Round Table Members:
As you know, each year the Richard Barksdale Harwell Committee reviews a list of newly published books in the field of Civil War history to select a winner.
As part of the club’s ongoing service to our members, the Harwell Committee will be providing more information to you – letting you know the list of books we’re reading this year, for instance, as well as giving you periodic reports on books that we’ve read.
Today I’d like to give you my thoughts on Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood by Stephen Davis.
This book was published in 2019 and received serious consideration for last year’s Harwell Award; however, this is the first volume of a two-volume set. The second has recently been released, and we are reading it as part of this year’s Harwell process.
Now for the book…
Generals of the Civil War era aspired to Napoleonic greatness. But the military career of John Bell Hood, indeed his entire life, is more of a Shakespearean tragedy, with Hood’s excessive ambition being his fatal flaw. In this book, Steve Davis analyzes Hood as a general and in so doing, shows us how Hood the man explains the failures of Hood the general.
The demands of war bring to the forefront Hood’s character and personality. We see him rise from lieutenant to lieutenant general in less than three years, so that by the age of 31 Hood commanded the second most important army in the Confederacy. Hood aspired to a noble, heroic public persona, and he embodied these qualities in the minds of most observers up to early 1864, as he rose from company officer up to corps command in a rapid series of steps. Thereafter, with the higher demands placed on a senior officer, Hood began to display other, less admirable qualities.
The bulk of the book relates to his period with the Army of Tennessee as corps commander under Joseph E. Johnston, then as army commander until the fall of Atlanta.
Continued, Page 19
This book is exhaustively researched. There has been a lot of important new information published on Hood in the last ten years, and Davis consults that – but he also incorporates new primary sources that were not previously used anywhere.
Along the way we get illuminating quotes from Hood and his contemporaries on every page; for example, we read of Gen. W.H.T. Walker writing to his wife only two days before his death in the Battle of Atlanta: quote - “Hood has gone up like a rocket; it is to be hoped he will not come down like a stick; He is brave - whether he has the capacity to command armies time will develop.”
Some of the highlights of the book for me include the personal and professional relationships that Hood maintained. They tell a lot about him and are revealing about Davis’s theme of Hood’s ambition. We read of how others reacted to that ambition – for instance, Robert E. Lee’s carefully worded compliments about Hood that made clear Lee did not consider him ready or qualified for high command.
Also, we learn of the rumor that Hood would replace Jeb Stuart as cavalry commander after Gettysburg (Hood aspired to higher command – an infantry corps) and we see the comments of Wade Hampton that Hood was being promoted before he was ready.
In fact, the impression we receive is that Hood was promoted before he could really learn to grow and develop as a complete officer at each level he attained.
John Bell Hood, circa 1864. Hood was often injured in battle. At the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, 1863 a wound to his right leg necessitated its amputation. (Photo Texas State Historical Association)
Continued, Page 20
And Hood’s constant ambition to rise to the next level finally pushed him to being a Civil War example of the Peter Principle – where a successful person continues to rise to the level of his incompetence, and then fails.
One example of the insight the author brings is where he compares Hood’s Battle of Atlanta to Lee’s Chancellorsville, since Hood envisioned his battle as being modeled on Chancellorsville with a flank march and attack.
Steve Davis writes a very balanced analysis of Hood’s generalship – giving both credit and criticism where warranted. In this book the theme of Hood’s excessive ambition carrying him beyond his capabilities will be completed in Volume 2, released in 2020, where Hood and the Army of Tennessee come to grief at Franklin and Nashville.
In conclusion, I found this book very enjoyable and informative. The writing is lively, the insights are numerous, and you get the feeling that the author is perfectly at home in the period. He skillfully consults sources as varied as official reports and documents, contemporary newspaper articles, the perspectives of infantry privates, and the gossip chain of people in Hood’s office corps and social circles. I highly recommend it to you, and I think that the two volumes should really be read together as one continuous work in order to really grasp the theme of excessive ambition and how it plays out in Hood’s epic career and tragic life.
Thank you! Stay safe and enjoy your continuing Civil War reading!
Robert Fugate
Member, Richard Barksdale Harwell Book Award Committee
Keeping Up Online Before Our Spring Tour
The pandemic still stands in the way of most live visits and lectures. We *are* now offering Zoom meetings and plan a spring tour of Chickamauga. In the meantime, there are a host of opportunities for keeping up online. Please see our site [http://www.civilwarroundtableofatlanta.org](http://www.civilwarroundtableofatlanta.org), our Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/gould.hagler.9/posts/3719092411448178](https://www.facebook.com/gould.hagler.9/posts/3719092411448178) and other sites of interest:
**National Park Service**
[https://www.nps.gov/index.htm](https://www.nps.gov/index.htm)
**American Battlefiled Trust**
[https://www.battlefields.org](https://www.battlefields.org)
**Atlanta History Center**
[https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaHistoryCenter](https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaHistoryCenter)
**Oakland Cemetery**
[https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=oakland%20cemetery](https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=oakland%20cemetery)
**Georgia Battlefields Association**
[https://www.facebook.com/georgiabattlefields](https://www.facebook.com/georgiabattlefields)
[http://www.georgiabattlefields.org/home.aspx](http://www.georgiabattlefields.org/home.aspx)
**Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History**
[https://www.facebook.com/southernmuseum](https://www.facebook.com/southernmuseum)
**Civil War Round Table of Cobb County**
[https://www.facebook.com/cwrtcc](https://www.facebook.com/cwrtcc)
**Civil War in Georgia Through Photography**
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/1128799070602406](https://www.facebook.com/groups/1128799070602406)
**Battle of Resaca**
[https://www.facebook.com/battleofresaca](https://www.facebook.com/battleofresaca)
**The Longstreet Society**
[https://www.facebook.com/TheLongstreetSociety](https://www.facebook.com/TheLongstreetSociety)
**Chickamauga & Chattanooga Civil War Round Table**
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/329344228425502](https://www.facebook.com/groups/329344228425502)
**National Museum of Civil War Medicine**
[https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarMed/](https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarMed/)
**The Center for Civil War Photography**
[https://www.facebook.com/civilwarphotography](https://www.facebook.com/civilwarphotography)
**Marietta Confederate Cemetery Foundation**
[http://www.mariettaconfederatecemetery.org](http://www.mariettaconfederatecemetery.org)
**Marietta National Cemetery**
[https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marietta%20National%20Cemetery/113571515319691/](https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marietta%20National%20Cemetery/113571515319691/)
**Center for the Study of the Civil War Era at Kennesaw State University**
[https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=center%20for%20the%20study%20of%20the%20civil%20war%20era%20at%20kennesaw%20state%20university](https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=center%20for%20the%20study%20of%20the%20civil%20war%20era%20at%20kennesaw%20state%20university)
**Garry Adelman’s Civil War Page**
[https://www.facebook.com/Garry-Adelmans-Civil-War-Page-178968718823848](https://www.facebook.com/Garry-Adelmans-Civil-War-Page-178968718823848)
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Park Historian Jim Ogden leads a tour at the Chickamauga battlefield. ([nps.gov](https://www.nps.gov))
**Spring Tour - Chickamauga**
ACWRT has scheduled Saturday April 17 for a day with Chickamauga Park Historian Jim Ogden on the Chickamauga battlefield. Group size will be limited to less than a dozen and we’ll be masked and in separate vehicles (no bus this trip). Be on the lookout for further details.
O COME, let us sing unto the LORD; let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and show ourselves glad In him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God; and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are all the corners of the earth; and the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands prepared the dry land.
O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For he is the Lord our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth stand in awe of him.
For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth' and with righteousness to judge the world: and the people with his truth.
From Selections from the Book of Common Prayer for Missionary and Temporary Services Pub.: E.P. Dutton and Co., Boston, 1863
A Pastoral Note:
We are saddened to announce the passing of ACWRT member, Jackson McHenry. Jackson attended Georgia Tech for two years before moving to Ohio with his family. He graduated from Case Western Reserve, and later attended Georgia State where he received a master’s in literature. He went on to become an early member of the computer industry which kept him much on the move.
The ACWRT extends its condolences to his widow, Patricia, and to all his family and friends.
Chaplain Mary-Elizabeth Ellard
‘Jingle Bells:’ The Civil War Story
Northern and Southern Claims Diverge
As we venture further into the 21st Century, many questions of the Civil War, important and trivial, remain unsolved. The town of Medford, Massachusetts for instance, counters Savannah with its own ‘Jingle Bells’ origin story. From the plaque erected by the Medford Historical Society:
‘Jingle Bells’ Composed Here
On this site stood the Simpson Tavern, where in 1850 James Pierpont (1822-1893) wrote the song ‘Jingle Bells’ in the presence of Mrs. Otis Waterman, who later verified that the song was written here. Pierpont had the song copyrighted in 1857 while living in Georgia. ‘Jingle Bells tells of the sleigh races held on Salem Street in the early 1800s.’ MEDFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1983
Atlanta Civil War Round Table
Officers and Executive Committee 2020-2021
Carlton Mullis President
Mary-Elizabeth Ellard First Vice President
Loran Crabtree Second Vice President
Tim Whalen Secretary/ Treasurer
John Dietrichs Immediate Past President
At Large Executive Committee Second Year:
Bill Dodd; Tom Prior
At Large Executive Committee First Year:
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ENRICHMENT COURSES AFTER SCHOOL
10 Sessions Starting the Week of February 4th
REGISTER NOW
OPEN TO MISD K-4TH GRADE
SCHOOL DISMISSAL UNTIL 4:45 PM
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION Ends
January 25th (15% Discount)
Final Registration Ends February 3rd
10% Discount to MISD Employee Students & MISD Adventures Program Students
(Discounts cannot be combined)
www.magnoliaisd.org/enrichment/
SOCCER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Kids will learn a variety of soccer skills such as; kicking, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing and ball control through a series of fun games and challenges. There will be drills where the instructor teaches the individual skills and then scrimmages where the kids put their skills to use.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
CHEER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Whether you have cheered for years or this is your first class, come be a part of all the fun with all of your classmates! Cheer dances, chants, kicks, and jumps are just part of the things you will learn on your way to becoming a top notch cheerleader.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
TENNIS – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
Students will experience a mix of tennis instruction, rules & etiquette lessons, educational components, character development lessons and physical activity as they advance through the five-level program, which includes S.T.E.M. training and activities. We provide all of the equipment, children receive awards at each level passed, and 1st time students receive a TGA / USTA hat and Student Handbook.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
CHESS – Presented by Fit Kids America: $129
From the starting novice to the experienced chess player, students of all ages and skills will learn strong chess fundamentals through our lessons and practices. Using stories, rhymes, and strategies, Students will gain a love for the game that they can carry for a lifetime.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
KARATE 4 KIDS – Presented by Cox ATA Martial Arts: $100
This exciting course covers the amazing world of Martial Arts! Students will learn: board breaking, self-defense, anti-bully strategies, fun games, gymnastics, Xtreme martial arts and much more on their way to earning BLACK BELT!
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.coxata.com/PE or call 713-306-3063 for more information
THEATER ARTS – Presented by Drama Rocket: $119
Join our Spring Mission as we embark on an interplanetary journey that ignites creativity, supercharges self-confidence and boosts social skills! Each week, Drama Rocketeers will blast off on a mission to discover new and creative pathways that will activate their Rocketeer Toolboxes (voice, body, imagination, concentration and cooperation) that help them explore acting skills and techniques in a fast-paced and fun-filled class! Don’t just rock it. DRAMA ROCKET!
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class; $15 Registration Fee for New Students
Register online at https://dramarocket.com/magnolia/ or call 713-294-6012 for more information
KINDNESS MARATHON – Presented by Stronger to Serve: $89
Come run with your friends to complete a marathon and participate in fun kindness challenges for the community! You will get to learn about goal setting, easy ways to show kindness and stop bullying, and how to help animals, veterans, seniors, hungry families, and more.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at https://www.strongertoserve.org/misd-adventures-enrichment or call 703-939-4108 for more information
STEM – Presented by the Nutty Scientists: $189
Get ready to have fun with SCIENCE! Students will learn, observe, discover, experiment, and make conclusions in an interactive and entertaining environment. We incorporate different areas of science to keep classes interesting and challenging, such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, entomology, anatomy, etc. Our classes include demonstrations, experimentations and hands-on activities. Our mission is to get your kids passionate and excited about SCIENCE!
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 9 students to make a class
Register online at www.nuttyscientistshouston.com/register or Call 281-719-0873 for more information
FLAG FOOTBALL – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Learn football through drills, obstacle courses, and strength training with an emphasis on team work, increased agility, speed, and self-esteem. Classes will be split by age and ability with Intramural games held each class.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
GOLF – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
TGA Premier Junior Golf is an inclusive and all equipment provided golf program for students K-6th Grade. This program is a wonderful way to introduce your child to the life-long game of golf. Our after school program is a station-based format that keeps students engaged and active as they learn. Each class will cover rules and etiquette concepts and a mechanical skill of the week including putting, chipping, half swing, ¾ swing and full swing with irons and drivers.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
KICKBALL/DODGEBALL COMBO – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Fit Kids America is bringing these two fast paced, high-energy sports to your campus! Participants will be able to have fun learning the basics of these two sports. For dodgeball, participants will fine-tune their catching and throwing abilities while increasing their reaction times. We play with soft foam balls. Kickball will provide a variety of kickball related games along with traditional kickball. – “KINDERGARTEN ONLY” CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS COURSE.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
ART – Presented by Paint & Bubbles Studio: $155
Draw, paint, and create in this FUN mixed-media art class! Each week, students will make a new piece of art and learn about using different techniques and materials. All supplies are included.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at http://www.paintandbubbles.com/misd/ or call 346-703-2141 for more information
STEM – Presented by the Nutty Scientists: $189
Get ready to have fun with SCIENCE! Students will learn, observe, discover, experiment, and make conclusions in an interactive and entertaining environment. We incorporate different areas of science to keep classes interesting and challenging, such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, entomology, anatomy, etc. Our classes include demonstrations, experimentations and hands-on activities. Our mission is to get your kids passionate and excited about SCIENCE!
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 9 students to make a class
Register online at www.nuttyscientistshouston.com/register or Call 281-719-0873 for more information
KINDNESS MARATHON – Presented by Stronger to Serve: $89
Come run with your friends to complete a marathon and participate in fun kindness challenges for the community! You will get to learn about goal setting, easy ways to show kindness and stop bullying, and how to help animals, veterans, seniors, hungry families, and more.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at https://www.strongertoserve.org/misd-adventures-enrichment or call 703-939-4108 for more information
KARATE 4 KIDS – Presented by Cox ATA Martial Arts: $100
This exciting course covers the amazing world of Martial Arts! Students will learn: board breaking, self-defense, anti-bully strategies, fun games, gymnastics, Xtreme martial arts and much more on their way to earning BLACK BELT!
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.coxata.com/PE or call 713-306-3063 for more information
CHESS – Presented by Fit Kids America: $129
From the starting novice to the experienced chess player, students of all ages and skills will learn strong chess fundamentals through our lessons and practices. Using stories, rhymes, and strategies. Students will gain a love for the game that they can carry for a lifetime.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
FLAG FOOTBALL – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Learn football through drills, obstacle courses, and strength training with an emphasis on team work, increased agility, speed, and self-esteem. Classes will be split by age and ability. Intramural games held each class.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
THEATER ARTS – Presented by Drama Rocket: $119
Join our Spring Mission as we embark on an interplanetary journey that ignites creativity, supercharges self-confidence and boosts social skills! Each week, Drama Rocketeers will blast off on a mission to discover new and creative pathways that will activate their Rocketeer Toolboxes (voice, body, imagination, concentration and cooperation) that help them explore acting skills and techniques in a fast-paced and fun-filled class! Don’t just rock it, DRAMA ROCKET!
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) . Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class; $15 Registration Fee for New Students
Register online at https://dramarocket.com/magnolia/ or call 713-294-6012 for more information
CHEER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Whether you have cheered for years or this is your first class, come be a part of all the fun with all of your classmates! Cheer dances, chants, kicks, and jumps are just part of the things you will learn on your way to becoming a top notch cheerleader.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
GOLF – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
TGA Premier Junior Golf is an inclusive and all equipment provided golf program for students K-6th Grade. This program is a wonderful way to introduce your child to the life-long game of golf! The after school program is a station-based format that keeps students engaged and active as they learn. Each class will cover rules and etiquette concepts and a mechanical skill of the week including putting, chipping, half swing, ¾ swing and full swing with irons and drivers.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
SOCCER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Kids will learn a variety of soccer skills such as: kicking, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing and ball control through a series of fun games and challenges. There will be drills where the instructor teaches the individual skills and then scrimmages where the kids put their skills to use.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
TENNIS – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
Students will experience a mix of tennis instruction, rules & etiquette lessons, educational components, character development lessons and physical activity as they advance through the five-level program, which includes S.T.E.M. training and activities. We provide all of the equipment, children receive awards at each level passed, and 1st time students receive a TGA / USTA hat and Student Handbook.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
ART – Presented by Paint & Bubbles Studio: $155
Draw, paint, and create in this FUN mixed-media art class! Each week, students will make a new piece of art and learn about using different techniques and materials. All supplies are included.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at http://www.paintandbubbles.com/misd/ or call 346-703-2141 for more information
KICKBALL/DODGEBALL COMBO – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Fit Kids America is bringing these two fast paced, high-energy sports to your campus! Participants will be able to have fun learning the basics of these two sports. For dodgeball, participants will fine-tune their catching and throwing abilities while increasing their reaction times. We play with soft foam balls. Kickball will provide a variety of kickball related games along with traditional kickball. – “KINDERGARTEN ONLY” CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS COURSE.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
FLAG FOOTBALL – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Learn football through drills, obstacle courses, and strength training with an emphasis on team work, increased agility, speed, and self-esteem. Classes will be split by age and ability with intramural games held each class.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
CHEER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Whether you have cheered for years or this is your first class, come be a part of all the fun with all of your classmates! Cheer dances, chants, kicks, and jumps are just part of the things you will learn on your way to becoming a top notch cheerleader.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
CHESS – Presented by Fit Kids America: $129
From the starting novice to the experienced chess player, students of all ages and skills will learn strong chess fundamentals through our lessons and practices. Using stories, rhymes, and strategies. Students will gain a love for the game that they can carry for a lifetime.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
SOCCER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Kids will learn a variety of soccer skills such as: kicking, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing and ball control through a series of fun games and challenges. There will be drills where the instructor teaches the individual skills and then scrimmages where the kids put their skills to use.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
THEATER ARTS – Presented by Drama Rocket: $119
Join our Spring Mission as we embark on an interplanetary journey that ignites creativity, supercharges self-confidence and boosts social skills! Each week, Drama Rocketeers will blast off on a mission to discover new and creative pathways that will activate their Rocketeer Toolboxes (voice, body, imagination, concentration and cooperation) that help them explore acting skills and techniques in a fast-paced and fun-filled class! Don’t just rock it. DRAMA ROCKET!
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class; $15 Registration Fee for New Students
Register online at https://dramarocket.com/magnolia/ or call 713-294-6012 for more information
ART – Presented by Paint & Bubbles Studio: $155
Draw, paint, and create in this FUN mixed-media art class! Each week, students will make a new piece of art and learn about using different techniques and materials. All supplies are included.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at http://www.paintandbubbles.com/misd/ or call 346-703-2141 for more information
KICKBALL/DODGEBALL COMBO – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Fit Kids America is bringing these two fast paced, high-energy sports to your campus! Participants will be able to have fun learning the basics of these two sports. For dodgeball, participants will fine-tune their catching and throwing abilities while increasing their reaction times. We play with soft foam balls. Kickball will provide a variety of kickball related games along with traditional kickball. – “KINDERGARTEN ONLY” CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS COURSE.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
GOLF – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
TGA Premier Junior Golf is an inclusive and all equipment provided golf program for students K-6th Grade. This program is a wonderful way to introduce your child to the life-long game of golf! The after school program is a station-based format that keeps students engaged and active as they learn. Each class will cover rules and etiquette concepts and a mechanical skill of the week including putting, chipping, half swing, ¾ swing and full swing with irons and drivers.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northhouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
KINDNESS MARATHON – Presented by Stronger to Serve: $89
Come run with your friends to complete a marathon and participate in fun kindness challenges for the community! You will get to learn about goal setting, easy ways to show kindness and stop bullying, and how to help animals, veterans, seniors, hungry families, and more.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at https://www.strongertoserve.org/misd-adventures-enrichment or call 703-939-4108 for more information
KARATE 4 KIDS – Presented by Cox ATA Martial Arts: $100
This exciting course covers the amazing world of Martial Arts! Students will learn: board breaking, self-defense, anti-bully strategies, fun games, gymnastics, Xtreme martial arts and much more on their way to earning BLACK BELT!
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.coxata.com/PE or call 713-306-3063 for more information
TENNIS – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
Students will experience a mix of tennis instruction, rules & etiquette lessons, educational components, character development lessons and physical activity as they advance through the five-level program, which includes S.T.E.M. training and activities. We provide all of the equipment, children receive awards at each level passed, and 1st time students receive a TGA / USTA hat and Student Handbook.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northhouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
GOLF – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
TGA Premier Junior Golf is an inclusive and all equipment provided golf program for students K-6th Grade. This program is a wonderful way to introduce your child to the life-long game of golf! The after school program is a station-based format that keeps students engaged and active as they learn. Each class will cover rules and etiquette concepts and a mechanical skill of the week including putting, chipping, half swing, ¾ swing and full swing with irons and drivers.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
THEATER ARTS – Presented by Drama Rocket: $119
Join our Spring Mission as we embark on an interplanetary journey that ignites creativity, supercharges self-confidence and boosts social skills! Each week, Drama Rocketeers will blast off on a mission to discover new and creative pathways that will activate their Rocketeer Toolboxes (voice, body, imagination, concentration and cooperation) that help them explore acting skills and techniques in a fast-paced and fun-filled class! Don’t just rock it. DRAMA ROCKET!
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class; $15 Registration Fee for New Students
Register online at https://dramarocket.com/magnolia/ or call 713-294-6012 for more information
ART – Presented by Paint & Bubbles Studio: $155
Draw, paint, and create in this FUN mixed-media art class! Each week, students will make a new piece of art and learn about using different techniques and materials. All supplies are included.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at http://www.paintandbubbles.com/misd/ or call 346-703-2141 for more information
CHEER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Whether you have cheered for years or this is your first class, come be a part of all the fun with all of your classmates! Cheer dances, chants, kicks, and jumps are just part of the things you will learn on your way to becoming a top notch cheerleader.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
KINDNESS MARATHON – Presented by Stronger to Serve: $89
Come run with your friends to complete a marathon and participate in fun kindness challenges for the community! You will get to learn about goal setting, easy ways to show kindness and stop bullying, and how to help animals, veterans, seniors, hungry families, and more.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at https://www.strongertoserve.org/misd-adventures-enrichment or call 703-939-4108 for more information
CHESS – Presented by Fit Kids America: $129
From the starting novice to the experienced chess player, students of all ages and skills will learn strong chess fundamentals through our lessons and practices. Using stories, rhymes, and strategies, Students will gain a love for the game that they can carry for a lifetime.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
KARATE 4 KIDS – Presented by Cox ATA Martial Arts: $100
This exciting course covers the amazing world of Martial Arts! Students will learn: board breaking, self-defense, anti-bully strategies, fun games, gymnastics, Xtreme martial arts and much more on their way to earning BLACK BELT!
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.coxata.com/PE or call 713-306-3063 for more information
SOCCER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Kids will learn a variety of soccer skills such as: kicking, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing and ball control through a series of fun games and challenges. There will be drills where the instructor teaches the individual skills and then scrimmages where the kids put their skills to use.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
TENNIS – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
Students will experience a mix of tennis instruction, rules & etiquette lessons, educational components, character development lessons and physical activity as they advance through the five-level program, which includes S.T.E.M. training and activities. We provide all of the equipment, children receive awards at each level passed, and 1st time students receive a TGA / USTA hat and Student Handbook.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
FLAG FOOTBALL – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Learn football through drills, obstacle courses, and strength training with an emphasis on team work, increased agility, speed, and self-esteem. Classes will be split by age and ability with intramural games held each class.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
KICKBALL/DODGEBALL COMBO – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Fit Kids America is bringing these two fast paced, high-energy sports to your campus! Participants will be able to have fun learning the basics of these two sports. For dodgeball, participants will fine-tune their catching and throwing abilities while increasing their reaction times. We play with soft foam balls. Kickball will provide a variety of kickball related games along with traditional kickball. “KINDERGARTEN ONLY” CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS COURSE.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
GOLF – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
TGA Premier Junior Golf is an inclusive and all equipment provided golf program for students K-6th Grade. This program is a wonderful way to introduce your child to the life-long game of golf! The after school program is a station-based format that keeps students engaged and active as they learn. Each class will cover rules and etiquette concepts and a mechanical skill of the week including putting, chipping, half swing, ¾ swing and full swing with irons and drivers.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
THEATER ARTS – Presented by Drama Rocket: $119
Join our Spring Mission as we embark on an interplanetary journey that ignites creativity, supercharges self-confidence and boosts social skills! Each week, Drama Rocketeers will blast off on a mission to discover new and creative pathways that will activate their Rocketeer Toolboxs (voice, body, imagination, concentration and cooperation) that help them expand acting skills in a fun, interactive, fast-paced and fun-filled class! Don’t just rock it, DRAMA ROCKET!
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class; $15 Registration Fee for New Students
Register online at https://dramarocket.com/magnolia/ or call 713-294-6012 for more information
CHESS – Presented by Fit Kids America: $129
From the starting novice to the experienced chess player, students of all ages and skills will learn strong chess fundamentals through our lessons and practices. Using stories, rhymes, and strategies. Students will gain a love for the game that they can carry for a lifetime.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
SOCCER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Kids will learn a variety of soccer skills such as: kicking, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing and ball control through a series of fun games and challenges. There will be drills where the instructor teaches the individual skills and then scrimmages where the kids put their skills to use.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
TENNIS – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
Students will experience a mix of tennis instruction, rules & etiquette lessons, educational components, character development lessons and physical activity as they advance through the five-level program, which includes S.T.E.M. training and activities. We provide all of the equipment, children receive awards at each level passed, and 1st time students receive a TGA / USTA hat and Student Handbook.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
CHEER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Whether you have cheered for years or this is your first class, come be a part of all the fun with all of your classmates! Cheer dances, chants, kicks, and jumps are just part of the things you will learn on your way to becoming a top notch cheerleader.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
KICKBALL/DODGEBALL COMBO – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Fit Kids America is bringing these two fast paced, high-energy sports to your campus! Participants will be able to have fun learning the basics of these two sports. For dodgeball, participants will fine-tune their catching and throwing abilities while increasing their reaction times. We play with soft foam balls. Kickball will provide a variety of kickball related games along with traditional kickball. – “KINDERGARTEN ONLY” CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS COURSE.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
STEM – Presented by the Nutty Scientists: $189
Get ready to have fun with SCIENCE! Students will learn, observe, discover, experiment, and make conclusions in an interactive and entertaining environment. We incorporate different areas of science to keep classes interesting and challenging, such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, entomology, and more. Our classes include demonstrations, experiments and hands-on activities. Our mission is to get your kids passionate and excited about SCIENCE!
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 9 students to make a class
Register online at www.nuttyscientistshouston.com/register or Call 281-719-0873 for more information
FLAG FOOTBALL – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Learn football through drills, obstacle courses, and strength training with an emphasis on team work, increased agility, speed, and self-esteem. Classes will be split by age and ability with Intramural games held each class.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
ART – Presented by Paint & Bubbles Studio: $155
Draw, paint, and create in this FUN mixed-media art class! Each week, students will make a new piece of art and learn about using different techniques and materials. All supplies are included.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at http://www.paintandbubbles.com/misd/ or call 346-703-2141 for more information
KARATE 4 KIDS – Presented by Cox ATA Martial Arts: $100
This exciting course covers the amazing world of Martial Arts! Students will learn: board breaking, self-defense, anti-bully strategies, fun games, gymnastics, Xtreme martial arts and much more on their way to earning BLACK BELT!
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.coxata.com/PE or call 713-306-3063 for more information
KINDNESS MARATHON – Presented by Stronger to Serve: $89
Come run with your friends to complete a marathon and participate in fun kindness challenges for the community! You will get to learn about goal setting, easy ways to show kindness and stop bullying, and how to help animals, veterans, seniors, hungry families, and more.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at https://www.strongertoserve.org/misd-adventures-enrichment or call 703-939-4108 for more information
SOCCER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Kids will learn a variety of soccer skills such as; kicking, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing and ball control through a series of fun games and challenges. There will be drills where the instructor teaches the individual skills and then scrimmages where the kids put their skills to use.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
TENNIS – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
Students will experience a mix of tennis instruction, rules & etiquette lessons, educational components, character development lessons and physical activity as they advance through the five-level program, which includes S.T.E.M. training and activities. We provide all of the equipment, children receive awards at each level passed, and 1st time students receive a TGA/ USTA hat and Student Handbook.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
KICKBALL/DODGEBALL COMBO – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Fit Kids America is bringing these two fast paced, high-energy sports to your campus! Participants will be able to have fun learning the basics of these two sports. For dodgeball, participants will fine-tune their catching and throwing abilities while increasing their reaction times. We play with soft foam balls. Kickball will provide a variety of kickball related games along with traditional kickball. – “KINDERGARTEN ONLY” CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS COURSE.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
FLAG FOOTBALL – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Learn football through drills, obstacle courses, and strength training with an emphasis on team work, increased agility, speed, and self-esteem. Classes will be split by age and ability with Intramural games held each class.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
CHEER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Whether you have cheered for years or this is your first class, come be a part of all the fun with all of your classmates! Cheer dances, chants, kicks, and jumps are just part of the things you will learn on your way to becoming a top notch cheerleader.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
STEM – Presented by the Nutty Scientists: $189
Get ready to have fun with SCIENCE! Students will learn, observe, discover, experiment, and make conclusions in an interactive and entertaining environment. We incorporate different areas of science to keep classes interesting and challenging, such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, entomology, anatomy, etc. Our classes include demonstrations, experimentations and hands-on activities. Our mission is to get your kids passionate and excited about SCIENCE!
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 9 students to make a class
Register online at www.nuttyscientistshouston.com/register or Call 281-719-0873 for more information
ART – Presented by Paint & Bubbles Studio: $155
Draw, paint, and create in this FUN mixed-media art class! Each week, students will make a new piece of art and learn about using different techniques and materials. All supplies are included.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at http://www.paintandbubbles.com/misd/ or call 346-703-2141 for more information
KARATE 4 KIDS – Presented by Cox ATA Martial Arts: $100
This exciting course covers the amazing world of Martial Arts! Students will learn: board breaking, self-defense, anti-bully strategies, fun games, gymnastics, Xtreme martial arts and much more on their way to earning BLACK BELT!
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.coaxata.com/PE or call 713-306-3063 for more information
THEATER ARTS – Presented by Drama Rocket: $119
Join our Spring Mission as we embark on an interplanetary journey that ignites creativity, supercharges self-confidence and boosts social skills! Each week, Drama Rocketeers will blast off on a mission to discover new and creative pathways that will activate their Rocketeer Toolboxes (voice, body, imagination, concentration and cooperation) that help them explore acting skills and techniques in a fast-paced and fun-filled class! Don’t just rock it. DRAMA ROCKET!
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class; $15 Registration Fee for New Students
Register online at https://dramarocket.com/magnolia/ or call 713-294-6012 for more information
CHESS – Presented by Fit Kids America: $129
From the starting novice to the experienced chess player, students of all ages and skills will learn strong chess fundamentals through our lessons and practices. Using stories, rhymes, and strategies, Students will gain a love for the game that they can carry for a lifetime.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
GOLF – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
TGA Premier Junior Golf is an inclusive and all equipment provided golf program for students K-6th Grade. This program is a wonderful way to introduce your child to the life-long game of golf! The after school program is a station-based format that keeps students engaged and active as they learn. Each class will cover rules and etiquette concepts and a mechanical skill of the week including putting, chipping, half swing, ¼ swing and full swing with irons and drivers.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
KINDNESS MARATHON – Presented by Stronger to Serve: $89
Come run with your friends to complete a marathon and participate in fun kindness challenges for the community! You will get to learn about goal setting, easy ways to show kindness and stop bullying, and how to help animals, veterans, seniors, hungry families, and more.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at https://www.strongertoserve.org/misd-adventures-enrichment or call 703-939-4108 for more information
ART – Presented by Paint & Bubbles Studio: $155
Draw, paint, and create in this FUN mixed-media art class! Each week, students will make a new piece of art and learn about using different techniques and materials. All supplies are included.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at http://www.paintandbubbles.com/misd/ or call 346-703-2141 for more information
KARATE 4 KIDS – Presented by Cox ATA Martial Arts: $100
This exciting course covers the amazing world of Martial Arts! Students will learn: board breaking, self-defense, anti-bully strategies, fun games, gymnastics, Xtreme martial arts and much more on their way to earning BLACK BELT!
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.coxata.com/PE or call 713-306-3063 for more information
KINDNESS MARATHON – Presented by Stronger to Serve: $89
Come run with your friends to complete a marathon and participate in fun kindness challenges for the community! You will get to learn about goal setting, easy ways to show kindness and stop bullying, and how to help animals, veterans, seniors, hungry families, and more.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at https://www.strongertoserve.org/misd-adventures-enrichment or call 703-939-4108 for more information
GOLF – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
TGA Premier Junior Golf is an inclusive and all equipment provided golf program for students K-6th Grade. This program is a wonderful way to introduce your child to the life-long game of golf! The after school program is a station-based format that keeps students engaged and active as they learn. Each class will cover rules and etiquette concepts and a mechanical skill of the week including putting, chipping, half swing, ¾ swing and full swing with irons and drivers.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northhouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
THEATER ARTS – Presented by Drama Rocket: $119
Join our Spring Mission as we embark on an interplanetary journey that ignites creativity, supercharges self-confidence and boosts social skills! Each week, Drama Rocketeers will blast off on a mission to discover new and creative pathways that will activate their Rocketeer Toolboxes (voice, body, imagination, concentration and cooperation) that help them explore acting skills and techniques in a fast-paced and fun-filled class! Don’t just rock it, DRAMA ROCKET!
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class; $15 Registration Fee for New Students
Register online at https://dramarocket.com/magnolia/ or call 713-294-6012 for more information
CHEER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Whether you have cheered for years or this is your first class, come be a part of all the fun with all of your classmates! Cheer dances, chants, kicks, and jumps are just part of the things you will learn on your way to becoming a top notch cheerleader.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
SOCCER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Kids will learn a variety of soccer skills such as: kicking, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing and ball control through a series of fun games and challenges. There will be drills where the instructor teaches the individual skills and then scrimmages where the kids put their skills to use.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
TENNIS – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
Students will experience a mix of tennis instruction, rules & etiquette lessons, educational components, character development lessons and physical activity as they advance through the five-level program, which includes S.T.E.M. training and activities. We provide all of the equipment, children receive awards at each level passed, and 1st time students receive a TGA Uniform and Student Handbook.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northhouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
KICKBALL/DODGEBALL COMBO – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Fit Kids America is bringing these two fast paced, high-energy sports to your campus! Participants will be able to have fun learning the basics of these two sports. For dodgeball, participants will fine-tune their catching and throwing abilities while increasing their reaction times. We play with soft foam balls. Kickball will provide a variety of kickball related games along with traditional kickball. – “KINDERGARTEN ONLY” CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS COURSE.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
FLAG FOOTBALL – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Learn football through drills, obstacle courses, and strength training with an emphasis on team work, increased agility, speed, and self-esteem. Classes will be split by age and ability with intramural games held each class.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
CHESS – Presented by Fit Kids America: $129
From the starting novice to the experienced chess player, students of all ages and skills will learn strong chess fundamentals through our lessons and practices. Using stories, rhymes, and strategies. Students will gain a love for the game that they can carry for a lifetime.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
FLAG FOOTBALL – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Learn football through drills, obstacle courses, and strength training with an emphasis on team work, increased agility, speed, and self-esteem. Classes will be split by age and ability with Intramural games held each class.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
CHEER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Whether you have cheered for years or this is your first class, come be a part of all the fun with all of your classmates! Cheer dances, chants, kicks, and jumps are just part of the things you will learn on your way to becoming a top notch cheerleader.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
CHESS – Presented by Fit Kids America: $129
From the starting novice to the experienced chess player, students of all ages and skills will learn strong chess fundamentals through our lessons and practices. Using stories, rhymes, and strategies. Students will gain a love for the game that they can carry for a lifetime.
Monday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
GOLF – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
TGA Premier Junior Golf is an inclusive and all equipment provided golf program for students K-6th Grade. This program is a wonderful way to introduce your child to the life-long game of golf! The after school program is a station-based format that keeps students engaged and active as they learn. Each class will cover rules and etiquette concepts and a mechanical skill of the week including putting, chipping, half swing, ¾ swing and full swing with irons and drivers.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northhouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
THEATER ARTS – Presented by Drama Rocket: $119
Join our Spring Mission as we embark on an interplanetary journey that ignites creativity, supercharges self-confidence and boosts social skills! Each week, Drama Rocketeers will blast off on a mission to discover new and creative pathways that will activate their Rocketeer Toolboxes (voice, body, imagination, concentration and cooperation) that help them explore acting skills and techniques in a fast-paced and fun-filled class! Don’t just rock it, DRAMA ROCKET!
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class; $15 Registration Fee for New Students
Register online at https://dramarocket.com/magnolia/ or call 713-294-6012 for more information
KINDNESS MARATHON – Presented by Stronger to Serve: $89
Come run with your friends to complete a marathon and participate in fun kindness challenges for the community! You will get to learn about goal setting, easy ways to show kindness and stop bullying, and how to help animals, veterans, seniors, hungry families, and more.
Tuesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at https://www.strongertoserve.org/misd-adventures-enrichment or call 703-939-4108 for more information
SOCCER – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Kids will learn a variety of soccer skills such as: kicking, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing and ball control through a series of fun games and challenges. There will be drills where the instructor teaches the individual skills and then scrimmages where the kids put their skills to use.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
KICKBALL/DODGEBALL COMBO – Presented by Fit Kids America: $109
Fit Kids America is bringing these two fast paced, high-energy sports to your campus! Participants will be able to have fun learning the basics of these two sports. For dodgeball, participants will fine-tune their catching and throwing abilities while increasing their reaction times. We play with soft foam balls. Kickball will provide a variety of kickball related games along with traditional kickball. – “KINDERGARTEN ONLY” CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS COURSE.
Wednesday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 8 students to make a class
Register online at www.fitkidsamerica.org or call 832-928-1236 for more information
TENNIS – Presented by TGA Golf & Tennis: $189
Students will experience a mix of tennis instruction, rules & etiquette lessons, educational components, character development lessons and physical activity as they advance through the five-level program, which includes S.T.E.M. training and activities. We provide all of the equipment, children receive awards at each level passed, and 1st time students receive a TGA / USTA hat and Student Handbook.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
Register online at https://northhouston.playtga.com/ or call 832.257.8610 for more information
ART – Presented by Paint & Bubbles Studio: $155
Draw, paint, and create in this FUN mixed-media art class! Each week, students will make a new piece of art and learn about using different techniques and materials. All supplies are included.
Thursday Courses (10 sessions) ; Must have a minimum of 5 students to make a class
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County Examining Grant Union High School Water System
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sacramento County Division of Public Health was informed that the results of the July testing of the small water system at the Twin Rivers Unified School District’s Grant Union High School returned above the action level of 0.015 mg/L for lead and 1.3 mg/L for copper at three hand or bathroom sink locations. This routine testing is performed every three years per protocol set by Federal Environmental Protection Agency and State Water Resources Control Board.
Prior to this round of routine testing, Grant Union High School has had no previous lead/copper test results above the action limit. Although the recent test results exceeded the action limit, the levels do not present an immediate health risk. The routine testing protocol is required so that water systems can be effectively evaluated and investigated to ensure water quality and to identify potential issues early so that effective measures can be taken.
For the start of the school on Mon., Aug. 20, the Sacramento County Public Health advised Twin Rivers Unified out of an abundance of caution to take all its drinking water fountains offline and provide drinking water that bypasses the facility’s existing plumbing until the source is determined or the results are within standard.
Twin Rivers Unified is cooperating and making proactive efforts to investigate and ensure the safety of students and staff. The district communicated the issue with student families and staff starting Aug. 17 via an automated phone call with supporting information available on their website and social media.
The following measures have been taken at Grant Union High School:
- School staff, parents and students have been notified.
- Drinking water fountains have been disconnected.
- Bottled water is available to students and staff until Sacramento County verifies that standards are met and the water is allowed to be used for drinking.
- Grant Union High School meals will be prepared at an approved offsite commercial kitchen or will provide meals that do not use water in the preparation.
- Kitchenware will be washed offsite and food surfaces cleaned with approved non-water cleaning solutions.
Because lead/copper does not permeate the skin, water from the bathrooms and classroom sinks can be used for handwashing, and signs have been posted as a reminder to not drink the water.
The Grant Union High School pool is closed.
"Public Health is working closely with Sacramento County Environmental Management Department and Twin Rivers Unified to ensure the health and safety of students, faculty and staff," said Dr. Olivia Kasirye, Sacramento County Public Health Officer. "Though some test sites exceeded the action levels, we consider this low risk."
Children and pregnant or nursing mothers are most at risk for health issues related to lead exposure. Exposure to lead can result in delays in physical and mental development in infants and children.
Follow-up Sampling Status:
On Fri., Aug 17, the July sampling sites locations were retested and sampling was also done at the water well that supplies the school with its water. The results from the well water sampling was non-detect for lead/copper. The results from the repeat sampling, although lower, confirm an exceedance of the action limit for lead at three of the five repeat sites and the copper action limit in all locations was not exceeded.
As a precaution, additional water sampling was conducted on Mon., Aug. 20, at five drinking water fountains. EMD received these results on Wed., Aug. 22, three of the five drinking water fountains tested were above the action level.
Together, these test results may indicate an issue with the plumbing or fixtures due to the age of the facility or water sitting in the pipes over the summer. However, additional steps are needed to isolate the cause.
Next Steps:
It is necessary to continue to examine the Grant Union High School water system. On August 22, Twin Rivers Unified expanded its water sampling to all facility sinks, drinking fountains and the pool. Those sampling results are expected as early as Wednesday, Aug. 29. All public health safety measures in place will continue until the source is determined or the results are within standard.
There are various reasons lead/copper can enter water systems, but typically it can be from the corrosion of pipes, plumbing components and plumbing fixtures.
Sampling Protocol:
Routine sampling protocol require that school staff or licensed contractors take the water samples using a specific procedure. These samples are sent to a state certified lab and the results of the sampling is provided to the Sacramento County Environmental Management
News Release
Department to ensure that small water systems deliver safe, adequate, and dependable potable water.
###
* Attached: Frequently Asked Questions, general information regarding lead in water, and the Grant High School Tier 2 public notice.
Grant High School Lead/Copper FAQs
Facility Questions
Q. Where does Grant High School get its water?
A. Grant High School has a small water system that utilizes well water.
Q. What would suddenly cause lead to be an issue in drinking water?
A. Over time corrosion of pipes, solder, fixtures/faucets, or fittings can occur. However, if high levels of the constituents are detected then, further investigation is needed.
Q. Have the areas where food/meals prepared for students/staff been tested?
A. Yes. Grant Union High School meals will be prepared at an approved offsite commercial kitchen or will provide meals that do not use water in the preparation.
Q. Can students/staff continue to use the water to shower or wash hands?
A. Yes.
Q. How are the student/staff going to be informed?
A. Grant Union High School has informed staff, parents and students via an auto-call, social media and updates to their website. Signs have been posted at all drinking water fountains and sinks. The county notification will also be distributed by the school by September 16.
Water System Compliance
Q. What government organization sets the testing protocol, and what is the protocol?
A. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Code of Regulation Title 22 specifies the testing protocol.
Q. What government organization is responsible for enforcing compliance?
A. The Sacramento County Environmental Management Department (EMD) is delegated authority to regulate small water systems from the State Water Resources Control Board and California Code of Regulation Title 22.
Q. What is the water system tested for?
A. Schools with small water systems are required to test for Primary Inorganics, Nitrate, Nitrite, Volatile Organic chemicals, Perchlorate, Radionuclides, Secondary Standards, General Mineral, Disinfection By-products, Lead and Copper, and routine bacteriological samples.
Q. How often is the water tested?
A. Due to no action level exceedances in the past, Grant High School was on reduced monitoring: Lead and Copper once every 3 years. However, biennial monitoring will be implemented going forward. This will continue, at a minimum for the next two years. The next sample will be due no later than March 31, 2019.
Q. What are the actionable levels?
A. For Lead 15 parts per billion (ppb) and for Copper 1.3 parts per million (ppm)
Q. Have there been any high lead/copper level results?
A. Prior to the July 2018 routine lead/copper test, there have not been actionable levels for lead/copper.
Q. Are these reports sent to any state or federal agencies?
A. State certified labs upload their information to a State database and EMD electronically transfers data to the State Water Resources Control Board on a monthly basis.
Q. Who is responsible for notifying affected parties?
A. The water system owner is responsible for notifying the consumers
Health
Q. What are the health effects of acute lead poisoning and long term/chronic poisoning on the body?
A. People with high blood lead levels may have no symptoms. In acute lead poisoning, typical neurological signs are pain, muscle weakness, and numbness and tingling. Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation are other acute symptoms. Signs of chronic lead poisoning may include loss of short-term memory or concentration, depression, nausea, abdominal pain, high blood pressure and kidney problems.
Q. Is lead exposure more dangerous to certain groups?
A. Yes. Children and pregnant or nursing mothers are most at risk for health issues related to lead exposure. Exposure to lead can result in delays in physical and mental development in infants and children.
Q. How can someone limit exposure to lead in drinking water?
A. There are several steps people can take to limit their exposure to lead in drinking water:
1. Run water for 15-30 seconds or until it becomes cold before using it for drinking and cooking. This helps to flush standing lead from pipes.
2. Don’t cook with or drink water from the hot water tap; lead dissolves more easily into hot water.
3. Do not boil water to remove lead. Excessive boiling water makes the lead more concentrated – lead remain when the water evaporates.
Q. Will students/staff be tested for lead exposure?
A. Families that are concerned about lead exposure can get testing from their healthcare provider. Sacramento County Public Health (916-875-5881) can assist getting services for those who do not have a regular healthcare provider.
Q. How soon will symptoms surface if someone is exposed to high levels of lead in water?
A. People are exposed to lead either by breathing it in or ingesting it. Lead is not absorbed through the skin. Symptoms in adults exposed to high lead levels would only surface in cases of long term exposure over many years. Symptoms can occur at levels above 40 µg/dL, but are more likely to occur only above 50–60 µg/dL.
Actions You Can Take To Reduce Lead In Drinking Water
Flush Your Pipes Before Drinking
Anytime the water in a particular faucet has not been used for six hours or longer, "flush" your cold-water pipes by running the water until it becomes as cold as it will get. (This could take as little as five to thirty seconds if there has been recent heavy water use such as showering or toilet flushing. Otherwise, it could take two minutes or longer.) The more time water has been sitting in your home's pipes, the more lead it may contain.
Only Use Cold Water for Consumption
Use only water from the cold-water tap for drinking, cooking, and especially for making baby formula. Hot water is likely to contain higher levels of lead.
The two actions recommended above are very important to the health of your family. They will probably be effective in reducing lead levels because most of the lead in household water usually comes from the plumbing in your house, not from the local water supply.
Have Your Water Tested
After you have taken the two precautions above for reducing the lead in water used for drinking or cooking, have your water tested. The only way to be sure of the amount of lead in your household water is to have it tested by a competent laboratory. Your water supplier may be able to offer information or assistance with testing. Testing is especially important for apartment dwellers, because flushing may not be effective in high-rise buildings with lead-soldered central piping.
For more details on the problem of lead in drinking water and what you can do about it, read the questions and answers in the remainder of this booklet. Your local or state department of health or environment might be able to provide additional information.
Q Why is lead a problem?
A Although it has been used in numerous consumer products, lead is a toxic metal now known to be harmful to human health if inhaled or ingested. Important sources of lead exposure include: ambient air, soil and dust (both inside and outside the home), food (which can be contaminated by lead in the air or in food containers), and water (from the corrosion of plumbing). On average, it is estimated that lead in drinking water contributes between 10 and 20 percent of total lead exposure in young children. In the last few years, federal controls on lead in gasoline have significantly reduced people's exposure to lead.
The degree of harm depends upon the level of exposure (from all sources). Known effects of exposure to lead range from subtle biochemical changes at low levels of exposure, to severe neurological and toxic effects or even death at extremely high levels.
Q Does lead affect everyone equally?
A Young children, infants and fetuses appear to be particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning. A dose of lead that would have little effect on an adult can have a big effect on a small body. Also, growing children will more rapidly adsorb any lead they consume. A child's mental and physical development can be irreversibly stunted by over-exposure to lead. In infants, whose diet consists of liquids made with water - such as baby formula - lead in drinking water makes up an even greater proportion of total lead exposure (40 to 60 percent).
Q How could lead get into my drinking water?
A Typically, lead gets into your water after the water leaves your local treatment plant or your well. That is, the source of lead in your home's water is most likely pipe or solder in your home's own plumbing.
The most common cause is corrosion, a reaction between the water and the lead pipes or solder. Dissolved oxygen, low pH (acidity) and low mineral content in water are common causes of corrosion. All kinds of water, however, may have high levels of lead.
One factor that increases corrosion is the practice of grounding electrical equipment (such as telephones) to water pipes. Any electric current traveling through the ground wire will accelerate the corrosion of lead in the pipes. (Nevertheless, wires should not be removed from pipes unless a qualified electrician installs an adequate alternative grounding system.)
Q Does my home's age make a difference?
A Lead-contaminated drinking water is most often a problem in houses that are either very old or very new.
Up through the early 1900's, it was common practice, in some areas of the country, to use lead pipes for interior plumbing. Also, lead piping was often used for the service connections that join residences to public water supplies. (This practice ended only recently in some localities.) Plumbing installed before 1930 is most likely to contain lead. Copper pipes have replaced lead pipes in most residential plumbing. However, the use of lead solder with copper pipes is widespread. Experts regard this lead solder as the major cause of lead contamination of household water in U.S. homes today. New brass faucets and fittings can also leach lead, even though they are "lead-free."
Scientific data indicate that the newer the home, the greater the risk of lead contamination. Lead levels decrease as a building ages. This is because, as time passes, mineral deposits form a coating on the inside of the pipes (if the water is not corrosive). This coating insulates the water from the solder. But, during the first five years (before the coating forms) water is in direct contact with the lead. More likely than not, water in buildings less than five years old has high levels of lead contamination.
Q How can I tell if my water contains too much lead?
A You should have your water tested for lead. Testing costs between $20 and $100. Since you cannot see, taste, or smell lead dissolved in water, testing is the only sure way of telling whether or not there are harmful quantities of lead in your drinking water.
You should be particularly suspicious if your home has lead pipes (lead is a dull gray metal that is soft enough to be easily scratched with a house key), if you see signs of corrosion (frequent leaks, rust-colored water, stained dishes or laundry, or if your non-plastic plumbing is less than five years old. Your water supplier may have useful information, including whether or not the service connector used in your home or area is made of lead.
Testing is especially important in high-rise buildings where flushing might not work.
Q How do I have my water tested?
A Water samples from the tap will have to be collected and sent to a qualified laboratory for analysis. Contact your local water utility or your local health department for information and assistance. In some instances, these authorities will test your tap water for you, or they can refer you to a qualified laboratory. You may find a qualified testing company under 'Laboratories' in the yellow pages of your telephone directory.
You should be sure that the lab you use has been approved by your state or by EPA as being able to analyze drinking water samples for lead contamination. To find out which labs are qualified, contact your state or local department of the environment or health.
Q What are the testing procedures?
A Arrangements for sample collection will vary. A few laboratories will send a trained technician to take the samples; but in most cases, the lab will provide sample containers along with instructions as to how you should draw your own tap-water samples. If you collect the samples yourself, make sure you follow the lab's instructions exactly. Otherwise, the results might not be reliable.
Make sure that the laboratory is following EPA's water sampling and analysis procedures. Be certain to take a "first draw" and a "fully flushed" sample. (The first-draw sample - taken after at least six hours of no water use from the tap tested - will have the highest level of lead, while the fully
flushed sample will indicate the effectiveness of flushing the tap before using the water.)
Q How much lead is too much?
A Federal standards initially limited the amount of lead in water to 50 parts per billion (ppb). In light of new health and exposure data, EPA has set an action level of 15 ppb. If tests show that the level of lead in your household water is in the area of 15 ppb or higher, it is advisable - especially if there are young children in the home - to reduce the lead level in your tap water as much as possible. (EPA estimates that more than 40 million U.S. residents use water that can contain lead in excess of 15 ppb.)
Note: One ppb is equal to 1.0 microgram per liter (\(\mu g/l\)) or 0.001 milligram per liter (mg/l).
Q How can I reduce my exposure?
A If your drinking water is contaminated with lead-or until you find out for sure-there are several things you can do to minimize your exposure. Two of these actions should be taken right away by everyone who has, or suspects, a problem. The advisability of other actions listed here will depend upon your particular circumstances.
Immediate Steps
The first step is to refrain from consuming water that has been in contact with your home's plumbing for more than six hours, such as overnight or during your work day. Before using water for drinking or cooking, "flush" the cold water faucet by allowing the water to run until you can feel that the water has become as cold as it will get. You must do this for each drinking water faucet-taking a shower will not flush your kitchen tap. Buildings built prior to about 1930 may have service connectors made of lead. Letting the water run for an extra 15 seconds after it cools should also flush this service connector. Flushing is important because the longer water is exposed to lead pipes or lead solder, the greater the possible lead contamination. (The water that comes out after flushing will not have been in extended contact with lead pipes or solder.)
Once you have flushed a tap, you might fill one or more bottles with water and put them in the refrigerator for later use that day. (The water that was flushed - usually one to two gallons-can be used for non-consumption purposes such as washing dishes or clothes; it needn't be wasted.)
Note: Flushing may prove ineffective in high-rise buildings that have large-diameter supply pipes joined with lead solder.
The second step is to never cook with or consume water from the hot-water tap. Hot water dissolves more lead more quickly than cold water. So, do not use water taken from the hot tap for cooking or drinking, and especially not for making baby formula. (If you need hot water, draw water from the cold tap and heat it on the stove.) Use only thoroughly flushed water from the cold tap for any consumption.
Definitions
Corrosion: A dissolving and wearing away of metal caused by a chemical reaction (in this case, between water and metal pipes, or between two different metals).
First Draw: The water that immediately comes out when a tap is first opened.
Flush: To open a cold-water tap to clear out all the water which may have been sitting for a long time in the pipes. In new homes, to flush a system means to send large volumes of water gushing through the unused pipes to remove loose particles of solder and flux. (Sometimes this is not done correctly or at all.)
Flux: A substance applied during soldering to facilitate the flow of solder. Flux often contains lead and can, itself, be a source of contamination.
Naturally soft water: Any water with low mineral content, lacking the hardness minerals calcium and magnesium.
Public Water System: Any system that supplies water to 25 or more people or has 15 or more service connections (buildings or customers).
Service Connector: The pipe that carries tap water from the public water main to a building. In the past these were often made of lead.
Soft water: Any water that is not "hard." Water is considered to be hard when it contains a large amount of dissolved minerals, such as salts containing calcium or magnesium. You may be familiar with hard water that interferes with the lathering action of soap.
Solder: A metallic compound used to seal joints in plumbing. Until recently, most solder contained about 50 percent lead.
Other Actions
If you are served by a public water system (more than 219 million people are) contact your supplier and ask whether or not the supply system contains lead piping, and whether your water is corrosive. If either answer is yes, ask what steps the supplier is taking to deal with the problem of lead contamination.
Drinking water can be treated at the plant to make it less corrosive. Cities such as Boston and Seattle have successfully done this for an annual cost of less than one dollar per person. (Treatment to reduce corrosion will also save you and the water supplier money by reducing damage to plumbing.)
Water mains containing lead pipes can be replaced, as well as those portions of lead service connections that are under the jurisdiction of the supplier.
If you own a well or another water source, you can treat the water to make it less corrosive. Corrosion control devices for individual households include calcite filters and other devices. Calcite filters should be installed in the line between the water source and any lead service connections or lead-soldered pipe. You might ask your health or water department for assistance in finding these commercially, available products.
Recently a number of cartridge type filtering devices became available on the market. These devices use various types of filtering media, including carbon, ion exchange resins, activated alumina and other privately marketed products. Unless they have been certified as described below, the effectiveness of these devices to reduce lead exposure at the tap can vary greatly.
It is highly recommended that before purchasing a filter, you verify the claims made by the vendor. If you have bought a filter, you should replace the filter periodically as specified by the manufacturer. Failure to do so may result in exposure to high lead levels.
Two organizations can help you decide which type of filter is best for you. The National Sanitation Foundation, International (NSF), and independent testing agency, evaluates and certifies the performance of filtering devices to remove lead from drinking water. Generally, their seal of approval appears on the device and product packaging. The Water Quality Association (WQA) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that represents firms and individuals who produce and sell equipment and services which improves the quality of drinking water. WQA's water quality specialists can provide advice on treatment units for specific uses at home or business.
For additional information regarding the certification program, contact NSF at (313) 769-8010, or WQA at (708) 505-0161, ext. 270.
You can purchase bottled water for home and office consumption. (Bottled water sold in interstate commerce is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Water that is bottled and sold within a state is under state regulation. EPA does not regulate bottled water.)
When repairing or installing new plumbing in old homes, instruct, in writing, any plumber you hire to use only lead-free materials.
When building a new home, be sure lead-free materials are used. Before you move into a newly built home, remove all strainers from faucets and flush the water for at least 15 minutes to remove loose solder or flux debris from the plumbing. Occasionally, check the strainers and remove any later accumulation of loose material.
Q What about lead in sources other than drinking water?
A As mentioned above, drinking water is estimated to contribute only 10 to 20 percent of the total lead exposure in young children. Ask your local health department or call EPA for more information on other sources of exposure to lead. A few general precautions can help prevent contact with lead in and around your home:
Avoid removing paint in the home unless you are sure it contains no lead. Lead paint should only be removed by someone who knows how to protect you from lead paint dust. However, by washing floors, window sills, carpets, upholstery and any objects children put in their mouths, you can get rid of this source of lead.
Make sure children wash their hands after playing outside in the dirt or snow.
Never store food in open cans. Keep it in glass plastic or stainless steel containers. Use glazed pottery only for display if you don't know whether it contains lead.
If you work around lead, don't bring it home. Shower and change clothes at work and wash your work clothes separately.
Q Aren't there a lot of types of treatment devices that would work?
A There are many devices which are certified for effective lead reduction, but devices that are not designed to remove lead will not work.
It is suggested that you follow the recommendations below before purchasing any device:
Avoid being misled by false claims and scare tactics. Be wary of "free" water testing that is provided by the salesperson to determine your water quality; many tests are inaccurate or misleading. Research the reputation and legitimacy of the company or sales representative.
Avoid signing contracts or binding agreements for "one-time offers or for those that place a lien on your home. Be very careful about giving credit card information over the phone. Check into any offers that involve prizes or sweepstakes winnings.
As suggested above, verify the claims of manufacturers by contacting the National Sanitation Foundation International or the Water Quality Association.
Q What is the government doing about the problem of lead in household water?
A There are two major governmental actions to reduce your exposure to lead:
Under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA set the action level for lead in drinking water at 15 ppb. This means utilities must ensure that water from the customer's tap does not exceed this level in at least 90 percent of the homes sampled. If water from the tap does exceed this limit, then the utility must take certain steps to correct the problem. Utilities must also notify citizens of all violations of the standard.
In June 1986, President Reagan signed amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. These amendments require the use of "lead-free" pipe, solder, and flux in the installation or repair of any public water system, or any plumbing in a residential or non-residential facility connected to a public water system.
Under the provisions of these amendments, solders and flux will be considered "lead-free" when they contain not more than 0.2 percent lead. (In the past, solder normally contained about 50 percent lead.) Pipes and fittings will be considered "lead-free" when they contain not more than 8.0 percent lead.
These requirements went into effect in June 1986. The law gave state governments until June 1988 to implement and enforce these new limitations. Although the states have banned all use of lead materials in drinking water systems, such bans do not eliminate lead contamination within existing plumbing. Also, in enforcing the ban, some states have continued to find illegally used lead solder in new plumbing installations. While responsible plumbers always observe the ban, this suggests that some plumbing installations or repairs using lead solder may be escaping detection by the limited number of enforcement personnel.
Where can I get more information?
First contact your county or state department of health or environment for information on local water quality.
For more general information on lead, there are now two toll-free telephone services:
EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline
1-800-426-4791
National Lead Information Center
1-800-LEAD-FYI
WHAT IS LEAD?
- Lead is a toxic metal that is harmful if inhaled or swallowed.
- Lead can be found in air, soil, dust, food, and water.
HOW CAN I BE EXPOSED TO LEAD?
- The greatest exposure to lead is swallowing or breathing in lead paint chips and dust.
- Lead also can be found in some household plumbing materials and water service lines.
WHO IS AT RISK?
- Children ages 6 and under are at the greatest risk. Pregnant women and nursing mothers should avoid exposure to lead to protect their children.
- Exposure to lead can result in delays in physical and mental development. Your child is also at risk if:
- your home or a home that your child spends a lot of time in was built before lead paint was banned in 1978.
- renovation work is being done in such a home.
- the adults in the home work with lead.
HOTLINES & INFORMATION
EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline: 800-426-4791
National Lead Information Center: 800-424-LEAD www.epa.gov/lead
NSF International: www.nsf.org
Lead in Drinking Water Web Site: www.epa.gov/safewater/lead
Additional Information:
Read the annual report you get from your water utility to find out about how they are working to reduce levels of lead in drinking water and other information about your drinking water. Call them if you have any questions.
Contact your local public health department or talk to your doctor about reducing your family’s exposure to lead.
Tips For Protecting Your Family’s Health
Grant High School Has High Levels of Lead and Copper
Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Even though this is not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what you should do, what happened, and what we are doing to correct this situation.
We routinely sample water at selected consumers’ taps for lead. Water sample results received July 25, 2018 showed lead levels of 0.107 mg/L up to 0.944 mg/L at three separate sites. Five resamples were taken on August 20, 2018 showed lead levels of 0.019 mg/L up to 0.06 mg/L at three separate sites. Additional samples were taken at drinking fountains on August 20, 2018 which showed lead levels of 0.24 mg/L up to 25 mg/L for lead. Multiple sites exceeded the limit, or “Action Level”, of 0.015 mg/L for lead and exceeded the limit or “Action Level”, of 1.3 mg/L for copper, so Twin Rivers Unified School District is investigating the extent of the problem and our corrective actions at each site.
This is not an emergency.
If it had been, you would have been notified immediately. Typically, lead enters water supplies by leaching from lead or brass pipes and plumbing components. New lead pipes and plumbing components containing lead are no longer allowed for this reason; however, many older homes may contain lead pipes. Your water is more likely to contain high lead levels if water pipes in or leading to your home are made of lead or contain lead solder.
What should I do?
- Listed below are some steps you can take to reduce your exposure to lead:
- Call us at the number below to find out how to get your water tested for lead.
- Find out whether your pipes contain lead or lead solder.
- Run your water for 15-30 seconds or until it becomes cold before using it for drinking or cooking. This flushes any standing lead from the pipes.
- Don’t cook with or drink water from the hot water tap; lead dissolves more easily into hot water.
- **Do not boil your water to remove lead.** Excessive boiling water makes the lead more concentrated – the lead remains when the water evaporates.
- Infants and children who drink water containing lead in excess of the action level may experience delays in their physical or mental development. Children may show slight deficits in attention span and learning abilities. Adults who drink this water over many years may develop kidney problems or high blood pressure.
- If you have other health issues concerning the consumption of this water, you may wish to consult your doctor.
What happened? What is being done?
The results are listed below:
| Sample Date | Sample Location | Lead Result | Copper Result |
|---------------|----------------------------------------|-------------|---------------|
| 07/25/18 | Class B2 Science Lab Sink | 944 ppb | 3930 ppb |
| 07/25/18 | Snack Bar Food Preparation Sink | Non-detect | 1210 ppb |
| 07/25/18 | Nurses Station Bathroom Sink | 13.9 ppb | 718 ppb |
| 07/25/18 | Grant West Mech. Gym Men's Bathroom | 107 ppb | 1550 ppb |
| 07/25/18 | Grant West Office Hand Sink | 144 ppb | 2000 ppb |
| 08/20/18 | Well | Non-detect | Non-detect |
| 08/20/18 | Nurses Station Bathroom Sink | 14 ppb | 360 ppb |
| 08/20/18 | Class B2 Science Lab Sink | 60 ppb | 530 ppb |
| 08/20/18 | Snack Bar Food Preparation Sink | Non-detect | 880 ppb |
| 08/20/18 | Grant West Mech. Gym Men's Bathroom | 29 ppb | 580 ppb |
| 08/20/18 | Grant West Office Hand Sink | 19 ppb | 320 ppb |
| 08/20/18 | D Hall drinking fountain #1 | 240 ppb | 810 ppb |
| 08/20/18 | D Hall drinking fountain #2 | 130 ppb | 770 ppb |
| 08/20/18 | A Hall drinking fountain | 7 ppb | Non-detect |
| 08/20/18 | B Hall drinking | 51 ppb | 440 ppb |
The following short-term and permanent solutions will be implemented as soon as possible.
**Short-term remedial actions** will include the following:
- Provide educational material with instructions for flushing taps and to use only **cold water** for food washing and boiling food.
- Samples for all fixtures on site will be conducted beginning Wednesday August 22, 2018
**Long-term remedial actions** could include:
- Seek additional funding sources for facility upgrades
- Complete onsite distribution pipe design and retrofit
- Resample before and after each corrective action as directed by the regulator.
For more information, please contact Megan Floyd at (916) 876-7888 or email@example.com
Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this public notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.
**Secondary Notification Requirements**
Upon receipt of notification from a person operating a public water system, the following notification must be given within 10 days [Health and Safety Code Section 116450(g)]:
- **SCHOOLS**: Must notify school employees, students, and parents (if the students are minors).
- **RESIDENTIAL RENTAL PROPERTY OWNERS OR MANAGERS** (including nursing homes and care facilities): Must notify tenants.
- **BUSINESS PROPERTY OWNERS, MANAGERS, OR OPERATORS**: Must notify employees of businesses located on the property.
This notice is being sent to you by Sacramento County Environmental Management Department staff for the Grant High School Small Water System.
State Water System ID#: 3400259. Date distributed:
HOW DOES LEAD GET INTO WATER?
Lead enters the water ("leaches") through contact with the plumbing.
Lead leaches into water through:
- Corrosion* of
- Pipes
- Solder
- Fixtures and Faucets (brass)
- Fittings
*Corrosion is a dissolving or wearing away of metal caused by a chemical reaction between water and your plumbing.
The amount of lead in your water also depends on the types and amounts of minerals in the water, how long the water stays in the pipes, the amount of wear in the pipes, the water's acidity and its temperature.
HEALTH TIP
To help block the storage of lead in your child’s body, serve your family meals that are low in fat and high in calcium and iron, including dairy products and green vegetables.
What should I do if I suspect that my water contains high lead levels?
• If you want to know if your home’s drinking water contains unsafe levels of lead, have your water tested.
• Testing is the only way to confirm if lead is present or absent.
• Most water systems test for lead as a regular part of water monitoring. These tests give a system-wide picture and do not reflect conditions at a specific drinking water outlet.
• For more information on testing your water, call EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 800-426-4791.
Should I test my children for exposure to lead?
• Children at risk of exposure to lead should be tested.
• Your doctor or local health center can perform a simple blood test to determine your child’s blood-lead level.
• If your child has a blood lead level at or above 10ug/dl, should take preventive measures.
QUICK TIPS TO REDUCE YOUR FAMILY’S EXPOSURE TO LEAD
Boiling your water will not get rid of lead.
• Use cold water for drinking or cooking. Never cook or mix infant formula using hot water from the tap.
• Make it a practice to run the water at each tap before use.
• Do not consume water that has sat in your home’s plumbing for more than six hours. First, make sure to run the water until you feel the temperature change before cooking, drinking, or brushing your teeth, unless otherwise instructed by your utility.
• Some faucet and pitcher filters can remove lead from drinking water. If you use a filter, be sure you get one that is certified to remove lead by the NSF International. | <urn:uuid:3f2cce40-f4a0-4b1e-9938-e02b15d71a5f> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://dhs.saccounty.net/Documents/20180822%20DHS%20PH%20NewsReleaseEMD.pdf | 2019-09-17T08:42:22Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573065.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20190917081137-20190917103137-00468.warc.gz | 465,706,244 | 8,074 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.996626 | eng_Latn | 0.99877 | [
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EYFS Literacy and Phonics Morning Starter Activities
To the Teacher:
• These activities require no preparation, but children will need writing equipment for some activities.
• All slides are editable, as for some of the activities you may wish to change the wording. For example, depending upon whether parents are involved or children are working independently, if you wish an activity to be a talk activity or you would prefer children to record their answers.
| Alphabet and Letter Names | Initial sounds: s, t, a |
|--------------------------|------------------------|
| CVC mix-up | Draw a picture - initial t |
| Write a sentence - frozen world photos | Draw 5 things - initial r |
| Writing words (m-d-a-c-u-k-o-s) | Final sound - ll |
| Generating rhyming words | Write about the photo - a goat and a boat |
| Writing CVC words | Talk about the photo - happy children |
| Segmenting words | Tricky word sentences |
| Write words - ee | Play I Spy |
| Talk or write - cat in a tree photo | Humpty Dumpty rhyming words |
| Initial sounds: n, p, i | Sentence writing |
| Write words - initial m | Draw a picture - initial g |
| Hearing rhyme | Talking about traditional tales |
| Rhyming strings | Writing words - sh |
| Alliterative animals | Write about the photo - a bee on a flower |
The Alphabet - Letter Names
First practise saying the alphabet to an adult or a friend.
Now name each letter of the alphabet you can see below.
g o l h i k j z y n x e f
d c s r q v b a w m t p u
Can you hear the initial sound?
Say the names of the pictures out loud. What sound do they start with?
Now can you sort them into 3 lists? Draw the pictures under the correct sound.
s t a
Can you write these words?
Say or write a sentence about this picture.
Photo courtesy of __MaRiNa__ (@flickr.com) – granted under creative commons licence - attribution
Can you hear the initial sound?
Say the names of the pictures out loud. What sound do they start with?
Now can you sort them into 3 lists? Draw the pictures under the correct sound.
n p i
Write a list of words or draw some pictures of things that begin with the letter m.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Can you sort these mixed up words?
cto gba atp pma
Draw a picture of something that begins with the letter t.
Now practise writing the letter t very carefully. Can you get all of your letters to look exactly the same?
Look at this picture and talk about it with an adult or a friend:
Can you say this nursery rhyme out loud?
Can you hear which words rhyme?
Can you hear the rhyming words in any other nursery rhymes?
Write a sentence using one of these words:
moon pig hen fish man
Draw a picture of something that begins with the letter g.
Now practise writing the letter g very carefully. Can you get all of your letters to look exactly the same?
Imagine you woke up in a frozen world. Write a sentence about what you would like to do!
Draw 5 pictures of things that begin with the letter r.
Here are a couple of ideas to get you started.
Now practise writing the letter r.
Can you hear all of the sounds in these words?
Say each of the words to a friend or adult.
Each word has three different sounds in it. Can you hear them all?
Write some words using these letters:
s i n t p
a n o
Here are some ideas...
sit pot
Say these words out loud. Can you hear which ones rhyme?
Can you think of any more rhyming words?
Here are some pictures from stories you might know:
Talk about the stories with a friend or adult.
Which story is your favourite? Why?
Which character did you like best?
Write some words using these letters:
m d a c u
k o s
Here are some ideas...
mad sack
Write sentences using each of these words:
he, was, to, my, the
Here are some words that end with 1l:
Can you write the words?
Once upon a time...
Tell a story about this picture!
Photo courtesy of PhotoAtelier(@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution
Add a rhyming word to each list:
cat top pig pin
flat flop dig win
chat plop fig shin
Write the words that have a ‘sh’ in them:
Can you write a word that rhymes with each of these words?
cow, star, sheep, hair, boat, moon, fish
Write about this picture:
Photo courtesy of andrew lorien(@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution
Can you hear an ‘ee’ sound?
Write the words that have an ee sound in them.
bee, house, teddy, cheese, doll, feet, face, van, bed, moon, snake, sheep
Play a game of I spy using these pictures:
Can you make up some names that start with the same sound as each animal?
- Elephant
- Crocodile
- Badger
- Deer
- Fox
- Squirrel
- Lion
- Pig
- Shark
- Whale
Rita Rhino, Harry Hedgehog, Charlie Chimp
Write a sentence about this picture:
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Reception Math's
Week 3:
18:01.21- 22.01.21
This week your child will be learning how to sequence events in their daily lives they encounter either in school or at home. Please encourage and support your child to do the following activities each day.
What does sequencing mean?
Sequencing is the ability to logically order events, images, thoughts, and actions.
Monday 18th January 2021
Starter activity: (5 mins)
Play the following game with your child. Your child will need to sequence the numbers in order.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/caterpillar-ordering
1) Click on ‘1 to 10’
2) Click on ‘Sequencing’
Main activity: (15 mins)
Today I want you to think about what you did in the holidays. Ask your child to think about one of their favourite days whilst they have been at home.
Let your child tell you about their favourite day- For example: first, I had a delicious breakfast. Then I got on the bus. Next, I went swimming. Then I went home and watched a film.
Now draw pictures to show your favourite day, remember to put them in order of what you did first, second, next, then, last etc!
Tuesday 19th January 2021
Starter activity: (5 mins)
Play the following game with your child. Your child will need to sequence the numbers in order.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/caterpillar-ordering
1) Caterpillar Ordering
- Choose your activity
- Ordering
- Sequencing
2) Sequencing Numbers
- Simple Sequences
- Counting in Multiples
- Counting in Steps
- Counting in Ones
- 1 to 10
- 10 to 1
- 0 to 100
- 100 to 0
- Even Numbers
- 0 to 20
- 20 to 0
- 0 to 100
- 100 to 0
- Counting in Twos
- 0 to 20
- 20 to 0
- 0 to 100
- 100 to 0
Click on ‘1 to 10’
Click on ‘Sequencing’
Draw 3 boxes for your child like this on a piece of paper:
Get your child to draw a picture of one thing they do in the morning, one thing they do in the afternoon, one thing they do in the evening. Once they have finished, cut out your child’s pictures, can your child sequence their pictures back in the correct order? Get them to stick their pictures in their books.
Wednesday 20th January 2021
Starter activity: (5 mins)
Play the following game with your child. Your child will need to sequence the ladybirds in order.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/ladybird-spots
1) Click on ‘1 to 10’
2) Click on ‘Ordering’
Wednesday 20th January 2021
Main activity: (10 mins)
Look at the following pictures with your child, can they tell you the correct steps on how to brush your teeth in order?
https://youtu.be/btGqUT2HEKU
Thursday 21st January 2021
Starter activity: (5 mins)
Play the following game with your child. Your child will need to sequence the ladybirds in order.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/ladybird-spots
1) Click on ‘1 to 10’
2) Click on ‘Ordering’
Thursday 21st January 2021
Main activity: (15 mins)
1-minute challenges:
*How many times can you write your name in 1 minute?
*How many beanbags can you throw into a hoop/basket?
*How many Legos/bricks can you make into a tower?
*How many marbles/sweets can you put into a jar?
Friday 22nd January 2021
Starter activity: (5 mins)
Complete the following worksheet by putting a ‘M’ if it is in the morning, ‘A’ if it is in the afternoon or ‘E’ if it is in the evening.
1. I eat dinner in the ________
2. I get ready for bed in the ________
3. I get out of school in the ________
4. I eat breakfast in the ________
5. The warmest part of the day is in the ________
6. I go to school in the ________
7. I go to sleep in the ________
8. I eat lunch in the ________
9. I get out of bed in the ________
Friday 22nd January 2021
Main activity: (15 mins)
Get your child to put the following pictures in the correct group. Does it happen in the morning, afternoon or evening?
Tommy plays in the park at 2:00 in the afternoon.
Brian sets the table for dinner every evening at 5:00.
Jordan eats breakfast at 7:00 in the morning.
Melissa caught the bus to school at 8:00 each morning.
Sarah does her homework every afternoon at 4:00.
Well done for all your hard work, keep it up!
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Definition of Statement
A statement is a sentence that is true or false, but not both.
Examples
Halloween is in September A False statement.
Chocolate is the best flavor of ice cream A sentence, but not a statement. Can't be proven true or false.
$3^2 + 4^2$ not a sentence (no verb), so not a statement.
$3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2$ A true statement.
Definition of Statement Variable
A variable that represents a statement.
Building Statements From Other Statements
The Simplest Way: The Negation
Definition of the negation
symbol: $\sim p$
spoken: the negation of $p$ or not $p$
usage: $p$ is some statement.
meaning: $\sim p$ is a new statement whose truth is given by the following table.
| truth of $p$ | truth of $\sim p$ |
|--------------|-------------------|
| $T$ | $F$ |
| $F$ | $T$ |
Example involving an actual statement
The negation of the statement \( \text{Halloween is in September} \).
Would be denoted \( \sim (\text{Halloween is in September}) \)
Would be converted to a sentence most simply by just putting the words “It is not the case that” in front.
\[ \text{It is not the case that Halloween is in September.} \]
But this could be expressed more clearly as
\[ \text{Halloween is not in September.} \]
In the coming week, we will encounter this idea again, that there may be a simple way to construct the sentence for a negation, but that simple way of constructing the sentence might not be the clearest. We will look for clearer ways of writing the sentence.
Building Statements from Other Statements in More Complicated Ways:
Compound Statements
One Compound Statement: The Conjunction (the Logical AND)
Definition of the logical AND
symbols: \( p \text{ AND } q \) \( p \land q \)
spoken: \( p \text{ and } q \) \( p \text{ wedge } q \)
usage: \( p, q \text{ are statements.} \)
meaning: \( p \land q \) is a new statement, whose truth is given by this table.
| truth of \( p \) | truth of \( q \) | truth of \( p \land q \) |
|------------------|------------------|------------------------|
| \( T \) | \( T \) | \( T \) |
| \( T \) | \( F \) | \( F \) |
| \( F \) | \( T \) | \( F \) |
| \( F \) | \( F \) | \( F \) |
Another Compound Statement: The Disjunction (the Logical OR)
Definition of the *logical OR*
symbols: \( p \text{ OR } q \) or \( p \lor q \)
spoken: \( p \text{ or } q \) or \( p \text{ vee } q \)
usage: \( p, q \) are statements
meaning: \( p \lor q \) is a new statement whose truth is given by this table.
| truth of \( p \) | truth of \( q \) | truth of \( p \lor q \) |
|------------------|------------------|------------------------|
| \( T \) | \( T \) | \( T \) |
| \( T \) | \( F \) | \( T \) |
| \( F \) | \( T \) | \( T \) |
| \( F \) | \( F \) | \( F \) |
Remark: the *logical OR* is also sometimes called the *inclusive OR*.
Another Compound Statement: The *exclusive OR*
**Definition of the exclusive OR**
- **symbols:** \( p \text{ XOR } q \) or \( p \oplus q \)
- **spoken:** \( p \) exclusive or \( q \)
- **usage:** \( p, q \) are statements
- **meaning:** \( p \oplus q \) is a new statement whose truth is given by this table.
| truth of \( p \) | truth of \( q \) | truth of \( p \oplus q \) |
|------------------|------------------|--------------------------|
| T | T | F |
| T | F | T |
| F | T | T |
| F | F | F |
We won’t be using the *exclusive OR* much in this course.
Remark: An important thing to be aware of in this course is that the terminology and notation is defined by definitions, not by common usage or by what makes sense. Common usage of the same words is often not the same as the definitions of the terms that we use in math. And common usage of the same words often includes more than one usage for a particular term.
For example, when the waiter says “you can have a baked potato or fries”, they do not mean that you can choose one or the other or both. They mean that you can choose one or the other but not both. That is, what the waiter means would be described in our terminology as “you can have a baked potato exclusive or fries”. Of course, nobody speaks that way. But you get the idea. In this course, the terminology has the meaning that is specified in the definitions, regardless of what common usage you might be aware of, or might prefer.
Statement Forms
Remember that a statement variable is a variable that represents a statement.
A statement form is an expression made up of statement variables and logical symbols (so far, our only logical symbols are $\sim$, $\land$, $\lor$, $\oplus$) that becomes a statement when actual statements are substituted for the statement variables.
We have already seen examples of statement forms.
[Example] consider the symbol $p \land q$ is a statement form
If we
- let $p$ be the statement *Halloween is in september*
- let $q$ be the statement $3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2$
Then $p \land q$ is the following statement:
$\text{Halloween is in september} \quad \text{and} \quad 3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2$
But if we
- let $p$ be the statement *The capital of Ohio is Columbus*
- let $q$ be the statement $3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2$
Then $p \land q$ is the following statement:
$\text{The capital of Ohio is Columbus} \quad \text{and} \quad 3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2$
End of [Example]
Just as it is useful to use letters as statement variables, it is also useful to use letters to represent statement forms.
That can be confusing, because a statement form is, itself, made up of a bunch of statement variables.
A handy convention will be
- use lower case letters for statement variables
- use upper case letters to denote statement forms
Truth Tables
The truth table for a statement form displays the truth values that correspond to all possible combinations of truth values for its statement variables.
We have already seen examples of truth tables, in the definitions of $\sim$, $\land$, $\lor$, $\oplus$
| $p$ | $q$ | $p \lor q$ |
|-----|-----|------------|
| T | T | T |
| T | F | T |
| F | T | T |
| F | F | F |
Definition of logically equivalent statement forms
symbols: \( P \equiv Q \) (capital letters)
spoken: \( P \) is logically equivalent to \( Q \)
usage: \( P, Q \) represent statement forms.
meaning:
For all possible substitutions of statements for their statement variables, the resulting truth values of \( P \) and \( Q \) match.
To test whether two statement forms $P, Q$ are logically equivalent,
Make a truth table with one column for the truth values of $P$ and another column for the truth values of $Q$
- If all entries in the column for $P$ match the corresponding entries in the column for $Q$, then $P \equiv Q$.
- If any entries don’t match then $P \not\equiv Q$.
[Example] Are \((p \land q) \lor r\) and \(p \land (q \lor r)\) logically equivalent? Explain using a truth table.
Solution: We need \(2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 = 8\) rows.
| \(p\) | \(q\) | \(r\) | \(p \land q\) | \((p \land q) \lor r\) | \(q \lor r\) | \(p \land (q \lor r)\) |
|-------|-------|-------|---------------|----------------------|-------------|----------------------|
| T | T | T | T | T | T | T |
| T | T | F | T | T | T | T |
| T | F | T | F | T | T | T |
| T | F | F | F | F | F | F |
| F | T | T | F | T | T | F |
| F | T | F | F | F | T | F |
| F | F | T | F | T | T | F |
| F | F | F | F | F | F | F |
Since these columns don't match, we conclude that \((p \land q) \lor r\) is not logically equivalent to \(p \land (q \lor r)\).
DeMorgan’s Laws
Two famous logical equivalences having to do with negating AND, OR statements
De Morgan’s Laws
\[
\sim(p \land q) \equiv \sim p \lor \sim q \\
\sim(p \lor q) \equiv \sim p \land \sim q
\]
Note: The negation of an AND statement is an OR statement.
The negation of an OR statement is an AND statement.
[Example] Use De Morgan’s Laws to negate the statement
\[ x < 3 \text{ OR } 7 \leq x \]
Solution:
\[
\neg ((x < 3) \text{ OR } (7 \leq x)) \equiv \neg (x < 3) \text{ AND } \neg (7 \leq x)
\]
\[
= (3 \leq x) \text{ AND } (x < 7)
\]
\[
\equiv 3 \leq x < 7
\]
Note: I always try to use \(<\) or \( \leq \), not \(> \) or \( \geq \).
End of [Example]
Remark 1: The sets described by these expressions can be visualized on the number line:
The set described by $x < 3 \text{ OR } 7 \leq x$ would be
The solution set to the inequality $3 \leq x < 7$ would be
Remark 2: Can the symbol $x < 3 \text{ OR } 7 \leq x$ be further shortened to $7 \leq x < 3$?
No! The reason is that the symbol $7 \leq x < 3$ means $7 \leq x \text{ AND } x < 3$
That is impossible. The solution set would be empty.
A tautology is a statement form that is always true, regardless of the truth values of the statement variables.
A tautological statement is a statement that has the form of a tautology.
For example, the statement form
\[ P \lor \neg P \]
is a tautology.
The statement
"Halloween is in September or Halloween is not in September."
is a tautological statement.
In a truth table, a tautology can be represented by a column with heading \( t \) and with every row filled with entry \( T \).
Contradictions
A contradiction is a statement form that is always false, regardless of the truth values of the statement variables.
A contradictory statement is a statement that has the form of a contradiction.
For example, the statement form \( p \land \neg p \) is a contradiction.
The statement "Halloween is in September and Halloween is not in September" is a contradictory statement.
In a truth table, a contradiction can be represented by a column with heading \( c \) and with every row filled with entry \( F \).
[Example] Use a truth table to establish whether the following statement form is a tautology or contradiction or neither.
\[(p \land \sim q) \land (\sim p \lor q)\]
Solution:
| \(p\) | \(q\) | \(\sim p\) | \(\sim q\) | \(p \land \sim q\) | \(\sim p \lor q\) | \((p \land \sim q) \land (\sim p \lor q)\) |
|-------|-------|------------|------------|------------------|-----------------|----------------------------------------|
| T | T | F | F | F | T | F |
| T | F | F | T | T | F | F |
| F | T | T | F | F | T | F |
| F | F | T | T | F | T | F |
Conclusion: The entries in this column are all false, so the statement form is a contradiction.
End of [Example]
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TEENAGERS' EXPERIENCES OF LIFE IN LOCKDOWN
THE TELL STUDY
LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY
MANCHESTER 1824
The University of Manchester
SUMMARY
This briefing presents the findings of a qualitative research project that explored subjective experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in the United Kingdom (UK) among 16-19 year-olds. In May 2020, 109 individuals shared their experiences with us using an online written account.
We found that:
• Many teenagers have experienced heightened emotionality
• This has been a time of change, loss, and uncertainty
• Teenagers have placed value on self-care in lockdown
• Many are trying to have a positive outlook and stay hopeful
• Lockdown is an opportunity for growth and development
• Having a sense of togetherness is important
• Teenagers may be frustrated with the government and media
Overall, findings show that:
• This has been a difficult year for teenagers, raising lots of difficult feelings and concerns
• Teenagers feel they have made important and responsible sacrifices this year, giving up normal teenage experiences
• Lockdown has also brought some positives for teenagers, including relief from the normal pressures of life
• Feeling connected to other people, including wider society, has been very important for teenagers
INTRODUCTION
The TELL study is a rapid research project aiming to learn more about the perspectives and experiences of 16-to 19-year-olds in the COVID-19 UK lockdown. This age group have faced disruption during a key stage in the transition to adulthood, where they typically become more autonomous and begin planning for their future. We set out to better understand how individuals in this group have experienced lockdown, how they perceive its impact on their personal circumstances, and how they are experiencing and managing their wellbeing in lockdown.
METHOD AND PARTICIPANTS
We invited UK-based 16-to 19-year-olds to provide anonymous written accounts of their lockdown experiences, via an online portal. We asked participants to tell us what lockdown looked like for them, what it felt like, and how they were managing it. We offered some open-ended prompts for guidance (see the appendix at the end of this briefing). Participants were recruited via adverts shared on social media and circulated among key networks and organisations (e.g., networks of further and higher education institutes, parent groups, young people's charities and initiatives).
In total, 109 individuals shared their lockdown experiences with us, between 12th May 2020 and 27th May 2020. Participants had a mean age of 17.6 (SD = 1.22). The majority identified themselves as girls and women (n = 87, 79.8%) with a smaller proportion identifying themselves as boys and men (n = 22, 20.2%), and readers should be aware that our sample should not be considered representative of all teenagers. All participants reported being in some form of education, with 11.9% (n = 13) attending school, 47.7% (n = 52) attending further education, 39.4% (n= 43) attending higher education, and 0.9% (n = 1) attending another form of education. In terms of ethnicity, the sample is broadly similar to the national pattern recorded for state-funded secondary schools in 2019 [1]; the majority of participants were White (n = 69; 63.3%), followed by Asian (n = 21, 19.3%), Black (n = 7, 6.4%), mixed (n = 4, 3.7%), Chinese (n = 3, 2.8%), and other (n = 4, 3.7%). The remaining 0.9% chose not to disclose ethnicity.
[1] Department for Education and Office for National Statistics (2019). Schools, pupils, and their characteristics: January 2019.
The length of the written accounts participants provided varied, ranging from 7 to 1,215 words (mean = 213 words). Four participants disclosed in their accounts that they left the UK at some point during the lockdown period to return to their home country. We chose to still include these participants' data because they described being in the UK for at least part of the lockdown period, and because these individuals had identified their experiences as relevant to us after reading our guidance.
We analysed participants' accounts of lockdown using thematic analysis [2] to identify common patterns in the data and explore experiential themes around how 16-to 19-year-olds:
a) understand and make sense of their lockdown experiences;
b) perceive the impact of lockdown on their circumstances; and
c) experience and manage their wellbeing in the context of lockdown.
[2] Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77-101.
WHAT DID TEENAGERS TELL US?
FINDING 1: MANY TEENAGERS HAVE EXPERIENCED HEIGHTENED EMOTIONALITY
Participants varied in how they felt lockdown had impacted on their emotions. Many described how the lockdown had prompted a range of intense and difficult feelings, but some still felt that they had experienced mixed emotions overall. Some described feeling mostly okay or even positive during lockdown.
Feeling lots of intense and difficult emotions
Many participants described feeling a range of intense, difficult feelings during lockdown, including sadness, worry and anxiety, and irritability. They put this down to various factors, including feeling overwhelmed, feeling trapped and claustrophobic, missing people outside their households, having more time to analyse thoughts and issues, having exams cancelled, and feeling uncertain about the future.
"I was terrified of anyone I knew getting it, especially my sister who suffers from asthma."
"I have been feeling a wide range of emotions throughout the lockdown so far, my main emotion has been sadness."
"I have felt angry, sad, and had times of bad depression and anxiety throughout the lockdown as I can't see my friends, my family or my partner."
Many also described experiencing fear, anxiety, and distress about COVID-19. This included fear about contracting COVID-19, fear about family members (particularly vulnerable family members) contracting COVID-19, and fear that they would spread COVID-19 themselves. Several described how media coverage could make them feel more upset and worried.
"Every time I went outside I'd get scared for my health and have trouble breathing."
"I have experienced great distress seeing the cases increasing everyday."
Others described challenges in their lives that made lockdown particularly intense emotionally, including having existing mental health difficulties, being confined with family members with whom they have poor relationships, or returning to places they associated with trauma.
"I remember at the start of lockdown feeling inexplicably angry. I am not usually an angry person so this confused me."
"I've already got a history of mental health issues, being shoved into a house with none of my friends and any sense of normality shredded has certainly not helped."
However, some described intense feelings that they could not attribute to anything in particular, which they said they often found confusing and difficult to make sense of.
**Experiencing emotional shifts**
Participants often described their emotions changing during lockdown. Some described experiencing sudden changes to mood, while others described shifts over time. Several described lockdown as an emotional "rollercoaster".
"Lockdown will have me feeling extremely numb one minute and extremely tense the next."
"I began lockdown with a positive attitude understanding that it was something that could save many lives, however lockdown has begun to take its toll and I'm becoming agitated and upset at the smallest things."
**Experiencing positive feelings**
Though many described difficult feelings, participants also experienced positive feelings. Often these different types of feelings were not mutually exclusive, with many describing varied feelings throughout. Participants said lockdown had reduced the pressure of "normal" life, meaning that lockdown could be enjoyable and make them feel calm and happy at times.
"I have felt a range of emotions since being in lockdown, from feeling trapped to stressed out to relief that I can take life at my own pace."
FINDING 2: THIS HAS BEEN A TIME OF CHANGE, LOSS, AND UNCERTAINTY
Loss, change, and uncertainty were incredibly common across participants' accounts of lockdown. Participants described feeling that their lives had changed because of the pandemic, sometimes dramatically so, and explained that they felt they were missing out on important experiences and facing uncertain futures.
Life has changed a lot
Participants often told us that their daily life had changed a lot. Most often this included loss of normal routine, new educational challenges with the shift to online learning, lack of freedom and independence, loss of purpose and motivation, and being suddenly unable to spend time with friends. Older participants also often described moving back home to their family household.
"Everything is just stagnant. The days just sort of run onto each other and it feels like everything has paused, like I'm missing out on life."
"Most things have changed, including my sleeping pattern, my study space, my surroundings, and even my diet."
"Moving back home was a big shock and takes getting used to. I think that's mainly because of the lack of independence and suddenly being on top of your family again."
Loss of routine and differences between days was often discussed. Often participants commented that without the variability life usually brought, days felt boring and repetitive, like their life was on pause.
"I am not talking to my friends as much and feel like I'm getting slightly distant."
"I do have an inkling that I could be more awkward in forming relationships in the future."
Feelings of loss and uncertainty
Participants frequently described loss and uncertainty. They described missing out on "normal" teenage experiences, from day-to-day things like hanging out with friends to specific traditions like the last day of school, prom, and sitting exams. Participants often viewed these as necessary sacrifices, but still felt sad. It was notable that many described cancellation of exams as a substantial loss.
"I missed out on a proper ending to school, my exams that I worked so hard for, all the traditions I had anticipated over the last give years just taken from me so quickly!"
"When it was announced that GCSEs were cancelled, I was distraught. I cried for two days straight and nearly ripped my hair out in anger and frustration at the whole situation. It felt like all my efforts had gone to waste."
"I have missed out on the opportunity to get a job, and do volunteering so I could add these to my personal statement for university."
Many felt that the pandemic meant their futures were now less certain. Participants worried about getting lower grades, and described missing out on work experience and employment opportunities that would have been beneficial. Others were concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on the job market.
A very small number of participants described having lost family members who had passed away due to COVID-19, including parents and grandparents. These individuals described how difficult this loss was and described how bereavement restrictions added to the difficulty of this loss, such as being unable to attend funerals or socially distancing at funerals.
"My father has been hospitalized and passed away due to coronavirus. I was not allowed to travel back home in order to attend the funeral."
FINDING 3: TEENAGERS HAVE PLACED VALUE ON SELF-CARE IN LOCKDOWN
There was a strong emphasis on self-care throughout participants' accounts. Participants described finding various self-care strategies that worked for them in lockdown (both existing and new approaches), and some felt they hadn't always prioritised self-care this much before. However, some participants described difficulties in engaging in self-care.
Self-care strategies used in lockdown
Creating routine and goals: "One thing that is helping is having a routine in place, as it allows me to keep busy and stops me from getting anxious or worried."
Finding ways to distract and escape: "I enjoy being out and keeping busy in order to avoid my thoughts."
Getting time outdoors: "Going on that one walk a day does really help, even if it's just half an hour walk, it really does relax you."
Taking care of physical health: "Exercise is really helping with my wellbeing, as it takes my mind off of lockdown and helps me exert my energy."
Finding ways to relax (e.g., hobbies): "Find something that helps you calm down/wind down after doing school work: a run, reading, knitting, whatever it is."
Spending time with pets: "We have cats and I'm really grateful for that, it's entertaining and always seems to relax me if I'm feeling anxious."
Being kind to yourself: "Lockdown has given me the ability to be kinder to myself and put myself first for once."
However, some participants described difficulty or conflict in maintaining self-care. Some said they knew it was important but found it hard, while others described using coping strategies they thought were bad for them, like smoking and binge-eating.
"Lockdown has caused me to start unhealthy habits such as not doing any exercise, oversleeping, and generally not looking after my own physical and mental health anymore."
FINDING 4: MANY ARE TRYING TO HAVE A POSITIVE OUTLOOK AND STAY HOPEFUL
Participants often described trying to adopt a positive mindset during lockdown, including using thinking strategies, identifying areas of their lives that they were thankful for, and trying to stay focused on the future.
Thinking positively
Participants described various ways they were trying to adopt a positive mindset. This included taking time to reflect and think positively, trying to accept the situation rather than feel frustrated by it, and identifying positive opportunities in lockdown.
"I have had phases where I have been down and upset and maybe even a little bit angry, but now after a long period I have accepted the fact that this is not a normal situation and there is nothing to do change it. All I can do is adapt."
"I feel lucky as no one in my family has been affected by COVID-19 so far and I have a supportive family with a big garden and lots of places we can go without the stress of social distancing."
Finding things to be grateful for
Many identified things they were grateful for in lockdown, such as access to local green spaces or positive relationships with family members, and often noted this was a privilege not everyone had. Some reflected on the challenges frontline workers were experiencing and the fact that many were dying or losing family members, which they felt gave them perspective.
Staying hopeful about the future
Several participants reflected on how important it was to feel hopeful about the future. They focused on what life would be like after lockdown and planning the things they would do and places they would go.
"It is not permanent, it won't last forever. We may have to put our lives on hold right now but it won't be forever, there is light at the end of the tunnel."
Although participants felt that lockdown could be intense and challenging at times, many also said that they'd never had this much space and time for themselves. They felt a relief from daily life, which meant they could rest, develop themselves personally in ways of their own choosing, and focus on their relationships.
**Relief from normal pressures**
Many participants felt that lockdown offered some relief, as daily pressures had been removed or eased, such as academic pressure, social pressure, and the fast pace of normal life, which gave them some rest and time to themselves.
"I have felt the most de-stressed ever. No pressure to complete schoolwork or wear the right thing or say the right thing."
**Personal development**
Many participants said that lockdown provided space and time to explore aspects of themselves, such as evaluating what they want in life and learning to enjoy their own company. Most described developing their skills, through trying new hobbies, taking online courses, and working on existing skills. However, several said this could be pressurising and sometimes people just needed rest.
"I like being able to do things like courses and workouts I didn't previously feel I had time for."
"As much as we should try to develop into our better selves we also need to rest. Don't overwhelm or stress yourself."
"It brings families together. This lockdown has strengthened our bond. We would never spend this much time with each other before."
**Strengthening relationships**
Participants often felt lockdown allowed them to strengthen their relationships, often with those in their households but also beyond. They described being more focused on and appreciative of relationships, spending more quality time with people in their house, and developing mutually supportive relationships.
FINDING 6: HAVING A SENSE OF TOGETHERNESS IS IMPORTANT
Participants frequently placed a strong emphasis on the importance of staying connected to other people. They emphasised how important personal relationships were, but many also said that they were feeling disconnected from others and finding this difficult. Participants also described a sense of large-scale togetherness, where we're all in this together.
Positive and supportive interpersonal relationships are valuable
Participants placed a strong emphasis on positive relationships with family and friends in lockdown, which they said this made lockdown a more positive experience and/or helped them to cope. Many described making effort to reach out to others, highlighted the value of spending quality time with others, and emphasised the need to maintain strong relationships outside their household, where technology was seen as useful.
"My family being around me is really lovely, as they're supportive and loving."
"I'm lucky in the fact I can video chat with friends and family which keeps my mood up."
Participants often said that relationships with people who were supportive and understanding were important in lockdown, particularly when they were struggling.
"If I feel lonely I know my best friend can help as we listen to each other and he makes me laugh."
Feeling disconnected
Although most participants recognised the importance of feeling connected to others, many experienced barriers that made them feel socially disconnected. The majority of participants described missing people outside of their home, missing physical contact, and feeling lonely and isolated.
"Not being able to just go out and see my friends is hard."
"I have felt incredibly lonely despite having a great support system and being in the same household as one of my best friends, my sister."
Some participants described struggling to feel connected to those outside their household. This included feeling unable to reach out, finding it hard to use virtual communication, or just slowly stopping talking to those outside their household.
"I feel lonely from my friends 'cause they like doing Zooms but I can't sit for that long and listen so I get frustrated and end the calls or don't go on, and feel left out."
Participants often explained that although using technology did allow virtual connections outside their household, it didn't feel the same as face-to-face time.
"There has been some stress placed on friendships where there is no face-to-face interactions."
"It's definitely hard not seeing people that you're used to seeing so often, and while I do phone and video call them, it just doesn't feel the same."
"I've been struggling with the fact that I cannot physically see my counsellor."
"I fight with my parents a lot more and it sometimes makes the whole day bad."
Several participants described instances of conflict with others, especially in their household. This included minor arguments, general tension with everyone on edge, and at times very difficult relationships.
"We're all in this together"
Many described a sense of community within their neighbourhood, country, and even planet, because of the pandemic. The idea that "we're all in this together" was often reassuring, and shared experiences like clapping for the National Health Service (NHS) added to this. This helped some in coping with restrictions, because they felt they were making sacrifices for a greater good.
"I'm okay now because I understand that it is the most important thing right now to help save lives."
"It is reassuring to see others share their experiences which are similar to mine, as it makes me feel less alone. It brings a sense of togetherness amidst this madness."
Finding 7: Teenagers may be frustrated with the government and media
Several participants described feeling frustrated with the UK government, whom they did not trust to make appropriate or transparent decisions for the public, and with the news media, who they felt were only offering negative coverage of the pandemic.
Mistrust in the government
Several participants expressed concerns about how the UK government had managed the pandemic and lockdown. This included the easing of lockdown restrictions in May 2020 (at the time of data collection), which they felt the government was doing too quickly and without clear guidelines.
"I am unsure if I want to go back in September because I'm unsure that the government has the best supervisions."
"They even said that teachers might not be allowed PPE which is completely out of order and so unsafe."
"My only worries are how the government are dealing with it as they're being very vague which is evidently making the public anxious."
Many were concerned about the safety of themselves and their teachers when they return to education. Some felt that the government had not provided guidance specifically for their age group.
However, a small number of participants did not agree with the lockdown restrictions.
"The way lockdown was imposed and handled has been a great violation of my right to freedom."
News media is mostly negative
Some felt that media coverage of the pandemic was too negative, and wanted more uplifting coverage. Several felt this was impacting them negatively and said they were limiting their news engagement.
"Now I tend to only check the news once every two days so I don't get as worried."
Findings show that this has been a difficult time for teenagers, raising lots of difficult feelings and concerns. Teenagers feel they have made important and responsible sacrifices, giving up normal teenage experiences. Lockdown has also brought some positives, including relief from the normal pressures of life. Feeling connected to other people, including wider society, has been very important for teenagers, though some are frustrated with the government's handling of the pandemic.
These findings show that there are a lot of different feelings and experiences happening. Teenagers have been experiencing both unease and growth, and those things have not been mutually exclusive, even though they might sound it. However, it's important to remember that no teenagers have experienced lockdown in exactly the same way, and this has been more challenging for some than for others. As noted in Finding 1, participants told us that contextual challenges could make lockdown much more emotionally difficult.
On the following pages, we offer some considerations for teenagers, parents/carers, education professionals and settings, and mental health and wellbeing practitioners. We do not offer these as "one size fits all" but instead as general guidance for people to tailor to their situation as needed.
WHAT DO THESE FINDINGS MEAN FOR TEENAGERS?
This has been a difficult time, and it is important to take care of yourself
- It's normal to have been experiencing intense feelings this year, including sadness, worry, and frustration, and to have been feeling less in control. It's okay to feel emotional and to take some time for yourself.
- Have open conversations with people who care about you, including family and friends, and let them know how you feel about what's happening.
- Think about how you're taking care of yourself. Click here for teenagers' advice on self-care during the pandemic and here for self-care guidance.
- If you are concerned about next steps, like returning to education or finding a job, ask your parents and teachers for information and support.
- It can be helpful to take steps to organise your time, such as creating a timetable. Returning to a routine may be difficult, so go easy on yourself.
It can be helpful to think about making the experience more positive
- Try to find positive ways of thinking about the situation, such as finding things you feel grateful for, or thinking about the future.
- Consider how you might have grown in lockdown, such as learning new skills and getting closer with family. There are still opportunities to do this, like trying a new hobby. Don't put pressure on yourself though! Sometimes it's important to relax and not worry too much about challenging yourself.
- This doesn't mean you shouldn't ever feel sad or worried. Those feelings are still normal and you don't need to try to be positive all the time. Remember that "thinking positively" can be hard for some, such as those with difficult circumstances and/or symptoms of mental health difficulties.
Staying connected to other people is important, but can feel difficult
- Talk to others and keep connected, such as friends and family members.
- It can be helpful to arrange nice things to do with the people you live with, such as having movie nights or trying out a new hobby together.
- When it's not possible see people face-to-face, remember to keep reaching out and talking to them using technology, even when that feels hard to do.
- Remember we're all in this together! Teenagers said it was helpful to think about how the things they're giving up are sacrifices to help protect others.
- Get professional support if you feel you need it (e.g., Childline, The Mix, Samaritans).
- Some teenagers are feeling frustrated with the UK government. If you feel this way, speak up and get involved! Check out campaigns such as #iwill.
WHAT DO THESE FINDINGS MEAN FOR PARENTS/CARERS?
This has been a difficult time for teenagers, with lots of feelings and concerns
- Remember that this has been a strange time for teenagers. They are likely going to be experiencing a lot of difficult, intense feelings, and this may change over time. Be available for chats and check in regularly.
- Don't underestimate teenagers' resourcefulness to find ways to manage and cope in difficult times. To support them, have open conversations about how we might cope and look after ourselves, and discuss how they are doing this using their own strategies and what they are finding helpful.
- It can be helpful to talk together about positive things, such as finding things to be grateful for, feeling hopeful about the future, or identifying lockdown benefits and achievements. However, remember that we can't feel positive all the time and positivity can be especially tricky for some, such as those with mental health difficulties, so it is important to acknowledge difficult feelings.
- This has also been a difficult time for parents and carers. Remember to talk with and get support from others yourself.
Helping teenagers feel connected
- Accept that teenagers may need to connect with friends in different ways, and encourage them to stay connected with people outside the household.
- Remind teenagers that they are not alone, and others are also going through this. Though this doesn't diminish the difficulties they're facing, it may provide reassurance.
- Understand that teenagers may be angry and frustrated with the pandemic and how it is being handled. Where they need it, you can offer support and advocacy.
Teenagers may need further support in their next steps
- Teenagers may find it hard to return to a set routine when they return to education/work. It may be useful to talk through plans and provide support where possible to help them establish or keep to a routine.
- Lots of teenagers told us they worried about returning to education, including fears about COVID-19 and worries that social dynamics with others might have changed. Take time to talk with your teenager about their concerns.
- Teenagers may feel they have lost some control over their future, with exams cancelled, opportunities lost, and education and job paths less clear. Check in about concerns around next steps, offering empathy, reassurance and, where you can, help them to find solutions.
WHAT DO THESE FINDINGS MEAN FOR EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS AND SETTINGS?
Lockdown and school closures have been difficult for teenagers
- It will be useful to remind students who they can talk to if they want to get support, and to check in with staff about accessing training and guidance in talking about difficult emotions and mental health and wellbeing issues.
- How teenagers are coping may change. Keep checking in and provide ongoing opportunities for support, even for those who seemed okay initially.
- Create time to talk about self-care and coping with difficult situations, encouraging teenagers to reflect on the steps they have taken. Resources like "advice from teenagers" on caring for wellbeing during the pandemic and guidance on self-care can help to promote self-care strategies.
- Supporting teenagers at this time is likely going to be challenging. Schools should provide additional support for staff (e.g., space for discussion or reflexive practice groups). Staff should be mindful of the personal impact work may be having, and engage in self-care and seek support when needed.
Teenagers may have mixed feelings about returning to education
- Many teenagers are worried about COVID-19, including about returning to education settings. Schedule time to discuss the pandemic with students (e.g., in form groups) and clearly explain safety protocols.
- Create plenty of time for social engagement and opportunities to rebuild social skills and engage in team-building.
- In some instances, teenagers may be expected to engage remotely from home some of the time. A patient and flexible approach to expectations will be useful, as some will have challenges such as limited resources or space.
- Easing students back into a school routine may take time, especially for those who are not happy about returning to "normal" life.
Providing support for the future
- Reassure students that staff will support them to move forward with plans. Consider extra career support, and create time to talk about future concerns.
- Set school-based plans and goals for the year, and ask students to think about how they can work towards these to encourage future thinking.
- Understand that students may be angry and frustrated with the handling of the pandemic. Use your professional voice to inform others about the difficulties teenagers face and advocate for them, including getting involved in campaigns for better policies for children and young people.
WHAT DO THESE FINDINGS MEAN FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING PROFESSIONALS?
This has been a difficult time for teenagers, with lots of feelings and concerns
- It is likely that teenagers are feeling a lot of different things at the moment. This is normal and these feelings don't always need to be "managed". Simply trying to be empathetic and offering reassurance that this is normal may help.
- A flexible and accessible approach will be useful. For instance, meet with teenagers in environments that are familiar and comfortable, and consider online communication options where possible. Services in schools could have "drop-ins" where teenagers can informally discuss what's on their mind.
- The pandemic has created lots of change and loss of control. Check in and have conversations about this, offering sympathy and exploring what this means for the person. Strategies for creating a sense of control in other areas may help, such as planning for the future using realistic, time-limited goals.
- It may help to talk through teenagers' concerns about COVID-19, including for themselves and their family, and to offer reassurance where appropriate.
- Don't underestimate teenagers' resourcefulness to find ways to manage and cope in difficult times. Have conversations about how we can cope and look after ourselves, and discuss how the individual is doing this using their own strategies, working to jointly explore options if they are finding this difficult.
It can help to think about the positives
- It may be useful to encourage positive thinking, such as supporting teenagers to be hopeful about the future or to identify things they are grateful for.
- Talk with teenagers about the positive elements they might have experienced in lockdown and consider what they might want to keep going forward, such as new self-care approaches, reduced pressures, or developing skills.
- Lockdown has brought some positives, including relief from the pressures of normal life. Provide space to talk about returning to "normal" life and acknowledge concerns that teenagers might have had about this.
- However, remember that some teenagers have had incredibly distressing experiences. Here, finding positives might not be possible and it is important not to minimise these experiences and to offer an empathetic response.
Speak up
- Understand that students may be angry and frustrated with the handling of the pandemic. Use your professional voice to inform others about the difficulties teenagers face and advocate for them, including getting involved in campaigns for better policies for children and young people.
We want to know what lockdown looks like for you, what it feels like, and how you are managing it.
You can tell us about this however you like, but we have put together some questions that might help you think about this. You don't have to answer these specific questions, but they are here in case you find them helpful:
1. What is your living situation in lockdown and who are you with? (Note: you do not need to provide your address.)
2. What has changed or stayed the same since lockdown began?
3. Is there anything that you like or dislike about being in lockdown?
4. Do you feel that lockdown might have any effect on your future plans, and if so how?
5. What kinds of feelings have you been experiencing since being in lockdown?
6. Is there anything that you think is helping with your wellbeing during the lockdown? Is there anything that doesn't help?
7. How has the lockdown affected your relationships with other people? Are your relationships affecting your experiences of lockdown?
8. What advice would you give to other young people about how best to manage lockdown?
THE TELL STUDY
TELL (Teenagers' Experiences of Life in Lockdown) is a research project led by researchers at The University of Manchester and Liverpool John Moores University. TELL aims to understand 16- to 19-year-olds' experiences of the UK lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly their wellbeing. We asked teenagers aged 16-19 in the UK to provide a written account of their experiences of lockdown, telling us what lockdown looked like for them, what it felt like, and how they managed it. We also asked what advice they would give to others, and you can find their advice here. More than 100 teenagers shared their experiences with us. This briefing presents experiential themes and common patterns in their account.
You can read more about The TELL Study at our website and stay up-to-date by following us on Twitter.
@TheTELLStudy
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study would not have been possible without the teenagers who shared their experiences with us, and we thank them for taking the time to write about their lockdown with so much insight and honesty.
We also wish to thank several colleagues for their input at various stages of the TELL Study, in particular Cathy Creswell, Tee McCaldin, and Claire Briegel. | 9762ae68-daec-41e7-90fb-0b3970c4131f | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=50543 | 2022-05-27T16:51:25+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662658761.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220527142854-20220527172854-00247.warc.gz | 272,356,904 | 7,061 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.975639 | eng_Latn | 0.999042 | [
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| Levels | Resources | Chapter Opener | Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Chapter Assess |
|--------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|----------------|
| BL | Daily Focus Skills Transparencies | | 74 | 64 | 66 | |
| OL | Guided Reading Activities* | | p. 25 | p. 26 | p. 27 | |
| AL | Economic Content Vocabulary Activities* | | p. 9 | p. 9 | p. 9 | |
| ELL | Critical Thinking Activities | | p. 14 | p. 14 | | |
| | Reading Essentials and Note-Taking Guide* | | p. 73 | p. 76 | p. 79 | |
| | Enrichment Activities | | | | | |
| | Free Enterprise Activities | | | | | |
| | Primary and Secondary Source Readings | | | | | pp. 14, 27 |
| | Economic Cartoons | | | | | p. 19 |
| | Hands-On Economics | | | | | p. 19 |
| | Math Practice for Economics | | | | | pp. 13, 14 | p. 13 |
| | Economics Forms and Financial Pages Transparencies, Strategies, and Activities | | pp. 1, 3 | | | |
| | Personal Finance Activities | | | | | p. 15 |
| | Reinforcing Economic Skills | | | | | pp. 4, 24 | pp. 17, 18 |
| | High School Reading in the Content Area Strategies and Activities | | | | | | ✓ |
| | High School Writing Process Transparencies | | | | | | ✓ |
| | Writer’s Guidebook | | | | | | ✓ |
| | StudentWorks Plus CD-ROM | | | | | | ✓ |
| | Vocabulary PuzzleMaker CD-ROM | | | | | | ✓ |
*Also available in Spanish
## Planning Guide
### Resources
| Levels | Chapter Opener | Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Chapter Assess |
|--------|----------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|----------------|
| BL | | | | | |
| OL | | | | | |
| AL | | | | | |
| ELL | | | | | |
#### TEACH (continued)
- **Economics & You Video Program DVD—How the Government Spends, Collects and Owes**
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- **Graph Coach CD-ROM**
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- **Differentiated Instruction Strategies**
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- **Success with English Learners**
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- **Presentation Plus! CD-ROM**
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
#### ASSESS
- **Section Quizzes and Chapter Tests**
- p. 109
- p. 110
- p. 111
- pp. 113, 117
- **Authentic Assessment Strategies and Activities**
- p. 14
- **ExamView® Assessment Suite CD-ROM**
- 9-1
- 9-2
- 9-3
- Ch. 9
- **Interactive Tutor Self-Assessment CD-ROM**
- 9-1
- 9-2
- 9-3
#### CLOSE
- **Reteaching Activities***
- p. 9
- **Reading and Study Skills Foldables**
- p. 56
*Also available in Spanish
Chapter Overviews
**Technology Product**
The Glencoe Web site offers in-depth overviews that summarize the content of each chapter. The overviews consist of brief chapter summaries and separate overviews for each section. The chapter overviews
- summarize and reinforce chapter content;
- provide discussion points to use in class.
**Objectives**
The overviews help students
- prepare for better understanding of chapter content;
- practice reading and comprehension skills.
**Steps**
Provide students with the following steps to complete the activities:
- Locate the Web page for the textbook being studied on the Glencoe Web site glencoe.com.
- Click on **Student Center** under the textbook title.
- Once you are in the Student Center, select a unit from the Unit Resources menu and a chapter from the Chapter Activities menu using the drop-down arrows.
- Click on the **Chapter Overviews** link.
Have students read the chapter overview in preparation for a reading assignment or activity.
| Economics ONLINE | Student | Teacher | Parent |
|------------------|---------|---------|--------|
| Beyond the Textbook | ● | ● | ● |
| Chapter Overviews | ● | ● | ● |
| ePuzzles and Games | ● | | ● |
| Concepts in Motion | ● | | ● |
| Multi-Language Glossaries | ● | | ● |
| Online Student Edition | ● | ● | ● |
| Self-Check Quizzes | ● | | ● |
| Student Web Activities | ● | | ● |
| Study Central™ | ● | | ● |
| Time Current Events | ● | ● | ● |
| Teaching Today | | ● | |
| Vocabulary eFlashcards | ● | | ● |
| Web Activity Lesson Plans | | ● | |
**Glencoe Media Center**
- **glencoe.com**
- Study-To-Go
- Vocabulary eFlashcards
- Self-Check Quizzes
- Audio/Video
- Student Edition Audio
- Spanish Summaries
- Economics & You Videos
Timed Readings Plus in Social Studies helps students increase their reading rate and fluency while maintaining comprehension. The 400-word passages are similar to those found on state and national assessments.
Reading in the Content Area: Social Studies concentrates on six essential reading skills that help students better comprehend what they read. The book includes 75 high-interest nonfiction passages written at increasing levels of difficulty.
Reading Social Studies includes strategic reading instruction and vocabulary support in Social Studies content for both ELLs and native speakers of English. www.jamestowneducation.com
Use this database to search more than 30,000 titles to create a customized reading list for your students.
- Reading lists can be organized by students’ reading level, author, genre, theme, or area of interest.
- The database provides Degrees of Reading Power™ (DRP) and Lexile™ readability scores for all selections.
- A brief summary of each selection is included.
Leveled reading suggestions for this chapter:
For students at a Grade 10 reading level:
- Your Money at Work: Taxes, by Ernestine Giesecke
For students at a Grade 11 reading level:
- Other Revenue Sources Should Be Pursued, by William Straus
For students at a Grade 12 reading level:
- Careers Inside the World of the Government, by Sue Hurwitz
* Review suggested books before assigning them.
National Council on Economic Education
Voluntary Standards Emphasized in Chapter 9
Content Standard 16 There is an economic role for government in a market economy whenever the benefits of a government policy outweigh its costs. Governments often provide for national defense, address environmental concerns, define and protect property rights, and attempt to make markets more competitive. Most government policies also redistribute income.
Content Standard 20 Federal government budgetary policy and the Federal Reserve System’s monetary policy influence the overall levels of employment, output, and prices.
Resources Available from NCEE
- Virtual Economics®, An Interactive Center for Economic Education Version 3.0
- Civics and Government: Focus on Economics, Second Edition
- Capstone: The Nation’s High School Economics Course
- Focus: Institutions and Markets
To order these materials, or to contact your State Council on Economic Education about workshops and programs, call 1-800-338-1192 or visit the NCEE Web site at store.ncee.net.
The BIG Idea
As students study the chapter, remind them to consider the chapter-based Big Idea. The Essential Question in the chapter launch activity below ties in to the Big Idea and helps students think about and understand important chapter concepts. In addition, the Hands-On Chapter Project relates the content from each section to the Big Idea. The steps in each section build on each other and culminate in the Wrap-Up Activity on the Visual Summary page.
To generate student interest and provide a springboard for class discussion, access the Economics & You Topic 14 video, How the Government Spends, Collects and Owes, at glencoe.com or on the video DVD.
Dinah Zike’s Foldables are three-dimensional, interactive graphic organizers that help students practice basic writing skills, review key vocabulary terms, and identify main ideas. Have students complete this chapter’s Foldable activity or activities in Dinah Zike’s Reading and Study Skills Foldables booklet.
Introduce students to chapter content and key terms by having them access Chapter 9—Chapter Overviews at glencoe.com.
Why It Matters
You have just received your first paycheck and are looking forward to being paid $8 per hour for the 20 hours you worked. You look at your check and . . . “What? This check isn’t for $160! Where’s the rest of my money?” Make a list of the deductions that might be subtracted from your earnings. Read Chapter 9 to learn more about how governments raise revenue.
The BIG Idea
All levels of government use tax revenue to provide essential goods and services.
When we receive paychecks for our work, a portion of our earnings goes to the government for taxes.
Activity: Launching the Chapter
Identifying Have students identify at least two sources of revenue for the federal, state, and local (county or city) levels of government. Next have students identify at least two goods or services provided by each of those levels of government. Ask students to create a chart presenting the information they identified.
Essential Question: What is one source of revenue collected by each level of government? (taxes) Have students write a paragraph explaining how they think each of the levels of government spends the tax money it collects.
Section Preview
In this section, you will learn that taxes are the most important way of raising revenue for the government.
Content Vocabulary
- sin tax (p. 230)
- incidence of a tax (p. 231)
- tax loophole (p. 232)
- individual income tax (p. 232)
- sales tax (p. 233)
- tax return (p. 233)
- benefit principle of taxation (p. 234)
- ability-to-pay principle of taxation (p. 234)
- proportional tax (p. 235)
- average tax rate (p. 235)
- Medicare (p. 235)
- progressive tax (p. 235)
- marginal tax rate (p. 235)
- regressive tax (p. 236)
Academic Vocabulary
- validity (p. 230)
- evolved (p. 234)
Reading Strategy
Defining As you read the section, complete a graphic organizer similar to the one below by listing the criteria for taxes to be effective. Then define each of the criteria in your own words.
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
Teenage Tax Preparers
Since the tax season got under way . . . [Oakwood High School’s business management students] have prepared 44 returns for community members, fellow students and faculty members, so far netting more than $50,000 in refunds for their clients. The only high school-based Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program in [Georgia], Oakwood provide[s] free tax services for lower-income residents, nonspeakers of English and the disabled.
The student volunteers are saving taxpayers money. “Since we’re targeting the low-income, many are not in a position to pay $200 or $300,” [said Gloria Carithers, a senior tax specialist in the IRS Atlanta office]. “That could make the difference in paying a bill or buying something for the family.”
An enormous amount of money is required to run all levels of government—and the need seems to be growing every year. Taxes are the primary way to do this, and taxes affect the things we do in more ways than you think.
Governments levy a variety of taxes, from sales taxes on items we purchase in stores to the income tax we have to pay on our wages. One way in which we try to minimize taxes is by finding all the exemptions and deductions we are allowed to claim when we file our income tax returns. That is what the students in the news story were doing: helping their clients get the largest refund possible.
CHAPTER 9 Sources of Government Revenue 229
Economic Impact of Taxes
MAIN Idea Taxes affect the decisions we make in a variety of ways.
Economics & You Have you ever not bought something because you could not afford the tax on it? Read on to find out how taxes affect our behavior.
Taxes and other governmental revenues influence the economy by affecting resource allocation, consumer behavior, and the nation’s productivity and growth. In addition, the burden of a tax does not always fall on the party being taxed.
Resource Allocation
The factors of production are affected whenever a tax is levied. A tax placed on a good or service at the factory raises the cost of production and the price of the product.
People react to the higher price in a predictable manner—they buy less. When sales fall, some firms cut back on production, which means that some resources—land, capital, and labor—will have to go to other industries to be employed.
Behavior Adjustment
Taxes are sometimes used to encourage or discourage certain types of activities. For example, homeowners can use interest payments on mortgages as tax deductions—a practice that encourages home ownership. Interest payments on other consumer debt, such as credit cards, are not deductible—a practice that makes credit card use less attractive.
A so-called sin tax—a relatively high tax designed to raise revenue while reducing consumption of a socially undesirable product such as liquor or tobacco—is another example of how a tax can change behavior. For the tax to be effective, however, it has to be reasonably uniform from one city or state to the next so that consumers do not have alternative sales outlets that allow them to avoid the tax.
Productivity and Growth
Taxes can affect productivity and economic growth by changing the incentives to save, invest, and work. For example, some people think that taxes are already quite high. Why, they argue, should they work to earn additional income if they have to pay much of it out in taxes?
While these arguments have validity, it is difficult to tell if we have reached the point where taxes are too high. For example, even the wealthiest individuals pay less than half of their taxable income to state and local governments in the form of income taxes. Are these taxes so high that people do not have the incentive to earn
Caption Answer: Deductions lower the total amount of taxes that people pay.
Differentiated Instruction Strategies
BL Ask: What does the table reveal about changes in the income tax rates between 1995 and 1998? (They Increased.)
AL Have students use the 2001 U.S. budget receipts to complete the activity again.
ELL Have students create a bar graph with the data from the completed table.
an additional $10 million because they can only keep half of it? Would they work any harder if income taxes took only 30 percent of their income? While we do not have exact answers to these questions, we do know that there must be some level of taxes at which productivity and growth would suffer.
**Incidence of a Tax**
Finally, there is the matter of who actually pays the tax. This is known as the **incidence of a tax**—or the final burden of the tax.
Suppose a city wants to tax a local electric utility to raise revenue. If the utility is able to raise its rates, consumers will likely bear the burden of the tax in the form of higher utility bills. However, if the company’s rates are regulated, and if the company’s profits are not large enough to absorb the tax increase, then shareholders may get smaller dividends—placing the tax burden on the owners. The company also might delay a pay raise—shifting the burden to its workers.
Supply and demand analysis can help us analyze the incidence of a tax. To illustrate, Figure 9.1 shows an *elastic* demand curve in Panel A and an *inelastic* demand curve in Panel B. Both panels have identical supply curves labeled S. Now, suppose that the government levies a $1 tax on the producer, thereby shifting the supply curve up by the amount of the tax.
In Panel A, the product’s market price increases by 60 cents, which means that the producer must have absorbed the other 40 cents of the tax. In Panel B, however, the same tax on the producer results in a 90-cent increase in price, which means that the producer absorbed only 10 cents of the tax. The figure clearly shows that it is much easier for a producer to shift the incidence of a tax to the consumer if the consumer’s demand curve is relatively inelastic.
**Reading Check** Summarizing How do taxes affect businesses and consumers?
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**Graphs In Motion**
See StudentWorks™ Plus or glencoe.com.
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**Differentiated Instruction**
**Logical/Mathematical**
Ask: What is the difference in curve D from Panel A to Panel B? (Curve D in Panel B is at a sharper vertical angle than curve D in Panel A.) How do the shapes of the curves illustrate the concepts of elastic and inelastic demand? (In Panel A, the curve is more relaxed or flexible and is described as elastic. In Panel B, the curve is at a sharper angle and is more rigid; it is described as inelastic.)
**Economic Analysis**
**Answer:** the buyer
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**Reading Check** Answer: When businesses are taxed, they may decrease production, raise prices, or both. Consumers then may have access to fewer products and may pay higher prices.
Criteria for Effective Taxes
**MAIN Idea** To be effective, taxes must be equitable, easy to understand, and efficient.
**Economics & You** Do you look forward to preparing your personal income tax returns? Read on to learn why you may be apprehensive about tax time.
Some taxes will always be needed, so we want to make them as fair and as effective as possible. To do so, taxes must meet three criteria: equity, simplicity, and efficiency.
**Equity**
The first criterion is equity, or fairness, which means that taxes should be impartial and just. Problems arise when we ask, *what is fair?* You might believe that everyone should pay the same amount. Your friend may think that wealthier people should pay more than those earning less.
There is no overriding guide to make taxes completely equitable. However, it does make sense to avoid **tax loopholes**—exceptions or oversights in the tax law that allow some people and businesses to avoid paying taxes. Loopholes are fairness issues, and most people oppose them based on equity. As a result, taxes generally are viewed as being fairer if they have fewer exceptions, deductions, and exemptions.
**Simplicity**
A second criterion is simplicity. Tax laws should be written so that both taxpayers and tax collectors can understand them. People seem more willing to tolerate taxes when they understand them.
The **individual income tax**—the federal tax on people’s earnings—is a prime example of a complex tax. The entire federal code is thousands of pages long, and even the simplified instructions from the Internal
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**CAREERS**
**Certified Public Accountant**
**The Work**
* Prepare, analyze, and verify financial reports that inform the general public and business firms
* Provide clients with sound advice on tax advantages and disadvantages, and prepare their income tax statements
* Establish an accounting system and manage cash resources
**Qualifications**
* Strong mathematical skills and ability to analyze and interpret numbers and facts
* Ability to communicate results of analyses to clients and managers, both verbally and in writing
* Bachelor’s degree in accounting, with many positions requiring an additional 30 hours beyond the usual 4-year bachelor’s degree
* Successful completion of Uniform CPA Examination
**Earnings**
* Median annual earnings: $50,770
**Job Growth Outlook**
* Faster than average
Source: *Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2006–2007 Edition*
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**Activity: Hands-On Economics**
**Distinguishing Fact From Opinion**
Tell students that failure to distinguish fact from opinion can complicate the debate over fairness and taxes. Remind students that facts can be proven but opinions are based on people’s differing values and beliefs. Read aloud the following statements and ask students to identify which is a fact and which is an opinion.
a. The fairest tax is the one that everybody pays. *(opinion)*
b. The luxury tax on private aircraft led to higher unemployment among workers in that industry. *(fact)*
Have students search for editorials dealing with taxes in newspapers or magazines and identify other examples of facts and opinions in the writing.
Revenue Service (IRS) are lengthy and difficult to understand. As a result, many people dislike the individual income tax code.
A **sales tax**—a general tax levied on most consumer purchases—is much simpler. The sales tax is paid at the time of purchase, and the amount of the tax is computed and collected by the merchant. Some goods such as food and medicine may be exempt, but if a product is taxed, then everyone who buys the product pays the tax.
**Efficiency**
A third criterion for an effective tax is efficiency. A tax should be relatively easy to administer and reasonably successful at generating revenue.
The individual income tax satisfies this requirement fairly well. An employer usually withholds a portion of an employee’s pay and sends it to the IRS. At the end of the year, the employer notifies each employee of the amount of tax withheld so that the employee can settle any under- or overpayment with the IRS. Because of computerized payroll records, this withholding system is relatively easy.
After the close of the tax year on December 31 and before April 15 of the next year, employees file a **tax return**—an annual report to the IRS summarizing total income, deductions, and taxes withheld. Any difference between the amount already paid and the amount actually owed is settled at that time. Most differences are due to deductions and expenses that lower the amount of taxes owed, as well as additional income not subject to tax withholding. State and local governments usually require tax returns to be filed at the same time.
Other taxes, especially those collected in toll booths on state highways, are considerably less efficient. The state has to invest millions of dollars in heavily reinforced booths that span the highway. The cost to commuters, besides the toll, is the wear and tear on their automobiles as they brake for toll booths along the road.
Efficiency also means that a tax should raise enough revenue to be worthwhile while not harming the economy. One example is the federal luxury tax on small private aircraft in the early 1990s. The IRS collected only $53,000 in revenues during the first year of this tax because few planes were sold. This turned out to be less than the unemployment benefits paid to workers who lost jobs in that industry, so Congress quickly repealed that luxury tax.
**Reading Check** Stating Why is equity important?
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**Caption Answer:** The photo implies that tolls are inefficient because they can cause traffic congestion.
**Reading Check** Answer: Equity assures that taxes will be impartial and just.
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**Activity: Collaborative Learning**
**Making Connections** Ask students to raise their hands if they pay taxes. Ask a student whose hand was not raised if he or she buys clothing, gasoline, food, or magazines, and point out that in almost all states such articles are taxed when they are purchased. Ask another student whose hand was not raised if he or she attends music concerts or sporting events, and point out that the cost of the ticket probably includes a special entertainment tax. Then have students choose a partner and create a chart containing two columns. In the first column, they will list goods or services they may have purchased in the last week on which they paid a tax. In the second column, they will list goods or services they may have purchased in the last week on which they did not pay a tax. Have students compare and discuss their lists.
Two Principles of Taxation
**MAIN Idea** Taxes can be levied on the basis of benefits received or the ability to pay.
**Economics & You** Do you think the taxes you pay are fair? Read on to see if you prefer one principle of taxation over another.
Taxes in the United States are based on two principles that have evolved over the years. These principles are the benefit principle and the ability-to-pay principle.
**Benefit Principle**
The **benefit principle of taxation** states that those who benefit from government goods and services should pay in proportion to the amount of benefits they receive.
Gasoline taxes are a good example of this principle. Because the gas tax is built into the price of gasoline, people who drive more than others pay more gas taxes—and therefore pay for more of the upkeep of our nation’s highways. Taxes on truck tires operate on the same principle. Since heavy vehicles like trucks are likely to put the most wear and tear on roads, a tire tax links the cost of highway upkeep to the user.
Despite its attractive features, the benefit principle has two limitations. The first is that those who receive government services may be the ones who can least afford to pay for them. Recipients of welfare payments or people who live in subsidized housing, for example, usually have the lowest incomes. Even if they could pay something, they would not be able to pay in proportion to the benefits they receive.
The second limitation is that benefits are often hard to measure. After all, the people who buy the gas are not the only ones who benefit from the roads built with gas taxes. Owners of property, hotels, and restaurants along the way are also likely to benefit from the roads that the gas tax helps provide.
**Ability-to-Pay Principle**
The belief that people should be taxed according to their ability to pay, regardless of the benefits they receive, is called the **ability-to-pay principle of taxation**. An example is the individual income tax, which requires people with higher incomes to pay more than those who earn less.
This principle is based on two factors. First, we cannot always measure the benefits derived from government spending. Second, it assumes that people with higher incomes suffer less discomfort paying taxes than people with lower incomes.
For example, a family of four with an annual taxable income of $20,000 needs every cent to pay for necessities. At a tax rate of about 13 percent, this family pays $2,623—a huge amount for them. A family of four with taxable income of $100,000 can afford to pay a higher average tax rate with much less discomfort.
**Reading Check** Explaining Which principle of taxation do you prefer, and why?
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**Extending the Content**
**Tax Equity** Although the tax system has been modified to make it more equitable, it is impossible to have a system that is fair for everyone and that is seen by everyone as fair. An analysis of the benefit and ability-to-pay principles of taxation illustrates this point. As noted in the text on this page, it is often hard to measure exactly who benefits from a particular government service and even harder to assess how much benefit each person receives. In addition, although two families may have equal incomes, because of different circumstances they may not have the same ability to pay. This difficulty in determining equity is one reason why there are several different kinds of taxes at the federal, state, and local levels.
Three Types of Taxes
MAIN Idea All taxes can be broken down into three categories—proportional, progressive, and regressive.
Economics & You You just learned about two principles of taxation. Find out how the principles apply to different types of taxes.
Three general types of taxes exist in the United States today—proportional, progressive, and regressive. As Figure 9.2 shows, each type of tax is classified according to the way in which the tax burden changes as income changes. To calculate the tax burden, we divide the amount that someone pays in taxes by their taxable income. If a person pays $100 in taxes on a $10,000 income, then the tax burden is 0.01, or 1 percent.
Proportional Tax
A proportional tax imposes the same percentage rate of taxation on everyone, regardless of income. If the income tax rate is 20 percent, an individual with $10,000 in taxable income pays $2,000 in taxes. A person with $100,000 in taxable income pays $20,000.
Progressive Tax
A progressive tax is a tax that imposes a higher percentage rate of taxation on higher incomes than on lower ones. This tax uses a progressively higher marginal tax rate, the tax rate that applies to the next dollar of taxable income.
If the percentage tax rate is constant, the average tax rate—total tax paid divided by the total taxable income—also is constant, regardless of income. If a person’s income goes up, the percentage of total income paid in taxes does not change.
Few proportional taxes are used in the United States. One example is the 15 percent tax rate on corporate dividends. Regardless of overall income and how much someone receives in corporate dividends, individuals only pay 15 percent of that amount in personal income taxes.
Another example is the tax that funds Medicare—a federal health-care program available to all senior citizens, regardless of income. The Medicare tax is 1.45 percent of income, with no limit on the amount of income taxed. As a result, everyone who receives a paycheck pays exactly the same rate, regardless of the size of the paycheck.
Skill Practice
Using Tables and Charts
Ask: What would happen if a state sales tax became progressive? (People who made more money would have to pay higher sales taxes than people who made less money.)
Critical Thinking
Contrasting Have students make a chart listing the three types of taxes and the characteristics of each. (Proportional tax: imposes the same percentage rate of taxation on everyone, regardless of income. Progressive tax: imposes a higher percentage rate of taxation on higher incomes than on lower ones. Regressive tax: imposes a higher percentage rate of taxation on low incomes than on high incomes.) As students read the subsection, have them record examples of each type of tax.
Economic Analysis
Answer: progressive tax
Hands-On Chapter Project
Step 1
Explain Taxation and Revenue Systems
In this project, students will explore the taxation and revenue systems of all levels of government in the United States.
Step 1: Principles of Taxation and Types of Taxes. Students will identify and explain two principles of taxation and three types of taxes.
Directions: Organize the class into groups of three. Have them imagine that their group has been hired by the U.S. Treasury Department to create visual presentations to help taxpayers understand the taxation and revenue system of the United States. Tell students that their group will create a pamphlet for taxpayers explaining the two principles of taxation and the three types of taxes. The pamphlet should focus on the attractive features of each principle of taxation and clearly explain each type of taxes. The text used in the pamphlet should be correctly spelled and punctuated. Use of illustrations should enhance the topics of the pamphlet.
Summarizing Ask students to write a brief report, identifying and explaining two principles of taxation and three types of taxes. (Chapter Project continued in Section 2.)
For example, suppose the law required everyone to pay a rate of 10 percent on all taxable income up to $7,500, and then a rate of 15 percent on all income after that. If someone had taxable income of $5,000, this person would have to pay 10 percent on the 5,001st dollar earned. In this case, the marginal tax rate on the 5,001st dollar would be 10 percent.
However, if the same person had taxable income of $7,500, then the marginal tax rate would be 15 percent on the 7,501st dollar earned. In either case, the marginal tax is always the tax that is paid on the very next dollar of taxable income.
The individual income tax code used in the United States today is structured just this way. It currently starts at 10 percent and then jumps to 15 percent, 25 percent, 28 percent, 33 percent, and 35 percent, depending on the amount of taxable income. One important outcome of this structure is that progressively higher marginal brackets also cause the average tax rate to go up as taxable income goes up.
**Regressive Tax**
A **regressive tax** is a tax that imposes a *higher* percentage rate of taxation on low incomes than on high incomes. For example, a person in a state with a 4 percent sales tax and an annual income of $10,000 may spend $5,000 on food and clothing and pay sales taxes of $200 (or .04 times $5,000). A person with an annual income of $100,000 may spend $20,000 on food and clothing and pay state sales taxes of $800 (or .04 times $20,000).
On a percentage basis, the person with the lower income pays 2 percent (or $200 divided by $10,000) of income in sales taxes, while the person with the higher income pays 0.8 percent (or $800 divided by $100,000). As a result, the 4 percent sales tax is regressive because the individual with the higher income pays a smaller percentage of income in sales taxes than does the individual with the lower income.
**Reading Check** Synthesizing Which of the types of taxes should be used for income taxes? Why?
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**Vocabulary**
1. Explain the significance of sin tax, incidence of a tax, tax loophole, individual income tax, sales tax, tax return, benefit principle of taxation, ability-to-pay principle of taxation, proportional tax, average tax rate, Medicare, progressive tax, marginal tax rate, and regressive tax.
**Main Ideas**
2. Describing Use a graphic organizer like the one below to describe the economic impact of taxes.
3. Identifying What are the criteria for effective taxes?
4. Summarizing What are the main points of the two principles of taxation?
**Critical Thinking**
5. The BIG Idea Compare and contrast the characteristics of proportional, progressive, and regressive taxes.
6. Evaluating Using the criteria described in this chapter, how would you evaluate the effectiveness of the personal income tax?
7. Analyzing Visuals School districts often are supported by property taxes. These taxes are based on a percentage of the value of a house or other real estate. Look at Figure 9.2 on page 235. In which category of taxes does the property tax fall?
**Applying Economics**
8. Equity Which of the two principles of taxation—the benefit principle or the ability-to-pay principle—do you think is more equitable? Explain your answer. Be sure to include in your answer how the two principles differ from one another.
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**Answers**
1. All definitions can be found in the section and the Glossary.
2. resource allocation (factors of production are affected whenever a tax is levied); behavior adjustment (taxes can encourage or discourage certain activities); productivity and growth (taxes can change incentives to save, invest, and work); incidence of a tax (the final burden of a tax is determined by supply and demand)
3. equity, simplicity, and efficiency
4. The benefit principle states that those who benefit from government goods and services should pay in proportion to the amount of benefits they receive. The ability-to-pay principle states that people should be taxed according to their ability to pay, regardless of the benefits they receive.
5. A proportional tax applies the same tax rate. A progressive tax imposes a higher percentage rate of taxation on higher incomes than on lower ones, whereas a regressive tax imposes a higher percentage rate of taxation on low incomes than on high incomes. All three types generate revenue that helps run the government.
6. Answers will vary, but students should evaluate whether the personal income tax is fair, efficient, and easy to understand.
7. proportional
8. Answers will vary but should demonstrate an understanding of the principles of taxation.
Monica Garcia Pleiman (1964– )
- president and CEO of OMS, a technology consulting firm
- publisher of Hispanic lifestyles magazine *Latino SUAVE*
- cofounder of the Latina Chamber of Commerce
**Small Start**
Denver-based businesswoman Monica Garcia Pleiman knew early what she wanted to do with her life. As the daughter of a small business owner, she learned that “hard work and entrepreneurial skills” could bring financial success. She also took her high school’s only computer class—and loved it. In 1987 Pleiman earned a degree in Information Science, a 95 percent male program. After working for both large corporations and small companies, she formed the consulting firm Optimum Management Systems (OMS).
**Small Business**
Pleiman uses several successful strategies. Her practice of sharing the credit and allowing employees to grow in their jobs has resulted in a loyal OMS workforce—unusual in today’s highly competitive, ever-changing technology sector. She tries to maintain a small-business environment while providing large-company benefits. She also focuses on serving small and minority businesses. Finally, she has taken advantage of assistance by the federal government’s Small Business Administration, including attending the Minority Business Executive Program sponsored by the SBA.
These strategies have paid off. OMS grew 910 percent from its start in 1998 to 2003. Revenues over $7 million per year make it one of the country’s most successful minority-owned businesses. This success allowed Pleiman to branch out and publish a new bilingual lifestyle magazine, *Latino SUAVE*.
**Examining the Profile**
1. **Summarizing** What strategies helped Pleiman become a successful entrepreneur?
2. **For Further Research** What types of assistance does the Small Business Administration offer to entrepreneurs?
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**Activity: Collaborative Learning**
**Designing** Have students work together in small groups to design a poster celebrating the life and achievements of a famous minority entrepreneur. Students might choose Monica Garcia Pleiman; other examples might include Mary Kay Ash, John Johnson, Anita Roddick, Oprah Winfrey, and Wilson Wong. Students should research the life of their chosen figure and decide how to convey the information in a visually appealing way. Encourage students to include quotes from or about the entrepreneur or personal anecdotes that will help bring the figure alive for viewers. Display students’ posters in the classroom.
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**Teacher Tip**
**Managing Time** After dividing students into groups, ask them to begin by writing a plan of action that outlines who will do what and when. Such a plan encourages efficient use of time as students proceed through the various steps of the assignment.
Federal, State, and Local Revenue Systems
Section Preview
In this section, you will learn that federal, state, and local governments rely on different revenue sources.
Content Vocabulary
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (p. 238)
- payroll withholding system (p. 239)
- indexing (p. 239)
- FICA (p. 239)
- payroll tax (p. 239)
- corporate income tax (p. 240)
- excise tax (p. 240)
- estate tax (p. 241)
- gift tax (p. 241)
- customs duty (p. 241)
- user fee (p. 241)
- intergovernmental revenue (p. 242)
- property tax (p. 244)
- tax assessor (p. 244)
- natural monopoly (p. 244)
Academic Vocabulary
- implemented (p. 242)
- considerably (p. 243)
Reading Strategy
Describing As you read the section, complete a graphic organizer like the one below to identify and describe the revenue sources for federal, state, and local governments.
ISSUES IN THE NEWS
Taxing Tycoons
Come to Newport, Rhode Island, and see what America was like before the income tax. The Elms is a Gilded Age mansion graced by a Louis XV ballroom and tapestries from Imperial Russia. Its owner made his tax-free fortune off the coal mines of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
[But] by the dawn of the 20th century, American farmers, miners, and factory workers started thinking that the Vanderbilts and their ilk should contribute more to the country. And so on October 3, 1913, President Wilson signed the bill that created an income tax. It touched only the wealthiest 4 percent of Americans.
The first federal income tax was enacted by the Union government in 1861 to help finance the Civil War. It was repealed in 1872. A later income tax was found unconstitutional in 1893, but it had the potential to be a major source of revenue.
It was not until the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913 that Congress could enact the current individual income tax. Since then, the top marginal tax rate has varied widely, from 1 percent for incomes over $3,000 in 1913 to 94 percent for the highest incomes during World War II. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the branch of the U.S. Treasury Department in charge of collecting taxes today.
Federal Government Revenue Sources
**MAIN Idea** Individual income taxes, FICA, and borrowing constitute the main sources of government revenue.
**Economics & You** Have you ever wondered what “FICA” on your pay stub means? Read on to find out about one of the main federal revenue sources.
The federal government gets its revenue from a number of sources. Taxes are the primary source of revenue, but borrowing also plays a big part. As shown in Figure 9.3, the four largest sources of government revenue are individual income taxes, Social Security taxes, borrowing, and corporate income taxes.
**Individual Income Taxes**
The main source of federal government revenue is the individual income tax. In most cases, the tax is collected with a payroll withholding system, a system that requires an employer to automatically deduct income taxes from a worker’s paycheck and send them directly to the IRS.
Because inflation can push a worker into a higher tax bracket, the tax code is also indexed. Indexing is an upward revision of the tax brackets to keep workers from paying more in taxes just because of inflation. Workers might otherwise move into a higher tax bracket when they receive a pay raise that makes up for inflation.
**FICA Taxes**
The second most important federal revenue source is FICA. FICA is the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax, which is levied on employers and employees equally to pay for Social Security and Medicare. These two taxes are sometimes called payroll taxes because they are deducted from paychecks.
In 2007 the Social Security component of FICA was 6.2 percent of wages and salaries up to $97,500. Above that amount, Social Security taxes are not collected, regardless of income. This means that a person with
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**Figure 9.3 ▶ Federal Government Revenue Sources**
| Source: Economic Report of the President, 2006 |
|-----------------------------------------------|
| 2001 |
| 49.9% |
| 34.9% |
| 7.6% |
| 3.3% |
| 1.0% |
| 1.4% |
| 0% |
| 1.9% |
| 2007 |
| 39.6% |
| 31.9% |
| 9.4% |
| 2.7% |
| 1.0% |
| 0.9% |
| 12.8% |
| 1.7% |
| 0.9% |
**Social security taxes**
**Corporate income taxes**
**Excise taxes**
**Customs duties**
**Estate and gift taxes**
**Borrowing**
**Miscellaneous**
**Individual income taxes**
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**Economic Analysis** What is the percentage of total revenue for the first four items?
**Answer:** 2001—46.8%; 2007—45%
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**Activity: Hands-On Economics**
**Comparing and Contrasting** Ask students to compare the Social Security tax and the Medicare tax. Have them make a chart stating the purpose of each tax and the similarities and differences between the two taxes. (The taxes are both payroll deductions. However, Social Security is a proportional tax up to a $72,600 income and regressive thereafter. Medicare tax is proportional because the individual pays the same percentage regardless of the amount of income.) Students may also wish to provide several examples of incomes and the taxes levied on those amounts. Finally, ask students to hypothesize why the government handles the two taxes differently.
High Taxes—Are You Sure?
You examine your paycheck and are dismayed to see how much money has been taken out for taxes. Before you get too outraged, however, do the math. What percentage of the total amount has been withheld for taxes? Ten percent? Twenty percent? This is a far cry less than would be withheld in many other countries.
One measure of a country’s tax burden is the ratio of its tax revenues to gross domestic product (GDP). Despite the criticism over high taxes in the United States, our federal government’s revenues as a percentage of GDP are much lower than people realize. Sweden is usually ranked first as the country with the world’s highest taxes, whereas the United States boasts one of the lowest tax revenue-to-GDP ratios in the industrial world.
| Country | Percentage |
|----------|------------|
| Sweden | 50% |
| Finland | 45% |
| France | 40% |
| United Kingdom | 35% |
| Spain | 30% |
| Canada | 25% |
| Australia| 20% |
| United States | 15% |
| Japan | 10% |
Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Corporate Income Tax
The fourth-largest source of federal revenue is the corporate income tax—the tax a corporation pays on its profits. The corporation is taxed separately from individuals because the corporation is recognized as a separate legal entity.
Several marginal tax brackets, which are slightly progressive, apply to corporations. The first is at 15 percent on all income under $50,000. The marginal brackets then rise slightly after that, and eventually a 35 percent marginal tax applies to all profits in excess of $18.3 million.
Excise Taxes
The excise tax—a tax on the manufacture or sale of selected items such as gasoline and liquor—is the fifth-largest source of federal government revenue. Some early borrowing has been mainly due to the increased levels of government spending since 2001 that have outpaced federal revenue collection.
Borrowing
Borrowing by the federal government is the third-largest source of federal revenue. Because tax revenues fluctuate, the government never knows exactly how much it will need to borrow. Therefore, it continues with its spending as allocated in the budget. If it does not collect enough money in taxes and user fees, it simply borrows the rest by selling bonds to investors.
Figure 9.3 shows that the federal government has become dependent on this source of funds, with the amount of money borrowed exceeding the total amount of taxes collected from corporations. The increased taxable income of $97,500 pays the same Social Security tax—$6,045—as does someone who earns $1,000,000,000.
In 1965 Congress added Medicare to the Social Security program. The Medicare component of FICA is taxed at a flat rate of 1.45 percent. Unlike Social Security, there is no cap on the amount of income taxed, which makes it a proportional tax.
Analyzing a Paycheck
Objective: Understand the importance of analyzing a paycheck.
Focus: Ask how many students have received a paycheck. Have them share their understanding of the deductions listed on it.
Teach: Have students answer the activity questions.
Assess: Review the answers as a class.
Close: Ask students to explain what they might achieve by analyzing a paycheck.
Differentiated Instruction Strategies
BL Fill in the paycheck stub and have students complete the questions about it.
AL Have students create three different paycheck stubs, each for 40-hour weeks but at differing pay rates.
ELL Have students create a chart that lists and defines gross pay, FICA, federal taxes, state taxes, retirement, and net pay.
excise taxes were on carriages, snuff, and liquor. Today federal excise taxes are levied on telephone services, tires, legal betting, and coal. Because low-income families spend larger portions of their incomes on these goods than do high-income families, excise taxes tend to be regressive.
**Estate and Gift Taxes**
The **estate tax** is the tax on the transfer of property when a person dies. Estate taxes can range from 18 to 50 percent of the value of the estate, although estates worth less than $2,000,000 are exempt. The exemption will be raised to $3,500,000 by 2009, but because these amounts are so high, fewer than 2 percent of all estates pay any tax at all.
The **gift tax** is a tax on the transfer of money or wealth and is paid by the person who makes the gift. The gift tax is used to make sure that wealthy people do not try to avoid taxes by giving away their estates before they die. Figure 9.3 shows that estate and gift taxes account for only a small fraction of total federal government revenues.
**Customs Duties**
A **customs duty** is a charge levied on goods brought into the United States from other countries. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to levy customs duties. Congress then can decide which foreign imports will be taxed and at what rate. Many types of goods are covered, ranging from automobiles to silver ore. The duties are relatively low and produce little federal revenue today. Before the enactment of the income tax amendment, however, they were the largest income source for the federal government.
**Miscellaneous Fees**
Finally, only a fraction of federal revenue is collected through various miscellaneous fees. One example of a miscellaneous fee is a **user fee**—a charge levied for the use of a good or service. User fees were widely promoted by President Ronald Reagan, who wanted to find revenue sources that did not involve taxes.
User fees include entrance charges at national parks, as well as the fees ranchers pay when their animals graze on federal land. These fees are essentially taxes based on the benefit principle, because only the individuals who use the services pay them. People also seem more comfortable with them since they are not called “taxes.”
**Reading Check** **Explaining** Why are corporations taxed separately from individuals?
**Caption Answer:** They are based on the benefit principle, where only the individuals who use the services pay for them.
**Reading Check** **Answer:** Corporations are recognized as separate legal entities.
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**Leveled Activities**
**BL Reinforcing Economic Skills, p. 24**
**OL Hands-On Economics, p. 19**
**AL Free Enterprise Activities, p. 14**
State Government Revenue Sources
**MAIN Idea** States rely on funds from the federal government in addition to income taxes and sales taxes.
**Economics & You** Do you ever wonder why you pay a tax on items you purchase in a store? Read on to learn about sales taxes.
State governments collect their revenues from several sources. Figure 9.4 shows the relative proportions of these sources, the largest of which are examined below.
**Intergovernmental Revenues**
The largest source of state revenue consists of **intergovernmental revenue**—funds collected by one level of government that are distributed to another level of government for expenditures. States receive the majority of these funds from the federal government to help fund the state’s expenditures for welfare, education, highways, health, and hospitals.
**Sales Taxes**
Most states also have **implemented** sales taxes to add to their revenue. A sales tax is a general tax levied on consumer purchases of nearly all products. The tax is a percentage of the purchase price, which is added to the final price the consumer pays. Merchants collect the tax at the time of sale. The taxes are then turned over to the proper state government agency on a monthly or other periodic basis. Most states allow merchants to keep a small portion of what they collect to compensate for their time and bookkeeping costs. The sales tax is the second largest source of revenue for states, although five states—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon—do not have a general sales tax.
**Figure 9.4**
State and Local Government Revenue Sources
- State and local governments have their own sources of revenue. While many have an individual income tax, this is not a major source of funding.
**Economic Analysis**
*What are the two largest sources of state and local revenues?*
**Activity: Collaborative Learning**
**Behavior and Taxes** To learn more about how taxes affect the behavior of taxpayers, divide students into groups of three to interview a variety of taxpayers in your community, including small-business owners, high school students with part-time jobs, large-business managers, and retired persons. Instruct students to ask their subjects to name federal, state, and local taxes that they pay. Students should then ask their subjects to describe how paying taxes affects their economic behavior—hiring new workers, expanding the business, buying products, saving, and so on. Have each pair of students compile and summarize their findings, making special note of any differences among the four groups of taxpayers interviewed. Invite a volunteer from each group to share their findings with the class.
Individual Income Taxes
All but seven states—Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming—rely on the individual income tax for revenue. The tax brackets in each state vary considerably, and taxes can be progressive in some states and proportional in others.
Other Revenues
States rely on a variety of other revenue sources, including interest earnings on surplus funds; tuition and fees collected from state-owned colleges, universities, and technical schools; corporate income taxes; and hospital fees.
While the percentages for revenue sources in Figure 9.4 are representative of most states, wide variations among states exist. For example, Alaska is the only state without either a general sales tax or an income tax, so it has to rely on other taxes and fees for its operating revenue.
Reading Check Contrasting How do states without individual income taxes find sources of revenue?
Local Government Revenue Sources
MAIN Idea Local governments rely mostly on intergovernmental revenue and property taxes.
Economics & You Do you hope to own a house some day? Read on to learn how this will add another tax to those you are already paying.
Like state governments, local governments have a variety of revenue sources, as shown in Figure 9.4. These sources include taxes and funds from state and federal governments. The main categories are discussed below.
Intergovernmental Revenues
Local governments receive the largest part of their revenues—slightly more than one-third—in the form of intergovernmental transfers from state governments. These funds are generally intended for education and public welfare. A much smaller amount comes directly from the federal government, mostly for urban renewal.
Caption Answer: Taxes affect productivity and economic growth by changing incentives for people to save, invest, and work.
Reading Check Answer: They rely on other taxes and fees.
Activity: Interdisciplinary Connection
History Before the Civil War, the federal government collected most of its revenues from tariffs, or taxes on imports, and from the sale of public lands. During the war, a variety of taxes, including a 5 percent income tax, were imposed to pay for the costs of fighting. After the war, many of these taxes were dropped, but others, including increased property taxes, were added. However, the typical homeowner paid only about $90 in annual property taxes and only about 1 percent of the population ever paid income tax. By 1872, no one was paying income tax because the tax had been repealed. Have students identify which parts of the U.S. Constitution deal with taxation.
State and Local Taxes as a Percentage of State Income
State income is the sum of all income earned by all people in the state. State and local governments receive a percentage of that income as tax revenue from a number of sources. The five states without sales taxes—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon—rely on other taxes to provide state revenues.
Economic Analysis Which states have the highest level of taxes? The lowest level?
Source: Tax Foundation, 2006
Property Taxes
The second-largest source of revenue for local governments is the **property tax**—a tax on tangible and intangible possessions. Such possessions usually include real estate, buildings, furniture, farm animals, stocks, bonds, and bank accounts. Most states also assess a property tax on automobiles.
The property tax that raises the most revenue is the tax on real estate. Taxes on other personal property, with the exception of automobiles, are seldom collected because of the problem of valuation. For example, how would the **tax assessor**—the person who assigns value to property for tax purposes—know the reasonable value of everyone’s wedding silver, furniture, clothing, or other tangible property? Instead, most communities find it more efficient to hire one or more individuals to assess the value of a few big-ticket items such as buildings and motor vehicles.
Utility Revenues
The third-largest source of local revenue is the income from public utilities that supply water, electricity, sewerage, and even telecommunications. Because of economies of scale, many of these companies are **natural monopolies**.
A community needs only one set of electrical power lines or underground water pipes, for example, so one company usually supplies all of the services. When people pay their utility bills, the payments are counted as a source of revenue for local governments.
Sales Taxes
Many cities have their own sales taxes. Merchants collect these taxes along with the state sales taxes at the point of sale. While these taxes typically are much lower than state sales taxes, they are the fourth most important source of local government revenues.
Hands-On Chapter Project
Step 2
Explaining Taxation and Revenue Systems
Step 2: Revenue Systems at the Federal, State, and Local Levels.
Students will examine the federal, state, and local government’s revenue systems, and provide examples of at least three revenue sources at each level.
Directions: Ask student groups to work together to complete Step 2. One group member should examine federal revenue sources, another group member should examine state revenue sources, and the third group member should examine local government revenue sources. After gathering information, the group members will come back together to create a booklet, using illustrations and correct grammar and punctuation, to report their findings.
Identifying Have students give an example of a source of revenue at the federal, state, and local levels. (Chapter Project continued in Section 3.)
Other Revenue Sources
Figure 9.4 on page 242 shows a variety of ways in which local governments collect their remaining revenues. Some local governments receive a portion of their funds from hospital fees. Others may collect income taxes from individuals and profit taxes from corporations. Still another revenue source for local governments is the interest on invested funds.
If local governments spend more than they collect in revenues, they can borrow from investors. While borrowed funds are small compared to those of the federal government, they form an important source of local government funding.
Local governments look for revenues in a number of ways. Still, the revenue sources available in general are much more limited than those available to the state and federal levels of government.
Reading Check Recalling Which property tax earns the most revenue for local governments?
Tax Assessments Tax assessors determine the value of property for tax purposes. Why are property taxes important for local communities?
Caption Answer: They provide a significant revenue source.
Reading Check Answer: real estate
Assess
Use the Interactive Tutor Self-Assessment CD-ROM to review Section 2, and then assign the Section 2 Review as homework or as an in-class activity.
Close
Categorizing Have students create a three-column chart with the headings “Federal,” “State,” and “Local” and then list revenue sources for each.
Answers
1. All definitions can be found in the section and the Glossary.
2. individual income taxes, Social Security taxes, borrowing, corporate income taxes
3. States rely on funds from the federal government in addition to income taxes and sales taxes. Local governments rely mostly on intergovernmental revenue and property taxes.
4. Answers will vary but should demonstrate knowledge of revenue sources and tax evaluation criteria.
5. Possible answer: Food and beverages at grocery stores are necessities, whereas dining out is more of a luxury.
6. Property taxes are a major source of funding for local governments, but they are not for state governments. Income taxes are more important for state governments than for local governments.
7. An excise tax is a tax on the manufacture or sale of selected items. Other taxes such as sales taxes and estate taxes cover a broader range.
8. Answers will vary but should demonstrate an understanding of user fees.
Buried in Paper
Every spring, you can tell it’s close to the April 15 tax deadline by the anxious faces of frustrated taxpayers and exhausted accountants. The U.S. tax system is one of the most complicated in the world, with almost 17,000 pages of tax code and more than 600 forms. Record keeping, education, and compliance cost the nation $265 billion annually. In 2005 it took about 115,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees and almost $10.7 billion to collect about $1 trillion from 125 million taxpayers and 7 million businesses.
The European Solution
Several eastern European countries have adopted a flat tax, where everyone pays the same percentage above an exempt amount, regardless of income. The first was the Baltic republic of Estonia, which adopted a flat tax rate of 26 percent in 1994. Most Estonians take only 5 to 20 minutes to complete and electronically file an “e-postcard.” The country’s tax department spends one penny for every dollar of income tax collected, compared to 25 cents the IRS spends in the United States.
Time is Money
Because the tax code has become so complex, more and more Americans hire tax preparers to help them with their returns. On top of that, about 2.2 million taxpayers overpay—by an average of $438—because they either don’t itemize deductions or don’t include all deductions or exemptions they could claim. Although many Americans file their tax returns online, they still spend an average of 17 hours completing the forms. The complexity of the system has caused many people to long for a simpler flat-tax system.
Analyzing the Impact
Answers:
1. It contains almost 17,000 pages of tax code and more than 600 forms.
2. Answers will vary but should reflect an understanding of a flat tax.
Extending the Content
April 15: The Real Due Date?
On February 3, 1913, Congress adopted the 16th Amendment and instituted the income tax. They originally set March 1 as the deadline for filing taxes. Five years later, with the Revenue Act of 1918, they moved the date to March 15. That date was the deadline for the next 37 years. In 1955 it was changed to April 15, which is the present due date—for most years, that is. By law, filing and payment deadlines that fall on Saturday, Sunday, or legal holidays are set for the next business day. Therefore, in certain years, the deadline date might be April 17 or April 18. In those years, taxpayers may have an extra day or two to file their returns.
Section Preview
In this section, you will learn that one consequence of tax reform was to make the individual tax code more complex than ever.
Content Vocabulary
- payroll withholding statement (p. 248)
- accelerated depreciation (p. 249)
- investment tax credit (p. 249)
- alternative minimum tax (p. 249)
- capital gains (p. 250)
- flat tax (p. 251)
- value-added tax (VAT) (p. 252)
Academic Vocabulary
- concept (p. 251)
- controversial (p. 252)
Reading Strategy
Listing As you read the section, complete a graphic organizer like the one below by listing the advantages and disadvantages of the flat tax. Include a definition of flat tax in your own words.
| | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|----------------|------------|---------------|
| Flat tax | | |
| Value-added tax| | |
ISSUES IN THE NEWS
A Trophy Loophole
One of the looniest tax loopholes imaginable . . . [is] . . . a tax break for big-game hunters who can deduct the cost of an expensive safari when they donate the stuffed trophy to a museum. By using tax-code provisions designed to encourage charitable donations, a hunter can give away a trophy specimen.
This gives a fat tax break to the hunter. It’s also created a system of tax dodging and shady dealing. Little-known museums exist largely to take in the trophies and sign tax receipts.
Senator Charles Grassley . . . wants to end such hunting deductions [but] a similar proviso is missing from a tax overhaul in the House. . . .
The individual tax code is incredibly complex. The complete code is about 17,000 pages long and contains approximately 9 million words. It has been estimated that Americans spend more than 7 billion hours every year filling out their federal tax returns for the IRS.
Every year, magazines like Money ask professional tax preparers to fill out tax returns for a hypothetical family—only to find out that no two returns are the same. If experts can’t get it right, then the rest of us will obviously have a difficult time. Also, it is all too easy for lawmakers to insert special-interest provisions in the tax code, such as the one in the news story above.
It is no wonder that the tax code has been amended about 14,000 times in the last 20 years—and Congress is still not done with changes!
CHAPTER 9 Sources of Government Revenue 247
Answer to Graphic:
Flat tax: advantages—simple for taxpayers, closes tax loopholes, reduces need for tax accountants, preparers and the IRS; disadvantages—removes many incentives, rate to replace current revenues unknown, may not stimulate further economic growth
Value-added tax: advantages—hard to avoid, tax incidence is widely spread, easy to collect, encourages savings; disadvantages—virtually invisible
Examinining Your Paycheck
**MAIN Idea** The income taxes you pay are summarized on the stub that is attached to your paycheck.
**Economics & You** Do you have a job where your taxes are taken out before you are paid? Read on to learn how these taxes are deducted from your paycheck.
Most of the federal, state, and local taxes are deducted directly from your paycheck. Employers list these deductions on the **payroll withholding statement**—the stub attached to a paycheck that summarizes income, tax withholdings, and other deductions, as shown in Figure 9.6.
The worker to whom the check belongs makes $10 an hour and receives a check every two weeks. If the length of the workweek is 40 hours, the worker’s gross pay amounts to $800. The worker is single, has no deductions, and lives and works in Kentucky.
According to withholding tables the federal government supplied for that year, biweekly workers making at least $800, but less than $820, have $104.70 withheld from their paychecks every pay period. Similar tables for the state of Kentucky specify that $40.01 is withheld for state income taxes. Because these are both estimates, and because even minor differences between the amounts withheld and the amount actually owed can grow, the worker will file state and federal tax returns between January 1 and April 15 of the following year to settle the differences.
Another deduction is the half-percent city income tax that amounts to $4. Because the amount is relatively small, most cities do not require taxpayers to file separate year-end tax forms.
The FICA tax amounts to 7.65 percent (6.20 percent for Social Security and 1.45 percent for Medicare) of $800, or $61.20. The FICA is deducted from the gross pay, along with $3.20 in miscellaneous deductions, which leaves a net pay of $586.89.
If the worker has insurance payments or retirement contributions, or puts money into a credit union, more deductions will appear on the pay stub.
**Reading Check** Summarizing How are payroll deductions calculated?
**Figure 9.6**
Biweekly Paycheck and Withholding Statement
| Weaver & Higginson | 23-2 | Number | 2,195,903 |
|--------------------|------|--------|-----------|
| Attorneys at Law | 01 | | |
| Date June 29 2007 | | | |
| Pay to the order of Sara Pena | $586.89 |
| Five Hundred Eighty-Six Dollars and 89/100 Dollars |
| THE CENTRAL BANK |
| Memo |
| 5:5555555: 555:55555 Treasurer |
| PLEASE DETACH AND RETAIN THIS PORTION AS YOUR RECORD OF EARNINGS AND DEDUCTIONS |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Date | Pay End No. | Vs. No. | Emp. No. | Hrs. | Misc. | Cr. Ch. | Ins. | Gross |
|------|-------------|---------|----------|------|-------|---------|------|-------|
| 6/29/07 | 6/23/07 | 1376 | 80 | 3.20 | | | | 800.00 |
| 104.70 | 40 | 01 | 4 | 00 | 61.20 | | | 586.89 |
| Federal | State | City | FICA | Ret. | Bonds | Other | Net |
**Economic Analysis**
Answer: about 27 percent
**Differentiated Instruction Strategies**
**BL** Ask students to summarize the cartoonist’s message in one sentence.
**AL** Have students draw a cartoon about the IRS or taxes that alludes to a different movie.
**ELL** Explain to students the plot of *The Wizard of Oz*. If possible, show them pictures of similar scenes in the movie.
**Tax Reform**
**MAIN Idea** Numerous changes have been made to the federal income tax code since 1981.
**Economics and You** Do you or your family pay federal income taxes? Read on to learn why keeping up with the tax code is so difficult.
Tax reform has received considerable attention recently. Since 1981, there have been more changes in the tax code than at any other time in our nation’s history.
**Tax Reform in 1981**
When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, he believed that high taxes were the main stumbling block to economic growth. In 1981 he signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act, which included large tax reductions for individuals and businesses.
Before the Recovery Act, the individual tax code had 16 marginal tax brackets ranging from 14 to 70 percent. The act lowered the marginal rates in all brackets, capping the highest marginal tax at 50 percent. In comparison, today’s tax code, shown in Figure 9.7, has six marginal brackets ranging from 10 to 35 percent.
Businesses also got tax relief in the form of **accelerated depreciation**—earlier and larger depreciation charges—which allowed firms to reduce federal income tax payments. Another section of the act introduced the **investment tax credit**—a reduction in business taxes that are tied to investment in new plants and equipment. For example, a company might purchase a $50,000 machine that qualified for a 10 percent, or $5,000, tax credit. If the firm owed $12,000 in taxes, the credit reduced the tax owed to $7,000.
**Tax Reform: 1986, 1993**
By the mid-1980s, the idea that the tax code favored the rich and powerful was gaining momentum. In 1983 more than 3,000 millionaires paid no income taxes.
In 1986 Congress passed sweeping tax reform that made it difficult for the very rich to avoid taxes altogether. The **alternative minimum tax**—the personal income tax rate that applies whenever the amount of taxes paid falls below a designated level—was strengthened. Under this provision, people had to pay a minimum tax of 20 percent, regardless of other circumstances or loopholes in the tax code.
As the United States entered the 1990s, the impact of 10 years of tax cuts was beginning to show. Government spending was growing faster than revenues, and the government had to borrow more. The resulting tax reform of 1993 was driven more by the need for the government to balance its
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**Skill Practice**
**Using Tables and Charts**
Have students study the Tax Table for Single Individuals, 2006. Call their attention to the percentage increases in the column marked “The tax is.”
**Economic Analysis**
**How much in taxes would an individual with $40,000 of taxable income pay?**
According to the individual income tax table, a single individual with $6,000 of taxable income would pay $6,000 x .10, or $600 in taxes.
**Reading Strategy**
**Questioning** Before students read about tax reform, have them write three questions that they think will be answered in the text. As they read the passage, encourage them to look for the answers to their questions, and write them down.
**Economic Analysis**
**Answer:** $6,557.50 (tax of $4,220 plus 25% of the amount over $30,650, which is $2,337.50, equals $6,557.50)
Although a recession in 2001 reduced revenues from 2002 to 2003, total revenue collections by all levels of government have grown dramatically over the years.
**Economic Analysis** How does the graph reflect the tax reforms since 1981?
**Capital Gains**
Profits from the sale of an asset held for 12 months or longer
Budget than to overhaul the tax brackets. As a result, two top marginal tax brackets of 36 and 39.6 percent were added.
**Tax Reform in 1997**
The next significant reform followed four years later with the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. The forces that created it were both economic and political.
On the economic side, the government found itself with unexpectedly high tax revenues in 1997. The two new marginal tax brackets of 36 and 39.6 percent that had been added in 1993, along with the closure of some tax loopholes, meant that most people paid more taxes than before.
On the political side, the Republicans had gained a firm majority in Congress and now saw a need to fulfill a commitment to their supporters. They reduced the tax on **capital gains**—profits from the sale of an asset held for 12 months or longer—from 28 to 20 percent. The new law also lowered inheritance taxes.
Some people thought that the tax cuts favored the wealthy, and even the government agreed. An analysis by the United States Treasury Department determined that nearly half of the benefits went to the top 20 percent of wage and income earners. The lowest 20 percent received less than 1 percent of the tax reductions. With all its changes, the 1997 federal tax law became the most complicated ever.
**Tax Reform in 2001**
By 2001 politicians faced a new issue: the federal government was actually collecting more taxes than it was spending. These surpluses were projected to continue to the year 2010. Surpluses could have been used to repay some of the money the government borrowed in the 1980s or to fund new federal spending. The government also could cut taxes to “give the money back to the people.” In the end, President Bush backed a massive $1.35 billion, “temporary” 10-year tax cut due to expire in 2011.
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**Explaining Taxation and Revenue Systems**
**Step 3: The Present U.S. Tax System and Alternative Tax Approaches.** Students will explain our present tax system and alternative tax approaches.
**Directions:** Have students meet in their groups of three. They will research our present tax system, the flat tax, and the value-added tax. They will then present their findings in a multimedia report.
**Analyzing Visuals** Have students decide on at least one visual they would like to use in their multimedia presentation to increase understanding. They can then assign a group member to create it. (Chapter Project will continue in Visual Summary.)
The main feature of the 2001 tax reform was to reduce the top four marginal tax brackets of 27, 30, 35, and 38.6 percent to 25, 28, 33, and 35 percent by 2006. The law also introduced a 10 percent tax bracket and eliminated the estate tax on the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers by 2010.
**Tax Reform in 2003**
Slow economic growth in 2002 convinced the Bush administration and Congress to accelerate many of the 2001 tax reforms. Specifically, the top four marginal tax brackets were reduced immediately rather than in 2006.
For lower income taxpayers, the top end of the 10 percent bracket was increased modestly. The child tax credit was also expanded from $600 to $1,000. Finally, the 20 percent capital gains tax bracket was reduced from 20 to 15 percent.
The 2003 tax cuts put the federal government back in the same situation as in 1993. A series of tax cuts reduced taxes in upper income brackets, and government was still spending more than it collected in taxes.
**Permanent Tax Cuts by 2011?**
The tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 were “temporary” in the sense that they were due to expire in 2011. Whether that happens or not will depend on several things.
One complicating factor is that the rate of economic growth in the six years following the 2001 tax cuts was slightly lower than the rate of growth in the six years following the 1993 tax increase. This makes it difficult to argue that lower taxes are needed for higher rates of growth.
However, the biggest factor will be the extent to which the federal government continues to spend more than it collects in taxes. If the present trend continues, it will be difficult to preserve the tax cuts because the government will need so much additional revenue.
**Reading Check** Inferring Why have tax reforms occurred so frequently in recent years?
**Alternative Tax Approaches**
**MAIN Idea** The need for new federal revenues will influence future tax reform.
**Economics and You** You learned earlier about state sales taxes. Read on to find out how another tax is similar to the sales tax.
Some people want to change the personal income tax; others want to replace it with something else. Because of this, we hear a lot about two alternatives: the flat tax and the value-added tax.
**The Flat Tax**
The concept of a **flat tax**—a proportional tax on individual income after a specified threshold has been reached—did not receive much attention until Republican candidate Steve Forbes and others raised the issue in the 1996 presidential elections.
The primary advantage of the flat tax is the simplicity it offers to the taxpayer. A person would still have to fill out an income tax return every year but could skip many current steps, such as itemizing deductions. A second advantage is that a flat tax would close most tax loopholes if it did away with most deductions and exemptions. Finally, a flat tax reduces the need for tax accountants, tax preparers, and even a large portion of the IRS. As a result, Americans would no longer have to spend 7 billion hours every year preparing tax returns.
However, a flat tax also has disadvantages because it would remove many of the incentives built into the current tax code.
**Did You Know?**
**Tax Exempt?** Each year taxpayers take advantage of a long list of deductions and tax credits to reduce their tax burden. In the year 2006, the Tax Foundation reported that a record 43.4 million tax returns from 91 million individuals showed no taxes due. Combined with the 15 million Americans who don’t file returns at all, about 41 percent of the U.S. population did not contribute to the federal treasury.
**Reading Check** Answer: to increase and decrease government revenues
**Extending the Content**
**Support of the Flat Tax** Steve Forbes is a newspaper and magazine publisher who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000. His grandfather founded *Forbes*, the business magazine which is still owned by the Forbes family. Steve Forbes was born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1947 and graduated from Princeton University in 1970. While still in college, Forbes started *Business Today*, a magazine that came out three times a year. In 1993 Forbes became chairman of Empower America, a research center dedicated to conservative principles. He supports a flat tax and an end to the federal government’s progressive income tax.
The Value-Added Tax
Another controversial proposal is to adopt the equivalent of a national sales tax by taxing consumption rather than income. This could be done with a value-added tax (VAT)—a tax placed on the value that manufacturers add at each stage of production. The United States currently does not have a VAT, although it is widely used in Europe.
To see how the VAT works, consider how the tax impacts the manufacturing and selling of wooden baseball bats. First, loggers cut the trees and sell the timber to lumber mills. The mills process the logs for sale to bat manufacturers. The manufacturers then shape the wood into baseball bats.
After the bats are painted or varnished, they are sold to a wholesaler. The wholesaler sells them to retailers, who sell them to consumers. As Figure 9.9 shows, a VAT tax is levied at each stage of production.
Activity: Interdisciplinary Connection
History Show students that the fairness of income taxes has been debated for thousands of years by reading the following quote from Plato (circa 428–348 B.C.): “When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.”
Ask: Based on this quote, do you think Plato would prefer a flat tax on income or the current progressive income tax system?
(Students should mention that, under the present system, taxpayers can use loopholes to pay less than others with the same income. As a result, Plato would probably prefer the flat tax.)
Invite students to find additional tax-related quotes from historical figures. Discuss the quotes as a class and speculate on how the figures might feel about the current U.S. tax system. OL
The VAT has several advantages. First, it is hard to avoid because it is built into the price of the product being taxed. Second, the tax incidence is widely spread, which makes it harder for a single firm to shift the burden of the tax to another group.
Third, the VAT is easy to collect, because firms make their VAT payments directly to the government. Consequently, even a relatively small VAT can raise a tremendous amount of revenue, especially when it is applied to a broad range of goods and services.
Finally, some supporters claim that the VAT would encourage people to save more than they do now. After all, if none of your money is taxed until it is spent, you might think more carefully about purchases, decide to spend less—and save more.
The main disadvantage of the VAT is that it tends to be virtually invisible. In the baseball bat example, consumers may be aware that bat prices went from $10 to $11, but they might attribute this to a shortage of good wood, higher wages, or some other factor. In other words, it is difficult for taxpayers to be vigilant about higher taxes if they cannot see them.
**Inevitability of Future Reforms**
The tax code is more complex now than at any time since 1981—a fact that virtually guarantees future attempts to simplify it. The recent flat tax movement provides just one such example. While simplification is desirable, unexpected events often require new expenditures—which in turn may require changes in the tax code. The unexpected cost of the war in Iraq, along with the enormous damage inflicted by hurricane Katrina in 2005, are two examples of such unexpected costs.
Reform also can result from political change, which tends to be abrupt as one party leaves office and another enters. New administrations often display a sense of urgency to finally do things the “right” way, or to clean up the presumed excesses of their predecessors.
Finally, it is difficult for politicians to give up the power to modify behavior, influence resource allocation, support pet projects, or grant concessions to special interest groups by changing the tax code.
**Reading Check** Describing How does a value-added tax work? Why is it useful?
**Critical Thinking**
4. **The BIG Idea** What factors led to the tax reform measures passed in 1981, 1986, 1997, and 2001?
5. **Summarizing** What changes would you recommend if you were in charge of revising the federal tax code? Explain your answer in a written paragraph.
6. **Analyzing Visuals** Look at Figure 9.7 on page 249. How can you tell whether this tax is progressive, regressive, or proportional?
7. **Cause and Effect** Describe the factors that are likely to cause future revisions of the tax code.
**Applying Economics**
8. **Flat Tax** Use examples to explain what might happen to donations for charitable organizations under a flat tax.
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**Answers**
1. All definitions can be found in the section and the Glossary.
2. federal income tax, state income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and possibly local income tax
3. **Advantages:** hard to avoid, tax incidence widely spread, easy to collect, might encourage more saving. **Disadvantages:** difficult for taxpayers to be vigilant since VAT is “invisible,” competes with state sales taxes.
4. There were high taxes blocking economic growth, Congress felt that too many of the rich were able to completely avoid paying taxes, there was high tax revenue, Republicans were committed to reducing inheritance taxes and providing tax breaks for people with long-term investments, and the federal government was collecting more taxes than it was spending.
5. Answers will vary but should reflect knowledge of the current federal tax code.
6. The tax is progressive, based on a percentage of taxable income.
7. Factors likely to cause future revisions include the desire to simplify the tax code, the appearance of unexpected costs, political change, and the reluctance of politicians to give up their power to change the tax code.
8. Answers will vary but should demonstrate an understanding of the flat tax.
A flat tax has often been debated in the United States. Today Russia and several countries in Eastern Europe utilize it as a way to keep taxes simple and avoid tax loopholes. This has spurred Western Europe to take a closer look.
**Europe Circles the Flat Tax**
The flat tax. In the eyes of many fiscal conservatives, it’s the Holy Grail of public policy: One low income tax rate paid by all but the poorest wage-earners, who are exempt. No loopholes for the rich to exploit. No graduated rates that take a higher percentage of income from people who work hard to earn more. No need for a huge bureaucracy to police fiendishly complex tax laws. U.S. conservatives have been pushing the idea for decades. But it has gotten its first real road test in the former Soviet bloc, where at least eight countries, from minuscule Estonia to giant Russia, have enacted flat taxes since the mid-1990s.
Most of these countries’ economies are growing at a far-healthier clip than those of their neighbors to the west. So it’s no surprise that calls for a flat tax are now being heard in Western Europe, the most heavily taxed zone on the planet. . . . Even without pressure from the East, many Western European governments face growing complaints about the complexity of their tax regimes. . . .
There’s no guarantee, of course, that flat taxes would work as well in Western Europe as they have in the countries to the east. In the former Soviet bloc, most of the countries that enacted flat taxes gained revenue as people who had worked in the shadow economy began reporting their income and paying taxes. The former tax dodgers figured that with rates so low, it was no longer worth running the risk of breaking the law. Moscow, which introduced a flat tax in 2001, saw its income tax revenues more than double in real terms from 2000 to 2004.
—Reprinted from *BusinessWeek*
### FLAT TAXES
| Country | Year | Rate |
|-----------|------|------|
| Estonia | 1994 | 23% |
| Latvia | 1995 | 25% |
| Russia | 2001 | 13% |
| Serbia | 2003 | 14% |
| Slovakia | 2003 | 19% |
| Ukraine | 2003 | 13% |
| Georgia | 2004 | 12% |
| Romania | 2005 | 16% |
Source: Hoover Institution
---
**Examining the Newsclip**
1. One low income tax rate is paid by all, there are no loopholes or graduated rates, and there is no need to enforce complex laws.
2. They were not in the former Soviet bloc.
---
**Additional Support**
---
**Extending the Content**
**Is Flat Really Flat?** Many Eastern European nations that were former members of the Soviet bloc have introduced a statutory flat personal rate as part of their reform packages in the hopes of generating sufficient revenue for government expenses. The results have been positive, but experts point out that many of these countries are using variations of a flat income tax rather than implementing the original concept. In these situations, Social Security contributions make much larger contributions to the total tax revenue than personal income tax. The combination of a flat income tax, high Social Security contributions, and indirect taxation means that there is a tax burden on individuals that is often higher than suggested by the original concept of a flat tax.
Review Content Vocabulary
On a separate sheet of paper, choose the letter of the term identified by each phrase below.
a. ability-to-pay
b. payroll tax
c. estate tax
d. excise tax
e. FICA
f. VAT
g. tax return
h. regressive tax
i. sales tax
j. capital gains
1. tax on wages and salaries withheld from paycheck
2. average tax per dollar decreases as taxable income increases
3. profits from an asset held 12 months or longer
4. tax on the manufacture or sale of certain items
5. annual report to the government detailing income earned and taxes owed
6. large source of revenue for state governments
7. national sales tax on value added at each stage of production
8. Social Security and Medicare taxes
9. tax on the transfer of property when a person dies
10. tax paid by those who can most afford to pay
Review Academic Vocabulary
11. evolved
12. concept
13. implement
14. validity
15. considerably
16. controversial
Review the Main Ideas
Section 1 (pages 229–236)
17. Describe how taxes can be used to affect people’s behavior.
18. Describe the limitations of the benefit principle of taxation.
19. Explain why a sales tax is considered to be a regressive tax.
20. Explain the three criteria used to evaluate taxes.
Section 2 (pages 238–245)
21. Identify the two components of FICA.
22. Distinguish between excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, and customs duties.
23. List the main sources of revenue for state and local governments by using a graphic organizer like the one below.
| Sources of Revenue |
|--------------------|
| State | Local |
Section 3 (pages 247–253)
24. Discuss the deductions that are withheld from paychecks.
25. Describe the major tax reform bills enacted since 1981.
26. Explain why Congress enacted the alternative minimum tax.
27. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of a flat tax.
Critical Thinking
28. The BIG Idea If you were an elected official who wanted to increase tax revenues, which of the following taxes would you prefer to use: individual income, sales, property, corporate income, user fees, VAT, or flat? Provide reasons for your decision.
24. taxes (Federal, state, FICA, city), insurance payments, retirement contributions, credit union contributions
25. The Economic Recovery Tax Act reduced marginal tax rates. The Taxpayer Relief Act reduced capital gains and inheritance taxes, and added education deductions. Reforms strengthened alternative minimum tax, added some tax brackets and reduced others, reduced estate tax and capital gains tax, and increased the child tax credit.
26. to ensure that the rich would pay some taxes
27. Advantages: simplicity, closes tax loopholes. Disadvantages: questionable rate needed to place current revenues, uncertainty over stimulation of economic growth.
Critical Thinking
28. Answers will vary but should indicate an understanding of the different types of taxes.
29. **Inferring** Why do you think Alaska has no sales tax or personal income tax?
30. **Comparing and Contrasting** What were the goals of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, the 1986 tax reform, and 2001 tax changes?
31. **Synthesizing** For one week, keep a list of all taxes you hear or read about in the news media or pay in your community. Classify your journal entries into three categories: federal, state, and local taxes. Then draw a matrix like the one below and classify each in the appropriate place. Which taxes appeared in the news most frequently?
| | Ability-to-pay principle | Benefit principle |
|----------------|--------------------------|-------------------|
| Regressive | | |
| Proportional | | |
| Progressive | | |
32. **Analyzing** What provisions of tax measures enacted in the last 20 years benefit taxpayers with higher incomes?
### Applying Economic Concepts
33. **User Fees** In your own words, write a rationale for a user fee that you think should be enacted.
34. **Taxes** Some people object to state and local governments imposing sales and property taxes. What would you say to these people in defense of the two taxes?
### Thinking Like an Economist
35. **Critical Thinking** Describe how an economist might go about analyzing the consequences of shifting from the individual income tax to a consumption tax like the VAT.
---
**Writing About Economics**
36. **Expository Writing** Does the concept of a flat income tax meet the three criteria for effective taxes? Write a brief summary of your findings and use it to either support or oppose such a proposal.
### Math Practice
37. After deductions and exemptions, Mindy’s unmarried brother had taxable income of $98,000 in 2006. According to the tax table in Figure 9.7 on page 249, what will he owe in federal income taxes? What did he pay in Social Security taxes? What did he pay in Medicare taxes?
### Analyzing Visuals
38. Look at Figure 9.3 on page 239 and compare the revenue from the various sources for the years 2001 and 2007. In which categories did revenues decrease? How did the federal government make up these decreases?
### Interpreting Cartoons
39. **Critical Thinking** Look at the cartoon below. Who are the people seated in the chairs? Whom do the figures in the bottom left corner represent? What statement is the cartoonist trying to make?
---
**Possible answer:** Alaska has alternative sources of revenue (oil royalties).
**The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 reduced taxes, while the 1986 measure made it difficult for the very rich to avoid taxes altogether. The 2001 tax change eliminated the estate tax on the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers.**
**Answers will vary but should demonstrate understanding of the tax types and principles.**
**Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, and the reforms in 2001 and 2003**
**Answers will vary but should reflect knowledge of user fees.**
**Answers will vary but should reference sales and property taxes.**
**Answers will vary but should show an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of a consumption tax.**
**Answers will vary but should include students’ opinions on whether a flat income tax meets the criteria for effective taxes.**
**Mindy’s brother will owe $21,771.50 in federal income taxes. He paid $6,076 in Social Security taxes and $1,421 in Medicare taxes.**
**Revenues decreased for Social Security taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, miscellaneous taxes, and individual income taxes. The federal government made up these decreases by increasing corporate income taxes and borrowing.**
**Answers will vary but might reflect the view that the Reagan tax cuts greatly reduced taxes on the wealthy and on businesses while doing little to help the average taxpayer.**
A lot of buying and selling occurs on the Internet—so much, in fact, that rumblings of an e-commerce sales tax have become a roar. In 2005 more than 700,000 people in the United States earned either full- or part-time income on eBay. This statistic alone ensures that a tax showdown between the IRS and e-commerce retailers is on the horizon.
Can you sift through the debate to determine whether or not buying and selling online should be subject to taxation? As you read the selections, ask yourself: “Should e-commerce be taxed?”
**PRO SALES TAX REVENUE LOSSES**
Inability to collect the [e-commerce sales] tax potentially has a number of important implications. Firms have an incentive to locate production and sales activity to avoid tax collection responsibility, thereby imposing economic efficiency losses on the overall economy. The sales tax becomes more regressive as those who are least able to purchase online are more likely to pay sales taxes than those who purchase online more frequently. Further, state and local government tax revenues are reduced. . . . [The Census Bureau reports a combined $1.16 trillion in . . . e-commerce transactions by manufacturers, whole salers, service providers, and retailers, and Forrester Research, Inc.’s expectations continue to be for strong growth in e-commerce in coming years. Thus, the revenue erosion continues to represent a significant loss to state and local government.
—Dr. Donald Bruce and Dr. William F. Fox, Professors, Center for Business and Economic Research, University of Tennessee
| Internet sales in 2003 | $1.27 trillion |
|------------------------|----------------|
| Taxable internet sales in 2003 | $751 billion |
| Sales on which taxes were not collected | $236.3 billion in 2003 $329.2 billion in 2008* |
| State and local revenue loss | $15.5 billion in 2003 $21.5–33.7 billion in 2008* |
* 2008 figures are estimated
**Extending the Content**
**Possible Options for Internet Sales** In 1999 the Graziadio Business Report published by the Graziadio School of Business and Management proposed three options for collecting tax revenues from Internet sales. The National Sales Tax Option (NST) proposed that the federal government impose a uniform tax on all domestic e-commerce, collect the tax electronically, and then remit the proceeds to the states. The Freedom of States (FS) option proposed that all states be free to impose whatever tax they wished. The Internet Tax Equality Option (ITE) proposed that the federal government would create some uniform regulations but would give states freedom to determine their own tax rates and exemptions.
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is cautioning legislators about bills introduced . . . that would allow states to force online sellers to collect sales taxes for all state and local taxing jurisdictions. . . . The failure of . . . these bills to address a reduction in the number of tax jurisdictions is a key flaw, and remains a critical obstacle to a workable streamlined sales tax program. There are currently approximately 7,600 different sales tax jurisdictions in this country, including states, counties and municipalities, and even block-by-block areas that collect additional sales taxes, such as sewer districts, sports arena districts or library districts. Currently, only businesses with a physical presence or “nexus” within a state are required to collect taxes for the jurisdictions within that state. . . .
The bills would also create a barrier to entry for small entrepreneurs, who rely on the Internet to help create markets, and a barrier to growth for medium-sized businesses seeking to grow operations or expand a customer base. Many would not be able to afford the effort and expense it would take to collect and remit sales taxes for each of the thousands of jurisdictions, much less the cost of a possible audit at any time by 46 different state revenue departments.
—Direct Marketing Association,
www.the-dma.org
**Analyzing the Issue**
1. **Identifying** What is the main argument in support of an e-commerce sales tax?
2. **Summarizing** Why does the DMA think it is not possible for online merchants to implement sales taxes?
3. **Deciding** With which opinion do you agree? Explain your reasoning.
---
**Activity: Technology Connection**
**Identifying Points of View** Point out to students that e-commerce and taxation will continue to be debated until the IRS and e-commerce retailers reach resolution. Organize students into groups, and have them use the Internet to research the major arguments for and against taxing e-commerce businesses. Encourage them to use their findings to create a Web site designed to inform people about the debate. Call on groups to display and discuss their Web site designs.
---
**Assess/Close**
**W Writing Support**
**Persuasive Writing** Have students imagine that they are entrepreneurs who have a small business that relies on the Internet. Have them write a newspaper editorial expressing their opinions about online tax proposals. Students should use information from the text to support their point of view.
---
**Analyzing the Impact**
**Answers:**
1. State and local government tax revenues are reduced.
2. There are thousands of different sales tax jurisdictions (states, counties, and cities). Collecting and remitting sales taxes for each of these would be costly.
3. Answers will vary but should demonstrate an understanding of the controversy.
---
**Additional Support**
**Teacher Tip**
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For children living in the world’s toughest places, the climate crisis and rampant inequality continue to undermine progress on their rights to education, to health and nutrition services, and to live free from violence and abuse.
With a rapidly closing window of opportunity to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, and a global financial system that benefits the highest income countries, the UK government must drive forward a new model of development to reconnect Britain to the world based on:
- **Equality.** Put fairness at the heart of the development agenda, ensuring that UK efforts do not worsen inequalities but help level the playing field for people and countries who are systemically disadvantaged.
- **Solidarity.** Recognise that UK prosperity is intrinsically interdependent and intertwined with the prosperity of our global neighbours. ‘Development’ is a two-way street in which the UK stands to benefit and learn enormously from communities across the Global South.
- **Stewardship.** Replace short-term extraction and depletion of natural resources with a model of development that emphasises ecological boundaries and the interconnectedness between the wellbeing of people and our planet.
- **Justice.** Explicitly acknowledge and seek to address the challenges that stem from the UK’s own role in a history of colonialism, patriarchy and extraction across the Global South.
- **Universalism.** Dismantle narratives of “us vs. them” and recognise that most people want the same things – a good life with access to decent work, security, and a state that upholds their human rights. This provides the basis for mutual understanding and respect.
Unlocking and reforming climate and development finance must be central to these efforts. More and better finance to invest in children’s rights is urgently needed in the world’s poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries. The UK is well-positioned to pull levers that can create systemic change in the global financial architecture, resulting in greener, fairer and more just economies for everyone. Progress in this area would also help to demonstrate to the world that the UK is serious about modernising its approach to global development, renewing its global leadership and restoring trust.
This briefing explores four policy areas where the UK is well-placed to unlock billions of pounds in financing for children across the world who need it most, presenting a number of reform options – many of which would pose little additional cost to UK taxpayers:
**RECOMMENDATIONS**
1. **Drive transformational reforms for remittances**
2. **Champion efforts to tackle the debt crisis**
3. **Increase and improve international climate finance**
4. **Shift the approach towards Official Development Assistance**
Climate change, inequality and poverty threaten children’s futures
The impact of the climate and inequality crises on children’s lives has never been clearer to see, or more difficult to witness. Around the world, children from the poorest and most disadvantaged communities are being hit hardest by climate disasters,\textsuperscript{ii} entrenching inequalities both within countries and globally.
Our research shows 774 million children globally are both living in poverty and exposed to high climate risk.\textsuperscript{iii} The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirmed that poverty increases vulnerability to climate disasters,\textsuperscript{iv} making the evidence clear: the climate crisis and poverty are inextricably linked.
Without urgent action, a child born today is likely to experience twice as many wildfires over their lifetime as their grandparents and to have 2.8 times the exposure to crop failure, 2.6 times as many drought events, 2.8 times as many river floods, and 6.8 times more heatwaves.\textsuperscript{v}
Yet these conditions do not happen by accident, they are fundamentally political. Deep, systemic inequality – including the injustice of a global financial system that does not benefit everyone - stacks the odds against low-income countries and families and puts children in harm’s way. When governments cannot afford to invest in national education, health or other services critical to the wellbeing and survival of children, everyone suffers.
Children think governments should take bold action to protect their futures
Children’s views, actions and demands on tackling the climate crisis and poverty are bold and ambitious. When Save the Children launched our global campaign ‘Generation Hope’ in 2022, we asked more than 50,000 children from more than 40 countries, including over 3,000 young people across the UK,\textsuperscript{vi} about their thoughts and feelings about the world and their future. They told us about their experience of the climate crisis and economic inequality, and their messages were clear.
Children are deeply worried about the impact the climate crisis and poverty are having on their lives and the lives of children globally. They want governments to step up and take decisive, meaningful action to tackle both the climate crisis and poverty. Many children described feelings of anger at inaction and fear for the future, and spoke poignantly about the impact on their mental health.
In 2022, around the world children told us they are not only seeing the impact of the climate crisis in their daily lives, but also have a strong sense that this has been getting worse over time. In the two years since then, global action has been insufficient despite the world breaching the 1.5 degrees target for a full year.\textsuperscript{vii} Meanwhile, a record 766 million children—one-third of the global child population—have been exposed to extreme heatwaves in the twelve-month period from July 2023 to June 2024.\textsuperscript{viii}
Sameer, 13, from Sindh province in Pakistan, which recorded 52°C in May 2024, said the sweltering heatwaves led to him and his classmates becoming unwell:
“We get heat strokes and the children faint. One of my friends, Yasir, collapsed. He got a sudden fever and began to vomit. Then he was quickly taken to the hospital. Because of the intense heat, children get bouts of vomiting, fevers, and dizziness. I have become dizzy several times while sitting at my desk.”
Young people also described economic inequality “like a disease” that is a “threat to human rights”.\textsuperscript{ix}
A child from Lebanon described the impact of poverty and inequality on their daily life:\textsuperscript{x}
“In Lebanon we live in a severe economic crisis. We are a family of five people who live on less than $2 a day, which is not enough for bread and water. As for going to the school … it became impossible.”
Children in all regions referred to rising food and living costs, with some connecting this to the climate crisis. In Africa and the Middle East, in particular, children drew links between the climate crisis and increased hunger.
Children didn’t shy away from the reality of these challenges. Their message was straightforward: they want those with power, particularly governments, to take the difficult decisions and bold action required to protect their futures. As one child in the UK put it:
“Adults should make decisions so things happen and change quickly – hard decisions, so things change now.”
A renewed mission for the UK government to deliver for children
Save the Children welcomes the government’s commitment to create a world free from poverty on a liveable planet. Children face disproportionate, life-long impacts of poverty, inequality and the climate crisis. These impacts threaten children’s health and wellbeing, which are the fundamental building blocks of robust economies and peaceful societies. This reality should motivate the government to take swift and decisive action.
The financing gap for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in lower income countries is estimated to be $4.2 trillion per year.\textsuperscript{xii} It is clear the UK will need to increase the \textit{amount} and the \textit{quality} of finance it contributes to the lowest income and most climate vulnerable countries. However, the opportunity is far greater than just Official Development Assistance (ODA). Now, more than ever, the UK must take leadership to \textit{reform} and \textit{unlock} the finance that is available globally. As one of the world’s richest nations and, in the City of London, home to one of the largest global financial centres, the UK has significant influence over the global financial system. The UK must harness this economic clout, capacity for innovation and take action to make financial flows fairer for everyone – especially children in the lowest income countries.
This doesn’t need to be expensive for UK taxpayers. There are a number of low and no-cost interventions that could have an outsized impact on children and communities in some of the world’s toughest places. These include:
1. **DRIVE TRANSFORMATIONAL REFORMS FOR REMITTANCES**
Remittances are a critical resource for households around the world. In 2023, remittances surpassed foreign direct investment (FDI) and ODA.\textsuperscript{xiii} Flows to developing countries are almost three times larger than ODA, and in many countries, like Somalia, they account for around a third of GDP. Remittance flows could grow substantially however costs remain high. Fees to remit globally far exceed the 3% SDG target, and the UK has some of most expensive remittance corridors in the world. In the past the UK took strong action to lower costs, including in 2020 with the Global Action Plan.\textsuperscript{xiv} Action is needed again, with opportunity for the UK to be a global leader and convener on the issue.
We are calling on the UK to:
a. **Produce an updated action plan on remittances, including action at home and overseas.** This should take a holistic approach, balancing the needs and concerns of the multiple different stakeholders involved, and addressing the multiple, complex reasons why remittance costs remain so high.
b. **Ensure remittances can be sent abroad in a quick and cost-effective way, particularly to countries in crisis.** Reducing remittance costs could yield significant impact for families in low-income countries. On average, 75 percent of remittances are used to cover essentials such as food, school fees, medical expenses and housing. By increasing families’ disposable incomes, remittances provide insurance against adverse economic shocks such as droughts and famines, in turn reducing the use of coping strategies such as children dropping out of school and cutting back on the number and quality of meals.
c. **Improve transparency on the costs to remit money internationally.** Diaspora communities have told us the greatest challenge they face is hidden costs associated with transferring money. Even when companies advertise there are ‘no fees’, costs can be hidden in the exchange rate.
d. **Ensure that UK policy on transparency and derisking is effective and serving British communities.** British citizens should not be overcharged to send money to their loved ones abroad. Leading experts have urged a shift from an approach that treats all remittance flows as potentially terrorism related or money laundering, to one that doesn’t.
2. **CHAMPION EFFORTS TO TACKLE THE DEBT CRISIS**
Currently, more than half of lower income countries are either in or at high risk of debt distress.\textsuperscript{xv} This mounting debt crisis is shrinking fiscal space for many governments,\textsuperscript{xvi} undermining their ability to adequately fund public services and make long term investments in a green, just transition. According to UNCTAD, 3.3 billion people live in a developing country that is spending more on interest payments than on education or health.\textsuperscript{xvii}
To break the unsustainable debt cycle trapping many countries in poverty, the UK must play a leading role to:
a. **Ensure emergency debt relief is available for countries that need it.** The G20 implemented the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) during the Covid-19 pandemic, suspending $12.9 billion worth of debt payments to allow countries to focus their spending on the pandemic response and recovery.
rather than servicing international creditors.\textsuperscript{1} Given the serious liquidity constraints continuing to burden many low- and middle-income countries, there is a need to introduce a revamped DSSI, reviewing trigger points and expanding eligibility criteria. The UK should also provide further support to the critically under resourced IMF Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) which provides grants for debt relief for lower income countries affected by disasters.
b. **Fix the G20 Common Framework to ensure there is a well-functioning mechanism for longer term debt relief and restructuring.** The UK can play a unique role in supporting improved private creditor participation in the Common Framework as one of the two major legal jurisdictions for privately held sovereign debt.\textsuperscript{1} As recommended by the IDC, the UK should assess legislative options, including potentially replicating the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010 introduced under the previous Labour government.\textsuperscript{2} The UK should also champion efforts to improve transparency and certainty around the Common Framework process to encourage countries to apply, including estimates for the scale of debt relief available before applying and implementing a debt standstill upon application, so long as a debtor is negotiating in good faith.
c. **Increase access to affordable finance to avoid cyclical unsustainable debt burdens.** Long term access to affordable finance can ensure governments across low- and middle-income countries have the funds they need to invest in their people and services without risking future unsustainable debt cycles. This requires high income countries like the UK to fulfil their ODA obligations and ensure the IMF and multilateral development banks (MDBs) have the resources they need to support their operations and deliver their mandates in full. The UK can champion this agenda by increasing their Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) recycling commitment to 40% to match more ambitious commitments,\textsuperscript{2} providing ambitious contributions to key replenishments such as IDA21,\textsuperscript{3} and considering the future use of guarantees\textsuperscript{4} and capital increases.\textsuperscript{5}
### 3. INCREASE AND IMPROVE INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE FINANCE
Lower income countries need an estimated $2.4 trillion annually by 2030 to achieve a just energy transition, adequately fund adaptation and resilience, address losses and damages, and conserve and restore nature.\textsuperscript{6}
Addressing these climate finance needs in an affordable, accessible, predictable and inclusive manner will be key to rebuilding trust with the Global South and achieving our global climate objectives.
The UK Government must:
a. **Increase the quantity of climate finance delivered by the UK and other high-income countries.** The UK must take leadership on international efforts at COP29 for an ambitious outcome on the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG) with sub-goals for mitigation, adaptation and loss & damage. Further, the UK’s 4th International Climate Finance (ICF) strategy – which will set out the government’s ICF commitments from 2026 - must make new and additional funding available based on the UK’s fair share of the NCQG. The UK must also be ambitious in introducing innovative mechanisms such as ‘polluter pays’ taxes to complement public grant-based finance and put responsibility in the hands of those most accountable for the crisis – including expanded taxes on windfall profits of oil and gas companies, global aviation and shipping levies.
b. **Advocate for and ensure that international climate finance delivers for children and gender equality.** The UK must advocate for and ensure that international climate finance delivers child- and gender-responsive outcomes.\textsuperscript{7} This means it addresses the distinct and heightened vulnerabilities of children on the frontlines of the climate crisis, especially those most affected by inequality and discrimination, and empowers children to be agents of change. Climate finance to climate-vulnerable, resource-constrained countries must not exacerbate their debt burden and should be provided primarily in the form of grants and highly concessional finance, particularly for adaptation and loss and damage. The UK should support the introduction of an international climate finance definition, including supporting demands of lower income countries to exclude loans given at market rates from being counted as climate finance.
c. **Influence the development and implementation of the newly agreed Loss and Damage Fund to ensure children’s rights are embedded throughout.\textsuperscript{8}** As a Board Member, the UK should advocate for a long-term fundraising and resource mobilization strategy for the fund and set an example by committing to new and additional financial contributions towards it. Significant grant-based resources should be allocated to rebuilding and restoring essential services for children, and the UK should support the creation of a dedicated community window to provide direct access to
---
1. The other major legal jurisdiction is New York, where similar efforts are taking place to introduce legislation to support private creditor participation in the Common Framework.
2. SDRs are a type of financial reserve asset issued by the IMF. They can be used to balance payments in central banks or traded in for currency. High income countries pledged to ‘recycle’ a collective $100 billion of their recent SDR allocation to lower income countries.
3. The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) is the largest concessional finance fund in the world, available to 75 lower income countries. At the end of 2024, countries will make pledges to the 21st replenishment round of IDA.
4. The UK can expand the use of guarantees to multilateral development banks and other multilateral funds to help them mobilise private finance.
5. A capital increase refers to an increase in contributions from a multilateral development bank’s shareholders (e.g. governments like the United Kingdom) to enable more lending. Capital increases happen periodically when shareholders agree that the demand for loans is likely to increase.
---
4 How a ‘Britain Reconnected’ can unlock finance to tackle the climate and inequality crises
funding for children and their families, avoiding reliance on national, regional, or global intermediaries. This approach would make the fund more inclusive, equitable, and effective in meeting the specific rights, needs and priorities of children.
4. SHIFT THE APPROACH TOWARDS OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
ODA may be small when looking at overall financing for development flows, but it comes with a unique and clear comparative advantage to support those most in need. In a world where financing gaps and needs are growing, ODA is unique in that it can be counter cyclical, increasing support as other flows stall or reduce.
Whilst ODA alone should not be the sole focus of the government’s approach to tackling global development and climate challenges, it is a fundamental foundation of UK development action and will continue to represent an important piece of the puzzle. It is a crucial source of financing in itself and is critical for catalysing other low-cost policy options - for example it is intrinsically connected to action taken on debt & ICF, as both debt relief and ICF can be counted as ODA.
We are calling on the UK to:
a. Increase the amount of ODA that reaches children in lower income countries, including by:
i. Committing to a concrete roadmap back to 0.7%. Cutting the ODA budget to 0.5% of GNI, combined with continued historically high spending on refugee hosting costs by the Home Office, has had a devastating impact on the UK’s development assistance. By continuing with business as usual, the government will continue to struggle to meet its commitments to multilateral funds, maintain its bilateral programmes, and meet its existing ICF commitments. The management of an ODA budget is complex, so decisions need to be backed up by clarity of spending envelopes over a five-year time horizon. A return to 0.7% needs to be planned and committed to in advance. In the meantime, the government should increase ODA spending beyond 0.5% in the next 3 years, based on a stocktake of commitments, as well as potential scenarios. This not only makes sense for effective support of the world’s poorest children, but also avoids wasteful use of the government’s time constantly reprioritising spending.
ii. Revising or dropping the fiscal tests for a return to 0.7%. The previously agreed fiscal tests have resulted in an indefinite reduction in UK ODA. There is very little prospect of a UK budget surplus, both in terms of the projected fiscal outlook, and because of its historical rarity. For comparison, the commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% GDP isn’t linked to meeting specific fiscal tests but instead framed within overall government fiscal rules and policy.
b. Reframe the approach to ODA, including by:
i. Focussing on need and taking a long-term perspective. While certain expenditures can be linked to supporting the UK’s fiscal situation in the short
term, ultimately this approach is not delivering for the world’s lowest income countries.
ii. **Recommitting to the principles of development effectiveness.** Despite initially being a champion for the principles of development effectiveness when they were agreed in 2011, the UK like other development partners have taken a step back. Improving the quality and efficiency of ODA in the years ahead will require the UK to step back up on this agenda, reforming the approach to results and impact, improving country ownership and strengthening transparency.
iii. **Championing ODA effort within OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members.** Over the last few years, the UK government has been an unhelpful voice in the DAC pushing for expanding the criteria of what can be counted as ODA. These efforts are rooted in a desire to meet ODA commitments on paper without stepping up the budgetary effort needed. UK changes to accounting practices on ICF have also led to reduced fiscal effort, risking a race to the bottom among other DAC members.
iv. **Improving machinery of government ODA management.** The last few years of ODA cuts and reprioritisation have exposed flaws in cross-government coordination and coherence. Departments other than the FCDO expecting to receive additional ODA budget, always at the detriment of FCDO spending, has been highly damaging and led to sub-optimal outcomes. There are significant opportunities for improving the whole-of-government approach to development that would yield improvements in the quality and impact of UK ODA.
The list of solutions we’ve presented isn’t exhaustive – they are intended to be the starting point. There are other low-cost policy options that must also be explored, most notably around building fairer tax and trade systems, and mobilising private finance. Ultimately, the UK government must use all the levers available to unlock finance and shift power to the children and communities who need it most.
The UK government should implement the solutions presented in this paper through a revised approach to development that is rooted in equality, solidarity, stewardship and universalism. The UK can take meaningful steps towards restoring trust with the Global South, tackle widespread inequalities, and accelerate progress towards our global development and climate goals. This is the path to a Britain truly reconnected – to its partners, its values, and to children around the world.
Abdulaye*, age 11, lives in a coastal village in Sierra Leone disappearing under the rising seas. With Save the Children’s support, he’s helping mobilise his whole community to plant mangroves to protect the village from the floodwaters.
Eco-lessons at a school in Malawi that Save the Children supports have ignited 17 year old Esther’s love of nature. She knows every tree she plants forms part of a barrier against the storms and floods that batter her village.
References
i Nazrul Islam, S. and Winked, J. (2017) Climate Change and Social Inequality: DESA Working Paper No. 152. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. https://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2017/wp152_2017.pdf Accessed 3/9/2024
ii Wise, L. (2022) Generation Hope: 2.4 billion reasons to end the global climate and inequality crisis. Save the Children International. https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/content/dam/gb/reports/generation-hope-standalone-summary.pdf Accessed 3/9/2024
iii IPCC. (2022) Summary for Policymakers'. H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, M. Tignor, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem (eds.). In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/ Accessed 4/9/2024
iv Luthen, S., Ryan, E., Wakefield, J. (2021) Born into the Climate Crisis: Why we must act now to secure children's rights. Save the Children International. Available at: https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/born-climate-crisis-whywe-must-act-now-secure-childrens-rights/ Accessed 3/9/2024
v Wise, L. (2022). Generation Hope: 2.4 billion reasons to end the global climate and inequality crisis. Save the Children International. https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/content/dam/gb/reports/generation-hope-standalone-summary.pdf Accessed 3/9/2024
vi Carbon Brief (2024). Analysis: What record global heat means for breaching the 1.5C warming limit. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-record-global-heat-means-for-breaching-the-1-5c-warming-limit/ Accessed 5/9/2024
vii Agarwal, S. (2024). Policy brief: Extreme Heat and Children’s Development and Wellbeing. Policy Brief: Extreme Heat and Children’s Development and Wellbeing | Save the Children’s Resource Centre Accessed 5/9/2024
viii Ibid.
ix Generation Hope Dialogues (2022). Generation Hope Report – Save the Children Accessed 3/9/2024
x Ibid.
xi OECD, UNDP. (2020). Closing the SDG Financing Gap in the COVID-19 era: Scoping note for the G20 Development Working Group. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2024/04/press-release-fsdr-2024/ Accessed 5/9/2024
xii World Migration report (2024). https://worldmigrationreport.iom.int/what-we-do/world-migration-report-2024-chapter-2-international-remittances Accessed 3/9/2024
xiii Gov.uk. (2020). UK calls for global action to protect vital money transfers. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-calls-for-global-action-to-protect-vital-money-transfers Accessed 3/9/2024
xiv IMF, List of LIC DSAs for PRGT-Eligible Countries as of April 20, 2024. List of LIC DSAs for PRGT-Eligible Countries, As of April 30, 2024 [imf.org] Accessed 5/9/2024
xv Save the Children. (2023). From Bleak Prospects to Bright Futures: The Urgent Actions Needed to Address Public Under-Investment in Children Across Lower Income Countries. From Bleak Prospects to Bright Futures: Urgent actions to address public under-investment in children across lower income countries | Save the Children’s Resource Centre Accessed 5/9/2024
xvi UNCTAD (2024) A World of Debt. Available at: A world of debt 2024 | UNCTAD Accessed 3/9/2024
xvii G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting Communiqué (2022) Available at: G20-Communique.pdf (bi.go.id) Accessed 3/9/2024
xviii International Development Committee. (2023). Debt relief in low-income countries. Debt relief in low-income countries - International Development Committee (parliament.uk) Accessed 3/9/2024
xix IHLEG on Climate Finance. (2023) A Climate Finance Framework. A-Climate-Finance-Framework-IHLEG-Report-2-SUMMARY.pdf (lse.ac.uk) Accessed 3/9/2024
xx Watts, R. Save the Children UK. (2023). Exposing the 1.6 bn cut to UK international climate finance https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/blogs/2023/the-p1-6-billion-cut-to-the-uk-s-international-climate-finance Accessed 3/9/2024
xxi Capita, Plan International, Save the Children International, UNICEF, United Nations Children’s Fund (2023). Falling Short: Addressing the climate finance gap for children https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/falling-short-addressing-the-climate-finance-gap-for-children/ Accessed 5/9/2024
xxii Save the Children UK, ICCCAD, UNICEF, Plan International, CERI, Loss and Damage Youth Collaboration (2023). Loss and Damage Finance for Children. https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/loss-and-damage-finance-for-children/ Accessed 3/9/2024
xxiii Effective Cooperation, (2024). The Effectiveness Principles https://www.effectivecooperation.org/landing-page/effectiveness-principles Accessed 3/9/2024
Published by
Save the Children
1 St John's Lane
London EC1M 4AR
UK
+44 (0)20 7012 6400
savethechildren.org.uk
Authors: Lydia Darby and Carly Munnelly
With thanks to: Lisa Wise, Annabel Fenn, Sarah Murray, Francesca Froggatt, Penny Hanton, Shruti Agarwal, Richard Watts.
First published September 2024
© The Save the Children Fund 2024
Cover photo: After learning about environmental issues at her Save the Children-supported school in Cambodia, Ratana is tackling pollution in her community and helping remove plastic waste from the lake.
Photographers: Linh Pham (cover image), Sara Galvao (p2), Shona Hamilton (p7) and Thoko Chikondi (p7)
The Save the Children Fund is a charity registered in England and Wales (213890), Scotland (SCO39570) and the Isle of Man (199). Registered Company No. 178159. This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee or prior permission for teaching purposes, but not for resale. For copying in any other circumstances. Prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher, and a fee may be payable. | 429dd1af-e9a5-4e3f-96fe-9cf3dfe9e4df | CC-MAIN-2024-46 | https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/content/dam/gb/reports/policy/gen-hope-briefing-document-2024.pdf | 2024-11-04T03:46:08+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-46/segments/1730477027812.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20241104034319-20241104064319-00074.warc.gz | 908,566,907 | 6,404 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.961668 | eng_Latn | 0.996443 | [
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Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan
District Name: Lancaster County School District
Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Website: lancastercsd.com
Phone: 803-286-6972
Address: 300 South Catawba St.
City: Lancaster
State: SC
Zip Code: 29720
# Table of Contents
| Section | Page |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|
| Introduction | 3 |
| Maintaining Health and Safety | 4 |
| Overview | 4 |
| Description of maintaining health and safety | 4 |
| Policies or Practices Regarding CDC Recommendations | 5 |
| Universal and correct wearing of masks | 5 |
| Modifying facilities to allow for physical distancing (e.g., use of cohorts/podding) | 5 |
| Handwashing and respiratory etiquette | 5 |
| Cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities, including improving ventilation | 6 |
| Contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine | 6 |
| Diagnostic and screening testing | 6 |
| Efforts to provide vaccinations to educators, other staff, and students, if eligible | 7 |
| Appropriate accommodations for children with disabilities with respect to health and safety policies and practices | 7 |
| Coordination with state and local health officials. | 7 |
| Continuity of Services | 8 |
| Overview | 8 |
| District response on continuity of services | 8 |
| Periodic Review | 9 |
| Overview | 9 |
| District response on ensuring periodic updates to its plan | 9 |
| Public Input | 10 |
| Overview | 10 |
| District response on public input in development of its plan | 10 |
Introduction
On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plans (ARP) Act was signed into law. In it, the U.S. Department of Education is providing an additional $121.9 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER III Fund). This legislation will award grants to state educational agencies (SEAs) for providing local educational agencies (LEAs) with emergency relief funds to address the impact that COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, on elementary and secondary schools across the nation.
South Carolina will receive $2,112,051,487 in ESSER III funds from the Act, with 90 percent being awarded to school districts with amounts determined in proportion to the amount of Title I, Part A funds they received in summer 2020 from funds under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The remaining funds will be used for state-level activities to address issues caused by COVID-19.
This plan describes how the LEA or district will provide the safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services for all schools, including those that have already returned to in-person instruction. This report template complies with all reporting requirements of the ARP Act (Public Law 117-2), the [ESSER III grant](#) terms, conditions, and assurances (CFDA Number 84.425U), and the interim final rule established by the United States Department of Education, [86 FR 21195](#).
Maintaining Health and Safety
Overview
A district’s plan must include how it will maintain the health and safety of students, educators, and other school and LEA staff, and the extent to which it has adopted policies or practices and a description of any such policies or practices, on each of the CDC’s safety recommendations including: universal and correct wearing of masks; modifying facilities to allow for physical distancing (e.g., use of cohorts/podding); hand washing and respiratory etiquette; cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities, including improving ventilation; contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine, in collaboration with the state, local, territorial, or Tribal health departments; diagnostic and screening testing; efforts to provide vaccinations to educators, other staff, and students, if eligible; appropriate accommodations for children with disabilities with respect to health and safety policies or practices; and coordination with state and local health officials.
Description of maintaining health and safety (click box to scroll)
The Lancaster County School District will maintain the health and safety of students, educators, and staff by adopting the policies recommended by the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC). This document is subject to change as circumstances surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic change, the guidance we receive from State and local agencies may also change and cause adjustments to our plans.
As of March 1, 2023, upon recommendation of the CDC, we will no longer contact trace and quarantine individuals who are named close contacts to positive covid-19 cases unless there is a 10% or more positive rate in the school or classroom. This will be decided on a school-by-school basis based on the percent positive rate. We ask parents to continue to monitor their children daily for sickness and test for Covid-19 when necessary.
We will continue to encourage hand washing and respiratory etiquette verbally, in signage and in communications to families by phone and/or flyers. Isolation will be continued when we have individuals who test positive for Covid-19.
We have made significant efforts to provide vaccinations to educators and other staff. The district has held a vaccination clinic specifically for district employees as well as provided information on community availability of testing and vaccinations to employees and students.
Appropriate accommodations for children with disabilities with respect to health and safety policies or practices have been implemented. Adaptive equipment and PPE will be offered to employees and students. Efforts toward cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities, including improving ventilation, have been addressed with many upgrades for ventilation installed.
Policies or Practices Regarding CDC Recommendations
**Universal and correct wearing of masks**
Description of Policies or Practices, if applicable (click box to scroll)
DHEC updated their guidance in February, 2022, to no longer recommend universal indoor mask wearing in K-12 schools in areas with low or medium Covid-19 community level. As a result, the South Carolina Department of Education announced they were lifting the moratorium requiring students and staff to wear masks on school buses.
DHEC recognizes that mask wearing in schools is most beneficial in the following conditions:
- The county is in substantial or high transmission as reported by the CDC.
- There has been an outbreak in a class in the school in the prior 10 days.
Masks will be made available in every school and office building within Lancaster County Schools. The wearing of masks in Lancaster County Schools, and on state school buses, is not required but it is strongly encouraged.
**Modifying facilities to allow for physical distancing (e.g., use of cohorts/podding)**
Description of Policies or Practices, if applicable (click box to scroll)
The goal of social distancing is to limit physical contact to decrease viral spread among people in a community setting, such as a school. All schools and facilities are taking action to ensure all campus spaces support health and safety as space allows. Some of the measures we will take include:
- Arranging desks so they are facing forward instead of each other in groups, with as much distance between them as space allows.
- Removing non-essential furniture in classrooms to maximize space in the room.
- Signage and floor markings in schools and buses reminding students and staff to social distance wherever physically possible.
**Handwashing and respiratory etiquette**
Description of Policies or Practices, if applicable (click box to scroll)
- Teach and reinforce handwashing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and increase monitoring to ensure adherence among students, teachers, and staff. If handwashing is not possible, hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol should be used.
- Encourage students and staff to cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue when not wearing a mask and immediately wash their hands after blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing.
- Some students with disabilities might need assistance with handwashing and respiratory etiquette behaviors.
- Support healthy hygiene behaviors by providing adequate supplies, including soap, a way to dry hands, tissues, face masks (as feasible), and no-touch/foot-pedal trash cans. If soap and water are not readily available, schools can provide alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol (for staff and older children who can safely use hand sanitizer).
Cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities, including improving ventilation
Description of Policies or Practices, if applicable (click box to scroll)
- Improve ventilation to the extent possible to increase circulation of outdoor air, increase the delivery of clean air, and dilute potential contaminants.
- Bring in as much outdoor air as possible.
- Ensure Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) settings are maximizing ventilation.
- Filter and/or clean the air in the school by improving the level of filtration as much as possible.
- Use exhaust fans in restrooms and kitchens.
- Open windows in buses and other transportation, if doing so does not pose a safety risk.
- Modified layouts: Adjust physical layouts in classrooms and other settings to maximize physical space, such as by turning desks to face in the same direction.
- Cleaning: Regularly clean high-touch surfaces and objects (for example, playground equipment, door handles, sink handles, toilets) within the school and on school buses at least daily or between use as much as possible.
- Close communal use of shared spaces, such as cafeterias, if possible; otherwise, stagger use and clean regularly (for example, daily or as often as needed).
Contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine
Description of Policies or Practices, if applicable (click box to scroll)
DHEC revised its Covid-19 Guidance for K-12 schools in February 2022. This guidance is consistent with data and information available and may be updated as necessary as the situation evolves. The new metric will allow for schools to move towards an endemic approach for Covid-19 with flexibility should a surge or new variant occur.
We will continue to educate employees, students, and their parents on the symptoms of COVID-19 and the importance of the student or staff staying home if they have any symptoms or test positive for Covid-19.
The guidance below applies to individual schools, not entire school districts.
- Schools may suspend Test to Stay or quarantine once they have had two consecutive weeks with less than 10 percent of all students and staff having COVID-19. When Test to Stay or quarantine has stopped, contact tracing and testing and masking of close contacts without symptoms is no longer required.
- Schools will continue to report the number of cases to DHEC on a weekly basis.
- If a school has suspended Test to Stay or quarantine and has two consecutive weeks with 10 percent or
Diagnostic and screening testing
Description of Policies or Practices, if applicable (click box to scroll)
For diagnostic and screening testing, the district provides a DHEC staffed, rapid Covid-19 testing site Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Lancaster Multipurpose Building at 870 Roddley Drive in Lancaster. The district also provides information on local vaccine clinics and other test sites on our website at www.lancastercsd.com.
Efforts to provide vaccinations to educators, other staff, and students, if eligible
We have made significant efforts to provide vaccinations to educators and other staff by partnering with the local hospital to provide a specific vaccination clinic targeted at employees. Along with the district-sponsored employee vaccination clinic, we also provide information on community availability of testing and vaccinations to employees and students on an ongoing basis.
Appropriate accommodations for children with disabilities with respect to health and safety policies and practices
In accordance with federal and state disability laws, an individualized approach to health and safety will be provided for children with disabilities. Accommodations will be consistent with the student IHP (Individualized Healthcare Plan), IEP (Individualized Education Plan) or 504 plan. Appropriate PPE have been secured, as needed.
Coordination with state and local health officials
The LCSD will adhere to DHEC School Operations COVID-19 Guidance and DHEC Interim COVID-19 Guidance for Schools: Management of Known and Possible COVID-19 Cases.
Continuity of Services
Overview
Districts must describe how the LEA will ensure continuity of services, including but not limited to services to address students' academic needs and students' and staff social, emotional, mental health and other needs, which may include student health and food services.
District response on continuity of services (click box to scroll)
Lancaster County School District will ensure continuity of services by providing high-quality instruction and monitoring students' needs utilizing a multi-tiered system of support framework.
- LCSD will collect and analyze benchmark and formative assessment data throughout the academic year to inform tiered instruction and support.
- LCSD will implement multiple strategies to challenge all students in order to provide targeted intervention and prevent learning lag.
- LCSD will offer recovery and enrichment support through the Arts, STEAM, physical education, or health, etc.
- LCSD will refer staff to Employee Assistance Programs, as needed and appropriate.
- LCSD will provide families, when needed, with hotspots to access WiFi.
- LCSD will provide hard copies of work to students who have no access to Internet connectivity when virtual learning is required.
- LCSD will provide educational and related services (Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, etc.) for students with disabilities.
- LCSD administrators and teachers will monitor both student and staff social-emotional needs and provide support in the following areas, as needed.
– attendance
– engagement
– behavior (social, emotional, and physical)
– academic performance
- All LCSD students will receive free reimbursable breakfast and lunch meals in 2021-2022.
- Team meetings, to include required participants, will be scheduled for students with disabilities. During these meetings, the needs of the student will be identified and a plan will be developed to meet the individual needs of that particular student.
- School counselors at each level will address students' specific learning and emotional needs through the MTSS process.
- LCSD will provide academic and artistic enrichment and acceleration opportunities for students identified as high potential or gifted and talented.
- LCSD will initiate the Let's Think talent development program for 1st and 2nd graders during school year 2021-22.
Periodic Review
Overview
Districts are required to review and, as appropriate, revise their Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan at least every six months through September 30, 2023, including seeking public input and taking such input into account in determining whether to revise the plan and, if revisions are determined necessary, on the revisions it makes to its plan.
If a district developed a plan prior to enactment of the ARP Act that was made publicly available and was developed with public comment, but does not address each of the required aspects of safety established in the ARP Act, the district must, as part of the required periodic review, revise its plan consistent with the ARP Act requirements no later than six months after it last reviewed its plan.
District response on ensuring periodic updates to its plan (click box to scroll)
The plan will be reviewed on a semi-annual basis with all administrators and include continued input from stakeholder groups through both focus groups and online surveys. In addition, feedback forms will be gathered during open house meetings, as well as parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings. In addition, we will continually look at providing opportunities for review through our Teacher Forum to gather feedback from our employees.
Public Input
Overview
The ARP Act requires that school districts make their Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan available to the public online and that the plans be in an understandable and uniform format; to the extent practicable, are written in a language that parents can understand or, if not practicable, orally translated; and upon request by a parent who is an individual with a disability, provided in an alternative format accessible to that parent.
Before making its plan publicly available, school districts must seek public comment on the plan and develop the plan after taking into account public comment.
District response on public input in development of its plan (click box to scroll)
The district created a survey and placed it on the district website for public input on how the district should use the funds to address students' academic, social, and emotional needs, learning loss and other areas of need resulting from the impact of COVID-19. | 4d85d4bb-2c29-4498-a3c7-2807f11892a8 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | http://xserve.lcsd.k12.sc.us/LCSD/Web/ReopeningPlan/03302022%20Return%20to%20In-Person%20Instruction%20&%20Continuity%20of%20Services%20Plan.pdf | 2023-09-25T19:24:34+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510085.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20230925183615-20230925213615-00741.warc.gz | 80,683,031 | 3,428 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.947099 | eng_Latn | 0.997476 | [
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Overview
- Practise phase 3 sounds and phase 4 blends and phase 5 sounds
- Practise reading and spelling ‘March’ and ‘April’
- Learn /ph/ as the ‘f’
Phase 3 Sound Mat
Additional resources (these are all currently free)
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
https://www.teachyourmonstertorread.com/
Additional resources (these are all currently free)
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
https://www.teachyourmonstertorread.com/
ay ou ie ea oy ir ue ue
aw wh ph ew ew oe au ey
a-e e-e* i-e o-e u-e u-e
*even
Additional resources (these are all currently free)
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
https://www.teachyourmonstertorread.com/
Here are today’s focus words for reading and spelling:
March
April
We have included some new spelling practise activities you may wish to try!
Try one and upload a picture to google classroom.
Some fun ideas to practise your spellings!
Pyramid writing.
Write each letter at a time to create a pyramid.
Some fun ideas to practise your spellings!
Rainbow writing
Use different coloured pens or pencils and write the word again in a different colour over the top.
This keeps to create muscle memory.
Be careful not to go through the paper!
Some fun ideas to practise your spellings!
Paint writing
Add some paint to a ziplock bag and write the words on the bag using your finger or the other end of a pencil.
Some fun ideas to practise your spellings!
Scrabble
If you have the game, use the letters to make the spelling words.
Today, we are learning the digraph /ph/ that makes the sound /f/.
The ‘h’ is silent and is normally at the start of the word.
Let's recap with alphablocks /wh/ and /ph/!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFL6lO
Help Geraldine look for the /ph/ sound.
We know lots of you love Geraldine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1bseW0nI2k
Roll and dice and practise reading the words on that line. You can also ask someone to read the words to you and you can spell them.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-l-4142-phase-5-roll-and-read-mat-ph
Dear Steph,
Did you hear that Phillis took her nephew to Elphin Zoo last week? They picked up a pamphlet in town and her nephew Pharris asked if he could go.
They got there at 8 o’clock and looked at a graph to show them the number of animals they might see. They saw five elephants. One was an orphan but it was looked after by the other elephants. Then they saw a dolphin show at the pool. Pharris had a blast!
Will you go to Elphin Zoo with me soon?
Love from Phil x
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-l-526529-ph-phoneme-spotter-postcard
Practise reading and looking for the /ph/ sound
You could also practise any game on phonics play with /ph/
Or try a level on teach your monster to read | 85a82126-a413-4cc8-a0c9-a44867340924 | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://whyteleafe.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/document/Y1-phonics-Monday-18.5.20.pdf?t=1589739020 | 2020-10-24T11:58:17+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107882581.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20201024110118-20201024140118-00015.warc.gz | 580,577,817 | 704 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.912934 | eng_Latn | 0.994448 | [
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Lesson plans and learning resources
The spread of infection: Hand Hygiene
Upper Key Stage 2 Science and PSHE
Time needed: 2 x 60 minutes
The Spread of Infection: Hand Hygiene
These lessons aim to help students understand that effective hand washing is important to minimise the risk of infection from potentially harmful bacteria. Students will carry out a simple experiment to observe how bacteria can spread from person to person simply by shaking each other’s hands. Pupils will also test whether soap is an effective method for hand washing.
Members of the HPRU can help deliver these lessons at West London locations as part of our Patient and Public Engagement Activities. To request our involvement please contact: email@example.com
National Curriculum Links
- Planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary.
- Using test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests.
- Reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as displays and other presentations.
- Recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function.
Ideally Lesson 1 should precede lesson 2 – but lesson 2 can be delivered as a stand-alone.
Artwork by welovesolo.com under Creative Commons (Attribution 3.0)
Lesson 1 Objectives
The objective of the lesson is to teach students when and why we need to wash our hands.
By the end of the lesson:
- All students will be able to describe **when** hands should be washed.
- All students will be able to describe **how** hands should be washed.
- Most students will be able to explain **why** hand washing is important.
- Some students will be able to describe how to conduct an experiment to **test** whether soap and water removes bacteria from hands.
Background Information
Our skin, including our hands, provides a natural breeding ground for bacteria to grow. Our skin is typically covered in vast numbers of bacteria. It is estimated the total number of bacteria on the average human at any one time is around 1 trillion. Most of these bacteria have a useful role in protecting us from other bacteria that could potentially cause us harm through illness.
Sometimes bacteria that can cause us harm will grow on our skin. These bacteria may cause different types of infection that could make us very ill. For example food poisoning can be caused by a bacteria called Salmonella and is spread by touching or eating contaminated foods.
Washing your hands is one of the best ways to protect yourself from infection from bacteria that could cause you harm. It can also help to stop these bacteria from spreading to other people. Washing our hands regularly helps to remove the potentially harmful bacteria we collect from our surroundings during our normal day-to-day routine, for example in the home, at school, in the garden, playing with animals, or preparing food.
Lesson 1 Preparation
You will need:
- Nutrient agar gel powder and petri plates with lids OR pre-mixed nutrient agar plates.
- Sellotape
- Marker pens
- Plate labels
- Pupil worksheets
- Warm water and soap
- Paper towels
Agar plates can be purchased from a number of suppliers for around £20 for 20 plates.
Potential suppliers include:
- www.fisher.co.uk
- www.cherwell-labs.co.uk
- www.betterequipped.co.uk
Preparation
1. Make up the nutrient agar plates according to the instructions on the packet. Leave to set if required.
2. Draw a line down the base of each plate. Label one side “dirty” and one side “clean”.
3. Stick a label near the edge of the lid of each plate. Make sure the gel is still clearly visible through the lid.
| Timing | Activity | Resources |
|--------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------|
| | **Introduction** | |
| 2 minutes | Lesson aims and objectives to be clearly explained to pupils and displayed. | PowerPoint provided (S1) |
| 8 minutes | Using the slides provided with this lesson plan ask the class who has washed their hands today. Give pupils 2 minutes to discuss with the partner next to them when they washed their hands and why. Bring the class together to come up with a list of times when we should wash our hands and why. Ask class why it is especially important to wash your hands. | PowerPoint (S1) |
| a5 minutes | Using the slides provided introduce pupils to the idea that nearly a trillion bacteria live on the average human at any one time. We pick these up every time we touch something, for example when we play with pets or prepare food. Most of these bacteria are useful and protect us from other bacteria that can cause harm. However, sometimes we pick up bacteria that can cause us harm. These bacteria can cause infection e.g. food poisoning. Washing hands removes these bacteria. | PowerPoint (S1) |
| | **Main Activity** | |
| 50 minutes total | | |
| 10 minutes | Show pupils the dangerous hands image. Describe a scenario where the pupils are a group of scientists working for a public health department. The department wants to prove that using soap is the best method of removing potentially harmful bacteria when hand washing. In small groups or tables, pupils will discuss how they could test if using soap is an effective way of removing harmful bacteria from hands. Discuss experiment ideas as a class. | PowerPoint (S1) |
| 3 minutes | Introduce the main activity to the class. The class will be investigating whether using soap and warm water is an effective way of removing potentially harmful bacteria from hands. | PowerPoint (S1) |
| Activity 1 | **Agar plates.** Explain to pupils that agar plates contain a jelly that provides food for bacteria to grow very quickly. Ask pupils how agar plates may help us to find out if using soap is an effective way to wash our hands. | Slides, prepared agar plates, pens. Teacher instruction sheets (T1) |
| Time | Activity | Resources |
|--------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
| 5 minutes | Provide each pupil with an agar plate and experiment sheet. | Pupil experiment sheets (P1) |
| 17 minutes | Each pupil should put a handprint on the side labelled dirty and then pupils should wash their hands thoroughly and place handprint on the side labelled clean (Alternatively half the class will print dirty hands and half clean). Pupils can wash hands one table at a time. Pupils can complete experiment sheet whilst waiting for others to complete the experiment. Collect in agar plates and leave in warm dark place for 48 hours as per instructions on Agar Plates - teacher guide. | Label templates Sink, soap, water |
| Plenary | Explain that you will return to the agar plates in two days. Ask pupils to discuss which side of the agar will grow the most bacteria and why and write down their prediction. How would this result help scientists tell whether soap is effective at removing harmful bacteria from hands? | Slides Pupil experiment sheets (P1) |
Lesson 2 Objectives
The objective of the lesson is to teach students the best way to wash hands. This lesson can be delivered as a stand-alone.
By the end of the lesson:
- All students will be able to explain when and how to wash hands.
- Most students will be able to demonstrate the best way of washing hands.
- Some students will be able to describe how to conduct an experiment to test the best way to wash hands.
Background Information
In the previous session we learned that our hands pick up bacteria from our surroundings (if delivering as a stand-alone use Power Point S1 Summary as an introduction). Some of these bacteria are harmless, but some can cause harm, such as stomach upsets or infections. Washing our hands regularly removes these potentially harmful bacteria.
Rinsing hands in cold water may remove all visible signs of dirt and grime. However washing hands in soap and warm water is a much more effective method to remove potentially harmful bacteria from our hands. Below are some examples when hands should be washed:
- before, during and after preparing food
- After using the lavatory
- After exposure to animals or animal waste
- After coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose
- If you’re ill or have been around ill people
You may have seen campaigns (posters, adverts) to remind us to wash our hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. This is approximately the same time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice.
Lesson 2 Preparation
You will need:
- Agar plates from the previous session
- Prediction from pupil experiment sheets from the previous session (P1)
- Glo gel
- UV torch
- Two basins of warm water
- One basin of cold water
- Soap
- Paper towels
Potential suppliers include:
- foodsafetydirect.co.uk,
- glowtech.co.uk
- handinspection.co.uk
- hygienicsolutions.uk
- uvgear.co.uk
ON THE DAY OF THE LESSON arrange four desks side by side.
Desk 1 – A sign saying unwashed hands
Desk 2 – A basin of water and a sign saying ‘Hands washed with cold water’
Desk 3 – A basin of warm water, and a sign saying ‘Hands washed with Warm Water”
Desk 4 - A basin of warm water and some soap and a sign saying ‘Hands washed with Warm Water and soap”
Have your glo gel and AV light ready, or oil and glitter. If the Imperial team are supporting the lesson they will bring glo gel and AV lights with them.
## Lesson 2 Plan
| Timing | Activity | Resources |
|--------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
| **Introduction** | | |
| 2 minutes | Lesson aims and objectives to be clearly explained to pupils and displayed | Power point provided (S2) |
| 5 minutes | Recap why it is important to wash our hands. | Power point provided (S2) |
| 10 minutes | Hand out the agar plates and prediction sheets from the first session. Emphasise that pupils should not remove the lids as the bacteria may be harmful. Pupils should fill in the results section of the sheet to show how the bacteria has grown and complete the conclusion sentence.
*If delivering as a stand-alone lesson use the S1 Summary Power point here* | Agar plates, prediction from the pupil experiment sheet (P1)
*OR If delivering as a stand-alone lesson use the S1 Summary Power point here* |
| **Main Activity** | | |
| 3 minutes | Introduce the main activity to the class. We know from the agar plates that washing hands in soap and water removes bacteria, but is this the best way to wash hands? Pupils will be conducting an experiment to test whether soap and warm water is the most effective method of hand washing. | |
| 20 minutes | **Hand washing experiment**
Divide the students into four groups. Ask each group to line up in front of a desk:
- Cold water
- Warm water
- Warm water and soap
- No wash (control group)
Important to keep the line of students differentiated so a little space between the lines is advised.
Put a blob of glo-gel on the hands of the first student in each line. Tell them to spread it all over their hands. Explain that the glo-gel represents the microbes that we all have on our hands. Demonstrate that it glows under a blacklight.
Once the gel has been rubbed in, tell the front students to wash their hands as directed on the sign. One will of course not wash hands.
After washing their hands the front students turn around and shake hands firmly with the next student in line. The | Three basins of water, one cold, two warm.
Soap
Glo-gel
UV light
Handwashing pupil sheets (P2)
Teacher instruction sheet (T2) |
second student then shakes hands with the third student, and so on until the end of the line is reached.
Use a UV light to check each student’s hands for glo-gel. Check both sides of their hands and focus on the creases between fingers as this is where gel is most likely to remain after hand washing. The aim is to show how far down the line the gel (and also the microbes) has spread.
Ask one or two students to stick hands on the wall to show how far along each line the glo-gel spread.
Students should record the findings of the experiment on the sheet provided.
**Plenary**
| Time | Activity | Resource |
|--------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------|
| 10 minutes | Show students the recommendations for hand washing. Pupils will then practice the correct method of hand washing. | Hand washing slide. |
| 10 minutes | Mini quiz | Quiz sheet (Q1) provided |
**Advanced group – or extension activity**
Write up the experiment and using the following words:
- Independent variables
- dependent variables
- control
**Home learning extension**
Pupils to pass on learning to someone at home (parents, siblings, friends). They could create their own poster on how to wash hands, or create a story board showing times during the day when hands should be washed.
Resources Needed
- Nutrient agar gel powder and petri plates with lids OR pre-mixed nutrient agar plates.
- Sellotape
- Marker pens
- Plate labels
- Pupil worksheets
Preparation
1. Make up the nutrient agar plates according to the instructions on the packet. Leave to set if required.
2. Stick a label near the edge of the lid of each plate. Make sure the gel is still clearly visible through the lid.
Method – Lesson 1
1. Use the lesson slides provided and the pupil sheets to introduce the activity. Explain to the pupils that agar plates contain jelly that provides an idea environment for bacteria to grow.
2. As a class discussion, explore what pupils think the outcome of the investigation may be, i.e. which side will grow more bacteria: clean or dirty and why? Pupils will write their predictions on the pupil sheet.
3. Each pupil will be provided with an agar plate and will draw a line using a marker pen down the centre of the base of the agar plate. Pupils will also label their plates with their name.
4. Instruct pupils to place fingers on the side of the plate labelled “dirty”, making sure that their fingers do not go over the line. It is important that pupils do not press too hard as this will break the jelly.
5. Send pupils at table at a time to wash their hands with warm water and soap in the sink and dry with a paper towel. Pupils are to return to their desk once hands are clean.
6. Once hands are clean each pupil should place their fingers on the side of the plate labelled “clean”, again making sure pupils fingers do not go over the line.
7. Pupils should tape the lids onto the plates.
8. Whilst pupils are waiting pupils can complete the hand hygiene crossword sheet provided.
9. Collect the plates and put them in a warm place for 48 hours.
10. Give each pupil a prediction sheet. Ask them to predict what the plates will look like after 48 hours.
Incubate the plates for 48 hours. Do not remove the lids.
Method – Lesson 2
1. Recap on the agar experiment from last lesson
2. Hand out the pupil experiment sheets (P1) and the agar plates. Emphasise that pupils must not remove the lids as the bacteria may be dangerous.
3. Instruct pupils to complete the results section on the pupil sheet by drawing the result they have observed on the agar plate. Pupils must then describe their findings on the sheet in a couple of sentences.
4. Pupils should complete the conclusion section of the sheet.
5. Collect the agar plates and put them in a safe place ready for disposal.
Disposal
While wearing rubber gloves, saturate the plates with a 20% or "1 in 5" household bleach solution (in other words, 1 part bleach and 4 parts water). Let them sit and soak overnight in the bleach solution before disposing of them. Thoroughly rinse the container and your gloves with clean water to remove the bleach solution. Be careful not to get any on your skin.
How clean are your hands?
Method
1. Draw a line on the back of your plate, right down the middle.
2. Write your name on the name label.
3. Place your hand gently on the side of the agar plate labelled “dirty”.
4. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.
5. Place your hand gently on the side of the agar plate labelled “clean”.
6. Carefully tape the lid onto the agar plate.
Now give the agar plate back to your teacher. The plates will sit in a warm place for 48 hours to give the bacteria time to grow.
Prediction
I predict that there will be more/less bacteria on the clean/dirty side of the plate because:
Results
Use the boxes below to show where the bacteria grew on your agar plate. Don’t open the lid! Remember, some of the bacteria could be harmful.
Dirty | Clean
Conclusion
My prediction was correct/wrong. I predicted that:
This was correct/wrong because:
Do not wash
Cold water
Hot water
Hot water and soap
What is the best way to wash your hands?
How far did the microbes travel in each group?
| Cold water | hands |
|------------|-------|
| Hot water | hands |
| Hot water and soap | hands |
Conclusion
The best way to wash your hands is:
Because:
Resources Needed
- Glo gel
- UV torch
- Two basins of warm water
- Basin of cold water
- Hand soap
Preparation
Arrange four desks side by side.
Desk 1 – A basin of cold water and a sign saying ‘Wash Hands in Cold Water’
Desk 2 – A basin of warm water and a sign saying ‘Wash Hands in Warm Water’
Desk 3 – A basin of warm water, some soap and a sign saying ‘Wash Hands with Warm Water and Soap’
Desk 4 – A sign saying ‘Do not wash hands’
Method
1. Divide pupils into four groups. Each group lines up in front of one of the desks.
2. Put a blob of glo-gel on the hands of the first student in each line. Tell them to spread it all over their hands. Explain that the glo-gel represents the microbes that we all have on our hands. Demonstrate that it glows under a UV light.
3. Once the gel has been rubbed in, tell the front students to wash their hands as directed on the sign.
4. After washing their hands the front students turn around and shake hands firmly with the next student in line. The second student then shakes hands with the third student, and so on until the end of the line is reached.
5. Use a blacklight to check each student’s hands for glo-gel. Check both sides of their hands and focus on the creases between fingers as this is where gel is most likely to remain after hand washing. The aim is to show how far down the line the gel (and also the microbes) has spread.
6. Students should record the findings of the experiment on the sheet provided.
Hand Washing – Quiz Questions
Pupils should stand up if the statement is true and sit down if it is false.
1. There are nearly one trillion bacteria on the average person at any one time.
Answer: True.
2. Washing hands in warm water removes the same amount of bacteria as washing hands with warm water and soap.
Answer: False. Washing with warm water and soap is the most effective method of removing bacteria.
3. You don’t need to wash your hands if they look clean.
Answer: False. Bacteria are too small for human eyes to see. You might have harmful bacteria on your hands even if they look clean.
4. You should wash your hands after using the toilet.
Answer: True. Toilets and bathrooms often contain lots of bacteria. It is very important to wash your hands after using the toilet.
5. When washing your hands you should scrub with soap for at least 20 seconds before rinsing.
Answer: True. The World Health Organisation recommends scrubbing with soap for at least 20 seconds then rinsing with warm water. If you only wash your hands quickly, or you don’t use soap, there might be some bacteria left on your skin. 20 seconds is roughly the time it takes to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice.
6. You can’t pick up bacteria by touching other people.
Answer: False. We pick up bacteria from everything we touch, including other people.
7. All bacteria are harmful.
Answer: False. Most bacteria are harmless, and many are helpful, like the bacteria that help with digestion. However, some bacteria can be harmful. We should wash our hands regularly to remove the harmful bacteria.
8. You should always wash your hands before eating.
Answer: True. When we eat we put our hands near our mouths, which means bacteria can get inside our bodies. If harmful bacteria get inside us they can make us ill. | f3c08a54-8f8b-48b7-a98d-1bd67d0c0f0e | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/nihr-hpru-hai-antimicrobial-resistance/Hand-Hygiene-lesson-plan-and-resources-KS2-2020.pdf | 2022-05-23T07:36:47+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662556725.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220523071517-20220523101517-00059.warc.gz | 932,097,584 | 4,463 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.996053 | eng_Latn | 0.99822 | [
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How to Perceive Battlefield Acupuncture
Your Brain and Optical Illusions &
A Thought Experiment on Point Locations
Auriculotherapy Point Location Based on Clinical Outcomes
The Illusions and Perceptions We Hold
Thinking In Terms of Battlefield Acupuncture (BFA)
BFA uses up to 5 points in each ear but not all 5 points must be used in BFA treatments. This along with some other principles are what make BFA different. We will begin with the exercise on how to look at BFA and auriculotherapy.
Understanding BFA requires us to look at not auriculotherapy but our beliefs in a different way. One should look beyond textbooks when presented with a patient. It is imperative to know the principles of auriculotherapy based on the work of Dr. Paul Nogier.
The BFA protocol challenges us to think outside the box. This is because most of the points are based on clinical outcomes. Points such as Thalamus, Shen Men and Point Zero will be found in a slightly different location than what is in our textbooks.
Illusions, Beliefs and How They Influence our Thinking
• An Illusion is something that is likely to be wrongly interpreted by the senses. It’s deceptive in its appearance. If it fools our consciousness for a prolonged time this can lead us to having false ideas or beliefs.
• This experiment will prepare you for learning and understanding point location according to the practice of Battlefield Acupuncture.
Illusions & Perceptions
Auricular (quantum) points, lifelong perceptions are not what they appear to be in reality
What is an Illusion?
An experience of seeming to see something that does not exist, or that is other than it appears be.
Something that deceives the eye by appearing to be other than it is.
What is a Perception?
It’s a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression. An impression is an effect, feeling, or image retained because of experience produced in the mind.
Photo Observation Experiment
Look at the following pictures for 5 seconds each. Try to identify what each picture is. Then try to identify where in the world the last photo was taken, or on what continent its located. There are a total of 4 pictures and one photo location in this exercise.
What Do You See in this picture?
What did you observe in the photo?
Besides the facial profile what else do you see? The word... Liar!
Name this Animal
Could You Name that Animal?
Duck? Bird? or Rabbit... it is a Rabbit
What Are You Looking At?
What Did You See?
It’s just water going down the drain.
wHO, wHO am I?
Most People Celebrate Him Once A Year
wHO, wHO? Old St. Nicholas – Inspiration for Santa Claus (270 – 343 AD)
Last Photo…
On what continent would you find this location?
Where in the World?
Can you identify where this “oasis” is? On what continent would you find this place? Here is a hint, “Pocahontas.”
Location, Wright’s Valley Antarctica
77°10’S 161°50’E
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The Role of Networking in Innovation in an Emerging Economy:
The Case of Russia
By
Natalia BUKHSHTABER
A DBA Thesis
in fulfilment of the requirements for the DBA degree
August 2018
Abstract
This study aims to expand the existing knowledge of the role of networking in innovation. It focuses on Russia, a country with a transition economy. On the governmental level, the lack of understanding of the networking mechanisms that Russian start-ups use to support their innovation creates a barrier to effective decision making related to the development of the national innovation system. On the start-up level, this lack of understanding hampers the ability to select effective networking strategies aimed at ensuring that companies can achieve their aims in each stage of their development. In order to determine the scope of opportunities for companies to establish external relationships and to set the context for the interpretation of the primary data, the author conducts a detailed analysis of the evolution of Russia's national innovation system. The investigation is based on secondary data, including official government documents, articles, and publications in the scientific literature and newspapers. To gain a deeper understanding of the interrelationship between networking and innovation, the study investigates the networking behaviour of Russian SMEs, represented by a sample of 59 companies that launched business activities in Moscow between 2009 and 2017. To collect primary data, in-depth interviews were carried out with the founders of these companies. To conduct a comparative analysis of networking behaviour of companies with different degrees of innovativeness, entrepreneurial ventures in the sample are grouped into four innovativeness categories: very low, low, medium and high. The findings confirm the key proposition that innovative start-ups are more actively engaged in networking and have wider networks. In addition, the study shows that more innovative start-ups build and govern their networks of business contacts differently than less innovative start-ups. Finally, the author discusses implications for the development of theory and practice, reflects on the limitations of the research, and makes suggestions for future research on innovative networking that might build upon this study. A key contribution of this DBA thesis to practice emerged in the sphere of the author’s teaching and administrative activities at the Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School. The results of this study were utilised in the construction and implementation of an educational project (February-April 2018) in which students worked closely with technological start-ups to help them establish vital contacts in their business and market environments. Therefore, the knowledge obtained from this study was taught to students and applied in practice in the implementation of a systematic approach to the search for and expansion of contact networks conducive to innovation. As such, it helped students develop networking skills and assisted start-ups in successfully solving tasks related to the commercialisation of innovative products and services.
# Table of contents
**Abstract** ................................................................................................................................. 1
**Table of contents** .................................................................................................................. 2
**Introduction** .......................................................................................................................... 9
- Research problem ................................................................................................................... 9
- Research design ..................................................................................................................... 10
- DBA thesis structure ............................................................................................................ 11
**Chapter 1. Literature Review and Conceptual Framework** .............................................. 14
1.1. Innovation ....................................................................................................................... 14
1.1.1. Theoretical underpinnings of innovation .................................................................. 14
1.1.2. Types of innovation .................................................................................................. 19
1.1.3. The link between entrepreneurship and innovation .................................................. 26
1.1.4. Stages of innovative start-up development .............................................................. 29
1.1.5. Logic of innovation management ............................................................................. 35
1.1.6. Innovation management in technology-driven entrepreneurial organisations .......... 37
1.1.7. Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 46
1.2. Networking ..................................................................................................................... 50
1.2.1. Theoretical underpinnings of networking .................................................................. 50
1.2.2. The role of social capital ............................................................................................ 54
1.2.3. Network coordination and governance ..................................................................... 56
1.2.4. Benefits, opportunities, costs and risks of innovation networks .............................. 59
1.2.5. Network typologies .................................................................................................. 61
1.2.6. Entrepreneurial networks .......................................................................................... 64
1.2.7. Evolution of entrepreneurial networks and networking behaviour ......................... 69
1.2.8. Role of trust in building a business relationship ....................................................... 70
1.2.9. Major themes on networking found in scholarly publications ................................. 71
1.2.10. Role of country context in networking .................................................................... 73
1.2.11. Specific features of network building in Russia .................................................... 75
1.2.12. Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 82
1.3. National innovation system ............................................................................................ 86
1.3.1. National innovation system and the role of networking .......................................... 86
1.3.2. Key elements of the NIS ........................................................................................... 89
1.3.3. Role of public governance in the development of innovation systems .................... 93
1.3.4. Regional innovation systems .................................................................................... 96
1.3.5. Key actors in innovation systems .............................................................................. 98
1.3.6. Framework conditions and infrastructure ................................................................ 100
1.3.7. Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 102
1.4. The conceptual framework ............................................................................................ 104
**Chapter 2. The development of the Russian NIS** ............................................................. 107
2.1. Research methodology .................................................................................................. 107
2.2. Phases of the Russian NIS development ....................................................................... 111
2.3. Analysis of the evolution of the Russian NIS .............................................................. 114
- Phase 0: Soviet background (until 1991) ........................................................................... 114
- Phase 1: December 1991 – December 1999 .................................................................... 122
- Phase 2: 2000 – 2005 ........................................................................................................ 135
- Phase 3: 2006 – 2008 ........................................................................................................ 144
- Phase 4: 2009 – 2013 ........................................................................................................ 157
2.4. Specific features of the Moscow RIS .......................................................... 221
2.5. Conclusions .................................................................................................. 224
Chapter 3. Study of Russian entrepreneurs’ networking behaviour ................. 233
3.1. Research methodology .................................................................................. 233
3.1.1. Aim and research questions ................................................................... 233
3.1.2. Epistemological, ontological and philosophical underpinnings ............. 238
3.1.3. Research design ...................................................................................... 239
3.2. Data analysis .................................................................................................. 247
3.2.1. Grouping of the companies included in the sample ............................... 247
3.2.2. Description of data .................................................................................. 251
3.2.3. RQ1: What role does networking (external relationships) play in the founding and development of businesses in the Russian context in relation to their degree of innovativeness? .......................................................... 256
3.2.4. RQ2: In terms of an entrepreneurial venture’s development, how does the network of relationships evolve over time? .......................................................... 277
3.2.5. RQ3: What role does trust play in building a business relationship? .......... 285
3.2.6. RQ4: Does networking behaviour evolve as entrepreneurial experience increases? .......................................................... 293
3.3. Implications for state innovation policy .......................................................... 300
3.4. Conclusions .................................................................................................. 304
Chapter 4. Discussion and conclusions ............................................................... 308
4.1. Contributions to knowledge ........................................................................... 308
4.1.1. Role of networking in the founding and development of businesses ........ 308
4.1.2. Evolution of networks ............................................................................ 313
4.1.3. Role of trust in building a business relationship ...................................... 315
4.1.4. Role of previous entrepreneurial experience and education in networking behaviour .................................................................................. 317
4.2. Contribution to practice .................................................................................. 320
4.3. Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research ............. 324
4.4. Conclusions .................................................................................................. 328
References ........................................................................................................... 331
Appendix 1.1. Distinct features of conventional SMEs and innovation-driven enterprises .................................................................................................................. 357
Appendix 1.2. Six generations of innovation models ............................................. 358
Appendix 2.1. Key activities supportive of NIS development .............................. 359
Appendix 2.2. Summary of features of the Russian NIS and their implications for innovative activity .................................................................................. 369
Appendix 3.1. Interview Guide ............................................................................. 375
Appendix 3.2. Control variables ............................................................................ 380
Appendix 3.3. Summary of data ............................................................................ 382
Appendix 4.1. Practice-oriented educational project that brings Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School bachelor students and innovative start-ups together to develop a systematic approach to building networks conducive to innovation .................................................................................. 387
List of tables
Table 0.1. Research questions ................................................................. 11
Table 0.2. The study’s logic ................................................................. 11
Table 1.1. Evolution of innovation models and managerial focus to address the driving mechanisms of economic development .................................................. 18
Table 1.2. Types of innovation ................................................................. 20
Table 1.3. Comparison of traditional managers, intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs .................................................. 28
Table 1.4. Types of strategic pivots .......................................................... 44
Table 1.5. Types of co-operation interdependencies ........................................... 54
Table 1.6. Coordination of interdependent activities ........................................... 57
Table 1.7. Aspects of the decision to enter innovation networks ........................................... 59
Table 1.8. Types of network relations .......................................................... 61
Table 1.9. Types of inter-firm networks .......................................................... 62
Table 1.10. Types and characteristics of entrepreneurs’ external networks ....................... 67
Table 1.11. Key differences between networking in Russia and the West ....................... 78
Table 1.12. Characteristics of networking typical of conventional and knowledge- and technology-driven businesses .................................................. 83
Table 1.13. Key definitions of the concept of NIS .................................................. 86
Table 1.14. Key areas for government action .................................................. 94
Table 1.15. Governance functions ................................................................. 95
Table 1.16. Definitions of the key concepts ...................................................... 104
Table 2.1. Frameworks used for the analysis and interpretation ..................................... 108
Table 2.2. Secondary data sources ............................................................... 109
Table 2.3. Phases of the Russian NIS development .............................................. 112
Table 2.4. Change in the number of researchers in the Academy of Sciences’ scientific institutions (at the end of the year, people) .............................................. 115
Table 2.5. Types of higher-education institutions in the Soviet Union ............................ 115
Table 2.6. Change in the number of higher-education institutions .................................. 116
Table 2.7. Number of faculty members in higher-education institutions (mid-year, thousands of people) .......................................................... 118
Table 2.8. Analysis of the Soviet Union’s legacy .................................................. 121
Table 2.9. Formation of the foundations of the Russian NIS in the first phase, 1991-1999. 127
Table 2.10. Number of students in higher-education institutions, in thousands ............... 128
Table 2.11. Formation of the foundations of the Russian NIS in the second phase, 2000-2005 136
Table 2.12. Indicators of growth among small enterprises during phase 2 ....................... 137
Table 2.13. Development of NIS in the third phase, 2006-2008 .................................. 147
Table 2.14. Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation, targets and achievements 156
Table 2.15. Measures for the development of the NIS, 2009-2013 .............................. 162
Table 2.16. Indicators for small and medium-sized enterprises in Russia, 2010-2014 .......... 166
Table 2.17. Innovation elevator project for young entrepreneurs ..................................... 174
Table 2.18. Implementation of national innovation policy, 2014 – 2017 ........................................... 192
Table 2.19. Structure of Russia’s small and medium-sized business as of 1 August 2016 .... 196
Table 2.20. NTI markets .................................................................................................................. 209
Table 2.21. Analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Russian NIS as of 2017 ........ 220
Table 2.22. The Moscow RIS’s infrastructure (number of each type of organisation) .......... 223
Table 2.23. Analysis of links and networking peculiarities in the Russian NIS .................... 226
Table 3.1. Implications from the literature relevant for the current study ............................. 234
Table 3.2. Examples of interview questions .............................................................................. 239
Table 3.3. Summary of research design ..................................................................................... 239
Table 3.4. Interview guide structure ............................................................................................ 241
Table 3.5. Mapping of research questions into interview guide questions .......................... 241
Table 3.6. SME innovativeness categories ............................................................................... 243
Table 3.7. General characteristics of business enterprises .................................................... 248
Table 3.8. Characteristics of companies in relation to innovation ......................................... 249
Table 3.9. SME innovativeness categories ............................................................................... 250
Table 3.10. Structure of data collected ....................................................................................... 252
Table 3.11. Data characteristics ................................................................................................. 252
Table 3.12. Key characteristics of networking in the innovativeness categories .................. 257
Table 3.13. Role of primary contacts .......................................................................................... 259
Table 3.14. Extended map of contacts ....................................................................................... 261
Table 3.15. Purposes of networking with different sources .................................................... 262
Table 3.16. Map of goals pursued by entrepreneurs in external relationships ..................... 265
Table 3.17. Examples of changes in business objectives with the growth of innovativeness that require changes in networking behaviour ................................................................. 266
Table 3.18. Customer-relationship governance ....................................................................... 268
Table 3.19. Governance of contacts with suppliers and partners ........................................... 270
Table 3.20. The role and mechanisms of trust in building a network of business contacts .... 285
Table 3.21. Evolution of networking behaviour among entrepreneurs as they gain entrepreneurial experience ........................................................................................................... 293
Table 4.1. Comparison of this study’s and literature findings regarding the role of networking in the founding and development of businesses ................................................................. 308
Table 4.2. Comparison of this study’s and literature findings regarding the evolution of networks ................................................................................................................................. 313
Table 4.3. Comparison of this study’s and literature findings regarding the role of trust ..... 315
Table 4.4. Comparison of this study’s and literature findings regarding the role of experience in networking behaviour ................................................................................................. 318
Table 4.5. Project participants .................................................................................................... 321
Table 4.6. Reflections on the limitations of this study ............................................................. 324
List of figures
Figure 0.1. The conceptual framework of the study ......................................................... 10
Figure 1.1. Stages of the innovation process ................................................................. 16
Figure 1.2. Strategic reconciliation through innovation .................................................. 17
Figure 1.3. Ten types of innovation .............................................................................. 22
Figure 1.4. Framework for defining innovation (Henderson and Clark, 1990) ............. 25
Figure 1.5. Stepwise model of innovative entrepreneurial organisation development .... 30
Figure 1.6. Entrepreneurial organisation life cycle ....................................................... 31
Figure 1.7. Innovation cycle within the “valley of death” ............................................ 33
Figure 1.8. Intrapreneurial organisation life cycle ....................................................... 35
Figure 1.9. A model of the manager at work ............................................................... 38
Figure 1.10. Dimensions of innovation management in a new venture ...................... 41
Figure 1.11. Strategic pyramid ................................................................................... 43
Figure 1.12. Role of networking in NIS ...................................................................... 88
Figure 1.13. Levels of firms’ innovation capacities .................................................... 88
Figure 1.14. Generalised model of a national innovation system .............................. 90
Figure 1.15. Typical governance structure of an NIS ................................................ 95
Figure 1.16. A model of a regional innovation system ............................................... 97
Figure 1.17. Map of key actors in innovation systems ................................................ 99
Figure 1.18. The innovation pyramid model .............................................................. 100
Figure 1.19. Structural elements of an innovation system .......................................... 102
Figure 1.20. The conceptual framework of the study ................................................ 105
Figure 2.1. NIS in the Soviet Union ........................................................................... 119
Figure 2.2. State expenditures on R&D in the Russian Federation, RUB billions, in constant 1989 prices ........................................................................................................ 123
Figure 2.3. Total number of R&D organisations in Russia .......................................... 124
Figure 2.4. R&D organisations in Russia ..................................................................... 125
Figure 2.5. Number of scientific workers in Russia, thousands .................................. 125
Figure 2.6. Emigration of Russians to foreign countries, thousands .......................... 126
Figure 2.7. Share of students in Russian universities in various areas of training .......... 129
Figure 2.8. Funding for civilian science and R&D in Russia ........................................ 139
Figure 2.9. Number of technoparks in Russia, 1990-2015 ........................................ 140
Figure 2.10. The separate existence of subsystems .................................................... 143
Figure 2.11. Percentage change from previous year in exports, imports and GDP ........ 145
Figure 2.12. Innovative activity in mining, manufacturing, production, and distribution of electricity, gas and water .................................................................................. 145
Figure 2.13. The technopark model in the high-tech sphere ....................................... 151
Figure 2.14. Quarterly GDP dynamics of the world leading countries (annual data), 2005-2015 .................................................................................................................. 157
Figure 2.15. Dynamics of Russia’s GDP, 2006-2014 .................................................. 157
Figure 2.16. Entrepreneurial behaviour and attitudes, 2009-2014 ................................ 164
Figure 2.17. Distance to frontier as a measure of ease of doing business in Russia, 2010-2017
Figure 2.18. Growth in average number of employees, by SME category at the end of the year, in millions
Figure 2.19. Share of employment by enterprise size class, percentages, 2011 or latest available year
Figure 2.20. Financing of the civil R&D sector from the federal budget
Figure 2.21. State subsidies for cooperation between industrial companies and the Russian state’s higher-education institutions/scientific organisations
Figure 2.22. Contribution of small, medium and large business to GDP, Russia and developed countries
Figure 2.23. Government’s share in top 10 enterprises, by country
Figure 2.24. Number of operating ventures and equity funds
Figure 2.25. Number of venture funds
Figure 2.26. Proportions of private equity and venture funds, by volume
Figure 2.27. Number of private equity and venture capital funds by volume, USD millions
Figure 2.28. Industry preferences reported by venture and equity funds
Figure 2.29. Distribution of venture investments by funds with state participation, by sector
Figure 2.30. Innovative activity of companies in telecommunications
Figure 2.31. Russia’s venture market
Figure 2.32. Total intramural R&D expenditures by financing source, 2013, RUB billions and %
Figure 2.33. Venture market as % of GDP, 2014
Figure 2.34. Extent of Russia’s NIS by 2014
Figure 2.35. Russia’s NIS as of 2013
Figure 2.36. Trends in Russia’s position in the Doing Business ranking, the Global Innovation Index and the Global Competitiveness Index
Figure 2.37. Indicators of Russia’s economic performance
Figure 2.38. Targets of Russia’s state innovation policy
Figure 2.39. Distribution of SMEs by economic activity, as of January 1, 2015
Figure 2.40. Distribution of SMEs by federal district, as of January 1, 2015
Figure 2.41. Share of loans to SMEs to total loan portfolio
Figure 2.42. Volume and loan portfolio of SMEs, RUB trillion
Figure 2.43. Share of overdue loans in corresponding loan portfolios
Figure 2.44. State support provided to SMEs
Figure 2.45. Number of registered patents
Figure 2.46. NTI matrix as a new model for Russia’s NIS
Figure 2.47. Global Entrepreneurship Index 2018, pillar-level comparison of Denmark, Greece and Russia
Figure 2.48. Global Entrepreneurship Index 2018, pillar-level comparison
Figure 3.1. The relationship between the study’s conceptual framework and the data-collection instrument
| Figure 3.2. | This study’s approach to the construction of groups | 251 |
| Figure 3.3. | Distribution of respondents’ answers in relation to their businesses’ aims | 253 |
| Figure 3.4. | Distribution of respondents’ answers relative to their business project’s development stage | 254 |
| Figure 3.5. | Distribution of respondents’ answers relative to estimation of business project’s success | 254 |
| Figure 3.6. | Distribution of respondents’ answers relative to founders’ entrepreneurial experience | 255 |
| Figure 3.7. | Distribution of respondents’ answers relative to founders’ completion of managerial education | 256 |
| Figure 4.1. | Increase in complexity in the system of relations depending on the innovativeness of the focal firm | 311 |
| Figure 4.2. | Types of interdependencies typical for firms with various levels of innovativeness | 312 |
| Figure 4.3. | Photos of project participants | 322 |
Introduction
Research problem
In this study, innovation is viewed as a process that results in the creation and introduction of a completely new or significantly improved offering or customer experience on the market. The study focuses on investigating the networking behaviour of entrepreneurs that is conducive to establishing a company and launching a product or service on the market.
Given the relatively recent emergence of entrepreneurship as a phenomenon in Russia, there are no established, recognised or proven approaches to running one's own business or to building relationships and networks supportive of such a business. Extant literature indicates that entrepreneurs view networking as a mechanism that can compensate for scarce resources and structural holes in business models. In addition, a diverse network can serve as a means of social-capital creation, which in turn can provide entrepreneurs with the information, moral support and expertise needed to overcome the difficulties associated with building a business, especially if those difficulties are exacerbated by the high degree of uncertainty inherent in emerging markets, such as Russia. As innovative entrepreneurship is the most complex and indeterminate form of entrepreneurship, it can be proposed that the greater a start-up’s innovativeness, the more entrepreneurs are likely to be engaged in networking and the wider their networks should be.
The focal research problem arises from the fact that despite the existence of an updated innovation infrastructure in Russia, the country’s national innovation system (NIS) is inefficient – it does not contribute to increasing the number of innovative companies or lead to the introduction of significant amount of new, high-tech products. In the context of an ineffective NIS, personal ties can create the mechanisms necessary for innovative development and have the potential to compensate for institutional deficiencies in the innovation environment. As networking may become the driver of Russia’s innovative development in the near future, it is important to understand its mechanisms, including the approaches used to build and govern networks. In order to achieve a detailed understanding of networking behaviour and its relationship with start-ups’ innovativeness, this study offers a comparative analysis of the networking features of companies exhibiting different degrees of innovation.
The literature on innovation and networking in modern Russia is scarce. There is no contemporary understanding of how Russian firms establish external relations to enhance their innovativeness, even though there is a widespread trend of studying this issue among
European researchers. Thus, this study aims to extend the extant literature by addressing the role of networking in founding and developing an innovative company in a context of Russia. From a practical point of view, this study aims to identify patterns of networking behaviour among modern Russian start-ups and highlight the approaches that are most useful in terms of their ability to help companies perform their tasks in the best way.
**Research design**
The aim of this study is to **examine the role of networking in innovation among Russian entrepreneurs**. Since this implies achieving a deep understanding of entrepreneur's networking behaviour, the study is exploratory in nature. That is, the task is to provide qualitative empirical evidence of interrelationship between firms' innovativeness and their networking activities, rather than to quantitatively identify the existence of a causal relationship between these phenomena. Given that networking is an integral part of the innovation system, the conceptual framework adopted in this study and developed on the basis of a literature review can be visually represented as shown in Figure 0.1.
**Figure 0.1. The conceptual framework of the study**
*Source: Developed by the author*
To achieve the aim of this study, it is necessary to conduct complex research consisting of two parts. The first part is devoted to the analysis of Russia’s NIS development, and understanding of Moscow’s regional innovation system (RIS) features, thereby establishing a context for interpreting entrepreneurs’ networking behaviour. The second part, based on the collection and analysis of primary data gathered from interviews with Moscow-based entrepreneurs, covers the specifics of their networking behaviour. The study uses the following research questions, which emerged from the study of the literature and the identification of key themes related to networking, to build an understanding of the networking behaviours of Russian start-ups that are supportive of innovation (see Table 0.1).
**Table 0.1. Research questions**
| Part 1 Documentary study | ▪ How did each of the five stages of the Russian NIS development affect the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks of creating networks supportive of innovation? |
|--------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Part 2 Qualitative research | ▪ RQ1: What role does networking (external relationships) play in the founding and development of businesses in the Russian context in relation to their degree of innovativeness?
▪ RQ2: In terms of an entrepreneurial venture’s development, how does the network of relationships evolve over time?
▪ RQ3: What role does trust play in building a business relationship?
▪ RQ4: Does networking behaviour evolve as entrepreneurial experience increases? |
*Source: Developed by the author*
**DBA thesis structure**
The DBA thesis consists of four chapters that contribute to the study’s logic as shown in the Table 0.2.
**Table 0.2. The study’s logic**
| Research phase | Contribution to the study’s logic |
|----------------|----------------------------------|
| Literature review (Chapter 1) | Considered the three fundamental areas – innovation, networking, NIS. The concepts revealed in the literature determined the author’s understanding and allowed for formation of a conceptual apparatus that included the key analytical categories used as the basis for the analysis performed in Chapters 2 and 3. |
| Documentary study (Chapter 2) | Based on the analysis of the documents, five phases of the Russian NIS’s development were identified. The specific features of the Russian NIS were considered, which served as the context for studying the role of networking in innovation. The current state of the Moscow RIS was analysed and conclusion made that Moscow had all necessary elements of a regional innovation system. Consequently, it was an excellent context for studying the behaviour of SMEs in terms of networking with RIS participants. |
| Qualitative research (Chapter 3) | Based on the study’s design (the author’s approach to the formation of innovation categories) and the collected qualitative data, conclusions were made about the existence of different patterns in the behaviours of various groups of Moscow-based entrepreneurs. |
| Contribution of the research (Chapter 4) | On the basis of the findings, conclusions were drawn on how cognitive frameworks should change with regard to entrepreneurial networking and its role in innovations. |
Chapter 1 is devoted to elaborating the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the study via a critical evaluation of the relevant extant literature. The chapter is structured around key dimensions of the research area, such as innovation, networking and national innovation system.
Chapter 2 provides a detailed analysis of the trajectory of NIS development and evolution of state policies supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in Russia over the past 26 years and considers Moscow’s regional innovation system (RIS) features. This creates a context for understanding innovation and networking trends in the modern Russian economy, including the scope of opportunities the entrepreneurial and innovation infrastructure provides to Russian start-ups for establishing external relations. This chapter considers the features of NIS development in each phase, especially relevant achievements and areas of inefficiency in Russia’s innovative system. A key historical feature of the development of the Russian NIS is that the innovation concept has been interpreted almost exclusively in the context of technological entrepreneurship. Therefore, the Russian innovation infrastructure has been built in such a way as to create opportunities for the emergence and development of highly technological start-ups. This distinguishing feature explains the decision to focus on companies engaged in the commercialisation of technologies in a product or service to study their networking behaviour in SME’s high and medium innovativeness categories.
Chapter 3 consists of the primary research, which contributes to our understanding of the role of networking in the development of innovative organisations. It starts from justification of the approach for grouping start-ups for further study, and presents the results of the analysis of the collected data for each of the research questions. Discussions and findings from the literature reviewed in Chapter 1 are integrated to develop the research questions. Epistemological, ontological and philosophical stances lead to the choice of research strategy – the grounded theory approach, which is seen as the most appropriate for undertaking this interpretive study of the role of networking in innovation. Given the high context richness, the conclusions derived from the data analysis are justified using statements made by those participating in the study. Chapter 3 ends with a discussion of the implications for state innovation policy. It also offers a set of conclusions that highlights the evolution of approaches to networking among Russian entrepreneurs,
including the conclusion that these approaches are similar to Western norms, and compares those conclusions to the extant literature.
Chapter 4 explains the study’s contributions by comparing the findings with ideas about innovation networking found in the literature. In light of the study’s findings, a suggestion is made to supplement the existing cognitive frameworks of entrepreneurial networking behaviour with considerations of the innovativeness of those networks, as the behaviours of entrepreneurs in various groups differ. This chapter also shows how the knowledge built and systematised in this study can be applied in practice by discussing its use in the implementation of a course at the Business School\(^1\) at which the author of this thesis works as an Associate Professor. The aim of the course was to provide students with the knowledge and practical skills needed to effectively build networks through the implementation of a real project. The key project task was to apply a systematic approach to identifying the contacts needed by innovative start-ups and to provide assistance in establishing links with those contacts. The project was carried out in February-April 2017 by student groups and five innovative start-ups from the innovation development institution known as Skolkovo Foundation. At the end of the chapter, the limitations of the research presented in this thesis were discussed and recommendations were provided on how future research on innovation-related networking might build upon this study’s findings.
\(^1\) Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School, Moscow, Russia.
Chapter 1. Literature Review and Conceptual Framework
The chapter aims to build a context for interpreting and understanding the research results by reviewing the extant scholarly literature, and identifying relevant concepts and theories, thereby placing the current study into the broad domain of knowledge in the field of innovation and networking. The primary purposes of this chapter are, first, to establish the theoretical foundations for the development of the conceptual framework used in this study, including the definitions of the key concepts and the identification of their relevance for the research dimensions and, second, to discover gaps in the extant knowledge that the current study can begin to address.
1.1. Innovation
This section presents a review of scholarly research and an analysis of the concept of innovation with a focus on how innovation manifests itself in entrepreneurial organisations. The ultimate aims of this section in the context of the current study are to build a conceptual understanding of innovation, to identify aspects of innovation that can determine the occurrence of various networking patterns and to uncover the dimensions (control variables) that are important for evaluating the effect of networking on innovation.
The section begins with a discussion of extant views on innovation as an outcome, a process and a strategy. It then proceeds to a discussion of distinctions among types of innovation, an explanation of the link between entrepreneurship and innovation, consideration of stages of innovative-enterprise development, and an explanation of the nonlinear nature of innovation. Logics and approaches to managing innovation in knowledge- and technology-driven enterprises for which the innovative process is the key to success are considered at the end of the section.
1.1.1. Theoretical underpinnings of innovation
The extant literature considers innovation as a multifaceted phenomenon. As such, it is viewed as an outcome, process or strategy, the pursuit of which results in the emergence of new managerial functions, such as innovation management.
Innovation as an outcome
Some authors (Rogers, 1983; Johannessen et al., 2001) suggest that “novelty” is a major defining characteristic of the innovation phenomenon. In this perspective, innovation is a product, service, method of production, market, source of supply or way of organising (Schumpeter, 2004, p. 66) that the adopting unit perceives as new. An innovative outcome involves the successful application of new ideas, which result from innovation processes
that combine various resources to provide added value and a degree of novelty (McFadzean et al., 2005; Dodgson et al., 2014). Ideas that give rise to innovations do not always stem from technological inventions or discoveries. Notably, ideas often emerge from the intersection of extant knowledge with a new need or an unresolved problem. Thus, innovation can be the result of modifications resulting from interactions between people and their knowledge, as embodied in products, processes or services (Roberts, 2007; Bjork and Magnusson, 2009).
According to Slappendel (1996), the perception of newness is essential, as it differentiates innovation from improvement. Innovation is often perceived as the result of an invention being developed into something new to the market that is then exploited economically (Schumpeter, 2004). However, “innovation” is not equal to “invention”. Schumpeter (2004, liv) declares that innovation is possible even in the absence of invention and that invention does not necessarily lead to innovation. West (1992) proposes that in order to understand innovation, we must focus on commercial viability and competitiveness in the marketplace rather than on intellectual perceptions within an organisation of an innovation’s value as a novelty. Roberts (2007, p. 36) declares that “innovation is composed of two parts: the generation of an idea or invention and the conversion of that invention into a business or other useful application”. Frederiksen and Knudsen (2017) claim that after development and market introduction, a new product’s adoption (or rejection) by recipients will affect the extent of commercialisation and, eventually, its performance. Consequently, innovation should be viewed as the outcome of the commercialisation of some ideas or approaches that are perceived as new. In this perspective, novelty in itself is not the ultimate purpose. It is needed to capture the attention of potential recipients of a new offering. If potential users do not view the novelty as useful, then they may not adopt the new product (Frederiksen and Knudsen, 2017) and its newness to the company on an internal level will have no value.
Given the view that the commercialisation of some ideas or approaches is primarily a result of a firm’s activities (Roberts, 2007), it is worthwhile to consider the typology of innovation outcomes. This is because different types of innovation and their implementation may require different networking behaviours.
**Innovation as a process**
Another trend in the literature is to model innovation not as an outcome but as a process or as a sequence of actions that usually starts with a discovery and ends with activities that differ in terms of their level of success and their diffusion (e.g., Drazin and Schoonhoven, 1996). In this regard, innovation is seen as the process of implementing creative and
sometimes scientific or knowledge-intensive ideas (Crossan and Apaydin, 2010). This process has several phases, including preliminary idea generation (often driven by an attempt to solve a customer problem identified in the market), idea selection, and elaboration, until the idea successfully reaches the market as a product or service produced by an organisation (Deschamps, 1995; Frederiksen and Knudsen, 2017). Figure 1.1 illustrates the stages of innovation process that focus on transforming knowledge into products that will be viable in the marketplace. The need to adapt products to clients’ requirements to improve their perceived value may require the organisation to implement changes in marketing and sales activities, or to re-design its offering.
**Figure 1.1. Stages of the innovation process**
*Source: Frederiksen and Knudsen, 2017, p. 6*
To consider innovation as a process, it is necessary to understand the actions that are necessary to ensure the transformation of knowledge into a product that will be welcomed by the market. Claiming that new idea or technological solution commercialisation outside an organisation is impossible (Crossan and Apaydin, 2010; Dodgson et al., 2014), innovation implementation can be modelled as an entrepreneurial process that is simultaneously a continuous and impulsive series of actions that leads to business development. The inputs in this process include innovative ideas, resources, complementary competencies, and entrepreneurial skills and qualities, while participation in the competitive process is the main output (Smallbone and Welter, 2009). In light of the novelty and uncertainty that are integral characteristics of the innovation process, companies may lack the necessary competencies and resources. However, access to these elements can be facilitated by networks. In order to determine the network behaviours that can contribute to innovation, it is necessary to investigate the stages of the innovation process and related management tasks that may require external assistance, and to build an understanding of the general logic of the managerial activities behind the commercialisation process.
**Innovation as a strategy**
In the modern knowledge economy (Powell and Snellman, 2004), which is characterised by an accelerated pace of technical and scientific advancement, rapid obsolescence, and
increased global competition, an innovative approach is generally recognised as a more promising strategy than cost-based competition (Utterback and Abernathy, 1975; Drazin and Schoonhoven, 1996; Dundon, 2002; Asheim et al., 2003). Furthermore, innovation is sometimes perceived as an instrument for either adapting to rapid change in the marketplace or for aggressively influencing the environment (Damanpour, 1996). Thus, innovation can be seen as a source of competitive advantage for companies seeking to meet market requirements and thereby achieve market success (the market-based view), as well as those attempting to outperform competitors by building effective strategies and operations (the resource-based view). In other words, innovation can be perceived as a tool for achieving strategic reconciliation between market requirements and operational resources, as commercialisation ultimately requires implementation of an operations strategy that ensures market fit and sustainability. The strategy must also encompass an ability to manage risks (Slack and Lewis, 2002; see Figure 1.2).
**Figure 1.2. Strategic reconciliation through innovation**
*Source: adapted from Slack and Lewis, 2002, p. 39*
An analysis of the scholarly literature shows that the understanding of innovation’s strategic role, and the mechanisms of its implementation and management have evolved and changed along with the general approaches to business management, which have attempted to match the evolution of economic relations and structures. Rothwell (1994) and others (e.g., Nobelius, 2004) describe this evolution in six generations of innovation models (see Appendix 2). Each stage was characterised by different drivers and a certain level of economic development, which determined the innovation challenges, and directed innovative thinking with regard to innovation outcomes and innovation-management approaches. In this respect, the newly developed innovative model constituted a best
practice at each stage. The Table 1.1 visualises the evolution of innovation models in line with economic developments and managerial perspectives.
**Table 1.1. Evolution of innovation models and managerial focus to address the driving mechanisms of economic development**
| Generation | First (1G) Technology push (1950s – mid-1960s) | Second (2G) Market (pull) (mid-1960s – early 1970s) | Third (3G) Coupling model (early 1970s – mid-1980s) | Fourth (4G) Integrated innovation process (mid-1980s – early 1990s) | Fifth (5G) Systems integration and networking (early 1990s – early 2000s) | Sixth (6G) Multi-technology cross-industry networking (early 2000s – present) |
|------------|-----------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Driving mechanisms** | Technological opportunities; production economy; productivity as a key priority | Demand-side factors; meeting customers’ needs; service economy | Interaction between technological potential and market needs; efficiency; consumption economy | Shortening of the product life cycle and the speed of development; time-based competition and a need to be a “fast innovator” | Information technologies; emergence of knowledge economy; need for greater flexibility and adaptability; competition based on faster development speed and greater efficiency | Multi-technology nature of new products; digital economy; increase in R&D complexity to pull together expertise from different industries; multiple aspects entangled and multiple actors collaborate |
| **Managerial perspective** | Classical approach (scientific management, administrative management) | Human-resource approach (human-resource management, organisational behaviour, physiology) | Quantitative approach (management science, operations management, customer behaviour) | Systems perspective (people in organisations, resource-based view, strategic management theories of competitive advantage, change management, competence and innovation theory) | Contingency approach (knowledge management, learning and creativity, strategic management based on co-operation and collaborative advantage, evolution of competence and innovation theory) | Information-technology approach (impact of IT and the Internet on organisational behaviour, technology and knowledge management, supply chain management, networking, collaboration) |
*Source: adapted from Rothwell, 1G – 5G, 1994; Nobelius, 6G, 2004; Raduan et al., 2009; DuBrin, 2010*
In the Table 1.1, the field of management thought embraces the managerial approaches traced by researchers in organisations’ practises. In that respect, the development of management theories in the table above should be perceived as dynamic in nature. In other words, although managerial perspectives or approaches are shown as developing along a linear trajectory, their interactions and linkages are not necessarily chronological. Moreover, their relationships are shaped by the environmental needs and relativity of the structural and operational requirements of particular organisations acting within certain industries (Raduan et al., 2009). Although best practices are continually evolving, Rothwell (1994) claims that reality is more complex. Different companies with different approaches operate simultaneously and they conduct their business in various ways that means that all innovation models can co-exist in various forms (Rothwell, 1994). Rothwell
proposes that opportunities for innovation may simultaneously arise from market pull (new needs), technology push (new inventions), or knowledge flows through the complex set of relationships (networking) among actors within and across industries. Moreover, the involvement of companies in a particular industry determines its innovative model to some extent. For example, firms in the pharmaceutical (science-based) and chemical (process-based) sectors are more likely to implement the technology pull model, while successful, innovative manufacturing firms are likely to adopt a fifth-generation model. When the majority of organisations in a particular industry realise the benefits of new approaches, the old approaches become obsolete, as their application will hinder organisational development. In today’s knowledge economy, the organic parts of the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-generation models are networking and the key innovation strategy is integration of innovative partners’ activities on their organisations’ strategic and operational levels.
1.1.2. Types of innovation
In order to build the conceptual understanding of innovation to be used in the current study, it is necessary to determine the categories of innovation. Innovation typologies have been constructed in various ways in the extant literature, which extensively addresses the questions of where, by whom, and under which circumstances innovative ideas are generated (van de Ven, 1986; Bjork and Magnusson, 2009; Johnson, 2011). The current study uses the approach suggested by Johannessen et al. (2001) in which a typology is created using the following questions: What is new? To whom is it new? How new is it?
What is new?
In the classical approach (Schumpeter, 2004), types of innovation are defined in relation to innovation outcomes. These outcomes include the development of new products or services, the development of new methods of production, the identification of new markets, the discovery of new sources of supply and the development of new organisational forms.
Numerous studies focus on a few main areas that determine the dimensions of innovation in an organisation (Evan and Black, 1967; Daft, 1978; Damanpour, 1996; OECD, 2005; Adams et al., 2006; Liao et al., 2008; Armbruster et al., 2008; Tavassoli and Karlsson, 2015). Definitions of key dimensions highlighted by these authors are provided in Table 1.2.
Table 1.2. Types of innovation
| Innovation type | Refers to |
|-----------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Product or services | The introduction of new goods or services with new characteristics or new intended uses. |
| Process | Significant changes in methods of producing or delivering goods, or creating or providing services (e.g., inputs, operations, task specifications, work and information flows), or the introduction of new elements into those methods. |
| Technological | Changes in the technology or equipment used to produce products or render services. |
| Organisational | Changes in organisational structures or administrative procedures, or the implementation of new organisational methods, practices or programmes that affect organisational members. Examples of such innovations include (Tavassoli and Karlsson, 2015):
- Introduction and implementation of new strategies,
- Introduction of knowledge-management systems that improve skills in searching, adopting, sharing, coding, storing and diffusing knowledge among employees,
- Introduction of new administrative and control systems and processes,
- Introduction of new internal authority and leadership structures with associated incentive structures, including decentralised decision making and teamwork (e.g., self-managed teams),
- Introduction of new types of external relations with other firms and/or public organisations, including, vertical cooperation with suppliers and/or customers, alliances, partnerships, sub-contracting, outsourcing and offshoring, and
- Introduction of new personnel-recruitment policies for key positions. |
| Marketing | Changes in marketing instruments or the implementation of new marketing methods (e.g., “changes in product design and packaging, in product promotion and placement, and in methods for pricing goods and services” (OECD, 2005, p. 17)). Marketing innovations relate to the opening up of new markets or the positioning of a product in a new way on the market. |
Although the definitions of product, market and process innovations used by different authors appear to be quite similar, the complex phenomenon of organisational innovation is interpreted in various ways. For example, Wang and Ahmed (2004) identify two organisational innovation dimensions: behaviour and strategic innovation. The former refers to a novelty introduced into organisational routines at the individual, teams or management level. The latter is understood as a fundamental re-conceptualisation of the business model. Tavassoli and Karlsson (2015) add that organisational innovation involves changes in routines aimed at improving the efficiency, productivity, profitability, flexibility and creativity of a firm using disembodied knowledge. Organisational innovations can be structural or procedural, and intra-organisational or inter-organisational (Armbruster et al., 2008). They serve as “fertile ground” for innovation, especially for process innovations (Tavassoli and Karlsson, 2015, p. 1890), as they can reduce the tensions within an organisation in its efforts to adopt a new technology. Hollen et al. (2013) propose that organisational and process innovations become intertwined over time, and reason that although technological process innovation is rooted in technological problem solving, it must be broadly integrated with other organisational processes.
Tavassoli and Karlsson (2015) declare that organisational innovations are distinct from product innovations. They can be supportive of each other, as the introduction of knowledge-management systems and incentive structures can foster new product development in existing organisations. However, organisational innovations are not a prerequisite for product innovations. This is particularly true for technological start-ups in which entrepreneurs are primarily focused on product development, such that they build the new company’s organisational structure and procedures in parallel (Aulet, 2013).
An analysis of the literature leads to the conclusion that various types of innovation may be implemented together, and that they thereby reinforce each other and contribute to the firm’s performance and competitiveness. The intensity of a firm’s engagement in various types of innovation depends on the stage of the firm’s lifecycle (Damanpour, 1996; Drazin and Schoonhoven, 1996). In the early stages of development, such as when the firm is an entrepreneurial start-up, it mainly relies on product and marketing innovation. As it grows and becomes more complex, the firm initiates process innovation (Utterback and Abernathy, 1975). As a firm approaches maturity, it requires more complex, investment-demanding innovations, such as technological and organisational innovations. Notably, Damanpour (1996) provides empirical evidence that managers perceive technological innovations as relatively more advantageous than purely organisational innovations.
In order to build a data-collection instrument, it is important to be able to distinguish among types of innovation in borderline cases. With respect to technological and process innovations, the borders are blurred because the introduction of new technologies instantly leads to changes in the process. In the third edition of its manual *Guidelines for collecting and interpreting innovation data*, the OECD removed the word “technological” and defined broader boundaries for process innovations as follows: “A process innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software” (OECD, 2005, p. 49). On the basis of experience gained from several rounds of innovation surveys, the OECD decided to include four types of innovation in its definition: product, process, organisational and marketing (OECD, 2005, p. 47).
Another evidence-based methodology for developing innovation categories is suggested by Keeley et al. (2013). Building on their understanding of innovation as the *creation* of a *viable new offering*, the authors propose three major innovation categories: resource configuration, offering and customer experience. They then break these into ten subcategories of innovation (see Figure 1.3). The configuration types of innovation are focused on the innermost workings of an enterprise and its business system. Offering types of innovation are focused on an enterprise’s core product or service, or a collection of its
products and services. Experience types of innovation are focused on the more customer-facing elements of an enterprise and its business system.
**Figure 1.3. Ten types of innovation**
*Keeley et al.’s (2013) Innovation Categories*
| Resources Configuration | Offering | Customer Experience |
|-------------------------|----------|---------------------|
| Profit Model | Platform-centric innovation | Experience-centric innovation |
| Network | Reinvent or recombine capabilities to deliver value | Engage customers differently to deliver value |
| Structure | Product Performance | Service |
| Process | Product System | Channel |
| | Brand | Customer Engagement |
*Source: Keeley et al., 2013*
Although the upper-level categories can generally be mapped onto the classical typology described above (as shown in the Figure 1.3), the composition of the ten suggested types of innovation constitutes a shift from a product-centred view to a market-centred view, which reflects the shift from a product-based economy to a consumption-based economy. In addition, the configuration types account for new realities brought to life by phenomena associated with the information economy (Shapiro and Varian, 1999) and the related network economy (Ard-Pieter de Man, 2004). The experience types suggested by Keeley et al. (2013) can also be used to understand innovative ideas emerging in the realm of the sharing economy (Puschmann and Alt, 2016) that are associated with a change in client behaviour due to social networks, electronic markets, the use of mobile devices and the reliance on electronic services. Keeley et al.’s (2013) typology of innovation extends the field of focus, which previously centred on the product as the sole offering. It explicitly includes the concept of services that either create innovative value for a customer or add value to a more tangible product. In other words, it reflects the fact that people rarely
consume products in today’s world. Instead, they consume product systems that comprise both products and services.
When summarising their study of nearly 2,000 examples of innovative behaviour, Keeley et al. (2013) declare that innovation rarely fails due to a lack of creativity. Rather, most failures are caused by a lack of a comprehensive understanding of the essence of innovation and a failure to think actions through. The authors believe that the most certain way to fail is to focus only on products. Successful innovators consciously use many types of innovation simultaneously, and their decisions rely, at the very least, on the identification of market opportunities for the offering and on analyses of innovation patterns in the industry. The latter is important, as an entrepreneur should make informed decisions not only about the type of innovation he or she wants to pursue but also about the degree of newness needed to successfully position the business in the competitive landscape.
**New to whom?**
The analysis of the literature shows little consensus on how the newness of innovation should be considered. Most frequently, the literature relies on the following categories for understanding the newness of innovation: new to the adopting unit (a firm), new to the industry and new to the consumer (Johannessen et al., 2001). Garcia and Calantone (2002) suggest supplementing the list with the categories of new to the world and new to a particular market (place) in order to capture the perspective of international business. They also suggest inclusion of a new to the scientific community category, which stresses that the discovery of a new technology may spur a new wave of technological innovation.
Although this approach creates intersecting clusters, it is still useful to determine the minimum requirements that must be met if a development is to be considered an innovation. In accordance with the OECD’s (2005) approach, this study views a development as an innovation if it is at least new to the firm. Thus, this study’s definition of innovation includes fundamental innovations that are new to the industry as well as significant improvements, even if the firm borrows or adapts ideas and technologies that exist elsewhere (Slappendel, 1996). As discussed in the previous section, the adaptation and continued development of solutions introduced by others constitutes a significant proportion of innovative activity among firms. Therefore, this understanding of innovation is consistent with the objectives of this study.
How new?
The degree of newness is frequently used as a measure of innovativeness. Products are perceived as highly innovative if they are believed to have a high degree of newness. Products with a low level of newness are located at the opposite end of the continuum (Garcia and Calantone, 2002).
Damanpour (1991) suggests classifying innovations according to the degree of change they cause in a firm. He defines radical innovations as those that produce fundamental changes in the activities of an adopting organisation and constitute a significant departure from past practices (Damanpour, 1991). Radical innovations introduce a new way of doing business (Henderson and Clark, 1990), while incremental innovations are those that result in a lesser degree of departure from existing practices. Incremental innovations are related to better exploitation of business solutions and result in variation, design improvements, refinement of routines and instrumental innovations. Radical innovations are perceived as more original, difficult, costly, complex and uncertain, although they are not necessarily more technologically sophisticated (Utterback and Abernathy, 1975). They often suggest novel applications that will open up new markets or significantly increase the potential of existing markets (Henderson and Clark, 1990). Empirical results reported by Ettlie and Rubenstein (1987) suggest that large firms with greater resources are more likely to commercialise radical innovations. At the same time, medium-sized firms have the potential for radical product introductions if they resolve critical funding and research problems (Ettlie and Rubenstein, 1987).
As discussed above, radical innovations are new to the firm, new to the market and often new to the industry. They can serve as the basis for the successful entry of new firms or even the reinvention of an industry. As radical innovations are often related to discoveries, they are more likely to be protected by patents. The invention of the combustion engine and the new business models introduced by Skype and Amazon.com are examples of such industry-changing innovations.
While incremental innovations are perceived as new to the firm, they may have been previously used by other companies (Johannessen et al., 2001). They often aim at improving customer satisfaction and enhancing firm productivity. As Dundon (2002) states, systematic incremental innovations are as valuable, if not more valuable, as breakthrough innovations because they constitute the basis for the continuous development of firms and the evolution of best practices in industries.
The literature (e.g., Starbuck, 2014) suggests that radical innovations are associated with a high degree of risk – as they remove constraints and utilize resources that had been hidden,
they may lead to products that the market might not perceive as useful. Radical innovations force firms to draw on new technical and commercial skills, and to employ new problem-solving approaches (Henderson and Clark, 1990). Starbuck (2014) says that social interactions can stimulate, reinforce and steer radical innovation. Social networking may be useful for freeing up creativity and pre-testing ideas. In addition, networks can provide moral support, and several creative people can attract attention and resources beyond the reach of the individual entrepreneur. However, social interactions can also impede innovation by freezing behaviours and perceptions in outdated patterns.
Henderson and Clark (1990) argue that the *radical – incremental* continuum is not enough for studying existing innovative practices. They suggest the following framework for defining types of innovation in relation to their newness (Figure 1.4).
**Figure 1.4. Framework for defining innovation (Henderson and Clark, 1990)**
| Linkages between core concepts and components | Core Concepts |
|---------------------------------------------|--------------|
| | Reinforced | Overturned |
| Unchanged | Incremental innovation | Modular innovation |
| Changed | Architectural innovation | Radical innovation |
*Source: Henderson and Clark, 1990*
Henderson and Clark (1990) suggest including a dimension that focuses on the way in which the components of an offering are linked together. They therefore add two new categories of innovation: architectural and modular. If a core design concept (and, thus, the basic knowledge underlying the product components) is untouched but the way in which the components are linked is changed, it is an architectural innovation. In that sense, Uber’s business model is an architectural innovation rather than a radical innovation. Modular innovations are those in which the core design concepts of a technology are changed, although the basic structure of linkages within the product’s architecture remains the same. For example, one can simply replace an analogue dialling device with a digital service.
Although radical innovations are more visible to an outsider than other types of innovation, they occur much less frequently. As radical innovations require intensive scientific and engineering involvement, they often emerge in start-ups founded by existing organisations for the purpose of discovery commercialisation (i.e., within a framework of intrapreneurship rather than entrepreneurship). Presumably, the other types of innovations
can be found in start-ups launched by either independent entrepreneurs or corporate intrapreneurs. In relation to the current study, different levels of intended newness of innovations are likely to require different networking patterns.
1.1.3. The link between entrepreneurship and innovation
In terms of innovation implementation, Schumpeter (2004) assigns the most significant role to entrepreneurship given its inseparable and embedded innovative nature. He describes an entrepreneur as innovator who is able to implement an idea and create new markets, new methods of production, new products and new organisational methods (Heertje, 2006, p. 25). Most definitions of entrepreneurship agree that the term refers to certain individual behaviours, including initiative taking, creative thinking, and the organisation of social and economic mechanisms in a way that turns resources and situations into practical outcomes, thereby creating greater value (Gutterman, 2012). Entrepreneurs accept risk and a high probability of failure (Hisrich, 1990) in their attempts to create something new (Hessels, 2008) or to establish new ventures owned and managed by interested individuals (Gartner, 1990; Gutterman, 2012). Gartner (1990) adds that entrepreneurship involves the creation of new organisations with the intent of ensuring their growth. Davidsson et al. (2006) defines the concept of entrepreneurship as the creation of a new economic activity, which can occur through the formation of new enterprises or new viable projects within established firms.
Notably, the extant literature offers no consensus about whether “innovative entrepreneurship” refers to a specific type of business (e.g., Filley and Aldag, 1978; Aulet, 2013) or only to the initial stages of new business development (e.g., Scott and Bruce, 1978; Hanks et al., 1993), especially inception and survival (Scott and Bruce, 1978) which the literature refers to as the start-up stages (e.g., Hanks et al., 1993).
Some authors (Filley and Aldag, 1978; Aulet, 2013) argue that innovative enterprises should be considered as distinct research objects, as they are launched, developed and managed differently than conventional SMEs (see the distinctive features summarised in Appendix 1), which do not necessarily need innovation to be successful. Building on Roberts’ (2007, p. 36) proposed formula of “innovation = invention + exploitation”, Aulet (2013) suggests differentiating between two concepts: “innovation-driven entrepreneurship” (the creation of “innovation-driven enterprises”, or IDEs) and “small business entrepreneurship” (the creation of “small and medium-sized enterprises”, or SMEs). The former are primarily focused on the first part of the formula – “invention” – while understanding that the main aim is the commercialisation of new ideas or inventions. Innovation is viewed as a clear competitive advantage, as it enables the firm to bring new
solutions to customers and to target global opportunities, thereby achieving high growth. As innovations are frequently based on new technologies, the literature often refers to IDEs as technology-driven (or technological) start-up firms. In other words, IDEs aim to implement technologies in the market. In contrast, SMEs are focused on the second part of the formula – “exploitation”. They do not view new ideas or technologies as prerequisites for establishment, growth or competitive advantage, as they target the exploitation of available resources in order to satisfy the needs of the existing, usually local, market. Examples of this type of firm include restaurants, dry cleaners and firms active in the service industry.
As conventional businesses use pre-existing, proven models (usually without significant adaptations), they are unlikely to have certain stages in their development that are typical for technological start-ups, such as a research and development (R&D) stage, and a stage focused on the creation of a prototype and a minimum viable product (MVP). Due to the absence of these stages, the uncertainty for traditional SMEs is lower, costs are more easily estimated and fewer initial investments are required to bring the offering to the market. The drawback of the traditional approach can be the presence of a large number of players on the market with similar offering and, as a result, intense competition.
Based on the suggestion that the creation of a new economic activity can be realised through the creation of new independent enterprises and new projects within established firms (Davidsson et al., 2006), the extant literature distinguishes between two concepts: entrepreneur and intrapreneur. The former is usually described as one who organises, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise launched for the purpose of idea commercialisation (Luchsinger and Bagby, 1987). Definitions of intrapreneur generally refer to one who is responsible for the initiation and implementation of innovative systems and practices within an existing, usually large, company with which an intrapreneur shares risks. The purpose of these activities is to improve the organisation’s economic performance by more effectively utilising its resources (Hisrich, 1990; Luchsinger and Bagby, 2001; Maier and Pop Zenovia, 2011). The idea of intrapreneurship lies in the view that in order to remain competitive and dynamic, established players must reinvent themselves to allow at least a part of the business to behave as if it were an entrepreneurial start-up (Galavan et al., 2008).
According to Hisrich (1990), intrapreneurs’ characteristics often lay between those of traditional managers and entrepreneurs. A literature analysis allows for the main distinctive traits of traditional managers, intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs to be summarized. This summarization highlights the deficiencies in their behaviours and lays ground for their explanation (see Table 1.3).
| Trait | Traditional managers | Intrapreneurs | Entrepreneurs |
|-----------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Primary motives** | Promotion and other traditional corporate rewards, such as remuneration package, office, staff and power; focused on activities and processes. | Independence and ability to advance in the corporate setting receiving the corporate rewards; motivated by interest in problem solving and effecting change. | Independence, opportunity to create, self-actualisation and achievement; more motivated by achievement than by money |
| **Source of support and motivation** | Support and incentives provided by the organisation; mostly external sources of motivation. | Administrative and operational support provided by the organisation, although incentives are tied to the endeavour’s success; combination of external and internal sources of motivation. | Perfect support system not ready to use, but should be built by an entrepreneur or chosen from those offered in the ecosystem, often at the cost of partial ownership transfer; mostly internal sources of motivation. |
| **Time orientation** | Short-run: meeting quotas and budgets; weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual planning horizons. | Depends on urgency to meet self-imposed and corporate timetables. | Survival and achieving 5- to 10-year growth of business. |
| **Setting and activities** | Operates in the context of an organisation; delegates and supervises more than direct involvement. | Operates within the setting of an organisation with structural and procedural constraints; direct involvement in operations more than delegation; stimulates group innovation. | Independent; provides own setting; direct involvement; relies on teamwork. |
| **Risk ownership** | Organisation | Shared: organisation and intrapreneur | Entrepreneur |
| **Risk attitude** | Cautious | Moderate risk taker | Higher risk taker; ability to make decisions under uncertainty |
| **Status** | Concerned about status symbols. | Not concerned about traditional corporate status symbols; desires independence. | Not concerned about status symbols; status is less important than self-realisation. |
| **Attitude toward failures and mistakes** | Tries to avoid mistakes and surprises. | Attempts to hide risky projects from view until ready. | Deals with mistakes and failures. |
| **Control and decisions** | Limited control within a designated area; strict accountability to upper manager; usually agrees with those in upper management. | Responsibility for the project’s outcome; partial control; strict accountability to organisation that is a sponsor or equity partner; need to follow organisational bureaucracy; able to convince others to help achieve a dream. | Full control over internal environment and establishment of connections with external environment; follows a dream with own decisions and attracts followers. |
| **Who serves** | Upper managers, shareholders, customers | Self, customers, sponsors | Self, customers, team (followers) |
| **Relationships with others** | Within-organisation relationships based on a hierarchy; external relationships usually along value chain | Expects key relationships to stem from corporate network; supplements those relationships with | Actively looks for external contacts; diverse network; combination of contractual and informal |
Table 1.3 shows that intrapreneurs demonstrate a more entrepreneurial mind-set than traditional managers. Similar to entrepreneurs, they strive for independence and self-realisation, and they actively search for new opportunities and new contacts to assist in problem solving. However, like traditional managers, they are willing to rely on corporate resources. On the one hand, this creates economies of learning and allows them to build on know-how developed as a result of the parent organisation’s experience. On the other hand, they are obliged to follow corporate requirements and procedures, as an organisational sponsor or equity partner requires strict accountability. These constraints affect behaviour, decision making, choice of strategies in innovation-implementation processes and associated networking patterns.
### 1.1.4. Stages of innovative start-up development
The trajectory of the entrepreneurial process from nascence to maturity has been studied by many authors. These authors have modelled that process from different perspectives depending on the focus of their research: entrepreneurial activities related to product development in an organisation (e.g., Rothwell, 1994; McFadzean et.al., 2005; Shaw et al., 2005; Brem 2008; Barancheev et al., 2009), market and customer-base development (e.g., Blank, 2007; Overall and Wise, 2015), and funding activities (e.g., Lerner et al., 2012; Paschen, 2016). These three dimensions are interrelated – in order to undertake activities needed to commercialise an idea and develop a product, an organisation needs to find funding sources. At the same time, the organisation should test the viability of the product in the market at an early stage, and stimulate demand through marketing efforts in order to ensure market penetration and sales growth and, thereby, recover investments in the later stages.
An analysis of the extant literature allows for the stages found in these three perspectives to be mapped against each other. As such, it enables the building of a more comprehensive representation of the entire entrepreneurial process, which starts with an idea, goes through the commercialisation stage, and moves on to the growth and maturity of the firm (see Figure 1.5).
Although the stepwise model in 0 is shown as a linear trajectory, many authors point out that innovation-related processes follow an S-curve path over time. This can be said about product life cycle, innovation diffusion and the associated company performance cycle (Overall and Wise, 2015; Graham, 2000), and about the entrepreneurial-experience and venture-performance curves (Toft-Kehler et al., 2013). Figure 1.6, which illustrates this view, maps entrepreneurial activities, funding and customer-base evolution along the S-curve.
Overall and Wise (2015, p. 23) suggest that the life-cycle theory found in biology is useful for understanding how products, innovations and businesses evolve over time as endeavours develop from young start-ups into well-established firms. This view offers numerous insights into the holistic understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour.
In the early stages of research and development (R&D), the uncertainties related to technology development and its viability in the market testing are at their highest. This is the most difficult period in the development of a start-up and, like small children, start-ups need help. At the same time, the unpredictability of the outcome (in terms of the commercial success of the business) limits the possibility of attracting investments. This forces an entrepreneur to follow the bootstrapping strategy, which results in a significant reliance on 3F sources of finance (“family, friends, fools”; Reddi and Gerard, 2012). The lack of financial resources makes it impossible to pay for professional advisory or management services, which leaves start-ups to survive on their own in the “valley of
death” (Acland, 2011; Barr et al., 2009; Markham et al., 2010). Advisory services are mostly needed in relation to exploring technology development or transfer opportunities, and for industry and market understanding. Such services are essential for successfully completing the R&D stage. In the commercialisation stage, which is associated with the conversion of technical solutions into a product, management professional services are needed. In particular, they are helpful for developing a business model, preparing a business plan and presentation for potential investors, establishing a company, building operations, and hiring qualified staff. To cross the “valley of death” and start a profit-generating business, entrepreneurs need not only advice, information and resources, but also moral encouragement, skills, knowledge and managerial experience, all of which are often scarce (Hisrich, 1990).
The literature suggests that a strong situational determinant in the development of a new venture is the density of the entrepreneur’s business contacts or linkages (Hisrich, 1990). Entrepreneurs view networking as a mechanism that can compensate for scarce resources and structural holes in business models (Aarstad et al., 2009; Anderson et al., 2010). Respondents in the extant research viewed the building of a diverse support network as a means of social-capital creation that enabled them to obtain the information, moral support and expertise needed to overcome difficulties, improve the efficiency with which sparse resources were used and, in some cases, obtain such resources at no cost.
Roberts’s formula (2007, p. 36) implies that most innovation takes place in the incubation period of a new company’s development when it is in the “valley of death” and preparing to launch its product in the market. As Schoen et al. (2005) stress, this is a highly turbulent period in a company’s life cycle. Innovation is essentially a non-linear process. It starts from research that is fundamentally about new knowledge creation and is punctuated by occasional flashes of insight that lead to new discoveries that can be neither predicted nor scheduled to arrive at a particular time (Chesbrough, 2006). Moreover, there is no guarantee against failure, which might result in the termination of the project (a dead end). Innovation then goes through the interrelated stages of invention (i.e., development of idea into a product) and commercialisation (i.e., introduction of the product to the market). This interrelation, which must ensure a good match between the product idea and a viable business concept, results in “hither and thither” operations in which linear thinking and acting are disturbed by the “tornado of invention” (Schoen et al., 2005).
Thus, the innovation cycle, at least within the “valley of death”, should be seen not as stage-by-stage S-curve but rather as a multiple-spiral model that includes spiral elements
for invention and commercialisation processes, as well as technology push and market pull forces that should be perceived as acting simultaneously. Schoen et al. (2005) conclude that the innovation process includes an element of randomness that adds uncertainty to the risk that the endeavour will fail as a result of unskilful implementation. In that respect, expertise in different phases of the invention/innovation process obtained through experience is more useful than a purely theoretical understanding of innovation models. The non-linearity of the innovation cycle is visualised in the Figure 1.7.
**Figure 1.7. Innovation cycle within the “valley of death”**
![Diagram showing the innovation cycle with labels for Business, Innovation, Commercialisation, Dead End, Basic Research, and Tornado of Invention.]
*Source: adapted from Schoen et al., 2005*
In elaborating on the concept of innovation nonlinearity, Galavan et al. (2008, p. 166) declare that an iterative loop contains four types of discussions: “make sense, make choices, make it happen, make revisions (sense anomalies and revise key assumptions)”. The strategy loop is simple in theory but unstructured and messy in practice. Therefore, the implementation of conventional managerial techniques used in traditional management settings may be insufficient. Thus, a framework to support analysis, discussions and decision making is required to help managers act on new information that arises in the course of the innovation process. Managers can put this approach into practice through formal and informal discussions (Galavan et al., 2008) that result from networking.
Collaborative learning from networks gives rise to intellectual capital that is particularly important for innovation in the knowledge economy (Tushman and Anderson, 2004). Thus, an understanding of the systems and procedures developed by entrepreneurs for managing the acquisition, transfer and application of knowledge, as well as the role of networking in innovation management constitute the primary interests of the current study.
Given Schoen et al.’s (2005) reasoning that experience is important, start-up novices and serial entrepreneurs should be expected to behave differently. A number of studies supporting this supposition are found in the literature. For example, Aarstad et al. (2015) find that start-up novices attract fewer resources than experienced portfolio entrepreneurs. Their research shows that novice technological entrepreneurs are anchored in technological side of innovation, and that they struggle to prioritise the business activities that are critical in the “valley of death” phase, such as building intra- and cross industry relationships (supply side), and exploring market opportunities (demand side) to implement commercialisation. Although attracting financial resources and professional advice is perceived as valuable, novices are unwilling to compromise on ownership control or to disclose business secrets. Portfolio entrepreneurs, on the other hand, acknowledge that technology might have little value if the relevant market actors are not found and convinced (Aarstad et al., 2015). As a result, “they proactively aim to establish business relations early in the process. They emphasise that a major lesson [is] to avoid developing excessive attachment to the product but to be willing to share the risks and profits with other industry and market actors” (Aarstad et al., 2015, p. 89). The key implication is that previous entrepreneurial experience influences the process of acquiring resources. This research also proves that novices and portfolio entrepreneurs differ in relation to mind-sets, behaviours, and strategies in the entrepreneurial process.
Given that experience matters, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs can also be expected to behave differently, as the latter are backed up by the expertise of the parent organisation. McFadzean et al. (2005) and Shaw et al. (2005) offer a model of the intrapreneurial organisation life cycle, as shown in the Figure 1.8.
A comparison of the main stages of the intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial processes (see Figure 1.5) reveals several similarities. Interestingly, technological solutions and ideas developed as a result of an organisation’s innovation activities are perceived as starting points for new entrepreneurial endeavours. Accumulated experience from previous innovation rounds is fed into the system as input for a new venture. In that respect, an intrapreneur’s behaviour should be similar to that of a portfolio entrepreneur who builds on his previous experience. However, McFadzean et al. (2005) point out that although an intrapreneur might have an advantage compared to an entrepreneur in terms of resources, skills acquisition and ready-to-use networks provided by the parent organisation, he or she might also have a serious disadvantage in the form of organisational bureaucracy and culture. The latter factors may affect the intrapreneur’s attitudes and ability to make independent entrepreneurial decisions and, as a result, influence the behaviour and strategies chosen in the entrepreneurial process.
1.1.5. Logic of innovation management
The analysis of the extant literature allows for the identification of several different views on innovation management. The resource-based view models innovation as a project that has certain inputs, time constraints and desired results (outputs). In this regard, innovation
can be considered within the theoretical domain of *project management* (Gemünden et al., 2013). This approach was inherited from the 1950s when pioneering organisations developed new structures, techniques and processes to create high-value complex products based on research and development endeavours rather than market needs (Rothwell, 1994). Organisations use project approaches to create novel products, processes and services; develop new technologies; launch entrepreneurial ventures; implement strategies; and produce complex infrastructure (Davies, 2014).
However, innovation implementation is accompanied by uncertainty (Tatikonda and Rosenthal, 2000) that is not well captured in a linear “define goals, plan, manage, check” approach to projects. Some authors suggest that conventional project-management practices, very useful in the context of conventional businesses, lead to the failure of innovation-deployment projects (Shenhar and Dvir, 2007; Kapsali, 2011), and that the formality of project management amplifies complexity and uncertainty. Thus, authors considering innovation from the market-based view have increasingly interwoven the concepts of innovation and market uncertainty (Frederiksen and Knudsen, 2017) when modelling innovation processes. Ries (2011, p. 9) says that the first trap that can lead to the failure of a start-up is
“the allure of a good plan, a solid strategy, and thorough market research. In earlier eras, these things were indicators of likely success. The overwhelming temptation is to apply them to start-ups too, but this doesn’t work, because start-ups operate with too much uncertainty. Start-ups do not yet know who their customer is or what their product should be”.
However, this does not imply that entrepreneurial activities should not be managed. Ries (2011, p. 8) claims that “a start-up is an institution, not just a product, and so it requires a new kind of management specifically geared to its context of extreme uncertainty”.
Some of the literature, especially the stream that focuses on questions of intrapreneurship (e.g., Catlin and Matthews, 2001), relates the concept of innovation to the changes it entails for an organisation in relation to its technology, administrative processes (Damanpour, 1996), operations and internal practices. In other words, it focuses on new ways of doing things in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness (van Dijk et al., 2011). Increasingly, researchers propose that the innovation process is uncertain and non-standardised that may give rise to conflicting demands, and lead to contradictory practices and competing views within the organisation that may activate or hinder innovation performance. In the case of intrapreneurship, this is because innovation introduces new elements into the organisation’s internal routines. In the case of entrepreneurship, these
developments are mostly due to the path-dependent behaviours and different cultural and professional attitudes of start-up team members (Acland, 2011). In that sense, innovation management is increasingly modelled through the lenses of *change management* (Ritala, 2013). Galavan et al. (2008, p. 164) emphasise that the implementation of innovation follows an iterative approach rather than a linear one (i.e., draft a strategy, implement the strategy and then sustain its positional or resource advantage). Innovations are based on assumptions, as an entrepreneur knows very little about how events will unfold. These assumptions are tested through the implementation process. In this regard, adherence to a linear view can result in a commitment to a doomed course of action, as newly emerging evidence may reveal flaws in assumptions. Therefore, shifts in organisational competencies, strategies, architectures, operations and teams may be required, which in turn may give rise to a need to manage internal change even at the early stages of start-up development (Tushman and Anderson, 2004; Ries, 2011). Moreover, if a new product or service is perceived in the market as more useful than existing alternatives, users might change their buying and consumption behaviours (Frederiksen and Knudsen, 2017). As such, innovations cannot only entail changes in practices external to the organisation, but also cause paradigm changes and industry shifts (Christensen, 2016).
To further build a methodological foundation for this study, it is necessary to understand the stages and characteristics of the innovation process, and to highlight the fields in which entrepreneurial efforts are required to achieve commercialisation.
### 1.1.6. Innovation management in technology-driven entrepreneurial organisations
If we accept the idea that innovation is a process that starts with idea generation and continues through to idea commercialisation in the form of a product or service adopted in the market (see Figure 1.1), it seems reasonable to concentrate on innovation implementation in the initial stages of IDEs’ development. In this regard, innovation management can be viewed as a distinct managerial dimension mainly associated with R&D management, technology deployment and the successful introduction of the product on the market. Alternatively, if innovation commercialisation outside the organisation is impossible, perhaps one should adopt a broader outlook and consider other managerial dimensions, such as people, organisational processes, systems, culture and leadership.
In the extant literature, the notion of management and the functions that a manager should perform are heavily debated (Mintzberg, 1971; Pavett and Lau, 1983; Carroll and Gillen, 1987; Carroll and Peat, 2010). Mintzberg (1971) suggests that Fayol’s classical approach (1916; seen in Mintzberg, 1971), in which a manager’s functions are defined as a linear
sequence of planning, organising, coordinating and controlling stages, is outdated. Mintzberg (1971) then describes 10 roles of managers within three areas of responsibility – interpersonal, informational and decisional.
Carroll and Gillen (1987) challenge the usefulness of Mintzberg’s (1971) views, which they suggest do not help managers understand how they can ensure that the desired results are achieved. According to Caroll and Gillen (1987), management’s ultimate goal is to ensure progress towards an activity’s purpose. In their study, they adopt the process view on management. Their "PRINCESS" model (Caroll and Gillen, 1987) encompasses a set of eight basic managerial functions, such as planning, representing, investigating, negotiating, coordinating, evaluating, supervising and staffing. These functions are built into the system of manager’s work (see Figure 1.9), and determine the meaning of his or her activities. Performance is assessed based on the predetermined targets, which result from the tasks assigned to managers by others.
**Figure 1.9. A model of the manager at work**
Source: Caroll and Gillen, 1987, p. 47
In this respect, the classical approach to management, especially as regards to innovation management, is not applicable in the context of the knowledge economy and the digital era. As discussed in Section 1.1.1, the intrinsic uncertainties of innovation eliminate any predictability and challenge the setting of clear targets that are intended to be linked to forecasts. These uncertainties even challenge the applicability of such fundamental managerial functions as planning, which aim to determine the course of action. Ries (2011, p. 9) declares that “planning and forecasting are only accurate when based on a long, stable operating history and a relatively static environment”, which cannot be found in innovation. Therefore, a new approach to the management of innovations should be
developed in which strategy is built not on planning but rather on learning through experimentation with consequent adjustments of actions. This leads to a fundamental re-conceptualisation of managerial functions, which must now focus on managing iterative loops rather than a sequential series of activities (Galavan et al., 2008, p. 164).
According to Dodgson et al. (2014), innovation management should extend beyond the activation of underlying mechanisms – such as invention, creativity, and the imaginative recombination of existing ideas and technologies – or the stimulation of the processes that encourage its implementation, such as change management. Innovation management also involves organisational activities that ensure an effective recombination and reconstitution of resources (both physical and intellectual) to commercialise ideas and create something new, as discussed above. The implementation of innovation involves learning, and is associated with re-skilling and “pivoting” (Ries, 2011), which serve to transition entrepreneurial teams and institutions away from pre-determined, well-charted paths. As discussed in the literature (e.g., Dodgson et al., 2014), change management as a distinctive managerial function is less of an issue for innovative organisations, as they continually adjust and renew their capabilities as a matter of course. As such, change becomes an accompanying rather than a driving element of innovative enterprise management.
Several researchers demonstrate that different types of innovation give rise to different managerial practices (Dodgson et al., 2014; Holahan et al., 2014). As the level of innovativeness increases, so do the number of controls imposed, which not only leads to less flexibility in the development process, but also gives rise to a need for more professional, full-time project leadership; centralised executive oversight for new products; and formal financial assessments of expected performance (Holahan et al., 2014). In contrast, less innovative projects are typically more informal, experiment-driven ventures. At first glance, the fact that radical innovation implies a higher level of creativity might be seen as contradiction, as creativity cannot flourish within the rigid framework of control. On the other hand, this should be considered in the context of institutional and industry settings. As discussed above, radical innovations are rare, and they often emerge from intrapreneurship endeavours aimed at commercialising scientific discoveries within a parent-organisation setting. That setting is typically characterised by a higher level of bureaucracy and a reliance on formalised procedures aimed at arriving at an outcome in a planned way. Radical innovations (as measured by the number of patents) are more likely to occur in science-intensive industries (e.g., chemical, bioscience, information science) and in production-intensive industries (e.g., scale-intensive industries, such as gas, power,
material processing and handling, metal working, engines and parts, optics, transportation and motors; and specialised supply industries, including surgery and medical instruments, measurement and testing) (Park et al., 2005). Radical innovations are rarely found in supplier-dominated industries (e.g., agriculture, food, textiles, apparel, furniture, house fixtures) or in service industries (Park et al., 2005). Thus, the more formalised project-management approaches observed by researchers can also be attributed to the domination of the engineering mind-set in science- and production-intensive industries (e.g., Holahan et al., 2014, studied the aerospace and manufacturing industries).
Incremental innovations involving the renovation of existing products and processes are the most common form of innovation and are found in all industries (Dodgson et al., 2014). These innovations require fewer resources and financial investments. Moreover, they have a smaller scope and can be commercialised within a shorter period of time. They are often implemented by independent entrepreneurs, who tend to be more flexible. Incremental innovations lay the groundwork for the continuous improvement of a company’s processes, products, position or business model, and are often driven by “lean” thinking (Tidd et al., 2005; Womack and Jones, 2006).
These observations imply that there is no universal model of innovation management applicable to all organisations. Nevertheless, it can be useful to identify the key principles of the management of innovative organisations. The implementation of these principles in practice might depend on the type of innovation, a particular actor (i.e., entrepreneur or intrapreneur) or broader contextual factors that affect innovation, such as industry-specific characteristics or innovation ecosystems (Dodgson et al., 2014).
Given that innovation management will be analysed in the current study on the level of an innovative enterprise aiming to develop ideas into commercialised products or services, it is necessary to determine which managerial activities, functions and tasks entrepreneurs must handle in order to be successful. It is also necessary to define “success” in this case.
A start-up is “a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty” (Ries, 2011, p. 27). The building of a human enterprise includes hiring creative employees, coordinating their activities and creating a company culture that delivers results. Such organisations also include the systems and processes needed to create and realise a business opportunity, all of which encompass a combination of tangible (e.g., available resources) and intangible (e.g., industry and market knowledge) element.
Zhao (2005) declares that innovative entrepreneurship requires efforts in five dimensions: strategic vision, system, staff, skills, and culture (see Figure 1.10).
**Figure 1.10. Dimensions of innovation management in a new venture**
- **Strategic vision**
- Well-defined and proactive
- Addressing a spectrum of technological, financial and human issues
- Customer focused
- Both entrepreneurial and innovative
- Aspiring to achievement and success
- **Culture**
- Open and supportive
- Encouraging development and finding new things and approaches
- Empowering
- Inspiring use of information from different sources
- Stimulating innovativeness reward system
- **System**
- Cultural and structural elements
- Flexible management
- Existence of control system
- Empowerment and delegation
- Balance between freedom and control
- **Skills**
- Managerial and entrepreneurial capacities and skills
- Search for and identify opportunities
- Proactivity
- Integrated vision and actions
- Ability to build procedures for the evaluation of progress
- **Staff**
- Creative people with a flair for innovation
- Keen to change and exploit the change as opportunity
- Right mix of entrepreneurial leaders, managers, and creative and conscientious staff to implement the project
*Source: adapted from Zhao, 2005*
According to Tidd et al. (2005), innovation management includes the integration of technological, market and organisational developments, which is a knowledge-based process. Maurya (2012) proposes that in order to meet the requirements of today’s economy, the key principle in innovation management should be to optimise organisation efforts to *achieve speed, learning and a focus on customer needs*, which can be recapitulated as “the right offering at the right time”. An emphasis on understanding clients and on the development of new markets should be at the core of any entrepreneurial strategy (Zhao, 2005) aimed at commercialising an idea and gaining a competitive advantage through innovation.
According to Ries (2011), the functions of an early-stage venture are vision and concept (business model) formulation, product development, marketing and sales, the scaling up of operations, partnership establishment, distribution, and structural and organisational design. The fundamental activities of an entrepreneurial venture are turning ideas into products, measuring customer responses, and learning whether to then pivot or persevere.
Ries (2011) points out that all successful entrepreneurial venture processes should be geared toward accelerating this feedback loop.
The distinctiveness of Ries’s (2011) approach, which is proposed in his book *The Lean Start-up*, is the suggestion that organisations reconceptualise their value-creating activities by building quality into products from in “inside out”, thereby eliminating waste. Given that customer focus and speed are key for achieving success, he suggests shortening the period of research and development as much as possible, and giving customers a minimum viable product (MVP) to begin using. He argues that an entrepreneur should not fear the consequences of shipping a bad product, as this fear results in postponements of launches, and leads to time and resources being wasted on polishing an offer so that it is perfect from an engineer’s (rather than a customer’s) perspective. When an MVP is offered to users, their feedback will highlight needs for improvement or, in extreme cases, for a complete re-building of the product to meet customers’ expectations. Ries calls this approach “validated learning” and argues that it provides
“a method for measuring progress in the context of extreme uncertainty. It can give entrepreneurs clear guidance on how to make the many trade-off decisions they face: whether and when to invest in process; formulating, planning, and creating infrastructure; when to go it alone and when to partner; when to respond to feedback and when to stick with vision; and how and when to invest in scaling the business” (Ries, 2011, p. 19).
Notably, Ries (2011) developed his approach while considering the business practices of service companies. As most of those companies were Internet based, the consumption of a company’s unfinished offering (MVP) was unlikely to seriously harm a client. In contrast, offering a customer access to an unverified drug or untested machinery is likely to have a negative outcome, so this approach cannot be used universally. However, it has some useful implications that can be considered by any new venture wishing to achieve success in the fast-developing knowledge economy.
Ries (2011) points to what he views as a paradigm shift in the development of entrepreneurial strategy, the starting point of which is not a technological idea converted into product, but a strategic vision of creating “a thriving and world-changing business”. According to Ries, “to achieve that vision, start-ups employ a strategy, which includes a business model, a product road map (rather than predetermined plan), a point of view about partners and competitors, and ideas about who the customer will be. The product is the end result of this strategy” (Ries, 2011, p. 22) (see Figure 1.11). He suggests a need to start thinking about an engine for acquiring new customers and ways of developing a customer base from the very beginning of an entrepreneurial venture, as sales will ultimately allow a
business to succeed. In the very early stages, entrepreneurs must understand and build a customer archetype (Aulet, 2013) that is initially more of a hypothesis than a fact. Via validated learning, a company will be able to understand whether it can serve this type of customer in a sustainable way. A product will change constantly as a result of incorporating improvements in response to customer feedback (Ries, 2011). Ries (2011) calls this a “product optimisation process”. Less frequently, experimenting and measuring customer feedback may reveal a need for significant changes in strategy (a “pivot”). However, in Ries’s (2011) opinion, the overall vision rarely changes.
**Figure 1.11. Strategic pyramid**
*Source: Ries, 2011, p. 22*
In this respect, the development of an innovative company happens in fits and starts. Much of a start-up team’s time is spent on improving products, marketing or operations (Ries, 2011). Instead of developing complex plans based on various assumptions, innovative entrepreneurs make constant adjustments using a “steering wheel” called the build-measure-learn feedback loop. Through this process, they can learn when and whether it is necessary to make a sharp turn (pivot) (Ries, 2011).
Ries (2011) distinguishes pivots from changes. In his opinion, a pivot is a special kind of change designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, business model or growth engine. He identifies several types of pivots that an innovative start-up may envisage (see 0).
Table 1.4. Types of strategic pivots
| Type | Description |
|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Zoom-in pivot | In this case, a single feature in a product becomes the whole product. |
| Zoom-out pivot | In this type of pivot, a whole product becomes a single feature of a much larger product. |
| Customer-segment pivot | In this pivot, the company realizes that a product it is building solves a real problem for real customers. However, these customers are not the group it originally planned to serve. In other words, the product hypothesis is partially confirmed – the company is solving the right problem – but for a different customer group than originally anticipated. |
| Customer-need pivot | As a result of getting to know customers extremely well, it sometimes becomes clear that a problem a company is trying to solve is not very important for those customers. However, owing to this customer intimacy, other related and more important problems are often discovered, and they can be solved by the company. In many cases, these related problems may require little more than a repositioning of the existing product. In other cases, they may require a completely new product. |
| Platform pivot | A platform pivot entails a change from an application to a new IT platform or vice versa. Often, start-ups that aspire to create a new platform begin by selling a single application. |
| Business architecture pivot | Companies generally adopt one of two major business architectures: high margin, low volume (complex systems model) or low margin, high volume (volume operations model). The former is associated with business to business (B2B) or enterprise sales cycles, while the latter is associated with consumer products (with notable exceptions). In a business-architecture pivot, a start-up switches architectures. Some companies change from the complex systems model by going mass market (e.g., Google’s search “appliance”). Others originally designed for the mass market are found to require long and expensive sales cycles. |
| Value-capture pivot (monetization Pivot) | The value that a company creates for a customer should result in revenue for that company. Methods of capturing that value are referred to as monetization or revenue models. How value is captured is an intrinsic part of the product hypothesis. Often, changes in the way a company captures value can have far-reaching consequences for the rest of the business, and for product and marketing strategies. |
| Growth-engine pivot | Three primary growth engines power start-ups, especially Internet-based start-ups: viral models, sticky models and paid-growth models. In this type of pivot, a company changes its growth strategy in order to seek faster or more profitable growth. Often, a growth-engine pivot also requires a change in the way value is captured. |
| Channel pivot | In traditional sales terminology, the mechanism by which a company delivers its product to customers is called the sales channel or the distribution channel. Often, the requirements of the channel determine the price, features and competitive landscape of a product. A channel pivot is a recognition that the same basic solution can be delivered through a different channel with greater effectiveness. |
| Technology pivot | Occasionally, a company discovers a way to reach the same solution by using a completely different technology. Technology pivots are more common in established businesses. However, a start-up can sometimes find a new technology that offers superior pricing power and/or performance relative to the existing technology. |
Source: Ries, 2011, p. 173
According to Ries (2011), pivots are a necessity for any growing start-up wishing to achieve better results. The typology proposed by Ries (2011) appears to be very useful in the context of the current study. Pivots start with collecting feedback and measuring product performance. They also include a learning stage in which the start-up works to understand the causes and find solutions. Learning is not easy for several reasons. First,
people tend to stick to their existing mental models – spotting new patterns requires managers to revise or even abandon their established course of action (Galavan et al., 2008). Second, changing a strategy during the learning process requires quick reconfiguration of the company’s operations. Therefore, pivoting may force a company to actively seek networks that can provide moral support as well as access to additional (physical and intellectual) resources. In that respect, start-ups that pivot are likely to be more actively involved in networking.
As Galavan et al. (2008) suggest, for managers wishing to develop an innovative organisation, letting go of the old is as important as spotting the new:
Managers must keep their mental models fluid and modify them in light of changes in the broader context, as a first step to adapting their organisations to these changes. Indeed, managers must remain open to the possibility of abandoning their established models altogether (Galavan et al., 2008, p. 178).
If this is indeed the case, then traditional approaches of measuring project performance against predetermined targets (e.g., profits, costs and timeliness) are inapplicable. However, to ensure control, the success of an innovative enterprise should at least be measured in terms of whether significant milestones are achieved. Thus, appropriate measures of an innovative start-up’s progress should be developed. Although innovations are built around learning, learning as an outcome (e.g., in terms of inventions, patents, media coverage or number of publications; Cordero, 1990; Johannessen et al., 2001; Adams et al., 2006) is unlikely be a satisfactory indicator of success for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Traditional performance measures related to financial results arising from innovations, such as sales or returns on investments (Gemunden et al., 1996; Wang and Kafouros, 2009; Zeng et al., 2010), may also be inapplicable if sales are absent. It is also very difficult to measure market success relative to competitors (Johannessen et al., 2001; Palmberg, 2006) in the early stages of start-up development.
To build a substitute measure relevant in the context of this study, one can adopt the ideas of the “value hypothesis” and “growth hypothesis” introduced by Ries (2011). He defines the value hypothesis as an instrument for testing whether a product or service delivers value to customers using it. For the growth hypothesis, he proposes testing how new customers will discover a product or service. This will at least allow for estimation of the likelihood of future sales, even when sales are currently absent. Two other measures can be taken from the project approach. The first, which relates to the cost side of the project, measures the extent to which costs incurred correspond to the cost targets set in the business plan. The other, which relates to the project’s timeline, measures the extent to
which actual performance matches the schedule in the business plan. Although the latter two measures might not be related to the final success of the project for the reasons explained above, they at least show whether an innovative organisation is working hard, operating efficiently and respecting its obligations to investors.
1.1.7. Conclusions
The essential aims of this section in the context of the current study were to build an understanding of innovation and its types, to investigate the key areas that should be managed in the course of the innovation process and the activities that managers need to undertake to accompany its development, and to identify specific features of innovation implementation that may require different networking behaviours. Other aims were to provide a conceptual background for the terminology used in this study for analysing the types and level of SMEs’ innovativeness, and to uncover the dimensions (control variables) that are important for evaluating the effects of networking on innovation and should be discussed with participants in this study (i.e., in the course of interviews with entrepreneurs). The results of this literature review make it possible to determine the scope and general framework for this study.
The scholarly views considered in this section allow for the formulation of the following definition of innovation for the purposes of this study: *firm innovation is the successful exploitation of ideas for the creation and introduction of a completely new or significantly improved offering or customer experience*. In the context of this definition, “success” is understood as a match between the results of innovative activity and the firm’s expectations in terms of the value it creates for customers (value proposition), the suitability of the initial business model (business-model proposition), sustained growth in terms of meeting expectations for initial customers and compliance with sales plans, budgets and timeframes (growth proposition).
The extant literature stresses the need to distinguish between more innovative (innovation-driven) and less innovative (conventional) small and medium enterprises. The former are perceived as heavily involved in the invention stage and they see their business aim as implementing the technology in the market. The latter are viewed as less concerned with novelty and more concentrated on the exploitation stage, and they aim to serve a particular client segment. The literature indicates that entrepreneurial organisations committed to implementing innovation should be managed differently than low-innovative enterprises. This is primarily due to the necessity of managing risks when entering new and uncertain
areas, and the differences in the business-development trajectories resulting from the fact that conventional SMEs do not need to go through the stages associated with R&D. Therefore, as companies with various degrees of innovativeness differ in terms of development stages, they require different forms of external assistance and, consequently, they can establish network relationships in different ways. Therefore, in order to determine the role of networking in innovation, it is important to be able to distinguish companies based on their degree of innovativeness. Thus, the degree of innovativeness is an important control variable in this study.
The extant literature proposes that companies may simultaneously innovate in different directions in an attempt to produce an offering that will be viable in the market. In terms of this study’s research scope, innovation is viewed as a process that results in the launch of a concrete offering in the market. Based on this approach, the study aims to offer a comparative analysis of entrepreneurs’ and intrapreneurs’ networking behaviours in innovative projects that differ in terms of their innovativeness. Moreover, to uncover differences in networking behaviour evident in more innovative (innovation-driven) and less innovative (conventional) SMEs, this study relies on case studies of innovative projects that result in the commercialisation of ideas as distinct products or services, rather than studies of companies that manage portfolios of innovative ventures or companies that view innovation management as a driver of productivity or efficiency of activities associated with already existing offerings.
If different types of innovation and the associated features of their implementation may require different networking behaviours, then it is necessary to be able to identify the degree of novelty in the business venture (“how new”) and the novelty of the entrepreneurial project (“what is new”). The typologies of innovation serve as the foundation for identifying the relevant characteristics that can be used as prompts for discussing SME innovativeness with entrepreneurs.
The stepwise model of innovative entrepreneurial organisation development developed in this section as result of the literature analysis (see Figure 1.5) provides a framework for understanding the stages that entrepreneurial organisations can go through and the associated tasks they should perform to develop and launch their offerings in the market. The stage of innovation development in which an SME finds itself can determine the content and structure of that SME’s business network. Therefore, it seems reasonable to introduce a control variable that describes the phase of innovative project development. In this study, the stages identified in this section were used as prompts in interviews with
entrepreneurs in order to obtain a comparable understanding of their business projects’ development.
The literature analysis indicates that different types of entrepreneurs (i.e., novices, serial entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs) differ in terms of their mindsets, behaviours and strategies, especially when a new venture is in the “valley of death”. Previously acquired experience changes an entrepreneur’s networking behaviour, which is needed in this stage to access necessary resources and knowledge. In addition, such experience provides self-confidence in decision making, which in turn becomes less limited by the fear of losing control or forfeiting technological know-how. The literature also suggests that an intrapreneur’s location in a corporate context provides more access to support, resources and skills. At the same time, it restricts the intrapreneur’s autonomy in decision making and limits opportunities to establish the necessary relations. These considerations led to the need to include questions covering the entrepreneurs’ background and the degree of independence of the focal entrepreneurial projects in the interviews.
The analysis of scholarly literature on innovation management leads to the conclusion that classical managerial approaches are unlikely to be able to embrace the specifics of the innovation process, which is ultimately non-linear and unpredictable. In start-ups, innovation-management strategy is viewed as part of an ongoing process of trying new things, learning from mistakes and making mid-course corrections (“pivots”, Ries, 2011). Moreover, managerial activities should be perceived as a looped set of actions focused on recognising emerging patterns in order to anticipate new opportunities and threats. In managing innovations, entrepreneurs should be prepared to revise assumptions, priorities and promises; to reconfigure strategies to ensure vision realisation; and to abandon their established action models even if resources have already been spent and the organisation has come a considerable way in the model. This concept of innovation management implies that entrepreneurs need to constantly exchange knowledge and information with diverse circles of people and organisations (i.e., through networking), test their understanding of the next step, and search for necessary information and resources. Thus, in the interviews, it seemed productive to discuss innovation-management strategies and project-development trajectories from the point of view of the pivots that had taken place, as this provided a context for understanding the contacts that entrepreneurs needed and for what purposes.
Finally, this section considers the evolutionary nature of innovation. Different innovation models have emerged at different points in time in response to contemporary challenges of
economic development. The literature suggests that although a newly developed innovative model constitutes a best practice at each stage, all models exist simultaneously in various forms. This may be explained by the specific features of different industries and their competitive landscapes. For example, among companies in traditional (not knowledge economy), technology-intensive industries (e.g., mining and processing), the first-generation “technology-push” model, which aims to intensify resource usage, can still exist. In the IT industry, which is a knowledge-economy industry, a sixth-generation model that relies heavily on networking is more likely to drive innovation. Thus, an entrepreneurial venture’s presence in a particular industry can, to some extent, determine its innovation behaviour, its need to build relationships to attract necessary resources, and its need to integrate partners’ activities on the strategic and operational levels in order to achieve better market fit. Therefore, control variables that identify the industry in which a company operates should be specified.
To summarise, Section 1.1 has built an understanding of innovation and innovation management in a start-up, and identified the key managerial activities, functions and tasks that entrepreneurs must handle in order to achieve commercialisation. In order to understand the role of networking in innovation in entrepreneurial organisations, it is necessary to build a conceptual understanding of networking and consider the views of scholarly research on key questions in this knowledge domain.
1.2. Networking
This section presents a review of scholarly research on networking with a particular focus on entrepreneurial firms’ networking behaviours. It begins with a definition of the concept of networking, and a discussion of the role of social capital as well as approaches to network coordination and governance. Then it identifies the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks of innovation networks described in the extant literature. Thereafter, the typologies of networks used by different researchers are summarised with an emphasis on networks established by entrepreneurs. This is followed by a discussion of the characteristics of those networks and an investigation of whether the evidence indicates that some network types are particularly conducive for innovation. The section summarises the findings from several systematic literature reviews with the aim of uncovering gaps in the nascent theory of the entrepreneurial firm’s network development. At the end of the section, the role of the country context in networking is investigated, and the Russian example is studied with the goal of understanding the legacy of network establishment in Russia.
1.2.1. Theoretical underpinnings of networking
Despite extensive use of the term, there is no commonly agreed definition of a “network” (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). Broadly speaking, a “network” is a set of interconnected nodes (Castells, 2000). However, the meaning of “node” depends on the type of network. A node can refer to individuals within an organisation, firms contributing to a joint project or a group of actors that have pooled their resources with the explicit intention of accomplishing specific goals. Network boundaries are defined by the interactions among the elements within the network, the intensity of which is significantly higher than the intensity of contacts between those elements and elements outside the network (Ard-Pieter de Man, 2004).
In the spheres of business and management, a network is as a free association of people or firms capable of creating structures and processes, implementing joint decision making, and integrating efforts in order to achieve a goal that typically has economic significance for the network’s members (Turyakira and Mbidde, 2015). Networks are often understood as “loose couplings” (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001), which distinguishes them from relationships that are more structured and formalised (e.g., by means of a contract in the case of market relations or regulation in the case of hierarchical structures). Network relationships require a certain period of time and effort to develop (Hämäläinen and
Once established, cooperative networks are characterised by interdependence, continuing communications, reciprocity and a high level of trust (Hämäläinen, 1993; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). The heart of networking lies in a "relational contract" (Nassimbeni, 1998), which is an implicit agreement regarding the mutual respect of interacting parties' interests, and the fair contribution of the effort and resources needed to achieve a goal. The more innovative the aim of a cooperative network, the more creative and continuously adaptive its approach must be and, consequently, the higher the complexity of the relations within the network (Ard-Pieter de Man, 2004). In other words, if the vision of the outcome and the distribution of the parties' responsibilities is unclear, it becomes difficult to envisage all aspects of established relationships and to formalise them in a contract – a tangible, signed document with legal consequences for non-compliance.
Networking emerged as a separate research subject in the early 1990s. It was believed to be a driving mechanism of development in the new knowledge economy and the digital and information era (Castells, 2000; Powell and Snellman, 2004). Networking is viewed as a distinct form of activity coordination that exists as a fractal at the levels of individuals, organisations, countries and the global economy (Powell, 1990; Castells, 2000; Ard-Pieter de Man, 2004). The main factors that gave rise to the knowledge economy were the rapid development of information technologies, economic globalisation, internationalisation of production, financial deregulation, liberalisation and changing demand patterns (Heiskala and Hämäläinen, 2001). The systemic transformation has created opportunities for innovation at different levels as well as an imperative to participate in such innovation. Broadening and accelerating information flows, the dynamic development of scientific and technological knowledge (Schienstock and Hämäläinen, 2001), and the globalisation of markets put pressure on companies, regions and nations to innovate more rapidly and intensively (Schienstock and Hämäläinen, 2001; Chesbrough, 2006; Edmondson, 2012). The complexity of doing business in the knowledge-economy era has grown significantly when compared to previous periods due to the expanded amount of information, the increase in transparency and the growth in the number of interacting agents involved in collective learning and knowledge transformation. It has also created a need for cooperative efforts to implement innovations (Fernie et al., 2003; Muller and Zenker, 2001). Given the high complexity of the new economy, networking appears to be gradually becoming a dominant function and an efficient way of organising economic activities that are based on knowledge sharing and collaboration. These developments have led to the emergence of such phenomena as the network society (Castells, 2000; Hinssen, 2015). In
the new economy, interorganisational networks are increasingly becoming an instrument through which organisations can bring resources together and widely distribute knowledge in order to jointly develop innovations (Powell and Grodal, 2006).
In this regard, a key question arises: Are all companies that exist in the new-economy era equally dependent on networking? Contemporary literature widely recognises that the knowledge economy that emerged in the early 21st century (Preston and Cawley, 2004), not only gave rise to new approaches to doing business but also resulted in the emergence of new industries that did not exist in the 20th century (Teece, 1998; Christensen, 2013). The distinctive features of businesses in the new knowledge economy include their high innovativeness, their reliance on high-tech knowledge-intensive solutions, and their intention to operate in global markets. The conceptualisation of newly emerged types of organisations has provided new perspectives on the theory of the firm, which suggest that in the new economy a firm can “be understood as a social community specialising in speed and efficiency in the creation and transfer of knowledge” (Kogut and Zander, 1996, p. 503). However, the reality is more multifaceted. Even in the era of the knowledge economy, more conventional businesses active in more mature industries continue to exist. These businesses are usually based on the extraction and processing of resources, or on serving a particular client segment rather than a global market. As such, for conventional businesses, resource and cost considerations might still attract more attention than innovation as a source of competitive advantage (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001).
Compared to innovative businesses, conventional ones operate in less uncertain and dynamic environments that are characterised by less innovation richness (Daft and Lengel, 1986). Due to the maturity of these industries, it can be assumed that a significant amount of relevant information has already been codified, making business-related knowledge more explicit, and allowing for more structured and formalised communications and relations. As such, conventional businesses might require organisational arrangements that rely on market relations focused on cost-benefit optimisation or on hierarchies (Aulet, 2013) to maintain predictability, structure operations and secure resources while optimising costs.
On the other hand, knowledge-based firms operate in a rapidly changing environment that is characterised by diversity of information, much of which is tacit, specialised and embedded in various knowledge holders (Bierly and Hämäläinen, 1995). These firms need to focus on intensive communications, which often take the form of face-to-face interactions with different individuals to reduce equivocality, increase social capital (Daft
and Lengel, 1986) and gain access to the complementary knowledge needed for new insights (Schienstock and Hämäläinen, 2001). Therefore, networking should be more common among those organisations with businesses spanning more innovative areas. Studies published by several authors (e.g., Mole et al., 2016) support this assumption by revealing that not all SMEs are willing to network and make use of external sources of support even when they are available in their business environment.
In terms of the role of networking, Hämäläinen (2001) suggests that even within a single organisation, networking, which is efficient for tackling high uncertainty and complicated tasks (e.g., joint R&D and the production of innovative products or services), co-exists with the market- and hierarchy-focused organisational approaches used for solving less complicated, more traditional tasks (e.g., coordinating prices, pooling financial resources, and co-marketing). In relation to managing cooperation, Nassimbeni (1998) proposes that networking represents an intermediary approach between short-term occasional market mechanisms and long-term, well-structured hierarchical relations. Hämäläinen (2001) states that the comparative advantages of markets, hierarchies and networks depend on the specificity and uniqueness of the assets and knowledge required for interdependent activities; the costs associated with those activities; the extent of interdependency and needs related to activity coordination; and the level of innovativeness of the focal process. Thus, market relations are efficient for managing economic activities in which asset specificity, transaction costs and coordination needs are low. Hierarchies are superior for activities involving high asset specificity, high associated transaction costs, and high interdependency and coordination needs (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). However, in both cases, the expected outcome is relatively predictable, standardised or, at least, amenable to planning. Networking is viewed as the most efficient arrangement for managing activities in uncertain environments as well as activities leading to innovative outcomes. At the same time, Schienstock and Hämäläinen (2001) propose that networks offer a comparative advantage in activities characterised by intermediate levels of asset specificity and transaction costs. In networking, the need for coordination can be high due to the diversity of knowledge and resources being pooled together and the high degree of interdependence among network participants committed to solving innovation challenges through joint efforts (Schienstock and Hämäläinen, 2001).
If we assume that when a company is involved in highly complex and innovative business areas or problems, it must establish complex relationships, then the opposite can also be true. The principle of rational minimisation of efforts and costs (Simon, 1991) implies that
the more conventional the business or task addressed by a company, the simpler are the relationships required for its management. Hämäläinen (2001) provides a useful typology that explains the nature of interdependence in different types of co-operative relationships established by firms depending on the level of innovativeness (see Table 1.5).
**Table 1.5. Types of co-operation interdependencies**
| Less innovative | Interdependence | Definition |
|-----------------|-----------------|------------|
| Pooled | A relationship is established with a partner if its activities contribute to the firm’s overall goal. |
| Sequential | A relationship is established with a partner if the partner’s value-adding activities must be performed before the focal firm performs its value-adding activities. |
| More innovative | Reciprocal | A relationship with a partner is based on value-adding activities that relate to each other as both inputs and outputs through feedback loops. |
| | Team | Multifaceted systemic interdependence involves several reciprocal links with few economic agents. |
*Source: Adapted from Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001*
In light of the above-mentioned characteristics of networking, reciprocal and team interdependencies can essentially be referred to as network relations, while pooled and sequential interdependence refer to market and hierarchical relations. Consequently, it is accurate to refer to modern networks as “innovation networks”, thereby highlighting the main purpose of networking in the knowledge-economy era.
### 1.2.2. The role of social capital
As discussed in the previous section, networking relies heavily on informal and voluntarily assumed “relational contracts”. Related commitments and mutual obligations arising from relational contracts generate “social capital” (Walker et al., 1997). The term “social capital” emerged in sociological studies of interpersonal relationships (Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998). Granovetter (1973) showed that a wide sphere of social ties is an asset that gives an individual an advantage when searching for professional employment. This notion was later extended to a larger group of interacting actors. According to Coleman (1988), social capital works like any other asset, such as physical or human capital. It allows for the achievement of certain outcomes that would otherwise not be possible to achieve. This is the result of the win-win collaboration and the synergetic effect of pooling the efforts of network members (Trott, 2008).
Collier (2002) considers social capital as “social” because it generates externalities through social human interaction. It is “capital” only if it has value. In other words, it must offer access to necessary information or resources, or be able to influence the decision-making
process (Batjargal, 2003). As such, social capital is a means of enlarging the accessible resource base and enabling business transactions that would otherwise be costly, risky or difficult to conduct (Butler and Purchase, 2008). Social capital is embedded in networks of mutual acquaintance and recognition (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998) through which people are willing to exchange favours or share resources (Nguyen and Cragg, 2012).
When referring to Granovetter's (1992) discussion of structural and relational embeddedness, Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) identify two main aspects of social capital – structural and relational. The structural aspect refers to the concepts of “centrality” and “betweenness”, and indicates that an actor's position and embeddedness in a certain structure, organisation or network can provide access to resources, information, power or other intangible advantages. Butler and Purchase (2008, p. 533) suggest that the amount of structural social capital depends on “the number of connections, the proximity of connections with powerful players, the diversity of the connections and the network position of the actor, relative to other network players”. The relational aspect of social capital refers to the access to assets and resources made possible through relationships (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). Butler and Purchase (2008) propose that the relational aspect should supplement the structural one, reasoning that the existence of structural embeddedness does not necessarily mean that social capital will be forthcoming. Without well-established relations based on trust, commitment, understanding and honesty (Naudè and Buttle, 2000), or resulting from perceived obligations to provide favours because of pre-existing close connections, actors may be unwilling to give other actors access to valuable resources. In fact, they might perceive doing so as irrational or risky due to the possibility of opportunism (Butler and Purchase, 2008). Granovetter (1992) proposes that when established ties become socially embedded personal relationships, the exchange of resources within the network is likely to depart from pure economic and rational motives, and to be determined by social dynamics. Therefore, to enhance the effectiveness of social capital and reduce its costs, the quality of relations should be continually enhanced and converted into long-term, trust-based relationships (Naudè and Buttle, 2000).
Chenhall et al. (2011) define social networking as a way in which inter-organisational exchanges can be managed with an emphasis on informal personal contacts and social connections. They state that this approach can be employed as a means for developing preferential business connections in response to competitive pressures, and that it can help achieve desired outcomes faster and cheaper. These authors also suggest that social networking is usually a part of the management system employed by modern organisations.
to conduct inter-organisational exchanges along with the formal planning and control measures that exist in the frame of institutionalised and structured relations. They also indicate that, in some organisations, social networking becomes the usual or even the only way of engaging in inter-organisational exchanges. As such, in extreme cases, this approach to doing business can transform into favouritism and corruption, which are not only unethical but may also negatively affect value creation owing to conflicts between organisational and individual interests in one or both participating organisations (Nguyen and Cragg, 2012).
The literature provides a range of evidence that weak ties and social networking are able to enhance innovation, as they help to efficiently attract complementary competences and resources through more personal and trusting connections that are less bureaucratic (Chenhall et al., 2011). Social networking is particularly useful for entrepreneurs, as they often lack the resources and knowledge they need (see section 1.1). However, as Davidsson and Honig show (2003), social networking, which is effective in the nascent stages of an entrepreneurial project, becomes less important in the late stages of a business’s development.
### 1.2.3. Network coordination and governance
The different types of interdependencies that arise in cooperative relations are subject to different coordination mechanisms (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). Thus, the literature suggests that pooled interdependencies are usually coordinated through rules, regulations and standards (Daft and Lengel, 1986; Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). Sequential interdependencies require the incorporation of more pro-active approaches and are coordinated by means of planning, sometimes with the help of information systems. The management of reciprocal interdependences requires mutual adjustments and integration. To a large extent, these interdependencies can still be managed with the help of IT systems, but those systems must be more complex and integrated. Team interdependence is characterised by a large amount of multidimensional explicit and implicit data, the coordination of which requires intense interactions among participants, including face-to-face team meetings, to exchange understandings and build shared values and vision (see Table 1.6).
Table 1.6. Coordination of interdependent activities
| Types of interdependencies | Similarity of resources and knowledge |
|----------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| | LOW | HIGH |
| Pooled | Rules, regulations and market-based contracts in which prices reflect supply and demand quantities | Industry standards, contract mechanisms |
| Sequential | Planning | Cooperative planning, control over IT systems |
| Reciprocal | Mutual adjustments, usually through IT systems | Integration of efforts through designated people and their coordination activities |
| Team | Shared vision and values | Team meetings to share understandings and coordinate efforts |
Sources: Daft and Lengel, 1986; Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001
When resources and knowledge are dissimilar, the amount and richness of information is extensive (Daft and Lengel, 1986), and the interdependence of network participants is high, the need for qualitative coordination is greater, more complicated managerial mechanisms are necessary, and associated costs increase (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). Based on the rationality of decision making, Hämäläinen and Schienstock (2001) propose that firms will only use more complicated and resource-intensive forms of coordination, such as cooperative planning, mutual adjustments, group meetings and shared understandings, values and visions, if network participants are highly interdependent. Notably, the level of interdependence rises with increases in the specialisation of knowledge and uncertainty in the environment.
Table 1.2 is useful for understanding the principles behind choosing a mechanism for coordinating collaboration (i.e., the "hardware of collaboration"). The fundamental difference between network relations and market and hierarchical relations is the former’s lack of legally binding contracts or regulations that oblige the network members to interact and contribute to the network’s development. As mentioned above, network participants interact on the basis of a voluntary relational contract, which often serves as a "software of network collaboration". In order to understand how a network functions, it is necessary to examine the formation and governance of relations between participants. In particular, it is enlightening to investigate the extent to which relationships among participants in the network are determined by the presence of either economic or social interests. In that respect, it also seems interesting to supplement Hämäläinen’s typology (see Table 1.6) with the understanding of whether the level and role of personal social embeddedness among network members varies depending on the type of interdependency and the level of innovativeness.
Slotte-Kock and Coviello (2009) propose that both economic and social relationships are embedded and interwoven in networks. Jack et al. (2010) suggest that the development of social ties is important for the operation of a network and that, to a large extent, personal social relations serve as the network governance mechanism. Moreover, social relationships embedded in networks influence economic decisions and actions (Hite, 2010). Jack et al. (2010) note that as networks mature, there is a shift away from purely economic and calculative relationships toward affective personal ties. This might have both positive and negative consequences.
As they interact, network members develop personal relationships and behavioural norms that are characterised by identity, respect, trust and assumed obligations. Those relationships can even evolve into friendships (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). Network interactions form a common cognitive space that includes understandings, mental frames, language narratives and meanings shared among network members (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). All of this serves as a unifying social context, and reduces information-processing needs and coordination costs (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). Shared language and cognitive frames promote the intensive communications required for combining complementary knowledge, thereby increasing innovative capabilities (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). Shared behavioural norms support the development of trust among network members, as they allow members to anticipate the behaviour of their counterparts. Moreover, they use the same norms as guidance for their own behaviour towards network members (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). Established personal ties motivate network partners to share private resources, secure their commitment to contributing to the network’s development and serve as grounds for social capital development (Uzzi, 1996). Therefore, personal social embeddedness allows for the more effective achievement of networking goals.
On the other hand, strong inter-personal relations can have negative systemic effects, such as behavioural rigidities, conservatism and an unwillingness to act, caused by perceived personal costs associated with the fear of a loss of trust, reciprocity or friendship (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). Shared cognitive frames and language can slow down systemic adjustments, and may even cause technological and structural network “lock-ins”, making network members insensitive to external information and new perspectives (Schienstock and Hämäläinen, 2001). Moreover, high personal embeddedness can lead network members to sense that they are losing control over the situation.
if personal relations are used as grounds for introducing asymmetric power relationships or for free riding (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001).
### 1.2.4. Benefits, opportunities, costs and risks of innovation networks
As the previous discussion shows, networking can be efficient for innovation management. Rational-choice economists (e.g., Williamson, 1991; Simon, 1991) propose that an organisation rationally makes decisions about the development of network relations, such that it applies economic reasoning, and tries to maximise utility and minimise associated costs. Saaty (2009) suggests that rational agents consider not only the potential benefits and costs of an alternative but also the opportunities and risks associated with that alternative. Table 1.7 summarises the aspects that firms may consider when making decisions about entering into innovation networks, as described in the literature.
**Table 1.7. Aspects of the decision to enter innovation networks**
| Dimension | Refers to | Authors |
|-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
| Benefits | - Access to external information, knowledge and technologies needed for all steps of idea commercialisation, including product/service-related R&D
- Access to complementary skills
- Access to capital
- Access to new markets and faster introduction of products to the market
- Reduction of risk through an understanding of failed approaches
- Safeguarding of intellectual property rights | Ahuja, 2000; Pittaway, 2004a; Basile, 2011 |
| Opportunities | - Access to knowledge spillovers (which serve as an information channel and provide insights into problems) and tacit knowledge
- More effective and faster access to technological breakthroughs and know-how
- Learning and productivity enhancements through collaborative efforts
- Ability to ensure legitimacy and credibility
- Ability to provide mechanisms to support decision making in highly specialised, uncertain and rapidly changing environments
- Ability to improve competitiveness through deeper economic specialisation enabled by the transfer of non-core activities to network partners
- Ability to receive moral support and advice from network members that facilitates the innovative project
- Risk sharing | Rothwell, 1992; Elfring and Hulsink. 2003; Pittaway, 2004a; Basile, 2011 |
| Costs | - **Transaction costs** resulting from the search for appropriate network partners, negotiations, adjustments and enforcement of contracts with them
- **Coordination costs** associated with administrative support and management of multiple actors’ activities, such as organising physical and virtual contacts; acquiring, transmitting, processing and storing relevant information; and business-relationship-related bureaucracy | Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001; Alt and Fleisch, 2000 |
| Risks | - Human-related risks (e.g., opportunism, bounded | Hämäläinen and |
Despite the many benefits and opportunities that networking provides in terms of access to knowledge and resources, and enhanced legitimacy and credibility (Elfring and Hulsink, 2003), the associated risks and costs are significant. Schienstock and Hämäläinen (2001) propose that high transaction and coordination costs associated with certain organisational decisions may overwhelm their resource- and knowledge-based advantages. Network-based cooperation requires a continual search for appropriate network partners in the ambient environment, as well as negotiations and mutual adjustments. Consequently, internal factors related to the existence of networking skills and experience, and external factors related to environmental characteristics affect the functioning of networks and the amount of social capital that arises.
The external environment can be conducive or ineffective for the creation and development of networks. Individuals may have poor access to each other owing to disconnections among potentially interested parties, while a lack of overlapping knowledge structures and links, and an absence of a common cognitive frame and a shared language can reduce absorptive capacity (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998) and increase transaction costs. In addition, transaction costs are influenced by the political, economic, institutional and cultural frameworks in which transactions take place (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). Transaction costs are higher in environments characterized by unstable political and economic situations, constant systemic adjustments, uncertain property rights, poor legal and enforcement systems, underdeveloped information and communication technologies, mental rigidity, conservatism, and a low level of trust (Schienstock and Hämäläinen, 2001). As such, different national cultures may have widely varying institutional environments and corresponding transaction costs.
Coordination costs are also higher when environmental uncertainty is high, means of communication are lacking, knowledge and economic activities are specialised, and a variety of cognitive frames are present (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). In the case of an unstable environment and unassociated network participants, more complicated and
costly coordination mechanisms are required. In situations characterised by rapid shifts and systemic adjustments, multiple network partners can be guided by fundamentally different motives and favour different strategies, such that the negotiation process can become more complicated and have unpredictable outcomes (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001).
A number of risks caused by various factors often threaten the materialisation of opportunities and the beneficial effects of networking. For example, low levels of trust, differences in terminal and instrumental values (Rokeach, 1973), and dissimilar behavioural norms and cognitive approaches to decision making enhance relational risks of networking and, thereby, decrease social capital (Hämäläinen and Schienstock, 2001). An increase in the interdependence among network members may also expose them to the risks of the interconnected systems or parties (Hallikas et al., 2002), thereby leading to reputational consequences. Moreover, networking requires a systematic managerial approach, including the management of other risks that arise in addition to transaction and coordination costs. Thus, if the goal of networking is not significant enough or becomes irrelevant, networking can be discontinued in order to save scarce resources.
1.2.5. Network typologies
The literature identifies many different types of networks in modern economies and offers various classifications, as shown in the Table 1.8.
| Classifying category | Types |
|----------------------|-------|
| **Purpose** | Information exchange or a common mission related to achieving strategic, tactical, functional (e.g., research, production, logistics, marketing) or operational goals. |
| **Orientation of purpose** | - **Individual**: Exchange information to solve personal professional problems and intensify learning.
- **Group**: Build a wider perspective on the practice in which the group is working.
- **Organisational**: Develop, for example, best practices, innovative solutions and new processes.
- **Industry and society**: Develop standards based on, for example, best practices, manuals, guidelines and regulations. |
| **Value** | Degree to which the network must deliver concrete results. |
| **Composition** | Types of actors in the network, e.g.,
- **Vertical** networks set up to connect firms, value-adding activities or individuals along a particular value-adding chain.
- **Horizontal** networks set up to connect actors in particular strategic or functional areas. |
| **Diversity of knowledge and interests of network members** | - **Specialised**: Link representatives with similar expertise from one industry or related industries (e.g., industrial clusters, technological clusters).
- **Diverse**: Link representatives from different spheres with dissimilar knowledge to achieve common goals (e.g., networks that unite representatives of public- and private-sector organisations to improve the efficiency of public service provision or to combine certain public |
The literature suggests that almost every company establishes relations with distributors, suppliers, competitors or customers, as they represent important conduits of information and know-how, and are necessary for doing business. These cooperative interactions can be called “exchange relationships”, as they ultimately assume reciprocity (Nassimbeni, 1998). Usually, the goals of such cooperation networks are knowledge acquisition and product development. Apart from these purposes, the literature provides other examples of networking goals. Firms may pool their resources to increase their competitiveness, thereby forming strategic networks, or they may attempt to facilitate business activities locally or globally through marketing networks (Turyakira and Mbidde, 2015). The literature distinguishes among several common forms of inter-firm business networks (see Table 1.9).
**Table 1.9. Types of inter-firm networks**
| Inter-firm network | Goal |
|--------------------|------|
| Alliances | Share risks and revenues to jointly improve individual competitive advantage. |
| Collaboration | Partner with others for mutual benefit. |
| Complementary partnering | Leverage assets by sharing them with companies that serve similar markets but offer different products and services. |
| Coopetition | Join forces with an actor that would normally be a competitor to achieve a common goal. |
| Cluster | Description |
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Cluster** | Join forces with geographically proximate, independent but interconnected firms in a particular field (linked by commonalities and complementarities). |
| **Open innovation** | Obtain access to processes or patents from other companies to leverage, extend and build on expertise, and/or do the same with internal intellectual property and processes. |
| **Secondary markets** | Connect waste streams, side products or other alternative offerings with those who want them |
| **Supply chain integration** | Coordinate and integrate information and/or processes across a company or different parts of the value chain |
*Sources: Ard-Pieter de Man, 2004; Keeley et al., 2013; Turyakira and Mbidde, 2015*
Table 1.9 summarises the types of networks that firms create most often and, as such, offers some vocabulary that might be used by business people in discourse about networking. As can be seen from Tables 1.4 and 1.5, companies enter into various network relationships depending on their goals, which can vary subject to the stage of the firm’s development as well as other factors. Thus, while one type of network may help a firm develop initially, another may be more appropriate for other developmental stages (Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2009).
As discussed in the Section 1.2.1, networking is particularly conducive for innovative knowledge- and technology-based companies. Thus, dynamically developing innovative companies are likely to more actively form more diverse types of network relationships than conventional business companies. This assumption requires empirical testing. Indirect evidence for this proposition can be found in Hoang and Antoncic (2001), who summarise the results of other authors’ empirical observations and conclude that greater diversity in the types of network arrangements and wider geographical dispersion of high-tech firms’ partners are associated with higher growth rates.
The literature also highlights another type of network, which might be called a “state”. Slotte-Kock and Coviello (2009) indicate that in order to prevent the extinction of established formal and informal network relationships, it is necessary to maintain a certain degree of frequency, intensity and stability of contact. In some cases, established connections may not fade away after the initial networking goal is achieved or when interactions significantly decrease for other reasons – they may instead be converted into "sleeping ties" (Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2009). This is particularly true of informal relationships between people with a common area of interest, often closely related to their professional practice, who have been involved in substantial interactions in the past that resulted in a common history and “culture” involving shared concepts, ideas and stories (Verburg and Andriessen, 2011). Thus, dormant relationships can be a valuable part of social capital, as they have the potential to be reactivated if necessary (Slotte-Kock and
Given that for highly innovative companies facing a high degree of uncertainty, a broader, more heterogeneous set of social capital is of great value, they are likely to have more sleeping ties than traditional companies. This assumption also requires empirical testing.
1.2.6. Entrepreneurial networks
In this study, the focus is on networks created by entrepreneurial ventures, especially during their emergence and early development stages. Entrepreneurial networks are usually built around a start-up by entrepreneurs. As a start-up is interested in exchanging of information and attracting resources in order to design and produce goods or services, it becomes a focal actor in the network (Turyakira and Mbidde, 2015; Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2009). Although entrepreneurial networks might comprise cooperation on both the individual and inter-organisational levels, entrepreneurs tend to establish person-to-person relations because they are seen as a medium through which actors gain access to a variety of resources held by others (Markham et al., 2010; Hoang and Antoncic, 2001; Fagerberg et al. 2006).
Interpersonal contacts are viewed as a source of business information, advice, emotional support and problem solving, with some contacts providing multiple resources. Some researchers stress that relationships can also have reputational or signalling effects (Hoang and Antoncic, 2001; Fagerberg et al. 2006), a view that corresponds to the concept of social capital (Granovetter, 1973). Thus, well-regarded individuals and organisations can recommend entrepreneurs to others to help them establishing the linkages needed to close “structural holes” in the entrepreneurial networks (Fagerberg et al., 2006; Markham et al., 2010). In the entrepreneurial community, referrals are often provided regardless of whether entrepreneurs offer reciprocal benefits to their referees. The referral mechanism is particularly important for entrepreneurial organisations because it reduces the perceived risk associated with a new venture. Moreover, an explicit recommendation from a proper network partner is sometimes the only reliable way to attract the venture capital needed to survive and grow (Batjargal, 2005).
Moreover, entrepreneurs view networks as a social context (Jack et al, 2010) in which informal interactions at the individual level are perceived as more manageable and effective than relationships at the organisational level (Fagerberg et al., 2006). Attempts to understand the usefulness of human contacts has led to the identification of the special role of the “gatekeeper” (Markham et al., 2010), which is either carried out internally by one of
the new venture’s founders or externally by a person acting as a broker. The gatekeeper connects the parties and bridges the structural holes in networks (Fagerberg et al., 2006; Martinez and Aldrich, 2011).
To better understand how entrepreneurial ventures build networks, it is necessary to know with whom they establish relations as well as the characteristics of those relations. Newell and Swan (2000) state that different types of networks can be identified and that some types are more useful than others for certain purposes. In this regard, Kim and Lui (2015) suggest the following classification of networks: *institutional*, *market* and *business networks*. An *institutional network* is a group of partners in the public sector, such as government agencies, university research institutions and trade associations. Institutional networks comprise contacts that are distinct from market or industry actors, and they are linked to interests broader than those held by the company’s stakeholders. Moreover, they encompass skills and objectives different from those of alliance partners. Institutional networks correspond to the *invention* side of innovation; relate to the understanding of technological advances; and help to pool knowledge, intellectual resources and development. These networks play an important role in cases of technological innovation and science-intensive product innovation (Ritter and Gemunden, 2003; Musiolik et al., 2012). Such networks are usually formal – they have an organisational structure with clearly identifiable members (i.e., firms and other organisations), which come together to achieve common aims or carry out specific tasks (Musiolik et al. 2012). Institutional networks can be formed by a firm interested in technological relationships (Ritter and Gemunden, 2003) or externally. The literature offers examples in which technological networks are initiated and governed by government agencies with the intention of stimulating innovation development at the country level (e.g., Laranja, 2012). In such cases, the firm is not a focal actor but a member of network, which means that its interests may not completely intersect with the goals of that network.
A *market network* is the group of partners with which a firm interacts in the same competitive business market, such as suppliers, customers and competitors (Kim and Lui, 2015). Market networks correspond to the *exploitation* side of innovation and relate to understanding demand in terms of product use and customer preferences. Market networks are usually formal, and they tend to be organised as projects with an interested firm as the focal actor (Hisrich, 1990; Mol and Birkinshaw, 2009).
The third type of network identified by Kim and Lui (2015) is the *business group network*, which is a group of legally independent firms that are linked through common
administrative and financial management structures. Therefore, a business group network is more stable and complex than a typical institutional or market network. Given the nature of this type of network, firms may share not only knowledge but also financial and human resources. Although this definition of a business group network is useful for understanding the networking behaviour of corporate intrapreneurial ventures, it should be extended for the purpose of the current study, which also considers entrepreneurs. According to the literature (Fagerberg et al., 2006), entrepreneurs actively seek business and professional contacts with established firms and people in their and other industries, as well as with successful entrepreneurs. Their aims in this regard are to gain knowledge about organisational issues relevant for start-ups, and to obtain legitimacy and credibility through referrals, which also give them access to capital. This type of networking, which is perceived as strategically important, usually emerges through the active creation of ties. For entrepreneurs, such ties are rarely formal, not always steady and are usually attained through the entrepreneurs’ personal networks, which constitute a separate type of network.
Hisrich (1990) defines the entrepreneur’s informal personal network as a group of people with whom affiliations are established through friendships or acquaintances resulting from family relations, professional experience, hobbies, sporting events, civic involvement, school and university alumni groups. This informal network, which is social in nature, is a major source of moral support. It also has significant potential to provide professional support in the form of advice and information, as well as access to resources through the referral mechanism (Hisrich, 1990). Personal social networks play a crucial role in the early stages of start-up development (Aliaga-Isla, 2014), especially in the context of emerging economies (van Staveren and Knorringa, 2007; Berrou and Combarnous, 2012), owing to their potential to reduce transaction costs, enable and reinforce collective actions, create learning spill-overs, and enforce the establishment of new, useful contacts. The latter is particularly relevant for novice entrepreneurs, for whom social capital is scarce. van Staveren and Knorringa (2007) explain that personal networking is perceived as more friendly and entailing less risk of being locked into insecure relationships, especially when the macroeconomic, social or political context is not supportive, or the environment is volatile with a lack of formal sanctions on opportunistic behaviour. Berrou and Combarnous (2012) suggest a need to differentiate among interpersonal relations depending on their strength, which reflects the amount of time, emotional intensity, intimacy (mutually confiding) and reciprocal services that characterise the tie, as suggested by Granovetter (1973). These authors suggest distinguishing among kinship, friendship, arm’s-length sociability and business relations. Arm’s-length sociability refers to mere
acquaintances, former colleagues and neighbours – relationships in which social commitment and personal obligations are not necessarily present. Business relations are sometimes referred to in the literature (Martinez and Aldrich, 2011) as interpersonal embedded relationships. Although these relations are economic in nature (based on the exchange of favours), they have some personal elements, such as loyalty and sympathy. Moreover, they usually imply a higher frequency of contact and a higher degree of commitment to that contact.
The networking literature emphasizes that entrepreneurs tend to build ego-centred networks (Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2009; Berrou and Combarnous, 2012). However, their ventures operate within a broader system of ties. In summary, entrepreneurial relationships can be viewed as occurring within the setting of institutional, market, business and personal networks, the main features of which are summarised in Table 1.10.
Table 1.10. Types and characteristics of entrepreneurs’ external networks
| | Institutional network | Market network | Business network (professional) | Personal network (social) |
|----------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Actors** | Government agencies, institutions, research laboratories, trade associations | Customers, distributors, suppliers, business partners, competitors | Non-direct competitors, strategic partners, venture capitalists, consultants, service providers, training institutes, development institutes (e.g., accelerators, incubators) | Relatives, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, individual business contacts |
| **Knowledge domain** | Explicit and tangible technological knowledge | Tacit and intangible market knowledge | Tacit and intangible market and managerial knowledge derived from multiple industries | Tacit and intangible idea and product, market, organisation/people-behaviour knowledge derived from personal experience |
| **Newly acquired knowledge** | Supplements existing knowledge with previously unknown knowledge Difficult knowledge diffusion and assimilation | Extends existing knowledge; verifies market hypotheses Easy knowledge diffusion and assimilation | Improves understanding of industry, market and organisational opportunities and threats Easy knowledge diffusion and assimilation owing to similar cultures | Improves understanding of ideas, people’s behaviour, opportunities and threats; verifies various hypotheses Easiest knowledge diffusion and assimilation |
| **Nature of partnership** | Moderately opportunistic due to non-profit nature of institutional partners; more open and willing to share knowledge | Most opportunistic due to competition for sales, market share in the same industry; less open and willing to share knowledge | Moderately opportunistic due to non-competitive basis of relations, buy or sell relations; modestly open and willing to share knowledge | Least opportunistic owing to trustworthy and long-term relations |
| **Relations** | Formal | Formal | Formal with a tendency to become less formal owing to increasing trustworthiness | Informal |
*Source: adapted from Kim and Lui, 2015, van Staveren and Knorringa, 2007; Berrou and Combarnous, 2012*
As shown in Table 1.10, much of the knowledge relevant for new-venture creation is implicit or tacit rather than explicit (Nonaka, 1994). Such tacit and intangible knowledge is difficult to transfer through non-personal, text-based or codified forms of communication (Newell and Swan, 2000). Therefore, in the entrepreneurial context, the importance of person-to-person direct communications in all types of networks should be stressed. As entrepreneurs simultaneously fill the roles of information collector and knowledge creator, they build personal relationships in order to ensure successful commercialisation of their ideas (Sobrero and Roberts, 2001).
In efforts to comprehend entrepreneurial networking behaviour, one must define the types of networks that might be beneficial for entrepreneurial ventures and understand the patterns that can provide advantages in relation to different types of innovation. The extant literature does not provide clear evidence with regard to the relationship between network type and innovation outcome. Although a few researchers address this issue (e.g., Ritter and Gemünden, 2003; Kim and Lui, 2015), no particular network pattern has been found to support a specific type of innovation, and no network configuration has been shown to be superior to all other configurations in relation to innovation success (Gemunden, 1996). However, researchers have found that institutional, market, business, and personal networks positively affect firms’ overall innovativeness and performance (e.g., Ritter and Gemunden, 2003; Mol and Birkinshaw, 2009; Aliaga-Isla, 2014).
Kim and Lui (2015) hypothesise that institutional networks are more conducive to product innovation than market networks and that market networks are more important for organisational innovation than institutional networks. Business networks are conducive for both product and organisational innovation. Isaksen and Nilsson (2011) argue that a one-sided focus on institutional networks with the aim of increasing scientific learning may be inefficient, as it does not provide an understanding of how to commercialise or otherwise implement research results. On the other hand, a reliance on experience-based knowledge accessed solely through market and business-network channels does not necessarily enhance absorptive capacity or capability building. Isaksen and Nilsson (2011) also suggest that firms that source knowledge from a variety of external sources and effectively combine institutional links (to attract science and technology expertise) with market and business links (to obtain customer-driven market insights, learn best practices and become aware of hidden problems in doing business) are the most innovative. These suppositions still require testing that takes into account the reasoning that a network’s pattern and intensity must suit the individual firm’s strategic-innovation aims (Gemunden, 1996),
which in turn depend on the firm’s specific knowledge base (Asheim and Gertler, 2005). Moreover, a firm exists within the context of particular industry, region and country, which have certain innovation ecosystems that determine the possibilities for establishing ties (Asheim, 2007).
The difficulty of testing these hypotheses lies in the fact that firms rarely establish only one kind of network. Relationships are interwoven, such that they complement each other and have synergistic effects. In this regard, the literature demonstrates that multi-dimensional cooperation with multiple actors (diverse, heterogeneous contacts) positively influences the innovative outcome (Gemunden, 1996; Newell and Swan, 2000; Hoang and Antoncic 2001; Martinez and Aldrich, 2011).
1.2.7. Evolution of entrepreneurial networks and networking behaviour
The typology of network sources (personal, institutional, market, business) built above together with the start-up life cycle (idea, R&D in parallel with market exploration, company establishment and market exploitation) and Kim and Lui’s (2015) hypotheses lead to the proposal that entrepreneurial networking is essentially an evolutionary process. As such, different types of networks are likely to play important roles at different stages of the organization’s development, during which they can support the achievement of corresponding goals. In support of this observation, the literature (Uzzi, 1996; Martinez and Aldrich, 2011) demonstrates that the intensity and cohesion of cooperation with various actors varies in different stages of entrepreneurial venture development.
In reality, however, firms make different decisions in relation to building relationships that affect innovative outcomes. Therefore, whether the network evolves along an evolutionary path that follows the life cycle of the start-up is unclear. Alternatively, decisions may be past dependent, such that they are consequences of those previously adopted by the firm. According to Martinez and Aldrich (2011), strong ties have the potential to provide entrepreneurs with necessary resources early in the development of new ventures. However, such ties are costly for a new venture, and they limit the scope of opportunities to the extent that embedded ties determine a development trajectory that may not be optimal (Uzzi, 1996). At the same time, diverse weak ties increase self-efficacy and innovation. To ensure smooth development, entrepreneurs must pursue a balance between strong (embedded) ties, which offer access to resources, and weak ties, which help maintain business flexibility through continuous searches for diverse sources of information and market opportunities (Elfring and Hulsink, 2003; Martinez and Aldrich
Although these studies of networks’ influence on the development of an innovative company should be commended, there is still room for more research, especially in relation to the concurrent development of the start-up and networking behaviour. Another area of interest is found in the context of developing countries, which are usually characterised by unstable economic and political development that increases uncertainty in entrepreneurship. Such instability might negatively affect important networking mechanisms, such as trust.
1.2.8. Role of trust in building a business relationship
As an entrepreneur’s business network is a free association of actors, trust is widely assumed to be essential (Hoang and Antoncic, 2003; Fagerberg et al., 2006; Greve and Salaff, 2003; Glanville, 2016). Trust is understood as a psychological state comprising a willingness to act based on positive expectations of the other person’s intentions or behaviour (Weber et al., 2004; Kucharska, 2017). Trust allows network participants to assume that each party will behave in a predictable and mutually acceptable manner, and that they will act with honesty and integrity (Turyakira and Mbidde, 2015). These expectations reduce transaction costs (Dyer and Chu, 2003). For example, they make the monitoring and renegotiating of mutual arrangements unnecessary that leads to reduction of coordination costs. This becomes even more important when actors are faced with time constraints and implied conventions (Młokosiewicz and Misiak-Kwit, 2017). This is particularly true given the highly complex tasks usually solved within an innovative entrepreneurial network, as not all aspects of these tasks can be codified.
The literature views trust as an important social mechanism in networking governance that often relies on “implicit and open-ended contracts” (Hoang and Antoncic, 2003; Glanville, 2016). Trust and a commitment to meeting obligations and keeping promises are important mediating factors that may lead to successful networking. A lack of these elements may lead to a loss of reputation and ostracism (Turyakira and Mbidde, 2015). When an open relationship exists among network actors, a loss of reputation has serious consequences for the likelihood of establishing connections in the future (Newell and Swan, 2000). Smith and Lohrke (2008) distinguish between two dimensions of trust: *affective* and *cognitive*. The former, which resides at the interpersonal level in the emotional relationship domain, develops when network partners emotionally invest in relationships. Those investments result in genuine concern for the welfare of network members and a belief in the intrinsic value of those relationships. Moreover, affective trust refers to an expectation of a positive network outcome based on the network partners’ constructive attitudes. In contrast,
cognitive trust can develop at the interpersonal and organisational levels, and is based on evidence of trustworthiness. This type of trust results from the positive outcomes of repeated interactions.
Trust and commitment should be proactively pursued by all parties concerned in order to ensure the sustainable development of relationships (Turyakira and Mbidde, 2015). When parties trust each other, they are likely to be more willing to engage in network activities through which additional trust may be generated understood as behavioural trust (Newell and Swan, 2000; Gillespie and Mann, 2004). This is particularly applicable in the context of entrepreneurship, where trust serves as an important driver of relationship establishment between entrepreneurs and resource providers because information and evidence regarding new ventures is lacking. Moreover, both parties fear the possibility of risk realisation: entrepreneurs risk losing a viable idea, while resource providers risk wasting resources (Newell and Swan, 2000). However, if relationships are established and go through repetitive stages of negotiation, commitment, and execution, then behavioural trust develops, which then drives the evolution of those relationships (Newell and Swan, 2000). If these interactions occur under the influence of trust and commitment, one could hypothesise that networking evolves due to the entrepreneur’s ability to build relationships based on feedback from previously developed networks. This supposition is supported by research showing that serial entrepreneurs build their networks differently than novices (e.g., Aarstad et al., 2015) due to their acquired knowledge, experience and networking skills.
1.2.9. Major themes on networking found in scholarly publications
The view of networking as a new and efficient management paradigm in today’s knowledge economy has generated a large number of scholarly publications. These publications have motivated several authors to review and classify the research being undertaken in the network domain (e.g., Hoang and Antoncic, 2001; Borgatti and Foster, 2003; Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2009). Hoang and Antoncic (2003) critically evaluate more than 70 papers on the role of networks in the entrepreneurial behaviour of new ventures, and small and medium-sized enterprises. Their analysis reveals an emphasis on three essential components of networks: *network content* (the elements that are exchanged between actors classified in relation to the resource access they provide), *network governance* (mechanisms that support networks and coordinates resource flows) and *network structure* (the patterns that emerge from crosscutting ties in the network) (Hoang and Antoncic, 2003, p. 166). In their review, these authors identify two broad categories of
studies. The first group focuses on how networks affect the entrepreneurial outcome (networking as the independent variable), while the second considers how entrepreneurial processes affect network development (networking as the dependent variable). Hoang and Antoncic (2003) point out that research into how and why network content, governance and structure emerge and develop over time is lacking. Borgatti and Foster (2003) suggest that network studies can be categorised as either focusing on the causes of network structure, or on their consequences for business development and outcomes. Their observation that innovation implementation and networking are mutually reinforcing seems to add a new dimension to the current research in terms of data collection and data interpretation.
Slotte-Kock and Coviello (2009) build on these two reviews and classify network studies in relation to underlying views on networks: the *social network perspective* (explanations of network construction built on an understanding of social principles), the *business network perspective* (explanations of network construction resulting from conceptualisations of the behaviour of innovative firms, which make decisions rationally in order to achieve an optimal balance among perceived network value, its strategic importance, and the effort required to maintain it), and the *entrepreneurial network perspective* (explanations of network construction through the lens of a focal entrepreneurial firm).
These authors identify several under-researched areas in extant network studies. First, empirical efforts to track how a network develops over time are relatively rare in the context of entrepreneurship. In this regard, they refer to only a few studies as pioneering (e.g., Larson and Starr, 1993; Hite and Hesterley, 2001). These studies adopt different views on the evolution of a network’s content, governance mechanisms and structure. Slotte-Kock and Coviello (2009, p. 48) point out that the “entrepreneurship literature lacks a rich understanding of when, how and why ties shift from weak to strong, social to economic, or short-term to long-term (or vice versa)... and who drives the change”.
Second, Slotte-Kock and Coviello (2009) note that little research addresses the kinds of ties that are needed in the different stages of a firm’s development. As Slotte-Kock and Coviello’s (2009) analysis shows, the extant literature offers no consensus about how an entrepreneurial organisation should combine strong and weak ties, or how it should build its relationships in order to achieve embeddedness in social, business, strategic or other types of networks. Therefore, how to determine the optimal balance for a company’s involvement in various types of networks and the most relevant structure for the different
stages of new-venture development remains unclear. Slotte-Kock and Coviello (2009, p. 48) suggest that researchers need to pay attention to understanding the connections among network interactions (ties), network structure and performance outcomes, as well as how these change over time.
1.2.10. Role of country context in networking
Section 1.2 shows that networking is a complex phenomenon, which is enabled and constrained by the actions of network members that are embedded in the wider structure of relations in which network activities are both a medium and an outcome (Michailova and Worm, 2003). Network formation, coordination and governance occur within a country’s specific cultural, political, economic, business and institutional contexts (Hämäläinen and Heiskala, 2007; Shirokova and McDougall-Covin, 2012), which are largely path dependent (Ebbinghaus, 2005).
Given that cultural dissimilarities determine differences in personal values related to ultimate goals, strategies and means (Rokeach, 1973), culture might shape the structural, relational and cognitive aspects of networking strategies (Dequech, 2003). Economic, political and institutional frameworks set the context and incentives for firm and individual behaviour (Schienstock and Hämäläinen, 2001). The business environment is a scene in which parties interested in network participation are sought out, while the proximity, diversity and complementarity of their knowledge and resources, their ability to adjust cognitive frames and language, and their willingness to cooperate define opportunities and barriers to network formation and operation. As discussed in Section 1.2.4, uncertainty and the underdevelopment of the business environment increase transaction and coordination costs, as well as the risks associated with networking. This can serve as a serious argument for non-relying on networking strategies or for using particular forms of networks capable of coping with unpredictability that are not necessarily ethical (Michailova and Worm, 2003).
Scott (1995) proposes that the institutional settings of any country are based on three fundamental pillars: regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive. In the regulative domain, Hämäläinen and Heiskala (2007) suggest including explicit, legally sanctioned rules that embrace public policies, the regulatory framework (i.e., laws, regulations and collective agreements), and organisational principles and arrangements. At its core, regulation is an institutionalised expediencie that imposes restrictions by defining legal boundaries, and by distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour (Scott, 1995). It also
provides instructions on effective and contributory behaviour, and restrains actors from engaging in ineffective and malicious behaviour.
The normative domain refers to socially binding expectations and obligations, and it is morally governed, such that it allows people to make judgements about the appropriateness of behaviour (Hämäläinen and Heiskala, 2007). The cultural-cognitive domain comprises a shared understanding of the logic of actions as well as cultural rules, schemas, scripts and routines that provide people with collective meaning and a common view of the value of certain activities (Scott, 1995). This domain is the most subtle. At its core, it approaches the concept of a "national idea" in terms of uniting a country’s people, influencing their personal values and ensuring that they follow the suggested meta-purpose given that it is comprehensible, recognisable and culturally supported. As such, the cultural-cognitive institutional pillar highlights the perspective that organisations and individuals might act because of country-specific ideational structures rather than by consciously following rules or norms to make rational decisions (Ahlstrom et al., 2010).
Taken together, these three pillars aim not only to control and constrain the behaviour of economic actors but also to support and empower socially beneficial activities and actors through the provision of stimuli, guidelines and resources (Scott, 1995). The ability to do so determines the quality of a country’s institutionalism, which should be harmonised in terms of institutions, systems and structures, including state policies; the regulatory framework and its enforcement; governance mechanisms for managing economic and political activities; programmes to safeguard social wellbeing; systems for the development of science, technology and education; and procedures for protecting the natural environment.
In emerging economies, underdeveloped institutions and institutional constraints affect the behaviour of organisations and individuals, especially in terms of decision making and strategies for doing business (Ahlstrom et al., 2010; Shirokova and McDougall-Covin, 2012). Smallbone and Welter (2001) propose that in an unstable, weakly structured environment with a low level of institutionalism, informal personal networks often play a key role in helping entrepreneurs cope with institutional constraints that limit their abilities to attract resources and compete for orders. Michailova and Worm (2003) suggest that networking strategies express themselves differently in different countries’ cultural and institutional settings. These authors argue that social networking in most emerging markets differs from Western practices. Thus, the creation and development of networks seems a
meaningful consideration in the context of a particular country. In this study, these issues are considered in the context of Russia.
1.2.11. Specific features of network building in Russia
The gaps in the literature and the research topics identified in previous sections deserve special attention in the Russian context. Russia has come a long way in the 26 years that have passed since the disintegration of the economic relationships that were inherited from the Soviet planned economy. Today, the Russian economy is based on market-driven relations, although the state continues to exert considerable influence (Ahlstrom et al., 2010). Russia also offers an example of the rapid development of entrepreneurship (Aidis et al., 2008). Private entrepreneurship in Russia, which was originally treated as a socially unacceptable endeavour (Smallbone and Welter, 2012), has recently become a highly desirable activity that is stimulated by the state. This is particularly true in the field of innovative high-tech entrepreneurship (Ahlstrom et al., 2010).
Given the pressure to be competitive in new and rapidly changing settings, Russian entrepreneurs had to establish the contacts necessary for doing business. Smallbone and Welter (2001) point out that one peculiarity of doing business in Russia is the importance of social networking and informal personal relationships, which reflects the unstable and hostile nature of the external environment and the scarcity of experience, information and key resources, especially capital (Smallbone and Welter, 2001). Academic literature on the building of business links by Russian entrepreneurs identifies country-specific forms of social networking, including *blat* (personal connections that result in preferential treatment) (Chenhall et al., 2011) and *svyazi* (useful business links) (Batjargal, 2005). Notably, the concept of *blat* has always had a negative connotation in Russia, where it was perceived as unethical and socially harmful behaviour. In contrast, the establishment of *svyazi* has long been viewed as the norm in business.
Butler and Purchase (2004) characterise *blat* as a type of informal personal tie that is an integral part of Russia’s unique set of norms and standards for doing business. In the Soviet Union, which was characterised by shortages and a state-run system of privileges (Ledeneva, 1998), *blat* offered an opportunity to obtain, for example, certain services, positive and usually preferential decisions, and material benefits for which access was otherwise limited. As a rule, *blat* was based on personal ties with decision makers, usually in state-run institutional structures, corporations or large businesses (Batjargal, 2003; Chenhall et al., 2011). The higher the position individuals occupied in the relevant
structure, the higher was their social capital, as they had more potential to use their structural embeddedness to increase personal well-being through *blat*-based transactions (Batjargal, 2003). The ultimate goal of *blat*-based social networking was to serve the needs of personal consumption by bypassing the official rules covering the distribution of material welfare (Ledeneva, 1998). In Russian society, *blat*-based transactions were considered antisocial and unfair (Chenhall et al., 2011).
However, such behaviour was widespread based on the rationale that gaining access to scarce public resources was vital to economic survival and could only be achieved through personal channels (Ledeneva, 1998). *Blat*-based transactions were usually based on the reciprocal exchange of favours or access, and they were masked by the rhetoric of acts of friendship (Chenhall et al., 2011), including such terms as “sharing”, “helping out”, “friendly support” and “mutual care” (Ledeneva, 1998). With the transition from a state-governed economy to market-driven one, the essence of *blat* changed. In the former, money played only a minor role, as the availability of goods and services was limited and they could only be obtained through the state-controlled distribution system. In the *blat*-based systems, transactions offered non-monetary returns, such as reciprocal obligations to provide access to other distribution systems. The potential for access and reciprocal obligations served as a parallel currency that met the everyday needs of both citizens and businesses (Ledeneva, 2008). When Russia transitioned to a system of market relations at the end of 20th century, *blat*-based transactions were monetized, and they evolved into corrupt practices at the state and private business levels (Ledeneva, 2008; Ionescu, 2011). In the 21st century, progressive measures, such as changes in legislation, including anti-corruption regulations, and the adoption of Western styles of management (e.g., formal control systems in organisations, tender-based procurement systems; Chenhall et al., 2011) increased transparency. Transparency was also enhanced by the introduction of electronic means of obtaining public services (e-government solutions) in which applicants have no access to decision makers (Tolbert and Mossberger, 2017). These changes influenced informal business practices to such an extent that *blat* has almost lost its relevance as a term that describes the corrupt use of personal contacts in contemporary Russia (Ledeneva, 2008).
Although some foreign scholars studying Russia interpret the terms *blat* and *svyazi* as synonyms (e.g., Horak et al., 2018), it is worthwhile to distinguish between the two concepts. *Svyazi*, which can be understood as useful connections (Yakubovich, 2005), does not include "beating the system" of distribution (Ledeneva, 2008) or acquiring individual
benefits as necessary components. *Svyazi* refers to a type of personal informal relationship used to reduce uncertainties and provide the referrals necessary for the facilitation of entrepreneurs' access to resources (Batjargal, 2005). Personal acquaintances with "useful people" in Russia have always been considered necessary for business success, so *svyazi* can be viewed as typical for informal personal ties used for business purposes in Russia. Such ties constitute social capital.
The literature indicates that the practices of building business relations and choosing counterparties on the basis of personal ties are still widespread in Russia (Hunter, 2003; Gudkov, 2012). Contacts are sought out on the recommendations of relatives, friends, classmates and ex-colleagues (Richmond, 2003). In other words, the source of trust lies in close ties (Djankov et al., 2006) rather than in the business reputation of a person or firm (Kharchilava, 2014). When making decisions about establishing business relationships with others, most Russian managers rely on the recommendations of people whom they know and trust (Hunter, 2003).
Thus, the friendship network largely extends to the business world and it is normal to expect favours in return (Richmond, 2003). This is even more relevant for Russian entrepreneurial firms (Shirokova and McDougall-Covin, 2012). As these firms possess limited financial and human resources, the use of social connections helps to reduce transaction costs and serves as a hedge against legal, institutional and environmental uncertainties (Batjargal, 2003; Ahlstrom et al., 2010). In addition, friendly and family relations are perceived as entailing considerably less risk in case of outstanding debts and unfulfilled contractual liabilities (Jumpponen and Pihkala, 2008). Conversely, for participants in business relations with start-ups, referrals play an important role as a means of increasing interpersonal trust. For example, referrals have positive effects on investment decisions among venture capitalists operating in Russia (Batjargal, 2005). Thus, *svyazi*, which is based on recommendations, is an effective mechanism for establishing business relations in Russia.
While high levels of trust are placed in interpersonal networks (Butler and Purchase, 2004; Michailova and Worm, 2003), especially for information transfer (Batjargal, 2003), there is a lack of trust in state and public organisations. These organisations are perceived as inefficient, unreliable and unpredictable entities that cannot be trusted because they hide and distort information, partly intentionally, in order to use it in *blat* transactions (Butler and Purchase, 2008). Entrepreneurs use their *svyazi* to find personal contacts and establish personal ties with people in various organisations (especially in public ones) who can
provide access to information, answer questions, offer advice and, possibly, provide preferential assistance that can help economise entrepreneurs’ time and effort. The higher an individual stands in the organisational hierarchy, the more he or she is expected to have a larger volume of accurate information. In Russia, the establishment of personal ties with people in organisations is understood as an inter-organisation linkage strategy (Hunter, 2003). This attitude is problematic for the development of systemic institutional relations in Russia, which are initiated and governed by government agencies and aimed at stimulating innovation development at the country level.
Batjargal (2003) concludes that Russian entrepreneurship is not embedded in either markets or hierarchical relations. Instead, it relies heavily on personal relationships and informal networks that are crucial for succeeding in “Russian capitalism”. However, while recommendations are viewed as sufficient grounds for entering into relationships, the basis for the development of those relationships is personal business experience. If the entrepreneur has positive experiences of cooperation with a person in organisation, he or she will prefer to continue that relationship even if other organisations offer more favourable terms (Butler and Purchase, 2008; Kharchilava, 2014). This can be explained by the fact that the establishment of reliable, predictable and trusted relations is associated with transaction and coordination costs. Long-lasting relations appear to entail a relational contract as well as expectations of mutual assistance and favours. In this sense, a change of a partner is perceived as a risky and costly act.
An analysis of articles based on empirical research (e.g., Michailova and Worm, 2003; Michailova and Husted, 2003; Butler and Purchase, 2008; Batjargal, 2007; Chenhall et al., 2011) reveals several features of the construction of social networks in Russia and their differences from social networks in the West, as shown in Table 1.11.
**Table 1.11. Key differences between networking in Russia and the West**
| Networking in Russia | Networking in developed economies |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Vitally important; often a matter of survival and the only way to access rare resources | Important |
| Anchored at the individual level. Relations in business are established and maintained as personal and informal. In these relations, a person acts not as an official representative of an organisation but as a person who, through his position, has access to resources, opportunities to make decisions, etc. | Anchored at the organisational level. Relations are established as a part of professional responsibilities on behalf of an organisation a person represents rather than at a personal level. |
| Established relations are personal assets. The more connections a person has, the more valuable he/she is for an organisation. A person hoards connections gained through organisational channels (e.g., obtained as a result of participating in an exhibition on behalf of organisations) and does not always willingly share them within the organisation owing to a fear of decreasing his/her personal value and a desire to use those connections for personal benefit. | Established relations are an organisation’s asset. They are institutionalised and often entered into a database to make them available for further use. |
| Exchanges are usually at the personal level and based on expectations of reciprocal favours. Individuals can use them to obtain benefits for themselves and for the organisation they represent. | Exchanges are usually non-personal. Although a person bears personal responsibility for the quality of relations and monitors performance to ensure fulfilment of company’s obligations. He/she does not expect direct personal benefits. |
| Focus on long-lasting relations. Frequent exchanges help to keep relations “alive” and actual. Unsupported relationships fade away, as the chain of providing favours is interrupted. | Relations are established when needed. Exchanges are discrete in time and occur when necessary. When unsupported by personal interactions, the relationship goes into a dormant stage and can easily be renewed when needed. |
| Informal structures based on weak ties are more important than formal structures. | Weak and strong ties are equally present. The formalisation and institutionalisation of relations is of great importance. |
| Relationships with state officials and partners are built and maintained at the personal level through personal communication (e.g., congratulations on holidays, birthdays or personally important events). The management of communications cannot be transferred to other people and cannot be moved down the hierarchy, as doing so can be perceived as neglecting personal communication. | Relations are maintained at a professional level. They can be formalised and institutionalised, and they can be delegated. |
| Relations are often based on the recommendations of people from a close, professional circle in which trust is present. | Rational approach to the choice of contacts based on the choice of the optimal counterparty through, for example, a tender (market relations). |
| Extended relationships/mediated exchanges – chains of favours. | Dyad-based relationships/direct exchanges within the established connections and hierarchies. |
| Personal and professional ties are often deliberately mixed. Professional (cold) relations are deliberately converted into personal ones (even a friendship based on common interests beyond business transactions), which are perceived as more manageable. Personal (warm) links are used to obtain faster, easier access to resources, information and recommendations. If there is a need to establish a relationship with a certain decision-making person, ways are sought to reach him through acquaintances based on personal recommendations. It is considered normal for exchanges to take place at the workplace. | Clear division between personal relationships in which exchanges take place outside the workplace, and professional contacts. Typically, these links are not mixed to avoid conflicts of interest. |
| If an employee through whom business with a partner company has been conducted changes his/her place of work, the relationship with that company is often interrupted or the possibility of establishing other personal relationships in that organisation is examined. However, a relationship with the company for which the contact now works can be easily established. | If an employee through whom business with a partner company has been conducted changes his/her place of work, relations with the company are continued through the employee who takes on that position. Relations with the company to which the original contact transfers can be established if that company offers better terms. |
| Friendship is a precondition for business relations. Friendship-based trust is likely to occur first and it may eventually develop into cognitive trust. Affective trust, rather than cognitive trust, is more prevalent when establishing long-lasting, reliable relations. | Cognitive and behavioural trusts are conditions for the development of friendship-based trust, which usually takes a long time to develop. Friendship harms business relations, as it might lead to undesired conflicts of interest. |
Sources: Adapted from Michailova and Worm, 2003; Michailova and Husted, 2003; Butler and Purchase, 2008; Batjargal, 2007; Chenhall et al., 2011; Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2009; Jack et al., 2010; Hite, 2010
Notably, informal network connections played a major role in enabling entrepreneurial activities during the transition to a market-driven economy (Smallbone and Welter, 2001) and, to a great extent, they helped resolve systemic problems arising from inefficient state institutions and poor normative and regulation systems (Ahlstrom et al., 2010). The style of
networking in Russia, which is described in Table 1.11, largely reflects historical approaches, including elements of *blat* (e.g., rational assessments of the possibility of using the acquired links to obtain personal advantages). The features of social networking in Russia presented in the table are based on studies conducted prior to 2010.
Some studies (e.g., Butler and Purchase, 2008; Ledeneva, 2008; Chenhall et al., 2011) show that the style of business networking in Russia is evolving. For example, the desire to boast of *blat*-based relations with important people and structures is largely a thing of the past, as such relations are perceived as a threat to organisations in the long term (Butler and Purchase, 2008). Moreover, more connections are being established at the inter-firm level than at the person-to-person level (Kushch, 2007), and it has become important to send a strong message to customers, suppliers, partners and the general public that all business activities are legal and that businesses will be sustainable in the long term (Butler and Purchase, 2008). At the same time, weak ties based on relational rather than cognitive trust (Butler and Purchase, 2008) continue to play an important role. However, while referrals from the trusted circle previously served as an absolute indication of key business relations, they have recently become more recommendatory in nature. In other words, the recommended person and the organisation he or she represents must typically prove their value through trustworthy actions (Ledeneva, 2008).
The extant research (Kushch, 2007; Sheresheva, 2006) shows that the structures of inter-firm relations in Russia are becoming more diversified. In addition to the historically strong structural vertical networks (Butler and Purchase, 2008), different horizontal network forms have slowly started to appear. The results of Kushch’s study (2007) show that more than 60% of the surveyed companies (from a sample of 208 organisations) managed inter-firm relationships at the dual level. That is, companies often develop and implement strategies for inter-firm relationships with each partner (e.g., with each supplier or consumer) individually. Every third company applies a portfolio approach to the management of inter-firm relations, while only about 7% of companies perceive their external environment as a central network, such that they not only manage relationships with immediate partners but also work to influence their partners’ relationships with third parties. However, none of the companies that participated in the study considered the possibility of creating and managing a network that was important for the industry as a whole. Kushch (2007) notes that large Russian companies are not interested in implementing a relationship-management strategy because of a lack of competition and their strong market power. In contrast, the small and medium Russian companies that took
part in the study were interested in implementing a relationship-management strategy, as they did not have sufficient market power and were forced to flexibly respond to changes in the operating environment. Although these results are interesting, it is not possible to fully evaluate their validity, as Kushch (2007) does not analyse which companies (e.g., innovative companies) use more complex and multifaceted forms of networking, and how this affects the success of their business.
As Russia continues to face rapid and dramatic shifts in the institutional environment, entrepreneurs are challenged to rapidly co-evolve as they seek to not only survive but also prosper (Ahlstrom et al., 2010). For example, Russia has recently retreated somewhat from the principles of a fully market-oriented economy due to the growing influence of the central and local governments (Ahlstrom et al., 2010). Thus, it is questionable whether the approaches based on *blat* and *svyazi* will rebound, or whether progressive changes in the surrounding business environment and society’s attitude, institutional improvements, greater transparency, the availability of business education, and the absorption of Western-style management principles (Butler and Purchase, 2008; Chenhall et al., 2011) will prevent it. In general, as the above discussion shows, the mechanisms for establishing and governing business relations and networking in Russia have yet to be investigated, especially for the period since 2009.
It should be noted that the scholarly publications reviewed in this section consider firms’ networking behaviour in general and that they fail to distinguish among different types of companies. Given the discussion in Section 1.2.1, which indicates that high-tech innovative companies and more traditional companies may need different types of networking with different intensities, combining different companies into a single pool for analysis can lead to confusion and irrelevant conclusions.
Thus, the author of this dissertation seeks to begin closing this gap in the literature by examining whether the mechanisms used to establish and govern business relations (including driving mechanisms, such as trust) differ depending on the type of business and its innovativeness. As mentioned in Section 1.2.1., more traditional businesses in Western developed economies tend to use more formalised market-based or hierarchical approaches, and to use social networking based on weak ties to address non-standard tasks in atypical situations. As described in this section, Russian entrepreneurs largely relied on social networking in the early years of the Russian economy’s development because of the extremely turbulent situation. Given the advancements in the institutional environment in Russia, it is natural to ask whether all types of companies still have the same pressing need
to rely on socially embedded ties that they had in the first twenty years of Russia’s development. The resulting institutional changes may have led to greater use of market and hierarchical mechanisms for creating and managing inter-firm relationships.
1.2.12. Conclusions
The ultimate aims of this section in the context of the current study were to build a conceptual understanding of networking, discover characteristics of networking that can determine the occurrence of various networking patterns among entrepreneurial firms and identify gaps in literature that require attention in order to improve the understanding of networking’s role in innovation.
The extant literature indicates that entrepreneurial networks are generally built around start-ups, and that they are the result of purposeful actions entrepreneurs take to discover opportunities, secure resources, and obtain legitimacy and credibility. The literature analysis led to the conclusion that although formal, inter-organisational relationships are possible within entrepreneurial networks, entrepreneurs tend to establish person-to-person relations, which are seen as more manageable and useful. The usefulness of individual contacts is explained by the fact that much of the knowledge relevant for new venture creation is implicit or tacit and, therefore, cannot be codified. Such intangible knowledge is difficult to transfer through impersonal forms of communication. As such, entrepreneurs value an informal networking style that is social in nature, and that provides professional support and moral encouragement.
The literature analysis also led to the conclusion that networking, as a special form of organisation of cooperative interaction among economic agents, attracted the attention of the scientific community at the same time as the concepts of a new knowledge economy and the digital and information era emerged. Networking – *creation of the voluntary associations of people or firms to integrate efforts and develop procedures to achieve a goal* – is seen as a widespread collaborative practice that is necessary to succeed in the new economy. It is particularly important for addressing high uncertainty and complicated tasks that require the pooling of complementary knowledge, efforts and resources. The literature emphasises that networks are crucial enablers of firm development in today’s highly competitive, fast-advancing knowledge economy. At the same time, networking not only offers advantages and opportunities for business development, but also carries high transaction and coordination costs and risks. Such costs and risks can be perceived as so
high that, based on a rational assessment of such alternatives as market or hierarchical mechanisms, networking may be viewed as suboptimal.
An examination of systematic literature reviews on networks (see Section 1.2.9) suggests that the development of individual connections within an entrepreneur’s network and the development of the network structure itself are insufficiently understood. However, these aspects are important for constructing a theory of entrepreneurial networking. The network literature identifies the dimensions that have to be considered when attempting to interpret the networking behaviour of entrepreneurs, including network purpose, the degree of involvement, network sources, size, density, the diversity and heterogeneity of links, frequency of communication, the relationship between networking and the business’s success in terms of growth and market performance, network governance and the role of trust, network evolution, the impact of over-embeddedness, and the impact of the entrepreneurs’ experience. Discussion of these dimensions in the course of interviews with entrepreneurs allowed for an understanding of the features of their networks’ formation and governance (see Chapter 3).
When distinguishing between conventional businesses that existed long before the digital and information era (e.g., those dealing with the extraction and processing of material resources, and relying on traditional market-based and hierarchical approaches) and innovative businesses that are driven by high-tech knowledge-intensive solutions, a question arises: Is networking a characteristic of economic relations in new realities per se or are there characteristics of networking that are specific to businesses depending on their degree of innovativeness? Table 1.12 summarises the discussions presented in this section and maps them onto the continuum of “conventional business – knowledge- and technology-driven business” in an attempt to uncover an answer to this question. As such, it highlights the gaps in the current scholarly understanding of networking and its implications for innovation.
**Table 1.12. Characteristics of networking typical of conventional and knowledge- and technology-driven businesses**
| | Conventional businesses | Knowledge- and technology-driven business |
|----------------------|-------------------------|------------------------------------------|
| **Market** | Local, | Global, |
| | a particular client segment | potential for multi-segment use |
| **Innovativeness** | Low | High |
| **Diversity of knowledge needed** | Low | High |
| **Balance between knowledge types** | Explicit, codified | Tacit, embedded in people |
| Number of contacts | Lower? | Requires empirical testing | Higher? |
|-------------------|--------|----------------------------|---------|
| Network content (key actors in network) | **Requires clarification** | **Requires clarification** |
| Sleeping ties | Few? | **Requires empirical testing** | Many? |
| Goals pursued by entrepreneurs in external relationships | **Requires clarification** | **Requires clarification** |
| Importance of market, business, institutional networks | **Requires clarification** | **Requires clarification** |
| Importance of personal (social) networks | High | **Requires empirical testing** | Also high? |
| Network structure and balance of cooperative relationship types | Vertical, supply chain | **Requires empirical testing** | Integration? Horizontal collaboration? |
| Balance of network-governance mechanisms | | **Requires empirical testing** |
| Role of social networking in governance of relations | **Requires clarification** | **Requires clarification** |
| Interpersonal trust | Level depends on country-related cultural specifics | **Requires empirical testing** | The same level? |
| Role of interpersonal trust | **Requires clarification** | **Requires clarification** |
| Evolution of networks | **Requires clarification** | **Requires clarification** |
| Evolution of networking behaviour as entrepreneurial experience increases | **Requires clarification** | **Requires clarification** |
The section highlights the importance of trust and commitment as driving mechanisms of networking. An understanding of the concept of trust is particularly important for new ventures. In the absence of previous positive experiences that can serve as a basis for cognitive trust, novice entrepreneurs must build affective trust with their partners in order to establish good relationships. They can do so either by demonstrating a high degree of commitment or using referrals, or both. The literature suggests that trust can develop as a relationship progresses. Moreover, the skills needed to build relationships based on trust develop as entrepreneurs gain experience. This observation allows for the assumption that networking behaviour can evolve as entrepreneurs gain experience, which in turn implies that the patterns of networks built by novices and serial entrepreneurs should differ.
This section accentuates the view that networking is a complex phenomenon that can be meaningfully studied in the context of country’s specific cultural, political, economic and
business environment, and the institutional factors that are essentially path dependent. The literature offers evidence that entrepreneurs in the highly unstable and unpredictable environments that characterise emerging economies rely more on soft methods of securing deals, such as referrals and recommendations.
The Russian context was used to illustrate the fact that the networking behaviour of entrepreneurial firms is highly embedded in the country context based on the results of available studies that were conducted before 2010. In this regard, this section highlights features of the Russian approach to social networking that distinguish it from the Western approach. As a result of its history, Russia is characterised as a country with a low level of trust between people and low confidence in state institutions, which results in the adoption of flexible networking approaches based on weak, personal ties. However, given that society, the economy and the corresponding institutions in Russia are developing rapidly, the transformation of the business environment might have an impact on networking behaviour among Russian entrepreneurs. Thus, there is a clear need to gather up-to-date empirical data, which will allow researchers to draw conclusions about the current state of networking in Russia. Taking into account the assumption that traditional businesses may need a different type of networking than knowledge- and technology-based businesses, it seems reasonable to consider the networking of modern Russian entrepreneurial organisations based on their degree of innovativeness. Moreover, the assumption that the absorption of Western-style management principles might change Russian entrepreneurs’ networking strategies requires empirical evidence. Any results in that regard will have a wider scope of interpretation than solely in the context of a transitional economy.
Given the importance of country context in entrepreneurs’ choice of networking strategies, and taking into account the purpose of this study (i.e., to explore the role of networking in the company’s innovation process), it is necessary to consider concepts that organically unite innovation and networking and highlight key aspects of the national context that mediate the use of networking as a facilitating mechanism for innovation.
1.3. National innovation system
This section presents a review of the literature on innovation systems, and considers their manifestations on national and regional levels. It begins with a comparison of the definitions of national innovation systems (NIS) given by different authors and considers of the role of networking in an NIS. The section also highlights the key elements of an NIS and identifies the challenges facing a country wishing to build an innovative system capable of supporting the development of innovation. The next part of the section is devoted to an analysis of the literature dealing with the governance of the innovation system. As a result of modern economic and political structures, innovation processes in most countries are increasingly implemented and governed at the regional level. Therefore, the concept of a regional innovation system (RIS) is also introduced. At the end of the section, the key actors in the innovation system as well as the framework conditions and infrastructure that must exist for the development of innovation are considered. The section concludes with an explanation of the findings in relation to this study.
1.3.1. National innovation system and the role of networking
A number of scholars (e.g., Niosi, 1993; Cooke et al., 1998; Sharif, 2006; Godin, 2009; Soete et al., 2009) who discuss the history of the national innovation system (NIS) concept agree that it emerged between the end of the 1980s and the middle of the 1990s owing to the work of Freeman (1987), Lundvall (1992) and Nelson (1993). By placing this concept into a common theoretical domain with such conceptual frameworks as the knowledge-based economy, the digital and information era, innovation, and the new theory of the firm (Godin, 2009), and by emphasising that the innovative activity of firms in the new economy inherently occurs in the national institutional context, these authors formulated complementary definitions of the concept of NIS, as presented in Table 1.13.
Table 1.13. Key definitions of the concept of NIS
| Definition | Author |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------|
| “The network of institutions in the public and private sectors whose activities and interactions initiate, import, modify and diffuse new technologies” | Freeman (1987, p. 1) |
| “The elements and relationships which interact in the production, diffusion and use of new, and economically useful, knowledge … and are either located within or rooted inside the borders of a nation… The narrow definition would include organisations and institutions involved in searching and exploring – such as R&D departments, technological institutes and universities. The broad definition… includes all parts and aspects of the economic structure and the institutional setup affecting learning as well as searching and exploring…” | Lundvall (1992, p. 12) |
| “There is, first, the concept of a national system innovation itself… Consider the term “innovation.” …we interpret the term rather broadly, to encompass the process by which firms master and get into practice product designs and manufacturing processes that are new to them, if not to the universe or even to | Nelson (1993, p. 4-5) |
The authors agree that to enable innovative processes, the institutional settings of an NIS should efficiently allow for a complex set of relationships conducive for effective flows of technology and information among actors in the private and public sectors. To these definitions, Metcalfe (1995) adds the perspective of the government’s role, suggesting that the government should enhance opportunities for commercialisation through framework policies, infrastructure developments and other mechanisms. Metcalfe (1995, p. 38) proposes that an NIS is “a system of interconnected institutions … which jointly and individually contribute to the development and diffusion of new technologies and which provides the framework within which governments form and implement policies to influence the innovation process”. He suggests that the national component embraces not only the technology-policy domain specific to a particular company but also a “shared language and culture which bind the system together, and form the national focus of other policies, laws and regulations which condition the innovative environment” Metcalfe (1995, p. 38). Edquist (1997, p. 14) suggests an even broader view of innovation system that includes “all important economic, social, political, organisational, institutional and other factors that influence the development, diffusion and use of innovations”. The proposed approaches, which are closely correlated with the general view of institutionalism proposed by Scott (1995) (see section 1.2.10), define the scope of activities in which institutions should be involved, especially in terms of innovation expansion through, to a great extent, technology development.
The novelty of the increasingly complex and encompassing NIS concept (Niosi, 1993) lies in the fact that it does not simply view the institutional environment as a passive context of economic activity that companies should take into account when doing business. It introduces a new, distinct element of the firms’ business environment – a complex set of relationships among NIS actors, who produce, distribute and apply various kinds of knowledge to achieve innovation and technical progress (Niosi, 1993; OECD, 1997). Thus, instead of depending on institutional settings (see Section 1.2.10), networking becomes an important intangible element of a firm’s business environment as a media that ensures the interaction and interconnectedness of actors. Innovation is simultaneously seen as the outcome and the purpose of NIS actors’ interactions (see Figure 1.12).
The NIS concept emphasises the importance of linkages among the actors involved in innovation. Firms’ innovation abilities, which result in the innovative performance of a country, “depend to a large extent on how these actors relate to each other as elements of a collective system to create knowledge, develop technologies and use them for the purposes of commercialisation and achieving economic progress” (OECD, 1997, p. 9). There are numerous actors without which innovation would not be possible. However, as the introduction of products and services to the market is ultimately the firm’s responsibility, an understanding of how firms build relationships with other actors is of particular interest. The patterns that are typical of different types of enterprises attempting to attain the different levels of innovation capacity needed for conducting business are presented in Figure 1.13.
**Figure 1.13. Levels of firms’ innovation capacities**
*Source: Adapted from OECD, 1999*
The first level can basically be seen as implementation of a strategy of learning by doing (e.g., producing and selling products/services to customers) and learning by using (e.g., economic exchanges with suppliers and partners) (Cooke et al., 1997). The more advanced second and third levels can be characterised as learning through interaction, which does not follow from primary business needs but has to be intentionally undertaken in order to develop the firm’s competitive capabilities. Cooke et al. (1997) propose that learning is not only linked to a certain institutional structure but also requires means, incentives and the cognitive abilities of individuals or firms.
With regard to which scale of networks best supports innovation systems, networks can be analysed at different levels, such as the cluster, industry, regional, national, continental and global levels (Cooke et al., 1997; Asheim, 2007; Sæther et al., 2011). Given the country-specific and often historically conditioned macroeconomic and regulatory contexts; cultural traits (i.e., a common language, shared cognitive mechanisms and irrational decision-making schemes based on traditions); path-dependent managerial approaches; and distinctive achievements in the spheres of science, technology and education at the national level, it seems relevant to study principles of innovative interactions in a given country (Gemünden et al., 1996; OECD, 1997; Cooke et al, 1997) (NIS as the “core” of a country’s specific innovation system, Lundvall, 2004). However, the extant literature (Sæther et al., 2011; Isaksen and Nilsson, 2011) indicates that the firms’ opportunities to establish ties can be better understood if considered at the regional level. This implies the existence of regional innovation systems (RIS).
1.3.2. Key elements of the NIS
Extant research indicates existence of several interrelated fundamental blocks that influence the creation and functioning of a national innovation system (NIS), as well as its success. It is important to ensure that these units are indeed interconnected, as shown in the Figure 1.14, since only in complex the system can operate effectively.
The compositions of these blocks are the key for any country wishing to develop a NIS that is conducive to innovation and capable of supporting continuous development. The first challenge is to ensure the emergence of a wide range of enterprises of all sizes with strong incentives to succeed in the face of competition by using innovation to produce goods or services for both domestic and international markets. Directly linked with this challenge is the task of creating an effective system for supporting and stimulating the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in high-tech and medium-high-tech science-intensive industries. This system must encompass both supply and demand. The former (the first generation innovation policy starting in the 1980s) relates to building the infrastructure necessary for business development and introducing mechanisms to provide access to financial resources, which is possible only in environments characterised by a favourable investment climate, and a relevant legislative and regulatory framework. This approach is supportive for “Science, Technology, Innovation” (STI) trajectory of innovation (Isaksen and Nilsson, 2013) aimed to commercialise research results (technology push, Rothwell, 1994). The latter (the second generation innovation policy developed in the 1990s) concerns providing support for the development of new products or services to specific markets (market pull, Rothwell, 1994) thus stimulating demand (“Doing, Using, Interacting” (DIU) trajectory, Isaksen and Nilsson, 2013).
The implementation of supply-side policies focused only on supporting R&D and the development of specific technologies is no longer sufficient (Isaksen and Nilsson, 2013). A
more systemic strategy must be applied that takes into account the many factors and effects arising from the interactions of NIS actors that influence firms’ innovation performance. Well-designed demand-side policies are not only less expensive but can also direct support measures in the right direction. They can be supplemented with the introduction of tax incentives to reduce the cost of innovative production, the opening of markets to competition, the establishment of innovation-inducing standards and smart regulations, and improvements in public-procurement systems implemented both at national and regional levels. Isaksen and Nilsson (2013) propose that firms that combine the science-based STI and the experience-based DUI modes of innovation achieve better results in terms of product innovation than those that use only one of the two. As such, a central issue for policy making in modern conditions is to ensure an effective combination of the STI and DUI approaches in the innovation system rather than merely supporting R&D activities or user-driven innovation processes (Isaksen and Nilsson, 2011). In the context of globalisation, this is a necessary condition for unleashing innovation, and for maintaining national wealth, competitiveness and economic growth (OECD, 2010).
The transition from first- to second-generation innovation policies has resulted in the strengthening of regional innovation policies. This is based on the reasoning that innovation processes are stimulated by location-specific resources and demand. As these resources and demand vary by region, one set of policy instruments is unlikely to suit all regions (Isaksen and Nilsson, 2013).
Another key task when building an entrepreneurial-support system is to foster efficient ownership, a healthy competitive environment, opportunities for cooperation, and ideological and technological enrichment among entrepreneurs. No less important is ensuring that business ventures have development opportunities in the global market, including access to technological transfers with high-tech business leaders and investment deals with global venture investors (Golichenko, 2011).
The second challenge is to ensure not only the inflow of outstanding talented people into the NIS but also that the NIS encompasses sufficient number of highly qualified, effective personnel capable of producing knowledge through the scientific fundamental and applied research that typically leads to technological progress in the form of world-class inventions and technological spillovers. At the heart of this challenge lies the allocation of adequate funding for R&D, research infrastructure and education, as well as the building of effective mechanisms for encouraging national scientists and engineers to interact and cooperate among themselves, as well as with the international scientific and technological
communities. The aim of such cooperation is to augment innovative outcomes by capitalising on synergies and knowledge externalities.
As the presence of advanced knowledge and technology does not automatically lead to introduction of new or improved products and services to the market, the third challenge is the most important from the perspective of innovative development. This challenge relates to providing relevant methodologies, infrastructure, supportive institutions, legal mechanisms, dedicated policies and favourable conditions for enhancing technology absorption, innovative capacity building, networking and clustering, all of which are needed to use R&D as a source of innovative development. An effective commercialisation system is necessary to address this challenge. Such a system must include a sufficient number of institutions and specialists as well as appropriate legal and financial frameworks. In particular, effective links must be established among actors from the R&D and the business sectors, as well as with other stakeholders.
The fourth challenge is to introduce an effective governance system that, based on the principles of transparency and rule of law, ensures a strategically sound innovation policy and a wide array of complementary public policies\(^2\). This governance system must create a network of interrelated institutions and infrastructure organisations, coordinate the interactions of NIS participants through institutional arrangements and incentive structures, attract and allocate necessary resources, ensure the harmonious functioning of the NIS across regions and sectors, improve the co-ordination and coherence of policies and different layers of government, define the societal challenges that need to be addressed on a domestic and global scale, and set priorities for resource allocation. It must also measure innovation in a way that ensures efficiency. These functions are typically assigned to a science, technology and innovation (STI) governance body, which is often a collegial construction involving governmental organisations, public/private partnerships and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (OECD, 2010). The governance system must also act as a catalyst for mobilising NIS actors and provide mechanisms that reduce innovation risk. Moreover, a country’s government should serve as a guarantor of legitimacy, and political and financial stability inside the country, while also by means of its foreign policy actions provide support for a smooth integration of national NIS into the international innovation system.
\(^2\) Such policies may include monetary, budgetary, competition, trade, financial, education, training, research, industrial, regional, social, health, environmental and judicial policies (OECD, 2015).
The fifth challenge, which relates to the context necessary for the development of an NIS, is the organisation of an information space that ensures timely information exchange among all of the system’s participants, as well as objective reporting on actions, problems and achievements for external stakeholders, including the international community. In this regard, information support is intended to ensure the transparency of processes and decision making, and to allow for public participation in a broad discussion of development priorities, as issues related to NIS creation are directly related to the use of the state budget.
The sixth challenge is the need to ensure the co-evolution of national policies, institutions, industry, science and technology (Isaksen and Nilsson, 2011). Given that institutions and policies define common norms, rules, practices, regulations and laws that guide and constrain the behaviour of actors (Scott, 2013), innovation processes suffer if the system functions poorly, lags behind overall development or does not provide proactive stimulus for innovation. Isaksen and Nilsson (2011) identify causes of systemic failures that are related either to the components of the innovation system (that are non-existent or ineffective) or to the functioning of the system (e.g., inadequate or broken linkages creating barriers to efficient knowledge exchange and learning among NIS actors). The broad definition of linkages in the literature includes flows of knowledge, information, investment funding, authority, resources and human capital. Such exchanges can occur in different contexts, such as networks, clubs, associations, forums and partnerships that differ in terms of their degree of weakness, formality, regularity, intensity, density and structure (hierarchical, heterarchical (network form), polycentric (bottom-up) or dualistic) (Cooke et al., 1997; Tödtling and Trippl, 2005).
1.3.3. Role of public governance in the development of innovation systems
When considering the development of innovation systems, particular attention should be paid to the roles of public governance, as state intervention does not necessarily improve welfare, especially with respect to innovative activities (Metcalfe, 1995). Efficient governance depends on certain qualities, including legitimacy, coherence, stability, the ability to adapt, and the ability to steer and give direction (Palmberg and Lemola, 2012, p. 472). In essence, state should act as a catalyst for the development of innovation systems by fostering interactions among actors, acting as a strategic visionary, serving as a guarantor of minimal risks, and redirecting resources to corrective measures in problematic areas where market mechanisms are either not yet mature or flawed.
Based on an analysis of best practices, the OECD (2017) highlighted certain areas that require effort and attention from state officials in relation to public procurement and innovation. The OECD’s findings can easily be extended to the broader context of innovation-related government activity (see Table 1.14).
**Table 1.14. Key areas for government action**
- Development of strategies with defined targets within national, subnational and regional innovation policies.
- Establishment of a legal framework, including definitions, guidelines and templates to facilitate its implementation.
- Designation of “transformational” leaders with specialised knowledge who can establish skilled, multidisciplinary teams, so as to encourage sound management and leadership in administration.
- Creation of “intermediaries” – innovation agencies that can help increase the effectiveness of interactions among actors in the innovation system.
- Allocation of sufficient budgets, funds and other financial incentives, as a lack of financial support is one of the main challenges in innovation development.
- Provision of training aimed at building the capabilities and skills of innovation-system actors, and the establishment of multidisciplinary teams and competence centres focused on innovation development.
- Publication of good-practice cases, creation of a dedicated knowledge-sharing platform, and/or the hosting of workshops and seminars to share and build the success of innovative projects by engaging stakeholders in the early stages.
- Introduction of risk-management measures to reduce possible losses and damages, and increase trust within the innovation system.
- Introduction of standards, methods and quality-certification systems, and the use of standardisation as a catalyst for innovation.
- Creation of appropriate information technology (IT) tools, including e-communication, e-procurement and e-government services, aimed at increasing transparency, easing control and measurement, and allowing for risk assessments in order to implement necessary corrective measures in a timely manner.
*Source: OECD, 2017*
Palmberg and Lemola (2012) suggest that a country’s innovative activities are not governed by the state alone but by the state in cooperation with other stakeholders spanning both horizontal and vertical levels, as presented in Figure 1.15.
The extant literature distinguishes among several key governance functions (Bergek et al., 2008; Hillman et al, 2012; Hämäläinen and Heiskala, 2007; see Table 1.15).
Table 1.15. Governance functions
| Function | Description |
|-----------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Knowledge development and diffusion | Generating breadth and depth in the innovation system’s knowledge base, technology-development forecasts, and technology transfers; diffusing and combining knowledge from different sources and of different types (e.g., scientific and applied knowledge, patents). |
| Influence on the direction of search | Creating incentives and/or pressures to enter the innovation system, and directing activities towards certain innovation-system areas that require contributions (e.g., certain technologies, applications or markets). |
| Entrepreneurial experimentation | Probing new technologies and applications; unfolding a social learning process to reduce uncertainty. |
| Market formation | Identifying market opportunities through trend assessments, forecasts and foresight; assisting in the development of niche markets; stimulating demand for innovative products; brokerage. |
| Legitimisation | Providing assistance with social acceptance and compliance with relevant institutions; creating a legislative base for the implementation of new technological solutions (e.g., in the field of safety, energy saving, environment protection, etc.). |
| Resource mobilisation | Mobilising competence/human capital through education in specific scientific and technological fields as well as in entrepreneurship, management and finance (including venture capital); finding business opportunities for firms through diversification, collective learning and structural adjustments. |
|-----------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Development of shared cognitive frames and strategic vision | Facilitating a systemic vision and a learning-oriented organisational culture; developing new mental paradigms and positive incentives for change; coordinating information flows among the private sector, the public sectors and key stakeholders through open dialogue. |
| Development of positive externalities | Ensuring the interconnectedness of different parts of the innovation system, and between the system and its external environment to fulfil other socially important functions. |
Sources: Bergek et al., 2008; Hillman et al, 2012; Hämäläinen and Heiskala, 2007
### 1.3.4. Regional innovation systems
In terms of operationalising the NIS framework being a general model of a context conducive to innovative development, a stream of scholarly publications (e.g., Cooke et al., 1998; Isaksen, 2001; Morgan, 2004; Tödtling and Trippl, 2005; Asheim, 2007; Isaksen and Nilsson, 2013) proposes the concept of regional innovation systems (RIS). Cooke et al. (1997) explain the emergence of the RIS concept from two perspectives. The *regionalisation* perspective sees a region as a separate unit with its own jurisdiction, capacities and competences. In this perspective, a region has some degree of autonomy to develop policies and manage local systems. It also possesses the capacity to finance investments in innovative infrastructure. The *regionalism* perspective is related to the local cultural environment (evident in, e.g., shared norms, routines, conventions and informal social networks) that underlies a certain region’s systemic potential.
Geography matters because most modern economic relations are based on the spatial principle (Doloreux and Parto, 2005), where regions and municipalities “seek to influence the trajectory of economic development in their respective jurisdictions” (Morgan, 2004, p. 4). Cooke et al. (1998, p. 1573) define a region as “a territory less than its sovereign state, possessing distinctive supralocal administrative, cultural, political, or economic power and cohesiveness, differentiating it from its state and other regions”. Tödtling and Trippl (2005) suggest considering innovation processes at the regional level, reasoning that the knowledge and information exchange that enable innovation process are often spatially bounded. Regional interactions can minimise transaction and coordination costs among firms (Cooke et al., 1998). Moreover, given the significant amount of tacit knowledge, these interactions require intensive personal contacts based on trust and mutual understanding, which are facilitated by geographical proximity as well as shared cultural, social and institutional contexts (Asheim, 2007).
Due to historical trajectories, regions differ with respect to their industrial-specialisation patterns, knowledge and resource bases, as well as their infrastructure, which together determine their innovative capacity and capabilities (Cooke et al., 1997; Asheim, 2007). Therefore, the same approach is unlikely to efficiently support innovation in different territories (Oughton et al, 2002). Consequently, even if a general frame for the development of innovation is built at the state level, the actual work must occur at the regional level. As such, national policies and instruments should be supplemented with policies and instruments at the regional level. Isaksen and Nilsson (2013) suggest conceptualising an RIS in terms of three subsystems: the production structure (the firms in the main industries or clusters in the region); the knowledge base (e.g., universities, research institutes, firms’ R&D departments, training organisations); and the support infrastructure, including a number of often publicly funded organisations that are entrusted to support the economy and the system in various ways. Tödtling and Trippl (2005) provide a visualisation of the RIS structure (see Figure 1.16), stressing that it is a subsystem of the NIS. The structure has two main components: (1) knowledge application and exploitation, and (2) knowledge generation and diffusion (embracing mediating and support organisations). Both of these components exist in the regional socioeconomic and cultural setting, and they are influenced by various policies.
**Figure 1.16. A model of a regional innovation system**
*Source: Tödtling and Trippl, 2005, p. 1206*
Tödtling and Trippl (2005) emphasise that RISs exist due to intense, interactive relationships within and between internal subsystems and the external environment with the purpose of facilitating a continuous flow and exchange of knowledge and resources, including financial resources and human capital. An RIS is an open system that is far from self-sustaining. On the one hand, it is affected by and reacts to the challenges of the external environment. On the other hand, it establishes external links in order to gain access to ideas, knowledge and technologies that cannot be generated within the limited context of the region (Tödtling and Trippl, 2005).
The RIS concept is particularly relevant and practical when discussing policy implications (Isaksen, 2001). Depending on whether innovation is an organic, self-actualising process in a region due to the presence of innovative clusters of firms or perceived to be consciously induced through a special set of actions in the context of less favoured regions (Morgan, 2004), different policies, instruments, institutional and infrastructural solutions should be implemented (Oughton et al. 2002). However, all regional innovation-support programmes have the stimulation of learning and knowledge exchange in common, as well as the introduction of proactive policies to “create new ‘social capital’ or capacity for associational, high-trust, networking practices” (Cooke et al., 1997, p. 480).
1.3.5. Key actors in innovation systems
Tödtling and Trippl (2005) suggest that firms may successfully innovate regardless of whether they belong to a regional innovation system as long as they are able to find relevant competences and actors with which to interact in national or international innovation systems. Based on the definitions of NIS provided by Freeman (1987), Lundvall (1992) and Nelson (1993), who mainly consider the innovation process in the context of technological and product innovation, it is necessary to identify key actors at different stages of the innovation process: creating new knowledge; and transferring and transforming that knowledge into new technologies, products and services that are then consumed by society (Godin, 2009). Based on the model developed in Section 1.1.3, which represents the invention-commercialisation process (see Figure 1.5), we can develop a map of key innovation-system players at each stage of the innovation process (see Figure 1.17).
To enable effective innovation process, state policies, instruments and enabling mechanisms should lead to the formation of key elements and the involvement of key actors in the innovation system.
actors (Lundvall, 1992), as shown in Figure 1.17. As discussed in Section 1.2, not all companies need innovation to the same degree. A key question then arises: Which of the actors presented in Figure 1.17 are typical members of the networks of firms as we move along the continuum from conventional to highly innovative firms?
1.3.6. Framework conditions and infrastructure
In order for innovations to arise and develop, an innovation environment must be created that encompasses many factors and framework conditions (as shown in Figure 1.18). The responsibility for the development of most of these factors and conditions lies with the state.
Figure 1.18. The innovation pyramid model
- **Effect of innovations**
- Sustainability of life
- Sustainability of development
- Ideas, products, technologies
- Profit, capitalisation
- **Results of innovations**
- Innovative organisations
- Employment in innovation sphere
- **Innovative activity**
- Direct financing
- Fiscal policies
- Grants, scholarships, awards
- Provision of equipment
- Financial
- Technological
- Intellectual
- Physical/territorial
- Information
- Logistics
- Topicality of innovations
- Prestige of innovation
- Vision of the future
- R&D
- Higher education
- General education
- Civil
- Public
- Legal
Source: Karmyshkin, 2015, p. 16
The structure of a favourable innovation environment can be represented as a six-layer pyramid. At the very bottom are the basic institutions of the state — civil, social, legal and others. They provide a common set of common rules and practices with the goal of building a well-functioning state mechanism in which all members of society are provided with the same fair living and working conditions.
The ability to generate new knowledge is an indispensable condition for a country's innovative development. This requires literacy, education, research competencies, infrastructure and a scientific culture that contributes to the emergence of innovation. Without this important component of innovation system, it would only be possible to replicate innovations made in other locations.
The presence of an entrepreneurial culture provides an opportunity to commercialise inventions in early, high-risk stages. From this point of view, it is extremely important to ensure that society has an appropriate view of innovative entrepreneurship as an important driver of innovative development for the country as a whole.
The infrastructure layer includes physical, informational and other structures and systems, as well as networks and various interrelations. All of these components provide NIS participants with conditions that support work and generate results.
The market layer covers financial, technological, intellectual and other markets in which prices for innovative tangible and intangible outcomes are determined. Innovators, investors and strategic partners meet each other as sellers and buyers in these markets. Finally, the topmost layer represents mechanisms for stimulating innovation through, for example, financial and fiscal support measures.
The actual effectiveness of a state’s innovation policy is presented as a star at the top of the pyramid. The more innovations a country produces, the more significant are the results measured in terms of publications, patents, raised funds and new products (Hillman et al, 2011). These results, in turn, lead to the emergence of long-term effects, such as economic growth, an efficient economy, leadership in global markets, and improved quality of life among the country’s citizens. Conceptually, the tapered form of the innovation pyramid indicates that the higher strata should function more independently of the state through market and collaborative mechanisms and brokerage activities, all of which should encourage knowledge exchange and ensure a fair return on private investments. As such, it allows for more reliance on public resources and governance efforts in the fundamental and environmental strata, which are associated with the creation of public goods (Karmyshkin, 2015).
1.3.7. Conclusions
The ultimate aim of this section within the frame of the current study was to build a conceptual understanding of national and regional innovation systems as a context for innovation and networking processes. The innovation system concepts considered in this section will serve as the basis for an analytical framework for examining the development and specific features of the Russian NIS.
As with any system, an innovation system includes elements and links. Its elements are actors and relevant institutions, which must be available and mature enough to support innovation processes. The links include flows of knowledge, information, financial resources and other resources that ensure interactions among elements while taking the complexity and versatility of innovative processes into account. An analysis of the contemporary literature provided an understanding of the key functions that a state must perform for the development of the innovation system. These functions include ensuring the availability of necessary elements and actors, creating framework conditions and infrastructure (e.g., socio-cultural, scientific, technological, political, material, financial, technical and information), and establishing governance (including policies, guidelines and best practices for actors’ integration, as well as the stimulation of links in the innovation system) (see Figure 1.19).
Figure 1.19. Structural elements of an innovation system
Source: Developed by the author
However, given firms’ primary interest in innovation as well as the market-based nature of contemporary economic relations in most developed countries, the functions of the state should not be responsible for the establishment of links among innovation-system participants (although can stimulate their emergence). Such links should be established through these actors’ own initiative on the basis of brokerage activities, and market,
hierarchy and collaborative networking mechanisms. The literature analysis suggests that the effectiveness of national and regional innovation systems, when considered in terms of their ability to support entrepreneurial and commercialisation activities, and in terms of governance (including ensuring the performance of necessary functions and addressing challenges) largely depends on the systems’ ability to move away from purely state-financed and controlled schemes toward more reliance on self-reinforcing mechanisms based on voluntary and economically justified relations among NIS actors.
To understand the role of networking in innovation, it seems fruitful to consider the case of Russia, which in its 26-year existence has ensured the presence of all essential elements of an NIS (see Chapter 2). However, as the state has historically played a significant role in Russia, not only in terms of establishing the rules of interaction among economic actors but also in terms of building and exercising control over horizontal and vertical connections, actors may not be ready to assume responsibility for initiating interactions and managing business relations, which can lead to the ineffectiveness of the entire innovation system. Therefore, it is important to analyse how companies with different levels of innovativeness initiate and govern their interactions with innovation system actors in order to attract the resources and competencies needed to do business (see Chapter 3). The results of such an analysis can be useful for deriving recommendations for the development of Russia’s innovation system.
1.4. The conceptual framework
The ultimate goal of this section is to build a conceptual model for the purposes of this study. The literature review presented in Chapter 1 provided a theoretical understanding of the key concepts of the research (see Table 1.16). It also highlighted the essential characteristics of these concepts, which allows them to be evaluated in relation to this study’s exploration of the role of networking in innovation among Russian entrepreneurs.
Table 1.16. Definitions of the key concepts
| Concept | Definition |
|----------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Firm innovation | The successful exploitation of ideas for the creation and introduction of a completely new or significantly improved offering or customer experience. |
| Networking | The establishment of voluntary associations among people or firms to integrate efforts and develop procedures to achieve a goal that has economic significance. It is seen as a widespread collaborative practice that is necessary to succeed in the new economy. |
| National innovation system (NIS) | A system of interconnected actors and institutions rooted inside a nation’s borders that individually and jointly contribute to the initiation, production, development, diffusion and use of new knowledge and related technologies for the purpose of their commercialisation, which is understood as transformation into economically useful offerings demanded by the market. |
| Regional innovation system (RIS) | A subset of a national system existing in a region that has its own jurisdiction; some level of autonomy; and capacities and competences to develop policies and manage the local innovation system, which comprises interconnected knowledge-generation and diffusion subsystems (e.g., universities, training organisations, R&D institutes, technology-transfer agencies), knowledge-application and exploitation structures (e.g., clusters of firms and industries), and an innovation-supportive culture and infrastructure. These elements enable an RIS’s elements and subsystems to evolve over time. |
Sources: Evan and Black, 1967; Daft, 1978; Damanpour, 1996; OECD, 2005; Adams et al., 2006; Liao et al., 2008; Armbruster et al., 2008; Tavassoli and Karlsson, 2015; Turyakira and Mbidde, 2015; Hämäläinen, 2001; Freeman, 1987; Lundvall, 1992; Nelson, 1993; Metcalfe, 1995; Cooke et al., 1998; Isaksen 2002; Morgan, 2004; Tödtling and Trippl, 2005; Doloreux and Parto, 2005; Asheim, 2007; Isaksen and Nilsson, 2013
As the literature indicates, an entrepreneur’s networking behaviour, especially in the context of transition economies, is insufficiently understood. Therefore, this study is exploratory in nature. It seems possible to examine the role of networking in innovation by comparing the networking behaviour of companies characterised by different degrees of innovativeness in order to distinguish certain patterns. Thus, the study aims to provide qualitative empirical evidence of a correlation between firms’ innovativeness and their networking activities, rather than to quantitatively identify the existence of a causal relationship between these phenomena. Given that networking is an integral part of the innovation system in which some links occur simultaneously at the national and regional
levels (see Section 1.3), the conceptual research framework can be visually represented as shown in Figure 1.20.
**Figure 1.20. The conceptual framework of the study**
In this model, the key phenomenon is the networking behaviour of companies that conduct business within a certain RIS and NIS. The networking dimensions identified in the literature review, which are shown in the figure, were used to prepare the interview questions. In other words, they form the conceptual framework for data collection. The dimensions of innovation highlighted in the literature review are used to understand the essence of the business project being carried out by the entrepreneur and to evaluate its innovativeness. Given that both innovative and networking activities take place in the context of an NIS and an RIS, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive study of documents, evidence and facts that will not only allow for the current state of the innovation system to be assessed but also uncover the specifics of its development trajectory. This seems important in the context of this study given the high degree of path
dependence of both the innovation systems and the networking decisions that entrepreneurs make, where the latter are guided by entrepreneurs’ experiences in earlier stages of an innovation system’s development. The rich picture of NIS actors (Figure 1.17), the general model of an NIS (Figure 1.14), and the system of factors and conditions affecting innovation (Figure 1.18) form a conceptual basis for analysing the current state of development of an innovation system.
Thus, to achieve the aim of this study, it is necessary to conduct complex research consisting of two parts. The first part is based on secondary data analyses related to Russia’s NIS development, and understanding of Moscow’s RIS features. The second part is based on the collection and analysis of primary data gathered from interviews with Moscow-based entrepreneurs covering the specifics of their networking behaviour. On the basis of a documentary study strategy, the first part provides the necessary understanding of the evolution and current state of the Russian innovation system, thereby establishing a context for interpreting entrepreneurs’ networking behaviour. The second part is designed to fill the gaps identified in the literature (see Section 1.2.12). This triangulation allows for the formation of this study’s main contribution with regards to the development of knowledge in the field of networking.
To implement the second part of this study, it is necessary to determine the precise subject to be discussed with entrepreneurs. Based on the explanations provided in Section 1.1.7, the discussions during the course of the interviews were to focus on any entrepreneurial project that resulted in the launch of a concrete offering in the market. That project could be implemented in either an existing SME or a newly created business enterprise. This approach was adopted to ensure the comparability of respondents’ answers, which is necessary to identify common patterns of networking behaviour associated with the homogeneous phenomenon under consideration – the commercialisation of an idea, knowledge or technology. As such, networking behaviour related to the management of a portfolio of innovative projects and the view of innovation management as a driver of productivity or efficiency without the introduction of new offerings in the market are not considered.
Chapter 2. The development of the Russian NIS
This chapter aims to uncover specific features of the Russian NIS by means of a stepwise analysis of its development trajectory. This analysis is also the basis for further understanding of the current state of the Moscow RIS. The results are then used to better understand the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks that firms in Russia face in building network relationships supportive of innovation. The first part of this chapter explains the research approach chosen by the author to study the Russian NIS’s development trajectory. The second part is devoted to a review of the stages of NIS development in Russia, and the identification of important implications for innovation and networking. The third part offers a brief description of the Moscow RIS as the context of firms’ operations. Representatives of that RIS were interviewed in order to study their networking behaviour (Chapter 3). The results of the analysis and implications for further research are summarised in this chapter’s conclusions.
2.1. Research methodology
Research design
An understanding of the current state of the Russian innovation systems was formed on the basis of a documentary analysis supplemented with elements of an ethnographic study (Saunders et al., 2007), as the author witnessed the formation of the Russian NIS and the Moscow RIS. The current study can be characterised as interpretive (Saunders et al., 2007; Myers, 2009), as the author attempts, first, to make sense of the revealed facts by connecting them in a general picture that describes the phased trajectory of the Russian NIS’s evolution, and, second, to derive conclusions about the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks encountered by firms in Russia in building their networks for innovation purposes. As discussed in Section 1.2.4, these dimensions can be important for firms’ decisions about networking.
To understand the key features of the Russian NIS that resulted from the emergence and maturation of certain factors in each development stage, and to interpret how those factors influenced the NIS’s effectiveness, the observations and analytical frameworks developed in Section 1.3 were applied, as shown in Table 2.1. In addition to the four key NIS elements (i.e., governance, support for R&D execution, entrepreneurial support, commercialisation infrastructure; see Figure 1.14), the maturity of which characterises the NIS’s ability to be effective in terms of innovation, other important characteristics were included in the analysis, such as information and transparency. This was based on the reasoning that the development of the information space is vital for ensuring timely
information exchange among all NIS participants, and that it can significantly affect the transaction and coordination costs of networking.
Table 2.1. Frameworks used for the analysis and interpretation
| Focal area | Framework |
|------------|-----------|
| **Key elements of the NIS** | Figure 1.14. Generalised model of a national innovation system |
| **Key actors in the NIS** | Figure 1.17. Map of key actors in innovation systems |
| **Framework conditions and infrastructure** | Figure 1.18. The innovation pyramid model |
---
**Figure 1.14. Generalised model of a national innovation system**
- **Information**
- Entrepreneurial support
- Framework conditions for entrepreneurship, incentives and efficiency assessment
- Governance
- Support for R&D execution
- Commercialisation infrastructure
**Figure 1.17. Map of key actors in innovation systems**
- **Stages of innovation**
- Pre-seed-and-seed stage
- Early-start-up stage
- Start-up stage
- Company
- Mature company
- **Ideas-and-concept**
- Technology
- Prototype
- Product
- Business scaling-up
- Maturity
- **L-Research**
- 2.-Development
- 3.-R&D production
- 4.-Start-of-sales
- 5.-Growth
- 6.-Yield
- **Key competencies**
- Scientific knowledge (fundamental and applied research)
- Engineering and designing
- Production
- Regulatory framework, entrepreneurial skills (building a company-to-marketable product)
- Company management skills (running a company, managing operations)
- Strategic skills
- **Resources**
- Knowledge
- Information
- Coordination and motivation
- Capital
- Projects
- Infrastructure
- Regulatory framework
- **Demand for Innovation**
- B2B-market
- B2C-market
- B2G-market
- **Infrastructure for developing a start-up**
- Research organisations
- Business incubators
- Entrepreneurial education and training providers
- Accelerators
- Mentors
- Technology parks, prototyping centers, technology transfer centers, industrial (cluster) parks
- Techhospitals, prototyping centers, technology transfer centers, industrial (cluster) parks
- Customers and consumer markets, public administration, government, supporting industries: finance, energy, real estate, transport, media and information (including internet), etc., etc.
- Strategic partners
- **Market service-providers: marketing consultants, consultants on the preparation of innovative documentation and attraction of investors, patent attorneys and lawyers, accountants, logistics specialists, specialists in the creation of management systems, lawyers, tax advisors, financial service providers: regular companies, lawyers, notaries, experts in patent property, pay taxes, resolve insolvency, etc.**
- **Financial resource providers**
- Family, friends, donors, research-grant providers
- Business angels, state grants, crowdfunding
- Pre-seed venture capital, crowdfunding, corporate venture capital, early-stage start-ups
- Seed venture capital, loans for entrepreneurs
- Corporate venture funds, equity funds, loan providers, banks, financial institutions
- Strategic investors, investment banks
**Figure 1.18. The innovation pyramid model**
- **The Foundation**
- Entrepreneurial culture
- Conditions for development
- Knowledge
- Conditions for R&D
- Institutions
- Basic conditions for social life
- **Environment**
- Financial support for innovative companies
- Financial support for R&D
- Financial market
- Markets
- Communication
- Infrastructure
- Conditions for action
- **Financing**
- Direct financing
- Fiscal policies
- Grants, scholarships, awards
- Provision of equipment
- Financial
- Technological
- Intellectual
- Physical/territorial
- Logistics
- **Effect of innovations**
- Sustainability of life
- Sustainability of development
- Ideas, products, technologies
- Process of innovation
- Innovative organisations
- Employment in innovation sphere
- **Results of innovations**
- Direct financing
- Fiscal policies
- Grants, scholarships, awards
- Provision of equipment
- Financial
- Technological
- Intellectual
- Physical/territorial
- Logistics
- **Innovative activity**
- Sustainability of life
- Sustainability of development
- Ideas, products, technologies
- Process of innovation
- Innovative organisations
- Employment in innovation sphere
Therefore, the key question that this part of the study aimed to answer was: *How did each stage of the development of innovation systems in Russia affect the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks of creating networks supportive of innovation?*
As Moscow is the capital of Russia as well as a city through which all main information and financial flows pass, it is the city in which all key NIS institutions are located. Therefore, Moscow is simultaneously of national and regional importance. The development of Moscow's RIS depended to an extremely high degree on the evolution of the NIS. Therefore, in this chapter, the focus is on analysing the development of the NIS with a special emphasis on the institutions and activities that simultaneously influenced the development of Moscow's RIS. At the end of the chapter, the current state of development of the Moscow RIS is examined.
**Data sources**
The results of the analysis presented in this chapter were based on a wide range of secondary data covering the period from 1985 to 2017. The data were systematically collected through an approach based on the use of relevant search terms and phrases formulated in Russian and English. The main secondary data used in this study are presented in Table 2.2.
**Table 2.2. Secondary data sources**
| Data type | Content | Sources of information |
|----------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Regulatory documents | Federal laws, government decrees, resolutions and orders | "Garant" (www.garant.ru) and "Consultant" (www.consultant.ru) legal information e-databases |
| Newspapers | Publications in paper and electronic national newspapers | Vedomosti (www.vedomosti.ru), Kommersant (www.kommersant.ru), RBC (www.rbc.ru), Gazeta.ru (www.gazeta.ru) and Meduza (https://meduza.io/) |
| Refereed (peer-reviewed) academic journals | Research on the development of innovation and the innovation system in Russia | ScienceDirect, JSTOR, The Scientific Electronic Library (eLIBRARY.RU), Google Scholar and others |
| Professional analytical reports | Topic-specific analytical reports prepared by NIS development institutions and professional associations | RVC Analytics (www.rvc.ru/analytics/); RVCA Library (rvca.ru/rus/resource/library/) and others; Publications of Association of clusters and technology parks (www.akitrfr.ru) |
| NIS actor websites | Analytical, informational and other materials posted on the official websites of the NIS actors | RVC (www.rvc.ru); IIDF (www.iidf.ru); The Foundation for Assistance for Small Innovative Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere (http://fasie.ru/); Russian Foundation for Basic Research (www.rfbr.ru/rffi/ru) and others |
| Data sources | Description | Sources |
|------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| International indices | Results of research comparing the indicators of the development of innovation and entrepreneurship, and the corresponding business environments in different countries | Doing Business index (www.doingbusiness.org); GEM Global Reports (www.gemconsortium.org/report); Global Entrepreneurship Index (http://thegedi.org/) and others |
| Statistics | Statistical reports and data | Rosstat (National Statistics Bureau) (http://www.gks.ru/); High School of Economics Data Books (www.hse.ru/primarydata/) |
| National surveys | Results of surveys of Russian entrepreneurs and the Russian population | NAFI Research Center (www.nafi.ru) |
| Conference materials | Conference proceedings, personal attendance at forums, video recordings of speeches | Gaidar Forum (http://www.gaidarforum.ru/), Open Innovations Forum (openinnovations.ru) |
| Books, e-books and monographs| Monographs, chapters and articles covering the focal topics | Google.ru, library catalogue of Moscow State University and Kingston University |
| Videos | Video recordings of speeches by venture capitalists, NIS development institution experts, economists and scientists | YouTube (www.youtube.com) |
**Data-collection strategy**
First, on the basis of literature analysis, the phases of Russian NIS development were identified (see Section 2.1.2). Second, for each phase, the analysis began with the identification of the main state policies adopted in the relevant period (see Appendix 2.1). This helped determine key search terms and highlighted the main NIS actors involved in the state’s initiatives. The specifics of the implementation of the initiatives were uncovered by studying the websites of identified actors and then verified through an analysis of the information retrieved through a systematic search of the sources presented in Table 2.2. Based on the analysis of publications, texts and opinions, new topics and assumptions were identified, which were studied and cross-verified with the help of additional information gathering. Newly identified activities supportive of NIS development were added to Appendix 2.1 and interpreted in the text of the thesis. This spiral data-collection and analysis strategy was fully consistent with the approaches to the literature-review process proposed by Saunders et al. (2007) and Bryman and Bell (2007).
Moreover, the author's own observations of the NIS’s evolution as well as her active involvement in Russia's innovative community from 2009 through 2017 helped her to grasp the essence of changes in the NIS’s development trajectory and to assess its influence on people’s attitudes. In this regard, she engaged in professional relationships and less formal communications with numerous participants in the processes described in this chapter. At the same time, this personal involvement allowed the author to understand
the differences between people’s perceptions of reality and the interpretations found in official documentary sources. Additional searches for and studies of secondary data were undertaken to ensure that the final conclusions were based on documented information rather than the personal opinions of the author or people from her professional circle.
The analysis of various sources describing the formation of Russia’s innovation system, including state strategy documents, technical documents and media discussions, supports the finding that innovation in Russia is interpreted almost exclusively in the context of technological entrepreneurship, the modernisation of production and the creation of new, highly technological products. Notably, this approach generally corresponds to the understanding of innovation that underlies the definition of an NIS (see Section 1.3.1). Although Rosstat (National Statistics Bureau) collects annual statistics on organisational and marketing innovations in accordance with OECD recommendations, these types of innovation were not considered in documents regulating the NIS’s creation in Russia.
2.2. Phases of the Russian NIS development
The Russian NIS did not develop through a continuous process but in phases, each of which emerged when the system was affected by a certain external critical factor, or when a certain essential NIS component reached maturity and began functioning stably, thereby allowing for initiation of the next stage of development. External disturbances usually resulted in a need for adaptation, leading to institutional reforms, a change in officials and the emergence of new initiatives, which together constituted a pivot in Russia’s innovation learning curve.
The formation of the Russian NIS began in late 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia emerged as an independent country. In many ways, the trajectory of Russia’s development was path dependent. The Soviet Union’s legacy laid a solid foundation in some respects, while in others it created serious barriers. As described in Table 2.3, six phases of development of the Russian NIS can be identified based on a review of the literature, including scientific and analytical research (e.g., OECD, 2011; Golichenko, 2011, Golubtsov et al., 2013), media publications\(^3\), government documents\(^4\), and web sites representing activities of innovative projects and institutions.
\(^3\) Publications for the period 1990-2017 found in newspapers and on the news sites Vedomosti, Kommersant, RBC, Gazeta.ru and Medusa, among others.
\(^4\) Federal laws, government decrees, resolutions and orders for the period 1985-2017 found in the "Garant" and "Consultant" electronic databases.
| Phase 0: Soviet background (until 1991) | Need for industrialisation, Cold War arms race, transition to the commodity economy in the 1970s, period of reforms from 1985 to 1991 (*perestroika*). |
|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Essence of the period** | Accumulation of scientific and technical potential from 1950 to 1970, gradual economic degradation from 1970 to 1985 resulting in economic stagnation, beginning of a lag in economic and scientific development. |
| Phase 1: December 1991 – December 1999 | Military coup in August 1991, dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, first (1992-1994) and second (1994-1998) stages of privatization, Russian financial crisis in August 1998 (devaluation of the RUB, Russian government defaults on domestic and external debt). |
|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Essence of the period** | Turbulent restructuring, early experimentation with new innovation policies (OECD, 2011), destruction of R&D system and networks created in the Soviet period, decline in the prestige associated with scientific careers, spontaneous entrepreneurship, initiation of reform aimed at integrating higher education and fundamental science, emergence of managerial education. |
| Phase 2: 2000 – 2005 | First term of Vladimir Putin's presidency. |
|----------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Essence of the period** | Economic stabilisation, formation of a methodological understanding among government officials of approaches to building an NIS (including through the assistance of the international community), significant additions to the innovation policy framework, continuation of education-system reform to achieve convergence with international principles. |
| Phase 3: 2006 – 2008 | Second term of Putin's presidency. Start of the Global economic crisis of 2008-2009. |
|----------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Essence of the period** | Expansion of innovation-policy framework, consolidation of resources, beginning building infrastructure to provide innovation actors with access to resources (supply side), support for the development of technologies in priority areas, emergence of a community of innovation-related professionals. |
| Phase 4: 2009 – 2013 | Global economic crisis of 2008-2009, first term of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency, start of the third term of Putin's presidency. |
|----------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Essence of the period** | General finalisation of the physical setup of the innovation infrastructure, efforts to establish internal links within NIS to allow the resource base to be used as efficiently as possible (e.g., support for intensification of R&D, opening of innovative forums and virtual platforms in the hope that spontaneous networking would lead to increased innovativeness), enforcing of innovation in state corporations, promotion of innovation in the press, heroisation of innovators and involvement of the general public in the broad discussion in an attempt to make innovation a new national idea, broad empowerment of people to innovate, stimulation of growth in the number of innovative start-ups, mass emergence of educational programmes in the field of entrepreneurship, increase in the number of incubators and accelerators, broad implementation of initiatives to increase government performance transparency. |
An understanding of the set of conditions that were the starting point for building Russia’s innovation system as well as the trajectory of its development is extremely important in the context of this study. In this regard, it is the key to note that networking is a type of social behaviour in which actors’ decision making relies heavily on their adolescent experiences with building relationships that largely depend on what was perceived possible in the existing context. Notably, during the Soviet period and for at least the first decade after the Soviet Union’s dissolution, the ideologically dependent education system did not support individuals in developing reflection skills, or the corresponding ability to assess a situation and make independent decisions. As such, the Russian NIS has been built over a relatively short period of 25 years, which means that people who are now 38 years of age or older bear the marks of *perestroika*, privatization and *post-perestroika* restoration in their decision making and behaviour. Their networks generally include a lower number of agents because no environment existed to build up interactions when they were young. In contrast, the younger generations are often characterised by very different patterns of networking behaviour resulting from their experiences during Russia’s turbulent search for a pathway for innovative development. Thus, their networking behaviour might reflect the characteristics and priorities of the corresponding stages of NIS evolution.
2.3. Analysis of the evolution of the Russian NIS
Given the high degree of path dependency in the Russian NIS’s development, to build a holistic understanding of its evolution it is necessary first to study the institutional-structural pre-conditions that were part of the Soviet Union’s legacy.
Phase 0: Soviet background (until 1991)
Historically, the governance of Russia’s scientific and technological development has been highly centralised. Until 1991, the State Committee of the Soviet Union on Science and Technology (SCST) coordinated the activities of the scientific and technical sector. The SCST was responsible for determining the main directions for science and technology development, planning and supervising R&D in spheres deemed to be of national strategic importance, and coordinating the commercial implementation of the outcomes of fundamental and applied science. The SCST also drew up plans for financing R&D and developing its material base. The SCST had scientific councils on the most important and complex scientific and technical problems, and it coordinated the entirety of relevant R&D (Dobrov, 1970).
The system of R&D organisations (e.g., research institutes, design bureaus, engineering organisations, experimental and prototype centres) was mainly based on the sectoral principle. The relevant Sectoral Ministries collected applications from subordinate production units and enterprises, and developed R&D plans each year for the following year. The Sectoral Ministries also approved staffing and wages for R&D organisations, and thereby ensured that they met identified needs and worked within the allocated state budget. The R&D organisations had the right to independently enter into economic contracts with enterprises interested in the implementation of R&D. However, the extra funds available for such activities were, as a rule, insignificant (Demidov, 2009). The commercialisation of the R&D organisations’ innovations was handled by industrial enterprises under the jurisdiction of the relevant ministries.
Moreover, the Academy of Sciences was responsible for conducting research in key areas of natural and social sciences. Its resources were mainly concentrated on the implementation of fundamental research. Given its unique competencies and strategic vision, the Academy of Sciences participated in the analysis of a wide range of scientific and technical problems relevant to the national economy, and it played an important role in the planning and forecasting of scientific and technological development (Dobrov, 1970). Over the years, the Academy of Sciences created a wide-ranging network of research
institutes and research sites, as well as its own social infrastructure. As of 1988, the Academy comprised 332 scientific institutions (e.g., research institutes and laboratories, their branches and departments, observatories, research stations, a research fleet, libraries, museums) and about 170 non-scientific organisations, such as engineering, design, experimental and prototype centres; hospitals; expeditions; health-care institutions; building and construction organisations; kindergartens; holiday centres; and other infrastructure-related organisations. 90% of the Academy’s activities were financed through the state budget (Petrovsky et al., 1990).
Notably, the integration of research and educational activities within the Academy of Sciences occurred only at postgraduate education level. The same was true for parallel academic structures, such as the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Academies of Agricultural Sciences and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (Johnson, 2008). It was within this framework that the degrees of candidate and doctor of sciences were prepared and defended. In other words, from an organisational point of view, in-depth fundamental research was separated from higher education, and the results of the former were rarely integrated into higher education or teacher training (Johnson, 2008). During the Soviet period, the number of scientific personnel working at the Academy of Sciences increased steadily (see Table 2.4), and more than half of those employees held candidate or doctor of science degrees. In 1989, for example, doctors of science accounted for 11.6% of the Academy’s 64,487 researchers and another 46.6% held candidates of science degrees.
Table 2.4. Change in the number of researchers in the Academy of Sciences’ scientific institutions (at the end of the year, people)
| | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1975 | 1980 | 1985 | 1989 |
|----------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Total | 7,142 | 22,849 | 35,363 | 42,500 | 48,934 | 57,481 | 64,487 |
| Doctor of Science | 1,017 | 1,896 | 3,125 | 3,935 | 4,891 | 6,195 | 7,458 |
| Candidate of Science | 2,754 | 7,618 | 14,068 | 18,737 | 22,320 | 26,565 | 30,038 |
| Scientific personnel without a degree | 3,371 | 13,335 | 18,170 | 19,828 | 21,723 | 24,721 | 26,991 |
Source: Petrovsky et al., 1990
By 1991, Russia’s higher-education system included three main types of universities (see Table 2.5). This was a direct result of the country’s development path, which was driven by the need to provide the economy with the necessary personnel (Kuzminov et al., 2013).
Table 2.5. Types of higher-education institutions in the Soviet Union
| Type | Functions and forms |
|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Branch-based higher-education institutions | Functions consisted of training personnel for a particular sector of the economy on a national scale. There were several forms:
- Specialised higher-education institutions working for a specific labour market (industrial sector). These institutions were often geographically close to the corresponding production (e.g., the institutes for transport...
engineering or aviation were located in regions close to the relevant manufacturing complex).
- Higher technical-educational institutions were usually established on the basis of large industrial enterprises, and handled the training of engineers from among the employees of those enterprises.
- The leading branch-based higher-education institutions also provided scientific support to the various industries, as well as methodological and training support for other branch-based higher-education institutions.
| Higher-education institutions based on the territorial-production principle | Functions consisted of training the personnel needed for specific sectors of local labour markets. Each region or group of regions had pedagogical, medical, polytechnic and other higher-educational institutions that matched the local economic structure. Some institutions were subordinated to sectoral ministries. Methodological and personnel support were provided by the leading institutions of the corresponding type, which were located in regional capitals. This system ensured the relatively homogeneous training of personnel for various sectors of the national economy across regions. |
| Classical universities | Functions consisted of training personnel for science and other higher-education institutions, primarily in fundamental disciplines. These institutions also trained personnel for the management system (typically, graduates of economic, history and legal departments were viewed as qualified for administrative positions). In some regions, these functions were carried out by pedagogical institutes, while in other regions teachers were trained in the classical universities. |
Source: Developed by the author
The system of higher professional education was under the jurisdiction of the USSR’s Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education. One of this ministry’s tasks was to plan the number of students, specialties and programmes for each higher-education institution in accordance with the expected needs of the national economy (Kuzminov et al., 2013). Up until the collapse of the Soviet Union, graduates were sent to work in organisations and enterprises from which applications had been received.
A significant proportion of higher-education institutions were concentrated in the country’s capital and major cities, and graduates generally possessed a narrow industry specialisation. In other words, the institutions developed specialists with certain profiles (Johnson, 2008). The 1980s brought an increasing trend in the number of universities and polytechnic institutes (Katrovsky and Guba, 2015), which provided wider training. In 1990, Russia had 514 higher-education institutions (RIPC, 1991) (see Table 2.6), which included more than 60 research institutes and design bureaus, and about 1,300 research laboratories and sectors.
Table 2.6. Change in the number of higher-education institutions
| Year | 1914 | 1917 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| | 72 | 150 | 481 | 516 | 430 | 457 | 494 | 514 | 965 | 1068 | 1115 | 1080 | 1046 | 969 | 950 | 896 |
Source: Katrovsky and Guba, 2015; Rosstat, 2016
In general, the system of higher education that existed in the Soviet Union was aimed at providing training and education. As such, it was only partially involved in scientific and applied research. R&D, design and engineering projects were more common among technical education institutions. The technical institutes had laboratories, design and engineering offices, and experimental and prototype centres, and they carried out research and engineering for the key industries, which in turn determined the country's competitiveness (Kuzminov et al., 2013). Nearly the entire system of personnel training and the research agenda of higher-educational institutions with engineering and technical profiles were to the great extent connected with the country's military-industrial complex. These higher-education institutions, along with branch-based research institutes and design bureaus, competed for R&D orders from the military and were often "closed organisations" working under tight security in isolation from external contacts (Johnson, 2008, p. 163).
The “civil specialty” universities were less involved in the R&D carried out in the various sectors, which created a gap between what was studied in the institutions and what the graduates faced when they came to the workplace. The ideological content of education in the social sciences was completely controlled by the state and its development was determined by the political tasks of the ruling communist party (Kuzminov et al., 2013), rather than by the need to correctly reflect the actual processes taking place in society and in the economy. Moreover, the predominantly lecture-based teaching format did not help students develop the analytical skills necessary to independently reflect on reality (Johnson, 2008, p. 163).
It should be noted that higher education, in general, was not aimed at training people with initiative or those with leadership qualities. In Russia, which had a long history of state dominance in the economy (even before the era of socialism), the level of trust in entrepreneurship and private initiative was low (Meduza, 2015). Moreover, relevant competences were not formed by the education system. Such disciplines as "business administration", "management" and "entrepreneurship" were not included in educational curricula, and there were no academic degrees in management. In addition, these subjects had no corresponding departments or faculties in higher-education institutions. Instead, a range of disciplines in economics and national economy administration was taught, and students were mainly trained to solve issues related to economic-activity planning and financial controlling. Scientific theses and dissertations on the management of organisations led to "candidate of economics" and "doctor of economics" degrees. At the
same time, the personal qualities necessary for making managerial decisions and taking on leadership roles were formed in military universities (Val’kov, 2012).
Scientific activity on the university level was financed through the state budget and through business contracts with enterprises. The main activity for any higher-education institution faculty member was teaching. Faculty members did not face demands to conduct research activities and publish research like those faced by employees of the Academy of Sciences (Johnson, 2008). By the beginning of 1990, 219,700 faculty members worked in the higher-education institutions of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, of which 6.2% were doctors of science and 52% were candidates of science (see Table 2.7).
Table 2.7. Number of faculty members in higher-education institutions (mid-year, thousands of people)
| Qualification | 1975 | 1980 | 1985 | 1990 | 1995 | 2000 | 2010 | 2015 |
|------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| Total | 180.7| 204.0| 205.1| 219.7| 240.2| 265.2| 324.8| 244.8|
| Doctor of Science | 8.2 | 9.6 | 9.8 | 13.7 | 20.1 | 28.0 | 40.2 | 38.4 |
| Candidate of Science | 76.1 | 92.4 | 103.6| 115.2| 117.5| 125.4| 169.2| 145.5|
Source: Rosstat, 2016
Therefore, the Soviet system of higher education was, in fact, a subsystem of the planned economy. The only real factors affecting changes within the system were the plan for the development of the national economy and the ruling party’s ideological tenets. The universities did not participate in assessing the plan’s feasibility. As such, they neither participated in their own development nor served as agents of economic and societal development (Kuzminov, 2013).
The above discussion allows to conclude that the Soviet Union before perestroika had a system in which institutions with different affiliations were responsible for the implementation of clearly limited tasks in the commercialisation chain (Vladimirov, 2013), as shown in Figure 2.1. Links within the chain were not strong and relationships were based on contractor-customer interactions, with each party being only familiar with its own narrow task. The integration of processes and the distribution of funding were handled by the governing bodies.
In the Soviet system, the state acted as the main customer of R&D and as the main source of funds (Kara-Murza, 2013). It also coordinated the interaction of various parts of the system from the collection of needs through the distribution of tasks to the monitoring of results. Given the narrow profile of personnel training, and the focus on specific tasks for each element of the system, the majority of participants in the scientific and technological sector had a limited range of competencies that were directly related to their particular research subjects. Their work never involved attracting financing or introducing products onto the market. When the Soviet Union collapsed, this narrow understanding of commercialisation processes and skills meant that people were unable to quickly adapt to the abrupt changes that occurred when the entire chain of existing relationships, finances, information and guidance disappeared.
The economic, political and social problems of the pre-perestroika period (1970s-1980s) led to a significant reduction in the Soviet Union’s scientific potential, as did the poor integration of the scientific and engineering community into global processes of science development, and the high degree of politicised decision-making regarding research directions. As a consequence, in the 1980s, the Soviet Union began to lag behind most developed countries in terms of scientific and technological development (Allahverdyan, 2014) in a number of strategic areas, including computer technology, biotechnology and the production of new materials (Kalinov, 2011).
The documents determining the state scientific and technical policy of the perestroika period (1985-1991) indicate that science was to be the leading factor in the economic and
social development of Soviet society. In fact, this was declared as the main goal. The task was to form an integrated system that embraced all areas of science, invention, standardization, design and engineering. The aim was to change the approach to production-plan creation in a way that took the plans for scientific and technological development into consideration (Allahverdyan, 2014), which seemed quite progressive at the time.
The initiatives of the *perestroika* period included the creation of interdisciplinary scientific and technical complexes (ISTC), which were composed of training centres, design and engineering organisations, and commercial firms operating on a self-financing basis through commercial contracts. 23 ISTCs created in the mid-1980s allowed for acceleration of the implementation phase and the shortening of the "science – technology – production – consumption" cycle. Consequently, the number of scientific and technical developments moved into production increased by almost 500% between 1986 and 1988 (from 16 in 1986 to 78 in 1988; Kalinov, 2011).
Due to the technological backlog, the main emphasis during the *perestroika* period was not on the development of fundamental science but on the technical modernisation of production. In fact, the depreciation of fixed assets in all key industries had reached a critical level of 40% by 1985 (Rogozina, 2007). Special attention was paid to the development of the scientific and technical system on the regional level, especially in Siberia and the Soviet Far East, primarily owing to the need to explore new oil and gas reserves and to intensify oilfield use through new technologies aimed at improving yields (Kalinov, 2011). Many scientific developments during that period were associated with the military-industrial complex. In 1985 and 1986, state expenditures for the civilian science sector amounted to only 32% of total state expenditures on scientific and technical areas (Kalinov, 2011).
**Implications for innovation and networking**
By the time of its emergence, Russia had a number of strengths and weaknesses, which are presented in Table 2.8. They reflect five key points: entrepreneurial support, support for R&D execution, commercialisation infrastructure, governance and information availability. As such, they form an understanding of the factors that determined the development of innovation systems in Russia.
Table 2.8. Analysis of the Soviet Union’s legacy
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| • Accumulated intellectual capital, well-developed scientific schools and scientific community | • Absence of ownership of the means of production |
| • Inventive skills | • Absence of a legal system to ensure protection of rights |
| • Long-standing scientific and engineering culture | • Absence of relevant regulations |
| • International reputation of excellence in some science and technology fields, such as aerospace and nuclear science | • Absence of an entrepreneurial culture and skills for conducting independent business activities |
| • Availability of R&D organisations and qualified staff | • Long-standing psychological dependence on guidance and control from “higher authorities” and “people in power” |
| • System of social guarantees, including health care and education | • Absence of business infrastructure |
| • Government commitment to reform | • Absence of mechanisms to stimulate entrepreneurial and innovative activities |
| • Openness of people to change with the goal of ensuring a new, stronger Russia | • Absence of qualified personnel for the organisation, management and conduct of innovation activities |
| | • An education system unable to train people to function in a market economy |
| | • Dependence of educational institutions on public funding |
| | • Disintegrated R&D system |
| | • Dependence of R&D institutions on the sectoral economic system |
| | • Lack of experience with civil commercialisation of technological research developed for the military-industrial complex |
| | • Lack of an innovative infrastructure that could function in market conditions |
| | • Lack of horizontal links and mechanisms that could ensure effective commercialisation |
| | • Main customer for technological and innovative products was the state |
| | • Underdeveloped financial market |
| | • Absence of mechanisms to provide private financing of innovation |
| | • An inherited governance system unable to perform in market conditions |
| | • Lack of understanding of methods of innovation development |
| | • Scientific and technological backwardness and obsolescence of fixed assets |
| | • Decline in living standards and social tensions in society as a result of economic stagnation and perestroika |
| | • Opaque information system and an almost complete information vacuum |
| | • High transaction costs and bureaucratic hurdles faced when attempting to address any administrative question |
| | • Entrenched system of nepotism, bribery and corruption |
Source: Developed by the author
The main advantage was the availability of scientific potential. However, as this potential existed in isolation from the needs of the actual industry, it could not effectively contribute to solving the tasks of technological improvement and the diversification of products or services. The economic and political system resulted in a high degree of centralisation in decision making, including in interactions among scientific research institutions, engineering organisations and state-owned corporations. The centralised planned economy did not assume that economic actors would take the initiative. In essence, official relations were established on the basis of prescribed procedures of interaction in which the dominant links were inter-regional and organised within individual sectors. Regions had no real
power to interfere with the development of the state-run industrial enterprises (Radosevic, 2000) that dominated the economy. Moreover, people possessed narrow, specialised professional competencies, worked as assigned in organisations that already had places in the value chain and were not expected to take responsibility for creating ties. In these conditions, which were characterised by a state-run system for distributing the material goods necessary for personal and business consumption, social networking practices like *blat* and *svyazi* became the basis of informal business relations (Michailova and Worm, 2003) (see also discussion in Section 1.2.11).
The events of the second half of 1991 rapidly led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The newly formed government committed itself to extricate the country out of political and economic crisis, having for this extremely limited time.
**Phase 1: December 1991 – December 1999**
The liquidation of the Soviet Union in December 1991 led to the destruction of the country’s network of scientific and research institutions. Consequently, the republics, including Russia, were left with structurally incomplete scientific communities. The shift in political conditions led to the dissociation of scientists and the rupture of meaningful horizontal links within the communities, followed by the reorganisation of interactions or even the abolition of a number of research projects (Kara-Murza et al., 2014).
Vertical integrity was also destroyed due to the liquidation of the ministries, which resulted in the near elimination of branch-based science, which accounted for 70% of the entire system (Kara-Murza, 2013). Branch-based research institutes, design bureaus and engineering organisations found themselves in a vacuum, as the institutional entity that provided an inflow of orders and funds had disappeared (Kara-Murza, 2013). The destruction of the sectoral system also affected the activities of the Academy of Sciences and higher-education institutions, as the sectoral ministries financed a certain part of fundamental and applied research conducted by the divisions of the Academy of Sciences and higher-education institutions (Kuzminov et al., 2013).
Economic and financial difficulties led to a sharp decrease in the allocation of funds for Russian civil science between 1990 and 1995 (see Figure 2.2). This included a reduction in funds for the renewal of instruments and equipment (from 11-12% of GDP allocated to science in the mid-1980s to 2.7% in 1996; Kara-Murza et al., 2014).
The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) was compelled to adopt a resolution obliging all departments to make decisions regarding the reorganisation of each scientific institution before November 1, 1992. They were also asked to reduce the list of areas of study through identification of scientific schools with the highest scientific potential and retaining the relevant sub-divisions and liquidation of other structural units (Kara-Murza et al., 2014).
The destruction of the scientific research system that began with *perestroika* (1985-1991) only worsened during the period of privatisation (the most active period was in 1992-1996). As a result of the change in ownership structure and the corresponding change in the decision-making system, as well as the liquidation of enterprises in various industries that occurred as a result of privatisation, the R&D ties that existed under the Soviet system were almost completely destroyed (Berman, Filippov, 2010).
Throughout the process of decentralisation and deregulation, most of the enterprises that had previously existed in the framework of the planned economy found that their primary task was to survive (Johnson, 2008). However, they had neither the experience needed to conduct economic activity under the new conditions nor a sufficient number of qualified personnel to take on this task. Consequently, corporate funds allocated to scientific research were sharply reduced (Vladimirov, 2013), leaving the Russian R&D sector to survive in an environment characterised by a nearly completed lack of customers and financing. Branch-based science was preserved only in the state sector, mainly in the defence, aerospace and nuclear industries (Vladimirov, 2013).
However, in light of new laws on privatisation that were adopted in 1991, some design bureaus, engineering organisations and experimental laboratories that had nearly ready-touse technologies as well production equipment were able to break away from state institutions. They created separate organisations that could successfully cope with the task of independently developing and creating the technological products that were in demand in the emerging market economy\(^5\). Nevertheless, the destruction of the scientific and technological system could not continue. Therefore, in 1992, several state orders were issued forbidding the separation of R&D units from the state research, design and engineering organisations, higher-education institutions, and other scientific institutions.\(^6\)
The significant changes in external factors had a lasting impact on the scientific system. From 1991 through 1998, organisations conducting R&D work experienced mass closures or reorganisations. Moreover, their number steadily declined. In fact, as of 2015, this number had not yet returned to the *perestroika* level (see Figure 2.3).
**Figure 2.3. Total number of R&D organisations in Russia**
*Source: Rosstat, 2016*
The number of design and engineering institutions was also drastically reduced (Vladimirov, 2013; see Figure 2.4). Without these institutions, it was impossible to build new capacities or to introduce fundamentally new technologies.
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\(^5\) It can be noted that 14 of the 100 most successful innovation companies in the TechSuccess-2016 national contest were formed in 1991. These companies operate in such sectors as electronics and instrument making, industrial equipment, medical equipment, materials, and information technology. For more details see the official website: [http://www.ratingtechup.ru/rate/?BY=INNOVATION](http://www.ratingtechup.ru/rate/?BY=INNOVATION).
\(^6\) Presidential Decree N426 of 27.04.1992 On Urgent Measures to Preserve the Scientific and Technical Potential of the Russian Federation
The drastic reduction in R&D funding, the restructuring of R&D activities and the inability of research structures to adapt to the new self-financed conditions led to a massive layoff of scientists. Those dismissed could not find work. According to the Moscow Labour Exchange (Kara-Murza et al., 2013), the need for scientists in 1992 was only 1.3% of the total number of laid-off scientific workers. In other words, there were almost 100 applicants for each open position. Between 1991 and 1999, the number of scientists in the Russian Federation decreased by more than 250% (see Figure 2.5).
Moreover, from 1991 to 1998, the salary of a researcher was lower than the average salary for the economy as a whole (Kara-Murza, 2013). This led to a decline in the prestige of scientific work and reluctance among young people to pursue a scientific career. As they were basically without means to survive, highly qualified personnel were forced to either...
seek employment in other industries or emigrate. Emigration peaked near the end of *perestroika* and in the post-*perestroika* period (see Figure 2.6).
**Figure 2.6.** Emigration of Russians to foreign countries, thousands
![Graph showing emigration trends]
*Source: Kalabekov, 2017*
Estimates indicate that between 100,000 and 250,000 scientists left Russia between 1991 and 1998 due to a lack of "money and prospects" (Kireev, 2010). According to an analysis undertaken by the Russian Union of Engineers\(^7\), the destruction of R&D organisations in the post-*perestroika* years had a particularly severe effect on the engineering community. People moving abroad took their knowledge of technologies and research experience with them, which led to an R&D staff shortage not only in terms of the need for highly skilled employees but also in terms of the need for faculty members who could provide proper education and training.
Therefore, by 1994, the situation in Russia had deteriorated in terms of the loss of research personnel (mainly in the fields of engineering and development), the disappearance of scientific and technical ties within the country, and the destruction of an already inadequate and unbalanced system of scientific and engineering training. Russia had to rebuild its NIS from the ground up, and this development was significantly influenced by the opportunity to engage in international cooperation that emerged at the end of *perestroika*. This led to numerous attempts to implement international experiences on Russian soil.
**Governance**
The main task of the government from 1991 through 1994 was to carry out economic reforms aimed at privatisation and decentralisation. The major challenge was to create an
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\(^7\) www.российский-союз-инженеров.рф.
institution for private ownership of the means of production. At the same time, certain measures were taken to help preserve Russia's scientific and technological potential. This period is associated with the beginning of the formation of a legal framework, the introduction of mechanisms for allocating financial support to priority areas in science and technology, and the provision of support to key actors in the commercialisation chain.
In 1995-1999, the main efforts were devoted to the transformation and integration of the detached parts of the scientific and technical system that were likely to become the basis of the future innovation system, as well as the development of methodological approaches to the formation of NIS. The key strategic policy introduced in 1995 was the government programme "Reforms and development of the Russian economy in 1995-1997". The document included a section entitled "Innovative and scientific and technical policy", which indicated priority areas for development, such as building a legal framework for regulating innovative, scientific and technical activities; implementing structural reforms in the science and technology sphere; and attracting investments in the areas of research, development, design and engineering. The main governance initiatives introduced in the focal period to form the foundations of the Russian NIS are summarised in Table 2.9 and Appendix 2.1.
**Table 2.9. Formation of the foundations of the Russian NIS in the first phase, 1991-1999**
| Aspect of NIS foundation building | Key initiatives |
|----------------------------------|----------------|
| Creation of private ownership system | Privatisation of state and municipal enterprises. |
| Formation of a legal system | Adoption of laws on copyright and related rights, on patent, on education, on higher and postgraduate professional education, on science and state science and technology policy, on the status of the science city of the Russian Federation. |
| Creation of first mechanisms to stimulate entrepreneurial activities | Adoption of law on state support of small business and development first. |
| Structural reforms in the scientific and technological sphere | Adoption of doctrine of the development of Russian science and the law on science and state science and technology policy, the first concept for the innovation policy of the Russian Federation for 1998-2000. |
| Creation of first NIS development institutions | Creation of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), The Foundation for Assistance for Small Innovative Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere (the Bortnik Foundation), The State Institution "Centre for Technological Development". |
*Source: Developed by the author*
**Support for R&D execution**
In the beginning of the focal period, support for the development of the science and technology sector was mainly evident in the creation of new forms of intra-system
interactions and new scientific foundations designed to provide state support (Semenov, 2007). The main objective of the established foundations was to support innovative scientific projects on a competitive basis. Decisions on the allocation of funds reflected the conclusions of expert commissions, which consisted of prominent scientists in the relevant scientific areas. In particular, individual scholarships were awarded to young scientists within the framework of the funds. The Academy of Sciences, which was almost completely independent in economic matters following the systemic changes of the 1990s, was able to survive as a self-governing and self-developing community of scientists: "The 1990s were a difficult period for Russian science, but there were also advantages. Science was not so much bureaucratised, and those laboratories that had the potential could successfully develop" (Urmantseva, 2017).
Active reforms were carried out in the education system. In accordance with Law on Education adopted in 1992, educational institutions were granted broad academic and economic autonomy (Zaretskaya et al., 2002), which enabled higher-education institutions to survive and adapt in the face of drastic cuts in funding. Notably, however, due to the difficult economic situation and the decline in the prestige of scientific studies, the number of students pursuing a higher education fell from 1992 to 1996 (see Table 2.10). Young people were no longer interested in completing a higher education. Instead, they sought to derive an income by buying and re-selling certain items (Zhukova, 2016), or by emigrating (Semenova, 2016).
**Table 2.10. Number of students in higher-education institutions, in thousands**
| Year | 1970/71 | 1975/76 | 1980/81 | 1985/86 | 1990/91 | 1991/92 | 1992/93 | 1994/95 | 1995/96 | 1996/97 | 1997/98 | 1998/99 | 1998/99 |
|------------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|
| | 2,671.7 | 2,856.9 | 3,045.8 | 2,966.1 | 2,824.5 | 2,762.8 | 2,638.0 | 2,612.8 | 2,790.7 | 2,964.9 | 3,248.3 | 3,597.9 | 4,073.0 |
*Source: Rosstat, 2016*
On the basis of the new law, non-state-sponsored universities began to open in 1993, and began providing training for a fee. Their number quickly skyrocketed, rising from 78 in the 1993/94 academic year to 409 in the 2004/05 academic year (Rosstat, 2016), thereby creating competition in the educational-service sector. Deregulation also provided higher-education institutions with more freedom to change the content of educational programmes. In general, students had access to a broader educational and training profile than during the Soviet period. The new variability in educational content on the education market led to the emergence of high-quality, progressive programmes as well as poor-quality, pseudo-education services (Zaretskaya et al., 2002).
In the early 1990s, educational programmes in management were made available (Kumpen, 2008). In response to distinct market needs, higher-education institutions also increased the number of programmes in economics and law (see Figure 2.7). In general, education in these specialties was offered on a fee basis. Moreover, state institutions of higher education introduced extra-budgetary programmes that provided training on a tuition-fee basis in those educational areas that were most in demand (Zaretskaya et al., 2002). At the end of the 1990s, executive-development programmes in the field of management (built on the Western MBA model) emerged and grew in popularity. The crisis of 1998 brought serious economic destabilisation, including the loss of a significant part of the capital held by the corporate sector and private savings held by individuals (Krivobok, 2011). However, it did not lead to a drop in demand for education. On the contrary, it stimulated growth in the demand for paid educational programmes for the adult population, especially in the spheres of economics, management and law. MBA programmes were approved by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education in 1999, and have since been singled out as a special type of postgraduate education (Kuzminov, 2004).
**Figure 2.7.** Share of students in Russian universities in various areas of training
*Source: Rosstat, 2016*
In terms of higher-education institutions’ adaptations to the new economic conditions, market demand adjusted the supply and distribution of resources without external intervention. Higher-education institutions also assisted in correcting one of the Soviet Union legacies (i.e., the lack of personnel trained in the field of management). While the scientific institutions were dying out, higher-education institutions continued to develop. At times, they did so by enticing individual scientists from Russian Academy of Sciences to join their faculties.
The reform of the Russian higher-education system was greatly influenced by the methodological and financial support provided within the framework of the Programme for Trans-European Cooperation in Higher Education (Tempus) (Zhukov et al., 2000). From the beginning of the reform movement, the integration of Russian education with the existing system of European education was in focus. In 1996, the federal law "On Higher and Postgraduate Professional Education" provided for the establishment of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in higher education while maintaining the five-year specialist degree that had been introduced under the Soviet system.
On the whole, the period from 1991 to 1995 related to the survival of science and education in the post-perestroika period. Since 1996, this area has received special attention through a gradual increase in financing, and the implementation of systematic measures aimed at bridging the gaps among science, education, technological development and commercialisation. In 1996, a number of important policies were adopted that further determined the trajectory of this area of development.
Thus, the doctrine of the development of Russian science determined the most important principles of the state’s scientific policy. The federal programme "State support of the integration of higher education and fundamental science for 1997-2000" put forward requirements to deepen and expand the interaction of academic and university science; improve the quality of education in order to preserve and develop the country’s scientific and technical potential; develop joint fundamental research in higher-education institutions, the Russian Academy of Sciences, branch-based research institutes and state scientific centres; develop a fundamental research information base; develop an experimental and instrumental base for fundamental research for joint use by researchers, professors, students, graduate students and research organisations; and create conditions for enhancing the prestige of fundamental sciences in higher-education institutions. The Law on Science and State Science and Technology Policy determined the main objectives of the state’s scientific and technical policy. The federal scientific and technical programme for 1996-2000 "Research and development in the priority areas of the development of science and technology for civil purposes" for the first time formulated a list of priorities for scientific and technological development and ranked the science and technology sphere among the top priorities of the Russian Federation. For the first time developed and adopted in 1998 innovation policy of the Russian Federation for 1998-2000 established the targets to increase the efficiency of scientific achievements, and to ensure that the results of fundamental and applied research move into production.
1991 to 1996 was a period characterised by spontaneous entrepreneurship, mainly related to the buying and re-selling of various items, including privatisation vouchers, often by illegal means. Such activities allowed people to survive in difficult economic conditions. As such, the Russian population studied entrepreneurship in practice.
The Law on State Support of Small Business in the Russian Federation was clearly a progressive step, as it defined small entrepreneurship, established requirements for the registration of entrepreneurial activity, laid the first methodological foundations for building complex programmes for the development of entrepreneurship, and provided for financing at the state and municipal levels. The Law on State Support of Small Business established the principles for small business support programmes in terms of organisation, implementation and financing. Moreover, it introduced zones of responsibility and control procedures. The federal authorities were responsible for developing appropriate conditions for the formation of an entrepreneurship framework, including improvements in the legislation. They were also expected to develop support programmes at the federal level, ensure that small enterprises could participate in public-procurement processes, establish fiscal incentives for small businesses and create mechanisms for providing support to small businesses through federal budgetary and extra-budgetary funds. Their area of responsibility also included monitoring and predicting small-business development, coordinating the activities of state organisations created for entrepreneurship development, providing methodical support to regional authorities in the implementation of support programmes for small businesses, and evaluating the effectiveness of the various programmes. The regional authorities and local government bodies were responsible for developing and implementing programmes to support small businesses in the relevant regions, and for developing proposals on promising areas and priorities for the development of small businesses, including suggestions for fiscal measures at the local level. The support programmes were financed through federal, regional and local budgets, and through other extra-budgetary sources.
In 1999, a set of state measures was adopted to support and promote innovation activities among small enterprises in the sphere of material production. Such innovation was needed to provide the country with consumer goods and services, which were in short supply in the pre- and post-perestroika years. This was a first step towards creating a roadmap for determining tasks for virtually all federal executive bodies, including the ministries. This set of measures prioritised support for innovative small enterprises in Russia’s traditional
sectors: the food industry, including the processing, storage and packaging of agricultural and food products; the machine-building, metalworking and woodworking industries; the microbiological, medical and biotechnological industries; the electronics industry; the construction industry; and the fabric- and clothing-production industries.
**Commercialisation infrastructure**
In this period, no systematic efforts to build a system for supporting commercialisation were visible. The first technoparks were created through local initiatives launched by individual institutes with well-developed technological faculties and close ties to the industrial enterprises located in their regions. They included a park in Tomsk established by the Tomsk State University (1990), and parks in the Moscow region at the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology (Technopark Zelenograd, 1992) and the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (Technopark in Moskvorechye, 1993). This allowed NIS actors to gain some experience, which was later used to create the system of technoparks.
Among the most significant achievements that had an impact on the emergence of innovative activity in the focal period were the creation of the Foundation for Assistance for Small Innovative Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere (the Bortnik Foundation) and the establishment of the Centre for Technological Development. Among the Bortnik Foundation’s main tasks were the creation and development of infrastructure for supporting small enterprises in the scientific and technical sphere; the creation of new jobs to effectively use of Russia’s scientific and technical potential; the provision of financial, information and other assistance; activities to ensure the involvement of young people in innovation; and work to attract extra-budgetary investments in the sphere of innovative entrepreneurship. The state institution Centre for Technological Development was established to provide financial support for science and technology projects and experimental development through targeted loan financing. The foundation provided financial and consulting support for Russian organisations’ science and technology projects and experimental development, and provided a framework for international scientific and technical cooperation.
**Information and transparency**
The biggest problems in the first phase of NIS creation were the informational asymmetries among reform participants, and the almost complete absence of information and lack of accountability among the public administration. The latter had grave consequences in the form of a lack of trust in government decisions and state officials, who
had been perceived as a source of corruption even during Soviet times. Moreover, during the most dramatic economic reforms of the first phase, the Russian Academy of Sciences was not involved as a consultative body with the exception of a few economists who acted as advisers to the committees and commissions of the Russian government. Based on the assumption that Russian scientists did not have the competencies necessary to ensure a rapid transition to a market economy, foreign experts\(^8\) active in international assistance programmes often served as consultants to Russian officials on issues related to economic development. The Russian scientific community repeatedly criticized the actions carried out by officials, claiming that they were based on political rather than economic considerations, but its opinion was not taken into account. This led to a rejection of the methods of economic transformation and opposition among scientists, which continues to this day (Vladimirov, 2013).
**Implications for innovation and networking**
The above discussion demonstrates that the first phase of the Russian NIS’s development was the most turbulent in terms of the depth of the changes occurring, the absence of experience and the lack of a systematic understanding of methodological approaches to NIS development. However, it laid the foundations for its further development in terms of addressing the issues underlying the innovative pyramid (see Figure 1.18) and defining the basic conditions for social life.
The initial stage (until about 1996) was the most difficult. Several researchers (e.g., Hunter, 2003) describe the state of the economy as chaotic, as it was characterised by political instability, poor infrastructure, a legislative vacuum, corrupt bureaucracy and various types of crime, including racketeering and extortion. Much of the scientific base was destroyed and state actions were mainly aimed at preserving what was left. The outflow of highly qualified specialists, scientists and engineers created gaps in the knowledge-generation structure, and further exacerbated Russia’s scientific and technological backwardness. Opaque privatisation, the increase in crime during the most difficult transitional years, the subsequent merger of the criminal community with the state
---
\(^8\) Several instances of such international cooperation were subsequently viewed as scandalous. For example, professor-economist Andrei Shleifer and lawyer Jonathan Hey worked in Moscow in the 1990s, where they held the positions of economic advisers to the Russian government. They provided advice on the accelerated transition of Russia to a market economy within the framework of the Harvard Institute for International Development’s programme. In 1997, Shleifer and Hay were excluded from this programme and the institute was closed in 2000. In 2002, a criminal case was initiated in the United States related to corruption and the illegal use of insider information by Schleifer and Hey for personal enrichment in the course of providing services to the Russian government (Shenin, 2008).
system (Estrin et al, 2008), extensive corruption among officials, and restricted access to information (Bayer, 1995) led to a lack of trust among participants in the economic system.
This period can be described as a great opportunity for entrepreneurship because the market was neither oversaturated nor overly competitive (Bayer, 1995). On the other hand, business activities were associated with extremely high risks, a lack of financing, and the absence of technology, knowledge and resources that accompanied the ruined economy.
Nevertheless, during this period and in the second stage (1996-1999), nascent democratic institutions began to emerge, the initial framework and infrastructural foundations of innovation appeared, and attempts were made to improve the damaged knowledge base (simultaneously revitalising scientific development and rearranging the education system) and to restore the disrupted links between science and industry. The first NIS development institutions emerged, although they were fragmented and did not cover the entire range of tasks. Some programmes to support entrepreneurship, which could not be called systemic, were implemented. They were generally aimed at assisting the development of traditional entrepreneurship and were designed to address the consumer-goods shortages. Thus, the first steps toward creating the foundations of the innovation pyramid (see Figure 1.18) were taken.
In this period, the principles of regional management were beginning to form, which fundamentally changed the system of business relations. While business ties were previously highly centralised and business issues had to be negotiated at the ministry level, decision making devolved to local governments and companies (Bayer, 1995). At the same time, vertical business relations, which were initially inter-regional because of the industrial principle of building the economy, were destroyed. Consequently, the regions’ industrial capabilities generally declined, such that the emergence of several territorial clusters was an exceptional development.
The absence of a large number of actors in both the national and regional innovation systems; the lack of horizontal and vertical links between existing economic players, most of which were weak and insolvent (Hunter, 2003); the damaged scientific base; the underdeveloped commercialisation infrastructure and governance system, including the imperfections in the legislative system, support programmes and government policies; the absence of shared information and means of communication; the uncertainty surrounding the general direction of the country's development; and the non-complementarity and narrow specificity of skills were exacerbated by the different approaches to assessing the
changes, as well as the different values and cognitive frames of scientists, engineers and industry representatives. Other challenging factors were the negative attitude towards entrepreneurship (perceived as unfair enrichment through the reselling of goods accessed through *svyazi*), the low level of trust, and the growing social problems, which focused people on survival rather than on the development of long-term projects based on innovation. To a large extent, entrepreneurs formed informal business relations, and relied on people they knew and trusted (Michailova and Worm, 2003). Neither a legislative base nor an enforcement system existed for the formalisation of business relations. As result, the practice of doing business in this period focused on *blat*-based relations and *svyazi*, as described in Section 1.2.11. Given the economic situation, this approach was the most cost effective and entailed the least risk.
**Phase 2: 2000 – 2005**
**Governance**
The main efforts in this period aimed at establishing stable framework conditions for doing business in Russia. As such, this phase focused on the systematic construction of the foundations for the creation of the Russian NIS. The basis was laid for the successful integration of Russia into the international economy by ensuring compliance with international standards in such areas as legal regulation, financial and banking activities, and education.
At the federal level, a large number of state programmes were created and launched to develop the business infrastructure, improve the legal framework and fiscal policy, and provide the population with social protections and financial stability (see Appendix 2.1). In 2005, the main directions of the Russian NIS’s development intended to cover the period up to 2010 were introduced. The document included definitions of key terms in the field of innovation, as well as key goals and objectives. The fundamental principle was to use public-private partnerships as the main engine for the NIS’s development with the aim of combining the efforts and resources of the state and business sectors. The document also established criteria for assessing the success of the NIS’s construction. The main directions of state policy in the field of NIS development were to create a favourable economic and legal environment with respect to innovation activities, to develop the infrastructure of the innovation system, and to create a system of state support for the commercialisation of the results of intellectual activity.
In the focal period, officials from virtually all levels – from the president to the ministries and state organisations to specialists – actively studied best practices from an international
perspective through numerous business visits and internships abroad. The result was a qualitative leap in the depth of the elaboration and systematic nature of state documents and policies that appeared after the year 2000. These international experiences gave rise to experiments with new initiatives and led to the introduction of new projects. For example, a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the headquarters of Infosys in Bangalore laid the grounds for the active implementation of the programme for the creation of special economic zones (SEZ) in Russia (Sergeev, 2006).
The most significant governance actions in terms of the development of NIS in the focal period are summarised in the Table 2.11 and Appendix 2.1.
**Table 2.11. Formation of the foundations of the Russian NIS in the second phase, 2000-2005**
| Aspect of NIS foundation building | Key initiatives |
|----------------------------------|----------------|
| Development of economic infrastructure | A series of federal programmes for the period 2002-2006 aimed at: modernisation of the transport system, the building of an energy-efficient economy, the renewal and development of residential properties and commercial real estate, etc. |
| Development of the information space | The Doctrine of Information Security of the Russian Federation and a series of federal programmes for the period 2002-2006 aimed at developing the information space: e-Russia, a special-purpose information and telecommunications system to support public authorities, and a united educational-information environment. |
| Resolution of social problems | A series of federal programmes for the period 2002-2006: Children of Russia, Youth of Russia, Senior Generation, social support for disabled people, Culture of Russia, the fight against socially significant diseases, etc. |
| Development of juridical, tax and law-enforcement systems | Federal programmes for 2002-2006 aimed at developing the Russian judicial system and tax authorities, reforming the penal system, etc. Introduction of federal law on insolvency (bankruptcy) |
| Development of banking system | Establishment of a deposit-insurance system on the basis of the Federal Law on the Insurance of Individual Deposits in the Banks of the Russian Federation, which determined the basic mechanisms for protecting the population’s savings. The introduction of the deposit-insurance system was preceded by a thorough analysis of the financial soundness and management quality of each bank that applied for entry into the system. The assessment methodology and the deposit-insurance system itself were based on the recommendations of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision of the Bank for International Settlements. |
| Focus on even development of regions | A series of federal programmes for the period 2002-2006 aimed at developing regions in Russia and supporting ethnic minorities. |
| Development of the educational, scientific and technological spheres | Adoption of Educational standards for higher education (second generation), Federal programme “Integration of science and higher education in Russia for 2002-2006”, Fundamentals of the policy of the Russian Federation in |
| Development of state procurement system | Introduction of the law on the placement of orders for the supply of goods, the performance of work, the provision of services for state and municipal needs. |
|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Initiation of construction of commercialisation infrastructure | Establishment of a non-commercial partnership "Russian Technology Transfer Network", an innovative infrastructure tool that aimed to improve the efficiency of technological information dissemination through allowing for search for partners in the implementation of innovative projects. Introduction of the Law on Special Economic Zones in the Russian Federation |
*Source: Developed by the author*
**Entrepreneurial support**
In accordance with the Law on State Support of Small Business in the Russian Federation, the first wave of small business-support programmes was developed and implemented on the regional level. These programmes led to the growth of small enterprises, and an increase in the volume of products and services (see Table 2.12). The 1998 crisis, the devaluation of the RUB and the corresponding sharp rise in the price of imported goods led to a 62% increase in the volume of products and services sold by small enterprises in 1999. The measures aimed at developing small business provided an average annual increase in production among small enterprises of about 40% per year in the focal period.
**Table 2.12. Indicators of growth among small enterprises during phase 2**
| | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
|--------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Number of small enterprises (at the end of the year), thousands | 868 | 890.6 | 879.3 | 843 | 882.3 | 893 | 953.1 | 979.3 |
| Average number of employees, thousand people | 6,207.8| 6,485.8| 6,596.8| 6,483.5| 7,220.3| 7,458.9| 7,815.1| 8,045.2|
| Investments in fixed assets, RUB bn. | 19.3 | 17.9 | 29.8 | 43.5 | 51 | 67.3 | 99.2 | 120.5 |
| Number of small enterprises per 10,000 people | 59 | 61 | 61 | 59 | 61 | 62 | 66 | 69 |
*Source: Rosstat, 2006*
In accordance with government’s plan for innovative development, the key tasks of regional entrepreneurship-support programmes at the end of this period were increasingly integrated with the task of developing the innovation infrastructure to foster the emergence of innovative enterprises.
Support for R&D execution
In this period, systematic work began on the restoration of research and technical capacity. The main goals of this stage were to develop Russia’s scientific, technical and human resources, and to successfully transition to a market economy. The latter entailed the introduction of a new way of thinking in a post-industrial society, which also involved borrowing best-practices on an international scale and integrating the Russian scientific community with its international counterpart.
Within the framework of the federal programme “Integration of science and higher education in Russia for 2002-2006”, which was a continuation of the previous programme on the integration of the scientific research of Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) organisations and higher-education institutions (1997-2000), measures were implemented to stimulate an increase in domestic and international mobility. Grants were awarded on a competitive basis to use for organising scientific competitions, international schools and conferences for students, graduate students, young teachers and staff of higher-education institutions and scientific organisations. Young researchers and scientists from universities and RAS scientific organisations were actively chosen to participate in scientific internships in leading educational, scientific and technical centres abroad. Faculty members and scientists also received funding to participate in international conferences and symposia.
In this period, much attention was paid to the development of an experimental and instrumental base in the sphere of science and higher education, and to the development of information technologies in the scientific and educational field on the basis of a united information platform for scientific, higher education and innovation activities. In 2005, eLIBRARY.RU, which was created in 1999 by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), started working with Russian-language publications. It is currently the leading electronic library of scientific periodicals in Russian in the world. Moreover, in 2005, the company “Scientific Electronic Library” launched a project aimed at measuring the impact of Russian publications, known as the "Russian Index of Scientific Citation" (RINC).
The policy document entitled "Fundamentals of the policy of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology development for the period until 2010 and further prospects" marked the transition from preserving the scientific and technical potential to its active formation. This was achieved through a combination of state regulation and market mechanisms; direct and indirect stimulation of fundamental scientific, R&D, technical and innovation activities; improvements in the regulatory and legal framework for fundamental
scientific, R&D, technical and innovation activities; work to ensure the interaction of public and private capital for the development of science, R&D and technology; improvements in the system for training scientific and engineering personnel; the advancement of research in higher-education institutions and universities; intensification of the transfer of knowledge and technology between the defence and civil sectors; and development of dual-use technologies and the expansion of their use.
In general, the documents adopted in this period aimed to develop and use scientific and technical potential as a foundation for the creation of the Russian NIS. The main objectives were to increase innovation activity by ensuring that producers were receptive to innovations and new technologies in order to diversify and increase the competitiveness of the Russian economy, and to develop mechanisms for utilising state and non-state resources for the creation and commercialisation of domestic technologies.
In this period, the government’s funding of civilian science rose (see Figure 2.8). This included an increase in the state funding allocated to R&D in order to boost technological development and commercialisation.
**Figure 2.8. Funding for civilian science and R&D in Russia**
*Source: Rosstat, 2016*
In addition, a Federal Agency for Science and Innovation was established to manage state properties involved in fundamental scientific, R&D, technical and innovation activities. Organisations receiving services from the agency included federal science and high-tech centres, state research centres, unique experimental platforms and R&D facilities, federal centres for collective use, and a national research computer network for the new generation aimed at providing information support for scientific, technical and innovation activities.
Moreover, the reform of higher education continued. In 2000, the new state educational standards for undergraduate and graduate schools (second-generation standards) were approved and put into force. All state educational institutions were required to conduct training in strict accordance with the standards and this compliance was to be checked every five years through a national accreditation procedure. Notably, these standards required teaching staff to carry out research, and to ensure a link between their results and the curriculum. However, the approach to determining course content reflected the Soviet view that education should convey a certain amount of knowledge. Therefore, the standards strictly regulated the set of disciplines and their content. In 2003, Russia signed the Bologna Declaration, which created major opportunities for Russian universities and the academic community in terms of academic mobility, international recognition of diplomas (TatCenter.ru, 2005) and a transition to more progressive methods of teaching aimed at forming educational competencies rather than studying a predetermined set of topics. At the same time, the reforms connected with the Bologna process caused a wave of discussion and critique related to the perceived danger of losing the Russian higher-education tradition (TatCenter.ru, 2005).
**Commercialisation infrastructure**
Technoparks continued to emerge through local initiatives undertaken by technological and polytechnic universities. By the year 2000, 50 technoparks had been established in Russia. At the same time, there was no methodological understanding of how a technopark should function, such that “everyone was doing what he considered right” (Shpilenko, 2016). The absence of a clear legal definition of the concept, government support or a business model, as well as the lack of understanding of the goals and tasks of technoparks meant that most of the technoparks disappeared by 2005. The dynamics of the creation of Russian technoparks are highlighted in Figure 2.9.
*Figure 2.9. Number of technoparks in Russia, 1990-2015*
*Source: Shpilenko et al., 2016*
New entities designed to support the development of commercialisation, such as SEZ and science cities, were also emerging. SEZs and science cities were designed to create focal
points for the growth of innovation on a regional basis, which was extremely important given Russia’s geographical span. At the same time, they were intent on solving the social problem of supporting mono-cities in which life was built around a single city-forming scientific or production centre.
The main objectives of the SEZs were to increase the efficiency of local economies, and to foster the social and infrastructural development of the territories in which they were located. An SEZ’s resident companies enjoyed customs, tax and other benefits. An SEZ’s most important mission was to strengthen the relations between the national and international economies by attracting investments—domestic as well as foreign. They did so by ensuring beneficial conditions for doing business. As a result of this programme, four types of SEZs had been created by 2017: industrial production (seven zones), technical and innovative (based on the largest Russian technoparks; five zones), tourist-recreational (three zones) and ports (one zone) (RUSSEZ, 2017).
The first science cities were established in accordance with the federal law "On the status of the science city of the Russian Federation". In the Soviet period, settlements were created to implement the state’s strategically important projects. For example, Dubna (Moscow region) was home to Russia’s largest centre for research in nuclear physics. Obninsk (Moscow region) was a multi-centre. It brought together scientific institutes with physical, chemical, medical, meteorological, seismological and agricultural profiles. Korolev (Moscow region) was the centre of the rocket and space industry, and home to the relevant research and experimental production complexes. Typically, such settlements were built some distance from the main cities and had their own infrastructure. During the perestroika and privatisation periods, these centres began to struggle owing to the absence of funding. Research institutions closed, scientists and engineers were dispersed, and the settlements almost died out. The three centres mentioned above were the first to receive the status of “science cities”, which was issued for a period of 10 years. Currently, 13 cities hold this status: Biysk, Chernogolovka, Dubna, Fryazino, Koltsov, Korolev, Michurinsk, Obninsk, Protvino, Pushchino, Reutov, Troitsk and Zhukovsky (Gusev, 2016).
**Information and transparency**
This period was characterised by active growth in the use of information technology, which became an integral part of all spheres of activity. The IT-services market was growing, and that growth included the creation of websites for various public and state institutions. The databases of legal documents begin to appear online, the number of
Internet news portals increased, professional resources for information exchange and document circulation emerged, and electronic libraries appeared in Russian. All of these factors contributed to increased transparency (Vasiliev and Levochkina, 2012). At the same time, the websites of state organisations were far from perfect – the information on them was not always up to date, and phone calls or visits remained the main ways to obtain necessary information.
The Information Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation, which was adopted in 2000, pointed to the expansion of the application of information technologies as a key factor in accelerating the country's economic development and the formation of the information society. The doctrine simultaneously highlighted that this shift generated new information threats that needed to be considered. In this period, therefore, approaches to the formation of an open information space were only beginning to be developed.
**Implications for innovation and networking**
In general, the second phase encompassed the formation of the three fundamental layers, as shown in Figure 1.18. This phase included the creation of legislative, public and social framework conditions (layer I), the restoration of the material and intellectual resource base needed to enable the commercialisation of R&D outcomes (layer II), and the development of a vision for the role of innovation in the country’s development (layer III).
In many respects, this period can be called the "primary school" of building an innovation system in Russia, as all participants learned – sometimes through trial and error, but mainly by studying Western experiences and adapting them to the relatively unformed systems and institutions of the Russian NIS. This led to contradictions, inconsistencies and grand statements that were recorded on paper but were never transformed into reality. For example, the declaration highlighting the need for interactions between private and state capital did not lead to significant inflows of private financing to the NIS, as there were no corresponding mechanisms, such as a venture industry. Similarly, increased state funding for science did not lead to a diffusion of innovation or an increase in the introduction of scientific developments in industries owing to gaps among the knowledge-generation, knowledge-application and knowledge-exploitation subsystems due to absence of mediating organisations (see Figure 1.16). Moreover, there was little need to engage in innovative cooperation due to the lack of demand from companies, in part because innovation was not widely viewed as a source of competitive advantage in the unsaturated Russian market (see Figure 2.10). In addition, dependence on imported materials and components perceived as being more reliable and affordable was growing (see Table 2.12).
For the significant part, scientific research and development were carried out in areas of interest to scientific collectives. However, considerations about the need for the results or how they could be commercialised were not taken into account. From the perspective of researchers and scientists, scientific developments had value in themselves. Researchers and scientists did not consider the commercialisation factor, as it had not historically been part of their cognitive frameworks. Similarly, the possibility of commercialisation was not viewed as important when making decisions about the allocation of financial support. This highlights gaps in the NIS system at the conceptual level given the lack of links among its internal elements and the absence of incentives for the subsystems to cooperate for the purpose of innovation. This problem concerned innovation systems at both the country and regional levels, where entrepreneurship failed to systematically develop and state programmes commonly supported initiatives for entrepreneurs among the nation’s youth and in unprotected strata of the population (e.g., the disabled, veterans, ethnic minorities) with the aim of reducing social tension.
The financial crisis of 1998 and the instantaneous result of uncompetitive prices for imported goods created market opportunities for SMEs, which led to an increase in the number of enterprises dealing not only with the resale of foreign goods on the Russian market but also with production. However, the number of high-tech companies remained low, mainly because of the underdeveloped commercialisation infrastructure, the unavailability of financing, and the lack of experience in conducting technological entrepreneurship, which together resulted in the perception that starting a high-tech business was risky.
A positive trend in this period was the rapid development of the Internet and various forms of communication, which made information more accessible and, thereby, reduced transaction costs to some extent. At the same time, interactions with state organisations,
especially regulatory bodies, remained extremely inefficient due to the extensive bureaucracy as well as the lack of transparency of procedures and rules, which led to high costs and promoted corruption as a tool for accelerating decision-making processes. The NIS system still lacked the necessary actors, including NIS-development organisations that were needed to handle various aspects of NIS governance, including system design, the coordination of actors’ activities, the development of a conceptual apparatus, and the stimulation of a common understanding of the objectives and mechanisms of innovation. These organisations were also needed to create motivation for innovation both among business organisations and the general public.
The extant literature (Huter, 2003; Ledeneva, 2008) identifies several key features of the Russian economy in this period: the instability of the social safety net; weak infrastructure; poor protection of private property rights; growing demand but low levels of competition; arbitrary regulation; underdeveloped institutions (e.g., capital markets, the rule of law); the relative lack of skilled economic actors; outdated management practices built on *blat* relations that provided access to administrative resources (Ledeneva, 2008), which were unfavourable for the efficient conduct of business; the weakness of civil society; and a low level of trust in public institutions. Ledeneva (2008) points out that informal relations were widespread. This was evident in the use of informal networks to compensate for the inefficiency of official organisations and to close the structural holes caused by the lack of certain institutions and mechanisms, and in the high level of interpersonal trust, which served as a substitute for the low level of trust in state institutions. The latter led to the personalisation of bureaucracy and the creation of clan relations that were supportive of the emergence of “administrative resources” as one of the most important factors in business in Russia. Thus, the presence of personal, informal ties in one of the influential clans was the key for successful business development. Competitiveness did not matter – it was important to have *svyazi*. Relationships were managed on a personal level, which was difficult and costly owing to the accompanying mutual obligations. However, these relationships were vital, as the clan system meant that businesses did not need to participate in market competition (Ledeneva, 2008) and could function without any investments in innovation or development.
**Phase 3: 2006 – 2008**
The economic growth achieved from 2000 to 2008 through the increase in commodities exports led to an expansion of imports (see Figure 2.11), including imports of advanced
technological products and components. This laid the foundation for technological dependence on developed countries in certain fields, such as pharmaceuticals, high-tech machinery and equipment, vehicles, aircraft construction, and oil production (Gokhberg and Kuznetsova, 2016).
**Figure 2.11. Percentage change from previous year in exports, imports and GDP**
*Source: Rosstat, 2016*
Paradoxically, the rapid economic recovery undermined the motivation of enterprises to modernise and innovate, as shown in Figure 2.12.
**Figure 2.12. Innovative activity in mining, manufacturing, production, and distribution of electricity, gas and water**
*Source: Gorodnikova et al., 2017*
**Governance**
The third phase (2006-2008) was devoted to developing an understanding of various approaches to innovation management at the state, regional and organisational levels. It included the development of a state innovation policy that ensured the systemic influence of the state on the development of science and innovation in Russia.
A set of measures was implemented to develop framework conditions for successful commercialisation of innovations, including measures intended to stimulate venture-market development; develop a technological base in the form of technoparks; create state corporations designed to identify and commercialise technological solutions; improve intellectual property rights; create favourable tax conditions for financing innovative activities; and create conditions for the privatisation of leased property by small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, laws were adopted to ensure competition and combat corruption.
The key document that defined the conceptual approach to the selection of activities in this phase was the Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation in the Russian Federation for 2006-2015. This document summarised the results of the previous development phases, and highlighted key problems in the scientific and innovative spheres. It also noted that Russia's lagging innovation-performance indicators compared to leading countries were dangerous because of potentially damaging effects on national competitiveness in the global markets for science-intensive products. The document implied that if appropriate measures would not be taken there was a possibility of an irreversible backlog in Russia’s undertaking a continual transition to a new technological era. Remaining within the paradigm of “technological push”, the strategy identified a systematic problem – the pace of development and the structure of the Russian R&D sector did not fully meet the requirements of the national security system or the growing demand from a number of business segments for advanced technologies. At the same time, the scientific results of the Russian R&D sector that were relevant on a global level were deemed inapplicable to the Russian economy due to the imbalance in the NIS and the generally low acceptance of innovations visible in Russian business enterprises.
The goals of the strategy were to form a balanced R&D sector, create an effective NIS that would ensure the technological modernisation of the economy and increase its competitiveness on the basis of advanced technologies, and transform scientific potential into one of the main resources for sustainable economic growth. It was assumed that the main task in this period would be to create an effective NIS that would be integrated with the global innovation system. The NIS was expected to ensure the interaction of the R&D sector with the domestic entrepreneurial sector, and its key parameters were meant to correspond to those of developed countries’ innovation systems. The strategy formally prioritised several technological areas that had traditionally been highly developed in Russia: aircraft engineering, space exploration, nuclear energy, IT and specialised hightech medical services. Other prioritised areas included optoelectronic devices, new energy sources and ways of reducing energy use, and high-tech materials.
The most significant governance actions in terms of the development of NIS in the focal period are summarised in the Table 2.13 and Appendix 2.1.
**Table 2.13. Development of NIS in the third phase, 2006-2008**
| Aspect of NIS building | Key initiatives |
|------------------------|----------------|
| Further development of the educational, scientific and technological spheres | ▪ Adoption of the Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation in the Russian Federation for 2006-2015
▪ Adoption of the federal programme "Research and development in priority areas of development of Russia's scientific and technological complex for 2007-2013"
▪ Adoption of the federal programme "National Technological Base for 2007-2011"
▪ Adoption of the federal programme "Scientific and scientific-pedagogical staff of innovative Russia"
▪ Issuance of the Presidential Decree on the implementation of a pilot project for the establishment of national research universities |
| Creation of the innovation system’s resource base | ▪ Adoption of the federal programme "Establishment of technoparks in the sphere of high technologies in the Russian Federation"
▪ Establishment of Russian investment fund for technology and innovation, known as the Russian Venture Company (RVC) tasked to develop venture market |
| Strengthening of entrepreneurial support | ▪ The Law on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises
▪ Adoption of the Law allowing for the privatisation of leased property by small and medium-sized enterprises |
| Development of framework conditions | ▪ Concept of long-term social and economic development through 2020
▪ Adoption of the fourth part of the Civil Code, which determined the notions of intellectual activity results; legal protection of intellectual property; the legal status of authors of intellectual activity results; procedures for the state's registration of such results; and possible ways of disposing of the author's exclusive rights, including a license agreement that resolved issues of succession
▪ Amendments to certain legislative acts concerning favourable tax conditions for financing innovation activities
▪ Adoption of the Law on Protection of Competition, which defined the organisational and legal framework for the protection of competition, including the prevention and suppression of monopolistic activities and unfair competition; and prohibition, restriction and elimination of competition by authorities
▪ Adoption of the Anti-Corruption Law |
| Establishment of innovation system’s development institutes | ▪ State corporation “The Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies” (RUSNANO)
▪ State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom)
▪ State Corporation for Developmental Assistance to Production and Export of Advanced Technology Industrial Products (Rostec)
▪ Creation of the National Association of Business Angels |
| Development of information systems | ▪ Adoption of the information society development strategy |
*Source: Developed by the author*
In the focal period, a first attempt was made to build a programme for the long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation\(^9\). In accordance with a presidential directive resulting from a meeting of the State Council of the Russian Federation held on July 21, 2006, the "Concept of long-term social and economic development of the Russian Federation through 2020" was developed from 2006 to 2008. This concept was approved by the Russian government on November 17, 2008. The goal was to identify ways to ensure long-term (i.e., 2008-2020) sustainable improvements in the well-being of Russian citizens, national security, dynamic economic development, and the strengthening of Russia's position in the world. In accordance with this goal, the concept described the main directions for the country’s long-term social and economic development, taking into account the likely challenges of the forthcoming period. It also detailed a strategy for achieving the set goals, including methods, directions and stages. Moreover, it defined forms and mechanisms for strategic partnerships among the state, business and society, as well as goals, target indicators, priorities and main tasks of long-term state policy in the social, scientific and technological spheres. In addition, it introduced structural changes in the economy, the goals and priorities of foreign economic policy, the parameters of the Russian economy’s spatial development, and the goals and objectives of territorial development.
The approval of the concept coincided with the intensification of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009. In fact, the concept was approved by the government after the economic crisis began in Russia. As a result, it was already outdated at the time of its adoption (Prokopenko and Bazanova, 2016). The crisis led to a sharp fall in economic indicators and made most of the quantitative targets set for the first stage of the concept’s implementation (2007-2012) impossible to achieve. Similarly, the benchmarks provided by the Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation remained unfulfilled.
**Commercialisation infrastructure**
One of the most significant events of this period was the creation of the first institutional organisations for the innovation system’s development: Russian Venture Company (RVC) and RUSNANO. The operations of these organisations were based on a principle of cooperation between the state and the corporate sector aimed at ensuring the intensification of innovation processes. A second significant event was the creation of state corporations Rosatom and Rostec tasked with identifying existing, potentially promising scientific and R&D results, and ensuring their commercialisation.
---
\(^9\) Prior to this, planning focused only on terms of three to five years.
Established by the Russian government in 2006, RVC was a fund of venture funds as well as the innovation system’s development institute tasked with implementing state policy for the creation and expansion of the NIS. The RVC’s main tasks were to develop a venture-investment market, introduce educational and methodological services for innovation-market participants, and assist in enhancing the competitiveness of Russian technology companies in the global marketplace. RVC was based on the model of the Israeli fund Yozma. It was responsible for selecting private management companies on a competitive basis to handle newly created venture funds and for co-financing those funds. RVC did not participate in the selection of financed start-ups – it ensured only that they matched one of the focal areas: nanotechnology, information technology, energy savings, rationalisation of environmental resource use, counterterrorism, and the transport, aviation and space industries (Mikhailova, 2008). The other significant event of this phase that contributed to the development of Russian venture market was the creation of the National Association of Business Angels, a non-profit partnership that brought together legal and physical persons, and private and institutional investors that invested in innovative high-tech companies as well as organisations providing services in the areas of investment and innovation.
The state corporation RUSNANO was formed to introduce a new technological sphere that did not exist in Russia but was emerging abroad (Dementiev, 2009a). Nanotechnology was expected to become a new growth point for Russia, just as nuclear and space technologies once were, and to help Russia preserve its status as a powerful state (Dementiev, 2009b). RUSNANO was responsible for implementing state policy for the development of the nanotechnology industry, and for investing directly or through investment funds in high-tech projects that could create new production in Russia\(^{10}\).
Both RVC and RUSNANO used the established financing mechanisms to support projects that had passed the R&D stage and were ready for commercialisation. However, it soon became clear that the number of such projects was catastrophically small (Rashidov, 2012) and insufficient for conducting profitable investment activities. In order to increase the number of such projects, it was necessary to create a diversified venture market in which projects in the early development stages could find the financing necessary to prepare for the next-stage investments (Mikhailova, 2008). After the end of 2006, the Russian venture and direct investment market was actively developed: 68 funds were in operation in 2006, but this figure rose to 170 in 2010 and to more than 250 in 2015 (RVCA, 2009). Moreover,
\(^{10}\) http://en.rusnano.com/
the number of private investment funds, including regional funds, rose, and angel investors actively took part in venture market development.
The creation of state corporations at this stage was aimed at increasing the efficiency of management teams in state industrial enterprises, and at ensuring the modernisation and competitiveness of these enterprises in the market economy. This was achieved by increasing their sensitivity to the results of scientific activity and, as a result, enhancing their innovativeness. For example, the state corporation Rosatom solved a wide range of issues in the atomic-energy field, including the need to establish relevant scientific and technical, investment, and structural policies. Rostec was established to manage existing enterprises that manufactured products for the defence industry and, in part, for the civil market under the conversion programme (Vasilieva and Drankina, 2012)\(^{11}\).
A comprehensive state programme on "Establishment of technoparks in the sphere of high technologies in the Russian Federation" was developed and approved in 2006. Although the development of most of the technoparks basically started from scratch in terms of pre-project work, design work, construction and creation of basic infrastructure, the programme aimed to ensure the establishment of technoparks in the high-technology sphere by 2007. The goal was to motivate the world's leading high-tech companies to locate their production in the Russian technoparks by 2010 and to have the technoparks operating at full capacity by 2014.
In the focal period, technoparks in the high-tech sphere were viewed as a way to ensure the territorial integration of commercial and state higher-education and R&D organisations, as well as financial institutions, start-ups and entrepreneurs. According to the idea of technopark, all of these actors were expected to interact with each other and with state authorities and local government bodies in order to develop a modern technological and organisational environment for the purpose of innovative entrepreneurship and implementation of venture projects (see Figure 2.13).
\(^{11}\) For example, 437 defense-industry enterprises were transferred to Rostec by 2009. The group’s aggregate loss was RUB 630 billion. 30% of these enterprises were in pre-crisis or crisis situations (28 in the bankruptcy stage, 17 without economic activities, and 27 having lost or at risk of losing property). Vasilieva and Drankina, 2012, p. 35).
The infrastructure facilities of technoparks were to be created using local and federal budget funds. The federal government allocated significant amounts to the regions for this purpose. This programme led to a sharp surge in the number of technoparks created from 2006 to 2009, most of which were built in close proximity to major scientific centres that encompassed universities.
**Entrepreneurial support**
The 2007 federal law "On the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Russian Federation" had positive implications for the support offered to small, innovative enterprises (Goremykina, 2009). Such concepts as "medium-sized businesses", "microenterprises", "support infrastructure for small and medium-sized businesses", and "support measures for small and medium-sized businesses" were introduced (Schepot'ev and Safronova, 2008). The law determined the peculiarities of the regulation of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation, discussed the provision of financial incentives, and simplified related bureaucratic procedures.
In fact, this law established the rights and obligations of the participants in the newly created NIS in terms of the development and implementation of support programmes for small and medium-sized businesses. At the same time, it assigned a significant role to regional authorities in the formation and implementation of municipal programmes for the development of entrepreneurship. This role was designed to take national and local socio-economic, environmental, cultural and other characteristics into account, and was aimed at ensuring the formation of an innovation infrastructure that would effectively support small and medium-sized innovative businesses in the various regions.
The adoption of this law served as an impetus for the adoption of regional laws on the support and development of small and medium-sized businesses in 2008 and 2009. It also triggered the development of new, more complex and well-thought-out municipal programmes for the development of small and medium-sized businesses with a special focus on innovative entrepreneurship.
**Support for R&D execution**
In 2008, the federal programme “Scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel of innovative Russia” for 2009-2013 was adopted and subsequently implemented. The programme aimed to address the loss of a generation of scientists as a result of the underfunding of science-related activities from the late 1980s to 2000. This underfunding led to young people losing interest in science, the departure of young scientists to other spheres of the economy, and the emigration of scientists who found it impossible to realise their creative and scientific potential in Russia.
To combat "brain drain", measures were implemented that allowed higher-education institutions and R&D organisations to invite former compatriots working abroad to lead research being undertaken by Russian scientific teams. These measures were designed to systematise the experiences of fellow citizens through certain activities. For example, qualified Russian scientists who had moved abroad in the post-Soviet period could be invited to hold scientific seminars for their colleagues in their homeland, where they could share their experience, knowledge and skills (Agranovich, 2007). This area of the programme also covered the mobility of scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel within the country.
The programme included a combination of targeted, competitive financing of scientific research undertaken by scientific and higher-education institutions led by leading Russian scientists; and research conducted by young scientists and graduate students, including research led by reputable Russian scientists living abroad. Moreover, the programme provided for targeted financing of mobility, including financing of internships for young scientists, and participation in Russian and international scientific conferences, workshops, competitions and intellectual contests. A separate part of the programme was devoted to infrastructure projects aimed at financing the construction of dormitories for the students, post-graduate students, faculty and administrative staff of leading Russian universities in various regions. To create an opportunity for scientific investigation and discoveries, modern equipment was purchased to equip the research laboratories of the leading Russian universities. To attract a new generation of talented young people to science, scientific and
technical creativity centres for children and young people were developed. In addition, the results of intellectual competitions (Olympiads) were used as a basis for enrolment in higher-education institutions.
The launch of this federal programme received broad approval and support in the scientific and scientific-educational communities (Agranovich, 2007). It allowed for the testing of a new set of measures aimed at supporting scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel, created a system of research grants, and started other projects to support the development of scientific and educational structures. As a result of the implemented measures, the steady decline in the number of personnel in the R&D sector had nearly come to an end by 2016 (see Figure 2.5).
However, several problems remained unresolved, such as the age-related imbalance among researchers (i.e., the dominance of older researchers), and the incomplete conformity of the qualifications of Russian scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel with modern international demands. The latter also aggravated another situation: scientific personnel lacked the training necessary to use research equipment from abroad, which had been purchased using state funds. Therefore, scientists were unable to effectively utilise the capabilities of that modern research equipment. Overall, the lack of scientific and educational institutions capable of efficiently carrying out R&D slowed the formation of a professional environment supportive of young scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel. This was the motivation for establishing national research universities that could offer best-practice examples for conducting high-quality research that could be integrated with education.
A federal target programme entitled "Research and development in priority areas of Russia's scientific and technological complex development for 2007-2013" was also adopted. The main objective of this programme was to build a system that would allow for the consolidation and concentration of resources in promising scientific and technological areas through the application of public-private cooperation mechanisms. In particular, this programme aimed to stimulate R&D orders from private businesses and innovative enterprises. This goal could not be achieved without the development of an effective NIS infrastructure.
**Information and transparency**
A significant achievement in this period was the adoption of a strategy for the development of the information society, which reflected the constitutional rights of Russian citizens to
access information. The strategy aimed to provide equal opportunities for information access and for obtaining basic communication services regardless of territory or region of residence. The objectives of the strategy were to develop the telecommunications infrastructure, improve the quality of education and medical services based on information and communication technologies, and introduce e-government. These activities were to be backed by the training of qualified personnel in this field.
**Implications for innovation and networking**
This period was devoted to the construction of a systemic approach and included developing the elements necessary for the NIS, creating a long-term vision of socio-economic development in which innovation was the driving force, determining the role of the state in the country's innovative development and solving the issues arising from previous stages of development in terms of imperfect framework conditions. In this period, such processes as the creation of systemically important organisations tasked with developing innovation system, like the Russian Venture Company (RVC), were initiated. RVC’s key task was to stimulate the venture-capital market's development as a basic mechanism through which private capital could flow into the innovation sphere. The regulatory framework was improved in the areas of intellectual property protection, market competition and anti-corruption. Moreover, initial steps were taken to create economic incentives for innovation and systematic efforts were initiated to stimulate demand for innovation. These efforts included the launching of state corporations, which were tasked with modernising production on the basis of innovative solutions. A great deal of attention was paid to understanding the infrastructure necessary for successful commercialisation, which led to a number of laws and the initiation of a federal programme to establish technoparks in the high-tech sphere. Thus, steps were taken to develop the innovation system in the higher layers of the innovation pyramid (see Figure 1.18) from the point of view of improving the framework conditions and building the infrastructure.
In terms of constructing a common vision of the priorities in the development of the Russian NIS, assumptions were made based on Russia's historically important technology sectors (e.g., aircraft engineering, space exploration, nuclear energy). In particular, Russia was expected to be able to produce innovative products that would be in demand on the global market, which was viewed as a single market based on the division of competences and labour among countries, and free trade. At the same time, additional areas of technological development were identified. For example, nanotechnology was seen as a
new area in which Russia could make a breakthrough and become a world-leading market player, as it had been in space exploration and nuclear energy.
With regard to establishing links among the knowledge-generation, knowledge-application and knowledge-exploitation subsystems, a system of technology parks was introduced to enable these links to be effectively established and prosper. However, entrepreneurial motives among the population, and the corresponding skills and systems that can give rise to the emergence of technology entrepreneurs were absent. In other words, the key aspect of where to find innovative companies ready to become residents of technoparks and develop their technological solutions was not considered. The stimulation of the emergence of SMEs with a special focus on innovative entrepreneurship was categorised as a task that was to be solved at the regional level. Entrepreneurship in Russia as a whole lacked an innovative nature, as it generally aimed at producing goods and services that were in demand on local markets. The technoparks stood relatively empty because of the absence of a sufficient number of companies in need of the technopark environment.
This approach, which was based on stimulating the development of science in the prioritised areas and creating an environment conducive for the commercialisation of scientific developments (technology-push approach), did not lead to a boom of new innovative companies. In fact, few people wished to engage in difficult and risky technological entrepreneurship in the absence of relevant skills. Moreover, they lacked an understanding of which resources were needed or where to find them. The belief that the required resources could not be obtained without informal *blat*-based relations was widespread. Thus, many felt that no one could build a successful business starting from an innovative idea or technology alone. This illustrates Smallbone and Welter’s (2012, p. 219) idea that “whilst changes in formal institutions create opportunity fields for entrepreneurship, informal institutions influence the collective and individual perception of entrepreneurial opportunities. In situations where formal and informal rules conflict, previous experience and tacit knowledge are the main influences on entrepreneurial behaviour”.
In light of this inertia, the institutional system had to react and take appropriate actions. More specifically, actions were required to achieve a significant paradigm shift in Russian society’s cognitive frameworks related to the importance of innovation, the role of technological entrepreneurship in this process, and the view of this sphere of activity as prestigious and economically viable for self-realisation.
Consequently, without appropriate psychological and economic motives related to the perception of innovation as a prerequisite for the discovery and use of market opportunities, and without mechanisms to support actors’ interaction in the NIS, public financial injections into innovation systems could not lead to an increase in output. The same was true for state directives indicating that businesses should be more innovative. Notably, the goals set out in the Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation for the period until 2015 were not achieved by the interim control year of 2010 or by 2015 (see Table 2.14).
Table 2.14. Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation, targets and achievements
| Input | By 2010-2011 | By 2015-2016 |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|
| Steady growth in R&D expenditures | Target: 2% of GDP in 2010 | Target: 2.5% of GDP in 2015 |
| | Actually achieved: 1.13% | Actually achieved: 1.1% |
| Increased share of non-state funds in R&D expenditures | Target: 60% in 2010 | Target: 70% in 2015 |
| | Actually achieved: 54.6% | Actually achieved: 52% |
| Increased influx of young people into the scientific sphere (i.e., | – | Target: 36% in 2016 |
| the proportion of researchers under the age of 39) | Actually achieved: 35.5% | Actually achieved: 42.9% |
| Growth in Russian companies’ own R&D expenditures | Target: Growth of at least 10% per year | |
| | Actually achieved: | |
| | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
| | 83% | 23% | 23% | 9% | -1% |
Output
| Output | By 2010-2011 | By 2015-2016 |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|
| Coefficient of patent activity | Target: 4.0 | Target: 5.5 |
| | Actually achieved: 3.8 | Actually achieved: 4.32 |
| Share of enterprises that carry out technological innovations | Target: 15% | Target: 20% |
| relative to total number of enterprises | Actually achieved: 7.9% | Actually achieved: 8.3% |
| Share of innovative products relative to total sales of industrial | Target: 15% | Target: 18% |
| products | Actually achieved: 4.89% | Actually achieved: 7.95% |
Source for achievement data: Rosstat 2016
Thus, this discussion indicates that in the Russian context it is relevant to discuss the role of networking (as defined in Section 1.2) in the development of innovations among companies that emerged before 2009. At that time, there was no NIS infrastructure within which networking could take place and people had little motivation to establish innovation-based companies, which would require networking.
Phase 4: 2009 – 2013
The 2008-2009 crisis clearly showed that Russia had to reconsider its approach to social and economic development. The depth of the world recession (see Figure 2.14) was aggravated by the Russian economy’s dependence on global raw-material prices (see Figure 2.15). The subsequent slowdown in growth rates in the post-crisis period confirmed the inefficiency of the growth model typical for Russia in the 2000s and the gradual exhaustion of its capabilities. The need for a new economic strategy was dictated by the challenges in the external environment and by internal demands for social change.
Figure 2.14. Quarterly GDP dynamics of the world leading countries (annual data), 2005-2015
![Graph showing quarterly GDP growth for China, USA, EU-28, Russia, and Brazil from 2005 to 2015]
Source: ACGRF, 2015
Figure 2.15. Dynamics of Russia's GDP, 2006-2014
![Graph showing various components of Russia's GDP from 2006 to 2014]
Source: ACGRF, 2015
In May 2009, the “National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation through 2020” was adopted. Of the key global-development trends, the Strategy named globalisation in all spheres of international activity, high dynamism and the interdependence of events. It also pointed to the intensification of the contradictions associated with uneven development as a result of globalisation and the deepening of the welfare gap between different countries. The Strategy declared that, in general, Russia overcame the consequences of the systemic political and social and economic crisis of the late twentieth century – stopped the decline in the quality of life of Russian citizens; resisted the pressures of nationalism, separatism and international terrorism; prevented the discrediting of the constitutional order; preserved sovereignty and territorial integrity; and restored the opportunities to increase its competitiveness and sustain national interests as a key actor in emerging, multipolar international relations.
At the same time, the Strategy noted that the slow pace of the national economy’s transformation toward innovative development impeded the successful integration of Russia with the global economic space and the corresponding system of an international division of labour. The strategy named several priorities related to ensuring sustainable development and national security. This list included economic growth, which was to be primarily achieved through the development of a national innovation system and investments in human capital. In general, science, technology, education, health and culture were to be developed by strengthening the role of the state and improving public-private partnerships.
In September 2009, within the framework of the preparation of the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, President Medvedev published an article entitled “Russia, strive forward!” for general discussion in the *Gazeta* online edition (Medvedev, 2009a). In that article, he outlined his views on Russia's development problems and the priority areas for technological modernization. The article, which was written in a journalistic style, represented a call for cooperation and consolidation of effort among all who shared the President’s views on the possibility of building an innovative Russia. This article sparked a heated discussion in the press, as the creation of a space for open discussion of the problems associated with Russia’s development was an unusual step for the Russian government. The article was also called a “programme document”, as its postulates later led to concrete steps that affected the development of the national innovation system.
Medvedev noted that it would be inappropriate to attribute the difficulties that had arisen in Russia’s economic transition solely to the country’s "poor inheritance", as manifested in
the form of economic backwardness, age-old corruption, the "semi-Soviet" social sphere, a fragile democracy, negative demographic trends and political problems in the Caucasus. In his opinion, the key problem was not natural path dependency but "an old Russian habit of relying on the state’s problem-solving abilities, foreign countries’ assistance, powerful doctrines – on anything or anyone except ourselves" (Medvedev, 2009a). The article explicitly declared the need to change the mentality and take an active role in building the future: "It is not the commodity exchanges that must decide the destiny of Russia, but our own perception of ourselves, our history, future, our intellectual abilities, our strength, our self-esteem and our entrepreneurial power". The goal of building an innovative economy to secure Russia’s future prosperity was identified as a new, unifying idea capable of rallying people and consolidating their efforts:
We will encourage and stimulate scientific and technical creativity. First of all, we will support young scientists and inventors. Secondary schools and higher-education institutions will prepare a sufficient number of specialists for promising industries. Scientific institutions will concentrate their main efforts on the implementation of breakthrough projects. Legislators will make decisions that support the spirit of innovation in all spheres of public life, and create a market of ideas, inventions, discoveries and new technologies. Public and private companies will receive full support in all of their endeavours to create demand for innovative products. Foreign companies and scientific organisations will be provided with the most favourable conditions for the construction of research and development centres in Russia. We will invite the best scientists and engineers from around the world to work here. Most importantly, we will explain to our young people that the most important competitive advantages are knowledge that others do not have, intellectual superiority and the ability to create the things people need. The inventors, innovators, scientists, teachers or entrepreneurs who introduce new technologies will become the most respected people in society. They will receive from society everything necessary for fruitful activity. (Medvedev, 2009a)
This article identified potential areas in which Russia could form its competitive advantage (e.g., new types of fuel; technical solutions for energy transportation; medical equipment, including ultra-modern diagnostic tools; and medicines for the treatment of viral, cardiovascular, oncological and neurological diseases). It also named technologies that should be developed as a basis for future competitive advantages: nuclear technologies, information technologies, global public-information networks based on supercomputers, and terrestrial and space infrastructure for the transmission of all kinds of information. Remarkably, this article was the first to name not only promising technologies but also markets in which innovations could be commercialised as development horizons.
Governance
In the annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly (12 November 2009), Medvedev indicated his refusal to force the growth of the old, raw-material-dependent economy. He noted that individual, non-systemic decisions in the field of innovation policy would not allow for formation of a new "smart economy that produces unique knowledge, new technologies and things useful to people" (Medvedev, 2009b). He also stated that the technological modernisation of the entire production sector was a matter of Russia's survival in the modern world. Therefore, the political course did not aim to improve the inherited, disparate blocks of the national innovation system (i.e., the principle of "patching holes") but to build a new system "based on values and institutions of democracy", taking available resources and international experiences with building national innovation systems into account.
Medvedev also highlighted the need to create a new powerful R&D centre built on completely new principles. The centre was to focus on supporting all priority areas of science and technology development, and thereby achieve synergies in R&D. In his Address, he compared this technology centre with Silicon Valley. This new project was expected to be a flagship that demonstrated to stakeholders inside and outside of Russia that the country had broken free of the shackles of its heritage. The project was tasked to demonstrate that Russia was not only ready to form a new, local infrastructure that was attractive for the work of leading scientists, engineers, designers, programmers, managers and financiers from around the world, but it could also show results in the form of new competitive technologies and products that would be in demand on the global market (Rashidov, 2012).
An example demonstrating that innovations could be successfully commercialised was desperately needed. Despite the efforts to build an innovative system, the skeleton of which already existed, a boom in innovative development did not emerge. Some of the existing elements were deficient. For example, most of the Russian university technoparks did not meet the standards of their foreign counterparts (Shukshunov, 2009), and some only existed on paper even though federal funds had been allocated for their construction in 2006-2009 and had been spent (Pavlov, 2013). The high-tech technopark model, which was designed to generate a large number of innovative, high-tech start-ups, was incoherent in principle, as most emerging companies had no future given the absence of demand for innovative products from consumers and business markets. At the same time, the developing venture industry found very few start-ups worthy of and ready for venture
financing. Moreover, there were no mechanisms to ensure a return on investment, as large corporations were not innovative and did not want to be strategic investors, IPO platforms in Russia were still underdeveloped, and venture capitalists had no success stories to which they could look for motivation (Yakovenko, 2012). In the absence of the processes that were necessary complement to the innovation system’s structural elements, the number of innovative enterprises remained low, the volume of innovative products stagnated, and the venture market could not develop effectively, as the NIS actors could not efficiently engage in joint projects or set common goals (Etkowitz and Ranga, 2013).
In January 2010, a group of top Russian officials, led by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov, visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study that institution’s success with merging business and science with the goal of commercialisation. The group wished to understand the NIS infrastructural elements that should be brought together to create organisational innovation; how those elements should function, including the key actors that were needed; how the elements should interact; and the role the government should play to ensure that results could be obtained (Rashidov 2012). In June 2010, President Medvedev went to MIT on an official visit, during which a framework agreement was signed between MIT and the Skolkovo Foundation to create a new innovation centre. Given the budding relations with American consultants, Etkowitz’s Triple Helix concept (Etkowitz, 2008), which emphasised venture-capital mechanisms as the engine of national innovation systems, was adopted as the main methodological basis for building Russia’s NIS in this period (Dezhina and Kiseleva, 2008).
On September 28, 2010, Federal Law No. 244-FZ on “The Skolkovo Innovation Centre” was signed. The goal was to create an enabling environment for international intellectual capital capable of generating innovations. Skolkovo was expected to eventually become one of the most recognised and respected Russian brands associated with innovation.
Initially, the project was to be implemented on the basis of crowd funding. However, motivated by the need to involve not only the state but also Russian business in the implementation of such multi-scale projects, Medvedev suggested that Viktor Vekselberg, a manager – the Head of the Renova Group of Companies – but not a government official, should lead the Russian part of the project-coordinating structure. The Skolkovo project exemplifies the state’s coercion of Russian oligarchs to contribute to the construction and creation of a new “Silicon Valley” designed to provide Russia’s innovative breakthrough (Rashidov 2012).
As Russia’s first science city, constructed from scratch in the post-Soviet period, Skolkovo was expected to create special economic conditions for companies operating in the prioritised sectors during Russia’s economic modernisation: energy efficiency and energy savings, including the development of innovative energy technologies; nuclear technologies; space technologies, especially in the field of telecommunications and navigation systems (including the creation of appropriate infrastructure on the ground); medical technologies in the fields of equipment and medicines; strategic computer technologies and software; and biotechnology in agriculture and industry.
The development of the NIS was so rapid from 2009 to 2013 that it is impossible to list all of the measures implemented. The key categories of measures and examples are presented in Table 2.15 (see also Appendix 2.1):
**Table 2.15. Measures for the development of the NIS, 2009-2013**
| Strengthening the innovation system's resource base | • Significant increase in targeted financing of university science, including mega-grants for prospective studies, which also allow foreign scientists to participate.
• Establishment of national research centres.
• Provision of financial support to higher-education institutions and the state’s scientific organisations for the implementation of complex projects to create high-tech production (corresponds with the implementation of the entrepreneurial university concept (Etzkowitz et al., 2008).
• Creation of new institutes for NIS development: Internet Initiatives Development Fund; the Development Fund for the Centre for Development and Commercialisation of New Technologies (SKOLKOVO), the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), the VEB-Innovation Fund, the Foundation for Infrastructure and Educational Programs of RUSNANO.
• Increase in the number of educational projects in the innovative entrepreneurship field through state institutions and private initiatives (e.g., Digital October, Greenfield Project).
• Increase in the number of business incubators and accelerators in higher-education institutions, venture funds and separate private ventures. |
| --- | --- |
| Improving the framework conditions | • Development and early implementation of roadmaps for the National Entrepreneurship Initiative under the management of ASI. The roadmaps include measures aimed at reducing administrative barriers in the economy and improving the investment climate in Russia.
• State scientific and educational institutions are given the right to create small innovative enterprises and commercialise their R&D results.
• Development of various forms of venture and loan financing for innovative activities, including angel funding, and pre-seed and seed financing for start-ups.
• Introduction of a system of tax benefits with a view to supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as scientific, technical and innovative activities.
• Creation of the Innovative and Investment Market on the Moscow Exchange and launch of the MICEX Innovation Index.
• Development of a network of high-tech (built around educational and scientific institutions) and industrial (built around a focal industrial complex) technoparks.
• Development of comprehensive programmes to support innovative |
| **Stimulating demand for innovative products** | - Introducing a complex programme of state support for the development of cooperation among industrial organisations, higher-education institutions and scientific institutions aimed at implementing comprehensive projects for the creation of high-tech production.
- Improvements in the public-procurement system, which provides an opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to participate.
- Creation of the Foundation for Advanced Studies (Russian equivalent of DARPA), a programme for the modernization and development of the defence industrial complex based on innovative technological solutions.
- At the request of the government, state corporations and companies with state participation begin to develop innovation-development programs. |
| **Aligning interactions among NIS participants** | - Introduction of technology platforms – communication instruments aimed at pooling the efforts of all NIS stakeholders to intensify scientific, technological and innovative development.
- Launch of "Innopraktika" – a platform for consolidating the efforts of applied, fundamental and university science to solve the most urgent problems of enterprise development.
- Launch of the online information and communication platform Leader ID with the objectives of involving civil society in innovation activities and consolidating human resources for the implementation of innovative projects.
- Introduction of national competitions for start-ups with the aim of integrating start-ups into the innovation community in order to establish the necessary links. Competitions include the National Prize for Innovation "Zvorykin Prize" (from 2009 to 2013) and GenerationS (since 2013).
- Establishment of regional competitions for start-ups, which are organised by local governments with the participation of regional venture funds.
- Introduction of the international forum "Open Innovations" in 2012.
- A large number of open conferences and networking events for start-ups, venture business, mentors, consultants and other experts in the field of innovation. |
| **Introducing new organisations to manage innovation activities** | - Creation of new structures outside the federal government to take part in developing strategies and creating policy documents, selecting and developing personnel, coordinating the implementation of individual projects and evaluating their effectiveness: the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia, the Association of Industrial Parks, the Association of High-Tech Technoparks, the Club of Directors for Science and Innovation and others.
- Implementation of a nationwide programme to find and attract young leaders to the NIS projects on a competitive basis (supported by ASI). |
*Source: Developed by the author*
For the first time, the themes of technological innovations and innovative entrepreneurship were purposefully popularised. National prizes were created for entrepreneurs and innovative companies (e.g., “Business Success” for individual entrepreneurs and “Tech Success” for tech companies), stories of start-ups’ success were extensively covered in the press, and the Skolkovo project and "Open Innovations" activities were widely discussed. Numerous state-supported and private projects aimed to familiarise civil society with successful Russian and foreign experiences in innovative entrepreneurship started. Successful foreign entrepreneurs and business gurus visited Russia, and foreign tours were organised for representatives of Russian start-ups interested in studying best practices. Major roles in the implementation of these activities were played by the Russian Venture Company (RVC) and, later, by ASI, which were the key organisers of most projects sometimes in partnership with private actors.
These activities led to positive dynamics in entrepreneurial attitudes and strengthened the status of entrepreneurs (see the Figure 2.16). However, these efforts failed to break the established trend: no more than 4% of respondents indicated an entrepreneurial intention in 2011. This was still lower than in most other countries (OECD, 2015).
**Figure 2.16. Entrepreneurial behaviour and attitudes, 2009-2014**
![Graph showing entrepreneurial behaviour and attitudes from 2009 to 2016]
*Source: GEM Global Reports 2009-2016, http://www.gemconsortium.org/report*
The efforts to encourage state companies to innovate through the creation and implementation of special innovation-development programmes led to clear results in this period. The share of state-owned companies’ extra-budgetary funds used for domestic R&D increased from 1.59% of sales in 2010 to 2.02% in 2015, on average (Gokhberg, Kuznetsova, 2015). The share of innovative products to total sales in state-owned companies rose from 15.4% to 27.1%, respectively. Exports of innovative products also
increased, especially in the aircraft, shipbuilding and chemicals industries (Gokhberg, Kuznetsova, 2015).
In 2011, owing to a decision made by Vladimir Putin, a group of experts including leading Russian and foreign specialists, and representatives of scientific institutions, universities, development and business institutions participated in the preparation of recommendations for the country's social and economic development. These recommendations formed the foundation for the development of the Strategy for Innovative Development of the Russian Federation for the period until 2020, which became the electoral platform used by presidential candidate Vladimir Putin.
**Entrepreneurial support**
The implementation of a set of measures to support entrepreneurship at the regional and federal levels, including the activities of the National Entrepreneurship Initiative, made it possible to achieve some success in terms of improving opportunities for entrepreneurial activity. This was particularly true with respect to such indicators as ease of opening a business, getting access to electricity, registering property and paying taxes (see Figure 2.17).
*Figure 2.17. Distance to frontier as a measure of ease of doing business in Russia, 2010-2017*
*Source: Doing Business indices, the World Bank Group 2010-2017, http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings*
In addition, the numerous professional-development programmes in the field of management and entrepreneurship that were organised by development institutions, higher-education organisations and private providers, and the popularisation of entrepreneurship in the mass media helped more people feel that they had the capabilities necessary to become entrepreneurs (see Figure 2.16, GEM). All of these developments led to a 27% increase in the number of small and medium-sized small enterprises (see Table 2.16).
Table 2.16. Indicators for small and medium-sized enterprises in Russia, 2010-2014
| | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
|--------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Number of enterprises, end of the year, thousands | 1,669.5 | 1,852.3 | 2,016.8 | 2,076.8 | 2,117.5 |
| Average number of SME employees, thousands | 12,216.9 | 12,386.3 | 12,475.2 | 12,405.9 | 12,375.3 |
| Employment, percentage of total business | 26.2% | 27.0% | 27.1% | 27.1% | 27.1% |
| Sales, percentage of total business | 28.5% | 27.3% | 26.5% | 25.4% | 25.0% |
| Fixed capital investments, percentage of total businesses | 9.5% | 6.3% | 5.8% | 6.6% | 7.0% |
| Fixed assets, percentage of total business | 23.5% | 21.9% | 21.5% | 21.7% | 18.2% |
Source: Rosstat, 2015
In the micro-enterprise category, which includes start-ups, the number of organisations increased by 32% from 2010 to 2014 and the average number of employees per organisation grew by 33% (see Figure 2.18). Therefore, in general, state policies aimed at stimulating the emergence of start-ups appear to have been successful.
Figure 2.18. Growth in average number of employees, by SME category at the end of the year, in millions
Source: Rosstat, 2015
Nevertheless, on the whole, the contribution of Russian small and medium-sized businesses to the Russian economy remained insignificant. National statistics indicate that Russian SMEs accounted for less than 30% of enterprise sales from 2010 to 2014, and this
share decreased – it fell from 28.5% in 2010 to 25% in 2014. In addition, national statistics indicated that SMEs accounted for less than 10% of the total fixed-capital investments of businesses and, on average, 20% of the fixed assets of all enterprises, as most small businesses operated on leased premises (see Table 2.16). While not strictly comparable with international data because of differences in the methodology for determining enterprise size,\(^{12}\) these proportions are well below the figures seen in OECD countries. In these countries, around two-thirds of business value added is generated by SMEs and approximately 70% of the population are employed by these enterprises (see Figure 2.19) (OECD, 2015).
**Figure 2.19. Share of employment by enterprise size class, percentages, 2011 or latest available year**
The transition to an entrepreneurial economy was perceived as desirable in the long run to achieve economic diversification and stabilisation. However, taking into account not very significant proportion of value added generated by SMEs in the Russian economy, and the objective difficulties in ensuring the rapid growth of SMEs’ number, there could be no breakthrough in the building of an innovative economy in the short run without systemic steps towards improving large companies’ innovativeness.
**Support for R&D execution**
The significant dependence of civil science and education on state funding did not allow for their independent, integrated development within the framework of Russia’s existing economic structure. To achieve a critical mass of R&D actors, academic research and education resources, it was not only necessary to increase the amount of funding (see Figure 2.20) but also to improve the efficiency with which those funds were used.
\(^{12}\) In Russia, the classification of SMEs is carried out on the basis of annual revenue from the sale of goods (works, services), excluding value-added tax, established as follows: micro enterprises - 60 million rubles; small enterprises - 400 million rubles; medium enterprises - 1000 million rubles.
Many measures were introduced to ensure the existence of the skills needed for the country’s innovative development, including significant improvements in the efficiency of the education system. The federal programme "Scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel of innovative Russia" for 2009-2013 was implemented. Moreover, compared with previous years, the government’s competitive research funding for leading federal and national research universities was expanded (Gokhberg and Kuznetsova, 2016). In order to improve the professionalism of Russian specialists, and to stimulate the inflow of young, promising scientists and enable institutions to retain them, a scheme was introduced to foster academic mobility. Scientists and engineers were widely encouraged to undertake training in Russia and abroad, and to participate in international conferences.
A key measure aimed at restoring Russian science and stimulate scientific development in this period was the allocation of government grants for research in public Russian higher-education or research organisations. Public research institutions and universities received grants to commercialise new technologies and create innovative start-ups in accordance with the concept of "entrepreneurial university" (Etzkowitz et al., 2008). They could also obtain grants to enable them to invite top Russian and foreign professionals to work at their institutions (Gokhberg and Kuznetsova, 2016).
In 2010, the programme for the provision of mega-grants began. The plan was to allocate RUB 12 billion in mega-grants from 2009 to 2013. As a result of an open competition
conducted with the participation of foreign scientific arbitrators, 40 government grants, each amounting to up to RUB 150 million (USD 5 million), were allocated for conducting scientific research under the guidance of leading scientists in 2010-2013. In certain cases, these grants could be extended for two years. Any topic with a significant scientific perspective for development was accepted for consideration. Winners had to conduct scientific work in a Russian higher-education institution or public scientific centre that was not his or her own. Moreover, that institution had to have a new laboratory outfitted with the most modern research equipment. The goal was to revive science by attracting the most promising topics for development in Russia, creating new centres for research and producing cadres for the Russian scientific corps. Of the 40 winners of the first contest, only five were permanently residing in Russia. This was undoubtedly the programme’s main success – bringing home the Russian scientific elite and attracting the best foreign scientists (Rudenko, 2011).
From 2010 to 2014, 160 laboratories were established in 27 scientific fields by 79 Russian universities and scientific organisations. Among the leading scientists invited to work in Russia were three Nobel laureates and a Fields Medal winner. From 2010 to 2013, members of the scientific teams of the newly created laboratories published more than 1,800 articles in scientific publications indexed in the Web of Science database and registered more than 500 items as intellectual property (Mega-grants, 2015). According to Stanislav Smirnov, a Fields Prize winner, in addition to the fact that receiving a mega-grant was very prestigious, the grants helped their recipients do something new, such as establish a new research group and move research in a new direction. In his opinion, the Russian mega-grants became an international brand (Komarova, 2016).
According to the expert community (Andrushchak et al., 2018), the 2010 government decree "On measures of state support for the development of co-operation of Russian state higher-education institutions and scientific institutions and organisations implementing comprehensive projects for the creation of high-tech production" had a significant impact on the development of relations among the knowledge-generation, knowledge-application and knowledge-exploitation subsystems in the Russian NIS. The decree envisaged the allocation of state subsidies to industrial companies to reimburse them for the costs of implementing the R&D work performed by the Russian state’s higher-education institutions or scientific organisations if the companies co-financed the projects (see Figure 2.21).
Subsidies were allocated on a competitive basis. Therefore, in reality, a significant number of companies, universities and scientific organisations formed linkages with the aim of undertaking R&D and commercialising the results.
Russia’s education system also underwent a significant transformation in the focal period. The 2012 Federal Law on Education in the Russian Federation established a framework for a modern education system that was consistent with international requirements. It fostered developments in educational programmes, including requirements for modernizing teaching methods, approaches and technologies. It raised the standards for PhD qualifications, and the PhD level officially became the third stage of higher education. This necessitated the development of an appropriate educational programme, including not only the writing of a dissertation but also the study of disciplines aimed at forming systematic research competencies. PhD students were also required to undertake pedagogical training, take on internships, and prepare and publish scientific articles. Moreover, in fulfilment of the law, higher education moved to the third-generation educational standards in 2010. Those standards were aimed at the formation of competences rather than providing knowledge on a given set of topics. Entrepreneurial competencies were included in the educational standards. Also, in accordance with the law, the secondary-school and professional-education systems were transformed. These changes included giving schoolchildren the opportunity to choose a specialisation in the last two years of their studies.
Under the leadership of the non-profit National Training Foundation, the Presidential Programme for Advanced Training of Engineering Personnel was implemented in 2012. The goals were to improve the qualifications of engineers in Russia’s strategic industries, to develop engineering education by organising training programmes in prioritised
industrial sectors (e.g., energy and resource efficiency, nuclear technologies, space, medicine, ICT), and by offering internships in leading research and engineering centres in Russia and abroad\textsuperscript{13}. The programme was based on private-state partnerships, and the interaction of educational institutions, business and government. Over the course of three years, RUB 655.5 million in state subsidies was allocated to finance the program’s activities, while RUB 494.2 million was raised from the private sector. A database of the 544 programmes available to engineering personnel was developed and made publicly available on the programme’s website.\textsuperscript{14} The website also enabled enterprises to search for and order programs for specific tasks. This project allowed for the development of long-term partnerships between educational organisations and enterprises. Within the programme’s framework, 16,594 specialists were provided with advanced training, of which 5,252 completed internships with Russian enterprises and engineering centres. Another 2,087 undertook internships abroad. Foreign internships were organised in 35 countries. In total, 96 educational organisations and 1,361 enterprises took part in the programme\textsuperscript{15}.
**Commercialisation infrastructure**
Given the significant contribution of large, often state-owned enterprises to the economy (see Figure 2.22 and Figure 2.23), the development of an innovative economy was not possible without activation of their innovative activities.
**Figure 2.22. Contribution of small, medium and large business to GDP, Russia and developed countries**
*Note: Small business including micro-enterprises. Large businesses are companies with over 250 employees.*
*Source: Eurostat [2012], ABS [2012], British Columbia’s Statistical Service [2012], Asian Development Bank [2014], Rosstat [2015], BCG analysis*
\textsuperscript{13} http://www.ntf.ru.
\textsuperscript{14} http://engineer-cadry.ru/.
\textsuperscript{15} http://www.ntf.ru.
A distinguishing feature of the Russian R&D system was the fact that the federal budget for state-owned enterprises (SoEs) and branch R&D organisations accounted for the majority of businesses’ R&D expenditures (IPP, 2016). Few initiatives were implemented to stimulate SoEs’ innovativeness and create demand for innovation in the focal period.
In 2010, the government introduced a requirement for the largest SoEs to form an Innovation Development Programme (IDP) that was to take the priorities of the state scientific, technical and innovation policies into account. The IDP contained a set of activities aimed at developing and introducing new technologies, innovative products, and services corresponding to the global level, and covered the innovative development of Russia’s key industries. SoEs were tasked to cooperate with universities and research institutes to achieve the targets. As a result, the R&D and innovation expenditures of the largest SoEs increased from 1.59% to 2.02% of sales between 2010 and 2014 (IPP, 2016).
In 2013, the existing public procurement system was amended. The new Federal Law on Public Procurement established a single order-placement procedure. In addition, it specifically provided for the procurement of high-tech and innovative products, goods and services from SMEs, thereby encouraging SoEs to establish business links with innovative SMEs.
In 2011, a major initiative was introduced to create a network of technology platforms to serve as communication tools. The aims were to pool together all NIS stakeholders in order to attract additional resources and, thereby, intensify the creation of promising commercial technologies and innovative products (services), and to improve the regulatory framework in the field of scientific, technological and innovative development. From 2011 to 2014, 35 Russian technology platforms\(^{16}\) were created with the participation of a wide range of stakeholders (i.e., leading scientific and educational organisations, large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, small businesses, public associations). In total, more than 3,500 organisations were members of Russian technology platforms (Innovation.gov.ru, 2016).
In 2012, the Ministry of Education and Science collected proposals on the research needed to support the development of technological platforms. As a result, calls for tenders were released for carrying out scientific and research work. The Ministry of Education and Science allocated more than RUB 3 billion to 490 contracts with technology platforms.
Those NIS-development institutions, such as Skolkovo and RUSNANO, that were launched in the focal period with the aim of finding innovative projects and supporting their commercialisation were faced with the fact that there were few promising projects on the market. Most projects utilised ideas that were developed during *perestroika* and subsequent reforms (Rashidov, 2012). In 2009, to stimulate the emergence of new projects and spin-off companies, changes were made in the legislation governing the exploitation of intellectual property arising from public research. The revised legislation established the procedures for its transfer. With its adoption, the budgetary institutions of science and education were given the right to independently establish companies without the consent of the state; to use results of intellectual activity, monetary funds and other property; and to independently use incoming revenue from the disposal of shares.
In 2013, amendments to the federal law enabled public research institutes and universities to create business partnerships for the purpose of transferring intellectual property on the basis of licensing and commercialisation.
In 2010, the active development of federal and regional “innovation elevators” for technology projects began. These “elevators” were designed to enable thousands of young people to realise their scientific potential in Russia, and to become successful and prosperous through the commercialisation of their innovations. From 2009 to 2013, the
\(^{16}\) http://mrgr.org/tp/.
Federal Agency for Youth Affairs implemented the Zvorykin Innovation Project\textsuperscript{17}, which was aimed at popularizing innovation among Russian youth. The project consisted of several stages, as shown in Table 2.17. The project itself became a platform for communication and for establishing links among NIS participants.
Table 2.17. Innovation elevator project for young entrepreneurs
| Search and registration | Selection and education | Support | Results | Heroisation |
|-------------------------|-------------------------|---------|---------|-------------|
| Identification of innovative projects in certain areas among independent innovators and spin-off companies
- Energy efficiency and energy savings
- Nuclear technologies
- Space technologies
- Medical technologies
- Strategic information systems | Project-related expertise and creation of rating based on:
- Expert assessment
- Thoroughness
- Prior participation in contests
- Scientific publications
At this stage, regional and federal conventions, internships, educational programmes, exhibitions, and meetings with the scientific and business elite were held, and legal support was provided. | Zvorykin National Innovation Award for the best projects; awarded in the solemn atmosphere of youth-innovation conventions:
- Grants
- Study-abroad programmes
- Prizes
Participants
- Venture funds
- State funds
- Technoparks
- Business incubators
- Strategic investors | 1. Successful, innovative companies created by project participants
2. Innovative ideas examined and included in the commercialisation process
3. Business projects in the field of innovation ready for implementation
4. Companies focused on the production of innovative products | - Enhance the status of innovators
- Create an innovation trend |
Source: Rusnanonet\textsuperscript{18}
In 2013, a project with similar methodology was implemented under the leadership of RVC. The project was known as GenerationS-2013. By 2013, there was an understanding that the few nascent entrepreneurs present in Russia were generally incapable of ensuring their innovation’s commercial success, as they did not have the necessary competencies or vision to manage business development. Therefore, GenerationS-2013 introduced a mentoring institute (Ryndin, 2013).
In this period, the direct investment market and venture investment market were developing. Therefore, the number of funds and their capitalisation rose (Figure 2.24).
\textsuperscript{17} Named in honor of the prominent scientist Vladimir Zvorykin, who was born in Russia in the early nineteenth century. At the time of the Russian Revolution, he immigrated to the USA, where he carried out his research and engineering activities.
\textsuperscript{18} http://www.rusnanonet.ru/nns/36853/info/#title
According to estimates from the Russian Venture Capital Association, the increase in the number of funds in this period was primarily driven by an increase in the number of venture funds, including seed funds focused on the early stages of the organisational lifecycle (Figure 2.25). By 2013, these funds amounted to 63.8% of the total number of funds. In terms of volume, the venture funds had a share of 17.7% (RVCA, 2013).
**Figure 2.25. Number of venture funds**
Source: RVCA, 2013
Despite the Russian investment market’s ongoing development, it undiversified in terms of fund size and regional coverage. There were very few large funds (see Figure 2.27), and more than 90% of investment activity was concentrated in the Central Federal District (RVCA, 2013).
By the end of 2013, 53 funds had been formed. Some were completely reliant on capital provided through federal or regional budgets, while others were established through various public-private partnership programmes initiated by local and regional authorities, federal ministries, or development institutions. The total capitalisation of funds relying on state capital was at least USD 7.35 billion, which corresponds to slightly more than 25% of the total capital of all operating funds on the market (RVCA, 2014). Until 2013, it was possible to actively attract foreign investors to the Russian market as partners in joint private-equity funds (RVCA, 2014). These funds were vital for innovative start-ups, which needed financing when moving toward later stages of development. Moreover, venture investors were able to derive some investment income as a result of later-stage financial deals.
Throughout the history of the Russian venture market, funds’ industry preferences had been uneven. In fact, more than 30% of total equity and venture investments went to the information and communication technologies sector (Figure 2.28). At the same time, venture investments of private funds and corporate funds prevailed in this sector: 91% of all private venture investments and 98% of all corporate venture investments went to the telecommunications sector in 2013 (RVCA, 2014).
**Figure 2.28. Industry preferences reported by venture and equity funds**
In 2013, funds with state participation invested approximately equally in the telecommunications, biotechnology and industrial technologies sectors. In this regard, the state attempted to offset the clear investment bias toward the IT sector (see Figure 2.29) that arose as a result of that market’s attractiveness in terms of speed and return on investments.
**Figure 2.29. Distribution of venture investments by funds with state participation, by sector**
*Source: RVCA, 2014, p. 11*
*Source: RVCA, 2017*
In fact, as of 2013, the information technologies and telecommunications sector was the only sector that existed and was financed due to market mechanisms (Mincomsvyaz, 2013). The indicators for innovative activities in this sector were higher than those for other sectors (see Figure 2.30; compare with Figure 2.12), but they were still not high enough to compete with the corresponding indicators for most foreign countries.
In 2013, a new venture fund was established through the initiative of President Putin with the direct participation of the ASI using extra-budgetary funds provided by private businesses. The fund, which was designed to actively develop Internet entrepreneurship, was named the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF). The purpose of this fund was not only to support high-tech Internet projects but also to develop the sector as a whole by organising various educational and infrastructural activities in Moscow and other regional markets (Sukharevskaya, 2016). As of 2017, IIDF was one of the most active non-state-sponsored development institutions.
**Figure 2.30. Innovative activity of companies in telecommunications**
![Graph showing innovative activity of companies in telecommunications]
*Source: Gorodnikova et al., 2017*
In the same period, the number of business angels grew rapidly. Some of them were Russians who had left the country during the *perestroika* and post-reform period to become entrepreneurs in the US, Israel or Germany. The growth in angel investments was most evident in 2012 and 2013. In 2013, angels provided more than USD 117 million to startups, which funded about 100 projects (NABA, 2013).
In general, the efforts to develop the Russian venture ecosystem in this phase resulted in an increase in both venture investments and exits (see Figure 2.31) (PwC and RVC, 2014).
**Figure 2.31. Russia’s venture market**
While the formation of the venture market was an important positive factor for the development of the Russian NIS in this period, its volume still remained extremely low compared to the total intramural R&D expenditures and allocated state funding. In 2013, the total venture market only corresponded to 10% of all intramural R&D expenditures, 68% of which were financed through funds with state participation (see Figure 2.32) (Voynilov, 2017).
**Figure 2.32. Total intramural R&D expenditures by financing source, 2013, RUB billions and %**
In general, the Russian venture market did not reach the critical mass needed to allow it to become an effective lever for innovative development (see Figure 2.33).
In this period, technoparks associated with higher-education institutions and industrial complexes continued to develop. The High-Tech Association of Technoparks and the Industrial Association of Technoparks were established with the aim of serving as self-regulatory organisations responsible for coordinating the network of technoparks after the end of the state programme.
In 2013, the comprehensive programme "The creation of technology parks in the Russian Federation in the sphere of high technologies" underwent several changes. In March 2013, as a result of a public fund expenditures audit, the conditions for allocating funds were revised and a procedure for selecting programme participants on a competitive basis was introduced. In addition, control over the use of funds was significantly strengthened by introducing constant monitoring of performance indicators and on-site inspections of the technopark projects. Thereafter, the need to develop standards for technoparks was put on the agenda.
The development of accelerators and business incubators also began in the focal period. This occurred because venture funds wished to enhance the quality of start-ups and their development speed in order to increase their return on investments, and because higher-education institutions were running projects aimed at providing assistance with commercialisation. The latter were introduced in 2011 and 2012 using public funds provided in accordance with the regulation "On State Support for the Development of Innovative Infrastructure in Federal Educational Institutions of Higher Professional Education" (RUB 2 billion in 2011 and RUB 3 billion in 2012; RG, 2010).
In 2013, a new project was launched in the field of innovation-infrastructure development. The project aimed to create a network of engineering centres that would be associated with
higher-education institutions. In the first competitive selection round, 91 higher-education institutions submitted 96 proposals for the development of engineering centres. Consequently, 11 higher-education institutions and their 12 programs received funding for the development of engineering centres in the following areas: composite materials, laser and additive technologies, and computer engineering. The total amount of state support allocated in 2013 was RUB 500 million.\footnote{http://innovation.gov.ru/ru/taxonomy/term/2356.}
In addition to the development of commercialisation infrastructure, one important achievement was the establishment of an innovative community. Qualified experts and mentors, business angels, and investment specialists became available to assist start-ups in the development of their business.
\textit{Information and transparency}
This period was characterized by widespread coverage of events in the press and through official sources. In 2012, the "Open Government" project was launched, the goals of which were to provide timely information on the work of ministries, departments and other public authorities; introduce mechanisms to allow feedback to flow between authorities and society; and ensure transparency for the purpose of exercising public control, which should then enhance the efficiency of authorities’ work and the quality of their decisions.\footnote{http://open.gov.ru/.}
In the same period, a large number of private initiatives were implemented in strategic partnership with RVC. For example, from 2012 to 2015, the private company GrienfieldProject ran the Russian Startup Ranking, which assessed the potential of Russian start-ups active in the high-tech, biomedtech, cleantech and IT/Internet/mobile areas (Tikhonov, 2013). Starting in 2010, the private company Digital October organised more than 3,000 events, ranging from educational lectures for the general public on the topic of technology entrepreneurship to speeches by gurus in management and entrepreneurship (e.g., Mark Zuckerberg, Guy Kawasaki, Steve Wozniak) to major events, such as TechCrunch Moscow, as well as numerous professional conferences in the field of entrepreneurship.\footnote{http://digitaloctober.ru/.}
Numerous on-line platforms and sites were also launched, which served to disseminate information and build relations among NIS participants. The international forum "Open Innovations" was launched in 2012. It became a global platform for discussing numerous issues related to the construction of the NIS on both the country and global levels.\footnote{https://forinnovations.ru/about.}
Implications for innovation and networking
The focal stage can be described as a period of continued build-up of the innovation climate in Russia in terms of policy improvements, consolidation of material and human resources, and the taking of a key step towards creating an innovative culture. It was marked by the implementation of a wide range of governance measures aimed at NIS development in terms of creating framework conditions, introducing new governance tools and development institutions for innovation, providing resources, stimulating demand for innovation, stimulating relationship building among participants in the innovation community, and providing opportunities for public and non-profit organisations and innovators to participate in the organisation and management of innovation projects. This stage encompassed the launch of numerous processes related to the development of the Russian NIS and technological entrepreneurship, including some aimed at ensuring that Russia met international requirements.
Considering Russian NIS using the model of the innovative pyramid (Figure 2.34), it can be concluded that its three foundation layers were formed by 2014. Infrastructure layer in general was formed, although the state continued to play the key role in its management and financing. In addition, the state-based financial support system had just begun a gradual transition from direct financing towards providing support on a competitive basis.
Efforts to increase the number of innovative SMEs in this period and to launch market mechanisms for their financing had some success, although market-based venture-capital financing remained low. The number of high-quality start-ups (meeting the requirements of an experienced, competent team; a protected technology; and a developed, competitive product with high market potential) was insufficient to allow for rapid growth of the venture-capital market. Most start-up owners did not have enough experience or knowledge to develop their businesses and become attractive for the venture market (Andrushchak et al., 2018). In addition, demand for innovative products did not organically emerge in either B2C or B2B markets. Therefore, it was nearly impossible to assess the market attractiveness of innovative products. As a result, market-investment mechanisms were only introduced in one sector – IT and telecommunications – as this sector was actively developing due to high demand for IT solutions. In other sectors, start-ups were mostly supported by public funds in the form of grants or venture-capital investments provided by public-private funds.
Significant changes occurred in terms of involving not only professionals but also the general public in discussions of issues related to innovation. The term "innovation" became a buzzword, although there was no unified agreement on its meaning. In accordance with the Triple Helix (Etzkowitz and Ranga, 2013) spaces of knowledge, innovation and consensus, Russia had already moved along the path of knowledge restoration and basic innovation infrastructures building. The country therefore needed to focus on creation of the consensus space. This meant moving well beyond formation of development institutions, and infrastructural and framework conditions. It was necessary to create a set of activities that would draw NIS actors from different spheres into collaborative processes, and bring them together to brainstorm, discuss and evaluate proposals for advancement towards an innovation-based economy. The idea was to initiate a cross-fertilizing environment in which diverse perspectives and ideas could be generated, and results could be achieved that the actors were unlikely to have accomplished individually (Etzkowitz and Ranga, 2013). According to Etzkowitz’s theory of the consensus space (Etzkowitz and Ranga, 2013), government and non-government actors needed to interact continuously to exchange resources and negotiate shared purposes. Innovation could be accelerated by strengthening the dialogue and collaboration between national and regional
NIS stakeholders; creating new platforms for communication; and promoting collaborative governance measures, such as public consultation and feedback, and collaborative leadership models and practices (Chrislip, 2002; Archer and Cameron, 2008). As the perceived goal was to make the NIS a self-governing, market-led system, it was necessary to ensure that government did not occupy a privileged position, although it could participate and take the initiative on an equal basis with others. This approach could help increase the transparency in the state’s governance boundaries, thereby beginning to counteract the loss of trust in the government that occurred during *perestroika* and the period of privatization. Another goal was to create a boom in public entrepreneurship by spurring individual innovation efforts, and providing the energy and focus needed for talented people to release their intellectual and entrepreneurial potential to create innovation firms. A wide range of networking activities was implemented, including entrepreneurial training programmes and business-projects competitions, accompanied by extensive positive coverage of all of these events in the press. The aim was to create a broad innovative community in which entrepreneurs, firms, universities and local government actors began to see themselves as part of a larger whole (Etzkowitz and Ranga, 2013) committed to building a strong innovation system in Russia.
Russia’s NIS system was based on a “technology-push” approach (Dezhina, 2016) and was heavily supported by public funds. Scientific efforts mainly concentrated on achieving breakthroughs in chosen “critical areas” (e.g., aerospace, nanotechnology, nuclear technology, energy, biotechnology) through the development of new technologies. In the short term, this policy neither led to the creation of a large number of new, highly innovative companies nor supported the needs of existing businesses, which were addressed through the use of foreign high-tech products.\(^{23}\)
As a whole, the state of the innovation system by 2014 can be characterised as a multidirectional chaotic movement (Brownian motion) of various innovation ecosystem actors with different cognitive frames, values, motives and behavioural norms. In the absence of sufficient experience and competencies, they innovated and experimented, and developed their own strategies and business models with the aim of occupying a certain niche in a newly created innovation domain and related markets. This period had the highest degree of activity in the field of communication (everyone communicated with
\(^{23}\) As of 2013, an estimated 40% of Russian companies’ production costs were attributable to foreign high-tech equipment and components. In some industries, this figure reached critical levels of 50-60% (e.g., the automotive, pharmaceutical, medical and instrumentation industries; and in the production of machine tools, electric machines and electrical equipment) (Simachev et al., 2016).
everyone when trying to understand the mechanisms of innovation) and in the field of multidirectional project implementation, which was largely possible due to the availability of state funding.
In general, all groups of key actors of NIS had appeared by 2014. The Russian NIS as of 2013 is depicted in Figure 2.35.
**Figure 2.35. Russia’s NIS as of 2013**
The Figure 2.35 shows that the Russian NIS as of 2013 was a complex conglomerate of heterogeneous organisations that emerged in the Russian innovation landscape mainly due to the influence of the state, which continued to play a key role with regards to providing financial support, distributing resources and coordinating the activities of NIS participants. By the end of 2013, the government’s main efforts were aimed at creating diversity among instruments and actors in the innovation space, and at introducing mechanisms for their self-organisation and self-financing. Overall, the government’s innovation policy at the time can be characterised as a top-down policy in which decision making and resource distribution were centralised. A culture of innovation had not yet developed in society to
produce a bottom-up stream of independent innovators and organisations. Most innovation-development organisations were state-owned, and their spheres of responsibility were crossed and duplicated. As they were founded as part of an experiment aimed at confirming the feasibility of innovation-driven strategy of national economy development, these organisations had to demonstrate quick success, which led them to compete for the opportunity to provide support to the few technologies found and innovators capable of realising commercialisation in foreseeable future (Rashidov, 2012). Moreover, the fear of a misuse of public funds blocked their initiatives, and led to highly bureaucratic and inflexible mechanisms (Carayannis et al., 2016). Nevertheless, certain elements of self-organisation among NIS players began to emerge in the form of associations and communication platforms. In the nascent innovation space, few private organisations provided services to innovators, as their offerings were not in demand among newly emerging start-ups. Such start-ups did not understand how businesses should be organised and they could not afford to pay for professional services.
A number of initiatives were expected to contribute to the development of the innovation system. Among them were the introduction of mechanisms to stimulate the development of technological entrepreneurship on the basis of universities, measures to stimulate the establishment of links between industry and science (see Figure 2.21), and measures to stimulate demand for innovation in state corporations. In order to create a sustainable system that produced innovative start-ups, a number of changes were adopted in the legislation regulating innovation activity in higher-education institutions, and universities were forced to adapt their activities in order to become "entrepreneurial universities". More specifically, they were required to reach a certain level of performance in terms of commercialisation indicators. Grants and subsidies were allocated to support the creation of an innovative infrastructure around technological universities with the aim of commercialising scientific developments (including, e.g., incubators, accelerators and technology-transfer centres). However, faculty members, inventors, experts and students did not understand the basic concepts of IP protection and usage, and they did not have the competencies necessary for commercialisation (Carayannis et al., 2016). As result, the imposed objectives of engagement in technological entrepreneurship provoked resistance. Therefore, this initiative did not lead to the creation of a large number of successful “born-in-the-university” start-ups (Andrushchak et al., 2018). In terms of the need to stimulate demand for innovative products in the production sector, which was home to large, state-owned companies, the government’s efforts focused on the introduction of Innovation Development Programmes (IDP), which included the creation of corporate venture funds.
and the implementation of open innovation mechanisms. However, most IDPs did not work in reality and their introduction did not lead to significant growth in innovative spin-offs (Kuznetsov, 2016).
Consequently, the innovation system remained inefficient. The extensive inputs in the form of funds and effort did not enhance the innovation performance of the production sector or improve Russia’s global competitiveness (see Figure 2.36).
**Figure 2.36. Trends in Russia’s position in the Doing Business ranking, the Global Innovation Index and the Global Competitiveness Index**
*Source: Doing Business, GII and Global Competitiveness Index*
As R&D and technology testing are long-term projects, most of the companies created in the focal period commercialised technologies that had been developed in previous periods, including the Soviet era. Moreover, there were few valuable technological solutions, so that investors and development institutions competed for the opportunity to support them. Numerous training and acceleration programmes, competitions, and events for start-ups and the innovation community conducted during this period (mostly in Moscow) created opportunities to access information, search for complementary competencies and obtain financial support. Knowledge in the field of Russian technological entrepreneurship was largely informal and embedded in people. More experienced NIS participants willingly shared their knowledge with newer actors, seeing this as their contribution to the development of the NIS. From this point of view, networking was the main method of learning and it was actively used by innovative start-ups.
However, the complexity of the Russian NIS that resulted from the dynamic modifications of regulations, the constant changes in the composition of NIS actors, the rules for development institutions’ support programmes, the lack of a common terminology, the
different cognitive frames, and the incentives of innovators, venture capitalists and government representatives (Andrushchak et al., 2018) created a high degree of uncertainty. They also resulted in high transaction and coordination costs for networking, and entailed a variety of risks for entrepreneurs (Carayannis and Dubina, 2014), as shown in Table 1.7.
**Phase 5: 2014 – 2018**
In this period, the aim of eliminating the structural and operational imperfections in the Russian NIS was supplemented with a need to solve problems of a different nature. The construction of the Russian innovation ecosystem in this period was greatly affected by the geopolitical situation, which led to economic destabilisation. The situation also created an acute need to intensify innovative activities to ensure a transition to an innovative development path despite the limited access to financial and technological resources caused by the sanctions imposed by Western countries.
In 2013, the economic stagnation (see Figure 2.37) manifested in a decline in industrial production (Baranov, 2013) and a significant reduction in GDP growth (from 3.7% in 2012 to 1.8% in 2013) (Rosstat, 2016). This led to the flight of investors from Russian markets. In the seven months after July 2013, Russian funds lost more than USD 2.5 billion (Gaydayev, 2017).
**Figure 2.37. Indicators of Russia’s economic performance**
*Source: World Bank, 2016*
The sharp decline in foreign investments continued in 2014 as a result of sanctions imposed by Western countries, as well as the slowing of the economy and the devaluation of the rouble. Reductions in the inflow of foreign investments took place against the backdrop of an outflow of domestic capital caused by political uncertainty and economic instability (Pukhov, 2014).
As a result of the economic crisis, companies reduced their innovation activities. In general, most companies maintained their R&D budgets, which, owing to the devaluation of the rouble, meant that they were actually reduced (Dezhina, 2016). In 2013, the conditions for doing business faced by SMEs worsened as a result of the twofold increase in insurance premiums (Gorovtsova, 2013). In 2014, the procedure for registering companies became more complex (e.g., long timeframes; difficult, multistage licensing and permit application procedures) (Dezhina, 2016). In the face of these negative trends, which were exacerbated by the fact that there were no promising projects in terms of innovative potential, the size of the venture market sharply decreased from USD 2.89 billion in 2013 to USD 1.69 billion in 2014 (USD 2.19 billion in 2015; USD 0.41 billion in 2016) (MoneyTree 2014, 2015 and 2016). Foreign investors began to invest more cautiously in Russian projects. Moreover, in their attempt to diversify risks, Russian investors began to increasingly invest in foreign markets (RVCA, 2016), thereby diverting already scarce financial resources from the Russian market.
The difficult economic and geopolitical situation gave rise to demands to increase productivity to ensure diversified growth, and to implement vital structural and institutional reforms (Gokhberg, Kuznetsova, 2016). A change in the innovation strategy was necessary. In particular, special attention was paid to overcoming the economy’s raw-material orientation, implementing a rational import-substitution policy, and increasing the efficiency of budget fund use.
Two programmes were approved in April 2014: "Economic Development and Innovative Economy" and "Industry Development and Enhancing its Competitiveness". The objectives of these programmes were to create advanced innovative infrastructure for the development of new industries and markets, to remove regulatory barriers, and to generate favourable conditions for bringing innovative products to the market. In particular, the programmes aimed to develop industries oriented toward the consumer market by increasing extra-budgetary sources of financing, ensuring a phased reduction in the amount of direct state financing of industries, and focusing government-support instruments on stimulating demand.
Within the defence-industrial complex, the task was to intensify the utilisation of production capabilities for the development and production of new types of weapons and military equipment. The defence-industrial complex was assigned a special role as the engine of innovative production in the spheres of dual-purpose products (Diveeva, 2015). In December 2014, the National Technological Initiative (NTI) – a set of measures designed to create fundamentally new markets and, thereby, generate conditions for Russia to become the global technological leader by 2035 – was announced.\footnote{https://www.rvc.ru/nti/.}
Until 2015, the main focus was on supporting science and start-ups, especially through initiatives that could change the innovation landscape. These initiatives included RAS restructuring; the establishment of development institutes focused on start-ups and venture market development; and the introduction of the NTI, which was expected to become a unifying platform for constructive discussions among government, business, science and education institutions. The NTI was also designed to serve as a key tool for identifying strategically significant development areas and aligning the efforts of all NIS members in order to accelerate the achievement of the goals. This was particularly important given the limited financial resources and the pressure exerted on Russia by the sanctions, which forced it to build a more independent economy, address the need for import substitution and improve the global competitiveness of its domestic production sectors (Borovkov, 2016).
Given the limited budgetary resources, it was necessary to focus on the areas of innovation policy that could provide the most significant results in a short period of time. As such, starting at the end of 2015, considerable attention was paid to mature businesses, especially in terms of updating the Innovative Development Programs (IDPs), including the incorporation of KPIs to allow for efficient evaluations of plan fulfilment. In terms of the provision of public financial resources to NIS actors, there was a visible shift from allocation of budgetary funds toward the provision of targeted incentives and grants on a competitive basis (Kuznetsov, 2016).
In general, in the focal period, it was necessary to improve the financial and non-financial infrastructure of innovation, remove administrative barriers, provide the most favourable conditions for business and for the effective commercialisation of scientific developments, and increase demand for innovation from the public sector and large businesses. Other priorities included encouraging investments in high-tech sectors, adapting the educational
sphere to the likely demands of the future economy, and ensuring the harmonious development of the country’s regions by enhancing the use of existing scientific and technical potential (Gusev and Guseva, 2016).
**Governance**
As discussed above, the strategic direction of government measures changed dramatically in 2016. A transition to more targeted activities was carried out in three key areas (as shown in Figure 2.38), with an emphasis on measuring their efficiency and effectiveness (Kuznetsov, 2016).
**Figure 2.38. Targets of Russia’s state innovation policy**
At the national level, the focus of governance measures shifted to mature businesses, especially large enterprises. These businesses were offered opportunities to gain support in addressing such issues as patenting, exports, and government procurement. In addition, a few new large-scale projects were initiated (Kuznetsov, 2016). Programmes to support technological SMEs also experienced a shift in aims from focus on support for start-up emergence to stimulation of the growth and development of existing companies. This transition was generally consistent with international approaches, where there was a shift from the broad cultivation of innovative competences and general stimulation of entrepreneurial activity toward more targeted programmes, including the implementation of projects aimed at industrial development to support priority markets (Kuznetsov, 2016).
The key activities in this phase are presented in Table 2.18 (see also Appendix 2.1).
| Research and higher-education institutions | 2014-2015 | 2016-2017 |
|-------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| RAS reorganisation, and project to measure and increase efficiency of scientists’ work | Creation and implementation of a system for evaluating scientific organisations’ performance | Merger of the Russian Foundation for Humanities (RFH) and the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research (RFFR) |
| Active phase of state-sponsored programme “Academic Excellence Project” aimed at getting five Russian universities into the top 100 higher-education institutions | Development of a list of pressing fundamental and applied problems by the NTI | New “Strategy for scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation” |
| Continuation of fundamental research support through the provision of mega-grants | Priority project "Universities as centres of innovation-creation space" | Plan for implementing the Strategy for scientific and technological development of Russia for 2017–2019 |
| Launch of Federal Agency for Scientific Organisations (FASO) | Strategic initiative “New model of the system of additional education of children”, including the development of a system of engineering and entrepreneurial education at the secondary-school level (e.g., a network of science and technology parks for children, known as Quantorium) | Formation of the educational environment, research competencies and technological facilities needed to implement the federal programme “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” |
| Establishment of Scientific Research Centre for aviation science – “Zhukovsky Institute” | Funding under the Programme for Science and Technology Development | |
| Improvement in funding mechanisms reflecting a transition from budgetary financing to competition-based grants | Creation of the Educational Fund “Talent and Success” and the educational centre “Sirius” in the city of Sochi; based on the Olympic infrastructure; goal: to create a network for additional education of children on a national scale | |
| Funding under the Programme for Science and Technology Development | Federal target programme for the development of education for 2016-2020 | |
| Creation of the Educational Fund “Talent and Success” and the educational centre “Sirius” in the city of Sochi; based on the Olympic infrastructure; goal: to create a network for additional education of children on a national scale | Introduction of an effective contract with employees in the field of education | |
| SMEs | 2014-2015 | 2016-2017 |
|------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Construction of innovative territorial clusters: Skolkovo, Innopolis, MSU Valley | Development of NTI strategy and roadmaps for priority markets | |
| Development of a network of technoparks | Creation of the NTI project office as a division of RVC | |
| Establishment of an Innovation Development Institute “The Federal Corporation for the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises” | Funding under the NTI roadmaps | |
| Launch of NTI | Launch of branch venture funds | |
| Funding under the state-sponsored program on Economic Development and Innovation | Possibility to use tax benefits for stock ownership to stimulate private investments | |
| Transformation of GenerationS into a platform for the implementation of corporate acceleration tools | Approval of a set of measures within the framework of the Small Business and Individual Business Initiative Programme | |
| Establishment of a requirement to obtain 18% of the aggregate annual value of contracts in public procurement of goods, work and services from SMEs | Development of the Strategy for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 | |
| Events for start-ups, e.g., Start-up | As a part of the federal programme “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation”, creation of an acceleration system for start-ups and SMEs in the sphere of information and digital technologies through the | |
| Mature businesses | Village, TechCrunch | provision of information and investment support |
|-------------------|--------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
| Development and further actualisation of IDPs | Establishment of the Technology Development Association (TDA) and Russian Export Centre (REC) | |
| Creation of the Industrial Development Fund and launch of project funding | Implementation of the Special Investment Contract (SPIC) mechanism, which provides for the conclusion of an agreement between an investor and the Russian Federation (or its entity); records the investor's obligation to master the production of industrial products within the stipulated timeframe and the Russian Federation’s (or its entity) obligation to guarantee the stability of tax and regulatory conditions, and the provision of incentive and support measures | |
| Development of a system of tax incentives for innovation (approximately 70 measures) | Mandatory state procurement from SMEs | |
| Engineering-development subsidies | Support of worldwide patenting | |
| Subsidisation of investment-loan interest rates and R&D expenditures | National Champions Project | |
| | Launch of the project "Development of innovative clusters – leaders of investment attractiveness on a global level" | |
| | Compensation of up to 50% of costs incurred by Russian organisations when introducing modern, high-tech production equipment into pilot production | |
| | Annual monitoring of the quality of IDP implementation, including measurement of success relative to KPIs | |
| | The task of modernising existing enterprises in terms of using digital technologies and the creation of at least 10 leading companies that would be competitive in global digital markets by 2024. | |
*Source: Developed by the author*
In the focal period, the main efforts to ensure an increase in innovation activity were aimed at improving innovation capacity through supply-side interventions designed to help firms upgrade their capabilities. At the same time, demand-side reforms aimed to create more competitive, less monopolised markets. These reforms included the establishment of a market for SMEs in order to support their development by, for example, stimulating the innovativeness of large state-owned companies.
In the focal period, a significant amount of attention was paid to implementing measures to increase the efficiency of innovation in companies in which the state held an interest. An analysis of the implementation of their 2011 IDPs showed that the entire system had to be improved by expanding requirements for programmes’ content and by strengthening
control over their realisation. In 2015 and 2016, the Ministry of Economic Development, in conjunction with the government’s expert council and the institutes of innovation development, worked on updating the methodological basis and improving the requirements for IDPs (Rosimushchestvo, 2017). The state-owned companies were tasked with developing long-term IDPs that would take the possibility of business diversification into account and pay special attention to the commercialisation of solutions on the global market. The aims were to increase exports of innovative products, maximise import substitution, and diversify financing sources and instruments in order to minimise the dependence on public funds.
In 2016, methodological guidelines were formulated for assessing the quality and success of the implementation of IDPs in state-owned enterprises. The achievement of the KPIs for innovation activity that were incorporated in long-term company-development programmes was now included in the motivation systems for top management teams. The IDPs’ quality criteria included the existence of a long-term vision for the direction of innovative development, the novelty and significance of key innovative projects for companies, and the sufficiency of financial resources to achieve the goals (Open Government, 2016). In 2017, an independent expert review was carried out on the basis of this assessment system. As a result, 29 companies received feedback and instructions for improving their innovation activities (Open Government, 2017). Annual monitoring of the quality of innovation activities of state-owned companies will also be carried out in the future. This system of measures was aimed at creating mechanisms to allow state-owned companies to take an active role in implementing their innovative programmes, thereby creating demand for innovations from SMEs through open-innovation tools.
A number of measures were also implemented to improve the management of public investments and increase the economic impact of public-infrastructure investments by enhancing institutional capacity to plan and manage large-scale initiatives, and by expanding the use of public-private partnerships. In this regard, the contribution of public organisations established in the previous period is notable. For example, the Association of Technoparks developed national standards for both high-tech and industrial technoparks, and, on that basis, carried out the accreditation of technoparks and developed national rankings. Such activities increased transparency, and ensured the more efficient use of funds by state and private investors. In addition, the effectiveness of the special economic zones was assessed, after which operations in inefficient economic zones were stopped. The financing of Science Cities was also changing. In addition to basic state support
distributed on the basis of the number of residents, funds were provided on a competitive basis. In general, the regional innovation policy was shifting from a "levelling" paradigm toward identifying the most successful territories and supporting those projects with the greatest potential (Zemtsov and Barinova, 2016).
A number of measures aimed at stimulating import substitution were also implemented. In particular, the Russian government decreed that goods of Russian origin were to be prioritised in the procurement of goods, work and services by state-owned enterprises. This decree established that foreign goods could not be procured if there was a Russian equivalent of equal quality. In 2015, the PRIORITY prize introduced. It was awarded to those Russian enterprises that achieved the greatest success in the area of import substitution. These measures were designed to increase domestic demand for high-quality, innovative, Russian products.
In order to improve the efficiency of governance and reduce bureaucracy, the Council for Strategic Development and Priority Projects (the government’s project office) was established under the President of the Russian Federation. Its operations were based on project-management principles. In addition, in accordance with the principles of project management, roadmaps for the National Innovation Initiative were implemented within the project-manager functions assigned to RVC.
The key strategic initiatives of this period included the National Technology Initiative (NTI) and the Digital Economy Programme. At the end of 2014, work on the development of a set of measures for the NTI focused on identifying and supporting the development of promising Russian industries that could serve as the basis for the global economy in 15 to 20 years (Evdovina, 2015). The essence of the NTI initiative was to move from a reliance on past strengths (Phase 3) or catch-up strategy (Phase 4) to a strategy of advanced development by identifying promising global high-tech markets and establishing Russian companies that could become powerful players on those markets (Mitin, 2017).
**Entrepreneurial support**
By 2017, Russia’s small and medium-sized businesses, which were a new economic phenomenon 25 years ago, had become an influential factor in the economy. According to the Federal Tax Service (2016) statistics, Russia was home to about 5,524,000 entrepreneurial organisations as of 1 August 2016. Of these organisations, 47% were legal entities and 53% were individual enterprises. According to the National Statistics Service (Rosstat, 2015), more than 18 million people were employed in small and medium-sized
businesses as of January 1, 2015, which represented approximately 25% of the total employment in the economy.
Table 2.19. Structure of Russia’s small and medium-sized business as of 1 August 2016
| Legal entities | Individual entrepreneurial organisations (IEOs) |
|----------------|-----------------------------------------------|
| Total | Micro | Small | Medium | Total | Micro | Small | Medium |
| 2,594,355 | 2,335,579 | 238,796 | 19,980 | 2,929,410 | 2,900,085 | 28,953 | 372 |
| 47.0%* | 42.3%* | 4.3%* | 0.4%* | 53.0%* | 52.5%* | 0.5%* | 0.0%* |
* Share of total number of entrepreneurial organisations, in %
Micro-enterprise: less than 15 people, less than RUB 120 million in gross income
Small enterprise: 16-100 people, less than RUB 800 million in gross income
Medium enterprise: 101-250 people, less than RUB 2 billion in gross income
Source: The Federal Tax Service, 2016
As of January 1, 2015, entrepreneurial organisations were dominated by individual entrepreneurial organizations (53%) (IEOs). This legal form entailed simplified bureaucratic procedures for creating and running business and paying taxes. Micro enterprises (enterprises with less than 15 people employees) constituted the majority of entrepreneurial organizations (94.8%). More than half of all people employed by SMEs worked for microenterprises or IEOs (55%; Rosstat, 2015).
According to national statistics (Rosstat, 2015), the overwhelming majority of SMEs were active in the wholesale and retail segments, and in the provision of services to the public (e.g., repairs of household goods and personal items, hairdressing services) (see Figure 2.39). As of January 1, 2015, 9% of SMEs were industrial and most companies in this category were medium-sized enterprises (RCSME, 2016).
Figure 2.39. Distribution of SMEs by economic activity, as of January 1, 2015
![Pie chart showing distribution of SMEs by economic activity]
Source: Rosstat, 2015
SMEs were unevenly distributed across federal districts. In terms of the number of enterprises and the number of people employed by small enterprises, the Central Federal District, which was home to 27% of Russia's population, was the leader (Rosstat, 2016) (see Figure 2.40).
In the focal period, the development trend for small and medium-sized businesses was negative. The growth rate of SMEs decreased significantly and averaged no more than 3% per year (Federal Tax Service, 2016). This was due, in part, to the unfavourable economic situation, which caused a sharp reduction in the population’s effective demand. At the same time, a number of measures were implemented in the social and economic spheres in 2014-2016, including the abolition of the tax benefit for properties held by organisations, the introduction of a trade fee, a change in the layout of non-stationary retail facilities in certain regions of Russia, a ban on trade through street stalls and an increase in pension fees. These measures led to deterioration in the conditions faced by SMEs business. More specifically, these measures, in combination with the high fiscal burden, made it difficult for early stage enterprises to grow and increase sales and profitability, and thereby ensure the transition from micro-businesses to small or medium-sized businesses (Strategy, 2016).
The share of sales contributed by SMEs relatives to sales in the economy as a whole declined steadily and, on average, did not exceed 30% in the focal period (Strategy, 2016). This was significantly lower than international indicators (OECD, 2015). The share of exports from small and medium-sized enterprises relative to total exports from Russia did not exceed 6%, which was also significantly lower than international standards (Strategy, 2016). From 2014 to 2016, the innovative and investment activities carried out by small and medium-sized enterprises remained low (Rosstat, 2015), with the share of SMEs carrying out technological innovations relative to the total number of SMEs not exceeding 4.8% (Gorodnikova et al., 2017). In general, SMEs accounted for only 5-6% of total fixed assets and 6-7% of total fixed-capital investments in the country in the focal period (Strategy, 2016).
---
25 Strategy of development of small and medium-sized business in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030.
By international standards, the SMEs’ usage of external financial resources for business-development purposes was unsatisfactory (OECD, 2015). According to Analytical Centre NAFI, 21% of SMEs applied for loans (mainly bank loans) in Russia in 2016. The corresponding figure for European countries was 27% (NAFI, 2017). At the same time, the share of SMEs in bank loan portfolios in the focal period gradually decreased from 16% at the beginning of 2014 to 11.5% at the beginning of 2017 (see Figure 2.41) (NAFI, 2017).
**Figure 2.41. Share of loans to SMEs to total loan portfolio**
*Source: NAFI, 2017*
In the focal period, both the volume of loans extended to SMEs and the aggregate portfolio of loans decreased (see Figure 2.42).
**Figure 2.42. Volume and loan portfolio of SMEs, RUB trillion**
*Source: NAFI, 2017*
As a manifestation of the impact of the general economic recession on the SMEs in the focal period, the structure of SMEs’ loan portfolios changed. These changes included a reduction in the volume of short-term loans aimed at securing working capital (NAFI, 2017) and significant growth in the amount of overdue debt (see Figure 2.43).
**Figure 2.43. Share of overdue loans in corresponding loan portfolios**
![Graph showing share of overdue loans in corresponding loan portfolios]
*Source: NAFI, 2017*
In general, by 2017, the regulatory and legal framework for state support of SMEs had been formed. The development of SMEs, including support for self-employment and SMEs’ investment potential, was viewed as a priority for ensuring the sustainable development of the economy and social stability. In order to stimulate business development and scaling, financial-support programmes were implemented in which entrepreneurs in all regions of the country could participate. Entrepreneurs could receive subsidies for business expenses, and they could obtain microloans, loan guarantees or loans on preferential terms. For SMEs, special tax regimes were provided to optimise the accounting system and tax payments. Measures were taken to expand SMEs’ access to the system for the procurement of goods, work and services for state and municipal needs, as well as for the needs of companies with state participation, including the establishment of quotas for such procurement. In the regions, a network of organisations was established to provide the infrastructure needed to provide entrepreneurs with information, consulting and property support.
In 2015, the Federal Corporation for the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (the “SME Corporation”) was established with the goal of uniting public resources within a single structure to support SMEs and to reduce the number of
administrative barriers faced by entrepreneurs. Under the leadership of the SME Corporation, work was carried out to develop a "one-stop shop" for starting and running a business. In 2016, within the framework of the SME Corporation, an online service known as "Business navigator for SMEs" was launched. The service was designed to simplify the process of opening a new business. Anyone could register, test the demand for a new business, and estimate the payback period. One of the portal's basic functions was to provide single-point access to information about all types of federal, regional and municipal support available to SMEs as well as instruments of financial support.\footnote{http://tass.ru/msp/4109623.}
A number of important moves were made in the focal period, including the revision of administrative procedures related to SME regulation within the framework of the National Entrepreneurial Initiative and the introduction of a number of measures through the "Small business and support of individual entrepreneurial initiative". In 2016, the Strategy for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation for the period until 2030 was adopted. This strategy served as the basis for the development and actualisation of state programmes for the development of SMEs on the federal, regional and municipal levels. Moreover, the system for collecting and analysing information on the activities of SMEs was improved. For example, the Federal Tax Service created a single register of SMEs that contained information on each entity’s category as well as its types of activities, products and licenses.
In 2015, in accordance with the government’s general policy of optimising spending, the overall approach to the provision of state support to SMEs began to change. Since then, the range of support tools has been broadened considerably, while the amount of funding allocated has generally declined (see Figure 2.44).
\textbf{Figure 2.44. State support provided to SMEs}
\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{image.png}
\caption*{\textit{Source: Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, 2015}}
\end{figure}
As of 2015, federal funds were distributed among regions on a competitive basis. Funds were allocated for activities included in regional programmes on the condition that the expenditures were co-financed by those regions. At the heart of the new financing model was the principle of strengthening the region’s responsibility for the quality of the programmes. Measures aimed at achieving this goal included a reduction in funding in subsequent years in cases of inefficient use of public funds or failure to achieve the stated goals. In case of extreme failure, a region was expected to return up to 100% of the funding and would be excluded from the financing programme in the following year.
Thus, in 2017, 82 of the 85 regions were allocated public funds for their SME support programmes. The funds totalled RUB 7.5 billion (i.e., less than in 2016; Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, 2017). The amount of funds allocated to each region was based on four indicators: the number of people permanently residing in the region; the development potential of SMEs in the region, which was determined by dividing regions into categories, taking into account the proportion of urban population living in the region and the share of turnover contributed by SMEs; the coefficient characterising the existence of internal budgetary resources in the region; and the coefficient of efficiency, which characterised the region’s effectiveness in achieving its targets for its SME support programme. If certain measures were found to be ineffective in supporting SMEs, they were to be excluded from the SME support programme in the following year. This approach was designed to increase the efficiency of public-fund use, improve the quality of SME support programmes and enhance the transparency of those programmes.
Thus, in the focal period, a complex strategy was developed, and its implementation began to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem and provide support to SMEs, among which innovative enterprises were given attention. While prioritised actions, framework measures (e.g., changes in legislation), performance indicators and coordinating structures (e.g., the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, SME Corporation) were identified at the national level, specific support programmes were to be implemented at the regional level by the relevant federal executive bodies, taking the specifics of the development of a particular region into account. The implementation of these measures made it possible, on the whole, to improve the entrepreneurial climate, which was evident in Russia's move to 35th place in the 2018 Ease of Doing Business Ranking.\footnote{http://www.doingbusiness.org.}
Support for R&D execution
The implementation of the previous phase’s programmes, which were aimed at forming a competitive and effectively functioning sector of fundamental and applied scientific research, continued. Funding was maintained within the framework of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (affiliated with the Russian Foundation for Basic Research in 2016) and the Foundation for Assistance for Small Innovative Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere (the Bortnik Foundation). The annual allocation of mega grants continued and the sixth mega-grant competition was held in 2017. The grants focused on fundamental research to be carried out under the leadership of prominent scientists in Russian universities and scientific organisations. The plan was to create world-class research laboratories; derive breakthrough scientific results; solve specific problems within the framework of the Russian Federation’s scientific and technological development strategies; and provide training to ensure the availability of highly qualified specialists, including young scientists.\(^{28}\)
In this period, stimulating scientific and technological activities were expanded. Funding was allocated within the framework of the Russian Science Foundation, a non-profit organisation established in 2013 to expand the range of competitive research-funding mechanisms in Russia. Institutions conducting R&D could apply for grants to finance large-scale projects in the field of basic or applied research. To receive a grant, an organisation had to include young scientists in the project group and agree to allocate at least 25% of the grant towards their salaries. Moreover, in 2015, the Russian Science Foundation launched a special grant programme to support young scientists by covering expenses associated with short-term and medium-term internships, thereby contributing to the improvement of academic mobility (Gokhberg and Kuznetsova, 2016, p. 352).
From 2013 through 2015, 15 leading universities were selected on a competitive basis to receive subsidies designed to increase their global competitiveness in both science and education (Project 5-100). The aim was to increase the prestige of Russian higher education and move at least five universities into the top 100 in the three authoritative world rankings – Quacquarelli Symonds, Times Higher Education and the Academic Ranking of World Universities – and to move the other 10 into the top 200.
\(^{28}\) http://www.p220.ru/home/news/item/1261-6kmgo.
In 2014, the federal "Research and Development for 2014-2020" programme was implemented. Through this programme, the state realised its scientific and technical policy of placing state orders for research and development in those areas of science and technology that were recognised as priorities. In the second half of the focal period, these priority areas were directly tied to the technologies identified in the National Technology Initiative (NTI).
In general, the effort to intensify scientific activity had some positive results. For example, the number of publications, including research published in foreign journals, increased. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of articles published in prestigious Russian scientific journals, such as *Science*, *Nature* and the *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*, increased by almost 40%, while their share was about 0.8% of the total number of scientific publications (Lichinsky, 2017). However, citations of these publications remained low compared to the average for the G20 countries (Gokhberg and Kuznetsova, 2016). In addition, in the focal period, the number of patents registered for inventions increased (see Figure 2.45).
**Figure 2.45. Number of registered patents**
*Source: Medovnikov, 2017*
Nevertheless, the number of patents for utility models and industrial designs did not rise (see Figure 2.45), which indicated a gap in the commercialisation chain despite the introduction of measures designed to create motivation and financial stimuli to ensure the transition to the entrepreneurial University 3.0 concept. This transition was viewed as the main requirement for implementation of the NTI (Bikkulov et al, 2016). On the motivation
side, an indicator of higher education-institutions’ progress in establishing technological entrepreneurship, and their success in creating and developing an innovation ecosystem was introduced into the National University Ranking in 2010.\textsuperscript{29} On the financial stimuli side, within the framework of the "Development of Science and Technology" programme for 2013-2020, grants were provided for the development of research networks, and for cooperation among universities, RAS research organisations and industry. The goal was to ensure the commercialisation of scientific developments.
By 2016, as evident in the report “Monitoring of the effectiveness of the innovation activities of Russian universities” (Bikkulov et al., 2016), there was widespread understanding of the need to foster innovative and entrepreneurial development among modern higher-education institutions in Russia as a whole. This was evident in the universities’ mission statements and/or strategies. Accelerators, incubators and other elements of an innovation infrastructure have been established in a number of universities. However, only some universities have policies for the use of intellectual property. Moreover, in general, the revenues universities gain from the management of intellectual property are extremely small, amounting to an average of RUB 28,000 per year per 100 scientific and pedagogical workers. Therefore, the current scientific and educational structures do not seem to support commercialisation. Moreover, they do not appear to ensure the availability of the knowledge and skills needed to solve tasks associated with technology transfers (Medovnikov, 2017). The immaturity of Russian universities in this regard has a dual effect. First, Russia’s universities have not become a source of technologies ready for transfer and commercialisation. Second, the insufficient development of this aspect of their operations means that they cannot access additional financial resources resulting from their entrepreneurial activities, which leaves the spheres of education, science and research in Russia highly dependent on state funding.
Given extant difficult economic conditions, the scientific sphere was also affected by the public spending optimisation programme, which involved the redistribution of funds to the most important areas and a reduction in inefficient spending. In the focal period, federal funding for the Russian Academy of Sciences and higher-education institutions was gradually reduced every year. These reductions primarily affected the social sciences (Alekhina, 2017; Boytsova, 2017).
\textsuperscript{29} \url{http://univer-rating.ru/}.
At the same time, measures were introduced to stimulate the scientific sector’s ability to attract extra-budgetary funds. For example, the state programme "Development of Science and Technology" for 2013-2020 required institutions to attract resources from extra-budgetary sources as a prerequisite for government funding. However, given the decline in R&D expenditures among businesses due to economic stagnation, the implementation of these measures did not affect the structure of science-related financing in Russia – the state and businesses continued to contribute approximately 70% and 30% of funds, respectively (Kiseleva, 2017). The reduction in state financing in the current economic climate, which is characterised by an unavailability of corporate-sector money for R&D and a reduction in the inflow of foreign grants due to sanctions, threatens to deteriorate the scientific base of higher-education institutions, despite significant efforts in previous periods to strengthen that base (Kiseleva, 2017). According to the Russian Academy of Sciences, the federal funds allocated to research do not correspond to the tasks the Russian president expects scientists to tackle (Rogulin, 2016). In the long run, underfunding may mean that Russia will lag its Western peers in scientific and technological areas.
Given the economic situation, the government decided to strengthen support for basic science by, for example, allocating additional funds to the Russian Science Foundation, which has been tasked with supporting fundamental research. The government also decided to support leading research institutions that were expected to serve as growth engines. However, this funding was to be provided if the institutions met international quality standards for research and effectiveness (Alekhina, 2017). At the same time, state support for applied research and experimental development was reduced, while the government worked to introduce market mechanisms to enable business to become the main customer for scientific work in the longer term (Kiseleva, 2017).
Given the focal role of the state in financing R&D, the decrease in budgetary funds may lead to the extinction of the engineering and experimental divisions among research and educational institutions, and produce an effect comparable with that seen in the post-perestroika period when young people ceased to be interested in science. This aspect is widely discussed in the press. It is generally recognised that the existing system of scientific development is ineffective in terms of its ability to produce commercially viable outcomes. As the state historically supported the R&D sector, people often perceived the sector as the perfect arena for achieving self-actualisation by accomplishing the goals that were of scientific interest to them rather than those that served the needs of businesses aiming for market competitiveness (Kiseleva, 2017). In the old R&D system, the
possibility that an idea that emerged from scientific research could be commercialised was viewed as a positive side effect but not a natural goal. The ability of Russian science to offer businesses a competitive, ready-to-deploy technology is still in its infancy. Despite the fact that there are some recent successful examples of business investments in R&D performed by Russian scientists, in most cases it is more convenient and cheaper to use less risky alternatives, such as buying patents and ready-made technologies often produced abroad.
The "valley of death" for Russian scientific ideas lies in the transition from laboratory research to the serial production of a product in which business is interested. The expectation that science should aim to ensure the emergence of technologies leading to new products on the market causes irritation among scientists: "We are told that we must earn through commercialisation. However, we must not be confused – science is the creation of new knowledge, while making money is the use of knowledge, which is not within our zone of competence or responsibility" (Alekhina, 2017). Scientists complain that it is difficult to move developments into production. Potential industrial partners are not interested in carrying out or financing experimental development, which leaves scientists to independently establish enterprises and search for funds for this purpose (Kiseleva, 2017). Although Russia has certain infrastructural resources to support pilot production, such as centres of collective use and design bureaus (usually in technoparks), most Russian scientists do not have the appropriate competencies to handle development themselves or attract the necessary financial resources. Moreover, they do not have the business competencies needed to bring a product to the market. In addition, Russian scientists consider commercialisation to be outside the scope of their competences and interests. In the media debate, the view that competent people should deal with commercialisation is spreading:
The key mistake is that we do not assign the task of transferring technology to the right people. We approach young scientists and say: ‘Now you are engaged in technology transfer’. Where should they run and with whom? They adopt a travelling salesman’s tactic, and go to the companies and say: ‘We have these technologies to offer’. However, they have no connections and no authority. As such, there is no result. We need to change this situation in both corporations and universities, and we need to orient our efforts toward people professionally involved in the markets and work with them. It seems to me that the main way to increase the efficiency of technology transfer is to reorient this work toward those people who do not just want to do it but can do it.
The opinion of Alexander Povalko, who was appointed Head of the Russian Venture Company in December 2016. He had previously served as Deputy Minister of Education and Science, where he was responsible for the development and implementation of the state’s strategy for the scientific, technical and innovation spheres, and for the education system (seen in Medovnikov, 2017)
In particular, some have suggested that development institutes and relevant instruments present in the Russian innovation ecosystem should play a special role in ensuring the commercialisation of scientific outcomes:
If the research is truly market oriented, then it should be carried out together with business. If researchers do not find a direct partner in the business community, they can try to look for opportunities in the venture market. Technological entrepreneurs might invent, but then the technology should be appropriately prepared ('packaged'). In other words, scientists must be aware of the market in which they are active and formulate their strategies accordingly. True, scientists often do not know how to 'sell' their R&D results. Then they need to include promotion specialists in their teams. Of the development institutions, Skolkovo is one that copes with this well.
The opinion of Leonid Gokhberg, who was the first Vice-rector, and Director of the Institute of Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge of the Higher School of Economics (seen in Kiseleva, 2017)
One of the initiatives taken in October 2017 – the creation of NTI Centres – was implemented within the framework of the RVC project office. The centres were designed to reduce systemic gaps among the knowledge-generation, knowledge-application, and knowledge-exploitation systems. The activities of NTI Centres are subsidised by the state on a competitive basis. An NTI Centre is a structural unit created on the basis of a university or scientific organisation, and it is designed to ensure the comprehensive development of the scientific and technical areas that have the most significance for the development of NTI markets. The work of these centres is conducted jointly with the members of the consortium on the basis of a signed cooperation agreement. The partners of universities in the consortium include industrial organisations, high-tech service companies, IT leaders and state corporations, all of which serve as experts in determining the priorities in selected areas of development and as partners in the commercialisation of technologies that emerge as a result of the centre’s activities. At the end of 2017, 70 applications had been submitted from newly established consortiums in 10 scientific and technical areas, and 10 had received funding (RVC, 2018).
In the focal period, the understanding of the role of the education system in the innovation system was changing, which was reflected in a shift in focus from the production of R&D results to the training of competent people who could implement of innovative projects of interest to industry (Medovnikov, 2017):
We need to ensure the continuity of the specialisation vertical: a secondary school student – a bachelor student – a master student – an industrial specialist. The training of specialists with the direct participation of industrial customers will enable us to comprehend new directions of scientific development in relation real-life practices at production sites, thereby enabling young people to grow and participate in real processes.
Opinion of Olga Uskova, who was the President of Cognitive Technologies, and President of the National Association of Innovation and Information Technology Development. (Uskova, 2017)
In order to support the transformation of the scientific and educational potential into concrete results, new initiatives emerged in the field of education. These initiatives were implemented within the context of the federal programme on the Development of Education for 2016-2020. The initiatives included the implementation of a new bachelor's degree framework known as the applied bachelor in which at least 20% of academic time was to be used for internships in companies; the introduction of entrepreneurship-, technology-transfer and commercialisation-related disciplines in master's of engineering programmes; and the implementation of a strategic initiative entitled "New model of the system of additional education of children", which included the development of a system for engineering and entrepreneurial education at the secondary-school level (e.g., a network of science and technology parks for children, known as Quantorium).
**Commercialisation infrastructure**
The main efforts to develop the commercialisation infrastructure in this phase focused on increasing the efficiency of the Russian NIS, developing technological entrepreneurship, and introducing incentives aimed at increasing innovation activity in the scientific community and among large, state-owned companies.
In order to improve the efficiency of the NIS, the initial results of actions taken in the previous phases, many of which were spontaneous and situational, were analysed. Consequently, a methodology for evaluating the activities of high-tech and industrial technoparks was developed by 2015. In 2015, several high-tech technopark projects were selected for inclusion on the list of entities eligible for state support. These institutions were reimbursed for the costs incurred while creating the parks' infrastructure.\(^{30}\) In 2016 and 2017, the effectiveness of the special economic zones was assessed, as were the results of the implementation of the regional innovation policy. These assessments resulted in a change in the way financing was provided, such that funds were thereafter allocated on a competitive basis to projects with the greatest potential. Moreover, the use of public-private partnerships was expanded. At the same time, an analysis of the university ecosystem was carried out by the High School of Economics. The best experiences were consolidated in a report prepared by RVC together with the High School of Economics Business Incubator entitled "Methodological recommendations for improving the efficiency of business incubators and accelerators" (RVC and HSE, 2017). In general, the focal period brought a change in the approach to providing state support to actors in the innovation infrastructure. More specifically, there was a transition from the allocation of
\(^{30}\) http://minsvyaz.ru/ru/activity/directions/445/.
funds to activities focused on the implementation of certain NIS development measures towards reimbursement (on a competitive basis) for actual costs incurred (Zemtsov and Barinova, 2016).
In 2014, the National Technology Initiative (NTI) was launched to enhance the effectiveness of innovation through the creation of a single space in which the interests and efforts of business and science could converge. The first stage of the NTI’s implementation was the development of the NTI matrix, which combined the key concepts of markets, technologies, infrastructure/resources and institutions.
Promising high-tech markets were identified based on the foresight methodology. Most of the measures introduced to help Russia achieve leadership in new markets were formulated by businesses within the framework of working groups, which aggregated the efforts of business, scientific and educational communities, as well as those of public authorities and other stakeholders. The working groups were headed by reputable technological entrepreneurs – professionals in relevant thematic areas and deputy ministers of relevant bodies of the federal government (NTI, 2017\(^{31}\)).
The roadmaps were submitted to the government for consideration and approval. They included activities to: create, develop and promote advanced technologies, products and services that would ensure Russian companies leading positions in the emerging global markets; gradually improve the regulatory framework; improve the education system in order to develop the staff needed for dynamically developing companies, and for scientific and engineering teams involved in the creation of new global markets; monitor and update the roadmaps using foresight methodology. Each NTI market was assigned a title ending in -net to emphasise that it would be fully imbued with information and communication technologies representing an intelligent network based on IT solutions, including measurement, control and decision-support systems (Borovkov, 2016). After launching the NTI initiative, 12 markets were identified (see Table 2.20).
**Table 2.20. NTI markets**
| Market | Description |
|----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| NeuroNet | The market for human-machine communications based on advanced developments in neurotechnology aimed at increasing the productivity of human-machine systems, and enhancing mental and thought processes |
| AeroNet | The market for unmanned aerial vehicles and related services |
| MariNet | The market for marine intellectual systems; market segments: digital navigation, innovative shipbuilding, technologies for the development of ocean resources |
| AutoNet | The market for unmanned vehicles based on the development of sensory systems, and software for recognising road scenes and managing road transport |
\(^{31}\) http://www.nti2035.ru/nti/.
| Market | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| HealthNet | The market for personalised medicine; market segments: IT devices and platforms to support health and treatment, sports health, preventive medicine, new medical materials, bio-prostheses, artificial organs, personal pharmacological drugs, prevention and treatment of aging |
| EnergyNet | The market for technological solutions that ensure the intellectualisation and distributed nature of power grids (smart grid) |
| FoodNet | The market for the intellectualisation, automation and robotization of technological processes throughout the food-product lifecycle from production to consumption, as well as the development of biotechnologies |
| SafeNet | The market for new personal security systems; market segments: secure communication channels (including those based on quantum communications), verified operating systems with enhanced security and applications, biometric authentication systems, other areas |
| FinNet | The market for decentralised financial systems and currencies. Financial settlement systems were expected to play a key role in increasing the efficiency of financial transactions in new markets. Due to the increasing number of payments, the financial settlement systems were expected to become increasingly decentralised. |
| MediaNet | Market for high-tech methods of consuming content |
| TechNet | Cross-market and cross-sectoral direction focused on providing technological support for the development of NTI markets and high-tech industries through the formation of the digital, smart, virtual factories of the future |
| FashionNet | The market for the fashion industry and textiles focused on innovative design methods and new materials |
Source: ASI, 2016\(^{32}\); Mitin, 2017; NTI, 2017\(^{33}\)
Unlike the technology push approach that was applied in the earlier stages of Russia’s NIS development, the NTI goal was more ambitious: to create a mechanism that would link the overarching problems of the country’s economic development with the high-tech markets, the chosen technological priorities and the mechanisms for their implementation. Therefore, the efforts to identify key NTI markets led to the identification of core scientific and technical areas that were expected to have the most significant effects on the development of those markets. In particular, technological barriers were identified and then formulated as lists of R&D and engineering issues that required solutions for the development of certain markets.\(^{34}\) Moreover, the identified NTI markets and technologies determined a meaningful focus for governance initiatives, and led to the introduction of programmes centred on development of the innovation infrastructure and the resource base, as well as measures to support scientific and commercialisation activities.
In fact, the NTI matrix (see Figure 2.46) offered a vision of the strategy and logic behind the building of a new national innovation system in Russia. It aligned the efforts of all NTI participants to achieve the goal of creating a progressive, highly technological economy in Russia that did not chase the leaders but was the leader in certain markets. The purpose of the NTI was to stimulate the emergence of new transnational companies of Russian origin,
\(^{32}\) https://asi.ru/news/59773/
\(^{33}\) http://nti2035.ru/markets/
\(^{34}\) http://nti2035.ru/technology/
which could grow rapidly by entering global markets while retaining their R&D and taxation centres in Russia. In that sense, the NTI represented a response to the exponential growth in technology, which carried both endless possibilities and significant threats for economic development. The NTI provided for a completely new vision of managing the country's innovative development. As a concept, it embraced the vision, the system, the project and the ideology. From a tactical point of view, it was an innovative project consisting of a large number of iterations aimed at continuously testing those hypotheses that were put forward (Pushkash, 2016).
**Figure 2.46. NTI matrix as a new model for Russia’s NIS**
| New markets | New technologies | Talents |
|-------------|------------------|---------|
| NeuroNet | Large amounts of data | Artificial intelligence | Blockchain | Quantum technologies | New and portable energy sources | Sensors and robotics | New production technologies | Wireless connection | Management of biological objects | Neurotechnology and augmented reality | Super talents |
| AeroNet | Priorities of technical policy | Technology push | SMEs | The great scientific challenges | NTI universities and R&D centres | Olympiads and intellectual contests | Competitions | Groups of creativity | Trajectories | Mentors | Challenges | Careers | Environment | Networks |
| MariNet | Transnational companies of Russian origin | Mega projects |
| AutoNet | |
| HealthNet | |
| EnergyNet | |
| FoodNet | |
| SafeNet | |
| FinNet | |
| MediaNet | |
| TechNet | |
| FashionNet | |
**Services**
*Source: NTI, 2016*
---
35 http://www.nti2035.ru/matrix/.
The NTI concept is based on digitisation. At the same time, according to BCG (Banche et al., 2016), Russia is lagging five to eight years behind the leaders in the digital economy and this gap will rapidly increase without strategically balanced actions. At the beginning of 2016, estimates indicated that the digital economy in Russia contributed 2.1% of GDP, which was 1.3 times more than in 2011 but was still three to four times less than in the leading countries (Banche et al., 2016). In terms of overall digitisation, Russia’s inherited dependence on foreign hardware and software was a strategic problem that posed a potential threat to the development of the Russian economy. To address this vital domain, the government introduced an initiative aimed at developing the digital economy. Within the framework of that initiative, a number of actions were undertaken. In 2015, work began on identifying priority projects for the development of information and computer technologies (ICT). Moreover, the need to establish an Information Technology Development Fund (ITDF) to provide financing was discussed. In the absence of funding resulting from public budget constraints in the stagnant economy (Trukhanov, 2016), the ITDF was not established until January 2017. The main objectives of the ITDF were to support scientific and technical activities in the ICT field, to promote the products and services of Russian IT companies in domestic and foreign markets, to support ICT-related import substitution, to train IT personnel, to popularise industry achievements, and to stimulate the prestige of IT careers (Kolesov, 2017). The ITDF was also expected to be engaged in the analysis of ICT sector and to coordinate investments made by innovation-development institutions.
By 2016, an understanding emerged that the underdevelopment of technological entrepreneurship and the immaturity of market mechanisms represented serious barriers to commercialisation. This led to the active renewal of the state policy instruments applied in the fields of innovation and technological activity. In this regard, the efforts of development institutions in 2016-2017 focused on expanding the range of projects aimed at the strategic development of the regional innovation ecosystem; supporting innovative clusters and technological start-ups by, for example, creating incentives for the establishment of corporate accelerators and stimulating the development of open-innovation tools; creating and developing the ecosystem for venture financing for technology companies; supporting technological entrepreneurship; developing technology-transfer mechanisms and creating an efficient service infrastructure to support such transfers; and motivating investors to be active in different stages of the globalisation of the Russian innovation industry. The latter was implemented by establishing partnerships with international players in the innovation and venture ecosystem; promoting Russian
technology companies in foreign markets through government and business fora; and providing services to help Russian projects enter foreign markets (RVC, 2016).
In order to encourage technological entrepreneurship in the focal period, the "TekhUspech" rating was developed to identify successful high-tech companies. In 2016, based on the data obtained while compiling this rating, the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia began to implement the priority project "Support for private high-tech leader companies" (National Champions), which had a planning horizon extending through the end of 2020. The project aimed at ensuring rapid growth among domestic, private, high-tech, export-oriented companies that were leaders in development, and the emergence of Russian multinational companies. The project was expected to provide assistance in accessing government support instruments, including those available through the framework of development institutions, and to offer information and consulting services with the goal of developing companies’ domestic and international activities (Innovation.gov.ru, 2016).
In addition, the Russian Export Centre\textsuperscript{36} was created in the focal period with the purpose of supporting entrepreneurship. The centre was designed as a specialised, one-stop-shop for exporters. It provided financial and non-financial support, interacted with relevant ministries and agencies, and carried out functions related to the development of foreign economic activity. Moreover, with the aim of expanding the range of available, financial instruments, the Industrial Development Fund\textsuperscript{37} was established in 2014. The fund offered preferential conditions for co-financing projects aimed at the development of new high-tech products, modernization, and competitive production processes.
As the venture capital market shrank in 2016 and 2017 (RVC, 2016), the main priority was to revitalize the innovation activities of state-owned corporations, and helping those corporations build relationships with university ecosystems. In October 2016, RVC began implementing the "Development of Innovative Clusters" project, which involved the provision of methodological, organisational and expert analytical support to NIS actors, including the innovative territorial clusters that had been selected as participants in the Ministry of Economic Development’s "Development of innovative clusters – world-level leaders of investment attractiveness" project.\textsuperscript{38}
\textsuperscript{36} https://www.exportcenter.ru/en/.
\textsuperscript{37} http://idfrf.org/.
\textsuperscript{38} https://www.rvc.ru/eco/p2/development_partners/87756/.
The activities of the institutions involved in promoting technology transfer were stepped up in the focal period. In addition to the Russian Technology Transfer Network (RTTN),\textsuperscript{39} which was established in 2002 to allow for dissemination of technological information and the selection of partners for innovative projects, several new players emerged. These new players actively searched for technologies and industrial customers that might be interested in those technologies. As such, they acted as technology brokers. They included the Association of Innovative Technology Brokers (ABIT),\textsuperscript{40} established in 2016, and the National Association for Technology Transfer (NATT), which was established in May 2017 by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent) and the non-governmental development institute Innopraktika.\textsuperscript{41} ABIT was focused on the overall development of technological brokerage through the promotion of comprehensive assessment methods and the development of technology projects. As such, it created the common methodology needed for transparent technology transfer in the NIS. ABIT positioned itself as a group of knowledgeable experts to whom the scientific community could entrust the commercialisation of its projects on certain terms, which included commission fees and a share in the project. Notably, ABIT also developed a joint educational project with the Foundation for the Development of Internet Initiatives. Within the framework of this project, representatives of higher-educational institutions were to learn technology-transfer methods for implementation in their universities. NATT was more focused on technologies requested by large, state-owned companies. It could enter into service contracts with those companies through the existing administrative resources of Innopraktika.\textsuperscript{42}
\textit{Information and transparency}
In the focal period, the active development of the Russian NIS’s web infrastructure continued. A number of useful online information systems offering free access were launched, including the SME Business Navigator; a register of the results of R&D and civil engineering work carried out with the support of federal funds; an SMEs register; a geoinformation system of industrial parks, technology parks and clusters; and an information-support platform developed by the Leadership Development Institute (Leader ID) aimed at consolidating human resources for the implementation of innovative projects.
\textsuperscript{39} http://www.rttn.ru/index.php/about-the-network.
\textsuperscript{40} https://www.abit-russia.com/o-nas.
\textsuperscript{41} https://innopraktika.ru/news/770/#sthash.d98F6BJT.dpuf.
\textsuperscript{42} http://www.newsru.com/russia/07jun2017/tikhonova.html.
As a result of the focal phase’s efforts, information about any Russian NIS project or infrastructural organisation can now be easily obtained through the internet. All competitive procedures, including federal and development institutions’ contests and projects aimed at supporting fundamental and applied research, are carried out electronically. The information can be accessed from almost all regions of Russia, which ensures equal opportunities for all participants in the innovation system. Moreover, an Open Government project\(^{43}\) is being implemented. The project aims to ensure the transparency of decisions and activities of the federal executive bodies. The Open Government project is designed to improve the institutions of civil society, and ensure the interaction of Russian government bodies with public associations, movements and expert organisations. In addition, one-stop-shop projects on interacting with government agencies have been introduced for both SMEs and individuals. However, most of these internet resources are only available in Russian.
**Implications for innovation and networking**
In general, activities in this phase aimed to improve the effectiveness of the Russian NIS, which had been formed in the previous stages but was an inefficient, incomplete, chaotic and uncoordinated system. Despite the fact that much of the NIS had already been formed by the beginning of this phase, visible effects in terms of the use of innovation as a driver of economic development had not been achieved. In addition to the problems related to the slow maturation of market mechanisms conducive for innovation, a new challenge arose in this period – the need for innovation development in the face of the financial constraints caused by the decline in oil prices, the general stagnation of the economy and the international sanctions, which also severely restricted Russian companies’ access to foreign technologies and markets. Notably, although the presence of financial constraints posed a threat to the NIS’s development given the dominance of public resources in the R&D sector, many experts viewed the pressing need for import substitution caused by the sanctions as a powerful external incentive for large Russian state-owned corporations to introduce innovative technologies. As such, these corporations were motivated to search for technologies in the Russian market and to invest in their development despite the limited availability of resources.
With regard to building links in the Russian NIS, the state changed its strategy in response to the economic and political challenges, and the budgetary difficulties arising from sanctions and the implementation of large-scale projects (e.g., the Olympic Games in
\(^{43}\) http://open.gov.ru/.
Sochi, the integration of Crimea, the war in Syria, the World Cup). In the fourth phase of development, the state's efforts were mainly focused on ensuring the emergence of the necessary institutions and on building vertical links in the NIS (see Figure 1.15), while leaving a significant amount of space for others to experiment and undertake various activities to build a wide range of horizontal links. Public funds were provided to various projects that contributed to the emergence of internal links in the NIS. In the fifth phase, the state acted as a catalyst for and integrator of NIS participants' activities. In this role, it streamlined informational, material and financial flows, and provided financing on a competitive basis, mainly subject to private co-funding. In this regard, the state generally reimbursed costs already incurred for projects, the implementation of which led to positive effects.
In the focal period, a new NIS structure was proposed, which is designed to allow for the alignment of NIS actors' efforts and to create a new vision of the purpose of innovation. This approach relies on the identification of new market opportunities within the framework of an NTI project and it is centred on the development of markets of the future, the emergence of which will require new technologies. Therefore, this approach constitutes the Russian interpretation of the "market-push" concept – it is not based on the needs of today’s markets but on the vision of new, currently non-existent or newly emerging markets that will require breakthrough innovations. In this sense, the NTI matrix (see Figure 2.46) represents a new model of the Russian NIS. NTI includes a complex set of projects and programmes, as well as action plans ("road maps") to promote the development of promising markets based on high-tech solutions that will determine the development of the global and Russian economy in 15-20 years. A distinctive feature of NTI is that the action plans for ensuring Russia's leadership in new markets are formulated by the hi-tech business themselves. The realisation of "road maps" occurs by launching concrete NTI projects, which are implemented on the basis of public-private partnerships. The NTI concept unifies all Russian NIS participants’ activities and integrates the development instruments that existed earlier. For example, as of 2017, the allocation of funding for R&D and start-up acceleration programmes, such as GenerationS, reflected the key areas identified within NTI.
The main government efforts related to the NIS in this phase focused on the top two layers of the innovation pyramid (see Figure 1.18): stimulating the development of the innovation environment and finding new financing mechanisms. In this period, most direct federal funding was replaced with measures aimed at stimulating investments through regional
budgets and private capital. The intention was to provide preferential terms for federal funding with respect to obtaining coverage of the costs incurred by those regions that actively invested in the development of innovations. There was also a shift from the homogeneous distribution of federal budget funds to NIS actors towards the provision of selective support for those projects in the spheres of R&D and NIS infrastructure development that promised maximal effect.
In this period, there was a fairly significant change in the instruments used for NIS development, especially after 2016. The new centre of attention manifested itself in the transition from stimulation of a venture-capital market and augmentation of the number of start-ups to stimulation of the demand for innovation among corporations, and of the growth of small and medium-sized technology companies to enable venture-capital exits. The involvement of corporations in innovation development is now realised through the creation of new corporate accelerators, which aim to support technological start-ups that carry out development useful for solving the technical problems facing businesses. Some businesses are actively involved in selecting and working with start-ups in existing programmes and innovative projects (e.g., GenerationS) in order to increase the possibility of attracting corporations as strategic investors and, thereby, provide venture investors with exit possibilities. This might also indirectly contribute to the development of the venture-capital market through the emergence of opportunities for profitable exits of venture investments. However, given the unstable geopolitical situation, the perception of heightened investment risk and the depletion of the pool of attractive start-ups, this beneficial side effect can only be achieved very slowly. After the constant decline that began in 2013, the venture-capital market showed growth for the first time at the end of 2017, when the total capitalisation of venture-capital funds increased by 8% compared to the previous year, and reached USD 4 billion (RVC, 2018). At the same time, the task of stimulating the development of technological entrepreneurship and the emergence of new start-ups did not completely disappear from the Russian NIS’s horizon. However, responsibility for this task moved to the regional and university level.
The introduction of the NTI approach is an essential step in establishing strong and meaningful links among the knowledge-generation, knowledge-application and knowledge-exploitation subsystems of the NIS. The joint development by scientists and businesses of activities included in the roadmaps will help bridge the gap between the scientific sector, which has been accustomed to carrying out fundamental and applied research that corresponded to researchers’ own interests, and businesses, which has
sometimes struggled to formulate clear tasks for scientists in terms of developing relevant technologies.
The need to develop a new systemic solution (the NTI approach) and to implement the numerous measures aimed at improving the effectiveness of the NIS instruments and institutions described in this section required an analysis and critical evaluation of the effects of decisions made in previous phases. The main effects of those decisions included the following. First, activities previously undertaken to develop the venture market, innovation infrastructure and multidirectional projects aimed at stimulating the emergence of start-ups did not result in a significant number of companies that could compete at the global level. Moreover, the few relatively mature private Russian companies that were financed by state funds in their early development stages moved to foreign jurisdictions where it was easier to find the funds necessary for development at later stages. These markets were also characterised by fewer geopolitical risks and higher demand for innovation. Consequently, the focus on finding and supporting an increasing number of technological teams to create new start-ups no longer worked given the decline in the number of technologies ready for commercialisation. Therefore, a new systematic approach was needed to ensure the emergence of start-ups in Russia, especially in light of the positive prospects for business development in newly created markets.
Second, the prevailing conditions did not allow for the organic development of venture mechanisms for a number of reasons. There was a lack of private funds available for investment in the Russian NIS. The business-angel market was growing slightly, but this did not solve the systemic problems associated with venture-market development, as there were no funds available for later stages. The financial resources allocated in funds’ initial investment rounds had not yet resulted in enough returns to allow for re-investments. In addition, large companies did not actively use open innovation and were generally not interested in becoming strategic investors. Moreover, there were not enough exits to prove that investments in the Russian venture industry were economically justified and, thereby, attract new investors. The imposed sanctions, economic stagnation and uncertainties in the Russian market led to an outflow of foreign investors, which reduced the availability of long-term financial resources, which were already severely limited. The restrictions on the abilities of pension funds and insurance companies to undertake risky venture investments also restrained the emergence of long-term financial resources that could revitalise the market. As a result, the volume and size of venture deals declined, and the conditions start-ups faced when attempting to obtain venture funds became more complicated. In an effort
to reduce risks, private funds carefully assessed the quality of start-ups and demanded highly detailed information on projects. Today, venture capitalists often select more mature projects for investment than they did in previous stages of NIS development. As such, state grants and business-angel funds are becoming the primary source of start-ups’ financing in their early stages. However, this may not be sufficient to create a steady flow of new startups, which could lead to a further reduction in the venture market. Thus, venture-market mechanisms have not become a natural growth engine for technological entrepreneurship, which has made it necessary to search for other drivers of growth.
Third, the use of public funds as the key resource for NIS development has had serious drawbacks. On the one hand, development institutions and regional authorities that received public funds had an incentive to use them, but not necessarily in a way that was effective. This led to the inefficient use of funds, including the implementation of expensive, inexpedient projects that did not result in the desired outcomes. In particular, the problem of identifying and growing promising start-ups remained unresolved and funds often went to projects that failed. The press constantly accused state development institutions of misusing public funds.\footnote{Despite the significant benefits of such development institutions as Skolkovo, RVC, Rosnano and Innopraktika, their activities have repeatedly been accompanied by corruption scandals and suspicions of unauthorised use of entrusted resources (e.g., Rashidov, 2012; Internet portal Meduza publications, 2014-2017).} However, the occurrence of errors was inevitable given the absence of a sufficient number of high-quality start-ups, the lack of experience among both development institutions and entrepreneurs, and the lack of fully defined selection criteria. On the other hand, in the opinion of venture-market representatives, the flow of government funding and the relative ease with which start-ups could obtain grants (albeit small in volume) led to systemic errors, including the distortion of entrepreneurs’ motives (Andrushchak et al., 2018). Some entrepreneurs turned into “grant eaters” who extracted profits not by bringing their products to the market but by repeatedly receiving and using grants. Such grant eaters mastered the skills needed to obtain these grants (Grishin, 2014). In the venture community, there is a firm belief that it is impossible to deal with entrepreneurs who have received several state grants, as they are not sincerely committed to working hard to commercialise their ideas or technologies (Andrushchak et al., 2018). Thus, the dependence of the Russian NIS on public funding and the uncontrolled, incompetent spending of public funds by state officers were dangerous, as it made the development of the system unstable. In other words, development progressed only as long as the flow of funds continually increased. Therefore, it was necessary to ensure that business representatives shifted from their position as external stakeholders in
the NIS’s development to actors who were involved in decision making and shared responsibility for the results, including financial responsibility, as intended in the NTI approach.
The analysis carried out in this study highlights a number of strengths and weaknesses inherent in the current state of the Russian NIS (see Table 2.21), most of which are directly related to the opportunities, threats and risks associated with interactions between entrepreneurs and NIS actors.
**Table 2.21. Analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Russian NIS as of 2017**
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| • Integrating the vision for the development of the innovation system | • Unfavourable geopolitical situation and high volatility in the economic environment, which aggravate the risks associated with investing in the Russian market |
| (NTI matrix) | • Dominant role of the state in the NIS’s creation, development and governance |
| • Restored intellectual capital; revitalised scientific schools and the | • Undeveloped methodology for assessing the effectiveness of the NIS in order to rapidly identify problems and redistribute resources |
| scientific community | • High dependence of NIS development on public funding |
| • Interest in science and technological development among young people | • Lack of demand for innovations from business |
| • Educated workforce | • Lack of an innovative infrastructure that can function in market conditions |
| • Existence of fundamental layers of innovation development, including | • Disintegration of the innovation infrastructure due to poor technology transfer element in the commercialisation chain |
| the basic social conditions, conditions supporting the emergence of R&D | • Lack of horizontal links and mechanisms to ensure effective commercialisation, including mechanisms for international cooperation |
| and a framework for entrepreneurship (including relevant regulations) | • Lack of private financing for innovation in Russia |
| • The innovation system in general is built, i.e., the presence of key | • Underdeveloped venture market and lack of risk financing |
| players and mechanisms for their interaction | • Reduction in investments in innovative development by businesses owing to economic stagnation |
| • Opportunities for networking | • Decline in entrepreneurial activities as a result of economic stagnation |
| • Wide internet-based provision of information on possibilities for | • Underdevelopment of technological entrepreneurship (lack of critical mass) |
| innovative development and entrepreneurial support | • Lack of trust among NIS actors |
| • Presence of a competent innovative community | • Lack of an entrepreneurial culture and commercialisation-related skills among researchers and inventors |
| • Access to acceleration programmes ('innovation lift') and | • Differences in the cognitive frameworks and motives of NIS participants: scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and representatives of development institutions |
| entrepreneurial education | • Concentration of innovative activity in few Russian regions and uneven development of the regions |
*Source: Developed by the author*
Thus, as of 2017, the positive factors contributing to entrepreneurs’ networking behaviours were the existence of easier access to information than in the previous period owing to the development of communication media; the availability of a variety of educational and acceleration programs; and the wider development of opportunities to obtain support on a regional basis. The factors that created certain barriers included general professionalisation of relationships in the innovation system and, due to the limited financial resources and the desire to avoid risks, the adoption of more conservative behaviours among NIS participants, including in interactions with other actors. Consequently, stricter requirements were imposed on start-ups with reference to the level of professionalism and the degree of a project’s thoroughness. In addition, the costs associated with interacting with development institutions were increasing. These institutions became less open to interaction, and tried to switch to market relations by providing advice and services on a fee basis with the aim of ensuring their own self-sufficiency. At the same time, opportunities to obtain financing, especially in the early stages, were reduced, while the bureaucratisation of the grant process increased.
Given the reductions in the resources available to entrepreneurs in the Russian NIS, purposeful and systematically organised networking (rather than the chaotic forms of networking seen in previous stages) has become particularly important. Andrushchak et al. (2018) indicate that in the context of today’s more structured environment, the links among key NIS actors are less diverse, denser and related to the sphere of professional specialisation where the level of trust among the participants is a priori higher. This has certain positive aspects, as such interactions lead to more meaningful, deep and lasting relationships. At the same time, however, this localisation of cooperation, especially in the context of persisting cognitive gaps in the views of various Russian NIS actors, does not broaden the vision of development horizons, and can lead to underestimations and omissions of opportunities to advance innovation. Assumptions about how actors in the Russian NIS actually operate within the framework of the newly established system require empirical verification.
2.4. Specific features of the Moscow RIS
As discussed in Section 1.3.4, factors related to the development of the RIS influenced companies’ business decisions, which may have led to the creation of both opportunities and threats. As the purpose of this study is to assess the implications of company-internal factors, such as innovativeness, on networking behaviour, it is necessary to consider companies that conduct business in the same region and are, therefore, influenced by the
same external factors. Moscow was chosen as this region based on the following arguments. First, Moscow was historically the first region to be involved in the development of the Russian innovation system. Second, Moscow’s regional innovation system (RIS) is well developed in terms of the existing infrastructure, the presence of all groups of RIS actors, the demand for innovative products, and the existence of RIS governance systems and structures. Third, numerous forums and conferences in the field of innovation, at which it is possible to meet representatives of all key groups of NIS and RIS actors, are regularly held in Moscow. Therefore, for this study, the Moscow RIS is the optimal environment, as it provides firms with numerous opportunities to network and establish links with actors in the Russian innovation systems.
As the Russian capital, Moscow is at the centre of all political, economic and communication processes in the country. In particular, Moscow serves as the coordinating centre for the development of the Russian innovation system and as a platform for the implementation of a large number of pilot infrastructure projects supportive of innovation. All committees, ministries and development institutions mentioned in this chapter (e.g., RVC, RUSNANO, Skolkovo, IIDF) are located in Moscow. In this regard, Moscow-based companies were among the first in Russia to have access to infrastructure projects and information flows starting with the third phase of development.
In addition, Moscow is a highly economically developed region with a well-formed regional innovation system. According to recent data (as of 2015), Moscow ranks second in the complex Russian Regional Innovational Development Ranking (Gokhberg, 2017). It places first in terms of "socio-economic conditions for innovation activity", and fourth in "scientific and technical potential" and "innovation activity". In 2015, experts have criticised Moscow for the low quality of innovation policy owing to the underdeveloped regulatory framework, the undeveloped structures for the implementation of innovation policy, and the low level of budgetary spending on science and innovation (Gokhberg, 2017). However, efforts in recent years have led to significant progress in problematic areas (Plieva, 2017). To ensure the effectiveness of the implementation of innovation policy, the Centre for Innovative Development of Moscow was created in 2012. The Centre’s functions were transferred to the Moscow Agency of Innovation\textsuperscript{45} in 2016 by decision of the Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of Moscow (Plieva, 2017). As of 2018, the Moscow Agency of Innovation acts as a system operator for the Moscow innovation ecosystem. As such, it plays the role of a "single window" for all participants. The Agency’s main aims are to develop the region's innovation infrastructure; to coordinate the implementation of public-private projects in the field of
\textsuperscript{45} www.innoagency.ru.
innovation in Moscow; to support market access for high-tech companies; to assist in the development of special services for innovative companies, industrial urban structures and young people interested in science, innovation and modern technologies; and to popularise the capital as a digital city and a full-fledged participant in the global market.
According to business experts who took part in the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona in 2017, Moscow's innovative infrastructure is one of the most attractive for the development of innovative production (Kommersant, 2107). The Internet-based information system "Navigator of Information in the Capital" provides information on the Moscow RIS’s infrastructure (see Table 2.22), opportunities and terms of interaction. It also provides information on available financing, office and production space available for rent, technological and educational services, and Moscow-based programmes and activities (including those supported by the regional funds) for entrepreneurs interested in business development.
Table 2.22. The Moscow RIS’s infrastructure (number of each type of organisation)
| Knowledge-generation and diffusion subsystem | |
|---------------------------------------------|---|
| **Research organisations** | |
| 737 Scientific and research organisations | |
| 98 Unique scientific platforms (centres with unique scientific equipment for collective use) | |
| 20 Engineering and prototyping centres | |
| 6 Nanotechnology centres | |
| 274 Metrology centres | |
| 463 Certification bodies and testing laboratories | |
| **Educational organisations** | |
| 47 Higher-education institutions with engineering and technical specialisations | |
| 43 Colleges of engineering and colleges with a technical orientation | |
| 68 Centres for youth innovation | |
| 12 Technoparks for children | |
| More than 500 technological and engineering courses and programmes offering additional education for children | |
| Technology-mediating organisations | |
|---------------------------------------------|---|
| 33 Technoparks (status approved by the Association of Technoparks) | |
| 14 Technoparks (status not yet approved by the Association of Technoparks) | |
| 1 Special economic zone “Technopolis Moscow” | |
| 3 Technology-transfer centres | |
| 134 Centres for the collective use of technological equipment | |
| **Support organisations** | |
| 13 Development institutions (public and private) | |
| 11 Business incubators | |
| 6 Business accelerators | |
| 1 Digital Business Space (a multifunctional digitalised innovative business centre for entrepreneurs) | |
| 15 Centres for business services | |
| 117 Co-working centres | |
| Knowledge-application and exploitation subsystem | |
|--------------------------------------------------|---|
| 7034 High-tech production enterprises | |
| 14,914 High-tech IT firms | |
| 277 Small innovative enterprises | |
*Source: Navigator of Information in the Capital*
Through "Navigator of Information in the Capital", entrepreneurs can get up-to-date information not only about available resources but also about market opportunities, such as the demand for high-tech products and technologies among state-run organisations in
---
46 https://fimoscow.mos.ru/ru.
Moscow, and standards for the procurement of innovation. They can also apply for their offerings to be included in the Catalogue of Exported Goods and Services, which is the basic tool for promoting Moscow-based firms in foreign markets. They can also apply for subsidies (up to 100%) to participate in Russian and foreign exhibitions as part of a collective stand under the general brand "Made in Moscow". Notably, however, as this portal is informational in nature, it does not maintain communication among RIS actors.
In Moscow, such innovation-driven markets as Smart City, intelligent houses, communal-services management, unmanned vehicles, smart healthcare and proactive security are actively developing (Official Portal of the Mayor and the Government of Moscow).\(^{47}\) According to the PWC’s research on the readiness of cities to introduce the technologies of the future, Moscow ranks fifth after Singapore, London, Shanghai and Barcelona. At the same time, Moscow has taken leading positions in such indicators as virtual services for citizens (e.g., portals and mobile applications for solving city-related problems and crowdsourcing ideas); infrastructure readiness; open, adaptive education and the digital economy.
Therefore, as of 2017, Moscow had all of the elements of a regional innovation system (see Figure 1.16). Consequently, it is an excellent context for studying the behaviour of innovative firms in terms of networking with RIS participants for the purpose of doing business.
### 2.5. Conclusions
The ultimate goal of this chapter within the frame of the current study was to build an understanding of the development of the Russian NIS in its various phases in order to lay the foundations for relatively objective interpretations of entrepreneurs’ decisions regarding the creation of their networks. In particular, the analysis in this chapter makes it possible to make assumptions about the perceived benefits, opportunities, costs and risks that firms in Russia face in building network relationships supportive of innovation.
This chapter has provided a detailed analysis of the trajectory of NIS development in Russia over the past 26 years. This path was littered with challenges, including the almost complete loss of scientific and engineering capacity at the very beginning of the journey, and the need to develop an innovative system that comprised all of the groups of actors and mechanisms necessary to promote innovation. An analysis of the formation of the Russian NIS with the help of the frameworks presented in Table 2.1 suggests that the NIS passed through several stages, from the creation of fundamental framework conditions to the emergence of a variety of innovative activities. The key findings of the analysis of each of
\(^{47}\) https://www.mos.ru/news/item/32703073/.
the five identified phases of development presented in this chapter are summarised in Appendix 2.2, which is structured according to the main categories considered in the analytical models (see Table 2.1).
In many respects, the trajectory of the Russian NIS’s development was determined by path dependence. The legacy of the Soviet Union, including the central role played by the state in managing and financing the scientific and technical spheres as well as industrial implementation, limited the range of possible steps in each subsequent phase and, ultimately, determined the current state of the system. The government is the central actor in the Russian innovation system, which remains hierarchical and reflects the principle of centralised, top-down leadership (Dezhina and Etzkowitz, 2016). The state remains the main source of financing for the development of the innovation system in terms of the funds allocated for the development of innovative companies and the innovation infrastructure (Andrushchak et al., 2018), and in terms of the financial support provided to the scientific and educational sphere, where 70% of funding is provided by the state. Market-based financing mechanisms are still in a semi-embryonic state. Moreover, the venture-capital landscape is still unstable and unable to develop independently because of systemic problems. The main challenges have been the lack of high-quality start-ups at the beginning of the venture cycle, their inability to develop business for internal and external reasons, and the lack of developed markets for innovative products that would allow venture capital to successfully exit investment deals.
Members of the Russian venture community indicate that the number of attractive investment projects has fallen in recent years: "All low-hanging ‘fruits’ are eaten, so it's time to move on to the systematic growing of start-ups" (Andrushchak et al., 2018, p. 46). This proposal implies a need for a top-down system of measures. Although the state is working to stimulate the appearance of start-ups at universities as well as spin-off companies resulting from intrapreneurial corporations’ efforts, a steady stream of start-ups has not yet emerged. This implies that the infrastructure created for commercialisation, such as technoparks, may stay idle. Therefore, it seems important to evaluate the links emerging in the innovation system and how these features might affect networking behaviours that foster innovation in companies that have emerged on their own rather than owing to the initiative of the state. In other words, it is vital to assess the capabilities of the Russian NIS in terms of supporting the bottom-up approach. Thus, we can extend the table in Appendix 2.2 by looking at the peculiarities of the links in the system during each of the development periods. At the same time, we can theoretically examine the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks that might be considered by companies attempting to build networks in the context of the Russian NIS (see Table 2.23).
| Links (flows of) | Phase 1 (December 1991 – December 1999) | Phase 2 (2000 – 2005) | Phase 3 (2006 – 2008) | Phase 4 (2009 – 2013) | Phase 5 (2014 – 2018) |
|-----------------|----------------------------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
| **Knowledge** | Broken ties between the scientific and technological communities. | Growing gaps in knowledge. The extinction of certain areas of development in connection with the destruction of the scientific and R&D systems, and the departure of scientists and engineers. Few links between universities and the industrial sector of the economy. | Consolidation of the scientific community, which is largely self-governed. Separate, non-systemic links between knowledge produced in higher-education and research institutions, and the knowledge that is in demand in the productive sector of the economy. | Universities forced to build ties with business and intensify technology transfers. Differences in perceptions of the goals, values and motives of scientific and engineering activities among scientists, inventors, investors, business and development institutions. Lack of demand for innovative scientific and technological developments among businesses. | An attempt to build knowledge-transfer mechanisms. No systematic approach or effective mechanisms. The activation of the demand for innovation from the business side is beginning. Establishment of some partnerships on the basis of institutional ties (corporation-university consortiums). |
| **Information** | Lack of systemic mechanisms for collecting and transmitting relevant information. Distorted and unreliable information. | Introduction of some systemic mechanisms for collecting and transmitting relevant information. Shortage of information. Information is unreliable and insecure. | Perfection of information-collection and transmission systems. Broad development and implementation of the Internet. Lack of trust in Russian sources of information. Lack of a cognitive framework for information interpretation. | A significant amount of heterogeneous, unstructured, inconsistent information. Difficulties in obtaining reliable information. Lack of a cognitive framework for information interpretation. | The emergence of a more structured information space. The emergence of single-window systems that provide comprehensive information. Broad development of electronic public services. The continuing lack of trust in official information sources (the desire to verify information through trusted contacts). Various cognitive frameworks used by various NIS actors for interpretation. |
| **Capital** | Lack of financial resources. The main source of funds is the | Lack of financial resources. The main source of funds is the | Lack of financial resources. The main source of funds is the state. The emergence | Lack of financial resources. The main source of funds is the state. Widespread granting | Lack of financial resources. The main source of funds is the state. Lack of growth in private-public |
| Resources | Practically absent. As a rule, access can only be obtained through reciprocal, mutually-binding syvazi or blat. | Lack of resources. Access can usually be obtained through connections in influential circles. | Lack of resources. Access can usually be obtained through connections in influential circles. Timely information begins to play an important role. | The emergence of opportunities to gain access to resources, subject to a high degree of activity and understanding of the rules for gaining access. | Active development of market mechanisms for competition for resources. |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Networking | **Principal networking mechanisms** | Informal social networking and personal arrangements. Widespread use of blat-based relations and syvazi. | Informal social networking based on personal contacts and syvazi. Monetisation of blat-based relations. | The emergence of opportunities for the formalisation of certain relations. Social networking plays an essential role in gaining access to unbiased and undistorted information. Personalisation of bureaucracy. | Boom in opportunities for networking. Free communication to obtain information. Mechanisms of referrals and recommendations to obtain access and contacts with the right people in the private sector. Personalisation of state bureaucracy. | Reduced opportunities for networking in terms of professionalising relations and reducing the desire of NIS actors to make open contact. The mechanisms of networking in new circumstances need to be studied and understood. |
| Benefits of networking – access to: | Material and financial resources, complementary skills, property rights. | Material and financial resources, complementary skills, sales channels, property rights. | Material and financial resources, external information, complementary skills, channels to introduce offerings to the market, property rights (including intellectual property). | Material and financial resources, external information and knowledge needed for commercialisation, complementary skills, channels for faster introduction of offerings to the market, property rights (intellectual property). | Material and financial resources, external information, knowledge and technologies needed for commercialisation, complementary skills, channels for faster introduction of offerings to the market, property rights (including intellectual property). |
| Networking | Negotiate permission | Share risks; operate in | Access mechanisms to | Access insights, gain faster | Provide insights, gain faster |
| opportunities – ability to: | for entrepreneurial activity. | the chain of procurement and supply in existing clan systems and, thereby, guarantee market share. | support decision making, accelerate bureaucratic procedures, operate in the chain of procurement and supply in existing systems and structures. | access to capital, ensure legitimacy and credibility, improve competitiveness, receive moral support, accelerate bureaucratic procedures. | access to capital, ensure legitimacy and credibility, improve competitiveness, receive moral support, accelerate bureaucratic procedures, reduce risks by obtaining information on failed approaches. |
|-----------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| • Costs of networking | Extremely high transaction costs. High coordination costs mitigated by personal agreements and mutual obligations. | High transaction costs. High coordination costs mitigated by personal agreements and mutual obligations. | High transaction costs. High coordination costs mitigated by personal agreements and mutual obligations. | High transaction and coordination costs owing to the high heterogeneity of knowledge and information among NIS participants, and the bureaucratisation of interactions with government bodies and investors. | Some reduction in transaction costs due to increased availability of information. Increased coordination costs due to the need to compete for the opportunity to gain access to resources, and high bureaucratisation of interactions with state bodies and investors. Additional costs associated with the need to obtain certain knowledge to sustain professional communication with NIS participants. |
| • Risks of networking | Relationship risks, socio-economic risks, criminogenic risks and risk of the inability to be protected against them. | Relationship risks, socio-economic risks, risks related to environmental uncertainties, network-structure-related risks. | Relationship risks, socio-economic risks, risks related to environmental and behavioural uncertainties, network-structure-related risks, human-related risks, instrumental risks. | Relationship risks, risks related to environmental and behavioural uncertainties, network-structure-related risks, human-related risks, instrumental risks, reputational risks, risks related to the draining of scarce resources due to requests from investors and development institutions. | Relationship risks, risks related to environmental and behavioural uncertainties, network-structure-related risks, human-related risks, instrumental risks, reputational risks, risks related to the draining of scarce resources due to requests from investors and development institutions, risks associated with a conflict of interests if an entrepreneur is a member of several networks. |
The Russian NIS’s development path was not completely evolutionary and consistent. The NIS’s development depended on external factors related to changing economic and social conditions, and on internal political considerations that compelled the country's leadership to make certain decisions. The analysis of the implementation of long-term, strategic federal programmes adopted during various stages of NIS development shows that most of these programmes failed to achieve the set targets (see, for example, analysis of the Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation for the period until 2015, Table 2.14). The long-term strategic-level programmes have continually been replaced with new programmes even before the stated deadlines for their fulfilment. This has been the case for objective reasons (e.g., a decline in their relevance due to changes in external conditions owing to economic crises) and as a result of internal political decisions related to a desire of using them as electoral platforms. For example, previous development paths were significantly changed in 2011-2012 and 2016-2017. Notably, such periods converged with presidential campaigns, during which the government needed to demonstrate extraordinary activity in this area, sometimes at the expense of consistency, in order to attract the attention of the electorate. From this point of view, instead of serving as effective management tools in the long run, these programmes often indicated the general direction of NIS development and helped to organise the process on a short-term scale only. In many instances, state funds allocated to programmes were spent even though true results were not forthcoming. This occurred, for example, with the construction of technoparks and the introduction of special economic zones. In a sense, the strategic landmark was again altered in July 2017 when the federal programme "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation" was introduced, in fact, shifting the focus of attention of general public from the National Technological Initiative. Moreover, it absorbed some of the NTI indicators that had not yet been achieved. Increasingly, the press carries expert reports that NTI initiatives actually "do not fire" in terms of rapid and tangible results (Sukhova, 2017).
In many ways, the Russian NIS was built in an experimental way. These experiments included attempts to apply the experiences of the highly developed market economies of the US and Israel, especially from 2009 to 2012. Attempts to copy best practices were visible in the mechanisms used for stimulating NIS development, in the general atmosphere of the innovation environment and in the topical issues discussed among NIS participants. This overall setting might have had an effect on networking decisions made by entrepreneurs. The changes in the external discourse and available mechanisms might also have affected attitudes towards networking in other periods. From this point of view, the results of the NIS development efforts in each stage (see Appendix 2.2) are as
important as the deeper understanding of the features and key priorities of each phase. This is because people's perceptions of the extant situation influence their assessments of the significance of certain factors and, thereby, guide their decisions and actions.
A great deal of work at the last stage of NIS development has focused on improving its effectiveness. The results of extant national surveys\(^{48}\) generally confirm the conclusions of international experts that the conditions for doing business in Russia as a whole have improved (see Doing Business indices, the World Bank Group, 2010-2018). According to the results of a survey of SME representatives conducted by NAFI in 2016, the following were the most acute problems hampering the activities of companies (in order of decreasing importance): falling demand, a lack of qualified personnel, rising prices and tariffs, corruption in government bodies, excessive control of business and supervisory pressure, excessively high taxes, difficulty in accessing sources of credit, unfair competition, high administrative barriers and the inefficient judicial system (Andreev, 2017). Notably, such problems as excessively high taxes and high administrative barriers were lower in the 2016 rating than in 2011, thereby allowing for the focus on external economic factors and the need for qualified personnel. In general, the results of the survey confirmed the positive effects of the state-financed support programmes implemented in recent years. The changes in the factors influencing entrepreneurial activity that occurred during the period of Russian NIS formation might have influenced entrepreneurs' perceptions of the necessity of forming networks.
Nevertheless, despite the significant amount of funds and effort invested in the creation of the Russian NIS, Russia's innovation activity still lags behind the level of innovative development evident in the leading countries. According to the assessment of international experts found in the Global Entrepreneurship Index 2018 (Ács et al., 2018), Russia underperforms when compared to strong entrepreneurial economies, such as Denmark (see Figure 2.47). Particularly significant in terms of the possibilities of creating an innovative economy are the gaps in indicators describing country’s capabilities in term of product innovation, technology absorption, internationalisation, cultural support, risk capital availability and perceived opportunities to launch a successful start-up.
\(^{48}\) In February 2016, NAFI conducted a representative all-Russian survey, which interviewed 500 senior employees of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in 8 federal districts of Russia.
Russia’s main strength in this regard is the prevalence of high-quality human capital, which is vital for innovative start-ups that require an educated workforce. Another Russian strength is networking, where Russia even exceeds the corresponding European and world averages (see Figure 2.48). In the context of an ineffective NIS, personal ties can create the mechanisms necessary for innovative development and having a potential to compensate for institutional deficiencies in the innovation environment. Therefore, networking may become the driver of Russia’s innovative development in the near future.
Figure 2.48. Global Entrepreneurship Index 2018, pillar-level comparison
Source: Ács et al., 2018
The Russian NIS is built within a top-down paradigm. Until bottom-up mechanisms based on networking are introduced, the system will be unstable. To help these mechanisms emerge, it is necessary to understand how business perceives the usefulness of the Russian innovation system for establishing links conducive for doing business and engaging in innovation. Thus, several key questions arise. How do entrepreneurs use Russia’s innovative infrastructure? With which actors in the innovation system do entrepreneurs interact? How do SMEs make decisions about building relationships in order to develop their business? What affects entrepreneurs’ decisions to establish relationships? The answers to these questions will help determine the measures that can help SMEs become more effective at using the opportunities provided by the Russian NIS. In order to answer these questions, it was necessary to conduct a primary study, the results of which are presented in Chapter 3.
Chapter 3. Study of Russian entrepreneurs’ networking behaviour
The ultimate purpose of this chapter is to examine the role of networking in innovation by comparing the networking patterns of companies characterised by different degrees of innovativeness in order to provide qualitative empirical evidence of the interrelations between firms' innovativeness and their networking activities. The chapter considers the networking behaviour of firms acting in the context of the Moscow RIS and implementing concrete projects to bring their offerings to the market. The primary data used for the analysis in this chapter were gathered from interviews with Moscow-based entrepreneurs covering the specifics of their networking behaviours.
The first part of this chapter explains the research methodology chosen by the author to study the networking behaviours of firms. It begins by summarising the findings from the literature that helped in the identification of the main areas of primary research, then proceeds to the formulation of the key questions; a discussion of the epistemological, ontological and philosophical underpinnings of the study; and an explanation of the research design. The second part is devoted to presenting the results of the analysis of the qualitative data. It begins with an explanation of the grouping of the collected data based on the innovativeness of the entrepreneurial projects under consideration. Thereafter, the results of the analysis of the interviews are presented in order to derive answers to the key research questions. The results of the analysis and the implications for this study are summarised in this chapter’s conclusions.
3.1. Research methodology
3.1.1. Aim and research questions
The broad aim of this study is to examine the role of networking in innovation among Russian entrepreneurs. More specifically, the objective is to identify whether the nature of the business activity (conventional versus innovative) influences networking behaviour. To achieve this objective, the following key proposition was investigated: entrepreneurs in different innovativeness categories use different networking patterns to support their business activities, including innovation.
To formulate research questions, it is necessary to build on the relevant international literature, which was reviewed in Chapter 1. The network-interaction theory discussed in Chapter 1 suggests that networking is a tool that provides entrepreneurs with access to information, resources and scientific knowledge that can enable their organisations to cross
the "valley of death" and become profit-generating businesses (Hisrich, 1990). As the literature indicates, an entrepreneur’s networking behaviour, especially in the context of transition economies, is insufficiently understood. This is particularly true in the context of Russia. Given the relatively recent emergence of entrepreneurship as a phenomenon in Russia, Russian entrepreneurs need more than advice, information and resources – they need moral encouragement, skills, knowledge and managerial experience, all of which are scarce. Innovative entrepreneurship is an even newer endeavour in Russia and one surrounded by more uncertainty owing to structural holes in the business models of innovative ventures and the lack of effective external support mechanisms. Therefore, innovative entrepreneurs are likely to be more active in their attempts to build a support network. That network, in turn, may possess certain characteristics in terms of density, diversity and structure that differ from those of networks of traditional entrepreneurs. In fact, innovative entrepreneurs may even implement a strategy for building network interactions that reflects the differences in the fundamental goals of traditional and innovative entrepreneurship (i.e., quality and efficient service of a well-known consumer segment, and the development of a new technology, new market and new demand, respectively). In addition, the analysis of the theoretical literature provided in Chapter 1 suggests that purposefully built links can be perceived as a type of resource (i.e., social capital), the value of which increases in line with the degree of innovation. However, at the same time, the construction and governance of relationships involves certain costs, which might deter entrepreneurs from using networking strategies.
The literature review (see Chapter 1) provides the conceptual context for the study and leads to the identification of key research areas as presented in the Table 3.1.
**Table 3.1. Implications from the literature relevant for the current study**
| Key ideas found in the literature | Source | Identified area of research |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Relations serve as a medium through which entrepreneurs gain access to a variety of resources | Hoang and Antoncic, 2003; Borgatti and Foster 2003; Fagerberg et al., 2006; Markham et al., 2010 Jack et al., 2010; Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2009; Turyakira and Mbidde 2015 | Role of networking in the founding and development of businesses (RQ1) |
| Contacts are viewed as a source of business information, advice, emotional support and problem solving | | |
| Recommendations and referrals play an important role in establishing links | | |
| A start-up becomes a focal actor in the network | | |
| Entrepreneurs tend to establish person-to-person relations | | |
| Informal interactions at the individual level are perceived as more manageable | | |
| Different ties might be needed in the different stages of a company's development | | |
| Networks develop over time | Larson and Starr, 1993; Hite and Hesterley, 2001; Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2009 | Evolution of networks (RQ2) |
|---------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------|
| Entrepreneur’s relationships tend to start off as relatively formal and then evolve into friendlier versions | | |
| Embedded ties can provide benefits but sometimes can harm the development of the business | | |
| Interpersonal trust is an important mediating factor influencing the networking behaviour | Newell and Swan, 2000; Hoang and Antoncic, 2003; Smith and Lohrke, 2008; Turyakira and Mbidde, 2015 | Role of trust in building a business relationship (RQ3) |
| Trust between business participants change over time | | |
| Trust increases from the positive outcome of repeated interactions | | |
| Previous entrepreneurial experience and education influences the process of acquiring resources through networking | Schoen et al., 2005; Aarstad et al., 2015 | Role of experience in networking behaviour (RQ4) |
| Novices and experienced entrepreneurs behave differently in relation to networking strategies and tactics | | |
Source: Developed by the author
In summary, it seems appropriate to focus on the following series of research questions, the answers to which will lead to the achievement of the research aim. Each question builds upon the previous question, which allows for a continually deeper examination of the essence of the focal phenomenon. As the proposed study is qualitative, the questions are open-ended.
**RQ1:** What role does networking (external relationships) play in the founding and development of businesses in the Russian context in relation to their degree of innovativeness?
- How do Russian entrepreneurs network?
- What contact sources are used and why?
- What aims do Russian entrepreneurs have when they engage in external relationships?
- How do Russian entrepreneurs govern their network of business contacts?
When answering these questions, the following proposition will be investigated: the greater the start-up’s innovativeness, the more actively entrepreneurs are engaged in networking and the wider their network of contacts. In addition, the aims and tactics of networking can change depending on the company’s degree of innovativeness.
**RQ2:** In terms of an entrepreneurial venture’s development, how does the network of relationships evolve over time?
- How do relationships with partners and customers change over time?
- How do the relations between people evolve over the course of business development?
When answering these questions, two propositions will be investigated. The first is that the evolution of relationships with partners is driven by the tasks that the company must solve in certain stages of its development, while the evolution of relationships with clients is largely determined by market characteristics. The second is that entrepreneurs’ ties with network participants always evolve into friendlier relations.
**RQ3: What role does trust play in building a business relationship?**
- **What role does trust play in building a business relationship?**
- **How does trust between business participants change over time?**
When answering these questions, the following proposition will be investigated: entrepreneurs in different innovativeness categories have different perceptions of the role and mechanisms of trust.
**RQ4: Does networking behaviour evolve as entrepreneurial experience increases?**
When answering this question, the following proposition will be investigated: novice and experienced entrepreneurs engage in and build their networks in different ways.
Given the relatively recent emergence of entrepreneurship as a phenomenon in Russia, it is important to note that Russia has no yet established, recognised or proven approaches to either running one’s own business, or to building relationships and networks supportive of the effectiveness and efficiency of such a business. The overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs are first-generation. In other words, they are people who had to find the best way to start and build a business on their own, often through trial and error.
Innovative entrepreneurship in Russia primarily takes the form of technological entrepreneurship because of the Russian understanding of the essence of innovation and approaches to its development (see Chapter 2). Technological entrepreneurship is an insignificant part of what is already a relatively small entrepreneurial sector. As shown in Chapter 2, Russia has historically had a gap between scientific education, the main purpose of which was the generation of scientific results, and commercialisation. Russian scientists and engineers have never been trained in the art of entrepreneurship and their attention has never been focused on the possibility of commercialising inventions. Therefore, Russia finds itself in a situation in which entrepreneurial, managerial and technological competencies are not embedded in the same people, which implies that commercialisation cannot effectively occur. Thus entrepreneurs may need external help to travel the path from
the scientific idea to laboratory confirmation to the emergence of an experimental model and, thereafter, an industrial model and successful launch of the product in the market.
As discussed in Chapter 2, in the late 1990s, Russia adopted a trial-and-error approach to developing a national innovation system (NIS) designed to promote the growth of innovative entrepreneurship. The Russian NIS, which has basically been built from scratch in less than 20 years, has certain shortcomings, which make innovative entrepreneurship more difficult and riskier than traditional entrepreneurship. The discussion presented in Chapter 2 suggests that the distinct phases of the Russian NIS’s development might have affected entrepreneurs’ networking decisions. In order to derive a meaningful interpretation, it makes sense to consider the creation of networks by entrepreneurs in the context of the fourth and fifth phases of the NIS’s development (i.e., starting from 2009). By that time, key groups of actors, subsystems, structures and development institutions of the Russian NIS had already appeared. This approach will allow for conclusions to be drawn about how and for what purposes entrepreneurs interact with NIS actors.
As discussed in Chapter 2, the Russians’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship were also affected by a lack of confidence in their own qualifications due to the fact that managerial and entrepreneurial education programmes were not available in the Soviet era. Managerial education only appeared in Russia around the year 2000, prior to that point it had been considered to be a subdivision of economic education that included very limited spectrum of disciplines. Moreover, higher-education institutions did not begin to specifically consider issues and develop disciplines related to entrepreneurial activity for another five years. At the same time, technical education had a long tradition in Russia. It helped to form structured thinking capabilities, the ability to understand cause-and-effect relationships, and the ability to plan and mathematically assess the consequences of certain actions. Thus, it can be assumed that current Russian innovative entrepreneurs are more likely to have completed a technical education than a programme focused on management. As such, absence of background managerial and entrepreneurial education might also affect the networking behaviour of Russian entrepreneurs.
At the same time, Russia exceeds the European and world averages in indices covering possibilities for and the ability of networking (see Figure 2.48). From this perspective, it seems advisable to study how Russian entrepreneurs build their external relations to foster innovative development and how they compensate for institutional deficiencies in the innovation environment. In that regard, the results of this study might be of interest to a wide range of Russian entrepreneurs and to higher-education institutions in relation to the
formation of networking skills in young entrepreneurs, which are necessary to drive Russia's innovative development in the near future.
3.1.2. Epistemological, ontological and philosophical underpinnings
Ontological and epistemological assumptions reflect the researcher’s fundamental views on what exists and how human beings, as thinking agents who perceive existence, can learn about what exists (Morgan and Smircich, 1980; Barnes, 1996; Gruber, 1995). In the current study, which aims to develop an understanding of the deep nature of entrepreneurial networking, existence is viewed as a projection of individual consciousness (Morgan and Smircich, 1980). The author adopts the assumption that the entrepreneurs being interviewed believe what they see (Audi, 2011, p. 24), and that they are able to reflect on their own experience, understand reality, describe reality and effectively convey those views (a property of being meaningful; Garrick, 1999, p. 147). Furthermore, the author can reconstruct existence by interpreting the opinions that the people being interviewed express in words. As such, the current study can be characterised as interpretive (Myers, 2009), as it focuses on meaning in context. In the interpretive philosophical paradigm, “causes and effects are mutually interdependent, inquiry is always value-laden, and context influences the framing and conduct of research” (Garrick and Rhodes, 2000, p. 206). Therefore, it can be said that an entrepreneur’s understanding of the role of networking in business-project development depends on the entrepreneur’s background and related entrepreneurial experience (path dependence; Mahoney, 2000), the entrepreneur’s social and cultural identification (Coleman, 1988), and the entrepreneur’s level of competence and analytical capacity (bounded rationality; Simon, 1991).
In the current study, it is assumed that participating entrepreneurs were able to act choosing the best possible option in light of all available evidence and that they put maximum effort into achieving their goals. It is also assumed that, in these efforts, the entrepreneurs could evaluate the success of their entrepreneurial projects by considering the conformity of the plans with the results in the context of the restrictions and risks that they could mitigate accordingly.
Each entrepreneur taking part in this study can only express his or her point of view. That point of view reflects that individual’s own experience, which could be of a very situational nature, including an element of luck or failure due to factors unrelated to networking. Therefore, respondent opinions are likely to be characterised by a high degree of diversity, which will most likely reflect respondents’ personal situations and
perceptions. As such, these respondent opinions do not necessarily testify to the existence of objective trends, as such trends simply did not have time to develop in Russia. Consequently, in the Russian economy’s current context, the relevance of quantitative statistical analysis for obtaining meaningful answers to this study’s central questions is, in principle, questionable. On the other hand, in-depth interviews should reveal the grounds on which entrepreneurs make certain decisions regarding the construction of their networks.
Given these epistemological and ontological assumptions, the interviews within the current study cover not only factual aspects but also respondents’ understanding of developments. It is assumed that respondents’ interpretations can be viewed as relatively accurate reflections of what was really happening. Examples of the factual and interpretative questions are presented in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2. Examples of interview questions
| Factual questions | Interpretative questions |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| ▪ What is the name of your company? | ▪ Is your company a technological start-up? |
| ▪ Is this your first entrepreneurial experience? | ▪ What is the degree of novelty in the business venture? |
| ▪ How many people were founders of this business? | ▪ In your opinion, to what extent did your product or service create value for customers and match their expectations at the time of its market launch? |
| ▪ How many people are currently employed by your company? | |
| ▪ Does your company have registered patents? | |
Source: Developed by the author
3.1.3. Research design
184.108.40.206. Summary of research design
The research questions and fundamental research assumptions described in the previous sections determined the research design used for this study. The research design is described in Table 3.3 (based on the “research onion” concept; Saunders et al., 2016, p. 151).
Table 3.3. Summary of research design
| Philosophy | Interpretivism |
|---------------------|----------------|
| Research paradigm | Induction |
| Methodological choice | Mixed method (mainly qualitative with quantitative analysis of sample characteristics) |
| Strategy | Grounded theory, ideal-type analysis |
| Research scope | Entrepreneurial projects that resulted in the launch of concrete offerings in the market by Moscow-based SMEs |
| Time horizon | March-September 2017 |
| Techniques and procedures | Data-collection instrument: interview
Data-analysis method: grounded theory approach |
| Sampling approach | Research objects: traditional and innovative SMEs (target: at |
least 10 in each innovativeness category; no less than 50 in total)
Respondents: owners or mentors of SMEs
Location: SMEs registered in Moscow or the Moscow region
Selection criteria: reached at least the prototype stage of business-project development
Source: Developed by the author
220.127.116.11. Data-collection instrument
As this study is located in the interpretative paradigm, the author was interested in developing detailed, in-depth answers to the research questions. Therefore, the exclusive use of a questionnaire with closed questions as a data-collection tool was not considered. However, as the approach of this study required interviews of a large number of entrepreneurs, it was necessary to formulate a strategy that would reduce the potential for error due to variability in the words used by interviewees to express their opinions.
This study’s conceptual framework, which was developed as a result of the literature analysis, determined the design of the data-collection instrument: an interview guide consisting of two parts, as presented in Figure 3.1 and Table 3.4.
Figure 3.1. The relationship between the study's conceptual framework and the data-collection instrument
Source: Developed by the author
The interview guide was developed as presented in Table 3.4 (see Appendix 3.1.).
**Table 3.4. Interview guide structure**
| Section | Aim | Question type | Content |
|---------|-----|---------------|---------|
| **Section 1** | Collect data related to control variables to be used for further grouping of SMEs in the qualitative analysis. | Semi-structured. | Factual information about the SME, its product/service, market, competitive context, development stage, trajectory, perceived innovativeness, success achieved by the interview date. |
| **Section 2** | Collect qualitative information related to research questions. | Open-ended. | Qualitative information about the SME’s networking behaviour and its implications for business-project development. |
*Source: Developed by the author*
The first section of the interview guide was more structured with intent to collect information about SMEs’ characteristics. It was needed for SMEs’ further grouping and understanding the common features of the companies making up these groups. The dimensions to evaluate SME’s innovativeness were identified in the key literature on innovation (Henderson and Clark, 1990; Johannessen et al., 2001; Ries, 2011; Aulet, 2013; Keeley et al., 2013; Starbuck, 2014).
The second section contained open-ended questions to collect in-depth information needed to answer the research questions as presented in Table 3.5. The dimensions to understand networking behaviour were indentified in the key literature on networking (Hoang and Antoncic, 2003; Borgatti and Foster 2003; Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2009).
**Table 3.5. Mapping of research questions into interview guide questions**
| Research question | Dimension | Interview guide question |
|-------------------|-----------|-------------------------|
| RQ1: Networking purpose, sources, aims, governance approaches | Network purpose | Question 31 |
| | Network involvement | Question 32 |
| | Network sources | Question 33 |
| | Relationship between networking and outcomes | Question 34 |
| | Network structure: size, diversity and heterogeneity of links; frequency of communication; network density | Questions 35 and 36 |
| | Network aims | Question 37 |
| | Network governance | Question 39 |
| | Impact of embeddedness | Question 41 |
| RQ2: Evolution of networks | Network evolution | Question 40 |
| RQ3: Role of trust | Role and evolution of trust | Question 38 |
| RQ4: Impact of experience on networking behaviour | Impact of experience on networking behaviour | Question 42 and all the previous questions to compare answers of novice and experienced entrepreneurs |
*Source: Developed by the author*
Despite the fact that the first section was more structured, both sections served as a guide for the interviewer. It was assumed that the respondent would not simply choose one of the possible alternative answers but talk about the business project, highlighting what he or she viewed as the most important aspects.
18.104.22.168. Data collection strategy
The interview guide was initially developed in early March 2017. It was iteratively pilot tested in five interviews over the course of one month. After each iteration the guide was improved, mainly by simplifying the wording and by adding new alternative answers in order to make the guide more universal and suitable for both traditional and innovative SMEs.
Interviews took place from April to September 2017. The interviews were conducted in Russian. All interviews were recorded, after which the recordings were transcribed and analysed. During each interview, the interviewer took notes on the respondent’s answers to key questions. The last three questions in the guide covered contact details to be used for follow-up purposes, the date of the interview and a request for the respondent’s signature.
In April 2017, companies that were involved in arm’s-length relations with Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School (MSU BS) were invited to take part in the study. Some of these companies were projects run by graduates of MSU BS (limit set at a maximum of 10% of participating in the study SMEs). Moreover, many of the participating companies were owned by relatives or friends of current MSU BS students.
As the main objective of this study is to examine SMEs’ networking behaviour, the non-probability convenience sampling technique (Sanders et al., 2007, p. 234; Bryman and Bell, 2007, p. 182) is appropriate. Although the convenience sampling technique is prone to bias and is beyond the control of the researcher (Sanders et al., 2007; Bryman and Bell, 2007), it is still suitable for addressing the aim in exploratory study and answering the research questions.
The objective of the study is to identify whether the nature of business activity (conventional versus innovative) influences networking behaviour. Therefore, in the first stage of data analysis, it was necessary to group the data based on such criteria as basis of business model, market features, and the scope and characteristics of operating activities. These criteria were adapted from Aulet and Murray (2013), who propose a set of characteristics that differentiate between innovation-driven enterprises and traditional
---
49 The author of the thesis is an associate professor at MSU BS.
small businesses. Patterns were revealed by comparing the respondents' answers and assigning their firms to the appropriate groups. The analysis of the qualitative data gathered from about 30 initial interviews showed that the companies in the sample varied, primarily in terms of characteristics related to the operating activities. The division of the sample into only two groups (conventional versus innovative) would be misleading, as even the technology companies could be divided into two groups on the basis of the different logics behind their business models. Four groups were formed by adding several other differentiating parameters to the criteria suggested by Aulet and Murray (2013), such as the firm's role in the value chain for the consumer and others. These differentiating parameters were identified as a result of a detailed analysis of patterns observed in respondents' answers undertaken in order to segment the data. Thus, the chosen approach allowed for identification of four different groups characterised by various patterns of entrepreneurial behaviour based on Aulet and Murray's (2013) criteria and other factors (see Section 3.2.1).
The patterns were interpreted from the point of view of firms' innovativeness using respondents' answers to questions about the aim of the business (question 10), the type of innovation (question 23), the novelty of the project (question 24) and the presence of registered patents (question 25). The similarities of respondents' answers regarding their firms' innovativeness were found and summarised for each group, as shown in Table 3.6. The innovative approaches adopted by companies belonging to different groups could be clearly distinguished, which solved the task of dividing the sample into groups based on their degree of innovativeness.
**Table 3.6. SME innovativeness categories**
| Revealed patterns | Innovativeness category (IC) | Definitions |
|-------------------|------------------------------|-------------|
| Pattern 1 | Very low (IC-very low) | A company that uses an existing business model or its minor adaptation to satisfy the needs of a particular client segment; does not have patents |
| Pattern 2 | Low (IC-low) | A company that is implementing incremental innovations |
| Pattern 3 | Medium (IC-medium) | A company that is implementing an adaptation of an existing technology, or an architectural or modular innovation |
| Pattern 4 | High (IC-high) | A technological company that is implementing a radical innovation or a combination of more than two types of innovations; has patents |
*Source: Developed by the author*
After grouping the initial data, it became clear that the convenience-sampling strategy produced a biased sample that lacked innovative companies. Consequently, most of medium and highly innovative companies were accessed through referrals from NIS development institutions, such as RVC, Skolkovo and IIDF, and through the author’s contacts at Technopark Strogino. In the course of additional data collection, which was performed from May to September 2017, interviews were conducted to ensure that at least 10 entrepreneurs had been interviewed in each group. As a result, data collection covered a total of 66 SMEs. On average, the interviews lasted about one hour, with discussion times varying from 45 minutes to 1 hour 50 minutes for innovative start-ups and from 30 to 60 minutes for traditional companies.
**22.214.171.124. Method of analysis**
The main data-analysis method used in this study was the grounded theory approach, as defined by Corbin and Strauss (1998). This approach offers the best fit for this study for several reasons. First, according to Corbin and Strauss (1998), grounded theory allows a researcher to derive conceptualisations from data without those conceptualisations being shaped by existing knowledge and understanding. In this case, the extant knowledge on and understanding of the role of networking in business development is mainly found in literature focused on Europe and the US. As such, it may be irrelevant in the Russian context. The use of a grounded theory approach allows insights to be drawn from the data to build an understanding, which then serves as a meaningful guide for additional research-related actions (Corbin and Strauss, 1998). Blaikie (2008) states that the grounded theory approach is about the logic of enquiry, and there is a clear inductive logic behind this methodology (Martin and Turner, 1986). A grounded theory is an example of an interpretive methodology (Corbin and Strauss, 1998), as a researcher derives meaning from texts that were collected by means of interviews. According to Myers (2009), the grounded theory approach differs from the other qualitative methods in that the creation of theory emerges from the “continuous interplay between data collection and analysis”. In other words, primary data collection and analysis move in parallel. As soon as patterns and relationships are detected in the data, they are tested in the next data-collection round. In general, this study started without a clear picture of the networking behaviour of Russian entrepreneurs and was based on a desire to test certain propositions. Therefore, given this study’s interpretive nature, the grounded theory method is highly relevant.
The grounded theory approach underlies the procedure for data processing used in this study and provides a mechanism for eliciting meaning from the data. Ideal-type analysis
(Weber, 1949; Swedberg, 2018) is used to compare the meanings obtained with regards to different categories (e.g., to compare the networking behaviours of traditional and innovative SMEs). This provides a perspective for qualitative data interpretation (Gerhardt, 1994). Ideal types are models or mental abstractions derived on the basis of generalisations of empirical data, which reflect certain essential characteristics of the focal phenomenon (Newman, 1998). The researcher can construct an ideal type of a process or social relation, and then compare it with another ideal type of similar relations that arise, for example, in different contexts or different groups of actors (Newman, 1998). As such, ideal types are analytical constructs that can be used as yardsticks to measure similarities and differences between specific phenomena or their manifestations in different contexts (Kvist, 2007), thereby allowing for differentiation. The construction of ideal types is useful, as it reduces the time needed to make decisions in situations that fall within the corresponding ideal type (Newman, 1998). However, this approach should be used with caution, as it is impossible to develop a perfect concept that fully captures the essence of empirical reality (Swedberg, 2018).
126.96.36.199. Risks and limitations in data collection and analysis
This section presents a discussion of the risks associated with data collection and analysis in this study, as well as the measures taken to mitigate those risks. The main risk in the proposed study related to the possibility that informants might not have been willing to share information. Another danger was that interviewees could provide false information or offer a vision of how the situation should be rather than describing how they actually built their networks to support business development. Both of these aspects were perceived as limitations of the chosen research method.
In terms of the first risk, a significant amount of work focused on ensuring that all respondents agreed to participate in the study as result of someone’s referral, which in itself was an example of networking. More than 20 people refused to take part in the study either explicitly or implicitly by permanently postponing the interview. These refusals were perceived as relevant for the study. As these potential interviewees did not see value in this type of communication, despite the researcher’s explanation of the study purposes, an assumption can be made that they were not good examples of networkers in terms of using networking as an instrument for development.
One way of managing the second risk was to exclude interviews in which falsifying behaviour was apparent. At this point, it should be noted that all respondents who agreed to an interview appeared to be very open, expressed a high degree of interest in the research
topic and said they had never thought about this topic before in detail. Many respondents even thanked the interviewer for allowing them to understand the importance of networking. Others noted during the interview that they could see ways of improving their networking effectiveness. Therefore, no interview records were discarded based on suspicions that data were being intentionally distorted.
Another risk was related to the research instrument and its wording. The interviews were to be conducted in Russian. Therefore, the interview guide was first developed in Russian, then translated into English and translated back into Russian to ensure that the English and Russian versions of the research instrument were identical. The interview guide was amended several times as result of pilot testing. Each time, the necessary corrections were made to the English version.
To ensure consistency, several procedures for collecting and analysing data were adopted. Each interview was audio recorded. Moreover, during the interview, the researcher took notes on answers given in Section 1. Some notes were also taken about interview-specific features that were relevant for interpreting the data (e.g., interview setting, unusual occurrences during the interview, emotional reactions of the interviewee, body language). Immediately after each interview, the researcher wrote short comments that described the initial impression from the interview. The purpose of this note taking was to record those aspects that would not be reflected in audio records.
The audio recordings were transcribed and their accuracy was verified by comparing the text with the actual recordings. The interview text was then coded (open coding). Coding is an analytical process through which “concepts and their properties are identified and dimensions are discovered” (Corbin and Strauss, 1998, p. 101). Flick (2009) adds that categories (concepts and dimensions) and the relations among them are important. Therefore, memos and analytical tables were constructed to increase the depth and quality of the analysis (Corbin and Strauss, 1998, p. 218). With each new interview, these memos and analytical tables evolved. New codes were added to the coding system when a new concept emerged in an interview. From a procedural point of view, some propositions were developed after each interview for testing in the course of the next interview.
This approach made it possible to understand the specificities of networking in the context of Russia’s entrepreneurial and innovation environment. In particular, it led to the refinement of research questions. As a result, the search for answers to the research questions was conducted through a systematic analysis of the texts of transcribed
interviews, which were grouped as it was explained in the Section 188.8.131.52. Those texts were analysed using more structured coding methods, such as axial coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1998, p. 124) and focused coding (Charmaz, 2006, p. 57). This process allowed for data reassembling in order to obtain evidence relevant for the research questions and derive a theoretical conceptualisation.
The greatest limitation of this study is some voluntarism in the author’s actions of attaching firms to one or another innovativeness category for subsequent analysis. The inaccurate breakdown of the sample into groups could lead to incorrect analyses, and affect the quality of the results and conclusions. In the analysis, some variability was found in the responses of respondents belonging to the same group to certain questions. However, for the aggregate of responses to the entire complex of questions, the within-group variation was lower than the variation between groups. Prior to beginning the analysis, several tests were undertaken to determine whether it would be appropriate to assign a firm to a certain group. In about ten cases, when the information necessary to make this decision was not available in an interview transcript, the author contacted the respondents again to ask questions that would make it possible to relate the firm to a certain group with greater certainty. Given the limitations of this study related to grouping, the data have been interpreted with extreme caution and in a way that emphasises the areas of maximum similarity of respondents’ answers within the same group and the apparent differences in these responses from the answers of respondents from other groups.
3.2. Data analysis
3.2.1. Grouping of the companies included in the sample
To build an understanding of the distinctive features of the networking behaviour of entrepreneurs belonging to different innovativeness categories, the common features of the companies making up these groups were first identified. The companies were assigned to certain groups based on respondents’ answers to interview questions about the scope and characteristics of operating activities, motives for founding the company, market features and customers (questions 4-9 in the Interview Guide; based on Aulet and Murray, 2013), as well as their responses regarding the location of the head office, the main focus of investments during the initial development stages, sources of financing, the geographical range of the company’s sales, and the longevity of the product or service on the market (questions 18-22 in the Interview Guide). The analysis of similarities in respondents’
answers allowed for the identification of patterns and the formation of groups based on common characteristics of firms, as shown in Table 3.7.
Table 3.7. General characteristics of business enterprises
| Parameter | Pattern 1 | Pattern 2 | Pattern 3 | Pattern 4 |
|------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Market | Traditional, stable market; goods or services for mass consumption, or a niche market requiring a high degree of customisation | Traditional, stable or weakly growing market; standardised product or service with slightly improved characteristics or more convenient mode of consumption | Niche market, developing due to technological solutions; in current economic crisis, demand is almost equal to supply | Market for a new or highly modified product or service, often accompanied by a new consumption model |
| Geographical range of the market | Local | Regional | Regional and global | Global |
| Stage of customer base evolution | Majority | Majority | Early adopters and early majority | No customers (customer discovery) |
| Understanding of customers’ needs | High | High | Medium | Low |
| Presence of competitors | Many | Many | Some | Few |
| Competitive advantage | Customer loyalty, convenience, quality, individual approach | High quality of services, competitive price, more convenient consumption model | Heavily modified, more efficient technology to solve customers’ problems | New or radically improved technology |
| Basis of business model | Customer loyalty | Strength of relations with partners | Progressive technology | Innovation |
| Firm’s role in the value chain for the consumer| Serves the needs of customers | Links producers of goods/services to clients | Integrates the efforts of a modest number of participants to bring adapted or improved technologies to the existing market | Integrates the efforts of a large number of participants to bring radically improved or new technologies to the new market |
| Attitude toward strategic partner/parent company| Independent company; strategic partner either does not exist, or is a key supplier or a key customer | Independent company that distributes or assembles components provided by strategic partners; sometimes emerges as a result of parent-company diversification (horizontal or vertical) | Independent company; relations arise with strategic partners regarding the improvement of technology and the construction of the company’s own production system | Independent company; in the absence of a strategic partner capable of assisting in commercialisation, a manufacturing company actively seeks to organise pilot and industrial production; rarely a spin-off company |
| Office location | Office and retail space rented closer to the client; very rarely located in co-working environment (usually for Internet shops) | Office and retail space rented closer to the client or closer to strategic partner; very rarely located in co-working environment (usually for IT companies) | Own production capacity; in the absence of own sales or sales through the Internet, office can be rented or placed in co-working environment; usually not allowed to become residents of technoparks due to lack of innovation | At the earliest stage, work from home or co-working environment; then become technopark residents |
Source: Developed by the author
Furthermore, within the groups, respondents’ answers to the questions 10, 23, 24 and 25 were analysed in order to identify similarities in approaches to innovation. In this analysis, an attempt was made to interpret the grouping of firms not on the basis of respondents' answers to a single question related to innovativeness, but based on an examination of respondents’ discourse about their firms’ innovativeness in which they described a complex of issues reflecting the multifaceted aspect of business and, more specifically, of innovation. The difficulty in confirming the validity of grouping arose from the fact that responses from some firms in one category to, for example, the question “What is new in the project?” (question 24) could seem somewhat similar to those of respondents from companies other categories, even if the respondents revealed differences in answers to other questions. An analysis of the answers to questions 10, 23, 24 and 25 in the aggregate suggests that companies in different categories still demonstrate different innovative patterns, as shown in Table 3.8.
Table 3.8. Characteristics of companies in relation to innovation
| Parameter | Pattern 1 | Pattern 2 | Pattern 3 | Pattern 4 |
|----------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Logic behind the business model | Comes from clients’ needs related to the traditional product/service; suppliers or partners selected to ensure clients’ needs are met | Comes from an existing product, and existing relationships with suppliers and partners; value is added to augment the quality of the product/service; segment of interested customers is then identified and relevant communication channels are built | Comes from company’s technological ability to significantly improve the product/service; the segment of interested customers is then identified and relevant communication channels are built | Comes from a new idea about satisfying the client’s (unconscious) needs; leads to the creation of a new product/service; discovery, development and education of the market |
| Attitude toward technology | Present due to the supplier | Present due to the supplier and partner; company mostly carries out refinement by improving the convenience of consumption | Company carries out independent improvements/adaptations of the technology and creates the product/service | Company independently develops the technology and creates the product/service |
| Presence of patents | Do not have patents | Do not have patents | Some companies have patents, the presence of which is perceived as useful for doing business | Have patents or are in the process of their registration, and their presence is perceived as a prerequisite for doing business |
| Degree of novelty | Existing business model (perhaps with a minor adaptation) to satisfy the needs of a particular client segment | Incremental innovations | Adaptation of an existing technology, or an architectural or modular innovation | Radical innovation or combination of more than two types of innovations |
Source: Developed by the author
An analysis of Table 3.8 shows that different groups are characterised by varying degrees of innovativeness. At the same time, innovation plays different roles in the business models adopted by firms in each group, and the significance of innovation varies from group to group. For example, for firms belonging to Pattern 1, innovation is not the focus of attention – firms in this group do not produce innovations, although they may use innovative products. For companies grouped under Pattern 4, innovation is the basis for doing business and business begins with a new idea that offers the potential for commercialisation. Thus, the grouping of firms reflects differences in the level of innovativeness. For the convenience of interpretation, the patterns have been named according to the level of innovativeness exhibited by the firms in the group, as shown in Table 3.9.
Table 3.9. SME innovativeness categories
| Revealed patterns | Innovativeness category (IC) | Definitions |
|-------------------|------------------------------|-------------|
| Pattern 1 | Very low (IC-very low) | A company that uses an existing business model or its minor adaptation to satisfy the needs of a particular client segment; does not have patents |
| Pattern 2 | Low (IC-low) | A company that is implementing incremental innovations |
| Pattern 3 | Medium (IC-medium) | A company that is implementing an adaptation of an existing technology, or an architectural or modular innovation |
| Pattern 4 | High (IC-high) | A technological company that is implementing a radical innovation or a combination of more than two types of innovations; has patents |
Source: Developed by the author
Given that respondents could not objectively evaluate the innovativeness of their firm, they gave relative assessments in which they compared their activities with those of other firms known to them. Therefore, the grouping helps determine the ordinal location of each firm on the continuum from a low-innovative (conventional) to a highly-innovative business. However, the grouping does not indicate the absolute value of the firm’s innovativeness or assist in assessing the exact degree of difference in innovation between groups. The value of the grouping developed in this study is that it allows for traditional business indicators (e.g., market, competitiveness, firm's role in the value chain for the consumer and others) to be connected with the level of innovativeness. An understanding of the characteristics of the businesses considered within the innovativeness categories identified in this study is important, as it establishes the context for further interpretations of respondents' answers regarding their networking behaviours.
The fact that, at times, the answers of some respondents belonging to one group resembled those of respondents in other groups suggests that the resulting groups are not mutually exclusive, as visually represented in Figure 3.2.
**Figure 3.2. This study's approach to the construction of groups**
![Diagram showing four patterns with varying levels of innovation and typical behaviours for each group.]
*Continuum of innovative behaviour*
*Source: Developed by the author*
Moreover, this study takes many parameters into account. Therefore, the picture is even more complicated, as the research is conducted in a multidimensional space. The common behaviours of firms in one group (pattern X) are defined and compared with the common behaviours of firms in another group (pattern Y) in order to uncover and interpret the differences. This approach helps to determine ideal types of behaviours in various groups (Weber, 1949; Newman, 1998) based on the comparison of collected empirical data. In this study, the emphasis is on differences based on the argument that diversity increases transaction and coordination costs and determines variations in strategies for interaction with various groups. The presence of intersections among the groups in the form of similar responses is not a methodological problem, as homogeneity is the desired effect and will be revealed in any case. As such, the proposed grouping is justified even though the categories are not mutually exclusive. As the research is exploratory in nature, its main purpose is to formulate hypotheses, which can be done using the proposed approach to grouping.
### 3.2.2. Description of data
On the basis of the data-collection strategy described in Section 184.108.40.206 above, 66 interviews were undertaken with representatives of different SMEs. The analysis of the data (see Table 3.10) shows that innovative companies emerged in the last two phases of NIS development. This relates to the data-collection strategy, as access to those SMEs was
obtained through development institutions and technoparks, which did not emerge until Phase 4 of NIS development.
Table 3.10. Structure of data collected
| Degree of novelty | Total | Phase 1 (1991-1999) | Phase 2 (2000-2005) | Phase 3 (2006-2008) | Phase 4 (2009-2013) | Phase 5 (2014-2017) |
|-------------------|-------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
| Very low | 25 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 9 |
| Low | 19 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 9 |
| Medium | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 5 |
| High | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| **Total** | **66**| **3** | **3** | **1** | **29** | **30** |
*Source: Developed by the author*
As the purpose of this study is to compare the networking behaviour of innovative and conventional SMEs that launched activities in Phases 4 and 5, a sample of 59 companies (out of 66) were left for further research. To understand the structure of the data, a coding system was developed (see Appendix 3.2). The answers to the Section 1 questions (see Appendix 3.1) registered by the interviewer during the interview were compared to data from the transcribed recordings, and then coded in accordance with the coding system as presented in Appendix 3.3. The characteristics of the obtained data are described in Table 3.11.
Table 3.11. Data characteristics
| Degree of novelty | Total | Interviewee | SME business sector |
|-------------------|-------|-------------|---------------------|
| | | Male | Female | Production | B2C services* | IT sector | B2B/B2G services** | Wholesale and retail trade |
| Very low | 20 | 9 | 11 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Low | 17 | 13 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Medium | 12 | 12 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| High | 10 | 10 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| **Total** | **59**| **44**| **(75%)**| **15**| **(25%)**| **23**| **(39%)**| **15**| **(25%)**| **10**| **(17%)**| **5**| **(8%)**| **6**| **(10%)**|
* Hotel, tourism, education, dental care, restaurant, hookah salon
** Transportation, logistics, legal and accounting, construction, real-estate services
*Source: Developed by the author*
In this study, 20 companies grouped into the first innovativeness category (IC-very low) included micro-companies in the retail and services sector (13 companies); small businesses that provided legal, transport or construction services to other businesses (3 companies); small companies that produced fashion clothes (3 companies); and one company engaged in the purchase and primary processing of meat using standard equipment. According to respondents, the main goal of these companies was to create value for the local consumer by selling traditional goods or providing services, which were usually adapted to the needs of a specific consumer group.
The second group (IC-low) included 17 low-innovation companies. These businesses focused on the creation of value for customers by adding certain characteristics to traditional products or services to enhance their value in the eyes of consumers. Respondents in this category perceived themselves as a necessary link in the value chain between larger businesses and customers in regional markets. Although technological solutions could be used by companies in both the IC-very low and IC-low categories, they were not subjected to serious improvements within the framework of these companies' activities.
The third group (IC-medium) included 12 innovative companies that exhibited medium level of innovativeness, which focused on adapting or improving existing technologies to better satisfy existing customer needs. In general, these companies were active on relatively new (but existing) regional or global markets, and offered customers solutions to their problems based on the application of a technology.
The fourth group (IC-high) included 10 highly innovative companies focused on implementing new or radically improved technologies to provide customers with products or services that were new and, at times, superior to all that had previously been available. The companies in this group offered new technological solutions on either highly modified markets, or new and emerging markets.
63% of SMEs in the sample had no novelty or a low degree of novelty in their businesses (traditional SMEs). As shown in Figure 3.3, the majority of traditional SMEs believe that their businesses’ aim is to serve a particular client segment (answers to question 10). In contrast, most innovative SMEs are interested in commercialising a new idea or technology, or in using significantly improved technologies or approaches to offer better products or services.
**Figure 3.3. Distribution of respondents’ answers in relation to their businesses’ aims**
*Source: Developed by the author*
92% of SMEs in the sample were in a “start of sales”, “market penetration”, “sales growth” or “scaling and diffusion” stage (see Figure 3.4). In other words, these companies had passed through the “valley of death” and were, therefore, able to characterise their networking experience in various stages of their companies’ development. As such, these companies were relevant objects for the purposes of this study.
**Figure 3.4. Distribution of respondents’ answers relative to their business project’s development stage**
Stages: 1 - idea generation; 2 - idea verification; 3 – prototype; 4 - market evaluation, 5 - product/service development; 6 - minimum viable product; 7 -product validation; 8 - business-model design; 9 - engineering of product and business processes; 10 - company founding; 11 - start of sales; 12 - market penetration; 13 - sales growth; 14 - scaling and diffusion; 15 - business exit; 16 - other.
*Source: Developed by the author*
The degree of conformity between actual results and companies’ plans was analysed. Areas examined in this regard included the appearance of initial clients and sales, expenses and income, and timeframes. Innovative companies showed more serious discrepancies between actual results and initial plans (see Figure 3.5).
**Figure 3.5. Distribution of respondents’ answers relative to estimation of business project’s success**
*Source: Developed by the author*
This observation indirectly confirms that innovative businesses carry more risk and are less predictable. Therefore, they involve more complex processes than traditional business. At the same time, 82% of respondents representing innovative companies (those with high and medium degrees of innovativeness) characterised their businesses as successful. These interviewees explained that even though their expectations had not been fully met, their projects were consistently growing and had significant market potential. Therefore, with the exception of the four businesses that had not yet passed through the “valley of death”, the innovative SMEs in the sample can be viewed as representing the best entrepreneurial practices.
Interestingly, the difficulties associated with observing the timing of and plans for the introduction of an innovative product or service to the market could not be attributed exclusively to the founders’ lack of entrepreneurial experience. As shown in Figure 3.6, more than 50% of founders of innovation projects already had entrepreneurial experience. However, the responses showed that the previous experience was concerned with high-tech business in only three cases. In the other cases, the entrepreneurs had experience with running a traditional SME.
**Figure 3.6. Distribution of respondents’ answers relative to founders’ entrepreneurial experience**
*Source: Developed by the author*
The same is true for management education. In general, given the data, it is impossible to say whether managerial education leads to more efficient introductions of innovative products on the market. The founders had completed a managerial education in 29% of the innovative companies (see Figure 3.7). However, the proportion of these cases in which there was a low degree of conformity between results and plans (about 70%) was equal to a
comparative sample of SMEs in which the founders had not completed this type of education.
**Figure 3.7. Distribution of respondents’ answers relative to founders’ completion of managerial education**
![Bar chart showing distribution of responses]
*Source: Developed by the author*
Therefore, the data indicate that the success of innovative projects does not necessarily depend on input indicators, such as entrepreneurial experience or managerial competencies. Instead, that success appears to depend on the actual process of building a business, including how entrepreneurs build networks to attract the resources they need. One can assume that experienced and inexperienced entrepreneurs, as well as entrepreneurs with or without managerial competencies, build networks in different ways, all of which aim to compensate for scarce knowledge, information and competencies. In this regard, the sample used in this study allows for the testing of propositions that reflect the research questions, as there is a sufficient number of SMEs in each of the innovativeness categories to use as a basis for comparing entrepreneurs’ approaches to constructing and governing networks.
### 3.2.3. RQ1: What role does networking (external relationships) play in the founding and development of businesses in the Russian context in relation to their degree of innovativeness?
All 59 interviewees indicated that external relationships played a key role in building their business. The respondents’ views, which are presented below, confirmed this idea. At the same time, they show that entrepreneurs from different categories perceived the importance of networking for the development of their business in different ways.
I believe that external relationships played and still play a major role in building my business. I always clung to every piece of information on every contact. ... At the same time, I developed my network of business contacts not only at the beginning of my project when it was necessary to actively look for clients, but also throughout the business’s expansion. (Svetlana, ASK-Capital, IC-very low)
Building a network of business contacts is vitally important for our business. In general, we can say that our business was created thanks to the presence of business contacts. (Pavel, Dial-Electro, IC-low)
Business contacts always play a significant role in the development of a product and its implementation on the market. We are convinced that the warrior cannot win alone. He can win with the help of an army. All of our partners and business contacts have common interests, so we are ready to unite our efforts. We believe that together we will get the result that we need and that these contacts will be really useful to everyone. (Daniel, Football Platform, IC-medium)
This is an important component of our business process, because without these external relationships – without business contacts – nothing can be done in terms of the innovation business. It is like a separate managerial functional that must be dealt with. (Vladislav, Animo, IC-high)
In order to understand the specific features of networking behaviour in the different innovative categories, a set of questions must be answered:
– How do Russian entrepreneurs network?
– What contact sources are used and why?
– What aims do Russian entrepreneurs have when they engage in external relationships?
– How do Russian entrepreneurs govern their network of business contacts?
**How do Russian entrepreneurs network?**
The analysis of respondents’ answers, which was performed separately for each innovativeness category, highlighted certain common features (see Table 3.12).
**Table 3.12. Key characteristics of networking in the innovativeness categories**
| Innovativeness category | IC-very low | IC-low | IC-medium | IC-high |
|-------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Major role of networking | A tool to attract and retain the client base, and build relationships with suppliers or, if necessary, with partners | A tool to attract and retain suppliers and partners, and build relationships with customers | A tool to attract the right contacts for development of the technology, to build production and to create a distribution system | One of the key business processes; a tool for converting an idea into a product/service that meets the requirements of a new market |
| Networking strategy | Snowball – starting with family, friends, and colleagues from university or work; expansion based on referrals and | Snowball – starting with relatives, friends, and colleagues from work; expansion based on referrals | Search for contacts starts with acquaintances and connections through the previous place of work; expansion | Key strategy is to become visible and known enough to attract contacts rather than search for them; search for |
The respondents’ views, which are summarised in the above table, suggest that innovative entrepreneurs understand the concept of networking far more broadly than non-innovative entrepreneurs in terms of its objectives and sources, as well as approaches to establishing and managing relationships.
The essence of networking is the establishment of contacts with people. I believe that a person is a key resource in any business. Business – in general and in principle – is about people. Networking is a consequence of the fact that I am looking for new markets, new ideas and new experiences. ... It is like self-development, which is necessary for creating a big company. Of course, networking can offer both knowledge and connections useful for attracting resources that you lack. However, I am not always motivated by purely utilitarian goals. I generally like to communicate. I know how to do it and everything new is interesting to me. I believe that it is profitable to be generous. It is profitable to share. My experiences with people show that this often works. For example, I can communicate with a person without any desire to benefit at all, even in the form of simple advice. However, such a contact may, for example, later develop into a decent deal. I still live by the principle that any contact is useful and important. I generally try never to refuse communication and see how it goes. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
A key role in the success of our business was played by business contacts. Without contacts, without suppliers, without subcontractors, what would the work have been? Of course, that work would still have been carried out, but at a very different pace. Therefore, in our case, it was important to enter the market precisely during the current crisis. Therefore, we entered the market in 2016, which was very helpful. All of our customers were very pleased with our
appearance, our offers, our prices and our price policy – all of us were delighted. (Alexey, Robotechnics, IC-medium)
The main business contacts for building our business were our partners. For example, if we needed some resources for development, we turned to our partners and asked them if they could allocate those resources to us. Some asked for something in return and some offered their help free of charge because they understood that we were connected in business – if we are able to develop, then they will be better off. (Anton, LKC-Advertising, IC-low)
I could not do all of this without the participation of my parents. They had friends who were engaged in business in this area with whom I could consult. I learned some details from them: how they started, what was required. We established contacts with our clients, of course, and established personal contacts with narrow specialists – first with the marketer and … with representatives of our beauty salon industry. (Mariam, Anin, IC-very low)
**What contact sources are used and why?**
The analysis of respondents’ answers revealed some differences in the networking sources used to found and develop a business, as shown in Table 3.13.
| Innovative ness category | IC-very low | IC-low | IC-medium | IC-high |
|-------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Primary contact sources | Close personal circle: family, relatives, friends, classmates and close, former colleagues | Personal and professional circles: relatives, friends, former colleagues, associates and acquaintances at work, family to a lesser extent | Professional circle: former colleagues, old acquaintances from a professional environment; family, relatives and friends increasingly take on the role of moral support | Professional, scientific and business circles: former colleagues, old scientific, professional and entrepreneurial contacts: family, relatives and friends offer moral support |
| Role of contacts in creating a business | Contacts from close personal circle often serve as the motivation for creating a company; key role played by close relatives or friends who have successfully launched their own businesses | Contacts from the professional circle and the recommendations of relatives often serve as a motivation for creating a company; family members are less involved | Contacts with colleagues and acquaintances from previous professional circles often serve as a motivation for creating a company; recommendations from the professional environment play a key role in the acquisition of necessary contacts; in the case of relatively new technologies and markets, contacts are sought from open sources: professional exhibitions, conferences, LinkedIn, etc. | Often the motivation for creating a company is previous involvement in the sphere of entrepreneurship and a desire to engage in innovation (stimulated by participation in innovative activities); key role played by previous ties with colleagues and acquaintances from the professional, innovative and venture capital environments; given the high degree of business innovation, it is always necessary to seek and attract a large number of new contacts from different fields |
*Source: Developed by the author*
The more complex and innovative the business, the more respondents stressed the importance of professional ties as a key source of relevant knowledge, skills and resources. The more traditional the business, the more important was the role of the close personal circle (family and close friends) in the provision of knowledge, skills and resources, particularly in the initial stages of company development. At the same time, all of the respondents stressed the importance of the provision of moral support and advice by personal circles (e.g., relatives, university friends and previous colleagues), as these circles generally had a high level of trust.
If you worked with people before on some projects, you can always ask a question. You ask them to clarify something you do not understand or ask for advice. If you ask friends or relatives, you cannot be shy. ... It helps to protect yourself from mistakes, share experiences, say something aloud and understand it better. Through communication with people with whom you have something in common, you can test yourself and see new horizons. (Evgeniy, Giftery, IC-medium)
The lower the degree of innovation in a business in terms of both the market and the technology, the lower the need to attract new contacts and vice versa.
Basically, when our project started, all of the key contacts had already been made. They became more active when needed." (Alexey, Robototechnics, IC-medium)
"It takes at least one-third of our time or even half to find and build new contacts. I think this is because no one has done this before us, and we have to find and connect all of the necessary people in order to build the elements of our future project. It is like collecting bricks to build a beautiful building. (Vladislav, Animo, IC-high)
We are making a new product. ... Most of the time, I am communicating with people ... although this happens in waves. You have a business hypothesis. You present it to people and, thus, start to test it. It takes almost all of my time. Then people tell you 'no, it does not work like that'. Then you go back, ponder and create a new hypothesis. In other words, for a period of time, you do not communicate very actively. Then you test the new hypothesis, maybe even with other people. You repeat all of this until you find out what the market needs. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
Respondents noted that contacts related to specialised skills are sought or updated as necessary. Such contacts are often needed to solve specific problems, and these interactions can be temporary.
We are still looking for and taking scientists, doctors and candidates of science who can make a significant contribution and help improve our product." (Dmintry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-high)
According to innovative entrepreneurs, one cannot thoughtlessly seek external relations for the sake of having contact with a famous person or gaining access to a desired resource. In their opinion, networking is always about mutual enrichment and mutual development.
If you are talking about building external relations, you must try to find the people who understand you. Do not communicate with people who do not understand anything, even if they have the right resources, such as money. They can advise you, but they cannot provide
the advice you really need. You need to look for partners whose interests coincide with yours in order to ensure synergies and joint development. (Evgeniy, Giftery, IC-high)
Individual respondents from non-innovative or low innovative companies also pointed out that external relations often lead to the development of new businesses aimed at the creation of something more innovative.
Thanks to the contacts that we established through the development of this company, we developed an idea to create a new project. I think it will be something new on the market, and we plan to launch it together with one of our client companies during the summer. (Karen, Create Develop, IC-low)
The analysis of responses made it possible to compile the list of sources of external relations found in Table 3.14. The table also illustrates the frequency with which these sources were mentioned.
Table 3.14. Extended map of contacts
| Innovativeness categories | IC-very low | IC-low | IC-medium | IC-high |
|---------------------------|-------------|--------|-----------|---------|
| **Close personal circle** | | | | |
| Family and relatives | +++ | ++ | + | + |
| Personal friends (former classmates from school or university, circle of friends with the same interests) | +++ | ++ | ++ | + |
| Friends as a result of previous professional activities | ++ | ++ | +++ | ++ |
| **Professional circle** | | | | |
| Acquaintances from a professional environment | + | ++ | +++ | +++ |
| Clients | +++ | + | ++ | +++ |
| Suppliers | + | ++ | + | + |
| Partners | + | +++ | +++ | +++ |
| Competitors/companies in the industry | +/- | + | ++ | +++ |
| Professional industry associations | +/- | + | ++ | ++ |
| Industry exhibitions | +/- | + | +++ | +++ |
| Sectoral conferences, platforms for communication, hackathons | + | + | ++ | +++ |
| **State structures** | | | | |
| Regulatory state structures | + | + | + | + |
| Official industry bodies | +/- | +/- | ++ | ++ |
| **Sources of external financing** | | | | |
| Private investors and business angels | + | + | ++ | +++ |
| Banks | +/- | + | - | - |
| Funds (e.g., RVC, IIDF) | - | - | +/- | +++ |
| **Entrepreneurial support infrastructure** | | | | |
| State entrepreneurial support systems | +/- | +/- | +/- | + |
| Entrepreneurial conferences, forums (private initiatives) | - | - | + | + |
| Co-working | +/- | + | ++ | + |
| **Innovation support infrastructure** | | | | |
| Accelerators | - | - | +/- | +++ |
| Source of networking | Purposes of engaging in networking |
|----------------------|-----------------------------------|
| Close personal circle: family, relatives and friends | Moral support, including motivation to achieve results; opportunity to discuss emerging ideas for creating a business; advice (useful, intrusive or misleading); selfless assistance in attracting necessary resources (through referrals, recommendations for establishing contacts with the right people, provision of initial capital); sometimes these contacts become co-founders |
| Former colleagues, associates and acquaintances made during a course of study or at work | Professional knowledge and competence; willingness to become a co-founder or assistant in the creation and development of the business; readiness to recommend a good source of information and contacts, and to refer the entrepreneur to the right people; opportunity to ask for advice and get an initial consultation at no cost |
| Acquaintances from a professional environment | Expert knowledge of technology, industry contacts, recommendations |
| Service companies | Access to services related to the coordination and obtaining of permissions for doing business, the opening of the company, legal support and intellectual property rights protection, as well as services in the field of marketing and promotion |
| Government bodies | Methodological recommendations on building a company in a particular business sector, advice on compliance with requirements, |
The analysis of respondents' answers also allowed for identification of the key objectives entrepreneurs pursued when entering into external relations with a particular source, as presented in Table 3.15.
Table 3.15. Purposes of networking with different sources
| Source of networking | Purposes of engaging in networking |
|----------------------|-----------------------------------|
| Close personal circle: family, relatives and friends | Moral support, including motivation to achieve results; opportunity to discuss emerging ideas for creating a business; advice (useful, intrusive or misleading); selfless assistance in attracting necessary resources (through referrals, recommendations for establishing contacts with the right people, provision of initial capital); sometimes these contacts become co-founders |
| Former colleagues, associates and acquaintances made during a course of study or at work | Professional knowledge and competence; willingness to become a co-founder or assistant in the creation and development of the business; readiness to recommend a good source of information and contacts, and to refer the entrepreneur to the right people; opportunity to ask for advice and get an initial consultation at no cost |
| Acquaintances from a professional environment | Expert knowledge of technology, industry contacts, recommendations |
| Service companies | Access to services related to the coordination and obtaining of permissions for doing business, the opening of the company, legal support and intellectual property rights protection, as well as services in the field of marketing and promotion |
| Government bodies | Methodological recommendations on building a company in a particular business sector, advice on compliance with requirements, |
| Entities and resources | Benefits |
|------------------------|----------|
| State support | State support for establishing links with the market and potential consumers |
| Institutions of development (e.g., Skolkovo, RVC, RUSNANO) | Reputation, prestige, grants, tax benefits, assistance with access to international markets (institutional and organisational, communications, contacts) |
| Venture funds (e.g., RVC, IIDF) | Investments, acceleration, market expertise |
| Venture environment | Access to financial resources through business angels, venture funds, pre-seed and seed funds, crowdfunding |
| Banks | Access to bank loans |
| Accelerators | Offsite and full-time acceleration programmes (e.g., Generations, IIDF) |
| Technopark | Tax incentives; benefits related to the cost of renting premises; legal and information support; development-related environment, including activities and programmes for innovative entrepreneurs |
| Co-working | A convenient form of organisation of the working space; an innovative environment of one's own, which makes it possible to follow modern innovation trends |
| Parent company, strategic partner | Market expertise; research and development complex; access to means of experimental and mass production; market contacts, including sales channels; accounting services; office for work |
| Industry conferences in the relevant to business field | Understanding the market (development features, key players, technologies), potential strategic partners, potential customers |
| Specialised professional events, exhibitions, hackathons | New trends in technology, marketing, personnel management; new technological ideas; new strategic vision; etc. |
| Private educational entrepreneurial initiatives | Opportunity to quickly obtain missing knowledge related to building and developing the company; form a narrowly-focused competency, such as the ability to promote a product/service on the Internet |
| Scientific institutions, higher-education organisations | Expertise; structured, scientific, contemporary knowledge; scientific developments, including patented technologies available for commercial implementation; opportunity to find promising employees for research and for business development |
| Economic and business forums | Opportunity to learn about economic development trends, new business models and management features related to the company's activity; opportunity to meet similar entrepreneurs and exchange experiences, and to find team members and necessary specialists |
| Innovative conferences and events | Opportunity to meet mentors, potential investors, new team members or necessary specialists with a similar innovative mindset |
| Industry or professional communities (virtual or real) | Joint development of the industry, testing of ideas concerning the business, customer development |
| Social networks (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn) | Promotion of oneself as an active member of the community, contacts, the ability to quickly find the right competencies |
| Bloggers, opinion leaders | Create a positive reputation for a company/product through the influence exerted by opinion leaders in their personal blogs |
*Source: Developed by the author*
When asked about contacts needed to build a business, many respondents highlighted the importance of the sources used to establish a company. Respondents, especially in the IC-very low and IC-low categories, pointed out that friends from school or former colleagues often became co-founders of their businesses. They also noted that mixing personal and business interests while founding a company tended to harm friendships and led to problems in doing business. Several respondents said they had parted with their co-founders, thereby losing friendships. At the same time, several respondents indicated that they had founded businesses with former colleagues with whom their relationships were not so personal. Notably, this did not lead to problems in conducting business.
Mereya Cosmetics is not my first business project. Previously, we started all of our businesses with our friends. We then closed them within two or three years because we severely disagreed with each other. At times we even quarrelled. We lost friends because of money. This is very disappointing because, for me, friendship is more valuable. Now I better understand this fine line, and I try to be extremely cautious and neat in this regard. I try to think about these questions in a better way. Sometimes I just do not engage friends so that I do not lose them. It is better to launch business with acquaintances than with friends. ... If we start a project together, then we need to negotiate the rules of the game before we start. (Dmitry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-high)
**What aims do Russian entrepreneurs have when they engage in external relationships?**
The analysis of responses also allows for the goals that entrepreneurs pursue through external relationships to be mapped. Although the grouping of companies into innovativeness categories proposed in this study was meaningful in terms of ordering them from less innovative to more innovative, it did not lead to the formation of a non-intersecting breakdown of the data sample into mutually exclusive groups, as some respondents’ answers were similar to those of respondents in other categories (see discussion in Section 3.2.1 In particular, the intersection in respondents' answers regarding innovation was also evident in the intersection of their answers regarding the goals of networking. In Table 3.16, the column boundaries have been placed in a way that visually reflects this situation.
| Non-tech companies | High-tech companies |
|--------------------|---------------------|
| **Innovativeness categories** | **IC-very low** | **IC-low** | **IC-medium** | **IC-high** |
| Meta-task: Creation and maintenance of loyalty of the client base | Meta-task: Creation and development of reliable relations with partners in the vertical of business interaction | Meta-task: Build customers’ and partners’ perceptions of the company as a highly professional organisation | Meta-task: Build partners’ customers’, potential clients’ and the wider community’s perceptions of the company as an innovative entrepreneurial organisation |
| Attract customers | | | |
| Attract missing resources | | | |
| Choose the best suppliers in terms of quality and reliability | | | |
| Obtain the necessary knowledge in the field of doing business | | | |
| Interact with government agencies to obtain the necessary permits to conduct business and ensure compliance with official requirements (e.g., tax payments, financial reporting) | | | |
| Interact with the service providers engaged in the development of Internet sites, marketing and other activities; non-innovative and highly innovative companies address the goal of Internet marketing partially or completely on their own without involving a wide range of external contacts | | | |
| Search for and repair necessary premises located in places where goods and services are consumed | Rental of office, retail and service premises to ensure ease of access for customers | Rental or placement of own offices and R&D premises to ease technological development and production; sometimes located close to a scientific or strategic partner | Search for premises that provide an opportunity for research and product development; in early stages, co-working facilities can be used; later, offices are generally located in a technopark or on the premises of a strategic partner that also allows the business to use its production capacities |
| Search for and attract employees based on recommendations from existing contacts | Search for and attract employees on the professional circle, and through contacts with professional associations and platforms | Search for and attract employees on the professional circle, and through contacts with professional associations and platforms | Recommendation of people in the higher-education institutions, recommendation of people in the higher-education institutions |
| Build relationships with partners in the industry, mainly to exchange experiences, develop industry skills and co-create new trends | Build relationships with partners and competitors in the industry and government, mainly to improve the level of professionalism and industry regulation, including creation of barriers to entry for new players | Build relationships with partners, competitors in the industry, and a broad community that includes public and private commercial and non-profit institutions, mainly for the purpose of creating, developing and promoting innovation in the industry |
| Creation, development and expansion of the client base | | | |
| Acquisition of knowledge and skills to improve the business model and technology | | | |
| Advertisement and promotion of goods and services, stimulation of repeat purchases | Build company brand awareness | | |
| Product improvement | | | |
| Development of customer satisfaction | Embed in activities conducive to the development of a start-up | Create an environment conducive to the development of a start-up | |
| Build a community of people that constitutes an environment for personal and professional development of an entrepreneur | Integration in the community of people who contribute to the personal and professional development of an entrepreneur | Build a community of people that constitutes a comfortable and stimulating environment for the entrepreneur’s personal existence | |
*Source: Developed by the author*
This map presents a range of goals that might be reached with the help of networking. It does not indicate their logical sequence, which, judging by the respondents' answers, depends more on industry specifics than on belonging to a certain innovativeness category. Interestingly, the non-tech companies in this study were more inclined to build their business starting from the goals in the upper tiers and moving down. In contrast, high-tech companies, especially IC-high companies, typically moved from the lower tiers to the upper ones, and then circled back again to the lower tiers, as innovative companies needed more than one iteration to create a commercially successful version of their product or service. This map clearly shows that the higher the degree of innovativeness in a firm, the wider the range of goals that it solves with the help of networking. At the same time, the essence of some types of activities changes depending on the company's degree of innovativeness (as shown in Table 3.17). As such, those activities require fundamentally different approaches to networking.
**Table 3.17. Examples of changes in business objectives with the growth of innovativeness that require changes in networking behaviour**
| Traditional SMEs | Innovative SMEs |
|------------------|-----------------|
| Search for and attract employees based on recommendations from existing contacts | Search for and attract employees on the recommendation of people in the professional circle, and through contacts with higher-education institutions, professional associations and platforms |
| Product improvement | Product development |
| Development of customer satisfaction | Customer development |
| Embed in activities conducive to the development of a start-up | Create an environment conducive to the development of a start-up |
*Source: Developed by the author*
In principle, the knowledge that higher degrees of innovation require different types of networking is important for making managerial decisions. Although this study’s fuzzy approach to grouping does not clearly indicate the moment at which a networking strategy should change, the meaning of this finding remains valid for two reasons. First, no abstraction is identical to reality (Swedberg, 2018), as an abstraction cannot cover all factors. Therefore, in practice, all theories should only be applied by managers after taking the characteristics of the firm and its environment into account. In other words, a firm must decide which strategy suits it best given the benefits and costs of networking. Second, the application of networking approaches characteristic of highly innovative firms is likely stimulate innovation in firms of other types and, thereby, allow them to more effectively solve business problems given the high uncertainty evident in the Russian business environment.
How do Russian entrepreneurs govern their network of business contacts?
Entrepreneurs belonging to different innovative categories build their networks of contacts in different ways to solve the range of tasks they faced. Naturally, one might then wonder whether companies in different innovativeness categories adopt different approaches to governing those networks.
The first interviews indicated there are differences in how entrepreneurs in all innovativeness categories governed their relations with customers and suppliers/partners. As such, in order to more clearly identify differences in approaches to governing networks among entrepreneurs in different innovativeness categories, their approaches to managing customer and partner relations must be examined separately. However, some respondents, especially those representing non-tech companies, struggled to separate the methods they used to manage relationships with these two groups. Therefore, the interviewer asked clarifying questions, through which the existence of differences was confirmed. Interestingly, in the course of talking with the interviewer, few respondents noted that their companies had computerised customer relationship management (CRM) systems. This was the case for several respondents in the IC-low and IC-medium categories. Most respondents stated that they did not need to use complex tools due to the existence of a relatively small client base. Some respondents said that they tried to conduct work systematically based on CRM principles even though they did not use computerised CRM systems.
We already have more than 1,500 client contacts. We check the activity of our Instagram page visitors, and we check how many people are watching our publications on the social network Vkontakte. We monitor the number of customers who visit our sales offices and our web catalogues, and we monitor what they are looking for, what they choose and what they like best. On this basis, we form proposals for future apparel collections. However, we do not have a specific database. We do not even use a CRM system. (Olga, Branding, IC-very low)
Some respondents demonstrated an intuitive, non-reflexive understanding of how they managed their networks. For a number of entrepreneurs, especially those belonging to the IC-very low category, the question about approaches to network governance caused confusion.
Question: Please describe how you manage your network of business contacts.
Respondent: I do not know how to respond. (Vladislav, Bouquet-77, IC-very low)
Respondent: I do not know. ... Everything is really chaotic. (Vyacheslav, L'azur, IC-very low)
Respondent: I would not say that I have a clear algorithm of action. It is desirable, perhaps, to enlarge my contact base. Well, for me it is, as for any businessman, very important. I am surprised that I have not previously thought about this. (Robert, Loft, IC-very low)
At the same time, experienced entrepreneurs (serial entrepreneurs, mentors) valued systematic approaches to finding and governing business contacts. These respondents highlighted the stages of creating, developing, maintaining and ending relations with participants in their networks.
We organised a strategic session in May 2016. We formulated a number of tasks that needed to be addressed to create our start-up. Then we decomposed what we needed to do to address those tasks, and we decided on the people with which we needed to become acquainted and the people with which we wished to enter into closer contact. ... We made one person responsible for each category of contacts. Then, once a week or every two weeks, we sat down and discussed who had done what in relation to approaching those contacts. (Andrey, Motorika, IC-high)
That is what you need to teach – how to properly establish relationships in business, how to develop them, maintain them and end them if necessary. We do not know how to do this in Russia. (Andrey, Motorika, IC-high)
The non-reflexiveness demonstrated by respondents with regards to their network-governance behaviour created difficulties in the interview process, as it required the interviewer to ask additional probing and clarifying questions. However, if the interview was the first time respondents actually considered these questions, then they had no opportunity to distort the data or present the socially desirable picture instead of the real one. Interestingly, after some of the interviews, respondents thanked the interviewer, stating that the interview had helped them uncover ways of improving the building and governing of their business networks.
The results of the analysis of the governance of contacts with clients are presented in Table 3.18.
Table 3.18. Customer-relationship governance
| Innovativeness category | IC-very low | IC-low | IC-medium | IC-high |
|-------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Attitude toward development of contacts with customers | ▪ Formation of loyalty and retention
▪ Customers are main key contacts | ▪ Ensure the inflow of customers
▪ Optimise the customer portfolio | ▪ Attract customers and build relationships with them
▪ Willingness to invest in the training and development of customers to enable them to use advanced technologies
▪ Usage of customer feedback to expand services, improve products and establish cooperation with customers | ▪ Search for a niche in which there are loyal customers who understand the utility of a new product/service and share the company’s values; build a partnership with clients to create a new offer or radically improve a traditional product |
| Customer-acquisition | ▪ Company website
▪ Company page on | ▪ Different types of advertising | ▪ Use of image-reinforcement and | ▪ Widespread PR campaign and |
| Channels | Social networks
- Promotion through the Internet
- Personal pages and blogs of entrepreneurs in social networks |
| --- | --- |
| Company website
- Company page on social networks
- Promotion through the Internet |
| PR activities to attract clients
- Professional trade fairs and exhibitions
- Professional portals
- Company website
- Company page on social networks
- Promotion through the Internet |
| Company promotion through the Internet
- Professional industry and innovation exhibitions and events
- Company website
- Company page on social networks
- Promotion with the help of opinion leaders (bloggers)
- Personal pages and blogs of entrepreneurs in social networks |
**Dynamics of client-based formation**
| Phased development of client base:
- Sharp growth of client base due to special efforts to attract customers
- Maximise number of clients and understanding through experience with how many customers can be serviced by the company
- Reduction of the customer base to achieve manageability with a focus on retaining loyal customers |
| --- | --- |
| Constant process of attracting customers and establishing services
- Interest in maintaining client inflow
- Acceptance of the fact that some customers will leave and new customers will take their place
- Pace of developing the client base is initially high but then slows |
| More individualised approach to customers aimed at building long-term relationships with customers
- Customisation of the product/service and the service process
- In the initial stages, personal relationships with customers; in later stages, relationships become more formalised (e.g., support provided through the Support Department) |
| Gain the client and obtain client’s direct involvement in the process of creating a new product/service
- Constant development of the business-contact pool, which can generate client leads in the future
- Build relationships aimed at ensuring customer loyalty |
**Customer-relationship governance**
| While forming the client database: personal involvement of the entrepreneur in attraction (e.g., meetings, calls, letters)
- Development of customer relationships is part of the daily work of the entrepreneur; supported by steady, positive experiences of interaction between the client and the company
- In subsequent stages, entrepreneur’s participation in maintaining relations is important (e.g., calls, birthday and holiday greetings)
- Day-to-day |
| --- | --- |
| In early stages, entrepreneur contributes to attracting key clients (e.g., meetings, calls, letters)
- Entrepreneur involved in the construction of a system for attracting customers and monitoring the effectiveness of servicing clients
- Signing of standardised contracts
- In later stages, entrepreneur participates in developing relations with key clients at the top management level
- Organisation of client events in order to maintain good relations |
| Entrepreneur’s contribution consists of establishing contacts with strategically important clients
- Company has a department responsible for customer relations, including account managers engaged in negotiating and agreeing on contract terms, monitoring success, etc.
- Entrepreneur participates in developing and maintaining relations with key clients at the top management level, as this affects the desire of customers to recommend the |
| Entrepreneur active in the process of attracting early adopters
- Build relationships with the first customers, who can later serve as ambassadors for an innovative company |
This table shows that, in general, a more systematic approach to governance of customer contacts was demonstrated by companies in the IC-medium category than by IC-low companies. In the former group, the role of the entrepreneur focused more on building relationships at the strategic level, and on establishing and monitoring the system of customer interaction. At the same time, the functions related to maintaining contacts were assigned to relevant specialists in the company. The entrepreneurs most deeply embedded in building and maintaining relationships with customers were found in the IC-very low and IC-high categories.
The results of the analysis of the governance of contacts with suppliers and partners are presented in Table 3.19.
Table 3.19. Governance of contacts with suppliers and partners
| Innovativeness category | IC-very low | IC-low | IC-medium | IC-high |
|-------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Key principle of partner selection | - Cooperation with those who make the best offer at the lowest price
- Do not work with those partners that are not liked on a personal level | - Strong potential for long-lasting and reliable relations | - Potential for contribution to product/service development
- Professionalism | - Synergy potential
- Sharing of values |
| Attitude toward development of contacts with partners and suppliers | - Large number of contacts made at the recommendation of those in the entrepreneur’s close, personal circle
- Major business connections are among suppliers
- Number of partners is insignificant; communications are established with them if they are strategically significant | - Recommendations are of great importance, as they form the basis of trust when establishing new contacts
- At the heart of relations with partners is the planning of activities; clarifying obligations and responsibilities, and ensuring they are clear in the contract | - A large number of contacts are related to previous professional activities
- Active search for new contacts who can help in the development of technology (as needed)
- Search for necessary contacts is the responsibility of co-founders, as they have the | - Important to become the centre of attention and the integrator of the efforts of many partners from various spheres
- Systematic attitude toward the development of external relationships
- Search for contacts is the responsibility of the founder and all members of |
| Dynamics of the formation of relations | Circle of contacts changes with the resolution of urgent tasks (e.g., from contractors for office repair to the advertising and sales channels)
As soon as a contact's relevance is lost, the relationship fades away
In the period of business formation, the number of suppliers grows
In the period of business stabilisation, relations are maintained
Composition of the pool of suppliers is reviewed and optimised based on explicit criteria (e.g., price, quality, reliability) | Evolutionary development of the network of contacts
Slow expansion – as new tasks arise, new contacts are needed
Active participation of the entrepreneur is critical for entering a new level of relations with partners | In the initial stage, number of new contacts increases at a faster rate
Natural evolution, such that some contacts fade and some intensify owing to new opportunities for the development of key technology
Generally smooth expansion of the network of contacts
Quick development of the network with partners when expanding the scope of business activities | Constant, active and systematic work on attracting new contacts
Constant expansion of strategic contacts
Emergence of new contacts attracted by the innovative activities of the start-up
Need to end certain relations in the correct manner, especially relations with state structures |
| Governance of relations with suppliers and partners | Entrepreneur is personally involved in the search for and selection of suppliers
Entrepreneur participates in the development and maintenance of relations
Personal friendships are built with key suppliers and strategic partners
Maintenance of relations with key suppliers and | Creation, development and maintenance of relations with partners are important parts of entrepreneur’s daily work
Goal is to build trust-based relationships with partners, which serve as the basis for long-term cooperation
Maintenance of relations is a planned activity; | A large number of active contacts are inherited from previous professional activities; therefore, participants in these relations are loyal and contacts are maintained through natural communications
If necessary, old links are activated
New contacts are of a professional | Proactive position in relation to key strategic contacts: search, development and maintenance of relations
Communication with sleeping contacts occurs as needed
Establishment and development of contacts is the responsibility of the entrepreneur and team members; some |
| Strategic partners remain the personal responsibility of the entrepreneur; carried out through personal correspondence, meetings and visits | Occurs through personal correspondence, phone calls and meetings | Operational everyday interactions are carried out by company managers, who solve tasks related to their competencies | Relations with contractors are generally more formalised; the contractor who gives the best offer at the best price is selected | Relationships also maintained through participation in professional exhibitions and trade fairs organised by partners, usually as visitors with the purpose of communicating with partners | Overly close relations with partners might pose a threat if they involve expectations of favourable treatment, which might negatively affect profitability |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A warm relationship is maintained with other suppliers (e.g., greetings on holidays, periodic contact) | | | | | |
Nature and are based on the mutual interests of the participants; these are maintained in a reciprocal manner
A number of contacts become barriers to development because they have outlived their ability to contribute to the development of the technology or product; such contacts must be ended
Participation in professional exhibitions as an exhibitor; used to build and maintain relations with partners
Contacts develop into friendships
The building and maintaining of relations with partners often occurs through participation in professional industrial, entrepreneurial and innovative forums (e.g., as speakers), and through the organisation of events and platforms to initiate communication with a broader base
Responsibility for the implementation of interactions with contacts and the maintenance of relations can be delegated to a specialist in the company
Source: Developed by the author
The respondents’ answers suggest that companies in different innovative categories exhibit different patterns of creating and governing networks of contacts with partners. Moreover, the number and variety of those contacts increase as the degree of innovativeness increases. For example, companies in the IC-very low category, which have businesses that are built on customer relationships rather than relationships with suppliers, rationally select and build relationships with those suppliers that most closely match their criteria. Moreover, the size of these companies’ networks tends to stabilise over time.
We always evaluate all of our suppliers at the end of the year. We examine who gave us the most revenue and the least problems, and we eliminate problematic companies. We try to work with those companies with which it was comfortable, convenient and profitable to cooperate, and which provided the required quality. (Andrey, Mirko, IC-very low)
I have already stopped looking for contacts because we are happy with what we already have. We do not have time to process all of the contacts that come to us. While I did not
make such a decision, I did spend a lot of time on useless contacts. Imagine spending time on negotiating and reaching an agreement, and then not being able to work because you do not have enough hands and heads to do so. (Alena, SV Group, IC-very low)
The companies in the IC-low category demonstrated a high degree of involvement in building reliable, mutually beneficial relationships with partners. At the same time, the companies in this category paid the most attention to the formalisation of relations and contractual obligations. This networking behaviour might reflect the fact that these companies primarily built their businesses on links with their partners. On the one hand, they wanted to rely on partners’ brands and reputations for building their own business, and they needed formal permission to do so. On the other hand, they wanted to be sure that their partner companies would not replace them with others and that they would not be thrown out of business. For these reasons, companies in this category paid a significant amount of attention to formalising relationships with partners.
While creating our business with partners, we communicated quite often and on a personal level. There were many personal meetings and a lot of correspondence. I am currently handling this – not my subordinates. I have constantly communicated up to this point because building and maintaining relations with partners are key activities in our business. (Olga, Language Profi, IC-low)
For example, we are already selling such high volumes of motor oil that we are worthy of a certain status, not just as a buyer but as a direct client of the Castrol company. Therefore, the goal is to establish contacts with Castrol’s management, to discuss special conditions for our business and to sign the relevant contracts. (Andrey, Avto-Okey, IC-low)
To develop our business, it was very important, for example, to conclude contracts with the market leaders in the lighting-equipment sector. These contracts are now being carried out, certain plans are being put in place and the results are becoming evident. I believe that this is the ideal scenario for us. (Pavel, Dial-Electro, IC-low)
Unlike non-tech companies that mostly built vertical relationships with partners and suppliers, and rarely established horizontal relationships with representatives of their own or related industries, companies in the IC-medium category had more horizontal links in their own industry and related industries. Entrepreneurs in this category establish these external relationships in order to refine and commercialise their key technologies. These contacts are mainly sought out through existing professional channels, which act as guarantees of reliability and professionalism for these new relations. As the contacts in an individual’s professional circle are relatively close and based on mutual interests, the tools of relationship governance are aimed at maintaining a presence in a real or virtual professional environment, with the purpose of reminding interested parties about a company’s professional achievements and its willingness to engage in cooperation if a common interest appears. In other words, the focus is not necessarily on traditional tools for building relationships, such as personal meetings or correspondence. It is much more
important to meet periodically at professional exhibitions, key trade fairs, industry forums and professional networking events.
In general, I can say that the number of our business contacts increases steadily. For example, when new projects appear and we do not have enough capacity, someone on our team usually has an important contact – he might know of a good specialist who does about the same and who has his own team. We can then draw that team into our project. (IE Afonin, Anton, IC-medium)
Basically, the contacts necessary for building the business were my personal, professional ties. These were my acquaintances with whom an interest in this matter coincided, so there was no need to manage relationships in that regard. Mutual professional interest alone controls our relationships. No additional stimulus is needed. (Alexey, Robotechnics, IC-medium)
I regularly attend thematic professional exhibitions and various Internet forums dedicated to my professional topics. At those events, I can position myself to be seen as a specialist and not be forgotten. Moreover, interesting contacts can sometimes be found at those events. If necessary, we will use them over time. (Alexey, Robotechnics, IC-medium)
As the analysis of respondents' answers showed, the attitude of innovative start-ups toward the role of networking in the establishment and development of a business differs significantly from the understanding evident in other categories. For innovative companies, networking is one of the key processes that determine the development and creation of an innovative business. At the same time, these companies not only wish to increase the number of contacts in their networks but also to develop those relationships to ensure the maximum synergistic effects.
The pool of business contacts must be constantly developed. The most important rule in business is also applicable to networking: any stop is death. As soon as you stop, you start to sink. It is like in the ocean – while you are floundering, you are swimming and you are still on the surface; but as soon as you stop, you begin to quietly sink under the weight of your entire network. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
The development of a contact involves an increase in the number of communications and results achieved within one specific connection between two people. (Andrey, Motorika, IC-high).
In the initial stages of founding a company, it is necessary to understand the spectrum of business tasks for which external contacts will be required. It is also important to be aware of sources for these necessary contacts.
We knew what we needed and understood where to find contacts with the right people, which allowed us to develop quickly. (Vladislav, Animo, IC-high)
In the opinion of the innovative entrepreneurs, a partnership must be governed. That governance should include the creation of a positive emotional environment and additional value for the partner.
When we talk about managing relationships with partners, we refer to our constant efforts to inform them, send them special offers, thank them and reward them. To do so, we organise special events for them or other participants in our network. (Andrey, MasterSlavl, IC-high)
Respondents representing IC-high companies pointed out that contacts can be characterised as either important, strategic contacts that are always being sought out, or horizontal, professional contacts. The development of strategic contacts requires time and effort, including a mutually beneficial exchange of information and the creation of value for those key contacts. Such contacts can play an important role in the business’s future growth.
Key contacts are ‘important people’. Their strength lies in the fact that they have great experience, high positions and social status. They also have large networks. In other words, they are authorities in their professional fields and authorities as people. These contacts need to be monitored. You need to periodically remind them of your existence and manage them. … If people are in a horizontal connection with me, we just need to maintain good relations. There must be symmetry. If I need something, I will write to them. If they need something from me, they write to me. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
The analysis of respondents’ answers suggests that an innovative start-up is usually characterised by an active public position, which is aimed at attracting attention. This allows the start-up to create a situation in which a number of high-quality contacts might approach it on their own.
We are purposefully looking for some contacts and some contacts join us themselves. We just go our own way and they join us. If our business is right, then everything happens smoothly. For example, we believe that the idea behind our product is so strong that investors will find us. For example, we did not beg anyone – the venture funds came to us. … We just agreed to cooperate. (Dmitry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-high)
Furthermore, contacts who are interested in the start-up’s progress can help in the development of the necessary links.
When we achieved our first results and we had to move on, our partners from the venture fund said that they had acquaintances in beauty salons. They suggested approaching them to test our product. … We arrived and our product was shown. In general, professionals liked what we did. They gave us recommendations on how to improve our product and said that they need to know how to use it. (Dmitry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-high)
Active start-ups are able to involve people who can highlight necessary actions and developments about which the start-up might be unaware.
At every stage in the company’s development, both in my experience and in the experience of my partners, there have always been some people who, in principle, formed us, helped us and guided us. Some experts or experienced entrepreneurs appeared in our field of vision. With some, we have maintained a relationship. With some, we have even become friends, while some played a role and walked away. There was a terrific person, a potential investor – he never invested because he did not understand our business idea. He was a tough guy, but he gave us a lot in terms of experience and expertise, which we then happily used. I am very grateful for this, but we do not communicate with him right now. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
More experienced entrepreneurs and mentors noted that relationship governance is a separate function in the management of a newly created company that requires both time and certain professional skills. In some cases, this function is transferred to specific employee.
Establishing and developing contacts is my task and the task of other members of the team. Maintaining relations means communicating with someone about certain operations, such as participating in a contest. For these operations, intense communication and significant effort are required, and the skills needed are all of a technical nature. I believed that it was too expensive to use my and other team members’ resources to perform this technical work. Then a special person appeared. ... He was employed and was told: ‘Your KPI is the attraction of micro-grants. You are leading this process’. Then we gave his name to the corresponding event coordinator, and he went there, represented our project and established the necessary contacts. However, first we trained him on making an investment pitch. He practiced the pitch in front of us until we were convinced that he could do it as well as we could. (Andrey, Motorika, IC-high)
In addition to the natural completion of relations due to the fulfilment of relevant tasks, there were situations in which certain efforts were required to exit a relationship because it became undesirable or even dangerous. One example of such a situation was given by a respondent who represented the radically innovative project Motorika.
As the start-up becomes increasingly noticeable in media, the number of those who want to lean against it, especially in the state structures, rises. After all, they also need to report on the results achieved and show the project, the success of which was the result of the support they provided. Then their competitive struggle begins and you become a bargaining chip. You have to make decisions about which actors are important. As a consequence, there is a group of relationships that deteriorate. People representing some state structures initially maintained relations and applauded us when we presented at an innovative forum. However, at some stage of development, we made a decision that was not in their favour. Then they no longer applauded. Some even put a spoke in the wheel. If you foresee this, you must be able to get out of that contact beforehand – and that is not easy. (Andrey, Motorika, IC-high).
This quotation illustrates a rather paradoxical but typical situation for Russia. Russia as a whole and its national innovation system in particular are frequently accused by the national media and Western analysts and experts of the inefficient use of public funds. A significant amount of money was used to fuel the development of the Russian innovation sphere, but the results are not yet visible. In Russia, systemic problems are commonly attributed to a lack of competence among those who manage the relevant systems. Consequently, state officials are accused of either unprofessionalism (i.e., giving money to unqualified people or organisations) or corruption (i.e., the lack of results confirms that the money was squandered). Therefore, individuals responsible for state innovation or entrepreneurial-development programmes find it necessary to point out in public that successful start-ups have achieved something, saying “it was able to succeed as a result of our efforts and support”. However, there are not enough start-ups in Russia that have produced notable results. Moreover, these start-ups usually participate in several state support programmes simultaneously. Therefore, there is competition among those who want to publicly use a successful start-up as evidence of the efficiency of their support programmes. When they are unable to do so, they take it as a personal affront. Thereafter,
they either refuse to cooperate or even make negative decisions on behalf of their organisations, thereby removing the start-up’s access to the necessary resources.
This discussion of the differences in the network-management approaches of entrepreneurs from different innovativeness categories indicates that these approaches evolve throughout the life of a company. To address this issue, the next section of this dissertation is devoted to the nature of this evolution, and the extent to which external factors change the relations between entrepreneurs and the people within their networks.
3.2.4. **RQ2: In terms of an entrepreneurial venture’s development, how does the network of relationships evolve over time?**
When answering questions about the evolution of their networks, entrepreneurs considered not only the evolution of relationships with suppliers and partners, but also modifications of relations with customers.
**Evolution of contacts with suppliers and partners**
Respondents in all categories pointed out that the evolution of contacts with suppliers and partners was mainly determined by the tasks that the company had to solve in certain stages of its development.
Evolution is always associated with a certain movement – in our case, with the development of the company. Every contact and every partnership is, in principle, necessary for the realisation of certain tasks. Until the task is completed, the contact will continue. If the implementation of certain tasks requires the involvement of additional specialists in a certain area, new sources will be sought out and new contacts will be attracted. (Daniel, Football Platform, IC-medium)
The respondents indicated that the strategy and tactics for building a network of business contacts depended on the stage of the company's life cycle. Respondents whose companies were in the initial stages of the life cycle described their current networking behaviours. In contrast, representatives of companies that were in the late stages of development, such as market penetration, sales growth, or scaling and diffusion, talked about their companies’ current strategies and retrospectively described the steps they took to create the network in the different periods of business formation.
Depending on the goals that arose at different stages of our start-up’s development, certain spheres of communication became meaningful. At each moment in time, we were surrounded by a different group of contacts. For example, when we started and we basically had engineering tasks, our main contacts were in the engineering sector. Then we had to work with orthopaedics and traumatology, as we were dealing with questions that defined the requirements for our product. In that stage, we talked a lot with doctors in the relevant specialties. When we thought about attracting investments (we had to find RUB 45 million), our group of contacts changed again, such that it was filled with private investors and business angels. I personally made forty investor pitches to these people. Someone else made
another forty. Then we worked on the development of sales channels and new contacts appeared. (Andrey, Motorika, IC-high)
In summary, in the initial period of development, the entrepreneur’s main efforts are focused on attracting the external resources and competencies necessary to create the foundation for the business. A high-tech company, for example, focuses on the development of technologies and related products. For a company operating in the hotel industry, an actual hotel forms the basis for doing business.
For us, the main reason we now need to attract contacts is to make a product. (Dmintry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-high).
In the hotel-construction stage, we mainly communicated with contractors. When it was necessary to prepare documents, we worked more with lawyers. When everything was already built, then our main communication was with travel agencies, which were a sales channel for us. (Daniel, Relax, IC-very low)
When a company is just being formed and it does not have a broad client base, the main efforts should be aimed at creating a positive image. In this regard, the entrepreneur needs to be active in establishing relations. His active deeds are viewed by his contacts as an approximation of how that entrepreneur will behave when developing the business. In this regard, the trust of participants in the professional community in what is really a non-existent company is based on perceptions of the entrepreneur's behaviour. If the entrepreneur is active and can convince others of his or her ideas, then cooperation and a certain level of trust can be established.
Let us say, that you are in the initial stages, you have just started your business, you understand that the idea is thought out, complete in a logical sense and can allow you to reach some part of the market. However, the product is not actually there. Then you need to take a very active role. An entrepreneur needs to try to actively find contacts, communicate with people and find someone with whom to cooperate. You can call someone and say ‘Hello! I want to talk with you. ... I have a great idea and an interesting solution that you need. We must arrange to meet’. At this stage, the new entrepreneur should not hesitate to go anywhere, to communicate with the maximum number of people and to offer them his idea. (Evgeniy, Giftery, IC-high)
As the business grows and new developmental horizons appear, it becomes necessary to establish new contacts with people capable of advancing the business. At the same time, some contacts begin to decrease in importance.
When a project enters a new level, such that the volume of sales of goods and services in different categories begins to increase, the network of contacts must be optimised. For example, it makes sense to switch from working with a wholesaler on specific commodity groups to direct relations with manufacturing companies. From this point of view, the more successful the project is, the faster the network grows. (Andrey, Avto-Okey, IC-low)
Some contacts and business connections fall away because they are not necessary, but new, more interesting ones will appear. (Olga, Language Profi, IC-low)
When a product has entered the market and is in demand by customers, even though the production volume and number of customers are still low, more standard tools may begin to be introduced. These tools may include participation in exhibitions aimed at finding partners useful for expanding manufacturing and ensuring sales growth.
If the product is ready and there are resources that can be spent on appropriate marketing activities, then you can attend a professional trade show, set up a stand and say, ‘We are doing well. This is our product. We are waiting for you. Come to us and we will show you how well we can solve your problems with our product. (Evgeniy, Giftery, IC-high)
We continue to build our business contacts through a presence at all major Russian exhibitions and professional fairs. We are also thinking about developing our dealer network in Russia. We will need to choose a suitable partner in each major city with whom we can share our experience with regards to the technology. If we can teach our partners to service our equipment locally throughout Russia, then we can trust them to provide relevant services to our clients and, subsequently, carry out sales, thereby becoming our dealer. (Andrey, Agropromholod, IC-medium)
As the company develops, new goals and objectives emerge, and the circle of necessary contacts as well as the tactics for attracting them change. The respondents’ answers show that the network of contacts evolved in different ways for companies in different innovative categories. For example, for less innovative start-ups, the network of contacts stabilised at some point, while it constantly expanded among highly innovative companies.
At the beginning of our journey, contacts with partners were constantly expanding. At that point, we purposefully studied different companies for possible cooperative purposes. Over time, however, the network of contacts decreased in size and then remained stable. On the other hand, work with certain contacts has deepened. Therefore, the number of contacts as a whole has declined, but our contacts are of better quality. (Pavel, Dial-Electro, IC-low)
The complexity associated with transforming an idea into goods or services largely depends on the degree of business innovation. For low-tech, non-innovative start-ups, it might be enough to obtain competent advice and start-up capital in the initial stages, and then to establish relations with suppliers and partners in order to prepare the product or service for the market. Highly innovative businesses need to solve many more tasks due to the uncertainty associated with the technology itself, as well as the need to find customers and satisfy their requests. Innovative companies often cannot function without support throughout their development, especially in terms of financial and material resources (e.g., production equipment). From this point of view, certain contacts can play a decisive role. Particularly important is the role of the strategic partner in the development stage, which is associated with the transition from laboratory samples to pilot production and then to industrial production.
Our ideas have been confirmed in the university laboratory. Now I am looking for a strategic partner to create a prototype using its own technical and material resources. We cannot do that at the university. The presence of such a strategic partner is critical for the success of our project. (Evgeniy, ElStato, IC-high)
In general, innovative companies have to solve a wider range of tasks than non-innovative companies, as shown in Table 3.16. Therefore, innovative companies must establish a wide range of contacts. Moreover, although some of the contacts fade as tasks are resolved, individual contacts do not necessarily disappear. Instead, they can go into hibernation and be reactivated as needed.
It is important to constantly expand the network. We must constantly look for new customers and new partners. Communications must continually evolve, which can only be positive for business growth. (Andrey, MasterSlavl, IC-high)
If there are mutual benefits from communications, the expectations of the parties are respected, the stated provisions are fulfilled by both parties and the results satisfy both sides, then the relationship naturally develops. If there is no mutual interest, or it disappears because the problem is solved or the interests change, then the contact usually comes to an end. In my experience, I would say that 3 percent of contacts are evolving, 80 percent simply come to an end and the rest ‘fall asleep’. They do not disappear – they can become relevant again if a solution to a similar problem is required. (Andrey, Motorika, IC-high)
**Evolution of contacts with customers**
The responses showed that the dynamics of the number of contacts with customers are directly related to total market volume, the consumption model in the market and the company’s production capacity. Consumption patterns can range from frequent consumption (e.g., hair salons) to systematic consumption based on a previous positive experience (e.g., hotel services) to rare consumption associated with the satisfaction of a particular need (e.g., bathroom equipment or a pet feeder). For companies with limited production resources, the customer base grows until it reaches a volume that matches the company’s production or service capacity.
Initially, our client base was not very large, but it evolved quickly, with the number of clients growing significantly. At a certain point, there were a lot of them, and we realised that we simply could not cope and that quality was declining. The extra clients were eliminated, while important, loyal contacts were maintained. (Daniel, Relax, IC-very low)
In fact, our network rapidly expanded in the initial stages. At some point, there were more customers than there are now because we were trying to sell everything to everyone. Over time, we chose those customers with whom we felt the relationship was comfortable, convenient and profitable. Thus, our client network narrowed. … Now, I believe that our customer portfolio is optimal. We know that they are all normal companies that stand firm and look forward to the future with us. (Andrey, Mirko, IC-very low)
In such companies, the role of the entrepreneur changes. In the initial stages of client-base growth, the entrepreneur is actively involved in the search for contacts with customers. Later, the entrepreneur takes on the role of monitoring interactions with customers, while the function of maintaining relations is taken over by employees.
Of course, I have to communicate with clients now, but not as often as before. In our company, sales people and account managers are responsible for working on projects with our key clients and maintaining relations with them. My task is to create a workable structure, to keep it in working condition and to protect it. I must always look to the future
and develop our already growing company so that we do not remain in one spot but always move forward. (Andrey, Agroporomholod, IC-medium)
In a business that is based on personal contacts with a client due to narrow or local customer market or because of the provision of customised services, an entrepreneur can remain being involved in interactions with clients.
I maintain contacts with our clients. I try not to lose these people – I regularly write to them to find out how they are doing. (Mariam, Anin, IC-very low)
It is very important to maintain relationships with the clients. This includes establishing permanent contact, and engaging in personal communication and meetings. Sometimes you just have to call to ask how things are going. In any case, you need to keep in touch with everyone and maintain relationships because otherwise people forget about you. You should always be number one for them. When you give them some attention, they are pleased to remain your client. (Andrey, MasterSlavl, IC-high)
In areas in which a product is relatively standardised, there is a large market, consumption is systematic or rare, and the company has ample opportunities to produce it, an entrepreneur should be interested in the constant expansion of the client base.
If you were to develop another issue of the magazine, then you could print one, three, seven or even twenty-five thousand copies. The larger the print run, the more profit we make. We are like chicks with open mouths – we want an increasing number of contacts so that we can service them. Therefore, the simple quantitative expansion of the client base is the key to our success. (Alena, Orthodox Pilgrim, IC-low)
In such situations, entrepreneurs' efforts to attract customers are mainly focused on finding and building effective channels of communication. In such cases, the overall strategy for the development of the client base is constant, but the tactics evolve depending on the emergence of new, effective channels.
In our case, word-of-mouth was working, as the girls told their girlfriends about new discoveries in terms of fashion and clothing. Basically, our client base expanded because someone saw our things and asked about them. Initially, we were spinning this way. Then, when social networks became an integral part of our customers’ lives, we began to grow through social networks. Likes and reposts are the same as recommendations, and they also played a role in attracting new customers. (Olga, Branding, IC-very low)
In addition, the customer network can evolve due to a shift in the entrepreneur's interest in a particular market.
When you have too many contacts, you begin to lose contacts periodically. ... With some, you start communicating less, while you start communicating more with others. ... Your focus shifts. ... When we initially entered the automated marketing market, my main communications were with people from the digital sphere, advertising, marketing and PR. ... When we moved to the production business, my network began to consist of people from big business – bankers, logisticians, production workers and consultants. Marketers are no longer in my active circle. I can address them, but we do not grab a drink like we used to. (Arthur, Directual, IC-very low)
Evolution of relations between people in the course of business development
The literature notes that an entrepreneur's relationships tend to start off as relatively formal and then evolve into friendlier versions. Respondents provided examples demonstrating that a multidirectional evolution of relations is possible during a business project.
Examples 1 and 2: the transition of professional contacts into friendly relationships
My key business contacts are found in the network of distributors who are my customers. These are the main people for my company. I communicate with them and conduct business meetings with them. With some, I even become friends. (Vyacheslav, L'azur IC-very low)
Professional contacts tend to turn into personally coloured stories. I have a lot of informal contacts as a result of the development of the start-up. In order for you to become friendlier with a person, it is necessary for your values to coincide. I even made a few really close friends during the development of my start-up. I did not aspire to do so – it happened naturally. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
Example 3: the transition of personal customer contacts into more official relationships
Relations with customers have evolved over time. At first, they were more personal but now they are more formalised. If there are any problems, customers are expected to note them in our Support System. They also continue writing to my personal mail, as this was how we communicated when the business was young, but I am slowly transferring them to the official channels. (Maxim, Softvelum, IC-medium)
Example 4: professional non-evolving relationships with partners
Professional contacts are not the same as client contacts, which need to be strengthened through periodic calls or holiday greetings. Professional ties are of a different sort. I just have these contacts in my phone. If I need to, I pull them out. If it is not necessary, I do not pull them out. In fact, these contacts do the same – they call me when they need to. (Mikhail, Unicorn, IC-medium)
Example 5: separation of the professional and personal in business relationships
In my business, there were people who prevented it from developing. This was because, at a certain stage of development, I had specific tasks and I solved them with the help of certain people. Then I realised that I had outgrown these tasks but, at the same time, I had a certain responsibility to these people because they helped me to do something. I tried to live with it and seek some compromise. I think it is wrong to mix personal attitudes with business – you should view business as business and you should not invest personal emotions in that area. You can be friends with a person, but you must realise that doing so can hinder or harm your business. You should somehow separate the personal from the professional. You can continue to be nice to a person, but you should stop doing any business with that person if necessary. (David, Marmo Bagno, IC-medium)
The responses show that in order for a relationship to grow into a friendly one, a sense of mutual development, a sincere desire for mutual assistance in solving each other's problems, shared values and a high degree of trust are necessary. From this point of view, the analysis indicates that the emergence of personal friendships with customers is more typical among start-ups belonging to two innovative categories: IC-very low and IC-high. In the IC-very low category, the market is local and business is basically built on developing individualised solutions to customer problems. In the IC-high category,
companies try to understand the customer’s needs and how the company’s offering can address those needs. This is particularly true for those companies that are still in the early stages of customer discovery and customer validation. With the expansion of the client base, the approach to building relationships with clients can evolve. For example, a shift towards more formalised relationships can take place as shown in Example 3 or as described in the following quotation.
We are still friends with many of our initial customers. Today, I do not even know who stays at our hotel. This represents an evolution of our relationships with customers. We were very involved with our first guests. We met them. We hosted them ourselves. We even accompanied them to their rooms. We asked what they liked and what they did not. Now we have transferred these tasks to our employees and they are handling them. As such, we are unlikely to make friends with new guests or get to know them. (Vladimir, Crystal, IC-very low)
Therefore, while building a business, friendlier relationships are formed with the initial clients due to the entrepreneur’s high degree of involvement in communicating with them. Direct contacts with customers help the entrepreneur solve tasks, understand the potential of his product/service to satisfy the client’s needs and develop a relevant business model. Later, when these tasks have been addressed, this sphere of contact becomes less relevant, which leads the entrepreneur to leave this type of relationship.
Interestingly, the analysis shows that respondents perceived closer friendships as a way to achieve a higher level of trust in business relations. This, in turn, had the potential to increase the level of loyalty in those relations.
It happens, that acquaintance in business flows into friendship, which clearly increases confidence in the relationship. When first we get acquainted with a person, he distances himself a little at the first meeting. He is not always comfortable talking about some topics. Later, when you know a person better, more common topics for communication emerge. You can discuss something that is truly important to him. Therefore, trust increases. As a result, you can always interact deeper and get better results. (Evgeniy, Giftery, IC-high)
We try to deepen relations with our customers, and to make them more personal and friendly. This allows us to expand our network of business relationships with customers. A strong relationship is the foundation of a good reputation, which helps expand our client network. (Elena, Transport Alliance, IC-very low)
For innovative entrepreneurs, for whom business development is the meaning of life, building friendly relations with partners is perceived as an almost indispensable condition.
In general, relationships that start as purely business tend to become humanised over time and move into the sphere of personal contacts. This is still somewhat difficult for me. I am too cold – I should be able to build friendly relations with people. I think doing so is useful in terms of enabling the business to be successful and in terms of me better understanding myself within this business. (Sergei, SunProtein, IC-high)
If we talk about how contacts evolve throughout the course of business development, the most important thing is that there should be a transition from dry, professional communication with people to personal relationships. For us, this often led to the building of
friendly relations, which allowed us to be more successful as a business. (Andrey, MasterSlavl, IC-high)
Entrepreneurs representing companies in a low innovativeness category were accustomed to building relationships on the basis of formal contractual relations. Notably, they sometimes perceived the emergence of friendly relations in business as a threat. They argued that overly warm personal relations could be used by the other party to harm the business.
Personal relations sometimes interfere with a sober assessment of the prospects for business development. With the establishment of personal ties in business, one must be cautious. I believe that business is business and that you need to calculate everything. If the calculation shows efficiency, then you have to take that step. A personal element in relationships is harmful for business. At least, my partners have always used friendly links to establish conditions that were less profitable for me. (Pavel, Dial-Electro, IC-low)
Interestingly, respondents over the age of 40 who were not engaged in an innovative business and who had no experience with innovative projects demonstrated an extremely cautious attitude towards developing friendly relations with partners. They said that they saw such relations as a threat. People in this category often used phrases along the lines of "trust, but check". At the same time, younger people whose attitudes toward life were formed after the year 2000 and people who had "been infected" with ideas of innovation (regardless of age) exhibited a higher degree of openness towards building close relationships with partners and more readiness to build friendly relationships. Moreover, some young entrepreneurs discussed the revelation that a friendlier relationship can create opportunities.
For some reason, I initially thought that the most important thing in building business ties was to not cross the line of professional communication. That is, everyone should observe the subordination in business relations and communicate in a professionally cold manner. However, through my experience, I have understood that personal relations should also be present. In other words, it is not necessary to communicate always as a business person. Sometimes, these formalities can be avoided and you and your business partner can communicate as friends." (Loft, Robert, IC-very low)
Therefore, the analysis of the interviews collected in this study does not support the hypothesis found in the literature that entrepreneurs’ ties with network participants always evolve into friendlier relations. The ability to transform formal business relations into friendlier relationships depends on the business context, on the entrepreneur’s understanding of the value or risks of such relations, and on the entrepreneur’s skills and psychological preparedness to engage in sincere and warm relationships based on trust.
This discussion of the differences in the network-management approaches of entrepreneurs from different innovativeness categories indicates that these approaches evolve throughout the life of a company. To address this issue, the next section of this dissertation is devoted
to the nature of this evolution, and the extent to which external factors change the relations between entrepreneurs and the people within their networks.
Respondents in different innovativeness categories noted that they were deliberately working to deepen relations, as deeper relationships served as the basis of a good reputation. A good reputation, in turn, could help attract the contacts necessary for business development. At the same time, some respondents in the IC-high category pointed out that in order for business contacts to arise and develop, trust between the partners was necessary.
3.2.5. RQ3: What role does trust play in building a business relationship?
The extant literature proposes that trust is an important factor in the ability and willingness of entrepreneurs to build and manage their networks. Therefore, two questions were included in the interview guide:
- What role does trust play in building a business relationship?
- How does trust between business participants change over time?
If entrepreneurs in different innovativeness categories develop their networks in different ways, as suggested by the analysis above, then they are likely to have different understandings of trust and the various mechanisms by which they can use trust as a tool for building a network. The results of this study testify to the accuracy of this assumption. The analysis of respondents' answers regarding the role of trust in building relationships and the evolution of trust in the development of those relationships are presented in Table 3.20.
Table 3.20. The role and mechanisms of trust in building a network of business contacts
| Innovativeness category | IC-very low | IC-low | IC-medium | IC-high |
|-------------------------|-------------|--------|-----------|---------|
| Willingness to take the risk of working on trust | Medium | Low | High | Extremely high |
| Basis of trust | Experience of conducting similar activities, business practice | Aligned, time-tested relationships and partnerships between organisations along the entire vertical of value creation | Professionalism of the partnering companies and the people working in them | People engaged in the relationship; priority given to building personal relations |
| Role of trust | - A basic value and a tool for building relationships with customers, suppliers and partners - Foundation for the simpler resolution of | - Organic part of long-term relationships – without trust, there is no relationship - Perceived as a rational category, subject to continuous re- | - Measure of perceived risk in building relationships; the lower the trust, the higher the risk of interacting with a partner | - A relationship's intrinsic binding substance through which energy is transferred from one partner to another |
| Trust in relationships at the personal level | You cannot trust those you do not know
Recommendation
Quick establishment of a close and overly trusting relationship is risky
The emergence of trust must have a strong basis, such as recommendations
Development of trust is based on positive experience of cooperation | Informal relations are less important than formalised relations
Reliability is key to trust; includes the ability to always take the interests of the other party into account in interactions and compliance with agreements | Professionalism
Fame and reputation in the professional community
History of personal and professional achievements
Positive experience of cooperation in terms of results and ease of communication | Coincidence of values
Mutual gravitation in interactions and emerging rapport
Strong personal business reputation
Recommendations from trusted people
Rank and position in an organisational hierarchy irrelevant for the emergence of trust; the individual’s personality is important |
| Trust in relationships at the organisational level | A priori lack of trust in the initial stages
“Trust, but check” –relations with an organisation are only possible on the basis of reliable information about it that has been checked through friends and other sources
All statements should be backed up through documentation | Formalisation of relations and conclusion of contracts serve as the basis of trust
Honesty in the implementation of contractual agreements
Reliability and dependability of compliance with obligations assumed to be the basis of trust and loyalty | Reputation of a reliable partner
Professionalism in conducting business
Portfolio of contracts concluded with other organisations in the industry is indicative of the fact that it is a trustworthy organisation
History of joint projects | Reputation in the market; recommendations or previous positive experience
Low level of trust in impersonal relationships with organisations
Conclusion of a detailed contract to protect against claims of failing to fulfil a partner’s expectations
Acceptance of the fact that concluded contracts do not always work
Engaging in personal relationships to increase manageability and effectiveness of concluded contracts |
| Key principles in building relationships | The rational component in assessing mutual benefits in the exchange of resources
Verification by people with whom trust already exists
Business relations must be supported by documentation | A rational approach to building relationships
Decisions about establishing partnerships based on the calculation and evaluation of benefits
Trust is a consequence of compliance with | Mutually beneficial cooperation
Verification through known channels to reduce risk
Clear agreements sometimes not completely formalised
Honest cooperation with | Readiness to trust even if relations are not formalised
Willingness to provide a priori trust in building relationships
Observing the balance between how much you are trusted and how much you trust |
| Expectations from partners | Compliance with commitments regarding timing and financial aspects | Respect the interests of the other party | Compliance with verbal promises |
|---------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| | Legal settlement of relations | Absence of deceit | Honesty, openness | Sincerity | Symmetry and equivalence of benefits in relationships | Taking the interests of the partner into account in interactions |
| Evolution of trust | Initially cautious attitude | Trust grows over time | Trust easily lost if promises and commitments are not met |
|--------------------|----------------------------|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
| | Rational selection of a partner | Relations either become reliable and trustworthy or cease due to a loss of trust | Strive to build long-term, trustful relationships |
| a view to building a long-term, trusting relationship | Professional, mutually enriching cooperation | Symmetrical, honest and open attitude to work | Respectful attitude | Work within the framework of agreements | Some readiness to go beyond formal relations |
|------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|-------------------|------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
| Initial sympathy for a person and a priory trust | Relations built on the "person-to-person" level | Readiness to build friendly business relations | Trust gradually grows due to emergence of business achievements | If the partner does not act in accordance with the trust given to him, the relationship is interrupted |
Source: Developed by the author
When answering the interview questions, respondents in all categories pointed out that trust played a key role in building a network and establishing business relationships. Some respondents noted that trust was important in terms of both the external network of contacts (e.g., clients, partners) and the internal network (e.g., employees, co-founders).
I think that trust plays a paramount role. For us, this is a basic value in relations between us and suppliers, and between us and customers. (Vladislav, Bouquet, IC-very low)
Trust – it should be in everything. ... If you have business partners, then you must be sure that the relationships are honest. Employees must be trusted because otherwise you will have to do everything yourself. Moreover, it is impossible to lead 50 clients simultaneously – physically, it is impossible. In interactions with co-founders, everything in principle is built on trust. (Vladimir, Second Breath, IC-low)
Trust is very important. To be trusted, you must inspire trust. It is not enough to say, ‘We have installed our equipment everywhere. We already have a reputation in the industry and, therefore, you must work with us’. If partners or customers feel that you are not professional in some way, they will never cooperate with you or order high-tech equipment from you. (Andrey, Agroporomholod, IC-medium)
Trust is truly important – it is the basis of all relationships. If it does not exist, everything rests on unsteady sand. (Andrey, Motorika, IC-high)
In principle, I do not communicate with people whom I do not trust. At the heart of trust, in my opinion, lie common values. When I think about whether I should communicate with a person, I just look at his value system. If it turns out that he has a value system focused on the thought that ‘I’ll earn money quickly and that is it’, then for me it is not a normal business. That will not be the one that interests me. (Arthur, Directual, IC-High).
These quotes show that trust is perceived as a fundamental value by non-innovative (IC-very low) and highly innovative (IC-high) companies. These companies believe that it is impossible to conduct or and interact with members of their networks without trust. Although this attitude toward trust reflects the uncertainty associated with the specifics of doing business, the reasons are different for the two categories. For example, in the IC-very low category, this uncertainty is likely to be explained by the small scale of the business, where most issues are dealt with in an informal way for the sake of simplicity. IC-very low companies need to be sure that they will not be deceived and that any problems that might suddenly arise with the partner can be resolved during negotiations. In the IC-high category, the uncertainty is primarily due to the high degree of complexity of the company’s tasks. Sometimes these tasks cannot be formalised in terms of clear expectations for the partner’s contribution or likely costs cannot be accurately assessed in order to conclude a contract. In such situations, there is no fair assessment because the innovative activity is new.
Trust is very important because it is often necessary to negotiate without signing contracts. Accordingly, it is important to understand that you can trust people and become already involved in a particular project, even in the absence of a contract on paper, and to know that you will not be deceived. (Tatiana, Baylo, IC-very low)
The presence of trust greatly facilitates the work. If there are minor problems and you have established trust with this client or supplier, you can peacefully resolve them in a simple way without resorting to lawsuits. You can just calmly discuss the difficulty. If there is no trust, then such things must be resolved in the courts. (Daniel, Relax, IC-very low)
Innovative projects and processes require diverse, multidirectional efforts. We need people who are able to almost instantly integrate into the project and its energy, and diversified tasks needed to be attacked from different angles. Some sparkling energy at a metaphysical level should emerge between people if they are to become engaged in something innovative and unpredictable. Nobody even knows if the people's efforts will bear fruit in a material way – it could be that nothing will result. Trust is a prerequisite for people to exist together in an innovative project. If there is trust, then all is ok – the relationship will work and, most likely, it will bear results. (Dmitry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-high)
For companies in the IC-low and IC-medium segments, trust is a mechanism that is necessary for ensuring the effectiveness of key business processes. At the same time, of all of the innovativeness categories, the IC-low segment demonstrated the most rational and prudent approach to all issues, including questions of what constitutes the basis of trust.
You cannot be too trustworthy – you need natural caution. Common sense should be applied in everything. You need to reason and weigh each aspect sensibly when entering into relationships. (Andrey, Avto-Okey, IC-low)
Trust always plays a role in establishing contacts and building business relations. However, you cannot just trust anyone and anything. Neither intuition nor emotions work. I would say that you must base all of your decisions on calculations. Compile a business plan, estimate all of the parameters, enter into a relevant contractual agreement and then perform. (Pavel, Dial-Electro, IC-low)
As technology companies often enter zones of uncertainty and undertake projects that are not always amenable to clear planning, they are more willing to enter into new relationships based on trust even though they know that they are taking certain risks.
Trust is a risk that you take on yourself. To manage this risk, you should naturally try to assess how much you can trust the partner. Of course, there is some legal protection if you sign an agreement. However, sometimes it is easier to forget a relatively insignificant contract – if the customer did not pay you, for example – than to waste energy and money on forcing the issue. We would lose precious time by doing so, which could be used to develop our technology. (David, Marmo Bagno, IC-medium)
Respondents in all categories noted the importance of recommendations and information sources, which allowed for assessments of the possibility of establishing a trusting relationship. At the same time, the more highly technological a company was, the more often the respondents pointed out that it was difficult to find the necessary recommendations given the novelty of the projects. In general, innovative companies demonstrated a higher degree of openness to building trust relationships with new partners.
In the construction industry, trustworthiness of business partners is a very important factor. We depend on our partners, as their work determines our ability to meet our obligations to the client in terms of time, budget and quality. This is an important issue. We look for partners through proven people and people we can trust. In our case, these are relatives, friends, employees, and colleagues with whom we have worked for a long time and whose opinions we trust. (Kirill, Dialog Construction, IC-very low)
To assess whether we can trust a partner, we use recommendations. (Pavel, Dial-Electro, IC-low)
It is important to contact professionals with a good reputation. For this purpose, it is necessary to check information about partners in all possible ways. With the development of the Internet, social networks, sources of formal and informal information, and Internet chats, this is now easy to do. Before building relationships with a business partner, it is very important to know that doing so is worthwhile. (Daniel, Football Platform, IC-medium)
On the one hand, it may not be necessary to blindly trust people. On the other hand, the business we are dealing with is new, so it is not always possible to find someone through recommendations. Therefore, being overly cautious is not an option – it might be worth taking a risk sometimes. (KS Engineering, Alexey, IC-medium)
The most important thing is openness and trust in each other. Without these elements, it is impossible to work in an innovative business. (Artem, Global Center of Engineering Services, IC-high)
Respondents in all categories indicated that trust grows as relations develop between network participants. In particular, trust grows with the joint acquisition of experiences from interactions, especially experiences gained in difficult situations, solving of which required special effort from the company and its partners.
In my opinion, overly close and trusting relations should not emerge immediately and quickly. Trust must initially be based on positive interactions. (Elena, Transport Alliance, IC-very low)
We are trying to build a partnership with our clients. As they are our partners, they have a high level of trust in us and they are loyal because we, in principle, treat them the same way. We understand that we are going to continue working with our clients for a long time. Therefore, we try to build the most favourable relations – we always move towards each other. (Karen, Create Develop, IC-low)
Over time, if the experience of working together is positive, the degree of trust is enhanced. We have our old partners who trust us so much that it is enough to make a call and ask them for a prepayment when, for example, we need money. They will send some money to help us out and they will get the goods when they need them. Vice versa, they can ask us for a product and we will give it to them – they can pay us afterwards, a few weeks later. However, we can trust only a few clients. They are the ones we have worked with for many years. (Yuri, Vezdehod, IC-medium)
If we talk about relationships with new partners that are just coming into the project, some kind of sympathy may initially arise, but trust grows gradually and it needs to be won. You have to look at people and try to assess how much you can trust them. There must be a balance between how much you are trusted and how much you trust. I believe that the level of trust in a partner is as high, as the problem that got the two of you together was important and then you successfully solved it through joint efforts. (Andrey, MasterSlavl, IC-high)
Respondents in all categories noted that building trusting relationships takes time, which is hard to plan or anticipate. A trusting relationship is difficult to build, but trust is easy to lose, which can ruin the relationship. Respondents noted that the concept of trust in business includes such factors as fulfilment of obligations, reliability, a lack of deceit, honesty, openness, sincerity and symmetrical relations.
Trust is not easy to deserve. However, it is easy to lose if, for example, some oversight occurs and you do not fulfil your obligations. It is important to understand this. (Daniel, Relax, IC-very low)
In order to build a trusting relationship with partners and clients, you need to communicate sincerely. The main thing is not to deceive – to always be open and honest. You must always maintain the reputation of a reliable person in a relationship. (Olga, Language Profi, IC-low)
In order to build trust, we try to work honestly and openly. In this case, our partner shows the same qualities. In order for people to treat each other with respect, they must work in a clearly defined, understandable framework. (Alexey, Robotechnics, IC-medium)
If someone slipped, cheated or did not fulfil an obligation, even if it was in a minor deal, then that would form the general picture. That picture, in turn, would lead to the formation of a certain opinion and a corresponding attitude toward that person. Then no one would build a trusting relationship with that person. If you do not fulfil your obligations, then your partners will not fulfil their obligations to you. (Sergei, SunProtein, IC-high)
Trust plays a key role in existing business relations. The main thing is not to lose it. In that regard, trust must be strengthened in some way. You should always correspond to the level of trust that you are given, and you cannot let down the people with whom you are building a business relationship. The result will be some kind of symmetry and even synergy in the relationship. (Andrey, MasterSlavl, IC-high)
The respondents pointed to deliberate fraudulent actions as the main reason for a loss of trust in a partner. They also highlighted dishonest, unsymmetrical attitudes and a failure to take the mutual interests of participants in the partnership into account.
Although trust plays a huge role, people say "trust, but verify". In fact, our business is susceptible to fraudulent activities. There are unscrupulous companies that deceive and do not pay for the products they receive. Therefore, we must re-check every client repeatedly through our acquaintances and internal contacts before we ship our products. (Andrey, Mirko, IC-very low)
If you have a business partner, then everything should be legally settled and that partner should have an honest attitude towards you. He or she should not put his or her interests above your interests. Your partner must take your interests into account and treat you fairly, equally and symmetrically. (Vladimir, Second Breath, IC-Low)
Interestingly, while non-technological companies viewed the emergence of mutual, material benefits as the main reason for building trusting relationships, innovative companies pointed to the possibilities for mutual enrichment of ideas and mutual development in the innovation space.
To begin with, I strongly advise you to plan everything very carefully when you intend to build a trusting relationship. Consider in advance what you can give someone from whom you want something. (Anna, Sweatshirt, IC-very low)
In general, I build all business relationships as friendly relationships. I believe that friendship reflects a higher level of trust – you trust a person unselfishly. There must be some kind of internal chemistry for this to occur. I try to surround myself with people with whom I feel comfortable and who, at the same time, are useful, so that we are interested in creating something new together. At the same time, I try to find people who are outstanding in their fields and who do certain things better than I can. As I am better in other ways, we exchange ideas and grow together. This is important. For me, in general, business and personal relations are all intertwined. That is what I want. (Dmitry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-very low)
Non-innovative and low-innovative companies saw the formalisation of relations in contracts that detailed the obligations as an important factor in the development of trust. In contrast, highly innovative companies expressed the opinion that formal channels and contractual relations did not work unless contact was established with the right people at the right level. Respondents in highly innovative companies pointed out that business relationships had to be built on personal grounds in order to increase trust. In other words, contact with partners should be established at the person-to-person level rather than at the organisation-to-organisation level.
You must trust people. However, in business relationships, I do not advise anyone to negotiate in words. All words must be backed up by signed agreements. (Vyacheslav, Lazur, IC-very low)
Trust in business relations is a wonderful thing, but sign the contract right away and then talk about trust. In addition to oral agreements and promises, always sign a contract. This will make your trusting relationship even more solid. (Alena, Orthodox Pilgrim, IC-low)
I almost immediately established a contact with a large pharmaceutical company. There were even meetings with its general director, who said that they would like to buy almost the entire volume of our product. This client wanted to become partners on exclusive terms throughout Russia. We even concluded a contract. After that, they came to our factory to carry out certification, so I believed that our cooperation had already begun. However, in the end, everything still only exists on paper – the contract is not being implemented. We did not manage to establish personal contacts with people from this company, so we did not know how to manage the situation. (Sergei, SunProtein, IC-high)
We consciously try to transfer communications onto a personal plane. I always try to reach someone at the decision-making level in both state corporations and companies, and I establish personal contact and personal communication with that person. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
We try to communicate with a concrete person in any organisation. In Skolkovo and in the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, there were specific people with whom we communicated. This often happened informally on the personal level – not within the framework of an official request that people officially answered. We sent letters, but afterwards we established personal contact. (Sergei, SunProtein, IC-high)
According to innovative entrepreneurs, purely formal relationships do not work in business. Personal contacts allow partners to bring relationships that have been created on paper to life.
You can sign a contract. However, paperwork does not do business – people do. I invest my time in communication to increase my partner’s loyalty. He will also make a return on my investment by saving me time, promoting my business and, thereby, actually make a profit. That is an important task – to build personal relationships. You can trust people but not organisations. It is difficult to conduct business when you do not communicate with the right person in a partner company. (Evgeniy, Giftery, IC-high)
The personal component always has a favourable effect on business relations because it helps to increase the level of trust. Once you switch to personal relationships in terms of communication, then it is easier for people to communicate with you, you trust them more and you can do more together. (Andrey, Masterslavl, IC-high)
The discussion above leads to the conclusion that trust is an integral part of relationships within contact networks for all of the entrepreneurs who participated in the study. The highest degree of readiness to trust and openness to building friendly business relations was demonstrated by innovative companies. For entrepreneurs from this category, the rapport between participants in the relationship, which was based on common values and interests, was of particular importance. The common values and interests related not only to material elements but also to creating something new through joint efforts. The
respondents’ answers also showed that building trust on the basis of personal relationships, including friendly ones, was of great importance for innovative entrepreneurs.
All respondents pointed out that trust should expand in the course of relationship development and the shared experience of doing business. At the same time, for the overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs, a loss of trust meant the cessation of both personal and business contact.
The analysis of the interview data revealed some variability in respondents’ answers, which depended not only on the degree of business innovativeness but also on the respondents’ entrepreneurial experience. In this connection, a question arises as to whether it is possible to single out the patterns of evolution in the approaches that entrepreneurs in different categories use to build networks as they gain experience.
3.2.6. RQ4: Does networking behaviour evolve as entrepreneurial experience increases?
The data analysis shows that as entrepreneurs gain experience, their networking strategies change. At the same time, there are some differences in how networking evolves among entrepreneurs belonging to different innovative categories, as reflected in Table 3.21.
Table 3.21. Evolution of networking behaviour among entrepreneurs as they gain entrepreneurial experience
| Innovativeness categories | IC-very low | IC-low | IC-medium | IC-high |
|---------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| | To start construction of the network, contacts are established based on the recommendations or referrals of family members, close relatives and friends. Knowledge of how to do business is typically obtained from personal communications with trusted contacts (close circle, reputable people from the industry). Network of contacts with suppliers and partners is developed, to some extent, through independent trial and error. In developing the network, the | Initially, existing contacts are used to establish links, which are then supplemented independently. Contacts in the professional sphere are acquired in order to gain knowledge about the peculiarities of doing business and in order to find partners. As experience is gained, entrepreneurs learn to intuitively determine the potential of a contact in terms of its reliability. The gradual formation of the company’s reputation helps when | The existing contacts from the professional environment are the starting point for the establishment of the company. As the understanding of needs for improving the technology and product deepens, an understanding of necessary contacts arises. Specific, independent efforts are made to establish appropriate contacts. After the introduction of the product on the market, contacts are developed in a professional environment, often through exhibitions or professional | Initially, a major role is played by participation in educational programmes, business forums and innovative projects, through which certain contacts are acquired. The mentor plays a key role in the development of the required contacts. Subsequently, understanding emerges in terms of what kinds of contacts are needed. These are mostly in the professional, innovative and venture spheres. The search for contacts is carried out in a planned and |
The analysis of answers from respondents in all categories shows that the acquisition of experience allowed entrepreneurs to expand the range of contact sources and increased the number of useful ties. Such experience also enabled entrepreneurs to acquire communication and network-governance skills that changed their networking behaviours.
The more innovative the business and the wider the prospective market, the more extensive the network of contacts built by the entrepreneur. This, in turn, required a more planned approach. For example, entrepreneurs in the IC-very low category relied on their closest circles in their network building. In the initial stages, this circle included relatives and friends. As experience was gained, the circle expanded, but rarely did it go beyond the industry. As such, it remained sufficiently local. In addition, respondents in this category rarely had a conscious strategy for building networks. Instead, networks were built naturally through trial and error.
I believe that my parents played a significant role in the development of my business. Without their participation, I could not have done it all. Through them, I obtained contacts with people who were engaged in similar businesses in this area. I gradually learned how to find the right connections with which I could consult, learn, and gather details on how they started and what was required. (Mariam, Anin, IC-very low)
Our network developed very quickly in terms of activities and slowly in terms of results. In other words, a lot of mistakes were made. We engaged in a lot of poor relationships and failed to foresee a lot of pitfalls. At the very beginning, we could not boast that we formed our ties in the right way, but we learned. We already knew what one should not do – we just became like a fish in water in our sphere. Nowadays, many novice entrepreneurs ask us for advice about whom to contact, how to start, how to proceed and so on. (Kirill, Dialog Construction, IC-very low)
For some entrepreneurs in this category, contacts with employees and clients were particularly important. Such direct communications enabled entrepreneurs to master their understanding of the principles of doing business.
I have gained a lot of knowledge on all issues from my employees. I always listen attentively to the professional opinions of my employees and my clients, who give me a lot of knowledge and insights from their own experiences. (Svetlana, ASK-Capital, IC-very low)
Respondents in the IC-low category indicated that, at the time of their companies’ creation, they had certain connections that were useful for creating a business. In other words, even in the initial stages of business creation, novice entrepreneurs in this category had a wider circle of contacts than those in IC-very low category.
The existing business contacts played an important role in the creation of our business. For example, we used the contacts available to one of our co-founders to agree on the Vianor franchise and organise a new sub-brand. Then, as tasks appeared that could not be solved through simple usage of the available ties, new contacts were found, sometimes through referrals or recommendations. (Andrey, Avto-Okey, IC-low)
In this category, business required more communication with partners, which led to more dynamic growth in the number of contacts and communication skills. Experience with establishing contacts improved, as entrepreneurs became more involved in communication with different partners. As experience grew, the entrepreneurs’ confidence rose and a more accurate understanding of what could be expected from partners emerged.
Do not get upset if a business relationship is not established. You can always be sure that there are other people with whom you can agree. In the beginning, I was always very disappointed when a potential partner refused to engage in cooperation. Then I realised that, in terms of building business relations, one must always be self-confident. Although I previously felt some embarrassment … I thought that we were “number two” in negotiations, I began to understand that there are two equally important parties in business communications. In order to build a strong supportive network, you always need to be confident. (Karen, Create Develop, IC-low)
As the company developed, I gained experience. I began to approach the search for contacts in a different way – based on intuition or something like that. I looked more at potential partners in terms of whether they could keep their promises and deliver results. (Vladimir, Second Breath, IC-low)
With the development of the business and the growth in entrepreneurs’ professional competences, the sources used to acquire contacts changed. As each company’s history and reputation grew, it became easier to find the right partners.
As the business developed, we gradually collected professional knowledge and the necessary contacts. Therefore, I do not even participate in industry conferences on IT anymore. Over time, a reputation arises. Now, some contacts find us instead of us finding them. When we were a young company, we needed to actively go to the outside world. Now that the company has taken its place in the market and has established regular contacts with other market participants, it is easier to find partners. I now probably spend more time on PR than on searching for contacts. (Vladimir, Second Breath, IC-low)
Respondents in the IC-medium category also indicated that access to contacts before starting the business largely determined the basic conditions for the start of the project. At the same time, the initial contact base of some respondents in the IC-medium category was international from the beginning. For others, the development of a technological business subsequently required a move to the international level.
Of course, our Italian strategic partner gave us a lot: technology, contacts, etc. At the same time, the Italians taught us important lessons: not everything that works in Italy is necessarily good for our market. We had to amend their technology, which required finding the right people in Russia as well. (Andrey, Agroporomholod, IC-medium)
We needed manufacturers and equipment suppliers. For our business, they were all in Germany or in Italy. We had to look for their contact information, approach them and negotiate. (Yuiri, Vezdehod, IC-medium)
The respondents indicated that as the initial results of partnerships were received and professionalism was confirmed at the company and personal levels, new contacts could be attracted.
We began to participate in exhibitions and trade fairs, including all key events in Moscow. We took part in foreign exhibitions with our Italian partners. We spent a lot of time on this. Clients and potential partners could see us and our equipment there, and they could see that we were a serious company with which it would be good to talk and negotiate. (Andrey, Agroporomholod, IC-medium)
I am a member of Java User Group, a community of professional developers in the Java language, which is my main professional specialisation. I am present in the basic Java communities and I even write articles on the subject of Java. For example, I wrote several articles for habrahabr.ru. This makes it easier for me to find partners. They already know my level of competence and it is easier for us to communicate. Sometimes I do not even look for them – they approach me. (Maxim, Finansista, IC-medium)
Thus, through the acquisition of personal experience and the formation of the company's reputation as a successful player in the market, entrepreneurs tend to move toward a more active position. In the beginning, as an unknown novice that represents a new venture, the entrepreneur seeks out contacts. Later, the company's achievements and the entrepreneur’s personal successes attract valuable contacts. This trend is even more evident in responses from respondents in the IC-high category.
Interestingly, 9 out of 10 respondents in the IC-high category already had entrepreneurial experience. Moreover, six respondents had been involved in innovative projects in the past
as co-founders, team members or mentors. Therefore, they responded retrospectively about their actions when building contacts in the initial stages of their entrepreneurial trajectories. All entrepreneurs in this category said that they initially did not have relatives or close friends in their personal circles who were engaged in business. On the contrary, the activities of participants in their close circles were typically related to either science or engineering. Therefore, people in their close circles could offer advice on the development of a technology rather than its commercialisation. Several respondents said that in order to acquire basic knowledge in the field of business, they participated in educational projects and activities in the field of entrepreneurship, including paid forums and short-term training for entrepreneurs (e.g., Synergy Global Forum, Business Forum Atlantes, Business Youth). These respondents pointed out that these events were valuable because they broadened their outlooks and motivated them to engage in entrepreneurship. However, they did not provide an opportunity to obtain contacts useful for establishing an innovative start-up. In this respect, professional exhibitions and innovative events were more useful.
Strangely enough, my craving for business knowledge began with the fact that my girlfriend gave me a ticket to the Synergy Global Forum for my birthday. Today, I laugh because I now know that this is purely a marketing event at which the Synergy Business School sells its training without offering any deep knowledge. However, in terms of motivation ... what to learn, where to get information, what books to read – it was a good push. I did not actually obtain any significant contacts for my future business there. (Vladislav, Animo, IC-high)
Four years ago, I went to the "Business Youth" events. I think they were useful in some sense and played a positive role to some extent. Generally, four to five years ago, there was an entrepreneurial boom. Everyone was hanging out at entrepreneurial events of all kinds. I think everyone tried Business Youth, Digital October activities and the like. Now I do not have time for that kind of thing. For me, it was a sort of initial information-gathering activity. Today, I already have an understanding of what we need. I do not want abstract discussions on the benefits of entrepreneurship. I need the more concrete knowledge that is necessary to solve the problems facing our project, which will have concrete benefits. I now go to professional exhibitions, and to innovation and status events, such as "Open Innovations Forum". At those events, you can find useful contacts: mentors, investors or team members. (Sergei, SunProtein, IC-high)
Respondents in the IC-high category pointed to the special role of mentors, who were experienced people with a clear picture of the entire trajectory of start-up development. They not only knew where to find the right contacts at the appropriate time, but they also had their own extensive networks, which were useful for project development. Moreover, the mentors added their energy to the project, which created an impetus for all team members to more actively engage in their work.
The mentor’s energy is important. He is expected to be able to immerse himself in the product and infect the team with the “viral idea” of the superiority of the product. The team then begins to infect everyone around it, talking about the fact that there is such a magical product everywhere they go. This will attract events and people, and involve them in the project. (Dmitry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-high)
The respondents indicated that as they acquired entrepreneurial and innovative experience, their network-building behaviours changed. Some respondents noted that they then tried to not only to attend various events as participants but also as speakers. This allowed them to more effectively build relationships with the people needed for business development, as these activities meant that they were no longer requesters of help but valuable participants in the professional community – worthy partners with whom it would be prestigious to conduct business.
My strategy for building a network of contacts has not seriously changed as I gained more experience. The fact that it is based on the goals and tasks that have to be solved at a certain stage of business development remains the same. However, my tactics have changed significantly. Initially, I approached contacts as if I were some sort of trainee: "You are so clever and such clever things were said. I did not understand anything – please tell me more about it". People love it when someone publicly recognises that they are clever, so they share their expertise, knowledge, experience and their own contacts. I have since changed my approach. I understand that at this stage it is no longer possible to contact people from the position of a trainee, either because of my age or because of the innovativeness and advancement of the product that I represent. Therefore, I am increasingly trying to participate in all events as a speaker. As such, I declare myself an expert in the field of innovation development. I present myself as a revolutionary who has something to offer others. Now interested contacts share information and connections with me because we mutually enrich each other. I not only receive something from them, but I also add value. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
In addition, with the acquisition of experience, entrepreneurs’ expectations changed with regards to which contacts offered value and how they could benefit from those contacts.
Previously, when I went to innovative events, I wanted to get contact information for a certain person, such as Igor Rybakov.\(^{50}\) I thought that such a unique contact could suggest some really important ideas for my business’s development, like a formula for success. However, I realised that such people are not really necessary. If your mentor is an experienced entrepreneur, that is enough. Igor Rybakov was just a public person and everyone had heard about him – there was a difference. Nevertheless, you can learn from lesser-known entrepreneurs who are successful. At the same time, your business project will be unique in some ways, so no universal formula for success, even if one existed, would be applicable to it. (Vladislav, Animo, IC-high)
Respondents pointed out that a start-up had to be actively positioned in the external environment in order to create some sort of friendly and conducive atmosphere around it.
Public recognition is needed to promote the start-up as a brand in the future, but it is also key for investors and the entrepreneurial community. This is important when you need help. Say, for example, that you want permission to become a resident of Skolkovo technopark. Then five experts will evaluate you. For them to arrive at a positive assessment, they should know you well. If they have heard about you and your start-up, then there is a much greater chance of getting the support you need. The popularity of the start-up also leads to the fact that customers themselves start to write. In other words, the promotion of the brand helps in many other ways, not only it is needed to increase sales when the product is launched in the market. (Vladislav, Animo, IC-high)
\(^{50}\) Russian entrepreneur who was included on Forbes’ list of the richest people in Russia in 2017 with USD 900 million in capital. Rybakov is co-owner of the Technonikol corporation and co-founder of the Rybakov Foundation.
The recognition and reputation of innovative start-ups also allowed entrepreneurs to communicate with more highly qualified specialists who could provide more significant help.
You should always try to get acquainted and communicate with those who are older than you – those who have something to offer. They can prompt an idea or lead you with good thoughts. We should strive to start cooperating with large firms. They have experience, money and everything else you might need. (Vladislav, Animo, IC-high)
Respondents noted that network-building skills and general behavioural tactics evolved as entrepreneurial experience increased.
I learned how to communicate with more professional players in the business community at the same level. In the beginning, it was hard for me. I psychologically could not do it and I did not know how to do it more effectively. (Vladislav, Animo, IC-high)
In order to learn how to properly build relationships with people, you need to communicate more often. At the same time, one must follow the reaction to one's own words and behaviours. For example, most people do not know how to listen and hear at all. You tell them directly, but they do not hear you. This does not necessarily depend on age – it is a basic ability to perceive information that comes with experience. I only realised this after I had made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
At the same time, young entrepreneurs in this category who had little experience indicated that they felt a need to improve their communication skills in order to establish mutually beneficial relationships with partners.
In terms of contributing to personal development, we have, for example, a club of entrepreneurs at Moscow State University. This is an environment for communication, but it is still in its infancy. I hope it will develop soon, hopefully with my help, and that it will be useful for people. I feel that I need to be embedded in some sort of driving and inspiring media to grow myself, particularly with regards to gaining the experience required to build effective communications to achieve synergies when doing business with others. (Sergei, SunProtein, IC-high)
Experienced entrepreneurs in this category (i.e., those who had already completed several successful projects), eventually came to the understanding that in order to become visible, it was necessary to not only participate in events organised by others, but also to create a communication platform and initiate activities that united the maximum number of stakeholders (e.g., entrepreneurs, businessmen, clients, government, development institutions). The benefit for a start-up that serves as the organiser of such a platform is that it stands at its centre, where it is the focal point and where it can take advantage of important contacts. For an innovative start-up, this is particularly important, as the high degree of novelty associated with its product often requires the emergence and development of a new market and a new consumption model. This cannot be achieved without combining the efforts of as many industry players as possible. This active positioning of innovative start-ups, which had to create the networks needed to develop the
market and industry while also building the networks needed for the development of their own products, distinguished their networking behaviour from the behaviours of those in other innovativeness categories.
We have established an educational centre, where we will train cosmetologists in using our product. They will come to us for training, for certificates and for information on new technologies. This is important because novelties are desired in beauty salons. Beauty salons have customers who want to try something new. By developing cosmetologists, we create a market for our product. (Dmitry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-high)
Given the peculiarities of our project related to childhood education, our main relationships at this stage are with governmental authorities at both the city level (i.e., Moscow) and the federal level. In order to develop these ties, we create new projects in which our contacts become important participants, and we allow them to hold various events here at our premises in MasterSlavl – conferences, round tables and consultations. An additional benefit for us is that, through these activities, we are expanding our links with the business community and we are driving it toward a better understanding of the educational principles that we implement here in MasterSlavl. We are organisers and sometimes even sponsors of such events. (Andrey, MasterSlavl, IC-high)
We do not just communicate with all of the leaders in our professional community – we created our own union of prosthetic developers and suppliers of technical means of rehabilitation, known as CYBATHLETIC. Last year, the first all-Russian conference on high-tech prosthetics was held. That day, we managed to collect 90 percent of all Russian start-ups working in this area. Participants included all of our main competitors, including foreign ones, and all of the relevant Russian ministries – the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Trade, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and the Social Insurance Fund. We organised roundtables in which the participants in this market exchanged views. Moreover, we attracted disabled people, including Paralympic champions and leading commentators from sports programs on TV. Everyone was forced to talk about it. We believe that our mission is to change the culture of prosthetics in Russia. Therefore, we are committed to realising everything that contributes to achieving this mission. For example, the first Cyborg World Championships was held in Zurich last October. Motorika went there as a part of the Russian team. Even if the national team did not take part, we would have registered ourselves and gone. Upon our return, we initiated this event in Russia. In June, we will hold the first Cyborg Championship in Moscow. In November, we will hold the first Russian championships for cyborgs. We have registered the CYBATHLETIC union, which aims to host the World Cup in 2021 and to create a sports federation for disabled people using prosthetic devices. (Andrey, Motorika, IC-high)
Therefore, the data analysis confirms the proposition that novice and experienced entrepreneurs engage in and build their networks in different ways.
3.3. Implications for state innovation policy
This study showed that innovative start-ups in the IC-high category both knew and used the opportunities provided to them by the Russian innovative system. They were able to rationally assess the pros and cons of interacting with NIS actors. In general, the assumptions made in the second chapter as a result of the analysis of the Russian NIS’s development (i.e., regarding the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks associated with interactions in the system; see Table 2.23) were confirmed. When discussing their sphere
of contacts, start-ups in the IC-high category paid a significant amount of attention to describing their interactions with development institutions. They noted the opportunities that arise as a result of relationships with those institutions as well as the risks, which they perceived as so significant that some entrepreneurs worked to minimise contacts with development institutions, such as the Skolkovo Foundation and IIDF.
Thus, this study confirmed that a number of measures introduced to develop the Russian NIS were justified from the point of view of providing opportunities for start-ups. The respondents mentioned that participation in innovative forums and events organised by the ASI and RVC was generally useful in terms of meaningful support. In other words, such participation provided the necessary information and energy boost. The Innopraktika project was also noted as effective. For example, two companies – Mereya Cosmetics and SunProtein – emerged as a result of the work of the biotech accelerator that was organised by Innopraktika through Moscow State University. The biotech accelerator aimed at creating an opportunity for motivated young people with knowledge of both management and applied disciplines (e.g., biochemistry, computer technology, applied physics) to take part in a promising project that was offered by an industrial partner.
Within Innopraktika’s biotech accelerator, there were meetings and presentations by industrial partners. In other words, large companies talked about their goals, products and business problems, and suggested that the accelerator’s participants work on them. I liked the proposed project and I joined it. (Sergei, SunProtein, IC-high)
I gathered my whole project team by participating in Innopraktika’s biotech accelerator. I presented the idea, said what we wanted and described the strategic partner, and then I invited young people who were interested to join the project. (Dmitry, Mereya Cosmetics, IC-high)
The created an innovation infrastructure, and the proposed measures of public and private support were used by active, innovative entrepreneurs.
We received a grant from Innopraktika and we recently became a Skolkovo resident in order to obtain some support. Basically, these are tax breaks and grants. You can participate in exhibitions at the expense of Skolkovo – and not only in Russia. There are also tax benefits if we, for example, decide to buy production equipment. As a resident of Skolkovo, we can apply for a grant for R&D or for making a prototype. As we often conduct laboratory studies, being a resident may be advantageous for us, as Skolkovo has special premises equipped with all that we need. In addition, status as a Skolkovo resident increases the company’s market value. It is a sign that we have gone through a serious selection process and, therefore, that we are trustworthy. (Sergei, SunProtein, IC-high)
We are located in the co-working environment of the IIDF fund. I believe that it is fruitful for innovative entrepreneurs to locate themselves in an environment with similar types of people, such as a co-working environment or a technopark. This allows for cross-sowing. Every start-up makes mistakes. If entrepreneurs communicate and exchange information, they can provide advice along the lines of “Do not do it. I did it and it did not work”. This saves a great deal of time and money. (Arthur, Directual, IC-high)
These forms of innovation-development support can and should be further developed, as they contribute to the emergence of successful innovative start-ups. At the same time, this study has revealed a need for additional organisational and conceptual development of existing forms of entrepreneurial support. For example, several respondents stated that they did not meaningfully use the opportunities provided by the development institutions, such as Skolkovo. In their opinion, although the possibility of becoming an innovative company and establishing links with development institutions could provide access to certain opportunities (e.g., becoming a technopark resident and receiving tax benefits), it would also impose additional obligations that would complicate the life of the start-up and drain scarce resources. For example, a start-up needs to compile a large number of documents to apply to a development programme. At the end of the period, it must submit multiple reports on the use of any support it received. In the respondents’ opinions, a significant amount of time and effort must be spent on preparing bureaucratic documents on the use of state funds.
To get into a technopark or accelerator, you need to spend four and a half months preparing a heap of unnecessary documentation that no one ever reads. Then you need to report on how the money was spent to prove that it was effectively used on for necessary items. Moreover, if this is a start-up, it is just learning how to do business – mistakes are inevitable. However, if you cannot explain your spending, then it is a nightmare. (Artem, Global Centre of Engineering Services, IC-high)
In addition, respondents noted that the interaction of entrepreneurs with funds entailed a number of difficulties and that it was not always easy to develop a mutual understanding. Several respondents stated that certain aspects of the funds’ models for start-up acceleration, such as the introduction of fund representatives into management teams with the aim of influencing strategic and tactical decisions, threatened the success of business development.
It seems to be better to distance ourselves from the IIDF. It is always dangerous when someone wedges themselves into your business and starts to manage it. This is more of a limiting factor than a supportive one. The team understands its product well. However, the external people say that what we are doing is not right. You can take their opinion into consideration once, but if it happens constantly, it becomes a hindrance. (Evgeniy, Giftery, IC-high)
Meanwhile, non-innovative start-ups and the vast majority of companies in the IC-medium category indicated that they did not use state support and did not participate in the development programmes. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that there is a room for improvement in this regard. A large number of entrepreneurial and innovation support programmes have been created at the state and private levels, and these programmes are actively looking for participants. As the study showed, most start-ups did not want to engage in these programmes. Therefore, it is advisable to continue studies with the aim to
provide an understanding of which methods of stimulating entrepreneurial and innovative activity are effective in the Russian context, and which create obstacles of a methodological, conceptual, administrative or psychological nature that do not allow support systems to work efficiently. The ultimate aim is to increase the number of start-ups and facilitate their growth, while not creating risks and high transaction costs for companies.
One point emerging from this study is that it is necessary to continue concentrating on supporting cluster-development programmes that can organically facilitate the building of relationships between start-ups and strategic partners. Such efforts should include those programmes involving interactions between companies and universities (e.g., the project proposed by Innopraktika) in which talented young people are encouraged to help businesses commercialise products and ideas. Such an approach may prove to be more effective than the one, which is still actively practiced now when universities are pushed to commercialise their scientific developments. The problem is that such commercialisation results may be unclaimed by existing businesses. But to build independent company capable to bring commercialisation results in the market, scientists do not have the appropriate competencies and resources. The analysis carried out in Chapter 2 showed that higher-education institutions have historically focused on fostering scientific potential in students. As such, they have been characterised by a certain tendency to reject business culture. Consequently, the declared concept of an entrepreneurial institution is still only partially realised and it has only been implemented in certain places. A national programme might be needed to popularise a practice-oriented entrepreneurial education within the framework of higher-education institutions, which, among other things, would include the creation of a community of university professors who were interested in sharing their best practices in the creation and teaching of courses that promote innovative entrepreneurship.
As large businesses with state participation are highly inertial, and unable to quickly and broadly create points of growth supportive of innovative or entrepreneurial activity, it may be worthwhile to pay attention to the experiences of such companies as Motorika, Mereya Cosmetics and MaterSlavl. In the future, these private companies will be able to stimulate the creation of small enterprises that will serve as their suppliers, distributors or partners in technological development. The value of these companies is that they not only possess the necessary expertise and desire to develop the market and the industry, but that they are also charged with highly positive energy, which bureaucratised, large, state-owned companies cannot impart to their own development programmes.
3.4. Conclusions
This chapter presented the results of the primary research, which entailed a qualitative survey of entrepreneurs from Moscow-based SMEs. The chapter is based on the results of the literature review (Chapter 1), which allowed for formulation of the theoretical foundation and the key questions for the primary research, and on the findings of the documentary analysis (Chapter 2) undertaken to uncover the specific features of the Russian innovation environment. The ultimate goal of this chapter within the frame of the current study was to build an understanding of the role of networking in solving the problems associated with commercialising ideas and technologies by Moscow-based SMEs established in the fourth and fifth phases of the Russian NIS’s development. Moscow was the first region to be involved in the development of the Russian NIS. Thus, Moscow-based firms were the first to have an opportunity to create networks within innovative systems (both NIS and RIS) for the purposes of doing business and developing innovation.
The literature indicates that entrepreneurs’ networking behaviours, especially in the context of transition economies, are poorly understood (see Chapter 1). This is particularly relevant in the case of Russia, as there are few modern studies on the subject of networking in this context (see Section 1.2.11). To highlight the importance of networking for innovation by identifying differences in networking behaviour, data were collected from firms with different degrees of innovativeness along the spectrum from low-innovation conventional companies to highly innovative companies engaged in the commercialisation of patented technological inventions. The research described in this chapter generated the empirical data that helped to confirm the proposition that innovative companies more actively use networking as a tool for the development of business and innovation.
The data analysis showed that entrepreneurs constructed their networks in different ways depending on the degree of business innovativeness. Less-innovative start-ups (i.e., those in the IC-very low and IC-low categories) took a more passive role in building network interactions. The data analysis provided evidence that low-innovation start-ups actively relied on formalised market and hierarchical mechanisms to build their relationships, while they were less ready than innovative start-ups to build relations based on trust. The former’s circle of contacts was much narrower, they often established vertical connections and they rarely participated in horizontal networks. Usually, their network contacts were built organically, and they arose as a result of entering into relations with customers and partners, rather than as a result of purposeful and systematic actions aimed at opening up business opportunities or seeking new ideas or technologies for implementation. As such,
their networking strategy could be described as "establishing contacts as needed". Non-innovative and low-innovative companies viewed the formalisation of relations in contracts as an important factor in the development of trust. The more innovative a start-up was, the more actively it built relationships and widened its network of contacts not only to solve pressing problems but also to enable it to respond to opportunities for future development. These more innovative start-ups were also more willing to establish trusting relationships. That is, in their systems of business interactions, there were more network connections that supplemented established market and hierarchical relations.
The empirical data collected for this study suggest that market and hierarchical mechanisms for building relationships are widely used in Russian business. This finding is new – the extant literature, which mainly considers the situation in Russia through 2010 (see Section 1.2.11), argues that the mechanisms usually used to manage business relations in Russia are informal and based on social networking (i.e., *blat*-based and *svyazi* relations). The formalisation and professionalisation of business relations in Russia does not mean that people have ceased to interact on a personal level. Instead, although informal relations remain important, they complement formalised mechanisms rather than replace them. From this point of view, it can be said that the conditions and culture of doing business in Russia have evolved, become more civilised and moved closer to Western norms. Thus, the specific features of networking in Russian business, which were identified on the basis of the literature analysis (see Table 1.11), have already partially lost their relevance. However, in the high risk, unstructured business environment that still exists for innovative start-ups, companies prefer to establish personal connections, which are seen as more manageable. At the same time, personal, informal ties among NIS participants are not necessarily *blat*-based relationships, but more of an attempt to find synergies between organisations and to find people with similar mentalities and visions. However, in relations with state structures, personal connections are still perceived as an effective method of obtaining more accurate information or speeding up certain processes. Notably, none of the 59 respondents who participated in the survey used the term *blat* in describing business relationships. One interviewee who represented a company created in the first phase of the NIS’s development did mention that business was easier to conduct in the early stages because *blat* and *svyazi* helped to solve various issues.
The results presented in this chapter showed that innovative companies’ attitudes toward networking as well as their models for building and governing business networks differed significantly from the patterns seen in other categories. Empirical data provided evidences
that innovative companies that implemented radical innovations (IC-high) became integrators of the efforts of a large number of NIS participants in their network thus initiating team-type of interdependencies (see section 1.2.1). In essence, these actors were united by the start-up in a horizontal network in order to achieve certain goals, which were sometimes of a broader nature than the launch of the start-up’s own product. In fact, innovative companies built several networks of business contacts related to the development of their own business as well as the development of the market and the industry. At the same time, synergetic relationships existed among these networks.
For less-innovative companies, networking was more of a means to achieve commercial business goals, while for a highly innovative companies, networking also served as a reason for engaging in innovative entrepreneurial activities. Given the high degree of novelty of products created by innovative start-ups and the lack of appropriate expertise in the entrepreneur’s close circle of contacts, most of the ties were created from open sources. This required the entrepreneur to expend considerable effort on finding contacts and establishing good relationships. In this sense, the purposeful work of creating a network of contacts was perceived as an integral part of the commercialisation process, and distinguished the mechanisms these entrepreneurs used for creating and building a network of contacts from what could be observed among entrepreneurs in other categories.
The data collected within the framework of this study confirm the existence of cognitive gaps among the understandings of entrepreneurs, scientists, representatives of the venture community and development institutions of what constitutes an effective commercialisation process, and of the direction that purposeful actions should take. From this point of view, this study’s findings confirm the conclusion of Andrushchak et al. (2018) that entrepreneurs (former engineers in their case) are more interested in the development of technology. As a rule, they already have a circle of scientific and technological contacts in which they feel comfortable and that supports them with regards to insights useful for the development of technologies. However, the creation of business and market networks (see Table 1.10) presents certain difficulties in terms of the existence of psychological barriers.
The models developed in this study, which are synthesised on the basis of a generalisation of the empirical data (e.g., the map of goals pursued by entrepreneurs in external relationships in Table 3.16; the overview of mechanisms of trust in building a network of business contacts in Table 3.20), should be of interest to current managers, who can use them as decision-support tools. In particular, the map is useful for building a more systemic understanding of best practices in the construction and governance of business
networks that should be applicable in each of the innovative categories. The discussion of differences in companies’ understandings of the appropriateness of networking behaviour, including the mechanisms that give rise to trust in business, should allow managers to avoid common mistakes. Such mistakes often arise because managers fail to think about the possibility that their business partners might be in a different innovativeness category. Therefore, they build relationships without automatically taking the interests of the other party into account. As shown in the study, an inability to understand the interests of the other side often leads to problems in an otherwise trusting relationship. For example, a number of companies belonging to the IC-low category are likely to be suppliers for companies in the IC-very low category. At the same time, they are also likely to be distributors for companies in the IC-medium category. Therefore, an understanding of differences in the mechanisms for building and managing business relationships in all categories can help all value-chain participants be more effective. Often, former managers or entrepreneurs who had previously been involved in non-innovative businesses became innovative entrepreneurs. An understanding of the features of networking in an innovative environment should allow novice entrepreneurs to avoid the mistakes associated with subconscious attempts to transfer their experience into the new context of innovation development, which requires a different attitude and different networking behaviour.
The results derived in this study have a number of uses with regards to theory development and practical application. They also contribute to a better understanding of areas for further research with regard to networking and its relationship with innovation. The most important implications are summarised in the following chapter.
Chapter 4. Discussion and conclusions
The ultimate purpose of this chapter is to discuss the contributions of this study to knowledge and practice. The chapter also reflects on the limitations of this research and explains how future research on innovative networking might build upon this study.
4.1. Contributions to knowledge
This section aims to summarise this study findings in key research areas that were identified (see Table 3.1) and to highlight conclusions that address the gaps in the current scholarly understanding of networking and its role in innovation (see Table 1.12). The key theoretical contribution of this study emerged from the grouping of start-ups into innovativeness categories onto the continuum of “conventional business – knowledge- and technology-driven business”, and from the identification of common patterns of networking behaviour in each category and differences among those patterns. The findings of this study are compared with key ideas found in the literature to identify the extent to which existing knowledge about entrepreneurial networking should be modified in the light of this study’s conclusions.
The findings presented in this section are based on data collected through interviews with entrepreneurs representing Moscow-based firms. Therefore, the understanding presented here largely reflects the specifics of the national and regional contexts of Russia. However, as shown in the previous chapter, the behaviour of Russian entrepreneurs as a whole is similar to Western norms. Therefore, these conclusions may have a broader scope of use than to only provide a conceptual understanding of the networking behaviour of Russian entrepreneurs.
4.1.1. Role of networking in the founding and development of businesses
This study highlighted the differences in how entrepreneurs in traditional and innovative firms used networking to found and develop their businesses. The results of a comparison of this study’s key findings with ideas from the literature are summarised in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1. Comparison of this study’s and literature findings regarding the role of networking in the founding and development of businesses
| Key ideas found in the literature | Findings from this study |
|----------------------------------|--------------------------|
| | Conventional businesses | Innovative business |
| A start-up becomes a focal actor in the network | True | True |
| Relations serve as a medium through which entrepreneurs gain access to a variety of resources | True
In the main, material and financial resources are needed | True
Material, financial and knowledge resources are equally necessary |
| Contacts are viewed as a source of business information, advice, emotional support and problem solving | True | True |
| Recommendations and referrals play an important role in establishing links | True, referrals usually come from close circle | True, referrals usually come from professional circle |
| Entrepreneurs tend to establish person-to-person relations | Used to be true in Russia. There is a tendency for a wider emergence of market and hierarchical links | True |
| Informal interactions at the individual level are perceived as more manageable | Somewhat true. Formalisation of relations is also important | True |
| Different ties might be needed in the different stages of a company’s development | True | True |
This study, which focused on Russian SMEs characterised by different degrees of innovation, confirmed that the main purpose of building a network of business contacts was to create a pipeline for the knowledge, experience and resources necessary to build a business that proved propositions found in the literature. The study highlighted the differences in how entrepreneurs in these categories built and governed their business networks, which reflected the range of tasks they needed to address to ensure the successful operation of their businesses (for more details see Table 3.16). The differences also reflected the scale of the market in which they intended to conduct business, the geographical range of the resources necessary for building operations, and the degree of newness of their product or service.
The research presented here showed that the more local a company's market was from the point of view of its customer base and the more it was satisfied with the spectrum of suppliers available on that local market, the smaller was its network. The findings also revealed that the less innovative a company was, the more its ties were built around itself. For example, each company in the IC-very low category had an elongated vertical structure of contacts, in which the company itself was in the centre. From that vantage point, these companies focused on ensuring customer loyalty and maintaining profitable relations with suppliers. They relied on the recommendations of those in their close circle (friends and relatives who had relevant experience) as evidence of partner’s reliability, tried to formalise contractual relations and attempted to rationally assess the benefits of cooperation. Entrepreneurs demonstrated an intuitive understanding that finding a new partner and integrating it into the firm’s business processes not only incurs transaction and coordination costs but also bears reputational and operational risks. Therefore, they established relationships as necessary, and those relationships tended to be formalised. At the same time, firms in this category saw more of a need to establish dyadic ties with
partners than to build their relations within the framework of an integrated network of contacts.
For companies in the IC-low and IC-medium categories, this structure was supplemented with ties with larger numbers of partners, as well as horizontal relations with companies representing their own and related industries. This reflected the increasing complexity of the products and services offered by these companies, which required some form of infrastructure for their production and distribution. For example, an IT company developing IT solutions for the automation of corporate-governance processes had to actively interact with computer-equipment manufacturers. At the same time, the sphere of IC-medium companies’ contacts expanded relative to that of companies in the IC-low categories. This was the result of the more active involvement of representatives of the scientific community in the former, which was necessary to improve the technologies underlying those businesses. It also reflected the more active involvement of these companies in international cooperation owing to the technological backwardness of Russian industries. As a result of this backwardness, IC-medium companies were unable to find the necessary equipment and components on the national market.
The widest networks were maintained by highly innovative companies (IC-high) comprising both vertical and horizontal relations (see Table 3.14). Moreover, highly innovative companies in the IC-high category felt that formal channels and contractual relations would not work unless contact was established with the right people at the right level. Respondents in highly innovative companies pointed out that business relationships had to be built on personal grounds in order to increase trust. In other words, contact with partners should be established at the person-to-person level. According to innovative entrepreneurs, purely formal relationships do not work in business. This behaviour can be explained by the desire to minimise risks and reduce uncertainty inherent in innovative endeavour. Personal contacts allow partners to bring relationships that have been created on paper to life:
While companies in other categories indicated that their relationships faded away as certain tasks were fulfilled, companies in the IC-high category had a large number of "sleeping contacts". This meant that start-ups in this category had the largest networks. The breadth and volume of these networks was explained by the wide spectrum of multidisciplinary tasks that these companies faced, and their need for iterative interactions with their contacts due to the recurring nature of the innovative product-development process.
Respondents in all categories noted the importance of referrals and recommendations, which allowed for assessments of the possibility of establishing a trusting relationship. At the same time, the more high-tech a company was, the more often the respondents found it difficult to find the necessary recommendations given the novelty of the projects. In general, innovative companies demonstrated a higher degree of openness to building trusting relationships with new partners.
The analysis of the answers from innovative manufacturers revealed that the most difficult periods for these companies were the transition from laboratory research to the experimental stage and then the transition to small-scale (pilot) production that had to be done at the start-up stage of development. These periods were the most difficult owing to the unavailability of financial resources and the challenge of finding strategic partners interested in providing assistance (e.g., equipment for starting production). Consequently, during these periods of firm’s development it was required to establish the maximum number of contacts. Spin-off companies, such as Mereya Cosmetics or SunProtein, which were created as a result of larger companies’ diversification and had support from their parent companies, experienced fewer difficulties and were more actively developing. This was primarily due to the availability of their parent companies’ networks the use of which made it easier for them to attract the necessary contacts.
The increase in interdependencies among connections in entrepreneurs’ networks is visually presented in Figure 4.1.
**Figure 4.1. Increase in complexity in the system of relations depending on the innovativeness of the focal firm**
*Source: Developed by the author*
Using the terminology proposed by Hämäläinen (2001; see Table 1.5., Chapter 1) we suggest that as the company’s degree of innovativeness increases, the composition and predominance of individual types of interdependencies change (see Figure 4.2). On the one hand, this increases transaction and coordination costs, and amplifies the risks associated with a firm’s networking due to the growing complexity of interactions. On the other hand, it is perceived as an inevitable necessity given the need to create something new, which can only be achieved through joint efforts.
**Figure 4.2. Types of interdependencies typical for firms with various levels of innovativeness**
![Diagram showing different types of interdependencies]
*Source: Developed by the author*
Figure 4.2 helps forming a general conceptual understanding of the development of horizontal and team-based relations as business innovativeness increases. However, it should be used while taking into account the specifics of the interactions that arise in individual industries. Although the comparison of the networking behaviours of start-ups in different industries (i.e., IT companies and manufacturers) conducted in this study generally showed no fundamental differences in terms of the approaches used to govern networks, some specificity was revealed. Thus, IT companies usually had smaller networks, as they did not need to solve the wide range of tasks faced by manufacturers. In general, IT companies had shorter production cycles and most functions, such as software development and internet marketing, could be handled by employees, which reduced the need to build an extensive network of external contacts. The main sources of contact highlighted by IT companies were the professional community and clients, from which they derived ideas for creating and improving their products.
Thus, the findings in this study suggest that existing cognitive frameworks covering the networking behaviour of entrepreneurs should be supplemented with the degree of their innovativeness. This will help avoid the common mistake of offering representatives of traditional businesses an opportunity to more actively create networks and expecting them to do so. If these businesses do not need to solve new tasks related to, for example, the expansion or diversification of a business, they will find it unnecessary to expand the scope of their contacts, as doing so increases their costs and carries risks. Also, the findings indicate that state policy-related recommendations to apply push and top-down approaches to create more space and mechanisms for communication and to encourage start-ups to enter and use this space will result in a waste of funds with few positive effects. As long as firms do not need to expand their connections due to the specifics of their business, the opportunities provided to them will go unused. A pull approach based on the initiatives of firms or their professional associations, which are better able to understand their needs than the state, is more effective. At the same time, the understanding that the formation of ties is vital for innovative firms allows for a focus on ways to help reduce the transaction costs associated with finding the right partners in all circles of interaction – institutional, market and professional (see Table 1.10). Such mechanisms might focus on information spaces, physical venues and innovation-related fora for communication. Notably, one must not forget that excessive bureaucracy when, for example, dealing with development institutions increases coordination costs and can prevent firms from establishing relations with them.
4.1.2. Evolution of networks
The results of a comparison of this study’s key findings with ideas from the literature are summarised in Table 4.2.
Table 4.2. Comparison of this study’s and literature findings regarding the evolution of networks
| Key ideas found in the literature | Findings from this study |
|----------------------------------|--------------------------|
| | Conventional businesses | Innovative business |
| Networks develop over time | True, but networks not | True |
| | necessarily grow | |
| Entrepreneur’s relationships tend to start off as relatively formal and then evolve into friendlier versions | Confirming and refuting examples are found | More likely to occur in this way, but not always |
| Embedded ties can provide benefits but sometimes can harm the development of the business | True | True |
The data confirmed the assumptions found in the extant literature that entrepreneurs’ networks and their networking behaviour evolve over time. The data also revealed that
relationships evolved differently in companies belonging to the various innovativeness categories. In particular, the evolution of relations with customers needs to be separated from the evolution of relations with partners and suppliers. The analysis showed that, for companies in the IC-very low category, the network of client contacts and the network of contacts with suppliers both typically reached saturation in terms of volume. This saturation point was determined by the business’s production capacity, although individual participants in the network could be replaced over time. The networks of companies in the IC-low category tended to reach a point of stabilisation and then only evolved slightly. This was explained by the peculiarities of this type of business, especially the fact that they were often built on formalised, long-term relationships, such that changes in the network were not desirable. Innovative companies’ networks developed more dynamically. For companies in the IC-medium category, this evolution was determined by the necessity of constantly developing their products. For the most innovative companies (IC-high), network development was due not only to the activities needed to commercialise their technologies but also to the need to develop the market and the industry. Therefore, innovative entrepreneurs in the IC-high category eventually formed several interconnected networks of business contacts aimed at supporting various projects with both business and social value. Thus, this observation expands the conceptual understanding found in the literature of how innovative companies form their networks of business contacts.
This study provides evidence that contradicts the proposition found in the literature that an entrepreneur usually transforms business contacts into friendlier, more personal contacts over time. Although examples confirming this type of evolution were found, examples indicating the opposite were also uncovered. The research presented here also showed that this type of evolution depended on the context of the relationship and the psychological readiness of the entrepreneur. For example, Russian entrepreneurs who started their businesses during the difficult years of the collapse of the Soviet Union, *perestroika* and the post-*perestroika* recovery tended to separate business activities from their personal lives. Therefore, their business relations did not evolve in this manner. At the same time, young entrepreneurs, especially innovative ones, demonstrated a clear readiness to build friendly business ties and to give partners more trust from the very beginning.
The study confirmed the existence of risks and barriers to business development resulting from highly embedded ties, which have previously been identified in the literature. The use of informal personal relations to improve the manageability of business relations (which is a characteristic of transition economies) has the opposite effect. In this study, respondents in all categories noted that it is necessary to not only pay attention to finding contacts and
managing relationships, but also to exit those relationships if they become obsolete, and to do so without damaging the firm’s operational processes or reputation. The data analysis did not provide insights into patterns that might help resolve this problem. Each individual case faced by an entrepreneur was the subject to his or her situational decision, which was often suboptimal and typically led to a loss of friendship, funds, company destruction or moral damage. Notably, this problem remains poorly researched and rarely examined in the literature, which suggests that the topic of ending relations in business would be a fruitful area for further research.
4.1.3. Role of trust in building a business relationship
This study largely confirmed the main propositions found in the literature (see Table 4.3).
Table 4.3. Comparison of this study’s and literature findings regarding the role of trust
| Key ideas found in the literature | Findings from this study |
|----------------------------------|--------------------------|
| | Conventional businesses | Innovative business |
| ▪ Interpersonal trust is an important mediating factor influencing the networking behaviour | To some extent true Formalisation of relations is important | Highly true |
| ▪ Trust between business participants change over time | Trust can both grow and fade away | Trust can both grow and fade away |
| ▪ Trust increases from the positive outcome of repeated interactions | True | True |
For entrepreneurs who participated in the study, interpersonal trust is an important mediating factor that influences networking behaviour. Trust acts as a guarantor in terms of optimising costs and minimising the risks associated with opportunistic behaviour in relations. This study results highlight different patterns of networking behaviour backed by different attitudes towards trust in the various innovative categories.
The highest degrees of readiness to trust and openness to building friendly business relations were demonstrated by highly innovative companies (IC-high category). For entrepreneurs from this category, the rapport between participants in the relationship, which was based on common values and interests, was of particular importance. These common values and interests related not only to material elements but also to creating something new through joint efforts. Thus, for innovative entrepreneurs, the key element in decisions to establish business relations is affective trust. However, the behaviour of innovative start-ups differed significantly from what is described in the literature. In view of the technological complexity of these businesses, network building cannot be based on recommendations from an individual’s close circle. Moreover, professional relations sometimes developed into friendly relations.
In contrast, less innovative entrepreneurs (in IC-medium category) are mostly guided by the model described in the literature when establishing and governing new business relations. Respondents in this category are willing to enter into new relationships based on trust even though they know that they are taking certain risks. While dependence on a business partner can be assessed as average, the high degree of specificity of complementary competencies that the entrepreneur seeks from the relation is an issue. This explains why it is perceived as appropriate to accept risk. Entrepreneurs in this category tend to build business relations by relying on cognitive trust trying to find some evidence of trustworthiness, including through recommendations of those in their close professional circle, to minimise risks and costs:
Of all of the respondents, those in the IC-low category demonstrated the most rational and prudent approach to all issues, including questions of what constitutes the basis of trust. They claimed that one must base all decisions on rational considerations and calculations, trust should be deserved, and all relations should be backed up with contracts. Respondents in this category rely mainly on behavioural trust, which suggests that perceived interdependence on other participants of their business network is not high and that there is a pool of potential partners from which to choose (i.e., transaction costs are not perceived as very high). However, the reliability and trustworthiness of the partner allow for economising on coordination costs in the long term. Thus it can be concluded that for companies in the IC-low category, trust is necessary for ensuring the effectiveness of key business processes.
Interestingly, the results highlighted a similarity between traditional companies’ networking behaviours (IC-very low) and the networking behaviours of highly innovative companies (IC-high). For entrepreneurs from these categories, networking was a tool useful for forming a certain environment in which it was comfortable to exist. Moreover, entrepreneurs from these categories found it natural to build more trusting relationships with their contacts based on the convergence of values. These relationships subsequently became friendlier. This can be explained by the fact that it was natural for respondents in these categories to perceive the building of their companies as the meaning of life rather than as a narrow, utilitarian way of earning money.
This study also showed that trust between business participants changed over time, but it did not necessarily develop over time. The data analysis also revealed that companies in different categories perceived the basis of trust in different ways, and that they had different dynamics when forming trusting relationships. Nevertheless, trustful relations often developed due to interactions aimed at providing mutual assistance, especially in
difficult periods. It can be concluded that the level of trust grows when repeated interactions have positive outcomes, thus proving that the behavioural aspect of building trust is important. At the same time, relations often faded as a result of a party’s failure to live up to obligations. These findings are in line with the observations found in the literature. However, there were found some differences in how trust is affected by failing to meet obligations and keep promises in different categories. Only one category of entrepreneurs, IC-medium, demonstrated relative tolerance of a partner’s faults if there was some awareness of that partner’s professionalism and its readiness to correct mistakes. In other categories, the level of tolerance was low. In the IC-low category, a breach of obligations was perceived as contrary to the rules of doing business, especially when agreements are secured by contracts. In the IC-very low and IC-high categories, the low level of tolerance was explained by the fact that relationships were more personal. Therefore, a violation of agreed obligations was perceived as a sign of disrespect for the interests of the partner, which led to personal insults and a break in ties.
The conceptual understanding of the mechanisms of trust used by different types of SMEs developed in this study should be of interest to managers. The discussion of differences in companies’ understandings of the appropriateness of trust mechanisms, which give rise to different networking behaviours, should allow managers to avoid common mistakes. Such mistakes often occur because managers fail to consider the possibility that their business partners might be in a different innovativeness category and, therefore, may value different aspects of trust (affective, cognitive or behavioural). As shown in this study, an inability to understand the interests of the other side often creates problems in otherwise trusting relationships. For example, a number of companies belonging to the IC-low category are likely to simultaneously be suppliers for companies in the IC-very low category and distributors for companies in the IC-medium and IC-high categories. Therefore, an understanding of differences in the mechanisms for building and managing business relationships in all categories can make all value-chain participants more effective.
4.1.4. Role of previous entrepreneurial experience and education in networking behaviour
The results of a comparison of this study’s key findings with ideas from the literature are summarised in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4. Comparison of this study’s and literature findings regarding the role of experience in networking behaviour
| Key ideas found in the literature | Findings from this study |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| Previous entrepreneurial experience and education influences the process of acquiring resources | Conventional businesses: True |
| through networking | Innovative business: True |
| Novices and experienced entrepreneurs behave differently in relation to networking strategies | Conventional businesses: True. Experienced entrepreneurs are |
| and tactics | more active in networking striving to improve quality of |
| | contacts |
| | Innovative business: True. Experienced entrepreneurs become |
| | the core of intra-industry networks, uniting the efforts of |
| | diverse participants of the NIS. |
This study showed that the acquisition of entrepreneurial experience changed the networking behaviour of start-ups and enabled them to expand their range of contacts. With the acquisition of entrepreneurial experience, entrepreneurs began to better understand the advantages that networking provides, and to see and manage the risks associated with it. In general, representatives of traditional companies improved the quality, rather than the breadth, of their networks as they gained experience. The more innovative the company was, the more the entrepreneur expanded the network of contacts as he or she gained experience. Entrepreneurs in all categories noted that network-building skills as well as the ability to properly position themselves and their companies in the appropriate business environment evolved as entrepreneurial experience increased. Several respondents noted a need for higher-education institutions to purposefully strengthen skills in building and governing networks.
The study revealed that younger entrepreneurs often make decisions about new ventures by relying on their existing circles of contacts, which serve as the starting point for building their business networks. The more professional or more scientific that circle is, the greater the likelihood that a young entrepreneur will engage in a more innovative business. As entrepreneurs gain experience and develop communication skills, their network-building tactics change. In the beginning, as unknown novices representing new ventures, the entrepreneurs seek out contacts somewhat randomly. Later, they adopt a more planned approach in which they rationally assess which contacts can be made and for what purpose. Second, entrepreneurs move from a position of seeking out contacts toward putting themselves at the centre of communications to more efficiently create the network they need. At the same time, innovative start-ups assume responsibility for the development of the market and the industry by expanding information and creating networking opportunities for interested parties. The more innovative a start-up is, the more likely it is to create a network of contacts that solve broader tasks than just creating a company and
launching a product on the market. This approach is self-reinforcing. As a firm's history and its reputation in the market grow, it becomes easier to find the right partners for new endeavours.
In this study, it has also been suggested that previous entrepreneurial or management education can have an impact on networking behaviour. As expected, not all entrepreneurs participating in this study had a basic economic or entrepreneurial education. However, only somewhat successful start-ups that had already launched their product on the market or had made major progress in that direction took part in this study. Given this sample, it was impossible to accurately assess the extent to which a managerial education was critical for successful networking. Notably, some respondents stated that their lack of management education was offset by either the presence of a co-founder with a relevant education or their own extended experience in a large company where they had acquired the necessary knowledge. A number of young entrepreneurs said that their lack of entrepreneurial experience and business knowledge hampered their activities. Representatives of low-innovative companies acquired the necessary knowledge by obtaining advice, mainly through communication with a close circle of friends and relatives who had relevant experience. Representatives of innovative companies, especially in the IC-high category, were more likely to acquire this knowledge on the open market through participation in paid, widely advertised, short-term educational programmes and activities in the field of entrepreneurship. Alternatively, they obtained it from mentors who were experienced entrepreneurs. Respondents noted that the latter method was more effective, while paid educational programmes were often of poor quality. Moreover, respondents pointed out that participating in innovative forums could be useful, as one could learn new trends and find the right contacts. Contradictory opinions were expressed regarding the effectiveness of accelerator programmes, and reactions to these programmes ranged from refusal to participate due to a perceived high degree of bureaucratisation to a high degree of satisfaction with the results.
Entrepreneurs noted that the educational programmes in which they participated were unbalanced in terms of theory and practice. More specifically, if a programme was offered by a university, it was too theoretical. If it was offered by an accelerator organised to support start-ups, it consisted of a set of actions that needed to be completed and then reported. However, the instructions issued to the accelerator participants were not accompanied by sufficient explanations of why these actions were necessary and there was no subsequent analysis of what could be done differently. This observation led to the
conclusion that it is necessary to develop an educational project that would organically combine the theoretical and practical components, help students understand the role of networking in innovation, and assist them in acquiring and mastering networking skills.
4.2. Contribution to practice
A key contribution to practice emerged in the sphere of the professional capacity of this thesis’s author (i.e., her teaching and administrative activities at the Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School). More specifically, the results of this study were applied in the construction and implementation of an educational project designed to enhance student learning. At the same time, that project had an external impact in terms of helping technological entrepreneurs establish vital contacts in the business and market environment. This project was carried out with the support and active participation of the Skolkovo Foundation, which aims to assist start-ups in launching technological products on the market. The project’s implementation also helped to improve the effectiveness of the start-ups’ marketing activities that were supported by the Foundation. In particular, it increased the effectiveness of the start-ups’ participation in the international professional fair Batimat-2018 in Russia.\(^{51}\)
This study has shown that networking plays an important role in increasing the effectiveness of commercialisation processes. However, as the respondents pointed out (see Chapter 3), communication skills and experience are needed in order to network effectively. This suggests that if current students are to become entrepreneurs, higher-education institutions should not only provide theoretical knowledge but also teach networking skills and create a networking environment that can serve as a context for students’ entrepreneurial development.
The practical implication of this study was the inclusion of a "Foundations of Creating Your Own Business" course in the curriculum for second-year students at the Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School. The elective course was introduced in the spring semester of the 2017-18 academic year. Students who took the course already had basic knowledge of entrepreneurship. The findings of this study laid the foundations for the theoretical part of the course. More specifically, the frameworks presented here were used for in-class discussions of the role and significance of networking in the context of an innovation system. The theoretical component was supplemented with a practical project in which groups of students were formed and attached to five technological start-ups that
\(^{51}\) https://batimat-rus.com/en/.
were residents of the Skolkovo Technopark and were under the patronage of the Skolkovo Foundation. The participation of start-ups in the Batimat-2018 professional fair (3-6 April 2018), which was subsidised by the Skolkovo Foundation to provide support in commercialising technological solutions, was the focal event for the project. A detailed description of the stages of the project is presented in Appendix 4.1. The students worked under the guidance of the course instructor, but the students had some freedom to utilise their own creativity.
The main idea of the course was to create a unique learning environment in which students (i.e., future entrepreneurs) could not only see the theoretical importance of creating networks for innovation management but also become part of such a network in order to promote an innovative product. In this regard, they had an opportunity to master the theoretical concepts through the application of knowledge in real-life situations, which contributed to the development of relevant skills. Students interacted with technological entrepreneurs with the aim of helping entrepreneurs better understand opportunities to develop a systematic approach to building business networks conducive for bringing technology-driven, innovative products to the market. The Skolkovo Foundation supported the practical project implemented as a part of the course by selecting the start-ups that would participate, providing moral support and information to students and start-ups, facilitating interactions between project participants (i.e., students and start-ups), and hosting two high-value meetings with start-ups at the Skolkovo Technopark (a kick-off meeting and closing event at which students presented their results to start-ups and the broader Skolkovo community). The results of the students’ work were provided to start-ups at no charge. As such, the project brought together three groups of actors who found synergies in the interactions within the NIS, as presented in Table 4.5.
Table 4.5. Project participants
| Knowledge-generation system | Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School, teachers (2 people)\(^{52}\) and students (9 working groups, an average of 7 people each; a total of 62 undergraduate students of the second year) |
|-----------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Development institution | Skolkovo Foundation, represented by a curator of the “Energy-efficient technologies and technologies in the sphere of housing, communal services and municipal infrastructure” cluster |
| Knowledge-application system| Five companies within the cluster receiving support from the Skolkovo Foundation
- Rubetek – smart home systems
- AMT – 3D printer for building houses
- Ecolight – device for protection against sparks
- Insolar – household- heat recovery valve
- Revolta (AllGateKeeper project) – equipment for remote management of parking and access to various premises |
\(^{52}\) The course was designed and implemented by the author of this thesis with administrative help provided by a junior lecturer from the Management Department.
This project was implemented to help solving several tasks:
- **For start-ups**: To systematise approaches to the development of necessary business contacts and to acquire new, useful business contacts with the help of students.
- **For the Skolkovo Foundation**: To provide practical assistance in increasing the effectiveness of start-ups’ participation in the professional fair, and to identify areas in the development of market and professional networks in which start-ups required help.
- **For students**: To obtain practical experience in planning and attracting necessary business contacts.
- **For the business school**: To increase the effectiveness of education and ensure that students develop practical competences that they could later apply in their professional activities.
In general, most student groups coped with the assigned tasks. However, two teams that carried out the project for one of the start-ups struggled with communicating with that start-up’s representatives early in the process. Those representatives had adopted the position of "We already know what we need to do. We are not ready to look for contacts and doing so is a waste of time". Therefore, these two groups spent a significant amount of time on convincing the start-up of the usefulness and expediency of networks, and they even helped the start-up find useful contacts. All student groups worked at the professional fair and presented their results in Skolkovo on the final day (see Figure 4.3).
**Figure 4.3. Photos of project participants**
Positive feedback on this project was received from representatives of the start-ups, who said that the students’ involvement allowed them to take a fresh look at the issue of network building:
When we were told about this project, I thought, “Well, another unnecessary initiative introduced by Skolkovo”. We participated in it simply because Skolkovo insistently asked us to do so. We did not really expect a result. We believe that we have a strong technology and that it will break into the market. The students saw everything from the other side – they forced us to move, to consider how best to structure our external relations, to find missing links and to consider where to find new contacts. In general, it was unexpectedly useful for us. (Alexander, Revolta)
I am grateful to the Business School and Skolkovo for this project. The students were very active and helped us a lot in preparing for the fair. In my opinion, their involvement increased the effectiveness of our participation in the fair, not only because they provided us with extra hands, but also because their creative brains helped us structure our work and establish necessary contacts that we did not consider or care about beforehand. We will continue to cooperate with students in other projects with pleasure. (Alexey, Rubetek)
Moreover, some students were invited by some start-ups to continue cooperating on network development.
A representative of the Skolkovo Foundation noted that it was not very easy to convince start-ups to take part in the project and that there were difficulties in the course of its implementation. However, in his opinion, a positive effect was ultimately achieved:
Not everything went smoothly – not all start-ups could easily find a common language with the business-school students. Our innovative start-ups are mostly created by scientists and engineers, not by businessmen. Therefore, they are mainly about the development of technology, and not so much about the business, the market or effective networking. Systemically, it is very important to have examples of successful, growing technological start-ups. I think that this project helped all of the participants. We will continue to cooperate with the Business School. (Yuri, Skolkovo Foundation)
The students indicated that the course was very useful because it combined theoretical and practical components. The students also noted that as start-ups were mainly focused on technology development, they often did not understand their clients:
I liked the course. I not only learned useful things but I was also able to do something real. It was not easy. It is one thing to sit in an audience listening to theory and another to put that theory into action – to understand with whom it is necessary to build interactions and how to find contacts, and then to go and talk with those contacts and convince them to work with you … I think it will be useful in my career. (Maxim, student)
When you sit in class and listen, everything is simple. However, it is hard to do the things we discuss in class in reality. We had a great start-up. I think we learned a lot from the business and that it learned a lot from us. (Natasha, student)
We felt that the start-up did not understand who their client was, where to look for that client or who could help in this regard. We would say, "Let us try it … We can do this". They would say, "Well, that is not really necessary. The market will somehow appear on its own", but they did not know how. We were able to draw the start-up’s attention to important market-related aspects, which should help it to develop faster. (Anna, student)
The significance of this project as a practical application of the findings of this study is that it allowed for the testing of the assumptions formulated in the framework of the study (e.g., about cognitive gaps, the cautious attitude of start-ups toward development institutions) on an independent sample. In addition, it allowed for a test of the logic of a systematic approach to the search for and establishment of network contacts to facilitate commercialisation. This project is scheduled to be repeated within the framework of the cooperation with the Skolkovo Foundation in 2019.
4.3. Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research
The research presented in this dissertation consisted of three fundamental blocks: a literature review (Chapter 1), a documentary study on the evolution of the Russian NIS (Chapter 2) and a primary study involving the analysis of qualitative data collected through interviews with Moscow-based entrepreneurs. All blocks were interrelated, and the results obtained at each stage had implications and risks for the design of the next stage and the researcher’s decisions in that stage, as shown in Table 4.6.
Table 4.6. Reflections on the limitations of this study
| Research phase | Contribution to the study's logic | Implications for the next stage | Risks |
|----------------|----------------------------------|---------------------------------|-------|
| Literature review (Chapter 1) | Considered the three fundamental areas (innovation, networking, NIS), which formed the basis of the study's conceptual framework. | The concepts revealed in the literature determined the author's understanding and allowed for formation of a conceptual apparatus that included the key analytical categories used as the basis for the analysis performed in Chapters 2 and 3. | Important theoretical aspects could be missed, which could lead to a distortion of the conceptual space and create cognitive limitations owing to the non-inclusion of important categories in the analysis. |
| Documentary study (Chapter 2) | Based on the analysis of the documents, five phases of the Russian NIS's development were identified. The specific features of the Russian NIS were considered, which served as the context for studying the role of networking in innovation. | The results of the analysis allowed for: - Selecting the scope of the research and narrowing the scale of the phenomenon in relation to which networking would be considered. That phenomenon was defined as "Entrepreneurial projects that resulted in the launch of a concrete offering in the market by Moscow-based SMEs". - Determining the meaning of "innovative company" in Russia. - Forming a cognitive framework for understanding the discourse of entrepreneurs in terms of factors and | - Some important facts and events that influenced the formation of NIS or that its actors perceived as related to the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks of networking might not be included in the analysed set of documents, which could distort the author's understanding. - The complexity, multiplicity and interdependence of certain factors affecting the development of the |
impact limitations. The main *design limitation* is that the grouping criteria used in this study (see Chapter 3) do not break the sample down into distinct groups for individual questions. Therefore, the conclusions that are based on that categorisation may be not valid. An explanation of the rationale behind the grouping approach is provided in Section 3.2.1. As the research was qualitative and was aimed at finding evidence of the possibility of formulating hypotheses concerning various networking mechanisms for companies with different degrees of innovation, this approach is still considered appropriate. Nevertheless, to verify the validity of this study’s conclusion about the relationship innovativeness and networking patterns, a quantitative study on the basis of a representative sample could be used. This approach would allow for the statistical determination of clusters exhibiting similar patterns of networking behaviour. Furthermore, the grouping could be analysed in an attempt to confirm the hypothesis that traditional and innovative firms belong to different clusters in terms of networking behaviour.
During the interviews conducted within the framework of this study, representatives of innovative companies mentioned different models for income generation based on: (a) the extended development of their companies and the growth in sales of the created product or service; (b) the development and sale of the business to a strategic investor; (c) the transfer of rights to use inventions and technologies, and (d) the satisfaction of peak demand in the market in the short term by commercialising a developed technology (mainly for IT solutions). The expediency of dividing the array of innovative high-tech companies not into two groups (as in this study) but into four groups was also confirmed in Andrushchak et al. (2018), which was published a year after this study took place. Thus, the characteristics of networking behaviour appear to be related not only to the firm’s degree of innovativeness, as shown in this study, but also to the income-generation model resulting from innovation activity. This assumption requires testing within the framework of further research.
The main *data limitation* relates to the fact that the sample of respondents is unrepresentative and small, especially with regard to innovative companies (22 companies participated in the survey). However, as the research is exploratory in nature, the results can be interpreted and used as a starting point for further research.
The strategy of finding respondents representing firms in the IC-medium and IC-high categories through referrals from NIS development institutions (i.e., RVC, Skolkovo, IIDF and Technopark Strogino) might have led to some selection bias. More specifically, it might have resulted in the selection of start-ups that had successfully commercialised their
ideas and technologies – start-ups that these development organisations were not ashamed to recommend. This, in turn, might explain why the start-ups studied in the primary research (see Chapter 3) generally demonstrated a more positive attitude towards networking and more actively used networking than some of the innovative start-ups that participated in the educational project (see Section 4.2.). Thus, this study’s findings regarding the behaviour of start-ups in the IC-medium and IC-high categories might not have reflected the average behaviour of innovative firms, but instead constituted examples of best practices in the relevant categories. However, the practical value of this study lies in the development of recommendations and strategies for companies to improve their innovative capabilities through the use of networking. Therefore, this feature of the sample does not pose a threat to the validity of the recommendations. At the same time, in the future, researchers may find it fruitful to consider the influence of the intensiveness of networking behaviour and its characteristics on the firms’ success and the speed of commercialisation of innovative ideas and technologies. Other interesting questions that deserve the attention of researchers in light of this study are the following: Is it possible to make conventional businesses more innovative and, consequently, more competitive through networking? If so, what characteristics should such networking have?
The primary study used the opinions of entrepreneurs representing Moscow-based firms, which gives rise to the main *impact limitation* of this study. The strong national and regional focus might mean that the differences revealed in the networking behaviours of traditional and innovative companies may reflect the influence of factors other than innovation factors. These factors could relate to the external business environment in Russia and features of its historical development (as discussed in Chapter 2), or to the inertia common among entrepreneurs who grew up in periods when there was essentially no innovation system in Russia. Therefore, the findings derived from this study cannot be reliably extended to other developing or developed economies. At the same time, Moscow has a highly developed RIS (see Section 2.4.). Therefore, the conclusions made in this study may still be relevant for interpreting networking behaviour in other contexts. As such, future research may aim to identify how the country and regional contexts influence the networking behaviour of traditional and innovative companies.
4.4. Conclusions
This DBA thesis presents a comprehensive study on the role of networking in innovation in the context of Russia. This issue is considered in terms of identifying the relationship between the innovativeness of SME and its networking behaviour. The study starts from a critical evaluation of the relevant extant literature on innovation, networks and national innovation system. In the second chapter it proceeds with the analysis of the trajectory of NIS development in Russia to build an understanding of the context of the research. In the third chapter it investigates the networking behaviour of Russian SMEs, represented by a sample of 59 companies that launched business activities in Moscow between 2009 and 2017. In the last chapter, the findings are discussed and compared with propositions found in the literature to determine this study’s contribution to knowledge. The implications for practice that emerged in the sphere of the author’s professional capacity are also examined, as are the limitations of the study. Moreover, suggestions for further research are provided.
It is shown in the study that entrepreneurship is a new phenomenon for Russia, as it has only been developing since 1992. In the Russian economy, which has historically been dominated by the public sector in terms of supply and demand, starting and running one’s own business has never been a widespread activity. This was mostly due to the lack of a belief that entrepreneurship could be a suitable method for achieving one’s own personal goals in the context of Russian emerging economy. Moreover, the perceived risk associated with organising one’s own business was high due to inadequate entrepreneurial infrastructure and administrative barriers. To support innovative and entrepreneurial activity, in recent years, a significant amount of resources has been directed at creating a relevant infrastructure in Russia and lowering the administrative barriers. However, despite these efforts, Russia's entrepreneurial and innovation activity still lags behind the level of development evident in the leading countries. The existence of basic framework conditions by themselves do not guarantee that more companies will emerge and that they will be more innovative. As literature suggests, SMEs must engage in external interactions and develop networks of business contacts in ways that help them to be maximally effective in their entrepreneurial and innovation efforts. Although Russian SMEs may establish these
relations, knowledge of the forms and strategies of networking that are the most fruitful for companies to achieve their goals is lacking. In this regard, the study builds an understanding of the networking behaviour of Russian both non-innovative and innovative SMEs and in particular highlights the role of networking in innovation.
From a theoretical point of view, the study’s main contribution lies in the extension of the extant literature to include the role of networking in innovation in transition economies. At the same time, the analysis shows that the business behaviour of Russian entrepreneurs is similar to Western norms of doing business in many respects. As a consequence, it is assumed that this study’s findings will also be of interest to a wider range of stakeholders, as they can be extended to the context of developed economies.
From this point of view, the research presented here contributes to understanding of the mechanisms for building market and professional networks, including understanding of the evolution of entrepreneurial networks and the emergence of trust among entrepreneurs from companies characterised by different levels of innovativeness. The understanding developed in this study (e.g., the map of goals pursued by entrepreneurs in external relationships) allows us to systematically examine how entrepreneurs think when searching for external relations.
The results of the research presented here show that entrepreneurs underestimate the need to systematically approach the building and development of their networks. On the one hand, the findings allow entrepreneurs to better understand how they can systematically establish and manage external network links (i.e., communication, interaction and coordination) among people, teams or organisations (i.e., network nodes). This includes an understanding of the internal structures and resources that should be used to take advantage of the opportunities provided by external relationships and, thereby, improve the company’s performance. On the other hand, the results provide development institutions with an understanding of the "nodes" (e.g., experts, teams and institutions) that should be brought together and the "links" (e.g., communications and interactions) among nodes that can be reinforced. In the current stage of Russian innovation-ecosystem development, these network opportunities should go far beyond the establishment of a platform for
communication between science and business. In fact, they should involve all participants in the market and professional spheres, and the constructive interactions of these participants should enable companies to develop successfully.
The findings provide companies with benchmarks in the form of best-practice networking models that are supportive of entrepreneurial and innovation activities. Furthermore, such an understanding not only assists in governmental decision making related to NIS development, but also allows other NIS actors, including higher-education institutions, to better support SMEs in their efforts. For example, this study’s findings were implemented by the author to develop a course at the Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School that combined theoretical and practical components. The aim of the course was to allow students to put the knowledge obtained in class, which was based on the conclusions of this study, into practice to help innovative start-ups develop their professional and market networks. This course was also a practical example of a way of organising interactions among the university, start-ups and the development institution that is conducive to launching innovative products on the market.
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## Appendix 1.1. Distinct features of conventional SMEs and innovation-driven enterprises
(adapted from Filley and Aldag, 1978, and Aulet, 2013)
| | Conventional SME entrepreneurship | IDE entrepreneurship |
|------------------------|----------------------------------|----------------------|
| **Objectives** | Market adaptation | Personal achievement |
| **Strategy** | Steady planned growth | Non-linear impulse development |
| **Management style** | Professional, rational decision making | Entrepreneurial style, personal leadership |
| **Structure** | Functional | Project |
| **Workgroup bonds** | Homogeneity | Interaction, expectation based |
| **Attitude toward innovation** | Not necessary for SME establishment and growth nor a source of competitive advantage | A source of competitive advantage; based on some sort of innovation (e.g., technological, process, business model) |
| **Uncertainty/risk** | Risk | Uncertainty |
| **Basis for success** | Planned adaptation to environment | Innovation deployment and market exploitation |
| **Market** | Focus on local and regional markets | Focus on global markets |
| **Ownership** | Most often family businesses or businesses with very little external capital | More diverse ownership base including wide array of external capital providers |
| **Growth pattern** | Typically grows at a linear rate; system (e.g., revenue, cash flow, jobs) responds quickly in a positive manner to investments | Starts by losing money will have exponential growth if successful; requires investments; system (e.g., revenue/cash flow/jobs) does not respond quickly to investments |
## Appendix 1.2. Six generations of innovation models
*(Summarized from Rothwell (1G – 5G, 1994) and Nobelius (6G, 2004))*
| Generation | Driving mechanisms | Key features of innovation model |
|-------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| First (1G) Technology (push) (1950s – mid-1960s) | Technological opportunities | A linear progression from scientific discovery through technological development in firms to product availability in the marketplace |
| Second (2G) Market (pull) (Mid-1960s – early 1970s) | Demand-side factors | A sequential process that starts with market needs that direct R&D, which in its turn leads to solutions for manufacturing, with sales as the ultimate purpose |
| Third (3G) “Coupling” model (Early 1970s – mid-1980s) | Recognition of the importance of interaction between technological potential and market needs | Convergence of technological capabilities and market needs within the framework of firms’ operations; a sequential multi-level process with numerous feedback loops linking signals from the market place and technological achievements to firms’ operations; starts with idea generation induced by new needs and new technologies |
| Fourth (4G) Integrated Innovation Process (Mid 1980s – early 1990s) | Shortening of the product lifecycle and the speed of development, which results in time-based competition and a need to be a “fast innovator” | Parallel processes characterised by a high level of integration of firm departmental activities as well as connections upstream with suppliers and downstream with customers; the Japanese approach to raising production efficiency, i.e., “designing for manufacturability”; a web of external interactions that emphasises strategic networking and alliances |
| Fifth (5G) Systems Integration and Networking (Early 1990s – Early 2000s) | Information technologies are important; the emergence of knowledge economy; desire for greater flexibility and adaptability; competition based on a higher development speed and greater efficiency | A development of the fifth-generation model to quicken the innovation process and lower costs; a continuous innovation process resulting from systems integration and extensive networking in the form of strong inter-firm vertical linkages, external horizontal linkages (such as collaborative pre-competitive research, joint R&D ventures and R&D-based strategic alliances) and the use of sophisticated information technologies |
| Sixth (6G) Multi-technology cross-industry Networking (Early 2000s – present) | Multi-technology nature of new products that requires pulling together expertise from different industries; continuous growth of R&D complexity; increased number of aspects to entangle and actors to collaborate | Separation research and development with a research to become a result of joint cross-industrial, open intellectual collaborations in a form of loosely tied multi-dimensional innovation network; an innovation process resulting from utilisation of the resources from many firms working in different industries |
## Appendix 2.1. Key activities supportive of NIS development
### In the first phase, 1991-1999
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 03.1990 | The basic principles of joint-stock ownership are approved. |
| 06.1990 | The Regulation on Joint Stock Companies and Limited Liability Companies and the Regulation on Securities are approved. |
| 03.1991 | The Law on the Privatisation of State and Municipal Enterprises is approved. |
| 01.1992 | Decree issued on accelerating the privatisation of state and municipal enterprises. |
| 04.1992 | Presidential decree issued on urgent measures to preserve the scientific and technical potential of the Russian Federation, in accordance with which the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) is established. |
| 07.1992 | The Law of the Russian Federation on Education is issued. |
| 09.1992 | The Patent Law of the Russian Federation is approved. |
| 07.1993 | The Law on Copyright and Related Rights is issued. |
| 02.1994 | The Foundation for Assistance for Small Innovative Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere (the Bortnik Foundation) is established. Among its main tasks are the creation and development of infrastructure for supporting small enterprises in the scientific and technical sphere; the creation of new jobs to effectively use of Russia's scientific and technical potential; the provision of financial, information and other assistance; activities to ensure the involvement of young people in innovation; and work to attract extra-budgetary investments in the sphere of innovative entrepreneurship. |
| 07.1994 | Presidential decree issued on the main provisions of the State Programme for the Privatisation of State and Municipal Enterprises in the Russian Federation after July 1, 1994. This decree relates to the corporatisation of large enterprises in the basic sectors of the economy that determine the country's production potential. |
| 09.1994 | The Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation is established. |
| 04.1995 | The government programme "Reforms and development of the Russian economy in 1995-1997" is introduced. The program includes a section entitled "Innovative and scientific and technical policy", which indicates priority areas for development, such as building a legal framework for regulating innovative, scientific and technical activities; implementing structural reforms in the science and technology sphere; and attracting investments in the areas of research, development, design and engineering. |
| 06.1995 | The Law on State Support of Small Business in the Russian Federation is passed. |
| 10.1995 | Governmental decree issued on federal research and production centres. |
| 08.1996 | The Law on Higher and Postgraduate Professional Education is issued. |
| 01.1996 | The State Institution "Centre for Technological Development" is established to provide financial support for science and technology projects and experimental development through targeted loan financing. The foundation provides financial and consulting support for Russian organisations' science and technology projects and experimental development, and provides a framework for international scientific and technical cooperation. |
| 06.1996 | The doctrine of the development of Russian science is introduced. The doctrine determines the most important principles of the state's scientific policy. |
| 06.1996 | The federal programme "State support of the integration of higher education and fundamental science for 1997-2000" is introduced. The programme aims to deepen and expand the interaction of academic and university science; improve the quality of education in order to preserve and develop the country's scientific and technical potential; develop joint fundamental research in higher-education institutions, the Russian Academy of Sciences, branch-based research institutes and state scientific centres; develop a fundamental research information base; develop an experimental and instrumental base for fundamental research for joint use by researchers, professors, students, graduate students and research organisations; and create conditions for enhancing the prestige of fundamental sciences in higher-education institutions. |
| 08.1996 | The Law on Science and State Science and Technology Policy is passed. The Law |
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 11.1996 | The federal scientific and technical programme for 1996-2000 "Research and development in the priority areas of the development of science and technology for civil purposes" begins. For the first time, a list of priorities for scientific and technological development is formulated. The science and technology sphere is ranked among the top priorities of the Russian Federation. |
| 07.1998 | The first concept for the innovation policy of the Russian Federation for 1998-2000 is developed. The document highlights that innovation policy is an important part of the state's social and economic policy. The key targets are to increase the efficiency of scientific achievements, and to ensure that the results of fundamental and applied research move into production. |
| 04.1999 | Adoption of the Federal Law on the status of the science city of the Russian Federation. |
| 12.1999 | Issuance of governmental decree on measures for the development of small enterprises in the sphere of material production and the promotion of their innovative activities. The decree also covers state support in this regard. |
**In the second phase, 2000-2005**
| Year | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2000 | Educational standards for higher education (second generation). |
| 09.2000 | Introduction of the Doctrine of Information Security of the Russian Federation. |
| 2000-2001 | A series of federal programmes for the period 2002-2006 aimed at developing economic infrastructure: modernisation of the transport system, the building of an energy-efficient economy, the renewal and development of residential properties and commercial real estate, etc. |
| 2001-2002 | A series of federal programmes for the period 2002-2006 aimed at developing the information space: e-Russia, a special-purpose information and telecommunications system to support public authorities, and a united educational-information environment. |
| 2001-2002 | A series of federal programmes for the period 2002-2006 aimed at developing regions in Russia and supporting ethnic minorities. |
| 2001-2002 | A series of federal programmes for the period 2002-2006 aimed at solving social problems: Children of Russia, Youth of Russia, Senior Generation, social support for disabled people, Culture of Russia, the fight against socially significant diseases, etc. |
| 2000-2001 | Federal programmes for 2002-2006 aimed at developing the Russian judicial system and tax authorities, reforming the penal system, etc. |
| 08.2001 | Federal scientific and technical programme “Research and development in priority areas of science and technology development for 2002-2006”. |
| 09.2001 | Federal programme “Integration of science and higher education in Russia for 2002-2006”. |
| 2002 | Establishment of a non-commercial partnership "Russian Technology Transfer Network", an innovative infrastructure tool that allows for efficient dissemination of technological information. Users can search for partners in the implementation of innovative projects. |
| 03.2002 | Approval of "Fundamentals of the policy of the Russian Federation in the development of science and technology for the period until 2010 and beyond". |
| 10.2002 | Introduction of federal Law on insolvency (bankruptcy). |
| 09.2003 | The signing of the Bologna Declaration on the European space for higher education, which initiated the modernisation of Russia's education system on the basis of the principles of the Bologna Process. |
| 2003-2004 | Establishment of a deposit-insurance system on the basis of the Federal Law on the Insurance of Individual Deposits in the Banks of the Russian Federation, which determined the basic mechanisms for protecting the population's savings. The introduction of the deposit-insurance system was preceded by a thorough analysis of the financial soundness and management quality of each bank that applied for entry into the system. The assessment methodology and the deposit-insurance system itself were based on the recommendations of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision of the Bank for International Settlements. |
| 06.2004 | Creation of the Federal Agency for Science and Innovation. |
| 07.2005 | Introduction of the Law on the placement of orders for the supply of goods, the performance of work, the provision of services for state and municipal needs. |
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 07.2005 | Introduction of the Law on Special Economic Zones in the Russian Federation. |
| 08.2005 | Approval of "Fundamentals of the policy of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology development for the period until 2010 and further prospects". |
| 12.2005 | Federal programme for the development of education for 2006-2010. |
**In the third phase, 2006-2008**
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2006 | Establishment of the National Association of Innovation and Information Technology Development. |
| 02.2006 | Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation in the Russian Federation for 2006-2015. |
| 03.2006 | Federal programme "Establishment of technoparks in the sphere of high technologies in the Russian Federation". |
| 06.2006 | Creation of the Russian investment fund for technology and innovation, known as the Russian Venture Company (RVC). |
| 10.2006 | Creation of the National Association of Business Angels, a non-profit partnership that brought together legal and physical persons, and private and institutional investors that invested in innovative high-tech companies as well as organisations providing services in the areas of investment and innovation. |
| 10.2006 | Federal programme "Research and development in priority areas of development of Russia's scientific and technological complex for 2007-2013". |
| 12.2006 | Adoption of the fourth part of the Civil Code, which determined the notions of intellectual activity results; legal protection of intellectual property; the legal status of authors of intellectual activity results; procedures for the state's registration of such results; and possible ways of disposing of the author's exclusive rights, including a license agreement that resolved issues of succession. Part 4 of the Civil Code established state regulation of relations in the field of intellectual property, including approaches to resolving issues of protection of the rights and legitimate interests of rights holders associated with the results of innovative and technical activities, as well as liability for their violation. |
| 01.2007 | Federal programme "National Technological Base for 2007-2011". |
| 2007 | Creation of the state corporation “The Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies” (RUSNANO) with the aim of developing nanotechnologies and creating new nanotechnology production; the State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom); State Corporation for Developmental Assistance to Production and Export of Advanced Technology Industrial Products (Rostec). |
| 06.2007 | Amendments to certain legislative acts concerning favourable tax conditions for financing innovation activities. |
| 06.2007 | The Law on Protection of Competition, which defined the organisational and legal framework for the protection of competition, including the prevention and suppression of monopolistic activities and unfair competition; and prohibition, restriction and elimination of competition by authorities. |
| 06.2007 | The Law on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. |
| 02.2008 | Adoption of the information society development strategy. |
| 07.2008 | Federal programme "Scientific and scientific-pedagogical staff of innovative Russia". |
| 07.2008 | The Law on the peculiarities of privatisation of state-owned property leased by small and medium-sized business entities in the Russian Federation, and on amending certain legislative acts related to such privatisation, including the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the privatisation of leased property. |
| 10.2008 | Presidential Decree on the implementation of a pilot project for the establishment of national research universities. |
| 11.2008 | Concept of long-term social and economic development through 2020. |
| 12.2008 | Anti-Corruption Law |
**In the fourth phase, 2009-2013**
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2009 | Creation of an innovation and investment market, MOEX Innovations, as a subsidiary of the Moscow Stock Exchange. |
| 05.2009 | Adoption of The National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2020. |
| 10.2009 | Establishment the RVC Seed Investment Fund. |
| 2009-2014 | Launch of the National Prize for Innovation "Zvorykin Prize", which is awarded |
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 08.2009 | Adoption of the federal Law on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation on the issues of creation of enterprises by budgetary scientific and educational institutions for the practical implementation of the results of intellectual activity. |
| 09.2009 | President Medvedev publishes an article on the Internet: “Russia, strive forward!” |
| 02.2010 | Adoption of the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation. |
| 03.2010 | Abolishment of the Federal Agency for Science and Innovations and the Federal Agency for Education. The functions of the abolished agencies are transferred to the Ministry of Education and Science. |
| 03.2010 | Adoption of the "The fundamentals of Russian policy in the development of the defence industry through 2020 and beyond". |
| 04.2010 | Issuance of governmental decree "On measures to attract leading scientists to Russian institutions of higher professional education, scientific institutions of state academies of science and state-sponsored scientific centres of the Russian Federation". A key measure is the allocation of governmental grants for scientific research conducted under the leadership of the best scientists in Russian institutions of higher professional education, scientific institutions of state academies of science and state-sponsored scientific centres. |
| 04.2010 | Issuance of governmental decree "On measures of state support for the development of cooperation of Russian higher-education institutions, state scientific institutions and organisations implementing comprehensive projects for the creation of high-tech production". |
| 05.2010 | Creation of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR). |
| 07.2010 | Creation of the non-profit Foundation for Infrastructure and Educational Programmes on the basis of the state-owned Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies. Its goal is to develop an innovative infrastructure in the field of nanotechnologies, including the implementation of educational and infrastructure programmes already launched. |
| 08.2010 | Issuance of methodological recommendations on the development of Innovative Development Programs (IDPs) for joint-stock companies with state participation, state-owned corporations and federal state unitary enterprises. |
| 09.2010 | Adoption of the federal Law on the Innovation Centre Skolkovo. This project aims to create an enabling environment for the concentration of international intellectual capital capable of generating innovations. |
| 09.2010 | Issuance of governmental decree on the procedure for the formation of the state assignment for training students and doing research in public education institutions and the allocation of state budget funding for its fulfilment. This introduced new principles for financing scientific research and the provision of educational services by state-run organisations. |
| 10.20010 | Issuance of government decree "On the State Programme of the Russian Federation 'Information Society (2011-2020)'". |
| 2010 | Launch of the federal target programme "Development of the Defence Industry Complex of the Russian Federation for 2011-2020". |
| 2010 | Transition to the third-generation standards of higher education, which provide for a competence-based approach and inclusion of entrepreneurial competencies as a separate category. |
| 2010 | Creation of the Association of Industrial Parks – a non-profit organisation that unites the majority of Russia's industrial parks and service providers active in the field of industrial construction with the goal of promoting common interests. |
| 11.2010 | Introduction of a system of tax benefits with the aim of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, and the scientific, technical and innovative activities of organisations. |
| 02.2011 | Launch of the federal target programme "Development of Education for 2011-2015". |
| 02.2011 | Launch of the federal target programme "Development of the pharmaceutical and medical industry of the Russian Federation for the period until 2020 and further prospects". This sets the goals for the transition of the pharmaceutical and medical industry to an innovative model of development through the technological modernisation of production; the development of scientific and research potential in state-sponsored science and higher-education institutions to ensure the production of strategically important medicines, and vital and essential medicines; and the introduction of Russian innovative products on the Russian and international |
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 06.2011 | The working group of the Ministry of Education and Science receives sixteen scientific research proposals for mega-grants and awards mega-grants to six with international participation in Russia. The mega-projects include the thermonuclear facility "Ignitor", the neutron reactor PIK and the collider NICA. The implementation of mega-projects is aimed at ensuring the rise of the "big science". |
| 06.2011 | Amendment of the federal Law on Science and State Science and Technology Policy regarding the definition and regulation of state support for innovation activities. |
| 06.2011 | Issuance of governmental decree on the development of infrastructure allowing for the interaction of information systems used in state and municipal services, and on the undertaking of state and municipal functions using electronic tools. |
| 07.2011 | Launch of the innovation and investment market index, MICEX Innovation Index (MICEX INNOV). |
| 07.2011 | Establishment of the Club of Directors for Science and Innovation (IR & Dclub) – a professional community of top managers responsible for innovative development, science, technology policy and R&D in the largest Russian companies. It serves as a platform for sharing experiences and best practices, establishing horizontal links, and formulating and defending the interests of professionals in the fields of innovation management and R&D. The club is the result of an initiative by large private businesses and state-run companies on the basis of the Innovation Management Institute of the Higher School of Economics with the support of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and the Russian Venture Company, with the participation of the Higher School of Economics. |
| 07.2011 | Issuance of the presidential decree on the approval of priority directions for the development of science and technology, and the list of critical technologies. |
| 08.2011 | Establishment of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) to promote the social and professional mobility of young professionals and teams in medium-sized businesses and the social sector by supporting socially significant projects and initiatives. One of the supervised ASI projects is the "Creation of a National System of Qualifications and Competencies". |
| 12.2011 | Adoption of the strategy for innovative development of the Russian Federation for the period until 2020, which aims to restore Russia as a leader in fundamental science on the world stage. |
| 2011 | Creation of technological platform begins. |
| 2011 | Russia joins the World Trade Organization. |
| 2011 | Association of Technoparks is formed, which unites technoparks active in the high-tech sphere; later renamed the Association of Technoparks and Clusters. |
| 01.2012 | Adoption of the "Fundamentals of the policy of the Russian Federation for the development of science and technology for the period until 2020 and beyond". The strategic goal of the state policy is to ensure that Russia reaches a global level in terms of R&D and competitiveness in the areas defined as national scientific and technological priorities by 2020. |
| 01.2012 | Establishment of the VEB Innovation Fund – a fund for financial co-investments in innovative projects supported by the Skolkovo Foundation. The fund finances R&D and commercialisation through loans and equity investments. |
| 02.2012 | Work begins on the "Open Government" project in accordance with the presidential decree. |
| 05.2012 | On the day of his inauguration, President Putin signs a series of 11 decrees, which contain 218 assignments for implementation by official bodies from 2012 to 2020. The decree "On Long-Term State Economic Policy" indicates that the government has to take measures to achieve the technological leadership of the Russian economy through modernisation and innovative development. |
| 06.2012 | Creation of a Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Economic Modernisation and Innovative Development. |
| 05.2012 | Approval of the president's programme for upgrading the qualifications of engineering personnel, which covers the 2012-2014 period. |
| 2012-present | RVC creates a "Tech Success" ranking in cooperation with the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR) and other Russian development institutions. |
| 10.2012 | Creation of the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects (the Russian equivalent of DARPA) to assist in the implementation of R&D necessary to achieve new results in the military-technical, technological and socio-economic spheres. |
| 10.2012 | First International Forum of Innovative Development "Open Innovations". |
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Mid-2012 | Approval of the first roadmaps of the National Entrepreneurship Initiative (NIP), which include projects aimed at reducing administrative barriers in the economy and improving the investment climate. |
| 11.2012 | Adoption of the State Programme "Development of Education" for 2013-2020. |
| 11.2012 | Issuance of governmental decree "On the Programme for the gradual improvement of the wage system in the provision of state (municipal) services for 2013-2018" aimed at introducing an effective contract system for employees of social-sphere institutions, including those active in education, health care and social services. |
| 12.2012 | Launch of the federal target programme "Development of science and technology". |
| 12.2012 | Labour Code amended to include the terms "employee qualification" and "professional standard". Launch of the development of professional standards – documents that include a list of professional and personal requirements for employees throughout Russia. After the introduction of professional standards, the titles and necessary qualifications of relevant positions in organisations must correspond to the standards. Professional standards are developed through professional community initiatives and are approved by the government. |
| 12.2012 | Adoption of the Law on Education in the Russian Federation (in effect as of September 1, 2013), which establishes the legal, organisational and economic foundations of education, the basic principles of state policy in the field of education, and general rules for the functioning of the education system, the implementation of educational activities and the legal status of its participants. The law requires that professional standards be applied by educators. |
| 2012 | Establishment of the non-state-sponsored development institute "Innopraktika", which is a platform for consolidating the efforts of applied, fundamental and higher-education institutions' science to solve the most urgent tasks of enterprise development. |
| 2013 | Launch of the state programme to support the largest Russian universities, Project 5-100, which aims to increase the prestige of Russian higher education and move at least five universities into the top 100 universities in the three authoritative world rankings: Quacquarelli Symonds, Times Higher Education and Academic Ranking of World Universities. |
| 04.2013 | Adoption of the federal Law on the contract system in the sphere of procurement of goods and services for provision for state and municipal needs. |
| 05.2013 | Adoption of the federal target programme "Research and development on priority directions for the development of the Russian science and technology complex for 2014-2020". |
| 05.2013 | Adoption of the federal target programme "Scientific and Scientific Pedagogical Staff of Innovative Russia for 2014-2020". |
| 06.2013 | Issuance of the governmental decree "On measures to implement the transition to normative per capita financing of educational programmes of accredited higher-education institutions". |
| 07.2013 | Establishment of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF), which performs the function of a non-state development institution and supports high-tech Internet-based projects. |
| 07.2013 | Launch of a unified information and analytics portal for state support of innovative business development "Innovations in Russia" (http://innovation.gov.ru/ru). |
| 2013 | Launch of GenerationS – the first Russian accelerator on the federal level. |
| 09.2013 | Development of a pilot project for the creation and development of engineering centres at Russia's leading technical universities within the framework of the roadmaps for engineering and industrial design. |
| 09.2013 | Adoption of the federal Law on the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), followed by the reorganisation of state academies of science and the introduction of amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation. Creation of the Federal Agency of Scientific Organisations (FASO) within the framework of the RAS reform. Merger of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Agriculture Academies, and the transfer of the administration of their property to FASO. |
| 10.2013 | Introduction of the first professional standards through the presidential decree "On Measures to Implement State Social Policy". |
| 11.2013 | Approval of the Strategy for the development of the information-technology industry in the Russian Federation for 2014-2020 and for the Future to 2025. |
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Early 2014-present | Transition to the system of professional standards. Integration of educational and professional standards in order to eliminate the imbalance between the needs of employers and the supply of labour generated by the educational process. |
| 01.2014 | Adoption of the concept “Openness of Information about Federal Executive Bodies”. |
| 02.2014 | Winter Olympics held in Sochi. |
| 03.2014 | Referendum on the status of the Crimea and Sevastopol. |
| 03.2014 | Introduction of international sanctions against Russia. |
| 2014 | Launch of corporate-acceleration programmes within the framework of GenerationS. |
| 2014 | Reorganisation of The Russian Fund for Technological Development into the Industrial Development Fund. After the reorganisation, the programmes of the Russian Fund for Technological Development are terminated and new programmes for the development of Russian industry are developed. To encourage new industrial projects, the Fund provided targets loans on a competitive basis at an interest rate of 5% per annum for up to seven years. The loan amounts range from RUB 50-500 million. The Fund stimulates the inflow of direct investments into the real sector of the economy. |
| 04.2014 | Approval of the state programme "Economic development and innovative economy" |
| 04.2014 | Approval of the state programme "Development of Industry and Enhancing Its Competitiveness", which set goals for creating an innovative infrastructure for the development of new industries, the removal of regulatory barriers and the formation of favourable conditions for bringing innovative products to the market. The tasks are to develop industries oriented toward consumers by stimulating an increase in the share of extra-budgetary sources of financing, reduce the amount of state financing of industries and focus government support on stimulating demand. With respect to the defence-industrial complex, the task is to increase the efficiency of production for the development and production of new types of weapons and military equipment. |
| 05-08.2014 | Expansion of the list of international sanctions, including restrictions on Russian state-owned banks’ access to the capital markets of Canada, the US and the EU. |
| 08.2014 | Limits imposed on imports of various goods from countries that imposed sanctions on Russia and restrictions introduced on public procurement of foreign light-industry goods. |
| 09.2014 | Launch of an information-support platform by the Leadership Development Institute (Leader ID) – a strategic initiative of ASI implemented to engage civil society in innovative activities that consolidate human resources for the implementation of innovative projects. Creation of a system of young leaders. |
| 10.2014 | Issuance of governmental decree "On the selection of subjects of the Russian Federation eligible for state support in the form of subsidies for the reimbursement of the costs of creating, modernising and (or) reconstructing the infrastructure of industrial parks, industrial technology parks and technology parks in the sphere of high technology". |
| Second part of 2014 | Expansion of the list of countries imposing sanctions. The sanction list now includes a ban on supplying Russia with weapons; equipment for the oil and gas sector; dual-use goods for defence companies; and services related to the exploration and production of deep-sea and Arctic oil, or shale-oil projects. Intensification of the restrictions on providing interbank credits to a number of Russian state banks and reductions in loan terms. Blocking of foreign assets held by Russian citizens and companies. |
| 12.2014 | Governmental resolution "On the specifics of the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in procurement of goods, works, and services by individual types of legal entities", which specifies the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the public procurement of goods, works and services. The annual volume of purchases to be made from SMEs is set at no less than 18% of the aggregate annual value of contracts. At the same time, the annual volume of direct contracts with SMEs resulting from special competitive procedures should not be less than 10%. |
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 12.2014 | Adoption of the Law on Industrial Policy establishing the priority of industrial products produced in the Russian Federation in public procurement. |
| 12.2014 | Announcement of the need to launch the National Technology Initiative (NTI) – a programme to establish fundamentally new markets and create conditions for Russia's global technological leadership by 2035. |
| 12.2014 | Creation of the Educational Foundation "Talent and Success" and the educational centre "Sirius" in the city of Sochi on the basis of the Olympic infrastructure. The objectives are to create a network of additional education on a national scale; solve the tasks of identifying, developing and offering professional support to gifted children who have demonstrated outstanding abilities in the fields of arts, sports or natural science disciplines; and ensure success in technical creativity. |
| 2014 | Development of the national standard "Industrial parks: Requirements" with the participation of the Association of Industrial Parks. |
| 2015 | Creation of a geoinformation system of high-tech technoparks, industrial technoparks and industrial clusters designed to help investors and interested companies select the site most suitable for their production. |
| 05.2015 | Approval of the federal target programme for the Development of Education for 2016-2020. |
| 06.2015 | Establishment of the state institute for SMEs' development "The Federal Corporation for the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises" in accordance with the presidential decree on measures for the further development of small and medium-sized businesses. |
| 06.2015 | Decree on the procedure for forming a government assignment for the provision of public services in the sphere of education by higher-education institutions and the allocation of state financial support. |
| 2015 | Attempt to reform the funding system of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the aim of transitioning from state funding to allocating financial support on a competitive basis. The Ministry of Education and Science issues a draft order "On approving methodological recommendations on the allocation of subsidies to federal institutions performing state work in the field of scientific research and scientific and technical activities". The draft is rejected by the RAS and scientific institutes, and is returned for revision. |
| 2015 | RVC reformats GenerationS into a platform for the development of corporate accelerations. |
| 2015 | Introduction of a new contract for employees in the field of education. |
| 06.2015 | Development of roadmaps as the main instrument for the implementation of the National Technological Initiative. For each promising area, the roadmaps were defined by the professional community and approved by the government. |
| 2015 | Introduction of the strategic initiative "New model of the system of additional education for children", which aimed to create a new system of motivating children and implement a new generation of programmes for additional education. The initiative provides for the development of children through the participation of large industrial enterprises in the various regions. |
| 07.2015 | Methodical instruction on the development (actualisation) of Innovative Development Programs (IDPs) of joint-stock companies with state participation, state-owned corporations and federal state unitary enterprises. |
| 31.12.2015 | Issuance of the presidential decree "On the national security strategy of the Russian Federation". |
| 2015-present | Establishment of the PRIORiTY-2015 Prize – the first Russian award for enterprises that achieve significant success in the field of import substitution. |
| 2015 | Development of the national standard "High-tech technoparks. Requirements" by the Association of Clusters and Technoparks. On the basis of the standard, accreditation of technoparks begins and a national ranking is formed. |
| 04.2016 | Issuance of the governmental decree "On the implementation of the National Technological Initiative" (NTI). |
| 05.2016 | Approval of the state program "Development of the defence industry complex". |
| Date | Event |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 04.2016 | Creation of the NTI project office as part of RVC. The office is responsible for project management; organisational, technical and expert-analytical support; and information and financial support for the development and implementation of action plans ("roadmaps") and NTI projects. |
| 06.2016 | Mass introduction of professional standards into government institutions. The transition to the mandatory use of professional standards in the private sector by 2020 is announced. |
| 06.2016 | Adoption of the strategy for the development of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship for the period up to 2030. |
| 06.2016 | Launch of a priority "National Champions" project to support private, leading, high-tech companies. The goals are to ensure the rapid growth of domestic, private, high-tech, export-oriented companies and to provide assistance in the formation of transnational companies based in Russia. Participating companies are selected from among the companies included in the Tech Success ranking. |
| 06.2016 | A change in the approach to the implementation of national innovation policy signified by the creation of a Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Strategic Development and Priority Projects (the government's project office), which works on the basis of project-management principles. The Council is endowed with special powers and its decisions are excluded from the standard, highly complicated interdepartmental approval procedures. |
| 09.2016 | Launch of the on-line service "Business navigator for SMEs", which is designed to simplify the process of opening a new business. Anyone can register, test the demand for a new business, and estimate the payback period. One of the portal's basic functions is to provide single-point access to information about all types of federal, regional and municipal support available for SMEs as well as instruments of financial support. |
| 11.2016 | Approval of the priority project "Universities as centres of innovation creation" aimed at strengthening the global competitiveness of Russian universities, and creating university-based centres focused on the innovative, technological and social development of regions. |
| 11.2016 | Adoption of the decree on granting subsidies from the federal budget to Russian organisations for compensating part of the costs of production and sales of pilot lots of means of production to customers in 2016", which provides for compensation of up to 50% of costs actually incurred by an industrial enterprise when implementing modern, high-tech means of production in a pilot project. |
| 12.2016 | Approval of the strategy for scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, which is aimed at the formation of a modern management system in the fields of science, technology and innovation, and at ensuring the innovative attractiveness of R&D. |
| 12.2016 | Approval of the priority project on the main direction of Russia's strategic development "Small business development and support provision for individual entrepreneurial initiatives". |
| 12.2016 | Creation of Association of Brokers of Innovations and Technologies. |
| 2016 | Format of GenerationS-2016 changed to bring together eight corporate accelerators in the following areas: agro, biotech and food; creative industries; finance and banking technologies; life sciences; mining and metals; power and energy; smart city; and technet. |
| 2016 | Launch of the project "Development of innovative clusters – leaders of investment attractiveness at the world level". |
| 01.2017 | Information Technology Development Fund (ITDF) created |
| 01.2017 | Entry into force of the governmental decree establishing the priority of goods of Russian origin in the procurement of goods, works, services by certain types of legal entities. |
| 05.2017 | Extension of the programme to support the introduction of new high-tech means of production among Russian organisations through subsidies from the federal budget |
| 05.2017 | Establishment of the National Association for Technology Transfer. |
| Date | Event |
|--------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 05.2017| Approval of the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030 |
| 06.2017| Approval of the plan for the implementation of the Strategy for Science and Technology Development of Russia for 2017-2019. The plan includes the creation of the federal target programme "Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation", which provides for the integration of fundamental and applied research programmes with technology-development programmes in priority areas. The strategy also provides for the creation of opportunities for taking advantage of the creative potential of young people in the field of science and innovation, including opportunities within the framework of international scientific and technical cooperation. |
| 07.2017| Approval of the federal programme "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation" to complement the goals and tasks implemented under the framework of the National Technological Initiative. |
| 08.2017| Introduction of new sanctions by the US that affect the terms for granting loans to Russian banks. |
## Appendix 2.2. Summary of features of the Russian NIS and their implications for innovative activity
| | Phase 1 (December 1991 – December 1999) | Phase 2 (2000 – 2005) | Phase 3 (2006 – 2008) | Phase 4 (2009 – 2013) | Phase 5 (2014 – 2018) |
|----------------------|----------------------------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
| **NIS actors** | | | | | |
| • Composition | Many groups of key actors are absent | Many groups of actors are missing. Separate functions are carried out by various state bodies and structures. | The emergence of a vision for the systematic development of NIS. The emergence of the first development institutions. The emergence of the first players in the venture industry. | The emergence of a wide range of NIS actors. The manifestation of interest from foreign actors and global NIS players. | Basically, all key groups of key actors are represented. Evolutionary processes of the emergence and disappearance of various actors. Interest among foreign actors declines. System players that specialise in technology transfer are weakly developed. |
| • Level of actors’ expertise and understanding of their roles | Absent | An understanding of the NIS concept and its vision as a system has not been fully established. Study of foreign experience. | The beginning of a systemic understanding and experimentation with the application of foreign experience by the state and NIS actors. | Acquisition and accumulation of experience through practical activities. Different cognitive frames among NIS actors, who are experimenting to find their place in the system. | Systematisation of experience and learning from mistakes. A clearer vision of actors’ roles and places in the NIS. Actors have mostly decided on their strategies. |
| **Governance** | | | | | |
| • Focus | Preservation of the existing potential and prevention of the country’s collapse. | Restoration of scientific potential and creation of basic conditions for social life. | Development of scientific potential. Development of a vision of the role of innovation in economic development. Start of the development of innovative infrastructure. | Stimulation of the emergence of a wide range of diverse instruments for the development of technological entrepreneurship. Support of emergence of vertical and horizontal links in the system. Stimulation of the emergence of financing instruments and markets for innovative products. | The increase in the effectiveness of institutions and the further development of framework conditions. Facilitation of the development of horizontal links in the NIS. Coordination of the efforts of NIS players. Stimulation of the development of markets and the effectiveness of financial instruments. |
| Pillar | Description | Development | Laws | Economic development | Legislative framework |
|------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Regulative pillar | Laws regulating the emergence of private capital and the protection of property rights. Laws in the fields of education and technology policy. | Development of the legislative and executive system, the federal law on insolvency (bankruptcy), and laws regulating the emergence and development of basic social institutions and systems. | Laws that affect the development of the market and interactions among its participants, such as antitrust and anti-corruption laws. Development of a comprehensive legislative framework for entrepreneurship. Laws in the sphere of education, science and technology. Concept of long-term social and economic development (Strategy 2020). Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation. | Laws that affect the development of economic relations in the system, the development of social systems, the integration of science and education, and the functioning of state structures and mechanisms, including public procurement. | A legislative framework aimed at setting standards for business activities, establishing principles for assessing the effectiveness of state structures and providing public funding, and perfecting the system of supporting SMEs (including at the regional level). |
| Normative pillar | The transition to a market economy. The fight against organised crime. The institutionalisation of entrepreneurship as a phenomenon. | Programmes for the development of social and economic infrastructure (including at the regional level), and to ensure the protection of the rights of the population. Introduction of practices that integrate Russia into the international community (e.g., the deposit-insurance system, the Bologna Declaration on the European space for higher education). | The beginning of the development of civilised business. The beginning of the formation of business-related infrastructure. | The active development of business and entrepreneurship. Russia's integration into the world community (e.g., joining the WTO). Start of the innovative development path. Cultivation and formalisation of business relations. The increase in the transparency and accessibility of information. The emergence of the first professional standards. | The formalisation and streamlining of processes and relations. The strengthening of the regulative role of the state. Introduction of a large number of standards to regulate professional activity. The increase in reporting requirements. The growth in bureaucracy, and, consequently, the perceived reduction in the freedom to make decisions and conduct business. The emergence of more efficient electronic services. The need to rally against the threat of foreign sanctions and imposed restrictions on doing business. |
| Cultural-cognitive pillar | Negative attitude towards the collapse of the country and the resulting lack of a common understanding of the direction of the country's development. | Lack of a common understanding of the direction of the country's development. Continuation | Lack of a common understanding of the direction of the country's development. Continuation | Cautious attitude toward innovation. Recognition that innovative development can remove the | Consolidation of a professional innovation community around NTI ideas. More positive view of innovative development as |
| Framework conditions | Basic conditions for social life | Institutions | Knowledge-generation base |
|----------------------|---------------------------------|--------------|--------------------------|
| **Coordination** | The leading role of the state. A large number of social issues do not receive attention due to a lack of resources. Spontaneous self-organisation, including elements of criminalisation. | The leading role of the state. In some areas, splicing of criminal control with state control. Emergence of a clan economy. | The state tries to stimulate the emergence of self-regulating, professional structures and to implement management through private-state structures. |
| | Development takes place in isolated professional communities. | The state tries to stimulate the emergence of self-regulating, professional structures and to implement management through private-state structures. | Attempts to involve broad sections of society and groups of actors in making decisions, and initiating and governing innovation activities. Provision of financial support for private initiatives helpful for development of the innovation infrastructure. |
| | of development in individual professional communities, among which there are no effective links. Increased tension due to the lack of understanding of development prospects. | The significant role of the state in consolidating vertical and horizontal innovation-governance structures. |
| | dependence on raw materials. Concerns that society may be deceived again and that people in power may steal state money. High degree of uncertainty. The second wave of departures. | |
| | necessary for countering geopolitical risks. | |
| **Framework conditions** | Basic conditions for social life | Institutions | Knowledge-generation base |
|--------------------------|---------------------------------|--------------|--------------------------|
| **Basic conditions for social life** | Very poor conditions. | Start of recovery. | Solution of key and pressing problems. |
| | Active work to create a systematic approach. | Perfection of the system with active inclusion of public opinion through e-government systems. |
| **Institutions** | Unlinked elements inherited from the Soviet Union. Broken relations. Innovative issues not a priority. | Separate tasks that relate to the development of the innovation system are entrusted to different state structures that are not acting in concert. | Experiments to create individual flagship development institutions. The lack of a comprehensive vision. |
| | Boom in the development of institutions. Randomness, multidimensionality and intersection of areas of responsibility. Competition between development institutions for resources, projects and spheres of influence. | The existing approaches become more structured. The streamlining efforts of NIS actors are based on NTI as a key framework. |
| **Knowledge-generation base** | Destroyed. Outflow of qualified specialists. | Attempts to restore the knowledge-generation base, prevent diversion and attract specialists | Focus on development in areas in which Russia was historically competent and competitive. A high degree |
| | Focus on supporting the development of the markets of the future (NTI markets). Establishment of priorities in | |
| Knowledge-absorption and exploitation base | The destruction of the industrial base in the first half. The privatisation of the means of production. The transition to doing business under market-relations conditions. The looting of the material base. The criminalisation of business. | Development aimed at survival and rapid enrichment. The extinction of the material base of production in large companies. The building of business relations within the clan economy. | The beginning of the structuring of markets and the regulation of market relations. The beginning of the functioning of markets based on the principles of competition. | Development of dependence on imported components and materials. A non-diversified economy with monopolised markets and a high proportion of state corporations. The requirement for state corporations to establish innovative development programs. | Coercion for innovation. Introduction of performance indicators focused on the use of innovative programmes and the development of innovative products. Stimulation of the demand for innovation. |
| Conditions for entrepreneurship development | Practically absent. Spontaneous entrepreneurship, based mainly on the resale of goods. | Separate initiatives and development measures. Support for the development of entrepreneurship in the underprivileged layers of the population. | The structuring of instruments to support the development of entrepreneurship. Development of more systematic, targeted development programmes at the regional level. Ease of Doing Business Index (DBI) as of 2006: 95. | Development of support instruments. The beginning of systematic work on the formation of favourable framework conditions for doing business. DBI as of 2009: 120. | Perfection of the framework conditions and support programs in the regions. Development of a methodology to assess results and to ensure the effectiveness of development programmes. DBI as of 2014: 92. DBI as of 2018: 35. |
| Entrepreneurial culture | Absent. Negative attitude in society. | Entrepreneurship as a way of survival for the population and a way of solving social problems for the state. The beginning of the development of Russian production and service companies. | Entrepreneurship as a tool for the development of regional economies. | Emphasis on technological entrepreneurship. Growth in the number of start-ups, including technology-driven start-ups. | Overall reduction in the number of start-ups. Individual cases of success of technological enterprises. Lack of growth in established companies. |
| Commercialisation infrastructure | Absent. | Distinct, non-systemic initiatives. | Experimentation with the implementation of individual | Development of a wide range of systems and | The building of relationships through the actions of various |
| Markets for innovative products | Absent. Ready-to-use foreign products are utilised. | Absent. Active use of foreign technologies and components. Raw materials for setting up local production, often in partnership with foreign companies. | Absent. Dependence on foreign technologies, components and raw materials. | The emergence of a focus on innovative products following a wave of general interest and discussion. A cautious attitude towards Russian products because of quality concerns. Implementation of measures to stimulate the use of innovative Russian solutions. | Weakly developed, but development increases following the wave of sanctions as well as restrictions on access to foreign R&D and technologies. Reciprocal restrictive measures for foreign companies operating in Russian territory resulting in the localisation of production and more active use of locally produced components. A small increase in corporate activity as a result of measures stimulating innovation. |
| Sources of financial support for R&D | State support aimed at preserving the existing potential. | State support aimed at preserving and developing the existing potential. | State support aimed at developing existing capacity and stimulating the establishment of links with business. | State support aimed at developing priority areas. Support of the creation of innovative infrastructure at universities. Motivation of universities to carry out activities for the commercialisation of developments and the transition to the concept of an entrepreneurial university. | Carried out at the expense of public funds (70%). R&D activities focused on supporting NTI projects. The financing of R&D projects that are requested by businesses, subject to co-financing by private capital. |
| Sources of financial support | Self-financing. | Self-financing. | Self-financing. Regional programmes for the | Self-financing. Regional entrepreneurship- | Self-financing. Regional entrepreneurship-development |
| Innovative activity | Departure of a large number of engineers and the destruction of the system for the creation of technological developments. Technological entrepreneurialism exists at the level of the inventor acting in his own garage or the university laboratory. Single cases of commercialisation. | An attempt to revive the system of research and development. Non-systematic activities, mainly related to previously established relations with business, including within the framework of several territorial clusters. | Non-systemic activity. Examples of successful development in several clusters. | The emergence of the opportunity for independent innovators to commercialise developments from previous periods through the support of development institutions. An attempt to stimulate the development of innovative activities within the concept of the "entrepreneurial university" to ensure successful commercialisation. Active development of activities within the clusters. | Innovative activity carried out on the basis of higher-education institutions (particularly productive examples are the consortiums of universities and industrial companies), in numerous accelerators, technoparks of regional and federal importance, in clusters, and in various projects related to the implementation of NTI. |
## Appendix 3.1. Interview Guide
| Section 1 (Questions 1-30, 15-20 minutes) | Comments |
|------------------------------------------|----------|
| 1. What is your name? | |
| 2. What is the name of your company? | |
| 3. What is your position in the company? | |
| 4. What does your company do? | |
| (Brief description of the product or service) | |
| 5. What was your main motive for founding a company? | |
| 6. Who are your customers? | |
| 7. In which city is the company registered? | |
| 8. Is your company independent or is it a spin-off? | |
| □ Independent company | |
| □ Spin-off (corporate entrepreneurship). What is the parent company? | |
| 9. How old is the company (business project)? | |
| From the beginning of active work on the project to the present |
| ________ years __________ months | |
| 10. What is the aim of your company business? | |
| □ To implement a technology in the market |
| □ To serve a particular client segment |
| □ To satisfy customers by applying or developing a technology |
| 11. Is this your first entrepreneurial experience? | |
| □ Yes. | |
| □ No. What companies have you founded before? What is their current status? | |
| 12. What stages of development has your company gone through to date? Which stages do you view as the most important for ensuring the success of your business? (Open-ended question. Select all stages realised to date from the prompts on the right.) | |
| □ Idea generation | |
| □ Idea verification | |
| □ Prototype | |
| □ Market evaluation | |
| □ Product/service development | |
| □ Minimum viable product | |
| □ Product validation | |
| □ Business-model design | |
| □ Engineering of product and business processes |
| □ Company founding | |
| □ Start of sales | |
| □ Market penetration | |
| □ Sales growth | |
| □ Scaling and diffusion | |
| □ Business exit | |
| □ Other _____________________________ | |
| 13. How many people were founders of this business? | |
| □ 1 | |
| □ 2 or 3 | |
| □ 4 or 5 | |
| □ More than 5 | |
| 14. What educational background(s) do the founders have? (Select all that apply.) | |
| **Subject(s):** | |
| □ Technical | |
| □ Management or economics | |
| □ Liberal arts (but not management or economics) | |
| □ Creative studies (e.g., artist, designer, animator) | |
| □ Other _____________________________ | |
| **Level(s):** | |
| □ Secondary professional education | |
| □ Specialist diploma (Russian) | |
| □ Bachelor’s degree (Russian) | |
| □ Master’s degree (Russian) | |
| □ Candidate of Science (Russian) | |
| □ Doctor of Science (Russian) | |
| □ Foreign university undergraduate degree | |
| □ Foreign university postgraduate degree | |
| □ Foreign university PhD | |
| □ Other: _____________________________ | |
| 15. What professional background(s) (experience) do the founders have? (Select all that apply.) | |
| □ State employee | |
| □ Employee of an SME | |
| □ Employee of a large company (over 250 people) | |
| □ Russian company employee | |
| □ Foreign company employee | |
| □ Member of the start-up team (but not the founder) | |
| □ Technological start-up founder | |
| □ Traditional SME owner | |
| □ Freelancer | |
| □ Professional business consultant | |
| □ Student | |
| □ Other: _____________________________ | |
| Question | Options |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 16. What were the ages of the key founders at the time of founding? | □ 18-24 □ 25-30 □ 31-39 □ 40-49 □ 50-59 □ 60 and above |
| (Select all that apply.) | |
| 17. How many people are currently employed by your company? | □ 1 □ 2-5 □ 6-15 □ 16-50 □ 51-100 □ 101-250 □ More than 250 people □ |
| (Select all that apply.) | Company has closed |
| 18. Does the company exist independently or is it a resident of a start-up development system? | □ Co-working resident □ Business accelerator resident □ Incubator resident □ Technological park resident □ Works on the premises of the parent company (corporation or institution) □ Has or rents its own office □ Works “from home” or from a friend’s office □ Other: ___________________________ |
| 19. What was the main focus of investments during the initial stages of company development? | |
| 20. What sources of financing were involved in building your company? | □ Personal and family/s/friends’ savings □ Capital of the parent company □ State research grant □ Grant (start-up competition winner) □ Crowdfunding □ Business angel capital □ Pre-seed and seed venture capital □ Venture capital (round A) □ Venture capital (round B) □ Equity crowdfunding □ Bank loan for entrepreneurs □ Corporate venture funds □ Cash-out strategy □ Merger/acquisition □ IPO □ Other: ___________________________ |
| (Open-ended question. Listen attentively. Mark the relevant categories on the right.) | |
| 21. What is the geographical range of the company’s sales? | |
| 22. How long has the product or service been present on the market? How big is the client base? | |
| 23. What is the degree of novelty in the business venture? | □ Use of an existing and proven (by others) business model (without significant adaptations) □ Radical innovation (new to the market or new to the industry; can be related to discoveries) □ Incremental innovations (better exploitation of business solutions variation, design improvements, refinement of routines and instruments used) □ Adaptation of existing business model to meet the needs of local customers □ Use or adaptation of existing technology to create new value for customers □ Architectural innovation (basic business concept is untouched but the way in which the components are linked is significantly changed) □ Modular innovation (the core technology is changed, although the basic structure of linkages within the product’s architecture remains the same) □ Other: ___________________________ |
| (Open-ended question. Listen attentively. Try to determine the category yourself and check your understanding with the respondent. If needed, ask the respondent to help determine the most appropriate category.) | |
| 24. What is new in the project? | □ New technology □ New business- and profit-generating model □ New configuration of assets and people inside the organisation □ New methods of producing or delivering goods or services □ New administrative and control systems, or new leadership structure □ New type of external relations (external networks) □ Product with new characteristics □ Product with new intended use □ New service offering □ New customer-support system □ New distribution channel □ New brand □ New method of customer engagement □ Other: |
| (Open-ended question. Listen attentively. Try to determine the category yourself and check your understanding with the respondent. If needed, ask the respondent to help determine the most appropriate categories.) | |
| 25. Does your company have registered patents? | |
| 26. How do you assess the overall business success of your company? | □ Complete success □ Medium success □ Little success □ Too early to say |
| Question | Options |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 27. To what extent did your product or service create value for customers and match their expectations at the time of its market launch, in your opinion? (Product-value proposition) | □ Full match
□ General match but minor improvements required
□ Overall product/service concept perceived positively, but the implementation itself required serious revision and improvement
□ Product/service concept required significant changes and approach to its implementation required significant amendments
□ Initial product/service concept failed and everything was redone
□ Initial product/service concept failed and the new venture was abandoned |
| 28. How effective was the business model you initially designed and used to generate profit in your opinion? (Business-model proposition) | □ Very effective
□ Generally effective, although some minor improvements were still needed
□ Business model as a whole was working, but the implementation (separate blocks) required serious revisions
□ Significant changes were required in the business-model structure and in its separate blocks
□ Initial business model idea was abandoned and the business model was completely redesigned
□ The business model failed completely and the new venture was abandoned |
| 29. How successful was the entrepreneurial venture with regards to the correspondence of the current situation with the expectations of the founders and investors in terms of ... (Growth proposition) | Degree of conformity between plans and results (% of deviation from the plan)
0% No deviations
No more than 20%
No more than 40%
No more than 60%
More than 60%
Appearance of first customers
Compliance with sales plan
Compliance with planned budget
Compliance with planned timeframe
□ or no customers yet |
| 30. Have there been any significant changes in the strategy ("pivots") during the course of your entrepreneurial venture (from the time you started developing an idea to bringing the product/service to the market)? (Open-ended question. Listen attentively. Try to determine the category yourself and check your understanding with the respondent. If needed, ask the respondent to help determine the most appropriate categories.) | □ Zoom-in pivot
□ Zoom-out pivot
□ Customer-segment pivot
□ Customer-need pivot
□ Platform pivot
□ Business-architecture pivot
□ Value-capture pivot (monetisation pivot)
□ Growth-engine pivot
□ Channel pivot
□ Technology pivot |
| Block 2 (Questions 31-45, 25-30 minutes) | Comments (to be filled in during the interview by the interviewer; the respondent does not write anything) |
| 31. In your opinion, what role did external relationships (contacts) play in the founding and development of your business? In what sense was networking important for you personally? Network purpose | |
| 32. How much time did you spend on purposefully searching for and maintaining contacts (on average; hours per week)? Network involvement | □ Less than 1 hour per week
□ 2-5 hours per week
□ 6-10 hours per week
□ More than 10 hours per week |
33. How did you find the contacts you needed to build your business? Which contact sources did you use and why?
(Open-ended question. Try to understand whether there is some logic/consistency in the search for contacts. If the logic is evident, check your understanding with probing questions. Mark the appropriate network sources.)
**Network sources**
- Relatives
- Friends
- Previous professional contacts (e.g., former partners, customers, suppliers)
- Previous professional relations (studied or worked together)
- Referrals and recommendations of friends and acquaintances
- Personal web pages on Internet-based social networks
- Participation in professional industry conferences
- Participation in professional exhibitions
- Membership in a professional organization (specify which ones)
- Through channels of the parent company
- As a result of participation in an accelerator
- As a result of a presence in an incubator or technological park
- Participation in conferences/seminars for entrepreneurs
- Tracking or participating in Internet platforms for entrepreneurs
- Membership in entrepreneurial associations (please, specify)
- Participation in other entrepreneurial development projects (please, specify)
- Other
34. Were some relationships so important that they determined the business’s success in terms of growth and performance?
(Relationship between networking and outcomes)
35. 1) With whom did you establish relationships in order to found and develop your company?
(Size, diversity and heterogeneity of links)
2) How often did you communicate with these people or organisations while founding and developing your company? In certain stages of development, did the intensity of communications with some network members increase or decrease? How would you explain this?
(Frequency of communications)
| Relationships with organisations | Person-to-person relationships |
|----------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| 1. Customers | 15. Family and kin |
| 2. Partners | 16. Friends |
| 3. Other organisations in the industry | 17. Acquaintances (e.g., studied together, co-participated in social events or sports) |
| 4. Organisations in related industries | 18. Previous professional contacts (e.g., colleagues, customer representatives, partners) |
| 5. Scientific/research centres | 19. Like-minded people in social networks |
| 6. Engineering centres | 20. Scientists |
| 7. Business-sector professional associations | 21. Engineers/developers |
| 8. Consulting organisations | 22. Other entrepreneurs |
| 9. Organisations that provide professional services (accounting, legal, patent, other ________________) | 23. Business consultants |
| 10. Institutions for entrepreneurship development | 24. Freelancers (e.g., accountants, marketers, analysts, lawyers) |
| 11. Entrepreneurial associations | 25. Representatives of the venture environment |
| 12. Venture-capital institutions | 26. Specialists in the industry |
| 13. Higher-education institutions | 27. Specialists in related industries |
| 14. Other ________________________ | 28. Other ____________________ |
36. How familiar are the people within your network?
(Network density)
- Almost everyone knows each other.
- Some people know each other, but not all.
- People generally do not know each other.
37. What relationships did you use for the purposes of founding and developing your company? Please provide examples.
(Open-ended question. Mark the purposes discussed by the respondent. Use the prompts to determine which relations were used to support the achievement of other aims.)
(Network aims)
| Purpose | Relationships used |
|---------|--------------------|
| Acquisition of lacking knowledge or competences | |
| Technological research and development | |
| Product/service development | |
| Understanding of industry and competitive environment | |
| Market evaluation, product testing, search for distribution channels | |
| Establishment of company as a legal entity | |
| Attract human capital | |
| Construct social capital | |
| Other | |
| Question | Response |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 38. What role does trust play in building a business relationship? How | Balance between weak and strong (embedded) ties. |
| does trust between business participants change over time? | How does the respondent develop, supplement, strengthen, or leave |
| | relationships? Is it generally a random process? |
| | Are there any international network members? If yes, why? |
| 39. How do you govern your network of business contacts? | Types of evolution to be discussed |
| | - Evolution along the life cycle of a start-up |
| | - Evolution (modification) of individual ties over time |
| | - Evolution of the strategy and practice of constructing networks as |
| | the entrepreneur acquires experience |
| 40. In terms of your company’s development, how has your network of | Impact of embeddedness |
| relationships evolved over time? | |
| 41. Did any previously established relationships harm the development | Impact of experience |
| of the business? | |
| 42. What mistakes in building business ties would you advise novice | |
| entrepreneurs to avoid? | |
| 43. Contact details that I authorise the researchers to use to contact | Respondent contact phone number |
| me in case of additional questions | ________________________________ |
| | E-mail |
| | ________________________________ |
| 44. Date | |
| 45. Signature | |
Thank you for your invaluable contribution to our research and your time!
## Appendix 3.2. Control variables
| Variable | Interview guide question | Coding system |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Factual information about the SME (Section 1 questions)** | | |
| V1 Company name | Q2 | |
| V2 Company profile | Q4 | |
| V3 Respondent name | Q1 | |
| V4 Business sector | Q4 | 1 Production
2 B2C services
3 IT sector
4 B2B/B2G services
5 Wholesale and retail trade |
| V5 Market type | Q6 | 1 B2C
2 B2B
3 B2G |
| V6 Age of company/NIS development phase | Q9 | 0 More than 25 years – Phase 0 (1991 or earlier)
1 16-25 years – Phase 1 (end of 1991-1999)
2 12-15 years – Phase 2 (2000-2005)
3 9-11 years – Phase 3 (2006-2008)
4 4-8 years – Phase 4 (2009-2013)
5 3 years or less – Phase 5 (2014-2017) |
| V7 Business aim | Q10 | 1 To implement a technology in the market
2 To serve a particular client segment
3 To satisfy customers by applying or developing a technology |
| V8 Type of innovation | Q23 | 1 Use of an existing and proven (by others) business model
2 Radical innovation
3 Incremental innovation
4 Adaptation of existing business model to meet the needs of local customers
5 Adaptation of existing technology to create new value for customers
6 Architectural innovation
7 Modular innovation |
| V9 SME innovativeness | Synthesis of Q10, Q23, Q24, Q25 | 1 High – a technological company that is implementing a radical innovation or a combination of more than two types of innovations; has patents
2 Medium – a company that is implementing an adaptation of an existing technology, or an architectural or modular innovation
3 Low – a company that is implementing incremental innovations
4 None – a company that uses an existing business model or a minor adaptation of such a model to satisfy the needs of a particular client segment; does not have patents |
| V10 Registered patents | Q23 | 1 Yes
2 No |
| V11 Stage of company/project development by interview date | Q12 | 1 Idea generation
2 Idea verification
3 Prototype
4 Market evaluation
5 Product/service development
6 Minimum viable product
7 Product validation
8 Business-model design
9 Engineering of product and business processes
10 Company founding
11 Start of sales
12 Market penetration
13 Sales growth
14 Scaling and diffusion |
| Question | Description | Options |
|----------|-------------|---------|
| V12 | Perceived overall business success of company | Q26 1 High
2 Medium
3 Low
4 Too early to say |
| V13 | Conformity of results with expectations/plans | Synthesis of Q27, Q28, Q29 1 High – Q27: full/general match; Q28: very/generally effective; Q29: deviation of no more than 20%
2 Medium – Q27: revision/improvement in product/service concept; Q28: revision/improvement of business model; Q29: deviation of no more than 40%
3 Low – Q27: significant changes in product/service concept; Q28: significant changes in business model; Q29: deviation of no more than 60%
4 None – Q27: product/service concept failed; Q28: business model failed; Q29: deviation of more than 60% |
| Founders' education | Q14 | V14 Technical
V15 Management or economics
V16 Liberal arts (but not management or economics)
V17 Creative studies
V18 Other 1 Yes
2 No |
| V19 | Founders' entrepreneurial background | Q15 1 Yes
2 No |
| V20 | Ages of key founders at time of establishment | Q16 1 18-24
2 25-30
3 31-39
4 40-49 5 50-59
6 60 and above
7 Mix of different ages |
| V21 | Number of employees | Q17 1 1
2 2-5
3 6-15
4 16-50 5 51-100
6 101-250
7 More than 250 people
8 Company has closed |
| V22 | Office location | Q18 1 Has or rents its own office
2 Co-working resident
3 Business accelerator resident
4 Incubator resident 5 Technological park resident
6 Works on the premises of the parent company (corporation or institution) |
| V23 | Prior participation in acceleration programmes | Q18 1 Yes
2 No |
| V24 | Sources of financing | Q20 1 Personal and family's/friends' savings
2 Capital of the parent company
3 State research grant
4 Grant (start-up competition winner)
5 Crowdfunding
6 Business angel capital
7 Pre-seed and seed venture capital 8 Venture capital (round A)
9 Venture capital (round B)
10 Equity crowdfunding
11 Bank loan for entrepreneurs
12 Corporate venture funds
13 Cash-out strategy
14 Merger/acquisition
15 IPO
16 Prepaid orders
17 Other |
| Factual information about respondent (entrepreneur) (Section 1 questions) | | |
| V25 | Entrepreneurial experience | Q11 1 Yes
2 No |
| V26 | Gender | Q1 1 Female
2 Male |
## Appendix 3.3. Summary of data
| № | Company name | Company profile | Respondent name | Business sector | Market type | Age of the company/project - NIS development phase | Business aim | Type of innovation | SME innovativeness category | Registered patents | Stage of project development by the interview date | Perceived overall business success of a company | Conformity of the expectations/plans with the results | Prior education of founders | Prior entrepreneurial background of the founders | Ages of the key founders at the time of founding | Number of employees | Location of the office | Prior participation in the acceleration programmes | Sources of financing | Prior entrepreneurial experience | Gender |
|---|-----------------------|----------------------------------|-----------------|----------------|-------------|-----------------------------------------------------|--------------|--------------------|-------------------------------|---------------------|----------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------|------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Q2 | Q4 | Q1 | Q4 | Q6 | Q9 | Q10 | Q23 | Q10, 23, 25 | Q23 | Q12 | Q26 | Q27, 27, 29 | Q14 | Q15 | Q16 | Q17 | Q18 | Q19 | Q20 | Q21 | Q22 | Q23 | Q24 | Q25 | Q26 |
| 1 | Crystal | Hotel | Vladimir | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | L’azur | Perfume store | Vyacheslav | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Transport Alliance | Transportation services | Elena | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | Smoke Empire | Hookah salon | Timur | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | Mirko | Processing of meat or poultry | Andrey | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | Anin | Beauty salon | Mariam | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 7 | Relax | Hotel | Daniel | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 8 | Loft | Hookah salon | Robert | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Nail Sunny | Beauty salon | Eleonora | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 10| Baylo | Goods for dancers | Tatiana | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 11| City Dental Center | Dental care | Irina | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| № | V1 | V2 | V3 | V4 | V5 | V6 | V7 | V8 | V9 | V10 | V11 | V12 | V13 | V14 | V15 | V16 | V17 | V18 | V19 | V20 | V21 | V22 | V23 | V24 | V25 | V26 |
|----|-----------------|---------------------------|-----------------------------------------|----|----|----|----|----|----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| 12 | ASK-Capital | Legal and accounting | Svetlana | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| | | services for entrepreneurs| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 13 | Bouquet-77 | Flower shop | Vladislav | 5 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 14 | Branding | Production of apparel | Olga | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 15 | Dialog | Construction services | Kirill | 4 | 2,3| 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 2 |
| | Construction | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 16 | Iris | Flower shop | Artem | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1,11| 2 | 2 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 17 | Kefir-Baton | Grocery store | Natalia | 5 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 18 | LKC-Advertising | Digital marketing | Anton | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 19 | Sweatshirt | Production of apparel | Anna | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 20 | WedStory | Event agency | Ekatetrina | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 21 | SV Group | Production of apparel | Alena | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1,6 | 1 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 22 | Target | Digital marketing | Allan | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| | Marketing | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 23 | TexPo | Production of outdoor | Igor | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| | billboards | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 24 | Dial-Electro | Production of lighting | Pavel | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| | equipment | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 25 | Concept Logistic| Logistics services | Denis | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1,11,16| 1 | 2 |
| | Group | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 26 | Orthodox Pilgrim| Journal | Alena | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1,2 | 2 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 27 | Myst Distro | Distribution of liquid | Vladimir | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| | for electronic | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | cigarettes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 28 | Resharium | Educational services | Alena | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1,11| 1 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 29 | OG Spinners | Production of spinners | Gleb | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 30 | Lary | Beauty salon | Larisa | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 31 | I love Dora | Production of jewelery | Dmitry | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| № | V1 | V2 | V3 | V4 | V5 | V6 | V7 | V8 | V9 | V10 | V11 | V12 | V13 | V14 | V15 | V16 | V17 | V18 | V19 | V20 | V21 | V22 | V23 | V24 | V25 | V26 |
|----|---------------------------|-----------------------------------------|-------------|----|----|----|----|----|----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| 32 | Language profi | Tourism, Educational services | Olga | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 33 | Create Develop | Co-working | Karen | 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 34 | Avto-Okey | Auto parts trade | Andrey | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1,2 | 1 | 2 |
| 35 | Second Breath | Digital marketing | Vladimir | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 36 | Frushh | Production of fruit drinks | Valerii | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 37 | Reshego | Educational services | Sergey | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 38 | Agropromholod | Production of refrigerators for food processing plants | Andrey | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5,7 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1,16 | 1 | 2 |
| 39 | Finansisto | IT solution for monitoring personal finances | Mikhail | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3,5 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 40 | Football Platform | IT solution for football professionals | Daniel | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 41 | IE Afonin | Development of corporate software | Anton | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1,16 | 1 | 2 |
| 42 | KS Engineering | Production of metal constructions | Alexey | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 43 | Marmo Bagno | Production of sanitary ware from marble powder | David | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5,7 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 44 | Softvelum | IT solution for effective video information transmission | Maxim | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5,6 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1,16 | 2 | 2 |
| № | V1 | V2 | V3 | V4 | V5 | V6 | V7 | V8 | V9 | V10 | V11 | V12 | V13 | V14 | V15 | V16 | V17 | V18 | V19 | V20 | V21 | V22 | V23 | V24 | V25 | V26 |
|----|-------------|-----------------------------------------|--------|----|----|----|----|----|----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| 45 | Vezdehod | Production of footwear for fishermen | Yuri | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5,7| 2 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 46 | Vim Digital | Development of video games | Vladimir | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 47 | Robotechnics| Production of robots for dismantling of buildings | Alexey | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 5,7| 2 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 48 | Unicorn | Production of liquids for electronic evaporators | Mikhail | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 5,7| 2 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1,6 | 2 | 2 |
| 49 | Codabra | Educational services | Arthur | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5,7| 2 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 50 | Motorika | Production of functional hand prosthesis and rehabilitation programme | Andrey | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3,5,7| 1 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1,3,5,6,7 | 1 | 2 |
| 51 | Mereya Cosmetics | Production of cosmetic for epilation and training programmes | Dmitry | 1 | 1,2 | 5 | 1 | 2,7| 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1,2,4,6,7 | 1 | 2 |
| 52 | Directual | IT solutions for business process automation | Arthur | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3,5,6| 1 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1,4,6 | 1 | 2 |
| 53 | Global Center of Engineering Services | Production of industrial refrigeration systems | Artem | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2,7| 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 1,2,3,6 | 1 | 2 |
| 54 | Giftery | Corporate electronic gift certificates | Evgenii | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3,5,6| 1 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1,4,6 | 1 | 2 |
| 55 | Oculus Rift | Production of virtual reality glasses | Alexey | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2,4| 1 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1,5,6,7 | 1 | 2 |
| № | V1 | V2 | V3 | V4 | V5 | V6 | V7 | V8 | V9 | V10 | V11 | V12 | V13 | V14 | V15 | V16 | V17 | V18 | V19 | V20 | V21 | V22 | V23 | V24 | V25 | V26 |
|----|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|----|----|----|----|-------|----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| 56 | MasterSlavl | Educational services | Andrey | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3,5,7 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1,6,11 | 1 | 2 |
| 57 | Animo | Production of smart pet feeder: automatic feeder controlled by mobile application | Vladislav | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3,5,6 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1,5,6 | 1 | 2 |
| 58 | SunProtein | Production of protein from sunflower seeds | Sergei | 1 | 1,2 | 5 | 3 | 3,5,7 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 1,2,6,7 | 1 | 2 |
| 59 | ElStato | Production of electric motors of fundamentally new type | Evgeniy | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
**Excluded Data**
| № | V1 | V2 | V3 | V4 | V5 | V6 | V7 | V8 | V9 | V10 | V11 | V12 | V13 | V14 | V15 | V16 | V17 | V18 | V19 | V20 | V21 | V22 | V23 | V24 | V25 | V26 |
|----|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|----|----|----|----|-------|----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| 1 | WoodStory | Production of tailor-made furniture | Alexey | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | Dolce Vita Group | Tourism | Oksana | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | FITEX | Production of textile haberdashery | Alexander| 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | ZooConstruction | Construction services | Mamikon | 4 | 2,3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | Russian Racing Group| Organization of sporting events | Iliya | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | Ginger Trading | Production of apparel | Irina | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | Amova Jewelry | Production of jewelry | Svetlana | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Appendix 4.1. Practice-oriented educational project that brings Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School bachelor students and innovative start-ups together to develop a systematic approach to building networks conducive to innovation
10 February - 27 April 2018, Moscow, Russia
Description of the work in each stage of the project
Students were tasked to maintain a constant connection with the start-up, adjust and modify the composition of the work at each stage so that it best addresses the challenges facing the start-up.
| Stage | Timing | Assignment for students |
|-------|--------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Stage 1. The study of theory** | **10-25 February** | - Study the course materials on the following topics.
**Innovative start-up**: The notion of an innovative start-up; the trajectory of its development (viewed from the start-up’s side, the venture capitalist’s side and the market side), the tasks solved by start-ups at different stages of their development, legal aspects of technological entrepreneurship, management of the process of commercialising ideas and technologies, the role and tasks of customer development (CusDev) as a tool for assessing customer needs in the target segment (problem-definition phase) and for testing hypotheses regarding the value of a specific product/service for the client segment (solution-validation phase).
**Building network relationships in business**: Contemporary views on entrepreneurs’ networks (concept of networking; types of networks; benefits, opportunities, costs and risks of the formation and governance of relations; role of social capital; role of trust and its mechanisms; evolution of the role of social networking in the Russian context; soft skills required for establishing relations in business; systematic approach to organisation of participation in the exhibition/professional fair (the contents of the stages before, during and after the event).
**The concept of an innovation system**: Concepts and models of national and regional innovation systems as the context of innovation, and the construction of relations conducive for innovation; key groups of NIS actors, their motivations and interests; opportunities provided by innovative systems to innovative start-ups.
**Characteristics of the innovative system of Russia and Moscow**: The evolution of the system, key players, the National Technology Initiative, existing projects to support innovative entrepreneurship, systemic problems of developing innovative Russian systems and ways to overcome them. |
| **Stage 2. Preparatory work** | **26 February - 4 March** | - Attend a workshop with start-ups in Skolkovo (26 February 2018), choose a start-up with which to work on the project.
- Study the materials presented by the chosen start-up, create an understanding of the features of the start-up’s product/service, determine the stage of business-project development.
- Identify the start-up’s priorities along the path to commercialisation of its product and map the groups of actors who can help solve these tasks.
- Form the goals of establishing contacts, identify sources of potential contacts. |
| Stage 3. Coordination of activities with start-ups | 5-13 March |
|--------------------------------------------------|------------|
| - Hold a meeting with representatives of the start-up to:
- Clarify questions regarding the characteristics of the product/service.
- Discuss the list of tasks the start-up needs to complete to achieve commercialisation and the map of NIS actors able to help with these activities.
- Select the groups of actors with whom, in opinion of the start-up, relations should be established through participation in the Batimat Russia professional fair.
- Examine the feasibility of the chosen target segment – customer development will focus on this target segment.
- Understand the hypotheses that the start-up wishes to test in relation to the target segment in the framework of customer development.
- Clarify the start-up’s expectations for the work performed by the student team in each stage of the project, including at the professional fair (clearly state the value that should be created for the start-up at each stage and the anticipated outcome).
- Develop an action plan for all stages.
- Synthesise the results of the discussion with the start-up and present an agreed action plan to classmates in class. |
| Stage 4. Preparation for participation in the exhibition | 14 March - 3 April |
|--------------------------------------------------------|-------------------|
| - Implement the action plan, which should include:
- Assisting the start-up in establishing preliminary contacts with selected groups of NIS actors, writing invitations and preparing documents for meetings.
- Preparing for participation in the professional fair with regards to interactions with customers:
• Conduct customer development (problem-definition phase) – at least 12 interviews with representatives of selected client segments.
• Develop a text describing the value proposition for the selected segment.
• Design information materials (advertising leaflets or videos) in agreement with the company.
• Assist with information distribution and send invitations to representatives of the target segment to take part in meetings at the professional fair. |
| Stage 5. Work at the exhibition | 4-6 April | • Develop a text (teaser) to use in communication with representatives of the target segment at the stand.
• Developing data-collection tools to gather information on contacts and their presence during the professional fair.
• Developing data-collection tools for competitive analysis during the professional fair.
• Communicating while executing assignments and obtain the start-up’s approval for:
• The materials prepared for the stand.
• The templates developed for data collection.
• The plan of activities for students during the professional fair.
• Synthesise the results of this stage in a PowerPoint presentation and present to classmates in class. |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Work at the Batimat-2018 professional fair at the start-up’s stand** | | • Assist at the stand, help conduct meetings with representatives of selected groups of NIS actors.
• Organise a system for collecting and storing contact information obtained from stand visitors during the fair.
• Gather information as a result of communication with the representatives of the target customer segment (customer development, solution-validation phase).
• Collect information on competitors exhibiting at the professional fair;
• Collect information on possible synergistic projects the start-up may undertake with representatives of selected groups of actors participating in the professional fair. |
| Stage 6. Process and analyse collected information | 7-11 April | • Pre-process the materials collected at the exhibition, including creation of a catalogue of potential customers in the selected segment gained as a result of the professional fair; send letters of thanks to stand visitors.
• Systematise the information collected on competitors.
• Systematise the information collected on the advantages of establishing interactions with key actors met at the professional fair.
• Agree on objectives and key issues that the start-up wants covered in the analytical work in the report and presentation. |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 13-26 April | • Systematise the information, and synthesise answers and solutions to the company’s questions.
• Process the data and compile the report based on the previously agreed questions (15-20 pages in length).
• Prepare a presentation of the results.
• Summarise the results in a PowerPoint presentation and present to classmates in class (rehearsal).
• Finalise the reporting documents (report + presentation) and prepare to present them to start-ups at the Skolkovo Foundation. |
| Stage 7. Final defence in Skolkovo | 27 April | • Present the group’s work done and the results.
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The château sat on a vast estate complete with stables, a manège and a real tennis court. Its ornamental garden was filled with flowers and even boasted a grotto, ponds and water features. It was also later used as a vegetable garden during the prison era. It was separated from the château by a dry ditch and surrounded by walls, including the wall surrounding the medieval bastide.
In around 1630, having praised "this truly magnificent monument, with walls adorned with gold and silk hangings (...) covered with gold, silver, azure and other rare and precious colours richly adorning all sides", two travellers counted "64 galleries and tree-planted covered walkways (...) and three fountains and many rabbits and other game animals".
**Information**
*Share your views and win free entry tickets.*
**Gift and book shop**
The guide for this monument can be found in the *itinéraires* collection and is available in 2 languages in the gift and book shop.
Centre des monuments nationaux
Château ducal de Cadillac
Place de la Libération
33410 Cadillac-sur-Garonne
tel. 05 56 62 69 58
www.chateau-cadillac.fr
www.facebook.com/chateaucadillac
www.instagram.com/chateaucadillac
www.monuments-nationaux.fr
---
**The first Duke of Épernon**
**A Cadet de Gascogne**
Jean-Louis de Nogaret de La Valette (1554-1642) was born into provincial nobility at the Château de Caumont, in the Gers department of France. As a young nobleman and *Cadet*, he was destined for a military career, and fought in the Wars of Religion along with his older brother, following in their fathers' footsteps. In 1573, they took part in the siege of La Rochelle led by the Duke of Anjou, the future Henry III.
**The climb to the top**
The skilled and ambitious Jean-Louis was soon noticed and found himself at court. As Colonel General of the Infantry, he controlled the armies, governed strategic provinces and accumulated wealth, honours and hatred. In 1587, he married Marguerite de Foix-Candale, who came from a great family that extended his influence in the south-west. She died in 1593 following the birth of their third son. The Duke secured his inheritance and maintained his lineage, going on to build this château in the fiefdom of Cadillac, demonstrating his rank and for the posterity of his lineage.
**He shines brightest in adversity**
Following the assassination of Henri III in 1589, Catholic Épernon had a distrustful relationship with Henri IV, who Ravallac killed in 1610. The infallible old duke supported the regency of Marie de’ Medici, ensured positions for his sons and connections, provided guards for the musketeers of Louis XIII and governed Guyenne, but found himself marginalised by Cardinal Richelieu. When absolutism won through, he was one of the last great feudalists. He died under house arrest in Loches, having just celebrated his 88th birthday.
---
**130 years as a prison**
**Cadillac prison**
The State bought the château in 1818 to house France's first women's correctional facility. Reasons for imprisonment ranged from theft to violent crimes (including many infanticides, often by abused women). Inmates were ruled with an iron fist, with 12 to 13 hours of forced labour 6 days a week and a rule of absolute silence enforced by nuns. Malnutrition, cold, the furious pace of work and overcrowding were responsible for a mortality rate of up to 18% some years. A total of nearly 10,000 women were detained at Cadillac over the course of the 19th century.
**A 'remand' centre**
Young girls, including vagrants, girls of bad character, infanticides again and girls who were sent there by their fathers, who held all the power, replaced the prisoners at Cadillac in 1891. Those considered to be 'incapacitated', having no sense of right and wrong, and who were therefore acquitted, were sent here with no minimum age until they reached the age of majority (21 years). In 1928, a fire likely caused by a mutiny destroyed the northern part of the château.
**The end of the château-prison**
Despite various attempts to develop the château (especially after 1945), its penitentiary past continued to weigh heavily, and the institution closed in 1952 after two ward suicides. The State assigned the heavily damaged château to the fine arts, following which emergency work was carried out and a number of events hosted. At the turn of the 21st century, extensive restoration work was undertaken to revitalise the building, with the emphasis very much on accurately reflecting its dual history.
---
**Ducal Château de Cadillac**
**A dual history**
**A 17th-century palace...**
Built between 1599 and 1633 for Jean-Louis de Nogaret de La Valette (1554-1642), a *Cadet de Gascogne* who became the first Duke of Épernon, the Château de Cadillac is an example of early French architecture. With its classic appearance and its sumptuous interior design, the palace was designed to be much more than a residence; it emphasises the rank achieved by its patron as a 'half-king' who built for posterity. The grandiose château was soon visited by great figures, but would serve for less than half a century. Bernard (1592-1661), second Duke of Épernon, died with no direct heir. The palace's two wings and four corner pavilions were torn down in the 18th century.
... converted into a prison in the 19th century
After the building was seized during the French Revolution, the State decided to open France's first women's correctional facility at the château in 1818. In order to adapt the building to its new role, a caretaker's lodge and two lower wings were built to close off the courtyard. The conditions of incarceration were nevertheless harsh throughout the 19th century: young girls took the place of the inmates when the site became a 'remand centre', which later closed in 1952. A number of major restoration projects have since restored the original château without obscuring its past as a prison, thus accurately reflecting its dual history.
The courtyard and the grand staircase
The main body of the château and the first parts of the wings demonstrate its classical architecture. The lower wings, built for the prison, date from the 19th century. The grand staircase in the centre of the property serves all of the floors, from the basement on the garden level right up to the attic, leading to the ducal apartments on the ground floor and the royal apartments on the first floor. Each apartment comprises a suite of adjoining rooms.
Ground floor
2 The Duke's apartment
While the rest of the décor was destroyed in the fire of 1928, the reception chamber has retained its monumental fireplace, where Julien Salaud’s *Grand Duke I* (2017) takes centre stage, along with a cross installed in the 19th century for the prison chapel. On the walls, meanwhile, *The Odyssey of Ulysses*, based on the cartoons by Simon Vouet, reflects the original illustrated tapestries, depicting a historical event, a religious cycle or a hero of Antiquity. Portraits of Henri IV and Marie de’ Medici complete the décor.
The antechamber houses the oldest fireplace in the château and features three tapestries, two of which are based on *Hercules*, notably *Phaëton*. It used to open out, on the garden side, onto the ceremonial room in the corner pavilion, and served as a sacristy and refectory for the nuns guarding the inmates in the 19th century.
The bedroom of the second duke is furnished with a four-poster bed with twisted columns. Its original ceiling, featuring trompe-l’œil coffering, features a painted design that has been reproduced on the lower panelling and in the adjacent oratory, which also has a Pietà. A portrait depicts the first Duke of Épernon.
The second antechamber retains its painted ceiling, along with a fireplace that was remodelled in the 18th century. *Diorama ou le murmure des murs*, a piece created by Cécile Léna (2020, 6 mins), echoes the history of the château.
The cabinet doré ('golden cabinet') has retained its Italian-style ceiling decorated with mythological representations and enhanced with gilding.
First floor
4 The King's apartment
As was the case with any large château, an apartment was fitted out for the king. This one was used by Louis XIII in 1620 and Louis XIV in 1659. The landing doors date back to the days of the prison, when inmates on the upper floors were crammed into dormitories.
The chamber is dedicated to Henry III to whom Épernon owed his status. The tapestry of the Siege of La Rochelle in 1573 is part of a hanging commissioned by the Duke and woven at the château itself. The room is decorated with a bust of the king, his monogram and his full-length portrait, alongside Queen Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont, along with a hanging depicting the Story of Rinaldo and Armida, taken from *Le Jérusalem délivrée* (*Jerusalem Delivered*), based on cartoons by Simon Vouet.
The antechamber overlooked the grounds and featured the château's most ornate fireplace, which was damaged by the fire of 1928. The wall hanging woven in Flanders in the 16th century illustrates the History of the Civil Wars of Rome, alongside Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides, with an ebony cabinet completing the line-up. The duke owned 14 ebony cabinets, which were considered state furniture.
5 The Queen's apartment
The room features a wall hanging of Theagenes and Chariclea based on cartoons by Simon Vouet. It tells the story of an Ethiopian princess and a young Greek, Theagenes, who is also depicted in two paintings.
The first antechamber has a highly ornate fireplace with a painting depicting Queen Artemisia drinking the ashes of her husband Mausoleus, a story that legitimes regencies. Two tapestries from Flanders, meanwhile, depict The defeat of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra and The triumph of Emperor Aurelian.
The second antechamber, with its unfinished fireplace, features a wardrobe from Bordeaux. It used to open onto a ceremonial room on the garden side, and a hall of mirrors and the gallery of the illustrious' on the city side. It also overlooks the terrace that in turn overlooks Cadillac-sur-Garonne.
6 The attic (second floor)
In the 20th century, the 'remand' centre installed individual wire mesh cubicles referred to as 'chicken cages' for the minors in its care. After the 19th-century prison dormitories, these cells afforded a certain privacy, but also reinforced the sense of confinement.
7 The basement
The rooms in the basement were used as a refectory for the prison two centuries after they had housed the château's kitchens and the workshop where master upholsterer Claude de Lapierre wove the hanging recounting the Life of Henry III. The adjoining echo room, which served as a kitchen for the prison, boasts remarkable acoustics thanks to its vaulted ceiling, followed by an understated hidden suspended spiral staircase serving the building from top to bottom and providing discreet access to all of the floors. | 7ef57adf-e48b-43f5-94e0-dc5552ce058a | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.chateau-cadillac.fr/en/content/download/9817993/file/2023_CHATEAU%20DUCAL%20CADILLAC_EN_web.pdf?version=20&inLanguage=eng-GB | 2024-03-02T07:14:05+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475757.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20240302052634-20240302082634-00636.warc.gz | 708,694,194 | 2,493 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.997935 | eng_Latn | 0.998001 | [
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It’s test day in chemistry class—they’ve been learning about acids and bases—and Fran unwisely skips breakfast in order to have time for some last-minute studying. As she reads, she chews on a candy bar and sips a cup of coffee. Fran is well aware that the sugary candy sticking to her molars is providing breakfast for the bacteria in her mouth, which in turn produce an acid that will dissolve some of the enamel on her teeth. Feeling a little guilty about all that sugar from the candy, Fran drinks her coffee black, even though she doesn’t like the taste. The caffeine in her coffee is a base, and like all bases, it tastes bitter.
Fran’s junk-food breakfast and her worrying about the exam combine to give her an annoying case of acid indigestion, which she calms by drinking some baking soda mixed with water. The baking soda contains a base that “neutralizes” some of her excess stomach acid.
After taking the exam, Fran feels happy and confident. All those hours working problems, reviewing the learning objectives, and participating in class really paid off. Now she’s ready for some lunch. Before eating, she washes her hands with soap made from the reaction of a strong base and animal fat. One of the reasons the soap is slippery is because all bases feel slippery on the skin. To compensate for her less-than-healthy breakfast, Fran chooses salad with a piece of lean meat on top for lunch. Like all acids, the vinegar in her salad dressing tastes sour. Her stomach produces just enough additional acid to start the digestion of the protein from the meat.
Read on to learn more about the acids and bases that are important in Fran’s life and your own: what they are, how to construct their names and recognize their formulas, and how they react with each other.
**Review Skills**
The presentation of information in this chapter assumes that you can already perform the tasks listed below. You can test your readiness to proceed by answering the Review Questions at the end of the chapter. This might also be a good time to read the Chapter Objectives, which precede the Review Questions.
- Describe the structure of liquid water. (Section 3.3)
- Convert between the names and formulas for common polyatomic ions. (Table 3.5)
- Given a chemical name or formula, decide whether or not it represents an ionic compound. (Section 3.5)
- Convert between names and formulas for ionic compounds. (Section 3.5)
- Write a description of the changes that take place when an ionic compound is dissolved in water. (Section 4.2)
- Predict ionic solubility. (Section 4.2)
- Predict the products of double-displacement reactions. (Section 4.2)
5.1 Acids
Acids have many uses. For example, phosphoric acid is used to make gasoline additives and carbonated beverages. The textile industry uses oxalic acid (found in rhubarb and spinach) to bleach cloth, and glass is etched by hydrofluoric acid. Dyes and many other chemicals are made with sulfuric acid and nitric acid, and corn syrup, which is added to a variety of foods, is processed with hydrochloric acid. The chemical reactions of acids often take place in water solutions, so after discussing what acids are, we will explore a model for visualizing the particle structure of water solutions of acids.
**Arrhenius Acids**
You may have already noticed, in your first few weeks of studying chemistry, that the more you learn about matter, the more ways you have of grouping and classifying the different substances. The most common and familiar way of classifying substances is by their noteworthy properties. For example, people long ago decided that any substance that has a sour taste is an acid. Lemons are sour because they contain citric acid, and old wine that has been exposed to the air tastes sour due to acetic acid. As chemists learned more about these substances, however, they developed more specific definitions that allowed classification without relying on taste. A good thing, too, because many acids and bases should not be tasted—or even touched. They speed the breakdown of some of the substances that form the structure of our bodies or that help regulate the body’s chemical changes.
Two different definitions of acid are going to be of use to us. For example, chemists conduct many laboratory experiments using a reagent known as “nitric acid,” a substance that has been classified as an acid according to the Arrhenius definition of acid (named after the Swedish Nobel prize-winning chemist, Svante August Arrhenius). Arrhenius recognized that when ionic compounds dissolve, they form ions in solution. (Thus, when sodium chloride dissolves, it forms sodium ions and chloride ions.) He postulated that acids dissolve in a similar way to form H\(^+\) ions and some kind of anion. For example, he predicted that when HCl is added to water, H\(^+\) ions and Cl\(^-\) ions form. We now know that H\(^+\) ions do not persist in water; they combine with water molecules to form hydronium ions, H\(_3\)O\(^+\). Therefore, according to the modern form of the Arrhenius theory, an **acid** is a substance that produces **hydronium ions**, H\(_3\)O\(^+\), when it is added to water. On the basis of this definition, an **acidic solution** is a solution with a significant concentration of H\(_3\)O\(^+\). For reasons that are described in Section 5.7, chemists often find this definition too limiting, so another, broader definition of acids, called the Brønsted-Lowry definition, which we describe later, is commonly used instead.
To get an understanding of how hydronium ions are formed when Arrhenius acids are added to water, let’s consider the dissolving of gaseous hydrogen chloride, HCl(g), in water. The solution that forms is called hydrochloric acid. When HCl molecules dissolve in water, a chemical change takes place in which water molecules
pull hydrogen atoms away from HCl molecules. In each case, the hydrogen atom is transferred without its electron, that is, as an H\(^+\) ion, and because most uncharged hydrogen atoms contain only one proton and one electron, most hydrogen atoms without their electrons are just protons. For this reason, the hydrogen ion, H\(^+\), is often called a proton. We say that the HCl donates a proton, H\(^+\), to water, forming hydronium ion, H\(_3\)O\(^+\), and chloride ion, Cl\(^-\) (Figure 5.1).
Because HCl produces hydronium ions when added to water, it is an acid according to the Arrhenius definition of acids. Once the chloride ion and the hydronium ion are formed, the negatively charged oxygen atoms of the water molecules surround the hydronium ion, and the positively charged hydrogen atoms of the water molecules surround the chloride ion. Figure 5.2 shows how you can picture this solution.
Hydrochloric acid solutions are used in the chemical industry to remove impurities from metal surfaces (this is called pickling), to process food, to increase the permeability of limestone (an aid in oil drilling), and to make many important chemicals.
Types of Arrhenius Acids
In terms of chemical structure, Arrhenius acids can be divided into several different subcategories. We will look at three of them here: binary acids, oxyacids, and organic acids. The **binary acids** are $\text{HF}(aq)$, $\text{HCl}(aq)$, $\text{HBr}(aq)$, and $\text{HI}(aq)$; all have the general formula of $\text{HX}(aq)$, where X is one of the first four halogens. The formulas for the binary acids will be followed by $(aq)$ in this text to show that they are dissolved in water. The most common binary acid is hydrochloric acid, $\text{HCl}(aq)$.
**Oxyacids** (often called oxoacids) are molecular substances that have the general formula $\text{H}_a\text{X}_b\text{O}_c$. In other words, they contain hydrogen, oxygen, and one other element represented by X; the $a$, $b$, and $c$ represent subscripts. The most common oxyacids in the chemical laboratory are nitric acid, $\text{HNO}_3$, and sulfuric acid, $\text{H}_2\text{SO}_4$.
Acetic acid, the acid responsible for the properties of vinegar, contains hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon and therefore fits the criteria for classification as an oxyacid, but it is more commonly described as an organic (or carbon-based) acid. It can also be called a carboxylic acid. (This type of acid is described in more detail in Section 17.1.) The formula for acetic acid can be written as either $\text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2$, $\text{CH}_3\text{CO}_2\text{H}$, or $\text{CH}_3\text{COOH}$. The reason for keeping one H in these formulas separate from the others is that the hydrogen atoms in acetic acid are not all equal. Only one of them can be transferred to a water molecule. That hydrogen atom is known as the acidic hydrogen. We will use the formula $\text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2$ because it is more consistent with the formulas for other acids presented in this chapter. The Lewis structure, space-filling model, and ball-and-stick model for acetic acid (Figure 5.3) show why $\text{CH}_3\text{CO}_2\text{H}$, and $\text{CH}_3\text{COOH}$ are also common. The acidic hydrogen is the one connected to an oxygen atom.
**Figure 5.3**
Acetic Acid
Pure acetic acid freezes at 17 °C (63 °F). Therefore, it is a liquid at normal room temperature, but if you put it outside on a cold day, it will freeze. The solid has layered crystals that look like tiny glaciers, so pure acetic acid is called glacial acetic acid. The chemical industry uses acetic acid to make several substances necessary for producing latex paints, safety glass layers, photographic film, cigarette filters, magnetic tapes, and clothing. Acetic acid is also used to make esters, which are substances that have very pleasant odors and are added to candy and other foods.
Acids can have more than one acidic hydrogen. If each molecule of an acid can donate one hydrogen ion, the acid is called a **monoprotic acid**. If each molecule can donate two or more hydrogen ions, the acid is a **polyprotic acid**. A **diprotic acid**, such as sulfuric acid, $\text{H}_2\text{SO}_4$, has two acidic hydrogen atoms. Some acids, such as phosphoric acid,
H$_3$PO$_4$, are **triprotic acids**. Most of the phosphoric acid produced by the chemical industry is used to make fertilizers and detergents, but it is also used to make pharmaceuticals, to refine sugar, and in water treatment. The tartness of some foods and beverages comes from acidifying them by adding phosphoric acid. The space-filling model in Figure 5.4 shows the three acidic hydrogen atoms of phosphoric acid.
**Strong and Weak Acids**
Although hydrochloric acid and acetic acid are both acids according to the Arrhenius definition, the solutions created by dissolving the same numbers of HCl and HC$_2$H$_3$O$_2$ molecules in water have very different acid properties. You wouldn’t hesitate to put a solution of the weak acid HC$_2$H$_3$O$_2$ (vinegar) on your salad, but putting a solution of the strong acid HCl on your salad would have a very different effect on the lettuce. With hydrochloric acid, you are more likely to get a brown, fuming mess rather than a crisp, green salad. **Strong acids** form nearly one H$_3$O$^+$ ion in solution for each acid molecule dissolved in water, whereas **weak acids** yield significantly less than one H$_3$O$^+$ ion in solution for each acid molecule dissolved in water.
When an acetic acid molecule, HC$_2$H$_3$O$_2$, collides with an H$_2$O molecule, an H$^+$ can be transferred to the water to form a hydronium ion, H$_3$O$^+$, and an acetate ion, C$_2$H$_3$O$_2^-$. The acetate ion, however, is less stable in solution than the chloride ion formed when the strong acid HCl dissolves in water. Because of this instability, the C$_2$H$_3$O$_2^-$ reacts with the hydronium ion, pulling the H$^+$ ion back to reform HC$_2$H$_3$O$_2$ and H$_2$O. A reaction in which the reactants are constantly forming products and, at the same time, the products are re-forming the reactants is called a **reversible reaction**. The chemical equations for reactions that are significantly reversible are written with double arrows as illustrated in Figure 5.5.
If you were small enough to be riding on one of the carbon atoms in HC$_2$H$_3$O$_2$ or C$_2$H$_3$O$_2^-$, you would find that your atom was usually in the HC$_2$H$_3$O$_2$ form but often in the C$_2$H$_3$O$_2^-$ form and continually changing back and forth. The forward and reverse reactions would be taking place simultaneously all around you. When acetic
acid is added to water, the relative amounts of the different products and reactants soon reach levels at which the opposing reactions proceed at equal rates. (We will see why in Chapter 16.) This means that the forward reaction is producing $C_2H_3O_2^-$ as quickly as the reverse reaction is producing $HC_2H_3O_2(aq)$. At this point, there is no more net change in the amounts of $HC_2H_3O_2$, $H_2O$, $C_2H_3O_2^-$, or $H_3O^+$ in the solution. For example, for each 1000 molecules of acetic acid added to water, the solution will eventually contain about 996 acetic acid molecules ($HC_2H_3O_2$), four hydronium ions ($H_3O^+$), and four acetate ions ($C_2H_3O_2^-$$). Acetic acid is therefore a weak acid, a substance that is incompletely ionized in water because of the reversibility of its reaction with water that forms hydronium ion, $H_3O^+$. Figure 5.6 shows a simple model that will help you to picture this solution.
In a typical acetic acid solution, there are about 250 times as many uncharged acetic acid molecules, $HC_2H_3O_2$, as acetate ions, $C_2H_3O_2^-$.
**Figure 5.6**
Acetic Acid in Water
**Objective 6**
The products formed from the reaction of a strong acid and water do not recombine at a significant rate to re-form the uncharged acid molecules and water. For example, when HCl molecules react with water, the $H_3O^+$ and $Cl^-$ ions that form do not react to a significant degree to reform HCl and $H_2O$. (Look again at Figure 5.2 to see the behavior of a strong acid in solution.) Reactions like this that are not significantly reversible are often called completion reactions. The chemical equations for completion reactions are written with single arrows to indicate that the reaction proceeds to form almost 100% products.
Indicates a completion reaction
$$HCl(g) + H_2O(l) \rightarrow Cl^-(aq) + H_3O^+(aq)$$
Therefore, a **strong acid** is a substance that undergoes a completion reaction with water such that each acid particle reacts to form a hydronium ion, $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$. The strong monoprotic acids that you will be expected to recognize are nitric acid, $\text{HNO}_3$, and hydrochloric acid, $\text{HCl}(aq)$. (There are others that you might be expected to recognize later in your chemical education.) If we were to examine equal volumes of two aqueous solutions, one made with a certain number of molecules of a strong acid and one made with the same number of molecules of a weak acid, we would find fewer hydronium ions in the solution of weak acid than in the solution of strong acid (Figure 5.7).
**Figure 5.7**
*Weak and Strong Acids*
For every 250 molecules of the weak acid acetic acid, $\text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2(aq)$, added to water, there are about
$$\text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \rightleftharpoons \text{C}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2^-(aq) + \text{H}_3\text{O}^+(aq)$$
249 uncharged acetic acid molecules
One acetate ion
One hydronium ion
For every 250 molecules of the strong acid hydrochloric acid, $\text{HCl}$, added to water, there are about
$$\text{HCl}(g) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \rightarrow \text{Cl}^-(aq) + \text{H}_3\text{O}^+(aq)$$
Zero uncharged HCl molecules
250 chloride ions
250 hydronium ions
Sulfuric acid, $H_2SO_4$, is a strong diprotic acid. When added to water, each $H_2SO_4$ molecule loses its first hydrogen ion completely. This is the reason that $H_2SO_4$ is classified as a strong acid. Notice the single arrow to indicate a completion reaction.
$$H_2SO_4(aq) + H_2O(l) \rightarrow H_3O^+(aq) + HSO_4^-(aq)$$
The hydrogen sulfate ion, $HSO_4^-$, which is a product of this reaction, is a weak acid. It reacts with water in a reversible reaction to form a hydronium ion and a sulfate ion. Notice the double arrow to indicate a reversible reaction.
$$HSO_4^-(aq) + H_2O(l) \rightleftharpoons H_3O^+(aq) + SO_4^{2-}(aq)$$
For each 100 sulfuric acid molecules added to water, the solution will eventually contain about 101 hydronium ions ($H_3O^+$), 99 hydrogen sulfate ions ($HSO_4^-$), and 1 sulfate ion ($SO_4^{2-}$).
Sulfuric acid, $H_2SO_4$, is produced by the United States chemical industry in greater mass than any other chemical. Over 40 billion kilograms of $H_2SO_4$ are produced each year, to make phosphate fertilizers, plastics, and many other substances. Sulfuric acid is also used in ore processing, petroleum refining, pulp and paper-making, and for a variety of other purposes. Most cars are started by lead-acid storage batteries, which contain about 33.5% $H_2SO_4$.
To do the Chapter Problems at the end of this chapter, you will need to identify important acids as being either strong or weak. The strong acids that you will be expected to recognize are hydrochloric acid, $HCl(aq)$, nitric acid, $HNO_3$, and sulfuric acid, $H_2SO_4$. An acid is considered weak if it is not on the list of strong acids. Table 5.1 summarizes this information.
**Table 5.1**
Arrhenius Acids
| | Strong | Weak |
|------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
| Binary Acids | hydrochloric acid, $HCl(aq)$ | hydrofluoric acid, $HF(aq)$ |
| Oxyacids | nitric acid, $HNO_3$, | other acids with the general formula |
| | sulfuric acid, $H_2SO_4$ | $H_aX_bO_c$ |
| Organic acids | None | acetic acid, $HC_2H_3O_2$, and others |
| | | you will see in Section 17.1 |
There is an animation that illustrates the differences between strong and weak acids at the textbook’s Web site.
Special Topic 5.1 tells how acids are formed in the earth’s atmosphere and how these acids can be damaging to our atmosphere.
Normal rainwater is very slightly acidic due to several reactions between substances dissolved in the water and the water itself. For example, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur trioxide—all of which are natural components of air—react with water to form carbonic acid, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid.
Nitrogen dioxide is produced in nature in many ways, including a reaction between the oxygen and nitrogen in the air during electrical storms.
\[
N_2(g) + O_2(g) \rightarrow 2NO(g)
\]
\[
2NO(g) + O_2(g) \rightarrow 2NO_2(g)
\]
Sulfur dioxide also has natural sources, including the burning of sulfur-containing compounds in volcanic eruptions and forest fires. Sulfur dioxide is converted into sulfur trioxide, \(SO_3\), by reaction with the nitrogen dioxide in the air, among other mechanisms.
\[
SO_2(g) + NO_2(g) \rightarrow SO_3(g) + NO(g)
\]
We humans have added considerably to the levels of \(NO_2(g)\) and \(SO_2(g)\) in our air, causing a steady increase in the acidity of rain. Coal, for example, contains a significant amount of sulfur; when coal is burned, the sulfur is converted into sulfur dioxide, \(SO_2(g)\). The sulfur dioxide is converted into sulfur trioxide, \(SO_3(g)\), in the air, and that compound dissolves in rainwater and becomes sulfuric acid, \(H_2SO_4(aq)\). As individuals, we also contribute to acid rain every time we drive a car around the block. When air, which contains nitrogen and oxygen, is heated in the cylinders of the car, the two gases combine to yield nitrogen monoxide, \(NO(g)\), which is then converted into nitrogen dioxide, \(NO_2(g)\), in the air. The \(NO_2\) combines with water in rain to form nitric acid, \(HNO_3(aq)\). There are many more \(H_3O^+\) ions in the rain falling in the Northeastern United States than would be expected without human contributions.
The increased acidity of the rain leads to many problems. For example, the acids in acid rain react with the calcium carbonate in marble statues and buildings, causing them to dissolve. (Marble is compressed limestone, which is composed of calcium carbonate, \(CaCO_3(s)\).)
\[
CaCO_3(s) + 2HNO_3(aq) \rightarrow Ca(NO_3)_2(aq) + CO_2(g) + H_2O(l)
\]
A similar reaction allows a plumber to remove the calcium carbonate scale in your hot water pipes. If the pipes are washed in an acidic solution, the calcium carbonate dissolves.
The statues on the left were transported by William Randolph Hearst to his home in San Simeon, California. Because it so rarely rains there, and because San Simeon is far from any major sources of pollution, these statues are in much better condition than the similar statues found elsewhere, such as the one on the right, that have been damaged by acid rain.
5.2 Acid Nomenclature
Before exploring how different kinds of acids react with compounds other than water, you need a little more familiarity with their names and formulas. Remember that the names of Arrhenius acids usually end in acid (hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid) and that their formulas fit one of two general patterns:
\[ \text{HX}(aq) \quad X = F, Cl, Br, \text{or I} \]
\[ \text{H}_a\text{X}_b\text{O}_c \]
For example, \( \text{HCl}(aq) \) (hydrochloric acid), \( \text{H}_2\text{SO}_4 \) (sulfuric acid), and \( \text{HNO}_3 \) (nitric acid) represent acids.
**Names and Formulas of Binary Acids**
**Objective 12**
Binary acids are named by writing *hydro* followed by the root of the name of the halogen, then *-ic*, and finally *acid* (Table 5.2):
*hydro*(root)*ic acid*
The only exception to remember is that the “o” in hydro is left off for \( \text{HI}(aq) \), so its name is hydriodic acid (an acid used to make pharmaceuticals).
Most chemists refer to pure HCl gas as hydrogen chloride, but when HCl gas is dissolved in water, \( \text{HCl}(aq) \), the solution is called hydrochloric acid. We will follow the same rule in this text, calling HCl or \( \text{HCl}(g) \) hydrogen chloride and calling \( \text{HCl}(aq) \) hydrochloric acid. The same pattern holds for the other binary acids as well.
You will be expected to be able to write formulas and names for the binary acids found on Table 5.2. Remember that it is a good habit to write *(aq)* after the formula.
**Table 5.2**
Arrhenius Acids
| Formula | Named as Binary Covalent Compound | Acid Formula | Named as Binary acid |
|---------|-----------------------------------|--------------|----------------------|
| HF or \( \text{HF}(g) \) | hydrogen monofluoride or hydrogen fluoride | \( \text{HF}(aq) \) | hydrofluoric acid |
| \( \text{HCl} \) or \( \text{HCl}(g) \) | hydrogen monochloride or hydrogen chloride | \( \text{HCl}(aq) \) | hydrochloric acid |
| \( \text{HBr} \) or \( \text{HBr}(g) \) | hydrogen monobromide or hydrogen bromide | \( \text{HBr}(aq) \) | hydrobromic acid |
| \( \text{HI} \) or \( \text{HI}(g) \) | hydrogen moniodide or hydrogen iodide | \( \text{HI}(aq) \) | hydriodic acid |
Names and Formulas of Oxyacids
To name oxyacids, you must first be able to recognize them by the general formula $H_aX_bO_c$, with X representing an element other than hydrogen or oxygen (Section 5.1). It will also be useful for you to know the names of the polyatomic oxyanions (Table 3.6), because many oxyacid names are derived from them. If enough $H^+$ ions are added to a (root)ate polyatomic ion to completely neutralize its charge, the (root)ic acid is formed (Table 5.3).
- If one $H^+$ ion is added to nitrate, $NO_3^-$, nitric acid, $HNO_3$, is formed.
- If two $H^+$ ions are added to sulfate, $SO_4^{2-}$, sulfuric acid, $H_2SO_4$, is formed.
- If three $H^+$ ions are added to phosphate, $PO_4^{3-}$, phosphoric acid, $H_3PO_4$, is formed.
Note that the whole name for sulfur, not just the root, $sulf-$, is found in the name sulfuric acid. Similarly, although the usual root for phosphorus is $phosph-$, the root $phosphor-$ is used for phosphorus-containing oxyacids, as in the name phosphoric acid.
**Table 5.3**
Relationship Between (Root)ate Polyatomic Ions and (Root)ic Acids
| Oxyanion Formula | Oxyanion Name | Oxyacid Formula | Oxyacid Name |
|------------------|---------------|----------------|--------------|
| $NO_3^-$ | nitrate | $HNO_3$ | nitric acid |
| $C_2H_3O_2^-$ | acetate | $HC_2H_3O_2$ | acetic acid |
| $SO_4^{2-}$ | sulfate | $H_2SO_4$ | sulfuric acid
(Note that the whole name $sulfur$ is used in the oxyacid name.) |
| $CO_3^{2-}$ | carbonate | $H_2CO_3$ | carbonic acid|
| $PO_4^{3-}$ | phosphate | $H_3PO_4$ | phosphoric acid
(Note that the root of phosphorus in an oxyacid name is $phosphor-$.) |
There is a more complete description of acid nomenclature at the textbook’s Web site.
**Example 5.1 - Formulas for Acids**
Write the chemical formulas that correspond to the names (a) hydrobromic acid and (b) sulfuric acid.
*Solution*
a. The name hydrobromic acid has the form of a binary acid, hydro(root)ic acid. Binary acids have the formula $HX(aq)$, so hydrobromic acid is $\text{HBr}(aq)$. We follow the formula with $(aq)$ to distinguish hydrobromic acid from a pure sample of hydrogen bromide, HBr.
b. Sulfuric acid is $\text{H}_2\text{SO}_4$. Sulfuric acid is a very common acid, one whose formula, $\text{H}_2\text{SO}_4$, you ought to memorize. We recognize sulfuric acid as a name for an oxyacid, because it has the form (root)ic acid. You can also derive its formula from the formula for sulfate, $\text{SO}_4^{2-}$, by adding enough $\text{H}^+$ ions to neutralize the charge. Among the many uses of $\text{H}_2\text{SO}_4$ are the manufacture of explosives and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
**Example 5.2 - Naming Acids**
Write the names that correspond to the chemical formulas (a) $\text{HNO}_3$ and (b) $\text{HF}(aq)$.
*Solution*
a. The first step in writing a name from a chemical formula is to decide which type of compound the formula represents. This formula represents an oxyacid. Remember that the (root)ate polyatomic ion leads to the (root)ic acid. The name for $\text{NO}_3^-$ is nitrate, so $\text{HNO}_3$ is *nitric acid*.
b. The first step in writing a name from a chemical formula is to determine the type of compound the formula represents. This one, $\text{HF}(aq)$, has the form of a binary acid, $HX(aq)$, so its name is *hydro-* followed by the root of the name of the halogen, then *-ic* and *acid*: *hydrofluoric acid*. This acid is used to make chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs.
**Exercise 5.1 - Formulas for Acids**
Write the chemical formulas that correspond to the names (a) hydrofluoric acid and (b) phosphoric acid.
**Exercise 5.2 - Naming Acids**
Write the names that correspond to the chemical formulas (a) $\text{HI}(aq)$ and (b) $\text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2$.
Perhaps at this point you are feeling confused by the many different conventions for naming different kinds of chemical compounds. Here is an overview of the guidelines for naming and writing formulas for all of the types of compounds described in this chapter and in Chapter 3.
Some names and formulas for compounds can be constructed from general rules, but others must be memorized. Table 5.4 lists some commonly encountered names and formulas that must be memorized. Check with your instructor to see which of these you need to know. Your instructor might also want to add others to the list.
**Table 5.4**
Compound Names and Formulas
| Name | Formula | Name | Formula |
|--------------------|-----------|--------------------|-----------|
| water | H₂O | ammonia | NH₃ |
| methane | CH₄ | ethane | C₂H₆ |
| propane | C₃H₈ | methanol (methyl alcohol) | CH₃OH |
| ethanol (ethyl alcohol) | C₂H₅OH | 2-propanol (isopropyl alcohol) | C₃H₇OH |
The general procedure for naming other compounds consists of two steps:
**Step 1** Decide what type of compound the name or formula represents.
**Step 2** Apply the rules for writing the name or formula for that type of compound.
Table 5.5 on the next page summarizes the distinguishing features of different kinds of formulas and names (Step 1) and lists the sections in this chapter and in Chapter 3 where you can find instructions for converting names to formulas and formulas to names (Step 2).
### Table 5.5
Nomenclature for Some Types of Compounds
| Type of Compound | General Formula | Examples | General Name | Examples |
|------------------|-----------------|----------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------|
| Binary covalent (Section 3.4) | $A_aB_b$ | $N_2O_5$ or $CO_2$ | (prefix unless mono)(name of first element in formula) (prefix)(root of second element)ide | dinitrogen pentoxide or carbon dioxide |
| Binary ionic (Section 3.5) | $M_aA_b$ | $NaCl$ or $FeCl_3$ | (name of metal) (root of nonmetal)ide or (name of metal)(Roman numeral) (root of nonmetal)ide | sodium chloride or iron(III) chloride |
| Ionic with polyatomic ion(s) (Section 3.5) | $M_aX_b$ or $(NH_4)_aX_b$ | $Li_2HPO_4$ or $CuSO_4$ or $NH_4Cl$ or $(NH_4)_2SO_4$ | (name of metal) (name of polyatomic ion) or (name of metal)(Roman numeral) (name of polyatomic ion) or ammonium (root of nonmetal)ide or ammonium (name of polyatomic ion) | lithium hydrogen phosphate or copper(II) sulfate or ammonium chloride or ammonium sulfate |
| Binary acid (Section 5.2) | $HX(aq)$ | $HCl(aq)$ | hydro(root)ic acid | hydrochloric acid |
| Oxyacid (Section 5.2) | $H_aX_bO_c$ | $HNO_3$ or $H_2SO_4$ or $H_3PO_4$ | (root)ic acid | nitric acid or sulfuric acid or phosphoric acid |
$M = \text{symbol of metal}$
$X = \text{some element other than H or O}$
$A$ and $B = \text{symbols of nonmetals}$
The letters $a$, $b$, & $c$ represent subscripts.
### Exercise 5.3 - Formulas to Names
Write the names that correspond to the following chemical formulas.
a. $AlF_3$
b. $PF_3$
c. $H_3PO_4$
d. $CaCO_3$
e. $Ca(HSO_4)_2$
f. $CuCl_2$
g. $NH_4F$
h. $HCl(aq)$
i. $(NH_4)_3PO_4$
### Exercise 5.4 - Names to Formulas
Write the chemical formulas that correspond to the following names.
a. ammonium nitrate
b. acetic acid
c. sodium hydrogen sulfate
d. potassium bromide
e. magnesium hydrogen phosphate
f. hydrofluoric acid
g. diphosphorus tetroxide
h. aluminum carbonate
i. sulfuric acid
Each year, the US chemical industry produces over 10 billion kilograms of the base sodium hydroxide, NaOH, which is then used for many purposes, including water treatment, vegetable oil refining, the peeling of fruits and vegetables in the food industry, and to make numerous other chemical products, including soaps and detergents. Likewise, over 15 billion kilograms of the base ammonia, NH₃, is produced each year. Although a water solution of ammonia is a common household cleaner, most of the NH₃ produced in the US is used to make fertilizers and explosives. As you read this section, you will learn about the chemical properties of basic compounds that make them so useful to chemists and others.
According to the modern version of the Arrhenius theory of acids and bases, a **base** is a substance that produces hydroxide ions, OH⁻, when it is added to water. A solution that has a significant concentration of hydroxide ions is called a **basic solution**. Sodium hydroxide, NaOH, is the most common laboratory base. It is designated a **strong base** because for every NaOH unit dissolved, one hydroxide ion is formed in solution.
\[
\text{NaOH}(aq) \rightarrow \text{Na}^+(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq)
\]
Compounds that contain hydroxide ions are often called **hydroxides**. All water-soluble hydroxides are strong bases. Examples include lithium hydroxide, LiOH, which is used in storage batteries and as a carbon dioxide absorbent in space vehicles, and potassium hydroxide, KOH, which is used to make some soaps, liquid fertilizers, and paint removers.
When ammonia, NH₃, dissolves in water, some hydrogen ions, H⁺, are transferred from water molecules to ammonia molecules, NH₃, producing ammonium ions, NH₄⁺, and hydroxide ions, OH⁻. The reaction is reversible, so when an ammonium ion and a hydroxide ion meet in solution, the H⁺ ion can be passed back to the OH⁻ to reform an NH₃ molecule and a water molecule (Figure 5.8).
**Figure 5.8**
The Reversible Reaction of Ammonia and Water
This proton, H⁺, is transferred to an ammonia molecule.
Indicates a reversible reaction
This proton, H⁺, may be transferred back to the hydroxide ion.
\[
\text{NH}_3(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \rightleftharpoons \text{NH}_4^+(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq)
\]
Ammonia is an Arrhenius base because it produces OH\(^-\) ions when added to water. Because the reaction is reversible, however, only some ammonia molecules have acquired protons (creating OH\(^-\)) at any given time, so an ammonia solution contains fewer hydroxide ions than would be found in a solution made using an equivalent amount of a strong base. Therefore, we classify ammonia as a weak base, which is a base that produces fewer hydroxide ions in water solution than there are particles of base dissolved.
To visualize the reaction between ammonia and water at the molecular level, imagine that you are taking a ride on a nitrogen atom. Your nitrogen would usually be bonded with three hydrogen atoms in an NH\(_3\) molecule, but occasionally, it would gain an extra H\(^+\) ion from a water molecule to form NH\(_4^+\) for a short time. When your NH\(_4^+\) ion collides with an OH\(^-\) ion, an H\(^+\) ion is transferred to the OH\(^-\) ion to form H\(_2\)O and NH\(_3\). Ammonia molecules are constantly gaining and losing H\(^+\) ions, but soon after the initial addition of ammonia to water, both changes proceed at an equal rate. At this point, there will be no more net change in the amounts of ammonia, water, hydroxide, and ammonium ion in the solution. When a typical solution of ammonia stops changing, it is likely to contain about 200 NH\(_3\) molecules for each NH\(_4^+\) ion. As you study the ammonia solution depicted in Figure 5.9, try to picture about 200 times as many NH\(_3\) molecules as NH\(_4^+\) or OH\(^-\) ions.
In a typical ammonia solution, there are about 200 times as many uncharged ammonia molecules, NH\(_3\), as ammonium ions NH\(_4^+\).
There are many weak Arrhenius bases, but the only ones that you will be expected to recognize are ionic compounds containing carbonate (for example, sodium carbonate, $\text{Na}_2\text{CO}_3$) and hydrogen carbonate (for example, sodium hydrogen carbonate, $\text{NaHCO}_3$). When sodium carbonate, which is used to make glass, soaps, and detergents, dissolves in water, the carbonate ions, $\text{CO}_3^{2-}$, react with water in a reversible way to yield hydroxide ions.
$$\text{Na}_2\text{CO}_3(s) \rightarrow 2\text{Na}^+(aq) + \text{CO}_3^{2-}(aq)$$
$$\text{CO}_3^{2-}(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \rightleftharpoons \text{HCO}_3^-(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq)$$
In a similar reaction, the hydrogen carbonate ions, $\text{HCO}_3^-$, formed when $\text{NaHCO}_3$ dissolves in water, react to yield hydroxide ions.
$$\text{NaHCO}_3(s) \rightarrow \text{Na}^+(aq) + \text{HCO}_3^-(aq)$$
$$\text{HCO}_3^-(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \rightleftharpoons \text{H}_2\text{CO}_3(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq)$$
Sodium hydrogen carbonate is found in fire extinguishers, baking powders, antacids, and mouthwashes.
Table 5.6 summarizes how you can recognize substances as bases and how you can classify them as strong or weak bases. (There are other Arrhenius bases that you may learn about later.)
**Table 5.6**
Arrhenius Bases
| | Strong | Weak |
|----------------------|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
| Ionic compounds | Metal hydroxides, such as $\text{NaOH}$ | Ionic compounds with $\text{CO}_3^{2-}$ and $\text{HCO}_3^-$, such as $\text{Na}_2\text{CO}_3$ and $\text{NaHCO}_3$ |
| Certain uncharged molecules | None | $\text{NH}_3$ |
You can get more information about strong and weak bases on the textbook’s Web site.
The following sample study sheet summarizes the ways you can recognize strong and weak acids and bases.
**Sample Study Sheet 5.1**
**Identification of Strong and Weak Acids and Bases**
**Objective 18**
**Tip-off** You are asked to identify a substance as either (1) an Arrhenius strong acid, (2) an Arrhenius weak acid, (3) an Arrhenius strong base, or (4) an Arrhenius weak base.
**General Steps**
**Step 1** Identify the substance as an Arrhenius acid or base using the following criteria.
- The names of the acids end in *acid*. Acid formulas have one of these forms: $HX(aq)$ or $H_aX_bO_c$.
- Ionic compounds that contain hydroxide, carbonate, or hydrogen carbonate anions are basic. Ammonia, $NH_3$, is also a base.
**Step 2** If the substance is an acid or base, determine whether it is strong or weak.
- We will consider all acids except $HCl(aq)$, $HNO_3$, and $H_2SO_4$ to be weak.
- We will consider all bases except metal hydroxides to be weak.
**Example** See Example 5.3.
---
**Example 5.3 - Identification of Acids and Bases**
Identify (a) $H_2SO_4$, (b) oxalic acid, (c) $NaHCO_3$, (d) potassium hydroxide, (e) $HCl(aq)$, and (f) ammonia as either an Arrhenius strong acid, an Arrhenius weak acid, an Arrhenius strong base, or an Arrhenius weak base.
**Solution**
a. The $H_2SO_4$ is an acid because it has the form of an oxyacid, $H_aX_bO_c$. It is on the list of **strong acids**.
b. Oxalic acid is not on the list of strong acids—$HCl(aq)$, $HNO_3$, and $H_2SO_4$—so it is a **weak acid**.
c. Ionic compounds that contain hydrogen carbonate, such as $NaHCO_3$, are **weak bases**.
d. Ionic compounds that contain hydroxide, such as potassium hydroxide, are **strong bases**.
e. We know that hydrochloric acid, $HCl(aq)$, is an acid because its name ends in “acid,” and its formula has the form of a binary acid. It is found on the list of **strong acids**.
f. Ammonia, $NH_3$, is our one example of an uncharged **weak base**.
**EXERCISE 5.5 - Identification of Acids and Bases**
Identify each of the following as either an Arrhenius strong acid, an Arrhenius weak acid, an Arrhenius strong base, or an Arrhenius weak base.
a. HNO₃
b. lithium hydroxide
c. K₂CO₃
d. hydrofluoric acid
---
**Special Topic 5.2 Chemistry and Your Sense of Taste**
“...[T]hat formed of bodies round and smooth are things which touch the senses sweetly, while those which harsh and bitter do appear, are held together bound with particles more hooked, and for this cause are wont to tear their way into our senses, and on entering in to rend the body.”
Lucretius, a Roman philosopher and poet, about 2000 years ago
Lucretius was mistaken in certain details, but he was correct that the shape of molecules is important in determining whether compounds taste sweet or bitter. Your tongue has about 3000 taste buds, each of which is an onion-shaped collection of 50 to 150 taste cells. Each taste bud is specialized for tasting either sweet, sour, salt, or bitter. It has been suggested that the tongue can also perceive another taste, umami, which is a subtle taste most commonly associated with monosodium glutamate, MSG. At the tips of the bitter and sweet taste cells are receptor molecules shaped to fit parts of certain molecules in our food.
When chocolate, for example, is roasted, caffeine and other compounds are formed that stimulate the bitter taste cells. The molecules of these compounds have a shape that allows them to attach to the taste cell receptors and cause an adjacent nerve cell to fire. This event sends the bitter signal to the brain.
Sugar is added to chocolate to counteract the bitter taste. The arrangement of atoms in sugar molecules allows them to fit into the receptor sites of sweet taste cells. When a sugar molecule such as glucose or sucrose attaches to a receptor of a sweet taste cell, the sweet signal is sent to the brain.
The salt taste is thought to have different mechanisms than the sweet and bitter tastes. It is the presence of sodium ions, Na⁺, in the sodium chloride, NaCl, of table salt that causes the taste. The interior of a salt taste cell is negatively charged. When such a cell is bathed in saliva that contains dissolved sodium ions, the Na⁺ ions enter the cell and make its interior less negative. This change triggers the release of chemicals called neurotransmitters into the space between the taste cells and nerve cells. The neurotransmitters cause the nerve cells to fire, sending the salt signal to the brain.
Bases taste bitter.
Acids cause the sour taste in foods. Vinegar is sour because it contains acetic acid, sour milk contains lactic acid, and lemons contain citric acid. What these acids have in common is that they can lose H⁺ ions in water solutions such as our saliva. Different animal species have different mechanisms for sending the sour signal. In amphibians the H⁺ ions block the normal release of potassium ions from sour taste cells, changing the cells’ charge balance and causing them to release neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters in turn tell the sour nerve cells to fire.
It has been suggested that there are good reasons for the evolution of our sense of taste. The four main tastes either lead us to food we need or warn us away from substances that might be harmful. We need sugar for energy and salt to replace the sodium and potassium ions lost in exercise. On the other hand, spoiled foods produce bitter-tasting substances, and numerous poisons, too, are bitter, while many a bellyache from unripe fruit has been avoided by the warning signal provided by the sour taste.
5.5 pH and Acidic and Basic Solutions
The scientific term **pH** has crept into our everyday language. Advertisements encourage us to choose products that are “pH balanced,” while environmentalists point to the lower pH of rain in certain parts of the country as a cause of ecological damage (Figure 5.10). The term was originated by chemists to describe the acidic and basic strengths of solutions.
**pH and Acid Rain**
![Image of acid rain and map showing pH levels across the U.S.]
**Figure 5.10**
*Acid Rain*
The map above shows the pH of rain in different parts of the U.S. in 1992. The scale on the left shows the effect on fish of decreasing pH.
We know that an Arrhenius acid donates H\(^+\) ions to water to create H\(_3\)O\(^+\) ions. The resulting solution is called an acidic solution. We also know that when you add a certain amount of a strong acid to one sample of water—say the water’s volume is a liter—and add the same amount of a weak acid to another sample of water whose volume is also a liter, the strong acid generates more H\(_3\)O\(^+\) ions in solution. Because the concentration of H\(_3\)O\(^+\) ions in the strong acid solution is higher (there are more H\(_3\)O\(^+\) ions per liter of solution), we say it is more acidic than the weak acid solution. A solution can also be made more acidic by the addition of more acid (while the amount of water remains the same). The pH scale can be used to describe the relative acidity of solutions.
If you take other chemistry courses, you will probably learn how pH is defined and how the pH values of solutions are determined. For now, all you need to remember is that acidic solutions have pH values less than 7, and that the more acidic a solution is, the lower its pH. A change of one pH unit reflects a ten-fold change in H\(_3\)O\(^+\) ion concentration. For example, a solution with a pH of 5 has ten times the concentration...
of $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$ ions as a solution with a pH of 6. The pH of some common solutions are listed in Figure 5.11. Note that gastric juice in our stomach has a pH of about 1.4, and orange juice has a pH of about 2.8. Thus gastric juice is more than ten times more concentrated in $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$ ions than orange juice.
The pH scale is also used to describe basic solutions, which are formed when an Arrhenius base is added to water, generating $\text{OH}^-$ ions. When you add a certain amount of a strong base to one sample of water—again, let’s say a liter—and add the same amount of a weak base to another sample of water whose volume is the same, the strong base generates more $\text{OH}^-$ ions in solution. Because the concentration of $\text{OH}^-$ ions in the strong base solution is higher (there are more $\text{OH}^-$ ions per liter of solution), we say it is more basic than the weak base solution. A solution can also be made more basic by the addition of more base while the amount of water is held constant.
Basic solutions have pH values greater than 7, and the more basic the solution is, the higher its pH. A change of one pH unit reflects a ten-fold change in $\text{OH}^-$ ion concentration. For example, a solution with a pH of 12 has ten times the concentration of $\text{OH}^-$ ions as does a solution with a pH of 11. The pH difference of about 4 between household ammonia solutions (pH about 11.9) and seawater (pH about 7.9) shows that household ammonia has about ten thousand ($10^4$) times the hydroxide ion concentration of seawater.
In nature, water contains dissolved substances that make it slightly acidic, but pure water is neutral and has a pH of 7 (Figure 5.11).
**Figure 5.11**
pH of Common Substances
Acidic solutions have pH values less than 7.
Basic solutions have pH values greater than 7.
In the laboratory, we can detect acids and bases in solution in several ways. Perhaps the simplest test uses a substance called litmus, a natural dye derived from lichen. It turns red in acidic conditions and blue in basic conditions. Litmus paper is paper that has been coated with litmus. To test if a liquid is acidic, we add a drop of the liquid to blue litmus paper, which is litmus paper that has been made slightly basic and therefore blue. If the paper turns red, the liquid is acidic. To test to see if a liquid is basic, we add a drop of the liquid to red litmus paper, which is litmus paper that has been made slightly acidic and therefore red. If the paper turns blue, the liquid is basic.
Litmus, whose natural source is lichen, can be applied to the surface of paper that is then used to identify acidic and basic solutions.
5.6 Arrhenius Acid-Base Reactions
When an Arrhenius acid is combined with an Arrhenius base, we say that they neutralize each other. By this, we mean that the acid counteracts the properties of the base, and the base counteracts the properties of the acid. For example, a strong acid, such as nitric acid, must be handled with extreme caution, because if it gets on your skin, it could cause severe chemical burns. If you accidentally spilled nitric acid on a laboratory bench, however, you could quickly pour a solution of a weak base, such as sodium hydrogen carbonate, on top of the spill to neutralize the acid and make it safer to wipe. In a similar way, a solution of a weak acid, such as acetic acid, can be poured on a strong base spill to neutralize the base before cleanup. Therefore, reactions between Arrhenius acids and bases are often called **neutralization reactions**.
Neutralization reactions are important in maintaining the necessary balance of chemicals in your body, and they help keep a similar balance in our oceans and lakes. Neutralization reactions are used in industry to make a wide range of products, including pharmaceuticals, food additives, and fertilizers. Let’s look at some of the different forms of Arrhenius acid-base reactions, how they can be visualized, and how to describe them with chemical equations.
Reactions of Aqueous Strong Arrhenius Acids and Aqueous Strong Arrhenius Bases
The reaction between the strong acid nitric acid and the strong base sodium hydroxide is our first example. Figure 5.12 shows the behavior of nitric acid in solution. As a strong acid, virtually every HNO₃ molecule donates an H⁺ ion to water to form a hydronium ion, H₃O⁺, and a nitrate ion, NO₃⁻. Because the reaction goes essentially to completion, you can picture the solution as containing H₂O, NO₃⁻, and H₃O⁺, with no HNO₃ remaining. The negatively charged oxygen ends of the water molecules surround the positive hydronium ions, and the positively charged hydrogen ends of water molecules surround the nitrate ions.
Like a water solution of any ionic compound, a solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) consists of ions separated and surrounded by water molecules. At the instant that the solution of sodium hydroxide is added to the aqueous nitric acid, there are four different ions in solution surrounded by water molecules: H₃O⁺, NO₃⁻, Na⁺, and OH⁻ (Figure 5.13 on the next page).
At the instant after nitric acid and sodium hydroxide solutions are mixed and before the reaction, four separate ions move throughout the solution, breaking and making attractions and constantly colliding with each other.
When a hydroxide ion, $\text{OH}^-$, collides with a hydronium ion, $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$, an $\text{H}^+$ ion is transferred from the $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$ to the $\text{OH}^-$, yielding two water molecules, $\text{H}_2\text{O}$.
The ions in solution move in a random way, like any particles in a liquid, so they will constantly collide with other ions. When two cations or two anions collide, they repel each other and move apart. When a hydronium ion and a nitrate ion collide, it is possible that the $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$ ion will return an $\text{H}^+$ ion to the $\text{NO}_3^-$ ion, but nitrate ions are stable enough in water to make this unlikely. When a sodium ion collides with a hydroxide ion, they may stay together for a short time, but their attraction is too weak and water molecules collide with them and push them apart. When hydronium ions and hydroxide ions collide, however, they react to form water (Figure 5.14), so more water molecules are shown in Figure 5.15 than in Figure 5.13.
**Figure 5.14**
Reaction Between Hydronium Ion and Hydroxide Ion
This proton, $\text{H}^+$, is transferred to a hydroxide ion.
$$\text{H}_3\text{O}^+(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq) \rightarrow 2\text{H}_2\text{O}(l)$$
After the reaction between nitric acid and sodium hydroxide, hydroxide ions, $\text{OH}^-$, and hydronium ions, $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$, have combined to form water, $\text{H}_2\text{O}$.
The sodium and nitrate ions are unchanged in the reaction. They were separate and surrounded by water molecules at the beginning of the reaction, and they are still separate and surrounded by water molecules after the reaction. They were important in delivering the hydroxide and hydronium ions to solution, but they did not actively participate in the reaction. In other words, they are spectator ions, so they are left out of the net ionic chemical equation. The net ionic equation for the reaction is therefore
$$\text{H}_3\text{O}^+(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq) \rightarrow 2\text{H}_2\text{O}(l)$$
Most chemists are in the habit of describing reactions such as this one in terms of $\text{H}^+$ rather than $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$, even though hydrogen ions do not exist in a water solution in the same sense that sodium ions do. When an acid loses a hydrogen atom as $\text{H}^+$, the proton immediately forms a covalent bond to some other atom. In water, it forms a covalent bond to a water molecule to produce the hydronium ion. Although $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$ is a better description of what is found in acid solutions, it is still convenient and conventional to write $\text{H}^+$ in equations instead. You can think of $\text{H}^+$ as a shorthand notation for $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$. Therefore, the following net ionic equation is a common way to describe the net ionic equation above.
$$\text{H}^+(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq) \rightarrow \text{H}_2\text{O}(l)$$
**Writing Equations for Reactions Between Acids and Bases**
The procedure for writing equations for acid-base reactions is very similar to that used to write equations for precipitation reactions in Section 4.2.
The first step in writing an equation for the reaction between nitric acid, $\text{HNO}_3$, and the base sodium hydroxide, $\text{NaOH}$, is to predict the formulas for the products by recognizing that most Arrhenius neutralization reactions, like the reaction between
nitric acid and sodium hydroxide, are double-displacement reactions.
\[
AB + CD \rightarrow AD + CB
\]
\[
HNO_3(aq) + NaOH(aq) \rightarrow H_2O(l) + NaNO_3(aq)
\]
**Objective 24**
We consider the positive portion of the acid to be $H^+$, so for the reaction above, A is $H^+$, B is $NO_3^-$, C is $Na^+$, and D is $OH^-$. When $H^+$ ions combine with $OH^-$ ions, they form HOH (that is, water, $H_2O$). The ion formulas $Na^+$ and $NO_3^-$ are combined in the complete equation as the CB formula, $NaNO_3$.
In picturing reactions of a polyprotic acid with a strong base, we shall assume that enough base is added to react with all of the acidic hydrogen atoms. The following complete equations describe the reactions of the diprotic acid sulfuric acid and the triprotic acid phosphoric acid with sodium hydroxide. Each equation represents the sum of a series of reactions in which the acidic hydrogen atoms are removed one at a time.
\[
H_2SO_4(aq) + 2NaOH(aq) \rightarrow 2H_2O(l) + Na_2SO_4(aq)
\]
\[
H_3PO_4(aq) + 3NaOH(aq) \rightarrow 3H_2O(l) + Na_3PO_4(aq)
\]
**Objective 24**
The problems at the end of the chapter ask you to write complete equations for reactions like these. Note that these too are double-displacement reactions. In each of these examples, A is $H^+$, C is $Na^+$, and D is $OH^-$. In the first reaction, B is $SO_4^{2-}$, and in the second reaction, B is $PO_4^{3-}$.
**Objective 23b**
One of the useful properties of acids is that they will react with insoluble ionic compounds that contain basic anions. Because the products of such reactions are soluble, acids can be used to dissolve normally insoluble ionic compounds (See Special Topic 5.3: Precipitation, Acid-Base Reactions, and Tooth Decay). For example, water-insoluble aluminum hydroxide dissolves in a hydrochloric acid solution.
\[
Al(OH)_3(s) + 3HCl(aq) \rightarrow AlCl_3(aq) + 3H_2O(l)
\]
**Example 5.4 - Neutralization Reactions**
Write the complete equations for the neutralization reactions that take place when the following water solutions are mixed. (If an acid has more than one acidic hydrogen, assume that there is enough base to remove all of them. Assume that there is enough acid to neutralize all of the basic hydroxide ions.)
a. $HCl(aq) + KOH(aq)$
b. $H_2SO_4(aq) + KOH(aq)$
c. $HNO_3(aq) + Mn(OH)_2(s)$
**Solution**
a. Neutralization reactions between strong monoprotic acids, such as $HCl(aq)$, and ionic compounds, such as KOH, are double-displacement reactions, so they have the form
\[
AB + CD \rightarrow AD + CB
\]
For $HCl$, A is $H^+$, and B is $Cl^-$. For KOH, C is $K^+$, and D is $OH^-$. Therefore, AD is HOH or $H_2O$, which we know is a liquid, and CB is KCl, which is a water-soluble ionic compound and thus aqueous.
\[
HCl(aq) + KOH(aq) \rightarrow H_2O(l) + KCl(aq)
\]
b. For $H_2SO_4$ in a double-displacement reaction, A is $H^+$, and B is $SO_4^{2-}$. (In neutralization reactions, you can assume that all of the acidic hydrogen atoms are lost to the base. Monoprotic acids lose one $H^+$ ion, diprotic acids such as $H_2SO_4$ lose two $H^+$ ions, and triprotic acids such as $H_3PO_4$ lose three $H^+$ ions.) For KOH, C is $K^+$, and D is $OH^-$. Thus AD is $H_2O$, and CB is $K_2SO_4$, a water-soluble ionic compound. The two $H^+$ ions from the diprotic acid $H_2SO_4$ react with the two $OH^-$ ions from two units of KOH to form two $H_2O$ molecules.
$$AB + CD \rightarrow AD + CB$$
$$H_2SO_4(aq) + 2KOH(aq) \rightarrow 2H_2O(l) + K_2SO_4(aq)$$
c. For $HNO_3$ in a double-displacement reaction, A is $H^+$, and B is $NO_3^-$. For Mn(OH)$_2$, C is Mn$^{2+}$, and D is $OH^-$. Thus AD is $H_2O$, and CB is Mn(NO$_3$)$_2$, a water-soluble ionic compound. Two $H^+$ ions from two nitric acid molecules react with the two $OH^-$ ions from the Mn(OH)$_2$ to form two $H_2O$ molecules.
$$AB + CD \rightarrow AD + CB$$
$$2HNO_3(aq) + Mn(OH)_2(s) \rightarrow 2H_2O(l) + Mn(NO_3)_2(aq)$$
**Exercise 5.6 - Neutralization Reactions**
Write the complete equation for the neutralization reactions that take place when the following water solutions are mixed. (If an acid has more than one acidic hydrogen, assume that there is enough base to remove all of them. Assume that there is enough acid to neutralize all of the basic hydroxide ions.)
a. HCl$(aq)$ + NaOH$(aq)$
b. HF$(aq)$ + LiOH$(aq)$
c. H$_3$PO$_4$(aq) + LiOH$(aq)$
d. Fe(OH)$_3$(s) + HNO$_3$(aq)
There is an animation that will help you visualize reactions between acids and bases at the textbook’s Web site.
**Reactions of Arrhenius Acids and Ionic Compounds Containing Carbonate or Hydrogen Carbonate**
The reaction between an acid and an ionic compound containing either carbonate or hydrogen carbonate leads to carbon dioxide and water as products. The addition of $H^+$ ions to CO$_3^{2-}$ or HCO$_3^-$ forms carbonic acid, $H_2CO_3$. Carbonic acid, however, is unstable in water, so when it forms, it decomposes into carbon dioxide, CO$_2(g)$, and water, H$_2O(l)$.
$$2H^+(aq) + CO_3^{2-}(aq) \rightarrow H_2CO_3(aq) \rightarrow H_2O(l) + CO_2(g)$$
$$H^+(aq) + HCO_3^-(aq) \rightarrow H_2CO_3(aq) \rightarrow H_2O(l) + CO_2(g)$$
Teeth have a protective coating of hard enamel that is about 2 mm thick and consists of about 98% hydroxyapatite, $\text{Ca}_5(\text{PO}_4)_3\text{OH}$. Like any ionic solid surrounded by a water solution, the hydroxyapatite is constantly dissolving and reprecipitating.
$$\text{Ca}_5(\text{PO}_4)_3\text{OH}(s) \rightleftharpoons 5\text{Ca}^{2+}(aq) + 3\text{PO}_4^{3-}(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq)$$
Your saliva provides the calcium ions and the phosphate ions for this process, and as long as your saliva does not get too acidic, it will contain enough hydroxide to keep the rate of solution and the rate of precipitation about equal. Thus there is no net change in the amount of enamel on your teeth.
Unfortunately, certain foods can upset this balance. The bacteria in your mouth break down your food, especially food high in sugar, to form acids such as acetic acid and lactic acid. These acids neutralize the hydroxide in your saliva, slowing the precipitation of enamel. The $\text{Ca}_5(\text{PO}_4)_3\text{OH}$ continues to go into solution, so there is a net loss of the protective coating on the teeth.
Fluoride in our drinking water and our toothpaste can help minimize the damage described above. The fluoride ion takes the place of the hydroxide ion to precipitate fluorapatite, $\text{Ca}_5(\text{PO}_4)_3\text{F}$, a compound very similar to the original enamel.
$$5\text{Ca}^{2+}(aq) + 3\text{PO}_4^{3-}(aq) + \text{F}^-(aq) \rightleftharpoons \text{Ca}_5(\text{PO}_4)_3\text{F}(s)$$
Fluorapatite is 100 times less soluble than hydroxyapatite, so it is less likely to be affected by the acid formed by the bacteria.
The natural enamel that coats teeth is mostly $\text{Ca}_5(\text{PO}_4)_3\text{OH}$. Fluoride in our water or toothpaste leads to the less soluble $\text{Ca}_5(\text{PO}_4)_3\text{F}$ replacing $\text{Ca}_5(\text{PO}_4)_3\text{OH}$ in tooth enamel, helping to protect our teeth from tooth decay.
Thus, when $\text{H}_2\text{CO}_3$ would be predicted as a product for a double-displacement reaction, write “$\text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{CO}_2(g)$” instead. Three examples are below.
$$2\text{HCl}(aq) + \text{Na}_2\text{CO}_3(aq) \rightarrow \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{CO}_2(g) + 2\text{NaCl}(aq)$$
$$\text{HCl}(aq) + \text{NaHCO}_3(aq) \rightarrow \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{CO}_2(g) + \text{NaCl}(aq)$$
$$2\text{HCl}(aq) + \text{CaCO}_3(s) \rightarrow \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{CO}_2(g) + \text{CaCl}_2(aq)$$
The third equation above describes a reaction that helps the oil industry extract more oil from a well. For oil to be pumped from deep in the earth to the surface, it must first seep through underground rock formations to the base of the oil well’s pipes. Limestone, which is composed of $\text{CaCO}_3$, can be made more permeable to oil by pumping hydrochloric acid down into the limestone formations, converting the insoluble calcium carbonate to soluble calcium chloride.
**Example 5.5 - Neutralization Reactions with Compounds Containing Carbonate**
Write the complete equation for the reaction between $\text{HNO}_3(aq)$ and water-insoluble solid $\text{MgCO}_3$.
**Solution**
Translated into the general format of double-displacement reactions, A is $\text{H}^+$, B is $\text{NO}_3^-$, C is $\text{Mg}^{2+}$, and D is $\text{CO}_3^{2-}$. Compound AD would therefore be $\text{H}_2\text{CO}_3$, but this decomposes to form $\text{H}_2\text{O}(l)$ and $\text{CO}_2(g)$. Compound CB is $\text{Mg(NO}_3)_2$, which is a water-soluble ionic compound and thus aqueous.
$$2\text{HNO}_3(aq) + \text{MgCO}_3(s) \rightarrow \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{CO}_2(g) + \text{Mg(NO}_3)_2(aq)$$
**Exercise 5.7 - Neutralization Reactions with Carbonate Containing Compounds**
Write the complete equation for the neutralization reaction that takes place when water solutions of sodium carbonate, $\text{Na}_2\text{CO}_3$, and hydrobromic acid, $\text{HBr}$, are mixed.
---
**Special Topic 5.4 Saving Valuable Books**
Before the 19th century, paper in Europe was made from linen or old rags. Supplies of these materials dwindled as the demand for paper soared, and new manufacturing methods and raw materials were sought. Paper began to be made from wood pulp, but the first such products contained microscopic holes that caused the ink to bleed and blur. To fill these holes, the paper was saturated with “alum,” which is aluminum sulfate, $\text{Al}_2(\text{SO}_4)_3$. The new process seemed to make a suitable paper, but as time passed, serious problems emerged.
The aluminum ions in alum, like many metal ions, are acidic in the Arrhenius sense, reacting with moisture from the air to release $\text{H}^+$ ions.
$$\text{Al}^{3+}(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \rightleftharpoons \text{AlOH}^{2+}(aq) + \text{H}^+(aq)$$
The $\text{H}^+$ ions react in turn with the paper and weaken it. Many valued books are so brittle that they cannot be handled without their pages crumbling.
Several techniques are now being developed to neutralize the acid in the paper. As we have seen, most acid-base reactions take place in water, and there are obvious problems with dunking a book in an aqueous solution of base. The challenge, then, has been to develop a technique in which a gas is used to neutralize acid in the paper without causing further damage.
One such technique is called the DEZ treatment. DEZ, or diethyl zinc, $(\text{CH}_3\text{CH}_2)_2\text{Zn}$, can be made gaseous near room temperature. It reacts with either oxygen or water vapor to form zinc oxide, $\text{ZnO}(s)$, which is deposited evenly on the paper.
$$(\text{CH}_3\text{CH}_2)_2\text{Zn}(g) + 7\text{O}_2(g) \rightarrow \text{ZnO}(s) + 4\text{CO}_2(g) + 5\text{H}_2\text{O}(l)$$
$$(\text{CH}_3\text{CH}_2)_2\text{Zn}(g) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(g) \rightarrow \text{ZnO}(s) + 2\text{CH}_3\text{CH}_3(g)$$
The zinc oxide contains the basic anion oxide, $\text{O}^{2-}$, which reacts with $\text{H}^+$ ions to neutralize the acid in the paper.
$$\text{ZnO} + 2\text{H}^+ \rightarrow \text{Zn}^{2+} + \text{H}_2\text{O}$$
Damage that has already been done cannot be reversed, so the goal is to save as many books as possible before they deteriorate so much that they cannot be handled.
The acid in the paper used to make some books damages the paper and leaves it brittle. The paper in the book above was made with a process that left the paper acidic.
Do you want to know why bleach bottles have a warning label that tells you not to mix the bleach with acidic cleaning agents, such as toilet bowl cleaners? The explanation is in Special Topic 5.5 below.
**Special Topic 5.5** Be Careful with Bleach
Common bleach, used for household cleaning and laundering, is a water solution of sodium hypochlorite, $\text{NaClO}(aq)$. The hypochlorite ion is made by reacting chlorine gas with a basic solution.
$$\text{Cl}_2(g) + 2\text{OH}^-(aq) \rightleftharpoons \text{OCl}^-(aq) + \text{Cl}^-(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l)$$
This reaction is reversible, so the chlorine atoms are constantly switching back and forth from $\text{Cl}_2$ to $\text{OCl}^-$. In a basic solution, the forward reaction is fast enough to ensure that most of the chlorine in the bottle of bleach is in the $\text{OCl}^-$ form.
If the bleach is added to an acidic solution, the hydroxide ions in the basic solution of bleach react with the acidic $\text{H}^+$ ions to form water. With fewer hydroxide ions available, the reaction between the $\text{OH}^-$ and the $\text{Cl}_2$ slows down, but the reverse reaction continues at the same pace. This creates potentially dangerous levels of chlorine gas and is the reason that the labels on bleach bottles warn against mixing bleach with other cleaning agents such as toilet bowl cleaners. Toilet bowl cleaners are usually acidic, containing acids such as phosphoric acid, $\text{H}_3\text{PO}_4$, or hydrogen sulfate, $\text{HSO}_4^-$.
Mixing bleach and toilet bowl cleaners can be dangerous.
### 5.7 Brønsted-Lowry Acids and Bases
Although the Arrhenius definitions of acid, base, and acid-base reaction are very useful, an alternate set of definitions is also commonly employed. In this system, a **Brønsted-Lowry acid** is a proton ($\text{H}^+$) donor, a **Brønsted-Lowry base** is a proton acceptor, and a **Brønsted-Lowry acid-base reaction** is a proton transfer. Table 5.7 summarizes the definitions of acid and base in the Arrhenius and Brønsted-Lowry systems.
**Table 5.7**
Definitions of Acid and Base
| System | Acid Definition | Base Definition |
|-----------------|------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|
| Arrhenius | Generates $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$ when added to water | Generates $\text{OH}^-$ when added to water |
| Brønsted-Lowry | Proton ($\text{H}^+$) Donor in Reaction | Proton ($\text{H}^+$) Acceptor in Reaction |
To better understand the differences and to understand why new definitions were suggested, consider the following reactions.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{NH}_3(aq) + \text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2(aq) & \rightarrow \text{NH}_4^+(aq) + \text{C}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2^-(aq) \\
\text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2(aq) & \rightleftharpoons \text{H}_3\text{O}^+(aq) + \text{C}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2^-(aq) \\
\text{NH}_3(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) & \rightleftharpoons \text{NH}_4^+(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq)
\end{align*}
\]
These reactions are very similar, but only the first reaction would be considered an acid-base reaction in the Arrhenius system. In each of the reactions, an H\(^+\) is transferred from one reactant to another, but only the first is a reaction between an Arrhenius acid and an Arrhenius base. In the first reaction, an H\(^+\) is transferred from the Arrhenius weak acid acetic acid, HC\(_2\)H\(_3\)O\(_2\) (aq), to the Arrhenius weak base ammonia, NH\(_3\) (aq). In the second reaction, an H\(^+\) is transferred from the Arrhenius weak acid acetic acid, HC\(_2\)H\(_3\)O\(_2\) (aq), to water, which is not considered an acid or a base in the Arrhenius sense. In the third reaction, an H\(^+\) is transferred from water, which is not considered an acid or base in the Arrhenius sense, to the Arrhenius weak base ammonia, NH\(_3\) (aq).
The Brønsted-Lowry system allows us to describe all of these reactions as acid-base reactions. They are repeated below, with the Brønsted-Lowry acids and bases labeled. Note that in each case, the acid loses an H\(^+\) ion as it reacts, and the base gains an H\(^+\) ion.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{NH}_3(aq) + \text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2(aq) & \rightarrow \text{NH}_4^+(aq) + \text{C}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2^-(aq) \\
\text{B/L base} & \quad \text{B/L acid} \\
\text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2(aq) & \rightleftharpoons \text{H}_3\text{O}^+(aq) + \text{C}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2^-(aq) \\
\text{B/L base} & \quad \text{B/L acid} \\
\text{NH}_3(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) & \rightleftharpoons \text{NH}_4^+(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq) \\
\text{B/L base} & \quad \text{B/L acid}
\end{align*}
\]
Acetic acid reacts with the dihydrogen phosphate polyatomic ion, H\(_2\)PO\(_4^-\), in a reversible reaction. In the forward reaction, acetic acid acts as the Brønsted-Lowry acid and dihydrogen phosphate acts as the Brønsted-Lowry base
\[
\text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{PO}_4^-(aq) \rightleftharpoons \text{C}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2^-(aq) + \text{H}_3\text{PO}_4(aq)
\]
The reverse reaction, too, is a Brønsted-Lowry acid-base reaction. An H\(^+\) ion is transferred from H\(_3\)PO\(_4\) (the acid) to a C\(_2\)H\(_3\)O\(_2^-\) ion (the base). The Brønsted-Lowry base for the forward reaction (H\(_2\)PO\(_4^-\)) gains an H\(^+\) ion to form H\(_3\)PO\(_4\), which then acts as a Bronsted-Lowry acid in the reverse reaction and returns the H\(^+\) ion to C\(_2\)H\(_3\)O\(_2^-\). Chemists say that H\(_3\)PO\(_4\) is the conjugate acid of H\(_2\)PO\(_4^-\). The **conjugate acid** of a molecule or ion is the molecule or ion that forms when one H\(^+\) ion is added. The formulas H\(_3\)PO\(_4\) and H\(_2\)PO\(_4^-\) represent a **conjugate acid-base pair**, molecules or ions that differ by one H\(^+\) ion.
Likewise, the Brønsted-Lowry acid for the forward reaction (HC₂H₃O₂) loses an H⁺ ion to form C₂H₃O₂⁻, which acts as a Bronsted-Lowry base in the reverse reaction and regains the H⁺ ion. Chemists say that C₂H₃O₂⁻ is the conjugate base of HC₂H₃O₂. The **conjugate base** of a molecule or ion is the molecule or ion that forms when one H⁺ ion is removed. The formulas HC₂H₃O₂ and C₂H₃O₂⁻ represent a conjugate acid-base pair (Figure 5.16).
**Figure 5.16**
Conjugate Acid-Base Pairs
![Diagram showing conjugate acid-base pairs]
**Example 5.6 - Conjugate Acids**
Write the formula for the conjugate acid of (a) F⁻, (b) NH₃, (c) HSO₄⁻, and (d) CrO₄²⁻.
*Solution*
In each case, the formula for the conjugate acid is derived by adding one H⁺ ion to the formulas above.
a. HF
b. NH₄⁺
c. H₂SO₄
d. HCrO₄⁻
**Exercise 5.8 - Conjugate Acids**
Write the formula for the conjugate acid of (a) NO₂⁻, (b) HCO₃⁻, (c) H₂O, and (d) PO₄³⁻.
**Example 5.7 - Conjugate Bases**
Write the formula for the conjugate base of (a) HClO₃, (b) H₂SO₃, (c) H₂O, and (d) HCO₃⁻.
*Solution*
In each case, the formula for the conjugate base is derived by removing one H⁺ ion from the formulas above.
a. ClO₃⁻
b. HSO₃⁻
c. OH⁻
d. CO₃²⁻
**Exercise 5.9 - Conjugate Bases**
Write the formula for the conjugate base of (a) H₂C₂O₄, (b) HBrO₄, (c) NH₃, and (d) H₂PO₄⁻.
Some substances can act as a Brønsted-Lowry acid in one reaction and a Brønsted-Lowry base in another. Consider the following net ionic equations for the reaction of dihydrogen phosphate ion with either the acid hydrochloric acid or the strong base hydroxide.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{H}_2\text{PO}_4^-(aq) + \text{HCl}(aq) & \rightarrow \text{H}_3\text{PO}_4(aq) + \text{Cl}^-(aq) \\
\text{B/L base} & \quad \text{B/L acid}
\end{align*}
\]
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{H}_2\text{PO}_4^-(aq) + 2\text{OH}^-(aq) & \rightarrow \text{PO}_4^{3-}(aq) + 2\text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \\
\text{B/L acid} & \quad \text{B/L base}
\end{align*}
\]
In the first reaction, the dihydrogen phosphate acts as a Brønsted-Lowry base, and in the second reaction, it acts as a Brønsted-Lowry acid. A substance that can act as either a Brønsted-Lowry acid or a Brønsted-Lowry base, depending on the circumstances, is called an **amphoteric** substance.
The hydrogen carbonate ion is another example of an amphoteric substance. In the first reaction below, it acts as a Brønsted-Lowry base, and in the second reaction, it acts as a Bronsted-Lowry acid.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{HCO}_3^-(aq) + \text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2(aq) & \rightarrow \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{CO}_2(g) + \text{C}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2^-(aq) \\
\text{B/L base} & \quad \text{B/L acid}
\end{align*}
\]
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{HCO}_3^-(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq) & \rightarrow \text{CO}_3^{2-}(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \\
\text{B/L acid} & \quad \text{B/L base}
\end{align*}
\]
Because both dihydrogen phosphate and hydrogen carbonate (and other substances like them) can be either Brønsted-Lowry acids or bases, they cannot be described as a Brønsted-Lowry acid or base except with reference to a specific acid-base reaction. For this reason, the Arrhenius definitions of acids and bases are the ones used to categorize isolated substances on the stockroom shelf. A substance generates either hydronium ions, hydroxide ions, or neither when added to water, so it is always either an acid, a base, or neutral in the Arrhenius sense. Hydrogen carbonate is an Arrhenius base because it yields hydroxide ions when added to water. Dihydrogen phosphate is an Arrhenius acid because it generates hydronium ions when added to water.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{HCO}_3^-(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) & \rightleftharpoons \text{H}_2\text{CO}_3(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq) \\
\text{H}_2\text{PO}_4^-(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) & \rightleftharpoons \text{HPO}_4^{2-}(aq) + \text{H}_3\text{O}^+(aq)
\end{align*}
\]
Thus we have two systems for describing acids, bases, and acid-base reactions. The Brønsted-Lowry system is often used to describe specific acid-base reactions, but the Arrhenius system is used to describe whether isolated substances are acids, bases, or neither.
**Example 5.8 - Brønsted-Lowry Acids and Bases**
Identify the Brønsted-Lowry acid and base for the forward reaction in each of the following equations.
a. \( \text{HClO}_2(aq) + \text{NaIO}(aq) \rightarrow \text{HIO}(aq) + \text{NaClO}_2(aq) \)
b. \( \text{HS}^-(aq) + \text{HF}(aq) \rightarrow \text{H}_2\text{S}(aq) + \text{F}^-(aq) \)
c. \( \text{HS}^-(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq) \rightarrow \text{S}^{2-}(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \)
d. \( \text{H}_3\text{AsO}_4(aq) + 3\text{NaOH}(aq) \rightarrow \text{Na}_3\text{AsO}_4(aq) + 3\text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \)
**Solution**
a. The \( \text{HClO}_2 \) loses an \( \text{H}^+ \) ion, so it is the Brønsted-Lowry acid. The \( \text{IO}^- \) in the \( \text{NaIO} \) gains the \( \text{H}^+ \) ion, so the \( \text{NaIO} \) is the Brønsted-Lowry base.
b. The \( \text{HF} \) loses an \( \text{H}^+ \) ion, so it is the Brønsted-Lowry acid. The \( \text{HS}^- \) gains the \( \text{H}^+ \) ion, so it is the Brønsted-Lowry base.
c. The \( \text{HS}^- \) loses an \( \text{H}^+ \) ion, so it is the Bronsted-Lowry acid. The \( \text{OH}^- \) gains the \( \text{H}^+ \) ion, so it is the Brønsted-Lowry base.
d. The \( \text{H}_3\text{AsO}_4 \) loses three \( \text{H}^+ \) ions, so it is the Bronsted-Lowry acid. Each \( \text{OH}^- \) in \( \text{NaOH} \) gains an \( \text{H}^+ \) ion, so the \( \text{NaOH} \) is the Brønsted-Lowry base.
**Exercise 5.10 - Brønsted-Lowry Acids and Bases**
Identify the Brønsted-Lowry acid and base in each of the following equations.
a. \( \text{HNO}_2(aq) + \text{NaBrO}(aq) \rightarrow \text{HBrO}(aq) + \text{NaNO}_2(aq) \)
b. \( \text{H}_2\text{AsO}_4^-(aq) + \text{HNO}_2(aq) \rightleftharpoons \text{H}_3\text{AsO}_4(aq) + \text{NO}_2^-(aq) \)
c. \( \text{H}_2\text{AsO}_4^-(aq) + 2\text{OH}^-(aq) \rightarrow \text{AsO}_4^{3-}(aq) + 2\text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \)
---
**Chapter Glossary**
**Hydronium ion** \( \text{H}_3\text{O}^+ \)
**Arrhenius acid** According to the Arrhenius theory, any substance that generates hydronium ions, \( \text{H}_3\text{O}^+ \), when added to water.
**Acidic solution** A solution with a significant concentration of hydronium ions, \( \text{H}_3\text{O}^+ \).
**Binary acid** Substances that have the general formula of \( \text{HX}(aq) \), where X is one of the first four halogens: \( \text{HF}(aq) \), \( \text{HCl}(aq) \), \( \text{HBr}(aq) \), and \( \text{HI}(aq) \).
**Oxyacids (or oxoacids)** Molecular substances that have the general formula \( \text{H}_a\text{X}_b\text{O}_c \). In other words, they contain hydrogen, oxygen, and one other element represented by X; the \( a \), \( b \), and \( c \) represent subscripts.
Monoprotic acid An acid that donates one hydrogen ion per molecule in a reaction.
Polyprotic acid An acid that can donate more than one hydrogen ion per molecule in a reaction.
Diprotic acid An acid that can donate two hydrogen ions per molecule in a reaction.
Triprotic acid An acid that can donate three hydrogen ions per molecule in a reaction.
Strong acid An acid that donates its $H^+$ ions to water in a reaction that goes completely to products. Such a compound produces close to one $H_3O^+$ ion in solution for each acid molecule dissolved in water.
Reversible reaction A reaction in which the reactants are constantly forming products and, at the same time, the products are reforming the reactants.
Weak acid A substance that is incompletely ionized in water due to the reversibility of the reaction that forms hydronium ions, $H_3O^+$, in water. Weak acids yield significantly less than one $H_3O^+$ ion in solution for each acid molecule dissolved in water.
Arrhenius base A substance that produces hydroxide ions, $OH^-$, when added to water.
Basic solution A solution with a significant concentration of hydroxide ions, $OH^-$.
Strong base A substance that generates at least one hydroxide ion in solution for every unit of substance added to water.
Weak base A substance that produces fewer hydroxide ions in water solution than particles of the substance added.
Neutralization reaction A chemical reaction between an acid and a base.
Brønsted-Lowry acid-base reaction A chemical reaction in which a proton, $H^+$, is transferred.
Brønsted-Lowry Acid A substance that donates protons, $H^+$, in a Brønsted-Lowry acid-base reaction.
Brønsted-Lowry Base A substance that accepts protons, $H^+$, in a Brønsted-Lowry acid-base reaction.
Conjugate acid The molecule or ion that forms when one $H^+$ ion is added to a molecule or ion.
Conjugate base The molecule or ion that forms when one $H^+$ ion is removed from a molecule or ion.
Conjugate acid-base pair Two molecules or ions that differ by one $H^+$ ion.
Amphoteric substance A substance that can act as either a Brønsted-Lowry acid or a Brønsted-Lowry base, depending on the circumstances.
You can test yourself on the glossary terms at the textbook’s Web site.
Chapter Objectives
The goal of this chapter is to teach you to do the following.
1. Define all of the terms in the Chapter Glossary.
Section 5.1 Acids
2. Identify acids as substances that taste sour.
3. Describe what occurs when a strong, monoprotic acid, such as HCl, is added to water.
4. Identify the following acids as binary acids: HF(aq), HCl(aq), HBr(aq), and HI(aq).
5. Write or identify three different formulas that can be used to describe acetic acid, and explain why each is used.
6. Describe what occurs when a weak, monoprotic acid, such as acetic acid, is added to water.
7. Explain why weak acids produce fewer H₃O⁺ ions in water than strong acids, even when the same numbers of acid molecules are added to equal volumes of water.
8. Identify the following as strong monoprotic acids: HCl and HNO₃.
9. Identify sulfuric acid as a diprotic strong acid.
10. Describe what occurs when sulfuric acid is added to water.
11. Given a formula or name for any acid, identify it as a strong or weak acid.
Section 5.2 Acid Nomenclature
12. Convert between names and formulas for binary acids and oxyacids.
Section 5.3 Summary of Chemical Nomenclature
13. Given a name or chemical formula, tell whether it represents a binary ionic compound, an ionic compound with polyatomic ion(s), a binary covalent compound, a binary acid, or an oxyacid.
14. Convert between names and chemical formulas for binary ionic compounds, ionic compounds with polyatomic ion(s), binary covalent compounds, binary acids, and oxyacids.
Section 5.4 Strong and Weak Bases
15. Identify ionic compounds containing hydroxide ions as strong bases.
16. Describe the changes that take place when ammonia, NH₃, is dissolved in water, and use this description to explain why ammonia is a weak Arrhenius base.
17. Describe the changes that take place when an ionic compound containing carbonate or hydrogen carbonate ions is dissolved in water, and use this description to explain why these anions are weak Arrhenius bases.
18. Given a name or formula for a substance, identify it as either (1) an Arrhenius strong acid, (2) an Arrhenius weak acid, (3) an Arrhenius strong base, or (4) an Arrhenius weak base.
Section 5.5 pH and Acidic and Basic Solutions
19. Given the pH of a solution, identify the solution as acidic, basic, or neutral.
20. Given the pH of two acidic solutions, identify which solution is more acidic.
21. Given the pH of two basic solutions, identify which solution is more basic.
22. Describe how litmus paper can be used in the laboratory to identify whether a solution is acidic or basic.
Section 5.6 Arrhenius Acid-Base Reactions
23. Describe the process that takes place at the molecular level for the following reactions. Your description should include mention of the particles in solution before and after the reaction. It should also include a description of the process that leads to the reaction.
a. a strong, monoprotic acid, such as HNO₃, and an aqueous strong base, such as NaOH
b. a strong monoprotic acid, such as HCl(aq), and an insoluble ionic compound, such as Al(OH)₃
c. any monoprotic acid and a solution containing carbonate ions or hydrogen carbonate ions
24. Given the names or formulas for a monoprotic or polyprotic acid and an ionic compound containing hydroxide, carbonate, or hydrogen carbonate ions, write the complete balanced equation that describes the neutralization reaction that takes place between them.
25. Identify H₂O(l) and CO₂(g) as the products of the reaction of an acid with carbonate, CO₃²⁻, or hydrogen carbonate, HCO₃⁻.
Section 5.7 Brønsted-Lowry Acids and Bases
26. Explain why the Brønsted-Lowry definitions for acid and base are often used, instead of the Arrhenius definitions, to describe acid-base reactions.
27. Given a formula for a molecule or ion, write the formula for its conjugate acid.
28. Given a formula for a molecule or ion, write the formula for its conjugate base.
29. Explain why a substance can be a Brønsted-Lowry acid in one reaction and a Brønsted-Lowry base in a different reaction. Give an example to illustrate your explanation.
30. Explain why the Arrhenius definitions for acid and base, and not the Brønsted-Lowry definitions, are used to describe whether an isolated substance is an acid or base.
31. Given a Brønsted-Lowry acid-base equation, identify the Brønsted-Lowry acid and Brønsted-Lowry base.
Review Questions
1. Define the following terms.
a. aqueous
b. spectator ion
c. double-displacement reaction
d. net ionic equation
2. Write the name of the polyatomic ions represented by the formulas $CO_3^{2-}$ and $HCO_3^-$.
3. Write the formulas for the polyatomic ions dihydrogen phosphate ion and acetate ion.
4. Which of the following formulas represents an ionic compound?
a. $MgCl_2$
b. $PCl_3$
c. $KHSO_4$
d. $Na_2SO_4$
e. $H_2SO_3$
5. Write the names that correspond to the formulas KBr, Cu(NO$_3$)$_2$, and (NH$_4$)$_2$HPO$_4$.
6. Write the formulas that correspond to the names nickel(II) hydroxide, ammonium chloride, and calcium hydrogen carbonate.
7. Predict whether each of the following is soluble or insoluble in water.
a. iron(III) hydroxide
b. barium sulfate
c. aluminum nitrate
d. copper(II) chloride
8. Describe the process by which the ionic compound sodium hydroxide dissolves in water.
9. Write the complete equation for the precipitation reaction that takes place when water solutions of zinc chloride and sodium phosphate are mixed.
Key Ideas
Complete the following statements by writing one of these words or phrases in each blank.
| Word/Phrase | Definition |
|------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|
| 10-fold | |
| acceptor | |
| acid | |
| acidic | |
| added | |
| amphoteric | |
| Arrhenius | |
| basic | |
| blue | |
| Brønsted-Lowry | |
| carbon dioxide, CO$_2$ | |
| diprotic | |
| donor | |
| double | |
| double-displacement | |
| fewer | |
| forming | |
| greater than 7 | |
| H$_a$X$_b$O$_c$ | |
| halogens | |
| higher | |
| hydro- | |
| hydronium ions, H$_3$O$^+$ | |
| hydroxide ions, OH$^-$ | |
| hydroxides | |
| -ic | |
| less than 7 | |
| lower | |
| nearly one | |
| neutralize | |
| one hydrogen ion | |
| red | |
| re-forming | |
| removed | |
| (root)ate | |
| significantly less than one | |
| single | |
| sour | |
| strong bases | |
| transfer | |
| weak | |
| water | |
10. Any substance that has a(n) _______________ taste is an acid.
11. According to the modern form of the Arrhenius theory, an acid is a substance that produces _______________ when it is added to water.
12. On the basis of the Arrhenius definitions, a(n) _______________ solution is a solution with a significant concentration of $H_3O^+$.
13. The binary acids have the general formula of $HX(aq)$, where X is one of the first four _______________.
14. Oxyacids (often called oxoacids) are molecular substances that have the general formula _______________.
15. If each molecule of an acid can donate _______________, the acid is called a monoprotic acid. A(n) _______________ acid, such as sulfuric acid, $H_2SO_4$, has two acidic hydrogen atoms.
16. Strong acids form _______________ $H_3O^+$ ion in solution for each acid molecule dissolved in water, whereas weak acids yield _______________ $H_3O^+$ ion in solution for each acid molecule dissolved in water.
17. A reaction in which the reactants are constantly _______________ products and, at the same time, the products are _______________ the reactants is called a reversible reaction. The chemical equations for reactions that are significantly reversible are written with _______________ arrows.
18. A(n) _______________ acid is a substance that is incompletely ionized in water because of the reversibility of its reaction with water that forms hydronium ion, $H_3O^+$.
19. The chemical equations for completion reactions are written with _______________ arrows to indicate that the reaction proceeds to form almost 100% products.
20. Binary acids are named by writing _______________ followed by the root of the name of the halogen, then _______________, and finally _______________.
21. If enough $H^+$ ions are added to a(n) _______________ polyatomic ion to completely neutralize its charge, the (root)ic acid is formed.
22. According to the modern version of the Arrhenius theory of acids and bases, a base is a substance that produces _______________ when it is added to water.
23. A solution that has a significant concentration of hydroxide ions is called a(n) _______________ solution.
24. Compounds that contain hydroxide ions are often called _______________.
25. All water-soluble hydroxides are _______________.
26. A weak base is a base that produces _______________ hydroxide ions in water solution than there are particles of base dissolved.
27. Acidic solutions have pH values _______________, and the more acidic a solution is, the _______________ its pH. A change of 1 pH unit reflects a(n) _______________ change in $H_3O^+$ ion concentration.
28. Basic solutions have pH values _______________, and the more basic the solution is, the _______________ its pH.
29. Litmus, a natural dye, is derived from lichen. It turns _______________ in acidic conditions and _______________ in basic conditions.
30. When an Arrhenius acid is combined with an Arrhenius base, we say that they _______________ each other.
31. When hydronium ions and hydroxide ions collide in solution they react to form ____________.
32. Most Arrhenius neutralization reactions, such as the reaction between nitric acid and sodium hydroxide, are ____________ reactions.
33. Carbonic acid is unstable in water, so when it forms in aqueous solutions, it decomposes into ____________ and water, $H_2O(l)$.
34. A Brønsted-Lowry acid is a proton (H$^+$) ____________, a Brønsted-Lowry base is a proton ____________, and a Brønsted-Lowry acid-base reaction is a proton ____________.
35. The conjugate acid of a molecule or ion is the molecule or ion that forms when one H$^+$ ion is ____________.
36. The conjugate base of a molecule or ion is the molecule or ion that forms when one H$^+$ ion is ____________.
37. A substance that can act as either a Brønsted-Lowry acid or a Brønsted-Lowry base, depending on the circumstances, is called a(n) ____________ substance.
38. The ____________ system is often used to describe specific acid-base reactions, but the ____________ system is used to describe whether isolated substances are acids, bases, or neither.
### Chapter Problems
#### Section 5.1 Acids
39. Describe how the strong monoprotic acid nitric acid, HNO$_3$ (used in the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels) acts when it is added to water, including a description of the nature of the particles in solution before and after the reaction with water. If there is a reversible reaction with water, describe the forward and the reverse reactions.
40. Describe how the weak monoprotic acid hydrofluoric acid, HF (used in aluminum processing) acts when it is added to water, including a description of the nature of the particles in solution before and after the reaction with water. If there is a reversible reaction with water, describe the forward and the reverse reactions.
41. Describe how the strong diprotic acid sulfuric acid, H$_2$SO$_4$ (used to make industrial explosives) acts when it is added to water, including a description of the nature of the particles in solution before and after the reaction with water. If there is a reversible reaction with water, describe the forward and the reverse reactions.
42. Explain why acetic acid is described with three different formulas: HC$_2$H$_3$O$_2$, CH$_3$COOH, and CH$_3$CO$_2$H.
43. Explain why weak acids produce fewer H$_3$O$^+$ ions in water than strong acids, even when the same number of acid molecules are added to equal volumes of water.
44. Classify each of the following acids as monoprotic, diprotic, or triprotic.
a. HCl($aq$) (used in food processing)
b. H$_2$SO$_4$ (used in petroleum refining)
c. HC$_2$H$_3$O$_2$ (solvent in the production of polyesters)
d. H$_3$PO$_4$ (catalyst for the production of ethanol)
45. Identify each of the following as strong or weak acids.
a. sulfurous acid (for bleaching straw)
b. $H_2SO_4$ (used to make plastics)
c. oxalic acid (in car radiator cleaners)
46. Identify each of the following as strong or weak acids.
a. $HCl(aq)$ (used to make dyes)
b. nitrous acid (source of nitrogen monoxide, NO, used to bleach rayon)
c. $H_2CO_3$ (formed when CO$_2$ dissolves in water)
47. Identify each of the following as strong or weak acids.
a. $H_3PO_4$ (added to animal feeds)
b. hypophosphorous acid (in electroplating baths)
c. $HF(aq)$ (used to process uranium)
48. Identify each of the following as strong or weak acids.
a. benzoic acid (used to make a common food preservative, sodium benzoate)
b. $HNO_3$ (used to make explosives)
c. hydrocyanic acid (used to make rodenticides and pesticides)
49. For each of the following, write the chemical equation for its reaction with water.
a. The monoprotic weak acid nitrous acid, $HNO_2$
b. The monoprotic strong acid hydrobromic acid, HBr
50. For each of the following, write the chemical equation for its reaction with water.
a. The monoprotic weak acid chlorous acid, $HClO_2$
b. The monoprotic strong acid perchloric acid, $HClO_4$
Sections 5.2 and 5.3 Acid Nomenclature and Summary of Chemical Nomenclature
51. Write the formulas and names of the acids that are derived from adding enough $H^+$ ions to the following ions to neutralize their charge.
a. $NO_3^-$
b. $CO_3^{2-}$
c. $PO_4^{3-}$
52. Write the formulas and names of the acids that are derived from adding enough $H^+$ ions to the following ions to neutralize their charge.
a. $SO_4^{2-}$
b. $C_2H_3O_2^-$
53. Classify each of the following compounds as either (1) a binary ionic compound, (2) an ionic compound with polyatomic ion(s), (3) a binary covalent compound, (4) a binary acid, or (5) an oxyacid. Write the chemical formula that corresponds to each name.
a. phosphoric acid
e. hydrochloric acid
b. ammonium bromide
f. magnesium nitride
c. diphosphorus tetrabromide
g. acetic acid
d. lithium hydrogen sulfate
h. lead(II) hydrogen phosphate
54. Classify each of the following compounds as either (1) a binary ionic compound, (2) an ionic compound with polyatomic ion(s), (3) a binary covalent compound, (4) a binary acid, or (5) an oxyacid. Write the chemical formula that corresponds to each name.
a. potassium sulfide
b. sulfuric acid
c. ammonium nitrate
d. iodine pentafluoride
e. copper(I) sulfate
f. hydrofluoric acid
g. sodium hydrogen carbonate
55. Classify each of the following formulas as either (1) a binary ionic compound, (2) an ionic compound with polyatomic ion(s), (3) a binary covalent compound, (4) a binary acid, or (5) an oxyacid. Write the name that corresponds to each formula.
a. HBr(aq)
b. ClF₃
c. CaBr₂
d. Fe₂(SO₄)₃
e. H₂CO₃
f. (NH₄)₂SO₄
g. KHSO₄
56. Classify each of the following formulas as either (1) a binary ionic compound, (2) an ionic compound with polyatomic ion(s), (3) a binary covalent compound, (4) a binary acid, or (5) an oxyacid. Write the name that corresponds to each formula.
a. HNO₃
b. Ca(OH)₂
c. (NH₄)₂HPO₄
d. Ni₃P₂
e. HI(aq)
f. Li₂O
g. Br₂O
Section 5.4 Arrhenius Bases
57. Describe the changes that take place when ammonia, NH₃, is dissolved in water, and use this description to explain why ammonia is a weak Arrhenius base.
58. Classify each of these substances as a weak acid, strong acid, weak base, or strong base in the Arrhenius acid-base sense.
a. H₂CO₃
b. cesium hydroxide
c. HF(aq)
d. sodium carbonate
e. NH₃
f. chlorous acid
g. HCl(aq)
h. benzoic acid
59. Classify each of the substances as a weak acid, strong acid, weak base, or strong base in the Arrhenius acid-base sense.
a. HNO₃
b. ammonia
c. LiOH
d. phosphorous acid
e. H₂SO₄
f. nitrous acid
g. NaHCO₃
Section 5.5 pH and Acidic and Basic Solutions
60. Classify each of the following solutions as acidic, basic, or neutral.
a. Tomato juice with a pH of 4.53
b. Milk of magnesia with a pH of 10.4
c. Urine with a pH of 6.8
61. Classify each of the following solutions as acidic, basic, or neutral.
a. Saliva with a pH of 7.0
b. Beer with a pH of 4.712
c. A solution of a drain cleaner with a pH of 14.0
62. Which is more acidic, carbonated water with a pH of 3.95 or milk with a pH of 6.3?
63. Which is more basic, a soap solution with a pH of 10.0 or human tears with a pH of 7.4?
64. Identify each of the following characteristics as associated with acids or bases.
a. tastes sour
b. turns litmus red
c. reacts with HNO₃
65. Identify each of the following properties as characteristic of acids or of bases.
a. turns litmus blue
b. reacts with carbonate to form CO₂(g)
Section 5.6 Arrhenius Acid-Base Reactions
66. Describe the process that takes place between the participants in the neutralization reaction between the strong acid hydrochloric acid, HCl(aq), and the strong base sodium hydroxide, NaOH(aq), forming water and sodium chloride, NaCl(aq). Mention the nature of the particles in the solution before and after the reaction.
67. Describe the process that takes place between the participants in the neutralization reaction between the strong acid nitric acid, HNO₃(aq), and the strong base potassium hydroxide, KOH(aq), forming water and potassium nitrate, KNO₃(aq). Mention the nature of the particles in the solution before and after the reaction.
68. Describe the process that takes place between the participants in the neutralization reaction between the strong acid nitric acid, HNO₃(aq), and water insoluble nickel(II) hydroxide, Ni(OH)₂(s), forming nickel(II) nitrate, Ni(NO₃)₂(aq), and water. Mention the nature of the particles in the solution before and after the reaction.
69. Describe the process that takes place between the participants in the neutralization reaction between the strong acid hydrochloric acid, HCl(aq), and water insoluble chromium(III) hydroxide, Cr(OH)₃(s), forming chromium(III) chloride, CrCl₃(aq), and water. Mention the nature of the particles in the solution before and after the reaction.
70. Describe the process that takes place between the participants in the neutralization reaction between the strong acid hydrochloric acid, $\text{HCl}(aq)$, and the weak base potassium carbonate, $\text{K}_2\text{CO}_3(aq)$, forming water, carbon dioxide, $\text{CO}_2(g)$, and potassium chloride, $\text{KCl}(aq)$. Mention the nature of the particles in the solution before and after the reaction.
71. Describe the process that takes place between the participants in the neutralization reaction between the strong acid nitric acid, $\text{HNO}_3(aq)$, and the weak base lithium hydrogen carbonate, $\text{LiHCO}_3(aq)$, forming water, carbon dioxide, $\text{CO}_2(g)$, and lithium nitrate, $\text{LiNO}_3(aq)$. Mention the nature of the particles in the solution before and after the reaction.
72. Write the complete equation for the neutralization reactions that take place when the following water solutions are mixed. (If an acid has more than one acidic hydrogen, assume that there is enough base to remove all of them. Assume that there is enough acid to neutralize all of the basic hydroxide ions.)
a. $\text{HCl}(aq) + \text{LiOH}(aq)$
b. $\text{H}_2\text{SO}_4(aq) + \text{NaOH}(aq)$
c. $\text{KOH}(aq) + \text{HF}(aq)$
d. $\text{Cd(OH)}_2(s) + \text{HCl}(aq)$
73. Write the complete equation for the neutralization reactions that take place when the following water solutions are mixed. (If an acid has more than one acidic hydrogen, assume that there is enough base to remove all of them. Assume that there is enough acid to neutralize all of the basic hydroxide ions.)
a. $\text{LiOH}(aq) + \text{HNO}_2(aq)$
b. $\text{Co(OH)}_2(s) + \text{HNO}_3(aq)$
c. $\text{H}_3\text{PO}_4(aq) + \text{KOH}(aq)$
74. Write the complete equation for the reaction between $\text{HI}(aq)$ and water-insoluble solid $\text{CaCO}_3$.
75. Write the complete equation for the reaction between $\text{HCl}(aq)$ and water-insoluble solid $\text{Al}_2(\text{CO}_3)_3$.
76. Iron(III) sulfate is made in industry by the neutralization reaction between solid iron(III) hydroxide and aqueous sulfuric acid. The iron(III) sulfate is then added with sodium hydroxide to municipal water in water treatment plants. These compounds react to form a precipitate that settles to the bottom of the holding tank, taking impurities with it. Write the complete equations for both the neutralization reaction that forms iron(III) sulfate and the precipitation reaction between water solutions of iron(III) sulfate and sodium hydroxide.
77. Industrial chemists make hydrofluoric acid (which is used in aluminum and uranium processing, to etch glass, and to make CFCs) from the reactions of aqueous calcium fluoride and aqueous sulfuric acid. Write the complete equation for this reaction.
78. Complete the following equations by writing the formulas for the acid and base that could form the given products.
a. _____ + _____ $\rightarrow$ $\text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{NaCl}(aq)$
b. _____ + _____ $\rightarrow$ $2\text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{Li}_2\text{SO}_4(aq)$
c. _____ + _____ $\rightarrow$ $\text{H}_2\text{O}(l) + \text{CO}_2(g) + 2\text{KCl}(aq)$
79. Complete the following equations by writing the formulas for the acid and base that could form the given products.
a. _____ + _____ → H₂O(ℓ) + NaC₂H₃O₂(aq)
b. _____ + _____ → H₂O(ℓ) + CO₂(g) + LiNO₃(aq)
c. _____ + _____ → H₂O(ℓ) + KNO₃(aq)
Section 5.7 Brønsted-Lowry Acids and Bases
80. Explain why the Brønsted-Lowry definitions for acid and base are often used instead of the Arrhenius definitions to describe acid-base reactions.
81. Write the formula for the conjugate acid of each of the following.
a. IO₃⁻ b. HSO₃⁻ c. PO₃³⁻ d. H⁻
82. Write the formula for the conjugate acid of each of the following.
a. HC₂O₄⁻ b. SO₃²⁻ c. BrO⁻ d. NH₂⁻
83. Write the formula for the conjugate base of each of the following.
a. HClO₄ b. HSO₃⁻ c. H₃O⁺ d. H₃PO₂
84. Write the formula for the conjugate base of each of the following.
a. NH₄⁺ b. H₂S c. HNO₂ d. HC₂O₄⁻
85. Explain why a substance can be a Brønsted-Lowry acid in one reaction and a Brønsted-Lowry base in a different reaction. Give an example to illustrate your explanation.
86. Explain why the Arrhenius definitions for acid and base and not the Brønsted-Lowry definitions are used to describe whether an isolated substance is an acid or base.
87. For each of the following equations, identify the Brønsted-Lowry acid and base for the forward reaction.
a. NaCN(aq) + HC₂H₃O₂(aq) → NaC₂H₃O₂(aq) + HCN(aq)
b. H₂PO₃⁻(aq) + HF(aq) ⇌ H₃PO₃(aq) + F⁻(aq)
c. H₂PO₃⁻(aq) + 2OH⁻(aq) → PO₃³⁻(aq) + 2H₂O(ℓ)
d. 3NaOH(aq) + H₃PO₃(aq) → 3H₂O(ℓ) + Na₃PO₃(aq)
88. For each of the following equations, identify the Brønsted-Lowry acid and base for the forward reaction.
a. 3NaOH(aq) + H₃PO₄(aq) → 3H₂O(ℓ) + Na₃PO₄(aq)
b. HS⁻(aq) + HIO₃(aq) → H₂S(aq) + IO₃⁻(aq)
c. HS⁻(aq) + OH⁻(aq) → S²⁻(aq) + H₂O(ℓ)
89. Butanoic acid, CH₃CH₂CH₂CO₂H, is a monoprotic weak acid that is responsible for the smell of rancid butter. Write the formula for the conjugate base of this acid. Write the equation for the reaction between this acid and water, and indicate the Brønsted-Lowry acid and base for the forward reaction. (The acidic hydrogen atom is on the right side of the formula.)
90. One of the substances that give wet goats and dirty gym socks their characteristic odors is hexanoic acid, CH₃CH₂CH₂CH₂CH₂CO₂H, which is a monoprotic weak acid. Write the formula for the conjugate base of this acid. Write the equation for the reaction between this acid and water, and indicate the Brønsted-Lowry acid and base for the forward reaction. (The acidic hydrogen atom is on the right side of the formula.)
91. Identify the amphoteric substance in the following equations.
\[ \text{HCl(aq)} + \text{HS}^-(aq) \rightarrow \text{Cl}^-(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{S}(aq) \]
\[ \text{HS}^-(aq) + \text{OH}^-(aq) \rightarrow \text{S}^{2-}(aq) + \text{H}_2\text{O}(l) \]
92. Identify the amphoteric substance in the following equations.
\[ \text{HSO}_3^-(aq) + \text{HF(aq)} \rightleftharpoons \text{H}_2\text{SO}_3(aq) + \text{F}^-(aq) \]
\[ \text{NH}_3(aq) + \text{HSO}_3^-(aq) \rightarrow \text{NH}_4^+(aq) + \text{SO}_3^{2-}(aq) \]
**Additional Problems**
93. For each of the following pairs of compounds, write the complete equation for the neutralization reaction that takes place when the substances are mixed. (You can assume that there is enough base to remove all of the acidic hydrogen atoms, that there is enough acid to neutralize all of the basic hydroxide ions, and that each reaction goes to completion.)
a. \( \text{HBr(aq)} + \text{NaOH(aq)} \)
b. \( \text{H}_2\text{SO}_3(aq) + \text{LiOH(aq)} \)
c. \( \text{KHCO}_3(aq) + \text{HF(aq)} \)
d. \( \text{Al(OH)}_3(s) + \text{HNO}_3(aq) \)
94. For each of the following pairs of compounds, write the complete equation for the neutralization reaction that takes place when the substances are mixed. (You can assume that there is enough base to remove all of the acidic hydrogen atoms, that there is enough acid to neutralize all of the basic hydroxide ions, and that each reaction goes to completion.)
a. \( \text{Ni(OH)}_2(s) + \text{HBr(aq)} \)
b. \( \text{K}_2\text{CO}_3(aq) + \text{HC}_2\text{H}_3\text{O}_2(aq) \)
c. \( \text{HOCl(aq)} + \text{NaOH(aq)} \)
d. \( \text{H}_3\text{PO}_3(aq) + \text{KOH(aq)} \)
95. Classify each of the following substances as acidic, basic, or neutral.
a. An apple with a pH of 2.9
b. Milk of Magnesia with a pH of 10.4
c. Fresh egg white with a pH of 7.6
96. Classify each of the following substances as acidic, basic, or neutral.
a. A liquid detergent with a pH of 10.1
b. Maple syrup with a pH of 7.0
c. Wine with a pH of 3.2
97. The pH of processed cheese is kept at about 5.7 to prevent it from spoiling. Is this acidic, basic, or neutral?
98. Is it possible for a weak acid solution to have a lower pH than a strong acid solution? If so, how?
99. The walls of limestone caverns are composed of solid calcium carbonate. The ground water that makes its way down from the surface into these caverns is often acidic. The calcium carbonate and the H\(^+\) ions from the acidic water react to dissolve the limestone. If this happens to the ceiling of the cavern, the ceiling can collapse, leading to what is called a sinkhole. Write the net ionic equation for the reaction between the solid calcium carbonate and the aqueous H\(^+\) ions.
100. Magnesium sulfate, a substance used for fireproofing and paper sizing, is made in industry from the reaction of aqueous sulfuric acid and solid magnesium hydroxide. Write the complete equation for this reaction.
101. Manganese(II) phosphate is used to coat steel, aluminum, and other metals to prevent corrosion. It is produced in the reaction between solid manganese(II) hydroxide and aqueous phosphoric acid. Write the complete equation for this reaction.
102. The smell of Swiss cheese is, in part, due to the monoprotic weak acid propanoic acid, $\text{CH}_3\text{CH}_2\text{CO}_2\text{H}$. Write the equation for the complete reaction between this acid and sodium hydroxide. (The acidic hydrogen atom is on the right.)
103. Lactic acid, $\text{CH}_3\text{CH(OH)}\text{CO}_2\text{H}$, is used in cosmetic lotions, some of which claim to remove wrinkles. The lactic acid is thought to speed the removal of dead skin cells. Write the equation for the complete reaction between this acid and potassium hydroxide. (The acidic hydrogen atom is on the right.)
104. Malic acid, $\text{HO}_2\text{CCH}_2\text{CH(OH)}\text{CO}_2\text{H}$, is a diprotic weak acid found in apples and watermelon. Write the equation for the complete reaction between this acid and sodium hydroxide. (The acidic hydrogen atoms are on each end of the formula.)
105. One of the substances used to make nylon is hexanedioic acid, $\text{HO}_2\text{CCH}_2\text{CH}_2\text{CH}_2\text{CH}_2\text{CO}_2\text{H}$. This diprotic weak acid is also called adipic acid. Write the equation for the complete reaction between this acid and sodium hydroxide. (The acidic hydrogen atoms are on each end of the formula.)
106. For the following equation, identify the Brønsted-Lowry acid and base for the forward reaction, and write the formulas for the conjugate acid-base pairs.
$$\text{NaHS(aq)} + \text{NaHSO}_4\text{(aq)} \rightarrow \text{H}_2\text{S(g)} + \text{Na}_2\text{SO}_4\text{(aq)}$$
107. For the following equation, identify the Brønsted-Lowry acid and base for the forward reaction, and write the formulas for the conjugate acid-base pairs.
$$\text{HF(aq)} + \text{NaHSO}_3\text{(aq)} \rightleftharpoons \text{NaF(aq)} + \text{H}_2\text{SO}_3\text{(aq)}$$
**Discussion Problems**
108. Assume you are given a water solution and told that it contains either hydrochloric acid or sodium chloride. Describe how you could determine which of these is present.
109. Assume that you are given a water solution that contains either sodium hydroxide or sodium chloride. Describe how you could determine which is in solution.
110. Assume that you are given a water solution that contains either sodium carbonate or sodium hydroxide. Describe how you could determine which is in solution. | <urn:uuid:504d43c7-d78a-4cf0-8ce4-32fca956087b> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://preparatorychemistry.com/bishop_book_5_ebook.pdf | 2017-03-23T20:07:13Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218187206.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212947-00154-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 276,772,763 | 30,625 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.964656 | eng_Latn | 0.995722 | [
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VOICES FROM THE NHS
A PEOPLE’S HISTORY
DARRYL CUNNINGHAM
The NHS was born 5 July 1948. On that day, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians, dentists and hospitals came together for the first time to provide comprehensive health services for all across the four nations of the UK.
Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, the Health Minister who was the NHS’s creator, visited Park Hospital in Davyhulme, Manchester (now Trafford General Hospital).
Here he met the NHS’s first patient, 13-year-old Sylvia Diggory, who had acute nephritis, a life-threatening liver condition.
Years later in an interview, Sylvia recalled how Bevan had asked her if she understood the significance of the occasion? It was, he told her, a milestone in history and the most civilised step the country had ever taken.
Young Sylvia had eavesdropped on adults’ conversations and so knew that a great change was coming. It seemed to her that most people could hardly believe what was happening.
The first baby to be born in the NHS was Aneira Thomas. On Monday 5 July 1948. She was named by her mother after the architect of the health service.
Aneira became known as Nye. When she was a child, her mother would introduce Aneira to others with the words, ‘This is Nye. My National Health baby.’
She was the youngest of seven children and the first in the family to be born at home. The birth didn’t cost her parents a penny. When her siblings had been born, her parents had to pay a midwife one shilling and sixpence to come and deliver the baby.
Aneira believed that not having to pay for the stay in hospital and the attendance of the doctor would have been a big relief to her mother. As wages were low and money was tight in their household.
Aneira Thomas’s family lived in a South Wales mining community. Too poor to afford good health care before the creation of the NHS. It was Aneira’s view that the NHS was set up to maintain life. She never knew any of her grandparents because they died between the ages of 30 and 50. But her mother lived until she was 95, which she put down to the NHS.
However, the treatment of expectant mothers in the early days of the NHS was not always perfect.
One critic was the mother and author Sarah Campion (a pseudonym for the author Mary Rose Coulton), who had her first baby in 1949, just a year after the formation of the NHS.
Campion’s book *National Baby*, published in 1950, is a first-hand account of pregnancy and birth under the new NHS. It is written as a diary, and follows Campion’s experience of antenatal clinics, birth, hospital life, and postnatal services.
Much of Campion’s account is critical of the NHS. She observed how medical professionals were deemed to know what was best for the patient, and the mother was seen as comparatively inferior and ignorant.
Thank you, doctor.
National Baby shows that this view was widespread amongst doctors and nurses in the late 1940s.
Campion described how doctors refused to give mothers information about their own bodies. For instance, at the antenatal clinic Campion was told scoldingly by a nurse...
Don’t touch that file. But it’s my file.
However Campion ultimately urged mothers to use the facilities offered by the NHS, despite the lack of personal service. She understood that this may be a sacrifice worth paying for a birth with experts, free at the point of use.
One area where the NHS was hugely successful was in the care of premature babies. The launch of the NHS coincided with an increased commitment to providing systematic neonatal care.
At the beginning of the twentieth century infant mortality remained high and the likelihood of a preterm baby surviving infancy was low.
But after the Second World War there was an increase in the types of antenatal and neonatal medical technologies available to midwives and obstetricians for the safe delivery and care of premature babies.
Special baby care units were created, with early units at Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham. The new, expanding NHS made such units available to most.
However, while birth in the NHS has improved, even today not all mothers and babies survive. Recent research* also shows that for Black, Asian and mixed heritage women and those with pre-existing conditions, some of the problems Campion described persist.
*See inside back page for reference.
WHAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE OF CHILDREN IN THE EARLY NHS? HERE ARE THE WORDS OF NICOLA KINGSTON WHO WAS FIVE WHEN SHE HAD AN OPERATION TO HAVE HER TONSILS AND ADENOIDS OUT AT THE WESTMINSTER CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, LONDON.
I KNEW I HAD TO BE BRAVE AND HAVE THIS OPERATION, BUT I DID CRY WHEN MY MUMMY AND DADDY LEFT ME THERE AND I HAD TO SPEND THE NIGHT IN A BIG WARD WITH OTHER CHILDREN.
MY MOST VIVID MEMORY THOUGH WAS WAKING UP FROM THE OPERATION, AND MY THROAT WAS SO SORE AND STILL NO MUMMY OR DADDY, BUT THERE WAS A VASE OF A SWAN, FULL OF FLOWERS.
I HAVE ALWAYS REMEMBERED HOW THAT SWAN SHOWED ME MY DAD LOVED ME EVEN THOUGH PARENTS WERE ONLY ALLOWED TO VISIT FOR TWO HOURS IN THE AFTERNOONS.
I THINK THINGS CHANGED AFTER THAT WHEN RESEARCH SHOWED THAT CHILDREN SEPARATED FROM THEIR PARENTS AND RECOVERED MUCH SLOWER. I STILL REMEMBER THAT SWAN VASE.
NOT ALL CHILDREN HOSPITALISED IN THE EARLY NHS HAVE HAPPY MEMORIES. HERE’S AN ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTOR TO THE PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE NHS WEBSITE, WHO WAS ADMITTED TO BOW ARROW CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, DARTFORD, WITH TUBERCULOSIS IN 1956.
I WAS NOT ALLOWED OUT OF BED FOR ANYTHING, NOT ALLOWED TO SIT UP EVEN TO EAT, EVERYTHING DONE ON MY SIDE.
IF MY MEMORY SERVES ME RIGHT, I WAS IN HOSPITAL FOR BETWEEN 9 TO 10 MONTHS WITH 3 MONTHS RECUPERATION AT HOME BEFORE BEING ALLOWED BACK TO SCHOOL.
I WASN’T ALLOWED TO JOIN IN THE SCHOOL LESSONS ON THE WARD FOR AGES. HOW I CRAVED THE CARDBOARD BOX THE OTHER CHILDREN HAD FULL OF PENCILS, RUBBER AND RULER.
IT WAS A WONDERFUL DAY WHEN HER BOX ARRIVED. SHE STILL HAD TO WORK ON HER SIDE, BUT SHE WAS SO PLEASED THERE WAS MORE TO DO OTHER THAN LISTEN TO THE RADIO ON HEADPHONES OR READ BOOKS.
CHRISTMAS CAME AND NO VISITORS WERE ALLOWED ON CHRISTMAS DAY. THE WARD WAS DECORATED WITH GARLANDS AND BALLOONS.
MY MUM TOLD ME TO STAY AWAKE ON CHRISTMAS EVE AS THE NURSES WOULD TURN THEIR CLOAKS INSIDE OUT TO SHOW THE RED LINING AND COME TO EACH BED TO SING CAROLS.
WELL, I DID TRY, BUT I SLEPT THROUGH IT ALL.
I realise how neat and tidy and barren the wards were for children in those days and visiting was the bare minimum.
It is so much better for parents being able to spend as much time as they like with their sick children these days.
I had my own childhood NHS experience. In December 1963, at the age of three, I was admitted to the Morton Banks Hospital in Keighley, Yorkshire, with scarlet fever.
Darryl Cunningham
I was placed in a room with only one other child; a baby in a cot. No visitors were allowed in this room.
Wah!
I could only see my father and grandmother as they waved at me through a window in the door. My mother was giving birth to my younger brother in another hospital, so I didn’t see her at all.
When Christmas came, a masked Father Christmas brought toys, that included a red tricycle.
Was I traumatised by this experience? I don’t recall feeling ill apart from a bad headache. Nor do I remember being distressed by the separation from my family. All the staff were kind to me.
Yet my grandmother told me years later that I was quite changed after my stay in hospital. I was a boisterous child before, but afterwards, quiet and withdrawn.
Certainly, I was a shy child who suffered much anxiety, but whether this was caused by my hospital stay, I can’t say. I may well have developed those traits anyway.
Up until the late 1940s, it was thought undesirable for children to be visited regularly by their parents in hospital. The institution’s desire for order and cleanliness overrode emotional needs.
Many hospitals permitted only monthly visits and some none at all. In the 1950s there began to be concern over leaving young children in hospital away from their parents and the threat of ‘separation anxiety.’
Slowly, campaigners drove forward changes making it easier for parents, although it wasn’t until the 1970s that unrestricted visiting became standard policy in NHS hospitals.
What was the experience of working in the NHS like? An anonymous commentator wrote...
My mother was a midwife and spent Christmases in lodgings and on her own when she came over from Ireland to train as a nurse in London.
So when she had a family and went back to working nights when we were young she was always aware of nurses who were far from home at Christmas.
This meant we regularly had nurses from Ireland, Jamaica, Nigeria or the Philippines for Christmas dinner.
So I grew up with this sense of nursing being something of a community and quite international.
Gillian Singleton remembers what nursing was like in the 1970s.
In April 1974, I applied to Leeds General Infirmary and was accepted for nurse training in the following November.
There were about 50 student nurses in my set and we started our training in the school of nursing where we spent six weeks studying anatomy and physiology, an introduction to some disease processes, emergency procedures...
...and the practical skills that would become so familiar to us (bed bathing, mobility assistance, and feeding).
After the six-week introductory period we were placed on the wards and exposed to some tyrannical ward sisters and matrons.
The learning curve was steep during our first three months on the wards. We discovered that it was difficult to bed bath five patients every morning before lunch exactly how they had advocated in school...
...that the emergency procedure was all very well if everyone could remain calm and that ‘last offices’ (the laying out of a dead person) was an extremely painful experience the first time we had to do it.
We were barely into our second year before we were put in charge of the wards on night duty, managing acutely ill patients and living in fear of our night sisters.
By the time we were in our third year we were being trained to give drugs and would be expected to oversee junior nurses whilst still learning new skills ourselves. ‘See one, do one, teach one’ was how we all learned.
Not all students nurses had a positive experience. In 1963, Maggs Latter flew from Hong Kong where she had been living, and headed to the UK and the Royal Free Hospital School of Nursing.
In Hong Kong she’d had an amah (girl or woman employed by a family to clean, look after children, and perform other domestic tasks) and so couldn’t iron or make a bed.
The six weeks training was hard work, with strange rules: don’t wear your hospital crested scarf, especially near men, because nurses were regarded as easy sexual conquests.
She was constantly aware of the lowly status of student nurses. When consultants came into the ward, students had to hide in the sluice.
One time she had lipstick on and was told by sister to...
scrub your painted face. Where do you think you are, a May Ball?
Men’s surgical wards were a hive of sexual innuendo from the patients, too. Eventually, feeling totally bemused, frightened of the responsibility, and thoroughly fed up, she handed in her resignation.
Fortunately for the NHS, between 1948 and 1973 thousands of people arrived in the UK from the Commonwealth. They were known as the ‘Windrush’ generation, derived from the ‘HMT Empire Windrush’ ship, which brought one of the first large groups of Caribbean people to the UK. Many of these people took up jobs in the NHS.
Veriline Vassell made the journey from Jamaica.
I answered the call for nurses by the United Kingdom and flew to England in the early 1960s.
I was employed as an auxiliary nurse at the Royal Hospital Wolverhampton before spending 25 years at New Cross Hospital and finally Penn Hospital.
I worked on the geriatric ward. This ward was exclusively for the elderly.
I was shocked to find elderly ‘white’ people existing in sometimes a state of degradation. Right here in the ‘mother land’, it never occurred to me that white people could live like this.
Every now and again, you’d encounter a patient who did not want to be treated by a ‘black’ nurse and would scream out loud if you came near.
Get your hands off me.
Some patients could be really unkind with their words and actions but I learnt eventually to shrug it off. Fortunately this was not the norm.
Would you like a cup of tea?
Why, yes. Thank you, nurse.
The first time I saw snow was during a shift, my colleagues and patients were most amused when I inquired as to the location of the cotton field.
I mistook snowfall for cotton blowing on the wind. When they told me it was snow, I ran straight outside without a coat to feel it on my skin.
Bev Morris tells her story.
I came to this country (from Jamaica) on the 25th of October in 1966, with my mum, and joined my dad here – he came here in ’61. I arrived at Heathrow Airport.
I was only five years old and I remember thinking...
Oh my God, what’s going on, it’s really cold!
Bev’s mother became a mental health nurse in the NHS, moving later to midwifery, where she had a long career.
I think most of us had parents who wanted us to succeed and I thank that drove a lot of us to do what we wanted to do.
Bev Morris
Following her mother’s footsteps, Bev also became a nurse.
I worked in midwifery, worked in neurology, worked in elderly care. I worked in different areas around the hospital.
I worked in mental health services for a couple of years, became an assistant manager in one of the dementia wards because that was my passion.
At times there were opportunities that were offered to ‘English people and Irish nurses’ but not black nurses. It meant she had to work twice as hard to be noticed.
Despite this institutional bias, Bev still achieved much in her career. She is currently Head of Service for Continuing Health Care at Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group).
A kind word by a good nurse can make all the difference. As a teenager Holly Winter was rushed into hospital with a migraine so severe that she begged her dad to kill her if the pain didn’t stop.
All the doctors thought I had a bleed on my brain or that I was having a stroke. I was about 17, I think, maybe 16.
I have this weird memory. I felt like I was under this huge sheet of ice, and there was this tiny crack in it that I could peek up through and listen to distant people and sounds, but they seemed miles away.
Everything under the ‘ice’ was swirly and weird, foggy. I couldn’t speak at all, and could only see out of one eye, and that was partial and distorted. I couldn’t move anything on the left-hand side of my body.
But the nurse who had been looking after me, held my hand and said to me...
Holly, I’m Sarah-Jane and I’ll be back tomorrow...
All night to the next day I replayed her voice in my head, ‘I’m Sarah-Jane and I’ll be back tomorrow’. That’s my most special NHS memory. I knew ‘Sarah-Jane’ was coming back to look after me.
EMMA QIAO TELLS HER FATHER’S STORY.
MY FATHER GIUSEPPE GIANCOLA WAS BORN IN SOUTHERN ITALY IN 1921 AND DIED IN ENGLAND IN 2001. HIS FAMILY WERE PEASANT FARMERS AND MY MOTHER (TERESA IACOBUCCI) WAS FROM THE SAME VILLAGE.
DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR, EMMA’S FATHER WAS A PRISONER OF WAR IN WALES, HAVING BEEN CAPTURED IN NORTH AFRICA.
AFTER THE WAR HE WORKED AS A MINER IN FRANCE BEFORE RETURNING TO THE UK TO WORK FOR A BRICK MAKING COMPANY IN THE MIDLANDS.
IN 1957 HE WAS KNOCKED OFF HIS BICYCLE BY A CAR RESULTING IN SEVERE FRACTURES TO HIS RIGHT LEG.
HE HAD SEVERAL OPERATIONS TO SAVE THE LEG, SPENDING MONTHS IN ONE OF THE NOTTINGHAM HOSPITALS. HIS RIGHT HAND WAS ATTACHED TO HIS RIGHT THIGH. THIS WAS DONE TO HELP GROW SKIN TISSUE FOR SKIN GRAFTING.
HE MADE A FULL RECOVERY ALBEIT WITH A SMALL LIMP, RETURNED TO WORK, AND STILL RODE A BICYCLE. HE WAS LEFT WITH TERRIBLE SCARS, BUT WAS ALWAYS GRATEFUL FOR ALL THE MEDICAL AND NURSING CARE HE RECEIVED.
My dad spent most of his life in England working in the local factory. Just as he retired he developed Parkinson’s disease at 65, and spent many years in and out of hospital.
I’ve got a bit of a shaky hand.
Emma ultimately became her parents’ carer in their later years.
The National Health Service gave them peace of mind. They understood that the taxes they paid made this service available to them. They would never have accepted charity.
Sadly at the end of their lives, the care they needed was difficult to access due to bureaucracy and an attitude that unless you knew what to ask or who to ask, you were on your own.
We encountered many caring, compassionate doctors and wonderful nurses, but also others who should never have been in the caring profession.
What was lacking was someone who actively supported the family as a whole unit. What we needed was someone who knew us as people, not just the next ‘family’.
What has made the NHS great are the individuals within the organisation who value its principles and apply them to their role, whether it’s the big wigs at the top, or the cheery tea lady.
Contributors also remind us that there is far more to the NHS than nurses or doctors. There are the porters, caterers, housekeepers, paramedics, laundry workers...
...administration, pharmaceutical and scientific staff. All of whom work to provide a service ‘from cradle to grave’.
Here an anonymous biomedical scientist describes a typical working day.
We would start at 9am. There were about 20 staff in the main lab, with maybe 20 more in other parts of clinical chemistry.
Checking, starting up, and calibrating the analytical machines was the main job. Once the machines were running it was a case of starting to load samples from the previous day to process them.
As the day progressed samples would start to come in from the wards and GP surgeries. As samples were completed they needed filing away in racks in a cold room.
At the end of the day most machines were closed by 5pm. Although some of the machines that were processing the bulk of the GP work were kept running until 7pm.
The biochemist described how things had changed in the NHS over the years.
In 1972 there was fun, there was a community, there was a sense of belonging. It’s impossible to say when this changed – possibly in the mid-1980s – or why it changed.
Some have said that in the laboratory world this was due to increasing awareness of safety, or financial scrutiny.
In truth it was probably just society changing. People no longer lived as close to where they worked as they once did, and no longer wanted to socialise around the workplace.
Another big change was that far fewer staff used public transport. You didn’t speak to them on their way to and from work. They began to get cocooned in their cars.
Stress caused by NHS restructuring pushed this worker into early retirement.
The NHS was the core of my being from the time I left school until I retired. When I left work I felt that my core had been completely removed.
I felt, when I had to retire, that the NHS had betrayed me, let me down, and had thrown 39 years of service in my face.
The NHS is not perfect. Attempts to fragment and privatise the NHS have undermined its core values. Yet, despite this, public pride and confidence in the NHS remains high.
In 2018, when the NHS turned 70, more than two-thirds of respondents in a YouGov poll said they considered the establishment of the institution to be Britain’s greatest achievement.*
Positive views of the NHS and its workers only increased during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
NHS staff showed astonishing selflessness and commitment, despite the exhausting hours and the life-threatening risks they faced just by going to work.
The pandemic has only emphasised how essential the NHS remains to the nation’s health, and what it could achieve with more effective support and planning.
Maggie Keenan from Coventry received the world’s first COVID vaccine outside of a clinical trial, from NHS matron May Parsons, one of the many migrants who kept the NHS running throughout the epidemic.
Since 1948, the NHS has cared for UK residents free at the point of delivery, funded by taxes we all pay: it offers healthcare as a human right, not a commodity. This commitment has been threatened by budget cuts...
...barriers to accessing care, and pressure to privatise some services. But the principle that no person should be penalised for falling ill has been at the heart of the NHS since its foundation, and the British public remains committed to it today.
The NHS is the largest employer in the UK, directly employing 1.6 million people – more if we count GPs and other contractors. NHS workers, like NHS patients, are diverse and multicultural.
The NHS has become part of British identity. Over the decades it has grown into a symbol, integral to the way we see ourselves and how we want to see our nation: as compassionate and fair.
None of the people portrayed in this book mentioned money as a motive. Whatever they do, NHS workers often express a strong need to help others and patients usually trust that care is apportioned according to their needs and not their means.
This is because, despite its failings and limitations, people are attracted to the values of the NHS. Long may this continue.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL OF THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THE PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE NHS, AND ESPECIALLY THOSE – BOTH NAMED AND ANONYMOUS – WHO HAVE KINDLY ALLOWED US TO USE THEIR STORIES HERE.
WE ARE GRATEFUL TO OUR PARTNERS JENNIFER JONES-RIGBY AT THE HEALTH EXCHANGE (WWW.HEALTHEXCHANGE.ORG.UK/) AND DONNA MIGHTY AT SANDWELL AND WEST BIRMINGHAM HOSPITALS [SWBH] NHS TRUST, WHO HELPED US HEAR OFTEN-SILENCED NHS WORKERS AND USERS. THANKS ALSO TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF SWBH AND ARTIST INÉS ELSA DALAL (WWW.INESELSA.COM)’S ‘HERE TO STAY’ PORTRAIT PROJECT, FEATURED ON PAGES 12-14. ALL ARTWORK BY DARRYL CUNNINGHAM. THANKS TO BONNIE MILLARD FOR TECHNICAL ADVICE.
MANY STORIES IN THIS BOOK WOULD HAVE REMAINED UNTOLD WITHOUT THE ‘CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE NHS’ TEAM (ROBERTA BIVINS, MATTHEW THOMSON, JENNIFER CRANE, HANNAH ELIZABETH, GEORGE GOSLING, JANE HAND, NATALE MANN, JACK SAUNDERS, AND ESPECIALLY ROSEMARY CRESSWELL); HONORARY MEMBERS ANDREW BURCHELL, ED DEVANE, GARETH MILLWARD, AND CHRIS SIRRS; AND THE ‘NHS TRIBES’.
THE ‘PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE NHS’ HAS BEEN GENEROUSLY FUNDED BY THE WELLCOME TRUST. YOU CAN READ MORE AT PEOPLESHISTORYNHS.ORG
SOURCES:
HOUSE OF COMMONS LIBRARY, BLACK MATERNAL HEALTHCARE AND MORTALITY DEBATE PACK, 14 APRIL 2021. HTTPS://RESEARCH-BRIEFINGS.FILES.PARLIAMENT.UK/DOCUMENTS/CDP-2021-0055/CDP-2021-0055.PDF
YOUGOV SURVEY RESULTS, 26 FEBRUARY 2018 HTTPS://D25D2506SFB94S.CLOUDFRONT.NET/CUMULUS_UPLOADS/DOCUMENT/IOPAHHGV564/INTERNALRESULTS_180208_FEMINISM_SUFFRAGETTES_W.PDF
THANK YOU
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One, Three, Five, HELP
Author: Kuzhali Manickavel
Illustrator: Sonal Gupta Vaswani
The coconut beetle loves to count. He is counting petals now.
One, two, three, four – THUMP!
“Ladybug!” he shouts. “Can you flip me over, please?”
The ladybug pushes and huffs and puffs. But she can’t flip the coconut beetle over.
"Cicadas!" she calls out.
Three cicadas come to help. The coconut beetle counts his friends. "One, two, three, four. Four is an even number!"
Four insects push and huff and puff. But they can’t flip the coconut beetle over.
$1+3=4$
"Lily moths!" calls the ladybug.
Five lily moths come to help. The coconut beetle counts his friends. "Nine of you to help me. Nine is an odd number!"
Nine insects push and huff and puff. But they can’t flip the coconut beetle over.
4+5=9
Seven jumping spiders come to help.
TUP TUP TUP.
The coconut beetle counts his friends. “Now there are sixteen. Even number!”
Sixteen friends push and huff and PUFF. But they can’t flip the coconut beetle over.
9+7=16
“Call the lacewings!” shouts the ladybug. Nine lacewings come to help.
“Woohoo, that makes twenty-five,” says the tired coconut beetle. “Twenty-five is an…”
“…ODD NUMBER!” shout the twenty-five friends.
16+9=25
Twenty-five friends PUSH and HUFF and PUFF and... FLIP!
At last, they flip over the coconut beetle.
Even numbers end with any one of these digits
0, 2, 4, 6 or 8
Odd numbers end with any one of these digits
1, 3, 5, 7 or 9.
Count the number of odd things and even things on this page.
Do you get an even number or an odd number when you add them?
Odd number + Even number =?
Even number + Even number =?
Odd number + Odd number =?
This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories - provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link.
Story Attribution:
This story: One, Three, Five, HELP is written by Kuzhali Manickavel. © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Other Credits:
'One, Three, Five, Help!' has been published on StoryWeaver by Pratham Books. The development of this book has been supported by CISCO. www.prathambooks.org Guest Editor: Mala Kumar
Images Attributions:
Cover page: A coconut beetle and a ladybug by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 2: A coconut beetle standing upright by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 3: A coconut beetle on its back by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 4: A coconut beetle, ladybug and cicadas by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 5: A coconut beetle, ladybug, cicadas and lily moths by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 6: A coconut tree and some plants by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 7: A coconut beetle, ladybug, cicadas, lily moths and jumping spiders by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 8: The plants in a garden by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 9: A coconut beetle, ladybug, cicadas, lily moths, jumping spiders and lacewings by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 10: Many insects in a garden by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Page 11: Some plants and flowers in a garden by Sonal Gupta Vaswani © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
Disclaimer: https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions
Some rights reserved. This book is CC-BY-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The development of this book has been supported by CISCO.
This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories - provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following [link](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
**Images Attributions:**
Page 12: [A frame with insects around it](https://www.storyweaver.org.in/stories/16589), by [Sonal Gupta Vaswani](https://www.storyweaver.org.in/authors/137) © Pratham Books, 2018. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
**Disclaimer:** [https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions](https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions)
Some rights reserved. This book is CC-BY-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
The development of this book has been supported by CISCO.
One, Three, Five, HELP
(English)
A coconut beetle loves to count. He loves to spot patterns of odd numbers and even numbers. One day, he falls on his back. How many friends come to help him? An odd number of friends or an even number of friends?
This is a Level 2 book for children who recognize familiar words and can read new words with help.
Pratham Books goes digital to weave a whole new chapter in the realm of multilingual children's stories. Knitting together children, authors, illustrators and publishers. Folding in teachers, and translators. To create a rich fabric of openly licensed multilingual stories for the children of India and the world. Our unique online platform, StoryWeaver, is a playground where children, parents, teachers and librarians can get creative. Come, start weaving today, and help us get a book in every child's hand! | ee289466-a62b-4c19-88fa-d91e3b0a687e | CC-MAIN-2025-05 | https://bookspring.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/One-three-five-help-level-1.pdf | 2025-01-16T04:29:50+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2025-05/segments/1736703362293.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20250116035220-20250116065220-00340.warc.gz | 142,006,107 | 1,711 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.904383 | eng_Latn | 0.993455 | [
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Idita-Boxes Tinkering Along the Trail
Developed by: Jen Reiter, 2014 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™, created February, 2018
Discipline / Subject: Maker Space/ Design Thinking/ STEM/ STEAM/ Engineering
Topic: Tinkering Boxes
Grade Level: 1-5 – Others with modification
Resources / References / Materials Teacher Needs:
Design Thinking in the Classroom: http://ajuliani.com/the-beginners-guide-to-design-thinking-in-the-classroom/
Iditarod Then and Now: http://iditarod.com/edu/then-and-now/
Jon Van Zyle story to share (included)
To Assemble Idita- Boxes:
• Plastic boxes to house materials, clear boxes with lids work best
• Various building materials (See Procedural Activities #1 for list of suggested items)
To Assemble Artifact Card Rings:
• Powerpoint with artifact pictures (print slides two or four to a page)
• Binder rings
Lesson Summary: Students will be provided materials to try to build various artifacts associated with the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. This activity is great for bell ringer, early finishers, indoor recess, or free time the students have.
Standards Addressed: (Local, State, or National)
Next Generation Science Standards: Engineering Design
3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
Learning Objectives:
TLW plan and carry out a building challenge.
Assessment:
Students can display their work in a classroom “Idita-vation Studio.”
Students can self assess themselves using the included checklist.
Teachers can assess the students using the same checklist.
Procedural Activities:
Teachers PRIOR to launching activity:
1. Create a series of Tinker Tubs. Each tub should hold a specific building material. Suggested materials for tubs include:
- Foam balls and toothpicks
- Dominoes
- Wooden planks (I use carpenter pencils)
- Paper towel rolls (cut in various lengths)
- Dixie cups
- Magnetic blocks
- Popsicle sticks
- Clothes pins
- Index cards and tape
- Legos
- Pattern blocks
- Unifix cubes
- Toothpicks and playdough
- Popsicle sticks with Velcro dots
- Geoboards
- Straws with pipecleaners
2. Print and laminate the included task cards. Punch a hole in the corner and store them on a binder ring. You want to have as many rings as you have boxes, but all of the rings do not have to have all of the cards. Four or five cards per ring is plenty.
Introducing the Idita-Boxes to Your Students:
1. Share with your students the idea that the Iditarod is a constantly changing event and that its racers are more than just mushers, they are inventors, innovators and tinkers as well. They are constantly building, testing, and rebuilding the objects they need to be successful in the race.
2. Share with the students the included story from Jon Van Zyle and ask them to identify three changes in the race that he mentions. (Answer: the way the trail is marked, Golovin is not a check point anymore, and mushers staying at people’s homes) The Iditarod Then and Now Article referenced in the teacher resources section above discusses some other changes that Jon Van Zyle has seen happen in the race.
3. Tell the students that they are going to have the chance to tinker around with some Iditarod objects and maybe even redesign or improve some of them.
4. Discuss the directions, challenges, and rules about the Idita-Boxes as you have set them for your class. My class standards are included.
5. Distribute the boxes and a ring of cards to small group of students. Allow them to look through the cards on the ring and identify an object they would like to tinker with. They need to complete a Mini-Design Challenge Sheet to help them organize their thoughts before beginning to build. Using the materials found in their Idita-Box they should create a model or version of the object.
6. If time allows, students can do a gallery walk to see what other students have created.
Materials Students Need:
Idita-Boxes
Rings of Artifact Cards
Mini-Design Challenge Sheets
Technology Utilized to Enhance Learning:
Other Information:
Possible uses for the Idita-Boxes after the initial introduction period:
• Centers
• Bell Ringer activities
• Early finishers
• Indoor recess
Modifications for Special Learners/ Enrichment Opportunities:
• Younger students could not be required to complete the Design Thinking Sheet
• Students could expand their reflections through writing a descriptive paragraph of their creation.
• As an occasional bonus challenge, allow students to combine boxes and use materials from both in their design.
• To make the challenge more difficult, you can add additional parameters such as: you have to use ALL the materials in the box, your design has to be three-dimensional, your design has to be able to be picked up off the table in one piece, etc.
Additional Information:
Photo Credits:
• Snow Machine – Terrie Hanke
• Dryland Cart – Kathleen Wied Vincent
• All Others – Jen Reiter
A Story from Jon Van Zyle
In my first Iditarod in 1976, we had no real marked trail and everyone got lost a lot. There were very few markers, most of them were an ax blaze on a tree, or a ribbon tied to a bush; impossible to see at night or if it was snowing. Not like the trail of today that is marked with 30,000 painted, reflected lath strips!
On my way to the checkpoint at Golovin, in the wind blown snow and dark night, I climbed a steep hill, nicknamed "Little McKinley." Once on top, I looked for a trail across the sea ice to Golovin, but it was so windy that I could not see one. Finally I decided to wait till daylight to be able to see Golovin. Suddenly I saw a light come on in a house in Golovin, and so I pointed my dogs towards the light and arrived about an hour later at Maggie Olson's home in Golovin.
In my second Iditarod in 1979, as I was coming into McGrath for my 24 hour stop, down a road towards the check point, Belle, my leader suddenly turned into a drive way of a house. I stopped and gave her the command to haw. She turned back onto the road, took a few steps and immediately turned back into the driveway of the house. I stopped her again, gave her another haw command. She turned back onto the road and we continued down the road to the checkpoint. After checking in, I asked the checker who I was staying with (back in the early years of Iditarod, mushers could stay with families and friends during their 24 hour stop, not so today). The checker looked at me and said, "Just tell your leader to go back to the house she turned into, she knew where you were staying." Dogs have an uncanny sense.
Idita-Box Manual
1. Materials from the different Idita-Boxes are not to be mixed unless specifically directed to do so.
2. Before you begin designing, be sure to fill out a Design Thinking sheet. Your final design may be different than your original plan, but you must THINK before you BUILD!
3. Document your final creations in SeeSaw with a photo and a caption. You may also choose to do a voice-over to document your thinking.
4. If you create something you are especially proud of, you may display it in the Idita-vation Museum for two days. After that your project needs to be dismantled and returned to the boxes so someone else can use the materials!
5. Everything must be cleaned up and put away after each use.
Labels for Boxes
Foam Balls & Toothpicks
Dominoes
Wooden Planks
Paper Towel Rolls
Magnetic Blocks
Dixie Cups
Straws & Pipecleaners
Clothes Pins
Index Cards & Tape
Legos
Pattern Blocks
Base Ten Blocks
Unifix Cubes
Geoboards
Toothpicks & Playdough
Velcro Sticks
Popsicle Sticks
Mini-Design Challenge Sheet
Define:
What are you designing?
Ideate:
Brainstorm many possibilities!
Prototype:
Sketch and label your design!
Mini-Design Challenge Scoring Tool
Think carefully about your work on this mini-design challenge and thoughtfully respond to the following statements by putting a check in the correct box.
| Objective: | I did my best ALL of the time. | I did my best MOST of the time. | I need to work on this area. |
|------------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------|-----------------------------|
| I contributed to the team (if applicable). | | | |
| I exhibited scientific thinking by planning BEFORE I started building. | | | |
| I maintained a positive attitude and didn’t give up. | | | |
| I completed the building task. | | | |
| I recorded my prototype. | | | |
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The Ochils Landscape Partnership aims to protect and enhance the built, cultural and natural heritage of the Ochils and Hillfoots by working with local people to implement 22 different projects.
Some of these will improve access to the hills, glens and River Devon; a number will promote wildlife in the area; others will conserve our precious historic buildings and kirkyards; and several will boost our understanding of local history. You can get involved in all of the projects as we will be running events, walks and workshops, offering training and providing volunteering opportunities.
Go on... make a difference!
- Get out into the fresh air
- Learn about the local environment
- Meet new people
- Learn new skills
- Become a historical detective
- Make your mark by contributing to interpretation panels, leaflets and the website
- Help protect the precious built heritage of the Ochils and Hillfoots
How to get involved
Help to improve nature and the environment
- Carry out wildlife surveys
- Plant native trees and flowers
- Help to make path improvements
- Assist with the creation of wetlands
Discover local history
- Get involved in researching our natural, built and cultural heritage
- Help to conserve our buildings and kirkyards
- Take part in an archaeological dig
- Undertake gravestone data-recording
Get involved in creative media
- Help to compile a photographic record of local projects
- Write material for the website
- Create informative leaflets for the Hillfoots communities
- Design and develop interpretation materials
Learn new skills
- Learn how to research local and family history
- Get some training in dry stone walling
- Learn how to create and maintain paths
If you would like more information about the project or future volunteering opportunities, please fill in and detach the form below and return to us at: Ochils Landscape Partnership, c/o Kilncraigs, Greenside Street, Alloa FK10 1EB. Alternatively, you can email: firstname.lastname@example.org or call 01259 452675.
The 22 projects of the Ochils Landscape Partnership
Your Wee Bit Hill and Glen
1. **The Hillfoots Way** A new walking route along the foot of the Ochils from Blairlogie to Muckhart.
2. **Bonnie Blairlogie** Improvements to the car park and native species planting.
3. **Dumyat Paths** Improvements to the paths leading towards the summit of Dumyat.
4. **Menstrie Glen Path improvements**, a viewing platform, repairs to the walls and a bridge.
5. **Alva Glen** Promotion of biodiversity, installation of lighting, path improvements, creation of a ‘sensory’ garden and provision of artwork in the lower glen.
6. **Ochils Woodland Park** Improvements to the car park and paths, and enhancement of biodiversity.
7. **Tillcoultry Glen** Improvements to access, scrub clearance and restoration of the fountain.
8. **Dollar Glen** Archaeological dig on the site above Castle Campbell.
9. **Restoration of Mill Green** Clearance of overgrown scrub to improve access to Dollar Burn.
10. **Dollar Burn Education** Installation of a dipping platform and production of educational materials for the primary school.
11. **Dollar Burn Water Race** Restoration/conservation of the stepped water race, and installation of a fish pass.
12. **Muckhart Nature Park** Planting of native trees, shrubs and wildflowers to enhance the habitat; creation of a wetland area and a waymarked trail.
13. **Control of Bracken** Systematic control of bracken in areas along the south face of the Ochils.
By the Banks of the Devon
1. **Devon Trail** A waymarked route along the River Devon from Glenfoot to Vicar’s Bridge.
2. **Reinstatement of Natural Wetlands** Re-instatement of wetlands to improve biodiversity.
3. **Riverbank Stabilisation** Stabilisation of the banks of the Devon by removing a gravel bai and tree debris and constructing a berm.
4. **Control of Alien Species** Systematic control of invasive Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed along the River Devon.
The Hills of Time
1. **Ochils Orientation** Working with volunteers to research the area’s built, cultural and social past. Creation of on-site and innovative online interpretive materials.
2. **Ochils Festival** A festival each June – fun events, walks and discovery sessions. Something for everyone!
3. **Historic Kirkyards** Conservation of the historic kirkyards, including biodiversity and gravestone data-recording surveys.
4. **Mining and Minerals** Promotion of the industrial heritage of the Ochils area by improving paths to and interpretation at the silver mines near Alva.
5. **Alva Ice House** Conservation of this historic underground ice house originally part of Alva House, of which little remains. A young people’s archaeology project. | <urn:uuid:efd30240-3860-4388-a365-63cdcf302932> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | http://www.ochils.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/OLP-A3GenInfoNewLogoWeb.pdf | 2018-10-18T14:56:29Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583511872.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20181018130914-20181018152414-00308.warc.gz | 524,417,779 | 1,040 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.99462 | eng_Latn | 0.995569 | [
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Delivering Timely Environmental Information to Your Community
The Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network (BASIN)
EMPACT
Environmental Monitoring for Public Access & Community Tracking
Disclaimer
This document has been reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation of their use.
Delivering Timely Environmental Information to Your Community
The Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network (BASIN)
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
National Risk Management Research Laboratory
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Recycled/Recyclable
Printed with vegetable-based ink on paper that contains a minimum of 50% post-consumer fiber content processed chlorine free
Dr. Dan Petersen of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Risk Management Laboratory, served as principal author of this handbook and managed its development with support of Pacific Environmental Services, Inc., an EPA contractor. The following contributing authors represent the BASIN team and provided valuable assistance for the development of the handbook:
**BASIN Team**
- Larry Barber, United States Geological Survey (USGS), Boulder, Colorado
- Michael Caplan, City of Boulder
- Gene Dilworth, City of Boulder, Colorado
- Tammy Fiebelkorn, City of Boulder, Colorado
- Mark McCaffrey, NOAA
- Sheila Murphy, USGS, Boulder, Colorado
- Chris Rudkin, City of Boulder, Colorado
- Donna Scott, City of Boulder, Colorado
- Jim Waterman, Enfo.com
- Jim Heaney, University of Colorado, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering
The BASIN Team would like to extend a special thanks to the following Boulder Community Network (BCN) Staff and Volunteers for their efforts in making the BASIN project a success:
**BCN Staff**
- Brenda Ruth, Jim Harrington, Karen Kos, and Joelle Bonnett
**Web Design & Architecture**
- Paul von Behren, Phil Nugent, Linda Mark, Bob Echelmeier, Chad Wardrop, Sean McGhie, Juditha Ohlmacher, Richard Fozzard, Roy Olsen, Mike Meshek, Irv Stern, and Deb Miller
**GIS Group**
- Steve Wanner
**Resource Discovery Group**
- Janne Cookman, Jeff Roush, and Paul Tiger
**Outreach**
- Alice Gasowski, Brenda Ruth, Michael Benidt, Brad Segal, Michael Caplan, and Tom Mayberry
**Treasure Map Developer**
- Dani Bundy
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 EMPACT Overview 3
1.3 BASIN EMPACT Project 4
1.4 EMPACT Metropolitan Areas 9
2. HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK 11
3. BASIN EMPACT PROJECT 13
3.1 Boulder Creek Watershed Characteristics 13
3.2 Sustainability 15
3.3 Timely Environmental Data 19
3.4 The Boulder Creek Millenium Baseline Study 26
4. COLLECTING, TRANSFERRING, AND MANAGING TIMELY ENVIRONMENTAL DATA 29
4.1 System Overview 29
4.2 Data Collection 30
4.3 Data Analysis 32
4.4 Data Transfer 36
4.5 Quality Assurance/Quality Control 39
5. DATA PRESENTATION 41
5.1 What is Data Presentation? 41
5.2 BASIN Spatial Data Catalog 42
5.3 Generating Data Presentations 45
5.4 Water Quality Index (WQI) Computation and Display 50
5.5 Conclusions 51
6. COMMUNICATING TIMELY ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION 53
6.1 Developing an Outreach Plan for Disseminating Timely Environmental Monitoring Data 53
6.2 Elements of the BASIN Project’s Outreach Program 60
6.3 Resources for Presenting Environmental Information to the Public 66
6.4 Success Stories 73
6.5 Most Frequently Asked Questions and Answers 75
CONTENTS (continued)
APPENDIX A A-1
Glossary of Terms & Acronym List
APPENDIX B B-1
BASIN News Newsletter
APPENDIX C C-1
Other Printed Promotional Material for BASIN
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
BASIN, the Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network, began as a two year pilot project designed to deliver a variety of environmental information about the Boulder, Colorado area to its inhabitants. As an ongoing model for the localization of socio-ecological data and information, BASIN seeks to improve public access and understanding of environmental information by fostering a collaborative partnership between researchers, data collectors, educators and the general public and actively seeks community involvement in information development and learning and services activities. [Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/main/about.html]
Note!
The Colorado BASIN project should not be confused with the Environmental Protection Agency's BASINS (Better Assessment Science Integration Point and Nonpoint Sources) Modeling Course. The BASINS Modeling Course is a watershed training course offered by the EPA’s Office of Wetlands, Oceans, & Watershed. Please see http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/BASINS/ for more information about BASINS.
BASIN project components include:
- **Data Providers** - agencies who either actively provided data to BASIN or had relevant environmental data available on the Web. BASIN utilized data collected by the following agencies:
- City of Boulder, Drinking Water Program
- City of Boulder, Storm Water Quality Program
- City of Longmont
- Colorado Air Pollution Control Division
- Colorado’s River Watch Program
- SNOwpack TELemetry (SNOTEL)
- United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Information Collection, Management and Delivery - a system to maintain environmental data and to establish and maintain communication links. The key agencies responsible for this effort are as follows:
- City of Boulder
- enfo.com, Colorado
Communications - led by the Communications Coordinator, this component of BASIN served to communicate information about environmental conditions and to facilitate community and school-based participation in new and existing environmental programs. General content and background materials on the BASIN Web site, the BASIN Newsletter, BASIN Television and CD-ROM programs, and other education and outreach materials were developed through BASIN Communications. The following agencies were responsible for developing the ECOSOURCE material:
- City of Boulder
- Boulder Community Network
- Boulder Valley School District
- Community Access TV
For the purposes of this Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) project, the “Boulder area” is defined as the St. Vrain Watershed, a 993 square mile region that extends from the Continental Divide to the High Plains and includes over 285,000 people [Source: http://www.bococivicforum.org/indicators/people/05.html].
Figure 1.1 St. Vrain Watershed.
Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/watershed/address.html
The BASIN project was one of eight EMPACT projects funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Research and Development (ORD) in 1998. The EMPACT program was created to introduce new technologies that make it possible to provide timely environmental information to the public.
1.2 EMPACT Overview
This handbook offers step-by-step instructions about how to provide a variety of timely environmental information including water quality data to your community. It was developed by the EPA’s EMPACT program. EMPACT is working with the 150 largest metropolitan areas and Native American Tribes in the country to help communities in these areas:
- Collect, manage, and distribute timely environmental information.
- Provide residents with easy-to-understand information they can use in making informed, day-to-day decisions.
To make this and other EMPACT projects more effective, partnerships with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the USGS were developed. EPA works closely with these federal agencies to help achieve nationwide consistency in measuring environmental data, managing the information, and delivering it to the public.
To date, environmental information projects have been initiated in 84 of the 150 EMPACT-designated metropolitan areas and Native American Tribes. These projects cover a wide range of environmental issues, including water quality, groundwater contamination, smog, ultraviolet radiation, and overall ecosystem quality. Some of these projects were initiated directly by EPA, while others were launched by EMPACT communities themselves. Local governments from any of the 150 EMPACT metropolitan areas and Native American Tribes are eligible to apply for EPA-funded Metro Grants to develop their own EMPACT projects. The 150 EMPACT metropolitan areas and Native American Tribes are listed in the table at the end of this chapter.
Communities selected for Metro Grant awards are responsible for building their own timely environmental monitoring and information delivery systems. To find out how to apply for a Metro Grant, visit the EMPACT Web site at http://www.epa.gov/empact/apply.htm.
One such Metro Grant recipient is the BASIN Project. The project provides the public with a variety of timely environmental information about the Boulder area including weather, stream flow, water quality, snow pack, and toxic release data, as well as an extensive compilation of supplemental information to provide interpretive context for the environmental data.
1.3 BASIN EMPACT Project
1.3.1 Overview/Approach
The primary goal of BASIN was to help Boulder area residents make meaningful connections between environmental data and their daily activities and enable involvement in the development of public policy, especially as it relates to the local environment. The BASIN project focused on critical local and regional environmental issues that pertained to the Boulder Creek Watershed.
The data provided on the BASIN Web site were selected by the BASIN Project team based on the following criteria:
- Significance of the data to the local community/environment,
- Availability of the data,
- Interest to the local community,
- Feasibility for putting the data on the Web site, and
- Sensitivity of the data (e.g., controversial data)
There are three classifications of data available on the BASIN Web site.
- Data links to other Web sites (e.g., SNOTEL, weather, toxic releases, and stream flow) where BASIN did not have any principal relations with the data providers and had no influence on the collection, analysis, or quality control of the data.
- Acquired data, where BASIN dealt with the data providers but had no direct influence on the data collection or quality control of the data (e.g., River Watch data and City of Longmont).
- Direct data, where BASIN had an interactive relationship with the data provider and had input on the data format, collection protocols, and QA/QC (i.e., City of Boulder’s drinking water and storm water data and USGS data).
The BASIN approach emphasizes “timely” information over “real-time” data. Acquiring and delivering “real-time” data involves a high frequency of data sampling, transmission, and display. Costs are proportionately higher and tend to reduce other aspects of a project accordingly. Therefore, high frequency data presentation should only be incorporated when it is essential to the usefulness of the data. In many applications, “timely” data may provide the same desirable features as “real-time” data. For the BASIN project, “timely” means the most current available data set, presented with the appropriate supporting contextual information. This approach avoids the problems associated with static data sets that quickly become outdated, but avoids the higher maintenance costs associated with “real-time” data delivery.
1.3.2 BASIN EMPACT Project Team
The BASIN Project team consists of both principal and collaborative partners. The principal BASIN partners are as follows: [http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/adm/contributors.html]
- City of Boulder - provided overall project coordination as well as drinking water and storm water monitoring data.
- enfo.com. - directed design and development of the BASIN Information Management System and provided technical coordination of Web site design and development (see http://www.enfo.com).
- Mark McCaffrey - Communications Coordinator for the BASIN Project. As an environmental educator and co-founder of the Boulder Creek Watershed Initiative, Mark was involved with developing the original BASIN EMPACT proposal and, as Communications Coordinator, assisted in establishing the network of both principal and collaborative partners for the BASIN project.
- University of Colorado Department of Civil Engineering and Architectural Engineering - served as one of the initial EMPACT grant writers; developed data collection and interpretation strategies for the integrated water quality component; and studied residential water use.
- USGS/Dr. Larry Barber - provided data collection, analysis and interpretation guidance and participated in the development of the Boulder Creek Millennium Baseline data collection program.
- Michael Caplan - Community liaison and team facilitation.
Collaborative Partners include the following:
- Boulder Community Network.
- Boulder County Healthy Communities Initiative.
- Boulder County Health Department.
- Boulder Creek Watershed Initiative.
- Boulder Valley School District.
- Colorado Division of Wildlife-River Watch Network.
- Community Access Television.
- United States Geological Survey
1.3.3 Project Costs
Overall - The costs to conduct a monitoring project similar to the BASIN Project can vary significantly. Factors affecting the cost include, but are not limited to, the size and location of your study area, the types of information available from potential collaborative partners, the number and types of parameters you want to measure, the number of personnel needed to collect and analyze the data, the number of samples to collect, the amount of new equipment which will need to be purchased, etc. For the BASIN project, the BASIN team purchased a Sun SPARC Database Server Platform for $10,000.
The BASIN team originally submitted an EMPACT Metro Grant Application/Proposal for $600,000. However, due to limited EMPACT resources, the BASIN project was funded the reduced budget of $400,000 for two years beginning in January 1999. Provided below is brief discussion of the primary project components of the BASIN project. Figure 1.2 provides the budget expenditures for the BASIN’s monitoring project. [Source: BASIN Project 2000 Annual Report, dated January 30, 2001]
**Information Management System (IMS)** - effort included developing data provider partnerships, identifying IMS software requirements, implementing IMS system, development of the bibliographic database and supporting user interface, development of an event calendar database and user interface, development of a photograph database and user interface, maintenance of timely data acquisition and display protocols, providing e-mail forum support, and general maintenance of the BASIN Web site. This effort comprised approximately 26 percent of the $400,000 project budget.
Communications - effort included Web site design; assistance in the development of video productions about BASIN and Boulder Creek, publishing the bi-monthly *BASIN NEWS* newsletter, hosting on-line discussion regarding drought, fires, and floods, and developing specific learning activities and promoting BASIN in local schools. This effort comprised approximately 24 percent of the $400,000 project budget.
Data Analysis - effort included collecting, compiling, and analyzing existing water quality data, as well as developing a protocol to transmit the QA/QC validated data to the Web site. Monthly data for 17 parameters measured along Boulder creeks were made available on the BASIN Web site. This effort also included the compilation of a 450-item Boulder Creek Watershed Bibliography which can be queried via the BASIN Web site (see IMS) and the development of an extensive list of household hazards and environmentally benign alternatives. This effort comprised approximately 17 percent of the $400,000 project budget.
Urban Storm Runoff - effort included developing a better understanding of micro-scale runoff relationships at a small-scale urban site, developing an overall water balance model of a small urban site, and developing a process level understanding of the residential water use. This effort comprised approximately 23 percent of the $400,000 project budget.
Project Management - effort included maintaining communications with grant agency, project managers, and all BASIN participants, administering grant and subcontractor contracts and correspondence, maintaining EPA approved Grant Management Filing System, serving as a liaison between granting agency and city; providing oversight of the Environmental Index development process, and producing the *BASIN NEWS* newsletter. This effort comprised approximately 10 percent of the $400,000 project budget.
### 1.3.4 EMPACT Project Objectives
Overall BASIN project objectives include the following:
- Improve existing environmental monitoring to provide credible, timely and usable information about the watershed to the public.
- Create a state-of-the-art information management and public access infrastructure using advanced, web-based computer technologies.
- Build strong partnerships and an ongoing alliance of governmental, educational, non-profit and private entities involved in watershed monitoring, management, and education.
Develop education and communication programs to effectively utilize watershed information in the public media and schools and facilitate greater public involvement in public policy formation.
1.3.5 Technology Transfer Handbook
The Technology Transfer and Support Division of the EPA’s ORD National Risk Management Research Laboratory initiated development of this handbook to help interested communities learn more about the BASIN Project. The handbook also provides technical information communities need to develop and manage their own timely watershed monitoring, data visualization, and information dissemination programs. ORD, working with the BASIN Project team, produced this handbook to leverage EMPACT’s investment in the project and minimize the resources needed to implement similar projects in other communities.
Both print and CD_ROM versions of the handbook are available for direct on-line ordering from EPA’s ORD Technology Transfer Web site at http://www.epa.gov/ttnnrml. You can also order a copy of the handbook (print or CD-ROM version) by contacting ORD Publications by telephone or by mail at:
EPA ORD Publications
USEPA-NCEPI
P.O. Box 42419
Cincinnati, OH 45242
Phone: (800) 490-9198 or (513) 489-8190
Note!
Please make sure that you include the title of the handbook and the EPA document number in your request.
We hope you find the handbook worthwhile, informative, and easy to use. We welcome your comments, and you can send them by e-mail from EMPACT’s Web site at http://www.epa.gov/empact/comment.htm.
1.4 EMPACT Metropolitan Areas
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
Albuquerque, NM
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA
Anchorage, AK
Appleton-Oshkosh-Neenah, WI
Atlanta, GA
Augusta-Aiken, GA-SC
Austin-San Marcos, TX
Bakersfield, CA
Baton Rouge, LA
Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX
Billings, MT
Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula, MS
Binghamton, NY
Birmingham, AL
Boise City, ID
Boston-Worcester-Lawrence-MA-NH-ME-CT
Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX
Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY
Burlington, VT
Canton-Massillon, OH
Charleston-North Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC
Chattanooga, TN-GA
Cheyenne, WY
Chicago-Gary-Kenosha, IL-IN-WI
Cincinnati-Hamilton, OH-KY-IN
Cleveland, Akron, OH
Colorado Springs, CO
Columbia, SC
Columbus, GA-AL
Columbus, OH
Corpus, Christie, TX
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL
Dayton-Springfield, OH
Daytona Beach, FL
Denver-Boulder-Greeley, CO
Des Moines, IA
Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, MI
Duluth-Superior, MN-WI
El Paso, TX
Eric, PA
Eugene-Springfield, OR
Evansville-Henderson, IN-KY
Fargo-Moorhead, ND-MN
Fayetteville, NC
Fayetteville-Springfield-Rogers, AR
Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
Fort Myers-Cape Coral, FL
Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie, FL
Fort Wayne, IN
Fresno, CA
Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland, MI
Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, NC
Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC
Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, PA
Hartford, CT
Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir, NC
Honolulu, HI
Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, TX
Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
Huntsville, AL
Indianapolis, IN
Jackson, MS
Jacksonville, FL
Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA
Johnston, PA
Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, MI
Kansas City, MO-KS
Killeen-Temple, TX
Knoxville, TN
Lafayette, LA
Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL
Lancaster, PA
Lansing-East Lansing, MI
Las Vegas, NV-AZ
Lexington, KY
Lincoln, NE
Little Rock-North Little Rock, AR
Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, CA
Louisville, KY-IN
Lubbock, TX
Macon, GA
Madison, WI
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay, FL
Memphis, TN-AR-MS
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL
Milwaukee-Racine, WI
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI
Mobile, AL
Modesto, CA
Montgomery, AL
Nashville, TN
New London-Norwich, CT-RI
New Orleans, LA
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT-PA
Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA-NC
Ocala, FL
Odessa-Midland, TX Oklahoma City, OK
Omaha, NE-IA
Orlando, FL
Pensacola, FL
Peoria-Pekin, IL
Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, PA-NJ-DE-MD
Phoenix-Mesa, AZ
Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, ME
Portland-Salem, OR-WA
Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA
Provo-Orem, UT
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
Reading, PA
Reno, NV
Richmond-Petersburg, VA
Roanoke, VA
Rochester, NY
Rockford, IL
Sacramento-Yolo, CA
Saginaw-Bay City-Midland, MI
St. Louis, MO-IL
Salinas, CA
Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT
San Antonio, TX
San Diego, CA
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA
San Juan-Caguas-Arecibo, PR
San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles, CA
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc, CA
Sarasota-Bradenton, FL
Savannah, GA
Scranton-Wilkes Barre-Hazleton, PA
Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton, WA
Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
Sioux Falls, SD
South Bend, IN
Spokane, WA
Springfield, MA
Springfield, MO
Stockton-Lodi, CA
Syracuse, NY
Tallahassee, FL
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
Toledo, OH
Tucson, AZ
Tulsa, OK Visalia-Tulare-Porterville, CA
Utica-Rome, NY
Washington-Baltimore, DC-MD-VA-WV
West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL
Wichita, KS
York, PA
Youngstown-Warren, OH
Federally recognized Native American Tribes
2. HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK
The remainder of this handbook provides you with step-by-step information on how to develop a program to provide timely environmental data to your community using the BASIN Project in the Boulder, Colorado area as a model. It contains detailed guidance on how to:
- Establish partnerships with community stakeholders and data collection organizations and collect supporting information sources.
- Prototype data management procedures and data presentation standards while formalizing data sharing partnerships.
- Present prototype systems to partner organizations and community stakeholders and gather feedback.
- Revise and update system to reflect feedback while expanding both data sharing partnerships and public outreach efforts.
- Chapter 3 provides information about gathering environmental monitoring data. The chapter begins with an overview of the BASIN watershed and discusses the importance of sustainability. The chapter then focuses on the types of data provided on the BASIN Web site and the environmental parameters that are monitored in the BASIN watershed.
- Chapter 4 provides information on how to collect, transfer, and manage timely environmental data. This chapter discusses the sources of the timely environmental data (i.e., who or which organization collects the data for the BASIN project) and the data transfer and management process. In particular, this chapter provides detailed information on collecting, transferring, and managing the data.
- Chapter 5 provides information about using data presentation tools to graphically depict the timely environmental monitoring data you have gathered. The chapter begins with a brief overview of data presentation. It then provides a more detailed introduction to selected data presentation tools utilized by the BASIN team. You might want to use these software tools to help analyze your data and in your efforts to provide timely environmental information to your community.
- Chapter 6 outlines the steps involved in developing an outreach plan to communicate information about environmental data in your community. It also provides information about the BASIN Project’s outreach efforts. The chapter includes a list of resources to help you develop easily understandable materials to communicate information about your timely environmental monitoring program to a variety of audiences.
This handbook is designed for decision-makers considering whether to implement a timely environmental monitoring program in their communities and for technicians responsible for implementing these programs. Managers and decision-makers likely will find the initial sections of, and most helpful. The latter sections of these chapters are targeted primarily at professionals and technicians and provide detailed “how to” information. Chapter 6 is designed for managers and communication specialists.
The handbook also refers you to supplementary sources of information, such as Web sites and guidance documents, where you can find additional guidance with a greater level of technical detail. The handbook also describes some of the lessons learned by the BASIN team in developing and implementing its timely environmental monitoring, data management, and outreach program.
3. BASIN EMPACT PROJECT
This chapter provides information about the BASIN watershed area, the importance of “sustainability,” and important parameters for measuring the health of a watershed. Understanding your area and knowing what it must provide is the first step in the process of generating timely environmental information and making it available to residents in your area.
The chapter begins with a broad overview of the “Boulder Area” watershed characteristics and discusses why sustainability is important. The chapter then discusses the various parameters which are monitored to measure the condition of the watershed.
Readers primarily interested in learning about watersheds and environmental sustainability should read Sections 3.1 and 3.2. Readers primarily interested in an overview of the types of environmental data that are available for a community should read Section 3.3.
3.1 Boulder Creek Watershed Characteristics
A watershed is the entire drainage area or basin feeding a stream or river. It includes surface water, groundwater, vegetation, and human structures. Watersheds vary in size from just a few acres to hundreds of square miles – and everyone lives in one. One of the main functions of a watershed is to temporarily store and transport water from the land surface to a water body (e.g., stream or river) and ultimately (for most watersheds) onward to the ocean. In addition to moving the water, watersheds and their water bodies also transport sediment and other materials (including pollutants), energy, and many types of organisms. Watersheds also recharge drinking water reservoirs within the watershed. [Source: http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/acad2000/ecology/ecology18.html]
Boulder Creek is a small watershed located in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, east of the Continental Divide in central Colorado. Boulder Creek is part of the Mississippi River Basin, and reaches the Mississippi River by way of the St. Vrain, South Platte, Platte, and Missouri Rivers. The watershed encompasses about 1100 km$^2$ (440 sq. mi.) and consists of two physiographic provinces. The upper basin, defined on the west by the Continental Divide, is part of the Southern Rocky Mountain Province. The lower basin, defined on the west by the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, is part of the Colorado Piedmont Section of the Great Plains Province. These regions differ significantly in topography, geology, and hydrology. The upper basin is composed primarily of Pre-Cambrian Age metamorphic and granitic rocks, which are very weather resistant, while the lower basin is dominated by sedimentary rocks, which are more easily eroded. In addition to the physiographic province delineations, land use has imprinted such a strong signal on the watershed that it can be further divided into five
regions: mountains, transportation corridor, urban, wastewater-dominated, and agricultural (Source: S.F. Murphy, P.L. Verplanck, and L.B. Barber, “Chemical Data for Water Samples Collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado, During High-Flow and Low-Flow Conditions, 2000,” to be submitted as a USGS Open File Report).
**Figure 3.1. Schematic of a Watershed.**
[Source: http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/win/what.html]
For the purposes of the EMPACT project, the “Boulder Area” is the St. Vrain Watershed. It encompasses a 993 square mile region that extends from the Continental Divide to the High Plains and includes approximately 285,000 people. The City of Boulder is the largest metropolitan area within the Boulder Creek Watershed. Other communities in the Boulder Creek Watershed include Nederland, Longmont, Louisville, and Lafayette.
West of Boulder there are prime snowmelt water supplies adjacent to abandoned and active mines, recreation areas, growing mountain communities and forest fire zones. Steep canyons above Boulder make it one of the state’s primary flood areas. Runoff from these canyons causes erosion and transports pollutants into Boulder’s creeks. East of the City, the land topography changes to a plains environment where there are dramatic changes in the water flow patterns and ecosystem. At this point, Boulder Creek becomes heavily impacted by the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. [Source: 1998 EMPACT Grant Application]
Several creeks and tributaries exist in the Boulder Creek Watershed. These include Boulder Creek, St. Vrain Creek, Rock Creek, Coal Creek, Four Mile Creek, Sunshine Creek, Goose Creek, and Lefthand Creek.
The Boulder area, particularly the eastern portion of Boulder, are “semi-arid” plains while the mountains to the west are wetter and receive most of their precipitation in the form of snow during the late spring months. However, after the snow has melted and the summer rains have come and gone, even the mountains can become parched and dry, becoming ripe for forest fires.
Through extensive waterworks, such as a complex systems of ditches, reservoirs, pipelines and dams, the Boulder area has to some extent buffered itself from the seasonal flux of the water cycle. Nevertheless, the area is still vulnerable to droughts, flashfloods, forest fires, pollution and breakdown of the infrastructure that delivers water and removes waste.
[Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/main/whywater.html]
### 3.2 Sustainability
The key word in the BASIN acronym is “sustainability.” The term “sustainability” is derived from the word “sustainable” which means to maintain or prolong necessities or nourishment. When it comes to the sustainability of the environment, as well as the communities that are a part of that environment, many people agree that providing citizens with relevant environmental information that will allow them to make appropriate personal actions and help determine present and future public policy is of paramount importance. The “sustainability” of future communities will be, in part, determined by the actions of citizens today. [Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/main/about.html#Sustain]
Since 1960 the Boulder area has quadrupled in population, outpacing the global population explosion with high-impact development and growth. To support such a substantial growth in population and industry, more water was needed for the Boulder area. As a result, the Boulder area implemented large-scale water projects, such as the Colorado Big Thompson and Windy Gap projects, which imported water from the other side of the Continental Divide. According to the Boulder County Health Communities Indicator Report of 1998, on average some 67,000 acre feet of water per year enters Boulder County from the Colorado Big Thompson project, a Federal “trans-basin” project begun in the 1950s.
Even with today’s relatively high compliance standards, this tremendous growth impacts the quality of the water in the region. For example, waste from municipal sewage and individual septic systems impacts the waterways, air pollution from cars transports into the high mountain lakes and streams, and ground water is contaminated by leaking underground storage tanks. Aside from environmental impacts, rivers are
sometimes literally drained dry due to Colorado’s prior appropriations doctrine which historically has not supported leaving water in the river to support the aquatic habitat.
Although the issues are complex and the solutions are difficult, there are signs of progress in the Boulder area. For example, the City of Boulder has implemented a practice called “in-stream flow” which leaves some water in Boulder Creek at certain times during the year to protect the fish and macroinvertebrates. Also, water-conserving landscape design is becoming more popular in the region and water education is becoming an integral part of children’s school curriculum.
However, the question remains: Can a community be sustainable? One step towards addressing sustainability is to monitor the community’s impact (or ecological footprint) on the environment to reveal the difficult questions and tough choices it must face to minimize its impact on the environment. By focusing initially on water in the Boulder area, the BASIN project provided timely monitoring data, as well as background information and links to other resources that enabled the inhabitants of the region to better understand and to take steps to protect the Boulder area environment. [Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/main/sustain.html] For more on sustainability, see “Toward a Stewardship of the Global Commons: Engaging “My Neighbor” in the Issue of Sustainability: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/local/sustainin0.html. The Web site of the EPA Office of Water (http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring) is a good source of background information on water quality monitoring.
3.2.1 Establishing Community Partnerships
BASIN seeks to communicate the significance of timely environmental data to the general public. To maximize the effective communication of existing environmental information and improve the public relevance of ongoing data monitoring programs, BASIN established partnerships with environmental researchers currently collecting data in the watershed and solicited the active participation of the public in the design and development of BASIN’s data management system and presentation of information. To develop these partnerships BASIN proceeded as follows:
- sought community input on both community information needs and outreach program design,
- established partnerships for both data access and community outreach,
- gathered references to existing environmental data,
- gathered access to supporting environmental information,
- established data management procedures in consultation with existing and new data collection programs,
established prototype Web site design and development procedures,
evaluated data and designed outreach channels, particularly for data presentation,
developed data interpretation and supporting materials,
released the initial Web site prototype within the first year,
actively gathered partner, stakeholder and public feedback on the Web site prototype,
continued to revise and update Web site during the second year, and
established procedures to continue data updates and solicit additional data and information sources.
BASIN found that an iterative design process with active involvement of the community is essential to insure that data presentations are effective and relevant and that sufficient contextual information is provided to make these data meaningful to the general public.
3.2.2 Water Quality Monitoring: An Overview
Water quality monitoring provides information about the condition of streams, lakes, ponds, estuaries, and coastal waters. It can also tell us if these waters are safe for swimming, fishing, or drinking. Water quality monitoring can consist of the following types of measurements:
- **Chemical** measurements of constituents such as dissolved oxygen, nutrients, metals, and oils in water, sediment, or fish tissue.
- **Physical** measurements of general conditions such as temperature, conductivity/salinity, current speed/direction, water level, water clarity.
- **Biological** measurements of the abundance, variety, and growth rates of aquatic plant and animal life in a water body or the ability of aquatic organisms to survive in a water sample.
You can conduct several different types of water quality monitoring projects. For example water quality monitoring can be conducted as follows:
- at fixed locations on a continuous basis,
- at selected locations on an as-needed basis or to answer specific questions,
- on a temporary or seasonal basis (such as during the summer at swimming beaches), or
- on an emergency basis (such as after a spill).
Many agencies and organizations conduct water quality monitoring including state pollution control agencies, tribal governments, city and county environmental offices, the EPA and other federal agencies, and private entities, such as universities, watershed organizations, environmental groups, and industries. Volunteer monitors - private citizens who voluntarily collect and analyze water quality samples, conduct visual assessments of physical conditions, and measure the biological health of waters - also provide increasingly important water quality information. The EPA provides specific information about volunteer monitoring at http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/vol.html.
Water quality monitoring is conducted for many reasons, including
- characterizing waters and identifying trends or changes in water quality over time;
- identifying existing or emerging water quality problems;
- gathering information for the design of pollution prevention or restoration programs;
- determining if the goals of specific programs are being met;
- complying with local, state, and Federal regulations; and
- responding to emergencies such as spills or floods.
EPA helps administer grants for water quality monitoring projects and provides technical guidance on how to monitor and report monitoring results. You can find a number of EPA’s water quality monitoring technical guidance documents on the Web at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/techmon.html. The EPA’s Office of Water has developed a Watershed Distance Learning Program called the “Watershed Academy Web.” This program, which offers a certificate upon completion, is a series of self-paced training modules that covers topics such as watershed ecology, management practices, and analysis and planning. More information about the Watershed Academy Web can be found on the Web at: http://www.epa.gov/
watertrain/. The EPA also has a Web site entitled “Surf Your Watershed” which can be used to locate, use, and share environmental information on watersheds. For more information about the resources available on Surf Your Watershed, please see the following Web site: http://www.epa.gov/surf3. The EPA also has a collection of watershed tools available on the Web at: http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/watershed/tools/. The watershed tools available on the Web deal with topics such as data collection, management and assessment, outreach and education, and modeling.
In addition to the EPA resources listed above, you can obtain information about lake and reservoir water quality monitoring from the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS). NALMS has published many technical documents, including a guidance manual entitled Monitoring Lake and Reservoir Restoration. For more information, visit the NALMS Web site at http://www.nalms.org. State and local agencies also publish and recommend documents to help organizations and communities conduct and understand water quality monitoring. For example, the Gulf of Mexico Program maintains a Web site (http://www.gmpo.gov/mmrc/mmrc.html) that lists resources for water quality monitoring and management. State and local organizations in your community might maintain similar listings.
In some cases, special water quality monitoring methods, such as remote monitoring, or special types of water quality data, such as timely data, are needed to meet a water quality monitoring program’s objectives. Timely environmental data are collected and communicated to the public in a time frame that is useful to their day-to-day decision-making about their health and the environment, and relevant to the temporal variability of the parameter measured. Monitoring is called *remote* when the operator can collect and analyze data from a site other than the monitoring location itself.
### 3.3 Timely Environmental Data
When deciding what data to make available to communities in the Boulder area, the BASIN team considered several factors. These factors included the following:
- significance of the data to the local community/environment,
- availability of the data,
- the public’s ability to interpret the data,
- the various methods to allow the public to view the data in perspective,
- interest to the local community,
- feasibility of putting the data on the Web site, and
- sensitivity of the data (e.g., controversial data).
Since the focus of the BASIN EMPACT project was to provide data about the Boulder Creek Watershed, the BASIN team decided that water quality data was significant to the Boulder area. The City of Boulder already conducted two water monitoring programs
(drinking water and storm water) which measured a variety of water quality parameters so there was data readily available. This program included an existing collaboration between the City of Boulder and the USGS, to provide an integrated data set on total organic carbon (TOC). The team also searched for other sources of data that was available for distribution to the public. Such sources included USGS, the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, and SNOTEL. The team also considered the feasibility of putting the data on the BASIN Web site (e.g., was the data in a format that could be displayed easily?).
After considering the various factors and conducting research to identify the types of data that were available in an acceptable format, the team identified three classifications of data that it made available on its Web site. These classifications are as follows:
- data links to other Web sites (e.g., SNOTEL, weather, and stream flow),
- acquired data (e.g., River Watch data and City of Longmont water data), and
- direct data (i.e., City of Boulder’s drinking water and storm water data and USGS TOC data).
### 3.3.1 Data Links to Other Web sites
The BASIN team searched the World Wide Web and identified available environmental data that would be of interest to the local community. BASIN identified SNOTEL data, weather data, toxic releases data, and stream flow data. The BASIN Web site ([http://www.basin.org](http://www.basin.org)) was designed to provide links to these data, which provided the local community with centralized access to a wide variety of relevant timely environmental monitoring activities. It is important to note that BASIN did not have any principal relations with the data providers and had no influence on the collection, analysis, or quality control of the data - the data were simply made available on the BASIN Web site. A brief description of the external data which the BASIN Web site links to is provided below.
**SNOTEL Data.** There are three SNOTEL (for SNOWpack TELEmetry) snowpack monitoring sites in the Boulder area watershed. SNOTEL is an extensive, automated system operated and maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to measure snowpack in the mountains of the west and forecast the water supply. Data from the SNOTEL sites are plotted by the Western Regional Climate Center. The user can access the SNOTEL data and create plots of the cumulative precipitation, snow water content, and temperature data. [Source: [http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/SNOTEL/SNOTEL.html](http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/SNOTEL/SNOTEL.html)]
**Weather.** The BASIN Web site has a link to weather data for six locations in the Boulder area. The weather data are maintained by a variety of government agencies and private individuals. The user clicks on the “weather” link (http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/WEATHER/WEATHER.html) which takes them to a Spatial Data Catalog, a BASIN map showing the six weather monitoring sites. The user can select any of the monitoring sites and obtain the near real-time weather at that site (the information is updated every five minutes). Such weather data includes temperature, dewpoint, humidity, barometric pressure, aeronautical pressure, wind speed, peak gust, wind chill, and wind direction. In addition to receiving current weather data, the user can also obtain minimum and maximum values for each of the parameters over the previous 24-hour period.
**Toxic Releases.** The BASIN Web site provides direct access to the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Scorecard Internet site which catalogs 23 facilities in the Boulder area that release toxic substances into the environment. [Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/TRI/TRI.html] The data on the EDF Scorecard is not “real-time” because it reflects the environmental releases that each facility reported on its annual EPA Toxic Release Inventory forms. The user can click on the various facilities highlighted in the Spatial Data Catalog and learn about the toxic chemicals that each facility is releasing to the environment in the Boulder area.
**Stream Flow.** The BASIN Web site has a link to data collected from 21 stream flow gauging sites located in the Boulder area. Shown here is a stream stage gauge mounted in the North Boulder Creek diversion flume. The data from the stream flow gauging sites are obtained from State and Federal (USGS) sources. The user clicks on “stream flow” (http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/STREAMFLOW/STREAMFLOW.html) which takes them to a Spatial Data Catalog, a map showing the 21 stream flow gauging sites (see discussion of Spatial Data Catalog in Chapter 5). The user can obtain the stage (or stream depth) in feet as well as the stream flow in ft$^3$/sec or cubic feet per second (cfs). Depending upon the site selected, the data can be viewed in either a tabular or graphical format.
**Air Quality.** The BASIN EMPACT Web site posts the current air quality status for the Denver-metro area. The information is obtained from the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division (APCD). The air quality advisories are issued each day at 4 P.M., MST. The advisories are categorized as either **BLUE** or **RED**. If the user wants to know what action to take based on the advisory, they click on the link which transfers them to an APCD Web site (http://apcd.state.co.us/psi/o3_advisory.phtml). This Web site provides practical suggestions to reduce summertime air pollution.
Ultraviolet Exposure Index. In addition to posting the air quality status, the BASIN EMPACT Web site also posts the current EPA/NOAA ultraviolet (UV) exposure index. The index is based on a numerical scale from 0 - 10+, with “0” indicating “minimal” exposure and “10+” indicating “very high” exposure. If the user wants to know more about the index or what they should do to protect themselves against UV exposure they can click on the link which takes them to an EPA “SunWise” Web site (http://www.epa.gov/sunwise/uvindex.html).
3.3.2 Acquired Data
The BASIN team solicited data provider partnerships with existing Boulder area environmental monitoring programs. BASIN established successful data provider partnerships with the City of Longmont, the Denver Water Board, and the State of Colorado’s River Watch Program. Data sets (water quality monitoring data) received from these data providers were integrated into the BASIN Information Management System (IMS) and were used to develop information products currently available on the BASIN Web site (http://www.basin.org). It is important to note that with the data provider partnerships, BASIN had no direct influence on the data collection or quality control of the data. [Source: 2000 Annual Report, BASIN Project, EMPACT Grant, January 30, 2001]
3.3.3 Direct Data
The BASIN team partnered with the City of Boulder to obtain data collected by its Storm Water and Drinking Water Programs. BASIN had an interactive relationship with the City of Boulder and had input on the data format, collection protocols, and QA/QC. Water quality monitoring data is provided by a cooperative program between the City of Boulder’s Public Works Department and Dr. Larry Barber of the USGS Laboratory located in Boulder. Source water quality is monitored by the City of Boulder’s Drinking Water Monitoring Program at several locations in the headwaters of the basin. Stream Water Quality is monitored by the city’s Storm Water Monitoring Program throughout the lower basin.
Drinking water quality can only be conserved to the extent that source waters are protected, water treatment is optimized, and the water quality in the distribution system is maintained. Boulder’s three watersheds (i.e., North Boulder Creek, Middle Boulder Creek/Barker Reservoir, and Boulder Reservoir) are increasingly vulnerable to point and non-point contamination due to development in the area. Water treatment is subject to increasing stresses from pathogens and other contaminants, as well as to increasing public expectations for drinking water quality. Distribution system water quality is receiving increased public attention as outbreaks of waterborne disease are connected with biofilms, backflow incidents, and other hard-to-quantify contaminant vectors. [Source: 1998 EMPACT Grant Application]
As for storm water, non-point source pollution is a critical environmental issue in the Boulder Creek Watershed. Pollutant sources include highway runoff, urban drainage, mining, logging, erosion, and agriculture. The City of Boulder recognizes the need to protect water through pollution abatement of non-point sources and through watershed management.
Monthly readings of 17 primary water quality parameters are accessible through the BASIN Water Quality data access page (http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/COBWQ/index.html). The importance of each of the parameters which can be viewed at the BASIN Web site is discussed below.
**Alkalinity** refers to how well a water body can neutralize acids. Alkalinity measures the amount of alkaline compounds in water, such as carbonate (CO$_3^{2-}$), bicarbonate (HCO$_3^-$), and hydroxide (OH$^-$) ions. These compounds are natural buffers that can remove excess hydrogen ions that have been added from sources such as acid rain or acid mine drainage. Alkalinity mitigates or relieves metals toxicity by using available HCO$_3^-$ and CO$_3^{2-}$ to take metals out of solution, thus making it unavailable to fish. Alkalinity is affected by the geology of the watershed; watersheds containing limestone will have a higher alkalinity than watersheds where granite is predominant.
**Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite** are sources of nitrogen. Nitrogen is required by all organisms for the basic processes of life to make proteins, to grow, and to reproduce. Nitrogen is very common and found in many forms in the environment. Inorganic forms include ammonia (NH$_3$), nitrate (NO$_3^-$) and nitrite (NO$_2^-$). Organic nitrogen is found in the cells of all living things and is a component of proteins, peptides, and amino acids. These compounds enter waterways from lawn fertilizer run-off, leaking septic tanks, animal wastes, industrial waste waters, sanitary landfills and discharges from car exhausts.
Excessive concentrations of ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite can be harmful to humans and wildlife. Toxic concentrations of ammonia in humans may cause loss of equilibrium, convulsions, coma, and death. Ammonia concentrations can affect hatching and growth rates of fish and changes may occur during the structural development of tissues of fish gills, liver, and/or kidneys. In humans, nitrate is broken down in the intestines to become nitrite. Nitrite reacts with hemoglobin in human blood to produce methemoglobin, which limits the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen. This condition is called methemoglobinemia or “blue baby” syndrome (because the nose and tips of the ears can appear blue from lack of oxygen). High concentrations of nitrate and/or nitrite produces a similar condition in fish and is referred to as “brown blood disease.” Nitrite enters the bloodstream through the gills and turns the blood a chocolate-brown color. Brown blood cannot carry sufficient amounts of oxygen, and affected fish can suffocate despite adequate concentration in the water. The EPA has established a maximum contaminant level of 10 mg/l for nitrate and 1 mg/l for nitrite. [Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/COBWQ/info/NH3.html]
Dissolved Oxygen (DO) is the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. DO is a very important indicator of a water body’s ability to support aquatic life. Fish “breathe” by absorbing dissolved oxygen through their gills. Oxygen enters the water by absorption directly from the atmosphere or by aquatic plant and algae photosynthesis. Oxygen is removed from the water by respiration and decomposition of organic matter. The amount of DO in water depends on several factors, including temperature (the colder the water, the more oxygen can be dissolved); the volume and velocity of water flowing in the water body; and the amount of organisms using oxygen for respiration. The amount of oxygen dissolved in water is expressed as a concentration, in milligrams per liter (mg/l) of water. Human activities that affect DO levels include the removal of riparian vegetation, runoff from roads, and sewage discharge.
Fecal Coliform Bacteria are present in the feces and intestinal tracts of humans and other warm-blooded animals, and can enter water bodies from human and animal waste. If a large number of fecal coliform bacteria (over 200 colonies/100 ml of water sample) are found in water, it is possible that pathogenic (disease- or illness-causing) organisms are also present in the water. Pathogens are typically present in such small amounts it is impractical to monitor them directly. High concentrations of the bacteria in water may be caused by septic tank failure, poor pasture and animal keeping practices, pet waste, and urban runoff.
Hardness generally refers to the amount of calcium and magnesium in water. In household use, these divalent cations (ions with a charge greater than +1) can prevent soap from sudsing and leave behind a white scum in bathtubs. In the aquatic environment, calcium and magnesium help keep fish from absorbing metals, such as lead, arsenic, and cadmium, into their bloodstream through their gills. Therefore, the harder the water, the less easy it is for toxic metals to absorb into their gills.
pH measures hydrogen concentration in water and is presented on a scale from 0 to 14. A solution with a pH value of 7 is neutral; a solution with a pH value less than 7 is acidic; a solution with a pH value greater than 7 is basic. Natural waters usually have a pH between 6 and 9. The scale is negatively logarithmic, so each whole number (reading downward) is ten times the preceding one (for example, pH 5.5 is 100 times more acidic as pH 7.5). The pH of natural waters can be made acidic or basic by human activities such as acid mine
drainage and emissions from coal-burning power plants and heavy automobile traffic. pH can interact with metals and organic chemicals making them more or less toxic depending on the type of chemical.
**Specific Conductance** is a measure of how well water can pass an electrical current. It is an indirect measure of the presence of inorganic dissolved solids, such as chloride, nitrate, sulfate, phosphate, sodium, magnesium, calcium, and iron. These substances conduct electricity because they are negatively or positively charged when dissolved in water. The concentration of dissolved solids, or the conductivity, is affected by the bedrock and soil in the watershed. It is also affected by human influences. For example, agricultural runoff can raise conductivity because of the presence of phosphate and nitrate.
**Stream Flow** is the volume of water moving past a point in a unit of time. Flow consists of the volume of water in the stream and the velocity of the water moving past a given point. Flow affects the concentration of dissolved oxygen, natural substances, and pollutants in a water body. Flow is measured in units of cubic feet per second (cfs) or ft$^3$/sec.
**Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)** refers to matter dissolved in water or wastewater, and is related to both specific conductance and turbidity. TDS is the portion of total solids that passes through a filter. High levels of TDS can cause health problems for aquatic life.
**Total Organic Carbon (TOC)** - Organic matter plays a major role in aquatic systems. It affects biogeochemical processes, nutrient cycling, biological availability, and chemical transport. It also has direct implications in the planning of wastewater treatment and drinking water treatment. Organic matter content is typically measured as total organic carbon and dissolved organic carbon, which are essential components of the carbon cycle.
**Total Phosphorus** is a nutrient required by all organisms for the basic processes of life. Phosphorus is a natural element found in rocks, soils and organic material. Its concentrations in clean waters is generally very low; however, phosphorus is used extensively in fertilizer and other chemicals, so it can be found in higher concentrations in areas of human activity. Phosphorus is generally found as phosphate (PO$_4^{3-}$). **Orthophosphorus** is a form of inorganic phosphorus and is sometimes referred to as “reactive phosphorus.” Orthophosphate is the most stable form of phosphate, and is the form used by plants. Orthophosphate is produced by natural processes and is found in sewage. High levels of orthophosphate, along with nitrate, can overstimulate the growth of aquatic plants and algae, resulting in high dissolved oxygen consumption, causing death of fish and other aquatic organisms. The primary sources of phosphates in surface water are detergents, fertilizers, and natural mineral deposits.
Total Suspended Solids (TSS) refers to matter suspended in water or wastewater, and is related to both specific conductance and turbidity. TSS is the portion of total solids retained by a filter. High levels of TSS can cause health problems for aquatic life.
Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness of water - the cloudier the water, the greater the turbidity. Turbidity in water is caused by suspended matter such as clay, silt, and organic matter and by plankton and other microscopic organisms that interfere with the passage of light through the water. Turbidity is closely related to TSS, but also includes plankton and other organisms. Turbidity itself is not a major health concern, but high turbidity can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. It also may indicate the presence of microbes. High turbidity can affect the natural algal productivity of the stream and can affect other organisms such as fish and invertebrates that use algae as a food source. High turbidity can be caused by soil erosion, urban runoff, and high flow rates.
Water Temperature is a very important factor for aquatic life. It controls the rate of metabolic and reproductive activities. Most aquatic organisms are “cold-blooded,” which means they cannot control their own body temperatures (e.g., certain trout and salamanders require cold water). Their body temperatures become the temperature of the water around them. Cold-blooded organisms are adapted to a specific temperature range. If water temperatures vary too much, metabolic activities can malfunction. Temperature also affects the concentration of dissolved oxygen and can influence the activity of bacteria in a water body. Too much light caused by reduced stream side vegetation can increase the stream temperature. [Source: BASIN Water Quality Terms, http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/natural/wqterms.html]
3.4 The Boulder Creek Millennium Baseline Study
BASIN served to strengthen an existing collaboration among local USGS water quality scientists and the City of Boulder (COB) source and storm water quality monitoring programs. The formal collection and public release of the COB’s water quality information lead to a more ambitious water quality monitoring effort called the Boulder Creek Millennium Baseline Study which was designed to clarify water quality concerns in the Boulder Creek Watershed.
The Boulder Creek Millennium Baseline Study was performed during the summer and fall of the year 2000 as a collaborative effort of the USGS Water Resources Division, the City of Boulder, and the BASIN to provide an in-depth analysis of Boulder Creek water quality. This study measured several parameters not normally regulated or considered to be problematic in Boulder Creek but which would assist in the formulation of a conceptual model of the processes at work in the creek system. Detailed synoptic water quality sampling of Boulder Creek, including the main stem and major tributaries, allows the identification of the sources of chemical constituents. Boulder Creek offers an
excellent opportunity to measure the impact of natural and anthropogenic processes on a small river system because it flows from pristine source waters, through an urban corridor, and is transformed into a sewage-dominated stream below Boulder’s sewage treatment plant (STP) outfall, and finally flows through agricultural areas. Water quality sampling of Boulder Creek during high-flow (June) and low-flow (October) conditions, from upstream of the town of Eldora to the confluence with the St. Vrain River, was carried out to determine influences on water chemistry. The relative importance of different sources varies seasonally, and therefore high- and low-flow sampling is an important step in characterizing the watershed. The study also provided a baseline data set from which future water quality changes can be observed. (from S.F. Murphy, P.L. Verplanck, and L.B. Barber, “Chemical Data for Water Samples Collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado, During High-Flow and Low-Flow Conditions, 2000,” to be submitted as a USGS Open File Report).
The Millennium Baseline Study measured additional parameters including the following:
- Major Ions
- Metals
- Pesticides
- Pharmaceuticals
- Hormones
- Other organic wastewater compounds
4. COLLECTING, TRANSFERRING, AND MANAGING TIMELY ENVIRONMENTAL DATA
A centralized collection of timely environmental data can be beneficial to your community in several ways. Such information raises the public’s awareness of environmental issues that pertain to them, it serves as a valuable learning tool to increase their understanding of actions that affect their environment, and it serves as an avenue for them to express their concerns and questions.
Using the BASIN Project as a model, this chapter provides you and your community with instructions on how to collect and maintain data to post on your Web site. If you are responsible for or interested in collecting water samples, you should carefully read the technical information presented in Section 4.2. If you are interested in analyzing water samples, you should read the information presented in the Section 4.3. This section provides detailed information on the type of equipment and procedures used to analyze water samples. Details on data transfer and management are discussed in Section 4.4 and quality assurance is discussed in Section 4.5. Readers interested in an overview of the system should focus primarily on the introductory information in Section 4.1 below.
4.1 System Overview
The BASIN project sought to leverage the activities of existing environmental monitoring programs and develop public environmental information resources derived from timely environmental data collection. BASIN developed partnerships with various organizations to gather pertinent environmental information about the Boulder area. As discussed earlier, the BASIN project provided three types of data to the Boulder community: (1) Web links to external data sources, (2) acquired data, and (3) direct data (see discussion in Section 3.3). This data can be accessed through links from the BASIN Web site at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/.
The remainder of this chapter discusses the collection, analysis, transfer and quality control of the storm water and drinking water quality data (direct data) provided to BASIN by the City of Boulder. BASIN interacted closely with the City of Boulder to develop sample collection protocols, determine data format, and to develop QA/QC procedures.
As mentioned in Chapter 3, BASIN did not have any contact with the providers of the SNOTEL, weather, toxic releases, stream flow, air quality, or UV exposure index data posted on the BASIN Web site. As a result, this Handbook does not discuss the collection, analysis, management, or quality control of these types of data. If you are interested in learning more about such topics, please refer to the following Web sites:
For SNOTEL data, see http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/factpub/sntlfc1.html and http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/factpub/sect_4b.html
For weather data, see http://www.atd.ucar.edu/weather.html
For toxic releases, see http://www.epa.gov/tri/general.htm
For stream flow data, see http://water.usgs.gov/co/nwis/sw
For air quality data, see http://apcd.state.co.us/psi/o3_advisory.phtml
For UV exposure data, see http://www.epa.gov/sunwise/uvindex.html
Similarly, BASIN did not have any input as to how the data provided by the City of Longmont or River Watch (the acquired data) was collected, analyzed or controlled. As a result, this Handbook does not discuss the collection, analysis, management, or quality control of the City of Longmont or River Watch data.
4.2 Data Collection
BASIN and the City of Boulder collaborated to obtain results from the city’s Drinking Water and Storm Water Programs. The data collection techniques for each program are described below.
4.2.1 Drinking Water Program
The Drinking Water Program collects monthly water quality samples from 30 locations such as the Lakewood Reservoir, Barker Reservoir, Middle Boulder Creek, and Boulder Reservoir. The following procedures are used to prepare sample collection bottles:
- Total Organic Carbon (TOC) bottles are obtained from the USGS, where the bottles are washed with hot, soapy water, rinsed with tap and distilled water, and heated for 8 hours at 250 degrees C. For the remaining bottles, each set of sample bottles is cleaned and reused for one particular sample site.
- Sample bottles are rinsed with tap water immediately after the sample has been analyzed. All sample bottles (except those used for chlorophyll, metals, and bacteria) are soaked for at least one hour in a 5% hydrochloric acid (HCl) bath. These bottles are then rinsed twice
transported to the field. Clean field equipment is used to fill a clean churn with this blank water. All field blank bottles are then filled from this blank water churn. Shown here is a technician obtaining field blank samples from the water churn.
[Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/COBWQ/SourceWater.html]
4.2.2 Storm Water Program
The Storm Water Quality Program conducts monthly water quality monitoring to assess the impacts of point and non-point sources of pollutants on Boulder Creek and to help develop mitigation measures to reduce these impacts. The water quality samples are collected from North Boulder Creek at Boulder Falls to below the confluence of Boulder Creek with Coal Creek. The following procedures are used to prepare sample collection bottles as well as collecting samples:
- Total Organic Carbon (TOC) bottles are obtained from the USGS, where the bottles are washed with hot, soapy water, rinsed with tap and distilled water, and heated for 8 hours at 250 degrees C. The remaining bottles are cleaned in a dishwasher, which involves a hot water and detergent wash, steam cycle, and deionized water rinse. Bottles used for metals are also soaked in 3% HNO₃, rinsed with deionized water three times, and then air-dried.
- Sample are collected in accordance with procedures outlined in Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 20th Edition (section 1060).
- In the field, sample bottles are rinsed two times with water from where the sample will be collected, unless a preservative or dechlorinating agent has been added to the bottle prior to use. Various types of sample bottles are used depending on the pollutant to be analyzed and the method of analysis.
- The sample location is either mid-channel of the flow or the area in the channel which best represents the flow. At that point, sample bottles are submerged to approximately 60% of the water depth to obtain the sample. The sample bottle is capped and shaken. One to two inches of
head space is left in the sample bottle to allow for thermal expansion (unless sample analysis technique requires that the sample to not have any head space).
- Sample preservative is added after sample collection as prescribed by each analytical method (unless a preservative or dechlorinating agent has been added to the bottle prior to use). Samples which will be analyzed for metals are filtered in the laboratory before being acidified.
- Samples labels are completed and applied to the sample bottles. The sample bottles are placed in a cooler with blue ice. The samples are transported to the laboratory and placed in a refrigerator for storage at 4 °C (39 °F). [Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/COBWQ/StormWater.html]
### 4.3 Data Analysis
#### 4.3.1 Drinking Water Program
The Drinking Water Program measures some parameters in the field with portable meters and other parameters in the laboratory. The following parameters are measured in the field:
*Water temperature* is analyzed with a portable YSI 600 XL multi probe (http://www.ysi.com/lifesciences.htm). The temperature probe is checked annually.
*Dissolved oxygen* is analyzed with a portable YSI 600 XL multi probe. Calibrations are conducted in the field at the sample site with a moist-air saturated bottle.
*Specific conductance* is analyzed with a portable YSI 600 XL multi probe. The probe is calibrated in the drinking water laboratory the day of sampling. A potassium chloride solution of 1412 micromhos/cm at 25 °C is used in the calibration. Standards are replaced at least monthly.
The following parameters are measured in the laboratory:
*Nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, orthophosphorus, and total phosphorus* are measured using a Genesis spectrophotometer. For colorimetric analyses (*nitrate + nitrite, sulfate, orthophosphorus, and total phosphorus*), all collection bottles and spectrophotometer cuvettes are HCL-washed and/or cleaned with phosphate-free soap. The instrument is zeroed with the sample or with lab millipore water depending on the procedure. Two standards are run, and bracket the sample value. New standards are prepared monthly. New high- and low-range 5 point curves are constructed for the spectrophotometer when necessary.
Alkalinity is measured using Standard Method 2320B (American Public Health Association, 1998). The sample is stirred, and temperature and pH are monitored, as 0.02N sulfuric acid ($H_2SO_4$) is slowly added to the sample. The amount of acid necessary to lower the pH to 4.5 is proportional to the total alkalinity in the sample. This method assumes that the entire alkalinity consists of bicarbonate, carbonate, and/or hydroxide.
Ammonia is measured by the wastewater laboratory. Total ammonia (ammonium ion $(NH_4^+)$ plus unionized ammonia gas $(NH_3)$) is often measured in a laboratory by titration. Ammonia and organic nitrogen compounds are separated by distillation, then an acid (the titrant) is added to a volume of the ammonia portion. The volume of acid required to change the color of the sample reflects the ammonia concentration of the sample. The more acid needed, the more ammonia in the sample. Ammonia is the least stable form of nitrogen, so it can be difficult to measure accurately. The proportion of unionized ammonia can be calculated, using formulas that contain factors for pH and temperature [Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/COBWQ/info/NH3.html].
Hardness is measured using Standard Method 2340C. A small amount of dye is added to the sample, and buffer solution is added until the pH of the sample reaches 10. If calcium and magnesium are present in the sample, the sample turns red. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is then added until the sample turns blue. The amount of EDTA required to turn the sample blue represents the hardness of the sample.
Nitrate + Nitrite is measured using a Hach DR2000 spectrophotometer (http://www.hach.com) and Method 8192 (low range cadmium reduction). Cadmium metal reduces nitrate present in the sample to nitrite. The nitrite ion reacts in an acidic medium with sulfanilic acid to form an intermediate diazonium salt which couples to chromatic acid to form a pink-colored product. The pink color is then analyzed with a spectrophotometer; the more intense the pink color, the more nitrate + nitrite is in the sample.
Total phosphorus is measured using Standard Method 4500-P B.5 and 4500 - PE. In these methods, phosphorus present in organic and condensed forms is converted to reactive orthophosphate before analysis. Sulfuric acid ($H_2SO_4$) and ammonium persulfate ($[NH_4]_2S_2O_8$) are added to 50 ml of the sample, and the sample is then boiled. The acid and heating causes hydrolysis of condensed phosphorous to convert to orthophosphates. After boiling down the sample to approximately 10 ml, the sample is cooled and phenolphthalein indicator is added. The sample pH is adjusted to 8.3 using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sulfuric acid. The sample is then brought back up to volume and analyzed for orthophosphorus as discussed below.
Orthophosphorus is measured using Standard Method 4500 - PE. Sulfuric acid, potassium antimonyl tartrate, ammonium molybdate, and ascorbic acid are added to the sample.
The potassium antimonyl, tetrate and ammonium molybdate react in the acid with the orthophosphate to form phosphomolybdic acid. The phosphomolybdic acid is then reduced to a blue color by the ascorbic acid. The blue color is then analyzed with a spectrophotometer. The darker the blue color, the more orthophosphate in the sample. The detection limit for this method is approximately 0.002 mg of orthophosphorus/liter. [Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/COBWQ/SourceWater.html]
4.3.2 Storm Water Program
Similar to the Drinking Water Program, the Storm Water Program measures some parameters in the field with portable meters as shown here and other parameters in the laboratory.
Portable field instruments are used to measure $pH$ and $DO$. The Orion Model 1230 multi-parameter meter has ion-selective probes which measure these parameters (http://www.thermo.com). pH is calibrated using pH buffers 7 and 10 in the wastewater laboratory before each sampling event. The probe has automatic temperature compensation for temperature-corrected buffer values. A calibration sleeve is used to calibrate DO in the wastewater laboratory before each sampling event. The instrument automatically measures and compensates for temperature and total atmospheric pressure.
The Orion Model 130 conductivity meter is used to measure specific conductance ($SC$) and water temperature (http://www.thermo.com). The probe is calibrated before each sampling event with a potassium chloride (KCl) solution of 1,412 micromhos/cm at 25 °C.
The Orion Model 840 DO meter and the Orion Model 140 conductivity meter (http://www.thermo.com) are used as backups if a problem with the main meter occurs in the field.
Flow velocity is measured using the Marsh-McBirney Flo-Mate 2000 portable flowmeter (http://www.marsh-mcbirney.com/Model%202000.html). USGS midsection methods, as described in the Water Measurement Manual, are followed. Calibration is performed at the factory.
4.3.3 Laboratory Analysis
Water samples are collected in bottles and taken to the City of Boulder’s laboratory where various parameters are measured. Shown here are samples ready for analysis. *Alkalinity* is measured using Standard Method 2320B (American Public Health Association, 1998). The sample is stirred and the temperature and pH are monitored as 0.02 N sulfuric acid ($\text{H}_2\text{SO}_4$) is slowly added to the sample. The amount of acid required to lower the sample pH to 4.5 is proportional to the total alkalinity in the sample. This method assumes that the entire alkalinity consists of bicarbonate, carbonate, and/or hydroxide.
*Ammonia* is measured using Standard Methods 4500-NH$_3$ B and 4500-NH$_3$ C. Both the ammonium ion ($\text{NH}_4^+$) and unionized ammonia ($\text{NH}_3$) are included in the measurement. Sodium borate buffer is added to the sample, and the pH is adjusted to 9.5 with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The sample is then distilled into a flask that contains a boric acid/color indicator solution. The distillation separates ammonia (which goes into the distillate) from organic nitrogen compounds. The distillate is titrated with $\text{H}_2\text{SO}_4$ until the solution turns a pale lavender. The volume of acid required to change the color of the sample reflects the ammonia concentration of the sample.
*Hardness* is measured using Standard Method 2340C. A small amount of dye is added to the sample, and buffer solution is added until the pH of the sample reaches 10. If calcium and magnesium are present in the sample, the sample turns red. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is then added until the sample turns blue. The amount of EDTA required to turn the sample blue represents the hardness of the sample.
*Nitrate + Nitrite* is measured using a Hach DR2000 spectrophotometer, Method 8039 (high range cadmium reduction). Cadmium metal reduces nitrates present in the sample to nitrite. The nitrite ion reacts in an acidic medium with sulfanilic acid to form an intermediate diazonium salt. This salt then couples to gentisic acid to form an amber-colored product. The amber color is then analyzed with a spectrophotometer; the more intense the amber, the more nitrate + nitrite in the sample. The detection limit for this method is approximately 0.1 mg/liter. The analysis is performed on filtered samples to eliminate turbidity interferences.
*Total phosphorus* is measured using a Hach DR4000 spectrophotometer and Method 8190. In this method, phosphorus present in organic and condensed forms is converted to reactive orthophosphate before analysis. Sulfuric acid ($\text{H}_2\text{SO}_4$) and potassium persulfate ($\text{K}_2\text{S}_2\text{O}_8$) are added to the sample, and then the sample is boiled. The acid, heating, and persulfate causes organic phosphorous to convert to orthophosphate. After boiling, the sample is cooled, and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is added, along with
a solution of ascorbic acid and molybdate reagent which turns the sample blue. The intensity of the blue in the sample is proportional to the orthophosphate concentration.
Orthophosphorus is measured using a Hach DR4000 spectrophotometer and Method 8114. This method is based on Standard Method 4500 - P.C. Molybdovanadate reagent is added to the sample. The molybdate reacts in the acid with the orthophosphate to form a phosphomolybdate complex. In the presence of vanadium, yellow vanadomolybdophosphoric acid is formed. The yellow color is then analyzed with a spectrophotometer; the more intense the yellow, the more orthophosphate in the sample. The detection limit for this method is approximately 0.09 mg PO₄/liter. [Source: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/COBWQ/StormWater.html]
### 4.4 Data Transfer
The BASIN IMS is distributed across two Internet connected servers: the private Environmental Data Network Association (EDNA) database server and the public BASIN Web site server. A SUN E250 Unix Server, which is networked through the Boulder Community Network, hosts the private EDNA database server which generates and delivers public data products to the BASIN Web server upon receipt of updates from the data providers.
The BASIN IMS has been implemented using the object oriented features of Practical Extraction and Report Language (PERL) programming in a UNIX environment and utilizes several freely available supporting software libraries. The system is a combination of independent L modules which access a common set of PERL object definitions and operate on a common database structure. Additional programming support has been obtained from the extensive resources of CPAN (Comprehensive PERL Archive Network). In particular two primary graphics libraries - GD and GIFGraph were employed to dynamically construct plot images and merge images with background gif map images.
The EDNA IMS server is configured to receive and process updated data, preprocess input data, update the database, and regenerate a static Web-based hierarchy. The EDNA server also provides a non-public Web site for prototyping information products by BASIN content developers. Figure 4.1 presents the relationship of the EDNA database and BASIN information servers.
Data updates supplied by EDNA data providers are received through e-mail and are preprocessed through a series of routines prior to storage in the EDNA database. Input data are received in a variety of provider defined formats and each is submitted to a provider specific preprocessor pipeline. These preprocessors execute a variety of unit and data format conversions and map each provider's spatial and temporal identifiers to the global identifier set.
Once stored in the EDNA database, a series of batch routines are executed to generate static Web site elements (plot files and per parameter time series, profiles and image maps). To ensure data integrity, EDNA database files are exported read only to the public Web server. Figure 4.2 presents the general data flow for water quality data sent by the data providers and principle components of the BASIN IMS. [Source: BASIN FINAL Report, February 2001, Section D, 3.1]
**The EDNA Database**
BASIN information resources are retained on the server as a series of relational database files. The relationship of database tables and keys is outlined in Figure 4.3.
The BASIN data model handles each data set as a separate entity with a full set of metadata properties. Sets are composed of a vector of parameters representing grab samples measured periodically at a series of stations. In practice, data sets are defined by the data providing agent or program. Each set is defined by a record in the main catalog table (catalog/classes.rdb). Each parameter is defined by a set of general characteristics (label, units, definition) and a set specific meta-data set containing collection and analysis procedures, detection limits, global maximum scale). Each parameter set is maintained in a set specific table catalog/SET.rdb.
Figure 4.2 Data Flow for Water Quality Data.
Figure 4.3 EDNA Database Structure.
Each set also defines a series of stations, defined by a set of identification parameters (labels, photo index, map index) and physical characteristics (longitude, latitude, elevation). Site data are maintained in a site/SET.rdb database table.
Dynamic image map construction is supported by combining spatial data contained in the database site table with a background gif map image obtained from the Census Bureau’s Topically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) Map Server (http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapsurfer). Background maps are defined by a record in the database map image table which contains images as used in the formatting of the Water Quality Index grade signposts used in the WQI display. The system is designed to overlay data plots and images on any arbitrary gif file to support future enhancement of background context maps from locally developed geographic information systems (GIS) resources. More information about BASIN data presentation approaches is available in Chapter 5 of this manual.
The primary data model employed assumes each parameter is defined by a two dimensional surface over time and space. While this model is generally applicable to all anticipated data sets, the primary prototype example sets are composed of monthly water quality data measured at a series of stations. The above structure is maintained in a hierarchy of datafile tables composing a relational database. Each database table is maintained in a tab delineated ASCII file. While the database design is compatible with more formal database application, the limited resources of the BASIN project combined with several internal design objectives motivated the choice of a simpler, more portable approach.
4.5 Quality Assurance/Quality Control
For the City of Boulder’s drinking water and storm water sampling effort, field blanks are used for every sampling event. Field blanks are filled with deionized water and are treated in the same manner as other sample bottles. Duplicate samples are also collected for each sampling event.
As for the IMS, BASIN manages the delivery and display of data obtained from existing environmental monitoring programs which are subject to their own internal QA/QC procedures (i.e., the City of Boulder’s Drinking Water and Storm Water Quality monitoring). The BASIN IMS does not generate data and therefore relies on the existing quality control and quality assurance procedures of the participating data providers. However, since BASIN combines information from several water quality monitoring programs, reformats that information in both graphical and spatial context, and subjects raw data to scientific interpretation, it can rapidly identify data inconsistencies and incompatibility. All BASIN data projects are subject to a three step QA/QC process including QA at the data source, during data transfer, and through final data analysis. Also, all water quality data QA/QC complies with Standard Methods for Analysis of Wastewater and Water and USGS laboratory standards. [Source: BASIN Project, 2000 Annual Report]
5. DATA PRESENTATION
Once your environmental monitoring network is in place and you have begun to receive data, you can begin to provide your community with timely information using data presentation tools to both graphically depict this information and place it in a geographic community context.
Using data visualization tools, you can create graphical representations of environmental data that can be downloaded onto Web sites and/or included in reports and educational/outreach materials for the community. The types of data visualization utilized by the BASIN EMPACT team include annotated watershed maps, time series and profile bar graphs, and a water quality index.
In a similar vein, data presentation must address the overall context which may identify significant factors impacting data values. Often variations in data values are most directly explained by the location of the monitoring site in the watershed, particularly in a watershed with significant variation in elevation, climate, geology, and human activities such as locations found in the Boulder Creek watershed.
Section 5.1 provides a basic introduction and overview to data presentation and is useful if you are interested in gaining a general understanding of data presentation. Section 5.2 provides an overview of the BASIN spatial data catalog used to provide an interactive map-based interface to a variety of Boulder area environmental data. Section 5.3 details the specific data presentation tools used to organize and present Boulder Creek water quality data including data visualization procedures used on the BASIN EMPACT project. You should consult Section 5.2 and Section 5.3 if you are responsible for designing and developing output pages for your environmental data. Section 5.4 discusses the calculation and presentation of a Water Quality Index which provides a quick overview of the health of the Boulder Creek watershed.
5.1 What is Data Presentation?
Data presentation is the process of converting raw data to images or graphs so that the data are easier to visualize and understand. Data presentation also includes providing supporting meta-data and interpretative text to make the data meaningful to the general population. Displaying data visually enables you to communicate results to a broader audience, such as residents in your community; while providing data interpretation can help the community to understand how it impacts the health of the surrounding environment.
In addition to offering several data visualization approaches BASIN stresses the importance of both explanation and interpretation of environmental data. Visual representation of the data is extremely useful to a knowledgeable professional and
helpful to the general public but must be supported by additional explanatory material. For instance a time series plot of DO is only slightly more meaningful to the general public than a table of DO values; a crucial element is to supplement each data set with both general tutorial material on each parameter and dataset-specific, narrative interpretation developed by a qualified analyst.
In addition, it is important to provide specific details of collection and analysis methods for each parameter so that similar values from independent data sets can be compared and so that the moresophisticated user can obtain specific details of exactly how the parameter is measured; which is often useful when results appear to vary from expectations.
5.2 BASIN Spatial Data Catalog
BASIN has sought to create a general portal site to water and environmental information for the Boulder Creek watershed in an effort to provide a comprehensive overview of the watershed. As discussed in Chapter 3, BASIN provides access to data from three distinct sources; remote data already available on the Web, data obtained from cooperating sources that is collected independent of the BASIN project and data provided by active BASIN partners whose collection, analysis and management procedures are coordinated with BASIN personnel.
In addition to presenting water quality data provided by active data partners, BASIN sought out any Boulder area environmental data available on the Web and cataloged this information through a common map-based user interface. Many EMPACT sites will find that other government agencies may be collecting and posting data for their local area; particularly through national efforts such as the USGS stream gage network and the EPA Toxic Release Inventory, each which provides nationwide coverage of their monitoring and data maintenance efforts. Other local, state and regional resources may be available in a particular area.
By developing basic meta-data for these resources EMPACT sites can provide a common user interface to these data resources and supplement the data collected by the EMPACT team and participants. The BASIN project located and identified several supplemental resources in the Boulder Creek watershed and assembled URLs, geographic coordinates and responsible agency information and stores this meta-data in a format common to that used for internal data resources. This allows BASIN to provide users with access to this data through a common map based interface. These resources include USGS stream flow measurements, several local weather stations, snow pack monitoring in the higher elevations, all of the sites listed in the EDF/EPA toxic release inventory and a set of online cameras which provide real-time images from around the watershed. An example of the BASIN data catalog is shown below in Figure 5.1 (water quality data).
In addition, in several cases data available through existing Web sites was deemed of significant interest and has been integrated directly into selected BASIN Web pages. Stream flow is a significant factor in the Boulder Creek watershed, particularly during early spring and late summer flood hazard seasons. These values are maintained on BASIN Web pages by automated processes that periodically obtain the current Web page from the source site and extracts essential values. For instance, the BASIN home page is regenerated every 5 minutes to update stream flow, air quality and UV exposure values. These automated processes are implemented in the PERL programming language and periodically executed by native UNIX cron procedures. When such external data is presented within an EMPACT site it is essential that access to the specific source site be readily apparent to the user, to insure the responsible agency is identified.
BASIN also includes several data sets provided by independent agencies. This data has been made available to the public through the BASIN Web site, but its collection is administered independent of the BASIN project. These data sets are accessed through the common BASIN spatial data catalog and presented in graphical format similar to those used for BASIN data sets; but collection, analysis and quality control procedures are not influenced by BASIN standards. These data sets include water quality data for South Boulder Creek collected by the Denver Water Board; Saint Vrain River water quality data collected by the City of Longmont and historic Boulder Creek water quality data collected by local high school students through the State of Colorado River Watch.
program. While one must exercise care comparing these data sets to those collected by cooperating agencies, such integration can enhance the compatibility of these data collection programs. For instance, the personnel from the City of Longmont have made voluntary efforts to coordinate data collection on the Saint Vrain River with that of the City of Boulder, resulting in a more comprehensive view of water quality in the larger Saint Vrain system.
**Geographic presentation formats**
In all three of the above data set types BASIN provides a uniform user interface to the available data by developing a common set of basic meta data stored in a common format such that a common set of processing tools can be employed to generate a user interface to all the datasets. BASIN provides access to all these data resources through a geographically oriented map interface using Web site image-map standards.
The most powerful visualization approaches to geographic distributed data are developed using formal GIS. However, GIS development is a resource intensive task; requiring sophisticated software applications, powerful computing resources and extensive human resources to develop basic mapping data and to integrate the available environmental data into the spatial data context. BASIN sought to stress a comprehensive data context and concluded the resources required to develop a formal GIS exceeded those available to the project. BASIN is currently working on an integration project with EPA Region 8, the USGS and the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) to integrate formal GIS data resources with the current BASIN system.
BASIN used an alternative approach to develop procedures to manage and display spatial information. A series of procedures were developed to programmatically annotate static gif map images using graphical manipulation procedures. BASIN combines a series of publically available graphics libraries available within the PERL programming environment with background map images available in the public domain from the Census Bureau’s TIGER Map Server (http://tiger.census.gov).
PERL is a widely used interpretative programming language distributed under a general public license (GPL) on a wide variety of operating systems. PERL is widely used in the Web site development community and extensive PERL programming resources are available on the Internet. PERL is particularly powerful due to the extensive set of freely available programming libraries (i.e., packages) available through the “Comprehensive PERL Archive Network” (CPAN). CPAN ftp sites are distributed throughout the Internet. PERL’s Web site (http://www.perl.com) can provide the most convenient site for your locality. These libraries provide a rich set of well documented programming libraries to address a wide range of functionalities. These libraries are distributed in source code so sophisticated developers are free to enhance the basic procedures.
BASIN uses numerous CPAN PERL library packages as detailed in Chapter 4. Two specific PERL packages are used to provide graphics programming support to develop the BASIN spatial data catalog. The GD package provides standard graphic primitives (DrawPoint, DrawPolygon FillArea, etc) to dynamically annotate background GIF images. The GIFgraph package provides a higher level of abstraction to generate many standard data plot types including the bar charts used extensively in the BASIN data catalog. Each of the PERL packages are freely available on any of the CPAN ftp sites.
A set of base Boulder Creek watershed maps have been obtained from the TIGER map server and manually annotated to highlight the specific stream systems of interest. Geometric transform procedures have been developed to convert global monitoring site longitude and latitude parameters to map specific image coordinates. These procedures, combined with the GD graphics library routines, are used to generate annotated gif images integrated with HTML image map code and JAVA script to develop interactive Web-based image-maps interfaces. Users can identify and select monitoring sites using the mouse through standard Web browsers. These procedures rely on a small common set of meta data assembled for both local and remote data resources. Meta-data is maintained on the BASIN server as discussed in Chapter 4; as additional resources are added to the catalog the data catalog can be quickly regenerated to update the available resources.
5.3 Generating Data Presentations
The remote data resources provided through the BASIN Web site are designed and developed by the providers of those data resources so the format and structure of those resources are beyond the influence of the BASIN team. Local data resources, including both data sets supplied by non partnering agencies and those data sets developed in cooperation with the BASIN project are presented in formats designed and implemented by the BASIN team. The datasets provided by non-partner agencies are presented as relatively simple graphs based on conversation with the data suppliers. The remainder of this chapter focuses on the design and development of output pages for the datasets integral to the BASIN project.
5.3.1 Putting Data And Information In Context
BASIN provides coverage of in-stream water quality for 17 parameters at 19 monitoring stations throughout the watershed. Water quality parameters represent a complex set of measurements including interacting constituents. It is essential that the presentation of the data provide a comprehensive explanation of each parameter and the influences of the spatial distribution and seasonal effects of the variation of these parameters.
Each dataset is supported by a comprehensive set of meta-data which identify the collecting agency and describe the specific procedures used to collect the sample and/
or analyze each parameter, including analysis detection limits. Each monitoring site is further described using photographs of the collection site and a small TIGER map of the specific collection site. Each dataset is linked to extensive general information describing the parameter and how it relates to the overall system behavior. A set of data set specific interpretive narratives are also provided for each parameter describing how the parameter varies across the watershed and over the course of the seasons. This information is maintained by the BASIN IMS as described in Chapter 4.
The procedures which generate the data presentation pages must integrate all the stored meta-data and supporting information into the display outputs.
5.3.2 Data Visualization Design
User selection interface
The BASIN water quality data user interface (http://basin.org/data/COBWQ) allows users to select one or more parameters to be displayed as longitudinal profiles for a selected month, a time series for a selected station or an entire years data displayed as miniature time series on a watershed map. Users can select stations from a menu or directly from a watershed map.
Page design
The initial page delivered in response to a user selection provides a summary page of the selected parameters including small versions of the selected plots, a block of meta-data describing the data set, data set-specific contextual information, and an optional data table.
When longitudinal profiles are selected a watershed image map is included which locates each of the stations included in the profile. Users may jump to time series display of a specific station by selecting a station from the map or by selecting the listed station in the data table.
When time series data are selected the contextual information includes a small map of the region around the monitoring station, specific data about the station, and a link to a photograph of the collection point. Users can jump to monthly longitudinal profiles by selecting the month label in the data table.
In both cases users can traverse to adjacent plots (upstream and downstream in the case of time series and preceding and following months in the case of profiles) through navigation links provided on each page. When users request a subset of the available parameters all navigation links retain this selection so users may traverse the data set in time and space viewing a specific subset of parameters.
Further information about each parameter can be obtained by selecting either the parameter plot or the parameter label in the data table. The resulting page includes a larger plot and more extensive general information and data set-specific analysis which seeks to provide users with a definitive explanation of the significance of the parameter, analysis of how it varies across the watershed and throughout the seasons and specific details on how the samples are collected and analyzed. Specific contact information is provided as well as an opportunity to download the data in a portable ASCII text format suitable for importation into typical spreadsheet and database applications. The user may also select a full screen plot of the parameter suitable for printing.
**Plot elements**
When selecting the formats for displaying the watershed data several considerations arise. The BASIN water quality data set consists of monthly values of 17 parameters collected from 19 sites throughout the watershed. Since the resulting 3 dimensional dataset cannot be easily displayed on two dimensional graphs, BASIN provides 3 views of the dataset.
Longitudinal profiles provide plots of the variation of each parameter over selected stream channels for each month of the year. Since samples are not collected simultaneously at all the stations the profiles are represented as bar charts rather than line plots. Three sizes of plots are generated; one small plot which is used on multiple parameter pages; a medium size plot used on a single parameter data page, and a full screen plot design for printer output. An example of a longitudinal profile plot for nitrate and nitrite is shown in Figure 5.2.
Annual time series are provided for each month of the year at each station. Time series plots are presented as bar charts to reflect the discontinuous nature of monthly data. Four sizes of plots are generated; one small plot used on multiple parameter pages; a medium size plot used on a single parameter data page, a full screen plot design for a printer and a miniature plot for full map displays. An example of a longitudinal profile plot for nitrate and nitrite is shown in Figure 5.3.
Map plots summarize the entire annual data set in a single geographic display by overlaying reduced time series plots on the watershed map. Each miniature time series plot is generated when the larger time series plot is generated. The plots are overlaid on the map using the GD plot procedures discussed above and annotated with lines connecting the miniature time series to an icon at the specific location of the stations. The map is supported by a client side image map and java script code such that mousing over the plot or station icon identifies the station and selecting either image will jump to the station time series page. An example of a map plot is shown in Figure 5.4.
Some thought should be given to handling missing data, special cases, and the details of data presentations. For instance, in the BASIN data sets often specific parameter measurements fall below the practical detection limits of the analysis procedures. By maintaining these detection limits as part of the parameter meta-data the BASIN displays can flag these nondetectable levels as separate from missing data. Since parameters are plotted on a global set of axes, small values may appear missing on data plots; however, by specifically noting missing data on the plots BASIN insures small measured values are not overlooked. Alternatively, occasionally values are encountered that greatly exceed the normal range of a particular parameter. Plot scales must be ascertained which will provide meaningful display of the bulk of the data while providing a procedure to handle occasional outliers. The actual value of these outlying measurements can be obtained from the data tables.
5.3.3 Implementation
The data display pages described above are developed through a combination of batch processing and interactive page generation. Since data sets are updated monthly but may be requested more frequently it was determined that better performance would result from preparing data plots when data sets are updated rather than on request. When new data is submitted to the system a PERL-based batch processor is executed and the entire set of annual data plots regenerated. Since each update involves 17 parameters, measured at 19 stations and up to 12 months in multiple sizes, each batch process generates approximately 1600 plots. Manual construction of this many plots would be infeasible using interactive spreadsheet or plotting applications. An additional advantage of this batch approach is the rapid regeneration of all plotting output in the face of data re-submissions or output design modifications. Batch processor routines are implemented using PERL object oriented programming techniques as described in Chapter 4. Upon execution, static database tables are assembled into a complex data tree which is then used to construct data vectors for each plotting routine. Plots are generated by GIFgraph library procedures through the PERL object interface and written into a static Web site directory hierarchy. Batch processors are programmatically connected with data update and preprocessing procedures such that Web site display elements are automatically updated upon receipt of data set updates.
Actual page construction occurs when users submit display requests. Summary pages are constructed by referencing the stored data plots and dynamically generating the requested data table. Similarly, data files are dynamically prepared for downloading upon user requests.
5.4 Water Quality Index (WQI) Computation and Display
In addition to the variety of data display options described above BASIN has implemented a water quality index which provides a rapid overview of conditions in the watershed. BASIN researched several types of water quality indices and selected an index developed by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) which is used by many communities for characterizing overall water quality. The BASIN water quality index is a modified version of the NSF index, based on seven parameters (i.e., DO, fecal coliform, pH, total phosphate, nitrate, total solids, and turbidity) measured at the sampling sites. On its Web site, BASIN provides a map of the watershed which presents the water quality index as calculated at several sites on Boulder Creek (http://basin.org/data/WQI/index.html). The index (or grade) scale is A through F, with “A” representing “Excellent” water quality and “F” representing “Very Bad” water quality.
Users who want more information on what parameter affects water quality at a specific sampling site may select the site grade signpost to view the WQI computation for that site. Note while the index provides a quick overview of the water quality throughout the watershed, the BASIN Web site provides more detailed analysis of specific Boulder Creek water quality data and general discussion of the specific factors that affect water quality in Boulder Creek as described in the preceding sections.
BASIN computes the NSF Water Quality Index using computational methods described in the book Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring (Mitchell and Stapp, Kendall Hunt Publishing, c 2000). This procedure derives a single metric of stream water quality at a monitoring site using 7 water quality measurements (DO % saturation, pH, fecal coliform, total phosphates, nitrate, solids and turbidity). The computation maps the value of each parameter to a theoretically determined “Q value” using graphs provided by NSF researchers. These Q values are combined with factors to determine a single “Grade” at each site.
Calculation of the WQI is automated and occurs when data for the 7 required parameters are available at a site. When direct measurement of DO as a percent of theoretical saturation is not available at a site, the theoretical saturation is computed for the measured temperature and the result is corrected to the site elevation (maintained in the database site table). This derived DO% value is then used to determine the appropriate Q-value as discussed below.
The BASIN IMS implements the WQI computational algorithm using a graphical lookup procedure. Q-Value plots have been optically scanned and are maintained on the EDNA server as monochromatic image files. These files are loaded into memory as image arrays and Q-values are “read” off the plots for each parameter value using a pixel color index test. Once Q values are determined weighting factors are applied and the
numerical grade is computed. This grade is then converted to a letter grade to assign a graphical signpost to the site.
BASIN’s graphical image annotation procedures are then executed to generate an image-map with the NSF WQI Grade signpost at each station in the watershed. Each site and signpost is linked to an automatically generated HTML spreadsheet detailing the underlying WQI computations at that station. An example of this output procedure is shown in Figure 5.5. Other examples of the output of this procedure are available at http://basin.org/data/WQI/.
**Figure 5.5 Water Quality Index**
### 5.5 Conclusions
This chapter has described several of the approaches the BASIN EMPACT project has taken to present environmental data in a meaningful context to encourage community understanding of the Boulder Creek Watershed. While exhaustive detail on these techniques is beyond the scope of this manual, it is hoped this chapter has provided some ideas on a variety of data presentation alternatives and the importance of placing EMPACT data in an overall interpretative context.
6. COMMUNICATING TIMELY ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
Providing timely environmental information to the community is not simply a matter of placing data files on a Web site. Working directly with members of the community-at-large, determining user needs and concerns, and going through an iterative process with key stakeholders will help make your environmental information more meaningful and accessible to the community you are trying to serve. This chapter is designed to help you develop an approach for communicating pertinent environmental information to people in your community, or more specifically, your target audience. This chapter provides the following:
- the steps involved in developing an outreach plan,
- guidelines for effectively communicating information,
- resources to assist in promoting community awareness, and
- the outreach initiatives implemented by the BASIN team.
6.1 Developing an Outreach Plan for Disseminating Timely Environmental Monitoring Data
Your outreach program will be most effective if you ask yourself the following questions:
- Who do we want to reach? (i.e., Who is your target audience or audiences?)
- What information do we want to distribute or communicate?
- What are the most effective mechanisms to reach our target audience?
- How do we involve users or target audiences in usability testing and, if possible, program development?
Developing an outreach plan ensures that you have considered all important elements of an outreach project before you begin. The plan itself provides a blueprint for action. An outreach plan does not have to be lengthy or complicated. You can develop a plan simply by documenting your answers to each of the questions discussed below. This will provide you with a solid foundation for launching an outreach effort.
Your outreach plan will be most effective if you involve a variety of people in its development. Where possible, consider involving
- a communications specialist or someone who has experience developing and implementing an outreach plan,
- technical experts in the subject matter (both scientific and policy),
- someone who represents the target audience (i.e., the people or groups you want to reach), and
- key individuals who will be involved in implementing the outreach plan.
As you develop your outreach plan, consider whether you would like to invite any organizations to partner with you in planning or implementing the outreach effort. Potential partners might include local businesses, environmental organizations, schools, boating associations, local health departments, local planning and zoning authorities, and other local or state agencies. Partners can participate in planning, product development and review, and distribution. Partnerships can be valuable mechanisms for leveraging resources while enhancing the quality, credibility, and success of outreach efforts. Developing an outreach plan is a creative and iterative process involving a number of interrelated steps, as described below. As you move through each of these steps, you might want to revisit and refine the decisions you made in earlier steps until you have an integrated, comprehensive, and achievable plan.
6.1.1 What Are Your Outreach Goals?
Defining your outreach goals is the initial step in developing an outreach plan. Outreach goals should be clear, simple, action-oriented statements about what you hope to accomplish through outreach. Once you have established your goals, every other element of the plan should relate to those goals. Here were some project goals for the BASIN EMPACT project:
- Improve existing environmental monitoring to provide credible, timely and usable information about the watershed to the public.
- Create a state-of-the-art information management and public access infrastructure using advanced, Web-based computer technologies.
- Build strong partnerships and an ongoing alliance of governmental, educational, non-profit and private entities involved in watershed monitoring, management, and education.
Develop education and communication programs to effectively utilize watershed information in the public media and schools and facilitate greater public involvement in public policy formation.
Increase public awareness of how the hydrologic cycle effects everyday life, where drinking and irrigation water come from, how it is used, and what happens downstream.
BASIN’s general goals listed above also had specific objectives. For example, BASIN’s specific objective for improving existing environmental monitoring included providing brochures and posters to all fifth grade teachers and middle school science teachers in the Boulder Valley School District.
6.1.2 Whom Are You Trying To Reach?
Identifying Your Audience(s)
The next step in developing an outreach plan is to clearly identify the target audience or audiences for your outreach effort. As illustrated in the BASIN project goals above, outreach goals often define their target audiences (e.g., the public and fisheries). You might want to refine and add to your goals after you have defined your target audience(s).
Target audiences for a water quality outreach program might include, for example, the general public, local decision makers and land management agencies, educators and students (high school and college), special interest groups (e.g., homeowner associations, fishing and boating organizations, gardening clubs, and lawn maintenance/landscape professionals). Some audiences, such as educators and special interest groups, might serve as conduits to help disseminate information to other audiences you have identified, such as the general public.
Consider whether you should divide the public into two or more audience categories. For example: Will you be providing different information to different groups, such as the citizens vs. businesses? Does a significant portion of the public you are trying to reach have a different cultural or linguistic background? If so, it may be more effective to consider these groups as separate audience categories.
Profiling Your Audience(s)
Once you have identified your audiences, the next step is to develop a profile of their situations, interests, and concerns. Outreach will be most effective if the type, content, and distribution of outreach products are specifically tailored to the characteristics of your target audiences. Developing a profile will help you identify the most effective ways of reaching the audience. For each target audience, consider the following:
What is their current level of knowledge about water quality and general watershed awareness?
What do you want them to know about water quality? What actions would you like them to take regarding water quality?
What information is likely to be of greatest interest to the audience? What information will they likely want to know once they develop some awareness of water quality issues?
How much time are they likely to give to receiving and assimilating the information?
How does this group generally receive information?
What professional, recreational, and domestic activities does this group typically engage in that might provide avenues for distributing outreach products? Are there any organizations or centers that represent or serve the audience and might be avenues for disseminating your outreach products?
Profiling an audience essentially involves putting yourself “in your audience’s shoes.” Ways to do this include consulting with individuals or organizations who represent or are members of the audience, consulting with colleagues who have successfully developed other outreach products for the audience, and using your imagination.
6.1.3 What Do You Want To Communicate?
The next step in planning an outreach program is to think about what you want to communicate. In particular, think about the key points, or “messages,” you want to communicate. Messages are the “bottom line” information you want your audience to walk away with, even if they forget the details.
A message is usually phrased as a brief (often one-sentence) statement. The following are some examples of messages that are posted on the BASIN Web site:
- Real-time Boulder Creek flowrates.
- BASIN now provides a Water Quality Index for the main stem of Boulder Creek along with other water quality information for the Boulder Creek Watershed.
- Online cameras including Niwot Ridge Tundra Cam.
Outreach products will often have multiple related messages. Consider what messages you want to send to each target audience group. You may have different messages for different audiences.
6.1.4 What Outreach Products Will You Develop?
The next step in developing an outreach plan is to consider what types of outreach products will be most effective for reaching each target audience. There are many different types of outreach: print, audiovisual, electronic, events, and novelty items.
TIP!
Include representatives of specific user groups when developing outreach products. They have valuable input regarding what the various needs and interests of your larger audience.
The audience profile information you assembled earlier will be helpful in selecting appropriate products. A communications professional can provide valuable guidance in choosing the most appropriate products to meet your goals within your resources and time constraints. Questions to consider when selecting products include:
- How much information does your audience really need? How much does your audience need to know now? The simplest, most straightforward product generally is most effective.
- Is the product likely to appeal to the target audience? How much time will it take to interact with the product? Is the audience likely to make that time?
- How easy and cost-effective will the product be to distribute or, in the case of an event, organize?
- How many people is this product likely to reach? For an event, how many people are likely to attend?
- What time frame is needed to develop and distribute the product?
- How much will it cost to develop the product? Do you have access to the talent and resources needed for product development?
- What other related products are already available? Can you build on existing products?
When will the material be out of date? (You probably will want to spend fewer resources on products with shorter lifetimes.)
Would it be effective to have distinct phases of products over time? For example, an initial phase of products designed to raise awareness, followed by later phases of products to increase understanding.
How newsworthy is the information? Information with inherent news value is more likely to be rapidly and widely disseminated by the media.
6.1.5 How Will Your Products Reach Your Audience?
Effective distribution is essential to the success of an outreach strategy. You need to consider how each product will be distributed and determine who will be responsible for distribution. For some products, your organization might manage distribution. For others, you might rely on intermediaries (such as the media or educators) or organizational partners who are willing to participate in the outreach effort. Consult with an experienced communications professional to obtain information about the resources and time required for the various distribution options. Some points to consider in selecting distribution channels include:
- How does the audience typically receive information?
- What distribution mechanisms has your organization used in the past for this audience? Were these mechanisms effective?
- Can you identify any partner organizations that might be willing to assist in the distribution?
- Can the media play a role in distribution?
- Will the mechanism you are considering really reach the intended audience? For example, the Internet can be an effective distribution mechanism, but certain groups might have limited access to it.
- How many people is the product likely to reach through the distribution mechanism you are considering?
- Are sufficient resources available to fund and implement distribution via the mechanisms of interest?
Table 6.1 provides various distribution avenues and outreach products for communicating your environmental data to the public.
| Methods of Communication | Examples |
|--------------------------|----------|
| Mailing lists | - Brochures
| - Newsletters
| - Fact sheets
| - Utility bill inserts or stuffers |
| Phone/fax | - Promotional hotline |
| E-mail/Internet | - Newsletters
| - E-mail messages
| - Web pages
| - Subscriber list servers |
| Radio/TV | - Cable TV programs
| - Public service announcements
| - Videos
| - Media interviews
| - Press conferences/releases |
| Journals or newsletters | - Newsletters
| - Editorials
| - Newspaper and magazine articles |
| Meetings, community events, or locations (e.g., libraries, schools, marinas, public beaches, tackle shops, etc.) where products are made available. | - Exhibits
| - Kiosks
| - Posters
| - Question-and-answer sheets
| - Novelty items (e.g., mouse pads, golf tees, buttons, key chains, magnets, bumper stickers, coloring books, frisbees, etc.)
| - Banners
| - Briefings
| - Fairs and festivals
| - Meetings (i.e., one-on-one and public)
| - Community days
| - Speeches
| - Educational curricula |
6.1.6 What Follow-up Mechanisms Will You Establish?
Successful outreach may cause people to contact you with requests for more information or expressing concern about issues you have addressed. Consider whether and how you will handle this interest. The following questions can help you develop this part of your strategy:
- What types of reactions or concerns are audience members likely to have in response to the outreach information?
- Who will handle requests for additional information?
- Do you want to indicate on the outreach product where people can go for further information (e.g., provide a contact name, number, address, or establish a hotline)?
The BASIN Web site (http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/main/about.html) provides information so that people can contact the BASIN Project Coordinator by phone, e-mail, or postal mail. The public can also contact the BASIN Project Coordinator via a Web site comment form.
6.1.7 What Is the Schedule for Implementation?
Once you have decided on your goals, audiences, messages, products, and distribution channels, you will need to develop an implementation schedule. For each product, consider how much time will be needed for development and distribution. Be sure to factor in sufficient time for product review. Wherever possible, build in time for testing and evaluation by members or representatives of the target audience in focus groups or individual sessions so that you can get feedback on whether you have effectively targeted your material for your audience. Section 6.3 contains suggestions for presenting technical information to the public. It also provides information about online resources that can provide easy to understand background information that you can use in developing your own outreach projects.
6.2 Elements of the BASIN Project’s Outreach Program
The BASIN Project team uses a variety of mechanisms to communicate timely environmental information, as well as information about the project itself, to the Boulder area community. The team uses the BASIN Web site as the primary vehicle for communicating timely information to the public. Their outreach strategy includes a
variety of mechanisms (e.g., Internet, brochures, presentations at events, and community television) to provide the public with information about the BASIN project.
6.2.1 Outreach Elements
Each element of the project’s communication and participation program are discussed below.
Public Participation. The BASIN project vigorously encouraged public participation. BASIN continuously invited the public to join the project primarily through their Web site (which is discussed later). The interested public could join as a BASIN Boulder Community Network (BCN) Volunteer, join the BASIN Forum, complete the BASIN Survey, or join local school or neighborhood projects.
BASIN BCN. BASIN invited the public to help with graphic design, Web page development, scripting or video/audio streaming. BASIN provided an online “classified ads” (http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/news/classifieds.html) to help the community see the needs of the BASIN project. Potential BCN Volunteers could contact the BASIN Volunteer Coordinator either by phone or e-mail or sign up as a BCN Volunteer by completing the online BCN Volunteer Questionnaire (http://bcn.boulder.co.us/volunteer/register.html). BCN Volunteers provided over 1000 hours of assistance by offering ideas and feedback and designing the BASIN Web site.
BASIN FORUM. BASIN provided an online forum for the interested public to share ideas or information about local environmental and social concerns that relate to community livability and sustainability. The public could either post their ideas and comments online or subscribe to the Boulder Creek Watershed e-mail list serve to obtain information about BASIN forum.
BASIN Survey. For individuals who did not have time to become a BCN Volunteer, BASIN provided an opportunity for Web site visitors to provide comments regarding the usefulness and presentation of the information provided on the BASIN Web site (http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/surveys/index.html). The public could either type their comments in a text field or take an online 10-question survey.
School or Neighborhood Projects. Schools and neighborhoods could contact BASIN to find out how they could develop and implement their own school water monitoring projects.
Bringing together experts. The EMPACT project stakeholders included representatives from organizations that originally signed the BASIN Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), as well as other interested individuals in the community who use or provide environmental information to the public and were supportive of the BASIN’s efforts. The MOU was a non-binding agreement among the BASIN partners to cooperate fully in the project, including active participation in the project design, development, and implementation of the project. The originals signers of the MOU are listed below.
- City of Boulder
- enfo.com
- Local environmental educators and organizers
- University of Colorado Department of Civil Engineering and Architectural Engineering
- The U.S. Geological Survey
- Boulder Community Network
- Boulder County Healthy Communities Initiative
- Boulder County Health Department
- Boulder Creek Watershed Initiative
- Boulder Valley School District
- Colorado Division of Wildlife – River Watch Network
- Community Access Television
Web site. The BASIN Web site can be accessed at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin. The EMPACT project is discussed at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/main/about.html. The Web site was the main avenue used by the team for disseminating the various environmental monitoring data. It was estimated that 80 percent of all residents in the Boulder area have Internet access [Source: 1998 EMPACT Grant Application, Draft (5/11)]. Although the BASIN project ended in December 2000, the Web site still provides a variety of real-time data, maps and live on-line cameras. Data includes weather, stream flow, water quality, and snow pack. In addition to providing water-related data, the site provides air quality advisories, which are linked to the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division’s Web site (http://apcd.state.co.us/psi/main.html). The site also announces the availability of new reports and studies for the Boulder area.
The left side of the BASIN Web page displays a list of “Themes” discussing a variety of topics such as watersheds, waterworks technology and infrastructure, personal actions for protecting water quality, recreation, and current events. Via the Web site, the public can read news about the project or participate in online forums. These are discussed below:
Newsletter. The project newsletter, BASIN News, featured local, timely environmental information which focused on water issues and links to other resources. The newsletter was published bi-monthly in electronic form. The
public could read *BASIN News* online at [http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/news/current.html](http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/news/current.html) or could subscribe to receive *BASIN News* in HTML or text only format for free through their email account. Hard copies were distributed in various city offices. Appendix C contains a copy of the December 2000 issue.
**Online Forums.** BASIN hosted an online forum to discuss topics of local interest and concern on October 23-31. Entitled *Drought, Fire & Flood in the Boulder Area: Are We Prepared?* this electronic seminar explored the background, current situation, and future concerns relating to climate change, wildfires and flash flooding in the Boulder area. The public participated by subscribing to the discussion list serve or could download a daily summary of the discussion from the BASIN Web site.
**Stakeholder Update.** Periodically, the BASIN team provided a Stakeholder Update letter which discussed the recent activities on the project. The Stakeholder Update announced the availability of new data, outreach and marketing efforts, new studies, staffing changes, etc. The Stakeholder Update letter was available on the BASIN Web site.
**Television.** Students from Sojourner Middle School in Boulder wrote and produced a television news program about various aspects of Boulder Creek which they had been studying throughout the school year. The students were assisted by members of BASIN in researching, developing, and producing the television program. The students interviewed various experts to gather information on drinking water, kayaking, flash flood hazards, the importance of snow runoff, the greenback cutthroat trout, ammonia, and macro invertebrates. The 50 minute program, including a 15 minute documentary on the making of the program, aired two days a week during July 2000 and won a local community media award for best student documentary. The program was featured in the American Water Works Association’s (AWWA) Mainstream Magazine in May, 2001. In addition, a 13 minute television program entitled “BASIN Kid” showing basic water quality testing techniques and a 15 minute program providing an overview on the Millennium Baseline Study were shown on community television.
**Presentations.** BASIN representatives gave presentations to a variety of groups including the state Flood and Drought Task Force, Denver Regional Council of Governments, city advisory boards, EPA Region 8, PLAN Boulder, several EPA conferences and on the local radio station KGNU. In August 2000, Mark McCaffrey gave a presentation in Sweden at the Stockholm International Water Symposium. In September 2000, Mr. McCaffrey and Sheila Murphy gave a presentation at the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) Colorado State Convention in Vail.
**Piggybacking on existing events.** BASIN representatives attended many local events providing brochures and displaying project posters for the attending public. Such local events included the Boulder Earth Day Festival, the Boulder Creek Festival, Boulder Farmer’s Market, and the Children’s Water Festival. Maps of the watershed
proved to be an excellent icebreaker at public events and a natural segue to providing the public with brochures about BASIN.
6.2.2 Developing the BASIN Web Site
Experience Gained and Lessons Learned
The BASIN team encountered several challenges as it tried to establish continuity and maintain momentum for the project. One collaborative challenge involved reaching a group consensus on the goals for the project. Many individuals had differing opinions regarding the goal of the project and how resources should be allocated to various endeavors. One member of the BASIN staff who had experience as a professional facilitator was able to aid in the dialogue process for reaching consensus and working through issues of contention and disagreement. By identifying potential areas of conflict and working to clarify their shared vision, the facilitator assisted the team as they attempted to pioneer new ways of networking and collaborating together. The experience also suggests that future teams desiring to implement a similar program allow time and resources for establishing the team relationships.
The team experienced several obstacles when soliciting partnerships with potential data providers. The team realized that providing public access to environmental information is a major paradigm shift. In most of the world, the idea of a public’s “right-to-know” simply does not exist. While in the U.S. there is increasingly the technology and the will to inform the public about their environmental system’s health, there are numerous political, technological, cultural, and personal challenges involved in pioneering systems and approaches to involving the public more directly in monitoring their local environment and taking responsibility for the impact of their actions.
Some institutions that were solicited for data were simply uncomfortable with making their data publicly available. They were concerned that there would be public inquiries arising from data without staff resources to address these inquiries. They were also concerned about the uncompensated in-house costs for preparing and delivering internal data to the public.
Other potential data providers supported the objectives of the BASIN project and expressed willingness to provide data; however, ongoing discussions with the potential data providers resulted in mixed success and a greater clarification of the challenges and difficulties associated with data partnering. BASIN had established rigorous standards for supporting meta-data and providing interpretive information along with the data, as well as standards for quality control and quality assurance. While most of the potential data providers readily provided access to raw data sets, obtaining or developing appropriate supportive interpretative information and agreeing to appropriate QA/QC procedures proved more problematic. [Source: 2000 Annual Report, BASIN Project EMPACT Grant, January 30, 2001]
While several environmental monitoring programs were identified within the watershed, the team quickly realized that few of the potential data providers were immediately prepared to make their data available to the general public. The following concerns were identified:
- The need for comprehensive information context to relay the significance of the data to the public.
- The need for additional internal quality control before releasing in-house data.
These early interviews also served to clarify technical challenges of developing the project’s IMS. The team quickly realized that independent data collection programs involved highly specific collection and analysis procedures, software standards varied dramatically between monitoring programs, and data was retained in a variety of units.
These factors lead to a restructuring of the project plan. As a result, the project focus was shifted from a more standard software development cycle of needs assessment, initial design, user evaluation, implementation and testing to a more responsive and rapid approach. To ensure both public participation and data provider cooperation, the initial software development schedule was revised to advance the implementation of prototype data delivery and Web site information products. Prototype applications were then applied to additional data sets as providers agreed to participate.
[Source: BASIN Final Report, BASIN EMPACT Project, February 2001]
Key to the development of BASIN’s Web site and associated outreach products were the volunteers of the BCN who brought a wide variety of skills and perspectives to the effort. In the early months of the project a series of monthly meetings were held with some 40 BCN volunteers. After an overview of the goals of the project was given, the volunteers broke into four primary teams: Web Design, Architecture, Resource Discovery Group and Outreach. One volunteer-- a geography teacher at a local high school was particularly interested in GIS on the Web, and while it was determined that GIS was beyond the scope of BASIN’s pilot project, he continued to be involved and has now developed a GIS unit for his class using aerial photos from the BASIN Web site. A general BCN volunteer list was established to keep all the participants informed on new developments and to ask for assistance and feedback on particular aspects of the project. Many of the volunteers were involved with the high-tech field in the region and were able to bring their expertise and tools to the project.
In addition to the monthly meetings, the teams worked together with BASIN staff on specific tasks, and a password protected development site was developed to begin experimenting with approaches and artwork, and much of the actual development of the Web site including usability testing was conducted on the Web with the active involvement of key BCN volunteers. The volunteers gained experience and provided a
valuable community service through their involvement with the project. BASIN’s BCN volunteers proved to be more than just an in-house focus group for on-going feedback as the Web site and related outreach projects went through their iterative development. They also served as powerful advocates in their own communities, promoting BASIN with their families, schools, and work colleagues.
Within six months after first meeting with volunteers of the Boulder Community Network, the first release of the BASIN Web site was made available to the general public, and during that six month period much of the “place-based” information relating to the watershed community’s unique history, geography and culture were developed. Historical photos from the Denver Public Library and the Library of Congress were added to the Web site, existing watershed education materials and quizzes were configured for the Web, historical essays and other materials helped to contextualize the environmental data that was added to the site in the following months. In addition to enriching the Web site with multi-disciplinary depth, it also served as an inspiration for other local contributors to ask that their own materials be added to the network. These include Dr. Pete Palmer’s peer reviewed articles on sustainability at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/local/sustainintro.html and excerpts from Joanna Sampson’s digital book HIGH, WILD AND HANDSOME: The Story of Colorado’s Beautiful South Boulder Creek and Eldorado Canyon at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/history/Moffat.html.
Among the volunteer efforts that BCN volunteers provided were the BASIN logo (developed by Linda Mark) which played a key role in establishing “brand recognition” of BASIN and was used on all BASIN brochures and posters, and the online quizzes (by Paul von Behren).
6.3 Resources for Presenting Environmental Information to the Public
As you develop your various forms of communication materials and begin to implement your outreach plan, you will want to make sure that these materials present your information as clearly and accurately as possible. There are resources on the Internet to help you develop your outreach materials. Some of these are discussed below.
6.3.1 How Do You Present Technical Information to the Public?
Environmental topics are often technical in nature and full of jargon, and environmental monitoring information is no exception. Nonetheless, technical information can be conveyed in simple, clear terms to those in the general public not familiar with environmental data. The following principles should be used when conveying technical information to the public:
- avoid using jargon,
- translate technical terms (e.g., reflectance) into everyday language the public can easily understand,
- use active voice,
- write short sentences,
- use headings and other formatting techniques to provide a clear and organized structure.
The following Web sites provide guidance regarding how to write clearly and effectively for a general audience:
- The National Partnership for Reinventing Government has a guidance document, *Writing User-Friendly Documents*, that can be found on the Web at [http://www.plainlanguage.gov](http://www.plainlanguage.gov).
- The American Bar Association has a Web site that provides links to online writing labs ([http://www.abanet.org/lpm/bparticle11463_front.shtml](http://www.abanet.org/lpm/bparticle11463_front.shtml)). The Web site discusses topics such as handouts and grammar.
As you develop communication materials for your audience, remember to tailor your information to consider what they are already likely to know, what you want them to know, and what they are likely to understand. The most effective approach is to provide information that is valuable and interesting to the target audience. For example, the kayakers may want to know about the creek flow rates in Boulder Creek. Also, when developing outreach products, be sure to consider special needs of the target audience. For example, ask yourself if your target audience has a large number of people who speak little or no English. If so, you should prepare communication materials in their native language.
The rest of this section contains information about resources available on the Internet that can assist you as you develop your own outreach projects. Some of the Web sites discussed below contain products, such as downloadable documents or fact sheets, which you can use to develop and tailor your education and outreach efforts.
6.3.2 Federal Resources
EPA’s Surf Your Watershed
http://www.epa.gov/surf3
This Web site can be used to locate, use, and share environmental information on watersheds. One section of this site, “Locate Your Watershed,” allows the user to enter the names of rivers, schools, or zip codes to learn more about watersheds in their local area or in other parts of the country. The EPA’s Index of Watershed Indicators (IWI) can also be accessed from this site. The IWI is a numerical grade (1 to 6), which is compiled and calculated based on a variety of indicators that assess the condition of rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands, and coastal areas.
EPA’s Office of Water Volunteer Lake Monitoring: A Methods Manual
http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/lake
EPA developed this manual to present specific information on volunteer lake water quality monitoring methods. It is intended both for the organizers of the volunteer lake monitoring program and for the volunteer(s) who will actually be sampling lake conditions. It emphasizes identifying appropriate parameters to monitor and listing specific steps for each selected monitoring method. The manual also includes quality assurance/quality control procedures to ensure that the data collected by volunteers are useful to State and other agencies.
EPA’s Nonpoint Source Pointers (Fact sheets)
http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/facts
This Web site features a series of fact sheets (referred to as pointers) on nonpoint source pollution (e.g., pollution occurring from storm water runoff). The pointers covers topics including: programs and opportunities for public involvement in nonpoint source control, managing wetlands to control nonpoint source pollution, and managing urban runoff.
EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/about.html
EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office Web site includes information about topics such as human health, visualizing the lakes, monitoring, and pollution prevention. One section of this site (http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/gl2000/lamps/index.html) has links to Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP) documents for each of the Great Lakes. A LaMP is a plan of action developed by the United States and Canada to assess, restore, protect and monitor the ecosystem health of a Great Lake. The LaMP has a section dedicated to public involvement or outreach and education. The program utilizes a public review process to ensure that the LaMP is addressing their concerns.
You could use the LaMP as a model in developing similar plans for your water monitoring program.
**U. S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service**
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/water/quality/frame/wqam
Under “Guidance Documents,” there are several documents pertaining to water quality that can be downloaded or ordered. These documents are listed below.
- A Procedure to Estimate the Response of Aquatic Systems to Changes in Phosphorus and Nitrogen Inputs
- Stream Visual Assessment Protocol
- National Handbook of Water Quality Monitoring
- Water Quality Indicators Guide
- Water Quality Field Guide
### 6.3.3 Education Resources
**Project WET (Water Education for Teachers)**
http://www.montana.edu/wwwwet
One goal of Project WET is to promote awareness, appreciation, knowledge, and good stewardship of water resources by developing and making available classroom-ready teaching aids. Another goal of WET is to establish state- and internationally-sponsored Project WET programs. The WET site has a list of all the State Project WET Program Coordinators.
**Water Science for Schools**
http://wwwga.usgs.gov/edu/index.html
The USGS’s Water Science for Schools Web site offers information on many aspects of water and water quality. The Web site has pictures, data, maps, and an interactive forum where you can provide opinions and test your water knowledge. Water quality is discussed under “Special Topics.”
Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN)
http://www.earthforce.org/green
The GREEN provides opportunities for middle and high school-aged youth to understand, improve and sustain watersheds in their community. This site also includes a list of water quality projects being conducted across the country and around the world (http://www.igc.apc.org/green/resources.html).
Adopt-A-Watershed
http://www.adopt-a-watershed.org/about.htm
Adopt-A-Watershed is a school-community learning experience for students from kindergarten through high school. Their goal is to make science applicable and relevant to the students. Adopt-A-Watershed has many products and services available to teachers wishing to start an Adopt-A-Watershed project. Although not active in every state, the Web site has a list of contacts in 25 States if you are interested in beginning a project in your area.
National Institutes for Water Resources
http://wrri.nmsu.edu/niwr/niwr.html
The National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) is a network of 54 research institutes throughout each of the 50 States, District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam/Federated States of Micronesia. Each institute conducts research to solve water problems unique to their area and establish cooperative programs with local governments, state agencies, and industry.
Southeast Michigan Watershed Project Participants
http://imc.lisd.k12.mi.us/SE.html
This Web site discusses water testing projects conducted by various middle schools and high schools in southeast Michigan. Each school provided QuickTime videos of their sampling sites.
Water on the Web
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/index.html
This Web site is maintained by USGS and provides water science information for schools. The site has information on many aspects of water, along with pictures, data, maps, and a site where you can test your knowledge.
Learning Web
http://www.usgs.gov/education/
Learning Web is a USGS Web site dedicated to K-12 education, exploration, and lifelong learning. The site covers topics such as biology, geology, and hydrology.
Webmonkey for Kids
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/kids/?tw=eg19990608
This site shows children how to build Web pages.
Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District -- Education
http://www.ncwcd.org/ncwcd?go_about/education.htm
This site offers an array of water-related educational services for preschoolers to retirees. It includes facts about water, teacher information, publications, and information about water festivals.
Bureau of Reclamation Environmental Education
http://www.usbr.gov/env_ed/
The site provides a list of various environmental educational programs and activities in which the Bureau of Reclamation participates, some of which are offered for general public participation. The site also provides a list and description of various educational classes relating to the study and care of water resources that the Bureau of Reclamation will provide to classes as “hands-on” science presentations.
6.3.4 Other Organizations
North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) Guide to Local Resources
http://www.nalms.org/
This Web site provides resources for those dealing with local lake-related issues. NALMS’s mission is to forge partnerships among citizens, scientists, and professionals to promote the management and protection of lakes and reservoirs. NALMS’s Guide to Local Resources (http://www.nalms.org/resource/lnkagenc/links.htm) contains various links to regulatory agencies, extension programs, research centers, NALMS chapters, regional directors, and a membership directory.
The Watershed Management Council (WMC) is a non-profit organization whose members represent a variety of watershed management interests and disciplines. WMC membership includes professionals, students, teachers, and individuals whose interest is in promoting proper watershed management.
6.3.5 Examples of BASIN Resources
Note!
The Colorado BASIN project should not be confused with the Environmental Protection Agency’s BASINS (Better Assessment Science Integration Point and Nonpoint Sources) Modeling Course. The BASINS Modeling Course is a watershed training course offered by the EPA’s Office of Wetlands, Oceans, & Watershed. Please see http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/BASINS/ for more information about BASINS.
BASIN’s Web site has numerous resources which serves as examples of what other project’s can do to bring a strong community focus on the health of the local environment. Some of these resources are listed below.
**BASIN’s Watershed Theme**
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/watershed/index.html
BASIN’s Watershed link provides information about water quality, geology, stream flow, weather and climate, flash floods, and tributaries.
**BASIN’s Water and Community Theme**
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/waterworks/index.html
BASIN’s Water and Community link provides information about drinking water systems, wastewater, underground storage tanks, and storm water runoff. The link also provides links to drinking water treatment and regulations.
**BASIN’s Personal Action Theme**
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/local/index.html
BASIN’s Personal Action link provides the public practical guidance on how to protect the environment. Such topics include household hazards and alternatives and water-wise landscaping.
BASIN’s History Theme
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/history/index.html
BASIN’s History link provides various historical environmental information about the Boulder Creek watershed. The site provides historical information about flash floods, early ditch decrees, pictures, etc.
BASIN’s Recreation Theme
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/recreation/index.html
BASIN’s Recreation link provides information about rivers in Colorado and other general recreation links. The site also has links which are of interest to canoers and kayakers, fishermen, hikers and backpackers, and boaters.
BASIN’s Learning Theme
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/learning/index.html
BASIN’s Learning link provides information about available watershed learning and service activities. The link which provides an online resource and teacher’s guide, a fifth grade learning activity, as well as virtual field trips is a valuable resource to teachers.
BASIN’s Library Theme
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/gallery/index.html
BASIN’s Library link provides a gallery of photographs taken around the watershed, a 450 document Environmental Research Bibliography, and additional learning activities.
6.4 Success Stories
The BASIN Project enjoyed several successes. BASIN provided a framework for successful collaboration between municipal and regional governments, educators, and concerned citizens to address a community need for access to environmental monitoring data and contextual information to explain the significance of that data. The BASIN project also generated a leveraging of existing resources. By creating a collaborative process and data repository, the project provided a focal point for researchers interested in the quality of Boulder Creek. The Boulder Creek Millennium Baseline Study (http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/BCMB) is one example of a leveraged resource effort that occurred as a result of the BASIN project. In this way, the BASIN Web site was able to respond to needs and opportunities not included in the initial EMPACT project scope.
The BASIN project enabled the City of Boulder’s drinking water and storm water quality programs to develop similar protocols for QA/QC. Prior to the project, the data
from each of the programs were kept in separate databases. Also, each program used different units for similar parameters. As a result those parameters could not be easily compared to each other. The BASIN team and City of Boulder collaborated so that the parameters measured by the two sampling programs could be easily compared to each other. The data collected from the two programs were eventually combined into a single database. Also both programs began measuring additional parameters so that the BASIN team could generate a water quality index which grades the streams. The index provides a quick and easy-to-understand assessment of the water quality in that particular stream. See Section 5 for a more complete discussion of the water quality index.
The BASIN Web site had become established as a community resource with robust usership. Daily page requests, distinct hosts served, pages requested, and total data transferred have continued to increase since the Web site was launched in 1999. The ongoing use of the Web site is a strong indication that citizens, students, researchers, and others both in the Boulder area and outside the watershed have found the BASIN Web site to be a useful source of environmental information.
BASIN was nominated for the 2001 Stockholm Water Prize that honors outstanding achievements that help protect the world’s water resources. Although BASIN did not win, they considered their nomination for the award an honor. The $150,000 prize is the leading international award for outstanding achievements on behalf of the world’s water. It is awarded to an individual, institution, organization, or company that has made the most contribution to preserve and enhance the world’s water resources. The prize recognizes either outstanding research, action, or education that protects the usability of water for all life and increases knowledge of water as a resource.
[Source: http://www.worldwaterday.org/events/ev09.html]
**User Feedback**
Various partners and peers provided positive and complimentary comments to BASIN regarding their Web site. Some of the comments are listed below.
“I looked at the site - what a lot of info! The links go on for days - it’s GREAT!!!”
- Trish McKenzie, U.S. EPA.
“What a fabulous program you have to offer! May we borrow your ideas/format and implement them into our own plan?” - Denise Leidy, Union Soil & Water Conservation District, La Grande, Oregon.
“I am impressed with your Web site and have passed it along to our employees” - Doug Gore, Regional Director, FEMA.
“This is a GREAT Web site” - Ken Margolis, River Network.
6.5 Most Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
The majority of questions that the BASIN team receives are related to water quality. For example, the team receives questions about pesticides used in the watershed, questions about water quality issues related to the Boulder Waste Water Treatment Plant, and questions regarding E. coli bacteria count in the water. The water quality site located on the BASIN Web page now provides public access to monitoring data to help answer these questions.
APPENDIX A
GLOSSARY OF TERMS & ACRONYM LIST
A
**Acre foot:** The amount of water that would cover one acre at the depth of one foot (325,900 gallons).
**Anoxia:** Absence of oxygen in water.
**APCD:** Air Pollution Control Division.
**AWRA:** American Water Resources Association.
**AWWA:** American Water Works Association.
B
**BASIN:** Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network.
**BCN:** Boulder Community Network.
C
**cfs:** cubic feet per second.
**Chlorophyll:** Green pigment in plants that transforms light energy into chemical energy by photosynthesis.
**CO₂:** Carbon dioxide.
**COB:** City of Boulder.
**CPAN:** Comprehensive Perl Archive Network.
D
**Dissolved oxygen (DO):** The concentration of oxygen ($O_2$) dissolved in water, usually expressed in milligrams per liter, parts per million, or percent of saturation (at the field temperature). Adequate concentrations of dissolved oxygen are necessary to sustain the life of fish and other aquatic organisms and prevent offensive odors. DO levels are considered a very important and commonly employed measurement of water quality and indicator of a water body’s ability to support desirable aquatic life. Levels above 5 milligrams per liter (mg $O_2$/L) are considered optimal and fish cannot survive for prolonged periods at levels below 3 mg $O_2$/L. Levels below 2 mg $O_2$/L are often referred to as hypoxic and when $O_2$ is less than 0.1 mg/L, conditions are considered to be anoxic.
**DMSO:** Dimethyl sulfoxide.
**DO:** Dissolved oxygen.
**DRCOG:** Denver Region Council of Governments.
**DVT(s):** Data visualization tools.
E
**Ecosystem:** The interacting plants, animals, and physical components (sunlight, soil, air, water) of an area.
**EDF:** Environmental Defense Fund.
**EDNA:** Environmental Data Network Association.
**EDTA:** ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid.
**EMPACT:** Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking.
**EPA:** Environmental Protection Agency.
F
**ft:** feet.
FTP: File transfer protocol.
**G**
Geographic Information System (GIS): A computer software and hardware system that helps scientists and other technicians capture, store, model, display, and analyze spatial or geographic information.
GPL: General Public License.
GREEN: Global Rivers Environmental Education Network.
Groundwater: Water that sinks into the ground and collects over impermeable rock. It then flows laterally toward a stream, lake, or ocean. Wells tap it for our use. Its surface is called the “water table.”
ug/l: micrograms ($10^{-6}$ grams)/liter.
uS/cm: microsiemens per centimeter.
**H**
HCl: Hydrochloric acid.
HNO₃: Nitric acid.
H₂SO₄: Sulfuric acid.
**I**
IC: Inorganic carbon.
IMS: Information Management System.
IWI: Index of Watershed Indicators.
K
KCl: Potassium chloride.
$K_2S_2O_8$: Potassium persulfate.
L
L: liter.
LaMP: Lakewide Management Plans.
M
m: meters.
mg: milligrams.
mg/L: milligrams/liter.
mph: miles per hour.
Monitor: To track a characteristic, such as dissolved oxygen, nitrate level, or fish population, over a period of time using uniform methods to evaluate change.
N
NALMS: North American Lake Management Society.
NaOH: Sodium Hydroxide.
NH$_3$: Ammonia.
NH$_4$: Ammonium ion.
NIWR: National Institutes for Water Resources.
NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
nm: Nanometer, $10^{-9}$ meter.
**Non-point Source:** Diffuse, overland runoff containing pollutants. Includes runoff collected in storm drains.
**NRCS:** Natural Resources Conservation Service.
**NSF:** National Sanitation Foundation.
**NTU:** Nephelometric turbidity unit.
**Nutrient loading:** The discharge of nutrients from the watershed into a receiving water body (e.g., wetland). Expressed usually as mass per unit area per unit time (kg/ hectare/ yr or lbs/acre/year).
**ORD:** Office of Research and Development.
**Organic:** Refers to substances that contain carbon atoms and carbon-carbon bonds.
**pH scale:** A scale used to determine the alkaline or acidic nature of a substance. The scale ranges from 0 to 14 with 0 being the most acidic and 14 the most basic. Pure water is neutral with a pH of 7.
**Parameter:** Whatever it is you measure - a particular physical, chemical, or biological property that is being measured.
**PERL:** Practical Extraction Report Language.
**ppt:** parts per thousand.
**Point Source:** A pipe that discharges effluent into a stream or other body of water.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC): QA/QC procedures are used to ensure that data are accurate, precise, and consistent. QA/QC involves established rules in the field and in the laboratory to ensure that samples are representative of the water you are monitoring, free from contamination, and analyzed following standard procedures.
Remote Monitoring: Monitoring is called remote when the operator can collect and analyze data from a site other than the monitoring location itself.
Salinity: Measurement of the mass of dissolved salts in water. Salinity is usually expressed in ppt.
SC: Specific Conductance.
Sediment: Fine soil or mineral particles.
SMSA: Standard metropolitan statistical area.
SNOTEL: SNOwpack TELemetry. Automated system that measures snowpack.
Specific Conductance (SC): The measure of how well water can conduct an electrical current. Specific conductance indirectly measures the presence of compounds such as sulfates, nitrates, and phosphates. As a result, specific conductance can be used as an indicator of water pollution. Specific conductivity is usually expressed in \( \mu \text{S/cm} \).
STP: sewage treatment plant.
Suspended solids: (SS or Total SS [TSS]). Very small particles that remain distributed throughout the water column due to turbulent mixing exceeding gravitational sinking.
TDS: Total dissolved solids.
TIGER: Topically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing.
Timely environmental data: Data that are collected and communicated to the public in a time frame that is useful to their day-to-day decision-making about their health and the environment, and relevant to the temporal variability of the parameter measured.
TOC: Total organic carbon.
TSS: Total suspended solids.
Turbidity: The degree to which light is scattered in water because of suspended organic and inorganic particles. Turbidity is commonly measured in NTU’s.
UV: Ultraviolet.
USGS: United States Geological Survey.
Watershed: The entire drainage area or basin feeding a stream or river. Includes surface water, groundwater, vegetation, and human structures.
WET: Water Education for Teachers.
WMC: Watershed Management Council.
WQI: Water Quality Index.
X
Y
Z
APPENDIX B
BASIN NEWS Newsletter
Wildfires Impact Aquatic Habitat and Water Quality
Wildfires not only impact vegetation and land animals - including human beings and their property - they can also trigger flooding and harm aquatic habitat and water quality. During the fire itself, rapid and extreme increases in water temperatures, lower water levels, and soil and ash polluting the water make it impossible for fish to breathe. The use of slurry to fight fires may also cause death in fish and amphibians and is a concern for drinking water sources. (See sidebar)
Researchers studying the aftermath of the Walker Ranch fire, which burned 1,100 acres on Boulder County open space in the mountains west of Boulder in mid-September, are finding minimal damage to fish and amphibians in South Boulder Creek. Fresh water entering the streams helped clean and dilute pollution.
The Effects of UVB Radiation on the Toxicity of Fire-Fighting Chemicals
A new report published by the U.S. Geological Survey examines the effect of sunlight on slurry used in fire fighting entering waterways. Fire suppressant compounds like the red slurry that is dropped onto wildfires are essential in stopping some otherwise uncontrollable fires. However, such compounds do contain chemicals that are toxic to fish and amphibians. Sunlight intensifies the toxicity of at least one chemical, sodium ferrocyanide, in slurry. Even in slurry compounds without this chemical there are still toxic levels of ammonia. Natural processes during a wildfire also play a role in killing fish and amphibians. In the case of the Walker Ranch fire, cloudy skies reduced the amount of sunlight striking dropped slurry and low precipitation after the fire kept erosion minimal. The USGS is working with the industry to find safer compositions that still suppress fires.
To read the USGS slurry report, visit http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/aviation/retardant/USGS_report.htm
A variety of interested groups have joined together in mitigation efforts for the Walker Ranch fire. Representatives from almost 20 agencies met to discuss erosion control and water quality monitoring of the damaged area.
For more information about mitigation efforts, call Therese Glowacki, Boulder County Open Space, at (303) 441-3952.
Also visit the BASIN website for more information.
BASIN Partners include: USGS, Boulder Creek Watershed Initiative, Boulder Community Network, Enfo.com, University of Colorado at Boulder, city of Boulder, Boulder Valley School District, Boulder County Health Department, Community Access Television, Rivers of Colorado Water Watch Network and Boulder County Healthy Communities Initiative.
Spills Contaminate Local Waterways
In July, 54 fish were found dead at the Coal Creek Golf Course after chemicals were dumped into the creek which turned the water white. The fish included various minnows such as white suckers, creek chubs, stone rollers, and long nosed dace, ranging in length from 1 1/2 inches to 6 inches. The Colorado Division of Wildlife sought sanctions against Lowe's Hardware for dumping water - containing remnants of vinyl tile flooring and mastic down the drain, which fed into the creek along the golf course.
At the end of the summer, Clear Creek in Golden, Colo. was damaged twice in a matter of weeks as Coors Brewing Company accidentally discharged 2,500 barrels of Coors beer and wastewater into the creek killing over 10,000 fish. About a week later, a Mesa Oil truck rolled over and dumped 3,200 gallons of used oil into the creek harming more aquatic life.
A fourth spill incident occurred on Boulder Creek in September. A chlorine spill was discovered between 28th Street and Foothills Parkway, which killed 365 Brown Trout and 80 suckers. Walsh Environmental Scientists and Engineers, an environmental firm hired by the city of Boulder, discovered that the source of the fish kill originated from a pipe leaking chlorine-rich water connected to the Scott Carpenter Swimming Pool, located at 30th and Arapahoe. The leaked contents seeped through cracks in the nearby pool maintenance building foundation and into the floor drain. The Boulder County Health Department and the city's Public Works Water Quality staff worked together to evaluate the impacts to the creek. Ned Williams, Assistant Director of Public Works for Utilities stated, "It's unfortunate that a large number of fish were killed in this incident. However, there is not any threat to public health or safety from this spill." A copy of the Walsh report is available on the city Web site at www.ci.boulder.co.us/comm/pressrelease.
These spills were costly for the aquatic life as well as for the responsible parties. Phil Aragon of the Colorado Division of Wildlife estimated that a fine would total $15,575, since according to state law each fish can be worth up to $35. Citizens should be aware that storm drains funnel directly into local waterways, therefore, hazardous materials should be disposed of properly. A spill can violate water quality regulations, health regulations, and wildlife regulations. Tina Youngwood from the Colorado Division of Wildlife advises citizens to report spills as soon as possible before contaminants travel downstream. Persons wanting to report spills into Boulder's creeks should contact the Boulder Regional Communications Center at 303-441-4444. For additional information about water quality, call the city's water quality hotline at 303-441-4H2O or go online at www.ci.boulder.co.us/publicworks.
Success at Stockholm
This August, BASIN communications coordinator Mark McCaffrey was among the 800 water quality experts gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, for the 10th Annual Stockholm International Water Symposium. At the conference, McCaffrey delivered a presentation entitled: "BASIN.org: a case study on the use of information technology in developing local water networks." The Symposium was organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (at www.siwi.org) and Professor Malin Falkenmark a renown Swedish water scientist who for decades has helped steer Sweden to take a lead in addressing the spectrum of water-related issues around the globe.
During the various workshops and breakout sessions participants had an opportunity to listen to presentations and participate in discussions on a wide range of general topics--water efficiency and effectiveness, balancing technical and social concerns, education and public outreach, water security, and human rights issues.
Awards were given out to students working on water projects. Ashley Mulroy of the United States was announced as the winner of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. Ashley, a student at the Linsly School in Wheeling, W. Va., examined water quality of a local creek and discovered that small amounts of chemicals, in this case antibiotics from the runoff from livestock feedlots, can cause e coli bacteria to become resistant to the drugs.
BASIN has recently been nominated for the 2001 Stockholm Water Prize that honors outstanding achievements that help protect the world's water resources. The winner will be announced on March 22, 2001, the United Nations World Water Day.
Colorado Watershed Assembly
Over the summer, nearly 60 people representing 22 different watershed groups attended a meeting from Aug. 4-5 about watershed protection around the state. The River Network facilitated the meeting, organized by Larry MacDonnell of the Stewardship Initiative (www.stewardshipinitiatives.com), with support from the Environmental Protection Agency. The gathering discussed ideas for statewide watershed organizing. Participants broke into groups to brainstorm and discuss a series of questions. Many of the watershed groups agreed on their goals and mission statements: to enhance watershed health, to help create swimmable waters in Colorado, and to create a water literate culture through environmental education. They also shared the same obstacles such as lack of funding, lack of public support and political barriers.
In voicing these common thoughts and concerns, the groups identified certain advantages which a statewide entity could bring. The overriding idea was that a statewide entity could improve networking between the many watershed groups in Colorado, create a common voice, and help provide a variety of resources.
The watershed assembly ended with commitment from members from the different watershed groups to continue to work on a process to create an entity to support watershed groups. A second assembly is scheduled for February 2001 to start implementing a state-level organization. Contact Larry MacDonnell at 303-545-6467 for more information.
News from BASIN: Drought, Fire and Flood
From Oct. 23-31, BASIN hosted an on-line discussion on the history of drought, fire and flood in the Boulder area. The forum was geared at answering the questions: How much do you really know about drought, fire and flood? How do each of these events impact one another? How should communities prepare for these events? The forum included essays from several local experts: Lee Rozaklis of Hydrosphere Inc put together information about Extended Historical Stream Flows in the Boulder Creek Watershed; Connie Woodhouse from NOAA Paleoclimatology Dept. included information on tree ring studies; Donna Scott provided Water Quality Concerns from the Walker Ranch Fire; and the state’s office of emergency management posted Colorado’s drought mitigation and response plan. Go to the Basin Web site at www.basin.org to check out the results from the on-line seminar.
The BASIN Web site has also recently undergone a major upgrade. Communications Coordinator, Mark McCaffrey, notes that “developing the BASIN Web site has been a work in progress, and we’re very grateful to the volunteers with the Boulder Community Network who have been instrumental in developing the design of the site and helping maintain and upgrade the content. We also appreciate the contributions of many local writers who have shared their expertise with the community through BASIN –Pete Palmer and Al Bartlett’s essays on sustainability, Joanna Sampson’s piece on South Boulder Creek, and Elizabeth Black’s accounts of flash floods.” The Web site includes an online search engine and bibliography to help users locate information within and beyond the BASIN Web site.
Water Shortages Around the World
Over the next 25 years, the number of people facing chronic or severe water shortages could increase from 505 million to more than 3 billion, according to a report released this week by Population Action International. The report stated that water shortages would be worst in the Middle East and much of Africa. “These figures are an improvement over what we thought would happen a decade ago,” said PAI President Amy Coen. She attributed the improvement to more family planning and the reduced rate of population growth around the world. Still, the report’s lead author, Robert Engelman, hastened to point out that hundreds of millions of people continue to lack access to family planning tools and basic health care.
“In many of the poor, developing countries, water shortages could become a severe problem,” writes Lester Brown, author of “The world is running low on H2O.” Water tables are already falling on every continent, thanks in large part to powerful pumping technology developed in the last 50 years which allows humans to deplete aquifers faster than they can be replenished by precipitation. Water shortages could turn into food shortages, since it takes roughly 1,000 tons of water to produce one ton of grain and far more water to produce meat. Brown argues that governments can work to avert catastrophe by limiting population growth and raising the price of water to encourage efficient use. Brown, who was the keynote speaker at this year’s Stockholm International Water Symposium, offers alerts on these and related issues via www.worldwatch.org/alerts.
Information included in this newsletter was drawn from BASIN, Boulder Daily Camera, city of Boulder’s Open Space Department, Colorado Water Newsletter, EPA Homepage www.epa.gov, EPA’s Waternews, Grit News, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. BASIN News is written by Jennelle Murosky and edited by Mark McCaffrey, with assistance from Jane Nelson and Tammy Fiebelkorn.
Basin Calendar of Events
November 15th, Wednesday. Boulder Creek Watershed Forum. Dr. Connie Woodhouse from NOAA Paleoclimatology Program National Geophysical Data Center will present: Clues on Climate Change: Reconstructing Middle Boulder Creek Streamflows from Tree Ring Data. Free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:00 with forum beginning at 7pm. Refreshments provided by Moe’s Bagels. Contact Jennelle Murosky at firstname.lastname@example.org for more information.
November 16th, Thursday. The Colorado Water Congress Presents: A Review of Federal Environmental Laws, Denver, CO. Contact 303-837-0812 or http://www.cowaterecongress.org for more information.
November 17th, Friday. The Colorado Water Congress Presents: Workshop on Legal Ethics in Water & Environmental Law. Contact 303-837-0812 or http://www.cowaterecongress.org for more information.
November 30th, Thursday. Healthy Watersheds: Community-based partnerships for environmental decision making. Contact Phyllis O’Meara at email@example.com or 303-671-1034 for more information.
November 30th, Thursday. Hot Topics in Natural Resources: Fire in the Urban-Wildland Interface; A Special Program. 12:00pm-3:30pm. For further information, please contact the Natural Resources Law Center at (303) 492-1272 or email firstname.lastname@example.org; visit their Web site at www.colorado.edu/Law/NRLC/.
December 12, Tuesday. Boulder County Ecosystems at the Winter Solstice. Presented by Steve Jones, Naturalist and Author. Presented by the Louisville Environmental Action Forum and the Louisville Open Space Advisory Board. Program begins at 7:00pm at the Louisville Arts Center, 801 Grant Ave. Call 303-865-7435 for more information.
APPENDIX C
OTHER PRINTED PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL FOR BASIN
Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network
www.basin.org
All you want to know about your water ... and more
Public Access to Environmental Information
BASIN is a public project funded through a grant from the U.S. EPA E3NET program.
BASIN partners include Boulder County Community Relations, Boulder County Health Department, Boulder County Healthy Communities Initiative, Boulder Creek Watershed Initiative, Boulder Valley School District, City of Boulder, Community Voices Network, and the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Colorado.
KNOW YOUR H₂O
A SENSE OF PLACE
— THE GREATER BOULDER AREA —
Educational Opportunities for the Entire Family
— Historical photos & information about the area
— Interactive quizzes about water and the environment
— Numerous local and regional links to background information
Many Ways to Participate
— As a website user
— As Boulder Community Network volunteer
— As data provider
— As content contributor
— As program partner and participant
A SENSE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
— WATER RESOURCES —
Public Information
— Real-time and time-relevant information on streamflow, water quality, climate and streamflow
— Links and supporting materials
Science Education
— Watershed curriculum custom-designed for the Boulder Creek Watershed
— Local information from the rivers of Colorado’s Water Watch Network
Government and Research Information
— Source for water quality and quantity information
— Medium for public outreach feedback
Scientific Data
Environmental Information
Personal Action
The Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network
www.basin.org
A Sense Of Place
The Greater Boulder Area
- Educational opportunities for the entire family
- Maps, photos, quizzes, links and learning activities
- Many ways to participate
A Sense Of Environmental Conditions
- Public Information
- Science Education
- Government & Research Information
BASIN Partners include USGS, Boulder Creek Watershed Initiative, Boulder Community Network, University of Colorado at Boulder, city of Boulder, Boulder Valley School District, Naropa University, Boulder County Health Department, Community Access Television, Rivers of Colorado Water Watch Network and Boulder County Healthy Communities Initiative.
Scientific Data → Environmental Information → Personal Action
KNOW THE FLOW
TEST YOUR H₂O IQ
11. How much water does the average person in the Boulder area use in a day?
c) 8 gallons
b) 33 gallons
c) 80 gallons
12. In Colorado, what percentage of water use is by cities and agriculture?
a) 10% city, 90% agricultural
b) 90% city, 10% agricultural
c) 50% city, 50% agricultural
13. Name two instream uses of water.
a) car washing, showering
b) lawn watering, dishwashing
c) habitat protection, recreation
14. Does runoff increase or decrease in urban areas?
a) decrease
b) increase
c) stays the same
15. What agency is responsible for administering water rights in Colorado?
a) local governments
b) Department of Transportation
c) State Engineer’s Office
FOR MORE WAYS TO TEST YOUR WATER WISDOM, GO TO www.basin.org/quizes
BASIN— the Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network—is a partnership of various public and private organizations in the Boulder area funded through an EMPACT grant from the U.S. EPA.
Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks. Please recycle this by giving to a friend or colleague.
Answers: 1-C, 2-A, 3-C, 4-B, 5-C
Introducing
The
Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network
www.basin.org
Public Access To Environmental Information
Please make all necessary changes on the below label, detach or copy, and return to the address in the upper left-hand corner.
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Climate change in the West
EcoWest.org
1/19/2013
EcoWest mission
Inform and advance conservation in the American West by analyzing, visualizing, and sharing data on environmental trends.
EcoWest decks
This is one of six presentations that illustrate key environmental metrics. Libraries for each topic contain additional slides.
| Issue | Sample metrics |
|---------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Water | Per capita water consumption, price of water, trends in transfers |
| Biodiversity | Number of endangered species, government funding for species protection |
| Wildfires | Size and number of wildfires, suppression costs |
| Land | Area protected by land trusts, location of proposed wilderness areas |
| Climate | Precipitation models, expected impacts |
| Politics | Conservation funding, public opinion |
Download presentations and libraries at ecowest.org
Table of contents
1. Temperature
2. Precipitation
3. Water impacts
4. Biodiversity impacts
5. Wildfire impacts
6. Greenhouse gases
7. Other air pollution
Key points
- **Temperature:**
- The West is already warming faster than many parts of the country and even higher temperatures are expected in the decades to come.
- **Precipitation**
- Models predict the Southwest will get drier and the Pacific Northwest will get wetter, but the projections elsewhere are more ambiguous.
- **Water impacts**
- Changes to the vital winter snowpack and the timing of the spring snowmelt will pose challenges to aquatic species and water managers.
- **Biodiversity impacts**
- Plants and animals are expected to move upslope and toward the North Pole in response to the changing climate but many barriers stand in the way.
- **Wildfire impacts**
- Warmer temperatures and a thinner snowpack will continue to make the West’s wildfire season longer and more destructive.
- **Greenhouse gases**
- Power plants, transportation, and industry account for the great majority of GHG emissions in the West, where only a few states have significant carbon sinks.
- **Other air pollution**
- The nation has made significant progress in addressing many types of air pollution, but millions of Westerners remain at risk from airborne toxics.
Narrative: Let’s begin by examining how temperatures have been changing in the West and elsewhere.
Narrative: This video from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies shows how the planet has been heating up since the 1880s. You can see that the temperature increases are most striking in the Arctic and things have really heated up in recent years. The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline.
Source: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
URL: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-temps.html
Notes: The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000. NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis that shows temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago. The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline.
Let’s take a closer look at temperatures in the United States. This map, created using The Nature Conservancy’s Climate Wizard tool, shows the average temperature across the lower 48. You can see that the West has some of the hottest and coldest areas, often in close proximity. This measure—average temperature—has its limits. It doesn’t, for example, account for the fact that drier places, such as deserts, often have wild swings in temperature in any given day, with 30 or 40 degrees separating the high and low temperatures, while many coastal areas have much less variability.
Source: Climate Wizard
URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0008320
Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320
Projected temperature change by 2080s
High emissions (A2) scenario
Narrative: Looking ahead, it’s expected to get warmer across the nation, but the increases will likely be greatest in the Interior West, Midwest, and at higher latitudes.
Source: Climate Wizard
URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0008320
Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320
Narrative: These three maps show the average number of days per year when the maximum temperature exceeds 90°F. The top map is for 1961-1971, the middle map shows the number projected by the 2080s and 2090s for a lower emissions scenario, and the bottom one shows projections for a higher emissions scenario. Much of the southern United States is projected to have more than twice as many days per year above 90°F by the end of this century.
Source: U
URL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes:
Narrative: In urban areas, where most of the West’s population resides, temperatures have already been rising. This graphic shows that the average number of hours per summer day in Phoenix that the temperature was over 100°F has doubled over the past 50 years. Now, a big part of this is a result of the urban heat island effect, in which buildings, roads, and other human developments retain heat in a city, but climate change is also a factor so the trend toward hotter and hotter days is expected to continue.
Source: , Baker et al.
URL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes:
Now let’s shift to precipitation
Narrative: You can see that west of the 100th Meridian, conditions are generally drier, except for the Pacific Northwest and the highest mountains in the region. But what’s perhaps most striking about the West is how varied the precipitation is and how spotty the patterns are, largely due to the influence of mountains and the rain shadows they cast.
Source: Climate Wizard
URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.000832
Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320
Since the middle of the 20th century, some parts of the West have gotten wetter, others have gotten drier. As with temperature, it’s a complex pattern.
Source: Climate Wizard
URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.000832
Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320
Narrative: Looking ahead, this map illustrates what’s expected to happen with precipitation under a low-emissions scenario. The Southwest and California are expected to get much drier, while the Pacific Northwest is projected to get wetter.
Source: Climate Wizard
URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.000832
Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320
Narrative: Here’s what’s projected under a higher emissions scenario. Once again, areas at lower latitudes in the Southwest and elsewhere are generally expected to get drier, while areas farther north are projected to get wetter.
Source: Climate Wizard
URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.000832
Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320
Narrative: These maps show projected future changes in precipitation relative to the recent past as simulated by 15 climate models. The simulations are for late in the 21st century, under a higher emissions scenario. While projections for precipitation are cloudier than those for temperature, climate models are showing that in the spring, northern areas are likely to get wetter, while southern areas are expected to get drier. There’s less certainty where the transition between wetter and drier areas will occur, but the hatched areas indicate where confidence is highest.
Source:
URL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes:
Narrative: The previous maps looked at projections for the end of the 21st century, but this map focuses on period between 2020 and 2039, which isn’t that far away. Compared to the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, large portions of the West, especially at lower latitudes, are expected to get drier, while the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies are projected to get wetter.
Source: Tetra Tech/NRDC
URL: http://rd.tetratech.com/climatechange/projects/nrdc_climate.asp
Notes:
Changing precipitation patterns will obviously affect the West’s water supply and many scientists believe that climate change will be most conspicuous in the hydrological cycle.
Narrative: This graphic summarizes how climate change will impact the nation’s water supply. The Interior West is expected to get not only hotter but drier and be susceptible to worse droughts. In winter, the higher temperatures will mean less precipitation falling as snow, more as rain, which will have major effects on the region’s rivers, many of which are dependent on the melting snowpack. Hotter temperatures mean higher evaporation rates, greater water use, and potentially more conflicts over water.
Source:
URL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes:
Narrative: Just in the past few decades, we’ve already seen a shift from snow to rain throughout much of the country, though in some places in the West, it’s actually gotten snowier. This map shows trends in winter snow-to-total precipitation ratio from 1949 to 2005. Red circles indicate less snow, while blue squares indicate more snow. Large circles and squares indicate the most significant trends. Areas south of 37°N latitude were excluded from the analysis because most of that area receives little snowfall. White areas above that line had inadequate data for this analysis.
Source: ; Feng and Hu
URL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes:
Narrative: April 1 snowpack, a key indicator of natural water storage available for the warm season, has already declined throughout the Northwest. In the Cascade Mountains, April 1 snowpack declined by an average of 25 percent, with some areas experiencing up to 60 percent declines. On the map, decreasing trends are in red and increasing trends are in blue.
Source:
URL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes:
Narrative: Changes in the snowpack and precipitation patterns, plus warmer temperatures have already lead to an earlier peak to the spring snowmelt. From Arizona to Alaska, most watersheds shown in this map experienced an earlier date for peak streamflow, as shown by the red circles. Only a few were later and those are shown in blue.
Source: Stewart et al.
URL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes:
Narrative: Once you factor in future climate change, the surge of snowmelt that feeds Western rivers is expected to come even earlier, in some cases more than a month sooner by the end of the 21st century. This map shows projected changes in snowmelt-driven streams by 2080-2099, compared to 1951-1980, under a higher greenhouse gas emissions scenario.
Source: Stewart et al.
URL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes:
Projected changes in median runoff:
2041-2060 vs. 1901-1970
Narrative: Add it all up and we’re expecting to see pretty significant declines in runoff in much of the West, with steep declines expected in the lower Colorado River Basin. This map shows projected changes in median runoff for 2041-2060, relative to a 1901-1970 baseline, are mapped by water-resource region. Colors indicate percentage changes in runoff. Hatched areas indicate greater confidence due to strong agreement among model projections. White areas indicate divergence among model projections. Results are based on emissions in between the lower and higher emissions scenarios. A 10 to 20 percent decline is expected throughout California, the Great Basin, the Upper Colorado River, the Rio Grande, and the Arkansas.
Source: , Milly et al
URL: http://downloads.climatescience.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes:
Now let’s shift to climate change’s impact on biodiversity in the West and its incredible array of plants, animals, and ecosystems.
Narrative: Temperature and precipitation play critical roles in determining the distribution of plant communities around the globe. Plant distributions, in turn, determine what types of animals are found in various places. This graphic shows how the climate zones compare for various types of plant communities. Because climate change is expected to affect both temperature and precipitation, major shifts in plant communities are projected in the West and elsewhere.
Source: U.S. Global Change Research Program
URL: http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/nationalassessment/overviewecosystems.htm
Notes: Both temperature and precipitation limit the distribution of plant communities. The climate (temperature and precipitation) zones of some of the major plant communities (such as temperate forests, grasslands, and deserts) in the U.S. are shown in this figure. Note that the grasslands zone encompasses a wide range of environments. This zone can include a mixture of woody plants with the grasses. The shrublands and woodlands of the West are examples of grass/woody vegetation mixes that occur in the zone designated as grasslands. With climate change, the areas occupied by these zones will shift relative to their current distribution. Plant species are expected to shift with their climate zones. The new plant communities that result from these shifts are likely to be different from current plant communities because individual species will very likely migrate at different rates and have different degrees of success in establishing themselves in new places.
Narrative: One of the West’s most striking aspects is the enormous variation in elevation, temperature, precipitation—and therefore ecosystems—that are found in a small area. The scorching desert of Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level and the lowest point on the continent, is only 85 miles away from the snow-capped peak of Mount Whitney, 14,505 feet above sea level and the tallest point in the contiguous 48 states.
Source: Climate Wizard
URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.000832
Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320
Narrative: Same goes with precipitation. Look, for example, at Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The Cascade Mountains are among the wettest areas in the country, but to their east, precipitation is scant, except for the higher elevations of the Northern Rockies. The result is an amazing variety of ecosystems, ranging from rainforests to deserts, in a relatively compact area. Because some plants and animals require a warmer, drier climate, while others need cooler, wetter weather, the diversity of species can be tremendous in just one corner of one state.
Source: Climate Wizard
URL: http://www.climatewizard.org/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0008320
Notes: Climate Wizard is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, University of Washington, and University of Southern Mississippi. The first generation of this web-based program—which was recently launched at www.climatewizard.org—allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Simply put, Climate Wizard can be used to assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are likely to occur in a given area. Climate Wizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format. See: Girvetz EH, Zganjar C, Raber GT, Maurer EP, Kareiva P, et al. (2009) Applied Climate-Change Analysis: The Climate Wizard Tool. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8320
Climate change and increasing CO₂ will shift mosaic of ecosystems
Narrative: Because climate change will affect future temperatures, precipitation patterns, and other elements of the weather, the mosaic of ecosystems in the West is going to be rearranged. This map shows the current conditions, as well as the results from two climate models. The West currently includes arid lands in the Southwest deserts, conifer forests at higher elevations, and shrubs, woodlands, and grasslands in between. The models not only factor in changing temperature and precipitation but also account for increasing levels of carbon dioxide, which promotes plant growth. You can see that in the Southwest, a large portion of the arid land deserts are replaced with grasslands, shrubs, or woodlands. In the Great Basin, there’s a shift from shrubs to savannas.
Source: U.S. Forest Service
URL: http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/mdr/mapss/about/modeloutput/sim_usvegdist.shtml
Notes:
Let’s take a closer look at some specific examples of species that will be impacted by climate change. This series of maps shows average air temperatures in August for the Pacific Northwest. Levels above 70°F can severely stress coldwater fish, such as trout, salmon, and steelhead by raising water temperatures. You can see that major warming is expected in the region over the next few decades.
Source: U.S. Global Change Research Program
URL: http://downloads.climatechange.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf
Notes: Increasing air temperatures lead to rising water temperatures, which increase stress on coldwater fish such as trout, salmon, and steelhead. August average air temperature above 70°F is a threshold above which these fish are severely stressed. Projected temperatures for the 2020s and 2040s under a higher emissions scenario suggest that the habitat for these fish is likely to decrease dramatically.
Narrative: Researchers are already documenting a northward movement of birds and other species in response to warming temperatures. This graphic shows results from an analysis of 40 years of data from the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count. Many species are wintering farther north in response to the changing climate.
Source: Associated Press, Audubon Society, NOAA
URL: http://birdsandclimate.audubon.org/
Notes: Nearly 60% of the 305 species found in North America in winter are on the move, shifting their ranges northward by an average of 35 miles. Audubon scientists analyzed 40 years of citizen-science Christmas Bird Count data — and their findings provide new and powerful evidence that global warming is having a serious impact on natural systems. Northward movement was detected among species of every type, including more than 70 percent of highly adaptable forest and feeder birds.
Narrative: In some cases, species will be able to fly, swim, crawl, hop, or otherwise move to more suitable habitat. But sometimes there will be insurmountable obstacles. This is a pika, a small rabbitlike creature that lives in alpine boulder fields in western North America. It can die in a matter of hours if exposed to temperatures higher than 78 degrees. The pika faces a challenging future because it can only retreat uphill so far. Eventually, it will run out of mountain.
Source: Photo by Mitch Tobin
URL:
Notes:
Projected change in suitable habitat for pika
Narrative: The map on the left shows currently suitable habitat for the pika, but the map on the right shows what’s expected by 2100 if climate change continues. According to this projection, vast areas that are now home to pikas will be too warm to support the species.
Source: Scott Loarie, Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology
URL: http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2009/lawsuit-filed-to-protect-american-pika-under-california-endangered-species-act
Notes:
Narrative: Signature plants of the West, and the animals that depend on them, will no longer be found in many locations if warming continues. This map shows the current viability of whitebark pine, a critical food source for grizzly bears and other species. The viability index ranges from 0 to 1, with lower values indicated lower suitability and 1 indicating the species is nearly always present in that climate.
Source: Crookston, N., Rehfeldt, G., Dixon, G., and A. Weiskittel. 2010. Addressing climate change in the forest vegetation simulator to assess impacts on landscape forest dynamics. Forest Ecology and Management 260: 1198-1211. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station - Moscow Forestry Sciences Laboratory
URL: http://app.databasin.org/app/pages/datasetPage.jsp?id=74899f25ad8549548ab7b9319a45586d
Notes: This dataset portrays the "current" (2010) viability score (scale of 0 - 1.0) for Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) in western North America. It serves as the base condition for future species-climate profiles. (From Crookston et al. 2010): To develop the climate profile, we used a data from permanent sample plots largely from Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA, Bechtold and Patterson, 2005) but supplemented with research plot data to provide about 117,000 observations (see Rehfeldt et al., 2006, 2009) describing the presence and absence of numerous species. The Random Forests classification tree of Breiman (2001), implemented in R by Liaw and Wiener (2002), was then used to predict the presence or absence of species from climate variables. The Random Forests algorithm outputs statistics (i.e., vote counts) that reflect the likelihood (proportion of the total votes
cast) that the climate at a location would be suitable for a species. We interpret this likelihood as a viability score: values near zero indicate a low suitability while those near 1.0 indicate a suitability so high that the species is nearly always present in that climate.
Whitebark pine: 2090 viability
Narrative: Here’s what’s expected by 2090 if emissions continue to rise. The whitebark pine is gone from the lower 48.
Source: Crookston, N., Rehfeldt, G., Dixon, G., and A. Weiskittel. 2010. Addressing climate change in the forest vegetation simulator to assess impacts on landscape forest dynamics. Forest Ecology and Management 260: 1198-1211. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station - Moscow Forestry Sciences Laboratory
URL: http://app.databasin.org/app/pages/datasetPage.jsp?id=ffca0abf15a44fa286b362f153519696
Notes: This dataset portrays the "current" (2010) viability score (scale of 0 - 1.0) for Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) in western North America. It serves as the base condition for future species-climate profiles. (From Crookston et al. 2010): To develop the climate profile, we used a data from permanent sample plots largely from Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA, Bechtold and Patterson, 2005) but supplemented with research plot data to provide about 117,000 observations (see Rehfeldt et al., 2006, 2009) describing the presence and absence of numerous species. The Random Forests classification tree of Breiman (2001), implemented in R by Liaw and Wiener (2002), was then used to predict the presence or absence of species from climate variables. The Random Forests algorithm outputs statistics (i.e., vote counts) that reflect the likelihood (proportion of the total votes cast) that the climate at a location would be suitable for a species. We interpret this likelihood as a viability score: values near zero indicate a low suitability while those near 1.0 indicate a suitability so high that the species is nearly always present in that climate.
Now let’s shift to another major impact of climate change: the West’s changing wildfire season.
Narrative: Scientists have already found that the warming experienced over the past few decades in the West has led to an increase in wildfire activity. One paper concluded that “large wildfire activity increased suddenly and markedly” starting in the mid-1980s, with most of the change due to a warming climate rather than fire suppression. Higher temperatures led to a thinner snowpack that melted earlier in spring, leading to more-flammable conditions in summer. The scientists looked at more than 1,100 large blazes that broke out from 1970 onward. Compared to the 1970–1986 period, wildfires in the 1987–2003 time frame were four times as frequent and burned more than six times the acreage. The length of the wildfire season increased an average of 78 days.
Source: Westerling et al. “Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity.” *Science* 18 August 2006: 313 (5789), 940-943. Published online, July 6, 2006.
URL: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/313/5789/940.full.pdf
Notes:
Narrative: Looking ahead, climate change is projected to make the West’s wildfire season even worse. This map shows how various ecoregions are expected to fare if global average temperatures increase by 1°C. In many areas, the median annual area burned is projected to increase more than 100 percent. Climate change is expected to make the Southwest drier, lead to more severe droughts, and cause a thinning of the mountain snowpack that delays the onset of fire season and supplies the bulk of the water in Western rivers and reservoirs.
Source: *Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts over Decades to Millennia*. National Research Council. 2011.
URL: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12877
Notes: Percent increase (relative to 1950-2003) in median annual area burned for ecoprovinces of the West with a 1°C increase in global average temperature. Changes in temperature and precipitation were aggregated to the ecoprovince level using the suite of models in the CMIP3 archive. Climate-fire models were derived from National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) climate division records and observed area burned data following methods discussed in Littell et al. (2009).
Narrative: Warming temperatures and the lack of deep freezes may be responsible for increased activity by mountain pine beetles and other forest insects. This photo shows dead lodgepole pines near Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.
Source: Wikipedia
URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mountain_pine_beetle_damage_in_Rocky_Mountain_National_Park.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dendroctonus_ponderosae.jpg
Narrative: Around the globe, forests have been experiencing die-offs that scientists attribute to drought and heat waves, both of which are expected to be on the rise in many parts of the West due to climate change. This map shows the location of dozens of tree mortality episodes that scientists have documented. The different colors represent varying types of drought and temperature anomalies.
Source: Dr. Joerg Steinkamp, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Wendy Peterman, Conservation Biology Institute.
URL: http://app.databasin.org/app/pages/datasetPage.jsp?id=b2947eeae2e5488a86eacf0fcd4df7a4
Notes: This dataset shows the locations of forest dieback documented in the 2010 paper: Allen, C. D., Macalady, A. K., Chenchouni, H., Bachelet, D., McDowell, N, Vennetier, M, Kitzberger, T, Rigling, A, Breshears, D. D., Hogg, E.H., Gonzalez, P., Fensham, R., Zhang, Z., Castro, J, Demidova, N., Lim, J. H., Allard, G., Running, S. W., Semerci, A., Cobb, N. 2010. A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests. Forest Ecology and Management 259(4): 660-684
Narrative: Here’s a closeup of the West. In Southwest Colorado, multi-year droughts with high spring and summer temperatures are thought to have caused the cases of tree mortality. Along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona and New Mexico, multi-year droughts with high temperatures were also linked to tree mortality.
Source: Dr. Joerg Steinkamp, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Wendy Peterman, Conservation Biology Institute.
URL: http://app.databasin.org/app/pages/datasetPage.jsp?id=b2947eeae2e5488a86eacf0fcd4df7a4
Notes: This dataset shows the locations of forest dieback documented in the 2010 paper: Allen, C. D., Macalady, A. K., Chenchouni, H., Bachelet, D., McDowell, N, Vennetier, M, Kitzberger, T, Rigling, A, Breshears, D. D., Hogg, E.H., Gonzalez, P., Fensham, R., Zhang, Z., Castro, J, Demidova, N., Lim, J. H., Allard, G., Running, S. W., Semerci, A., Cobb, N. 2010. A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests. Forest Ecology and Management 259(4): 660-684
Narrative: Insects and other biotic agents often play a major role in forest die-offs. High temperatures or drought conditions can weaken trees and make them more susceptible to infestation by bugs, some of which are native, some of which are exotic. In this map, hollow dots represent die-offs with no connection to biotic agents, and gray dots indicate where no biotic agents were linked to tree mortality. But at least in North America, many of the tree mortality events were connected to bark beetles and other biotic agents.
Source: Dr. Joerg Steinkamp, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Wendy Peterman, Conservation Biology Institute.
URL: http://app.databasin.org/app/pages/datasetPage.jsp?id=b2947eeae2e5488a86eacf0fcd4df7a4
Notes: This dataset shows the locations of forest dieback documented in the 2010 paper: Allen et al. A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests. Forest Ecology and Management 259(4): 660-684. 2010.
Narrative: In this close-up of the West, you can see that bark beetles were connected to forest die-offs along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona, while wood borers were an influence in Southwest Colorado. In California, other insects were linked to the climate-related mortality events.
Source: Dr. Joerg Steinkamp, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Wendy Peterman, Conservation Biology Institute.
URL: http://app.databasin.org/app/pages/datasetPage.jsp?id=b2947eeae2e5488a86eacf0fcd4df7a4
Notes: This dataset shows the locations of forest dieback documented in the 2010 paper: Allen et al. A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests. Forest Ecology and Management 259(4): 660-684. 2010.
Now let’s talk about what’s causing climate change: greenhouse gas emissions.
Narrative: This flow chart, created by the World Resources Institute, shows the sources of greenhouse gases in the U.S. economy and how they are produced. Nearly one third comes from providing electricity and heat to buildings, and more than a quarter is from transportation, mostly driving.
Source: World Resources Institute
URL: http://www.wri.org/chart/us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-flow-chart
Notes: This flow chart shows the sources and activities across the U.S. economy that produce greenhouse gas emissions. Energy use is by far responsible for the majority of greenhouse gases. Most activities produce greenhouse gases both directly, through on-site and transport use of fossil fuels, and indirectly from heat and electricity that comes “from the grid.” Emissions data comes from the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2003, U.S. EPA (using the CRF document). Allocations from “Electricity & Heat” and “Industry” to end uses are WRI estimates based on energy use data from the International Energy Agency (IEA, 2005). All data is for 2003. All calculations are based on CO2 equivalents, using 100-year global warming potentials from the IPCC (1996), based on total U.S. emissions of 6,978 MtCO2 equivalent. Emissions from fuels in international bunkers are included under Transportation. Emissions from solvents are included under Industrial Processes. Emissions and sinks from land use change and forestry (LUCF), which account for a sink of 821.6 MtCO2 equivalent, and flows less than 0.1 percent of total emissions are not shown.
Narrative: Nationally, three quarters of GHG emissions come from three sectors: electricity generation, transportation, and industrial operations. GHGs have risen steadily since 1990, with growth slowing in the mid-2000s, partly due to efficiency improvements in transportation and electricity sectors, and partially due to a slowing economy. The Western states’ source profile is very similar to that of the entire U.S.
Source: World Resources Institute, Climate Indicators Tool,
URL: http://www.wri.org/project/cait/; Database provided in direct communication from Thomas Damassa, Climate and Energy Program, WRI.
Notes: Units are million metric tons of CO2 Equivalent.
Narrative: Here’s another view of how the West compares to the U.S. as a whole. The 11 Western states are responsible for about 17 percent of the total GHGs. Without California, the Western states would be about 10 percent of nationwide GHGs. Some sources are more prominent in the West and particularly in California (shown in green). Transportation stands out as a major source in California. Fugitive emissions from oil and gas drilling is especially prominent in the Western states, accounting for 42% of the U.S. total.
Source: World Resources Institute, Climate Indicators Tool,
URL: http://www.wri.org/project/cait/; Database provided in private communication from Thomas Damassa, Climate and Energy Program, WRI.
Notes: Units are million metric tons of CO2 Equivalent. Fugitive emissions are difficult to quantify accurately. They are defined as “an intentional or unintentional release of gases from anthropogenic activities”, and are primarily estimated for the oil and natural gas industries. New Mexico and Wyoming are estimated to have significant fugitive emissions because of the high level of fuel extraction and power production that occurs in both states.
Narrative: Because most GHGs come from combustion of fuels for electricity and transportation, economic activity is highly correlated with GHGs. Not surprisingly, California is the largest source of GHGs in the West. Interestingly, California, Oregon, and Washington differ from more inland states in their source profile. Transportation makes up roughly half of all GHGs, whereas for inland states like Wyoming, Arizona, and Utah, electricity generation is the predominant source. California, while making many efficiency improvements to its electric grid, is also the largest importer of electricity from out of state: 30% of CA’s power comes from its northwest and southwest neighbors. Wyoming and Colorado on the other hand, export power.
Source: World Resources Institute, Climate Indicators Tool,
URL: http://www.wri.org/project/cait/; Database provided in private communication from Thomas Damassa, Climate and Energy Program, WRI.
http://www.eia.gov/state/
Notes: Units are million metric tons of CO2 Equivalent.
Narrative: Some states also have the capacity to absorb significant GHGs into forest systems and other potential GHG sinks. This slide illustrates how some states’ land use and development policies reduce their overall GHG footprint. Most notable are Oregon, Washington, and Montana, with each state’s net emissions reduced by roughly 35%, 50% and 90% respectively. While California’s land sinks reabsorbed almost as many GHGs as Montana’s did (~40 metric tons), the sheer size of California’s footprint muted the reduction to only 10% of statewide GHGs.
Source: World Resources Institute, Climate Indicators Tool,
URL: http://www.wri.org/project/cait/; Database provided in private communication from Thomas Damassa, Climate and Energy Program, WRI.
Notes: Units are million metric tons of CO2 Equivalent.
Finally, let’s talk about some other forms of air pollution.
## Sources and health effects of air pollution
| Pollutant | Sources | Health Effects |
|----------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Ozone ($O_3$) | Secondary pollutant typically formed by chemical reaction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and NO$_x$ in the presence of sunlight. | Decreases lung function and causes respiratory symptoms, such as coughing and shortness of breath; aggravates asthma and other lung diseases leading to increased medication use, hospital admissions, emergency department (ED) visits, and premature mortality. |
| Particulate Matter (PM) | Emitted or formed through chemical reactions; fuel combustion (e.g., burning coal, wood, diesel); industrial processes; agriculture (plowing, field burning); and unpaved roads. | Short-term exposures can aggravate heart or lung diseases leading to respiratory symptoms, increased medication use, hospital admissions, ED visits, and premature mortality; long-term exposures can lead to the development of heart or lung disease and premature mortality. |
| Lead | Smelters (metal refineries) and other metal industries; combustion of leaded gasoline in piston engine aircraft; waste incinerators; and battery manufacturing. | Damages the developing nervous system, resulting in IQ loss and impacts on learning, memory, and behavior in children. Cardiovascular and renal effects in adults and early effects related to anemia. |
| Oxides of Nitrogen (NO$_x$)| Fuel combustion (e.g., electric utilities, industrial boilers, and vehicles) and wood burning. | Aggravate lung diseases leading to respiratory symptoms, hospital admissions, and ED visits; increased susceptibility to respiratory infection. |
| Carbon Monoxide (CO) | Fuel combustion (especially vehicles). | Reduces the amount of oxygen reaching the body’s organs and tissues; aggravates heart disease, resulting in chest pain and other symptoms leading to hospital admissions and ED visits. |
| Sulfur Dioxide (SO$_2$) | Fuel combustion (especially high-sulfur coal); electric utilities and industrial processes; and natural sources such as volcanoes. | Aggravates asthma and increased respiratory symptoms. Contributes to particle formation with associated health effects. |
**Narrative:** This slide summarizes the major air pollutants, their sources, and their health effects. Many of these pollutants stem from fuel combustion.
**Source:** U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
**URL:** http://www.epa.gov/air/airtrends/index.html
**Notes:**
Narrative: The US continues to make progress on improving air quality since the Clean Air Act’s enactment in 1970. This graph from US EPAs Air Trends website displays how regulations and advancements in technology have led to efficiency improvements, lower emissions, and cleaner air. While the economy (GDP) has continued to grow, the aggregate emissions from the major criteria pollutants EPA regulates have shrunk by 60% since 1990.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/air/airtrends/index.html
Notes:
Narrative: Here is a closer look at national trends by each pollutant since 1990. The greatest progress is seen in Sulfur Dioxide (SO$_2$) – a major precursor to acid rain. SO$_2$ has diminished largely due to emission scrubbers on power plants, and advancements in manufacturing lower sulfur fuels. Progress is less substantial on ozone (O$_3$) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). A significant challenge with ozone and PM2.5 are their precursors. Put simply, pollutants are created either directly by emissions sources like power plants or indirectly when “precursor” pollutants mix together in the atmosphere, and chemically react to form a new pollutant. PM2.5 is emitted during combustion (vehicles, fires), but also forms in the atmosphere when volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide chemically react. Here we focus only on direct emissions, and therefore do not cover ozone, however ozone’s precursor pollutants (NOx, SOx) are discussed.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/2011/report/sixcommon.pdf
Notes: Figure 4b Comparison of national levels of the six common pollutants to the most recent national ambient air quality standards, 1990-2010. National levels are averages across all monitors with complete data for the time period.
Narrative: This graphic shows how air quality changed between 1980 and 2010, and between 2000 and 2010. There is no data for particulates in 1980. You can see that all of the major air pollutants have declined in recent decades.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/aqtrends.html
Notes: EPA creates air quality trends using measurements from monitors located across the country. The table below shows that air quality based on concentrations of the common pollutants has improved nationally since 1980.
Narrative: Here’s a slightly different way of looking at the issue: the emissions sources responsible for each of the pollutants. Once again, there have been dramatic improvements in recent decades.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/aqtrends.html
Notes: EPA estimates nationwide emissions of ambient air pollutants and the pollutants they are formed from (their precursors). These estimates are based on actual monitored readings or engineering calculations of the amounts and types of pollutants emitted by vehicles, factories, and other sources. Emission estimates are based on many factors, including levels of industrial activity, technological developments, fuel consumption, vehicle miles traveled, and other activities that cause air pollution.
But millions still exposed to unhealthy air
Narrative: Although the nation’s air quality is clearly improving, tens of millions of Americans are still exposed to unhealthy air. In total, about 124 million people lived in counties that exceeded one or more federal health standards.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/aqtrends.html#comparison
http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/2011/dl_graph.html
Notes: Number of people (in millions) living in counties with air quality concentrations above the level of the primary (health-based) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in 2010.
“Despite great progress in air quality improvement, approximately 124 million people nationwide lived in counties with pollution levels above the primary NAAQS in 2010. Note: In 2008, EPA strengthened the national standards for 8-hour ozone to 0.075 ppm and the national standards for lead to 0.15 µg/m³. This figure includes people living in counties that monitored ozone and lead concentrations above the new levels.
In addition, from 1990 to 2005, emissions of air toxics declined by approximately 42 percent. These reductions are the result of implementing stationary and mobile source regulations. The majority of the air toxics emitted in 2005 are also precursors of ozone and/or particle pollution.”
Cancer risk associated with toxic air pollutants
Narrative: This map shows the estimated cancer risk by census tract. In the West, areas around big cities, such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, and Portland, have higher rates of cancer associated with toxic air pollutants.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/2011/dl_graph.html
Notes: Estimated census-tract cancer risk from the 2005 National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA2005). Darker colors show greater cancer risk associated with toxic air pollutants.
Narrative: This map shows how many days on which a city’s air quality index exceeded 100, a level at which pollution can be unhealthy for sensitive groups. Los Angeles stands out as the Western city with the worst air pollution, while Seattle and Portland in the Pacific Northwest have relatively few bad air days. In general, the number of bad days has been decreasing over the past decade.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
Notes: Number of days on which AQI values were greater than 100 during 2002-2010 in selected cities.
Narrative: Let’s take a look at the sources of air pollution, beginning with those that directly emit particulate matter, PM2.5. As you can see, not all states are equal contributors, and the source profiles by state also vary. California, the 8th largest economy in the world and most populous state, is not surprisingly the largest polluter. Within California, the sources are relatively evenly distributed. Note that fire and dust were significant in 2008. From 2007-2009, California was in a drought. Overall PM2.5 levels were higher in 2008 than in 2006 (as seen in our earlier slides) and the drought could have been a major reason why. Dust also is a major polluter in arid states like New Mexico. “All other sources” is made up of agriculture, industrial processes, solvents, and miscellaneous.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/air/emissions/multi.htm
Notes: Multi-Pollutant Comparison by Source Sector and by State, Short Tons.
Relative sizes of the pies by state are calculated by ratio to the largest emitting state. In this case California.
Next let’s look at NOx (oxides of nitrogen). NOx is important because along with VOCs and carbon monoxide, it is a major precursor to ozone. Ozone, while a critical element in the upper atmosphere is a pollutant at ground level – we usually observe it as smog. As you can see, California once again dwarfs the other states, and the primary culprit is mobile sources. This is the result of a large population doing a lot of driving in a sprawling state. There is also a lot of industry serving those people, and California houses the largest ports in the United States. Ships, trucks, trains, and supporting equipment, along with the vast number of passenger cars, are the reason California’s NOx levels loom large over other Western states.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/air/emissions/multi.htm
Notes: Multi-Pollutant Comparison by Source Sector and by State, Short Tons.
Relative sizes of the pies by state are calculated by ratio to the largest emitting state, in this case California.
Narrative: California has done better with sulfur dioxide. As you can see here, the largest states for sulfur dioxide emissions are Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming. What these states have in common is coal. Coal power plants are the single largest source of anthropogenic sulfur dioxide. Wyoming not only gets 95% of its power from coal plants, but it’s also a major supplier of coal and is home of the Powder River Basin. If you look at Washington and California, mobile sources are one-third or more of sulfur dioxide emissions. Washington and California are not major coal burning states, but they are significant marine ports. The large freight ships that carry containers of goods between the U.S. and Asia burn bunker fuel, which is inexpensive but very dirty, and has high sulfur content.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/air/emissions/multi.htm
Notes: Multi-Pollutant Comparison by Source Sector and by State, Short Tons.
Relative sizes of the pies by state are calculated by ratio to the largest emitting state, in this case California.
Narrative: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important because they’re a precursor to ozone and PM2.5. They are emitted in many consumer goods (cleaning fluids, paints, printing inks), as well as industrial sources and fuels. Because they are in pesticides, agriculture can also be a significant source in some states, like Idaho. Overall, VOCs are more of a concern for indoor than outdoor air quality: EPA has found that VOCs can be 2-5 times higher inside households than outside.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/air/emissions/multi.htm
Notes: Multi-Pollutant Comparison by Source Sector and by State, Short Tons.
Relative sizes of the pies by state are calculated by ratio to the largest emitting state, in this case California.
Narrative: Carbon monoxide emissions have declined steeply, falling on average 80% below the national standard for CO over the last 20 years, due to advancements in vehicle technology and fuels. Though California remains the largest source for CO in the West due to the large number cars and trucks, it remains in compliance with EPA standards.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
URL: http://www.epa.gov/air/emissions/multi.htm
Notes: Multi-Pollutant Comparison by Source Sector and by State, Short Tons. Relative sizes of the pies by state are calculated by ratio to the largest emitting state, in this case California.
Download more slides and other libraries
ecowest.org
EcoWest advisors
**Jon Christensen**, Adjunct Assistant Professor and Pritzker Fellow at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and Department of History at UCLA; former director of Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford.
**Bruce Hamilton**, Deputy Executive Director for the Sierra Club, where he has worked for more than 35 years; member of the World Commission on Protected Areas; former Field Editor for *High Country News*.
**Robert Glennon**, Regents’ Professor and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy, Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona; author of *Water Follies* and *Unquenchable*.
EcoWest advisors
Jonathan Hockstra, head of WWF’s Conservation Science Program, lead author of *The Atlas of Global Conservation*, and former Senior Scientist at The Nature Conservancy.
Timothy Male, Vice President of Conservation Policy for Defenders of Wildlife, where he directs the Habitat and Highways, Conservation Planning, Federal Lands, Oregon Biodiversity Partnership, and Economics programs.
Thomas Swetnam, Regents’ Professor of Dendrochronology, Director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, and a leading expert on wildfires and Western forests.
Contributors at California Environmental Associates
Mitch Tobin
Editor of EcoWest.org
Communications Director at CEA
Micah Day
Associate at CEA
Matthew Elliott
Principal at CEA
Max Levine
Associate at CEA
Caroline Ott
Research Associate at CEA
Sarah Weldon
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Don’t forget your flu shot this fall
Millions of people get the flu each year. The flu usually starts abruptly, with fever, muscle aches, sore throat and a cough.
The flu can make people of any age sick. Most people are sick with the flu for only a few days. But some have a much more serious illness. They may need to go to the hospital. The flu can also lead to pneumonia and death.
Getting a flu vaccine is more important than ever because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Flu vaccines are especially important for people who are at high risk for complications of the flu. Getting a flu shot protects you, your family and the community. It will also help reduce strain on health care facilities that are responding to COVID-19.
The flu viruses continually change. Vaccines are developed and given each year to protect against the flu virus strains expected to cause the illness that year.
The flu vaccine is offered as a shot or as a nasal spray. You should get your yearly flu vaccine as soon as the vaccine is available.
Hepatitis C is a liver disease. It’s caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Over time, HCV can lead to cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer. Most people who have hepatitis C don’t have any symptoms for years. Many don’t know that they are infected until their liver is already damaged.
**Are you at risk?**
Hepatitis C is spread by contact with the blood of someone who has HCV. These factors raise your risk for hepatitis C:
- Being born between 1945 and 1965. People born during these years are more likely to have hepatitis C.
- Injecting yourself with illegal drugs, even if it was only once or a long time ago
- Receiving a clotting factor to treat a blood-clotting problem before 1987
- Having an organ transplant or blood transfusion before July 1992
- Coming in contact with blood infected with HCV through a job in the health field
- Having hemodialysis for a long time
- Living with someone who has HCV and sharing razors, toothbrushes or other personal items that may have blood on them
- Having sex with someone who has HCV
Ask your doctor for a test to see if you have hepatitis C. Your doctor may decide to do more than one test to make sure of the results and to see how much your liver has been affected.
**Treatment choices**
If you’re tested and diagnosed with hepatitis C, there are medications that can cure it. Ask your doctor for the full treatment so you don’t need to go back for refills.
**Be sure to:**
- Fill the prescription at your pharmacy
- Follow your doctor's instructions
- Take the medication until it is gone
After your treatment ends, your doctor will do follow-up testing.
IT’S IMPORTANT TO MAKE TIME FOR well-child visits
Well-child visits help keep your children updated on immunizations, but that’s not the only benefit. There’s plenty more to learn, plus a chance to ask questions.
Ages 0 to 11 months
A checkup on developmental milestones: When should your little one make cooing sounds, recognize faces, sit without support and understand the word “no”? Your baby’s pediatrician can pinpoint any problems early and suggest strategies to help.
+ PLUS, GET ADVICE ON: How to help your baby sleep through the night
Ages 1 to 4
A checkup on social skills: Identify any social issues, such as trouble following directions or sharing with others, as your child gets ready for school. Developmental screenings can also discover potential learning disabilities.
+ PLUS, GET ADVICE ON: Toilet training best practices for toddlers
Ages 5 to 10
A checkup on safety: At a well-child visit, young students can practice with a trusted adult skills like reciting their address, phone number and full names of their parents in case of an emergency. Your child’s pediatrician can also address using helmets, crossing the street and wearing sunscreen.
+ PLUS, GET ADVICE ON: How to encourage healthy eating and exercise
Ages 11 to 14
A checkup on mental health: This is a time of changing bodies and fluctuating hormones, so young teens may be at risk for things like depression and eating disorders. A health care provider can distinguish moodiness from something more serious.
+ PLUS, GET ADVICE ON: Anything related to puberty
Ages 15 to 17
A checkup on self-sufficiency: Encourage your children to develop their own relationship with their pediatrician—they should be able to ask questions they might feel uncomfortable asking you. Try having them schedule the appointment themselves.
+ PLUS, GET ADVICE ON: Handling discussions about sex, drugs, alcohol and cigarettes
Call your child’s doctor today to schedule a well-child visit!
Learn more about your pharmacy coverage
Are all drugs covered?
We use the Michigan Medicaid Health Plan Common Formulary for HAP Empowered Medicaid members. The formulary is a list of covered drugs. For most drugs, we provide a one-month supply or less. We provide a three-month supply for birth control pills and up to a 102-day supply for some medications that are taken every day. For safety reasons, you must use a certain amount of medication before you can fill it again. You must also use a pharmacy in the network to fill your prescriptions. There are no copayments for covered drugs.
Does the drug list change?
We update the drug list at least four times a year. New drugs are added to the list and the status of some drugs may change. You will need approval from your doctor or HAP Empowered before some drugs are covered. Some drugs have age restrictions or quantity limits, or you might have to try another drug first before that drug is covered. These are usually based on safety.
If a change in the list affects you, we’ll send a letter to you and your doctor. Please talk with your doctor right away if you get a letter about a change in the drug list.
What if I need a drug that is not on the list?
If you need a drug that is not on the list, or there isn’t another drug on the list that you can take, you or your doctor can ask for an exception to the formulary. You can also ask us to not apply restrictions or limits on a drug. You can ask for a drug that is not on the list at hap.org/Medicaid (see instructions below), or by telephone. Your doctor can call us or send an Exception Request form via fax at (313) 664-5460.
When you start a new drug, talk with your doctor to be sure it is on the list. If you have a question about which drugs are on the list, you can ask your pharmacist or doctor. You can find the list at hap.org/Medicaid. Click on “Prescription coverage” and then search the drug list.
You can search by the brand name or generic name. The list includes prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs that are covered with a prescription from your doctor. We also cover all drugs to help you stop smoking (nicotine gum, patches, lozenges, inhaler, bupropion, Chantix).
How can I get a copy of the list?
If you or your doctor needs a printed copy of the list, call the HAP Empowered Pharmacy team at (313) 664-8940. Choose option 3.
Some drugs are covered by the state of Michigan, not HAP Empowered Medicaid. Take your HAP Empowered card and your mihealth Medicaid card when you go to the pharmacy. Your pharmacy knows about these drugs and will bill the state for them.
Get more information about drug coverage that is just for you.
You can get this information by calling us at (888) 654-2200 (TTY: 711), 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or you can visit our website at hap.org/Medicaid.
Click on “Log in” at the top of the page. Then enter your ID number and password. Then go to “My Benefits” and click on “My Prescription Coverage.” You can:
- Find out the cost for a drug (you pay $0 for covered drugs)
- Find a pharmacy close to you (search by distance or ZIP code)
- Check to see if a generic drug is available and on the drug list
- To ask for a drug that is not on the list, go to “My Forms & Documents” and click on “Formulary Exception Form.” Complete the form and click the “Submit” button. We will contact your doctor for information.
Do you often forget your medicine?
You're busy—sometimes too busy to remember to take the capsules and pills you may need to get better or stay well. Sound familiar? Then try these tricks so that you won't forget your next dose:
- Store your medications in weekly pillboxes with separate sections for each day or time of day. This helps you know if you missed a dose.
- Get a special medicine container that beeps or alerts you when it's time for a dose.
- Set an alarm on your watch or phone for when it's time to take your medicine.
- Take your pills around the same time you do other routine activities, such as eating or brushing your teeth.
- Keep your medicine near a calendar and jot down every time you take it.
- Make sure all your doctors know about each medicine you are taking, including any over-the-counter medicine or supplements. Also, let them know if you have any allergies so they can keep that information in your records.
Also, make sure you understand how much medicine you need to take and when you should take it. If you have questions about your medicine, ask your pharmacist when you pick up your prescription.
Help stop fraud, waste and abuse
You can help protect yourself from fraud, waste and abuse by reviewing your Explanation of Benefits (EOB) after you receive health care services. If you see something that doesn't look right, report it to HAP Empowered right away.
What's fraud, waste and abuse?
**Fraud** is a wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
**Waste** is when a person abuses benefits or is using more services than needed.
**Abuse** is when a provider gives services or advice that is not in line with standard business or medical practice. Here are some examples:
- Charging too much for services or supplies
- Providing services that aren't needed
- Billing for items or services that should not be paid for by Medicare or Medicaid
How do I report fraud?
A special investigations unit (SIU) will review all reports of fraud, waste and abuse. If you think a provider, supplier, member or care facility is committing fraud, waste or abuse, please report it right away.
You may remain anonymous if you prefer. All information will be treated as confidential.
- **Call:** (877) 746-2501, 24 hours a day
- **Mail:** Health Alliance Plan Compliance Department Attention: Special Investigations Unit 2850 West Grand Boulevard Detroit, MI 48202
- **Email:** email@example.com
Pregnant? These foods can help you stay healthy
Here are some healthy foods you can put in your shopping cart:
**Legumes (beans, peas and lentils):** These plant-based proteins are a great natural source of folate. This helps reduce the risk for serious birth defects. Pregnant women need at least 400 micrograms of folic acid per day. A daily prenatal vitamin will also help ensure that you get enough of this vital nutrient.
**Leafy greens:** Spinach and kale are full of folate and iron. A low iron level could increase the risk for babies born underweight or too soon.
**Citrus fruits:** They contain folate. Citrus fruits help your body absorb more iron. Pregnant women should get at least 27 milligrams of iron daily.
**Cottage cheese or yogurt:** Make sure to eat 1,000 milligrams of calcium per day. This will help you and your baby have strong bones. Aim for at least three servings a day of calcium-rich dairy or calcium-fortified plant-based foods and beverages.
**Lean meats or other protein foods:** Eat red meat, chicken and seafood to help you get enough iron. If you don’t eat meat, you can get iron from nuts, beans, vegetables and fortified grain products.
Coming soon
Sign up for maternity services at no cost to you!
As a HAP Empowered member, we want to help you have a healthy pregnancy. The ProgenyHealth® Maternity Services program provided by HAP® lets you:
- Talk with experienced Nurse Case Managers, Social Workers and Breastfeeding and Nutrition Coaches. They can answer your questions and help plan your doctor visits.
What does transition of care mean for your pharmacy needs?
Are you new to Medicaid or HAP Empowered? We want to make sure you get the drugs you need.
Are you taking a drug that's not on the drug list, that has restrictions or requires approval? We'll cover a temporary supply to make sure you get the care you need. This temporary supply is for drugs that you've already been taking.
How does this work?
For most drugs, this will happen automatically at the pharmacy the first time you fill your drug with your new HAP Empowered card.
For some drugs, we'll contact your doctor the first time the pharmacy sends us a claim for your drug. This is for safety reasons. This includes drugs for pain and drugs that need special monitoring.
Or you can ask for a temporary supply.
The following people can ask for a temporary supply:
- You
- Your doctor
- Someone who has your permission to care for you
You can request the supply by:
- Calling Customer Service, your Care Manager or the HAP Empowered Pharmacy team
- Asking in writing
You can get this temporary supply during the first 90 days when you are new to HAP Empowered. This is for drugs that you've already been taking. We'll cover up to a 30-day supply in the first 90 days with us. We call this a "transition" fill. After the drug is filled at the pharmacy, we'll send a letter to you and your doctor. The letter has instructions about the temporary fill and what to do next.
We'll work with your doctor to use a drug on the list or to approve your drug if there's not a drug on the list that's right for you.
Keep your teeth happy and healthy
Have you seen your dentist for a checkup? Make sure to make an appointment to keep your teeth and your smile healthy.
Regular dental exams can:
- Find problems with your teeth and gums before they cause you pain or are costly to treat
- Prevent some problems from happening in the first place
- Spot warning signs of diseases or other medical conditions in the mouth that are unrelated to your teeth
- Establish a place to go if you have a dental emergency
For these reasons, it is important to see your dentist twice a year. That's true even if there are no obvious problems.
Just like daily brushing and flossing, make it a habit to schedule and keep regular appointments with your dentist. Acting now will help you avoid major issues in the future.
Schedule your dental checkup now!
If you're a HAP Empowered Healthy Michigan Plan member or are pregnant, you have dental coverage. Go to deltadentalmi.com/findadentist to find a dentist near you.
Helpful reminders
Have you created an account at hap.org/Medicaid? Here’s what you can do now:
- Print your ID card or download it to your phone.
- Send our Customer Service team a secure message.
- Search our list of doctors and hospitals.
- Check on your claims.
Get helpful text messages about your plan. Call (833) 593-1755 to sign up.
Earn up to $375 in gift cards with the HAP Empower Your Health Rewards program. Visit hap.org/empoweryourhealth to learn more.
facebook.com/HAP
twitter.com/hapmichigan
Important contact information:
| Service | Phone Number |
|----------------------------------|-----------------------|
| HAP Empowered Customer Service | (888) 654-2200 (TTY: 711) |
| Schedule a ride | (888) 654-2200 (TTY: 711) |
| 24-hour Nurse Advice Line | (877) 394-0665 |
| Dental for Healthy Michigan Plan and pregnant women | (800) 838-8957 |
| Hearing | (877) 484-2688 |
| Vision | (800) 252-2053 |
| Pharmacy | (888) 654-2200 (TTY: 711) |
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HAP Empowered Health Plan, Inc., a Michigan Medicaid Health Plan, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Health Alliance Plan of Michigan (HAP). It is a Michigan nonprofit, taxable corporation.
HAP Empowered Health Plan, Inc. complies with applicable federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex.
This information is available for free in other languages. Please call our Customer Service number at (888) 654-2200 or TTY: 711. Available 24/7.
ATENCIÓN: si habla español, los servicios de asistencia de idiomas se encuentran disponibles gratuitamente para usted. Llame al (888) 654-2200, los usuarios TTY deben llamar al 711.
تنبيه: إذا كنت تتحدث اللغة العربية، فإننا نوفر لك خدمات المساعدة اللغوية مجانًا. اتصل بالرقم 2200-654-654 أو خدمة الهاتف النصي: 711. | e915e59d-9ef4-43c5-aadd-58a1a9b9b1e3 | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.hap.org/-/media/project/hap/hap/medicaid/newsletters/fall-2021-make-health-happen.pdf?rev=e7264ce92208433eaf713c5c93844189&hash=12A34B24A9A20622695F3C9E3B9E942C | 2022-12-07T07:08:06+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711150.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20221207053157-20221207083157-00694.warc.gz | 836,189,204 | 3,772 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.986197 | eng_Latn | 0.998212 | [
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4 | Drawing room
In the little room behind the mashrabiyas visitors can see thematic displays, mainly of graphic art, which are rotated regularly because of their sensitivity to light. Of the 1327 drawings the Jean-Jacques Henner museum holds, 987 are by the artist himself. These are essentially works from his studio collection, ranging from quick sketches to studies that are very close to the final painting.
5 | Grey studio
In 1867, Jean-Jacques Henner set up his studio at 11 place Pigalle. For him it was not just a place to work, but also to entertain. His creative process can be seen through the sketches and unfinished paintings that were made in preparation for the most monumental work on show in the museum, *The Naiads*, which was a private commission for a dining room. You can also see furniture, sculptures and objects that were in Henner’s studio. In preparation for his large compositions, the painter did research and many preliminary sketches, often drawn from life. Henner was also in the habit of producing small replicas of his successful paintings to be sold to art lovers. His work in the studio is also illustrated by more intimate pieces such as nudes, models posing, still lifes and portraits of students or friends. As these works were not intended for exhibition, they are generally not signed but sometimes have a studio stamp showing “JJ HENNER”.
**Opening hours**
Open daily from 11:00 – 18:00 except for Tuesdays and some public holidays
Late-night opening until 21:00 on the second Thursday of the month
**Getting there**
Metro: Malesherbes, Monceau, Wagram
RER: Pereire
Bus: 30, 31, 94
**Admission fee**
Single ticket for the two museums of the Établissement public des musées nationaux Jean-Jacques Henner and Gustave Moreau: €8, reduced rate €6.
The single ticket gives access to the permanent collections and exhibitions of the Jean-Jacques Henner Museum and the Gustave Moreau Museum, valid for 72 hours.
**Cover:** *Hérodiade*, around 1887 (detail), 1880©, photos Franck Raux (cover, p. 2 top), Hervé Lewandowski (p. 2 bottom, p. 3), Gérard Blot (p.4)
*The programme of cultural events (concerts, conferences, readings, guided tours and workshops) is available on www.musee-henner.fr*
Located in the heart of Plaine Monceau in a 19th-century town house, the museum is devoted to the work of Jean-Jacques Henner (1829-1905). Its collections retrace the career of an artist who, at the beginning of the 20th century, was considered one of the most important of his time. The dense display of almost 300 works retraces the painter’s itinerary, from his native Alsace to Paris, via the Villa Medici where he stayed after winning the Prix de Rome. The many works from Henner’s studio also provide an insight into how an ‘official’ painter worked in the Impressionist era. Visitors are invited to discover the fascinating and intimate world of Jean-Jacques Henner, while savouring the charm of a magical place steeped in history.
Former dining room
The former dining room in Guillaume Dubufe’s mansion, which has been transformed into a museum dedicated to the work of Jean-Jacques Henner, has been made into an area in which the visitor can explore the Plaine Monceau quarter by looking at maps from the period and discovering the many artists that lived there. A timeline and an interactive display offer a fresh look at both the personality and career of Jean-Jacques Henner.
Lounge with columns
The lounge still has its French neo-Renaissance ceiling, inspired by the queen’s cabinets at the royal castle in Blois which were restored in the mid-1800s by the architect Félix Duban. The wood panels are decorated with intertwined D’s for Dubufe and C’s for his wife Cécile. The lounge was modified in 1926 when the wall separating it from the winter garden was replaced with four columns. Paintings by Henner and furniture on loan from the Mobilier national are on display.
Winter garden
Decorated with a mosaic that had both floral and Greek motifs dating from 1878, in Dubufe’s time the winter garden was filled with a mixture of furniture, works of art and exotic plants. It was a place to receive people and to entertain. Today, it is a multifunctional space used for various events including temporary exhibitions, concerts and shows.
1 | Alsace room
Jean-Jacques Henner was born on 5 March 1829 in Bernwiller in the Sundgau region of southern Alsace. He was the sixth and last child in a family of well-to-do farmers. It was here that Henner began his apprenticeship as an artist. He studied drawing while at secondary school in Altkirch and later trained under Gabriel Guérin in Strasbourg before continuing his studies in Paris from 1846. As a young man, he painted mostly portraits and realistic scenes of daily life in which he depicts his family. Henner retained strong ties with the region of his birth, which had been annexed by Germany, visiting it every year between August and October. While there, he liked to paint landscapes of the Sundgau region, which almost invariably featured bushes, a little pond, a hill and the sky at sunset.
2 | Italy room
In 1858 Henner won the Grand Prix de Rome for painting. This success led to a five-year stay at the Villa Medici in Rome. There, he devoted himself to preparing paintings which he had to send back to Paris each year so that his progress could be assessed. Henner travelled a lot during his time in Italy, which was in the process of unifying. From June to October 1860 he went to Florence, passing through Umbria, then Parma, Venice and Milan. Between August and October 1862 he stayed in the region of Naples, and was to return again in July 1864. In the museums, he painted many copies of grand Masters such as Carpaccio and Titian. During his time in Italy, he discovered his liking for painting landscapes. Small paintings, often done on paper that would later be glued to a canvas, were most likely painted on the spot.
3 | Red room
Henner led an “official” career filled with honours, such as a painter could achieve in the second half of the nineteenth century. In addition to the Prix de Rome, he was elected member of the Institut de France in 1889, his paintings were often bought by the state and he won many awards at the Salon where he exhibited each year. He was seen as an important artist at the time. In this room, works exhibited at the Salon are displayed near the painting that made him famous, *Alsace. She waits*. After a brief incursion into naturalism, Henner, known as a history painter, moved increasingly to a more allusive style and to subjects without reference to a specific context, such as *The Reader* or *Sleep*. Henner painted over 400 portraits of which many were commissions. | ffb32a79-c973-47cf-b2f8-bc6b04ae5ed9 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | https://musee-henner.fr/sites/henner/files/documents/parcours_EN_2024.pdf | 2024-04-20T03:39:47+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296817474.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20240420025340-20240420055340-00520.warc.gz | 369,982,520 | 1,532 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.998663 | eng_Latn | 0.998868 | [
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Goodwill Industries’ Skills Training and Enrichment Program (STEP) is an adult learning environment for participants with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) to develop non-job-specific employment and independent life skills to reach their highest potential. Through training resources, skill-building in a variety of activities, and experiences within the community, participants are offered the opportunity to develop social awareness, build relationships and overcome barriers to employment. For many participants these skills lead to integrated community jobs and greater independence.
**Participant Choice**
GICW staff collaborate with participants and Individual Service Plan (ISP) team members to determine the activities of personal interest, providing participants both choice and control. Participants have the opportunity to explore many different areas of interest in the seven themed STEP rooms, including community integration and career exploration experiences. The training rooms focus on providing a variety of employment path, life skills and enrichment opportunities: classroom/computer lab, exercise room, art studio/garden station, room for ongoing volunteer projects, music skills/appreciation, a living skills center based on independent living, and a game room.
**Training Skills Development Rooms**
**The Classroom and Computer Lab** provides a wide variety of opportunities for participants to improve academic skills and overcome barriers to employment. Training and activities offered include: money handling, computers, cashiering, online applications, resume building, interview skills, dressing for success, effective communication, teambuilding and numerous other social skills. Training to increase academic levels in terms of literacy related to reading, math, and language is offered.
**The Independent Living Room** provides opportunities to participate in training on diet, nutrition, reading recipes/food labels, meal planning, hygiene, household safety, use of available appliances, independent and group living skills, laundry and household upkeep. It is an ideal training space for those participants interested in working in the food or hospitality industry by earning their Food Handler’s Card and increasing general household skills. Whether the skills learned are employment or living skill focused, the intent is to provide training that is useful for the rest of life.
The Exercise Room encourages individuals to become aware of their own attitudes toward health, food and exercise. Training activities are designed to increase participants’ ability to make healthy choices, increase strength, balance and stamina thereby improving general health and employability. Specific activities include: benefits of exercise/nutrition and the correlation to health, basic anatomy/body types, learning types of exercise, team and individual sports, warm up and cool down, stretching, safety, personal goals, and instruction on a variety of exercise machines.
The Music Skills and Appreciation Room introduces participants to various instruments, musical styles, music history, dance, and the emotional impact that music inspires. There are academic benefits such as math, communication, and reading, as well as building critical thinking and problem-solving skills. This room provides a platform for learning self-discipline, collaboration with peers, patience, and motivation.
The Volunteer Experience Room offers participants the opportunity to complete volunteer work that contributes to their community. An example is GICW’s “Book of My Own” that supports local literacy efforts. The process includes: quality inspection of books, packaging, labeling, and organizing. Participants meet together to discuss expectations prior to entering the community and then meet upon return to discuss what they learned and their contribution. Participants learn the meaning behind supporting the work of local non-profit organizations and the benefits for everyone involved. Community volunteer partners include: Loaves and Fishes, Meals on Wheels, local food banks and the Oregon Humane Society for which participants donated dog biscuits that they baked in the Independent Living Skills Room.
The Studio provides opportunities for participants to convey creative expression and learn the emotional reaction art can engender. Art can increase the ability to recall facts, grasp main ideas, and sequential events. Classes and activities offered in the Studio include: gardening, painting in a variety of mediums, multiple craft projects with a focus on reuse, repurpose, recycle, decorating for special events, card making for volunteer projects, and learning design, and art styles/history. Similarly to the Music Skills room, this room enhances academics such as math, writing, reading, and communication. It also provides another platform for developing collaboration skills, motivation, and creative thinking.
The Game Room provides a fun, safe environment in which to practice social skills. Board games, puzzles, books, magazines, gaming computers, TV with DVD/Blu-ray player and Wii all provide opportunities to learn teamwork, take turns, communicate effectively, and practice patience.
Integrated, Thematic Lesson Plans
Each room has lesson plans that the STEP staff develop and implement. The year is split into quarters, and each has a theme. That theme is broken down each week and a topic is established. Lesson plans provide an outline of learning objectives, materials needed, description of the activity and procedure, transferrable skills, discussion suggestions, and space to note the experience of each participant.
Other Learning Opportunities
Additional learning opportunities in the STEP include Career Exploration, Community Integration Experiences (CIEs) and guest speakers. Community integration opportunities include business tours, job shadowing, libraries, schools, museum visits, and grocery or other shopping opportunities. Guest speakers are invited to speak on topics of interest chosen by participants. A range of topics have included: self-advocacy, pet care, organic farming, veterans, musicians and representatives from the local job market.
There are many different opportunities in the STEP program to build and develop skills toward community employment, integration and independence. Participant goals, skill sets, interests, and engagement have increased dramatically and drive the direction of this program. As the STEP continues to develop with the ideas and collaboration of stakeholders, we look forward to cultivating more classes and opportunities for participants.
PORTLAND
611 SE Harrison St.
Portland, OR 97214
503/238.6139
SALEM
3535 Lancaster Dr NE
Salem, OR 97305
503/375.0335
DALLAS
315 Orchard Dr
Dallas, OR 97338 | <urn:uuid:c94fc3a1-6882-431c-9e8a-0b2649c7ecf0> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | https://meetgoodwill.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/STEP-2016-Overview-Handout-6-2016-version.pdf | 2017-05-28T22:25:29Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463611569.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170528220125-20170529000125-00433.warc.gz | 960,688,019 | 1,209 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.995607 | eng_Latn | 0.995761 | [
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Overview
This exciting, fast-paced myth retells a traditional story from Ngāti Awa. It portrays one chief’s courageous actions to protect his iwi from the taniwha Tarakura.
Iratumoana, the chief, displays many qualities: bravery, fortitude, and decisiveness. He also shows wisdom and humility, understanding that he must consult and work with others if he is to prevail over the taniwha. The chief provides a positive role model of someone who puts himself in physical danger for the good of the community. You can read about the importance of taniwha in Māori tradition here: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/taniwha
Adding to the authentic feel of the story, Iratumoana consults a tohunga (a skilled and wise person within an iwi who provides guidance, especially during difficult times).
The story has the timeless theme of two foes pitted against each other, and although it is somewhat bloodthirsty, the content, vivid descriptions, and dramatic illustrations will have strong appeal for many readers.
Texts related by theme
“A Piece of Paradise” L3 June 2012 | “The Wing of Maui’s Moa” SJ 2.3.09 | “Southern Lights” SJ 3.1.05
Text characteristics from the year 6 reading standard
- Sentences that vary in length and in structure (for example, sentences that begin in different ways and different kinds of complex sentences with a number of subordinate clauses)
- Some ideas and information that are conveyed indirectly and require students to infer by drawing on several related pieces of information in the text
- A significant amount of vocabulary that is unfamiliar to the students (including academic and content-specific words and phrases), which is generally explained in the text by words or illustrations
Iratumoana grew angry; it was time to end this menace. He knew that both wisdom and weapons were needed to beat the taniwha, so he consulted his tohunga and his warriors. Together, they laid plans. The night before he left to seek out Tarakura, Iratumoana instructed his warriors to protect the women and children. The conflict between chief and taniwha would determine the future of the Ngāti Awa people.
Iratumoana waited until dawn to track the taniwha. His tohunga had predicted that Tarakura would still be digesting its evening meal and this would make his movements sluggish. The Rangitāiki swamp, covered in reetoes, ti kūkupa, and raupo, was beautiful in the dawn light. But Iratumoana knew that the beauty was not real, for it was hiding a monster.
Iratumoana moved stealthily through the swamp, looking for signs of Tarakura. He saw human bones, crushed vegetation, and prints in the mud. It was not long before he came across a fresh scattering of bones. Iratumoana knew he was close.
Then he saw the taniwha.
**Possible curriculum contexts**
**ENGLISH (Reading)**
LEVEL 3 – Language features: Show a developing understanding of how language features are used for effect within and across texts.
**ENGLISH (Writing)**
LEVEL 3 – Language features: Use language features appropriately, showing a developing understanding of their effects.
**Possible reading purposes**
- To enjoy reading an exciting, authentic story about a Ngāti Awa chief and his battle with a taniwha
- To explore the language features, which make the story exciting.
**Possible writing purposes**
- To use the text as a model for writing a similar story
- To turn the story into a graphic text
- To write about a modern-day hero.
See *Instructional focus – Reading* for illustrations of some of these reading purposes.
See *Instructional focus – Writing* for illustrations of some of these writing purposes.
---
**Text and language challenges**
**VOCABULARY:**
- Possible unfamiliar words and phrases, including “palisade”, “monstrous”, “plagued”, “toyed”, “lingered”, “talons”, “bold”, “menace”, “determine”, “sluggish”, “stealthily”, “vegetation”, “fetid”, “stench”, “encrusted”, “misplaced”, “vicious”, “implanting”, “backhander”, “deliberation”, “anticipation”, “penetrated”, “encircled”, “in unison”
- The use of te reo Māori, including “taniwha”, “tohunga”, and the names of people and plants
- The idiomatic expression “not a man to cross”.
**Possible supporting strategies**
Spend time familiarising yourself with the Māori words and terms that are new to you. Depending on your students’ knowledge, provide accurate support for pronunciation and meanings.
Use the Ngata dictionary ([www.learningmedia.co.nz/ngata](http://www.learningmedia.co.nz/ngata)) or seek support within your school community or local iwi.
Before reading, preview key vocabulary that you think will be unfamiliar to your students. For example, you could use real objects, charades, audio, and/or audiovisual prompts to help students choose definitions from a set of jumbled definitions for the key words.
Preview key words and phrases used in vivid descriptions. During reading, encourage students to notice more of these words and phrases. Chart these for further exploration after reading and during writing.
*The English Language Learning Progressions: Introduction*, pages 39–46, has useful information about learning vocabulary.
**SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED:**
- Familiarity with traditional stories from Māori or other cultures
- Familiarity with stories of taniwha
- Familiarity with good-and-evil stories and the dramatic language and images they use
- Knowledge of weapons (taiaha, patu) and how they can be used
- Knowledge of the good qualities of a chief, including courage on the battlefield
- Knowledge of the role of a tohunga.
**Possible supporting strategies**
Review the students’ knowledge of cultural concepts covered in the story. Activate or build their background knowledge, but keep in mind that students may be unaware of the knowledge they already have. Don’t assume that because a student is Māori, he or she will hold relevant knowledge.
Discuss the characteristics of heroes. You could have students work in small groups to make lists of characteristics and then have them compare their lists. You could ask students to compare characteristics of heroes in different cultures and/or times. During these discussions, you could feed in and explain key vocabulary.
**TEXT FEATURES AND STRUCTURE:**
- Traditional story from Ngāti Awa, retold in written form by a member of that iwi
- Straightforward chronological narrative, with a beginning that sets the scene, a problem, and a resolution
- The figurative language, including “carved out of the bush”, “crowned with the skull of an enemy”, “toyed with his victim”, “the last aching breath lingered in their body”, “the hunger of the taniwha soared”, “his green eyes burned with hatred”, “ripped through the air”
- The words and phrases used in vivid descriptions, for example, low-frequency and highly specific verbs such as “prowled”, “toyed”, and “lingered”
- The separate information at the end in which the author explains how she knows the story
- The theme of courage against an enemy.
**Possible supporting strategies**
Before reading, discuss the kinds of stories Māori tell of ancient heroes – the deeds they did or the battles they fought. Discuss a familiar story, for example, stories about Māui, or ask students to share stories they know. Review what the students know about other traditional stories of courage against an enemy or of the exploits of taniwha.
This is an excellent opportunity for students from different cultures to share and compare stories they have grown up with. Review and compare the structures and features of these stories, and compare the themes they often convey.
The resource *Supporting English Language Learning in Primary Schools: A Guide for Teachers of Years 5 and 6* (SELLIPS) provides guidance on the language function of recounting on pages 18–25. (SELLIPS includes creative narrating and storytelling within recounting.)
**Text excerpts from "Tarakura of the Rangitāiki Plains"**
Iratumoana was known throughout the lands of Ngāti Awa. He was feared and respected by all – and not a man to cross. Each palisade of his marae, crowned with the skull of an enemy, was proof of his warlike nature.
There was only one creature who was a match for Iratumoana. He was Tarakura, the monstrous taniwha who plagued the people of Ngāti Awa.
He knew that both wisdom and weapons were needed to beat the taniwha, so he consulted his tohunga and his carvers. Together, they laid plans. The night before he left to seek out Tarakura, Iratumoana instructed his warriors to protect the women and children. This conflict between chief and taniwha would determine the future of the Ngāti Awa people.
The warrior, exhausted, looked on in silence.
From the swamp, the water creatures came to claim the body of Tarakura. They encircled the taniwha and gently lifted him. Moving in unison, they carried Tarakura back into the Rangitāiki. He was never seen again.
Iratumoana, the great warrior and chief, returned to his people.
**Students (what they might do)**
*Students make connections between the text and their knowledge of traditional stories to identify that Iratumoana is a hero. They infer that he will be strong, brave, and powerful.*
*Students use their knowledge of idiom to understand the meaning of “not a man to cross”. They unpack the sentence “Each palisade …” and infer from the skulls that Iratumoana had killed many people and uses the skulls as a warning to others.*
*Students make connections with other hero stories to infer that like some other heroes, the good guy has one main enemy. They make connections between the text and other stories about taniwha and predict that this story will be about a battle between Iratumoana and Tarakura.*
*Students ask and answer questions about the things Iratumoana needed and the reason he spoke to the tohunga and the carvers. They draw on their own knowledge of the role of a tohunga or a carver to infer how they helped Iratumoana prepare for battle.*
*Students make predictions about the possible outcomes and infer that if the battle goes badly, the women and children will be at risk. They further infer that a loss could mean the taniwha could destroy the whole iwi.*
*The students make connections between the text and personal experiences of achieving a difficult physical task to visualise Iratumoana and how he would feel.*
*They integrate information from the text and what they know of traditional stories (in particular, those that involve taniwha) to identify another feature of a traditional story: the beaten foe never returns.*
**Teacher (possible deliberate acts of teaching)**
Activate the students’ prior knowledge and make connections to previous discussions about stories that Māori tell of ancient heroes.
**ASK QUESTIONS** to encourage students’ thinking.
- What are the main features of these stories?
- What are the main characteristics of their heroes?
If students have already made lists of the characteristics of heroes, they could note which ones Iratumoana has and add others as they read.
Create a chart of the main features of the story, asking students to add to it during reading.
**PROMPT** the students to unpack the sentence “Each palisade …”.
- What is the main clause?
- What does the phrase (“crowned …”) refer to?
- What message would skulls on the palisades give to enemies?
- What can you infer about Iratumoana?
If necessary, support the students to work out the meanings of “a match for Iratumoana” and “plagued”.
**PROMPT** students to make connections between stories in which the hero has a powerful enemy and stories about taniwha.
- What do you know about taniwha?
- What do you predict will happen? Why do you think that?
**PROMPT** the students to consider the preparations for battle.
- Think about other stories where the hero goes to face a foe. What is needed?
- What can the tohunga provide?
- What can the carvers provide?
Add any new information to the chart, for example, that a hero needs weapons or tools and spiritual support.
**DIRECT** the students to share their thoughts about the story with a partner. They can consider one or more of these questions:
- Was this a satisfying ending? Why or why not?
- Have you heard this story, or others like it, before? If you wish, you can share another story with your partner. How is it similar?
- Why are stories like this told and handed down? What is their purpose?
**GIVE FEEDBACK**
- The taniwha stories you know helped us understand how serious the threat was to Iratumoana. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
- You’ve used what you know about taniwha stories to make that inference. How could you check to see if it seems correct?
---
**METACOGNITION**
- Find a place where you made a personal connection with the text. Turn to a partner and explain the connection and how it helped you understand something.
- What happens when you pause to think critically about an aspect of a text? When did you do that with this text, and where did your thinking lead you?
Before roads were carved out of the bush, before the waters were drained from the swamps, there lived a great chief and warrior. His name was Iratumoana.
Often Tarakura toyed with his victim until the last aching breath lingered in their body.
He could smell the fetid stench of death on his breath and see his blood-encrusted talons.
Muscles rippled through his body as he rose from the swamp floor. His nostrils flared in annoyance. Then, recognising his enemy, his green eyes burned with hatred.
Iratumoana staggered to his feet. From the corner of his eye, he fixed on Tarakura. The taniwha approached him with deliberation. His eyes never left the warrior’s face. His sharp teeth showed in a grin. His breathing was shallow as he trod towards his prey, blood oozing from his wound.
**SETTING THE TIME FRAME**
*Traditional stories frequently start with identifying the time frame, often in the distant past. This signals to readers that the story will tell an old, familiar story from long ago.*
**ASK QUESTIONS** about the setting.
- Compare the start of this story with others that begin, “Long, long ago …” or “Once upon a time …”. Why do they start like this? What does it tell you about the setting?
- How will you convey your story’s setting to your readers?
- What models can you use?
- How will you help your readers to make connections with your story and its setting?
- How can you stress the importance of the setting?
**PROMPT** the students to experiment with adding drama and precision to their writing.
- How could adding vivid language help your readers to visualise a place, action, or feeling?
- How could descriptive language help your readers to understand the similarities or differences between characters?
- How can it help your readers understand the characters’ feelings?
- Are there places in your writing where vivid descriptions will make your meaning or purpose clearer?
**MODEL** some different ways to write sentences; for example, model breaking a long sentence up and noticing the effect. Alternatively, join short sentences and notice the effect.
- Listen as I read this extract aloud.
- Now listen as I read it with the sentences made longer:
“Iratumoana staggered to his feet and fixed on Tarakura from the corner of his eye as the taniwha approached him with deliberation. Tarakura never let his eyes leave the warrior’s face, and his sharp teeth showed in a grin.”
- Which version sounds better? What is the effect of keeping the sentences short?
If possible, show students a selection of graphic texts to demonstrate the effect of short sentences in a dramatic story.
**GIVE FEEDBACK**
- You’ve added some great descriptive language to this. It’s made your story a lot more dramatic and interesting.
- This works well as a graphic novel. The format limits the amount of writing, so every word has to count. You’ve trimmed your sentences down to short, vivid statements.
**METACOGNITION**
- How did clarifying your intentions with your partner before you started writing help you? Is this a strategy you would use again?
- What helped you make decisions about the kind of language to use? How is the language different from other writing you’ve done?
- What was the hardest part about writing this? What was easiest? Why?
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Examiners’ Report
June 2016
GCE Biology 8BI0 01
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June 2016
Publications Code 8BIO_01 1606_ER
All the material in this publication is copyright © Pearson Education Ltd 2016
Introduction
This was the first sitting of the AS paper 8BIO/01: Core Cellular Biology and Microbiology designed to assess Biological Molecules, Cells, Viruses and Reproduction of Living Things.
It was very pleasing that every mark on the paper was accessible to candidates and all questions achieved every mark possible. The level of demand was significantly higher than previous AS papers with far fewer ‘easy’ marks and it was significantly more demanding to achieve full marks for the longer questions and many of the shorter ‘explain’ questions because of the much tighter mark scheme where candidates are no longer able to score full marks on a question without answering the question fully. Where able candidates were able to respond appropriately to each question few did it consistently across the paper so relatively few candidates scored highly across the whole paper. As a result the mean mark for the paper was lower than AS exams in recent years, although it was the same mean mark achieved for the first AS papers at the time of introducing the last significant change of specification and there were no re-sit candidates.
Questions that demanded recall tended to score very well, e.g. when asked to describe the process of translation. However, when asked to analyse and explain data and apply their knowledge in unfamiliar contexts (e.g. density gradient centrifugation) many candidates found the marks harder to obtain.
Many candidates did very well with the questions testing their understanding and ability to apply mathematical skills. Unfortunately a significant number of candidates struggled with the calculation questions and many were left blank. These are higher demand than past mathematical questions and this is an important part of the new specifications. Did those candidates who left these blank forget their calculators or suffer from a lack of numerical confidence?
Some candidates lost marks through not reading the question carefully or poor literacy; others through carelessness, for example by not making a clear comparative statement or only making one clear statement when a question carries two or more marks.
Question 1
These four multiple choice questions discriminated well, with most having just over 50% of candidates getting each one correct.
a: most candidates correctly identified A the anther as the part where pollen grains are made.
b: less than 50% of candidates identified the correct chromosome numbers for the nuclei. The most common incorrect response was C (7, 14)
c: 50% of candidates identified nucleus Q dividing by mitosis as the correct answer. The most common incorrect response was B with nucleus P dividing by mitosis.
d: 54% of candidates identified that there was only one correct statement. The most common incorrect answer was to state C that there were two correct statements.
Question 2 (a)(i)
Question 2(a) was designed to test the specification point 1.1ii “know the structure of the hexose glucose” and 1.1iii “…condensation reactions forming glycosidic bonds ….” in an applied manner that tests some simple mathematical skills.
Candidates needed to recall the biological knowledge that the formula for glucose is C6H12O6 and that maltose is formed from a condensation reaction between two glucose molecules. They were provided with the molecular mass of each element and the molecular mass of one glucose molecule so no additional chemical knowledge beyond the specification (where they also need to know the structure and properties of water 1.7) and the information provided was required. Please note that the Maths guidance says at the top of each page ‘assessment is not limited to the examples given below’.
2(a)(i) was extremely well answered by the vast majority of candidates, with both marks being awarded. Many of the responses were very clear and laid the answer and working out logically.
A few candidates left this blank, perhaps showing a fear of chemistry or numeracy. Other candidates failed to recall the molecular formula for glucose so struggled to get the totals to add up to 180.
This response gained both marks available.
(i) Explain why the molecular mass of one glucose molecule is 180.
\[
\text{glucose formula} = \text{C}_6\text{H}_{12}\text{O}_6 \\
(12 \times 6) + (1 \times 12) + (16 \times 6) = 180
\]
(i) Explain why the molecular mass of one glucose molecule is 180.
Glucose is made up of 6 carbons (12x6=72), 6 oxygen (16x6=96) and 12 Hydrogens (12x1=12). Adding up the molecular mass for each element’s total will equal: 96+12+72 = 180
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
Although the candidate has not clearly stated the formula for glucose they have demonstrated it through a clear description of how many of each element makes up a molecule of glucose and how the total adds up to 180.
This response gained one mark.
(i) Explain why the molecular mass of one glucose molecule is 180.
Because glucose has the formula C₆H₁₂O₆
C₆H₁₂O₆ therefore the sum of molecular mass must add to 180 hence the figure of 180
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
This response is typical of those that recalled the formula for glucose, but did not go on to show how the formula gives rise to the molecular mass of 180. They have avoided the information given and made no attempt at the calculation so do not gain the second mark available.
ResultsPlus Examiner Tip
Always show your working for calculations – even if your answer is wrong you may show your understanding in stages of the calculation and get awarded some of the marks available.
(i) Explain why the molecular mass of one glucose molecule is 180.
A glucose molecule is made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and sums to 180.
Examiner Comments
This response is typical of those who did not recall the formula for glucose and therefore could not use the information provided effectively.
(ii) Explain why the molecular mass of one glucose molecule is 180.
Glucose is a carbohydrate which contains all 3 of the elements.
In glucose there is 1 brand & 6 carbon molecules more than one of the 3 molecules each of the 3 molecules. 8 carbons, 5 oxygens, 4 hydrogens.
Examiner Comments
This candidate did not recall the correct formula for glucose. They have however, made an attempt to deduce the formula from the information given about the molecular masses and their collection would add up to 180, but they haven't shown how it was calculated.
(ii) Calculate the molecular mass of maltose.
\[ C_{12}H_{22}O_{11} = \text{maltose} \]
\[(12 \times 12) + (22 \times 1) + (11 \times 16) = 342 \]
This candidate went the long way for calculating the answer, by working out the formula for maltose and then calculating the mass correctly.
This response gained one of the two marks available.
(ii) Calculate the molecular mass of maltose.
\[ 180 \times 2 = 360 \]
This is typical of the many responses that correctly identified maltose as being made up of two glucose molecules so added them together for one mark. However, they did not recognise that water is removed in a condensation reaction so did not subtract the mass of one water molecule that would have been needed for the second mark.
(ii) Calculate the molecular mass of maltose.
\[ C_{12}H_{24}O_{12} \]
Maltose = Glucose + Glucose
\[ C_6H_{12}O_6 + C_6H_{12}O_6 = (C_6H_{12}O_6)_2 - H_2O = \text{Answer } C_{12}H_{22}O_{11} \]
**ResultsPlus**
**Examiner Comments**
This candidate successfully calculated the molecular formula of maltose. Unfortunately, they did not read the question carefully enough and did not provide a molecular mass so could not gain either of the marks available.
**ResultsPlus**
**Examiner Tip**
Always read the question carefully.
---
(ii) Calculate the molecular mass of maltose.
\[ 180 \times 2 = 360 \]
**Answer** 260
**ResultsPlus**
**Examiner Comments**
Although this candidate recognised that maltose is made of two glucose molecules 180+180 does not add up to 360 so they did not gain the 1st mark available.
**ResultsPlus**
**Examiner Tip**
When making calculations it is worth doing a quick check to make sure the magnitude of the number makes sense to avoid simple errors like this one.
Question 2 (b)
The majority of candidates were able to distinguish the 6C sugar from the 5C sugar, often with reference to hexose and pentose.
Some candidates were able to gain the second mark usually for correctly stating both the molecular formula of glucose and ribose, with a small number stating that ribose had two less hydrogens and one less oxygen than glucose.
A few candidates lost the mark by referring to carbon, oxygen or hydrogen molecules.
Some candidates gave differences between the uses of the sugars rather than structural differences as commanded in the question.
Several candidates referred to having isomers as a structural difference.
However, both glucose and ribose have isomers.
This response gained both marks available.
(b) Give **two** differences between the structure of a ribose molecule and the structure of a glucose molecule.
Ribose only has 5 carbons whereas glucose has 6. Ribose also has two hydrogens and one oxygen less than glucose.
Examiner Comments
This response compares the number of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms in each molecule for both marks.
(b) Give two differences between the structure of a ribose molecule and the structure of a glucose molecule.
Ribose molecule is a pentose sugar with the formula $C_5H_{10}O_5$ whereas a glucose sugar is a hexose sugar with the formula $C_6H_{12}O_6$. So ribose has 1 less carbon and one less oxygen than a glucose molecule. Glucose has 2 forms (α, β) whereas ribose only has one.
Examiner Comments
This response gains marks for comparing pentose and hexose and using the correct formulas. However, they would not have got a mark for the comment on isomers as ribose also has isomers.
This response gained one of the two marks available.
(b) Give two differences between the structure of a ribose molecule and the structure of a glucose molecule.
A ribose molecule is a pentose sugar molecule which only contains 5 carbon atoms, whilst a glucose molecule contains 6 carbon atoms. A ribose molecule only has 10 atoms of hydrogen, whilst a glucose molecule has 12.
Examiner Comments
This response gained a mark for comparing the number of carbon atoms. They would have received the second mark if they had compared the oxygen as well as the number of hydrogen atoms in the molecules.
(b) Give two differences between the structure of a ribose molecule and the structure of a glucose molecule.
A ribose molecule has oxygen and hydrogen attached to each carbon molecule, along with this, a glucose molecule has 5 carbon molecules, and also carbon double bonds.
Examiner Comments
This response is not worthy of any credit. There are no clear correct comparisons and illustrates a couple of common mistakes: reference to carbon molecules and reference to carbon double bonds.
Question 3 (a)
In order to gain full marks for this question, candidates had to refer to the polarity of the water molecule. Otherwise a maximum of two marks would be awarded in this case.
The question was well answered by the majority of candidates usually gaining two or three marks. Descriptions of polarity, included the dipolar nature of water and in a very few cases, the description of slightly positive H’s and a slightly negative O. There were even some good descriptions of unequal electron sharing. However a few candidates lost this mark due to describing full ionic charges. Many candidates included hydrogen bonding and/or cohesive properties in their descriptions. With some excellent responses clearly explaining the connection between polarity and hydrogen bonding. A few described adhesion instead of/ in addition to cohesion which was not relevant to the question asked. As were the frequent references to other properties of water such as the specific heat capacity.
Some candidates were able to explain how the net inward force was created at the surface. They were able to express themselves well, using appropriate terminology, in demonstrating an understanding of why water has a high surface tension.
This response gained all three marks available.
(a) Explain how the properties of water molecules result in surface tension.
Water molecules have hydrogen bonds between them. This means that water is very cohesive and holds together strongly. Hydrogen bonds form because water is a polar molecule and the $\delta^+$ hydrogens of one molecule are attracted to the $\delta^-$ oxygen of another. The hydrogen bonds are strong enough that the weight of the pond skater does not produce enough force to overcome these hydrogen bonds.
Examiner Comments
This response gained marks for the hydrogen bonding, cohesion and polarity of the water.
(a) Explain how the properties of water molecules result in surface tension.
Water molecules are liquid in their standard state. The attraction and cohesion of water molecules mean they stick together, and on the surface of the water there is only 1 layer, meaning the dipolar molecules only have downward and sideways forces, meaning there is tension created at the surface (see below).
Surface
Below
This response gained marks for cohesion and the dipolar nature of water. It also provided a good example of a response that shows how surface tension is created.
Don't forget that simple diagrams like this can be included in answers and can often add clarity to your explanations.
(a) Explain how the properties of water molecules result in surface tension.
Water molecules are polar therefore they are able to form hydrogen bonds so can be closely attracted together at an air–water interface, resulting in adhesion. Also, water molecules have a high specific heat capacity so a large amount of energy is required to raise the temperature of water. Water is also virtually incompressible and has a maximum density at 4°C.
Examiner Comments
This response gained marks for the polarity of the water and the ability to form hydrogen bonds. They have confused adhesion and cohesion and the rest of the properties given in this example, although true, are not relevant to the question asked so are not worthy of credit.
Examiner Tip
When selecting properties of molecules/structures, etc pick those that are relevant to the context of the question – in this case surface tension.
(a) Explain how the properties of water molecules result in surface tension.
Water is two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen, forming a V shape. The oxygen is slightly negative and the hydrogens are slightly positive, and at the surface of the water the molecules line up so that the negative end of one molecule is attracted to the positive of another, so the molecules at the surface are held together more strongly, resulting in surface tension.
Examiner Comments
This response gained one mark for the description of the polarity of the water molecule. Please note if they had not already included the description of 'slightly' in relation to the charges they would not have got the mark for the later description of the negative end being attracted to the positive end as that could be easily interpreted as a full ionic charge and a description of an ionic bond.
To gain full marks the candidate should have mentioned hydrogen bonds and cohesion and not just that they are held together strongly.
Question 3 (b)
This question demonstrates the increase in emphasis and expectations with respect to maths in this specification. Many candidates coped well with the maths and appropriate units in (i) and gained two or all three marks. Some, however, became confused about decimal points, number of zeros, standard form and units. There was a minority of candidates who barely attempted the calculation.
In the first part of this question, many candidates were able to calculate the force correctly and show how they did it. Many also divided by 20 to get the correct figure for the answer. However, a significant number of candidates lost a mark for failing to note the units involved, or for giving incorrect units.
A significant number of candidates just left their answer at the initial calculation of the force.
A consequential error was allowed in part (ii) for the incorrect answer being carried forward from part (i), so that the comparison of forces could still be made in the second part of the question. Most candidates used a suitable figure for surface tension from the graph. With the majority then going on to describe the surface tension force being greater than that of the force exerted by the pond skater, thus partly answering the question. The more able candidates realised that to fully answer the question, one had to extrapolate the figures and explain that beyond 15°C the force of surface tension would still be greater than the force exerted by the pond skater. Some really good answers included an extrapolated estimated value for surface tension which indicated a warm day.
This response gained all six marks available in total for b(i) and b(ii).
(i) Calculate the force exerted by the pond skater for each millimetre length of contact with the surface of the water.
Give your answer in standard form.
\[
\text{weight of pond skater} = m \times g \times 9.8 \\
= 1.96 \times 10^{-4} \text{ kg} \times 9.8 \\
= 1.96 \times 10^{-4} \text{ N} \\
\frac{1.96 \times 10^{-4} \text{ N}}{0.02 \text{ m}} = 9.8 \times 10^{-3} \text{ Nm}^{-1}
\]
Answer \(9.8 \times 10^{-3} \text{ Nm}^{-1}\)
(ii) This pond skater can stay on the surface of water even on a hot day in summer.
Use your calculated value and the graph to explain why this pond skater can stay on the surface of water.
\[ 9.8 \times 10^{-3} \text{ Nm}^{-1} = 0.0098 \text{ Nm}^{-1} \]
According to the graph at \(15^\circ\text{C}\), the surface tension of water is \(0.0735 \text{ Nm}^{-1}\) which is 7.5 times bigger than the force exerted by the pond skater.
The graph has a shallow gradient which means as temperature increases by a large amount, the surface tension of water doesn't decrease by a large amount so even at high temperatures the surface tension of the water won't be smaller than the amount of force the pond skater is exerting on the surface.
(Total for Question 3 = 9 marks)
**Examiner Comments**
This response calculated the force exerted per mm correctly and used suitable units in the answer. They also compared this calculated value with suitable figures from the graph, recognising the scale of the effect of temperature on the surface tension of the water to gain all three marks for the second part of the question.
(i) Calculate the force exerted by the pond skater for each millimetre length of contact with the surface of the water.
Give your answer in standard form.
\[ 0.02 \times 9.8 = 0.196 \]
\[ 0.196 \div 20 = 9.8 \times 10^{-3} \]
Answer: \( 9.8 \times 10^{-3} \text{ N} \)
(ii) This pond skater can stay on the surface of water even on a hot day in summer.
Use your calculated value and the graph to explain why this pond skater can stay on the surface of water.
Whilst the surface tension of water decreases as temperature increases, the pond skater always exerts less force on the surface of the water than the minimum surface tension of 0.070 Nm\(^{-1}\). Therefore, it remains there even if the temperature increases past 15°C. The pond skater is able to stay on the water's surface.
**ResultsPlus Examiner Comments**
The calculation was completed correctly for a force per metre. However, because the complete unit was not included it could not be awarded the third mark.
The use of the graph for the explanation was good and gained all three marks available.
**ResultsPlus Examiner Tip**
Do take care to try and write legibly to help the examiners and ensure they can read exactly what you meant to say.
(i) Calculate the force exerted by the pond skater for each millimetre length of contact with the surface of the water.
Give your answer in standard form.
\[ 0.02g \rightarrow kg \]
\[ \frac{0.02}{1000} = 0.00002 \text{ kg} \]
\[ 0.00002 \times 98 = 0.000196 \]
\[ 0.000196 \]
\[ 10^{-4} \times 1.96 \]
\[ 0.000196 \]
Answer: \( 1.96 \times 10^{-4} \)
(ii) This pond skater can stay on the surface of water even on a hot day in summer.
Use your calculated value and the graph to explain why this pond skater can stay on the surface of water.
The pond skater can stay on the surface because the force in newtons on the water decreases as temperature increases, therefore allowing pond skater to be on surface of the water.
For (b)(i) the candidate calculated the force of the pond skater for one mark, but did not go on to take into consideration the size of the pond skater as instructed in the question. They also neglected to provide any units.
For (b)(ii) No relevant figures from the graph have been used to make a comparison with the calculated value and the statement implies that it is the force of the pond skater that goes down with increasing temperature.
Examiner Tip
Always include relevant units in calculations and check (and use) data carefully when it is provided in questions, especially check what the data is measuring.
Question 4 (b)(i)
4(a) The majority of candidates recognised the fatty acid would be joined to glycerol during a condensation reaction forming an ester bond. The most common mistake was to think that a glycosidic bond would be formed.
4(b)(i) In this question the vast majority of candidates gained a mark for stating (or describing) the positive correlation between temperature and membrane fluidity clearly.
Many candidates recognised the more dramatic change in fluidity between the solid-like state and the liquid-like state and so gained the second mark. This mark could be gained by referring to the greater gradient. Often, however, the mark was not gained as candidates referred to an increase rate, which cannot be the case as there is no information given about time.
This response gained both marks available.
(i) Describe the relationship between membrane fluidity and temperature as shown by this graph.
As the temperature increases the membrane fluidity also increases. The increase is not linear. The greatest rise in membrane fluidity is in between the solid like state and the liquid like state.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
An example of a clear concise description of the trend with clarity of when the greatest rise in fluidity occurred.
(i) Describe the relationship between membrane fluidity and temperature as shown by this graph.
As the temperature increases, the membrane fluidity increases. The rate of membrane fluidity is highest around the middle temperature.
Examiner Comments
This response is typical of the many responses that recognised the trend, but did not gain the second mark because of inappropriate use of the word 'rate' and/or being too vague about the point where the gradient changes.
Question 4 (b)(ii)
The majority of candidates were able to use the data from the graphs to spot the effect of the differences in fatty acid type or structure on melting points and thus managed to score 2 or 3 marks for this question. However, a disappointing number of candidates failed to recognise the trends clearly.
Some responses referred to the effect of temperature on the fatty acids.
Some candidates were able to use the information about the melting points to make deductions about how the composition of membranes could affect the fluidity of the membrane.
There were extremely few instances where candidates commented about the lack of temperature values on the sketched graph and the effect that could have on any conclusion made.
This response gained three of the four marks available.
The student stated that membrane fluidity depends on the fatty acids present.
Analyse the data in these two graphs and the sketched graph to comment on this statement.
(4)
In graph1 unsaturated fatty acids have a lower melting point than saturated fatty acids. The number of double bonds also seems to have an effect as n.o of transversal double bonds in unsaturated fatty acids increases melting point decreases, so more unsaturated fatty acids in a membrane would lead to a more fluid membrane. It is hard to tell if chain length has any effect on membrane fluidity.
Examiner Comments
This candidate correctly identified two of the trends from the graphs provided, i.e. the comparison between the melting points of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and the effect of the number of double bonds. They went on to make an inference about how this would affect membrane fluidity.
They just missed the clear trend for saturated fatty acids about chain length and melting point by considering all of the data on the graph together.
The student stated that membrane fluidity depends on the fatty acids present.
Analyse the data in these two graphs and the sketched graph to comment on this statement.
From my graph you can conclude that the more highly saturated the fatty acid is the higher its melting point as you can see as the chain length increases so does the melting point ie at 20 chain length the melting point was at 75°C & at 12 chain length the melting point was 45°C. However when there is a unsaturated fatty acid the melting points are much lower i.e majority of them are below 0. On the previous graph as temperature increased the membranes became more fluid which supports it because...
The student stated that membrane fluidity depends on the fatty acids present.
Analyse the data in these two graphs and the sketched graph to comment on this statement.
In the first graph it shows that for saturated fatty acids, the higher the temperature, the more fluid the membrane is. However for the unsaturated fats, the lower the temperature, the more fluid the membrane is. This shows it does depend on the fatty acids present.
However for the number of double bonds, even though there was only one, the melting points were very different even though they are all unsaturated.
The longer the carbon chain, the more energy you need to break the hydrogen bonds which also proves the students claim.
In the sketched graph, it isn't clear which type of fatty acids she was using or if she used many so we can't conclude using that.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
This response is a typical example of the responses of candidates who did not refer to the axis of the graphs carefully and therefore often produced ambiguous or incorrect statements about the data presented.
ResultsPlus Examiner Tip
When presented with a graph carefully check what is measured on each axis.
Question 5 (a)
5(a) Many candidates were able to gain one mark for naming an appropriate solute. A number of responses referred to cytoplasm or a named organelle and so did not gain this mark.
Only a very few candidates were able to explain why what they suggested would be found in this component W, as they were less dense than 1.09 gcm\(^{-3}\). Most responses did not attempt and explanation or merely stated that they were light or not dense, not using the information presented to them in the diagram.
5(b) The vast majority of candidates correctly identified lysosome and Golgi apparatus as being found in X and Y respectively. The most common mistake was to get those two organelles the wrong way round, choosing B instead of C.
This response gained both marks available.
(a) Component W was present after centrifugation.
Explain what might be present in component W other than water and salt.
(2)
None of the organelles would be present as seen from the title, light density. Enzymes may be present in component W because they have a lower density than 1.09. Component W has to be less dense than 1.09 gcm\(^{-3}\).
Examiner Comments
This candidate correctly identified that no organelles would be present and gave an enzyme as something credible that could have been present in the layer. This is a relatively rare example of a candidate who went on to explain why it would be present.
This response gained one of the two marks available.
(a) Component W was present after centrifugation.
Explain what might be present in component W other than water and salt.
The candidate has correctly identified that solutes from the cytoplasm are likely to be in component W. They would have gained the mark for solutes or urea. However, we did not credit sugars because it was a sucrose column and sucrose is a sugar, although specific named sugars like glucose were credited.
This response is typical of the vast majority who did not explain why it would be found in this layer, i.e. it is less dense than 1.09 gcm\(^{-3}\).
Examiner Comments
Several candidates recognised that the cytoplasm rather than any organelles would be found in this top layer. Unfortunately once the cell has been disrupted the cytoplasm is not kept together as an identifiable component so only substances from the cytoplasm were deemed worthy of credit.
Examiner Tip
Just naming something is never going to be sufficient to gain two marks for an 'explain' question.
(a) Component W was present after centrifugation.
Explain what might be present in component W other than water and salt.
The cytoplasm surrounding the nucleus and genetic material because DNA (and chromosomes) aren't very dense.
ResultsPlus
Examiner Comments
This is an example of a typical incorrect response that names an organelle that would not be present in the top layer. Some candidates even named organelles that had their densities stated in the table provided.
Question 5 (c)
Many candidates correctly identified the nucleus or the ribosomes as being present in component Z, thus scoring one mark.
However, a surprising number of candidates stated that the organelle present in Z might be mitochondria, lysosomes, ER or Golgi Apparatus, despite these being given in the accompanying table as present in other fractions of intermediate densities, therefore failing to effectively use the information presented to them.
A number of candidates realised that ribosomes were also extremely dense and may be found in this component of the gradient.
A small number of responses referred to plant cell organelles, despite the fact that the question stem told them that this density gradient separated the components of animal cells.
The majority of candidates gained the second mark for stating that the nucleus was the largest organelle or that it was the organelle which was most dense. Some also referred to it containing very dense material to gain this mark.
Some candidates referred to these being more dense than 1.22 or more dense than mitochondria, thus using the information given in the question effectively.
This response gained both marks available.
(c) Explain which other organelle would be present in component Z.
The nucleus would be present in component Z because it is the largest organelle & contains heterochromatin which is very dense & DNA + protein.
Examiner Comments
This response gained a mark for suggesting a suitable organelle – the nucleus, and explaining why it would be there (largest and contains dense DNA and protein).
(c) Explain which other organelle would be present in component Z.
Ribosomes cluster up with mitochondria because it is the most dense, so it may be lower down the solution with the other organelles.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
This response is typical of many which gave mitochondria as their answer despite the information telling them the density of the mitochondria in the table.
ResultsPlus Examiner Tip
Read and refer to all of the information provided in the entire question and not just that in a specific item to help you construct your answers.
Question 5 (d)
The vast majority of candidates gained a mark for recognising that the presence of ribosomes on rough ER contributed to a higher density.
Fewer candidates managed to explain how the two ERs could be separated through the idea of using smaller intervals of density and even fewer stated that a density range between 1.15 and 1.19 should be used for this.
Some candidates suggested repeating the experiment at a density of $1.16 \text{ g cm}^{-3}$, which would not have separated the two ER’s.
Some responses gave details of the functions of rough and smooth ER, instead of answering the question asked.
This response gained no marks.
(d) Explain how rough endoplasmic reticulum can be separated from smooth endoplasmic reticulum using density gradient centrifugation.
(2)
The smooth endoplasmic reticulum would separate after being spun in a centrifuge because it has a different density to the rough endoplasmic reticulum.
Examiner Comments
This candidate has not stated what would cause the different densities or which would be most dense, or suggested how they could be separated.
(d) Explain how rough endoplasmic reticulum can be separated from smooth endoplasmic reticulum using density gradient centrifugation.
The rough endoplasmic reticulum has ribosomes attached and therefore has a higher density than the smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Using density gradient centrifugation, the rough endoplasmic reticulum would be present lower in the column than the smooth endoplasmic reticulum.
* greater than 1.16 g cm\(^{-3}\).
(Total for Question 5 = 7 marks)
Examiner Comments
The response gained a mark for explaining why RER is more dense, but did not explain how they could be separated using density gradient centrifugation.
(d) Explain how rough endoplasmic reticulum can be separated from smooth endoplasmic reticulum using density gradient centrifugation.
Rough endoplasmic reticulum is slightly more dense so make a new sucrose column with solutions between 1.15 and 1.17 g cm\(^{-3}\) and very small differences in density between them until the smooth and rough endoplasmic reticulum are in different positions.
Examiner Comments
This candidate correctly identified that RER would be more dense and correctly suggested using smaller intervals of sucrose density in order to separate the two components.
(d) Explain how rough endoplasmic reticulum can be separated from smooth endoplasmic reticulum using density gradient centrifugation.
Rough endoplasmic reticulum contains many ribosomes, which are very dense, but smooth endoplasmic reticulum contains no ribosomes, so would be less dense. They could be spun in a centrifuge with sucrose solutions of more precise concentrations e.g. 1.15 g cm\(^{-3}\) and 1.16 g cm\(^{-3}\). So that they could be separated. SER might be found at about 1.15 g cm\(^{-3}\) and RER at about 1.16 g cm\(^{-3}\).
Examiner Comments
Another example of a response that explains how they can be separated and why it would work.
Question 6 (a)
The majority of candidates gained a mark for recognising that mitosis is needed for growth, repair or asexual reproduction.
However a relatively common mistake was to refer to growth of cells or repair of damaged cells, instead of replacing cells, or growth of tissues or the organism.
Significantly fewer candidates gained the second mark by making reference to producing genetically identical cells, or did not gain this mark as they did not qualify their statement with the word “genetically” or to say that they had the same genetic information.
Only a few responses referred to “clones” or to “cells with the same number of chromosomes” being produced.
This response gained both marks available.
(a) Explain why cells carry out mitosis.
Cells carry out mitosis to produce genetically identical cells for growth, repair and replacement.
Examiner Comments
Marks were scored for producing genetically identical cells and for growth, etc.
This response gained one of the two marks available.
(a) Explain why cells carry out mitosis.
repair of damaged cells for growth, repair and asexual reproduction.
Examiner Comments
This response gained a mark for recognising that mitosis is needed for asexual reproduction.
Examiner Tip
In addition to the correct point, this response also demonstrates a relatively common mistake/misconception. Mitosis does not repair cells (so this alone would not have gained a mark.) Mitosis may replace damaged cells to repair tissues, it is not used to repair individual cells.
Question 6 (b)
The majority of candidates recognised that this was a synthesis stage and most of them easily picked up 2 marks for reference to DNA synthesis or for DNA replication and the DNA content doubling.
A significant number of candidates included details describing the process of replication that was not needed for this question.
Few candidates referred to the formation of chromatids with the majority of candidates mistakenly stating that the number of chromosomes doubled.
This may be a natural assumption due to the process of replication, but demonstrates a lack of understanding of the nature and behaviour of chromosomes during mitosis.
This response gained all four marks available.
(b) Explain what happens to the DNA content and the number of chromosomes in the stage labelled K.
In stage K, the DNA and histones are replicated for mitosis; so the DNA content will have doubled. This ensures the cell formed from mitosis are diploid (2n). The number of chromosomes will have remained the same however, only now (consisting of 2 chromatids) being in an 'X' shape, attached by a centromere, so that they can be separated and pulled to opposite poles of the cell, so that each resulting cell is diploid.
Examiner Comments
This response gained marks for:
- DNA replication;
- DNA doubles;
- number of chromosomes stays the same;
- because each chromosome is now two chromatids joined by a centromere.
(b) Explain what happens to the DNA content and the number of chromosomes in the stage labelled K.
The number of chromosomes double as DNA is replicated in preparation for mitosis. The DNA content does not change as it only is not removed during mitosis.
Examiner Comments
This response gained a mark for recognising that DNA replicates. However, they then state that DNA content does not change – the sequence of the DNA should not change but the content would double (unlike the number of chromosomes).
(b) Explain what happens to the DNA content and the number of chromosomes in the stage labelled K.
The DNA is replicated during interphase so the chromosome number doubles. The chromosome number must double so homologous pairs are formed.
This response recognised that DNA replicates for one mark, but did not go on to state that the DNA content doubles.
Question 6 (c)
The vast majority of candidates correctly identified the stage of the cell cycle labelled on the diagram.
This gained the mark available.
(c) Name the stage of the cell cycle labelled L.
Cytokinesis
Examiner Comments
An example of the correct response.
This response did not gain the mark.
(c) Name the stage of the cell cycle labelled L.
G1-phase growth
Examiner Comments
This is an example of one of the more common incorrect responses given for this question.
Question 6 (d)(iii)
The majority of candidates gained one mark for this question, usually for identifying that there may be differences in the material selected.
A few candidates suggested that the plants were different species despite it being stated that the second root tip was from another plant of the same species.
Some candidates responses implied that the cells in a particular region of root tip would all be in the same stage of mitosis, not that one sample of root tip would have cells in all different stages.
Only a few candidates were able to describe the difficulty of identifying the correct stage of mitosis, or that because there are so few cells in anaphase at any given time, any error in counting would be magnified.
We would have expected more candidates to consider these aspects if they had carried out and evaluated the practical technique.
This response gained one of the two marks available.
(iii) Explain why these two calculated values are not identical.
(2)
The two samples were from different plants which were likely in different conditions. This causes them to have different rates of mitosis (mitotic index) and a different proportions of time spent in different stages.
Examiner Comments
This is a typical example of the many responses that correctly identified differences in the samples selected that could have caused the difference.
(iii) Explain why these two calculated values are not identical.
In this
This experiment, students only see the cell for that snapshot in time, many cells could be on the verge of the next stage. Also one student could have identified a stage incorrectly due to the fact that they can look similar.
ResultsPlus
Examiner Comments
This is a much rarer example of a response that showed awareness of the technique and the difficulty of identifying the correct stages.
Question 6 (d)(i–ii)
Many candidates gained the full four marks available for these linked calculations with many showing clear working. Some candidates lost a mark for including too many decimal places in the final answer. Answers were allowed rounded to 1 or 2 decimal places at the most. A few candidates also lost marks through incorrect rounding of their numbers.
Some responses did not manage to find the correct answer in part (i), but the error was allowed to be carried forward using their answer as written, so that they were able to gain both points in part (ii) if the method used was correct.
In some cases for part (ii), the 8% value was calculated, but the candidate neglected to subtract this value from the answer calculated in part (i), thus failing to answer the question asked.
There were a small number of blank responses found for this item and incomplete calculations that suggest that some candidates may not have had a calculator with them, or they had a fear of calculations.
This response gained all four marks available.
(d) The duration of each stage of the cell cycle is directly proportional to the number of cells in that stage.
A student made a squash preparation of a root tip and counted the number of cells in each stage of the cell cycle.
The results are shown in the table.
| Stage of cell cycle | Number of cells |
|---------------------|-----------------|
| Interphase | 169 |
| Prophase | 5 |
| Metaphase | 8 |
| Anaphase | 2 |
| Telophase | 62 |
(i) The cells in this root tip had a cell cycle time of 23 hours.
Calculate the time, in minutes, that these cells spent in anaphase.
\[
23 \times \frac{2}{24} \times 60 = 11.2 \text{ mins}
\]
Answer: 11.2 mins
(ii) The student then used the same method to study mitosis in a root tip from another plant of the same species.
The student worked out that the cells spent 8% less time in anaphase.
Calculate the time, in minutes, that these cells spent in anaphase.
\[11.2 \times 0.92\]
Answer \(10.3\) mins
**Examiner Comments**
Both calculations are correct and the answers were expressed suitably for the context of the question.
(d) The duration of each stage of the cell cycle is directly proportional to the number of cells in that stage.
A student made a squash preparation of a root tip and counted the number of cells in each stage of the cell cycle.
The results are shown in the table.
| Stage of cell cycle | Number of cells |
|---------------------|-----------------|
| Interphase | 169 |
| Prophase | 5 |
| Metaphase | 8 |
| Anaphase | 2 |
| Telophase | 62 |
(i) The cells in this root tip had a cell cycle time of 23 hours.
Calculate the time, in minutes, that these cells spent in anaphase.
\[
\frac{169 + 5 + 8 + 2 + 62}{246} = \frac{0.00813}{0.00813} \times 1380 = 11.23
\]
\[
\frac{11.23}{100} = 0.1123
\]
\[
0.1123 \times 8 = 0.8984
\]
Answer \[10.33\] mins
(ii) The student then used the same method to study mitosis in a root tip from another plant of the same species.
The student worked out that the cells spent 8% less time in anaphase.
Calculate the time, in minutes, that these cells spent in anaphase.
\[
\frac{11.23}{100} = 0.1123
\]
\[
11.23 - 0.8984 = 0.1123 \times 8 = 0.8984
\]
Answer \[10.33\] mins
(d) The duration of each stage of the cell cycle is directly proportional to the number of cells in that stage.
A student made a squash preparation of a root tip and counted the number of cells in each stage of the cell cycle.
The results are shown in the table.
| Stage of cell cycle | Number of cells |
|---------------------|-----------------|
| Interphase | 169 |
| Prophase | 5 |
| Metaphase | 8 |
| Anaphase | 2 |
| Telophase | 62 |
(i) The cells in this root tip had a cell cycle time of 23 hours.
Calculate the time, in minutes, that these cells spent in anaphase.
\[
\text{Anaphase} = \frac{2}{60} \times 23 \text{ hours}
\]
\[
= 120 \text{ mins}
\]
(ii) The student then used the same method to study mitosis in a root tip from another plant of the same species.
The student worked out that the cells spent 8% less time in anaphase.
Calculate the time, in minutes, that these cells spent in anaphase.
\[
\frac{8}{100} \times 120 = 9.6 \\
120 - 9.6 = 110.4
\]
Answer 110.4 mins
**Examiner Comments**
The calculation for part (i) is wrong, so no marks were awarded. However, we allowed errors carried forward for these linked questions so this response gained two marks for part (ii) for correctly calculating a time that was 8% lower than the answer given in part (i).
**Examiner Tip**
Always show your working for calculation questions as you may be able to pick up marks, even if you have made a mistake.
Always check that your calculated values make sense given the information and context of the question.
(d) The duration of each stage of the cell cycle is directly proportional to the number of cells in that stage.
A student made a squash preparation of a root tip and counted the number of cells in each stage of the cell cycle.
The results are shown in the table.
| Stage of cell cycle | Number of cells |
|---------------------|-----------------|
| Interphase | 169 |
| Prophase | 5 |
| Metaphase | 8 |
| Anaphase | 2 |
| Telophase | 62 |
(i) The cells in this root tip had a cell cycle time of 23 hours.
Calculate the time, in minutes, that these cells spent in anaphase.
\[
\left( \frac{2}{246} \right) \times
\]
Answer .................................. mins
(ii) The student then used the same method to study mitosis in a root tip from another plant of the same species.
The student worked out that the cells spent 8% less time in anaphase.
Calculate the time, in minutes, that these cells spent in anaphase.
Answer .................................. mins
Examiner Comments
This candidate gained a mark for part (i) for showing the working for part of the calculation.
Examiner Tip
Always show your working – you may get some credit even if you can't complete the calculation. Don't forget to bring a calculator with you into the exam!
Question 7 (a)
This was a very discriminating question gaining an almost perfect spread of marks across the five possible outcomes (marks of 0 – 4).
Most candidates were able to state that conclusion 1 was justified by comparing the heights of the bars in the graph. It was pleasing to see some of the responses referring to the mean pollen tube length in their comparisons. Some good responses also included the idea that it may not be justified on the basis of the slight overlap between the range bars for the control and actinomycin D. Some candidates lost the mark by not actually stating what the difference was between the growth of the control and those with the inhibitors present, i.e. it was not clear if the inhibitors increased or reduced the length of the pollen tubes.
Only in the more able responses did candidates refer to the fact that there was no indication of time and therefore conclusion 2 could not be justified. A fair number referred to the fact that there was no information supplied about rate of growth, but only about pollen tube length. Many candidates thought the conclusion could be justified because it was the shortest.
Many candidates were also able to justify conclusion 3 on the basis of the larger error/range bar. The bars were deliberately unlabelled so that candidates were open to interpret them as range, error or standard deviation, etc. However, a significant minority of candidates stated that the control was the most repeatable, on the basis that the control is the easiest experiment to repeat as all the variables were (apparently) controlled. No candidates argued that it was possible to say that conclusion 3 was not justified as the range bar is shorter in proportion to the mean than some of the results with the inhibitors.
Some candidates also spotted that there was no indication of numbers of pollen grains used and so conclusion 4 could not be justified.
(a) Analyse the results of this investigation to comment on each of these conclusions.
Conclusion 1: We can say that on average, yes all three inhibitors affected pollen tube growth as they all grew less, but the varian bars as the control and act D overlap so act D may not inhibit pollen tube growth.
Conclusion 2: This conclusion can't be made as we aren't measuring distance grown in a certain period of time, the inhibitor may act when the pollen tube when it reaches a certain length. We want investigate.
Conclusion 3: Yes this conclusion is correct as the variance for control was 320 compared to 160, 160 and 40.
Conclusion 4: Wrong conclusion as we do not know many pollen tubes germinate, we only know the mean length of the tubes.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
This response showed a clear understanding of just what the data is saying and how it relates to each of the stated conclusions, clearly identifying the limitations of the data provided and therefore which of the conclusions can't be supported.
(a) Analyse the results of this investigation to comment on each of these conclusions.
For conclusion 1, it is accurate to say that the inhibitors affected the pollen growth as there is a large difference in the mean pollen growth. For conclusion 2, it is true that pollen in C3 grew the slowest. For conclusion 3, the control was most repeatable, firstly more pollen germinated as the mean pollen tube length was around 570 µm making they proved the longest.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
For conclusion 1 they have identified that the inhibitors affect growth, but they did not stated what the difference is – are they longer or shorter?
For conclusion 2 they said that it grows the slowest, but there was no indication of time on the graph or in the method given.
For conclusion 3 they did not explain why it was most repeatable and ignored the bars provided on the graph.
For conclusion 4 they mistakenly equated length with the number of tubes germinated.
ResultsPlus Examiner Tip
Read graphs carefully to make sure you are clear about what has been measured.
(a) Analyse the results of this investigation to comment on each of these conclusions.
For conclusion 1, I agree as with each inhibitor the pollen tube length is different from the others and the control. I think conclusion 2 is correct because, with CB, the pollen tube only grew 40μm so it grew the slowest. I agree with conclusion 3 because the control has the largest standard deviation of 320μm. I disagree with conclusion D as just because the mean pollen tube length was the biggest, that doesn’t mean that fertilisation occurred and then germination.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
This response gained credit for what was stated about the final two conclusions, but they have not stated what the difference is for conclusion 1 and ignored the lack of time for conclusion 2.
Question 7 (b)(i)
This question was a good differentiator, effectively asking candidates to apply their knowledge of protein synthesis to the context of pollen tube growth. The majority of candidates did not gain a mark for this question. For example:
- A significant number of candidates did not attempt this question.
- A lot of responses suggested that proteins are not needed and therefore the tube can still grow.
- Many implied that a lot of mitosis was occurring and therefore growth could still happen.
- Many suggested that although transcription had been stopped, translation could still take place – highlighting a lack of understanding of the sequence of events in protein synthesis.
- Where candidates did gain marks it was through reference to competitive inhibitors, or that there was some mRNA left in the grain, or comments that there were still some proteins or enzymes in the grains to promote growth.
This response gained both marks available.
(b) (i) Actinomycin D (act D) inhibits transcription.
Explain why pollen tubes could still grow in the presence of act D.
(2)
Although act D inhibits transcription it does not completely prevent it from occurring so although less transcription is occurring proteins can still be produced for growth. Alternatively, the pollen tubes may not need to produce new proteins for growth.
Examiner Comments
Marks were awarded for recognising that transcription may not have been completely inhibited so that some proteins could still be made. Combining effectively a knowledge about inhibition and the process of protein synthesis.
Because the pollen tubes still contain previously made mRNA strands which can be reused.
Examiner Comments
The candidate correctly identified that some mRNA may still be present and can be reused – unfortunately they did not go on to say that it could be used for translation/protein synthesis which would have given them the second mark.
Inhibition of transcription means the cells won't be able to make mRNA and therefore hydrolytic enzymes. However they would've had a store of hydrolytic enzymes before being placed in the air. And they can still digest the style towards the micropyle.
Examiner Comments
This is an example of another of the credit worthy ways of gaining marks for this question. The candidate suggested that things needed for the pollen tube growth are already present – in this case the enzymes needed to digest the style.
(b) (i) Actinomycin D (act D) inhibits transcription. Pollen grains germinate would not effect the pollen tube length generally.
Explain why pollen tubes could still grow in the presence of act D.
There are still mRNA molecules in the pollen tubes that could undergo translation, that have previously undergone transcription so the inhibition to transcription will already present not affect these mRNA molecules being translated, allowing growth to occur.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
An example of a good response that recognises that previously made mRNA may still be present and able to go through translation.
ResultsPlus Examiner Tip
Please note the top of the clip. You can see the end of the answer to the previous question. If your answer extends beyond the space given clearly indicate this within the space available so that it is clear that additional space has been required and that the rest of the answer will be found elsewhere on the paper or on an additional answer sheet.
Question 7 (b)(ii)
This was a straight-forward recall question of a key process and many candidates were able to construct clear and thorough responses.
Most candidates referred to mRNA attaching to the ribosome, or going into the ribosome. However, too many merely referred to mRNA going to the ribosome.
Most candidates recognised that tRNA is attached to a specific amino acid but a common error here was to give the impression that one tRNA attached to several amino acids.
Many candidates described the anticodon/codon binding and the formation of peptide bonds between amino acids.
However, these points were often lost through muddled responses and lack of clarity.
Some candidates wrote about transcription or even replication instead of translation.
(ii) Cycloheximide inhibits translation.
Describe the process of translation.
An mRNA molecule attaches itself to a ribosome. tRNA molecules bind to their specific amino acids in the cytoplasm. Anticodons on the tRNA temporarily bind to codons on the mRNA via complementary base pairing. This allows amino acids on other adjacent tRNA molecules to form peptide bonds between them. The ribosome moves along the mRNA to allow more tRNAs to bind to it. This eventually forms a polypeptide chain. The process stops when the stop codon on the mRNA is reached.
Examiner Comments
This is a typical example of the many full and excellent descriptions candidates gave for this question. Marks were gained for:
mRNA attaches to the ribosome;
tRNA molecules bind to specific amino acids (Note: if it was implied that one tRNA binds to amino acids the mark would not have been awarded);
complementary pairing of codon and anticodon;
formation of peptide bonds;
process stops at the stop codon.
(ii) Cycloheximide inhibits translation.
Describe the process of translation.
A tRNA molecule attaches to the starting amino group in the ribosome with an appropriate anti-codon, this is done by complementary base pairing. Strong covalent phosphodiester bonds form between the paired bases, this creates the phosphodiester backbone. The tRNA molecule leaves to pick another anti-codon sequence. These processes repeat until a long DNA molecule is formed. The DNA strand coils as it detaches itself from the ribosome. Translation stops once the 'stop' amino acid sequence is reached.
Examiner Comments
This is an example of one of the less able responses that mixed several different processes up and in the process did not manage to make any clear enough correct statements worthy of any credit.
(ii) Cycloheximide inhibits translation.
Describe the process of translation.
During translation, ribosomes attach to mRNA. tRNA with the corresponding anticodon then fits into the ribosome. A peptide bond is then formed between the DNA and RNA. The tRNA and mRNA then move along one codon. The tRNA is then released back into the cytoplasm, as the bond has been broken and the order of amino acids is then established.
Examiner Comments
A mark was awarded for the ribosome attaching to the mRNA. The rest is confused about what is joining to what and is incorrect and not worth credit.
(ii) Cycloheximide inhibits translation.
Describe the process of translation.
Once mRNA has left nuclear pores, it travels through the cytoplasm and into the small subunit of ribosomes (made up of rRNA and proteins). tRNA have specific amino acids attached and are found in the big subunit. The anticodon on the tRNA complimentary base pair with the codon on the mRNA in order to release the amino acid on the tRNA. This is then repeated in order to form polypeptide bonds between the amino acids until the STOP codon is reached.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
Marks were awarded for:
• mRNA joining with the small subunit of the ribosome;
• anticodon binding to the codons;
• suitable reference to the stop codon.
Marks were not awarded for:
• tRNA have specific amino acids – just one each;
• polypeptide bonds – instead of peptide bonds.
ResultsPlus Examiner Tip
Do take care of your clarity of communication – if what you write can be interpreted in multiple ways (including clearly wrong answers) you will not gain credit as seen in this example with the ‘tRNA have specific amino acids’.
(ii) Cycloheximide inhibits translation.
Describe the process of translation.
The process of changing DNA into another form, DNA to tRNA. DNA helicase unwinds the two strands of DNA breaking the hydrogen bonds between the strands. As DNA replicates, so do the chains run in both directions. The leading strand transcribes in one long piece swapping thymine for uracil. The lagging strand can only synthesise in sections called Okazaki fragments; these are fused together and in the presence of DNA ligase, to complete the strand, hydrogen bonds form and the strands rewind.
Question 7 (b)(iii)
The majority of candidates scored well on this question about how amino acids are bonded together. Marks were most commonly gained for naming the bond (peptide bonding) and for recognising it was a condensation reaction. Many candidates also provided the specific detail that the bond forms between the amino and carboxyl group.
However, there were a surprising number of candidates who did not attempt this item. Other candidates referred to hydrogen, glycosidic or phosphodiester bonds.
This response gained both marks available.
(iii) Cytochalasin B prevents the addition of monomers in the synthesis of the protein actin.
Describe how monomers are bonded to a polypeptide chain during the synthesis of actin.
(2)
In a condensation reaction, one molecule of water is lost, hydrogen is lost from the amino group (NH₂) of one amino acid, and a hydroxyl group is lost from the carboxyl group of another amino acid, forming a hydrogen peptide bond between them.
Examiner Comments
This candidate would have been credited for:
- recognising it as a condensation reaction;
- describing that it is formed between the amino group and carboxyl group;
- naming the bond correctly.
For a maximum of two marks.
(iii) Cytochalasin B prevents the addition of monomers in the synthesis of the protein actin.
Describe how monomers are bonded to a polypeptide chain during the synthesis of actin.
During condensation reactions, an OH and an H group are removed from the two molecules and are joined through a -O- bond. This produces a longer chain and a molecule of water.
Examiner Comments
The candidate recognised that a condensation reaction was involved for one mark, but did not go onto name the bond made or describe the groups involved on the amino acids.
This response gained one of the two marks available.
(iii) Cytochalasin B prevents the addition of monomers in the synthesis of the protein actin.
Describe how monomers are bonded to a polypeptide chain during the synthesis of actin.
Monomers are bonded through which are amino acids and bonded together via with peptide bonds in translation.
Examiner Comments
The candidate gained credit for correctly naming the bond produced in this response.
(iii) Cytochalasin B prevents the addition of monomers in the synthesis of the protein actin.
Describe how monomers are bonded to a polypeptide chain during the synthesis of actin.
Monomers chain by an ester bond after translation and transcription have occurred.
Examiner Comments
This is a typical example of a response that gained no marks mainly through incorrect naming of the bond produced and providing no description of the reaction.
Question 8 (a)
The majority of candidates failed to define an allele properly to gain the mark.
Many did refer to an allele being a different version of a gene however, very few referred to the fact that different alleles were found at the same locus on a chromosome.
Candidates often referred to an allele as being a trait or characteristic. Others tried to define it in terms of a description of dominant and recessive traits.
Many had alleles as being sections of a gene.
This response gained the mark.
8 Genetic variation results from the recombination of alleles during meiosis.
(a) State what is meant by the term allele.
An allele is different forms of the same gene.
This is a typical example of the many correct responses seen.
This response gained no marks.
8 Genetic variation results from the recombination of alleles during meiosis.
(a) State what is meant by the term allele.
a different type of gene.
"Different type of gene" was not allowed for this question as there are distinct different types of gene in the genome, e.g. homeotic genes, oncogenes, etc.
However, for those who clarified their answer by saying "alleles are different types of a gene" were allowed the mark as a much less ambiguous answer.
8 Genetic variation results from the recombination of alleles during meiosis.
(a) State what is meant by the term allele.
A specific characteristic that is inherited from the production of an organism.
An example of a response describing alleles in terms of characteristics that did not get the mark.
8 Genetic variation results from the recombination of alleles during meiosis.
(a) State what is meant by the term allele.
An allele is a gene that is expressed.
Another example of a common error defining alleles as something expressed.
Question 8 (b)(ii)
8(b)(i) Fewer than 50% of candidates correctly identified when independent assortment and crossing over took place. The most common incorrect answer was to suggest prophase I and anaphase I.
8(b)(ii) This question gained the full spread of marks. Many candidates referred to bivalents or to homologous pairs and to lining up, however, a number of candidates failed to refer to ‘homologous’ chromosomes, or made reference to sister chromatids or two pairs of homologous chromosomes lining up, thus failing to capture the mark.
Most candidates also referred to chiasmata or gave a good description of chromatids overlapping.
Although a number of good responses stated that there was a break in chromatids or chromosomes, this point was only gained in more able responses and by a minority of candidates.
A common omission was to fail to state that genetic information was exchanged between chromatids or chromosomes.
This response gained all three marks available.
(ii) Describe the process of crossing over that occurs during meiosis.
Homologous chromosomes exchange
lie side by side and form a tetrad
exchanging alleles with one another
at points known as of connection
called chiasmata; this occurs
Examiner Comments
Marks for this response were given for:
homologous chromosomes lining up;
exchange of alleles between chromosomes;
chiasmata.
Question 8 (c)
Marks were readily gained by the vast majority of candidates for recognising and stating the trends between genome size and chromosome number and between genome size and recombination rate.
Marks were also frequently given for identifying anomalies in the trends.
The relationship between the chromosome number and recombination rate was not as readily stated. However, when it was given, there was usually a nice explanation of why this was the case.
Some candidates reversed the trend for recombination rate.
Many candidates described the evidence in detail to support their correlations and a number of candidates attempted to explain the reasons for the correlations rather than analyse the data.
This response gained three of the four marks available.
(c) The table shows some data on the genome size, haploid number of chromosomes and the recombination rate of several species of animals.
| Species | Genome size / Mb | Haploid number of chromosomes | Recombination rate / au |
|-----------|------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------|
| Dog | 2500 | 39 | 1.6 |
| Human | 3000 | 23 | 1.2 |
| Sheep | 3000 | 27 | 1.2 |
| Cow | 3000 | 30 | 1.1 |
| Macaque | 3100 | 21 | 0.7 |
| Baboon | 3100 | 21 | 0.6 |
| Opossum | 3500 | 11 | 0.2 |
| Wallaby | 3700 | 8 | 0.2 |
Analyse the data to comment on the relationship between genome size, haploid number of chromosomes and recombination rate.
Generally, the larger the size of the genome in Mb, the smaller the number of haploid chromosomes and the smaller the recombination rate. This is with the exception of the sheep.
and the cow species because whilst the genome size is the same as humans and lower than the Macaque, the haploid no. of chromosomes is higher than that of both humans and Macaque. Both the sheep and cow have 4/7 more chromosomes than a human and 6/9 more than a macaque, which doesn’t fit with the relationship.
Examiner Comments
This response is typical of those that gained the most common three marks:
- trend between genome size and haploid number;
- trend between genome size and recombination rate;
- spotting anomalies to the trend.
We can see that as the genome size increases – from 2500 Mb in dogs to 3700 Mb in wallabies – the haploid number of chromosomes decreases – from 38 in dogs to 8 in wallabies – and so does the recombination rate – 1.6 au to 0.2 au –. This is the general trend, however cows although human sheep and cows have the same genome site they do not have the same number of haploid chromosomes (higher in cows – 30, then sheep – 27, then humans – 23) or the same recombination rate (this is lower in cows (1.1au). This may be an error in the investigation, as for the rest, the higher the number of haploid chromosomes, the quicker the recombination rate will be.
Examiner Comments
All three trends requested are described in this response, together with some discussion of those species that do not all fit the trends for the full complement of four marks awarded.
Analyse the data to comment on the relationship between genome size, haploid number of chromosomes and recombination rate.
Humans, sheep and cows seem to have the same genome size.
Wallaby has a high genome type by an 18 haploid number of chromosomes whereas humans have 23 haploid chromosomes.
The recombination rate for dogs is higher than it is for humans because dogs have 1.6 au whereas humans have 1.2 au.
Question 9 (a)
The majority of candidates gained one or two marks for this question.
There were plenty of references to the substrate having the correct shape to fit the active site. However, in some cases this mark was lost as there was no reference to shape. A good number of responses also referred to the concept of induced fit and/or gave some very good descriptions of this.
Many candidates referred to lowering of activation energy, but many responses gained this mark from describing the formation of an enzyme-substrate complex.
The final marking point which required some specific reference to the reaction being catalysed was seen less often, indicating that some candidates were again not using the information supplied in the question. However, a reasonably high number of responses did manage to gain this point.
This response gained one of the three marks available.
(a) Explain the role of the active site in the conversion of succinate to fumarate.
(3)
The role of the active site is to catalyse the reaction in which the products turn to the substrate. The active site binds to the oxygen molecules of the succinate.
The active site creates a double bond between the CH₂ of the succinate by removing two hydrogens.
Examiner Comments
This response gave detail of the specific change carried out in this reaction for one mark, but did not give details of the role of the active site beyond being a catalyst.
(a) Explain the role of the active site in the conversion of succinate to fumarate.
The substrate (succinate) binds to the active site of the succinate dehydrogenase as the active site’s shape is complementary to the shape of the substrate. This binding forms temporarily an enzyme-substrate complex, this is unstable and thus breaks down to form the product being the fumarate and the unchanged enzyme.
Marks were awarded for the complementary shape and the formation of the enzyme-substrate complex.
This response gained all three marks available.
(a) Explain the role of the active site in the conversion of succinate to fumarate.
The active site creates a double bond between the CH₂ groups, resulting in a loss of hydrogen. The substrate binds to the enzyme forming the enzyme-substrate complex, temporary bonds are formed between the active site and the substrate. As they are a complementary shape for the induced fit hypothesis.
Marks were awarded for the specifics of the reaction; the formation of the enzyme-substrate complex and the complementary shape between the active site and the substrate.
Question 9 (b)(i)
This was very well answered with the majority of candidates scoring both marking points and most of the rest gaining at least one mark. There were some basic references to similar structure or shape of substrate and inhibitor and a few who recognised the similarity of having the two end COO- groups.
Most followed up this point by stating that the inhibitor could bind to the active site instead of the substrate.
It was pleasing to see statements about competitive inhibition as well as some clear descriptions of this type of inhibition.
This response gained one of the two marks available.
(i) Explain why malonate inhibits the activity of succinate dehydrogenase.
\[ \text{If binds to the active site of the enzyme and blocks any succinate from binding to it} \]
Examiner Comments
A mark was awarded for stating that it binds to the active site preventing the succinate from binding. However, they did not explain how or why it would bind to the active site.
This response did not gain any marks.
(i) Explain why malonate inhibits the activity of succinate dehydrogenase.
\[ \text{malonate is an enzyme which is able to inhibit the activity of succinate dehydrogenase as its active site does not fit or match to that of succinate dehydrogenase thus not reacting together.} \]
Examiner Comments
This is an example of the responses where candidates had muddled what was the enzyme and what was the substrate/inhibitor and therefore was not able to gain any marks.
(i) Explain why malonate inhibits the activity of succinate dehydrogenase.
Malonate inhibits the activity of succinate dehydrogenase because it has a very similar shape to succinate i.e. $\text{CH}_3\text{COO}^-$; this will bind to the active site and prevent the formation of a succinate dehydrogenase and succinate complex (enzyme substrate complex).
Examiner Comments
This candidate gained credit for recognising that the shape of the malonate and succinate are similar and that therefore the malonate could bind to the active site and prevent succinate binding.
(ii) Explain why malonate inhibits the activity of succinate dehydrogenase.
Because has similar structure to succinate so binds with the active site of succinate dehydrogenase instead, preventing succinate from doing so - competitive inhibitor.
Examiner Comments
This is another example of a more able response, typical of the many who recognised this as a type of competitive inhibition.
Question 9 (b)(ii)
9(b)(ii) Drawings were generally accurate with most candidates using the first diagram with succinate bound as a guide in order to gain the mark.
Nevertheless, a significant number of candidates failed to gain the mark, e.g. through having the O- and O (double bond) round the wrong way or having the O groups in the incorrect sections of the active site.
9(b)(iii): Approximately 50% of candidates correctly identified the relevant graph for this type of inhibition. The most common incorrect graph chosen was C.
This response gained no marks.
(ii) On the diagram, draw malonate binding to succinate dehydrogenase.
Examiner Comments
This is an example of a response that failed to gain the mark because they put the Os in to the wrong parts of the active site – not matching the diagram with succinate.
(ii) On the diagram, draw malonate binding to succinate dehydrogenase.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
This response gained the mark by including the correct charges and positions of the Os in the active site.
This response did not gain the mark.
(ii) On the diagram, draw malonate binding to succinate dehydrogenase.
ResultsPlus Examiner Comments
In this example the oxygen atoms with the double and single bonds are the wrong way round and the charge is missing from the oxygen at the bottom so it did not gain the mark.
(ii) On the diagram, draw malonate binding to succinate dehydrogenase.
Examiner Comments
This is an example of the candidates who did not attempt to draw the functional groups of the malonate in the relevant position of the active site so did not gain the mark.
Question 9 (c)
A majority of responses only achieved Level 1 for this question, containing only a few suggestions that could affect validity or on how to improve validity, but not related to issues identified. In some cases, one or two issues were identified and suggestions made on improvement of these, thus lifting the response into the upper band of Level 1 where they could gain two marks of the six available.
When reading the mark scheme it is important to realise that the indicative content is given as an example of what to look for and each point is not a separate mark, unlike the rest of the mark scheme.
Most candidates were able to identify problems with the method. The following were frequently referred to: Volumes not measured precisely, difficulty in seeing the end point, temperature/pH not controlled, not measuring the initial rate of reaction, various concentrations of malonate should be used or succinate and lack of repeats. The majority of candidates did not move in to Level 2 or 3 because they did not go on to suggest how the method could be improved or explain why these things were important, e.g. temperature could affect the number of collisions between the enzyme and the substrate and therefore increase/decrease the rate of reaction.
However, a significant number of candidates managed to identify at least three issues and suggest improvements on these issues to gain three or four marks as a Level 2 response.
Some candidates, were able to produce Level 3 responses for providing a range of specific issues, with suggestions on improvement on these issues and also demonstrating the impact of this by explaining the effects of the improvements. Responses at this level demonstrated good understanding of biological principals as well as experimental technique, and were well thought out and constructed.
Generally candidates that performed better here were able to consider points one at a time, identifying a problem with the procedure, suggesting a solution and explaining how it would improve the method. They also used a wider vocabulary, and were able to relate the practical work to the scientific theory.
There was a lot of scope here for candidates to demonstrate a range of skills: practical, organisational, scientific and analytical. However, some candidates appeared unable to criticise a method at all. Evaluating practical procedures and identifying why stages are needed in procedures should be incorporated into their practical work during the course.
Some candidates confused volume with concentration and others still used words such as amount which is too vague for AS level Biology and not possible to measure.
The rate of reaction of succinate dehydrogenase can be measured using a methylene blue solution.
Methylene blue starts off blue but changes to colourless as succinate is converted to fumarate.
A student investigated the effect of malonate on the rate of reaction of succinate dehydrogenase.
The student used the following steps.
**Step 1.** Succinate solution was poured into a beaker up to the $25\text{cm}^3$ mark.
**Step 2.** Ten drops of succinate dehydrogenase solution and three drops of methylene blue solution were added.
**Step 3.** The beaker was left on the bench until the methylene blue became colourless and the time for this change was recorded.
**Step 4.** Steps 1 to 3 were repeated using two different concentrations of succinate solution.
The whole procedure was repeated with the addition of $15\text{cm}^3$ of malonate solution with the succinate solution in **Step 1**.
Criticise the method used in this investigation.
---
The whole procedure should have been repeated with at least 5 different volumes of methylene step 1: a pipette should have been used or a measuring cylinder to measure out $25\text{cm}^3$ of succinate and not just poured straight into a beaker.
Step 2: drops shouldn’t have been used, but volumes in ratio to the concentration so if $10\text{cm}^3$ was wanted - at 0.2% succinate, $2\text{cm}^3$ of succinate should have been used and $8\text{cm}^3$ distilled water. Much like for a concentration of 0.4% $4\text{cm}^3$ of succinate should have been used and $6\text{cm}^3$
of distilled water. By keeping the same overall volume, the results are comparable.
Step 3: to measure initial rate of reaction, within a given time interval should have been measured. So e.g.: every 5 minutes for 30 minutes, at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Also a calorimeter to measure absorbance would've been more reliable as you could see how much absorbance is occurring - so you don't have to wait for each concentration to go completely colourless, as undoubtedly the lower concentrations will take much longer.
Step 4: at least 5 concentrations should've been used: 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, 1%. To ensure reliable data. Then each of these should've been repeated.
The whole procedure should've been repeated with one set concentration and an equal volume of malonate.
This is a good example of a response that contains more than expanded criticisms of the experiment that was the requirement to get into a Level 3 response. In this example the pairs identified were:
- volume of succinate poured in a beaker + should have used a pipette;
- initial rate of reaction should have been measured + use of colorimeter;
- at least five concentrations should have been used + five concentrations suggested;
- drops for enzyme and indicator + measurements suggested to control concentration through keeping the same total volume.
With some explanation about how the lack of control, or the suggested improvements could have affected the results the response would have had access to Level 3 marks.
The student did not use any repeats at each concentration. Repeats allow anomalies to be identified and allow a reliable mean to be calculated. It has not mentioned what other variables were controlled in this experiment, and the beaker was left on the bench, meaning the temperature was not constant. Temperature affects the rate of reaction of enzymes as an increase in temperature causes more successful collisions between sucinate and succinate dehydrogenase, so more ESC's and rate of reaction increases. In order to keep this constant, the enzyme beaker should be kept in a water bath.
The initial rate of reaction was not measured which is more valid because as the succinate concentration decreases the addition of being timed into fumarate. This will slow down the rate of reaction. To measure initial rate of reaction, you could place the solution in a cuvette, and in a colorimeter and measure the % absorbance over the first 80 seconds in 5 second intervals.
When 15cm$^3$ of malonate is added, the volume does not stay constant, therefore reducing the concentration of enzyme and substrate. In order for this not to occur when the inhibitor was not added, an equal volume of distilled water (15cm$^3$) must be added to the solution. A beaker is also not a very precise measuring apparatus, so I would suggest using a pipette or measuring cylinder instead.
Examiner Comments
As well as spotting issues with the method, this response suggested solutions to improve the method and explained why the issues are important and would affect the results:
- lack of repeats + repeat to calculate mean + identify anomalies;
- temperature not controlled + use a waterbath + effect on collisions with the enzyme and rate of reaction;
- initial rate of reaction not measured + effect decreasing succinate concentration will have on reaction rate + use a colorimeter;
- volume not constant when you add malonate + reduces concentration of enzyme and substrate + use equal volume of water in others;
- beaker not good for measuring volume + use a pipette or measuring cylinder.
Examiner Tip
In an experimental context a candidate demonstrates biological understanding through identifying solutions and the consequence of errors/lack of control/solutions. Not just through identifying issues in the method provided without any explanation.
This response gained no marks.
- The experiment does not have a control group which would have supported or contradicted the statement.
- Step 1 started with a fairly large amount of solution.
**Examiner Comments**
This is an example of a response that did not contain sufficient information linked to the method to gain any credit.
This response gained Level 1 and one mark of the six available.
The experiment lacked validity as the reagents used did not contain the same or constant value of solution in step 1. This also lacks reliability as different results may occur.
Different drops were used which were not controlled and lack validity as the rate of reaction would be fair equating a fair test.
Other variables were not controlled like the room because was left like temperature or light which may have either ran a reason lacking validity.
Examiner Comments
This is an example of a Level 1 response where a few issues with the method were identified, but there was no attempt made at suggesting suitable improvements or explanation of the impact of the issues on the results.
Paper Summary
Based on their performance on this paper, candidates are offered the following advice:
- read the whole question carefully, including the introduction, to help relate your answer to the context asked. In particular make sure you make note of the command word used in the question, especially ‘explain’;
- make sure you bring a calculator to the exam; show all your working and check that the magnitude of your answer makes sense in the context of the question;
- aim to evaluate practical procedures and identify why stages are needed in procedures during your practical work in the AS course;
- read your answers back carefully – do they answer the question, have you made at least as many clear points as marks are available, and have you made any silly mistakes (e.g. does your answer make sense);
- when describing the measurement or control of variables, be specific about what is to be measured, e.g. volume or mass, and avoid vague terms such as amount. When criticising a method given include ways to improve the experiment and explain how it will affect the results/reaction;
- use all of the information provided in the question to help you with your answer, e.g. diagrams, graphs and tables of data including the labelling of the axis;
- explore and assess examples of candidate responses from this report to help you understand what makes a good response to different types of question, and exemplify the level of knowledge and understanding expected at AS level in this new specification.
Grade Boundaries
Grade boundaries for this, and all other papers, can be found on the website on this link:
http://www.edexcel.com/iwantto/Pages/grade-boundaries.aspx
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Lowe, H. (2018). The Effectiveness of Classroom Vocabulary Intervention for Adolescents with Language Disorder. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City, University of London)
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The Effectiveness of Classroom Vocabulary Intervention for Adolescents with Language Disorder
Hilary Lowe
Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Division of Language and Communication Science
School of Health Sciences
City, University of London
January 2018
| Contents | Page |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|
| List of Tables | 3 |
| List of Figures | 5 |
| Acknowledgements | 6 |
| Declaration | 7 |
| Abstract | 8 |
| List of Abbreviations | 9 |
| List of Chapter Contents | 11 |
| Chapter 1. Language disorder and vocabulary acquisition | 23 |
| Chapter 2. Vocabulary intervention for children with language disorder | 44 |
| Chapter 3. Vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder: A systematic review | 66 |
| Chapter 4. Current teaching and speech and language therapy practice: A survey | 88 |
| Chapter 5. The development of assessment and intervention protocols: A pilot study | 127 |
| Chapter 6. The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder: Methods | 140 |
| Chapter 7. The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder: Results | 182 |
| Chapter 8. The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder: Discussion | 222 |
| Chapter 9. General discussion and conclusions | 251 |
| References | 259 |
| Appendices | 271 |
| Table Number | Description | Page |
|--------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|
| 2.1 | The three-tier approach to vocabulary | 44 |
| 3.1 | Subject terms and key words used in searches | 68 |
| 3.2 | Quality rating indicators | 69 |
| 3.3 | Quality appraisal of intervention studies | 74 |
| 3.4 | Summary of study characteristics | 75 |
| 4.1 | Job roles of survey respondents | 95 |
| 4.2 | Geographical region in which respondents worked | 96 |
| 4.3 | Subjects taught | 97 |
| 4.4 | Confidence in teaching vocabulary to students with language disorder aged 11 – 16 | 98 |
| 4.5 | The importance of learning new vocabulary | 100 |
| 4.6 | Models of delivery used for vocabulary teaching/therapy to students aged 11 – 16 | 102 |
| 4.7 | Speech and language therapists’ (SLTs) and mainstream secondary school teachers’ (MSSTs) use of the strategy “Give definitions” | 106 |
| 4.8a - h | Strategies where there was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs | 107 |
| 4.9a - b | Strategies used more often by MSSTs than SLTs | 109 |
| 4.10a - i | Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs | 110 |
| 4.11 | Most effective strategies for vocabulary teaching within job roles (percentage) | 115 |
| 5.1 | Aspects of word learning targeted by the intervention activities | 136 |
| 5.2 | Group mean scores for word knowledge in the pilot study | 137 |
| 5.3 | Word knowledge assessment scoring system used in the intervention study | 138 |
| 6.1 | Pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up assessment points for experimental and control conditions | 142 |
| 6.2 | School characteristics | 147 |
| 6.3 | Teacher characteristics | 150 |
| 6.4 | Biographical characteristics of participants receiving the intervention | 158 |
| 6.5 | Language and cognitive profiles of student participants | 164 |
| 6.6 | Assessment and intervention schedule for the intervention study | 172 |
| 6.7 | Evidence of fidelity for the implementation of word-learning activities | 177 |
| 6.8 | Cumulative intervention intensity by class | 179 |
| 7.1 | Pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up assessment points for experimental and control conditions | 183 |
| 7.2 | Group mean scores for depth of word knowledge | 184 |
| 7.3 | Group mean scores for expressive word use | 188 |
| 7.4 | Group median scores for expressive word use | 189 |
| Table | Description | Page |
|-------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|
| 7.5 | Group mean standard scores for WASI-2 V | 191 |
| 7.6 | Pre-intervention and post-intervention assessment points for independent word learning assessment | 192 |
| 7.7 | Group mean scores for independent word learning assessment | 193 |
| 7.8 | Science attainment | 195 |
| 7.9 | Hierarchical multiple regression predicting post-intervention depth of word knowledge of experimental words from age, NVIQ, pre-intervention scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness | 198 |
| 7.10 | Hierarchical multiple regression predicting follow-up depth of word knowledge of experimental words from age, NVIQ, pre-intervention scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness | 199 |
| 7.11 | Hierarchical multiple regression predicting post-intervention expressive word use of experimental words from age, NVIQ, pre-intervention scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness | 200 |
| 7.12 | Hierarchical multiple regression predicting follow-up expressive word use of experimental words from age, NVIQ, pre-intervention scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness | 201 |
| 7.13 | Teachers’ reported previous use of word-learning activities | 203 |
| 7.14 | Teachers’ ratings for ease of implementation for each word-learning activity | 204 |
| 7.15 | Teachers’ ratings for effectiveness of each word-learning activity | 205 |
| 7.16 | Teachers’ intention to use the word-learning activities again | 206 |
| 7.17 | Students’ mean ratings of helpfulness of the word-learning activities | 210 |
| 7.18 | Students’ views on the word-learning activities: sample comments | 211 |
| 7.19 | Usual teaching practice recorded by teachers in topic 1 strategy records | 213 |
| 7.20 | Usual teaching practice recorded during topic 1 lesson observations by the researcher | 215 |
| 7.21 | Word exposure in usual teaching practice and experimental | 218 |
| 8.1 | Word knowledge assessment scoring examples: *gravity* | 225 |
| 8.2 | Work knowledge assessment scoring examples: *normal* | 248 |
| Figure Number | Description | Page |
|--------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|
| 1.1 | Model of language | 22 |
| 1.2 | A partial taxonomy for cheese | 24 |
| 1.3 | Psycholinguistic model of speech processing | 25 |
| 1.4 | A model of working memory | 25 |
| 2.1 | Workforce deployment in universal, targeted, and specialist levels of service provision | 59 |
| 3.1 | A flow chart of the review process | 71 |
| 4.1 | Percentage of students with vocabulary difficulties by job role | 97 |
| 4.2 | Factors influencing choice of intervention delivery model | 103 |
| 4.3 | Most frequently used strategies to support word learning (all job roles) | 105 |
| 4.4 | Least frequently used strategies to support word learning (all job roles) | 106 |
| 4.5 | Most effective strategies for vocabulary teaching by count; job roles combined | 116 |
| 4.6 | Specific areas for development | 118 |
| 4.7 | Themes within further comments | 121 |
| 6.1 | Overview of planned study phases | 142 |
| 6.2 | Flow of teacher participants through the study | 149 |
| 6.3 | Flow of student participants through the study | 154 |
| 6.4 | Zipf values | 160 |
| 6.5 | Example lesson schedule | 175 |
| 7.1 | Group mean scores for depth of word knowledge | 184 |
| 7.2 | Group mean scores for expressive word use | 188 |
| 7.3 | Teachers’ ratings for ease of implementation | 204 |
| 7.4 | Teachers’ ratings for effectiveness of each word-learning activity | 205 |
| 7.5 | Teachers’ intention to use the word-learning activities again | 206 |
| 7.6 | Students’ preference for model of intervention delivery | 208 |
| 7.7 | Students’ ratings for each word-learning activity | 210 |
| 8.1 | The word-learning activities | 236 |
Acknowledgements
There are many people to thank who have made it possible for me to achieve completion of this thesis.
Firstly, I would like to acknowledge my former speech and language therapy, teaching, and research colleagues, with whom the seeds for this research were sown over the years, and who encouraged me each time on to the next stage of my career.
Most of all, I thank the students and their parents, the teachers, and all the school staff who welcomed me into their schools. Without their hard work and commitment, this research would not have been possible.
And then, there are so many people to thank who have helped me along the way:
- My supervisor, Vicky – for her gift of making everyone feel special and valued by always giving unstintingly of her time
- My supervisor, Lucy – for her unwavering encouragement, calmness and clear thinking
- My former supervisor, Natalie – for her support during the first year of my PhD journey
- All the staff at City – for giving generously of their expertise
- Trish, Lisa, Jo, Charlotte, and Alice – for their assistance with assessing, reviewing and rating
- My fellow PhD students - who were always there when I needed them
- My father, Colin, and my sister, Judith - for their attention to detail and their insightful comments while proofreading
- My mother, Margaret – for always saying the right thing at the right time
- My daughter, Stephanie – for her help with grammatical queries
- My son, Ashley – for his help with mathematical queries
- All the family – for their interest and patience
- And last, but by no means least, my husband, Mick – for his lateral and creative thinking, his ability to see the wood for the trees, and his unfailing encouragement and support.
Declaration
I grant powers of discretion to City University's Librarian to allow this thesis to be copied in whole or in part without further reference to the author. This permission covers only single copies made for study purposes, subject to normal conditions of acknowledgement.
Abstract
Children who have language disorder frequently have difficulties with vocabulary acquisition, and these difficulties often persist into adolescence. Language disorder is known to be associated with long-term influences on a range of academic, social, emotional, health, and employment outcomes. Phonological-semantic intervention has been shown to be effective in enhancing the vocabulary skills of children with language disorder in small-group or individual settings, but less is known about vocabulary interventions for adolescents with language disorder or interventions in whole-class models of delivery.
This thesis undertook three strands of enquiry: a systematic review; a survey of teaching and speech and language therapy practice; and an experimental effectiveness study. The systematic review of the evidence regarding vocabulary intervention with adolescents confirmed that the use of a phonological-semantic approach in a universal model of delivery is under-researched in this age group. The survey of mainstream secondary school teachers and speech and language therapists showed that a phonological-semantic approach is frequently used by speech and language therapists but less often by teachers. The experimental study investigated the effectiveness of phonological-semantic vocabulary intervention, delivered by teachers and embedded into the secondary school curriculum in a whole-class model of delivery, for adolescents with language disorder.
In the intervention study, 78 adolescents with language disorder aged 11 – 13 years were taught science curriculum words by teachers in class, under two conditions: 1) 10 words taught through usual teaching practice; and 2) 10 matched words taught using an experimental intervention incorporating phonological-semantic activities, embedded into the teaching of the syllabus. Ten matched control words received no intervention. Word knowledge was assessed at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up timepoints.
The main findings of the study were that: the experimental classroom vocabulary intervention was more effective than usual teaching practice in increasing the word knowledge of participating students; there was a high degree of acceptability for the intervention activities amongst both students and teachers; and there were mixed preferences amongst students for whole-class, small-group, and individual models of intervention delivery.
Clinical and teaching implications include the importance of intervening during the adolescent years, with classroom vocabulary intervention being a viable option for collaborative teacher and speech and language therapy practice.
| Abbreviation | Description |
|--------------|-------------|
| AAN | American Academy of Neurology Classification of Evidence Scheme |
| ACE 6 - 11 | Assessment of Comprehension and Expression 6 - 11 |
| ANOVA | Analysis of variance |
| BPVS | British Picture Vocabulary Scale |
| CATV | Cognitive Attainment Test, Verbal subtest |
| CATNV | Cognitive Attainment Test, Nonverbal subtest |
| CELF-R | Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Revised |
| CELF-3 | Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, third edition |
| CELF-4 UK | Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, fourth edition, UK |
| Chronological age in years and months e.g. eleven years six months: 11:6 |
| CPD | Continuing Professional Development |
| DCSF | Department for Children, Schools, and Families |
| DfE | Department for Education |
| DfES | Department for Education and Skills |
| DLD | Developmental language disorder |
| DoH | Department of Health |
| EHCP | Education Health and Care Plan |
| GCSE | General Certificate of Secondary Education |
| H1 | Hypothesis 1, etc. |
| ID | Student participant identity number |
| IQ | Intelligence quotient |
| IQR | Interquartile range |
| ITBS | Iowa Test of Basic Skills |
| ITPA | Illinois test of psycholinguistic abilities |
| KS3 | Key stage 3 (Years 7, 8, and 9; age 11 – 14 years) |
| KS4 | Key stage 4 (Years 10 and 11; age 14 – 16 years) |
| M | Mean |
| MSST | Mainstream secondary school teacher |
| NBSS | National Behaviour Support Service |
| NIHCE | National Institute of Health and Care Excellence |
| NVIQ | Nonverbal intelligence quotient |
| PAN | Published Admission Number |
| PhAB | Phonological Awareness Battery |
| PPVT | Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test |
| PSTM | Phonological short-term memory |
| RCSLT | Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists |
| Abbreviation | Description |
|--------------|-------------|
| RCT | Randomised control trial |
| RQ | Research question |
| SD | Standard deviation |
| SEF | Social-Emotional Functioning Interview |
| SEN | Special educational needs |
| Senco | Special educational needs coordinator |
| SES | Socio-economic status |
| SLCN | Speech, language and communication needs |
| SLI | Specific language impairment |
| SLT | Speech and language therapist |
| SLT/T | Dually qualified speech and language therapist and teacher |
| Spec Sch T | Special school teacher |
| Spec T | Specialist teacher |
| SS | Standard score |
| TA | Teaching assistant |
| TAWF | Test of Adult/Adolescent Word Finding |
| TD | Typically developing |
| TOLD | Test of Language Development |
| Topic 1 | Active control condition: usual teaching practice |
| Topic 2 | Experimental condition: Word Discovery intervention |
| TOWK | Test of Word Knowledge |
| TWF | Test of Word Finding |
| TWFD | Test of Word Finding in Discourse |
| T.1, T.2 etc | Teacher 1, teacher 2, etc |
| VEP | Vocabulary Enrichment Intervention Programme |
| UK | United Kingdom |
| USA | United States of America |
| WASI-2 | Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, second edition |
| WASI-2 V | Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, second edition; Vocabulary subtest |
| WISC-3 | Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, third edition |
| WMTBC | Working Memory Test Battery for Children |
| Y7, Y8, Y9 | Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 |
# List of Chapter Contents
## Chapter 1
### Language disorder and vocabulary acquisition
- Overview .......................................................... 22
- 1.1 Language ......................................................... 22
- 1.2 Early word learning in typically developing children .............. 23
- 1.2.1 Semantic representation ........................................... 23
- 1.2.2 Phonological representation ..................................... 24
- 1.2.3 Phonological short-term memory ............................... 25
- 1.3 Word learning in older children and adolescents .................... 26
- 1.4 Language disorder ............................................. 27
- 1.4.1 Defining language disorder ...................................... 28
- 1.4.2 The prevalence and natural history of language disorder .... 30
- 1.5 Word learning in children and adolescents with language disorder .......................................................... 32
- 1.5.1 Deficits in semantic representation ............................. 34
- 1.5.2 Deficits in phonological representation ....................... 34
- 1.5.3 Deficits in verbal working memory ............................. 35
- 1.5.4 The interaction between semantic representation and phonological processing skills ........................................ 35
- 1.6 Language disorder and academic attainment ......................... 37
- 1.6.1 Vocabulary knowledge and academic attainment ............ 38
- 1.7 Language disorder and behaviour .................................. 39
- 1.8 Social well-being ............................................... 39
- 1.9 Emotional well-being ........................................... 40
- 1.10 Language disorder and long-term outcomes ......................... 41
- 1.10.1 Criminal behaviour .............................................. 41
- 1.10.2 Mental health ..................................................... 42
- 1.10.3 Employment ....................................................... 42
- 1.10.4 Summary of language disorder and long-term outcomes .... 42
- Summary of Chapter 1 ............................................. 43
## Chapter 2
### Vocabulary intervention for children with language disorder
- Overview .......................................................... 44
- 2.1 Vocabulary instruction for typically developing children .............. 44
- 2.1.1 Literacy-based approaches ....................................... 44
- 2.1.2 Oral language approaches ....................................... 46
2.1.3 The extent of vocabulary instruction for typically developing children 46
2.2 Vocabulary intervention for children with language disorder 46
2.2.1 Assessment of vocabulary skills 47
2.2.2 Semantic intervention 48
2.2.3 Phonological intervention versus semantic intervention 49
126.96.36.199 Phonological versus semantic intervention: receptive vocabulary 49
188.8.131.52 Phonological versus semantic intervention: depth of word knowledge 50
184.108.40.206 Phonological versus semantic intervention: expressive vocabulary 50
220.127.116.11 Summary of phonological versus semantic intervention 52
2.2.4 Combined phonological-semantic intervention 52
18.104.22.168 Combined phonological-semantic intervention: receptive vocabulary 53
22.214.171.124 Combined phonological-semantic intervention: depth of word knowledge 53
126.96.36.199 Combined phonological-semantic intervention: expressive vocabulary 54
188.8.131.52 Combined phonological-semantic intervention: independent word learning 56
184.108.40.206 Combined phonological-semantic intervention versus increased exposure 57
220.127.116.11 Summary of combined phonological-semantic intervention 58
2.3 Universal, small-group, and individual models of intervention delivery 58
2.3.1 The advantages of universal intervention 59
2.3.2 The evidence for universal vocabulary intervention 61
18.104.22.168 Semantic intervention in a universal model 61
22.214.171.124 Combined phonological-semantic intervention in a universal model 62
126.96.36.199 The impact of universal vocabulary intervention on academic attainment 63
188.8.131.52 Summary of universal vocabulary intervention 63
Summary of Chapter 2 and rationale for the current research 64
Chapter 3
Vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder: A systematic review 66
Overview 66
3.1 Introduction and rationale 66
3.2 Methods 67
3.2.1 Search strategy 67
3.2.2 Study eligibility criteria 68
3.2.3 Data extraction 68
3.2.4 Quality appraisal 68
3.2.5 Study characteristics ................................................................. 69
3.3 Results ....................................................................................... 69
3.3.1 Study selection: results ...................................................... 69
3.3.2 Quality appraisal: results .................................................... 70
3.3.3 Study characteristics: results ............................................. 72
3.4 Discussion ............................................................................... 78
3.4.1 Semantic intervention ....................................................... 80
3.4.2 Comparison of phonological versus semantic intervention .... 81
3.4.3 Combined phonological-semantic intervention .................. 81
3.4.4 Generalisation to independent word learning ..................... 84
3.4.5 Summary of discussion ..................................................... 85
3.5 Limitations of the review ........................................................... 86
3.6 Conclusion and suggestions for future research ......................... 86
Summary of Chapter 3 ..................................................................... 87
Chapter 4
Current teaching and speech and language therapy practice: A survey . 88
Overview ......................................................................................... 88
4.1 Introduction and rationale .......................................................... 88
4.2 Aims ......................................................................................... 90
4.3 Methods .................................................................................... 91
4.3.1 The questionnaire ............................................................. 91
4.3.2 Participants ....................................................................... 93
4.3.3 Procedure ........................................................................ 93
4.3.4 Data analysis .................................................................... 94
4.4 Results ...................................................................................... 94
4.4.1 Job role of survey respondents .......................................... 94
4.4.2 Geographical region of respondents .................................. 95
4.4.3 Subjects taught ............................................................... 96
4.4.4 Time given to teaching new words .................................... 97
4.4.5 Percentage of students with a vocabulary deficit ............... 97
4.4.6 Confidence in teaching vocabulary to students with language disorder aged 11 – 16 .......................................................... 98
4.4.7 The importance of learning new vocabulary ....................... 100
4.4.8 Models of delivery for vocabulary teaching/therapy to students aged 11 – 16 ................................................................. 101
4.4.9 Factors influencing choice of service delivery model .......... 102
4.4.10 Strategies used to support word learning .......................... 104
184.108.40.206 Word map .......................................................... 134
220.127.116.11 Word wise quickie ............................................. 135
18.104.22.168 Sound and meaning bingo ................................. 135
22.214.171.124 Vocabulary book .............................................. 136
5.8 Results of the pilot study ........................................... 137
5.9 Refinement of assessment and intervention protocols .... 137
5.9.1 Further development of the word knowledge assessment. 137
5.9.2 Administration of the word knowledge assessment .... 138
5.9.3 Further development of the independent word learning assessment ............................... 138
5.9.4 Amendments to the intervention activities ............... 139
Summary of Chapter 5 .................................................. 139
Chapter 6. The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder: Methods .......................................................... 140
Overview ........................................................................ 140
6.1 Introduction and summary of rationale ....................... 140
6.2 Overview of study design .......................................... 141
6.3 Aims of the study: research questions and hypotheses .... 142
6.3.1 Increases in word knowledge ................................. 143
6.3.2 Independent word learning ................................. 143
6.3.3 Predictors of increases in word knowledge ............ 144
6.3.4 Acceptability of the intervention from the teacher and student perspective ............................... 144
6.3.5 Comparison of usual teaching practice and Word Discovery intervention ............................... 144
6.4 Ethical considerations .............................................. 145
6.4.1 Ethical approval .................................................. 145
6.4.2 The process of consent ........................................ 145
6.5 Recruitment and participant characteristics ............... 145
6.5.1 Schools .............................................................. 145
6.5.2 Teacher participants ........................................... 148
6.5.3 Student participants ........................................... 151
126.96.36.199 Inclusion criteria ........................................... 151
188.8.131.52 Sample size and flow of students through the study .................................................. 152
184.108.40.206 Biographical characteristics of student cohort .................................................. 155
(a) Gender .............................................................. 155
(b) Chronological age ........................................... 155
(c) Socio-economic status ..................................... 155
(d) Medical status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
(e) Special educational needs status . . . . . 155
(f) Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
(g) English language status . . . . . . . . . . 156
220.127.116.11 Additional intervention . . . . . . . . 157
(a) Receiving both school-based intervention and speech and language therapy intervention . . . . . . 157
(b) Receiving school-based intervention only . . . . . . 157
(c) Receiving speech and language therapy intervention only 157
18.104.22.168 Attendance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.6 Word selection and matching . . . . . . . . 159
6.7 Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.7.1 Language and cognitive profiling . . . . . 161
22.214.171.124 Wechsler Abbreviated Intelligence Scale, second edition: Vocabulary and Matrix Reasoning subtests . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
126.96.36.199 British Picture Vocabulary Scale, third edition . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
188.8.131.52 Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, fourth edition, UK, Recalling Sentences subtest . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
184.108.40.206 Working Memory Test Battery for Children: Listening Recall subtest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
220.127.116.11 Phonological Awareness Battery: Spoonerisms subtest . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
18.104.22.168 Language and cognitive profiles of student participants . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.7.2 Word knowledge assessment . . . . . . . . 164
22.214.171.124 Administration of the word knowledge assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
126.96.36.199 Scoring of the word knowledge assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
(a) Depth of word knowledge scale . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
(b) Expressive word use scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
188.8.131.52 Validity of the word knowledge assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
184.108.40.206 Reliability of the word knowledge assessment scoring . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.7.3 Independent word learning ability . . . . . . 167
220.127.116.11 Standardised vocabulary assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
18.104.22.168 Bespoke independent word learning assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
(a) Administration of the bespoke independent word learning assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
(b) Scoring of the independent word learning assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
(c) Reliability of the independent word learning assessment scoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
| Section | Page |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|
| 7.1.2 Expressive word use (hypotheses 4, 5, and 6) | 187 |
| 22.214.171.124 Performance in expressive word use over time | 189 |
| 126.96.36.199 Expressive word use at each timepoint - comparison between | 190 |
| conditions | |
| 188.8.131.52 Summary of expressive word use results | 190 |
| 7.2 Independent word learning (RQ2). | 191 |
| 7.2.1 Standardised vocabulary assessment (hypothesis 7) | 191 |
| 7.2.2 Bespoke independent word learning assessment. | 191 |
| 184.108.40.206 Use of independent word learning strategies (hypothesis 8) | 193 |
| (a) Number of words identified as unknown | 193 |
| (b) Number of words whose meaning was correctly derived | 194 |
| (c) Percentage of words' meaning correctly derived | 194 |
| 220.127.116.11 Awareness of word-learning strategies (hypothesis 9) | 194 |
| 7.2.3 Science attainment (hypothesis 10) | 194 |
| 7.2.4 Summary of independent word learning | 195 |
| 7.3 Predictors of increases in word knowledge (RQ3) | 195 |
| 7.3.1 Predictors of increase in depth of word knowledge (hypotheses | 197 |
| 11 and 12) | |
| 7.3.2 Predictors of increase in expressive word use (hypotheses 13 and | 199 |
| 14) | |
| 7.3.3 Summary of predictors of increases in word knowledge | 201 |
| 7.4 Teachers' and students' views (RQ4) | 202 |
| 7.4.1 Confidence of teachers (hypothesis 15). | 202 |
| 7.4.2 Teachers' views on the Word Discovery activities | 202 |
| 18.104.22.168 Previous use of the word-learning activities | 203 |
| 22.214.171.124 Ease of implementation | 203 |
| 126.96.36.199 Effectiveness of the word-learning activities | 204 |
| 188.8.131.52 Intention to use the word-learning activities again | 205 |
| 7.4.3 Teacher/SLT collaboration | 207 |
| 7.4.4 Change in practice | 207 |
| 7.4.5 Further comments | 207 |
| 7.4.6 Students' preference for model of delivery (hypothesis 16) | 208 |
| 7.4.7 Students' views on the Word Discovery activities | 209 |
| 7.5 Usual teaching practice strategies | 212 |
| 7.5.1 Topic 1 (usual teaching practice) strategy records | 212 |
| 7.5.2 Topic 1 (usual teaching practice) lesson observation records | 215 |
7.5.3 Summary of usual teaching practice results .......................... 217
7.6 Word exposure ........................................................................... 217
7.7 Summary of results ................................................................. 219
Summary of Chapter 7 ................................................................. 220
Chapter 8
The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder: Discussion .................................................. 222
Overview ....................................................................................... 222
8.1 Study design strengths ............................................................. 222
8.2 Word knowledge (RQ1) .......................................................... 223
8.2.1 Depth of word knowledge change pre- to post-intervention (hypothesis 1) 223
8.2.2 Maintenance of depth of word knowledge (hypothesis 2) .............. 226
8.2.3 Expressive word use: pre- to post-intervention change and maintenance (hypotheses 4 and 5) .................................................. 227
8.2.4 No-intervention words: depth of word knowledge and expressive word use (hypotheses 3 and 6) ............................................ 229
8.3 Independent word learning (RQ2) ........................................... 229
8.3.1 Standardised assessment (hypothesis 7) .................................. 229
8.3.2 Bespoke independent word learning assessment (hypotheses 8 and 9) 230
8.3.3 Science curriculum attainment (hypothesis 10) .......................... 231
8.3.4 The measurement of generalisation effects ............................... 231
8.4 Predictors of increase in word knowledge (RQ3) ....................... 233
8.5 Teacher and student views (RQ4) ............................................. 234
8.5.1 Students’ preferred model of intervention (hypothesis 16). .......... 234
8.6 Appraisal of the word-learning activities .................................. 236
8.6.1 Self-rating checklist .............................................................. 237
8.6.2 Display of visual images ......................................................... 237
8.6.3 Word detective ................................................................. 237
8.6.4 Word map ................................................................. 238
8.6.5 Word wise quickie .............................................................. 238
8.6.6 Sound and meaning bingo .................................................... 239
8.6.7 Key word sheet ............................................................... 239
8.6.8 Summary of word-learning activities ..................................... 239
8.7 Comparing usual teaching practice with Word Discovery intervention 240
8.8 Word exposure ........................................................................ 242
8.9 Feasibility ............................................................................... 243
8.9.1 Practicality of conducting the research .................................. 243
8.9.2 Teacher attrition ............................................................... 244
8.9.3 Fidelity to the intervention ................................................................. 244
8.9.4 Benefits to teachers of participation .................................................. 246
8.9.5 Summary of feasibility ........................................................................... 247
8.10 Limitations .................................................................................................. 247
8.10.1 Differences in depth of word knowledge and expressive word use of usual teaching practice, experimental, and no-intervention words .............. 247
8.10.2 Word knowledge assessment ............................................................... 247
8.10.3 Blind assessment .................................................................................. 248
8.10.4 Standardised vocabulary assessment .................................................. 248
8.10.5 Differential effect of the word-learning activities ............................... 249
8.10.6 Dosage and word exposure .................................................................. 249
Summary of Chapter 8 ..................................................................................... 250
Chapter 9
General discussion and conclusions ................................................................. 251
Overview ............................................................................................................ 251
9.1 Overview of the thesis ................................................................................ 251
9.2 The effect of Word Discovery on word knowledge ..................................... 252
9.3 The measurement of generalisation effects ................................................ 253
9.4 Predictors of response to intervention ....................................................... 253
9.5 The development of Word Discovery as an effective intervention ............. 254
9.5.1 The applicability of Word Discovery to Tier 2 words ............................ 255
9.5.2 Optimum cumulative intervention intensity .......................................... 255
9.5.3 Maintenance of word knowledge .......................................................... 256
9.6 The role of Word Discovery in collaborative practice ................................ 256
Summary of Chapter 9: final conclusion .......................................................... 257
“Some words are tricky”
(student participant identity number 44)
Chapter 1
Language disorder and vocabulary acquisition
Overview
The first chapter of this thesis explores concepts within the field of language disorder, in order to lay a foundation for subsequent chapters in the thesis. Firstly, processes involved in the word learning of typically developing (TD) children are explored. Following this, the chapter turns to language disorder, with a focus on how word learning is affected in children and adolescents with language disorder. The importance of vocabulary skills for academic attainment and long-term life outcomes is also discussed.
1.1 Language
Language may be considered as a medium for communication between members of a society. Bloom and Lahey (1978) illustrate three overlapping components of language: form, content, and use (Figure 1.1).
Motivation to communicate is central to the use of language: to make our needs and wishes known; to show; to ask for information; to socialise. This is the function or purpose of the message to be communicated, known as the pragmatic aspect of language. The meaning of the message is expressed through the content; through words and their relationship with each other. This is referred to as semantics. Form is the means through which the content of a message is expressed. In spoken language, this entails speech sounds (phonology), word segments (morphology), and the organisation of words into sentences (syntax). Language can also take other forms such as signing or written language.
The focus of this thesis is the interaction between phonological form and semantic content in the context of word learning. Clark (1993, p.259) emphasises the importance of word learning, stating that “the lexicon is basic to language and language use. It provides the context for syntax and the instantiation of syntactic rules, and it is the environment for phonological and morphological patterns.” In order to understand the overall context for the current research, word learning in typical development will now be discussed.
1.2 Early word learning in typically developing children
Three aspects of word learning will be considered in this section: semantic representation, phonological representation, and phonological short-term memory.
Early word learning has been widely researched. In the first years of life, word learning becomes very efficient, such that children can learn the meaning of a word, and can use it, with very few exposures; a phenomenon known as fast-mapping (Clark, 1993). In order to learn the meaning of a word, children need to identify a recurring phonological form from the stream of speech, and map that phonological form onto the meaning of the word (Bishop, 2014). To use a word expressively, children need to retrieve the phonological form that they have previously mapped onto the meaning of that word, and access the motor program required to produce the word. Efficient word learners have intact cognitive skills, and motivation to communicate. They also make use of contextual cues to assist them in the mapping process: for example, social, perceptual, or intonational cues (Clark, 1993). The integration of this information enables a lexical representation for each word to develop.
1.2.1 Semantic representation
Semantic representation refers to information about the concept which a word symbolises. The first words which children learn are frequently labels of objects (Clark, 1993). As the vocabulary expands, links with object function and location are made; for example, children begin to associate the word *banana* with the word *eat*, and learn that bananas are kept in the kitchen. A vocabulary for attributes of objects also develops; for example, bananas are *nice, long, yellow*. As children begin to group objects with other similar objects, the words are linked with other words of the same class e.g. *banana, apple, orange*. A hierarchy of superordinate categories such as *fruit, food*, develops, and eventually a taxonomy for each word is built up (Murphy, 2010). Figure 1.2 contains an example of a taxonomy. Each word in a taxonomy continues to be connected to its early-acquired links of function, location, and attribute, resulting in complex semantic networks.
Many words are polysemous, and semantic networks take this into account. For example, the word *grain* will also belong to another taxonomy related to its meaning of the patterns and textures in wood.
Semantic representations also contain information about the syntactic category of the word, i.e. whether it is a noun, verb, adjective and so on, and thus contain information about how the word functions in a sentence (Murphy, 2010). Some words belong to more than one syntactic category; for example, the word *butter* is a noun in the *cheese* taxonomy (figure 1.2), but can also function as a verb, as in the sentence: “I butter my toast while it’s hot.”
Semantic representations include information personalised to the individual; for example, whether one likes cheese or not will influence whether it is associated with *delicious* or *disgusting*. Furthermore, there is a dimension of appropriacy – the knowledge that it is acceptable to use some words in certain social situations but not in others (Murphy, 2010).
### 1.2.2 Phonological representation
As well as a semantic component, lexical representation also includes the phonological representation of the word. Phonological representations consist of information about the sound structure of the spoken word. This information can be stored according to the word’s onset phoneme, its rhyme, and its syllable structure. One way of conceptualising how children process phonological information in order to arrive at a phonological representation of a word is through the theoretical speech processing model of Stackhouse and Wells (1997, p.166) (Figure 1.3). The model is divided into input and output processes, each of which is broken down into several levels of processing, with lexical representations in the centre. Input includes phonological awareness skills such as phonetic discrimination and phonological recognition, and output includes skills such as motor programming and motor execution.
In a completely independent line of enquiry, Gupta and Tisdale (2009) created a computational model of lexical learning, which had the same essential structure as the theoretical speech processing model described by Stackhouse and Wells (1997). This lends support to the validity of the Stackhouse and Wells’ (1997) speech processing model.
### 1.2.3 Phonological short-term memory
In order to integrate semantic and phonological information, auditory input needs to be temporarily stored as it is processed. The working memory model by Baddeley (2000, p.421) provides a way of conceptualising these processes (Figure 1.4).
In the working memory model, there are four separate components, which all work together to support everyday cognitive processes such as thinking, learning, remembering and reasoning. The central executive is the overall attentional controller, responsible for focusing, dividing and switching attention as needed. There are two passive temporary storage systems, one for visuospatial information (the visuospatial sketchpad) and one for phonological information (the phonological loop). The phonological loop comprises a phonological store, which holds auditory input passively for 1-2 seconds, and an articulatory rehearsal mechanism, which allows the maintenance of information in the phonological store via a voluntary process of sub-vocal rehearsal. The phonological loop thus allows for the temporary holding of the phonological form of the word while it is processed for understanding. Baddeley et al. (1999) denote this process phonological short-term memory (PSTM). The episodic buffer component of working memory provides extra storage capacity for auditory and visual information, and also allows the use of information from long-term memory to support current learning tasks, supporting the integration of new words within the existing lexicon. Efficient PSTM is thus essential to the operation of Stackhouse and Wells’ (1997) speech processing model. This assertion is verified by the computational lexical learning model by Gupta and Tisdale (2009) (see section 1.2.2) which also has a PSTM component.
1.3 Word learning in older children and adolescents
The fast-mapping process is usually applied to the learning of labels for objects in young children, whereas when children get older, the word-learning process becomes increasingly complex. The words which children need to learn and use as they get older become less concrete and more abstract. Children learn to map words onto actions, attributes, and concepts. Opportunities to match a word with a concrete referent, which would enable fast-mapping in a younger child, are not enough. The fast-mapping process does not allow for deep processing of the word, which entails embedding the new word within existing representations (Dockrell, Braisby & Best, 2007). Instead, increased sophistication of cognitive skills is required, and the network of connections needs to be developed. This comprises semantic, grammatical, and phonological elements (Leonard, 1998), thereby enabling increasingly detailed lexical representations.
Older children and adolescents have a bank of knowledge and experiences into which new knowledge needs to be integrated. The study by Dockrell et al. (2007) showed how, even in younger children, a foundation level of knowledge about a domain is necessary in order to acquire meanings of words specific to that domain; for example, some knowledge of *space* was required for TD children aged four to six years (N=233) to learn what *satellite* meant. Another study by these researchers (Best, Dockrell, & Braisby, 2006a) supported this position by showing that TD children aged four to six years (N=80) with higher existing receptive vocabulary levels were more able to name and define four new science adjectives than those with lower existing receptive vocabulary levels. Thus, children accumulate a lexicon with which newly encountered words must be compared and contrasted, in order to establish and adjust the semantic boundaries of the words (Nippold, 2007). Words need to be encountered several times within meaningful contexts in order to develop a well-rounded understanding (Anderson & Nagy, 1996).
Additional skills also contribute to word learning in older children and adolescents. Literacy is developing during this period: during the school years, language and literacy “enjoy a symbiotic relationship” (Nippold, 1988, p.29). With proficient literacy skills, children and adolescents absorb new vocabulary through reading, with spoken and written language developing hand in hand. Morphological information gained from the written word can be used to provide clues to word meaning. Morphological awareness begins to develop as early as two years of age (Clark, 1993), and continues to increase in a developmental sequence throughout childhood and adolescence (Kieffer & Lesaux, 2007). Children develop knowledge of morphemes such as prefix, root, and suffix, and how these influence meaning. For example, if a child understands that *timid* means “a bit scared”, and that the suffix “-ly” describes the way in which an action is carried out, on meeting the word *timorously*, a child may well be able to deduce that it means “as if scared”.
Another continuing development throughout childhood and adolescence is that of metalinguistic awareness, enabling adolescents to reflect consciously on the nature of language (van Kleeck, 1984). Van Kleeck related stages of metalinguistic development to Piagetian stages of cognitive development (Piaget, 1952), describing how, during the concrete operational stage (age seven to 11), children become aware of polysemy and learn to understand abstract meanings of concrete words such as *sweet, hard*. With the onset of the formal operational stage, at about 11 years of age, the development of hypothetical reasoning skill allows adolescents to move further beyond the literal to the comprehension and production of figurative language (van Kleeck, p.147). Benelli, Belacchi, Gini, and Lucangeli (2006) expanded on this by showing that 11-year-olds were able to explore word meanings, and discuss the phonological and semantic properties of words. Spencer, Clegg, and Stackhouse (2013) illustrated the relevance of metalinguistic development to success in school through their interviews of 42 14 -- 15-year-olds. The participants demonstrated insight into the nature of their own language, how it defined them as people, and how they were aware that a mastery of relevant vocabulary was necessary for academic success.
Adolescents are able to integrate all these aspects of word learning by operating at a greater level of abstraction, attention control, memory, and processing skill (Ravid, 2004). The development of these skills is perhaps related to the heightened neurological changes taking place during adolescence (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006). Blakemore and Choudhury’s review of magnetic resonance imaging studies revealed ongoing growth of white matter, particularly in the frontal cortex, during puberty and beyond.
### 1.4 Language disorder
Some children show developmental difficulties acquiring proficiency in their first language. Children may present with receptive and/or expressive difficulties in any of the areas within the form, content and use model by Bloom and Lahey (1978) (figure 1.1). It is widely documented that literacy is also frequently implicated (e.g. McArthur, Hogben, Edwards, Heath, & Mengler, 2000; Stanovich, 1986).
1.4.1 Defining language disorder
Leonard (1998) used the term specific language impairment (SLI) to denote this difficulty with language acquisition, in which the language difficulty is the primary need of the child, and where language is disordered relative to other areas of development. He proposed the following criteria:
- Language test scores of -1.25 standard deviations (SD) or lower below the normative mean
- Nonverbal intelligence (NVIQ) standard score\(^1\) (SS) 85 or higher
- Normal hearing with no recent episodes of otitis media with effusion
- No evidence of seizures, cerebral palsy or brain lesions
- No abnormality of oral structure or function
- No symptoms of impaired social interaction.
Leonard’s criteria, being largely exclusionary, are a simplification of the phenomenon, and exclude some children who do have difficulties with language. The use of a verbal-nonverbal discrepancy has been widely used in research in order to study language impairment. However, the relationship between verbal and nonverbal abilities is complex, particularly as children mature. Leonard et al. (2007), for example, found that 14-year-old children with language impairment were slower at responding to both verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Botting (2005) showed that NVIQ decreased in children and adolescents with language impairment between the ages of seven and 14, which led her to propose that language and nonverbal ability have a dynamic and reciprocal relationship. She suggested that cognitive mechanisms such as working memory may be the underlying factor in this relationship.
In order to arrive at a better definition of difficulties which are specific to language, inclusionary criteria have been considered. Differences have been found between children with SLI and TD children in tasks of non-word repetition, sentence repetition, and verb tense marking (Conti-Ramsden, Botting & Faragher, 2001). These have all been proposed as clinical markers of SLI, with Conti-Ramsden et al. finding that sentence repetition was the most sensitive. The use of such criteria acknowledges those who have language difficulties in association with other conditions, such as congenital syndromes or hearing impairment, or co-occurring neurodevelopmental disorders such as dyspraxia or attentional difficulties.
Differing perspectives of what constitutes language impairment culminated in a recent international Delphi exercise (Bishop, Snowling, Thompson, Greenhalgh, & CATALISE consortium, 2016; 2017), which proposed a definition of language impairment and its accompanying terminology. The exercise encompassed the views of research, clinical, and educational communities, as well as people with language impairment and their carers. It concluded with a consensus for the term *language disorder* to refer to those who have difficulties acquiring their first language. Where these difficulties occur in association with a biomedical condition, the term *language disorder associated with X* was recommended; otherwise, it was
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\(^1\) A standard score is an individual test score expressed as the deviation from the mean score of a normative sample. If the mean value is 100, one standard deviation is 15.
proposed that the term *developmental language disorder* (DLD) should be used. It was recognised that DLD can co-occur with other neurodevelopmental conditions such as dyspraxia or attention deficit disorder. A number of risk factors for DLD were identified, including a positive family history, and lower socio-economic status (SES).
This approach acknowledges that DLD may have various aetiologies. The association between a positive family history and language disorder suggests the presence of a genetic factor, a view that is supported by twin studies which show a higher concordance of the presence of language disorder between monozygotic twins than between dizygotic twins (Bishop, 2014). Molecular studies provide explanatory evidence; for example, genetic sequences on chromosome 16q which are related to language disorder, and mutations of specific genes; but it is likely that, rather than being the responsibility of a single gene or genetic site, there is a more distributed genotype underlying language disorder (Norbury, Tomblin, & Bishop, 2008).
A purely genetic account for language disorder does not acknowledge the contribution made by the environment. This is illustrated in part by the association between SES and language disorder. Converging evidence suggests that children growing up in areas of social disadvantage are at risk of low language levels (Hart & Risley, 1995; Locke, Ginsborg, & Peers, 2002). Hart and Risley undertook a longitudinal observational study of parent-child interaction with 42 children between the ages of eight months and three years. They found that children in families of lower SES heard less than a third of the number of words per hour than children in families of higher SES, impacting on the number of words which the children learnt. Multiple regression analysis indicated that parenting style was the key predictor rather than the economic status per se.
Differences in language ability relative to SES continue through childhood and adolescence. Spencer, Clegg, and Stackhouse (2012) compared a cohort of 103 12 – 14-year-olds from an area of social disadvantage with an age-matched group of 48 peers from an area of relative social advantage. The social disadvantage group performed significantly less well than the social advantage group on four out of six standardised language assessments. The social disadvantage group was at particular risk of low vocabulary scores: the lowest language scores for the social disadvantage group were found in receptive vocabulary, with a group mean ($M$) SS of 85.21 ($SD = 12.89$), on the British Picture Vocabulary Scale 2 (BPVS-2: Dunn, Dunn, Whetton, & Burley, 1997) compared with the social advantage group mean SS of 100.46 ($SD = 20.61$).
To conclude, genotypical and environmental influences interact to produce the particular profile of language difficulty within each individual child. In this thesis, the term *language disorder* will be used to refer to a difficulty with first language acquisition due to any aetiology. When referring to studies which use other terms, the terminology of the authors concerned will be used. One term in common usage in educational settings since the introduction of the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Code of Practice (Department for Education and Skills (DfES), 2001), is *speech, language, and communication needs* (SLCN). This is used as an overarching term for any type of difficulty with speech, language, or communication skills (Department for Education (DfE) & Department of Health (DoH), 2015), of which language disorder is just one example.
1.4.2 The prevalence and natural history of language disorder
A widely-quoted prevalence figure for language disorder comes from Tomblin et al. (1997), who carried out a cross-sectional epidemiological study in the USA, screening 7,844 children for SLI, and administering further diagnostic testing on 2,084 children who failed the screen. The criteria used for a diagnosis of SLI was performance below 1.25 SD from the normative mean on at least two of five language measures, in the context of age-appropriate nonverbal ability. Tomblin and colleagues chose this cut-off point to maximise the trade-off between sensitivity and specificity. Thus, they arrived at a prevalence figure for SLI in five-year-olds of 7.4%.
Recent research in the UK by Norbury et al. (2016), employed a stricter cut-off point on language assessment (-1.5 SD), as being consistent with other previous studies and clinical practice. However, unlike Tomblin et al. (1997), they included children of below average nonverbal ability. On this basis, 7.58% of five-year-old children were found to have language disorder as their primary need. When children with a known medical diagnosis or intellectual disability were included, the prevalence figure rose to 9.92%. Under the classification recommended by Bishop et al. (2016), where language disorder is defined so as to include those who have language disorder in association with a bio-medical condition or intellectual disability, this latter figure is more likely to represent the numbers of children who, at school entry, have a language need which requires support.
Language disorder has been shown to persist into adolescence. Law, Boyle, Harris, Harkness, and Nye (2000), conducted a systematic review of prevalence studies, drawn from a number of English-speaking countries, and covering an age range from birth to adulthood. They arrived at a median figure for “language delay only” (p.169) of 6.8%, and extrapolated from the data that prevalence changes little over the childhood years. However, this prevalence figure referred to “primary speech and language delay” (p.165), and inspection of the individual studies cited in the review reveal that the studies covering the older age range pertained to speech delay only: the oldest age covering language delay only was seven years.
Nonetheless, the notion that language disorder persists into adolescence is strongly supported by a range of longitudinal studies which have followed children with language disorder into adolescence and adulthood. Beitchman et al. (1994), in the Ottawa Study, followed up 101 children who had been identified with speech and/or language disorder at five years of age, and reassessed them at 12 years of age. The criteria for impairment was more than one SD below the mean on one of the following: the spoken language quotient of the Test of Language Development (TOLD: Newcomer & Hammill, 1988); the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT: Dunn & Dunn, 1981); or the content and sequence subtests of the Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock auditory memory tests (Goldman, Fristoe, & Woodcock, 1974); or more than two SD below the mean on any of the TOLD subtests. The TOLD subtests are Picture Vocabulary, Oral Vocabulary, Grammatic Understanding, Sentence Imitation, Grammatic Completion, Word Discrimination, and Word Articulation. The PPVT is a receptive vocabulary test in which the child hears a word and points to the appropriate picture out of a choice of four. Of the children who had shown receptive or receptive/expressive language difficulties (without speech difficulties) at five years old (21 out
of 101), 81% still showed impairment at 12 years. Although this seems a small sample, the one-in-three stratified random sampling method used in this longitudinal study gives some confidence that this figure can be taken to be representative of a wider population.
The Ottawa cohort was followed up again at 19 years of age (Johnson et al., 1999). Stability in language status over time was indicated by a high positive correlation of language measures for individuals across the three timepoints at ages five, 12, and 19 years ($r = 0.83$). Group classification was reported slightly differently here, resulting in a larger cohort of participants who had been identified as language-impaired (with or without speech difficulties) at five years old (N=103): 73% of these remained language-impaired at 19 years. From the data, the authors calculated a prevalence rate for language impairment of 11.7%. Vocabulary continued to be an area of difficulty: the group mean SS on the Test of Adult/Adolescent Word Finding (TAWF; German, 1990) was 81 ($SD = 15$). This cohort were followed up again at 25 years of age (Johnson, Beitchman, & Brownlie, 2010). At this point, the only language measure administered was the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test 3rd Edition (PPVT-3; Dunn & Dunn, 1997). The mean SS on this assessment for the language-impaired group at age 25 years was 93. Direct comparisons across time are difficult to make as the PPVT-3 is a receptive vocabulary assessment, whereas the TAWF is an expressive assessment; nonetheless, comparisons with control groups at 25 years of age indicate continued lower vocabulary levels for the language impaired group ($M = 93$) relative to TD controls ($M = 109$) and speech-impaired controls ($M = 107$).
Research by McLeod and McKinnon (2007) supported this finding by suggesting a prevalence rate for communication disorder of 12.5% of 11 – 16-year-olds from a Catholic diocese in Sydney. McLeod and McKinnon used a broad classification of communication disorder, based on teacher perceptions of learning need rather than psychometric testing.
Other studies have found similar patterns. Botting, Faragher, Simkin, Knox, and Conti-Ramsden (2001) followed up 117 children at 11 years of age, in the Manchester Language Study. The children, who had been recruited from language units (specialised language settings within a mainstream school) at seven years of age, were included in the follow-up study if, at the age of seven, they had scored within 2 $SD$ of the mean on NVIQ assessment, but more than one $SD$ below the mean on at least one of the standardised language assessments administered. At 11 years of age, using the same criteria but excluding those with pragmatic difficulties according to the Children’s Communication Checklist (Bishop, 1998), difficulties on a range of language measures were still present. Vocabulary appeared to be one of the most recalcitrant of language skills over time: at seven years, 36% of the children scored below the 16th percentile on The British Ability Scales naming vocabulary subtest (Elliot, 1983), and at 11 years of age, 89% scored below the 16th percentile on the Expressive Picture Test (Williams, 1997). At seven years, no receptive vocabulary measure was reported, but at 11 years, 88% of the children performed below the 16th percentile on the BPVS-2. Thus, Botting and colleagues replicated the findings of Beitchman and colleagues (1994; 1999) in terms of the persistence of language disorder into adolescence, and extended the findings to a UK population.
To summarise, there is a strong body of evidence indicating that approximately 7 - 8% of five-year-old children have language disorder as their primary need, and a further 2 - 3% of children have language disorder in association with another condition. Language disorder frequently persists into adolescence and even adulthood, with a prevalence rate for those requiring support in adolescence reaching approximately 12%.
These figures are of particular importance as they suggest a considerable need for vocabulary support in the adolescent age range, a key theme in the current thesis. The next section will consider how word learning is affected in children and adolescents with language disorder.
1.5 Word learning in children and adolescents with language disorder
Children with language disorder are often late in their acquisition of early words (Hulme & Snowling, 2009), and show deficits in receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and word recall (Leonard, 1998). A number of studies have described the differences in lexical acquisition between TD children and children with language disorder in the pre-school and school-age years. Oetting, Rice, and Swank (1995), for example, studied 28 children with SLI and 60 TD children, aged six to eight years. Criteria for SLI in this study was one $SD$ below the mean on the PPVT and at least one other standardised language test, and a nonverbal SS of 85 or above on the standardised assessments routinely used in the child’s locality. The children were exposed to 20 experimental words, five times each, through viewing video clips. The words were not explicitly defined but occurred in context. The researchers compared the word learning of these children with pre-school (three-year-old) children from a previous study (Rice & Woodsmall, 1988). The TD pre-schoolers learnt an average of 1.56 words, whereas pre-school children with SLI learnt 0.7 words; TD school-age children (six to eight years old) learnt an average of 4.67 words; whereas school-age children with SLI learnt 2.29 words. The authors concluded that the word-learning rate of the school-age children with SLI was more comparable to TD pre-schoolers than to their age-matched peers.
Another study illustrating the differences in lexical acquisition between TD children and children with SLI was by Gray (2005). Criteria for SLI was based on 1.5 $SD$ below the mean on two standardised language tests, and a nonverbal SS of 75 or above on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (Kaufman & Kaufman, 1983), an assessment of cognitive ability. Twenty-four children with SLI and 24 age-matched TD children took part in daily word learning trials over 19 days. Four familiar objects and four unfamiliar objects were used. In fast-mapping trials, the children were taught novel names for these objects through modelling, comprehension, and naming tasks. The children then participated in word learning trials following the same structure, but with the addition of direct requests for imitation, plus the provision of either a semantic cue or a phonological cue. Comprehension and naming was assessed using pictures of the objects. The TD children required significantly fewer trials than the children with SLI to achieve word comprehension in both the semantic cue and the phonological cue conditions. For the children with SLI, semantic cues supported comprehension, while phonological cues supported naming, leading Gray to hypothesise that naming might be related more to phonology than to semantics.
Apart from the different threshold for nonverbal ability, the cohorts in these two studies are similar, providing supporting evidence that word learning in children with language disorder is compromised, and moreover, Gray (2005) illustrates the different roles that semantics and phonology may potentially play.
Vocabulary continues to be a challenge for older children and adolescents with language disorder. McGregor, Oleson, Bahnsen, and Duff (2013) found a pattern of limited breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge persisting through the school years. One hundred and seventy-seven children who had been diagnosed in kindergarten according to the criteria in Tomblin et al. (1997) (see section 1.4.2) were assessed in Grades 2, 4, 8, and 10 (age seven to 16 years). They used the expressive subtest of the Comprehensive Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test (Wallace & Hammill, 1994), which is a definition production task, and compared their performance on this subtest with that of 325 TD children. Breadth of vocabulary was determined by the number of words defined correctly, and depth of vocabulary was determined by assigning a rating to the information contained in the definition. Even though 61/177 children (35%) outgrew their initial diagnosis of language impairment over time, both the breadth and depth scores of the children originally identified as language-impaired remained consistently and significantly below that of the TD group at all four timepoints.
Rice, Oetting, Marquis, Bode, and Pae (1994) suggested that children with language disorder do have the capacity to learn new words, as long as there is sufficient input. They compared the word learning of 30 children with SLI aged four years three months to five years nine months (4:3 – 5:9) with 30 age-matched controls and 30 language-matched controls. The children were exposed to eight experimental words through the viewing of two video clips in three conditions: one where the experimental words occurred 10 times; one where the experimental words occurred three times; and one where the experimental words were substituted for eight control words. The TD children in the group receiving three word-exposures made significant gains in word knowledge, unlike the children with SLI in this group, who failed to make significant gains. In contrast, the children with SLI in the group receiving 10 word-exposures did make significant gains, at the same rate as the age-matched TD children. This led Rice and colleagues to suggest that there is a minimal input constraint on the frequency of word exposure, which enables word learning to occur. This evidence supports the finding of Hart and Risley (1995), described in section 1.4.1, that the greater the input, the more words were learnt. Thus, increased exposure can enhance the word learning of children with language disorder. However, the children with SLI in Rice et al.’s (1994) study did not retain the word knowledge as well as the age-matched TD children as little as one to three days later, suggesting that increased exposure alone was insufficient. One possible explanation for this is that the lexical representations which the children with SLI assembled were too shallow or fragile to be maintained.
The next three sections discuss possible factors underlying the cause of shallow or fragile lexical representations, further discussing aspects of word learning previously mentioned: semantic representation (section 1.2.1); phonological representation (1.2.2); and PSTM (section 1.2.3).
1.5.1 Deficits in semantic representation
Some researchers have hypothesised that poorly developed and disorganised semantic representations account for the vocabulary difficulties of children with language disorder. In younger children, inefficiently organised taxonomies (section 1.2.1) result in confusions between like terms, e.g. *knife/fork*, and limited ability to categorise words into superordinate categories. In older children, semantic limitations manifest as difficulties with: generalising meanings of words to new contexts; understanding the subtle connotations of words with similar meaning e.g. *frustrated* and *irritated* (Culatta & Wiig, 2006); and understanding figurative application of concrete words such as *sweet*, *hard* (Dockrell & Messer, 2004). Kail and Leonard (1986) proposed that if words are inefficiently stored within the semantic system, this has consequences not only for depth of understanding but also for a child’s ability to retrieve a word in order to use it expressively.
McGregor, Newman, Reilly, and Capone (2002) provided support for Kail and Leonard’s proposal. These researchers compared the object naming and semantic representations of 16 children with SLI aged 5:0 – 7:11 with that of 16 age-matched TD peers. Although the types of naming errors of both groups were similar, the children with SLI named fewer items and had sparser semantic representations, as assessed through a drawing task, than their age-matched peers. Further support comes from Alt, Plante, and Creusere (2004), who investigated the word learning of children with SLI aged four – six years using non-words. The children with SLI learnt fewer semantic features of newly taught non-words relative to age-matched controls, and recognised fewer lexical labels on a receptive task.
Together, these studies provide evidence that poorly developed semantic representations impact on both receptive and expressive aspects of word learning.
1.5.2 Deficits in phonological representation
Another hypothesis is that phonological processing difficulties result in weak phonological representations, affecting word learning. Examples of weak phonological representations in children with language disorder can be illustrated by the production errors they make e.g. [nokamilaz] for *binoculars* (Constable, Stackhouse, & Wells, 1997), and also by the comprehension errors they make between similar sounding words e.g. *contract/extract*, *ascending/descending* (from the current researcher’s records). Inefficient skills on the input side of the speech processing model (Stackhouse & Wells, 1997) (figure 1.3) may result in “fuzzy phonological representations” (Stackhouse, Pascoe, & Gardner, 2006, p.240), whereby an inaccurate phonological form of a word is stored. Inefficient output skills serve to weaken the representation still further, as inaccurate production interferes with the storage of accurate phonological information. Constable et al. accounted for the word-finding difficulties of a 10-year-old boy by difficulties at several levels of the speech processing model, both input and output, while his semantic skills appeared largely intact.
1.5.3 Deficits in verbal working memory
Closely linked with phonological processing is the phonological loop of Baddeley’s (2000) working memory model (section 1.2.3). An inefficient phonological loop could result in difficulties holding the phonological form of the word in temporary storage, impeding the processing of semantic content. Evidence for this comes from non-word repetition tasks, which have been widely used as a way of measuring relatively pure PSTM. Even though other abilities may also be involved in a non-word repetition task, such as awareness of language structure, phonological awareness skills, and speech production skills, there is limited reliance on the central executive. Non-words have no pre-existing semantic representations, so long-term knowledge is of restricted use in supporting performance on the task. In TD children, the evidence is strong for links between PSTM and language. For example, Gathercole and Baddeley (1993) found significant correlations between non-word repetition and vocabulary knowledge in TD children aged four, five, six, and eight years. They used cross-lagged correlations to determine the direction of causality, showing that PSTM capacity affects the ability of children to learn new words. With increasing age, there was less influence of PSTM on vocabulary acquisition, and it was posited that this was because older children could draw on an existing lexicon both phonologically and semantically; thus, executive-loaded verbal working memory may play a greater part. Leonard et al. (2007) provided supporting evidence of this, through latent variable regression analyses of children with and without language impairment. Their regression model did not separate the effects of PSTM and executive-loaded verbal working memory, as they used two PSTM assessments and two executive-loaded verbal working memory assessments, collapsing these into one verbal working memory variable. Verbal working memory nevertheless accounted for the greatest variance in language ability in 14-year-olds, over motor speed, non-linguistic cognitive speed, linguistic speed, and nonverbal working memory.
A recent review by Henry and Botting (2017) confirmed that not only is there a marked PSTM component involved in language disorder, but also that there is strong evidence for links between executive-loaded verbal working memory and language disorder, in children aged four to 14 years. Executive-loaded verbal working memory is particularly implicated when attempting to process phonological and semantic information concurrently; for example, accessing semantic representations of a word while holding its phonological form in temporary storage – a skill which is relevant for vocabulary acquisition.
1.5.4 The interaction between semantic representation and phonological processing skills
The current researcher’s view is that semantic and phonological accounts for vocabulary difficulties do not stand in opposition to one another. Rather, it is likely that both are relevant in children with language disorder to varying degrees. The research of Lahey and Edwards (1999) provided evidence of this, examining the language profiles of children who made different types of naming errors. Children with SLI aged 4:3 to 9:7 made both phonological and semantic errors, but children who had expressive-only SLI made a greater percentage of phonological errors, and children with expressive-receptive SLI made a greater percentage of semantic errors. This
suggests that for some children with language disorder, relatively weaker phonological skills are the main foundation for their word learning difficulties, particularly affecting naming, whereas for others, relatively weaker semantic representations have greater influence, particularly affecting comprehension. This position supports the view of Gray (2005) (section 1.5). However, as was described in section 1.5.2, a strong phonological representation is also necessary for word comprehension; therefore, it is difficult to entirely dissociate the phonological and semantic aspects of word learning. An inaccurate or unstable phonological representation could result in a tenuous link between a word’s phonological form and its semantic representation, impeding efficient receptive word learning as well as word retrieval. If the semantic system is also poorly developed, this would compound the difficulty.
Further evidence for this position comes from Nash and Donaldson (2005), who taught eight words to 16 children with SLI aged 5:5 – 9:0, 16 age-matched controls and 16 vocabulary matched controls. Semantic information was provided either incidentally through a story context, or explicitly through pictures and a definition. Phonological information was not explicitly provided. Semantic and phonological knowledge was assessed at two timepoints, after six exposures and after 12 exposures to each word. Semantic representation was assessed by a word definition production task, a meaning recognition task, and a picture selection task. Phonological representation was assessed by a naming task and a pronunciation judgement task. For all groups of children, the explicit teaching condition had a greater impact on word learning than the incidental condition on two of the three semantic tasks, but there was no differential impact between the groups on the phonological tasks. Because the children with SLI performed significantly lower than age-matched controls on all tasks at both timepoints, and less well than the vocabulary-matched controls on the naming task (tapping phonological knowledge) at the second time-point, Nash and Donaldson suggested that semantic naming errors could be a result of either semantic weaknesses or phonological weaknesses. They refer to this as a dual deficit position in which both phonological and semantic difficulties interact to produce word learning difficulties.
To conclude, children and adolescents with language disorder are vulnerable to word learning deficits. For some children, the basis of these difficulties may lie in inadequate semantic skills resulting in weak semantic representations. For others, limited phonological processing skills result in inaccurate phonological representations, with weak verbal working memory serving as a further contributory factor. The present thesis takes the position that semantic and phonological processing skills interact to produce a unique constellation of language strengths and weaknesses within each child and adolescent.
The next sections will outline why language disorder, and specifically vocabulary difficulties, have such a profound effect on a child’s development.
1.6 Language disorder and academic attainment
The school curriculum is delivered through the medium of language; consequently, language disorder could be expected to have an impact on academic success. Johnson et al. (1999) investigated academic outcomes of the Ottawa cohort, using standardised reading, spelling, and maths assessments. There were 78 19-year-olds with language impairment at this follow-up timepoint, and 128 TD controls. The mean SS of the language impairment group were: reading 91, spelling 92, and maths 88. By contrast, those of the TD were much higher: reading 113, spelling 106, and maths 107. At this timepoint there were also differences in nonverbal ability between these two groups (language impairment group $M = 92$, TD group $M = 110$), but bearing in mind the interaction between language and NVIQ (Botting, 2005) (section 1.4), this is unsurprising. Johnson and colleagues’ findings illustrated potential differences in academic attainment between adolescents with language impairment and their TD peers, although the statistical significance of group differences was not stated, and NVIQ was not controlled for. Furthermore, this study did not elucidate how adolescents with language disorder fared in examinations.
Stothard, Snowling, Bishop, Chipchase, and Kaplan (1998) concurred with Johnson et al. (1999) on the influence of language on literacy outcomes. They found that SLI persisting beyond the age of 5:6 was associated with lower literacy composite scores on the Wechsler Objective Reading Dimensions test (Wechsler, 1993) at 15 years of age, in a longitudinal study of 71 participants. Snowling, Adams, Bishop, and Stothard (2001), following up children from the same cohort, addressed the issue of the impact on examination results. The found that only 8.3% of the persistently language-impaired group ($N=30$) obtained five or more GCSE\(^2\) passes at grades A – C, compared to 67.4% of the TD control group ($N=49$). This is a high percentage for the control group, given a national average in 1999 of 47.8%. Dockrell, Lindsay, Palikara, and Cullen (2007) suggested a slightly more positive picture, such that 12.8% of 65 adolescents with SLI gained five GSCEs at grades A – C. However, at that time, the national average had also risen, to 56.3% (DfE, 2015) so it is debatable whether this represented progress in real terms.
Unlike Johnson et al. (1999), Conti-Ramsden, Durkin, Simkin, and Knox (2009), controlled for NVIQ in the Manchester Language Study, thus enabling investigation of the specific impact of language on academic attainment. They studied 120 adolescents who had a history of SLI, and 121 TD controls. Current language status was established using the Word Classes and Recalling Sentences subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Revised (CELF-R: Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 1987). After controlling for IQ and maternal education, early and concurrent literacy and language were predictive of examination success at 16+. A mean of 1.7 ($SD = 2.7$) GCSE grades A* - C were achieved by the SLI group, compared with 6.5 ($SD = 3.8$) by the controls.
\(^2\) General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, taken in the UK at the age of 16.
The converging findings of these studies provide strong evidence of the links between language skills and academic success. The next section will look specifically at the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and academic attainment.
1.6.1 Vocabulary knowledge and academic attainment
Vocabulary knowledge is an aspect of language that is particularly crucial for accessing the curriculum. The influence of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension has been demonstrated both in TD children and in children with a family history of dyslexia. Nation and Snowling (2004) examined the relationships between oral language skills at 8:5 and reading ability at 13 years in a cohort of 72 TD children. Phonological skills, measured by bespoke rhyme generation and rhyme judgement tasks, and expressive vocabulary, measured with the vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-3: Wechsler, 1991), were both strong predictors of word recognition and reading comprehension. These findings were supported by Snowling, Muter, and Carroll (2007), who classified 50 12 – 13-year-olds on the basis of family history and current reading levels into three groups: children with dyslexia, children at risk of dyslexia but unimpaired, and age-matched TD children. There was a significant main effect of group for all language measures (Vocabulary and Verbal Similarities subtests from the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1999), a bespoke sentence recall task, and a bespoke phoneme awareness task), with both the at-risk unimpaired and the control groups performing better than the dyslexia group.
These findings emphasise the association between vocabulary and reading outcomes. The amount a child reads also plays an important part in long-term vocabulary development. Muter and Snowling (2009) found that the amount of a child’s exposure to print was a predictor of reading achievement at eight years of age, meaning that the less a child reads, the less their reading develops. This impacts upon vocabulary development, because children and adolescents typically absorb new vocabulary through derivation of meaning from context during reading, as well as direct instruction (Nippold, 2007). In a vicious circle, limited vocabulary, in turn, impacts on the further development of reading, particularly affecting reading comprehension. Stanovich (1986, p.360) uses the term the ‘Matthew effect’ (“the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”) to describe this reciprocal relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading ability.
It has already been noted that language and literacy ability are associated with examination success at 16+ (Conti-Ramsden et al., 2009). Croll (1995) provided evidence of the contribution that vocabulary makes to this. Croll followed up 101 children from the Bristol Study (Wells, 1986) at 16 years of age. There were two cohorts of children: the older cohort took ‘O’ levels and Certificates of Secondary Education\(^3\); and the younger cohort took GCSEs. Receptive vocabulary was assessed at 3:3 with the English Picture Vocabulary Test (Brimer & Dunn, 1962). In both cohorts, a significant correlation between receptive vocabulary at 3:3 and 16+ examination results was found.
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\(^3\) ‘O’ levels and Certificates of Secondary Education were examinations taken in the UK at the age of 16. They were replaced by GCSEs in 1988.
In summary, the effects of language disorder and vocabulary difficulties on academic outcomes are well established in the literature. In addition, language disorder is frequently associated with behavioural, social, and emotional difficulties, and continues to be implicated in a range of long-term occupational and psychiatric outcomes. These will be discussed in the following sections.
1.7 Language disorder and behaviour
Links between language disorder and behaviour have been shown in a number of studies. Benner, Nelson and Epstein (2002) conducted a systematic review of 26 studies which explored the prevalence of co-occurring language disorder and emotional and behavioural difficulties. Overall in the studies reviewed, which covered an age range of four to 19 years, 71% of children who had been identified with emotional and behavioural difficulties also experienced clinically significant language deficits, and 57% of children with diagnosed language deficits also experienced emotional and behavioural difficulties. The authors stated that these relationships were correlational and were unable to comment about direction of causality.
It is now widely recognised that behavioural difficulties are often the outward manifestation of an underlying factor such as social or emotional well-being (Ofsted, 2005), a position supported by recent research (Bornstein, 2017).
1.8 Social well-being
Using the friendships and social relationships section of the Social-Emotional Functioning Interview (SEF: Howlin, Mawhood, & Rutter, 2000), Durkin and Conti-Ramsden (2007) assessed 121 15-year-olds with SLI from the Manchester Language Study cohort, and 118 TD peers. The groups were matched on age and SES. The SLI group mean SS on the CELF-R Word Classes (Receptive) subtest was 83.7 ($SD = 16.5$); on the Recalling Sentences subtest, 73.6 ($SD = 10.3$); and on the WISC-3 Performance IQ scale, 84.3 ($SD = 18.8$). The means for the TD group were 99.9 ($SD = 13.3$); 97.5 ($SD = 14.9$); and 101 ($SD = 15.2$) respectively. The SEF is a structured interview where responses are coded and scored following assessment. The students and their parents also completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ: Goodman, Meltzer, & Bailey, 1998). This questionnaire, completed by students, parents, and teachers, has scales for Emotional Symptoms, Conduct Problems, Hyperactivity/Inattention, Peer Relationship Problems, and Prosocial Behaviour. The first four scales can be combined to obtain a Total Difficulties score. Based on three self and parental report measures, elicited during the SEF (having a normal range of non-intimate relationships; having more than one friend with shared interests; and having one or more relationship involving sharing and seeking contact), only 60% of the adolescents with SLI reported good friendship quality, compared to 97% of the TD peers. Fifty-four percent reported having a normal range of non-intimate relationships, compared to 92% of the TD peers. Even after controlling for NVIQ, the SDQ Prosocial score, and the SDQ Total Difficulties score, language remained predictive of reported friendship quality.
Clegg, Hollis, Mawhood, and Rutter (2005) showed the impact of language disorder on social well-being into adulthood. They followed up 17 men in their thirties (mean age 36 years; range 33:0 – 38:1) who had had receptive language disorder when recruited at seven years of age. At
the age of seven, group mean verbal IQ SS of the cohort of 18 children on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Wechsler, 1949) was 76.5 ($SD = 10.82$) while the group mean NVIQ SS was 90.81 ($SD = 10.47$) (Bartak, Rutter, & Cox, 1975). In the follow-up study, non-language-disordered siblings of each participant (apart from for one participant who had no siblings) acted as controls (mean age 36:10; range 25:0 to 44:0). Clegg et al. also used the SEF, but an earlier version (Rutter et al., 1988). They found that only 47% of the men in the language disorder group reported a normal range of friendships, compared to 100% of their siblings. These figures are comparable to those of Durkin and Conti-Ramsden (2007), thus providing corroborative evidence.
1.9 Emotional well-being
As well as an association between language and social well-being, there is evidence for an association between language disorder and emotional well-being. Joffe and Black (2012) recruited students (mean age 12:8; $SD = 4$ months) from mainstream secondary schools (serving 11 – 16-year-olds), who had low academic attainment according to school records. Following language assessment, 352 students were included who scored -1 $SD$ below the mean on at least two of the assessments or -1.5 $SD$ below the mean on one assessment. Language assessments included: the BPVS-2; the Formulated Sentences and Recalling Sentences subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals—Fourth Edition (CELF-4; Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003a); and the Expressive Vocabulary, Multiple Contexts, and Figurative Usage subtests of the Test of Word Knowledge (TOWK: Wiig & Secord, 1992). Although these students had no formal diagnosis of language disorder, and were not in receipt of speech and language therapy support, their language assessment profiles indicated a difficulty with language sufficient to impede their access to the curriculum. Students, parents, and teachers completed the SDQ for each student. On the Emotional Symptoms, Conduct Problems, Hyperactivity, and Peer Relationship Problems scales of the SDQ, a higher score indicates greater difficulty. On the Prosocial Behaviour scale, a lower score indicates greater difficulty. The students with low language and academic attainment scored significantly higher on the Emotional Symptoms subtest, as well as on the total SDQ score, than the published normative mean. There were positive correlations between student-reported total SDQ scores and academic attainment, with students who had lower academic attainment having higher total SDQ scores. There was also a positive correlation between student-reported SDQ and receptive vocabulary on the BPVS-2, with students who had lower receptive vocabulary levels showing higher total SDQ scores. These findings provide supporting evidence of the links between vocabulary and academic attainment, as well as the impact on emotional well-being.
Jerome, Fujiki, Brinton, and James (2002) examined a possible contributing factor to emotional vulnerability, investigating self-esteem measures in 23 children with SLI and 23 TD children in a six to nine-year-old age group, and 17 children with SLI and 17 TD children in a 10 – 13-year-old age group. They used the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (Harter & Pike, 1984) for the younger children, which has sub-scales for general competence (Cognitive Competence and Physical Competence) and social acceptance (Peer
Acceptance and Maternal Acceptance). In the six to nine-year-olds, there was no difference between the children with SLI and the TD children on these scales. For the older age group, the Self-Perception Profile for Children (Harter, 1985) was used. This has scales for Scholastic Competence, Athletic Competence, Behavioural Conduct, Social Acceptance, Physical Appearance, and Self-worth. In the 10 – 13-year-olds, there was a significant difference between the SLI group and the TD group in scholastic competence, social acceptance, and behavioural conduct; however, the group scores of the SLI children still fell within one standard deviation of the normative mean. This indicated that although the older children with SLI did not have low self-esteem per se, it was lower than that of their TD peers. These different results between the younger and the older age group suggest that self-esteem in children with SLI decreases with maturity, perhaps due to increased self-awareness and greater concern with social comparisons (Harter & Pike, 1984). Thus, as adolescence advances, the child with language disorder may have a heightened perception of the discrepancy between their own ability and that of their peers, adversely affecting their self-esteem and emotional well-being.
Emotional well-being was indeed found to be at continued risk, by Botting, Durkin, Toseeb, Pickles, and Conti-Ramsden (2016), who followed up 81 participants from the Manchester Language Study at the age of 24 years. The participants with language impairment presented with more emotional health problems as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory, second edition (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck & Steer, 1993), in comparison with 87 age-matched peers.
This profile of academic, behavioural, social, and emotional difficulties within the population of those with language disorder has been shown to have long-term consequences in a number of areas, affecting the individual’s ability to function as an effective member of society. These will now briefly be discussed.
### 1.10 Language disorder and long-term outcomes
#### 1.10.1 Criminal behaviour
Research has found an association between language disorder and criminal behaviour. Bryan (2004) assessed 58 young offenders (mean age 17 years) in one young offenders’ institution in the UK. A high prevalence of speech, language and communication difficulties was found on measures of naming (43%), grammatical competency (73%), comprehension (23%), and picture description (47%). Although this is only from one institution, research by Snow and Powell (2011) provided corroborating evidence, finding that 46% of a sample of 100 young offenders (mean age 19 years) at one Australian young offenders’ institution scored at least two SD below the mean on two of three subtests (Ambiguous Sentences, Listening Comprehension - Making Inferences, and Figurative Language) of the Test of Language Competence – Expanded edition (Wiig & Secord, 1989) and also on the core language score from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, 4th edition, Australian standardization (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003b). These figures compare unfavourably with the 12% of adolescents in the general population with language disorder (section 1.4.2).
1.10.2 Mental health
In the study by Clegg et al. (2005), four of the 17 men with language disorder (24%) presented with symptoms of depression. The siblings of the men with language disorder, and a cohort from the National Child Data Study (NCDS: Ferri, 1993), matched to the language disorder cohort on NVIQ and SES, were used as comparisons: only one (6%) of the siblings and 9.6% of the NCDS cohort showed symptoms of depression. Two (12%) of the men with language disorder had developed schizophrenia, compared with <1% of the general population (Kirkbride et al., 2012). As a small sample, this study has limited generalisability to a wider population. Beitchman et al. (2001), however, reported on the psychiatric outcomes of a larger sample, in the Ottawa Study, finding significantly higher rates of psychiatric disorder at 19 years of age in 31 (40%) of the 77 participants with language disorder, compared with 27 (21%) of 129 unimpaired controls. In the Joffe and Black (2012) study, psychiatric problems were not apparent at twelve years of age, with only the teacher rating of the Prosocial Behaviour scale falling within the clinical threshold for borderline psychiatric disorder. This suggests that mental health problems may increase through adolescence and adulthood in young people with language disorder.
1.10.3 Employment
Language disorder, impacting as it does on academic success (section 1.6), has consequences for employment outcomes. Of the men in the Clegg et al. (2005) study, only 59% were in employment, compared to 94% of their siblings, and 96% of the NCDS cohort. The 25-year-old adults in the Ottawa Study (Johnson et al., 2010) whose language impairment as a group was less severe, fared better: 76% of the language-impaired group and 82% of unimpaired controls were in full or part-time employment; however, the language-impairment group had less earning capacity; 50% earning <$20,000 per annum compared to 36% of controls, and 3% earning >$50,000 compared to 12% of controls.
1.10.4 Summary of language disorder and long-term outcomes
The research on social, emotional, and long-term outcomes cited here did not investigate vocabulary per se as a risk factor; however, as was explained in section 1.1, vocabulary is the linchpin of language, and vocabulary knowledge is particularly crucial for accessing the curriculum (section 1.6.1). The interaction between all the factors mentioned here is complex, but this brief summary of the literature indicates that in addition to, and perhaps partly because of, the impact on academic success, children with language disorder are at risk of less favourable long-term life outcomes than their peers in a range of domains. This dismal outlook for some children and adolescents with language disorder provides a strong rationale to intervene in order to enhance the vocabulary skills of those with language disorder, and vindicates continued intervention into adolescence. One such intervention is the subject of the main experimental study of this thesis, described in Chapter 6.
Summary of Chapter 1
Language is central to communication amongst members of a society, and vocabulary, in turn, is central to language (section 1.1). Semantic skills, phonological processing ability, and verbal working memory are fundamental to the acquisition of new vocabulary (section 1.2). In older children and adolescents, a range of factors additionally contribute to successful word learning, such as experience, motivation, and literacy (section 1.3). Up to 12% of children and adolescents have language disorder (section 1.4) and frequently show deficits in vocabulary acquisition (section 1.5).
The link between vocabulary knowledge and academic progress is well-established (section 1.6). Furthermore, language disorder has long-term influences on a range of social, emotional, health, and employment outcomes (sections 1.7 - 1.10). A premise central to the current thesis, therefore, is that improving vocabulary skills will enhance the life chances of young people with language disorder. The central purpose of the investigations in this thesis is to explore the effectiveness of direct phonological-semantic intervention in the classroom for adolescents with language disorder. An experimental study exploring this is reported in Chapters 6, 7, and 8. But before coming to this, the literature on vocabulary interventions for children (Chapter 2) and adolescents (Chapter 3) will be reviewed, and vocabulary intervention from the practitioner perspective will be explored (Chapter 4).
Chapter 2
Vocabulary intervention for children with language disorder
Overview
Chapter 1 described how children who have language disorder frequently have difficulties with vocabulary acquisition, with these difficulties often persisting into adolescence. Semantic and phonological processing skills were shown to be within-child factors in the acquisition of new vocabulary. The link between language, particularly vocabulary knowledge, and academic progress was explored; and language disorder was shown to have long-term influences on a range of social, emotional, health, and employment outcomes. The evidence delivers a mandate for educational and clinical professionals to support and develop the vocabulary skills of the children and adolescents they work with.
In the current chapter, the research evidence pertaining to enhancing the vocabulary skills of children and adolescents will be explored. This will be divided into the following sections:
- Vocabulary instruction for typically developing children (section 2.1)
- Vocabulary intervention for children with language disorder (section 2.2)
- Universal, targeted, and specialist models of intervention delivery (section 2.3)
The chapter concludes with a summary of the rationale for the current research.
2.1 Vocabulary instruction for typically developing children
2.1.1 Literacy-based approaches
A widely-advocated approach to vocabulary teaching is that of Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002; 2013), who promote the concept of robust vocabulary instruction. Robust vocabulary instruction involves discussing in depth the vocabulary encountered in literary texts in class. The rationale is that there are too many words to teach individually, and therefore the aim is to create an interest in wanting to know what new words mean, to encourage asking questions for clarification, and to explore and discuss personal contexts in which one might use a word. There is an emphasis on using contextual cues from the adjacent text, and on using morphological cues within the word. This is essentially a semantic approach, and one which fosters independent word learning in literary contexts. Beck and colleagues advocate using a three-tier approach to vocabulary, as explained in Table 2.1. Examples are taken from Beck et al. (2002, p.16).
Robust vocabulary instruction focusses on the teaching of Tier 2 words: words which are crucial to the understanding of the text, and are of maximum functionality because they occur in a variety of contexts. A rule of thumb for identifying a Tier 2 word is whether it is a more advanced word for a concept which a child can already express e.g. *fortunate* for *lucky*. In this way, children are given opportunities for building on prior knowledge, and for adding to and enriching their existing lexicon. Beck and colleagues describe the implementation of robust vocabulary instruction within the context of the English classroom, where literary appreciation is the purpose of the lesson. The concept of Tier 2 words can be also applied to the wider curriculum, where they are known as cross-curricular words. This includes a set of words sometimes known as command words, or exam words. These are often verbs e.g. *compare*, *evaluate*, *predict* (AQA, 2016).
Evidence for the effectiveness of the robust vocabulary approach comes from early studies in the USA by Beck and colleagues; for example, Beck, Perfetti, and McKeown (1982). In this study, 27 fourth grade (9 – 10 years old) TD children received robust vocabulary intervention in Language Arts lessons over 12 weeks. Their word knowledge was compared with 39 control children who did not receive the intervention. The children were matched pairwise on pre-test vocabulary and reading scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS: Hieronymus, Lindquist, & Hoover, 1979), and bespoke vocabulary tests which included semantic decisions, sentence verification, and story recall. These measures were also used as the outcome measures. The children who received the intervention made significantly greater progress than the control group on the bespoke measures, and also on the ITBS, indicating that there was a generalisation effect of intervention, enhancing independent word learning.
Corroborative evidence of the success of a literacy-based approach was provided by another study in the USA by Lubliner and Smetana (2005), working with 77 TD children aged 10 – 11 in an area of social disadvantage. Intervention included teaching the use of clarifying strategies, practice of these during reading, and building word knowledge. Intervention took place in a whole-class setting, twice a week for 12 weeks. Outcome measures included the extent to which participants could identify words that they did not know in reading passages, and a multiple-choice reading comprehension assessment, which included general comprehension questions as well as a 20-item vocabulary comprehension test. Significant progress was made with all these outcomes. Mean vocabulary gain on the vocabulary comprehension test from pre-intervention to
post-intervention was 1.94 words out of 20. Lack of progress during a repeated baseline period suggested that progress was attributable to the intervention.
2.1.2 Oral language approaches
McGregor, Sheng, and Ball (2007), also in the USA, have provided some evidence that an approach without recourse to the written word can enhance word learning in TD children. Thirty-four TD children, eight years of age, were randomly assigned to a high-exposure or a low-exposure group, and were taught 20 words through individual watching of a slide show. Pictures of each referent were presented on-screen with a pre-recorded script containing the spoken word. For 10 words, no further information was given, but for the other 10 words, definitional and semantic information was also given. In the high-exposure group, words were heard 32 times, and in the low-exposure group, words were heard 16 times. Depth of word knowledge was assessed through a definition production task. Children in the high-exposure group performed significantly better on the definition production task for words learnt in the more informative context than in the less informative context, whereas children in the low-exposure group performed similarly in both learning contexts. Although this study did not replicate the natural learning context of the classroom, it illustrated that both exposure and amount of informative content have an impact on word learning in an experimental setting.
2.1.3 The extent of vocabulary instruction for typically developing children
The evidence so far described suggests that the vocabulary skills of TD children can be enhanced using word-learning opportunities both with and without a literacy component. Despite the evidence for effective universal direct vocabulary instruction, there is limited evidence that this takes place in schools. Ford-Connors and Paratore (2015) undertook a systematic review which explored vocabulary teaching practices with 10 – 16-year-old TD students. After excluding studies involving children with SEN, 33 studies were reviewed. The authors concluded that, even though there were studies showing evidence of successful whole-class methods for in-depth vocabulary teaching, involving focussed discussion, and the teaching of independent word-learning strategies, these practices were not commonplace in the classroom. They report that vocabulary teaching tended to take the form of direct instruction of targeted words rather than more in-depth vocabulary skills teaching. Although most of the studies in the review were based in the USA, this view echoed earlier observations of others in the USA and UK (Dockrell & Messer, 2004; Graves, 1987; Nagy & Herman, 1987), seeming to indicate that there has been little change over a number of years. This places children and adolescents who need specific vocabulary support at a disadvantage, since many children and adolescents with language disorder are educated in mainstream schools (Lindsay, Dockrell, Mackie, & Letchford, 2005).
2.2 Vocabulary intervention for children with language disorder
If in-depth vocabulary teaching is not commonplace in mainstream classrooms, children with language disorder may need an enhanced level of vocabulary support in order to keep pace with the vocabulary demands of the classroom. Literacy-based approaches to supporting vocabulary development may be insufficient for children with language disorder, who frequently have
limitations in literacy development (McArthur et al., 2000; Stanovich, 1986). Arguably, therefore, they are less able to glean information from the written word, and thus less able to benefit from literacy-based approaches. Although McGregor et al. (2007) have shown that an oral vocabulary approach can be successful in enhancing word-learning, they did not investigate whether such an approach would be effective in children with language disorder. The present section will consider whether children with vocabulary deficits need more specific and targeted intervention in order to benefit maximally from word-learning opportunities.
Section 1.5 explained two contrasting views of the basis of word-learning inadequacies: either that they are largely semantic in nature (e.g. McGregor et al., 2002); or that there is a weakness of phonological processing, resulting in inaccurate phonological representations (e.g. Constable et al., 1997). As will be seen, studies have measured the enhancement of vocabulary skills in different ways. Before examining the evidence for semantic and phonological intervention, these various forms of assessment will first be outlined.
2.2.1 Assessment of vocabulary skills
The varied forms of assessment of vocabulary skills enhancement measure various facets of word learning. The assessment of targeted word knowledge typically takes one of the following forms.
*Receptive vocabulary (comprehension)*
Receptive vocabulary is typically assessed through a multiple-choice assessment, either using a bespoke measurement containing target words, or standardised assessment such as the BPVS-2.
*Depth of word knowledge*
Multiple-choice tasks provide breadth of knowledge information only, giving no information about depth of word knowledge. Depth of word knowledge is variously assessed through bespoke definition production or drawing tasks. Standardised assessments include the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, second edition (WASI-2: Wechsler, 2011), or the Word Classes subtest of the CELF-4 UK. In a definition production task, the child is required to describe the meaning of the words, which provides depth of knowledge information, and although definition production tasks are dependent upon expressive language skills, they provide insight into a child’s semantic representation of a word in a way that a multiple-choice task does not (Dockrell et al., 2007). In the Word Classes subtest of the CELF-4 UK, the child is given four words (e.g. *pillow – door – blanket – lamp*) and asked to identify the two that go together (the receptive scale), and to say why (the expressive scale).
*Expressive vocabulary (naming)*
Expressive vocabulary is typically assessed through bespoke picture-naming tasks, or a standardised naming assessment such as the Expressive Vocabulary subtest of the CELF-4 UK,
giving information on a child’s repertoire of expressive vocabulary as well as insight into any word-finding difficulties.
**Independent word learning skills**
Assessment of the generalisation of intervention to independent word learning frequently takes the following forms:
- A bespoke author-created measure to assess progress on a control set of words, which measures near-transfer effects.
- Standardised assessment, which gives an indication of far-transfer effects.
The assessment of generalisation effects is discussed further in section 184.108.40.206.
The evidence for semantic and phonological intervention to enhance vocabulary skills of children with language disorder will now be examined.
### 2.2.2 Semantic intervention
Semantic intervention directly teaches features of word meaning, such as function, location, attribute, and category, as well as strategies for linking new words with words for other known concepts, with the aim of strengthening and developing children’s semantic representations. The suggestion that children with language disorder need more specific and targeted vocabulary intervention than TD children is supported by Justice, Meier, and Walpole (2005), who examined the word learning of 57 kindergarten children in the USA with low vocabulary levels, aged 5:0 – 6:5. Stories were read by an adult to small groups of children, in 20 sessions over 10 weeks. In one condition, the words were exposed only in context through the reading of the story. In a second condition, denoted the elaboration condition, in addition to the words being exposed through the reading of the story, children were also given the definition of the word followed by an example of its use in a sentence. Depth of word knowledge was measured using a bespoke definition production task. The researchers found that elaboration was necessary for the children to learn the meanings of new words. Furthermore, in the elaboration condition, children with lower baseline vocabulary scores made greater progress than children with higher baseline vocabulary scores. By comparing a context-only condition with an elaboration condition, Justice et al. extended the findings of McGregor et al. (2007) from a TD population to a population of children with language disorder.
Nash and Snowling (2006) conducted an experiment in the UK which elucidated why exposure in context is not sufficient to foster vocabulary development for children with low vocabulary levels. In a between-groups study of 7 – 8-year-olds, 24 children with low vocabulary levels were taught 24 words in two conditions: in the first, they were taught the definitions of words; in the second, they were explicitly taught strategies for deriving meaning from context. Children received intervention in small groups for 30 minutes twice a week for six weeks. Word knowledge was measured through a bespoke staged assessment which involved firstly a definition production task, then a multiple-choice task. These researchers classed the definition production task as an expressive vocabulary measure, although the children were not required to say the word. A further
24 words were assessed but not included in the intervention programme in order to examine transfer to independent word learning. After intervention, the children in the context condition were able to express more knowledge about both taught and untaught words than the children in the definitions condition. The researchers concluded that when children receive direct teaching in how to derive meaning from context, this is even more effective than being taught definitions.
The evidence from these two studies suggests that a two-pronged approach can successfully impact on the word learning of children with language disorder; firstly, providing direct definitional instruction, and secondly, teaching strategies for independent word learning.
### 2.2.3 Phonological intervention versus semantic intervention
As children with language disorder may have weaknesses in both semantic and phonological processing (section 1.5), evidence will now be considered for the relative value of phonological intervention versus semantic intervention. Phonological intervention directly teaches phonological features of word forms, and strategies for linking new words with other similar-sounding words, for example by initial phoneme, rhyme, or number of syllables.
In this section, firstly, the impact of intervention on receptive vocabulary is considered, then depth of word knowledge, and finally expressive vocabulary.
#### 220.127.116.11 Phonological versus semantic intervention: receptive vocabulary
Zens, Gillon, and Moran (2009) constructed a study design that allowed separation of the effects of phonological input from semantic input. Nineteen children with SLI in New Zealand aged 6:3 – 8:2 were matched by gender with a control group of 19 TD children. For 15 of the children, matches also included age and NVIQ, but this was not possible for the remaining four. The criteria for SLI was a SS of -1.25 SD on the CELF-4 (no subtests were stated so an assumption has to be made that this refers to the Total Language Score). The children with SLI received intervention, delivered by a speech and language therapist (SLT)\(^4\), in small groups for one hour twice a week, for six weeks, and the TD children in the control group received no intervention. Half of the children with SLI received phonological intervention followed by semantic intervention, and the remainder received the same interventions in reverse order. The phonological intervention comprised generalised phonological awareness training, unrelated to the words used in the semantic intervention. Phonological awareness was assessed through bespoke tasks involving phoneme blending, phoneme isolation, phoneme segmentation and phoneme deletion. The semantic intervention included categorisation tasks such as word generation, word associations, and similarities. Semantic skills were assessed through bespoke tasks involving word generation, word description, relational vocabulary, and word associations. Receptive vocabulary was assessed using a bespoke picture-pointing test with the intervention words. The children with SLI made significant progress in phonological and semantic skills, unlike the control group who made
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\(^4\) In some countries, e.g. USA, Australia, and New Zealand, speech and language therapists are known as speech-language pathologists. The terms speech and language therapist and speech and language therapy are used throughout this thesis with no intention of distinction from speech-language pathologist and speech-language pathology.
no progress; thus, the authors attributed progress to the intervention. However, the authors reported that neither phonological-first nor semantic-first intervention could be demonstrated to have any impact on receptive vocabulary, because receptive vocabulary scores were close to ceiling.
18.104.22.168 Phonological versus semantic intervention: depth of word knowledge
In another study comparing phonological with semantic intervention, Steele, Willoughby and Mills (2013) compared phonological, semantic, and combined phonological-semantic intervention during reading, with 11 TD children and 12 children with language impairment, aged nine to 11 years, in the USA. The phonological intervention included blending (discrimination) and segmenting (production) tasks; the semantic intervention included the provision of a synonym and definition as well as elicitation of the word. There was also a control condition in which the children were shown the written word and heard it spoken aloud but were not required to say the word. Each child received individual intervention for five words in each condition. Assessment and intervention, delivered by an SLT or SLT pre-registration student, took approximately four sessions with each child. Depth of word knowledge was measured through a dynamic assessment task eliciting descriptions of word meaning. The researchers reported that phonological-only intervention was of no assistance in the acquisition of word meaning for either group, whereas both TD and children with language disorder made progress following semantic and combined phonological-semantic intervention. In this study, the phonological input was entirely dissociated from semantic input, and in the phonological condition, no definitional or contextual cues were given. Therefore, these results, although unsubstantiated by statistical analysis, are unsurprising, as the children could not be expected to glean any information about word meaning. The focus of the paper was on between-group differences, and for this their conclusions were supported by statistical analysis. No significant differences in word learning were found between the semantic only and the combined phonological-semantic conditions for either group, suggesting that the addition of phonological input conferred no added benefit.
22.214.171.124 Phonological versus semantic intervention: expressive vocabulary
As was discussed in section 1.5, some research (e.g. Gray, 2005; Lahey & Edwards, 1999) suggests that phonological processing ability is particularly important for expressive vocabulary. Three studies are described here which measured expressive vocabulary skills and aimed to make a direct comparison between phonological and semantic intervention.
Wing (1990) worked with two groups of five 6-year-olds who had word-finding difficulties, in the USA. The groups were matched by age and raw scores on the Test of Word Finding (TWF: German, 1989). Raw scores were used because the scores of many of the children were lower than the standardised norms on the TWF. One group received semantic intervention, which involved semantic elaboration of an unspecified number of words; the other group received phonological intervention, which involved phonological elaboration of a different set of 99 words, as well as perceptual tasks to develop imagery and visual memory. Children received thirty 25-minute intervention sessions with a SLT over two and half months. In the latter part of the intervention period, children did the phonological or semantic activities with the other word set;
thereby, all children were exposed to the same words. Children in the phonological-perceptual group made significantly greater progress on the TWF than the children in the semantic treatment group. However, no information was provided about whether the individuals’ word-finding difficulties were predominantly due to phonological deficits or semantic deficits, which could have differentially influenced the children’s response to intervention approaches. Moreover, this small-scale study did not strictly contrast phonological-only with semantic-only treatment, as the phonological treatment included a visual-perceptual content which was not included in the semantic treatment.
Hyde Wright, Gorrie, Haynes, and Shipman (1993) extended this line of research in the UK, working individually with 30 children with language disorder aged 8:1 – 14:6. These children also had word-finding difficulties, as shown by TWF standard scores; and, like Wing (1990), no information was provided on the individuals’ profiles of word-finding difficulty. Children were matched by age and divided into two groups. Fifteen children received individual intervention delivered by SLTs for 150 words, involving elaboration of words through games, three times a week for five weeks. For half the children (N=8), the elaboration was semantic; for the other half (N=7), it was phonological. The remaining 15 children acted as controls, receiving no intervention. The outcome measure was a naming task for 50 words not included in the intervention. Between-groups comparisons showed a significant treatment effect: children receiving semantic intervention made significantly greater progress than the control group, whereas children receiving phonological intervention made no more progress than the control group. These results seemed to indicate that developing semantic skills was more effective in facilitating word retrieval than developing phonological awareness skills. However, the semantic intervention gave rise to more opportunities for greater elaboration, thereby taking more time (30 mins per session) than the phonological intervention (15-20 mins per session), resulting in an unequal dosage of intervention, and possibly more exposure to the words.
Bragard, Schelstraete, Snyers, and James (2012) overcame the limitations of Wing (1990) to some extent by defining the phonological intervention more stringently, and the limitations of Hyde Wright et al. (1993) by controlling dosage. They compared phonological with semantic intervention in a case study series of four Belgian French-speaking children with word-finding difficulties aged 9:6 – 13:9. Children received three 30-minute sessions over three weeks, followed by two weekly sessions of assessment, then a further three 30-minute sessions over the next three weeks. In each session, children received phonological intervention for one set of eight words followed by semantic intervention for a different set of eight words. There was a further set of eight control words, but it is not clear how these were used. Specific phonological and semantic skills were assessed using these 24 experimental and control words. These words were a subset of 80 words which were additionally used in outcome measures of naming accuracy, naming response times, and analysis of naming errors. Bragard et al. gave more information about the type of word-finding errors made by the children than did Wing and Hyde Wright et al., with the intention of investigating potential differential responses to intervention in relation to individual children’s linguistic profiles. It was hypothesised that children with semantic deficits would respond better to semantic intervention, and that children with phonological deficits would
respond better to phonological intervention. This was the case with one of the children; however, for two of the children, the reverse happened. For the other child, the basis of the word-finding difficulty was not fully explained. The authors suggested that the results could illustrate the value of building on children’s strengths rather than targeting their weaknesses, although with only four children it is premature to draw firm conclusions.
These were all small-scale studies, and their findings are inconclusive regarding the effectiveness of phonological intervention versus semantic intervention in improving the expressive vocabulary skills of children with word-finding difficulties. A possible confounding factor is the problem of entirely dissociating phonological information from semantic information. The study by Zens et al. (2009) (section 126.96.36.199) investigated expressive vocabulary as well as receptive, and, as already noted, their study design allowed separation of the effects of phonological input from semantic input. The expressive outcome measure in their study was a naming task of the 27 words used in the semantic intervention. The group who had received phonological-first intervention made significant gains in naming, but the group who had received semantic intervention first, and the control group, did not. This showed that the phonological-first intervention had a greater impact on expressive vocabulary than semantic-first intervention, and as such provides a small amount of support for the hypothesis that phonological processing ability is particularly important for expressive vocabulary.
**188.8.131.52 Summary of phonological versus semantic intervention**
To summarise, evidence is weak with regard to the relative merits of phonological and semantic intervention for improving receptive vocabulary, depth of word knowledge, or expressive vocabulary. The finding of Steele et al. (2013), that phonological-only intervention does not improve knowledge of word meaning, does, however, confirm that phonological information needs to be linked to semantic information about the words in order to increase the efficiency and accuracy of word storage and to strengthen lexical representation (Leonard, 1998; Nash & Donaldson, 2005). Accordingly, the evidence for combined phonological-semantic intervention will now be considered.
**2.2.4 Combined phonological-semantic intervention**
Much of the evidence for phonological-semantic intervention for children with language disorder has explored intervention in small-group or individual models of delivery. There is some research addressing phonological-semantic intervention in a whole-class setting, and this will be discussed further in the section on models of delivery (see section 2.3). Meanwhile, in order to focus closely on the *type* of intervention in the present section, only studies implementing phonological-semantic intervention in small-group or individual models of delivery will be discussed here. Receptive vocabulary, depth of word knowledge, and expressive vocabulary outcomes will be considered, followed by the impact of combined phonological-semantic intervention on the development of independent word learning skills. Lastly, the evidence for phonological-semantic intervention compared with increased exposure will be explored.
184.108.40.206 Combined phonological-semantic intervention: receptive vocabulary
Progress in receptive vocabulary skills in response to phonological-semantic intervention has been reported by Parsons, Law, and Gascoigne (2005). These UK researchers used a combined phonological-semantic approach to teach 18 maths words in individual intervention, in 18 30-minute sessions, delivered by a SLT over seven or eight weeks, for two children with SLI aged 8:10 and 9:5. Receptive vocabulary was assessed through bespoke multiple-choice methods using pictures, objects, and the written word, by a SLT who was blind to the treatment status of the words. Both participants made significant gains in comprehension of the 18 treated words compared to 32 untreated words, though as the sample size was small (N=2), these findings needed corroboration.
Wilson et al. (2015) also used a bespoke receptive vocabulary outcome measure in another within-subjects study in the UK, with twelve children aged seven to 11 years who had word-finding difficulties. The study design allowed differential assessment of three sets of words: experimental words used in phonological-semantic intervention; active control words in the same category (pictures of which appeared in intervention sessions but were not spoken); and passive control words in a different category (which did not appear in intervention at all). Intervention was delivered individually by a SLT, in two 15-minute sessions a week for six weeks. Intervention was based on a therapy schedule used by Ebbels et al. (2012) (see section 220.127.116.11). This was reported by Ebbels et al. to include games, questions, and activities designed to develop knowledge of item function, location, attribute, category, and phonological information, and to use these as word-finding strategies. Receptive vocabulary was assessed by asking children to find a named item from four items in the same category; however, pre-intervention scores were close to ceiling, so improvements could not be demonstrated.
18.104.22.168 Combined phonological-semantic intervention: depth of word knowledge
Two studies have used depth of word knowledge as an outcome measure. In a UK study, Clegg (2014) worked with five boys aged six to eight years who had language disorder as well as social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties. Phonological awareness training was used as a precursor to phonological-semantic intervention. Like the study by Zens et al. (2009), the words featuring in the phonological awareness training were unrelated to the words subsequently targeted in the phonological-semantic intervention. In the phonological-semantic intervention, six curriculum words were taught by a SLT in individual intervention, and compared with six control words from the same topic that were being taught in the classroom by a teacher. The individual intervention was delivered twice a week for six weeks in sessions 20 – 30 minutes long. Depth of word knowledge was assessed through eliciting descriptions of word meaning. All the children learnt the meanings of all the target words and none of the control words. This was interpreted as demonstrating the effectiveness of phonological-semantic intervention, although possible differences in exposure of the target versus control words were not accounted for.
A larger study was conducted in Germany by Motsch and Marks (2015). These researchers compared the performance on standardised assessment of 153 children with SLI aged eight to nine years following phonological-semantic intervention. The children were randomly divided into
experimental (phonological-semantic intervention: “Lexicon Pirate”, p.237) and control (usual therapy) conditions. In Lexicon Pirate, as the children collected treasures (words), the words were elaborated upon phonologically and semantically through means of questions. The intervention was delivered individually (30-minute sessions) or in small groups (45-minute sessions) by a SLT, in 20 sessions over five months. The experimental group made significantly more progress than the control group on the Acting Sequences subtest (sentence comprehension) of the Sprachstandserhebungstest 5 – 10 (Petermann, 2010), and the Vocabulary subtest (semantic relations) of the Potsdam-Illinois Test for Psycholinguistic Abilities (Potsdam ITPA; Esser, Wyschkon, Ballasch, & Hansch, 2010), though not on the Forming Analogies subtest of the Potsdam ITPA. A confounding factor in this study was that most of the children (140/153) continued to receive additional vocabulary support in the classroom, and some were also in receipt of additional individual school support and/or speech and language therapy. It is not clear in the paper how many children this refers to, nor is the content of the additional support or therapy explained. To overcome these confounding factors, the researchers conducted analyses including only those children who were not receiving additional input, and this showed even greater treatment effects on semantic relations, and also a significant treatment effect on forming analogies, confirming a positive impact on depth of word knowledge in response to the experimental intervention. When the dosage of the experimental intervention and additional therapy was compared, the control group were reported to receive a higher dosage of input; therefore, progress was attributed to the content of the experimental intervention.
Evidence is thus beginning to accumulate that phonological-semantic intervention can successfully improve receptive vocabulary and depth of word knowledge in primary school age children (aged five to 11 years) with language disorder in individual and small-group settings, but as the children in the studies reviewed here were aged six to nine years, exploration of this in the secondary school age group (aged 11 to 16 years) is lacking.
### 22.214.171.124 Combined phonological-semantic intervention: expressive vocabulary
This section reviews studies investigating the impact of combined phonological-semantic intervention on expressive vocabulary.
Easton, Sheach, and Easton (1997) was one such study in the UK, in which four children with SLI, aged 10:9 – 10:11, received group intervention in a specialist language setting in a mainstream primary school. Two intervention sessions a week for five weeks were taken alternately by a SLT and a teacher. Forty experimental words were taught using a combined phonological-semantic intervention, and 40 control words received no intervention. Semantic elaborations and phonological elaborations for each word were provided through games. Semantic elaborations included discussion of function, location, attribute, group, association, and synonyms. Phonological elaborations included initial sound, syllable, rhyme, initial letter, and finger-spelling. It was reported that all four children made greater improvements in naming the experimental words than in naming the control words. Although this was a promising result, only four children were involved and no information on statistical significance was given, so improvement might have been due to chance.
More empirically sound evidence was provided by Ebbels et al. (2012), albeit still with a small sample. Ebbels and colleagues looked at the effectiveness of semantic intervention, which contained a phonological component, on word retrieval in students with specific word-finding difficulty aged 9:11 - 15:11 in a specialist language school in the UK. A randomised control design was used; eight participants receiving intervention versus seven waiting controls. Intervention was delivered individually by a SLT, in two 15-minute sessions a week for eight weeks. Intervention included games, questions, and activities designed to develop knowledge of item function, location, attribute, category, and phonological information, and to use these as word-finding strategies. Knowledge of the words targeted in the intervention was not assessed, but rather, progress in the use of word-finding strategies was assessed through standardised tests. Improvement in single-word naming was shown by increase in standard scores on the Test of Adult/Adolescent Word Finding (TAWF: German, 1990), though no improvement was made at discourse level, using raw scores of the Test of Word Finding in Discourse (TWFD: German, 1991).
The study by Wilson et al. (2015) (section 126.96.36.199) used a bespoke naming outcome measure as well as their receptive vocabulary measure. Children made significant progress in naming the experimental words, as well as in naming the active control words (words in the same category which had appeared in intervention sessions). Their naming of passive control words (the words from a different category which had not appeared in intervention) made no progress. Thus, there was some generalisation effect of intervention to expressive vocabulary ability, but only to semantically-related words which had appeared in intervention without being spoken.
The promising findings of these small studies were corroborated by the large randomised controlled trial by Motsch and Marks (2015). As well as assessing depth of word knowledge, Motsch and Marks also measured expressive vocabulary using the Expressive Vocabulary subtest of the Wortschatz- und Wortfindungstest 6 – 10 (Glück, 2011). Following intervention, the experimental group made significantly more progress on this subtest than the control group. When analyses were conducted including only those children who were not receiving additional input, this showed even greater treatment effects.
Further support for combined phonological-semantic intervention was provided by Joffe, Rixon, Hirani, and Hulme (in preparation). These researchers implemented a vocabulary enrichment programme, which included teaching phonological and semantic strategies for word learning as well as activities to foster independent word learning skills. Three hundred and fifty-eight children with SLCN aged 12 – 13 years attending mainstream secondary schools in the UK were randomly assigned to one of four intervention groups: vocabulary, narrative, combined vocabulary and narrative, and control (delayed intervention). Intervention was delivered in small groups by teaching assistants, in two 50-minute sessions a week for six weeks. The children in the vocabulary group and the combined group made significantly greater gains in bespoke expressive vocabulary assessments than the children in the control group.
Overall, as these studies covered an age range of six to fifteen years, they provide converging evidence of the effectiveness of combined phonological-semantic intervention for expressive vocabulary in children and adolescents with language disorder.
188.8.131.52 Combined phonological-semantic intervention: independent word learning
Because there are too many words to teach individually (Beck, et al., 2013; Nagy & Herman, 1987), it is important to consider not only whether interventions impact upon specifically taught words, but also whether there is any generalisation effect of treatment, resulting in improved independent word learning ability. Findings on this subject are now reviewed, looking at several previously mentioned studies.
Using a bespoke author-created measure to assess progress on a control set of words, Wilson et al. (2015) found improvement in naming active control words (in the same category which had appeared in intervention sessions), but not in passive control words (in a different category which had not appeared). The authors proposed that intervention strengthened underlying semantic representations, as demonstrated by the generalisation of naming success to words which shared semantic features with the experimental words.
Using standardised assessment to measure generalisation effects of intervention, Easton et al. (1997) (section 184.108.40.206) reported increases in percentile scores on the TWF and Renfrew Word Finding Vocabulary Scale (Renfrew, 1988) but not the BPVS. Indeed, for three of the four children, BPVS scores seemed to have regressed. This was taken to indicate generalised improvements in naming but not comprehension, and while visual inspection of the data suggests that this may be the case, statistical information was not reported, nor were other variables discussed which may have contributed to this pattern of assessment results, such as the individual language profiles of the children. Motsch and Marks (2015), a much larger study (N=153) with results supported by statistical analysis, reported progress on three of four standardised assessment subtests. Ebbels et al. (2012) illustrated a generalisation effect of intervention by improvements on the TAWF, but there was no improvement on the TWFD.
One of the constraints on demonstrating improvement on a standardised outcome measure could be the timescale between pre- and post-intervention assessments. This view is supported by Marulis and Neuman (2010), who conducted a meta-analysis of vocabulary intervention in young children. The review covered 67 studies using a range of approaches with 5,029 TD children aged six or below. Greater effect sizes were found in studies using author-created outcome measures than in studies using standardised outcome measures. These researchers suggested that although independent standardised measures are more psychometrically robust, and may be a more rigorous option for measuring generalisation effects of intervention, they may not be sensitive enough over the timescale of a study to demonstrate the effectiveness of intervention. Bespoke word-knowledge assessments, although potentially weighted towards the content and target of the intervention, may, therefore, be a more viable option, even though they measure near-transfer rather than far-transfer effects. Marulis and Neuman’s recommendation is to employ a combination of standardised and author-created measures, so that a balanced position is achieved.
Two studies have, in fact, used both standardised and bespoke measures to assess response to intervention. The two participants in Parsons et al. (2005) made significant gains in a bespoke receptive vocabulary assessment of treated words, but not on the BPVS or the TWF, suggesting that progress in word knowledge was confined to the treated words, with no increase in independent word-learning skills. Similarly, in the study by Joffe et al. (in preparation), both the vocabulary intervention group and the combined narrative/vocabulary group made more progress on a bespoke vocabulary idiom awareness measure than the control group, suggesting near-transfer effects. However, changes over time on standardised vocabulary tests – the Figurative Usage subtest of the TOWK and the British Picture Vocabulary Scale, third edition (BPVS-3: Dunn, Dunn, Sewell, & Styles, 2011) – were not significant.
With the available evidence producing such a mixed array of results, additional research is required to further explore the impact of vocabulary intervention on independent word learning skills.
**220.127.116.11 Combined phonological-semantic intervention versus increased exposure**
Finally in this section, the issue of phonological-semantic intervention versus increased exposure will be considered. As Rice et al. (1994) illustrated (section 1.5), given increased word exposure, children with language disorder do have the capacity to learn new words. Many of the studies considered so far did not include in their design a comparison of specific phonological-semantic intervention versus increased exposure of the words. Some studies, however, have attempted to control for exposure in some form.
Wilson et al. (2015), as previously discussed, included an active control set of words. The pictures of these words appeared in intervention but they were not named or specifically targeted. Children made more progress in naming the experimental words compared to the active control words. However, there was no exposure to the spoken word of these active control words, only the picture, so this did not entirely address the issue of exposure.
Another example from the UK comes from St. John and Vance (2014), who delivered intervention for 10 experimental curriculum words to 18 five to six-year-olds who had a range of language and learning needs. Intervention was delivered in small groups by the teacher, daily for 10-15 minutes over three or four weeks. Intervention was multi-faceted, including games to strengthen and develop phonological-semantic links and independent word learning skills. Ten control curriculum words received routine exposure in the classroom but were not part of the specific intervention. Word knowledge was assessed through a checklist which involved naming as well as questions to elicit phonological and semantic knowledge about the words. The scoring system yielded an overall score rather than making a distinction between receptive vocabulary, depth of word knowledge and expressive word use. Children made progress in both sets of words, with progress in the experimental words being significantly greater than the control words, indicating that the phonological-semantic intervention was more effective in developing word knowledge than exposure without the phonological-semantic intervention. Bias was, however, present, in that the assessor was not blind to the treatment status of the words, and no reliability checks were reported.
The issue of phonological-semantic intervention versus routine or increased exposure has therefore not been satisfactorily resolved.
18.104.22.168 Summary of combined phonological-semantic intervention
In summary, there is limited evidence for the effectiveness of combined phonological-semantic intervention in increasing receptive vocabulary; some evidence for its effectiveness in increasing depth of word knowledge in primary school age children with language disorder; and some evidence for its effectiveness in increasing expressive vocabulary in primary and secondary school age children with language disorder. It is argued that the effectiveness of combined phonological-semantic intervention is due to two reasons: firstly, because phonological form and semantic content need to be linked in order to acquire new words (section 1.5.4); and secondly, because it addresses the individual constellation of skills in each individual, by not only developing skills in which there is a deficit (Nash & Donaldson, 2005), but also building on strengths (Bragard et al., 2012).
With regard to independent word-learning skills, a positive impact of intervention has been found when bespoke measures are used, but attempts to show generalisation effects through standardised assessment have met with mixed results. Concerning the relative value of phonological-semantic intervention versus routine or increased exposure, further research is required.
In order to focus closely on the *type* of intervention, only studies using an individual or small group model of delivery have been explored in this section. In the next section, the *model* of the intervention will be examined; namely, the relative merits of delivering intervention individually, in small groups, or in a whole-class approach.
2.3 Universal, small-group, and individual models of intervention delivery
The terms *universal*, *targeted* and *specialist* are frequently used in the UK to describe levels of health and educational provision for children with SEN and disabilities. *Universal* provision is available to all children, as exemplified by whole-school approaches or whole-class teaching. In relation to SLCN, *targeted* services are provided for children identified as being at risk, such as those of low SES, or children with speech or language difficulties that are expected to be transient. At the targeted level, children are withdrawn from the classroom for periods of time-limited intervention, either individually or in small groups. *Specialist* services are provided for children with severe and complex speech and language disorder, who require ongoing or intensive intervention. At the specialist level, individual intervention is often required.
These levels broadly equate to the waves model of intervention (Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), 2008). Wave 1 (universal) refers to whole-class teaching for all pupils and is known as “Quality First Teaching” (p.9); Wave 2 (targeted) refers to small-group time-limited additional intervention for pupils just below national expectations; Wave 3 (specialist) refers to individual or small-group intervention with a trained and supported teaching assistant or specialist teacher.
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) recommends a framework of workforce management which accounts for the role of the SLT at all levels of universal, targeted, and specialist provision (Gascoigne, 2006). The way speech and language therapy resources can be deployed is illustrated in the balanced system model of Gascoigne (2012), shown in Figure 2.1. This framework shows a greater amount of speech and language therapy resource (specialist workforce) being used per child at targeted level than at universal level, and an even greater amount of speech and language therapy resource per child at specialist level. A child who has severe and complex speech and language disorder may receive input at all three levels: he may be in receipt of individual intervention, as well as time-limited group interventions, and in addition, specific strategies may be in place within class to support his communication and his access to the curriculum. The model of delivery employed may alter at different points in a child’s course of development. As the framework illustrates, within the context of school, the role of the specialist (a SLT), may be to provide specialist intervention, as well as to train and support others (for example, teachers and teaching assistants) to deliver targeted or universal intervention.
In this thesis, the term *universal* will be used to refer to *whole-class* models of intervention delivery. This will be contrasted with the terms *small group* and *individual* in order to reflect the model of intervention delivery, rather than whether the intervention is classed as targeted or specialist, because targeted and specialist levels of provision may take both small-group and individual forms.
### 2.3.1 The advantages of universal intervention
Sections 2.1 and 2.2 presented evidence that although being given a definition of what a word means provides a useful foundation for word learning, the word also needs to be encountered several times within meaningful contexts, which provides opportunities to develop independent
word learning skills. Thus, a well-rounded understanding of the word’s meaning can be attained, embedding the new word within the existing lexicon and extending existing representations. For children and adolescents with language disorder, the strengthening of phonological and semantic skills may also be required (section 1.5). An individual model of intervention delivery may be indicated for some children and adolescents with language disorder so that they may develop such skills, but encountering words in class provides a natural incentive for needing to know what the words mean (Miller & Gildea, 1987), and provides opportunities to derive meaning from the contextual clues of the lesson. A one-to-one setting necessarily removes the student from the lesson and thus from the opportunities afforded by the context of the lesson. From a theoretical stance, therefore, providing specific word-learning activities within the classroom may be advantageous.
There are also educational considerations to be taken into account when deciding on an appropriate model of intervention. Students moving to secondary school at 11 years of age encounter an increasingly complex and exam-orientated educational environment, with government policy in the UK exerting pressure on teachers for their students to achieve high examination grades (Department for Education (DfE), 2017a). Ehren (2002) described the challenge of withdrawing students from class to provide individual or small-group intervention in secondary schools: the students miss out on the content of lessons, which often results in them falling further behind, placing more demand on the student and the teacher.
In addition, remaining in the classroom rather than being withdrawn for individual tuition is preferable for a substantial proportion of children. Klingner, Vaughn, Schumm, Cohen, and Forgan (1998) found that 37.5% of a cohort of 32 children aged nine to 11 with learning disability (known as specific learning difficulty or dyslexia in the UK) preferred an inclusion model of support. This percentage may be even higher during the teenage years, when peer acceptance becomes of paramount importance (Whitmire, 2000). “When students just want to fit in, any educational practice that singles them out may be doomed” (Ehren, 2002, p.65). To address these concerns, Ehren advocated the concept of curriculum-relevant therapy, the essence of which is collaboration between teacher and SLT.
A whole-class approach to vocabulary intervention may also have resource advantages, particularly at secondary school, as many children with language disorder in the UK are educated in mainstream schools (Lindsay et al., 2005), and specialist speech and language support typically decreases as children move from primary to secondary education (Lindsay et al., 2002; Bercow, 2008). As the balanced model (Gascoigne, 2012) shows, the wider workforce has greater contact with children than the SLT does, thus a small amount of speech and language therapy time spent training the wider workforce could potentially address the needs of a large number of children and adolescents through universal provision.
2.3.2 The evidence for universal vocabulary intervention
22.214.171.124 Semantic intervention in a universal model
Marulis and Neuman (2010), in their meta-analysis of vocabulary intervention in young children, found that instruction was equally effective in all models of delivery; whole-class, small-group, or individual. Furthermore, the largest effect sizes were found amongst those who had received instruction in a whole-class model.
A range of intervention models can also be effective with primary school age children who have language disorder. In the USA, Throneburg, Calvert, Sturm, Paramboukas, and Paul (2000) compared three models of vocabulary intervention in 177 children with language disorder aged five to nine years: 1) a collaborative model in which the teacher and SLT planned and delivered intervention in the classroom together; 2) an independent class-based model in which the SLT delivered intervention in the classroom without the teacher; and 3) a withdrawal model in which the SLT delivered intervention outside the classroom individually or in small groups. Sixty words were targeted in the intervention, and knowledge of 20 of these was used as the outcome measure, using bespoke tasks measuring comprehension, definition production, and usage. Children with language disorder who had received the collaborative model of intervention made significantly greater progress than those who had received the independent class-based model or withdrawal model. Progress was compared with that of TD children from twelve separate classes. The number of control children was not specified. Those who had received the collaborative model or the independent class-based model made significantly greater progress than those who had received routine class-based teaching. These results suggested that both TD children and children with language disorder benefited from specific vocabulary intervention, and that the children with language disorder benefited still further from the added value created by the collaboration of the teacher and SLT. A caveat to this conclusion is that the children already in receipt of speech and language therapy intervention (32/177) continued to receive this, individually or in small groups, in addition to the classroom intervention, and this could have contributed to their overall progress. In addition, clarification was lacking in exactly how the intervention conditions differed, or what the content of the intervention was.
Starling, Munro, Togher, and Arciuli (2012) investigated a universal approach to language intervention (not specifically vocabulary) in older students. Two Australian schools were randomly assigned to an experimental or waiting-control condition. A whole-school training programme was implemented in the experimental school, in which teachers were trained to modify their oral and written language in order to provide support for those with language impairment. The language profiles of 21 students (13 – 14 years of age) were measured on the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Australian Standardised Edition (Wechsler, 2007), and showed significant progress in the Listening Comprehension and Written Expression subtests in comparison with 22 students in the control school, although no difference was found on the Reading Comprehension or Oral Expression subtests, which involve receptive and expressive vocabulary skills respectively. This study demonstrated that collaborative working between teachers and SLTs can positively influence teachers’ language in the classroom, and that this change in practice can
impact on students’ language levels. The lack of impact on vocabulary skills could have been because, although a vocabulary component was included in the teacher training, the intervention did not specifically target vocabulary.
126.96.36.199 Combined phonological-semantic intervention in a universal model
Few studies have investigated the use of a combined phonological-semantic approach in a universal model of delivery. Boland (2009) addressed this in a small study involving 11 children with SLI and 41 TD children, aged 8:10 to 10:6, in mainstream schools. Ten teachers were trained in a combined phonological-semantic approach, and used this to pre-teach three new science words at the beginning of one lesson. Word knowledge was assessed using receptive, depth of knowledge (drawing) and expressive tasks. Progress was compared with three further science words which gained an equal amount of exposure during the lesson but were not pre-taught. As a group, the children with SLI made significant overall gains on the word knowledge tasks for the pre-taught words compared to the non-pre-taught words, but the intervention did not appear to benefit the TD controls, suggesting some narrowing of the gap between the children with SLI and the TD children.
Lowe and Joffe (2017) followed this up in a feasibility study with a class of 15 13 -- 14-year-old students with a range of language and learning needs, attending a mainstream secondary school in the UK. The teacher embedded phonological-semantic activities into curriculum delivery for 10 words, and progress was compared with 10 further words which were taught in the same topic but without using the phonological-semantic activities. Word learning progress, assessed through a definition production task, for the five lowest frequency words was significant in favour of the words taught using phonological-semantic activities. There were, however, limitations to this study: the high frequency of some of the curriculum words chosen, limiting the potential to demonstrate progress; difficulty achieving close matching of the experimental and control words; and the small sample size. Nonetheless, the approach was well-received by students and their teacher, which demonstrated the feasibility of phonological-semantic vocabulary intervention within mainstream secondary school classes.
A larger study in Ireland by Murphy et al. (2017) explored the delivery of an adapted Vocabulary Enrichment Intervention Programme (VEP; Joffe, 2011) within mainstream secondary school classes in a delayed intervention randomised control design. The VEP teaches phonological and semantic word learning strategies, with a focus on curriculum words as well as independent word-learning skills. This was delivered during 12 – 16 English lessons to 203 students aged 11:11 – 13:11 attending schools in an area of social disadvantage. Improvements in standard scores of the intervention group relative to the control group did not reach significance. When raw scores were considered, no between-group differences were found in the CELF-4 UK Word Classes (Receptive), Word Definitions, or Word Associations subtests, but the intervention group showed significantly greater progress relative to controls in raw scores on the CELF-4 UK Word Classes (Expressive) subtest and the BPVS-3. However, raw scores do not necessarily show relative improvement, as they would be expected to increase with maturity; therefore, any progress made could not be unequivocally demonstrated to be due to the intervention. Significant improvement
on standardised scores was reported for the experimental group following intervention on the Word Classes (Receptive), Word Classes (Expressive), and Word Definitions subtests of the CELF-4 UK, and on the BPVS-3. However, the waiting control group also made significant progress on the Word Classes (Receptive) and Word Definitions subtests, so improvements on these two measures cannot be accounted for by the intervention. The researchers noted that the students had recently begun to attend secondary school, and so improvements may have been influenced by exposure to the increased word-learning opportunities that secondary school provides. Nonetheless, following their delayed intervention, the waiting control group did make significant progress on the Word Classes (Expressive) subtest and the BPVS-3, whereas progress on these two subtests during the baseline period had been non-significant. Thereby, this study added strength to the evidence for the effectiveness of phonological-semantic vocabulary intervention in a mainstream secondary whole-class setting, but overall, due to the mixed pattern of results, the evidence provided by this study needs corroboration.
188.8.131.52 The impact of universal vocabulary intervention on academic attainment
A key purpose of improving the vocabulary skills of children and adolescents with language disorder is to enable improved access to the curriculum. No studies known to the current researcher specifically targeting vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder have included curriculum assessment in their outcome measures. Two studies are mentioned here which include participants with low vocabulary levels, though in the context of second-language learning as well as social disadvantage.
Snow, Lawrence, and White (2009), implemented a class-based vocabulary intervention in the Word Generation project in the USA, using a robust vocabulary approach (section 2.1.1) for cross-curricular words with 11 – 14-year-olds, for the duration of one academic year. The participating 697 students made progress relative to 319 controls on a multiple-choice reading task involving 40 of the 120 intervention words. The authors did not report statistical significance, but showed that the experimental group learnt a mean of 4.43 words, while the control group learnt a mean of 1.95 words ($d = 0.21$, small effect size). Vocabulary improvement was found to significantly predict scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, a curriculum assessment used in the USA. In a similar study with 2,082 11-year-olds, Lesaux, Kieffer, Kelley, and Harris (2014), as well as finding significant gains in bespoke reading comprehension tasks containing the taught words, also reported gains in standardised reading comprehension assessments, which would indicate generalisation of independent word learning skills, though the gains just fell short of significance.
184.108.40.206 Summary of universal vocabulary intervention
There is some evidence that a universal model of vocabulary instruction can be effective with younger children with language disorder, and adolescents with low vocabulary levels in the context of second language learning, but despite evidence that a phonological-semantic approach can be effective in small-group and individual models of delivery (section 2.2), there is limited research into the use of a phonological-semantic approach in a universal model with adolescents. A universal model of intervention delivery may be important at secondary school for several
reasons: to capitalise on natural word-learning processes; to minimise withdrawal from lessons; and to make efficient use of resources.
**Summary of Chapter 2 and rationale for the current research**
Review of educational studies in the literature has indicated that universal vocabulary teaching for all learners tends to consist of semantic, literacy-based approaches focussing on reading comprehension and the development of independent word-learning skills (section 2.1). However, despite evidence for the effectiveness of universal vocabulary teaching for all learners, it is reported that there is little explicit vocabulary instruction in schools, making children and adolescents with language disorder vulnerable. As these young people are less able to absorb meanings of new words through contextual abstraction, direct teaching of new vocabulary is particularly important for them.
Moreover, the universal vocabulary approaches for TD children and adolescents described in this chapter do not include explicit phonological instruction, raising the question of whether such an approach is used in practice. For children with language disorder, evidence from clinical studies favours a phonological-semantic approach. This has been found to be successful in individual intervention in specialist educational settings, and in individual or small-group intervention in mainstream settings (section 2.2.4). Nevertheless, the use of a phonological-semantic approach in a universal model of delivery in a mainstream secondary setting is under-researched (section 220.127.116.11). There is evidence for effective universal vocabulary intervention with adolescents in the context of social disadvantage in areas with a high proportion of second language learners, but not specifically with adolescents who have language disorder.
A whole-class context becomes increasingly important in the secondary school years, when the implementation of small-group or individual intervention can become problematic in terms of the disadvantages of withdrawing students from the classroom (section 2.3.1).
The review of the literature in the current chapter reveals three key priorities for further investigation. The first priority is to address the lack of research into the effectiveness of a phonological-semantic approach in a universal model of delivery in a mainstream secondary school setting. To establish whether this is an effective approach for enhancing the vocabulary skills of adolescents with language disorder is the central purpose of the current thesis. This forms the main experimental study of the thesis, which applies a therapeutic approach normally delivered in a small-group or individual setting to a universal setting. This experimental study is reported on in Chapters 6 (methods), 7 (results), and 8 (discussion). Prior to this, in the light of the limited research, a second priority is to undertake a thorough appraisal of the extant evidence regarding vocabulary intervention focusing exclusively on the adolescent age group. This is addressed in Chapter 3, by a systematic review of the current evidence base. Thirdly, because the literature reveals little about what type of vocabulary teaching currently takes place in the mainstream secondary school classroom in the UK, and because the experimental study needs to be relevant to clinical and educational practice, it is necessary to quantify and qualify current
speech and language therapy and teaching vocabulary practices. This is addressed by a survey of teachers and SLTs, reported on in Chapter 4.
Chapter 3
Vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder:
A systematic review
The systematic review reported in this chapter has been published as follows:
Lowe, H., Henry, L., Müller, L., and Joffe, V. (2017) Vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder: a systematic review. *International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders* Early View Online.
Overview
Chapter 2 identified a priority to undertake a thorough appraisal of the extant evidence regarding vocabulary intervention focusing exclusively on the adolescent age group. The current chapter, therefore, reports on a systematic review of the literature in this field. After a brief introduction and rationale, the methods section describes the inclusion criteria and the search strategy. The results section summarises the characteristics of the included studies (N=13) and rates their quality. The discussion section appraises these studies in terms of type of intervention approach and model of intervention delivery. The chapter concludes with a summary of the emerging evidence for the effectiveness of a phonological-semantic approach with the adolescent age group, and makes suggestions for future research.
The literature review in Chapter 2 evaluated some studies which were also identified during the systematic searches of the literature. These studies are also included in the current chapter in order to provide a comprehensive and cohesive account of vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder.
3.1 Introduction and rationale
Chapter 1 reported that 7 - 8% of five-year-old children have developmental language disorder as their primary need (Norbury et al., 2016), and that this can persist into adolescence (Johnson et al., 1999). When students are included who have language needs in association with another condition such as a known medical diagnosis or intellectual disability, prevalence rises to 10 - 12%. Evidence was presented that vocabulary skills are often at risk for children and adolescents with language disorder (e.g. Leonard, 1998; McGregor et al., 2013), and that vocabulary knowledge is associated with academic progress (e.g. Nation & Snowling, 2004).
Chapter 2 explored vocabulary intervention for children with language disorder, finding evidence for the effectiveness of a phonological-semantic approach (section 2.2). However, most of the evidence comes from studies of primary school age children, as less research has been conducted with the secondary school age group. Many changes take place during adolescence, both neurologically (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006) and socially (Whitmire, 2000), and, moreover, students moving to secondary school at 11 years of age encounter an increasingly complex and exam-orientated educational environment. It cannot, therefore, be assumed that the same therapeutic approach is applicable to the secondary school age group. The main purpose
of the current thesis was to conduct an experimental study (see Chapters 6, 7, and 8) which addresses this gap in the evidence base, investigating a universal model of delivery for combined phonological-semantic vocabulary intervention with adolescents who have language disorder. Prior to this, in order to ensure a thorough appraisal of the existing evidence in this field, a systematic review was performed.
Seven previous systematic reviews relevant to vocabulary intervention are known to the current researcher. Two reviews covered an adolescent age range (11 – 16 years), but did not include adolescents with language disorder (Ford-Connors & Paratore, 2015; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986); four included participants with language disorder or low academic attainment, but did not include 11 – 16-year-olds (Cirrin & Gillam, 2008; Cirrin et al., 2010; Marulis & Neuman, 2010; Steele & Mills, 2011); and one included the adolescent age range but only considered children with specific learning difficulties (Jitendra, Edwards, Sacks, & Jacobson, 2004). None of these reviews investigated vocabulary intervention specifically for secondary school age adolescents with language disorder.
The current review builds on and extends previous research by addressing the following specific question: What evidence is there for the effectiveness of vocabulary intervention in enhancing the vocabulary skills of adolescents who have language disorder?
3.2 Methods
The review was registered in the PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews on 24.5.15, under the title “Vocabulary intervention with adolescents who have language difficulties: a systematic review”, registration number CRD42015020846. The title was updated on 24.4.17 to “Vocabulary intervention with adolescents who have language disorder: a systematic review” to reflect current terminological usage.
3.2.1 Search strategy
The following databases were first searched between 5.6.15 and 9.6.15: Embase 1974-June 2015; Medline 1945-May week 5, 2015; Cochrane Central Register of Randomised Control Trials (RCTs); Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, British Education Index; Cinahl Plus with Full Text; Education Abstracts; ERIC-PsycArticles; PsycINFO; Academic Search Complete; Communication Source; Web of Science; BASE; and Open Grey. No date limits were set except for the Embase and Medline databases, in which date ranges are compulsory. In each database which utilised Boolean operators, the terms in each column were searched using “OR”, then these results were combined using “AND”. In databases which did not support this function, combinations from each column were searched using “AND”. Table 3.1 shows the concepts which were searched using subject terms and key word searches. Citation searching was carried out from the studies eligible for inclusion. The database searches were fully updated on 15.9.16. From this date, searches were kept up to date through database alerts, hand searching of journals and social media.
Table 3.1. Subject terms and key words used in searches
| Person | Condition | Intervention | Type of study |
|-----------------|----------------------------|------------------|---------------|
| adolescen* | “language impairment” | vocabulary | intervention |
| teenage* | “language disorder” | “word finding” | treatment |
| “young pe**” | “language delay” | | therapy |
| “young adult” | “language difficult*” | | instruction |
| | “language disabilit*” | | teaching |
### 3.2.2 Study eligibility criteria
Criteria for the inclusion of studies in the systematic review were:
- Intervention efficacy or intervention effectiveness studies
- Experimental studies of any methodology recognised on the hierarchy of evidence (Greenhalgh, 1997; 2014)
- Age range 11:0 – 16:11
- Language difficulties of any aetiology
- A focus on enhancing oral receptive and/or expressive vocabulary skills in the study’s aims
- Written in the English language.
In order to capture all relevant studies, the search was not restricted to peer-reviewed articles as long the studies met all the above criteria.
### 3.2.3 Data extraction
An adapted Cochrane Group data extraction form was used to screen for eligibility and to record exclusion codes. Abstract screening and full-text eligibility assessment was carried out by a second reviewer. There were three discrepancies between first and second reviewers on abstract screening, which were resolved once full texts were examined, resulting in 100% agreement. The data extraction form was then used to assess included studies for quality and risk of bias.
### 3.2.4 Quality appraisal
Studies were awarded a classification according to the American Academy of Neurology Classification of Evidence Scheme: Therapeutic (AAN: Gronseth, Moses Woodroffe, & Getchius, 2011). Out of the several hierarchies of health-care evidence which exist, the AAN was chosen because its detailed criteria for assigning a level of quality, and it has been used in other systematic reviews in the field of speech and language therapy e.g. Ballard et al. (2004). In this scheme, Class I is the highest rating (RCTs with blind assessment, concealed allocation, clearly defined outcomes, and attrition accounted for). Class II includes RCTs lacking one criteria for Class I; Class III includes other controlled trials with blind assessment; and Class IV is the lowest rating for studies not meeting Class I, II, or III criteria. Detail about the quality of included studies was recorded according to study design, sample size, blinding of assessment, fidelity, control...
measures, and statistical validity. These features were chosen as being indicators of quality according to the AAN. For each study, the features were recorded as present, absent, or unclear, according to the criteria listed in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2. Quality rating indicators
| | High quality | Low quality |
|--------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Study design** | Matching or randomisation used | Case study or case study series |
| **Sample size** | Over 10 in experimental group | 10 or below in experimental group |
| **Assessment** | Outcome measures assessed by assessors blind to treatment status | Outcome assessors not blinded to treatment status |
| **Fidelity** | Fidelity measures used | No fidelity measures reported |
| **Control measures** | Control measures used | No control measures reported |
| **Statistical validity** | Statistical analysis used | No statistical analysis reported |
### 3.2.5 Study characteristics
Outcomes of intervention were examined in relation to: age of participants; model of delivery used (individual, small-group, or whole-class), agent of change delivering the intervention; the setting; dosage; assessments; and type of intervention.
### 3.3 Results
#### 3.3.1 Study selection: results
The search strategy yielded 1320 references. These were screened by title, and exclusion codes recorded. The remaining studies were screened by abstract, using the adapted Cochrane Group data extraction form, and exclusion codes recorded. Seventy-three studies remained for full-text eligibility assessment, of which 60 were excluded. Three references yielded by this systematic search (Lowe & Joffe, 2012; McNamara, 2014; National Behaviour Support Service (NBSS), 2015), were reports on studies which have since been published in peer-reviewed journals: therefore, for the purposes of this review, further information about NBSS (2015) and McNamara (2014), was taken from Murphy et al. (2017), and information about Lowe and Joffe (2012) was taken from Lowe and Joffe (2017). One reference (Joffe, 2011) was a published intervention manual and contained little detail about the research, and further information was obtained from Joffe et al. (in preparation) through contact with the author. Wright, Pring, & Ebbels. (in preparation) was cited in Ebbels et al. (2017), found during hand-searching of journals, and was obtained by contacting the authors. Thus 13 studies remained for inclusion. The study selection process is illustrated in Figure 3.1.
3.3.2 Quality appraisal: results
Study design
Five studies were randomised controlled trials where individuals or groups were randomised to treatment condition (Ebbels et al., 2012; Joffe, 2006; Joffe et al., in preparation; Murphy et al., 2017; Spencer, Clegg, Lowe & Stackhouse, 2017) and one used a matched-participants design (Hyde Wright et al., 1993). Three were case studies or case study series (Bragard et al., 2012; Cross, Blake, Tunbridge, & Gill, 2001; Haynes, 1992) and four used a within-subjects design (Lowe & Joffe, 2017; Sim, 1996; Sim, 1998; Wright et al., in preparation).
Sample size
Six studies had 10 or fewer participants, limiting their generalisability to a wider population; nonetheless, overall, the 13 studies yielded data on 778 participants, of whom at least 678 were aged 11 – 16 years (see section below on age of participants for more details). This sample size would afford some external validity if the studies were sufficiently homogeneous and of high quality.
Blinding of assessment
Studies in which outcome assessors are not blind to participants’ treatment status are at risk of bias. Five studies (Ebbels et al., 2012; Joffe et al., in preparation; Lowe & Joffe, 2017; Spencer et al., 2017; Wright et al., in preparation) reported that assessors were blinded. Two stated that assessment was not blind (Bragard et al., 2012; Murphy et al., 2017), and in the remaining studies it was not clear.
Fidelity
Fidelity to treatment is important for intervention studies in order to minimise the influence of potential confounding variables. Robust fidelity measures strengthen the conclusions drawn by the authors. Only six studies reported that fidelity measures were taken, of which two (Ebbels et al., 2012; Joffe et al., in preparation) described their fidelity measures in detail.
Control measures
Three studies did not use any control measures (Cross et al., 2001; Sim, 1996; Sim, 1998). For the remaining studies, control measures varied considerably and are described in the discussion section.
Statistical validity
Ten studies used statistical analysis to support their findings: three did not (Cross et al., 2001; Sim, 1996; Sim, 1998).
Quality appraisal is summarised in Table 3.3. Studies are listed in the table in chronological order. According to the therapeutic AAN classification, three studies met criteria for class I (Ebbels et al., 2012; Joffe et al., in preparation; Spencer et al., 2017); two studies met criteria for class III (Lowe & Joffe, 2017; Wright et al., in preparation); and the remaining studies were rated as class IV, due to lack of blind assessment or lack of clarity regarding blind assessment.
3.3.3 Study characteristics: results
In this section, the included studies will be compared in relation to: language diagnosis of participants; age of participants; model of delivery used: agent of change delivering the intervention; the setting; dosage; assessment measures; and the type of intervention. Study characteristics are summarised in Table 3.4. Studies are listed in the table in chronological order.
Language diagnosis of participants
Inclusion criteria varied from study to study resulting in a range of diagnoses amongst participants. Five studies stated that participants had word-finding difficulties (Bragard et al., 2012; Cross et al., 2001; Ebbels et al., 2012; Haynes, 1992; Hyde Wright et al., 1993). Three reported low average receptive vocabulary levels (Lowe & Joffe, 2017; Murphy et al., 2017; Spencer et al., 2017). Other diagnoses included “speech and language difficulties” (Sim, 1996, p.136); “primary speech and language disorder” (Sim, 1998, p.84); “severe and complex difficulties in language and communication” (Joffe, 2006, p.209); “language disorder”, (Wright et al., in preparation) and “speech, language and communication needs” (Joffe et al., in preparation). Further detail on participants’ language profiles are included in section 3.4.
Age of participants
Seven studies included participants within the 11 – 16 age range only (N=648) Four studies included participants across different age ranges, but the ages of the participants are stated, so that it is known that 30 in total fell into the 11 -16 range. The remaining studies (Joffe, 2006; Wright et al., in preparation) included participants ranging from nine to 15 years of age, but mean ages only are stated, so it is not known exactly how many fell within the 11 – 16 age range. Where this was the case, group data for multiple ages was considered in the discussion section of this review.
Model of delivery
The model of intervention delivery used is one area of diversity in these studies. Five studies reported individual interventions, three used a small-group model, and four investigated a whole-class model of delivery. One study (Cross et al., 2001) was a single case study which involved both one-to-one and group intervention.
Agent of change
The term *agent of change* refers to the person who carries out an intervention and thereby effects change in the child’s or adolescent’s skills. The professional role of the agent of change in the studies reviewed also varied from study to study. Individual intervention was administered by a SLT in all cases. One of the small-group interventions (Joffe, 2006) was administered by speech and language therapy students, the second (Joffe et al., in preparation) was administered by teaching assistants, and the third (Spencer et al., 2017) by SLTs. Of the whole-class interventions, two were administered collaboratively by the class teacher and SLT (Sim, 1996; Sim, 1998), and two by class teachers (Lowe & Joffe, 2017; Murphy et al., 2017).
Setting
Six studies took place in a specialist school for children and/or adolescents with language disorder, one took place in a school with “special education classes” (Bragard et al., 2012, p.224), five in mainstream secondary schools, and one in a specialist childcare setting.
| Study | Randomisation of participants | Matching of participants | Sample size over 10 in experimental group | Blind assessment | Fidelity measures used | Control measures used | Statistical analysis used | AAN Class | Reason for AAN rating |
|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|--------------------------|-------------------------------------------|-----------------|------------------------|-----------------------|--------------------------|-----------|----------------------------------------|
| Haynes (1992) | No | No | No | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | IV | Blind assessment not stated |
| Hyde Wright, Gorrie, Haynes, and Shipman (1993) | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | IV | Blind assessment not stated |
| Sim (1996) | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | IV | Blind assessment not stated |
| Sim (1998) | No | No | No | ? | ? | No | No | IV | Blind assessment not stated |
| Cross, Blake, Tunbridge, and Gill (2001) | No | No | No | ? | ? | No | No | IV | Blind assessment not stated |
| Joffe (2006) | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | IV | Blind assessment not stated |
| Bragard, Schelstraete, Snyers, and James (2012) | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | IV | Not blind assessment |
| Ebbels et al. (2012) | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | I | RCT |
| Murphy et al. (2017) | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | IV | Not blind assessment |
| Spencer, Clegg, Lowe, and Stackhouse, (2017) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | I | RCT |
| Lowe and Joffe (2017) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | III | Not randomised or matched |
| Joffe, Rixon, Hirani, and Hulme (in preparation) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | I | RCT |
| Wright, Pring, and Ebbels (in preparation) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | III | Not randomised or matched |
Key: ? = Information not clear in paper.
| Study | Study design | Number of participants | Age of participants in years and months (number aged 11–16) | Model of delivery and agent of change | Setting | Type of intervention | Dosage | Key conclusions | Limitations |
|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Haynes (1992) | Case study series | 2 | 10:1 and 11:5 | 1:1. SLT | Specialist language education setting | Semantic: elaboration vs definition | 25 mins 3 times a week for 4 weeks | No demonstrable progress on bespoke assessment. | Words not matched. Study not completed. |
| Hyde Wright, Gorrie, Haynes, and Shipman (1993) | Between-groups (age-matched) experimental study | 30 | 8:1 – 14:6 (12) | 1:1. SLT | Specialist language education setting | Semantic vs phonological vs waiting control | 30 mins semantic or 15-20 mins phonological 3 times a week for 5 weeks | Semantic therapy was more effective, measured by bespoke assessment. | Dosage of semantic therapy was higher than phonological therapy. |
| Sim (1996) | Within-subjects repeated measures | 26 | 11 – 12 | Whole class. Teacher | Specialist language education setting | Compensatory approach (including direct vocabulary teaching in class) pre- to post-comparison | In science lessons for four months | Word learning improved on bespoke assessment. Mutual trust required for effective multi-disciplinary collaboration.. | No statistical information. No control measures. |
| Sim (1998) | Within-subjects repeated measures | 10 | 12 – 13 | Whole class. Teacher | Specialist language education setting | Compensatory approach (including direct vocabulary teaching in class); pre- to post-comparison | 45 mins 3 times a week Duration not stated | Word learning improved on bespoke assessment. Multi-disciplinary collaboration can be effective. | No statistical information. No control measures. |
| Study | Design | N | Age Range | Group | Setting | Intervention | Duration | Progress Measures | Limitations |
|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------|----|--------------------|--------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Cross, Blake, Tunbridge, and Gill (2001) | Single case study | 1 | 14 | 1:1 and small group. SLT | Specialist childcare setting | Phonological-semantic, word finding strategies, definition practice: pre- to post-comparison | One hour twice a week for one year | Progress on Figurative Usage subtest of TOWK. | No statistical information. No control measures. Incomplete reporting of results. |
| Joffe (2006) | RCT | 54 | 10:0 – 15:3 (Not stated. Mean age 12:8) | Small group. SLT students | Mainstream secondary school | Semantic vocabulary intervention vs narrative | 50 mins twice a week for 6 weeks | Progress on BPVS-2, ACE 6 – 11 non-literal comprehension, and CELF recalling sentences for both groups. | No control group. |
| Bragard Schelstraete, Snyers, and James (2012) | Case study series | 4 | 9:6 – 13:9 (3) | 1:1. SLT | Specialist language education setting | Semantic vs phonological | 30 mins once a week for 5 weeks | Children with phonological deficit responded better to semantic therapy and vice versa, on bespoke assessment. | Small sample size. Ceiling effects. Not blind assessment. |
| Ebbels et al. (2012) | RCT | 15 | 9:11 – 15:11 (14) | 1:1. SLT | Specialist language education setting | Phonological-semantic: intervention vs waiting control | 15 mins twice a week for 8 weeks | Progress on TAWF but not on TWFD. | Small sample size. Limited generalisability to other schools. |
| Murphy et al. (2017) | RCT | 203| 11:11 – 13:11 | Whole class. Teacher | Mainstream secondary school | VEP (Joffe, 2011) intervention vs waiting control | 40 mins twice a week for 12 weeks | Progress on CELF-4 UK Word Classes (Expressive) subtest, and the BPVS-3. | No baseline period. Not blind assessment. |
| Spencer, Clegg, Lowe, and Stackhouse (2017) | RCT | 35 | 12:1 – 13:11 | Small group. SLT | Mainstream secondary school | Phonological-semantic: experimental vs control words; and intervention vs waiting control | One hour once a week for 10 weeks | Delayed intervention group made progress in word knowledge of experimental words. | Limited generalisability to other schools. |
| Lowe and Joffe (2017) | Within-subjects repeated measures | 15 | 13:3 – 14:1 | Whole class. Teacher | Mainstream secondary school | Phonological-semantic vs routine teaching practice | 50 mins 3 times a week for three weeks | Progress on bespoke assessment of borderline significance. | Ceiling effects. |
| Study | Design | Sample Size | Age Range | Intervention Setting | Interventions | Duration and Frequency | Outcomes | Status |
|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------|-------------|--------------------|----------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| Joffe, Rixon, Hirani, and Hulme (in preparation) | RCT | 358 | 12 – 13 | Small group TA | Mainstream secondary school | Vocabulary (phonological-semantic) vs narrative vs combined vs waiting control | 40-60 minutes 3 times per week for 6 weeks | No significant difference on standardised vocabulary assessment, but significant progress on bespoke assessment. | Not yet peer reviewed. |
| Wright, Pring, and Ebbels (in preparation) | Within-subjects repeated measures | 25 | 9:4 – 16:1 (not stated: mean age 12:5) | 1:1. SLT | Specialist language education setting | Phonological-semantic: experimental vs control words, and nouns vs verbs | 30 minutes once a week plus 5 minutes once a week for 7 weeks | Greater progress with experimental than with control words on bespoke assessment. | Not yet peer-reviewed. |
Key:
- ACE 6 – 11 = Assessment of Comprehension and Expression 6 - 11
- BPVS-2 = British Picture Vocabulary Scale, second edition
- CELF = Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals
- SLT = Speech and language therapist
- TA = Teaching Assistant
- TAWF = Test of Adult/Adolescent Word Finding
- TWFD = Test of Word Finding in Discourse
- TOW = Test of Word Knowledge
- vs = versus
Dosage
Where intervention was embedded within the classroom curriculum, it was not possible to estimate a dosage figure accurately. In those studies reporting individual intervention, intervention regime varied widely. Excluding Cross et al. (2001), which has an outlying cumulative intervention dosage of 52 hours, the cumulative intervention dosage ranged between 2.5 hours and 7.5 hours, with a mean of 4.55 hours. Dose frequency in studies reporting individual intervention ranged between one and three times a week, and intervention duration ranged between four and eight weeks.
Assessment
Eight studies used only bespoke word knowledge outcome measures (Bragard et al., 2012; Haynes, 1992; Hyde Wright et al., 1993; Lowe & Joffe, 2017; Sim, 1996; Sim, 1998; Spencer et al., 2017; Wright et al., in preparation). Of these, seven reported increased word knowledge of targeted words. Bespoke assessments measured vocabulary knowledge in diverse tasks: receptive (e.g. picture pointing tasks), expressive (e.g. naming, sentence production); definition production tasks, which involve expressive language skills but also indicate depth of word knowledge; and phonological knowledge (e.g. identifying syllable number).
Four studies used only standardised vocabulary assessment, in order to measure the impact of the intervention on independent word learning skills (Cross et al., 2001; Ebbels et al., 2012; Joffe, 2006; Murphy et al., 2017), and one study used both bespoke and standardised assessment (Joffe et al., in preparation). All of these report progress on some of the assessments used but not others. Again, there was a wide range of assessments used, each tapping different aspects of word knowledge. Examples have been given in section 2.2.1.
A further indication of generalisation to independent word learning skills would be to measure academic attainment, to evaluate the impact of the vocabulary intervention on wider access to the curriculum. None of the included studies addressed this.
Type of intervention
The type of intervention varied from study to study, but all took phonological and/or semantic approaches. Interventions included: semantic intervention (4 studies); comparison of phonological versus semantic intervention (2); and combined phonological-semantic intervention (7 studies). These will be explored further in the discussion section.
Overall, there was a large degree of methodological diversity amongst the studies, with a trend of increasing empirical rigour over time. Therefore, it was felt appropriate to review these studies through a narrative synthesis rather than a meta-analysis.
3.4 Discussion
This narrative review will appraise the included studies in relation to the type of intervention used: semantic intervention; comparison of phonological versus semantic intervention; and combined phonological-semantic intervention.
3.4.1 Semantic intervention
Four studies delivered semantic intervention. One of these (Haynes, 1992) used an individual model of delivery; two (Sim, 1996; Sim, 1998) used a whole-class model of delivery; and one used a small-group model of delivery (Joffe, 2006).
Haynes (1992) investigated the effectiveness of semantic vocabulary intervention, comparing an elaboration condition with a definition condition in individual intervention, with two boys aged 10 and 11 years. One boy’s percentile rank on the BPVS (edition not stated) was 24, the other’s 34, indicating age-appropriate receptive vocabulary, but both had expressive vocabulary difficulties, achieving 7th and 1st percentile ranks respectively on a word finding assessment (described in the paper as “German”; Haynes, 1992, p.4), and presenting with indicators of word-finding difficulty such as pausing while searching for a word, or making semantic or phonological naming errors. A list of 30 words was chosen according to the particular interests of each boy and used in the elaboration intervention condition. Each boy’s word list acted as the control list for the other boy, in the definition intervention condition. In the elaboration condition, words were used in a context in which the boys were actively involved; in the definition condition, the words and their definitions were read aloud to the boys who listened passively. Dosage of intervention was 25 minutes, three times a week, over a period of four weeks. The outcome measure was a definition production task. The plan was to continue intervention, reversing the condition in which the words appeared; however, after four weeks, one boy had made minimal progress with the definition set of words, and the other boy had made no progress with either set (though statistical analysis was not used), so the study was discontinued. This decision appears to have been made on the basis of discontinuing ineffective intervention. The author acknowledged methodological weaknesses such that the word lists were not matched, and word knowledge baselines were not equated. As such, the value of this paper lies in its discussion of the issues around carrying out clinical research in real-life settings rather than the empirical evidence it provides.
The two papers by Sim (1996; 1998) described the development and evaluation of a “compensatory approach” (Sim, 1998, p.84) to the teaching of science vocabulary and concepts with 12 – 13-year-olds in a specialist language school. Neither study gives language assessment scores for the pupils but describes them as having speech and language difficulties (Sim, 1996) and primary speech and language disorder (Sim, 1998). Intervention took place in the classroom, and encompassed four elements: practical demonstration; language integrated into the teaching by all the staff involved; motivation created by the resources in the “mystical” environment of the science laboratory (Sim, 1998, p.86); and increased exposure by lengthening the duration of the topic. Children additionally received vocabulary support through individual speech and language therapy sessions. In Sim (1996), progress in vocabulary acquisition for a group of 26 students following one lesson was reported for four words, though the bespoke outcome measure “expressive vocabulary recognition” was not explained (Sim, 1996, p.142). In Sim (1998), progress for a group of 10 students following one topic (duration not stated) was reported for 13 words on measures of naming and semantic representation, using questions about the targeted words e.g. “Which of these items is a material?” (Sim, 1998, p.88) No information was given,
however, about the relative impact of the classroom intervention compared to the individual speech and language therapy sessions, neither were any control measures nor statistical analysis used. The author presented these two papers as an opportunity to explore and promote multi-disciplinary collaboration in order to achieve curriculum differentiation.
Joffe (2006) conducted a RCT with a cohort of 54 adolescents aged 10:0 - 15:3. The participants had “severe and complex difficulties in language and communication” (Joffe, 2006, p.209), defined as scoring 85 or below on a range of standardised assessments including the BPVS-2, the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, third edition (CELF-3: Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2000), and the Assessment of Comprehension and Expression 6 - 11 (ACE 6 - 11: Adams, Crooke, Crutchley, Hesketh, & Reeves, 2001). Participants were randomised into two groups to receive intervention delivered by student speech and language therapists in small groups in mainstream secondary schools, for two 50-minute sessions a week over a six-week period. One group received semantic vocabulary intervention, which included categorising words through mind maps, as well as the use of synonyms, antonyms, multiple meanings, and definitions; and the other group received narrative intervention which included story structure, story description and inferential understanding. Both groups made significant progress on the BPVS-2, the Recalling Sentences subtest of the CELF-3, and the Non-Literal Comprehension subtest of the ACE 6 - 11. These results suggested a generalisation effect of intervention, but there were no differential effects between the narrative intervention and the vocabulary intervention.
With only one of these studies (Joffe, 2006) demonstrating enhancement in vocabulary skills in an empirically sound design, and with both vocabulary and narrative groups in this study showing enhanced vocabulary skills, the evidence for the effectiveness of semantic-only therapy in the adolescent age group is limited.
### 3.4.2 Comparison of phonological versus semantic intervention
Two studies attempted to establish the relative merits of phonological versus semantic intervention in enhancing the expressive vocabulary skills of children with language disorder. Hyde Wright et al. (1993) compared the effect of phonological and semantic intervention on naming ability, working with 30 children who had word-finding difficulties aged 8:1 – 14:6. Twelve of these children were aged 11 or over. All the children had standard scores 85 and below on the TWF. In a matched-group design, children received individual intervention three times a week over a period of five weeks, one group receiving phonological intervention and the other group receiving semantic intervention. The authors found that semantic intervention was significantly more effective than the phonological information in improving the naming of untrained pictures. The dosage of semantic intervention (approximately 30-minute sessions), however, was higher than that of the phonological intervention (approximately 15- to 20-minute sessions), so the result could be accounted for by increased dosage rather than type of intervention.
Using a similar intervention, Bragard et al. (2012) reported a case series of four children with word-finding difficulties aged 9:6 – 13:9. Three of these children were aged 11 or over. The children scored on the 6th, 1st, 18th, and 1st percentile respectively on the picture naming subtest the Evaluation du Langage Oral (Khomsi, 2001). The four children presented with differing
linguistic strengths and weaknesses; two showing semantically-based word-finding difficulties, and two showing phonologically-based word-finding difficulties. Phonological intervention for 24 words was compared with concurrent semantic intervention for 24 words. Progress in naming these words was compared with a control set of 24 words which received no intervention. How the words were allocated to experimental or control conditions was not described. Children received 30 minutes’ individual intervention once a week over a period of five weeks. Outcome measures included picture naming, phoneme segmentation, initial phoneme recall, semantic associations, and definition production. The authors interpreted the results such that the children with a semantic deficit responded better to phonological intervention, and that the children with a phonological deficit responded better to semantic intervention, positing that this was due to intervention supporting within-child strengths. However, the pattern of results is not so clear-cut as to provide firm evidence for this conclusion, and as this is a small case-series design, without blind assessment, the authors acknowledged that these findings need replication.
Thus, the evidence provided by these two studies does not clarify the relative merits of phonological versus semantic intervention with the adolescent age group.
### 3.4.3 Combined phonological-semantic intervention
Seven studies investigated a combined phonological-semantic intervention approach. Three studies delivered this using an individual model of delivery (Cross et al., 2001; Ebbels et al., 2012; Wright et al., in preparation); two delivered the intervention in small groups (Joffe et al., in preparation; Spencer et al., 2017); and two delivered it in a whole-class model (Lowe & Joffe, 2017; Murphy et al., 2017).
Cross et al. (2001) reported on a single case study of a 14-year-old boy who had a complex profile of language disorder and emotional, behavioural, and learning difficulties, in a specialist childcare setting which provided “foster care, education, speech and language therapy, psychotherapy and social work for children and families with complex special needs” (Cross et al., 2001, p.320). At baseline, the boy had scaled scores on subtests of the TOWK as follows: Synonyms 3, Figurative Usage 3, Word Definitions 6, and Multiple Contexts 7. The vocabulary component of the intervention entailed developing phonological and semantic word-finding strategies, and word definition skills. Dosage was a one-hour individual speech and language therapy session once a week over a period of one year, which included vocabulary intervention as well as other speech and language targets, and in addition the participant received weekly small-group intervention targeting social skills. The participant’s scaled score on the Figurative Usage subtest of the TOWK was reported to have risen from 3 at pre-intervention to 5 at post-intervention; however, post-intervention scores in the Synonyms, Word Definitions and Multiple Contexts subtests were not reported. Furthermore, no control measures were undertaken and no statistical analysis was reported, so it is difficult to distinguish between the effects of the intervention, other input, or the effect of maturity. Thus, although this paper describes the value of multi-disciplinary collaboration, it provides weak empirical evidence of effectiveness.
Stronger evidence for the phonological-semantic approach in individual intervention was provided by Ebbels et al. (2012), in a RCT in a specialist language setting. Participants were aged 9:11 –
15:11, and all but one of these were aged 11 or over. The participants (N=15) all had word-finding difficulties, with a mean standard score on the TAWF of 63 (range 44 – 81). Although the title of this paper implies semantic-only intervention, inspection of the intervention schedule reveals that it did contain opportunities to practise phonological word-finding strategies as well as semantic strategies. Individual intervention was delivered to seven participants 15 minutes twice a week over a period of eight weeks, and progress on the TAWF and TWFD was compared with a waiting control group of eight participants. The authors reported significant progress for the experimental group, but not for the control group, and concluded that this indicated a generalisation effect of intervention, although no progress was made on the TWFD. This study has a high quality-rating, and although it had a sample size of only seven in the experimental group, which limits the generalisability of the results, the findings give some support to the use of a phonological-semantic approach in individual intervention in a specialist language setting.
Wright et al. (in preparation) implemented a within-subjects pre-post study design with 25 participants in the same specialist language setting as Ebbels et al. (2012). Ages ranged between 9:4 and 16:1 ($M = 12:5$) but it is not stated how many were within the 11 – 16 age range. The group mean standard score on the BPVS-2 was 75.9 ($SD = 15.1$). Participants received individual intervention with their usual SLT, following a manualised phonological-semantic intervention for 10 words (five nouns and five verbs), for 30 minutes once a week over a period of seven weeks. Two target words were introduced in each session, with an additional individual revision session of five minutes once a week, consisting of a game to recap on all words introduced so far. Two sets of words were matched by frequency, and randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions, with one set acting as experimental words, and the other set acting as a control set for each participant. Progress was measured on bespoke tasks involving lexical decision, definition (multiple choice), definition (production), and sentence production. On all tasks, participants made significantly greater progress with experimental than with control words; furthermore, on the more linguistically complex tasks (sentence production and definition production), participants showed greater gains on nouns than verbs. This study has a larger sample size than Ebbels et al. (2012) in the experimental group, and although conclusions cannot be drawn about generalisation of intervention to independent word learning skills, or to other settings, the findings further support the use of a phonological-semantic approach in individual intervention in a specialist language setting.
Two studies have explored phonological-semantic intervention using a small-group model of intervention delivery (Joffe et al., in preparation; Spencer et al., 2017).
Joffe et al. (in preparation) conducted a large RCT involving 358 12 – 13-year-olds in mainstream secondary schools. The mean standard score for this group on the BPVS-2 was 85.21 ($SD = 12.28$). Intervention comprised the VEP (Joffe, 2011), which was developed from the programme used in Joffe (2006) to include greater detail and a phonological component. Intervention was delivered in small groups of two to six students by trained teaching assistants, for 40-60 minutes, three times a week over a period of six weeks. Participants were randomised into four groups: vocabulary; narrative; combined (narrative and vocabulary); and waiting control. No statistically
significant progress was made on standardised assessments of vocabulary from pre- to post intervention. A significant group by time interaction effect indicated that the vocabulary group made more progress on a bespoke vocabulary idiom awareness measure in comparison to the control group. The combined narrative/vocabulary group also performed significantly better over time than the control group on the bespoke idiom awareness task, as well as on a bespoke definition production task. This study provides some evidence of the effectiveness of phonological-semantic intervention on idiom awareness, and stronger evidence for the effectiveness of a combined narrative/vocabulary intervention in enhancing idiom and general expressive vocabulary knowledge, in a small-group model in a mainstream setting, delivered by trained teaching assistants with a manualised programme. Performance on standardised vocabulary tests and receptive vocabulary tasks proved more resistant to change.
The study by Spencer et al. (2017) also supports the effectiveness of vocabulary intervention in a small-group model within mainstream secondary schools. These researchers included 35 12 – 13-year-olds who had low vocabulary levels, and who attended a mainstream secondary school in an area of social disadvantage, using a matched-groups delayed intervention design. Participants’ mean standard score on the BPVS-3 was 81.69 ($SD = 9.51$). The intervention, carried out by SLTs, for one hour once a week for a period of 10 weeks, comprised phonological-semantic intervention for 10 cross-curricular verbs, and progress was compared with 10 control verbs matched for phonological complexity and frequency. The mean number of sessions attended was 7.42 for the intervention group, and 6.63 for the control (delayed intervention) group. Progress was measured using a bespoke depth of word knowledge assessment measure. The intervention group did not make significant progress in experimental word knowledge compared with control word knowledge, though the control group did, following their delayed intervention. Combining the results of the two groups, significant progress was made relative to zero in knowledge of the experimental words, but not the control words. The mean number of words learnt was 1.17 which although a small gain, was a large effect size ($\eta^2_p = .42$). The study took place in a single school, and the authors noted that factors in the school, such as behaviour management, were critical to the outcomes of intervention.
The remaining two studies (Lowe & Joffe, 2017; Murphy et al., 2017) focussed specifically on enhancing vocabulary skills by applying a phonological-semantic approach within a mainstream whole-class setting. Lowe and Joffe used a within-subjects design with a class of 15 students, whose mean scaled score on the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (Brownell, 2000) was 7.7 ($SD = 2.5$), and whose mean scaled score on the Recalling Sentences subtest of the CELF-4 UK was 3.6 ($SD = 2.7$). Their teacher taught 10 science curriculum words using phonological-semantic activities, such as word maps, and 10 words using routine teaching practice, which consisted of semantic activities such as matching written words to definitions. The outcome measure was a bespoke definition production task. The inclusion of high-frequency words resulted in ceiling effects and limited the potential of this study to demonstrate increase in word knowledge. Once the highest frequency words were omitted from analysis, progress in the five lowest frequency experimental words compared to the five lowest frequency words taught through routine teaching practice was of borderline significance. Furthermore, comments elicited
from the students and their teacher through interview and questionnaire revealed that they viewed the word-learning activities favourably, demonstrating the feasibility of phonological-semantic intervention through a whole-class model of delivery.
Murphy et al. (2017) also investigated whole-class vocabulary intervention, using a RCT with 203 participants aged 11:11 – 13:11, attending mainstream secondary schools in areas of socio-economic disadvantage in the Republic of Ireland. Sixty-one percent of participants had a BPVS-3 standard score greater than -1.25 SD below the mean, and the group mean was 83.72 ($SD = 13.03$). An adapted VEP (Joffe, 2011) was delivered by 12 English teachers to 128 participants in a whole-class model, and progress was compared with 75 waiting controls. Murphy and colleagues reported significant improvement for the experimental group following intervention on standardised scores in the Word Classes (Receptive), Word Classes (Expressive), and Word Definitions subtests of the CELF-4 UK, and on the BPVS-3. However, the waiting control group also made significant progress on the Word Classes (Receptive) and Word Definitions subtests, so improvements on these two measures cannot be accounted for by the intervention. Nonetheless, following their delayed intervention, the waiting control group did make significant progress on the Word Classes (Expressive) subtest and the BPVS-3, whereas progress on these two subtests during the baseline period had been non-significant, thereby adding strength to the evidence for the effectiveness of phonological-semantic vocabulary intervention in a mainstream secondary whole-class setting, for both receptive and expressive vocabulary skills measured on standardised tests. For the experimental group, there was no baseline period, so the effects of maturation could not be completely ruled out.
These seven studies investigating combined phonological-semantic intervention, although methodologically diverse, provide initial evidence for the effectiveness of phonological-semantic intervention in increasing word knowledge.
### 3.4.4 Generalisation to independent word learning
Four studies reported progress following semantic or phonological-semantic intervention on standardised assessment. One of these studies was a single case study with no control measures (Cross et al., 2001). It could be argued that the control in this study was comparison with the normative mean; however, these authors did not support their conclusions with statistical analysis. The remaining studies reporting improvement on standardised outcome measures (Ebbels et al., 2012; Joffe, 2006; Murphy et al., 2017) demonstrated higher internal validity due the use of control measures and statistical analysis, and therefore provide stronger evidence of a generalisation effect, though it should be noted that these studies did not demonstrate significant improvement on all the standardised tests they used.
Although these four studies suggested some generalisation effect of intervention to independent word learning, none of them used any curriculum assessments as an outcome measure. Therefore, even those that demonstrated some enhancement of participants’ vocabulary skills were not in a position to assess whether this has had a positive impact on academic attainment. Further, improvement on standardised assessment does not measure the potential functional impact of intervention, for example on a student’s confidence or attitude towards word learning.
3.4.5 Summary of discussion
Overall, the available evidence for the effectiveness of intervention designed to enhance the vocabulary skills of adolescents is at best mixed.
Evidence for semantic-only intervention is inconclusive, as is the evidence for the relative merits of phonological versus semantic intervention in the adolescent age group. Evidence is stronger for a combined phonological-semantic approach to intervention with this age group, although not robust due to the wide variability in study designs. Some evidence (Joffe et al., in preparation) suggests that outcomes are better when the intervention is embedded in a wider language context such as a narrative approach.
Bespoke outcome measures have shown more positive results than standardised measures (e.g. Joffe et al., in preparation; Spencer et al., 2017; Wright et al., in preparation), even though often only modest gains are made. This is to be expected, as author-created measures are weighted towards the content and target of the intervention, whereas standardised measures are more psychometrically robust yet more conservative (Marulis & Neuman, 2010). Studies reporting progress on standardised assessment, which would suggest a treatment effect on independent word learning, have found progress on some assessments but not others (Ebbels et al., 2012; Murphy et al., 2017). A wider goal, given the importance of vocabulary knowledge for long-term outcomes, would be to assess the impact of intervention on academic, social, and emotional outcomes. None of the included studies used such outcome measures.
The evidence needs to be considered in the light of a wide range of variables. The diagnosis of the participants, and consequently the purpose of the intervention, was confined in some cases to participants with word-finding difficulties, and in other cases included a wider remit to include those with low receptive vocabulary levels. The participants receiving individual intervention in specialist settings may have had more severe and complex language disorders than cohorts of participants recruited from mainstream schools, in which intervention was delivered in small groups or a whole-class model. The factors influencing the choice of model of delivery, and frequency and duration of dosage were not fully explored in each study. The lack of homogeneity between studies thus makes it difficult to amass converging evidence applicable to particular populations and settings.
An added obstacle faced by researchers is the challenge of conducting effectiveness studies in real-life contexts, where extraneous factors such as teacher or teaching assistant variables and time-tabling constraints may contaminate the purity of the intervention. Taking a pragmatic outlook, which acknowledges these challenges and differences, the tentative evidence collated by this review encourages confidence in the potential for a phonological-semantic approach to intervention with the adolescent age group, with the caveat that there is further work to be done.
The types of intervention approach did not diverge widely from those used in research with primary school age children (section 2.2), comprising phonological-semantic techniques presented in an age-appropriate way. However, as social and educational demands change and intensify during adolescence, perhaps further consideration needs to be given to other factors
such as the most effective frequency and duration of intervention, and model of delivery (individual, small-group, or whole-class), as well as the preferences of the students themselves.
3.5 Limitations of the review
There are a number of limitations to this review. First, only studies in English were included, possibly excluding some relevant research. Second, the terminology used for language difficulties has varied widely in the research community, the speech and language therapy community, and the teaching community. To overcome this, a wide range of search terms was used to maximise the yield of studies, enabling confidence that relevant studies were found. Even so, the inclusion criteria varied from study to study resulting in a collection of studies with participants of differing diagnoses. The advent of a common terminology when describing language disorder (Bishop et al., 2017) will assist in enabling comparison between studies in the future. Thirdly, only 13 studies were found that met criteria for inclusion, and due to the lack of statistical analysis in several of them, and a wide degree of heterogeneity between studies, it was felt inappropriate to carry out a meta-analysis. This reflects the fact that research in this field is in its infancy, and limits the potential of the review to identify a strong body of converging evidence. It is hoped that this narrative review will result in greater understanding of the current evidence base and stimulate further research.
3.6 Conclusion and suggestions for future research
The aim of this systematic review was to synthesise the evidence for effective vocabulary interventions in adolescents with language disorder. As this is a relatively new area of research, evidence is emerging from methodologies at all levels on the hierarchy of evidence. Thirteen studies met criteria for inclusion in this review, and although they all used a phonological and/or semantic approach to intervention, there was wide disparity in terms of assessment measures, participant characteristics, and methodologies, as well as varying degrees of quality, producing a limited amount of converging evidence. Only three studies were of high enough quality to obtain a class I AAN rating.
From this backdrop, evidence is beginning to emerge of the effectiveness for a phonological-semantic approach to intervention in enhancing the vocabulary skills of adolescents who have language disorder, justifying this choice for practitioners. There is initial evidence for individual intervention in specialist schools, and for small-group and whole-class intervention in mainstream settings, but, as findings in one setting are not necessarily replicable to other settings, more research is needed. The evidence must be considered in the light of the participants’ diagnoses, the aims of the intervention, and the outcome measures used; for example, the cognitive and language profiles of participants, whether expressive or receptive vocabulary skills are being targeted, and whether the aim is to demonstrate increased knowledge of targeted vocabulary items, independent word learning, or longer term academic success.
Hence, the evidence needs to be strengthened through replicated, robust, high-quality peer-reviewed research. Questions remain regarding the most effective aspects of intervention, the
most effective model of intervention, the influence of the agent of change, and the recommended dosage of intervention.
The current systematic review revealed two studies investigating the use of phonological-semantic activities in a universal model in a mainstream secondary school setting. Murphy et al. (2017) implemented a structured programme within English classes, and Lowe and Joffe (2017) investigated the feasibility of incorporating phonological-semantic activities into the delivery of the curriculum. Extending this research, the experimental study of the present thesis, reported on in Chapters 6, 7, and 8, investigates the use of phonological-semantic activities with curriculum words, implemented by teachers, and embedded into syllabus content.
**Summary of Chapter 3**
The aim of the systematic review of the literature, reported on in the current chapter, was to ensure a thorough appraisal of the evidence for vocabulary intervention focussing on adolescents with language disorder. Previous reviews have shown that a variety of intervention approaches can successfully increase students’ vocabulary knowledge; however, none of them investigated vocabulary intervention specifically for secondary school age students with language disorder.
A systematic search of 14 databases and other sources yielded 1320 studies, of which 13 met inclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria were: intervention effectiveness studies with a focus on enhancing oral receptive and/or expressive vocabulary skills in the study’s aims; participants in the age range 11:0 – 16:11 with receptive and/or expressive language difficulties of any aetiology.
There was a high degree of diversity between studies. Types of intervention varied from study to study: semantic intervention (4 studies); comparison of phonological versus semantic intervention (2); and combined phonological-semantic intervention (7). The strongest evidence for effectiveness was found with a combined phonological-semantic approach. The evidence suggested a potential for all models of delivery (individual, small-group, and whole-class). No study investigated the use of phonological-semantic activities incorporated into the delivery of the mainstream secondary school curriculum, strengthening the rationale for the experimental study of this thesis.
The review highlighted that few studies provided detailed descriptions of the content and procedure of intervention, and also revealed little information about what type of vocabulary teaching currently takes place in the mainstream secondary school classroom. Therefore, the purpose of the next chapter (Chapter 4) is to add a clinical and educational perspective to the rationale for the intervention study by surveying current teaching and speech and language therapy practice.
Chapter 4
Current teaching and speech and language therapy practice:
A survey
Overview
The introduction to the current chapter reprises themes from previous chapters, and expands the rationale for a survey of current teaching and speech and language therapy practice with regard to vocabulary instruction. The methods used to conduct the survey are described in section 4.3. Results are reported in section 4.4, which is followed by a discussion in section 4.5. Limitations are discussed in section 4.6, and conclusions in section 4.7.
4.1 Introduction and rationale
Chapters 2 and 3 discussed approaches to vocabulary teaching in universal, small-group, and individual models of delivery. It was found that approaches to universal vocabulary teaching frequently take a semantic and literacy perspective, whereas for vocabulary intervention with children who have language disorder, evidence favours a phonological-semantic approach (section 2.2.4). The evidence comes mainly from studies of primary school age children, and the intervention has often been delivered in small groups or individually, in a specialist language educational setting. There is less research focussing on the adolescent age group, and less research investigating a whole-class model of vocabulary intervention. In addition, there is little evidence that specific vocabulary instruction routinely takes place in the classroom, placing children and adolescents with language disorder at a disadvantage.
Therefore, the goal of this thesis is to investigate whether phonological-semantic vocabulary instruction is effective in enhancing the vocabulary skills of adolescents with language disorder, when it is embedded into the delivery of the mainstream secondary school curriculum.
To measure the effectiveness of complex interventions, a randomised control trial is considered to provide the most reliable evidence (Greenhalgh, 1997; 2014). Nonetheless, other levels of evidence offer valid contributions to the evidence base (Brighton, Bhandari, Tornetta, & Felson, 2003). Craig et al. (2014) recommended that a randomised control trial should be preceded by a thorough appraisal of the current state of knowledge, ensuring that any interventions developed meet criteria for acceptability and validity. Initial stages of an investigation should identify the evidence base, establish firm protocols for assessment and intervention, and act as a springboard towards a larger study. This is to strengthen the applicability of the larger study, building on and improving previous research.
This guiding principle for research is reflected in clinical practice through the National Health Service (NHS) principle of Patient and Public Involvement (National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NIHCE), 2013) which advocates involving patients and other stakeholders in their
choice of intervention. To adhere to these principles, and in addition to the theoretical rationale described in previous chapters, an important aim of the experimental study in this thesis was that it evaluated intervention which was closely aligned to current teaching and SLT practice, in order to ensure that it was acceptable to practitioners, and that implementation in real life contexts was feasible.
Review of the literature reveals little information about how vocabulary support is provided from either a teaching or a speech and language therapy perspective. Lindsay et al. (2002) surveyed 133 speech and language therapy managers in the UK with the aim of quantifying speech and language therapy services to education, during a time of widespread policy change. The survey showed that speech and language therapy resources within the secondary age group were limited in comparison with the pre-school and primary school age groups. The impact of resource limitations on the working practices of SLTs was shown by Pring, Flood, Dodd, and Joffe (2012). Pring et al. surveyed the working practices of 516 paediatric SLTs, and found a trend for SLTs in the UK to spend more time training agents of change (27% of their time) than on face to face contact with clients (22% of their time). The age of children with whom respondents worked ranged from infants through to secondary school, though findings were reported by client group rather than age group, so it was not possible to separate out the working practices of SLTs working with the secondary school age group from those working with younger age groups. Furthermore, the level of speech and language therapy provision has been found to be inconsistent across the UK. Pring (2016) examined whether levels of speech and language therapy provision for children under 18 years of age were related to social deprivation indices across 29 London boroughs. The results of this survey confirmed the findings of Bercow (2008) that large inequalities in speech and language therapy provision exist. The overall picture is one of limited speech and language therapy availability in the secondary school age group in the UK, with a trend for more indirect intervention (working through another agent) than direct intervention (face-to-face), though there is large variability in levels of provision.
None of these surveys collected information about which therapeutic interventions were used. One further survey (Roulstone, Wren, Bakopoulou, & Lindsay, 2012) provided some information on teaching and SLT practice for children and young people with language disorder. Roulstone and colleagues surveyed 33 SLT managers, 13 educational psychologists, and 15 managers of specialist advisory teaching teams. Responses were categorised into broad groups of intervention approach. Some of these were commercially available resources, and some were local approaches, the titles of which gave little indication of content, e.g. “package for secondary schools” (Roulstone et al., p.332). Overall, the survey found few intervention approaches to be confined to utilisation with a particular age group, client group, or model of delivery; but, further, little overlap was found between the approaches used by the educationalists and those used by the SLTs. This points to a potential for increased collaboration between these professionals. This survey provided a useful overview of specialist teaching, educational psychology, and SLT practice, but did not elucidate specifically what vocabulary approaches were in use with the secondary school age group, nor did it seek information from mainstream classroom teachers.
As the current thesis is concerned with the vocabulary approaches used by mainstream secondary school teachers (MSSTs) and SLTs, it is clear that more detailed information is needed about what instructional methods and interventions are used. There are several publications promoting universal vocabulary instruction approaches (e.g. Beck et al., 2013; Ripley, Barrett, & Fleming, 2001), and also a number of practical vocabulary resources with the child or adolescent with language disorder in mind, such as “Word Aware” by Parsons and Branagan (2014) and “The Vocabulary Enrichment Intervention Programme” by Joffe (2011), but it is not known to what extent these approaches are actually used in the classroom.
Vocabulary instruction became an even more pressing issue, since the publication of the secondary school national curriculum (Department for Education (DfE), 2014), which contains an explicit requirement of teachers to “teach vocabulary actively” (DfE, 2014, p.11). Therefore, it was timely to address the issue of current teaching and speech and language therapy practice, to address the gaps in previous research. Hence, the current chapter describes a survey which aimed to canvas the views of mainstream teachers and practising SLTs directly, focusing on the adolescent age group, and to elicit information specifically about vocabulary intervention. It was intended that narrowing the focus in this way would yield richer and more detailed information about the intervention approaches used, adding a valuable dimension of acceptability and ecological validity to the intervention study.
In summary, while there is a range of practical resources to support the practice of SLTs and educational professionals who work with children and adolescents who have vocabulary deficits, there is a lack of detailed information about which types of intervention or models of intervention delivery are used in mainstream secondary schools. Therefore, the present survey of current practice was carried out among secondary school teachers and SLTs in order to gain a sound clinical and educational perspective for the study of vocabulary intervention in Chapter 6.
4.2 Aims
The aim of the survey was to gather information from SLTs and teachers in the UK about their current practice concerning vocabulary intervention within mainstream secondary schools. The research questions to be addressed by the survey were:
1. What model of intervention delivery is used (universal, small-group, or individual) with adolescents for whom vocabulary intervention is recommended?
2. What types of vocabulary intervention do SLTs use with adolescents who have language disorder attending mainstream secondary schools?
3. What types of vocabulary teaching do teachers use with adolescents who have language disorder in the mainstream secondary school classroom?
The following hypotheses were proposed:
1. That specific vocabulary intervention for adolescents in mainstream secondary schools takes place in a targeted or specialist model of service delivery i.e. on a small-group or individual basis whereby students are withdrawn from the classroom.
2. That SLTs use a phonological-semantic approach to vocabulary intervention with adolescents with language disorder, and that MSSTs use a semantic-only approach.
Ethical approval for the study was received from the School of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee, City, University of London, reference number: PhD/14-15/10. See Appendix 4A for the indemnity letter pertaining to ethical approval.
4.3 Methods
An online questionnaire was chosen as the method for eliciting information from SLTs and teachers, as it had advantages of cost and convenience (Keane, Smith, Lincoln, Wagner, & Lowe, 2008) over focus groups or interviews; it was anonymous, which encouraged the giving of frank views; and it reached larger numbers than focus groups or interviews could have done in the available timescale.
4.3.1 The questionnaire
The questionnaire was created using an online survey tool, Qualtrics (Qualtrics LLC, 2017). Qualtrics was chosen as it is a comprehensive survey tool to which City, University of London, subscribes. Its functions include a choice of survey formatting and distribution options, a range of question types, and inbuilt options for data collating and reporting. Content validity of the survey was assessed by piloting an initial version of the questionnaire with four teachers and three SLTs, and inviting their written feedback on the clarity of the questions and the structure of the questionnaire. Positive feedback was received regarding the content, and the length of time it took to complete. Minor amendments were made in order to reduce ambiguity.
The questionnaire was preceded by a paragraph explaining the background to the research, following a template recommended by the Senate Research Ethics Committee, City, University of London. This was followed by the statement: *Yes, I give my consent to take part in this survey, and for my responses to be used anonymously in the dissemination of the research*. The tick box adjacent to this statement was a mandatory field such that if it was not ticked, no further questions were visible to the respondent. There were nine questions for all respondents, and an additional three for MSSTs only (questions 2, 3, and 4). Five questions were multiple choice; one was a binary choice; three had a Likert scale format; and three were open-ended. For multiple choice questions, there was a free-text field for participants to fill in details if *other* was selected; and for Likert scale questions, there was a free-text field to add further information.
The questions, and their rationales, were as follows:
1. **What is your job role?** (Multiple choice) The purpose of this question was to elicit any differences in the responses to subsequent questions between professional roles.
2. **If you are a mainstream secondary school teacher, what subject do you teach?** (Multiple choice) The purpose of this question was to elicit any differences in approach between teachers of different subjects.
3. **How many lessons, over how many weeks, do you spend on one topic?** (Free text) Responses to this question were intended to assist in planning the intervention study.
4. **On average, how many minutes in any one lesson is given to teaching the new words of the lesson?** (Free text) Responses to this question were intended to assist in planning the intervention study.
5. **In which region do you work?** (Multiple choice) The purpose of this question was to establish whether responses were representative of the whole of the UK, and whether any responses were received from outside the UK.
6. **Approximately what percentage of the students, aged 11 – 16 years, with whom you work have a vocabulary deficit?** (Multiple choice) The purpose of this question was to gain an indication of the prevalence of students with low vocabulary levels.
7. *(a)* **How confident are you at teaching vocabulary to students aged 11 – 16 with language impairment?**\(^5\) (Likert scale) *(b)* **Please give your reasons.** (Free text) The purpose of this question was to elicit any differences in confidence between job roles, and to gain an indication of the need for continuing professional development.
8. *(a)* **How important do you think it is for students aged 11 – 16 to be able to learn new vocabulary?** (Likert scale) *(b)* **Please give your reasons.** (Free text) This question would gauge the likely level of support for implementing any findings from the intervention study.
9. *(a)* **What model of delivery do you use for vocabulary teaching/therapy to students aged 11 – 16?** (Multiple choice) *(b)* **What factors influence your decision about which model of delivery to use?** (Free text) The purpose of this question was to elicit what the preferred options were for practitioners, and what obstacles were faced.
10. *(a)* **What strategies do you use/recommend to help students learn and remember new words and their meaning?** (Multiple choice) A list of strategies was provided, the full text of which can be found in Appendix 4B. Twenty strategies were listed, taken either from the literature or observed in the researcher’s clinical practice. In addition, a box for *other* was provided (free text). Respondents were asked to rate their usage on a scale of *never*, *seldom*, *sometimes*, *often*, and *always*. *(b)* **Which strategy do you feel is the most effective?** (Free text) This was to obtain detailed information about practitioners’ preferred intervention strategies.
11. *(a)* **Would you like to develop your knowledge about how to provide effective vocabulary intervention for secondary school students with language impairment?** (Binary choice) *(b)*
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\(^5\) This survey took place in 2015 before the term *language disorder* came into wider use following the Delphi exercise mentioned in section 1.4.1. The original wording of the survey (*language impairment*) is maintained here, with no intention of distinction from the term *language disorder*.
Please state in which specific areas you would like to develop your knowledge. (Free text)
The purpose of this question was to obtain further insight into reasons for practitioners’ confidence, and the likelihood of practitioners being willing or able to incorporate the researched intervention into their practice.
12 Please add any further comments that you feel were not captured in this questionnaire. (Free text) This was to enable participants to give any views that were not elicited elsewhere.
The full text of the questionnaire can be found in Appendix 4B.
4.3.2 Participants
Inclusion criteria were that participants were either qualified teachers or qualified SLTs. The sample size was determined by how widely the survey could be distributed and the response rate. Although the target recipients of the questionnaire were practitioners in the UK, its online format meant that it was also accessible to practitioners in other countries. There were 259 responses to the survey, of which 175 were fully completed, making a completion rate of 68%.
4.3.3 Procedure
The survey was distributed through teaching and speech and language therapy professional networks, websites, and publications, including:
- “Bulletin” (The professional magazine of the RCSLT)
- Basecamp (RCSLT online forum)
- Education Twitter accounts e.g. SEN Magazine, Secondary Education Magazine, Times Educational Supplement
- Twitter accounts of City, University of London; School of Health Sciences; and the Division of Language and Communication Science
- National Association of Professionals concerned with Language Impairment in Children (NAPLIC) newsletter and website
- Teaching Times http://www.teachingtimes.com/home.htm
- Teach Secondary http://www.teachsecondary.com/
- Special Educational Needs Joint Initiative for Training (SENJIT) http://www.ioe.ac.uk/research/16081.html
- The Communication Trust newsletter
- Direct emails to schools in two London borough councils, two county councils, and two metropolitan councils in the UK chosen at random.
- Individual contacts of the researcher for distribution through professional networks.
Every effort was made to maximise distribution of the survey, throughout an eight-month period between 17.2.15 and 13.10.15. Responses were anonymous, although geographical location of each respondent’s internet protocol (IP) address was recorded by Qualtrics.
4.3.4 Data analysis
Quantitative responses were collated and inputted to SPSS 22 (IBM Corp., 2013) for statistical analysis. To examine associations between job role and responses, Pearson’s chi-square tests of independence were used where possible. Where assumptions were not met for this test due to small cell counts, categories were collapsed to produce $2 \times 2$ tables from which to calculate a Fisher’s exact statistic. This is explained further in the relevant sections (sections 4.4.6 and 18.104.22.168).
Responses to free-text questions were collated and inputted into NVivo 11 software (QSR International, 2017) for qualitative analysis. As this was a small body of data, elicited from a finite number of structured questions, a simple approach to analysis of respondents’ comments was taken, using a combination of qualitative content analysis and thematic coding (Flick, 2014). The questions in the questionnaire were taken as the starting categories for coding under a content analysis approach, for example “reasons for confidence”. Within each category, a thematic coding approach was used to assign codes to individual responses. As themes emerged, these were cross-checked with earlier responses, and codes adjusted where appropriate. This approach enabled common and recurring themes to be identified within each category. To establish the reliability of the coding, a SLT, who had not been involved in the development of the questionnaire, checked the coding of all responses. Out of 885 coded responses, there were eight disagreements, equating to a percentage agreement of 99.1%. In four cases, the disagreement was due to an omission of coding to a relevant category; the other four were resolved through discussion.
4.4 Results
For each question, firstly the quantitative data are reported, then a sample of comments representative of the salient themes within the responses to each question. Summaries of the results are integrated into the discussion section (section 4.5).
4.4.1 Job role of survey respondents (222 responses)
Nearly two-thirds of respondents were SLTs ($N=134$), and just over a fifth were MSSTs ($N=48$). Nine respondents identified more than one job role, three of whom were dually qualified teachers and SLTs (SLT/T). Where more than one job role was identified, the specialist role was counted. Table 4.1 shows the job roles of respondents who completed the survey. Inspection of the data reveals a similar attrition rate across the professional roles.
Table 4.1. Job roles of survey respondents
| Professional job role | Started | | Completed | |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|---------|----------|-----------|----------|
| | Percentage | Count | Percentage | Count |
| Mainstream secondary school teacher (MSST) | 21.6% | 48 | 21.1% | 37 |
| Special school teacher (Spec Sch T) | 3.6% | 8 | 4.6% | 8 |
| Special educational needs coordinator (Senco) | 4% | 9 | 4% | 7 |
| Specialist teacher (Spec T) | 10.4% | 23 | 10.9% | 19 |
| Speech and language therapist (SLT) | 60.4% | 134 | 59.4% | 104 |
| Total | 100% | 222 | 100% | 175 |
The term *mainstream secondary school teacher* (MSST) refers to teachers who teach a specific subject to classes of students in secondary school. *Special school teachers* (Spec Sch Ts) work in schools which are attended by students for whom a mainstream setting is not indicated, for example because of a learning difficulty. Every mainstream school in the UK has a *special educational needs coordinator* (Senco: sometimes now also known as the *special educational needs and disability coordinator*, or SENDco) who has received post-graduate training and provides support for students and staff who work with students who have an additional need such as cognition and learning, communication and interaction, social, emotional and mental health, or sensory and physical needs. *Specialist teachers* (Spec Ts) have received specialist training in an area of need such as SLCN or specific learning difficulties. They often work in a peripatetic capacity, supporting students and staff in a number of mainstream schools.
### 4.4.2 Geographical region of respondents (221 responses)
Twenty-eight percent of respondents (N=62) worked in London, and 17% in the South East (N=38). There were some respondents from all other areas in the UK except Northern Ireland, as well as nine responses (4.1%) from outside the UK. The answers are tabulated in Table 4.2.
Table 4.2. Geographical region in which respondents worked
| Region | Percentage | Count |
|---------------------------------------------|------------|-------|
| London | 28.10% | 62 |
| South East | 17.20% | 38 |
| West Midlands | 7.70% | 17 |
| East Midlands | 7.70% | 17 |
| North East and Cumbria | 6.80% | 15 |
| South West | 6.80% | 15 |
| North West | 6.30% | 14 |
| Wales | 4.10% | 9 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 4.10% | 9 |
| Scotland | 2.70% | 6 |
| East of England | 2.70% | 6 |
| South Central | 1.40% | 3 |
| Channel Isles/Isle of Man | 0.50% | 1 |
| Northern Ireland | 0.00% | 0 |
| Outside the UK (Australia (3), New Zealand (1), USA (1), Republic of Ireland (1), Austria (1), Sweden (1)) | 4.1% | 9 |
| Total | 100% | 221 |
4.4.3 Subjects taught (52 responses)
This question was visible only to those who ticked the *mainstream secondary school teacher* option. Results are tabulated in Table 4.3. Where teachers listed more than one subject (N=11), their first selection is counted here. A quarter were English teachers, with a small sample from all other subjects. This perhaps reflects the interest which English teachers have in vocabulary, but because of small numbers of responses from teachers, it was not valid to examine differences in responses to subsequent questions between the teachers of different subjects.
Table 4.3. Subjects taught
| Subject | Percentage | Count |
|----------------------------------------|------------|-------|
| English | 26.9% | 14 |
| Science | 13.7% | 7 |
| History | 11.5% | 6 |
| Modern foreign languages | 9.6% | 5 |
| Maths | 5.8% | 3 |
| Religious Studies/Citizenship | 5.8% | 3 |
| Geography | 3.8% | 2 |
| Physical Education | 3.8% | 2 |
| Art | 3.8% | 2 |
| Music | 3.8% | 2 |
| Technology | 3.8% | 2 |
| Drama | 3.8% | 2 |
| Health and Social Care | 1.9% | 1 |
| Business Studies | 1.9% | 1 |
| Total | 100% | 52 |
MSSTs were also asked how many lessons, over how many weeks, they spent on one topic. However, responses to this question varied so widely that it was apparent that the question had been ambiguous, or that curriculum schedules differed widely amongst subjects. For example, some teachers reported that they taught 2 - 3 lessons per week, whereas some reported that they taught 24 lessons per week. Therefore, no further analysis of this data took place.
4.4.4 Time given to teaching new words (46 responses)
This question was visible only to MSSTs. Forty-five respondents stated between 0 and 25 minutes per lesson. The remaining respondent stated 60 minutes. Excluding this outlier, the average number of minutes spent on teaching new words each lesson was 9.4 minutes.
4.4.5 Percentage of students with a vocabulary deficit (214 responses)
This question was designed to find out to what extent respondents were working with students with low vocabulary levels. Responses are illustrated in Figure 4.1. As might be expected, a higher proportion of students on SLTs’ caseloads were reported to have vocabulary difficulties (as indicated by the blue bars) compared to the students in MSSTs’ classes (as indicated by the red bars). A large proportion of students with whom Sencos work did not seem to have vocabulary difficulties. Again, this might be expected, as the role of the Senco is wider than that of SLCN.
4.4.6 Confidence in teaching vocabulary to students with language disorder aged 11 – 16 (205 responses)
Results indicated that there was a spread of confidence in vocabulary teaching across job roles, with 72.1% of all respondents indicating that they were quite or very confident (see Table 4.4). To examine differences in the confidence levels of SLTs and MSSTs, the responses *not at all* and *not very* were collapsed into one category, and *quite* and *very* were collapsed into another category. Using this 2 x 2 tabulation, 85.1% of SLTs stated that they were quite or very confident, compared with 53.3% of MSSTs, a significant difference (Fisher’s exact p < .001). The slight difference between these figures and the figures in Table 4.4 is due to the way SPSS handles missing data.
Table 4.4. Confidence in teaching vocabulary to students with language disorder aged 11 – 16
| Rating | MSST N=45 | Spec Sch T N=8 | Senco N=9 | Spec T N=22 | SLT N=121 | Total N=205 |
|----------------------|-----------|----------------|-----------|-------------|-----------|-------------|
| Not at all confident | 6.3% | 0% | 0% | 4.3% | 0% | 1.8% |
| Not very confident | 37.5% | 25.0% | 22.2% | 8.7% | 12.7% | 18.5% |
| Quite confident | 41.7% | 62.5% | 55.6% | 43.5% | 58.2% | 53.2% |
| Very confident | 8.3% | 12.5% | 22.2% | 39.1% | 19.4% | 18.9% |
| Missing | 6.3% | 0% | 0% | 4.3% | 9.7% | 7.7% |
This question included a free-text field for respondents to give reasons for their level of confidence. Responses are recorded here verbatim i.e. exactly how they were written by the respondent. Two respondents gave reasons for being *not at all confident*, and both cited lack of training as a reason for this:
“No education on how to work with these students, no material.” (respondent number 162: MSST)
Forty-one respondents felt that they were *not very confident* in teaching vocabulary to students aged 11 – 16 with language disorder. SLTs often felt that engagement with teachers was a barrier:
“It is not easy to obtain specific vocabulary from the teachers in order to support / deliver vocabulary support.” (131: SLT)
Service constraints and time constraints were also common themes amongst SLTs:
“Don’t feel I am in school often enough to target vocabulary that will be really relevant.” (206: SLT)
Another recurrent theme within the responses of SLTs was that they had more experience with primary school age children than secondary school age students:
“It is difficult to know how to alter vocabulary learning techniques from primary to secondary students to be the most effective and there are few resources out there to use.” (59: SLT).
Teachers also cited lack of experience and time constraints, as well as lack of knowledge and the differentiation required to meet the needs of all the students in their class:
“Specialist teacher but more experience with primary.” (92: Spec T)
“Unsure how to teach them the language required for the subject in the time available and then make sure it is retained for the next lesson.” (139: Spec T)
“Not even quite sure what “language impairment” means.” (127: MSST)
“So many different and specific needs of students in very mixed classes.” (113: MSST)
Some responses given by those who reported that they were *quite confident* suggested that the practitioner felt that their knowledge and experience was sufficient, but that they faced barriers to the implementation of vocabulary teaching strategies. These barriers included obstacles to collaborative working, and service or time constraints:
“I understand the theory around vocabulary teaching and I understand how the secondary school I work in operates but I am never quite sure that advice given in the school is followed.” (32: SLT)
“I know the theory of best practice at teaching vocabulary but as a SLT working primarily in an advisory role I don’t often get the chance to complete one to one or small group work.” (51: SLT)
The theme of collaborative working also appeared in the responses of those who felt *very confident*, with additional emphasis on post-graduate training on the part of both SLTs and teachers. Collaboration appeared to be valued by both professions, with successful collaboration contributing to confidence. Additional themes related to the use of outcome measures which
demonstrated the impact of intervention, and continuing professional development (CPD). For example:
“I work in collaboration with a SLT.” (157: Spec T)
“Teamwork with educators.” (1: SLT).
“I am the head of a speech and language unit in a mainstream secondary school and have completed a great deal of training (Elklan\(^6\), CPD courses, and currently completing a postgraduate in speech and language) since taking up the post 3 years ago.” (153: Spec T).
“Use of outcome measures which include quantitative and qualitative styles of measurement.” (16: SLT).
“I have attended various courses and am familiar with a wide range of interventions which I use in my therapy.” (25: SLT)
4.4.7 The importance of learning new vocabulary (202 responses)
One SLT rated vocabulary as *not very important*; all others of any job role rated vocabulary as *quite important* or *very important*, with the majority (86%) rating vocabulary as *very important*. The significance of differences between the job roles could not be examined because of small frequency counts (Table 4.5).
**Table 4.5. The importance of learning new vocabulary**
| Rating | MSST N=43 | Spec Sch T N=8 | Senco N=9 | Spec T N=21 | SLT N=121 | Total N=202 |
|-------------------------|-----------|----------------|-----------|-------------|-----------|-------------|
| Not at all important | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Not very important | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0.7% | 0.5% |
| Quite important | 12.8% | 0% | 11.1% | 0% | 3.0% | 5.0% |
| Very important | 78.8% | 100% | 88.9% | 91.3% | 86.6% | 86.0% |
| Missing | 8.5% | 0% | 0% | 8.7% | 9.7% | 8.6% |
The SLT who rated learning vocabulary as *not very important*, reported that she had few students on her caseload with vocabulary difficulties (0 – 9%), and reported time constraints along with the challenges of working with this age group:
“Don’t see them regularly enough to help. Difficult to help across the curriculum.” (221: SLT)
---
\(^6\) Elklan: a training package for those working with children and adolescents who have SLCN (Elks & McLachlan, 2008)
For those who rated vocabulary as *quite important* or *very important*, the most common reason given (111 responses) was related to curriculum access and academic success. For example:
“Vocabulary is key to understanding, especially in Science.” (196: MSST)
Some respondents explained the importance of vocabulary with reference to its link with reading comprehension.
“Vocabulary skills are strongly linked with language and reading comprehension. Students with strong vocabulary skills are going to be able to access the curriculum.” (7: SLT)
Another common reason (35 responses) related to the association between vocabulary knowledge and socialisation, with many respondents linking academic success with emotional well-being:
“To be able to function in society, participating fully in a variety of situations and to have confidence in themselves.” (103: SLT)
“Secondary aged students are bombarded with new vocabulary across as many as 12 subjects at KS3\(^7\) and around 8 subjects at KS4\(^8\). It can be overwhelming and there is a risk that students with language impairment will disengage and switch off. There can also be a detrimental effect on their self-esteem.” (180: Spec T)
Frequently, responses took the perspective that vocabulary is a skill which facilitates access to society and the world of work (43 responses)
“It is vital that students can express themselves clearly, confidently and accurately - vocabulary gives them this ability. If a student is word poor - I feel it severely limits their options for the future.” (185: MSST)
“So they can progress with confidence onto their exams, progress into the workplace, survive the complex language landscape of the adult world…” (210: Senco)
### 4.4.8 Models of delivery for vocabulary teaching/therapy to students aged 11 – 16 (188 responses).
Respondents were able to tick more than one option in this question. Results indicated that a range of models was used by all professions, as shown in Table 4.6. Figures do not add up to 100% because many respondents listed more than one model. No clear preference emerged for a particular model.
A free text field was provided for respondents to list other models. Answers included:
---
\(^7\) Key Stage 3 (ages 11 – 14 years)
\(^8\) Key Stage 4 (ages 14 – 16 years)
• Whole-class strategies with no access to speech and language therapy support (13 responses)
• Small group or individual intervention with a specialist teacher (5)
• Training (4)
• Service level agreement (1)
• Work with literacy leads (1)
• Individual help in class with teaching assistant (TA) (1)
• Peer tutoring (1).
Table 4.6. Models of delivery used for vocabulary teaching/therapy to students aged 11 – 16
| Model of intervention delivery | MSST N=37 | Spec Sch T N=8 | Senco N=7 | Spec T N=16 | SLT N=108 | Total N=177 |
|-------------------------------|-----------|---------------|-----------|-------------|-----------|------------|
| Team teaching | 23.3% | 75.0% | 28.6% | 43.5% | 37.5% | 35.6% |
| Whole-class strategies from SLT delivered by teacher | 25.6% | 62.5% | 28.6% | 47.8% | 65.2% | 53.2% |
| 1:1 with teaching assistant (TA) | 23.3% | 62.5% | 28.6% | 47.8% | 46.4% | 41.5% |
| Small group with TA | 27.9% | 50.0% | 71.4% | 60.9% | 49.1% | 46.8% |
| 1:1 with SLT | 16.3% | 75.0% | 14.3% | 47.8% | 58.9% | 46.3% |
| Small group with SLT | 14.0% | 12.5% | 0.0% | 39.1% | 57.1% | 42.0% |
4.4.9 Factors influencing choice of intervention delivery model (142 responses)
A free-text field was provided for answers to this question. Responses by count are illustrated in Figure 4.2. Many respondents aimed to offer a range of models according to student need, but faced barriers in achieving this.
The most commonly cited influencing factor was the availability of the SLT (46 comments). From the SLT perspective this was viewed as a lack of time to allocate to the school caseload, and from the teaching perspective this was viewed as a lack of specialist support:
“My role is consultative and I have 12 schools for 2 days/week with a caseload of 70. Training others is my only option.” (26: SLT)
“Lack of provision by SLTs and specialist teachers. No support once a pupil starts in Year 7 by October half term for the rest of their time in mainstream school.” (166: Senco)
Factors affecting choice of model of delivery (by count)
- Availability of SLT: 45
- Students' needs: 43
- School circumstances: 42
- Availability of school staff: 38
- Experience, Training, Knowledge, Skills: 26
- Attitude of school staff: 20
- Pedagogical: 19
- Availability of student: 18
- Policy - school: 17
- Curriculum: 10
- Availability of resources: 9
- Collaboration: 8
- Policy - SLT service: 7
- Attitude of SLT: 6
- SLT or Senco guidance: 5
- Evidence base: 4
- Routine teaching practice: 3
- Senior leadership: 2
Figure 4.2. Factors influencing choice of intervention delivery model
Other frequently cited factors included: making decisions according to student need (45), adapting to school circumstances (44), and availability of school staff (37):
"The teaching is very much dependent upon the cohort of pupils in school at the time and also knowledge of the individual pupils." (211: Spec Sch T)
"Needs of the student: some may require individual support (provided by trained TA or SLT being observed by TA) in order to learn strategies before practising using them in the group and in the classroom." (128: SLT)
"Working with school ensuring what we offer fits in with what they are able to put in place." (75: SLT)
"The learners are taught English and Maths in a small group by a specialist teacher so vocabulary teaching is part of the lesson planning. For mainstream subjects it depends on the individual's specific difficulties and timetabling opportunities." (126: Spec T)
"Availability of TAs in school. There are none that I can use to repeat the individual and small group work that I do. Ideally, I would carry out the activities and the teaching assistant would repeat outside the class and use strategies inside the class." (76: SLT)
"Whole class where it is possible to train teachers but they have many demands on their time for meetings, curriculum changes etc." (187: SLT)
The level and quality of support provided was noted by some respondents to be dependent upon the experience, knowledge, and training of individual practitioners (25 comments), as well as their attitude (21 comments):
“Team teaching and the provision of strategies depends on the level of training the school has received previously, and how receptive they are to this kind of working.” (25: SLT)
“Not all TAs are SLT trained. I have not been trained with specific SLT strategies.” (148: MSST)
“Confidence and motivation of teaching assistants despite training.” (173: SLT)
Some practitioners felt that the pedagogy of how vocabulary should be taught governed the choice of model (19 comments):
“Holistic approach and consistency in the approach so the child has the chance to over learn and not confuse matters.” (55: SLT)
Factors limiting practitioners’ choice of model of delivery seemed to range from very practical considerations such as the availability of the students (18 comments) to matters of policy or management strategy (18 comments):
“Timetables – which lessons can they be withdrawn from.” (153: Spec T)
“Availability of students on day SLT visits school (i.e. timetabling).” (171: SLT)
“What has been decided by senior management or SEN.” (50: MSST)
“Mainly I am driven by the school’s wishes e.g. I am directed by the Senco.” (12: SLT)
4.4.10 Strategies used to support word learning (179 responses)
A key purpose of the questionnaire was to ascertain current practice with regard to which specific intervention techniques and strategies practitioners use. A list of strategies was provided, the full text of which can be found in Appendix 4B. Respondents were asked to rate their usage of each strategy on a scale of never, seldom, sometimes, often, and always.
22.214.171.124 Popularity of strategies used
Both professions, and all job roles within the teaching profession, used the full range of strategy options. The most popular strategies were: to give definitions, to ask students to say words aloud, to repeat the words often, to use the word in a spoken sentence, and to give examples of word usage in multiple contexts. The percentage of respondents indicating never, seldom, sometimes, often and always for these strategies is depicted in Figure 4.3. The data are shown with job roles combined.
The strategies used the least were a “must should could” approach to identify essential key words, and asking students to self-rate their own word knowledge. The term *must should could* is shorthand for the identification of the words which all students must learn; the words which most students should learn; and the words which some students could learn. The data are shown in Figure 4.4 with job roles combined.
126.96.36.199 Comparison of strategies used by SLTs and MSSTs
Due to the small numbers of questionnaire responses from special school teachers, Sencos, and specialist teachers, cell frequency counts were too low to conduct chi-square tests of independence to examine associations between all job roles and strategies used. Therefore, in order to examine differences between SLTs and MSSTs, data from special school teachers, Sencos, and specialist teachers were excluded from statistical analysis, but these data can be found in Appendix 4C. As there were still small frequency counts in many of the cells, the *never* and *seldom* categories were collapsed, and the *sometimes*, *often*, and *always* categories were collapsed. This produced $2 \times 2$ tables from which to calculate a Fisher’s exact statistic which enabled differences between SLTs and MSSTs to be examined.
**Strategies where there was no difference between SLTs and MSSTs**
All SLTs and MSSTs gave definitions for new words *sometimes*, *often*, or *always*, therefore no statistic could be computed. See Table 4.7.
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
| | | 0 | 39 | 39 |
| | | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| SLT | Count | 0 | 104 | 104 |
| | % within Job Role | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| Total | Count | 0 | 143 | 143 |
| | % of Total | 0% | 100% | 100% |
There was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs in their use of the following strategies: *list key words in lessons plans* ($p = .356$); *use a “must should could” approach* ($p = 1.000$); *repeat the words often* ($p = 1.000$); *give examples of word usage in multiple contexts* ($p =
teach students how to derive meaning from the morphology of the word ($p = .098$); ask students to say the word aloud ($p = 1.000$); ask students to use the word in a spoken sentence ($p = .393$); and ask students to write the word ($p = .238$). See Tables 4.8a to 4.8h.
**Table 4.8a. Strategies where there was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs: List key words in lesson plans**
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never_seldom |
| | | | sometimes_often_always |
| | | | Total |
| SLT | | 13 | 12.7% |
| | | 89 | 87.3% |
| | | 102 | 100% |
| Total | | 15 | 10.7% |
| | | 125 | 89.3% |
| | | 140 | 100% |
**Table 4.8b. Strategies where there was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs: Use a “must should could” approach**
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never_seldom |
| | | | sometimes_often_always |
| | | | Total |
| SLT | | 38 | 38.4% |
| | | 61 | 61.6% |
| | | 99 | 100% |
| Total | | 52 | 38.0% |
| | | 85 | 62.0% |
| | | 137 | 100% |
**Table 4.8c. Strategies where there was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs: Repeat words often**
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never_seldom |
| | | | sometimes_often_always |
| | | | Total |
| SLT | | 2 | 1.9% |
| | | 103 | 98.1% |
| | | 105 | 100% |
| Total | | 3 | 2.1% |
| | | 140 | 97.9% |
| | | 143 | 100% |
Table 4.8d. Strategies where there was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs: Give examples of usage in multiple contexts
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 3 | 7.7% |
| | | 104 | 99.0% |
| Total | | 4 | 2.8% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 1 | 1.0% |
| | | 105 | 100% |
| Total | | 1 | 1.0% |
| Give examples of usage in multiple contexts | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
|---------------------------------------------|--------------|------------------------|-------|
| | 3 | 36 | 39 |
| | 1 | 104 | 105 |
| | 4 | 140 | 144 |
Table 4.8e. Strategies where there was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs: Teach students how to derive meaning from morphology
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 16 | 42.1% |
| | | 27 | 26.2% |
| Total | | 43 | 30.5% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 22 | 57.9% |
| | | 76 | 73.8% |
| Total | | 98 | 69.5% |
| Teach students how to derive meaning from morphology | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
|------------------------------------------------------|--------------|------------------------|-------|
| | 16 | 22 | 38 |
| | 27 | 76 | 103 |
| | 43 | 98 | 141 |
Table 4.8f. Strategies where there was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs: Ask students to say the word aloud
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 2 | 5.1% |
| | | 5 | 4.9% |
| Total | | 7 | 4.9% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 37 | 94.9% |
| | | 98 | 95.1% |
| Total | | 135 | 95.1% |
| Ask students to say the word aloud | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
|------------------------------------|--------------|------------------------|-------|
| | 2 | 37 | 39 |
| | 5 | 98 | 103 |
| | 7 | 135 | 142 |
Table 4.8g. Strategies where there was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs: Ask students to use the word in a spoken sentence
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
| | | 3 | 36 | 39 |
| | | 7.7% | 92.3% | 100% |
| | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
| | | 4 | 99 | 103 |
| | | 3.9% | 96.1% | 100% |
| | Total| Count | % of Total |
| | | 7 | 135 | 142 |
| | | 4.9% | 95.1% | 100% |
Table 4.8h. Strategies where there was no significant difference between SLTs and MSSTs: Ask students to write the word
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | never_seldom | Sometimes_often_always | Total |
| | | 2 | 37 | 39 |
| | | 5.1% | 94.9% | 100% |
| | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
| | | 13 | 90 | 103 |
| | | 12.6% | 87.4% | 100% |
| | Total| Count | % of Total |
| | | 15 | 127 | 142 |
| | | 10.6% | 89.4% | 100% |
Strategies used more often by MSSTs than SLTs
MSSTs used two strategies significantly more than SLTs sometimes, often, or always: these were list key words on the board ($p = .041$); and ask students to use the word in a written sentence ($p = .034$). See Table 4.9a and 4.9b.
Table 4.9a. Strategies used more often by MSSTs than SLTs: List key words on the board
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
| | | 1 | 37 | 38 |
| | | 2.6% | 97.4% | 100% |
| | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
| | | 16 | 86 | 102 |
| | | 15.7% | 84.3% | 100% |
| | Total| Count | % of Total |
| | | 17 | 123 | 140 |
| | | 12.1% | 87.9% | 100% |
Table 4.9b. Strategies used more often by MSSTs than SLTs: Ask students to use the word in a written sentence
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never_seldom |
| | | | sometimes_often_always |
| | | | Total |
| SLT | | 25 | 76.0% |
| | | 79 | 104 |
Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs
SLTs used the following strategies significantly more than MSSTs *sometimes, often, or always*: display words with a visual image ($p < .001$); ask students to look words up in a dictionary or glossary ($p = .017$); encourage students to think of personalised experience relating to the word ($p < .001$); develop self-awareness by asking students to identify unknown words ($p < .001$); ask students to self-rate their own word knowledge ($p < .001$); give students their own vocabulary book to record new words and their meanings ($p < .001$); teach students how to derive meaning from context ($p = .009$); teach semantic feature analysis ($p < .001$); and teach phonological awareness ($p < .001$). See Tables 4.10a to 4.10i.
Table 4.10a. Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs: Display key words with visual image
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never_seldom |
| | | | sometimes_often_always |
| | | | Total |
| SLT | | 3 | 97.1% |
| | | 101 | 104 |
Table 4.10b. Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs: Ask students to look words up in dictionary
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | never_seldom | Sometimes_often_always | Total |
| SLT | | 11 | 28 | 39 |
| | | 10.7% | 71.8% | 100% |
| Total | | 22 | 120 | 142 |
| | | 15.5% | 84.5% | 100% |
Table 4.10c. Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs: Relate to student’s own experience
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
| SLT | | 10 | 94 | 104 |
| | | 9.6% | 90.4% | 100% |
| Total | | 23 | 119 | 142 |
| | | 16.2% | 83.8% | 100% |
Table 4.10d. Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs: Encourage students to identify unknown words
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
| SLT | | 5 | 98 | 103 |
| | | 4.9% | 95.1% | 100% |
| Total | | 16 | 126 | 142 |
| | | 11.3% | 88.7% | 100% |
Table 4.10e. Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs: Ask students to rate their own knowledge
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never_seldom |
| | | | sometimes_often_always |
| | | | Total |
| SLT | | 28 | 75 | 103 |
| | | 27.2% | 72.8% | 100% |
| Total | | 52 | 89 | 141 |
| | | 36.9% | 63.1% | 100% |
Table 4.10f. Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs: Give students their own vocabulary book
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never_seldom |
| | | | sometimes_often_always |
| | | | Total |
| SLT | | 15 | 90 | 105 |
| | | 14.3% | 85.7% | 100% |
| Total | | 37 | 106 | 143 |
| | | 25.9% | 74.1% | 100% |
Table 4.10g. Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs: Teach how to derive meaning from context
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never_seldom |
| | | | sometimes_often_always |
| | | | Total |
| SLT | | 20 | 82 | 102 |
| | | 19.6% | 80.4% | 100% |
| Total | | 36 | 104 | 140 |
| | | 25.7% | 74.3% | 100% |
Table 4.10h. Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs: Teach semantic feature analysis
| Job Role | MSST | Count | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
|----------|------|-------|--------------|------------------------|-------|
| | % within Job Role | 52.6% | 47.4% | 100% | |
| SLT | Count | 3 | 102 | 105 | |
| | % within Job Role | 2.9% | 97.1% | 100% | |
| Total | Count | 23 | 120 | 143 | |
| | % of Total | 16.1% | 83.9% | 100% | |
Table 4.10i. Strategies used more often by SLTs than MSSTs: Teach phonological awareness
| Job Role | MSST | Count | never_seldom | sometimes_often_always | Total |
|----------|------|-------|--------------|------------------------|-------|
| | % within Job Role | 39.5% | 60.5% | 100% | |
| SLT | Count | 6 | 99 | 105 | |
| | % within Job Role | 5.7% | 94.3% | 100% | |
| Total | Count | 21 | 122 | 143 | |
| | % of Total | 14.7% | 85.3% | 100% | |
**Other strategies used**
A free-text field was provided to record which other strategies were used. There were 35 responses to this question.
Eight (seven SLTs, one SLT/T) listed examples of semantic strategies e.g.
“Word webs to note related words, generating antonyms and synonyms of the word.” (7: SLT)
Seven (five SLTs, two Spec Ts) made reference to phonological-semantic links e.g.
“Word maps created with the pupil to visually link semantic and phonological information.” (187: SLT)
Five (all SLTs) mentioned the use of published resources e.g.
“I often use Elklan’s vocabulary strategies also - word webs and maps etc. I also recommend Victoria Joffe’s Vocabulary Enrichment Programme.” (25: SLT)
Five (all SLTs) mentioned that it depended on the agent of change, e.g.
“I use most of these strategies in my own sessions, but I would be quite selective about which strategies I recommended for others to use. Some of these strategies are quite technical and more suited to individual sessions.” (25: SLT)
Some reiterated the given strategies with an innovative mode of implementation, e.g.
"I get students to use PowerPoint to create their own dictionaries, including a definition in their own words, a picture and an example of the word used in a sentence." (114: MSST)
188.8.131.52 Selection of the most effective strategies for vocabulary teaching (158 responses)
A free text field was provided for answers to this question. Table 4.11 shows which strategy respondents felt were the most effective, by percentage within job role. Figure 4.5 illustrates the data by count, with responses collapsed across job roles. Where the strategies listed did not exactly match a strategy listed in the survey, they were coded and assigned categories according to the process described in section 4.3.4.
The strategy listed by MSSTs most commonly as the most effective was asking students to say the word in a spoken sentence (41%), followed by writing the word in a sentence (22%), and visual support (19%). Two out of four special school teachers (50%) also thought that asking students to say the word in a spoken sentence was effective, along with saying the word aloud. Two out of five (40%) of Sencos felt that the most effective strategies were: asking students to say the word in a spoken sentence; phonological awareness; and revision/practice. Specialist teachers and SLTs listed a wider range of strategies than MSSTs, special school teachers, and Sencos. The strategies listed most frequently by specialist teachers were the use of visual support (26%) and phonological awareness (26%). For SLTs, teaching semantic features was the most commonly listed (28%), followed by repeating the words often (21%), saying the word in a spoken sentence (19%), using visual support (18%), and phonological awareness (18%). The wording of the strategy repeat the words often was intended to mean the practitioner repeats the word often, but some responses suggest that it may have been interpreted by respondents to mean student repeats the word often. Where respondents explicitly stated student repetition, this was counted under say the word. Where respondents stated using the word, this was counted under say the word in a sentence.
Most respondents who answered this question listed more than one strategy, with some (19) stating that a combination was most important:
"All of the strategies need to be used with other strategies. None are effective in isolation. Depends on pupil and teacher." (32: SLT)
"A combination and constant repetition to embed." (20: Senco)
Responses under "other" in Figure 4.5 were listed by one person each, and included: STAR approach (structure, theme, action, review); games; using colour; ten words per term; train/model for school staff; word grid (word, definition, sound structure, icon); pre-teaching a small selection; looking at words in depth; whole staff approach; frequent vocabulary tests; spelling; identify key words; structured routine and repetitive approach; compare and contrast activities; teacher using the word in a sentence; visual timetables; reading forwards and backwards; look-say-cover-write-check at home; cloze activities; drilling of words; hear the word in isolation. While some of these
may be similar to the strategies given, they are listed here separately (verbatim) if the respondent’s wording was not sufficiently clear to match them to a given strategy.
Table 4.11. Most effective strategies for vocabulary teaching within job roles (percentage)
| Most effective strategy (by percentage, within job role) | MSST N=32 | Spec Sch T N=4 | Senco N=5 | Spec T N=19 | SLT N=98 |
|----------------------------------------------------------|-----------|---------------|-----------|-------------|---------|
| Ask student to say the word in a sentence | 41 | 50 | 40 | 11 | 19 |
| Repeat words often | 3 | 25 | 20 | 11 | 21 |
| Teach semantic features | 0.3 | | | 21 | 28 |
| Use visual support | 19 | 25 | 20 | 26 | 18 |
| Teach phonological awareness | 0.3 | | 40 | 26 | 18 |
| Give examples of usage in multiple contexts | 10 | | | 11 | 16 |
| Give definitions | 10 | | | 11 | 15 |
| Combination/all | 0.1 | 25 | 20 | 16 | 13 |
| Personalise to student’s own experience | | | 20 | 5 | 16 |
| Ask students to say the word aloud | 13 | 50 | | 11 | 10 |
| Ask students to identify unknown words | 3 | | | 5 | 10 |
| Teach how to derive meaning from context | 3 | | | 11 | 9 |
| Ask students to write the word in a sentence | 22 | 25 | | 4 | |
| Link semantic with phonological information | | | | 16 | 7 |
| Depends on student | | 25 | | | 9 |
| Write key words on board | | 25 | | | 8 |
| Use a “must should could” approach | | | | | 8 |
| Teach how to derive meaning from morphology | 0.3 | | | | 6 |
| Ask students to write the words | 0.6 | | | 11 | 4 |
| Ask students to self-rate own knowledge | | | | | 6 |
| Use of a dictionary | 0.3 | | | | 4 |
| Students have their own vocabulary book | 0.3 | | | 11 | 2 |
| Revision/practice | | | 40 | 5 | 2 |
| Multi-sensory | | | | 11 | 3 |
| Student creates own definition | | | | | 4 |
| Have clear target vocabulary | | | | 5 | 3 |
| All that foster independent word learning | | | | 5 | 3 |
| Depends on context | | 25 | | 5 | 1 |
| Write key words in lesson plans | | | | | 3 |
| Depends on SLT/teacher | | | | 5 | 1 |
| Check understanding | | | | | 2 |
| Interactions with words | | | | | 2 |
| Change to keep interest | | 25 | | 1 | |
| Link to known/other words | | | | | 2 |
| Encourage interest in words | | | | | 2 |
| Other | 25 | 75 | 0 | 5 | 9 |
Most effective strategy
(by count; job roles combined)
| Strategy | Count |
|-----------------------------------------------|-------|
| Say in sentence | 38 |
| Repeat words often | 34 |
| Semantic | 31 |
| Visual | 30 |
| Phonological | 25 |
| Give contexts | 20 |
| Give definition | 19 |
| Combination/all | 18 |
| Personalise | 16 |
| Say word aloud | 15 |
| Identify unknown words | 11 |
| Derive from context | 10 |
| Write in sentence | 10 |
| Semantics and phonological linked | 9 |
| Depends on student | 9 |
| Key words on board | 9 |
| Must should could | 8 |
| Derive from morphology | 7 |
| Write the word | 7 |
| Self-rate own knowledge | 6 |
| Dictionary | 5 |
| Own vocabulary book | 5 |
| Revision/practice | 5 |
| Multi-sensory | 5 |
| Student's own definition | 4 |
| Clear target vocabulary | 4 |
| All that foster independent word learning | 4 |
| Depends on context | 3 |
| Key words lesson plans | 3 |
| Depends on SLT/teacher | 3 |
| Check understanding | 3 |
| Interactions with words | 3 |
| Change to keep interest | 3 |
| Link to known/other words | 3 |
| Encourage interest in words | 3 |
| Other | 20 |
Figure 4.5. Most effective strategies for vocabulary teaching by count; job roles combined
4.4.11 Developing knowledge about effective vocabulary intervention for secondary school students with language impairment (178 responses)
A high proportion (87.5%) of practitioners said that they would like to develop their knowledge. Pearson’s chi-square indicated that there were no significant differences between the five job roles ($\chi^2(4) = 6.138, p = .183$); however, as 40% of the cells had an expected count of less than 5, this result may not be valid. Therefore, Fisher’s exact statistic was computed for MSSTs and SLTs only, confirming that there was no significant difference between these two professions in their wish to develop knowledge in this field ($p = .085$).
184.108.40.206 Specific areas for development (123 responses)
There was a wide range of topics mentioned in this section, as depicted in Figure 4.6.
Some respondents (18 comments) referred to strategies in a general sense; others (15 comments) listed specific strategies they were interested in:
“Strategies for secondary classroom teachers to do this effectively in subject lessons.” (209: Senco)
“How to teach morphological understanding, how to derive meaning from context, teaching phonological awareness.” (179: MSST).
A request for more knowledge about whole-class intervention came from teachers and SLTs alike (25 comments):
“Supporting teaching staff with more whole-class approaches and strategies.” (14: SLT)
“Supporting students in a whole class setting without specialist support.” (113: MSST)
Likewise, both SLTs and teachers, especially those with a role in special needs, wanted to know more about how to achieve successful partnership working (23 comments):
“Would be interested to know how to partner with teachers to do whole-class work.” (7: SLT)
“How to support teaching staff to include it in their delivery rather than specialist and withdraw.” (20: Senco)
Figure 4.6. Specific areas for development
Key: Tier 2 = cross-curricular words (Beck et al, 2013). See section 2.1.1.
Some practitioners were interested in knowing more about the evidence base with regard to vocabulary intervention (12 comments):
“The evidence for teacher/TA input to support versus SLT-led intervention.” (46: SLT)
Some respondents wanted to know how to convince classroom teachers of the importance of vocabulary support in the classroom. Some of these felt that a key element in achieving this was effective liaison with senior management (12 comments):
“Whole class intervention: how do you get secondary teachers and teaching assistants on board to embed effective vocabulary learning strategies into their teaching practice?” (169: SLT)
“I would like to know how to convince senior management of the importance of this as any innovation which is not supported top down is very hard work.” (67: Spec T)
Other areas listed included:
- Vocabulary and the curriculum (11 comments):
“Curriculum vocabulary learning, particularly KS4.” (97: SLT)
- Adapting strategies for the secondary age group (11 comments):
“Specific intervention programmes that can be delivered in a secondary context.” (154: SLT)
“Any that encourage interest in words and don’t feel too “school-y” (The young people I work with are generally anti-social and school-refusers and have no self-esteem).” (15: SLT)
- Resources (9 comments):
“How to support older students within the classroom setting in developing their learning and memory of vocabulary. I currently adapt Word Aware\(^9\) but would be great to have a more secondary focused set of tools.” (184: Spec T)
- Universal – targeted – individual model of delivery (9 comments):
“Would like to know more about the most efficient and effective models of service delivery.” (167: SLT/T)
- Which words to teach (9 comments):
“It would be helpful to have resources specific to curriculum topics, possibly focusing on the most important words. My knowledge of what vocabulary to do is always dependent on what the teacher tells me.” (186: SLT)
- The challenges of the educational setting (7 responses):
“Less about actual practical strategies, more about others’ experiences implementing successful whole-school approach. Very confident in own abilities, but aware of limitations of this in fast-paced mainstream setting with many different teachers and LSA.\(^{10}\)” (121: SLT)
- Outcome measurement (6 comments):
“Incorporating it into the curriculum and measuring effectiveness.” (68: SLT)
- Tier 2 words (4 comments):
“I would also like to increase my knowledge of useful word lists and prioritising words, especially Tier 2 words.” (167: SLT/T)
- General - a desire for continued professional development in the wider sense (27 comments):
“Although I am very aware of the difficulties and use a variety of strategies there are always some of the students I am teaching that struggle with learning new words. I am always open to learning new techniques.” (126: Spec T)
“Need to know more as an SLT about what knowledge and skills teachers are already trained in.” (46: SLT)
- Areas other than vocabulary (5 comments), e.g.:
---
\(^9\) Word Aware: a resource for developing vocabulary in “primary, elementary and middle school” (Parsons & Branagan, 2014, p.7).
\(^{10}\) Learning Support Assistant: another term for Teaching Assistant.
4.4.12 Further comments (47 responses)
A range of views was elicited, with key themes emerging of service and school constraints, collaborative working, and the challenges of providing support in secondary school settings. Themes are listed in Figure 4.7, and are encapsulated in the two responses below:
“There are a range of practical difficulties when working on vocabulary in a mainstream secondary school which I do not find in primary. If there are only 1 or 2 students in a class, teachers are less inclined to spend time with me (generally but not always - there are some very engaged teachers). Trying to get strategies used across lessons is hard due to the time constraints / demands on the service i.e. if I went into all lessons for one student there would be many other students not receiving therapy. I would therefore want clear research about the effectiveness of such interventions so I know it is a good use of time and will be effective...it is easier (guilt wise) to spend more time on a student if you know it is likely to be effective, and those students who have waited will also be getting a good quality service.” (4: SLT)
“I work in a specialist secondary school, not a mainstream secondary school, which is not a category in your study. You might be better off asking the teachers what methods they use in the classroom to teach vocabulary, and how they monitor this learning as most secondary schools have very little SLT input, and when it is there, the recommendations remain just pieces of paper in the pupils’ notes because the teachers have not got time to prepare specialist materials. Perhaps speech therapists need to have some input in teacher training regarding language learning and phonological awareness. But everyone has their separate profession and after 40 years in the trade it seems never the twain shall meet. When you look at all the teaching materials that are put out by private companies, or even the ‘teaching of phonics’ by the state it is so confusing it’s no wonder students with language disorder get left behind. I believe that in secondary school there is a big brain development that takes place in adolescence so that if there were a repetition of some information that was not grasped in primary school these students could catch up. But in secondary school the basics are no longer taught so the students get left behind at both ends. I find that most language impaired students can’t read very well or at all so they can’t catch up easily, yet the mystery of transforming squiggly marks on a page into speech sounds which humans make is no longer taught. I hope your research has a practical outcome for the students’ sake.” (53: SLT/T)
4.5 Discussion
The current chapter reports on an online survey which elicited information from speech and language therapy and teaching practitioners about their current practice of teaching vocabulary to adolescents with language disorder in mainstream secondary schools. The purpose of the survey was to gain a sound clinical and educational perspective on usual teaching and therapy practice to support the intervention study of vocabulary intervention in Chapter 6.
Practitioners from a range of regions within the UK were represented, with nine responses from other countries. This comprised 48 MSSTs, eight special school teachers, nine Sencos, 23 specialist teachers, and 134 SLTs. This is a very low return rate from teachers of 0.03%, given an estimated 140,000 secondary school teachers in England alone (DfE, 2011), but a better return rate from SLTs of 27.5%, calculated from figures in Pring et al. (2012) and Roulstone et al. (2012) that 7.1% of 6,860 paediatric SLTs work predominantly in secondary schools. The SLT return rate approaches the average response rate to online surveys of 33% reported by Nulty (2008). Hence, the responses to the current survey cannot be taken to be representative of the teaching profession, but the higher return rate from SLTs suggests greater external validity of the SLT profession’s responses.
4.5.1 The importance of vocabulary
Most (87%) of practitioners felt it was very important for students aged 11 – 16 to be able to learn new vocabulary (section 4.4.7). The most commonly given reason related to curriculum access and academic success, with other prominent reasons relating to the impact of vocabulary on socialisation, emotional well-being, and employment potential. These comments concur with the literature on long-term outcomes of children with language impairment, for example Stothard et al. (1998) and Clegg et al. (2005), which was discussed in Chapter 1. These results point to a high level of potential support for implementing recommendations following the findings of the intervention study.
4.5.2 Confidence and collaboration
The survey indicated that there is a higher percentage of students with vocabulary difficulties on SLTs’ caseloads compared to the students in MSSTs’ classes. This is to be expected, although because of the subjective self-rating format, responses may represent the level of practitioners’ awareness of vocabulary needs rather than fact. Less contact with students who have vocabulary needs could be one reason why MSSTs reported less confidence in supporting students’ vocabulary than SLTs, who have greater contact with students who have vocabulary needs. This gives them more opportunity to develop skills in vocabulary support, thus increasing their confidence. Levels of confidence also appeared to be influenced by training and multi-disciplinary collaboration: those who reported lack of confidence cited lack of training and barriers to multi-disciplinary working, whereas those who reported more confidence felt that training and successful collaboration contributed to their confidence. Some SLTs reported that they had the appropriate knowledge, but found it difficult to achieve successful partnership working with teachers. Conversely, some teachers were aware of their lack of knowledge but reported limited access to specialist support.
These comments indicated that there was a desire within both professions to collaborate with the other, but that practical obstacles impeded progress. This finding echoes the results of Glover, McCormack, and Smith-Tamaray (2015). In their study, with 14 teachers and six SLTs who worked with five to 11-year-olds, in one education region of New South Wales in Australia, a desire for more training, resources, and opportunities for collaboration was expressed. But, as Merritt and Culatta (1998, p.49) noted, “Collaboration is neither automatic nor easy to execute as it encompasses significant professional challenges.” Since the NHS Reorganisation Act in 1974, public sector SLTs in the UK have traditionally been employed within the NHS, whereas teachers are employed by schools, creating a divide at strategic level and consequent differing priorities. At an operational level, the comments of respondents mirrored the views of Ehren (2002) (section 2.3.1) in terms of the limited amount of time which teachers and SLTs have for planning, and the logistics of timetabling joint planning opportunities. Changing patterns of commissioning in recent years, including an increase in funding of speech and language therapy by schools and local authorities, have made some inroads in relation to this issue, whereby strategic-level joint working is in place which facilitates joint working at an operational level. Indeed, McKean et al. (2017) described successful collaborative practice at an operational level in the context of a successful
partnership at strategic level. This was a qualitative study in which 33 professionals concerned with SLCN provision were interviewed from eight schools in one local authority and its NHS partner in the UK. Adequate resources and positive attitudes were reported. However, these findings pertained to a single area in the UK, with contributions from just four SLTs; and, furthermore, it is implied that the schools involved in the research were primary schools. This research needs replication in order to explore the extent and effectiveness of collaborative practice in different contexts.
4.5.3 Models of intervention delivery
One of the purposes of the survey was to explore what model of intervention delivery was used in mainstream secondary schools. It was hypothesised (hypothesis 1) that specific vocabulary intervention for adolescents in mainstream secondary schools takes place in a small-group or individual model of service delivery. Responses showed that vocabulary intervention was delivered through a range of universal, small-group, and individual models, by all professional roles, therefore this hypothesis was not supported. The wording of the question, *What model of delivery do you use to teach vocabulary to students aged 11 – 16 years?* could have led to some ambiguity, as some respondents appeared to have answered it according to what their individual practice was, rather than what model of practice was utilised within their setting. In addition, it would have been appropriate to include the option *Whole-class strategies with no access to speech and language therapy support*, as this was stated by 13 respondents as another model which they employed.
A long list of factors influencing which model to choose was generated by respondents, indicating that SLTs and teachers have to take many things into consideration when providing intervention in school. While some practitioners were able to make needs-led decisions, others were impeded by barriers which resulted in resource-led decisions. The most commonly cited influencing factor was the availability of the SLT. The SLTs citing this factor reported a lack of time to devote to their school caseload, and from the teachers’ perspective this barrier was perceived as a lack of specialist support. These comments reflect a national picture of limited specialist speech and language support in secondary education in the UK (Bercow, 2008; Lindsay et al., 2002). However, some responses implied the presence of a greater amount of speech and language therapy provision, allowing more opportunities for teacher-SLT collaboration. It is possible that in some areas, but not all, speech and language therapy resources at secondary level have developed in recent years, resulting in the variability of speech and language therapy provision reported by Pring (2016).
4.5.4 Vocabulary support strategies
In order to ascertain which specific intervention techniques and strategies practitioners used in practice, a list of strategies was provided in the questionnaire, and respondents were also given a free-text field to add other strategies. It was hypothesised (hypothesis 2) that SLTs would use a phonological-semantic approach to vocabulary intervention with adolescents who have language disorder, whereas MSSTs would use a semantic-only approach to vocabulary instruction. To investigate this, the strategy of teaching phonological awareness was listed in the
survey (the full wording was: *teach phonological awareness of the words (initial sound, syllable, and rhyme) e.g. phonological-semantic word maps, word grids, sound-and-meaning bingo*). Results provide support for hypothesis 2, with 94.3% of SLTs indicating that they taught phonological awareness *sometimes, often, or always*, compared with 60.5% of MSSTs, a significant difference.
It was of interest that SLTs used semantic feature analysis significantly more often than MSSTs, with 97.1% of SLTs indicating that they taught semantic feature analysis *sometimes, often, or always*, compared with 47.4% of MSSTs. While many of the strategies used by teachers were semantic in nature, such as teaching students how to derive meaning from context or asking students to look words up in a dictionary, this result would suggest that fewer teachers than SLTs consciously incorporate semantic feature analysis into their teaching, in terms of expressly discussing features such as function, location, attribute, and category.
The strategies which MSSTs employed more often than SLTs were listing key words on the board, and asking students to use the word in a written sentence. This is unsurprising, given the centrality of literacy to the secondary curriculum. According to the Secondary National Curriculum, “teachers should develop pupils’ reading and writing in all subjects to support their acquisition of knowledge” (DfE, 2014, p.10).
Inspection of Figures 4.3 and 4.5 reveals some mismatch between the most frequently used strategies and the strategies which respondents felt were the most effective. The most frequently used strategy was giving definitions, whereas this strategy did not feature highly as an effective strategy from any of the professional roles. This could be a function of reporting bias, in that Figure 4.5 is based on 179 responses, of whom only 158 answered the question about the most effective strategy. Alternatively, it could indicate that it is common practice to define a word first, and then to follow this up by examining word meaning in more depth using other strategies – a practice supported by research which shows that providing definitions alone is not sufficient (Justice et al., 2005; Nash & Snowling, 2006) (section 2.2.2).
### 4.5.5 Continuing professional development
The majority of respondents (87.5%) indicated that they would like to develop their knowledge in the field of vocabulary intervention. The most frequently requested areas related to which strategies to use, how to deliver vocabulary support in a whole-class context, and how to achieve successful teacher-SLT collaboration. However, these areas were the explicit focus of the questionnaire, which could have introduced bias. Nonetheless, the survey illustrates a desire amongst practitioners to overcome barriers such as service or time constraints, lack of knowledge or training, and lack of opportunities for collaboration. It highlighted the commitment of practitioners to meet the needs of adolescents with language disorder, which provides a strong endorsement from a stakeholder perspective for the intervention study which follows in Chapter 6.
4.6 Limitations
The limitations to this research will now be evaluated.
Validity
Even though the questionnaire was trialled amongst a small number of teachers and SLTs prior to being launched, it became apparent that some of the questions were still ambiguous. For example, MSSTs were asked how many lessons, over how many weeks, they spent on one topic, but responses to this question varied so widely that it was apparent that the question had been interpreted in different ways, therefore results were not valid. A further example is the wording of the strategy *repeat the words often*. This was intended to mean *practitioner repeats the word often* but it appeared to have been interpreted by some respondents to mean *student repeats the word often*.
Bias
Only interested parties will have prioritised time to fill in the survey, so results are biased towards those with experience of, or interest in, vocabulary or speech, language and communication needs.
Sample size
The number of questionnaires received from MSSTs (N=48) is a very small return rate (estimated 0.03%) and so responses to the current survey cannot be taken to be representative of the teaching profession, though the higher return rate from SLTs (N=134: estimated 27.5%) provides greater external validity for the SLTs’ responses. In addition, only 175/259 (68%) questionnaires were fully completed. This could have been because the introduction to the questionnaire did not explain that the web-page would be open for two weeks after commencement, so it is possible that some respondents, having been unable to complete it at one sitting, did not realise that they could come back to it for completion later. Explaining this in the introduction would possibly have increased the completion rate.
Any inferences or generalisations should, therefore, be made with caution. Nonetheless, in comparison to Glover et al. (2015), which had a sample size of N=20, and McKean et al. (2017) which had a sample size of N=33, the larger sample size of the current survey (N=259) adds credibility to its findings. Furthermore, both Glover and McKean sampled one geographical area only, whereas the current survey sampled the whole of the UK. However, due to differences in recruitment methods, comparisons of percentage return rates are difficult to make. Although Glover states that 11/156 (7%) schools and six out of 36 (17%) of SLTs took part, neither Glover et al. nor McKean et al. stated the total number of education professionals invited, so it is not possible to calculate a percentage return rate.
Notwithstanding these limitations, although responses do not reveal such a positive picture as that presented by McKean et al. (2017), the results of the survey mirror the findings of Ehren (2002) and Glover et al. (2015), providing support for the intervention study in Chapter 6.
4.7 Conclusion
Review of the literature revealed little about what type of vocabulary teaching currently takes place in the mainstream secondary school classroom in the UK; therefore, the survey described in the current chapter sought to discover more about how vocabulary support is typically provided for adolescents with language disorder in mainstream secondary schools. Two strands of enquiry were pursued: firstly, to find out what types of intervention are currently used by teachers and SLTs in practice; and secondly, to find out what model of intervention delivery is used. Review of vocabulary interventions in the literature (Chapter 2) found that most clinical studies have investigated a phonological-semantic approach, whereas most educational studies have investigated a semantic-only and literacy-based approach. The survey results provide some evidence that this parallels current practice, showing that SLT practitioners taught phonological awareness as a strategy for developing vocabulary skills more often than MSSTs. Results also suggest that teachers were more likely to use semantic (though not specifically semantic feature analysis) and literacy approaches.
Another comparison of note revealed by the survey concerns the model of intervention delivery used. Vocabulary research has explored small-group and individual models of delivery more frequently than a whole-class model (Chapter 3). This might suggest that a whole-class model is used less often in practice; however, this was not reflected in the outcomes of the survey, which suggest that both speech and language therapy and teaching professions use whole-class models of delivery in their practice as well as small-group and individual models. This emphasises the urgency of researching vocabulary intervention specifically for adolescents with language disorder in the whole-class setting.
Comments made in the survey indicated that members of both professions wished to know more about the evidence for effective vocabulary strategies, and how to achieve successful collaboration in order to implement these strategies in a whole-class setting within the mainstream secondary curriculum. This emphasises the ecological validity of the intervention explored in Chapter 6.
Summary of Chapter 4
A survey was conducted to establish a knowledge base about how vocabulary support is typically provided by teachers and SLTs for adolescents with language disorder in mainstream secondary schools. There were 259 responses to the survey, of which 175 were fully completed. Both speech and language therapy and teaching professions were found to use a range of universal, small-group, and individual models of delivery in their current practice, with SLTs teaching phonological awareness as a strategy for developing vocabulary skills more often than MSSTs. The survey thus underlines the need to investigate the effectiveness of a phonological-semantic approach in the mainstream secondary school classroom, and provides a sound clinical and educational perspective for an intervention study. The development of assessment and intervention protocols for the intervention study are described in Chapter 5, and the study itself is reported on in Chapters 6, 7, and 8.
Chapter 5
The development of assessment and intervention protocols:
A pilot study
Overview
This chapter describes the rationale behind word selection, and the assessment and intervention choices for the main experimental study of the current thesis (Chapter 6). It describes a pilot study in which the assessments and intervention activities were trialled and explains how the protocols were developed. Following a brief introduction (section 5.1), section 5.2 provides an overview of the pilot study design. Section 5.3 gives the rationale for the selection of experimental and control words, and section 5.4 describes the development of a bespoke assessment to assess knowledge of these words. Section 5.5 outlines the standardised language assessments used in the pilot study. Section 5.6 describes the development of a bespoke assessment to measure progress in independent word learning ability. In section 5.7, each intervention activity is described in detail along with its rationale. Section 5.8 reports the results in increases in participants’ word knowledge following the pilot intervention. Section 5.9 describes the refinements made to assessments and intervention activities after they had been piloted.
5.1 Introduction
The main experimental study of the current thesis is an intervention study examining the effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder. The purpose of the pilot study, reported on in the current chapter, was to enable the researcher (a speech and language therapist) to trial word selection, assessment and intervention protocols. Further details of all aspects of recruitment, word selection, assessments and intervention activities specific to the intervention study are given in Chapter 6.
5.2 Design of the pilot study
The pilot study took place in the summer term of 2015. One mainstream secondary school identified six Year 8 students in one science class, who had low vocabulary levels according to school attainment records. The students were aged 12:0 to 12:10 ($M = 12:4$, $SD = 4$ months). Written consent was gained from head teacher, science teacher, parents and students. At baseline, the researcher assessed these students on 16 words from a science topic, “Breathing and Respiration”, and on eight control words from a future topic “Genetics and Inheritance”, using a bespoke author-created word knowledge assessment. Standardised language assessments were also administered, as well as a bespoke author-created assessment of independent word learning ability. The 16 “Breathing and Respiration” words were divided into two lists of eight, matched as far as possible by phonological complexity and frequency. One list of eight words acted as experimental words, which were taught to the students in a small group by the researcher, using the proposed word-learning activities. The students attended the group
sessions for the first twenty minutes of each science lesson during the topic “Breathing and Respiration,” for eight consecutive lessons over three weeks. The other eight “Breathing and Respiration” words acted as active control words, taught by the teacher during science lessons using usual teaching practice. The eight words from “Genetics and Inheritance” acted as passive control words receiving no intervention or exposure. At the post-intervention timepoint, the word knowledge assessment and independent word learning assessments were re-administered by a blind assessor. Following the pilot study, adjustments were made to the assessment and intervention protocols as necessary.
5.3 Word selection
Two options for the choice of experimental words were considered: cross-curricular words or subject-specific words. Beck et al. (2013) advocated the use of a tiered system of word classification, which was explained in section 2.1.1. Beck and colleagues emphasised the importance of explicitly teaching cross-curricular (Tier 2) words, as these words have maximum functionality across the curriculum. For this reason, it would have been clinically and pedagogically appropriate to use Tier 2 words for the experimental and control words in the current study. Empirically, Tier 2 words chosen by the researcher, would have had the advantage that experimental words could be matched more easily for frequency, phonological complexity, and imageability with control sets of words. However, this study was reliant upon the participation of teachers within their lessons. Teachers have an obligation to teach the curriculum, and each topic has a list of subject-specific key words which are central to the teaching of the topic. The purpose of this study was to explore how vocabulary intervention can be embedded into a topic syllabus, and it was felt that the teaching of Tier 2 words might have necessitated teaching in isolation from the topic, thereby not meeting the aims of the study. It was also felt that it would be harder, and more artificial, for teachers to incorporate an additional set of words into their lessons as well as the key words they needed to teach within the topic. This could adversely affect the motivation of the teachers to take part in the study and possibly impact on fidelity to the intervention protocol. Furthermore, there would be a potential for students to receive exposure to both experimental and control cross-curricular words in other subjects and even outside school. It was, therefore, decided that the experimental words would be Tier 3 words: subject-specific words, selected from the topic syllabus to be taught within the timeframe of the study.
The subject-specific words were chosen from science, because science is a core (compulsory) subject in the UK secondary school curriculum (DfE, 2014), and is noted for its high content of subject-specific vocabulary, much of which is abstract or technical (Woodward & Noell, 1991). The decision to use science is supported by a focus on science vocabulary in previous literature (e.g. Dockrell et al., 2007; Joffe, 2011; Sim, 1998). Forwood (2014) researched the science vocabulary knowledge of Year 7 and 8 students in Australia (age 12 – 14 years), comparing those presenting with a language learning disability (N=20) with TD students (N=159). She noted that those with language learning disability found science vocabulary more challenging than their TD peers, and that this was coupled with a negative attitude towards science.
Previous studies that have compared the learning of two or more sets of words have ranged from one word in each set (Best, Dockrell, and Braisby, 2006b) to 40 words in each set (Easton et al., 1997). Some studies have used larger numbers of words than this, for example Snow et al. (2009), which involved intervention of 120 words over a full academic year, measured by a subset of 40. In the pilot study, eight experimental words were used, to fit in with the number of lessons over which the topic “Breathing and Respiration”, would be taught. Clinical observation, backed up by discussion with the science teacher in the pilot study, indicated that 10 would be a reasonable number of words to be taught in one science topic, and that an assessment containing 10 experimental plus 20 control words would be of a manageable duration for participants. Therefore, for the intervention study, 10 was chosen as the number of experimental words.
In the pilot study, experimental and control words were matched as far as possible by phonological complexity and frequency. The matching of experimental and control words for the intervention study is described fully in section 6.6.
5.4 Word knowledge assessment
5.4.1 Rationale behind the pilot word knowledge assessment
As the intervention targeted sets of curriculum words, a bespoke non-standardised tool to measure increases in word knowledge was required. It was felt that an assessment tool was needed which would thoroughly explore changes in the extent of semantic representation, or depth of word knowledge (see section 1.5.1). As was described in section 2.2.1, a receptive vocabulary assessment which did not involve expressive skills, such as a picture pointing task, would have provided information regarding the participants’ breadth of word knowledge, but such multiple-choice tasks do not provide detailed insight into semantic representations. A word knowledge assessment was therefore devised by the researcher consisting of a definition production task.
In a definition production task, the participant is required to describe the meaning of a word, yielding information about the participants’ depth of understanding. Definition production tasks have been used to assess semantic representations in several previous studies, using a scale to indicate depth of word knowledge (Clegg, 2014; Curtis, 1987; Justice et al., 2005; McGregor et al., 2013; Throneburg et al., 2000). Such a scale was first proposed by Dale (1965: p.898), as follows:
“1 I never saw the word before
2 I know there is such a word but I don’t know what it means
3 The twilight zone: a vague contextual placing of the word
4 We have pinned the word down. We know it. We would recognise it again if we saw it, and we are likely to remember it.”
This has been adapted many times (Beck et al., 2002; Curtis, 1987; Elks & McLachlan, 2008). Further to this, some studies (Lubliner & Smetana, 2005; St. John & Vance, 2014) have used a traffic light system to represent levels of knowledge, a concept familiar to many students: “If you
don’t know the word at all color the light red. If you have heard of it but aren’t sure what it means color it yellow. If you know the word and can use it in a sentence color it green” (Lubliner & Smetana, 2005, p.173).
In the pilot study, these systems were combined and adapted to create a red-amber-green scale. It was felt that stages 1 and 2 of Dale’s (1965) classification system, and the red and yellow stages of Lubliner and Smetana (2005), did not indicate any difference in depth of knowledge; these were, therefore, collapsed into one stage, denoted red in the pilot study. Amber was used for the equivalent to Dale’s stage 3, in which the student can describe something about what the word means but without precision. Green was used for the equivalent to Dale’s stage 4 and Lubliner and Smetana’s green stage, in which the student can explain what the word means, in the context in which it has been taught, and can use it in a sentence.
5.4.2 Scoring of the pilot word knowledge assessment
Students were awarded a score of 1 for an amber response and 2 for a green response. Thus, the maximum score in each word list of eight words was 16.
5.4.3 Validity of the pilot word knowledge assessment
Validity of the pilot word knowledge assessment was measured by correlating the baseline word knowledge assessment scores with the students’ scores on the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Abbreviated Intelligence Scale, second edition (WASI-2 V: Wechsler, 2011), which is also a definition production task. Because of the small sample size (N=6), Spearman’s rho was used. There was a significant positive correlation between the baseline word knowledge assessment scores and WASI-2 V raw scores (Spearman’s $r = .82$, $p = .046$), which justified the use of the assessment.
5.4.4 Administration of the word knowledge assessment
Pre-intervention assessment was administered by the researcher, following an administration protocol with a flow chart of questions and prompts. The post-intervention assessments were administered by a blind assessor, a specialist speech and language teacher who was familiar with this type of assessment, using the same administration protocol.
5.5 Language and cognitive profiling
In the pilot study, information about the language and cognitive profiles of participants was gained through the use of three standardised assessments:
- the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Abbreviated Intelligence Scale, second edition (WASI-2 V: Wechsler, 2011);
- the British Picture Vocabulary Scale, third edition (BPVS-3: Dunn, Dunn, Sewell & Styles, 2011); and
- the Listening Recall subtest of the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTBC: Gathercole & Pickering, 2001).
The rationale behind the choice of these assessments is detailed in section 6.7.1.
The group mean WASI-2 V standard score of pilot study participants was 88 ($SD = 9.5$); for the BPVS-3, mean standard score was 83 ($SD = 11.6$); and for the Listening Recall subtest of the WMTBC, mean standard score was 94 ($SD = 18.0$).
### 5.6 Independent word learning ability
Because there are too many words to teach each one individually (Beck et al., 2013; Nagy & Herman, 1987), an additional aim of the vocabulary intervention was to include instruction which would develop transferable word-learning skills (section 220.127.116.11).
#### 5.6.1 Development of a bespoke independent word learning assessment
An assessment was devised by the researcher using principles from Beck et al. (2013) and Lubliner and Smetana (2005), to assess: (i) the students’ ability to identify words they did not understand; (ii) their ability to derive the meaning of these words; and (iii) their knowledge of strategies to use when confronted with an unknown word.
Three passages were taken from Joffe (2011) chosen for their age-appropriacy, optimum length, and inclusion of words which had the potential for derivation of meaning from morphological and contextual clues. The passages were printed in Arial size 16 font and were shown to the student one by one, with the following introduction:
“We’re going to have a think about learning new words. I’m going to read you two short passages. Listen carefully. There may be some words that you have never heard of before and do not understand. That is OK. I will ask you to try and work out what the word means.”
Each passage was read aloud by the assessor, who followed it along with her finger while reading, to avoid any complications caused by reading difficulties. After each passage, the assessor asked:
*Are there any words in there you’ve never heard before?*
Students could say or point to any words they did not understand. The assessor asked:
*What do you think ……… might mean?*
Once the student had said what they thought the word might mean, the assessor asked.
*What makes you think that?*
General praise and encouragement were given, but specific feedback about responses was not given. The students were then asked:
*If you don’t understand a word, what can you do to find out what the word means?*
After their first answer, the students were asked:
---
11 At subsequent time points, the assessor asked “Are there any words in there you don’t understand?”
until they had no further ideas.
5.7 The intervention activities
5.7.1 Summary of rationale for the intervention
Chapter 1 described the complex process of word learning in adolescence: how new words are linked to prior knowledge and added to an existing lexicon; how phonological and semantic representations are extended and strengthened; and how components such as literacy and metalinguistic awareness come into play. Chapters 2 and 3 synthesised the evidence for vocabulary instruction with children and adolescents who have language disorder. Learning to derive meaning from context as well direct definitional instruction was shown to be important in developing independent word-learning skills. It was explained that the value of adding phonological instruction to semantic instruction is particularly pertinent for children and adolescents who have language disorder, in order to strengthen links between phonological representation and semantic representation. Despite this, whole-class vocabulary teaching approaches were not found to include explicit phonological instruction.
The intervention in the experimental study, underpinned by the evidence base, and drawing on the researcher’s clinical experience as a SLT, aimed to incorporate many of the components of word learning in specific word-learning activities, to be delivered in the classroom by the teacher. This eclectic approach to intervention supported adolescents’ word learning by building on strengths as well as supporting their weaknesses. For example, participants with phonological weaknesses but semantic strengths, as well as those with semantic weaknesses but phonological strengths could have the opportunity to benefit. The inclusion of elements which drew on visual skills, metalinguistic awareness, memory skills, and motivation aimed to reach students with a wide range of cognitive and language profiles. Importantly, the word-learning activities contained repeated opportunities for students to say the words aloud, a critical element in developing accuracy of phonological representation and in linking phonological form with semantic representation. Literacy was supported throughout all intervention activities by accompanying speech with the written word, to assist in the development of the “literate lexicon” (Nippold, 1988; p.29).
An intervention protocol adhering to these principles was devised, and was trialled by the researcher in the pilot study as follows.
5.7.2 Content of intervention
The intervention consisted of seven components, piloted by the researcher with participating students in the small group setting:
- Self-rating checklist;
- Visual image displayed with written word;
- Word detective;
• Word map;
• Word wise quickie;
• Sound and meaning bingo;
• Vocabulary book.
Examples of all the intervention activities are in the appendices to chapter 6 (see section 6.8.1). Each intervention activity will now be described, with a rationale for its inclusion and examples of where it has been used in previous research.
18.104.22.168 Self-rating checklist (Appendix 6O)
At the beginning of the intervention, students were given a self-rating checklist. The experimental words were listed on one sheet, against three columns headed with a sad face (representing no knowledge of word meaning), a non-committal face (representing some knowledge), and a smiley face (representing secure knowledge). The researcher read the words aloud to the students, who then rated their own knowledge of the words individually by ticking the appropriate column. The self-rating checklist was done once at the beginning of the topic, and once at the end of the topic so that students could review their own learning.
*Rationale:* The aim of the self-rating checklist was to exploit the increasing metalinguistic awareness in adolescence (section 1.3). Lubliner and Smetana (2005) included a self-rating component in their intervention, to raise children’s awareness of their own word knowledge. The self-rating checklist was also intended to increase motivation by alerting the students to which words they needed to learn, and enabling them to evaluate their own learning at the end of the topic.
22.214.171.124 Visual image displayed with written word (Appendix 6Q)
An image representing each experimental word along with the written word, each on an A4 laminated sheet, was displayed throughout the intervention.
*Rationale:* Henry and Botting (2017)’s review of working memory and language impairment suggests that the visual modality may be stronger than the auditory modality for many children with language disorder. In much of the literature emanating from America in the 1980s, visual representation is part of what was known as the keyword method (e.g. Pressley, Levin, & McDaniel, 1987). Steele and Mills (2011) also recommend the use of visual support.
126.96.36.199 Word detective (Appendix 6R)
The researcher displayed a word detective prompt card and used it as she modelled how to discover information about a new word. Words were introduced in context by reading aloud a piece of text from a lesson PowerPoint (Microsoft, 2016) presentation, and the researcher modelled what to do when encountering a new word. The concept of being a word detective was taken from Joffe (2011), and the word detective prompt card was devised as a mnemonic to remind the students of four key strategies for finding out the meaning of a new word. The first two strategies comprised clues to work out the meaning of the word from accompanying information:
firstly, to look for morphological clues in the structure of the word, and secondly to look for contextual clues in the sentence or paragraph containing the word. The last two strategies comprised skills of self-directed enquiry: asking another person, and using a dictionary.
*Rationale*: The introduction of words in a context creates a natural incentive of needing to know what words mean (Miller & Gildea, 1987). As described in section 2.1, direct instruction in how to derive meaning from context is advocated by Beck et al. (2013), and has been found effective in younger children by Justice et al. (2005), and Nash and Snowling (2006). The idea of being a word detective has been used successfully with older children by Joffe et al. (in preparation) (section 3.4.3).
**188.8.131.52 Word map (Appendix 6S)**
A word map was used to introduce new concepts, forming a framework for exploring the meaning of the words. Out of all the activities, the word map was intended to be the one where the majority of the teaching of new curriculum content would occur.
A word is written in the centre of the word map. On one side of the word, lines lead to spaces in which to write: the number of syllables; the initial phoneme; and words which rhyme with or sound like the word. This latter space also allows for discussion about morphology and linking with other similar words through examining the root, prefix, and suffix. On the other side, lines lead to spaces in which to write or draw: the function of the object; its location; its constituent parts; what category it belongs to; and something that personalises the word to the student’s own experience. Drawing is used as much as possible to provide visual support, and to allow those with literacy difficulties to demonstrate their knowledge. The researcher did the word maps initially on the board as a whole group activity, but once the students were familiar with them, they were used flexibly, for example on printed sheet in pairs, individually, or as homework.
*Rationale*: A word map facilitates exploration of the phonological form of a word as well as the semantic features of the word, and ensures that phonological and semantic information is connected (section 1.5.4). The word map necessitates frequent repetition of the word, slowing down speech rate, and segmentation of the word to highlight phonological features of the word. Making the phonological features more salient supports PSTM and phonological processing, which are areas of difficulty in many children with language disorder (section 1.5). Making phonological features more salient has been shown to improve accuracy of word production in both TD children and children with language disorder (Ellis Weismser & Hesketh, 1998). A word map also provides opportunities to consciously reflect on the inherent properties of words, such as its morphology, thus developing metalinguistic awareness. Morphological instruction was integral to the studies of Snow et al. (2009) and Lesaux et al. (2014), described in section 184.108.40.206.
Various versions of word map have been used (Elks & McLachlan, 2008; Joffe, 2011; St. John & Vance, 2014). The Elks and McLachlan (2008) version was chosen for the current study, as it contained fewer spaces for semantic and phonological connections than other versions known to the researcher, and thus was judged more manageable for teachers to become familiar with and integrate into lessons in a short time-frame.
220.127.116.11 Word wise quickie (Appendix 6U)
An activity known as a word wise quickie (Elks & McLachlan 2008) was used as a lesson starter or finisher to revise words. The word wise quickie is a short verbal activity in which students are given a word: they think of a meaning, think of a sound (i.e. the number of syllables, initial phoneme, or a rhyme), and use the word in a spoken sentence. A prompt card was used as a mnemonic or to display.
*Rationale:* The word wise quickie provides another opportunity to link phonological with semantic information, and can be used as a revision activity, which keeps the words primed in the students’ memories. It fosters the generation of the student’s own definitions, rather than mere learning of definitions by rote, and cements new knowledge within existing knowledge, an approach recommended by Dockrell et al. (2007). It also provides a requirement for students to say the word aloud. Lesaux et al. (2014) and Beck et al. (2013) provide opportunities in their intervention for students to say the words, and Dockrell et al. (2007) emphasise the importance of this, in response to the fact that in their study, in which expressive word use was not explicitly required, production did not progress as well as comprehension. Saying words aloud keeps the word active in the phonological loop component of the working memory model (Baddeley, 2000), facilitating processing and transfer to long-term memory. It also activates the motor planning function of the speech processing system, which further strengthens the phonological representation of the word (Stackhouse & Wells, 1997).
18.104.22.168 Sound and meaning bingo (Appendix 6V)
Sound and meaning bingo was played as a revision activity for all the experimental words. In sound and meaning bingo, the experimental words are written on the board and students each choose a given number of them to write in a grid. A sound and meaning clue for a word is given, and students put their hand up if they have this word in their grid. Examples of clues for *kinetic* might be: “It begins with k and means movement energy” or “It rhymes with frenetic and is the type of energy created by a rolling ball”. One student with their hand up is asked to say the word aloud, which checks that everybody is thinking of the right word, and students who have it in their grid cross it off. Play continues until one of the students has crossed off all their words and calls bingo.
*Rationale:* Bingo is an activity used by many teachers, and should therefore be easily integrated into existing teaching practice. It is usually delivered semantically only, by giving definition clues, whereas sound and meaning bingo adds the phonological element to the clues given. Sound and meaning bingo provides further opportunity to link phonological with semantic information, to keep the words primed in the students’ memories, and for students to say the words aloud. Sound and meaning bingo also adds a dimension of fun and competition, increasing the motivation of students to engage with the word-learning process. Sound and meaning bingo was used by Lowe and Joffe (2017).
22.214.171.124 Vocabulary book
In the pilot study, each student was given their own vocabulary book, indexed with the alphabet. In this they wrote each experimental word on the page corresponding to the initial letter of the word, placed a dot under each syllable, and drew or wrote their own understanding of what the word meant.
*Rationale:* The vocabulary book or key word sheet provide an opportunity to develop metalinguistic skills, further opportunity to link phonological and semantic information, and allow students to personalise their knowledge of the word in relation to their own experiences. Personalisation creates a feeling of ownership rather than passive learning. The use of vocabulary books is recommended by Beck et al. (2013) and has been shown to be effective in young adult second language learners (Walters & Bozkurt, 2009).
Table 5.1 summarises which aspects of word learning are targeted by each of the activities.
**Table 5.1. Aspects of word learning targeted by the intervention activities**
| Intervention activity | Aspect of word learning |
|-----------------------|-------------------------|
| | Independent word learning | Semantic representation | Phonological processing | Literacy | Linking to prior knowledge | Metalinguistic awareness | Motivational |
| Self-rating checklist | ✓ | | | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ |
| Visual image displayed with written word | | ✓ | | ✓ | | | |
| Word detective | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | |
| Word map | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Word wise quickie | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Sound and meaning bingo | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ |
| Key word sheet | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
5.8 Results of the pilot study
Group mean scores for word knowledge are shown in Table 5.2.
Table 5.2 Group mean scores for word knowledge in the pilot study
| | Pre-intervention $M$ | Post-intervention $M$ |
|--------------------------------|----------------------|-----------------------|
| Usual teaching practice words out of 16 | 2.3 | 2.2 |
| Experimental words out of 16 | 2.3 | 5.6 |
| No-intervention words out of 16 | 2.6 | 2.8 |
Because of the small sample size, and the fact that the purpose of the pilot study was to trial and adjust assessment and intervention protocols, no statistical analysis was carried out on these data. Nonetheless, visual inspection of the data suggested that increase in knowledge of experimental words was numerically greater than increase in knowledge of usual teaching practice words and no-intervention words. This gave confidence in the value of the word-learning activities, and provided an impetus for the intervention study which follows in Chapter 6.
5.9 Refinement of assessment and intervention protocols
In the light of experience from the pilot study, amendments were made to assessment and intervention protocols for use in the intervention study as follows.
5.9.1 Further development of the word knowledge assessment
When using the word knowledge rating scale during the pilot study it was found that the criterion for the green stage was too broad, because it did not distinguish between a well-rounded knowledge of word meaning versus expressive use of the word. Although a definition production task is an expressive task, utilising and relying on expressive language skills, a definition production task does not necessarily demand production of the word itself, because it is possible to describe what a word means without saying the word. Understanding word meanings and using words expressively are distinct aspects of word knowledge, and are both important parts of the curriculum. Therefore, it was necessary to ensure that the word knowledge assessment specifically measured expressive use of the words as well as depth of understanding. Expressive vocabulary is sometimes measured through a confrontation picture naming task (e.g. Bragard et al., 2012; Zens et al. 2009), but this was thought to be inappropriate due to the abstract nature of many of the targeted words. Therefore, for the intervention study, a green star category was added to the existing word knowledge assessment, resulting in a three-point scale for *depth of word knowledge* and a binary scale for *expressive word use*.
The word knowledge assessment in the intervention study thus consisted of two separate scales, as follows:
1) Depth of word knowledge, primarily assessing semantic representation
2) Expressive word use, giving additional insight into phonological representation as well as semantic representation.
This is summarised in Table 5.3. A pre-requisite of being awarded an expressive word use score was that the participant had to achieve a score of 2 on the depth of word knowledge scale.
Table 5.3. Word knowledge assessment scoring system used in the intervention study
| | | Depth of word knowledge | Expressive word use |
|---|---|-------------------------|---------------------|
| Red | Student does not demonstrate any knowledge of word meaning | 0 | |
| Amber | Student indicates some, but imprecise, understanding of word meaning | 1 | |
| Green | Student demonstrates clear understanding of meaning in the science context | 2 | |
| Green star | Student can use the word in a spoken sentence | | 1 |
5.9.2 Administration of the word knowledge assessment
On listening to the audio recordings of the pilot word knowledge assessments, it was apparent that there were some differences in the way the post-intervention assessment had been administered compared with its administration at pre-intervention; for example, prompts had not been given as often, thus not drawing out the maximum amount of knowledge from the participants. Therefore, the protocol and flow chart were improved to include a clearer explanation for administration and scoring, including examples for each rating.
The administration and scoring pertaining to the word knowledge assessment used in the intervention study are described in full in section 6.7.2.
5.9.3 Further development of the independent word learning assessment
The piloting of this assessment indicated that the use of a third passage yielded no information that could not be gleaned from the first two passages; therefore, for the intervention study, only two passages were used. No other changes were made.
The scoring and reliability of the independent word learning assessment is described in section 126.96.36.199.
5.9.4 Amendments to the intervention activities
The only change to the intervention activities concerned the use of vocabulary books. It was felt that with larger numbers of participants, spread across several classes in which every student would need their own vocabulary book, that this would be impracticable both for the researcher and for the teachers. Therefore, for the intervention study, a key word sheet (Appendix 6W) was devised to serve the same purpose, with 10 boxes and the alphabet down the centre. To complete an entry in the key word sheet, the student carries out the following tasks: writes the word in a box; places a dot under each syllable; draws or writes their own understanding of what the word means; and draws a line to link it with its initial letter.
Summary of Chapter 5
This chapter has described the process of word selection, and the rationale and development of a word knowledge assessment, a bespoke independent word learning assessment, and intervention activities. These assessments and intervention activities were piloted in a small study using a pre-post design, and appropriate refinements were made for use in the intervention study, reported on in the next chapter.
Chapter 6
The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder:
Methods
Overview
This chapter describes the methodology of the main experimental study of this thesis. The introduction summarises the content of previous chapters, which provide the rationale for the study. Section 6.2 gives an overview of the study design. Section 6.3 states the aims, research questions, and hypotheses. Section 6.4 outlines ethical approval and the process of consent. Section 6.5 describes the rationale for recruitment, and gives details of schools, teacher participants, and student participants. Section 6.6 explains word selection and matching. Section 6.7 describes the measures used, the rationale for each assessment, and includes the assessment schedule. Section 6.8 outlines the experimental intervention, and gives information on teacher training, fidelity, dosage, and word exposure. Section 6.9 introduces the approach taken to data analysis.
6.1 Introduction and summary of rationale
Chapter 1 presented evidence that vocabulary skills are often at risk for children and adolescents with language disorder, and that vocabulary knowledge is a key predictor of academic progress (e.g. Nation & Snowling, 2004). In the longer term, language disorder continues to be associated with poorer outcomes in educational attainment, cognition, behaviour, social and emotional functioning, and employment well into adulthood (Johnson et al., 2010).
Several intervention studies, appraised in Chapter 2 (e.g. Motsch & Marks, 2015; Wilson et al., 2015) have presented evidence for a combined phonological-semantic approach to enhance the vocabulary skills of children with language disorder; an approach underpinned by theories of word learning (Bishop, 2014; Leonard, 1998; Stackhouse & Wells, 1997). Many of the researched interventions have been implemented with children aged five to 11 years, in small groups or individually, in specialist language settings. A systematic review of the literature (Chapter 3), found limited research with the adolescent age group, revealing emergent evidence for phonological-semantic intervention in individual or small-group models of delivery (e.g. Ebbels et al., 2012). Only a small number of studies have investigated phonological-semantic intervention in whole-class models of delivery (Boland, 2009; Lowe & Joffe, 2017; Murphy et al., 2017).
The survey in Chapter 4 found that a phonological-semantic approach was widely used in SLT practice with the secondary school age group, but that a semantic and literacy-based approach was more likely to be used by MSSTs. This latter finding is reflected in the evidence for vocabulary instruction at a universal level in the secondary school age range: however, the evidence relates
to second language learning and social disadvantage (e.g. Snow et al., 2009, section 188.8.131.52) rather than language disorder.
The survey also highlighted the challenges of implementing therapy in mainstream secondary school settings: again, these findings are supported in the literature (Ehren, 2002). Individual or small-group interventions, which necessitate withdrawal from the classroom, have clinical, pedagogical, and practical disadvantages for some students, particularly as they enter adolescence. The available evidence for the effectiveness of universal vocabulary intervention suggests that teacher/SLT collaboration, enabling the delivery of intervention in the classroom, can have a positive impact on the vocabulary learning of young children with language disorder (Throneburg et al., 2000, section 184.108.40.206) though this research needs corroboration, and also needs extension to the older age group. Furthermore, Chapter 2 explained that many children with language disorder in the UK are educated in mainstream schools (Lindsay et al., 2005) and that specialist speech and language support typically decreases as children move from primary to secondary education (Bercow, 2008). For all these reasons, universal models of intervention delivery may, therefore, be especially pertinent to the secondary school setting.
The current study, building on the evidence of successful classroom approaches (Boland, 2009; Murphy et al., 2016; Snow et al., 2009), took phonological-semantic elements of intervention which are usually only delivered in individual or small-group models, and applied them to a universal model, to be implemented by teachers within the mainstream curriculum. In addition to the phonological-semantic activities, the intervention took a holistic perspective encompassing other factors critical to word learning. These included metalinguistic awareness, visual support, and linking word meaning to personal experience. In this thesis, the name given to this classroom vocabulary intervention is Word Discovery, because of the intrinsic opportunities it provides for students and teachers to explore word form, word meaning, and self-help word-learning strategies. Word Discovery represents a novel approach, extending the feasibility study by Lowe and Joffe (2017), because no other studies so far reviewed have investigated the effectiveness of curriculum vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder, in which the intervention is embedded into a subject syllabus and is delivered by teachers. The intervention study described in the current chapter addresses this gap in the evidence base.
6.2 Overview of study design
The experimental study employed a within-subjects repeated measures design. Seventy-eight students aged 11 – 14 years, with low verbal ability according to school attainment records, participated from eight mainstream secondary schools in the UK. Participants’ knowledge of 30 science words was assessed. In the first phase of the study, 10 active control words from one topic (topic 1) were taught by science teachers using usual teaching practice. Following this, teachers attended a training session. In the second phase, 10 matched experimental words from a subsequent topic (topic 2) were taught by the same teachers using Word Discovery activities, embedded into the teaching of the syllabus. Ten matched passive control words received no intervention. Word knowledge was assessed at four timepoints. Because it was a within-subjects study and the two teaching conditions were sequential, pre-intervention, post-intervention, and
follow-up assessments for the experimental and control conditions occurred at different timepoints. See Table 6.1.
Table 6.1. Pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up assessment points for experimental and control conditions
| | Time 1 | Time 2 | Time 3 | Time 4 |
|--------------------------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| Usual teaching practice condition | Pre-intervention | Post-intervention | Follow-up | Second follow-up |
| Experimental condition | Baseline | Pre-intervention | Post-intervention | Follow-up |
| No-intervention condition | Pre-intervention | Post-intervention | Follow-up | Second follow-up |
Increases in knowledge of experimental, usual teaching practice, and no-intervention words were compared, and predictors of increases in word knowledge were explored. Student and teacher views of the intervention were sought. The planned study phases are depicted in Figure 6.1.
Figure 6.1. Overview of planned study phases
6.3 Aims of the study: research questions and hypotheses
The aims of the study were to explore the effectiveness of incorporating phonological-semantic techniques into classroom vocabulary teaching, with students of secondary school age. The word-learning activities were implemented in the classroom by the teacher, and the study measured the learning of specifically taught words as well as the development of independent word-learning strategies. In addition, the study explored whether students’ increase in word knowledge in response to intervention was associated with their language and cognitive abilities. Lastly, the study evaluated the intervention from the student and teacher perspective.
The study aimed to answer the following research questions.
6.3.1 Increases in word knowledge
Research question 1 (RQ1): Does classroom vocabulary intervention, delivered by the teacher in a mainstream setting, increase the word knowledge of adolescents with language disorder?
The following hypotheses were proposed:
Depth of word knowledge
H1 The increase in depth of word knowledge for experimental words will be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice.
H2 The maintenance in depth of word knowledge from post-intervention to follow up for experimental words will be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice.
H3 There will be no significant change in depth of word knowledge of no-intervention words over time.
Expressive word use
H4 The increase in expressive word use of experimental words will be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice.
H5 The maintenance in expressive word use from post-intervention to follow up for experimental words will be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice.
H6 There will be no significant change in expressive word use of no-intervention words over time.
6.3.2 Independent word learning
Research question 2 (RQ2): Does classroom vocabulary intervention, delivered by the teacher in a mainstream setting, improve the independent word learning ability of adolescents with language disorder?
The following hypotheses were proposed:
H7 There will be significant progress on a standardised vocabulary assessment following topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention).
H8 There will be no significant increase in students’ ability to derive the meaning of unknown words following topic 1 (usual teaching practice), but there will be a significant increase following topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention).
H9 There will be no significant increase in awareness of word-learning strategies following topic 1 (usual teaching practice), but a significant increase following topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention).
H10 The increase in students’ science attainment will be greater following topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention) than following topic 1 (usual teaching practice).
6.3.3 Predictors of increases in word knowledge
Research question 3 (RQ3): Which language or cognitive characteristics predict the potential to respond to classroom vocabulary intervention?
The following hypotheses were proposed:
H11 There will be a relationship between existing receptive vocabulary levels and increases in word knowledge, such that students who have higher existing receptive vocabulary levels will demonstrate greater increases in experimental word knowledge than those with lower existing vocabulary levels.
H12 There will be a relationship between sentence recall ability and increases in word knowledge, such that students who have higher sentence recall ability will demonstrate greater increases in experimental word knowledge than those with lower existing sentence recall ability.
H13 There will be a relationship between verbal working memory and increases in word knowledge, such that students who have higher verbal working memory ability will demonstrate greater increases in experimental word knowledge than those with lower existing verbal working memory ability.
H14 There will be a relationship between phonological awareness and increases in word knowledge, such that students who have higher phonological awareness ability will demonstrate greater increases in experimental word knowledge than those with lower existing phonological awareness ability.
6.3.4 Acceptability of the intervention from the teacher and student perspective
Research question 4 (RQ4): What are the teachers’ and students’ views about the classroom vocabulary intervention?
The following hypotheses were proposed:
H15 Teachers’ confidence in teaching vocabulary to adolescents with language disorder will increase following participation in the study.
H16 Students will prefer a whole-class model of vocabulary intervention delivery over a small-group or individual model.
In addition, qualitative data was collected regarding students’ and teachers’ views on the effectiveness of the word-learning activities.
6.3.5 Comparison of usual teaching practice and Word Discovery intervention
The construction of the study also allowed the researcher to gather data which would enable two comparisons between usual teaching practice and the experimental intervention: firstly, data was collected on what strategies teachers habitually used to teach curriculum vocabulary; and
secondly, data was collected to establish whether the implementation of Word Discovery resulted in increased exposure to the words.
6.4 Ethical considerations
6.4.1 Ethical approval
Ethical approval for the study was received from the School of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee, City, University of London, reference number: PR/LCS/PhD/15-16/01. See Appendix 6A for the indemnity letter pertaining to ethical approval.
6.4.2 The process of consent
School recruitment is described in section 6.5.1. Signed informed consent was firstly obtained from the head teacher and then from science teachers. All head teacher, teacher (T.), parent, and student consent forms were accompanied by an information sheet which explained that:
- All information provided would be confidential, and identifiable personal data would be anonymised;
- Participation was voluntary, and consent could be withdrawn at any time without prejudice;
- Recording and processing of data would be subject to the university’s obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.
See Appendix 6B for the information sheets and consent forms for head teachers, science teachers, parents, and students.
Student inclusion criteria are described in section 220.127.116.11. Parent information and consent forms were sent to the parent/guardians of students meeting the inclusion criteria by the Senco, with a covering note from school, through usual school correspondence channels. If no response was received within two weeks, a reminder was given, and a further two weeks allowed for return of the form. Once signed parent/guardian consent was obtained, signed student consent was sought at the first face-to-face contact between student and researcher, so that the content of the information and consent forms could be explained verbally, and so that all students had the opportunity to ask questions.
6.5 Recruitment and participant characteristics
6.5.1 Schools
The study was open to mainstream secondary schools (serving 11 – 16-year-olds) within the UK. This criterion was chosen as many students with language disorder are now educated in mainstream settings (Lindsay et al., 2005). A recruitment strategy combining convenience and purposeful sampling was adopted, with the aim of recruiting schools from a wide geographical and socio-economic spread within feasible travelling distance from the researcher’s base. Recruitment of schools began in May 2015, and the last school was recruited in March 2016. Expressions of interest were invited from schools through professional networks, and in one case
through a personal contact of the researcher. Through these channels, 27 expressions of interest were received, and details of the study were sent to the schools inviting a face-to-face meeting for further information sharing. None of these were schools with which the researcher had had any previous contact. Of these, 11 schools made no further contact. Three were declined by the researcher: one due to distance, one because it was not a mainstream school, and one because contact was made after the recruitment period. Eight further schools were cold-called by the researcher, and the telephone call was followed up with an email. One request for further details was received following this, but no further contact was made by any of these schools.
An initial meeting was held with 13 schools. The initial face-to-face meeting was between the researcher and a member of staff such as the special educational needs coordinator (Senco), who was willing to be a key link person for the research study within the school, thereby facilitating recruitment, assessment and liaison with other staff.
In two schools, the numbers of students meeting criteria was less than five, and so, for reasons of practicality, these schools were deferred in favour of schools with larger numbers of students; a further three of these schools declined, stating that they did not have the capacity to commit to the study. Thus, the final number of schools taking part in the study was eight. They were all non-selective mainstream secondary schools in England.
Demographic characteristics of the schools, as at the time of the study, are contained in Table 6.2. Information on type of establishment, age range, and number on roll, was obtained from Ofsted Inspection Reports (Ofsted, 2017). Published admission numbers (PANs), which give an indication of the number of students admitted each year in Year 7, were taken from schools’ own websites. Ofsted overall effectiveness grades at the time of the study and free school meals information was obtained from Edubase2 (DfE, 2017b). Children are eligible for free school meals if their parents are in receipt of welfare benefits such as Income Support or Child Tax Credit (DfE, 2017c). An indication of the SES of each school population was also taken from the Index of Multiple Deprivation (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2015). This database ranks 32,844 Lower-layer Super Output Areas (neighbourhoods) in England on measures of deprivation based on seven domains, where one is the most deprived, and 32,844 is the least deprived. The seven domains are: Income; Employment; Education, Skills and Training; Health and Disability; Crime; Barriers to Housing and Services; and Living Environment. The ranks are divided into 10 equal groups to give a decile measurement, which describes the relative level of deprivation of a neighbourhood. Neighbourhoods in the first decile are amongst the 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, and neighbourhoods in the tenth decile are amongst the 10% least deprived.
Apparent mismatches between the percentage of pupils entitled to free school meals and their school’s decile of deprivation are the result of the school’s location at the edge of a Lower-layer Super Output Area, where the catchment area includes a Lower-layer Super Output Area of a different decile of deprivation. For this reason, Pupil Premium status was also collected (see section 18.104.22.168.3).
| School | Type of establishment* | Age range | Number on roll | PAN | Gender | Ofsted rating | Geographical region | % Free school meals | Decile of Deprivation according to Index of Multiple Deprivation |
|--------|------------------------|-----------------|----------------|------|----------|------------------------|---------------------|---------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | Free School | 11-18 (Y7, 8) | 242 | 120 | boys | Not available† | Greater London | 20.7 | 2 |
| 2 | Free School | 11-18 (Y7, 8, 9)| 271 | 90 | mixed | Good | South East | 5.9 | 9 |
| 3 | Community School | 11-16 | 1,181 | 230 | mixed | Outstanding | South East | 8.3 | 8 |
| 4 | Community School | 11-18 | 1,205 | 210 | mixed | Good | Greater London | 22.8 | 6 |
| 5 | Academy | 3-19 | 2,524 | 210 | mixed | Requires Improvement | North | 31.0 | 9 |
| 6 | Academy converter | 11-18 | 1,200 | 180 | mixed | Outstanding | Greater London | 12.9 | 4 |
| 7 | Academy converter | 11-19 | 1,476 | 250 | mixed | Good | East | 7.7 | 8 |
| 8 | Academy converter | 11-18 | 1,513 | 210 | mixed | Outstanding | Midlands | 1.9 | 8 |
Key: PAN = Published Admission Number
*Types of establishment are explained on [https://www.gov.uk/types-of-school accessed 25.8.17](https://www.gov.uk/types-of-school accessed 25.8.17)
† As a recently opened school, Ofsted rating was not available at the time of the study. In May 2017, Ofsted rating was Good.
6.5.2 Teacher participants
The inclusion criteria for teaching staff were that they were:
- Year 7, 8 or 9 science teachers;
- available to deliver the intervention for the duration of the study.
Thirty-four teachers were approached to take part in the study and were given consent forms, 29 of which were returned. Two teachers took part in the study without having returned their consent forms, despite reminders. One teacher (T.34) declined after having attended the training as he did not foresee being able to carry out all the intervention activities. Two further teachers did not return their consent forms and did not implement any of the word-learning activities. Reasons given included difficulty due to sharing the class with other teachers (T.13), and not being fully aware of the study (T.12, who had been unable to attend the training). One teacher (T.24) returned his consent form but did not implement the activities with his class. The researcher was unaware until the post-intervention timepoint that these teachers had not delivered the intervention. Figure 6.2 shows the flow of teachers through the study.
Twenty-five teachers delivered the intervention with all their classes which contained participating students. Five teachers delivered the intervention with some of their classes containing participating students, but not with other classes (T.1, T.11, T.22, T.25, T.26).
At Time 3, a teacher questionnaire was supplied to teachers either electronically or as a hard copy. A questionnaire was given to all 30 participating teachers, and 29 were returned (T.20 left school soon after Time 3 and could not be contacted). Although anonymity was offered, in practice this was not achieved because the teachers returned the questionnaires to the researcher by hand or via email. The questionnaire contained five questions seeking information about the teachers’ gender, degree subject, years of teaching experience (overall and secondary), and amount of training in SLCN. Characteristics of participating teachers are contained in Table 6.3.
Teachers approached to take part N=34
- Teachers declined consent N=1
- Teachers did not return consent forms and did not take part N=2
- Teachers did not return consent forms but still took part N=2
- Teacher consent forms received N=29
- Teachers consented but did not take part N=1
- Teachers implemented Word Discovery intervention N=30
Figure 6.2. Flow of teacher participants through the study
| **Table 6.3 Teacher characteristics** |
|--------------------------------------|
| **Number of teachers** | N=30 |
| **Questionnaires returned** | N=29 |
| **Gender** | N=30 m:f 9:21 |
| **Degree subjects studied** | N=29 Biochemistry (6)
Biochemistry and polymer engineering (1)
Biological sciences (1)
Biology (3)
Biology and forensic science (1)
Biology/marine biology (1)
Biomedical sciences (1)
Chemistry (1)
Chemistry with patent law (1)
Engineering (1)
Food science (1)
Mechanical engineering (1)
Medicinal biochemistry (1)
Pharmacology (1)
Physics (2)
Physics with secondary education (1)
Psychology and forensic science (1)
Science (1)
Theoretical physics (1)
Zoology/chemistry (1)
Missing (1) |
| **Number of years’ overall teaching experience** | N=30 Mean 7.4 years (range <1 – 25) |
| **Number of years’ experience teaching science in secondary school.** | N=30 Mean 7.2 years (range <1 – 25) |
| **Number of days’ training in speech, language and communication needs.** | N=29 Mean one day (range 0 – 4) |
6.5.3 Student participants
22.214.171.124 Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria for student participants were that they:
- Attended a mainstream secondary school in the UK.
- Were in Key Stage 3 (KS3: Year 7, 8 or 9; age 11 – 14 years) in the academic year 2015 - 2016 or 2016 – 2017. This age group was chosen due to the importance of developing word-learning skills at a time in a child’s life when the educational environment exposes them to increasingly complex and abstract words (Nippold, 2007). This age group was also appropriate for pragmatic reasons: once students are in Key Stage 4 (KS4: Years 10 and 11; age 14 – 16 years), there is more pressure on teachers and students to focus exclusively on the GCSE syllabus.
- Had a verbal standard score (SS) on school attainment records of below 85, and a nonverbal SS of equal to or higher than the individual’s verbal score, but not below a SS of 70. Verbal and nonverbal attainment data were obtained from school records. For seven schools, this information was obtained from the Cognitive Attainment Test (GL Assessment). Students complete this assessment online, and the verbal measure (CATV) is literacy-based. One school did not use the Cognitive Attainment Test, so recruitment was based on the Access Reading Test (Crumpler & McCarty, 2006) administered at the beginning of Year 7. The Access Reading Test is a paper-based reading assessment yielding scores for literal comprehension, vocabulary, comprehension requiring inference or prediction, and comprehension requiring analysis, which are combined to obtain an overall SS. This school did not administer a nonverbal assessment, so nonverbal ability for these students was taken from the researcher’s assessments at Time 1 (see section 6.7.1).
Based on the close association between language disorder and literacy difficulties (McArthur et al., 2000), it was expected that these verbal and nonverbal criteria would identify students who had a language need in comparison with their peers, and which impeded their access to the school curriculum, including those with developmental language disorder as well as those with language disorder associated with another condition. A specified discrepancy between verbal and nonverbal ability was not required, in line with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5: American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and Bishop et al. (2016), both of which describe language disorder relative to age, and place importance on the functional impact of impairment. Those with a verbal SS higher than their nonverbal SS were excluded from the current study, as this would suggest that language was a relative strength. Consistent with previous literature (e.g. McGregor et al., 2013; Starling et al., 2012) a nonverbal SS of 70 was used as a threshold for nonverbal ability in order to focus on children with language disorder rather than intellectual disability.
• Spoke English as a first language, or, if English was an additional language, had lived in the UK for at least two years, to allow for the acquisition of functional proficiency in English (MacSwan & Pray, 2005).
The purpose of these recruitment criteria was to obtain a cohort of participants with language disorder, whose characteristics were diverse enough to allow the exploration of relationships between response to intervention and language and cognitive profiles.
126.96.36.199 Sample size and flow of students through the study
Previous vocabulary intervention studies have indicated that a small to medium effect size may be expected; for example, Lubliner and Smetana (2005) reported an effect size of $d = 0.53$ (medium effect size) and Snow et al. (2009) reported an effect size of $d = 0.21$ (small effect size). Based on this expectation, a projected sample size was calculated using the G*Power programme (Faul, Erdfelder, Lang, & Buchner, 2007), resulting in a required sample size of 108. To allow for attrition, a target for recruitment was set at 120 participants. School recruitment continued until the number of potential participants meeting criteria reached this figure, and a varied geographical and demographic sample was obtained. A decision was taken to stop recruitment once eight schools were recruited, containing 103 consenting participants, because it became apparent that it was not logistically possible to admit any more schools to the study within the available timescale. To allow sufficient time and flexibility for the researcher to work effectively in each school, the study took place in two waves: four schools during the academic year 2015 – 2016, and four schools during the academic year 2016 – 2017.
From the eight participating schools, 232 students met criteria, for whom parental consent was received for 106 (46%). Two students declined consent, and one was absent for baseline assessment, leaving 103 students who were assessed at Time 1. For one of these students (student participant identity number (ID) 65), it was found that his teacher had already started to teach topic 1, therefore no further data were collected about him, and he was not assessed beyond Time 1. Three students (IDs 24, 62, 102) left school during the timescale of the study.
One teacher (T.34: teaching ID 50) declined further participation following the training, and one other teacher (T.26) felt that the activities were inappropriate for the high ability set in which the student (ID 80) was taught, though this teacher continued to take part with another class. Therefore IDs 50 and 80 were not assessed beyond Time 2.
During and after Time 3, the researcher became aware that some participants’ teachers had opted out of participation (T.12, T.13, and T.24; IDs 43, 47, 52, 54, 55, 56, 58, 68), and that some teachers had done the intervention with some classes but not others (T.1, T.11, T.22, T.25, and T.26; IDs 10, 48, 59, 71, 73, 81). As data had already been collected on these students at three timepoints, it was decided to assess them at Time 4, to ensure that opportunities were not missed for collecting data that might be required.
Overall, 30 teachers delivered the intervention with a total of 83 students. Once all school data had been supplied to the researcher, it became apparent that four students had not met the
specified criteria for recruitment. One student (ID 83) had only lived in the UK for one year; however, as she met all other criteria, she was retained in the study. Two students were found to have a CATV SS greater than 85 (IDs 89 and 91), but demonstrated difficulties on at least one of the assessments administered at Time 1, and so they were also retained in the study. One further student (ID 13) who was found to have a CATV SS greater than 85 demonstrated age-appropriate skills on all assessments at Time 1. This student was therefore excluded from analysis. The language and cognitive profiles of participating students are described further in section 188.8.131.52.
One student (ID 64) withdrew from the study prior to Time 3 assessment, and the researcher became aware that one student (ID 44) had changed classes, and so had not been assessed on the correct set of words. Two students (IDs 31 and 96) were absent at one or more timepoints. Thus, the number of students included in the analyses, for whom there are data at all four timepoints is 78. Figure 6.3 shows the flow of student participants through the study.
Parental consent forms received N=106
Students declined consent N=2
Students absent at baseline N=1
Students assessed at Time 1 N=103
Student’s teacher already started topic 1 N=1
Students left school N=2
Students assessed at Time 2 N=99/100 (one absent)
Students’ teachers opted out of intervention N=8
Teachers did intervention with some classes but not others N=6 (researcher unaware)
Student’s teacher declined consent N=1
Teacher 26 did intervention with one class but not another (researcher aware)
Student left school N=1
Students receiving intervention during topic 2 N=83
Student opted out of further assessment N=1
Students assessed at Time 3 N=96
Students assessed at Time 4 N=95/96 (one absent)
Student changed classes N=1 (researcher unaware)
Student not meeting criteria N=1
Students included in the analyses N=78
Figure 6.3. Flow of student participants through the study
184.108.40.206 Biographical characteristics of student cohort
Biographical information was obtained from school records and parental consent forms. The information given here, and summarised in Table 6.4, refers to the students who took part in the intervention and who are included in the analyses (N=78). Biographical information for the whole cohort who were assessed at baseline (N=103) can be found in Appendix 6C.
(a) Gender
For the 78 students who took part in the intervention and are included in the analyses, 52 were boys and 26 were girls. This imbalance in gender is partly due to the tendency for language disorder to be more prevalent in boys than girls (Tomblin et al., 1997), and partly because school 1 was an all boys’ school.
(b) Chronological age
Schools were invited to include Year 7, 8, and 9 in the study. School 1 was a newly established school and only consisted of Years 7 and 8. Schools 5, 7, and 8 chose not to include Year 9s due to the transition from KS3 to KS4 curricula during that period. School 4 did not receive any parental consent forms for Year 9 students. School 3 had only one student in Year 9 meeting criteria, and School 6 only had one student in Year 8 meeting criteria, so it was agreed in those schools to focus on the other year groups. Thus, 41 participating students were in Year 7, 29 were in Year 8, and 8 were in Year 9. Mean chronological age was 12:3 (SD = 9 months; range 11:3 to 14:0).
(c) Socio-economic status
For individual students, Pupil Premium status was used as a proxy for SES. Pupil Premium is financial assistance given to schools based on individual eligibility for the purpose of raising attainment. It is more sensitive as a measure for individuals than eligibility for free school meals, as it can be taken as an indicator not just of economic status but also other social factors. Pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium if (a) they are eligible for free school meals; or (b) they are in the care of the local authority; or (c) their parents are in the regular armed forces (DfE, 2016b). Twenty-eight out of 78 (35.9%) participants were eligible for Pupil Premium.
(d) Medical status
Ten out of 78 participants (12.8%) had a medical condition not usually associated with language disorder. These included: anaphylaxis (1); asthma (2); bladder control (1); diabetes (1); eczema (1); hayfever (1); Hirschsprung’s disease (1); liver disease (1); and multiple allergies, asthma, and heart condition (1). Three students (3.9%) had conditions which are often associated with language disorder. These included: Down’s Syndrome (1); foetal alcohol syndrome (1); and perforated eardrums (1).
(e) Special educational needs status
This information was available for 77/78 students. Forty-seven participants were on the special needs register of the school. Twelve (15.4% of the total) of these were in possession of a statement of educational need, or education, health and care plan (EHCP). Statements of
educational need entitled the school to funding in order to meet individual needs, and were superseded by EHCPs in 2014. Thirty-seven participants were in receipt of school support (for two of these, no special educational need or medical need was listed): conversely, five students not listed as being on the school special needs register had a need identified. Needs were reported in differing ways from school to school, and the data have been amalgamated here where possible according to the broad areas of need within the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 - 25 years (DfE & DoH, 2015). Where the area of need was unclear, the need has been quoted here as stated by the school. Some participants had more than one need.
- Communication and interaction (autism spectrum disorder, 3; SLCN, 14)
- Social, emotional, and mental health (6)
- Cognition and learning (intellectual disability, 5; specific learning difficulty, 5; dyslexia, 6; dyspraxia, 1)
- Sensory and physical needs (physical disability, 1)
- “disengaged, struggles in small groups, lack organisational skills” (1)
- “English as an additional language” (1)
- “no specialist assessment” (1)
- “hyperactivity” (1)
(f) **Ethnicity**
Ethnicity was reported in differing ways from school to school, and in this case it was not meaningful to amalgamate the data: therefore, it has not been included in Table 6.4. Distribution of ethnicity as listed by schools was as follows:
- Albanian (1)
- Any other Asian (1)
- Any other mixed (3)
- Asian (2)
- Bangladeshi (3)
- Black African (3)
- Black Caribbean (1)
- British (10)
- European (1)
- Indian (1)
- Not stated (6)
- Other (3)
- Other Black African (3)
- Pakistani (2)
- White and other (1)
- White and Asian (1)
- White and Black Caribbean (3)
- White British (24)
- White English (9)
(g) **English language status**
Sixty-three out of 78 parental consent forms (80.8%) stated that English was the main language spoken at home. Forty-nine participants (62.8%) were monolingual English speakers, and 29 participants were bilingual or multilingual.
220.127.116.11 Additional intervention
Schools were asked which students were receiving school-based intervention and speech and language therapy intervention at the time of the study. This information was received from all schools except School 6 who did not supply information regarding school-based intervention (10 students).
(a) Receiving both school-based intervention and speech and language therapy intervention
Three students (3.9% of 78) were known to be receiving both school-based intervention and speech and language therapy intervention, and for one of these, this included vocabulary support.
(b) Receiving school-based intervention only
A further 28 students were known to be receiving school-based intervention only (41.2% of 68), and for nine of these (13.2% of 68), this included vocabulary support.
(c) Receiving speech and language therapy intervention only
Two students (2.6% of 78) were in receipt of speech and language therapy intervention, but not school-based intervention. For both of these, this included vocabulary support.
In total, this meant that 12/78 (15.4%) were in receipt of vocabulary support in addition to Word Discovery intervention.
Table 6.4 Biographical characteristics of participants receiving the intervention
| School | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total | As a percentage of total |
|--------|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-------|--------------------------|
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| Number of participants receiving the intervention | 12 | 11 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 78 | 100% |
| Gender ratio male: female | 12:0 | 6:5 | 7:5 | 8:1 | 2:3 | 6:4 | 7:4 | 4:4 | 52:26 | 67%:33% |
| Mean chronological age | 12:1 | 12:2 | 11:11 | 12:6 | 12:7 | 12:11 | 12:4 | 11:10 | (M)12:3 | |
| Numbers of participants in receipt of Pupil Premium | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 28 | 35.9% |
| Number of participants with additional medical condition | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 16.7% |
| Number of participants with statement of educational need or EHCP* | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 15.4% |
| Number of monolingual English speakers | 1 | 10 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 49 | 62.8% |
*EHCP: Education Health and Care Plan
18.104.22.168 Attendance
Attendance data were obtained from school records for all but two participants. During topic 1, 55/76 (72.4%) participants had 100% attendance; the remaining 21 (27.6%) were absent for between one and six lessons. During topic 2, 48/78 (63.2%) participants had 100% attendance; the remaining 23 (36.8%) were absent for between one and six lessons. It was felt that to set a minimum standard for the amount of intervention received would entail setting an arbitrary threshold: furthermore, although in some cases students were absent on the day that the words were introduced, they were present on other days when word-learning activities took place. Therefore, all students who had been present for any word-learning activity were counted as having taken part in the intervention. Using this criterion, it was not felt necessary to exclude any students on the basis of non-attendance.
6.6 Word selection and matching
The researcher and the head of science in each school identified two topics (topic 1 and topic 2) from the science schedule which would be taught sequentially during the timeframe of the study. The head of science supplied a list of key words that would be taught during these topics. From these, the researcher created two lists of 10 words, one from each topic: in the first phase of the study, the 10 topic 1 words acted as active control words, being taught in the classroom through the teachers’ usual teaching practice. In the second phase, the 10 topic 2 words acted as experimental words being taught through the use of Word Discovery activities.
The two lists of words were matched as closely as possible for phonological complexity, concreteness, and frequency. In order of priority, words were matched as follows:
1. **Syllable length**. Single words rather than phrases were used where possible, but sometimes, due to the concept to be taught and the words provided by the heads of science, the use of phrases was unavoidable.
2. **Phonological complexity**: based on consonant-vowel structure.
3. **Imageability**. Information was taken from the MRC psycholinguistic database (Wilson, 1987). For many words, however, imageability data were not available, therefore a concreteness judgement was also made, as follows.
4. **Concreteness**. This was a binary judgement made by the researcher. The criteria were that if the referent was a physical object which can be seen by the naked eye, it was categorised as concrete; and if it was an abstract concept or something physical which cannot be seen by the naked eye, it was categorised as abstract.
5. **Frequency**. Initially, frequency data were taken from the British National Corpus (BNC: 2007). However, partway through the study, the BNC was no longer searchable online for frequency data, so frequency from the Zipf scale was ascertained instead, and subsequently applied to all the experimental and control words. The Zipf scale is derived from a formula for identifying word frequency developed by van Heuven, Mandera, Keuleers, and Brysbaert (2014) using a database of UK subtitles. The formula results in a standardised frequency measure which is not dependent on size of corpus. Words are given a Zipf value on a scale from 1 (low
frequency) to 7 (high frequency), as illustrated in Figure 6.4. While databases can give some indication of word frequency, the frequency value obtained does not necessarily reflect the frequency of word usage within the classroom during a given topic, nor are the data specific to particular contextual meanings of the word; for example, searching a frequency database for the word *contract* does not distinguish between [ˈkɒntrækt] (CONtract: noun) and [kənˈtrækt] (conTRACT: verb). Therefore, although Zipf values were collected, frequency was not given priority in matching over phonological complexity or concreteness.
| Zipf value | fpmw |
|------------|--------|
| 1 | .01 |
| 2 | .1 |
| 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 10 |
| 5 | 100 |
| 6 | 1,000 |
| 7 | 10,000 |
Examples:
1 porosity, sedimentation
2 newtons, sulphate
3 friction, density
4 weight, mass, expand
5 basically, issues
6 should, years
7 and, for, have
Figure 6.4. Zipf values
Key: fpmw = frequency per million words.
Brown verbal frequency, Kucera-Francis written frequency, and familiarity data were also sought from the MRC psycholinguistic database (Wilson, 1987), but for many words data were not available and so these parameters were not used for word matching.
Once the experimental and active control word lists had been created according to these principles, the researcher generated a third list of words, taken from science curricula which the students were expected not previously to have encountered in science lessons, for example from Year 10 and 11 science syllabi. These words were matched as closely as possible with the experimental words by phonological complexity, concreteness, and frequency, and acted as passive control words, which did not receive any exposure. The inclusion of a set of passive control words was to control for possible effects of maturity over time and repeated exposure during assessment.
In summary, each student was assessed on one set of 30 subject-specific words as follows:
- 10 active control words from topic 1: to be taught through usual teaching practice
- 10 experimental words from topic 2: to be taught using the experimental Word Discovery intervention
- 10 passive control words: words from future science topics which would not be taught during the timescale of the study.
These three teaching conditions are henceforth referred to as *usual teaching practice*, *experimental*, and *no-intervention* conditions.
Because the study took place in eight schools and covered three year-groups, and because of the ways students were variously allocated to classes, student participants were taught in 46 separate classes. This resulted in 22 different sets of words in total. Appendix 6D contains a full list of all the word sets, and Appendix 6E contains information on phonological complexity, imageability, concreteness, and frequency for two sets of words as examples.
### 6.7 Measures
This section describes the measures used to assess: language and cognitive ability, (section 6.7.1); knowledge of experimental and control words (section 6.7.2); independent word learning ability (section 6.7.3); usual teaching practice strategies (6.7.4); and student and teacher views of the intervention (section 6.7.5).
#### 6.7.1 Language and cognitive profiling
Information about the language and cognitive profiles of participants was gained through the use of five standardised assessments. All student assessments were administered individually by the researcher in a quiet room in school, during school time. All assessments requiring a verbal response were audio-recorded, using an Olympus LS-11 Linear PCM Recorder, apart from the assessment of one student (ID 38) who declined consent for audio-recording at Time 1. Usually the assessments were administered in a single session taking about one hour, but occasionally this was split over more than one session to fit in with school timetables. For most students, all assessments were administered at Time 1. For 16 students, pre-intervention word knowledge assessment (see section 6.7.2), pre-intervention independent word learning assessment (see section 6.7.3), and most language and cognitive profiling assessments (see section 6.7.1) were administered at Time 1, but, again because of school timetabling, a few outstanding language and cognitive profiling assessments were completed at Time 2. In all cases, the assessments were administered in the same sequence.
Each assessment was administered and scored by the researcher according to the relevant examiner’s manual. Standardised scores were derived for all standardised assessments, with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.
##### 22.214.171.124 Wechsler Abbreviated Intelligence Scale, second edition (WASI-2: Wechsler, 2011): Vocabulary and Matrix Reasoning subtests
Although verbal and nonverbal ability scores from school records were used for recruitment purposes, the measures used varied from school to school, and may have been carried out up to two years previously. In addition, the verbal measures assessed written language ability rather than spoken language ability. Therefore, the WASI-2 was used to provide more consistent, relevant and up-to-date information. The WASI-2 consists of four subtests, two verbal and two nonverbal: Vocabulary, Similarities, Block Design, and Matrix Reasoning. This assessment was chosen for three reasons: firstly, because the Vocabulary subtest assesses the ability of
respondents to produce word definitions verbally, a task mirrored in the word knowledge assessment (see section 6.7.2); secondly, the verbal and nonverbal scales were standardised on the same population, yielding directly comparable information; and thirdly, because a screening version can also be carried out consisting of the Vocabulary and Matrix Reasoning subtests. These two subtests were used in the current study so that sufficient information could be ascertained while minimising the overall duration of each student’s assessment. In the Vocabulary subtest (WASI-2 V) the assessor says a word and shows the student the written word, and the student is required to describe what the word means. In the Matrix Reasoning subtest, the student sees a pattern with a piece missing, and chooses the correct missing piece out of five choices. The WASI-2 is standardised from 6:0 to 90 years. The split-half reliability coefficient for children aged six to 16 is reported as .86 to .94 for the Vocabulary subtest, and .85 to .89 for Matrix Reasoning.
126.96.36.199 British Picture Vocabulary Scale, third edition (BPVS-3: Dunn, Dunn, Sewell & Styles, 2011)
The current study was concerned with the comprehension of classroom vocabulary, owing to its centrality to curriculum access. The BPVS-3 was therefore used to find out the existing receptive vocabulary levels of participants. The student sees four pictures, the assessor says a word aloud, and the student points to the picture which best illustrates the word’s meaning. The BPVS-3 is standardised from three to 16:11 years. The authors report that reliability is built into the confidence bands for standardised and age-related scores.
188.8.131.52 Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, fourth edition, UK, (CELF-4 UK: Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2006): Recalling Sentences subtest
The CELF-4 UK Recalling Sentences subtest was used as a proxy for the presence of language disorder. Sentence recall has been shown to be sensitive to the presence of language disorder due to the heavy demands it places on PSTM as well as drawing on prior language knowledge (Conti-Ramsden et al., 2001). Riches, Loucas, Baird, Charman, and Simonoff’s (2010) study with 15-year-olds suggests that sentence recall is sensitive to language impairment even into adolescence. Sentences of increasing length and complexity are read aloud to the student who is required to repeat them verbatim. The CELF-4 UK is standardised from five to 16:11 years. The average corrected stability coefficient for the Recalling Sentences subtest is reported as .90.
184.108.40.206 Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTBC: Gathercole & Pickering, 2001): Listening Recall subtest
Deficits in PSTM and executive-loaded verbal working memory are both prevalent in children and adolescents with language disorder (see section 1.5.3). As the merging of phonological and semantic information is important in word learning, the Listening Recall subtest of the WMTBC was used as it assesses the use of both of these skills concurrently. The WMTBC is standardised from 5:7 to 15:9. In this subtest, the respondent listens to sets of short statements, identifies the veracity of the statements, and repeats the last word of each statement in the set. The task requires the information to be held in the PSTM while being processed for semantic content, and
thus provides a measure of verbal working memory. The test-retest reliability coefficient for the WMTBC Listening Recall subtest for the age range 9:6 – 11:6 is reported as .38. Reliability for the older age range is not reported.
220.127.116.11 Phonological Awareness Battery (PhAB: Frederickson, Frith, & Reason, 1997): Spoonerisms subtest
Word learning has been shown to draw on phonological resources (see section 1.2.2), therefore the PhAB was used to obtain a measure of phonological skills. The Spoonerisms subtest was used, because, being the most challenging of the subtests, it would be sensitive to the presence of any phonological awareness difficulties within the age group of the participants in the current study. The subtest has two parts: firstly, a phoneme substitution task, in which participants are asked to exchange the first sound of a word with another sound to form a new word; and secondly, a Spoonerisms task, in which participants are given two words and are asked to exchange the first two phonemes of each word to form a nonsense phrase e.g. *King John* becomes *Jing Kon*. The PhAB is standardised from 6:0 – 14:11 years. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha for children aged 12:0 to 14:11 is reported as .89 for the Spoonerisms subtest.
18.104.22.168 Language and cognitive profiles of student participants
This section describes the language and cognitive profiles of students as assessed at Time 1. Examination of student assessment scores revealed that there were eight students who, although they presented with a CATV SS below 85, achieved age-appropriate skills on language assessment at Time 1. It is possible, considering the close association between language and literacy, that these students may well have had language difficulties which were not revealed by the assessments used in this study, as the assessments used in this study did not comprise an exhaustive language assessment battery. The intervention cohort, therefore, was a population of adolescents who presented with language disorder according to the definition by Bishop et al. (2017, p.5): “language problems enduring into middle childhood and beyond, with a significant impact on everyday social interactions or educational progress, [which are] unlikely to resolve without specialist help.” Table 6.5 gives group means, standard deviations and ranges of language and cognitive assessments, and states how many of the cohort of 78 presented with a SS below 85 for each assessment. Information for the whole cohort of 103 students who were assessed at Time 1 is in Appendix 6F.
Table 6.5. Language and cognitive profiles of student participants
| Assessment (N=78 except where stated) | Mean SS (SD) | Minimum | Maximum | Number (%) with SS <85 |
|--------------------------------------|--------------|---------|---------|------------------------|
| CATV * | 77.96 (6.98) | 59 | 104 | 76 (97.4%) |
| CATNV (N=70) ** | 88.31 (8.53) | 73 | 111 | 27 (34.6%) |
| WASI-2 Vocabulary | 88.46 (8.87) | 67 | 104 | 23 (29.5%) |
| WASI-2 Matrix Reasoning | 92.05 (10.39)| 64 | 121 | 18 (23.1%) |
| BPVS-3 | 79.19 (9.20) | 69 | 105 | 60 (76.9%) |
| CELF-4 UK Recalling Sentences | 79.53 (14.44)| 56 | 110 | 45 (57.7%) |
| WMTBC Listening Recall | 88.36 (17.51)| 57 | 122 | 28 (35.9%) |
| PhAB Spoonerisms | 89.03 (8.42) | 69 | 117 | 20 (25.6%) |
* Data represents Access Reading Test SS instead of CATV SS for participants from school 8.
**No school-administered nonverbal measure was available for participants from school 8.
6.7.2 Word knowledge assessment
For details of the word knowledge assessment, see section 5.4.
22.214.171.124 Administration of the word knowledge assessment
The word knowledge assessment was administered at Time 1, Time 2, Time 3, and Time 4. Based on the experience of the pilot study, a decision was made for the researcher to administer all assessments in the intervention study, in order to ensure consistency of administration, and for independent reliability checks to be carried out. Reliability is explained further in section 126.96.36.199.
The 30 words in each set were randomised using the random function on an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft, 2016) and typed onto a sheet of paper in Arial size 14 font. For each set of 30 words, the words were listed in the same order at each timepoint. Students were given a visual prompt card containing squares coloured red, amber, green, and a green star, and were encouraged to rate their own knowledge of each word. The purpose of the prompt card was to engage students in the assessment and to draw out their maximum depth of knowledge about each word. The words were read out by the assessor and shown to the student one by one, with the following introduction:
“We’re going to decide together whether each word is red, amber or green, to show how well you know it. If you don’t know the word, we’ll give it a red. If you can tell me something about what it means, we’ll give it amber. If you can tell me exactly what it means in science, we’ll give it green. If you can say the word in a sentence we’ll give it a green star.
I’ll say the word, and show you, then we decide whether it’s red, amber, green, or a green star. For example, if the word is “sadness”, you could say “Sadness is when you’re upset.” That would be a green star, because you’ve told me what the word means, and you’ve used it in a sentence.
Dependent on the responses made by the participants, staged prompts were given by the assessor to draw out maximum knowledge of each participant. These prompts included:
- Can you tell me anything about what it means?
- Can you think of anything else it means in science?
- Can you tell me more exactly what it means in science?
- Can you use the word in a sentence?
The flow chart in Appendix 6G gives full details of the procedure. Occasional feedback was given by the assessor to provide encouragement and maintain students’ interest in the task. Because the students were involved in the rating, sometimes this entailed commiseration or praise, depending on what the students said.
### 188.8.131.52 Scoring of the word knowledge assessment
Responses were scored by the assessor either at the time, or afterwards on listening to the audio recording. At Time 1, responses were scored according to definitions provided by the science teacher. Responses were collated along with the rating they had been awarded, generating a scoring guideline sheet for each set of words, so that marking was consistent across participants and across timepoints. See Appendix 6H for sample scoring guidelines.
Depth of word knowledge and expressive word use were scored on separate scales. Students’ responses were scored according to the following criteria.
#### (a) Depth of word knowledge scale
A score of 0 was awarded if the student did not demonstrate any understanding of the word’s meaning. Example responses included:
- “Never heard it.”
- “I know it but don’t know what it means.”
- *(diaphragm)* “Where you draw a diagram in science.” (incorrect explanation)
A score of 1 was awarded for “a vague contextual placing of the word” (Dale (1965: p.898) where the student’s response indicated some understanding of the word’s meaning, but it was imprecise. Example responses included:
- *(diaphragm)* “Along here. When you breathe in it goes tight.” (vague explanation)
- *(diaphragm)* “Something to do with your body.” (correct category but imprecise detail)
- *(diaphragm)* Student points to position of own diaphragm. (gesture only)
- *(compound)* “A fenced round area.” (description of an alternative meaning)
A score of 2 was awarded if the student demonstrated a clear understanding of meaning. The student was required to describe what the word meant in the context of science, according to the definition provided by the teacher. The use of technical vocabulary was not essential. Example responses included:
- *(diaphragm)* “A muscle in your chest used for breathing.”
(kilojoules) “How much energy people get from eating food.”
(b) **Expressive word use scale**
An expressive word use score could only be given if the student scored 2 on the depth of word knowledge scale. If that criterion was met, a score of 1 on the expressive word use scale was awarded if the student produced the word with phonological accuracy in a meaningful sentence. Responses had to meet criteria for sentence structure and content as well as speech production, as follows.
**Sentence structure and content**
Criteria were taken from the Formulated Sentences subtest of the CELF-4 UK. As long as speech production was correct (see below), either of the following two criteria earned a score of 1:
- ‘a complete sentence that is semantically and syntactically correct, and uses correct structure (a logical, meaningful, complete and grammatical sentence)’
or
- ‘a complete sentence that demonstrates correct structure and has only one or two deviations in syntax or semantics’ (Semel, Wiig & Secord, 2006, p.33).
If the given word was a verb, any verb tense form was acceptable. For other word classes, the same morphological form needed to be used.
**Speech production**
Criteria were taken from the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (Brownell, 2010, p.27): ‘The following productions, indicating that the phonological representation has been incorrectly stored or retrieved, [were] counted as errors:
- dropping a syllable e.g. “puter” for “computer”
- substituting a syllable e.g. “momometer” for “thermometer”
- adding a syllable e.g. “antliers” for “antlers”
- transposing syllables e.g. “boomranger” for “boomerang”
- dropping a sound e.g. “ethoscope” for “stethoscope”
- substituting a sound e.g. “tunnel” for “funnel”
- adding a sound e.g. “scaddle” for “saddle”
- transposing sounds e.g. “detnist” for “dentist”.
A student’s first attempt was scored unless they self-corrected. If the student could produce the word within the limits of their phonological inventory, this was counted correct e.g. if a student could not pronounce [ʃ] (sh), [inheleisan] (inhalasun) would be counted as correct for *inhalation*. Judgements were made by the assessor based on other occurrences of the sound within the student’s speech sample.
Example responses scoring 0 on the expressive word use scale included:
• **Translucent:** “When you can see through but it’s not that clear; for example, if the window had a lot of dust in it and you couldn’t see through it. In class my glasses were [tansulent] (translucent) so I had to wipe the dust off it.” (incorrect pronunciation).
• **Diaphragm:** “I’ve got a diaphragm.” (no other indication of understanding was demonstrated).
• **Inhalation:** “When you inhale, you breathe in.” (different morphology)
Example responses scoring 1 on the expressive word use scale included:
• **Inhalation:** “Inhalation is when you breathe in.”
• **Diaphragm:** “A muscle under your lungs. You use your diaphragm to breathe.”
• **Dissolve:** “When the solvent and solute combine together. Sugar dissolves in hot water.”
### 184.108.40.206 Validity of the word knowledge assessment
The validity of the word knowledge assessment in the intervention study was measured by correlating the baseline word knowledge assessment scores with the students’ scores on the WASI-2 V. Because the sample was larger than that of the pilot study, and hence the data was normally distributed, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used. There was a significant positive correlation between the depth of word knowledge scores and WASI-2 V raw scores (Pearson’s $r = .492$, $p < .01$).
### 220.127.116.11 Reliability of the word knowledge assessment scoring
Although the researcher had created the word lists, at the time of each assessment the researcher was not usually conscious of the experimental or control status of the words, due to the large number of word sets. In order to establish reliability of the assessment scoring, a speech and language therapist (SLT), not otherwise connected with the study, second-marked 25% of the assessments at all four timepoints directly from the audio-recordings. This percentage is consistent with previous studies assessing reliability (e.g. Lesaux et al., 2014; Starling et al., 2012; Zens et al., 2009). The SLT was blind to the status of the words, and blind to the marking of the researcher. Unweighted Cohen’s kappa, computed online (Lowry, 2001-2017), was used because the data were categorical. There was strong agreement between the two raters, $\kappa = .841$ (95% CI, .820 to .861), suggesting that the scoring was reliable.
### 6.7.3 Independent word learning ability
As Marulis and Neuman (2010) noted, although standardised assessments could be viewed as a more rigorous option for measuring generalisation effects of therapy, they may not be sensitive enough over the timescale of a study. Therefore, in the current study, both standardised and author-created outcome measures were employed. In addition, given the importance of vocabulary knowledge for academic outcomes (see section 1.6), the current study also aimed to assess the impact of the intervention on academic success. Thus, the current study took a three-fold approach to measuring the impact of Word Discovery on independent word learning ability:
standardised assessment; bespoke author-created assessment; and science attainment assessment.
18.104.22.168 Standardised vocabulary assessment
For a standardised assessment, the current study used the WASI-2 V. This was chosen as it is a definition production task and thus mirrors the word knowledge assessment (section 6.7.2). The WASI-2 V was administered at Time 1 and Time 3 (post-experimental intervention). Details of this assessment are given in section 22.214.171.124. For each item, respondents are awarded a score of 0, 1, or 2; thereby the assessment is sensitive to increased depth of word knowledge as well as increased breadth of word knowledge.
126.96.36.199 Bespoke independent word learning assessment
The development of the bespoke independent word learning measure is described in section 5.6.1. The two passages from Joffe (2011) used in the assessment can be found in Appendix 6I.
(a) Administration of the bespoke independent word learning assessment
The independent word learning assessment was administered individually at Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3. Responses were collated along with the rating they had been awarded, generating a scoring guideline sheet for each section of the independent word learning assessment, so that marking was consistent across participants and across timepoints. (See Appendix 6J).
(b) Scoring of the independent word learning assessment
Three separate scores were derived from the independent word learning assessment: identification of unknown words; number of words whose meaning was correctly derived; and number of independent word-learning strategies listed. Students’ responses were scored according to the following criteria.
(i) Identification of unknown words
A count of 1 was given for each word the students said they did not understand.
(ii) Number of unknown words whose meaning was correctly derived
A score of 1 was given for each word meaning that was correctly derived. If a correct answer was given after the assessor had asked “What makes you think that?”, it was not accepted. This decision was made to ensure consistency of administration. Examples of responses scoring 0 included:
- Reverberating: Through the house / loud / travelling.
Examples of responses scoring 1 included:
- Reverberating: Shaking / carrying on / echoing / repeating / vibrating.
(iii) Number of strategies listed
A score of 1 was given for each strategy which the student listed. Responses not deemed to help with discovering the meaning of a word were scored 0. Examples of responses scoring 0 included:
- Practise
- Guess.
Because the question was open-ended, in order to obtain meaningful data, students’ responses were assigned to superordinate categories. Examples of responses scoring 1 included:
- Ask a teacher / ask your mum / put hand up (all assigned to the category “ask an adult”)
- Ask a friend / ask the person sitting next to you / ask your sister (all assigned to the category “ask a peer”).
(c) Reliability of the independent word learning assessment scoring
In order to establish reliability of the assessment scoring, a qualified teacher, not otherwise connected with the study, independently second-marked 25% of the assessments at each timepoint, directly from the audio-recordings. The teacher was blind to the status of the words, and blind to the marking of the researcher. Cohen’s kappa with linear weighting, computed online (Lowry, 2001-2017), was used because the data were ordinal. There was strong agreement between the two raters for the number of unknown words whose meaning was correctly derived, $k_w = .803$ (95% CI, .690 to .915), and a moderately strong agreement for the number of strategies listed, $k_w = .777$ (95% CI, .670 to .884), suggesting that the scoring was reliable.
188.8.131.52 Assessment of science attainment
The researcher sought information on students’ curriculum attainment levels from the head of science in each school. Data were received from five schools (schools 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7). Two types of data were received, as follows:
(a) Tracking data
It is usual for schools to track students’ progress by awarding a level of ability to each student at key data capture points during the school year. Four schools (schools 2, 4, 5, and 6) used National Curriculum levels, and school 7 used its own system of levels for tracking progress, which it had devised when the use of National Curriculum levels became optional in 2014. However, none of the data capture points for any school occurred at dates which coincided with Time 2 (between topic 1 and topic 2), therefore this data was unhelpful as it did not allow for distinction between usual teaching practice and experimental conditions.
(b) Subject tests
Some schools also conduct subject tests at key intervals. School 6 supplied end-of-module test scores, but the modules covered a time period wider than the timescale of the study, therefore the end-of-module test scores reflected progress in other topics as well as topics 1 and 2. Two schools (schools 2 and 5) supplied end-of-topic test scores for both topic 1 and topic 2. The data from these two schools are reported in section 6.2.3.
6.7.4 Usual teaching practice strategies
During topic 1, data were gathered to find out what the teachers habitually did to teach new words, so that the active control condition could be described, enabling meaningful comparisons to be made between usual teaching practice and Word Discovery intervention. Data to establish this were gathered in two ways: through topic 1 strategy records completed by the teachers, and through observation records of the researcher. A sample completed topic 1 strategy record can be found in Appendix 6K. Teachers were asked to complete their strategy records at the end of each topic 1 lesson. This gave the researcher information on what comprised usual teaching practice for teaching new words, which words had been taught, and what date the words had been taught. To supplement this information, all teachers were asked if the researcher could observe one lesson of each class containing participating students. Due to logistical constraints, this was not possible in every case: as a result, 19 topic 1 lessons, taken by 14 separate teachers, were observed by the researcher, and strategies observed when the teacher was teaching new words were recorded.
6.7.5 Student and teacher views of the intervention
An important aim of the experimental study in this thesis was to evaluate the intervention in terms of whether it was acceptable from a stakeholder perspective, in order to ensure that it was ecologically valid, feasible, and could be implemented in real life contexts. As well as addressing this aspect of the study through the survey reported on in Chapter 4, these issues were addressed in the intervention study itself by seeking the views of the student and teacher participants.
184.108.40.206 Students’ views and preferences
A short, structured questionnaire with two questions was administered verbally by the researcher with each participant at Time 3. The questionnaire was delivered immediately after the independent word learning assessment and took approximately 5 – 10 minutes to complete. First, an example of each word-learning activity was shown to the students to facilitate recall, and the students were asked how helpful the activities were, on a five-point Likert scale of: *not at all helpful; not very helpful; don’t know; quite helpful;* and *very helpful.* Second, students were asked whether they would prefer word-learning support one-to-one, in small groups, or as a whole class, and their reasons for this. The full text of the questionnaire can be found in Appendix 6L. Students were shown visual prompt cards of the Likert scale and the model of delivery options to reduce verbal processing demands (Appendix 6M). Responses were audio-recorded for later analysis.
220.127.116.11 Teachers’ confidence and views
At the beginning of the teacher training session prior to the intervention period (see section 6.8.3), the teachers were asked to rate their agreement with a statement about confidence in teaching vocabulary to students with language disorder aged 11 – 16 years, on a five-point Likert scale of: *strongly disagree; disagree; undecided; agree;* and *strongly agree.*
At Time 3, the teacher questionnaire consisted of a repetition of the statement about confidence, six questions about the intervention, and the questions on biographical information (section 6.5.2).
The questionnaire was $2\frac{1}{2}$ A4 pages long, and took 5 – 10 minutes to complete. The questions about the intervention gained the teacher’s views on:
- whether they had ever used any of the activities before
- how easy the activities were to implement
- how effective the activities were
- how likely the teachers were to use the activities again
- how helpful the teacher/therapist collaboration was
- if participating in the study had changed their practice, and if so, how.
Teachers could return their questionnaires to the researcher by hard copy or electronically, and could remain anonymous if they wished. The full text of the questionnaire can be found in Appendix 6N.
### 6.7.6 Assessment schedule
The assessment schedule is summarised in Table 6.6.
The researcher aimed for an interval of six weeks between Time 1 and Time 2, between Time 2 and Time 3, and between Time 3 and Time 4. However, due to variability from school to school in curriculum scheduling and school term dates, these intervals varied considerably. Even classes covering the same topic moved through the syllabus at different rates. It was quite common for teachers to be unable to give the researcher very much notice of when the topics would finish, as the pace of the syllabus was dictated to some extent by the rate of learning of the students. The researcher timed the assessment points to coincide with the end of topic 1 and the end of topic 2, which inevitably resulted in some deviation from the planned six-week interval for these reasons. The interval between Time 1 and Time 2 ranged from seven to 15 weeks ($M = 9.4$ weeks); between Time 2 and Time 3 from seven to 15 weeks ($M = 8.9$ weeks); and between Time 3 and Time 4 from two to nine weeks ($M = 5.2$ weeks).
Table 6.6. Assessment and intervention schedule for the intervention study
| Timepoint | Assessment point / intervention condition | Measures |
|-----------|------------------------------------------|----------|
| | Experimental condition: baseline | BPVS-3 |
| | Usual teaching practice: pre-intervention | WASI-2 Vocabulary |
| | | WASI-2 Matrix Reasoning |
| | | CELF-4 UK Recalling Sentences |
| | | WMTBC Listening Recall |
| | | PhAB Spoonerisms |
| | | Word knowledge assessment |
| | | Independent word learning assessment |
| Topic 1 | Usual teaching practice condition | Teachers’ topic 1 strategy records |
| | | Lesson observation records |
| Time 2 | Experimental condition: pre-intervention | Word knowledge assessment |
| | Usual teaching practice: post-intervention | Independent word learning assessment |
| | | Teacher confidence rating |
| Topic 2 | Experimental condition: Word Discovery intervention | Teachers’ topic 2 strategy records |
| | | Lesson observation records |
| Time 3 | Experimental condition: post-intervention | Word knowledge assessment |
| | Usual teaching practice: follow-up | Independent word learning assessment |
| | | WASI-2 Vocabulary |
| | | Student questionnaire |
| | | Teacher questionnaire including confidence rating |
| | | Science attainment data |
| Time 4 | Experimental condition: follow-up | Word knowledge assessment |
| | Usual teaching practice: second follow-up | |
Key:
BPVS-3 = British Picture Vocabulary Scale, third edition
CELF-4 UK = Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, fourth edition, UK
WASI-2 = Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, second edition
WMTBC = Working Memory Test Battery for Children
PhAB = Phonological Assessment Battery
6.8 The experimental Word Discovery intervention
The rationale for the intervention was summarised in section 5.7.1, and the content and rationale for each intervention activity was explained in full in section 5.7.2. In this section, the content of the intervention is summarised (section 6.8.1). Following this, the content of the teacher training
is described (section 6.8.2). Section 6.8.3 describes fidelity measures, section 6.8.4 reports on dosage, and section 6.8.5 describes the approach taken to measuring word exposure.
### 6.8.1 Content of intervention
The intervention consisted of seven components which were implemented by teachers in the classroom, embedded within the delivery of the curriculum. Examples of all the intervention activities are in the appendices. Data on the duration of each activity was taken from the researcher’s lesson observation records: for further detail on duration, see section 6.8.4.
#### 18.104.22.168 Self-rating checklist (Appendix 6O)
The self-rating checklist took on average 6.5 minutes (range 5 – 8 minutes). A sample completed self-rating checklist can be found in Appendix 6P.
#### 22.214.171.124 Visual image displayed with written word (Appendix 6Q)
This was a strategy rather than a specific activity. Teachers were supplied with visual images of each experimental word on A4 laminated sheets. A sample visual image can be found in Appendix 6Q.
#### 126.96.36.199 Word detective (Appendix 6R)
Teachers were given the word detective prompt card to display in the classroom and to use as they modelled how to discover information about a new word. Teachers were asked to model being a word detective for at least three of the experimental words. The word detective activity took on average 3.5 minutes (range 3 – 4 minutes).
#### 188.8.131.52 Word map (Appendix 6S)
Teachers were asked to do a word map for at least five of the experimental words. To do a word map as a whole class took on average 9 minutes (range 5 - 19 minutes), decreasing in time as students and teacher became accustomed to it. An example of a completed word map can be found in Appendix 6T.
#### 184.108.40.206 Word wise quickie (Appendix 6U)
Teachers were asked to do a word wise quickie for at least the five words which had not been explained with a word map. It could be done as a whole class or in pairs. A prompt card was provided for teachers to use as a mnemonic for themselves or to display. The word wise quickie took approximately one minute.
#### 220.127.116.11 Sound and meaning bingo (Appendix 6V)
Sound and meaning bingo was played as a revision activity for all 10 experimental words. Teachers were asked to play sound and meaning bingo three times in all, towards the end of the topic. Sound and meaning bingo took on average 7.5 minutes (range 6 - 10 minutes). An example of a completed bingo sheet can be found in Appendix 6V.
18.104.22.168 Key word sheet (Appendix 6W)
The teachers were asked to provide opportunity for the students to do a key word sheet entry for all 10 experimental words. The key word sheet was placed in the student’s book or folder at the beginning of the topic for easy access. One key word sheet entry took on average 3.7 minutes (range 1 - 8 minutes). An example of a completed key word sheet can be found in Appendix 6X.
6.8.2 Teacher training
The word-learning activities were taught to participating teachers in each school, in a one-hour interactive training session, led by the researcher. The training session took place at Time 2, between topics 1 (usual teaching practice) and topic 2 (Word Discovery). Appendix 6Y contains a sample PowerPoint presentation of a training session. The structure of the training session was as follows:
- Rationale for the research explaining links between vocabulary and academic attainment, and advantages of whole-class intervention
- Phonological and semantic aspects of word learning
- Experience of each of the word-learning activities through learning the meaning of three unknown words
- Practice of the word-learning activities using the experimental subject-specific words
- Explanation of how to incorporate activities into lesson plans embedded into the delivery of syllabus content
- Record-keeping
- Discussion, questions and offer of further support.
All resources necessary for the intervention activities and record-keeping were supplied to teachers both in hard copy and electronically, as Word (Microsoft, 2016) or PowerPoint templates.
Thirty-two of the 34 invited teachers attended the training. The researcher offered to deliver a separate training to two teachers who were not able to attend (T.3 and T.12), but the heads of science preferred to cascade the training to these two teachers. In three schools (schools 4, 6, and 7), the training was open to all members of the science department even if they were not participating in the study (a further 19 teachers). As these teachers did not teach the participating students, it was felt that this would not contaminate the experimental and control conditions.
Teachers were asked to deliver the word-learning activities within each science lesson for the duration of topic 2. A suggested schedule for implementing the word-learning activities over 10 lessons was provided for teachers, with an estimated duration in minutes for each activity (Figure 6.5). Flexibility was necessary in order to fit in with the science curriculum schedule in each school, and so that teachers could insert activities into an appropriate slot in their lessons. The survey of teachers and SLTs (Chapter 4) found that teachers spent an average of 9.4 minutes teaching the new words of the lesson. This provided a justification for the time that teachers were asked to spend on the specific word-learning activities in the suggested lesson schedule.
| Lesson | Starter | In body of lesson | Finisher 1 | Finisher 2 |
|--------|-------------------------|-------------------|------------|---------------------|
| 1 | Self-rating | Word map 15† | | Key word sheet 4 |
| | | | | |
| | Before next lesson, display words with visual image | | | |
| 2 | Word detective 4 | Word map 10 | | Key word sheet 2 |
| 3 | Word detective 2 | Word map 10 | | Key word sheet 2 |
| 4 | Word detective 2 | Word map 10 | | Key word sheet 2 |
| 5 | | Word map 10 | Word wise quickie 2 | Key word sheet 2 |
| 6 | | | Word wise quickie 1 | Key word sheet 2 |
| 7 | Sound and meaning bingo 8 | | Word wise quickie 1 | Key word sheet 2 |
| 8 | Sound and meaning bingo 6 | | Word wise quickie 1 | Key word sheet 2 |
| 9 | Sound and meaning bingo 6 | | Word wise quickie 1 | Key word sheet 2 |
| | Before next lesson, remove words and visual images | | | |
| 10 | Key word sheet 2 | | Self-rating 3 | |
* Numbers after each word-learning activity refer to an estimated duration in minutes for each activity.
† It was anticipated that the word map would take longer the first time teachers and students used it.
### 6.8.3 Fidelity
Fidelity to the intervention protocol by participating teachers was measured in three ways.
**Teachers’ records**
The topic 2 strategies record gave the researcher information on: how many of the word-learning activities had been done; on what date; and with which words. An example of a completed topic 2 strategies record can be found in Appendix 6Z. Twenty-eight topic 2 strategy records were received, from 20/30 teachers. For four teachers who did not return their strategy records, information was gained verbally or via email from the teacher.
**Students’ work**
At the end of topic 2, the researcher collected photocopies of relevant work produced by participating students. In some cases, students’ work was not available to the researcher; for
instance, if the students’ books were at home for revision. Work was obtained from 63 students overall: word maps for 53 students; self-rating checklists for 46 students; key word sheets for 36 students; bingo sheets for 11 students; and word wise quickies for 3 students. These were anonymised upon receipt.
**Lesson observations**
As with topic 1 (section 6.7.4), the researcher aimed to observe one lesson of each class containing participating students during topic 2. Again, for logistical reasons, this was not always possible. A total of 20 lessons (17 teachers) were observed during topic 2. The researcher collected data on:
- How new words were taught
- Frequency of exposure of experimental and control words
- Duration of the word-learning activities.
Following topic 2, these three sources of information were cross-referenced and collated to gain an overall picture of the intervention which each participant received. Table 6.7 shows which activities were used at least once in each class. The information in Table 6.7 shows only definite evidence that a strategy was used, and thus represents a minimum level of intervention.
Table 6.7. Evidence of fidelity for the implementation of word-learning activities
| School | Class | Self-rating checklist | Display visual image | Word detective | Word map | Word wise quickie | Sound and meaning bingo | Key word sheet |
|--------|-------|-----------------------|----------------------|---------------|----------|------------------|-------------------------|---------------|
| 1 | 1 | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | | | ✓ |
| 1 | 2 | | | | ✓ | | | |
| 1 | 4 | | | | | | | ✓ |
| 2 | 5 | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 2 | 6 | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 2 | 7 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 2 | 8 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 2 | 9 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 3 | 10 | | | | | | | |
| 3 | 11 | ✓ | | ✓ | | | | ✓ |
| 3 | 12 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 3 | 13 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 3 | 14 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 4 | 18 | | | | | | | |
| 4 | 19 | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 4 | 20 | | | | | | | ✓ |
| 4 | 22 | | | | | | | |
| 4 | 23 | | | | | | | |
| 4 | 25 | | | | | | | |
| 5 | 26 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 5 | 27 | | | | | | | |
| 6 | 28 | | | | | | | |
| 6 | 32 | | | | | | | |
| 6 | 33 | | | | | | | |
| 6 | 34 | | | | | | | |
| 6 | 36 | | | | | | | |
| 6 | 37 | | | | | | | |
| 7 | 38 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 7 | 39 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 7 | 40 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 7 | 41 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 7 | 42 | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 8 | 43 | | | | | | | |
| 8 | 44 | | | | | | | |
| 8 | 45 | | | | | | | |
| 8 | 46 | | | | | | | |
Total: 23, 18, 19, 32, 20, 22, 25
6.8.4 Dosage
Dose
The precise dose (total amount of time spent on the word-learning activities) could not be measured, as it was inappropriate to ask teachers to count and record the duration of activities whilst teaching, and logistically impossible for the researcher to observe every lesson by every teacher. During fidelity observations, the researcher recorded the duration of any word-learning
activities observed, and from this derived an average length in minutes for each activity. This was combined with information from teachers’ strategy records, which gave details of how often each word-learning activity had been delivered. Thus, an estimate was made of the total amount of time each class spent on word-learning activities in topic 2. This averaged 62.5 minutes (range 6.5 – 135.5 minutes).
**Cumulative intervention intensity**
Warren, Fey, and Yoder (2007, p.72) proposed the term “cumulative intervention intensity” to describe dosage more precisely in terms of *dose x dose frequency x total intervention duration*. In the current study, lessons were all between 50 and 60 minutes long. Topic 1 was delivered in an average of 11.6 lessons (range 5 – 20) over an average period of 4.25 weeks (range 2 - 9). Topic 2 was delivered in an average of 13.1 lessons (range 6 – 27), over an average period of 4.33 weeks (range 2 - 9). A related $t$-test showed that the difference in the number of lessons between topic 1 and topic 2 was not significant ($t(35) = -1.542$, $p = .132$). Estimated cumulative intervention intensity for each class is contained in Table 6.8.
Table 6.8. Cumulative intervention intensity by class
| School | Class | Number of lessons topic 1 | Number of weeks topic 1 | Number of lessons topic 2 | Number of weeks topic 2 | Estimated total amount of time spent on word-learning activities in topic 2 (in minutes) |
|--------|-------|---------------------------|-------------------------|---------------------------|-------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | 1 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 41.2 |
| 1 | 2 | 15 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 6.5 |
| 1 | 4 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 24.6 |
| 2 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 118.1 |
| 2 | 6 | 15 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 118.4 |
| 2 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 94.6 |
| 2 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 117.0 |
| 2 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 77.6 |
| 3 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 14.5 |
| 3 | 11 | 12 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 83.8 |
| 3 | 12 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 4 | 80.6 |
| 3 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 20 | 5 | 82.0 |
| 3 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 12 | 2 | 13.7 |
| 4 | 18 | 10 | 3 | 19 | 5 | 72.3 |
| 4 | 19 | 17 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 39.0 |
| 4 | 20 | 14 | 4 | 21 | 6 | 19.2 |
| 4 | 22 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 7 | 9.0 |
| 4 | 23 | 14 | 4 | 27 | 7 | 47.0 |
| 4 | 25 | 17 | 5 | 17 | 4 | 36.5 |
| 5 | 26 | 12 | 4 | 12 | 3 | 61.1 |
| 5 | 27 | 12 | 8 | 15 | 9 | 18.0 |
| 6 | 28 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 55.5 |
| 6 | 32 | 9 | 2 | 9 | 3 | 24.5 |
| 6 | 33 | 6 | 2 | 21 | 7 | 9.0 |
| 6 | 34 | 6 | 3 | 20 | 5 | 51.3 |
| 6 | 36 | 10 | 3 | 16 | 5 | 43.4 |
| 6 | 37 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 48.1 |
| 7 | 38 | 20 | 9 | 15 | 6 | 78.5 |
| 7 | 39 | 10 | 4 | 17 | 5 | 107.8 |
| 7 | 40 | 10 | 4 | 16 | 5 | 102.5 |
| 7 | 41 | 10 | 3 | 10 | 4 | 65.5 |
| 7 | 42 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 135.5 |
| 8 | 43 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 107.0 |
| 8 | 44 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 66.7 |
| 8 | 45 | 15 | 7 | 12 | 6 | 63.5 |
| 8 | 46 | 16 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 116.0 |
Range: 5 – 20 lessons, 2 – 9 weeks, 6 – 27 lessons, 2 – 9 weeks, 6.5 – 135.5 minutes
Mean: 11.6 lessons, 4.25 weeks, 13.1 lessons, 4.33 weeks, 62.5 minutes
6.8.5 Word exposure
Topic 1 and topic 2 strategy records contained a space for teachers to record estimates of how often each word was spoken by the teacher. This provided a measure of the amount of exposure each word received. The decision to measure word exposure rather than to control for it was made because it was deemed unethical to ask teachers to control their use of key words within lessons. The topic 1 strategies record contained all the words which the head of science had
provided for the topic, so that teachers did not know which were the active control words, and were not influenced to pay more attention to these words. Word exposure is reported in more detail in section 6.6.
6.9 Data analysis
Time x condition interactions in depth of word knowledge data were analysed using related (repeated measures) analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by planned pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni corrections. Time x condition interactions in expressive word use were analysed using Friedman’s one-way ANOVA followed by Wilcoxon’s signed ranks tests. Predictors of increase in word knowledge were analysed using hierarchical multiple regression. Word exposure was explored using Wilcoxon’s signed ranks.
Changes in standardised vocabulary assessment was analysed using a related $t$-test. Data from the bespoke independent word learning assessment were analysed using one-way related ANOVA followed by pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni corrections.
Qualitative data were analysed through content analysis. These data included usual teaching practice data from teachers’ topic 1 strategy records and researcher’s lesson observation records, and student and teacher post-intervention questionnaire data. Student and teacher views were also explored using Wilcoxon’s signed ranks tests.
More detail on the approach to data analysis is outlined at the beginning of each relevant section in Chapter 7.
Summary of Chapter 6
The current chapter has described the methodology for a study investigating the effectiveness of an experimental intervention (Word Discovery) for adolescents with language disorder in mainstream secondary schools. The aims of the study were to explore the implementation of word-learning activities in the classroom by the teacher, and to measure not only the learning of specifically taught words, but also the development of independent word-learning skills. Additional aims of the study were to explore how students’ language and cognitive profiles related to potential increases in word knowledge, and to evaluate the intervention from the student and teacher perspective.
Participants’ knowledge of 30 science words was assessed. In the first phase of the study, 10 active control words from topic 1 were taught by science teachers using usual teaching practice. At Time 2, teachers attended a training session. In the second phase, 10 matched experimental words from topic 2 were taught by the same teachers, using Word Discovery intervention, which included phonological-semantic word-learning activities embedded into the delivery of the curriculum. Ten matched passive control words received no intervention. Thirty teachers and 78 students took part in the intervention. Data were collected on language and cognitive profiles, science word knowledge, use and awareness of independent word-learning strategies, science attainment, usual teaching practice strategies, and student and teacher views. Fidelity measures
were taken using teachers’ strategy records, students’ work, and lesson observations. Dosage and word exposure data were collected from teachers’ strategy records and lesson observations. The results are reported in Chapter 7.
Chapter 7
The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder:
Results
Overview
This chapter presents the results of the intervention study described in Chapter 6, exploring the effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder. The name given to the classroom vocabulary intervention in this thesis is Word Discovery. The study employed a within-subjects repeated measures design. Seventy-eight students aged 11 – 14 years, with low verbal ability according to school attainment records, participated from eight mainstream secondary schools in the UK. Participants’ knowledge of 30 science words was assessed. In the first phase of the study, 10 active control words from one topic (topic 1) were taught by science teachers using usual teaching practice. Following this, teachers attended a training session. In the second phase, 10 matched experimental words from a subsequent topic (topic 2) were taught by the same teachers using Word Discovery activities, embedded into the delivery of the curriculum. Ten matched passive control words received no intervention. Student participants’ knowledge of the 30 science words was assessed at four timepoints on two scales: (1) depth of word knowledge, and (2) expressive word use. Teacher and student views on Word Discovery intervention were sought.
Section 7.1 reports results of the word knowledge assessment, investigating change over time for the three teaching conditions; usual teaching practice, experimental, and no intervention. Section 7.2 reports the generalisation effect of the intervention on independent word learning skills. Section 7.3 explores predictors of increases in word knowledge. Section 7.4 presents the views of teachers and students on the experimental Word Discovery intervention. Section 7.5 reports strategies which were used in usual teaching practice, enabling comparison between the usual teaching practice and experimental conditions; and section 7.6 compares word exposure in the two teaching conditions. Results are summarised in section 7.7.
7.1 Word knowledge (RQ1)
Word knowledge data were analysed using SPSS 23 (IBM Corp, 2015). Because it was a within-subjects study and the two teaching conditions were sequential, pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up assessments for the experimental and control conditions occurred at different timepoints. These were highlighted in Table 5.1, as repeated here in Table 7.1. Pre-intervention assessment for the usual teaching practice and no-intervention conditions occurred at Time 1, and pre-intervention for the experimental condition occurred at Time 2. Post-intervention for the usual teaching practice and no-intervention conditions occurred at Time 2, and post-intervention for the experimental condition occurred at Time 3. Follow-up for the usual
teaching practice and no-intervention conditions occurred at Time 3, and follow-up for the experimental condition occurred at Time 4. The first three timepoints were chosen for the no-intervention words in order to minimise practice effects. This resulted in analysis of pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up data in a $3 \times 3$ design (time x condition). The data for all four timepoints can be found in Appendix 7A.
Table 7.1. Pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up assessment points for experimental (Word Discovery) and control conditions
| | Time 1 | Time 2 | Time 3 | Time 4 |
|--------------------------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|
| Usual teaching practice | Pre-intervention | Post-intervention | Follow-up | Second |
| condition | | | | follow-up |
| Experimental condition (Word | Baseline | Pre-intervention | Post-intervention | Follow-up |
| Discovery) | | | | |
| No-intervention condition | Pre-intervention | Post-intervention | Follow-up | Second |
| | | | | follow-up |
Word knowledge was assessed through a bespoke word knowledge assessment (see section 6.7.2) which yielded scores for (1) depth of word knowledge and (2) expressive word use.
### 7.1.1 Depth of word knowledge (hypotheses 1, 2, and 3)
The first three hypotheses of the study related to the increase in depth of word knowledge of targeted words over time. It was hypothesised that: (1) the increase in depth of word knowledge, from pre- to post-intervention, of words taught through Word Discovery activities would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice; (2) maintenance in depth of word knowledge, from post-intervention to follow-up, of words taught through Word Discovery activities would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice; and (3) there would be no significant change in depth of word knowledge of no-intervention words over time.
Group means ($M$) and standard deviations ($SD$) for depth of word knowledge scores are presented in Table 7.2. The data are also presented graphically in Figure 7.1.
Data for usual teaching practice words and experimental words were normally distributed. Data for no-intervention words were positively skewed at all three assessment points.
Table 7.2. Group mean scores for depth of word knowledge
| | Pre-intervention $M (SD)$ | Post-intervention $M (SD)$ | Follow-up $M (SD)$ |
|--------------------------------|---------------------------|----------------------------|--------------------|
| Usual teaching practice words out of 20 | 4.14 (2.75) | 5.72 (3.29) | 5.38 (3.36) |
| Experimental words (Word Discovery) out of 20 | 3.50 (2.51) | 6.96 (3.87) | 6.17 (3.80) |
| No-intervention words out of 20 | .92 (1.27) | .99 (1.47) | .90 (1.37) |
Figure 7.1. Group mean scores for depth of word knowledge
Key:
- dashed line: usual teaching practice
- dotted line: experimental
- dot-dashed line: no intervention
Because the majority of the data were normally distributed, it was appropriate to conduct a $3 \times 3$ related (repeated measures) ANOVA, followed by planned pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni corrections. The within-subject variables were teaching condition (with three levels corresponding to usual teaching practice, experimental and no-intervention) and assessment point (with three levels: pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up). The dependent variable was the depth of word knowledge score. Where Mauchly’s test indicated that the assumption of sphericity had been violated, a Greenhouse-Geisser correction was employed. There was a significant main effect of time, $F(2, 154) = 74.040, p < .001, \eta_p^2 = .490$, large effect size; a significant main effect of condition (sphericity not assumed), $F(1.968, 151.545) = 137.872, p < .001, \eta_p^2 = .642$, large effect size; and also a significant time x condition interaction effect (sphericity not assumed),
$F(2.643, 203.516) = 26.080, \ p < .001; \ \eta^2_p = .253$, large effect size. Because the data were analysed as a $3 \times 3$ related ANOVA, rather than the $4 \times 3$ related ANOVA which was used for the sample size calculation (see section 22.214.171.124), a post-hoc power calculation was included, which showed a resultant observed power of 1.000, giving confidence that the analysis had sufficient power to detect significant effects.
To explore the time x condition interaction, planned comparisons with Bonferroni corrections were used, as follows.
### 126.96.36.199 Performance in depth of word knowledge over time
**Usual teaching practice condition**
Planned comparisons showed that depth of word knowledge of usual teaching practice words was significantly greater at the post-intervention point ($M = 5.72, \ SD = 3.29$) than at pre-intervention ($M = 4.14, \ SD = 2.75$), $p < .001$; but that there was no significant change between post-intervention and follow-up ($M = 5.38, \ SD = 3.36$), $p = .272$. This indicated that students’ depth of word knowledge of targeted words increased significantly following usual teaching practice, and that this increase was maintained five weeks later. This was confirmed by a significant difference between pre-intervention and follow-up scores ($p < .001$).
**Experimental condition (Word Discovery)**
Depth of word knowledge of experimental words was significantly greater at the post-intervention point ($M = 6.96, \ SD = 3.85$) than at pre-intervention ($M = 3.50, \ SD = 2.51$), $p < .001$. Depth of word knowledge at follow-up ($M = 6.17, \ SD = 3.80$) was significantly lower than at post-intervention ($p = .002$), but still significantly greater than at pre-intervention ($p < .001$). This indicated that students’ depth of word knowledge of targeted words increased significantly following Word Discovery intervention, and that this increase was partially maintained five weeks later.
**No-intervention condition**
There was no significant change in depth of word knowledge of no-intervention words between pre-intervention ($M = 0.92, \ SD = 1.27$) and post-intervention ($M = 0.99, \ SD = 1.47$), $p = 1.000$; or between post-intervention and follow-up ($M = 0.90, \ SD = 1.37$), $p = 1.000$.
### 188.8.131.52 Depth of word knowledge at each timepoint – comparison between conditions
**Pre-intervention**
At the pre-intervention point, depth of word knowledge of usual teaching practice words ($M = 4.14, \ SD = 2.75$) was numerically greater than that of the experimental words ($M = 3.50, \ SD = 2.51$), but this difference was not significant ($p = .137$). Depth of word knowledge of no-intervention words ($M = 0.92, \ SD = 1.27$) was significantly lower than that of both usual teaching practice words ($p < .001$) and experimental words ($p < .001$).
Post-intervention
At the post-intervention point, depth of word knowledge of experimental words ($M = 6.96$, $SD = 3.85$) was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words ($M = 5.72$, $SD = 3.29$), $p = .015$. Depth of word knowledge of no-intervention words ($M = 0.99$, $SD = 1.47$) was significantly lower than that of both usual teaching practice words ($p < .001$) and experimental words ($p < .001$).
Follow-up
At the follow-up point, depth of word knowledge of experimental words ($M = 6.17$, $SD = 3.80$) was still numerically greater than that of the usual teaching practice words ($M = 5.38$, $SD = 3.36$), but this difference was not significant ($p = .224$). Depth of word knowledge of no-intervention words ($M = 0.90$, $SD = 1.37$) was significantly lower than that of both usual teaching practice words ($p < .001$) and experimental words ($p < .001$).
184.108.40.206 Differences between conditions in depth of word knowledge – further analysis
Inspection of the data in Table 7.2 reveals that the depth of word knowledge scores for the no-intervention words were very low. Reasons for this are discussed in section 7.10.1. Because of this, these data were not normally distributed and demonstrated floor effects. To overcome this, and to provide reassurance that the results were robust, a $2 \times 3$ related ANOVA was conducted with the same time factors (pre-, post-, and follow-up), but only two levels of teaching condition (usual teaching practice and experimental). All these data were normally distributed.
This $2 \times 3$ related ANOVA showed no significant main effect of condition, $F(1, 77) = 2.186$, $p = .143$, $\eta_p^2 = .028$, small effect size; but there was still a significant main effect of time (sphericity not assumed), $F(1.531, 117.863) = 84.831$, $p < .001$, $\eta_p^2 = .524$, large effect size. Most importantly for the hypotheses, there was still a significant time x condition interaction effect (sphericity not assumed), $F(1.633, 125.732) = 10.699$, $p < .001$; $\eta_p^2 = .122$, medium to large effect size: observed power .974. Planned pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni corrections of depth of word knowledge scores over *time* remained the same as in the $3 \times 3$ ANOVA. Pairwise comparisons of *condition* at each assessment point showed similar findings with some minor differences. At pre-intervention, depth of word knowledge of usual teaching practice words was marginally greater than that of experimental words ($p = .046$). This had been non-significant in the $3 \times 3$ ANOVA. At the post-intervention point, depth of word knowledge of experimental words was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words ($p = .005$), as before. At the follow-up timepoint, the difference in depth of word knowledge of usual teaching practice words and experimental words was not significant ($p = .075$), as before.
Therefore, with the exception of the marginally significant difference between depth of word knowledge of usual teaching practice words and experimental words at pre-intervention, the results of the $2 \times 3$ ANOVA were comparable to the $3 \times 3$ ANOVA. This confirmed, first, that a significant time x condition interaction existed when only the usual teaching practice words and
experimental words were considered; second, at post-intervention, depth of word knowledge of words taught through Word Discovery activities was greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice; and, third, at follow-up five weeks later, there was no significant difference between depth of word knowledge of usual teaching practice words and experimental words.
220.127.116.11 Summary of depth of word knowledge results
To summarise this section on depth of word knowledge, these analyses indicate that depth of word knowledge of targeted words significantly increased following usual teaching practice, and that this increase was maintained five weeks later. Depth of word knowledge of experimental words also significantly increased, following Word Discovery intervention. This increase was partially maintained five weeks later, because depth of word knowledge of experimental words remained significantly higher at follow-up than at pre-intervention. At the pre-intervention point, depending on the analysis used, depth of word knowledge of usual teaching practice words either did not differ, or was significantly lower, than that of the experimental words. However, at the post-intervention point, depth of word knowledge of experimental words *was significantly greater* than that of usual teaching practice words. Thus, hypothesis 1, which stated that the increase in depth of word knowledge for experimental words would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice, was supported. At follow-up five weeks later, there was again no significant difference in depth of word knowledge between the two conditions; therefore hypothesis 2, which stated that maintenance in depth of word knowledge would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice, was not supported.
Depth of word knowledge of no-intervention words did not change over time, and was significantly lower than both usual teaching practice and experimental words at all timepoints. Thus, hypothesis 3 was supported.
7.1.2 Expressive word use (hypotheses 4, 5, and 6)
Hypotheses 4, 5, and 6 related to the increase in expressive word use of targeted words over time. It was hypothesised that: (4) the increase in expressive word use, from pre- to post-intervention, for words taught through Word Discovery activities would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice; (5) maintenance in expressive word use, from post-intervention to follow-up, for words taught through Word Discovery activities would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice; and (6) there would be no significant difference in expressive word use of no-intervention words over time. Group means and standard deviations for expressive word use are presented in Table 7.3. The data are also presented graphically in Figure 7.2.
Table 7.3. Group mean scores for expressive word use
| | Pre-intervention $M (SD)$ | Post-intervention $M (SD)$ | Follow-up $M (SD)$ |
|--------------------------------|---------------------------|----------------------------|--------------------|
| Usual teaching practice words out of 10 | .58 (.91) | .96 (1.39) | .97 (1.37) |
| Experimental words (Word Discovery) out of 10 | .45 (.73) | 1.78 (1.80) | 1.49 (1.65) |
| No-intervention words out of 10 | .15 (.40) | .08 (.31) | .14 (.35) |
Figure 7.2. Group mean scores for expressive word use
Key:
- dashed line: usual teaching practice
- dotted line: experimental
- dotted-dashed line: no intervention
The level of expressive word use in all conditions was very low and demonstrated floor effects, with all data except post-intervention expressive word use of experimental words being positively skewed. Therefore, non-parametric analysis was used to examine change over time. As this was nonparametric analysis, medians and interquartile ranges are reported in Table 7.4.
Table 7.4. Group median scores for expressive word use
| | Pre-intervention Mdn (IQR) | Post-intervention Mdn (IQR) | Follow-up Mdn (IQR) |
|--------------------------------|----------------------------|-----------------------------|---------------------|
| Usual teaching practice words out of 10 | .00 (.00 – 1.00) | .50 (.00 – 1.00) | .00 (.00 – 1.00) |
| Experimental words (Word Discovery) out of 10 | .00 (.00 – 1.00) | 1.00 (.00 – 3.00) | 1.00 (.00 – 2.00) |
| No-intervention words out of 10 | .00 (.00 - .00) | .00 (.00 - .00) | .00 (.00 - .00) |
Key: Mdn = median
IQR = inter-quartile range
18.104.22.168 Performance in expressive word use over time
Three separate Friedman’s one-way ANOVAs were conducted to examine expressive word use over time for each teaching condition, followed by post-hoc Wilcoxon’s signed ranks tests.
Usual teaching practice condition
There was a significant change in expressive word use of words taught through usual teaching practice over time, $\chi^2$ (2) = 7.369, $p = .025$. Wilcoxon’s signed ranks showed that expressive word use of usual teaching practice words was significantly greater at the post-intervention point ($M = .96$, $SD = 1.39$) than at pre-intervention ($M = .58$, $SD = .91$), $Z = 2.674$, $p = .007$; but that there was no significant change between post-intervention and follow-up ($M = .97$, $SD = 1.37$), $Z = -.186$, $p = .853$. This indicated that students’ expressive word use increased following usual teaching practice, and that this increase was maintained five weeks later. This was confirmed by a significant difference between pre-intervention and follow-up, $Z = -3.157$, $p = .002$.
Experimental condition (Word Discovery)
There was also a significant change in expressive word use of experimental words over time, $\chi^2$ (2) = 53.153, $p < .001$. Wilcoxon’s signed ranks showed that expressive word use of experimental words was significantly greater at the post-intervention point ($M = 1.78$, $SD = 1.80$) than at pre-intervention ($M = .45$, $SD = .73$), $Z = -5.783$, $p < .001$. Expressive word use at follow-up ($M = 1.49$, $SD = 1.65$) was significantly lower than at post-intervention, $Z = -2.556$, $p = .011$; but still significantly greater than at pre-intervention, $Z = -5.398$, $p < .001$. This indicated that students’ expressive word use of targeted words increased following Word Discovery intervention, and that this increase was partially maintained five weeks later.
No-intervention condition
There was no significant change in expressive word use for no-intervention words over time ($\chi^2$ (2) = 4.192, $p = .123$). Thus, hypothesis 6 was supported.
22.214.171.124 Expressive word use at each timepoint - comparison between conditions
Three further Friedman’s one-way ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences in expressive word use between teaching conditions at each timepoint, followed by post-hoc Wilcoxon’s signed ranks tests.
Pre-intervention
Friedman’s ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference between the teaching conditions in expressive word use at pre-intervention ($\chi^2 (2) = 20.162$, $p < .001$). Wilcoxon’s signed ranks showed that there was no difference in expressive word use between the usual teaching practice words ($M = .58$, $SD = .91$) and the experimental words ($M = .45$, $SD = .73$), $Z = -1.059$, $p = .290$, but that expressive word use of no-intervention words ($M = 0.15$, $SD = 0.40$) was significantly lower than that of both usual teaching practice words ($Z = -3.94$, $p < .001$) and experimental words ($Z = -3.41$, $p = .001$).
Post-intervention
There was also a significant difference between the teaching conditions in expressive word use at post-intervention ($\chi^2 (2) = 67.980$, $p < .001$), with expressive word use of experimental words ($M = 1.78$, $SD = 1.80$) being significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words ($M = .96$, $SD = 1.39$), $Z = -3.796$, $p < .001$, and expressive word use of no-intervention words ($M = 0.08$, $SD = 0.31$) again being significantly lower than that of both usual teaching practice words ($Z = -5.35$, $p < .001$) and experimental words ($Z = -6.33$, $p < .001$).
Follow-up
There was a significant difference between the teaching conditions at follow-up ($\chi^2 (2) = 49.922$, $p < .001$). Expressive word use of experimental words ($M = 1.49$, $SD = 1.65$) continued to be greater than that of usual teaching practice words ($M = 0.97$, $SD = 1.37$), $Z = -2.472$, $p = .013$. Expressive word use of no-intervention words ($M = 0.14$, $SD = 0.35$) continued to be significantly lower than that of both usual teaching practice words ($Z = -5.10$, $p < .001$) and experimental words ($Z = -5.96$, $p < .001$).
126.96.36.199 Summary of expressive word use results
To summarise this section on expressive word use, these analyses indicate that expressive word use of targeted words significantly increased following usual teaching practice, and that this increase was maintained five weeks later. Expressive word use of experimental words also significantly increased following Word Discovery intervention. This increase was partially maintained five weeks later, because expressive word use of experimental words remained significantly higher at follow-up than at pre-intervention. At the pre-intervention point, expressive word use of usual teaching practice words did not differ from that of experimental words, but at the post-intervention point, expressive word use of experimental words was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words, and this significant difference remained at follow-up. Thus hypothesis 4, which stated that the increase in expressive use of experimental words would
be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice, was supported. There was partial support for hypothesis 5, which stated that maintenance in expressive word use would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice, because depth of knowledge of experimental words remained significantly higher than that of usual teaching practice words at follow-up.
Expressive word use of no-intervention words did not change over time, and was significantly lower than both usual teaching practice and experimental words at all timepoints. Thus, hypothesis 6 was supported.
7.2 Independent word learning (RQ2)
The generalisation effect of the intervention to transferable independent word learning skills was assessed in three ways: firstly, by the use of the vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, second edition (WASI-2 V; Wechsler, 2011) (see section 7.2.1); secondly, through a bespoke independent word learning assessment (see section 7.2.2); and thirdly, by the assessment of science attainment (see section 7.2.3).
7.2.1 Standardised vocabulary assessment (hypothesis 7)
Hypothesis 7 stated that there would be significant progress on WASI-2 V standard scores following Word Discovery intervention. Change in standardised vocabulary assessment scores over time was examined by comparing WASI-2 V standard scores at Time 1 and Time 3. The data are presented in Table 7.5. The data were normally distributed at both timepoints; therefore, parametric analysis was used. A related $t$-test showed no significant difference between WASI-2 V standard scores at Time 1 ($M = 88.46$, $SD = 8.87$) and Time 3 ($M = 88.26$, $SD = 9.04$), $t(77) = .289$, $p = .773$. Therefore, hypothesis 7 was not supported.
Table 7.5. Group mean standard scores for WASI-2 V
| WASI-2 V standard score | N | $M (SD)$ | Range |
|-------------------------|-----|--------------|-------|
| Time 1 | 78 | 88.46 (8.87) | 67 - 104 |
| Time 3 | 78 | 88.26 (9.04) | 67 - 113 |
7.2.2 Bespoke independent word learning assessment
The bespoke independent word learning assessment (Section 188.8.131.52) was administered at Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3. Time 1 represented pre-usual teaching practice; Time 2 represented post-usual teaching practice and pre-Word Discovery intervention; and Time 3 represented post-Word Discovery intervention, as illustrated in Table 7.6.
Table 7.6. Pre-intervention and post-intervention assessment points for independent word learning assessment
| | Time 1 | Time 2 | Time 3 |
|--------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| Usual teaching practice condition | Pre- usual teaching practice | Post- usual teaching practice | |
| Experimental intervention condition | | Pre- Word Discovery intervention | Post- Word Discovery intervention |
In the bespoke word learning assessment, the students were read two passages from Joffe (2011) and asked to identify any words they did not understand. Then they were asked what they thought these words meant, and to give their reasons. These data were analysed in stages. First, the number of words in the passages which students identified as unknown over time was counted (a). Second, the number of these words whose meaning the students correctly derived from morphology or context was counted (b). Thirdly, (b) was calculated as a percentage of (a). This part of the assessment investigated participants’ use of independent word learning strategies. The number of words which students could identify as unknown was limited to the number of words in the passages (56 words in total - see Appendix 6I). The maximum achievable number of words whose meaning was correctly derived was dependent on how many words each individual student identified as unknown. Results are given in section 184.108.40.206.
Students were also asked what strategies they could use to find out what a new word means. This part of the assessment investigated participants’ awareness of independent word-learning strategies. Because this question was open-ended, students’ responses were assigned to superordinate categories (see section 220.127.116.11(b)). The maximum number of categories, collated from strategies generated by the students throughout the study, was nine (see Appendix 6J). Results are given in section 18.104.22.168.
The group means, standard deviations, and ranges from the independent word learning assessment are presented in Table 7.7.
Table 7.7. Group mean scores for independent word learning assessment
| | N | $M (SD)$ | Median | Range |
|--------------------------------------|-----|--------------|--------|-------|
| (a) Number of words identified as unknown (max 56) | | | | |
| Time 1 | 78 | 3.72 (1.22) | 4 | 1 - 7 |
| Time 2 | 78 | 3.05 (1.41) | 3 | 0 - 7 |
| Time 3 | 78 | 2.37 (1.61) | 2 | 0 - 7 |
| (b)* Number of words’ meaning correctly derived | | | | |
| Time 1 | 78 | 1.27 (.93) | 1 | 0 - 4 |
| Time 2 | 75 | .99 (.99) | 1 | 0 - 4 |
| Time 3 | 67 | .94 (.98) | 1 | 0 - 3 |
| (c) (b) as a percentage of (a)* | | | | |
| Time 1 | 78 | 32.43% (24.54)| 31 | 0 - 100 |
| Time 2 | 75 | 29.93% (30.50)| 33 | 0 - 100 |
| Time 3 | 67 | 31.69% (33.99)| 25 | 0 - 100 |
| Number of word-learning strategies listed (max 9) ** | | | | |
| Time 1 | 75 | 2.69 (1.04) | 3 | 0 - 5 |
| Time 2 | 76 | 2.60 (1.13) | 3 | 0 - 6 |
| Time 3 | 77 | 2.93 (.89) | 3 | 0 - 5 |
Key: Time 1 = pre-usual teaching practice
Time 2 = post-usual teaching practice and pre-Word Discovery intervention
Time 3 = post-Word Discovery intervention
* Statistics based on N=67.
** Statistics based on N=72 due to omission of this question with some students.
22.214.171.124 Use of independent word learning strategies (hypothesis 8)
Hypothesis 8 stated that there would be no significant increase in students’ ability to derive the meaning of unknown words following topic 1 (usual teaching practice), but a significant increase following topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention). This hypothesis was explored through a three-stage process outlined in sections (a), (b), and (c) below.
(a) Number of words identified as unknown
The data were normally distributed; therefore, a one-way related ANOVA was conducted to examine changes in the number of words which the participants identified as unknown over time. The independent variable was time, with three levels (Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3), and the dependent variable was the number of words which the participants identified as unknown. There was a significant change in the number of words identified as unknown over time, $F(2, 154) = 43.655, p < .001; \eta_p^2 = .362$, large effect size. Planned pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni corrections indicated a significant decrease between Time 1 ($M = 3.72, SD = 1.22$) and Time 2 ($M = 3.05, SD = 1.42$), $p < .001$; and also between Time 2 and Time 3 ($M = 2.37, SD = 1.61$), $p < .001$. This indicated that, as a group, students identified fewer words as unknown with each succeeding timepoint.
(b) Number of words whose meaning was correctly derived
These data were also normally distributed; therefore, a second one-way related ANOVA was conducted to examine changes in participants' ability to derive the meaning of unknown words over time. The independent variable was time, with three levels (Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3), and the dependent variable was the number of words whose meanings were correctly derived. The ANOVA indicated a significant change in the number of words whose meanings were correctly derived over time, with fewer word meanings being correctly derived at each succeeding timepoint, $F(2, 132) = 3.670$, $p = .028$: $\eta_p^2 = .053$, small - medium effect size. Inspection of the data indicated that there was a greater decrease between Time 1 ($M = 1.27$, $SD = .931$) and Time 2 ($M = .99$, $SD = .992$), than between Time 2 and Time 3 ($M = .94$, $SD = .983$). However, once Bonferroni corrections were applied, the decrease between Time 1 and Time 2 was not significant ($p = .075$), nor was the decrease between Time 2 and Time 3 ($p = 1.000$).
Because students had identified fewer unknown words each time, the number of words whose meaning was correctly derived was also likely to decrease, as borne out by this analysis. Therefore, it was more meaningful to examine the number of words whose meaning was correctly derived as a percentage of words identified as unknown, rather than numerically.
(c) Percentage of words’ meaning correctly derived
Because these data were poorly distributed and demonstrated floor effects, non-parametric analysis (Friedman’s one-way ANOVA) was conducted. The independent variable was time, with three levels (Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3), and the dependent variable was the percentage of words whose meaning was correctly derived. This percentage did not significantly change over time ($\chi^2(2) = .804$, $p = .669$); therefore, hypothesis 8 was not supported.
126.96.36.199 Awareness of word-learning strategies (hypothesis 9)
Hypothesis 9 stated that there would be no significant increase in awareness of word-learning strategies following topic 1 (usual teaching practice), but a significant increase following topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention). These data were normally distributed, so a further one-way related ANOVA was conducted to examine changes in awareness of word-learning strategies over time. The independent variable was time, with three levels (Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3), and the dependent variable was the number of strategies listed by students. There was a numerical increase in the number of strategies listed over time, but this change fell short of significance, $F(2, 142) = 2.467$, $p = .088$: $\eta_p^2 = .034$, small to medium effect size. Pairwise comparisons showed a negligible decrease in the number of strategies listed between Time 1 ($M = 2.69$, $SD = 1.04$) and Time 2 ($M = 2.60$, $SD = 1.13$), $p = 1.000$; and a slight but non-significant increase between Time 2 and Time 3 ($M = 2.93$, $SD = .89$), $p = .071$. Therefore, hypothesis 9 was not supported.
7.2.3 Science attainment (hypothesis 10)
In order to assess the impact of Word Discovery on science attainment, the researcher requested science attainment data at the end of topic 1 and at the end of topic 2. It was hypothesised that
increase in students’ science attainment would be greater following topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention) than following topic 1 (usual teaching practice).
Five schools (schools 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7) supplied science attainment data, but only schools 2 and 5 supplied data which allowed a distinction to be made between attainment in topic 1 and attainment in topic 2. These data are reported in Table 7.8.
Table 7.8. Science attainment
| School and year group | Number of participants | Topic 1 test scores* | Topic 2 test scores** | Mean gain in test scores | Topic 1 National Curriculum level* | Topic 2 National Curriculum level** | Mean gain in National Curriculum levels |
|-----------------------|------------------------|----------------------|-----------------------|-------------------------|-----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
| 2 Y7 | 7 | 14.71/35 | 15.71/35 | +1 | 4.14 | 5.71 | +1.57 |
| 2 Y8 | 2 | 13.5/29 | 17.5/29 | +4 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 0 |
| 5 | 3 | 20.7/50 | 18/50 | -2.7 | - | - | - |
* Post- usual teaching practice
** Post- Word Discovery intervention
With such a small amount of data, and inconsistency in the data supplied, it was not possible to conduct meaningful analysis with regard to the impact of Word Discovery on science attainment.
7.2.4 Summary of independent word learning
These results show that there was a decrease in the number of words which students identified as unknown after each teaching condition, but the percentage of these words whose meaning students correctly derived did not change over time. There was a small but non-significant increase in the number of word-learning strategies listed by students, no change in standardised vocabulary assessment scores over time, and insufficient data on science attainment was received. Findings concerning the impact of Word Discovery intervention on students’ independent word learning skills are, therefore, inconclusive.
7.3 Predictors of increases in word knowledge (RQ3)
Hypotheses 11 to 14 related to the exploration of relationships between students’ language and cognitive characteristics and their ability to respond to Word Discovery intervention.
Hypothesis 11 stated that there would be a relationship between existing receptive vocabulary and increases in word knowledge, such that students who had higher existing receptive vocabulary levels would demonstrate greater increases in experimental word knowledge than those with lower existing receptive vocabulary levels.
Hypothesis 12 stated that there would be a relationship between sentence recall and increases in word knowledge, such that students who have higher sentence recall ability would demonstrate greater increases in experimental word knowledge than those with lower existing sentence recall ability.
Hypothesis 13 stated that there would be a relationship between verbal working memory and increases in word knowledge, such that students who had higher verbal working memory ability
would demonstrate greater increases in experimental word knowledge than those with lower existing verbal working memory ability.
Hypothesis 14 stated that there would be a relationship between phonological awareness and increases in word knowledge, such that students who had higher phonological awareness ability would demonstrate greater increases in experimental word knowledge than those with lower existing phonological awareness ability.
Increases in experimental word knowledge were examined by entering pre-intervention scores in the first step of the regressions, to control for levels of word knowledge at pre-intervention. Post-intervention or follow-up scores acted as the dependent variable. This approach was preferred to using pre-to-post or pre-to-follow-up change scores, due to the potential unreliability of change scores where gains are small (Rogosa & Willett, 1983).
To investigate the hypotheses, four hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted, as follows:
1. In the first regression analysis, pre-intervention scores for depth of word knowledge of experimental words were entered into the model in step 1, and the dependent variable was post-intervention depth of word knowledge of experimental words.
2. In the second regression analysis, pre-intervention scores for depth of word knowledge of experimental words were entered into the model in step 1, and the dependent variable was follow-up depth of word knowledge of experimental words.
3. In the third regression analysis, pre-intervention scores for expressive word use of experimental words were entered into the model in step 1, and the dependent variable was post-intervention expressive word use of experimental words.
4. In the fourth regression analysis, pre-intervention scores for expressive word use of experimental words were entered into the model in step 1, and the dependent variable was follow-up expressive word use of experimental words.
Based on the literature (e.g. Clark, 1995; Rice & Hoffman, 2015), it was expected that chronological age and nonverbal ability (NVIQ) would influence increases in word knowledge. Therefore, in all the regressions, the effects of age and NVIQ were additionally controlled by entering age and WASI-2 Matrix Reasoning scores in step 1, along with the pre-intervention scores. The aim of the hierarchical multiple regressions was to determine if the addition of receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness ability predicted increases in word knowledge over and above age and NVIQ. Therefore, in all the regressions, standard scores from the BPVS-3, CELF-4 UK Recalling Sentences subtest, WMTBC Listening Recall subtest, and PhAB Spoonerisms subtest were entered in step 2.
Thus, seven independent variables were investigated in the model. Tabachnick and Fidell (2014) suggest that for seven independent variables, where a medium effect size is expected, a minimum sample size should be 111. The original target for recruitment in the current study was 120 which could have achieved a sample size approximating 111 if attrition rates had been as expected.
However, as was explained in section 188.8.131.52, attrition rates were higher than expected. As the final sample size was 78, the results of the hierarchical multiple regressions are, therefore, presented here as exploratory. Most other assumptions for the validity of the hierarchical multiple regressions were met, but some were borderline. These borderline assumptions were accepted for the purposes of the current analysis, as the regressions were exploratory only.
In each regression, the independent variables were entered in the following sequence:
Step 1: Chronological age
NVIQ (WASI-2 Matrix Reasoning SS)
Pre-intervention scores
Step 2: Receptive vocabulary (BPVS-3 SS)
Sentence recall (CELF-4 UK Recalling Sentences SS)
Verbal working memory (WMTBC Listening Recall SS)
Phonological awareness (PhAB Spoonerisms SS).
### 7.3.1 Predictors of increase in depth of word knowledge (hypotheses 11 and 12)
**Regression 1:** Dependent variable - post-intervention depth of word knowledge of experimental words.
There was independence of observations, as assessed by a Durbin-Watson statistic of 1.577. There was linearity, as assessed by visual inspection of partial regression plots. There was homoscedasticity, as assessed by visual inspection of a plot of studentized residuals versus unstandardized predicted values. There was no evidence of multicollinearity, as assessed by tolerance values greater than 0.1 (lowest value was .770). There were no studentized deleted residuals greater than ±3 standard deviations. There were two leverage values greater than 0.2 (.219 and .212) (0.2 – 0.5 is regarded to be within the “risky” range (Laerd, 2015), and there were no values for Cook’s distance above 1 (highest value was .108). The normal P-P Plot was slightly left-skewed.
At step 1, age was not a significant predictor of post-intervention depth of word knowledge scores \((\beta = .082, p = .383)\); but NVIQ \((\beta = .246, p = .011)\) and pre-intervention depth of word knowledge scores \((\beta = .519, p < .001)\) were both significant predictors. Together, these three variables explained 36.6% of the variance in post-intervention depth of word knowledge scores, \(R^2 = .366, F(3, 77) = 14.236, p < .001\), adjusted \(R^2 = .340\). In the full model, NVIQ just retained significance \((\beta = .210, p = .046)\), and pre-intervention depth of word knowledge scores were still highly significant \((\beta = .475, p < .001)\); however, no other variables contributed significantly to the model. The full model of age, NVIQ, pre-intervention depth of word knowledge scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall ability, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness was significant, \(R^2 = .396, F(7, 77) = 6.545, p < .001\), adjusted \(R^2 = .335\); but receptive vocabulary, sentence recall ability, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness together only added 3% of the variance, a non-significant finding \((p = .493)\). See Table 7.9 for details of the regression model.
Table 7.9. Hierarchical multiple regression predicting post-intervention depth of word knowledge of experimental words from age, NVIQ, pre-intervention scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness
| Post-intervention depth of word knowledge | Step 1 | | Step 2 | |
|------------------------------------------|--------|-------|--------|-------|
| Variable | B | β | B | β |
| Constant | -9.315 | | -15.725| |
| Age | .035 | .082 | .046 | .109 |
| NVIQ | .091 | .246* | .078 | .210* |
| Pre-intervention depth of word knowledge scores | .794 | .519*** | .728 | .475*** |
| Receptive vocabulary | | | .017 | .040 |
| Sentence recall | | | .042 | .159 |
| Verbal working memory | | | -.004 | -.018 |
| Phonological awareness | | | .021 | .045 |
| R² | .366 | | .396 | |
| F | 14.236*** | | 6.545*** | |
| ΔR² | .366 | | .030 | |
| ΔF | 14.236*** | | .859 | |
* Significant at the $p < .05$ level
*** Significant at the $p < .001$ level
Regression 2: Dependent variable - follow-up depth of word knowledge of experimental words.
There was independence of observations, as assessed by a Durbin-Watson statistic of 1.731. There was linearity, as assessed by visual inspection of partial regression plots. There was homoscedasticity, as assessed by visual inspection of a plot of studentized residuals versus unstandardized predicted values. There was no evidence of multicollinearity, as assessed by tolerance values greater than 0.1 (lowest value was .770). There were no studentized deleted residuals greater than ±3 standard deviations. There were two leverage values greater than 0.2 (.219 and .212), and there were no values for Cook’s distance above 1 (highest value was .101). The assumption of normality was met, as assessed by a normal P-P Plot.
At step 1, age was not a significant predictor of follow-up depth of word knowledge scores ($\beta = .106$, $p = .237$); but NVIQ ($\beta = .260$, $p = .005$) and pre-intervention depth of word knowledge scores ($\beta = .561$, $p < .001$) were both significant predictors. Together, these three variables explained 42.5% of the variance in post-intervention depth of word knowledge scores, $R^2 = .425$, $F(3, 77) = 18.242$, $p < .001$, adjusted $R^2 = .402$. In the full model, NVIQ remained significant ($\beta = .235$, $p = .021$), and pre-intervention depth of word knowledge scores were still highly significant ($\beta = .533$, $p < .001$); however, no other variables contributed significantly to the model. The full model of age, NVIQ, pre-intervention depth of word knowledge scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall ability, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness was significant, $R^2 = .448$, $F(7, 77) = 8.113$, $p < .001$, adjusted $R^2 = .393$; but receptive vocabulary, sentence recall
ability, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness together only added 2.3% of the variance, a non-significant finding ($p = .580$). See Table 7.10 for details of the regression model.
Table 7.10. Hierarchical multiple regression predicting follow-up depth of word knowledge of experimental words from age, NVIQ, pre-intervention scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness
| Follow-up depth of word knowledge | Step 1 | | Step 2 | |
|----------------------------------|--------|-------|--------|-------|
| Variable | B | β | B | β |
| Constant | -12.115| .106 | -16.821| .129 |
| Age | .045 | .260**| .054 | .235* |
| NVIQ | .095 | .260**| .086 | .235* |
| Pre-intervention depth of word knowledge scores | .849 | .561***| .807 | .533***|
| Receptive vocabulary | | | -.002 | -.005 |
| Sentence recall | | | .038 | .146 |
| Verbal working memory | | | .003 | .012 |
| Phonological awareness | | | .013 | .028 |
| R² | .425 | | .448 | |
| F | 18.242***| | 8.113***| |
| ΔR² | .425 | | .023 | |
| ΔF | 18.242***| | .722 | |
* Significant at the $p < .05$ level
** Significant at the $p < .01$ level
*** Significant at the $p < .001$ level
7.3.2 Predictors of increase in expressive word use (hypotheses 13 and 14)
Regression 3: Dependent variable - post-intervention expressive word use of experimental words.
There was independence of observations, as assessed by a Durbin-Watson statistic of 1.774. There was linearity, as assessed by visual inspection of partial regression plots. There was homoscedasticity, as assessed by visual inspection of a plot of studentized residuals versus unstandardized predicted values. There was no evidence of multicollinearity, as assessed by tolerance values greater than 0.1 (lowest value was .835). There were no studentized deleted residuals greater than ±3 standard deviations. There were no values for Cook's distance above 1 (highest value was .090). There were two leverage values greater than 0.2 (.209 and .206), and the normal P-P Plot was slightly left-skewed.
At step 1, age was not a significant predictor of post-intervention expressive word use scores ($\beta = .062$, $p = .548$); but NVIQ ($\beta = .242$, $p = .023$) and pre-intervention expressive word use scores ($\beta = .357$, $p = .001$) were both significant predictors. Together, these three variables explained 20.9% of the variance in post-intervention expressive word use scores, $R^2 = .209$, $F(3, 77) = 6.506$, $p = .001$, adjusted $R^2 = .177$. In the full model, NVIQ was no longer significant ($\beta = .188$,
$p = .112$), but pre-intervention expressive word use scores were still highly significant ($\beta = .348$, $p = .002$); however, no other variables contributed significantly to the model. The full model of age, NVIQ, pre-intervention expressive word use scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall ability, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness was significant, $R^2 = .240$, $F(7, 77) = 3.158$, $p = .006$, adjusted $R^2 = .164$; but receptive vocabulary, sentence recall ability, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness together only added 3.1% of the variance, a non-significant finding ($p = .581$). See Table 7.11 for details of the regression model.
Table 7.11. Hierarchical multiple regression predicting post-intervention expressive word use of experimental words from age, NVIQ, pre-intervention scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness
| Variable | Step 1 | Step 2 |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|--------------|
| | B | $\beta$ | B | $\beta$ |
| Constant | -4.318 | | 07.427 | |
| Age | .012 | .062* | .017 | .086 |
| NVIQ | .042 | .242** | .033 | .188 |
| Pre-intervention expressive word use scores | .876 | .357** | .855 | .348** |
| Receptive vocabulary | | | .017 | .086 |
| Sentence recall | | | .017 | .134 |
| Verbal working memory | | | -.002 | -.019 |
| Phonological awareness | | | .009 | .042 |
| $R^2$ | .209 | | .240 | |
| $F$ | 6.506** | | 3.158** | |
| $\Delta R^2$ | .209 | | .031 | |
| $\Delta F$ | 6.506** | | .720 | |
* Significant at the $p < .05$ level
** Significant at the $p < .01$ level
Regression 4: Dependent variable – follow-up expressive word use of experimental words.
There was independence of observations, as assessed by a Durbin-Watson statistic of 1.797. There was linearity, as assessed by visual inspection of partial regression plots. There was homoscedasticity, as assessed by visual inspection of a plot of studentized residuals versus unstandardized predicted values. There was no evidence of multicollinearity, as assessed by tolerance values greater than 0.1 (lowest value was .835). There was one studentized deleted residual greater than ±3 standard deviations (3.708). There were no values for Cook’s distance above 1 (highest value was .087). There were two leverage values greater than 0.2 (.209 and .206), and the normal P-P Plot was slightly left-skewed.
At step 1, age was not a significant predictor of post-intervention expressive word use scores ($\beta = .034$, $p = .744$); but NVIQ was a marginally significant predictor ($\beta = .209$, $p = .048$), and preintervention expressive word use scores ($\beta = .387, p < .001$) were highly significant. Together, these three variables explained 21.2% of the variance in post-intervention expressive word use scores, $R^2 = .212, F(3, 77) = 6.624, p = .001$, adjusted $R^2 = .180$. In the full model, NVIQ was no longer a significant predictor ($\beta = .191, p = .108$), but pre-intervention expressive word use scores were still highly significant ($\beta = .371, p = .001$); however, no other variables contributed significantly to the model. The full model of age, NVIQ, pre-intervention expressive word use scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall ability, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness was significant, $R^2 = .232, F(7, 77) = 3.022, p = .008$, adjusted $R^2 = .155$; but receptive vocabulary, sentence recall ability, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness together only added 2% of the variance, a non-significant finding ($p = .761$). See Table 7.12 for details of the regression model.
Table 7.12. Hierarchical multiple regression predicting follow-up expressive word use of experimental words from age, NVIQ, pre-intervention scores, receptive vocabulary, sentence recall, verbal working memory, and phonological awareness
| Variable | Step 1 | Step 2 |
|---------------------------------|--------------|--------------|
| | B | $\beta$ | B | $\beta$ |
| Constant | -2.874 | | -6.012 | |
| Age | .006 | .034 | .013 | .070 |
| NVIQ | .033 | .209* | .030 | .191 |
| Pre-intervention expressive word use scores | .872 | .387*** | .836 | .371** |
| Receptive vocabulary | | | .006 | .034 |
| Sentence recall | | | .012 | .107 |
| Verbal working memory | | | -.006 | -.068 |
| Phonological awareness | | | .017 | .088 |
| $R^2$ | .212 | | .232 | |
| $F$ | 6.624** | | 3.022** | |
| $\Delta R^2$ | .212 | | .020 | |
| $\Delta F$ | 6.624** | | .465 | |
* Significant at the $p < .05$ level
** Significant at the $p < .01$ level
*** Significant at the $p < .001$ level
7.3.3 Summary of predictors of increase in word knowledge
Assumptions for conducting hierarchical multiple regressions with the current data and sample size were borderline, therefore the regressions were exploratory only. None of the models demonstrated any predictive value for receptive vocabulary, sentence recall ability, verbal working memory, or phonological awareness, with regard to increase in depth of word knowledge or expressive word use of experimental words. Therefore, hypotheses 11, 12, 13, and 14 were not supported.
7.4 Teachers’ and students’ views (RQ4)
7.4.1 Confidence of teachers (hypothesis 15)
It was hypothesised (H15) that teachers’ confidence in teaching vocabulary to adolescents with language disorder would increase following participation in the study.
Data to answer this question were obtained through a teacher questionnaire at Time 2 and Time 3. See section 184.108.40.206 and Appendix 6N for further detail of the teacher questionnaire. Twenty-eight completed Time 3 questionnaires were received.
At the beginning of the teacher training session, which took place at Time 2 prior to topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention), teachers were given a questionnaire consisting of one question, asking them to rate their agreement with the following statement: “I am confident at teaching vocabulary to students aged 11 – 16 years who have language difficulties,” on a five-point Likert scale of: strongly disagree; disagree; undecided; agree; and strongly agree. This question was repeated in the Time 3 teacher questionnaire following Word Discovery intervention. Thirty-three Time 2 questionnaires were distributed pre-training, of which 28 were returned. Three of these were returned anonymously. The Time 2 questionnaire was not distributed in school 1, therefore no pre-training measure of confidence for teachers 1, 2, and 3 was obtained. One teacher (T.30) rated 5 (strongly agree) on the pre-training questionnaire, and 1 (strongly disagree) on the post-intervention questionnaire. It seemed likely that the direction of the scale had been misinterpreted at one or other of the timepoints, therefore this teacher’s responses were excluded from analysis.
Wilcoxon’s signed ranks was performed on pre-training and post-intervention levels of confidence for all teachers who returned questionnaires at both timepoints (N=14). The group mean for pre-training confidence was 3.29 ($SD = .83$), and the group mean for post-intervention confidence was 3.79 ($SD = .58$). This suggests a slight increase in confidence following participation in the study, which was of borderline significance ($W = -1.993$, $p = .053$). Thus, there was tentative support for hypothesis 15.
7.4.2 Teachers’ views on the Word Discovery activities
In the Time 3 (post-intervention) questionnaire, teachers were asked: if they had previously used any of the word-learning activities; how easy the activities were to implement; how effective the activities were; and how likely they were to use the activities again. Teachers were also asked how helpful they found the teacher / speech and language therapist (SLT) collaboration, and if participating in the project had changed their practice.
In the analyses which follow in this section, Wilcoxon’s signed ranks were employed to investigate differences in how the teachers perceived the activities. There was a variation in the number of responses for each activity, and some missing data due to teachers omitting some questions in the questionnaire; therefore, these analyses should be taken as indicative only. Because of this, the data are reported in tabular form as well as graphic form, to enable visual inspection and facilitate interpretation.
220.127.116.11 Previous use of the word-learning activities
Teachers were asked if they had done each word-learning activity before. There were 26 responses to this question. Responses indicated that teachers interpreted the wording of activities quite widely, their answers referring not only to the specific Word Discovery activities of this study. For example, 16/28 teachers said that they had used the key word sheet before, even though this was an author-created resource being used in this study for the first time. Therefore, although results are reported in Table 7.13, this question is of limited validity, and no conclusions can be drawn about how unfamiliar the Word Discovery activities were to the participating teachers.
Table 7.13. Teachers’ reported previous use of word-learning activities
| Activity | Number of teachers (out of 26) reporting previous use of word-learning activities |
|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Display key words with visual image | 20 |
| Key word sheet | 16 |
| Self-rating checklist | 13 |
| Sound and meaning bingo | 11 |
| Word map | 4 |
| Word detective | 3 |
| Word wise quickie | 1 |
18.104.22.168 Ease of implementation
Teachers were asked to rate their agreement with the statement "The activities were easy to implement." Teachers’ ratings, collated and ranked, are presented in Table 7.14.
Wilcoxon’s signed ranks indicated that teachers found displaying visual images the easiest to implement, rating it as being significantly easier than the word detective ($Z = -4.165, p < .001$), the word map ($Z = -3.230, p = .001$), the word wise quickie ($Z = -2.939, p = .003$), and sound and meaning bingo ($Z = -2.098, p = .036$). The self-rating checklist was also rated highly, being perceived as significantly easier to implement than the word detective ($Z = -4.098, p < .001$), the word map ($Z = -2.960, p = .003$), and the word wise quickie ($Z = -2.923, p = .003$). The key word sheet was the next easiest to implement, perceived as being significantly easier than the word detective ($Z = -3.440, p = .001$) and the word map ($Z = -2.467, p = .014$). The sound and meaning bingo was significantly easier to implement than the word detective ($Z = -2.803, p = .005$). All other comparisons were non-significant. Teachers’ views on how easy the Word Discovery activities were to implement are represented in Figure 7.3.
Table 7.14. Teachers’ ratings for ease of implementation for each word-learning activity
| Word-learning activity | Ease of implementation (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) \(M (SD)\) |
|-----------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Display key words with visual image | 4.35 (.745) |
| Self-rating checklist | 4.25 (.75) |
| Key word sheet | 4.04 (.98) |
| Sound and meaning bingo | 3.89 (.96) |
| Word wise quickie | 3.59 (.98) |
| Word map | 3.36 (1.06) |
| Word detective | 3.07 (.917) |
"The activities were easy to implement"
Figure 7.3. Teachers’ ratings for ease of implementation
Key: N = the number of responses to this question.
Data labels represent percentages.
22.214.171.124 Effectiveness of the word-learning activities
For each word-learning activity, teachers were asked to rate their agreement with the statement “The activities were effective in enabling the students to learn the curriculum vocabulary.” Teachers’ ratings, collated and ranked, are presented in Table 7.15.
Wilcoxon’s signed ranks indicated that displaying the visual images was perceived as being the most effective in enabling students to learn the curriculum vocabulary, receiving significantly higher ratings than the self-rating checklist (\(Z = -3.216, p = .001\)), the word detective (\(Z = -3.161, p = .002\)), the word wise quickie (\(Z = -3.522, p < .001\)), and sound and meaning bingo (\(Z = -2.751, p = .006\)). The key word sheet was also rated highly, being perceived as significantly more
effective than the self-rating checklist ($Z = -2.496, p = .013$), the word detective ($Z = -2.808, p = .005$), the word wise quickie ($Z = -2.824, p = .005$), and sound and meaning bingo ($Z = -2.696, p = .007$). The word map was perceived as significantly more effective than the word detective ($Z = -2.501, p = .012$) and the word wise quickie ($Z = -2.488, p = .013$). All other comparisons were non-significant. Teachers’ views on the effectiveness of the word-learning activities are represented in Figure 7.4.
Table 7.15. Teachers’ ratings for effectiveness of each word-learning activity
| Word-learning activity | Effectiveness (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) $M(SD)$ |
|---------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| Display key words with visual image | 4.08 (.72) |
| Key word sheet | 4.00 (.80) |
| Word map | 3.85 (.88) |
| Sound and meaning bingo | 3.44 (.70) |
| Self-rating checklist | 3.41 (.84) |
| Word wise quickie | 3.32 (.72) |
| Word detective | 3.24 (.88) |
"The activities were effective in enabling the students to learn the curriculum vocabulary"
Figure 7.4. Teachers’ ratings for effectiveness of each word-learning activity
Key: N = the number of responses to this question.
Data labels represent percentages.
126.96.36.199 Intention to use the word-learning activities again
Teachers were asked to rate their agreement with the statement “I will use these activities again,” for each activity. Teachers’ ratings, collated and ranked, are presented in Table 7.16.
Wilcoxon’s signed ranks indicated that displaying the visual images was the activity which teachers reported they were most likely to use again, being rated significantly more highly than the self-rating checklist ($Z = -2.183$, $p = .029$), the word detective ($Z = -4.008$, $p < .001$), the word map ($Z = -2.581$, $p = .010$), the word wise quickie ($Z = -2.982$, $p = .003$), and sound and meaning bingo ($Z = -2.385$, $p = .017$). The activity which teachers reported they were least likely to use again was the word detective, which received significantly lower ratings than the key word sheet ($Z = -3.482$, $p < .001$), the word map ($Z = -2.906$, $p = .004$), and sound and meaning bingo ($Z = -2.982$, $p = .003$). All other comparisons were non-significant. Teachers’ intention to use the word-learning activities again is represented in Figure 7.5.
Table 7.16. Teachers’ intention to use the word-learning activities again
| Word-learning activity | Intention to use activity again (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) $M(SD)$ |
|---------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Display key words with visual image | 4.32 (.80) |
| Key word sheet | 4.08 (.91) |
| Self-rating checklist | 4.00 (.89) |
| Word map | 3.85 (.97) |
| Sound and meaning bingo | 3.80 (.87) |
| Word wise quickie | 3.59 (1.05) |
| Word detective | 2.96 (.81) |
Figure 7.5. Teachers’ intention to use the word-learning activities again
Key: N = the number of responses to this question.
Data labels represent percentages.
7.4.3 Teacher/SLT collaboration
Teachers were asked to rate their agreement with the statement “I found the teacher / speech and language therapist\(^{12}\) collaboration helpful.” There were 27 responses to this question. Twenty-five teachers agreed or strongly agreed that the teacher/SLT collaboration was helpful, and two teachers were undecided.
7.4.4 Change in practice
Teachers were asked if participating in the project had changed their practice, and if so, how. There were 25 responses to this question. Twenty-three teachers reported that taking part in the project had changed their practice, and two reported that it had not. These two teachers did not elaborate. Teachers’ explanations as to how their practice had changed were inputted into NVivo 11 and coded, to identify recurring themes. Themes centred around increased awareness of the amount and complexity of curriculum vocabulary (7 comments), and an intention to use the activities in the future (14 comments), for example:
“I have become more aware of the need to dedicate specific time to key words.” (T.19)
“I will use the word map and the A-Z key words sheet as students quickly got into the routine of using it. Bingo was quick and fun for the students. I found that by doing all these small activities - the students remembered the words much faster and their meanings and even my lower ability students had more confidence with the words.” (T.33)
7.4.5 Further comments
Teachers were given a free-text field to add further comments at the end of the questionnaire. Thirteen teachers took this opportunity. Comments were inputted into NVivo 11 and coded, in order to identify recurring themes. The most frequent theme (6 comments) related to the pressures of time, for example:
“Although I can see the merits of several of the activities, I found that time restraints made it difficult to implement them as frequently as requested. It was very difficult to fit activities into lessons and still cover the large amount of required content, which resulted in me falling behind schedule with the class.” (T.28)
The second most commonly cited theme was that lower ability students found the activities difficult to access (5 comments), for example:
“I think [the word-learning activities] worked well for year 7 students but [not] necessarily those who had been identified. Stronger pupils may have taken over in some aspects. Perhaps some preliminary training with the selected children initially would have meant they used it more automatically/efficiently in lessons.” (T.17)
\(^{12}\) The SLT was the current researcher.
7.4.6 Students’ preference for model of delivery (hypothesis 16)
Hypothesis 16 stated that students would prefer a whole-class model of vocabulary intervention delivery over a small-group or individual model. Student views were obtained during a verbally-administered questionnaire at Time 3 (post-experimental intervention). Details of the questionnaire can be found in section 188.8.131.52 and Appendix 6L.
At Time 3, students were asked whether they would prefer to do word-learning activities one-to-one, in small groups, as a whole class, or in a different way, and their reasons for this. Results are illustrated in Figure 7.6.
Figure 7.6. Students’ preference for model of intervention delivery
Reasons given were inputted into NVivo 11 and coded, in order to identify recurring themes. Approximately one third of students (31.6%) said that they would prefer to stay in the whole class. The most common reason cited (9 comments) was the benefit of learning from peers, for example:
“We can discuss together if somebody’s wrong; the teacher or another pupil can make us correct and we can write the correct thing in our paper.” (ID 9)
“Because people have different opinions and they might have the right answer and they might help you.” (ID 89)
Others (7 comments) realised it was beneficial for everyone in the class:
“Because some people might not know the same word what I don’t know, so it’s good to make other people know.” (ID 72)
“More people that don’t understand can all learn it together.” (ID 92)
Conversely, nearly a quarter (22.8%) said that they would prefer to receive vocabulary intervention individually out of class. For many students, this preference was related to their ability to concentrate (9 comments), and feeling less confident in class (5 comments), for example:
“Sometimes I can get - forgot what it mean – distract, distracted. I’m not a big fan of a lot of people round me.” (ID 83)
“Because it’s only you and the teacher and I don’t like being in small groups or whole class cos I don’t really put my hand up as much cos I get scared if I get the answer wrong.” (ID 69)
“In the whole class, I’m not really comfortable with the meaning and if I say it wrong and that. And in small group I sometimes get distracted and I don’t concentrate as much. One to one I feel more comfortable and there’s no one to make me get distracted and then I can actually think about the word.” (ID 53)
A further third (31.6%) said that they would prefer to receive vocabulary intervention in small groups out of class. Students’ comments illustrated the advantages of learning from other people (10 comments), but without the problem of distraction (13 comments), for example:
“So not everybody’s shouting across the room and more time to think about it and if you’re stuck you can ask the people around you.” (ID 41)
“One to one is not really helpful – because there’s not other people to like express their ideas. Like because when other people express their ideas it kinds of help me. And big groups – there’s not much focus. And small groups is good because for example like three to four people, we can all share our ideas and focus.” (ID 4)
Two students reported that they had no ideas, and one student who chose only the “in a different way” option had misunderstood the question:
“See it on board, some information about it. See what it is, how the word is spelt and think of what it could be used for.” (ID 3)
To summarise, no clear preference for a particular model of vocabulary intervention delivery emerged; therefore, hypothesis 16 was not supported.
7.4.7 Students’ views on the Word Discovery activities
The student questionnaire administered at Time 3 also gathered qualitative data regarding students’ views on the helpfulness of the word-learning activities. Students were asked how helpful the word-learning activities were, on a five-point Likert scale of: *not at all helpful; not very helpful; don’t know; quite helpful;* and *very helpful.* If a student could not remember an activity, no rating was awarded. Results are illustrated in Figure 7.7. Because the number of responses to each activity varied widely, owing to the numbers of students saying they could not remember doing the activity, ratings have been expressed as percentages.
Figure 7.7. Students’ ratings for each word-learning activity
Key: N = the number of responses to this question.
Data labels represent percentages.
Student ratings were collated and ranked according to how helpful they found the word-learning activities. The data are presented in Table 7.17.
Table 7.17. Students’ mean ratings of helpfulness of the word-learning activities
| Word-learning activity | Helpfulness (1 – not at all, 5 – very) M (SD) |
|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
| Display key words with visual image | 3.98 (1.09) |
| Key word sheet | 3.98 (.95) |
| Word map | 3.88 (.96) |
| Word detective | 3.84 (.94) |
| Self-rating checklist | 3.80 (.98) |
| Sound and meaning bingo | 3.54 (1.03) |
| Word wise quickie | 3.50 (1.07) |
Wilcoxon’s signed ranks were employed to investigate differences in how the students perceived the activities, although it must be noted that due to the wide variation in the number of responses for each activity, these results should be taken as indicative only. As a group, students found the visual image and the key word sheet equally the most helpful. The display of visual images received a significantly higher rating than the word wise quickie ($Z = -2.627, p = .009$) and sound and meaning bingo ($Z = -2.553, p = .011$). The key word sheet received a significantly higher rating than the word wise quickie ($Z = -2.913, p = .004$), and was perceived to be marginally more helpful than sound and meaning bingo ($Z = -1.933, p = .053$). The next most helpful activity was
the word map, which received a higher rating than the self-rating checklist, of borderline significance ($Z = -1.975$, $p = .048$). All other differences in how helpful students found the word-learning activities were non-significant.
Students were given the opportunity to give reasons for their rating. A sample of comments for each word-learning activity is included in Table 7.18. The comments included here were chosen as being representative of the range of comments made. Speech marks denote verbatim quotes from the student. Unintelligible segments are denoted by xxx.
Table 7.18. Students’ views on the word-learning activities: sample comments
| Word-learning activity | Reasons why quite helpful or very helpful | Reasons why not very helpful or not at all helpful |
|------------------------|------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|
| Self-rating checklist | “Because the first day when we started learning about reproduction, we got to tick it if we don’t know it, or very well, and I have mainly all the not at all yet, but then at the end of the term when we needed to re-do this table, I had mainly all of them in the very well so it did help a lot” (ID 17) | “Because I knew them.” (ID 16) |
| Key words displayed with visual image | “Cos then I can see what to do in the box.” (ID 95) | “Not quite because I don’t know what the word means, only a picture.” (ID 12) |
| Word detective | “Because in the word - I think it was um – it was a word, but there were two words in it, and if you put them together you get that word” (ID 17) | No comments made.* |
| Word map | “I had to have the teacher explain what it was cos I didn’t really get it at the start, then I got it cos …. he got the plastic sheet out and told us the right decibel. … it got easier cos I knew what it rhymed with: decibel – bell ” (ID 101) | “Cos I knew what it means already – solution.” (ID 6) |
| Word wise quickie | “In the next session she’ll mark it then we’ll do it again till we understand it.” (ID 14) | “Not very helpful cos I sometimes I don’t understand what miss is saying.” (ID 95) |
| Sound and meaning bingo| “Because it was fun” (ID 29) | “Because it was just kind of guessing, people shouted out the answers as well so you kind of xxx” (ID 19) |
| Key word sheet | “Because you got to circle the letter that you knew, that it started with - I think it was testes - you’d circle it, then write the word on the line next to the box, and then write a sentence, and then you could look back, and it was like right there” (ID 17) | “We didn’t do it that much and it was sort of like the words diagram really xxx you can look back at but it’s not really that helpful.” (ID 26) |
Key: xxx = unintelligible
* Most (N=58) students could not remember doing the word detective activity.
7.5 Usual teaching practice strategies
The construction of the study also allowed the researcher to gather data which would enable comparison between usual teaching practice and the experimental intervention. This was to enable meaningful comparisons to be made between usual teaching practice and Word Discovery intervention. Usual teaching practice data were gathered during topic 1 in two ways: through strategy records completed by the teachers; and through lesson observation records completed by the researcher.
Usual teaching practice data were analysed through a simple content analysis approach (Flick, 2014). Data from topic 1 strategy records and lesson observation records were inputted into NVivo 11 and categorised according to the vocabulary teaching strategies that were contained in the survey (section 4.4.10 and Appendix 4B). Additional categories were added as they emerged from the data. Some strategies were listed generally more than once by the same teacher, in which case they were only counted once. If they had recorded strategies more than once, but in relation to specific words, each entry was counted. Some entries were coded under more than one category. Results are set out in detail in sections 7.5.1 and 7.5.2, and summarised in section 7.5.3.
7.5.1 Topic 1 (usual teaching practice) strategy records
Thirty-nine topic 1 strategy records (each for a different class), from a total of 27 teachers, were received by the researcher. If the teacher stated exactly the same strategies for each class, duplicates were counted as one entry only. If the teacher stated separate strategies for each word, these were counted as separate entries. The strategy listed most frequently in teachers’ strategy records was to play definition games, followed by activities involving spelling practice, and practical demonstration / experiment. Giving definitions and displaying visual images of the key words also featured frequently. Table 7.19 lists the strategies in order of frequency, and a sample entry for each strategy. The sample entries in Table 7.19 have been recorded verbatim, i.e. exactly how they were written by the teacher. Thirty entries were not legible or explicit enough for the researcher to be able to identify a specific strategy. These were coded as unclear.
| Number of teachers out of 27 | Number of entries | Strategy | Sample verbatim entry (teacher number) |
|-----------------------------|-------------------|-----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 12 | 22 | Definition games | Splat is used as a plenary. Definition of words are given and the students have to race each other to splat the correct word. (T.5) |
| 10 | 11 | Spelling | Anagrams and hangman to practise spelling key words. (T.28) |
| 9 | 44 | Practical demonstration / experiment | Hydrogen: Described how it was formed. They did the squeaky pop test. (T.4) |
| 8 | 20 | Give definitions | Fuels: Definition – written in books plus did practical. (T.4) |
| 8 | 11 | Display key words with a visual image | Spot the difference between two pictures, which eventually leads to a definition. (T.1) |
| 7 | 19 | Give examples | Thermal energy: Gave definition of heat being energy. Gave example cup tea versus swimming pool of ice. (T.4) |
| 6 | 10 | Discussion | Kinetic – when discussing changes of state and particles. Definition. (T.25) |
| 6 | 8 | List key words on the board | Keywords displayed on every page of flipchart and referred to. (T.3) |
| 6 | 8 | Teach how to derive meaning from morphology | Looking at the root of words / searching for words with similar roots or meaning. (T.3) |
| 6 | 7 | Encourage students to draw on personal experience related to the word through scaffolded questioning | Ask students what they think / know. (T.27) |
| 6 | 7 | Students write the word | Adding new words to key words boxes and making sure we know the meaning. (T.19) |
| 6 | 6 | Use of a visual image - video | Watch video to collect information, use secondary activity/task to reinforce it. (T.1) |
| 5 | 7 | Students say the word aloud | Class say the word out loud together. (T.2) |
| 5 | 6 | Students to generate their own definition | Present word and example and ask kids to work out definition, then share ideas. (T.19) |
| 5 | 5 | Reading | Bold in text. (T.18) |
| 5 | 5 | Students say the word in a sentence | Used in questioning and asked to include keywords in answers. (T.2) |
| 4 | 6 | Use of a visual image - diagram | Show students a graph or diagram with missing information. Can they work out what is hidden behind different shapes? They have to use their prior knowledge and the shape of the graph or limited information in front of them to understand some concepts, then the word is formally introduced to them. (T.1) |
| 4 | 6 | Repetition | Constantly revisit words (repetition). (T.7) |
| | | Strategy Description | Example Description |
|---|---|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 3 | 3 | Teach phonological awareness of the word | Phonetic spelling. (T.17) |
| 3 | 3 | Students write the word in a sentence | Free writing with key words to include. (T.31) |
| 2 | 8 | Semantic feature analysis | Made them list facts to help them differentiate (between antibody and antibiotic). (T.16) |
| 2 | 2 | Students write the word - cloze | Word fills. (T.31) |
| 2 | 4 | Students write the definition | Construct definition as a class and write down into books – make obvious by highlighting /underlining etc. (T.27) |
| 2 | 3 | Encourage students to think of a personal experience related to the word | Describe new word in non-scientific context first, before applying it to science lesson. (T.1) |
| 2 | 3 | Praise | Recognise / praise correct use of keywords. (T.30) |
| 2 | 2 | Give synonyms | Gradient – similar to slope. (T.31) |
| 2 | 2 | Word generation | Word game A to Z. Name as many diseases as possible (disease). (T.16) |
| 1 | 1 | Find associated words | At the end of the lesson the key words are returned to and the students write a definition or words that go with the key word depending on their ability (T.5) |
| 1 | 1 | Develop student awareness by encouraging students to identify unknown words | All new key words are on all power point slides and the students at the start of the lesson indicate if they know the meaning of the word. Students repeat the key words three times out loud. (T.5) |
| 1 | 1 | Make word vocally salient | Exaggeration. (T.18) |
| 1 | 1 | Students self-rate their own knowledge | All new key words are on all power point slides and the students at the start of the lesson indicate if they know the meaning of the word. Students repeat the key words three times out loud. (T.5) |
| | 30| Unclear | Interactive white board games. (T.7) |
The following strategies that were contained in the survey were not recorded in any topic 1 strategy records:
- Students look words up in the dictionary/glossary
- Teach students how to derive meaning from context
- Give examples of use in multiple contexts
- List key words in lesson plans
- Use a must-should-could approach
- Students record new words and meanings in their own vocabulary book.
Nineteen topic 1 lessons, taken by 14 separate teachers, were observed by the researcher. The researcher collected data on what strategies were used by the teacher when teaching new words. The vocabulary teaching strategy most frequently observed was to list key words on the board, closely followed by the giving of definitions, and paraphrasing to define word meaning. No instances of semantic feature analysis were observed, and only one instance was noted of drawing attention to phonological features of the word. Table 7.20 shows the total number of times each strategy was noted across all 19 lessons, and an example of each strategy. In Table 7.20, italics represent the researcher’s notes made during observations, and speech marks represent direct quotes from the teacher.
Table 7.20. Usual teaching practice recorded during topic 1 lesson observations by the researcher
| Number of teachers out of 14 | Number of occurrences | Strategy | Example (teacher number) |
|------------------------------|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 8 | 10 | List key words on the board | *Wrote key words on board during lesson.* (T.21) |
| 7 | 8 | Give definitions | “Volume is the space taken up.” (T.31) |
| 6 | 6 | Give definition - paraphrase | “any old how - instead we call it random.” (T.22) |
| 4 | 5 | Repetition | *Repeated key words often.* (T.4) |
| 4 | 4 | Reading | “Can you spot a new word on the board?” (T.31) |
| 4 | 4 | Students write the word in a cloze activity | *Written on board: The tap water gets …… We can measure this with a ……. (T.4)* |
| 3 | 3 | Encourage students to draw on personal | *Ten minutes asking for ideas of density and valuing each contribution.* (T.23) |
| | | experience related to the word through | |
| | | scaffolded questioning | |
| 3 | 3 | Students say the word aloud | “What did we say the balls are?” (T.1) |
| 3 | 3 | Give synonyms | “What form is it in? What state is it in?” (T.31) |
| 3 | 3 | Signpost | “We’re going to learn some new key words” “We’re going to look at a new word today |
| | | | called density” (T.23) |
| 2 | 2 | Students write the definition | “Write the definition of a group - you can find it in your fact sheet.” (T.20) |
| 2 | 2 | Definition games | *Written word - definition match.* (T.27) |
| 2 | 2 | Teach how to derive meaning from morphology | “How can we remember that word [stamen] - has the men in it.” (T.7) |
| 2 | 2 | Teacher elicits specific word | *Spoken cloze i.e. teacher scaffolded by pointing to written word: ‘It’s more ….’ to |
| | | | elicit streamlined rather than smoother.* (T.32) |
| 2 | 2 | Students say the word in a sentence | “Can you use the three key words in your answer?” (T.32) |
| 2 | 2 | Students write the word | "Write down the red key words and write its definition." (T.32) |
|---|---|-------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2 | 2 | Use of a visual image | *Key words displayed with picture.* (T.21) |
| 2 | 2 | Word generation | "How many different substances on the periodic table can you think of?" (T.19) |
| 2 | 2 | Map word to object | *Spoke word ("tongs") and asked student to hold up tongs.* (T.33) |
| 1 | 1 | Give examples of use in multiple contexts | "We're using the word solid there to mean something else - it doesn't move." (T.31) |
| 1 | 1 | Give examples | "Hydrogen is what we call the product". (T.4) |
| 1 | 1 | Make word vocally salient | *Highlighted "compressibility" with voice.* (T.31) |
| 1 | 1 | Teach phonological awareness of the word | "Sounds like something you might put on your floor at home - carpet – carpet." (T.7) |
| 1 | 1 | Students self-rate their own knowledge of the word | *Asked how many have used the word particle before.* (T.21) |
| 1 | 1 | Use of a visual image - diagram | *Asked students to label diagram.* (T.27) |
| 1 | 1 | Song | *Played Periodic Table song on YouTube.* (T.19) |
**Key:**
- Researchers' notes in *italics*
- Direct quotes from the teacher in “speech marks”
The only strategy that was listed in topic 1 strategy records, but was not observed during lesson observations, was as follows:
- Find associated words.
The following strategies that were contained in the survey were not observed during lesson observations:
- Develop student awareness by encouraging students to identify unknown words
- Students generate their own definition
- Teach students how to derive meaning from context
- Students look words up in the dictionary/glossary
- List key words in lesson plans
- Use a must-should-could approach
- Students record new words and meanings in their own vocabulary book
- Encourage students to think of a personal experience related to the word
- Semantic feature analysis
- Students write the word in a sentence.
The following strategies were listed in topic 1 strategy records, and were frequently observed during lessons, but had not been recorded as specific vocabulary teaching strategies, because they did not comprise direct strategies to facilitate word learning, such as highlighting semantic or phonological features, or requiring students to say the word.
7.5.3 Summary of usual teaching practice results
This directory of strategies in habitual use by teachers portrays the environment in which the word-learning activities subsequently took place, and depicts differences between the usual teaching practice and experimental conditions. The findings can be summarised as follows. Firstly, vocabulary teaching strategies used by teachers predominantly took a semantic (though not specifically semantic feature analysis) and literacy perspective. Only two teachers (eight entries) reported the use of specific aspects of semantic feature analysis, and only three teachers (three entries) reported using activities which involved phonological awareness. Secondly, although there was overlap, some strategies were reported in teachers’ strategy records which did not feature in the researchers’ lesson observation records, suggesting differing perspectives on what constitutes vocabulary teaching. These points are discussed further in section 7.7.
7.6 Word exposure
In a further comparison between usual teaching practice and the experimental intervention, data was collected from teacher strategy records to establish whether the implementation of Word Discovery resulted in increased exposure to the words.
From the raw data, an average was calculated of the number of times which target words were spoken by the teacher, in the lesson in which the word was introduced, in topic 1 (usual teaching practice) and in topic 2 (Word Discovery). Due to limited teacher compliance with returning completed strategy records, there were gaps in the data; therefore, average exposure was calculated only from those classes where data were available for both topic 1 and topic 2. Table 7.21 gives the average exposure of words on the day that they were introduced (in *italics* for ease of inspection). Where the teacher recorded a range, e.g. 5 – 10, the higher figure is stated and was used for calculations. Table 7.21 also gives the number of words taught in each condition, out of the 10 targeted words.
Wilcoxon’s signed ranks test indicated that there was no significant difference between the conditions in the number of words taught ($Z = -1.593$, $p = .111$), but that there was a marginally significant difference between the conditions in the amount of exposure the words received ($Z = -1.965$, $p = .049$), with the experimental words receiving more exposure ($M = 9.7$; range per class 5.1 – 19.9) than the usual teaching practice words ($M = 8.3$; range per class 1.6 – 23.4). Teachers did not have access to the no-intervention words; exposure of these, therefore, was measured only by researcher lesson observations. None of the no-intervention words were observed to have been used, in either phase of the study.
| School | Class | Usual teaching practice condition | Experimental condition |
|--------|-------|----------------------------------|------------------------|
| | | Number of words taught in topic 1 out of 10 | Average exposure of topic 1 words on the day introduced | Number of words taught in topic 2 out of 10 | Average exposure of topic 2 words on the day introduced |
| 1 | 1 | 10 | 18.1 | 9 | 14.4 |
| 1 | 2 | 10 | 18.2 | 10 | 19.9 |
| 1 | 4 | 9 | | 4+ | |
| 2 | 5 | 8 | 8.1 | 8 | 7.8 |
| 2 | 6 | 10 | 4.8 | 9 | 6.2 |
| 2 | 7 | 8 | | 9 | 7.2 |
| 2 | 8 | 10 | 3.8 | 10 | 6.6 |
| 2 | 9 | 10 | | 4 | |
| 3 | 10 | | | 8 | |
| 3 | 11 | 7 | 5.6 | 10 | |
| 3 | 12 | 8 | 3.6 | 10 | 10.9 |
| 3 | 13 | 6 | 10.4 | 10 | |
| 3 | 14 | 7 | 2.5 | | |
| 4 | 18 | 5 | 2.4 | 8 | 8.0 |
| 4 | 19 | | | 6 | 5.9 |
| 4 | 20 | 6+ | | 9 | |
| 4 | 22 | 4 | 2.3 | 1+ | |
| 4 | 23 | | | 5 | |
| 4 | 25 | 6 | 10.3 | 8 | 11.1 |
| 5 | 26 | 10 | 8.0 | 9 | 17.0 |
| 5 | 27 | 9 | 4.7 | | |
| 6 | 28 | 9 | 9.5 | 9 | 10.8 |
| 6 | 32 | 7 | 4.8 | | |
| 6 | 33 | | 7.6 | | |
| 6 | 34 | | | | |
| 6 | 36 | | | | |
| 6 | 37 | 10 | | 8 | 14.2 |
| 7 | 38 | 10 | 3.2 | 10 | 5.9 |
| 7 | 39 | 9 | 3.3 | 10 | 5.1 |
| 7 | 40 | 9 | 3.8 | 10 | 5.2 |
| 7 | 41 | 9 | 4.7 | 10 | |
| 7 | 42 | 6 | 1.6 | 9 | 5.4 |
| 8 | 43 | 10 | 6.6 | 10 | |
| 8 | 44 | 9 | 9.0 | 10 | 7.9 |
| 8 | 45 | 10 | 23.4 | 9 | 8.3 |
| 8 | 46 | 10 | 11.1 | 10 | 15.6 |
Mean: 8.5, 8.3, 8.8, 9.7
7.7 Summary of results
Participants' knowledge of 30 science words was assessed at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up assessment points: 10 active control words were taught by science teachers through usual teaching practice; 10 matched experimental words were taught by the same teachers using Word Discovery activities; and 10 matched passive control words received no intervention.
Effects of the intervention - word knowledge
Depth of word knowledge of targeted words significantly increased following usual teaching practice, and this increase was maintained five weeks later. Depth of word knowledge of experimental words also significantly increased following Word Discovery intervention, and this increase was partially maintained five weeks later. At the pre-intervention point, depending on the analysis used, depth of word knowledge of usual teaching practice words either did not differ, or was significantly lower, than that of the experimental words, but at the post-intervention point, depth of word knowledge of experimental words was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words. Although this significant difference was not maintained at follow-up, depth of word knowledge of experimental words remained significantly higher at follow-up than at pre-intervention.
Expressive word use of targeted words significantly increased following usual teaching practice, and this increase was maintained five weeks later. Expressive word use of experimental words also significantly increased following Word Discovery intervention, and this increase was partially maintained five weeks later. At the pre-intervention point, expressive word use of usual teaching practice words did not differ from that of experimental words, but at the post-intervention point, expressive word use of experimental words was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words, and this significant difference was maintained at follow-up.
These findings demonstrate that Word Discovery intervention was more effective than usual teaching practice in increasing the word knowledge of participating students. There was no change in students' depth of word knowledge or expressive word use of no-intervention words over time, confirming that change in usual teaching practice and experimental word knowledge was not due to maturity or practice effects.
Generalisation effects of the intervention
There was a decrease in the number of words which students identified as unknown after each teaching condition, but the percentage of these words whose meaning students correctly derived did not change over time. There was a small but non-significant increase in the number of word-learning strategies listed by students, and no change in standardised vocabulary assessment scores over time. The impact of Word Discovery intervention on students' independent word learning skills is, therefore, not evident from this study.
Predictors of increase in word knowledge
In hierarchical multiple regression models, NVIQ and pre-intervention scores were significant predictors of post-intervention and follow-up depth of word knowledge of experimental words. With regard to post-intervention and follow-up expressive word use of experimental words, only pre-intervention scores were significant predictors. No other variables (age, receptive vocabulary, verbal working memory, sentence recall, or phonological awareness) demonstrated any predictive value towards post-intervention or follow-up depth of word knowledge or expressive word use.
Teachers’ views
There was a non-significant increase in teacher confidence following participation in the intervention study. As a group, teachers felt that the display of visual images and the self-rating checklist were the easiest of the activities to implement. They reported that displaying the visual images was the most effective, followed by the key word sheet, and these were also the two activities which teachers said they would be most likely to use again. Of the three phonological-semantic activities, teachers found the sound and meaning bingo the easiest to implement, but felt that the word map was the most effective. The word map was also the phonological-semantic activity they thought they were most likely to use again. Although a few teachers mentioned barriers to implementing the word-learning activities in the classroom, nearly all the teachers reported that the teacher/SLT collaboration was helpful, and also that participating in the study had positively changed their practice.
Students’ views
Preferences for model of intervention delivery were distributed evenly between the options: approximately one third preferring a whole-class model; approximately one third preferring a small-group model; and approximately one quarter preferring individual intervention; with the remaining students stating mixed preferences or no preference. As a group, students were generally positive about all the word-learning activities, finding the display of visual images and the key word sheet the most helpful.
Comparison of usual teaching practice and experimental conditions
In contrast to the experimental intervention, which took a holistic but essentially phonological-semantic approach, the vocabulary teaching strategies used by teachers predominantly took a semantic and literacy approach, with only three teachers reporting activities which involved phonological awareness. The words taught through Word Discovery received marginally more exposure than words taught through usual teaching practice.
Summary of Chapter 7
The current chapter has reported the results of the main experimental study of this thesis, which investigated the effectiveness of Word Discovery intervention for adolescents with language
disorder in mainstream secondary school classrooms. The findings will be explored in further depth in the discussion, which follows in Chapter 8.
Chapter 8
The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder:
Discussion
Overview
This chapter discusses the findings of the main experimental study of this thesis. Thirty teachers implemented Word Discovery, a classroom vocabulary intervention, for 78 mainstream secondary school students with language disorder aged 11 – 14 years. Student participants’ knowledge of 30 science words was assessed at four timepoints on two scales: (1) depth of word knowledge, and (2) expressive word use. In the first phase of the study, 10 words from topic 1 were taught by science teachers through usual teaching practice. At the end of topic 1, teachers attended a one-hour training session, in which they learnt and practised phonological-semantic word-activities. In the second phase, 10 matched experimental words from topic 2 were taught by the same teachers using these activities, embedded into the delivery of the syllabus. Ten matched control words received no intervention. Change in word knowledge over time was explored, and teacher and student views on the intervention were sought.
In the current chapter, section 8.1 explores how features of the study design compare with other studies. Section 8.2 discusses the impact of Word Discovery on knowledge of targeted words. Section 8.3 discusses the results of the independent word learning assessment, and issues surrounding the assessment of generalisation effects. Section 8.4 discusses predictors of increases in word knowledge. Section 8.5 considers student views of the model of vocabulary intervention delivery. Following this, each word-learning activity is appraised in section 8.6. The next two sections explore comparisons between usual teaching practice and Word Discovery intervention: section 8.7 with regard to the word-learning activities and strategies used; and section 8.8 with regard to the amount of spoken exposure that the words received. The feasibility of the intervention, incorporating teacher views, is discussed in section 8.9; and lastly, section 8.10 evaluates the limitations of the study. The chapter concludes with a summary, and introduces the reader to Chapter 9, in which clinical and educational implications are discussed, and suggestions made for further research.
8.1 Study design strengths
The study employed a within-subjects repeated measures design. The advantage of this design was that it enabled different teaching conditions to be compared in the same cohort of participants, in a design with sufficient statistical power. Although the projected sample size had been calculated based on a $4 \times 3$ design, the $3 \times 3$ analysis resulted in an observed power of 1.000, suggesting that there was a sufficient sample despite the level of attrition. Thus, the study
design overcame the sample size limitations of many previous vocabulary intervention studies for adolescents with language disorder. Seventy-eight students and 30 teachers participated in the current study. Of previous studies known to the researcher, four had samples sizes of 10 or below; seven were between 15 and 54; and only two (Joffe, et al., in preparation; Murphy et al., 2017) had sample sizes larger than the current study (358 and 203 respectively). The current study, extending the research of Lowe and Joffe (2017), also overcame a limitation of this earlier study, which was that it had only one participating teacher. Further, the word selection process was more robust than that of Lowe and Joffe, whose results were subject to ceiling effects due to the inclusion of high frequency words already known to the participants. In the current study, teachers supplied the researcher with more than 10 words for each topic so that a pool of words was available, enabling high frequency and difficult-to-match words to be omitted.
A further strength of the study was the demographic heterogeneity of the student cohort. Schools from a number of geographical regions in England participated, resulting in diversity of socio-economic status, English language status, and ethnicity. As such, the findings of the study have wide applicability to populations of adolescents with language disorder.
The experimental study was an effectiveness study, rather than an efficacy study. When choosing an appropriate study design, it is necessary to strike a balance between the empirical soundness of an efficacy study where intervention is tested in ideal conditions, and the practical applicability of an effectiveness study carried out in naturalistic conditions (Craig et al., 2014). In line with Clegg (2014), the current researcher argues that the findings of an effectiveness study, carried out with maximum empirical rigour, make a powerful contribution to the evidence base, because, having met and overcome challenges which parallel real-life circumstances, the findings have direct relevance to practice.
8.2 Word knowledge (RQ1)
The main hypotheses of the intervention study related to the increase in depth of word knowledge and expressive word use of targeted science curriculum words. It was hypothesised that: (H1) the increase in depth of word knowledge, from pre- to post-intervention, of words taught through Word Discovery activities would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice; and (H2) maintenance in depth of word knowledge, from post-intervention to follow-up, of words taught through Word Discovery activities would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice. There were corresponding hypotheses for expressive word use.
Depth of word knowledge will be considered first.
8.2.1 Depth of word knowledge change pre- to post-intervention (hypothesis 1)
At the pre-intervention point, the $3 \times 3$ ANOVA showed that depth of word knowledge of usual teaching practice words did not differ from that of experimental words, but the post-intervention point, depth of word knowledge of experimental words was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words. This indicated that Word Discovery had a greater effect on depth of word knowledge than usual teaching practice, hence providing support for the first hypothesis. In fact,
the 2 x 3 ANOVA, with the same time factors (pre-, post-, and follow-up), but only two levels of teaching condition (usual teaching practice and experimental), showed a marginally significant difference at pre-intervention between depth of word knowledge of the usual teaching practice words and depth of word knowledge of the experimental words, with depth of word knowledge of the usual teaching practice words being slightly greater than that of experimental words. In contrast, at post-intervention, the opposite was found, with depth of word knowledge of the experimental words being significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words. This lends further support to hypothesis 1.
**Aspects of word learning**
It is proposed that Word Discovery was effective because it addressed multiple aspects of word learning. Phonological and semantic aspects of word learning were combined, thus facilitating the mapping of phonological form onto semantic content. The activities made phonological and semantic information explicit, and involved deliberate repetition of the words by both teachers and students. Thus, the phonological loop component of working memory was constantly activated, enabling phonological and semantic information to be processed, and supporting the executive-loaded verbal working memory skills involved in word learning. This approach had the potential to benefit those who had phonological weaknesses but relative semantic strengths, as well as those for whom the converse was true. In addition, visual support, orthographic input, and personalisation were intrinsic to the intervention, thus exploiting a wide range of modalities and skills.
**Choice of experimental and control words**
Because the two sets of words were chosen from different topics, one potential confound was that some topics may have been more interesting to students than others, and some topics may have had a propensity towards more abstract or technical words than others. For example, consider the differences between a chemistry topic (e.g. “Chemical reactions”) and a biology topic (e.g. “Reproduction”). However, student participants were taught in 46 classes across different year groups and schools, which resulted in 22 different sets of words in total. This mitigates the possible confounding variable of differing levels of interest or complexity which could have arisen if a single set of experimental and control words had been used, and adds to the strength of the study.
**Degree of gain**
The mean numerical gain from pre- to post-intervention for usual teaching practice words was 1.58 ($SD = 2.71$), and for experimental words 3.46 ($SD = 3.24$), out of a possible 20. Although 3.46 seems a modest gain, it represented a medium to large effect size ($\eta_p^2 = .122$, when only these two teaching conditions were considered), suggesting clinical significance. These results are comparable to those found in other vocabulary intervention studies with adolescents. For example, the mean word knowledge gain in Snow et al. (2009) (section 184.108.40.206) was 4.43 out of 40 assessed words ($d = .21$, small effect size); and in Spencer et al. (2017) (section 3.4.3) the mean gain was 1.17 out of 10 targeted words ($\eta^2 = .42$, large effect size). The clinical significance
of the gains in the current study is further demonstrated by considering the gain in relation to the smaller amount of cumulative intervention intensity compared to other studies. In the current study, intervention duration ranged from 6.5 minutes to two and a quarter hours over an average of four to five weeks. This is compared to cross-curricular intervention throughout the course of one academic year (Snow et al.) and six to seven hours over 10 weeks (Spencer et al.).
Furthermore, as this was a cascading intervention, whereby the SLT trained another agent of change (the teachers), it is relevant to consider the amount of training provided. In the current study, this was one hour, considerably less than in other studies. For example, in the study by Starling et al. (2012) (section 220.127.116.11), training on language modification techniques took place in 50-minute sessions once a week for 10 weeks, concurrently with the intervention; and, in addition, support was available in the form of three lesson observations, whereas in the current study a maximum of one lesson observation took place.
These gains, in fact, represented a considerable achievement for the participants. In the word knowledge assessment, words were presented in verbal and written form to the student, with no context. Students therefore had to bring to mind the meaning of each word, with no access to the contextual clues which typically support understanding (Anderson & Nagy, 1996). The scoring system of the word knowledge assessment used in the current study also needs to be taken into consideration. A score of 1 was awarded for a response indicating partial knowledge, and a score of 2 was awarded for a response indicating precise knowledge in the context of the syllabus. Examples of responses and their scores for the word *gravity* appear in Table 8.1.
**Table 8.1. Word knowledge assessment scoring examples: gravity**
| Responses for the word *gravity* | Depth of word knowledge scale |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| I don’t know | 0 |
| If you went into space, there’s no gravity there, but if you’re on earth, there is gravity. Gravity makes you walk and everything, because if there wasn’t you’d be floating everywhere (ID 33, Time 4) | 1 |
| The force exerted on objects by masses such as the planets, moons, and the sun (definition supplied by teacher) | 2 |
The responses earning a score of 2 on the depth of word knowledge scale were based on definitions supplied to the researcher by the teachers; however, during Time 2 and Time 3 assessments, it became apparent that for most words, a score of 1 was the highest realistic goal for many participants, making a total score of 20 unattainable. Researcher lesson observations raised the possibility that teachers did not present some concepts at the same level of scientific precision as the definitions they had supplied.
Furthermore, not all of the 10 experimental words were taught. Table 7.21 shows that this happened in 19 of the 31 classes for which data were available. The mean number of experimental words taught was 8.8 out of 10. As this was an effectiveness study, carried out in
real-life situations, this variation from the intended standard was to be expected and could not be avoided.
Taking these things into consideration, a gain of 3.46 represented a worthwhile achievement. This gain in depth of word knowledge was made as a consequence of very modest input, in two respects: first, in the amount of training which the teachers received (one hour); and, second, in the amount of intervention which the students received (an average of one hour’s intervention, delivered by the teacher within the topic syllabus). As this amount of teacher/SLT collaboration and classroom input was achievable in the research context, it is reasonable to conclude that it has the potential to translate into practice, demonstrating ecological validity.
8.2.2 Maintenance of depth of word knowledge (hypothesis 2)
The second hypothesis of the study was that maintenance in depth of word knowledge, from post-intervention to follow-up, of words taught through Word Discovery activities would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice. This hypothesis was not supported: at post-intervention, depth of word knowledge of experimental words ($M = 6.96$, $SD = 3.85$) was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words ($M = 5.72$, $SD = 3.29$), but at follow-up, although depth of word knowledge of experimental words ($M = 6.17$, $SD = 3.80$) was still numerically greater than that of the usual teaching practice words ($M = 5.38$, $SD = 3.36$), this difference was not significant. The more modest increases in depth of word knowledge of the usual teaching practice words were maintained, whereas the larger increases of the experimental words were less well maintained.
Interestingly, this is a similar pattern of results to the findings of Lowe and Joffe (2017), which used a similar study design. A slight loss of maintenance is to be expected during a period when words are not being repeatedly revised, particularly for children with language disorder. In the study by Rice et al. (1994) (section 1.5), the children with language disorder did not show the same degree of word knowledge retention as age-matched or language-matched controls, and this was only one to three days after exposure to the words. In contrast, other vocabulary studies which included a follow-up period have nonetheless demonstrated retention (Clegg, 2014; Spencer et al., 2017; Wilson, et al., 2015). Possibly, this is because in these studies, direct vocabulary teaching occurred, whereas in the study by Rice et al., words occurred in context without specific attention being drawn to them.
As the words were directly taught in the current study, it was, therefore, expected that the degree of maintenance would follow a similar pattern to that of other vocabulary intervention studies rather than that of Rice et al. (1994), where no direct teaching took place. However, this was not the case, raising the question of why the experimental words were not so well retained as the usual teaching practice words. Potentially, there could have been some differences between the usual teaching practice and experimental topics which made some words more memorable than others; however, as described in section 7.2.1, the large number of different word sets makes this explanation unlikely.
A more plausible explanation relates to the interaction between verbal working memory and semantic representation. Most participants had very low SS on the Recalling Sentences subtest of the CELF-4 UK ($M = 79.53$: 58% scoring 80 or below), implying possible inefficiencies within working memory (Baddeley, Hitch & Allen, 2009), and many had low SS on the Listening Recall subtest of the WMTBC ($M = 88.36$: 30% scoring 80 or below). A potential hypothesis is that during the word-learning activities, components of working memory were repeatedly activated, for the experimental words more so than for the usual teaching practice words, keeping the experimental words constantly primed, but that due to the verbal working memory and semantic limitations of the participants, only insecure or limited semantic representations were laid down. If this was the case, during the follow-up period with no revision, the insecure traces of understanding which had been acquired during the intervention period could have become lost or difficult to retrieve. This interpretation is consistent with the proposition of Kail and Leonard (1986) (section 1.5.1) that semantic limitations contribute to inefficient word storage. However, to test this hypothesis, more precise information on the working memory and semantic skills of the participants would be required than was obtained from the assessments administered in the current study.
Nevertheless, it is promising to note that the loss of maintenance was only partial, with depth of word knowledge for experimental words remaining significantly greater at follow-up than it was at pre-intervention.
8.2.3 Expressive word use: pre- to post-intervention change and maintenance (hypotheses 4 and 5)
Hypothesis 4 stated that the increase in expressive word use, from pre- to post-intervention, for words taught through Word Discovery activities would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice. Hypothesis 5 stated that maintenance in expressive word use, from post-intervention to follow-up, for words taught through Word Discovery activities would be greater than for words taught through usual teaching practice. Results indicated that at the pre-intervention point, expressive word use of usual teaching practice words did not differ from that of experimental words, but at the post-intervention point, expressive word use of experimental words was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words; thus, hypotheses 4 was supported. There was partial support for hypothesis 5, because although there was a significant decrease in expressive word use of experimental words from post-intervention to follow-up, but no decrease in that of usual teaching practice words, expressive word use of experimental words remained significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words at follow-up.
These results suggest stronger evidence for the maintenance of expressive word use of experimental words than was the case for depth of word knowledge. The expressive task in the word knowledge assessment did not require the students to retrieve words from their lexicon; rather, it required them to produce words with phonological accuracy in a meaningful sentence, after the word had been spoken by the assessor. A potential hypothesis, to explain why expressive word use showed a tendency towards better maintenance than depth of word knowledge, could be that the phonological component of Word Discovery activities facilitated
performance on this task by strengthening phonological deficits, and enabling stronger phonological representations to be established. This hypothesis would concur with Stackhouse and Wells (1997) and Lahey and Edwards (1999), who posited that weak phonological skills particularly affect naming, a task which requires production of the word.
However, phonological awareness skills appeared to be a relative strength for this cohort, according to SS on the PhAB Spoonerisms subtest ($M = 89.03$: only 9% scoring 80 or below); therefore, this explanation remains speculative. An alternative proposition is that improvement in expressive word use was an example of an intervention building on strengths. The hierarchical multiple regressions (section 7.3) were conducted in order to elucidate which, if any, of the assessed language and cognitive skills predicted increases in expressive word use; however, as no variables other than pre-intervention scores showed any predictive value towards increase in expressive word use, no firm conclusions can be drawn with regard to the roles that phonological strengths or phonological input played in students’ increase in expressive word use. Predictors of response to intervention are discussed further in section 8.4.
Whichever mechanism may be at work, inspection of the data reveals low expressive word use scores following both experimental and usual teaching practice conditions. This indicates that the adolescents with language disorder in this cohort had, and continued to have, considerable difficulty using science curriculum words expressively. This lends strong support to the findings of previous research showing the persistence of language disorder in adolescence (Johnson et al., 1999) and the complexity of science vocabulary (Woodward & Noell, 1991), particularly for adolescents with language disorder (Forwood, 2014). This difficulty is illustrated by the efforts of ID 8 to use the word *filtration* (an experimental word) in a sentence:
**Assessor:** What does *filtration* mean?
**Student:** Is it the filter paper that is - it the filter paper that changes sand into salt and you can add water to it?
**Assessor:** Can you tell me more exactly what it means?
**Student:** Does it, it means that um the- it can change - it can change um um no, salt - no, sand - it can change things into another. So like if you add sand and you, you, if you have a bottle and you have the filter shaped like a cone, like a funnel, and you put the top of the - where the lid goes on to, and you pour sand, it changes - it changes - it changes the lit- it changes the colour and the sand and if you add water it can make liquid - some of it liquid and fresh, um and fresh, um salt, so I ...
**Assessor:** Can you use *filtration* in a sentence?
**Student:** Um I fil- I changed, I um, I changed - I used fil- I used *filtration* to - I used *filtration* to um, to - I used um *filtration* to, to change - oh I don’t know how to; it’s hard. (ID 8, Time 4).
Because of these ongoing difficulties, it is essential to find optimum ways of helping these students. Word Discovery intervention was successful in increasing both students’ depth of word knowledge and their expressive word use, with modest gains being made. The implications of this for practice are discussed further in Chapter 9.
8.2.4 No-intervention words: depth of word knowledge and expressive word use (hypotheses 3 and 6)
It was hypothesised that there would be no significant difference in either depth of word knowledge (H3) or expressive word use (H6) of no-intervention words over time. Results showed no significant change in depth of word knowledge or expressive word use of no-intervention words at any point in time; therefore, as anticipated, both of these hypotheses were supported.
These results add strength to the findings of the study by demonstrating that increases in depth of word knowledge and expressive word use of usual teaching practice and experimental words were unlikely to be due to maturity or practice effects.
8.3 Independent word learning (RQ2)
In this section, firstly the outcomes of the independent word learning assessment are reviewed, and subsequently the issues surrounding the measurement of generalisation effects of intervention are discussed. The current study followed the recommendation of Marulis and Neuman (2010) by utilising a standardised measure as well as a bespoke author-created measure to examine the impact of the intervention on transferable word-learning skills. In addition, it aimed to measure the impact of the intervention on curriculum attainment, a design feature absent from other vocabulary intervention studies of children and adolescents with language disorder.
8.3.1 Standardised assessment (hypothesis 7)
Hypothesis 7 stated that there would be significant progress in standard scores on the WASI-2 V following Word Discovery intervention. Results showed no significant difference between pre-intervention WASI-2 V standard scores and post-intervention WASI-2 V standard scores; therefore, this hypothesis was not supported.
One possible reason for this was that Word Discovery did not specifically target definition production skills. However, because the pre-intervention assessment was administered at Time 1 (prior to the usual teaching practice condition) and the post-intervention assessment was administered at Time 3 (following the experimental condition), even if a change in scores had been achieved, this assessment schedule would not have demonstrated whether progress was attributable to usual teaching practice or to Word Discovery intervention. Although a weakness of the study design, this was necessary in order to avoid repeating the standardised assessment within too short a timescale: the intervals between Time 1 and Time 2, and between Time 2 and Time 3, were both approximately nine weeks. Marulis and Neuman (2010) noted that many studies have used only bespoke measures for this reason.
8.3.2 Bespoke independent word learning assessment (hypotheses 8 and 9)
The bespoke independent word learning assessment (section 18.104.22.168) had three parts; (i) the students’ ability to identify words they did not understand; (ii) their ability to derive the meaning of these words; and (iii) their knowledge of strategies to use when confronted with an unknown word. The first two parts together investigated hypothesis 8, regarding participants’ *use* of independent word learning strategies, and the third part investigated hypothesis 9, regarding participants’ *awareness* of such strategies.
Hypothesis 8 stated that there would be no significant increase in students’ ability to derive the meaning of unknown words following topic 1 (usual teaching practice), but that there would be a significant increase following topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention). The outcome was a significant decrease in the number of words which students identified as unknown after each teaching condition (mean decrease after topic 1 was 0.67 out of a maximum of 7; mean decrease after topic 2 was 0.68), but the percentage of these words whose meaning students correctly derived did not change over time; therefore, hypothesis 8 was not supported.
Hypothesis 9 stated that there would be no significant increase in awareness of word-learning strategies following topic 1, but a significant increase following topic 2. The outcome was a negligible decrease in the number of word-learning strategies listed by students following topic 1 (mean change -0.09 out of a maximum of 6), and a small but non-significant increase following topic 2 (mean gain 0.24). Therefore, hypothesis 9 was not supported.
Unlike the standardised assessment, the bespoke independent word learning assessment was repeated at Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3, which allowed for a distinction between the effects of usual teaching practice and Word Discovery intervention. Out of the three components of the assessment, only one demonstrated significant change; namely, that the number of words which students identified as unknown significantly decreased over time. It is probable that, when a word was encountered for the first time, students employed strategies to derive its meaning from morphology and context. Evidence for this comes from students’ responses. This is illustrated by the following excerpts of the independent word learning assessment with ID 58 at Time 1 and Time 2.
**Time 1:**
Assessor: Are there any words in here that you don’t know? You can point to them for me.
Student: (points to arsonphobia and perseverant)
Assessor: Great. This one is arsonphobia. What do you think arsonphobia might mean?
Student: Does that mean like she’s scared of fire or something?
Assessor: And what makes you think that?
Student: Because she was so severe she- and persever- I don’t know that word. She couldn’t even like light her candle on her birthday - it was like she was really
scared, so she doesn’t like fire. Like any fire she sees she gets really freaked out and stuff. (ID 58, Time 1)
**Time 2:**
Assessor: Can you show me any words in there you don’t understand?
Student: No.
Assessor: Do you know them all?
Student: (nods)
Assessor: Well done. (ID 58, Time 2)
These excerpts exemplify that, having worked out the meaning on first encounter, at subsequent timepoints a previously unknown word could become a known word. This had the further effect that fewer students identified any unknown words at each succeeding timepoint. However, as these decreases occurred following usual teaching practice as well as following Word Discovery, changes cannot be attributed to the experimental intervention, and are more likely to be due to practice effects.
Interpretations of the bespoke word learning assessment results are discussed further in section 8.3.4, in relation to issues surrounding the measurement of generalisation effects.
### 8.3.3 Science curriculum attainment (hypothesis 10)
It was hypothesised (H10) that increase in students’ science attainment would be greater following topic 2 (Word Discovery intervention) than following topic 1 (usual teaching practice); however, as previously explained (section 7.2.3), insufficient data on science attainment was received to be able to comment on the generalisation effect of Word Discovery on curriculum access.
The ultimate goal of vocabulary intervention is to improve the child’s or adolescent’s ability to access the curriculum, and consequently enhance their life chances. Despite the evidence that language disorder impacts on academic outcomes (e.g. Conti-Ramsden et al., 2009; Croll, 1995), none of the vocabulary intervention studies of children or adolescents with language disorder reviewed in this thesis have included assessment of academic attainment. The current study attempted to address this situation by obtaining science attainment data, but insufficient appropriate data were obtained to achieve this. The question of how vocabulary intervention impacts on academic attainment thus remains unanswered, and is an important goal for future research. This is discussed further in Chapter 9.
### 8.3.4 The measurement of generalisation effects
Overall, the bespoke independent word learning assessment did not demonstrate any specific impact of the intervention on transferable word learning skills. There are two ways of interpreting these results. Firstly, the main activity which was intended to develop independent word learning was the word detective, and this was also the activity which the teachers were the least comfortable with (this is discussed further in section 8.6.3). This could in part account for the lack
of progress in the development of independent word learning skills following intervention. Consequently, the way the word detective activity was presented to teachers, and delivered in the classroom, needs to be reviewed and improved.
The second way of interpreting these results is that the independent word learning assessment itself needs refinement in order to make it more sensitive to change, and to be more compatible with appropriate methods of analysis. The assessment was trialled during the pilot study, and in the main study strong inter-rater agreement was achieved ($k_w = .803$) for the number of unknown words whose meaning was correctly derived, and a moderately strong agreement was achieved ($k_w = .777$) for the number of strategies listed. Nonetheless, the assessment could be developed further.
As it was a novel, author-created tool, no comparable assessments could be found against which to measure its validity. One weakness of the assessment became apparent once it had been administered with several participants, as follows. Many students were observed to use strategies such as contextual derivation when confronted with the unknown words in the passages, but did not name these strategies when asked, “If you don’t understand a word, what can you do to find out what the word means?” Participants typically mentioned strategies such as: “ask a teacher,” “ask a friend,” and “look it up”. However, few participants listed strategies such as “look at the syllables,” or “look at the rest of the sentence,” even if they had used morphological or contextual strategies while describing what they thought the words in the passages might mean. This is illustrated by the following excerpt from a Time 3 independent word learning assessment.
Assessor: Are there any other words in there you don’t know?
Student: [rɪvətabjɛrt] (revertebrate)
Assessor: Reverberated. What do you think that might mean?
Student: It means like the noise - I don’t know think of the word - [ʌbrəbʌrtid] (rebribrated) through the house.
Assessor: And what makes you think that’s what it means?
Student: Because of the ending with [bʌrtid] (brated).
Assessor: Any other words in there you don’t know?
Student: No.
Assessor: OK, great, well done. So, if you don’t understand a word, what can you do to find out what that word means?
Student: Looking it up the dictionary.
Assessor: M-hm. What else can you do?
Student: Ask a teacher.
Assessor: Anything else you can do?
Student: Search it on google.
Assessor: M-hm. Anything else?
Student: Er no. (ID 89, Time 3).
This excerpt exemplifies the fact that students often appeared to use morphological or contextual strategies without being consciously aware of what steps they were taking when confronted with an unknown word. If the wording had been “What can you do to work out what the word means?” this would perhaps have encouraged students to reflect on what they do when trying to decipher meaning, and elicited a wider range of responses, making the assessment tool more successful in measuring change pre- to post-intervention.
Although no impact of intervention on independent word learning was evident in this study, a benefit of conducting the independent word learning assessment was that it has contributed insight into the complexity of measuring generalisation effects of intervention. The literature reveals no consensus on the most effective way of measuring increase in independent word learning, with a variety of methods being used in previous research: Wilson et al. (2015) used sets of semantically related and unrelated control words; and Joffe et al. (in preparation) used a bespoke vocabulary idiom awareness measure. The current study took yet another approach, creating an assessment which measured students’ use and awareness of word learning strategies. Because of the importance of independent word learning for improving access to the curriculum, and consequent long-term academic, social, and health outcomes, future research needs to draw on the varied methods of previous studies, refining them to create a valid and effective assessment tool.
8.4 Predictors of increase in word knowledge (RQ3)
Four exploratory hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to investigate relationships between students’ language and cognitive characteristics and their ability to respond to Word Discovery intervention. Using pre-intervention scores as a predictor variable, and post-intervention or follow-up scores as the dependent variable, the first two models explored depth of word knowledge, and the latter two models explored expressive word use. It was hypothesised that students who demonstrated higher abilities in: receptive vocabulary (H11); sentence recall (H12); verbal working memory (H13); and phonological awareness ability (H14), would show greater increases in experimental word knowledge than those with lower existing abilities in these areas.
NVIQ significantly predicted post-intervention and follow-up depth of word knowledge of experimental words, in line with expectations (Rice & Hoffman, 2015), though in the full models it was not significant in terms of expressive word use. Chronological age, on the other hand, did not significantly add to the predictive power of any of the models. This could have been because all participants’ ages fell within a close range (11:3 to 14:0); but, more likely, it was because the target words for each year group were chosen from curricula appropriate for each specific age group. No other variables (receptive vocabulary, verbal working memory, sentence recall, nor phonological awareness) demonstrated any predictive value towards post-intervention or follow-up scores in either depth of word knowledge or expressive word use.
These findings were contrary to expectations based on the literature concerning the relationship between vocabulary acquisition and existing vocabulary knowledge, verbal working memory,
language disorder (using sentence recall as a marker), and phonological awareness (Dockrell et al., 2007; Leonard et al., 2007; McGregor et al., 2013; Stackhouse & Wells, 1997). However, as the sample size and some of the assumptions for the regressions were non-optimal, no firm conclusions could be drawn, and this remains an area for future research.
8.5 Teacher and student views (RQ4)
An important aim of this thesis was to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and ecological validity of the intervention (Craig et al., 2014; NIHCE, 2013). In addition to addressing this through the survey in Chapter 4, a novel component of the intervention study was to evaluate the intervention from the student and teacher perspective (RQ4). In this section, student views on the model of intervention delivery will be discussed. Because teachers’ views (H15) are critical to the feasibility of Word Discovery as a classroom intervention, their views are not discussed separately here, but incorporated into the section on feasibility (section 8.9). Student and teacher views on the word-learning activities are integrated with the researcher’s evaluations in the section appraising each word-learning activity (section 8.6).
8.5.1 Students’ preferred model of intervention (hypothesis 16)
An innovative aspect of the Word Discovery intervention was its delivery by teachers within the classroom. This aspect of the intervention was central to the current study, because of the increasing importance of a whole-class context in the secondary school years (section 2.3.1). Acceptability of the whole-class model of intervention on the part of the students (H16) will now be discussed.
In the Time 3 questionnaire, students were asked about their preferred model of intervention delivery (section 7.4.6). Preferences were distributed more or less evenly between the options: approximately one third preferring a whole-class model; approximately one third preferring a small-group model; and approximately one quarter preferring individual intervention; with the remaining students stating mixed preferences or no preference.
The 32% of students preferring an inclusion (whole-class) model of support compares closely with the 37.5% found by Klingner et al. (1998). This was contrary to expectations, as the Klingner et al. cohort was younger (aged nine to 11 years) than the current cohort (aged 11 – 14 years), and it was anticipated that the increased self-consciousness of adolescence may make it more likely that the students would prefer to stay in class (Ehren, 2002). In fact, 58% said that they would prefer an individual or small-group setting. The students themselves explained this finding, by their insightful comments about how easily distracted they can be in the classroom, thereby feeling that individual or small-group intervention would be more beneficial for them. Difficulty with attention control in children with language disorder is well-established in the literature, and this difficulty can continue into the older age range. Victorino and Schwartz (2015) conducted an interesting experiment which illustrates this, with 20 children with language disorder and 20 TD children, aged nine to 12 years. Children were simultaneously presented auditorily with two words, one in each ear, at the same time as being visually presented with a picture. They were instructed
to attend to either the right or the left ear only, and to identify if the word they heard in that ear was the same as or different to the picture. When the picture was unrelated to either word, TD children responded more quickly than if the word they were meant to ignore was the same as the picture, suggesting that TD children could inhibit unrelated stimuli more easily than related stimuli. Conversely, in the children with language disorder, response times were similar for both related and unrelated words. This indicated that the children with language disorder had as much difficulty inhibiting unrelated stimuli as they did related stimuli. Applying this finding to the classroom provides an explanation for why students with language disorder have difficulty ignoring irrelevant noise made by other students when they should be focussing on the teacher.
In contrast, the comments of the students who expressed a preference for staying in class indicated that they appreciated the benefits of learning from peers. Possibly, these students were better able to control their attention, and consequently more able to capitalise on social mediation, an important aspect of classroom pedagogy. Adey and Shayer (1994) described how the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1981) can be established collaboratively, for the benefit of the class as a whole. In this way, Adey and Shayer propose, learning opportunities are multiplied, as students learn from their peers as well as from the teacher.
The small-group model of delivery was an attractive option for some students (32%), combining as it does the advantages of reduced distractions with the advantages of peer learning. However, the small-group option still has the disadvantage of necessitating withdrawal from the classroom. It was argued in section 2.3.1 that remaining in lessons was preferable from a theoretical stance because of the word-learning opportunities afforded by the context of the lesson. The views of the students with attentional difficulties challenge this argument, as their difficulties concentrating may limit their potential to glean contextual information from the classroom situation.
It was also noted in section 2.3.1 that students who are withdrawn from class miss the content of lessons, and fall further behind. This seemed to be the case for one participant in the current study, who, when asked about sound and meaning bingo, said:
“I wasn’t there. I went to reading but I saw, like when I came the last 20 minutes of the lesson, I saw people do it but I didn’t know what to do so I just sat. So the last 20 minutes I did nothing.” (ID 44, Time 3)
This student was in receipt of individual school-based intervention for literacy, so she had some experience of both whole-class and individual situations, and her stated preference was for a whole-class model of intervention. However, with regard to vocabulary intervention, the only model that students received in this study was the whole-class model, therefore their views on individual or small-group intervention were largely hypothetical. It would be useful to examine the relationship between student preferences and response to intervention, but it was beyond the scope of the current study to pursue this line of enquiry. One thing the current findings do clarify is that a single model of intervention delivery is unlikely to meet all students’ needs.
8.6 Appraisal of the word-learning activities
The Word Discovery activities are appraised in this section integrating the views of students and teachers with the researcher’s evaluations. Figure 8.1 contains a visual summary of the word-learning activities.
As a group, students were generally positive about all the word-learning activities, rating the display of visual images and the key word sheet as the most helpful. These results could be subject to bias, because the student questionnaire was delivered verbally by the researcher, and therefore students may have been influenced to supply positive responses in an effort to please. However, from the students’ point of view, it was not the researcher who carried out the intervention, but the teacher, so the students probably felt comfortable giving honest views, thus reducing the possibility of bias.
As for the teachers, as a group they felt that the self-rating checklist and the display of the visual images were the easiest to implement. They rated the display of visual images as the most effective, followed by the key word sheet; and these were also the two activities which teachers said they would be most likely to use again. Of the three phonological-semantic activities, teachers rated the sound and meaning bingo as the easiest to implement, but found that the word map was the most effective. The word map was also the phonological-semantic activity they felt they were most likely to use again. As with the students’ comments, the teachers’ responses could also be subject to bias, because, although anonymity was offered, in practice this was not achieved because the teachers returned the questionnaires to the researcher by hand or via email. There was a large proportion of undecided in teachers’ responses, which teachers might
have chosen either if they had not done that particular activity, or to avoid being negative. Nonetheless, there was a range of both positive and negative views, suggesting limited bias.
Each word-learning activity will now be appraised in turn.
8.6.1 Self-rating checklist
Almost three-quarters (71%) of students found the self-rating checklist helpful. Most teachers (86%) found it easy to implement, but less than half of them (45%) thought that it was effective in helping students learn the words. This is an understandable evaluation of the activity, as it did not directly teach any phonological or semantic features of the words, and perhaps its value lay in enabling the students to evaluate their own learning. Teachers typically use other formative and summative assessments, but the students may have been motivated by being able to see their progress for themselves by comparing pre-topic with post-topic levels of knowledge. Indeed, motivation was central to the purpose of the activity, facilitating a self-learning approach by cueing students in to which words were going to be encountered, and contributing to the natural incentive of needing to know what the words meant (Miller & Gileda, 1987). The self-rating checklist provided a forum for raising students’ awareness of which words they needed to learn, priming them to notice subsequent encounters of the words. This was the case for ID 38, who said the self-rating checklist was quite helpful, because:
“It gets the words into my head.” (ID 38)
8.6.2 Display of visual images
Most students liked the fact that visual images were displayed. This was unsurprising, in light of the popular view, illustrated by survey responses, that children and adolescents with language disorder benefit from visual support. The argument is that auditory information is transitory, and auditory traces quickly disappear, especially for those with phonological short-term memory limitations: in contrast, visual information which stays in place has some permanence, and is available for ongoing reference. This view is supported by research showing that children with language disorder have age-appropriate visual short-term memory skills (e.g. Archibald & Gathercole, 2006); however, there is a contrasting view in the literature (e.g. Vugs, Cuperus, Hendriks, & Verhoeven, 2013) which has shown that age-appropriate visuo-spatial working memory skills are not universally present in children and adolescents with language disorder. This could explain the fact that not all students in the present study (8%) found the display of visual images helpful; although, as visual skills were not assessed in the present study, this proposition remains speculative.
8.6.3 Word detective
The word detective received the least favourable reviews of all the activities. It was the chief activity aimed at developing independent word learning skills, and yet due to its lack of popularity with teachers, it was not always delivered as intended, or as frequently as intended. The researcher supplied prompt cards with the intention that teachers would teach students how to use these as a mnemonic to help them remember strategies for finding out word meanings.
However, only 17/30 teachers recorded having done the word detective activity, and it received low ratings in the teacher questionnaire on effectiveness, ease of implementation, and intention to use again. This could have been improved by the provision of more specific instructions by the researcher, and more practice during teacher training. Informal feedback during teacher training sessions suggested that many of the teachers were unfamiliar with morphology, and did not themselves consciously use word roots, prefixes and suffixes to derive meaning. To model being a word detective to their students was, therefore, a challenge for these teachers. There is a possibility that teachers of other subjects, particularly English, who are already familiar with teaching derivation of word meaning from morphology and context, would feel more able to model being a word detective, and more able to encourage the use of the prompt card as a self-help strategy.
8.6.4 Word map
The fact that most students (75%) and teachers found the word map helpful vindicates the word map as a choice for classroom vocabulary intervention. Fifty-five percent of teachers found the word map easy to implement and 62% found it effective. Comments made verbally to the researcher corroborate this, for example:
“I will definitely do the word maps again – I’m sure it helps the students learn the words.”
(T.5, at Time 3)
It must be noted, however, that the word map was not popular with all teachers, with 31% finding it hard to implement. The word map was perhaps the most complex of the word-learning activities, and the most time-consuming, but this was a necessary consequence of its embracing both phonological and semantic information in detail. The researcher proposes that the word map tapped into metalinguistic awareness at a critical window of opportunity during its development (van Kleeck, 1984). It is likely that students were becoming increasingly aware of their difficulties, and hence they could have realised that the word map directly addressed their word-learning deficiencies. As students became more familiar with word maps, they were able to complete them more easily: several comments mirror those of ID 101 (Table 7.18), who said that although he did not understand it at first, it became easier. The word map allowed phonological and semantic features to be presented in a structured way, at relevant points in the teaching of new concepts. It was hoped that the word map framework would become integral to the students’ mindset as they approached new words, resulting in conscious reflection on phonological and semantic properties, thus facilitating independent word learning. Examining whether this occurred would form an interesting subject for future research.
8.6.5 Word wise quickie
In contrast to the word map, the word wise quickie – enabling phonological-semantic links to be revised - did not receive such favourable reviews. One potential reason for this could be variations in the way it was delivered in the classroom. For example, T.27 was observed asking students to use the words in a sentence. In conversation after the lesson, she referred to this as the word wise quickie, though she had not presented the three elements of the word wise quickie (sound,
meaning, and sentence) together. In another example, T.28 was found to have used the word wise quickie as a written exercise. Even though teachers had been given opportunities to practise during the training, they were perhaps unsure how to deliver the word wise quickie, and students consequently unsure how to respond. This is another learning point for the researcher, in terms of reviewing and improving the way it is presented to teachers in training.
8.6.6 Sound and meaning bingo
Sound and meaning bingo – another way of revising phonological-semantic links - received mixed reviews from both students and teachers. Fifty-eight percent of students said that they thought sound and meaning bingo was helpful. As with the self-rating checklist, most teachers (62%) found sound and meaning bingo easy to implement, but fewer (38%) found it effective. ID 19 gave some insight into potential reasons for its limited effectiveness, when, justifying his *not very helpful* rating, he said:
“It was just kind of guessing; people shouted out the answer as well, so you kind of found out.” (ID 19)
It seems as though the exuberance of other students denied this participant the chance to think clues through for himself. Of course, the same criticisms would be equally applicable to definition-only bingo. So, although a key element of sound and meaning bingo was to increase motivation through competition and fun, in some cases perhaps this was counter-productive, and resulted in the loss of opportunities to benefit from the phonological input. Like the word wise quickie, sound and meaning bingo was also delivered variably. For example, T.8 displayed the visual images during sound and meaning bingo, and gave the definition clue first, waited for a short interval while students tried to remember the meaning, and then gave the phonological clue for further assistance. However, unlike the variations in the way the word wise quickie was implemented, in this adaptation the teacher still adhered to the core content of the activity.
8.6.7 Key word sheet
The key word sheet was a popular choice amongst students and teachers alike. The essence of the key word sheet was that it incorporated all the components of word learning mentioned in Table 5.2, affording opportunities to revise phonological-semantic links, as well as opportunities for students to create their own definitions, thus personalising their knowledge in relation to their own experiences. Although examination of students’ work revealed that dots for each syllable were rarely added, in other respects the key word sheets were completed as suggested. Seventy-two percent of teachers reported that the key word sheet was easy to implement, and 69% reported that it was effective. The key word sheet was often placed in the students’ exercise books or folders at the beginning of the topic, so that it could easily be found. The comments by ID 17 (Table 7.18) show that she appreciated its ease of access and visual permanence.
8.6.8 Summary of word-learning activities
The activities and strategies contained in Word Discovery covered a range of components of word learning. The linking of phonological and semantic information when words were taught
conformed to the dual deficit hypothesis proposed by Nash and Donaldson (2005). Not only were areas of weakness developed, but, moreover, students with differing levels of relative phonological and semantic skill were accommodated, as the two-pronged approach allowed students to draw on existing strengths.
Overall, despite a small amount of negative feedback from teachers and students, both quantitative and qualitative data support the argument that the word-learning activities in the current study were effective in increasing the depth of word knowledge and expressive word use of adolescents with language disorder, over and above usual teaching practice. Indeed, the fact that some negative feedback was received adds credence to the positive feedback. The inherent flexibility of the word-learning activities enabled teachers to be creative in their implementation, adapting the activities to suit their own teaching styles, whilst adhering to the aims of the activity and to the principles of Word Discovery intervention as a whole.
Perhaps the most revealing statistic concerning the effectiveness and acceptability of Word Discovery relates to the likelihood of teachers using the activities again. Teacher ratings for whether they would use the activities again appeared in the following order, from highest to lowest:
1. Display of visual image
2. Key word sheet
3. Self-rating checklist
4. Word map
5. Sound and meaning bingo
6. Word wise quickie
7. Word detective.
Due to the aforementioned possibility of bias, the positivity of responses to this question may be inflated. To find out whether intentions materialise in practice could be the subject of future research.
8.7 Comparing usual teaching practice with Word Discovery intervention
Teachers’ topic 1 strategy records enabled meaningful comparisons to be made between the usual teaching practice condition and the Word Discovery condition. It was found that vocabulary teaching strategies used by teachers predominantly took a semantic (not specifically semantic feature analysis) and literacy perspective, in contrast to Word Discovery, which took a holistic but essentially phonological-semantic (including semantic feature analysis) approach. In addition, there was some discrepancy between the strategies recorded by teachers and the strategies recorded by the researcher.
There is some doubt as to whether the teaching practices recorded during the present study were in fact unbiased representations of usual teaching practice, because the teachers knew that they were taking part in a vocabulary study, and this could have influenced their practice during topic
as well as during topic 2. There was, in fact, some evidence that this could be the case from teachers’ comments:
“I realise that was far too many new words all at once.” (T.7, after topic 1 lesson observation)
“One thing it’s made me realise is just how many words we introduce them to in each topic.” (T.1, before training session)
A degree of raised awareness was inevitable due to the requirement of gaining teachers’ consent to participate in the study. However, influence was kept to a minimum by telling the teachers nothing about the specifics of the intervention until the training session after topic 1.
It is interesting to note the discrepancies between strategies reported in teachers’ records and strategies recorded during the researcher’s lesson observations. Although there was overlap, some strategies were reported in teachers’ records which did not feature in the researchers’ observation records, suggesting differing perspectives on what constitutes a vocabulary teaching strategy. Two strategies listed frequently by teachers in their strategy records were practising spelling and practical demonstration / experiment. These strategies were also observed during lesson observations but were not recorded by the researcher as vocabulary teaching strategies. The reason for this was that they were not regarded by the researcher to comprise specific word learning strategies, as they did not in themselves comprise specific techniques such highlighting semantic or phonological features, or requiring students to say the word.
When considering specific vocabulary teaching strategies, both teacher strategy records and researcher observation records showed that strategies used by teachers were predominantly semantic and literacy-based. Only three teachers mentioned activities which involved phonological awareness, confirming the findings of the survey (Chapter 4). Because of the role that phonological input plays in word-learning (section 1.2.2), this minimal attention to the phonological form of words, corroborated by researcher observations, is a justification of the rationale for adding a phonological component to classroom vocabulary teaching.
Starling et al. (2012) also noted that there is an emphasis on literacy over oracy at secondary school. In contrast, Word Discovery, whilst supporting literacy by accompanying speech with the written word, took an oral perspective. Questions which teachers asked the researcher during teacher training indicated that not all teachers were aware that oral language is the foundation for written language, and the consequent importance of developing oral language. This underlines the value of Word Discovery as a classroom vocabulary intervention which not only addresses multiple aspects of word learning, but is also of central relevance to the curriculum.
Nonetheless, teachers’ records and researcher’s observations both demonstrated that teachers were aware of the need for vocabulary teaching, and frequently engaged in direct instruction of targeted words. The following strategies were often reported and observed: listing key words on the board; giving definitions; paraphrasing; and revising definitions through games. This type of direct instruction mirrors the findings of Ford-Connors and Paratore (2015), who reported that the
use of direct instruction was more common than in-depth vocabulary teaching involving the teaching of strategies for word-learning.
In the current study, one aspect of vocabulary teaching that Word Discovery shared with usual teaching practice was the display of visual images. Because specific visual images for each experimental word were supplied to teachers, it is possible that the images may have been more constantly displayed during Word Discovery intervention than happens during usual teaching practice, but there is insufficient evidence to support this. Thus, it is proposed that the activities of Word Discovery which were a novel addition to usual teaching practice were: the self-rating checklist; the word map; the word wise quickie; sound and meaning bingo; the word detective; and the key word sheet.
8.8 Word exposure
Collection of data through teacher strategy records enabled consideration of whether the implementation of Word Discovery resulted in increased exposure to the words.
Two other studies (St. John & Vance, 2014; Wilson et al., 2015), like the current study, used a set of active control words which received exposure but were not included in the intervention. However, in the study by Wilson et al., the words were not spoken aloud, so they cannot truly be taken to have received any exposure. In the study by St. John and Vance, the active control words were spoken, and taught through usual teaching practice, but exposure was not measured, either for usual teaching practice or experimental words, and so neither the impact of the intervention on exposure, nor the impact of increased exposure on word learning, could be examined. The current study attempted to overcome these limitations by measuring the number of exposures each word received. This was done by asking teachers to count the number of word exposures on the day that they were introduced. There was a marginally significant difference between the topics in the amount of exposure the words received, with teachers speaking the experimental words on average 9.7 times on the day that the word was introduced, compared with 8.3 times for the usual teaching practice words.
This method was not perfect, because there were exposures on other days within the topic. However, it would have been unrealistic to expect teachers to count exposures of all 10 words in every lesson; therefore, this method provided a comparable measure of exposure in both the usual teaching practice and experimental conditions.
As the experimental words received marginally more exposure than the usual teaching practice words, there could be an argument for the greater increases in experimental word knowledge to be due to greater exposure, rather than the content of the Word Discovery activities. Amount of exposure has been shown to be associated with increased word learning, both for TD children (Dockrell et al., 2007) and children with language disorder (Rice et al., 1994). The work of Dockrell and colleagues showed that TD children required repeated exposures in context to deepen knowledge of a word’s meaning and to be able to produce a word expressively. The study by Rice et al. showed that children with language disorder who had received 10 word-exposures made greater word knowledge gains than those who had received three exposures.
However, the small degree of increased exposure within the current study is unlikely to be the critical factor in increased word learning. The position taken in this thesis is that Word Discovery provided a framework in which words were deliberately spoken, thus bringing about the increased exposure. Word Discovery provided a vehicle with which to overcome the minimal input constraint proposed by Rice et al. (1994), necessary for children with language disorder to learn new words. Crucially, in Word Discovery, word exposure occurred in focused and meaningful contexts, and the activities directly targeted the phonological and semantic aspects of word learning which are so often challenging for children and adolescents with language disorder. Thus, although increased exposure is important, the researcher argues that it was the specific content of the word-learning activities which effected enhanced word learning.
8.9 Feasibility
This section draws together various aspects of the study relevant to the potential of Word Discovery for implementation in speech and language therapy and teaching practice. Teachers' views on the whole-class model of intervention delivery were gathered from the teacher questionnaire, email correspondence and conversations. Section 8.9.1 discusses the practicality of conducting the research. Section 8.9.2 explores the rate of teacher attrition, and in section 8.9.3, fidelity to the intervention is discussed. Finally, in section 8.9.4, the reported benefits to teachers of participation in the study are described.
8.9.1 Practicality of conducting the research
Because the inclusion criteria for the study yielded a cohort of students with language disorder, the researcher expected that students would be clustered in classes of similar ability, due to the common practice of setting students of similar ability together in classes. Although many participants (66/78) were indeed taught in classes set for ability, even so, there were often only one or two participating students in each class. This resulted in a large number of different curriculum schedules, with ensuing logistical complications for the researcher. This was alleviated by conducting the study in two waves, 2015 - 2016, and 2016 – 2017, which retained a margin of flexibility in the researcher’s diary to conduct assessments at critical times.
This flexibility also allowed the researcher to accommodate unavoidable issues which occurred during the study. For example, school 6 was without a gas supply for a few weeks, which meant that the science schedule had to be rearranged. This delayed the start of the study with Year 9 in this school, and affected the interval between timepoints. In school 4, the science department was due to be re-housed to a new building, and many changes of staff were imminent, which affected the degree of engagement with the study in the department. Inspection of Table 7.7 shows that these were the two schools where the return of data from teachers was the most inconsistent.
The outcomes of the research relied heavily on information provided by schools. Despite the researcher’s best efforts in building relationships with teachers and keeping channels of communication open, there were varying levels of compliance with supplying this information, even apart from the two schools facing particular challenges. This was, perhaps, a function of the
fact that the study took place in several schools, and the researcher’s presence in each school was intermittent. Wider inclusion criteria would have enabled more students in each school to take part, resulting in fewer schools which would have enabled the researcher being present in school more regularly, keeping the study foremost in the teachers’ minds. However, had this been the case, the cohort would not have been such a homogenous group in their language profile. A strength of this study is that, in comparison with many other vocabulary intervention studies, a large sample of adolescents with language disorder was recruited.
8.9.2 Teacher attrition
Four of the 34 teachers invited to take part did not implement any of the Word Discovery activities. A further five delivered the intervention with some of their classes containing participating students, but not with others (section 6.5.2). Comments made in the questionnaire, verbally, and via email, suggest that the pressure of other priorities impacted on these teachers’ ability to engage with the study as fully as they would have liked. It is of note that the teacher attrition rate was higher in the two schools facing particular challenges. For example:
“Thank you for this opportunity to take part in the project however I don’t foresee me being able to carry out all of the tasks you wish and considering that there is only one student in my class I would like to politely opt-out. Thanks again and good luck with all the studies.” (T.34: via email after the training session)
For this teacher, having a small number of students in his class was a factor in his decision not to take part in the project. As mentioned in section 8.9.1, wider inclusion criteria would have enabled more students in each class to take part, potentially increasing the perceived value of taking part and reducing the teacher attrition rate, but this would have altered the group characteristics of the student participants.
Another factor in the decision of some teachers not to take part was related to uncertainty about the appropriacy of the intervention for their classes. In contrast to T.17, who felt that higher-ability students received greater benefit from the word-learning activities than lower-ability students (section 7.4.5), T.26 was concerned about the suitability of the intervention for her higher-ability class, and so delivered it with her lower-ability class only. It was incumbent upon the researcher to respect the teacher’s wishes in this case; likewise, it is incumbent upon clinicians to acknowledge that there will be a range of views amongst teachers, who know their students and hold the responsibility for teaching them.
If the target population had included TD students as well as those with language disorder, this may have made full participation more appealing to both T.34 and T.26. Research into the effectiveness of Word Discovery intervention with TD adolescents is considered further in Chapter 9.
8.9.3 Fidelity to the intervention
Completed strategy records illustrated variability from teacher to teacher in how many of the activities they implemented (section 5.8.3). The researcher aimed to provide as much assistance
as possible to teachers to facilitate their involvement: the training session included multiple opportunities to experience and practise the word-learning activities, and electronic and hard copies of the PowerPoint presentation and resources were supplied. However, because the study aimed to embed word-learning activities into the delivery of the existing curriculum, a certain amount of flexibility was permitted in where the teachers inserted the activities into the topic syllabus. Teacher records showed that the amount of time spent on the word-learning activities ranged from 6.5 minutes to 2 hours 15 minutes, suggesting that some teachers were more willing than others, or found it easier, to implement the word-learning activities.
External pressures were a factor in the extent to which some teachers were able to engage fully with the project. In the example which follows, the researcher had asked the head of science (also a participating teacher) via email if completed teacher questionnaires, strategy records, and students’ work could be picked up at the science team’s weekly meeting, following topic 2. This was the teacher’s reply:
“Apologies for the radio silence. We have had a lot going on here over the past few weeks and it has been rather stressful. Hopefully that will change after the Easter break. I’m not sure about the meeting on Tuesday. We have a huge number of things to do and not very much time to do it.” (T.1, via email during topic 2)
The next example is a comment made verbally to the researcher when she asked the teacher if she could photocopy students’ work from their books.
“We have to follow a standardised scheme of work and we’re not allowed to deviate from that. [The head of science] said it was OK to do it, but not to stick the work in their books.” (T.19, at Time 3)
These comments illustrate competing demands both on the teachers’ time and on their methods of teaching.
Conversations and observations also revealed some variation in how the activities were interpreted. The way one teacher interpreted the word wise quickie has already been mentioned (section 8.6.5). Another example relates to the use of the word map. One of the questions on the word map is “What parts does it have?” This question was on the semantic side of the word map, and was intended to expand on attributes of the concept. For example, for *surface area*, the question “What parts does it have?” could be answered “length, breadth, and depth”. Some teachers misinterpreted this question, or found it difficult. In this example, T.23, teaching *surface area*, drew attention to the two parts of the written word: “sur” and “face”.
The researcher had planned two teacher training sessions: one to explain and practise the word-learning activities; and one to plan how they would be embedded into the topic. In the event, no schools could afford the researcher the second session, owing to other priorities. This meant that the researcher had to rely on the teachers’ own lesson planning. Email, telephone, and face-to-face support was offered, but only two teachers (T.28 and T.33) took up this offer, asking questions via email after the training. The lesson observations, therefore, served as useful
opportunities to maintain contact with and provide support to the teachers, important ingredients of success when assimilating new methods into practice (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 2001).
One teacher referred to the lack of time to make resources, agreeing that the display of visual images was easy to implement, but commenting:
"If you have someone to help you make them." (T.1, in Time 3 questionnaire)
Two teachers (T.5 and T.28) addressed the challenge of preparation time by collating a pack for each student of the Word Discovery resources. T.5 called this the "literacy pack", and students kept it in their trays in the classroom. After the initial investment of time at the beginning of the topic, this reduced ongoing preparation time throughout the rest of the topic, and made the resources easy to access during lessons.
To summarise, closer fidelity to the intervention could have been achieved by: (a) providing more detailed written instructions for each activity in addition to the PowerPoint presentation; (b) the realisation of the planned second training session; and (c) providing collated packs of the Word Discovery resources. Notwithstanding, sufficient data were available to confirm a satisfactory degree of fidelity to the intervention.
8.9.4 Benefits to teachers of participation
Challenges aside, taking part in the study seems to have been a positive experience for most teachers. Teachers' increased confidence (H15), following participation in the study, was close to significance. As the confidence rating was a subjective measure, answered without anonymity, it was subject to bias, but nonetheless this was an encouraging finding.
In addition to this, 25 teachers agreed or strongly agreed that the teacher/SLT collaboration was helpful, and only two teachers were undecided. This question was also subject to bias, for the same reasons. Even so, it is another source of encouragement, supported by other indicators that teachers valued the teacher/SLT collaboration. Twenty-three teachers out of 25 reported that taking part in the project had changed their practice, and most gave positive examples of how their practice had changed. As previously mentioned, only future research would be able to confirm whether participating teachers continued to use the word-learning activities in their routine teaching practice. But, at the very least, participation in the study raised teachers' awareness of vocabulary, as seen by the comments of T.7 and T.1 in section 8.7. For both these teachers, involvement in the first phase of the study served to raise their awareness of the need to focus directly on vocabulary for students with language disorder, and the training session at Time 2 gave them the tools to do so. This is evidenced by their comments in the Time 3 questionnaire (post-Word Discovery intervention) about how participation in the study had changed their practice:
"Giving me more strategies to use." (T.7, Time 3)
"I consider the number of words I introduce in one lesson, the number of times I repeat it, and use of pictures." (T.1, Time 3)
8.9.5 Summary of feasibility
This section has discussed the feasibility of implementing Word Discovery, and its acceptability from the teachers’ point of view. There is little consensus on how to assess acceptability in health research (Sekhon, Cartwright, & Francis, 2017), and the judgment of acceptability here, based on the available information, is subjective. It is concluded that teachers required training, resources, and ongoing support to deliver Word Discovery intervention. Although classroom vocabulary intervention specifically for students with language disorder may not be appropriate for all teachers in all circumstances, the overall picture was that Word Discovery was feasible, and acceptable to teachers.
The issues discussed in this chapter have exemplified the potential challenges encountered when constructing and conducting an effectiveness study. However, valuable information has been revealed concerning the ecological validity of Word Discovery intervention and its applicability to real-life circumstances. This is discussed further in Chapter 9.
8.10 Limitations
Some limitations to the current study have already been discussed; for example, concerning the independent word learning measures (section 8.3). There were a number of other limitations to the study, which will be explored here.
8.10.1 Differences in depth of word knowledge and expressive word use of usual teaching practice, experimental, and no-intervention words
In the current study, depth of word knowledge and expressive word use scores for the no-intervention words were very low. This was because the no-intervention words were not of a comparable level of difficulty to the experimental and usual teaching practice words. Science words had been chosen so that they would be a similar genre of word, but in order to avoid potential contamination by direct teaching, the words had been chosen from future science syllabi. This was important, because in a previous study (Lowe & Joffe, 2012) the control words had been chosen from another topic that was to be taught immediately after the follow-up timepoint. In the event, this topic was taught sooner than expected, meaning that the control words received exposure before the follow-up timepoint and had to be omitted from analysis. In the current study, these differences in word knowledge at baseline were overcome by conducting a $2 \times 3$ related ANOVA with two levels of teaching condition only (usual teaching practice and experimental) in addition to the full $3 \times 3$ ANOVA.
8.10.2 Word knowledge assessment
Word knowledge was assessed through a definition production task. Definition production tasks have been used to assess depth of word knowledge in previous research (Justice et al., 2005; Nash & Snowling, 2006), but they present challenges for children and adolescents who have difficulty expressing themselves. Another example of responses and their scores, this time for the word *normal*, appears in Table 8.2.
Table 8.2. Word knowledge assessment scoring examples: *normal*
| Responses for the word *normal* | Depth of word knowledge scale |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| I don't know | 0 |
| Same as everyone else (ID 96, Time 3) | 1 |
| The line drawn at right angles to the mirror (definition supplied by teacher, in the context of the topic “Light”) | 2 |
However, some students had difficulty expressing what *normal* meant, even though they apparently had some understanding of the non-scientific meaning, for example:
“Normal is that the thing’s normal.” (ID 100, Time 4)
In such cases, where the response was semantically empty, a score of 0 was awarded. The study would have been strengthened by the addition of a receptive vocabulary assessment which did not involve expressive language skills, such as a picture pointing task. Unfortunately, it was not feasible in the given timescale to devise a set of images and a valid set of distractors for the large number of experimental and control words in the study (22 sets of 30 words).
It was, therefore, felt that a definition production task was the best option for this study design, because it would measure a key outcome of the intervention, i.e. the development of semantic representations. In future research, a study design in which all participants were assessed on the same set of words would make it possible to devise an appropriate receptive vocabulary assessment, which could be used as an adjunct to a definition production task.
**8.10.3 Blind assessment**
All assessments were carried out by the researcher. Blind assessment had originally been planned, but the pilot study revealed that, because the word knowledge and independent word learning assessments were author-created tools, administration could be subject to variation. Given the geographical spread of participating schools, and the necessity of conducting assessments at critical timepoints, it would have been logistically challenging to source appropriately qualified and available personnel who could act as blind assessors, and to provide them with enough training to overcome potential variations in administration. A decision was, therefore, made for the researcher to administer all assessments, and for independent reliability checks to be carried out. The kappa coefficients obtained for the word knowledge assessment and independent word learning assessment indicate strong and strong / moderately strong reliability respectively, overcoming the lack of blind assessment.
**8.10.4 Standardised vocabulary assessment**
As was explained in section 7.3.1, the WASI-2 V was administered at Time 1 and Time 3, which, even if a change in scores had been achieved, would not have demonstrated whether progress was attributable to the usual teaching practice condition or to the experimental intervention condition. For the within-subjects design, three assessment points would have been necessary,
with a midway assessment point between control and experimental conditions. The only way to achieve this, without the assessment intervals being too short, would have been a longer study duration, though the disadvantage of this would have been the possibility of contamination by other confounding variables such as incidental learning or changes of teaching staff. A between-groups study, in which different conditions were concurrent, would overcome these disadvantages, with three assessment points (baseline, pre-intervention, and post-intervention) to enable a distinction between experimental and control conditions.
8.10.5 Differential effect of the word-learning activities
The study design did not allow investigation of which activities had the most impact on the word learning of the participants. Word Discovery comprised a range of techniques, not all of which were phonological-semantic. In addition, the incidental presence of orthography, which has been shown to enhance the word learning of children with language disorder (Ricketts, Dockrell, Patel, Charman, & Lindsay, 2015), was integral to all activities except the word wise quickie. It was not, therefore, possible to establish whether improvement was due to phonological-semantic intervention or due to a combination of factors. An intervention consisting solely of phonological-semantic techniques could have been devised to overcome this. However, such an approach would have been contrary to professional consensus, which holds that students with language disorder need a combination of approaches in order to maximally benefit from vocabulary intervention. This position, supported by the findings of the survey (section 22.214.171.124), and consistent with the multi-faceted view of word learning described in sections 1.2 and 1.3, was the rationale for devising an intervention package which encompassed a range of techniques. Just as in clinical practice, it was essential that intervention gave participants the best possible chance of success; therefore, an eclectic approach including word-learning activities which tapped a range of modalities and skills was justified. A delayed-intervention between-groups design, in which groups of students participated in different intervention conditions at different phases of the study, could allow examination of the differential effect of the word-learning activities.
8.10.6 Dosage and word exposure
Dosage is a critical aspect of intervention which may be “key to optimizing intervention effects” (Warren et al., 2007, p.70), and it has been the subject of intense debate in the field of speech and language therapy (e.g. Law & Conti-Ramsden, 2000). Average cumulative intervention intensity in the current study was estimated to average one hour, within 13 lessons, over a period of four weeks. The number of experimental word exposures averaged 9.7 on the day the word was introduced, in comparison to 8.3 exposures for the usual teaching practice words. A limitation of the current study is that neither dosage nor exposure could be controlled, and the ranges for each of these parameters was wide. Furthermore, overall figures for both dosage and exposure contained a proportion of informed estimates. It was impractical to observe every lesson in order to count every word exposure and the duration of every word-learning activity, so dosage and exposure data were obtained from teachers’ strategy records and lesson observations. Where data were missing due to incomplete strategy records, this was overcome by obtaining the information from other sources, such as students’ work and verbal or email communication.
Where there was insufficient information to make an informed estimate, the data were omitted from calculations; thus, the figures reported have a reasonable accuracy.
**Summary of Chapter 8**
The current chapter has evaluated the success of Word Discovery as a classroom vocabulary intervention. The present study improves on previous research in three key ways: (1) by including a large sample of adolescents with language disorder, who had varied demographic characteristics; (2) by selecting experimental and control words which were directly relevant to the existing curriculum; and (3) by seeking the views of student and teacher participants about the acceptability of the intervention approach. These features maximise the applicability of the findings to a wide population of adolescents with language disorder, and increase their relevance to practising SLTs and MSSTs.
The experimental Word Discovery intervention was more effective than usual teaching practice in increasing the word knowledge of participating students, in terms of both depth of word knowledge and expressive word use. It was found that usual teaching practice typically took semantic and literacy perspectives, whereas Word Discovery focused on oral vocabulary, and addressed multiple aspects of word learning; notably, adding a phonological component to vocabulary teaching in the secondary school classroom. The findings of the study contribute to the currently limited evidence base for a phonological-semantic approach to vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder, and extend the research to a whole-class model of intervention delivery.
The study was unable to demonstrate enhancement of participants’ vocabulary skills in the wider sense of increasing transferable word-learning skills, and reasons for this were discussed. There were challenges in conducting the research, and participation in the study was a challenge for some teachers, but overall it was found that Word Discovery was feasible, and acceptable to participating students and teachers. Limitations to the study were evaluated.
The same challenges encountered whilst conducting this research would be equally relevant when implementing Word Discovery in speech and language therapy and teaching practice. Clinical and teaching implications, and suggestions for future research, are followed up in more detail in Chapter 9.
Chapter 9
General discussion and conclusions
Overview
This chapter continues the themes discussed in Chapter 8, exploring in more detail the implications of the findings for clinical and educational practice, and future research. The conclusions drawn in this chapter are situated in the context of the researcher’s position as a speech and language therapist (SLT) in the UK. Following an overview of the thesis (section 9.1), the implications of the findings are discussed with respect to: the effectiveness of Word Discovery (section 9.2); the measurement of generalisation effects (section 9.3); predictors of responses to intervention (section 9.4); the development of Word Discovery as an effective intervention (section 9.5); and the role of Word Discovery in collaborative practice (section 9.6). Final conclusions are summarised at the end of the chapter.
9.1 Overview of the thesis
This thesis posed four main research questions:
RQ1: Does classroom vocabulary intervention, delivered by the teacher in a mainstream setting, increase the word knowledge of adolescents with language disorder?
RQ2: Does classroom vocabulary intervention, delivered by the teacher in a mainstream setting, improve the independent word learning ability of adolescents with language disorder?
RQ3: Which language or cognitive characteristics predict the potential to respond to classroom vocabulary intervention?
RQ4: What are the teachers’ and students’ views about the classroom vocabulary intervention?
These questions were addressed via the implementation of a novel intervention approach designed to enhance the vocabulary skills of adolescents with language disorder. A distinction was drawn between two aspects of enhancing vocabulary skills: first, the increase in knowledge of the words targeted in the intervention; and second, the development of independent word learning skills. The intervention approach, named Word Discovery, aimed to encompass both of these aspects. Evidence was presented that enhancing vocabulary skills of children and adolescents with language disorder is important for improving their access to the school curriculum and consequently enhancing their long-term life outcomes (Chapter 1). The theoretical basis for the intervention techniques was evidenced through reviews of the literature on vocabulary intervention for children and adolescents with language disorder (Chapters 2 and 3), and the potential practical utility of the intervention was demonstrated by surveying the current practice of teachers and SLTs (Chapter 4). Assessments and interventions for enhancing the
vocabulary skills of adolescents with language disorder were piloted in Chapter 5, and the effectiveness of Word Discovery as an intervention approach for enhancing the vocabulary skills of adolescents with language disorder was established through an experimental study, reported on in Chapters 6, 7, and 8.
The experimental study drew together two fields of evidence from the literature: universal vocabulary teaching approaches (e.g. Beck et al., 2013; Snow et al., 2009); and phonological-semantic intervention techniques used in specialist or targeted provision (e.g. Ebbels et al., 2012; Joffe et al., in preparation). The novel contribution of the current thesis to the evidence base is that it combined these two sources of evidence, applying evidence-based word-learning activities to a universal model of delivery, implemented by teachers within the mainstream curriculum. The prevalence of language disorder (Norbury et al., 2016) and the prevailing UK educational policy of inclusion (DfE & DoH, 2015) suggest that many mainstream secondary school classes will contain students with language disorder. The effectiveness of Word Discovery, therefore, has potentially wide-reaching implications for universal vocabulary teaching in mainstream secondary schools.
9.2 The effect of Word Discovery on word knowledge
The major finding of the intervention study in this thesis was that a modest amount of intervention was more effective than usual teaching practice in increasing adolescents’ knowledge of targeted science curriculum vocabulary. A bespoke word knowledge assessment showed an increase in both depth of word knowledge and expressive word use, suggesting strengthened semantic and phonological representations.
The survey (Chapter 4), and the data gathered during the usual teaching practice phase of the intervention study, showed that teachers typically make phonological information explicit less often than SLTs, when teaching vocabulary. The integration of phonological and semantic information, along with the utilisation of multiple aspects of word learning, have been proposed as a reason for the effectiveness of Word Discovery (section 8.2.1).
A further reason for its effectiveness may have been the timeliness of the intervention, occurring, as it did, at a point in time where developmental and environmental opportunities coincide. Developmentally, this relates to continuing development of metalinguistic awareness during adolescence (van Kleeck, 1984; Spencer et al., 2013). Comments by students in the current study hinted at this metalinguistic awareness:
[The word wise quickie was] “quite helpful because, um, because some words are tricky, so like it helps us, like when we actually think of like what it means, like what it does and all that.” (ID 44, Time 3)
[The display of visual images] “was really, really, helpful for me … because like learning new words is like hard but they were like pictures.” (ID 27, Time 3)
Both these students demonstrated their awareness that words can be difficult to learn.
At the same time, because of the heightened neurological changes taking place during adolescence, students have the potential to respond to educational and rehabilitation programmes during this period (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006; Blakemore & Mills, 2014).
These developments coincide with a critical period in the adolescent’s school career. At secondary school, vocabulary becomes increasingly technical and specialised (Nippold, 2007), yet there is no respite from the pace at which new vocabulary is presented to students, nor from the increasing focus on examination success (DfE, 2017a). The researcher argues, therefore, that research and practice in the field of language disorder need to move beyond the view that intervention can be effective even in this older age-group (e.g. Ebbels et al., 2012), to a standpoint where adolescence is viewed as a critical window of opportunity in which it is crucial to intervene.
9.3 The measurement of generalisation effects
This section considers the impact of Word Discovery on the second aspect of enhancing vocabulary skills; namely, independent word learning. The experimental study did not demonstrate significant progress in independent word learning skills, and so this remains an area for future research. As discussed in section 8.3.4, a first priority is to develop a more valid, reliable, and sensitive method for assessing the effects of vocabulary intervention on independent word-learning skills.
Related to this is the need to develop a robust way of measuring the impact of vocabulary intervention on curriculum attainment. The only studies to have assessed academic attainment following vocabulary intervention are the Word Generation studies (e.g. Snow et al., 2009) and studies by Lesaux and colleagues (e.g. Lesaux et al., 2014), and neither of these addressed this issue specifically within the field of language disorder. None of the studies included in the systematic review (Chapter 3) investigated the impact of vocabulary intervention on academic progress. A shortcoming of the current study was that schools collected attainment data in different ways, and at timepoints which were asynchronous with the assessment timepoints of the study. This could be overcome in future by ensuring that all participating schools use the same methods of curriculum attainment assessment. Furthermore, it would be important to choose schools’ data capture points as a basis for the starting point of the study, and to schedule the rest of the study accordingly, rather than choosing a starting point at the convenience of the research team. The impact of intervention on curriculum attainment remains an area of paramount importance for future research, given that the long-term aim of vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder is not just to increase their word knowledge, but to enhance their independent word-learning skills in order to facilitate better access to the curriculum, and hence to enhance their life chances.
9.4 Predictors of response to intervention
The hierarchical multiple regressions in the experimental study did not identify any specific language or cognitive factors, other than NVIQ, that were predictive of increases in depth of word knowledge or expressive word use. The recruitment of a larger cohort of students with a wider
range of language and cognitive abilities, including TD adolescents as well as those with language disorder, would enable this question to be examined with more rigour.
A further key finding of the study was that, although there was widespread support amongst students for the actual Word Discovery activities, not all students wished to receive vocabulary intervention in the whole class situation. This is worthy of consideration as another potential predictor of response to intervention. For these students, the idea of withdrawal from class for small-group or individual support was preferable. As discussed in section 8.5.1, this is unsurprising for students who have attentional difficulties, but there could be other factors, such as the severity of language disorder, the particular language and cognitive profile of the student, and the student’s social and emotional well-being. Attentional, language, learning, or social and emotional factors could influence the degree to which a student engages with lessons, and hence influence the extent to which they benefit from the teaching input. During lesson observations, the researcher noted differing levels of engagement amongst participating students, but it was beyond the scope of this thesis to investigate the degree of engagement in relation to students’ ability to respond to the intervention, so this remains an area for future research.
To examine predictors of response to intervention fully, it would be necessary to explore the interaction between factors such as student preference, language and cognitive profile, and social and emotional well-being, in conjunction with exploring how these factors influenced response to different models of intervention. When investigating the effect of different models of delivery, the influence of the agent of change would also have to be considered. In a mainstream whole-class model, the intervention is likely to be delivered by a teacher; whereas in small-group or individual models, the intervention is likely to be delivered by a teaching assistant or SLT. These three professional groups possess differing sets of knowledge and skills. Knowing how all these variables interact would be valuable in informing choices of intervention in clinical and teaching practice. Some students with language disorder may need specialist or targeted provision, receiving vocabulary intervention in small groups or individually at certain points in their development, followed up by classroom support. As T.17 said (section 7.4.5), initial preliminary training with less able students could make it easier for them to access the word-learning activities during lessons. This would enable the inclusion of Word Discovery activities in the classroom to reach its potential in contributing to “Quality First Teaching” (section 2.3), by making the classroom vocabulary support accessible to all students.
In the absence of evidence from research, an interim clinical implication is that a single approach is unlikely to meet all students’ needs. Archibald (2017) discusses the notion of “reason-based practice” (Archibald, 2017, p.1), whereby SLTs use their theoretical and research knowledge to inform clinical judgement. The preliminary indications from the current research suggest that reason-based practice would necessitate flexibility when making intervention choices, according to the needs of the student and the circumstances.
9.5 The development of Word Discovery as an effective intervention
The findings of the research in this thesis form the basis for extending the research along various lines of enquiry, in order to explore further the development of Word Discovery as an effective
intervention. These lines of enquiry include: the applicability of Word Discovery to Tier 2 words; the investigation of optimum cumulative intervention intensity; and the long-term maintenance of newly-acquired word knowledge. These will be discussed in turn.
9.5.1 The applicability of Word Discovery to Tier 2 words
Responses to the survey in Chapter 4 indicated a desire amongst practitioners to know how to provide intervention for Tier 2 (cross-curricular) words. The intervention by Spencer et al. (2017), which was a small-group intervention for Tier 2 words consisting of phonological-semantic word-learning activities, met with moderate success. As Word Discovery also consisted of phonological-semantic word-learning activities, it is reasonable to conclude that the techniques used in Word Discovery need not be exclusively confined to the teaching of Tier 3 (subject-specific) words, but that they could be equally applicable to Tier 2 words. A whole-school approach, implementing intervention for Tier 2 words across a range of subjects, would increase the amount of input students received for each word, and enable them to encounter the words in a variety of meaningful contexts. This could form the subject of future research, but, in the meantime, the application of Word Discovery to Tier 2 words in the whole-class setting could be eligible for inclusion in reason-based practice.
9.5.2 Optimum cumulative intervention intensity
Another line of enquiry would be to investigate further the impact of dosage on the effectiveness of intervention. An encouraging outcome of the current study was that improvement occurred even in the context of a limited amount of input, consisting of one hour’s teacher training and an average of one hour’s teaching in the classroom. Other studies investigating the effect of teacher training on the language skills of children or adolescents with language disorder have invested greater amounts of time in training, and also provided more ongoing support. For example, in the study by Starling et al. (2012) (section 126.96.36.199), the duration of training was 50-minutes once a week for 10 weeks, followed by three lesson observations for ongoing support. It is questionable whether this level of input is compatible with current speech and language therapy resources in the UK (Bercow, 2008; Pring, 2016), whereas the small amount of input in the current study has translational potential.
It is currently unclear what the optimum cumulative intervention intensity is for classroom vocabulary intervention. Marulis and Neuman (2010) (section 188.8.131.52) conducted a systematic review of vocabulary intervention studies on children aged four to six years, including those who were typically developing, those of social disadvantage, and those with low academic attainment. Overall, they found that intensive intervention with a smaller number of sessions resulted in better outcomes than more extended intervention regimes. The systematic review (Chapter 3) did not elucidate whether these findings hold true for adolescents with language disorder. In the present study, participants made modest gains in knowledge of 10 experimental words. It is open to question whether greater gains would have been made with more intensive input or with a different intervention regime. The training in the current study was limited to one hour within the science department, and intervention was confined to the science classroom. If whole-school training took place, this one hour’s input in science could potentially be reproduced across all
subjects, demanding no more time of individual teachers but multiplying the amount of intervention received by students. This remains a promising area for future research.
9.5.3 Maintenance of word knowledge
There was some loss of retention in experimental word knowledge over the five-week follow-up period in the current study. The purpose of the follow-up assessment was to evaluate retention after a period of no input, and it showed that recently acquired phonological and semantic knowledge had, to some extent, deteriorated.
The implication of these findings for practice is the need for constant revision to maintain recently-acquired word knowledge. Science curricula tend to be constructed in a cyclical fashion, such that topics, once introduced, are revisited throughout Key Stages 3 and 4, in more detail each time. This provides opportunities for students to recall earlier learning and build on current knowledge. If revision opportunities occur at intervals that are too far apart, the deterioration of phonological and semantic information could result in its becoming too poorly specified to retrieve, leaving students with language disorder at risk of falling further behind. Revision opportunities need to occur with regularity and frequency.
9.6 The role of Word Discovery in collaborative practice
The choice of Word Discovery as an intervention option is reliant on collaborative practice between the teacher and the SLT. The virtues of teacher/SLT collaboration have been widely extolled (Archibald, 2017; Ehren, 2002). Considering collaboration in the context of the current thesis, the teachers and SLTs in the survey (Chapter 4) expressed a desire to collaborate with each other, but reported practical obstacles; and in the intervention study, the researcher encountered varying attitudes towards participation amongst teachers. This has implications for the applicability of whole-class vocabulary intervention to different situations. It behoves practising SLTs to be respectful of the fact that new ways of working will not be unconditionally accepted by all teachers, owing to factors such as their style of working, the needs of the students in their class, and competing priorities.
A potential solution is to find the keys which unlock barriers to collaborative work. McKean et al. (2017) (section 4.5.2) reported factors critical to the success of collaborative practice such as shared understanding of roles, and open and honest communication. In the current study, information-sharing enabled the researcher to discover the key priorities of each school which motivated them to take part in the study. These incentives included: an Ofsted report requiring improvement in science attainment; a school focus on mastery learning (Slavin, 1987); and the inclusion of vocabulary teaching in one teacher’s performance management targets. Information-sharing in practice may reveal similar priorities which could form the basis of inter-professional dialogue and contribute to successful collaborative practice, to the benefit of students.
To maximise the effectiveness of inter-professional dialogue, it is important to have a shared terminology. McKean et al. (2017) found no issues regarding the use of a common language between the professions, but the findings of the current study suggested that there are still cases where a common terminology needs to be established; for example, there were different
perspectives by the teachers and researcher on what constituted a vocabulary teaching strategy (section 7.7). The very words *vocabulary* or *language* can refer equally to the written word or the spoken word, unless this is explicitly stated. As the current thesis has shown, teachers tend to take a literacy perspective, whereas SLTs tend to take an oral language perspective. To maximise acceptance of a classroom intervention such as Word Discovery, it may be more effectual to promote it to schools as a literacy intervention rather than an oral language intervention. Conversations between SLTs and teaching colleagues can facilitate development of a shared inter-professional understanding of vocabulary knowledge as a critical component of reading comprehension, with reading comprehension being seen in turn as crucial for examination success.
Collaborative practice contributes to the continuing professional development of each practitioner. The SLT has much to learn from the expertise of teaching colleagues, and the teacher has much to learn from the expertise of the SLT. Indeed, there are moves to commence collaborative working from the outset of professional training. Joint practice placements during training are already taking place in New Zealand (Wilson, McNeill, & Gillon, 2017); and in the UK, the “Carter Review of Initial Teacher Training” (DfE, 2015) recommended that training in special educational needs (including SLCN) should be part of core content on all initial teacher training courses. This recommendation was accepted by the government in office at that time (DfE, 2016a). Such a move could instil vocabulary awareness into the mindset of the newly-qualified teacher. The classroom vocabulary intervention which has been shown to be effective in the current thesis represents a candidate for inclusion in SLCN training for secondary school teachers.
**Summary of Chapter 9: final conclusion**
Shaped by a systematic review of the literature, and by a survey of current teaching and speech and language therapy practice, an intervention study was conducted, in which 78 adolescents with language disorder aged 11 – 13 years were taught science curriculum words by teachers in class, under two conditions: 1) 10 words taught through usual teaching practice; and 2) 10 words taught using an experimental intervention incorporating phonological-semantic activities. Word Discovery intervention was more effective than usual teaching practice in increasing the word knowledge of participating students. Positive feedback regarding the word-learning activities was received from students and teachers, but a range of preferences for model of intervention delivery was found amongst students.
The practice implications of these findings can be summarised as follows:
- Combined phonological-semantic intervention, integrated with multiple aspects of word learning and embedded into the mainstream secondary school science curriculum, increases the targeted word knowledge of adolescents with language disorder.
- Frequent and regular revision is necessary to maintain recently-acquired word knowledge.
- Vocabulary intervention during the secondary school years is critical due to the developmental and environmental opportunities present during adolescence.
The Word Discovery approach complements the range of intervention options open to the speech and language therapist working in partnership with secondary school teaching colleagues. When appraising options for intervention, flexibility needs to be adopted according to the needs of the student and the circumstances.
Word Discovery activities, delivered universally in the classroom, have the potential to supplement the resources of the secondary school teacher and contribute to Quality First Teaching.
To extend the findings of the current study, further research is required in the following areas:
- To develop a valid, reliable, and sensitive method for assessing the effects of vocabulary intervention on independent word-learning skills
- To measure the impact of classroom vocabulary intervention on academic attainment
- To explore the interaction between factors such as student preference, language and cognitive profile, and social and emotional well-being, in conjunction with exploring how these factors influence response to intervention in different models of delivery
- To examine the applicability of the Word Discovery approach to subjects other than science, and to Tier 2 words
- To establish the optimum cumulative intervention intensity for classroom vocabulary intervention
- To explore further the roles that phonological processing, semantic processing, and verbal working memory play in the increase and maintenance of depth of word knowledge and expressive word use.
The present thesis has shown that evidence-based word-learning techniques, applied to the whole-class context, can effectively increase the vocabulary knowledge of adolescents with language disorder. Bearing in mind the association between vocabulary knowledge and academic outcomes, these findings are important in a society where academic success is not only the goal but also the means to positive employment, social, and health outcomes.
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| Appendix | Description | Page |
|----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|
| 4A | Ethical approval indemnity letter: survey | 272 |
| 4B | Full text of survey questionnaire | 273 |
| 4C | Data for all job roles and their use of strategies | 277 |
| 6A | Ethical approval indemnity letter: intervention study | 283 |
| 6B | Information and consent forms: intervention study | 284 |
| 6C | Biographical data of whole student cohort who were assessed at baseline (N=103) | 296 |
| 6D | Full list of all the word sets | 298 |
| 6E | Sample information on phonological complexity, imageability, concreteness, and frequency | 303 |
| 6F | Student language and cognitive profiles of whole student cohort who were assessed at baseline (N=103) | 305 |
| 6G | Word knowledge assessment flow chart | 306 |
| 6H | Sample word knowledge assessment scoring guidelines | 307 |
| 6I | Independent word learning assessment passages | 310 |
| 6J | Independent word learning assessment scoring guidelines | 311 |
| 6K | Sample topic 1 strategies record completed | 312 |
| 6L | Student questionnaire | 313 |
| 6M | Visual prompt cards | 314 |
| 6N | Teacher questionnaire post-intervention | 315 |
| 6O | Sample self-rating checklist template | 318 |
| 6P | Sample self-rating checklist completed | 319 |
| 6Q | Sample visual image displayed with the written word | 320 |
| 6R | Word detective prompt card | 321 |
| 6S | Word map | 321 |
| 6T | Example of a completed word map | 322 |
| 6U | Word wise quickie | 323 |
| 6V | Example of a completed bingo sheet | 324 |
| 6W | Key word sheet | 325 |
| 6X | Example of a completed key word sheet | 326 |
| 6Y | Sample teacher training presentation | 327 |
| 6Z | Sample topic 2 strategies record completed | 331 |
| 7A | Group mean scores for word knowledge: all timepoints | 332 |
Ref: PhD/14-15/10
13 February 2015
Dear Hilary / Vicky / Natalie
Re: Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language impairment
Thank you for forwarding amendments and clarifications regarding your project. These have now been reviewed and approved by the Chair of the School Research Ethics Committee.
Please find attached, details of the full indemnity cover for your study.
Under the School Research Governance guidelines you are requested to contact myself once the project has been completed, and may be asked to complete a brief progress report six months after registering the project with the School.
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me as below.
Yours sincerely,
[Redacted]
Alison Welton
Research Governance Officer
[Redacted]
020 7040 5704
Please tick below if you wish to participate in the study.
- Yes, I give my consent to take part in this survey, and for my responses to be used anonymously in the dissemination of the research.
Q1 What is your job role? (please tick all that apply)
- Mainstream secondary school teacher
- Special school teacher
- Special educational needs coordinator
- Specialist teacher
- Speech and language therapist
Q2 If you are a mainstream secondary school teacher, what subject do you teach? (please tick all that apply)
- English
- Maths
- Science
- History
- Geography
- Religious Studies/Citizenship
- Physical Education
- Art
- Music
- Technology
- Other (please specify) [free-text box]
Q3 If you are mainstream secondary school teacher, how many lessons per week, over how many weeks, do you spend on one topic?
Q4 If you are a mainstream secondary school teacher, on average how many minutes in any one lesson is given to teaching the new words of the lesson?
Q5 In which region do you work?
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
- Wales
- North East and Cumbria
- North West
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- East of England
- South West
- South Central
- South East
- London
- Channel Isles/Isle of Man
- Outside the UK (please state where) [free-text box]
Q6 Approximately what percentage of the students, aged 11 – 16 years, with whom you work have a vocabulary deficit?
- 9%
- 10-19%
- 20-29%
- 30-39%
- 40-49%
- 50-59%
- 60-69%
- 70-79%
- 80-89%
- 90-100%
Q7 How confident are you at teaching vocabulary to students aged 11 – 16 years with language impairment?
- Very confident
Q8 How important do you think it is for students, aged 11 – 16 years, to be able to learn new vocabulary?
- Very important
- Quite important
- Not very important
- Not at all important
- Please give your reasons. [free-text box]
Q9 What model of delivery do you use to teach vocabulary to students aged 11 – 16 years? (please tick all that apply)
- Team teaching (whole-class strategies carried out in collaboration between teacher and speech and language therapist)
- Whole-class strategies carried out by the teacher
- Individual intervention outside the classroom led by a teaching assistant
- Small group intervention outside the classroom led by a teaching assistant
- Individual intervention outside the classroom led by a speech and language therapist
- Small group intervention outside the classroom led by a speech and language therapist
- Other (please specify) [free-text box]
What factors influence your decision about which model of delivery to use?
[free-text box]
Q10 What strategies do you use/recommend to help students learn and remember new words and their meaning?
| | Never | Seldom | Sometimes | Often | Always |
|---|-------|--------|-----------|-------|--------|
| a) List key words in lesson plans | | | | | |
| b) List key words on the board at the beginning of a lesson | | | | | |
| c) Display key words with visual image | | | | | |
| d) Use a "must should could approach" i.e. Identify a small set of essential key words which all students must know, within a larger set which most should know, within a wider set which some could learn. | | | | | |
| e) Repeat the words often | | | | | |
| f) Give definitions | | | | | |
| g) Give examples of word usage in multiple contexts | | | | | |
| h) Ask students to look words up in the dictionary/glossary | | | | | |
| i) Encourage students to think of personalised experience relating to the word | | | | | |
| j) Develop student self-awareness by explicitly encouraging students to identify unknown words | | | | | |
| k) Ask students to self-rate their word knowledge e.g. red amber green | | | | | |
| l) Give students their own vocabulary book to record new words and their meanings | | | | | |
| m) Teach students how to derive meaning from context | | | | | |
| n) Teach students how to derive meaning from morphological features e.g. prefix, root, suffix. | | | | | |
| o) Teach semantic feature analysis e.g. function, location, association, part of speech, category | | | | | |
| p) Teach phonological awareness of the words (initial sound, syllable, and rhyme) e.g. phonological-semantic word maps, word grids, sound-and-meaning bingo. | | | | | |
| q) Ask students to say words aloud | | | | | |
| r) Ask students to use the words in a spoken sentence | | | | | |
| s) Ask students to write the word | | | | | |
| t) Ask students to use the words in a written sentence | | | | | |
| Other (please specify) [free-text box] | | | | | |
Which of the above do you feel is the most effective? (list one or more) [free-text box]
Q11 Would you like to develop your knowledge about how to provide effective vocabulary intervention for secondary school students with language impairment?
- Yes
- No
Please state in which specific areas you would like to develop your knowledge. [free-text box]
Q12 Finally, please add any further comments that you feel were not captured in this questionnaire. [free-text box]
## Appendix 4C
### Data for all job roles and their use of strategies
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | sometimes |
| | | | often |
| | | | always |
| | | | Total |
| | | | 10.3% |
| | | | 23.1% |
| | | | 66.7% |
| | | | 39 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 37.5% |
| | | | 62.5% |
| | | | 8 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 28.6% |
| | | | 71.4% |
| | | | 7 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 10.5% |
| | | | 89.5% |
| | | | 19 |
| | | | 2.9% |
| | | | 22.9% |
| | | | 74.3% |
| | | | 105 |
| | | | 3.9% |
| | | | 22.5% |
| | | | 73.6% |
| | | | 131 |
| | | | 100% |
| Job Role | Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never |
| | | | seldom |
| | | | sometimes |
| | | | often |
| | | | always |
| | | | Total |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 5.3% |
| | | | 26.3% |
| | | | 23.7% |
| | | | 44.7% |
| | | | 38 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 25.0% |
| | | | 25.0% |
| | | | 50.0% |
| | | | 8 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 28.6% |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 14.3% |
| | | | 57.1% |
| | | | 7 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 5.3% |
| | | | 10.5% |
| | | | 42.1% |
| | | | 42.1% |
| | | | 19 |
| | | | 4.9% |
| | | | 7.8% |
| | | | 18.4% |
| | | | 26.2% |
| | | | 42.7% |
| | | | 103 |
| | | | 2.9% |
| | | | 7.4% |
| | | | 18.9% |
| | | | 26.9% |
| | | | 44.0% |
| | | | 175 |
| Job Role | Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never |
| | | | seldom |
| | | | sometimes |
| | | | often |
| | | | always |
| | | | Total |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 5.3% |
| | | | 26.3% |
| | | | 23.7% |
| | | | 44.7% |
| | | | 38 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 25.0% |
| | | | 25.0% |
| | | | 50.0% |
| | | | 8 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 28.6% |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 14.3% |
| | | | 57.1% |
| | | | 7 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 5.3% |
| | | | 10.5% |
| | | | 42.1% |
| | | | 42.1% |
| | | | 19 |
| | | | 4.9% |
| | | | 7.8% |
| | | | 18.4% |
| | | | 26.2% |
| | | | 42.7% |
| | | | 103 |
| | | | 2.9% |
| | | | 7.4% |
| | | | 18.9% |
| | | | 26.9% |
| | | | 44.0% |
| | | | 175 |
| Job Role | Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|---------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never |
| | | | seldom |
| | | | sometimes |
| | | | often |
| | | | always |
| | | | Total |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 5.3% |
| | | | 26.3% |
| | | | 23.7% |
| | | | 44.7% |
| | | | 38 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 25.0% |
| | | | 25.0% |
| | | | 50.0% |
| | | | 8 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 28.6% |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 14.3% |
| | | | 57.1% |
| | | | 7 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 5.3% |
| | | | 10.5% |
| | | | 42.1% |
| | | | 42.1% |
| | | | 19 |
| | | | 4.9% |
| | | | 7.8% |
| | | | 18.4% |
| | | | 26.2% |
| | | | 42.7% |
| | | | 103 |
| | | | 2.9% |
| | | | 7.4% |
| | | | 18.9% |
| | | | 26.9% |
| | | | 44.0% |
| | | | 175 |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | | never |
| | | | seldom |
| | | | sometimes |
| | | | often |
| | | | always |
| | | | Total |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 5.3% |
| | | | 26.3% |
| | | | 23.7% |
| | | | 44.7% |
| | | | 38 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 25.0% |
| | | | 25.0% |
| | | | 50.0% |
| | | | 8 |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 28.6% |
| | | | 0.0% |
| | | | 14.3% |
| | | | 57.1% |
| | | | 7 |
| | | | 4.9% |
| | | | 7.8% |
| | | | 18.4% |
| | | | 26.2% |
| | | | 42.7% |
| | | | 103 |
| | | | 2.9% |
| | | | 7.4% |
| | | | 18.9% |
| | | | 26.9% |
| | | | 44.0% |
| | | | 175 |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 1 | 2.6% |
| | | 1 | 2.6% |
| | | 8 | 21.1% |
| | | 28 | 73.7% |
| | | 38 | 100% |
| Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 4 | 50.0% |
| | 4 | 50.0% |
| | 8 | 100% |
| Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 4 | 57.1% |
| | 3 | 42.9% |
| | 7 | 100% |
| Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|---------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 1 | 5.3% |
| | 6 | 31.6% |
| | 12 | 63.2% |
| | 19 | 100% |
| SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | 2 | 1.9% |
| | 8 | 7.5% |
| | 30 | 28.3% |
| | 66 | 62.3% |
| | 106 | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 3 | 1.7% |
| | 10 | 5.6% |
| | 52 | 29.2% |
| | 113 | 63.5% |
| | 178 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | 2 | 5.1% |
| | 1 | 2.6% |
| | 8 | 20.5% |
| | 13 | 33.3% |
| | 15 | 38.5% |
| | 39 | 100% |
| Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 4 | 50.0% |
| | 4 | 50.0% |
| | 8 | 100% |
| Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 1 | 14.3% |
| | 3 | 42.9% |
| | 3 | 42.9% |
| | 7 | 100% |
| Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|---------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 1 | 5.3% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 9 | 47.4% |
| | 9 | 47.4% |
| | 19 | 100% |
| SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 1 | 0.9% |
| | 8 | 7.5% |
| | 34 | 32.1% |
| | 63 | 59.4% |
| | 106 | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 2 | 1.1% |
| | 3 | 1.7% |
| | 17 | 9.5% |
| | 63 | 35.2% |
| | 94 | 52.5% |
| | 179 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | 10 | 26.3% |
| | 6 | 15.8% |
| | 8 | 21.1% |
| | 8 | 21.1% |
| | 6 | 15.8% |
| | 38 | 100% |
| Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 1 | 12.5% |
| | 2 | 25.0% |
| | 2 | 25.0% |
| | 2 | 25.0% |
| | 1 | 12.5% |
| | 8 | 100% |
| Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 1 | 14.3% |
| | 3 | 42.9% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 3 | 42.9% |
| | 7 | 100% |
| Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|---------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 2 | 10.5% |
| | 4 | 21.1% |
| | 7 | 36.8% |
| | 6 | 31.6% |
| | 19 | 100% |
| SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | 8 | 7.7% |
| | 19 | 18.3% |
| | 36 | 34.6% |
| | 25 | 24.0% |
| | 16 | 15.4% |
| | 104 | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 19 | 10.8% |
| | 30 | 17.0% |
| | 53 | 30.1% |
| | 42 | 23.9% |
| | 32 | 18.2% |
| | 176 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | 2 | 5.1% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 5 | 12.8% |
| | 8 | 20.5% |
| | 24 | 61.5% |
| | 39 | 100% |
| Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 1 | 12.5% |
| | 3 | 37.5% |
| | 4 | 50.0% |
| | 8 | 100% |
| Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 7 | 100.0% |
| | 7 | 100% |
| Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|---------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 0 | 0.0% |
| | 5 | 27.8% |
| | 13 | 72.2% |
| | 18 | 100% |
| SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | 1 | 1.0% |
| | 4 | 3.8% |
| | 12 | 11.5% |
| | 25 | 24.0% |
| | 62 | 59.6% |
| | 104 | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 3 | 1.7% |
| | 4 | 2.3% |
| | 18 | 10.2% |
| | 41 | 23.3% |
| | 110 | 62.5% |
| | 176 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 1 | 2.6% |
| | | 2 | 5.1% |
| | | 5 | 12.8% |
| | | 13 | 33.3% |
| | | 18 | 46.2% |
| | | 39 | 100% |
| Job Role | Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 2 | 25.0% |
| | | 4 | 50.0% |
| | | 2 | 25.0% |
| | | 8 | 100% |
| Job Role | Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 6 | 85.7% |
| | | 7 | 100% |
| Job Role | Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|--------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 2 | 10.5% |
| | | 5 | 26.3% |
| | | 12 | 63.2% |
| | | 19 | 100% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 1 | 1.0% |
| | | 3 | 2.9% |
| | | 12 | 11.5% |
| | | 29 | 27.9% |
| | | 59 | 56.7% |
| | | 104 | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 2 | 1.1% |
| | 5 | 2.8% |
| | 21 | 11.9% |
| | 52 | 29.4% |
| | 97 | 54.8% |
| | 177 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 2 | 5.1% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 5 | 12.8% |
| | | 9 | 23.1% |
| | | 23 | 59.0% |
| | | 39 | 100% |
| Job Role | Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 3 | 37.5% |
| | | 4 | 50.0% |
| | | 1 | 12.5% |
| | | 8 | 100% |
| Job Role | Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 4 | 57.1% |
| | | 7 | 100% |
| Job Role | Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|--------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 2 | 10.5% |
| | | 8 | 42.1% |
| | | 9 | 47.4% |
| | | 19 | 100% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 2 | 1.9% |
| | | 11 | 10.6% |
| | | 36 | 34.6% |
| | | 28 | 26.9% |
| | | 27 | 26.0% |
| | | 104 | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 4 | 2.3% |
| | 11 | 6.2% |
| | 48 | 27.1% |
| | 50 | 28.2% |
| | 64 | 36.2% |
| | 177 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 1 | 2.6% |
| | | 7 | 18.4% |
| | | 20 | 52.6% |
| | | 10 | 26.3% |
| | | 38 | 100% |
| Job Role | Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 1 | 12.5% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 5 | 62.5% |
| | | 2 | 25.0% |
| | | 8 | 100% |
| Job Role | Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 3 | 42.9% |
| | | 3 | 42.9% |
| | | 7 | 100% |
| Job Role | Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|--------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 1 | 5.3% |
| | | 8 | 42.1% |
| | | 10 | 52.6% |
| | | 19 | 100% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 9 | 8.7% |
| | | 7 | 6.8% |
| | | 13 | 12.6% |
| | | 37 | 35.9% |
| | | 37 | 35.9% |
| | | 103 | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 9 | 5.1% |
| | 9 | 5.1% |
| | 22 | 12.6% |
| | 73 | 41.7% |
| | 62 | 35.4% |
| | 175 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 2 | 5.3% |
| | | 1 | 2.6% |
| | | 5 | 13.2% |
| | | 10 | 26.3% |
| | | 20 | 52.6% |
| | | 38 | 100% |
| Job Role | Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 3 | 37.5% |
| | | 4 | 50.0% |
| | | 1 | 12.5% |
| | | 8 | 100% |
| Job Role | Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 3 | 42.9% |
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 7 | 100% |
| Job Role | Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|--------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 2 | 10.5% |
| | | 11 | 57.9% |
| | | 6 | 31.6% |
| | | 19 | 100% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 5 | 4.8% |
| | | 20 | 19.0% |
| | | 28 | 26.7% |
| | | 30 | 28.6% |
| | | 22 | 21.0% |
| | | 105 | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 7 | 4.0% |
| | 21 | 11.9% |
| | 41 | 23.2% |
| | 57 | 32.2% |
| | 51 | 28.8% |
| | 177 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | never | seldom | sometimes | often | always | Total |
| | 2 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 38 |
| | 5.3% | 15.8% | 18.4% | 36.8% | 23.7% | 100% |
| Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| | 0.0% | 12.5% | 25.0% | 37.5% | 25.0% | 100% |
| Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| | 0.0% | 14.3% | 14.3% | 42.9% | 28.6% | 100% |
| Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|---------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 19 |
| | 0.0% | 0.0% | 10.5% | 36.8% | 52.6% | 100% |
| SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | 1 | 2 | 14 | 36 | 52 | 105 |
| | 1.0% | 1.9% | 13.3% | 34.3% | 49.5% | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 3 | 10 | 26 | 63 | 75 | 177 |
| | 1.7% | 5.6% | 14.7% | 35.6% | 42.4% | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | 3 | 8 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 39 |
| | 7.7% | 20.5% | 38.5% | 15.4% | 17.9% | 100% |
| Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
| | 0.0% | 37.5% | 37.5% | 25.0% | 0.0% | 100% |
| Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| | 0.0% | 14.3% | 28.6% | 42.9% | 14.3% | 100% |
| Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|---------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 19 |
| | 0.0% | 5.3% | 26.3% | 47.4% | 21.1% | 100% |
| SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | 2 | 9 | 28 | 43 | 22 | 104 |
| | 1.9% | 8.7% | 26.9% | 41.3% | 21.2% | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 5 | 22 | 53 | 63 | 34 | 177 |
| | 2.8% | 12.4% | 29.9% | 35.6% | 19.2% | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | 3 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 38 |
| | 7.9% | 26.3% | 23.7% | 26.3% | 15.8% | 100% |
| Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| | 12.5% | 0.0% | 12.5% | 50.0% | 25.0% | 100% |
| Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| | 14.3% | 0.0% | 14.3% | 28.6% | 42.9% | 100% |
| Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|---------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 1 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 19 |
| | 5.3% | 5.3% | 21.1% | 42.1% | 26.3% | 100% |
| SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | 2 | 8 | 17 | 44 | 34 | 105 |
| | 1.9% | 7.6% | 16.2% | 41.9% | 32.4% | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 8 | 19 | 32 | 68 | 50 | 177 |
| | 4.5% | 10.7% | 18.1% | 38.4% | 28.2% | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | 2 | 9 | 4 | 15 | 9 | 39 |
| | 5.1% | 23.1% | 10.3% | 38.5% | 23.1% | 100% |
| Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| | 0.0% | 0.0% | 37.5% | 50.0% | 12.5% | 100% |
| Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| | 0.0% | 28.6% | 14.3% | 42.9% | 14.3% | 100% |
| Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|---------------|-------|-------------------|
| | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 19 |
| | 0.0% | 5.3% | 10.5% | 42.1% | 42.1% | 100% |
| SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | 1 | 4 | 19 | 30 | 50 | 104 |
| | 1.0% | 3.8% | 18.3% | 28.8% | 48.1% | 100% |
| Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | 3 | 16 | 29 | 60 | 69 | 177 |
| | 1.7% | 9.0% | 16.4% | 33.9% | 39.0% | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 15 | 39.5% |
| | | 9 | 23.7% |
| | | 7 | 18.4% |
| | | 3 | 7.9% |
| | | 4 | 10.5% |
| | Total| 38 | 100% |
| Job Role | Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 3 | 42.9% |
| | | 4 | 57.1% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | Total | 7 | 100% |
| Job Role | Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 3 | 42.9% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | Total | 7 | 100% |
| Job Role | Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|--------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 4 | 21.1% |
| | | 1 | 5.3% |
| | | 6 | 31.6% |
| | | 1 | 5.3% |
| | | 7 | 36.8% |
| | Total | 19 | 100% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 13 | 12.5% |
| | | 15 | 14.4% |
| | | 30 | 28.8% |
| | | 25 | 24.0% |
| | | 21 | 20.2% |
| | Total | 104 | 100% |
| Job Role | Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 34 | 19.4% |
| | | 31 | 17.7% |
| | | 48 | 27.4% |
| | | 30 | 17.1% |
| | | 32 | 18.3% |
| | Total | 175 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 12 | 31.6% |
| | | 10 | 26.3% |
| | | 7 | 18.4% |
| | | 3 | 7.9% |
| | | 6 | 15.8% |
| | Total | 38 | 100% |
| Job Role | Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 2 | 33.3% |
| | | 1 | 16.7% |
| | | 1 | 16.7% |
| | | 2 | 33.3% |
| | Total | 6 | 100% |
| Job Role | Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | Total | 7 | 100% |
| Job Role | Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|--------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 2 | 10.5% |
| | | 2 | 10.5% |
| | | 2 | 10.5% |
| | | 8 | 42.1% |
| | | 5 | 26.3% |
| | Total | 19 | 100% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 5 | 4.7% |
| | | 10 | 9.4% |
| | | 22 | 20.8% |
| | | 41 | 38.7% |
| | | 28 | 26.4% |
| | Total | 106 | 100% |
| Job Role | Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 20 | 11.4% |
| | | 26 | 14.8% |
| | | 33 | 18.8% |
| | | 55 | 31.3% |
| | | 42 | 23.9% |
| | Total | 176 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 10 | 26.3% |
| | | 6 | 15.8% |
| | | 6 | 15.8% |
| | | 10 | 26.3% |
| | | 6 | 15.8% |
| | Total | 38 | 100% |
| Job Role | Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 2 | 25.0% |
| | | 2 | 25.0% |
| | | 3 | 37.5% |
| | | 1 | 12.5% |
| | Total | 8 | 100% |
| Job Role | Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 3 | 42.9% |
| | Total | 7 | 100% |
| Job Role | Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|--------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 5 | 26.3% |
| | | 7 | 36.8% |
| | | 7 | 36.8% |
| | Total | 19 | 100% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 5 | 4.9% |
| | | 15 | 14.6% |
| | | 24 | 23.3% |
| | | 36 | 35.0% |
| | | 23 | 22.3% |
| | Total | 103 | 100% |
| Job Role | Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 15 | 8.6% |
| | | 24 | 13.7% |
| | | 39 | 22.3% |
| | | 57 | 32.6% |
| | | 40 | 22.9% |
| | Total | 175 | 100% |
| Job Role | MSST | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 11 | 28.9% |
| | | 9 | 23.7% |
| | | 10 | 26.3% |
| | | 6 | 15.8% |
| | | 2 | 5.3% |
| | Total | 38 | 100% |
| Job Role | Spec Sch T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 1 | 12.5% |
| | | 2 | 25.0% |
| | | 3 | 37.5% |
| | | 1 | 12.5% |
| | | 1 | 12.5% |
| | Total | 8 | 100% |
| Job Role | Senco | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 2 | 28.6% |
| | | 1 | 14.3% |
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | Total | 7 | 100% |
| Job Role | Specialist T | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|--------------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 1 | 5.3% |
| | | 1 | 5.3% |
| | | 10 | 51.1% |
| | | 4 | 21.1% |
| | | 11 | 57.9% |
| | Total | 19 | 100% |
| Job Role | SLT | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-----|-------|-------------------|
| | | 0 | 0.0% |
| | | 3 | 2.8% |
| | | 11 | 10.4% |
| | | 28 | 26.4% |
| | | 64 | 60.4% |
| | Total | 106 | 100% |
| Job Role | Total | Count | % within Job Role |
|----------|-------|-------|-------------------|
| | | 15 | 8.4% |
| | | 17 | 9.6% |
| | | 28 | 15.7% |
| | | 40 | 22.5% |
| | | 78 | 43.8% |
| | Total | 178 | 100% |
| Job Role | Teach phonological awareness | Total |
|-------------|------------------------------|-------|
| | never | seldom | sometimes | often | always | |
| MSST | 11 | 4 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 38 |
| % within Job Role | 28.9% | 10.5% | 28.9% | 21.1% | 10.5% | 100% |
| Spec Sch T | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| % within Job Role | 0.0% | 12.5% | 25.0% | 50.0% | 12.5% | 100% |
| Senco | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| % within Job Role | 0.0% | 0.0% | 28.6% | 14.3% | 57.1% | 100% |
| Specialist T| 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 19 |
| % within Job Role | 0.0% | 10.5% | 0.0% | 10.5% | 78.9% | 100% |
| SLT | 0 | 6 | 10 | 35 | 55 | 106 |
| % within Job Role | 0.0% | 5.7% | 9.4% | 33.0% | 51.9% | 100% |
| Total | 11 | 13 | 25 | 50 | 79 | 178 |
| % within Job Role | 6.2% | 7.3% | 14.0% | 28.1% | 44.4% | 100% |
22 May 2015
Dear Hilary / Vicky
Reference number: PR/LCS/PhD/15-16/01
Name: Hillary Lowe / Vicky Joffe
Title of project: Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language impairment
Your application has been reviewed and I am happy to approve the application from today’s date.
Best of luck with your project.
Please note the above reference number which identifies this application and must be quoted in all correspondence.
Kind regards
pp Lucy A. Henry
Professor of Speech and Language
Language and Communication Science Division
City University London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties:
How to help young people learn and remember new words
I am a PhD student at City University London, and would like to invite you to take part in a research study I am conducting on teaching vocabulary. Before you decide whether you would like to take part it is important that you understand why the research is being done and what it would involve for you. Please take time to read the following information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. This study has been approved by City University London School of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee.
What is the purpose of the study?
Many students find it hard to learn and remember the vocabulary required to enable them to succeed in school. We know what works for helping primary school-aged children learn and remember new words, and this project explores what works best for word learning in secondary school students.
Why have I been invited?
We are inviting schools to identify some of their year 7, 8 and 9 students who will benefit from extra help learning new words.
Do I have to take part?
Participation is voluntary. It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you agree, you will be asked to sign a consent form. If you decide to take part, you are still free to drop out at any time, at any stage of the project, without giving a reason and without being disadvantaged in any way.
What will happen if I take part?
The project will run from the summer term 2016 until the spring term 2017. We will ask you to help identify Year 7, 8 and 9 students who may benefit from the project, according to selection criteria which we will discuss with you. We will also ask you to identify appropriate science teachers from your school to participate in the project. The researcher will work with your science teachers to identify up 20 key topic words that the year group will be covering during two science topics, and 10 key words from a future topic. The researcher will train the teachers in two one-hour training sessions, on specific word-learning activities to use. The teachers will teach the 10 new words from topic two in the classroom using the newly-learned strategies. Students will be individually assessed by a member of the research team at four points during the project, in sessions of up to one hour.
We will recruit students by making contact with their parents in the first instance, through the school. We will then also seek consent directly from the students.
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
Your staff have the opportunity to learn new ways of teaching vocabulary which they may find useful for students with speech, language and communication needs and indeed all students. Your students have the opportunity to learn new words, and to get better at learning and remembering new words on their own. This is to help them with their progress at school. Having a wide vocabulary helps children succeed in school which improves their employment opportunities after school.
What will happen when the research study stops?
Information will be stored securely for at least ten years. After this time the data will be securely destroyed.
Will my taking part in the study be kept confidential?
We will keep all information collected in confidence. Names will be changed to code numbers, and information will be kept in a locked filing cabinet and password-protected computer, with only research team members having any access to person-identifiable information. Exceptions to confidentiality include information concerning the personal safety of the student participants.
What will happen to the results of the research study?
You will receive a leaflet giving a summary of the project. The results of the research study will form part of my PhD thesis. It will be presented at conferences, and published in teaching and speech and language therapy journals and magazines. Anonymity and confidentiality will be kept at all times and published reports will not mention individuals.
What do I have to do?
If you agree to take part in this project, please return the signed consent form to Mrs Billie Lowe.
What if there is a problem?
If you have any questions at any time, please contact:
Mrs Billie Lowe, PhD Student
Division of Language and Communication Science
School of Health Sciences
City University London
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
020 7040 5045
You can also contact:
Professor Victoria Joffe
Associate Dean, Taught Postgraduate Studies, and International School of Health Sciences
City University London
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
020 7040 4629
If you have any problems, concerns or questions about this study, you should ask to speak to a member of the research team (see below). If you remain unhappy and wish to complain formally, you can do this through the University complaints procedure. To complain about the study, you need to phone 020 7040 3040. You can then ask to speak to the Secretary to Senate Research Ethics Committee and inform them that the name of the project is: “Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties: How to help young people learn and remember new words”.
You could also write to the Secretary at:
Anna Ramberg
Secretary to Senate Research Ethics Committee
Research Office, E214
City University London
Northampton Square
London
EC1V 0HB
City University London holds insurance policies which apply to this study. If you feel you have been harmed or injured by taking part in this study you may be eligible to claim compensation. This does not affect your legal rights to seek compensation. If you are harmed due to someone’s negligence, then you may have grounds for legal action.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information sheet.
Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties:
How to help young people learn and remember new words
Please initial box
1. I agree to take part in the above City University London research project. I have read the Head Teacher information sheet, which I may keep for my records. I understand this will involve:
- Identifying a key member of staff within school with whom the researcher can liaise.
- Identifying, in collaboration with the researcher, appropriate student participants according to the inclusion criteria of the study.
- Identifying, in collaboration with the researcher, appropriate teachers to approach for recruitment to the study.
- Facilitating communication with parents during the recruitment process.
- The selected teachers attending two 1-hour training sessions on vocabulary teaching delivered by the researcher.
- Selected science teachers teaching specific vocabulary during one topic using word learning strategies given by the researcher.
- Making available to the researcher relevant information from school records i.e. demographic information and attainment levels, subject to parental approval.
- Arranging an appropriate place for individual assessments to take place.
- Facilitating the research team's work in school through informing school staff of their presence and enabling access to relevant school areas.
2. I understand that any information which school staff provide is confidential, and that no information that could lead to the identification of any individual will be disclosed in any reports on the project, or to any other party. No identifiable personal data will be published or shared with any other organisation.
3. I understand that my participation is voluntary, that I can choose not to participate in part or all of the project, and that I can withdraw at any stage of the project without being disadvantaged in any way.
4. I understand that this study will form part of the researcher’s PhD thesis, and that any reports published will not identify any individuals.
5. I agree to City University London recording and processing this information about me. I understand that this information will be used only for the purposes set out in this statement, and that my consent is conditional on the University complying with its duties and obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.
6. I consent to take part in the above study.
_________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________
Name of Head Teacher Signature School Date
Please return form to Mrs Billie Lowe, City University London.
Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties:
How to help young people learn and remember new words
I am a PhD student at City University London, and I would like to invite you to take part in a research study on teaching vocabulary. Before you decide whether you would like to take part it is important that you understand why the research is being done and what it would involve for you. Please take time to read the following information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. This study has been approved by City University London School of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee.
What is the purpose of the study?
Many students find it hard to learn and remember the vocabulary required to enable them to succeed in school. We know what works to help primary school-age children learn and remember new words, and this project explores how secondary school students learn new words and what helps them.
Why have I been invited?
We are inviting teachers who teach science to students in Years 7, 8 and 9 who have been identified from school records as being students who will benefit from extra help learning new words. The head teacher of your school has agreed to take part in the study.
Do I have to take part?
Participation is voluntary. It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If agree, you will be asked to sign a consent form. If you agree, you are still free to drop out at any time, at any stage of the project, without giving a reason and without being disadvantaged in any way.
What will happen if I take part?
The project will run from the autumn term 2016 until the spring term 2017. The researcher will work with you to identify 20 key topic words that the year group will be covering during two science topics, and 10 key words from a future topic. In phase 1 (topic one) a member of the research team will observe a sample of lessons in order to record usual classroom practice. The researcher will then train you, in two 1-hour training sessions, on specific word-learning activities to use when teaching students new words. In phase 2 (topic two), you will teach the 10 new words from topic two in the classroom using the newly-learned strategies. You will be asked to keep a record of your use of the word-learning activities, and to complete a short questionnaire at the end of the project on your views about using the word-learning activities. You will receive support from the research team as required.
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
You have the opportunity to learn new ways of teaching vocabulary which you may find useful for students with speech, language and communication needs and indeed all students. Your students have the opportunity to learn new words, and to get better at learning and remembering new words on their own. This is to help them with their progress at school. Having a wide vocabulary helps children succeed in school which improves their employment opportunities after school.
What will happen when the research study stops?
Information will be stored securely for at least ten years. After this time the information will be securely destroyed.
Will my taking part in the study be kept confidential?
We will keep all information collected in confidence. Names will be changed to code numbers, and information will be kept in a locked filing cabinet and password-protected computer, with only research team members having any access to person-identifiable information. Exceptions to confidentiality include information concerning the personal safety of the student participants.
What will happen to the results of the research study?
You will receive a leaflet giving a summary of the project. The results of the research study will form part of my PhD thesis. It will be presented at conferences, and published in teaching and speech and language therapy journals and magazines. Your name will not be used in any of these publications or at conferences.
What do I have to do?
If you agree to take part in this project, please return the signed consent form to Mrs Billie Lowe, c/o ........................................... in the enclosed addressed envelope by ............................
If you have any questions at any time, please contact:
Mrs Billie Lowe, PhD Student
Division of Language and Communication Science
School of Health Sciences
City University London
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
020 7040 5045
You can also contact:
Professor Victoria Joffe
Associate Dean, Taught Postgraduate Studies, and International
School of Health Sciences
City University London
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
020 7040 4629
What if there is a problem?
If you have any problems, concerns or questions about this study, you should ask to speak to a member of the research team (see below). If you remain unhappy and wish to complain formally, you can do this through the University complaints procedure. To complain about the study, you need to phone 020 7040 3040. You can then ask to speak to the Secretary to Senate Research Ethics Committee and inform them that the name of the project is: “Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties: How to help young people learn and remember new words”.
You could also write to the Secretary at:
Anna Ramberg
Secretary to Senate Research Ethics Committee
Research Office, E214
City University London
Northampton Square
London
EC1V 0HB
City University London holds insurance policies which apply to this study. If you feel you have been harmed or injured by taking part in this study you may be eligible to claim compensation. This does not affect your legal rights to seek compensation. If you are harmed due to someone’s negligence, then you may have grounds for legal action.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information sheet.
Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties:
How to help young people learn and remember new words
Please initial box
1. I agree to take part in the above City University London research project. I have read the teacher information sheet, which I may keep for my records.
I understand this will involve:
- Identifying, in collaboration with the researcher, 20 key words that the class will be covering during two science topics, and 10 key words from a future topic.
- Allowing a member of the research team to observe a sample of lessons during topic one in order to record usual classroom practice.
- Taking part in two 1-hour training sessions, on specific word-learning activities.
- Using these strategies when teaching the 10 topic two words within lessons for the duration of topic two.
- Keeping a record of my use of the word-learning activities
- Completing a short questionnaire at the end of the project on my views about using the word-learning activities.
2. I understand that any information I provide is confidential, and that no information that could lead to the identification of any individual will be disclosed in any reports on the project, or to any other party. No identifiable personal data will be published or shared with any other organisation.
3. I understand that my participation is voluntary, that I can choose not to participate in part or all of the project, and that I can withdraw at any stage of the project without being disadvantaged in any way.
4. I understand that this study will form part of the researcher’s PhD thesis, and that any reports published will not identify any individuals.
5. I agree to City University London recording and processing this information about me. I understand that this information will be used only for the purposes set out in this statement, and that my consent is conditional on the University complying with its duties and obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.
6. I consent to take part in the above study.
_________________ ___________________ _________ _______
Name of teacher Signature School Date
Please return this form to Mrs Billie Lowe, c/o .................................. by ...........................................
Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties:
How to help young people learn and remember new words
I am a PhD student at City University London, and I would like to invite your child to take part in a research study. Before you decide whether you would like to take part it is important that you understand why the research is being done and what it would involve for you and your child. Please take time to read the following information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. This study has been approved by City University London School of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee.
What is the purpose of the study?
Many students find it hard to learn and remember the words required to succeed in school. We know what works to help primary school-age children learn and remember new words, and this project explores how secondary school students learn new words and what helps them.
Why have I been invited?
We are inviting young people in Years 7, 8 and 9 to take part, who have been identified from school records as being students who will benefit from extra help learning new words. Your child’s school has agreed to participate in this project.
Do I have to take part?
Participation is voluntary. It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you agree, your child will also be asked to give their consent, separately. If you decide to take part, you and your child are still free to drop out at any time, at any stage of the project, without giving a reason and without being disadvantaged in any way. Any speech and language therapy input or other specialist support provided to your child or the school will continue as normal.
What will happen if I take part?
The project will run from the autumn term 2016 until the spring term 2017. In the first phase, your child will be taught science topic words by the teacher in the classroom in the usual way. A member of the project team may observe some of these classes. In the second phase, your child will be taught science topic words in the classroom by the teacher using special word-learning activities. At four points during the project, your child will meet with a member of the project team to carry out some activities. These sessions will last between 30-60 minutes. The activities will be in the form of games involving listening, repeating and understanding sounds, words and sentences, naming pictures, finding shapes in visual patterns and talking about word learning. All these activities have been used with other students who have enjoyed them. If your child’s responses give any cause for particular concern, this will be discussed with …………………… (Senco). Results can be made available to you on request. All the sessions will take place during school time, at a time agreed with the teachers, and on school premises. Some sessions will be audio recorded so that information can be checked afterwards.
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
Your child has the opportunity to learn new words, and to get better at learning and remembering new words on their own. This is to help them with their progress at school. Having a wide vocabulary helps children succeed in school which improves their employment opportunities after school.
What will happen when the research study stops?
Information will be stored securely for at least ten years. After this time the information will be securely destroyed.
Will my taking part in the study be kept confidential?
We will keep all information collected in confidence. Names will be changed to code numbers, and information will be kept in a locked filing cabinet and password-protected computer, with only research team members having any access to person-identifiable information. Exceptions to confidentiality include information concerning the personal safety of your child. In cases of disclosure of information concerning safety, this will be discussed with the Senco.
What will happen to the results of the research study?
You will receive a leaflet giving a summary of the project. The results of the research study will form part of my PhD thesis. It will be presented at conferences, and published in teaching and speech and language therapy journals and magazines. Your name and your child’s name will not be used in any of these publications or at conferences.
What do I have to do?
If you agree for your child to take part in this project, please sign the attached consent form and return it to Mrs Billie Lowe, c/o ……………… in the enclosed addressed envelope by ………………
If you have any questions at any time, please contact:
Mrs Billie Lowe, PhD Student
Division of Language and Communication Science
School of Health Sciences
City University London
Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0HB
020 7040 5045
You can also contact:
Professor Victoria Joffe
Associate Dean, Taught Postgraduate Studies, and International School of Health Sciences
City University London
Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0HB
020 7040 4629
What if there is a problem?
If you have any problems, concerns or questions about this study, you should ask to speak to a member of the research team (see below). If you remain unhappy and wish to complain formally, you can do this through the University complaints procedure. To complain about the study, you need to phone 020 7040 3040. You can then ask to speak to the Secretary to Senate Research Ethics Committee and inform them that the name of the project is: “Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language impairment: How to help young people learn and remember new words”.
You could also write to the Secretary at:
Anna Ramberg
Secretary to Senate Research Ethics Committee
Research Office, E214
City University London
Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0HB
City University London holds insurance policies which apply to this study. If you feel you have been harmed or injured by taking part in this study you may be eligible to claim compensation. This does not affect your legal rights to seek compensation. If you are harmed due to someone’s negligence, then you may have grounds for legal action.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information sheet.
Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties:
How to help young people learn and remember new words
Please initial box
1. I agree to take part in the above City University London research project. I have read the parent information sheet, which I may keep for my records.
I understand this will involve
- My child taking part in listening and speaking activities individually with a member of the research team
- My child being audio-recorded during some of the activities
- My child being present in classes where word-learning activities are taking place
2. I understand that school may share with the researcher relevant information from my child’s school records. I understand that all information provided is confidential, and that no information that could lead to the identification of any individual will be disclosed in any reports on the project, or to any other party. No identifiable personal data will be published or shared with any other organisation.
3. I understand that my participation is voluntary, that I can choose not to participate in part or all of the project, and that I can withdraw at any stage of the project without myself or my child being disadvantaged in any way.
4. I understand that this study will form part of the researcher’s PhD thesis, and that any reports published will not identify any individuals.
5. I agree to City University London recording and processing this information about me. I understand that this information will be used only for the purposes set out in this statement, and that my consent is conditional on the University complying with its duties and obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.
6. I consent to my child’s participation in the above study.
Main language spoken at home ...........................................................................................................
Other languages spoken at home............................................................................................................
If a language other than English is spoken at home, how long have you lived in the UK? ............
Has your child had a speech and language therapy assessment in the last 6 months? Yes / No
If yes, name and contact details for speech and language therapist:
........................................................................................................................................................
_________________ ___________________ ___________________ _________
Name of parent/guardian Signature School Date
Name of Child _______________________
Please return this form to Mrs Billie Lowe, c/o ........................................ by ..........................
292
Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties:
How to help young people learn and remember new words
I am a student at City University London, and would like to invite you to take part in a project that I am doing on learning words. Before you decide whether this is something you want to do, it is important that you understand why we are doing the project and how you will be involved. Please take time to read this information sheet carefully and discuss it with your parents or teachers if you wish. Ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. The university has given me permission to do this project.
What is the purpose of the project?
Many students find it hard to learn and remember new words and this is important for school. We know about what helps young children learn new words, and we are doing this project to help us learn more about what helps older children, like you, to learn and remember words.
Why have I been invited?
We are inviting young people in Years 7, 8 and 9 to take part, who we think will benefit from extra help learning new words. Your school have already said they want to be part of the project and they suggested we talk to you about it.
Do I have to take part?
It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. Your parents have already agreed that you may take part in this project if you want to. If you agree, you will be asked to sign a consent form. If you decide to take part, you are still free to drop out at any time, at any stage of the project, without telling us why, and without getting into any trouble.
What will happen if I take part?
The project will run from the autumn term 2016 until the summer term 2017. In the first phase, you will be taught science topic words by the teacher in the classroom in the usual way. A member of my project team may observe some of these classes. In the second phase, you will be taught science topic words in the classroom by the teacher using special word-learning activities. At four points during the project, you will meet with a member of my project team to carry out some listening and speaking activities. These sessions will last between 30-60 minutes and will include different games involving shapes, sounds, words and sentences. These activities and games have been used with other students of your age and they have enjoyed doing them. All the sessions will take place during school time, with the permission of your teacher, and on school premises. Some sessions will be audio recorded so that information can be checked afterwards.
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
You have the chance to learn new words, and to get better at learning and remembering new words on your own. This may help you do better at school. Having a bigger vocabulary helps young people succeed in school and gives them a better chance of getting a job after school.
What will happen when the research project stops?
Information will be stored safely for at least ten years. After this time the information will be destroyed.
Will my taking part in the project be kept confidential?
All the information you give us will be kept safe. Names will be changed to numbers, and information will be kept in a locked filing cabinet and password-protected computer. Only people from my team can get the information. We will only tell somebody else if we are worried about your personal safety.
What will happen to the results of the research project?
I will write up the project, and will tell you, your parents, and the school how it went. I will tell other teachers and speech and language therapists about it at meetings, and in teaching and speech and language therapy magazines. Your name will not be used at all.
What do I have to do?
If you are happy to take part in my project, please sign the consent form.
If you have any questions at any time, please contact:
Mrs Billie Lowe, PhD Student
Division of Language and Communication Science
School of Health Sciences
City, University of London
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
020 7040 5045 to leave a message
You can also contact:
Professor Victoria Joffe
Professor, Associate Dean, Taught Postgraduate Studies, and International School of Health Sciences
City, University of London
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
020 7040 4629
What if there is a problem?
If you have any questions or are worried about anything, please speak to ...........................................
who can help you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information sheet.
Vocabulary intervention in adolescents with language difficulties:
How to help young people learn and remember new words
Please initial box
1. I agree to take part in the above City University London research project. I have read the student information sheet, which I may keep for my records.
I understand this will involve:
- Being present in classes where word-learning activities are taking place
- Taking part in listening and speaking activities individually with a member of the research team
- Being audio-recorded during some of the activities
2. I understand that any information I provide is confidential, and that no information that says who I am will be shared in any reports on the project, or with anyone outside the project team.
3. I understand that I can choose whether or not to take part in the project, and that I can drop out at any stage without getting into any trouble.
4. I understand that the researcher will write up the project, and that any reports published will not say who I am.
5. I agree to City University London recording and processing this information about me. I understand that this information will be used only for the purposes set out in this statement, and that the University must also carry out its duties under the Data Protection Act 1998.
6. If I have any questions I can ask Mrs Billie Lowe, or ...........................................
7. I agree to take part in this project.
Name ........................................ Year.................. Date..................................
Please return this form to Mrs Billie Lowe, City University London.
Appendix 6C
Biographical data of whole student cohort who were assessed at baseline (N=103)
Gender. Sixty-eight participants were boys and 35 were girls. (66%:34%)
Chronological age. Fifty-four students were in Year 7, 40 in Year 8, and nine in Year 9. The mean chronological age of student participants was 12:4 ($SD = 9$ months; range 11:3 – 14:0).
Socio-economic status. This information was available for 102 participants. Forty-two out of 102 participants were eligible for Pupil Premium.
Medical status. This information was available for 102 participants. Fourteen participants had a medical condition not usually associated with language disorder. These included: anaphylaxis (1); asthma (4); bladder control (1); button sigcostomy and poor balance and coordination (1); diabetes (1); eczema (1); hayfever (1); Hirschsprung’s disease (1); liver disease (1); multiple allergies, asthma, and heart condition (1); and takes melatonin (1). Three students had a condition which is often associated with language disorder. These included: Down’s Syndrome (1); foetal alcohol syndrome (1); and perforated eardrums (1).
Special educational needs status. This information was available for 100 participants. Sixty-five participants were on the special needs register of the school. Fourteen of these were in possession of a statement of educational need or EHCP. Twenty-nine were in receipt of school support (for seven of these, no SEN or medical need was listed). Six students not listed as being on the school special needs register had a need identified. Some participants had more than one need.
- Communication and interaction (autism spectrum disorder 4; SLCN 19)
- Social, emotional, and mental health (8)
- Cognition and learning (intellectual disability 5; dyslexia 18; dyspraxia 1)
- Sensory and physical needs (physical disability 1)
- “disengaged, struggles in small groups, lack organisational skills” (1)
- “English as an additional language” (1)
- “no specialist assessment” (1)
- “hyperactivity” (1)
- “Other difficulty/disability” (1)
Ethnicity. This information was available for 102 participants. Distribution of ethnicity as listed by schools was as follows:
Albanian (1); Any other Asian (1); Any other mixed (5); Asian (2); Bangladeshi (4);
Black African (3); Black Caribbean (2); Black Somali (1); British (12); European (1);
Indian (1); Not stated (6); Other (4); Other Black African (3); Pakistani (3); Turkish (1);
White and other (1); White and Asian (2); White and Black Caribbean (2); White British (34); White English (10); White European (3).
**English language status:** This information was available for 99 participants. Eighty-two out of 99 parental consent forms (82.8%) stated that English was the main language spoken at home. Sixty-seven participants (67.7%) were monolingual English speakers, and 32 (32.3%) participants were bilingual or multilingual. Of the bilingual or multilingual students, one (ID 83) arrived in the UK one year prior to the study, and for one student (ID 58), this information was missing.
### Biographical characteristics of all participants assessed at baseline
| School | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total (%) |
|--------|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----------|
| Number of participants assessed at baseline | 14 | 12 | 13 | 20 | 8 | 15 | 13 | 8 | 103 (100%) |
| Gender balance m:f | 14:0 | 7:5 | 8:5 | 14:6 | 4:4 | 9:6 | 8:5 | 4:4 | 68:35 (66%:34%) |
| Mean chronological age | 12:1 | 12:1 | 11:11 | 12:4 | 12:7 | 12:7 | 12:5 | 11:9 | $M = 12:4$ |
| Numbers of participants in receipt of Pupil Premium | 10 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 42/102 (41.2%) |
| Number of participants with additional medical condition | 3 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 17/102 (16.7%) |
| Number of participants with statement or EHCP | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 14/100 (14%) |
| Number of monolingual English speakers | 3 | 11 | 16 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 11 | 7 | 67/99 (67.7%) |
## Appendix 6D
### Full list of all the word sets
| School / year / Word set | Topic 1 Usual teaching practice | Topic 2 Experimental | Passive control No intervention |
|--------------------------|---------------------------------|----------------------|---------------------------------|
| School 1 Year 7 Word set A | Atoms elements and molecules | Mixtures and separations | Golgi apparatus |
| | chemical reaction | paper chromatography | phylogenetic |
| | irreversible | evaporation | phospholipid |
| | observation | separation | plasma membrane |
| | word equation | Bunsen burner | infarction |
| | molecule | filtration | amylase |
| | element | solution | hydrilla |
| | reactant | condenser | allele |
| | compound | solvent | stoma |
| | symbol | funnel | primate |
| | atom | solute | |
| School 1 Year 8 Word set B | The periodic table | Unicellular organisms | Golgi apparatus |
| | pH indicator | microorganism | phylogenetic |
| | alkali metals | unicellular | phospholipid |
| | noble gases | disinfectant | hierarchy |
| | malleable | antiseptic | infarction |
| | property | chlorophyll | amylase |
| | periods | chromosome | hydrilla |
| | halogens | flagellum | bond angle |
| | melting point | Petri dish | isomer |
| | flexible | cilium | stoma |
| | brittle | fungus | |
| School 2 Year 7 Word set C | Chemical reactions | Reproduction | inconsistency |
| | neutralisation | infertility | mass spectrometer |
| | word equation | identical twins | plasma membrane |
| | chemical change | menstrual cycle | hydriila |
| | reactants | placenta | parasite |
| | carbonate | menopause | efferent |
| | limewater | oviduct | ileum |
| | combustion | uterus | polus |
| | sulphate | hormone | stoma |
| | oxide | testes | |
| | corrode | foetus | lattice |
| School 2 Year 8 Word set D | Heating and cooling | Rocks and Weathering | hierarchical |
| | thermal energy | biological | configuration |
| | evaporation | sedimentation | exothermic |
| | changes of state | metamorphic | salinity |
| | radiation | porosity | titration |
| | conduction | abrasion | herbicide |
| | convection | weathering | infarction |
| | density | erosion | vigorous |
| | particle | igneous | pigment |
| | contract | limestone | lattice |
| | expand | granite | |
| School 2 Year 9 Word set E | Pressure and Movement | Bio-mimicry | plasma membrane |
| | turning effect | threshold level | exothermic |
| | counterbalance | hydrophobic | phototubes |
| | pneumatic | nanotubes | thermistor |
| School 3 Year 7 Word set F | Elements and compounds | Forces | |
|---------------------------|------------------------|-------|---|
| transmitted | catalyst | phagocyte | |
| hydraulic | osmosis | meiosis | |
| pressure | synapse | enzyme | |
| piston | lignin | pectin | |
| pivot | chitin | lipid | |
| moment | vortex | redox | |
| School 3 Year 8 Word set G | Metal reactions | Sound | |
|----------------------------|-----------------|-------|---|
| chemical reaction | rarefaction | replication | |
| transition metals | audible range | plasma membrane | |
| reactivity | ultrasound | amphipod | |
| conclusion | compression | infarction | |
| word equation | decibel | visceral | |
| property | frequency | latency | |
| metal oxide | vibrate | vacate | |
| melting point | echo | enzyme | |
| metal salt | hertz | joules | |
| alloy | pitch | pivot | |
| School 4 Year 7(1) Word set H | Electromancer | Extinction | |
|-------------------------------|---------------|------------|---|
| electromagnet | microhabitat | inconsistency | |
| insulator | decomposer | inhibitor | |
| magnetism | organism | hybridism | |
| ammeter | carnivore | thermistor | |
| component | crustacean | titration | |
| conductor | consumer | convector | |
| electron | migration | infarction | |
| filament | arachnid | phagocyte | |
| resistance | arthropod | amphipod | |
| repel | reptile | repose | |
| School 4 Year 7(2) Word set I | Alien | Forensics | |
|-------------------------------|-------|-----------|---|
| constellation | observation | adaptation | |
| magnetism | indicator | inhibitor | |
| luminous | corrosive | convective | |
| hemisphere | neutralise | segregate | |
| asteroid | alkali | amylase | |
| density | property | phagocyte | |
| displacement | diffusion | titration | |
| lubricant | irritant | efferent | |
| axis | acid | allele | |
| orbit | burette | pigment | |
| School 4 Year 8(1) Word set J | Species at war | Live and kicking | |
|-------------------------------|----------------|------------------|---|
| microorganism | hydrogen carbonate | calcium hydroxide | |
| antibody | alveolus | endodermis | |
| bacterium | capillaries | cytology | |
| fermentation | ventilation | segregation | |
| ethanol | egestion | titration | |
| habitat | nutrients | efferent | |
| School 4 Year 8(2) Word set K | Studio Magic | Live and kicking |
|-------------------------------|--------------|-----------------|
| infectious | intestine | infarction |
| physical | mineral | visceral |
| resistant | reactant | repellent |
| virus | villi | velum |
| angle of incidence | hydrogen carbonate | calcium hydroxide |
| intensity | alveolus | endodermis |
| oscilloscope | capillaries | cytology |
| dispersion | ventilation | segregation |
| amplitude | egestion | titration |
| transparent | nutrients | efferent |
| cochlea | intestine | infarction |
| decibel | mineral | visceral |
| translucent | reactant | repellent |
| prism | villi | velum |
| School 5 Year 8 Word set L | The Periodic Table | Microbiology |
|------------------------------|--------------------|-------------|
| electrical conductor | aerobic respiration | abnormal replication |
| symbol equation | natural defences | threshold frequencies |
| potassium | bacterium | reticulum |
| properties | prediction | predation |
| magnetic | infectious | infarction |
| reactants | resistant | repellent |
| atom | immune | allele |
| mixture | microbe | micron |
| compound | symptoms | spectrums |
| product | mucus | polus |
| School 6 Year 7 Word set M | Particles | Energy |
|------------------------------|-----------|--------|
| saturated | renewable | adaptable |
| melting point | fossil fuels | frontal lobes |
| boiling point | solar cells | molar mass |
| diffusion | kinetic | botanic |
| soluble | kilojoules | lenticules |
| solution | potential | sequential |
| density | gravity | valency |
| expand | sustain | submerge |
| contract | transfer | trisect |
| dissolve | thermal | dorsal |
| School 6 Year 9 Word set N | The Particle Model | Scaling Up |
|------------------------------|--------------------|------------|
| subatomic particle | differentiation | diversification |
| thermal energy | surface area | threshold frequency |
| heat capacity | water potential | mass spectrometer |
| vaporisation | replication | segregation |
| distillation | transpiration | tessellation |
| condensation | concentration | convolution |
| evaporate | mitosis | amylase |
| density | diffusion | deflection |
| kinetic | cardiac | botanic |
| sublimate | stomata | substrata |
| School 7 Year 7 Word set O | Particles | Sound |
|------------------------------|-----------|-------|
| condensation | compression | concretion |
| element | decibel | visceral |
| property | amplify | atrophy |
| soluble | audible | pliable |
| solution | vibration | venation |
| School 7 Year 8(1) Word set P | Forces and Motion | Light | |
|-------------------------------|------------------|-------|---|
| compound | frequency | latency | |
| contract | reflect | constrict | |
| atom | echo | allele | |
| product | pitch | pivot | |
| solvent | hertz | joules | |
| School 7 Year 8(2) Word set Q | Skeletal and Respiratory Systems | Light | |
|-------------------------------|---------------------------------|-------|---|
| aerobic respiration | incident ray | plasma membrane | |
| alveoli | luminous | vigorous | |
| inhalation | translucent | repellent | |
| diffusion | refraction | deflection | |
| ligament | transparent | efferent | |
| bronchioles | normal | dorsal | |
| diaphragm | spectrum | phylum | |
| asthma | opaque | allele | |
| contract | reflect | trisect | |
| tendon | scatter | stamen | |
| School 7 Year 8(3) Word set R | Properties and Materials | Skeletal and Respiratory Systems | |
|-------------------------------|--------------------------|---------------------------------|---|
| reactivity | aerobic respiration | abnormal replication | |
| insulator | alveoli | armadillo | |
| density | inhalation | tessellation | |
| displacement | diffusion | deflection | |
| polymer | ligament | efferent | |
| composite | bronchioles | petiole | |
| conductor | diaphragm | convector | |
| brittle | asthma | allele | |
| corrode | contract | trisect | |
| tarnish | tendon | traction | |
| School 8 Year 7(1) Word set S | Life Processes | Light | |
|-------------------------------|----------------|-------|---|
| asexual reproduction | angle of incidence | Golgi apparatus | |
| fertilisation | primary colour | life expectancy | |
| adaptation | reflection | infarction | |
| gestation | refraction | titration | |
| placenta | spectrum | phylum | |
| cuttings | colour | culture | |
| gamete | normal | primate | |
| offspring | diffuse | deflect | |
| species | scattered | stamen | |
| clone | light | pitch | |
| School 8 Word set T Year 7(2) | Particles | Separation | |
|------------------------------|-----------|------------|---|
| solidifying | solubility | selectivity | |
| transition metals | chromatography | configuration | |
| word equation | distillation | tessellation | |
| properties | solution | infarction | |
| condensing | filtering | deflecting | |
| boiling | solute | primate | |
| melting | solvent | sapling | |
| School 8 Year 7(3) Word set U | Life Processes | Separation |
|-------------------------------|---------------|------------|
| asexual reproduction | solubility | selectivity|
| fertilisation | chromatography| configuration|
| adaptation | distillation | tessellation|
| gestation | solution | infarction |
| placenta | filtering | deflecting |
| gamete | solute | primate |
| cuttings | solvent | sapling |
| offspring | dissolve | dorsal |
| species | factor | frenum |
| clone | pure | pitch |
| School 8 Year 8 Word set V | Effect of Forces | Biological Energy Transfer |
|---------------------------|------------------|---------------------------|
| non-contact force | carbohydrates | dehydrated |
| balanced forces | trophic level | plasma membrane |
| gravity | producer | propulsion |
| density | chlorophyll | chrysalis |
| Newtons | biomass | baobab |
| upthrust | omnivore | ileum |
| volume | consumer | convector |
| friction | carnivore | thermistor |
| mass | starch | hertz |
| weight | prey | pitch |
## Appendix 6E
### Sample information on phonological complexity, imageability, concreteness, and frequency
Imageability is rated on a scale between 100 (low) to 700 (high), taken from the MRC psycholinguistic database (Wilson, 1987). Frequency is stated as a value on the Zipf scale between 1 (low) and 7 (high) (Van Heuven et al., 2014). The MRC psycholinguistic database and the Zipf scale database do not give information for phrases, therefore values for each word are listed separately. Where the database contains no information about a word, it has been ascribed the value of 0.
| Topic 1 | Atoms elements and molecules |
|---------|------------------------------|
| | Syllables | Phonological structure | Zipf frequency | Imageability | Concrete/abstract |
| chemical reaction | 6 | CVCV/CVCVCCVC | 4.11 4.64 | 0 395 | A |
| irreversible | 5 | VCVCVCVVC | 2.86 | 0 | A |
| observation | 4 | VCCVCVVC | 3.70 | 345 | A |
| word equation | 4 | CVC VCCVCV | 5.29 3.74 | 0 | C |
| molecule | 3 | CVCCVCVC | 3.17 | 470 | A |
| element | 3 | VCVCVCC | 4.46 | 0 | A |
| reactant | 3 | CVCCVCVC | 1.65 | 0 | A |
| compound | 2 | CVCCVC | 3.79 | 0 | A |
| symbol | 2 | CVCCVC | 4.23 | 447 | C |
| atom | 2 | VCVC | 3.61 | 499 | A |
| Topic 2 | Mixtures and separations |
|---------|--------------------------|
| | Syllables | Phonological structure | Zipf frequency | Imageability | Concrete/abstract |
| paper chromatography | 7 | CVCV CCVCVCVCCVC | 1.60 | 590 0 | C |
| evaporation | 5 | VCVCVCVVC | 2.65 | 0 | A |
| separation | 4 | CVCCVCVVC | 3.66 | 435 | A |
| Bunsen burner | 4 | CVCCVC CVCCV | 2.85 3.66 | 0 488 | C |
| filtration | 3 | CVCCCVCVC | 2.42 | 0 | A |
| solution | 3 | CVCVVC | 4.56 | 391 | A |
| condenser | 3 | CVCCVCC | 2.40 | 0 | C |
| solvent | 2 | CVCCVC | 2.83 | 0 | A |
| funnel | 2 | CVVC | 3.26 | 0 | C |
| solute | 2 | CVCCVC | 1.18 | 0 | A |
| Golgi apparatus | 6 | CVCCV VCVCVCVC | 0 3.44 | 0 | A |
| phylogenetic | 5 | CVCCVCVVC | 0 0 | 0 | A |
| phospholipid | 4 | CVCCVCVVC | 0 0 | 0 | A |
| plasma membrane | 4 | CCVCV CVCCCCVC | 3.38 3.33 | 0 | A |
| infarction | 3 | VCCVCVC | 2.13 | 0 | A |
| amylase | 3 | VCVCVC | 2.37 | 0 | A |
| hydrella | 3 | CVCCVC | 0 0 | 0 | C |
| allele | 2 | VCVC | 2.00 | 0 | A |
| stoma | 2 | CCVCV | 1.95 | 0 | A |
| primate | 2 | CCVCVC | 3.17 | 0 | C |
| Topic 1 | The periodic table | Active control | Usual teaching practice | Word set B | School 1 | Year 8 | Participants 3,9,10,11,14 |
|---------|-------------------|----------------|------------------------|------------|---------|-------|--------------------------|
| | | Phonological structure | Zipf frequency | Imageability | Concrete/abstract | Topic 2 | Unicellular organisms | Syllables | Phonological structure | Zipf frequency | Imageability | Concrete/abstract | Topic 2 | Unicellular organisms | Syllables | Phonological structure | Zipf frequency | Imageability | Concrete/abstract |
| pH indicator | 6 | CV VCCVCVVC | 3.00 3.37 | 0 | C | microorganism | 6 | CVCCVVVCVVC | 1.39 | 0 | A | Golgi apparatus | 6 | CVCCV VCVCVC | 1.47 3.44 | 0 | A |
| alkali metals | 5 | VCCVCV CVCVCC | 2.76 3.60 | 432 | A | unicellular | 5 | CVCVCVCCVC | 1.39 | 0 | A | phylogenetic | 5 | CVCVCVCCVC | 0 | 0 | A |
| noble gases | 4 | CVCVC CVCVC | 4.11 3.60 | 0 | A | disinfectant | 4 | CVCVCVCCVCC | 2.69 | 529 | A | phospholipid | 4 | CVCVCVCCVC | 0 | 0 | A |
| malleable | 4 | CVCVCVC | 2.56 | 0 | A | antiseptic | 4 | VCCVCVCCVC | 2.81 | 0 | A | hierarchy | 4 | CVC | 3.44 | 0 | A |
| property | 3 | CCVCVCV | 5.37 | 466 | A | chlorophyll | 3 | CCVCVCV | 2.56 | 0 | A | infarction | 3 | VCCVCVC | 2.13 | 0 | A |
| periods | 3 | CVCVCC | 3.89 | 429 | C | chromosome | 3 | CCVCVCV | 2.69 | 0 | A | amylase | 3 | VCVCV | 2.37 | 0 | A |
| halogens | 3 | CVCVCVCC | 2.17 | 0 | A | flagellum | 3 | CCVCVCV | 1.70 | 0 | A | hydrilla | 3 | CVCCVCV | 0 | 0 | C |
| melting point | 3 | CVCCVCVCC | 3.78 5.60 | 481 | A | Petri dish | 3 | CVCCV CVC | 2.56 4.94 | 0 | 0 | C | bond angle | 3 | CVCC VCCVC | 4.46 4.45 | 380 503 | A |
| flexible | 3 | CCVCVCVCC | 3.98 | 0 | A | cilium | 3 | CVCVCV | 1.17 | 0 | A | isomer | 3 | VCVCV | 1.30 | 0 | A |
| brittle | 2 | CCVCVC | 3.38 | 0 | A | fungus | 2 | CVCCVC | 3.48 | 0 | C | stoma | 2 | CCVCV | 1.95 | 0 | A |
## Appendix 6F
### Student language and cognitive profiles of whole student cohort who were assessed at baseline (N=103)
| Assessment | Mean SS (SD) | Minimum | Maximum | Number (%) with SS <85 |
|-------------------------------------------------|----------------|---------|---------|------------------------|
| CATV (N=77)* † | 77.85 (6.68) | 59 | 104 | 100 (97.1%) |
| CATNV (N=94)** † | 87.67 (8.32) | 73 | 111 | 39 (41.5%) |
| BPVS-3 | 79.79 (9.68) | 69 | 111 | 77 (74.8%) |
| WASI-2 Vocabulary | 88.66 (9.13) | 67 | 109 | 32 (31.1%) |
| WASI-2 Matrix Reasoning | 92.63 (11.15) | 64 | 125 | 26 (25.2%) |
| CELF-4 UK Recalling Sentences | 81.00 (14.89) | 56 | 120 | 56 (54.4%) |
| PhAB Spoonerisms | 89.80 (8.82) | 69 | 119 | 22 (21.4%) |
| WMTBC Listening Recall | 90.31 (18.05) | 57 | 127 | 34 (33%) |
* Access Reading Test standard scores for participants from school 8.
**No non-verbal measure available for participants from school 8.
† School did not supply data for ID 65.
Appendix 6G
Word knowledge assessment flow chart
(read sections in *italics*)
What does ________________ mean?
Student gives incorrect definition
I don’t know
Can you tell me anything about what it means? †
No
Red
Tell me what you know
Student gives definition from a different context
Student shows some understanding of the word, for example what it’s to do with, what group it belongs to.
Can you tell me more exactly what it means in science? ‡‡
No
Amber
Student produces the word and gives correct definition in the context of science
Green *
Student uses the word in an appropriate sentence.
Can you use the word in a sentence?
No
Green
† Once the student is familiar with the protocol, this question can be omitted if it is clear that the student has thought about it before giving a “red” response.
‡‡ Once the student is familiar with the protocol, this question can be omitted if it is clear that the student has given their best answer, e.g. if they say “and that’s all I know.”
| | Word | Red | Amber | Green |
|---|----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | venation | | | The arrangement of veins in a leaf or in an insect’s wing. |
| | | | | The system of venous blood vessels in an animal. |
| 2 | echo | | Bounces off object (no mention of sound) | a reflection of a sound wave by an object so that a weaker version is detected after the original |
| | | | Gives example of place | Sound bounces back off the walls |
| | | | Sound carries on / repeats | |
| | | | In a cave it can echo | |
| 3 | joules | What women wear | Measuring something | The SI unit of energy, equal to the work it takes to make a watt |
| | | A cell | Something with energy | of power for a second, or to move a body one meter with a one-Newton force. |
| 4 | amplify | | | To make louder |
| 5 | pivot | A dot | A point | The point around which a lever turns. |
| | | | Describes pivoting on your foot in sport | |
| 6 | atrophy | | | To waste away, to decline due to underuse |
| 7 | property | Be careful with the school’s property | Something you own / belongs to you | How a material behaves and what it is like. |
| | | Buy a house | Each element has a property. | |
| | | Where I live | How big it is. | |
| | | Stolen someone’s property | | |
| | | Step onto someone’s property | | |
| 8 | solvent | A chemical Mixture | The liquid Water is the solvent | The liquid in which a substance dissolves to make a solution. |
| 9 | reflect | You see someone | What a mirror does | to throw back by a surface light, heat, or sound without absorbing it. |
| 10| concretion| | | A hard, solid mass formed by the local accumulation of matter, |
| | | | | especially within the body or within a mass of sediment. |
| 11| audible | | Got something on audio. | Able to be heard |
| | Term | Definition | Example | Description |
|---|----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 12| decibel | A sound wave | Volume | A unit of sound intensity or loudness
A measure of sound |
| 13| visceral | | | Relating to the internal organs of animals in the thoracic and abdominal cavities |
| 14| atom | Part of your body
A circle
A star
A cell
A planet
Circles in a square box | Inside a particle
A round thing in objects
Molecule is 2, atom is 1
Solid – together: liquid – spread out: gas – more spread out.
Gives example | The smallest particle from which all substances are made. |
| 15| pitch | Pitch black, pitch white
How you say something
Volume | Speaking/singing high or low
Voice goes up and down
football pitch | A property of sound determined by its frequency
How low or high a sound is |
| 16| compression | | something pushing against something [no mention of particles]
gestures pressing together | The squashing together of particles |
| 17| latency | | | A time interval between the stimulation and response, or between cause and effect |
| 18| soluble | Strong
The thing you put in the solution | Solid to not solid | A substance that will dissolve in a liquid |
| 19| contract | Metal contracts heat | Describes ['kontrakt'] e.g. football, house
Describes contractions e.g. when a woman gives birth | Get smaller |
| 20| vibration | When an object vibrates
Bounces off the wall | movement [and gestures]
Your phone vibrates [indicates movement]
Making a noise and shakes
Sound waves moving | Movement continuously and rapidly to and fro |
| 21| frequency | You measure it
Volume
How much
Rub your hands | How many times
Closer = higher, further = lower | The number of complete waves produced in one second (measured in hertz) |
| 22| product | Make a product item | Something you make
Something you buy | New chemical formed in a chemical reaction. |
| 23| allele | | | Each of two or more alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are found at the same place on a chromosome. |
| 24| condensation | In your house mi | On the window
Steam | When a substance changes from gas to liquid |
| 25| hertz | electricity | measures something | The SI (International System of Units) unit of frequency. Equals the number of cycles per second |
| | Word | Definition | Examples | Meaning |
|---|-------|------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 26| constrict | | | Make narrower, especially by encircling pressure |
| 27| solution | Plan | a solution to a problem | When a substance has dissolved in a liquid. Solutions are transparent. |
| | | Conclusion | solvent and something else = solution | |
| | | Finish | idea | |
| | | Result | a plan for when something bad happens | |
| | | Guess the answer | | |
| 28| compound | A bunch of words | two things stick together | A substance made of two or more elements joined together. |
| | | Solid | [describes] a compound sentence | An example is given. |
| | | Tight substance | Cake is a compound | Two atoms put together |
| | | Something inside another | [indicates] a fenced area | |
| | | | A dog place | |
| | | | Pushing down on something makes it one compound things together (+gesture) | |
| 29| element | The main thing | Earth, fire, water, air | Substances consisting of atoms of only one type |
| | | | You’re in your element – you’re really happy | |
| | | | Gives examples | |
| | | | Type of molecule | |
| | | | Microscopic things you can’t see | |
| | | | Bigger than an atom but smaller than a compound | |
| 30| pliable | | | Easily bent; flexible. |
1 The girl’s arsonphobia was so severe and perseverant that she could not even light the candles on her birthday cake.
2 Claire heard a sudden crash up in the loft. She was all alone and felt really scared. She slowly and timorously climbed up the stairs. The noise was loud and piercing and reverberated through the house.
(Joffe, 2011, pp.295 & 291)
## Appendix 6J
### Independent word learning assessment scoring guidelines
| Passages | score 1 | score 0 |
|-------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| arsonphobia | disease / sick<br>scared<br>fear-of-fire / afraid of candles | phobia / infection / allergic / condition / problem<br>afraid of something incorrect e.g. guns can’t move, light |
| perseverant | Persistence<br>Keeps going | keep trying<br>bad / severe<br>persevere |
| timorously | fear / nervous / worried / timid<br>insecure | quietly / slowly / carefully |
| reverberating | shaking / carrying on / echoing / repeating / vibrating | through the house<br>loud<br>travelling |
| piercing | sharpness / shrillness / squeaky / high-pitched<br>annoying for your ears | through the house<br>really loud<br>put a hole in it |
| loft | upstairs place in the house | place |
| Severe | really bad | |
| Strategies | score 1 | score 0 |
|-------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| ask peer e.g. friend / sibling | guess / just try / think / figure it out | |
| ask adult e.g. teacher / parent / put hand up | revise | |
| look it up: google / internet / website / iPad / search / research / investigate | leave it out | |
| look it up: dictionary / glossary / vocab book / thesaurus / library / displays | practise | |
| break word down / spell it out / look at the word / look at the syllables | read books / read your science book | |
| use a different word and see if it makes sense | use a different word | |
| look at the rest of the sentence | write it in your vocab book | |
| try to use it in a sentence | draw a picture | |
| See it’s a noun, verb, or adjective | listen | |
| Term 3 Chemical reactions | Date word was introduced as new | How many times did you say each new word? | What strategies/activities did you use to teach new words? |
|---------------------------|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
| reactants | 6th Jan | 5 | All new key words are on all power point slides and the students at the start of the lesson indicate if they know the meaning of the word. Students repeat the key words three times out loud. |
| neutralisation | | | |
| carbonate | 11th Jan | 8 | |
| hydrocarbon | | | |
| fuels | 16th Jan | 10 | |
| chemical change | 4th Jan | 15 | When the key word is used in an explanation, the key word is pointed to on the powerpoint slide. |
| products | 6th Jan | 10 | Differentiated questions are used at some point during the lesson and the students choose the question they can answer. If this involves writing sentences the key words that they have to include are shown in the question. |
| sulphate | | | |
| carbon dioxide | 11th Jan | 10 | At the end of the lesson the key words are returned to and the students write a definition or words that go with the key word depending on their ability. |
| limewater | 11th Jan | 10 | Bingo is used as a plenary, this is a definition |
| corrode | 6th Jan | 3 | |
| explosives | 18th Jan | 3 | |
| word equation | 11th Jan | 5 | Splat is used as a plenary. Definition of words are given and the students have to race each other to splat the correct word. |
| oxide | 18th Jan | 10 | Round the world is a plenary where students are asked questions and the answer is one of the key words, first one to shout it wins. |
| hydrogen | 8th Jan | 10 | |
| combustion | 16th Jan | 10 | |
| physical change | 4th Jan | 15 | |
Appendix 6L
Student questionnaire
Now I’m going to ask you a few questions about what you’ve been doing in science lately.
Have you done any new things in class to help you learn and remember new words?
Yes
No
I’m going to show you some things that your teacher may have used in science in the last few weeks. You can tell me if you can remember them and how helpful they were for learning and remembering new words. This is a smiley face checklist. Do you remember doing one of these?
What activities did you do?
................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
(Show each activity one by one and show rating scale)
How helpful was it for helping you learn new words on a scale from 1 to 5; was it not at all helpful, not very helpful, you don’t know whether it was helpful or not, quite helpful, or very helpful?
| | Not at all helpful | Not very helpful | Don’t know | Quite helpful | Very helpful | Can’t remember activity | Comments |
|----------------------|--------------------|------------------|------------|---------------|--------------|-------------------------|----------|
| Smiley face checklist| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | |
| Word map | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | |
| Word-wise quickie | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | |
| Word bingo | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | |
| Word detective prompt card | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | |
| Key word sheet | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | |
Your teacher might also have put up pictures on the walls with the words next to them. Can you remember that? (If yes) How helpful was it?
Words displayed with a picture | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | |
When you’ve got new words to learn, what would be the best way for you to learn and remember new words? Would you prefer to do activities like these:
a. As a whole class in lessons
b. In small groups out of class with a teaching assistant
c. One to one out of class with a teaching assistant
d. Or something different? (If so) What?
(for all options) Why?
Appendix 6M
Likert scale prompt card
| Not at all helpful | Not very helpful | Don’t know | Quite helpful | Very helpful | Can’t remember activity |
|--------------------|-----------------|------------|---------------|--------------|-------------------------|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
Model of delivery prompt card
Whole class in lessons
Small groups out of class
One to one out of class
Or something different?
Appendix 6N
Teacher questionnaire post-intervention
Name (optional).......................................................... Date ..........................
Please circle the number which best matches your agreement with the following statements.
1 “I am confident at teaching vocabulary to students aged 11 – 16 years who have language difficulties.”
| Strongly disagree | Disagree | Undecided | Agree | Strongly agree |
|-------------------|----------|-----------|-------|----------------|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
2 Had you ever used any of these activities before?
| Activity | Yes / No |
|---------------------------------|----------|
| Self-rating assessment | |
| Key words displayed with visual image | |
| Word detective | |
| Word map | |
| Word wise quickie | |
| Sound and meaning bingo | |
| Key word sheet | |
3 “The activities were easy to implement.”
| Activity | Strongly disagree | Disagree | Undecided | Agree | Strongly agree |
|---------------------------------|-------------------|----------|-----------|-------|----------------|
| Self-rating assessment | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Key words displayed with visual image | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Word detective | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Word map | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Word wise quickie | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Sound and meaning bingo | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Key word sheet | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
4 “The activities were effective in enabling students to learn the curriculum vocabulary.”
| | Strongly disagree | Disagree | Undecided | Agree | Strongly agree |
|--------------------------------------|-------------------|----------|-----------|-------|----------------|
| Self-rating assessment | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Key words displayed with visual image| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Word detective | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Word map | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Word wise quickie | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Sound and meaning bingo | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Key word sheet | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
5 “I will use these activities again.”
| | Strongly disagree | Disagree | Undecided | Agree | Strongly agree |
|--------------------------------------|-------------------|----------|-----------|-------|----------------|
| Self-rating assessment | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Key words displayed with visual image| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Word detective | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Word map | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Word wise quickie | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Sound and meaning bingo | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Key word sheet | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
6 “I found the teacher / speech and language therapist collaboration helpful.”
| Strongly disagree | Disagree | Undecided | Agree | Strongly agree |
|-------------------|----------|-----------|-------|----------------|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
7 Has participating in this project changed your practice? Yes / No
If yes, how? ...........................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................
8 Please add any further comments you wish to about the project ........................
..................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................
316
It would be helpful if you would answer a few questions about yourself:
9 Your gender. M / F
10 What subject did you study for your degree? ..................................................................
11 How many years’ overall teaching experience do you have? ...........................................
12 How many years’ experience do you have teaching science in secondary school? ............
13 How much training in speech, language and communication needs have you had?
.................. days ............... hours
Details of training ........................................................................................................................
Thank you for all your help with our project.
Please return this questionnaire to Mrs Billie Lowe.
Appendix 6O
Sample self-rating checklist template
Name ................................................................. Date ...........................................
How well do I know what these words mean?
| Word | Not at all | A bit | Very well |
|----------|------------|-------|-----------|
| amplify | | | |
| audible | | | |
| compression | | | |
| decibel | | | |
| echo | | | |
| frequency | | | |
| hertz | | | |
| pitch | | | |
| reflect | | | |
| vibration | | | |
Appendix 6P
Sample self-rating checklist completed (ID 83)
Name................................................................................................................................. Date 96/04/17
End of topic
How well do I know what these words mean?
| Word | Not at all | A bit | Very well |
|--------------|------------|-------|-----------|
| chromatography | ✓ | | |
| dissolve | | ✓ | |
| distillation | ✓ | | |
| factor | | ✓ | |
| filtering | ✓ | | |
| pure | | ✓ | |
| solubility | ✓ | | |
| solute | | ✓ | |
| solution | | ✓ | |
| solvent | | ✓ | |
Separation – word learning booklet
Name................................................................................................................................. Date ..............................................
Start of topic
How well do I know what these words mean?
| Word | Not at all | A bit | Very well |
|--------------|------------|-------|-----------|
| chromatography | ✓ | | |
| dissolve | | ✓ | |
| distillation | ✓ | | |
| factor | | ✓ | |
| filtering | ✓ | | |
| pure | | ✓ | |
| solubility | ✓ | | |
| solute | | ✓ | |
| solution | | ✓ | |
| solvent | | ✓ | |
reflect
Appendix 6R
Word detective prompt card
Be a word detective
| Look | at the word |
|------|-------------|
| Look | around the word |
| Ask | a friend |
| Look | it up |
Appendix 6S
Word map
Word map
Where do you find it?
What parts does it have?
What group does it belong to?
What else?
What do you do with it? / What does it do?
How many syllables?
What sound does it start with?
What does it rhyme with?
Appendix 6T
Example of a completed word map (ID 29)
What do you do with it? / What does it do?
How well you can hear.
Where do you find it?
Cars
Audible Range
What parts does it have?
lowest highest
What group does it belong to?
Noun
What else?
30 27000
How many syllables?
3
What sound does it start with?
10
What does it rhyme with?
?
Appendix 6U
Word-wise quickie
Word Wise Quickie
Think of a meaning
Think of a sound
Think of a sentence
(Elks & McLachlan, 2008)
Appendix 6V
Example of a completed bingo sheet (ID 90)
Keyword Bingo
| Solvent | filtering |
|---------|-----------|
| dissolve | factor |
| solvent | pure |
| dissolve | pure |
|----------|------|
| Solvent | Solution |
| distillation | factor |
(729)
Appendix 6W
Key word sheet
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
Appendix 6X
Example of a completed key word sheet (ID 27)
Appendix 6Y
Sample teacher training presentation
Vocabulary Intervention for Adolescents with Language Difficulties: A Training Manual
Billie Lowe
Supervisors Prof Victoria Joffe
Prof Lucy Henry
December 2016
Speech and Language Therapists and Teachers working together
Plan for today
• Why is vocabulary important?
• How do we learn new words?
• Practice
• Recording
• Planning.
Why is it important?
Vocabulary and academic success
Language and behaviour
Language and socialisation
Specialist
Targeted
Universal
### Whole class
| | ✔️ |
|------------------------|----|
| Missing lessons | |
| Student preference to stay in lessons | ✔️ |
| SLT and TA resources | ✔️ |
| Applicability to curriculum | ✔️ |
| Tailored to students’ needs | ✔️ |
Yes, we can, and this is how...
### How do we learn new words?
- **Form**
- Sound = Phonology
- **Content**
- Meaning = Semantics
- **Use**
- Pragmatics
Bloom and Lahey (1978)
### Spoken Language Processing
**INPUT**
**OUTPUT**
### Input errors
- prepare
- predict
- prevent
- present
- produce
### Output errors
- straw tree
- symphony
- knife
- marshmallow
### Students self-rate their word knowledge
| Word | Not at all | A bit | Very well |
|---------------|------------|-------|-----------|
| zodiographer | | | |
| tachyphagia | | | |
| gambrinous | | | |
### Display key words with visual image
Zodiographer
### What can I do if I don’t know what a word means?
Be a word detective
Look at the word
Look around the word
Ask a friend
Look it up
Present the word in context and model being a word detective
“White tailed deer, as well as an abundance of smaller wildlife, already frequented the ranch, so this was an ideal place for the zodiographer to do his work.”
Teach with a word map
Where do you find it?
What parts does it have?
What group does it belong to?
What else?
What does it rhyme With?
What sound does it start with?
How many syllables?
What do you do with it? / What does it do?
© Elks and McLachlan 2008
Revise with a word wise quickie
Word Wise Quickie
Think of a meaning
Think of a sound
Think of a sentence
© Elks and McLachlan 2008
Practise with sound and meaning bingo
zodiographer dog
tachyphagia elephant
Give each student their own key word sheet
Remove key words and visual images
Students self-rate their word knowledge again
| Word | Not at all | A bit | Very well |
|------------|------------|-------|-----------|
| zodiographer | | | |
| tachyphagia | | | |
| gambrinous | | | |
Choose a word from your own subject and do a word map.
- Where do you find it?
- What parts does it have?
- What group does it belong to?
- What else?
- What sound does it start with?
- What does it rhyme with?
© Elks and McLachlan 2008
Planning
- Incorporate the 10 experimental words into your planning
- Each word to have either a word map or a word wise quickie
- Decide on 5 to explain using a word map
- Decide on 5 to revise using the word wise quickie
- Decide on 3 words to practise being a word detective
- Think of clues for sound and meaning bingo.
And finally...
- Display word detective, word map, and word wise quickie.
- Keep participating students’ worksheets
- Record of attendance
- Lesson observations
- Keep in touch: firstname.lastname@example.org
Y7(2)
chromatography dissolve distillation factor filtering
Y7(1)
biomass carbohydrates carnivore chlorophyll consumer omnivore prey producer starch trophic level angle of incidence colour diffuse light normal pure solubility solute solution solvent primary colour reflection refraction scattered spectrum
Lesson Starter | In body of lesson | Finisher 1 | Finisher 2
---|---|---|---
1 Self-rating | 5 Word map – 15 | Key word sheet 4
Before next lesson, display words with visual image
2 Word detective | 4 Word map – 10 | Key word sheet 2
3 Word detective | 2 Word map – 10 | Key word sheet 2
4 Word detective | 2 Word map – 10 | Key word sheet 2
5 Word map – 10 | Word wise quickie – 2 | Key word sheet 2
6
7 Sound and meaning bingo – 8 | Word wise quickie – 1 | Key word sheet 2
8 Sound and meaning bingo – 6 | Word wise quickie – 1 | Key word sheet 2
9 Sound and meaning bingo – 6 | Word wise quickie – 1 | Key word sheet 2
10 Key word sheet – 2 | Self-rating – 3 |
| Topic 2 Term 3/4 Light | Date word was introduced as new | How many times did you say each new word on that date? | What activities did you use to teach key words? |
|------------------------|---------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
| | | | Word detective (3) | Word map (5) | Word wise quickie (5) | Sound and meaning bingo (3) | Key word sheet (10) | Visual images displayed |
| incident ray | 9/2/17 | 6 | 9/2/17 | | | 9/2/17 | 9/2/17 | 2/2/17 |
| luminous | 3/1/17 | 5 | | | | 23/2/17 | 9/2/17 | 2/2/17 |
| normal | 9/2/17 | 5 | 9/2/17 | 9/2/17 | | | 9/2/17 | 9/2/17 |
| opaque | 2/2/17 | 6 | | 2/2/17 | | 23/2/17 | 2/2/17 | 2/2/17 |
| reflect | 3/1/17 | 6 | 3/1/17 | | | 23/2/17 | 2/2/17 | 9/2/17 |
| refraction | 3/1/17 | 4 | | | | 23/2/17 | 9/2/17 | 9/2/17 |
| scatter | 2/2/17 | 3 | | | | 23/2/17 | 9/2/17 | 9/2/17 |
| spectrum | 3/1/17 | 5 | 3/1/17 | | | | 9/2/17 | 9/2/17 |
| translucent | 1/2/17 | 5 | | 1/2/17 | | | 2/2/17 | 2/2/17 |
| transparent | 1/2/17 | 6 | | 1/4/17 | | | 9/2/17 | 2/2/17 |
Other: please list:
Please keep a record of participating students' attendance
## Appendix 7A
### Group mean scores for depth of word knowledge: all timepoints
| | Time 1 $M (SD)$ | Time 2 $M (SD)$ | Time 3 $M (SD)$ | Time 4 $M (SD)$ |
|--------------------------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| Usual teaching practice | 4.14 (2.75) | 5.72 (3.29) | 5.38 (3.36) | 5.59 (3.261) |
| condition out of 20 | | | | |
| Experimental condition | 3.14 (2.42) | 3.50 (2.51) | 6.96 (3.87) | 6.17 (3.80) |
| out of 20 | | | | |
| No-intervention condition | .92 (1.27) | .99 (1.47) | .90 (1.37) | 1.19 (1.77) |
| out of 20 | | | | |
### Group mean scores for expressive word use: all timepoints
| | Time 1 $M (SD)$ | Time 2 $M (SD)$ | Time 3 $M (SD)$ | Time 4 $M (SD)$ |
|--------------------------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| Usual teaching practice | .58 (.91) | .96 (1.39) | .97 (1.37) | 1.06 (1.13) |
| condition out of 10 | | | | |
| Experimental condition | .33 (.62) | .45 (.73) | 1.78 (1.80) | 1.49 (1.65) |
| out of 10 | | | | |
| No-intervention condition | .15 (.40) | .08 (.31) | .14 (.35) | .19 (.51) |
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Accomodating Commodes!
Whatever one calls it -- 'latrine', 'loo', 'WC', 'john', 'can' or just plain old toilet -- without the invention of the modern flush toilet, high density cities would not be possible. And yet, perhaps because of its simplicity and ubiquity, it is assumed the toilet has been around for a long time. In fact, the modern flush toilet is a relatively new device developed in the same era that begot train travel and wire communication: the industrial revolution during the middle and late nineteenth century. And as with much of the industrial revolution, England was the cradle.
A Brief History of the ‘Loo’
Archaeologists have found the world’s oldest ‘water closet’ (W.C.) in north-west India which is estimated to be 4,000 years old. Instead of a flush with a handle, people would tip a pot of water into the loo. This would rinse away the waste through pipes and into drains, which were underneath the streets.
Although several of the more advanced ancient civilizations such as Greek, Indian and Roman had systems of aqueducts that provided running water to citizens in the larger cities, none of the ancient civilizations developed a device or method to use the water source to remove waste from individual residences. Roman cities instead had many public toilets. In 315 AD, Rome itself had 144 of them and some were very large. Besides stopping by for the intended use, Romans used public latrines to meet friends, exchange news and gossip.
In Medieval times most homes had chamberpots which were emptied into the streets which had open drains so it was easy to empty the pots. You just chucked the contents out of the window. When people flung their waste out of, they would shout “Gardez l’eau” (“watch out for the water”) We may get the word “loo” from this expression, although some people think it comes from “Room 100” which is what Europeans used to call the bathroom.
During the time of Henry VIII, courtiers at Hampton Court shared a ‘great house of easement’ with 28 seats on two different levels. It emptied into brick-lined drains, which carried the waste into the River Thames. A team of ‘gong scourers’ cleaned these royal loos. Gong scourers were boys small enough to crawl along the drains -- not a sought-after position, one could be sure!
While the servants shared the house of easement, Tudor kings did their royal business on a luxurious ‘close stool’. This was a large bucket and water tank,
President’s Message
The Most Important Day of My Life is Today
Enlightenment or having a moment of sudden revelation (an epiphany) can come to us in places we least expect. Yesterday I went to my favourite shoe-repair person, and above his little work-bench was a sign that read “The Most Important Day of My Life is Today.” That philosophic gem is as profound as it is simple. However, before that thought can be accepted further, and not dismissed as mere bumper-sticker material, we must ask ourselves, “important for what”.
To me, and I hope you, something is important only if it benefits others. Otherwise, in the end, what else was it other than selfish indulgence or a waste of time. We do not want to be that feverish selfish clod from Shaw’s play “Man and Superman” when he wrote:
“This is the true joy of life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one…instead of [being] a feverish selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy….I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it what I can. For the harder I work, the more I live…..Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
That torch, of which Shaw spoke, we now hold. It represents the hope of all those who need our help. It represents the plea from the many who are much less fortunate than ourselves. Let us not let the flame of that torch go out.
Of course, we need time to rest and recharge. We also need time when we may relax. However, if there was no reason to re-charge and regain our strength, or to “stay in shape”, other than because we feel good doing it, we have missed the whole point of being members of the human race.
A few weeks ago Wendy Ladner-Beaudry left her home for a run expecting to return in an hour. Tragically, she never did as some despicable person took her life. We never know what the future holds for us. Wendy had lead an exemplary life, full of good deeds, kindness, love and of being of service to others.
At the Memorial for Wendy, it was said that she asked certain questions of herself before she said or did anything. These questions can serve as a guide for all of us to help us lead caring, compassionate and meaningful lives. Wendy’s questions were:
Is it true?
Is it kind?
Is it necessary?
At Wendy’s memorial one of the speakers quoted a passage from William Penn that I came across many years ago because it was taped on to the refrigerator of my Aunt Hazel (Donner). Penn said:
“I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to a fellow being, let me do it now, as I shall not pass this way again.”
I know I have often quoted to you the following passage from Emerson, but these days I believe these words are worth repeating:
“You can never do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon will be too late.”
Martin Donner
President,
Vancouver Chapter
Editor’s Message
You might say that since surgery, all of us have developed, shall we say, a more ‘intimate’ relationship with our toilets. After all, we spend more time with them than the rest of the general population. We appreciate, perhaps more keenly, their design, their cleanliness, their efficiency, (and above all, their AVAILABILITY) but have you ever given any thought to the lowly loo’s history? That and lots of other toilet trivia are in this month’s newsletter. You can call it the “All Toilet Issue”.
The Okanagan Chapter has announced the dates for the Regional Ostomy Conference in October: the conference dates are October 2, 3 and 4. (Friday to Sunday) Details regarding workshops and activities will be published as they become available. (It’s wine season, so local wine tours will be in the plan!) Room rates at press time are $149.00 a night. This is a good opportunity for those who normally cannot spare the time or money to attend conferences back east to check out an ostomy conference closer to home.
The Coquitlam Chapter has announced it will be disbanding, which is very unfortunate. I would like at this point to personally thank Sandra Dunbar, former Visiting Coordinator for the Coquitlam chapter for her advice and encouragement during my early days when I was learning to run training seminars. Thanks for all your help and support, Sandra (and the wine!) I would like to invite any Coquitlam visitors who wish to continue doing patient visits to contact me. I would be very pleased to meet you.
Debra
THANK YOU
Dear Board and Members of the Vancouver Chapter,
On behalf of Friend of Ostomates Worldwide Canada I thank you for making a number of ostomy supply donations. Ten boxes of Ostomate supplies I received February 23, 2009, four boxes on March 2, 2009, one box on March 3, 2009 and ten more boxes on March 23, 2009 all here in Ottawa, Ontario. Such contributions help to make the quality of life of less fortunate Ostomates in other parts of the world more manageable. Your contributions will help us in continuing our program.
Please give our sincere thanks to everybody helping in collection and shipping these boxes. We appreciate that your chapter is so supportive of FOWC and hope you continue that support.
I also hope I will meet many of your chapter members at the August AGM here in Ottawa.
Sincerely,
Astrid Graham
CHAPTERS ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
Moving to the island or just wanting to connect with island ostomates in your area?
Vancouver Island has two chapters, in Victoria and in Nanaimo, each with a satellite group. The Victoria Chapter meets in the Woodward Room, Begbie Hall, Royal Jubilee Hospital at 2:00 pm, the 2nd Sunday as follows: September through November and February through June. No meeting in January. Instead of a December meeting, they come together for our annual Christmas Sunday brunch and social, early in the month, with friends and family invited to join in.
The Central Island Ostomy Chapter meets every third Monday of the month at 7:00 pm in the Nanaimo Health Unit, 1655 Grant Ave., Nanaimo. For details, call 250-758-3363.
The Courtenay Satellite meets at 7:00 pm in the Comox Valley Nursing Centre, 961 England Ave., Courtenay. For details, call Joanne at 250-334-2481 or Pat at 250-334-4939
CONTACTS
Victoria Group:
Fred 250-385-3868 or
Maxine 250-477-0266
Nanaimo Chapter:
Eva 250-758-3363
Courtenay Satellite:
Joanne 250-334-2481 or
Pat 250-334-4939
COQUITLAM CHAPTER FOLDING
After many years of service and support to the ostomy community, the Coquitlam Chapter of the UOAC has regretfully decided to close its doors. This was not an easy decision for the executive to make, but in the face of dwindling meeting attendance and the lack of new volunteers to help out there was little choice. Remaining Coquitlam members who wish to continue belonging to a UOAC chapter are invited to join the Chilliwack or Vancouver chapters. The Vancouver chapter will offer the remaining year’s HighLife subscription free of charge to new Coquitlam members.
NEW UOAC WEBSITE
The United Ostomy Association of Canada has re-tooled their website with a fresh new look and expanded areas of interest to ostomates. Included are online forums and email discussions groups. Hey, they’re even on FaceBook! Check them out at:
http://www.ostomycanada.ca/
Okanagan Mainline Ostomy Association will host the PROVINCIAL CONFERENCE OCTOBER 2009 KELOWNA OCTOBER 2, 3 & 4
The proposed agenda will include:
• Provincial Assistance Program
• Representative from the Ministry of Health
• Doctor’s presentation on New Technology and Advancements in Ostomy Surgery
• “UOAC Future Directions”
with a padded seat. Henry VIII’s close stool had a padded seat, trimmed with silk ribbons and studded with gold nails.
Urinating in public for common folks was common -- you just availed yourself of the nearest back wall, animal pen or chimney corner. In Edinburgh, you could pay to use a portable toilet, which was a bucket with a tent-like cloak. Poor people would wipe themselves with leaves, moss or stones. Better off people used bits of old clothes. These contraptions, which were called “jakes” would be the forerunners of our modern portapotties.
During the 19th century the population in Britain had increased so greatly that in overcrowded cities such as Manchester and London, poor families had to share outdoor privies with many others in similar straits, causing the resulting tide of waste to overflow into the streets and find its way to the rivers. Needless to say, the Thames was becoming horribly polluted.
Because of this, the government decreed in 1848 that every new house should have a water closet or ash-pit privy. This was a loo which had a pile of ash instead of water underneath. ‘Night soil men’ would come to empty the ash-pits. Again, not a sought-after job!
In 1858 a heatwave caused the ‘big stink’. London smelled bad, bad, bad. The government had a new sewer system built, which was finished in 1865. It meant toilet waste would get taken away instead of going into the river or staying near houses. Although many houses weren’t connected to a sewer system or piped water until the 20th century, people stopped dying en masse of cholera and typhoid. Public toilets, known as ‘halt ing stations’, were redesigned too. The normal charge to use them was one penny, hence the modern-day term ‘spending a penny’ as a reference to using a toilet.
With rapidly growing populations and increasing pollution problems, cities in Europe and America needed to find a way to get rid of citizens’ waste in a more efficient and sanitary manner.
**Enter the flush toilet**
There is some disagreement regarding who is the official inventor of the flush toilet. (Many people think Thomas Crapper invented it, but he didn’t. His name is associated with toilets because his company made them, and his products had his name on them. But the term has stuck and poor Thomas’ innocent last name has become slang for faeces!) Because the patent offices of England and the United States have maintained several hundred years of records for patent applications, the inventors of sanitary equipment are fairly well documented. Credit for the invention of the toilet is usually bestowed on Sir John Harington, a relative of the Queen, as far back as 1596. It was claimed two models were actually made and used. None survived, if they even existed at all. (One theory holds that Harington’s friends made such fun of his invention that he never pursued its widespread manufacture) But crediting Harington for inventing the toilet is the same as anointing Leonardo Da Vinci as father of the helicopter. Conceptionally they may have had a good idea, but making it actually function is something entirely different. Approximately two hundred years later in 1775, Alexander Cummings received an English patent for putting a water trap under a bowl. This was a major advancement towards a true functioning toilet yet nothing changed in the general market. In fact, until iron foundries improved cast iron pipe and potteries improved terra cotta pipe in the 1800’s, if there had been a functioning toilet, it would have been placed in the outhouse anyway.
The first waste removal devices for residences in England and the United States during the nineteenth century were mechanical not hydraulic. “The earthcloset” was something of a portable outhouse found in many houses. Dry granular clay was dispensed from a hopper into a box to desiccate waste and prevent odor. When the box was full the earth and waste could be removed for disposal elsewhere. It was a semi-automated kitty litter box for people. (The boxes were hidden in household closets when not in use; later on when water was introduced instead of clay, the term ‘closet’ still stuck, hence the term ‘water closet’ or ‘WC.’) All this was a small improvement over a hole in the backyard with a bench over it.
The first workable attempts at a hydraulic personal waste removal device, logically enough, seem to just automate the chamberpot. A hole is created in the bottom of the bowl or pot, water from a cistern, or tank, flows out of holes in the bowl’s rim into the waste line and out to a tank in the ground or a moving body of water. Some inventors used valves, pans or levers to seal the bowl to the waste line to prevent sewer gas from entering the dwelling. As early as 1862, during the American Civil War, the designer of the Union ship the Monitor installed a plunger type mechanical toilet for the crew.
The most efficient first generation toilet was the simplest. A bowl with a hole in the front or back and a p-trap beneath filled with water to seal the house from sewer gas. Basically it was what Alexander Cummings had designed a century prior. In configuration, it is little different than a typical kitchen sink. Yet it is a major improvement over devices that used
valves or pans to seal the bowl from the malodorous putrefaction seeping from the septic pit.
These first generation toilets came to be known as “wash-out” water closets. Several companies in England were selling them as early as the 1870’s. One company, Thomas Twyford of England, is given credit for the first all-ceramic toilet. The “dolphin” wash-out was exhibited at the 1876 world’s fair in Philadelphia, although it is not certain that Twyford was the manufacturer. These new English wash-out toilets proved very popular where municipalities had installed water and waste lines. Toilets were exported to the continent and America spawning interest by local manufacturers.
The wash-out, while a major advancement over an outhouse or chamber pot, still left much to be desired. They were not efficient. If all the waste did not go through the p-trap, putrification odors would result. Manufacturers and inventors continued to search for improvements. The first improvement was combining the pool of water in the bowl with the p-trap. These toilets, known as “wash-downs”, were on the market shortly following the wash-out. However, both wash-outs and wash-downs often failed to consistently remove heavier waste from the bowl. By the end of the century, sanitaryware manufacturers had discovered that by diverting some of the water from the cistern to the bottom of the bowl, a jet flush was created that pushed waste out and if they changed the shape of the p-trap exit it would act like a siphon pulling the waste out. The modern flush toilet was born. English historians credit a pottery in Chelsea, the Beaufort Works, as the first to develop a toilet with a flush tube to the bottom of the bowl in 1886, although an American had received a patent in America 10 years earlier for a similar concept.
Most of the elegant embossed and decorated toilets found in old mansions or in architectural antique dealerships are wash-out type toilets. By the turn of the century when manufacturers had perfected the siphonic flush type toilet, styles in vogue had changed. There was a reaction against the heavy decoration on all household objects that Victorians had favored. Modern (early twentieth century) manufactured objects became sleek yet simple.
But changing tastes alone does not account for the complete lack of artistic expression that inflicted the sanitaryware industry after the nineteenth century. As great a factor was the change in manufacturers. The pioneers of the industry came from the English ceramic industry involved in tile production as well as table china. Royal Doulton, a house still known for fine china was one of the first and largest makers of wash-out toilets.
Another very early and successful English manufacturer of water closet ceramic fixtures was Twyford which had been making teapots two hundred years earlier. These companies were developing modern manufacturing methods, such as dust pressing tile or porcelain enameling cast iron, yet they traditionally competed on style not manufacturing proficiency or efficiency. They often had the words “art pottery” or ‘art tile” in the companies’ name. The greatest achievement was to have a design that would win Royal Family approval.
The pioneering companies that first brought the toilet to market were more a company of artists than engineers. They put their names boldly and proudly on the products they created. One English company, Thomas Crapper & Co., has more than any other been remembered in name at least as his name became indistinguishable from his product. Sources also claim that the slang “John” for toilet came from the John Douglas company of Cincinnati putting his name on his toilet for the American market, but actually there were several manufacturers with John in their name. But as the founding artist/owners died and their companies consolidated into larger companies, managers and engineers replaced the artists and attention was extended to mass production instead of artistic expression. And thus the difference between a “top of the line” toilet and a home improvement store toilet is mostly the price on the invoice! □
Sources: BOG Standard.; Embossed Toilets of the Victorian Era
How to Remove Toilet Bowl Stains
By Stevie Kremer, eHow Editor
Step 1
Determine what type of stain is in your toilet bowl. If there is a raised white ring deposited around the water line of the bowl or under the inner lip of the bowl in the openings where the water enters to fill the bowl, the culprit is most likely an over-abundance of lime or calcium in the water. If the stains are rust-colored, they are probably caused by a high level of iron in the water.
Step 2
Put on rubber gloves, remove any in-tank cleaner cake from the tank and discard it. Flush the toilet several times to remove all traces of chlorine bleach from the bowl.
Step 3
Insert the plunger into the toilet bowl and press down quickly and firmly several times to force the water out of the bowl.
Step 4
For hardened gray or white lime and calcium deposits, thoroughly wet a Pummie (a pumice stone with a plastic handle--available at most hardware stores). Rub the stone on the deposits. This will require a great deal of elbow grease and patience, but it will eventually remove the deposits.
Step 5
Make a paste of Barkeeper’s Helper with some water and, using a rag, dab some of the paste on lime/calcium deposits that are under the inner lip of the bowl where the water comes in to fill the bowl. Let the paste sit for 10 minutes or so before scrubbing the deposits with the rag.
Step 6
For rust stains, after plunging the water down the trap, wear rubber gloves and apply some muriatic acid (available at hardware stores or pool cleaning supply outlets) to the stains. Allow the acid to sit on the stains for 1 minute or so, then use the plastic toilet bowl brush to scrub the stains away. Flush the toilet several times to remove all traces of the acid. If you cannot locate muriatic acid, use a product that has diluted hydrochloric acid as its active ingredient--products such as The Works Toilet Bowl Cleaner and Santeen De-Limer and Toilet Bowl Cleaner. Stubborn rust stains may require more than one treatment.
TIPS & WARNINGS
Avoid trying to bleach stains, as bleach will only set the stains and make them more difficult to remove.
Always wet a pumice stone thoroughly before rubbing it across stains in a toilet bowl to avoid scratching the porcelain.
Make sure that there is no trace of bleach in the toilet bowl when using any product that contains an acid, as chlorine bleach plus acid yields toxic (and possibly deadly) fumes.
FLUSHING 101
Lynn Rowell, Editor of the Rambling Rosebud,
Anne Arundel County, MD
If you have a very active ostomy with a lot of output, like me, you get to visit the “small room” rather frequently. I have found that one of the toilets in my house doesn’t do a good job of flushing the waste away. In fact, the bowl fills with clean water from the tank and then the surplus is “sucked” down the toilet into the sewer. Unfortunately, a lot of the liquid waste remains and it becomes necessary to wait for the tank to fill and flush again or risk someone thinking you either didn’t flush or the toilet’s not working correctly. Having to flush twice is both annoying and wasteful. Also, those kinds of toilets that have a large bowl with a lot of water in it, means that as you empty, it can create quite a splash—putting in a few squares of toilet paper first prevents the waste from splashing as the pouch is emptied. Newer toilets are sold meeting water saving requirements. Unfortunately some of them are still designed so that clean water from the tank fills up the bowl and then is sucked back out; these also may have problems removing the waste properly. Many public facilities have installed power flush toilets that require little water. They have a powerful sucking action that removes waste. Since they don’t have much water in the bowl, if the output is thick some of it may remain after flushing, so it’s best to put down a few squares of toilet paper into the bowl before emptying the pouch. The majority of the waste, hopefully, will be on that paper, which is then pulled away when you flush. I have also found this to be helpful when using the toilet on a plane as they also use very little water. As I have encountered public restrooms minus soap, I carry a small hand sanitizer or pack of travel wipes for such occasions. A few tissues in your supply kit or some squares of toilet paper are also good for the time when you have to go, but the stall is out of paper. □
SOURCE: The Re-route, Evansville, IN., Okanagan Mainline, February 2009
Escape from Africa
(or, How My Colostomy Kept Me Out of Prison)
Editor’s Note: ‘Mr. Angus’ is a Toronto ostomate I met on the online UOAA irrigation forum. Angus is shall we say, an adventurous tourist who is unfazed by travel with a colostomy and who will go into areas most people avoid. The following is the last chapter of quite an entertaining account of his adventures while in Africa (and of almost NOT leaving Madagascar!)
April 25, 2009
Well, it took 46 hours of travel on the escape from Africa.
I left Tamatave at a civilized hour but, I had to do my irrigation before I left, so, I was up early.
Flew to Isle Ste. Marie for no real reason other than Air Madagascar’s whims. Lovely shack on the beach for an airport. Then, a short flight to Tana where I missed my pick-up for my rest till the next flight…we finally figured it out and I found myself in this weird, quasi provincial manse, with a Belgium Peter Ustinov as my host. He picked me up in a 25 year-old sputtering, smoking, Peugeot 505 station wagon. The doors did not close. His “hotel” is his house. As flights are few in Madagascar, his business seems to be a sleep easy on the road to somewhere else. He was a restaurateur in Belgium 20 years ago and fled for unknown reasons to Antananarivo, Madagascar. He seems to scratch out a living with his occasional guests. Nothing fake here.
It was pouring rain so I had a nap, a light dinner, and another nap, then off to the airport at 4 in the morning.
Then, things got interesting…checked my bag for the flight to Paris, had a coffee and proceeded to the first phalanx of gendarmes and national police. Big trouble. The first officious guy in a uniform can see that my tourist visa has expired by 60 days…(The friggin country has been in revolution and all the government and immigration offices have been closed!!!!)
I am immediately called an illegal alien and this is not good. Six more gendarmes, with big guns, come to investigate. I have this sinking feeling in my stomach…How to get out of this mess? I am taken to the cinder block National Police office with the bare light bulb hanging from a wire. They have taken my passport away. 20 minutes of humming and more police looking at my ticket, passport and nothing really happening. I naturally get a little tense as the flight is to leave in 20 minutes. There are no more flights after that and I have no airiry (money) for bribes.
It is too late to pull the ‘I only speak English’ routine and they did not accept my feeble attempt to explain how I only spent 90 days in Madagascar and the rest of the time I was sailing the Indian ocean. The big boss comes in and says I must go to the French Embassy in Tana to get this straightened away…or, go to jail. (There are some openings there, as they freed all the so-called political prisoners this week.)
I explain I am not a French national and they would have nothing to do with me, and Canada does not have an Embassy in Madagascar.
With a third world prison looming as my option, I resort to the big twin C&C guns…I literally stand up and lift my shirt to show my colostomy and bag and say I cannot miss this flight - I must get to France now as I have cancer. “J’ai besoin treatment special” This stopped all conversation and they were backing up a bit. For those who need to know, it was a clear large drainable Hollister with the rosebud very visible.
Shock and awe worked in this situation. I have a bag of poo and I am prepared to use it!
The police then actually escorted me through the rest of the security and customs routines right to the plane. A nice young officer actually wished me good luck. A really uncomfortable 12 hours later I made it to Paris.
Got my first sticker shock of the return to civilization as the cab ride from the airport to the Gare de Lyon, in Paris was $100. (It used to be $50)...coffee is $10.
I am now resting in Paris. ☐
The first stall in a public washroom is the least-used.
(Amusing Facts.com)
Regaining Confidence
Last month I addressed the issue of new patients’ need to grieve and how important it is to allow time to process those feelings before one can move on. Another big part of the emotional healing process involves regaining one’s self confidence.
During my very first visit to the ET nurse, even before surgery, I was shown a photo album containing pictures of many of her patients. This was to cheer me up, show me some uplifting examples of patients post-surgery. I remained un-cheerable at the time. But my attention was caught in particular by one photo of a young woman in a dragonboat racing uniform, preparing to get into the boat for a race. I was a dragonboater myself at one time and I found this particular image arresting for I knew very well the physical rigors involved in the sport (as well as the lycra shorts racers wear). The notion of somebody paddling competitive dragonboat with an ostomy seemed, at the time, utterly ludicrous. How on earth could anybody do such a thing wearing a bag? I thought of the concept wistfully and decided that the young woman was an astonishing exception, a person of superhuman self-confidence. It took me a long time to learn that she wasn’t an astonishing exception, quite the opposite. She’s probably the norm. People return to what they used to do. It just takes them a bit of time to regain their confidence.
Regaining Confidence, 101
Tricks for getting your confidence back? There’s no unusual formula here, it’s a matter of common sense, the willingness to problem-solve and plain old courage.
Change your own appliance. One of the most important first steps to regaining your confidence is to master the art of changing your own appliance, and of ordering your own supplies. Educate yourself, read product materials, ask questions, get free samples. You don’t have to be a passive consumer of these things! After all, you’re paying a bundle for this stuff, you owe it to yourself to find the most effective and esthetic products possible. In the beginning it’s going to be confusing and daunting and you will make mistakes. Everybody does. Mistakes and accidents can be deeply frustrating but they should also be viewed as lessons from which to learn. Everytime you beat a problem or outsmart a situation you gain in confidence.
Get out in public. At first you’ll feel terribly self-conscious and think everybody is staring at you. By the end of your walk or drive you will probably have come to the startling realization that nobody paid any attention to you. At all. (See? Just like before!)
Resume your hobbies. Whatever you loved to do before be it arts and crafts, a sport, movies, walking, whatever -- get back at it. And be gentle with yourself -- don’t expect to run a 10 K the first time you jog. Around the block will do for now. You’ll work your way back up again.
Have faith in your friends. Don’t avoid the crowd you usually socialize with and don’t lie to friends about your situation if asked. Real friends will not think less of you nor will they treat you any differently. They will feel sorry this has happened to you to be sure -- you would feel the same if the situation was reversed -- but they will stand by you if you let them. The compassion, caring and basic goodness of people may surprise you -- I have never once had any friend say or do something unkind, indeed, everyone went out of their way to offer help and show me they were glad to have me back.
Challenge yourself. The worst thing you can do is assume you can’t do something without even trying. Think back to that dragonboating woman -- do you think she was nervous the first time she got back in a boat? You bet she was. But she did it anyway and went on to compete in regattas. Now that’s confidence renewed. ☐
To Rinse or Not to Rinse? - Lori Pismenny, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Rinsing out your bag: I know there are two camps out there about rinsing – for and against. The ones that are against rinsing have some compelling arguments, such as: rinsing breaks down the seal; you could injure the stoma if water is too hot or cold; our colons didn’t need rinsing out before we had surgery; and so on. Well, as an ileostomate, I have tried the alternate ways suggested to empty my appliance and it doesn’t work. I use way more toilet paper, spend far more time attempting to clean things up (as if I want to spend more time in the washroom) and I never feel fresh and clean. So I thank my ET nurse who showed me how to rinse and flush when I was in hospital and I will happily continue to do so. We are all different. And what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. But we’re the ones who have been through it so we’re the ones who should be speaking up. Most of you may be aware of the things that I speak of, but if I have passed on something useful to at least one person that helps them, then I say good for me.
(cont. next page)
The above observation is of course directed at those who wear a one piece appliance and want to get it clean inside while still wearing it. Some folks don’t care if the inside is soiled since you can’t smell it and if you’re wearing an opaque pouch you can’t see it, either. But some folks are bothered by the residue of waste left behind after emptying. They just don’t feel clean enough. If you’re one of these folks it’s OK to rinse out your bag while still wearing it. It’s best to use a small squirt water bottle rather than trying to pour from a cup or glass. Get a bottle that fits easily in your hand and just park it near the toilet on the floor. (That way you don’t have to go hunting for the darn thing every time you empty) Sit and empty as you normally do and then instead of re-clipping, squirt some water into the open end. Hold it up and slosh things around a bit then release into the toilet. Take care that you don’t let the water reach the seal around the stoma. The stoma won’t be hurt if you do, but letting water get that far is asking for trouble. Repeat if desired.
For two-piece wearers, yes, you can rinse out the pouch part and re-use it if you want to. Rinse any bits out in the toilet -- that squirt bottle is good for this -- and finish the job under the bathtub faucet with soap. Cold water will make your appliance last longer and smell better. Washing machines can tear your pouch apart. Don’t rinse things in the sink -- the drain is too small and who wants to brush their teeth there after that? ☐
When is an Ileostomy Not An Ileostomy?
- Evansville Indiana Chapter Newsletter, by: Victor Alterescu, RN, ET, Via: UOA Resource Library and The Northern Pouchvine Feb 2009
Urostomy is the general word for any type of urinary ostomy. There are, however, several types of urostomies. Some people have ileal conduits. In those cases, a piece of ileum (the third portion of the small intestine) is removed from the intestinal tract and the two ureters (tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder) are attached to the portion of the ileum. One end of the ileum is stitched closed and the other end is brought out into the abdomen as a stoma. Very often, people who have ileal conduits think that they have an “ileostomy” because health-care personnel often incorrectly call this surgery an ileostomy. Remember that if urine is coming through your stoma, you do not have an ileostomy!
Sometimes the ileum is not used, and instead, a piece of the large intestine is used, usually from the sigmoid colon. In this case, the surgery is called a colon conduit. Urostomies are formed for many reasons and can be found in all age groups. In adults, the surgery is most often done to remove a cancerous bladder. For people with spinal cord problems, a urostomy of one sort or another may save someone from irreparable kidney damage. Sometimes after urostomy surgery, a bladder may be left in place, but if the bladder is diseased, it is usually removed. Drinking fluids is essential for urostomates. Kidneys are healthiest when well-flushed. ☐
TIPS & TRICKS
Avoiding Obstructions:
Besides causing excessive gas, soft drinks are one cause of obstruction you don’t always think about. The gas from carbonated drinks can distend the bowel to a point that kinking can occur. If you are prone to excessive gas from drinking pop, switch to something else.
TIPS & TRICKS
In some instances tomatoes, oranges, juices, and spices can break down the adhesive on your wafer. If you’re having trouble with leakages, try cutting back on these things to see if there is a difference. Gradually re-introduce these things back into your diet until you find what works best for you. I can’t consume a lot of oranges or spices but I can enjoy them in moderation. (L. Pismenny, Winnipeg)
OSTOMY CARE AND SUPPLY CENTRE is extending its hours of service to SATURDAYS!
starting Saturday, May 2, 2009
LISA Hegler, RN, BSN, ET will provide ET ostomy services from 9 am - 1 pm
Andrea (Andy) Manson and Muriel Larsen are available from Monday to Friday 9 am - 5 pm
Please call for an appointment to see our experienced ET ostomy nurses.
604-522-4265 1-888-290-6313
www.ostomycareandsupply.com
Ostomy Care and Supply Centre continues to offer
• free consultations with an ET ostomy nurse
• friendly knowledgeable staff
• free delivery throughout BC
• complimentary education seminars
(next one -- November 2009 -- see our website for details!)
New Member of the ‘Bear’ Family
by Arlene McInnes
Since introducing my StomaBear project at the February 2009 meeting I am pleased to announce that two of the bears donated by our Chapter have found new homes! Bears have been adopted by a 6 year-old boy and a 15 year-old girl with thanks to Amie Nowak who is the ET at Children’s Hospital. She will continue to let me know when bears are needed and I will deliver them to Children’s Hospital as required. The StomaBears are met with great enthusiasm from both the children and their parents! After seeing similar response from our members towards the bears I have now put together a few bears especially geared towards adults. StomaBears can be used as a gentle way to help a child/grandchild (or other family members or friends) understand more about ostomy surgery without a personal “show-and-tell”. Each bear has an ostomy complete with removable pouch (thanks to Mike Arab at Convatec) and is dressed in a unique handcrafted removable outfit with a bowtie for the gentleman bear and a string of pearls for the lady bear. The cost of these new adult StomaBears is $75.00 and they will available at each meeting or by special request. All the StomaBears are available for cuddling at each meeting and those not donated to Children’s Hospital are available for purchase as well. New bears are arriving all the time! ☺
ET nurse Amie Nowak meets the StomaBears
Member Lloyd Bray adopts the first “Grampa” StomaBear from Arlene.
Who would have thought ostomy care could be as simple as a walk in the park?
Get a free electronic step counter*
when you call us and find out how ConvaTec Moldable Technology could improve and simplify your ostomy care!
Call today 1-800-465-6302
*While supplies last. One offer per household.
Ostomy Care & Supply Centre
Our commitment is to provide the best care and service possible
Andrea (Andy) Manson and Muriel Larsen RN, ET (Ostomy) Nurse Specialists
Ostomy Care & Supply Centre
2004 - 8th Avenue
New Westminster, BC V3M 2T5
604-522-4265
1-888-290-6313
www.ostomycareandsupply.com
Located in the West End Medicine Centre Pharmacy
Free parking at the rear of the building and easy access from Skytrain.
FREE delivery in the Lower Mainland
FREE shipping throughout BC
E ♥ T ♥ RESOURCES ♥ LTD
“The Choice of Experience”™
Ostomy Clinic & Supply Centre
Services
- Clinic visits by appointment with specialized E.T. Nursing Care.
- Hours of operation for clinic visits are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 am to 5 pm.
- Pre-operative teaching and stoma site marking
- Post-operative instruction and supplies for caring for your ostomy
- Assessments and fittings for pouching systems
- Information and care for various ostomies
- Skin care
Supplies
- All brands of ostomy supplies and products
- Expert product information
- Fittings for support belts
- Pharmanet billing
Phone: 604-536-4061
toll-free: 1-877-ET NURSE fax: 604-536-4018
(1-877-386-8773) email:email@example.com
Elaine Antifaev, RN, ET, CWOCN
E ♥ T ♥ RESOURCES ♥ LTD
The Lighter Side of Law
- actual attorney/witness exchanges:
These were recorded verbatim and published by Court Reporters who had the torment of staying calm and remaining professional while these exchanges were actually taking place.
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He’s twenty, much like your IQ.
________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
Just as fashions change for clothes, they change for names, too. Take a look at 100 years’ difference in popular baby names!
| 1900 Female names | 2000 Female names |
|-------------------|-------------------|
| 1. Mary | 1. Emily |
| 2. Helen | 2. Hannah |
| 3. Anna | 3. Madison |
| 4. Margaret | 4. Ashley |
| 5. Ruth | 5. Sarah |
| 6. Elizabeth | 6. Alexis |
| 7. Florence | 7. Samantha |
| 8. Ethel | 8. Jessica |
| 9. Marie | 9. Taylor |
| 10. Lillian | 10. Elizabeth |
| 1900 Male names | 2000 Male names |
|-------------------|-------------------|
| 1. John | 1. Jacob |
| 2. William | 2. Michael |
| 3. James | 3. Matthew |
| 4. George | 4. Joshua |
| 5. Charles | 5. Christopher |
| 6. Robert | 6. Nicholas |
| 7. Joseph | 7. Andrew |
| 8. Frank | 8. Joseph |
| 9. Edward | 9. Daniel |
| 10. Henry | 10. Tyler |
Hello Doctor!
A mechanic was removing the cylinder heads from the motor of a car when he spotted a famous heart surgeon in his shop who was standing off to the side, waiting for the service manager to come take a look at his car. The mechanic shouted across the garage, “Hello Doctor! Please come over here for a minute.”
“The famous surgeon, a bit surprised, came over to the mechanic. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked argumentatively, “So doctor, look at this. I also open hearts, take valves out, grind ‘em, put in new parts, and when I finish this will work as a new one. So how come you get the big money, when you and me is doing basically the same work?”
The doctor leaned over and whispered to the mechanic “Try to do it when the engine is running.”
Colo-Majic® Liners
Our goal is to FREE Colostomates from STRESS, WORRY and EXPENSE
Quick and easy to change - Compatible with most popular pouches
Confidence in case of disaster - Flushable - Extends pouch life
No water needed - Covered by most health care insurance
Comes in two sizes. Medium for pouches with 1 3/4 inch opening
and Large for pouches with 2 1/4 inch to 2 3/4 inch opening.
COLO-MAJIC CANADIAN
PAT #2192178
Use with 2-piece Pouch and Wafer
SPECIAL ATTENTION GIVEN TO ALL ET. RN. WOCN. NURSES
Toll Free: 1-866-611-6028
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
Website: http://www.colostomymajic.com
Please allow 2-3 weeks on all deliveries
Distributed by:
Colo-Majic Distribution
2684 McGill Cres.
Prince George BC
Thanks to Sandra Morris for her kind donation to the chapter!
YOU THINK YOU HAVE IT COMPLICATED?
The Romans had a god for everything. CREPITUS was the god of toilets. But when it came to watching over Roman bathrooms, he wasn’t alone:
• CLOACINA was the goddess of sewers and drains.
• STERCUTIUS was the god of odor.
Davies PRESCRIPTION PHARMACY LTD.
Davies Pharmacy has been serving the North Shore with quality medical supplies and pharmaceuticals for 30 years. Our expert staff of pharmacists, nurses, and technicians can provide you with a full range of products for a healthy lifestyle.
1401 St. Georges (opposite Lions Gate hospital)
604-985-8771
VISITOR REPORT
Requests for patient visits for this reporting period came from Lion’s Gate, Vancouver General, St. Paul’s, Richmond General, Peace Arch and Royal Columbian Hospitals as well as from independent inquiries.
| Procedure | Count |
|---------------|-------|
| Colostomy | 4 |
| Ileostomy | 7 |
| Urostomy | 2 |
| Pre-op | 1 |
| Pelvic Pouch | 1 |
| **TOTAL** | **15**|
Many thanks to my excellent crew this round: Maxine Barclay, Rob Hill, Elaine Green, Amy Ridout, Elaine Daun, Linda Jensen and Rebecca Glassford. Thanks as well to the visitor program in Coquitlam for taking care of the Peace Arch visit and of course to Maxine Barclay for holding down the fort while I was on holidays!
VANCOUVER CHAPTER CONTACT NUMBERS
PRESIDENT
Martin Donner 604-988-3959
1835 McEwen Place,
North Vancouver, BC V7J 3P8
VICE-PRESIDENT
Debra Rooney 604-683-6774 (Days Only)
SECRETARY
Vacant
TREASURER
Emilia Prychidko 604-874-1502
NEWSLETTER PRODUCTION & EDITOR
Debra Rooney Tel 604-683-6774 (days only)
email: email@example.com
MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR
Arlene McInnis email: firstname.lastname@example.org
34 - 4055 Indian River Drive, N. Vancouver BC V7G 2R7
Tel: 604-929-8208
VISITING COORDINATOR
Debra Rooney 604-683-6774 (days only)
LIBRARY, VIDEO AND DVDs
Graham Drew 604-925-1348
NOTICE OF MEETINGS/GREETER
Cindy Hartmann 604-731-6671
CHRISTMAS PARTY COORDINATOR
Joy Jones 604-926-9075
MEETING REFRESHMENTS
Chris Spencer
ET NURSES!
Our publication “A Handbook for New Ostomy Patients” is available FREE of charge for your use with your patients.
Order your supply from the editor!
STOMA CLINICS IN VANCOUVER / MAINLAND AREA
Pre-surgical counselling and post-operative follow-up.
VANCOUVER
Vancouver General Hospital 855 West 12th Avenue
Deb Cutting, RN, ET.
Lavra Jean Van Veen, RN, WOCN
Tel (604) 875-5788
St. Paul’s Hospital 1081 Burrard Street
Lisa Hegler, RN., ET
Neal Dunwoodie, RN, WOCN Ext. 62917 Pager 54049
Tel (604) 682-2344
Children’s Hospital 4480 Oak Street
Amie Nowak, BSN, RN. ET
Tel (604) 875-2345 Local 7658
NORTH VANCOUVER
Lion’s Gate Hospital
Annemarie Somerville, RN., ET.
Rosemary Hill, RN., ET
Tel (604) 984-5871
NEW WESTMINSTER
Royal Columbian Hospital
Lucy Lang, RN, ET
Laurie Cox, RN, ET.
Tel (604) 520-4292
Ostomy Care and Supply Centre
Andrea (Andy) Manson, RN. ET.
Muriel Larsen, RN. ET.
Tel (604) 522-4265
SURREY
Elke Bauer is on mat leave
Surrey Memorial Hospital
Tel (604) 588-3328
LANGLEY
Langley Memorial Hospital
Maureen Moster, RN. BSN. ET.
Tel (604) 514-6000 ext 5216
ABBOTSFORD
Abbotsford Regional Hospital
Sharon Fabbii, RN. ET.
Maureen Clarke, RN. BSN. ET.
Tel (604) 851-4700 Extension 642213 (Clarke)
646154 (Fabbii)
CHILLIWACK
Chilliwack General Hospital
Anita Jansen-Verdonk, RN.
Tel (604) 795-4141 Extension 447
WHITE ROCK
Peace Arch Hospital
Margaret Cowper RN. ET.
Tel (604) 531-5512 Local 7687
RICHMOND
Richmond General Hospital
Lauren Wolfe, RN, ET
Tel 604-244-5235
WHITE ROCK/RICHMOND
E. T. Resources, Ltd.
Elaine Antifaeev, RN. ET. CWOCN
Tel (604) 536-4061
KEIR SURGICAL AND OSTOMY SUPPLIES Tel 604-879-9101
Eva Sham, WOCN
Tuesdays & Thursdays 8 am to 4 pm
ET Nurses -- is your information correct? Please let the editor know if there are any staffing changes at your worksite -- thanks!
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Vancouver Chapter United Ostomy Association
Membership in the UOA of Canada is open to all persons interested in ostomy rehabilitation and welfare. The following information is kept strictly confidential.
Please enroll me as a ☐ new ☐ renewal member of the Vancouver Chapter of the UOA.
I am enclosing my annual membership dues of $30.00, which I understand is effective from the date application is received. I wish to make an additional contribution of $______________, to support the programs and activities of the United Ostomy Association of Canada. Vancouver Chapter members receive the Vancouver Ostomy Highlife newsletter, become members of the UOA Canada, Inc. and receive the Ostomy Canada magazine.
Name ___________________________________________ Phone ____________________________
Address ___________________________________________________________________________
City ______________________________________ Postal Code __________________________ Year of Birth _________
email (if applicable): _______________________________________________________________________
Type of surgery: ☐ Colostomy ☐ Urostomy ☐ Ileostomy ☐ Continent Ostomy
All additional contributions are tax deductible. please make cheque payable to the
UOA, Vancouver Chapter
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Georgia Standards of Excellence Curriculum Map
Mathematics
Accelerated GSE Algebra I/Geometry A
These materials are for nonprofit educational purposes only. Any other use may constitute copyright infringement.
# Accelerated GSE Algebra I/Geometry A Curriculum Map
| 1st Semester | 2nd Semester |
|--------------|--------------|
| **Unit 1 (2 – 3 weeks)** | **Unit 2 (2 – 3 weeks)** | **Unit 3 (3 – 4 weeks)** | **Unit 4 (3 – 4 weeks)** | **Unit 5 (3 – 4 weeks)** | **Unit 6 (2 – 3 weeks)** | **Unit 7 (1 – 2 weeks)** | **Unit 8 (4 – 5 weeks)** | **Unit 9 (2 – 3 weeks)** |
| **Relationships Between Quantities and Expressions** | **Reasoning with Linear Equations and Inequalities** | **Modeling and Analyzing Quadratic Functions** | **Modeling and Analyzing Exponential Functions** | **Comparing and Contrasting Functions** | **Describing Data** | **Transformations in the Coordinate Plane** | **Similarity, Congruence, and Proofs** | **Right Triangle Trigonometry** |
| MGSE9-12.N.RN.2 | MGSE9-12.A.CED.1 | MGSE9-12.A.SSE.2 | MGSE9-12.A.CED.1 | MGSE9-12.F.LE.1 | MGSE9-12.S.ID.1 | MGSE9-12.G.CO.1 | MGSE9-12.G.SRT.1 | MGSE9-12.G.SRT.6 |
| MGSE9-12.N.RN.3 | MGSE9-12.A.CED.2 | MGSE9-12.A.SSE.3 | MGSE9-12.A.CED.2 | MGSE9-12.F.LE.1a | MGSE9-12.S.ID.2 | MGSE9-12.G.CO.2 | MGSE9-12.G.SRT.2 | MGSE9-12.G.SRT.7 |
| **MGSE9-12.N.Q.1** | MGSE9-12.A.CED.3 | MGSE9-12.A.SSE.3a | MGSE9-12.A.CED.3 | MGSE9-12.F.LE.1b | MGSE9-12.S.ID.3 | MGSE9-12.G.CO.3 | **MGSE9-12.G.SRT.3** | **MGSE9-12.G.SRT.8** |
| MGSE9-12.N.Q.2 | MGSE9-12.A.CED.4 | MGSE9-12.A.SSE.3b | MGSE9-12.A.REI.1 | MGSE9-12.F.LE.1c | MGSE9-12.S.ID.5 | MGSE9-12.G.CO.4 | | |
| **MGSE9-12.N.Q.3** | MGSE9-12.A.REI.1 | MGSE9-12.A.CED.1 | MGSE9-12.A.REI.2 | MGSE9-12.F.LE.2 | **MGSE9-12.S.ID.6** | MGSE9-12.G.CO.5 | MGSE9-12.G.SRT.5 | |
| MGSE9-12.A.SSE.1 | MGSE9-12.A.REI.3 | MGSE9-12.A.CED.2 | MGSE9-12.A.REI.3 | **MGSE9-12.F.LE.3** | **MGSE9-12.S.ID.6a** | MGSE9-12.G.CO.6 | MGSE9-12.G.CO.7 | |
| MGSE9-12.A.SSE.1a | MGSE9-12.A.REI.5 | MGSE9-12.A.CED.4 | MGSE9-12.A.REI.4 | MGSE9-12.F.IF.1 | **MGSE9-12.S.ID.7** | MGSE9-12.G.CO.8 | **MGSE9-12.G.CO.9** | |
| MGSE9-12.A.SSE.1b | MGSE9-12.A.REI.6 | MGSE9-12.A.REI.10 | MGSE9-12.A.REI.4a | MGSE9-12.F.IF.2 | MGSE9-12.S.ID.8 | MGSE9-12.G.CO.10 | **MGSE9-12.G.CO.11** | |
| MGSE9-12.A.APR.1 | MGSE9-12.A.REI.11 | MGSE9-12.A.REI.12 | MGSE9-12.F.BF.1 | MGSE9-12.F.IF.3 | MGSE9-12.S.ID.9 | MGSE9-12.G.CO.12 | MGSE9-12.G.CO.13 | |
These units were written to build upon concepts from prior units, so later units contain tasks that depend upon the concepts addressed in earlier units.
All units will include the Mathematical Practices and indicate skills to maintain.
**NOTE:** Mathematical standards are interwoven and should be addressed throughout the year in as many different units and tasks as possible in order to stress the natural connections that exist among mathematical topics.
**Grade 9-12 Key:**
- **Number and Quantity Strand:** RN = The Real Number System, Q = Quantities, CN = Complex Number System, VM = Vector and Matrix Quantities
- **Algebra Strand:** SSE = Seeing Structure in Expressions, APR = Arithmetic with Polynomial and Rational Expressions, CED = Creating Equations, REI = Reasoning with Equations and Inequalities
- **Functions Strand:** IF = Interpreting Functions, LE = Linear and Exponential Models, BF = Building Functions, TF = Trigonometric Functions
- **Geometry Strand:** CO = Congruence, SRT = Similarity, Right Triangles, and Trigonometry, C = Circles, GPE = Expressing Geometric Properties with Equations, GMD = Geometric Measurement and Dimension, MG = Modeling with Geometry
- **Statistics and Probability Strand:** ID = Interpreting Categorical and Quantitative Data, IC = Making Inferences and Justifying Conclusions, CP = Conditional Probability and the Rules of Probability, MD = Using Probability to Make Decisions
## Accelerated GSE Algebra I/Geometry A Expanded Curriculum Map – 1st Semester
### Standards for Mathematical Practice
| 1 | Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. |
|---|------------------------------------------------------|
| 2 | Reason abstractly and quantitatively. |
| 3 | Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. |
| 4 | Model with mathematics. |
| 5 | Use appropriate tools strategically. |
| 6 | Attend to precision. |
| 7 | Look for and make use of structure. |
| 8 | Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. |
### 1st Semester
| Unit 1 | Unit 2 | Unit 3 | Unit 4 | Unit 5 |
|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| **Relationships Between Quantities and Expressions** | **Reasoning with Linear Equations and Inequalities** | **Modeling and Analyzing Quadratic Functions** | **Modeling and Analyzing Exponential Functions** | **Comparing and Contrasting Functions** |
| **Extend the properties of exponents to rational exponents.**
MGSE9-12.N.RN.2 Rewrite expressions involving radicals and rational exponents using the properties of exponents. (i.e., simplify and/or use the operations of addition, subtraction, and multiplication, with radicals within expressions limited to square roots.)
**Use properties of rational and irrational numbers.**
MGSE9-12.N.RN.3 Explain why the sum or product of rational numbers is rational; why the sum of a rational number and an irrational number is irrational; and why the product of a nonzero rational number and an irrational number is irrational.
**Reason quantitatively and use units to solve problems.**
MGSE9-12.N.Q.1 Use units of measure (linear, area, capacity, rates, and time) as a way to understand problems:
a. Identify, use, and record appropriate units of measure within context, within data displays, and on graphs;
b. Convert units and rates using dimensional analysis (English-to-English and Metric-to-Metric without conversion factor provided and between English and Metric with conversion factor);
c. Use units within multi-step problems and formulas; interpret units of input and resulting units of output.
**MGSE9-12.N.Q.2 Define appropriate quantities for the purpose of descriptive modeling. Given a situation, context, or problem, students will determine, identify, and use appropriate quantities for representing the situation.** | **Create equations that describe numbers or relationships.**
MGSE9-12.A.CED.1 Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems. Include equations arising from linear, quadratic, simple rational, and exponential functions (integer inputs only).
**MGSE9-12.A.CED.2 Create linear, quadratic, and exponential equations in two or more variables to represent relationships between quantities; graph equations on coordinate axes with labels and scales. (The phrase “in two or more variables” refers to formulas like the compound interest formula, in which $A = P(1 + r/n)^n$ has multiple variables.)**
**MGSE9-12.A.CED.3 Represent constraints by equations or inequalities, and by systems of equations and/or inequalities, and interpret data points as possible (i.e. a solution) or not possible (i.e. a non-solution) under the established constraints.**
**MGSE9-12.A.CED.4 Rearrange formulas to highlight a quantity of interest using the same reasoning as in solving equations. Examples: Rearrange Ohm’s law $V = IR$ to highlight resistance $R$; Rearrange area of a circle formula $A = \pi r^2$ to highlight the radius $r$.**
**Understand solving equations as a process of reasoning and explain the reasoning.**
MGSE9-12.A.REI.1 Using algebraic properties and the properties of real numbers, justify the steps of a simple, one-solution equation. Students should justify their own steps, or if given two or more steps of an equation, explain the progression from one step to the next using properties. | **Interpret the structure of expressions.**
MGSE9-12.A.SSE.2 Use the structure of an expression to rewrite it in different equivalent forms. For example, see $x^2 - y^2$ as $(x+y)(x-y)$, thus recognizing it as a difference of squares that can be factored as $(x^2 - y^2)(x^2 + y^2)$.
**Write expressions in equivalent forms to solve problems.**
MGSE9-12.A.SSE.3 Choose and produce an equivalent form of an expression to reveal and explain properties of the quantity represented by the expression.
**MGSE9-12.A.SSE.3a Factor any quadratic expression to reveal the zeros of the function defined by the expression.**
**MGSE9-12.A.SSE.3b Complete the square in a quadratic expression to reveal the maximum or minimum value of the function defined by the expression.**
**Create equations that describe numbers or relationships.**
MGSE9-12.A.CED.1 Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems. Include equations arising from linear, quadratic, simple rational, and exponential functions (integer inputs only).
**MGSE9-12.A.CED.2 Create linear, quadratic, and exponential equations in two or more variables to represent relationships between quantities; graph equations on coordinate axes with labels and scales. (The phrase “in two or more variables” refers to formulas like the compound interest formula, in which $A = P(1 + r/n)^n$ has multiple variables.)**
**Build a function that models a relationship between two quantities.**
MGSE9-12.F.BF.1 Write a function that describes a relationship between two quantities.
**MGSE9-12.F.BF.1a Determine an explicit expression and the recursive process (steps for calculation) from context. For example, if Jimmy starts out with $15 and earns $2 a day, the explicit expression “$2x+15” can be described recursively (either in writing or verbally) as “to find out how much money Jimmy will have tomorrow, you add $2 to his total today.” $J_n = J_{n-1} + 2$, $J_0 = 15$.**
**MGSE9-12.F.BF.2 Write arithmetic and geometric sequences recursively and explicitly, use them to model situations, and translate between the two forms. Connect arithmetic sequences to linear functions and geometric sequences to exponential functions.**
**Build new functions from existing functions.**
MGSE9-12.F.BF.3 Identify the effect on...
| MGSE9-12.N.Q.3 | Choose a level of accuracy appropriate to limitations on measurement when reporting quantities. *For example, money situations are generally reported to the nearest cent (hundredth). Also, an answers’ precision is limited to the precision of the data given.* |
| --- | --- |
| **Interpret the structure of expressions.**
MGSE9-12.A.SSE.1 | Interpret expressions that represent a quantity in terms of its context.
**MGSE9-12.A.SSE.1a** Interpret parts of an expression, such as terms, factors, and coefficients, in context.
**MGSE9-12.A.SSE.1b** Given situations which utilize formulas or expressions with multiple terms and/or factors, interpret the meaning (in context) of individual terms or factors. |
| Solve equations and inequalities in one variable.
MGSE9-12.A.REI.3 | Solve linear equations and inequalities in one variable including equations with coefficients represented by letters. *For example, given \( ax + 3 = 7 \), solve for x.*
**MGSE9-12.A.REI.5** Show and explain why the elimination method works to solve a system of two-variable equations.
**MGSE9-12.A.REL.6** Solve systems of linear equations exactly and approximately (e.g., with graphs), focusing on pairs of linear equations in two variables.
**Represent and solve equations and inequalities graphically.**
**MGSE9-12.A.REL.10** Understand that the graph of an equation in two variables is the set of all its solutions plotted in the coordinate plane.
**MGSE9-12.A.REL.11** Using graphs, tables, or successive approximations, show that the solution to the equation \( f(x) = g(x) \) is the x-value where the y-values of \( f(x) \) and \( g(x) \) are the same.
**MGSE9-12.A.REL.12** Graph the solution set to a linear inequality in two variables.
**Build a function that models a relationship between two quantities.**
**MGSE9-12.F.BF.1** Write a function that describes a relationship between two quantities.
**MGSE9-12.F.BF.1a** Determine an explicit expression and the recursive process (steps for calculation) from context. *For example, if Jimmy starts out with $15 and earns $2 a day, the explicit expression “2x+15” can be described recursively (either in writing or verbally) as “to find out how much money Jimmy will have tomorrow, you add $2 to his total today.”* \( J_1=J_0+2, J_n=J_{n-1}+2, J_n=15. \)
**MGSE9-12.F.BF.2** Write arithmetic and geometric sequences recursively and explicitly, use them to model situations, and translate between the two forms. Connect arithmetic sequences to linear functions and geometric sequences to exponential functions.
**Understand the concept of a function and use function notation.**
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.1** Understand that a function from one set (the input, called the domain) to another set (the output, called the range) assigns to each element of the domain exactly one element of the range, i.e. each input value maps to exactly one output value. If \( f \) is a function, \( x \) is the input (an element of the domain), and \( f(x) \) is the output (an element of the range). Graphically, the graph is \( y = f(x) \).
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.2** Use function notation, evaluate functions for inputs in their domains, and interpret statements that use function notation in terms of a context.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.4** Using tables, graphs, and verbal descriptions, interpret the key characteristics of a function which models the relationship between two quantities. Sketch a graph showing key features including: intercepts; interval where the function is increasing, decreasing, positive, or negative; relative maximums and minimums; symmetries; end behavior; and periodicity.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.5** Relate the domain of a function to its graph and, where applicable, to the quantitative relationship it describes. *For example, if the function \( h(n) \) gives the number of...* |
| Solve systems of equations.
MGSE9-12.A.REL.5 | Show and explain why the elimination method works to solve a system of two-variable equations.
**MGSE9-12.A.REL.6** Solve systems of linear equations exactly and approximately (e.g., with graphs), focusing on pairs of linear equations in two variables.
**Represent and solve equations and inequalities graphically.**
**MGSE9-12.A.REL.10** Understand that the graph of an equation in two variables is the set of all its solutions plotted in the coordinate plane.
**MGSE9-12.A.REL.11** Using graphs, tables, or successive approximations, show that the solution to the equation \( f(x) = g(x) \) is the x-value where the y-values of \( f(x) \) and \( g(x) \) are the same.
**MGSE9-12.A.REL.12** Graph the solution set to a linear inequality in two variables.
**Build a function that models a relationship between two quantities.**
**MGSE9-12.F.BF.1** Write a function that describes a relationship between two quantities.
**MGSE9-12.F.BF.1a** Determine an explicit expression and the recursive process (steps for calculation) from context. *For example, if Jimmy starts out with $15 and earns $2 a day, the explicit expression “2x+15” can be described recursively (either in writing or verbally) as “to find out how much money Jimmy will have tomorrow, you add $2 to his total today.”* \( J_1=J_0+2, J_n=J_{n-1}+2, J_n=15. \)
**MGSE9-12.F.BF.2** Write arithmetic and geometric sequences recursively and explicitly, use them to model situations, and translate between the two forms. Connect arithmetic sequences to linear functions and geometric sequences to exponential functions.
**Understand the concept of a function and use function notation.**
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.1** Understand that a function from one set (the input, called the domain) to another set (the output, called the range) assigns to each element of the domain exactly one element of the range, i.e. each input value maps to exactly one output value. If \( f \) is a function, \( x \) is the input (an element of the domain), and \( f(x) \) is the output (an element of the range). Graphically, the graph is \( y = f(x) \).
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.2** Use function notation, evaluate functions for inputs in their domains, and interpret statements that use function notation in terms of a context.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.3** Recognize that sequences are functions, sometimes defined recursively, whose domain is a subset of the integers. (Generally, the scope of high school math defines this subset as the set of natural numbers 1,2,3,4...) By graphing or calculating terms, students should be able to show how the recursive sequence \( a_1=7, \ a_n=a_{n-1}+2; \) the sequence \( s_n = 2(n-1) + 7; \) and the function \( f(x) = 2x + 5 \) (when \( x \) is a natural number) all define the same sequence.
**Interpret functions that arise in applications in terms of the context.**
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.4** Using tables, graphs, and verbal descriptions, interpret the key characteristics of a function which models the relationship between two quantities. Sketch a graph showing key features including: intercepts; interval where the function is increasing, decreasing, positive, or negative; relative maximums and minimums; symmetries; end behavior; and periodicity.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.5** Relate the domain of a function to its graph and, where applicable, to the quantitative relationship it describes. *For example, if the function \( h(n) \) gives the number of...* |
called the range) assigns to each element of the domain exactly one element of the range, i.e. each input value maps to exactly one output value. If $f$ is a function, $x$ is the input (an element of the domain), and $f(x)$ is the output (an element of the range). Graphically, the graph is $y = f(x)$.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.2** Use function notation, evaluate functions for inputs in their domains, and interpret statements that use function notation in terms of a context.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.3** Recognize that sequences are functions, sometimes defined recursively, whose domain is a subset of the integers. (Generally, the scope of high school math defines this subset as the set of natural numbers 1,2,3,4...) By graphing or calculating terms, students should be able to show how the recursive sequence $a_1=7$, $a_n=a_{n-1}+2$; the sequence $s_n = 2(n-1) + 7$; and the function $f(x) = 2x + 5$ (when $x$ is a natural number) all define the same sequence.
**Interpret functions that arise in applications in terms of the context.**
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.4** Using tables, graphs, and verbal descriptions, interpret the key characteristics of a function which models the relationship between two quantities. Sketch a graph showing key features including: intercepts; interval where the function is increasing, decreasing, positive, or negative; relative maximums and minimums; symmetries; end behavior; and periodicity.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.5** Relate the domain of a function to its graph and, where applicable, to the quantitative relationship it describes. *For example, if the function $h(n)$ gives the number of person-hours it takes to assemble $n$ engines in a factory, then the positive integers would be an appropriate domain for the function.*
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.6** Calculate and interpret the average rate of change of a function (presented symbolically or as a table) over a specified interval. Estimate the rate of change from a graph.
**Analyze functions using different representations.**
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.7** Graph functions expressed algebraically and show key features of the graph both by hand and by using technology.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.7a** Graph linear and quadratic functions and show intercepts, maxima, and minima (as determined by the function or by context).
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.8** Write a function defined by an expression in different but equivalent forms to reveal and explain different properties of the function.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.8a** Use the process of factoring and completing the square in a quadratic function to show zeros, extreme values, and symmetry of the graph, and interpret these in terms of a context. *For example, compare and contrast quadratic functions in standard, vertex, and intercept forms.*
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.9** Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions). *For example, given a graph of one function and an algebraic expression for another, say which has the larger maximum.*
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.5** Relate the domain of a function to its graph and, where applicable, to the quantitative relationship it describes. *For example, if the function $h(n)$ gives the number of person-hours it takes to assemble $n$ engines in a factory, then the positive integers would be an appropriate domain for the function.*
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.6** Calculate and interpret the average rate of change of a function (presented symbolically or as a table) over a specified interval. Estimate the rate of change from a graph.
**Analyze functions using different representations.**
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.7** Graph functions expressed algebraically and show key features of the graph both by hand and by using technology.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.7e** Graph exponential and logarithmic functions, showing intercepts and end behavior, and trigonometric functions, showing period, midline, and amplitude.
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.9** Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions). *For example, given a graph of one function and an algebraic expression for another, say which has the larger maximum.*
| **MGSE9-12.F.IF.8** | Solve a simple rational equation by performing arithmetic operations on linear expressions in the numerator and denominator, and identify and exclude any extraneous solutions. For example, solve \( \frac{x+3}{x-2} = 4 \).
**MGSE9-12.F.IF.9** | Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions). *For example, given a graph of one function and an algebraic expression for another, say which has the larger maximum.* |
## Georgia Department of Education
### Accelerated GSE Algebra I/Geometry A Expanded Curriculum Map – 2nd Semester
#### Standards for Mathematical Practice
| 1 | Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. |
|---|------------------------------------------------------|
| 2 | Reason abstractly and quantitatively. |
| 3 | Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. |
| 4 | Model with mathematics. |
| 5 | Use appropriate tools strategically. |
| 6 | Attend to precision. |
| 7 | Look for and make use of structure. |
| 8 | Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. |
### 2nd Semester
| Unit 6 | Describing Data | Unit 7 | Transformations in the Coordinate Plane | Unit 8 | Similarity, Congruence, and Proofs | Unit 9 | Right Triangle Trigonometry |
|--------|-----------------|--------|----------------------------------------|--------|-----------------------------------|--------|----------------------------|
| **Summarize, represent, and interpret data on a single count or measurement variable.**
MGSE9-12.S.ID.1 Represent data with plots on the real number line (dot plots, histograms, and box plots).
**MGSE9-12.S.ID.2** Use statistics appropriate to the shape of the data distribution to compare center (median, mean) and spread (interquartile range, mean absolute deviation, standard deviation) of two or more different data sets.
**MGSE9-12.S.ID.3** Interpret differences in shape, center, and spread in the context of the data sets, accounting for possible effects of extreme data points (outliers).
**Summarize, represent, and interpret data on two categorical and quantitative variables.**
**MGSE9-12.S.ID.5** Summarize categorical data for two categories in two-way frequency tables. Interpret relative frequencies in the context of the data (including joint, marginal, and conditional relative frequencies). Recognize possible associations and trends in the data.
**MGSE9-12.S.ID.6** Represent data on two quantitative variables on a scatter plot, and describe how the variables are related.
**MGSE9-12.S.ID.6a** Decide which type of function is most appropriate by observing graphed data, charted data, or by analysis of context to generate a viable (rough) function of best fit. Use this function to solve problems in context. Emphasize linear, quadratic and exponential models.
**MGSE9-12.S.ID.6c** Using given or collected bivariate data, fit a linear function for a scatter plot that suggests a linear association.
**Interpret linear models.**
**MGSE9-12.S.ID.7** Interpret the slope (rate of change) and the intercept (constant term) of a linear model in the context of the data.
**MGSE9-12.S.ID.8** Compute (using technology) and interpret the correlation coefficient “r” of a linear fit. (For instance, by looking at a scatterplot, students can see that the value of r is close to -1 only when the data is clustered closely around a straight line with a negative slope.) |
| **Experiment with transformations in the plane**
MGSE9-12.G.CO.1 Know precise definitions of angle, circle, perpendicular line, parallel line, and line segment, based on the undefined notions of point, line, distance along a line, and distance around a circular arc.
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.2** Represent transformations in the plane using, e.g., transparencies and geometry software; describe transformations as functions that take points in the plane as inputs and give other points as outputs. Compare transformations that preserve distance and angle to those that do not (e.g., translation versus horizontal stretch).
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.3** Given a rectangle, parallelogram, trapezoid, or regular polygon, describe the rotations and reflections that carry it onto itself.
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.4** Develop definitions of rotations, reflections, and translations in terms of angles, circles, perpendicular lines, parallel lines, and line segments.
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.5** Given a geometric figure and a rotation, reflection, or translation, draw the transformed figure using, e.g., graph paper, tracing paper, or geometry software. Specify a sequence of transformations that will carry a given figure onto another. |
| **Understand similarity in terms of similarity transformations**
MGSE9-12.G.SRT.1 Verify experimentally the properties of dilations given by a center and a scale factor.
a. The dilation of a line not passing through the center of the dilation results in a parallel line and leaves a line passing through the center unchanged.
b. The dilation of a line segment is longer or shorter according to the ratio given by the scale factor.
**MGSE9-12.G.SRT.2** Given two figures, use the definition of similarity in terms of similarity transformations to decide if they are similar; explain, using similarity transformations, the meaning of similarity for triangles as the equality of all corresponding pairs of angles and the proportionality of all corresponding pairs of sides.
**MGSE9-12.G.SRT.3** Use the properties of similarity transformations to establish the AA criterion for two triangles to be similar.
**Prove theorems involving similarity**
**MGSE9-12.G.SRT.4** Prove theorems about triangles. Theorems include: a line parallel to one side of a triangle divides the other two proportionally, (and its converse); the Pythagorean Theorem using triangle similarity.
**MGSE9-12.G.SRT.5** Use congruence and similarity criteria for triangles to solve problems and to prove relationships in geometric figures.
**Understand congruence in terms of rigid motions**
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.6** Use geometric descriptions of rigid motions to transform figures and to predict the effect of a given rigid motion on a given figure; given two figures, use the definition of congruence in terms of rigid motions to decide if they are congruent.
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.7** Use the definition of congruence in terms of rigid motions to show that two triangles are congruent if and only if... |
| **Define trigonometric ratios and solve problems involving right triangles**
MGSE9-12.G.SRT.6 Understand that by similarity, side ratios in right triangles are properties of the angles in the triangle, leading to definitions of trigonometric ratios for acute angles.
**MGSE9-12.G.SRT.7** Explain and use the relationship between the sine and cosine of complementary angles.
**MGSE9-12.G.SRT.8** Use trigonometric ratios and the Pythagorean Theorem to solve right triangles in applied problems. |
should be able to tell if the correlation coefficient is positive or negative and give a reasonable estimate of the "r" value.) After calculating the line of best fit using technology, students should be able to describe how strong the goodness of fit of the regression is, using "r".
**MGSE9-12.S.ID.9** Distinguish between correlation and causation.
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.8** Explain how the criteria for triangle congruence (ASA, SAS, and SSS) follow from the definition of congruence in terms of rigid motions. (Extend to include HL and AAS.)
**Prove geometric theorems**
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.9** Prove theorems about lines and angles. Theorems include: vertical angles are congruent; when a transversal crosses parallel lines, alternate interior angles are congruent and corresponding angles are congruent; points on a perpendicular bisector of a line segment are exactly those equidistant from the segment’s endpoints.
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.10** Prove theorems about triangles. Theorems include: measures of interior angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees; base angles of isosceles triangles are congruent; the segment joining midpoints of two sides of a triangle is parallel to the third side and half the length; the medians of a triangle meet at a point.
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.11** Prove theorems about parallelograms. Theorems include: opposite sides are congruent, opposite angles are congruent, the diagonals of a parallelogram bisect each other, and conversely, rectangles are parallelograms with congruent diagonals.
**Make geometric constructions**
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.12** Make formal geometric constructions with a variety of tools and methods (compass and straightedge, string, reflective devices, paper folding, dynamic geometric software, etc.). Copying a segment; copying an angle; bisecting a segment; bisecting an angle; constructing perpendicular lines, including the perpendicular bisector of a line segment; and constructing a line parallel to a given line through a point not on the line.
**MGSE9-12.G.CO.13** Construct an equilateral triangle, a square, and a regular hexagon, each inscribed in a circle. | <urn:uuid:26875bf4-538c-48b1-ac6c-3979036b2893> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | https://www.georgiastandards.org/Georgia-Standards/Frameworks/Acc-Algebra-I-Geometry-A-Curriculum-Map.pdf | 2018-03-20T19:14:49Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647530.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20180320185657-20180320205657-00520.warc.gz | 825,283,797 | 7,761 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.951668 | eng_Latn | 0.981227 | [
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Batemans Bay High School
Learning from Home Procedures and Protocols for Students and Families
1. Communication with students and families
1.1 – Batemans Bay High School app
1.2 - School website
1.3 - Facebook
2. Learning from Home
2.1 - Accessing Google classrooms
2.2 - Offline learning
2.3 - Loaning Textbooks
3. School Structure
3.1 - Scheduling the day
3.2 - Timetable and Daily Notices
3.3 - Attendance
3.4 - Student Achievement Program
4. Behaviour code for students
5. Learning from Home student agreement
6. Assessment information
6.1 - Assessment notifications
6.2 - Responsibilities of the course teacher
6.3 - Responsibilities of the student
6.4 - Submission of tasks
7. Accessing further support
1. Communication with students and families
1.1 Batemans Bay High School App
- Our most regular communication source is the Batemans Bay High School App. This app currently has information regarding:
- school procedures
- wellbeing
- tools and resources
- regular Departmental updates
- You can access the app by visiting the app store on your device and typing Batemans Bay High School.
- Check this app regularly or set up notifications.
1.2 School website
- The school website is also being regularly updated and has a new tab under ‘Learning at our school’ called ‘Learning from home’. https://batemansbah.schools.nsw.gov.au/
1.3 Facebook
- Batemans Bay High School will continue to use Facebook to recognise student achievement and success.
- However, you may want to check the page regularly for Departmental updates and school events.
2. Learning from Home
- Currently your teachers are working very hard to provide learning for you in an online environment. We are carefully planning how to do this in a structured and safe way to ensure that the best possible outcomes are achieved.
- We expect that all students will access their Google classrooms.
- We will be monitoring student work and online access.
2.1 Accessing Google classroom
- Your teachers have sent you an email inviting you to the Google classroom for that course.
- To access your school email you:
- Go to the Department of Education Student Portal https://education.nsw.gov.au/
- Click on the Login dropdown to select Student login
- Login to the portal using your school user account and password
- You will be able to access their school email from within this portal as well as go directly to the GSuite for Education and Google classroom.
- If you are having issues logging to Google classroom or email please first check that you are not using your personal Gmail account. You can ONLY login to the Google Classroom using your school email account (firstname.lastname@example.org).
- Teachers will be setting classwork which may appear under the assignment function. Please note this is not an assessment task unless it is accompanied by a formal BBHS assessment notification sheet.
- If you don’t know your password, it will be the same as what you use to logon to the school computers.
- If you cannot access the student portal or Department website, please wait a short while and try again a bit later. This may be due to online traffic.
- We understand that at times internet connectivity can be unreliable in some areas. If your internet goes down and your child is unable to be online, you could email your teacher from a mobile device.
- Please phone the school on 02 4478 3600 for further support.
2.2 Offline learning
If access to online is not an option for you:
- Phone the school on 02 4478 3600 OR email (email@example.com) with ATTN: Offline support and include the parent and student name and the year your child is in.
- Once you have put in a request through the school we will prepare a package that is suited to your child. These packages are currently available to be mailed out or picked up from the school.
- Our mail out collection has started this week and many parents have gratefully picked up this material.
- From Term 2 onward, any work sent home will be accompanied by a reply paid envelope so student work can be returned to the school free of charge.
2.3 Loaning Textbooks
If a student requires a textbook to support their learning they need to:
- Contact their class teacher through Google classroom or via email and make the request.
- Wait for the teacher to respond and indicate that this is possible (or not) or whether alternative digital copies are available.
- Once the teacher has informed you that the textbook is ready for collection, a parent can come into school to collect it.
- Parents need to ensure these arrangements have occurred prior to attending the school. It will not be possible to collect textbooks at short notice as faculties need to document and monitor books before they go on loan.
3 School Structure
- School structures and staff roles remain as per normal.
- This is a unique situation and we can only anticipate that there will be times when you need to attend to family matters and help out at home. This is very important, and we want you to help your parents/carers and other family members.
We do however, stress that engaging in your learning is crucial. We expect that you will complete the work you have been assigned, as you would at school. Gradually over time you will build your capacity to engage in learning in this new form and you can seek support where you need it.
3.1 Scheduling your day
- You should follow your school timetable as closely as possible and ensure that you have engaged in each course throughout the week.
- Below are our bell times, which provide a guide to the time you should spend engaging in school work and having breaks through the day.
- We recommend that all students take their recess and lunch break outside where possible.
- We encourage exercise and healthy eating. Remember, you may have practical PDHPE and sport lessons, take this time to be active in some way.
| Bell Times 2020 |
|-----------------|
| Roll call | 9:01 – 9:10 |
| Period 1 | 9:10 – 10:00 |
| Period 2 | 10:00 – 10:50 |
| Recess | 10:50 – 11:10 |
| Period 3 | 11:10 – 12:00 |
| Period 4 | 12:00 – 12:50 |
| Lunch | 12:50 – 1:30 |
| Period 5 | 1:30 – 2:20 |
| Period 6 | 2:20 – 3:10 |
- Please note that parents are not expected to teach or ‘home school’ their children, that is the job of Batemans Bay High School staff. The role of the parent in learning from home is to provide an environment for their children that is conducive to learning. Some tips for this include:
- Have students change out of their pyjamas, eat breakfast and wash their face, as they would on a regular school morning.
- Have their learning environment set up in a designated space. This should be a safe, comfortable, quiet space in your home where your child can work effectively.
- Make sure equipment is accessible, computers charged or close to a charging port and that mobile phones are kept away from this learning space during the day.
- Any questions that your child may have regarding content or skills encountered whilst learning from home should be directed to their teachers.
3.2 Timetable and Daily Notices
- Student timetables can be accessed from the Batemans Bay High School Student and Parent Portal [http://web3.batemansba-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/portal/login](http://web3.batemansba-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/portal/login).
- The portal will show student timetables as well as any positive achievement awards students are gaining for their work.
- The Daily Notices section of the student and parent portal should be checked regularly for information from Careers, Year Advisors, special programs or groups and the Deputies.
- The timetable should be a guide to help you and your child balance their learning across the curriculum.
- Please remember we would like learning from home to be a positive experience for all, this will require flexibility and if learning is becoming stressful we encourage you to take a break, do something fun or active and come back to the learning later.
- We also acknowledge that students are not used to working intensively on screens. As such, students may need more regular breaks and time away from technology.
3.3 Attendance
- Just as attendance at school is an important requirement, completing work from home is also a requirement.
- Your teachers regularly monitor who is accessing their learning and completing the tasks.
- It is expected that all students will make every effort to complete those set tasks and should they need extra support will contact their teachers to help provide it.
- There is no expectation that students will log into their Google classroom at the exact time in their timetable, however teachers may make themselves available for questions at specific times. If this is the case teachers will communicate this to their students.
3.4 Student Achievement Program
- It is important to continue to recognise the excellent work students are undertaking. As such, students will continue to receive Achievement awards for each subject.
- Students and parents can view merits from within the Batemans Bay High School Student and Parent Portal [http://web3.batemansba-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/portal/login](http://web3.batemansba-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/portal/login).
- Teachers may also let students know via their Google classroom or individual comments that merits have been achieved.
4 Behaviour Code for Students
- The behaviour code for students continues to apply to all students at this time.
- Specific reference to online learning behaviour is outlined in the learning from home agreement.
- You can access the behaviour code for students here: [https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/attendance-behaviour-and-engagement/student-behaviour/behaviour-code](https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/attendance-behaviour-and-engagement/student-behaviour/behaviour-code)
Behaviour code for students
NSW public schools
NSW public schools are committed to providing safe, supportive and responsive learning environments for everyone. We teach and model the behaviours we value in our students.
In NSW public schools students are expected to:
- Respect other students, their teachers and school staff and community members
- Follow school and class rules and follow the directions of their teachers
- Strive for the highest standards in learning
- Respect all members of the school community and show courtesy to all students, teachers and community members
- Resolve conflict respectfully, calmly and fairly
- Comply with the school’s uniform policy or dress code
- Attend school every day (unless legally excused)
- Respect all property
- Not be violent or bring weapons, illegal drugs, alcohol or tobacco into our schools
- Not bully, harass, intimidate or discriminate against anyone in our schools
Schools take strong action in response to behaviour that is detrimental to self or others or to the achievement of high quality teaching and learning.
**Behaviour Code for Students: Actions**
Promoting the learning, wellbeing and safety of all students in NSW Public Schools is a high priority for the Department of Education.
We implement teaching and learning approaches to support the development of skills needed by students to meet our high standards for respectful, safe and engaged behaviour.
**Respect**
- Treat one another with dignity
- Speak and behave courteously
- Cooperate with others
- Develop positive and respectful relationships and think about the effect on relationships before acting
- Value the interests, ability and culture of others
- Dress appropriately by complying with the school uniform or dress code
- Take care with property
**Safety**
- Model and follow departmental, school and/or class codes of behaviour and conduct
- Negotiate and resolve conflict with empathy
- Take personal responsibility for behaviour and actions
- Care for self and others
- Avoid dangerous behaviour and encourage others to avoid dangerous behaviour
**Engagement**
- Attend school every day (unless legally excused)
- Arrive at school and class on time
- Be prepared for every lesson
- Actively participate in learning
- Aspire and strive to achieve the highest standards of learning
The principal and school staff, using their professional judgment, are best placed to maintain discipline and provide safe, supportive and responsive learning environments. The department provides a policy framework and resources such as Legal Issues Bulletins, access to specialist advice, and professional learning to guide principals and their staff in exercising their professional judgment. In this context the NSW Government and the Department of Education will back the authority and judgment of principals and school staff at the local level.
5 Learning from Home agreement
The overall goals of Batemans Bay High School in regards to learning from home are:
1. To maintain the delivery and continuity of learning for all students
2. To ensure the safety and wellbeing of students and staff
- The eSafety Commissioner has some excellent material for both parents and students regarding online safety. It can be found at: www.esafety.gov.au/parents, www.esafety.gov.au/kids, and www.esafety.gov.au/young-people. We encourage you to read the relevant pages on the sites with your child.
- Material sent, received or posted using our school email, Google Classroom or other school-based apps, will be monitored in order to maintain a safe, ethical and effective online learning environment.
- Whilst Batemans Bay High School is limited in the enforcement of our mobile phone policy during Learning from Home, we strongly encourage you to discuss mobile phone use and agree to some workable ‘house rules’. We cannot filter internet content accessed by your child in the same way we do at school. Information about internet filtering can be found at www.acma.gov.au.
- The school’s principles of respect apply across all educational settings.
- The School Community Charter which prioritises respectful communication with the whole school community also applies https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/going-to-a-public-school/school-community-charter
As a student of Batemans Bay High School I agree to abide by the following principles:
1. I will complete learning tasks with honesty and do my best to meet timelines and due dates.
2. If I need to communicate with my teacher, I will send them an email from my school email address. I will also check my school email regularly.
3. When communicating with a teacher via email, I will always be respectful. I will address them ‘Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms X. I will finish the email with my first name or my first name and surname; not a nickname.
4. I will not allow anyone else to use my username or email address, nor will I attempt to impersonate any other person online.
5. I will keep my passwords private.
6. I will not share my mobile phone number or personal email address with teachers.
7. I will use technology only for positive purposes, not to be rude or offensive, or to bully, harass or in any way disrupt the learning of others.
8. I will not take or post screenshots or photos of other members of the school community.
9. If I receive or see content that breaches the above principles or the behaviour code for students I will immediately contact the school on 02 4478 3600 or email the school with ATTN: Deputy Principal.
10. I understand that disciplinary consequences will apply if I breach these principles or the behaviour code for students.
6 Assessment
6.1 Assessment notification
- Assessment tasks are clearly designated, and notice of the due date is given in writing to students at least one week in advance.
- Assessment notifications will be emailed to students with a read receipt and will also be accessible via the Google classroom. Only tasks that have an assessment task notification are part of the formal assessment for the course.
- Students who are absent from school on flexible learning arrangements have the responsibility to check their emails and Google classroom regularly to ensure they are aware of tasks that are issued. Students cannot use the excuse that they have not seen the task and therefore are unable to complete or sit the task.
- Students who are receiving packaged material will still be emailed a copy of the task and will also receive a formal task notification in the mail. These arrangements may change in Term 2.
6.2 Responsibilities of the course teacher
It is the responsibility of the teacher to:
- Notify students in writing, online at least one week prior to each task. This notification will include:
- the date the task is due,
- a description of the task,
- the weighting of the task,
- the outcomes being assessed, and
- the criteria on which the task will be marked.
- Negotiate a suitable change of date if it is necessary to change the notified date of a set assessment task.
- Adjust the nature or form of the task due to current learning from home arrangements.
- Ensure that assessment tasks are returned to students with a mark or grade and feedback to assist improvement in student performance.
6.3 Responsibilities of the student
- It is the responsibility of the student to:
- Complete each course in which they are enrolled. This will be demonstrated by:
- following the course that has been developed or endorsed by NESA,
- applying themselves with diligence and sustained effort to the set tasks and experiences provided by the course, and
- achieving some or all of the course outcomes.
- Make a serious attempt at all tasks which are set out in the assessment program for each course.
- Present work that is their own, in the specified form by the due date.
- Contact the school if you cannot complete an assessment task due to illness or misadventure on the day the task is due. The parent/carer should telephone or email the school in order to notify the head teacher of the relevant faculty. An “Illness and Misadventure Application” must be completed and returned to the Deputy Principal, who will then determine the case. Supporting documentation must be provided in writing,
such as a medical certificate for illness, or a satisfactory explanation in the case of misadventure, explaining the inability to do the task.
- Remember, learning from home is not considered misadventure.
- Contact the relevant head teacher before the due date of the task where an absence or issue with completion is known in advance.
6.4 Submission of tasks
- It is the responsibility of the student to submit their assessment tasks. Tasks will be submitted via Google classroom while working from home.
- Students without access to technology at home will be required to submit the work by bringing it to the school OR submitting via an alternative method as negotiated with the class teacher. An example of this could be photographing and emailing hand written work from a mobile device.
- If a student fails to fulfil his/her responsibilities, they may receive:
- a zero mark for work that is not his/her own
- a zero mark for work not submitted by the due date
- a zero mark for a non-serious attempt
- a zero mark for work not granted consideration due to illness/misadventure
- How to scan documents in the Notes app on your iPhone:
1. Open a new or existing note
2. Tap the camera icon and tap Scan Documents
3. Place your document in the camera’s view
4. You can use the auto-capture option by bringing your doc into the viewfinder or use the shutter button or one of the volume buttons to capture the scan
5. If needed, adjust the corners of the scan by dragging, then tap Keep Scan
6. You can scan more pages if needed, tap Save in the bottom right corner when you’re all done.
7 Accessing further support
- Year Advisors and other staff such as the Careers team, will post messages and information on the Daily Notices in the Batemans Bay High School Student and Parent Portal http://web3.batemansba-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/portal/login.
- A range of Wellbeing resources has also been supplied in ENews
- Should you need to speak with a Year Advisor, Careers Advisor, Transition Advisor, Wellbeing Coordinator, Librarian and the Learning and Support Teachers regarding a specific matter please contact the school via:
phone (02 4478 3600)
OR
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Sixth Grade Math Lesson Materials
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G6 Unit 1:
Area and Surface Area
G6 U1 Lesson 1
Explore the meaning of area
G6 U1 Lesson 1 - Students will explore the meaning of area
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slides 2): Today we will be exploring the meaning of area. Believe it or not, you already know a lot about the concept of area! In third, fourth, and fifth grades you identified and calculated the area of squares and rectangles.
Let’s Review (Slide 3): Let’s brainstorm, tell me what you remember about area? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- The amount of space inside of a shape.
- We can tile to find the total area of rectangles.
- We can skip count to find the total area of rectangles.
- We can multiply the length times the width to find the area of rectangles.
- We can cut shapes into smaller shapes, like rectangles, to find the area.
You remember more than most students remember, good recall! You’re right, area is the amount of space inside a shape.
Let’s Talk (Slide 4): Today we’re going to focus on revisiting the area concept you first learned in elementary school. When we talk about the area we are talking about the measure of the amount of space inside two-dimensional or 2D figures. Can you think of some real-world examples where we need to know the area of an object? Possible Student Answers, Key points:
- Painting walls
- Installing carpet
- Measuring home or room size
- Tiling a bathroom floor
- Windows
That’s right, area is everywhere in real life! I’m going to draw some examples of two-dimensional figures called polygons. As I draw them, try to remember their names.
What shape is this? It’s a square! That’s right! This is a square because it has four equal sides that are all the same exact length. It also has 90 degree angles meaning the “L” shapes are formed in the corners. Point to the area of this square…that’s right it’s the INSIDE of the shape.
Now let’s look at another, what shape is this? It’s a rectangle! This is a rectangle because it has four sides and the opposite sides are the same length. We see that the top and bottom are the same length and the left and right are the same length. It also has 90 degree angles meaning the “L” shapes are formed in the corners. Point to the area of the rectangle…
And one last one, look at this shape…what shape is this? A parallelogram! It’s a parallelogram because it has four sides and the opposite sides are the same length. We see that the top and bottom are the same length and the left and right are the same length. And again, point to the area of the parallelogram…
These figures are called two-dimensional or 2D because they have height and width which are the two dimensions. But, they are flat and we can’t hold them but we can draw them.
Let’s Think (Slide 5): So, we know that area is the measure of the amount of space inside our polygons. Let’s go on and think about how we can calculate area. Look at this shape, what 2-dimensional figure is shown? Rectangle and/or parallelogram! Let’s determine its area.
I’m going to lightly shade the inside because you’ve already told me that area is the space inside the polygon. So I am shading the whole inside of this rectangle!
Now, to actually find the area as a specific calculation, I’m going to count the squares inside the rectangle because I notice that all the squares are the same size. Count with me, please…1, 2, 3…12! So, we know that the area of this rectangle is 12 because we counted 12 squares. When we say the measurement of area we have to say square units. So the area of this rectangle is 12 SQUARE units!
We just counted every single square by ones but look, I notice that there are equal groups. I see that we have equal groups in each row going across and in each column going up and down. When we look at the groups going across in rows we see 4 and 4 and 4 (drag your finger across), So, we can count our rows by skip counting by 4s, do it with me…4, 8, 12.
Now we can switch our brains around and look at the equal groups that are in the columns, going up and down. When I look at the columns I see 3 and 3 and 3 and 3 (drag your finger across). So, if we want to skip count the columns we’d count by 3 since there are 3 squares in each column. Do it with me…3, 6, 9, 12.
Whether we count one-by-one or skip count rows or skip count columns, we end up with 12 square units. I have 12 equally-sized squares inside the rectangle so the area of this rectangle is 12 square units.
So, 12 is the area and my units label “square units” because the squares inside give me “square” shaped units. Area is always measured in “squared units” even when finding the area of triangles which we will tackle later in this unit.
Let’s Try it (Slide 6): Now let’s look at our other polygons, their characteristics, and the area of some of them. Remember, illustrating a polygon and thinking about the characteristics of that polygon are helpful when trying to determine the area.
WARM WELCOME
Today we will explore the meaning of area.
Let’s Review:
What do you remember about area?
Let’s Talk:
Can you think of some real-world examples where we need to know the area of an object?
Let’s Think:
Which 2-dimensional figure is shown? Let’s determine its area.
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Let’s Try It:
Let’s explore the meaning of area together.
1. Illustrate and list the characteristics of each polygon.
Square
1. ____________________________
2. ____________________________
Rectangle
1. ____________________________
2. ____________________________
Triangle
1. ____________________________
2. ____________________________
Parallelogram
1. ____________________________
2. ____________________________
2. What is the definition for area?
3. List 3 examples of two-dimensional figures.
Find the area of each polygon after shading in the area space for each polygon.
4. Area = _______________________
5. Area = _______________________
6. Area = _______________________
7. Area = _______________________
8. What do you notice about the areas of rectangles in problems 6 and 7?
Now it’s time to explore the meaning of area on your own.
1. Define area.
2. a. Illustrate each polygon twice. Ensure the two polygons are different sizes.
b. Shade in the area of each polygon.
| Rectangles | Squares |
|------------|---------|
| | |
| Parallelograms | Triangles |
|----------------|-----------|
| | |
3. Mr. Jackson asked the class to describe where to look on a polygon if you were trying to find its area. Franklin says that he would trace around the outside of the polygon. Brian says he would shade the inside of the polygon.
Who is correct? Explain your answer:
4. Area =
5. Area =
6. Area =
7. Area =
8. Draw two different rectangles that have the same area:
1. Illustrate and list 2 characteristics of each polygon.
| Square | Rectangle |
|--------|-----------|
| a. | a. |
| b. | b. |
| Triangle | Parallelogram |
|----------|---------------|
| a. | a. |
| b. | b. |
2. What is the definition for area?
3. List 3 examples of two-dimensional figures.
__________________________
__________________________
__________________________
Find the area of each polygon after shading in the area of each polygon.
4. Area = _______________________
5. Area = _______________________
6. Area = _______________________
7. Area = _______________________
8. How are the rectangles in problems 6 and 7 similar? How are they different?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
1. Define area.
2. a. Illustrate each polygon twice. Ensure the two polygons are different sizes.
b. Shade in the area of each polygon.
| Rectangles | Squares |
|------------|---------|
| | |
| Parallelograms | Triangles |
|----------------|-----------|
| | |
3. Ms. Jackson asked the class to describe where to look on a polygon if you were trying to find its area. Franklin says that he would trace around the outside of the polygon. Sam says he would shade the inside of the polygon.
Who is correct? Explain your answer.
Find the area of each polygon after shading in the area of each polygon.
4. Area = _______________________
5. Area = _______________________
6. Area = _______________________
7. Area = _______________________
8. Draw two different rectangles that have the same area.
1. Illustrate and list 2 characteristics of each polygon.
| Square | Rectangle |
|--------|-----------|
|  |  |
| a. 4 sides | a. 4 sides |
| b. All sides are equal length | b. Opposite sides are equal length |
| Triangle | Parallelogram |
|----------|---------------|
|  |  |
| a. 3 sides | a. 4 sides |
| b. Sides can be the same length or be different | b. Opposite sides are equal length |
2. What is the definition for area?
The amount of space inside a flat, 2D figure.
3. List 3 examples of two-dimensional figures. (Answers will vary.)
hexagon
square
rhombus
parallelogram
rectangle
Find the area of each polygon after shading in the area of each polygon.
4. Area = 4 units$^2$ or 4 square units
5. Area = 8 square units
6. Area = 20 square units
7. Area = 20 square units
8. How are the rectangles in problems 6 and 7 similar? How are they different?
They are similar in that they both have an area of 20 square units. They are different in that the width and lengths are not the same.
1. Define area.
The amount of space inside a 2D, flat figure.
2. a. Illustrate each polygon twice. Ensure the two polygons are different sizes.
b. Shade in the area of each polygon.
| Rectangles | Squares |
|------------|---------|
| | |
| Parallelograms | Triangles |
|----------------|-----------|
| | |
3. Ms. Jackson asked the class to describe where to look on a polygon if you were trying to find its area. Franklin says that he would trace around the outside of the polygon. Sam says he would shade the inside of the polygon.
Who is correct? Explain your answer.
Sam is correct. Shading the inside of a polygon will show the polygon's area or space within. Tracing around the outside is called the perimeter.
Find the area of each polygon after shading in the area of each polygon.
4. Area = 9 square units
5. Area = 12 square units
6. Area = 18 square units
7. Area = 16 square units
8. Draw two different rectangles that have the same area. (Answers will vary)
G6 U1 Lesson 2
Decompose and compose polygons to calculate area
G6 U1 Lesson 2 - Students will decompose and compose polygons to calculate area
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we will continue exploring area, which we know is the amount of space inside a two-dimensional figure. But today, we’ll work on decomposing and composing polygons. You have worked with decomposing polygons starting in third grade. You called those shapes rectilinear meaning they were made of straight lines; many of them looked like the letter “L.”
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): What does it mean to decompose? What are some examples of things that decompose? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- I’ve heard of food decomposing in compost.
- I know that trash breaks down.
- I’ve also heard of paper, cardboard, clothing decomposing after we’re done using it.
- We decompose tens and hundreds and thousands when we’re talking about place value.
In this lesson we’re going to do a few different things. First, this lesson focuses on decomposing or breaking down shapes or polygons into smaller parts. Then we’ll practice composing which is the same as building or putting back together and finally we might spend some time rearranging the parts. Rearranging is the same as moving to a different place.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): Let’s start by looking at this polygon. What’s the name of this polygon? How do you know? Hexagon, because it has 6 straight sides!
So let’s think about some ways that we can decompose or break apart this polygon, simply, into squares, rectangles, and/or triangles. We know that if we’re decomposing, we’re cutting the polygon into two or more different parts.
One way that we can decompose our polygon is to cut it horizontally which means from side to side (move your arms left to right to show horizontal). Now, I could cut this horizontally in many different places. I could cut it here or here or here (point to different spots), but if I cut it there, I would still have a hexagon and a square or a rectangle. I want to think about a place that I can cut it so that it would leave me with two easy shapes, like two rectangles since rectangles are nice and easy to find the area of. So look, if I cut it right here from side to side, I would have one rectangle from the top and another rectangle from the bottom.
But guess what? We can also cut shapes vertically, or up and down (move your arms up and down). Just like we practiced when we were cutting the hexagon horizontally, I can cut this shape anywhere like here or here (point to different spots), but I want to think carefully about how to cut it so that I have two smaller, easier shapes—like rectangles and square. So look, if I cut it right here vertically, I would have one long rectangle and then a square!
Now let me show you why this type of decomposition is helpful. What if I told you that the area of this long rectangle was 7 square units and the area of this little square is 4 square units (label). What could we do to find the area of the entire hexagon? Add the two areas together to find the total area of the polygon!
That’s right! We add the separate parts together. We can add the area of this larger rectangle together with the area of this square. So the area of this hexagon would be 11 square units.
We cut the hexagon into smaller shapes, a rectangle and a square, to help us find the area of the larger shape! We can always do that to help us find an area.
**Let’s Think (Slide 5):** Now we have another shape, it’s a parallelogram! Look closely at this shape, do you see any ways that we can decompose, or cut this shape, into smaller shapes? There are LOTS of ways! But just like with the hexagon we want to think carefully about how we cut this parallelogram so it helps us. Oh, some of you notice the 2 triangles and a rectangle! Do you see it? Let’s see if we can cut this so that we have 2 triangles and 1 rectangle.
This is a little tricky but if I cut here, I have 1 triangle and a quadrilateral. But, I want to make 1 more cut so that I have 2 triangles and a rectangle.
Now look, I can make another cut on the right side and now I have 2 triangles and 1 rectangle!
**Let’s Think (Slide 6):** Now that we decomposed our parallelogram, how would we find its area? Add the three areas together to find the total area of the parallelogram. That’s right, if we want to find the area of this parallelogram, we can add the area of all three parts together. We’d add the area of this triangle (point to triangle on the left) to the area of the rectangle (point) to the area of the triangle on the right and that would give us the whole area of the parallelogram.
**Let’s Think (Slide 7):** But, guess what? Another way to calculate the area of this parallelogram is to rearrange it, move around the parts.
Look, we can slide the decomposed triangle on the left side to match up with the right side of the polygon. We went from a slanted parallelogram made of one rectangle and two triangles to just one big rectangle! The best part is we already have experience calculating the area of rectangles. So we can always decompose and rearrange shapes to make them easier to work with.
**Let’s Think (Slide 9):** We just practiced decomposing or breaking shapes apart. But what about composing? Composing means to build or put back together. Let’s work together to think about how each triangle can be composed into a parallelogram? Let’s add to each triangle to see. (Allow students to try this out and note that it may require a few tries).
For the first one, we turned the triangle into a rectangle! We added another triangle that’s the same exact size as our original triangle.
For the second triangle, it was a little different, we can make this one into two shapes that look different. First, let’s make a parallelogram that is a rectangle. We need to add two, identical triangles to achieve that shape.
And the last one was even trickier! We already made it into a rectangle but we can also make this into just a parallelogram by spinning and adding a duplicate triangle.
So, we just explored how we can decompose, compose, and rearrange shapes! We decomposed the hexagon into one rectangle and one square and then we decomposed the parallelogram by cutting it into 2 triangles and a rectangle. We also explored how to rearrange the parallelogram into a rectangle. And just now, we saw how we can compose, or build, new shapes by adding on to our original polygon. Next we’ll explore how we can calculate the area of parallelograms and other polygons!
**Let’s Try it (Slide 10):** Let’s continue decomposing and composing polygons, together. Don’t forget, since we don’t yet have the formulas for the area of a triangle and parallelograms, we first decompose or compose our polygons into shapes that we do know how to calculate the area for like rectangles!
Today we will decompose and compose polygons to calculate area.
Let’s Talk:
What does it mean to decompose?
What are some examples of things that decompose?
Let’s Think:
How can we decompose or break apart this polygon, into squares, rectangles, and/or triangles?
Let’s Think:
How would we decompose this parallelogram into 2 triangles and a rectangle?
Let’s Think:
We decomposed this parallelogram into 2 triangles and 1 rectangle! How can we find the area?
Let’s Think:
Another way to calculate the area is to rearrange the parallelogram into a rectangle.
Let’s Think:
But what about composing? Composing means to build. How can each triangle be composed into parallelograms?
Let’s Try It:
Let’s explore decomposing and composing together.
1. Write a synonym for decompose. __________________________
2. Write a synonym for compose. __________________________
3. When we decompose polygons we want the decomposed shapes to be ________________, ________________, and/or ________________.
4. Decompose each polygon before you calculate the total area. Compare your work to your neighbor’s work.
a.
b.
5. Decompose each polygon.
a.
b.
c.
6. Add on to each polygon to compose rectangles or parallelograms.
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On your Own:
Now it’s time to explore decomposing and composing on your own.
1. Decompose each polygon into squares, rectangles, and/or triangles.
a.
b.
c.
2. George made a plan to find the area of figure b in question 2. He planned to break apart or _______________ the figure. He ended up with _____ triangle and ______ rectangle. To find the total area of the figure he plans to _______________ the _______________ of the two parts together.
3. Decompose each polygon before you calculate the total area.
a.
b.
4. Explain how decomposing and composing are different?
5. Add on to each polygon to compose rectangles or parallelograms.
6. Tyree was tasked with calculating the area of the hexagon shown. Instead of decomposing the hexagon, Tyree decides to compose a different shape from the hexagon shown but is a little confused. Help Tyree compose a figure to calculate the area of the hexagon. Explain your thinking.
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1. Write a synonym for decompose. __________________________
2. Write a synonym for compose. __________________________
3. When we decompose polygons we want the decomposed shapes to be ________________, ________________, and/or ________________.
4. Decompose each polygon before you calculate the total area. Compare your work to your neighbor’s work.
a. 
b. 
5. Decompose each polygon.
a. 
b. 
c. 
6. Add on to each polygon to compose rectangles or parallelograms.
 
1. Decompose each polygon into squares, rectangles, and/or triangles.
a.
b.
c.
2. George made a plan to find the area of figure b in question 2. He planned to break apart or ________________ the figure. He ended up with _____ triangle and _____ rectangle. To find the total area of the figure he plans to _____________ the _______________ of the two parts together.
3. Decompose each polygon before you calculate the total area.
a.
b.
4. Explain how decomposing and composing are different?
5. Add on to each polygon to compose rectangles or parallelograms.
6. Tyree was tasked with calculating the area of the hexagon shown. Instead of decomposing the hexagon, Tyree decides to compose a different shape from the hexagon shown but is a little confused. Help Tyree compose a figure to calculate the area of the hexagon. Explain your thinking.
1. Write a synonym for decompose. \textit{break apart}
2. Write a synonym for compose. \textit{build}
3. When we decompose polygons we want the decomposed shapes to be \textit{rectangles}, \textit{squares}, and/or \textit{triangles}. (could also put parallelograms)
4. Decompose each polygon before you calculate the total area. Compare your work to your neighbor’s work.
\begin{itemize}
\item[a.] \[9+10=19 \text{ sq.units}\]
\item[b.] \[18+4=22 \text{ sq.units}\]
\end{itemize}
5. Decompose each polygon. (answers will vary)
6. Add on to each polygon to compose rectangles or parallelograms.
4. Explain how decomposing and composing are different?
Decomposing is breaking apart which is the opposite of composing which is building.
5. Add on to each polygon to compose rectangles or parallelograms.
6. Tyree was tasked with calculating the area of the hexagon shown. Instead of decomposing the hexagon, Tyree decides to compose a different shape from the hexagon shown but is a little confused. Help Tyree compose a figure to calculate the area of the hexagon. Explain your thinking.
Tyree can compose a rectangle or parallelogram to help him find the area because we know how to find area of rectangles easily.
G6 U1 Lesson 3
Calculate the area of polygons using composition, decomposition, and subtraction
G6 U1 Lesson 3 - Students will calculate the area of polygons using composition, decomposition, and subtraction
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we will be using what we learned in the last lesson about composing, decomposing, and rearranging polygons to determine the actual area of polygons. Instead of counting the square units, we will be using the area formula to calculate the area.
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): In mathematics we often use formulas to solve problems. A formula is a fact or rule that uses symbols and numbers to find an answer. Why do you think formulas are important in mathematics? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- To find the answer faster
- To make less work for us
- To understand parts of the problem
- To simplify the problem
- To help us know how to solve in a structured way
The area formula you will use in this lesson is the same one you learned in third grade to find the area of squares and rectangles. When you want to find the area of a square or rectangle, you can multiply the rows by the columns. In other words, you can multiply the length times the width to find the total area.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): Let’s use that formula to calculate the area of this rectangle without counting each square unit, individually. So we know that to find the area of this rectangle we can multiply the number of rows by the number of columns, in other words we can multiply length times the width.
First, we label the rectangle’s length and width.
Next, we calculate the actual length and width of the rectangle. Let’s start with the width. To find how long that side is, we count the squares along that side. Here we have a width of 3 square units. For the length we do the same. We count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 square units so this rectangle is 5 square units long.
Finally, we can apply our formula by writing the formula, substituting the information we know into the formula and then solving the formula.
Let’s Think (Slide 5): Let’s look at a more challenging problem. Listen as I read the problem, “Nelson is designing a model house. Each square on the grid is 1 square unit. The figure shown represents one wall of the model house and the window on that wall. Let’s calculate the area of the wall, not including the window.”
Let’s stop and think about this question. Retell it to yourself and ask yourself, what is happening in this problem? Interesting! So, there is a small house and we’re looking at one wall of the house. The wall has a window. We need to find the area of the wall without the window included.
**Let’s Think (Slide 6):** We are missing the measurements of both the wall and window.
Before we answer the question, let’s work together to calculate the missing measurements. The window is kind of tricky because of the window pane in the middle but we want to know the length of the whole window (outline). We know that it’s 3 inches by 2 inches.
Now let’s look at the walls. We see that the wall is 9 inches by 6 inches (label lengths as you talk).
So, to calculate the area of the wall without the window we first need to calculate the area of the big wall. Let’s fill in our area formula and solve for the area? \( A = 9 \times 6; 54 \text{ square inches} \)
So, what do we need to do next? **Possible Student Answers, Key Points:**
- We need to find the area of the window next!
- Then we can subtract or take away the area of the window from the wall to find the area of the wall without the window.
- Because the window isn’t a part of the wall, it’s cut out.
So, let’s use our area formula to find the area of JUST the window. \( A = 3 \times 2 \), so the area of JUST the window is 6 square inches.
Now, we can finally find the area of the wall without the window! To do that, we need to start with the area of the WHOLE wall and take away the area of the window, since it’s cut out of the wall.
So we know that the area of the wall is 54 square inches and that the area of the window is 6 square inches. When we subtract them from one another we find that the area of the wall is 48 square inches.
**Let’s Think (Slide 7):** Nice work, let’s look at the next slide to continue to think about how the area formula can be helpful for us. Let’s think about how we calculate the area of the shaded region on the grid shown?
Some of you are thinking that we can just count the green tiles inside of the shape, but can you see why it might be hard to count the green tiles to find the area? **Possible Student Answers, Key Points:**
- Because some of the squares within the shaded region aren’t complete squares.
- Because some of the tiles are cut off.
It would be hard to know how much of each tile to count because it’s not full tiles.
We can use the larger green triangles themselves! We know from the last lesson that triangles can come together to compose rectangles so let’s apply that knowledge now to calculate the area of the shaded region.
Look, we can rearrange the triangles to make rectangles. So, we moved each triangle, using an arrow to show where we are moving each triangle.
Next we highlight the rectangles we composed to show our NEW shape. And to show that we moved the bottom and top rectangles, let’s put x’s in the grid areas for those triangles.
Now we are ready to calculate the area of each rectangle and add those areas together. As always we start out by writing the area formula for the figure. Next, we substitute into the formula and calculate the area. The length is 2 and the width is 5, and $2 \times 5$ is 10.
Since our rectangles are identical then they both have an area of 10 square units. So, $10 + 10 = 20$. We did it! The shaded region has an area of 20 square units.
**Let’s Try It (Slide 8):** Now let’s work together on more problem solving that involves area of polygons. Remember, the area formula for a square and a rectangle is $A = L \times W$ and it is important to label each side as the length or width on your polygon. And, if we don’t have a rectangle or square, we can cut our shape and rearrange it to make it easier to solve!
Today we will calculate the area of polygons using decomposition, composition, and subtraction.
Let’s Talk:
Let’s brainstorm…
Why are formulas important in mathematics?
Let’s Think:
Let’s use the area formula.
Let’s Think:
Nelson is designing a model house. Each square on the grid is 1 square unit. The figure shown represents one wall of the model house and the window on that wall.
Let’s calculate the area of the wall, not including the window.
Let’s Think:
How can we find the area of the green region? Can you see why we can’t just count the squares inside the shaded region?
Let’s Try It:
Let’s explore calculating area through decomposition and composition together.
1. We just calculated the area of the shaded region for the figure on this grid. But how can we calculate the area of the square inside the shaded region?
2. Show your work to calculate the area of the squares inside the shaded region.
3. Keshia’s warning is shown below with its dimensions. You can see that the warning is square in shape with a smaller square cut out of its center. Calculate the area of Keshia’s warning.
Now it’s time to explore calculating area through decomposition and composition on your own.
1. Juan drew a blueprint of the major areas in his basement and included their dimensions. He needed to figure out how much space he had in the entertainment space in the basement.
Help Juan calculate the amount of space Juan has to entertain.
2. Each student was asked to create a flag to represent teamwork. Angie’s flag includes a red triangle and a green triangle that are the same size, a blue triangle, and an icon that shows team members working together.
Calculate the area of the non-blue section of the flag.
1. We just calculated the area of the shaded region for the figure on this grid. But how can we calculate the area of the square inside the shaded region?
2. Show your work to calculate the area of the square inside the shaded region.
3. Kesha’s earring is shown below with its dimensions. You can see that the earring is square in shape with a smaller square cut out of its center. Calculate the area of Kesha’s earring.
1. Juan drew a blueprint of the major areas in his basement and included their dimensions. He needed to figure out how much space he had in the entertainment portion in his basement.
Help Juan calculate the amount of space he has to entertain.
2. Each student was asked to create a flag to represent teamwork. Angel’s flag includes a red triangle and a green triangle that are the same size as well as a blue triangle with an icon that shows team members thinking together.
Calculate the area of the non-blue section of the flag.
1. We just calculated the area of the shaded region for the figure on this grid. But how can we calculate the area of the square inside the shaded region?
We can calculate the total area then subtract the shaded region.
2. Show your work to calculate the area of the square inside the shaded region.
\[
A_{\text{square}} = l \times w \\
A = 7 \times 7 \\
A = 49 \text{ sq. units}
\]
\[
A_{\text{total square}} = 49 \\
A_{\text{shaded region}} = -20 \\
A_{\text{inside}} = 29 \text{ sq. units}
\]
3. Kesha’s earring is shown below with its dimensions. You can see that the earring is square in shape with a smaller square cut out of its center. Calculate the area of Kesha’s earring.
\[
A_{\text{total square}} = l \times w \\
A = 4 \times 4 \\
A = 16 \text{ sq. units}
\]
\[
A_{\text{cut out}} = l \times w \\
A = 2 \times 2 \\
A = 4 \text{ sq. units}
\]
\[
A_{\text{total square}} = 16 \\
A_{\text{cut out}} = -4 \\
12 \text{ sq. units}
\]
1. Juan drew a blueprint of the major areas in his basement and included their dimensions. He needed to figure out how much space he had in the entertainment portion in his basement.
Help Juan calculate the amount of space he has to entertain.
\[
\text{Area} = \frac{\text{length} \times \text{width}}{\text{Area of entire basement}} = \frac{20 \times 12}{8 \times 5} = \frac{240}{40} = 60 \text{ sq feet}
\]
2. Each student was asked to create a flag to represent teamwork. Angel’s flag includes a red triangle and a green triangle that are the same size as well as a blue triangle with an icon that shows team members thinking together.
Calculate the area of the non-blue section of the flag.
You can compose a rectangle with the two non-blue sections of the flag.
That rectangle has a length of 8 ft and a width of 3 feet. So, if \( A = l \times w \) then \( A = 8 \times 3 \) which is 24 square feet.
The area of the non-blue section is 24 ft².
G6 U1 Lesson 4
Use the characteristics of a parallelogram to calculate the area of parallelograms.
G6 U1 Lesson 4 - Students will use the characteristics of a parallelogram to calculate the area of parallelograms
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we will continue exploring the attributes of parallelograms that we began exploring in lessons 1 and 2 along with continuing to explore how to calculate area of different polygons.
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): Let’s start with a question…what does it mean to rearrange? When in your life have you rearranged something? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- Rearrange means to move things around.
- I rearranged my bookshelf because I moved books around.
- We rearranged our classroom when we moved the desks around.
- My mom talks about rearranging her schedule, moving things around to make more time.
That’s right! Rearranging means to move things around. You have lots of examples of rearranging, or moving, things! It’s important to remember that when we rearrange things, the objects stay the same (we don’t add anything or take anything away), we just reorganize them! So, today we will be looking at rearranging shapes to assist us with calculating the area of parallelograms.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): Most people think parallelograms are always slanted like some of the ones we see on the slide. But the definition for a parallelogram does not say a parallelogram must be slanted! Look at the other polygons on this slide. Think about the attributes of a parallelogram and talk to your neighbor about what you notice. Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- The square and rectangle both have 4 straight sides and the opposite sides of a square and a rectangle are parallel and the same length. So, that means a rectangle and a square are also parallelograms.
- Parallelograms have two sets of parallel sides.
That’s right! All parallelograms really aren’t slanted. A square and a rectangle are also parallelograms. I’m sure you’re wondering why this is so important! Well, it’s important because we already know how to calculate the area of squares and rectangles AND we know that we can decompose and rearrange shapes to make them easier to work with. So, if we can decompose and rearrange slanted parallelograms to compose squares and rectangles then we can easily calculate the area of slanted parallelograms.
Let’s Think (Slide 5): Let’s look at this parallelogram here on the slide. I notice that it’s slanted, which makes it really hard to calculate the area because we don’t know how to count these pieces (point to the slanted edges), since this isn’t a whole square inside the parallelogram. So, let’s think about how we can decompose this shape and rearrange it to make a square or rectangle so that it’s easier to calculate the area! And that’s right, we explored decomposing and rearranging polygons in our last lesson.
In our last lesson we explored how we can cut a slanted parallelogram into 2 triangles and 1 square or rectangle. And we can do the same thing here, watch me.
First we want to decompose the parallelogram into squares/rectangles and triangles. Let’s start right at the top left corner and cut down, that helps us make sure that we’re cutting a triangle with a point at the top! Now, we can go to the bottom corner and cut up. Look, now we have a triangle here, a rectangle, and another upside down triangle!
Now, let's try moving or rearranging a part of our parallelogram. We can stop the parallelogram from being slanted by moving a piece from the left to the right side of the parallelogram (or from right to left). Look at this triangle (shade it in), I can move it over here to make a rectangle. We want to draw an arrow to show where we are moving the triangle.
Now look, we cut the parallelogram and moved this triangle over to the other side. It looks like we composed a rectangle.
Let’s highlight or trace the new composed shape. It is helpful to see the new figure we composed. Look, it’s a rectangle!
Finally, since we took this triangle and rearranged it to make a nice neat rectangle, crossing out the part we just moved is also helpful to alleviate confusion.
Now we are ready to calculate the area of our newly composed rectangle. I’m going to shade the inside to show what we’re calculating, just to make sure we can all see the new rectangle that we just made. We know that we can find the area of a rectangle by counting all the squares inside but a faster way is to multiply the length times the width. The width (point) is 3 and the length (point) is 5. That’s right, it makes sense we can multiply because there are 5 groups of 3 or 3 groups of 5 (drag finger across groups as you explain).
\[ A = l \times w \]
\[ A = 5 \times 3 \]
\[ A = 15 \text{ sq. units} \]
So, in order to find the area, we can write the area formula, length times width. Next, we substitute into the formula…the length is 5 times the width which is 3. And now we can calculate the area. So, the area of the parallelogram is 15 square units.
**Let’s Think (Slide 6):** Let’s look at one more parallelogram before we get into practice. This one is a little tricky, the way we cut it is different. Look at it closely, how can we cut this parallelogram so that it can be rearranged into some friendly shapes. *(Give students time to look closely at the shape and talk)*.
**Let’s Think (Slide 7):** The first thing we have to do is cut it. This is the hardest step because we have to find the best way to cut our parallelograms so that we can rearrange them to make friendly shapes like squares or rectangles. When we cut this one, we cut it right down the middle to make two triangles!
**Let’s Think (Slide 8):** Next, we have to rearrange it! Let’s move one triangle over so that we make a rectangle!
Let’s Think (Slide 9): Finally, let’s trace the new figure and cross out the parts we don’t need anymore. And now, look! We have a rectangle so we can calculate the area using our simple formula. Everybody, calculate the area of this rectangle. What is it? 9 square units! So the area of the parallelogram is also 9 square units since this is just the parallelogram rearranged!
Let’s Try it (Slide 10-11): Let’s continue working on decomposing and rearranging pieces of parallelograms to calculate their areas. Remember that rearranging a polygon means moving the decomposed part to the other side in order to compose a simpler shape with which to calculate the area.
Today we will calculate the area of parallelograms.
Let’s Talk:
What does it mean to rearrange?
When in your life have you rearranged something?
Let’s Think:
Think about the attributes of a parallelogram and talk to your neighbor about what you notice.
Let’s Think:
How can we make a square or rectangle from this parallelogram by rearranging parts of the original figure?
Let’s Think:
How do we move or rearrange a part of this parallelogram to calculate its area?
Let’s Think:
Cut it! This one makes 2 triangles!
Let’s Think:
Rearrange it!
Findt the new shape and calculate area!
Let’s explore calculating the area of parallelograms together.
1. Decompose then rearrange the parallelogram two different ways.
2. Write the area formula for squares and rectangles.
3. Utilize the area formula to calculate the area of the parallelogram in problem number 1.
4. Select all the parallelograms that have an area of 20 square units.
1. a. Decompose then rearrange the parallelogram that could be used to calculate area.
b. Compose a rectangle that could be used to calculate area.
2. Write the area formula for squares and rectangles. __________________________
3. Utilize the area formula to calculate the area of the parallelogram in problem number 1.
4. Calculate the area of each parallelogram by decomposing or composing each parallelogram.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
3. Nelson decided to determine the area of the parallelogram shown by counting squares inside the figure.
**Part A**
Explain why Nelson’s plan can’t be used to determine the area of the parallelogram. Enter your explanation in the space provided.
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**Part B**
Calculate the area of Nelson’s parallelogram. Show your work on the image above and in the space provided below.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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1. a. Decompose then rearrange the parallelogram that could be used to calculate area.
b. Compose a rectangle that could be used to calculate area.
a.
b.
2. Write the area formula for squares and rectangles. \( A = \text{length} \times \text{width} \)
3. Utilize the area formula to calculate the area of the parallelogram in problem number 1.
\[
A = l \times w \\
A = 4 \times 2 \\
A = 8 \text{ square units or } 8 \text{ units}^2
\]
4. Calculate the area of each parallelogram by decomposing or composing each parallelogram.
a.
\[
A = l \times w \\
A = 5 \times 5 \\
A = 25 \text{ square units or } 25 \text{ units}^2
\]
b.
\[
A = l \times w \\
A = 4 \times 5 \\
A = 20 \text{ square units or } 20 \text{ units}^2
\]
c.
\[ A = l \times w \]
\[ A = 10 \times 2 \]
\[ A = 20 \text{ sq.units or } 20 \text{ units}^2 \]
d.
Area of the entire composed rectangle is \(9 \times 7\) or \(63 \text{ units}^2\).
The two triangles formed together make a rectangle that has a length of 6 and a width of 7. So, \(A = l \times w\) or \(A = 6 \times 7\) which is \(42 \text{ units}^2\). \(63 \text{ units}^2 - 42 \text{ units}^2 = 21 \text{ units}^2\)
e.
Area of the entire composed rectangle is \(9 \times 8\) or \(72 \text{ units}^2\).
The two triangles formed together to make a rectangle that has a length of 9 units and a width of 5 units. So, \(A = l \times w\) or \(A = 9 \times 5\) which is \(45 \text{ units}^2\). \(72 \text{ units}^2 - 45 \text{ units}^2 = 27 \text{ units}^2\)
1. Circle each parallelogram. For each non-parallelogram, provide one justification for why it is not a parallelogram.
B because it does not have 4 sides (or 4 angles)
D because it does not have 4 sides
G because it has more than 4 sides
_____ because
2. Decompose the parallelogram or compose a parallelogram to calculate the area.
\[ A = \text{length} \times \text{width} \]
\[ A = 6 \times 2 \]
\[ A = 12 \text{ square units or } 12 \text{ units}^2 \]
3. Nelson decided to determine the area of the parallelogram shown by counting squares inside the figure.
**Part A**
Explain why Nelson’s plan can’t be used to determine the area of the parallelogram. Enter your explanation in the space provided.
_Nelson's plan can't be used to determine the area of the parallelogram because the are not whole or complete squares within the parallelogram._
**Part B**
Calculate the area of Nelson’s parallelogram. Show your work on the image above and in the space provided below.
_The area = length x width so, area = 5 x 4 or 20 square units._
G6 U1 Lesson 5
Use the formula for area to find the area of any parallelogram
G6 U1 Lesson 5 - Students will calculate the area of parallelograms using the area formula
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we will revisit the area of parallelograms but focus specifically on utilizing the formula for determining the area of slanted parallelograms as opposed to determining area of parallelograms only on a grid.
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): Let’s brainstorm: One of the words we will be using in our work today is the word base. What do you think of when you hear the word base? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- The bottom of something, I hear the word base in basement, etc.
- Note: Some students may say they think of bass as in music. That is a different word and is spelled differently making “base” and “bass” homophones which are words that are pronounced the same but have different spellings and/or meanings. Musically, bass is a deep or low tone so in some ways the meanings have similarities.
Good thinking! Base is usually thought of as the bottom of something like the basement is the bottom floor of a house. Today we will be exploring where the height and base are located on a parallelogram. But, identifying the base can sometimes be tricky so let’s get ready.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): Some of you already had knowledge of some of the vocabulary we will be using today. Terms such as “base” and “height” and how to use them may not be new to you. Labeling the base and height of a polygon are very important. Many students get confused but there is an easy way to remember which is which and where they are located.
The base is always on the side or solid line where the 90 degree angle sits or touches so it’s not always on the bottom. A 90 degree angle forms an “L” shape (make an “L” with your fingers). You can be sure an angle is 90 degrees when you see the box like we see on the figure (point to box). The height is located perpendicular to the base. Perpendicular sounds confusing but perpendicular lines are just lines that form a letter “T” shape. The height is never, ever on the slanted side because if you think about it, you would never lean to the side if you were going to measure your height. Instead you would stand straight up to measure your height.
Based on the descriptions we just discussed, where do you think we should label the base, height, and 90 degree angle of this parallelogram (point to image)? The dotted line is the height, the base touches the angle and the angle is the box. That’s right! The easiest to label is the 90 degree angle because it is a box. The height is actually the dotted line because the base is the solid line where the 90 degree box touches. Great thinking. We’re part of the way there to calculating the area of parallelograms!
Let’s Think (Slide 5): Next, let’s connect the knowledge we have about parallelograms on a grid to what we are learning about parallelograms off a grid. On a grid is when we have the polygon on top of the tiles (point). Off the grid is when we see the polygon without the tiles (point).
As a recap of our previous lessons, let’s calculate the area using the grid. If we remember, our first step is to decompose the polygon. We can break this parallelogram into 1 rectangle and 2 triangles. Watch as I decompose this polygon.
Our second step is to rearrange the polygon to create a rectangle. We recall that rearranging means to move around. Look at how we moved the triangle from the left to the right side.
And now, we have a rectangle! I’m going to highlight to make it easy to see our new rearranged shape! Last thing is to count the squares inside the parallelogram or we can use the area formula to calculate the area of the parallelogram but we are just going to practice our skip counting skills in two ways as we find the area.
We can find the area a few different ways. We can count all of the square tiles, we can skip count or we can use the area formula. Pick one and find the area of the shape. What is the area? 15 square units!
But, what happens when our parallelogram is off the grid? Let me show you. We need to identify and label the measurements for the base and height, if they are told to us. In our parallelogram we were not told the base and height but we can figure it out from our rectangle on the grid polygon we just worked with. The length of our rectangle was 5 units squares and the width was 3 units or squares. With a parallelogram, we call the length the “base” and we call the width the “height.” So, base and height are used instead of length and width.
Let’s label our parallelogram. We remember from earlier in the lesson that the height is perpendicular to the base and forms the letter “T” so the vertical line is the height and it is 3 units high. The base is the solid line where the 90 degree angle touches. The base measures 5 units long.
Similar to the area formula for a square or rectangle, the formula for the area of a parallelogram is Area = base (or length) x height (or width). We know this to be true because we already explored the area of parallelograms many times. Each time we composed rectangles from those slanted parallelograms and then used the area formula for rectangles to calculate the area.
When we substitute into our newly learned area formula, Area = base x height, we get A = 5 x 3. So, the area of this slanted parallelogram is 15 square units.
We found it with the formula! We notice that the area of our parallelogram on the grid and the area of our parallelogram off the grid are the same, 15 square units.
We have just proven that we can use a grid or not use the grid to calculate the area of parallelograms! On the grid we decompose and rearrange the parallelogram before counting the squares within our polygon.
Off the grid we identify the 90 degree angle then label the base and height of the parallelogram so we can apply the area formula which is area = base x height. In the next lesson, we’ll explore how we can calculate the area of triangles!
**Let’s Try it (Slide 6):** Let’s continue working on utilizing the formula for parallelograms to calculate their areas. Don’t forget, the area formula for parallelograms is slightly different from the area formula for squares and rectangles because it uses the term base instead of length and height instead of width.
Today we will use the area formula for parallelograms to calculate the area of slanted parallelograms.
Let’s Talk:
What do you think of when you hear the word *base*?
Let’s Think:
How do we label the parts of a parallelogram?
Let’s connect parallelograms on the grid to parallelograms off the grid.
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Let’s explore using the formula to calculate the area of parallelograms together.
4. What is the area formula for parallelograms? How is that formula different from the formula for rectangles?
8. base = ______ mm
height = ______ mm
Label the base and height of the parallelogram on the figure shown. Calculate the area of each parallelogram using the area formula. Be sure to include the units in your answer.
a. Each tile on the floor of a bathroom is in the shape of a slanted parallelogram. The base of a tile measures 3 inches and the height of a tile measures 7 inches.
a. Sketch and label a bathroom tile.
b. Calculate the area of a tile. Be sure to include the units in your answer.
4. Label the base and height of the parallelogram. Calculate the area of each parallelogram using the area formula. Be sure to include the units in your answer.
Now it’s time to explore using the formula to calculate the area of parallelograms on your own.
| Name: |
|-------|
| Label the base and height of each parallelogram. Calculate the area of each parallelogram using the area formula. |
| A = __ x __ |
| 1. | 2. |
| 5 cm | 4.3 in |
| 7 cm | 8 in |
| 12.5 cm | |
| 3. | 4. |
| 6 m | 16 yds |
| 13 m | 10 yds |
| | 16 yds |
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION. Do not reproduce, distribute, or modify without written permission of CityBridge Education. © 2023 CityBridge Education. All Rights Reserved.
1. What is the area formula for parallelograms? How is that formula different from the formula for rectangles?
2. Label the base and height of the parallelogram on the figure shown.
3. What are the base and height of the figure?
- base = ______ mm
- height = ______ mm
4. Calculate the area of the parallelogram using the area formula. Be sure to include the units in your answer.
Each tile on the floor of a bathroom is in the shape of a slanted parallelogram. The base of a tile measures 3 inches and the height of a tile measures 7 inches.
5. Sketch and label a bathroom tile.
6. Write the area formula for a parallelogram.
7. Calculate the area of a tile. Be sure to include the units in your answer.
8. Label the base and height of the parallelogram.
\[ \text{base} = \_\_\_\_ \text{in} \]
\[ \text{height} = \_\_\_\_ \text{in} \]
9. Calculate the area of each parallelogram using the area formula. Be sure to include the units in your answer.
Label the base and height of each parallelogram. Calculate the area of each parallelogram using the area formula.
\[ A = \text{____} \times \text{____} \]
1.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{Base} &= 12.5 \text{ cm} \\
\text{Height} &= 7 \text{ cm} \\
A &= 12.5 \times 7 \\
&= 87.5 \text{ cm}^2
\end{align*}
\]
2.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{Base} &= 8 \text{ in} \\
\text{Height} &= 4.3 \text{ in} \\
A &= 8 \times 4.3 \\
&= 34.4 \text{ in}^2
\end{align*}
\]
3.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{Base} &= 6 \text{ m} \\
\text{Height} &= 13 \text{ m} \\
A &= 6 \times 13 \\
&= 78 \text{ m}^2
\end{align*}
\]
4.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{Base} &= 18 \text{ yds} \\
\text{Height} &= 16 \text{ yds} \\
A &= 18 \times 16 \\
&= 288 \text{ yds}^2
\end{align*}
\]
1. What is the area formula for parallelograms? How is that formula different from the formula for rectangles?
Area of a parallelogram is $A = \text{base} \times \text{height}$. The rectangle formula uses length & width instead of base & height.
2. Label the base and height of the parallelogram on the figure shown.
3. What are the base and height of the figure?
base = 11 mm
height = 6 mm
4. Calculate the area of the parallelogram using the area formula. Be sure to include the units in your answer.
$A = \text{base} \times h$
$A = 11 \times 6$
$A = 66 \text{ square millimeters or } 66\text{mm}^2$
Each tile on the floor of a bathroom is in the shape of a slanted parallelogram. The base of a tile measures 3 inches and the height of a tile measures 7 inches.
5. Sketch and label a bathroom tile.
6. Write the area formula for a parallelogram. \( A = b \times h \)
7. Calculate the area of a tile. Be sure to include the units in your answer.
\[
A = b \times h \\
A = 3 \times 7 \\
A = 21 \text{ in}^2
\]
8. Label the base and height of the parallelogram.
base = 9 in
height = 7.2 in
9. Calculate the area of each parallelogram using the area formula. Be sure to include the units in your answer.
\[
A = b \times h \\
A = 9 \times 7.2 \\
\frac{7.2}{x} \frac{9}{64.8}
\]
\[
A = 64.8 \text{ in}^2
\]
Label the base and height of each parallelogram. Calculate the area of each parallelogram using the area formula.
\[ A = b \times h \]
1.
\[
\begin{align*}
h &= 5 \text{ cm} \\
b &= 12.5 \text{ cm} \\
A &= b \times h \\
A &= 12.5 \times 5 \\
&= 62.5 \text{ cm}^2
\end{align*}
\]
2.
\[
\begin{align*}
5.1 \text{ in} & \quad 4.3 \text{ in} = h \\
b &= 8 \text{ in} \\
A &= b \times h \\
A &= 8 \times 4.3 \\
&= 34.4 \text{ in}^2
\end{align*}
\]
3.
\[
\begin{align*}
6 \text{ m} &= b \\
13 \text{ m} &= h \\
A &= b \times h \\
A &= 6 \times 13 \\
&= 78 \text{ m}^2
\end{align*}
\]
4.
\[
\begin{align*}
b &= 16 \text{ yds} \\
18 \text{ yds} &= h \\
A &= b \times h \\
A &= 16 \times 18 \\
&= 288 \text{ yds}^2
\end{align*}
\]
G6 U1 Lesson 6
Use parallelograms to find the area of triangles, identify base and corresponding height of a triangle
G6 U1 Lesson 6 - Students will use parallelograms to calculate the area of triangles
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we use what we know about parallelograms to calculate the area of triangles. When we were working with parallelograms, we learned that we can decompose and rearrange shapes to help us find areas. Working with triangles is a new concept but we’re ready for it because of our hard work with the area of parallelograms of squares, rectangles, and slanted parallelograms!
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): Let’s brainstorm: How are triangles and squares alike? How are they different?
Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- They both have straight sides
- They both have angles
- They’re both closed figures and can be small or large, etc.
- Triangles only have three sides while squares have four
- The sides of a square are always the same length but the sides of triangles can be different lengths
You’re on it today! Triangles and squares are alike because they both have straight sides, they both have angles, they both are closed figures with no openings, and they both can be small or large. Triangles and squares are different because triangles only have three sides while squares have four. They are also different because the four sides of a square are always the same length while the three sides of triangles are not always the same length. Today our knowledge of triangles and squares is going to come in handy as we calculate the area of triangles.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): To recap, parallelograms have specific attributes that make them parallelograms. Who can name those attributes? They have four straight sides, the opposite sides that are parallel, and the opposite sides that are the same length.
That’s right! Parallelograms have four straight sides. The opposite sides are parallel to one another and those opposite sides are the same length.
Let’s decompose a square parallelogram. This parallelogram is also called a square. We call it a parallelogram because it has the attributes of a parallelogram; it has four straight sides, the opposite sides are parallel to one another, and the opposite sides are the same length. We call it specifically a square because, in addition to the attributes of a parallelogram, ALL the sides of the square are equal to one another, not just opposite sides!
We can decompose this square many different ways, but what if we draw a diagonal from one angle to another angle on this square, what do you notice?
Interestingly, we notice that we just made two, equally-sized triangles…1, 2 (point) and each triangle is half the size of the square! If we folded along this line, each triangle could be the exact same size.
Well look at that! We can decompose or break down a square parallelogram in half to make two, equally-sized triangles. If the triangles are equally-sized that means that the areas of the two triangles will be the same. So, if we know the area of the square then we can also easily find the area of each triangle because it would be HALF of the area of the square. For example, If I told you the area of this square was 4 square units, then you’d know the area of this triangle was 2 square units and the area of the other triangle would also be 2 square units. Let’s look more closely at how that works.
Let’s Think (Slide 5): Now that we have our two, equal-sized triangles that are each half the size of the square we want to calculate the area of each triangle. I’m going to tell you the area of our square. Ready? Our square has an area of 16 square inches. Since we have already decomposed the square into two, equally-sized triangles and now that we know the area of the square, we are able to calculate the area of each of those triangles!
So how do we figure that out? Well, if the whole square has an area of 16 square inches and we just split that square in half to get two (hold up two fingers) equally-sized triangles. Let’s try it. What is half of 16? 8 That’s right! 16 split into two equal pieces is 8 and it is also 8 because 16 divided by 2 equals 8. Good thinking!
Let’s Think (Slide 6): Sometimes we start with a triangle and not a parallelogram though. It’s tough to count the number of square units inside a triangle sometimes because all the squares aren’t always complete squares. In the triangle on the grid we see that we have some complete squares but we also have some partial squares (point). It’s nearly impossible to correctly piece all those partial squares together to make whole squares!
When it’s really tough to piece partial squares together we instead compose a parallelogram. We recall that composing means to build onto a polygon. Let’s build onto this triangle to make a parallelogram.
What type of parallelogram do you think we can compose from this triangle? Rectangle. That’s right! We can make a rectangle. We know it’s a rectangle because the polygon has four straight sides, the opposite sides are parallel and the same length, and it has four 90 degree angles. Let’s compose that rectangle.
We are still working to find the area of the original triangle. But, since we have a rectangle we can use the area formula for a rectangle or Area = length x width to calculate the area of our newly composed rectangle. We need to first know our length and width and can figure this out by counting the squares along the bottom and side.
Along the bottom we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 units (point to each square as you count).
Along the side we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 units (point to each square as you count).
So, we have a length of 5 units and a width of 6 units.
Our next step is to calculate the area of the composed rectangle. We know that we can use the area formula to find the area. So Area= 5 x 6, that’s easy math! So the area of the composed rectangle equals 30 square units.
But, we’re not done! We don’t want to area of the WHOLE rectangle, we just want the area of the triangle that we started with.
Hmm, How do we find the area of our original triangle? Well, let’s think about our example where we started with a square and cut it in half. Each of our triangles ended up being half the area of the square.
Same thing will happen here! To find the area of our original triangle we need to take half the area of our rectangle or half of 30. It’s time for division!
Taking half of something means to divide it into two equal parts or divide by 2. Let’s do the division together using the partial quotients method where we keep making groups of 2 until there aren’t any groups of 2 left to make.
I begin by asking myself, “How many groups of 2 can I make if I have 30?” I can at least make 10 groups of 2 which gives me 20 in total.
Next, I subtract 30 minus 20 and I am left with 10. I now only have 10 left with which to make groups of 2. I then ask myself, “How many groups of 2 can I make from the 10 I have left?” I can make exactly 5 groups which gives me 10 in total. So, I subtract 10 minus 10 and am left with 0!
My last step is to add together the groups of 2 that I have made. 10 groups of 2 plus 5 groups of 2 gives me 15 total groups of 2 as my answer.
So, 30 divided by 2 or half of 30 gives us an area of 15 square units for our original triangle.
We have just figured out that we can decompose a parallelogram into two, equally-sized triangles or we can compose a parallelogram from a triangle to more easily calculate the area of a triangle as long as we keep in mind that those triangles are half the size of the parallelograms. We’ll keep all this in mind as we explore the area formula for triangles in upcoming lessons.
**Let’s Try it (Slide 7):** Let’s continue our work with decomposing and composing parallelograms to calculate the area of triangles. But, remember that triangles are half the size of parallelograms and triangles can be made into parallelograms to calculate the area of triangles.
*Note: The Common Core State Standards do not teach long division until later units in sixth grade, students learned to use the partial quotient method (modeled in this lesson) in fifth grade.*
Today we will calculate the area of triangles using our knowledge of parallelograms.
Let’s Talk:
How are triangles and squares alike? How are they different?
Let’s Think:
Let’s decompose this square.
How can we compose a parallelogram from this triangle?
Let’s explore calculating the area of triangles using parallelograms together.
1. Show how we decompose these parallelograms to make two, equal triangles.
2. Complete the statement.
The area of the triangle is ________ the area of the composed parallelogram.
3. Compose parallelograms from the given triangles.
4. Complete the statement.
I can calculate the area of the triangle by ___________ the area of the composed parallelogram by ______.
5. Calculate the area of each triangle. Be sure to label with the appropriate units.
6. Jordan composed a parallelogram from the triangle he was given. After composing a parallelogram he calculated that the area of the original triangle is 21 square units because the length of the base and height of the triangle are both 7 units. Is Jordan correct? Correct Jordan’s thinking. Calculate the area of the original triangle correctly.
Now it’s time to explore calculating the area of triangles using parallelograms on your own.
1. Select all the triangles that have an area of 8 square units.
2. Draw two different triangles that both have areas equal to 12 square units. Show your math work to justify your illustrations.
1. Show how we decompose these parallelograms to make two, equal triangles.
2. Complete the statement.
The area of the triangle is _______________ the area of the composed parallelogram.
3. Compose parallelograms from the given triangles.
4. Complete the statement.
I can calculate the area of the triangle by _______________ the area of the composed parallelogram by _____.
Calculate the area of each triangle. Be sure to label with the appropriate units.
5.
6.
7.
8. Jordan composed a parallelogram from the triangle he was given. After composing a parallelogram he calculated that the area of the original triangle is 21 square units because the length multiplied by the width equals 21.
Correct Jordan’s thinking. Calculate the area of the original triangle, correctly.
1. Select all the triangles that have an area of 8 square units.
2. Draw two different triangles that both have areas equal to 12 square units. Show your math work to justify your illustrations.
1. Show how we decompose these parallelograms to make two, equal triangles.
2. Complete the statement.
The area of the triangle is \_\_\_\_\_\_ the area of the composed parallelogram.
3. Compose parallelograms from the given triangles.
4. Complete the statement.
I can calculate the area of the triangle by \_\_\_\_\_\_ the area of the composed parallelogram by \_\_\_\_\_\_.
Calculate the area of each triangle. Be sure to label with the appropriate units.
5.
\[
A_{\text{rectangle}} = 1 \times w \\
A = 5 \times 4 \\
A = 20 \text{ sq. units}
\]
\[
A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{20}{2} \text{ or } 10 \text{ units}^2
\]
6.
\[ A_{\text{rectangle}} = l \times w \]
\[ A = 5 \times 3 \]
\[ A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{15}{2} \text{ sq. units} \]
\[ A = 7\frac{1}{2} \text{ units}^2 \]
7.
\[ A_{\text{rectangle}} = l \times w \]
\[ A = 5 \times 6 \]
\[ A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{30}{2} = 15 \text{ sq. units} \]
\[ A = 15 \text{ unit}^2 \]
8. Jordan composed a parallelogram from the triangle he was given. After composing a parallelogram he calculated that the area of the original triangle is 21 square units because the length multiplied by the width equals 21.
Correct Jordan’s thinking. Calculate the area of the original triangle, correctly.
\[ A_{\text{parallelogram}} = l \times w \]
\[ A = 7 \times 3 \]
\[ A = 21 \text{ sq. units} \]
\[ A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{21}{2} \]
After composing a parallelogram the area of the composed parallelogram is 21 square units. The area of the original triangle is half of 21 square units or \(10\frac{1}{2}\) square units.
1. Select all the triangles that have an area of 8 square units.
A) \( A_{\text{rectangle}} = l \times w \)
\( A = 4 \times 4 \)
\( A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{16}{2} \)
\( A = 8 \text{ units}^2 \)
B) \( A_{\text{rectangle}} = l \times w \)
\( A = 4 \times 5 \)
\( A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{20}{2} \)
\( A = 10 \text{ units}^2 \)
C) \( A_{\text{rectangle}} = l \times w \)
\( A = 8 \times 2 \)
\( A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{16}{2} \)
\( A = 8 \text{ units}^2 \)
D) \( A_{\text{rectangle}} = l \times w \)
\( A = 4 \times 4 \)
\( A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{16}{2} \)
\( A = 8 \text{ units}^2 \)
2. Draw two different triangles that both have areas equal to 12 square units. Show your math work to justify your illustrations.
If I want a triangle with area of 12 then I need a rectangle with double the area, or \( 12 \times 2 = 24 \text{ units}^2 \).
Factors that equal 24 are:
- \( 1 \times 24 \)
- \( 2 \times 12 \)
- \( 3 \times 8 \)
- \( 4 \times 6 \)
\( A_{\text{rectangle}} = l \times w \)
\( A = 8 \times 3 \)
\( A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{24}{2} \)
\( A = 12 \text{ sq.units} \)
\( A_{\text{rectangle}} = l \times w \)
\( A = 6 \times 4 \)
\( A_{\text{triangle}} = \frac{24}{2} \)
\( A = 12 \text{ sq.units} \)
G6 U1 Lesson 7
Calculate the area of triangles using the area formula
G6 U1 Lesson 7 - Students will calculate the area of triangles using the area formula
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we will continue calculating the area of triangles by using our knowledge of composing and decomposing parallelograms. In our last lesson we discovered that we could find the area of triangles by composing and decomposing parallelograms. In this lesson we will see how that knowledge can help us write the formula for calculating the area of triangles.
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): Let’s start with a brainstorm, what does half mean? Give an example. Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- Half is when you split something into two pieces.
- You can split a whole into two halves.
- You can split the class into two halves.
- Half of 4 is 2.
You’re right, half is when we split something into two parts or two groups! That’s going to be important today. Let me show you.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): Yesterday, we decomposed a parallelogram to get two, equally-sized triangles. We learned that the area of a triangle is half the area of a composed parallelogram. In our last lesson we also saw that we can calculate the area of a triangle by dividing the area of a parallelogram by 2 which means dividing in half. Let’s build on this knowledge today.
Can you think of what we could use to more efficiently find the area of triangles? A formula! That’s right! Using a formula is the more efficient or faster method because you don’t need to compose or decompose, you simply need to substitute into your formula. Keep in mind that you could still compose and decompose parallelograms to calculate the area of triangles, if you wanted. But, formulas are just simpler and have fewer steps.
Let’s revisit a problem we solved yesterday. Remember that to find the area of this triangle we first composed or built a parallelogram, in this case we composed a rectangle, like this.
After composing our rectangle, we label the length and width of our rectangle by counting along the bottom and side of the polygon.
So our length is 4 units.
And our width is 3 units.
Okay, now we can calculate the area of the rectangle! The area formula for rectangles says $A = L \times W$. Now, we can substitute numbers into the formula, so the area of the rectangle is 12 square units.
Can anyone remember why is it important to calculate the area of the rectangle like we just did? Since the triangle is half of the rectangle we can divide the rectangle’s area by 2. Right, our triangle has an area that is half the area of the rectangle we composed. So that means we can just divide the area of the rectangle by 2 to find the area of our triangle.
Let’s do the calculations to find the area of the triangle. The rectangle’s area is 12 square units divided in half or 12 divided by 2. Half of 12 is 6. So that area of our original triangle, 6 square units.
**Let’s Think (Slide 5):** Let’s recap our calculation steps:
- First, we multiplied the length by the width.
- Then, we divided that answer by 2.
Guess what? We can put this into an area formula for triangles but first let’s discuss the parts of a triangle. Just like with the area formula for parallelograms off the grid that we learned a couple lessons ago, we don’t use length and width to label triangles, instead we use “base” for the length and “height” for the width.
So, our calculation steps for the area of a triangle would be to multiply the base by the height, first. Then, divide that answer by 2.
- Here’s what the formula for those steps looks like: \( A = \frac{b \times h}{2} \) (write on slide)
- Or you can write the formula as \( A = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h \) (write on slide)
Using formulas is a more efficient method for solving because formulas are faster than composing and decomposing.
Even though we know the area of this triangle is 6 square units, let’s solve using both versions of our area formulas. Remember that the variable “\( b \)” represents the base on the triangle, the “\( h \)” represents the height of the triangle, and we divide by 2 or take half because triangles are half the size of parallelograms.
Let’s label the base and the height. We’re old pros at counting the sides of polygons at this point. There are 1, 2, 3, 4 units in the base and 1, 2, 3 units in the height.
*Note: this triangle doesn’t have a dotted line that indicates the height. If students ask where the dotted line is located, draw their attention to the 90 degree angle and trace the “L” shape. Use that to identify the base, then trace a dotted line for the height over the solid line.*
Now that we have our base and height we can substitute them into our formula. Let’s start with the formula (write the area formula). We replace the base with 3 and the height 4 as we rewrite our formula. We multiply 3 by 4 next to get 12 so we now have \( \frac{12}{2} \) as our answer. One last step! 12 divided by 2 is 6. So the area of our triangle is 6 square units.
Let's look at the other formula for calculating the area of a triangle. Our other area formula says area equals one-half multiplied by the base multiplied by the height. Have you stopped to think of why there are two formulas for the area of a triangle? I notice that there aren’t really two different formulas in meaning, just different in the way they are written. There is one formula written two different ways! Both formulas solve for the area of a triangle, both formulas have a base and a height, and both divide by 2. Remember from the last lesson that dividing a number by 2 and taking half of a number result in the same exact answer because they are actually the same thing!
We know that the base is 3 units and the height is 4 units. Let’s substitute them into our formula. We replace the base with 3 and the height 4 as we rewrite our formula. It can seem tricky because there is a fraction but we can do this!
The whole numbers 3 and 4 need to be made into fractions by putting a fraction bar and the number 1 as the denominator. Next, we multiply straight across; $1 \times 3 \times 4$ which equals 12 as our numerator then $2 \times 1 \times 1$ which equals 2 as our denominator.
We end up with $\frac{12}{2}$ as our answer. Almost there…12 divided by 2 is 6. So the area of our triangle is 6 square units. We made it!
There we have it. We now have multiple ways to determine the area of triangles. One way is to compose or decompose parallelograms, find the area of that parallelogram, then divide by 2. A second way is to substitute into one of the area formulas. Whichever way you choose you will achieve the same answer for the area of a triangle.
**Let’s Try it (Slide 6-7):** Let’s continue our work using the area formulas for triangles to calculate the area of triangles. Remember that the area formula for a triangle is still just half the area formula for a parallelogram.
Today we will calculate the area of triangles using the area formula.
Let’s Talk:
What does half mean?
Give an example.
Let’s Think:
Let’s revisit how we calculate the area of this figure.
Let’s Think:
Using a formula is a more efficient method for solving.
Let’s Try It:
Let’s explore using a formula to calculate the area of triangles together.
1. Write the steps for calculating the area of a triangle after creating a parallelogram.
Step 1: ____________________________
Step 2: ____________________________
2. What are the two formulas for calculating the area of a triangle?
____________________________ and ____________________________
3. How are \( \frac{1}{2} \) (dividing by 2) and \( x \times y \) (multiplying by \( \frac{1}{2} \)) related?
____________________________
4. Label the base and height of each triangle. Use the formula to calculate the area of each triangle.
a. ____________________________
b. ____________________________
5. Michael is setting the table for a meal. The cloth napkins measure 6 inches on each side. Michael folds each napkin along its diagonal. Find the area of a folded napkin.
Sketch an illustration of the problem then calculate the area using the formula.
Now it’s time to explore using a formula to calculate the area of triangles on your own.
1. Label the base and height of each triangle. Use the formula to calculate the area of each triangle.
2. Label the base and height of each triangle. Use the formula to calculate the area of each triangle.
a.
b.
3. Martin constructed a triangular shaped garden. He needs to put down soil to cover the space. If the garden has a base of 3.5 ft and a height of 9 ft, how much area will he need to buy soil for?
1. Write the steps for calculating the area of a triangle after creating a parallelogram around the triangle.
Step 1: ______________________________________________________
Step 2: ______________________________________________________
2. What are the two formulas for calculating the area of a triangle?
________________________________ and ____________________________
3. How are ÷2 (dividing by 2) and x½ (multiplying by ½) related?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Label the base and height of each triangle. Use both formulas to calculate the area of each triangle.
a.
![Image of a triangle]
b.
![Image of a triangle]
5. Michael is setting the table for a meal. The cloth napkins measure 6 inches on each side. Michael folds each napkin along its diagonal. Find the area of a folded napkin.
Sketch an illustration of the problem then calculate the area using both formulas.
1. Label the base and height of the triangle.
2. Use the formula to calculate the area of the triangle.
3. Label the base and height of each triangle.
4. Use both formulas to calculate the area of each triangle.
a.
b.
5. Martin constructed a triangular shaped garden. He needs to put down soil to cover the space. If the garden has a base of 3.5 ft and a height of 9 ft, how much area will he need to buy soil for?
1. Write the steps for calculating the area of a triangle after creating a parallelogram around the triangle.
Step 1: Multiply length by width
Step 2: Divide by 2
2. What are the two formulas for calculating the area of a triangle?
\[ A = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h \] and \[ A = \frac{b \times h}{2} \]
3. How are \( \frac{1}{2} \) (dividing by 2) and \( x \frac{1}{2} \) (multiplying by \( \frac{1}{2} \)) related?
They are both equal to one another. They are the same thing.
4. Label the base and height of each triangle. Use both formulas to calculate the area of each triangle.
a.
![Diagram of a triangle with base 4 and height 8]
\[ A = \frac{b \times h}{2} \]
\[ A = \frac{4 \times 8}{2} \]
\[ A = \frac{32}{2} \]
\[ A = 16 \text{ sq. units} \]
\[ A = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h \]
\[ A = \frac{1}{2} \times 4 \times 8 \]
\[ A = \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{4}{1} \times \frac{8}{1} \]
\[ A = \frac{32}{2} \]
\[ A = 16 \text{ sq. units} \]
b.
![Diagram of a triangle with base 5 and height 7]
\[ A = \frac{b \times h}{2} \]
\[ A = \frac{5 \times 7}{2} \]
\[ A = \frac{35}{2} \]
\[ A = 17 \frac{1}{2} \text{ sq. units} \]
\[ A = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h \]
\[ A = \frac{1}{2} \times 5 \times 7 \]
\[ A = \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{5}{1} \times \frac{7}{1} \]
\[ A = \frac{35}{2} \]
\[ A = 17 \frac{1}{2} \text{ sq. units} \]
5. Michael is setting the table for a meal. The cloth napkins measure 6 inches on each side. Michael folds each napkin along its diagonal. Find the area of a folded napkin.
Sketch an illustration of the problem then calculate the area using both formulas.
\[
A = \frac{b \times h}{2}
\]
\[
A = \frac{6 \times 6}{2}
\]
\[
A = \frac{36}{2}
\]
\[
A = 18 \text{ in}^2
\]
\[
A = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h
\]
\[
A = \frac{1}{2} \times 6 \times 6
\]
\[
A = \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{6}{1} \times \frac{6}{1}
\]
\[
A = \frac{36}{2}
\]
\[
A = 18 \text{ in}^2
\]
1. Label the base and height of the triangle.
2. Use the formula to calculate the area of the triangle.
3. Label the base and height of each triangle.
4. Use both formulas to calculate the area of each triangle.
5. Martin constructed a triangular shaped garden. He needs to put down soil to cover the space. If the garden has a base of 3.5 ft and a height of 9 ft, how much area will he need to buy soil for?
G6 U1 Lesson 8
Use nets to calculate surface area of rectangular prisms
G6 U1 Lesson 8 - Students will use nets to calculate surface area of rectangular prisms
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we will be exploring 3D figures and a new concept called surface area. You did not explore this math concept in elementary school but your knowledge of area will certainly come in handy.
Note: It would help students if they can see 3D figures in real life. You may consider bringing in actual real-world objects that are in the shape of the 3D shape shown below as visuals (tissue box, cardboard box, etc).
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): Let’s brainstorm, what do you know about 3-dimensional shapes? And, what do you know about 2-dimensional shapes? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- 2-D shapes are flat like squares, rectangles, parallelograms, and triangles
- They are called 2-dimensional because they are flat but they have length and width only or base and height only.
- 3-D shapes are solids like cubes or rectangular prisms.
- We can pick up 3-D shapes and look at them from many different angles.
- 3-D shapes have a length width AND depth.
You remember a lot. Yes, 2D or 2-dimensional figures are flat but they have length/base and width/height. Examples of 2D figures we have been working with are squares, rectangles, parallelograms, and triangles. But, those aren’t the only 2D figures that exist. You’ve also heard of others like pentagons, hexagons, and octagons and there even some you may not have heard of like dodecagons which are 12-sided figures!
I see that you also remember quite a bit about 3D shapes as well! Let’s learn a little more about 3D shapes.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): 3D stands for 3-dimensional and these figures are different from two-dimensional figures because they are not flat, you can hold these figures in your hands. Think of a can, a box or even a basketball! Two-dimensional figures all have length, width, AND height not just length and width like with 2-dimensional figures.
There are many different types of 3D figures, like we see on this slide. Read them with me…
Just like 2D shapes, 3D figures have important attributes as well.
- 3D shapes sometimes have a vertex or vertices, which is an angular point or/corner.
- 3D shapes also have more than one face which is a flat/curved surface
- And, 3D shapes usually have more than one edge which is where two faces meet.
You actually know some about 3-dimensional figures because you first learned about them in kindergarten and even worked with a couple types in fifth grade.
Guess what? We can calculate area of three-dimensional figures even though they are not flat like 2-dimensional figures. We are going to start our work on that concept today.
Earlier in the lesson I said that we will be calculating the surface area of 3D figures. But what is surface area? It's the area of the surface of our 3D figures (point to all the faces on the cube). We already know that area is the amount of space inside a flat, 2D figure. Well, did you know that each face of a 3D figure is a flat, 2D figure? (point to the cube’s faces). If we look at the cube we see it has many square faces, 6 square faces to be exact! All those flat, 2D figures come together to make a 3D figure.
Can you identify the 2D faces on our triangular prism? Triangles and rectangles. Yes, we see 2 triangles and 3 rectangles to be specific.
Thinking about the surface of something, surface means the outside part. Think of the surface as the outside part you touch if you are holding an object. Close your eyes and imagine holding a box of tissues. What parts are your hands touching? The outside part. Exactly! You are touching the outside or surface of the tissue box. So when we are looking to calculate the surface area we are trying to calculate how much space is around the outside of an object.
Another way to think about this is like wrapping paper, the surface area is like wrapping paper around the outside, or surface, of a 3D shape.
**Let’s Think (Slide 6):** Remember all that great work we did in lessons 1-7? Well we’re still going to use that knowledge in this lesson when we calculate the area of 2D figures such as squares, rectangles, and triangles on our way to calculating the total surface area of 3D figures!
A way to assist with calculating the surface area of 3-dimensional figures is with a picture called a net. Nets basically unfold or open up the 3D figure to give you a flat image of the figure (point to the nets). Each 3D figure has its own net. Here are the 3D figures along with their nets we will be working with today:
Let’s practice labeling the faces of our cube and rectangular prism nets. We notice that all faces of the cube net are squares but not all the faces of the rectangular prism are rectangles. But, both nets are labeled the same! When we label each net we look for their bottom face, top face, front face, back face, left face, and right face. I always begin with labeling the bottom face. Once I’ve identified the bottom face it makes it easier to identify the others because their position is based on the placement of the bottom face.
Let’s label the nets! I begin by tracing the net like a “t” with my finger (trace). These particular nets for cubes and rectangular prisms form a lowercase “t.” I notice that there is only one face that I cross over both times when I make the “t” shape. I label that face as the bottom face. Then I label the other faces based on that bottom face. Left face and right faces are in a row, alongside the bottom face. Let’s label the left and right faces now.
Let’s do the same with our rectangular prism. Let’s take a second to try and visualize folding the rectangular prism. Start by placing the bottom face directly on the ground (mimic each motion as you say them aloud). Next, fold upward the right and left faces, then fold upward the back and front faces. Lastly, fold the top face downward. You have just made a box in the shape of a rectangular prism or cube!
**Let’s Think (Slide 7):** Now that we have labeled the faces we can calculate the surface area of a rectangular prism. Just by looking, we can tell some things about the size of the faces. Look at the net to see what you notice. **Possible Student Answers, Key Points:**
- The top and bottom faces are the same size
- The left and right faces are the same size
- The front and back faces are the same size
I see that as well. In a rectangular prism the left and right faces are the same size, the front and the back faces are the same size, and the top and bottom faces are the same size. That will be very helpful with the math we are about to do.
Let’s calculate the surface area of the rectangular prism by finding the area of each face.
Labeling the length, width, and height measurements is an important step to calculating surface area. So, let’s label those measurements on the rectangular prism.
Let’s use these measurements to find the area of each face by using the area formula for rectangles... \( A = l \times w \). We won’t always use length and width by one another but we will still always multiply two measures to find the area. The table will help keep us organized.
| Area of the front/back is | front | back |
|--------------------------|-------|------|
| \( A = l \times h \) | 7 x 4 = 28 | 7 x 4 = 28 |
If we look at the front face you see that it is made up of length and height. Since the length is 7m and the height is 4m we multiply 7 by 4 to get 28 sq. meters. Because the front and back faces are the same size we multiply 7 by 4, again.
| Area of the top/bottom is | top | bottom |
|--------------------------|-----|--------|
| \( A = l \times w \) | 7 x 5 = 35 | 7 x 5 = 35 |
The bottom face is made of the length and width (trace). Since the length is 7m and the width is 5m we multiply 7 by 5 to get 35 sq. meters. Because the bottom and top faces are the same size we multiply 7 by 5, again.
| Area of the left/right is | left | right |
|--------------------------|------|-------|
| \( A = w \times h \) | 5 x 4 = 20 | 5 x 4 = 20 |
Almost there, the right face is made of the height and width (trace). Since the length is 4m and the width is 5m we multiply 4 by 5 to get 20 sq. meters. Because the right and left faces are the same size we multiply 4 by 5, again.
The very last step is to add all the areas together; 28 + 28 + 35 + 35 + 20 + 20 or 166. So, the surface area of the rectangular prism is 166 square meters. That means that the space around the outside of the figure measures 166 square meters.
Let’s quickly review the process for calculating surface area of a rectangular prism.
- First, label or draw and label the net.
- Then, label the measurements with length, width, and height.
- Next we find the area of each face using our formulas.
- Lastly, we add all the areas together to find the total surface area. We’ll use this knowledge to calculate the area of rectangular prisms and other 3D figures in upcoming lessons.
**Let’s Try it (Slide 9):** Let’s continue calculating the surface area of rectangular prisms using nets and our formulas. Remember, labeling your net will be very helpful when trying to determine if you are multiplying the length or width or height by one another.
Today we will use nets to calculate surface area of rectangular prisms.
Let’s Talk:
What do you know about 3-dimensional shapes?
What do you know about 2-dimensional shapes?
Let’s Think:
Let’s Think:
Let’s label each net’s face with their bottom, top, front, back, left, and right.
What can we tell about the size of the faces of a rectangular prism?
Let’s calculate the area of each face.
| Area of front/back | front | back |
|--------------------|-------|------|
| $A = l \times h$ | | |
| Area of top/bottom | top | bottom |
|--------------------|-------|--------|
| $A = l \times w$ | | |
| Area of left/right | left | right |
|--------------------|-------|--------|
| $A = w \times h$ | | |
Let’s explore using nets to calculate surface area of rectangular prisms together.
1. Label the faces of the cube.
2. What do we know about all the faces of a cube?
3. What does your answer to number 2 tell you about the math work you need to complete to calculate the surface area of a cube.
4. Calculate the surface area of the cube.
5. Label the faces of the rectangular prism and label the length, width, and height measures on the rectangular prism shown.
6. Which faces of a rectangular prism are the same size?
7. What does your answer to number 6 tell you about the math work you must complete to calculate the surface area of a cube.
8. Calculate the surface area of the rectangular prism.
Now it’s time to explore using nets to calculate surface area on your own.
1. How are cubes and rectangular prisms the same?
2. How are cubes and rectangular prisms different?
3. Jose needs to wrap a hat box in wrapping paper. Calculate the surface area of the cube shaped box to determine how much wrapping paper Jose needs.
4. The glass fish tank is going to be covered in frosted film. Calculate the surface area of the fish tank to determine how much frosted film is needed.
1. Label the faces of the cube.
2. What do we know about all the faces of a cube?
3. What does your answer to number 2 tell you about the math work you could complete to calculate the surface area of a cube.
4. Calculate the surface area of the cube.
5. Label the faces of the rectangular prism.
6. Label the length, width, and height measures on the rectangular prism shown.
7. Which faces of a rectangular prism are the same size?
8. What does your answer to number 6 tell you about the math work you must complete to calculate the surface area of a cube.
9. Calculate the surface area of the rectangular prism.
1. How are cubes and rectangular prisms the same?
2. How are cubes and rectangular prisms different?
3. Jose needs to wrap a hat box in wrapping paper. Calculate the surface area of the cube shaped box to determine how much wrapping paper Jose needs.
4. The glass fish tank is going to be covered in frosted film. Calculate the surface area of the fish tank to determine how much frosted film is needed.
1. Label the faces of the cube.
2. What do we know about all the faces of a cube?
All the faces of a cube are the same size.
3. What does your answer to number 2 tell you about the math work you could complete to calculate the surface area of a cube.
I could multiply by 6 after I find the surface area of one face.
4. Calculate the surface area of the cube.
Find the area of one face $A = l \times w$ so, $A = 3 \times 3$ or $9 \text{ cm}^2$.
Next, I multiply that area ($9 \text{ cm}^2$) by 6 to get $54 \text{ cm}^2$ for the total surface area of the cube.
5. Label the faces of the rectangular prism.
6. Label the length, width, and height measures on the rectangular prism shown.
7. Which faces of a rectangular prism are the same size?
left and right
back and front
top and bottom
8. What does your answer to number 7 tell you about the math work you must complete to calculate the surface area of a cube.
I could find the area of only three faces like the left, back, and top then multiply each by 2 or double each. Or add the areas and double.
9. Calculate the surface area of the rectangular prism.
\[
\text{LIR} \rightarrow A = w \times h = 9 \times 5 = 45 \text{ ft}^2 \times 2 = 90 \text{ ft}^2 \\
\text{B/F} \rightarrow A = l \times h = 12 \times 5 = 60 \text{ ft}^2 \times 2 = 120 \text{ ft}^2 \\
\text{T/B} \rightarrow A = l \times w = 12 \times 9 = 108 \text{ ft}^2 \times 2 = 216 \text{ ft}^2 \\
\]
\[
\frac{1}{45} \quad \frac{1}{108} \\
\times 2 \quad \times 2 \\
\frac{90}{216}
\]
The surface area of the rectangular prism is 426 ft$^2$.
1. How are cubes and rectangular prisms the same?
The have the same faces.
2. How are cubes and rectangular prisms different?
The cube has faces that are all the same size while rectangular prisms do not.
3. Jose needs to wrap a hat box in wrapping paper. Calculate the surface area of the cube shaped box to determine how much wrapping paper Jose needs.
\[
2.5 \text{ ft} \\
\begin{array}{c}
2.5 \\
\times 2.5 \\
\hline
12.5 \\
+50.0 \\
\hline
62.5
\end{array}
\]
one face \( A = w \times h = 2.5 \times 2.5 = 6.25 \text{ ft}^2 \)
\[
6.25 \times 6 \text{ faces} \\
\begin{array}{c}
6.25 \\
\times 6 \\
\hline
37.5, 0
\end{array}
\]
Surface Area = 37.5 ft\(^2\)
4. The glass fish tank is going to be covered in frosted film. Calculate the surface area of the fish tank to determine how much frosted film is needed.
\[
10.4 \text{ in.} = h \\
8 \text{ in.} = w \\
7.5 \text{ in.}
\]
\[
L/R \rightarrow A = w \times h = 8 \times 10.4 = 83.2 \\
B/a/F \rightarrow A = l \times h = 7.5 \times 10.4 = 78 \\
T/B_0 \rightarrow A = l \times w = 7.5 \times 8 = 60
\]
\[
\begin{array}{c}
10.4 \\
\times 8 \\
\hline
83.2
\end{array}
\quad
\begin{array}{c}
7.5 \\
\times 10.4 \\
\hline
78.0
\end{array}
\quad
\begin{array}{c}
7.5 \\
\times 8 \\
\hline
60.0
\end{array}
\quad
\begin{array}{c}
221.2 \text{ in}^2 \\
442.4 \text{ in}^2
\end{array}
\]
The surface area is 442.4 in\(^2\).
G6 U1 Lesson 9
Use nets to calculate surface area of triangular prisms
G6 U1 Lesson 9 - Students will use nets to calculate surface area of triangular prisms
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we will continue exploring 3D figures and surface area which is the amount of space covering the outside of a 3D figure. In the last lesson we used our knowledge of 2D, or 2-dimensional, figures like squares and rectangles to calculate the surface area of 3D rectangular prisms. We recall that we can also hold 3D or 3-dimensional figures because they are not flat…3-dimensional figures all have length, width, AND height.
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): Let’s brainstorm, have any of you seen a 3D movie? Describe that experience.
Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- It’s like people are jumping off the screen.
- It’s different from a 2D movie because it’s like you can pick things up.
3D movies are very exciting! As you mentioned, 3D movies are different from 2D movies just like 3D figures are different from 2D figures. Both examples of 3D have a level of depth that makes the movie or object pop-out. Elements of 3D movies make you think you can grab a hold of the characters or objects and in real-life 3D objects can actually be held, our world is made of 3D objects!
Let’s Think (Slide 4): In the last lesson we thought about our figures as being unfolded and used nets that showed the flat faces of each prism. We saw that each 3D figure has its own net, made up of 2D shapes. Here are the nets we worked with in the last lesson. We remember that the nets for cubes and rectangular prisms are labeled the same way. Let’s label each face of those nets now (write the label for each face on the image).
Let’s start by tracing the net like a “t” with my finger. We label the face that we cross over both times when we make the “t” shape as the bottom face. The left face and right faces are in a row next to the bottom face.
Next up are the vertical faces; front, back, and top. Again, we are using the bottom face to position the front and back faces. The face above the bottom face we label the back face and we label the front face on the other side. It is the face touching the bottom face.
Let’s Think (Slide 5): Today our focus is on another 3D figure, the triangular prism. When you hear the name triangular prism what shape do you think of? Triangles That’s what I think of as well, triangles! I even hear the word triangle in triangular.
Here is an image of a rectangular prism and its net. We notice that this triangular prism is different from a cube and rectangular prism because cubes and rectangular prisms can be made of squares and rectangles but triangular prisms can be made of squares, rectangles, AND triangles.
We notice the triangular prism is specifically made of 2 triangles, here on the front and back (trace) and 3 rectangles wrapped around the sides (trace). We can label the net for a triangular prism even more easily than we label the nets for cubes and rectangular prisms because there are fewer faces on the triangular prism and they are less confusing because they aren’t all rectangular.
Let’s label the net of the triangular prism. When we label the net we still begin with the bottom face like with the rectangular prism’s net. Once we’ve identified the bottom face it makes it easier to identify the others because their position is based on the placement of the bottom face.
Look at the middle rectangle (point). We label this face the bottom face. The rectangles to the left and right of the bottom face are labeled as such. And finally, we’re left with two triangles to label. We are going to use the bottom face to position the front and back faces just like with the rectangular prisms. We label the back face above the bottom face and label the front face on the other side touching the bottom face. That’s it! We have labeled our triangular prism.
We are finally ready to calculate the surface area of this triangular prism. Just like we did with the rectangular prism…
- The first step was to label the net.
- Now, we label each measurement.
- Next, we complete the table with the area of each face using our formulas.
- Lastly, we add all the areas together to find the total surface area.
**Let’s Think (Slide 7):** Let’s get to it! Now that we have the dimensions, let’s calculate the surface area of the triangular prism.
Labeling the length, width, and height measurements is an important step to calculating surface area. So let’s label those measurements on the triangular prism.
The bottom face is a rectangle and it is made of the length and width (trace). Since the length is 12m and the width is 8m we multiply 12 by 8 to get 96 sq. meters (*fill in the table*).
Let’s start with the front and back faces. We see that they are the same size. The front face is a triangle and is made of the base and height (trace). Since the base is 8m and the height is 9m. The formula for finding the area of a triangle is \( \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h \). So, we multiply \( \frac{1}{2} \) by 8 by 9. Let’s do the math together.
In this particular triangular prism, the left and right faces are rectangular and they are the same size. The right face is made of the measures length and width (trace). Since the length is 12m and the width is 10m we multiply 12 by 10 to get 120 sq. meters. Because the left and right faces are the same size we multiply 12 by 10, again.
And finally, let’s do the bottom. The bottom is a rectangle and we find the area of a rectangle by multiplying the length and width, which is 12 and 8. So the area of the bottom is 92.
Does anyone remember our final step in calculating the surface area? Add the areas of the faces together. That’s right! We add the areas of our faces together. The surface area of the triangular prism equals 36 + 36 + 120 + 120 + 96 or 408 square units.
When calculating the surface area of triangular prisms we see that the overall process…
- We start by labeling the net.
- Then carefully labeling the measurements.
- Next we find the area of each face using our formulas/
And finally we add all the areas together to find the total surface area.
While the process is the same for rectangular prisms and triangular prisms, there are differences in the 2D figures that make up each prism so we have to be careful to use the right area formula AND the right measurements to find the area of each face.
**Let’s Try it (Slide 8):** Let’s continue calculating the surface area of triangular prisms using nets and our formulas. Don’t forget, labeling your net will be very helpful when trying to determine if you are multiplying the length/base or width or height by one another.
Today we will use nets to calculate the surface area of triangular prisms.
Let’s Talk:
Have any of you seen a 3D movie? Describe that experience.
Let’s Think:
Let’s label each net’s faces.
Let’s Think: When you hear the name *triangular prism* what shape do you think of?
Let’s Think: Let’s calculate the area of each face.
| Area of front/back | front | back |
|--------------------|-------|------|
| Area of left/right | left | right|
| Area of bottom | bottom |
|----------------|--------|
Let’s explore using nets to calculate surface area of triangular prisms together.
1. Write a definition for surface area. Give one example found in the real-world.
2. Label the faces of the triangular prism then label the length, width, and height measures on the triangular prism shown.
3. Which faces of a triangular prism are always the same size?
4. Calculate the surface area of the triangular prism.
5. Label the faces of the triangular prism then label the length, width, and height measures on the triangular prism shown.
6. Calculate the surface area of the triangular prism.
Now it’s time to explore using nets to calculate surface area on your own.
1. How are triangular prisms different from cubes and rectangular prisms?
2. Luke pitched a tent while camping in the woods. The dimensions of the tent are shown. How much material was used to make the tent?
3. A wedge of cheese is cut from a cheese wheel at the store. How much paper is needed to wrap the cheese?
1. Write a definition for surface area. Give one example found in the real-world.
2. Label the faces of the triangular prism.
3. Label the length/base, width, and height measures on the triangular prism shown.
4. Which are the only faces of a triangular prism that are always the same size?
5. Calculate the surface area of the triangular prism.
6. Label the faces of the triangular prism.
7. Label the length, width, and height measures on the triangular prism shown.
8. Calculate the surface area of the triangular prism.
1. How are triangular prisms different from cubes and rectangular prisms?
2. Luke pitched a tent while camping in the woods. The measurements of the tent are shown. How much material was used to make the tent?
3. A wedge of cheese is cut from a cheese wheel at the deli. How much paper is needed to wrap the cheese?
1. Write a definition for surface area. Give one example found in the real-world.
Surface area is the amount of space around the outside of a 3D object. An example is wrapping a box to ship it.
2. Label the faces of the triangular prism.
3. Label the length/base, width, and height measures on the triangular prism shown.
4. Which are the only faces of a triangular prism that are always the same size?
the triangular pieces
5. Calculate the surface area of the triangular prism.
\[
\text{front/back} = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h = \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{10}{1} \times \frac{11}{1} = \frac{110}{2} = 55 \times 2 = 110
\]
bottom = \(1 \times w = 10 \times 18 = 180\)
left = \(h \times w = 7 \times 18 = 126\)
right = \(h \times w = 7 \times 18 = 126\)
\[110 + 180 + 126 + 126 = 542 \text{ ft}^2\]
The surface area is 542 ft\(^2\).
6. Label the faces of the triangular prism.
7. Label the length, width, and height measures on the triangular prism shown.
8. Calculate the surface area of the triangular prism.
\[
\text{front/back} = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h = \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{4}{1} \times \frac{3}{1} = \frac{12}{2} = 6 \times 2 = 12
\]
\[
\text{bottom} = l \times w = 4 \times 4 = 16
\]
\[
\text{left} = h \times w = 3 \times 4 = 12
\]
\[
\text{right} = l \times w = 4 \times 6 = 24
\]
\[
12 + 16 + 12 + 24 = 64 \text{ in}^2
\]
The surface area is 64 in$^2$.
1. How are triangular prisms different from cubes and rectangular prisms?
Triangular prisms are made of rectangles & triangles as opposed to just rectangles.
2. Luke pitched a tent while camping in the woods. The measurements of the tent are shown. How much material was used to make the tent?
\[ \text{front/back} = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h = \frac{1}{2} \times 6 \times 8 = \frac{48}{2} = 24 \]
\[ \text{left/right} = h \times w = 8.5 \times 12 \]
\[ \text{bottom} = l \times w = 6 \times 12 = 72 \]
\[ 48 + 204 + 72 = 324 \]
The surface area is 324 ft\(^2\).
3. A wedge of cheese is cut from a cheese wheel at the deli. How much paper is needed to wrap the cheese?
\[ \text{front/back} = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h = \frac{1}{2} \times 12 \times 9 = \frac{108}{2} = 54 \]
\[ 54 \times 2 = 108 \]
\[ \text{bottom} = l \times w = 12 \times 10 = 120 \]
\[ \text{back} = h \times w = 9 \times 10 = 90 \]
\[ 108 + 120 + 90 = 318 \]
318 in\(^2\) of paper is needed to wrap the cheese.
G6 U1 Lesson 10
Use nets to calculate surface area of rectangular and triangular prisms
G6 U1 Lesson 10 - Students will use nets to calculate surface area of rectangular and triangular prisms
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we will continue exploring 3D figures and surface area, which is the amount of space covering the outside of a 3D figure. The last two lessons were focused on using our knowledge of 2D or two-dimensional figures like squares, rectangles, and triangles to calculate the surface area of 3D prisms. We focused specifically on these 3D figures…the cube, rectangular prism, and triangular prism.
Our nets were very helpful because they made it easier for us to identify the number of faces in the figure so that when we calculate the surface area we know how many faces to add together.
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): Let’s brainstorm, look around this room, which objects might we measure the surface area of? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- The tissue box
- A soda can
- A book
- A water bottle
Those are all 3D figures that we can measure the surface area of, let’s continue exploring.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): Let’s look at a few 3D figures and count how many faces are on each 3D figure shown?
- What’s the name of the first shape? Cube! How many faces does it have and what shape are they? 6 faces that are all squares!
- What’s the name of the next shape? Rectangular prism! How many faces does it have and what shape are they? 6 faces that are rectangles and squares!
- And finally, what’s the name of the last shape? Triangular prism! How many faces does it have and what shape are they? 5 faces! A triangular prism has a left and right, bottom, front and back.
Let’s Think (Slide 5): Before we continue calculating the surface area of 3D figures let’s also revisit how we find the surface area. Let’s imagine that we are trying to explain how to find the surface area of a 3D figure to a friend or family member. List out the steps as clearly as possible.
- So, if I’m calculating the area of a 3D prism what do I do first? Label the faces. Right. First, I have to label the faces.
- Then I have to label the length/base, width, and height measurements—I have to be careful here!
- And the last thing I do is…what? Add the areas together. Right, I add all the areas together to find the surface area. Nice job, now let’s use this process to calculate the area of prisms.
Let’s Think (Slide 6): But before we begin, what is the most challenging part of the process for you and what are some things you can do to make it easier? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- It’s hard to label the net – Remember to trace it to find the bottom, lose your eyes and imagine you’re cutting along the edges, imagine you’re wrapping it with wrapping paper, look for a similar object around the room.
- Figuring out the dimensions of each face – Think about what you know about different 2D shapes and their sides, label the length, width, and height.
- Remembering the area formulas – Use an anchor chart, write them down, use what you know about quadrilaterals and triangles to help you.
- Adding the areas back together – Stack them up and use place value to add them, look for combinations or doubles facts that you know.
Those are interesting reflections! Remember to follow all the steps we named in the process and not give up or give in but to instead ask questions when you are experiencing challenges with the process.
**Let’s Try it (Slide 7):** Let’s continue practicing calculating the surface area of 3D prisms using nets and continuing to practice asking for help when you require it. Remember, the process for calculating the surface area of 3D figures becomes easier and easier the more we engage in problem solving.
Today we will use nets to calculate surface area of rectangular and triangular prisms.
Let’s Talk:
Looking around this room, which objects can we measure the surface area of?
Let’s Think:
How many faces are on each 3D figure? Name each face.
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Let’s Think:
How do we find the surface area of a 3D figure?
Let’s try to be as concise as possible.
Let’s Try It:
Let’s explore using nets to calculate the surface area of prisms together.
1. Match the net to its 3D figure.
2. What is the definition of surface area?
3. Draw and label a net to match each figure.
4. Draw the net to match the figure. Calculate the surface area.
5. Draw the net to match the figure. Calculate the surface area.
Now it’s time to explore using nets to calculate surface area on your own.
1. How is the surface area of a 3D figure different from the area of a 2D figure?
2. Nick plans to wrap a jewelry box as a gift for his Aunt Carlita. Draw the net of the jewelry box then calculate the surface area of the box.
3. The dimensions of a box for a slice of pizza are shown below. Draw the net then calculate the surface area of the pizza box.
1. Match the net to its 3D figure.
2. What is the definition of surface area?
3. Name each 3D figure.
4. Draw and label a net to match each figure.
5. Name each 3D figure.
________________________
________________________
6. Draw the net to match the figure.
7. How do we calculate the surface area of this figure?
________________________
________________________
________________________
8. Calculate the surface area.
9. Name each 3D figure.
________________________
________________________
10. Draw the net to match the figure.
11. How do we calculate the surface area of this figure?
________________________
________________________
________________________
12. Calculate the surface area.
1. How is the surface area of a 3D figure different from the area of a 2D figure?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Nick plans to wrap a jewelry box as a gift for his Aunt Carilta.
2. Name the shape of the jewelry box.
____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Draw the net to match the figure.
4. How much wrapping paper is needed to wrap the box if the paper does not overlap?
____________________________________________________________________________________
The dimensions of a box for a slice of pizza are shown below.
5. Name the shape of the jewelry box.
____________________________________________________________________________________
6. Draw the net to match the figure.
7. How much cardboard is needed to construct the pizza box?
1. Match the net to its 3D figure.
2. What is the definition of surface area?
The amount of space around the outside of a 3D object.
3. Name each 3D figure.
4. Draw and label a net to match each figure.
5. Name each 3D figure.
triangular prism
6. Draw the net to match the figure.
7. How do we calculate the surface area of this figure?
1. Calculate area of triangles
2. Calculate area of bottom
3. Calculate area of left
4. Calculate area of right
8. Calculate the surface area.
\[ \text{front/back} = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h = \frac{1}{2} \times 7.5 \times 5 = 18.75 \]
\[ 18.75 \times 2 = 37.5 \]
\[ \text{bottom} = l \times w = 7.5 \times 12 = 90 \]
\[ \text{left} = l \times w = 12 \times 7.5 = 90 \]
\[ \text{right} = l \times w = 12 \times 7.5 = 90 \]
\[ 37.5 + 90 + 90 + 90 = 307.5 \, m^2 \]
9. Name each 3D figure.
rectangular prism OR cube
10. Draw the net to match the figure.
11. How do we calculate the surface area of this figure?
1. Calculate the area of one face
2. Multiply that area by 6
12. Calculate the surface area.
one face = \( 5.3 \times 5.3 = 28.09 \)
\[ 28.09 \times 6 = 168.54 \, mm^2 \]
1. How is the surface area of a 3D figure different from the area of a 2D figure?
A 2D figure is flat so it has one area. A 3D figure has many faces so it has many areas.
Nick plans to wrap a jewelry box as a gift for his Aunt Carita.
2. Name the shape of the jewelry box.
rectangular prism
3. Draw the net to match the figure.
4. How much wrapping paper is needed to wrap the box if the paper does not overlap?
left/right = 4.5 x 4 = 18 x 2 = 36
bottom/top = 6.5 x 4 = 26 x 2 = 52
front/back = 6.5 x 4.5 = 29.25 x 2 = 58.5
36 + 52 + 58.5 = 146.5 in²
146.5 in² of wrapping paper is needed.
The dimensions of a box for a slice of pizza are shown below.
5. Name the shape of the box.
triangular prism
6. Draw the net to match the figure.
7. How much cardboard is needed to construct the pizza box?
left/right = 1 x h = 8 x 2 = 16
16 x 2 = 32
back = 1 x h = 10 x 2 = 20
top/bottom = \frac{1}{2} \times b \times h = \frac{1}{2} \times \frac{10}{1} \times \frac{9}{1} = \frac{90}{2} = 45 x 2 = 90
32 + 20 + 90 = 142 in²
142 in² of cardboard is needed to construct the box.
G6 U1 Lesson 11
Explore volume of 3-dimensional figures
G6 U1 Lesson 11 - Students will explore volume of three-dimensional figures
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): Today we will be exploring another measurement of three-dimensional figures. Today we will be calculating volume. Volume is a concept you first learned in fifth grade when you focused on packing cubes into rectangular prisms and utilized the volume formula. In this lesson we are going to revisit all you learned in fifth grade while including fractional measurements and a twist on the volume formula!
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): But before we get to new learning, let’s revisit what was learned in fifth grade. Volume is the amount of space inside a 3D object kind of like the area of 2D shapes. Can you think of some real-world examples where we might need to know the volume of the object? Look around the room and think about why knowing the volume might be helpful. Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- The volume of a box for packing clothes
- The volume of a pool to fill it with water
- Volume of a cup if you’re pouring juice into it
- The volume of a container so you know how much stuff you can fit into it
Good examples! The correct examples all have the same thing in common, they are basically vessels or containers that hold things within them. A pool holds water inside of it, a cup can hold juice, a box can hold pencils or even clothes. Remember that volume is the amount of space inside a 3D figure.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): Let’s continue reviewing what we remember from fifth grade. I’ve started packing this rectangular prism with unit cubes. Does anyone remember how I would finish packing the prism to determine how many cubes would fit inside meaning, the volume of the prism? Keep adding cubes, side-by-side and row-by-row until the entire prism is full. That’s right! We would continue stocking or adding cubes beside one another, row-by-row and column-by-column until the entire prism is filled.
But how would we determine the volume once it’s packed full of cubes? We count the total number of cubes. Yes, we would count the number of cubes one at a time or we could count how many cubes cover the bottom and see how many stacks of those we’d need to fill it…there are a few ways to do it!
But most times we don’t have cubes, sometimes the numbers are too large to represent easily with cubes, and at other times the measurements of the prisms are fractions or decimals, which are even harder to work with. That’s why we can use a formula instead of cube packing to determine the volume of prisms.
The volume formula for cubes and rectangular prisms isn’t very complicated. The volume, or amount of space inside a 3D figure, is calculated by multiplying the length by the width by the height…\[ V = l \times w \times h \]. Those three dimensions mean we use a 3 for the exponent in the answer. For example, \( cm^3 \), centimeters to the third power or centimeters cubed. The reason that we can multiply length times width times height is because we can find how many cubes it takes to fill the bottom (point). And then we can multiply that to figure out how many layers we need to fill the whole figure (use hands to show stacking).
Guess what? There’s another volume formula we could use! The other formula is volume equals base times height. If we compare the formulas \( V = l \times w \times h \) and \( V = B \times h \) we can see that they have similarities and differences. How are they the same? And how are they different? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- Both have a \( V \) for volume and an \( h \) for height.
- One has an \( l \times w \) and the other has a \( B \).
- They both use multiplication.
This is interesting! We’ve seen \( L \times W \) before, to find the area of a rectangle! Does the \( L \times W \) part of the formula remind you of anything? Yes, \( L \times W \) is the area formula for squares and rectangles.
That’s right! \( L \times W \) is the area formula for squares and rectangles. So, you’ve just identified what the big B stands for, the area of the rectangular shaped base or bottom of our 3D prism.
Let’s use the big B formula to calculate the volume of this rectangular prism. First we label the length, width, and height.
Next, we write the formula for the volume of a rectangular prism which is \( V = B \times H \). We just observed that the big B represents the area of the base or bottom which is rectangular shaped so, big B is really just the length multiplied by the width or \( L \times W \).
Then, we substitute our measurements into our formula. Remember, when we multiply fractions we just multiply the numerators straight across and multiply the denominators straight across, we simplify our answer if it needs to be simplified. So the volume is \( \frac{3}{24} \) cubic feet but it’s also a fraction that is not simplified.
Let’s simplify together. If we divide \( \frac{3}{24} \div \frac{1}{3} \) you are still left with \( \frac{3}{24} \) so that’s no help! Let’s try \( \frac{3}{24} \div \frac{3}{3} \). That’s it! \( \frac{3}{24} \) simplifies to \( \frac{1}{8} \).
So, our final answer is the volume of the rectangular prism is \( \frac{1}{8} \) cubic foot or \( \frac{1}{8} \text{ ft}^3 \).
**Let’s Think (Slide 6):** Before we continue with volume let’s revisit converting mixed numbers to improper fractions. This is going to be helpful because we just multiplied with proper fractions meaning the numerator was smaller than the denominator. All we had to do was multiply straight across then simplify to solve. But if we have mixed numbers there is a process to complete before we just multiply straight across.
We are going to work on converting a mixed number to an improper fraction. It’ll be quick! Let’s look at the mixed number \( 1\frac{2}{5} \). It is considered a mixed number because it has a whole number, the 1 (*point*), and a fractional part, \( \frac{2}{5} \) (*point*).
Our first step in converting a mixed number into an improper fraction is to multiply the denominator by the whole number which means multiplying 5 by the whole number 1, so \( 5 \times 1 \) equals 5. Next we take that answer, 5, and add it to the numerator, \( 2...5 + 2 \) equals 7. We keep the denominator the same so \( 1\frac{2}{5} \) converted to an improper fraction is \( \frac{7}{5} \).
So if we’re working with a mixed number…a whole number and a fraction…we multiply the denominator by the whole number then add the numerator. Then, we place that answer over the same denominator. Once we do that, we’re ready to multiply straight across with our converted mixed number.
**Let’s Try it (Slide 7):** Now let’s practice more with the volume formula and fractions while calculating the volume of rectangular prisms. Remember that volume measures the amount of space inside a 3D object and we multiply the length by the width by the height to calculate the volume.
Today we will explore the volume of 3-dimensional figures.
Let’s Talk:
Can you think of some real-world examples where we might need to know the volume of the object?
Let’s Think:
How would I finish packing the prism to determine the volume?
Let’s Think: Let’s use the volume formula.
What is the process for converting mixed numbers to improper fractions?
1 $\frac{2}{5}$
Let’s Try It:
1. What are the formulas for calculating the volume of rectangular prisms?
\[ V = l \times w \times h \] and \[ V = B \times h \]
2. Convert each mixed number into an improper fraction.
\[ 2\frac{1}{4} \quad \text{and} \quad 7\frac{3}{5} \]
3. Wilson calculated the volume of the rectangular prism. Here is his math work:
\[
\begin{align*}
V &= B \times h \\
V &= 3\frac{1}{2} \times 5 \times 7 \\
V &= 105\frac{1}{2}
\end{align*}
\]
Wilson said he multiplied \(3 \times 5 \times 7\) to get 105 for his whole number. He said he then put the \(\frac{1}{2}\) next to that whole number to get a final answer of \(105\frac{1}{2}\).
Why is Wilson’s thinking incorrect? Correctly calculate the volume of the rectangular prism.
4. Although the marine biologist only filled the fish tank part of the way with water, he wants to know the full capacity of the fish tank. Determine the full volume of water the fish tank holds.
\[
\begin{align*}
V &= B \times h \\
V &= 7\frac{1}{4} \times 3 \times 5 \\
V &= 125\frac{1}{4}
\end{align*}
\]
5. A tissue box is constructed in the shape of a cube. Calculate the volume of the tissue box.
\[ 5\frac{1}{2} \text{ in.} \]
On your Own:
Now it’s time to explore volume on your own.
\[ V = l \times w \times h \text{ and } V = B \times h \]
1. How are these volume formulas the same?
2. How are these volume formulas different?
3. What does the \(B\) stand for?
Calculate the volume of each rectangular prism.
4. The dimensions of a juice box are shown below. Calculate the capacity of the juice box.
\[
\begin{align*}
\text{Naya Juice} & \quad 4\frac{1}{2} \text{ in.} \\
& \quad 1\frac{1}{4} \text{ in.} \\
& \quad 2 \text{ in.}
\end{align*}
\]
5. Simon planned to fill a box with clothes to donate his old ones before filling the box he needed to know the volume of the box. Calculate the volume of the box that will hold the clothes.
\[
\begin{align*}
& \quad 20 \text{ in.} \\
& \quad 15\frac{1}{2} \text{ in.} \\
& \quad 10 \text{ in.}
\end{align*}
\]
1. What are the formulas for calculating the volume of rectangular prisms?
\[ V = B \times h \] and \[ V = l \times w \times h \]
2. Describe the steps for converting mixed numbers into improper fractions.
3. Convert each mixed number into an improper fraction.
\[
2 \frac{5}{6} \quad \text{and} \quad 7 \frac{3}{5}
\]
4. Wilson calculated the volume of the rectangular prism. Here is his math work:
\[
V = B \times h \\
V = 3 \frac{1}{2} \times 5 \times 7 \\
V = 105 \frac{1}{2}
\]
Wilson said he multiplied \(3 \times 5 \times 7\) to get 105 for his whole number. He said he then put the \(\frac{1}{2}\) next to that whole number to get a final answer of \(105 \frac{1}{2}\).
Why is Wilson’s thinking incorrect? Correctly calculate the volume of the rectangular prism.
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Although the marine biologist only filled the fish tank part of the way with water he wants to know the full capacity of the fish tank.
5. Determine the full capacity of water the fish tank holds.
A tissue box is constructed in the shape of a cube.
6. Calculate the volume of the tissue box.
1. How are these volume formulas the same?
2. How are these volume formulas different?
3. What does the B stand for?
Calculate the volume of each rectangular prism.
4. The dimensions of a juice box are shown below. Calculate the capacity of the juice box.
5. Simon planned to fill a box with clothes to donate to a charity. Before filling the box he needed to know the volume of the box. Calculate the volume of the box that will hold the donated clothes.
1. What are the formulas for calculating the volume of rectangular prisms?
\[ V = l \times w \times h \] and \[ V = Bh \]
2. Describe the steps for converting mixed numbers into improper fractions.
Multiply then add.
3. Convert each mixed number into an improper fraction.
\[
\begin{array}{|c|c|}
\hline
2 \frac{5}{6} & 7 \frac{3}{5} \\
\hline
6 \times 2 + 5 = 12 + 5 = \frac{17}{6} & 5 \times 7 + 3 = \frac{38}{5} \\
\hline
\end{array}
\]
4. Wilson calculated the volume of the rectangular prism. Here is his math work:
![Diagram of a rectangular prism with dimensions 7 in., 5 in., and 3 1/2 in.]
\[ V = B \times h \]
\[ V = 3 \frac{1}{2} \times 5 \times 7 \]
\[ V = 105 \frac{1}{2} \]
Wilson said he multiplied \(3 \times 5 \times 7\) to get 105 for his whole number. He said he then put the \(\frac{1}{2}\) next to that whole number to get a final answer of \(105 \frac{1}{2}\).
Why is Wilson’s thinking incorrect? Correctly calculate the volume of the rectangular prism.
The mixed number must be converted into an improper fraction before multiplying. Volume = \(\frac{7}{2} \times \frac{5}{1} \times \frac{7}{1} = \frac{245}{2}\), which is equal to \(122 \frac{1}{2}\).
Although the marine biologist only filled the fish tank part of the way with water he wants to know the full capacity of the fish tank.
5. Determine the full capacity of water the fish tank holds.
\[ h = 7 \frac{1}{4} \text{ ft} \]
\[ 12 \frac{3}{4} \text{ ft} = l \]
\[ 3 \text{ ft} = w \]
\[ V = B \times h \]
\[ V = l \times w \times h \]
\[ V = 12 \frac{3}{4} \times 3 \times 7 \frac{1}{4} \]
\[ 12 \frac{3}{4} = \frac{51}{4} \]
\[ 7 \frac{1}{4} = \frac{29}{4} \]
\[ V = \frac{51}{4} \times \frac{3}{1} \times \frac{29}{4} = \frac{4437}{16} \]
\[ 16 \longdiv{4437} \]
\[ -3200 \]
\[ 1237 \]
\[ -800 \]
\[ 437 \]
\[ -160 \]
\[ 277 \]
\[ -160 \]
\[ 117 \]
\[ -96 \]
\[ 21 \]
\[ -16 \]
\[ 5 \]
\[ 277 \]
\[ V = 277 \frac{5}{16} \text{ ft}^3 \]
6. Calculate the volume of the tissue box.
\[ 5 \frac{1}{3} \text{ in.} \]
\[ V = B \times h \]
\[ V = l \times w \times h \]
\[ V = 5 \frac{1}{3} \times 5 \frac{1}{3} \times 5 \frac{1}{3} \]
\[ 5 \frac{1}{3} = \frac{16}{3} \]
\[ V = \frac{16}{3} \times \frac{16}{3} \times \frac{16}{3} = \frac{4096}{27} \]
\[ 27 \longdiv{4096} \]
\[ -2700 \]
\[ 1396 \]
\[ -1396 \]
\[ 100 \]
\[ 100 \]
\[ 10 \]
\[ 40 \]
\[ 40 \]
\[ 1 \]
\[ 151 \]
\[ V = 151 \frac{19}{27} \text{ in}^3 \]
1. How are these volume formulas the same?
They both have height as part of the formula.
2. How are these volume formulas different?
One has a "big B" while the other has length & width.
3. What does the B stand for?
Length x width; area of the base
Calculate the volume of each rectangular prism.
4. The dimensions of a juice box are shown below. Calculate the capacity of the juice box.
\[
l = 2 \text{ in.} \\
w = 1\frac{1}{4} \text{ in.} \\
h = 4\frac{1}{2} \text{ in.}
\]
\[
V = B \times h \\
V = l \times w \times h \\
V = 2 \times 1\frac{1}{4} \times 4\frac{1}{2} \\
V = \frac{2}{1} \times \frac{5}{4} \times \frac{9}{2} = \frac{90}{8} = 11\frac{2}{8} \text{ in}^3
\]
5. Simon planned to fill a box with clothes to donate to a charity. Before filling the box he needed to know the volume of the box. Calculate the volume of the box that will hold the donated clothes.
\[
l = 20 \text{ in.} \\
w = 20 \text{ in.} \\
h = 15\frac{1}{2} \text{ in.}
\]
\[
V = l \times w \times h \\
V = 20 \times 20 \times 15\frac{1}{2} \\
V = 20 \times 20 \times \frac{31}{2} - 12,400 \\
V = 6,200 \text{ in}^3
\]
G6 U1 Lesson 12
Differentiate between volume and surface area
Warm Welcome (Slide 1): Tutor choice.
Frame the Learning/Connect to Prior Learning (Slide 2): You’ve done some amazing work during this unit and you should be really proud of yourself and all you’ve accomplished! Today we are ending Unit 1 by putting together everything we learned to identify the difference between calculating volume and surface area with rectangular prisms.
Let’s Talk (Slide 3): Let’s start with a brainstorm, I want you to think of a real world example of where you’d have to find the volume and surface area of a 3D object. Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- We could calculate the volume of a water bottle so we know how much water it holds.
- We could calculate the surface area of a box so that we can cover it in wrapping paper.
- We could calculate the volume of a box if we’re packing things into it.
- We might use volume when we’re cooking so we know about how much fits inside something.
Very creative! In the examples we notice that we can manipulate the outside of the object which is surface area and we can put something inside the object which is volume.
Let’s Think (Slide 4): In our last lesson we re-explored the concept of volume, remember that volume is the amount of space *inside* an object. We also recalled that volume is measured by multiplying the length by the width by the height of an object.
We used the same volume formula from fifth grade, $V = l \times w \times h$ and we were introduced to an alternate volume formula for rectangular prisms, $V = B \times h$. Who can recall what the big B in the formula $V = B \times h$ means? The big B is the area of the base or $l \times w$. Yes, the big B represents the area of the base of the rectangular prism or the area of the rectangle base. We know that the area formula for a rectangle is $l \times w$ so that means the big B is the same as length multiplied by width. This will come in handy as we continue to explore rectangular prisms to calculate both the volume and the surface area of figures.
Let’s Think (Slide 5): So now, let’s think about the difference between surface area and volume of 3D figures. How are they similar and different? Possible Student Answers, Key Points:
- Surface area is the amount of space around the outside of a 3D object
- Volume is the amount of space inside that object.
That’s right! We’ve seen that when we talk about capacity, filling, and holding liquids we are referring to volume. But when we talk about wrapping and covering objects we are referring to surface area.
We also learned that volume and surface area are measured in different units. We use square units for surface area and cubic units for volume. We use square units and an exponent of 2 for surface area because area utilizes two measures, length multiplied by width. We use cubic units and an exponent of three for volume because area utilizes three measures, length multiplied by width multiplied by height.
Let’s Think (Slide 6): Okay, last thing before we look at our first problem. Remember, the formulas for volume and area! Now, let’s get to our problem for the day.
Let’s Think (Slide 7): Michael is giving his best friend a sweater as a birthday gift. He plans to place the gift inside a box but he isn’t sure if the box will be large enough and also doesn’t know how much wrapping paper it will take to wrap the gift box.
Part A - What is the capacity of the gift box he plans to purchase?
Part B - What would be the minimum amount of wrapping paper needed to wrap the gift if he used this gift box?
Let’s analyze Part A. First, we need to decide if we are trying to find the surface area or the volume for the box based on the question asked. The question asks about the box’s capacity and capacity is the amount of space inside an object. Does volume or surface area refer to the amount of space inside an object? Volume. Correct! Volume is the amount of space inside an object. Everyone, use your formula to find the box’s capacity.
Next, let’s analyze Part B. We need to decide if we are trying to find the surface area or the volume for the box based on the question asked. Who can help us? The question asks about the wrapping box and since you wrap the outside of the box we are focused on covering the surface with paper. Does volume or surface area refer to the outside of an object? Surface area. Right, again! Surface area is the amount of space around the outside of an object. Everyone, use your formula to find the box’s surface area.
We have learned so much about volume and surface area in this unit! Let’s ensure we continue to apply our knowledge about the processes like using nets to identify all our faces when necessary, labeling measurements before we begin calculating, as well as applying the correct formulas and calculating correctly as we problem solve.
**Let’s Try it (Slide 8):** Let’s continue this problem together now that we have analyzed each of the problem’s parts and decided which measurement and formulas we will use when solving. Remember that surface area focuses on the amount of space around the outside of a 3D object while volume focuses on the space inside a 3D object.
Today we will differentiate between volume and surface area.
Let’s Talk:
Think of a real world example of where you’d have to find the volume and surface area of a 3D object.
Let’s Think:
What does the formula $V = B \times h$ mean?
What is the difference between surface area and volume of 3D figures?
Let’s Think: Here are our important formulas.
**Volume Formula:** \( l \times w \times h \) or \( B \times h \)
**Surface Area Formula:** \( l \times w \) or \( \frac{1}{2} \times l \times h \)
(add area of all faces together)
Let’s Think:
Michael is giving his best friend a sweater as a birthday gift. He plans to place the gift inside a box but he isn’t sure the box will be large enough and doesn’t know how much wrapping paper it will take to wrap the gift box.
Part A -
What is the capacity of the gift box he plans to purchase?
Part B -
What would be the minimum amount of wrapping paper needed to wrap the gift if he used this gift box?
Now it’s time to explore surface area and volume on your own.
Tanya is collecting mementos of her most favorite and special memories from her sixth grade school year. She collected for three years before she realized she needed a place to store her mementos. She decided to construct the memory box below and wants to cover the outside of the memory box in tissue paper.
17 cm
Part A – How much can the memory box she made hold?
Part B – How much tissue paper is needed if she wants to cover the box’s outside but not overlap the tissue paper?
1.
2.
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION. Do not reproduce, distribute, or modify without written permission of CityBridge Education. © 2023 CityBridge Education. All Rights Reserved.
Michael is giving his best friend a sweater as a birthday gift. He plans to place the sweater inside a box but he isn’t sure the box will be large enough and doesn’t know how much wrapping paper it will take to wrap the gift box.
Part A - What is the capacity of the gift box he plans to purchase?
Part B - What would be the minimum amount of wrapping paper needed to wrap the gift if he used this gift box?
Tanya is collecting mementos of her most favorite and special memories from her sixth grade school year. She collected a few items before she realized she needed a place to store her mementos. Tanya decided to construct the memory box shown below and wants to cover the outside of the memory box in tissue paper and stickers.
Part A - How much can the memory box Tanya made hold?
Part B - How much tissue paper is needed if she wants to cover the box’s outside but not overlap the tissue paper?
Michael is giving his best friend a sweater as a birthday gift. He plans to place the sweater inside a box but he isn’t sure the box will be large enough and doesn’t know how much wrapping paper it will take to wrap the gift box.
Part A - What is the **volume** of the gift box he plans to purchase?
Part B - What would be the minimum amount of **wrapping paper** needed to wrap the gift if he used this gift box?
1. Part A
\[ V = l \times w \times h \]
\[ V = 15 \times 12\frac{3}{4} \times 7 \]
\[ V = \frac{15}{1} \times \frac{51}{4} \times \frac{7}{1} = \frac{5355}{4} \]
\[ V = 1338 \text{ in}^3 \]
2. Part B
\[ \text{bottom/top} = 15 \times 12\frac{3}{4} = \frac{15 \times 51}{4} = \frac{765}{4} \times 2 = \frac{1530}{4} \]
\[ \text{front/back} = 15 \times 7 = 105 \times 2 = 210 \]
\[ \text{left/right} = 12\frac{3}{4} \times 7 = \frac{51}{4} \times \frac{7}{1} = \frac{357}{4} = \frac{2714}{4} \]
\[ 178\frac{2}{4} + 382\frac{2}{4} + 210 = 771 \text{ in}^2 \]
\[ \text{Surface area} = 771 \text{ in}^2 \]
Tanya is collecting mementos of her most favorite and special memories from her sixth grade school year. She collected a few items before she realized she needed a place to store her mementos. Tanya decided to construct the memory box shown below and wants to cover the outside of the memory box in tissue paper and stickers.
Part A - How much can the memory box Tanya made hold?
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Dear Parents and Carers,
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Peter (after a night of failed fishing) is finally successful and realises his true calling because he listens to and follows Jesus’ instructions.
It’s important to make the right choice about who or what we follow in life. Simply following our desires and feelings, which often change, can leave us feeling unsatisfied. Jesus invites each and every one of us to make following him our most important priority.
We follow Jesus whenever we are kind, try to make peace, and make others feel welcome. Choosing to follow him is not always easy but it really does guide and help our families to keep growing in wisdom and love.
Enjoy a very special time together this evening, hearing your child’s thoughts about this Sunday’s Gospel and this Wednesday’s word, which is FOLLOW.
Dom Henry Wansbrough
To see this week’s Parish Version of The Wednesday Word: wednesdayword.org – Parents’ Pages – Lectio Divina with Fr Henry.
THE GOSPEL IN CHURCH
Sunday 6th February 2022
When Jesus had finished teaching by the lakeside he said to Simon Peter, “Sail out into deep water and let down your nets.” “Master,” Simon Peter replied, “we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will let down the nets.” And when he and his companions had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear and they filled their two boats to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, “Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.” For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made. But Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will catch.” Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
Adapted from Luke 5:1-11
The 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
Everyone can learn more about this Gospel in Church – all are warmly invited.
“To follow Jesus means to share his love for every human being.”
Pope Francis
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus promised the fishermen that, if they followed him, they would bring home more than fish: they would bring people back to God. By following Jesus, we too can help others to know and love God – to find the happiness which comes from knowing and following Jesus.
1. **Our Special Time Together**
After working all night the fishermen had caught nothing. So Jesus said to Peter and his friends, “Sail out into deep water and let down your nets.” They did as Jesus said and caught so many fish that their nets began to burst. Peter and his friends were amazed by the catch. Then Jesus said, “From now on you will be fishers of people.” So Peter and the fishermen left everything and followed him.
What did Peter and the fishermen leave everything to do? Which word or words stood out for you in this Sunday’s Gospel, and why? Look at the Sunday Gospel picture opposite. What does it make you think about?
2. **Wednesday’s Word is … FOLLOW**
Through the miraculous catch, Peter saw Jesus in a new light. Peter’s humility made him fit to be a follower of Jesus and he went on to discover his true purpose in life.
Ask your child if they know what ‘to follow someone’ means. Who impresses them? Who sets them a good example which they would like to follow? How has that person made things better for them, for someone else or for a community? It may help your child if you can talk about a person whose example you follow, or have followed.
3. **Loving God & Each Other**
The Church has always understood this Sunday’s Gospel to be a sign of our own need to follow Jesus.
We can follow Jesus even in the simple things we do in our lives every day, and make life better for all the family and everyone around us. In this coming week, how can we follow Jesus, even in little ways? Perhaps we can: be a good listener if someone is sad and wants to share their problems with you; find regular time to pray for others; be kind and include others in our games; show others how to do the right thing and avoid what is wrong.
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for calling us to follow you. Please help us to be your faithful followers – helping our world to become a better place. Amen.
**Wednesday Wordsearch**
SMARTSEARCHERS FIND THESE EIGHT WORDS EITHER ACROSS OR DOWN
- CAUGHT NOTHING
- AMAZING CATCH
- LEFT EVERYTHING
- FOLLOWED JESUS
SUPERSEARCHERS FIND THE WORDS BACKWARDS OR DIAGONALLY
Cross out the letters u k m in the jumbled words below to find 4 real words.
maufrakid knomuw fiksherusm samkidu
Jesus ________, “Do not be ___________; from _____ on you will be ____________ of people.”
Search for at least three differences between this picture and the colour one. Then draw them in before colouring.
There may be times when we have to stop doing certain things to follow Jesus (rather than ‘following the crowd’) if it feels wrong. Let’s try to follow Jesus this week by leaving behind anything which we know is not right and then try to do all the good we can.
Write a promise and then draw a big smile on Smiley
This week I will try my best to…
For more, see: wednesdayword.org and cbcew.org.uk | 8eed5ba5-8fe5-4f2a-9878-1b5b91af04aa | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://files.schudio.com/ashtonstwilfrids/files/documents/4._Follow_(2)_-_2nd_February_2022.pdf | 2022-09-26T08:29:01+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334855.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926082131-20220926112131-00053.warc.gz | 275,392,635 | 1,159 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.995804 | eng_Latn | 0.996196 | [
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We continually revise our Statements of Significance, so they may vary in length, format and level of detail. While every effort is made to keep them up to date, they should not be considered a definitive or final assessment of our properties.
© Historic Environment Scotland 2025
You may re-use this information (excluding logos and images) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated.
To view this licence, visit http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
Any enquiries regarding this document should be sent to us at:
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Cover image: General View of Ri Cruin Bronze Age cairn. © Crown Copyright HES
# HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SCOTLAND STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
## RI CRUIN CAIRN
### Contents
1. SUMMARY 2
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 Statement of Significance 2
2. ASSESSMENT OF VALUES 4
2.1 Background 4
Archaeological overview of Ri Cruin 5
Interpretation and dating 7
2.2 Evidential values 8
2.3 Historical values 8
2.4 Architectural and artistic values 9
2.5 Landscape and aesthetic values 9
2.6 Natural heritage values 10
2.7 Contemporary/use values 10
Social values 10
Spiritual values 11
Cultural values 11
3. MAJOR GAPS IN UNDERSTANDING 12
4. ASSOCIATED PROPERTIES 12
5. KEYWORDS 13
BIBLIOGRAPHY 13
APPENDICES 15
Appendix 1: Archaeological overview: Ri Cruin Cairn in context 15
Kilmartin Glen’s Prehistoric Monuments 15
The Early Bronze Age in Kilmartin Glen and the Linear Cemetery 17
1. SUMMARY
1.1 Introduction
Ri Cruin Cairn is an Early Bronze Age burial cairn, located in Kilmartin Glen in Argyll. Kilmartin Glen is a world-class archaeological landscape and one of Scotland’s most important. It contains a wealth of upstanding prehistoric monuments\(^1\) including an Early Bronze Age ‘Linear Cemetery’ consisting of massive monuments, of which Ri Cruin is one. There are also the remains of other burial cairns, stone circles, a timber circle, a cursus monument, a henge, standing stones, stone rows, and numerous rock art sites within the Glen.
Ri Cruin has been excavated by Mapleton in 1870, by Craw in 1929 (1930), and by Childe in 1936, at which time the site was prepared for public access. Reports suggest the cairn may have been disturbed prior to the first excavation. Three empty cists were found as a result of this work, one of which has representations of copper or bronze flat axes carved on the inner face of a stone used in its construction. A second slab was found at this cist which was carved with an unusual design that has been interpreted as a boat or halberd. While the latter stone does not survive, a cast survives in the National Museum of Scotland, and recent re-examination of this cast suggests that the carving was undertaken at different times and that its latest form may have indeed been a halberd.\(^2\)
The site is not staffed, there is no entry charge, and it is freely accessible throughout the year. Precise visitor numbers are not recorded, however annual visitor figures for Kilmartin Museum, which acts as a hub for the Glen, are 25,000 annually\(^3\) which gives an indication of visitor numbers and interest.
1.2 Statement of Significance
- Ri Cruin Cairn is a rare example of a large and complex Early Bronze Age Burial cairn, albeit now much disturbed.
- The cairn has unusual structural elements in the form of grooved cist slabs within two of the three cists.
- A cist slab found at the site had been carved on the inner face with the representations of copper or bronze flat axes. Such carvings are rare.
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\(^1\) RCAHMS 1988
\(^2\) Needham and Cowie 2012: 104
\(^3\) This figure relates to people visiting Kilmartin Museum to get information etc., as opposed to c.13,000 ticket-buying visitors. (Sharon Webb, pers.comm.)
• Another stone at Ri Cruin was found to be carved with a design possibly representing a decorated halberd, which was later added to. This carving is unique within Scotland.
• Ri Cruin Cairn is part of the Linear Cemetery, a larger monument of a form that is rare in Scotland.
• Ri Cruin Cairn is one of a number of funerary and ritual monuments that make up the highly significant ritual archaeological landscape in Kilmartin Glen.
• Ri Cruin Cairn has inherent potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the past.
Figure 1: Location of cairns within Linear Cemetery, and neighbouring Temple Wood Stone Circles. For illustrative purposes only.
2. ASSESSMENT OF VALUES
2.1 Background
Ri Cruin Cairn came into State care / Guardianship in 1932, along with a number of other prehistoric sites on the Poltalloch Estate.
The cairn is located in pasture, surrounded by a stone wall and mature trees, and accessed by a path that runs between the garden of Ri Cruin (house) and a field.
Ri Cruin is a burial cairn, which, along with the Glebe Cairn, Nether Largie North Cairn, Nether Largie Mid Cairn, and Nether Largie South Cairn, form a larger monument known as the ‘Linear Cemetery’. This line of Early Bronze Age burial cairns, along the floor of Kilmartin Glen, were designed to be an imposing feature in a landscape that had already been marked as a significant place for ritual and funerary activity.
The cairn was excavated by Mapleton in 1870, by Craw in 1929, and then again by Childe in 1936, after which the site was prepared for public access.
The results of these excavations are presented below. Today, the cairn is much reduced in size from its original form as constructed. The site has suffered disturbance by the construction (and subsequent removal) of a later lime kiln, as well as tree planting. Intermittent traces of a kerb and three cists are visible. The northernmost cist has grooved slide slabs and was found to contain cremated bone during the 1870 excavations, however this does not appear to have been retained. The second cist, now partially collapsed and out of alignment, also had grooved slide slabs. The third cist has a side slab at the western end which has been decorated with the carved representations of a copper or bronze flat axe. A second decorated stone from the site was taken to Poltalloch House and subsequently lost in a fire reported by Craw as having happened in c.1900.\(^4\) A plaster cast taken at the time of the first excavation survives in the National Museum of Scotland, and the design has been interpreted as a representation of a hafted halberd which was later added to.
No artefacts were recovered from the excavations.
Ri Cruin Cairn was scheduled in 1994 as a monument of national importance because it forms part of the rare Linear Cemetery, within the wider ritual landscape of Kilmartin Glen. It therefore has potential to inform our understanding of Bronze Age ritual and funerary practices, and to contribute to a wider understanding of Neolithic and Bronze Age social practice.
See Appendix 1 for an archaeological overview of Ri Cruin Cairn in context (including an overview of Kilmartin Glen’s Prehistoric Monuments, and the Early Bronze Age in Kilmartin Glen and the Linear Cemetery).
**Archaeological overview of Ri Cruin**
Ri Cruin Cairn is situated in mature deciduous trees, some 200m south of Ri Cruin house, and is accessible from the public road along a signposted path. The cairn was excavated by Mapleton in 1870, by Craw in 1929, and by Childe in 1936, after which the site was partially reconstructed and prepared to facilitate public access. The following description is based on the published account by Mapleton (1870, 1871), Craw (1930), Childe (unpublished field notes), Campbell and Sandeman (1962) which are summarised in the following description given in RCAHMS (1988).
As it appears today, the cairn is largely reconstructed, but it probably measured between 18.3m and 19.5m in diameter with intermittent traces of kerbstones, visible or recorded in excavation, on the S and E arcs. The cairn may originally have been intended to cover the most northerly cist visible at present, which was set in a pit at the centre of a mound. Aligned NNE and SSW and covered by a massive slab (3m by 1.05m and 0.18m thick), (The W edge of the cover slab bears faint chevron or lozenge markings, but these appear to be
\(^4\) Craw 1930: 132
natural, a view confirmed by Morris (1977:117)) the cist measures 1.25m by 0.62m and 0.65m deep internally; the floor was formed by a carefully inserted slab, with the space at the side ‘filled up very neatly with a border of small boulders’. The side-slabs were grooved to receive the N end-slab. Mapleton discovered cremated bone on the basal slab, but, as the cist had been investigated some forty years previously, it is possible that any accompanying grave-goods had been rifled.
Set within the cairn material about 7m to the SSE, and just inside the kerb of the cairn (here represented by four massive stones), there are the side-slabs of a second cist, now collapsed; the slabs are grooved at the W end to receive an end-slab, and in Mapleton’s day one end-slab remained in position. Aligned roughly ENE and WSW, this cist measured about 1.1m by 0.3m internally. There were no finds.
Lying just outside the line of the kerb and set into a pit, there is a third cist, now partly covered by a large capstone; aligned approximately E and W, it is formed of a series of upright slabs and measures 2m in length, 1m in breadth at the W end, 0.6m in breadth at the E end, and 0.8m in depth. Each side consists of a pair of slabs, those on the N forming a straight line, while those on the S now bow inwards. The W end-slab is decorated with seven pecked axes. There was formerly a narrow vertical slab at the E end of the cist decorated with a vertical groove with shorter strokes at right angles to it, and the end stroke rather more bulbous; this has been variously interpreted as a boat or a halberd with a beribboned haft. The slab was later destroyed in a fire at Poltalloch House, but a cast is preserved in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
The cairn had been seriously disturbed by the building of a lime-kiln in its SW quadrant, but in the course of restoration all trace of this intrusive feature has been removed.\(^5\)
Needham and Cowie noted some potential inconsistencies in the earlier published descriptions of the site,\(^6\) and that it had suffered from disturbance in the course of tree planting, the construction of the lime kiln, and poorly or completely unrecorded excavations.\(^7\)
The careful analysis by Needham and Cowie of the carved elements in the cist uncovered some discrepancies in the number of flat axe representations. “The Royal Commission (1988, 73) refer to only seven carvings while Malcolm includes an inaccurate woodcut showing as many as nine (1870, fig. 2). Six of the Ri Cruin axe depictions are fairly well defined,
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\(^5\) RCAHMS 1988
\(^6\) Needham and Cowie 2015: 94
\(^7\) Needham and Cowie 2015: 96
but two others we can recognise are extremely diffuse (Figure 7.6). It is possible that a ninth existed in a defaced area towards the top of the slab.”\(^8\)
**Interpretation and dating**
Ri Cruin Cairn is a rare example of a large and complex Early Bronze Age burial cairn. It has unusual structural elements including the grooved cist slabs and carved representations of flat axes, as well as a stone which is carved with a unique design. It is part of a larger monument, the Linear Cemetery, a type of monument that is rare in Scotland.
Sheridan dates the Linear Cemetery to the earliest Bronze Age (c.2200-1900 BC).\(^9\) Although this is based on stylistic elements, it is widely accepted.
Carved representations of flat axe-head markings are very rare. They occur at Nether Largie North and Mid Cairns, (both also part of the Linear Cemetery) as well as at Ri Cruin. No other examples have yet been found in Scotland and they have been described by Jones as “remarkable”.\(^10\) Geographically, beyond Kilmartin Glen, the nearest known monument bearing Bronze Age representations of axes is Stonehenge in Wiltshire.
The carved stone found at the site during the 19th century excavations is now only represented by drawings and a cast in the National Museum of Scotland which has a very unusual design. This was also re-examined by Needham and Cowie. They suggest that not only had it been re-used, but that the cist may well have been oriented around it.\(^11\) Needham and Cowie go on to describe the carving on the stone itself as multiphased: “In sum, although we cannot be confident of the fine detail from the cast alone, there is the distinct possibility that the rake-like design is a palimpsest in which a representation of a hafted halberd (0.40m overall length) has been overlaid upon an original ‘rake’, which itself may have replaced earlier motifs.”\(^12\)
The remodelling of ancient sites and re-use of structural elements in Bronze Age monuments has been suggested to have occurred at a number of other sites in Kilmartin.\(^13\) For example, the **Nether Largie South Chambered Cairn**, built possibly some 1500 to 1800 years before the Linear Cemetery, was later re-modelled to take on the appearance of a round cairn. Ritchie regards the Early Bronze Age cairns in the Glen as one of the best demonstrations of sequence, reuse and veneration in Scotland.\(^14\)
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\(^8\) Needham and Cowie 2012: 97
\(^9\) Sheridan 2012:175-176
\(^10\) Jones 2015: 78
\(^11\) Needham and Cowie 2012: 96
\(^12\) Ibid: 104
\(^13\) Stevenson, 1997; Sheridan 2012:177; Sheridan 2017 RARFA
\(^14\) Ritchie 1997:82
2.2 Evidential values
Ri Cruin Cairn is important as it is one of the key sites in the Glen and is an integral element in much larger monument (the Linear Cemetery). For these reasons, the cairn would be a strong candidate for inclusion in any future research programme aiming to further explore the Bronze Age in Kilmartin Glen. The site has been excavated, however, there is potential for undisturbed remains, both within the site and in the surrounding area.
The site has evidential potential to significantly inform our understanding of the past, in terms of:
- the design and construction of burial monuments
- the nature and meaning of ritual and burial practices and their significance in prehistoric society
- its relationship to other contemporary monuments and burials
- the continued use and re-use of rock art\(^{15}\)
- potentially undisturbed ancient botanical remains, which may elucidate the nature of the climate, vegetation and agricultural practices in the Glen when the cairn was in use
- the distribution of similar sites in the landscape
- how sites of a similar age related to one another in the Early Bronze Age and in later periods.
2.3 Historical values
Archaeological features such as the Linear Cemetery and other prominent monuments in Kilmartin Glen, including the nearby Temple Wood Stone Circles, were integrated into the designed landscape of the Poltalloch Estate. It is possible that the track known as the ‘coach road’ was deliberately designed so that the cairns and other monuments could be viewed when passing along this route. As an example of a landscape in which features have been re-used, respected and incorporated into a palimpsest spanning thousands of years, the whole of Kilmartin Glen and all the monuments it contains, including Ri Cruin Cairn, has great historical value. The incorporation of prehistoric monuments into the designed landscape has, undoubtedly, contributed to their survival.
Recent research into the relationships between the Properties in Care of Scottish Ministers and the British Empire\(^{16}\) has highlighted that Ri Cruin
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\(^{15}\) For more information on prehistoric rock art in Kilmartin Glen and elsewhere in Scotland, see Scotland’s Rock Art Project at: [www.rockart.scot/](http://www.rockart.scot/)
\(^{16}\) Full report can be downloaded from HES website: [Surveying and Analysing Connections between Properties in Care and the British Empire, c. 1600-1997 (historicenvironment.scot)](https://historicenvironment.scot/research-and-publications/publications/surveying-and-analysing-connections-between-properties-in-care-and-the-british-empire-c-1600-1997/)
Cairn has ‘property’ empire connection\textsuperscript{17} as it was owned by the Malcolms of Poltalloch. The Malcolms of Poltalloch acquired significant slavery-derived wealth during the colonial era in Jamaica. This included acting as merchants, holding shares in companies trading in the region, and owning enslaved people. Considerable monies came through compensation given when slavery was abolished in Britain. Neil Malcolm collected almost £40,000 compensation in 1835. The family used this wealth to become major landowners in Scotland, with the acquired estates containing many sites that would become Properties in Care. The estates were cleared to create aesthetically pleasing landscapes, with funds also being directed to the excavation of some of the archaeological sites.\textsuperscript{18}
2.4 Architectural and artistic values
Ri Cruin is a rare example of what would once have been a massive cairn with complex structural elements. Grooved cists are rare, possibly only occurring in Kilmartin.\textsuperscript{19} Jones suggests this feature not only allows for closer fitting joints, but also allow the cist to be architecturally stable – therefore possibly free standing – but also more easily dismantled, suggesting that these type of cists may have been used and reworked prior to their burial underneath cairns.\textsuperscript{20}
Carvings, representing flat axes, are also rare in Scotland, only appearing in Kilmartin Glen (here, at Nether Largie North Cairn and Nether Largie Mid Cairn). In terms of an interpretation of what carvings of flat axes might mean, Jones, in an article examining Bronze Age memorial systems and the place of image production within these, suggests “…images of flat bronze axes stand for flat bronze axes in a very active way; they presence and signify the memory associated with the production of axes and they incorporate the properties of axes. In this instance, then, the production of art is closely allied with the production of memory.”\textsuperscript{21}
These elements equate to high artistic, architectural and aesthetic values.
2.5 Landscape and aesthetic values
Across Scotland, burial cairns are often inter-visible, and apparently positioned to maximise their visual impact; this is certainly true of the cairns which comprise the Linear Cemetery. Collectively, they form a
\textsuperscript{17} ‘Property’ connection describes land or buildings owned by either an established propertied family which participated in the Empire, or a recently enriched family which, through involvement in colonial activities, acquired the means to secure property. See Mullen \textit{et al} 2024, 30-31 for a full definition of typology.
\textsuperscript{18} Mullen \textit{et al} 2024, 50-55.
\textsuperscript{19} Campbell and Sandeman, 1960
\textsuperscript{20} Jones 2001: 222
\textsuperscript{21} Jones 2001: 224
dominant feature in the landscape, deliberately positioned in a striking location and, in its current form, stretching nearly two kilometres along Kilmartin Glen. It is probable that the Kilmartin Burn meandered around the cairns, and the traces of old river channels can be seen, but it is not known to when these date. The Kilmartin Burn was canalised in the 19th century as part of the farm improvements undertaken by the Poltalloch Estate. Nether Largie South Cairn and Temple Wood Stone Circles can be seen from Ri Cruin Cairn. Ri Cruin is largely surrounded with mature trees and is accessible via a track between two stone walls. It is a very pleasant place to visit.
As such, it has very high landscape values.
2.6 Natural heritage values
To be assessed.
2.7 Contemporary/use values
Social values
The social values of Ri Cruin lie – together with the other Kilmartin Glen sites – as a visitor attraction, education and learning resource, and the atmosphere and special qualities of the place, all of which are highlighted in online social media reviews.
Ri Cruin Cairn, like many of the Kilmartin Glen sites, is relatively easily accessible and the site is interpreted and presented in order to aid understanding and access. The cairn material comprised of water-rolled cobbles appears today as a horseshoe-shaped spread at Ri Cruin, with all three cists visible. The capstones of two of the cists have been re-positioned just off centre so that the cist interiors are visible. The third collapsed cist is represented by side slabs which are off-line – the top slab is not present.
The site is not staffed, there is no entry charge, and it is freely accessible year round. Precise visitor numbers are not recorded, however annual visitor figures for Kilmartin Museum, which acts as a hub for the Glen, are 25,000 annually\(^{22}\) which gives an indication of visitor numbers and interest.
The site has an interpretation board installed by Historic Environment Scotland and another in the nearby vicinity was installed by the Dalriada Project (a Heritage Lottery Fund funded landscape partnership scheme), both of which provide visitor information on the site and other monuments in the area.
\(^{22}\) This figure relates to people visiting Kilmartin Museum to get information etc., as opposed to c.13,000 ticket-buying visitors (Sharon Webb, pers.comm.).
Kilmartin Museum was founded in 1997 and its mission is to inspire and educate people by interpreting, explaining and conserving the internationally important archaeological landscape, artefacts and natural heritage of Kilmartin Glen. A large percentage of tourists to the area cite the archaeological monuments and Kilmartin Museum as a reason for visiting. Cultural tourism is one of the region’s largest economic drivers.
Kilmartin Museum’s education team regularly use Ri Cruin, and the other sites in the Linear Cemetery, in its education programmes. The teachers and pupils of Kilmartin School, in particular, feel a deep connection to the monument due to its close proximity. Kilmartin Museum organises a weekly volunteer-led guided walk along the Glen visiting all the cairns in the Linear Cemetery, and Temple Wood Stone Circles. Kilmartin Museum and the education service are part funded by Historic Environment Scotland.
In 2007, Kilmartin Glen was the setting for ‘Half Life’, a cultural event spread over several weeks which involved landscape art installations and a performance created by the Scottish theatre company NVA in collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland.
All these activities render Ri Cruin as having a very high social value.
It should be noted, however, that the tourism generated by the national and international importance of the archaeological monuments, is not necessarily seen as positive by everyone in the local community, since this presents certain challenges for farming, and restrictions related to other forms of land use.
**Spiritual values**
It is clear that the monument had great spiritual significance as a burial monument and part of the Linear Cemetery in prehistory. The re-use of these monuments, which is evidenced through excavation, demonstrates that they remained a spiritual focal point for a long period of time. The carvings on the inner side of the cist were likely to have been deliberately oriented to face the dead – perhaps suggesting spiritual significance.
There is anecdotal evidence that these sites are special for people today and this is evidenced by ‘offerings’ of flowers and other items.\(^{23}\)
**Cultural values**
Ri Cruin is situated in one of Scotland’s richest archaeological landscapes. It has great significance as part of the Kilmartin Glen ritual and funerary landscape and is also part of a multi-monumental feature (the Linear Cemetery), designed in prehistory to be imposing and awe inspiring. It has remained so to this day. It therefore has great multi-generational cultural significance.
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\(^{23}\) Such actions can inadvertently harm archaeological sites, and visitors are reminded that the use of candles or naked flames are not permitted at any HES properties.
3. MAJOR GAPS IN UNDERSTANDING
There are some major gaps in our understanding of the site.
Although the site was excavated, this work was undertaken at a time when modern, scientific dating techniques were not available. Therefore, no scientifically-determined date for the site is available, and the postulated date is based on stylistic evidence from other sites.
There are also major gaps relating to the period to which this monument belongs. These have been recently summarised as key research questions:
- Where did the people who were buried in the ostentatious graves live? Was Kilmartin Glen used only as a place of burial and ceremony?
- Was there a hierarchy of settlement, reflecting an ineegalitarian society?
- Was there regional variability in subsistence activities during this time? How typical is the evidence from Kilellan and Ardnave?
- Was control over the flow of metal the only source of wealth and power in this part of Scotland at that time?
- Was the incoming metal just Irish copper or were bronze items or ingots also coming in? Was there any local exploitation of copper?
Added to these research questions is also a lack of understanding about the relationship of monuments such as the Linear Cemetery to other contemporary ritual and funerary monuments as well as those of later periods. In addition, the nature of the contemporary climate, vegetation and agricultural practices in the Glen as a whole remains relatively unexplored.
4. ASSOCIATED PROPERTIES
- Achnabreck Cup and Ring Marked Rocks
- Ballygowan Cup and Ring Marked Rocks
- Baluachraig Cup and Ring Marked Rocks
- Cairnbaan Cup and Ring Marked Rocks
- Carnassarie Castle
- Dunadd Fort
24 Sheridan, 2017
• Dunchraigaig Cairn
• Kilmartin Crosses
• Kilmichael Glassary Prehistoric Rock Carvings
• Kilmartin Glebe Cairn
• Kilmartin Sculptured Stones and Neil Campbell Tomb
• Nether Largie Mid Cairn
• Nether Largie North Cairn
• Nether Largie South Cairn
• Temple Wood Stone Circles
5. KEYWORDS
Neolithic; Bronze Age; round cairn; ‘linear cemetery’; cist, cup mark; flat axe; Kilmartin Glen; Argyll
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Canmore ID 39456
Canmore Site Number NR89NW 16
NGR NR 8254 9711
Scheduled monument description:
http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/SM90247
Craw, J.H. (1930a) ‘Excavations at Dunadd and at other sites on the Poltalloch Estates, Argyll’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol. 64, 1929-30. Pages 127-30.
Dingwall, C. and P McGowan 1996 The Designed Landscapes of Kilmartin Glen: Carnassarie, Kilmartin and Poltalloch (a report commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage in association with the Kilmartin Glen Project).
Jones, A. 2001 Enduring images? Image production and memory in earlier Bronze Age Scotland’, in Bruck, J., Bronze Age landscapes: tradition and transformation. (Oxford; Oxbow Books) Pages 217-231.
Jones, A. M. 2015 Rock Art and the Alchemy of Bronze. Metal and Images in Early Bronze Age Scotland. In Ling, J, P. Skoglund and U. Bertilsson 2001 Picturing the Bronze Age. (Oxford; Oxbow Books)
Jones, A. M. and P. Riggott. 2011. An Animate Landscape I. rock art and the evolution of the Kilmartin Landscape. In Jones, A. M., Freedman, D., O’Connor, B., Lamdin-Whymark, H., Tipping, R., and Watson, A. 2011. An Animate Landscape: Rock Art and the Prehistory of Kilmartin, Argyll, Scotland. (Oxford; Windgather Press).
Campbell of Kilberry, M. and Sandeman, M. 1962. Mid Argyll: an archaeological survey, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 95, 1961-2, 1-125.
Mapleton, R J. 1871 Notice of remarkable cists in a gravel bank near Kilmartin; and of incised sculpturings of axe-heads, and other markings on the stones of the cists’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol. 8, 1868-70: 378-81
Mapleton, R J. 1870 Note on a Cist with Engraved Stones on the Poltalloch Estate, County of Argyll. Journal of the Ethnological Society of London 1869-1870 Vol 2 No3 (1870): 340-342
Morris, R W B. 1977a The prehistoric rock art of Argyll. Poole.
Mullen, S., Mackillop, A., and Driscoll, S. 2024 Surveying and Analysing Connections between Properties in Care and the British Empire, c. 1600-1997. (Edinburgh, Historic Environment Scotland). Available online: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationId=e192ea9f-0d7e-4745-b499-b0fb010a167a (accessed: 17 December 2024).
Needham, S. and T. Cowie with a contribution by F. McGibbon (2012) The halberd pillar at Ri Cruin cairn, Kilmartin, Argyll. In Cochrane A. and A. M. Jones (eds.) Visualising the Neolithic: Abstraction, Figuration, Performance, Representation Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers 13: 91-110.
Ritchie, G. 1997. Monuments Associated with Burial and Ritual. In G. Ritchie 1997 The Archaeology of Argyll (Edinburgh; RCAHMS & Edinburgh University Press).
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland. 1988. Vol 6, Mid Argyll and Cowal Prehistoric and Early Historic Monuments (Edinburgh, Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland).
ScARF 2017 Simpson, B and Webb, S (eds) RARFA: A Regional Archaeological Research Framework for Argyll; Scottish Archaeological Research Framework: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Available online at https://scarf.scot/regional/rarfa/
ScARF 2017 Sheridan, J. A (ed) RARFA: Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age c 4000BC – 800BC, Scottish Archaeological Research Framework: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Available online at https://scarf.scot/regional/rarfa/6-neolithic-chalcolithic-and-bronze-age-c-4000bc-800bc/
Sheridan, J. A. (2012) Contextualising Kilmartin: Building a Narrative for Developments in Western Scotland and Beyond (p.161-183). In Jones A. M., J. Pollard, J. Gardiner and M. J. Allen (eds) Image, Memory and Monumentality: Archaeological Engagements with the Material World. Oxford, Oxbow.
Steiniger, D. 2012 https://canmore.org.uk/site/39534/kilmartin (German Archaeological Institute, Department Rome).
Stevenson, J. B. 1997. The Prehistoric Rock Carvings of Argyll. In G. Ritchie 1997 The Archaeology of Argyll (Edinburgh; RCAHMS & Edinburgh University Press).
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I: ARCHAEOLOGICAL OVERVIEW: RI CRUIN CAIRN IN CONTEXT
Kilmartin Glen’s Prehistoric Monuments
Kilmartin Glen is located in Argyll and Bute, on the west coast of Scotland. The landscape of the west coast of Scotland is typified by rocky hills and relatively deep Glens. The undulations of the land and the underlying rock formations generally follow a north-west to south-east axis. Kilmartin Glen follows that pattern, being narrower at its northern end, with steep-sided hills and gravel terraces, broadening out to the south into a flatter, wide area which intersects with the south-west end of the adjacent Kilmichael Glen. The south is bordered by the Knapdale Hills, and the flatter area to the south-west is now the Mòine Mhòr – an expanse of peat bog which gradually changes to salt marsh towards the Crinan Estuary and the open sea. The Kilmartin Burn flows down the Glen, joining the River Add as it emerges from Kilmichael Glen, before meandering through the Mòine Mhòr to the sea. Both watercourses have been extensively altered by canalisation and straightening as part of the 19th century land improvements by the Poltalloch Estate.
The wider area of Mid Argyll and Kilmichael Glen, which intersects Kilmartin Glen, contains a number of important sites. There is, however, an extraordinarily dense concentration of monuments in Kilmartin Glen itself. Many of these are upstanding, highly visible prehistoric monuments,\(^{25}\) including burial cairns within a Linear Cemetery, of which Ri Cruin Cairn is one. There are also the remains of stone circles, a timber circle, a cursus monument, a henge, standing stones, stone rows, and numerous rock art
\(^{25}\) RCAHMS 1988
sites. It is a world class archaeological landscape and one of Scotland’s most important.
The dramatic topography of the Glen and surrounding landscape almost certainly lent itself to the creation of a highly significant prehistoric ritual, funerary and ceremonial landscape. Belief, social status and particularly the relationship between the living and the dead have been expressed by generations of people through cultural practices relating to the use and disposal of high-status artefacts and the construction of complex and powerful monuments in an already naturally striking landscape. The dense concentration of artefacts in the Glen is also outstanding: “Many individual finds such as jet necklaces or Food Vessels have been found in other parts of Argyll, but the dense distribution around Kilmartin is unique.”\(^{26}\) Evidence for the earliest activity around these themes dates to the earliest Neolithic (3800-3700 BC)\(^{27}\) and accumulates through to the Late Bronze Age (1500-1100 BC), a timespan of some 2300 years.\(^{28}\)
Mid Argyll’s rock art stands out as one of Europe’s finest groups of prehistoric monuments. The concentration is unparalleled in Britain. Rock art in the area appears both on earth-fast bedrock and also on monuments. Recent work on dating rock art sites points to those created on earth-fast bedrock as being Late Neolithic, between 3000 - 2500 BC,\(^{29}\) although it should be noted that only relatively few radiocarbon dates are available. In common with some of the other cairns in the Linear Cemetery, (Nether Largie North Cairn and Nether Largie Mid Cairn), Ri Cruin has a number of structural features which have been carved with rock art. Some of these may be reused elements from other monuments, or earth-fast rock art sites. The carved features found at Ri Cruin are described above.
Kilmartin Glen’s prominent monuments attracted antiquarian and archaeological interest from the early 1900’s, and a wealth of important artefacts have been found as a result of that work. Survey and recording of much of the Mid Argyll landscape was undertaken by local antiquarian Marion Campbell of Kilberry and Mary Sandeman in the 1960’s.\(^{30}\) In more recent decades, the work of Kilmartin Museum, academics, and developer-funded archaeologists have discovered many other monuments, subsoil features and artefacts. In addition, members of the public have also found artefacts by chance. All this knowledge has significantly contributed to the understanding of Kilmartin Glen and the surrounding areas, firmly establishing the Glen as one of Britain’s most significant archaeological landscapes.
\(^{26}\) RCAHMS 1988: 14
\(^{27}\) Sheridan 2012: 166
\(^{28}\) Sheridan 2012: 166
\(^{29}\) Sheridan, 2012: 171; Jones and Riggott 2011: 253
\(^{30}\) Campbell and Sandeman 1962
As noted above, most of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early and Middle Bronze Age monuments are of a ceremonial or funerary nature. Currently, the earliest evidence of domestic occupation in the Glen dates to the later Bronze Age, leading some to speculate that the area was used solely for ritual purposes. No systematic survey or excavation programme has been undertaken across the whole Glen landscape, however. Therefore, the archaeological record is likely to be biased towards large and upstanding monuments than more ephemeral subsoil features and it is entirely possible that people were living in the Glen in earlier prehistoric periods as well as utilising it as a ritual landscape but the evidence for this has not yet been found.
Dingwall and McGowan noted that many of the archaeological monuments in the Glen lie within areas developed as designed landscapes in the 18th and 19th centuries in particular.\(^{31}\) It is very likely that the most conspicuous monuments, including the Linear Cemetery, Dunchraigaig Cairn, Baluachraig Rock Art site, Temple Wood Stone Circles, Nether Largie and Ballymeanoch Standing Stones were deliberately incorporated as significant points of interest in these landscape designs.
**The Early Bronze Age in Kilmartin Glen and the Linear Cemetery**
The use of copper appeared in Argyll in the 25th century BC and, by the 22nd century BC this was alloyed with tin to produce bronze across Britain and Ireland.\(^{32}\) Other changes also occurred, including the construction of cairns containing just one or two individual burials. This is markedly different from the earlier Neolithic practice of communal burial.\(^{33}\) It is widely accepted that social stratification is visible in the archaeological record at this time, and in Kilmartin this is expressed by the construction of striking and conspicuous funerary monuments, as well as the acquisition of prestigious objects and ornaments.\(^{34}\) Although this is seen elsewhere in Britain, the intensity of finds in Kilmartin is remarkable. Sheridan has suggested that Early Bronze Age elites in Kilmartin were able to control the flow of copper and also possibly bronze from Ireland to the north-east of Scotland, which was expressed in terms of conspicuous consumption and large scale monument building as the elites visibly demonstrated their wealth and power.\(^{35}\) It is possible that mining was also taking place in, and around, the Glen as there are copper deposits which were certainly exploited in the early modern period.\(^{36}\) Whether copper was acquired locally, or from further afield or both, the connections of the people living in Kilmartin were clearly wide ranging. Evidence in the form of materials or
\(^{31}\) Dingwall and McGowan, 1996: 43
\(^{32}\) Sheridan 2017, RARFA
\(^{33}\) RCAHMS 1988: 14
\(^{34}\) RCAHMS 1988; Sheridan 2017, RARFA
\(^{35}\) Sheridan 2012:175; Sheridan 2017 RARFA
\(^{36}\) Steiniger 2012
stylistic affinities suggest these extend to Ireland the North East of Scotland and Yorkshire.\textsuperscript{37}
The Early Bronze Age, described by Sheridan as a ‘golden age’ in Kilmartin,\textsuperscript{38} saw the construction of a highly visible, deliberately imposing Linear Cemetery of cairns, of which Ri Cruin Cairn is one. Taken as a single entity, the Linear Cemetery is the grandest of all the prestigious monuments in the Glen.
Today, the Linear Cemetery consists of five large cairns – the Glebe Cairn, Nether Largie North Cairn, Nether Largie Mid Cairn, Nether Largie South Cairn and Ri Cruin Cairn. The cairns were constructed on gently raised areas of ground on the flat valley floor of Kilmartin Glen – these raised areas are most likely to be areas of sand and/or, gravel – deposited by melt water following the end of the last glaciation. The Kilmartin Burn would have followed a more sinuous course past the cairn cemetery in prehistory prior to it being straightened and canalised in the 19th century. Flowing water may have been significant to the builders of the cairns and this might have been an influencing factor in their construction. As well as potentially referencing running water, the cairns are carefully sited in a line. Although not evenly spaced, they are roughly central to the valley bottom and form a very prominent complex of monuments. Even though all of the cairns have been denuded to a greater or lesser extent they still have great impact in the valley today. Many of the other prominent monuments are visible from the Linear Cemetery, including Temple Wood Stone Circles and Nether Largie Standing Stones (from Ri Cruin and Nether Largie South Cairns).
It has been suggested that the Linear Cemetery once comprised of more cairns. Two possible other sites are represented only by cists today with any cairn material having been removed.\textsuperscript{39} Speculation that there may also have been a further cairn in between Nether Largie Mid and Nether Largie South has never been investigated.
The builders of the Linear Cemetery incorporated the earlier Neolithic Nether Largie South Chambered Cairn into the alignment and this may have been its initial focus.\textsuperscript{40} The original trapezoidal linear shape of Nether Largie South was substantially altered to appear circular.\textsuperscript{41} Linear Cemeteries are known in other parts of Britain however they are rare in Scotland. A clear parallel with a similar chronological range is the line of cairns at Balnuaran of Clava near Inverness which also has other similarities including associations with rock art.\textsuperscript{42}
\textsuperscript{37} Sheridan 2012: 177
\textsuperscript{38} Sheridan 2012: 175
\textsuperscript{39} RCAHMS 1988: 14
\textsuperscript{40} RCAHMS 1988: 14
\textsuperscript{41} RCAHMS 1988: 14; Sheridan 2017 RARFA
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Introductory Lesson
This printable pack contains the following activities:
- Rules with Fuzzie (Exp)
- Introducing Fuzzie (Adv)
- Group Rule Poster (Exp, Adv, Nav, Voy and Multi)
- Class Survey (Voy)
Props: Fuzzie puppet.
Explain that Fuzzie (or whatever name you want for your puppet) is a friend of yours. You may choose to say if Fuzzie is a puppet or not. Many young children will ‘see’ any puppet being like a ‘real’ person/animal.
Script
F= Fuzzie T= Teacher
F: May I come out now?
T: OK Fuzzie (Introduce him/her to the class).
F: Can we play a game?
T: A game? All right. You tell us the rules and then we can play it.
F: Rules? Why Rules? I’ll start and then…
T: But we need rules Fuzzie. (Ask the children to explain why we need rules).
F: But I don’t know the rules.
T: Then you might need to go and ask your mum the rules. We can play a game another day.
F: Yeah, good idea. We need rules to play together. I’ll see you another day. (Fuzzie exits)
The End
Props: Fuzzie puppet.
Explain that Fuzzie (or whatever name you want for your puppet) is a friend of yours. You may choose to say if Fuzzie is a puppet or not. Many young children will ‘see’ any puppet being like a ‘real’ person/animal.
Script
F= Fuzzie T= Teacher
T: There’s someone I’d like you to meet.
F: (interrupts) I’m coming, Don’t start without me!
T: There she/he is now, it’s Fuzzie.
F: (Enters) Hi everyone! I’m so excited! GodSpace. Where’s my space suit? I’m going to float around...without gravity (Fuzzie floats around in front of teacher). GodSpace, GodSpace!
T: Stop floating around. What are you talking about?
F: We’re going to meet God in space! Come on, suit me up. 10, 9, 8, 7...
T: No Fuzzie. GodSpace is the name of our time together here.
F: What are you talking about?
T: GodSpace is our time where we get to learn about God.
F: How do we do that?
T: Let’s ask the students. (Discuss i.e. Bible reading, singing, talking with God, videos and playing games together).
F: Wow, can I come to GodSpace too? It sounds like lots of fun.
T: Yes Fuzzie.
F: Hooray! But are you sure I can’t travel in space?
T: No Fuzzie but next time we’ll meet Goober and his spaceship.
F: Who’s Goober?
T: Sorry Fuzzie, you’ll have to wait until next time to find out.
F: Ohhh! Well, I’m going tell my Mum about it. See ya. (Exits)
T: Bye Fuzzie.
The End
Our Rules Are:
Respect Other People
Listen to Each Other
Follow the Teacher’s Instructions
Do Our Best!
Circle the number that represents how much you feel you know about God right now. (1 is not much and 10 is everything)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Circle the number that represents how much you feel you know God (like a friend)?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Do you know someone who says that God is very important to them? YES/NO
How much do you know about the Bible? (Circle)
- Some
- Very little
- What’s the Bible?
- Heaps
- God speaks to me through it.
Have you ever prayed? YES/NO
If yes, how often?
- All the time
- Most days
- Only with others
- Hardly ever
- Prefer not to say
Do you go to church or any group where God is discussed? YES/NO
How do you like to learn? (Circle)
- Drama
- Discussion
- Videos
- Music
- Magazines/Activity Sheets
- Reading
- Craft
- Other _______________________
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Historical Walking Tours of Kalispell, Montana Flathead County
Great Northern Train #1141 Kalispell, Montana. Road pilot, oil burner. March 1939.
Ron V. Nixon photographer
photo from Museum of the Rockies
Second edition, 2009
This project was sponsored by the City of Kalispell and funded by the Kalispell Business Improvement District, Flathead Convention & Visitor Bureau, and Kalispell Downtown Association.
Original text by Kathryn McKay; additional text by Katharine Thompson.
Project coordinator: Katharine Thompson, Community Development Manager, City of Kalispell Community and Economic Development Department.
Interior photographs by Bret Bouda
Printed by Insty Prints of Kalispell
1st printing 5,000
KalisPELL, Montana, began as a railroad town and this fact shaped its history for many years. The townsite was platted in the spring of 1891 in order to serve as the division point for the Great Northern Railway that was being constructed from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington. Soon after “the iron horse snorted in the garden of Eden,” the earlier town of Demersville (located just four miles to the southeast of the new town of Kalispell) became a ghost town. Many of its buildings were moved on log rollers across the open prairie to Kalispell.
Although Kalispell was founded as a railroad town, the period of rail glory did not last long. In 1904 the Great Northern Railway relocated the main line to the north with Whitefish as the new division point. Many railroad employees moved to Whitefish that fall. Even so, Kalispell did not fade away.
By that time, Kalispell had established itself as the trade and financial center of the Flathead Valley and beyond. The young town was chosen to be the county seat in 1893, and a great variety of services were concentrated in the town including a hospital, numerous churches, office of city, county and federal government agencies, schools, banks, hotels, an opera house, lodge halls, a library and a great variety of stores and manufacturers including a brewery and several flour mills.
Various regional events also helped the town prosper, such as the opening of the Flathead Indian Reservation to the south to white settlement in 1910. Kalispell, as one of the towns that registered homesteaders, experienced a short boom in this period. The opening of the
highway at Marias Pass over the Continental Divide in 1930 again provided Kalispell with more business and activity. In addition, Kalispell remained the center of the lumber industry in northwest Montana for many years, and in the 1930’s people came to Kalispell because it was considered to have relatively fertile farmlands.
Kalispell’s prosperity also is due to the efforts of local boosters who called Kalispell the national “Gateway to Glacier Park” after the park was created in 1910. The slogan “All Roads Lead to Kalispell” was popular for some time. Many of Kalispell’s early settlers had come to the area on the recommendation of family or friends who were already living in the Flathead Valley, and they created a close-knit community despite varying places of origin and diverse cultures and even languages. Many of Kalispell’s settlers came from the Midwest, or from Scandinavia, Germany or Britain. In its early years the town had a substantial Chinese community, mostly single men who ran laundries, restaurants, and Oriental goods stores. The railroad employed Japanese crews who lived in separate boarding houses in Kalispell.
In the 1890s, residences were typically one-story wood frame buildings, and business blocks were one- or two-story wood frame buildings with false fronts. As the town grew, many of the original wood business building were replaced with more substantial brick buildings. Many of Kalispell’s largest residences were constructed during the prosperous years of the early 1900s and 1910s, quite a number of them designed by local architects. The following walking tour allows you to observe the physical evidence of Kalispell’s history.
—Kathryn McKay
Photo from Northwest Montana Historical Society
The Historical Walking Tour of Kalispell, Montana
MAIN STREET WALKING TOUR
1. Historically: Carnegie Library, built 1903; Currently: Hockaday Museum of Art
302 2nd Avenue East
The Carnegie Library was built in 1903 by a father-son contractor-architect team. The building cost $10,000, which was donated by New York philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. One of the library’s innovative programs was the distribution of books and old magazines to logging camps. The city library remained in this building until 1969.
The Library is a masonry, Classical Revival-style building with a distinctive domed octagonal entry. The high basement is constructed of coursed rough-dressed gray sandstone from the Columbus quarries near Butte and the pressed red brick was brought in by railroad from Wisconsin. Call 406-755-5268.
2. Historically: City Water Department, built 1927; Currently: City Municipal Court
336 1st Avenue East
The City Water Department building was designed in the Georgian Revival style by Kalispell architect Fred Brinkman and reflects the pride early Kalispell residents took in their public buildings. The setting of this building has changed substantially since it was built in 1927. The city’s two-story jail, built in 1891, was located just to the south of the Water Department and later became a lodging house. In 1918 Lew Somers and his wife were accused in a civil action of running a “bawdy house” at that address. South of the city jail was a large feed stable complex that was in business until approximately 1915.
3. Historically: City Service Station, built 1931; Currently: KCFW Television
401 1st Avenue East
This Art Deco service station was constructed in 1931 from a design by Kalispell architect Fred Brinkman. It was completed in early 1931 and the City Service Company station operated there until approximately 1940, when the business was then called Phil’s Texaco. The building cost $13,000 to construct, including the architect’s fees. When it opened
there were five pumps in operation. It was unusual for its time in that all departments of automobile services were included in the one building. By 1968 the KCFW TV station was located at this address. A 1991 remodeling of the building kept the feeling of the original design, although the building has been significantly modified. The most significant change is the extension of the northwest corner of the building, effectively placing the tower in the center of the building instead of at its entrance.
4. Historically: Henry Good Garage, built 1928; Currently: Coco & Boo
402 1st Avenue East
Henry Good, Flathead Valley logging contractor and investor, had this garage built in 1928 in just over 60 days for $25,000. At the same time, he began work on the Montgomery Ward store on Main Street less than a block away. This one-story garage is constructed of concrete and cream-colored pressed brick with red sandstone trim and shields. The corner entrance originally had a diagonal driveway to accommodate a drive-through gasoline, oil and grease service with two gasoline pumps; this driveway has now been enclosed.
5. Historically: Sauser-Mercord Building, built 1901, 1925; Currently: Camas Creek
338-340 Main Street
The Sauser-Mercord Building is actually two separate buildings constructed in 1901 (south half) and 1925 (north half). George McMahon constructed the original building in 1901 to house his undertaking
and second-hand furniture business. He soon sold his business to William P. Sherman. Sherman, and later his widow Nora and her children, operated an undertaking business, sold pianos, and lived on the second floor of the building until 1929, when they moved to their new funeral home across the alley at 343 1st Avenue West. Nora Sherman, an Irish immigrant, was reportedly the first woman in Montana to become a licensed undertaker.
6. Historically: Montgomery Ward Store, built 1929; Currently: Alpine Lighting
333 Main Street
The construction of this building, designed by Kalispell architect Fred Brinkman and built by Henry Good (logging contractor, farmer and real estate owner), marked the expansion of the business district south along Main Street after its initial development farther north during the previous decades. When the Montgomery Ward store opened here in 1929, it employed approximately 80 people and carried toys, auto accessories, tires, hardware, sporting goods, stoves and ranges, radios, paint, furniture, house furnishings, dry
goods, shoes, clothing and general merchandise. The automobile service station on the corner was built in 1935.
7. Historically: Gamble Store, built 1948; Currently: Main Street Arts & Craft
327 Main Street
8. Historically: O’Neil Print Shop, built 1926; Currently: Trippet’s Printing
323 Main Street
The building was designed by Kalispell architect Fred Brinkman and completed in November of 1926 to house the printing business of Ernest O’Neil. The O’Neil family was one of the most prominent families in Kalispell. Ernest O’Neil was
born in Pennsylvania in 1867, moving when young to Missouri with his parents. He married Frieda E. Gerth and is 1898 they came to Kalispell (Ernest’s three brothers were already in Kalispell and had founded the O’Neil Lumber Company). O’Neil had been an apprentice printer in Missouri. In Kalispell he worked on the Inter Lake as a printer when he arrived, until he opened his own printing shop in 1908 that he operated until his death in 1944.
9. Built 1936; Currently: Interior Outfitting
322 Main Street
This building was constructed in 1936 for Kalispell businessman Charles Cyr at an estimated cost of $20,000. From approximately 1936 until at least 1943 the W.G. Woodward store occupied the building. This one-story commercial building has a brick front façade and cantilevered canopy. At the rear
of the building the windows are six-over-six-light double-hung and the sills and lintels are concrete.
10. Historically: Griffin Block, built 1891-1894;
Currently: Ceres Bakery
318 Main Street
This commercial business block was constructed between 1891 and 1894 and was owned by Walter H. Griffin until 1926. Griffin and his partner George Stannard had a real estate and insurance business on the first floor and Griffin lived in an upstairs apartment all the time he owned the building. Griffin was a friend of Alexander Bell and Griffin’s ideas reportedly helped Bell develop the telephone. From
approximately 1936 until 1941, Gus Thompson and his family lived at this address (see 140 Main Street). This two-story block is of wood frame construction and has a gabled roof.
II. Historically: Whipps Block, built 1904, 1909, 1918; Currently: Big Sky Martial Arts, Byte Savvy 301-309 Main Street
The Whipps Block reflects the optimism of Kalispell’s leading citizens in the very year that the Great Northern Railway moved the railroad division point from Kalispell to Whitefish. William Carvoso organized the first bank in the area, Northwestern Bank. In 1904 he erected the Whipps Block to house his business, the Kalispell Liquor & Tobacco Company and others. Whipps became the first elected mayor of Kalispell in 1893. Called the “Czar,” he accomplished much toward the development of Kalispell during his four terms as mayor but often met with opposition. Whipps was also an active advocate of the creation of Glacier National Park.
12. Historically: Masonic Temple, built 1904; Currently: Masonic Temple/Chuck Olsen Real Estate
241 Main Street
The Masonic Temple, like the Whipps Block to its south, was designed by architect George Shanley of Kalispell and built in 1904. The Carter Mercantile moved into the first floor of this building in 1906 and reportedly could handle 200 shoppers at one time. The original business office and cashier’s desk were about nine feet high, so the manager could sit at his desk and see every department. During World War I, the local Red Cross had work rooms in the basement of the building. In November 1917 a reporter described the area as filled with 115 “liberty-loving, home-loving women, all so busy with needle and thread doing the things that will ‘make democracy safe.’”
13. Historically: Knight & Twining Block, built 1908; Currently: Coins and Carats
237 Main Street
The Knight & Twining Block was built in 1908 by two building contractors who were also brothers-in-law, and they owned the building until 1923 (notice the “K&T” in the brickwork near the roof line). Photographer T.J. Hileman’s studio was located in this building from 1916-38. Hileman was well-known for his photographs of Glacier National Park scenes; in 1925 he was appointed official photographer for the Great Northern Railway. In 1913 Hileman married his assistant Alice Georgsen; they were the first couple to be married in the park. In 1936 Hileman installed “trimmings” of polished Vermont granite on the front of the building.
In recent years an automobile damaged the granite, some of which was then made into a counter top that is still in use in the store.
14. Historically: Fair Department Store/Montana Meat Market Building, built 1901; Currently: J.D. Morell’s 227 Main Street
This building was considered “one of the most modern and up to date store buildings in the state” when it was completed in 1901 for the Fair Department Store. The Fair was a member of the Montana, Washington and Oregon Cash Buyers’ Union, a group of 50 merchants that purchased in bulk directly from manufacturers. The two owners of the Kalispell store handled the rubber goods for the union.
15. Built 1899-1903; Currently: J. Thomas Salon
228 Main Street
This commercial structure was constructed in 1901 by contractors and partners Knight & Twining with a high second floor that was used for many years as a lodge hall. The contract for the stone and brick work was done by Kalispell mason John Stahl. The brick corbelling along the cornice is typical of John Stahl’s brickwork and of Knight & Twining buildings.
The Buffalo Block adjacent to this building to the south was destroyed by fire in 1976. That building was constructed in 1910 with money resulting from the sale of Charles Conrad’s herd of buffalo. Before the Buffalo Block was constructed, large temporary buildings were constructed on this corner to house the crowds of people coming to Kalispell to register for land on the newly opened Flathead Indian Reservation.
16. Historically: Anerson’s Style Shop, built 1941; Currently: The Refinery, Mimi’s Bridal
222 Main Street
The Anerson Style Shop features an Art Nouveau-style façade. Since its construction in 1941 the building has been occupied by a ladies’ apparel store. The display cases on the interior are the original cabinetry. In 1933, the Flathead Monitor described Karl Anerson’s women’s-wear shop (in an earlier building on this site) as “the headquarters for style and correctness in Kalispell” with garments that represented “the latest whim of fashion.”
17. Historically: Calbick Block, built 1906;
221 Main Street
The Calbick Block was built in 1906 for real estate agent William Calbick and his son Frank Calbick who had a jewelry store in this location for many decades; the building remained in the family until 1956. William Calbick kept up with the times. In 1907, as Powers & Eckholm’s first paving job, the wood sidewalk in front of the store was replaced with a “perfect” concrete sidewalk. In 1908 William Calbick had a brown stone tile placed on the front of the building to designate it as the Calbick Block. The next year, Frank Calbick installed a “mammoth burglar proof safe” in the store for his jewels and gold.
18. Historically: Adams Building, built 1895;
Currently: Fawn
217 Main Street
The 1895 Adams Block is a two-story brick business block with several distinctive decorative features. These include a triangular pediment with diamond-point brick and the date “A.D. 1895” in stone beneath it. Two finials hang down from either side of the pediment and a row of small brick arches runs beneath the cornice. The upper floor has three arched windows; the one in the center was originally an oriel window but this was bricked in between 1939 and 1954. The three windows are surmounted by brick arches springing from a belt of rough-cut stone.
The two remaining windows have four panes each and the semi-circular transoms are filled in. A belt of rough-cut stone runs beneath the windows forming their sills. The business block was constructed in 1895 for Gurdon H. Adams and it remained in the Adams family until 1980. From 1901 on it was connected with the store to the south, 219 Main Street, which was built by Adams in that year.
19. Built 1895; Currently: Flathead Beacon
213 Main Street
20. Historically: Site of the New Conrad Building, built 1910; Currently: Sterling Title
211 Main Street
21. Historically: Site of Conrad National Bank (no longer exists), ca. 1910; Currently: Glacier Bank
202 Main Street
22. Historically: Ford Block Building, built 1898; Currently: Montana Frameworks
141 Main Street
In February of 1895 the Flathead Herald-Journal reported that James Ford and his partner Shelton were planning to build a business block on the corner of Main and 2nd Streets. Ground was not broken, however, until June 1898. The Ford Block replaced the 37-room Hicks Hotel (also known as the Grand Central Block), complete with bar and restaurant, that was built in 1892 with a brick veneer for Ed Hicks. Hicks was originally from England and he had operated a hotel in Demersville. He reportedly built the Grand Central Hotel to give “an impression of solidity” through photographs so he could get a loan in England. In February 1894 that building was destroyed by fire, and the lots were vacant and a “loafing place” until the Ford Block was constructed.
The Ford Block generally had two storefronts on Main Street and three on 2nd Street East, with a hallway and entry to the upper floor centered on 2nd Street East.
23. Historically: Pastime Bar, built 1900; Currently: Columbine Gallery
140 Main Street
In 1925 John Gus Thompson moved his pool hall and cigar store business to this building. Thompson was nationally known to baseball fans as the pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series in 1903. Thompson attended the University of Iowa to study law and while there he pitched for the school team. He met
Edna Knapp in Iowa and when she moved to Kalispell he followed and they were married. In 1902 he began the practice of law in Helena, but later gave it up “on the advice of [U.S. Senator] Carter.” After the 1903 World Series Thompson and his wife homesteaded in the Flathead Valley. In 1904 he again returned to baseball, pitching for the Pirates, the St. Louis Cardinals and other teams. His last year with professional baseball was 1909. When Thompson died in 1958, he was thought to be the last survivor of the first World Series.
24. Historically: First National Bank, built 1891; Currently: Wheeler Jewelry
139 Main Street
The First National Bank building is the oldest brick commercial building in Kalispell and may have been the first brick building in town. It was built in the fall of 1891 and the bank remained at this location until 1905. A pre-1905 sign reading FIRST NATIONAL BANK, painted on the rear of the building above the second-floor windows, is still visible from the alley.
25. Historically: Kalispell Drug Company, built 1908; Currently: Shorty’s
136 Main Street
M.F. McClung began excavation for this building in June of 1908, after the wood frame Parlor Café building was moved off Main Street. After the Kalispell Drug Company had moved into the new building, the “Kalispell Bee” described it as “all plate glass and mahogany and artistic turns.” A 1910 article described the business: “The interior fittings are all in curly birch, beautifully finished with a mahogany effect. A wealth of plate glass beveled mirrors, handsome
to the County Courthouse
special thanks to Cookie Davies, city of Kalispell, for this map
show cases with marble bases, and wall cases all in the same handsome design are features of the furnishings…. As pharmaceutical chemists and scientific prescription druggists, the company pays special attention to the accurate compounding of physicians’ prescriptions and a feature of the business is the handsome, new, sanitary soda fountain, where the purest of fruit juices are used for flavoring and courteous attendants are in charge.”
26. Historically: Eagle Shoe Company, built 1908; Currently: Rocky Mountain Outfitters 135 Main Street
The building was constructed between 1903 and 1910, and in approximately 1911 Tom Bogart and Arthur Hollensteiner traded their one-story brick building to the north for this one because they needed more space for their shoe store. The proprietors of Eagle Shoe had a good reputation from the beginning. The Inter Lake in 1893 commented about Bogart and Hollensteiner, “These boys are always courteous and obliging and have by dint of enterprise and fair dealing built up a considerable trade.” They did engage in some interesting marketing techniques. For example, in December of 1896, every 20th time the bell rang at the store a pair of shoes was given away. In 1904, the Kalispell Bee listed the Eagle Shoe Company as one of the Kalispell stores that employed only union members. According to Kalispell logger Glen Montgomery,
the Eagle Shoe Company had to replace their wood floors every other year because loggers’ caulked boots chewed them up so badly.
27. Historically: Jordan’s Café/Silver Dollar Saloon, built 1899-1903; Currently: Noice Studio 127 Main Street
The Hamm Brewing Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, had this building constructed in 1901. In 1907 Walter Jordan purchased the business and operated a saloon until 1919, when the Volstead Act establishing Prohibition was passed. Beginning in 1927, Minnie Jordan operated Jordan’s Café in the building for several decades.
The Jordan’s Café building has had rooms for rent on the second floor since it was built. In 1910, at least 16 single men were listed as living at this address. Their occupations ranged from bartender to logger, from house carpenter to bank cashier, from cigar maker to blacksmith.
The pressed metal façade was designed to imitate rock-faced coursed stone, with an egg-and-dart pattern along the sides, floral swags along the top, and pilasters surmounted by decorative metal pineapples.
28. Historically: Edwards Block, built 1899; Currently: Imagination Station, Flowers by Hansen, Elusive Image 124–132 Main Street
John Harrington Edwards was a prominent citizen of Kalispell in the 1890s and again in the 1920s. Born in New Hampshire in 1866, he came to Kalispell in 1891 and served as one of Kalispell’s first aldermen, a member of the first volunteer fire department, assistant secretary of the Kalispell Townsite Company and as a
member of the first city council. He married Mary Dixen in Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1893. Two years later she was reportedly the first white woman to visit Avalanche Lake in what later became Glacier National Park. Mrs. Edwards was prominent in church work and Kalispell society, and Mr. Edwards, according to the “Kalispell Bee” in 1905, was “the most prominent public benefactor Kalispell has had.” In July of 1899 Edwards announced that he would build a divided brick building…and by December tenants were moving into the two storefronts, even though the previous month the plate glass for the Edwards Block had been smashed at the Kalispell freight depot.
29. Historically: Brewery Saloon/The Palm, built 1892; Currently: Sassafras
120 Main Street
The Brewery Saloon/The Palm was constructed by Charles Lindlahr as a saloon associated with the Kalispell Malting & Brewing Company and later additions created room for the Kalispell Club (a men’s social club) and Kalispell’s first bowling alley. The Brewery Saloon started as a one-story, 25’ x 60’ brick structure built the spring of 1892. When
opened, the Inter Lake described it as “one of the neatest and best furnished bar rooms in the state,” with new oak furniture purchased from Brunswick & Balk Collender, manufacturer of bar fixtures. The saloon opened on June 30, 1892, before the brewery was constructed. The bar itself was oak with a mahogany bar top, and the saloon featured French mirrors and brass trimmings. An 1894 advertisement for the Brewery Saloon mentioned “Choice Wines, Liquor and Cigars, Kalispell draft beer on tap at 5 cents per glass. Free lunch served at the bar.” That same year the Lindlahr brothers installed two lights that were “more brilliant than day,” and by 1895 the saloon was connected to the brewery by telephone.
30. Historically: Hansen Cleaners, built 1910-1915; Currently: Caper’s Restaurant
121 Main Street
The building on this lot was originally two separate buildings. On the 1927 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, the one on the north was a shoe shine parlor; the one on the south was a barber shop. The lot was vacant until at least 1910, which was unusual for this part of Main Street.
31. Historically: The Brust Block Building, built 1928; Currently: The Stone Chair
115 Main Street
The Brust Block is a primary element of the Main Street Commercial Historic District because of its excellent historic integrity. It is one of the few examples of a late 1920s commercial building in Kalispell. Built in 1928 by contractor Henry Hansman for tailor
Reinholt Brust, the building remained in the Brust family until 1975. It replaced an 1891 building on that location that had been occupied over the years by a furniture store, saloon, insurance office, paint shop, cobbler’s shop, restaurant, and Brust’s tailor shop. In 1928, the ‘Kalispell Times’ commented that “The first consideration was splendid light, and the building was modeled for all other conveniences.”
32. Historically: The Duncan Block, built 1908; Currently: Overflowing Cup
111 Main Street
The original building on this lot was built in 1891 and housed a hardware store, furnished rooms, a confectionery and fruit store, a feed store, a bakery, a law office, and a photographer’s studio. That building and two others to the north were all destroyed by fire in 1902; the lot remained vacant until 1908. In April of 1908, Tyson Duncan let the contract to E.N. Lippincott to dig the foundation for his new two-story brick building on
his lot. One of the problems of construction was that a stream with collapsing banks flowed through the basement of the new building.
33. Historically: Kalispell Hotel, built 1911; Currently: Kalispell Grand Hotel
102 Main Street
The Kalispell Hotel was designed by Kalispell architect Marion Riffo and built by local contractor B. Brice Gilliland. In 1912 the hotel management installed a large flashing electric sign reading KALISPELL HOTEL on the roof of the hotel, angled to face the railroad depot. According to the Kalispell Journal, “It represents a beautiful arrangement of lights and will no doubt draw more night trade to the hotel than would a dozen spielers at the trains.” Rooms in the Kalispell Hotel were originally $2 per night. Nationally known Montana author, Frank Bird Linderman, leased and managed the hotel from 1924 until 1926 and was able to continue writing because of the profits from the sale of the hotel lease and furniture.
34. Historically: McIntosh Opera House, built 1896, 1903; Currently: Western Outdoor and Norm’s News
48 Main Street
John McIntosh built the McIntosh Opera House in 1896; he and a partner added the building to the north in 1903. The upper floor served Flathead Valley residents as an opera house (seating capacity 1,000), lodge meeting hall, ballroom, theater, roller skating rink, high school graduation auditorium, etc. One of the first shows was “Little Lord Fauntleroy.” The showing of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” had one of the largest audiences, drawing over 1100 people. Admission usually ranged from 50 cents to $1. Eugene Debs, labor leader and Socialist candidate for president, spoke at the Opera House in 1902. Inside the corner entrance of the building is a large, ornate back bar and bar set that was reportedly moved to a bar in Kalispell from Demersville in 1894. Today, the first floor is still used for retail space, but the upstairs has been vacant for a number of years.
35. Historically: Great Northern Railway Depot, built 1899, 1928; Currently: Kalispell Chamber of Commerce
15 Depot Loop
The Great Northern Railway Depot served transcontinental passengers from 1892 until 1904 when the main line of the railroad was relocated to go through Whitefish instead of Kalispell. Kalispell then was served by a branch line until the passenger train known as the “Gallopin’ Goose” made its last run from Columbia Falls to Kalispell in 1950. The Great Northern Railway erected a number of
other buildings and structures along the railroad tracks. In Kalispell these included a brick roundhouse, a water tank, a repair shop, a coal chute, a turntable, a section house, a tool house, an express room, a boarding house for Japanese workers, an ice house and an office building. These buildings no longer exist.
As part of a 1928 remodeling project, the depot’s brick walls were covered with stucco and the overhanging eaves were shortened by about four feet. The improvements made the Great Northern depot grounds “a show place rather than an eye-sore,” according to a local newspaper. The exterior appearance of the depot today is much the same at it looked in 1928.
36. Historically: Kalispell Monument Works, built 1911; Currently: The Emporium
71st Avenue East
The Kalispell Monument Works was built near the railroad tracks to allow for delivery of heavy materials to the rear of the building via a spur line.
A traveling crane carried the granite or other stone from the railroad car to any part of the work room or show room. The stock included monuments made of Barre (Vermont), Scottish, Swedish, Quincy (Massachusetts) and Monticello granites and also Vermont, Georgia, Italian, Colorado Yale and New York marbles.
37. Historically: Continental Oil Co. Gas Station, built ca. 1932; Currently: Ju Ju Bees
35 1st Avenue East
The Continental Oil company Filling Station is an excellent example of the “domestic” filling station popular in the 1920s and 1930s. The Tudor-style building was owned by the Continental Oil company until 1964.
The site was originally occupied by the West Hotel, long a landmark in Kalispell. Built in 1891 before the Great Northern Railway even reached the new town of Kalispell, the West Hotel was a three-story building strategically located just one block from the railroad depot. In fact, this corner location was considered “the exact center of activity” in the 1890’s.
In later years 1st Avenue East became the transportation corridor of Kalispell, lined at first with liveries and feed stables and blacksmiths, gradually shifting to bicycle repair shops, automobile repair shops, new and used car dealers, and filling stations supplying gasoline and oil to automobile travelers.
The lots to the north of the filling station have always been vacant. During the West Hotel era beginning in the 1890s, the grounds north of the hotel were flooded to create an ice skating rink.
38. Historically: Site of Northern Idaho & Montana Power Co., built 1910;
Currently: Centurytel
111 1st Avenue East
39. Historically: Liberty Theatre, built 1920;
Currently: Liberty Theatre
120 1st Avenue East
The Liberty Theatre was designed by Kalispell architect Marion Riffo in 1920 for Marius Anderson, who was involved in its management for many years. The Liberty Theatre opened on January 24, 1921, with a showing of the film “Humoresque” with music provided by a pipe organ. Just before opening night in 1921 the Kalispell Times reported that the
theater walls and decorations were painted in white, French gray and cloud tints, and the furniture and fittings were in green leather and plush. In 1929 the theater managers purchased “talkie” equipment that “sprayed” the theater with sound. The first movie with sound shown in the Liberty was “The Godless Girl.”
40. Historically: Anderson Theatre Co., built ca. 1948; Currently: 1st Ave E Cafe
128 1st Avenue East
41. Historically: Kalispell-American Laundry, built 1919; Currently: Kalispell Laundry
121 1st Avenue East
Laundries played an important role in early Kalispell because they provided two needed services: baths and clean clothes. In 1921 the laundry’s equipment included modern washers and “spinning baskets, ‘drying tumblers,’” steam-heated presses, large flat
work ironers for linens, collar finishing equipment, curtain dryers and conveyors for carrying the garments from one department to another.
42. Historically: Daily Inter Lake Building, built 1919; Currently: Digital Planet
131 1st Avenue East
This one-story commercial structure was constructed in 1919 to house the “Daily Inter Lake”, replacing a one-story wood frame building the newspaper had used since 1901 (the company previously had been located two doors to the north). The “Inter Lake” was founded as a weekly newspaper in Demersville by C.O. Ingalls in 1889. The newspaper, including the building and the printing machinery, was moved to Kalispell in 1891. Robert Goshorn was the publisher until 1913 and in 1907 the newspaper became a daily. It is still published daily in Kalispell. From approximately 1936 until 1939 insurance agent James Jorgensen, Jr. occupied the building. He had the front façade of the building remodeled to its present appearance during this period by Kalispell architect Fred Brinkman.
43. Built circa 1919; Currently: Designworks
133-137 1st Avenue East
44. Historically: Montana Hotel, built 1910;
Currently: The Montana Building
142 1st Avenue East
The original businesses on the 2nd Street East side of the Montana Hotel were a “metropolitan cigar store” and Hay’s Café. The latter, run by A.H. Hay, operated out of this building from 1910-1918 and again from 1929-1933.
Alfred H. Hay was a well-known restaurateur and businessman of the Flathead Valley. Born in China, he came to Missoula when 15 or 16 to join his uncle. Soon he began working as a cook in a private residence, where he was the “wonder of Missoula” for the dishes he prepared. Hay settled in the Flathead Valley in 1893, where he was best known for his Kalispell café and his Oriental goods store. For a number of years he also supervised the restaurants and some hotels along the railroad line from Essex, Montana to Seattle.
45. Historically: Central School, built 1894; Currently: The Museum at Central School
124 2nd Avenue East
Central School originally housed Kalispell’s high school and grade school. The building was designed by Great Falls architect William White and constructed entirely out of local materials for $20,000. As a contemporary newspaper commented, “The fact that all the building material used in the construction of this school house is produced at home speaks volumes for the Flathead County and will ever stand as a monument to the wealth of resources abounding here.”
Five teachers were hired for the 1894-95 school year and “the new building was so attractive that the enrollment was raised from 125 to nearly 200 pupils.” In 1900 Central School became one of the first county high schools in Montana, occupying two rooms on the second floor of this building. All Kalispell seventh and eighth grade students were moved into Central School during the 1929-30 school year, establishing the first junior high school in the area. In 1998, the City of Kalispell completed a $2.4 million renovation of the building as a history museum operated by the Northwest Montana Historical Society. The building is an excellent example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture. For hours call 406-756-8381.
46. Historically: Kalispell Mercantile Building, built 1892-1910; Currently: KM Building
200 1st Avenue East
The Missoula Mercantile (later renamed the Kalispell Mercantile) was one of the first businesses organized in northwest Montana and until it closed in 1980 it was one of the largest, most influential businesses in the Flathead Valley. Its customers relied on deliveries by wagon, train and later truck to receive their purchases, which could be anything from chinaware to heavy farm equipment. The KM Building is actually a complex of buildings and additions constructed between 1892 and 1910.
47. Historically: Bank of Commerce, built 1920; Currently: Kalispell City Hall
201 1st Avenue East
In 1920 a Chicago firm designed a new building for the Bank of Commerce on this corner with a Neoclassical façade. The interior of the bank featured marble walls, counters, partitions, and floor and oak woodwork. Similar bank buildings were constructed
in many Montana towns during this period. The building has been remodeled several times, and the historic façade is now hidden.
48. Historically: Ross Medical Clinic, built 1939; Currently: Attorneys Johnson, Berg, McEvoy & Bostock
221 1st Avenue East
This lot was originally occupied by a blacksmith and wagon shop that was built in 1894. Designed by Kalispell architect Fred Brinkman, the existing building first housed the offices of Dr. Fayette B. Ross, Dr. J.R. DeLaney, and Dr. John Roche, a dentist. The Ross Medical Clinic was constructed so that a second story could be added at a later date and in 1986 a second floor was added under the direction of Brinkman & Lenon. It appears that this building was designed intentionally to coordinate with the earlier and adjacent Federal Building as the same brick and window styles appear on both.
49. Historically: Federal Building, built 1917; Currently: Flathead County Library
247 1st Avenue East
For many years this Colonial Revival-style building housed the offices of the U.S. Post Office, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Land Office and the U.S. Weather Bureau. It thus represents in physical form
the strong influence of the federal government on the Flathead Valley. The U.S. Forest Service, in particular, has had a very significant role in the development of the Flathead Valley because of its management of millions of acres of public land. The original flooring of the Post Office was yellow pine. The Kalispell Times commented in 1917 that “We think a good deal of vertical grain Oregon fir flooring in this section but the treasury architect hails from south of the Mason and Dixon line.”
50. Historically: Conrad Mansion, built 1895
300 Block of Woodland Avenue – corner of 4th Street East and Woodland Avenue
The Shingle-style Conrad Mansion was built for one of the founders of the Kalispell Townsite Company and the Conrad National Bank, Charles E. Conrad, and it remained in his family until 1975. Spokane architect Kirkland Cutter designed this large house and since its construction it has been a focal point of the east side residential area. Both the exterior and the interior of the gracious three-story house have been restored and the house contains turn-of-the-century furniture, toys and clothing. The house museum is described as the “most authentic pre-1900 Mansion in the Pacific Northwest” and guests experience local history by stepping back into a by-gone era. Guided tours of the Mansion are available on the hour from 10 am to 4 pm Tuesday thru Sunday from mid-May through mid-October and holiday tours are available from Thanksgiving until December 30th. For special events or more history go to www.conradmansion.com or 406-755-2166. Admission charged.
Thank you...
BRET BOUDA, PHOTOGRAPHER
FLATHEAD CONVENTION & VISITOR BUREAU
KALISPELL BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
NORTHWEST MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
HISTORY IS POSH
MUSEUM OF THE ROCKIES
KALISPELL DOWNTOWN ASSOCIATION
Printed in Flathead County, Montana for free distribution
Alternative accessible formats of this document will be provided upon request.
Walking Tour map is in the center of this brochure.
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Congratulations to our top doodlers this week!
Well done to:
Amanda (Year 1) for topping the progress board in Doodle Maths.
Well done to:
Sumaya (Year 1), Katie (Year 3) and Ayman (Year 4) for topping the progress board in Doodle English.
Well done to:
Yujiro (Year 2), Katie (Year 3), Bilaal (Year 4), Abdi & Valentino (Year 5) and Patryk (Year 6) for being awarded the most stars in Doodle Times Tables.
Well done to:
Sumaya & Jenna (Year 1), Taiba (Year 3), Hidayah (Year 4) and Ahmed & Patryk (Year 6) for topping the progress board in Doodle Spell.
Remember – little and often is the best way to make progress. Aim for just 5 – 10 minutes every day. Consistency is key.
WRITE THAT ESSAY
Congratulations to our top write that essay pupils.
Well done to:
Year 3: Rocky and Malak
Year 4: Nicole and Bruke
Year 5: Anay and Abdirahman
Year 6: Logan and Casey
## Stars of the week
### Resilience
| Class | Star(s) of the week | Description |
|---------|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Rothko | Aria | For trying your best at forming letters correctly. I love that you keep trying and never give up. Well done, Aria! |
| Mondrian| Aurora | Aurora is a resilient and confident learner. She often works independently and she perseveres when tackling something challenging. Well done Aurora! |
| Matisse | Kirubel | Kirubel is a determined and resilient learner. When he finds something difficult, Kirubel will keep on trying. He works well with others and encourages everyone to be resilient! |
| Picasso | Tiannah | Tiannah has shown amazing resilience in all her learning, every day, but particularly in Maths. In this subject she has shown to persevere when working out very tricky problems and not giving up until she gets it right. Well done Tiannah. |
| Blake | Oliver | Oliver faces every challenge with resilience. If he ever makes a mistake or needs help, he never dwells on it, he always looks to improve and make it better. He has an amazingly resilient attitude! |
| Shonibare| Valentino | Valentino has shown such determination and resilience in his class work. If he ever needs help, he is quick to ask his peers and adults rather than sitting and dwelling on the problem. Well done Valentino. |
| Riley | Shuayab | I am so proud of the way you have shown resilience this week. I have been beyond impressed with the mature and thoughtful way you have approached school this week. Thank you for growing and maturing each day! |
## Attendance and Punctuality
| CLASS | W/C 31.01.22 | WEEKLY ATTENDANCE % | WEEKLY NUMBER OF LATES |
|-------------|--------------|---------------------|------------------------|
| RECEPTION ROTHKO | 92.00% | | 0 |
| 1 MONDRIAN | 93.81% | | 4 |
| 2 MATISSE | 95.19% | | 2 |
| 3 PICASSO | 98.41% | | 1 |
| 4 BLAKE | 95.17% | | 1 |
| 5 SHONIBARE | 79.78% | | 3 |
| 6 RILEY | 92.31% | | 3 |
Lunch Menu week beginning 7th February 2022
A selection of vegetables are available each day.
| | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| Meat | Veggie meatballs with a mediterranean tomato sauce and fluffy cous cous | Traditional toad in the hole with gravy | Roast chicken with stuffing, roast potatoes and gravy | Mild piri piri chicken and lentil bake served with mixed rice | Fish and chips |
| Veg | | Veggie toad in hole with gravy | Quorn roast with stuffing, roast potatoes and gravy | Sticky barbecue vegetables and noodles | Mozzarella and fresh tomato melt with chips |
| Halal | | Traditional halal chicken toad in the hole with gravy | Spicy halal chicken breast with stuffing, roast potatoes and gravy | Mild piri piri halal chicken and lentil bake served with mixed rice | |
| Jacket Potato | Jacket potato with beans and cheese | Jacket potato with beans, cheese or tuna | Jacket potato with beans, cheese or tuna | Jacket potato with beans, cheese or tuna | Jacket potato with beans, cheese or tuna |
| Dessert | Frozen toffee yogurt | Carrot cake cookie | Jelly | Chocolate shortbread with apple smiles | Lemon and courgette slice |
Our Hogarth value this week is resilience, and in Mondrian class we have been discussing how we can be resilient during lessons by learning from our mistakes and persevering through challenges.
During story time we have listened to some beautiful stories with powerful messages. We spoke about the characters in these stories and how they showed compassion, kindness and resilience through their actions.
In Computing we have been using the Bee-Bots, together identifying what each command does and using our knowledge to predict the outcome of programs. This week we have used left and right commands as well as forwards and backwards commands. We have worked as a group to try and predict the outcome of our sequences.
Year 4
What a great half term it has been so far in year 4. Everyone has put so much effort into their learning and is progressing so well!
This half-term we have had some amazing opportunities to be active and creative. We are very lucky to have Duke’s Meadow tennis coaches delivering tennis sessions every week. Also, everyone has taken part in creating Anglo-Saxon houses in art too.
Tennis coaching sessions by Duke’s
Our Anglo-Saxon houses are really taking shape now!
Nursery Open Days
If your child was born between 1st September 2018 and 31st August 2019 and would like to book onto one of our open days below please contact the school office on 020 8994 4782 or email firstname.lastname@example.org.
You can take up a free part time place (15 hours) or full time if you qualify for a 30 hour code https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/. If you do not qualify for the funded full time place you can pay for these additional sessions.
The closing date for nursery applications is 6th May 2022.
Please see below our open days
Tuesday 22nd Feb 10am
Monday 7th March 2pm
Tuesday 29th March 2pm
Wednesday 20th April 10am
Tuesday 3rd May 10am
Second Hand Uniform Request
As we are coming to the half term you may be thinking about replacing some of your child's school uniform ready for Spring 2. Please remember that the school would be very grateful to receive any old uniform or PE kits that are in good condition. We would also be glad to receive any dark blue or black tracksuits without the school logo that could used by children in PE lessons.
Thank you very much!
Miss Rees
Uniformd – second hand uniform
Running this online business is such an incredible opportunity for the children, helping them to develop a range of real-life skills including building financial literacy – all whilst supporting recycling. I would definitely encourage you to have a look at the Eco-Committee’s online marketplace and take on board their message of “Relove your stuff!”
The online shop can be found by heading to https://app.uniformd.co.uk/items/40
The online shop forms part of the Eco-Committee’s strategy and action plan in working towards the internationally recognised Green Flag Award – I know you will be keen to support the children, especially as all funds raised are targeted towards improving the school playground.
As young entrepreneurs, we have the following aims:
• To help families by recycling good quality uniform items at competitive prices
• To reduce the amount of clothing ending up in landfill
• To raise funds to improve our school
• To help families by keeping homes clutter free of outgrown items
• To learn about money and running a business
• To engage children in school development
Parent message from Hounslow Public Health Team
Schools are struggling with staff absenteeism due to covid and winter illnesses
Help classes to stay open
Don’t send your child to school if they are unwell
London Borough of Hounslow
GET WINTER READY!
Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha
COVID-19 VACCINATION
WALK IN CLINIC
Alice Way, Hounslow, TW3 3UA
TUESDAY 8TH FEBRUARY 2022
Walk-in between
12 – 3pm and from 3.30 – 6pm
Offering
First and Second Doses (16+),
Booster Doses anyone (18+) at 3 months after 2nd dose
No appointment needed.
Please bring your NHS Number if you have one.
visit: hounslow.gov.uk/get-winter-ready
Hounslow Jamia Masjid & Islamic Centre
COVID-19 VACCINATION
WALK IN CLINIC
367 Wellington Road South, Hounslow, TW4 5HU
THURSDAY 10TH FEBRUARY 2022
Walk-in between
1pm – 4pm and from 4.30 – 7pm
Offering
First and Second Doses (16+),
Booster Doses anyone (18+) at 3 months after 2nd dose
No appointment needed.
Please bring your NHS Number if you have one.
visit: hounslow.gov.uk/get-winter-ready
SHOP & SUPPORT
You can raise free donations to the school, without costing you a penny! Major retailers can donate to our school while you do your usual online shopping. The Friends of William Hogarth is registered as a charity in both AmazonSmile and EasyFundraising.
Here is how it works:
1. Sign Up
Head to https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/williamhogarthschool/. Add to your browser to never miss an opportunity to donate.
2. Shop
There are over 4,000 retailers on board who donate.
3. Support
After you’ve made your purchase, the retailer will make a donation to the school at no extra cost.
smile.amazon.co.uk
You shop. Amazon gives.
Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your purchases to the charitable organization of your choice.
AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service.
Support the school by starting your shopping at smile.amazon.co.uk (instead of Amazon.co.uk), search for The William Hogarth School and add it as your charity. Donations will be automatically made.
Rock Steady
Would your child like to play in their very own rock band?
Rocksteady in-school band lessons are the perfect opportunity for your child to learn new skills, develop friendships and have the time of their life.
Watch this short video to see what learning in a band could do for your child’s well-being: https://www.rocksteadymusicschool.com/watch-video/
Make 2022 The Year of Creative Confidence For Your Child
STAGECOACH PERFORMING ARTS CHISWICK
Every Friday & Saturday at The William Hogarth School
Dear Parent/Carer,
At Stagecoach we teach children how to sing, dance and act, not only to perform on stage and beyond, but more importantly to perform better in life.
For over 30 years Stagecoach has seen young people gain confidence, stretch themselves and build essential life skills whilst learning the tools to sing, dance and act and most have fun! I have personally been running my schools for 22 years in Chiswick (21yrs of those at The William Hogarth School) and witnessed thousands of young people grow and flourish in life. Our schools really do make a difference!
If you are interested in joining our exceptional performing schools then come along and see how much your child can gain through Stagecoach. No experience necessary. All staff members are trained and DBS checked with up to date safeguarding training.
Students are taught in small groups with children of their own age. They will participate in three fun classes of Singing, Dancing and Acting where they will learn the following skills:
Acting, Singing, Dancing, Voice Projection, Stage Craft, Improvisation, Choreography, Memory Training, Presentation Skills, Personal Development, Character Development, Building Confidence, Learning Life Skills (not just for the stage)
Main Schools: Fridays 4.30-7.30 and Saturdays 10.00-1.00 and 2.30-5.30 for 6-16yrs
Early Stages: Fridays 4.30-6.00 and Saturdays 9.30-11.00, 11.30-1.00 & 2.00-3.30 for 4-6yrs
We very much look forward to welcoming your child/ren to Stagecoach.
Kind regards,
Sally
Limited Places Available for 2 week trials £25/£50
Students are enrolled on a first come, first served basis.
For further details and to book your place on our ‘2 week trial’ go straight to book on our website
https://www.stagecoach.co.uk/chiswick
Term and Holiday Dates 21/22
**Autumn 2021/22**
**INSET:** Weds 1st Sept, Thurs 2nd Sept, Fri 3rd Sept
**Pupils return:** Monday 6th September – Friday 17th December
**Half term:** Monday 25th October – Friday 29th October
**Christmas holidays:** Monday 20th December – Monday 3rd January
**Spring Term 2021/22**
**Pupils return:** Tuesday 4th January – Friday 1st April
**Half term:** Monday 14th February – Friday 18th February
**Easter holiday:** Monday 4th April – Monday 18th April
**Summer Term 2021/22**
**Pupils return:** Tuesday 19th April – Wednesday 20th July
**May Day:** Monday 2nd May
**Spring Bank Holiday:** Monday 30th May
**Half term:** Monday 30th May – Friday 3rd June
**INSET:** Monday 6th June & Thursday 21st July
**INSET Days: (NO SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN)**
Wednesday 1st September 2021
Thursday 2nd September 2021
Friday 3rd September 2021
Monday 6th June 2022
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Framing Active Teaching and Learning in CAPS
Rob O'Donoghue
Framing
Active Teaching and Learning in CAPS
KNOWLEDGE, TEACHING and ASSESSMENT for a whole school approach to environment and sustainability education
In 2010 the South African curriculum was revised again and a new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) was developed. This new policy statement has brought a few important changes into the schooling landscape. There is a new emphasis on content knowledge, and the pacing and sequencing of the curriculum is much more structured. There is still a commitment to active learning in the curriculum, and most interestingly, there is a strong commitment to environmental content in a number of subjects. Environmental content knowledge has always been important for processes of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and what is exciting about the new CAPS curriculum is that this knowledge can now be ‘brought out’ to develop lessons with an environmental and sustainability focus.
This booklet has been developed for teacher educators. It provides them with a simple structure to think through the learning processes associated with a content referenced curriculum. In particular, it suggests that we need to start with literacy of learners, as this helps them to access the content that they are to learn. It also suggests that there is a need for a balanced approach and for knowledgeable teachers to mediate learning. It is therefore a framework that helps us all to think through how to approach a content rich curriculum. It can help teacher educators to orient teachers to the new curriculum and how it is constructed, but more importantly, it aims to share how we can teach well within the new curriculum framework.
The booklet aims to provide support for teacher educators in the Fundisa for Change programme. This is a partnership programme that supports transformative environmental learning through teacher education.
**VERSION 1 – June 2013**
**Reference:**
O'Donoghue, R. 2013. *Framing Active Teaching and Learning in CAPS*. Fundisa for Change Programme. Environmental Learning Research Centre, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, and GIZ Expert Net.
ISBN 978-1-919991-97-9
Printed copies can be ordered from:
Share-Net
P.O. Box 394, Howick, 3290
Tel. 033-330 3931
firstname.lastname@example.org
**Copyright:**
This resource can be reproduced and adapted for research and educational purposes that are not-for-profit, provided the author (Rob O'Donoghue) and the publisher (Fundisa for Change Programme) are duly acknowledged.
## Contents
### A CAPS+ ESD Curriculum in Context
1. **A CAPS+ approach**
2
2. **CAPS principles to bring out ESD**
4
3. **Human social-ecological contexts**
6
### Knowledge, Teaching and Assessment
4. **A balanced approach**
8
5. **A knowledgeable teacher mediating learning**
10
6. **Assessing knowledge and skills progression**
12
7. **CAPS assessment of knowledge and skills**
14
### Framework of Open Processes and Progression
8. **Key words for reading-to-learn (knowledge) start-up**
16
9. **Finding out and doing more**
18
10. **Synthesis and application of knowledge / skills**
20
### Planning CAPS+ Teaching and Assessment
11. **CAPS and ESD lesson planning**
22
12. **T-sheet: Knowledge and assessment planning**
24
---
**HOW THIS BOOKLET WORKS**
Numbers shown like this (1) throughout the booklet correspond with the numbers in the inserted framework diagram. As you work through the pages of the booklet you should build up an understanding that can be consolidated into the framework diagram.
A CAPS+ approach
- The curriculum stipulates minimum standards so we should always teach to CAPS+.
- Environment is already in and across the curriculum as topics that lend themselves to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
- ESD is thus a matter of taking up and bringing out an environment and sustainability focus.
- We need a whole school approach for relevance and to overcome the fragmented nature of a topic-centred curriculum.
- The Fundisa for Change programme takes a CAPS+ approach and focuses on enhancing three essential aspects of teaching:
- Knowing your subject,
- Improving your teaching practice, and
- Improving your assessment practice.
content knowledge
teaching practice
assessment practice
2 CAPS Principles to bring out ESD
7 CAPS Principles
- Social transformation
- Active and critical thinking
- High knowledge and high skills
- Progression
- Human rights, inclusivity, environmental and social justice
- Valuing indigenous knowledge systems
- Credibility, quality and efficiency
CAPS topics and assessment
3 Pillars of ESD
- Social
- Economic
- Environment
Social justice
Health
Risk and change
Sustainability
Change practices
The CAPS curriculum encourages the teaching for the mediated acquisition of knowledge interactions like
- listening and reading-to-learn (8) what is known towards
- more independent enquiry (9) to find out more for
- learning-by-doing (9) by trying out ideas and
- deliberating (10) what is best,
all of which are assessed to foster and mediate social learning processes that shape the competence for living in a changing world.
Our experienced world is twofold in character… a world independent of, but including ourselves, and a world mediated for our understanding by a web of human-made symbolic representations, predetermined by their natural constitution, which materializes only with the help of processes of social learning.
— Elias, 2012
Approaches to education can shift between an emphasis on teaching to foster knowledge acquisition and learning through participation to construct knowledge.
Sfard (1998) argues that it is not a matter of one or the other, but working with both and dealing with tensions between them.
CAPS as a swing back to content knowledge should not be at the expense of a concern for active participation in the construction of meaning.
Participation with Acquisition
(Sfard, 1998)
A knowledgeable teacher mediating learning
Teachers need to be knowledgeable about:
- What is known and understood in a particular subject or on a particular topic
- How students participate in learning to develop skills and an understanding of concepts and topics
- Valued doing and knowing that has relevance in context and for continuing learning.
Here our knowledge is necessarily incomplete in times of change when we are all engaged in developing the competence to realise more just and sustainable futures in a changing world of and at risk.
Participation
with
Acquisition
Are there relevant applications?
Are grasp and skills being developed?
What is known and understood now?
Assessing knowledge and skills progression
All of these dimensions of teaching and learning can be assessed in diverse ways:
- **Knowledge**: What is known and remembered by students (CAPS assessment)
- **Action / awareness**: The understanding and application acquired through participation in learning
- **Synthesis / innovation**: An emerging capacity to work with knowledge and skills of analysis, evaluation and innovation.
These can be specified as competences for producing and living in a more sustainable environment (Adombent and Hoffmann, 2013).
What is known and understood now?
Acquisition
(knowing and remembering)
knowledge
Are grasp and skills being developed?
Participation
(understanding and applying)
action / awareness
Are there relevant applications?
synthesis / innovation
(analysis, evaluation and innovation)
The assessment of knowledge, skills and the application of knowledge and reasoning can be undertaken in diverse ways from those that simply measure:
- Knowledge and concepts,
- Evidence of application and understanding, and
- Higher order skills of analysis, evaluation and innovation.
In ESD this teaching and learning progression builds competences and a capability to act with others in a developing context of risk and change.
Assignments, case studies and projects
(can report / expand / apply to find answers)
analysis, evaluation and innovation
Activities, translation tasks and practical tasks
(can do things to answer questions)
understanding and applying
Tests and exams
(can answer questions)
knowing and remembering
Key words for reading-to-learn (knowledge) start-up
Learning is both made possible and unlocked with key words (concepts). Work with texts (listening, reading and writing) is thus central to all learning interactions, for example:
- Learning to read and decode key words;
- Reading to learn about what is known;
- Learning to answer and ask questions; along with
- Writing to read and ongoing reading to write.
Key words and easy reading texts on new topics are thus a key part of acquiring the foundational knowledge necessary for participation in further learning that is relevant.
Situated work with **key words** and start-up **reading-to-learn** texts for teaching in context
- Keywords to access knowledge
- Easy reading knowledge resources
- Comprehension and open questions
- Participation in social learning and action
Prior knowledge and experience is one of the most important prerequisites for more independent and group learning by:
- Enquiry activities to find out more; or
- Practical work to try out and understand new ideas more deeply.
Without knowledge and skill there is little prospect of the application of what is known or the pulling together of key ideas for further, more in-depth learning.
Finding out more
&
Trying out new ideas
Enquiry / investigations to find out more
Synthesis / application
Knowledge-based learning-by-doing
Finally, the higher order skills of
- debating and deliberating around what is known and
- making decisions to try out creative ideas towards better ways of doing things
are important, so as to reduce emerging issues and risk.
Here, application and synthesis are central to any learning journey.
Deliberate learning and better ways of doing things
Report, clarify, debate and decide together
A CAPS perspective on ESD has knowledgeable teachers teaching with a knowledge and assessment specified curriculum. Here the planning and mediating learning has
- knowledge;
- pedagogy; and
- assessment interacting
to provide quality education that enables equity and valued freedoms towards more sustainable livelihoods (ESD). The challenge is to work with the curriculum specifications in enabling ways that bring out ESD.
How can we work with CAPS in additive ways that bring out ESD learning-to-change?
FIND OUT (Summarise knowledge)
(keywords and concepts in...)
- what the curriculum requires;
- what I already know; and
- what is known and could be read by the learners, whilst, at the same time ‘knowing what we don’t yet know’ but can strive to find out and realise together;
and
consider possible learning-to-change practices towards realising this shared moral imperative.
WORK OUT (Practice)
Why do we do things in particular ways?
WORK OUT (Plan learning)
From what learners already know:
8 what reading;
9 writing; and
activities
will enable understanding and deliberative synthesis/application? 10
7 ASSESSMENT (knowledge, skills valuing)
- What is known and can be remembered?
- What is understood and can be explained?
- What analysis, evaluation and innovation of how things can be done better is included?
CAPS topic:
FIND OUT (Knowledge)
What I know and can find out
(Use this blank template to develop your own lesson plan)
WORK OUT (Practice)
Why do we do things in particular ways?
ASSESSMENT
CAPS knowledge, teaching and social-ecological context
1. Keywords to access knowledge
2. Easy reading knowledge resources
3. Comprehension and open questions
4. Situated work with key words and start-up reading-to-learn texts for teaching in context
5. What is known and understood now?
6. Knowledge acquisition (knowing and remembering)
7. Action/awareness (understanding and doing)
8. Trying out new ideas
9. Finding new meanings
10. Enquiry / investigation to find out more
www.fundisaforchange.org
Learning and assessment in contexts of learning-to-change
**Participation**
(Sfard, 1998)
- **Investigations**
- **Exploring out**
- **Discussing &**
- **Testing out**
- **Change-based**
- **Awareness**
- **Synthesis/innovation**
**with assessment**
- assignments, case studies and projects
- activities, translation tasks and practical tasks
- tests and exams
environment * society * science * sustainability
Adombent, M. and Hoffmann, T., 2013. The concept of competencies in the context of Education for Sustainable Development. www.ESD-Expert Net, March 2013.
Elias, N., 2012. *The Symbol Theory*. Dublin, UCD Press.
Sfard, A., 1998. On two metaphors of learning and the dangers of choosing just one. *Educational Researcher*, March 1998 Volume 27 Number 2 pp. 4-13.
A partnership programme for environmental learning and teacher education
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We are here today to fulfill an obligation – to our church, to our students, and to the children and youth of our parishes.
Because we are all involved in the work of the church, we are obligated to participate in a Safe Environment Training program.
“…we re-affirm our deep commitment to creating a safe environment within the Church for children and youth.”
(USCCB Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People 2011)
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has the responsibility to create and maintain a safe environment within the Church for children and youth.
Churches, schools and youth organizations must ensure that children and youth who worship, study or participate in activities sponsored by a parish can do so in the safest and most secure setting possible.
Parents and caretakers have the right to ask these institutions if they meet the requirements of the *Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People* before they allow their children to become involved with them.
**No one has the right to have access to children**
If people wish to volunteer for the church, for example, in a parish or school, they must follow Archieparchial guidelines on background checks, safe environment training, policies and procedures, and codes of conduct. **No one, no matter who they are**, has an automatic right to be around children or young people who are in the care of the church without proper screening and without following the rules.
“Dioceses/eparchies are to maintain ‘Safe Environment’ programs … conducted cooperatively with parents, civil authorities, educators and community organizations to provide education and training for children, youth, parents, ministers, educators, volunteers, and others about ways to make and maintain a safe environment for children and young people.”
(USCCB Charter 2011)
An effective safe environment program will have the following components:
1. A code of conduct for clergy and for any other paid personnel and volunteers in positions of trust who have regular contact with children and young people.
2. Training for all adults who work with children that consists of:
- Signs an adult may see in a child who is abused
- Signs an adult may see in a person who abuses children
- What actions an adult should take when they believe child abuse of any kind may be occurring
3. A training program for children that includes age appropriate materials pertaining to personal safety that conforms to Catholic teachings
Following the disclosure of sexual abuse of children and young people by some clergy and church personnel, the USCCB in 2002 wrote the *Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People*. It required each diocese/eparchy to write and follow a policy that will ensure the safety of children and youth.
The *Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People* is a comprehensive set of procedures established by the USCCB in June 2002 for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. The *Charter* also includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability, and prevention of future acts of abuse.
The document is available to download in PDF format on the USCCB website (www.usccb.org).
**How is compliance with the Charter monitored?**
In June 2003, the Office of Child and Youth Protection began an audit process of all dioceses and eparchies throughout the United States. The audit is used to determine if the diocese is implementing the practices required by the *Charter*.
The Archeparchy of Pittsburgh is audited annually with every third year being an on-site audit.
Archieparchial Response
- In 2003 the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh published its Policy on Sexual Misconduct. This policy was most recently revised in 2014 and will be reviewed every three years.
- In 2003 the Archeparchy began conducting criminal and child abuse background checks on church personnel. These clearances are renewed every five years and kept on file at the Chancery.
- The Archeparchy is audited annually to determine its compliance with the Charter. It has been found to be in compliance every year.
- In 2005 and 2013 the Office of Religious Education produced programs which provide faith-based safe environment lessons for children and youth in K-8th grades.
- In 2005 the Archeparchy’s Safe Environment Education Training Program was created and updated several times, most recently in 2016. This training program is mandatory for all clergy, religious, seminarians, employees, staff, catechists and volunteers of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh.
The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh has ongoing Safe Environment policies and programs:
- Training – mandatory for all and a refresher course must be taken every 5 years
- Background checks – must be renewed every 5 years
- Code of Conduct – must be signed and agreed to by all
- Lesson Plans for ECF classes – required annually, documentation is kept at the chancery
- Annual Audits – The Archeparchy has been in compliance with all requirements every year
The Sexual Misconduct Policy of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh is available on the Archeparchy’s website. (www.archpitt.org/protection-of-children)
The Extent of Abuse
- 16,321 Total credible accusations in which the date of abuse is known through 2013
Although widely believed to be a significant ongoing problem, **most abuse occurred between 1960 and 1984 (74.6%)**; after that year the numbers dropped substantially and remain low:
**7.4% of abuse took place after 1990**
- 217 New cases reported that occurred from 2004 to the present – 2013 (1.3%)
*Nevertheless, every case of sexual abuse is a tragedy*
Source: 2014 USCCB Webinar on Resources for Prevention of Sexual Abuse
Presented by Sr. Katarina Schuth, O.S.F., Ph.D.
Audits
Faced with the crisis of child sexual abuse by clerics that dramatically came to light in 2002, the church set up an aggressive safe environment program that is the envy of other organizations that work with children. From the annual audits, we can say the Catholic Church in the United States:
- Trained 98% of our two million volunteers, employees, educators, clergy, and candidates in parishes in how to create safe environments and prevent child sexual abuse.
- Prepared more than 4.4 million children to recognize abuse and protect themselves.
- Ran background checks on close to two million volunteers and employees, 51,314 clerics and 6,568 candidates for ordination
Thanks to these efforts, in part, the Church has witnessed significant decreases in allegations and substantiated instances of abuse since the peak of reports in 2002. It is clear that dioceses have made great advances in creating safe environments for children. Each year, the annual audits prove this to be true.
Ongoing Concerns about Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse is a dynamic issue, an ongoing problem; the harm of even one case is not to be underestimated.
“The problem of sexual abuse has not been fixed”
- Potential rise in abuse may be related to pornography, which is a potential predictor of abuse; it is done in privacy and more difficult to identify.
- Objectification of the person, such as use of children in pornographic materials, is not victimless.
Source: 2014 USCCB Webinar on Resources for Prevention of Sexual Abuse
Presented by Sr. Katarina Schuth, O.S.F., Ph.D.
While progress has been made, dioceses must avoid the mindset that takes hold of many organizations that achieve success: complacency. When organizations do well, their success sometimes breeds overconfidence.
This type of attitude is dangerous because it makes organizations believe that nothing unexpected could happen and think that even if it does, they are fully prepared to respond. The issues that have arisen in some dioceses show that this is not true – the unexpected can occur at any time.
Child sexual abuse can be prevented
Awareness that child sexual abuse exists and can exist anywhere is a start. It is then critical to build safety barriers around children and young people to keep them from harm. These barriers come in the form of:
- protective guardians,
- codes of conduct,
- background evaluations,
- policies and procedures, and
- safety training programs.
Steps in Developing Responses
Transparency requires that the whole church community be engaged at all levels, including laity and clergy, in order to maintain vigilance in the prevention of the abuse of children.
Decreased rates of clergy sexual abuse do not mean that less vigilance is acceptable since new forms of abuse, such as internet relationships and pornography, are steadily increasing.
To prevent sexual abuse, don’t let the guard down.
Source: 2014 USCCB Webinar on Resources for Prevention of Sexual Abuse
Presented by Sr. Katarina Schuth, O.S.F., Ph.D.
Why do I have to be trained? I did not do anything wrong, this is a clergy problem.
Child sexual abuse is a widespread societal problem, not a Catholic clergy problem. The more people who are trained to recognize the warning signs of an offender, the safer our children are.
In the aftermath of the clergy scandal, the Charter requires the Church to train both adults and children to prevent child sexual abuse. This is not because the Church thinks all adults are the problem. It is because the solution to preventing child sexual abuse depends on caring adults knowing what to do.
How long will our diocese/eparchy need to do safe environment training?
Dioceses should consider the creation of safe environment programs and preventing child sexual abuse as something we do as part of who we are as the Church.
Dioceses and eparchies have been required to meet Safe Environment expectations since 2003 and should plan on meeting those expectations for the foreseeable future.
Everyone has a part to play
- We are here today as a parish family to learn how we can help to ensure that our children and youth are happy and safe in their daily activities.
- Everyone needs to be alert to warning signs that abuse may be occurring and to be ready if necessary to speak to a person in authority about it.
Prevention…it’s all about the children!
In the years since the first *Charter* was established by the USCCB, there has been much debate about the education of children in abuse prevention and personal safety. The debate looks at whether or not education by the Church contributes significantly to the safety, well-being, and spiritual growth of our children.
Children need to hear consistent messages
- that they are deserving of dignity and respect;
- that God and the Church want them to be safe and involved in right relationships;
- that we want to help them if a relationship isn't right.
Such messages can help children retain their faith in the face of disappointing or even devastating behavior of an adult.
The more adults they encounter who model right relationships, the less likely they are to generalize an experience of abuse.
Communicating to children as Church helps to build safe, stable, nurturing relationships with adults, building children's resiliency in the face of adversity.
Let us be attentive.
**Duty to Live in the Light.** Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient. So do not be associated with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says:
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”
Ephesians 5:6-14
Let us pray.
A Faith-Based Perspective
God created the human person as good and holy
God loves people and wants them to be safe and feel secure
Every person has the right and responsibility to care for themselves
Words and touch can be loving or harmful
God wants people to make loving choices
Love is experienced in the context of a family and community of faith
Children can learn to distinguish between persons who provide a genuine sense of safety and those who want to sexually abuse them through trickery
Children can learn to distinguish between loving and harmful words and touch
Children can learn how to protect themselves from sexual abuse
We have all been created in the image and likeness of God, as we read in the Book of Genesis.
In striving to make our churches a safe environment for children, we must maintain a positive approach and attitude.
We want our children to learn about loving relationships by witnessing and experiencing them within the church.
Our objective, then, is to do everything we can to provide a loving and safe environment.
In response to studies conducted on behalf of the USCCB, a new initiative – “Building a Culture of Safety” will help create a system of mindfulness, and establish even safer environments in parishes and schools.
Mindfulness – is described as the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.
How can we, as churches of the Archearchy of Pittsburgh, become more mindful of creating a safe environment for children and youth? This is a question we will continue to explore in the coming months and years.
The Child Protective Services Law (CPSL) defines a child as an individual under 18 years of age.
The law considers both an act of harm to a child and the failure to act to prevent harm to a child when defining an act of child abuse.
An Act is something that is done to harm or cause potential harm to a child.
A Failure to Act is something that is not done to prevent harm or potential harm to a child.
A Perpetrator could be one of many people in the life of a child. We will discuss this in further detail a little later in the presentation.
There are four nationally recognized categories of Child Abuse:
- Physical
- Sexual
- Mental
- Neglect
It may be violent or non-violent.
It may involve touching or non-touching behavior.
Child abuse, according to the Child Protective Services Law, means intentionally, knowingly or recklessly doing any of the following through any (recent) act or failure to act:
- Causing bodily injury to a child
- Fabricating, feigning or intentionally exaggerating or inducing a medical symptom or disease which results in a potentially harmful medical evaluation or treatment to the child
- Causing or substantially contributing to serious mental injury to a child
- Causing sexual abuse or exploitation of a child
- Creating a reasonable likelihood of bodily injury to a child
- Creating a likelihood of sexual abuse or exploitation of a child
- Causing serious physical neglect of a child
- Causing the death of the child
- **Physical** – hitting, shaking, pinching, hair-pulling, biting, choking, throwing, paddling.
- **Sexual** – any sexual act between an adult and a minor, the showing of pornography.
- **Mental** – name-calling, telling children they are bad, worthless, or a mistake, withholding affection and support.
- **Neglect** – failure to supervise a child, failing to provide a child with adequate essential food, clothing, shelter or medical care.
Child abuse also includes certain acts in which the act itself constitutes abuse without any resulting injury or condition. These recent acts include any of the following:
• Kicking, biting, throwing, burning, stabbing or cutting a child in a manner that endangers the child.
• Unreasonably restraining or confining a child, based on consideration of the method, location or the duration of the restraint or confinement.
• Forcefully shaking a child under one year of age.
• Forcefully slapping or otherwise striking a child under one year of age.
• Interfering with the breathing of a child.
• Causing a child to be present during the operation of a methamphetamine laboratory, provided that the violation is being investigated by law enforcement.
• Leaving a child unsupervised with an individual, other than the child's parent, who the parent knows or reasonably should have known was required to register as a Tier II or III sexual offender or has been determined to be a sexually violent predator or sexually violent delinquent.
"Recent" is defined as an abusive act within two years from the date the report is made to ChildLine. Sexual abuse, serious mental injury, serious physical neglect and deaths have no time limit.
Child abuse is far reaching
No geographic, ethnic, or economic setting is free of child abuse and neglect.
As a Church we have the opportunity to be the face of God in a relationship that models the Gospel message of Christ. Communicating to children as Church helps to build safe, stable, nurturing relationships with adults, building children’s resiliency in the face of adversity.
What does research teach us about abusers?
- Can be any person who has care, custody, or control of a child — parent, teacher, coach, babysitter, child care staff, relative, bus driver, parent’s boy/girlfriend
- Child molesters look for jobs or volunteer opportunities that give them access to children
- 80% of the time the molester is an adult known to the child and is not a stranger
We need to educate ourselves about child abuse, child abusers and potential child abusers.
For instance, a scenario was proposed:
I get the 'creeps' from one of the volunteers at Church. He always has his hands on kids in one way or another. What should I do?
Listen to your 'gut.' Offenders give warning signs that knowledgeable adults can use; your 'gut' often picks them up. You are not accusing someone of abuse, you are communicating your concern about inappropriate behavior. Let the diocesan/eparchial victim assistance or safe environment coordinator know of your concerns. Let the supervisor of the program know of them as well. Keep reporting your concerns until someone hears you. Your courage to report those types of incidents may be very helpful. Reporting can let the person know their behavior is unacceptable, and it lets them know they are being watched. If it is poor judgment, this gives the person the opportunity to change the behavior.
Potential abusers often give warning signs
- Prefer the company of children and young people to adults.
- They allow children to engage in activities that their parents would not allow.
- They sympathize with a child against legitimate family rules and discipline.
- Hang out with youth in youth-oriented places: coffee shops, malls, etc.
- Find ways to spend time alone with a child or youth, especially overnight.
Key tactics of perpetrators:
A. The Code of Silence: secrets of abuse are maintained to protect the relationship; a sacred trust; a bond maintained by guilt, fear, or remorse.
B. Grooming: usually about a 2-8 week process to win a child (and/or family’s trust); introduction of playful touch and understanding the victim’s hurts (the less resistance, the greater physical progression of physical intimacy)
1. giving approval to a child to things you as a parent would not approve
2. sympathizing with the child’s hurts as wrongful actions by parents
3. giving gifts and singling the child out as special
4. engaging in an inordinate amount of hugs and touching
5. paying special attention to the interests of a child
6. seeking to spend time alone with the child
Provide gifts, trips, favors, or affection to a specific child/youth or select group of youth.
Hugs, pats, or touches youth more frequently than is appropriate.
Provide items of interest (e.g. video games) to children/youth and invite them to make use of them in private locations.
Insist that children/youth share deep personal feelings with him or her.
The Nine Grooming Tactics
1. Flattery
2. Bribery
3. Status
4. Jealousy and Possessiveness
5. Insecurity
6. Accusations
7. Intimidation
8. Anger
9. Control
Possible signs that a child is being abused
- Bruises, swellings, marks which are hard to explain
- Lingering sadness and anxiety
- Changes in a child’s behavior or attitude around someone who formerly was considered a friend
- Sleep problems or nightmares
- Withdrawal or self-isolation
- Poor hygiene, untreated illness or injury
Often there are barriers to keep children from disclosing abuse. The child victim likely has been held to secrecy by the perpetrator. Children may fear the consequences of reporting – fearful that they will be in trouble or that the perpetrator (whom they may care greatly about) may be in trouble, that their family will be devastated, that they will not be believed, that they will be rejected.
Silence or failure to communicate about abuse gives the message that abuse is something that is not to be spoken about. One achievement attained in communicating to children as Church is breaking that silence. Children need to hear from the Church that we want them to report abuse even if the perpetrator is one of our own.
They need to hear that we, as Church, want them to be respected and protected, and that we will take actions to keep them safe. If we can support children in reporting warning signs or indicators that a relationship isn’t right, we have the opportunity to monitor, problem solve, and address concerns before an abusive relationship progresses to the point of physical harm or significant emotional injury.
Reporting Child Abuse
- If a child shows signs of possible abuse or an adult’s actions are suspect, we should immediately communicate our concerns to the person who has authority in the situation.
- If circumstances warrant, church and civil authorities should be notified. All church personnel are mandated to report. No child should have to endure such suffering.
The State defines:
**Mandated Reporters** are required by law to report suspected child abuse
**Permissive Reporters** are strongly encouraged to report suspected child abuse
In the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh – **we are all mandated reporters.**
Must I report suspected abuse if I learn of the abuse from someone other than the child who was allegedly abused? Yes. Nothing requires the mandated reporter have direct contact with the child in order to make a report.
Reporting Child Abuse
- PA Child Abuse/Neglect Hotline (24 hour): 1-800-932-0313
- Report electronically at the Child Welfare Portal: www.compass.state.pa.us/cwis
- After making the report to ChildLine, you are required to immediately thereafter notify the person in charge of the institution, school, facility or agency or the designated agent of the person in charge.
If you have taken the PA online course Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse you will have learned that mandated reporters are required to immediately call the Child Abuse Hotline when they suspect child abuse. Some of the examples cited in the training seem rather harsh when viewed through the eyes of the church. Should we immediately assume the worst? Do we take a chance? Should we talk about it with Father first? Sometimes we must make informed decisions based on our knowledge of our parishes, our parishioners and our children.
Am I protected from civil and criminal liability if I make a report of suspected child abuse? Yes, persons making a report of suspected child abuse are immune from civil and criminal liability as long as the report was made in good faith.
If I make a report is my identity protected? The identity of the person making the report is kept confidential with the exception of being released to law enforcement officials or the district attorney’s office.
This website, KeepKidsSafe.pa.gov, is designed to serve as the hub for information related to critical components impacting child protection including a link for mandated reporters to make reports of suspected child abuse electronically, training on child abuse recognition and reporting, information related to clearances and general information related to child protection.
Other States – refer to your state’s online website (Jfs.Ohio.gov; Dhhr.WV.gov)
Sr. Barbara Jean Mihalchick, OSBM, the Victims Assistance Coordinator for the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, is prepared to give compassionate advice and necessary information to persons who have been abused.
She may be reached at 724-438-7149.
If you have been the victim of sexual abuse by a priest, deacon, or individual representing the Catholic Church in a diocese or eparchy in the United States, there are several things you can do.
1. You may contact the appropriate law enforcement agency to determine if the incident falls within the statute of limitations in the jurisdiction in which the offense occurred.
2. You may contact local child protection agencies, a private attorney, or a support group.
3. It is particularly important, for help, healing, and response from the diocese/eparchy that you contact the appropriate victim assistance coordinator.
The Victims Assistance Coordinator is available to assist you in making a formal complaint of abuse to the diocese/eparchy, in arranging a personal meeting with the bishop or his representative, and for obtaining support for your specific needs.
KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE
Tips for Parents/Guardians
- Do not place children’s names on the outside of clothing or possessions
- Teach children:
- their phone number
- their address
- how to use 911
- Tell them not to answer the phone when they’re home alone — the answering machine should take the message
There are many safety issues we teach children and young people:
bike safety,
water safety,
fire prevention,
driver's training, etc.
Keeping children unaware of the dangers around them does not keep them safe.
Predators count on children not knowing what to do.
Teach children to use the buddy system when using public restrooms and when walking home from school and sports activities.
When your child visits the church bathroom during services, be watchful for a quick return or accompany your child.
Make unannounced visits to your child’s day-care or after-school programs. Check that the homes of your child’s friends are safe places for your child to spend time.
**Teach children that boundaries exist.**
Learning about personal boundaries can protect children and their knowing boundaries reinforces the teaching to listen to ones instincts.
Children who listen to the voice that says “This doesn’t feel right” can protect themselves.
- Get to know well any person who has contact with your children
- If your child is experiencing bullying or playground violence, report it immediately to authorities
- Teach children what to do if they get separated from you in a public place—one possibility is to have them approach a mother with another child
- Role play or practice with children what they can say and do in an uncomfortable or scary situation
My children are too young to hear this. Aren't you destroying the 'innocent period' of their development?
Teaching children about boundaries and safe touches is not sex education.
Again...
Keeping children unaware of the dangers around them does not keep them safe. Predators count on children not knowing what to do.
Children can stand up for themselves.
Children need to be respectful and obey, yet at the same time need to know there are times when it is okay to say "no" to an adult.
Children learn when it is appropriate for them to say, "No, stop doing that."
For example, they hear they can say no to someone who makes them uncomfortable, shows them pornography, or offers them alcohol.
- Teach children to back away from adults asking for directions or help—adults should ask help from other adults
- Teach children to say “no” to anyone attempting to touch them on the parts of their bodies covered by a swim suit
- Teach children to say “no” if someone asks them to do something that feels uncomfortable or wrong
There are ways to explain inappropriate behavior.
Children learn how to describe what’s happening when someone is doing something that just seems a little weird even though it may not seem wrong.
When a child can learn to articulate what has happened to them, and easily confide in a parent or other trust adult – this can prevent a potentially dangerous situation.
This is ultimately the goal of safe environment education.
Parents – you can best figure out the wording to make your child understand.
Help them to recognize that “weird” or “creepy” or “icky” feeling. Help them to trust their own instincts, even though it may not seem “wrong.”
Let children know that you will help them if they should tell you about someone’s behavior that just doesn’t seem right.
Teach children that they are children of God and have the right to control what happens to their bodies.
Check online for the location of any registered sex offenders in your area.
Personal safety programs should have age appropriate lessons that give children the skills they need to protect themselves without frightening them.
Know the whereabouts of your child at all times
- Know where they are going
- How they will get there
- Who will be going with them
- When they will return home...
...and it would be helpful for parents to give the same information about their whereabouts to their children!
Get to know the families of your child’s friends. Are you comfortable having your child spend time in their home? Are they good role models for your child?
If you are uncomfortable with the lifestyle of a friend’s home, insist that all play dates take place in your home. Make your home a good role model for another child, instead of refusing friendship with the child.
Children should always know how to get in touch with their parents and where they are if something goes wrong.
Teens should always feel comfortable calling on their parents if they find themselves in an unsafe situation. Open communication is a valuable asset.
Church Personnel
- For the security of all concerned, church personnel should never be alone with a minor in a car or in an unsupervised situation.
- One-on-one meetings with young people should be held in a public area or the door to the room should be left open.
Common sense is not all that common It is naive to presume that people automatically know boundaries so organizations and families have to spell them out. For example, no youth minister, cleric or other adult leader should be alone with the child.
ECF Teachers – when you have only one student, either leave the classroom door open, invite the parent to join you for class, or combine your class with another for that day.
The best safeguard against online dangers is being informed.
Jump in and learn the basics of the Internet—read articles, take a class, and talk to other parents.
You don’t have to be an expert to have a handle on your child’s online world.
Learn the age restrictions for Social Media and various websites. They were created for your child’s safety and should be followed.
Social Media Age Restrictions DO Matter
- Approximately 59% of children have used a social network by the time they are 10
- Facebook has the most users under age 13 (52% of 8-16 year olds admit they ignore the age restriction)
- Kids under 13 are flocking to Instagram to post and share photos
- As a society we have largely given up, giving age restrictions a collective shrug and "so what?"
Source: huffingtonpost.com
"Chat" with your kids
Develop an open dialogue so that you can talk with your kids about the benefits and dangers of the Internet. Cultivate an interest in their online activities—their favorite Web sites, online games, and interests. And don’t be afraid to ask your children who they are talking to online and what they are talking about.
- **Children’s personal information is at risk.** The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) protects every child under the age of 12. When a child uses a false birthdate, this Federal law cannot protect their personal information from being collected and shared with third party advertisers.
- **Children under 13 don’t have the hardware upstairs to make smart decisions online.** Before age 12 it’s difficult, if not impossible, for a child to fully grasp the impact of their actions upon others, online or otherwise.
- **Lying is just plain wrong.** Sure, giving a fake birthdate to Facebook seems like a harmless white lie, but it’s a lie nonetheless.
Finally, if your young child simply MUST have a social life online, there’s *Club Penguin*, *Webkinz*, and *Whyville*. Each of these offer restricted and supervised networking.
Source: huffingtonpost.com
**Agree on a game plan**
Use the [InternetSafety.com Gameplan™](#) to formally agree on your family’s guidelines for using the Internet. Post them near the family computer as a reminder. Ensure that your kids know to never share personal information on the Internet and that they should tell you about any online activity or contact that makes them uncomfortable.
Social Networking carries risks for young people along with the benefits
- Safety for young people from predators has always been a concern.
- Before allowing young people to use any of these sites, sign up and experience the site yourself to decide if it is appropriate for their level of maturity.
Communicating with someone not known to a child in real life, sharing personal information and/or putting an image of a child on any site could put them at risk for victimization. Here are potential hazards to consider:
• People are anonymous and can pretend to be anyone else. There is no way of knowing that people you meet and are communicating with are who they say they are.
• Potential offenders are versed in age-appropriate topics for children and can often convincingly make a child believe they understand the child like no one else.
• Once a child has a comfort level with an individual, he or she is likely to divulge personal information.
• Online relationships have a tendency to escalate quickly.
• Children can turn to establishing online relationships and neglect the real-life relationships they may have with family or friends.
• A child can become addicted or dependent on chatting online.
Ensure that privacy settings meant to protect young people are in place—every site has different privacy options.
Keep the computer in a high-traffic part of the house.
Talk to young people about sexual victimization and potential online danger—someone online may not be telling the truth about themselves.
Protect your computer
Take advantage of the software that exists to help parents manage their children’s computer experience.
In only a few minutes, parental control software can
- block inappropriate websites,
- restrict the amount of time that your kids use the Internet and
- monitor their Instant Messenger chats to protect against predators.
Instruct young people not to give out personal information or pictures of themselves to persons they have never met.
Young people should never agree to meet anyone with whom they have communicated only via the Internet.
Tell young people to inform you immediately if they receive offensive images or messages.
Instant messaging (IM) is popular with children and teens because it allows them to stay in touch with friends and family. However, like any online activity, there are some associated risks.
Here are a few IM safety precautions you can take with your child:
- Encourage your children to trust their instincts and tell you if they experience something that makes them feel scared or uncomfortable.
- Know who your children are communicating with. Review their buddy lists periodically and help them to remove anyone who you don't know and trust in real life.
- Teach your children about the possible dangers of adding a "friend of a friend".
- Teach children to **never** meet in person with anyone they first “met” online.
- Check with your internet provider about features to block young people’s access to adult-oriented sites
- Sending inappropriate pictures can be a problem later for a young person because online pictures can be retrieved
- To avoid young people’s possibly risky behavior, recharge their cell phones each evening in parents’ bedrooms
• Make sure your children know to keep their personal information private. Remind them that nothing anyone types on the Internet is private, especially things posted in profiles
• Supervise all of your child’s online activities, and be especially vigilant when it comes to your child’s use of webcams
• Tell your child not to reply to unsolicited messages from individuals he or she does not know
There are new APPS and Software available all the time and it’s difficult to keep up with what the young people are using on their cell phones and other devices. You are the parents – do not be afraid to demand transparency from your children. It is not an invasion of privacy, it is protecting the ones you love.
There is no excuse for parents to be under-educated about the internet.
NetSmartz411.com - resource for answering questions about Internet safety, computers, and the Web
According to the Web site www.stopcyberbullying.org, cyberbullying is when "a child, preteen or teen is tormented threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, teen or someone using the Internet or other interactive technologies."
The victim should not respond, but inform his/her parent. Messages should be printed out and taken to the proper authority.
The websites www.stopcyberbullying.org and www.netsmartz.org offer great information for parents, teens and educators.
With the Internet now incorporated into children’s daily lives, harassment can take many forms.
Cyberbullies use technology to
- spread rumors and gossip,
- steal passwords to assume someone else’s identity,
- post pictures of someone without their consent, and
- threaten or harass with offensive language.
The speed at which information travels online can be frightening, and because most people use aliases, cyberbullies are hard to track.
This form of harassment is particularly disturbing for children because it is most often their peers who are harassing them.
According to one victim, the difference between being bullied at school and being bullied on the Internet is that you cannot get away from it. Cyberbullying follows you, even after you get home from school.
The websites cited on the screen have a wealth of information on this topic.
Safe Environment Lessons
- The Office of Religious Education for the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh has prepared safe environment lesson plans for use by parish Eastern Christian Formation programs.
- Resources for use in the Byzantine Catholic ECF programs are available for download on the Archeparchy’s website www.archpitt.org. Additional resources will continue to be added to the website.
- Students in the parish’s programs discuss with their teacher and fellow students how to be safe in their daily activities.
- They learn that they have dignity as children of God. No one has the right to make them feel uncomfortable through unwanted touches or behavior.
- Documentation of lessons MUST be mailed to the chancery annually by November 1st.
Safe Environment Training for Children is required by the audit
My catechists are uncomfortable teaching this. What can I do?
No one wants to think about something this horrible, but all adults are responsible for protecting children. Be sure to provide training for the catechists and review the lessons with the catechists prior to the lesson. If the catechist is still not comfortable teaching this, the pastor, coordinator or another catechist should be sought to teach this particular lesson.
My catechists are concerned they will not know what to do if a child discloses abuse to them.
That is a common fear and training in this area is very effective. We do not investigate, we report. Adults need to remember this is about protecting children. All they need to do is hear what the child is telling them and do what is necessary to protect the child. See free course at PA Child Welfare Resource Center.
I believe morality should be taught in the home, not in school. Does my child have to attend these training classes?
You are right, morality is best taught in the home, but this is personal safety training, not morality class and not sex education. Catholic moral theology compels us to keep children safe. Parents are the primary educators of their children, and those who do not want their children to participate in the school/religious education portion of the training may opt out by signing the opt-out form. They should still receive the curriculum and assistance in how to teach their children to be safe.
If there is resistance on the part of the parents for the catechist to address these topics, we highly recommend that another professional person come into the program to present the information (medical professional, counselor, etc.)
We can create a safer world for our children when we work together as a Byzantine Catholic community.
Philippians 4:4-9, 13 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. 6 Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you.
13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me.
The USCCB Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People requires that all Church personnel who come in regular contact with minors must receive safe environment training.
Church personnel include clergy, religious, seminarians, employees, staff, catechists, and volunteers.
All personnel must obtain Criminal and Child Abuse background clearances, and renew them every three years.
All personnel must sign a Code of Conduct.
These are all requirements of The Charter.
- Background Clearances – Criminal and Child Abuse
- Accept the Code of Conduct
- Safe Environment Training
The Archeparchy of Pittsburgh considers everyone “Personnel” – whether or not you have direct access or contact with children.
Note that all personnel must be in compliance with these Safe Environment policies BEFORE taking an active role or employment in the Archeparchy.
We should all find comfort in knowing that our church has such strict rules in place to protect children and youth.
New Instructions for Clearances
Clearances must be renewed every five years.
Effective immediately, you can apply for your Child Abuse Clearance online. Each volunteer is first asked to create an “Individual Account” on the Child Welfare Portal. You will then be sent an email confirming your Keystone ID and giving you a password. This is a one-time operation. Once you have your account you will be able to access the online forms.
ALSO – This process will give the chancery immediate access to your results so you will not have to mail copies of your certificates. Here’s how the process works:
1. You create your Online Individual Account
2. The Chancery gives you an “Authorization Code” to pay for your clearance
3. You fill out the online form using the code as your “payment”
4. You will receive email notifications as to the status of your clearance request
5. The chancery will also be able to monitor the status of your request
The Criminal Clearance will be handled as it was in the past. However, you can email, fax or mail this form to the chancery. Originals are not required.
Note – those who do not have access to the internet may still submit paper forms which are available on the Safe Environment page of the Archeparchy’s website. Or you may contact the chancery office for copies.
These documents can be found with the Essential Information and Handouts on the Safe Environment Page of the Archeparchy website.
If you have not completed the clearances within the last 5 years, please:
**Pennsylvania residents:**
1. complete the *Criminal Background Disclosure and Authorization Form* and
2. email the Safe Environment Coordinator to receive an Authorization Code for the PA Online Portal to apply for your *Child Abuse History Certification*
**All other state residents:**
1. complete the *NON-PA Background Check Authorization Form* and mail it to the Safe Environment Coordinator at the chancery
Copies of the clearances will go directly to the chancery.
HANDOUTS
To study and keep
- Code of Ethics
- Appropriate and Inappropriate Contact with Minors
- Web addresses for Archieparchial policies and other resources
Please read these documents which are available on the website Safe Environment Page under Essential Information and Handouts.
Thank you for your participation in the On-Line Safe Environment Training, and thank you for your willingness to serve your church.
Credits/Notes:
Much of the Notes Page information was found on the website usccb.org/Child and Youth Protection and the Pennsylvania website KeepKidsSafe.PA.gov.
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Parkland Junior Sports Plan 2024 - 2025
| Activity/Action | Impact | Comments |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1. Sports coaches lead PE lessons alongside ECTs and support staff to improve staff confidence and skills in delivering high quality PE lessons. | 1. Staff feel well supported and are upskilled. Children consistently receive high quality PE lessons. Children have high quality, inspirational experiences which enrich their PE curriculum.
2. More children are engaged with physical activity throughout different parts of the school day. Children have developed leadership skills through the school Sports Leaders pathway. Children demonstrate positive behaviour and an understanding of how to look after their own mental health & wellbeing.
3. School monitoring demonstrates that there is a higher participation across the school in sporting clubs and tournaments. | ★ Link with Brighton & Hove FC allow access to high quality resources such as stadium visits or professional football coaches to visit the school to deliver whole school assemblies based around physical and mental health
Funding spent in full. |
| Action – what are you planning to do | Who does this action impact? | Key indicator to meet | Impacts and how sustainability will be achieved? | Cost linked to the action |
|-------------------------------------|----------------------------|-----------------------|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------|
| Lead curriculum PE lessons alongside ECTs and support staff to improve staff confidence and skills in delivering high quality PE lessons. | Pupils. They will take part in high quality PE lessons. Other sporting activities led by the Sports Coaches at break and lunch time will encourage more physical activity with pupils. Pupils will also benefit from the ongoing relationship with Brighton & Hove Albion FC/Seagulls. | Key indicator 2 - The engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity. Key indicator 4: Broader experience of a range of sports and activities offered to all pupils as part of the curriculum, and at break times. | More pupils meeting their daily physical activity goal. More pupils are encouraged to take part in sport activities and develop an understanding of the importance of physical activity on their mental and physical health. | £11,000 for curriculum CPD
£2,000 for additional break and lunchtime |
| New Playground markings | All children as better markings will support better access to sports within lessons and throughout the school day. They will be more active. | Key indicator 3: The profile of PE and sport is raised across the school as a tool for whole school improvement. | Children will move more. Better markings will support better access to sports within lessons and throughout the school day. | £4,000 |
| Introduce a new sport to children as part of our after school club offer: Archery. (£1,500) | X2 staff to train as archery coaches. X20 children per session as they take part in the new after school sports club. | Key indicator 4: Broader experience of a range of sports and activities offered to all pupils. | More pupils meeting their daily physical activity goal, more pupils encouraged to take part in PE and Sport Activities. | ARROWS Archery Kit -10 Bow Pack | Hope Education
Buy kit x10 bows/arrows (£1,000)
X2 Level 1 archery coach qualification (£500) |
Meeting National Curriculum requirements for swimming and water safety.
Priority should always be given to ensuring that pupils can perform safe self-rescue even if they do not fully meet the first two requirements of the National Curriculum programme of study
| Question | Stats: | Further context |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|-----------------|
| What percentage of your current Year 6 cohort can swim competently, | 58% | |
| confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres? | | |
| What percentage of your current Year 6 cohort can use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke, and breaststroke]? | 45% | |
| What percentage of your current Year 6 cohort are able to perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations? | 58% | |
| If your schools swimming data is below national expectation, you can choose to use the Primary PE and sport premium to provide additional top-up sessions for those pupils that did not meet National Curriculum requirements after the completion of core lessons. Have you done this? | Yes/No | |
| Have you provided CPD to improve the knowledge and confidence of staff to be able to teach swimming and water safety? | Yes/No | |
Signed off by:
| Position | Name |
|-----------------------------------------------|------------|
| Head Teacher | Sally Simpson |
| Subject Leader or the individual responsible for the Primary PE and sport premium: | Abbie Cole |
| Governor | Jolly Pett |
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Making Space for Radical Pedagogy
by Michael Bennett
I say it so often that it has become a joke amongst my friends and loved ones. Whenever anyone has a complaint about anything (work, relationships, lack of sleep, anxiety, ...), my rhetorical question is “You know what I blame?” In unison, we say together “Capitalism!” It would be funny if it weren’t true.
Capitalism shapes everything we think and do. One of the most nefarious effects of capitalism is that it colonizes our bodies and minds, as well as the spaces we inhabit. How many relationships have you seen that fall to pieces because of arguments over money, or people who break up or never even go on a first or second date because one has fewer resources or a less prestigious job than the other? You know what I blame! How many sleepless nights have you or people you know had because they are endlessly worried about making ends meet? You know what I blame! How many students fall through the cracks thanks to those twin enemies of radical teaching: teaching to the test, which is encouraged by the conservative regime of Learning Outcomes Assessment (LOA), and what Paolo Freire famously called the banking model of education, which views students as empty vessels to be filled up with ruling-class ideology. You know what I blame!
It makes me especially angry to see young people subjected to educational spaces devoted to creating docile workers, rather than to freeing the minds of students to critically examine the world around them. How sad when students fail at what passes for education in the teaching to the test/LOA/banking model, and at the same time how heart-wrenching to see them succeed at it. How especially sad to see students who struggle get blamed for their own supposed deficiencies rather than blaming the structures around them that all but assure some students will rule the market while others become its victims. In an essay in this journal that I co-authored with my friend and *Radical Teacher* comrade Jackie Brady, we wrote that “the problems our students face with outcomes … are most directly and intimately connected to inputs: inadequate college preparation; extensive family obligations; working at minimum (or sub-minimum) wages; student debt; a corporatized educational system at odds with academic labor; inadequate healthcare and nutrition; lack of access to social, cultural, and economic capital” (150). In short, the space of the classroom is blamed for the problems created outside that space by the depredations of capital, which also assaults and dominates the classroom space, unless resisted by radical teachers.
This issue of *Radical Teacher* focuses on the ways, big and small, in which radical teachers try to resist the hegemonic presence of capitalism by carving out a liberatory educational space, whether in existing institutions or by building new ones. Left theorists have often tried to name and advocate for such spaces of resistances to capitalism and its companions (racism, classism, sexism, ...). Though Marx theorized that the end of capitalism was an historical inevitability, those following in his footsteps have had to think about how to create spaces within capitalism to transform and challenge it when the mechanisms of dialectical materialism did not cause capitalism to come crashing down.
Theories that have been helpful for me and my socialist comrades include Gramsci’s notion of counter-hegemony as “a creation of an alternative hegemony on the terrain of civil society in preparation for political change” (Pratt). The topic of such counterhegemonic spaces in both formal and informal educational settings today is taken up in an excellent recent collection: *Creating Third Spaces of Learning for Post-Capitalism: Lessons from Educators, Artists, and Activists*. After Gramsci, in the late 1960s, Jürgen Habermas offered the conception of the public sphere as the place where autonomous individuals come together in a nongovernmental discursive space to establish political and communicative norms that might bring about structural transformations. Nancy Fraser and others critiqued Habermas for imagining that there was just one public sphere as opposed to several “subaltern counterpublics,” which Fraser defined as “parallel discursive arenas where members of the subordinated social group invent and circulate counterdiscourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs” (123). I found Fraser’s formulation especially helpful when thinking about the radical abolition movement as perhaps the first and probably the most impactful counterculture in U.S. history (Bennett 21). Homi Bhabha’s conception of “third spaces” and Gloria Anzaldua’s concept of “borderlands” have been helpful for those of us trying to think about hybrid spaces where new identities and social relations emerge between our lived experiences and the authoritarian forces, including capitalism, that contain and restrain us. When it comes to thinking about how all this theorizing applies to education, we continue to be haunted by that presiding spirit of radical teachers everywhere: Paulo Freire. In opposition to the banking concept of education, Freire posits a “problem-posing” education (66) that helps students develop a “critical consciousness” or “conscientização,” which the translator of *Pedagogy of the Oppressed* defines as “learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality” (Freire 19).
These are rather grand and impressive theories about building spaces resistant to the control of capitalism and other authoritarian isms, but most radical teachers exist within very confined spaces where only small victories can be won in practice. However, *Radical Teacher* has long championed and celebrated praxis, the belief that theory has little meaning separated from the practices that embody it. And so we champion and celebrate the teachers represented in this issue, who are engaging in various practices that embody theories trying to shape the radical spaces where change happens.
Some of the contributors to this issue focus their attention on how to create liberatory spaces within traditional academic practices and classroom settings. In “Teaching and Learning a Joyful Citation Praxis: Affective Relations for Fostering Community Through Our Compositions,” Kylie E. Quave and Savannah Hagen Ohbi explore how an academic practice as seemingly innocuous as citation can become transformative. This reflective essay suggests that teaching and learning about citations doesn’t have to be a fear-filled practice of policing the
boundaries of a discipline and jailing those who improperly cite accepted authorities. Rather, it can be a joyful practice of finding and engaging with kindred spirits. True to their theory about citations, Quave and Ohbi end their essay with a long acknowledgement to the community who have made this not just “their” essay but the product of co-creators working together to resist the way that “authorship functions as currency: attaching one’s name to an argument lends one legitimacy and capital.”
The spirits of Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa hover over Jessica Siham Fernández’s “Developing Classroom Community Agreements to Cultivate a Critically Compassionate Learning Community.” Freire would no doubt approve of the ways in which Fernández resists the banking concept of education by forming a “critically compassionate learning community” with classroom community agreements arrived at through collaboration between students and teacher. That this process happens in Fernández’s class offering an “Introduction to Latinx Studies” calls to mind the fact that Anzaldúa’s concept of the “borderlands” was developed out of her experience as a Chicana woman developing a mestiza consciousness from living at la frontera, where hybridity is born. Fernández and her students see it as their project to build safe and brave spaces that put into practice what another radical educational theorist, bell hooks, names as an “education for freedom.”
What could be a more traditional school subject than algebra? Algebra is all too often used as the gatekeeper course for allowing students to graduate from high school or enter into college. Yet, Jay Gillen’s essay “The Educational Radicalism of Bob Moses” argues that the Algebra Project, founded in 1982 by former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field secretary Bob Moses to bring a different way of teaching algebra to predominantly African American and Latinx middle schools, was and is a radical project. For many students, the algebra classroom is a space of fear. Gillen asks, “Why choose one of the most hated and disempowering locations in already hated and disempowering schools?” Gillen’s answer is that though the public facing goal of the Algebra Project was to promote the radical pedagogy of classroom democracy in order to make it easier to learn math, Moses’s goal was the opposite: to use a new way of teaching math as an organizing tool for young people to learn the practice of radical democracy. Thus, Gillen argues, the feared space of the algebra classroom is transformed into an empowering space where young people build a sense of educational insurgency in the battle to destroy the American caste system.
Rather than focusing on radical interventions in traditional classroom settings, the other essays in this issue of *Radical Teacher* look at efforts to build spaces outside of such settings. The premise of Jennifer Queenan, et. al.’s “Learning from Our History: The Role of the New York Collective of Radical Educators in Movements for Educational Justice” is that educator activists can play an important role in transforming not only what happens inside classrooms but also in larger educational systems. This essay, co-written by a group of activists within the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE), analyzes the role of NYCoRE outside of and in solidarity with union spaces to theorize about the role of educator collectives in education justice movements. The essay focuses on NYCoRE’s efforts to support radical teachers in New York City inside the classroom (professional development focused on social justice curricula) and outside of the classroom (political education building bridges to other organizations working for educational justice), including the role of several core members of NYCoRE in founding the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) in 2012, which now operates as the social justice caucus within the United Federation of Teachers. However, the authors also examine the commonalities of NYCoRE with teacher collectives and progressive caucuses in teacher unions across the country, particularly in places like Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. We learn that NYCoRE is also a part of a national network called Teacher Activists Groups, in addition to being connected to national organizations like the Education for Liberation Network and Red for Ed.
By its nature, the study of architecture invites us to think about built environments and the spaces those places inhabit. Thus, Lily Song’s “Notes from the Anti-Displacement Studio,” though ostensibly focused on architecture courses taught by the author at Northeastern University, enacts and engages with radical spaces both in how the courses were organized as studios and how the professor and her students reached beyond the studio to interact with a community (Roxbury) and a municipality (Boston) struggling with the constraints of capital. This essay addresses the question of how design pedagogy and methods can be reformulated and retooled to support community-led anti-displacement planning and design initiatives. The analysis particularly focuses on the anti-displacement studio, which takes a grounded, relational, and reparative approach to addressing current gaps in design studio education by aligning university-based teaching and learning with community-led decolonizing agendas.
All good teachers care about their students. Radical teachers have a more holistic understanding of what “care” means. In “Unconditional Care Beyond the Carceral Education State: A Call for Abolitionist Departure,” Margaret Goldman writes about her experience working in a space where she could more fully develop the meaning of radical care. Goldman draws from her experiences as a teacher/ethnographer in an alternative high school, called FREE LA (Fighting for the Revolution to Educate and Empower Los Angeles), that serves and was created by system-impacted young people who have been pushed out of, been barred from, or otherwise refused to participate in traditional schooling. Based on this experience, Goldman concludes that the violent genealogies of conditional care are endemic to state schooling, and that the potential for reclaiming old-new genealogies of unconditional care require radically reimagined educational spaces, which engage with the entire ecosystem of these students’ lives—lives shaped by racism, predatory capitalism, and the carceral state.
Though I’ve used the structuring device of dividing the six essays in this issue of *Radical Teacher* between half of
the essays focused on creating radical space within traditional classrooms and the other half focused on spaces outside such classrooms, as good radicals we know that these spaces are interconnected and mutually constitutive, just as we ourselves are shaped by a mixture of outside (structure) and inside (agency). Radical teachers are always trying to break down oppositions, or rather pointing out that they already are breaking down: the personal and the political, the public and the private, inside and outside, teacher and student, town and gown, ... The spaces of radical teaching are always a mixture of these things. We try to shape radically mixed, democratic classrooms that make radical interventions in the world “outside.” The essays in this issue show us some of the ways in which radical teachers can make and are making such interventions. It’s now up to us to continue the work within capitalist spaces to transform and transcend such spaces.
Works Cited
Anderson, Gary L., et. al. *Creating Third Spaces of Learning for Post-Capitalism: Lessons from Educators, Artists, and Activists*. NY: Routledge, 2023.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. *Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza*. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987.
Bennett, Michael. *Democratic Discourses: The Radical Abolition Movement and Antebellum American Literature*. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2005.
Bennett, Michael and Jacqueline Brady. “A Radical Critique of the Learning Outcomes Assessment Movement.” *Radical Teacher*, vol. 100, Oct. 2014, pp. 146–52, doi:10.5195/rt.2014.171.
Bhabha, Homi. *The Location of Culture*. London & New York: Routledge, 1994.
Fraser, Nancy. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.” In *Habermas and the Public Sphere*. Ed. Craig Calhoun. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992.
Freire, Paulo. *Pedagogy of the Oppressed*. NY: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1989.
Habermas, Jürgen. *The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society*. Trans. Thomas Burger. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989.
hooks, bell. *Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom*. NY: Routledge, 2014.
Pratt, Nicola. “Bringing Politics Back in: Examining the Link between Globalization and Democratization.” *Review of International Political Economy*. 11.2 (2004): 311–336.
Michael Bennett is Professor Emeritus of English, Long Island University (Brooklyn). He is the Managing Co-Editor of *Radical Teacher* and the Former Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America Fund Board.
Learning from Our History: The Role of the New York Collective of Radical Educators in Movements for Educational Justice
by Jenna Queenan, Natalia Ortiz, Pam Segura, Rosie Frascella, Ashia Troiano, and Liz Velazquez
Overview and Objectives
While the literature on educator activism has grown in the last ten years, there is still little documentation of the history of educator activist collectives and their impact.\(^1\) One well-known educator activist group—which originated in New York City—is the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE). Unlike today, there were few identifiable educator activist groups in New York City in 2001 when NYCoRE was founded. While the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), continued to organize and fight for teacher benefits, it was not part of larger struggles for social justice (Asselin, 2019; Back, 2001; Podair, 2002; Stark, 2019). According to NYCoRE’s mission statement,
New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) is a group of current and former public-school educators and their allies committed to fighting for social justice in our school system and society at large, by organizing and mobilizing teachers, developing curriculum, and working with community, parent, and student organizations. We are educators who believe that education is an integral part of social change and that we must work both inside and outside the classroom because the struggle for justice does not end when the school bell rings. (New York Collective of Radical Educators, 2011)
The purpose of this article is to analyze the historical and potential future impact of NYCoRE on educational justice movements in New York City. We do this to both reflect internally and share what we have learned with a broader community of radical educators. Given that NYCoRE recently celebrated its twenty-year anniversary, this article also looks toward the future by asking the question: What can we learn from NYCoRE’s history in order to theorize the role of NYCoRE, and groups like NYCoRE, in educational justice movement work? In doing so, we seek to further develop ideas about the role of educators in social justice movements and, more specifically, the role of educator activist groups that organize outside of union spaces. These theoretical understandings inform the work we engage in collectively as NYCoRE.
Whose Voices Are Included in This Article?
One of the authors (Jenna) conducted oral history interviews with the six founding core members of NYCoRE (Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Keith Catone, Jessica Klonsky, Lisa Adler, Chris Maestro, and Daniel “Herm” Jerome) and three early core members (Edwin Mayorga, Bree Picower, and Sally Lee) during the fall of 2020. While NYCoRE has a larger membership of people who participate in and help facilitate events, “core” is the main decision-making body for NYCoRE and meets monthly to discuss and plan the work of NYCoRE. Core is and has always intentionally been led by a majority of people of color and women/gender expansive individuals. Each interview with the previous core members included questions about the individual’s entry into education, memories about what NYCoRE did/does, the significance of NYCoRE’s work, and the impact being involved in NYCoRE had on the individual. These interviews were then synthesized by Jenna into a paper that told a preliminary story about how NYCoRE started. In January 2021, the current NYCoRE core hosted a Zoom meeting with everyone who had been interviewed to get feedback on the initial paper.
While Jenna did much of the writing and synthesizing work in this article, the ideas presented here were generated through reading, reflection, and conversations amongst those interviewed as well as the six core members of NYCoRE in 2023, who are referred to throughout the article using “we.” The use of “NYCoRE” and “they” in this article refers to the founding and early core members of NYCoRE, who are no longer actively part of core. In addition, former core members and others involved in similar teacher activist groups wrote many of the works we cite. Before submitting this article for publishing, we sent it back to those interviewed for a final round of feedback and to ask for permission to include their names.
As the authors of this article, we have been involved in NYCoRE in a variety of ways and are all currently on NYCoRE core. Natalia, a mother of two and a Chilena–Ríqueña native New Yorker, began teaching and joined NYCoRE in 2006. In 2012 Natalia transitioned out of the classroom to pursue a PhD in Urban Education and is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Rosie is a White, queer, trans masculine teacher who joined NYCoRE their first-year teaching in 2006. They have been a core member of NYCoRE since 2009. They teach English and social studies to newcomer high school students in Brooklyn. Jenna is a White, queer educator who joined NYCoRE when she moved to New York City in 2011, where she taught in Brooklyn for seven years before starting a PhD in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. This paper is connected to her dissertation research on educator activist groups like NYCoRE. Ashia was born and raised in Harlem, NY. Her mother is an Afro-Caribbean immigrant from St. Kitts, and her father was a first-generation Italian American veteran. She joined NYCoRE in 2012 when she first started teaching and currently works with college students who have experience in foster care. Liz, a mixed-race person of Puerto Rican and Peruvian descent, came to NYCoRE through the Educators of Color affinity group around 2014 in search of a sense of community with like-minded people. She is a public-school visual art educator with 21 years of experience. Pam, an educator with roots in the Bronx and the Dominican Republic, joined NYCoRE in 2016 when she began attending monthly meetings and participating in Inquiry to Action Groups, which are described in more detail below. After teaching in nonprofit and K-12 settings for nearly ten years, Pam has left the classroom to study General Psychology at the New School for Social Research.
NYCoRE’s History
NYCoRE’s Founding
2001 was quite a year, for U.S. schools and the nation. George W. Bush was inaugurated as president and soon
after, on September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City as well as the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Quickly after the attacks, anti-war rallies began in places like D.C. and New York City (Anti-war rallies, 2001). Lawmakers implemented a multitude of national policies, including the War in Iraq, the PATRIOT Act, and No Child Left Behind (NCLB). NCLB, a sweeping education reform policy, was signed into law by President Bush on January 8, 2002. In addition to increasing the focus on standardized testing (Klein, 2015), NCLB included a lesser-known provision that required “public secondary schools to provide military recruiters not only with access to facilities, but also with contact information for every student—or face a cutoff of all federal aid.” (Goodman, 2002). As a result, the military started recruiting Black and Brown youth in public schools. The New York Collective of Radical Educators was founded in this context.
The founding six members of NYCoRE connected over the course of the 2001-2002 school year, with the group officially meeting in 2002. After 9/11, one of the founding members, Jessica Klonsky, was involved in ad hoc protests against the U.S. government military response to 9/11 and went to anti-war meetings around the city. Through this, Jessica met Lisa Adler, who she began meeting with to try to figure out where other radical teachers were organizing. Jessica and Lisa looked at model groups like the Coalition for Education Justice in Los Angeles and realized that there were no grassroots, teacher-based groups in New York City, so they decided to start one. As Lisa remembers it, “we started as teachers, with the vision of becoming this bigger thing [with parents and students], but also understood our own limitations in terms of time, our responsibility to teach a progressive curriculum” (L. Adler, personal communication, November 24, 2020). Jessica was teaching at EBC High School in Bushwick at the time and Lisa was at IS 145 in the Bronx (but soon moved to EBC with Jessica), while the other founders were all at Banana Kelly High School in the Bronx. Jessica knew Herm Jerome through previous organizing experiences and called him to ask if he wanted to start a group, saying that teachers needed to have a response to what was happening post-9/11, particularly in terms of the War in Iraq and the military recruitment happening in schools. Herm knew Keith Catone, Chris Maestro, and Ariana Mangual Figueroa through Banana Kelly and brought them into the conversations.
**Determining NYCoRE’s Focus and Identity**
In the early 2000s, as NYCoRE grew, the group had questions about NYCoRE’s focus and how they were going to organize. While NYCoRE had initially formed around military recruitment of Black and Brown youth in schools and anti-war sentiments amongst teachers, the organization soon expanded beyond this issue. Keith recalled that, “we were never intent about being a single-issue kind of organization. To me, it was always about connecting teachers to broader social movement issues, doing education justice organizing more broadly” (K. Catone, personal communication, November 11, 2020). In many ways, the issues NYCoRE chose and chooses to focus on were and still are based on what teachers and the communities they work with are confronting. Over time, these issues have included counter-military recruitment, anti-high stakes testing, decriminalization of youth, supporting queer and undocumented youth in schools, examining the intersections of racism and neoliberalism, fighting ableism in education, and more. For example, early in NYCoRE’s history, the group created a curriculum to accompany the *Military Myths* documentary made by Paper Tiger television. Soon after, NYCoRE supported a campaign against military recruitment of youth led by the YA-YA Network. Eventually, counter-military recruitment became a working group in NYCoRE (more on working groups below). For more information on this and other NYCoRE projects and working groups, you can check out a timeline of our history Jenna recently added to our website.
In early meetings, questions about the group’s identity developed. When the group ultimately settled on the New York Collective of Radical Educators as its name, the choice of radical was purposeful and centered the founders’ belief that radical, systemic change was needed inside and outside of schools. In addition to the name, the collective also developed points of unity to express their values. Ariana shared that,
We read together, we talked, we were learning together and growing. I remember that being really powerful in terms of really looking to the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Party as, you know, Black and Brown coalitions that were radical, for justice, and that articulated a set of principles in this point fashion. That was really meaningful to us. And so we read those and we worked on our points of unity. (A. Mangual Figueroa, personal communication, November 3, 2020).
The points of unity were finalized in 2003 and NYCoRE started having one to two retreats every year, where the mission statement and points of unity were used to help guide the direction of the group. In reflection, Edwin said that “those points of unity helped to galvanize, or to solidify our relationship and really create friendships and family” (E. Mayorga, personal communication, November 16, 2020).
The points of unity developed by NYCoRE were revised in 2014 and again in 2022 based on learning sessions and feedback from the broader community after we celebrated NYCoRE’s twenty-year anniversary. While the topics are mostly the same as those found in our original points of unity, we have shifted the language and format. In particular, our new points of unity, which can be found on our website, are each written with what we value, what we see as the problem, and our vision for the future of liberatory education related to that topic. The original points of unity from 2003 were as follows:
1. Racism and economic inequality in the school system reflect and perpetuate the systematic and historical oppression of people of color and working-class communities. As educators in the New York City public school system, we have a responsibility to address and challenge these forms of oppression.
2. In order to combat economic, social, and political systems that actively silence women and people of
color, we are committed to maintaining majority women and people of color representation in our group.
3. We oppose the current policy of high stakes standardized testing because it reflects the standards and norms of dominant groups in society, it is an inaccurate and incomplete assessment of learning, and it stifles pedagogical innovation and active learning.
4. Punitive disciplinary measures such as “Zero Tolerance” further criminalize youth and are not an answer to crime and other social problems. We believe economic and social priorities should be toward education of young people and not incarceration.
5. We oppose the increased efforts of military recruitment in New York City public schools. These efforts unfairly target the recruitment of low-income communities and make false promises about educational and career opportunities. We believe that these efforts are an extension of an imperialistic strategy to maintain a powerful military force in order to protect and promote US world dominance.
6. New school funding policies must be adopted in order to ensure equitable resources for all. Current policies based upon property taxes discriminate against low-income communities and urban areas, which disproportionately affect people of color.
7. Schools must be safe spaces for females and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) individuals. Verbal and physical abuse targeting these groups is extremely prevalent in most schools; cannot be tolerated, and must be challenged by all faculty, staff, and administrators.
8. Schools should be places of questioning and critical thinking that encourage students to see themselves as active agents of change. The present educational system is derived from an assembly line model that stifles critical thinking by focusing on the regurgitation of facts and information.
9. Schools should provide a neighborhood space through which community voices are heard. Teachers are an integral part of this space and must be held accountable to the community by being involved in addressing community needs. (*Points of Unity from 2013*)
The decision to focus on multiple issues brought up (and still brings up) questions of NYCoRE’s purpose and focus. Over the years, NYCoRE has provided a space for educators to act and reflect on different issues they care about in a variety of ways, including curriculum and resource development, political education, political statements and actions, campaigns, building community with other organizing groups, and providing spaces for members to facilitate and lean into their own interests.
As a city-wide organization composed primarily of educators, what it means to organize educators was a question that NYCoRE grappled with and continues to confront because there are many issues that educators are concerned with, so focusing on one campaign is challenging. In the beginning, NYCoRE focused on military recruitment, standardized testing, and policing/discipline in schools by expanding to a working group structure. Working groups have varied over the years based on teacher interests but generally engage in both critical professional development and (in many but not all working groups) solidarity work with other organizing groups. Outside of working groups, NYCoRE members have contributed to organizations and campaigns in NYC educational justice movements such as Teachers Unite, Occupy the DOE (which occurred in collaboration with Occupy Wall Street), and the NYC Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools.
In addition, while NYCoRE did not organize within the teacher’s union directly, the group did amplify calls for New York City teachers and the teacher union to be more aligned to racial justice movements. In recent years, there has been a rise in progressive caucuses in teacher unions across the country including in places like New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. These progressive caucuses were preceded by teachers being members of activist groups like NYCoRE (Charney et al., 2021; Stark, 2019). Several core members of NYCoRE were integral to the founding of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) in 2012, which now operates as the social justice caucus within the United Federation of Teachers (Asselin, 2019). MORE came together through a series of coalition meetings in 2011. At the time, radical and progressive educator groups in New York City included the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), NYCoRE, and the Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) and Independent Community of Educators (ICE) opposition caucuses within the UFT. Sally Lee and Natalie Havlin from Teachers Unite, as well as NYCoRE members such as Rosie Frascella and Sam Coleman, helped to host meetings with representatives from each of these groups and the coalition called themselves Voltron. Eventually, in 2012, members from Voltron decided to come together officially to form MORE.
**NYCoRE Membership and Structure**
As the core grew, the question of who was on core and what membership meant emerged. In the early years, members who joined and stayed became a part of core, which typically consisted of 5-15 people, but after the external listserv was created and the group expanded, NYCoRE was structured with a core group that made (and makes) most of the planning decisions, working groups focused on various issues of interest to the broader NYCoRE membership, and a base comprised of the email listserv that currently has about 1,500 people. NYCoRE does not work directly with particular schools but rather engages educators from across New York City. NYCoRE members are educators, broadly defined, including pk-12 teachers and other school workers from the New York City Department of Education,
college professors and staff, social workers, staff in education non-profits, and more.
One way NYCORE has engaged members beyond the core was (and still is) through monthly membership meetings, which are typically attended by between fifteen and fifty people and are open to anyone who wants to attend. One hour of the two-hour meetings is dedicated to political education and discussion. In the past, during the second hour, educators would choose a working group they wanted to organize with or continue the political education conversations. Presently, the second hour is focused on small group activities and conversation. In addition to the membership meeting structure, NYCORE has offered reading groups, events featuring education scholars/organizers/activists, an annual (and later, biannual) conference, and annual Inquiry to Action Groups (ItAGs). Initially called study groups, the ItAGs started in NYCORE in early 2004 (Picower, 2015) and are also modeled after similar work being done in activist spaces like Teachers 4 Social Justice in San Francisco. ItAGs last between six and eight weeks, meeting once a week for two hours. Each ItAG focuses on a particular topic of study and culminates in some type of action. Some examples of past ItAG topics from 2007 to 2012 include: media justice, radical math, restorative justice, social justice curriculum, creating safer spaces for queer and undocumented youth, interrupting Islamophobia, nonviolence education, and developing stronger parent-teacher relationships (New York Collective of Radical Educators, 2017). ItAG actions vary and have included shifts in curriculum and pedagogy in the participants’ classrooms, the creation of new working groups, the production of resources for teachers such as websites or curriculum guides, public performances, and more.
NYCORE was and is not separate from the society in which the collective operates and can replicate oppressions within the collective. This has been a challenge the collective must continue to confront, particularly in terms of creating supportive and welcoming spaces for educators of color. From the beginning, the core has been majority people of color. In Sally’s initial email exchange with Lisa about joining NYCORE, she remembers Lisa explicitly stating that the group was recruiting new members who were teachers of color and did not want a flood of White teachers joining the collective. As the group grew beyond the core, however, maintaining a majority of people of color in open meeting spaces became a challenge. Edwin remembers the initial core in the first few years being diverse both in terms of race and gender but reflected on the challenges of remaining committed to NYCORE’s (then second) point of unity, saying,
One is the challenge of who’s in the teaching force in New York City and beyond in this country and how not diverse it is and the gender politics that I think are associated with that. The other part of it is the practices in which, in what ways were we reproducing Eurocentric, White-centric practices in terms of progressive or radical educational stances. We were all influenced by Marx and critical race theory but even with that, I look back and realize, in what ways, in our open meetings, who are we appealing to? Who are we recruiting? What were the dynamics in those spaces? If it wasn’t specifically about an organizing topic, in what ways were people of color, women, LGBT queer folk, feeling marginalized? (E. Mayorga, personal communication, November 16, 2020).
As NYCORE grew past the first several years of the organization, challenges regarding the racial makeup and dynamics of the group, organizing focus and style, and capacity would continue to arise. While we make sure to maintain a core leadership of majority people of color, monthly membership meetings, which were/are open to anyone who wishes to come, often were (and are) majority White, reflecting the makeup of the teaching force, which is still about 80% White (National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). Some individuals would come once or twice and then not return; we struggled (and still struggle) with ways to address microaggressions in those spaces beyond doing NYCORE 101s with new members to make sure everyone was clear on NYCORE’s points of unity and entered meetings conscious of their positionality.
In response to these dynamics, individuals in NYCORE created racial affinity groups in 2011: Educators of Color (EoC) and the Anti-Racist White Educators Group (AWE-G). The Educators of Color (EoC) affinity space first came out of community potlucks initiated by core members of color who wanted to build intentional community with other educators of color. AWE-G emerged from the “My Classroom is Anti-Racist” Inquiry to Action Group in conjunction with EoC (Strong et. al., 2017). Despite all of the ways we have strategized to address the reality that our events were (and are) mostly attended by White folks, we continue to be in reflection around the ways we could make our space more welcoming and supportive for educators of color.
NYCORE’s Role
NYCORE’s ultimate goal has shifted over time but has always included fighting for education for liberation. We wrote our current goal in 2020, which is “to have liberatory educational practices/pedagogy, classrooms, and public schools for our students, families, teachers, and communities as a microcosm and model for society at large and the society we’d like to create.” Ultimately, the role of and need for NYCORE (and arguably, teacher activist groups more broadly) has been and could be creating a political home for radical educators, providing critical professional development, and moving educators to action through shifts in classroom practices and/or participation in larger movements for educational justice. Each of the following sections consists of what we see as a conversation between the literature of radical pedagogy (much of which has been written by people involved with NYCORE or similar collectives), NYCORE’s work now, and our theorizing about NYCORE’s future.
A Political Home
The Literature
Radical educators often feel isolated in schools due to their political beliefs and identities, particularly given claims from public officials and school leaders that teaching should not be political (Walker, 2018). While many activists and scholars have argued that all teaching is political and teachers have the political agency to participate in social transformation (Catone, 2017; Freire, 1970; hooks, 1994; Kohli et. al, 2019; Picower, 2015; Love, 2019), radical educators have been and still are told to remain “neutral” in schools (Walker, 2018) and educators who are seen as too political, particularly educators of color, are often pushed out (Burciaga & Kohli, 2018; Castaneda et. al., 2006; Retta, 2021).
Our Present
NYCoRE has created and continues to create a political home for radical educators, a topic that came up in multiple interviews with founding members, one of whom said that NYCoRE “created an amazing space for so many other like-minded educators. Oftentimes, you feel like you’re isolated [in your school]” (C. Maestro, personal communication, December 2, 2020). While the second Iraq War and military recruitment were catalysts, it was the lack of a radical organizing space for educators that ultimately pushed many of the founders to come together and start NYCoRE.
Twenty years later, this is still the case. At an NYCoRE event in the spring of 2022, we asked those attending to share what they loved about NYCoRE; a common thread was how NYCoRE brings people together to learn, create change, and be in community. We attempt to build community at our events by prioritizing food (when in person), music, play through icebreakers and activities that incorporate movement, and conversation. During the pandemic, we still hosted virtual events that prioritized political study and/or wellness through activities like virtual dance parties. We returned to in person open member meetings and social events in the fall of 2022 after much reflection on how to best do so during an ongoing pandemic. The return to being in person, in community with others, has been joyful.
Theorizing Our Future
While we have struggled to define what it means to be a member of NYCoRE, a common reflection from those participating in NYCoRE is the feeling of community. Many radical educators feel politically isolated in their schools. Change cannot happen individually and, as Marianne Kaba (2021) says, hope is a discipline, something that must be cultivated to continue fighting for justice. Keith Catone (2017) also found that teacher activists are sustained by critical hope, which, alongside having a clear purpose, allows them to see themselves (and the students and caregivers they work with) as agents of change. We maintain our hope that change is possible and combat feelings of isolation that still exist for radical teachers in New York City schools by being in community with like-minded individuals. Our hope is that NYCoRE is a space to process, reflect on, and strategize ways to organize inside and out of schools through story-sharing, political education, and connecting educators to resources and actions (see more below). For many of us, NYCoRE’s community helps us stay in the teaching profession and continue to push for justice in our school systems.
As we return to in-person events and meetings after having gone remote for over two years during the pandemic, we are thinking about what it means to build community in sustainable ways that support educators and school staff, especially educators of color, to stay in the teaching profession, make their classroom spaces more equitable, and organize for school and system-level change. We want to build spaces that allow people to connect and move at the speed of trust (Brown, 2017). We are learning from transformative justice movements about structures and protocols to address harm when it happens, which sometimes seems inevitable in a collective space where educators come together across many different identities. In particular, in core, we are learning to center relationships and restorative practices when we work through conflict as a collective. After learning from several internal conflicts, everyone on core is now asked to commit to restoring with one another if/when harm happens. We use a yellow wing protocol in our internal core meetings, in which a card with a yellow wing can be placed on the table or given to a person as a way to signify a conflict that needs to be addressed. When harm happens in larger, open member meetings, someone on core follows up with those involved to determine next steps. However, we recognize that the current protocols we use depend on relationships; we are still thinking about ways to address harm and microaggressions, beyond having community norms, in open member meetings where we do not know everyone in attendance.
Ultimately, we believe and hope that NYCoRE’s community building practices can serve as a counter to what’s happening in schools. We recognize that the urgency and time constraints in school buildings often make it easier for all people in schools (teachers, school staff, administrators, students, etc.) to lose sight of the power of and need for community. Radical educators need community so that they don’t feel like the only ones doing “the work” in their school buildings. Building community and relationships with other radical educators is also a prerequisite for establishing vulnerability and trust, factors which are necessary for educators to engage in critical, transformative professional development that can shift what’s happening in their classrooms and schools.
Critical Professional Development
The Literature
One of the roles of teacher activist groups has been to counter the traditional narratives about teaching and pedagogy perpetuated in teacher education programs and schools. These traditional narratives include Banking education (Freire, 1970), which treats students as empty receptacles to be filled by (teacher) knowledge; ideas of classroom management in which the ultimate objective is to control children through punitive disciplinary practices (Hirschfeld, 2008; Gillen, 2014; Love, 2019; Terenzi,
and teaching to the test, in which curriculum is standardized and not culturally responsive or sustaining (Alim & Paris, 2017; Ferri & Connor, 2005; Oakes et. al., 1997; Schneider, 2018). Many social justice educators do not thrive in traditional or anti-dialogical professional development spaces because these spaces often utilize a banking method (Freire, 1970), which, as is done with the banking method used in classrooms, treats teachers as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge rather than co-contributors who can participate in a dialogue about pedagogy and education.
In contrast, in critical professional development “the role of the teacher is active, empathetic, emotional, intellectual, and professional” (Picower, 2015, p. 3). In Kohli et al. (2015), the authors point to the ways their respective teacher activist groups practice Freire’s (1970) notion of dialogical action by providing transformative professional development for educators. In many ways, critical professional development is grounded in political education and shares common traits. Critical professional development nourishes the critical bifocality (Weis & Fine, 2012) of teachers, which helps them see themselves as part of larger systems and question their positionality in schooling and educational policy. This kind of thinking positions teachers to not only change their pedagogy but also participate in activism outside of their classrooms, working toward systemic change.
Our Present
NYCoRE is a teacher activist group that provides dialogical practices to reposition teachers and educators as “transformative intellectuals, who have a political analysis and take action for social justice” (Kohli et. Al, 2015, p.22). As discussed above, NYCoRE provides critical professional development primarily through member meetings and Inquiry to Action Groups. As Picower (2015) states in her study, educators see NYCoRE, and specifically co-participants in ItAGs, as part of a professional network with like-minded people. All these political education events are meant to fill gaps that exist in traditional teacher education and professional development and support educator activism. For example, in 2023 our ItAGs covered topics such as school abolition, disability justice, queer identities in schools, implementing culturally responsive frameworks in secondary classrooms, and the transformative power of art.
As a core, we are continually thinking of how to engage educators in critical praxis, moving from political education to action, both in individual classrooms and at a school or city-wide level. All the critical professional development we provide focuses on systemic oppression and the importance of both individual and collective action. During the COVID-19 pandemic, NYCoRE continued meetings online that aimed to create a political home for educators (particularly amidst the stresses of multiple pandemics, remote teaching, and the return to in-person teaching) and provide critical professional development through book clubs, ItAGs, and reflections on NYCoRE’s points of unity as we celebrated our twenty-year anniversary. In the fall of 2022, as we shifted back to in-person meetings, we re-evaluated (and are still re-evaluating) what’s needed right now. As a core, we meet monthly and have summer retreats. Our goal is to be as responsive as possible to the political and socio-emotional needs of educators, which is also why we prioritize a makeup in core not only of majority people of color but also individuals who are classroom teachers.
What we’re noticing now is that educators are burnt out and need community with like-minded educators. What we decide to center in our meetings is based on what’s needed in the moment and also draws on our previous experiences. We’re currently looking to past events, such as a summer wellness retreat for educators of color NYCoRE hosted in 2012, when thinking about how to create healing community spaces for educators that are grounded in the current sociopolitical context. In the spring of 2023, for example, we held a “love on teachers and school workers day.” The event included food and conversation, arts and crafts, professional massages, and a guided meditation as a closing. We also created space during that meeting for participants to explicitly process the multiple stressors and challenges educators were facing during the school year; people had a lot to say. There was a sentiment of heaviness in the room, but after our closing meditation, everyone expressed appreciation for the space, with a few saying they didn’t realize how much they needed it. While we still believe political education is a necessary and important part of our work, our goal in this moment was to honor the revolutionary work that NYCoRE teachers and school workers do every day for students and families in schools.
Theorizing Our Future
We provide critical professional development because we hope that educators will take what they learn back to their classrooms and schools, and/or connect with educational justice campaigns in the city, to create systemic change that pushes us closer to NYCoRE’s ultimate goal: to have liberatory educational practices, classrooms, and public schools as a model for the society we’d like to create. By studying in community, educators deepen their understanding of educational injustices and systems of oppression, including their own unconscious biases. NYCoRE brings together educators from various contexts in New York City, which also helps deepen awareness of the way educational injustices unfold across the city and how they take shape in relationship to the local nuances of individual school contexts. Our hope is that, as a result of NYCoRE’s critical professional development, educators become more equipped to alter curriculum, adjust classroom dynamics, and influence school policies and practices that will further educational equity and create educational spaces where all students can thrive (Love, 2019). Testimonios we have gathered from NYCoRE members as well as previous research on NYCoRE ItAGs (Kohli et. al, 2015; Picower, 2015) have shown this to be the case. NYCoRE’s critical professional development not only creates space to share resources and ideas around various topics related to educational equity, but also engages educators in freedom dreaming (Kelley, 2002; Love, 2019; Spaulding et. al., 2021). Dreaming about educational spaces where everyone can thrive is in itself a form of resistance and ensures that our fight is not stifled by our current systems and what is but also considers what could be.
Connecting Educators to Action
The Literature
Most research on educator activism in recent decades has focused on stories of and lessons from individual educator activists (Catone, 2017; Picower, 2012) or activism within teacher unions (Asselin, 2019; Charney et al., 2021; Stark, 2019). This literature has helped to define teacher activists as “educators who work for social justice both inside and outside of their classrooms” (Picower, 2012, p. 562), thus distinguishing activists from social justice classroom educators who might enact a justice-centered pedagogy inside the classroom but do not challenge larger power structures. Picower (2012) identified three commitments that represent how teachers engage in activism. The first is having “a vision of a socially just world and work[ing] to reconcile this vision with the realities of inequality that they s[ee] in the world around them” (564). The second is moving toward liberation inside of the classroom through their classroom practices and curriculum. The final commitment is standing up to oppression and pushing for systemic change using “two main approaches to make education equitable in the face of oppressive forces: (1) working collectively in groups and (2) getting teachers’ voices into the policy arena” (569). Valdez et al. (2018) define educator activism as a “struggle for” (p. 246) in order to contextualize the activism within a broader history and to emphasize “educator activism as the struggle for the inalienable right of all people to human be—to be liberated from any project of violence” (p. 247). Essentially, educator activists cannot be isolated in their classrooms; they must work with other educators, as well as students and parents, to create systemic change.
Our Present
In 2021-2022, we celebrated NYCoRE’s twenty-year anniversary. As part of that celebration, we hosted monthly learning sessions centered around our points of unity, in which we invited people doing organizing work related to those points of unity to speak on panels about the organizing that is both happening and needed in New York City schools. Videos of these sessions can be found on our Facebook page. The education justice landscape has changed in the last twenty years in New York City and there are many groups doing amazing organizing work to create change: the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) within the United Federation of Teachers, Teachers Unite (and the broader Dignity in Schools Campaign), the Alliance for Quality Education, the Coalition for Educational Justice, Teens Take Charge, Integrate NYC, the Coalition to End Mayoral Control, the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools, the New York State Youth Leadership Council, and so many others. Our role and place in the New York City education landscape compared to twenty years ago is both the same, in terms of pulling in educators and connecting them to action, and also different. For example, MORE now exists as a space for unionized teachers who are trying to shift power in the UFT. Teachers Unite is a member of the Dignity in Schools Campaign, working to challenge “the systemic problem of pushout in our nation’s schools” and “dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline” through changes in policy, including “alternatives to a culture of zero-tolerance, punishment, criminalization and the dismantling of public schools” (Dignity in Schools, n.d.). The Alliance for Quality Education is advocating for equity in school funding, universal childcare, and improving school climate by dismantling the school to prison pipeline and investing in culturally sustaining education (Alliance for Quality Education, 2018). The Coalition to End Mayoral Control is fighting to end mayoral control in New York City and establish “a fully democratic, Human Rights based governance system” (The NYC Coalition to Finally End Mayoral Control 2022, 2022). Instead of always starting our own campaigns, we are looking to support campaigns like those described above. Over the years, many educators have told us that NYCoRE was their first connection to groups like those described above. In addition to continuing to foster these connections, we are also thinking more about what it means to work in solidarity and build coalitions with partners in the fight for educational justice, particularly given our limited capacity.
Beyond supporting and working in solidarity with other organizations fighting for educational justice, we also aim to be responsive to the needs of educators, students, and families and uplift those needs. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we wrote a position statement listing education and community demands as well as long-term goals that uplifted some of the campaigns we mentioned earlier as well as others (New York Collective of Radical Educators, 2020). Currently, New York state is re-evaluating its high school graduation requirements. New York is one of a few states that still requires multiple subject tests in order to graduate from high school (FairFest, 2022). In NYCoRE, we have been fighting against the punitive use of standardized tests in schools since early in our history and are continuing this fight now with a petition that calls for an end to the New York Regents exams and a move toward “holistic assessments like portfolio-based assessments that are created by students, teachers, and parents” (New York Collective of Radical Educators, 2023).
Theorizing Our Future
NYCoRE engages educators in action on the level of classrooms, schools, and systems (particularly the New York City Department of Education) in various ways. Sometimes we wonder whether NYCoRE should be engaging in our own campaign, which is a conversation that many iterations of NYCoRE core have had, but then we look at the organizing already taking place around the city and realize that our members just need places to plug in, depending on what they are most passionate about. We are reminded of the hydra metaphor, “that the attack on public education works like a many-headed monster known as the hydra” (Picower & Mayorga, 2015, p.3). We know that when one head is being addressed, other heads are continuing the hydra’s efforts, and so we continue to educate on the hydra body, neoliberalism and racism, so that educators may then come to understand how all of the heads work together as an interconnected web. In fact, our first point of unity illustrates this belief. The most recent iteration of our first point of unity is as follows:
We believe in education that centers collective liberation and self-actualization for everyone. Currently, racism,
especially anti-Black racism, neoliberalism, and racial capitalism are driving forces in educational systems, policies, and practices. These forces perpetuate the systematic and historical oppression of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and other marginalized folk; they work in concert with all forms of oppression to perpetuate a school system that is antithetical to collective liberation. As educators, we have a responsibility to address systems of oppression and their manifestations as they impact our students, our profession, and public education as a whole.
It is our belief that by expanding collaborative struggles while maintaining a clear and compelling political analysis, the hydra will eventually be slayed. Our points of unity aim to illustrate what we believe to be our collective struggles when it comes to fighting for an education that centers collective liberation and self-actualization for everyone.
We also recognize that successful coalitions require relationships and commitment; we are currently thinking about which organizations we want to be in direct partnership with and what our capacity is to build strong coalitional relationships. We have asked and continue to ask ourselves: “How might NYCoRE and others who are part of the educational justice movement develop a shared political analysis to defeat the Hydra of racialized neoliberal education reform?” (Picower & Mayorga, 2015, p.13) We believe that educators should be organizing with students and their caregivers and that this work can happen on the school level. Beyond just providing a community within NYCoRE, we’re also thinking about how NYCoRE can better support educators in returning to their school buildings and working with colleagues to create change on a school-wide level. We understand that the work of addressing the many inequities in our public education system requires community and that many groups are needed to address the various issues. NYCoRE can support by connecting people to those fights and providing the political education required to understand the ways in which all these inequities are connected.
Conclusion
Broadly, the role of NYCoRE has been and continues to be supporting radical teachers inside and outside of the classroom. Inside the classroom, NYCoRE has supported educators through critical professional development that pushes educators to examine and develop their curriculum through a social justice lens. Outside of the classroom, NYCoRE has contributed to educational justice movements in New York City through political education and by building bridges between educator activists/organizers and other organizations working for educational justice.
Beyond New York City, NYCoRE is certainly not the only collective of its kind. In fact, NYCoRE initially took inspiration from similar groups in San Francisco (Teachers 4 Social Justice – T4SJ) and Chicago (Teachers for Social Justice – TSJ). NYCoRE is part of a national network called Teacher Activists Groups, in addition to being connected to national organizations like the Education for Liberation Network (Teacher Activist Groups, n.d.). NYCoRE members have also supported the founding of similar groups in Boston and Philadelphia (K. Catone, personal communication, November 11, 2020). As Bree shared,
NYCoRE was and is a model of what teacher activism can look like, that was grassroots and created by educators. At the time, we were, as far as I know, one of three groups nationally that was doing this work. It was us, T4SJ in San Francisco, and TSJ in Chicago. I think in a lot of ways it created a model for other teachers in other cities to think about what it could look like for teachers who care about issues of social justice to come together collectively. (B. Picower, personal communication, November 25, 2020).
In addition to being spaces for educator activists to share ideas and build movements, these teacher activist groups demonstrate the power and possibility of educator activism and organizing to create change in school systems. While this power has yet to be fully realized, recent shifts toward social justice unionism within the Red for Ed movement have shown what can be accomplished when educators work with communities to fight for educational justice. Our hope is that this article can contribute to a broader conversation about the role of teacher activist groups in progressive movements for educational justice -- creating political homes, providing critical professional development, and connecting educators to action.
Notes
1. We recognize conversations about the distinction between activism and organizing here. We have chosen to use activism in order to build on previous documentation of NYCoRE’s work that has used the term activism, particularly when focusing on individual educators within NYCoRE. However, we believe that some of what NYCoRE does, particularly in terms of political education and connecting educators to larger movements for change, is also organizing work.
2. The Red for Ed movement is typically used to refer to the wave of teacher strikes that took place in 2018 and 2019. Some, although not all, of those strikes became known for their demands that included not only increases in teacher pay and benefits but also incorporated issues affecting marginalized students and families. For more information, see Teacher Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities Our Students Deserve, published by Rethinking Schools.
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Jenna Queenan is a White, queer educator who joined NYCoRE when she moved to New York City in 2011, where she taught high school in Brooklyn for seven years before starting a PhD in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. This article is connected to her dissertation research on strategies used by radical educator collectives, like NYCoRE, in social movements.
Natalia Ortiz, a mother of two and a Chilena-Riqueña native New Yorker, began teaching and joined NYCoRE in 2006. In 2012 Natalia transitioned out of the classroom to pursue a PhD in Urban Education and is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University in the Department of Teaching and Learning.
Pam Segura is a political educator and psychology student at the New School for Social Research.
Rosie Frascella is a White, queer, trans masculine teacher who joined NYCoRE their first-year teaching in 2006. They have been a core member of NYCoRE since 2009. They teach English and social studies to newcomer high school students in Brooklyn.
Ashia Troiano was born and raised in Harlem, NY. Her mother is an Afro-Caribbean immigrant from St. Kitts, and her father was a first-generation Italian American veteran. She joined NYCoRE in 2012 when she first started teaching and currently works with college students who have experience in foster care.
Liz Velazquez, a mixed-race person of Puerto Rican and Peruvian descent, came to NYCoRE through the Educators of Color affinity group around 2014 in search of a sense of community with like-minded people. She is a public-school visual art educator with 21 years of experience.
Developing Classroom Community Agreements to Cultivate a Critically Compassionate Learning Community
by Jesica Siham Fernández
The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy. ... Urging all of us to open our minds and hearts so that we can know beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable, so that we can think and rethink, so that we can create new visions. I celebrate teaching that enables transgressions. It is that movement which makes education the practice of freedom.
- bell hooks, *Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice Freedom*
**Introduction**
In this essay, I reflect on the development of *classroom community agreements*, and how these align with my radical teaching practice and pedagogy. I describe the classroom community agreements activity I engage with my students as a humble example of the radical possibilities of learning through critical thinking, reflexivity, and dialogues grounded in collaboration and community care. When we engage a decolonial feminist approach to re-imagine learning in community, or in relation to one another, we create spaces that are critical, compassionate and community oriented. Thus, I illustrate the process of developing and implementing classroom community agreements with students to demonstrate how safe and brave spaces can coexist to then create what I define as *critically compassionate learning communities*. I purport that what is *radical* about the classroom community agreements activity is that this exercise, which I facilitate on the first and second days of classes, strives to foster collaboration, community care, and mutual learning. Radical, according to Angela Davis (1984), is about “grasping things at the root” (p. 14). In my classes this means building roots to create classroom spaces that are anti-oppressive, humanizing, and flourishing toward relational modes of learning.
As an educator, I facilitate opportunities for students to collaborate in creating our classroom so that it can be and become a critically compassionate learning community. I encourage and guide students to image what affirming or humanizing learning environments can and must be. A critically compassionate learning community is a humanizing and caring space where safety and bravery, along with criticality and compassion, can coexist. Through the classroom community agreements activity I strive to cultivate with my students a learning space that reflects and represents inclusive values and practices aligned with community care. The agreements flow organically, relationally, and experientially from and through our engagement in critical thinking, reflexivity, and dialogues. The agreements are also informed by the experiences or moments where we have felt most encouraged and supported in our learning. That is, spaces where we recognize each other, the complexities of our personhood, positionality, identities, and process of unlearning/relearning in ways that are aligned with anti-racism and anti-oppressive, decolonial feminisms, and collective radical praxes.
The purpose of the agreements is to foster experiential learning opportunities where we can cultivate supportive student-to-student and student-to-teacher relationships or interactions where we can reflect, dialogue, and connect. The agreements activity as invitation to educators—a gentle “call in” to practice collectively envisioning the classroom with our students. How I engage students to imagine what they desire classroom interactions to be is fundamental to building a critically compassionate learning community in the university. The process, however, must begin with a shared understanding of our intentions and commitments to mutual learning.
In this essay I describe why classroom community agreements are necessary, how these were developed, and what were some outcomes from our process and practice of upholding the agreements. In particular, I offer examples of how the agreements helped students work through moments of “productive tension” that led to critical thinking and humanizing recognitions of diverse lived experiences or points of view. First, I briefly outline some of the activities we engage on the first and second days of class to develop the agreements. Then, I describe our process of naming, defining, and implementing these agreements, followed by the practice of applying or sustaining these in moments of tension. Conflict in the classroom is understood as valuable, productive, and even a necessary form of tension that can help students broaden and deepen their critical reflexivity and understanding of a topic, as well as develop humility and appreciation for a view or perspective different from their own. I frame as “productive tension” any conflict that is often necessary for critical thinking and collaboration. The agreements, unlike typical “rules” or “standards” for classroom dialogue that often re-inscribe power dynamics, are arrived at collectively and modified as a class over the course of our time together. Finally, I close with reflections on the outcomes of developing and practicing our classroom community agreements for supporting students’ critically thinking about social issues.
**Student Reflections on Safe and Brave Spaces**
Our classroom community agreements co-development process begins early in the quarter. We start by deconstructing what a college classroom is or feels like for some students, and who or what a professor looks like (Fernández, 2023) via critically reflexive dialogues that I facilitate. Critically reflexive dialogues are characterized by a process and practice of introspection, specifically being or becoming aware of one’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions as these surface via reflections and dialogues that involve actively listening to others, whilst speaking from one’s own subjective experiences (Fernández & Magaña-Gamero, 2018; Silva, Fernández, & Nguyen, 2022). I guide students through variations of the following questions: *If you are comfortable participating, I invite you to close your eyes. Now, imagine a classroom or physical space that has felt affirming and humanizing for you. What does this space look like? What practices have led you to experience challenges and/or belonging or affirmation in that space, or in the classroom?* I invite students to imagine, visualize, or draw from their memories or lived experiences an image or scenario of an affirming space or an inclusive classroom experience, and to describe how it felt. This initial activity
helps us tune into our lived experiences as valuable sources of knowledge that can support mutual learning and a sense of community. Once students engage in this activity, specifically their visualizations of an inclusive or humanizing classroom, I assign students writing prompts.
Before the second day of class, students are encouraged to come prepared to class with a written reflection in response to the assigned readings: Arao and Clemens (2013) *From safe spaces to brave spaces*, and Leonardo and Porter (201) *Pedagogy of fear: Toward a Fanonian theory of ‘safety’ in race dialogue*. The critically reflexive dialogues we engage are in and of themselves an exercise for how classroom conversations, and even conflict, will be facilitated, engaged, or resolved. The written reflections help us generate our agreements as we proceed to discuss these in relation to our experiential knowledge of how classroom spaces have felt, what students hope to experience, and how we can create a critically compassionate learning community that is supportive of diverse lived experiences and worldviews. As a class, for example, students collectively and relationally share what they learned or engaged in the readings and written reflections. Students discuss in small and large group discussion what surfaced for them and why, and how what they imagined was reflected or not in the readings, their past and present learning experiences. To further our dialogues, I pose variations of the following questions as part of our class discussion: *What is a safe space? What is a brave space? What do you envision a critically compassionate learning community to be and feel like?*
In sharing with each other what we mean by safe, brave, and critical spaces, we co-develop classroom community agreements that are grounded in a commitment to mutual critical learning toward fostering what I describe as a critically compassionate learning community. Thus, students will often offer compelling reflections on what our agreements could be and why these are important. I offer a few quotes from students’ writings:
It is important to be more mindful of all groups and foster deeper conversations that allow all involved to growth. I want to try to incorporate this into my life by striving toward creating spaces that can be brave and safe, or supportive of our growth and care for each other.
– White, cisgender woman, first year student
I recently heard from a fellow student that they don’t want everyone to feel comfortable or have a guarantee of comfort. And I grappled with this. … The concept of “challenge by choice” is an attempt to address this, yet I wonder if the depths of how the unfamiliar defines a brave space rather than just the choice to challenge was considered. The problem may not be that people do not wish to engage, that being brave is not a matter of speaking, but rather the act of challenging the unfamiliar.
– Asian American, cisgender man, first year student
We are all our own person, coming from our own different backgrounds, but that does not mean that we should treat others differently. As more and more of us begin to learn how to have conversations on difficult topics and re-connect, it is my hope that we can foster brave spaces that are also safe so that we can do better for ourselves and by others. I’m inspired to reflect on my own humanity, and identities to help me create spaces that are inclusive of all people.
– Latinx, cisgender woman, third year student
The idea of a brave space has resonated with me that I have adapted it into many other aspects of my life. It has made me reflect on every safe space that I am a part of and led me to question whether or not these spaces are encouraging critical consciousness.
– White, cisgender woman, first year student
Learning perspectives that I have likely not encountered previously will challenge me. However it is important to me that I am open to learning from these experiences as this will lead me to a path of personal growth and learning. I’m willing to see things in a new way.
– White, cisgender man, fourth year student
We reflect, discuss, and describe qualities of safe, brave, and critical spaces to articulate how we wish to experience the classroom environment in ways that can support mutual critical learning.
Through critically reflexive dialogues students begin to connect what they imagined or visualized as inclusive classrooms with what they wrote in relation to the assigned articles, then to the classroom community agreements we are co-developing. Together, students and I are encouraged to reflect on how we felt about that which we imagined or envisioned, and what practices, actions, dynamics, or characteristics of a classroom space could lead students to feel included, affirmed, and supported in their learning. Through small and large group discussions students share their thoughts, and we begin to generate a list of reflections that serve as the foundation to guide us into an understanding of what could support our learning. All students have an opportunity to contribute to creating our classroom community agreements.
**Developing Our Classroom Community Agreements**
Our conversations on safe, brave, and critically compassionate classrooms draw from writings by Arao and Clemens (2013), who reference the work of Holley and Steiner (2005) on safe and brave spaces. Although safe spaces purport the illusion [purport to offer security . . . ? give the illusion of security . . .?] of security or absence of harm, brave spaces invite a degree of audacity to embrace difference, uncertainty, and conflict, which is necessary for critical consciousness development. Thus, a safe space is “an environment in which students are willing and able to
participate and honestly struggle with challenging issues” (p. 49). A brave space, on the other hand, invites “courageous conversations about race” (Singleton & Linton, 2005; Sparks, 2002), or other difficult topics that often require the courage to challenge assumptions or hegemonic discourses.
As we reflect and dialogue, we develop an understanding of the differences between safe and brave spaces. Students’ comments are written on the whiteboard for all to respond to, expand upon, and/or challenge. Some of the comments students have offered include the following:
Different students, based on their positionalities and lived experiences, will experience safe and brave spaces differently at varied moments. Student experiences in such spaces are constantly changing.
– South Asian American, cisgender woman, second year student
Safety might not be best for difficult topics. We need to be open to discomfort to make progress.
– White, cisgender woman, third year student-athlete
Brave spaces call for courage and a way to help all people interact with each other authentically when engaging in difficult conversations.
– Latinx, cisgender man, second year student
In order to confront issues of social injustice we must recognize how power and privilege influence race relations in the U.S. – and how, as the article highlights: this country is never safe for people of color.
– African American, cisgender man, fourth year student-athlete
The distinctions made between safe and brave spaces, and the importance of fostering a hybrid of qualities in both for cultivating critical spaces for dialogue, reflection, and growth, can help us proceed onto describing the classroom environment that we, as a class, want to experience. Our critically reflexive dialogues focus on classroom environments we have experienced as caring or nourishing of our learning. In this way, we envision what our co-learning experiences could be.
1. Respect yourself & this focus group/interview space
2. Don’t judge others
3. Listen with an open mind (e.g., show you care and have compassion for others)
4. Speak using "I" statements (e.g., I feel that..., I don't like it when...)
5. Don’t share other people’s stories
6. Be present by actively listening to others (e.g., make sure your phones are on silent)
7. Make space for others to participate
8. One mic - one person talks at a time
9. Challenge by choice (e.g., you can participate and share to the extent that you're comfortable)
10. Confidentiality & privacy (e.g., what is shared here, stay here)
FIGURE 1. CLASSROOM COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS, FALL 2015
I have facilitated and led several activities toward the development of inclusive spaces for learning and solidarity. Yet, as an educator I am most intentional of ensuring that each class has an opportunity, and an experience, to co-create their unique set of agreements as a class, whilst recognizing that these may change over time. Featured in Figure 1, for example, are classroom community agreements created in my first quarter at Claradise University\(^2\) in fall 2015.
Every quarter our agreements evolve, and often have expanded to include community care. Figure 2 shows another iteration of changes to our agreements to meet students’ needs.
The agreements, along with their meaning, intention, and application have varied from class to class. Yet what remains consistent is that the agreements are created with a genuine sense of care that animates relational learning via criticality and compassion. Together, we develop classroom community agreements that help foster our process of unlearning/relearning and relationality.
1. Respect yourself & our learning community
2. Agree to disagree
3. Come with an open mind – and heart
4. Step up & Step back
5. Suspend judgements and assumptions
6. Engage in Critical Reflexivity
7. Challenge by choice
FIGURE 2. CLASSROOM COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS, FALL 2021
Engaging Our Community Agreements in Moments of Tension
Over the years that I have facilitated the development of classroom community agreements I have observed recurring themes in what we produce. Through critically reflexive dialogues, journaling, and small and large group discussions, variations of classroom community agreements are developed that help cultivate critically compassionate learning communities. One of the most immediate student impulses when creating our agreements is to name common ground rules, like respect and agree to disagree. When asked to think further about what these rules or expectations mean, students often come to a consensus that these are premised on a structure to maintain comfort or privilege tied to power at the expense of decolonial critical inquiry and collaboration. Most conceptualizations of respect are aligned with civility; yet, in relation to our agreements students view respect as more expansive. Respect as civility is noted as important; yet too limiting of a conceptualization in relation to caring and honoring the self, others, and our humanity. Thus, the addition of respect yourself and our learning community helps students recognize that while we are individuals, we are also part of a collective that is or must be critical \textit{and} compassionate to facilitate meaningful learning in community.
Because most students strive to participate and contribute to learning with integrity and dignity, they are often very genuine about asking for help or recognizing that they may struggle with certain topics yet are open to being brave or courageous in their sharing. One student, for example, stated that “taking responsibility for my own learning process requires taking a risk and even being uncomfortable or brave.” Similarly, another student noted that “respect is premised on civility”—and “if disagreements surface, maintaining respect can be challenging, but we must respect each other so we can learn.” Rather than proposing an agreement of respect that is decontextualized or implicit of accountability, students often reframed the agreement to affirm their commitment to mutual learning via perspective taking, as Figure 3 illustrates.
Community Agreements
As an anti-oppressive decolonial feminist educator, it is important for me that we establish a set of “ground rules” or what I prefer to call “Community Agreements” for how we will engage with one another in reviewing, learning and discussing the course content. Below is a list of Community Agreements for our online class.
- Respect yourself \& our learning community (respect your process and the subjectivities of others)
- Suspend judgments \& assumptions (try to withhold judgments or biases about others and their opinions, be mindful of how you ask, or word, comments and questions)
- Listen with compassion (hear people out, don’t judge or assume ignorant comments are made out of malice or hate, but rather see them as learning opportunities for all involved)
- Engage with an open mind and heart (all people have different lived experiences, however we are all deserving of respect and dignity, therefore please approach all discussions and on-line learning engagements with critical compassion -- call people “in” to a conversation)
- Reflexivity (engage in conscious self-awareness, be mindful about your emotions and though process as you are feeling and experiencing them -- discern the source of your thought and subjective experience)
- Perspective taking (try to consider where the other person might be coming from, walking in another person’s shoes)
- Step up \& step back (facilitate opportunities for others who have not spoken up to also join in the conversation, this means you stepping back so others can step forward, step up)
- Challenge ideas -- not people
- Challenge by choice (you have a right to participate to the extend that you want and are comfortable, you can challenge your discomfort to the degree that you are willing -- however, given the on-line structure of this course your on-line/virtual participation is imperative!)
- Confidentiality/Privacy (strive to maintain the stories and experiences shared by others to yourself or within our learning community, online learning environment; stories shared that compromise your safety/health and that of other student(s) will have to be addressed accordingly through OSL)
FIGURE 3. CLASSROOM COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS, SPRING 2022
When striving to foster a critical consciousness within a critically compassionate learning community, an agreement of agree to disagree, which can be associated with conflict, can also be recognized as valuable, productive, or even necessary because it can lead to critically thinking and engagement in actions aligned with social change and transformative justice.
The conflict, or “productive tensions,” that may surface with a difficult topic, must not be defused, however. Instead, it can be directed or guided to help students better understand an issue, and elucidate different viewpoints among us. In fact, topics considered through various viewpoints can support the process of mutual learning through iterative cycles of reflection and dialogue, thus leading to deeper critical thinking. A student described this process of disagreement as a form of “necessary discomfort,” sharing that “by troubling, deconstructing and rethinking issues from a critical, intersectional and sociopolitical standpoint we can reach a deeper analysis that sees issues from an intersectional lens.” Rather than being avoided, disagreements that are discomforting can often lead to developing a critical consciousness, which is imperative of collaboration and solidarity as well. If troubling discourses went unchallenged, as is often the case in safe spaces, the critical learning that is characteristic of brave and critically compassionate spaces would not be possible.
In my classes it is common for some students to embrace disagreement because they see experiences as valuable opportunities for gaining new or nuanced insights. To offer an example of “productive tension” that served as an important classroom moment for critical learning, I offer a fieldnote of a dialogue between two students in my *Introduction to Latinx Studies* course in spring of 2022. The fieldnote highlights how the agreements are enacted by students, and why developing these with students is a valuable strategy to support critical consciousness.
It was the beginning of the fall quarter, and an uncertain return to teaching in person following almost two years teaching remotely or in a hybrid modality given the context of the pandemic. Students were thrilled to return to the classroom and engage in meaningful learning, dialogues, and community building with their peers. Fall quarter also coincided with Latina heritage month, and there were several activities and events to be planned for the month of September and part of October. Among one of these [Among these? One of these?] was the 7th Latin American Speaker Series, which I was organizing as a campus wide event. As I announced the details and themes of the event, and connected it to our recent discussion on the role of U.S. foreign economic policies and military or political interventions in Latin America, one student, Carlos, remarked that Latin American immigrants who flee their countries of origin do so in pursuit of human rights and freedoms, and he offered his experience on the violence that ensued in Guatemala in the 1980s, he wanted to underscore that while the U.S. is and can be an oppressive country, and even unwelcoming of immigrants, some people seek refuge and asylum in the U.S. because their home country has been pillaged by violence and a total violation of human rights often by people in positions of leadership or power who are not “American,” but rather from their home country. Another student, Leo, a second generation Mexican American, who identified as Chicano, expressed disagreement with the students, noting and citing a passage from Gonzalez’s reading: “the U.S. economic and political domination over Latin America has always been –and continues to be—the underlying reason for the massive Latino presence here. Quite simply, our vast Latino population is the unintended harvest of the U.S. empire (xvii).” With this remark the student wanted to underscore that while these human rights violations in Latin American are taking place, these are a direct result from U.S. involvement in Latin American politics – from military training and funding to neoliberal economic policies that widen the inequities between the rich and poor. The student offered examples from Mexico and El Salvador. Both of these students were anchoring their thoughts in their lived experiences and understandings of themselves as recent migrants (Guatemalan student), or as children of Immigrants with ties to Latin America (Chicano student). There seemed to be discomfort in both of them sharing their differing viewpoints as there was some hesitation or pausing as they spoke, perhaps signaling their mindfulness to what they would say, and how they would say it. Students were seated across the classroom from each other, and as they responded to one another they turned around to see themselves as if they were conversing. The pausing in between their dialogue, the ways in which they turned their bodies to face each other, and the ease and slowness in the tone of their voice signaled for me that perhaps they were engaging in critical reflexivity and perspective taking. Students had a choice to respond or remain silent, yet our community agreement of challenge by choice allowed them to share, and subsequently listen to one another in what I perceived as a sense of openness. I observed the dialogue unfold, watching and listening as the students held their own. I also noticed how some of the other students in the class wrote notes, while others fixed their gaze to the ceiling or the students speaking thereby engaging in a form of witnessing. I then invited us as a class to introspectively engage with their peers’ dialogue, and how what was shared could offer us a nuanced perspective of their points of view.
Disagreements, differing viewpoints, and even challenging comments, were most often noted by students as invitations to “see from another side,” and to listen with compassion, specifically to hold back or pause before immediately responding. In that moment of pause students could engage in critical reflexivity that is introspective thinking or processing what information to share, and how it will be shared. Some students, as described, even took notes before speaking. As a class we tried to suspend any judgments or assumptions by allowing for moments of pause, silence, and note-taking or free-writing. Some of the class discussions that led to a degree of “productive tension” were not viewed negatively by students, but rather as an “aha” moment. These were important and meaningful learning opportunities that, as students noted in their end of quarter reflection paper, were necessary for them to be/become “woke.” Students described these moments as valuable in helping them feel, reflect, and process their thoughts before considering other agreements such as stepping in or stepping back, or challenge by choice, and opening their hearts and minds as form of respecting themselves, their peers, and our classroom space.
The fieldnote example that I provided draws from an interaction in my *Introduction to Latinx Studies* course, which is an undergraduate course that fulfills the diversity requirement that all students are expected to take in order to graduate. As a result it is a highly sought out course that often brings non-social sciences majors from Engineering, Computer Science, and Math together with students majoring in the humanities or social sciences. Key readings and multimodal content are assigned ranging from articles to book chapters, blogs, poetry, and digital media, such as podcasts and documentaries. Two guiding texts that inform the content and structure of the course are Lisa Garcia Bedolla’s *Latino Politics* (2014) and Juan Gonzalez’s *Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America* (2011). We engage, review, reflect, and discuss a variety of topics, starting with a sociohistorical comparative analysis of U.S. history, specifically settler colonialism, imperialism, structural violence, and the lived experiences of indigenous, mestizo, and Afro-mestizo/Afro-Latinx communities in the Americas. The course follows a quarter system which consists of ten weeks. Each week is aligned with a particular set of interconnected topics, such as citizenship at the intersections of race and gender, migrant labor, immigration, education, civil rights movements, activism and contemporary Latinx struggles, among these economic equity, racial justice, health and intergenerational wellbeing.
Immigration is a topic that often raises or surfaces among students the most discomfort or “productive tension.” Because of the complexities of understanding the U.S. immigration system, and the polarization of immigration debates and potential solutions that circulate public discourse, especially in the media, students often engaged the topic with a degree of hesitation and even anxiety. Immigration is a sensitive and dividing topic to discuss because it inevitably surfaces familial histories and lived experiences, whilst troubling U.S. narratives associated with the American Dream, meritocracy, and the pursuit of freedom. However, as most students from communities of color will express, actualizing the American Dream is an illusion for many, and one that immigrant communities and Latinx in particular may often live in struggle to achieve.
The classroom community agreements nevertheless help us anchor in a mutual understanding and shared value that while we may have our unique immigrant experiences, or story, and personal or political point of view, the histories of settler colonialism, imperialism, and racialization that shaped U.S. immigration patterns continue to inform present day conditions. Although agreeing to disagree can leave problematic oppressive beliefs or discourses unquestioned or intact, it can also help students understand that their views will be heard and respectfully challenged. Offering a more unique perspective on this agreement, a student shared that agreeing to disagree “can foreclose opportunities for developing a consciousness about injustice and its impact on communities, so rather than agreeing to disagree we must agree that there is no place for injustice, and we all deserve to be respected and treated with dignity.” Variations of this comment were often stated and expressed by students of color and/or of marginalized genders who felt misrepresented or othered on campus.
To illustrate another moment of “productive tension” that ultimately helped students engage in critical thinking and solidarity around a local social issue in San José, I offer a reflection of a recent conversation that unfolded among three students who were dialoguing [about?] whether the removal of historic Chicanox murals was warranted:
Shortly after sharing a video of news media coverage on the historic *Mural de la Raza* being painted over in the East Side, Sonia, one of the few white ethnic studies majors and a local of San José [first sentence in paragraph uses San José ] raised in proximity to where the mural was removed, voiced her anger and frustration with gentrification that was displacing and impacting the Chicanox and Latinx communities. Andy, who seemed less disturbed by the erasure of the mural compared to Sonia, and several other students, among them Ana from Boyle Heights (Los Angeles), stated that if the property was purchased the owner had a right to do with the building as they wished. Ana immediately spoke up to underscore how such events of sociocultural and historic erasure would not happen in wealthier neighborhoods where communities are often asked and consulted rather than being ignored and silenced. Sonia announced that while the mural had been erased there were several others in the area, and that local communities and grassroots organizations were mobilizing themselves to be a part of the decision making process with what happens to community art. Ana restated Sonia’s point: “Chicanx art is community art, it is art for us and by us,” Andy’s face flushed, seeming a bit embarrassed; he suggested that perhaps the removal of a mural could lead to new ones being made. Ana attempted to interrupt Andy; however Sonia intervened gently waving her hand to then express “let him finish.” There was a very brief moment of silence which I held as important for us to review some of what was just expressed. Andy spoke slowly and thoughtfully about what he intended to convey, which I then paraphrased, I offered an interpretation of Andy’s comment that underscored that while an important mural was erased, a new one could be made that could bring people together, the newcomers and the more established families. Sonia, who had been jotting some notes in her journal looked up, nodding in approval of what was paraphrased and shared that the goal was to create “community art, with the impacted communities having a seat at the table.” In this way, she was affirming the interpretation I offered, to which Andy replied with a “For sure, I understand now.” Both Andy and Sonia seemed to have arrived at a common understanding: people should come together to create community art for and by the community. There was a softness in Sonia’s comment, and this seemed to create more space for Ana to follow up and share that “We want to be seen and heard.” Andy nodding in agreement, taking a more related embodied posture in his seat, while both Sonia and Ana looked at each other signaling with their looks and gestures a validation noted through a reciprocal smile.
The agreements help students pause, reflect, and discern *what* they want to share and *how* to share. Specifically, they facilitate students’ awareness of their needs and capacities as listeners, speakers, and learners. Reflexivity as mindfulness was noted in the pauses, affirmations, gestures, and journaling some students engaged in to help them process what was being shared. In their end-of-quarter reflection paper some students noted these as important practices that helped them learn with an openness of heart and mind. For example, in her reflection paper Sonia explained that reflexivity is about “having the curiosity to learn with others through wonder.” Similarly, Andy expressed that reflexivity is “listening without judgement, being active and present with others.” Consistent with their remarks, other students defined critical reflexivity as “being present” and “here and now.” Although varied and unique interpretations of critical reflexivity were offered by students, the process of introspection, active listening, and mindfulness were foundational to learning in accordance with our community agreements.
Our classroom community agreements serve our vision of a humanizing decolonial feminist education. Thus, when there is conflict, or one or more of the agreements has been misunderstood or overlooked, we approach this through a process that involves sharing, reflecting, and discussing *why* and *how* one or more agreements may not be supporting our learning. We also identify the harm and wounding that was done, along with the impact and its implications on the person or people so that reparation and healing can begin. Reparation is understood as the restoration of a caring,
respectful, and collaborative relationship. Naming any form of transgression or harm is an important first step toward ensuring accountability, and that proper actions will follow, such as an apology that is intentional and active. The response must involve a sincere acknowledgement of the problem, and there must be accountability and relational responsibility to ensure a healthy and healing relationship is possible. The agreements are therefore always framed as a work in progress. We agree to revisit our agreements and revise them at any point in the quarter. Together we assess and adjust these as needed. In particular, we amend our agreements when one or some of these are inadequate to our learning process, and when they limit our opportunities for personal and relational development, critical consciousness, and collaboration as a critically compassionate learning community.
Concluding Reflections on Critically Compassionate Learning
As an educator I position myself as a student of my students from whom I learn. Together we form a classroom that is critical \textit{and} compassionate. As the two examples shared demonstrate, the agreements guide our practice and intentions to share what we know, to challenge what we think we know or do not know, and to humble ourselves to the complexities of sharing knowledge and understanding grounded in a critical consciousness of the inner workings of power. To engage with issues that position students at seemingly opposite sides of misunderstandings, or which surface implicit biases and prejudices about race, gender, power, and other topics, is an important purpose of the classroom community agreements. As principles toward fostering collaboration in learning, as well as a community of care, the agreements hold potential for creating safe and brave spaces that over time become critically compassionate spaces. The agreements can help foster spaces where students feel brave enough to be vulnerable, yet safe to trust that they will gain insights about themselves, grow in the process, and build community with their peers. Indeed, the process of mutual learning must be embraced and understood as fluid, evolving, iterative, and ongoing. We are capable of learning with and from each other when we are anchored in principles that we are most willing to practice and sustain.
The community agreements activity, along with the agreements themselves, are my attempt at putting into practice my pedagogical principles, whilst creating a decolonial classroom experience with students. What I have offered in this essay is a reflection on our process and the outcomes of the agreements. However, the agreements are not meant to ensure that the classroom is always a safe and/or brave and/or critical space equally for all students. Instead what must remain true or consistent is our commitment to care for each other, and to see, hear, and learn \textit{from} and \textit{with} each other. Thus, we approach and practice the agreements not as classroom standards or ground rules but as principles. When enacted, these help us put into practice what bell hooks (1994) names as an education for freedom, and the heart to humanize our learning.
Developing a critical consciousness—and the heart to meet others where they are, and to accompany them in mutual learning—is at the core of an anti-racist, feminist, socialist, and decolonial form of learning. Our classroom community agreements activity therefore invites us, students and teachers, to engage mindfully in critically reflexive dialogues about the practices that will help us learn in wholesome and humanizing ways. We are constantly evolving, just as our agreements are. Teaching is an ongoing decolonial praxis that, as bell hooks (1994) underscored, requires and necessitates that we “open our minds and hearts . . . so that we can create new visions.” As educators we do far more than teach; we support the leadership and development of citizens of competence, consciousness, and compassion. By cultivating a critically compassionate learning community in the classroom I am making a contribution to re-imagining a society where our humanity and interdependence are affirmed, and where shared values can guide us toward transformative justice. To build a more just, equitable, and sustainable world it is necessary that we foster critically compassionate learning spaces where we see each other as a community of learners, and where students can be brave enough to share and feel seen, heard, and affirmed beyond the mere label of a safe space.
Notes
1. Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Jesica Silham Fernández at email@example.com, Ethnic Studies Department, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053 (USA). The author thanks Radical Teacher Editors and the anonymous Reviewers for their feedback and comments as these significantly contributed to the development of this essay.
2. I use Claradise University as a pseudonym for the institution wherein these activities and experiences unfolded to maintain the confidentiality and anonymity of the students. Claradise University is a Jesuit private institution located in the Silicon Valley (California, USA). Although its social justice mission toward serving communities on the margins distinguishes Claradise University from other institutions in the Greater Bay Area, the institution does not reflect the demographics of the region; it is disproportionately attended by students who are upper- to middle-class and white. Recently, however, there are efforts to recruit and retain more students, faculty, and staff of color, and to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that can support Latinx, African American, low-income, first-generation college students, undocumented students, and students of marginalized genders of intersecting identities.
3. All student names are pseudonyms to maintain the confidentiality and anonymity of the students. Teaching reflections and fieldnotes are excerpts from my pedagogical journaling entries, which I maintain to reflect, improve, and revise my teaching and pedagogy at the end of the quarter and academic year.
References
Arao, Brian, and Kristi Clemens. 2013. *From safe spaces to brave spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice*. In Landreman, Lisa M. (Ed.), *The art of effective facilitation: Reflections from social justice educators* (pp. 135–150). ACPA-College Student Educators International.
Fernández, Jesica S., and Alejandra Magaña Gamero. 2018. *Latinx/Chicanx students on the path to conocimiento: Critical reflexivity journals as tools for healing and resistance in the Trump Era*. *Association of Mexican American Educators Journal* 12.3: 13-32.
hooks, bell. 2014. *Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom*. Routledge.
Holley, Lynn C., and Sue Steiner. 2005. *Safe space: Student perspectives on classroom environment*. *Journal of Social Work Education* 41.1: 49-64.
Leonardo, Zeus, and Ronald K. Porter. 2010. *Pedagogy of fear: Toward a Fanonian theory of ‘safety’in race dialogue*. *Race Ethnicity and Education* 13.2: 139-157.
Silva, Janelle M., Jesica S. Fernández, and Angela Nguyen. 2022. “And now we resist”: Three testimonios on the importance of decoloniality within psychology. *Journal of Social Issues* 78.2: 388-412.
Singleton, Glenn. E. and Curtis W. Linton. 2005. *Courageous conversations about race: A field guide for achieving equity in schools*. Corwin Press.
Sparks, Dennis. 2002. *Conversations about race need to be fearless*. *Journal of Staff Development*, 23.4: 60-64.
**Jesica Siham Fernández** is an Assistant Professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at Santa Clara University, and author of “Growing Up Latinx: Coming of Age in a Time of Contested Citizenship” (NYU Press, 2021). Grounded in decolonial feminisms, she engages participatory action research (PAR), *testimonio*, and auto-ethnography as epistemologies, pedagogies, methodologies, and liberatory research paradigms to support women of color, youth, and student activists, as well as Latinx communities in their sociopolitical wellbeing.
Unconditional Care Beyond the Carceral Education State: A Call for Abolitionist Departure
by Margaret Goldman
Part I. The Story of a Free Space: A Point of Departure and a Site of Return
When Zahra was still a student at F.R.E.E. LA continuation high school, where she and I both now teach, she told me this:
“I was always smart. I never had a problem completing the work. That wasn’t the problem for me. I think it was the focus. That’s why I like F.R.E.E. LA so much—’cause it’s people like me. It’s people like me here, but not everyone is like me, you know. And especially the teachers—like, they just know. They know life shows up for everybody.”
As we talked, a single braid, intent on freeing itself from the others, cascaded over her shoulder and she pushed it back without skipping a beat—her face, her breath, her eyes unchanging.
“In a regular school they don’t really give a fuck,” she continued. “Like, say if your grandma died. They might care for the moment, or say they care, but once it starts affecting your performance? They don’t.” She shook her head slowly, eyes narrowed, pointed towards the floor but looking past it. Looking at something that already happened, something replaying in her head.
“Once it starts affecting your performance, they don’t care at all.”
***
We had been sitting in my classroom at F.R.E.E. LA High (Fighting for the Revolution to Educate and Empower Los Angeles)—what I’ll call FREE, for short—as I was making the transition from ethnographer to teacher/ethnographer; FREE is a continuation high school in Los Angeles, California developed by the Youth Justice Coalition (YJC), a grassroots, abolitionist organization led by system-impacted young people and their communities. As part of their broader movement to end all forms of youth confinement, YJC developed FREE in 2007 as an alternative to both traditional schools and youth lock-up (YJC, 2022). Despite the use and public image of many continuation schools as institutions of confinement or abandonment, FREE is a police-free, punishment-free educational space grounded in principles of transformative justice (TJ), and focused on grassroots movement building and political education. It serves, and was created by, young people who have been pushed out of, barred from, or otherwise refused participation in traditional schooling. After being forced to relocate by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which demolished their original home to build a parking garage, YJC took over and is in the process of beautifying a juvenile detention center that they organized to shut down about ten years ago. This is where FREE now lives—where Zahra and I sat in a room with windowless walls aching to be torn down. My broader ethnographic project has looked to this space, and these young people’s stories and insight, as blueprints for abolitionist experiments in alternative forms of social organization.
More specifically, working from FREE’s ideological positioning of itself as neither an institution of confinement nor an institution of traditional education, I am interested in what it might tell us about abolitionist alternatives to traditional schooling—as an anchor of carceral regimes and a site of anti-black enclosure (Sojoynier, 2016) that reinforces racial State power through its institutional, ideological, and interpersonal terms, conditions, and mandates. As part of a broader interest in the possibilities for creating liberatory educational spaces beyond or outside of the traditional school system, I have aimed to understand the ideological and interpersonal construction of the FREE space: What makes this space different? What makes it fugitive (which is not to say without contradictions)? In this paper, I wrestle with students’ repeated theorizations of this difference through the concept of care. More specifically, my task in this paper is to think through students’ conceptualizations of care at FREE—how it is experienced, theorized, and embodied in the space—in contrast to the type of care students say they experience in “regular schools.” Things like, “once it starts affecting your performance, they don’t care at all.” My task, as well, is to consider what these conflicting articulations of care mean for abolitionist education.
Data and Theory
My larger 3-year ethnographic study utilizes observational field work, interviews with FREE staff and YJC organizers, and education-focused oral histories of FREE students. FREE’s core staff includes three teachers, an academic counselor, a transformative justice (TJ) counselor, and two peace builders (unarmed South Central community members trained in de-escalation). Of FREE’s ~25 students, all are Black, Latinx, and/or Mexican or Chicxanx; most if not all are impacted by overlapping carceral systems of probation, incarceration, immigration, and/or foster care; and all navigate and resist overlapping landscapes of dispossession that are largely space-based. Here, my use of “space” refers to both body and place.¹
While some students are referred directly from traditional high schools or other State agencies (e.g., Child Protective Services), a majority of students hear about FREE from friends, family members, and neighbors. As Lupita—a FREE graduate and now lead coordinator between FREE and YJC—described: “It’s all by word of mouth. Because it’s like, ‘Hey you don’t like that school? Forget that school, come to FREE.’ And that’s how I found out about the school.” Many students were moved, or moved themselves, between multiple schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District before arriving at FREE. Some attended other alternative (continuation) schools along the way, which they often had to find on their own after leaving or being removed from traditional schooling.
In thinking through the possibilities for forging abolitionist educational spaces, I am guided by Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s theorization of forgotten places. Critiquing her own concept of the gulag (2007) to capture California’s
massive prison economy, Gilmore (2008, p. 34) asks: “What concept might get at the kinds of forgotten places that have been absorbed into the gulag yet exceed them?” In turn, she conceptualizes forgotten places as those beyond the margins of the carceral State, where organized abandonment and the critical consciousness that accompanies it cultivate unique capacities for collective organizing. Forgotten spaces helps me think through alternative schools as critical sites of meaning-making positioned slightly beyond or outside the traditional school system, and as spaces inhabited by young people and educators with distinct experiential knowledge of spatial displacement and transformation. In my reading, forgottenness signifies not a pathologization of dispossessed/racialized spaces (where space is both body and place), but rather a spatial relationship, and an act of flight, departure, or “stealing away” (Robinson & Robinson, 2017, p. 3). Forgottenness, in other words, is not reducible to abandonment from above; rather, as Lupta’s “word of mouth” framing suggests, it refers as well to the ways individuals and groups of individuals remove themselves from spaces in which their lives are devalued. Thus, to exceed in this context captures a particular type of abolitionist transformation that is distinct from reform, critique, or resistance (Campt, 2017; Hartman, 2021; Harney & Moten, 2013).
Lastly, Gilmore’s theorizations have led me to think through complex problems and their solutions spatially, which is always also to say racially. In analyzing the sometimes paradoxical role of alternative schools in processes and structures of dispossession and departure, I’ve found it most useful to think in terms of a landscape, which allows me also to think about the movement of people, ideas, emotions, relationships, and resources across space(s). Thinking about schooling and carcerality spatially—as a carceral-education landscape—provokes questions about what it means, what it takes, and when it becomes necessary to exceed, rather than reform or resist, that landscape.
Turning now to young people’s experiences navigating this landscape, and their perceptions of FREE’s attempts to exceed it, I wrestle with conflicting genealogies and possibilities of care—how it structures the landscape as a mechanism of domination, but also its potentialities as a means of departure.
**Part II. Care in the Carceral Education Landscape**
“Once it starts affecting your performance, they don’t care at all.”
Using this notion of a landscape, I want to return to Zahra’s words and read them alongside another student’s, who similarly critiques traditional schooling through the lens of its contradistinction to FREE. Amidst the noise of books being closed and backpacks being zipped, this student, Diego, said: “You know, Miss, they actually help you here at
FREE. In regular schools, once you do a bad thing, they just think you’re a bad kid, a fuck up. And then they don’t care about you anymore. After that, they’re not gonna try to help you. They just kick you out.”
As reflective of sentiments expressed by multiple students, these students’ words capture a core juxtaposition, and a critical point of departure. In particular, Zahra and Diego’s summary of the difference between FREE and “regular schools” reflects something that emerges continuously in interviews and conversations with young people in the space. While they express a profound sense of safety and trust in a school that does not rely on police or punishment, when I ask students what makes FREE “different” for them, what I hear most often are things like: “they get it,” “they understand” and, especially, “they actually care.” The frequent repetition of the phrase “they actually care” demands grappling with this concept and its place in the movement towards abolition.
Initially, this demand concerned me. Alongside its longstanding liberatory genealogies, care is also tethered to violent genealogies that have been and remain integral to colonialism, transatlantic slavery, and its many afterlives.
Care has been the fulcrum around which coerced reproductive, social, and other labor has been exploited and extracted (for Black women in particular), and around which violent and enduring gendered-racial ideologies and terms of order have been crafted (Hartman, 2016). Perhaps less visceral but no less violent, neoliberal individualized notions of care have functioned—at best—as an insufficient antidote to, and thus obscuration of, structural issues—a critique others have developed elsewhere (Thompson, 1998). Before thinking through the revolutionary possibilities of care in abolitionist education, I build from Zahra’s, Diego’s, and other students’ theorizations to discuss how a particular iteration of care—what I am calling conditional care—functions to sustain and naturalize a perpetually uneven carceral-education landscape.
Thus, within the carceral-education landscape—where there are, so we’re led to believe, “good” schools and “urban” schools and “schools for the bad kids”—conditional care is both necessary for and an outcome of the colonial, white supremacist ideology that certain people are disposable. It is necessary for and an outcome of systems that disappear people, as racialized proxies for social problems, into forgotten spaces (like prisons and alternative schools). As constituent of these ideologies and systems, this conditional care is fundamentally anti-black and rooted in myths of meritocracy, and it binds productivity and performance to who counts as human. My argument is that this conditional care is endemic to American schooling. And, that this is not a matter of individual teachers who care or don’t care (although that is certainly important), but rather of the institutional and ideological contexts they operate within. To wrestle with this conditional care is to recognize that relationships structure and are inextricably structured by these contexts, which determine the forms of social organization that are possible.
And wrestling I was, indeed. If conditional care played such a critical role in students’ displacement, then what were the students capturing (or reclaiming) in the repeated assertion that what makes FREE so different is that “they actually care”? Thinking through what might reasonably be conditional care’s antithesis (or antidote)—an unconditional care—requires thinking through they actually care on a structural or spatial scale. That is, rather than an emotion or condition or action that occurs (solely) at the individual level. With this as a starting point, I ask: What old-new genealogies, knowledge traditions, and epistemologies are students’ definitions of care connected to? Relatedly, how does unconditional care reflect FREE’s broader grounding ideologies, everyday practices, and the social relationships that structure and are structured by the space? Animated by these questions, I take students’ definitions as a starting point (and a set of directions) to understand how care is theorized and embodied in the FREE space, and to consider how FREE’s demonstrations of care might serve as a blueprint for abolitionist departures from the carceral-education landscape.
Part III: Possibilities for Departure:
Theorizing Unconditional Care
My intention in the following sections is not to prescribe a precise definition of unconditional care, but rather to think through what students mean by care at FREE. In this project of thinking through, FREE’s origin story and the school’s foundations in abolition and TJ emerged as two points that help articulate how care is theorized and experienced in the space. As I discuss these origins and foundations, I move between discussions of care in vision/theory and care in everyday practice/praxis. Doing so reveals how unconditional care at FREE operates at and across ideological, interpersonal, and spatial scales, in broad movements, formal practices, and seemingly mundane interactions.
In the first section, I examine how unconditional care was envisioned through FREE’s origin story, and how this
vision of care is continually enlivened through practices that refuse the disposability the carceral-education landscape requires. In the second section, I explore how FREE’s foundations in abolition and TI shape their visions and practices of care in ways that allow for new terms of relationality, and thus radically different forms of social organization, to emerge. Reading FREE’s care practices alongside longstanding genealogies of care—specifically, abolitionist and Black feminist genealogies—helps identify what is being reclaimed in students’ definitions, and illuminates the potentialities for care in abolitionist education in light (and in spite) of its violent iterations.
Section I: Returning to the Origin Story of a Free Space: Care as Spatial Reclamation
*What might “they actually care” mean at the structural or spatial scale?*
This paper opened with a brief genealogy of FREE and YJC. While their beautification of a former detention center is a powerful metaphor and promise for transforming carceral space, FREE’s origin story begins before this—before the forced removal, before the beautification—with a group of people who “lacked resources but not resourcefulness” (Gilmore, 2008). Recounting this history, Tauheedah, a close friend and YJC organizer, shared with me:
“YJC started out in front of a store. Literally at a storefront. And we looked around and realized: all these youth from our community keep getting kicked out. So, we said, Damn. *We should make our own school.*”
And as another YJC organizer elaborated: “That’s how the idea and the vision of FREE got started. And YJC stays partnered with the school. And the design, the vision, and the curriculum is geared towards our work, towards abolition, towards understanding and developing the will to end youth incarceration.”
Here was the seed. The idea, birthed between the words and breaths of conversation at a South Central storefront. The vision, cultivated and toiled over by a group of people who identified a need in their community, and organized themselves in response to patterns of abandonment and forced displacement. Whereas neoliberal, individualized notions of care are necessarily conditional, FREE’s origin story is a lens into thinking about care beyond the scale of the individual. In this story, care is envisioned and embodied in the form of reclaiming, demanding, and *carving out space* as a means of collectively refusing landscapes of domination. Integral to understanding this care, and its potentialities for (the) abolition (of schooling), is who was doing the carving and for whom.
Expanding on FREE’s genealogy in interview, Emilio—a YJC organizer with a presence that grounds you and a laugh that shakes the ground—laid the groundwork for this understanding:
What I was really inspired about when I first learned about FREE was that [its] *doors were open* to young people, regardless of what their system experience has been, what their immigration status is, and the trauma that they’ve been through in their personal lives and their families and generational trauma. The school was founded by a group of formerly incarcerated and system-impacted people across LA County that decided we needed a space for the people most impacted, to be able to organize.
Young Black and brown [and] Indigenous youth, particularly from South Central, Inglewood, Watts, Compton areas, were being pushed out of schools and into lock ups, into the war on youth, into oppressive systems...So basically, we’re like, *students need a place to go, young people need a place to go*. These schools aren’t serving our young people. We need to have our own school. And that’s basically why, how FREE started (emphasis added).
Let us consider the implications of the statement that “students need a place to go, young people need a place to go.” That Black, Brown, and Indigenous young people, and young people living in racialized, criminalized geographic spaces—in a county that funds the largest prison system in the world—had nowhere to go.
That no school would take them.
Let us consider the possibility that this is not an anomaly or an aberration, but a structural inevitability of the carceral-education landscape.
It bears restating explicitly: FREE was formed by members of the community in response to the fact that schools across LA County refused to teach their children. In response to the refusal of State institutions to care for youth, community members—many of them formerly incarcerated or system-impacted young people themselves—created a space *outside* of those institutions, for Black and brown young people to *just be*. This demonstration of care in the form of creating, reclaiming, and demanding space is a radical gesture in an anti-black world where young people of color (especially those who are poor, queer, undocumented, and/or disabled) are relentlessly and systematically denied the right to (inhabit) space, the right to exist. Emilio’s reflections also begin to sketch out a vision of what is implied in *unconditional*.
FREE’s “open doors”—regardless of youths’ system experience, immigration status, and personal, familial, and generational trauma—signify an educational space that refuses metrics of exclusion or inclusion contingent on performance, behavior, or proximity to whiteness. More than this, they signify a space premised on *not only* a tolerance of, but an explicit care for and responsiveness to, the trauma(s), modes of survival, and experiences being criminalized, confined, and surveilled, for which young people are—paradoxically—denied care in schools. These traumas and system-experiences, which serve as grounds for further criminalization in multiple institutional settings, are the ways “life shows up” for Black and brown young people. They are “what you got going on” that nobody cares about, and they are direct vestiges of colonialism and slavery, and the present-historical violences of racial capitalism.
Beginning as a recognition, an idea, FREE’s origin story culminated in a broad, sweeping refusal of the “strategic abandonment” endemic to racial capitalist carceral regimes, “in which governing bodies carefully eschew responsibility for [social groups] deemed valueless by a logic of racialized criminalization” (Medel, 2017, p. 874). FREE’s everyday care practices continually refuse this abandonment, and the disposability it naturalizes, by addressing rather than criminalizing the ways “life shows up,” and by repeatedly rejecting the racial hierarchies of humanness on which conditional care, and carceral regimes more broadly, depend.
**Origins in Practice: Unconditional Care in the Everyday**
As Diego’s experiences highlight, who is deemed worthy of care is wrapped up in who is deemed worthy of help. Students marked a process in other schools of being denied requests for help and, simultaneously, how “bad grades” were used as justification for their removal. Their stories elucidate the self-valorizing locoaction of a landscape that constitutively *produces* “(under)performance” and exploits it as an alibi for disposability. In contrast, in reflecting on their classroom experiences at FREE, students describe a pedagogical praxis of leaving no one behind. Rather than a particular policy, they emphasize everyday practices such as teachers “taking the time” to explain lessons to students who missed class (sometimes for days or weeks at a time) or did not understand the lesson the first time; allowing students to catch up on late work; and eschewing good attendance and performance as metrics of who deserves help. Extending that initial seed, these care practices are informed by a shared *structural* understanding of the ways life, in beauty and in hardship, happens beyond school.
However, what emerged more resoundingly from students’ reflections on FREE is a praxis of care that exceeds the classroom, responding to multiple dimensions of young people’s lives and the broader landscape(s) they navigate. As one student, Angel, explained:
This school is nice, you know. Like they help you with a lot of things, and they really give you more than one chance. They always go out their way to help with our grades or even if you want a job or anything they’ll help you, or with an interview. Or if you wanna get your own money, they help you and everything. And they’re against certain things that public schools do—that [public schools] would hate how we do here. You know, cause at regular schools, they’re not gonna care about you getting money or whatever. Over there, they would rather let the cops deal with you than fix a problem. And here, they don’t have cops in here. They’d rather work things out and fix things, instead of kicking kids out that really need help.
Angel’s critique that schools “would rather let the cops deal with you than fix a problem” highlights the shared locoaction between schools and prisons, which use punishment and exile as “all-purpose solutions to social and economic problems” (Gilmore, 2008, p. 32). Schools operate symbiotically within this landscape by *not caring* about those problems, instead churning *people* into problems—into “bad kids”—who can simply be disappeared. FREE’s caring to help students with things like money and job interviews reflects their ongoing commitment to ensuring people’s basic needs are met—not only as a precondition for learning and alternative to exile, but as a form of abolitionist care that insurgently refuses the systematic exclusion of racialized, criminalized people from the means of social reproduction (Medel, 2017).
Based on that initial recognition—that the students LA schools refused to teach live in areas most impacted by the economic dispossession racial capitalism requires—Lupita recently used her connections through YJC to organize a job program where young people get paid to come to school. Care about basic needs at FREE also exceeds formal programs, operating organically through the deeper personal relationships young people form within the space. For example, a student recently reached out to me about her housing instability. With that student’s permission I contacted Ms. Tracey, FREE’s main TJ counselor, who has connections to housing programs in LA, so that we could collectively create a care plan for her.
Another pivotal way FREE responds to the conditions that strategic abandonment creates is by refusing to criminalize the forms of survival it demands. Expanding on his insightful understanding of exile, Angel described another systemic pattern in “regular schools”: young people being exiled for protecting themselves.
Me and [another FREE student] went to [name of high school]. He got kicked out of [there] too, because he would get there late, and they did random searches or something like that. And he had a knife…because he would walk from school to his house. And he just has it, you know, to protect himself. But he had it in his backpack—not even on him, but in his backpack. And they kicked him out for that. He even explained it to them, like “I live far, and I walk home. So, at times I get there late and, you know, people are out doing dumb things, so I want to protect myself.” He tells [the Dean] that. The next day, they tell him he’s expelled.
In contrast, FREE cares against the contours of the landscape by ensuring that young people have “safe passage.” As Ms. Tracey explained to the students during orientation: “If you do feel unsafe and like you need to bring [something] with you, talk to a staff member *that you trust* and we will find an alternative. We can accommodate if you live too far…So that you can find a way to feel safe on the street, and so that we can find a way for you to feel safe here at [FREE].” FREE’s peace builders pick up and drop off students at their preferred location in the school van, while teachers/staff also work to create accommodation plans for students who live particularly far.
Finally, beyond simply refusing to criminalize young people, FREE collaborates with YJC’s abolitionist legal clinic to support students who do become court involved. Court support includes attending court with the student, helping build their case, posting bail, and gathering materials such as letters of support from teachers. In my experience, letter writers do not ask the facts of the case. Like YJC’s support
for the broader South Central community, teachers support students unconditionally based on an abolitionist understanding that young people do not grow in cages; rather, like flowers and all other living beings, they grow in spaces where they are cared for, all the way down to the root.
Of the five students I have written letters for, all have noted that if it weren’t for FREE/JYC’s legal support they would likely be incarcerated. One student, Trelin, who recently had this outcome with his own case, captured the broader significance of this form of care, and its inherent movement beyond the individual, noting: “Other schools, for sure, are not going to help one of they students get bailed out of jail. And other schools don’t help change laws, and change the community. Other schools don’t even worry about the community.” FREE’s court support signifies a particularly radical departure from the terms and conditions of traditional schools that position each individual institutionally, regardless of how much they care, as an agent of the State who must cooperate with the courts in the interest of so-called “safety.”
Each of the practices outlined above reflect, and extend, longstanding genealogies of abolitionist care that refuse racialized hierarchies of human life, by unconditionally “[supporting] those made most vulnerable to criminalization” (Kaba, 2017), ensuring people’s basic needs are met in the face of strategic abandonment (Medel, 2017), and by repeatedly developing alternatives to the use of criminalization as an “all-purpose solution.” Rather than aiming to improve performance or produce more “ideal kids,” the intention of these care practices is to disrupt the disposability that carceral regimes mark as inevitable, and to show up for each other as a community in the ways the State refuses to.
Thus, FREE’s “open doors” are the borderless conduit(s) into a space where young people navigating overlapping landscapes of dispossession are not seen as disposable. As expert wayfinders, what the students are describing in *they actually care* is a space where they know they do not face the threat of removal, where they know they will not be further criminalized or abandoned for the ways they choose or refuse to navigate a social order predicated on their un-survivability. They are theorizing care in the form of creating (a) space where they do not have to be *something* or do *anything* in order to matter—which is to say, they matter unconditionally.
If traditional schooling and all its ideologies—of meritocracy, equality, and access, of mobility and opportunity—function only through disappearance, then what becomes legible are the abolitionist implications of a space created for and *by* those deemed least worthy of care. If it is true that within a carceral-education landscape there must always be (Black, brown, Indigenous, queer, and disabled) young people who have nowhere to go, then what emerges are the implications of a space predicated on an unwavering commitment to caring for those who are disappeared so that the traditional system can function. Rooted in students’ theorizations of what it means to “actually care,” what FREE’s origin story—in vision and everyday practice—exposes, are the possibilities for reimagined educational spaces where no one is left behind. To “actually care” in the world young people desire means that no one needs to be thrown away. It means that young people who refuse to be governed by extractive institutions always have somewhere to go.
As its seed and soil, unconditional care emerges in structures, and is structured by the space itself. This process can be further understood through FREE’s foundations in abolition and TJ, and how these foundations create the contexts in which new forms of social organization can emerge.
Section II: Unconditional Care and the Culture of FREE: Abolition and Transformative Justice
*I think the difference with FREE and JYC is being unapologetically abolitionist and transformative justice-based. That's, that's the difference from most county or*
city or other nonprofit youth programs. (Emilio, personal communication, 2022)
Whereas restorative justice seeks to reconcile conflict or restore relationships, TJ seeks to transform the conditions, institutional and ideological systems, and power relationships that make harm inevitable (Kaba et al., 2021). TJ refuses victim/offender binaries, recognizing that harm is cyclical and multiscalar. Building from an understanding of violence as both interpersonal and always also systemic, TJ is not just a response to harm or an alternative to punishment, but an everyday, active transforming of the ways we relate to ourselves, one another, and the earth. And, as opposed to restorative justice, which is increasingly implemented as an “alternative” to punishment in schools and other institutions (including prisons), TJ refers necessarily to “a set of practices that happens outside the State” (Hassan, 2020). This difference—a crucial point for distinguishing educational reform from abolitionist departure—is reflected in FREE participants’ visions of TJ as a grounding ideology, rather than an “implemented” policy at FREE.
Ms. Tracey articulated this distinction during one “Warrior Week”: the first week of each trimester when, in addition to team building, students are introduced to (or reminded of) the mission and culture of the school. We had been sitting in what was once a courtroom. Mismatched chairs formed an imperfect circle; students cradled their backpacks between their knees, or hugged them in their laps. From the narrow doorway, you could see freshly painted murals that breathed life into the walls of the school lobby.
“The idea of transformative justice is to create change,” she began. “We are not a regular school. The foundation of this school, your high school, is transformative justice—which means that our goals, our missions, our relationships are all formulated to create change. We do not call the police here. We do not use court ‘justice,’ though we will support you if you get court involved. Calling on the police for us is like calling on the devil. What we do here is have conversations, learn how to talk when we’re angry, or learn how to talk after we cool down. Oftentimes the courts and schools miss something, or they just don’t care to ask. I promise you we’ll ask what happened from your perspective” (emphasis added).
Ms. Tracey’s voice created soft waves of movement in the windowless room. After a short pause, she continued. “This is how I explain TJ love to young people,” she said. “We are not talking about romantic love. I’m talking about loving people just because they are humans. I love you because you are human. How can I work with you because you are human? Support you because you are human? TJ has compassion for what you’re going through.”
Merging her own embodied theories of TJ with a long genealogy of the tradition, Ms. Tracey captures the elements of a space whose foundation—and forms of social organization—depart from the nexus between the courts and schools, which she theorizes as bound through their demonstrations of conditional care. She explains how what grounds these alternative forms of social organization is not only a type of radical love but, necessarily, radically alternative conceptions of what it means to be human: what it means to be worthy of care and healing, beyond and outside of anything you have done in the past or might produce in the future, or how well you can perform.
These broader interpersonal and ideological commitments of the space, as grounded in TJ, deepen a theorization of unconditional care beyond the individual, and connect students’ definitions with Black feminist genealogies of care. Black feminist thought has grappled with the centrality of care to colonial formations and, at the same time, its potentialities as “an antidote to violence” (Hartman, 2017). Black feminists have done the work to distinguish white feminist care—as care rooted in individualism, performed by or through the State, and in or through privatized conceptions of family—from care as (a) communal practice that builds towards something other. Including but beyond “other mothering” (Collins, 1987), Black feminist care is a deeply political framework and praxis rooted in a fundamental commitment to sabotaging present-historical structures of racial capitalism (Neely & Lopez, 2022; Nash; 2018; Sharpe, 2016)—not just the material conditions it creates, as the prior section discussed, but its terms of relationality. As opposed to individualism, as a violent mode of being and moving through the world, Black feminist care is rooted in the formation, transformation, and reorganization of relationships—as alternative modes of being (in community), and as antidotes to the anti-black and anti-relational project(s) of modernity (Gumbs, 2021).
This Black feminist commitment to interdependence has long envisioned and prefigured the conditions in which communal care, safety, and accountability can occur beyond the violence of carceral regimes, and explicitly challenges the exclusionary, carceral roots of white feminist care. Exemplified by the 1994 Violence Against Women Act—which “earmarked unprecedented federal funding” to “protect” victims of sexual/domestic violence through more policing, prosecution, cages, and criminalization—white feminists’ demands for “care” through the State has been integral to the expansion of the US prison regime (Thuma, 2019, p. 7). In contrast, both Black feminist and abolitionist genealogies of care recognize criminalization as itself a form of gendered-racial State violence inextricable from interpersonal violence (Thuma, 2019), and critique the ways carceral regimes destabilize communities by leaving the roots of harm intact, and by severing the interdependency that truly keeps communities safe. This severing occurs not only through displacement, but also through the ways carceral-capitalist logics—of fear, individualism, and disposability—shape the ways we relate to one another at intimate scales. Black feminist care asks how we can move together in new ways that uproot (the many roots of) existing carceral structures, detoxify the soil, and make the space for other worlds to flourish (Gumbs, 2021).
Ms. Tracey’s articulations of TJ as a grounding ideology of the space echo these genealogies of care in her emphasis on “relationships formulated to create change,” and in the explicit connections she draws between these relationships and FREE’s unwavering refusal to call on the police. Though her emphasis on “communicating” rather than punishing
may seem mundane, it signifies more than just an alternative to discipline. Rather, it signifies the potentialities of fugitive educational spaces, rooted in unconditional care, to exceed the terms of relationality and forms of social organization that structure and are structured by carceral logics and anti-black enclosures.
The dialogue initiated by Ms. Tracey above went on to discuss teachers’ and students’ experiences learning the culture of TJ, specifically through “circles;” a practice of convening in conversation, or a series of conversations, to address the root(s) of harm or conflict and collectively construct next steps so that all members’ humanity is honored. While TJ is not reducible to circles, they are a meaningful lens into unconditional care for two reasons.
First, FREE’s use of circles in response to conflict is another pivotal juxtaposition students draw between FREE and other schools. For many students, conflict was weaponized by prior schools as justification for their disposability, through precisely the processes of conditional care Ms. Tracey described. Second, circles are one way in which the broad theories of care articulated above—and the alternative visions of relationality and humanness they prefigure—are mobilized in practice. Rather than a singular practice, however, circles reflect and reverberate a broader praxis of care and communication that moves through and across relationships, to create a spatial context in which new forms of accountability, safety, and interdependency unfold.
Embodied Foundations: Unconditional Care in/as Praxis
Student Emani’s experiences in circles artfully weave together these threads. Some weeks after the collective Warrior Week conversation described above, Emani and I had this conversation in interview:
Margaret: How do other schools deal with conflict?
Emani: Suspension.
Margaret: Like right away?
Emani: I got into a fight after school one time and I was *not* the cause of the fight. The girl hit me first and I tried to defend myself… they suspended me for two days.
Margaret: There was no conversation?
Emani: No
Margaret: So what do they do here?
Emani: It’s a circle. You don’t get suspended. I feel like they teach you to actually deal with your fuckin’ problems and not just distance you from that person you got into a conflict with, and then come back to school with that grudge two days later, you know?
Margaret: Right. So you think that works? The circles work?
Emani: Me and [another student at FREE] we were not on the best terms when I got here. We was bumping heads, arguing, stuff like that. But once she got here things changed. Once we had the circle things became more open, we heard each other’s side and after that, you know, after a few days things aren’t just great but…It gets better. One morning it’s “good morning,” or “oh, what’s up?” you know, “you’re in the same circle I’m in.” I’m not even uncomfortable to walk up to her or…There’s not animosity anymore. They do a lot of things different that I will say I’ve never had in a different schooling.
Not caring about the root of a problem leaves those roots intact, creates “distance,” and makes it easier—in schools, in court rooms, and in intimate relationships—to throw people away. At FREE, unconditional care occurs in the form of creating the space, through circles, to ask why (brown, 2017), to hear all sides and have all sides hear each other. Emani’s reflections highlight how doing so not only precludes the need for exile, refuses disposability, and prevents unaddressed conflict from festering—but, critically, generates new forms of understanding and new relationships *across difference*. Presciently, Emani frames circles not as a singular fix or “alternative” to suspension, but rather as an ongoing, untimed, and nonlinear praxis of learning to coexist. Like Emani, many students speak about circles through their rippling, pedagogical effects: as a process of learning “how to deal with our problems” in ways that foster connection, and of *unlearning* the anti-relational curriculum of carceral regimes that, in Beautiful’s words, “don’t nobody care so why just *not* talk about it.”
Indicating the pervasiveness of this anti-relational curriculum, in the Warrior Week conversation above, students and teachers alike shared how difficult it was to learn to communicate, and learn to trust—not only trust each other, but a broader, more ontological trust: that people deserve another chance, and that people (including ourselves) are capable of transformation which, as Emani captured, might not happen in two hours or two days. This trust implies a fundamental recognition of everyone’s humanity that unravels the exclusive definitions of personhood undergirding conditional care and Western epistemologies more broadly.
Circles are one practice through which these terms of relationality become woven, over time, into the very foundation of the space. As one method of holding people accountable, they perform the relational and epistemological work of Black feminist and abolitionist care, which discard hierarchies of humanness, refute “the false and damaging binaries we use to talk about [criminalized] people, like violent/non-violent and innocent/guilty” (Kaba, 2017), and seek the abolition of carcercity as it extends into our daily lives. Indeed, abolitionist care conceptualizes non-carceral forms of accountability as, in fact, one of the most radical ways we can care for one another. To hold someone accountable for the harm they caused, rather than throw them away for it, *is* to recognize their inherent value as a human being and their capacity to learn, heal, and grow. It is a demonstration of care that inherently extends beyond the individual, plunging down to the root to seek communal transformation.
Beyond circles, FREE’s emphasis on trust, communication, and non-carceral accountability—as critical, relational dimensions of unconditional care—is cultivated through a broader everyday commitment to forging authentic connections, unraveling hierarchical relationships, and continuously centering support, safety, and healing over punishment. Through seemingly mundane interactions, practiced repeatedly and in collaboration, carceral forms of social organization are unlearned and uprooted, making way for an ecosystem of care that operates at the spatial scale.
**Ecosystems and Curriculums of Unconditional Care**
In Ms. Tracey’s words, the goal of TJ is “not about correcting youth behavior,” but rather *continuously* “learning the students as a community, and what they need” through everyday interactions. For example, if a student is having a rough day, staff will inform other staff (e.g., through group text) to give that student more grace and understanding, or will ask the teacher/staff with whom they have the deepest connection to go check on them. Sometimes what students need is to vent, sometimes times to eat, and other times to simply be in the space without being pressured to do work. By leaning on each other, and by continually moving from a place of communication and caring to ask “why,” deeper forms of trust and accountability are generated—not just in the wake of conflict, but a general accountability to self, other, and the space.
Further, rather than typical power dynamics wherein “what the teacher (or cop, or judge, or adult) says goes,” accountability and communication at FREE disrupt the hierarchal teacher-student relationships endemic to carceral schooling. As Ms. Tracey accurately describes, “[i]f a student has a problem with one teacher or staff, they are safe to go to another staff and bring it up and resolve the issue.” While students can call teachers into circle, staff also hold each other accountable in meetings and informal conversations on students’ behalf. As one student, California, recently told me in interview, FREE is not different from other schools because it is perfect; it is different because they *actually care* about how the students feel.
Bringing us full circle, this repeated emphasis on transforming carceral relationships echoes longstanding Black feminist and abolitionist commitments to building communal networks of care (e.g., mutual aid) as a means of departure from the State. As everyday praxis, the trust and communication cultivated by/through unconditional care at FREE enables the revolutionary work of understanding what safety looks like beyond punishment—what it looks like for calling on the police to become obsolete—and how we can collectively support each other in meeting those standards. Rather than a singular alternative to discipline, this vision of unconditional care demands a new relational curriculum: an ongoing process of relearning new (or reclaiming old) ways of existing together (Gumbs, 2021).
While this happens at FREE, in part, through formal trainings and orientations (like Warrior Week), it mostly occurs, in Ms. Tracey’s words, by “supporting each other in the moment, learning in real time.” My own un/learning, for example, has occurred by participating in circles and by leaning on folks with greater knowledge about TJ for advice as situations arise. For both teachers and students, this process requires turning inward: it requires evaluating the ways we perpetuate the logics of disposability in our everyday lives and intimate relationships; the ways we conflate individualized punishment with care and safety; and the ways deeply engrained assumptions and habits structure whose voices we deem valid, and whose lives we deem worthy of care. This opens broader points about the potentialities of unconditional care in abolitionist education, and for educators hoping to embody FREE’s model in other schools.
**Questions of Scope and Scale**
The formulations of care discussed throughout this paper cannot simply be adopted as policy alternatives that respond to student behavior in new ways. Rather, they must be understood and practiced in ways that aim to restructure the very foundation of educational space, including (and perhaps especially) the relationships among students and teachers in and outside the classroom, and between educational spaces and the broader, uneven landscapes they exist within. As adrienne maree brown writes, “what we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system” (2017, p. 53). Rather than models implemented from the top-down, the potentialities for unconditional care in abolitionist education lie in, and must begin with, deep internal and interpersonal transformations that ripple outward. By prefiguring at the smallest scale the world we want to see, as abolitionists and Black feminists long have, educators and students can work collaboratively to question: What are the institutional, ideological, and interpersonal
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**Participatory defenses campaigns as abolitionist care practice**
*Image from campaign to Free Joan Little (1974); Source: USprisonculture.com*
mandates, terms, and conditions that preclude unconditional care in the specific contexts we are in? Which can be transformed at broader scales (such as school-wide policies), and which demand departure into fugitive spaces—classrooms, study groups, afterschool collectives—that exceed even as they are absorbed into the carceral-education State?
Part IV. Conclusions and Contradictions
As mentioned, this work is always unfolding and never without contradictions. Abolition is not a project of perfection, nor does it try to be; it is one of experimentation, of (honoring and learning from) process, and of working through (and understanding) tensions as part of the conditions of possibility for transformation. Departure from the State is complicated by many things, not the least of which is access to resources.
A primary example is ADA. Even while rejecting attendance as a metric for care and belonging, FREE’s need for State funding for its own survivability means that those metrics must still be navigated—and, precisely because they reject attendance as a metric for care and belonging, access to resources is a barrier that at times creates gaps between what FREE would like, and is actually able, to offer. To fill in these gaps, as Section I discussed, FREE leans on its connections to YJC and other local organizations (some of which are non-profits), staff pool personal resources, and FREE/YJC continue their fight to redirect resources away from youth confinement and towards youth development in LA County. While this too entangles them, in various ways, to the State, their long-term abolitionist vision is that these entanglements, in Emilio’s words, will “shift and transform, as more people are willing to take the deep dive…and be like, we don’t need these systems to be able to sustain ourselves; we just need the resources to do it.”
That said, departure does not by any means occur as a “clean break” at FREE. But what FREE’s demonstrations of care do, are open important questions about departure. These questions echo what Christina Sharpe asks (us to do) as part of wake work. She writes:
I want, too, to distinguish what I am calling and calling for as care from state-imposed regimes of surveillance. How can we think (and rethink and rethink) care laterally, in the register of the intramural, in a different relation than that of the violence of the state? (2016; p. 20).
Using students’ definitions as a map, I’ve aimed in this paper to read FREE as a blueprint for rethinking care “in a different relation than that of the violence of the state.” In heeding their demands, it became clear that what students were capturing is not necessarily new, but rather a reclamation, a continuation, and a particular demonstration of longstanding articulations of care that exceed the State and the (always conditional) site of the individual. To reclaim or re-create these old-new genealogies is to reclaim a radical re-definition and re-vision of who counts as human. In their most radical potentials, these old-new genealogies might approach a decolonial care, like a decolonial love (Maldonado-Torres, 2021), as a “practice rooted outside modernity,” rooted in “the well-being of other human beings,” and rooted against the “individual as the basis of liberal democracy.” Wise theorists as they are, students’ juxtapositions of these conflicting genealogies of care raise complex questions—around the limitations of reform and the possibilities for abolition, around what demands departure and what is possible from within—that educators, community members, and scholars must “think (and rethink and rethink)” collectively, collaboratively, and in ongoing conversation.
Notes
1. Likewise, “space-based” dispossession refers to forms of dispossession structurally concentrated in geographic places, like neighborhoods, that are also racialized (e.g., food deserts or hyper-surveillance); and to processes—like being pushed out of schools or banned from entire districts—that dictate which bodies are allowed to occupy, and move freely through, space.
2. All capitalism is racial capitalism, meaning capitalism requires racism (Gilmore, 2020). Understanding racial differentiation as central to the maintenance of global capital makes clear how people’s value (e.g., who is worthy of care), and relative “vulnerability to premature death” (Gilmore, 2007), are determined by race, where race is a structure of power (Kelley, 2017), rather than an identity. Gender and race are mutually constitutive structures of power.
3. Black feminist genealogies of care are far from homogenous, and it would be impossible to describe them comprehensively in this paper.
4. I thank Dr. George Barganier for this language, which he shared in conversation in a study group as part of his personal reflections on decolonial love.
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Margaret Goldman is a PhD candidate in the department of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine; a National Science Foundation Fellow; and an educator at a community-based alternative high school. She is interested in researching, and organizing towards, the abolition of carceral schooling and the creation of liberatory educational spaces beyond the carceral State.
Teaching and Learning a Joyful Citation Praxis: Affective Relations for Fostering Community Through Our Compositions
by Kylie E. Quave and Savannah Hagen Ohbi
Citation is the practice that makes composition scholarly; it is the process that disciplinarily silos our academic fields. Yet citation, for some of us, is also a habit vulnerable to introducing misattribution, defensive choices, courtesy shout-outs, and even fear and shame. In this reflective essay, we co-authors (an instructor and a student) offer reflections on the evolution of our relationships to citation and how we have enacted and reacted to teaching choices resulting from those affective relations with citation praxis.
Kylie: As an anthropologist and faculty member teaching in a multidisciplinary writing program, I’ve had a long journey toward finding joy in the act of citation. That personal struggle, informed and shaped by ongoing conversations inside and outside my home discipline, has reformed my affective relation toward citational praxis; this re-formation has helped me overturn the usual script on citation for myself and helps me foster a more generative citation praxis with students. Here, I’m addressing anyone who cites, including myself. I want to hold myself accountable to citing conscientiously and with joyful purpose. And I intend to address others in a way that induces us all to lean into the joy and communal engagement that citation can produce.
Savannah: As a student in my second post-secondary year I am constantly citing. I strive to live a perpetual loop of learning, which underlies my deep love for education. Moreover, my position as an abolitionist reaffirms my core values of radical imagination, empathy, and joy, allowing me to critically evaluate the systems in which I engage every day. My adoption of joyful citation practices has wholly transformed my relationship with citing and thus elevated my entire academic journey. I believe all students can benefit from re-imagining citation norms and ought to have the space to explore the joy that comes with shifting those practices.
What is Citation For? And What Do Students Think It’s For?
Citations generate, reify, and challenge disciplinary boundaries. Which works and whose works are cited foment not just bodies of knowledge but also determine who belongs to or does not belong to a discipline. Citation lends legitimacy to certain voices, while the absence of citation can silence, exclude, and marginalize others.
However, scholars do not consistently respect disciplinary boundaries and, thus, citation does more than generate disciplines. Citation also links disconnected and already-related voices to amplify, reify, alter, or reject former ideas. The processes of reading, comparing, and refuting are the core of knowledge production: citation is not only the textual evidence of that work, but also an artifact that promotes and erases over some ideas.
But how have many students educated in the United States typically learned to cite? Students have learned to avoid accusations of academic dishonesty by tracking who they read, who they learn from, and who they paraphrase. Their introduction to a course via a syllabus is typically accompanied by a legalistic statement on plagiarism. Instruction about the usefulness and process of citation often reflects this preoccupation by focusing on citation as accounting, and by rewarding formatting adherence.
Savannah: My first week of college, what we students dub “syllabus week,” was, in a word, overwhelming. I imagine this is a rather universal sentiment. What surprised me, however, was the seemingly endless renditions of the same threat-infused lecture on citing sources to avoid academic dishonesty used to open each of my classes. Learning citation became an all-powerful protection against the risk of sudden expulsion and academic death: our only life jacket in the dangerous plagiarism accusation-infested sea of academia. Professors made the fair assumption we had already been introduced to citation in high school, yet in doing so they skated over any meaningful discourse around the practice, choosing to instead focus on the dangers of what would happen if we cited incorrectly or not at all. Such rhetoric tackled the question of “why” we cite with a resoundingly un-nuanced answer -- to not get caught plagiarizing. This introduction to citation was just as intimidating as my first encounter with it as a high school freshman five years ago and reinforced the transactional nature of such a practice. This legalistic enforcement of citation coupled with the lack of serious efforts to explain the complex evolution of citation practices made it a much-dreaded chore. I’d neglect that chore until 11:50 pm before a midnight deadline, when a quick scramble (and heavy reliance on algorithmic citation generators) allowed me to check the final and infuriatingly tedious item off before final submission.
Kylie: In my first-year research writing course, which is a general education required course of 17 students per section, I am fortunate to have a partner librarian visit once or twice a semester to assist students with source identification and use. In a recent semester, the wonderful librarian instructor, Megan Potterbusch, asked students in my course why they cite and to write their answers on a virtual Jamboard. Their responses focused on variations of “to give credit” or to avoid plagiarism (fig. 1). When I ask this question verbally, results are similar. Seeing this exercise play out semester after semester, I realized that issues of citation primarily induced a fear response and exacerbated an antagonistic relationship students have developed with naming and using sources.
I’m not convinced that this is something we all must endure, and I tell students this as well. Raising my hand from the audience of the librarian-led session, I’d offer some variation of “citation can be rewarding when we think about the conversation we’re generating. What if we thought about it as more than formatting chores and avoiding dishonesty?” These sessions led me to conclude that I, too, had been in a toxic relationship with citation, but had somewhat moved through it. I wanted the same for the students, but I’d need to be more intentional in how that was incorporated into course structures.
Our realizations about citation being taught in formulaic, legalistic ways are not original. Others have pointed out the uselessness of writing instruction as an obsessive exercise in citation formatting and plagiarism
avoidance through uncritical naming and citing (Robillard and Howard 2008, Schick 2011). Writing handbooks describe citation as a utilitarian, functional matter (namely, *citation supports your argument*). Joseph Harris argues that citation—as typically taught and defined—is more a matter of *typing than writing* (2006: 28). Some composition guidebook authors go further in describing citation as a method for establishing a writer’s authority, for making claims trustworthy, and for “rewarding” or “depriving” source authors (Heard 2016: 135, 137). However, most advice is functional, framing citation as some exchange of capital: “every citation is a transaction” (Heard 2016: 132).
*Savannah: As a student, my frustration around citing included overwhelming anxiety about the threat of unintentionally claiming ownership over someone’s work. My citation practice was simply a chase to identify who had ownership over an idea and, in cases where such ideas seemed rather universal, who had the luck of a pen and paper handy to be the first to write it down. I often found myself nervously searching for people to credit for information that was simply learned as a byproduct of being alive in one’s particular social setting. Being a student in the 21st century means we have the privilege of easily accessing ample knowledge production, often digitally and constantly. It’s awesome. It also presents an endless challenge: how can we become true critical thinkers when trapped in a constant cycle of regurgitation? Students become cornered into an endless search for the “owner” of an idea. When I start to write I can so often outline exactly what I want to say, yet the ensuing hours that follow searching for “the right authors to cite” makes the writing process one that engenders much self-doubt.*
Compositionists have long argued that writing entails entering a scholarly conversation and making knowledge come into the world (e.g., rhetorician Kenneth Burke’s parlor metaphor [1967], Bartholomae’s inventing of the university [1986], and Swales’s discourse communities [1990]). And writing studies scholars often plead for an end to plagiarism worries and a turn to a more nuanced, discursive practice of teaching attribution (Anson and Nelly 2010: 11). Overall, though, such norms do not appear to persist in introductory writing courses or in other college courses that include writing instruction across disciplines.
Would students develop a citation practice not primarily motivated by plagiarism fears if they were acquainted with more imaginative, inclusionary, joy-generating reasons for attribution rather than to robotically attribute names and dates to their thoughts? What if students instead *first and primarily* learned that citation is a dialogue for creating a new reality and not just a typographical chore? That the Works Cited page is more like what Dan Martin calls “textual DNA” or “the intertextual pieces of other texts an author used to build a new text” (2018)? That citation is not a unidirectional record of credit for things taken or even a gift to a colleague, but rather that citation is sowing, fertilizing, and tending to community?
And what if students learned that citations are not inevitable formulae, but are rather choices made progressively in multiple phases? That we choose which terms and disciplines to search, which authors to read, where to read carefully and generously, which sources to ignore, and which sources can be readily dismissed from the conversation? One cannot possibly cite every source that has ever contributed to a subject; we select. But how are
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**FIGURE 1. AUTHOR’S SCREENSHOT OF STUDENT RESPONSES TO AN IN-CLASS QUESTION FROM A LIBRARIAN INSTRUCTIONAL PARTNER IN A SPRING 2021 FIRST-YEAR WRITING COURSE. STUDENTS WERE PROMPTED TO ANSWER: “WHY DO WE CITE?” THE SMALLER FONT IS WHAT THE INSTRUCTOR (THE AUTHOR) WROTE ON THE JAMBOARD SPACE (“TO TAKE PART IN A COMMUNITY CONVERSATION”). NOTE THE FREQUENT MENTIONS OF “CREDIT,” “GIVE CREDIT,” AND “GET CREDIT” BY STUDENT RESPONDENTS.**
those decisions made in conscious and sub/unconscious ways instead of being framed as natural, neutral outcomes?
Beginning From a Position of Shame Around Citation
Kylie: As an instructor attempting to answer these questions to inform my pedagogy, I find that I have first had to grapple with my shame, fear, and discomfort in citation. Here I reconstruct how I moved beyond a pernicious relationship with citation, and thus, with writing.
As a first-generation college student (and a white woman from the rural US South who grew up in a mix of poverty and stability), I entered higher education without knowledge of cultural norms and unwritten rules. I struggled through writing from my first undergraduate semester, even though I had found academic success throughout K–12 education. In college I learned to identify as “not a writer,” though I was highly motivated to hone my writing craft. In graduate school, I was labeled a weak writer in official departmental evaluations. As an art history undergraduate major who then pursued a graduate degree in anthropology, a subject in which I had no prior experience, it was clear to me that I hadn’t read “the right people” and couldn’t cite them during the performative conversations with peers in seminar rooms and happy hours. It didn’t occur to me that citation patterns were anything other than merit- and credibility-based, though I now see the difference between how often works are cited and how valuable those works may be to society (Baas and Fennell 2019, Lerman et al. 2022). I tried (reading and) citing based on what others cited… I never felt fully engaged in a conversation. It was as if there were inside jokes I couldn’t access as an outsider looking in on the real work happening beyond my capacity. I struggled to cite the oft-cited because so many people seemed to be mis-citing these works and creating alternate meanings not originally intended by the authors. (I would later learn that erroneous and counter-factual citation is prevalent in scholarly writing [Hosseini et al. 2020], a phenomenon which Rekdal calls “academic urban legends” [2014].) Even in this essay, in which I am arguing for re-envisioning how we present citation to learners, I have included some citations out of obligation, to show I’ve read the same literature as imagined others who might gatekeep my ideas out of these pages. This sort of defensive citation doesn’t benefit the writer, the reader, or the project of knowledge production.
After submitting the first draft of this essay, anthropologist Mwenza Biehl published a compelling and insightful account of her experience as a graduate student citing beyond the canon of famous anthropological names (2023). What Biehl describes is a similar environment to what I observed as a student, yet Biehl already knew as a graduate student that reading at the margins was devalued. Her mentors expected her to pretend she hadn’t indeed learned from under-cited scholars, and she realized that citing beyond recognizable (typically White) names would be used against her to undermine her own intellectual contributions. Biehl names the dichotomy of the oft-cited (White, recognizable) scholar and the under-cited, erased “Other” scholar as the “giant” and the “mule” (the latter evoking Zora Neale Hurston’s character Nanny who describes [Black women as] “de mule uh de world” [1937]).
Only after I had completed graduate school did I first become aware of how citation patterns have been documented across disciplines to be systemically exclusionary: that scholars disproportionately cite writers of the most dominant social identities (Ahmed 2013, Liu et al. 2023, Mott and Cockayne 2017, Smith et al. 2021, Tuck et al. 2015). I also came to understand that citation was a declaration of alliance, a public badge of membership. This realization came when a faculty hiring committee asked me to name my “top three theorists.” I was a theory omnivore, seeing theory as an explanatory tool that I could choose from my utility belt depending on the questions I wanted to ask and the evidence available. But here was a search committee implying that I could signal my particular brand of belonging by naming three recognizable figures. I refused to answer and instead explained all of the above. I do not have to tell you I didn’t get that job.
Re-directing Away From Defensive, Obligatory, Habitual Citation
Beyond a signal of who we’re allied with, citation ought to move scholarly conversations forward. As readers and writers we enter into “unending conversations” already begun (as in Kenneth Burke’s parlor metaphor [1967]), but so often the conversations begun by some thinkers are not forwarded; they are instead marginalized, left unread, or, more insidiously, they are read and subsequently ignored or pilfered. While we are not obligated to engage all the conversations already happening, the way we make those choices is steeped in our worldviews in unnamed ways that we must place at the center in our teaching. Scholars have discretion into which unending conversations they contribute and may choose to prioritize engaging those who were already being sidelined when they arrived.
Over the past decade, writers from historically excluded, marginalized, and minoritized backgrounds in particular have proliferated calls for awareness, reflection, and action—or praxis—that overcomes the tendency to cite in a way motivated by fear and the desire to cite all the “right things” (i.e., all the sources valued by those whose demographic homogeneity serves to uphold disparities [Clauset et al. 2015, Wapman et al. 2022]). These conversations bring to light issues of, as Christen A. Smith and Dominique Garrett-Scott put it, being “symbolically included but epistemologically erased” (2021: 19; italics in original).
Kylie: Learning of Christen Smith’s international Cite Black Women campaign helped me to belatedly realize these epistemic erasures are prominent (see Smith et al. 2021 on the principles of this urgently needed movement). Smith’s work helped me see that my discomfort with citation choices had a name and a suite of causes. Who is credited with brilliant ideas and who is spoken over and spoken for are not arbitrary. While universities position themselves as oases of multiculturalism and celebrate the inclusion of diverse participants, there is nevertheless a pattern of devaluing
Black women’s work and intellectual contributions, and of appropriating their work (Edmonds 2020, Makhulu 2022) to elevate others who are deemed “more credible” (see Medina and Luna [2020] for how this works for other scholars of color, including Latinx/e writers). Audre Lorde had also made these points about extractive citation since at least the 1970s: “Do you ever really read the work of Black women? Did you ever read my words, or did you merely finger through them for quotation which you thought might valuably support an already conceived idea concerning some old and distorted connection between us? This is not a rhetorical question” (1984: 68).
Aboriginal and Indigenous scholars are making similar calls to problematize citation habits, reflect on them, and challenge disciplinary norms. Eve Tuck, K. Wayne Yang, and Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández explain the impetus for their Citation Practices Challenge:
Indeed, our practices of citation make and remake our fields, making some forms of knowledge peripheral. We often cite those who are more famous, even if their contributions appropriate subaltern ways of knowing. We also often cite those who frame problems in ways that speak against us. Over time, our citation practices become repetitive; we cite the same people we cited as newcomers to a conversation. Our practices persist without consideration of the politics of linking projects to the same tired reference lists. (2015)
While normative citation habits tend toward consumption (read, collect ideas, credit them nominally), some Indigenous scholars are calling for a paradigm shift toward relationality instead. Zoe Todd (2016), Lauren Tyran (2020), and Max Liboiron (2021), for example, each urge scholars to avoid extractive citation, to engage with writers’ ideas sincerely, to be in kinship with their research. Tyran critiques how reading research can be consumption within a supermarket of ideas and how we must reject that neoliberal way of extracting from writers (2020: 164). Kinship instead requires care and mutualism.
Savannah: One devastating outcome of citation can be the devaluing of expertise that isn’t visible within the credentialism of academic spaces. A rigid hierarchy of academic worth is created when citation instruction emphasizes formatting above all else. This privileges the already-privileged and leaves little space for alternative ways of knowing, knowledge learned from lived experiences, or scholarship that falls outside the Western, Global North canon. There are many consequences: poorer quality papers, but also a policing of who is allowed to belong comfortably and whose presence comes with an asterisk to explain their inclusion. Shifting these norms can instead create a space for students to see themselves as scholars, too. When students and others think more critically of the sources they are using and the people, practices, and ideas they are supporting and refuting, citation can empower everyone involved.
Citation ought to be conscientiously practiced with consideration of representation and equity (Chakravarthy et al. 2018), but such concerns are the starting place rather than the ultimate goal. Mott and Cockayne (2017) have described citation as performative politics. Who and what we read and cite define the boundaries of who gets a say in knowledge production. Scholars (and non-scholars) whose work is excluded from citation or diminished in citation communities have a reduced influence in developing disciplines and transdisciplinary research. Particularly in the first author’s home discipline of anthropology, the purportedly “essential” citations are disproportionately written by white men (Bolles 2013, Davis and Mulla 2023). Privileging those voices silences and erases the perspectives of those not afforded unearned dominance: “citation is equally a technology for reproducing sameness and excluding difference” (Mott and Cockayne 2017: 960).
Teaching Toward Joyful Citation
Kylie: Teaching undergraduate research-based writing helped me connect all these lessons with practices for a new relationship to citation and thus to writing: I began to see citation as an act of gratitude for writers who have made me think deeply and in new ways. Being in a writing classroom rather than in an anthropology classroom gave me space to critically consider how my prior attitudes about citation had affected my instruction habits. Working in a writing program helped me feel I had the freedom and time to read scholarship I was interested in, rather than obligation to the anthropological canon. Liberation from disciplinary limits led me to read the brilliance of Katherine McKittrick, who models the joys, responsibilities, and possibilities of citation in a chapter from Dear Science and Other Stories called “Footnotes (Books and Papers Scattered about the Floor)” (2020). Bending genres, McKittrick urges the reader to consider that “the works cited, all of them, when understood as in conversation with each other, demonstrate an interconnected story that resists oppression” (2020: 28). Pulling on the threads of such interconnectedness, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein describes how ideas are made in communities and are rarely the result of a single genius working in isolation, including even the work of Albert Einstein (2021: 55-56).
Savannah: Current citation praxis may unwittingly advance this myth of “single geniuses working in isolation” critiqued by Prescod-Weinstein (2021) and normalize the idea that a single mind, absent from community and collaboration, can (and is often expected to) produce scholarship (2021: 55-56). In this lies perhaps the most dangerous part of the current model of how citation is taught: that knowledge is something to be capitalized. To be owned. This is the backbone of an ever-present student fear—that improper citation is tantamount to theft and will be punished as such.
The paradox of working alongside my peers to build reference lists populated with “et al.” while still under the assumption that single individuals could somehow maintain ownership over entire thought processes took a while to sink in. Why is our current citation process not reflective of actual scholarship in practice? Learning is collaborative by nature and the way we document such learning should be, too. Instead, we remain tied to a fear-forward rhetoric that threatens the very collaboration learning and discovery necessitate.
Given all this, what if we stop thinking about citation as a matter of elevating single authors by naming them and instead as including the communities within which people are writing and thinking? What if we resisted fetishizing authorship, especially single authorship and first authorship (see the Society for Cultural Anthropology’s collection on co-authorship as feminist practice [Kotni et al. 2020]), and instead recognized and named the webs of knowledge production in which we all participate? Questioning assumptions and norms around citation and authorship are not only useful for seeking out solutions to inequities in knowledge production, but raising these questions with students helps them move beyond a robotic, box-checking citation praxis.
Citation Is Relationship. Is Communal. Is Not Arbitrary. Is Not Automatic.
Realities are made when we cite. The act changes us as the writer. It could change the reader. All of that can happen in ways that result in better social and individual outcomes if we think through the many possible reverberations of our citation choices.
Kylie: When I cite someone’s writing, I feel as if I’m posting them a note: “hi, you may not know me, but you inspire me to think more expansively, and I want readers to know what a difference you made for me so they, too, can learn from you!” This is perhaps a less intimate version of acknowledgments; I have no right to claim to know you, but I know what you’ve written, and I want to thank you and celebrate you, dear writer. Indeed, where are the boundaries between citation and acknowledgment anyway? At times, those relegated to acknowledgements may have played a greater role in shaping our ideas than those on the works cited page. This is another thread of citation praxis that warrants questioning.
Savannah: Class discussions have always been my favorite part of school. When fear of academic expulsion and the stress of correctly verbalizing full citations are no longer centered in our conversations about learning, discussions are much more accessible, collaborative, vibrant, and engaging. I love talking about the sources I’ve read and how they build on previous courses or research done by my peers. This is where I feel as though I am collaborating with authors. Where I am in conversation with them.
When students are unbound from disciplinary silos and encouraged to creatively explore connections between sources, we can come to citation from a place of gratitude. The ease of building ideas and connecting sources that is easily found within classroom discussions should be just as present in norms for writing with sources. Writers can transform their reference lists into a space meant to recognize not simply whose name goes with what idea but instead articulate the importance and power of each work. Citation can be used as a vehicle for collaboration, turning writers and their sources into co-creators as their ideas grow together to generate new scholarship.
Of course, citing someone is not only developing relationships: accruing citations augments a researcher’s metrics of academic success, whether one believes those are a fair way to assess our contributions or not. Citations are counted to rank academic job candidates and to quantify merit for tenure and promotion. Advice to evaluators on how to count citation credits in a purportedly “unbiased, proper way” has even earned precious space in the pages of the Chronicle of Higher Education (Romesburg 2019). Citation promotes an individual’s career and engaging citations beyond “the canon” (read: the white, masculine, middle-class body of work) may ultimately contribute toward generating representation and equity in our academic fields. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein explains how white empiricism—in which scholars from marginalized backgrounds (especially Black women) are held to much higher standards of evidence than white men when making research claims—shapes how scholars invoke sources and evidence to produce knowledge (2020). In citation practices, this manifests as offering white men’s research under a presumption of empiricism and demanding a higher threshold of evidence for marginalized others. This type of epistemic oppression “involves a denial of a ‘knower’s competence based on ascribed identity’” (Prescod-Weinstein 2020: 425).
Bringing Joyful Citation Into the Classroom
Kylie: Amid this struggle for credibility, citation can also be a rewarding affective experience in which the writer is fulfilled and joyful in contributing to a scholarly conversation. Many developing writers experience writing (including citation) as a painful process. Once I saw students in my courses fixated on the formatting chore, I resolved to identify just and equitable ways to think through citing sources, which unexpectedly has led to a whole host of other positive outcomes intimately tied to enacting justice and equity in knowledge production: joy and pleasure. When I speak of the joy experienced in citation, I refer to a specific version of joy that creates a feeling of harmony with other humans and a sense of freedom of thought (Johnson 2020: 7-8).
Another way I’ve started to think about this joyful orientation is inspired by adrienne maree brown’s pleasure activism (2019). As brown advocates:
Pleasure activists believe that by tapping into the potential goodness in each of us we can generate justice and liberation, growing a healing abundance where we have been socialized to believe only scarcity exists. [...]
Pleasure activism includes work and life lived in the realms of satisfaction, joy, and erotic aliveness that bring about social and political change. (brown 2019: 13)
What brown urges is that we behave in ways that actually feel good. A citational practice filled with fear, guilt, and shame results from our bodies and minds telling us to alter course, I don’t want students or anyone else to feel such anguish in writing. I want students to know that they may not enter a scholarly conversation that has formed due to meritocracy, but rather one molded by the social and political variables of disciplinary knowledge production. I want them to know that they are also choosing which
sources to engage (not just consume); that their choices may elevate certain actors and leave others out; that they are subjecting their readers to the works they cite. Not all ideas are equally valuable, and there is not always room for everyone to enter the unending scholarly conversation. But who is left out of the conversation shouldn’t be determined by false hierarchies and prestige economies. I want to feel citations as an act of gratitude, and not in the sense of a reward for the academic merit game, and I want students to find that, too.
These joys and pleasures go hand in hand with more equitable and just citation practices. Approaching citation in pursuit of joy ought to result in a more inclusive and less extractive citation practice, while orienting our citation toward equity also ought to have pleasurable outcomes (fig. 2).
**FIGURE 2.** ORIENTING CITATION TOWARD EQUITY ALSO OUGHT TO HAVE PLEASURABLE OUTCOMES
Figure 2. If we start from a place of questioning the reproduction of the scholarly canon without reflection, and if we recognize the social power of citation, that can lead us to practicing a generative and community-oriented citation practice. Those habits can result in joy and pleasure, while such an orientation may also lead to richer, more robust knowledge, as well as epistemic justice. Dotted lines connect the latter two outcomes because it is possible that writers could approach citations as generative in ways that merely reproduce the status quo, which would not in turn lead to epistemic justice and a more robust knowledge base.
To lead students toward these more productive and generative relationships with citation, instructors can talk to them more intentionally from early in the semester about how there can be a pleasure in conscientiously making these choices and considering the ways they engender community. If we think about and teach citation as an act of creating relationships, we may be more apt to take seriously the imperative to faithfully represent writers’ ideas, to think deeply and authentically with their ideas, and to give writers the benefit of the doubt when we don’t understand or agree. Moreover, Brown’s pleasure activism doesn’t ask us to exclude voices through feigned scarcity: it is generative and honors the abundance within us and between us. And here we ought to recall one of Brown’s principles of emergent strategy: “There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. Find it!” (2017: 41). If we apply that abundant inclusion to citation, it invites us to expand the number of voices we bring into the conversation, citing more rather than less, honoring more kinds of contributions and expertise. These are values at odds with academia’s orientation toward singular geniuses and exclusive accolades, and we must explain this tension to students.
Before even asking students to consider the differences in citation styles, we can invite them to question what they think they know about the purposes of citation (see Appendix 1). Ask them to consider what impacts citation choices can have, what rewards and costs there may be, and to whom. What we want them to arrive at are realizations about how citing is crafting community and initiating possibilities for future dialogue. We can ask them to look for evidence in course readings of how citing can be a multi-directional interaction with colleagues and others who we recognize, celebrate, and elevate. Relationships are not only built in the spaces between the writer and the authors they cite, but as writers we are also introducing sources to each other. Perhaps the sources have already met elsewhere, but in some cases the writer brings them into dialogue for the first time. Students can look for and trace networks of citation through visualizations that they (co-)create such as concept maps and timelines of scholarly writings (see Appendix 2).
We ought to focus the re-calibration of citation pedagogies on affirming matters, and on the potential benefits to all, but we can also ask students to look at the harmful outcomes possible in citation choices. For example, naming the most cited works merely because they are already the most cited doesn’t move scholarship forward; it only satisfies an exclusionary status quo.
When we consider citation decisions as crafting community, it gives us license to then conscientiously decide when to not tip our hat to someone; it allows us to discern
where our inclusive abundance need not apply to all kinds of knowledge producers (Mansfield et al. 2019, Souleles 2020). As Dan Souleles prompts in reference to academic predators, *do you really need that citation in your bibliography?* Are you citing someone simply because of their prestigious name? Are they really the only source on that subject? Granted, this is not a popular stance, as explained by Brian Leiter (2018), a philosopher and legal scholar, who explicitly forbids excluding harmful colleagues from citation habits. Leiter’s essay was a response to Nikki Usher’s own advice column (2018) on the conundrum of citing a serial harasser when a peer reviewer required it. But why is the dominant assumption that one must promote the most-known name on any given subject, regardless of their history of harm? Aren’t there usually others who have done the work, too? Why continue to prioritize the same actors? I seek joy in the freedom of not having to cite in these defensive ways that work against building community (see Appendix 3).
If citation is a *pro forma* matter of citing who’s already been cited, then what is the point? How are we participating in a process of forging a better future with our scholarship if we perpetually list the same voices and ideas? Let’s teach students and ourselves that citation is not a compulsory act under threat of sanction, but rather an opportunity for community and dialogue.
**How Teaching the Joyful, Pleasurable Citation Praxis Is Good For Teachers, Too**
“I know teaching is a survival technique. It is for me and I think it is in general; the only way real learning happens. Because I myself was learning something I needed to continue living. And I was examining it and teaching it at the same time I was learning it. I was teaching it to myself aloud” – Audre Lorde (Lorde and Rich 1981: 719, italics in original).
*Kylie:* When we teach, we are actively creating realities in our discipline. We are setting up expectations students may carry with them well beyond our classrooms. We are also creating lived realities for ourselves. Transforming my instruction in citation beyond formatting and checklists has brought unanticipated joys. Watching students work through hard questions about why some authors are cited and not others, and how they are actively participating in the scholarly conversations themselves has been immensely rewarding. I do not claim to have found all the solutions, but I can recommend to others that they also allow for writing instruction to include considerations of epistemic inequities, and the ways that knowledge becomes power through and with citation.
*Savannah:* Kylie’s class was the first time an educator pushed me to think critically about citing. To reflect on its importance and understand its power. These conversations linked to themes of decolonization and deconstruction of white supremacy within academia. In any form of equity work, joy should be centered. I was struck by how this course could transform a chore I had primarily done out of fear into a practice that not only worked to dismantle oppressive cycles of privilege within academia, but which also genuinely made the writing process more fulfilling and joyful.
But how do we truly change the norms around teaching such an entrenched practice? I was lucky enough to encounter an educator early in my academic career who gave me the tools and space to reevaluate how I approach citation, but I also sense this is rare. The responsibility of shifting one’s citation practice should not fall on students or educators alone—instead both can support each other in more meaningful citation methods. Ones that are infused with joy.
One of the biggest steps is shifting from a focus on plagiarism and academic dishonesty related to citing. Instead, we must all work to reframe the practice as a conversation—one that encourages collaboration rather than threatens it. This requires intentional time and space to allow students to explore their understanding of citation and for educators to share the meaningful reasons behind why we cite. It is not enough to simply tell students to cite more marginalized authors or “allow” them to venture away from peer-reviewed sources. Changing the way we understand citation practices can only be accomplished through compassionate conversations. These talks must directly tackle the purpose and possibilities of citation. Like all equity work, this deeper understanding does not come from performative acts and half-baked disclaimers. It is not a throwaway paragraph on the syllabus or a revamp of the citation lecture. Rather, it is a continuous journey that requires time and effort; however, it is not without reward. As I continue my college education, I am hopeful that more professors will hold space for me and my peers to explore what citation is, to collaborate together, and, perhaps most importantly, to center joy.
What do we want teachers, students, and ourselves to be accountable for?
1. To learn what we can about the writers whose work we engage. To ask what shapes how they know what they know, and how it reveals our own gaps in experience and understanding.
2. To read generously and with resistance to urges to “efficiently” consume others’ ideas. Instead, we will read to listen. We will strive for relations.
3. To cite not for the performance of “knowing the right names” but rather with sincerity of interest in what the source brings to the unending conversation.
4. To not think of citation practice as a box-filling endeavor: we will not count identities or quantify diversity. We will strive for holistic, multivocal ways of knowing and asking about the world.
5. To cite primarily to honestly explain *how we know what (we think) we know (or cannot know)*, in a larger, lifelong project of epistemic transparency.
When Kylie initially submitted this essay for review, generative artificial intelligence tools (GenAI) such as
ChatGPT were just becoming widely available; higher education has since catastrophized on what this could mean for teaching, especially teaching writing. There is much to be said on how good writing instruction disincentivizes GenAI use. However, it is most relevant to this essay to posit that any writing habit that infuses joy and pleasure into the process may be a productive way to move students away from relying on it. Resorting to ChatGPT may be due to a person’s attitude about the worth of their education, but it may also be due to avoidance, fear, and shame around writing and citing. Intentionally and iteratively re-orienting our classroom practices toward joys in citation may circumvent such struggles among students.
What have become the norms in teaching citation are not serving students or the disciplines in which they write. We hope for students and colleagues to see citation not merely as the avoidance of dishonesty, but as much more. We may not always know the particulars of why and how students have struggled to develop a healthy relationship with citation, but we can draw from our own shame-filled and fear-inducing experiences as a starting place here. As teacher and student, we each acknowledge we may continue to encounter spaces where citation is centered on fear and intimidation around plagiarism and formatting, but we are each committed to centering a more reflexive citation practice. And we now find joy in thinking back on all the works we’ve read beyond the “canons” of our disciplines that show us worlds we wouldn’t otherwise find on our own.
We grasp that re-imagining citation practices involves more emotional labor; we believe that labor can be re-channeled in pleasurable, joyful ways. If we’re going to be doing emotional work, it ought to be generative rather than exclusionary. We don’t have to be in a toxic relationship with citation. We cannot recalibrate these relationships toward abundance and joy with one-off interventions; it must be part of the fabric of our courses and our writing practices beyond our roles as teacher and student. Joy is a form of resistance to the structures that ask us to exclude, rank, and marginalize knowledge producers; we each are accountable for intentionally taking part in the transformative process.
Appendix 1
There is no single moment in which students learn the purpose of citation in my (Kylie’s) writing courses; my pedagogy iteratively visits aspects of citation, moving from observation to reflecting on our attitudes, to taking actions. I do not wish to prescribe specific activities to readers because I believe that we each must examine our citation habits and then be transparent with students about that as they form their own citation praxis.
First, students must consider citation as a problem to solve: they write a letter to an acquaintance/relative/friend about sources from the course and must decide how to offer the reader enough information to find/understand the sources. This positions students to see citation as a technology, or a problem to be solved, rather than a formula, and shows them how different citation modes fulfill different rhetorical purposes.
Next, I prompt students about a specific journal article:
- Observe how citations are formatted in this paper. Observe where they are included, how many are included in each instance, and what kind of sources they are pointing to. Tell me about one thing you learned about academic citation practices by observing them here.
In Week 2 or 3 (of 15), I break down the demographics of who participates in the discipline on which our course is focused (anthropology). Students discuss recent studies of authorship and citation demographics. I lecture about recent quantitative research on whose voices are centered and who receives research funding. In this class period, we discuss these questions:
1. In this discipline that is purportedly about the study of human diversity,
- Who is representing what/whom?
- How do the identities of the knowledge producers affect the knowledge produced?
- How do gatekeeping and exclusion alter disciplinary scholarship?
I then ask students to look outward from the examples we are examining from anthropology. We discuss:
2. Do you know anything about the demographics of degree holders, researchers, professors, or writers in your (intended/possible) major? How could you find out more about that?
3. Think of a course you’ve taken/are taking: how did the identity of the knowledge producers influence that field of study? Share examples of what you do or do not know about this.
Finally, I ask them to reflect on these questions, all of which we revisit throughout the semester:
- How is this relevant to who you are as a researcher-writer relative to a research area?
- How can this inform how you research? How you write about research? For whom you write?
Appendix 2
The courses I (Kylie) teach position students to become familiar enough with an area of scholarship that they can ask a new question about it and write about it in ways that critically evaluate how they use sources (or ignore/exclude sources). Additionally, I ask students to principally consider citation as joyfully forming relationships with knowledge producers. One strategy for shifting their citation labor is to require students to use a particular open-source citation manager (e.g., Zotero) so they can focus on joyful, generative citation rather than formatting chores. I tell them repeatedly that the labor they might otherwise spend on scrutinizing formatting can be re-directed to joyful citation praxis.
I iteratively urge students to describe how sources form knowledge networks: We collaboratively annotate readings before class (in Perusall), then build with in-class discussion. As students develop their individual research projects, they create concept maps as graphical representations of connections between sources. I ask them to follow webs of citation by seeing who has cited whom since a piece was published and in what ways (by chasing citations through Web of Knowledge and Google Scholar). When they propose their research projects, they must explain the ways they are finding sources beyond using the library skills they’ve been taught; they must reflect on whose voices might be missing and how they can go about finding them. Their research must also include non-scholarly yet credible sources, urging them to see that expertise can take many forms and that those with academic positions are not the sole arbiters of knowledge.
During the research paper outlining stages, students also submit a series of timelines of sources from their research. These are graphical timelines made in Canva where students illustrate how sources are in conversation with each other over time, a visualization of the Burkean Parlor. I also prompt them to again consider who is missing, what marginalized perspectives can be centered, and what other patterns of knowledge production emerge from the citation networks.
After a first draft of their research papers, I ask students to highlight all the places they have quoted an author and to defend the inclusion of each quote. They must consider who they quoted and the author’s relationship to their research. Students defend these choices to each other during a class discussion. I do not prescribe how to make these choices, but rather aim for students to ask more questions about how/why they quote. They are required to include multi-source citations to compare multiple sources and to go beyond merely paraphrasing and quoting one source at a time.
When students submit the final versions of their research papers, I ask them to include a reflective statement that addresses “how you thought about citation as building relationships.”
Appendix 3
Sometimes excluding a source is a way of creating and tending to community. I (Kylie) illustrate this to students using case studies of scholars who have been found responsible for exploiting their students or mentees and whose research has also been revealed to be lacking in integrity in related ways. I do not tell them what to do with dishonest researchers, but rather ask them how including everyone might be counter-productive to generating a more joyful, community-oriented web of knowledge.
To model methods for harm reduction, I tell my students about ways that harassment and abuse have affected scholars in my area of specialization, and share a bibliography I created to recognize, elevate, and include scholars other than a dishonest, exploitative scholar in our citation community. We do not have to talk specifically about those we exclude but we can orient our joyful abundance in other directions.
Works Cited
This reference list is an outcome of our lived joyful citation practice, but is, to a lesser extent, shaped by the fact that we wrote this essay to submit for peer review. As we crafted this essay, we occasionally referenced prior works due to defensive motivations. In other words, we sometimes cited works for the benefit of imagined peer reviewers and other doubtful readers: to ensure no one would think we didn’t do our homework or that we were presenting our joyful praxis as more original than it is.
However, most of the sources cited were joyfully engaged in conversation. This list is an artifact of our generative relationships with the sources and the delight of seeing in new ways, and an exertion of gratitude for what we learn from these writers.
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Leiter, Brian. 2018. “Academic Ethics: Should Scholars Avoid Citing the Work of Awful People?” *Chronicle of Higher Education*, October 25, 2018, sec. Advice. http://www.chronicle.com/article/academic-ethics-should-scholars-avoid-citing-the-work-of-awful-people/.
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**Acknowledgments**
Authorship functions as currency: attaching one’s name to an argument lends one legitimacy and capital. We wish we knew how to reject participating in it. For now, we choose to call ourselves co-authors while merely listing all those who shaped our thinking, whether in the Works Cited or here in the Acknowledgments. In writing this paper, we felt a blurring between authors, acknowledgements, and sources, finding discomfort in their mutual exclusion. We would not see citation as we do without these others we have named, celebrated, tipped our hats to. And we would not know how to practice the joys of citation without our conversations with each other as co-authors either. We ask readers to consider each name as a critical producer of the knowledge shared here.
For now, we’ll settle with merely naming those who collaborated with us along the way, while knowing that if we lived in a different system of authorship norms, we might all instead be labeled as co-creators at the top of the article. And we’ll continue to reflect on how to better conceptualize authorship versus acknowledged (unauthored) contributions. These ideas were written over a three-year period, in which many generous colleagues offered advice on whether it was worth publishing. Kylie’s co-creative accomplices helped her reflect on joyful citation: Pamela Presser, Sarah Kennedy, Alexandra Antohin, Danika Myers, Phil Troutman, Phyllis Ryder, Jason Alley, Jordi Rivera Prince, and Di Hu. Savannah is tremendously grateful for all of the educators in her life who have cultivated her love for learning and taught her the power of education. Her relationship with knowledge production was shaped by the incredible teaching of Heidi Freeman, Jessica Williams, Copland Rudolph, Rachel Hagen, and of course Dr. Quave, who all believed in her before she ever could.
We appreciate the peer reviewer feedback that strengthened this essay, as well as the generous work of the editors. All shortcomings remain our own.
*Kylie E. Quave* is an assistant professor of writing and of anthropology at the George Washington University.
*Savannah Hagen Ohbi* is a sophomore majoring in Criminal Justice and Human Services & Social Justice at the George Washington University.
Notes from the Anti-Displacement Studio
by Lily Song
"VISION FOR VACANT PARCEL", DESIGN CONCEPT BY KALAMU KIETA. VISUAL BY ANASTASIA LEOPOLD.
Introduction
Since fall 2021, I have been teaching the anti-displacement studio to architecture and urban planning students at a Boston-based university. The community-based participatory planning and design research studio offered at Northeastern University activates the role and responsibility of the designer as creative accomplice to anti-displacement activists and movements. The course partly stems from the tradition of the design studio, a foundational pedagogical model in architecture and planning education for teaching practice through open-ended problem setting, skills synthesis, real or constructed clients, and teamwork (Long 2012). However, it departs from the traditional design studio’s tendency to neglect community activism and place-based movements adjacent to campus and reinforce professionalized norms and career trajectories. In bridging between academic and local contexts, the studio pushes designers to interrogate their identities, privileges, biases, and blind spots while centering the perspectives and agential capacity of community-based activists and leaders. It further incorporates a reparative pedagogy and methods that shift the design process from a solution orientation to one of collectively reimagining and rebuilding from spatialized injustices and harms.
This article examines and reflects on two-years of teaching community-based participatory planning and design research in the context of Roxbury, a historic African American and Black neighborhood of Boston, in partnership with the district-level city councilor, neighborhood leaders, and artists. A spring 2022 seminar course helped develop a planning framework for the ARTery, a 3-mile community-arts corridor connecting neighborhood squares and secondary commercial areas. The fall 2022 anti-displacement studio next codesigned urban planning and design strategies reinforcing the cultural identity of long-time residents and businesses along the ARTery. The spring 2023 anti-displacement studio then focused on community-based activation and redesign strategies for vacant parcels in Roxbury. After providing some topical and contextual background and touching on the studio’s significance in design education, this article describes the process of building the university-community partnership and reiterating studio work in alignment with community-driven planning and design processes across three semesters. The analysis focuses on teaching strategies to build on the strengths of the studio model while addressing current gaps in design studio education, and is followed by a concluding discussion on the implications for radical planning and design practice.
Background
Urban displacement refers to the forced relocation and exclusion of people from places of origin, residence, or belonging. The spatial development of American cities and towns relied on the forced removal of Indigenous people and appropriation of their lands for resource exploitation and property ownership at a continental scale (Witgen 2021). 20th century US metropolitan growth was predicated on urban renewal and highway projects that cut through and displaced urban communities of color so that suburban communities could conveniently access the cities they were fleeing (Avila 2004). During decades of national economic boom, discriminatory land use and housing policies constrained investments and wealth building opportunities for racialized communities (Rothstein 2018). In the 21st or “urban” century, the restructuring of cities as engines of economic growth based on knowledge and service sectors, commodification of housing as financial assets and instruments, and escalating socioeconomic inequality have routinized urban displacement (Marcuse and Madden, 2016; Florida 2017).
Such historic forces and trends are strongly present in Boston, a colonial educational and economic center with high levels of segregation and racial wealth and health disparities (Boston Public Health Commission 2023; Federal Reserve Bank of Boston 2015). The city’s ever-expanding constellation of college and medical campuses encroach on surrounding communities and compound housing unaffordability (Elton 2004). Northeastern University occupies a particularly contentious position in Boston, next to Roxbury, the South End, and Mission Hill—historically red-lined working-class, Black and Latino neighborhoods that are rapidly gentrifying (Pan 2020). Over the past few decades, Northeastern’s Boston campus has grown along Columbus Avenue, where entire blocks were demolished as part of mid-century urban renewal and highway projects, and the university later took possession of vacant parcels (Sasani 2018; Pattison-Gordon 2016; Bluestone et al. 2003). The campus-oriented development has further crept into surrounding neighborhoods through students seeking private housing options as on-campus housing units fail to keep pace with surging enrollment (Cutler & Comer 2002).
In Boston—as in many cities around the world—a growing number of residents are pushing back against exclusionary real-estate development and trying to reclaim their neighborhoods from speculative capital and external control (Serrano et al. 2023; Kern 2022; Chapple and Siders 2021; Marcuse 1984). They build on community-led struggles to stop urban renewal and highway projects, and advocate for better social/public services, tenant rights, inclusive workforce policies, and fair housing/lending (Vrabel 2014). Many are rooted in long-standing acts of collective refusal and cultural preservation among Indigenous, Black, decolonial, and poor people’s movements. Notwithstanding community frustrations over Northeastern’s expanding footprint, various local organizations and change leaders engage with university staff, faculty, and students through teaching, research, and other initiatives. Some have called on the support and collaboration of university-based partners in undertaking community-led anti-displacement planning and design initiatives. Such an invitation catalyzed the teaching and learning practice described below around the central question: to what extent and how can design pedagogy and methods be reformulated and retooled to support community-led anti-displacement planning and design initiatives?
Design Education and Studio Pedagogy
The anti-displacement studio builds on the tradition of the design studio, a pedagogical model that has been foundational to architecture and planning education since their inception in the 19th century. Studios distinctly serve goals of synthesis and learning-by-doing, and incorporate open-ended problems, real or constructed clients, and teamwork (Nemeth and Long 2016; Long 2012). As pedagogical practices, material spaces, and creative design practices, studios can be invaluable in: (1) making artefacts and selves; (2) bridging between academic and professional contexts; (3) conferring meaning on educational activities; (4) enabling or constraining activities, experiences and interactions; (5) backgrounding the activity of learning; and (6) expressing and shaping disciplinary identities (Corazzoa 2019). Noted challenges of design studios include: (1) engaging current contexts of students, (2) refocusing from solutions-driven design process to exploring, feeling, and empathizing as integral parts of design process, and (3) overcoming disconnection from real-world problem scenarios (Corazzoa 2019). Traditionally, design studios have been better at inculcating professionalized norms and reinforcing corporate career trajectories than engaging community activism and place-based movements adjacent to campus. Studio courses have also been critiqued for reproducing societal tendencies of class, race, and gender discrimination and asymmetrical relations of power in the classroom setting (Dutton 1987).
In addressing the limits of the studio model, the anti-displacement studio draws inspiration from K. Wayne Yang’s concept of third worlding universities (2017). Writing as his avatar, la paperson, the decolonial educator proposes:
First worlding universities are machinery commissioned to actualize imperialist dreams of a settled world. Second worlding universities desire to humanize the world, which is a more genteel way to colonize a world that is so much more than human. A third worlding university is a decolonizing university. This frame helps us assess the academic-industrial complex with its current neoliberal machinery and its investments in colonialism, but more importantly, it is a frame that describes the decolonial desires that already inhabit and repurpose the academic machinery (p. xiv-xx).
Calling to action all “decolonizing dreamers who are subversively part of the machinery and part machine themselves” (p. xiii), he asks, “how might we operate on ourselves and other technologies and turn these gears into decolonizing operations?” (p. 24). Yang extends the technologies framework to further redefine settler colonialism as a set of technologies that generate patterns of social relations to land and can be reappropriated for decolonizing purposes. This includes technologies of settler supremacy (i.e. citizenship, private property, civil and criminal innocence, normative sexuality), indigenous erasure (i.e. military terror and genocide, partitioning of earth into resources and commodities, land privatization and privatization, boarding schools and institutions of cultural assimilation), and anti-Blackness (i.e. criminal presence, landlessness, lethal geographies, carceral apparatuses, non-personhood) that circulate across bodies and spaces. The idea of repurposing the academic machinery and reappropriating settler colonial technologies is particularly ripe for consideration by educators in the built environment disciplines and professions, immersed as we are in the politics of land.
For studio instructors seeking to align university-based teaching and learning with community-led decolonizing agendas, the indigenous studies and education scholar Eve Tuck’s “Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities” (2009) is additionally instructive. Tuck calls for a moratorium on damage-centered research and narratives “that [establish] harm or injury in order to achieve reparation” yet carry long-term repercussions of rendering marginalized communities depleted and broken (Tuck 2009). She argues for re-envisioned research on Native communities, city communities, and other disenfranchised communities that not only document the effects of oppression but more importantly “capture desire” in ways that recognize the complex intricacies, contradictions, and informed seeking of lived lives that point towards becoming more of who they are (Tuck 2009, p. 416). Tuck writes, “Desire, yes, accounts for the loss and despair, but also the hope, the visions, the wisdom of lived lives and communities. Desire is involved with the not yet and, at times, the not anymore” (Tuck 2009, p. 417). To “capture desire” requires grounding research projects in the lived lives and ongoing efforts of communities, which in turn requires trust-based relationships between researchers and communities. As examined in the following sections, developing such relational, grounded, and desirful approaches to university-based research and learning can help address current gaps in design studio education, in part by unsettling and complicating underlying assumptions, professional norms, and creative practices.
Laying the Groundwork for University-Community Partnership
I began teaching the anti-displacement studio from my first semester at Northeastern University (fall 2021) as a faculty hire in the area of race, social justice, and the built environment. Tasked with teaching an architecture option studio, I chose to embed my studio teaching in community-based organizing and advocacy for development without displacement. To some extent, I was responding to student demands for design studio projects that support racial equity and inclusivity and meaningful community engagement in the wake of 2020 mass protests in defense of Black lives. The first iteration of the anti-displacement studio in fall 2021, which enrolled 12 students across the master of urban planning, master of architecture, and bachelor of science in architecture programs, conducted participatory planning and design research with the Alliance for Community Transit-Los Angeles (ACT-LA), an organization with which I previously conducted design research to promote non-policing public safety investments on LA Metro transit systems (Song and Mizrahi, 2023). Virtually meeting with ACT-LA staff and members throughout the fall semester, studio participants researched and codesigned different social housing typologies for ACT-LA’s advocacy campaign for housing and land use justice—helping visualize
community-owned and managed housing on public land with state-of-the-art green building and urban design elements that simultaneously harness and enhance existing neighborhood infrastructures and amenities.
As universities returned to in-person instruction and Boston experienced political transition, this opened up new teaching and learning opportunities. Michelle Wu became the first woman and person of color to be elected Boston mayor and was joined by an incoming class of city councilors representing Boston’s growing diversity. Among them was Tania Fernandes Anderson, Boston City Councilor for District 7 (D7), consisting of Roxbury and parts of Dorchester, Fenway, and the South End. Before becoming the first Muslim American, African immigrant, and formerly-undocumented person elected to the Boston City Council, Anderson worked as a trauma-informed social worker, main-streets director, theater/fashion designer, small-business owner, and foster mother/caregiver. Having connected through a peer-learning and leadership development program for place-based organizations and public space stewards launched by the Boston Foundation in late summer 2019, the two of us stayed in touch. While campaigning for the city council seat, she asked for and received my advice on questions of urban policy, planning, and design. Stopping by the fall anti-displacement studio just after her electoral win in November 2021, she asked if I could offer a course that would support anti-displacement efforts in D7. My answer was yes! Notwithstanding the successful collaboration with ACT-LA, I was eager to immerse course teaching in the local context.
**Planning Study for the ARTery**
Among Anderson’s immediate priorities was to address the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses and public spaces in Roxbury along with the lack of safe, well-maintained open spaces for communities to gather outside. Through brainstorming sessions with the D7 office (including the newly hired chief of staff and directors of community relations, constituent services, and budget and operations), we arrived at the idea of the ARTery, a cultural corridor connecting neighborhood squares and secondary commercial areas across Boston’s Roxbury and South End neighborhoods. Running from Jazz Square in the South End through Nubian Square down Dudley Street and along Blue Hill Avenue to Grove Hall, the planned 3-mile route contained a high density and diversity of local businesses, numerous vacant lots, low foot traffic, and diminishing number and quality of public spaces. The idea was to hire local artists, activists, and entrepreneurs to reface and beautify small businesses, paint public murals, activate green/open/community spaces, and improve street safety in historically-disinvested neighborhoods. Many of them were already doing this work and could utilize funding support through the City of Boston. Anderson shortly filed a resolution establishing the ARTery and gained funding allocation ($1.6M) through the City budget.\(^2\)
Leaning into Northeastern’s location in Boston’s District 7 and partnering with Anderson, I adapted a spring 2022 graduate-level professional practice seminar to inform the planning framework for the ARTery initiative. Enrolling 13 master of architecture students, the seminar course was
structured around a series of community-engaged design principles and exercises. The class started at the individual level with students mapping their personal and social identities as well as home and chosen communities (the first where they grew up and the latter where they decided to live as adults). Then in groups of two to three, they shared thoughts on their own privileges, biases, and blind spots related to their positionality and living environments (as predominantly white people in their 20s from middle-class and affluent households who were new to the area) before discussing overall themes and takeaways as a class. Next, we used the Boston Area Research Map created by the Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI) at Northeastern to spatially analyze data about the population, housing, land value, transit access, crime, public safety, medical emergencies, and other characteristics of D7. Subsequently visiting Roxbury and learning about public landmarks and neighborhood assets as well as meeting with community activists and leaders allowed the class to partly challenge the deficit and damage-based narratives about the neighborhood that surfaced in the data mapping exercise.
With this preparatory training, the students were ready to conduct more hands-on work to support the ARTery initiative. Students conducted exercises mapping community assets with the D7 Office and interviewing Boston Black artists and makers (with whom Anderson and her team had pre-existing relationships) about how they would artistically approach public space activation on city-owned parcels. On site, they worked with the D7 directors of constituent services and community relations to conduct street audits along the ARTery route, and canvas local businesses, neighborhood establishments, and community members to learn what city agencies could do to improve streets, public works, and public spaces. Over the summer, I hired research assistants to follow up on the street audits and canvassing conducted by the spring class—analyzing the data files, filling in the gaps, and synthesizing needed city actions and
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**FIGURE 3. SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW WITH KALAMU KIETA. DESIGN CONCEPT BY KALAMU KIETA. CREDIT: ANASTASIA LEOPOLD.**
**Kalamu E. Kieta**
**Artistic Practice**
Kieta is an artist that works in sculpture but whose greater practice engages with community organizing. Kieta’s work has evolved from painting to sculptural installation. Raised in Roxbury, he values building community and opportunities for other artists.
**Vision for Vacant Parcel**
If the city would create a yearly call-in, Roxbury residents would make sure spaces were either active or able to draw their work without the barriers and “red tape” that comes with other city programs. He would like to see a call-in for artists of different disciplines to create an installation together. The installation would be rotated every year, with a new theme or eight annually. This would employ 18-48 artists per year. Culinary artists could be invited to create a pop-up restaurant in one of the restaurants from Roxbury and providing an opportunity to draw people onto the site. Art from this installation would then be sold or taken to another location. He would like to recruit new artists and give the art a life beyond the installation.
**Budget**
Budget for artists should be enough to sustain them beyond 2 months ($50 per visit x 2-3 people) of artists
- $1000 for materials
- ~$2k for logistics (set up, break down, etc.)
- Find position within D7’s original budget/position to advertise artists’ work
students to focus on spatial planning and design strategies for utilizing public investments and improvements to reinforce the cultural identity of long-time residents and businesses and strengthen community building along the ARTery. For the final outputs, students co-created with D7 partners a series of mini-guides for beautifying local businesses, creating public art, activating vacant lots, repurposing churches, and improving walkability/street safety.
For Anderson and the D7 Advisory Council, the ARTery was part of a larger strategy by which Roxbury community leaders and residents could guide public investments and spatial improvements in their own neighborhood. They were especially concerned about the City’s growing control of land use planning and development at the neighborhood scale. In Wu’s first year as mayor, the City of Boston conducted an audit of city-owned land, released a land inventory and mapping tool to improve public transparency and information access, and initiated Article 80 development review and approval reform to expedite affordable housing development, particularly on city-owned land.\(^3\) The higher presence of publicly-owned parcels in Roxbury due to historical redlining, urban renewal, highway demolition, public disinvestment speculative/sub-prime lending, and arson and insurance fraud—in other words, racialized and spatialized injustices of top-down policy and planning processes—meant the neighborhood would inordinately bear the impacts of yet another set of top-down decisions from the City. Our D7 partners spoke back. In November 2022, Anderson co-sponsored a council measure calling for a moratorium on the development of affordable housing on city-owned parcels in D7 until the City agreed on how to best involve the community in decisions regarding what will be built in their neighborhood. In December 2022, she hosted an anti-displacement studio showcase (of our semester-long work) at Boston City Hall with the aim of showing the council and city staff the possibilities of community-based land use planning in D7\(^4\).
Vacant Parcel Activation and Redesign Strategies
Meeting regularly with Anderson, her staff, and the Advisory Council provided the contextual understanding to orient continuing iterations of the anti-displacement studio. For spring 2023, the D7 partners requested that the anti-displacement studio focus on community-based activation and redesign strategies for publicly-owned parcels in D7. Cognizant that our collaboration was embedded in their larger contestation of the City’s efforts to accelerate affordable housing development on city-owned parcels in D7, I initially felt perplexed and alarmed. Built environment professionals widely embrace new affordable housing as an inherent good and straightforward solution to displacement, and interpret any opposition as “Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY) reactionism, and I was no exception. However, knowing the D7 partners as place-based leaders whose families and neighbors would be most directly impacted by the land use changes forced me to reexamine my ideological beliefs and assumptions. Attending a D7 Community Moratorium Listening Session, I witnessed heated discussion and debate among D7 residents, including renters, homeowners, and developers, not to mention people of different ages and ethnicities, about what should be done with vacant parcels, some of which were previously taken from Black property owners through eminent domain and tax liens. I also learned that the moratorium was not actually legally enforceable but more of a political strategy to pause or slow down rapid-pace parcel disposition and redevelopment while initiating a community-led planning process that serves the needs and interests of long-time residents, not just broader city goals.
Setting up the spring 2023 anti-displacement studio to engage with Roxbury-based activism and advocacy campaigns to gain community ownership of vacant parcels and shape land use planning and development, I incorporated background reading on the D7 moratorium and candidly discussed with students tensions and opportunities of our focus on non-housing anti-displacement strategies. As most of my 13 students were white and Asian women from the bachelor of science in architecture program, I again used identity and cognitive mapping to introduce concepts of positionality and privilege, flag corresponding biases and blind spots, and emphasize the importance of working with D7 partners. For the first studio exercise, students created comic-based stories about urban displacement and anti-displacement focused on vacant parcels in Roxbury that could be used by D7 partners for community organizing and coalition building purposes. For the second studio exercise, students responded to the request from D7 partners to explore historical precedents of community-driven vacant parcel activation and placemaking in Roxbury (e.g. food gatherings, health clinics, urban gardens) by conducting archival research and creating summary posters of their findings. For the final project, students worked with Anderson and other D7 leaders, including a place-keeper’s cooperative comprising Black artists, to develop six ideas for
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**FIGURE 6. D7 VACANT PARCEL REIMAGINED AS SENIOR VILLAGE. CREDIT: ALEX ISRAEL AND EMMA VAN GEUNS.**
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\(^3\) See [Boston.gov](https://www.boston.gov/)
\(^4\) See [Boston.gov](https://www.boston.gov/)
public, open, green, and recreational spaces, partly based on the historical precedents: a community theater, food gathering space, senior center, game spaces, small business incubator, and multi-sensory recreational and healing space.
During this time, Anderson and her team continued to meet with city departments that held the largest share of vacant parcels in D7 to negotiate their usage. The studio’s task was to create concept diagrams, plans, sections, and perspectives and generate high level cost estimates for each of the six ideas. By giving form to their ideas using standard tools of the trade, so to speak, the studio outputs were intended to convey that these alternative proposals for shared spaces of joy, rest, creativity, and connection were as viable as any developer-driven project. At the end of spring semester, Anderson invited us to share studio outputs at the D7 Anti-displacement Town Hall at the Dewitt Community Center with community leaders and residents. At the event, Anderson introduced the anti-displacement studio as participatory planning and design research partners and true allies to the D7 office and Advisory Council. I noted the importance of the university-community partnership in educating and training architects and urban planners to work with community leaders in place-based ways that amplify their continued advocacy and struggles against displacement. Then we asked the attendees to go to the six stations where students set up posters presenting the ideas for vacant parcel activation and redesign. Many took time to examine the posters, ask students questions, and offer their thoughts and suggestions. As a next step, Anderson would seek funding for the ideas from a major foundation and through the city’s budgetary process.
Reformulating and Retooling the Design Studio
What did this teaching and learning experience across three semesters teach me about repurposing “the academic machinery” to support community-led anti-displacement planning and design initiatives (Ja paperson 2017, p. xv)? For one, it was imperative to meet students where they were and accommodate their strengths, including the aesthetic and design sensibilities of architecture and urban planning students. In the case of the identity and cognitive mapping exercises, I incorporated diagramming and drawing activities to open up conversations about identity and privilege. To help my students process the somewhat dense readings and informational videos about different forms, drivers, mediating conditions, and effects of urban displacement, I designed studio exercises that incorporated visual representation and communication techniques such as concept maps and graphic stories. Immersing students in a process of making appeared to spark a sense of buy-in—they became observably more interested to see what their peers were doing and share their own work. Second, it helped to adopt standard teaching formats for the design studio such as mini-workshops, desk-crits, and pin-ups with which students were already accustomed. Introducing students to key concepts, ideas, and exercises through mini-workshops, I then transitioned them to desk-based work and used desk-crit sessions to provide one-on-one feedback on their work-in-progress. After that, we held pin-ups, giving each student the opportunity to pin up their work-in-progress before the entire class and receive constructive feedback on the merits and areas for further development.
Gaining some level of conceptual understanding about urban displacement, the students next attended to “the hope, the visions, the wisdom of lived lives and communities” in D7 as central to anti-displacement planning and design strategies (Tuck 2009, p. 417). Going beyond the traditional design studio model, we visited with D7 leaders to learn about neighborhood histories and assets and their ongoing struggles for racial, economic, and spatial justice. Students practiced active listening with D7 partners, affirmed and expanded on what they heard using web-based research and archival materials (e.g., historical photos, oral history collections), and created visual summaries (posters) re-presenting what they learned. Through this iterative process of learning from and with studio partners, we established a collaborative working relationship. The codesign process was largely consistent across semesters. The main ideas came from Roxbury community members—rather than the instructor and students as in the case of most design studios. Students researched design precedents and strategies, conducted site analyses, and gained community feedback as they designed spatial structures, programs, and other intervention. The process clarified for us the difference between developer-driven development based on speculative capital and external control, and spatial planning, design, and investment that reinforce and amplify community-based advocacy and struggles against displacement.
Where most design studios have a final review with faculty members and leading professionals serving as critics, the anti-displacement studio culminated in the city hall research showcase in the fall 2022 semester and D7 town hall in the spring 2023 semester. We held two rounds of pre-final reviews leading up to these public/community events—with our community partners and university-based allies respectively. After these feedback sessions, students had another week to finalize studio outputs (slide presentations and boards), and upload corresponding raw files to the shared drive (for needed edits and adaptations over time). The final class session was devoted to reflecting on critical moments of learning and growth throughout the semester. These were moments of key decision, action, negotiation, beginnings, endings, or transitions when students may have felt uncomfortable, nervous, surprised, ecstatic, or other strong emotions. Students were asked to each take a moment to jot down notes about their critical moments at the personal, team, and class level. On a whiteboard, I drew a timeline and asked students to mark critical moments with their initials. Proceeding from the beginning of the semester to its end, I called out initials along the timeline, and students shared their critical moments. Every one of my students was new to this practice of reflecting on studio practice.
Some of the critical moments noted by students reveal key tensions and challenges of the anti-displacement studio, one of which had to do with moving students from a conceptual understanding of positionality and privilege to actively reckoning with one’s biases and blindspots. Each semester, the class walked over from the architectural
studios at Northeastern underneath Ruggles Station to Nubian Square and met one of the community leaders for a guided walk around the neighborhood. Most students were new to the 15-minute walk from campus in that direction. During a debrief session one semester, some of the students expressed how they felt self-conscious walking as a large group in a predominantly Black neighborhood and would prefer to instead volunteer in an organizational setting. Part of their critique had to do with the fact that studio participants were merely observing the neighborhood setting rather than being of service to people there. Subsequently meeting the D7 partners for listening sessions and codesign exercises at City Hall, the students appeared more comfortable and enthusiastic in that setting. Later as a class, we unpacked their assumptions and expectations of frictionless movement through urban and institutional spaces associated with majority status. Reflecting on the issue long afterwards, I wondered if I could have further addressed how racialized perceptions of space show up in our work and interrogated the desire to be of service as potentially paternalistic.
For me, another critical moment for the studio was when Anderson, with the support of the Advisory Council, issued the moratorium on affordable housing development on publicly-owned parcels and received public criticism and backlash. Despite my initial skepticism, affirming the right of the most-impacted communities to determine courses of action and sitting in on the D7 Community Moratorium Listening Session allowed me to realign my position with the values of empathy, respect, and humility that I wanted studio participants to espouse and practice towards our D7 partners. What I learned—in part by sharing and processing observations together with my students—was that D7 communities were heterogeneous as any and wanting to have fuller conversations about what happens in their neighborhoods. They distrusted the profit motives of developers and outside investors, and opposed the advancement of citywide affordable housing goals on their backs. Noting that Roxbury already has the highest proportion of subsidized and income-restricted rentals among Boston neighborhoods, they inquired about alternative housing options—including pathways to home ownership and wealth building. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and in light of racial disparities in chronic health conditions and mortality rates, D7 residents further sought public investments in community-serving land uses such as green, open, and recreational spaces that are safe, healthy, and culturally affirming, and enhance quality of life.
Implications for Radical Planning and Design Practice
The anti-displacement studio expands on the design studio tradition in ways that bear on radical teaching, that is, planning and design pedagogy which proceeds from the root, whether it’s unraveling root conditions or supporting grassroots movements. It maintains the studio’s defining pedagogical, material, and creative functions through the making of artifacts (such as posters, diagrams, maps, plans, sections, and renderings) and selves (individual, social, political), but in a grounded and relational way that enlists the perspectives, ideas, and guidance of place-based partners. In bridging between academic and professional contexts, the studio explores the role and responsibility of the designer as creative accomplice to anti-displacement activists and movements—rather than hired hand to profit-maximizing real estate developers and other corporate agents. The studio confers meaning and significance on educational activities such as critical moments reflections—for instance, taking time to reflect on practice as an integral part of the design process. It additionally enables connections and interactions with place-based communities, who bring rich knowledge and insights about needed spatial investments and improvements that further shape shared inquiry and codesign activities. As the studio provides a container for these essential teaching and learning activities to take place in, it also expresses and shapes disciplinary identities that interrogate straightforward solutions and underlying beliefs and assumptions, among students and instructor alike.
Conducting participatory planning and design research with D7 partners through the anti-displacement studio allowed us to address the noted challenges of traditional design studio education in engaging current contexts of students and overcoming disconnection from real-world problem scenarios (Corazzoa 2019). We did this by leaning into Northeastern’s location in Lower Roxbury and harnessing my existing relationship with community leaders as an anchor for ongoing collaboration. By coordinating how students enter and exit the ongoing community-driven planning and design process, I tried to promote iterative efforts while reducing engagement fatigue by community partners and knowledge loss with student turnover from semester to semester. Incorporating reflective practice into the studio helped surface difficult and conflictual aspects of this work, including my own hesitation to follow the partners’ lead at times, and the self-consciousness and discomfort of predominantly white students from our private high-tuition university being shown around Roxbury by D7 leaders instead of volunteering in an organizational setting. Yet introducing students to community settings in this way helped combat professionalized norms along with internalized societal hierarchies and power asymmetries (in relation to local communities) that may have only been perpetuated had we remained in the classroom setting (Dutton 1987). Taking time to reconcile the D7 moratorium and the studio’s focus on non-housing anti-displacement strategies further provided the chance to practice exploring, feeling, and empathizing as integral parts of studio work and move away from a straightforward solutions-driven design process.
As a final point, working with D7 community leaders on anti-displacement planning and design strategies over two academic years—from the spring 2022 graduate-level professional practice seminar to two semesters of the anti-displacement studio over fall 2022 and spring 2023—renewed my appreciation for grounded, relational, and reparative methods of teaching and learning. I thoroughly understood that to practice urban planning and design in the 21st century is to reimagine and rebuild the world from harm. The disproportionate number of publicly-owned parcels in D7 result from targeted and systematic injustices of topdown policy and planning processes such as redlining, urban renewal, and highway demolition. The sum result perpetuated the profound racial wealth and health gap that mars Boston today. The City appears slow to acknowledge and make amends for past harms and quick to move forward with land disposition policies and procedures that inordinately impact and are contested by D7 communities. As an educator, I can begin with my own students in mitigating further harm by guiding built environment professionals to wrestle with their own limitations and discomforts, center localized, community-based knowledge and insights, and work in solidarity and complementarity with place-based activists and movements, who seek to build collective power with respect to the land and self-determine land use planning and development. I can try to clear up misperceptions that any one of us is serving those in need but rather showing up and working together as best as we can to nurture seeds of change.
Notes
1. After the George Floyd murder, the students and faculty had a series of conversations about how race and social justice were being addressed in the curriculum and in the School of Architecture. Among identified priorities were to ensure design studio projects support equity and inclusivity, and not reinforce racial exclusion and displacement. Another was to create strategic community engagement that establishes long-term community partners; avoid superficial understanding of communities; scrutinize impact of student work on communities; avoid being a political tool of community groups; avoid “extraction” of information from communities of interest; consider Service-Learning opportunities through Northeastern’s established relationships and offices.
2. The ARTery was just one of Anderson’s projects—in her first year, she filed a series of ordinances, resolutions, and orders for hearings to address racial injustices and harms in District 7 (e.g., the ARTery, a health center in Nubian Square, senior recreational center in Roxbury, Black historical landmarks, re-naming streets and places, studies on free life insurance for low-income residents, and reparations for Boston’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and ongoing detrimental impacts on Black Bostonians).
3. In 1996, the Boston Redevelopment Authority adopted Article 80 to make Boston’s Zoning Code’s development review regulations easier for all residents to use and to understand, and to apply those regulations consistently throughout the city. Article 80 development review requirements apply to all large projects, small projects, planned development areas, and institutional master plans.
4. We organized a mini-exhibition of our semester-long work around the questions: (1) How do we center the joy and beauty of Roxbury communities while wrestling with present racial and spatial injustices? (2) How can urban design and planning support community stabilization and development amidst gentrification and displacement pressures? (3) How do we get ahead of external development forces with community-led ideas and initiatives?
Scheduled on the same day as a city council vote on the formation of a task force on reparations (to help the Mayor and City of Boston on healing racial inequities for descendants of slavery), the showcase drew various city councilors and staff along with community organizers and members of the public, who stopped by to view our posters and speak with students on their way to the council meeting.
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Dr. Lily Song is an urban planner and activist-scholar who holds a joint appointment between the School of Architecture and the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University.
The Educational Radicalism of Bob Moses
by Jay Gillen
BOB MOSES WORKING WITH STUDENTS. PHOTO BY DAVID RAE MORRIS
The Algebra Project was founded in 1982 by former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field secretary Bob Moses as a grassroots organizing effort around the problem of math education. Since then, thousands of teachers have learned about the Algebra Project’s unique adaptation of constructivist pedagogy, tens of thousands of young people have participated in Algebra Project classrooms or after-school activities, and many more thousands of parents, organizers, activists, professors, and school officials have become acquainted with at least some aspect of the Algebra Project’s work.
Often, however, those who come in contact with the Algebra Project, or even those who become involved in its organizing, tend to underestimate the radicalism of Dr. Moses’s strategy. As a SNCC field secretary in Mississippi in the 1960s, Bob Moses earned the respect and admiration of, for example, Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) as he guided Carmichael through Mississippi’s violent White supremacy. Proponent of Black Power as a political agenda, Carmichael is rightly remembered as a revolutionary. Dr. Moses was and is no less revolutionary. He had, however, a different strategy towards an equally revolutionary end.
This essay locates Dr. Moses’s radicalism in his vision of young people as potential insurgents in the battle to destroy the American caste system and attempts to explain how the Algebra Project sees math classrooms as uniquely suited to the building of an earned educational insurgency for the 21st century.
Political Function of Math Education
There are many more champions of student “voice” today than there were even ten or twenty years ago, but the problem faced by young people in poverty is not simply about “voice.” It is a problem of power, and the radical strategy of the Algebra Project is that the purportedly ineducable young people of the unworkable schools can learn not only to speak out, but actually to wield power.
The radicalism of the Algebra Project is often watered down by confusion about the choice of math classrooms as sites of insurgent political action. Why choose one of the most hated and disempowering locations in already hated and disempowering schools? Algebra Project pedagogy emphasizes student control of classroom discussions, student-initiated content, the role of teachers as questioners and students as mathematical authorities in their own right. But even parents, teachers, professors, and administrators who are open to these methods think that the reason to promote this kind of classroom democracy is that such classrooms make it easier to learn math. Dr. Moses’s purpose, I believe, went in exactly the other direction. He taught that a well-structured mathematics classroom makes it easier for young people to learn democracy, and so prepares them to step out of classrooms altogether into the not-yet-written future of a youth-led educational and political insurgency.
Math for the Algebra Project is an organizing tool.
To make myself very, very clear, even the development of some sterling new curriculum—a real breakthrough—would not make us happy if it did not deeply and seriously empower the target population to demand access to literacy for everyone. That is what is driving the project. What is radical about the Algebra Project is the students we are trying to reach and the people we work with to drive a broad math literacy effort—the Black and poor students and the communities in which they live, the usually excluded…Young people finding their voice instead of being spoken for is a crucial part of the process. Then and now those designated as serfs are expected to remain paralyzed, unable to take an action and unable to voice a demand—and their lives dependent on the goodwill and good works of others. We believe the kind of systemic change necessary to prepare our young people for the demands of the twenty-first century requires young people to take the lead in changing it. (Cobb and Moses 19)
It is a truism of 21st century leftist activism that “everything is political,” and the interpretation of this truism in math classrooms today usually envisions lessons like studying the distribution of police traffic stops in terms of the demographics of drivers or neighborhoods. But Dr. Moses had something different in mind when he decided to focus on algebra in the 8th grade. He wants us to understand the politics of questions that almost everyone thinks are not political at all. Who is taller, Matteo or Charnell, and by how much? Which fraction is larger, $\frac{3}{4}$ or $\frac{1}{3}$? What does $x$ represent in the equation $3x + 7 = -2x - 8$ and how do you know? How can you prove that the three angles of a triangle equal 180°, do they always, and what counts as a proof?
These straightforward mathematical questions might be on worksheets in elementary, middle, or high school, and most teachers would mark any answer to them either right or wrong, with a check or an x. But Dr. Moses insists that the teacher’s check or x masks important political issues that need to be brought to the surface for young people to debate and grapple with. One important question, for example, is “Who has the authority to decide the validity of an answer to a mathematical question?” The correct answer for people who believe in freedom is, “We do.” It is up to a community of mathematicians, who may well be an 8th grade class of poor and oppressed students, to come to a consensus on how they want to pose and answer questions in their math classroom.
In the Algebra Project, math classrooms and youth-run after-school math spaces are where young people can learn (1) why it is important to hammer out agreements on the language we use to represent our ideas and values, and (2) how to hammer out agreements. Dr. Moses challenges us to try to understand the parallels between political freedom struggles and math freedom struggles.
There is a school of thought, almost entirely unquestioned outside of rarified philosophical circles, that mathematical truths are not subject to debate. The set of mathematical truths presented in the world’s math classrooms are thought to have been “discovered” or “invented” by people a long time ago, mostly by very smart men, and passed down in authoritative writings. Teachers who “know their subject” affirm these truths and instill them in their students.
Dr. Moses takes a different position in line with a much less widely appreciated but in philosophical circles equally respectable line of thought. This alternative line of thought sees mathematical language as requiring agreement among a community about the meaning of terms and the structures of syntax they are using. That agreement about language grows out of the shared experiences of the community. They see objects, actions, and relationships in the world and agree to describe them in certain ways. That agreement becomes formalized in a set of definitions and operations, but in all cases the language of the community grows out of shared experiences and can be “tested” in the sense that anyone willing to pay attention can come to agree that the language fits their experience in some way.
In the Algebra Project we teach $3x + 7 = -2x - 8$ by first inviting students to participate in certain kinds of races and other physical experiences (before ever sharing the algebraic notation). We then talk about what they have experienced in the community’s own language. Next, we invite them to “regiment” or “straight-jacket” their language using particular syntactic modifications used since the 17th century by mathematicians in public forums.
We treat young people with full respect as mathematical citizens. They have as much intellectual autonomy as the teacher or as the professional mathematicians who designed their curriculum or textbooks. They have as much right as anyone to demand that mathematical sentences and procedures make sense, and they can learn to take the meaning of mathematical sentences seriously by taking each other seriously as mathematicians. For example, most classrooms accept an “answer” like “$x = -3$” for the “problem” $3x + 7 = -2x - 8$. We are more interested in students discussing with each other whether the equivalence of “$x$” and “$-3$” makes sense in the context of the sentence “$3x + 7 = -2x - 8$.” And it is important to understand that they do not need a teacher to be present either to have that conversation or to be certain that “$x = -3$” may make sense in that context.
Sometimes the question arises: What if the students come up with something mathematically “wrong”? In fact, this is a question that professional mathematicians themselves have to deal with in their most advanced work, and it is a question that is answered through an understanding of public space. If a group of students—two or three, say—come up with some mathematical assertion or other that they hold to be true, a larger group of students—five, ten, twenty, or thirty—may notice some flaw in their argument and persuade them that their assertion doesn’t hold water. It is entirely possible that a group of students heads off on a wrong track and ignores some valuable mathematical insight—until they encounter a particular mathematical citizen, or until their public space is enlarged sufficiently that the error in their thinking is pointed out to them. But this is a part of the human process of doing mathematics: there are literally thousands of historical examples. “Zero,” negative numbers, the square root of 2, or the square root of -1 were all outlandish ideas at one time. Mathematicians who believed they were experts in their field had to be persuaded that they had missed something. No one compelled them—only the weight of reasoned arguments in mathematical communities.
Teachers can play an important role as a part of the public space that helps create correctives for students when they need correctives, but this is much less often than imagined. And it is not the teacher’s authority that provides the corrective; the teacher simply represents a certain enlargement of the public space so that students encounter more or different opportunities to defend their thinking.
There are many philosophical and mathematical questions about how quantitative discourse works in public forums. Here we are interested in the political questions. Any group of people can designate themselves as a “we” for mathematical or any other purposes. They can offer whatever arguments or evidence they want to try to establish the validity or usefulness of their terms and procedures. They can integrate and involve themselves with other groups, provided those other groups accept their involvement. But in all cases, their constituting themselves as a “community of mathematicians” is an important political act, especially in the 21st century.
Dr. Moses’s conviction is that there is an opening for radical organizing around math literacy today that closely parallels the opening around voting rights in the 1960s. The strategy in both cases is to exploit a consensus that is both superficial and profound. In the 1960s the consensus was around the right to vote. No one, not even the racists, denied the importance of voting. Their commitment to voting was superficial, only lip service, in relation to the sharecropping caste, but even their superficial pronouncements opened a crack towards a profound, radical opportunity because the vote held so much meaning—historically, politically, emotionally—for the excluded. As Dr. Moses said scores of times, “It wasn’t radical to register people to vote. What was radical was registering sharecroppers to vote.” Registering sharecroppers, or more precisely, sharecroppers registering themselves, changed the political calculus of the South and in fact of the whole country. The radicalness of this issue is, of course, still with us today as racists try to roll back the franchise for those who are supposed to simply accept their lower caste status.
In the 21st century, virtually everyone agrees that education without math and science is second-class education. At least, people agree to this superficially, with lip service. Just as few Black and poor people today receive first-class math education as were registered to vote in Mississippi in the 1950s, but there was no explicit ban on Black people voting then, and there is no explicit ban on Black people learning advanced math today. The superficial consensus, however, opens a door to a radical political opportunity. Dr. Moses says that the Algebra Project works the demand side of a political problem. The strategy is for young people who are poor and oppressed to “demand what everyone says they don’t want” (Cobb and Moses 18).
In the 60s the racists said sharecroppers and domestic workers were apathetic about politics and happy to leave “that mess” to Whites. SNCC learned to organize the disenfranchised to line up at courthouses and to vote by thousands in the parallel election for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and so prove that not apathy, but access was the problem. Today, millions of people believe that Black and Latinx, poor White, and other oppressed young
people “don’t want to learn,” are apathetic about school, drop out, don’t care, and that their families are apathetic, too. Working the demand side for the Algebra Project means learning to organize young people and their families to demand access to first-rate math education.
The consensus on the importance of math education is superficial in the sense that few people envision a massive reordering of society as a consequence of successful education. In fact, few people believe mass excellence in mathematics is possible in any short-term future. Even among people who claim to truly believe that no one should be left behind in STEM, the picture most of us hold is that the economic and political structure of America today would stay more or less as it is, but some greater number of Black and Brown children would live in larger homes, graduate from college at a higher rate, and hold more elevated management positions in government and industry. This is not a radical vision. It is a vision of better access to a burning house.
The superficial consensus on the importance of math education, however, is potentially an opening to something much deeper. Dr. Moses insisted that math education is an organizing tool, and the purpose of the organizing tool is to try to devise the means for destroying the caste system in America. In this vision, it is young people who must provide momentum for radical change, just as it was young people who provided momentum in Mississippi in the 1960s. They must dig in, establish their own authority in math teaching and learning, create structures for educating their peers, model democratic forms of self-governance, make plans and carry them out, invent new structures of education that do not create a pyramid of opportunity where the masses are crushed beneath the vanishing few at the top.
And where will young people in the 21st century learn to organize themselves, learn to devise the means to seriously challenge the caste system over a generation or two? In math classrooms, where every young person is forced to be. That is where they can learn to build consensus among themselves, learn to make demands on each other to dig in against an oppressive enemy, learn to enjoy themselves without abandoning their collective life and death purpose.
Who Is Qualified to change the System?
The political origins of these ideas are in the teachings of Ella Baker, a prolific organizer for Black freedom and the guide and fundi of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s. Her words form the epigraph to Dr. Moses’s book, Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project:
In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become a part of a society that is meaningful, this system under which we now exist has to be radically changed. That means we are going to have to learn to think in radical terms. I use the term radical in its original meaning—getting down to and understanding the root cause. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising the means by which you change that system. That is easier said than done. But one of the things that has to be faced is, in the process of wanting to change the system how much have we got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going. I am saying as you must say, too, that in order to see where we are going, we not only have to remember where we have been, but we must understand where we have been. (Cobb and Moses 3)
What does this mean? What is Baker’s challenge to us? And why did Bob Moses feel that it was important to prioritize?
First, what is the difference between “remembering” and “understanding” where we have been? It must be an important difference. Miss Baker and Dr. Moses did not use words loosely. One key to the difference between remembering and understanding, I believe, is repetition. I did not have the opportunity to learn directly from Miss Baker, but I know that Dr. Moses’s teaching and learning habits relied on and covered the same material many times over. If a book caught his interest and he wanted to really understand it, he would read it again and again. He used to tell the same stories dozens of times, often to the very same people, because he wanted them not only to remember the stories, but to understand them.
One of these stories, for example, is about Judge Claude Feemster Clayton in Greenville, Mississippi:
The link between voting and education had been made explicit with the question Judge Clayton put to me on the witness stand of the Greenville Federal District Court in the spring of 1963. Months before, our SNCC car had been “grease gunned” on highway 82 and SNCC converged on Greenwood, raised food in Chicago, and rallied hundreds of sharecroppers to confront the registrar at the Courthouse. When SNCC Field Secretaries were arrested, Burke Marshall [of the U.S. Department of Justice] filed suit against the city, had our cases removed to the Federal Court and sent John Doar to be our lawyer. Judge Clayton had one question: “Why is SNCC taking illiterates down to register to vote?” My answer was: “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. You can’t deny people an educational opportunity through your political arrangements, and then say the reason people can’t vote is because they can’t read.” (Cobb and Moses 69; Moses 2019)
Dr. Moses told this story again and again because it is not enough to remember that the political arrangements of White supremacy denied educational opportunity to sharecroppers and to the enslaved before them. You must try to understand the circular nature of the racist argument. You must look from many different angles at the deceptive appearances of illiteracy—how illiteracy itself is subject to misreading.
Judge Clayton read illiterate sharecroppers as unqualified to participate in the country’s political arrangements. But Dr. Moses asserts that illiteracy cannot be read as the essence of the people SNCC is bringing to register. Illiteracy tells us something about the system of
White supremacy but says little or nothing about the sharecroppers themselves.
Today, the educational subtext of political and economic power remains difficult to read. As Jerome Givens points out, Black educability is still suspect (Givens 10). Not necessarily in official declarations and not necessarily in the abstract, but in each individual case of sorting, educational neglect, and punishment, millions of Black and other throw-away children are judged as intellectually and morally incapable or unworthy.
There are many ways to see this if we are looking, but the clearest may be the hurdles to admission to “selective” high schools or colleges. Black children and young adults submit applications to these institutions as do children of other races and ethnicities. But the applications from Black children are set aside in far greater proportions. We do not say generally, as an official principle, that Black children are innately inferior or ineducable. We just say for each individual, one at a time that they haven’t achieved some minimum standard that the school or program is looking for, that they “have not lived up to their potential,” that they are “unlikely to be successful” in this challenging environment, and we prove our racial equanimity by admitting a few Black students, demonstrating that the race of the applicant is no barrier.
How is this process different from Judge Clayton’s question: “Why is SNCC taking illiterates to register to vote?” The Judge was correct that many of the sharecroppers did not know how to read, just as it may be true today that many Black students who apply for the most challenging schools are unlikely to pass their courses in those schools. But Dr. Moses’s response to Judge Clayton remains unanswerable: You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. The illiteracy, including the mathematical illiteracy, of our children says nothing about our children; it only gives evidence of the injustice designed into the country’s system of education and into our collective values. The country continues its circular reasoning that uneducated Black children are properly assigned to lower caste status precisely because the country doesn’t adequately educate lower caste children.
A reader may agree with the tenor of the exposition so far but may still be a long way from understanding Miss Baker’s challenge to devise the means by which we change the system. It is sometimes easy to know what is right, but much harder to do what is right, or to understand why doing right is so important. Remember Baker’s words, cited above: “…this system under which we now exist has to be radically changed. That means we are going to have to learn to think in radical terms. I use the term radical in its original sense—getting down to and understanding the root cause.” What is the “root cause”? White supremacy? Capitalism? Imperialism? What does Miss Baker mean? Certainly, these things poison human relations and are causes of poverty and oppression, but are they the “root cause”? Miss Baker says the system has to be radically changed and then she says that this necessity implies that we need to learn to think differently—“we who are poor and oppressed.” Not that the oppressor must think differently, but that we must.
She goes on: “It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising the means by which you change that system.” Judge Clayton, what he stands for, what he represents, what he believes, even the racist systems and structures of which he is a symbol, are not the root cause. Another judge sitting in Judge Clayton’s chair, even a progressive judge, even the abolition of the police and courts would not solve our problem because our problem goes much deeper.
“The key word here is you,” Dr. Moses explains in Radical Equations. “Devising the means by which you change the system.” “Our efforts with our target population is what defines the radical nature of the Algebra Project, not program specifics” (p. 19). He is talking about the young people themselves, about a root cause deep inside each of them that quiets them, that urges them to settle, that distracts them from their own thoughts and feelings or that raises a barrier between their thoughts and feelings and the public sphere that is shared by all the people in the land.
The question that Ella Baker asked young people to confront in 1960 as they were deciding to form SNCC, and that Bob Moses asks young people to confront today in the Algebra Project, is this: How are you going to organize yourselves as young people to devise the means to change your society? What demands will you make on yourselves as individuals and how will you make demands on each other as peers so that you will earn the attention and respect of the elders in your community and of at least some portion of the dominant society, enough respect that the disruptions you plan to the system can dig in and gain some traction for the long haul?
This question of how young people under oppression will learn to organize themselves and to make demands on each other horizontally and democratically is a question that gets to the root of the problem. Are young people who are poor and oppressed qualified to enact this kind of self-organization and self-determination or are they not? What do you think?
Bob Moses believed that they are, and he believed that it was in math classrooms with highly trained, radical teachers and in out-of-school math programs run by young people themselves that a youth-led insurgency could develop. Just as sharecroppers and domestic workers in Mississippi interrupted the political arrangements of the South so that those arrangements could no longer function, so Dr. Moses believes that young people can learn to initiate and sustain a disruption to the educational arrangements of the country so that the structure of caste education will have to change. But they will need to earn their insurgency, and they will need to organize themselves to do math.
**How This Works in Practice: The Three Tiers of Demand**
The Algebra Project asks young people to consider three “tiers” of demand: demands on oneself, demands on one’s peers, and—subsequent to those first two tiers—demands on the larger society.
The first tier of demand is a demand on oneself. I need to learn to think differently and to do differently. I cannot pass this obligation off to anyone else; it is for me in my human uniqueness to decide and to act. I must go to class or go to the meeting, or do my research, or complete my work, or ask the necessary questions, or gather the necessary tools, or listen instead of talk, or check my assumptions, or face my fears. Much more could be said about this first tier of demand from the philosophical, moral, and political perspectives that informed Dr. Moses’s work, for example, through his study of Albert Camus. But this essay centers on the second tier.
The second tier of demand is a demand on one’s peers. “We” must learn to think differently, and we must learn how to constitute a “we.” Another of Dr. Moses’s repetitive questions: “Who is the we?” And the answer is another question: “Can you build a consensus about the nature of the problem you want to take on, and at least an initial consensus about how you are going to go about tackling it?” Whoever can build and join that consensus becomes a “we,” a group of peers. Those peers—each one already making first tier demands on themselves—must then be willing to make second tier demands on each other: Let’s all study the next chapter of the book before class; then we’ll have a better discussion. How will we divide up the tasks for this project, and how will we hold ourselves accountable as a collective? We said we would all be at the meeting Tuesday; why weren’t you there?
A properly functioning Algebra Project math classroom is not only “student centered”; it has evolved into a student-determined culture. This is equivalent to saying that the structure of demand in the classroom is not teacher-to-student, but peer-to-peer. In a student-centered classroom, a caring, thoughtful teacher may institute a set of systematic practices that respect students as the principal agents of their own education. A youth-determined culture goes even further: the systematic practices are created or at least accepted over time by the young people themselves as practices that are worth passing along to peers and near-peers. Teachers have crucial roles in offering insights, ideas, knowledge, and especially invitations to try new things or to think about things in a new way. But it is the young people, not the teacher, who are ultimately the “power in the room” as Omo Moses puts it (2008).
Another way to think about this additional step towards youth-determined culture is that the scope and sequence of a school’s math curriculum might not necessarily determine the scope and sequence of the students’ mathematical (or other) work. This is, of course, impractical in almost every contemporary public school. And in fact, there are very few Algebra Project classrooms that function in this maximal way. But spin-offs of the Algebra Project, specifically the Young People’s Project and the Baltimore Algebra Project, which operate largely outside of school time, have been successful—at least in spurts—in creating youth-determined cultures around math education.
Both the Young People’s Project and the Baltimore Algebra Project pay young people to teach math to their peers. The Young People’s Project originated through Bob Moses’s sons, Omo and Taba, who were working in Mississippi in the 1990s to try to support the Algebra Project’s classroom curriculum with after-school math programming. YPP is now directed by Dr. Moses’s daughter Maisha and promotes a “cascading” approach to near-peer math teaching. Paid college students (College Math Literacy Workers) teach number theory games, coding, and other math content to paid high school students (Math Literacy Workers) who then teach middle and elementary school students through highly interactive activities. YPP is a multi-million dollar annual enterprise, legally independent of any academic or governmental institution, receiving funding through school districts, the National Science Foundation, and private philanthropy to advance a vision of youth-determined math education.
The Baltimore Algebra Project evolved somewhat differently, but it also has paid millions of dollars in wages to young people in Baltimore for teaching math and self-advocacy skills in youth-determined spaces. Originating as an after-school tutoring program founded by high school students who had learned Algebra Project pedagogy from their middle school teacher, BAP evolved into a cooperative economic enterprise governed by a youth collective. It has managed to pass the governance reins along to succeeding generations of Baltimore young people over more than two decades. BAP also evolved a prominent “advocacy” wing that periodically galvanizes political demands around youth priorities in Baltimore, including campaigns for year-round youth employment in knowledge work, preventing the construction of a new youth jail, and fighting for equitable school funding.
The relative independence of YPP and BAP from typical educational command structures (district hierarchies and state and federal policy mandates) has allowed them to develop cultures that are not only centered on young people, but that young people are able to structure according to their own needs. I am most familiar with BAP’s development of this vector and will focus on it as an illustration of Dr. Moses’s broad strategy.
BAP activities often have no adults present at all. Schools are usually hypocritical about the power and autonomy of young people. For example: it is unthinkable in most public settings that a high school class would have no adult teacher. Young people are conceived as generally incapable of structuring their own education. At the same time, schools expect most students, and especially adolescents, to do enormous amounts of learning on their own. The teachers’ responsibility is to lay out certain conditions and to “present information,” but it is the students’ responsibility to actually learn what is required. How else could schools rank and grade young people for their success or failure in “meeting standards”? Implicitly, schools acknowledge that both adults and young people are somehow “responsible” for education. But the relative accountability of teachers and students as causes of learning is a topic that is absent from virtually all policy discussions. The two major ingredients—students’ contribution to their learning, and adults’ contribution to the students’ learning—are part of entirely separate accountability systems. The relative accountability of teachers and students isn’t discussed because the autonomy of young people is generally taboo as a policy matter. Policy makers simply
cannot afford to treat adolescents as fully autonomous actors, clearly a hypocritical posture. Teachers, principals, parents, social workers, police, and everyone else who work directly with children know that adolescents have will, autonomy, and power to do what they want in any given circumstance, policies be damned. That is why we adults feel part of our responsibility is to try to “hold young people accountable” for their actions. But for complex historical reasons, the current official stance of almost all policy setting institutions is that adults are ultimately responsible for the “success” or “failure” of young people under the age of 18.
The Baltimore Algebra Project tries to avoid this hypocrisy. It recognizes adolescents as autonomous. They have a kind of “negative” autonomy in the sense that they can simply not do what adults ask them to do. And they have a “positive” autonomy in the sense that they often do formulate plans, individually and collectively, with the purpose of meeting goals that are not set by adults, but that are set by young people themselves. Those goals are often “non-academic,” but not necessarily. Recently a group of nine young people in BAP decided to coach a team of elementary schoolers in Flagway (one of YPP’s number theory games) so that they could participate in the Flagway national tournament in Miami. The BAP youth worked with an elementary school to recruit students, talked with parents and school officials about the trip to Miami, picked up the students after school to walk to the BAP after-school site, structured coaching sessions for two months so that the elementary schoolers could learn the game, and then coached their younger near-peers to a third-place finish at the tournament. Parents asked to meet the adults who would be chaperoning the trip; adult staff of BAP (several who were themselves alumni of the organization) were often on hand and accompanied the young people on their trip. But young people independently facilitated all work sessions and decided themselves how to proceed at each step.
The self-determined work of young people’s collectives shares all the same challenges and opportunities that adult collectives have. In the Flagway trip preparation, for example, some BAP members showed up more, followed through more, and generally worked harder than others. This led to internal discussions about commitment and how to organize the work, but it did not lead to adult intervention. Peers made demands on each other; adults were not making demands on young people.
These demands on one’s peers are what Dr. Moses saw as the crucial, first political demands. In a democracy, politics is peer-to-peer. Equals make arrangements to achieve mutual or collective interests, and a necessary aspect of those arrangements is the acceptance of a peer’s insistence that you perform as agreed. Demand on peers is the distinguishing accountability mechanism of what we now call democracy: the “higher” authorities of democracies are only representatives of common citizens, acting on some kind of consensus. The Judge, the President, the “government,” are our peers in theory. Dr. Moses asked us again and again to consider how “We the People” in the preamble to the Constitution is a collective noun referring to specific people in concrete historical circumstances, constantly renewing a commitment to operate as peers with common purpose. Practice, of course, is very different in America’s caste society, but all over the world, including in the United States, small organizations centered on particular, community-based needs regularly institute democracy through structures entirely between peers. This was the structure of SNCC and of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. It was and is a realistic, but demanding, ideal.
The examples of BAP or YPP and of successfully implemented Algebra Project classrooms raise the possibility that the internal politics of schools could be different. Currently, the politics of schools is authoritarian in keeping with the “business” culture of the country. Superintendents command principals, who command teachers, who command students. Some “school leaders” or progressive teachers lean in varying degrees towards more communal practices: inviting buy-in and input, delegating authority, and fostering collaboration. But almost everywhere, those higher up in the hierarchy make demands on those lower down. This could be different. Accountability could be horizontal, the way it is in democracies. This could even be the case for adolescents (and is often the case in BAP and YPP) and possibly for even younger children.
The significance of the first two tiers—demands on self and demands on peers—is that they are the necessary preconditions for successful third tier demands on the larger society, on the country. The lesson Bob Moses took from what he called the Mississippi Theater of the Civil Rights Movement was that “democracies require earned insurgencies.” The “earning” is done in the first two tiers of demand. By demonstrating that they could face their own fear, that they could pick themselves up from tragedy and defeat, that they could link arms and keep singing and coordinate their creative protest on some significant scale, the young people from SNCC earned enough backing to turn the tide of public opinion.
It is relatively easy to see the structure of these three tiers of demand in hindsight when we look at the Civil Rights Movement. We understand the heroism of John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Jim Forman, Ruby Sales, and so many others as evidence of demands they made on themselves and their peers, earning respect from at least some elements of the larger society until even the most unbinding elements of the power structure were compelled to compromise. But in an irony of history, it is much harder to see how the same structures can operate today, partly because of the earlier successes. We tend to get stuck on tier one and then skip to tier three, without clearly understanding the structure of the series.
Tier one, demand on self, is read today in the context of America’s mythic individualism. “You can be anything you want to be.” Every school child hears again and again that their individual effort determines their “success.” Republicans and many libertarians stop at this point in their political analysis: everyone gets what they deserve through their own individual effort. But those of us with more left-leaning ideologies jump from here to the third tier—demand on the larger society. We argue that the structures of our society are oppressive, racist, caste-based, unjust, and immoral. So we make demands on individuals or on
institutions in the larger society to try to bring about change. I believe we are right to make these demands.
The challenge that Ella Baker and Bob Moses pose to us, however, is not only about the demands we make on ourselves as individuals, or the demands we make to the larger society. Ms. Baker and Dr. Moses ask us to think about the demands we must make on our peers. And oddly—because after all we live in a democracy—this is an unfamiliar kind of demand and one we are very rarely taught how to make. Most of us have never experienced or learned the process of making democratic demands on peers. The point of the Algebra Project turns out to be that math classrooms are especially well-suited to teaching and learning this core democratic skill.
What young people can learn in math classrooms that is difficult to learn anywhere else is how to make demands on each other as “reasoning subjects” (Givens 10). Of course, students can learn to use evidence and argument in the course of studying history or literature, too. But the community of mathematicians and scientists demands a level of consensus that goes beyond other subject areas. Mathematicians and scientists do disagree about certain topics passionately, and don’t share a consensus on everything. But there is a basic, and we would say democratic, agreement among mathematicians and scientists that the typical arguments in their fields persuade literally everyone who is willing to pay attention. Nobody needs to take anybody’s word for it; no one needs to accept any arbitrary authority in a well-designed math classroom. Each individual is able to verify the truth of the evidence and argument for themselves. But the actual test, and constant re-testing, of mathematical truths comes from the process of building consensus again and again among groups of people who agree to do this peculiar kind of work—to both verify each one for themselves and to find words, symbols, forms of communication, and arguments that build a “we” in consensus.
Of course, this rejection of arbitrary authority is very different from most people’s experience of math classrooms where mathematical truths are simply asserted by textbooks and teachers claiming to be authoritative, and where institutional power is entirely in the teacher’s hands. Most secondary math textbooks embed an interesting critique of this teacherly authority in their very structure: because they are written by mathematicians, textbooks paradoxically include at least informal proofs of many theorems, the mathematicians believing with all their hearts that the practice of mathematics involves “reasoning subjects,” not people who accept dogma from arbitrary authorities. Students mostly ignore the proofs, because they are almost never included in anyone’s grade; the real game of the caste-reinforcing “system” is the imposition of arbitrary authority, not the democratic practice of actual mathematicians.
Nevertheless, the mathematicians’ practice is exactly the process needed for a successful democracy; we require both the assertion from each individual that they are equally qualified to contribute to the general welfare and also a willingness to be questioned and challenged by peers, who need not and should not accept any individual’s authority over them. In the English classroom you can go your separate ways arguing over an interpretation of a poem or whether there is space in the canon for both Shakespeare and Toni Morrison. And in a free country you can go your own separate way about what kind of music you listen to or what god you worship. But math classrooms require everyone in the end to be on the same page in some way: we should all be able to agree that the three angles of a triangle do not always add up to 180°, for example, on a sphere—it isn’t a matter of “opinion” in a community of mathematicians.
This is a key lesson of the 1960s voting rights movement, as Dr. Moses insisted many times. Each article of the Constitution and each statutory law, just like a mathematical theorem, is language agreed on by a community of practitioners to accomplish a particular purpose. Participants in a democracy—both government officials and ordinary citizens—can be confronted about the meaning of the laws or changes needed in the laws. And somehow, even without a thorough theoretical understanding of the issues, most participants in a democracy agree that some common attitude towards these pieces of language, the corpus of law, must be shared and respected by everyone for the democratic practice to continue. It is this common understanding that causes all sides in our current political crisis to hold up the Constitution as their banner; although relatively few Americans have a clear idea of what is in the Constitution, the great majority believe that its words—whatever they might be—hold some kind of truth of great importance to freedom, justice, and security.
Dr. Moses learned in the 1960s that this vague but deeply rooted belief in the power of the Constitution’s words opened a door to a certain kind of organizing. The oppressed could be organized to demand that words be taken seriously, and the oppressors could decide, once they felt enough danger, to conform their behavior a little less hypocritically to the words they claimed were true. This organizing strategy led directly to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was a belated attempt to bring the country’s practices in line with the country’s principles. The point here is that this strategy hinged on the tacit acknowledgement—forced by the Civil Rights Movement insurgency—that we could not simply agree to go our separate ways. We had to agree on something, and that something turned out to be that every adult has the right to vote, illiterate or not.
The Algebra Project is a strategy for forcing a confrontation parallel to the voting rights struggle, but focused on the much deeper hypocrisy of our education system. Starting from math classrooms and out-of-school community math sites, young people can begin to develop shared language, shared demands, shared ways of moving together until some of them devise ways to step into the public arena and demand a change from the system that passes wealth, power, and opportunity from one generation to the next on increasingly rigid caste lines. You may not agree that math classrooms will work as venues for this organizing of oppressed young people’s self-determination. And maybe you are right. But you are certainly mistaken if you believe that Bob Moses’s goal was anything less than the uprooting of caste in America. His vision, a long-term
vision to be sure, is of the most radical change possible: from a society built on greed, violence, and exploitation to a society in which no one at all is either oppressor or victim.
Works Cited
Givens, Jarvis, R. *Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching*. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2021.
Moses, Omo. Workshop presentation, Occidental College, October 2008.
Moses, Robert P. "Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project to the 'We the People – Math Literacy for All' Alliance – an update for the SNCC Legacy Project Board – Saturday, April 6, 2019" https://algebra.org/wp/2019/04/06/sncc-legacy-project-board-update/
Moses, Robert P. and Charles E. Cobb, Jr. *Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project*. Boston, Beacon Press, 2001.
Jay Gillen is a teacher and youth organizer in Baltimore City.
Teaching Note
Visibility, Precarity and Public Spaces: Reading Matthew Arnold’s “West London” in an Indian Classroom
by Saradindu Bhattacharya
In 2022, I offered MA English students at the University of Hyderabad a course on Victorian Literature and Thought. Building on preliminary remarks on the explosive impact of the Industrial Revolution on the growth and movement of populations in England during the period, I took up Matthew Arnold’s “West London” for discussion in class. The poem presents a brief scene, described from the point-of-view of an unobtrusive but observant speaker, featuring a tramp who lurks about Belgrave Square and sends her little daughter begging for alms. My aim was to explore the possibility of reading the figure of the tramp as one that evokes recognition as a human agent, even as she confronts the dehumanizing conditions of her survival in a hostile social environment. The students in my class – most of them having had some exposure to the English canon at the undergraduate level – were already familiar with the history and conventions of basic literary genres, and could thus immediately identify that Arnold presents a recurrent ‘subject’ of Victorian literature (the urban poor) in a form (the Petrarchan sonnet) that typically posits a personal problem or crisis in the first eight lines and then offers a contemplative (re)solution to it in the next six lines. Arnold’s poem, a student remarked, seemed to have thematic resonances with other Victorian texts they had already read (such as Charles Dickens’s Hard Times and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “The Cry of the Children”). I pointed out that the tramp in Arnold’s poem was akin to solitary figures like prostitutes, peddlers, vagrants, leech gatherers, and discharged soldiers who populate the poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth. The literary tradition of representing such socially marginalized characters, I suggested, might be seen as a symptom of the growing cultural anxiety over the rapidly changing economic and geographical landscape of England in the 19th century. Another student remarked that while Arnold’s poem tackles the topical issue of urban poverty, it does so in a format and tone that was less “polemical” and more “intimate” than that adopted by many of his contemporaries. This sense of intimacy, I suggested, was partly a result of our expectations as readers of the genre of the sonnet itself, and partly also of the fact that Arnold’s speaker prompts us to keenly observe the central character of the poem from his perspective.
The poem opens dramatically with a description of a tramp, in ragged clothes and bare feet, in the vicinity of one of London’s poshest residential areas, Belgrave Square. The visual incongruity between character and setting, which is the result of ‘seeing’ a woman belonging to the lower class in a location that connotes class privilege, opened up the scope for analysing how ‘space’ might be central to understanding the representational strategy of the poem. The fact that the tramp is described as “ill, moody, and tongue-tied,” observed a student, seems to project her presence in an otherwise prosperous, fashionable location as discordant, out of place, as it were. Another student commented that the tramp’s “crouched” posture is potentially ambiguous, suggesting at the obvious level her own awareness of her illicit presence in her surroundings and her defensive attempt to be inconspicuous, but also physically resembling a hunting animal and thus bearing the faint trace of offensive menace. On the basis of these remarks, I suggested that the tramp’s incongruous presence is visually configured in terms of her body itself as a marker of her ‘otherness,’ a sign that defines (through contrast) but also threatens to contaminate the spatial sanctity of Belgrave Square as the domain of the English upper classes. The speaker’s strategy of directing his (and through extension the reader’s) visual attention to the figure of the tramp is thus a means of confronting that which would otherwise be rendered unseen, invisible by the class-specific regulation of urban spaces in Victorian England.
Building on this premise, another student observed that the dramatic element of the poem extends into the second quatrain, where we witness the tramp sending her little daughter across the street to beg from a group of passing labourers and the girl coming back after successfully completing her mission. The habitual, wordless interaction between the tramp and her daughter and the swiftness with which the task of begging is accomplished, indicate, in terms of physical action, an ability on the part of these characters to negotiate the space of the city. I suggested that it might be useful to consider how the tramp, located literally on the margins of this setting (on the pavement), is paradoxically also the centre of the scene; in showing the reader her ability to navigate through the public space of the street, the speaker identifies her subordinate class status while simultaneously also ascribing to her a degree of agency that implicitly questions the very basis of such subordination: “The rich she had let pass with frozen stare.” Insofar as she is the source/agent of this moral judgement – one that the speaker interprets as a sign of the “spirit [that] towers” above her state – the tramp embodies an essential humanness that the rich fail to recognize but the reader must.
The tramp’s moral agency, I further added, may be read through theories of mobility proposed by critics like Michel de Certeau, who highlights the ordinary, everyday “tactics” adopted by social “poachers” to utilize and circumvent institutional norms through which urban spaces are organized. One of the students, with a particular interest in social history, reminded us that while gypsies and vagabonds have been traditionally associated in literature with social disruption, during the Victorian period homelessness and begging were declared outrightly illegal under the Vagrancy Act of 1824. The tramp in Arnold’s poem would therefore immediately auger the spectre of criminality to a Victorian audience.
To this I added that the anonymity of the tramp, a figure whose contiguous presence would trigger collective anxiety amongst the residents of Belgrave Square, is combined here with sympathetic characterization, wherein the speaker prompts a recognition of her human instinct for survival, especially as a mother. In fact, the presence of the quasi-family unit of the mother-child duo is precisely what unsettles the ‘respectable’ social order of Belgrave Square. The little girl, one of the students observed, demonstrates a certain precocious expertise in the act of begging (requiring no more than a touch from her mother as instruction) that suggests her acquired ability to successfully navigate through the public space of the street; this ability, necessary for survival within this social order, is also ironically a reminder to the reader that a child (the lowest common denominator for humanity, as it were) should ideally not
have to beg on the streets and thus serves as an ethical condemnation of the inhumanity of such an order. Thus, in the sestet of the poem, the speaker shifts from direct observation to contemplative social commentary and posits a clear binary opposition between “the unknown little” and “the unknowing great.” Having established a degree of sympathetic visual familiarity with the tramp through her dramatic portrayal in the octave, the speaker can now offer a critique of the class segregation between the rich and the poor through an alternate binary division within the same spatial domain – the passing labourers as “friends” versus the resident upper class “aliens.” The contrast between relations of cordiality (between the beggar and the labourers) and of animosity (between the rich and the poor) prompts an identification of humanness with the former, the unlawful occupants of the ordered space of Belgrave Square, whose rightful residents are shown as lacking in humanity.
I proposed that this moral binary constitutes an imaginative, ethical reconfiguration of the titular space of Belgrave Square, its meaning(s) having been revised through the humanization of the unarmed tramp.
At this point, one of the students wondered if the tramp’s strategic negotiation with(in) the public space of the city street might yield insights into how certain sections of the population, such as migrant workers in our own immediate context (the Indian metropolis), are often seen in everyday contexts and yet never recognized as individuated human characters. This set off a discussion on how the presence of daily wage labourers, peddlers, and beggars (including children) in public spaces (railway stations, construction sites, traffic signals, street corners, and pavements) is a fairly common phenomenon in India, so much so that this goes unremarked, practically unnoticed, by members of the middle and upper classes who happen to occupy the same spaces but also enjoy the privilege of retreating into exclusive spaces such as restaurants, shopping malls, office buildings, and of course private houses and residential complexes. I argued that if the figure of the tramp in Arnold’s poem symbolizes vulnerability (not only to the elements of nature but also to social ostracism and legal punishment) and her visibility functions as an ethical call to the Victorian audience to address the problem of urban poverty, then the pervasive presence of similarly marginalized characters in the urban Indian landscape may symptomize a normalization of class disparity. Their presence in our everyday public spaces, a student observed, is socially regulated and rendered ‘harmless,’ even necessary – for instance, sanitation workers and food delivery agents are often required to wear certain uniforms, making them visually identifiable, while surveillance systems monitor the entry and exit of courier agents and domestic servants within the premises of residential complexes. These forms of institutional regulation, the student suggested, render them visible only as particular ‘types’ rather than individuals to those who benefit from their labour.
Another student ventured that there might be certain extraordinary circumstances under which the visibility of these ‘types’ of citizens becomes unsettling, even threatening. As an instance, she cited the news reports on the mass migration of manual and semi-skilled labourers following the sudden imposition of a nation-wide lockdown in India in March, 2020 in response to the outbreak of Covid-19. The media coverage of this migration (reportedly the biggest since the exodus of populations during the 1947 partition of the country), I proposed, might be seen as foregrounding (in a literal, visual sense) citizens whose occupation of public spaces is otherwise inconspicuous. Thus, visuals of thousands of migrant workers walking through empty national highways, railway tracks, and interstate check posts, created an unsettling spectacle, one that reminded the audience, safely ensconced in their homes fearing exposure to the deadly virus, of their own privilege, while at the same time also conjuring up the fear of contamination through the unregulated, illicit movement of the (now) hyper-visible ‘other’ through the spatial territory of the nation. One of the students interjected that the lockdown was imposed precisely with the intent to keep the body of the average Indian citizen immune to a highly contagious disease and thus the movement of workers en masse was potentially a source of infection; another student countered that not all bodies that share the space of the nation are equally vulnerable when we consider the fact that class disparity renders the existence of the average migrant worker in urban India particularly precarious when s/he confronts hunger and starvation due to lack of employment. The class recognized that the visual representation of migrant Indian workers, seen in the act of re-locating themselves away from the Indian city through the exercise of their bodies (traversing thousands of miles on foot), performs a role similar to the figure of the tramp in Arnold’s poem, in that both underscore the physical and social vulnerability of the urban poor, albeit in very different historical and cultural contexts; both serve as an unsettling reminder of their “precarious lives” (to borrow a phrase from Judith Butler), even as the audience, the relatively privileged Indian student studying English at a university, acknowledges, with Arnold’s speaker, the moral imperative to see the ‘other’ as “sharers in a common human fate.”
Saradindu Bhattacharya teaches at the Department of English, University of Hyderabad, India. He teaches postgraduate courses on New Literatures in English, Victorian Literature, Anglo-American Poetry, and Indian literatures and media. His research interests and publications are in the domains of popular culture, narratives of trauma, young adult literature, and the pedagogy of English in India.
Teaching Note
Teaching Zora Neale Hurston’s *Their Eyes Were Watching God* in First-Year Composition
by Samantha Prillaman Conner
In 2022 Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel, *Their Eyes Were Watching God*, opens many gateways to critically thinking about themes such as race, gender roles, and identity. Many first-year students are exploring who they are as individuals, and many use their time in college to develop an identity outside of their parents’ identity. I currently teach first-year composition at Radford University as a Graduate Teaching Fellow. Radford University is a rural, mostly white university in southwest Virginia. However, Radford University’s student population is over one third students of color, a higher percentage than neighboring schools like Virginia Tech. Many students come from lower income families and choose Radford for its small-town environment and affordability. Radford University students are mainly women. Keeping these demographics in mind is important to understanding the reception of Zora Neale Hurston’s *Their Eyes Were Watching God* in my first-year composition classroom.
*Their Eyes Were Watching God* follows the life of Janie, a Black woman from the South who experiences discrimination based on race and gender. She marries several men who each show readers how women are mistreated by their husbands and belittled by society. Though she is faced with discrimination based on her identity as a Black woman, Janie still holds onto her hope for independence and true love. The story is told through Janie’s reflection on her life to her friend, Pheoby, which makes this a powerful novel to pair with feminist pedagogy due to the focus on reflection. Janie is developing her own ideas and identity in *Their Eyes Were Watching God*, thus making this novel a great starting point for discussion, self-reflection, and writing in the FYC classroom.
Starting in small discussion groups allows students time to gain comfort with their peers and speaking in class, especially about controversial topics like race, gender, and sexuality. Starting with something like age discrimination and then moving into discussions of intersectionality of race and gender worked best in my classroom. Students are more inclined to talk about the experiences that Janie goes through in the novel because they can remove themselves from the equation initially. For example, students may bring up Janie’s age as she is forced into her first marriage to Logan Killicks or they may talk about Hurston’s purpose for writing *Their Eyes* in 1937. However, as they warm up to their peers and to me, they eventually become more comfortable relating the experiences of Janie to modern day issues concerning race and gender.
While teaching an emotionally-charged novel like *Their Eyes*, it is important to take notice of the zones of learning. I worked to keep students in the “stretch” zone, where they are learning but are not so overwhelmed that they shut down (Samu-Vissar). In this class, students were exposed to dialects different from their own, and ideas of racism, sexism, and sexuality, as well as comparisons of the novel to real-life events. The reason I use the word “possibly” when referring to my students’ position in the “panic zone” is because I have no true evidence to present that suggests my students were uncomfortable talking about issues relating to gender roles, sexuality, or race. In fact, I received student writings that demonstrated respect and understanding of others’ perspectives during our time discussing the novel. However, these student writings and discussions demonstrating respect for one another and myself are no help in explaining why my attendance rates were so low and why students, particularly the male students, stopped turning in assignments after the first month of classes.
To explain in more detail, I taught two sections of FYC using the same syllabus incorporating Hurston’s *Their Eyes Were Watching God* into the curriculum. My 8:00 a.m. class was comprised of fifteen students, with only two males. My 9:00 a.m. class also consisted of fifteen students, seven of whom were males. After about a month of classes, I began noticing my male students were becoming less attentive in class and many stopped coming at all. In addition, all but three of my male students stopped submitting assignments.
At first, I attributed this decline in male attendance and assignment submission to my male students existing within the “panic zone.” I thought they were upset about our discussions about women’s sexuality, traditional gender roles, and masculinity. These are big, controversial topics for any student to encounter, especially during their first semester of college. However, I assigned a journal activity to allow students to reflect on their feelings about discussing topics such as feminism, gender roles, masculinity, race, sexuality, etc. Here are some of the responses that I received from the male students whose attendance had dropped:
**Male student A:** “Personally, I am very comfortable with talking about sexuality, sex and race in the classroom. As someone who is very comfortable in how they identify, others’ opinions don’t really affect me that much when it comes to gender and sexuality.”
**Male Student B:** “I would not feel discomfort talking about those various topics in the classroom. Like I said before, I feel like everybody should have a wide understanding of gender, sexuality, and race, because learning about it can possibly help you in the future. I was always taught to always keep an open mind when learning about difficult topics in the world. I enjoy learning about those things and getting to know more about History.”
**Male Student C:** “I do not really handle my discomfort, but if a teacher would ever call on me, I would just suck it up and say my opinion then just stay quiet the rest of class because I would see people give me a nasty look because it is not what society wants me to believe. I truly feel like nowadays if you do not believe what society does then you are just automatically wrong. I know in classrooms it is like a safe space but if I did ever have to say my opinion to the class no one would say anything, but I would see people look at me in a weird way and judge me from across the class. I would not mind if I talked about my opinions on things in a paper that only you would see, but I would not like to share in front of the class.”
Male Student D: “In the classroom I have mixed opinions about talking about race, gender, and sexuality in the classroom. At some points when talking about the topic I feel fine like talking about the history, I can go for a while when we go through the timeline of how the movements started, important people, and specific points in time. When it comes to talking about personal experiences or even trying to relate my own situation to a topic I do not feel as comfortable. I do place in the middle of the political spectrum, but there are a lot of things I just don’t have a strong opinion on. I would not want to say something that could possibly upset someone or even have a debate due to the fact I really wouldn’t have to many points on the topic.”
Overall, these responses show students want to experience respect in the classroom and learn about perspectives different from their own. Male Student A has an understanding that sometimes misinformation happens and that is okay. Classroom discussions seem to be a place to learn for this student. Male Student B agrees with Male Student A and possesses a respect for learning and an open mind. Male Student C has some reservations about discussing controversial topics in class but has no problem discussing these topics on paper for various writing assignments. Though Male Student C is comfortable sharing his opinions on paper, he enters the “panic zone” when asked to share ideas and opinions aloud in whole group discussions. Lastly, Male Student D does not like to participate in controversial discussions about race, gender, sexuality, etc., but his reasoning shows respect for others’ feelings as well as his own. Male Student D could easily enter the “panic zone” if conflicting ideas are brought to the table. It will be especially important for this student to understand that working through ideas as a class is a part of learning within the “stretch zone.” These excerpts from their journal assignment show promise for classroom discussions and writings within the “stretch zone,” though Male Students C and D have the potential to enter into the “panic zone” during whole group discussions.
My final evaluations revealed that the Southern Black dialect use in the novel was the primary cause for the low attendance and assignment submission drops, not the discussions about race and gender. The aspect of reading difficulty alone may have been causing students to enter the “panic zone.” There is also the possibility of unconscious bias related to understanding her Southern Black dialect. In retrospect, students were more uncomfortable with the dialect and content than I realized even though I started with the age discrimination discussions. Though they may have felt some discomfort at times, I made sure to use antiracist teaching strategies based on Ibram Kendi’s definition of an antiracist: “An antiracist idea is any idea that suggests the racial groups are equals in all their apparent differences – that there is nothing right or wrong with any racial group” (Kendi 20). As a white female instructor, I needed to be sure I was not “speaking for” BIPOC individuals. It was important for me to be able to hold class discussions that did not alienate any student and did not allow room for racial discrimination.
Though I prepared for code switching lessons before the semester began, I did not see dialect as a possible “panic zone” at first. One way to incorporate discussions of dialect into the classroom and help students understand Hurston’s reasons for writing the majority of *Their Eyes* in a Southern Black dialect is to assign journal entries relating to code switching. Keeping these assignments low stakes allows students to experiment with their writing and ideas without the fear of being “wrong.” Journal entries allow students to reflect on their own experiences using their own language. We then discuss as a whole group why we think Hurston uses a Southern Black dialect. Many students say, “Because it’s where she’s from,” but with slight guidance I can move students towards thinking about how these Southern Black voices were often silenced. Some students presented hidden “panic zones” as they would sometimes refer to the Standard English dialect as “proper,” so I was sure to explain why no dialect is “proper,” in an effort to end the subtly racist comments. We end our whole group discussion with the idea that by incorporating dialect into *Their Eyes*, Hurston is giving a voice to those who did not have one. I bring this idea up often as we read through the novel in the following weeks. Finding common ground through discussions of dialect and code switching brings students together though they may be different.
Hurston’s novel teaches students that it is acceptable to keep their own identities in their writing. While some of their values may be challenged, the use of antiracist and feminist pedagogical strategies helps students to remain in the “stretch zone” as they explore new ways of thinking. The journal responses from my male students show promising open-minded individuals who want to learn and respect others, but have reservations about voicing their opinions in class. By teaching the importance of code-switching in conversation with this novel, students learn to think critically about and respect the identities of those who may be different from them.
Works Cited
Kendi, Ibram X. *How to Be an Antiracist*. One World, 2019.
Samu-Vissar, Diana. “Challenging and Caring for Learners in DEI Classrooms.” *HR Spotlight*, McLean and Company, 2022, https://hr.mcleanco.com/research/challenging-and-caring-for-learners-in-dei-classrooms.
Samantha Prillaman Conner (she/her/hers) is a Graduate Teaching Fellow at Radford University in Radford, Virginia. Her research focuses primarily on feminist pedagogy and teaching composition.
Poetry
Safe Space
by Carol Smith
Safe Space
In this English 10 classroom, racism is not welcomed.
So, it sneaks in and hides,
It enters beneath rock band t-shirts and tattered Levi’s
or stashed in Jansport backpacks.
It crouches under desks like a concealed cell phone
ready for activation.
Some days, it leans against the pale blue cinderblock wall
with the quiet back-row listeners.
Other times, it sits up straight, eyes on the whiteboard,
with the eager front-row hand-raisers.
Sometimes, it peeks at the self-isolated Black kids staring
out the window at nothing.
Under the glare of linear fluorescent tubes,
it can be hard to detect.
Especially if it flattens itself to lie between lines
of five-paragraph essays in three-ring binders,
or when it slithers up onto a bookshelf and wedges
between Achebe and Coates.
Often, it lies in wait within my teacher-mouth,
ready to burst forth as an
Anglicized stutter of an unrecognized name.
When that happens, it echoes
off the linoleum floor and ricochets off laminated posters
of Angelou and Morrison.
Carol Smith, Ed.D, is an MFA candidate at Arcadia University, who has taught in public schools and universities for 30 years. Her poetry reflects upon personal, social, and political experiences, including the tensions inherent to racism, antiracism, and social injustice. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in *The Last Stanza*, *In Parentheses*, and *Mobius*. Carol lives in Southern New Jersey, where she currently teaches college composition. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Poetry
Still
by Mary E. Cronin
SELF-PORTRAIT SAMUEL JOSEPH BROWN, JR. AMERICAN CA. 1941. MET ONLINE COLLECTION
Still
Let me step aside
from the reading wars
and data sheets
and progress reports.
Let me be still,
still here
still open
to the wonder of you
learning to read,
making sense
of Frog
and Toad,
and their bickering way of loving.
Let me listen
to you stumble over words,
trip on the cobblestones
of afraid and friend,
careening
down the path of
story.
Let me be part of
your story.
How you arrived here,
wide-eyed,
wary,
angry.
And now you read,
you laugh,
you sit,
still,
while I bend
to tie the frayed laces
of your shoe.
Mary E. Cronin’s Massachusetts teaching career spans 30 years, preschool to college, Boston to Cambridge to Cape Cod. Mary’s poetry for adults has been featured in *The New York Times*, *Rise Up Review*, and *Provincetown Magazine*. A Literacy Coach in the Dennis-Yarmouth schools and a dedicated 5 a.m. writer, her poetry for children has appeared in numerous anthologies for young readers. Mary has two children’s books under contract, yet to be announced. You can find her at www.marvecronin.com.
Review
Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education
by Paul Buhle
TEACH FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE
A VISION FOR TRANSFORMING EDUCATION
TOM RODERICK
TEACH FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE: A VISION FOR TRANSFORMING EDUCATION, (2023), BY TOM RODERICK. HARVARD EDUCATION PRESS.
How can we speak to young people about the ecological disaster and increasing inequality that will shape their lives without making them feel hopeless—or succumb ourselves to a deadening fatalism? How can we educate the next generation to find ways to make a difference, to see that a better future is possible?
Tom Roderick, a veteran teacher, writer, and education activist, spent 36 years before retirement at the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility in New York City. If anyone has the credentials for the task at hand, it’s him—and he approaches the subject with a light touch, urging educators to teach for joy and justice.
The task is to move step by step, realistically taking up what children can make sense of on their own terms and at an age-appropriate level. Much of this, as Rachel Carson argued long ago, hinges on their being able to “feel” long before being able to “understand.” Through case studies and interviews with educators from a range of grade levels and types of schools, Roderick shows what is possible.
Young people want—or at least can be helped—to enjoy direct contact with nature in a wide variety of environments, from woods to water, to look and touch and perhaps do something as adventurous as taking a canoe ride or wading through shallow water while collecting samples, even in a city park. If a river (like the Bronx River) has been improved in recent times, the return of life opens a vision of what is possible in education, to teach others (to quote an elementary school teacher) “about the natural world even when it is being destroyed” (p.53).
What does this mean? It takes teaching children to go beyond passive acceptance and toward “trying to come up with ways to create social change” (p.66), to quote another teacher, this one a veteran of student participation during pre-pandemic youth climate marches in New York City.
It means identifying the most pressing problems, not only ones students can see in their own environment but also the dire conditions in the Global South. Various forms of habitat destruction—above all the harm to rainforests, the overuse of fertilizers, the damage or destruction of animal habitats, which has led to the massive spread of human diseases—have real causes that can be usefully discussed. Children who have experienced mega-storms know already, at a young age, that something is amiss. They can catch up with events and their causes through many available documentary films. They can connect what they see and what they experience with “climate justice,” that is, how dire events fall heaviest upon those least able to protect themselves. It is a truism that children respond to the harm caused to almost any animal species, and, through this empathy, they can make connections to the wider world and also to things humans have done that must not continue.
Many young people in classrooms today are themselves climate refugees, brought here or born here because their parents were forced from their homeland by economic or political turmoil brought on—at least in part—by climate change.
How to offer young people positive lessons? If there is potentially good news, it must be that climate movements are thriving and that rather than being left behind, young people are very often leading the charge, with Greta Thunberg as today’s singular model world citizen. Alternative ways of feeding populations, like more “green” sources of energy, are abundant, if only politicians (Democrats as well as Republicans) can be impelled or compelled to take seriously the urgency of the moment.
At the heart of Roderick’s vision of climate justice education is “active hope,” a concept he borrowed from Chris Johnstone and Johanna Macy in their book of the same name. Active hope is not a feeling; it’s not something we have, but something we do. We envision the just and sustainable world we hope for, discern how we can best contribute, and then get to work—doing our part to accomplish what Johnstone and Macy call the “Great Turning.” This is science fiction of a sort—but of a potentially active sort. Finding ways to protect the oceans while “wilding” larger land masses, making cities more nature-friendly through rooftop gardens and reduced use of automobiles—these and other visions allow young people to think of what could be possible.
Perhaps the most controversial chapter of this book is “Teach for Civil Resistance: The Power of Grassroots Movements to Effect Transformational Change” because it demands action that the powerful will naturally wish to resist.
Students in one example view a powerful documentary film and discuss the Freedom Rides that the US Justice Department asked civil rights leaders to suspend for the sake of public order. The Movement chose to escalate non-violent action instead, compelling the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce the laws against discrimination in interstate travel. As the teacher in the example concluded, political leaders had been the followers while activists themselves—overwhelmingly young—were the leaders through non-violent direct action. Civil rights came to be seen as the most crucial problem of the nation, and allies high in government took action.
Such experiences, taught in a wide variety of ways (Roderick recalls his own third-grade daughter in a school play about the Montgomery Bus Boycott campaign), lead logically to potential action on climate change. Students learn and discuss the wide range of non-violent direct actions that can be taken. The experiences are updated with students’ role-playing and discussion of the recent campaign led by Indigenous people to stop the construction of Enbridge Energy’s oil pipeline and its destructive and violent invasion of their tribal lands in Northern Minnesota.
The chapter also tells the story of the encampment, led by Indigenous young people, to stop the completion of the 1,200-mile Dakota Access pipeline, explaining how it
would endanger drinking water and tribal lands in the Standing Rock Native American Reservation in North Dakota. After months of nonviolent training and action that gained worldwide attention, the Obama administration denied the permit for the construction. Upon taking office soon after, President Donald Trump issued an executive order allowing the pipeline to go forward. Although a federal judge struck down a key federal permit, the pipeline was allowed to continue operating pending an environmental review. The ultimate outcome remains uncertain, while the oil continues to flow.
How can students learn to feel supported in action for climate justice? How can they feel capable of reversing the current drift toward catastrophe? Black Lives Matter events helped create mutual-aid and protest-support networks that students could understand, even as the COVID crisis shut down global Climate Marches. At a more granular level, students could borrow from a method developed in Scotland that involved learning about a river: visiting it intermittently over the school year, studying together what was flourishing and what was becoming endangered. Likewise, by engaging in activities connected with Indigenous food sources and developing their own recipes for uses of plants and seeds, students could study the issues of food justice and injustice, waste, and scarcity.
So many examples can be found in these pages, so useful and adaptable, that no summary can do justice to the text. The author urges readers—educators, parents, and others—to make the struggle for public schools matter, to build a movement for climate justice. The teacher insurgency that swept through a variety of states during 2018–2019, sometimes well beyond the wishes of teacher–union leaderships, demonstrated that educators themselves are ready.
Paul Buhle has been active in social movements since his teen years, and most recently turned to editing nonfiction graphic novels. The latest is a history of the Jewish Bund, published by Between the Lines.
Review
Israelism
by Bob Rosen
ISRAELISM. (2023). DIRECTED BY ERIN AXELMAN AND SAM EILERTSEN.
Do you ever wonder why some Jewish supporters of Israel are so zealous, even fanatical? Why some friends who are very progressive, or radical, on other issues, fiercely defend a brutal occupation? A new film called *Israelism* offers a possible explanation: Maybe they were just brought up that way.
This engaging and powerful documentary shows the extensive network of Jewish schools, summer camps (complete with military games), and synagogue groups that create a supportive and passionate culture for children and teens that teaches them that Jewishness means love of Israel, that Israel is a beautiful homeland where they’re always welcome, and, as they get older, that defending Israel in a world of enemies is their privilege as well as their duty. Exciting (and carefully curated) trips to Israel through Birthright, and other well-funded organizations; rousing group trips to AIPAC conventions; mega-events featuring celebrities, “hot” IDF soldiers, and passionate speakers – the film captures the deep appeal of this indoctrination and the vast network that facilitates it.
But, thankfully, some escape. The film features two young American Jews who ultimately rejected the myths they’d grown up with. Simone Zimmerman, initially a promising youthful advocate for Israel, meets real Palestinians as an undergraduate at Berkely, decides to visit the West Bank to see for herself what Jewish settlers are doing, and ultimately co-founds IfNotNow, a Jewish group that opposes the occupation. “Eitan,” eager to do his part, joins many of his peers in heading to Israel to enlist in the IDF. But when Israeli soldiers brutally kick a shackled Palestinian detainee he is responsible for transporting, Eitan is shaken. “I didn’t even speak up,” he tells us, and the growing guilt gnaws at him, eventually, despite his shyness and shame, leading him to tell his story publicly back home.
But there’s more than just disillusioned youth on display here: a few talking heads on both sides (including the odious Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League), a Palestinian-American who offers alternative tours, footage of demonstrations in support of Palestine, and even a couple of rabbis. Though a little redundant toward the end (as many documentaries are), this is one terrific film. You don’t have to be Jewish to find it deeply frightening as well as hopeful—and, best of all, perfectly suited for encouraging necessary discussions in your classroom.
Bob Rosen is a member of the editorial board of *Radical Teacher*.
*Editorial note:* If you are in fact discussing the current war on Gaza or the occupation more broadly with students, Scholars Against the War in Palestine ([https://scholarsagainstwar.org/](https://scholarsagainstwar.org/)) has an incredible array of documents, resources, lesson plans, etc. to help facilitate such important conversations. | 6ebbdf6b-0e90-4dde-a947-590dd89004b1 | CC-MAIN-2024-22 | http://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/radicalteacher/libraryFiles/downloadPublic/22 | 2024-05-23T15:18:16+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-22/segments/1715971058642.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20240523142446-20240523172446-00441.warc.gz | 18,057,438 | 75,431 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.932754 | eng_Latn | 0.998013 | [
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Aim of the project: Co-create a digital and hard copy Mental Health and Wellbeing Toolkit for children and young people.
Area: Bassetlaw
Who was involved: Bassetlaw Placed Based Partnership, Bassetlaw’s Children & Young People and Health Professionals.
Learning area: Co-creation of resources, the impact of coproduction on the people taking part.
Contents:
• Scope of this work
• The emotional impact of this coproduction approach
This will take you 10 mins to read.
Introduction from the Coproduction Team...
In this series of case studies, we explore the positive emotional impact of coproduction for both staff and lived experience experts.
We want to encourage a coproduction approach by showcasing that it can be fun, rewarding and inspiring. Have a look through this case study and explore the top tips that will support you on your coproduction journey.
Full scope of the work...
• Develop a waiting well initiative in response to increased waiting times for children and young people’s (CYP) mental health services.
• Co-produce a mental health resource and share with CYP, families/ carers on referral into a Bassetlaw CYP mental health service.
• Prevent crisis escalation, self-harm and suicide risk
• Increase resilience and build on strengths of CYP to support positive mental health and prevent illness.
How was the Peace of Mind Toolkit booklet created?
A cocreation approach was used involving children and young people and health professionals. The aim was to create content for the booklet that was relevant for children and young people to use.
15 children and young people co-created the content. They were aged between 14-21 years old.
To ensure the content of the booklet was clinically accurate, the children & young people worked in partnership with a:
• Clinical Psychologist
• GP
• Social Workers
• Doctor of exercise & nutrition
• Specialists in inequalities, LGBT & neurodiversity
• Founder of national suicide prevention charity R:ipple.
How did you create a safe space for young people to share sensitive feelings around mental health?
We partnered with a young person’s support service and attended the weekly support group session they run at a community youth setting.
The young people had trusted relationships with the staff at the service and viewed the youth group as their safe space.
To encourage effective and meaningful engagement and co-production we went to them as opposed to attempting to set something else up and expecting them to come to us.
We spent time engaging in icebreaker activities to start to build relationships and trust with the young people before progressing to sharing their experiences and developing the toolkit.
The staff at the service were mental health professionals and additional staff were present at the sessions to ensure they were able to provide any one-to-one support during or after the session for any young people that had been impacted by the discussions. We made sure that there were 3 rooms available for this at each session.
“If you want something that helps young people you need to involve young people to understand what that need to be, it has been amazing to have been part of this and I’m so proud of what we have created”.
Lived experience expert, aged between 14-21 years
How did you approach each session?
At each session, we reinforced the support that was available from the staff at the service we had partnered with, outlining how the young people could keep themselves safe. Including, leaving the session at any point if they needed to.
We also:
- Split the sessions to ensure they had some recreational time at the youth group, not focused on the project.
- Developed an agreement with the young people. We agreed that their stories and views would not be shared outside of the session without their permission and that stories could be shared and viewed anonymously.
- Outlined the aim of the project and the equal partnership with the young people, reinforcing that their views and experiences were valued and would be actioned through joint decision-making.
- Talked openly about the limitations of the project and the financial envelope we had to work with.
Once the young people started to see their contributions and stories come to life in the toolkit their trust in us as health professionals increased and they were motivated to share more of their views and experiences.
“Effective and meaningful engagement requires time, commitment, and a willingness to be open to challenge and critique”.
Helen Azar, Bassetlaw Place Programme Manager - Head of Health Inequalities
Image from the launch event.
What methods did you use to capture views?
- Table discussions with young people taking notes on flip chart.
- Young people made TikTok videos to share their stories and experiences that were shown in the session, with consent.
We also:
- Provided draft copies of content and graphics to each young person to take away and review.
- Used presentations to outline progress so far and gain feedback.
- Captured thoughts and suggestions on flip chart paper and post it notes during each session.
- Ended each session with reflections and key messages.
- Had a dedicated WhatsApp group led by the partner organisation (to ensure safeguarding and governance) for reviewing and sharing information between sessions.
Developing the booklet logo and name...
The logo & name of the booklet was designed by local children & young people, after a Bassetlaw wide competition. The 28 logo designs received were shortlisted by a panel of children & young people, with support from Bassetlaw Young Council & the Youth Mayor.
The content of the Peace of Mind Toolkit...
The co-created toolkit contains:
- Lived experience stories
- Coping strategies and ‘top tips’ from children and young people that have accessed mental health support.
Evidence based prospective on mental health, nutrition, physical health, neurodiversity, self-harm, and suicide prevention.
36 QR codes linking readers to videos made by young people.
Information that supports building resilience and maintaining positive mental health.
Signposting to online and local support, including the NottAlone and Nottshelpyourself websites.
To ensure the toolkit was accessible to all, a text-only version of the Toolkit was created that can be translated into any language. This is available on the Bassetlaw mental health website.
The Toolkit was launched in October 2023, on World Mental Health Day.
Double click on the Digital Toolkit to view the contents.
Promoting the Toolkit...
5,000 printed booklets were distributed across mental health services, youth groups, schools and sports clubs, for use with and by children and young people accessing those services.
It was also distributed across Bassetlaw on bookmarks, highlighters and post-it notes with a QR code on.
Top Tips....
- Take time to create a safe space and build relationships before expecting children & young people to share their stories and experiences. You can do this by using services and staff that they already have a trusted relationship with.
- As a ‘professional’, take a step back. Listen and act on what you are told - use the insights to shape the resource.
Helen Azar, Bassetlaw Place Programme Manager - Head of Health Inequalities, told us that she felt:
"Honoured and privileged to have had the opportunity to work with so many amazing young people and be part of coproducing a resource for young people, that has been created by young people, aimed at supporting to improve mental health and wellbeing.
Incredibly proud, both of the resource itself and being part of empowering young people to lead and control the process. I feel privileged to have been able to watch the young people confidently take the lead and transform the toolkit into something genuinely impactful that incorporates their diverse experiences".
"I am happy we have made something that will have a positive impact"
Lived experience expert, aged between 14-21 years
The quotes on the next page capture the impact that coproducing the Toolkit had on the young people involved, in their words. They capture feeling:
- Grateful
- Proud
- Accomplished
- Productive
- Rewarded
- Inspired
- Happy
They also talked about the impact it had on them, including:
- Developing communication skills.
- Building confidence.
- Developing teamwork skills.
- Improved mental health.
- Learning about services available to them
"I feel I developed amazing teamwork skills and learnt how to communicate as a team making this toolkit, it gave me more insight into each other’s perspective and I also learnt more about support services for young people in the area"
Lived experience expert, aged between 14-21 years
Thinking Points....
- How could you bring a similar approach into your work?
- What steps could you take in your next coproduction meeting to create a safe space to share?
How coproducing felt to the people taking part...
"Working on this toolkit made me feel I had a purpose, it was a great Serotonin boost!"
"I felt very accomplished and rewarded once we had finished this project!"
"Knowing more about how my experiences can help other has made me think more about doing this for a career when I leave college. I wouldn't have had the confidence to even think about going into support work before I was involved with this project. Being involved in this has made me realise how far I have come with my own mental health journey and being involved in something that helps others has really helped my own mental health too"
"Involving us means that its right for other just like us, I loved being able to work with information from the Drs and others but put it in a way that means something to us. The final toolkit is exactly what we said we wanted it to be like and we all love it"
"When they ask us about things like this, it shows interest in us and listening to our voices, so thank you!"
"I was able to use my negative experiences and turn them into something good to help other young people. I loved being part of this and making sure if was right for others, I wish I had something like this available to me when I needed it".
"Involving us means that its right for other just like us, I loved being able to work with information from the Drs and others but put it in a way that means something to us. The final toolkit is exactly what we said we wanted it to be like and we all love it"
"Working on this toolkit together felt really productive and very engaging, it was good to work together as a community on a new project that will have such a positive impact on those who use it" | 768b6375-fb4b-49fd-9d33-c9f734cbda00 | CC-MAIN-2024-46 | https://notts.icb.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/Peace-of-Mind-Toolkit-Final.pdf | 2024-11-12T12:52:38+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-46/segments/1730477028273.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20241112113320-20241112143320-00104.warc.gz | 394,253,956 | 2,106 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.997807 | eng_Latn | 0.998264 | [
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Control of Roof Rats in Fruit Trees
William H. Kern
Background
The roof rat (*Rattus rattus*, a.k.a. citrus rat, fruit rat, black rat, or gray rat) is an introduced species of rat native to southern Asia. It was brought to America on the first ships to reach the New World and has spread around the world. This rat is the same species that carried the bubonic plague around the world and is also the reservoir host for murine typhus. Roof rats are the worst rodent pest in the state of Florida and most abundant. The Norway rat (*Rattus norvegicus*) that is familiar to most people is rare in Florida.
Roof rats consume and destroy stored animal and human food, attack fruit crops, and take up residence in attics, soffits, hollow walls, and out-buildings. When they invade buildings they chew through wires (potentially starting fires), gnaw through plastic and lead water pipes, make holes in walls, and cause other structural damage.
The secretive, nocturnal nature of rats means that they often go unnoticed in a neighborhood until dooryard citrus and other fruit starts to ripen. They then make their presence known with a vengeance. In citrus, papaya, cantaloupe, and watermelon the characteristic damage is a circular hole about the size of a quarter or half dollar and the whole fruit hollowed out (Figure 1).
This fact sheet is excerpted from SP486: Pests in and around the Southern Home, which is available from the UF/IFAS Extension Bookstore. http://ifasbooks.ifas.ufl.edu/p-1222-pests-in-and-aroundthesouthernhome.aspx.
1. This document is SSWEC120, one of a series of the Cooperative Urban Wildlife Program, a cooperative effort between UF/IFAS Extension, University of Florida, and the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission’s Nongame Wildlife Program. Original publication date October 1997. Revised August 2007 and October 2013 as part of Pests In and Around the Southern Home (SP486). Reviewed February 2018. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
2. William H. Kern, Jr., Ph.D., urban wildlife specialist, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; UF/IFAS Extension, Gainesville, FL 32611.
All chemicals should be used in accordance with directions on the manufacturer’s label. Use pesticides safely. Read and follow directions on the manufacturer’s label. The use of trade names in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information. It is not a guarantee or warranty of the products named, and does not signify that they are approved to the exclusion of others of suitable composition.
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other UF/IFAS Extension publications, contact your county’s UF/IFAS Extension office.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, UF/IFAS Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A & M University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, dean for UF/IFAS Extension.
As we progress through the citrus season (from September through March), the roof rats that may have been living quietly around your house or grove make themselves known. Hollowed-out fruit is the most common evidence of roof rats.
In apples, peaches, tomatoes, carambolas, bananas, pineapples, and mangos, large sections of fruit are eaten away. They remove whole fruits from blueberries, figs, grapes, strawberries, lichees, Surinam cherry, loquat, and dates, so the damage is less noticeable or birds are blamed for the missing fruit. In Florida, roof rats—along with our native cotton rat—destroy or damage a great deal of sugar cane every year.
**Description**
Adult roof rats are 12–14 inches long (30–36cm) and weigh 5–10oz. (150–250g). The tail of a roof rat is longer than the head and body length: hairless, scaly, and black color. The body is sleek and graceful with prominent ears and eyes (Figure 2). There are three color phases seen in Florida: black back with a slate gray belly, gray back with lighter gray belly, and brownish gray above with a white or cream colored belly.
In addition to the damage done to fruit, other evidence includes black banana-shaped droppings about 1/4-1/2 inch long (about 1 cm) and dark smears or rub marks seen along the rat’s travel routes (Figure 3).
**Range and Habitat**
The roof rat occurs along the southern Atlantic and Gulf coastal States from Virginia to Texas and throughout Florida. They also occur along the Pacific coast of California, Washington State, and Oregon.
Roof rats are arboreal (tree-living) by nature. They are similar to squirrels in their ability to move through trees and along vines and wires. They often use utility lines and tree branches to reach food and water and to enter buildings. They prefer nesting above the ground in attics, soffits, piles of debris, hollow trees, skirts of old fronds on palm trees, and in Quaker parrot nests, but will nest in burrows in canal banks and under sidewalks or stacks of materials stored on the ground.
**Food**
Roof rats are omnivores (plant- and animal-eating) but are very fond of fruit. They feed on most cultivated fruits and eat many native fruits and nuts. They also feed on livestock feed, pet food, bird seed in feeders, and garbage. They contaminate and damage much more than they actually eat. They will chew through lead and plastic pipes to reach water. They will travel 150yds. (135m.) from their den to reach food or water.
Reproduction
Roof rats reach sexual maturity at 3 to 4 months of age. In Florida, they breed year-round, with peak breeding activity in spring and fall. The litter of 5 to 8 pups are born after a gestation period of 21 to 23 days. A female roof rat can have 4 or 5 litters per year.
Control
Control of roof rats is not an easy task. Integrated pest management is needed to control these pests. The tools of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) include inspection; cultural control (prevention and habitat management); physical control (trapping and exclusion); biological control (predators); and—if needed—chemical control (rodenticides and repellents).
Prevention
Because roof rats are such good climbers and swimmers it is hard to completely exclude them from your yard, grove, or orchard. Here are some cultural techniques to help you reduce damage.
PROPER SPACING AND PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES
Your fruit trees should be isolated, not touching fences, overhead wires, or the branches of other trees. Roof rats will run along fence stringer boards or support poles, phone and cable TV wires, and tree branches to reach your fruit tree. Lower branches of the tree should not touch the ground. A low-hanging skirt of drooping branches give the rats additional access routes and provides them with protective cover while feeding. Prune trees so that the ground under them is open and visible. This lack of cover makes the rats uncomfortable and more susceptible to predators.
Rat guards on the trunks will keep the rats out of trees (Figure 4). Rat guards can be as simple as a piece of sheet metal 18–24 inches wide and as long as the circumference of the tree plus two inches. Use a piece of wire bent like a giant staple to secure the ends of the sheet metal without penetrating the tree. Put the back of the wire against the tree’s trunk and insert the two ends of the wire through holes in the sheet metal. Then bend the wire outward to hold the ends of the rat guard together. If your tree has a short or forked trunk, then a sheet metal wall, 2 feet tall (60 cm), around the tree will reduce rodent access to it. If wires go through the crown of the tree or your tree touches a fence or branches of another tree, then rat guards are useless—the tree must be isolated for rat guards to work. Sanitation is also important. Use or remove all fallen fruit. If you have more fruit than you can use, contact your local food banks or become involved with community fruit salvage operations.
Figure 4. Rat guards on the single trunk fruit tree and around a multi-trunk tree.
TRAPPING
Trapping rats has many advantages over the use of poisons. It greatly reduces the risk of the poisoned rat finding its way into your home or buildings, dying, and causing an odor problem.
The tree can also be protected by tying several rat traps around the trunk of the tree with the triggers pointing down. Use expanded trigger rat traps on trees and fences. Be sure to tie the traps securely to the trunk before trying to set the traps. The next time a rat tries to climb the tree it will get caught and killed or at least given a good scare. Set rat traps only from dusk to dawn to avoid accidentally killing non-target species like squirrels and protected birds, such as wrens, woodpeckers, chickadees, etc. These animals are diurnal (active during the day) while rats are nocturnal (active during the night).
Since rats prefer to stay off the ground, they like to run along the stringer boards of fences and the horizontal support poles of chain link fences. Traps can be nailed directly to the horizontal stringer board of wooden fences. Place a protective board above the trap to discourage birds from accidentally getting in the trap (Figure 5). To secure rat traps to horizontal poles of chain link fences, put an eye screw on each side of the trap and use several heavy rubber bands to hold the trap to the pole (Figure 6) and (Figure 7). As stated before, traps should be set only from dusk until dawn to avoid killing non-target animals active during the day. Use of live traps will also prevent the accidental killing of birds and squirrels.
Roof rats are nervous and cautious of new objects in their environment, so leave traps in the same location for at least a week before moving them.
The practice of wiring poison bait blocks to branches of trees is illegal and has caused thousands of cases of accidental poisoning of dogs and wildlife each year. Tamper-resistant bait stations like those in Figure 6 are not usually found in retail stores. Try pest control companies which may sell them or can refer you to another source to order them.
Plans for building an effective bait station are included in this fact sheet (Figure 9).
**USE OF POISONS**
If poison baits are used outdoors, they must be placed in a tamper-resistant bait station. All rodenticide labels in Florida state that it is illegal to place any poison rodenticide baits where they are accessible to children, pets, livestock, or wildlife, unless the bait is contained in a secured, tamper-resistant bait station (Figure 8).
In Florida, due to our high humidity, parafinized bait blocks or pellets should be used in any outdoor bait stations. Some municipalities and counties have rodent control programs, but most do not. Contact your local city or county government to find out if there are programs in your area.
There are no repellents registered specifically for roof rats. Since most wildlife repellents cannot be used on human food plants, their usefulness in rat control on fruit trees is extremely limited.
**Biological and Behavioral Control: IPM**
Integrated Pest Management, we often rely on biological control agents as a cost-effective way of controlling pests. We have many allies in our war on rats.
**Snakes**
In Florida, many species of snake help control roof rats. Yellow rat snakes (Figure 10), gray rat snakes, corn or red rat snakes, black racers, king snakes, coachwhips, and indigo snakes all prey on roof rats. Even our venomous rattlesnakes and cottonmouths eat lots of rats.
*Figure 10. Yellow rat snake.*
**A CAUTIONARY TALE**
The importance of snakes in rat control was made clear in the following report: A dog kennel worker took it upon himself to eliminate all of the snakes at his place of work. Once the rat snakes had been killed, the roof rat population exploded.
It took two years, hundreds of people-hours, and thousands of dollars to get control of the rats and repair the structural damage the rats had caused. This does not include the hundreds of pounds of dog food the rats ate and contaminated. The economic cost of removing the rats’ natural predators was obvious.
**Raptors**
Hawks and owls, especially barn owls, are very effective at killing roof rats. Keeping the area around fruit trees open makes hunting easier for birds of prey.
**Cats and dogs?**
Many people believe that cats and dogs will keep rats out of their yards and fruit trees. But, because roof rats are so arboreal, they are usually able to get into attics and fruit trees without ever coming to the ground. Rats quickly learn safe travel routes through yards to avoid terrestrial predators. Cats will kill dispersing juvenile rats, but are rarely able to handle an adult roof rat within its own territory.
**Ultrasonic and Electromagnetic Devices**
Many claims are made about ultrasonic and electromagnetic devices’ repelling rodents from buildings and yards. There is no evidence that these devices will or can drive rodents from their home range. There is evidence that ultrasonic devices can cause hearing loss in pets, especially dogs. | <urn:uuid:769d474a-c8e6-408d-987d-b828f517596a> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://growables.com/information/documents/ControlOfRatsInFruitTrees.pdf | 2018-01-23T01:59:27Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084891705.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20180123012644-20180123032644-00587.warc.gz | 152,042,870 | 2,899 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.996544 | eng_Latn | 0.997819 | [
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UAV, UGV AIMING AT THE MOON AND MARS AIMING FOR ATMOSPHERIC OBSERVATIONS ON MARS
1st Wataru Okamoto
Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University
Mars Society of Japan Moon Mobius
2nd Tatsuki Horii
AeroFlex Tsukuba University
Abstract - In recent years, there has been a growing interest in space development all over the world. Nearby stars such as the Moon and Mars will have manned spaceflights in the near future. Robotic exploration and construction will take place before humans actually go. Many shafts have been found on the Moon and Mars, and the first bases and cities will be built underground. Demonstration experiments will be conducted on Earth for robots that are active on the Moon and Mars.
MDRS (MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION)
MDRS is a Mars simulation facility built in the desert of Utah, USA. Scientists and engineers from all over the world gather and stay for two weeks. Experiments of each theme, and exploration of the desert by the rover are carried out.
MDRS is located about 11 km northwest of the city of Hanksville in Utah, USA, and it takes about 3-4 hours by car from the Grand Junction airport through the desert. It's right there. It has been operated by the American NPO "Mars Society" since around 2006, and research teams from various countries come every two weeks. We are conducting experiments on the theme that is an extension of our usual research.
Okamoto and Venzha Christ, Director of the Indonesian Space Association, participated in the 2018 CREW191 Team Asia. Okamoto is conducting exploration by drone.
Japanese have participated in MDRS several times in the past. Among them, Okamoto participated in CREW137 and CREW191. In CREW191, a film crew from the Japanese TV station NHK is also participating.
2014 "Team Nippon Crew 137"
2015 "Crew165"
2017 "Crew182"
2018 "Crew188"
2018 "Team Asia Crew191"
COLLECTION OF AEROSOLS BY DRONE
Mars has an atmosphere. 0.7% of Earth's atmospheric pressure. Measuring atmospheric conditions is essential for working on Mars.
We used drones to collect aerosols. The collected aerosol was subjected to XAFS measurement at a synchrotron radiation facility (in this study, the Aichi Synchrotron Light Facility was used).
This collection device can remotely control the collection time of the aerosol. Aerosol collection was performed at the "field burning site" conducted on January 23, 2022, in the vicinity of the Kogai River (downstream of Yamato Bridge, Joso City, Ibaraki Prefecture).
Two collection heights, "15-20 ft" and "300 ft" above the ground, were selected, and the aerosol collection was performed for 3 minutes at these positions. A cotton puff was used as a collection filter to collect the aerosol.
**MARS DRONE**
On April 19, 2021, NASA successfully flew a drone on a planet other than Earth for the first time in human history. Ingenuity is the drone that arrived on Mars in the Perseverance rover.
At the University of Tsukuba venture company Aeroflex, we received an order from JAXA in Japan and produced a Mars drone. Equipped with 6 propellers, the middle propeller is placed upside down.
**CAVES ON THE MOON AND MARS**
In recent years, many vertical holes have been discovered on the Moon and Mars. Drones and rovers will be deployed to explore these holes.
We are conducting experiments using drones and rovers in various parts of Japan. We are testing both standalone and coordinated exploration.
Since the moon has no atmosphere, either a rover-only probe or a rocket-powered UAV is conceivable.
The Nojima Bunker in Yokohama has been tested many times this year.
Demonstration experiments are being conducted by actually operating drones and rovers in vertical holes in various parts of Japan.
STATE OF EXPERIMENT IN A CAVE
UAV, UGV AIMING AT THE MOON AND MARS AIMING FOR ATMOSPHERIC OBSERVATIONS ON MARS
Wataru Okamoto, Tatsuki Horii
Rover Daimon Yaoki, which is participating in the experiment, will be launched this month. It will be Japan's first rover to go to the moon.
**LANDING GEAR ON MARS**
Here, we introduce a new landing gear that AeroFlex is developing.
Until now, landers have generally used parachutes.
Horii is developing a landing gear that applies the principle of helicopter autorotation.
On Earth, we are thinking of applying it to a probe that is dropped into a typhoon.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We received a lot of support from JAXA and other universities and research institutes in Japan, as well as from the Indonesian Space Association. Thank you for your continued support. Let's go to space together.
REFERENCE
"Inspection for the purpose of grasping the current situation of the Nojima Bunker, examination of measurement exploration experiments, and continuous observation programs"
Hiroki Manabe, Satoshi Mohri, Itsuki Horii, Kan Hama, Kiyo Oyama, Wataru Okamoto, Fujio Yura, Hideki Kuma, Yasuyuki Okazaki
National Institute of Technology, Sasebo College Research Report No.59, pp86 - 95, published 2023-01-31
http://id.nii.ac.jp/1416/00000913/
"Vertical hole-cavity-like terrain and environment multi-stage simulated exploration experiment program for the UZUME project"
Hiroki Manabe, Hideki Kuma, Naohiro Inagawa, Seiki Yoshimori, Wataru Okamoto, Satoshi Mohri, Tetsuya Uedera, Takanobu Maeda, Kiyoshi Horie, Ryuji Oura, Danishi Ai, Itsuki Horii
National Institute of Technology, Sasebo College Research Report No.59, pp114 - 121,
Issued 2023-01-31
http://id.nii.ac.jp/1416/00000916/
"Interdisciplinary Fusion Teaching Materials for Cultivating Glocal Literacy -Vertical Holes-Earth Analog Topography of Underground Cavities and Underground Cultural Heritage-"
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i-Tree Design: A Quick Review
Get started with these easy steps:
Enter your tree’s species:
Maple, Sugar
Note: If you’re looking for a Willow Oak, it’s listed as “Oak, Willow”. If your tree isn’t listed, use the general “Other” listings.
Enter how wide (diameter) your tree is at 4.5 feet above the ground: 22 inches.
Note: This measurement is what foresters call “diameter at breast height”.
Enter what type of condition best describes your tree: Excellent
Check here if you would like to evaluate energy effects: ✓
Draw your structure & locate your tree:
Use the drawing tool above the map to outline your house or building. Be sure to outline “conditioned” living area spaces only and other unconditioned, unheated spaces should not be included. When you are finished outlining your building, click on the ✓ button. You can also use ⬇️ to delete your last point or use ⬆️ to cancel the entire drawing.
Now, use the tree tool above the map to locate your tree. Place the marker as close to the base (or center) of the tree as possible. You cancel the tree placement by clicking ⬆️.
Indicate when your structure was built:
pre-1950
Calculate Benefits
Understanding This Tool:
i-Tree Design (beta) allows anyone to make a simple estimation of the benefits individual trees provide. With inputs of location, species, tree size and condition, users will get an understanding of the benefits that trees provide related to greenhouse gas mitigation, air quality improvements and storm water interception. With the added step of drawing a house or building footprint—and virtually "planting" a tree—trees' effects on building energy use can be evaluated.
This tool is intended to be a simple and accessible starting point for understanding individual trees' value to the homeowner and their community. For more detailed information on urban and community forest assessments, please explore the rest of the i-Tree website.
i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. The i-Tree Tools help communities of all sizes to strengthen their urban forest management and advocacy efforts by quantifying the structure of community trees and the environmental services that trees provide.
Since the initial release of the i-Tree Tools in August 2006, numerous communities, non-profit organizations, consultants, volunteers and students have used i-Tree to report on individual trees, parcels, neighborhoods, cities, and even entire states. By understanding the local, tangible ecosystem services that trees provide, i-Tree users can link urban forest management activities with environmental quality and community livability. Whether your interest is a single tree or an entire forest, i-Tree provides baseline data that you can use to demonstrate value and set priorities for more effective decision-making.
i-Tree Tools are in the public domain and are freely accessible. We invite you to explore this site to learn more about how i-Tree can make a difference in your community.
i-Tree Home Screen
Understanding This Tool:
i-Tree Design (beta) allows anyone to make a simple estimation of the benefits individual trees provide. With inputs of location, species, tree size and condition, users will get an understanding of the benefits that trees provide related to greenhouse gas mitigation, air quality improvements and storm water interception. With the added step of drawing a house or building footprint—and virtually “planting” a tree—trees’ effects on building energy use can be evaluated.
This tool is intended to be a simple and accessible starting point for understanding individual trees’ value to the homeowner and their community. For more detailed information on urban and community forest assessments, please explore the rest of the i-Tree website.
Understanding This Tool:
i-Tree Design (beta) allows anyone to make a simple estimation of the benefits individual trees provide. With inputs of location, species, tree size and condition, users will get an understanding of the benefits that trees provide related to greenhouse gas mitigation, air quality improvements and storm water interception. With the added step of drawing a house or building footprint—and virtually “planting” a tree—trees’ effects on building energy use can be evaluated.
This tool is intended to be a simple and accessible starting point for understanding individual trees’ value to the homeowner and their community. For more detailed information on urban and community forest assessments, please explore the rest of the i-Tree website.
Choosing Your Location
Thank you for choosing i-Tree Design to calculate the economic and ecological benefits of your tree.
To get started enter your address below:
452 Armory Street, Springfield, MA
Submit
Get started with these easy steps:
Enter your tree’s species:
Maple, Sugar
Note: If you’re looking for a Willow Oak, it’s listed as “Oak, Willow”. If your tree isn’t listed, use the general “Other” listings.
Enter how wide (diameter) your tree is at 4.5 feet above the ground: inches.
Note: This measurement is what foresters call “diameter at breast height”.
Enter what type of condition best describes your tree: Excellent
Check here if you would like to evaluate energy effects: ☑️
Draw your structure & locate your tree:
Use the drawing tool above the map to outline your house or building. Be sure to outline “conditioned” living area only; garages and other unheated or uncooled spaces should not be included. When you are finished outlining your building, click on the button. You can also use to delete your last point or use to cancel the entire drawing.
Now, use the tree tool above the map to locate your tree. Place the marker as close to the base (or center) of the tree as possible. You cancel the tree placement by clicking .
Indicate when your structure was built:
pre-1950
Calculate Benefits
Get started with these easy steps:
Enter your tree’s species:
Maple, Sugar
Note: If you’re looking for a Willow Oak, it’s listed as “Oak, Willow”. If your tree isn’t listed, use the general “Other” listings.
Enter how wide (diameter) your tree is at 4.5 feet above the ground: ______ inches.
Note: This measurement is what foresters call “diameter at breast height”.
Enter what type of condition best describes your tree: Excellent
Check here if you would like to evaluate energy effects: ☑
Draw your structure & locate your tree:
Use the drawing tool above the map to outline your house or building. Be sure to outline “conditioned” living area only; garages and other unheated or uncooled spaces should not be included. When you are finished outlining your building, click on the button. You can also use to delete your last point or use to cancel the entire drawing.
Now, use the tree tool above the map to locate your tree. Place the marker as close to the base (or center) of the tree as possible. You cancel the tree placement by clicking .
Indicate when your structure was built:
pre-1950
Data Input Screen
Get started with these easy steps:
Enter your tree’s species:
Maple, Sugar
Note: If you’re looking for a Willow Oak, it’s listed as “Oak, Willow”. If your tree isn’t listed, use the general “Other” listings.
Enter how wide (diameter) your tree is at 4.5 feet above the ground: 22 inches.
Note: This measurement is what foresters call “diameter at breast height”.
Enter what type of condition best describes your tree: Excellent
Check here if you would like to evaluate energy effects: ✓
Draw your structure & locate your tree:
Use the drawing tool above the map to outline your house or building. Be sure to outline “conditioned” living area only; garages and other unheated or uncooled spaces should not be included. When you are finished outlining your building, click on the button. You can also use to delete your last point or use to cancel the entire drawing.
Now, use the tree tool above the map to locate your tree. Place the marker as close to the base (or center) of the tree as possible. You cancel the tree placement by clicking .
Indicate when your structure was built:
pre-1950
Calculate Benefits
Data Input Screen
Energy Analysis Input Screen
Energy Analysis Input Tools
Get started with these easy steps:
Enter your tree’s species:
Maple, Sugar
Note: If you’re looking for a Willow Oak, it’s listed as “Oak, Willow”. If your tree isn’t listed, use the general “Other” listings.
Enter how wide (diameter) your tree is at 4.5 feet above the ground: 22 inches.
Note: This measurement is what foresters call “diameter at breast height”.
Enter what type of condition best describes your tree: Excellent
Check here if you would like to evaluate energy effects: ☑️
Draw your structure & locate your tree:
Use the drawing tool 🖍️ above the map to outline your house or building. Be sure to outline “conditioned” living area only; garages and other unheated or uncooled spaces should not be included. When you are finished outlining your building, click on the ✓ button. You can also use ✖️ to delete your last point or use ❌ to cancel the entire drawing.
Now, use the tree tool 🌳 above the map to locate your tree. Place the marker as close to the base (or center) of the tree as possible. You cancel the tree placement by clicking ❌.
Indicate when your structure was built:
pre-1950
Calculate Benefits
Energy Analysis Input Screen
This 22 inch Sugar maple provides overall benefits of: $190 every year.
While some functional benefits of trees are well documented, others are difficult to quantify (e.g., human social and communal health). Trees’ specific geography, climate, and interactions with humans and infrastructure is highly variable and makes precise calculations that much more difficult. Given these complexities, the results presented here should be considered initial approximations to better understand the environmental and economic value associated with trees and their placement.
Benefits of trees do not account for the costs associated with trees’ long-term care and maintenance.
If this tree is cared for and grows to 27 inches, it will provide $201 in annual benefits.
Your 22 inch Sugar maple will intercept 2,774 gallons of stormwater this year.
Urban stormwater runoff (or "non-point source pollution") washes chemicals (oil, gasoline, salts, etc.) and litter from surfaces such as roadways and parking lots into streams, wetlands, rivers and oceans. The more impervious the surface (e.g., concrete, asphalt, rooftops), the more quickly pollutants are washed into our community waterways. Drinking water, aquatic life and the health of our entire ecosystem can be adversely affected by this process.
Trees act as mini-reservoirs, controlling runoff at the source. Trees reduce runoff by:
- Intercepting and holding rain on leaves, branches and bark
- Increasing infiltration and storage of rainwater through the tree's root system
- Reducing soil erosion by slowing rainfall before it strikes the soil
For more information see the USDA Forest Service’s Community Tree Guide series.
Your 22 inch Sugar maple will conserve 138 Kilowatt-hours of electricity and reduce consumption of heating fuel by 9 therm(s).
Trees modify climate and conserve building energy use in three principal ways:
- Shading reduces the amount of heat absorbed and stored by buildings.
- Evapotranspiration converts liquid water to water vapor and cools the air by using solar energy that would otherwise result in heating of the air.
- Tree canopies slow down winds thereby reducing the amount of heat lost from a home, especially where conductivity is high (e.g., glass windows).
Strategically placed trees can increase home energy efficiency. In summer, trees shading east and west walls keep buildings cooler. In winter, allowing the sun to strike the southern side of a building can warm interior spaces. If southern walls are shaded by dense evergreen trees there may be a resultant increase in winter heating costs.
For more information see the USDA Forest Service's Community Tree Guide series.
Air quality benefits of your 22 inch Sugar maple are shown in the graph at left.
Air pollution is a serious health threat that causes asthma, coughing, headaches, respiratory and heart disease, and cancer. Over 150 million people live in areas where ozone levels violate federal air quality standards; more than 100 million people are impacted when dust and other particulate levels are considered “unhealthy”. We now know that the urban forest can mitigate the health effects of pollution by:
- Absorbing pollutants like ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide through leaves
- Intercepting particulate matter like dust, ash and smoke
- Releasing oxygen through photosynthesis
- Lowering air temperatures which reduces the production of ozone
- Reducing energy use and subsequent pollutant emissions from power plants
It should be noted that trees themselves emit biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) which can contribute to ground-level ozone production. This may negate the positive impact the tree has on ozone mitigation for some high emitting species (e.g. Willow Oak or Sweetgum). However, the sum total of the tree’s environmental benefits always trumps this negative.
For more information see the USDA Forest Service’s Community Tree Guide series.
This year your 22 inch Sugar maple tree will reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by 672 pounds.
How significant is this number? Most car owners of an "average" car (mid-sized sedan) drive 12,000 miles generating about 11,000 pounds of CO₂ every year. A flight from New York to Los Angeles adds 1,400 pounds of CO₂ per passenger.
Trees can have an impact by reducing atmospheric carbon in two primary ways (see figure at left):
- They sequester ("lock up") CO₂ in their roots, trunks, stems and leaves while they grow, and in wood products after they are harvested.
- Trees near buildings can reduce heating and air conditioning demands, thereby reducing emissions associated with power production.
Combating climate change will take a worldwide, multifaceted approach, but by planting a tree in a strategic location, driving fewer miles, or replacing business trips with conference calls, it's easy to see how we can each reduce our individual carbon "footprints."
For more information see the USDA Forest Service's Community Tree Guide series.
i-Tree Design (beta) allows you to calculate the approximate benefits individual trees provide. The carbon, air quality and stormwater calculations are based on methods and models derived from the i-Tree Streets application. As such, this tool relies on average species growth and geographic parameters for 16 national climate zones and, consequently, should be considered a starting point for understanding trees' value in the community rather than a scientific accounting of precise values.
Tree effects on energy use are calculated using the methods detailed in the USDA Forest Service's publication, "Carbon Dioxide Reduction Through Urban Forestry: Guidelines for Professional and Volunteer Tree Planters (PSW-GTR-171)." Trees' energy effects on buildings from shade, evapotranspiration and wind speed reduction (windbreak) are calculated using an applied reduction factor based on tree type, height, azimuth and distance from the home. Shade and evapotranspiration effects are set to zero when trees are beyond 18 meters [approx. 60 feet] from defined building footprints. Windbreak effects on energy use are set to zero when trees are at a distance from the building equaling 35 times the tree height or greater (see: Heisler, G.M. and D.R. Dewalle. 1988. Effects of Windbreak Structure on Wind Flow. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. 22/23:41-69).
For more detailed information on urban and community forest assessments, please continue exploring the i-Tree website.
Credits:
- This tool's predecessor, the "National Tree Benefit Calculator", was originally conceived and developed by Casey Trees and Davey Tree Expert Co. With i-Tree Design (beta), the i-Tree Cooperators have taken the Calculator to the next level by providing dynamic, site-specific energy use calculations and a long-term platform for technical support and further development.
- Significant text and graphical content was originally published by the USDA Forest Service's Center for Urban Forest Research through their Tree Guide series of publications. We credit the authors of these publications for the content and guidance in its presentation.
- Facts about personal carbon production based on driving and flying courtesy of Conservation International
For technical questions about this tool, contact i-Tree support.
i-Tree Design: That’s it. | 33480122-bf7b-4cb1-939d-cdf906c29e67 | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.unri.org/wsb4713307301/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/i-Tree-Design.pdf | 2022-07-02T02:12:34+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103983398.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20220702010252-20220702040252-00664.warc.gz | 1,090,427,429 | 3,453 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.99389 | eng_Latn | 0.99631 | [
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# Contents
| Topic | Page |
|--------------------------------------------|------|
| Classification | 2 |
| Adaptations | 4 |
| Population Size | 5 |
| Biodiversity and Protecting Endangered Species | 6 |
| Studying Ecosystems | 7 |
| Biological Control of Pests | 10 |
| Alien Species | 11 |
| Genetic Information | 12 |
| Cell Division | 13 |
| Mitosis and Cancer | 14 |
| Stem Cells | 15 |
| DNA | 16 |
| Genetic Profiling | 17 |
| Inheritance and Chromosomes | 18 |
| Genetics | 19 |
| Genetics Problems | 20 |
| Inheritance of Sex | 21 |
| Genetically Modified (GM) Crops | 22 |
| Variation | 23 |
| Reproduction and Variation | 24 |
| Mutations | 25 |
| DNA and Mutations | 26 |
| Inherited Diseases | 27 |
| Gene Therapy | 28 |
| Evolution | 29 |
| The Nervous System | 30 |
| The Reflex Arc | 31 |
| The Structure of a Reflex Arc | 32 |
| The Eye | 33 |
| Homeostasis | 34 |
| Diabetes | 35 |
| The Principles of Negative Feedback | 36 |
| The Skin | 37-38|
| Lifestyle Diseases - Drugs | 39 |
| Plant Senses | 40 |
| Homeostasis and the Kidneys | 41 |
| Structure of the Kidney | 42 |
| How the Kidney Works | 43 |
| Osmoregulation | 44 |
| Kidney Failure | 45 |
| Transplantation | 46 |
| Growing Bacteria | 47 |
| Effect of Temperature on Bacterial Growth | 48 |
| Penicillin | 49 |
| Pathogens | 50 |
| Diseases | 51 |
| Defending Against Infection | 52 |
| The Immune Response | 53 |
| Immunity | 54 |
| Vaccination | 55 |
| Are Vaccinations Safe? | 56 |
| Antibiotics | 57 |
| Health | 58 |
| Discovery and Development of Potential New Medicines | 59 |
| Producing Monoclonal Antibodies | 60 |
Classification – Descriptive Groups
Living organisms show a range of sizes, features and complexity. They can be divided into broad descriptive groups.
Why and how should organisms be classified?
What does classification mean?
Classification means putting things into groups. A systematic system helps us understand:
- the variety of living things
- how they have changed over time
- how they are related to each other through evolution.
The classification system may be based on:
- morphological features
- DNA analysis
Five Kingdom Classification
The five kingdom classification uses morphological features, e.g. structure or appearance.
This method of classification uses five kingdoms:
- Bacteria
- Single Celled organisms
- Plants
- Fungi
- Animals
The names which we use every day for animals and plants, e.g. dog, cat, seagull, daisy, are called common names. Common names are usually based on appearances, which can be misleading,
How are organisms named?
Each organism has a scientific name to aid its identification and classification.
Biologists use the binomial system devised by Carl Linnaeus which is in Latin.
All organisms are given two names, e.g. *Homo sapiens* for humans or *Erinaceus europaeus* for the hedgehog.
The first name refers to the genus which the organism shares with other closely related organisms.
The second name refers to the species; no other organism in the genus has this name.
What is the advantage of using the scientific / Latin name?
- The name is always the same all over the world.
- The name is the same in all languages.
- It avoids the confusion and duplication caused by local or common names.
An example of classification
| Scientific classification | Domestic dog | Coyote | Fox |
|---------------------------|--------------|--------|-----|
| Kingdom | Animalia | Animalia | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata | Chordata | Chordata |
| Class | Mammalia | Mammalia | Mammalia |
| Order | Carnivora | Carnivora | Carnivora |
| Family | Canidae | Canidae | Canidae |
| Genus | Canis | Canis | Vulpes |
| Species | lupus | latrans | vulpes |
Classification helps us to understand how related organisms are to each other.
The Latin name of the domestic dog is *Canis lupus*.
The genus shows us that the coyote is more closely related to the domestic dog than the fox.
Adaptations
Organisms have morphological (the shape of an organism) and behavioural adaptations that enable them to survive in their environment.
Case study – Foxes
The arctic fox is found throughout the artic and sub-artic tundra whilst the Fennec fox is found in the Sahara and Arabian deserts.
| Profiles | Arctic fox | Fennec fox |
|----------|------------|------------|
| Body mass / kg | 6.5 – 17.0 | 1.0 – 1.5 |
| Ear length / cm | 4.0 | 15.0 |
| Coat colour | White (winter) | Sandy cream |
1. Morphological adaptations
- **Ear length**
Animals with small ears lose less heat because they have a smaller surface area.
Animals with big ears lose more heat because they have a larger surface area.
- **Coat Colour**
A white coat is camouflage against predators or prey in the snow.
A sandy cream coat is camouflage against predators or prey in the desert.
- **Body mass**
Less heat is lost through the surface of an animal with large body mass.
More heat is lost through the surface of an animal with a small body mass.
2. Behavioural adaptations
The fennec fox is nocturnal (goes out during the night). This is to avoid the heat of the desert during the day. It hunts at night because it is cooler.
Don’t always assume that animals are nocturnal to avoid predators or prey.
**Pointer**
- Questions on adaptation usually contain information about a plant or an animal and their habitat.
Use this information to help you!
Population Size
Population size means how many of one type of plant or animal (species) there is in a given ecosystem.
The size of an animal population may be affected by:
- Competition for food and water
- Number of predators
- Disease
- Pollution
Animals will compete for food and water.
The size of a plant population may be affected by:
- Competition for light, water or minerals
- Number of herbivores
- Disease
- Pollution
Plants will compete for light, water and minerals.
Organisms that are better adapted to the environment are more successful and usually reproduce more and have more offspring (a new organism).
Definitions to learn:
Interspecific competition - competition between members of different species.
Intraspecific competition - competition between members of the same species.
Biodiversity and Protecting Endangered Species
Biodiversity is the number of different species in a particular area and the numbers of individuals within those species.
Biodiversity is important for:
- food,
- potential foods,
- industrial materials,
- new medicines,
- human well being.
These days more and more species are becoming extinct because man is destroying their habitats.
This leads to a decrease in biodiversity.
Habitats are being destroyed because of increases in the use of land for:
- Building
- Industry
- Agriculture
The methods of protecting biodiversity and rare species are listed below:
- **CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)**
Agreement in the international market to prevent trade in endangered species.
- **SSSI – Sites of Special Scientific Interest**
Sites that are legally protected because they are rare habitats or contain examples of important or rare species.
- **Captive breeding programs** (e.g. Zoos)
Protecting rare species by increasing their numbers through breeding programmes before releasing them back into the wild.
- **National Parks**
Protected areas for the enjoyment of the public due to their natural beauty, plants, animals and geology.
- **Seed banks**
A way of maintaining genetic biodiversity in case a species of plant or animal become extinct.
- **Local biodiversity conservation schemes**
Plans produced by local authorities with the aim of protecting and enhancing biodiversity.
How can you find out how many of each species live in an ecosystem?
Sometimes, you can count them, e.g. how many oak trees there are in a small wood. Often it is not that easy. If you are studying a large area you will have to take a sample.
Using quadrats to study plant cover
A quadrat is a square. It can be any size, but one with sides of about 0.5m is convenient to use in a field.
The quadrat can be used to count:
- The number of each species of plant inside it, e.g. number of daisies.
- The percentages cover of a plant, e.g. the percentage area covered by grass.
How can we find out how many organisms there are in an area?
- Select a random sampling method (to avoid any bias).
- A 1m$^2$ quadrat is placed randomly and the number of living organism (or percentage cover) in the quadrat is counted.
- This is repeated at least twice or until the numbers in the quadrat are consistent.
- An average is calculated of the numbers counted from each quadrat.
- The number is multiplied to calculate the total number in the whole lawn.
Example
Scientists sampled a beach with an area of 850m$^2$. They found that the average number of cockles found in a 1m$^2$ quadrat was 3. What was the total number of cockles on the beach?
Answer:
Total number of cockles on beach = 3 cockles/m$^2$ x 850m$^2$ = 2550 cockles
How can we see if the numbers of organisms have changed?
- Use the quadrat method to calculate the number of organisms in an area at the start of the study.
- Use the quadrat method to study the same area after a set period of time (e.g. 1 week, month, every year).
- Note the change to identify a pattern.
How can we find out about the distribution of organisms?
Sometimes investigators want to know:
- how many animals and plants are found in an environment, AND
- how the animals and plants are distributed.
These questions can be answered by using a transect.
A transect is a series of quadrat samples taken in a line.
- A tape measure or rope is laid out across the area to be sampled; this is the transect line,
- Quadrats are laid down at regular intervals along the transect line,
- The animals and plants in the quadrats are recorded.
Transects can show:
- frequency of a species in a habitat
- distribution of species in a habitat
How can we improve the accuracy of sampling?
For the population estimate to be accurate, certain conditions must apply:
- The sample area must be typical of the whole area.
- The bigger the sample area, the better. (Very small areas are more likely to be unusual in some way).
- The method of sampling must not affect the results. (With some animals, the presence of humans might scare them away, but obviously not snails!).
Samples cannot be absolutely accurate, and scientists often use statistical analysis that takes account of sample size when drawing conclusions.
How can we measure an animal population that moves around?
It is more difficult to measure animal populations in an area than plants, because animals move around. There is a danger of counting the same animal more than once, or of missing some which have just moved out of the sample area, but will return. We can solve this problem by using the capture-recapture technique.
This technique works by:
- capturing a number of individuals from a species,
- marking them,
- releasing them back into the wild,
- some time later another sample of the species is captured.
- Using a mathematical equation to estimate the population.
This technique makes the following assumptions:
- there is no death
- there is no immigration or emigration
- the marking technique does not affect the chances of survival.
The equation is:
\[ N = \frac{MC}{R} \]
- \( N \) = estimate of total population size.
- \( M \) = number of animals captured and marked on first visit.
- \( C \) = number of animals captured on second visit.
- \( R \) = number of animals captured on second visit that were marked.
Example
50 water beetles were caught and marked (\( M \)), before being returned to their pond. The next day, 35 water beetles were caught (\( C \)), 10 of which had been marked (\( M \)). About how many water beetles were in the pond altogether?
\[ N = \frac{50 \times 35}{10} = 175 \]
How can we improve accuracy of the capture-recapture technique?
For the population estimate to be accurate, certain conditions must apply:
- Enough time has passed between the two samples for the marked individuals to mix with the rest of the population.
- There is no large-scale movement of animals in or out of the area in the time between the two samples.
- The marking technique does not affect the survival chances of the animal, e.g. doesn’t make it easier to be seen by predators.
- The marking technique doesn’t affect the chances of being recaptured, e.g. making it easier to be seen by the collector.
Biological Control of Pests
Chemicals used to control pests (pesticides) can poison the environment. Another way to control them is through using biological control.
**Biological control of pests** is when another organism (such as a predator or parasite) is used to kill pests.
**Example – Control of whitefly in greenhouses**
The white fly is a pest on tomato plants in green houses. A type of wasp lays its eggs inside the white fly larvae. Using the wasp can reduce the white fly population, as when its eggs hatch they eat the larvae of the white fly. It only does this to white fly, and has no effect on other insects. Using an insecticide to kill the flies would kill all insects, even the useful ones like ladybirds and honeybees. This method is very successful because a greenhouse is a closed environment that can be easily controlled.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of biological control?
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|------------|---------------|
| It is specific to a particular pest. | There is a delay between introducing the predator and a reduction in the pest. |
| Once the predator is established, there is no need to re-introduce it at a later date. | It does not completely eradicate the pest, only brings its number down to acceptable levels. |
| The pest does not develop resistance to the predator. | |
Before considering using a species as a biological control agent thorough **research** needs to be carried out to make sure that this species does not turn out to be a **pest** itself.
Introducing alien species and their effect on native wildlife.
An alien species is an animal or a plant that has been introduced into a country that it does not originate from.
Some animals and plants have been introduced, deliberately and accidentally, into areas where they do not naturally occur. Some have become invasive and cause problems.
- Invasive species may grow faster than native species and upset the natural ecosystem.
- Native species may not be able to compete.
Some problems that alien species can cause are:
- The alien species may have no predators in the area, and its population may grow out of control.
- The alien species may compete with an existing species, causing it to die out in the area. (E.g. animals compete for food; plants compete for light).
- The alien species may prey on existing species, reducing their number.
- The alien species may carry a disease that could affect the native species.
Japanese Knotweed – An Alien Species
Japanese Knotweed (*Fallopia japonicum*) was introduced into Britain as an ornamental plant and is now a pest species in many parts of Britain. It is a large vigorous weed that has no natural enemies in Britain. Research is taking place to investigate how an insect (biological control) may be used to control the knotweed.
Genetic Information
Inside the nucleus are the chromosomes (DNA) where the genetic information is stored.
The genetic information to build your body is inside the nucleus of each cell.
In humans, there are 23 pairs of chromosomes.
Chromosomes are arranged by size and shape.
In humans, pair 23 is called the sex chromosomes.
- Male = XY
- Female = XX
A single chromosome has lots of information on how to build your body. Each bit of information is called a gene.
Pairs of genes are found opposite each other at the same position.
In body cells, chromosomes are found in pairs. Genes are therefore found in pairs.
Different genes control different characteristics.
Genes are arranged in a row along a chromosome.
Cell Division
1. **Mitosis**
- This cell division produces 2 genetically identical cells;
- Each new cell contains the same number of chromosomes as the original cell.
Mitosis is needed to:
- Make new cells for growth of the body.
- Make new cells to replace those that have been damaged.
- Make new cells to replace those that have worn out.
*Fig. 1*
Mitosis in an organism with 4 chromosomes in a normal cell.
Remember, humans have 46 chromosomes!
2. **Meiosis**
This cell division produces 4 genetically different gametes, (sperm or eggs) that contain half the normal number of chromosomes.
*Fig. 2*
Meiosis in an organism with 4 chromosomes in a normal cell.
In meiosis
- Four gametes (sex cells) are produced.
- Each gamete contains only one of each pair of chromosomes, so they only contain half the chromosome number of the original cell.
Comparing Mitosis and Meiosis
| Mitosis | Meiosis |
|----------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| Two daughter cells produced. | 4 gametes produced. |
| New cells contain original number of | New cells contain half the original |
| chromosomes. | number of chromosomes. |
| New cells genetically identical to mother | New cells genetically different to |
| cell. | mother cell. |
Be careful, MITOSIS and MEIOSIS have similar spelling, so examiners expect you to spell them correctly!
What is the link between mitosis and cancer?
Cell division is controlled by genes. If these genes stop functioning correctly, cells can divide without control.
Cancer is a result of uncontrolled mitosis.
A cancerous tumour is a group of cells growing out of control. The tumour damages the tissues and organs in which they form. If some of the cells from the tumour reach the blood they may be carried to other parts of the body where they will continue to grow and form a new tumour.
Stem Cells
Unspecialised cells which have the ability to develop into other cells.
When tissues and organs start to develop, they form specialised cells, e.g. muscle, skin or liver cells. Once a cell has specialised, it is unable to change into another type of cell, e.g. you cannot use a muscle cell to try and grow skin cells.
Stem cells retain the ability to differentiate into some different types of cells and therefore have the potential for producing cells by mitosis to replace damaged tissue.
Source of stem cells in plants:
- Meristems – these are growing points in the tips of shoots and roots.
Sources of stem cells in animals:
- Adult stem cells – e.g. from bone marrow, umbilical cord, babies’ teeth.
- Embryonic stem cells – from embryo’s left over from in vitro fertility (IVF) treatment.
What are the uses of stem cell technology?
- Can lead to the treatment or a cure for many diseases.
- Can be used to replace damaged tissues, e.g. trachea
The use of stem cell technology raises many issues, which are summarised below:
| Type of stem cell | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|-------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Adult stem cell | - The body will accept the cells so there will be no rejection issues. | - Complicated and the technology is still being developed. |
| | - No moral or ethical issues involving the destruction of embryos. | - They are unable to differentiate into as many different types of cells. |
| Embryonic stem cell| - Source of cells readily available from in vitro fertility (IVF) treatment.| - Some people believe that destroying embryos means the destruction of |
| | | potential human life. |
How does the nucleus control the cell?
- The nucleus contains chromosomes.
- Chromosomes are strands of DNA.
- Genes are sections of DNA molecules that determine the sequence of amino acids that make up the different types of proteins produced in cells.
- Some of these proteins are enzymes, which control processes.
- These enzymes affect the functioning of the cell and so the organism’s inherited characteristics.
What is DNA?
DNA is made up of two long chains of alternating sugar and phosphate molecules connected by bases. This structure is twisted to form a double helix.
There are four bases:
- Adenine (A)
- Thymine (T)
- Cytosine (C)
- Guanine (G)
There is complementary base pairing between A and T, C and G.
How does DNA Work?
The order of the bases forms a code. Every 3 bases form a triplet code. This code determines the order in which different amino acids are linked to form different proteins during protein synthesis.
Genetic Profiling
Genetic profiling is the analysis of an organism’s DNA.
(This is commonly referred to as genetic fingerprinting – but this term should not be used in an exam).
DNA profiling involves cutting the DNA into short pieces that are then separated into bands.
The pattern of the bands can be compared to show the similarity between two DNA samples.
DNA profiling is used:
- To identify suspects from evidence at crime scenes
- In paternity cases
- In comparisons between species for classification.
It is very unlikely that two organisms have exactly the same genetic profile.
DNA profiling can be used to identify the presence of certain genes that may be associated with a particular disease. The likelihood that these genes may be linked to a particular disease is based on statistical probability. For example, you may have a gene linked to Type 2 diabetes, but if you live a healthy lifestyle you may never suffer from this problem.
DNA profiling raises several ethical issues:
- Who owns the DNA sample involved and who owns the information after analysis?
- Should information on an individual’s DNA be kept on record?
- Should third parties, e.g. insurance companies be informed of the presence of a particular gene?
Inheritance and Chromosomes
This is how genetic information is passed from parents to offspring.
- Human body cells contain 46 chromosomes.
- Human sex cells, the sperm and eggs, contain 23 chromosomes. (The scientific name for a sex cell is gamete).
- Different organisms have different numbers of chromosomes. An onion has 16 chromosomes. A dog has 78 chromosomes.
Example – Inheritance in a fruit fly. (Chromosome number = 8)
- The number of chromosomes in the egg and sperm are half the number in a normal cell.
- This is so that when they join together in fertilisation the offspring will have the correct number of chromosomes.
Genetics is the study of heredity.
It is the genes that you have that decide everything about your body! You have two genes for every characteristic.
There are lots of terms you have to use and learn in genetics.
- **Alleles** - two forms of the same gene, and we use letters to represent them.
- **Genotype** – the genetic make-up, i.e. your alleles. *(This is always a pair of letters)*.
- **Phenotype** – the characteristic that is shown because of your genotype.
- A **dominant** allele will always ‘show’ in the phenotype when present. *(This is shown with a CAPITAL letter)*.
- A **recessive** allele will be ‘hidden’ when a dominant allele is present in a heterozygote. *(This is represented with a small case letter)*.
- **Homozygous** – if the two alleles for a gene are identical.
- **Heterozygous** – if the two alleles for a gene are different.
**Example – tongue rolling.**
| Phenotype = | can roll tongue | can roll tongue | can't roll tongue |
|-------------|-----------------|-----------------|-------------------|
| Genotype | R R | R r | r r |
- **Alleles**
- R = allele for tongue rolling
- r = allele can’t roll the tongue.
- **Genotype**
- RR (Homozygous)
- Rr (Heterozygous)
- rr (Homozygous)
We can use Punnett squares to explain genetic crosses.
**Example – Mendel’s Peas**
1. **Choose a letter to represent the alleles.**
- Capital = dominant
- Small case = recessive
2. **The phenotype is the characteristic you see.**
3. **The genotype is always a pair of alleles (two letters)**
4. **The gamete is always a single allele (one letter)**
Let \( T \) = tall allele
Let \( t \) = short allele
| Parent phenotype | Tall | x | Short |
|------------------|-------|---|-------|
| Parent genotype | \( TT \) | x | \( tt \) |
| Gametes | \( T \) and \( T \) | \( t \) and \( t \) |
|---------|---------------------|---------------------|
| F1 cross (First generation) |
|-----------------------------|
| gametes | \( T \) | \( T \) |
| \( t \) | \( Tt \) | \( Tt \) |
| \( t \) | \( Tt \) | \( Tt \) |
All F1 offspring have the genotype \( Tt \).
They are heterozygous.
The recessive allele (short) is hidden by the dominant allele (tall.)
An F2 cross can happen when an F1 plant is self-pollinated (selfing)
| F2 cross (second generation) |
|------------------------------|
| gametes | \( T \) | \( t \) |
| \( T \) | \( TT \) | \( Tt \) |
| \( t \) | \( Tt \) | \( tt \) |
Always check to see if you are asked to describe the **probability** or the **ratio** of results.
The **ratio** of tall to short plants = 3 tall : 1 short
The **probability** of a tall plant = 75%
The **probability** of a short plant = 25%
Inheritance of Sex
Father’s cells contain one X and one Y chromosome.
Mother’s cells contain two X chromosomes.
Cells in the testes divide to produce sperm. One of the sex chromosomes goes into each sperm.
Cells in the ovaries divide to produce eggs. One of the sex chromosomes goes into each egg.
Y Sperm
X Sperm
Each egg contains an X chromosome
Equal numbers of X sperms and Y sperms are produced. The probability of the baby being a boy or a girl is 50%.
We can show this using a Punnett square.
The Punnett square shows all the possible combinations from mixing the sperm and eggs.
Genetically Modified (GM) Crops
Transferring genes artificially from one species to another.
Case Study – Herbicide resistance in Soya beans.
Herbicides are chemicals that farmers use to kill plants that compete with crops.
Herbicide resistant Soya plants have been produced using the following method:
1. Genes from resistant plants are “cut out” using enzymes.
2. They are then transferred into the chromosomes of Soya bean plant cells.
3. The modified cells are cloned to produce GM plants resistant to herbicide.
Advantages
- Plants that are resistant to herbicides can be sprayed with that herbicide to kill weeds leaving the plant unaffected.
- This leads to increased yields due to reduced competition for space and nutrients.
Disadvantages
Concerns about:
- The health effect of eating them,
- The escape of transferred genes into other plant species,
- The creation of super weeds resistant to herbicides,
- Unknown long-term effects.
Why is it important to carry out extensive field trials of GM technology?
- To understand the possible effects on the environment.
- To identify any possible health problems.
- To check for possible transfer of genes to other species.
Variation means the differences between individuals of the same species. Heritable variation is the basis of evolution.
Variations are the result of
- Genetic information (genes)
- The environment
Some variations are the result of genes only, but most variations are caused by a combination of genes and the environment.
Plant growth is more affected by the environment. Some of these environmental factors are:
- Availability or competition for water,
- Competition for light,
- Air or soil temperature,
- Aspect of slope, e.g. a south facing slope gets more sunlight.
Types of variation:
- **Continuous variation** is controlled by more than one set of genes. When described using a graph it shows a normal distribution, e.g. height.
- **Discontinuous variation** is usually controlled by one set of genes. When graphed it shows distinct groups, e.g. blood groups.
Reproduction - production of new organisms (offspring)
Asexual Reproduction
In this type of reproduction:
- There is only one parent.
- The offspring are genetically identical to the parent.
- There is no variation between the offspring.
Genetically identical organisms are called clones.
Sexual reproduction
In this type of reproduction:
- There are two parents.
- Fertilisation produces a single cell with a new set of pairs of chromosomes.
- The offspring are genetically different because they have genetic information (chromosomes / DNA) from both parents.
- There is variation between the offspring.
Comparison of sexual and asexual reproduction:
| Asexual reproduction | Sexual reproduction |
|----------------------|---------------------|
| No variation between offspring | Variation between offspring |
| Offspring genetically identical (clones) | Offspring genetically different |
| Offspring develop from one parent | Offspring develop from two parents |
Mutations
A mutation is a change in the DNA molecule resulting in a new gene. This can result in a new characteristic that may be passed onto the next generation.
Mutations happen naturally at random or in response to natural background radiation. The probability of a mutation happening is increased if you are exposed to:
- Ionising radiation
- X-rays
- Ultra violet radiation from the sun
- Some toxic chemicals (mutagens)
The greater the dose, the greater the chance of a mutation in genes.
Most mutations are not noticed, either because the mutant cell is just one amongst millions of ordinary cells, or because it is destroyed by the white blood cells. Mutations are only passed on if they are in a gamete (sex cell).
Harmful mutations
- In reproductive cells, mutations can cause abnormalities or death in the young.
- Mutations in body cells can cause them to divide uncontrollably – cancer.
Neutral mutations
- These do not affect the survival rate of an organism, e.g. appearance of blue budgies.
Beneficial mutations
- These mutations give an organism an advantage that allows it to survive and breed, e.g. bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics are able to survive and create an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria.
(This is an example of natural selection and evolution).
Genes and Health
Some diseases are caused by changes in genes (mutations). These diseases can be inherited. Modern medical research has led to the development of genetic screening and gene therapy.
Tests are available to find out if you are a carrier for some disorders such as cystic fibrosis. Prenatal genetic tests are also available to test foetuses during pregnancy. Small samples of cells from the membranes surrounding the foetuses are taken. The DNA from these cells is analysed.
DNA and Mutations
- Chromosomes are strands of DNA and genes are sections of DNA molecules.
- DNA contains coded information which determines the sequence of amino acids which make up the different types of proteins produced in the cell.
- Some proteins are enzymes which control processes within the cell. These enzymes in turn affect the functioning of the cell and so the organism’s inherited characteristics.
This section of the DNA molecule contains a code to put amino acids into the following order:
This chain of amino acids helps to form a molecule of insulin.
If a mutation happens in the DNA then the sequence of amino acids will change:
The protein will then be different which will affect the functioning or characteristics of the organism.
Inherited Diseases – Cystic Fibrosis
Genetic information can contain a ‘fault’ or a damaged code in the DNA. If this fault is inherited it can cause a disease that can’t be cured because the faulty information is inside every cell.
Cystic Fibrosis is an inherited disease. A person with cystic fibrosis produces very thick mucus in their lungs. The mucus slows down exchange of gasses in the lungs; it’s also a breeding ground for bacteria. At least once a day a person with cystic fibrosis must have physiotherapy to move this thick mucus out of the lungs.
Genetic explanation.
In humans, there are two kinds of alleles that code for mucus.
- One allele codes for normal mucus (N)
- The other codes for thick mucus (n)
There are three possible combinations of these alleles:
| NN | Normal mucus |
|----|--------------|
| Nn | Normal mucus |
| nn | Thick mucus |
The inheritance of genetic diseases can be shown using family trees.
- The genotype causing cystic fibrosis is nn, e.g. Anne, male 5 and female 9.
- An individual with genotype Nn produces normal mucus. They do not have Cystic Fibrosis because they carry one copy of the dominant gene.
- Individuals with the genotype Nn are called carriers because they are not affected by the disease but may pass it on to any of their children, e.g. Kirsty, John, individuals 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Gene therapy may offer a solution to the problem of genetic disorders.
Doctors are trying to use gene therapy to treat cystic fibrosis.
- Genes for normal mucus are inhaled into the lungs using an inhaler, like an asthma inhaler.
- Some cells that make mucus take in the gene and produce normal mucus for a few days.
However, new cells produced by the body will not contain the gene for normal mucus.
The inhaler will need to be used every few days so that the person has a healthier life.
Evolution
Evolution is the gradual change in species over time, resulting in the formation of new species, and the extinction of others. Evolution is a process which is ongoing.
Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin were both working on the ideas of evolution and natural selection at around the same time but independently of each other. It is now accepted that the mechanism for evolution is natural selection.
Warfarin Resistance in Rats - An Example of Natural Selection
In 1959, Warfarin-resistant rats appeared in Welshpool in mid-Wales and began to spread. The spread of Warfarin resistance between 1967 and 1970 is shown in the map below.
1. There is variation in a population. (New variation appears because of mutations that can be inherited).
2. Some individuals have a characteristic that gives them an advantage. (E.g. some rats are resistant to the poison Warfarin, whilst others are not resistant).
3. There is competition for survival.
4. The individuals that survive are more likely to reproduce and pass the gene (that controls the characteristic giving them the advantage - the Warfarin resistant gene) on to their offspring.
5. Over a long period of time the advantageous gene will become more common in the population, (provided the environment does not change, i.e. people stop using Warfarin).
Species that have a lot of variation carry many versions of the same genes. They are more likely to be able to survive if the environment changes suddenly. Species that don’t have much variation are less likely to adapt quickly when the environment changes and will become extinct. However, the process of natural selection is sometimes too slow for organisms to adapt to new environmental conditions and so organisms may become extinct.
Humans have 5 sense organs connected to the nervous system.
Each sense organ is made up of special cells called receptors. The receptors can respond to a certain stimulus.
The receptors collect information from our surroundings and pass the information as electrical impulses along neurones to the central nervous system.
The central nervous system (the brain or spinal cord) can then store the information or decide on a reaction.
The table below lists the sense organs and the stimulus or stimuli that it detects:
| Sense organ | Stimulus |
|-------------|---------------------------|
| Eye | Light |
| Ear | Sound |
| Nose | Chemicals (in the air) |
| Tongue | Chemicals (in food) |
| Skin | Touch / Temperature / Pressure |
Reflex actions are:
- protective,
- automatic,
- fast.
Examples of reflex actions:
| Reflex | Explanation |
|-----------------|---------------------------------------------------|
| Blinking | Protection of the eye |
| Change in pupil diameter | Protection of the retina |
| Withdrawal / pulling away | Prevent harm to the body |
| Sneezing | Expel substances from the nose |
| Knee jerk | Helps maintain posture |
Fig. 2 – Illustration of a knee jerk reflex. When the hammer strikes the tendon below the knee cap tension increases in the leg muscle, causing it to contract. This reflex helps keep us upright.
The Reflex Arc
All reflex actions follow the same order:
1. Stimulus
2. Receptor
3. Sensory neurone
4. Co-ordinator
5. Motor neurone
6. Effector
7. Response
1. Stimulus = heat
2. Receptor = skin
3. Sensory neurone
4. Co-ordinator = spinal cord
5. Motor neurone
6. Effector = muscle
Fig. 1 – A typical withdrawal reflex
The co-ordinator is always either the brain or the spinal cord.
The effector is always a muscle or a gland.
The Structure of a Reflex Arc
1. Stimulus = heat
2. Receptor = skin
3. Sensory neurone
4. Co-ordinator = spinal cord
5. Motor neurone
6. Effector = muscle
Fig. 1 – The structure of a reflex arc showing relative positions of each neurone.
Describing the path taken by a nerve impulse from the receptor to the effector.
- The stimulus (heat) is detected by receptors in the skin.
- The receptor responds and sends an electrical impulse along a sensory neurone to the co-ordinator (the spinal cord).
- The electrical impulse is passed to a relay neurone inside the spinal cord and then on to the motor neurone.
- Between each neurone is a tiny gap called a synapse.
- The motor neurone carries the impulse to the effector (the muscle).
- The muscle contracts and pulls the hand away from the stimulus; this is the response.
The eye is a sense organ that contains light receptors.
**Tear gland behind the eyelid.**
**Eyelid** - blinks to protect the eye.
**Iris** - a coloured muscle.
**Pupil**
**Sclera**
*Fig. 1 – Front view of an eye in bright light (left) and in dim light (right). The iris controls how much light enters the eye by changing the size of the pupil. This reflex action protects the retina.*
**Internal Structure of the Eye**
- **Iris** – muscles that alter size of pupil to control amount of light entering.
- **Cornea** – clear part of sclera allows light to enter and refracts light entering.
- **Sclera** – protective, tough white outer coat.
- **Choroid** – a pigmented layer which absorbs light to prevent reflection, also contains blood vessels.
- **Retina** – light sensitive layer an image is formed here, impulses sent to optic nerve.
- **Lens** – changes shape to focus light onto retina.
- **Pupil** – hole in centre of the iris which allows light to enter.
- **Blind spot** – where the optic nerve leaves the eye, there are no light sensitive cells here.
- **Optic nerve** – carries impulses from retina to brain.
*Fig. 2 – vertical section through the eye.*
Homeostasis
Body cells work efficiently when they are at the appropriate temperature, pH and are supplied with the correct concentration of nutrients and water.
Homeostasis means keeping the internal environment constant
Conditions inside the body must be kept stable.
Examples to learn:
- Water content of the body must be kept constant
- Waste chemicals must be removed from the body
- Body temperature must remain constant
- Glucose levels must remain constant
Hormones are chemical messengers that control many body functions. They are produced by glands and carried by the blood. Hormones are proteins.
Insulin is a hormone that controls blood glucose levels.
Controlling Blood Glucose Levels – An Example of Negative Feedback
Eating carbohydrate foods, e.g. bread and rice puts a lot of glucose into the blood when they are digested.
- Carbohydrate meal eaten.
- Glucose level in blood goes up.
- Pancreas starts releasing insulin into the blood.
- Liver starts turning the glucose into insoluble glycogen and storing it.
- Glucose level in blood decreases back to normal.
- Pancreas stops releasing insulin.
Diabetes is a condition where the level of glucose in the blood can’t be controlled.
The diabetic can’t store glucose and the level in the blood can rise to a level that is very dangerous. The normal level of glucose in the blood is 0.1g per 100cm$^3$. Above this level, the glucose is excreted in the urine by the kidneys.
**Symptoms of diabetes**
1. **Glucose excreted in the urine.**
2. **Lots of urine** produced as the glucose is diluted with lots of water.
3. Feeling **thirsty**, because a lot of water has been lost in the urine.
4. Loss of weight and feeling weak because glucose isn’t stored and used by the body.
5. Diabetic **coma** in extreme cases.
**Diagnosis of diabetes**
1. Test urine for glucose.
2. Test blood for higher than normal glucose levels.
**Treatment of diabetes**
1. Regular injections of insulin into the body.
2. Controlling the carbohydrate and fat content of a diet.
3. Possible transplant of pancreatic tissue.
Diabetes (type 1) is a condition in which a person’s blood glucose may rise to a fatally high level because the body does not produce insulin.
Diabetes (type 2) develops when the body can still make some insulin, but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly (known as insulin resistance). In most cases this is linked with being overweight (because of too much carbohydrate and fat in the diet and a lack of exercise). This type of diabetes usually appears in people over the age of 40, though in South Asian and African-Caribbean people, it often appears after the age of 25. Type 2 diabetes accounts for around 90 per cent of people with diabetes.
The Principles of Negative Feedback
Any change from the balance in optimal internal conditions results in the body's hormonal and nervous system compensating for the change and restoring the balance.
Hormonal or nervous system responds to restore the balance.
Conditions move away from the optimum
Fig.1 - Negative feedback mechanism
Control of Blood Glucose Levels - An Example of Negative Feedback
- Exercise undertaken
- Eating a meal
- Blood glucose levels increase
- Pancreas starts releasing insulin into the blood
- Normal glucose levels in the blood
- Blood glucose levels decrease back to normal
- Liver starts stores glucose as insoluble glycogen
- Pancreas stops releasing insulin
- Blood glucose levels increase back to normal
- The liver converts glycogen back into glucose
- Pancreas starts releasing glucagon into the blood
- Glucose levels in blood decrease
The skin plays an important part in controlling body temperature.
**Hair**
- The hair can insulate the body by trapping a layer of warm air next to the skin.
**Sweat Pore**
- Sweat is released onto the skin through the pore, as the sweat evaporates it cools the skin and body.
**Sweat Duct**
- Carries sweat to the surface of the skin.
**Sweat Gland**
- This gland removes water and salt from the blood, producing sweat.
**Blood capillaries**
- The flow of blood through the capillaries can be changed to help control heat loss from the skin.
**(Hair) Erector Muscle**
- This muscle can contract to raise the hair when cold and relax to lower the hair when hot.
When the body is cold
1. The diameter of blood vessels in the skin decrease (they become narrow); less blood flows through them; less heat is lost from the skin surface.
Skin appears white
2. Hair erector muscles contract; hair stands up; layer of warm air trapped next to the skin helps insulate heat in the body.
3. Heat is released as muscles in the body contract causing shivering.
When the body is too hot
1. The diameter of the blood vessels in the skin increases (get wider); more blood flows through them; more heat is lost from the skin surface.
Skin appears red
2. Hair erector muscle relax; hair lies flat; less air is trapped next to the skin so more heat is lost.
3. Sweat is released from the sweat pores; body heat is used to evaporate the sweat.
A drug is any substance that alters your physical or physiological state.
**Alcohol**
Alcohol changes chemical processes in the body.
**Short-term effects**
Alcohol affects your nervous system by slowing down your reactions (this means that your reaction time is increased).
**Long-term effects**
- Some people may become dependent on, or addicted to alcohol.
- Alcohol can also cause long-term physical damage:
- liver disease
- circulatory
- heart diseases
**What does addiction mean?**
- An addiction is when people become dependent on a drug.
- A characteristic of addiction is that people will suffer withdrawal symptoms without the drug.
Plant Senses
Plants can sense light, and the pull of gravity and water. They respond to these things by growing slowly in certain directions. A tropism is the growth of a plant towards a light source or in response to a source of gravity.
Phototropism: response to light
Plants need light to make food, so they respond to light by growing towards it – positive phototropism. They also turn their leaves to face the light. This makes sure leaves get as much light as possible for photosynthesis.
Gravitropism: response to gravity
Roots grow down in response to gravity – positive gravitropism. This makes sure they find soil and water. Shoots always grow up – negative gravitropism. This makes sure they reach light.
Plant hormones regulate growth and other functions in plant cells. A hormone called auxin controls a plant’s responses to light and gravity. The hormone is made at the tips of stems and roots. It speeds up growth in stems. It slows down growth in roots.
Homeostasis and the Kidneys
Homeostasis means keeping the internal environment constant.
Conditions inside the body must be kept stable.
Examples to learn:
- Water content of the body must be kept constant,
- Waste chemicals must be removed from the body,
- Body temperature must remain constant,
- Glucose levels must remain constant.
The Kidneys
The kidneys have three functions in the body:
1. Control of water content of the blood.
2. Removal of urea from the blood.
3. Removal of excess mineral salts from the blood.
The process of removing waste from the body is called excretion.
Structure of the Excretory System
The kidneys are about 12 cm long and 7 cm wide and are located in the abdomen.
Facts to learn:
- Blood enters the kidney through the renal artery.
- Blood leaves the kidney through the renal vein.
- The ureter is a tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder.
- The bladder stores urine.
- The urethra carries urine from the bladder out of the body.
Fig. 1 – Relative position of kidneys, bladder and main blood vessels.
Role of the Kidneys in Homeostasis (Biology Only)
Structure of the Kidney
The kidney consists of two layers:
1. Outer layer – Cortex.
2. Inner layer – Medulla.
The Nephron
The nephrons remove urea, excess mineral salts and excess water from the blood to make urine. There are approximately 1,000,000 nephrons in each kidney. Fig. 1 shows their location across the cortex and medulla.
There are two stages in the production of urine by the nephron:
1. Ultrafiltration – filtration of small molecules under pressure from the capillary knot into the Bowman’s capsule.
2. Reabsorption – useful molecules are reabsorbed back into the blood from the tubule.
How do the kidneys remove urea and excess mineral salts?
**Ultrafiltration**
- The arteriole to the capillary knot has a larger diameter than the arteriole from the capillary knot, this increases blood pressure in the capillary knot.
- Small molecules such as urea, glucose, mineral salts, water and amino acids are filtered under pressure from the blood in the capillary knot into the Bowman’s capsule.
- Large molecules, such as proteins, or red blood cells are too large to be filtered out of the blood.
**Reabsorption**
- Useful substances such as glucose and amino acids are reabsorbed from the filtrate in the tubule into the blood in the capillary network.
- Excess mineral salts are also reabsorbed.
- Water is also reabsorbed.
The table shows some differences in the composition of blood plasma and urine:
| Substance | Blood plasma (%) | Urine (%) |
|-------------|------------------|-----------|
| Protein | 9.00 | 0 |
| Glucose | 0.10 | 0 |
| Urea | 0.02 | 2.00 |
| Mineral Salts | 0.75 | 1.25 |
**Analysis of table:**
- There is no protein in the urine because their molecules are too large to be ultrafiltrated from the capillary knot into the Bowman’s Capsule.
- There is no glucose in the urine because it has all been reabsorbed from the tubule back into the blood of the capillary network.
- The percentage of urine and mineral salts has increased because some of the water in the tubule has been reabsorbed, therefore making the filtrate flowing into the collecting duct more concentrated.
The presence of blood or cells in the urine would indicate kidney disease.
Water Balance
The volume of water you take in has to equal the volume of water you lose.
We gain water:
- in food
- by drinking
- metabolic water (made during respiration)
We lose water:
- when exhaling
- by sweating
- in urine
- in faeces
Osmoregulation = controlling water concentration in the blood
The brain monitors the concentration of water in the blood. Osmoregulation is controlled by the anti diuretic hormone (ADH). It is released by the brain and is carried by the blood to the kidneys. The flow chart below summarises the process:
Decrease in concentration of water in blood
Brain secretes more ADH
More water reabsorbed back into the blood
Normal water concentration in the blood
Increase in concentration of water in blood
Brain secretes less ADH
Less water reabsorbed back into the blood
Too much salt in diet / sweating
Small volume of concentrated urine produced.
Large volume of dilute urine produced.
Kidney Failure
Kidney failure is a common disease that affects tens of thousands of people each year. It is possible to live after one kidney has failed, but if both fail, without treatment, the patient will die. It is possible to treat kidney failure by kidney dialysis or by organ transplant.
Dialysis
Dialysis restores the concentrations of dissolved substances in the blood to normal levels.
How does a dialysis machine work?
The patient’s blood flows between semi permeable membranes (the dialysis tubing). To ensure that useful substances such as glucose and salts are not lost from the blood (by diffusion through the pores of the dialysis tubing), the dialysis fluid contains the same concentration of useful substances as the blood plasma. This ensures that only urea, and excess of mineral salts and water will diffuse into the dialysis fluid. Dialysis treatment needs to be carried out regularly.
Equal concentration of useful substances, e.g. glucose; therefore no net diffusion of glucose out of blood.
Blood and dialysis fluid flow in opposite directions to maintain a concentration gradient.
Constant circulation and changing of dialysis fluid ensures concentration of urea is higher in the blood. Urea therefore diffuses out of the blood into the dialysis fluid.
Role of the Kidney in Homeostasis (Biology Only)
**Transplantation**
The donor kidney is implanted at the bottom of the abdomen close to the thigh and is connected to the blood supply of the recipient. The failed kidneys are not normally removed.
To reduce the chance of rejection before a transplant:
- Doctors make sure that the ‘tissue type’ of the **donor** and the **recipient** need to be similar. (Close family members are more likely to have a similar tissue type to the recipient.)
To reduce the chance of rejection after a transplant:
- The donor must take drugs that suppress the immune system.
**Comparing the advantages and disadvantages of dialysis and a kidney transplant:**
| Dialysis | Kidney transplant |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|
| Temporary treatment | Potential to ‘cure’ problem for many years. |
| Diet restrictions | Generally, no restriction to diet after treatment |
| Patient must visit hospital several times a week for treatment. | Patient does not have to visit hospital every week |
| Non-invasive treatment | Treatment involves major surgery |
| No drugs needed | Patient must take drugs to suppress immune system |
| No problems with rejection of treatment | New kidney may be rejected by the body. |
**Kidney Transplants – ethical Issues**
There are a number of ethical issues involved with transplants. Some to consider are:
- Xenotransplants
- Kidney donor schemes, e.g. presumed consent in Wales
- Living donors
- Buying and selling of organs
- Availability of dialysis machines.
Growing Bacteria
Bacteria and fungi can be grown in Petri dishes containing nutrient agar. Working safely with microbes requires the use of aseptic techniques - this prevents microbes from the air contaminating the culture or microbes from the culture contaminating the air.
Investigating the presence of bacteria in milk using agar plates
Method
1. Sterilise Petri dishes and nutrient agar before use, e.g. in an autoclave/pressure cooker at 121°C for 15 minutes - to kill any bacteria in the agar.
2. Use an incubating loop to transfer a sample of milk to the Petri dish. The loop should be sterilised before and after the transfer by heating the loop until it glows red in a Bunsen flame, to kill all the micro-organisms.
3. Wipe the surface of the agar with the inoculating loop.
4. Secure the lid of the Petri dish with strips of adhesive tape, to prevent micro-organisms from entering or escaping.
5. Incubate the agar plates at 25°C to allow the bacteria to grow - pathogens will not grow at this temperature.
6. After 48 hours examine the dishes and count the number of colonies present.
7. Record your results.
8. Repeat the experiment.
9. Repeat steps 1 – 8 using different milk samples.
10. Compare the results.
11. The Plates and equipment should be sterilised after use.
Result
A single bacterium is too small to be counted when it is placed on the agar plate. Each bacterium grows into a colony. The colonies can be counted to find out the original numbers of bacteria.
Investigating the effect of temperature on the growth of bacteria
The graph below shows the growth of the bacterium *Micrococcus luteus* at different temperatures:
Description
- As the temperature increases the number of bacteria increases up to 37°C.
- Above 37°C as the temperature increases the number of bacteria begin to decrease.
Explanation
- Cell metabolism (chemical reactions in cells) is controlled by enzymes.
- Increasing temperature increases the rate of enzyme-controlled reactions therefore growth and reproduction of bacteria speeds up.
- Above 37°C the enzymes in cells begin to denature and therefore growth and reproduction of bacteria slows down.
Application in Food Storage
- Most refrigerators are kept at 4°C. At this temperature bacteria reproduce only very slowly, but they are not killed. The activity of any enzymes in the food is also slowed down.
- The temperature of -20°C in the freezer stops the growth and reproduction of bacteria, but it still does not kill them.
Penicillin
Penicillin is a type of antibiotic that is produced by the fungus *Penicillium*. It was first isolated in 1928 by Alexander Fleming from contaminated Petri dishes. He succeeded in extracting some of the fungus and used it to treat an infected wound. He called this extract penicillin. The technology at that time was too limited to allow him to culture and study the fungus successfully, so he saved the culture and moved on to a different research field.
These days the fungus *Penicillium* is grown in fermenters and the penicillin is extracted from them.
**Fig. 1 Typical plan of a fermenter used to produce Penicillin.**
**The Process**
1. A starter culture of *Penicillium* is added to a culture medium containing nutrients in a fermenter.
2. The fermenter allows fine control of the air supply, temperature and pH to ensure optimal growth by the fungus.
3. The fungus grows and secretes the antibiotic into the culture medium.
4. When the incubation comes to an end the culture medium is filtered and the penicillin is extracted from the filtrate.
Pathogens
Most micro-organisms are harmless and many play an essential role in recycling nutrients in the environment (e.g. nitrogen cycle and carbon cycle). Some can cause diseases (pathogens); others are useful (produce antibiotics).
A pathogen is a disease causing micro-organism.
Examples of pathogens are:
- bacteria
- viruses
- protists
- fungi
Bacteria
It is believed that some bacteria are the oldest forms of life.
- A bacterial cell contains cytoplasm, cell membrane and cell wall.
- There is no obvious nucleus, only a strand of circular DNA.
- Bacteria reproduce by dividing in two to form clones.
Viruses
- Viruses are smaller than bacteria.
- They contain a protein coat surrounding a number of genes.
- They can only reproduce in a host cell.
- Producing new viruses destroys the host cell as the new viruses are released. They are then free to attack other cells.
Communicable diseases
The means by which bacteria, viruses and fungi can be spread are as follows:
- contact,
- aerosol,
- body fluids,
- water,
- insects,
- contaminated food.
### AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
| Causative agent | HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). The virus infects lymphocytes which are part of the body's immune system. |
|-----------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| How it is spread | Blood to blood contact, especially during sexual intercourse. |
| Effect on infected organism | Without immunity, the body can become infected with a variety of microorganisms, e.g. tuberculosis or pneumonia. |
| Prevention / treatment | • Use of condoms
• Use of disposable gloves should be used where there is any danger of contact with contaminated blood.
• Antiviral agents can be used, but they only prevent the multiplication of the virus inside cells and must be taken throughout life. |
### Chlamydia - the most common sexually transmitted disease in Britain
| Causative agent | The bacterium *Chlamydia trachomatis* |
|-----------------|----------------------------------------|
| How it is spread | During sexual intercourse via the vagina and urethra. |
| Effect on infected organism | If left untreated, it could cause
• infertility in adults,
• conjunctivitis in babies during the process of birth if the mother is infected. It can also spread to the baby’s lungs. |
| Prevention / treatment | Can be **prevented** by the use of condoms.
Can be **treated** with antibiotics such as tetracycline or erythromycin. |
### Malaria - kills over a million people in the world each year.
| Causative agent | The single celled organism – *Plasmodium*. |
|-----------------|---------------------------------------------|
| How it spreads | *Plasmodium* is spread via female mosquitoes of the genus *Anopheles*. *Anopheles* mosquitoes bite humans and inject *Plasmodium* into the blood stream. |
| Effect on infected organisms | *Plasmodium* causes a fever when it destroys red blood cells in humans. |
| Prevention / treatment | Prevention methods include:
• killing mosquitoes with insecticide,
• releasing large numbers of infertile male mosquitoes,
• biological control of mosquitoes,
• use of mosquito nets and repellents.
Treatment consists of:
• killing *Plasmodium* with anti-malarial drugs, such as paludrine or daraprim.
• A vaccine against *Plasmodium* has been developed. |
Defending Against Infection
Your body has three lines of defence against infection by pathogens:
1. **The skin stops microbes getting into the body.**
- A layer of dead cells form a barrier around the body.
- There is also a community of microbes on the skin (the skin flora), that makes it difficult for pathogens to become established on the skin surface.
2. **Platelets stop microbes getting into the body through a cut.**
- Platelets clot the blood in a cut and form a scab, keeping out microbes.
3. **White blood cells defend against microbes that are inside the body.**
White blood cells defend against microbes in three ways:
a. **Phagocytes Ingest bacteria.**
![Diagram showing phagocyte engulfing a microbe]
Phagocyte detects ‘foreign’ microbe.
Phagocyte engulfs microbe.
Phagocyte digests microbe.
b. **Lymphocytes produce antibodies to inactivate bacteria or viruses.**
![Diagram showing lymphocyte producing antibodies]
Lymphocyte produces antibodies.
Antibodies Binds to antigen and destroy the foreign cell.
Antigen A molecule on the cell surface that can be recognised by the immune system.
c. **Lymphocytes produce antitoxins that counteract toxins released by bacteria.**
The Immune Response
All cells have unique proteins on their surface called antigens. The immune system will recognise any cells as ‘foreign’ if their antigens are different to the ones on body cells. ‘Foreign’ antigens stimulate an immune response by the body.
Primary Response
1. Lymphocyte recognises ‘foreign’ antigen.
2. Clones differentiate. Most develop to form short lived plasma cells.
3. Plasma cells produce antibodies that will destroy cells carrying the specific ‘foreign’ antigen.
Secondary Response
5. Memory cells are long lasting and if they come across the same specific antigen again they stimulate an immune response.
6. Large numbers of plasma cells develop producing a large concentration of antibodies very quickly.
7. More memory cells produced. This ‘boosts’ immunity.
Immunity
Memory cells remain in the body and antibodies are produced very quickly if the same antigen is encountered a second time. This memory provides immunity following a natural infection and after vaccination. The response is highly specific to the antigen involved.
The graph below shows the body’s immune response when it comes across an antigen for the first and second time:
Body encounters ‘specific antigen’ for the first time stimulating an immune response.
Memory cells encounter the same ‘specific antigen’ stimulating an immune response.
Describing the differences between the primary and secondary response:
1. The primary response is relatively slow, with a delay before antibody production, compared to the secondary response that is much faster.
2. The concentration of antibodies produced in the secondary response is much higher compared to the primary response.
3. The concentration of antibodies stays higher for much longer in the secondary response compared to the primary response.
Explanation of differences
The presence of memory cells able to detect a ‘specific antigen’ causes antibodies to be produced very quickly and in large numbers if the same antigen is encountered a second time – this is known as immunity.
Why do most people suffer from measles only once, but could suffer from flu many times during their lives?
The ‘flu’ virus mutates rapidly giving rise to new strains with different antigens. Because of this, different antibodies are needed and the memory cells produced during the previous bout of ‘flu’ cannot recognise the new antigens. The body therefore is not immune to the new strain of ‘flu’.
Vaccination
A Historical Perspective
Edward Jenner first used vaccination against smallpox. He had heard that milkmaids who suffered the mild disease of cowpox never seemed to catch smallpox, a disease that caused many deaths at the time, particularly among children. He suggested that the pus in the blisters that milkmaids received from cowpox protected them from smallpox. In 1796, he inoculated a healthy boy with pus taken from a cowpox spot and the boy caught cowpox. A few weeks later Jenner inoculated the boy again, this time with smallpox. Fortunately for Jenner his theory proved correct and the boy survived. Jenner’s methodology would be considered unethical these days.
How does vaccination work?
Some pathogens can make you seriously ill before the immune system gets a chance to respond. Getting vaccinated against these diseases can greatly reduce the possibility of dying or suffering permanent harm because of these diseases. It’s possible to get immunized against diseases by introducing a small amount of dead or inactive pathogens into the body. The antigens on these pathogens will cause the lymphocytes to produce antibodies to destroy the pathogens. The immune system will also produce memory cells that will recognise the specific antigens if they enter the body again causing large numbers of antibodies to be produced rapidly.
Fig.1
Flow chart illustrating vaccination.
Are vaccinations Safe? The MMR Story
The MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) is a vaccination that protects against measles, mumps and rubella (German measles). Measles and mumps can cause brain damage and even death. Rubella (German measles) can damage unborn babies. After the MMR vaccine was introduced the number of cases of these diseases fell until almost no children died of measles or mumps.
In February 1998, Dr Andrew Wakefield published a paper in the medical journal *The Lancet*. His research suggested that there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in children.
The story drew a lot of interest from the media. People got worried and the number of children vaccinated with the MMR fell.
**Graph 1**
As uptake of MMR fell the cases of measles increased.
By 2001 the percentage of children vaccinated fell from 92% to 75%. This percentage of vaccination is not enough to support herd immunity in the population.
**How confident can we be with the validity of the research?**
- The study included only twelve children.
- Dr Wakefield was paid £55 000 by the parents of some of the children to help them prepare evidence against the MMR vaccine for a court case.
- Dr Wakefield had also been developing some treatments for measles that would not have been used if people had more faith in the MMR.
**How can reproducing research be of value?**
- A large number of separate studies have been carried out since 1998.
- Thousands of children have been studied.
The conclusion drawn from these studies have shown that there is **no link between the MMR vaccine and autism in children**. This conclusion is based on thousands of repeat experiments and reproducing research by separate research groups, and therefore is far more valid.
Unfortunately, children have been harmed and a number have died as a result of poor research and irresponsible reporting by the media.
Antibiotics
An antibiotic is a substance produced by a microorganism to kill other microorganisms. (e.g. Penicillin from the fungus *Penicillium*)
Antibiotics, including penicillin, were originally medicines produced by living organisms, such as fungi. Antibiotics help to cure bacterial disease by killing the infecting bacteria or preventing their growth.
Antibiotics do not kill viruses, because viruses live inside the host’s cells and so an antibiotic cannot reach them.
Antibiotic Resistance
Resistance to a chemical poison is the ability of an organism to survive exposure to a dose of that poison which would normally be lethal to it.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria can evolve by the overuse of antibiotics such as:
- Use of antibiotics in animal feed,
- Over-prescription by doctors.
Doctors are worried about resistance to antibiotics because some bacteria, e.g. *E. coli* are common in humans and can cause serious illness or even death.
**Fig. 1**
How antibiotic resistance develops.
*Staphylococcus* bacteria naturally include some strains that are resistant to some antibiotics.
The bacteria are exposed to multiple doses of antibiotic over a period of time.
The non-resistant bacteria are killed by the antibiotic.
The resistant strain reproduces and becomes much more common than before.
MRSA (Methicillin resistant *Staphylococcus aureus*) has developed resistance to several antibiotics. Antibiotics are widely used in hospitals, especially to prevent infections occurring from surgery. The bacteria originated in Australia and within ten years had spread world-wide.
Methods used in hospitals to control MRSA are:
- Hand washing,
- Thorough cleaning of hospital wards,
- Use of alcohol gels or antibacterial gels,
- MRSA screening before surgery.
Health
Health is not just the absence of illness. It is a positive and enjoyable feeling of well being resulting from efforts to maintain an all-round state of physical and mental fitness.
Health is affected by a variety of factors:
- Diet,
- Living conditions,
- Contact with infections,
- Your genes,
- Lifestyle.
Poor health can be prevented by:
- Good hygiene,
- Clean water,
- Improved diet,
- Vaccination.
Keeping Healthy
Keeping fit helps our bodies to function better. Sustained regular exercise improves our blood circulation and reduces our heart rate. It also makes the breathing system more efficient.
Some conditions can be treated by:
- Drugs such as antibiotics,
- Organ transplants,
- Chemotherapy,
- Radiotherapy,
- Gene therapy.
It is important to remember that science and technology may provide the answer to some health problems but not all.
Use of Animals for Testing Drugs.
All drugs may have side effects. New drugs may cause side effects that do not show up until lots of people use them. Large scale testing is required before new drugs are released on the market. Part of this testing involves using animals.
The reasons animal-rights groups oppose testing drugs on animals
- Laboratory animals are so different from humans that they do not react to drugs in the same way as humans do.
- Humans do not have the right to subject animals to any form of experimentation.
Scientists use these reasons to justify their work on animals:
- Humans should never have their lives threatened by experimental procedures.
- Testing on individual cells from tissues does not reflect the complexity of living organisms.
- Computer simulation are not accurate enough to model all the biological processes that take place in living organisms.
Discovery and Development of Potential New Medicines
A potential new drug has to go through several stages of testing before it can be licensed for use.
**Pre-clinical stages**
1. The drug is tested on human cells grown in the laboratory.
2. The drug is tested on animals, which are monitored for side effects.
3. The drug is then tested on healthy human volunteers to establish the correct dose for the drug.
**Clinical stage**
4. The drug is then tested on small groups of patients who are affected by the condition the drug is targeting.
If a drug successfully passes all these stages it can then be licensed for general use.
The process of developing new drugs is **expensive and time consuming**.
**Human Drug Trials**
In human drug trials, volunteers are put into two groups at random. One group receives the drug being tested and the other group (the control group) will receive a **placebo**.
*A placebo is a fake drug that has no effect on the body.* Its purpose is to show that the observed results are due to the effects of the drug and not the psychological expectations of the individual.
The two most common types of drug trials are:
- **Blind trials**
The volunteers do not know which group they are in but the researchers do. However, the researchers may unintentionally give away clues to the volunteers as to which group is receiving the drug or the placebo.
- **Double-blind trials**
The volunteers do not know which group they are in, and neither do the researchers, until the end of the trial. This removes the chance of bias and therefore increases the strength of evidence for the results from the trials.
Monoclonal antibodies are produced from activated lymphocytes which are able to divide continuously, producing very large numbers of identical antibodies, specific to one antigen.
**Medical Uses of Monoclonal Antibodies**
| Medical use | Description |
|------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Diagnosis of diseases including Chlamydia and HIV | Immunoassays are used - labelled (via radioactivity or fluorescence) monoclonal antibodies are added to test samples of infected body fluids and attach to specific antigens. The extent of the infection is related to the extent of the labelling. |
| Tissue typing for transplants | The concentration of non-self-antigens in tissues is assessed. Monoclonal antibodies can be used against helper T-cells (T-lymphocytes) so B-lymphocytes, normally causing rejection, are prevented from functioning. |
| Monitoring the spread of malaria | Blood is taken from samples of people (even if they do not show any malarial symptoms) and tested with labelled monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies will detect the presence of *Plasmodium* in the bloodstream (even if they are dead - killed by antimalarial drugs) as they have specific antigens and will attach to the labelled monoclonal antibodies. This enables the success of anti-malarial drugs and the potential spread of malaria to be monitored. |
| Supporting chemotherapy for cancers | The destruction of cancer cells can be targeted with the use of monoclonal antibodies. Some types of cancer cells have specific antigens called tumour markers. Monoclonal antibodies can be produced that act against tumour markers. If these are attached to anti-cancer drugs, they will deliver the drug directly to the cancer cells. | | e41a49a3-7b1d-491c-bf8b-b58bd6ddbb28 | CC-MAIN-2024-46 | https://stdavidshighschool.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Yr_11_Biology_Revision.pdf | 2024-11-03T19:34:17+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-46/segments/1730477027782.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20241103181023-20241103211023-00045.warc.gz | 511,308,095 | 16,109 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.995253 | eng_Latn | 0.997762 | [
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WHISKY & CIGAR LOUNGE
JOALI
The following is a list of the most common types of software that are used in the field of computer science:
1. Operating Systems: These are the programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer system.
2. Programming Languages: These are the languages used to write computer programs.
3. Database Management Systems: These are the programs that manage the storage, retrieval, and manipulation of data.
4. Web Development Tools: These are the tools used to create websites and web applications.
5. Software Development Tools: These are the tools used to develop software applications.
6. Data Analysis Tools: These are the tools used to analyze data and make decisions based on the analysis.
7. Project Management Tools: These are the tools used to manage projects and ensure that they are completed on time and within budget.
8. Collaboration Tools: These are the tools used to collaborate with others on projects and share information.
9. Security Tools: These are the tools used to protect computer systems from unauthorized access and attacks.
10. Virtualization Tools: These are the tools used to create virtual machines and run multiple operating systems on a single physical machine.
To really unwind and relax, there’s one special place for you here in Joali, a glass in one hand, a cigar in the other...
THE JOALI WHISKY & CIGAR LOUNGE
“There are no bad cigar, only better ones”
- BWAG
The following is a list of the most common types of data that can be collected and analyzed using the methods described in this paper.
1. **Demographic Data**: This includes information such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, education level, income, employment status, and marital status. Demographic data is often used to identify trends and patterns in population characteristics and to inform policy decisions.
2. **Behavioral Data**: This includes information about how people behave, such as their purchasing habits, travel patterns, and social media usage. Behavioral data can be used to understand consumer preferences and to develop targeted marketing strategies.
3. **Health Data**: This includes information about a person's health status, such as their medical history, prescription drug use, and health insurance coverage. Health data can be used to monitor public health trends and to develop targeted health interventions.
4. **Environmental Data**: This includes information about the environment, such as air quality, water quality, and climate change. Environmental data can be used to monitor the impact of human activities on the environment and to develop policies to protect natural resources.
5. **Financial Data**: This includes information about a person's financial situation, such as their income, savings, and investments. Financial data can be used to assess a person's financial stability and to develop targeted financial services.
6. **Educational Data**: This includes information about a person's educational background, such as their academic achievements and career goals. Educational data can be used to assess a person's potential for success and to develop targeted educational programs.
7. **Legal Data**: This includes information about a person's legal status, such as their criminal record and immigration status. Legal data can be used to assess a person's eligibility for certain benefits and to develop targeted legal services.
8. **Political Data**: This includes information about a person's political affiliations, such as their voting history and campaign contributions. Political data can be used to assess a person's political views and to develop targeted political campaigns.
9. **Social Media Data**: This includes information about a person's online activity, such as their social media profiles and online interactions. Social media data can be used to assess a person's online presence and to develop targeted social media campaigns.
10. **Geospatial Data**: This includes information about a person's location, such as their address and travel routes. Geospatial data can be used to assess a person's proximity to certain locations and to develop targeted geospatial services.
WHISKEY / WHISKY
The following is a list of the most important and commonly used terms in the field of computer science, organized by category.
1. **Algorithms**
- Algorithm: A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or performing a computation.
- Complexity: The amount of time or space required to run an algorithm.
- Big O notation: A way to describe the upper bound of an algorithm's running time or space usage.
- Divide-and-conquer: A strategy for solving problems by breaking them down into smaller subproblems.
- Dynamic programming: A method for solving complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems and storing the results of these subproblems to avoid redundant calculations.
2. **Data Structures**
- Data structure: A way of organizing data that allows efficient access and modification.
- Array: A collection of elements of the same type stored at contiguous memory locations.
- Linked list: A linear data structure where each element (node) contains a reference to the next node.
- Stack: A linear data structure that follows the Last In First Out (LIFO) principle.
- Queue: A linear data structure that follows the First In First Out (FIFO) principle.
- Tree: A hierarchical data structure consisting of nodes connected by edges.
- Graph: A non-linear data structure consisting of vertices (nodes) and edges (connections between vertices).
3. **Programming Languages**
- Programming language: A formal language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer.
- Syntax: The set of rules that governs the structure of a programming language.
- Semantics: The meaning of a programming language.
- Type system: A mechanism for classifying data and operations in a programming language.
- Object-oriented programming: A programming paradigm that uses objects to represent real-world entities and their interactions.
4. **Computer Architecture**
- Computer architecture: The design of a computer system, including its hardware and software components.
- Central processing unit (CPU): The part of a computer that performs arithmetic and logical operations.
- Memory: The part of a computer that stores data temporarily.
- Input/output (I/O) devices: Devices that allow a computer to interact with the outside world.
- Operating system: A software program that manages the computer's hardware and software resources.
5. **Networking**
- Network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Protocol: A set of rules that governs how data is transmitted over a network.
- TCP/IP: A suite of protocols that defines how data is transmitted over the Internet.
- Ethernet: A type of local area network (LAN) that uses coaxial cable or twisted-pair wire to transmit data.
6. **Security**
- Security: The protection of information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
- Encryption: The process of converting plaintext into ciphertext to protect data from unauthorized access.
- Authentication: The process of verifying the identity of a user or device.
- Authorization: The process of granting or denying access to a resource based on the user's identity and permissions.
7. **Artificial Intelligence**
- Artificial intelligence (AI): The simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.
- Machine learning: A subset of AI that involves training machines to learn from data without being explicitly programmed.
- Neural networks: A type of machine learning model inspired by the structure and function of the human brain.
8. **Database Management Systems**
- Database management system (DBMS): A software system that provides services for creating, maintaining, and using databases.
- Relational database: A type of database that stores data in tables with rows and columns.
- Non-relational database: A type of database that does not store data in tables with rows and columns.
- Query language: A language used to retrieve data from a database.
9. **Software Engineering**
- Software engineering: The application of engineering principles to the development of software.
- Software development life cycle (SDLC): A series of stages that software goes through during its development.
- Agile methodology: An iterative approach to software development that emphasizes collaboration and flexibility.
- Version control: A system for tracking changes to software code and managing multiple versions of the code.
10. **Computer Networks**
- Computer network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Local area network (LAN): A network that connects computers within a limited geographical area.
- Wide area network (WAN): A network that connects computers across a large geographical area.
- Internet: A global network of interconnected computer networks.
11. **Computer Vision**
- Computer vision: The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to interpret and understand visual information.
- Image processing: The manipulation of digital images to enhance their quality or extract useful information.
- Object recognition: The ability of a computer to identify and classify objects in an image.
- Face recognition: The ability of a computer to recognize and identify individuals in images.
12. **Natural Language Processing**
- Natural language processing (NLP): The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to understand and generate human language.
- Text mining: The process of extracting useful information from unstructured text data.
- Sentiment analysis: The ability of a computer to determine the sentiment of a piece of text.
- Machine translation: The ability of a computer to translate text from one language to another.
13. **Robotics**
- Robotics: The field of engineering that focuses on designing and building robots.
- Autonomous robot: A robot that can operate independently without human intervention.
- Robot vision: The ability of a robot to interpret and understand visual information.
- Robot navigation: The ability of a robot to move through an environment and avoid obstacles.
14. **Cybersecurity**
- Cybersecurity: The protection of information and systems from cyber threats.
- Malware: Malicious software designed to harm a computer system.
- Phishing: A type of cyber attack that attempts to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
- Social engineering: A type of cyber attack that attempts to manipulate people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that could be harmful to the organization.
15. **Internet of Things (IoT)**
- Internet of Things (IoT): The interconnection of physical objects (things) with the internet, allowing them to exchange data and perform actions autonomously.
- Smart home: A home that is equipped with IoT devices that can be controlled remotely.
- Wearable technology: Devices that can be worn on the body and are capable of collecting and transmitting data.
- Industrial IoT: The use of IoT technology in industrial settings to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
16. **Big Data**
- Big data: Large volumes of data that are difficult to process using traditional data processing techniques.
- Data analytics: The process of analyzing large amounts of data to extract meaningful insights.
- Data mining: The process of discovering patterns and relationships in large datasets.
- Data visualization: The process of representing data in a visual format to make it easier to understand.
17. **Cloud Computing**
- Cloud computing: The delivery of computing resources over the internet.
- Public cloud: A cloud service provided by a third-party provider to the general public.
- Private cloud: A cloud service that is dedicated to a single organization.
- Hybrid cloud: A cloud service that combines public and private clouds.
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): A cloud service that provides virtualized computing resources such as servers and storage.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS): A cloud service that provides a platform for developing, running, and managing applications.
- Software as a Service (SaaS): A cloud service that provides software applications over the internet.
18. **Quantum Computing**
- Quantum computing: A type of computing that uses quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data.
- Quantum bit (qubit): The basic unit of quantum information, analogous to a classical bit.
- Quantum algorithm: An algorithm that takes advantage of quantum-mechanical phenomena to solve a problem more efficiently than a classical algorithm.
- Quantum error correction: A technique for protecting quantum information from errors due to decoherence and other quantum noise.
19. **Neuromorphic Computing**
- Neuromorphic computing: A type of computing that aims to mimic the structure and function of the human brain.
- Spiking neural network: A type of neural network that simulates the behavior of biological neurons using spiking events.
- Brain-computer interface (BCI): A device that allows a person to control a computer directly using their thoughts.
20. **Blockchain**
- Blockchain: A decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions across many computers in such a way that the registered transactions cannot be altered retroactively.
- Cryptocurrency: A digital currency that uses blockchain technology to secure transactions and control the creation of new units.
- Smart contract: A self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement directly written into lines of code.
- Decentralized finance (DeFi): A financial system that operates on a blockchain without the need for intermediaries such as banks or brokers.
AMERICAN WHISKEY
KENTUCKY
Evan Williams 30ml 14
Since 1783, the most popular in US, smooth and caramel sweet smoked
Bernheim Wheat Whiskey 22
Craft from 51% wheat, soft winter one, unique and whisky finish from Heaven Hill
Corseir Old Punk Pumpkin And Spice 25
A unique coloured whisky aged in American oak after being flavoured with pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice
Woodford Reserve, Master’s Collection, Sweet Mash 45
Limited edition, real fruity and smooth, honeydew and elderflower herbal
TENNESSEE
Gentleman Jack 18
Gentleman Jack is charcoal mellowed twice, before and after the ageing process, resulting in a cleaner, and feel the aromas of vanilla, white honey and dried fruits in the palate
Single Barrel 20
Drier than expected, this is a big-hitting bourbon, with broad brush strokes of honey, popcorn and cinnamon, countered by punchy, peppery notes, some numbing clove notes, and toasty oak
BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY
“You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on”
- Dean Martin
Dimple 15 YO 22
Medium body with warming notes of spice and caramel. Well-balanced with smooth notes of honey and toffee, a little smoke and malted barley with just a hint of oak
Johnnie Walker Gold Label 22
A really well balanced blend from the House of Johnnie Walker, something to crack open with friends on a summer’s evening and pass around whilst the sun goes down
Johnnie Walker Blue Label 48
The first sip reveals a velvety mouthfeel, then an explosion of flavours of hazelnuts, honey, rose petals, sherry and oranges. Subsequent sips reward you with more hidden secrets like kumquats, wispy aromatic smoke, sandalwood, tobacco, and dark chocolate
Chivas Regal 18 YO 30
Oak focused, with cinnamon and nutmeg spice, hints of dried fruit, and lashings of vanilla. A touch of water opens it up to reveal a creamy mouthfeel as well as touches of linseed oil and woody spice
Royal Salute Diamond Tribute 56
Royal Salute’s 21 year old ‘The Diamond Tribute’ was launched in June 2015, to coincide with The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, as a permanent new expression of Chivas’s prestige blended whisky brand
Please note that all prices are in US$ and subject to 10% service charge and applicable taxes
The following is a list of the most important and commonly used terms in the field of computer science, organized by category.
1. **Algorithms**
- Algorithm: A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or performing a computation.
- Complexity: The amount of time or space required to run an algorithm.
- Big O notation: A way to describe the upper bound of an algorithm's running time or space usage.
- Divide-and-conquer: A strategy for solving problems by breaking them down into smaller subproblems.
- Dynamic programming: A method for solving complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems and storing the results of these subproblems to avoid redundant calculations.
2. **Data Structures**
- Data structure: A way of organizing data that allows efficient access and modification.
- Array: A collection of elements of the same type stored at contiguous memory locations.
- Linked list: A linear data structure where each element (node) contains a reference to the next node.
- Stack: A linear data structure that follows the Last In First Out (LIFO) principle.
- Queue: A linear data structure that follows the First In First Out (FIFO) principle.
- Tree: A hierarchical data structure consisting of nodes connected by edges.
- Graph: A non-linear data structure consisting of vertices (nodes) and edges (connections between vertices).
3. **Programming Languages**
- Programming language: A formal language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer.
- Syntax: The set of rules that governs the structure of a programming language.
- Semantics: The meaning of a programming language.
- Type system: A mechanism for classifying data and operations in a programming language.
- Object-oriented programming: A programming paradigm that uses objects to represent real-world entities and their interactions.
4. **Computer Architecture**
- Computer architecture: The design of a computer system, including its hardware and software components.
- Central processing unit (CPU): The part of a computer that performs arithmetic and logical operations.
- Memory: The part of a computer that stores data temporarily.
- Input/output (I/O) devices: Devices that allow a computer to interact with the outside world.
- Operating system: A software program that manages the computer's hardware and software resources.
5. **Networking**
- Network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Protocol: A set of rules that governs how data is transmitted over a network.
- TCP/IP: A suite of protocols that defines how data is transmitted over the Internet.
- Ethernet: A type of local area network (LAN) that uses coaxial cable or twisted-pair wire to transmit data.
6. **Security**
- Security: The protection of information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
- Encryption: The process of converting plaintext into ciphertext to protect data from unauthorized access.
- Authentication: The process of verifying the identity of a user or device.
- Authorization: The process of granting or denying access to a resource based on the user's identity and permissions.
7. **Artificial Intelligence**
- Artificial intelligence (AI): The simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.
- Machine learning: A subset of AI that involves training machines to learn from data without being explicitly programmed.
- Neural networks: A type of machine learning model inspired by the structure and function of the human brain.
8. **Database Management Systems**
- Database management system (DBMS): A software system that provides services for creating, maintaining, and using databases.
- Relational database: A type of database that stores data in tables with rows and columns.
- Non-relational database: A type of database that does not store data in tables with rows and columns.
- Query language: A language used to retrieve data from a database.
9. **Software Engineering**
- Software engineering: The application of engineering principles to the development of software.
- Software development life cycle (SDLC): A series of stages that software goes through during its development.
- Agile methodology: An iterative approach to software development that emphasizes collaboration and flexibility.
- Version control: A system for tracking changes to software code and managing multiple versions of the code.
10. **Computer Networks**
- Computer network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Local area network (LAN): A network that connects computers within a limited geographical area.
- Wide area network (WAN): A network that connects computers across a large geographical area.
- Internet: A global network of interconnected computer networks.
11. **Computer Vision**
- Computer vision: The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to interpret and understand visual information.
- Image processing: The manipulation of digital images to enhance their quality or extract useful information.
- Object recognition: The ability of a computer to identify and classify objects in an image.
- Face recognition: The ability of a computer to recognize and identify individuals in images.
12. **Natural Language Processing**
- Natural language processing (NLP): The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to understand and generate human language.
- Text mining: The process of extracting useful information from unstructured text data.
- Sentiment analysis: The ability of a computer to determine the sentiment of a piece of text.
- Machine translation: The ability of a computer to translate text from one language to another.
13. **Robotics**
- Robotics: The field of engineering that focuses on designing and building robots.
- Autonomous robot: A robot that can operate independently without human intervention.
- Robot vision: The ability of a robot to interpret and understand visual information.
- Robot navigation: The ability of a robot to move through an environment and avoid obstacles.
14. **Cybersecurity**
- Cybersecurity: The protection of information and systems from cyber threats.
- Malware: Malicious software designed to harm a computer system.
- Phishing: A type of cyber attack that attempts to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
- Social engineering: A type of cyber attack that attempts to manipulate people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that could be harmful to the organization.
15. **Internet of Things (IoT)**
- Internet of Things (IoT): The interconnection of physical objects (things) with the internet, allowing them to exchange data and perform actions autonomously.
- Smart home: A home that is equipped with IoT devices that can be controlled remotely.
- Wearable technology: Devices that can be worn on the body and are capable of collecting and transmitting data.
- Industrial IoT: The use of IoT technology in industrial settings to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
16. **Big Data**
- Big data: Large volumes of data that are difficult to process using traditional data processing techniques.
- Data analytics: The process of analyzing large amounts of data to extract meaningful insights.
- Data mining: The process of discovering patterns and relationships in large datasets.
- Data visualization: The process of representing data in a visual format to make it easier to understand.
17. **Cloud Computing**
- Cloud computing: The delivery of computing resources over the internet.
- Public cloud: A cloud service provided by a third-party provider to the general public.
- Private cloud: A cloud service that is dedicated to a single organization.
- Hybrid cloud: A cloud service that combines public and private clouds.
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): A cloud service that provides virtualized computing resources such as servers and storage.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS): A cloud service that provides a platform for developing, running, and managing applications.
- Software as a Service (SaaS): A cloud service that provides software applications over the internet.
18. **Quantum Computing**
- Quantum computing: A type of computing that uses quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data.
- Quantum bit (qubit): The basic unit of quantum information, analogous to a classical bit.
- Quantum algorithm: An algorithm that takes advantage of quantum-mechanical phenomena to solve a problem more efficiently than a classical algorithm.
- Quantum error correction: A technique for protecting quantum information from errors due to decoherence and other quantum noise.
19. **Neuromorphic Computing**
- Neuromorphic computing: A type of computing that aims to mimic the structure and function of the human brain.
- Spiking neural network: A type of neural network that simulates the behavior of biological neurons using spiking events.
- Brain-computer interface (BCI): A device that allows a person to control a computer directly using their thoughts.
20. **Blockchain**
- Blockchain: A decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions across many computers in such a way that the registered transactions cannot be altered retroactively.
- Cryptocurrency: A digital currency that uses blockchain technology to secure transactions and control the creation of new units.
- Smart contract: A self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement directly written into lines of code.
- Decentralized finance (DeFi): A financial system that operates on a blockchain without the need for intermediaries such as banks or brokers.
SCOTCH SINGLE MALT
SPEYSIDE
Glenfiddich 12 YO malt 18
Classic Speyside from Grants, white flowers and herbal tea
The Glenlivet 15 YO French Oak Finish 20
A cut above with a Limousin oak finish, subtle, smooth, rich in dried fruits
The Glenlivet 21 YO 40
Perfect age for a perfect whisky, mature and still fresh
Longmorn 16 YO Mal Whiskey 25
Super premium, 3 different casks, unfiltered or chill, mashed fruits palate with crème brûlée top
Aberlour ‘Abunadh’ 30
Well known for its particular intense flavour profile.
imparted by the maturation in Spanish Oloroso sherry butts
The Macallan 21 YO Fine Oak 65
The master of all, a richer Spey, spicy with passion fruit finish
LOWLAND
Auchentoshan Classic 12 YO 20
The easy listening of whisky, grilled almonds and vanilla biscuits
Auchentoshan 18 YO 25
A Rembrandt style of high contrast and large scale, mythic from lowland
HIGHLAND
Glennmorangie 10 YO 20
Ripe sweetness of fennel and nutmeg tantalise with crumbly almond and coconut that gives way to a nectar that envelops all the fruit, spice and nut flavours in a honeyed caress
Highland Park 12 YO 20
Delicate heather-sweetness and a silky mouthfeel help create a stunning, golden dram
Highland Park 18 YO 32
Northernmost and last distilleries, salty and mineral rich, fudge and ginger biscuits
Glennmorangie 18 YO 25
The Valley of the Grand Prairie, trilogy spring fresh and pure, tallest stills in Scotland
Dalmore Cigar Malt 35
Round and sweet, good balance with the nose, rich mint chocolate note,
a precise oak frame ties up the rich aromatic profile, liquorice and raisins as well
Please note that all prices are in US$ and subject to 10% service charge and applicable taxes
The following is a list of the most important and commonly used terms in the field of computer science, organized by category.
1. **Algorithms**
- Algorithm: A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or performing a computation.
- Complexity: The amount of time or space required to run an algorithm.
- Big O notation: A way to describe the upper bound of an algorithm's running time or space usage.
- Divide-and-conquer: A strategy for solving problems by breaking them down into smaller subproblems.
- Dynamic programming: A method for solving complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems and storing the results of these subproblems to avoid redundant calculations.
2. **Data Structures**
- Data structure: A way of organizing data that allows efficient access and modification.
- Array: A collection of elements of the same type stored at contiguous memory locations.
- Linked list: A linear data structure where each element (node) contains a reference to the next node.
- Stack: A linear data structure that follows the Last In First Out (LIFO) principle.
- Queue: A linear data structure that follows the First In First Out (FIFO) principle.
- Tree: A hierarchical data structure consisting of nodes connected by edges.
- Graph: A non-linear data structure consisting of vertices (nodes) and edges (connections between vertices).
3. **Programming Languages**
- Programming language: A formal language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer.
- Syntax: The set of rules that governs the structure of a programming language.
- Semantics: The meaning of a programming language.
- Type system: A mechanism for classifying data and operations in a programming language.
- Object-oriented programming: A programming paradigm that uses objects to represent real-world entities and their interactions.
4. **Computer Architecture**
- Computer architecture: The design of a computer system, including its hardware and software components.
- Central processing unit (CPU): The part of a computer that performs arithmetic and logical operations.
- Memory: The part of a computer that stores data temporarily.
- Input/output (I/O) devices: Devices that allow a computer to interact with the outside world.
- Operating system: A software program that manages the computer's hardware and software resources.
5. **Networking**
- Network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Protocol: A set of rules that governs how data is transmitted over a network.
- TCP/IP: A suite of protocols that defines how data is transmitted over the Internet.
- Ethernet: A type of local area network (LAN) that uses coaxial cable or twisted-pair wire to transmit data.
6. **Security**
- Security: The protection of information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
- Encryption: The process of converting plaintext into ciphertext to protect data from unauthorized access.
- Authentication: The process of verifying the identity of a user or device.
- Authorization: The process of granting or denying access to a resource based on the user's identity and permissions.
7. **Artificial Intelligence**
- Artificial intelligence (AI): The simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.
- Machine learning: A subset of AI that involves training machines to learn from data without being explicitly programmed.
- Neural networks: A type of machine learning model inspired by the structure and function of the human brain.
8. **Database Management Systems**
- Database management system (DBMS): A software system that provides services for creating, maintaining, and using databases.
- Relational database: A type of database that stores data in tables with rows and columns.
- Non-relational database: A type of database that does not store data in tables with rows and columns.
- Query language: A language used to retrieve data from a database.
9. **Software Engineering**
- Software engineering: The application of engineering principles to the development of software.
- Software development life cycle (SDLC): A series of stages that software goes through during its development.
- Agile methodology: An iterative approach to software development that emphasizes collaboration and flexibility.
- Version control: A system for tracking changes to software code and managing multiple versions of the code.
10. **Computer Networks**
- Computer network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Local area network (LAN): A network that connects computers within a limited geographical area.
- Wide area network (WAN): A network that connects computers across a large geographical area.
- Internet: A global network of interconnected computer networks.
11. **Computer Vision**
- Computer vision: The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to interpret and understand visual information.
- Image processing: The manipulation of digital images to enhance their quality or extract useful information.
- Object recognition: The ability of a computer to identify and classify objects in an image.
- Face recognition: The ability of a computer to recognize and identify individuals in images.
12. **Natural Language Processing**
- Natural language processing (NLP): The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to understand and generate human language.
- Text mining: The process of extracting useful information from unstructured text data.
- Sentiment analysis: The ability of a computer to determine the sentiment of a piece of text.
- Machine translation: The ability of a computer to translate text from one language to another.
13. **Robotics**
- Robotics: The field of engineering that focuses on designing and building robots.
- Autonomous robot: A robot that can operate independently without human intervention.
- Robot vision: The ability of a robot to interpret and understand visual information.
- Robot navigation: The ability of a robot to move through an environment and avoid obstacles.
14. **Cybersecurity**
- Cybersecurity: The protection of information and systems from cyber threats.
- Malware: Malicious software designed to harm a computer system.
- Phishing: A type of cyber attack that attempts to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
- Social engineering: A type of cyber attack that attempts to manipulate people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that could be harmful to the organization.
15. **Internet of Things (IoT)**
- Internet of Things (IoT): The interconnection of physical objects (things) with the internet, allowing them to exchange data and perform actions autonomously.
- Smart home: A home that is equipped with IoT devices that can be controlled remotely.
- Wearable technology: Devices that can be worn on the body and are capable of collecting and transmitting data.
- Industrial IoT: The use of IoT technology in industrial settings to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
16. **Big Data**
- Big data: Large volumes of data that are difficult to process using traditional data processing techniques.
- Data analytics: The process of analyzing large amounts of data to extract meaningful insights.
- Data mining: The process of discovering patterns and relationships in large datasets.
- Data visualization: The process of representing data in a visual format to make it easier to understand.
17. **Cloud Computing**
- Cloud computing: The delivery of computing resources over the internet.
- Public cloud: A cloud service provided by a third-party provider to the general public.
- Private cloud: A cloud service that is dedicated to a single organization.
- Hybrid cloud: A cloud service that combines public and private clouds.
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): A cloud service that provides virtualized computing resources such as servers and storage.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS): A cloud service that provides a platform for developing, running, and managing applications.
- Software as a Service (SaaS): A cloud service that provides software applications over the internet.
18. **Quantum Computing**
- Quantum computing: A type of computing that uses quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data.
- Quantum bit (qubit): The basic unit of quantum information, analogous to a classical bit.
- Quantum algorithm: An algorithm that takes advantage of quantum-mechanical phenomena to solve a problem more efficiently than a classical algorithm.
- Quantum error correction: A technique for protecting quantum information from errors due to decoherence and other quantum noise.
19. **Neuromorphic Computing**
- Neuromorphic computing: A type of computing that aims to mimic the structure and function of the human brain.
- Spiking neural network: A type of neural network that simulates the behavior of biological neurons using spiking events.
- Brain-computer interface (BCI): A device that allows a person to control a computer directly using their thoughts.
20. **Blockchain**
- Blockchain: A decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions across many computers in such a way that the registered transactions cannot be altered retroactively.
- Cryptocurrency: A digital currency that uses blockchain technology to secure transactions and control the creation of new units.
- Smart contract: A self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement directly written into lines of code.
- Decentralized finance (DeFi): A financial system that operates on a blockchain without the need for intermediaries such as banks or brokers.
ISLAY/SKYE
Octomore 5 YO
For connoisseur only, peat, peat and peat
Isle of Jura Prophecy
Small batch dryer, stronger, smokier and peatier
Gaal Íla 12 YO
Whispers the sounds of Islay with more nuanced, finessed aromas and flavours than most
Bruichladdich 21 YO 3rd Production
Old peat with new light heart
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough.”
- Mark Twain
The following is a list of the most common types of data that can be collected and analyzed using the methods described in this paper.
1. **Demographic Data**: This includes information such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, education level, income, employment status, and marital status. Demographic data is often used to identify trends and patterns in population characteristics and to inform policy decisions.
2. **Behavioral Data**: This includes information about how people behave, such as their purchasing habits, travel patterns, and social media usage. Behavioral data can be used to understand consumer preferences and to develop targeted marketing strategies.
3. **Health Data**: This includes information about a person's health status, such as their medical history, prescription drug use, and health insurance coverage. Health data can be used to monitor public health trends and to develop targeted health interventions.
4. **Environmental Data**: This includes information about the environment, such as air quality, water quality, and climate change. Environmental data can be used to monitor the impact of human activities on the environment and to develop policies to protect natural resources.
5. **Financial Data**: This includes information about a person's financial situation, such as their income, savings, and investments. Financial data can be used to assess a person's financial stability and to develop targeted financial services.
6. **Educational Data**: This includes information about a person's educational background, such as their academic achievements and career goals. Educational data can be used to assess a person's potential for success and to develop targeted educational programs.
7. **Legal Data**: This includes information about a person's legal status, such as their criminal record and immigration status. Legal data can be used to assess a person's eligibility for certain benefits and to develop targeted legal services.
8. **Political Data**: This includes information about a person's political affiliations, such as their voting history and campaign contributions. Political data can be used to assess a person's political views and to develop targeted political campaigns.
9. **Social Media Data**: This includes information about a person's online activity, such as their social media profiles and online interactions. Social media data can be used to assess a person's online presence and to develop targeted social media campaigns.
10. **Geospatial Data**: This includes information about a person's location, such as their address and travel routes. Geospatial data can be used to assess a person's proximity to certain locations and to develop targeted geospatial services.
**IRISH WHISKY**
Jameson
Single pot and grain whiskey, smooth, light and fruity with vanilla tea finish
Paddy Irish Whisky
Light and soft with flavours of honey, citrus, apples and vanilla oak
**JAPANESE WHISKY**
Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt
Nose of clean and bright, with red fruit bursting out of the glass and glazed fruit-tart sweetness
Nikka Whiskey from the Barrel
Characterful stuff, this whisky has plenty of personality, and shows a delightful balance between the spicy pepperiness and rich citrus fruit
**OTHER WHISKY**
Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye Whisky
A bright, sharp spiciness in the taste from the rye, clean, well-rounded and smooth
Kavalan Whisky, Taiwan
Notes of tropical fruits and chocolate that mingle with toffee apples, salted caramel, vanilla, and tropical spices
Sullivan Coast, Double Cask, Tasmania
Tradition and 100% Tasmanian heart, rich palate, complex and fruity elderflower tea lengths
Please note that all prices are in US$ and subject to 10% service charge and applicable taxes
The following is a list of the most common types of data that can be collected and analyzed using the methods described in this paper.
1. **Demographic Data**: This includes information such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, education level, income, employment status, and marital status. Demographic data is often used to identify trends and patterns in population characteristics and to inform policy decisions.
2. **Behavioral Data**: This includes information about how people behave, such as their purchasing habits, travel patterns, and social media usage. Behavioral data can be used to understand consumer preferences and to develop targeted marketing strategies.
3. **Health Data**: This includes information about a person's health status, such as their medical history, prescription drug use, and health insurance coverage. Health data can be used to monitor public health trends and to develop targeted health interventions.
4. **Environmental Data**: This includes information about the environment, such as air quality, water quality, and climate change. Environmental data can be used to monitor the impact of human activities on the environment and to develop policies to protect natural resources.
5. **Financial Data**: This includes information about a person's financial situation, such as their income, savings, and investments. Financial data can be used to assess a person's financial stability and to develop targeted financial services.
6. **Educational Data**: This includes information about a person's educational background, such as their academic achievements and career goals. Educational data can be used to assess a person's potential for success and to develop targeted educational programs.
7. **Legal Data**: This includes information about a person's legal status, such as their criminal record and immigration status. Legal data can be used to assess a person's eligibility for certain benefits and to develop targeted legal services.
8. **Political Data**: This includes information about a person's political affiliations, such as their voting history and campaign contributions. Political data can be used to assess a person's political views and to develop targeted political campaigns.
9. **Social Media Data**: This includes information about a person's online activity, such as their social media profiles and online interactions. Social media data can be used to assess a person's online presence and to develop targeted social media campaigns.
10. **Geospatial Data**: This includes information about a person's location, such as their address and travel routes. Geospatial data can be used to assess a person's proximity to certain locations and to develop targeted geospatial services.
SPIRITS OF THE WORLD
The following is a list of the most important and commonly used terms in the field of computer science, organized by category.
1. **Algorithms**
- Algorithm: A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or performing a computation.
- Complexity: The amount of time or space required to run an algorithm.
- Big O notation: A way to describe the upper bound of an algorithm's running time or space usage.
- Divide-and-conquer: A strategy for solving problems by breaking them down into smaller subproblems.
- Dynamic programming: A method for solving complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems and storing the results of these subproblems to avoid redundant calculations.
2. **Data Structures**
- Data structure: A way of organizing data that allows efficient access and modification.
- Array: A collection of elements of the same type stored at contiguous memory locations.
- Linked list: A linear data structure where each element (node) contains a reference to the next node.
- Stack: A linear data structure that follows the Last In First Out (LIFO) principle.
- Queue: A linear data structure that follows the First In First Out (FIFO) principle.
- Tree: A hierarchical data structure consisting of nodes connected by edges.
- Graph: A non-linear data structure consisting of vertices (nodes) and edges (connections between vertices).
3. **Programming Languages**
- Programming language: A formal language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer.
- Syntax: The set of rules that governs the structure of a programming language.
- Semantics: The meaning of a programming language.
- Type system: A mechanism for classifying data and operations in a programming language.
- Object-oriented programming: A programming paradigm that uses objects to represent real-world entities and their interactions.
4. **Computer Architecture**
- Computer architecture: The design of a computer system, including its hardware and software components.
- Central processing unit (CPU): The part of a computer that performs arithmetic and logical operations.
- Memory: The part of a computer that stores data temporarily.
- Input/output (I/O) devices: Devices that allow a computer to interact with the outside world.
- Operating system: A software program that manages the computer's hardware and software resources.
5. **Networking**
- Network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Protocol: A set of rules that governs how data is transmitted over a network.
- TCP/IP: A suite of protocols that defines how data is transmitted over the Internet.
- Ethernet: A type of local area network (LAN) that uses coaxial cable or twisted-pair wire to transmit data.
6. **Security**
- Security: The protection of information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
- Encryption: The process of converting plaintext into ciphertext to protect data from unauthorized access.
- Authentication: The process of verifying the identity of a user or device.
- Authorization: The process of granting or denying access to a resource based on the user's identity and permissions.
7. **Artificial Intelligence**
- Artificial intelligence (AI): The simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.
- Machine learning: A subset of AI that involves training machines to learn from data without being explicitly programmed.
- Neural networks: A type of machine learning model inspired by the structure and function of the human brain.
8. **Database Management Systems**
- Database management system (DBMS): A software system that provides services for creating, maintaining, and using databases.
- Relational database: A type of database that stores data in tables with rows and columns.
- Non-relational database: A type of database that does not store data in tables with rows and columns.
- Query language: A language used to retrieve data from a database.
9. **Software Engineering**
- Software engineering: The application of engineering principles to the development of software.
- Software development life cycle (SDLC): A series of stages that software goes through during its development.
- Agile methodology: An iterative approach to software development that emphasizes collaboration and flexibility.
- Version control: A system for tracking changes to software code and managing multiple versions of the code.
10. **Computer Networks**
- Computer network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Local area network (LAN): A network that connects computers within a limited geographical area.
- Wide area network (WAN): A network that connects computers across a large geographical area.
- Internet: A global network of interconnected computer networks.
11. **Computer Vision**
- Computer vision: The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to interpret and understand visual information.
- Image processing: The manipulation of digital images to enhance their quality or extract useful information.
- Object recognition: The ability of a computer to identify and classify objects in an image.
- Face recognition: The ability of a computer to recognize and identify individuals in images.
12. **Natural Language Processing**
- Natural language processing (NLP): The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to understand and generate human language.
- Text mining: The process of extracting useful information from unstructured text data.
- Sentiment analysis: The ability of a computer to determine the sentiment of a piece of text.
- Machine translation: The ability of a computer to translate text from one language to another.
13. **Robotics**
- Robotics: The field of engineering that focuses on designing and building robots.
- Autonomous robot: A robot that can operate independently without human intervention.
- Robot vision: The ability of a robot to interpret and understand visual information.
- Robot navigation: The ability of a robot to move through an environment and avoid obstacles.
14. **Cybersecurity**
- Cybersecurity: The protection of information and systems from cyber threats.
- Malware: Malicious software designed to harm a computer system.
- Phishing: A type of cyber attack that attempts to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
- Social engineering: A type of cyber attack that attempts to manipulate people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that could be harmful to the organization.
15. **Internet of Things (IoT)**
- Internet of Things (IoT): The interconnection of physical objects (things) with the internet, allowing them to exchange data and perform actions autonomously.
- Smart home: A home that is equipped with IoT devices that can be controlled remotely.
- Wearable technology: Devices that can be worn on the body and are capable of collecting and transmitting data.
- Industrial IoT: The use of IoT technology in industrial settings to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
16. **Big Data**
- Big data: Large volumes of data that are difficult to process using traditional data processing techniques.
- Data analytics: The process of analyzing large amounts of data to extract meaningful insights.
- Data mining: The process of discovering patterns and relationships in large datasets.
- Data visualization: The process of representing data in a visual format to make it easier to understand.
17. **Cloud Computing**
- Cloud computing: The delivery of computing resources over the internet.
- Public cloud: A cloud service provided by a third-party provider to the general public.
- Private cloud: A cloud service that is dedicated to a single organization.
- Hybrid cloud: A cloud service that combines public and private clouds.
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): A cloud service that provides virtualized computing resources such as servers and storage.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS): A cloud service that provides a platform for developing, running, and managing applications.
- Software as a Service (SaaS): A cloud service that provides software applications over the internet.
18. **Quantum Computing**
- Quantum computing: A type of computing that uses quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data.
- Quantum bit (qubit): The basic unit of quantum information, analogous to a classical bit.
- Quantum algorithm: An algorithm that takes advantage of quantum-mechanical phenomena to solve a problem more efficiently than a classical algorithm.
- Quantum error correction: A technique for protecting quantum information from errors due to decoherence and other quantum noise.
19. **Neuromorphic Computing**
- Neuromorphic computing: A type of computing that aims to mimic the structure and function of the human brain.
- Spiking neural network: A type of neural network that simulates the behavior of biological neurons using spiking events.
- Brain-computer interface (BCI): A device that allows a person to control a computer directly using their thoughts.
20. **Blockchain**
- Blockchain: A decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions across many computers in such a way that the registered transactions cannot be altered retroactively.
- Cryptocurrency: A digital currency that uses blockchain technology to secure transactions and control the creation of new units.
- Smart contract: A self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement directly written into lines of code.
- Decentralized finance (DeFi): A financial system that operates on a blockchain without the need for intermediaries such as banks or brokers.
THE BRANDY FAMILY
ARMAGNAC 30ml
Janneau VSOP 13
The matter of Armagnac with light lilacs, dry herbs, honey and dry figs finish
Demandis Armagnac X.O 13
A classic Armagnac with a butterier/treacle
CALVADOS
Sylvain Calva 13
From the communes in the heart of Calvados
Maitre Pierre Calvador 13
100 variety of apples are used, handpicked then pressed, revealing a full sweet and sour side to it
Saint-Vital Calvados 20 YO 18
Domaine Vectiere, fine tannins and cooked fruits with a dry exit of fresh, limited edition
BRANDY
Lustau Brandy of Spain, Solera, Jerez Reserva 18
Careful selection of the best sherry, roasted nuts and grilled apricots with caramel coating
COGNAC
Remy Martin V.S.O.P 18
Since 1927 the most popular amongst barmen, versatile and perfect balance
Delamain X.O Grande champagne premier cru 18
A blend of only long aged Eaux, round intense and mellow
Pierre ferrand Cognac Ambre, 375ml 25
Young cognac, grand champagne, double distils, onion copper for more flavours, limousin oak
Delamain Vesper X.O Grande Champagne 25
Handcrafted cognac selection from oldest family house, 1759, minimum of 95 YO, grapefruits and spices for a good cigar
Hennessy V.S.O.P 26
JOALI is starting with VSOP not VS, a more refined taste of burned honey wood & 60 different Eaux from 15 year old
PREMIUM COGNAC
Davidoff cognac classic 40
Made with one idea in mind, smoky, deep, earthy and quality, limited editions and connoisseur exclusive
Hennessy X.O 48
The Master distiller and blender, the unique and bold cognac, not for the faint hearted
Hennessy Paradis 200
The extra level of excellence, if you never had a cognac you will be transported in another dimension of fruits, mulled honey and caramels
Hennessy Richard Hennessy 440
The Saint Grail of cognac aficionados, blend of 100 eaux from 100 year old minimum from the private collections and fully matured cognac
Please note that all prices are in US$ and subject to 10% service charge and applicable taxes
The following is a list of the most important and commonly used terms in the field of computer science, organized by category.
1. **Algorithms**
- Algorithm: A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or performing a computation.
- Complexity: The amount of time or space required to run an algorithm.
- Big O notation: A way to describe the upper bound of an algorithm's running time or space usage.
- Divide-and-conquer: A strategy for solving problems by breaking them down into smaller subproblems.
- Dynamic programming: A method for solving complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems and storing the results of these subproblems to avoid redundant calculations.
2. **Data Structures**
- Data structure: A way of organizing data that allows efficient access and modification.
- Array: A collection of elements of the same type stored at contiguous memory locations.
- Linked list: A linear data structure where each element (node) contains a reference to the next node.
- Stack: A linear data structure that follows the Last In First Out (LIFO) principle.
- Queue: A linear data structure that follows the First In First Out (FIFO) principle.
- Tree: A hierarchical data structure consisting of nodes connected by edges.
- Graph: A non-linear data structure consisting of vertices (nodes) and edges (connections between vertices).
3. **Programming Languages**
- Programming language: A formal language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer.
- Syntax: The set of rules that governs the structure of a programming language.
- Semantics: The meaning of a programming language.
- Type system: A mechanism for classifying data and operations in a programming language.
- Object-oriented programming: A programming paradigm that uses objects to represent real-world entities and their interactions.
4. **Computer Architecture**
- Computer architecture: The design of a computer system, including its hardware and software components.
- Central processing unit (CPU): The part of a computer that performs arithmetic and logical operations.
- Memory: The part of a computer that stores data temporarily.
- Input/output (I/O) devices: Devices that allow a computer to interact with the outside world.
- Operating system: A software program that manages the computer's hardware and software resources.
5. **Networking**
- Network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Protocol: A set of rules that governs how data is transmitted over a network.
- TCP/IP: A suite of protocols that defines how data is transmitted over the Internet.
- Domain name system (DNS): A distributed database that maps domain names to IP addresses.
6. **Security**
- Security: The protection of information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
- Encryption: The process of converting plaintext into ciphertext to protect data from unauthorized access.
- Authentication: The process of verifying the identity of a user or device.
- Authorization: The process of granting or denying access to a resource based on the user's identity and permissions.
7. **Artificial Intelligence**
- Artificial intelligence (AI): The simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.
- Machine learning: A subset of AI that focuses on building algorithms that can learn from data and make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed.
- Neural networks: A type of machine learning model inspired by the structure and function of the human brain.
8. **Database Management Systems**
- Database management system (DBMS): A software system that provides services for creating, maintaining, and managing databases.
- Relational database: A type of database that stores data in tables with rows and columns.
- Non-relational database: A type of database that does not store data in tables with rows and columns.
- Query language: A language used to retrieve data from a database.
9. **Software Engineering**
- Software engineering: The application of engineering principles to the development of software.
- Software development life cycle (SDLC): A series of stages that software goes through during its development.
- Agile methodology: An iterative approach to software development that emphasizes collaboration and flexibility.
- Version control: A system for tracking changes to software code and managing multiple versions of the code.
10. **Computer Science Education**
- Computer science education: The study and practice of teaching computer science concepts and skills.
- Computer science curriculum: A set of courses and topics that form the basis of a computer science degree.
- Computer science research: The investigation of new ideas and techniques in the field of computer science.
CIGAR ROOM
“Cigars must be smoked one at a time, peaceably, with all the leisure in the world. Cigarettes are of the instant, Cigars are for eternity.”
- Guillermo Cabrera Infante
The following is a list of the most common types of data that can be collected and analyzed using the methods described in this paper.
1. **Demographic Data**: This includes information such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, education level, income, employment status, and marital status. Demographic data is often used to identify trends and patterns in population characteristics and to inform policy decisions.
2. **Behavioral Data**: This includes information about how people behave, such as their purchasing habits, travel patterns, and social media usage. Behavioral data can be used to understand consumer preferences and to develop targeted marketing strategies.
3. **Health Data**: This includes information about a person's health status, such as their medical history, prescription drug use, and health insurance coverage. Health data can be used to monitor public health trends and to develop targeted health interventions.
4. **Environmental Data**: This includes information about the environment, such as air quality, water quality, and climate change. Environmental data can be used to monitor the impact of human activities on the environment and to develop policies to protect natural resources.
5. **Financial Data**: This includes information about a person's financial situation, such as their income, savings, and investments. Financial data can be used to assess a person's financial stability and to develop targeted financial services.
6. **Educational Data**: This includes information about a person's educational background, such as their academic achievements and career goals. Educational data can be used to assess a person's potential for success and to develop targeted educational programs.
7. **Legal Data**: This includes information about a person's legal status, such as their criminal record and immigration status. Legal data can be used to assess a person's eligibility for certain benefits and to develop targeted legal services.
8. **Political Data**: This includes information about a person's political affiliations, such as their voting history and campaign contributions. Political data can be used to assess a person's political views and to develop targeted political campaigns.
9. **Social Media Data**: This includes information about a person's online activity, such as their social media profiles and online interactions. Social media data can be used to assess a person's online presence and to develop targeted social media campaigns.
10. **Geospatial Data**: This includes information about a person's location, such as their address and travel routes. Geospatial data can be used to assess a person's proximity to certain locations and to develop targeted geospatial services.
| Brand | Product | Price |
|---------------|--------------------------------|-------|
| **COHIBA** | Mini Cigarillo | 22 |
| | Cohiba Siglo V | 140 |
| **DAVIDOFF** | Davidoff Mini Cigarillos Gold | 20 |
| | Davidoff Demi Tasse | 38 |
| | Davidoff Grand Cru NO. 5 | 160 |
| | Davidoff Yamasa Robusto | 310 |
| | Davidoff WSC Churchill | 320 |
| **ROBUSTO - CORONA** | HoYO De Monterrey Petit Robusto | 99 |
| | Montecristo 4 Short Corona | 99 |
| | Partagas Series 4 | 140 |
| **CHURCHILL** | Romeo & Julieta Petite Churchill | 99 |
| | Romeo & Julieta Churchill | 140 |
| **LIGHTER** | Xikar Turismo Double Jet Flame | 235 |
| **CUTTERS** | Xicar Scissors | 40 |
| | Xikar XLt | 185 |
Please note that all prices are in US$ and subject to 10% service charge and applicable taxes.
The following is a list of the most common types of data that can be collected and analyzed using the methods described in this paper.
1. **Demographic Data**: This includes information such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, education level, income, employment status, and marital status. Demographic data can be used to identify trends and patterns in consumer behavior, which can help businesses make informed decisions about their marketing strategies.
2. **Behavioral Data**: This includes information about how people interact with products or services, such as purchase history, website visits, and social media activity. Behavioral data can be used to understand customer preferences and needs, which can help businesses improve their products and services.
3. **Geospatial Data**: This includes information about the location of people, such as their home address, work location, and travel routes. Geospatial data can be used to identify areas where there is a high concentration of customers, which can help businesses locate their stores or offices in optimal locations.
4. **Transactional Data**: This includes information about the financial transactions that occur between businesses and consumers, such as sales receipts, invoices, and credit card statements. Transactional data can be used to track revenue and expenses, which can help businesses manage their finances more effectively.
5. **Sentiment Analysis Data**: This includes information about the emotions and opinions expressed by customers through social media, reviews, and surveys. Sentiment analysis data can be used to gauge customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement, which can help businesses enhance their products and services.
6. **Predictive Analytics Data**: This includes information about future trends and patterns based on historical data. Predictive analytics data can be used to forecast sales, customer behavior, and other key metrics, which can help businesses make informed decisions about their operations and marketing strategies.
7. **Big Data**: This refers to large volumes of data that cannot be processed using traditional data processing techniques. Big data can be used to analyze complex relationships and patterns that may not be apparent from smaller datasets, which can help businesses gain valuable insights into their customers and market.
8. **Internet of Things (IoT) Data**: This includes information generated by connected devices, such as smart meters, wearables, and sensors. IoT data can be used to monitor and control various aspects of a business, such as energy consumption, inventory levels, and equipment maintenance, which can help businesses optimize their operations and reduce costs.
9. **Social Media Data**: This includes information about the conversations and interactions that occur on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Social media data can be used to track brand mentions, sentiment, and engagement, which can help businesses monitor their online presence and respond to customer feedback.
10. **Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Data**: This includes information about the interactions and communications that occur between businesses and their customers, such as email campaigns, chatbots, and customer service tickets. CRM data can be used to track customer journeys, identify pain points, and personalize marketing messages, which can help businesses build stronger relationships with their customers.
**CAMEL**
**Camel Blue**
Camel Blue are mostly appreciated for a luxury quality at a lower cost. For the production of these cigarettes are used only premium varieties of tobacco. Camel Blue cigarettes are perfect for all lovers of medium strength tobacco products who don’t like to experiment with taste and smell of tobacco products giving preference to the classical tobacco products.
**Camel Filters**
Tobacco connoisseurs who have ever managed to try Camel Filters, all as one noticed the extraordinary softness of tobacco despite the high nicotine content. It is impossible not to appreciate the unusual bouquet of taste sensations of these cigarettes. That is why many people are switching to these cigarettes having tried this product just once.
**MARLBORO**
**Marlboro Gold**
Marlboro Gold are considered to be mild cigarettes that are very easy to smoke and has a smooth and light taste. It is enough to try Marlboro Gold once and you can hardly ever give them up because of their incomparable flavour and a soft velvety flavour of premium tobacco.
**Marlboro Red**
Marlboro Red are one of the strongest cigarettes in assortment of Marlboro and has a unique and intense taste. Choose these strong cigarettes to feel a rich flavour of purest tobacco, calm down and spend a few minutes in heaven.
Please note that all prices are in US$ and subject to 10% service charge and applicable taxes
The following is a list of the most important and commonly used terms in the field of computer science, organized by category.
1. **Algorithms**
- Algorithm: A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or performing a computation.
- Complexity: The amount of time or space required to run an algorithm.
- Big O notation: A way to describe the upper bound of an algorithm's running time or space usage.
- Divide-and-conquer: A strategy for solving problems by breaking them down into smaller subproblems.
- Dynamic programming: A method for solving complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems and storing the results of these subproblems to avoid redundant calculations.
2. **Data Structures**
- Data structure: A way of organizing data that allows efficient access and modification.
- Array: A collection of elements of the same type stored at contiguous memory locations.
- Linked list: A linear data structure where each element (node) contains a reference to the next node.
- Stack: A linear data structure that follows the Last In First Out (LIFO) principle.
- Queue: A linear data structure that follows the First In First Out (FIFO) principle.
- Tree: A hierarchical data structure consisting of nodes connected by edges.
- Graph: A non-linear data structure consisting of vertices (nodes) and edges (connections between vertices).
3. **Programming Languages**
- Programming language: A formal language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer.
- Syntax: The set of rules that governs the structure of a programming language.
- Semantics: The meaning of a programming language.
- Type system: A mechanism for classifying data and operations in a programming language.
- Object-oriented programming: A programming paradigm that uses objects to represent real-world entities and their interactions.
4. **Computer Architecture**
- Computer architecture: The design of a computer system, including its hardware and software components.
- Central processing unit (CPU): The part of a computer that performs arithmetic and logical operations.
- Memory: The part of a computer that stores data temporarily.
- Input/output (I/O) devices: Devices that allow a computer to interact with the outside world.
- Operating system: A software program that manages the computer's hardware and software resources.
5. **Networking**
- Network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Protocol: A set of rules that governs how data is transmitted over a network.
- TCP/IP: A suite of protocols that defines how data is transmitted over the Internet.
- Ethernet: A type of local area network (LAN) that uses coaxial cable or twisted-pair wire to transmit data.
6. **Security**
- Security: The protection of information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
- Encryption: The process of converting plaintext into ciphertext to protect data from unauthorized access.
- Authentication: The process of verifying the identity of a user or device.
- Authorization: The process of granting or denying access to a resource based on the user's identity and permissions.
7. **Artificial Intelligence**
- Artificial intelligence (AI): The simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.
- Machine learning: A subset of AI that involves training machines to learn from data without being explicitly programmed.
- Neural networks: A type of machine learning model inspired by the structure and function of the human brain.
8. **Database Management Systems**
- Database management system (DBMS): A software system that provides services for creating, maintaining, and using databases.
- Relational database: A type of database that stores data in tables with rows and columns.
- Non-relational database: A type of database that does not store data in tables with rows and columns.
- Query language: A language used to retrieve data from a database.
9. **Software Engineering**
- Software engineering: The application of engineering principles to the development of software.
- Software development life cycle (SDLC): A series of stages that software goes through during its development.
- Agile methodology: An iterative approach to software development that emphasizes collaboration and flexibility.
- Version control: A system for tracking changes to software code and managing multiple versions of the code.
10. **Computer Networks**
- Computer network: A collection of computers and other devices connected together.
- Local area network (LAN): A network that connects computers within a limited geographical area.
- Wide area network (WAN): A network that connects computers across a large geographical area.
- Internet: A global network of interconnected computer networks.
11. **Computer Vision**
- Computer vision: The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to interpret and understand visual information.
- Image processing: The manipulation of digital images to enhance their quality or extract useful information.
- Object recognition: The ability of a computer to identify and classify objects in an image.
- Face recognition: The ability of a computer to recognize and identify individuals in images.
12. **Natural Language Processing**
- Natural language processing (NLP): The field of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to understand and generate human language.
- Text mining: The process of extracting useful information from unstructured text data.
- Sentiment analysis: The ability of a computer to determine the sentiment of a piece of text.
- Machine translation: The ability of a computer to translate text from one language to another.
13. **Robotics**
- Robotics: The field of engineering that focuses on designing and building robots.
- Autonomous robot: A robot that can operate independently without human intervention.
- Robot vision: The ability of a robot to interpret and understand visual information.
- Robot navigation: The ability of a robot to move through an environment and avoid obstacles.
14. **Cybersecurity**
- Cybersecurity: The protection of information and systems from cyber threats.
- Malware: Malicious software designed to harm a computer system.
- Phishing: A type of cyber attack that attempts to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
- Social engineering: A type of cyber attack that attempts to manipulate people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that could be harmful to the organization.
15. **Internet of Things (IoT)**
- Internet of Things (IoT): The interconnection of physical objects (things) with the internet, allowing them to exchange data and perform actions autonomously.
- Smart home: A home that is equipped with IoT devices that can be controlled remotely.
- Wearable technology: Devices that can be worn on the body and are capable of collecting and transmitting data.
- Industrial IoT: The use of IoT technology in industrial settings to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
16. **Big Data**
- Big data: Large volumes of data that are difficult to process using traditional data processing techniques.
- Data analytics: The process of analyzing large amounts of data to extract meaningful insights.
- Data mining: The process of discovering patterns and relationships in large datasets.
- Data visualization: The process of representing data in a visual format to make it easier to understand.
17. **Cloud Computing**
- Cloud computing: The delivery of computing resources over the internet.
- Public cloud: A cloud service provided by a third-party provider to the general public.
- Private cloud: A cloud service that is dedicated to a single organization.
- Hybrid cloud: A cloud service that combines public and private clouds.
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): A cloud service that provides virtualized computing resources such as servers and storage.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS): A cloud service that provides a platform for developing, running, and managing applications.
- Software as a Service (SaaS): A cloud service that provides software applications over the internet.
18. **Quantum Computing**
- Quantum computing: A type of computing that uses quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data.
- Quantum bit (qubit): The basic unit of quantum information, analogous to a classical bit.
- Quantum algorithm: An algorithm that takes advantage of quantum-mechanical phenomena to solve a problem more efficiently than a classical algorithm.
- Quantum error correction: A technique for protecting quantum information from errors due to decoherence and other quantum noise.
19. **Neuromorphic Computing**
- Neuromorphic computing: A type of computing that aims to mimic the structure and function of the human brain.
- Spiking neural network: A type of neural network that simulates the behavior of biological neurons using spiking events.
- Brain-computer interface (BCI): A device that allows a person to control a computer directly using their thoughts.
20. **Blockchain**
- Blockchain: A decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions across many computers in such a way that the registered transactions cannot be altered retroactively.
- Cryptocurrency: A digital currency that uses blockchain technology to secure transactions and control the creation of new units.
- Smart contract: A self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement directly written into lines of code.
- Decentralized finance (DeFi): A financial system that operates on a blockchain without the need for intermediaries such as banks or brokers.
SHISHA
Originally from Iran, the practice goes back to the Persian and is consumed in teahouse or Chai khaneh.
The name narguilé comes from the term « narguilé » for coconut shelves used originally for it. The Chicha comes from the Persian chicheh for a glass container.
CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITE FLAVOUR
- Apple
- The Two Apples
- Berry Mix
- Strawberry
- Mint
- Grape
- Melon
- Blue Melon
- Ice Watermelon
- Banana Milk Ice
- Ice Pineapple
- Mango Tango Ice
- Mi Amor
- Love 66
Only in the designated area of the Mura Bar, ask your bartender or a member of host for setting up one for you.
Per Shisha 75
Please note that all prices are in US$ and subject to 10% service charge and applicable taxes.
The following is a list of the most common types of software that are used in the field of computer science:
1. Operating Systems: These are the programs that control and manage the hardware and software resources of a computer system.
2. Programming Languages: These are the languages used to write computer programs.
3. Database Management Systems: These are the programs that allow users to store, retrieve, and manipulate data.
4. Web Development Tools: These are the tools used to create websites and web applications.
5. Graphics Software: These are the programs used to create and edit digital images.
6. Video Editing Software: These are the programs used to edit video footage.
7. Audio Editing Software: These are the programs used to edit audio recordings.
8. CAD (Computer-Aided Design) Software: These are the programs used to create technical drawings and designs.
9. Animation Software: These are the programs used to create animated graphics and videos.
10. Game Development Tools: These are the tools used to create video games.
11. Data Analysis Software: These are the programs used to analyze and interpret data.
12. Project Management Software: These are the programs used to manage projects and tasks.
13. Collaboration Software: These are the programs used to collaborate with others on projects and tasks.
14. Security Software: These are the programs used to protect computers and networks from cyber attacks.
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Rationale
DOBCEL is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all staff and students in all aspects of school life. People who are at risk of asthma require a ‘whole of community’ response with each member committing to maintain their knowledge, skills and diligence towards planning.
It is the intention of every DOBCEL school to provide, as far as practicable, a safe and supportive environment in which students and staff at risk of asthma can participate equally.
DOBCEL acknowledges that the management of a student at risk of asthma is a partnership between the school, the staff, the students, the student’s parents/carers and the treating medical practitioner.
Appropriate first aid facilities, training and resources must be in place in every DOBCEL school to meet the first aid needs of staff, students and others.
This policy sets out the expectations for schools when a student enrolled is diagnosed with asthma and how schools will work with students and families to effectively manage episodes of asthma.
This policy is to be read in conjunction with the DOBCEL Asthma Management Procedure.
Definitions
**Act:** The Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic).
**Asthma:** a respiratory condition causing difficulty in breathing. It is usually connected to allergic reaction or other forms of hypersensitivity. Asthma is a disease of the airways, the small tubes which carry air in and out of the lungs. When you have asthma symptoms the muscles in the airways tighten and the lining of the airways swells and produces sticky mucus. These changes cause the airways to become narrow, so that there is less space for the air to flow into and out of your lungs” (National Asthma Council 2011).
**ASCIA:** Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, the peak professional body of clinical immunology and allergy in Australia and New Zealand.
**Asthma Action Plan:** This is a nationally recognised Action Plan for Asthma. This plan lists the student’s prescribed medications and must be completed by the student’s medical practitioner.
**Communication Plan:** A plan implemented by the school which provides information to all school staff, students and parents about asthma and the school’s policy and procedures.
**Asthma Emergency Response Plan:** A plan for responding to an on-campus or off-campus asthma emergency. This plan includes the *First Aid for Asthma Action* plan for students displaying signs or symptoms for the first time or a student’s *Asthma Action Plan* if they have been diagnosed as having Asthma.
**Guidelines:** *Asthma Management Guidelines – A resource for managing severe allergies in Victorian schools*, published by the Department of Education and Training from time to time.
Asthma Action Plan: This is a plan that is prepared by a medical practitioner for a student diagnosed with Asthma. This plan includes age-appropriate strategies to prevent or reduce the risk of an allergic reaction occurring at school.
Medical practitioner: This is a registered medical practitioner within the meaning of the *Health Professions Registration Act 2005*, but excludes a person registered as a non-practising health practitioner.
Principal: Defined in s 1.1.3 of the Education and Training Reform Act as meaning a person appointed to a designated position as principal of a registered school or a person in charge of a registered school.
School Staff: Any person employed or engaged at a DOBCEL school who:
- is required to be registered under Part 2.6 of the Act to undertake duties as a teacher within the meaning of that Part
- is in an educational support role and will be working with a student diagnosed with asthma
- the principal determines should comply with the school’s asthma management policy
- is designated as a school volunteer and will be working with a student diagnosed with asthma
**Policy Statement**
All DOBCEL schools must:
- align their asthma management practices to the DOBCEL Asthma Management Policy and Procedure
- complete an Annual Asthma Risk Management Checklist for the school to document what arrangements are unique in relation to Asthma Management for each DOBCEL school
- ensure each student diagnosed as having asthma has an Asthma Action Plan
- wherever possible, minimise the risk of exposure to triggers and allergens that may induce an asthma attack
- develop and distribute a school Asthma Communication Plan to staff, parents/carers, and students to raise awareness about asthma and the schools risk mitigation strategies
- train staff on how to respond in an asthma emergency. This includes First Aid for Asthma as detailed in Attachment 2 of the DOBCEL Asthma Management Procedure
- follow advice and warnings from the Department of Education, Emergency Management Division associated with a potential thunderstorm asthma event; and
- make reasonable adjustments to accommodate students with asthma and consult with a student’s parents/carers on what reasonable adjustments may be required
DOBCEL schools are committed to providing a school environment free from discrimination. As Asthma falls within the definition of a disability, for the purposes of both the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) and the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth).
DOBCEL schools will ensure they do not unlawfully discriminate, either directly or indirectly, against students with asthma. This means:
- students will not be treated unfavourably because of they have asthma. e.g. being excluded from school excursions and camps because they have asthma
– DOBCEL schools will not impose a requirement on all students which disadvantages asthma students. For example, setting a policy which requires all students to participate in an activity with a trigger for specific student in the class, which will impact on that student’s ability to participate in the class
– DOBCEL schools will make reasonable adjustments to accommodate students with disabilities. It is important to consult with a student’s parent/carer on what reasonable adjustments are appropriate
**Asthma Emergency Response Plan**
– DOBCEL school staff will follow the generic *First Aid for Asthma* plan if a student is displaying signs and symptoms of asthma for the first time. If the student’s symptoms do not improve they will call Emergency Services and request an ambulance
– DOBCEL school staff will follow a student’s Asthma Action plan. If the student’s symptoms do not improve then they will call Emergency Services and request an ambulance
**Asthma Action Plan**
– Every student with an asthma diagnosis must have a current Asthma Action Plan prepared by a medical practitioner as soon as practicable after enrolment or diagnosis
– The Asthma Action Plan will be:
– kept on the student’s file
– easily accessible by the staff in an emergency
– shared with all relevant staff so that they are able to properly support students diagnosed with asthma and respond appropriately
– All DOBCEL schools must complete an Annual review of the Asthma Action Plan for each student diagnosed with Asthma
**Student Health Plan**
– Every student with an asthma diagnosis will have a Student Health Plan prepared by the school in consultation with the parents/carers of the student at risk. This plan will detail the risk minimisation and prevention strategies to be implemented by the school in support of the Asthma Action plan
– A copy of the Student Health Form is included in the Asthma Management Procedure
**Asthma Communication Plan**
– The principal (or nominee) in consultation with the school’s designated First Aid Officer(s) are responsible for ensuring that the DOBCEL Asthma Management policy and procedure along with risk minimisation and prevention strategies are shared with all school staff and the school community
– This policy will be made available on all DOBCEL school websites so that parents/carers and other members of the community can easily access information about our asthma management policy
Staff Training
- Staff can be divided into two different groups for asthma management training purposes. They are ‘Specific’ staff and ‘General’ staff.
- **Specific** staff (working with students that have a history of severe asthma) are advised to complete an accredited, face-to-face course in the management of asthma. Staff advised to undertake accredited asthma management training include:
- staff with direct student wellbeing responsibility including designated nurses or first aid officers
- Physical education staff
- Food technology staff
- Staff attending school camps and leading offsite activities
- The two accredited courses recognised in Victoria for Specific staff are:
- *Management of asthma risks and emergencies in workplace* (22556VIC)
- *Course in Asthma Awareness* (10760NAT)
- **General** Staff (those that do not work with students that have severe asthma or do not have any of the responsibilities mentioned above) are advised to complete the online, non-accredited *Asthma First Aid for Schools* through Asthma Australia. A certificate of completion is issued and it remains valid for 3 years.
- All staff are advised to participate in an asthma briefing twice per year to be facilitated by the school. The first briefing to occur in Term 1 and the second in Term 3. The briefings will:
- update all nominated staff on students at risk
- educate on the correct use of asthma medication including puffer/inhaler and spacer
- the location of Asthma Emergency First Aid Kits
- provide relevant information on how to respond to an asthma reaction occurring during sanctioned school activities
- In circumstances where training or briefing does not occur as per the schedule mentioned above, the principal will develop an interim Student Health Plan in consultation with the parents/carers of any affected student with a medical condition that relates to asthma.
**Training - Casual staff and Volunteers**
- All volunteers and Casual Relief Teachers (CRTs) responsible for supervising students with asthma are required to provide a copy of their asthma management training qualifications and must be briefed on any students at risk prior to supervising students.
Role and Responsibilities
Parents/Carers
Parents/Carers are responsible for:
- informing the school in writing when a student has been diagnosed with asthma
- providing to the school an Asthma Action Plan signed by a medical practitioner and details their condition, the required interventions
- providing current emergency contact details for students
- informing the school in writing of any changes to the student’s medical condition and provide an updated Asthma Action Plan as required
- meeting with the school to discuss the Asthma Action Plan
- providing the school with appropriate medication that is current and not expired
- assisting school staff with planning and meeting all reasonable medical needs prior to camps, incursions, excursions or special events
- participating in reviewing the student's Asthma Action Plan:
- annually; or
- when there is a change to the student's condition; or
- as soon as practicable after the student has an asthma attack at school
Principal
Is responsible for:
- raising awareness about the DOBCEL Asthma Management policy and procedure;
- engaging with parents/carers, staff and students in assessing Asthma risks and developing risk mitigation strategies
- completing the Annual Asthma Risk Management Checklist in consultation with relevant staff
- ensuring school staff receive an annual briefings on:
- their responsibilities as per the Asthma Management policy and procedure
- the identities of students diagnosed at risk of asthma and the location of their medication
- the school's Asthma Emergency Response Procedures; and
- the location of asthma medication for General Use that have been purchased by the school
- ensuring each student with an asthma diagnosis has a current Asthma Action Plan prepared by a medical practitioner and a current Student Health Support Plan prepared by the school. These plans will include relevant asthma medications, prevention and minimisation strategies and emergency contact details.
- ensuring an Asthma Communication Plan is provided to all school staff, students and parents/carers about asthma management at the school
– ensuring there are procedures in place for inducting volunteers and casual relief teachers of students with asthma and their role in responding to an asthma attack
– ensuring that an appropriate number of school staff have successfully completed a current asthma management training course and that records of the same are maintained
– ensuring that each student’s Asthma Action Plan is reviewed by a medical practitioner annually, or following an asthma attack
– ensuring that each Student Health Support Plan is reviewed annually or following an asthma attack at school, in consultation with the student and the parents/carers;
– ensuring an appropriate amount of asthma medication for General Use is available
**First Aid Officer**
First Aid Officers are responsible for:
– working with the school principal (or nominee) to implement the school's Asthma Management Policy and Procedures
– maintaining asthma management qualifications to respond to asthma emergencies
– arranging face-to-face accredited asthma management training for school staff that supervise students with severe asthma
– Providing support to ‘General’ school staff undertaking the non-accredited online asthma management training
– maintaining a current register of students diagnosed with asthma and ensuring that each has an up to date Asthma Action Plan
– collaborating with school leadership to ensure that asthma communication plans and risk minimisation/prevention strategies are appropriate and raising awareness across the school
**School staff**
School staff are responsible for:
– understanding the DOBCEL Asthma Management Policy and Procedure
– completing all required Asthma Management training when/if required
– Attending the asthma management briefings twice a year on the student’s at risk. This includes a refresher on the triggers and how to recognise and respond to the symptoms
– knowing the students at risk under their supervision
– knowing how to access any student’s Asthma Action Plan and Student Health Support Plan
– knowing the location of student asthma medication(s) and the schools asthma medication(s) for General Use
– adequately planning and preparing for asthma management outside of the school environment (e.g. excursions, incursions, sport days, camp, fetes and parties); and
– raising awareness about asthma management in the school and the importance of fostering a supportive and inclusive school environment for students with asthma
Principles
Common Good
People are fundamentally social beings. Social, political and economic organisation has, therefore, implications for the entire community. Each social group, therefore, must take account of the rights and aspirations of other groups, and of the well-being of the whole human family. The common good is reached when all work together to improve the wellbeing of society and the wider world. The rights of the individual to personal possessions and community resources must be balanced with the needs of the disadvantaged and dispossessed.
Human Dignity
Our common humanity requires respect for and support of the sanctity and worth of every human life. All other rights and responsibilities flow from the concept of human dignity. This principle is deemed as the central aspect of the Church’s social teaching. The belief that each life has value is shared with International Human Rights which are universal, inviolable and inalienable.
Transparency and Accountability
Transparency demands timely and accurate disclosure/reporting concerning the performance, decision making and financial health of DOBCEL to all stakeholders.
Accountability refers to the obligation of DOBCEL to accept responsibility for its activities and to disclose the results. It also includes responsibility for money or other entrusted property.
These two principles converge in the social responsibility to care for persons, resources and our planet as precious and vital to life. Responsible stewardship is integral to the mission of the Church and is a fundamental tenet of the Church’s spirituality. It entails a responsibility for service that aims to nurture a gift from another. Frequently understood in relation to care.
References
- Schedule 4, Clause 12 Education and Training Reform Regulations 2017
- Minimum Standards for school registration (and school reviews) July 2020
- Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 (CTH)
- Victorian Registration and Qualification Authority (VRQA)
- Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (VIC)
Related Policies and Procedures
- Asthma Management Procedure
- First Aid and Infection Control Policy
- First Aid and Infection Control Procedure
Procedures
- This procedure provides guidance and direction in the management of a student at risk of asthma. This procedure should be read in conjunction with the DOBCEL Asthma Management Policy.
- The components of this procedure include:
- Duty of Care
- Asthma Information, Symptoms and Triggers
- Annual Asthma Risk Management Checklist
- Asthma Emergency Response Plan
- Asthma Action Plan
- Student Health Support Plan
- Accessing and Managing Student Asthma Action Plans
- First Aid for Asthma Procedure
- Asthma First Aid Kits
- Recording Asthma First Aid Treatments
- Managing Asthma and School Based Activities
- Exercise Induced Asthma
- Managing Colour Fun Run Asthma
- Managing Epidemic Thunderstorm Asthma
- Asthma Communication Plan
- Management of Confidential Medical Information
Duty of Care
- All school staff have a duty of care to take reasonable steps to protect students in their supervision from risks that are reasonably foreseeable including the provision of a first aid facility, knowing which students at the school have been diagnosed with asthma and how to provide asthma emergency first aid.
Asthma Information, Symptoms and Triggers
- Asthma is a long-term lung condition. People with asthma have sensitive airways in their lungs which react to triggers, causing a ‘flare-up’.
- In a flare-up, the muscles around the airway squeeze tight, the airways swell and become narrow and there is more mucus making it harder to breathe.
- An asthma flare-up can come on slowly (over hours, days or even weeks) or very quickly (over minutes). A sudden or severe asthma flare-up is sometimes called an asthma attack.
These can vary over time and often vary from person to person. The most common asthma symptoms are:
- breathlessness
- wheezing (a whistling noise from the chest)
- tight feeling in the chest; and/or
- persistent cough
If a student develops signs of what appears to be an asthma attack, appropriate care must be given immediately using the information in the student’s Asthma Action Plan.
A trigger is something that induces asthma symptoms. Everyone with asthma has different triggers. For most people with asthma, triggers are only a problem when asthma is not well controlled with medication. Common asthma triggers include:
- exercise
- smoke (cigarette smoke, wood smoke from open fires, burn-offs or bushfires)
- house dust mites
- pollens
- chemicals such as household cleaning products
- food chemicals/additives
- laughter or emotions, such as stress
- colds/flu
- weather changes such as thunderstorms and cold, dry air
- moulds
- animals such as cats and dogs
- deodorants (including perfumes, aftershaves, hair spray and aerosol deodorant sprays)
- certain medications (including aspirin and anti-inflammatories)
School can reduce asthma triggers by:
- mowing school grounds out of hours
- planting a low allergen garden
- limit dust, for example having the carpets and curtains cleaned regularly and out of hours
- examine the cleaning products used in the school and their potential impact on students with asthma
- conduct maintenance that may require the use of chemicals, such as painting, during school holidays; and
- turn on fans, air conditioning and heaters out of hours when being used for the first time after a long period of non-use
Completing the Annual Asthma Risk Management checklist is one way to prevent asthma. Eliminating or reducing exposure to triggers is the best strategy to minimise the likelihood and severity of asthma incidents in schools.
Annual Asthma Risk Management Checklist
- All DOBCEL schools must complete an Annual Asthma Risk Management Checklist (Attachment 1) to identify hazards and reasonably mitigate the risks of triggering an asthma attack occurring at school. DOBCEL schools must consider:
- the likelihood of asthma attack
- the accessibility and location of medication
- the availability of suitability trained staff to administer medication in accordance with an asthma management plan; and
- availability and accessibility to emergency services should they be required
- The Annual Asthma Risk Management Checklist must be completed in Term 1 each year and the actions managed by the school.
Asthma Emergency Response Plan
- DOBCEL school staff will follow the generic First Aid for Asthma plan in Attachment 2 if a student is displaying signs and symptoms of asthma for the first time. If the student’s symptoms do not improve, they will call Emergency Services and request an ambulance.
- DOBCEL school staff will follow a student’s Asthma Action Plan. If the student’s symptoms do not improve then they will call Emergency Services and request an ambulance.
Asthma Action Plan
- Please refer to the links in Attachment 3 for examples of Asthma Action Plans.
- Once a student is diagnosed with Asthma at a DOBCEL school, the parents/carers must:
- provide the school with an Asthma Action Plan which has been completed by the student’s medical practitioner. The plan must include:
- the prescribed medication (labelled with the student’s name) and when it is to be administered, for example as a pre-medication to exercise or on a regular basis
- their own spacer, if required
- emergency contact details
- the contact details of the student’s medical practitioner
- the student’s known triggers; and
- the emergency procedures to be taken in the event of an asthma flare-up or attack
- advise the school of any change in the student’s medical condition, including any changes in the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions
- must provide a photo of the student to be included as part of the student’s Asthma Action Plan.
Student Health Support Plan
- Once a student is diagnosed with Asthma and has provided the school with an Asthma Action Plan, the principal (or nominee) will meet with the parents/carers to discuss and complete a **Student Health Support Plan** (see Attachment 5) detailing the asthma risk minimisation and prevention strategies in relation to on-site and off-site activities, including camps, excursions and sports.
Accessing and Managing Student Asthma Action Plans
- Asthma Action Plans must be kept/displayed in the classroom (for primary school students), in the staffroom, and first aid facilities
- If a student diagnosed with asthma is going to attend a school camp or excursion, the parents/carers must provide a **School Camp and Excursion Asthma Update Form** as detailed in Attachment 4)
- If a student’s asthma condition or treatment requirements change, parent/carers must notify the school and provide an updated Asthma Action Plan
- DOBCEL school principals must appoint a person to be responsible for ensuring that:
- student’s emergency contact details are up-to-date
- ensure that the student’s Asthma Action Plan matches the student’s supplied medication
- regularly check that the student’s medication is not out-of-date
- inform parents if medication is approaching expiration
- ensure that the student’s medication is stored correctly and in an unlocked, easily accessible place; and
- ensure that a copy of the Asthma Action Plan is stored with the student’s medication
- The Asthma Action Plan must be reviewed in consultation with the student’s parents/carers:
- annually
- if the student’s medical condition changes; and
- as soon as is practicable after the student has an asthmatic reaction at school
First Aid for Asthma Procedure
If a student is having an asthma attack for the first time, and/or difficulty breathing, school staff are advised to follow the **First Aid for Asthma** procedure detailed in Attachment 2.
Asthma First Aid Kits
- Every DOBCEL school with a student diagnosed with Asthma, should have at least one (1) Asthma Emergency Kit which contains the following items:
- at least 1 blue or blue/grey reliever medication such as Airomir, Admol or Ventolin
- at least 2 spacer devices (for single person use only) to assist with effective inhalation of the blue or blue/grey reliever medication
- clear written instructions on **Asthma First Aid** (Appendix 2), including:
- how to use the medication and spacer devices; and
- steps to be taken in treating an asthma attack
The principal or nominated first aid staff will monitor and maintain the Asthma Emergency Kits. They will:
- ensure all contents are maintained and replaced where necessary
- regularly check the expiry date on the canisters of the blue or blue/grey reliever puffers and replace them if they have expired or are low on doses
- replace spacers in the kits after each use (spacers are single-person use only); and
- dispose of any previously used spacers
The blue or blue/grey reliever medication in the Asthma Emergency Kits may be used by more than one student as long as they are used with a spacer. If the devices come into contact with someone’s mouth, they will not be used again and will be replaced.
After each use of a blue or blue/grey reliever (with a spacer):
- remove the metal canister from the puffer (do not wash the canister)
- wash the plastic casing
- rinse the mouthpiece through the top and bottom under running water for at least 30 seconds
- wash the mouthpiece cover
- air dry then reassemble; and
- test the puffer to make sure no water remains in it, then return to the Asthma Emergency Kit
**Recording of Asthma First Aid Treatments**
- A record sheet/log for recording the details of an asthma first aid incident, such as the number of puffs administered
**Exercise Induced Asthma**
- Exercise induced asthma can be managed by the following steps:
- encourage the student to take blue/grey reliever medication 15 minutes before exercise begins
- ensure that the student participates in the warm-up activity
- stop the student from participating, if symptoms occur, take reliever and follow their Asthma Action Plan; and
- only recommence activity if symptom free. Cease activity for the day if symptoms reoccur
Managing Colour Fun Run Induced Asthma
- The inhalation of small particles could affect people with asthma. The colours used in the Colour Run are in powder form (corn starch), which could irritate the airways of someone with asthma and result in an asthma flare-up, particularly if they have a sensitivity to corn.
- Parents/carers of students with asthma should be made aware of the potential risk and should be encouraged to consult their GP to ensure participation is safe prior to participating.
- If students with asthma are participating in the event they must have their medication with them and if required, wear a facemask.
- The Asthma Foundation of Victoria advises the organizers of the event to not throw the powder in the faces of participants.
Managing Epidemic Thunderstorm Asthma
- Every year during grass pollen season there is also the chance of an epidemic thunderstorm asthma event. Epidemic thunderstorm asthma is triggered by an uncommon combination of high grass pollen levels and a certain type of thunderstorm, resulting in large numbers of people developing asthma symptoms over a short period of time.
- People at risk during an Epidemic Thunderstorm Asthma event include:
- people with asthma
- people with a past history of asthma
- people with undiagnosed asthma; and
- people with hay fever.
- Having both asthma and hay fever, as well as poor control and self-management of asthma increases the risk further.
- The school will follow all advice from the Department of Education and Training (DET) and ensure the following strategies are in place:
- implement a communication plan to inform the school community and parents, if the risk of thunderstorm asthma is forecast as high;
- implement procedures to minimise exposure such as postponing outdoor activities and directing staff and students to stay indoors, with windows and doors closed; and
- following Asthma Action Plans for students diagnosed with Asthma or follow the First Aid for Asthma procedure if it is the first time a student is displaying signs or symptoms of asthma.
Asthma Communication Plan
- The school Asthma Communication Plan is to be documented in the Asthma Risk Management Checklist (see Attachment 1) and made available on the school website.
- Newsletters will also be sent periodically to all schools to remind parents/carers to update student health plans and asthma action plans.
Management of Confidential Medical Information
- Confidential medical information provided to the school or office location will be securely managed. Student and staff information will be shared with all relevant staff so that they are able to support and respond appropriately, to student or staff member diagnosed with asthma.
Reference Documents
- Education and Training Reform Regulations 2017
- Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 (CTH)
- Education and Care Services National Regulations 2011 (CTH)
- Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (CTH)
- Disability Standards for Education 2005 (CTH)
- Victorian Registration and Qualification Authority (VRQA)
- Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (VIC)
Supporting Documents
- DOBCEL Asthma Management Policy
- DOBCEL First Aid and Infection Control Policy
- DOBCEL First Aid and Infection Control Procedure
Appendices
- Attachment 1 - Annual Asthma Risk Management Checklist
- Attachment 2 - First Aid for Asthma
- Attachment 3 - Asthma Action Plan
- Attachment 4 – School Camp and Excursion Asthma Update Form
- Attachment 5 – Student Health Support Plan
## Annual Asthma Risk Management Checklist
| School name: | |
|--------------|---|
| Date of review: | |
| Who completed this checklist? | |
| Name: | |
| Position: | |
| Review given to: | |
| Name: | |
| Position: | |
| Comments: | |
### General information
1. How many current students have been diagnosed with asthma, and have been prescribed a reliever medication?
2. How many of these students carry their reliever medication on their person?
3. Have any students ever had a mild asthma flare-up requiring first aid intervention at school?
- If Yes, how many times?
4. Have any students ever had a severe asthma attack requiring medical intervention at school?
- If Yes, how many students?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
b. If Yes, how many times
5. Has a staff member been required to administer reliever medication to a student?
- □ Yes □ No
a. If Yes, how many times?
6. Are incidents involving students or staff that have suffered a severe asthma attack reported on the school medical database and reviewed by the principal (or nominee)?
- □ Yes □ No
SECTION 1: Training
7. Have all staff with a duty of care for students undertaken an asthma education session, either:
- Asthma first aid management for education staff (face to face) within the last 3 years, or
- Asthma first aid management for education staff (online) within the last 3 years?
- □ Yes □ No
8. Staff with a direct student wellbeing responsibility such as nurses, first aid and camp organisers, or staff working with high-risk children with a history of severe asthma at school and high risk teaching areas, such as PE/Sports teachers, Home Economics/cooking teachers completed asthma management training; either:
- 22282VIC Course in Management of Asthma Risks and Emergencies in the Workplace (in the last 3 years), or
- 10392NAT Course in Emergency Asthma Management (in the last 3 years)
- □ Yes □ No
9. Does your school conduct in-house asthma briefings annually?
If no, why not?
10. Do all school staff participate in the annual briefing?
If no, why not?
SECTION 2: Student Health Support Plans
11. Does every student who has been diagnosed with asthma and prescribed reliever medication have a Student Health Support Plan and/or a Asthma Action Plan completed and signed by a prescribed medical practitioner?
12. Are all Plans reviewed regularly (at least annually)?
13. Do the Student Health Support Plans set out strategies to minimise the risk of exposure to triggers for the following in-school and out of class settings?
a. During classroom activities, including elective classes
b. In canteens or during lunch or snack times
c. Before and after school, in the school yard and during breaks
d. For special events, such as sports days, class parties and extra-curricular activities
e. For excursions and camps
f. Other
14. Do all students who carry reliever medication on their person have a copy of their Asthma Action Plan kept at the school (provided by the parents/caregivers)?
15. Does the Asthma Action Plan include a recent photo of the student?
16. Have the Student Health Support Plans been reviewed prior to any off site activities (such as sport, camps or special events), and where appropriate reviewed in consultation with the student’s parents/caregivers?
| Question | Answer |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|
| 17. Where are the student(s) reliever medication stored? | |
| 18. Do all school staff know where the school’s Asthma Emergency Kits for general use are stored? | Yes No |
| 19. Is the storage safe? | Yes No |
| 20. Is the storage unlocked and accessible to school staff at all times? | Yes No |
| Comments: | |
| 21. Are the Asthma Emergency Kits easy to find? | Yes No |
| Comments: | |
| 22. Is a copy of student’s Asthma Action Plan kept together with the student’s reliever medication? | Yes No |
| 23. Is the student’s reliever medication and the Asthma Action Plans clearly labelled with the student’s names? | Yes No |
| 24. Has someone been designated to check the reliever medication expiry dates on a regular basis? | Yes No |
| Who? ........................................................................................................... | |
| 25. Is there reliever medication which is currently in the possession of the school which has expired? | Yes No |
| 26. Is the school registered as an Asthma Friendly school? | Yes No |
| 27. Do all school staff know where the reliever medication, the Asthma Action Plans and the School Asthma Management Plans are stored? | Yes No |
| 28. Has the school purchased Asthma Emergency Kits for general use? | Yes No |
| 29. Where are these kits located? | |
| Do staff know where they are located? | Yes No |
| 30. Is the Asthma Emergency Kit clearly labelled as such? | Yes No |
| 31. Is there a register for signing reliever medication in and out when taken for excursions, camps etc? | Yes No |
### SECTION 4: Prevention strategies
32. Have you done a risk assessment to identify potential accidental exposure to triggers for all students who have been diagnosed with asthma?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
33. Have you implemented any of the prevention strategies in the Asthma Guidelines? If not record why not?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
34. Are there always sufficient school staff members on yard duty who have current Asthma Training?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
### SECTION 5: School management and emergency response
35. Does the school have procedures for emergency responses to asthma attacks? Are they clearly documented and communicated to all staff?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
36. Do school staff know when their training needs to be renewed?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
37. Have you developed Emergency Response Plan for when a severe asthma attack occurs?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
a. In the classroom?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
b. In the school yard?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
c. In all school buildings and sites, including gymnasiums and halls?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
d. At school camps and excursions?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
e. On special event days (such as sports days) conducted, organised or attended by the school?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
38. Does your plan include who will call the ambulance?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
39. Is there a designated person who will be sent to collect the student’s reliever medication and Asthma Action Plan?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
40. Have you checked how long it will take to get to the reliever medication and the Asthma Action Plan to a student from various areas of the school including?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
a. The class room?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
b. The school yard?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
c. The sports field?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
41. On excursions or other out of school events is there a plan for who is responsible for ensuring the reliever medication(s) and Asthma Action Plans and the Asthma Emergency Kits use are correctly stored and available for use?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No
42. Who will make these arrangements during excursions?
...........................................................................................................
43. Who will make these arrangements during camps?
..................................................................................................................................
44. Who will make these arrangements during sporting activities?
..................................................................................................................................
45. Is there a process for post incident support in place?
□ Yes □ No
46. Have all school staff who conduct classes that students with asthma attend, and any other staff identified by the principal, been briefed on:
a. The school’s Asthma Management Policy?
□ Yes □ No
b. The causes, symptoms and treatment of asthma?
□ Yes □ No
c. The identities of students at risk, including where their medication is located?
□ Yes □ No
d. How to use a puffer and spacer?
□ Yes □ No
e. The school’s general first aid and emergency response procedures for all on campus and off campus environments?
□ Yes □ No
f. Where the Asthma Emergency Kits for general use are kept?
□ Yes □ No
g. Where the reliever medication for individual students are located including if they carry it on their person?
□ Yes □ No
SECTION 6: Communication Plan
47. Is there a Communication Plan in place to provide information about asthma and the school’s Policy
a. To school staff?
□ Yes □ No
b. To students?
□ Yes □ No
c. To parents?
□ Yes □ No
d. To volunteers?
□ Yes □ No
e. To casual relief staff?
□ Yes □ No
48. Is there a process for distributing this information to the relevant staff?
□ Yes □ No
a. What is it?
..................................................................................................................................
49. How is this information kept up to date?
..................................................................................................................................
50. Are there strategies in place to increase awareness about asthma among students for all on Campus and off Campus environments?
□ Yes □ No
51. What are they?
First Aid for Asthma
1. Sit the person comfortably upright.
Be calm and reassuring.
Don’t leave the person alone.
2. Give 4 puffs of a blue/grey reliever (e.g. Ventolin, Asmol or Airemirl)
Use a spacer, if available.
Give 1 puff at a time with 4 breaths after each puff.
Use the person’s own inhaler if possible.
If not, use first aid kit inhaler or borrow one.
3. Wait 4 minutes.
If the person still cannot breathe normally, give 4 more puffs.
4. If the person still cannot breathe normally, CALL AN AMBULANCE IMMEDIATELY (DIAL 000)
Say that someone is having an asthma attack.
Keep giving reliever.
Give 4 puffs every 4 minutes until the ambulance arrives.
Children: 4 puffs each time is a safe dose.
Adults: For a severe attack you can give up to 6-8 puffs every 4 minutes
How to Use Inhaler
WITH SPACER
- Assemble spacer
- Remove puffer cap and shake well
- Insert puffer upright into spacer
- Place mouthpiece between teeth and seal lips around it
- Press firmly on puffer to fire the puff into spacer
- Take 4 breaths in and out of spacer
- Slip spacer out of mouth
- Repeat 1 puff at a time until 4 puffs taken – remember to shake the puffer before each puff
- Replace cap
WITHOUT SPACER
- Remove cap and shake well
- Breathe out away from puffer
- Place mouthpiece between teeth and seal lips around it
- Press once firmly on puffer while breathing in slowly and deeply
- Slip puffer out of mouth
- Hold breath for 5 seconds or as long as comfortable
- Breathe out slowly away from puffer
- Repeat 1 puff at a time until 4 puffs taken – remember to shake the puffer before each puff
- Replace cap
Bricanyl or Symbicort
- Unscrew cover and remove
- Hold inhaler upright and twist grip around and then back
- Breathe out away from inhaler
- Place mouthpiece between teeth and seal lips around it
- Breathe in forcefully and deeply
- Slip inhaler out of mouth
- Breathe out slowly away from inhaler
- Repeat to take a second dose – remember to twist the grip both ways to reload before each dose
- Replace cover
Not Sure if it’s Asthma?
CALL AMBULANCE IMMEDIATELY (DIAL 000)
If a person stays conscious and their main problem seems to be breathing, follow the asthma first aid steps. Asthma reliever medicine is unlikely to harm them even if they do not have asthma.
For more information on asthma visit:
Asthma Foundations – www.asthmaaustralia.org.au
National Asthma Council Australia – www.nationalasthma.org.au
Severe Allergic Reactions
CALL AMBULANCE IMMEDIATELY (DIAL 000)
Follow the person’s Action Plan for Anaphylaxis if available. If the person has known severe allergies and seems to be having a severe allergic reaction, use their adrenaline autoinjector (e.g. EpiPen, Anapen) before giving asthma reliever medicine.
Although all care has been taken, this chart is a general guide only which is not intended to be a substitute for individual medical advice/treatment. The National Asthma Council Australia expressly disclaims all responsibility (including for negligence) for any loss, damage or personal injury resulting from reliance on the information contained. © National Asthma Council Australia 2011.
One of the following Asthma Action Plans is to be completed by a student’s medical practitioner and provided to the school by the parents/carer at the beginning of each school year.
1. **Action Plan: Bricanyl Turbuhaler** – right click the link to a downloadable PDF version
2. **Action Plan: Puffer and Spacer** – right click the link to a downloadable PDF version
3. **Action Plan: Puffer Alone** – right click the link to a downloadable PDF version
The **School Camp and Excursion Asthma Update Form** must be completed prior to any school camp or excursion by the parents/carer for students with an asthma diagnosis. Right click on the form title above to download a PDF version.
---
**SCHOOL CAMP AND EXCURSION**
**VICTORIAN SCHOOLS**
| Student’s name: | Has the student been hospitalised due to asthma, had an acute asthma attack or worsening asthma in the last two weeks? |
|-----------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| DOB: | |
| Confirmed triggers: | |
This form is to be completed by parents/carers of students with asthma prior to an excursion or camp. The form is to be attached to a copy of the student’s Asthma Action Plan and brought with students to the camp or excursion. Please provide as much detail as possible.
**OTHER MEDICAL CONDITIONS**
Has the student had any other illness in the last two weeks? □ Y □ N
If YES, please provide details:
Nature of illness? ____________________________ When? ________________
Severity? _________________________________ Has this affected their asthma? □ Y □ N
**ALLERGIC RHINITIS (HAY FEVER)**
Does the student have hay fever? □ Y □ N
Does the student have an action plan for hay fever? □ Y □ N
Confirmed Triggers for hay fever ____________________________
| Medication | Device | Dose | When |
|------------|--------|------|------|
| | | | |
Treatment
**ADDITIONAL ASTHMA MEDICATION REQUIREMENTS**
1. Medication ____________________________ Device ___________ Dose ________ When ________
Instructions for use _______________________________________________________
2. Medication ____________________________ Device ___________ Dose ________ When ________
Instructions for use _______________________________________________________
Doctor’s Name: ____________________________ Emergency Contact: ____________________________
Phone: ____________________________ Phone: ____________________________
Address: ____________________________ Signed: ____________________________
Date: ____________________________
For asthma information and support or to speak with an Asthma Educator call 1800 ASTHMA (1800 278 462) or visit asthma.org.au
© Asthma Australia 2019
Attachment 5 – Student Health Support Plan
Student Health Support Plan
This plan outlines how the school will support the student’s health care needs, based on health advice received from the student’s medical practitioner. This form must be completed for each student with an identified health care need (excluding Anaphylaxis as this information is captured via an Individual Anaphylaxis Management Plan).
This Plan is to be completed by the principal (or nominee) with the parent/carer and the student.
| School: | Phone: |
|---------|--------|
| Student’s name: | Date of birth: |
| Year level: | Proposed date for review of this plan: |
Parent/carer contact information (1)
| Name: | Relationship: | Home phone: | Work phone: | Mobile: | Address: |
|-------|---------------|-------------|-------------|---------|----------|
Parent/carer contact information (2)
| Name: | Relationship: | Home phone: | Work phone: | Mobile: | Address: |
|-------|---------------|-------------|-------------|---------|----------|
Other emergency contacts (if parent/carer not available)
| Name: | Relationship: | Home phone: | Work phone: | Mobile: | Address: |
|-------|---------------|-------------|-------------|---------|----------|
Medical /Health practitioner contact:
- General Medical Advice Form - for a student with a health condition
- School Asthma Action Plan
- Condition Specific Medical Advice Form – Cystic Fibrosis
- Condition Specific Medical Advice Form – Acquired Brain Injury
- Condition Specific Medical Advice Form – Cancer
- Condition Specific Medical Advice Form – Diabetes
- Condition Specific Medical Advice Form – Epilepsy
- Personal Care Medical Advice Form - for a student who requires support for transfers and positioning
- Personal Care Medical Advice Form - for a student who requires support for oral eating and drinking
- Personal Care Medical Advice Form - for a student who requires support for toileting, hygiene and menstrual health management
List who will receive copies of this Student Health Support Plan:
1. Student’s Family
2. Other: ________________________________
3. Other: ________________________________
The following **Student Health Support Plan** has been developed with my knowledge and input
Name of parent/carer or mature minor** student: ____________________ Signature: __________ Date: _______
**Please note:** Mature minor is a student who is capable of making their own decisions on a range of issues, before they reach eighteen years of age.
Principal (or nominee) name: ___________________________ Signature: ______________________ Date: _______
**Privacy Statement** - The school collects personal information so as the school can plan and support the health care needs of the student. The information may be disclosed to relevant school staff and appropriate medical personnel, including those engaged in providing health support as well as emergency personnel, where appropriate, or where authorised or required by another law. Access to the personal information the school holds about you/your child can be requested.
### How the school will support the student’s health care needs
| What is the health care need identified by the student’s medical/health practitioner? |
| --- |
| Other known health conditions: |
| When will the student commence attending school? |
| Detail any actions and timelines to enable attendance and any interim provisions: |
Below are some questions that may need to be considered when detailing the support that will be provided for the student’s health care needs. These questions should be used as a guide only.
| Support | What needs to be considered? | Strategy – how will the school support the student’s health care needs? | Person Responsible for ensuring the support |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Overall Support** | Is it necessary to provide the support during the school day? | For example, some medication can be taken at home and does not need to be brought to the school. | |
| | How can the recommended support be provided in the simplest manner, with minimal interruption to the education and care program? | For example, students using nebulisers can often learn to use puffers and spacers at school. | |
| | Who should provide the support? | For example, the Principal should conduct a risk assessment for staff and ask:
Does the support fit with assigned staff duties, the scope of their position, and basic first aid training (see DOBCEL’s First Aid and Infection Control Policy
Are additional or different staffing or training arrangements required? | |
| | How can the support be provided in a way that respects dignity, privacy, comfort and safety and enhances learning? | For example, detail the steps taken to ensure that the support provided respects the student’s dignity, privacy, comfort and safety and enhances learning. | |
| Support | What needs to be considered? | Strategy – how will the school support the student’s health care needs? | Person Responsible for ensuring the support |
|-------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
| First Aid | Does the medical/health information highlight any individual first aid requirements for the student, other than basic first aid? | Discuss and agree on the individual first aid plan with the parent/carer.
Ensure that there are sufficient staff trained in basic first aid (see DOBCEL’s First Aid and Infection Control Policy
Ensure that all relevant school staff are informed about the first aid response for the student. | |
| | Are there additional training modules that staff could undertake to further support the student, such as staff involved with excursions and specific educational programs or activities? | Ensure that relevant staff undertake the agreed additional training
Ensure that there are contingency provisions in place (whilst awaiting the staff member to receive training), to facilitate the student’s attendance at school. | |
| Complex medical needs | Does the student have a complex medical care need? | Is specific training required by relevant school staff to meet the student’s complex medical care need? | |
| Personal Care | Does the medical/health information highlight a predictable need for additional support with daily living tasks? | Detail how the school will support the student’s personal care needs, for example in relation to nose blowing, washing hands, toileting care (including menstrual health management and other aspects of personal hygiene)
Would the use of a care and learning plan for toileting or hygiene be appropriate? | |
| Routine Supervision for health-related safety | Does the student require medication to be administered and/or stored at the School? | Ensure that the parent/carer is aware of DOBCEL’s First Aid and Infection Control policy on medication management.
Ensure that written advice is received, ideally from the student’s medical/health practitioner for appropriate storage and administration of the medication.
Ensure that a Medication Administration log - See Attachment 3 in the First Aid and Infection Control Procedure is completed. | |
| Support | What needs to be considered? | Strategy – how will the school support the student’s health care needs? | Person Responsible for ensuring the support |
|---------|-----------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|
| | Are there any facilities issues that need to be addressed? | Ensure the school’s first aid room/sick bay and its contents provide the minimum requirements and discuss whether other requirements can be facilitated in this room to meet the student’s health care needs.
Ensure the school provides necessary reasonable adjustments to assist a student who requires a wheelchair or other technical support. Discuss requirements and possible modifications with the parent/carer/student. | |
| | Does the student require assistance by a visiting nurse, physiotherapist, or other health worker? | Detail who the worker is, the contact staff member and how, when and where they will provide support.
Ensure that the school provides a facility which enables the provision of the health service. | |
| | Who is responsible for management of health records at the school? | Ensure that information privacy principles are applied when collecting, using, retaining or disposing of personal or health information. | |
| | Where relevant, what steps have been put in place to support continuity and relevance of curriculum for the student? | For example, accommodation in curriculum design and delivery and in assessment for a student in transition between home, hospital and school; for a student’s attendance (full-time, part-time or episodically). | |
| Other considerations | Are there other considerations relevant for this health support plan? | For example, in relation to behaviour, such as special permission to leave group activities as needed; planned, supportive peer environment.
For example, in relation to the environment, such as minimising risks such as allergens or other risk factors.
For example, in relation to communication, is there a need to formally outline the communication channels between the school, family and health/medical practitioner?
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MY LIVING THEORY OF
LEARNING TO TEACH
FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE:
How do I enable primary school children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and myself as their teacher to realise our learning potentials
CAITRÍONA MCDONAGH
For the award of PhD from the University of Limerick
Thesis Supervisor Professor Jean McNiff
Submitted to the University of Limerick, December 2006
# Table of Contents
**PART ONE: Introduction – Concerns about my teaching of pupils with specific learning disAbility (dyslexia)** ................................................................. 1
## Foreword
1
## Chapter One: Introducing my Concerns
10
1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 10
1.2 Pupils were being unfairly treated because they have difficulties in reading ............... 11
1.3 I had been unfairly treated because I was silenced .................................................. 14
1.4 My pupils and I had all learned to be helpless, which denied my capacity to exercise my agency ............................................................................................................. 16
1.5 Summary .................................................................................................................. 17
## Chapter Two: Reasons for conducting my research
19
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 19
2.2 A clash of values exists between policy and the social practices concerning the education of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) ................................................................................................................................. 21
2.3 My developing understanding of specific learning disability and the labelling of pupils as ‘with disability’ ........................................................................................................ 22
2.4 Initial practical implications of my research for my pupils and me ...................... 36
2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................. 42
**PART TWO: Core issues of my research** ........................................................................ 45
## Chapter Three: My Conception of the Nature of Learning for Pupils with Specific Learning Disability (Dyslexia)
47
3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 47
3.2 How learning is conceptualised in my practice: does it value the individual? .......... 48
3.3 Is the worth of the individual evident in my research context? ............................ 58
3.4 Do people need to be free to develop themselves in accordance with their worth? ................................................................................................................................. 65
3.5 Summary .................................................................................................................. 69
## Chapter Four: Pedagogical issues
70
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 70
4.2 How I taught pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) at the beginning of my research ........................................................................................................ 71
4.3 Systemic constraints that prevent the realisation of my potential and my pupils’ potential .................................................................................................................. 76
4.4 How I proposed to challenge the issues arising in my teaching .......................... 85
4.5 Summary .................................................................................................................. 102
PART THREE: Methodology – How do I show the situation as it was and as it developed? .......................................................... 106
Chapter Five: My journey towards understanding using a self-study action research methodology .................................................. 108
5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 108
5.2 The positioning of research participants within dominant research methodologies .............................................................................. 108
5.3 How I am disadvantaged within research methodologies that do not link embodied values and epistemological values to research methods ..... 116
5.4 Showing the realisation of my values as my research methods .................... 123
5.5 Summary ............................................................................................................. 138
Chapter Six: Explanations and justifications for my action research methodology 140
6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 140
6.2 The structure and processes of my research: showing that I have taken action to overcome methodological difficulties ................................................. 141
6.3 How I plan to transform the systemic disadvantage of myself and my pupils into new forms of opportunity ................................................................. 151
6.4 Summary ............................................................................................................. 165
PART FOUR: New Learning ....................................................................................... 168
Chapter Seven: Towards my living theory of learning to teach for social justice through teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) 170
7.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 170
7.2 Developing strategies to enable pupils to learn effectively by theorising the transformation of my personal experience of learned helplessness 171
7.3 Developing a more just practice to address the learned helplessness of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) ................................................. 177
7.4 Articulating and explaining my emergent living theory of contributive social justice ........................................................................................................... 198
7.5 The living standards by which I judge my findings ............................................. 205
7.6 Summary ............................................................................................................. 209
Chapter Eight: The potential significance of my living theory of learning to teach for social justice 211
8.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 211
8.2 Pupils engaged in action research projects alongside mine ............................. 213
8.3 I engage in action research projects alongside the pupils ................................. 227
8.4 Summary ............................................................................................................. 240
PART FIVE: Ensuring that the conclusions I have come to are reasonably fair and accurate ................................................................. 242
Chapter Nine: A discussion of my new learning – Testing my living theories 242
9.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 242
9.2 My systematic validation process ........................................................................ 242
9.3 The importance of our new ways of learning to issues of development as freedom in education ........................................................................................................ 249
9.4 Further key learnings from the dissemination of my research ....................... 252
9.5 Summary .................................................................................................................. 256
PART SIX: The broader significance of my study – modifying my practice in the light of my new learning ................................................................. 258
Chapter Ten: The potential significance of my study 260
10.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 260
10.2 The potential implications of my research for teaching colleagues ............ 260
10.3 The potential implications of my research for new practices in teaching children with special educational needs (dyslexia) .............................................. 271
10.4 Summary .................................................................................................................. 275
Chapter Eleven: Reflections 276
11.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 276
11.2 I am contributing to new forms of theory and my thesis will add to the existing body of knowledge ........................................................................................................ 278
11.3 My research has potential implications for other fields of practice ...... 281
11.4 An ending .................................................................................................................. 289
Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 291
Appendices ..................................................................................................................... 313
List of Tables
Table 3.1: Extract from an Individual Learning Plan 2001 ..................................................50
Table 3.2: Showing the derivation of the values informing my research ..............................67
Table 4.1: Spellings results ...........................................................................................................72
Table 4.2: Word recognition results ............................................................................................72
Table 4.3: Extract from an Individual Learning Plan 2003 .....................................................83
Table 5.1: Showing the derivation of the values informing my research in relation to my research methods and standards of judgement .........................................................125
Table 5.2: Transcript of part of group discussion on artwork ..................................................132
Table 6.1: Pupil profile ..................................................................................................................144
Table 6.2: Pupil Record Sheet .....................................................................................................145
Table 7.1: Contents of pupils’ reports explaining their learning difficulties .......................185
Table 7.2: Pupil P’s learning journal 7th January 2002 – 18th January 2002 ....................189
Table 7.3: Teacher composed self-esteem and self-perception checklist ............................189
Table 7.4: My journaling ..............................................................................................................195
Table 7.5: Linking my research practices to Griffiths’s (2003) theory of practical social justice. ........................................................................................................................................200
Table 8.1: Methods of learning spellings identified by children compared with learning strategies (originals in data archive see Appendix 2.4a) .................................213
Table 8.2: Additional methods of learning spellings identified by children compared with learning strategies (originals in data archive see Appendix 2.4a) ..................214
Table 8.3: Pupil R’s spelling record ............................................................................................221
Table 8.4: Triangulated transcript on spellings .......................................................................221
List of Pictures
Picture 3.1 A pupil’s explanation of going to Resource Class ...........................................63
Pictures 4.1 and 4.2: Cookery Class ..................................................................................85
Picture 4.3: Pupil working as teacher ...............................................................................86
Picture 5.1: Pupil B’s feelings about his learning difficulties ........................................132
Pictures 6.1 and 6.2: Showing how pupils reflected on specific learning disability (dyslexia) .................................................................................................................................146
Pictures 6.3 and 6.4: Pages from pupils’ reports showing what it was like to find it hard to read .............................................................................................................................................155
Picture 7.1: ‘Mood Swings’ by Pupil L (9 years) ..............................................................187
Picture 7.2: ‘Aloneness’ by Pupil S (9 years) ....................................................................188
Picture 7.3: ‘School is easier’ by Pupil N (aged 9 years) ..............................................191
Picture 7.5 ‘Before and After’ by Pupil M (aged 12 years) ...........................................191
Picture 7.6: Showing a pupil’s position when writing ....................................................196
Picture 7.8: Sharing reports with a mainstream class .....................................................206
Picture 7.9: Peer critique of reports ..................................................................................206
Picture 7.10: Sharing reports with the wider school community ....................................206
Picture 7.11: Having new learning valued .......................................................................207
Picture 11.1: Paintings on school corridor .......................................................................284
Table of Figures
Figure 5.1: Research circles ...............................................................................................119
Figure 6.1: Layers of data gathering ................................................................................143
Figure 6.2: Year One research time-line ..........................................................................149
Figure 6.3: Links and interactions as the pupils and I learned together and as I tested my claims to new knowledge .........................................................................................150
Figure 7.1: A model for social justice in education (Griffiths 2003, p.60) ....................199
Figure 8.1: Sketches from my reflective journal ..............................................................235
Acknowledgements
It is with the sincerest thanks that I wish to acknowledge the following:
- My supervisor Professor Jean McNiff for her expert guidance and encouragement
- My PhD colleagues in particular Bernie Sullivan, Máirín Glenn and Mary Roche for their generosity and educative influence
- Members of the Department of Education and Professional Studies for their contributions to my PhD programme of studies
- The pupils, parents, colleagues and management of my school for their help in improving my practice
- And especially my husband Paddy and my family for their constant love and support
Abstract
My living theory of learning to teach for social justice: How do I enable primary school children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and myself as their teacher to realise our learning potentials
Caitriona McDonagh
This thesis is a narrative account of how I have improved my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), as a resource teacher in a primary school, thereby generating my living theory of learning to teach for social justice, within a context of normative theories and practices, which prevent the realisation of my pupils’ and my own learning potential.
I link my research commitment to my Christian values of justice, freedom, equality, an ethic of change for a better social order, and the recognition of the uniqueness of the individual. These embodied values inform my life and work, and have become the living standards by which I judge the quality of my research.
I explain my self-study action research methodology as a living transformational process. My findings about my pupils’ and my own learning offer new conceptualisations about the capacity of pupils to learn in their own ways, and about reconceptualising metacognition against normative theories in contemporary literatures. I have deepened my understanding of learning and knowledge creation processes through dialogical interactions, and developed new understandings about forms of theory and logic, and the relevance of living theory to changing practice.
I am claiming that the significance of my research is grounded in my capacity to show how I can enable children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to learn through person-centred pedagogies. This has potential implications for new forms of practice and theory in teaching children with special educational needs. A distinctive feature of my account is my explanation for how my Christian values have transformed into my critical epistemological standards of judgement, and the development of a living theory of practice that enables me to account for my educational influence in my pupils’ and my own learning.
Foreword
I am a teacher and a researcher, and this thesis is my explanation for how I have generated my own living educational theory of learning to teach for social justice. I make this claim on two counts.
First I can show how I have enabled children with specific learning disability (dyslexia), who were previously marginalised, to celebrate their value and come to see that they have a contribution to make in the public domain. ‘Specific learning disability’ (dyslexia) is a term used to categorise some children who have difficulties learning the ‘three Rs’ – reading, writing and arithmetic. In the words of the Department of Education and Science, these children are described as:
- being of average intelligence or higher
- having a degree of learning disability specific to basic skills in reading, writing or mathematics which places them at or below the second percentile on suitable, standardised, norm referenced tests.
(Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002a, p.6)
The second count on which I claim to have generated a living theory of learning to teach for social justice is that I have also achieved justice for myself, in that I have found my voice through pursuing my research into my teaching practices. My research began with my questioning of the policy that labels some pupils as ‘disabled learners’ (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999a, p.2; 2002a, p.6), so that they can access additional tuition within the primary school system. This concern developed into further questioning of the literature, theory and research in the field. By challenging current thinking I took a first step in a larger transformational process of my thinking and practice.
This thesis is about how I transformed that personal thinking and practice, as I began to develop my own new living theories about my practice. In order to see if I am justified in the claims I am making I have invited on-going critique of my work. Critique has become an integral and on-going part of my professional life. Consequently, I have come to realise that my practice is not static, and my reflections on it will not end when this programme of studies is completed.
The developmental nature of my research began when I asked, in my masters studies (McDonagh 2000), ‘How can I improve my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability in the area of language?’ Having gained accreditation and a degree of confidence in my professional abilities, I came to my present research programme out of a sense of injustice on behalf of my pupils and myself. I was concerned that pupils who were labelled as having specific learning disability (dyslexia) were not being treated fairly. I was also concerned that I was not being treated fairly because, as a practising teacher, I had been denied a voice in policy debates. Linked to this were my own feelings of inadequacy. Within my own practice, I felt unable, as a teacher, to prevent certain pupils from failure, particularly in the areas of reading and spellings. I also felt unable to facilitate my pupils to achieve within their own terms, by which I mean to learn using their own learning strategies, abilities and strengths.
The three short quotations below, taken from school diaries that I wrote during 1996–1997, give a flavour of the difficulties that some of my pupils experienced, which gave rise to my frustrations as a class teacher at that time. The three pupils I wrote about below were in a class of 38 pupils, aged 10 years, and all three pupils functioned at what is deemed to be age-appropriate levels in reading and mathematics, yet had significant difficulties with written language.
Pupil M* works so hard. She reads well. But why can’t she write? She can’t even copy words accurately from the board into a copy on her desk. She leaves out and reverses letters and words. She can spell the same word in three different ways in the one paragraph.
(19 Nov 1996, reflective journal in data archive, Appendix 2.1a)
Pupil C* can’t even write one word from his textbook into his copy correctly. Only he can read what he writes. But he has great ideas. He is a good problem solver; inquisitive. How can he be so clever in all these ways and useless at writing?
(12 Feb 1997, reflective journal in data archive, Appendix 2.1a)
Pupil P* never has the right book open at the right time. He is always pretending to be looking for a book – is his disorganisation an avoidance tactic?
(23 Mar 1997, reflective journal in data archive, Appendix 2.1a)
(*The pupils are identified by initials in order to ensure anonymity for ethical reasons (see Appendix 1) which I will discuss in Part Three.)
In this thesis I explain how I overcame my own learned helplessness as a teacher of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Thereby, I have also enabled the children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) whom I teach to do the same by overcoming their learned helplessness. I took action to transform what I perceived at that time as failing situations into successful learning experiences, by engaging in action research. I understand successful learning situations in terms of my own values as I relate them to my work in a primary school as a resource teacher, who is supporting the special educational needs of pupils. The practice-based values that I came to articulate during my research were to do with, first, enabling children to exercise their own ways of learning; second, having those ways of learning valued by themselves and others; and third, having the pupils’ capabilities recognised by themselves and others within their school community.
My living theory of learning to teach for social justice is grounded in this practice. Within this form of theorising I am constantly asking, as Whitehead (1989, p.45) does, ‘How do I live my values more fully in my practice?’ So it is a living form of theory rather than a propositional form of theory that exists only at an abstract level, because the term ‘living educational theory’ incorporates describing, explaining and theorising the changes that I am making in my teaching as a living transformational process.
The ideals of valuing the individual and the learner have informed both my career path in teaching and my interest in research as a form of professional development.
These principles stem from values of justice, freedom of choice, the ethic of change for a better social order and the recognition of the uniqueness of the individual. I believe that all humans have the capacity to learn, regardless of their social or academic positioning, as I have written and spoken about in McDonagh (2004a and 2004b). I was concerned that the value of fairness as a form of justice (Rawls 2001) was denied daily in my classroom when pupils, with average intelligence, failed to master key literacy skills because of the ways in which I was teaching them (McDonagh 2000). My classroom practice fell short of my ideals, and I came to understand how pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) were further denied justice by the dominant pedagogies in many classrooms. This understanding is supported by a Government Task Force on Dyslexia, which reports that some class teachers are
not sufficiently familiar with dyslexia to identify students who may be at risk of developing difficulties, and therefore may not be in a position to provide appropriate support or seek additional help.
(Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b, p.36)
It was clear to me that children’s rights were being denied in my practice and also in other classrooms according to the Task Force report above. Justice was not being done, in that appropriate education was not being provided for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Schools appeared to be failing in their duty, which, according to Section 9 of The Education Act (Government of Ireland 1998), is to
provide education to students which is appropriate to their abilities and needs and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, it shall, as far as resources permit (a) ensure that the educational needs of all students, including those with special educational needs, are identified and provided for.
(Government of Ireland 1998, p.13)
This apparent denial of appropriate teaching for pupils with specific learning requirements raised issues of social justice, which I considered might begin to be redressed by critically reviewing my understanding of the practice of a resource or special educational needs teacher, namely myself.
By claiming that my living theory of learning to teach for social justice is grounded in my practice, I mean that it is about helping pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to find ways of negotiating their way so that they are not disabled by their contexts, or their inability to make sense of words. This includes helping them find their own ways of learning spellings and producing intelligible writing. I am therefore claiming that my living theory of learning to teach for social justice is grounded in my deepening understandings about individual and unique ways of learning.
This thesis describes how I did this in research cycles of action and reflection during my teaching of three separate groups of eight pupils – one group per year – over the course of three years, 2001–2004. I collected a large amount of data over those years. The data is in my data archive and is listed in Appendix 2, while Appendix 1 contains my ethical statement and samples of the permissions I received to carry out this research. The Department of Education and Science had granted those pupils who participated in my research resource-teaching hours under the criteria of Circulars 09/99 and 08/02 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999a and Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002a). The boys and girls in the groups were aged between 8 and 12 years and were in mainstream classes at 3rd to 6th class levels. The numbers and gender-balance of the pupils in my research reflect national statistics for specific learning disability within primary schools. The eight pupils, whom I engaged with during each year of my research, represented 2% of my school’s population. This concurs with the report of the Special Education Review Committee (Ireland, Department of Education 1993, p. 88), which estimates that 1–4% of the general population experiences a severe level of specific learning disability (dyslexia). Of the twenty-four pupils who participated in my research, eighteen were boys and six were girls. This gender ratio of 3:1 is consistent with the findings of the Special Education Review Committee (Ireland, Department of Education 1993, p.88) and the Government Task Force on Dyslexia (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b).
I experienced many key learning episodes that contributed to the main claims that I am making in my research. In writing about them, I have conceptualised and
organised my ideas by means of a metaphor of waves of expanding influence. The metaphor is drawn from the novels of Coelho (1992 and 1997). These waves are transformational, and have gathered momentum as I have worked my way through the research. I see myself as a person standing in the sea of life, water up to my waist, waves and currents tugging me away from and towards the shore. The first large wave is my commitment to my work. The second wave that crashes against me and tugs at me is the pervasive contradiction of the experience of living every day in the society in which I live. This society, although founded on aspirations of freedom and democracy, continues to reproduce forms of dominance and injustice that contribute to the marginalisation of people. The third wave that buffets me challenges the practical significance of the theoretical base of my work, by which I mean that my work as a resource teacher is influenced by traditional theories of teaching, learning and disability, whose relevance I question. I find that these theories are of limited practical use, so I seek a form of theory generated from my living practice that also has the potential to contribute to a knowledge base for teachers (Zeichner 1999). The fourth wave has the rising white foam and troughs of the successes and failures of my teaching. It also represents my attempts at helping other people, such as pupils and colleagues, to address how possibilities may be expanded in our lives and in the communities in which we live.
I use these four waves of influence to frame the first four chapters of this thesis in which I introduce the conceptual frameworks of my study. I identify these as identity, justice, teaching and knowledge. At the moment I remain with abstract conceptualisations, for the purposes of analysis, in which I present the metaphor of waves as static entities. I proceed later to explain that the waves are dynamic, and so the metaphor of waves itself becomes dynamic. These frameworks are not discrete areas, but, to continue the metaphor above, they are intermingled in the living water of life. During the course of the research reported here, the four waves combine to gather sufficient momentum to generate a fifth wave which I describe in Parts Four, Five and Six, that has the power to incorporate and transform the first four waves.
~ The organisation of this thesis
My thesis takes the form of an action enquiry, in which the underpinning question is, ‘How do I improve my practice?’ (Whitehead 1989). I tell the story of my research
in a dialogical form, by posing critical questions for myself and by addressing them through the form of my text. In Part One I ask ‘What was my concern?’ I address my question with an explanation of why I engaged with this research. The first chapter in Part One opens up the substantive issues that encouraged me to take action. These issues are around injustice, and how the pupils whom I teach are unfairly treated because they are labelled in terms of their difficulties, mainly in reading and spellings. I also feel unfairly treated in that my voice is silenced. I am concerned that both the pupils and I have learned to be helpless, which denies our capacity for agency. In Chapter Two I consider the background to my research, in particular the clash between my values in relation to teaching and social justice, and existing social practices around teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). This chapter sets out the conceptual basis of my research. I explain that I want to get to a point where my pupils and I can celebrate our humanity together and be seen by ourselves and others as valuable people. For my pupils, this means learning how to negotiate their difficulties with spellings. For me, it means finding the best ways to help them.
In Part Two I examine the question, ‘What are the core issues that concerned me and why did they concern me?’ I am troubled because I believe that the pupils and I are valuable humans. I believe in the worth of the individual and I believe that people need to be free to develop themselves in terms of that worth (see Sen 1999). I am concerned that current systemic constraints prevent the realisation of my potential and the potential of the pupils I teach. I examine the contexts of my research, which include current normative theories and practices around teaching and learning for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). In Chapters Three and Four, I tease out the philosophical frameworks of my research, and I show how I have developed insights that will enable me to generate my own living form of theory (Whitehead 1989).
Part Three deals with issues around methodology as I pose the question, ‘How can I show the situation as it was, and as it developed?’ My developing understandings around the forms of theory, logic and practice in which my research is based in turn inform my research methodology. I discuss my research methodology over two chapters. Chapter Five deals with my journey towards understanding using a selfstudy action research methodology. Chapter Six explains the processes that I engaged in to develop educational and practical theory from within my practice of teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
Part Four explains how I theorised my practice by addressing the question, ‘What did I do?’ and ‘What was the importance of my actions?’ Chapters Seven and Eight contain data from research episodes, which are analysed and critiqued against the literature. My findings contain descriptions and discussions of my learning and that of my children. In this way I show how my findings offer new insights and strategies when placed against the criteria and standards of judgement that informed my research, and also against current normative theories from existing literatures. Chapter Seven contains my claim to have developed a practical living theory of learning to teach for social justice in relation to pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Chapter Eight outlines how I developed new understandings about the nature of the capacity and individuality of those pupils, and how I refined and deepened my ideas about metacognition.
In Part Five I tell how I continuously checked, ‘How can I ensure that any conclusions I come to are reasonably fair and accurate?’ throughout my research process. This required my explanation of the grounds of my claims. First I have grounded my commitment to relationships of equality within my ontological and Christian values. I link the idea of the value of the person with the idea that people must be free to realise and exercise their value. So I claim to have developed a just practice in terms of human equality. Second, I have developed a critique of my own stance in relation to my pedagogies, as well as in relation to dominant practices of teaching children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Third, I have come to understand that personal and social practices are informed and underpinned by specific ontological and epistemological values.
In Part Six I ask myself, ‘How did I modify my practice in the light of my new learning?’ I explore the significance of my research and its implications for other colleagues’ learning, and for new practices in teaching children with special educational needs. I reflect on how my new insights have significance for me, for the pupils who participated in my research and for teaching colleagues. I claim that I
have developed an epistemology that explains how personal learning can occur through reciprocal interactions and I claim that I have deepened my understanding of how learning and knowledge creation can take place through dialogical interactions.
The thesis ends by explaining that my claim to have generated my living theory of learning to teach for social justice is not the end of my research but a beginning of new possibilities.
1.1 Introduction
In the first year of my research programme (September 2001) I wrote in my journal,
Another year begins. I have been allocated eight pupils because they have specific learning disability (dyslexia). I feel good about this. I know that by the end of their time with me these pupils will be able to blend sounds that will help them with spellings and decoding new words. I also know that with my help, these pupils will have shortened the gap between their reading ability ages and their chronological ages. I know that I will have taught them visual strategies to help them read texts by scanning for word shapes and commonly occurring strings of letters. Yet I am not content with these improvements. I am unhappy because I teach by rote, making pupils practise skills over and over again each day, each week, each month. The time the pupils spend with me cannot be enjoyable for them either. But the rest of their time in school with their mainstream class must be even less enjoyable because the pupils are doing so poorly and they must experience a sense of despondency. I am also unhappy about the fact that I am teaching all my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in the same way. I think that some of them are able to learn quicker and easier than others. But in order to get through teaching the skills, I don’t have time to check out what pupils can do on an individual basis.
(5 Sept 2001, reflective journal in data archive, Appendix 2.1.b)
I have written this thesis as an action research report in which I ask myself problematic questions about my practice. In this chapter, and following McNiff and Whitehead (2005, p.39), I ask,
What is my concern?
Why am I concerned?
How do I show the reality of the current situation?
What could I do about it?
My responses include the following. I am concerned that pupils are being unfairly treated under existing provision because they have difficulties in reading, possibly by the system in mainstream classrooms and by my teaching of programmes that are recommended for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I show that the reason for my concern is that my pupils have been silenced. I am also concerned that I have been unfairly treated and silenced because of the reality of working in a system of education that prioritises objective knowledge at the expense of individuals’, including my children’s, personal ways of knowing. Finally I describe the action that I decided to take to improve my learning about how to improve the situation.
1.2 Pupils were being unfairly treated because they have difficulties in reading
When my eight pupils were granted resource teaching, I withdrew them from their mainstream classes for a half-hour daily, as was common practice. According to the Minister for Education (Dáil Question 806 9978/05, 2005), the Government has dramatically increased the number of resource teachers in primary schools since 1997 and, since April 2005, nearly 2,500 resource teachers have been employed to provide additional resources for children assessed with special needs. These full-time resource teachers, including me, are required to take responsibility for providing individualised tuition to address the needs of these specifically assessed children. This provision includes the practice of withdrawing children from mainstream classes daily for thirty to forty minutes (Nugent 2006, p.102). I became concerned about this practice of withdrawing children with specific learning disability on the grounds that it could lead to their marginalisation.
I had three initial concerns:
(i) Is the label of ‘specific learning disability’ accurate?
(ii) Are normative teaching practices in mainstream classrooms contributing to the disabling of pupils who are labelled as having specific learning disability?
(iii) Dominant pedagogies for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) generally engage with behaviouristic teaching approaches. My
view is that pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) need differentiated personalised teaching approaches.
I address these concerns in turn and in relation to my thinking about my teaching at the beginning of my research.
~ I am concerned about the form of words ‘specific learning disability’ (dyslexia)
In McDonagh (1999a, 1999b and 2000) I explained my developing professional understanding about the field of specific learning disability, which led me to query the accuracy of the form of words ‘specific learning disability’. I am referring here to the fact that the terms ‘specific learning difficulty’ and ‘specific learning disability’ both appear in the literatures on reading difficulties, and in policy statements used by education systems in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. I prefer the term ‘difficulty’ to ‘disability’. My concern is that in Ireland we are marginalising children by labelling them as having a specific learning disability when they may have learning difficulties rather than a disability. In the United States of America and Ireland, for example, the term ‘specific learning disability’ is widely used. In the United States of America that term is enshrined in the Individuals with Disabilities Act of America (United States of America, Amendment of 1997, s 602 [26], p.13), and in Ireland since 1975 the Department of Education has ‘put in place a range of supports for children with specific learning disabilities (including dyslexia)’, according to the Task Force on Dyslexia (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b, p.3). By contrast, in Britain’s Code of Practice (Britain, Department of Education and Employment 1994) and in Northern Ireland’s Code of Practice (Northern Ireland, Department of Education, Education Order 1996, p.71), the term ‘specific learning difficulty’ is preferred. Both terms include dyslexia (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b, p.26).
~ I am concerned that normative teaching practices in mainstream classes may be contributing to the disabling of pupils who are labelled as having specific learning disability (dyslexia)
In querying whether the system in mainstream classrooms is a disabling factor for those children with specific learning disability, I am supported by a recent report of a
government Task Force on Dyslexia (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b). This report proposes changes in school practices and calls for a whole-school, multidisciplinary approach to catering for all those with dyslexia across all levels. This recommendation means that the Task Force recognises problematics in current teaching practices of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). So what is the relationship between current provision and my workplace? The reality of my working life was exemplified in the work and conversation of the children with whom I researched. An eleven year old pupil of mine wrote, ‘Tunk you fro youre hepl’ on a thank you card (archive item 20 June 2001, see Appendix 2.2a). Many teachers would focus on her errors in spelling – which are often a feature of specific learning disability – but the meaning and sentiment of her note inspired me to concentrate, through my own passion for compassion (Naidoo 2005), on the child’s abilities rather than her difficulties. Naidoo (2005), who works within a nursing context, uses the term ‘a passion for compassion’ when she describes the emergence of her living theory of inclusional and responsive practice. This thesis tells how I responded to situations in my practice out of compassion for the pupils I taught. The research documented here shows how the young person who wrote the thank you note, and other children with specific learning disability who participated in this research, were enabled to move towards an awareness of their capacities for independent thinking and learning.
~ I teach by rote, making pupils practise skills over and over again each day, each week, each month
At the beginning of my research, I was using teaching programmes that were recommended for my pupils by educational psychologists. This was because a report from an educational psychologist on a pupil, necessary in order to access resource teaching for specific learning disability (dyslexia), is sent to the Department of Education and Science. When I was allocated a pupil who was designated by the Department of Education and Science with specific learning disability (dyslexia), first I looked at the psychologist’s recommended programmes or strategies, if any had been offered. Many of the programmes recommended by psychologists require a behaviourist style of teaching and learning that focuses on stimulus and response and an emphasis on repetitive practice of new learning. This learning style includes over-learning, which involves intense practice of newly learned information until it is
thoroughly learned (Slavin 2003, p.194); and rote learning, which requires the memorisation of facts or associations that might be essentially arbitrary (Slavin 2003, p.199). In this style of teaching, learning is explained in terms of observable behaviour. Less visible processes of learning are ignored, such as ‘concept formation, learning from text, problem solving and thinking’ (Slavin 2003, p.163). Yet, from observing pupils with specific learning disability in my classes over many years I query over-learning and rote learning as the most appropriate forms of learning for pupils with specific learning disability. Therefore, in my research, I am pitting my experiential knowledge as a teacher against dominant theories of teaching and learning.
1.3 I had been unfairly treated because I was silenced
My voice of experience is silenced within the education system in which I work because the system is steeped in an epistemological tradition that prioritises abstract objective knowledge over personal experiential knowledge. I believe that this system is unfair to me, as a teacher, for the following reasons.
The planning and evaluation policies currently dominant in primary schools are practical examples of the epistemological stance of a normative education system. This stance can be gauged by considering how improvements in learning are measured and how teachers generally plan and evaluate their work (Reflective Journal 2001-2002 see Appendix 2.1b). Rule 126 of the Primary School (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005b) requires teachers to prepare ‘scéimeanna seachtaine nó coicise’ (weekly or fortnightly short term plans), which comprise plans of proposed aims, work and inter-subject linkages (comhtháthú) for each class level and for each subject area of the curriculum. Targets attained are recorded in a ‘Cuntas Míosúil’ (monthly report) that is retained by the school principal and may be removed for scrutiny by members of the Department of Education and Science Inspectorate during whole school evaluations. In my practice I have continually found major discrepancies between the targets I planned and externally assessable learning attainments. By externally assessable learning attainments I mean those outcomes that could be demonstrated to the satisfaction of a Department of Education inspector should s/he wish to assess my teaching during a
whole school evaluation, in accordance with the Education Act (Government of Ireland 1998, s.13. 3a 111 p.16).
The linking of the transmission and evaluation of knowledge to the effectiveness of one’s teaching raises core issues for my research. For example, if I stated in my monthly report that a child knew x, and subsequently that child cannot demonstrate knowledge of x, the following questions could be raised: did I, as the teacher, teach x as claimed? Did I teach x inadequately? Was x taught but the pupil no longer recalled x? Was the method used to assess x appropriate? These questions demonstrate the need to establish acceptable criteria for the evaluation of learning. In citing the scenario above, I am making the point that learning tends to be assessed by those outside the learning process. These outsiders are positioned as experts and tend to use normative criteria and standards of judgements. These criteria and norms usually appear in traditional quantitative forms of assessing learning such as standardised tests for English reading vocabulary and comprehension; examples of those used in my context are the Drumcondra Primary Reading Tests (Education Research Centre 1994), the Mary Immaculate College Reading Attainment Test (Wall and Burke 1988) and the Non-Reading Intelligence Test (Young 2004).
The outside expert’s evaluation is valued above those directly engaged in the learning process, as in the case of the protocols for assessing if a pupil has a specific learning disability. The Department of Education and Science, for example, requires an educational psychologist to administer IQ and standardised tests for the purposes of labelling a pupil as having a specific learning disability so that the pupil be granted extra tuition provision. This requirement of external assessors is in contrast to the Department of Education and Science’s own guidelines in curriculum documents, which state that testing is an integral part of teaching (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999b). In my opinion this requirement could appear to imply that the state body governing education views teacher judgement as suspect because teacher judgement is excluded from the assessment process.
In addition to planning and evaluation issues, policy decisions also impinge on how I teach pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and on how they learn. When practice is seen as the implementation of agreed policy and curricula rather than
being pupil-focussed, resource teaching can be influenced in the following ways. The voice of the learner and resource teacher can go unheard and resource teaching can focus on systemic functions of enabling fuller participation in the mainstream class curriculum rather than enabling pupils with specific learning disability to exploit their capacities for thinking and learning. Since the Education Act 1998 (Government of Ireland 1998, s. 16d p. 20 and s. 21 p. 22), schools are required to have policies and conduct planning as guidelines of practice in all aspects of education, including learning disabilities. Although policies are intended to be locally agreed and are formulated by the partners in education – parents, teachers, school patrons and local community representatives – they do not seem to have had the expected democratising effect on the learning of pupils. This appears to be the case because policy-driven planning and teaching has swamped many schools in Ireland (Nugent, Mary 2002 p. 99; Nic Craith 2003) since the 1998 Education Act was passed. In practice this means that I, like many other teachers, engage with what, how and where teaching happens rather than focusing on the learning of pupils, which represents for me a denial of my values of social justice in that an active exploration of how pupils can be involved in their own learning is systematically discouraged. There is evidence of the detrimental effect of an overload of paperwork on schools in the recently published whole school evaluation reports (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2006), where schools are now recommended to match learning tasks to pupils’ needs and abilities, in an instrumental correlational way.
1.4 My pupils and I had all learned to be helpless, which denied my capacity to exercise my agency
I also question the wisdom of minimising – to the extent of ignoring – the knowledge gained by those in closest and most extensive contact with pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Those with the most extensive contact with such pupils are their class teachers, learning support teachers, the school community and the pupils’ parents. Yet, the Department of Education and Science (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999a and 2002a) bases the entitlement of 2.5 hours of weekly resource teaching on an educational psychologist’s report. I believe
that this form of outsider evaluation is inadequate to appreciate the wide range of needs and abilities of individuals with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
In doing this research I aimed to develop different kinds of criteria and different forms of standards of judgement that approach the valuation of teaching and learning from a perspective which is different from traditional ways. I seek to develop criteria that demonstrate change in educational practice and in learning. It is pleasing to note however that the forms of assessment, recommended within the Primary School curriculum (Ireland, Department of Education and Science, 1999b), have already gone some way towards this stance. It advises that pupil portfolio work, where pupils select and retain samples of their best efforts, be added to ongoing, cumulative and summative teacher assessment. Therefore, a methodological shift has begun that moves the centre of power from the outsider – for example, me as the teacher, as an expert who assesses learning – to the learner, who is encouraged to exercise their own voice in the process of their own assessment. My research is grounded in the idea that learners should be so involved, and therefore contributes towards the legitimation of a shift in the epistemological base of educational practice that values personal knowledge as much as objective knowledge.
1.5 Summary
Because I had been thinking deeply about these issues, I decided to take action to see if I could improve the situation. My pupils and I had all learned to be helpless, which denied my capacity to exercise my agency. Now, by asking, ‘How do I improve my practice?’ (Whitehead 1989), I was beginning to take action. My reasons for undertaking this research became crystallised as I developed greater clarity around linkages between teaching and how knowledge is viewed. In my research I began to question the strong emphasis on objective knowledge and assessment in current teaching approaches. In this thesis I explain how I support my challenges with evidence generated through ‘rigorous enquiry and validated research’ (Hitchcock and Hughes 1995, p.5).
In this chapter I have outlined my concerns about the marginalisation and silencing of my pupils and myself. I have come to articulate these concerns because of my
commitment to my work. This commitment acts as the first wave of influence on my research.
In the chapter that follows, I articulate the beliefs I hold that influenced my concerns. I then go on to explain how I interrogated the approaches that I used in my teaching prior to my research programme. I did so in order to understand how I could improve my teaching and possibly improve the learning experiences of all pupils with specific learning disability. In my role as a researcher, I analyse the background to my work in the light of current literature on three fronts: first on practical issues of specific learning disability, whole school planning and pedagogy; second on social research about inclusion and marginalisation; and third on the fields of policy, provision and research into specific learning disability.
2.1 Introduction
In this chapter, and following the action research methodology I have adopted for writing this thesis, I offer reasons for my concerns. I set out the background to my research and the substantive concepts that informed the formulation of my research question, ‘How do I improve my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability who are within my care as a resource teacher in a primary school?’
I want to begin by describing my reactions when I received reports on pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) from educational psychologists in the early stages of my research. On one such occasion, I wrote in my reflective journal (2001):
A psychological report arrived today. Great excitement! Does it entitle our school to extra teaching hours? Will the hours help us maintain current staff? Will we be employing an extra part-time teacher? Quick! Check the IQ scores. Are they in the average range? Yes. Check the reading, spelling and comprehension scores; are any of them below the second percentile? Yes. Yippee. Now, do I see the words ‘this pupil has specific learning disability’? These words must be in the report, in addition to the appropriate scores if resource teaching is to be provided? Double Yippee! They are all there.
Next I turn to the psychologist’s recommendations on the last pages of the report. Good it names strategies and commercial programmes such as Alpha to Omega (Hornsby et al. 1999) and Phonological Awareness Training (Wilson 1996), Wordshark and the Multisensory Teaching System of Reading (Johnson et al. 1999). I will definitely teach these programmes.
Now I look at the IQ scores. A full scale IQ is given and it is broken down into a verbal IQ and a performance IQ. The pupil has a significant difference of 23 points higher in verbal than in performance IQ scores. This discrepancy is very useful. It tells me that this pupil will learn better when new information is presented orally rather than in written form only. When I am explaining the report to the child’s parents, I can emphasise that the pupil has strengths above his average scores in verbal areas. I will also point out that this difference will be very helpful for him in career choices later in his life. His lower scores in performance IQ explain why he is having so many difficulties in school where most of the work is written.
(29 Sept 2001, reflective journal in data archive, Appendix 2.1b)
My reaction to the psychological report focuses on existing policy, in relation to what I teach, on how I understand specific learning disability (dyslexia) and on how I explain it to parents of pupils. I have omitted to say what I tell the pupil about whom the report was written and who has spent time doing tests for the psychologist. This is because I did not tell the pupil anything about the results of the tests. In my experience educational psychologists also do not inform primary school pupils of the results of their assessments on them. In the previous chapter, I have spoken about how I value each individual, yet in practice I have denied this, as demonstrated by my responses to the report. This is an example of how I was denying my values in my practice (Whitehead 1989).
In this chapter, I set out my educational and social values and how I saw these values systematically denied in my practice as a resource teacher. These ideas about the contradictions between societal values and my own educational values were new understandings for me and, in making them explicit, I came to recognise that my professional values were rooted in ideas to do with justice and forms of knowledge. Discrepancies between social values in the teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and the practical experiences of my workplace correspond to the second of the four waves of influence on my research. In Chapter One I have described this second wave as the pervasive contradiction of living every day in the society in which I live. This society, although founded on aspirations of freedom and democracy, continues to reproduce forms of dominance and injustice that contribute to the marginalisation of people.
I analyse the discrepancy and the clash of values in my practice under three headings.
- How policy influences my practice
- I show mistaken understandings of dyslexia in my practice
- I say that children should have a voice in offering their own explanations of how they live their lives and how this is obvious in my practice.
2.2 A clash of values exists between policy and the social practices concerning the education of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia)
Policy for the teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) is currently dictated both nationally and at a local level by the Education Act (Government of Ireland 1998, s. 9 p.13 and s. 13. 3a 111 p.16), the Education of Persons with Special Education Needs Act (Government of Ireland 2004a), the Equal Status Act (Government of Ireland 2004b), the Disability Act (Government of Ireland 2005), Department of Education and Science Circulars (Ireland, Department of Education and Science1999a, 1999b, 2002a) and my school’s entrance and learning support policies. Consequently, policy in my context is influenced both by the discourses of disability and by the persistent practice of labelling pupils as having disabilities in order to access additional support. As well as the dissonance that I have described above, between my values and what was happening in my work, I was further frustrated by the labelling of certain children as disabled in order to access extra teaching provision within the primary school system. The aim of my research was to get to a point where the pupils and I could celebrate our humanity together, and still receive support, as I now explain.
When I asked, ‘Does it entitle our school to extra teaching hours?’, I was saying that a diagnosis of specific learning disability focused my attention first on provision of additional teaching hours. A diagnosis of specific learning disability can focus parents’ attention, as well as the attention of many educational professionals, who support pupils who have this label, on the word ‘disability’. When this happens, the second criterion by which the Department of Education and Science categorises pupils as having a specific learning disability seems to be forgotten. This criterion is that the pupils have average intelligence. In addition, the form of academic testing used to adjudicate on the remaining criteria for specific learning disability (dyslexia), ignores the pupils’ abilities in areas other than English reading, comprehension and spelling. The practice of focusing on the disabilities rather than the abilities of pupils is a practical example of the discriminating discourses of labelling that permeate the practical contexts of my research.
Discourses of disability and the practice of labelling pupils with specific learning disability reveal many societal values that are contrary to the explicitly stated aims of both the Primary Education curriculum and the Special Education curriculum in Ireland. These curricula primarily aim to:
Enable the child to live a full life as a child and to realise his or her potential as a unique individual.
(Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999b, p.7)
Enable the student to live a full life and to realise his/her potential as a unique individual.
(National Council for Curriculum and Assessment 2002, p. 3)
I endorse the value of respect for the capacities and uniqueness of the individual that underpin those policy statements. However, there is slippage between the rhetoric of the curriculum and the practice of its rhetoric. I address this slippage in my research by working towards practices that promote access and widening participation by individuals in their own learning. My actions are grounded in my own value around the unique potential of the individual, which is in keeping with the kinds of educational values that inform the curriculum aims that I have cited above. Having achieved such changes in practice I then hope to show how I can potentially influence others to do the same. I began this process by explaining how I developed a personal understanding of specific learning disability (dyslexia) and the labelling of pupils ‘with’ this disability, as I now describe.
2.3 My developing understanding of specific learning disability and the labelling of pupils as ‘with disability’
My understanding of the nature of specific learning disability (dyslexia) changed during the course of my research. I described, at the beginning of this chapter, how I accepted unquestioningly ‘the psychologist’s recommendations of strategies and commercial programmes.’ I also accepted that a discrepancy in various aspects of IQ scores was an adequate explanation of ‘why a pupil was having so many difficulties in school where most of the work is written’ (see my journal entry above). The
change in my thinking began as I tried to articulate and make sense of how current discourses of disability and labelling relate to my practice. Here is an excerpt from a letter to my research supervisor in which I write about my confusion around these issues.
My gut feeling is that I was a ‘disabled teacher’ as far as teaching children with specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) (SLD) were concerned at the beginning of my research. I took out the box of knowledge about learning disability. I shovelled as much of that knowledge into me as I could from that box.
And there it stayed – inside me. I tried to implement commercial programmes to alleviate SLD. They didn’t work in a class of thirty plus children where at least 3 children had SLD. So I changed my job and became a learning support teacher where I would teach 4 children at a time. I rummaged again in the box of knowledge on SLD. I got a bigger box and filled it with more knowledge from courses about SLD – Diplomas in Learning Support, MA in Education and Dyslexia Association courses. I tutored individual children with SLD and set up and worked in a workshop for children with SLD. The individual children I met in my various teaching roles astounded me. They were often so articulate, very imaginative, artistic, industrious, and had long memories. This was in contrast to the main features of SLD as seen by class teachers and psychologists who cite poor language, difficulty visualising, laziness, untidy writing and poor memory skills especially for spellings as features.
(30 Feb 2003, correspondence to research supervisor, original in data archive Appendix 2.1c)
This data shows the state of my thinking in the early stages of my research. By comparing this early data with the ideas I am expressing in this thesis, it is clear that my thinking has changed considerably. I moved from understanding my teaching as a process of ‘fixing’ those with learning difficulties to an appreciation of the capabilities of those I taught. I also altered my understanding of knowledge as only objective, reifiable and transferable to also valuing the knowledge-creating potential of the individuals. These changes influenced the form of theory I developed in my research, as I discuss in Part Three. The correspondence above also signals the beginning of my search to understand models of disability as they relate to specific learning disability in my context. Ware (2003) names these models as a medical
model, an educational model and a psycho-social model; all of which hold relevance for my context. In the following paragraphs I offer an analysis of these models.
~A medical model of disability
Dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyspraxia, among other disorders for which resource teaching is provided, are treated within a medical model of disability when fatty acids, fish oils, and specific neurodevelopment or primary movement exercises are prescribed as cures. The medical model works from a perspective of diagnose, prescribe and cure. This implies that the person being cured has something wrong with them. In this way the disability is placed within the person. So to a large extent the interactive educational and environmental influences on an individual are ignored. Research into the success of these prescriptive approaches is not conclusive (Doyle 2003). I would consider that this is because the linkages between behaviour, diet, and visual and motor skills are complex and become problematic within traditional quantitative forms of research, where evidence is limited as far as possible to one variable at a time. The commercial, intensive remediation programmes recommended in psychological reports, such as the one I described at the beginning of this chapter, represent a medical model of disability. I describe these programmes further in Appendix 4.1. They involve a model of teaching that treats the child as an object rather than as a unique individual. Claiming that the child is being treated as an object may sound harsh, but I am convinced that the form of words is accurate in that the child who is being ‘trained’ is not regarded as the thinking, feeling, constantly developing human that I believe he/she is. I would also argue that this focus on the child as an object of study rather than as a human being is at odds with the aims of the primary curriculum in Ireland, as set out above.
During my teaching career I have become increasingly aware of the humanity of my pupils. I have noticed their capabilities as people rather than focusing only on the teaching of reading and writing. I have personally come across those who are labelled as having specific learning disability (dyslexia) yet who are, in fact, able learners in many fields such as physics, mathematics, sport, and art. My experiences are supported by Davis (1994) who writes that successful adults with dyslexia develop strategies for learning and concludes that they have a gift for being able to
think in a three-dimensional fashion, unlike the rest of the population who, he claims, usually think in a two dimensional way. The adults he writes about were handicapped by the structure of the print-rich environment of schools. He theorises that two-dimensional printed words are easy for most people to grasp, but those with dyslexia (who are three-dimensional thinkers) see print three-dimensionally. By this he means that each letter can appear as a standing object, which can be viewed from above, below, front, back, the left or the right. This can make reading difficult for those with dyslexia and provides an explanation for letter reversals, which are frequent for those with dyslexia.
~An educational model of disability
At the beginning of this chapter I described how I explain to parents that their child with specific learning disability (dyslexia), who has strong verbal scores, demonstrates oral and aural abilities and ‘is having so many difficulties in school’ because ‘most of the work is written’, will thrive once she or he leaves school. In saying this, I am stating that school is probably having a disabling effect on pupils because my observations concerning pupils with dyslexia, and also the findings of Davis (1994), suggest that competent and successful adults with dyslexia were neither competent nor successful while they were in school. This approach exemplifies an educational model of disability, as Ware (2003) explains it. Within this model pupils can become potentially disabled by the interaction between themselves and the environment. An educational model of disability places structures, curricula or institutions in a position of power over pupils in ways that can negate their abilities and have a disabling effect on those individuals while in school. I believe that education can also become a form of social control to eliminate troublesome and non-conformist elements (see Bernstein 2000; Bourdieu and Passeron 1977). Let me explain further. In my work situation, when pupils are withdrawn from their mainstream classes for the provision of individual resource tuition, this action is undertaken partly because they do not conform to the stereotype that children of average intelligence progress at age-appropriate levels in reading, comprehension and spellings. The common practice of the withdrawal of pupils for resource teaching is in keeping with provision under an educational model of disability in that those who do not succeed in learning in normative ways, are eliminated from mainstream classes for part of each day. It can be argued that this
practice is an institutional structure to facilitate teachers rather than pupils. This concurs with the findings of Kerr (2001) who states that 66% of teachers in his study ‘showed considerable disempowerment’ when faced with a student with dyslexia (Kerr 2001, p.80).
~A psycho-social model of disability
A form of language that uses terms such as ‘full scale scores’, ‘verbal and performance discrepancies’, and ‘multisensory teaching systems’, as I described in the psychological report at the beginning of this chapter, are part of the discourses of a psycho-social model of disability that exists in my workplace context. This model focuses on specific groups with disability, and, within this model, special education again appears to become a form of social control, which is maintained through the interests of education professionals, including psychologists, and educational and medical administrators. For example, the definition of specific learning disability (dyslexia) in popular use is grounded in the criteria currently used by the Department of Education and Science. This definition is accepted probably because it is convenient for the appointment of staff whose task it is to deliver extra tuition. It is an example of a system controlling the people within it and is reminiscent of Habermas’s (1975) philosophy that the system can be prioritised over the life world. A further example of this model of disability is that no child in mainstream schools in Ireland received resource teaching for specific learning disability (dyslexia) prior to 1998. It could be presumed from this fact that specific learning disability (dyslexia) was not recognised prior to that date. In 1999 when the Department of Education and Science established an automatic response granting resource teaching for specific learning disability (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999a), there was a dramatic increase in the number of pupils labelled as having specific learning disability (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b, p.39). The absence of such services prior to 1999 appears to be due to lack of institutional or policy provisions rather than being an indication that pupils’ difficulties did not exist.
All three models of disability present in my workplace are at odds with my belief in the need for education to enable the student to live a full life and to realise his/her potential as a unique individual. My personal educational beliefs cannot be
dismissed as individual opinions because they are commensurate with national decisions in Ireland such as in the Primary Curriculum (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999b, p.7) and in the Primary Curriculum for those with Learning Difficulties (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment 2002, p.3).
Returning now to my omission of pupils from my description of my reactions to a psychologist’s diagnosis of specific learning disability at the beginning of the chapter, I want to explain some possible consequences of labelling for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in my context. In particular I want to highlight how those children perceive themselves and how others see them.
The label ‘with disabilities’ is currently considered more politically correct (McGee 1990 and McGee 2004) than terms previously used, such as ‘handicapped’ or a ‘dyslexic person’. These changes in emphasis in the wording of labels over time reflect societal changes. To address these issues, I chose to focus on specific learning disability as a learning difference. In doing so my research aims to reflect the views of Dillon:
Labels (in Special Education) were intended to be usefully descriptive rather than dangerously prescriptive. Our challenge is to create learning environments, which celebrate a range of talents and abilities and thereby to ensure that we do not conflate the label with the person.
(Dillon 2001, p. 37)
Labels can also affect self-esteem as when, for example, in my context, labels can influence how children perceive themselves and how others see them. I am aware that the children in my research often build identities to ‘hide insecurities and emit an image of calmness and being in control’ (Hudak and Kiln 2001, p. 51) as coping strategies for their loss of self-esteem. These understandings are disturbing because they raise issues of power, violence and identity, and the existence of these issues can limit a pupil’s ability ‘to realise his or her potential as a unique individual’ as set out by the aims of the primary curriculum (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999b, p.7). The work of Bourdieu is also instructive here, as he explains how language itself can become a form of symbolic power (Bourdieu 1992).
I am concerned about the current form of labelling for two reasons: it can lead to an erosion of personal identity and can influence the development of self-esteem. I have come across instances where labelling is used as a power strategy, and this use of power raises issues of equality and justice, as I explain in the following brief example. In a recent postgraduate course of study, a lecturer referred to me as ‘my little student’. Being classed as somebody’s little student, I felt a loss of power and a sense of being controlled by the other – a dismissal of my personal and professional identity. I understand my loss of self-confidence on that occasion as a reaction to a form of violence. In his analysis of institutional violence, Block (1989 cited in Hudak and Kiln 2001, p.47) also describes how ‘our interactions with objects (that is events, objects and people) define who we are’. Labelling can become part of our identity formation.
~Why these understandings were disturbing in relation to my values
When I said at the beginning of this chapter that it was ‘Good’ when a psychological report ‘names strategies and commercial programmes’ and that ‘I will teach them’, I was making a decision to teach in a specific way because of the label a child had received. So in addition to the marginalisation attributable both to the discourses of disability and to the practice of labelling pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), I became concerned during the course of my research about the appropriateness of forms of teaching for those pupils. I have also become concerned that pedagogy is often perceived as knowledge transmission and how this understanding of knowledge informs how learning is evaluated. These concerns have given rise to a long list of personal questions: for example, why I had chosen to research this field. I was asking, ‘Why am I, as a practitioner, concerned about forms of knowledge? Why am I concerned about particular issues in my practice? Why have I tried to address these concerns through research? Why do I aim to move towards greater justice for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), to address the marginalisation and effects of labelling? Why do I aim to facilitate the realisation by pupils of their potential as unique individuals capable of learning in order that they will develop in both self-esteem and learning?’
The questions above are key to the aims that I have chosen for my research; first, because they are about enabling rather than disabling other human beings; second
because they focus on the abilities rather than the disabilities of the individual; and finally because I want to offer opportunities for the pupils in my care no longer to perceive themselves as having a learning disability. My research is driven by a concern for those placed at a disadvantage and by a personal response to an intellectual challenge posed by teaching those with special educational needs. I hold values that have changed the way in which I perceive my context and have helped to focus the aims of my research. These personal values are:
a) Respect for the individual, including ideas about human dignity and wholeness;
b) Respect for the individual’s ability to learn, including issues of equality and freedom;
c) Issues of social justice.
I will now explain the meaning and importance of these values in my context and then relate them to the literature.
(a) Respect for the individual
My current research grew from a concern that objective and externally evaluated forms of knowledge pervaded my circumstances as a resource teacher. My concern was that the individual was being overlooked within these forms of knowledge. For me, this was a denial of respect for the individual person and was contrary to my ideas about human dignity and wholeness. Respect for other individuals has always been an integral part of my teaching. In McDonagh (1999a) I wrote about how I valued the individual by providing differentiated learning provisions for those with specific learning difficulties in my class. The benefits of this approach were that I gained a new perspective on the implications of self-esteem in teaching and learning and how to promote self-esteem in pupils (McDonagh 1999b). I was encouraged by this experience of articulating my values in practical terms. This has influenced both my current research question and research methodology.
I have based my research in the everyday, lived experience of those who participated in it. I was aiming not only for deepened understanding but also I wanted to make a difference for good in the world through teaching and learning. By making a
difference for good I mean changing situations in my practice so that they became more just. This required making opportunities in my study for dialogue between class teachers, resource teachers, pupils and myself. To gather the data for my research, I used dialogue rather than interviews because dialogue, for me, is a cooperative activity grounded in respect for educative relationships. This concept can be compared with the Freirean idea of helping the oppressed to move beyond their culture of silence (Freire 1970, p.15 and Freire et al. 1998) through a form of dialogue that involves people working with each other rather than one person acting on another. Opportunities are also afforded through dialogue to demonstrate respect for others’ ways of thinking. Relating philosophies of justice and freedom with pluralistic ways of coming to know, underpins the practical approach I adopted in my research.
Because I trusted and respected the learner I shifted my understanding of the role ‘of the learner from being the subject or recipient of education’ (Carr 2003, p.4) towards being active agents in their own learning and education. My personal and professional values moved my thinking beyond the practical circumstances in my context towards a Freirean idea of education. Freire (1970, p.55) argues against the ‘banking’ model of education in which the educator makes ‘deposits’ in the educatee and argues for the exercise of personal agency in learning. In later chapters I explain the implications of this stance in my research.
(b) Respect for the individual’s ability to learn
The second significant value that informed my research was respect for the individual’s ability to learn. This meant that I wanted to avoid issues of power and control that can exist in the relationships between pupils and teachers, where the concept of ‘teacher knows and pupils learn’ is prevalent in normative forms of pedagogy. I sought a different concept of the teacher-pupil relationship so that issues of equality and freedom of choice could be included and addressed. This occurred in my research when I provided opportunities for children to learn in ways that were appropriate for them; for example, I examined the appropriateness of the ways in which I taught and came to understand that I needed to expand opportunities for socially created learning (McDonagh 2000). I understand socially created learning as people constructing new knowledge together. My research built on these ideas and
became, in part, an exploration of the nature of relationships between people as they generate knowledge together. I wanted my research to avoid oppression and domination within teacher–pupil relationships because, as Young (2000, p.45) argues, such controlling influences are the founding principles for the formation of injustice. In developing a form of knowledge that was grounded in dialogue, I wanted my research to demonstrate an epistemological and methodological stance that was consistent with ideas of social justice.
The work of Young (1990) offers a useful perspective to begin to understand what I mean by social justice in my research. In her critique of dominant conceptual forms of theories of justice, Young is concerned with social justice not so much as ‘having’ as with ‘being’. Her theory of having and being is based on the thinking of Fromm (1976). Social justice as having can be related to the concept of social justice as equal distribution. The concept of social justice as being can be seen as a development of Freire et al.’s (1998) ideas of being and having. Young is interested in the relationships between people that produce social structures and in how some forms of these social structures can allow injustice to flourish. I, on the other hand, aimed to facilitate the development of relationships between people – pupils and teachers – that could encourage social learning. These relationships would allow a living form of social justice (Sullivan 2006) to flourish by respecting the abilities of all those involved.
As part of my discussion I want to question the links between the idea of respecting the ability to learn of the pupils participating in my research, and current forms of assessment of that ability. I consider that Plato’s view that all ‘knowledge is recollection’ (Plato Meno 380e) was the basis of much of the early training I received in teaching in the late 1960s and the basis of all forms of examining knowledge at that time. I believe the idea of knowledge as recollection is still the underlying principle of standardised testing. The most common form of standardised testing in schools is summative rather than formative in nature. Summative testing aims to test in a prescriptive format by relating pupils’ learning to prescribed objectives. On the other hand, teachers carry out formative testing daily in class through monitoring what and how pupils learn in order to inform their next teaching activity. These performance-indicator-based and standardised tests are grounded in
ideas of stimulus, response and reinforcement. This form of learning has been described as behaviourism by educationalists such as Thorndike in 1917 (see Hilgard and Bower 1996) and Skinner (see Iversen 1992). Eysenck and Evans (1998), Binet (see Siegler 1992) and Wechsler (1992) built on the idea that behaviour can be changed by external stimuli, and they developed a form of psychometric empirical testing to define the processes of human intelligence. From my perspective these theorists laid the groundwork for grading processes. The Wechsler Intelligences Scale for Children (Wechsler 1992) is commonly used as part of the diagnosing process for specific learning disability and dyslexia in Ireland today. My concern is that standardised testing offers little to the learner although it facilitates the sorting, grading and categorising of pupils for the benefit of school management, research measurements or policy formation. These tests do not measure pupils’ developing understanding nor do they measure pupils’ capacity for creativity in thinking. Furthermore they do not measure how pupils are learning. My research has brought me to an understanding of alternative forms of assessment of both my pupils’ and my own abilities to learn.
(c) Issues of social justice
Social justice is the third important value, which influenced the aims and procedures of my research. My understanding is that dominant forms of educational systems consistently deny social justice when children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) are perceived as having a learning disability because of their difficulties with certain curricular areas. Through my research I want to develop more just situations for these pupils. I am not talking only about an inclusive form of justice as teaching in ways so that these pupils can take an equal part in mainstream schooling with their peers. This would be a form of distributive justice, where justice is explained in terms of all getting an equal share. Nor am I not talking only about a form of justice where extra teaching is provided for those with the greater identified learning needs. This form of justice positions justice as fairness (Rawls 2001) in that those with greatest need are given more. I am talking about a living form of justice, which I contend is more socially just, because the abilities of the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in my research, which were masked prior to my research, will be recognised and valued publicly. Later in this chapter, I speak about
a contributive form of justice where all are enabled to make their contributions in the public sphere and have their contributions valued.
I want to tell why I am convinced that my pupils have unrecognised capabilities. My stories are based on my personal experiences and on reading about the life experiences of others, such as Albert Einstein, who is reputed to have had specific learning difficulties. One example of the capabilities that I believe that pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) have is that they think laterally and in innovative ways in order to develop coping strategies. Their engagement in coping strategies is an attempt to hide their difficulties, as the following research vignette shows.
During my research a pupil, who was ten years of age, explained to her class teacher how she (the pupil) avoided being humiliated by being required to answer factual questions aloud in front of the class. I will describe in Chapter Eight how this explanation happened following a report by the pupil to a group of teachers on how dyslexia affected her in class. The pupil had stated that she could not recall answers when a lesson had been conducted orally because she needed visual supports such as diagrams, sketches, mind-maps or cue words to help her recall. The pupil said to her class teacher,
I avoid eye contact with you. I hold my hand and arm up straight. When my arm is up, you think that I know the answers. I don’t wave my arm. You think that I am confident that I know the answer. I don’t make eye contact. You look past me and pick on somebody else to answer.
(3 March 2003 Tape recording and transcript, in data archive Appendices 2.4d and 3.1)
The teacher agreed that the pupil was correct in her understanding of the teacher’s techniques for selecting pupils to give oral answers. The pupil’s coping strategies demonstrated a perceptiveness and innovative reasoning which would be uncommon for her age.
My understanding is that pupils with specific learning disability may have different perspectives on learning and ways of innovative reasoning. This idea is reinforced by biographical information that I have read on Albert Einstein. Einstein thought in a particular way that worked for him, as history shows. Although he was a great mathematician and physicist, his learning difficulties were obvious in his failure to learn mathematical tables. His personal coping strategy for these difficulties was to write the tables around the walls of the room where he worked (Dyslexia-at-bay.com 2005). My personal experiences of teaching pupils with specific learning difficulties over many years has convinced me of their abilities for developing coping strategies – like Einstein and his tables – within an educational system that does not suit them, as the vignette above illustrates.
My second research story describes my understanding that each unique pupil with specific learning disability (dyslexia), in my care, can have intuitive knowledge and skills in specific areas that are beyond what is often demonstrated by their peers who have not been given this label. The following is an example of what I mean. A pupil with dyslexia wrote a piece of text on a computer in word-art. It was illegible to peers because of its size or colour but particularly because of its unusual shapes – as in the example below. However the pupil with dyslexia read it without any difficulty.
The writing says, ‘Famous people who were dyslexic’
(26 January 2003, Pupil’s Report, see Appendix 2.6c)
A second example of my understanding deals with the ability of a pupil with dyslexia to tackle mathematical problems in innovative ways. He could explain the unusual mathematical processes he engaged in but not why he solved mathematical problems – both numerical calculations and concepts – in those ways, by saying,
‘I just know.’
(20 March 2004, Pupil P’s journal, in data archive Appendix 2.1g)
In further reading about Einstein, I realised that he, too, had an intuitive awareness in that he had hit on his theory of relativity intuitively (as it appeared to him) at the age
of sixteen, according to Polanyi (1958). Quoting Einstein’s diary, Polanyi describes how it was
‘From a paradox I had already hit at the age of sixteen’…after 10 years reflection he wrote up his famous formula.
(Polanyi 1958, p.10)
The process of reflection and metacognitive awareness of his personal ways of thinking was vital for Einstein’s formulation of his theory of relativity – a process that took him ten years. I aimed to question if the pupils who were engaged in my research might also have an intuitively clear view of the world of learning. I was asking if these pupils had discovered personal and unique ways of learning. I also questioned if pupils could make their ways of learning explicit. These questions are about pupils and teachers explaining their ways of learning or knowing to each other and are part of my reasons for choosing to locate my study ‘with’ rather than ‘on’ my pupils. My research aimed to show how my pupils and I could together come to know and come to value what we know.
My ideas resonate with the work of Freire because an important element of his philosophy of *Pedagogy of Hope* (1994) was the idea of ‘conscientization’. Taylor (1993) describes the term as:
conscientization – developing consciousness, but a consciousness that is understood to have the power to transform reality.
(Taylor 1993, p.52)
In summary I can say that my thesis does not aim to be a document about teaching children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to read or cope with the school curriculum. It is a thesis on equality, respect and the rights of individuals to come to know in their own way, following the traditions already pioneered by authors such as Fromm (1976) and Freire (1994), who speak, among other things, about having and being and personal forms of knowing. My research was about moving beyond teacher craft or the unconscious intuitive processes of the classroom. My thesis
contains explanations for my own processes of developing metacognitive reflection on my practice through enquiring into my practice.
2.4 Initial practical implications of my research for my pupils and me
My research is about theorising changes in my practice. In practical terms, I want my pupils to find their own ways of negotiating their difficulties with learning and particularly learning to spell, and I want to find the best ways to help them to do this. So far in this chapter I have described contexts and concepts that militate against this. These descriptions represent the second of the metaphorical waves that crashes against me and tugs at me as the pervasive contradictions of living every day in the society in which I live. As I noted earlier, Irish society, although founded on aspirations of democracy and freedom of the individual to achieve their potential, continues to reproduce forms of dominance and injustice that contribute to the marginalisation of people.
Key aims of my study were to
- Show how my pupils can come to value what they know and how they come to know it;
- Explore the nature of relationships between people which foster knowledge creation, and to develop the kinds of relationship that avoid oppression and domination;
- Become part of making a difference in the world for good through the demonstration of the exercise of my educative influence.
These aims became the living standards of judgement that I used to test my knowledge claims, as I explain throughout. In the remainder of this chapter I want to say how I am transforming my conceptual analysis of the reasons that prompted my research into an explanation for how I realised those conceptual analyses in the form of my real-life commitments. In doing so I am exploring how my commitments can be understood as grounded in my ontological values and how those ontological values can be seen also as the grounds for the articulations of my living standards of judgement for my research.
I intend to demonstrate that I am moving towards a methodology that respects the individual and the individual’s ability to learn. I am also articulating my understandings of knowledge in which my research is based. I use the three values that I have named in the last section to frame this account. These values are:
- Respect for the individual
- Respect for the individual’s ability to learn
- Further issues of social justice
~Respect for the individual
My respect for the individual can be seen in the form of research question that I developed. Respect for both my pupils and myself as individuals was a reason for the personalised form of research question I developed – ‘How do I improve my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability who are within my care as a resource teacher in a primary school?’ The question grew from reflection on how I had taught over the last nine years of working in various areas of special education. These reflections made me aware that I could not separate the person that I am from the work that I do. This understanding meant that I could not teach solely as a technician by finding the most appropriate teaching strategy or programme to deliver a specific set of facts. Because, as a resource teacher, I reflect my values and myself in my work, I searched for a methodology to accommodate my articulated values and I aimed to find methods that required ‘less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competences and gifts, and cultivate those’ (Goleman 1995, p.37). I did not approach my research with a prescriptive methodology. By constantly checking my data collection and research methods against the values that I have named, I developed a methodology that is eclectic and is responsive to the individual’s attempts to develop new understandings. I will explain further in Part Three.
~Respect for the individual’s ability to learn
Working from a belief in an individual’s ability to learn included providing opportunities for children to learn in ways that are appropriate for them. This required taking note of how I, as a teacher, developed my learning and made
changes in my practice to achieve this. Integrating the role as a teacher and as a researcher in monitoring myself in action in the classroom was problematic. I needed data that recognised pedagogical expertise in terms other than scientific and technical. I came to realise that teacher practice was broader than the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of teaching or the technically accurate delivery of programmes, no matter how well suited they are to pupils’ needs.
The educational theories that informed the various programmes, recommended in many psychological assessments for the teaching of pupils with specific learning disability, influenced how I taught those programmes. In examining the epistemological bases of these programmes my research took me beyond debates around behaviourist, constructivist or scaffolded methods of learning. Many of these programmes are grounded in what Olson and Bruner (1996) call ‘folk psychology’ and theoretically inspired behaviourism which, as Conway (2002) states, puts
a premium on three basic pedagogical strategies; breaking down tasks into small and manageable pieces, teaching the basics first and incrementally reinforcing and rewarding observable progress.
(Conway 2002, p.72)
Skinner’s (1954) and Gagné’s (1965) theories support the idea of the teacher not only instructing, as is the case in all these programmes, but also controlling the stimulus for learning to which pupils respond. Placing the teacher as the controller of learning removes much of the power to learn from the individual pupil. On the other hand, constructivist theories position the learner in a more active role. Vygotsky (1978 and 1986), in developing theories about the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), speaks of the improvements a learner can make in terms of the distance between the actual level of development and the level of potential development under adult guidance or in collaboration with more able peers. Bruner (1985) uses the metaphor of scaffolding to explain the supporting of learning and ZPD. My research was raising questions such as, If I am to be the supporter of learning, how do I know that the form of my support is appropriate?
I am questioning how I, as a teacher, learned to value the expertise of my professional practice, my knowledge base of teacher craft, and how I have honed this craft over twenty years of general teaching. Similarly I need to find ways to help my pupils come to value what they know and how they come to know it. My methods needed to reflect an appreciation of personal knowledge, both my own and my pupils’. I provided opportunities for my pupils to become co-researchers in my research and we – both the pupils and I – investigated teaching methods and my pupils’ learning methods. In this way I had come to see myself and my pupils as able learners and not learning disabled.
~Further issues of social justice
The idea of social justice in my research came to mean working to benefit individuals (children, other teachers) and myself who were suffering injustices, within our complex education system, because of issues around specific learning disabilities. A practical standard of judgement to assess the success of my work can be whether I have reconceptualised curriculum as a knowledge-generating exercise in which pupils can participate, as well as teachers. In this way I am asking if I have arranged the conditions of learning for my students in terms of offering them full participation in creating their own knowledge.
My research, while valuing action for improvement, needed to be underpinned by a firm philosophical and educational basis. To do this, I next speak about the idea of justice, which informs my research. As far back as Plato’s ‘Republic’, the term ‘justice’ is depicted in ideas of the common good of all citizens. In my research I am aiming for improvement towards a good social order but this does not equate with Plato’s description of distributive justice, which suggests that assets can be divided equally. Today justice debates in education often have a dual focus. First they explain distributive justice in terms of who gets what. Global examples of distributive justice are the promotion of universal elementary schooling and campaigns for universal literacy (Coolahan 1994). In the multimillion Euro industry that is our education service today, a variety of distributive justice exists that is about ‘who gets how much of the education service or money’ (Connell 1993, p.17). Despite the rhetoric of these stances, justice in educational terms cannot be achieved by distributing the same amount of a good standard of education to children of all
social classes and abilities because, in practical terms, the personal commitments and aptitudes of the learner must be taken into account. Therefore, when investigating the learning experience of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), I wanted to move away from a distributive model of justice and focus on contribution rather than distribution. By contributive justice I meant providing opportunities to contribute to a good social order through developing the capacity for self-development and self-determination (Young 2000). In my research context this meant that both the pupils and I had opportunities to contribute within our personal experiences of learning. This involved an acceptance of difference – different ways of being, different forms of knowledge and different ways of learning.
Griffiths (1998) provides three valuable perspectives on social justice, which form the basis of the working definition I used within my research. 'The first principle of social justice is that ‘there is no one right answer' (Griffiths 1998, p.11). Hence my quest for social justice is more about engaging in processes than generating definite findings. This focus on process is also in line with an action research approach. Therefore, a relevant methodological approach for my research was to adopt McNiff's (1988) conceptualisation of spirals in action research. This model however represents the antithesis of traditional propositional forms of research, which search for the ‘right answer’ through linear methodologies. The second principle cited by Griffiths (1998) is that each individual is recognised and valuable, and that no one exists apart from her/his community. Positioning my pupils as co-participants in the research process rather than objects of enquiry seemed to give them both influence and importance. The third principle is that we create ourselves in and within relationship with community. As Griffiths (1998) states,
we created ourselves in and against sections of that community as persons with gender, social class, race, sexuality and (dis)ability.
(Griffiths 1998, p.12)
This principle speaks to the idea of educational research as a form of understanding and explaining one’s capacity for educative influence in the learning community. This concept of exercising one’s influence in learning is a key feature of my research.
I now want to look at what led me towards my reconceptualisation of social justice. My revisioning of my practice began when I became aware of my own learned helplessness in dealing with the classroom difficulties of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in 1997, as I described them in the Foreword. My journey to address my learned helplessness started with courses of the Dyslexia Association of Ireland on specific learning disability. Many such courses, delivered in a didactic/transmission or ‘lecturing-at’ style, had a disempowering effect by giving a teacher new knowledge of the subject while ignoring the practical assistance necessary to implement changes in pedagogy and curriculum. Further reflection on my practice as a teacher occurred during a postgraduate programme of study, where I enjoyed a particular form of learning. This form of learning was informed by McNiff’s (McNiff and Whitehead 2006, p.2) values and understanding of action research as a transformative, generative process. In my search to address the question of ‘How do I improve my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability who are within my care as a resource teacher in a primary school?’ I sought a methodology that was transformative and generative. The value of respect for an individual’s ability to learn, on which my research is grounded, encouraged me as a teacher, to ‘be reflective of my own practice in order to enhance the quality of education for my pupils and myself’ (McNiff 1988, p.1). This implied a research methodology that valued the idea of the person and their personal knowledge.
I needed to change my understanding in order to change my practice, as a teacher, so as to succeed in addressing my pupils’ educational needs. To facilitate this personal transformation I chose a self-study methodology, which is in line with recommendations 7.2 to 7.7 of the Task Force on Dyslexia on both the pre- and in-service professional development of teachers (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b), which include:
Intensive in-career development courses dealing with the identification of learning difficulties arising from dyslexia, differentiated teaching, programme planning and implementation at the individual student level should be arranged for all class and subject teachers on an ongoing basis.
(Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b, p113)
the creation of a school environment which prevents or limits obstacles to learning which students may experience.
(Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b, p115)
I chose a self-study action research approach, so that my research would be of immediate benefit to my pupils. I believe that this was a way of implementing personal and professional change through research, as can be seen in the many research theses on the websites jeanmcniff.com (2006) and actionresearch.net (2006).
My thesis therefore is not a book or box full of propositional knowledge, nor is it just a document about teaching children how to read and spell. It is a living thesis on freedom, justice and the rights of individuals to come to know in their own way, following the traditions already pioneered by authors such as Freire (1994), Whitehead (actionresearch.net 2006) and McNiff (jeanmcniff.com 2006).
2.5 Summary
In this chapter I have explained how I have come to three major issues in my research and how I aim to address them.
1. A clash of values exists between policy and the social practices concerning the education of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I aim to redress this by celebrating the humanity and potential of myself and my pupils I teach. This aim is grounded in my value of respect for the individual.
2. In relation to my developing understanding of specific learning disability and the labelling of pupils with disability, I aim to enable both the pupils and myself to be seen by ourselves and others as valuable citizens. This aim is grounded in my belief in the capacity of the individual to learn.
3. I consider why my current understandings of specific learning disability (dyslexia) are disturbing and this raises issues around social justice, which I aim to address through my research. The initial implication of this for me in relation to my pupils’ learning is how to enable them to negotiate their difficulties with spellings, and how to find the best ways to help them.
The personal values as articulated in this chapter informed the purposes of my research and these values became the practical criteria by which my work can be judged, as follows.
In terms of learning and knowledge,
- Did I engage with issues of how I come to know and how my coming to know was informed by how I helped my children to come to know?
In terms of specific learning disability,
- Did I find ways to help children come to value what they know and how they know it?
In terms of social justice,
- Have I reconceptualised curriculum as a knowledge-generating exercise in which pupils participated, as well as teachers? In this way have I arranged the conditions of learning for my students, which offer them fuller participation in creating their own knowledge?
In this section I have described the practical concerns and epistemological background of my work. In doing so I have highlighted the two major influences on me as a researcher. These are my personal commitments to my work and my awareness of tensions between my values and my practice. Part Two of this thesis conceptualises these concerns in term of the core issues of my study and the further development of my conceptual frameworks.
PART TWO: CORE ISSUES OF MY RESEARCH
In this second Part, I want to review my practice prior to and in the early stages of my research. First I reconsider my actions following the receipt of a diagnosis of specific learning disability for a pupil. There are two key areas, from my description in Chapter Two, that I intend to examine in the next two chapters. The first is in relation to how I conceptualised specific learning difficulties. In Chapter Three I consider my values around learning and relate them to the focus on learning strengths that I expressed when I said,
This discrepancy is very useful. It tells me that this pupil will learn better when new information is presented orally rather than in written form only. When I am explaining the report to the child’s parents, I can emphasise the pupil has strengths above his average scores in verbal areas. I point out that this difference will be very helpful for him in career choices later in his life. His lower scores in performance IQ explain why he is having so many difficulties in school where most of the work is written.
(See p.19 above)
Chapter Four centres on how I attempt to encourage this understanding of learning through my teaching. I relate my stance on learning to how I teach and evaluate the programmes recommended in the psychological report, given that I have said in the past,
Good, it names strategies and commercial programmes. I will definitely teach these programmes.
(See p. 19 above)
I offer explanations for my practice, justifying how these accounts can be seen to constitute my own living educational theory as described by Whitehead (1989). I show how different conceptualisations of theory exist in the literature, and how I engage with the literature in order to justify my own theoretical stance. I explain why I challenge the view that theory is a discrete body of knowledge (see Popper, 1963 and 1972; Pring, 2000). I present my preferred stance of understanding practice as a living form of theory itself, that can be generated from studying one’s own practice (Whitehead 1989; Whitehead and McNiff 2006). Accordingly, I am developing
ideas about the philosophical underpinnings of my research as my living theory of practice in the next two chapters.
Continuing my strategy of writing my thesis as a report of my action enquiry, I am also asking myself, ‘Why am I concerned?’ My answer includes explaining how my values informed the conceptual frameworks of my research. The labelling, the discourses, the dominant epistemological base from which specific learning disability (dyslexia) is understood, are all reasons for concern to me. My ontological and epistemological values are contrary to those that underpin the dominant form of knowledge in Irish education in that I believe that my pupils and I are valuable humans, and I am concerned that current systemic constraints can prevent the realisation of my potential and my pupils’ potential. I believe in the worth of the individual and that people need to be free to develop themselves in terms of that worth (Sen 1999). My research focus is to understand and overcome those constraints in my context.
I am challenging dominant theories about specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) that adopt an objective or spectator view of knowledge (Hornsby 1995; Snowling 2000). The concept of spectator forms of knowledge is well established in the literature and communicates the idea that the researcher is a spectator and pupils (and others) are the objects of study. When this view enters a research field, the kind of theory developed is often of an abstract, reified form (Atkins and Tierney 2004; De Buitléir 2002; Herbert 2006). I chose not to adopt this stance for my research; instead I wished to investigate my research area from what has become known as an insider or internalist perspective (Chomsky 1986; McNiff 2002). This meant that I positioned myself as a researcher who was conducting her own self-study (Loughran et al. 2004) into how I could develop pedagogies that would enable me to enhance the quality of learning experience for pupils in my care who are labelled with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
I explain that the forms of theory and practice, which I outline in this section, inform my own practical, living theory of learning to teach for social justice. I explain and test my new understandings in later sections of this thesis.
CHAPTER THREE: My Conception of the Nature of Learning for Pupils with Specific Learning Disability (Dyslexia)
3.1 Introduction
In this chapter I am describing the third wave of influence on my research, which, as I said in Chapter One, was the practical significance of traditional theories of learning for my teaching of children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I have spoken in Chapter Two of how I excluded children in discussions about their own learning, and now I explain why I chose to reverse this situation by involving the children who participated in my research as agents in their own learning. In doing so I took action in accordance with my conviction that these children have significant intellectual capacity. In this chapter I show that my decisions have also been informed by my values base as a Christian and by the idea of the importance of embodied knowledge in human enquiry, as explained by Polanyi (1958) and Whitehead (1993).
I examine and analyse situations in my practice in order to come to an understanding of the nature of learning for the pupils I teach who are labelled as having specific learning disability (dyslexia). I show how different conceptualisations of learning exist in the discourses in my context and in the literature. I explain why I challenge the view that learning should be portrayed as training (Skinner 1957) or as being constructed for learners (Vygotsky 1978 and Bruner 1985). The understanding of learning that I arrive at, includes conserving some of the strengths of such existing theories of learning and building on them in ways that value the individual and his/her capacities for knowing and learning.
I have identified two key issues arising from my emergent understandings of normative theories of learning. The first of these issues was the exclusionary nature of learning where the learner’s voice was often marginalised within the learning process. The second issue was the conflicting nature of the theoretical bases of learning, as it was constituted in my context. The Education Act 1998 (Government of Ireland 1998, s.9, p13) requires educators to provide appropriate teaching for learning for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), and I do so by first
ensuring that my research offers a practical approach to addressing these theoretical and epistemological issues.
3.2 How learning is conceptualised in my practice: does it value the individual?
I begin this section with a description of how I taught at the beginning of my research process. I was teaching programmes that had been recommended in my pupils’ psychological reports. More details about the programmes that I mention are in Appendix 4.1.
Pupil F sat across the table from me. His photocopy of P.A.T. Worksheet Ten from *Phonological Awareness Training* (P.A.T.) Level 1 (Wilson 1999) was in front of him. I had already tested Pupil F on the reading sheets provided in the beginning of the programme manual, which indicated that this was the appropriate sheet for him to work at. Worksheet ten looked something like this
| | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z |
|-------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gl | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| bl | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| pl | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| st | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| th | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| -ank | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| -ide | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| -ock | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| -and | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Blank | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
I wrote the word ‘blank’ in the column under ‘-ank’ and said, ‘This is how we make blank.’ As I wrote, I only said ‘bl’ and ‘–ank’ with accentuation. I asked Pupil F to think of more words that sounded like ‘blank’. I invited Pupil F to use the alphabet and consonants blends on the worksheet to find letters that could go with ‘-ank’ to make real words. I knew that Pupil F had major problems in writing, so I gave him a plastic alphabet with red-coloured vowels and blue-coloured consonants. I demonstrated how I wanted Pupil F to place the letters of the rime ‘ank’ together in front of him and then to place each blend of consonants to the left of his rime and then to sound out the word it made aloud. Later in the day Pupils B and Pupil D did a similar exercise. Pupil D traced his words on a tray of sand because he enjoyed it and appeared to learn better when I gave him tactile activities. Pupil B used script writing to fill in her worksheet because linking the letters repeatedly helped her
memorise letter strings (Cripps 1988). After exactly five minutes I moved us onto the next task.
For the next ten minutes Pupil F read aloud from *Toe by Toe* (Cowling and Cowling, 1993) starting at page 37 (there is a sample in Appendix 4.2). I gave him a tick for each set of sounds or words that he read correctly and a dot for those he could not read. We did this reading activity daily. When Pupil F read correctly on three separate occasions, he was deemed (according to the authors of *Toe by Toe*) to know those sound or words and so I omitted them from his reading and moved onto new word lists.
We read a story on page thirty from *Alpha to Omega Activity Pack Stage One* (Hornsby et al. 1999) together. I shadow read, supplying sounds or whole words when Pupil F was unsure of them. I asked Pupil F to guess a possible ending for the story and then he verbally answered the comprehension questions supplied in the book about the story. Finally he completed page 31 by writing in missing words in a cloze exercise containing thirteen sentences similar to the one below, all of which had words made up of consonant blends.
2. grab grog glum grin
Do not be so ______
I finished the lesson by telling Pupil F that I would correct his written work later and asked him, ‘What did you learn today?’ and, ‘What do you want to do tomorrow?’ (see Appendix 5.2a).
These final questions were an indication of my values around my pupil’s capacity to be aware of his learning and active in planning his own learning. The questions also indicated my understanding of learning as personal. I also used the term ‘we’ and worked together with Pupil F in the reading exercise, demonstrating that I was acting within an understanding of learning as, in part, a social process.
I want to explain how this lesson is an example of other values I held around learning. The lesson and the Individual Educational Plan (IEP see Table 3.1 below and full sample is in Appendix 6.1) that I had devised for Pupil F indicated that I was working within a propositional form of thinking at that time. Although Individual Educational Planning documents were a job requirement, the wording in them was mine and so I perceive them as an indicator of my thinking at that time.
Table 3.1: Extract from an Individual Learning Plan 2001 (Appendix 5.1)
| PRIORITY LEARNING TARGETS: |
|---------------------------|
| 1. Alpha to Omega activities pages 19-49 |
| 2. Complete level 1 PAT |
| 3. Toe by Toe page 6 - 50 |
| 4. Wordshark short vowel activities |
| 5. Read 20 words from Dolch common word list. |
| 6. Pupil B will demonstrate that she knows letter sounds by indicating the letter when I say the sound on 10 occasions. |
| Teaching Strategies |
|-------------------|
| Teacher modelling and practice |
| Materials/Resources |
|---------------------|
| *Alpha to Omega Book 1: P.A.T 2: Toe By Toe*: Wordshark 2L and the Dolch common word list |
| Home |
|------|
| Follow class homework |
The learning targets indicate that I was using a form of propositional knowledge, because I was positioning knowledge as information and skills to be acquired by setting those specific targets for the attainment of learning. I was also engaging with causal logic in that I supposed that my modelling and pupil copying of practice would cause pupils to learn. I considered learning as a process, by which skills, attitudes, knowledge and concepts are acquired, understood, applied and extended.
(Pollard 1997, p.134)
I had chosen materials and resources that were based on others’ theories of learning. I, like other teachers, considered myself as attempting to apply others’ learning
theories to my practice, rather than being a theorist of my practice. I did not perceive myself then as having knowledge-creating capacities. I am of the opinion that this was because I was working within a system which, as I have shown in Chapter One, holds fast to technical-rational forms of theory and logic. Consequently I was discouraged from thinking critically about how learning was happening. My situation is similar to Marcuse’s (1964 and 2002) suggestion that technical-rational forms of theory and logic can close down debate and critique. Marcuse held that thinking and knowledge are often reified. He describes the consequences of this as a one-dimensional universe of thought and behaviour. In this way he suggests that critical thinking can be discouraged. I felt that I had been unconsciously subsumed into a one-dimensional world in terms of theorising forms of learning in my practice.
Although I was teaching programmes that were recommended in the psychologist’s report about Pupil F, I was devaluing his ability to learn and think for himself in that I had chosen the skills that he should acquire and how he would acquire them. Yet I was also acting on a different understanding of learning that positioned learning as personal to the learner when I sought the pupils’ areas of strength from the subdivision of IQ scores in the psychologists’ reports. Similarly, I adjusted my teaching of the P.A.T. programme to permit Pupils F, D and B to work within their own personal strengths by allowing them to record the words they made using non-written, sensory and letter string approaches.
I was acting on a conceptualisation of learning as both personal and as an on-going process of skill acquisition. When I asked at the end of my lesson, ‘What did you learn today?’ and ‘What do you want to do tomorrow?’(Appendix 5.2a), I was positioning learning as ‘a process both of not knowing and of coming to know’ (McNiff 2002, p.8) which means that the learning process is being explained from the personalised perspective of the learner as a transformational experience. I was also positioning learning, as Pollard (1997) explains it, as a linear process for change in that it includes understanding, application and extension. By reflecting on my own role as a resource teacher and on current policy conditions that recommend how learning should happen, it appears to me that these two different conceptions of learning struggle for dominance in my practical context.
How learning is conceptualised in the discourses around my practice
In order to engage critically with how learning was happening for the children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) that I teach, I reflected on my understanding of the discourses around their learning. The government has made two significant contributions to these discourses during the course of my research, in the report of the Task Force on Dyslexia (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b) and in *Understanding Dyslexia: Challenges and Opportunities* (Ireland, Department of Education and Science and Northern Ireland, Department of Education 2004), which was a joint initiative of the Departments of Education North and South in Ireland. Both Government documents have on the one hand provided political and practical contexts for my research that are grounded in objective, quantifiable knowledge, and they also adopt a medical model of disability, which I described in the previous chapter. On the other hand my understanding that the children who participated in my research can think for themselves and are capable of being agents in their own learning is also signalled in these documents in terms of valuing each individual student with dyslexia and in references to personal knowledge as well as the socially created nature of learning. My reflections below on these documents highlight the struggle between theory and practice in the contexts of my research.
The major recommendations of the Task Force on Dyslexia (Government of Ireland, 2002b), unlike my approach of valuing the individual as a person, objectify the individual, in that the Task Force recommendations cater for the needs of each student at varying levels of abstraction. This is demonstrated when the Task Force Report adopts a medical model of provision by recommending the diagnosis of needs followed by prescriptive suggestions at a remove from pupils such as
(a) career-long professional development courses for teachers;
(b) quantifying services provided by other agencies;
(c) schools and teachers addressing the diagnosed needs by the provision of extra teaching hours and policies.
These recommendations are based on objective and quantifiable forms of knowledge. However the report articulates the centrality of the individual when it recommends,
The adoption of a model of provision based on the needs of each student along the continuum of learning difficulties arising from dyslexia.
(Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b, p.xiv)
Yet, the report recommends three practices that exclude the individual learner from active participation. These practices focus on accountability rather than how individual pupils learn in that,
(a) Teachers are to address the individuals’ ‘needs’ by administration processes such as checklists to identify pupil difficulties;
(b) Parental involvement in decision-making about the continuation or discontinuation of support services;
(c) Programme planning and recording by teachers.
In the lesson described above, the shadow reading and my use of ‘we’ placed Pupil F and me within a creative relationship of learning. My commitment to the idea of knowledge generation as a creative process is also articulated when the Task Force Report calls for ‘a whole-school, multidisciplinary approach to catering for all those with dyslexia across all levels’ (Day 2003, p.76). The report, however, has no practical recommendations about how this process can happen. There is slippage between rhetoric and practice. In my research I offer not only an account of my practice as a dynamic, transformational form of theory but also as a demonstration of how the voice of the individual with dyslexia can be included, which may help to bridge this gap between rhetoric and practice.
The second, recent government publication *Understanding Dyslexia* (Department of Education and Science and Department of Education of Northern Ireland 2004) was distributed to every primary school in 2005 and positions the political and practical contexts of my work within a positivist and objectivist perspective. An example of this is a section dedicated to learning conditions and supporting learning. This section ignores the role of the learner or teacher and consists of suggesting
(i) Practical objects of support such as bookmarks, books on tape, ICT facilities such as PCs and Dictaphones (p.21);
(ii) Learning conditions such as practical modifications to the workplace of the pupils such as minimising noise and visual distractions, wall displays and colour-highlighted checklists (p.20).
The learning relationship between teacher and pupils that is a central theme in my research is omitted in *Understanding Dyslexia* (Ireland, Department of Education and Science and Northern Ireland, Department of Education 2004). *Understanding Dyslexia* articulates an understanding of learning as both personal and social. It cites examples of learning happening in pupil-to-pupil and adult-to-adult relationships in that it recommends both the grouping of pupils and ‘working buddies’ (p.20) to help with the support, direction and motivation of learners. Significantly, the teacher and pupil relationship is not named as part of the learning process. *Understanding Dyslexia* also makes a brief reference to awareness of personal knowledge, in that teachers are encouraged to ‘ask parents how their children learn best’ and to ‘be prepared to learn from parents’ (p.21). For me, the important learning relationships of pupils and teachers are again omitted from this document. Instead it positions the teacher as a facilitator and diagnostician supporting learning by using objects and strategies such as those mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Both government documents cited adopt behaviouristic approaches to learning and to pupil motivation to learn, just as I had done by teaching the programmes recommended for Pupil F by an educational psychologist. This behaviourist approach to teaching and learning is evident in the language and discourses of the government documents I am discussing, as well as many of the programmes recommended for those with specific learning disability. *Understanding Dyslexia*, for example, suggests the following 115 programmes for assisting those with specific learning disability/dyslexia, most of which are based on behaviouristic approaches to learning: 24 phonological skills, 24 multisensory reading programmes, 19 handwriting, 26 spelling, 10 expressive writing, 7 mechanics of writing and 5 mindmaps.
Having taught most of these recommended programmes during the course of my career, I find that they have a dual focus. First there is an emphasis on a medical model of disability where control over the learning process is removed from the
learner to an ‘other’. The ‘other’ I am referring to here is the programme facilitator, teacher or tutor. The learner is positioned as subservient to the learning strategies. This brings to mind Bourdieu’s (1990) comment that in positivist logics, the model is superior to the practice it is supposed to represent. The second focus of these commercial programmes, in my view, is an emphasis on deconstructing or segmenting English reading and writing into components and skills through which the disabled learners’ knowledge is expected to be reconstructed.
This deconstruction/construction approach positions learners as recipients of a body of knowledge and specific skills. My research challenges this stance, because this stance positions the learner in a passive role, ignoring his or her capabilities for thinking critically. In my research I tackled the passivity and invisibility of the learner, which often occurs in behaviourist approaches to learning, and which dominate my field, by encouraging the children in my research to voice their experiences of learning. In this way I addressed the polarised positioning of learning that occurs in my context by combining Pollard’s (1997) and McNiff’s (2002) explanations of learning so that learning for me and my pupils became an on-going personal process of not knowing and of coming to know.
~ Different conceptualisations of learning exist in the literature
The lesson that I described at the beginning of this chapter positioned Pupil F as the recipient of the skills that I chose to teach, yet despite this, the personalised adjustments that I made in teaching the recommended programmes, such as not expecting every pupil to write the list of words in P.A.T., showed that I valued each individual pupil. I now want to relate the actions I was taking to individually support my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to the literature in the field. Specifically I consider how the learner is positioned in the relationships between traditional theories of learning and discourses of disability. In this section I compare the three models of disability (medical, educational and psycho-social), which are present in my context, with three traditional theories of learning, in order to discover what understanding of learning emerges. In making these comparisons, I am flagging up issues around the epistemological base of intervention programmes and curriculum for the children I taught when I began my research.
Each of the three main models of disability – medical, educational and psycho-social – position the learner, who is labelled as disabled, as Other. The medical model treats the child as an object of study rather than as a unique individual because it works from a perspective of diagnosis, prescription and cure. Similarly, in behaviourist theories of learning (Skinner 1954 and Gagné 1965) I, as a teacher, am positioned as the controller of learning within cycles of behaviour management in learning using stimulus, response, and observation to regulate learning. These cycles adopt a medical model of diagnose, prescribe and cure to learning. In this way the learner appears as a passive recipient in the process of internalising a body of knowledge. An example of the combination of medical and behaviourist models of remediation in learning is the extensive research into phonological awareness and multisensory programmes to aid the learning of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Wise, Ring and Olson (1999), for example, in their large-scale study of various forms of remediation such as these programmes, find that the actual type of phonological awareness training is less important than the need to embed that training within a well-structured approach to reading. The scientific and structured process that Wise, Ring and Olson (1999) advocate therefore envisages learning as enabled through structured training, and diminishes the role of the learner in the process.
Within the second model of disability – an educational model – the child becomes potentially disabled by the interaction between itself and its environment; environment here includes the ways in which the child is expected to learn, similar to Bourdieu’s (1977) idea of habitus. This model of disability places structures or curricula as frameworks of power over students. These conditions can negate the abilities of the individual child and have a disabling effect. Similarly, within a constructivist approach, learning can be managed by the teacher to the extent of providing tools for learning and staged developmental learning situations. Constructivist theories of learning also include structures, processes and programmes that often ignore the abilities of the individual child in areas not addressed by these programmes and can have a disabling effect on an individual child while in school. Using a construction metaphor to demonstrate the precedence of systems and designs over individuals, I, as the teacher, provide the building blocks, cement,
spades and trowels. The pupils use the tools provided to stick the blocks together into a pre-designed structure.
A psycho-social model of disability, the third model of disability, focuses on specific groups with disability and this grouping happens when experts take control of aspects of the disability. For example, psychologists, neurologists and educationalists all engage in research into dyslexia. In my research context, primary movement therapists, neuro-development therapists, those offering private tuition and special education provision by the Department of Education and Science, all offer support for dyslexia. Within the psycho-social model of disability, each of these specialists potentially becomes a form of social control, which can be maintained through and for their own interests. In practice this means that each group defines dyslexia within terms relevant to their own interests, therapy or programmes. Accordingly, the debate about how best to address dyslexia among commercial interests such as those of primary movement therapists, neuro-development therapists, and those offering private tuition is hotly contested. Yet in my personal experience the effects of these expert interventions are erratic in that there is no way of knowing which, if any, will benefit a specific pupil. Nugent (2006, p.107-111) also found, when she examined increases in reading, comprehension and spellings levels following primary movement therapy, neuro-development therapy and private tuition, that there are no statistically significant differences. Both my own personal experiences and the research above suggest that a psycho-social model of disability, which is present in my context, makes no contribution to pupils’ learning.
In conclusion, having looked at how I taught at the beginning of my research and related it to discourses and literature around specific learning disability, I am concerned about understandings about the nature of the learning of my pupils on three counts. These issues are around
1) The capacity of my pupils to think and learn for themselves is ignored.
2) The conditions of learning, where pupils are withdrawn from their classes, for one-to-one resource teaching, exclude them from their peers.
3) There are no opportunities for my pupils to become aware of or value their own ways of learning.
3.3 Is the worth of the individual evident in my research context?
I now offer two vignettes from my research that show the contrast between my later forms of practice and earlier forms, as described at the beginning of this chapter. These vignettes demonstrate my values around pupils and how I facilitated freedoms for pupils to express their views about their learning.
The first vignette tells how I offered my pupils opportunities for voice because I had been concerned that their capacities to think and learn for themselves were ignored in the ways in which I had been teaching. In year one of my research, I decided to enquire into the pupils’ views on their difficulties, so, at the beginning of one particular lesson, I asked each of the eight pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), ‘Why do you think that you come to classes with me?’ Each pupil gave definite answers that varied from ‘I have dyslexia’ to ‘I can’t learn.’ It dawned on me that I had heard the words ‘I can’t learn’ frequently from children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I was concerned about the negativity of their answers. So I decided to investigate my pupils’ views about how dyslexia affected them in school. With their permission, I made an audio tape recording of their answers (see Appendix 2.4c). At the beginning of every year during my research, I asked each new cohort of eight pupils the same question: ‘How does dyslexia affect you in school?’ Even in the final year of my data gathering, the pupils’ answers on the tape recording made disappointing yet enlightening reading. They said,
- I can’t learn spellings
- I can’t learn tables
- I can’t learn Irish. It is hard to read and spell the words.
- I can’t read out loud
- I can’t make sense out of the words in books
- I can’t answer questions about stories
- I can’t do neat writing
- I don’t understand the words in maths
- I can’t do maths ‘cause I mix up the signs
- In history I can’t remember what happens and some of the words are real hard to spell.
- In geography some of the questions are hard to understand and it is hard to remember all the different countries.
(March 2003 Pupils’ Reports, original in data archive, see Appendices 2.6b to 2.6.d)
Because those children experience failure to learn regularly in school they probably come to see this as a natural phenomenon. This concept can possibly be explained within Gramsci’s (1971) ideas that people come to regard the ideological constructs of their social and political world as natural rather than their realisation of their own capacity. Both their peers and the educational system position these pupils as different from the mainstream and consequently as failures. When children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) are withdrawn from classes for additional tuition, their peers view those children as failures and different in that those children are not able to learn like their peers, as shown in the following example. A classmate of a pupil who was a participating in my research wrote to him:
I thought that you couldn’t learn. You were thick because you went to Mrs. McDonagh’s.
(20 May 2003, see Appendix 2.7)
Another possible reason for those with specific learning difficulty (dyslexia) to experience failure as natural is the emphasis that schools place on mathematical-linguistic abilities in the education system, as Gardner (1993) explains. This emphasis positions pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) at a disadvantage because their specific difficulties lie mainly within mathematical-linguistic ways of learning, which are viewed as the most valued ways of knowing in the contexts of normative curricula.
Barthes (1983) describes how this naturalisation process works in the political world in that dominant discourses powerfully reinforce social and cultural realities. He explains that populations are persuaded to acquiesce in their own oppression. I do not consider it a massive leap from this concept to the situation in my context where a population of children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) are marginalised in such ways as to require them to remain oppressed although they have the innate ability (being of average intelligence) and capacity to change their situation. The pupils in my research have been persuaded by their experiences of the education system to acquiesce in a public perception of their own specific learning disabilities. They did not see their learning as ‘a process both of not knowing and of coming to
know’ (McNiff 2002, p.8) but rather as a process of not knowing and of being incapable of coming to know.
~ Developing an inclusive form of teaching and learning
To counter this situation, I looked for ways to address the issues of (1) giving opportunities for voice to the learner; (2) placing a value on the learning process rather than on quantifiable learning content; (3) withdrawal from mainstream classes. Prior to the research reported in this thesis, I experimented with applying a strategy to support learning in social settings. This strategy, which is called co-operative learning (Kirk 1997, 2003 and 2006), has proven useful to those with learning difficulties within mainstream classes, both in relation to my experiences and in the research of Kirk. This strategy was inclusive in that the learners were actively engaged in their learning process. In practice it involved me, as a teacher, mentoring pupils in the development of skills that contributed to active group-learning, such as taking responsibility for questioning, coming to and recording group decisions, ensuring that all in the group were motivated and took part at their own level of ability while continually building on known concepts. These skills were grounded in a constructivist approach to learning (Vygotsky 1978).
The strategy of co-operative learning is inclusive in that both the learning and its evaluation are achieved in co-operation with other learners. For example, the research conducted by Kirk (1997, 2003 and 2006) at primary school level in Ireland found that
By experiencing effective heterogeneous co-operative groups, students learn to value and respect diversity and the intelligences, perspectives and strengths of others.
(Kirk 2003, p.29)
Strategies for co-operative learning are cited in *Understanding Dyslexia* (Ireland, Department of Education and Science and Northern Ireland, Department of Education 2004).
Despite the beneficial aspects of such strategies, I find that there is epistemological incongruence in the research about it in the following way. In modifying Johnson and Johnson’s (1994) model, Kirk (1997) introduces a reward structure based on Slavin’s research (1991). Slavin (1991) rewards learning achievement observed by him, while Kirk (1997) rewards observed improvements in social skills. I perceive that there are conflicting perspectives on knowledge within the work of these researchers, in that Slavin and Kirk introduce observable measures of procedural knowledge in order to evaluate processes of learning which involve personal knowledge (rather than propositional knowledge) being socially created within co-operative pupil-learning groups. The groups are learning to value personal and dialogical forms of knowledge creation, while the researchers work within a propositional perspective of knowledge by establishing product/process tensions in their evaluation strategies.
Notwithstanding the epistemological questions that I raised about the epistemological bases of strategies to support co-operative learning, those strategies involve people talking together about learning. This concept of learning with others has relevance for my research. It also mirrors Freire’s (1994) ideas on dialogue towards empowerment.
In practical terms I also intended, in my research, to explain why, although I taught pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) for 2.5 hours on an individual basis weekly, their learning of curricular subjects did not improve significantly. Given the advantages of co-operative learning, I queried if the isolation in which my pupils were expected to learn contributed to their difficulties. I reflected on my previous personal experiences of teaching those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and research in this field.
There is conflicting research evidence around the practice of withdrawal as follows. The education system is currently structured to provide support in special schools, special units within mainstream schools, resource classes (until September 2005) and learning support settings (following September 2005) in accordance with circular 02/05 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a). My personal experience was that pupils preferred either withdrawal from mainstream classes or
access to special schools. Often pupils explained that their preference for withdrawal was because ‘I get time out from our main classes’ (Journal 2 November 2001; see Appendix 2.1e). Other pupils felt that in special schools they were amongst others with similar difficulties so they were valued as able to learn at their own personal levels (Journal 22 March 2003; see Appendix 2.1f). These seeming contradictions are borne out by research about the experiences of pupils. On the one hand those receiving special provision in collaborative settings are generally happy in school (Gerber and Popp 1999), and Demchuk (2000) finds that those receiving withdrawal services sometime felt stigmatised. On the other hand Humphreys and Mullins (2002) suggest that mainstream settings have a more negative impact on self-concept than provision in special units connected to mainstream schools. Research into pupils’ perceptions of various learning support settings appears inconclusive. I sought however to understand how to create conditions that would support my pupils’ learning.
~ How I encouraged learning through my teaching
The second research vignette is about how I encouraged learning through my teaching. During the first three months of my research I realised that pupils with dyslexia had much to offer each other in terms of how they experienced school. I timetabled a group session for each cohort on Fridays for one hour. During these sessions we developed our understandings about dyslexia together, as I now describe.
I wanted to move pupils away from the negative ‘I can’t do’ feelings that they had expressed. I decided to focus on what worked for them. I looked for something that every member of the cohort was good at. After some reflection I realised that they could all draw well. So I decided to ask them to ‘Draw a picture about what helped them with their dyslexia’. The picture below was drawn during an hour-long session where one cohort of pupils and I drew our feelings about specific learning disability using our personal choices of art media. In these art sessions I gave freedom to my pupils that enabled them to express themselves with ease in methods that disregarded their literacy difficulties. The pupils, having been given the opportunity to express their views, wanted to share their art-work and opinions. With their permission I
taped and transcribed their conversations and I have included a part of this transcript later in this thesis.
**Picture 3.1 A pupil’s explanation of going to Resource Class**
The text in panel 1 reads: Pupil B says, ‘Full stop. I ha to school I have to going to school.’ An arrow with the word ‘sky’ points to a black sky. The text in panel 2 reads: Class Teacher says ‘B. go to the resours [resource] teacher.’ Pupil says, ‘At least I will lern [learn] some thing.’ The text in panel 3 reads: Pupil B says, ‘Hi teacher.’ Resource teacher says, ‘Hi B.’ The text in panel 4 reads: After School. Pupil B says, ‘Hep [help] is good. It was not such a bad day.’
Following the pupils’ artwork and discussion about what helped them cope with the difficulties that they were experiencing in school because of their dyslexia, I asked myself the following practical questions about the learning of the children:
Do I discuss learning styles with my pupils? Do I suggest a choice of learning approaches to pupils? Do I allow my pupils to assess their own work? Do I give pupils opportunities to exhibit their understanding and to influence others?
(14 March 2002, Journal in data archive, see Appendix 2.1b)
In answering these questions through my research, I am demonstrating that I am rooting my studies in a form of living theory of teaching for learning. My living theory is different from, though it incorporates, the propositional forms of teaching for learning that are the dominant ones in my context. I am engaging with knowledge as personal, and as being created and affirmed in my learning relationships with others. My questions show that I value individual learners’ ways of learning by including them in the learning process.
I am also giving the children opportunities to work together and to begin to evaluate their learning. In taking action to address these issues my research offered an inclusive practice of learning where knowledge was socially created and affirmed. I was encouraged in this research aim by the writing of Fleischer (2001) when he concludes that students ‘who have been disempowered through an institutional act of labelling can not only find a voice, but can also articulate resistance to labels’ (Fleischer in Hudak and Kiln 2001, p.5). I was further encouraged by McNiff’s and Whitehead’s suggestion that humans and ‘all organic systems have their own internal generative capacity to transform themselves into more developed versions of themselves through learning’ (McNiff and Whitehead 2006, p.33).
~ Developing a living theory of learning to teach from within my practice
In the early stages of my research I had attempted to apply propositional theories of teaching to my practice unsuccessfully – as I described above in terms of strategies to support co-operative learning. I was unsuccessful. This represents the third wave of influence on my research, which was the practical relevance of propositional theories of teaching to combat specific learning disability.
My lack of success was commensurate with what I understand to be many other teachers’ attempts to teach in accordance with propositional theories. An example of this phenomenon in the context of specific learning disability (dyslexia) is the difficulties teachers experience in trying to provide differentiated content, by which I mean content that was adapted for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), within a mainstream class setting. Research indicates that teachers find
differentiation very difficult to implement and sustain (Yuen, Westwood and Wong 2004, Fuchs and Fuchs 1999). Yuen, Westwood and Wong (2004) demonstrate the problematics of applying propositional theories to practice. Their results show that teachers make relatively few adaptations to meet the learning needs of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and rely instead on other pupils in the class to provide peer assistance (Yuen, Westwood and Wong 2004, p.67). In my research I am indicating the need to problematise processes and their underpinning conceptualisations when teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
A key to understanding why this is necessary lies in how the learner is positioned within propositional theories of teaching for learning. Theories of teaching can act as lenses through which the learning process is explained. This metaphor of a lens is significant because one can look through a lens from either side. Often the same learning incident can be viewed as an example of either behaviourism or constructivism or even personal knowledge creation, depending on the observer’s perspective. For example I have described a constructivist theory of learning from an externalist perspective (Vygotsky 1978 and 1986). It can also be viewed from the learner’s perspective. From the learner’s perspective it can be explained as the individual constructing new knowledge by imposing mental frameworks on his/her own learning in order to make sense of the new learning by building it onto existing knowledge and mental schemas, as Bredo (1994) explains. In this case its internal focus is on constructing personal learning and knowledge.
3.4 Do people need to be free to develop themselves in accordance with their worth?
I have explained my values around learning and around the worth of my pupils, and I now want to discuss why I believe that it is important to value the individual. My belief that my pupils and I are valuable humans is informed by the spiritual beliefs that I hold as a Christian.
As a Roman Catholic I trace my values to Christianity. Some authors, such as Kohlberg (1984), would hold that being true to religious beliefs could be an immature response of obedience and fear of punishment. On the other hand my
persistence in religious beliefs, which are dictated from a centralised, supposedly infallible church (such as the Roman Catholic Church), could be presumed to demonstrate an orientation towards authority and the maintenance of a given social order for its own sake. However, neither obedience nor compliance influences the moral commitments, which I am calling my values. I believe that in making a clear effort to define my moral values and principles, I can show their validity and application beyond the authority of the church. Accordingly I am claiming that these values are the embodied values that inform my life and work and towards the realisation of which I constantly strive. Consequently they have informed my research topic and aims, and later I show how they inform my methodological choices and how they also become the living standards by which my research can be judged (Whitehead 2004a and b).
To begin my explanation of the sources of my values I am quoting the ‘beatitudes’. The beatitudes are sayings attributed to Christ, after whom Christianity is named. The eight sayings of Christ represent his vision and are taken from the gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 5 Verses 3 –10 (Good News Bible 1976). Table 3.2 below takes each of the eight sayings of Christ and relates them to my values to show how my values inform the core issues and aims of my research. In later chapters I build on this model to show the relationships of my values to the methods and claims to new knowledge in my research. Reading across the columns I synthesise what I believe as a Christian and articulate and explain it as a value. The next columns correlate my values to the issues and contexts of my research, and to the aims or visions of my research. Therefore, I understand that Jesus did not give a blueprint for moral action in the eight ‘beatitudes’, but left us with his vision and spirit. Similarly in presenting my research as my living theory, I am not giving a blueprint for how resource teachers can improve the teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Instead I am offering my claims in terms of descriptions and explanations for my practice in the hope that their vision and spirit will influence others.
| Christ says, | I, as a Christian say, | My embodied values | Research issues | Vision – the aims of my research |
|--------------|------------------------|--------------------|-----------------|--------------------------------|
| ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.’ Verse 3. | ‘Have a non-possessive attitude towards life and people and know my need of God.’ | Freedom – a capacity for self determination in thought, speech and action for the good of oneself and others | Can both I as a teacher and the pupils in my research have freedom to voice our own ways of knowing within systems that value objective, outsider knowledge? | The ability to explain our capabilities, which in the case of the pupils are their abilities to learn and in my case (and perhaps also for my pupils) to develop living theory from practice. |
| ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ Verse 4. | ‘Be touched by the pain of others.’ | Compassion – a recognition of my needs in others and others’ needs in me | Can I recognise the learned helplessness of my pupils and myself? | Awareness of how and why one learns as one does |
| ‘Blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth.’ Verse 5. | ‘Reflect that being sensitive is not a fault. Counter what is wrong by doing good.’ | Justice – a sensitivity to injustice and a will to make changes towards a more just condition | Can I address marginalisation caused by existing provision and dominant propositional theory? | To have an educative influence that would encourage others to engage in more socially just learning experiences |
| ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.’ Verse 6. | ‘Work towards fairness and justice.’ | Equality – a capacity for justice and fairness in all human needs. | Questioning dominant pedagogies that generally promote behaviouristic teaching approaches for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) | Explore the nature of relationships between people, which foster knowledge generation. I am developing the kinds of relationship that avoid oppression and domination. |
| Christ says, | I, as a Christian say, | My embodied values | Research issues | Vision – the aims of my research |
|--------------|------------------------|--------------------|----------------|---------------------------------|
| ‘Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.’ Verse 7. | ‘Make allowances because I don’t know the whole story.’ | Forgiveness – commitment to gaining fuller understandings. | Fluid reality No one right way of knowing. | To constantly question my understandings. |
| ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.’ Verse 8. | ‘Really care. Let people feel special.’ | Human Dignity – a recognition of the capacity of others and a demonstration of care for each and every individual I encounter. | Pupils’ capacities to learn were ignored. | A celebration of the learning capacities of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). |
| ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.’ Verse 9. | ‘Build bridges. Be approachable to all.’ | Wholeness – an acceptance and a commitment to the reconciliation of a plurality of approaches to life; mindful of the need to recognise mind, body and spirit. | Engage with issues of how I come to know and how my coming to know was informed by how I helped my children to come to know. Develop an epistemological stance commensurate with values. | The education of social formations. |
| ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of God.’ Verse 10. | ‘Do what is right even it is not popular.’ | Service – act according to my values and be an influence for the greater good regardless of the personal cost. | Do I live in the direction of my values? | Towards harmony between practice and values. |
3.5 Summary
This chapter incorporates my analysis of learning contexts for pupils with specific learning (disability) and is supported by a Deweyan (1963) concept of knowledge as a process in which all parties grow rather than a process for the transmission of knowledge.
I have shown how I perceive the learner as a living human and explained learning as an on-going living dialogical and reflective process of not knowing and of coming to know (McNiff 2002 and Pollard 1997). So the form of theory that will best explain learning for my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) is a living form of theory (Whitehead 1989 and 1993). Whitehead explains how living theories involve researchers in studying their own educational development in the context of their own workplace as they respond ‘to social pressures made explicit in their critical analysis’ (Whitehead 1993, p.133).
I have explained how theories of learning need to be reconceptualised from the learner’s perspective so that learning comes to be seen as a creative exercise in which the learner becomes an individual knower. In the next chapter I turn to how I taught pupils and its relevance to my question, ‘How do I improve my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability who are within my care as a resource teacher in a primary school?’ I begin by considering pedagogical issues based on the teaching strategies and commercial programmes that I taught before and during the early part of my research.
4.1: Introduction
In the last chapter I described how I taught a lesson to a pupil with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in the early days of my research. I now want to tell how I taught over the course of the first term of my research. I question what it was in my practice of teaching at that time, which prevented my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) from achieving their potential. This questioning incorporates the fourth wave of influence on my research. Within this wave, I address the successes and failures of my teaching as I help others to develop their capabilities. In doing so I explain how I have generated a living theory about learning to teach pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) as a form of practice-based theorising.
I present data from my work and my pupils’ work as I explain how I have planned and worked towards fulfilling the recommendations on the pupils’ psychological reports. I also explain how I began to question what was hindering my pupils’ progress at a systemic level. Did the labelling of these pupils influence how I taught or how my pupils learned? How did I understand my role as a teacher?
In this chapter I outline some core issues, about pedagogy, knowledge and logic. By pedagogy I mean how I teach and why I teach as I do. This includes the influences on my teaching such as my job requirements and the craft knowledge that I have built up during a period of over twenty years as a teacher. This chapter therefore contains my explanation of how dominant theories of teaching in my field are largely defined in the propositional terms of didactic pedagogies for the transmission of knowledge. This chapter introduces how I shifted the focus of my pedagogy during the course of my research. While I was working my way through my questions of ‘What is my concern?’ and ‘Why am I concerned?’ I was encouraging my pupils to do the same. They too undertook action enquiries, and in this chapter I give a brief account of what they did.
4.2 How I taught pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) at the beginning of my research
The core issues of my research emerged during my reflections on how I taught. As I said in Chapter One I had been assigned eight pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) per year. I was confident, at that time, in what I intended to teach them. When I wrote my research proposal for the University of Limerick, who would accredit my studies, I felt delighted that I had already planned, researched and resourced a term (three months) of lessons. My plan was to teach all the programmes recommended for the eight pupils in their psychological reports and show how my teaching had influenced their learning. I intended to assess those pupils at the beginning and again at the end of the term. The form of assessment that I used was standardised tests that mainstream and learning support and resource teachers commonly used. They were the Schonell Spelling Test (Schonell 1955), the Neale Analysis of Reading (Neale 1988) for word recognition and the Drumcondra Profiles (Shiel and Murphy 2000) for writing.
Through the term, I taught the lesson, which I described in Chapter Three, except that I adjusted the content within the commercial programmes according to each pupil’s individual abilities whenever they could be measured within the programme instructions. I repeated this way of teaching for thirty minutes, eight times a day, for each of my pupils. I have retained all written work connected with these programmes in my data archive – worksheets, copies, games and computer records (Appendix 2.6f).
I found this was a very boring way of teaching and, by the end of week one, I had added in the computer programme ‘Wordshark’ (Wordshark 1995, 1999, 2006) to the list of commercial programmes I was teaching. This programme was based directly on Alpha to Omega (Hornsby and Pool 1989), and I could match the games that each pupil played on the computer to the target content of his or her lesson. The change that I had just made was not intended to ease my boredom alone because I felt that my pupils were bored too. So I promised them five minutes of working on the computer at the end of each lesson as a bribe or, as I told them, ‘as a reward for working hard’. By week three, I was so frustrated by the monotony of how I was
Despite my boredom and frustration, the results achieved by my pupils at the end of the term were chastening. They showed a significant increase in spellings and word recognition but not in terms of writing (see the example from the first cohort of pupils below). These results were in keeping with both other cohorts who scored increases averaging between 133% and 666% in spellings and between 226% and 1466% in word recognition. Despite these increases, the children generally attained less than one more criterion in writing assessment (Shiel and Murphy 2000).
**Table 4.1: Spellings Results**
| Pupil | Chronological age | Pre-Intervention reading age | Post-Intervention reading age | Improvement After 3 months |
|-------|-------------------|------------------------------|-------------------------------|----------------------------|
| 1 | 13 years 1 month | 9 years 7 mths | 10 years 5 mths | 10 months |
| 2 | 12 years 7 months | 9 years 1 mths | 9 years 10 mths | 9 months |
| 3 | 12 years 8 months | 9 years 0 mths | 10 years 8 mths | 1 years 8 mths. |
| 4 | 10 years 8 months | 5 years 4 mths | 6 years 9 mths | 1 years 5 mths |
| 5 | 11 years 4 months | 7 years 6 mths | 8 years 3 mths | 9 months |
| 6 | 12 years 4 months | 8 years 3 mths | 9 years 2 mths | 11 months |
| 7 | 9 years 7 months | 7 years 4 mths | 7 years mths | 4 months |
| 8 | 11 years 11 months| 7 years 9 mths | 9 years 0 mths | 1 years 3 mths |
**Table 4.2: Word Recognition Results**
| Pupil | Chronological age | Pre-Intervention reading age | Post-Intervention reading age | Improvement After 3 mnths |
|-------|-------------------|------------------------------|-------------------------------|----------------------------|
| 1 | 13 years 1 month | 9 years 7 mths | 13 years 3 mths | 3 years 8 mths |
| 2 | 12 years 7 months | 11 years 2 mths | 13 years 0 mths | 1 years 10 mths |
| 3 | 12 years 8 months | 9 years 4 mths | 12 years 6 mths | 3 years 2 mths |
| 4 | 10 years 8 months | 8 years 6 mths | 9 years 2 mths | 0 years 8 mths |
| 5 | 11 years 4 months | 9 years 4 mths | 10 years 5 mths | 1 year 1 mth |
| 6 | 12 years 4 months | 8 years 10 mths | 10 years 1 mths | 1 years 3 mths |
| 7 | 9 years 7 months | 7 years 8 mths | 9 years 6 mths | 1 years 10 mths |
| 8 | 11 years 11 months| 9 years 3 mths | 10 years 5 mths | 1 years 2 mths |
~ **My reflections on my teaching at the beginning of my research**
I did not continue to analyse the pupils’ results statistically, because, as I reflected on why some of my pupils achieved higher rates of improvement than others, I realised that these successes and failures were not the core issue. I reflected on what I was doing and realised that I had ignored the children’s capacity for originality and
creativity in this part of my research. I had positioned the children as ‘malleable beings’ into whom I was attempting to pour knowledge, as in Freire’s banking model of education (Freire 1970). I can show evidence that I had not related my data to the values that informed my research in my correspondence with my supervisor below:
I was wondering if, next year, I would find ways to show if any of my children had strengths – rather than weaknesses – within these areas. If so, I might be able to follow in Piaget's footsteps. His methodology of 'studying children’s conversations' ‘often showed children doing and saying unexpected things, results that other theorists found hard to assimilate into their models’ (Bee: 2000 p.47). He tried to understand the child’s thought rather than when they would come up with the right answer. His approach was at odds with others’ methodologies much as my methodologies differ from many current action research practices. I want to find *valid ways* to study my thoughts as well as the children’s. Although Piaget’s methods were challenged his observations and insights were accurate (Bee, 2000 p.47).
(14 April 2002 Correspondence with supervisor, see Appendix 2.3a)
Instead of acting in accordance with the values base of my research, my teaching, profiling and assessment process involved the normalising of underpinning values of power and control, which were at odds with my values of respect, equality and service. In terms of practice, the pupils’ lack of transference of spelling skills to their general writing limited my children’s written voice and in the future would leave them at a disadvantage in a world that places a high value on all forms of literacy.
I was disappointed that my teaching positioned me as one who facilitated information and skill transmission and my pupils as un-thinking, almost passive recipients. By basing the content of my teaching on the programmes I show that I was constraining both my potential and that of my pupils. The content of each of these commercial programmes presented a fragmented skills-based view of knowledge. For example PAT is based on a phonological approach where the blending of onset and rime together create isolated words that are then used for writing and reading and finally the transference of this skill is checked with dictation passages. Alpha to Omega contains a structured, developmental and multisensory format towards reading.
I realised that I was adopting a behaviourist teaching approach. By this I mean that I identified a learning need, measured a pupil’s level of competence, applied a remedy using those intervention strategies above, measured the effectiveness of the strategy and rewarded progress (Conway 2002, p.72). This research method was at odds with the aims of my research, with the values base of my research and with the epistemological stance I espoused. The reason that I used this method was that it was the teaching strategy recommended by the manuals of the programmes I was teaching.
In addition, the processes of assessment that I had incorporated into the profiles above led me to realise that I was denying the capacities of my pupils as well as controlling my pupils’ learning. This was a direct contradiction of what I had set out to do. I have said that I wanted to create opportunities for the children in my research to exercise their own capacity for choice. Instead I had tried to show accountability in my teaching in terms of pupils’ achievements and in doing so had constructed a pedagogy that was grounded in power and subjectivity. This could be construed as reminiscent of Foucault’s explanations of objectifying processes of ‘control and dependence’ that caused humans to become subjects (Foucault 1980, p.212, cited in Smart, 2002).
I was disturbed that I had become a living contradiction (Whitehead 1989) within my research. On one level, my research methodology, in the interests of accountability, meant that I had adopted an objective stance towards knowledge and learning. On the other hand, I had realised that the accountability of my self-study action research methodology required me constantly to reflect on and evaluate my actions in relation to the values that inform them. I was experiencing myself as a living contradiction (Whitehead 1989) because I had not achieved the values that I had set as standards of judgement for my work.
I further analysed what I had done in terms of the epistemological base of my research and current understandings of what counts as educational knowledge in the field. The propositional, objective and outsider form of educational knowledge that informed the testing, described in this section, established a culture of silence, as Devine (2003) described it, for the learner to dwell in. My children were being
placed within a structure of knowledge that made them ‘beings for others’. To address this non-integration of participants into normative structures, Freire (1970) proposed the transformation of those structures so that they – children with specific learning disability in my case – can become ‘beings for themselves’. This idea is in line with my values of respect and service.
~ My discovery about my assessment of my teaching and what I planned to do about it
I had found that the underpinning educational values I espoused were denied in the assessment processes I had devised. I therefore rejected standardised testing as a measure of my teaching because, in utilising a banking concept of education, the capabilities of the individual were ignored. I recognised that assessment featuring standardised testing can have a useful function in the financial administration and provision of education. However my emergent ideas sought to focus on capabilities already shown to be within my children and recognised in the primary schools’ curriculum aims (Ireland Department of Education and Science 1999b). In doing so I have come to agree with Whitehead’s (1993) understanding that,
For educational theory to be directly related to educational practice it must have the power to explain an individual’s development.
(Whitehead 1993, p.54)
I came to the harrowing realisation that an authoritarian teacher/pupil relationship existed in the forms of teaching assessment I used, because it was grounded in a logic of domination (Marcuse 1964).
To counter this, I devised an approach for my Friday lessons, which aimed to move towards the realisation of my epistemological and ontological values. It also highlighted some of the systemic difficulties experienced by my pupils and myself.
4.3 Systemic constraints that prevent the realisation of my potential and my pupils’ potential
Many of the programmes that I was using during the first four days of my week claimed a multisensory approach to teaching and learning. The Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS) method of learning spellings is recommended as a multisensory approach to teaching spellings. It is a practical method that is described differently by different authors. So on Fridays I decided that I would use this approach to teach spellings but I adapted it to ensure a pupil-centred way of learning that incorporated the senses of hearing, sight, touch and speech in their learning. This is how I taught.
My pupils’ class teachers set spellings for them from class texts, or from errors that the pupils regularly made in their written work or from a list of the most commonly written words (Dolch List). I said the word, for example, ‘atmosphere’. The pupil repeated it. I asked them to listen for the syllables. Six of my eight pupils could separate the word into syllables easily. Pupil C tapped her pencil on the table as she said the word until she matched what she said to three syllables. Pupil F could not hear syllables. So I gave him a small mirror. He watched the mirror as he said the word. I explained to him, over the course of a few weeks and with many examples and practice sessions, that each syllable contains a vowel and that when we speak a vowel the sound travels from our mouths unhindered by tongue, teeth or lips so that we open our mouths when we say a vowel. So when he looked in the mirror and said ‘atmosphere’ slowly and with accentuation, he could see his mouth opening slightly for each syllable. My visual approach to ‘hearing’ syllables was based on the Multisensory Teaching System of Reading (Johnson et al. 1999, see Appendix 4.1). So I taught spellings by asking pupils to count the syllables and then attempt to write what they heard on a white board. I wrote the correct version of the word under theirs and invited them to look at their attempt. I complimented them on the parts they had correct or approximately correct. They adjusted their spelling and then wrote the word correctly saying each letter sound orally simultaneously with the writing of it, as in the example below.
| At ms fear |
| At mos phere |
| atmosphere |
They repeated this exercise at least five times using different coloured pencils for each syllable to help their visual memory and then in a sand tray to help their tactile memory. Finally they wrote the word correctly with their eyes closed. This unusual strategy demonstrates that a degree of motor memory and automaticity in spelling that word has been achieved.
Reflecting on my teaching of spellings, I was happy, at that time, that I was using an appropriate teaching strategy. Unfortunately the strategy, although suitable for a resource setting, did not easily transfer to a mainstream setting. By using this teaching strategy I was reinforcing the idea that pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) were deficient, in that more senses needed to be engaged for them to learn. The pupils whom I was teaching in this way were also constantly reinforced in the belief that there was something wrong with them in that they could not learn as other mainstream pupils did.
~ The influence of labelling pupils with a specific learning disability (dyslexia) on my teaching
The multisensory teaching strategy that I used confirmed publicly that the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) whom I taught, were different from what is regarded as the norm because they were being taught differently. This was one of three things that concerned me about my pedagogy. The second was that I was teaching all pupils with specific learning disability in the same way, thereby teaching them all to learn in the same way. This did not demonstrate the value that I have claimed in previous chapters of valuing the individual. My third concern about how I taught at that time was that I had chosen a multisensory teaching strategy simply because these pupils had the label of specific learning disability (dyslexia) and it was a strategy often recommended for pupils assigned resource teaching for that disability. My choice was dictated by the label rather than by the pupils’ needs.
Because I was teaching my pupils as a homogeneous group, my model of teaching spellings was similar to the systemic model used to identify and categorise which pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) are to receive resource-teaching
allocation. That form of testing references pupils’ abilities against norms achieved by similar-aged peers on specific standardised tests in word recognition, spelling, comprehension and mathematics. I was referencing my teaching of one pupil against a norm that I had established for all pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Yet the most developed abilities of these children may lie in other key areas, such as intra- and interpersonal skills, innovative problem solving, music and the visual arts. These other areas were being ignored.
Both my model and the systemic model could influence how pupils felt about their learning. Pupils can feel that they are good learners or not good learners depending on how often I make them repeat the writing of a word or how they score on standardised tests. These feelings can develop into a learning identity in which the pupil views him or herself as a capable learner or not. These different perceptions or identities can be influenced by norm-referenced testing because those who fall within the average norms on standardised testing are reinforced and confirmed as acceptable humans. Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) speak of this idea where a social context reinforces a norm and becomes a construct of social reproduction. Sullivan (2005) describes how this happens in the education of traveller children in Ireland and describes their marginalisation within schools as social reproduction because schools,
affirm[s] the identity of those belonging to the social group whose interests are best served by the school system
(Sullivan 2005, p.1)
By falling outside the average norms on standardised testing, pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) are similarly ‘not best served by the system.’ I was exploring how the norms used to label children as having a specific learning difficulty can be seen as social constructs that are politically constituted in order to rank pupils for the purpose of allocating extra teaching provision. I intended to scrutinise and challenge the effects of these constructs in my research because, as I perceive it, the learning identities of children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) – by which I mean their belief in their own capabilities to learn – are
confirmed and reinforced by their label of disability. This brings me to my third concern.
I have also observed that pupils who are labelled as learning disabled often adopt the characteristics of this label and perceive themselves as disabled in all areas of learning. There were two examples of this idea in the previous chapter when I noted how participating pupils commented that they ‘can’t learn’ many subjects in school and when their peers viewed them as less able because they received resource teaching. As Apple says, ‘labels [too] often function to confer a lesser status on those labelled’ (Apple 2001, p. 261). In my experience pupils often generalise their label of learning disability to all areas of their learning because no one informs them that they are able to learn in areas not affected by their specific learning disability (dyslexia). This can cause a diminishing of pupils’ self-esteem, as reported by Dillon (2001). In this way pupils can potentially become disabled by the interactions between themselves and their environment. I described this concept earlier as an educational model of disability (Ware 2003), where structures, curricula or institutions adopt a position of power over students that can have a disabling effect on the individuals. An educational model of disability can deny children the freedom to construct their own identities as capable learners because it contributes to the children’s perception of themselves as learning disabled. This identity is further reinforced daily when the children are withdrawn from their classes for extra tuition from myself or other resource teachers. My concern is that when my pupils’ learning identities are defined in such ways, there can be a denial of their personal rights as well as a denial of their own self-identification because, as Giroux (2000) states,
Education is political in that identities are forged and rights are enacted.
(Giroux 2000, p.25)
I am concerned that labelling can reproduce situations, leading pupils to remain learning disabled. I want to help them forge alternative identities. Like Giroux, I am convinced that the political power of education means that there is the possibility of changing the current situation.
I aimed to develop a form of teaching that enabled pupils to transform their learned perceptions of their learning identities. To achieve this aim I consulted the literature on the labelling of specific learning disability. According to international research, the labelling of pupils to access services has had a variety of results. In many countries pupils are ranked, and the provision of special services is dependent on a label, statement, certificate or admission procedure. Meijer, Pijl and Hegarty (1995) find that in most cases the result is that pupils are segregated in some way. This further confirms normative understandings that the pupils are deviant or ‘special’. In Denmark however, the situation is more fluid,
where special services are provided – and discontinued – relatively easily and so many students receive these services, that the label is of less significance.
(Meijer, Pijl and Hegarty 1995, p. 122)
Accordingly, students in Denmark begin to fit into normative expectations. In my research I aimed to develop a situation where the label becomes less significant, thereby separating the person from the label.
~ The relevance of recent research into the teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to my study
So far, I had based my understanding of my pupils’ needs on psychologists’ reports. I had taught them using behaviourist methods, and the content of my teaching had been commercially produced programmes or multisensory methods, which are recommended for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I had adopted a propositional stance to my children and my teaching in my research so far.
Before deciding how to address the issues that had arisen in how and what I teach, I considered other recent research into the teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
Some researchers who have investigated specific learning disability (dyslexia) use propositional forms of research because these forms lend themselves to statistical analysis, which generally informs policy and provision. An example of this is the work of Atkins and Tierney (2004), which measured the relationship between visual
and auditory sequential memory skills and the reading and spelling of pupils with specific learning difficulties. They found that deficits in auditory memory skills are related to deficits in reading, and they therefore recommend programmes in this skill area for pupils at risk. The research is about measurements, deficits and prescription. However, in this form of research the voice of the learner – the person who should be at the heart of education – can be silenced. This form of research explains pedagogy in terms of the facilitation of knowledge transfer, where knowledge is understood as reifiable. This was the approach that I had adopted up until now. I had ignored the voices of my pupils about how they learned. My voice and the voices of my pupils were silenced.
Most of the forms of research into specific learning disability (dyslexia) adopt a propositional stance, which is usually presented in an abstract form of language. This is the case in the following research collections:
- Snowling (2000) into cognitive psychology and a biological basis for dyslexia;
- Thomson (2001) into neuropsychological aspects of dyslexia;
- Reid (2003a) into assessment, programmes and resources.
By holding solely to propositional theory as an abstract and conceptual phenomenon the voices of the participants are silenced. The research can therefore become irrelevant to research participants and the live contexts in which the research took place. This form of theory focuses on analysis, explanation and prediction, rather than focusing on those being taught. Theory is communicated as
a set of propositions that are stated with sufficient generality yet precision that they can explain the ‘behaviour’ of a range of phenomena and predict what would happen in the future.
(Pring 2000, pp.124 - 125)
Research on pedagogy often works within a causal or propositional form of logic and is framed in terms of the questions to which concrete and fixed answers are given. Examples of this can be seen in the writings of Mortimore (1999) who summarises current research about pedagogy at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education, and in Wray (1994) who summarised research into
comprehension for those with learning difficulties. They, like many other researchers in the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia), use a logic of cause and effect to compare the relative effectiveness of different interventions for dyslexia that are similar in intensity and duration ‘just as when trialing a drug it is important to test its effects in relation to a placebo treatment’ (Snowling 2000, p.178).
My pupils’ voices have often been absent in the teaching episodes I have described. I do not want to leave their voices out of my research because I perceive this to be unjust, in that it ignores the thinking capabilities and creativity of all involved in the research, except the researcher. The ideas of the research participants are generally written out of this form of theory. Some could argue that this form of theorising is relevant to the live contexts in which research takes place because it may influence policy making. I would, however, contend that this form of research is unjust on two counts. First, it prioritises phenomena over people and second, its focus on prediction can deny the freedom of choice of the participants to self-determination.
To address this dilemma I have sought a different form of theory. I have come to understand that there are two distinct perspectives on theory within the literature: first, a view of theory as a discrete body of knowledge that can be applied to practice (Popper 1963; Pring 2000); second, a view of practice as theory. This form of theory is generated from studying one’s own practice (McNiff and Whitehead 2006) and is new in the field of learning disability (dyslexia).
In the remainder of this chapter I draw on episodes from my research to show how my pupils’ voices and my voice became part of my teaching and research. I then reflect on how changes in my practice can relate to forms of theory.
In my research, I aimed to link my philosophy of valuing the individual and their capacity to learn to a form of pedagogy that could demonstrate the valuing of the individual and their capacities. To begin this process I tried to redress possible power issues in the relationships between my pupils and myself that, as I have said, were already present in how I taught and assessed my pupils. An example of this was my invitation (see below) to my pupils to participate in my research.
Hi K,
I am trying to be a better teacher and I hope you will learn what is the best way for you to learn.
Can I use your ideas to make our lessons better?
Can I tell other children and teachers about our work together?
Thank you
Mrs Mc Donagh
My wording ‘I am trying to be a better teacher’ and ‘Can I use your ideas’ surprised me, because it came from the heart, was sincere and was not couched in academic language. I was asking for my pupils’ help. I was offering an opportunity to the pupils whom I taught that could free them to critique their situation and no longer remain as passive objects within a system that denies their capabilities. My ontological values of compassion, freedom, justice, equality and human dignity were present in those words and my wish to serve others informed my request to share with children and teachers.
Other examples of how wording can act as indicators of the core epistemological values on which I based changes in my teaching during my research, were the individual learning plans that I wrote for my pupils in the early (2001) and latter part of my research (2003). The full texts of both these examples are in Appendices 6.2 and 6.3. I have said in Chapter Two that in 2001 the teaching strategies I used were ‘teacher modelling and practice’. I described what this looked like in the lesson in Chapter Three. In 2003 my individual learning plan read as follows:
Table 4.3: Extract from an individual learning plan 2003 (see Appendix 6.3)
| Learning Target |
|-----------------|
| Pupil, having identified his personal learning style for spellings, will read and spell 20 words from the common list |
| Teaching Strategies |
|---------------------|
| Pupil composes higher and lower order questions on text. Discussion of learning strategies, metacognition |
| Materials/Resource |
|--------------------|
| Class texts, common word list |
Instead of taking learning targets directly from commercial programmes as I had in 2001, I now expected my pupil to identify his or her own personal learning style for spellings. My teaching strategies included discussing learning strategies and the pupil composing questions. I had written the pupil’s voice into this document – voices that had been absent previously. I was also introducing a practice of metacognition. I will show later the specific meaning of metacognition in my teaching but basically it meant awareness of what and how one learned. I had changed the focus of the individual learning plans since 2001 and now, in my new approach, the focus was on the pupils’ understanding of themselves as the person taking action.
This was a large leap. At times it took courage and an almost blind faith in the pupils I taught. To support my belief that it was possible, I drew on my Christian values and on the work of, for example, Arendt (1968, p.167), who speaks of the natality of the individual. This idea emphasises the concept that each person is precious by virtue of being born. Coulter and Wiens (2002, p.17) offers a further perspective that has relevance for my research in that they explain different research paradigms in terms of actors and spectators. I understand their explanation of spectators as interpretive researchers who observe, interpret and judge the actions of the actors being researched. Their work however supports opportunities to link the actor and spectator perspectives in research without privileging either within two activities. This involves participants and researcher acting and thinking together. It has direct links to my approach of placing pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) as co-researchers – a process which I began with the invitation (above) to my pupils to participate in my research. This invitation marked the beginning of this partnership, which I will describe in the next section.
In her work Arendt refuses to adopt the role of a judging actor and instead engages with her fellow citizens despite the opprobrium of friends (Bernstein 1996, p.158). She grounds her work in the idea of freedom as responsibility (Coulter and Weins 2002, p.17). My research is also values driven in that I have shown above that I want to move from a system that constrains my learning and my pupils’ potential learning to a system that values each of us, as I have demonstrated in the permission letter above and in Table 3.2. I will show in Part Three of this thesis that these values can
be understood as transforming into my living standards of practice (Whitehead 2004a). But first I will consider issues arising from my teaching and move from the more general questions of knowledge and theory in existing research to analysing my own pedagogy and how I aimed to change it.
4.4 How I proposed to challenge the issues arising in my teaching
My research took an unexpected turn. This was partly due to my reflections on my teaching and on my pupils’ learning, but also because unexpectedly some grateful and resourceful parents fundraised for the pupils with special needs in my school. The support teachers (including me), school management and parents therefore decided to install a kitchen in one of the resource classrooms. We hoped to develop our pupils’ life skills and involve them in practical mathematics around money, shopping and ingredient measurement as well as practical English such as label and recipe reading. In order to facilitate this, a one and a half hour cookery lesson replaced individual lessons on Friday. As our school had more than one support teacher we took turns to take classes in the kitchen. I decided to take a group of eight pupils with specific learning disability for one and a half hours each Friday when we were not in the kitchen. The photographs below show the co-operative learning atmosphere in the cookery class, where reading, comprehension and some writing happen, with direct teaching by me.
Pictures 4.1 and 4.2: Cookery Class
Pupils enjoyed sharing what they knew and the different skills they had. Some could read better, some had better motor skills and could chop, stir and whip cream better
than others. In Picture 4.1 Pupil F has a hand written recipe. He and Pupil J are reading the recipe, unaided by me, and instructing Pupil B. As he works, Pupil B questions the others to check that his ingredient amounts and method are correct. In picture 4.2 Pupil B is now reading. Pupil K is whisking and checking that she understands the instructions with Pupil B. Pupil R is adding to the mix.
In a similar way, my group lesson also became a co-operative learning session in the followings ways. We all sat informally around the room in a circle, at times working in pairs and occasionally alone.
This photo shows a pupil working at the teacher’s desk while I, with my back to her and sitting in a pupil’s chair, am chatting with another pupil. (See Appendix 2.4i)
**Picture 4.3: Pupil working as teacher**
One of the amazing events that happened during these hourly sessions was that my pupils began to conduct their own individual action research projects into how they learned spellings. I had failed to improve my pupils’ levels of writing with correct spellings when I used commercial programmes or a multisensory approach. I told my pupils about my concerns and asked them to tell me how each of them learned spellings. I will describe how this happened in detail in chapter eight. But for now I will say that the important event was that the pupils themselves suggested trying each other’s way of learning to see if they could improve their spellings scores. This developed into individual action research projects where, by involving others, each pupil aimed to improve his or her spellings. Their mainstream class teachers set spellings for them. They chose to learn those spellings by using three strategies for learning spellings that they had heard from their peers who had dyslexia in my Friday classes and that they had not used previously. They practised each strategy for one month and recorded any improved scores in spellings. They found that they could then select which strategy was the most effective for them in learning spellings.
by comparing their scores over the three months. I give further information about my pupils’ action enquiries in Part Four.
So what is the relationship between the new learning that was happening in my Friday morning classes and the types of Individual Educational Plans that I referred to above (see a fuller version of them in Appendices 6.2 and 6.3)? The changes that I adopted in my teaching approaches in the Individual Educational Plans from 2001 to 2003 were in part due to the pupils’ action research projects about their spellings.
The Individual Educational Plans that I composed for each pupil whom I taught in 2001 were a practical example of the forms of knowledge that informed my teaching at the beginning of my research. Although these documents were a job requirement, the wording in them was mine and it indicated that I was working within a propositional form of thinking at that time. As a teacher/researcher, like other teachers engaged in special education, I am confined by Government recommendations and publications, which impact on how I teach my pupils. Circular 08/02 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002a) required me to set ‘specific time-related targets for each child and agree these with the class teacher and principal’ and engage in ‘assessing and recording the child’s needs and progress’ (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002a). I was confined in a web of efficiency-focused, productivity raising techniques and documentation. The logic of cause and effect informs these processes of accountability in teaching. However, by spending so much time in documenting and accounting for my teaching there is little opportunity for critical engagement with the theories of teaching and learning themselves. Within the system of primary education in Ireland, the confining requirements that I described above increase in direct ratio to the severity of the difficulties experienced by pupils. Evidence of this can be seen in the differing job requirement of learning support teachers (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2000) and resource teachers (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002a). The distinction between learning support teachers who teach pupils falling below class levels in Maths and English and resource teachers who teach pupils with specified disabilities or syndromes, imply that resource teachers deal with a less able section of the school population.
I felt that these job requirements diminished my freedom in terms of innovation, spontaneity and immediate response to pupils’ daily learning. The systems of accountability also establish the identity of the learner as subject to the system and to the teacher. For me, as a teacher, they establish my identity as an object in a reified system. In both instances the human is devalued while ‘the system’ is valued.
Political influences on my specific teaching context, during the past twelve years, are seen in documents such as the Report of the Special Education Review Committee (Ireland, Department of Education 1993); the Department of Education and Science Circulars such as 9/99 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999a), 08/02 (Ireland, Department of Education 2002a) and 02/05 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a); and the report of The Task Force on Dyslexia (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b) and Understanding Dyslexia (Ireland, Department of Education and Science and Northern Ireland, Department of Education 2004). The final two documents in particular articulate a shift in emphasis from a technical rational approach towards ideals of valuing the individual and personal knowledge within a framework of inclusiveness and ongoing learning (Day 2003; Reid 2003b). Examples of these forms of knowing would be intuition, experiential knowledge and personal knowledge. Polanyi (1958) explains this idea of personal knowledge as the personal involvement of the knower in all acts of understanding. The intuitive and personal knowledge of pupils did not feature in my individual education plans for my pupils prior to 2001 nor in the lessons I taught.
In addition to a shift in forms of knowledge these documents refer to ideas of inclusion, which was an important ingredient of the Friday morning classes that I described at the beginning of this section. This was the inclusion of children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and other learning difficulties in the mainstream classrooms. However it is assumed that participation in mainstream classrooms of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) happens by the assimilation of the pupil in terms of adapting current curricula, learning contexts or teaching methodologies. The overarching concept of all three aspects is a focus on making the pupil fit into the system through differentiation. Therefore the rhetoric of the inclusive aspirations of The Task Force Report on Dyslexia (Ireland, Department
of Education and Science 2002b) and *Understanding Dyslexia* (Ireland, Department of Education and Science and Northern Ireland, Department of Education 2004) does not yet live either at a systemic level or classroom practice level in schools generally, in terms of enabling pupils to take some control over their own learning processes.
I wanted the rhetoric of these documents to live in my classes and I questioned what appeared to me to be an acceptance of propositional forms of knowledge. I did so because the dominance of propositional knowledge prevented critical engagement with issues of pedagogy and on-going learning. I therefore encouraged critical engagement by my pupils with their own learning when I facilitated their action research projects about how they learned spellings. My critical engagement with pedagogy was reflected in the new approaches to teaching that I included in the sample Individual Educational Plans from 2003. The targets that I set embraced personal learning and personal awareness of how my pupils themselves learned. This is in contrast to the messages communicated by refereed publications within the field of special education and specific learning disability (dyslexia), which are generally confined to technical rational forms of knowledge, because that is what dominant voices in the contemporary culture value (Winter 2002). In discussing my research in later chapters I describe my pupils’ action research projects about how they learned spellings – a personal perspective – which can enable others to make choices about their own lives, and make claims based on embodied values which can transform into living standards of practice and judgement (Whitehead 1989 and 2004a).
In preparation for this I now consider four pedagogical issues in my context that I have highlighted above and that I propose to address. These issues that inform my teaching are namely;
- Different forms of knowledge in my pedagogical context support different forms of theory
- The logic in which I base my research – issues of identity
- My understanding of social justice in my context
Propositional forms of theory do not encourage critical engagement with pedagogical issues in my context.
In the final part of this chapter I articulate the underpinning assumptions of the value base of my research.
~ Different forms of knowledge in my pedagogical context support different forms of theory
In my professional practice, as I have shown in the extracts from Individual Educational Plans above, I am required to set
Specific, time-related targets for each child and agree these with the class teacher and principal
(Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002a, p.8)
The idea of target setting is grounded in theories from a business model of education, ‘the predatory culture’ and the ‘logic of the market place’, as McLaren (1995) called it, where the language of productivity, targets, goals, and outcome percentage improvements have become commonplace. Its values are product-based where children are perceived as consumers first and human beings second and I am positioned as a service provider.
Through engaging in this research, I am developing awareness of the power that the institution of the Department of Education and Science has on my views of knowledge and learning. The institutional epistemological stance has power over teachers in that it must be accepted as part of a teacher’s employment contract. The power of traditional institutional epistemology can therefore deny the capacities of the teachers who are subject to it. Consequently, I began to perceive myself as one of those teachers referred to by Giroux:
teachers become arid communities, shorn of capacities to use their own ideas, judgements and initiatives in matters of importance, and can’t teach kids to do so.
(Giroux 2000, p.91)
To address this position of impotence, I considered what my teaching was really about and the systemic constraints on it.
I see pedagogy as having two faces. These faces are similar to McNiff’s (2002) visions of the conflicting contemporary debates around knowledge in higher education that exist within ‘discourses of competition and alienation’ (McNiff 2002, p.2). The first face is that pedagogy is the management of the delivery of knowledge. The second face of pedagogy is the making explicit of the latent fund of personal knowledge in order to encourage on-going learning. ‘Hidden processes transform into explicit ones in life-affirming ways and these emerge as the properties of living’ (McNiff 2002, p.3).
Linguistic explanations of pedagogy, like those above, do not help me to understand or account for how I have changed my teaching during the course of my research. The personal and craft knowledge that I bring to my work from years of experience of teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) enables me to make split-second decisions without reference to a manual on teaching methodologies, subject content or theories of learning. For example, when my pupils themselves suggested trying each other’s way of learning to see if they could improve their spellings scores, I immediately found ways to support their action research projects into how they learned spellings such as audio-taping and transcribing their individual learning strategies. Polanyi (1958) describes this form of practice as grounded in personal knowledge. He states how we know more than we can say because our vast amount of personal knowledge comes from small amounts of successful learning that we experience over a period of time, which he terms ‘little victories’ (Polanyi 1958, p.377). Because these ‘little victories’ are personal experiences they cannot easily be subjected to outsider measurement. Personal learning may be tacit or explicit. When I teach in ways that help to make a latent fund of personal knowledge explicit, as facilitating my pupils to make their personal strategies for learning spellings known to their peers, I am engaging with the second face of pedagogy. This second face of pedagogy also permeates the ways in which I developed my theory of justice in teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
This form of personal knowledge is contrary to the dominant procedural and propositional forms of knowledge required by specific time-related targets. In my context, when theory is taken to mean a body of knowledge that can be applied to practice, as happened when I used the commercial resources for dyslexia, the teacher is alienated and devalued because personal and craft knowledge are ignored. However where the researcher is studying and theorising her own practice, as I am, the opposite pertains. For me this is a more just form of theory because respect is afforded to the individual, as shown in the example in Picture 4.3 above, where a pupil is sitting and working at the desk and swivel chair assigned to her teacher (me). The focus of my research is to do with transforming an unsatisfactory situation – in which the capacities of the children in my research to think for themselves, and my own capacities, are denied – into a more satisfactory situation where their capacities are recognised and celebrated. One example of how I showed respect for my pupils’ individual capacities to learn occurred when I facilitated their wish to investigate their personal ways of learning spellings.
To achieve these research goals I needed to engage with epistemological issues because, as a resource teacher, I have been required to subscribe to a form of theory that is grounded in the idea of a specific truth which, I contend, bears little resemblance to the realities of my experiences as a teacher of pupils with specific learning disabilities.
~The logic in which I base my research
In raising questions about ‘How do I improve my teaching of my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia)?’ I am challenging traditional forms of theory by being open to creative and individual ways of thinking. Being open to impulse and imaginative, personal thinking is a challenge to the dominant propositional forms of logic that hold tight to one way of knowing and support the idea of pedagogy as a model for knowledge transmission. I am rejecting Aristotelian logic, which claims that things either are or are not, thus ignoring the problematic middle ground. I am no longer accepting dominant ideas that there is one correct way of thinking about teaching and learning for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) because this raises issues of power and control where I as a teacher am positioned as the only potential knower in the classroom. I agree with Foucault
(1979 and 1980; see Rabinow 1984 and McNay 1994) who states that knowledge is power.
The grounds for this ontological stance are that I see all humans as knowers. Some of the implications of my stance are that power can no longer be held solely by me as the supposed ‘knower’ in the classroom. An example of this change can be seen in the learning targets in the sample Individual Educational Plan for 2003 that I have given earlier in this chapter where the pupil identifies his or her personal learning style for spellings and discusses learning strategies. I must also facilitate all the people in my research – pupils, teachers and research colleagues – to exercise their power and creative imaginations. I have already given an example of this when, in Chapter Two, my pupils tested the new personal knowledge they had generated. Just as my pupils tested each other’s learning strategies during their action research spelling projects, I too test my new understandings against the critique of the others in my research. I appreciate that my developing new knowledge cannot be imposed on others but instead I must find ways of invitationally influencing others, as I showed in the invitation to pupils to join my research.
I am constantly testing my own developing thinking. This self-questioning is obvious in the many questions I have raised throughout this thesis. In addressing these questions I am exercising my own voice in a similar way to that of my pupils when they suggested trying each other’s strategies for learning spellings. I am creating an opportunity for my pupils and myself to exercise our questioning voices within our context. In doing so I will be drawing on the ideas of Winter (2002, p.147) who wrote about ‘celebrating the ultimate reality of the individual’s “possession” of their “own” voice’ in research’. I am also engaging in a self-questioning of my pedagogy and practice, as occurs in self-study action research (see McGinley 2000; Marion Nugent 2000; Roche 2000). These teacher-researchers who engage in this form of research, make explicit the implicit ways in which teaching and learning happens as they engage with a transformative process of development (McNiff and Whitehead 2005). This openness to change embraces a philosophy that is generated from the contradictions within practice. I believe that research within this philosophical framework offers a more just approach for pupils because they are positioned as participants in the research process rather than as objects of research. I
am studying what I am concerned about in my practice and why I am concerned, and my pupils are concurrently conducting their own action research. They are, as it were, ‘the play within the play’ as Shakespeare said, in that they are researching within my research and I am researching alongside their research. Our separate and collective research projects are inextricably linked.
My reflections, in the form of questions, can be seen not only in the questions I am asking myself throughout this text but also in the extracts from my reflective journal and the thought bubbles in Part Three. This logic of constant questioning, reflection and re-questioning pertains in my study of my practice in order to generate theory from within it. Just as a logic of analysis or cause and effect can underpin a philosophy which positions theory as a body of knowledge to be applied to the practice; so I too am explaining the logic which underpins my work. I am attempting to present my new thinking and changes in my reality as a teacher within a form of logic that is believable. In my research I am also concerned with how my pupils expand their capabilities for critical thinking and learning and its resultant influence on their lives. The freedom for children with specific learning difficulties (dyslexia) to forge their personal identities as learners is central to my research. The values of freedom and respect for the individual underpin the form of logic of my research and can contribute to a more just reality, as I have spoken about in the previous section.
~Issues of identity
Before I could help my pupils come to an understanding of their personal identities as learners, I needed to come to an understanding of how identities are formed – specifically how my identity as a teacher was formed. I began by examining what I meant by my identity as a teacher as I wrote in my diary,
Did I make a distinction between the personal and professional me?
No. When I teach, I am a mixture of both.
(21 March 2002 Journal in data archive Appendix 2.1b)
The ‘blurring of the boundaries between personal and professional lives’ (Nias 1989, p.181) is part of what Nias describes as teacher identity. She talks about teachers being ‘themselves in the classroom’ (p.181). However her understanding of the
blurring of roles is limited to factual personal information about what teachers do outside school hours. For example, a teacher in Nias’s study said that her students were aware of details of the teacher’s personal life such as what she did the previous evening. I have a different understanding of this blurring of the boundaries. The blurring occurs for me because of the inseparability of me from my work. It is an integral part of who I am. In addition, the idea of totally separating personal beliefs and professional identity is not countenanced in my specific workplace. This is because my school is under the patronage of the Roman Catholic Church and the beliefs of that church are expected to pervade the ethos of the school and all who work and learn in it.
To some, this situation may appear to be coercive or a denial of the freedom to construct one’s own identity. My values, however, are the basis of my view of myself in the world, and related to my ontological position. They are part of my own theory of being.
By considering a little further the question of identity formation I want to question if my teaching can provide ways to reconceptualise my identity and challenge the systemic constraints on my potential. My identity as a teacher is not limited to my name, culture, situation, roles or gender. My past, present and future are contained within my identity. My identity includes my individual sense of being. Yet I cannot focus solely on myself in that I cannot be a teacher in isolation. As Derrida (1987) pointed out, identity involves a capacity to see oneself as not the centre. So I understand myself as ‘Other to others’, as Buber (1937) said, and other people perceive me from their perspectives. The freedom to construct one’s identity can be denied when identity is forged by the external social constructs such as those in the education system which label pupils as learning disabled (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999a and 2002a). This freedom can also be denied in the dominant discourses within which I work when I focus on the four commercially produced programmes above.
To answer my question ‘Who am I?’ I revisit feelings and lived events in order to make my own meanings of them. For example in the picture on p.99 above (Picture 4.3), from a traditional perspective of teaching as imparting information and skills, it
could appear that I am ignoring the pupil at my table, that I am engrossed in my own world and not bothering to teach my pupils. Her experience of what was actually happening and reflection on what happened was quite different. My description of what was happening in that picture shows that the picture represents my values of equality, justice, human dignity and service in action. Through self-reflection I can develop a new understanding for and about myself. This concept has similarities with what Foucault (1979 and 1980; see Rabinow 1984 and McNay 1994) referred to as inner critical engagement. I check my reflections against my pupils’ views. However, self-reflection is not sufficient. I must also check my understanding of myself against others. So, I engage first in a process that can be compared to looking at myself in the mirror in the company of others; then travelling into the mirror; and from the inside of the mirror questioning and checking with those others who remain outside the mirror. Foucault (1979 and 1980) writes that identity can include inner critical engagement and outer questioning of the condition of which the self is constituted. My analogy of the mirror works at two similar levels of questioning; first, the inner self-questioning and second, the questioning of one’s understanding of oneself with and in relation with others. So I am suggesting that my pupils’ perceived identity as learning disabled and my perceived identity as a voiceless facilitator can potentially be reconceptualised through inner self-questioning and through the questioning of our understandings of ourselves with and in relation with each other.
My understanding of identity and how I aimed to develop a form of teaching that would influence the pupils in my research to create positive learning identities is connected to values of freedom. I understand that ideas of freedom, identity and the recognition of the critical capacities of learning are interrelated. I ground my ideas in the work of Greene (1988) who speaks of freedom as a core condition for the development of critical capacity. In taking this course of action I located my research within an inclusive and relational form of logic (Whitehead 2004a). I demonstrated the spontaneity of my logic by acting on and including my pupils’ ideas and suggestions about trying each other’s ways of learning spellings. I also demonstrated a relational form of logic in acting to extend the relational, co-operative learning that I had observed in the pupils’ cookery lessons to my Friday teaching that I had freed from teaching commercial programmes.
My understanding of social justice in my teaching
I have explained that these programmes involve a model of teaching that treats the child as an object rather than as a unique individual. The child is positioned as a non-thinking someone to be trained in new skills. Both learner and teacher voice were diminished in the teaching of these four programmes in that I as the teacher became an unthinking facilitator of the programmes and the pupils became passive recipients of the programmes. Teaching these programmes appeared to me to be an unjust denial of both the pupils’ capabilities and mine. I perceive two difficulties here. First, these accounts do not address the normalising processes when pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) acquiesce in normative perceptions that they are unable to learn. Second, this behaviouristic approach to learning positions the learner as passive within the learning process, and therefore self-motivation to learn is diminished.
For me, justice includes becoming aware of and testing my ways of teaching and learning, as I have described above. Getting an academic qualification for my studies is part of my process of legitimating my new thinking and actions. By getting a PhD for theorising my practice, I will be contributing to a knowledge base for our profession. For both my pupils and myself achieving justice will mean reversing our positions of marginalisation where our learning and knowledge appear to me to be devalued within the education system. The implications for my practice are that justice for the children will mean allowing them to become aware of and investigate their own learning successes and provide opportunities to transfer their new understandings to other situations. I believe that this form of justice in education is a live concept that can be understood in relation to people’s practices. I have shown this idea in two ways during this chapter: in the pictures that I have included, and in my account of how I encourage my pupils to engage in action research into their own learning of spellings. These and the extracts from my Individual Educational Plans in 2001 and 2003, show changes in my practice in which a pupil could ‘identify personal learning style for spellings’ (Table 4.3), showing an awareness of his own learning. The pupil also investigated his own learning when we ‘discussed learning strategies.’ By composing ‘higher and lower order questions on text’ the pupil actively transferred some of the learning skills that he had acquired. In the
lived reahty of my teaching, the pupil was actively taking control of his own learning as did all the pupils in this cohort in their action research projects.
Many theorists of justice, for example Rawls (1999), offer analyses of what justice is and involves. Rawls (1999) offers a propositional conceptualisation of justice. He regards ‘justice’ as an object of enquiry. However, instead of adopting a propositional approach to a study of justice, I am forming a living theory of justice that is informed by ideas to do with people’s capacity to think for themselves and negotiate their own ways of learning, recognising that other people are also aiming to do the same for themselves.
The dominant form of justice in education focuses on issues of provision (Davies 1999) and issues of inclusion (Castles and Miller 1998). Accordingly, working from an externalist view of theory as a discrete body of knowledge that can be applied to practice, researchers such as Young (1990) and Griffiths (2003) write about action for social justice. Both Young (1990) and Griffiths (2003) discuss the complexities of established theories of social justice and suggest strategies and principles for action using practical examples from others’ lives. They also are adopting a propositional stance in their studies in relation to the effectiveness of established theories of social justice in different research settings. I, however, am not placing my research within a propositional form of theory. I want to demonstrate the development of a living theory of learning how to teach for social justice from within my practice as I ask how I can develop changes in my practice to improve my pupils’ learning experience.
I am engaging with ideas of social justice for emancipation in that I want to free the children from the label of disability and, for myself, I want the freedom to provide a more just form of pedagogy. In doing so I believe the children could engage in a more just way of being. I also seek the freedom to develop a form of theory of practice that can take into account the practical learning of both teacher and pupils. To achieve these emancipatory aims, I became involved in new ways of thinking and theorising that celebrated my own capacity for knowledge generation. The example of my facilitation of pupils conducting action enquiries into their individual ways of learning spelling, worked towards a form of social justice that liberated both the
children and myself. This form of justice recognised individual capacities to learn and speaks to my existing values around freedom and the capacity of all to think critically and to be knowledge creators. However none of these ideals could have been achieved within traditional forms of theory. A new form of theorising was required because of my focus on social justice and the individual. I needed to engage in a new form of dialogical research that allowed all participants to be valued and take a full part in the research process. In this way both the children and I had opportunities to create our own answers and thereby generate our own living theories of practice.
~ Propositional forms of theory do not encourage critical engagement with pedagogical issues in my context
My pupils called Fridays ‘freedom Fridays’. The form of teaching and learning that I facilitated on Fridays was my attempt to understand and reconcile the relationship between the propositional stances to knowledge adopted by the institutions within which I work – both in my school and university – and the dialogical perspective of knowledge that I espouse. I have been helped by the work of Rawls. Rawls’s (1955 and 1971) ideas resonate with the distinction I am making between institutional approaches to teaching pupils with specific learning difficulties and my practice as I work as an individual within those systems. His *Theory of Justice* (1971) states that each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. The idea of the precedence of the individual over society is discussed at length in Rawls (1955), where he examines differences between ‘the justification of a practice by an institution and the justification of particular actions carried out by an individual and which falls under this institution’ (Rawls 1955, p.1).
Rawls (1955) claims that the intent that inspires the institution and the individual defines their differing approaches. The intent that inspires a utilitarian, institutional approach, according to Rawls (1955), is that institutions claim to act in order to provide a system for the good of society, which they often ground historically. Similarly those who support the teaching of pupils with specific learning difficulties, both in academia and the Department of Education and Science, have the intent of
providing appropriate systems for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) within the historical necessity for literacy (Coolahan, 1994).
I was concerned about individual pupils with specific learning disability and sought to help each of them to be compensated for the difficulties they face daily within the dominant education system. My intent can be related to Noddings’ (2002) theory of care. Her theory proposes ideas of learning and teaching concerning reciprocity and the necessity to confirm learners in their capabilities, which I agree with. I disagree with Noddings, however, when she speaks of how to put her ideas of care into practice. Her strategies centre on transforming curriculum and in doing so she slips into a propositional view of knowledge and adopts a utilitarian approach in her practice by seeking to put systems of best practice in place. She offers practical strategies for caring for others to adopt. I am arguing that the focus should be on a form of theory that allows the individual to transform themselves rather than a theorising of curriculum and skills. In contrast to the work of Noddings, Naidoo (2005), who also speaks about how to put ideas of care into practice, describes how her ontological commitment – a passion for compassion – and her engagement with the thinking of others has enabled her own practice to develop and from that to develop a living, inclusional and responsive theory of her practice. I too sought to develop a living, inclusional and responsive theory of practice to address the difficulties that my pupils and I were facing in our context, and I now explain how I proposed to do this.
In order to challenge a pedagogical context that is grounded in propositional knowledge, I believe that I must begin by articulating my values and show how I am prepared to live by my values in my practice. This is a problematic concept. In my research I articulated my values as the criteria by which my research and changes in my practice could be judged. Although I espouse a theory of justice that draws on Rawls’s ideas around justice, and in particular justice as fairness, I build on his ideas towards a practical living theory of justice, where the values on which I base my understanding of justice would be shown to be lived in my practice. The validation of my theory of justice depends on my ability to show that these values are being lived out in my practice as both a teacher and researcher. In Part Three I discuss how I went about doing this.
The underpinning assumptions of the values base of my research
My research question, ‘How do I improve my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability who are within my care as a resource teacher in a primary school?’ is grounded in values of justice, freedom, care, equality and respect for the capacity of the individual. I have shown, in my descriptions of my practice as well as in the pictures and my planning for teaching that I have included in this chapter, that I hold these values at a practical rather than abstract level in my research.
My practice and my thinking about these concepts are significantly coloured by my understandings around specific learning disability/dyslexia which have come from the stories and experiences of others; first, the book *The Scars of Dyslexia* (Eisenson 1994) in which adults with dyslexia described the horrors of their schooling and its effects on their later lives; second, the book *The Gift of Dyslexia* (Davis 1994) in which the author, as an adult with dyslexia, described talents through which he had achieved fame and fortune in later life. These key talents had been unobserved during his schooling because the school system valued logical mathematical intelligences rather than other forms of intelligence; and third, I was intrigued by my pupils’ interest in famous people who are said to have specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) and also in my pupils’ own stories. In committing myself to listening to and caring for my pupils, I am seeking new clarity and understandings around the nature of specific learning disability (dyslexia).
The changes I am making towards a more just, more free and more caring practice can be analysed from the perspective of the writings of Young and Noddings around social justice and care. Young (2000) suggests that social institutions, including schools, should provide
conditions for all persons to learn and use satisfying and expansive skills in socially recognised settings and enable them to play and communicate with others or express their feelings and perspectives on social life in contexts where others can listen.
(Young 2000, p.184)
Noddings (2002) provides a model of education from a care perspective, which could satisfy the needs of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to learn in ways described by Young above. Noddings’s conceptualisation of care brought her to the understanding that
how good I can be depends at least in part on how you treat me. My goodness is not entirely my property and the control I exercise, as a carer, is always a shared control.
(Noddings 2002, p.89)
The idea of ‘shared control’, for me, implies openness not only to my pupils but also other pupils and teaching colleagues in my school as well as critical friends and researcher colleagues.
Difficulties remain for the approach I am proposing for my research. First, the maintenance of equilibrium of power between various people whom I am engaging in dialogue is problematic (Noddings 2002); second, the maintenance of open-endedness in the face of the dominance of propositional forms of theory in my context is also problematic. By adopting a self-development approach however, for both myself and my pupils in my research, I claim that I am moving towards a different form of theory of social justice, as I explain throughout this thesis.
4.5 Summary
I value all children, with or without dyslexia, and I seek ways of celebrating them and their ways of knowing, whatever these ways may be. So I have decided how to address the metaphorical fourth wave of the successes and failures of my teaching by asking in my research,
- How do I develop a theory of learning to teach that is inclusive of various ways of learning?
- How do I develop my own living theory of learning to teach for social justice in which my teaching can celebrate the potential of the children with specific learning disability (dyslexia)?
Coming to the point where I am able to ask these questions required a new epistemology and ways to address issues of power and validation, which I will describe in the next section on methodology.
For now, I want to reflect on why I was concerned about my teaching, given that my practice and my political context appear to work within different forms of knowledge. In this chapter I have reflected on core issues around the nature of educational knowledge that is valued in the literature of teaching in my field. Much of the reported research in the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia) is conducted within a scientific framework (Pumphrey and Reason 1991; Hulme and Snowling 1997; Snowling 2000), where the underlying philosophy seeks definitive answers that presuppose that there is one correct way of knowing. The Aristotelian idea that there is only way of knowing (text, 1253), proposes a philosophical approach that is at odds with research showing that those who have specific learning disability (dyslexia) are a heterogeneous group (Kerr 2001; Fisher 2002).
I examined the values and the logics that were implicit in the forms of theory within the literatures mentioned. The literatures were rooted in causal logic. These theories analyse the biology, cognition and teaching programmes that aim to remediate deficits in specific skills (Hulme and Snowling 1997) in terms of cause and effect, and assume that theory may be applied unproblematically to practice.
My research is founded on ideas of emancipation through the acquisition of knowledge (Freire 1994). I build on Rawls’s (1971) ideas of justice as fairness and propose a practical theory of justice that has some similarities with Griffiths (2003) and Young (2000), where my practice will be shown to exhibit the values on which I base my understanding of justice. The issue of the disempowerment of the individual by dominant forms of propositional theory in my field has led me towards articulating my own living theory of justice for the teaching of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) where the latent capabilities of the learner can be made explicit and enhanced in the social development of schooling.
My thesis is about forms of theory, and how these forms and their underpinning logics and values and normative assumptions transform into social and educational
practices. My ontological perspectives, which are the grounds for my form of theorising, are about valuing life and people. Again I am working in a normative system that is driven by different ontological perspectives, that people are objects who can be controlled and manipulated. This raised issues of justice. Because of my ontological belief in the uniqueness of the individual, I engaged in forms of practice that moved in the direction of those ontological values. Treating people as valuable people is commensurate with how I understand justice, that is, as grounded in the relationships between people. The normative system in which my research is based denies individuals as valuable and closes down their life chances, so I perceive these normative systems as unjust. My own emergent ideas of justice helped me to understand what I am doing as I worked with young people who were also caught in conflicting systems of logic and values.
Within the practical context of my research there are hindrances to my pupils’, and my, achieving our potential. I needed to find ways of challenging and overcoming those hindrances. In the next section I explain how I found a practical methodology that included a form of theory and logic that was commensurate with my values of respect for humans and their capabilities.
PART THREE: METHODOLOGY – HOW DO I SHOW THE SITUATION AS IT WAS AND AS IT DEVELOPED?
In the previous chapters I have spoken about the influences that led me to commence my research and the concerns that prompted me to take action to change my situation. Part of my aim was to find pedagogies that would enable children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to show what they could do. This choice involved decisions to change my practice, and also to change the form of theory by which my learning and the learning of children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) could be explained. In Chapters Five and Six, I produce data to show how my pupils and I were systematically disadvantaged. I also produce data to show that I have taken action to overcome the disadvantage and transform the disadvantage into new forms of opportunity.
My journey towards a methodology in which I could develop educational and practical theory, from within the epistemological and ontological frameworks described in the previous sections, was difficult. It was difficult in that I needed to reflect, question and articulate personal reasons for my choice. This involved looking at myself in a metaphorical mirror. I reflected and questioned what I saw in the mirror. I came to understand why I chose not to accept what I saw there and undertake research in order to change things. My personal questioning was recorded in my reflective journals at the time of my research (Appendix 2.1a to 2.1g) and is shown in the thought bubbles throughout the next two chapters in order to demonstrate the epistemological and philosophical concerns I had developed along this journey. These questions were about
I utilise those four reflective questions to frame Chapters Five and Six. In those chapters I, in my dual role of teacher and researcher, consider what form of methodology can bring immediate change to the learning experiences of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) whom I teach, when I ask, ‘Who benefits from my research?’ In the first part of Chapter Five I explain why I chose a new methodology for studying the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia). In the second part of Chapter Five I address validity issues within this methodology and the standards by which my research can be judged. That part of Chapter Five is my response to questions two and three above, and is where I explain how I validate my claims to new knowledge in relation to the criteria that I have described as the standards by which I have created a living theory from within my practice. Chapter Six explains the data gathering and analysis processes of my research in response to the question, ‘Have I scrutinised my ways of working to ensure that they are my best effort to address the concerns I have?’ I examine if my research methods are commensurate not only with my stated research aims but also with the epistemological and ontological stance that I have adopted.
CHAPTER FIVE: My journey towards understanding using a self-study action research methodology
5.1 Introduction
My research set out to improve my teaching of the pupils in my care. I choose a self-study action research approach to study ‘How I can improve my practice?’ (Whitehead 1989). I choose this approach because it would enable me to address the core concerns that I have spoken of in previous chapters. First, I wanted to take action to change what I saw as failing situations in my teaching and in the learning of my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). An action research approach could facilitate this. Second I sought ways to resolve the pervasive contradictions between the rhetoric of propositional theory and the lived reality of my practice and my pupils’ experiences of my practice. Third, I wanted to find ways to address the epistemological concerns I had about the teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Fourth I wanted to act in ways that would address the clashes between the ontological and Christian values that I held, and what was happening in my practice. Again, a self-study action research methodology could facilitate this.
The key characteristics of a self-study action research approach are that it provides a methodology in which the researcher can address issues in their practice, by reflecting on that practice and taking actions, which are grounded in articulated values. Claims are evaluated against those same values, and theories generated. The significance of those claims for the wider community must also be articulated. My understandings of self-study action research are commensurable with, and draw on the views of McNiff and Whitehead (2006), as I will explain in this chapter.
5.2 The positioning of research participants within dominant research methodologies
I continue to tell the story of my research and how changes came about in my practice and thinking in order to address the concerns that I have expressed so far. Similar to my ‘Freedom Fridays,’ my research activities were given further impetus by a fortuitous yet unplanned event. This is what happened.
At the end of a Friday class, I sat down to make notes in my reflective journal. The pupils were tidying up their spelling record sheets. Pupil R edged towards me. As was usual for me by that time, I was sitting on a pupil’s chair, so Pupil R was towering over me. She looked over my shoulder and asked, ‘What is it? Why are you writing?’ I explained that I was writing down what I was thinking. I was writing about all the good things that happened in our class today. I wanted to write them down so that I could remember (I had explained my research to her) that I was doing them and maybe use them in other classes. Pupil R said, ‘You are writing down good things so that you can remember them. Can I do that too?’ This was the story of how my pupils’ learning journals started. I bought them a diary each. And every day they wrote down something new that they had learned. We discussed what they should write and we decided it could be *anything* we learned such as a new stroke at swimming or something in school. Their diaries were intended only for themselves to read, so spelling or handwriting did not matter. Later in my research some pupils gave me permission to retain their journals in my data archive and to quote from them in my research.
By sheer accident I had come upon a research method to enable my pupils and myself to celebrate our personal knowledge. This method was in sharp contrast to how my pupils and I are systematically disadvantaged by many contemporary methods for studying specific learning disability (dyslexia).
When I examined the methods and methodologies of current research in the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia), I realised that the positioning of research participants was significant, in that the pupils being researched rarely benefited from the research. This realisation occurred when I looked at my research question – ‘How do I improve my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability who are within my care as a resource teacher in a primary school?’ – through various methodological lenses, as I now explain.
To begin my explanation, I want to return to the metaphor of the mirror that I mentioned in the introduction to this section. I positioned myself and the pupils in my care in front of the mirror as I considered the research methods that I described
in Chapter Four when I was investigating commercially produced programmes for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I tested the pupils, I taught the programmes and then I retested the pupils and evaluated the programmes. The reflections that I see are those of myself growing in stature while my pupils diminish in size until they almost vanish. This posed dilemmas for me as a teacher and researcher because the reflection in the mirror points to an imbalance. Our new positioning implies that I am in a position of power over the pupils, leading them to be less important and almost vanish from the creation of new knowledge within the research process. I recorded my concern about this imbalance in my reflective diary below. I was also concerned about staying outside the process of enquiry, when I asked:
Have I the right to take action for my pupils or should I encourage them to take action for themselves?
(4 May 2002 Journal see Appendix 2.1b)
Eisenhart (2001) spoke of a similar dilemma when she wrote about making her decision between writing about the lives of others and taking action on their behalf. She states her research dilemma in these words:
I have a responsibility as an anthropologist, a teacher and a person to speak and act sometimes on behalf of the girls who are participating in my research.
(Eisenhart 2001, p.20)
In my research I did not want to act on behalf of my pupils. Informed by the values of justice, the right to create identity, and respect for the individual and their capacity to learn (as I discussed in Sections One and Two), I sought to influence pupils to take action for themselves. I saw a reality in my metaphorical mirror where intelligent pupils were excluded from creating their own knowledge although I was seeking an appropriate research methodology to change this situation towards a reality of empowerment. Their positioning had systematically disadvantaged my pupils as research participants within that research methodology.
Next I examined the methodologies of current research in the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia) in relation to the positioning of research participants. I also considered whether empirical or interpretive research approaches, as described in Bassey (1990 and 1999) and Borg et al. (1993), could address the processes of learning, change and the value base that informed my research question. An empirical methodology for my research would focus mainly on the development of abstract theory whereas I sought to focus on the development of pupils’ learning, and my understanding of learning is that it is a personal, on-going process of creating new knowledge. My research question is not suited to a positivist paradigm because I am seeking ways to enable my pupils and myself to celebrate our personal knowledge while incorporating our factual knowledge. I had found a suitable research method in the reflective journals of my pupils and myself. Now I needed a methodology that could incorporate this method and that was commensurate with its underpinning values.
In the light of the contexts and issues I described in the previous chapters, an interpretive, ethnographic or case study methodology would be equally unsuited to the aims of my research because these methodologies generally position the researcher outside the field of study. My research question, ‘How do I improve my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability who are within my care as a resource teacher in a primary school?’ contains a dual focus on my pupils and myself, both of whose processes of learning must be accounted for through the form of research I chose. Although ethnographic research or an educational case study approach are commonly accepted forms of qualitative research in educational settings, they position the researcher as a spectator of the field of enquiry and would be at odds with my values around social justice, as I will now explain.
Spradley (1980, cited in Hitchcock and Hughes 1995 pp.17-19) uses the metaphor of petroleum engineers and explorers in search of oil to compare the thinking behind positive and interpretive paradigms. Both groups of people, he says, work in linear, sequential methods and have prior knowledge in terms of what they seek (research question), how to look for it (methodology) and what to expect (significance). However, differences between their approaches lie in their answers to the question ‘What did you find?’ The engineers would define their new knowledge as an object
(oil), whereas the explorers would have found a description – or new knowledge about something.
This explanation highlights, for me, the answer to a question that I wrote in my reflective journal early in the course of my research, which was:
Other researchers in the social science paradigm walk away when they have completed their research. They use the information they find and benefit from it. But what about the people or things they have researched? Do they ever gain?
(4 Feb 2002 Journal see Appendix 2.1b)
In the case of both groups of oil researchers, I would not be perturbed that they should gain from their objective or descriptive new knowledge and the oil would remain impassive, impervious and untouched. In the case of educational research involving young pupils’ time, energy and commitment to being researched, I do not accept that they can or should remain passive and unaffected. I was concerned that educational research – regardless of whether it was within an empirical, interpretive, social science or other paradigm – might not be educational in that it did not benefit the participants. This would, for me, be a denial of the living voices of those pupils and of respect for them as humans.
A denial of respect for pupils in propositional forms of research could be justified on the grounds that educational research may inform future policy and decisions about the type and amount of services that might be appropriate for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) as in the research of Morris (2001), Nugent (2006) and D.A. Walsh (2003) on provision for those with dyslexia in Ireland, and the research of De Buitléir (2002) on curriculum. Policy decisions are largely informed by abstract, conceptual theory such as the sources listed below. Bourke (1985) and Doyle (2003) employ traditional, scientific methodologies, and approach dyslexia from a psychological background. Doyle’s work (2003), for example, is a large-scale, long-term study still in progress. Bourke (1985) addresses a very specific question that is relevant to practice – entitled ‘A proposed automatic processing deficit dimension to dyslexia’ – but his methodology focuses on justifying a specific practical approach rather than transforming current practice.
The dominance of methodologies that engage in abstract, conceptual theory has also permeated interpretive research methodologies in the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia). Chapple (1999), for example, enquired into ‘Dyslexia: assessment, diagnosis and intervention: a case study of the effective intervention’. Her interpretive case study approach adopted a research stance that Eisenhart (2001) states has
proliferated in recent years and come to dominate many areas of educational research.
(Eisenhart 2001, p.15)
This methodological approach positions pupils as inert objects, like the oil in Spradley’s (1980) explanations above. So I contend that current forms of research on specific learning disability (dyslexia) are limited in that they offer little practical help to learners.
~ Implications of a dual focus of my research on my pupils and on myself within our contexts
Current forms of research on specific learning disability (dyslexia) are also of concern to me, as a researcher, because of the idea of the existence of a research reality external to me as a researcher. They concern me on the grounds that I understand the researcher inevitably to be part of the reality they are investigating. In chapters One to Four, I spoke about how I perceive myself (in the metaphor of the waves) as part of a complex and ever-changing reality which I cannot step outside of. The idea that reality cannot be held as external is supported in the works of Hocking, Haskell and Linds (2001) and Miller and Nakagawa (2002) who offer an alternative ontological positioning for the educational researcher. Hocking *et al.* (2001) write about unfolding the body-mind relationship in educational research. The work of Miller and Nakagawa (2002) introduces perspectives of spirituality in education by the addition of perspectives of soul or spirit to body-mind relationships. These researchers are theorising their realities and their realities include body-mind relationships.
I believe this has relevance for my research because in my situation, my research and theorising are located in the reality of my classes and the reality of the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Part of that reality is the changes in my thinking and that of my pupils as well as in our practices of teaching and learning, which occurred during the course of my research. Eisner (1988), in speaking about ‘the primacy of experience and the politics of methodology’ (Eisner 1988, p.15), uses the term ‘methodological enfranchisement’ to show the reality of research about a constantly changing reality. He advocates action research as a methodology to address living experiences in educational research. My living reality is in constant flux and can be understood as a process of development and change through experience. I relate my conceptualisation of reality to postmodernist conceptualisations where reality does not exist as a fixed entity. I locate my theory against other critical thinkers, such as Giroux and McLaren (1992). When outlining the then current situation in critical pedagogy, they discussed how language works to construct and mediate reality. This resembles my stance on the importance of the discourses that inform the teaching and learning of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in my context, as I discussed in Chapters Three and Four. Active and appropriate learning for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) was one of the aims of my research. Giroux and McLaren (1992) present provisional elements of a critical pedagogy that has the potential to create active learners. As McLaren has pointed out, students react to information viscerally
Knowledge is not something to be ‘understood’; it is always felt and responded to somatically…that is, in its corporeal materiality. What matters is what is felt knowledge…knowledge as a ‘lived engagement’.
(Giroux and McLaren 1992, p.170)
I agree with Giroux and McLaren that both knowledge and reality involve lived engagement. Reality cannot be considered as ‘out there’ but is living and changing. We can mould reality in accordance with our needs, interests, prejudices, and cultural traditions (Beck 2004).
Since I conceptualise my reality in this fluid way, I am seeking a methodology that offers a degree of fluidity. In coming to my choice of methodology I had to ask,
‘What is the significance of my shifting reality to the wider community?’ and ‘Why would others be interested in how I theorise it?’ I wrote about these questions in my reflective journal as follows:
Are my ideas about teaching of value to others? Has my research relevance to others in my school or beyond?
(12 October 2002 Journal see Appendix 2.1c)
I am concerned that my research should have relevance for others because the metaphorical mirror cannot reflect myself or my pupils in isolation. We are placed against a background of my school, of teaching colleagues and pupils’ peers. Neither my teaching colleagues nor the pupils’ peers exist in isolation; they are in constant relationship with others. So I am choosing a research methodology that is not based in the kind of propositional theories that inform policy or provision but in the personal relationships within which new knowledge can be created in education.
~ Who benefits from my research?
In raising the question, ‘Who benefits from my research? I have first considered the positioning of the researcher and the research participants in empirical and interpretative forms of research. These were the dominant paradigms in my field of specific learning disability (dyslexia), but they did not address the personal learning experiences of pupils or show ways to improve these experiences from the pupils’ perspective. These methodologies work from an outsider focus, which is not commensurate with the personal focus of my research.
The aims of my research required that the pupils who participated in it must benefit in ways that change both their positioning and circumstances. To achieve this, my research methodology needed to facilitate:
- a personal focus;
- an equality of participation;
- a changing power dynamic in pupil / teacher relationships;
- a fluid conceptualisation of reality as not external to the researcher or the research participants;
others and myself in taking action for ourselves to improve our circumstances;
o All of these concepts are grounded in values of equality, justice, freedom and respect for the individual and their capabilities.
The reflective journals that my pupils and I kept throughout my research provided a method that had a personal focus, an equality of participation and a changing power dynamic from the time prior to, and in the early part of, my research, when I alone marked my pupils’ copies (See Chapter Three) and decided if learning had happened. In the second part of this chapter I move from a method to a methodology when I address the question, ‘Have I found a research methodology that is commensurate with the values that underpin my research?’
5.3 How I am disadvantaged within research methodologies that do not link embodied values and epistemological values to research methods
I want to turn to a positive practical incident that occurred in my research before I interrogate the advantages and disadvantages of various methodological approaches in my specific context.
My pupils and I were filling in our journals at the end of class. Pupil M said, ‘Teacher, I learned to do new steps at ballet yesterday. Do you want to know how I did it?’ The other pupils heard her description of how Pupil M learned. One by one, over the next few weeks, they offered oral explanations of how they learned what they were writing about in their journals. Eventually, one Friday, when time was too short in class to hear everyone’s descriptions of how they learned, we decided to write how we learned into our journals. When I gave my pupils new diaries in the next calendar year they titled them ‘What I learned and how I learned it.’
Together we had devised a simple method to explain our learning. My pupils and I were reflecting on and studying our own practices. They were learning how to spell and I was learning how to teach them to learn how to spell. This is not a method that is found in any other research, that I am aware of, into how pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) learn. It was a part of our self-study methodology,
which again is not a methodology through which specific learning disability (dyslexia) is commonly studied.
The most common research paradigms in which specific learning disability (dyslexia) is investigated are empirical and interpretive. Neither of these methodologies is grounded in the epistemological or ontological commitments that have informed the aims and core issues of my research. I want to explain how I perceive this dominance of particular research methodologies as a disadvantage to me, as a teacher and a researcher, who wants to improve the learning experiences of my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and who also wants to improve my teaching.
There are four other main reasons why I felt that the empirical and interpretive methodologies usually used to study specific learning disability (dyslexia) would not be suitable approaches. In addition to a desire to enquire into my own teaching and my pupils’ learning I wanted to find a methodology that was appropriate to:
- The particular context of specific learning disability from my perspective and from my pupils’ perspectives.
- Developing a living theory that had current relevance to the pupils I was teaching
- Bridging the theory-practice divide
- My values commitments both ontological and epistemological
I now want to address in turn these reasons why I felt that my pupils and/or I would be disadvantaged if I chose the more usual approaches over a self-study action research methodology.
~ The particular context of specific learning disability (dyslexia) from my perspective and from my pupils’ perspectives
My perspective was grounded in my Christian values (see Chapter Three). My pupils and I were already explaining some of our capabilities in our journals by showing an awareness of how we learned in a spirit of freedom and active compassion (see Appendices 2.1b to 2.1g; 2.6a to 2.6d and 6.3). In recognition of my belief in human dignity, I wanted to continue to celebrate the capacities of my pupils
with specific learning disability (dyslexia) within my chosen methodology. I wanted a methodology for my context that harmonised practice and values so that my research would be of service to my pupils and myself as their teacher. The form of journaling we now engaged in had grown through our influence on each other and from within an atmosphere of equality and justice. Our journals were not only about school learning. We were already addressing issues about the wholeness of the person.
The issue of injustice in my context was one of the two important issues that guided my search for an appropriate methodology. The second was my value commitments and these values, as I described in Chapter Three, included a belief in the individual’s ability to learn and create new knowledge. McNiff (2002) talks about these ideas of individuals’ knowledge creation and creative power. When explaining her preferences for self-study action research, she draws on the work of Chomsky (1986) and develops questions about the nature of knowledge of language, how knowledge of language is acquired, and how it is used. She asks,
What do we know? How have I come to know it? How do I validate my knowledge? How do we share my knowledge? What do I use my knowledge for?
(McNiff 2002, p.1)
The term ‘knowing’ as used by McNiff includes the idea of learning because in my view learning is part of a transformational process of coming to know (see Chapter Three).
~ Developing a living theory of practice that had current relevance to the pupils I was teaching
I am committed to the idea that theories of living practice can influence current policy and provision. This commitment is seen in my research journal question below,
‘Will they have left the school system before policy changes arising from my research can benefit them?’
(11 December 2001 Journal, original in data archive, Appendix 2.1b)
I am positioning my students as active participants in my research because I want to make a difference to the contexts in which my pupils are disadvantaged and marginalised. I am not seeking to develop a grand theory of learning that will influence policy and practice for future generations of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Instead I am seeking to develop a living theory of practice that has relevance for myself and those with whom I work, and that can be made available for others to adopt and adapt as they wish.
~ Bridging the theory-practice divide
I developed an understanding of self-study action research during my studies for my masters degree, when I successfully theorised my ways of understanding my practice using a metaphor of six concentric circles (see Figure 5.1 below) of increasing size. Each circle totally embraced the previous one. The inner, smallest circle was a practical concern in my teaching, which initiated my research. The next four circles represented my developing theory, influences of school and the wider educational community, issues of ethics and methodological implications. Finally the largest outer circle represented my personal development and me. The key discovery for me was
that the circles collapsed inwards. Vortex-like I became the centre of this changing visual representation. My search and development led to changes in methodology, changes in ethical stance around curriculum intervention, changes in the wider learning community, changes in teaching and finally to changes in the learning experiences for my pupils.
(McDonagh 2000, p.76)
Figure 5.1: Research circles
The visual metaphor of concentric circles influencing each other that I developed to show the dialectical nature of my practice addressed a philosophical issue of how to effect change and address a practical teaching and learning dilemma. Reflecting now on my research methods, I believe that I had found a way to explain research that was not linear. My methods were also in keeping with my value of respecting the individual in two ways. First I had avoided the setting up of a control group, which I consider denies the participation of the control group or the main group; second my approach was in keeping with the epistemological stance I advocated in Chapter Four of this thesis. I had found, similar to Loughran *et al.* (2004), that the development of self-study action research can be attributed to a search for a research methodology to address the philosophical and practical questions of practitioners.
In my Masters studies and in this current research, I was conducting research in teaching rather than research on teaching. The shift towards research in teaching is a historical trend in self-study action research, according to Hamilton and Pinnegar (1998 cited in Whitehead 2000). I found that the key features of self-study action research are not located in methods and research tools but in its influence for living change. As I stated in my thesis,
I believe the full significance of my research is not the published endpaper but the living interdependent growing initiatives it began in each of the circled areas.
(McDonagh 2000, p.76)
~ **My value commitments both ontological and epistemological**
In this section I want to explain the relationship between my embodied values and the research methods that I chose. In Chapter Three I have explained that the spiritual beliefs that I hold as a Christian, informed my values and the concerns that led me to undertake this research. In particular I want to show, in this section, that by making links between personal values and methodology, I demonstrated how I found a form of research that I can live with, in that it is commensurate with my embodied values. By finding ways to study my own practice and generate theory as politicised practice (Whitehead and McNiff 2006, p.28-29), I show that these links exist at a practical as well as theoretical level.
I believe that I have taken the best steps both morally and ethically to improve the quality of learning experience for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in my research because I can show how my values have become the standards by which I strive to live and to have my research judged. These values constitute and explain who I am and why I have chosen this form of research (Whitehead 2004a, p.1). Like Farren (2005), I sought a methodology to bring my embodied knowledge about teaching into the academy. I am placing my ontological perspective centrally within my methodology (Bullough and Pinnegar 2004, p.319). In doing so I aim to leave the world a better place than it was prior to my research (Naidoo 2005).
In order to show what this looked like in practice I return to two questions that I asked myself at the beginning of this chapter.
Have I found a form of research that I can live with in that it is commensurate with my values?
Have I morally and ethically taken the best steps to improve the quality of learning experience for the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in my research?
I am asking questions about whether, from my morally committed stance, I could research in ways that did not immediately improve the marginalisation of my pupils. I wrote:
Why is the voice of pupils absent?
(14 March 2002 Journal, original in data archive Appendix 2.1b)
The significance of this question was that I was seeking a methodology that included actions for change and also included the views of the individuals being researched. A case study action research methodology, as Bassey (1999) explains it, offers an approach, which can include on emphasis on trying to make beneficial change in the workplace. This form of research addresses the dilemma of Eisenhart (2001) when she felt called to act on behalf of those pupils being researched. Cycles of descriptions of events, evaluation, the introduction of change and its evaluation,
form part of Eisenhart’s methodology. These cycles are similar to my work as a resource teacher, where teaching involves critical cycles of reflection that can lead to best practice in teaching according to the Primary Curriculum (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999b). This systematic and critical enquiry could improve the practical situation for the pupils in my research with specific learning disability (dyslexia). These practical improvements could be generating a theory about practice but would not necessarily be generating theory from practice, as I now explain.
Whitehead and McNiff (2006, p.32) speak of theory generation as a form of politicised practice. This idea is built on McNiff and Whitehead’s (2005) and Whitehead’s (1989) explanations of generating theory by studying one’s own practice. By ‘my theory of practice’ I mean that I am studying the changes in what I do and why I am making those changes. I am also documenting the influence of my changes in my pupils’ work. My theory is a living theory grounded in embodied values. The values that informed my research are respect for the individual, including ideas around human dignity, equality and wholeness (Chapter Two); openness and fairness (Chapter Three); respect for the individual’s ability to learn, including issues of equality, social justice, freedom, identity and care (Chapter Four). These values also become the standards by which my research can be judged. This brings me to my third diary question:
‘Have I morally and ethically taken the best steps to improve the quality of learning experience for the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in my research?’
(24 March 2003 Journal, original in data archive Appendix 2.1c)
So now I explain the source of the values that I hold and then relate these values to the research methods that I chose. I check these choices against the reflections in the metaphorical mirror, showing how I test my claims to new knowledge and the validity of those claims.
5.4 Showing the realisation of my values as my research methods
In this section I discuss how I test my claims, taking into consideration ethical and methodological issues around my research, in particular the advantages and difficulties of positioning pupils as co-researchers. I begin with a practical description of how I developed a key learning.
When my pupils were conducting their action research projects into how they learned spellings, I audio-tape recorded each pupil individually, during their one-to-one classes, as they told about the strategy they used. There was soon a collection of tapes on my desk. One day, Pupil K asked what was on each tape. When she heard that seven other pupils had made a recording on the same topic as she had, she asked, ‘Are they all the same?’ This was a simple question with profound implications. Having listened as the pupils made their recordings it almost seemed like a silly question. But it was exactly the way many people view pupils with dyslexia, in that they presume that these pupils all have the same ways of learning. I asked if Pupil K would like to hear the other tape recordings. ‘Yes. Of course.’ How did she feel about others hearing her recording? ‘No problem.’ Over the course of the next week all eight pupils agreed to permit each other to listen to their recordings. Pupil K then asked, ‘What did the others think?’ This was a key question in my research approach. I could have answered her question but instead I said, ‘We might discuss the recordings in our ‘freedom Friday’ classes.’ Her enthusiastic reply marked a turning point in my research. It was the beginning of our reflective discussions. These discussions became a core part of my methodology.
What values did this research episode demonstrate? My pupils were playing an active part in the selection of my research methods, demonstrating a value of equality. I had given my pupils the opportunity to ask critical questions, so demonstrating a freedom that would not usually be present in my context. I showed respect for my pupils’ human dignity in consulting them and asking their permission to share their tape-recordings with other pupils. My readiness to act on Pupil K’s request is a demonstration of my compassion and service to others.
I now want to return to Table 3.2 in Chapter Three, to show how my values emerged and became central to other methodological decisions that I made. That table related how my Christian faith informed my values. I am now adding two further columns to that table (see Table 5.1 below) to depict how I transformed my values and aspirations into living standards by which I strive to live and research and wish to have my research judged. I discuss how the validity of my research claims can be tested against my values so that I can claim an ethical and legitimate form of establishing the validity of the living theories that I develop within my self-study action research methodology.
Working horizontally across the table below, I relate each beatitude, or reported saying of Christ, to my thinking as a Christian (in the second column). In the third column I name and give a short description of the eight values that underpinned my Christian commitments. In the fourth column I state each of these values as a standard by which my research can be judged. In the fifth column I form a question showing a relationship between the practical ontological and epistemological issues that my research addressed and the values and standards listed in previous columns. The penultimate column lists actions that I took in my research and some data gathering techniques that I developed, again relating them to the values base of my research and the standards by which it can be judged. The final column again makes links between my personal Christian beliefs and values, and the vision and aims of my research. I claim in Part Four to have achieved these aims and in the remainder of this section I discuss the methodology and methods that made these claims possible.
| Christ says, | I, as a Christian say, | My embodied values | Standards of judgement | Research issues | Action – data gathering techniques | Vision – the aims of my research |
|--------------|------------------------|--------------------|-----------------------|----------------|----------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.’ | ‘Have a non-possessive attitude towards life and people and know my need of God.’ | Freedom – a capacity for self determination in thought, speech and action for the good of oneself and others | Do I act in ways that demonstrate freedom? | Can both I as a teacher and the pupils in my research have freedom to voice our own ways of knowing within systems that value objective, outsider knowledge? | Finding appropriate forms of voice such as painting, drawing, tape recordings, and oral presentations. | The ability to explain our capabilities, which in the case of the pupils are their abilities to learn and in my case to develop theory from practice. |
| ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ | ‘Be touched by the pain of others.’ | Compassion – a recognition of my needs in others and other’s needs in me | Do I act in ways that demonstrate empathy? | Can I recognise the learned helplessness of my pupils and myself? | Learning from and with one another such as our journals of new individual learning. | Awareness of how and why one learns as one does |
| ‘Blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth.’ | ‘Reflect that being sensitive is not a fault. Counter what is wrong by doing good.’ | Justice: a sensitivity to injustice and a will to make changes towards a more just condition | Do I act in ways that demonstrate justice? | Can I address marginalisation caused by existing provision and dominant propositional theory? | Inclusive ways of learning such as sharing learning strategies, developing a report of our shared understanding of dyslexia | To have an educative influence that would encourage others to engage in more socially just learning experiences |
| ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.’ | ‘Work towards fairness and justice.’ | Equality – a capacity for justice and fairness in all human needs. | Do I act in ways that demonstrate equality? | Questioning dominant pedagogies that generally promote behaviouristic teaching approaches for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) | How do I change my practice to one of greater equality based on my new learning from my pupils’ research and my research? | Explore the nature of relationships between people, which foster knowledge generation. I am developing the kinds of relationship that avoid oppression and domination. |
| Christ says, | I, as a Christian say, | My embodied values | Standards of judgement | Research issues | Action – data gathering techniques | Vision – the aims of my research |
|--------------|------------------------|--------------------|-----------------------|----------------|-----------------------------------|---------------------------------|
| ‘Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.’ | ‘Make allowances because I don’t know the whole story.’ | Forgiveness - a commitment to gaining fuller understandings | Do I act in ways that demonstrate forgiveness? | Fluid reality No one right way of knowing | Spirals of research actions, based on the new learning at each stage rather than a definite pre-arranged research structure | To constantly question my understandings |
| ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.’ | ‘Really care. Let people feel special.’ | Human Dignity – a recognition of the capacity of others and a demonstration of care for each and every individual I encounter | Do I act in ways that demonstrate human dignity in an attitude of celebration and care? | Pupils’ capacities to learn were ignored | Valuing of own learning by self and others. Both pupils and I present reports and papers on our new learning | A celebration of the learning capacities of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) |
| ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.’ | ‘Build bridges. Be approachable to all.’ | Wholeness – an acceptance and a commitment to the reconciliation of a plurality of approaches to life; mindful of the need to recognise mind body and spirit | Do I act in ways that demonstrate wholeness? | Engage with issues of how I come to know and how my coming to know was informed by how I helped my children to come to know. Develop an epistemological stance commensurate with my values | New epistemology of practice. Knowledge transfer in oral, collaborative ways | The education of social formations |
| ‘Blesses are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of God.’ | ‘Do what is right even it is not popular.’ | Service – act according to my values and be an influence for the greater good regardless of the personal cost. | Do I act in ways that demonstrate a commitment to a good social order and the education of social formations? | Do I live in the direction of my values? | Values as standards by which data can become evidence in evaluating my research | Towards harmony between practice and values |
The table above shows that the ideas in my research did not develop in a linear way and the linkages this table offers were not obvious until I came to writing up this thesis. They were however embodied in what I was doing. I had difficulty in articulating them in writing, as I wrote about in my journal.
How do I show that my values live in my research?
(5 November 2003 journal, original in data archive Appendix 2.1d)
In earlier chapters of my writing, I have talked about myself and the children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) as products of the dominant education system and I developed the intention of improving our lot. This intention was informed by my value of justice and was informed by the vision that I held of the future – a future where the abilities of individuals with specific learning disability (dyslexia) would be acknowledged. Values can be understood as the major priorities that I choose to act on and that can creatively enhance life not only for me but also for those with whom I come in contact. Three key ideas within my understanding of values are personal choice, personal action and a personal vision of enhancement; for example my value of justice involved making choices to challenge the forms of theory and practice in my context and these choices form part of my research intentions; my value of justice also requires that I act in ways that demonstrate that value of justice, within my context, and my research methodology and methods form part of this action; my vision was a future where my chosen value of justice, in addition to the other values I hold are demonstrated to be realised in actions – mine and those of others – so that a more just situation would exist for those children with specific learning disability (dyslexia), for whom I was concerned.
I have chosen to study my practice and to take action to change it towards my vision of a situation where the abilities of individuals would be recognised rather than their disabilities. The writing of Whitehead (2004a) on living theory in self-study action research resonates with my ideas that articulating and explaining my values are an essential part of my methodology. Whitehead (2004a) chose his living experiences as a son, father, husband and scholar to communicate his ontological commitments or ‘lived values’, when he says,
In my experience of human existence, every individual I meet is unique in the particular constellation of values that help to constitute and explain who they are and what they are doing. Within each individual I also see values of hope for the future of humanity and the potential to express values that do not carry this hope.
(Whitehead 2004a, p.1)
Whitehead is also describing his values in terms of actions, vision and personal contexts. I have learned from Whitehead that values and lived experiences can be linked within a methodology of self-study action research. In the final part of the quotation above, I believe Whitehead (2004a) points to another significant issue, which I discovered during the course of my research, that self-study action research is not necessarily a celebratory narrative. I learned to question, Could I be wrong? I did so in order to justify the actions I was taking and to consider the possibility that my values may be misguided: an idea which Whitehead (2004a) suggests when he states that the individual has ‘the potential to express values that do not carry [this] hope’ for the future of humanity (Whitehead 2004a, p.1).
To explain the links between my research and my values, I adopted a two-part approach. First my research was based on practical principles about teaching and learning and second on my epistemological values. The practical principles were guided by my embodied values that informed the choices I made, the actions I took and my vision for the future. My epistemological values are the embodiment of my commitments to particular forms of knowledge. Farren (2005) claims, similarly, to have created a new epistemology of educational enquiry to bring the embodied knowledge of practitioners into the academy. She suggests a two-pronged approach to achieve this in which, first, practical principles, understood as embodied values, are used to explain learning and/or practice; second, epistemological values, understood as living standards of evaluation, are used as the epistemology for a new scholarship of educational enquiry. I am arguing that good quality educational research should follow the aims of moral education. In doing so the ontological positioning of educational research would be as Whitehead (2004a), following the ideas of Naidoo, states:
Enhancing the flow of love and respect for self and for others, in the education of ourselves and the social formations in which we work and live, would do much to ensure that we leave the world a better place than when we came into it.
(Whitehead 2004a, p.11)
My choice of methodology is a moral choice based on the values that I hold and that I have explained above as justice, freedom, compassion, equality, human dignity, wholeness and service. I have posed a practical research question that required a methodology to address both the actions needed and also the philosophical ideas that influenced the form of my research question. I have explained those philosophical ideas in terms of the values I hold in Chapters Three and Four. This idea of a research method to address the philosophical questions of practitioners is how Loughran et al. (2004) described the development of self-study action research. Self-study action research seemed to me to have a moral focus as its lineage. The works of Carr and Kemmis (1986), Elliott (1991), McNiff (2002), Whitehead (1993) and Zeichner (1999) all show how practitioners questioned the basis of their work. Carr and Kemmis (1986) also advocate a professionalism that resonates with human emancipation, according to Noffke (1997).
~ Testing my claims
I now want to discuss the links between my research methods and the core values that I have articulated in Tables 3.2 and 5.1. I show how this enables me to generate evidence from my data to test its validity in support of my claims to knowledge. I set this out in the following way
I state the values and standard of judgement
I provide an example of practice of the enactment of each value
I analyse the data excerpt in relation to my values and standard of judgement
I explain how I have used this data as evidence to establish the validity of my claim to knowledge
Here is an example of how I use this procedure. I take the value of freedom as an example.
Freedom as a value and standard of judgement
I am asking
Do I act in ways that demonstrate freedom?
(5 September 2003 journal, original in data archive, see Appendix 2.1d)
An example of the enactment of this value in my research was when I found appropriate forms of voice for my pupils so that they could become co-researchers and co-knowledge creators in my research. One example of taped and transcribed conversations between my pupils and class teachers, in Chapter Two, where they discuss the teacher’s practice of questioning pupils, shows a freedom that was not available prior to my research. Artwork was another method I used to facilitate pupil voice, as in the example where a pupil drew his feelings about coming to my resource classes, which I have placed in Chapter Two. In his picture the pupil depicts how coming to resource class lightens up his day and rejoices that ‘at least I will learn something there.’
I now want to explain the methodological process of moving from data, gathered in my classroom, to generating evidence to test the validity of my research claims. This process involves generating evidence to support my claims and then testing my claims and theories at various levels: (a) personal, (b) social and (c) institutional. Taking the example above, when I allowed pupils the freedom to depict their feelings about specific learning disability (dyslexia) through art, I describe and explain how I generated evidence from it. In a resource or support teaching setting, artwork is not part of the curriculum. I chose art first because I believe that many of the pupils in my research had a talent for art and second because they could possibly express themselves more easily in that medium than in writing. I saw art as a celebration of pupils’ apparent talent. My choice was influenced by my value of respect for the whole person as well as an appreciation of the pupils’ capabilities. In Section Four I demonstrate how the pupils’ oral explanations of their artwork and their discussions about it generated new knowledge about how children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) have individual and significant understandings of that term. Freedom and respect were the values that influenced my actions and my selection of the pupils’ artwork. I have chosen this specific data to justify and test
my provisional claim that I am realising values of freedom and respect for the individual in my practice. Freedom and respect are among the living standards by which I want to have my work judged. In judging my work I ask whether this data demonstrates freedom and respect for the individual in my practice. My actions support my claim that I respect pupils with specific learning difficulties and have given them freedom within my practice to express their own thinking.
**Validation procedures**
(a) Personal validation
I tested my claims first at a personal level in three ways:
- I have argued my conviction about the importance of freedom and respect for the capabilities of the pupils who participated in my research throughout this thesis;
- I have demonstrated in journal extracts how I have critically reflected on these commitments, examples of which exist in the self-questioning that I have already referred to in this thesis such as when I asked, ‘Can I act for my pupils?’, ‘Do I act in ways that demonstrate freedom?’, ‘How do I show that my values live in my research?’, ‘Have I morally and ethically taken the best steps to improve the quality of learning experience for the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in my research?’
- I have shown confidence in my values and convictions by acting upon them and by opening them to public critique as I show in the example below (Table 5.2).
Part of the practical process of validating my research was open-ended critique that began in the reflective discussion between the pupils who participated in my research and myself. During the course of my research this form of critique developed into discussions between pupils and pupils’ peers and teaching staff; and between myself and teaching colleagues, resource teaching colleagues and colleagues at the university. I taped and transcribed many of these conversations and they are in my data archive and listed in Appendix 2. Table 5.2 below is an example of how I developed confidence in my values and convictions by acting upon them and asking others to critique what I had done. Rather than asking, ‘Do you agree that these data are evidence of my values of respect and freedom in action?’ I gave
another resource teacher, an art therapist and a counsellor the transcribed conversations and invited their written comments. In Table 5.2 we are discussing Picture 5.1 below in which Pupil B had drawn his feelings about his learning difficulties.
![Picture 1]
**Picture 5.1:** Pupil B’s feelings about his learning difficulties
**Table 5.2: Transcript of part of group discussion on artwork**
| Actual words used in discussion | My Comments | Triangulation comments – other professionals |
|---------------------------------|-------------|---------------------------------------------|
| **Me:** Would you like to share with us any ideas?
**Pupil B:** I put a kind of border around it for the glitter. I done the outside and what I feel like in the inside. I’m having a party and there’s the balloons and all that. And then there’s the teacher on the outside. I put all red on the outside of the picture and all nice colours on the inside.
**Me:** Is the Teacher in the red bit?
**Pupil B:** Yea.
**Me:** Why did you put him in there?
**Pupil B:** Cause I don’t like him.
**Pupil K:** Just to keep the teacher out?
**Pupil B:** Yea, just to keep everything bad away from me.
**Me:** Is that teacher all teachers or just a particular one?
**Pupil B:** Em, most of them. | *I used gestures.*
*Error in verb.*
*Good visual description.*
*Colour matched feelings.*
*Pupil B could say he felt like nice colours and represent teacher in dangerous red.*
*Pupil K understood the meaning.* | Yours was an open question. Pupils had the freedom to answer in any way they liked. The colours and shapes tell a lot. Joy, yellow. Red, fear. He is cocooned in the circle of light colours for safety. Worrying disclosure by this pupil. You would not be likely to hear them from him. It is great that he is free to talk them out with someone like you. School must be very hard for them. Could they try paint with no brushes for deeper feelings next time? |
(b) Social Validation
This format above also provides a form of social validation; the second form of validation that I have established. Social validation in my research is about opening my research up to a wider group to critique. This group included two critical friends. We met at least monthly. They acted as both encouraging friends and as critics familiar with my research. Some of their comments are sprinkled throughout this thesis. A validation group of a minimum of five people from an educational background, and who had a good knowledge of self-study action research, listened to my work at various stages and commented on its merit and the acceptability of my claims. This group met five/six times yearly during the course of my research. Work colleagues also acted as critics and evaluators of my research. The final form of social validation that I have included in this thesis consists of comments from resource teachers who work in other schools.
I now want to give an example of social validation and legitimisation in relation to my claim, in Chapter Eight, to have developed a living theory of learning to teach for social justice, in relation to pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). As part of my validation process the questionnaire below was completed by seven resource teachers, directors and two programme co-ordinators of workshops, affiliated to the Dyslexia Association of Ireland, for pupils with dyslexia. These questionnaires (sample below) were completed following a presentation of my research evidence in support of my claim to have developed a new living theory of teaching for social justice for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), which I claim was a more socially just approach than what was currently available.
Dear B,
Thanks for the opportunity to speak about my work at the resource teachers’ meeting in X on (date). I would be interested in your critical comments on the following in order to clarify whether my work is of value to others:
Was anything in the content new to you?
What did I omit that you think that I should have spoken about?
What good practices, in similar lines, have you personally used?
Do you think that the approach that I used in my work is relevant for resource teachers, for learning support teachers or for class teachers and why?
Please feel free to write more comments than the space here permits. If you would prefer, just let’s have a chat.
Thanks, Caitriona
(Complete sample in Appendix 7.3, originals in data archive Appendix 2.9)
The question ‘Did you learn anything new?’ was asking if the new knowledge I claimed was in fact new to those who are in the practical field of my research on a daily basis. All respondents answered yes, and went on to describe the new knowledge for them (See Appendix 2.9). In asking, ‘Would you use any of my ideas that you heard today?’ I received in writing confirmation from all respondents that what I was claiming should be believed and incorporated into public thinking (see Appendix 2.9).
(c) Institutional validation
Institutional validation took the form of presenting my research to university staff and students at both invited and public conferences (McDonagh 2003 and 2005). At these presentations, as I will describe in Chapter Nine, I sought the validation of my research from an educational research community. I received emails from some who attended the conferences, which stated that they recognised my embodied values within my research, similar to the example at (a) above. Samples of these emails are in Chapter Seven, Eight and Nine. By submitting this thesis I am seeking the legitimation of my research by the academy. The criteria by which it will be judged include both the criteria of the University of Limerick for a PhD and the criteria specific to my research in which I am claiming to have developed a living theory of practice.
The criteria of the University of Limerick for a PhD require an original claim to knowledge. In addition, I have outlined the criteria on which I base my claim to have developed a living theory of practice in practical terms in Section One and in terms of my ontological commitments and embodied values in this chapter. In the remaining sections of this thesis, I show that I have tested my data against these
values, which I identify as my living standards of judgement, in order to generate evidence to support and test my claim to knowledge.
~ My understanding of self-study action research
Returning to the metaphorical mirror in which I am framing my methodological choices, I am stating that my self-study action research is grounded in my articulated values. I am now asking, ‘How can they been seen in the mirror?’ First, the reason that I looked in the mirror in order to scrutinise that what was happening to both the pupils in my research and myself was a realisation of the eight values that I have identified above. These values included a wish for justice for those who were marginalised by the education system; a desire to care for them; a wish to serve them in order to change their situation; a respect for the capacities of each individuals; a need to afford others the freedom to develop their identities and capacities; and a desire for equality. My work and research were driven by those values. They were the living standards by which I was working and so they also became the living standards by which I judge the quality of my research.
Now, in the remainder of this thesis, I am asking the reader, if, in my research, I have demonstrated these values as I have engaged with issues of
- learning and knowledge,
- teaching and learning for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) who participated in my research and
- social justice in my research.
Because my research focused on both the pupils whom I taught and on myself it was necessary to ensure that these values also permeated the ways in which I dealt with my pupils as co-researchers.
~ Ethical issues of engaging with young people as co-researchers
In this section I explain how I claim to have acted ethically. As part of my value of respect for the individual and my values of freedom, compassion, justice, equality and service, I demonstrate my awareness of the ethical issues of involving pupils between the ages of nine and twelve years as co-researchers. This requires an
understanding of the concepts, which inform university ethical committee guidelines (University of Limerick 2006) and developing these guidelines to include the methodology in which research was carried out ‘with’ rather than ‘on’ pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I am making claims that my research is based on my values and I am asking, as I did in my journal,
Have I acted ethically and have I morally taken the best steps to improve the quality of learning experience for the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in my research?
(2 February 2003 Journal See Appendix 2.1d)
Because my research topic and methodology involved pupils aged nine to twelve years as research participants, important ethical issues arose about securing participants’ informed consent and the protection of the identities of these research participants. Because of my belief in respect for the individual, I complied with what Bassey (1990) describes as a good research ethic when he said,
The research ethic of respect for persons focuses on the value judgement that a researcher, in taking and using data from a person, should do so in a way which respects that person as a fellow human being who is entitled to dignity and privacy.
(Bassey 1990, p.18)
In practical terms, I
- obtained permission for my research from all the participants as well as my school principal and school Board of Management. Samples of permission documentation are in Appendix 1.2 to 1.4
- negotiated access and found ways to keep all those involved informed about how the research was progressing through on-going conversations. These were noted in my journal entries (See Appendix 2.1a to 2.1.d)
promised confidentiality and did not name my workplace as pupils or other individuals could be identified from it. This is included in the permission forms in Appendix 1.
ensured that all participants could withdraw at any time. There are samples of this in the permission forms in Appendix 1.3 to 1.4
retained my right to report my findings in good faith.
These ethical conditions for my research are included in my ethical statement in Appendix 1.1. The programmes, tests and evidence of learning of the 24 pupils took place as part of their normal school work. I informed them that our discussions, tape-recordings and learning journals would help me with new ideas for classes. I gave information on my studies and research report to my Board of Management, Principal, colleagues, other professionals, and the pupils and their parents, first individually and orally and then followed by the ethical statement above. As a guarantee of confidentiality, the ethical statement signed by me gave them details of my work and I negotiated access with the firm understanding that nothing of a personal nature either about the children or colleagues would be made public (See sample in Appendix 1.1). The parents were asked to agree that their child’s work could be used as part of my research. The procedures above demonstrated that all contributions were dealt with in ‘dignity and privacy’ (Bassey 1990)
Informed pupil consent became an issue for both the university ethical committee and for me. We differed on our understandings of informed consent in that the committee held that the parents’ permission signed beneath by the pupils was required (see revised Consent form Appendix 1.3b). However, I held that the sample pupil consent form (see Appendix 1.3a) had appropriate language for them, as was the case for others from whom consent was sought. My consent forms were given to the pupils to take home to parents in whose presence the pupils signed them. The parents’ ethical statement and consent form went home at the same time. I believe my approach was respectful and removed many power issues. First pupils might not have had the power to refuse consent if the forms were signed in school, as the research was to take place in class. I had negotiated with the school management that if a pupil did not want to be involved in my research another resource teacher would teach them. Thus there would be no detrimental effect to their education. Second the
University suggestion, where the language of the form was inappropriate to the pupils’ age and reading levels, in my opinion left the possibility open that parents might give their permission for their child to take part without any explanation to the child of why they had given consent. The legal approach of the University withdrew from pupils their ability to give consent and required that my ethical statement and consent form be addressed to parents, signed by them and co-signed by pupils. I complied with this requirement but in addition I continued to get oral and written consent from my pupils (See Appendix 1.3b and 1.3c). All pupils invited to join my research accepted, as did their parents (Forms in data archive see Appendix 1).
I maintain that my values are at the core of my ethical stance and my methodology. The methodology that I have chosen holds the essence of what sustains me in my work as a resource teacher of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Recently the ethical requirements of the university have changed (University of Limerick 2006) and now include Child Protection Guidelines that are commensurate with the ethical stance that I adopted at the beginning of my research. These guidelines require that
informed consent is obtained from the parents/guardians of children under 18 and from the children themselves. Children need to be informed in appropriate language so that they understand the research they are being asked to participate in.
(University of Limerick 2006, 11.2)
5.5 Summary
To summarise this chapter, I set out to find ways to show how I could take actions to challenge the ways in which both my pupils and I had been systemically disadvantaged. I picture the understanding that I have come to of my self-study action research methodology as a light. When the light came on, I could move from my feelings of learned helplessness when teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). The light shone and enabled me to see the metaphorical mirror in which I watched my journey to choosing my research methods.
Initially I found research approaches that ignored the pupils in my research with only me as the researcher in focus. Having decided on a methodology that supported a dual focus on me and on the pupils in my research, I next saw my pupils and myself standing shoulder to shoulder in the mirror during my data collection processes. Others joined us at the mirror as the data was converted to evidence. Then crash. I went into and through the mirror. In this way I could check with those on the other side of the mirror that what I had seen was legitimate and valid.
The light that was self-study action research brought my pupils and me out of the darkness of our marginalisation within the education system. I describe in the next chapter how the light lit the way so that my pupils and I could share our new learning within its beams. It was also a light for sharing with the wider community as I show in the remainder of this thesis. In Chapter Six that follows I explain the practical methods that comprised my methodology as I took action to overcome the disadvantage experienced by my pupils and me and transform it into new forms of opportunity.
CHAPTER SIX: Explanations and justifications for my action research methodology
6.1 Introduction
I have described in Chapter Five my search for an appropriate research methodology. In this chapter I focus on offering explanations and justifications for my choice of methodology. I use the analogy of a mirror to explain the nature of my research process – a two-way mirror where I am simultaneously on both sides. From one side of the mirror I act and develop new understandings in relationship with my pupils. I cross to the other side of the two-way mirror and reflect on how I see myself as acting and developing new understandings in relationship with my pupils. Finally and more importantly I smash the mirror and move into an integrated reality by questioning and testing what I have seen and understood with those children who were participating in my research, with their peers and with my peers – teachers, resource teachers, psychologists who work in education, and researchers. The testing and questioning continues as I make my research public in academic presentations at conferences.
This chapter is in two sections. First I produce data to show that I have taken action to overcome the systemic disadvantage in which my pupils and I have been placed. Second I show how I transform that disadvantage into new forms of opportunity. I explain how I have selected data from the monitoring of the teaching and learning processes of my everyday work. My data gathering challenged the idea that data exists only in the form of definitive targets that were achieved or could be achieved in the future (Elliott 1991, p.51). Instead I show how I have gathered data from continuous questioning of my work and my pupils’ work.
A linear research structure could not achieve this, so I describe how I searched for and found a methodology to depict my learning, my pupils’ learning and our learning relationships. I examine how the five key data gathering processes that I engaged in supported the epistemological and ontological values-base of my research. I show how my triangulation processes (Bassey 1999, p.47) and validation processes demonstrated the relational nature of knowledge co-creation.
In practical terms I show how I took action to put strategies in place to help my pupils to come to their own understandings of how they learn. I encouraged them to undertake action enquiries into how they learn. We now formed a collective of researchers who were all researching our practice individually and collaboratively, as we learned from one another. My research became reciprocal, and my context became one of a community of research practice. I tested my methods against the aims of my research to ensure that, at each step of my research, I was addressing my concerns in a way that was commensurate with the values-base of my research.
I conclude that I have adopted a form of research that provided opportunities to challenge previous knowledge and learning and offered a new methodology for the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia). I have researched in ways that enabled pupils with specific learning disability to come to value their ways of learning; that provided methods for the creation of knowledge within teacher–pupil relationships; and that those ways demonstrate the existence of educative relationships. This is a methodology that permitted me to become part of contributing to a just system of teaching and learning for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
6.2 The structure and processes of my research: showing that I have taken action to overcome methodological difficulties
As is the nature of self-study action research, my research is ongoing even today. For the purpose of writing this thesis, however, I fixed a date, June 2005, after which I did not include any more data gathered from my classes. Up to that date, the new learning of both my pupils and myself forms the basis of my research claims. I now want to state how I selected certain pieces of data for inclusion in this thesis and how this data became evidence of my claims that were both practical and theoretical.
In the previous chapter I have explained my methodology as inclusive and participative, which has demonstrated my epistemological value of prioritising personal knowledge (Polanyi 1958). My methods have also demonstrated my willingness to have my provisional understanding critiqued at multiple levels by
pupils, peers and academics. In this way I continued to critique my methods and findings. I did not expect to produce definite solutions. I agree with Elliott that,
When values define the ends of a practice, such ends should not be viewed as concrete objects or targets, which can be perfectly realised at some future point in time.
(Elliott 1991, p.51)
So the first part of this chapter is about overcoming the practical difficulties of gathering data in a living classroom situation in order to generate my living theory of practice. I begin this story by telling how I generated evidence from the raw data of my work in my classes.
~ How I gathered data and helped my pupils come to their own understandings of how they learn
I used many data gathering techniques in my research and my choice of methods grew in variety to facilitate the new knowledge I was generating. A variety of methods is not unusual in action research methodologies according to Stronach (2003), who suggests that there are as many forms of data gathering as there are researchers using action research methodologies. He speaks of a segmented-orange approach to data gathering, where the researcher divides research into segments or cycles and finds different yet appropriate approaches for each cycle. Another form of data gathering that he describes is an ‘onion’ approach where layers can be peeled away. In this approach the researcher begins with one approach and as each layer of action reveals further questions, further data gathering methods are added as required. I visualise my data gathering approach as a living and growing onion rather than as peeling an onion. I am using the metaphor of a growing onion to explain that my methods were not prearranged or confined to cycles; instead they were developmental and transformational in the following way.
Within my onion metaphor, at its tiny centre was the logging and investigation of currently available information on the pupils I taught. This took the form of pupil profiles, which I compiled at the beginning of the first year of my research for each pupil. These profiles were based on a format in the Learning Support Guidelines (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2000). The originals are in my data archive (see sample in Appendix 6.1). These profiles presented a picture of each pupil that was based first, on objective norm referenced tests; and second, on factual information about the pupil and his or her other learning attainments. Here is such a profile, as an example.
Table 6.1: Pupil profile
| Name | M |
|------|---|
| Date of Birth | 18.08.90 |
| Sex | Male |
| Class | 6th |
| Educational Assessment by psychologist | Test | Date | Results |
|----------------------------------------|------|------|---------|
| WISC | May 1997 | Upper limit of the low average range. Non-verbal ahead of verbal. |
| WORD | May 1997 | Reading 6.0 years, Spelling 6.6 years, Comprehension 6.0 years |
| WRAT | 16.09.98 | Word Recognition 10th percentile, Spelling 7th percentile, Arithmetic 16th percentile |
| Standardised tests administered and marked by class teachers | Test | Date | Results |
|-------------------------------------------------------------|------|------|---------|
| Drumcondra Primary Reading Test | 19.12.01 | Vocabulary 32nd percentile, Comprehension 16th percentile, Total Reading score 23rd percentile |
| Drumcondra Primary Maths Test | 23.05.02 | Total score 19th percentile |
| Drumcondra Primary Reading Test | 15.12.02 | Vocabulary 30th percentile, Comprehension 37th percentile, Total Reading score 35rd percentile |
| Family and educational history | M is from a family with a history of specific learning difficulties. He has not repeated any class. He received learning support in a group of 4 to 6 pupils for 2 hours and 30 minutes weekly from Sept 1996 to Sept 2000. In Spring 2001 he followed the Phonological Awareness Training Programme by J Wilson (details in proposal) for 20 weeks. I believe this intervention programme caused his improvements on the Drumcondra Reading Test. I can also evidence this with pre- and post-intervention testing on the Jackson Phonic Skills Tests. M attended speech therapy in 1998. I was his learning support teacher and became his Resource Teacher in September 2001. He has no known hearing or visual problems. |
The next layer of the onion represents data about the form of teaching he was receiving. I gathered information on six intervention strategies and alternative therapies that my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) were receiving at the beginning of my research. This included data from the programmes themselves and from our reflections on them. I have listed and described these strategies and therapies in Appendix 4.1. I examined these strategies from my perspective as well as from my pupils’, and have already discussed my learning from these programmes in Chapter Four. The pupils’ achievements were noted on individual pupil record sheets (samples in Appendix 4.2). In discussions the pupils expressed a preference
for the MTSR record sheets (Johnson *et al.* 1999) because they were allowed to comment on their own learning, as shown in the sample below.
**Table 6.2: Pupil Record Sheet**
| Teaching point | Lesson No. | Introduced | Revised | Removed from regular review | Checked for mastery | Pupil comment |
|----------------|------------|------------|---------|-----------------------------|---------------------|--------------|
| Symbols | 1 | Date | Date | Date | Date | Hard to remember but I got them all |
| Words | 2 | Date | Date | Date | Date | Easy |
| Sounds | 3 | Date | Date | Date | Date | Amasin but easy |
| Initial, middle, final | 4 | Date | Date | Date | Date | Good fun |
| i = (i) | 5 | Date | Date | Date | Date | Hard to remember |
| t = (t) | 6 | Date | Date | Date | Date | Easy |
| Blending | 7 | Date | Date | Date | Date | Tough |
Because the pupils seemed to enjoy reflecting on their learning attainments, I encouraged them to record other things that they learned and how they learned them in reflective journals. The following is a sample from one pupil’s journal who wrote on Monday, April 2002, ‘I can mack [make] a Piz[z]a. I watched my mam everytime she mak [makes] them. I say it in me hed [head]. When she let me do it I rmebr [remember] it all I bake it mesel [myself]. She wates [watches] but I do it myself.[myself].’ The pupils’ journals and my own reflective journal formed the third layer of the onion. Building on the usefulness of our reflective journals, which both the pupils and I kept during each year of my study (see Appendices 2.1), I found more forms of data gathering to demonstrate my thinking and my pupils’ thinking and the issues that had arisen from our reflective journaling, and these became layers four and five.
In layers four and five of the onion, I continued to make our individual thinking public. These data include pupils’ drawings, paintings, reports, and taped and transcribed discussions with others in our school context. Examples of all these data appear throughout Parts Four and Five of this thesis. The examples below show how the drawings, paintings and group projects were reflections of the pupils’ feelings and personal thinking about specific learning disability (dyslexia).
**Pictures 6.1 and 6.2: Showing how pupils reflected on specific learning disability (dyslexia)**
Their group projects and discussions were a further development on their reflections when they began to generate new ideas about dyslexia and their learning. The example below shows how I contributed to their discussions by transcribing them and annotating the transcripts on occasion to facilitate revisiting their reflections as often as they wished.
The next onion layer represents further data that I gathered in the form of photographs, audio and video-taping and transcripts, reflective group discussions with pupils, class teaching colleagues, resource teaching colleagues and learning colleagues at the University of Limerick. Samples of these data appear in later sections of this thesis.
Finally, I am at the outer layer of the onion. Pupils and teachers in my school who did not participate in my research completed questionnaires, examples of which are below, that provided evidence of changes in my teaching, in pupils’ learning and in the attitudes of those others in our school context. Below I have placed a sample of Questionnaire One completed by mainstream classes about specific learning disability (dyslexia) and a sample Questionnaire Two completed by teachers and mainstream class peers. This followed the presentation by pupils who participated in my research, of their reports, explaining specific learning disability (dyslexia) to themselves and others.
Questionnaire One – (Original in Appendix 2.7 see also Appendix 7.1)
| What does it mean to be intelligent? | Responses |
|-------------------------------------|-----------|
| Are students with learning difficulties dumb? | |
| Should boys and girls tell their friends about their learning difficulty? | |
| Can you tell if someone in your class is a lazy student and is struggling to learn? | |
| Whose responsibility is it to help a boy or girl who is having difficulty learning in school? | |
Questionnaire Two – (Original in Appendix 2.8; see also Appendix 7.1)
| What did you learn about dyslexia? | Responses |
|-----------------------------------|-----------|
| What other questions do you have? | |
~ A methodology to depict my learning, pupils’ learning and learning relationships
The research methods that I have outlined are linked at many levels. Initially I thought that the simplest way to portray this was in the form of a time-line. By showing when various layers of data gathering occurred, I thought that I could explain my research as three one-year cycles of research. I have placed one of these time line diagrams on the following page. This linear presentation of my research did not portray the multiple levels of linkages between my learning and my pupils’ learning relationships.
Year One - the first cohort of eight pupils
- Drew up pre-research profiles of pupils
- Taught and evaluated commercially-produced programmes for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia)
- Pupils kept personal journals naming things they had learned and how they learned them
- Questionnaires completed by 120 pupils in mainstream classes on their attitudes to learning disabilities
- Facilitated an action research project by pupils on ‘how I learn spellings?’
- Encouraged pupils’ talents in art by expressing their understanding of dyslexia
- Taped pupils’ dialogues (avoiding pupils’ difficulties in reading and writing) on how dyslexia affects them and treatments they had received for dyslexia
- To counter low self-esteem, pupils were encouraged to research famous people with learning difficulties
- Developed pupils’ computer skills so that they could produce a project titled ‘Explaining Dyslexia to Ourselves and Others’ including their work to date
- Pupils were given opportunities to present their project orally to twenty teachers (whole school staff)
- One teacher gave a pupil from his class, who was part of my research, the opportunity to present his project to his peers in his mainstream class
Figure 6.2: Year One research time-line
I believe that the visual representation below of my research communicates the richness and the interrelated nature of all the strands in my research project. Each yellow or orange section represents key research methods/actions. Personal knowledge and knowledge created in reflective dialogue and communicated in our journals, are at the heart of my non-linear methodology.
Figure 6.3: Links and interactions as the pupils and I learned together and as I tested my claims to new knowledge.
An explanation of Figure 6.3
The figure on the previous page is similar to the generative-action-reflection spiral that McNiff developed (McNiff 1988, 1993 and 2000). The visual metaphor she offers depicts the idea that action research is generative and transformational. This resonates with the previous part of this chapter where I explained the generative development of my layers of data gathering. McNiff’s (1988) explanation of generative transformational action has relevance for my research methods because their main focus was on improving the quality of learning experience of the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) that I taught, yet my research has raised issues of epistemology, ontology, forms of theory and forms of research;
Generative action research enables a teacher-researcher to address many different problems at one time without losing sight of the main issue
(McNiff 1988, p.45)
6.3 How I plan to transform the systemic disadvantage of myself and my pupils into new forms of opportunity
The seven research methods that I have highlighted in the diagram above are linked at many levels. By finding a way to articulate these linkages I hope that I have countered the difficulties of the linear presentation of my enquiry as I had first conceptualised it. The interconnected, relational representation of my research demonstrated links and interactions as the pupils and I learned together. Pupil profiling and commercial programmes were part of a different epistemological perspective and made very few links with other areas in my research. As I have said before, they offered little to my practice. In my diagram there are on-going arrows, depicting opportunities for future learning, travelling out to the edge of the page.
In this section I look at the potential of each of these key research methods to aid the transformation of the failures in my context as I explained them in Sections One and Two. I then question if my methodological choice addresses the aims that I had chosen for my research which were
To show how my pupils can come to value what they know and how they come to know it;
To explore the nature of relationships between people which foster knowledge creation, and to develop the kinds of relationship that avoid oppression and domination;
To become part of contributing to social justice through my educative influence.
~ Five key methods
There were five key data gathering processes named in the diagram above and I now want to explain them and the purpose of each method in my research methodology.
(1) Logging and investigating currently available information on the pupils in each cohort;
(2) Enabling pupils to become self-study action researchers
(3) Reflective group discussions between pupils, class teaching colleagues, resource teaching colleagues, research colleagues and a validation group at the University of Limerick;
(4) Photography, audio and video taping;
(5) Questionnaires to gather evidence of change.
(1) Logging and investigating currently available information on the pupils in each cohort
A sample of the pupil profiles that I developed appears earlier in this chapter. I had planned to update each profile at the end of each research year or when new data became available from any of the other sources. This expansion of pupil profiles did not happen because I realised that this form of data was gathered via a scientific methodology where an outsider shows change as objectively measurable. This methodology positions the pupil as an object that can be measured, and ignores the wholeness of the individual and their capabilities as thinkers in their own right. The data I gathered on intervention strategies is another example of similar forms of knowledge and again I did not repeat this part of my research with the second or third cohorts of pupils because of clashes between the positivist forms of knowledge in which they were grounded and the values base of my research.
(2) Enabling pupils to become self-study action researchers
In contrast to the two methods that I described above, where knowledge was understood as reifiable, measurable and objective, I now want to explain a method that demonstrated knowledge as both personal and created in relationship with others. I had shared with the pupils who participated in my research my methods of journaling, reflection, discussion and triangulation and will now describe how this enabled them to become self-study action researchers. Their research is written into this thesis in the next section and they have given oral accounts of it to staff and to their class peers in my school. Their research question was, ‘How do I learn spellings?’ They recorded on audio-tape (see Appendix 2.4), under my supervision, their strategies for learning spellings individually. They listened to, reflected on, and added to their recordings. Following the agreement of all the pupils in each cohort these individual tape recordings were shared and listened to by all pupils in each cohort. They questioned without prompt from me, ‘What do you think about how others learn spellings?’ and ‘Could you use any of their ideas?’ The pupils gained an awareness of different learning styles and strategies. Pupils suggested researching, or as they called it ‘trying out’, each other’s ways of learning and individually recorded the effectiveness of three different learning strategies. Their research opened further questions for my research, which I noted in my journal such as ‘Can long term memory be improved?’ (14 October 2001 journal, see Appendix 2.1b); ‘Can metacognition aid the learning process?’ (6 February 2002 journal, see Appendix 2.1b); ‘In what ways can metacognition be developed?’ (14 December 2003 journal, see Appendix 2.1d). Their research also posed questions about the methods I was using such as,
How could I protect my pupils’ anonymity?
(2 October 2001 Journal, see Appendix 2.1b)
Transcripts are time consuming ‘How can I make best use of them?’
(4 February 2002 Journal, see Appendix 2.1b)
These questions are indicative of how my research methods were developmental and rooted in the new knowledge that was being created in the relationships with pupils, teaching colleagues, University colleagues and critical friends.
(3) Reflective group discussions between pupils, class teaching colleagues, resource teaching colleagues, research colleagues and a validation group at the University of Limerick
Reflective group discussions were used as a method to develop and test the new thinking of both myself and the pupils who participated in my research. Reflective group discussions took place with pupils, class teaching colleagues, resource teaching colleagues and research colleagues at the University of Limerick. These have been recorded in field notes, journal summaries, in correspondence and in taped transcripts (See Appendix 2).
These discussions also gave direction to the process of my research as in the following example of a discussion I had with the first cohort of pupils. In audio tape-recorded, preparatory discussions for their report on specific learning difficulties, the pupils asked, ‘Could I show classmates what it was like to find it hard to read?’ (see Appendix 2.4c). They devised the following in answer to their own question, which I have reproduced here from their reports ‘Explaining dyslexia to ourselves and others’.
Pictures 6.3 and 6.4:
Pages from pupils’ reports showing what it was like to find it hard to read
The portrayal of their ideas was based on a video (then available from the Dyslexia Association of Ireland) called ‘How hard can it be?’, which they had viewed. In that video, adults are shown how hard it can be to learn in a class situation when one is dyslexic. The pupils in my research devised their own strategies in the pages above to show others how hard it can be to read. Another example of the interrelatedness of my research methods was when I noted, in my journal, the avoidance strategies, which my pupils said they used in class to avoid having their difficulties made public. I provided an opportunity for pupils to inform their class teachers of this during the question and answer session that followed the presentation of their reports to their class teachers.
Cohorts of pupils had discussions with five class teachers at a time and together we theorised the nervous, attention-seeking and avoidance behaviours that the pupils in my research displayed in their mainstream classes. These discussions were noted in my journals. Bassey (1999, p.47) advises triangulation of teacher interviews about the pupils’ behaviours and researcher observations in case study research. In my self-study approach we were engaging in living triangulation. Rather than teacher-to-teacher interview and researcher observations, I was observing, learning and
checking my theorising against feedback from both the class teachers and pupils present at these reflective and triangulation discussions. The teachers were learning from the pupils by checking their practice against pupils’ experiences of it and I was checking my practice against my new understanding of dialogical methods of knowledge creation. Pupils were developing their understanding of the disability with which they had been labelled.
My own developing understandings were noted in my journals such as notes from discussions with resource teacher colleagues on the appropriateness of intervention strategies for pupils. During the course of my research I presented my findings to them and received written responses. A resource teacher in my school and another resource teacher in my locality commented in writing on all transcripts of taped conversations between pupils, and between the pupils and myself. From time to time I have also received written comments on these transcripts from other professionals such as an art therapist and a counsellor. Details of these are included in my data archive (see Appendix 2).
I met with colleagues from the university bi-monthly to discuss our learning. Issues of knowledge, data gathering methods, methodology, culture, journalling, educational theories, and developing learning through relationships were discussed. These colleagues included both PhD candidates and college lecturers. Our discussion and critique continued in writing and on web form as described in Glenn (2004). When I provided evidence from my research, these colleagues’ correspondence provided written validation of my claims. I maintained contact with two critical friends throughout the course of my research. As well as offering their critique they provided validation in the same way as colleagues from the university.
(4) Photography, audio and video taping
Throughout my research I used photography but videotaping was limited to three occasions because I had not access to a video recorder in school. I used these forms of data gathering and evidence generation because they can capture descriptions – such as movement, facial expression, verbal intonation – as well as certain skills. An example of these skills in my class situation was the composing, on the spur of the moment, of appropriate forms of questions for each individual pupil, while
monitoring pupils’ levels of interest using eye-contact, and mentally re-planning the next phase of the lesson based on pupils’ responses. An audience member captured evidence of my embodied values on video as I presented a paper on my research at an educational conference. The video and his correspondence stating that he had observed my embodied values are in my data archive (see Appendix 2.4f), to which my response was,
As a teacher I find it much easier for me to present data around my students than about my own thinking, learning and practice. Your video will be vital for this purpose.
(12th June 2003, original in data archive see appendix 2.5e)
Self-study action research offers a methodology to explore change and, among other things, it is about making explicit what is implicit in one’s practice through a living logic or, as Whitehead and McNiff (2006, p.8) call them, logics of imagination. A second video (see Appendix 2.4g and some stills from it are in Chapter Seven) was of my pupils presenting their reports, which explained their understanding of their learning difficulties to peers in their class in the presence of the school principal, deputy principal, a trainee teacher, a class teacher and two resource teachers. They provided evidence of a change in my context. One element of this change was that pupils were teaching teachers and school managers about specific learning disability (dyslexia). This form of change could be described in words but the living evidence on the videotape was richer and led me to regret that I had not made greater use of this form of technology. I was convinced of the richness of this method of gathering evidence of living change and the generation of living theory when I presented that video (with appropriate permissions, which I will explain in the next chapter) at an academic conference (McDonagh 2003). The audience articulated their agreement with my findings and identified other new areas of learning (see Appendix 2.4e). The development of new knowledge in relationship with others was evident in the correspondence from audience members following the conference.
I also photographed my pupils at work and they have photographed me, as in the examples in Pictures 4.3 and 7.6. This reciprocal photographing shows the equality in our relationship. Another example is in Chapter Seven where on a series of
occasions I photographed pupils writing, looking for data to support my journal reflections about how pupils used unusual sitting positions, pencil holds and paper positioning. These photographs are part of my evidence base for my developing theories about the three-dimensional nature of thinking of those with specific learning difficulties.
(5) Questionnaires to gather evidence of change
I sought qualitative evidence of changes in my work place. In the first year of my research I administered a questionnaire to investigate attitudes of the general body of pupils, excluding those pupils who were part of my research, to specific learning difficulties. At the end of the second year, after 16 pupils who were involved in my research had presented their reports titled ‘Explaining Dyslexia to Ourselves and Others’, the questionnaire was re-administered to detect any changes in attitude. The questions asked were based on an American programme ‘Other Kinds of Mind’ (All Kinds of Mind 2005) and were:
- What do you mean by being intelligent?
- Are people with learning difficulties dumb?
- If you had a learning difficulty would you tell a friend?
- Can you tell if someone is lazy or if they are struggling?
- If you have a learning difficulty, who is responsible for helping you?
The language of these questions may not seem academic, for example ‘intelligent’ is not an antonym for ‘dumb’. However, the questions are written in words that are commonly used by the pupils in my context. Question three is asking about attitudes to specific learning disability (dyslexia) although the pupils who participated in my research used the term ‘learning difficulties’. The question is asking if specific learning disability (dyslexia) is something to be ashamed of. Class teachers gave permission and time for me to explain and administer this questionnaire. Full classes (thirty plus pupils) at sixth, fifth, fourth and second level (aged approximately twelve, eleven, ten and eight years) answered the questions. The replies were tape-recorded and tabulated but not statistically analysed. They demonstrated a change in the attitudes of mainstream class pupils, as I discuss in Part Four. Their opinions indicated the development of personal knowledge and provided evidence of educational influence – mine and that of the pupils who participated in my research.
Each cohort of pupils tested the new knowledge they created about their understanding of specific learning disability (dyslexia) against what others had learned from their reports in short questionnaires, which they composed. One example, given earlier in Section Three, was that class teachers and the pupils’ peers in their mainstream classes answered the following two questions, ‘What did you learn about dyslexia?’ and ‘What further questions do you have about dyslexia?’ (see Appendices 2.7; 2.8 and Appendices 7.1 and 7.2). A second example, also given earlier in Section Three, was my questionnaire to test my new learning against the feedback of twenty-four resource teachers (see Appendix 2.9 and Appendix 7.3).
The final question that I asked –
Do you think that the approach that I used in my work is relevant for resource teachers, for learning support teachers or for class teachers and why?
(Appendix 7.3)
– demonstrated my openness to critique.
~ The transformative potential of my methodological choice
Having described my research methods, I intend to show in this section how they helped in the transformation of the situation at the beginning of my research. I will show that I have scrutinised these methods by engaging in constant self-questioning and by testing my methods against the aims of my research. I then explain how the large amount of data that was generated by the changes in my practice was selected and converted into research evidence. Part of this process was the constant checking of my choice of self-study action research in the metaphorical mirror. I am questioning the moral basis of my research. Others involved in action research and self-study action research, have also considered the moral basis of their work. For example, for Stenhouse (1975) action research involved recapturing the moral basis of teaching, while, according to Noffke (1997), Carr and Kemmis (1986) advocate a professionalism that resonates with human emancipation.
The self-study action research methodology I have chosen requires both action and self-study. I am not only describing the actions that took place in the course of my
research but I am also studying why those actions occurred. My thesis includes both description and explanation. This involves not only asking why things are so but also asking for what purpose they exist. So my research involves constant self-questioning. I have asked questions about my practice such as
How do I teach now?
Why do I teach in this way?
What is important to me that influences how I teach?
Are my ideas about teaching valued by others?
(May 2001 journal in Appendix 2.1b)
In practical terms I was problematising taken-for-granted assumptions about my practice and checking and testing my claims and theories with pupils, with class teacher colleagues, with resource teacher colleagues and with learning colleagues from my university. This at times was disturbing in that I had expectations of what might be the next step in my research, and then an insight from one of the groups above might change the course of my research. An example of this was when a teacher colleague pointed out that although the pupils participating in my research and I had identified areas of difficulty for them in school, we had not listed areas that the pupils were good at. The teacher’s comments changed the thinking behind my data collection methods and placed a practical focus on achievements. This disturbance is part of the essence of self-study action research, which I see as similar to Donmoyer’s (1993, p.7 cited in Donmoyer 1996, p.20) encouragement to researchers when he said,
Put your ready-made, comfortable assumptions of knowledge and learning on hold… to think anew about the art and science of educational research and practice.
(Dunmoyer 1996, p.20)
I am positioning my ontological perspective centrally in the research process as Bullough and Pinnegar (2004) suggest, and am enquiring, ‘Have my research methods addressed the aims of my research?’
Testing my methods against the aims of my research
In this section I am asking, ‘Are the methods that I have chosen in keeping with each of my chosen research aims, which were informed by my ontological perspective and embodied values?’ I have named three major aims for my research and I will deal with each one in turn:
1. To show how my pupils can come to value what they know and how they come to know it;
2. To explore the nature of relationships between people which foster knowledge creation, and to develop the kinds of relationship that avoid oppression and domination;
3. To become part of making a difference for good through my educative influence.
1. To show how my pupils can come to value what they know and how they come to know it
When I enabled each cohort of pupils to conduct a self study action research enquiry into how each individually learned spellings, pupils came to value that they could learn and control their own learning (see Appendix 2.1e and 2.4a). As described above, the pupils tested their own findings about learning strategies by measuring themselves against themselves as they learned spellings using a range of strategies identified by their peers. Pupils were creating new knowledge individually when they named their personal ways of learning spellings and they were also creating new knowledge together in their group discussions about different ways of learning. The audiotape recordings of their discussions demonstrated reciprocity in knowledge creation (see Appendix 2.4b).
By facilitating this form of pupil research, I have shown that my methods of research have changed my practice. The control of learning that dominated my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), as I described it in earlier chapters, was gone. The research methods I have chosen have empowered pupils to value what they know and how they come to know it. The pupils’ research was living and
on-going in that, even when the period of my research ended, they had the capability to continue investigating their personal learning.
I chose pupil journaling (see Appendix 2.1e to 2.1g) to help them develop an awareness of what they knew by making entries beginning first with the words ‘I learned’ and naming the new learning; and later with the words ‘I learned (named learning)’ and ‘I learned it by (naming the method)’. During their group discussions each cohort realised that each individual pupil had personal ways of learning and this did not only apply to spellings. The significance of this new knowledge for pupils was that they became aware of what they knew and changed their ways of thinking in light of their evaluation. The pupils’ research reports (see Appendix 2.6a) also demonstrated that in action research conclusions are tentative. The pupils’ wording of their report title shows that they too were generating their personal theories of learning when they called it ‘Learning spellings: the best way for me’ (see Appendix 2.6a)
The equality of our relationships that was inherent in my research methods was shown when I painted my feelings about dyslexia along with my pupils (see Appendix 2.6e) and joined their artwork discussions (see above). Pupils photographed me as I painted and worked with them just as I did with them (see Appendix 2.4h and 2.4i). The methods I used to carry out the first aim of my research gave opportunities for changes in practice and thinking. These changes occurred not only in my case but also in my pupils’ learning practice and in their thinking about their positioning within school.
2. To explore the nature of relationships between people which foster knowledge creation, and to develop the kinds of relationship that avoid oppression and domination
The methods I used allowed both the pupils and me to explore the nature of relationships between people, which can foster knowledge creation. They gave rise to changes in my epistemological and ontological perspectives. For example my reflections in my journal gave me self-awareness (see Appendix 2.1b to 2.1d). I used journaling as a research method for my pupils (see Appendix 2.1e to 2.1g) and in so doing the pupils were provided with an opportunity to develop self-awareness of
what and how they learned. The form of question in the questionnaires (Appendix 2.7 and 2.9) composed by me and by the pupils demonstrate that we are valuing personal knowledge and that we are always open to critique. The value of equality and respect shone through all reflective discussions. An example of this respect was the personal written invitation from pupils to class teachers to hear their oral presentation of their reports on explaining our learning difficulties (samples in Appendices 2.6b to 2.6d). Learning support staff was the first group. These teachers were so impressed by the pupils’ work that they offered to supervise mainstream classes so that the teachers of those classes could attend the presentations. The entire school staff attended. The form of the reflective discussions was not merely for triangulation of evidence. They were occasions when knowledge creation was fostered in an atmosphere of trust, sharing, equality, service and respect.
My research methods also permitted the development of the kinds of relationship that avoid oppression and domination between myself and my pupils and all who had any part in my research. Pupils took control of their own learning and of the research process. For example, on an occasion when I had to leave one cohort during a discussion, the tape recorder was left on and pupils continued their discussion with the same intensity as if I had been in the room. This is significant because one would expect such young pupils to wait for adult guidance. This episode, I believe, demonstrates that control and domination of pupils by teacher was not a feature of my methodology.
There is further evidence of a change in the teacher-pupil power relationship in the form of questions they put to teachers in the questionnaire following their reports in which they explained their learning difficulties. They asked teachers, ‘Have you any other questions?’ showing a confidence and competence that there had been no opportunity for them to demonstrate without my facilitative research methods.
3. To become part of making a difference for good through my educative influence
Journaling was one of my transformative methods because within the pupils’ journals was evidence that changed my understanding of specific learning disability (dyslexia). My thinking was changed when I saw in their journals the evidence that
they had multiple individual task specific ways of learning (see Chapter Eight), and this concept was at odds with the perception of these pupils as learning disabled. As well as being a vehicle for new knowledge that made a difference to my world in terms of my expectations of pupils labelled with a specific learning disability, journaling provided a vehicle for the development of metacognition. Metacognition in the case of my pupils and me meant awareness of what we knew and how we came to know. It was a method for developing new personal knowledge.
Audio-taping, artwork and reflective discussion were all methods that did not prioritise the pupils’ areas of difficulty in school, which were mainly reading and writing. The methods I chose suited the pupils’ abilities. In Chapter Nine I produce evidence that the ways in which pupils spoke to teachers, school management and peers about their learning difficulties were recommended by the school principal as a method for all in the school to learn to deal with difficulties (See Appendix 2.4g).
The research methods I used allowed the pupils and me to break norms; norms where pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) were positioned as non-knowers because they had difficulties learning; norms where I was positioned as a non-theorist who acted according to others’ theories of learning and teaching. My methods empowered us to break the rules because of their focus on ability rather than disability. I can show (in Chapter Eight) that my research methods have changed my context because I have changed my practice. I have changed from a practice that was a denial of my values, and which I did not believe that I had the power to change. My research methods have allowed me to feel sufficiently empowered to open my work and that of my pupils to the critique of others. Reflective discussions and other methods that depended on my strengths in interpersonal communication and my pupils’ oral strengths contributed to these changes.
The idea of educative influence is central to my research methods. My choice of methods meant that I was an agent for others as well as myself. But I was not acting alone. I was finding ways for others to think and learn for themselves by providing research methods to help others to understand how they can work together so that they can improve their own contexts. Whitehead (2004b) terms this process
‘contributing to the education of social formations.’ A key feature of this process is that it respects each individual and ‘their capacity to influence their own learning and the learning of others’ (McNiff and Whitehead 2006, p.44). In order to achieve this, my research methods of journaling, audio and video taping, questionnaires, and interpretive discussion were on-going over a three year period.
6.4 Summary
In this section I have explained how I travelled from traditional methodologies in the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia) to a methodology that recognises the dual focus of my research on both my pupils and on myself. This dual focus has been influenced by my embodied values. These values have not only influenced my choice of research methodology but they also were shown to inform my selection of data, the generation of evidence from that data as well as being the criteria by which I judge the new learning that I describe in the Part Four. My journey towards a methodology for my research has had four core themes. First, I have found ways to show that the children and I could co-create knowledge. I have used methods that demonstrated how I understood myself as in relation with them, and they with me. The reflective dialogues that I have included in my methods involved a dialogue of equals and spoke to values of justice, respect for the wholeness of each person and human equality. Second, by offering the children opportunities to become self-study action researchers in their own right, I have found a method that has linked the value of the person with the idea that people/children must be free to realise and exercise their value. This research approach was grounded in my ontological and Christian values. Third, I have developed methods that permitted critique of my own stance in relation to my pedagogies, as well as in relation with dominant practices of teaching children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Finally, I have used research methods such as reflective journaling and processes of validating my research that contributed to my understanding that personal and social practices are informed and underpinned by specific ontological and epistemological values. My ways of analysing pupil profiling and commercial programmes for specific learning disability (dyslexia) allowed me to critique dominant forms of theory and learning on the grounds that they can lead to further marginalisation and domination of those who
are already oppressed. My methods also highlight critical issues around self-monitoring, self-esteem, and epistemological and personal values.
I address these issues in the next section when I ask myself how my new learning led to the development of my practical living theory of learning to teach for social justice, through teaching my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
PART FOUR: NEW LEARNING
In this section, I make a claim to knowledge in relation to what I have learned about the teaching and learning of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). In the previous section I set out a methodology that my pupils and I used collaboratively. This methodology is shown to be emancipatory in this section in that we learned how to become free by developing our capacity for self-critique through action research. I encouraged my pupils to do their action research, at the same time as I was doing my own action research. I now I describe how I have arrived at the point where I have enabled myself and my pupils to exercise our voices.
In Chapter Seven I explain my own living theory of practice as learning to teach for social justice, as I demonstrate my attempts to alleviate my experience of learned helplessness as a teacher of pupils with specific learning disabilities (dyslexia). I draw on the work of Kerr (2001) to show that my experience of learned helplessness is not unique, yet my approach to it contributed to the development of my living theory of practice. The nature of both a theory of practice and a theory of justice are handled in traditional literatures as subjects to be studied; for example Rawls (1971 and 1999) and Griffiths (2003) regard justice as an object of enquiry to be discussed in an abstract propositional way. Contrary to this perspective, I show that practice and justice are embodied in the lived experiences of people as I develop a new living form of theory to explain how I alleviated my learned helplessness and attempted to influence the learning of the children involved in my research through my own life affirming practices.
In Chapter Eight I explain how I have generated a living theory of learning to teach for social justice in relation to children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I produce evidence to support my claim that the children’s awareness of how they learn can enhance their learning. I explain and analyse how, by providing opportunities for the children in my research to have a voice in their own learning, I can help them to see themselves not as consumers or objects within the school system but rather as confident and capable learners.
I have come to realise that by adopting an inner locus of control, both my pupils and I have formed a metaphorical fifth transformative wave of influence. This is where all becomes dynamic. The first four waves described in earlier chapters have generated sufficient momentum to form a tidal wave. This metaphorical tidal wave has welled up from the shifting of the two major epistemological earth plates – the traditional view of knowledge in my field and the stance that I have adopted.
The wave has rolled on. All who have been involved in my research have been stunned into acute personal awareness and action. Everyone who was in the path of the wave has been drawn into participative action – no one is left on the margins. The wave transforms all within its living flood. My practical research processes contribute to this transformation.
CHAPTER SEVEN: Towards my living theory of learning to teach for social justice through teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia)
7.1 Introduction
In this Chapter I am asking, ‘What did I do to address my own and my pupils’ learned helplessness?’ I found an answer by theorising the actions I took to address my experiences of learned helplessness as a teacher of pupils with specific learning disabilities/dyslexia. My initial theorising took the form of analysing my actions against current theories in the literatures. I examined my thinking about my ways of working with the children who participated in my research against the insights of Kerr (2001) who found that teachers who taught those with dyslexia experience learned helplessness themselves in their teaching and thinking. During my research I learned to change my practice and engaged in a form of practice that was reminiscent of the attributive theories of Graham (1991) and Weiner (1994 and 2000). These researchers explain how the ways in which we conceptualise our success and failure in learning can determine how we learn or do not learn as individuals. I combated my learned helplessness by moving towards a practice-based form of theorising.
Within this practice-based form of theorising, I held myself accountable for my work, within a self-study action research methodology, as explained by McNiff (1993), McNiff et al. (2003) and McNiff and Whitehead (2005). I show evidence of my practical pedagogical changes, and changes in the learning experiences of the children who participated in my research. My accounts of these experiences are tested at several levels – in the classroom, in conference presentations and research seminars – against the values that I named on Table 5.1 of freedom, compassion, justice, equality, forgiveness, human dignity, wholeness and service. These values have become the living standards by which my claims can be judged (Whitehead 1993).
So in this chapter I am speaking about what I can do about my concerns as I outlined them in Chapters One to Four. I have found strategies to enable pupils to learn
effectively. I did this by developing a form of practice that addressed the learned helplessness of pupils. The changes I made in my practice were based on my personal experience of learned helplessness. I show how pupils can become aware of what they are doing as they learn through reflection and positive self-talk. I claim that I have moved towards a living theory of learning to teach for social justice. I claim that mine is a living theory of contributive social justice.
7.2 Developing strategies to enable pupils to learn effectively by theorising the transformation of my personal experience of learned helplessness
I want to tell how I developed ways in which pupils could address their learned helplessness. To do so I must start at the beginning, with my own experiences of transforming my own learned helplessness.
This first chapter about my new learning deals with how my research addressed the dichotomy between my values of justice and what was happening in my practice. I begin with a description and explanation of my own experiences of injustice, which led to my learned helplessness as a teacher of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I agree with Slavin that,
Learned helplessness is the expectation, based on experience, that one’s actions will ultimately lead to failure.
(Slavin 2003, p.343)
I have described my learned helplessness in the excerpt below from a transcript of a group discussion with peer doctoral students. I then compare my description to the thinking of Kerr (2001), when he produced qualitative and quantitative evidence of the learned helplessness of teachers of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Kerr also investigated how teachers were personally affected when faced with students who had been diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (dyslexia).
During the meeting I said,
I was a teacher who was quite frustrated with what was happening in my classroom. I felt I wasn’t meeting the needs of the children. I didn’t have any way of rectifying this position. Various courses weren’t of any use. The institutional aids that were there, weren’t helping me.
(12 February 2003 Taped conversation and transcript, original in data archive Appendix 2.5g)
Kerr (2001) similarly found that his respondents, all of whom taught pupils with specific learning difficulties/dyslexia,
Revealed almost universal, and very considerable confusion and uncertainty as to what dyslexia might be.
(Kerr 2001, p.82)
Even more significantly, 66% of teacher respondents
Showed considerable disempowerment or learned helplessness when faced with a student with dyslexia.
(Kerr 2001, p.80)
Kerr’s respondents and I dealt with our learned helplessness in different ways, and this divergence is central to my claim to have developed a living theory of learning to teach for social justice. I dealt with my learned helplessness by undertaking self-study action research. I held myself accountable, within this methodology, for my work, and I experienced a major shift in my thinking. The following quotations are examples of how others confirm that I demonstrated changes in thinking in the ways I worked. The quotations are taken from a validation meeting with research peers where I presented my data and evidence that I had generated in my research by assessing my data against the values I stated were my standards of judgement. Those in the group assessed my evidence and claim as well as the clarity and acceptability of my standards of judgement. At the meeting, I said that,
I had always thought that the powers-that-be had all the wisdom, and that the practitioners had not.
(12 February 2003 Taped conversation and transcript, original in data archive Appendix 2.5g)
A research peer said,
You have come, through studying in this method [self-study action research], to understand that there are other ways of knowing and the value of individual personal knowledge.
(12 February 2003 Taped conversation and transcript, original in data archive Appendix 2.5g)
Kerr (2001) in contrast found that the teachers he researched responded differently, when he stated that,
The language used by two thirds of the respondents grew grey and pessimistic, expectations fell precipitatively and tuition became abruptly behaviourist, skill and drill-based and sometimes scheme-driven (Hornsby and Shear 1990).
(Kerr 2001, p.81)
A distinguishing feature of my approach was that I decided to adopt an internal locus of control in tackling my learning helplessness. This required addressing problematic questions, such as the nature of learning, knowledge and who are knowledge creators. It is against these questions (as I have discussed in Chapters One to Four) that I place my claim to have transformed my experiences of learned helplessness towards a more just conception of learning. By questioning my pedagogy, I demonstrated a metacognitive awareness of the need for openness to change. When I adopted an internal locus of control I demonstrated a belief in my own capacity to think and change my situation. My commitment to a self-questioning methodology about my practice and thinking is grounded in the values of respect for the uniqueness of the individual and their capabilities to think, learn and change. By doing my research I claim that I am demonstrating a more just approach to knowledge creation and theorising in that I am creating opportunities for the voice and thinking of the teacher and her students to be heard within a context that largely values objective and quantitative studies of pedagogical processes.
The divergence between what seemed to be occurring in the teaching of Kerr’s respondents and in my own practice can be analysed within the framework of attribution theory (Graham, 1991; Weiner 1994 and 2000), which addresses the
demotivation attached to learned helplessness. Although these authors’ research was not specific to teachers, it enables me to explain the differing perspectives and actions of Kerr’s respondents and my research. The theory of attribution explains that when learning is attributed to one’s own ability, and when one is convinced that there is stability, about how one’s efforts to learn are valued, and when one is in control of the process, then learning is successful. On the other hand if one is unsure of one’s ability to learn, as is the case in learned helplessness, and if the assessment of one’s learning is dependent on subjective assessment by an outsider to the learning process whose view cannot be controlled by the learner regardless of how much effort he or she puts into the learning process, then learning is not successful.
Graham (1991) and Weiner (1994 and 2000) attribute the degree of success or failure to the balance between these three attributes of ability, stability/instability and control of learning by the learner. The learned helplessness that both Kerr’s respondents and I felt as teachers could seem to stem from a feeling that nothing we personally did mattered. Attributing the cause of failure to ourselves, as teachers, thus denying our abilities, is the first of the three features, which, Weiner (1994) claims, determine personal success and failure in learning settings. Kerr’s respondents and I differed on our approach to the second and third attributes of learning and this is demonstrated in the pedagogical changes we made.
The key indicators of success and failure within the framework of attribution theory are ability, effort, task difficulty and luck (Slavin 2003, p.334). Kerr’s respondents and I demonstrated similarities in our attitudes to ability and effort but differed in the other aspects. Kerr’s respondents and I all doubted our personal ability to help pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) by engaging in the ‘grey and pessimistic’ (p.80) language of Kerr’s respondents and my belief that ‘the powers-that-be had all the wisdom, and that the practitioners had not’. Both Kerr’s teachers and I demonstrated our efforts to address our learned helplessness by introducing ‘drill-based programmes’ (Kerr 2001, p.81; McDonagh 2002, p.3) and attending ‘courses’ (McDonagh 2000, p.14). However, in terms of task difficulty and the element of luck we adopted different stances. As Kerr put it, his respondents ‘blamed the victim’ (p.81) and the victims that he was referring to were pupils with dyslexia. In doing so his respondents coped with their learned helplessness by shifting the locus of control from themselves to the pupils. Their
‘abruptly behaviourist, skill and drill-based and sometimes scheme-driven’ (Kerr 2001, p.81) practice positioned Kerr’s respondents as technicians who perceived pupils’ learning as responses to such schemes and drills. In shifting the locus of control Kerr’s respondents maintained their self-esteem but their pupils were placed at a disadvantage, according to Kerr (2001). A practical example of this shift in focus was,
Whenever tuition was altered this was invariably a ‘dumbing down’. Flair and methodological freedom frequently vanished. What respondents appeared to offer ‘dyslexics’ was fragmented and deliberately repetitive, highly structured and controlled, depersonalised and focussed on the subskills of literacy.
(Kerr 2001, p.81)
By contrast, I adopted an internal locus of control through the process of engaging in self-study action research:
I learned to be responsible for what was happening in my work.
(30 February 2003 Letter to supervisor, original in data archive Appendix 2.3a)
By adopting an internal locus of control in learning I have not only engaged with a process to address success and failure in learning and the injustice of the learned helplessness I had experienced but I have also reconstituted my identity as a teacher in that I have begun to theorise my practice (Clandinin and Connelly 1995). The epistemological stance I have taken in doing so is what McNiff (2002) refers to as an internalist rather than an externalist approach to knowledge and theorising. I have prioritised personal knowledge (Polanyi 1958) and broken with the hegemonising power of outsider theory over my practice by taking action to control my learned helplessness. My new understanding of my identity as one who can theorise my practice of teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) is linked to my understandings of knowledge. My new understanding of identity as inner critical engagement in part supports Foucault’s (1979 and 1980) ideas that identity comprises inner critical engagement and outer questioning of the condition of which the self is constituted. Many of Foucault’s ideas around how the self is constituted
deal with issues of subjection and the nature of power relationships. In my research I have engaged with a power struggle between myself and theories in the literature; yet I have sought to avoid power struggles between myself and those whom I teach and with whom I am researching.
These seeming contradictions are also informed by my respect for the individual and their unique capabilities to think, learn and change. The epistemological stance that I have adopted in my research informed my differing approaches to theoretical, ontological and epistemological power struggles. I am not theorising identity, power or justice as things at an abstract level. I am presenting my understanding of them as aspects of the practices of real people. I want to show how my practice-based living theory of learning to teach for social justice can transform negative situations into life-affirming ones or, as McNiff and Whitehead (2006) write, that each person,
[h]as the power of influence. Each has the capacity to influence their own learning and the learning of others. Each has to learn to exercise their influence in such a way that the Other will also learn to exercise their power for influence for educational sustainability.
(McNiff and Whitehead 2006, p.238)
My living theory of learning to teach for social justice has at its core those ideas of my capacity and that of the pupils in my research to influence our own learning and the learning of others. Based on these ideas, I am describing my living theory as a contributive theory of justice in which those experiencing injustice are enabled to contribute to establishing justice. My reflective awareness and metacognitive approach to my ways of working and influencing the learning of others has contributed to the development of my living theory of practice. I am claiming that the actions I took to address the unjust situation of learned helplessness, as I experienced it, were based in personal awareness, and my personal awareness contributed to personal actions that influenced change in myself and in others. The remainder of this chapter provides the evidence from changes in my children’s learning to validate my claim to have transformed my experiences of learned helplessness towards a more just conception of learning. Producing such evidence involves articulating my standards of judgement by which I assess the quality of my
evidence. I do this below. I will show how I provided opportunities for the pupils in my research to develop an internal locus of control in their own learning and also how I provided opportunities for them to develop their personal forms of voice. In doing so I demonstrated in practice that I value the individual learner by developing a more just form of practice and less power-constituted relationships between pupils and teachers and between epistemologies in teaching and learning.
7.3 Developing a more just practice to address the learned helplessness of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia)
In this section I explain how my awareness of adopting an internal locus of control led to innovative changes in my practice and provided a more just approach to learning, knowledge and knowledge creation. I claim this because these changes provided a framework to address issues of marginalisation; issues about freedom for learners to voice their preferred ways of learning; and issues of power relationships in teaching and learning.
The first four chapters of this thesis include instances of how organisational issues such as labelling denied pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) the possibility of maintaining a positive self-image in the face of their learned helplessness. Prior to my research many pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in my school context experienced a lack of belief in their own capabilities, which in turn led to a lack of effort to learn, and cycles of learning avoidance. The Individual Educational Plan in Appendix 6.2 gives an example of how this can appear in school documentation, when teachers write that a pupil ‘doesn’t try hard enough’ or that the pupil ‘is capable of better results’. Thompson, Davidson and Barber (1995) suggest that people attempt to maintain a positive self-image even in the face of such helplessness. It was my experience that pupils set up avoidance strategies to help maintain a positive self-image. I gathered evidence of the avoidance strategies that the children in my research used in dealing with their experiences of learned helplessness, as in the following example.
Yearly cohorts of participating pupils produced a written group project (see data archive) to explain their learning difficulties. In this project the pupils listed nine
curricular areas out of a possible eleven in which they experienced difficulties. In making this list, each child, without any prompting from me, used the words, 'I can’t do…' (other references to this are in appendix 2.6b). These words can be perceived as a demonstration of an avoidance strategy based on the pupils’ experience of failure. This expectation of failure based on experiences of failure resonates with the learned helplessness that I had felt as their teacher. I questioned if what was happening for the pupils could be explained in terms of the four key indicators of success or failure in learning within the attribution theory discussed above. I noted my questioning in my journal when I asked,
Could they be aware of why they say they can’t learn?
Do they understand but can’t articulate learned helplessness?
If they became aware could they change the situation?
(12 January 2002 Journal, original in Appendix 2.1b)
Attribution theory (Graham, 1991; Weiner 1994 and 2000) positions ability, effort, task difficulty and luck as key indicators of success and failure in learning. In the previous paragraph I have shown how pupils in my research believed that they do not have the ability to learn. Pupils ceased attempting tasks that they decided were too difficult, in order to maintain the idea that they could do well if they really wanted. The idea that pupils could do well if they really wanted to is a concept described by Jagacinski and Nichols (1990), which refers to a strategy that students employ in order to keep their self-esteem in failing situations. Similar to Kerr’s respondents and me, the pupils are attributing the cause of their failure personally. We are all attributing our learned helplessness to ourselves, which is the first of three features, which, Weiner (1994) claims, determines personal success and failure in learning settings. The second characteristic is whether failure or success is perceived as stable or unstable, which means that the pupils believe that the situation cannot be changed. Weiner (1994) states that the third characteristic is whether the cause is controllable or not. Here the pupils had already demonstrated some control over their learning situations by devising avoidance strategies. This, to me, indicated a positive response to my third journal question above – if they became aware could they change the situation? Therefore the difference between my reactions to learned helplessness and that of my pupils lay in the second characteristic that involves the articulating that we could change things, as I now explain.
By writing about my practice in my research, I found a way to voice and theorise how I changed my experiences of learned helplessness. The idea of voice has significance for the development of my living theory of learning to teach for social justice because through gaining our voices the pupils and I could address the initial concerns in my enquiry, in that my pupils needed ways to establish their own learning voice within their processes of learning and I needed to establish my theorising voice. My self-study action research process contributed to a more just situation for me because the process provided ways in which I could become aware and reflect on how best to transform my learned helplessness. In the research episodes below I will show how I provided opportunities for the pupils in my research to gain a voice with the purpose of making the situation more just for them.
Each cohort of pupils was first given an opportunity to show their awareness of their feelings about the disability with which they were labelled. They then demonstrated this awareness in conversations with peers and myself. I found that the pupils could learn to reflect on their learning disability and their diminished self-esteem. An example of this was in artwork in which each pupil depicted their feelings about their specific learning disability, as in Pictures 3.1 and 5.1 above. In discussing their artwork, the voices of each cohort of pupils were heard – voices which were usually silent about their difficulties within the education system – as when Pupil B spoke of how he perceived most teachers as bad and that he wanted to keep away from them. When Pupil K asked if the drawing represented ways ‘just to keep the teacher out’ Pupil B responded, ‘Yeah, just to keep everything bad away from me’ (19 February 2002 Taped conversation and transcript, original in Appendix 2.6e).
My explanation of the pupil’s picture and reflective conversation was that I had created an opportunity for pupils to present their voice in a visual form that ignored their written disabilities. In this process pupils articulated how they understood the learning disability with which they were labelled. Myself, another resource teacher and an art therapist reflected on the transcripts of the pupils’ conversations in writing (originals in Appendix 2.6e). One of these critical friends confirmed that both in my practice and in my claims I had respected the capabilities of the pupils in my
research. She also stated that I provided them with a more just learning setting when she wrote,
You stood aside and gave them [my children/researchers] a voice. Art made it safer for them. It was a filter that allowed them to have a voice. Art created an atmosphere where they were prepared to tell what they thought.
(28 Feb 2002 Correspondence from Critical Friend A, Appendix 2.5h)
The art work of my pupils, in which I offered them opportunities for free expression using any art medium of their choice, was reminiscent of ‘outsider art’ (Kinley 2003) or ‘Art Brut’ (Azzola 2005). Both of these art forms have come to be celebrated worldwide. They feature varied works created from both usual and unusual materials that were dear to the artists – from fabrics to paperclips and felt-tip pen drawings. Apart from a freedom from artistic conventions, Kinley claims that their works exhibit visual connections and impulses, which add to their uniqueness (Kinley 2003, p.47). The artists themselves give the title to the genre in that they dwell on the margins of society for reasons as varied as learning disabilities, mental and physical disabilities, unemployment and homelessness. What emerged from my children’s art was surprising to both the pupils and to me. In looking at their work the visual connections, the visual impulses and freedom from artistic convention can be seen in many of the pictures included in this thesis. This artwork permitted pupils to communicate ideas and emotions associated with their personal experiences; to rediscover their own identities and diversity. Outsider art, because its artists come from the margins, is generally presented without explanation. However my pupils developed new meanings about their work during taped peer conversations about their pictures, which appeared to alleviate their learned helplessness as in the following two transcript extracts,
Pupil J said. ‘I drew a brain or somethin’ like a brain. A dyslexic brain. And then a big brain. Like the normal brain. To see can anyone spot the difference. They won’t. There’ll be none ’cause I drew two brains just the same. Cause no one’s able to say to a kid like you’re dyslexic. It’s like catching them out. It’s just provin’ to people there’s nothing wrong with the brain. It’s just how you think about things.
(4 March 2002 Pupil discussions, Appendix 2.4c)
This is the picture that accompanied the discussion above. Pupil J had come to the same conclusion as Davis (1994), that dyslexia for him was about how one thinks.
The pupils quoted in the next transcript extract build on Pupil B’s understanding of dyslexia by identifying the factors that contribute to their disablement as school, pedagogy and comprehension. The pupils relate their difficulties in comprehension to slowness in decoding words. This statement is factually accurate because their comprehension difficulties are not due to lack of intellectual capacity because, unlike many other pupils receiving learning support, these pupils are of average intelligence or above, as demonstrated on their scores achieved by psychometric testing (see Chapter One and in their pupil profiles see Appendix 6.1).
This picture, painted by Pupil R, and the discussion beneath it shows how Pupil R understood that school was more inhibiting for him than dyslexia itself. His understandings seem to fit within the educational model of disability that I explained earlier.
Pupil R said, ‘My picture is my Easter at home in my house. I thought I would draw something ’cause Easter is coming up and Easter is one of my favourite times. So I drew an Easter Egg and somebody in the corner. That’s me. And then … just… writ Easter beside it. Well…it [dyslexia] doesn’t exactly affect you at home, cause you’re not doing any work like … It’s just at school. That’s where you see…that’s where you see that you have that specific learning difficulty. ’Cause when you’re outside playing sport or something. No, it’s not there. But when you’re doing maths or spellings, that’s when you find that specific learning difficulty a problem. You…’
Pupil J interjected, ‘Sometimes I always have to ask someone to spell the big words.’
Pupil M added, ‘In school it affects you because teacher is always going too fast. And you can’t understand the reading. You’d just read a page and you can’t understand it.’
(19 March 2003 Transcript, see Appendix 2.6e)
An awareness and inner questioning of the disability with which they had been labelled occurred during the process of making the artwork. There is evidence of the pupils’ reflections and outer questioning (Foucault 1980) during their conversations about their artwork. Foucault (1979 and 1980) tells how identity is formed through processes of inner reflection and outer questioning. In the conversation transcript below an entire cohort of pupils talk with Pupil T about his picture depicting his understanding of dyslexia.
Pupil J said: I think it’s like a monster. With the eyes and the big nose. It has one massive eye and one little eye. And it has a kind of key rings. It has something beside the eyes…….
Pupil B said: I think it’s like all the teachers, looking and saying and talking to you like and saying you’re not good and all that.
Pupil T said: I’ll tell you what I drew. ’Cause yea I tried to draw. Eyes. Mouth. I tried to draw ears. Nobody recognised my ears.
Pupil J said: I thought they were key rings……
Pupil T said: What I see is dyslexia affects eyes, ears and talking. That’s why I drew three things. And it jumbles them all up all over the place, looking like a monster – J was right. So sometimes eyes are getting messages. Sometimes ears are getting messages. Sometimes your eyes are seeing things that you hear differently. Sometimes ears are hearing things different from how your eyes see them. That’s my bad drawing of an ear. That’s an ear in there. I wasn’t very good at ears. And anybody who has all this jumble of all this – like with dyslexia – eyes and ears and lips…. can still know things crystal clear.
Pupil N said: You can explain stuff by just scribbles and all that. Just what you feel. I done it.
(14 March 2003 Discussion transcript, original in Appendix 3.2a)
The full transcript of this discussion about Pupil T’s drawing of his feelings about dyslexia is in Appendix 3.2a. Pupil T described dyslexia as processing difficulties in the areas of hearing, listening, speaking and seeing, yet he claims that these organisational distortions give him clarity of thought and communication. I maintain that his descriptions and explanations could contribute to many of the current research debates about dyslexia from medical, educational and psychological fields.
The understanding of dyslexia that the pupils gained through discussing their artwork was reminiscent of my shift towards an inner locus of control in learning. I had provided them with opportunities to use a form of voice in which they too could personally take control of their understandings of their disability. This inner locus of control was the power base on which we could build our abilities to transform the learned helplessness that we had previously experienced. Through artwork and discussion I am claiming that the pupils in my research have been provided with opportunities for developing personal awareness and a contributive form of social justice, where pupils are confirming each other’s abilities to make explicit their personal tacit understandings of the disability with which they had been labelled.
I want to clarify two issues here: first, did pupils understand dyslexia as a disability, and second, did they appreciate that they have been labelled? In answering the first question, I maintain the pupils understood dyslexia as a disability prior to taking part in my research. However, their understanding changed during the course of my research. For example, Pupil T whom I quote in Appendix 3.2a stated that dyslexia provided him with clarity of thought and communication, suggesting he understood dyslexia as contributing to his ability rather than as a disability. Yet in an earlier journal entry, he wrote,
I have the same disease as my Mammy
(Appendix 2.1e)
The examples that I have given above indicate the level of self-awareness that the pupils who participated in my research had reached. The research methods that I used to achieve this level of self-awareness included reflective discussions, which together with their artwork, provided opportunities for the pupils to exercise their individual voice particularly in relation to their learning. There were two other key features of my research at that time. These were reflection and positive self-talk. I will explain these over the next few pages, but for now I want to state my claim that I have provided evidence of a more just practice in that I am living to my values. In developing self-awareness about specific learning disability (dyslexia) in relation to others with the same learning disability, I have shown empathy by allowing the participating pupils opportunities to adopt the same approach to learned helplessness as I had. I had also allowed them the freedom to explore their identities as learners in their artwork. Both of these indicate my commitment to service and my belief in the capacities of these young individuals. In my relationship with my pupils I demonstrate that I treat my pupils as myself and so I show my values of respect for the individual, freedom and service which support my understanding that learned helplessness can be addressed by valuing the learner and more specifically by the learner valuing him/her self.
~ Pupils become aware of what they are doing as they learn through positive self-talk and reflection
In practical terms there was the enactment of two transformative concepts that alleviated my learned helplessness and that of the pupils in my research by helping us to become aware of what and how we learn. These were (a) positive self-talk and (b) reflection. These processes also helped us to construct new transformative meanings. In the research episode below I claim that, by facilitating positive self-talk, I can show its implications for self-esteem. Following from this I give examples of forms of reflection for both myself and my pupils. In demonstrating our awareness of what and how we learned, I feel justified in claiming that this metacognitive approach alleviates learned helplessness or, in the images of the wave metaphor, shocks all whom it touches into acute personal awareness and action against the injustices we have experienced.
In the following episode from my research I claim that issues of low self-esteem and poor self-perception, as shown in B’s picture (Picture 5.1 above) and which were also obvious in many of my children’s pictures, were reversed. As part of a group project explaining specific learning disability under the title ‘Explaining dyslexia to ourselves and others’ (Appendices 2.4g and 2.6b), my pupils accessed Internet information on famous and successful people who are reported to have or have had specific learning difficulties. Using clip art and word art pupils presented their findings in this project. Their project title initiated a metacognitive, positive internalising process. Each cohort of eight pupils produced projects. The contents of these projects are below and these projects are in my data archive (see Appendix 2.6b to 2.6d).
**Table 7.1: Contents of pupils’ reports explaining their learning difficulties**
| Cohort 1 | Cohort 2 | Cohort 3 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Famous people who have specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) | Famous people who have specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) | Famous people who have specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) |
| Things I have difficulty with at school | Things I have difficulty with at school | Things I have difficulty with at school |
| How I learn spellings | How I learn spellings | How I learn spellings |
| Treatments for specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) | Writing about what I’ve learned | Writing about what I’ve learned |
| You too can feel dyslexic - activities | Do I learn things that I am good at in the same ways | Do I learn things that I am good at in the same ways |
| How dyslexia helps me | | |
| How I feel about specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) | How I feel about specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) | How I feel about specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) |
As can be seen from these tables of contents, the pupils’ projects grew from the negotiation of understandings of specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) by my pupils and myself. In their projects my pupils show and explain how they had internalised new ideas around specific learning disabilities (dyslexia). As a result, I as their teacher became a negotiator and facilitator of knowledge acquisition rather than a controller of pupils’ knowledge and knowledge acquisition. My approach challenges an empirical and pragmatic approach such as Dweck (1986), who argues that focusing on learning goals that are easy to achieve for the pupils can reduce helplessness. It also challenges a staged approach such as that of Alterman and
Pitrich (1994), who advise that teachers prevent or alleviate learned helplessness by structured processes giving pupils (1) opportunities for success in small steps; (2) immediate feedback; (3) consistent expectations and follow through (Alterman and Pitrich 1994). However my ideas about celebrating positive and negotiated understandings contained other elements of successful learning as described by Slavin (2003), which he states involves ‘eliminating the negative and moving from familiar to new, using advance organisers or guided discovery’ (Slavin 2003, p.v). In devising group projects on specific learning disability (dyslexia), I claim that my pupils were ‘guided to change their attribution style to become persistent and independent learners’ (Lerner 2000, p.245). I facilitated further enhancement of pupils’ self-esteem in the example of positive self-talk that follows.
(a) Positive self-talk
The concept of positive self-talk features in many commercial programmes for dyslexia – such as Phonological Awareness Training (Wilson 1996), Multisensory Teaching System of Reading (Johnson *et al.* 1999) and Toe by Toe (Cowling and Cowling 1993) – in the form of pupils monitoring of their personal progress. Although positive self-talk is not a stated feature of these programmes, I became aware of it in the following way. In an initial phase of my research I used commercial interventions for dyslexia (see Appendix 4.1) with a cohort of pupils over a three-month period. Quantitative comparisons (see Chapter Nine) showed that the most effective programmes in achieving their stated aims contained personal, self-scoring sheets of daily attainments, a sample of which are in Appendix 4.2. These sheets could be said to be more than record keeping data because the children perceived them as a form of positive motivation. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of pupils’ recorded achievements on the programmes and their responses to the question ‘Which sheet works best for you?’ provided evidence of pupils’ preferences for those sheets with congratulatory formats or space for personal comments.
Positive self-talk was a feature of the personal learning experiments my pupils engaged in during my research. Here positive self-talk means a personal form of
motivation in which pupils were encouraged to self-affirm themselves on attainments with oral statements. An example of it would be:
Pupil L said, ‘I felt happy when I drew all my ideas. I can’t say them but the colour helped me show them. Now I can tell you about them. I am good at drawing. It helps me think.’
Pupils S said, ‘When I read over all the things in my diary – the things I learned this week I didn’t believe that I had learned so much. Wow!’
(February 3004 Taped conversation and transcript, Appendix 2.6e)
By contrasting pupils’ attitudes prior to and during my research, the power of positive self-talk, as a form of motivation to continue learning, became obvious. In the following two pictures and commentaries (Pictures 7.1 and 7.2) the pupils provided data of how they found that, by exercising their voice in their artwork, they could reverse the poor self-perception (McCormack, 2002) which had arisen from discrepancy between their achievement level and their potential of which they had been aware prior to my research.
Pupil L said, It means just how I am. The two Rainbows mean that me feelings backfire. So sometime I am happy and then I can be sad straight again. It is just expressing my feelings.
Pupil C asked, Why are you in the middle of your picture?
Pupil L said, It was just an expression of how I felt. I thought that drawing a picture of me helped me realise how I feel.
**Picture 7.1 and discussion of ‘Mood Swings’ by Pupil L (9 years)**
Pupil S said, This is me on the beach.
Pupil G asked, Why are you only black?
Pupil S, Just.
Pupil G asked, Why are you in your own?
Pupil S, I always am.
Pupil L asked, Who helped you with your homework? [seeking to identify a time when he might not be alone]
Pupil S, I try and solve it. I only ask my mam or brother if I am really, really stuck.
**Picture 7.2 and discussion of ‘Aloneness’ by Pupil S (9 years)**
The importance of art as a window into pupils’ developing thinking will be discussed later in this chapter, but for now I want to question as I did in my journal at that time,
Can positive self-talk be included in a pedagogical approach for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia)?
What are pupils’ perceptions of positive self-talk?
Can this be gleaned in an open-ended evaluation approach commensurate with my values and philosophy?
Can positive self-talk contribute to the learning of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia)?
Can positive self-talk address low self-esteem in pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia)?
(17 September 2003 Journal, Appendix 2.1c)
I am claiming that I gained new knowledge from episodes such as those recounted above in that I now understand the power of self-talk as a motivator to learn for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Based on this new knowledge, I introduced changes in my teaching in order to influence the learning of my pupils. Building on the idea of positive personal reinforcement, I invited them to keep personal diaries in which they wrote or drew pictures about ‘Things I can do and how I learned them’ (Appendix 2.1f). These diaries, as in the example below,
became a daily form of positive self-talk in that the children recorded a range of achievements and learning strategies. Their achievements were amazing to me as well as to themselves as evidenced in the following extract from my own journal and an audio-taped recording of a pupil’s comments on his diary.
**Table 7.2: Pupil P’s learning journal 7th January 2002 – 18th January 2002**
| Monday | I can spell ¼ of all reading words |
|--------------|-----------------------------------|
| Tuesday | I know how to do desumuls* |
| Wednesday | I know my scout prayer |
| Thursday | I know my way round around the pervinls** |
| Friday | I know safety in the home |
| Monday | I know how to puck a sliter*** |
| Tuesday | I know how to make noodles |
| Wednesday | I know half of my 7 times tables |
| Thursday | I know how to do a solo |
| Friday | I know how to type**** on the PC. I did not know I knew so much |
*Notes:* * Decimals; ** indecipherable, *** sliotar - a ball used in playing hurling; **** type.
The concept of positive self-talk in learning can not only act as a form of motivation but also as a booster of self-esteem. As Slavin (2003) suggests, this form of positive reinforcement is an antidote to learned helplessness. The process in which pupils’ self-esteem was shown to have improved during my research occurred as follows. Prior to and following my research each pupil completed a commercial self-esteem or self-perception checklist (Coopersmith 1967 and Barker-Lunn 1970), and one composed by a teacher colleague and me (see below). These revealed significant improvements in awareness. Pupils perceived themselves differently and also realised how their peers viewed them. An example of this is in Table 7.3 below where I compare the percentage scores of the 2nd cohort of pupils prior to my research with their percentage scores post research on our teacher-composed checklist of self-awareness in learning. I am presenting these scores as indicators of the pupils’ changes in thinking about themselves. The instructions to pupils for completing the checklist were, ‘Please tick once on each line’.
**Table 7.3: Teacher composed self-esteem and self-perception checklist**
| LIKE ME | NOT LIKE ME |
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
| Prior | Post | Prior | Post |
| 87 ½ | 0 | 12 ½ | 100 |
| 0 | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| I am no good at anything | I am good at learning things |
In this process pupils were engaging in self-study action research methods similar to mine. The evaluation of changes in my practice and in theirs continued in the form of short conversations between myself and the pupils that were taped and transcribed in which pupils answered, ‘Do you feel you are good at spellings? What else are you good at?’ I have evidence of the power of positive self-talk from pupils, class teachers and parents below. This evidence is in written, oral and visual forms (Appendix 2). In the following example a 12-year-old pupil wrote about his improvements as follows:
Since then I feel more confident. I feel I have improved in English reading. I learn my spellings much quicker with less hassle and I know them forever. I know I have improved in reading, spellings, comprehension, mathematical sentences, tables and learning Irish spellings. I did my entrance exam to secondary school on 9th March. I think I did very well. Here are two spellings tests – note the date – and a project.
(20 March 2002 Pupil correspondence, Appendix 2.2b)
In addition I recorded anecdotal evidence from pupils’ class teachers and parents in my reflective journal.
Class teacher E said, I watched J grow in stature before my very eyes as he spoke to his peers about how he learned.
(05 April 2003 Journal, Appendix 2.1d)
J’s mum says, He’s never been so happy. He does his homework by himself. I feel redundant.
(07 June 2003 Journal, Appendix 2.1d)
Further confirmation of increases in self-perception can be seen in the contrast between pupils’ artwork at the beginning of my research (see Picture 5.1 above) and their pictures at the end of my research (Pictures 7.3, 7.4 and 7.5 below) where they relate new positive feelings, for them, towards their learning.
Pupil C said, I think L likes being in the park.
**Picture 7.3 and discussion of ‘School is easier’ by Pupil N (aged 9 years)**
Pupil G asked, Are there apples on the tree?
Pupil N answered, Yes. There are apples on my tree in the garden. I was happy and I liked them. The rainbow is saying that I am happy. School is easier and I’m happy now.
Pupil S said, There is a blue sky. I am playing hurling.
Pupil H asked, What kind of mood are you in?
Pupil S answered, Happy. There are nets. I find difficulties in English spellings so that’s why I want to learn sport.
**Picture 7.4 and discussion of ‘I am happy’ by Pupil S**
**Picture 7.5 ‘Before and After’ by Pupil M (aged 12 years)**
The contrasts in the picture above, between Pupil M’s cry for help as he shelters from an electric thunder storm and his joyful arm-waving when he stands on top of the world, are visual representations of dramatic changes in Pupil M before and after my research.
Introducing a form of voice that was appropriate for my pupils highlighted two significant issues around identity, both for the children participating in my research and myself. Pupils, rather than being disabled by the learning environment in which they were placed, were in fact enabled by it. The changes I made in my practice provided an educational model of ability rather than an educational model of disability as described by Ware (2003). Rather than being learning disabled by the education system the pupils in my research had been given opportunities, through various forms of voice in art and dialogue, to construct their own identities as able learners. In this way ‘the label [of learning disability (dyslexia)] was no longer conflated with the labeled’ (Hudak and Kiln 2001, p.6). I claim that the changes in my pedagogy had achieved in practice, within a framework of social justice and care, what Young advocated at an abstract level, which was,
conditions for all persons to learn and use satisfying and expansive skills in socially recognised settings and enable then to play and communicate with others or express their feelings and perspectives on social life in contexts where others can listen.’
(Young 2000, p.184)
Significantly, I had come to a new understanding that my identity does not only centre on me. Instead I have come to the view that identity is, as Derrida (1988) proposes, about personal engagement with the social formations of the culture and contexts in which I live. I have changed my practice especially in my relationships with my pupils within the culture and contexts of my work in a way that is in keeping with the epistemological stance that I have explained in this thesis, where I position knowledge as personal yet created in relationship with others. I have changed my practice according to new insights from the children participating in my research. I have therefore demonstrated that my pedagogy is not about the management of knowledge transfer but I have travelled through the mirror, which I referred to in Chapter Five, questioning and checking my new understandings
against the pupils who remain outside the mirror, thus coming to an understanding of myself and my thinking with and in relation with my pupils. I have realised that my identity as a teacher, my individual sense of being (McNiff and Whitehead 2006, p.225), is influenced by my pupils.
(b) Reflection
The pupils and I together are the fifth transformational tidal wave of influence in my research. Together we have contributed to our understandings about what dyslexia means to those who have it. We have also contributed to a process to enhance pupils’ self-perception. Our contributions can be seen as countering the injustices that we experienced prior to my research. Our contributions are a practical form of justice. Reflection was a major part of the process that has brought us to this contributive form of social justice.
I now explain how journaling provided opportunities in my research for reflection and metacognition, for both my pupils and myself
~Journaling as a process of learning for the pupils in this research
Through journaling, as I described in Part Three, I claim that I personally came to appreciate the value of asking how others with specific learning disability (dyslexia) learn. I encouraged my pupils to engage in a similar form of journaling to mine. The content and implications of my pupils’ individual journals demonstrated the range of their own new learning, as in the two examples that follow:
I called my last diary ‘Things I Can Do’. This year I’m calling it ‘Things I Can Do and How I Learned Them’.
(15 January 2004 Pupil journal, Appendix 2.1g)
Pupils’ journal writing provided a form of positive self-talk as well as a record of learning over a sustained period. As well as forming data for my research these journals became personal records of what my pupils themselves value as their learning for the year. Their journals also listed personal task-specific learning strategies as in the following example:
I learned my ballet steps by sitting and watching for a long time. The others do it but I just watch. Then at the end I just stand up and I can do it. But if I try to do it at the beginning with the others I just can’t remember it all.
(14 March 2002 Pupil journal, Appendix 2.1e)
The learning strategies listed by my pupils included traditional ones of learning from modelling, rote learning, multisensory and co-operative learning (Slavin 2003). These strategies were task-specific in that each pupil chose strategies that they found appropriate for specific learning tasks. In their journals the pupils have engaged in positive self-talk, identified learning strategies and their transferability to their other learning needs. These journals therefore provide evidence of the metacognitive awareness of the pupils, in that the pupils are writing about what they know and how they come to know it.
I now discuss my own perspective on journaling with examples of how it provided data about changes in my practice and philosophical understandings.
Opening my journal to public scrutiny provided evidence of my own metacognition in terms of my developing thinking. In the following quotations I show my questioning of my role as I observed my children experiment with various learning strategies. Here is an example.
I was called out of the room. The pupils continued discussing their next learning targets. Wow, they have continued learning without me. The tape-recording of their discussions, in particular the section after I had left the room, made me consider if I was dispensable.
(30 March 2002 Journal, Appendix 2.1b)
I was questioning if my changes in practice had empowered pupils to learn in their own ways and also questioning if pupils had now the competence to transfer their learning to other situations. The quotation above demonstrates how I used journaling to reflect ‘on action and in action’ as described by Schön (1995, p.27) during my research project. To move beyond anecdotal jottings of incidents and actions recorded by me in a diary, I adapted the Intensive Journal method of Progoff (1983).
It provided a format and process that covered the multiple aspects of my work within the boundaries of one journal. Journaling for me became exactly as McNiff and Whitehead (2002) say:
You can document how your own perceptions changed over time and show how you used new learning to make better sense of the situations.
(McNiff and Whitehead 2002, p.94)
The following example demonstrates my developing understanding of my role as a teacher in what was a new form of learning and teaching for me. I became aware that my journal provided data on how I was able to monitor my practice in order to change and move forward. An example of this was my reflections and the actions that followed one journal entry.
Table 7.4: My Journaling
| Date | Log | Dialogue | Reflection | Meaning |
|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 14 May 2003| W has his head on the table when he writes. | How can he write like this? Is he the only one who does this? No. Some others in his class do it. | How can I check if this is common to other pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia)? Ask him. He says the letters jump less when he is close to the page. | Why didn’t I think of asking W in the first place? His reason ties in with some of the specific learning disability (dyslexia) literature. In future talk to the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) more. |
| | W’s legs are twisted around the chair legs. | Is this a balance thing? Do others do this? | I will make a checklist of actions that Pupil W does. I will observe classes from 2nd to 5th as they write and tick if pupils without specific learning disability (dyslexia) pupils have similar movements. | W and other pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) toe tapped and did quick knee shaking. These movements seemed to help their concentration rather than decrease it. So I need to encourage rather than discourage it. |
| W’s books always seem to be at awkward angles | Does he realise what he is doing? | Is this related to lateral preferences? I will check if he sees, hears, catches and kicks with his right side, left side or both. | W does have mixed laterality. So do B, J and S. [pupils who participated] and all play in goals. They have difficulty running backwards and catching balls from different sides. Yet they are very good in goals. |
|---|---|---|---|
I noted the variety of movements pupils make when they were sitting quietly writing or reading alone. Together the pupils and I built up a photographic record (Appendix 2.4f) of them at work. The sample below from this record shows a pupil with legs twisted around chair legs to steady himself as he wrote.
**Picture 7.6: Showing a pupil’s position when writing**
I developed ideas about the pupils’ toe tapping, quick knee-shaking and other such movements, which could be connected to co-existing difficulties of Attention Deficit Disorder. I found that the practical relevance of my conclusions were that both the children and I gained a new understanding that their movements, which may have seemed to be unusual, individual and disruptive movements were in fact common and helpful to pupils’ concentration while they worked.
I found that journaling could be conceptualised as a metacognitive activity in which I became aware of my new learning about the practice and the philosophy behind it. Through journaling I reflected on my pedagogical approaches. I presented my understanding of my own teaching methods and their relationship to the work of well-known educational theorists, such as Skinner (1954), Thorndyke (1917), Piaget (1970, 1971 and 1977) and Vygotsky (1978 and 1986), at the 14th International
Special Education Conference (McDonagh, 2002). In my presentation I produced evidence to show developments in my teaching from a behaviourist model, to a constructivist model, and finally towards a form of teaching that showed my commitment to the social creation of knowledge. Through that process I have gained an in-depth understanding of how I position myself in terms of ideas of knowledge generation. In 2002 I had begun to place myself as a mediator of my children’s knowledge, coaxing them through the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978 and 1986). Through further reflection I have since reconceptualised my role as a mediator. As one of my validation group said,
You are doing more than that. You are allowing the children to be the mediators of their own knowledge as well. So not only are you mediating but the children are also mediating.
(12 July 2004 Validation meeting record, Appendix 2.5d)
I came to realise, with the help of my validation group, that I was engaged in a form of developmental inter-relational activity in that my new theory of practice would not have happened without my activities or without the activities of my pupils either. Therefore there was a reflexive form of parallel knowledge generation – a mirroring – going on in my research or as McNiff and Whitehead (2006, p.32-33) term it, a generative transformational process in which I was creating new and more refined forms of knowledge.
I have come to recognise that I have adopted a new perspective that appears to be contrary to traditional perceptions. I have come to understand that journaling is a powerful process for positive reinforcement and self-talk for me as a teacher. This understanding is beneficial because, like many other teachers, I felt marginalised because knowledge about pedagogy was presented in a top-down approach with third level institutions being the arbiters of what constitutes best practice and valid theories of learning (McDonagh 2004b). Ideas around marginalisation drew me again towards developing a living theory of learning to teach for social justice. In drawing comparisons between my own learning experiences and the experiences of my pupils, I am conscious that I too am part of my living practical theory of contributive justice. I too am contributing to my own living theory of justice, grounded in my practice, to address the marginalisation that I had felt.
I claim to now understand how my personal and professional identities are interconnected as I explained in the metaphor of the ‘waves’ and in the previous section on positive self-talk. Like Young (2000), I believe that identity is a complex interweaving network of relationships in which individuals are engaged. The dialogical form of logic and knowledge creation that I have engaged with is a logic of creation that positions identity as a complex interweaving network of relationships between participants.
7.4 Articulating and explaining my emergent living theory of contributive social justice
My growing awareness and metacognitive reflection around my practice led me to revisit my understanding of my commitment to social justice. At the beginning of my research, social justice, for me, meant the opposite of injustice and a reaction to an apparent injustice. As I described in Part One, bright children with obvious talents (which were not necessarily academic talents) were labelled as ‘learning disabled’, as a condition for accessing tuition for their academic difficulties. I came to see this situation as unjust. This understanding has been informed by changes in my practice, detailed in the section above. These changes occurred because of the form of self-study action research I had chosen. My research is about learning for, with and from pupils (McDonagh 2003). My new understanding of justice is from a tradition of research work that values voice and personal experience (Griffiths 2003; Sullivan 2004; Roche 2003). That tradition has shifted the focus from theorising about justice (Rawls 1971 and 1999; Kant 1965; Hume 1740/1962) towards a living form of social justice with and for justice (Dunkwu and Griffiths 2002). My research resonates with what Griffiths (2003) calls ‘practical philosophy’ because it engages with the conditions of all people regardless of their academic or social positioning. It is philosophy ‘as, with and for’ (Griffiths 2003, p.21) rather than a philosophy ‘about’ and ‘applied to’.
In this section I examine conceptual issues around social justice and compare my living practical theory of learning to teach for social justice to that of Griffiths (2003). Reading Griffiths’s *Action for Social Justice in Education* (2003) helped me
shape and articulate my theory of learning to teach for social justice. In the remainder of this chapter I will refer to her model for social justice in education (Figure 7.1 below), as I describe, explain and analyse the links between my findings and my practical living theory of contributive social justice. Griffiths’s cyclical approach as in Figure 7.1 is analogous to the cyclical nature of my learning in my research.
**Figure 7.1: A model for social justice in education (Griffiths 2003, p.60)**
Griffiths’s (2003) work is about others’ actions and she takes the view that social justice is a verb – constantly under revision and never resolved (Griffiths 2003, p.55). She states that the good for each person both affects and depends on the good of all. In practice she envisages this idea, as working in small face-to-face groups. In this way she includes ‘little stories’ and ‘grand narratives’, showing how practical social justice is about localised issues as well as large scale theorising about them. Her theory of social justice involves both ‘recognition’ and ‘redistribution’ whereas the terms that have arisen in my research are ‘awareness’ and ‘contribution’. I believe that my pupils and I engaged with all these features (as in Table 7.5 below) in order to improve their learning and my learning experiences.
Table 7.5: Linking my research practices to Griffiths’s (2003) theory of practical social justice.
| In my research, data to support my theory of social justice is found in | Griffiths’s theory of social justice includes |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
| Discussions at weekly meetings of groups of up to eight pupils. The pupils were not from the same classes and comprised boys and girls aged 9–12 years (see my research design Chapter Six) | small face-to-face groups. |
| Background injustice issues (Chapter Three) are shown to be addressed by reflective journals about new learning in my research design (Chapter Six); my journal (Appendix 2.1a-d) and pupils’ journals (Appendix 2.1e-g) | ‘little stories’ showing how practical social justice is about localised issues |
| Background injustices in the system of educating pupils with specific learning disability (see the contextualisation of my research in Part Two and its significance in Part Five). | ‘grand narratives’ showing how practical social justice is about localised issues |
| New learning for myself and my pupils in Part 4. | large scale theorising about them |
| In Chapter Eight changes in learning situations and strategies were generated through interactions Pupil to pupil; Pupil to teacher; Me to pupils; Pupils to me. The expansion of recognition and redistribution to wider school community is explained in Chapters 10 and 11. | ‘recognition’ and ‘redistribution’ |
| Pupils learned about different ways to learn spellings individually and in groups and so all improved their learning (Chapter Eight). Improved ways of learning for pupils improved my understanding of teaching and my teaching of them (Chapter Nine). | good for each person both affects and depends on the good of all |
Table 7.5 gives a framework of practice but there are no references in it to personal or epistemological values. I have spoken in this chapter of how I came to recognise my own learning and so in the remainder of this chapter I will explain how I came to a contributive theory of social justice from within my practice.
I have demonstrated how my new form of pedagogy enabled my pupils to make explicit the latent fund of personal knowledge they have about the effects of specific learning disability (dyslexia). As part of this process I have also made my own learning explicit in my teaching. This is innovative and contrary to the dominant form in educational research, which, as Griffiths (2003) highlights, assumes the idea of working from propositional theory. She speaks of ‘theory into evidence into theory into action’ (p.47) where researchers begin by explaining theoretical frameworks and end with practical outcomes. I have however worked in a form where experience and action move into reflection, then into action, and then further reflection with many of these activities also happening simultaneously. In self-study action research I found that actions are informed by, and inform, lived experience.
My developing living theory of learning to teach for social justice relates to the ideas of Griffiths (2003) when she says,
The when, from whom, how and what of learning remains unpredictably mysterious and intertwined with human relationships…No wonder learning escapes systems and fool proof methods.
(Griffiths 2003, p.18)
I found that individual awareness of *what and how* learning occurred in my practice involved an intertwined process of peer relationships and discussions of others’ learning strategies. I perceive my research as a search that will never finish. This ongoing search resonates with Plato’s search for explanations of his world.
He devoted his life’s work to this search but he also slowly discovered and continually warned by his own example, that it was a serious illusion to think that any human could arrive at a final goal.
(Hogan 2001 cited in Griffiths 2003, p.53)
The unfinished character of learning itself, as I analysed it in my research, was pinpointed by my validation group when they said about my evidence,
P said: So it’s about the uniqueness of the individual, their capacity for freedom of choice, and change.
M said: Change. On-going learning. Ability for on-going learning and change.
(November 2003 Taped conversation and transcript, original in Appendix 2.5g)
I was however experiencing difficulties in making links between living forms of theory and a distributive form of justice. Within a distributive form of justice I perceive justice to be conceptualised as an object. The concept of a distributive form of justice can be best understood from a propositional perspective. Instead my changing practice and my reflections on it centred on my own living perspective. These two perspectives could not be reconciled within my research. The idea of distributive justice is a concept in which justice is distributed equally. This form of abstract conceptualisation is not commensurate with my own epistemological stance, which is grounded in my ontological values. The living theory of learning to teach for social justice that I developed in my practice offers openness for all to contribute according to their capabilities. Their contribution can lead to a more just situation for themselves and others. The prerequisites for this theory are providing first the freedom for the individual to gain confidence in his or her own abilities; and second the freedom for reflection and metacognition. The living practical theory of justice that I am claiming to have generated has grown from within my practice. I believe that contributive justice is participative. It is based in a dialogical form of logic that encourages imagination and creativity (Whitehead 1976). The practical living theory of learning to teach for social justice that I am claiming to have generated involves contribution rather than distribution.
In this chapter I have shown how I created a more just situation for myself and for my children with specific learning disability. I experienced learned helplessness prior to this research around how best to improve my own and my pupils’ learning. I have produced evidence of my own learning around the ways in which my pupils learn. I have analysed how my pupils can be shown as able learners, each with his/her own learning style and capacities. I reversed the normative situation where those children are often marginalised through not having their needs met within the
educational system, or through being dismissed as disabled learners. I found that pupils with specific learning disability had previously experienced learned helplessness and had been perceived by teachers as ‘lazy’. The evidence in this chapter shows how I facilitated a new form of communication and voice for my pupils through their paintings. This chapter shows how I have found a voice for my pupils and myself.
The concept of voice has been a key feature in my research. The role of children’s voice has been established by The National Children’s Strategy (Government of Ireland 2000), which made important strides in allowing children to express their opinions. Shevlin and Rose (2003) suggest that ‘Such legislation has placed an onus on professionals to give greater consideration to pupils’ voice’ (Shevlin and Rose 2003, p.8). The importance of pupil voice in my research can be seen in the following quotation from a conference on Critical Debates in Action Research (McDonagh 2003) in which a researcher commented on my facilitation of the voices of my pupils:
The combination of the children’s voices and your reflections on their learning opened the doors of the classroom and pushed out the walls – a way for other educators like myself to be in your classroom and learn from the lived experiences. The very simple yet multilayered idea of asking pupils themselves how they learn, and the realisation that these children have a very clear sense of the ways that work for them struck me very forcibly.
(22 June 2003 Correspondence Appendix 2.5f)
I claim to have made space for the voices of those normally silent to be heard. These voices tell stories of which I and other educators may not be aware. This occurred because self-questioning is at the centre of my classroom practice and my research methods. I have highlighted the need for community enquiry in ‘aware’ reflection in order to understand my own thinking and knowledge generation – a feature that tends not to be present in traditional forms of educational research. For me the voice of the researcher has to be self-questioning – ‘the reflexive principle’ (Winter 2002, p.151). This idea of self-questioning is equally central in metacognition. Winter reminds us, however, that each voice has to ‘question itself in relation to the other voices as part of the research work of moving forwards the
debates between voices’ (Winter 2002, p.152). The dialectical principle, he argues, allows for a plurality and variety of voice, which adds to the transformative potential of the research.
In this chapter I am claiming that rather than adopt a traditional propositional conceptualisation of justice, for example that of Rawls (1971 and 1999), I have generated a living theory of contributive justice, as part of learning to teach for social justice, that is informed by ideas to do with people’s capacity to think for themselves and negotiate their own ways of learning. I have shown that justice in education is a live concept that can be understood in relation to people’s practices by providing opportunities for the children who participated in my research to become aware of and investigate their own learning successes and transfer their new understandings to other situations. For me, ensuring social justice involved becoming aware of and investigating my ways of teaching. Furthermore, by seeking accreditation for the theorising of my practice in this PhD thesis, I can be seen as opening opportunities for others to generate their living theories, which could in turn form a knowledge base for the teaching profession (Snow 2001). For both my pupils and myself justice means transforming our positions of marginalisation within the education system.
I claim to have developed an emancipatory form of practice that took into account the practical learning of both teacher and pupils. To do so I became involved in new ways of thinking and theorising that celebrate my own capacity for knowledge creation, a form of social justice in learning, in that it recognised our individual capacities to learn and think critically. These ideas are grounded in my existing values around freedom and the capacity of all to be knowledge creators. My dialogical research approach permitted all participants to be valued and take a full part in the research process, thereby creating our own answers and generating our own living theories.
I claim to have maintained equilibrium of power between those participating in my research and myself, which Noddings (2002) suggests could be problematic when working within values of care. I have also maintained open-endedness in my practice and theorising in the face of the dominance of propositional forms of theory, and in
doing so have demonstrated that the values, which underpin my research, inform the logic in which it is grounded.
I am moving towards the generation of a living theory of social justice, which is based in how one lives one’s life. This has some similarities with the Platonic stance of developing theory from the questions one asks about the world in which one lives. I am living my theory and communicating my theory in the ways I live. My theory is transformational. It is grounded in an open-ended form of questioning, grounded in the human capacity for learning and in particular my own capacity for learning and on-going learning. Personal theories of learning and practice ‘transform continuously into each other’ (McNiff and Whitehead 2006, p.255). This continuous rolling fluidity is reminiscent of the metaphorical fifth wave, which incorporated the strongest influences in my research, namely my pupils and myself.
7.5 The living standards by which I judge my findings
I now want to show that the standards by which I judge my research are living in my practice. To do so I have placed photos below of my pupils presenting their reports in which they explain dyslexia to themselves and others. The pictures were taken from a video, made by a class teacher L, when a cohort of pupils who participated in my research presented their reports on ‘Explaining dyslexia to myself and others’ to teacher L’s class. When the video was made by the class teacher, a resource teacher, a student teacher, the school Principal, thirty-five pupils aged (nine to ten years), eight pupils who were members of one cohort of my research participants (aged nine to twelve years) and myself were all in the classroom.
Pupil L reads from her report to pupils in a mainstream class other than her own class. Pupils appear to be engrossed in her report.
Picture 7.7: Presenting reports to a class
Pupil G is sharing his report ‘Explaining my learning difficulties to myself and others’ to pupils in a mainstream class that was not his own class.
In picture 7.9 pupils question Pupil G on his report.
Pupil S is sharing her report ‘Explaining dyslexia to myself and others’ with pupils in a mainstream class that was not her own class. School Principal and a student teacher (standing) also appear to be engrossed in her report.
Pupil H smiles broadly as she skips back to her seat. Applause from me, the school Principal and all in the classroom rings in her ears. She had stood in front of the class and answered their questions.
**Picture 7.11: Having new learning valued**
I had provided my pupils with opportunities to research their own understanding of specific learning disability (dyslexia). They had presented their reports to their peers and teachers. The pictures above show how my pupils validated their claims to new knowledge and understanding about dyslexia and about awareness of their capability to learn.
At this point I offer an explanation of how my values came to act as my living standards of judgement. Both I as a teacher and the pupils who participated in my research had freedom to voice our own ways of knowing within education systems that values objective knowledge. I had shown compassion in recognising the learned helplessness of my pupils and myself and we had learned from and with each other. We continued our inclusive ways of learning and sharing our new knowledge and understanding of dyslexia into the other classrooms of our school. In doing so we achieved a form of justice to counter the marginalisation caused by existing provision and dominant propositional theory. I had changed my practice to one of greater equity based on my new learning from my pupils’ research and my research. In compiling these reports my pupils and I demonstrated a form of human dignity where we came to value our personal ways of learning as well as learning with others. What was happening in the classroom in the pictures above was part of my new epistemology of practice where knowledge was transferred in oral and collaborative ways.
The data throughout this chapter is derived from actions, which acknowledge the uniqueness of my individual pupils and their capacity to contribute to learning and change. These actions were grounded in the Christian values that I hold. I have already articulated these values in tables 3.2 and 5.1. When I wrote about addressing my own learned helplessness in a significantly different way to those teachers in the research of Kerr (2001), I demonstrated compassion in that I recognised my needs in my pupils and my pupils’ needs in me. By adopting an internal locus of control I have confirmed my belief in self-efficacy, by which I mean a belief that one’s behaviour can make a difference and a belief in the capacity of the individual. This was a demonstration of my commitment to human dignity by recognising the capacity of others and by showing care for each and every individual I encountered.
My values around justice were shown as I was developing my living theory of learning to teach for social justice. I was not only speaking but also acting in ways that set about correcting conditions of learned helplessness and in doing so actualised the ideas around the equality of humans – both pupils and teachers. In doing so I demonstrated my respect for the capabilities of all my pupils. My value of wholeness can be seen in my acceptance and commitment to the reconciliation of a plurality of approaches to teaching and learning, mindful of the need to recognise body, spirit and mind of all involved in my research.
There is evidence of my value of service in my commitment towards living my values in the changes I have brought about in my practice. The listening, talking and communicating with my pupils, as I have described in this chapter, about how they understood specific learning disability (dyslexia) was based in my belief in equality. In promoting positive self-talk and reflection as antidotes to learned helplessness I provided opportunities for a form of freedom which acknowledged a capacity for self determination in thought, speech and action for the good of myself and my pupils. The following quotation provides evidence of the change in my own learned helplessness.
You spoke of a different learning experience of an older sibling with the same disability as a younger sibling and the more individualised treatment of the younger sibling through your improvement of your practice. Now you speak of no longer feeling a helplessness in your practice because you are creating a more just system of education in your classroom based on your belief in your capability and the children’s capability to learn.
(21 November 2004 Transcript of validation meeting, original in data archive Appendix 2.5d)
The significance of the living form of theory that I am developing is that I have brought into life the aspirations of the rhetoric of The Task Force Report on Dyslexia (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002b) and Understanding Dyslexia (Ireland, Department of Education and Science and Northern Ireland, Department of Education 2004). The validation of my living theory of justice lies in evidence of these values being lived out in my practice as both a teacher and researcher. In this chapter I have demonstrated in practical ways the values on which I base my understanding of justice – values around freedom, respect, trust and service – that redress and transform the injustices described in the background to my research.
7.6 Summary
I have spoken about how I learned to overcome my learned helplessness, and enable my pupils to do the same. I have challenged dominant theories in the literature about how to deal with learned helplessness. I have highlighted that, for sustainable learning to occur, people need to learn for themselves how to improve the quality of their own lives, rather than have someone intervene on their behalf, which is what the dominant literatures suggest.
In practical terms I have shown that both I, as a teacher, and children with specific learning disability, were able learners. I provided the children in my research with opportunities to use positive self-talk as an antidote to the demotivating influences of learned helplessness. By providing opportunities for learning through encouraging voice – as in my children’s artwork – I have reconceptualised my practice and highlighted what I am doing differently, as I recalled when I wrote in my journal:
I am upside-downing things. Teachers are traditionally seen as the leaders in classroom knowledge not the children. This is upside downing it. I am generating theory as practice and that is also upside down.
(10 May 2003 Journal, original in data archive, Appendix 2.1c)
This quotation incorporates the image of the turbulent, unsettling metaphorical fifth wave of influence on my research, which helped me to find strategies to transform negative aspects of my research context into life-affirming situations for both my pupils and myself. Within this fifth wave both the pupils and I have built on the power base of our strengths and created a new reality, where my practice is centred on a pedagogy of liberation, which is grounded in my commitments to change and the valuing of others.
CHAPTER EIGHT: The potential significance of my living theory of learning to teach for social justice
8.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter I showed how my living theory of learning to teach for justice was grounded in my practice; a practice that is about helping pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to find ways to avoid being disabled by written words within their school contexts. My living theory of learning to teach for social justice in relation to pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) required changes in my practice. I now want to explain why these changes happened and their potential significance. Change in how one teaches comes, I believe, from new personal knowledge and the practice of teaching itself rather than from propositional theory or commercially produced ‘How-to-teach-it’ programmes. So, in this chapter I want to explain what it was that aided me in changing my practice towards one that was more socially just, and indicate its potential significance.
My personal new learning is at the core of the changes that I have made. This process of change was influenced by my pupils’ own action research into how they learned spellings. I reflected on their research, related it to the literature and found that their new learning influenced my learning. Their action research was happening alongside and as part of my own action research. We all developed living theories from studying our practices. I can describe and analyse our findings in terms of (a) organisational issues around pupils’ learning and my teaching of those with specific learning disability; (b) conceptual issues around understandings of learning theories; (c) understandings of what counts as educational knowledge.
In this chapter I am showing the formation of collaborative partnerships in education, where my children and I worked in an atmosphere of mutual respect; learning from and about each other while endeavouring to overcome obstacles within school structures in terms of pedagogy, curriculum and assessment. The changes that have occurred in my practice are not only practical actions but also reflect changes in my thinking. These changes in my thinking are related to my own new learning, which can be seen as in relationship with pupils’ learning. The
influence of their learning on my learning has convinced me that all individuals, given the opportunity, can make important contributions to new understandings of teaching and learning. The validity of my claim that these changes in my own practice influenced the changes in the children’s practice was tested at several levels – in the classroom, in conference presentations and research seminars.
There are two main sections in this chapter. They comprise account of (1) how pupils engaged in action research projects alongside mine, and (2) how I engaged in action research projects alongside the pupils. In each section I describe the action research, reflect on it, then analyse my new learning from these reflections and how it influenced my practice. There were four recurring key themes within my new learning:
1. First, I developed an understanding of the relationship between my pupils’ learning and my own learning. We engaged in a dialogue of equality when we worked together to tease out our understandings of specific learning disability (dyslexia). During that time the pupils and I brought new personal knowledge and understandings to the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia), which had not been previously researched in this way.
2. Our co-construction of new ideas can be seen as a valuing of the person. I provided pupils with the opportunity to be free to realise and exercise their value and knowledge.
3. I critiqued my own stance in relation to my pedagogies. I offered an interpersonal form of teaching that is different from the dominant didactic practices of teaching children with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
4. Throughout my learning process I have taken into account my specific ontological and epistemological values. In doing so I have found ways to transform the marginalisation in dominant school provision of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) through the imposition of traditional forms of theory and learning on those pupils. I have moved towards a more just from of practice, in which all talents are valued and all may legitimately make their contributions.
8.2 Pupils engaged in action research projects alongside mine
This section is about how my new ways of teaching involved my children to a greater extent in their own learning than before. In doing so, I demonstrate again a shift from the perspective that learning theories can be applied to practice. From this perspective, teaching is understood as training in skills to be practised, where the teacher is a trainer and pupils are objects to be trained. I organise my text to show the actions that I took, and the learning that resulted from the action. The episodes I outline here can be understood as cycles of action-reflection.
~Action-reflection cycle one: ‘How I learn spellings’
I describe how my children became personally aware of how they learn. Each child answered the question, ‘How do I learn spellings?’ during one-to-one sessions with me. I encouraged them to speak but did not suggest any methods. Their answers were tape-recorded. The table below shows the various ways in which the first cohort of eight children, aged 11 to 12 years, learned spellings and in the second column I relate their own words to different learning strategies. In answering my question, ‘How do you learn spellings?’ the children indicated the inappropriateness of a one-size-fits-all approach. The table below shows not only that the range of strategies corresponds to the number of children, but also that there was no replication of strategies.
Table 8.1: Methods of learning spellings identified by children compared with learning strategies (originals in data archive see Appendices 2.4a and 8.10)
| The children said, I learned spellings by | Learning style/strategy |
|------------------------------------------|-------------------------|
| the sounds of the words | Auditory |
| trying to find how many bits. I first count how many vowel sounds are in it. | Visual |
| rhyming the words | Phonemic Awareness |
| breaking the words up | Syllabification |
| going one bit after another | Sequencing |
| learning them off by heart | Rote learning |
| looking at it three times and saying it three times, then writing it three times | Multisensory approach |
The activity above was repeated by the second cohort of eight children, aged 9 to 10 years and by the third cohort of children, aged 7 to 8 years. The same question was posed by myself in the former case and by another resource teacher in the case of the latter. Some of the additional strategies mentioned by these groups are in Table 8.2. They demonstrate combinations of strategies.
**Table 8.2: Additional methods of learning spellings identified by children compared with learning strategies (originals in data archive – see Appendices 2.4a and 2.10)**
| The children said, I learned spellings by | Learning style |
|------------------------------------------|----------------|
| Saying, no sing-songing, the letters out loud. | Auditory |
| Seeing it written on the ceiling. | Visualisation |
| Saying the bits I know and go for the other bits. | Visual and Phonemic Awareness |
| Looking at the beginning and then at the end. They’re easy. And then I look for the middle bits and learn them. | Syllabification combining visual and auditory |
| I start with the first bit, then the end bit, then I put in the middle. | Sequencing |
| I keep saying them over and over. | Rote learning |
| I write the letters big with my marker and say the sounds at the same time. I write them in the sand and on the board, then I write them with my eyes shut. After that I know them. | Multisensory approach |
I found that my children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) had individual ways of learning spellings. I used the strategy of recording pupils’ ideas on other occasions to help the children find out if they had individual ways of learning other problematic areas for them – for example how they attacked unknown words and how they tried to understand unfamiliar texts. The significance of these two areas will be discussed later in this chapter. This data was gathered in ways that took into account pupils’ difficulties in reading and writing. By tape recording their comments I demonstrated my respect for individual pupils in that I found an oral method for them to give information that highlighted their capabilities rather than their difficulties. I will explain in the next section how this provided evidence that the pupils learned in a variety of ways; in fact they used most of the strategies commonly used for learning spellings (Westwood 2003, p.166-180)
Reflection on cycle one
Some of my children had scored up to 5 years and 4 months below their chronological age in spellings. Children’s poor scores on standardised spelling tests are perceived as symptomatic of long-term memory difficulties (Snowling 2000), which are common to many who have dyslexia. I am not arguing the merits of testing spellings outside the context of continuous writing. I am focusing on spelling tests because the testing of words in isolation is currently used in many classrooms as an indicator of spelling ability. Within individualised resource teaching the discrepancy between the children’s achievement level and potential becomes particularly apparent through comparisons between their oral and written work, in particular how they spell. When such discrepancies become obvious to the children themselves, at the senior primary level, poor self-perception (McCormack 2002) and features of learned helplessness could also become obvious. Therefore my investigation of the learning of spellings for children with specific learning disability is not only relevant to academic advancement but also has importance for pupils’ self-image and self-esteem.
My new learning from cycle one
The significant new learning for me in this part of my research was that children with specific learning disability, in choosing their individual styles and strategies, demonstrated their metacognitive awareness of how they learned.
In terms of school structures and the teaching of spellings, current strategies used to aid the learning of spellings by children with specific learning disability can be identified in terms of three forms of differentiation:
- Setting spellings at a lower level than those of the mainstream class.
- Limiting spellings to essential spelling lists, for example social sight words and the 100 most commonly written words.
- Teaching strategies for learning spellings.
The first two approaches present differentiation in terms of content only. In both approaches teachers’ lowering of their expectations of their pupils’ ability to learn has important overtones for pupils’ self-esteem. It affects a child’s ‘perception of his/her abilities, attitudes and values’ (Slavin 2003, p.82) and hence his/her selfesteem, which is governed by values ‘that each of us places on our own characteristics and behaviours’ (Slavin 2003, p.82). In the second approach, teachers limit pupils’ field of learning. However when subsequent low scores on spellings tests occur children can develop an expectation of failure. In this way learned helplessness is introduced. The third form of differentiation engages with processes of learning. Yet teachers often control children’s ways of learning within a behaviouristic approach where the teacher decides how spellings are to be learned, teaches them and rewards the pupil when the pupil demonstrates what has been learned. This approach ignores valuable data about children’s learning strengths available from the psychological testing required by the Department of Education and Science to diagnose specific learning disability (dyslexia). For example the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III (Wechsler 1992) identifies specific skills, which could be tapped to aid the learning of spellings, such as perceptual organisational or processing speed skills.
By contrast I encouraged children to voice their personal strategies and styles with the question, ‘How do you learn spellings?’ Considering the children’s knowledge of their learning and how they learn I began to consider conceptual issues around theories of learning.
**Conceptual issues around theories of learning**
Tables 8.1 and 8.2 above point to the fact that the pupils in my research had articulated individualised strategies for learning spellings with a limited overlap of strategies. This demonstrated the personalised nature of my children’s ways of learning. These ways were not significantly different from the variety of strategies named in current literature for children without specific learning disability (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999b).
The achievements of the children in my research, however, challenged the description of them in normative discourses as “learning disabled”. They had shown themselves capable of articulating their tacit learning strategies. This is an important finding given that the learning of spellings is a significant feature of specific learning difficulties (dyslexia).
The dyslexic student has great difficulty building a vocabulary of words recognised by sight.
(Westwood 2003, p.8)
The causes of this difficulty, says Westwood (2003), as it relates to spellings, are poor phonological awareness (that is ability to segment and blend sounds) and a naming speed deficiency in which the child cannot retrieve words, syllables or letter sounds quickly from his or her long-term memory. Westwood’s advice for teaching spellings is as follows:
Dyslexic students are often found to be particularly weak in phonological skills and may rely too heavily on faulty visual memory for recall of letter patterns. Training them in phonemic awareness and the application of basic phonic knowledge appears to have a positive effect on spelling ability.
(Westwood 2003, p.172)
Therefore Westwood advocates a ‘training’ or behaviouristic approach to teaching and claims only that it ‘appears’ to improve the learning. I agree with him that his advised approach can only appear to have results because the form of research that he is reporting deals only with findings that are observable by an outsider. I have explained at the beginning of this chapter how such a methodology gives limited success. So I am making the point that the pupils in my research have articulated individual ways of spellings in ways that have not been recorded in research programmes, such as that of Westwood (2003, p.166-180). I am also claiming that I have provided pupils with specific learning disability the freedom to express their ways of learning, and this has enabled them to generate their own new knowledge and develop their capacity to resolve their problems for themselves.
In my research I have emphasised the children’s capacity to develop their own awareness of how they learn – they have developed their capacity for metacognition. By metacognition I mean ‘knowledge about one's own learning and how one learns’ (Slavin 2003, p.203). In recent years there has been a shift from the theoretical to the practical relevance of metacognition for teachers and students. For example, Wray (1994) argues that ‘students can enhance their learning by becoming aware of their own thinking as they read, write, and solve problems in school’ (Wray 1994, p.103).
Many studies have focused on a fundamental question: Can instruction of metacognitive processes facilitate learning? A key factor in the reported success of these processes is their ability to enhance motivation and self-esteem (Theide, Anderson and Therriault 2003; Altermatt and Pomerantz 2003). The form of metacognition that I have come to understand from my practice differs from these understandings of metacognition, as I now explain.
Although I have found no reports linking metacognition to the learning of spellings for children with specific learning disability, there has been research into the value of metacognition to enhance reading comprehension of those with specific learning disability (Wray 1994; Theide, Anderson and Therriault 2003; Altermatt and Pomerantz 2003). But many of the strategies, which purport to develop metacognition, incorporate a behaviouristic approach of teacher-chosen, self-questioning codes to help comprehension as in the model of Palincsar and Ransom (1988). In addition, Wray (1994) advocates teacher modelling of metacognition. Wray’s writing (1994) builds on the work of Palincsar and Ransom (1988) and Tonjes, (1988 in Anderson 1988), among others. Since metacognition means ‘knowledge about one’s own learning and how one learns’ (Slavin 2003, p. 203), teacher modelling of pupil metacognition (Tonjes 1988 cited in Anderson 1988) presumes that there is only one way of learning – one size fits all – and that what teacher models is the correct way to act. I take issue with this monistic view, from the grounds of my years of practical experiences of teaching both adults and children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) in a range of teaching settings. As a resource teacher, I have found the need, as I explained in the first part of this chapter, to engage with the thinking behind teaching strategies and to become aware of how they encourage metacognition.
**Influences on my practice: New understandings about what counts as educational knowledge**
I want now to examine the importance for my ways of teaching of the idea of providing opportunities for children to have a voice in their own ways of learning and the importance of this issue to educational knowledge and research. Increasingly practitioner educational research emphasises the idea of giving voice to research participants. This notion raises three issues. First, within the concept of giving voice,
participants can be positioned as objects of research, which in turn denies their voice in that ‘the power relationships in the research process are weighted towards the researcher as an expert on children, and on how to study children and on what to study about children’ (Woodhead and Faulkner 2002, p.12 cited in Christensen and James 2002). Second, in many papers, researchers consider the meaning that underpins voice rather than the voice of the participants per se. This interpretative research lens has a dominant impact on the narrative heard at all stages of research from the formation of the initial question to dissemination of findings (Punch 2002a and 2002b). Third, the researchers’ use of propositional forms of theory-based understandings can lead to a reconstruction of participants’ experiences in terms of a selective portrayal of their voice (Stavaros 2004).
My research challenges the conventional notion of ‘giving voice’ to research participants in educational research and highlights a form of research that aims to generate educational theory and changes in a teacher’s practice by valuing the voice of research participants. A major change in my practice was that I found that I have created an opportunity and ‘a space from which the voices of those not normally heard (in education) can be heard’ (Lather 1991 cited in Scott and Usher 1996, p.31). This change was grounded in my values around human dignity, equality and freedom. I have shown that children with specific learning disability can identify personal methods of learning differently, which might in future be a guide to appropriate teaching strategies for schools.
~Action-reflection cycle 2: ‘How We Learn Spellings’
Each child described during an individual session how he or she learned spellings. The individual sessions, in action-reflection cycle 1 were audio tape-recorded and transcribed. The children were offered opportunities to listen again and add to their recordings on subsequent weeks. A second recording was then made, during an individual session, where children listened individually to each other’s recordings and were given time to reflect and comment. Again I tape-recorded their comments. I made a third tape of each cohort, as a group where the children talked about the recordings they had listened to. The originals of these tapes are in my data archive (see Appendix 2.4a and 2.4b). I transcribed these tapes and the children or I sometimes annotated the transcripts of their conversations to refresh their memories.
during their discussions. An example of an annotated transcript is in Chapter Six. On these recordings it is possible to hear their peers, from within the cohort, evaluating the children’s ideas. The transcripts were made public to other resource teachers who commented further on the new learning of the pupils. An example of this triangulation process appears later in this section. First I explain what happened during the course of the pupils’ discussions on ‘how we learn spellings’.
The value on which these changes in my practice were based was freedom in that I provided pupils with opportunities to take control of their own learning processes. This freedom was grounded in my respect for human dignity and the capabilities of the pupils.
Having listened to and questioned each other’s strategies for learning spellings the children showed that they had developed new understandings of their learning when they said,
We all learn differently.
(March 2003 Recording and transcript, original in Appendix 2.4b)
My facilitation of this process enabled them also to become self-study action researchers in terms of improving their own learning. They realised this themselves when one said,
I find the best way for me.
(March 2003 Recording and transcript see Appendix 2.4b)
I provided a setting where pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) now had the freedom to discover more about their learning processes and find their unique most effective ways of learning. I am saying that my practice was a living example of the realisation of my ontological values of respect, justice, empathy and service as well as of my commitments to the idea of knowledge as personal yet created within relationships. I am also explaining how I came to judge the quality of my research in relation to the values that informed my research.
The next question that my research addressed was, ‘Can an awareness of learning processes be developed and thus improve learning and recall of facts?’ I investigated this over one school term for each cohort. Pupils spent one month evaluating each of three new methods of learning spellings that they had not previously used and which they heard from their peers during their discussions about the ‘how I learn spellings’ tapes of cycle 1. Suitable spellings were set and tested by pupils or resource teacher or class teacher as appropriate. Each pupil recorded his/her spelling achievements on a simple daily or weekly sheet similar to the one below.
**Table 8.3: Pupil R’s spelling record**
| Word | How I learned it | When I began | I can spell it on | I can still spell it on | I can still spell it on | I used it in my writing on |
|------|------------------|--------------|------------------|------------------------|------------------------|---------------------------|
| | By the sounds of the letters | Date | Date | Date | Date | Date |
The pupils counted how many words they could recall correctly in each method they chose. This action research process resulted in the children evaluating their personally most successful way of learning spellings. I had helped the children in my research to take control of their own learning processes.
The result of the children taking control of their own learning was that they came to value the importance of personal knowledge (Polanyi, 1958), as demonstrated in the quotations from the pupils and in the section of triangulated transcript that follows:
**Table 8.4: Triangulated transcript on spellings**
| Transcript | My comments | Teaching colleagues’ comments |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| I learned spellings by saying the letter names real fast. | *S has changed his method of learning spellings. His writing is more imaginative.* | 9 December 2004 Transcript brilliant. Child S has devised his own strategies for learning and for attempting sums too. When given a sum he can now explain different ways of tackling it to his class. Open discussions about learning and his confidence in his own learning have improved his maths results from the 2\textsuperscript{nd} percentile to the 88\textsuperscript{th} over the past two years. |
| I tried R’s way. | *He is not just sticking to words he is sure that he can spell automatically. He makes good phonic guesses at words but he is not sure how to spell.* | |
| I use the sounds to write the words. | | |
| I don’t have to say the letters anymore. | | |
| The words tell me how to spell them | | |
The comments from teaching colleagues provide evidence that the children extended their new learning beyond the learning of spellings. This occurred because the value an individual places on his/her own learning is crucial not only for motivation to expand their learning further (Slavin 2003) but also to build self-esteem and self-perceptions as an able learner. My research facilitated open discussions where my children’s learning has been opened up to the critique of their peers and other teachers. These critiques were invaluable to help me make changes in my practice.
**Reflection on cycle two**
To answer the question, ‘How do I learn spelling?’ children described orally a process they carried out – a language skill requisite attainable by children in second class (aged 7 years approximately) as stated in the Drumcondra Profiles (Shiel and Murphy 2000). My research experiences taught me how to change my teaching by a process of personal knowledge creation, which begins by providing the learner with an opportunity for voice in his/her own learning. My view of personal knowledge creation can be compared with Polanyi (1958), Zeichner (1999) and McNiff (2004) as personal yet having the potential to be an educative and transformative influence on others as well as the power to transform myself. Polanyi (1958) explains the significance of personal knowledge while Zeichner (1999) develops the idea that research by teachers into their personal knowledge and practices can contribute to a knowledge base for the teaching profession.
The question, ‘How do I learn spellings?’ which I put to children with specific learning disability, can be seen as an investigation into the development of metacognitive processes, which Flavell (1971 and 1977) explains as a process where the person, task and strategies interact to influence memory performance. This idea positions the person as a knowledge generator who stores and retrieves information and has the ability to monitor his or her memory activities in specific memory situations.
Current dominant practices in teaching spellings to children with specific learning disability can be described as attempts to provide suitable learning tools. An illustration of this is the research of Stirling (1989), which proposes the following essential tools for adolescents with dyslexia; the ‘study of vowel sounds, doubling
the consonant following a short vowel, root words, and laws of probabilities’ (Stirling, 1989, p.268). Currently many of these tools are in use for younger children in my school, both in learning support and resource settings. On the other hand Cripps (1988) links joined handwriting to the catching of spellings. By contrast the much-recommended multisensory approach for the teaching of spellings employs all the available senses in learning – hearing, saying, seeing and writing (Reid 1998). However one can take issue with this approach on the grounds that children with dyslexia have difficulty integrating auditory and visual memory skills (Atkins and Tierney 2004). In summary, tools or fix-it strategies are promoted and have some degree of success, yet the learning of spellings remains hugely problematic for those with specific learning disability.
In relation to methods of learning spellings, the question remains whether those with specific learning disability are different from their peers. In her comparative study of children with and without dyslexia and aged between 8 and 10 years, Knee (1991) found that ‘learning-disabled and normal children had the same rates of verbal learning, forgetting, and memory development, and were equally able to utilize semantic categorization’ (p. 89). But significantly she suggested that reduced memory efficiency in dyslexia appeared to result from ‘verbal encoding difficulties rather than memory deficit per se’ (p. 90). This finding is supported by the links between verbal IQ and learning to read and spell found by Atkins and Tierney (2004). Even when encoding was achieved, McNamara and Wong (2003) found that students with specific learning disability did not use retrieval strategies effectively and that some students with specific learning disability may have a production deficiency that affected their retrieval of previously encoded information. My research showed me (and hopefully others) that individual pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) can find their own individualised ways of learning.
The work of Graham and Harris (2002) represents a shift from models of direct teaching as described previously to active child-centred construction of learning. They investigated a form of spelling instruction for poor spellers, which required the learner to make memory links by following the instruction to ‘first access their lexical memory for the target words’ (Graham and Harris 2002 p.102). Their model can be clearly linked to Vygotskian theories of learning (Slavin 2003). When these
findings are placed with those of McNamara and Wong (2003) and Knee (1991), it can be seen that a focus on both the individual learner and memory are not sufficient for the learning of spellings by many children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). The two actions in which I investigated spellings involved an awareness of one’s processes of remembering – in other words, metacognition. I return to metacognition and my developing ideas about it later in this chapter.
*My new learning from cycle two*
I, their teacher, have learned from them that children with specific learning disability learn in many different ways. The implications were that if the children could not learn in the ways in which I teach, I must learn to teach in the way in which my children can learn (McDonagh 2002). The value I place on participants’ voice is grounded in the idea of emancipation through empowerment. This is similar to Freire’s idea, in *Pedagogy of Hope* (1994), that dialogue in teaching is a co-operative activity involving respect where one person did not act *on* another, but rather where people worked with each other, as I now explain.
As a researcher and teacher I have come to believe that I cannot give participants a voice but rather my work provides participants with opportunities for voice. Through my search for an appropriate form of voice I have come to accept that there are multiple ways of learning and knowing. As the Platonic view proposes, there is no one ‘right’ way of knowing and I have found that the acceptance of multiple ways of knowing can lead to dialogue. Such an acceptance also creates a freedom, which grows from informed choice because it involves exploring many ways and excluding none. In investigating the learning experiences of children with specific learning disability, I have provided a practice-based emancipatory methodology of research in which opportunities were made for children’s voices to be heard.
I gained significant insights into the nature of teaching children with specific learning difficulties by listening and allowing them to formulate ideas together. The children voiced a theory of learning spellings and created personal knowledge dialogically. They also demonstrated the value of metacognition in learning. As a result of permitting my children to represent their personal learning orally, I as a teacher ceased to perceive myself as the professional ‘knower’ in the classroom and
realised that I too was a learner. This follows the thinking of Zeichner (1999), who places the teacher as a learner in his USA studies of the power of self-study in educational research.
The self-study, practice-based research that I engaged with includes the idea of knowing in action which Schön (1995), following Boyer (1990), terms the ‘new scholarship’ tradition. The new knowledge generated by the pupils in my research enabled me to take issue with established education theory for teaching children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) as evidenced in the work of, for example, Hulme and Snowling (1997), Pollock and Waller (1997), Reid (1998) and Thomson (2001). These authors based their thinking on a medical model of rectifying a deficit in the children and offer various remediation and compensation techniques. In contrast to this, my study led me to seek to identify learning abilities rather than deficits in my children and to base my teaching on their abilities. In doing so I reconceptualised knowledge about dyslexia. I shifted from a traditional epistemological stance that positioned knowledge as reified, external and measurable to a new understanding of knowledge as personally developmental and negotiated through dialogue.
**Impact on practice: Teaching spellings to children with specific learning disability (dyslexia)**
I found that children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) are aware of how they learn. I claim to have come to a new understanding of how some children with specific learning difficulties learn. Children with dyslexia can develop personal learning strategies. I arrived at this new knowledge of practice from listening to and talking with my pupils.
I teach in accordance with the ways in which children state that they learn. I have afforded the children a freedom to come to understand their own abilities to learn and to value talents that had been suppressed previously. I have offered them freedom to grow in their identity as learners. They came to perceive themselves as able humans who had been disabled by a system of teaching spelling that was inappropriate for them and were now enabled to learn by their own efforts. I had offered them the right, within a relational form of pedagogy, to ‘become as singular
as possible and to develop maximum creativity for themselves’ (Kristeva 2002 in Lechte and Margaroni 2004, p.162). I changed my teaching of children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). By teaching in the ways in which children state that they learn, I now teach to my children’s strengths as well as their needs.
**Criteria by which my teaching can be judged**
My new understandings of teaching were underpinned by values of human dignity, wholeness and caring. The evidence of this comes from responses from class teachers, from respondents following paper presentations and by my validation group of peer researchers. Here is an example:
Your theory acknowledges the uniqueness of the individual and their capacity for freedom of choice. You have demonstrated with great clarity how your data/evidence, in the form of artwork and recorded conversations, can support this theory.
(27 November 2004 Correspondence from a validation group member, see Appendix 2.5d)
My living theory of practice was founded on a belief that all individuals, given the opportunity, can make important contributions to their own and others’ understanding of teaching and learning. This was demonstrated in my own capacity to encourage children to become independent thinkers. This idea was both validated and challenged by researchers in my validation group, who asked,
Were you aware of this unique capacity in yourself and was that what enabled you to enable the children or was it as a result of your work and something intuitive you did anyway?
(4 November 2004 Transcript of validation meeting see Appendix 2.5g)
Another described my learning as follows,
As valuing the uniqueness of each individual child and their capacity – that each child’s ability to learn is unique and their capacity to learn and continue learning is unique. You are testing your findings about your practice by focusing on your influence in the children’s learning. In this you are using your values as standards by which you make judgements on your findings. Initially you concentrated on the change in the children but came to realise that you were also changing in your relationships with these children.
(21 November 2004 Correspondence from a validation group member, see Appendix 2.5d)
I claim that the significance of my new learning extended beyond the teaching of spellings, as is shown in the following episode. I invited my children to speak in a group setting about their learning in general. In taped and transcribed conversations in which they initially identified their learning difficulties in terms of curricular or subject areas, with sentences such as ‘Irish and Maths are hard for me’ or ‘Reading is hard for me but I try my best anyway.’ As they continued to converse, the children began to identify specific areas of personal difficulties such as, ‘It’s hard to understand the meanings of the stories and to understand it’ or ‘Long words are hard to remember and spell’ or ‘Writing is hard for me, I can’t write straight.’ In this way children named priority personal learning/teaching targets, which is traditionally the role of the learning support teacher (Ireland, Department of Education and Science, 2000) or resource teacher (Ireland, Department of Education and Science, 2002a).
In brief I have become aware of the significance of involving individuals in the process of their own learning.
8.3 I engage in action research projects alongside the pupils
The pupils and I have worked alongside each other on our action research projects and now I want to say why and how our learning together was important. My living theory of learning to teach for social justice was greatly influenced by my pupils’ learning and by my learning. I describe how this occurred, and follow my descriptions with my reflections on our actions, my new learning and its influence on my practice.
As a researcher, I was dedicated to the process of theorising my practice. My theorising was grounded in my commitment to pupils’ capabilities despite their label of specific learning disability (dyslexia). The form of theorising I chose was spontaneous and live. Included in the thinking behind my belief in my pupils’ abilities was that I wanted to make a living and worthwhile difference in their lives. I intended to show how my pupils would come to value what they know and how they come to know it. I am reminded of Buber’s (1923/1962) description of an educator:
Only in his whole being, in all his spontaneity can the educator truly affect the whole being of his pupil. It is not the educational intention but it is the encounter which is educationally fruitful.
(Buber 1923/1962 in Miller and Nakagawa 2002, p.85)
My encounters with pupils changed our relationships. In practical terms this meant that I, as the teacher, was no longer instructing them in learning strategies for spellings because they had discovered their own effective and personalised strategies. At another level we had reversed our roles and were learning with and from one another as we worked alongside one another. As my research progressed the pupils’ awareness of their own learning capabilities also appeared to be influenced by our encounters. The pupils’ new consciousness about how they understood specific learning disability (dyslexia) changed our relationship in that they became aware that I, their teacher, did not understand specific learning disability (dyslexia) as well as they did. This is shown in two quotations taken from my research transcripts in Appendix 3.3.
The first quotation is part of a transcript in Appendix 3.3 where a teaching colleague, who had listened to the first cohort of pupils’ reports on their understanding of dyslexia (I will describe this report in the next section of this chapter), said to the pupil,
We should make a handout so that parents and other teachers could learn about dyslexia from you.
(March 2003 From transcript of pupil / class teacher discussion, Appendix 3.3, original in data archive Appendix 2.4d)
This teacher adopted a level of equality in his relationship, a sense of togetherness with the pupils, in communicating information to others. Similarly the pupils perceived themselves as individuals who could talk with teachers. The quotation below demonstrates how pupils experienced changes in their relationship with teachers:
Pupil S: I haven’t talked to teachers like that before. But I thought it would be a good idea ’cos they would know what it was like to be dyslexic and they would know what to do if they had a dyslexic person in their class.
Pupil B: I’ve never had as much fun talking to a teacher. I thought that when Mr. [Teacher S] and Mr. [Teacher M] left, that they had actually learned something from the pupils not the other way round. They walked out agreeing with us for once. I never had so much fun talking to teachers.
(March 2003 From transcript of pupil/class teacher discussion, original in data archive Appendix 2.4d)
Both the pupils and the teachers, including me, gained new understandings of the pupil-teacher relationship from these encounters where the pupils demonstrated their conscious approaches to learning. According to Yoshida (1962), Buber described changes in consciousness within encounters by telling about stroking a horse on his grandparents’ farm. There was a bond of mutuality between Buber and the horse as the stroking continued. Buber tells how he looked at his hand and became self-conscious of his stroking movement. The relationship between himself and the horse immediately changed in ways that Buber termed I-Thou and I-It, as he explains:
This difference marked the two different kinds of relationships in which a person relates to the other or to the world.
(Buber 1923/1962 in Miller and Nakagawa 2002, p.128)
From an objective perspective the stroking of the horse remained the same yet Buber’s understanding of the differing relationship was the seminal idea of his major works on I-Thou relationships.
The primary word I–Thou can be spoken only with the whole being. Concentration and fusion into the whole being can never take place through my agency, nor can it ever take place without me. I become through my relationship with the thou; as I become I say thou. All real living is encounter.
(Buber 1923/1962 in Miller and Nakagawa 2002, p.85)
My relationship, and possibly some of my teaching colleagues’ relationships, with the pupils changed from I–It relationships and now exist as I–Thou relationships, in that we engage in real, living, reciprocal, whole-being encounters. My acute awareness of what was changing in our relationship led me to understand the necessity for I-thou relationships in teaching and learning. At this point I return to the research of Kerr (2001). The teachers of pupils with dyslexia involved in Kerr’s (2001) study adopted an I–It relationship with the pupils they taught, whereas I adopted an I–Thou relationship. From an objective perspective our roles remained similar yet my conscious control of my own learning and understanding of specific learning disability (dyslexia) from my pupils’ perspective enabled me to change my learned helplessness into my living practical theories of social justice, teaching and learning. My pupils and I became co-constructors of knowledge within the process of developing their and my living theories.
Reflection on cycle three
Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) have spoken of how in the last decade of the twentieth century, teacher research constructs
the role of the teacher as a knower and agent in the classroom and in larger educational contexts
(Cochran-Smith.and Lytle 1999, p.16)
and as
co-constructors of knowledge with their pupils.
(Cochran-Smith.and Lytle 1999, p.22)
In the previous pages I have explained why my theories were so greatly influenced by my learning in tandem with my pupils’ learning. Now I want to draw on the work of Wenger (1998) to explain how this occurred.
Wenger (1998) describes how communities of practice can become the social fabric of learning. I believe that Wenger’s ideas could describe the co-creation of knowledge that occurred between my pupils and myself during the course of my research. As I have explained at 8.2 above we learned alongside each other; we learned with and from each other; we shared in a learning process. When the pupils came together to discuss their understanding of dyslexia, each cohort became a community eager to work together, to share and critique their ideas within that community and to extend their ideas to the wider school community by presenting their reports in which they explained their learning difficulties to teachers and pupils throughout the school. Wenger (1998) describes similar interactions as a community of practice. What I have described in my research is the development of a learning community. Wenger speaks about the negotiation of meaning, the preservation and creation of knowledge and the spreading of information (Wenger 1998, p.251). My research has demonstrated the negotiation of understandings of specific learning disability (dyslexia), the co-creation of new knowledge and the influencing of others to create their new understandings.
Wenger (1998) offers his perspective on knowledge creation within communities of practice as follows.
A well functioning community of practice is a good context to explore radically new insights without becoming fools or stuck in some dead end. A history of mutual engagement around a joint enterprise is an ideal context for this kind of leading edge learning, which requires a strong bond of communal competence along with a deep respect for the particularities of experience. When these conditions are in place, communities of practice are a privileged locus for the creation of knowledge.
(Wenger 1998, p.214)
The communities of learning that developed during my research have been shown as a locus of knowledge creation. The form of knowledge we created was personal yet it existed within our relationships. My confidence in our newly formed identities as knowers and knowledge creators encouraged the development of my living theories from within my practice. Wenger’s (1998) work offers an explanation of this transformative effect of a learning community:
Because learning transforms who we are and what we can do it is an experience of identity…. It is a process of becoming – to become a certain person or to avoid becoming a certain person. Even the learning that we do entirely by ourselves contributes to making us into a specific kind of person.
(Wenger 1998, p.215)
Both I and the pupils in my research experienced that transformative practice of learning in a community. Our community of learners offered an ideal context for developing new understandings because the ‘community sustains change as part of its identity of participation’ (Wenger 1998 p. 214).
*My new learning from cycle three*
My learning and my pupils’ learning became a tidal wave of influence on both our thinking and practice within our contexts. In earlier chapters I have used the metaphor of waves to explain the influences on my research context and on myself. In Chapters One and Two, I explained the first wave of influence as the practice of my Christian values and the dominance of injustice for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), despite a school system that claims to cherish the individual. Two further waves of influence in my context – the theory-practice divide and the successes or failures in my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) – were described in Chapters Three and Four.
The theories that I have generated in my research were influenced to some degree by these four metaphorical waves but the major influence was the learning that occurred for both myself and the pupils. I am claiming that our learning combined and that:
- Together we found our voice
- We addressed our learned helplessness
- We combated our marginalisation
- We questioned (i) dominant pedagogies and (ii) dominant learning strategies
- We accepted a fluid reality seeking no finite answers
- We celebrated our capacities to learn.
Together we were a powerful force – a metaphorical tsunami.
Implications for teaching
In the previous parts of this chapter I have spoken about how awareness of my own learning contributed to my pupils’ learning and to my own actions and theorising of my practice. In this section I provide data from pupils’ journals in which they recorded their daily achievement. By relating this data to my epistemological value of the importance of personal knowledge in teaching, I show my new understanding of metacognition.
I have given the children in my research freedom to investigate their processes of remembering spellings. The practical methods to achieve this demonstrated that I valued the development of the individual’s potential. I have shown in practical terms that the changes in my practice during the course of my research had immediate implications for the children’s learning experiences. So I have put into practice ideas about development as freedom (Sen 1999). Although both Sen and I speak about developing capability, our approaches are different in that Sen based his writings on examples from others’ lives whereas I am writing about my own development and how it can be seen in the developments in my pupils’ learning. Salto (2003) relates Sen’s work to education, stating that ‘when dealing with children it is the freedom they will have in the future rather than the present that should be considered’ (Salto 2003, p.25). I am challenging Salto’s application of Sen’s ideas in education in that I am offering the children in my research immediate freedom to develop their capabilities by learning in appropriate ways for them. These present changes could also influence their future development and capacity.
I have shown that the learners’ capacity to think and learn for themselves is ignored in traditional ways of teaching those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I have changed my practice and provided opportunities for learners to become aware of and value their ways of learning.
In my practice I found that
(a) Children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) can have successful individual ways of learning.
(b) Metacognition can be an effective learning strategy for children with specific learning disability.
(c) Metacognition can alleviate learned helplessness in teachers and children.
(d) Knowledge can be mediated.
(e) Learning from and with others can improve self-perception and change public perceptions of what counts as educational knowledge.
The practical relevance of this part of my research is that pupils have been given opportunities for voice to enable them to identify their personal ways of learning and evaluate their effectiveness.
I have learned to teach in ways that value the voices of children. Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) describe how teachers can be ‘knowers and thinkers rather than consumers of others’ knowledge and by sustained conversation become co-constructors of knowledge’ (Cochran-Smith and Lytle 1999, p.16). I believe that creating opportunities for voice for all research participants – even if they are children, who are labelled as disabled learners – enables them within a dialogical form of knowledge creation to become valued knowers and thinkers.
My research resonates with emergent theories of metacognition. In previous research such as that of Wray (1994), metacognition has been considered from a behaviourist perspective as a set of fix-it strategies, but more recent research (Scardamalia 2004; White 2004; and Xiaodong, Schartz and Hatano 2005) reconceptualises metacognition as a habit-building phenomenon – an idea that is close to my reconceptualisation of metacognition as both a personal and social strategy to enhance learning. The research of Xiaodong et al. (2005) demonstrates that observing other people being reflective can lead to more effective reflective practices, which is similar to the processes of reflection and positive self-talk in which I engaged and encouraged pupils to engage in. White (2004) supports similar ideas of meta-socio-cognitive development in her research into how social modelling and collaborative enquiry can foster these concepts in young learners. The social engagement of my pupils when they conducted self-study action research projects into how they learned spellings resonates with White’s (2004) approach. Scardamalia (2004) claims that new knowledge requires metacognition, as well as a ratcheting up of interactions between group and individual, based on the premise that as humans we enjoy playing with ideas, thus increasing our capacity for learning.
Scardamalia’s explanations could also explain why the pupils in my research took to and enjoyed the social-metacognitive activities.
**Ideas about how my teaching can be judged**
I am aware that I need to offer ideas about how the quality of my teaching can be judged. I have developed a range of strategies about how this can be done. My first strategy is to check my self-perceptions about what is happening. Here is an example of how I have done that.
I too adopted a metacognitive stance in my work. Thinking in a self-critical way about my practice was a new form of thinking for me and brought an awareness of new perceptions in previously taken-for granted teaching and learning situations. The three rough sketches below from my reflective journal represent my understanding of how learning was taking place as I taught pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) before and during the course of my research.
**Figure 8.1: Sketches from my reflective journal**
Sketch One depicts me standing in front of rows of pupils, where my teaching involved knowledge transmission using a didactic teaching method. Under my sketch I wrote,
In my class eager faces of pupils await the new ideas from books about dyslexia and commercial programmes.
(22 February 2002 Journal see Appendix 2.1b)
This first sketch shows how I considered learning happened when I taught recommended programmes for dyslexia such as Alpha to Omega (Hornsby, Shear and Pool 1999), the Multisensory Teaching System of Reading (Johnson, Phillips and Peer 1999) (see Appendix 4 for details).
Sketch two (Figure 8.1) represents my perception of how learning was happening as I taught the first cohort of eight children in the first year of my research. Learning was happening differently here. It was active rather than passive, as in Sketch One. It involved a degree of co-operation between the learners. Learning was happening cooperatively, in small groups of two or three and individually, using strategies appropriate to each subgroup in my class. I wrote beside Sketch Two,
I am the orchestra conductor. I bring all the individual and co-operative learning together in harmony.
(22 February 2002 Journal, see Appendix 2.1b)
Beside sketch three (Figure 8.1), I wrote, ‘We learn from and with each other in openness’ in my journal (Appendix 2.1b). Sketch three represents my understanding that both the children and I were learning from and with one another.
The sketches show my developing understanding of my role in facilitating the learning experience. My way of teaching, as depicted in that Sketch One, shows that I am holding the ‘power’ and the learners are passive recipients; in Sketch Two I am also controlling how learning is to take place and with whom because I have grouped the pupils and decided the activities; in Sketch Three I show my relinquishment of power in favour of the learner. I arrange our seating in a circle as a move towards developing the kind of relationship within which both teacher and learner could learn and teach together. Figure 8.1 indicates a shift from dominance towards collaboration; from inequality towards equality and from passive learning to active learning. I am explaining how I have moved from closed epistemologies and closed behaviourist-oriented practices to new open epistemologies and open-ended practices.
In my attempts to make judgements about the quality of my teaching, and also to establish the validity of my research claims to have improved the quality of my teaching, I began to present my research findings in public fora as paper presentations. I received affirming responses in the following correspondence from one conference participant,
What is happening to you is that – I think – you are reframing your own experience as a teacher in light of a new perspective … I suspect that in encouraging children (or anyone) to find their voice – oral or written – you are in some deep sense validating them and their lives and identity. This seems to me an aspect of the caring principle in education.
(4 July 2003 Correspondence, see Appendix 2.5f)
I also received evidence of my changing thinking and teaching in the following extracts from a validation meeting when a member of a validation group wrote,
You are challenging the dominant form of theory by showing that your theory of learning is grounded in practice, your own and your children’s.
(14 November 2003 Correspondence see Appendix 2.5d)
As my work progressed and was subjected to rigorous validation processes, I continued to make a case for participants’ voices in research (McDonagh 2003). I explained consistently that a major block to my children’s learning was that they had no voice in it. I explained how I had shifted from a traditional understanding of the role of theory in teaching and learning, where educational theories are depicted ‘as a Grand Central Station where theories are sifted, interpreted and applied’ (Government of Ireland, Oideas 1992, p.97). I now understand living theory as a form of theory where there is harmonising of theory and practice because the practitioners who are researching their practice develop living theory from within their living practice.
My theorising of my practice can be judged against my epistemological values as well as my ontological values, as I now explain. The personal new learning for me,
generated through my research, has led me to reconceptualise my practice and understanding of what counts as educational knowledge.
For me, the significance of my learning and my theorising of practice is that I have learned to recognise, evaluate and live towards my educational values in practice. The principles that underpin my practice are my commitment to and faith in the unique capability of the individual to learn and respect the other. I have reconceptualised my practice as a form of service to the other, grounded in respect, caring/compassion and equality. Noddings (2003) also claims to work within these values. However, her form of theorising differs from mine in ways that highlight the significance of the living form of theory that I have developed. She offers explanations of how values inform others’ practices. In my research I am showing how my embodied values emerged through my practice as well as how they became the standards by which my research can be judged (Whitehead 2000, p.99 and McNiff with Whitehead 2002, p.165).
I now want to give a practical example of these ideas. In Table 7.2, I gave an excerpt from Pupil J’s learning journal in which he stated that he never knew how much he had learned until he wrote up this journal. Twenty-four children’s journals of achievement are in my data archive. The children’s diaries form a daily self-affirming record of a variety of successful learning, which contrasts with their label as having a ‘learning disability’ and the normative focus on difficulties those children experience in schools (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a). The pupils’ reflections on their own learning demonstrate an awareness of personal learning and learning strategies (McDonagh 2004b). From this and other similar research episodes, I realised why it was necessary to involve individuals in their own learning in the first place. By taking an active part in their learning, pupils could enhance their self-esteem and combat learned helplessness. I had come to a new understanding of the importance of personal knowledge within the teaching and learning of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia), and this new knowledge influenced my practice.
My new learning from these episodes also had importance for other resource teachers as seen in this answer to a questionnaire (Appendix 7.3), which I distributed after a presentation of my work to a meeting of twenty-five resource teachers.
It is extremely relevant. It focuses on the pupil, on how he/she learns and what strategies work best for him/her.
(December 2004 Correspondence from programme co-ordinator, Dyslexia Association of Ireland Workshop, see Appendix 2.9)
I am claiming that I have found a way of teaching that can positively influence the learning experience of my pupils. In support of this claim I produce the following statements from professional colleagues.
Initially you concentrated on the change in the children but came to realise that you were also changing in your relationships with these children. You described how your work with children, who have specific learning disabilities, has led you to question the dominant understanding of the concept of disability. You, instead, have chosen to premise your work on an understanding that all children learn in individual ways and your approach focuses on the abilities of the children rather than on disability.
(24 November 2004 Correspondence from validation group member Appendix 2.5d)
Yours is a theory drawn directly from your practice as a learning support teacher and you clearly demonstrated a critical engagement with the issues and concepts involved as well as an impressive critical engagement with education theories. This engagement, along with the close monitoring of your practice over a period of years, has led you to form new theories of teaching and learning that are grounded in your aim to improve your practice, and thereby the educational experience for your students.
(24 November 2004 Correspondence from Critical Friend B, see Appendix 2.5c)
I believe that not only have you achieved your aim to improve your practice, but that you have gone beyond it and theorised your practice also. I believe, too, that you have generated new and sustainable educational theory from within your practice. As you went along you learned that, given a supportive and caring classroom environment, children have an unlimited capacity for developing strategies and methods of learning that are unique to themselves. You then tested this theory against existing theory and found that yours was more representative of a holistic understanding of learning that was based on the reality of each child’s needs and experience. You showed how your values of respect, justice and fairness have acted as the standards by which you make judgements about your practice.
(4 November 2004 Correspondence from class teacher/researcher Appendix 2.5a)
These extracts show how my values could be understood as my standards of judgement and were living in my practice. In the last extract, for example, the teacher claims that my values of ‘respect, justice and fairness’ have acted as standards by which I made judgements about my practice. I have provided a ‘supportive and caring classroom environment’ where children have freedom to develop strategies and methods of learning. In keeping with my values of human dignity, freedom and wholeness, I have allowed them opportunities to develop their uniqueness.
8.4 Summary
This chapter has explained how my learning and my children’s learning have influenced changes in my teaching. I provided children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) with opportunities to demonstrate that they had successful individual ways of learning. I explained how my new ways of teaching helped young people to see themselves not as consumers or objects within the school system but rather to gain confidence around their own capacities to learn. I have demonstrated my developing understanding of children’s different ways of learning.
The changes in my practice are rooted in my commitment to social justice and are grounded in my own capacities to generate theory from my practice. My actions, during my research, are a manifestation of my learning.
I have investigated various forms of teaching. I have found that effective teaching for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) can encourage personal, procedural and dialogical learning. These ideas and practice have grown from my study of the relationships between individuals and their creation of knowledge, in that, together with the pupils in my research, I have come to understand, apply and extend the processes, skills, attitudes and knowledge by which the pupils in my research improved their learning capacity (Pollard 1997 and McNiff 2002).
My new ways of teaching challenge the three models of disability that I discussed in Section Two. Medical models of disability highlight deficits and then teach to rectify them, whereas I have identified abilities in pupils’ learning and I worked with the children to use their singular abilities. I have challenged the educational model of disability within which the person is potentially disabled by interactions with institutions, structures and the environment, and replaced this with educational enabling within a learning environment where metacognition and personal knowledge are combined with socially created knowledge. I have challenged the psycho-social model of disability by returning freedom of choice of learning styles to the learners. I have re-established the power of the learner in the classroom within the learning process. I include myself as one of those learners.
Improving teaching and learning rests on the knowledge creating capacity of each individual in the system (Delong 2002). I believe that there is a need for teachers to frame their practice as living theory as I have done.
PART FIVE: ENSURING THAT THE CONCLUSIONS I HAVE COME TO ARE REASONABLY FAIR AND ACCURATE
Chapter Nine: A discussion of my new learning – Testing my living theories
9.1 Introduction
In this chapter I explain how I carried out systematic validation processes to test the validity of my claims to knowledge. I use an example of how I tested my living theory of learning to teach for social justice. I explain how my validation process involved getting critical feedback at all points of my research, in relation to whether I can claim with justification that I am living out the Christian values as I stated them earlier in this thesis. This requires ensuring first that I have solicited feedback from all relevant participants in my research. I speak about how this feedback is related to the Christian values, which are the same as the ontological values on which my research is based. I complete this chapter with a description and analysis of another new learning for me in relation to significant new understandings about the methodology of self-study action research from my experiences of disseminating my research.
9.2 My systematic validation process
I begin with a practical example of my validation process. In Chapter Five there are five pictures (Pictures 7.7 to 7.11) of my pupils presenting their reports on ‘Explaining dyslexia to myself and others’ to members of our school community. The video from which these stills were taken was part of the feedback about their self-study action research projects into how they learned spellings and about their new understandings of specific learning disability (dyslexia).
Before the presentation we gathered in my classroom. Anxious whispers from my pupils reflected their concerns. Concerns about the reactions of the pupils in the mainstream class: ‘What will they think?’ ‘I’m nervous.’ ‘They will love your piece about George Washington’s difficulties in school.’ ‘I think that they will really love
the bits about the famous people. I did.’ ‘Will they be surprised at how many ways we know to learn spellings?’ When we returned to my classroom after the presentation there was a flurry of excitement as the pupils described the mainstream pupils’ reactions to the report. ‘They said that they didn’t know there were so many ways to learn spellings.’ ‘A, B, and C (names) said that they wanted to try a different way of learning spellings now.’ ‘They never knew till we told them.’ ‘They said that they didn’t know how hard it was for us to learn too.’ ‘They never knew there were famous people who weren’t good at school.’ My pupils claimed that they had ‘explained dyslexia to themselves and others.’ Their presentation, together with the questioning and class discussion that followed it, provided feedback on their claim to have gained a new, personal understanding of dyslexia.
In Chapter One I articulated the standards of judgement by which I would judge the quality of my research. Now I want to summarise the validation processes I used to test the validity of my research claims. For example, in Chapter Seven, I presented data and articulated how these data showed my commitment to justice. Then, using the literature, I explained how the form of my actions demonstrated my belief in self-efficacy and in the capacity of the individual. Accordingly, the process of judging my claims to new knowledge required first the articulation of my values and a report of their existence at a conceptual level in my new practices. In addition my new practices were explained in relation to my values. The most critical standards were that my thesis demonstrated my values in action as part of my living and reconceptualised practice. So what did this look like in reality? My validation processes required getting critical feedback at all points within my research process.
~Getting critical feedback at all points of my research
In Chapter Seven I included correspondence from a critical friend that provided evidence that my values were being lived out in my practice as both a teacher and researcher. This was part of how I tested my new understandings against the critical responses of others. There have been examples in the last two chapters of the many people from whom I received critical feedback. These included my participating pupils, the pupils’ peers in mainstream classes, teaching colleagues, critical friends, resource teachers from other schools; tutors, programme co-ordinators and workshop directors with the Dyslexia Association of Ireland; doctoral and university
colleagues and those from the academy who attended educational conferences at which I spoke about my research. The importance of this variety of validation sources was that people from both inside and outside my research were critiquing my work. All these people were reasonably familiar with various aspects of my context.
I had to be somewhat opportunistic in finding ways of getting feedback. My methodology was not tidy or linear so I cannot describe it as a series of developmental stages, or even as a narrative with a beginning, middle and end. Each data-gathering episode developed its own momentum. That was why I found triangulation such a vital process of comparing my perceptions with the perceptions of others (McNiff and Whitehead 2005, p.67). For example, I have already told how I have placed my comments on my pupils’ work alongside comments from an art therapist and resource teacher in order to compare our views (see Tables 5.2 and 8.4). The experience of placing my new learning before academic colleagues at conferences was harrowing but interactive forms of presentation were most informative. I was overjoyed that teaching colleagues confirmed my research findings during my pupils’ presentation of their projects to them.
Their validation and my data are in my data archive, which I have listed in Appendix 2. This archive includes my reflective journals and my pupils’ journals; my correspondence with my supervisor and critical friends; validation correspondence and audio tape-recordings from pupils, teaching colleagues, two critical friends, members of my validation group, and audience members at conference presentations; questionnaire responses from pupils and teachers in mainstream classes and from resource teachers, the Dyslexia Association of Ireland Workshop Programme Co-ordinators and Directors. In keeping with my theme of finding appropriate forms in which to facilitate participants’ voices, my archive also includes tape and video recordings and photographs, pupils’ reports and artwork. Data from my practice of teaching includes pupil profiles, individual pupil educational plans, and pupils’ record sheets of their learning from commercial programmes, and lesson plans for lessons that were observed by other teachers (see appendices 5.2a and 5.2b).
Another critical feature in my validation process was that I required not just evidence from others that I had changed my understanding and my practice, but I also wanted evidence that these changes had been critiqued against my values. There are further examples in the remainder of this thesis of how this occurred in my research.
~Justifying that I am living out the values articulated at the beginning of this thesis
I am talking about how my claims could be related to my values. For example, in the previous chapter, I told how dialogue provided a way of coming to new understandings about teaching spellings for children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). In the course of our conversations and action research projects, I afforded participating pupils a freedom to come to understand their own abilities to learn – to value talents that had been unrecognised previously. The values of freedom and capability were embedded in my research actions and in the new learning that followed. The pupils and I were learning together and our actions embodied these values.
In order to justify my claim that I am living out the values that I am expressing throughout, I want to explain how I understand our learning together as the embodiment of the values of freedom, equality, empathy and respect for the capability of the individual. In practical terms I have shown in the two previous chapters that my pupils and I have addressed our marginalisation and learned helplessness by finding our voices, and within our fluid relationships we have celebrated our capacities to learn.
I now want to show that our learning constitutes values-in-action, and these values live in and are the justification of my research claims. I speak first about my understanding of our changing relationship during the course of my research. This includes the idea that the pupils became co-constructors of knowledge. Next I want to explore the relationship between this learning relationship and my core research values and in particular to issues of development as freedom (Sen 1999) and the concept of development as freedom in education.
I am claiming throughout that I can show the relationship between my pupils’ learning and my own learning. Specifically,
1) I have helped the children who participated in my research to come to know in their own ways.
2) I have found ways to help children come to value what they know and how they know it.
3) I have reconceptualised curriculum as a knowledge generating exercise in which pupils can participate, as well as teachers. In this way I have arranged the conditions of learning for my students in terms of offering them fuller participation in creating their own knowledge.
To elaborate:
1) I have helped the children to come to know in their own ways. This was achieved when the pupils and I acted within a relationship of reciprocity. Our learning was interdependent; I gained new insights from pupils’ ways of learning and I modified my ways of teaching; the participating pupils gained new insights within my new ways of teaching and modified their ways of learning which in turn informed my thinking. We acted and learned in a reciprocal relationship. I found that effective learning for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) included personal, procedural and dialogical learning. These ideas and practices developed as individuals created their own knowledge. I have demonstrated how I have come to understand, apply and extend the processes, skills, attitudes and knowledge by which the pupils in my research improved their learning capacity (Pollard 1997 and McNiff 2002). Throughout this entire process I was attempting to live towards my values of empathy, compassion, equality and freedom as set out in Table 5.1.
2) I have found ways to help children come to value what they know and how they know it. Together with the pupils I have developed new understandings of specific learning disability (dyslexia) that identify pupils’ capabilities in learning. I have explained in Chapters Seven and Eight how I have worked with these pupils to use their singular abilities. I have combined the educational enabling of these pupils within a learning environment where metacognition and personal knowledge were united with the social creation of knowledge. I found ways to help children and
myself come to value what we know and how we know it. We have re-established the power of the learner within the learning process.
Freedom, human dignity and social justice are the central values on which I base these claims. I have removed many obstacles that hindered my pupils’ learning. I have recognised and facilitated the freedom of individuals with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to learn in ways that suit their individual needs (see Chapter Eight). To explain why it was necessary to provide freedoms of this type in order to allow the developments of the pupils’ learning and my learning, I have referred to the work of Sen (1999), who says,
It is important to give simultaneous recognition to the centrality of individual freedom and to the force of social influences on the extent and reach of individual freedom. To counter the difficulties that we face, we have to see individual freedom as a social commitment.
Development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency.
(Sen 1999, p.xii)
I have allowed pupils opportunities for freedom of action in bringing their new understandings of dyslexia to other pupils and teachers in the school. I have established pedagogical practices that permit the pupils to decide how they will learn spellings. I have changed my teaching so that pupils can expand their capabilities and value their abilities, as they recorded in their learning diaries. In facilitating my pupils’ actions, my work is commensurate with the ideas of Sen (1999) that
the expansion of the ‘capabilities’ of persons to lead the kinds of lives they value – and have reason to value.
(Sen 1999, p.18)
I am claiming to have moved from a situation where marginalisation led to learned helplessness and when learned helplessness was tackled in a traditional approach, as explained, for example, in Kerr (2001), which led to further marginalisation. In Chapter Seven I explained how this situation applied to both my pupils and myself and how I interrogated it. My research set up a counter cycle of confirming capabilities that led to the development of personal confidence and competence,
which in turn led to a willingness to contribute to others’ knowledge (see Chapter Eight). Sen (1999) tells of similar negative cycles where ‘economic unfreedom can breed social unfreedom, just as social or political unfreedom can also foster economic unfreedom’ (p.8). He tells, but does not demonstrate as I have done, how this cycle can be broken in a two-way relation between
1) social arrangements to expand individual freedoms and
2) the use of individual freedom not only to improve the respective lives but also to make the social arrangements more appropriate and effective.
(Sen 1999, p.31)
My research links issues of freedom, human dignity and social justice, which were included in the third aim of my research.
3) I have reconceptualised curriculum as a knowledge generating exercise in which pupils can participate, as well as teachers. The pupils and I actively participated in addressing justice and epistemological issues by finding ways to exercise our voices in a system which was dominated by propositional knowledge. I have explained how I invited pupils to participate in creating their own knowledge. I was conceptualising social justice as the freedom to contribute. In practical terms this meant pupils taking responsibility for their learning according to their personal ways of learning.
My research was based on ideas of emancipation through the acquisition of knowledge (Freire 1994). I built on Rawls’s (1971) ideas of justice as fairness and developed a practical living theory of learning to teach for social justice, which has some similarities with Young (2000), where my practice was shown to exhibit the values on which I base my understanding of justice. Young (2000) speaks of ‘being able to engage in the world and grow’ (p.184). Young’s work describes self-development within communities. My work offers a similar perspective and speaks of social justice where the individual is afforded opportunities to develop the confidence and freedom to contribute to social justice for himself or herself as well as others. The values that can be used to justify my claim are those of service to others in the interests of the greater good.
9.3 The importance of our new ways of learning to issues of development as freedom in education
My research aimed to establish socially just practices. I am now claiming that my research has the potential to develop new forms of discourses in professional education, by conceptualising practice as theory.
First I need to articulate my understanding of freedom as a condition for making a contribution to practice discourses. For this I draw on the work of Sen (1999). I speak about not only academic or economic development, but also about ideas of the relationships between individual development, social development and freedom. In this way freedom and development are dialectically and practically linked and as such form an important context for my study of how I helped my pupils to improve their learning experiences. In justifying what I have done I am asking whether I have lived towards my values of freedom, compassion, human dignity and service.
What I believe has happened in my research is that first, pupils have contributed to my learning as a teacher and second, I have contributed to their learning. For example, the dialogues and actions that arose from my questioning of my practice as outlined in Chapter Seven show that I was actively engaging with ideas around equality, freedom and respect for the wholeness and capability of both the individual learner and myself. I have shifted the locus of power in learning to the individual in order to create a new reality of learning where my children were not devalued because of their learning differences. I claim that the pupils and I are creating our new understandings of how learning occurs in relationship with others.
I have learned during my research programme that the policy rhetoric of inclusion, which values individuals with specific learning disability (dyslexia), can be realised through my practice. This practical realisation has been a transformation of my ontological belief in the capacity of all humans to learn, regardless of age, intellectual capacity, or ability to read, into a living practice.
Sen (1999) writes of the quality of life being assessed by our capacity to exercise our freedom. I have shown in my research that the quality of my pupils’ education and my pedagogy can be assessed by the degree of our freedoms to learn in ways that value the development of the individual. In Chapter Seven I have demonstrated how I have facilitated the freedom for pupils to voice their preferred ways of learning, and this has contributed to pupils’ development in terms of self-esteem and identities. Similarly in Chapter Eight I have demonstrated how I have facilitated the freedom for pupils to evaluate their own work and to learn in their chosen learning styles. I claim that these freedoms in turn have contributed to pupils’ academic achievement in learning spellings.
Sen (1999) speaks of development as the everyday realisation of the lived capacities of humans. However, his form of theorising is propositional. His theory of development as freedom is about what people are able to be and do – a celebration of the uniqueness of individuals. His theory goes beyond a distributive theory of justice and justice as fairness (Rawls, 1971) and also beyond Griffiths’s (1998) theory of justice as practice because these theories are limited by using a propositional form of logic and by focusing on resources rather than on individuals’ capacities. My theory of developing capacity is a living form of theory, through which I can offer explanations for what I have done, while incorporating Sen’s propositional ideas. I can show how I have endeavoured to enable the pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to transform their capacities for thinking and learning. Quotations from the pupils themselves and their teachers support my claim that I have achieved this (see Chapters Seven and Eight).
In order to develop a capability approach for me as a teacher, I have engaged in dialogue with pupils and that dialogue in turn has led to self-development. The evidence for this claim is that both my pupils and I have addressed our learned helplessness and found ourselves as capable knowers and learners. I now understand myself as a practitioner who is capable of improving and theorising her practice. I have developed a relational process of teacher agency, which has not only developed my own thinking and practice but also developed how I can influence others, specifically the pupils participating in my research, to act for themselves. My approach has been informed by the thinking of Young (2000) whose ideas about
inclusive forms of justice include the proposition that personal individuality can be achieved through a positive interaction between individuals and their society. Young envisions a democratic world order, where knowledge is developed with others. I am offering my living theories about an inclusive approach to knowledge generation, which unites personal knowledge, and metacognition, and socially developed knowledge.
I have demonstrated that educational research can be grounded in a form of knowledge that values learning and the development of the person. Furthermore I believe this is a necessary condition for educational research because, as I came to understand, social facts cannot be isolated from the domain of ontological values and these values in turn inform the epistemological stance one adopts.
~Conceptual issues around developing theory from practice
I have explained how I developed a living theory of teaching and learning that is inclusive of others’ views and ways of learning. I have also explained how I have developed my own living theory of learning to teach for social justice, in which my teaching celebrated the potential learning of the children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I did so within a context and background that was largely grounded in propositional knowledge and placed little value on personal knowledge. I have explained that the philosophical and values base of much of the reported research in the field of specific learning disability (dyslexia) ignores personal knowledge and the human perspectives of both the learners and the teachers. I am claiming to have transcended the tensions in this by offering a form of living theory and logic, which is grounded in my values of respect for humans and their capabilities.
My initial research aim was to enable pupils to move towards achieving their potential. My research has enabled me to modify my practice in terms of how I can develop new forms of pedagogy that will enable the children to be in control of their own learning and to shape their identities as capable and competent learners.
I have developed a new living theory of practice, which is my explanation for how I have come to improve what I am doing for the benefit of myself and the children
in my care. Throughout my research there have been two strands: my learning and my pupils’ learning. My learning is reflected in my pupils’ learning. For me, self-study action research has influenced changes in my own thinking about educational knowledge and how it is created, in that I have become actively critical. I gave an example of this in Chapter Eight when I explained how my ways of teaching had changed from propositional to dialogical forms of teaching for knowledge creation. Apart from thinking critically about my teaching, I have actively demonstrated how I created it in the ways that I helped children develop new knowledge about their own learning.
I developed a practice in which the children I taught also became self-study action researchers investigating their concerns, as in the learning of spellings, as documented in Chapter Eight. In addition they researched their cognitive ability for learning in their learning journals (See Chapter Eight and Appendix 2). I am claiming that my ways were more enabling and more just than traditional forms of research into specific learning disability (dyslexia), as explained in the background to my research (Part Two). The insights that I have gained have been at personal and substantive levels, including ideas about organisational processes to do with teaching and learning. In addition to this I have gained further important insights from the processes of disseminating my research, as I will now explain.
9.4 Further key learnings from the dissemination of my research
I presented my research in the three formats below at educational conferences:
- Traditional forms of paper presentation
- Collaborative research presentations and
- Interactive symposia.
I have found that more traditional forms of oral paper presentations tend to use a propositional form of logic (Dunleavy 2003). By contrast, an interactive symposium can often imply sharing research with colleagues, students, communities and broader publics. It ‘usually requires opening up the research to discussion and critique on many levels so that the work may continue to develop’ (Berry 2004). Such interactions reinforced the findings of my classroom research
that personal knowledge can be created through dialogue and have transformative potential. My experience and understandings of making my research public in interactive symposia at educational conferences has led me to a new understanding of my research within the context of educational networks of communication for a new scholarship of educational enquiry through practitioner research (Whitehead 2004a and McNiff 2004).
Traditional forms of paper presentations: Reflection-in-learning / reflection-in-action
In McDonagh (2002) I presented my research reflections on how I teach. These reflections resonated with the pupils’ reflections on how they learned spellings in that both were reflection-in-learning, which mirrors Schön’s (1995) idea of ‘reflection-in action’. I presented my 2002 paper in a traditional didactic format within a group session of papers followed by some clarification questions from the audience. One question, later, over coffee, remains with me today. It was, ‘How did you come to link the theories to your practice?’ That question was significant for me in that it held a key to my new epistemology – one that positioned personal knowledge as relational. Winkler argues for the linking of reflection and theory when he says,
Teachers’ experiences – and practical knowledge derived from it – are not sufficient to develop teacher expertise. Theoretical reflection in turn produces qualitatively different insights about teaching and learning, which can provide teachers with conceptual tools to establish new links between what they know and what they do.
(Winkler 2001, p.438)
Winkler has adopted a common perspective that theoretical reflection can be viewed as an exercise in matching one’s practice to pre-existing propositional educational theories. The question about how I theorised my practice moved my work to a new level. By testing my data against epistemological and ontological values-as-standards, I provided evidence of theorising in my practice. The question aided the development of new (for me) knowledge about my practice and also challenged my ways of thinking and presenting my learning.
I have adopted a metacognitive position; the generation of new knowledge in my research included dialogue with my own thinking. This critical questioning also highlights the usefulness of community enquiry to aid and critique one’s reflections – a feature that tends not to be present in traditional forms of paper presentations.
**Collaborative presentations: How I think and learn**
When I presented audiotapes and videos of my research practices at the 2003 Collaborative Action Research Association Annual Meeting, researchers in the discussion that followed identified unhesitatingly and unequivocally that teaching colleagues in my workplace had learned from my pupils’ theories of how the pupils learned (McDonagh and Sullivan, 2003). A video tape of these discussions is in my data archive (see Appendix 2.4e). During this collaborative presentation my co-presenting colleague and I discussed and found similar conceptual and philosophical frameworks within our different and individual fields of research. Our collaborative discussions in drawing up the paper gave us an opportunity to explore our educative influences on each other and in our individual contexts. During these discussions we also created new knowledge together. To enable the audience to critique our work we asked the following two questions:
Has our presentation shown that we have contributed to improved educational practices?
How can our work contribute to educational theorising?
The audience responded that we had improved educational practices. They did not attempt the second question. We concluded that our collaboration in developing this paper presentation had contributed to the development and validation of our own living theories but had not contributed to their dissemination. So I now consider the potential significance of interactive symposia for the dissemination of self-study action research.
**Interactive symposia: new understandings about research epistemology**
I begin with an account of an interactive research symposium at which I presented my work. At the Critical Debates in Action Research Seminar (2003) at the University of Limerick, I presented a paper (McDonagh 2003) that included pupils’ artwork and their voices as they explained their experiences of dyslexia. Papers at
that conference addressed specific critical and current issues in action research such as issues of validity, forms of theory, location, voice, legitimation, ICT and institutional implications. The interaction following the formal presentation of the papers took the form of an open forum on each topic. Discussion circles included presenters, invited key speakers and participants. The discussions initiated here were continued through email. The following quotations demonstrate the transformational influence of presenting practitioner research in a dialogical format because, as a university lecturer said,
The combination of the children’s voices and your reflections on their learning opened the doors of your classroom and pushed out the walls – a way for other educators like myself to be in your classroom and learn from the lived experience.
(22 June 2003 Correspondence see Appendix 2.5f)
~An epistemology where personal learning occurs through reciprocal interactions
I found a form of knowledge generation in which the researcher takes responsibility for his/her own learning within group settings. This concept is similar to Wray’s (1994) and Slavin’s (2003) strategy of individual responsibility within group learning. I took part (McDonagh 2004a) in an interactive symposium, which provided an example of this. The discussant wrote about this process of presentation as follows:
Self-study does not end with the production of a written report or artefact – these are but one part of the process of self-study. Self-study work compels those that are working within it to share what they do with their colleagues, their students, their communities and broader public domains and to open up the work or discussion and critique so that the work may continue to develop. This group is taking their work forward in exactly those ways, and I applaud them for taking the notion of accountability seriously. This is a necessary act, and at the same time, a courageous act because in laying out your work to us there is considerable risk involved, you make yourselves vulnerable in the process. It is much easier to speak about the need for vulnerability than to actually engage in it, in the ways you have.
(Berry 2004)
(To note: the group, referred to above, brought together nine individuals’ presentations of self-study action research and spanned all sectors of education from teaching to teacher education and policy making across many continents. Each participant had multiple links of influence to the others in the group that added to
their web of learning togetherness. Their papers were web-accessed and participants’ ontological commitments and practices were discussed by all present during the interactive presentation format.)
So I argue for the interactive symposium as a new form of generating knowledge in research – as an important feature within self-study action research. I do so because I believe it encompasses all the key processes for metacognition and social metacognition as I described them earlier. I am committed to it since metacognition is about understanding and developing one’s own learning. In addition, the use of metacognitive processes in research places a value on the uniqueness of the research within a new scholarship of educational enquiry (Whitehead 1989) and further positions the interactive symposium within a new epistemology (Schön 1995).
Some of the implications of my dissemination of my work can be understood as the centrality of people and their social interactions in the generation of living educational theory, and living theory as grounded in people’s capacity to theorise their individual and collective work as a form of social renewal. Both these elements are interrelated and mutually influential.
9.5 Summary
I have considered the importance of my learning and my pupils’ learning to issues of development as freedom and have explained my ideas on freedom in education as contribution. I drew on Sen’s (1999) ideas about freedom as development and I show how this provided a framework for my attempts to build pupils’ capabilities and confidence.
I concluded this chapter by explaining how I developed my living theory from within my practice and generated important new insights from how I disseminated my theory to a wider audience. In the next section of this thesis I consider the potential educative influence of my research. I now move into a discussion of wider professional debates and possible directions in which my research has potential to influence future practice and research.
PART SIX: THE BROADER SIGNIFICANCE OF MY STUDY – MODIFYING MY PRACTICE IN THE LIGHT OF MY NEW LEARNING
In answering the question, ‘How do I modify my practice in the light of my new learning?’ (Whitehead 1989), I am talking about more than changes in classroom strategies. I am considering the potential implications of my research for others in relation to the four major themes that have developed from my new learning. These themes are: first, I developed a critique of my own stance in relation to my pedagogy, as well as in relation to dominant practices of teaching children with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Second, I showed that the children and I could co-create knowledge. I understood myself as in relation with them, and they with me. I developed a dialogue of equals, which was a practice that celebrated human equality. This has implications for current systems of schooling, where children are regularly categorised and labelled. Third, I have grounded my relationships of equality in my ontological and Christian values. I have linked the idea of the value of the person with the idea that people must be free to realise and exercise their value. Fourth, I have come to understand that personal and social practices are informed and underpinned by specific ontological and epistemological values.
There are two chapters in this final section. In Chapter Ten I explain how my research has potential implications for other colleagues’ learning, and for new practices for teaching children with special educational needs (dyslexia). I indicate some of the potential implications of my work, in terms of how other people such as professional colleagues have learned from me, and what people may continue to learn.
In Chapter Eleven I tell how my research has possible implications for other fields of practice. This includes the potential relevance of my research to areas of disability, disadvantage, education policy and provision. I also explain how I am contributing to new forms of theory and how my thesis may add to the existing body of knowledge. In addition I am addressing the idea of why people should listen to what I have learned in my research. I am not offering my work at a prescriptive level for others to repeat. I am suggesting that others consider if there is anything in my
living theory that is of value for their own contexts or that they can improve and build on.
I conclude with a metaphor to explain the fluid, uncertain, yet fulfilling processes I experienced while generating my living theory of practice about how I learned to teach primary school pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
10.1 Introduction
In this chapter I want to show how my research has potential implications for teaching colleagues. I then explain this process of influence in relation to how the insights from my research had significance for me, as a person, a teacher, and as a researcher.
As a person I have realised the importance of articulating and explaining my ontological and epistemological commitments as they relate to my teaching. As a teacher I have developed ways of teaching that I claim have relevance for providing socially just forms of teaching and learning.
As I researcher I explain the importance of theorising practice in (1) my reconceptualisation of metacognition; (2) my ideas on reflection in action; and (3) my approach to practice as a form of living theory. I show how the ability to critique one’s own pedagogical stance has significance for teacher professional development for the teaching of pupils with special educational needs.
Finally I examine the potential importance of my work for the education of social formations (Whitehead and McNiff 2006) and for new practices for teaching children with special educational needs (dyslexia).
10.2 The potential implications of my research for teaching colleagues
During the processes of my research two core issues have had significance for teaching colleagues: first is the power of the individual to be an influence for educative change; and second, I have shown that knowledge can be mediated between teachers and learners by providing opportunities for the learner’s voice to be heard. Here are some examples where teaching colleagues have written about their experiences of these processes and which I can claim as evidence that colleagues have learned from my research.
Evidence of the educative influence of being open to the voices of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) exists in the following letter, which came from a teaching colleague following a presentation by Pupil J’s report explaining his learning disability.
Just a note to acknowledge your report on dyslexia. I apologise for rushing off midway through the presentation a couple of weeks ago. I can say however that in the 15 minutes I spent listening to (pupil) J and his fellow presenters, I learned more about dyslexia than I had ever known before – shame on me! I promised J the opportunity of a ‘proper’ presentation in our own classroom not only for me but also for his 28 classmates. A few days later he sat in front of his class and I watched as he grew in stature before my eyes and those of his classmates as he explained to them in his own quiet way what he had discovered and learned. He had a rapt audience throughout and fielded questions from his classmates with confidence.
(12 March 2002 Correspondence from teaching colleague, original in data archive Appendix 2.5a)
The significance and the power of the learner’s voice for educational change can be seen in another teacher’s answers to the questions, ‘What did you learn about dyslexia? What other questions do you have?’ (Appendix 7.2) following a presentation of pupils’ reports on their understanding of specific learning disability (dyslexia). The teacher stated that he had gained new personal knowledge that may influence his practice when he wrote,
I learned a lot about dyslexia. There were certain things I hadn’t realised. I think I would do things maybe differently with dyslexic children in the class.
(2 March 2002 Correspondence from teaching colleague, original in data archive Appendix 2.5a)
I found that the new knowledge which resulted from the presentation of pupils’ reports influenced school structures in terms of teacher understandings of and approaches to specific learning disabilities. Pictures 7.7 to 7.11 in Chapter Seven show a cohort of pupils presenting their reports on ‘Explaining dyslexia to myself and others’ in a mainstream classroom. The mainstream class appear to be engrossed in listening to and questioning the report presenters. The mainstream class pupils and teachers who were present responded in writing to the questions, ‘What did you
learn about dyslexia? What other questions do you have?’ (Appendix 7.2b). The Principal read their questions aloud. At the end of the session he responded as follows:
I see these people here, presenting their projects [reports] and telling very publicly how they feel about having learning difficulties. I feel very proud of them. I feel that they have other skills, which maybe I haven’t got. I think they have great courage to be able to do what they are doing.
(Transcribed from video, original in data archive April 2003 Appendix 2.4f).
This and many other transcripts of conversations from my classroom are examples of the potential to position a resource classroom in a ‘primary school as the foundation stone in the development of that learning society’ (20 January 2002 my correspondence to critical friend, original in data archive Appendix 2.5b). I believe that my research offers a form of professional development and a possible pre-service approach, which would be in keeping with the Government working group policy document on preparing teachers for the 21st Century (Government of Ireland 2002). My research involved a reflective and caring commitment to theorising my professional practice; the government document recommends a similar approach to pre-service programmes:
All courses, course content and other experiences should be designed with the objective of preparing teachers who are competent, caring, committed, reflective and have a keen sense of their professional responsibilities.
(Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2002, p.155)
My claims that my research had significance for teaching colleagues have implications for dominant theories on specific learning disabilities (dyslexia) that work from a propositional perspective (Hornsby 1995; and Snowling 2000). I have demonstrated the benefits of insider research and this has grown from the new epistemology of practice that I developed during my research. The idea of creating a new epistemology for a new scholarship of educational enquiry that is of particular relevance to teachers has been developed by Whitehead (2000), based on Schön’s
idea of a new scholarship. I offer new understandings of knowledge that arose during my research as having the potential to influence how teachers teach.
The significance of my research in relation to my own learning is that I have changed myself. My research has had a major influence on my own learning in terms of practical, theoretical and personal knowledge. I discuss each form of knowledge in the following section. In doing so I first describe and explain my epistemological stance and then show how it has enabled me to generate a new epistemology of practice.
~How my new insights have significance for me
I attribute the changes that occurred in my practice first to how I have learned to theorise my practices and how to disseminate my new knowledge. Prior to my research my personal preference was for a logical, mathematical intelligence and learning approach (Gardner 1997). I have written about the difficulty I had adapting to other teaching and learning styles (McDonagh 2000). Stubbings (1997) points out that many teachers have difficulty teaching in ways that are not within their preferred learning style. Jung and Hull (1991) also found that those pupils who presented with the most difficult behaviours in class were the shadow of the teacher's own personality type and consequent teaching style. In this research I did not, however, follow the route of adapting to group learning styles such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal, and naturalist (Gardner 1993). I identified and engaged with pupils' individual ideas and ways of thinking in creating new and accessible knowledge with them (see Chapter Eight). I learned to change my practice of teaching by providing opportunities for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) to identify their own learning styles and strategies. I changed my ways of teaching to accommodate their learning approaches. My choice of research methodology and the form of theory I engaged with facilitated the changes in my practice. I learned that by engaging with open-ended forms of theorising I was able to develop a more socially just practice.
A second, further significance of my research in relation to my own learning about theory was that I came to understand the ontological base for my epistemological
stance. I identified and articulated my own view of knowledge and knowledge creation by starting with practice and generating theory from within the practice. I learned the importance of personal knowledge in my ways of teaching. This does not mean that I am ignoring other forms of knowledge; I am reclaiming personal knowledge within my context where I found that dominant discourses about theory ignored it. I realised that knowledge was fluid and dynamic and seldom reified in relation to teaching and learning. What I am claiming here is important because I have integrated my ontological, spiritual and ethical values within practice-based knowledge. In doing so I have improved my own professional learning as well as developed new ways of enabling learning for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). This is part of my original contribution to knowledge.
The personal, professional and political learning that came from trying to improve my practice includes an understanding of how I have contributed to theories of social justice by developing new approaches to the learning of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). The significance of my research is also grounded in the argument that by engaging in forms of social action I have come to clarify and deepen my understanding of the complexities of my practice. I have contributed to a rigorous social knowledge base, which has the potential to inform and develop practice.
During the course of my research three key insights emerged. These insights were (1) my reconceptualisation of metacognition; (2) my understanding of reflection in action; (3) my understanding of developing theory from within practice.
(1) My reconceptualisation of metacognition
I explained in Chapter Eight my reconceptualisation of metacognition. This was part of what drove the changes in my practices and theorising through raising my own awareness of what I am doing. I have recreated my identity as a teacher, a researcher and a theorist through my critical reflexivity. I have asserted agency for myself in that I have challenged conditions of injustice in my context. In my choice of research methods I have acted with imagination, which was necessary to counter the conditions in my context. The conditions were both constraining and unjust. I have
opened up a plurality of ways of knowing by recognising that each pupil and I have our own individual ways of learning and coming to know.
(2) My understanding of reflection in action
I have arrived at an important new learning for me by reflecting in action. My methodology makes specific use of the metaphor of a mirror for reflection (see Part Three). In developing an understanding of my own and my pupils’ identity I use images of mirroring. Mirroring and reflection were integral to my process of testing ideas within my self-study action research methodology. By reflecting my actions against the values base of my research, I can justify the form of action research I chose. I have found a form of theorising that recognises the plurality of the human condition and in particular the pluralistic forms of the relationships within teaching and learning. Walker (2005) offers a description and explanation of this concept, which resonates with my research:
Through our speech and actions we reveal who we are, we ‘appear’ to each other, we ‘present’ to each other fulfilling what Arendt (1958) calls the human condition of plurality so that we learn and that we learn from each other.
(Walker 2005, p.103)
Through reflection I have also come to an understanding of learning difference and the plurality of learning processes and strategies.
(3) My understanding of developing theory from within practice.
The theorising of practice is sometimes seen as a new skill in educational contexts where teachers’ craft knowledge has been undervalued and under-researched (Day 2005).
In the current educational climate of change, with its emphasis on teachers’ continuous professional development, there is much to be gained from studying the craft knowledge of teaching, particularly from the perspective of the teacher.
(Day 2005, p.21)
I believe that I have achieved what Day (2005) speaks of from the perspective of an observer:
Privileged enough to observe successful teachers recognise their craft-knowledge at work even though they often struggle to define it coherently.
(Day 2005, p.1)
I am claiming to have demonstrated not only that I have articulated craft-knowledge but also to have developed new knowledge about learning and justice for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and those who teach them. My research has shown how I am contributing to a new epistemology for a new scholarship (Schön 1995) by encouraging new ways of learning for myself and other teachers, which could contribute to their professional development.
Before explaining the potential significance of my research for others I want to make a final comment on the personal significance of my work. The importance of developing my living theory within a self-study action research methodology to me as a teacher, a researcher and as a person was that I experienced the transformative shift from experiencing myself as a living contradiction (Whitehead 1989) where my practice denied my values, to experiencing my practice as celebrating the joy of change. The writing of this thesis is part of that celebration of the gifts that I have received from learning with and from my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). Apple (1997) has articulated my sense of joy as follows:
The gift that I have received from them is the knowingness that there is hope for all and a way by which every child can be reached. This way is very simple. It is honouring the abilities that the child has and the space that the child is in at the moment.
(Apple 1997, p.307)
I have found that developing living educational theory has been a fulfilling process for me as a teacher, researcher and as a person. I have shown ways of improving professional learning and moving towards a more socially just form of teaching for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I have found that change in my
research is not gained through conventional ‘authority based consciousness but by cultivating imagination and creativity within each student’ (Apple 1997, p.308) and within myself. By articulating my sense of moral and ethical judgements, personal thoughts and societal concerns, I have changed and grown. I have established a supportive educational environment where my vision (see Table 3.2) became my reality and that of my pupils. Our experiences can spread hope to others who have learned to be helpless.
~Teacher professional development as grounded in the ability to critique one’s own pedagogical stance when teaching pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia)
In producing this thesis as an account of my practice I am not offering it as a model of professional development. Instead I aim to help other practitioners to consider how they might examine their practice not only in the areas of supporting those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) but also in all areas of their work. This thesis is not a ‘what to do’ book. It as an account of what I did and why I did it. I present it as an invitation to others to reflect on their own practice and consider the benefits of theorising it, as I have experienced.
I want to identify the significant elements in my research that contributed to its success from my perspective as a teacher. I began my research from a position of learned helplessness in the teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). The community of learning that I developed with pupils in my school offered opportunities for the development of metacognition and social learning. I, as well as the pupils, raised my own levels of metacognition and social learning. Our interactions reinforced and confirmed me in my new thinking and new actions. In a similar way, the community of learning established within the university by my peer group of doctoral researchers (who became my validation group) and a college professor who acted as our supervisor developed relationships that reinforced and confirmed me in my new ideas about knowledge creation and theorising. Within this approach I gained the freedom and confidence to grow into my own voice in educational settings. I also gained sufficient confidence, when confirmed in my own ideas in these settings, so that I could contribute to more socially just forms of teaching and learning.
Often when teachers are asked to theorise their practice, they ‘are tempted to reproduce the kinds of abstracted principles of theories that they feel are expected of them’ (Van Manen 1995, p.47). In this way teachers often attempt to articulate in a conceptual manner active understandings of their work. This does not always produce useful practical theory because it frequently ignores the passions and intentions of teacher craft.
During my research I have critiqued my own stance in relation to my own pedagogies. I have also critiqued my stance in relation to dominant teaching strategies for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). This critique is of current importance for the professional development of teachers of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) because it addresses the core issues informing the new model of provision outlined in Circular Special Education 02/05 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a). These issues, as I listed them at the beginning of this section, included (1) a whole-school approach and (2) providing appropriate learning for these pupils (Government of Ireland 1998; Day 2003; Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a). The idea of inclusion is implied in this dual focus and is also stated in the circular.
(1) A whole-school approach
In terms of a whole-school approach, currently there is a gap in whole-school policy for specific learning disability (dyslexia) (Day 2003). Tansey and Ni Dhomhnaill (2002) found in their study of the perceptions and practices of primary school teachers with regard to dyslexia that,
the majority of respondents worked in school that did not have a whole school policy on dyslexia though most (94.2%) perceived a need for one.
(Tansey and Ni Dhomhnaill 2002, p.17)
My research offers the potential to influence how future policy could be informed. My living theory has contributed to professional development and provision by offering individual and group interventions in a manner that best suited the abilities of pupils. My approach included supports that ensured that the pupils’ needs were
met not only throughout the school day but could be sustained outside school and into the pupils’ future lives. My contribution was informed by and is in line with the spirit of recent government decisions such as the Education of People with Special Education Needs Act (Government of Ireland 2004a); Equal Status Act (Government of Ireland 2004b); Disability Act (Government of Ireland 2005); and Circular Special Education 02/2005 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a). My research methodology demonstrated ways to allow for in-class as well as out-of-class teaching support as Circular 02/2005 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a) suggests. The changes in practice that occurred as I developed my living theory demonstrated the importance of a solid theoretical base in implementing change in education.
(2) Providing appropriate teaching
The individual and group settings in which my living theory was developed provided opportunities for personal reflection on learning by both teachers and learners (Chapter Eight); and for communities of learners (my pupils and I) to develop learning abilities and to create new knowledge together (Chapter Nine). These practices could inform how best to deploy teaching resources in the future. Circular Special Education 02/05 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a) aims to ensure that additional teaching resources are allocated differentially to pupils in accordance with their levels of need. My research offers different ways of conceptualising learning and differentiation of learning. It provides new ways to involve teachers in the learning of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). My new pedagogies offer a differentiated approach to learning in accordance with pupils’ capabilities rather than their needs. In practical terms my research could help fulfil the rationale of Circular Special Education 02/05 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a). There are however two significant differences between my approach and that of the circular. The circular focused on pupils’ needs whereas I focus on individuals’ abilities.
My research methods also allowed for the grouping of pupils with similar needs as appropriate in accordance with the rationale of the circular. Each cohort of pupils spanned an age range, whereas extra support provision previously happened on a class-by-class basis regardless of the individuality or similarity of pupils. I
developed inclusive settings for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia); I have transformed the contexts of marginalisation that existed prior to my research. An aspect of marginalisation was that the delays in psychological testing contributed to the difficulties of ensuring that additional teaching resources were provided in a timely manner. I have shown how it is possible to lessen the need for psychological testing because I do not recognise the ideas of deficit testing where pupils are tested to find gaps or deficits in their learning. Instead I have focused on a capability model by celebrating pupils’ abilities.
I believe that my appreciation of the need for practical justice in teaching has already had an educative influence on the educational experiences of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) who participated in my research. I have also demonstrated how other teachers have been influenced by my work. I have evaluated my own practice and devised differentiated approaches so that learning is appropriate for my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). My actions have contributed to a whole-school approach to providing appropriate learning for these pupils. A whole-school approach to providing appropriate learning for my pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) is part of the rhetoric of the Education Act (Government of Ireland 1998), Day (2003) and the Special Education Circular 02/05 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a), and it has been enacted in my research.
The methodology of my research offers a comprehensive approach to the evaluation and change of teacher practice within the community of the school. This approach begins with the question, ‘How do I improve my work?’ (Whitehead 1989). It continues with a commitment to change informed by a checking of the ontological and epistemological positioning of the practitioner against his or her actions. It is a living and relevant way to theorise practice so that it may inform future practice and see how practice may inform policy and provision. It is a form of professional development that is grounded in the lived experiences of the teacher and is therefore of immediate relevance.
My work resonates with Zeichner (1999), who speaks of self-study research from teachers’ perspectives and of how teachers have courageously exposed and then
confronted the shortcomings in their work and identified the gaps between the rhetoric and the reality of their practice. He praises the self-study genre of research when he states,
The self-study genre of research in teacher education is the one clear example of where research has had an important influence on practice in teachers’ education
(Zeichner 1999, p.12)
10.3 The potential implications of my research for new practices in teaching children with special educational needs (dyslexia).
In this section I want to speak about the potential implications of my work, in terms of how other people such as professional colleagues have learned from me, and what people may continue to learn.
I gained new insights about knowledge acquisition from the dialogues and the learning relationships of individuals as they sought to understand their individual processes of coming to know. This can be seen in the following quotations from a critical friend.
You seem to wish to move in the direction of knowledge as a form of personal enlightenment that can be developed through a process of action and reflection, and refined through dialogical practices. I really like the idea that knowledge is created dialogically, that as people talk and critique, their knowledge develops, and this knowledge is embodied within their relationships.
(5 April 2004 Correspondence from Critical Friend A, original in data archive Appendix 2.5c)
That correspondence gives an accurate conceptualisation of what she observed in my practice. I have come to realise that there are links between the knowledge-constituted relationships described above and ideas about the education of social formations (Whitehead 2004a; Whitehead and McNiff 2006). Whitehead explains ‘the education of social formations’ as helping groups everywhere to ‘understand how they can work together in a way that will help them to improve their social contexts’ (Whitehead and McNiff 2006, p.44).
I will now explain my understanding of the processes of the education of social formations in an example from my specific context. The example I choose is a case conference to develop an individual learning plan for a pupil with specific learning disability (dyslexia). At such a meeting teachers, educational psychologists and the pupil with his or her parents might come together with the common aim of improving the learning of the pupil. Although this group has a common aim to understand how they can work together in a way that will help them to improve the learning of the pupil, each person within the group is already part of a social formation that is linked to their different roles and understandings of specific learning disability (dyslexia). Educational psychologists, who work with pupils with dyslexia at primary school level, aim to diagnose and identify patterns in specific learning difficulty (dyslexia) and explain them within the rules of their profession. Pupils aim to find ways to cope within the rules of the education system. The aims of teachers are to identify learning opportunities and to teach appropriately within current policies and provision. The individual aims of each group member can leave us less open to the possibilities of working as a group with the common aim of the pupil’s learning. This can lead to debates at case conferences where our individual previous perspectives can take precedence over the aims of the new social formation around the table.
In contrast to this I have found during my research an approach that did contribute to the education of social formations. This process began when I deconstructed my understanding of theories of learning for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and offered a living practical theory of justice in learning and a reconceptualisation of metacognition. These understandings contributed to my development of a new epistemology of practice. I have disseminated my account of how I arrived at this concept so that it can be accessed by groups – such as teachers, researchers, academics, policy makers, psychologists, neurologists and members of the medical profession – who come together to improve the lot of those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). I believe my work has potential significance for them in that by accessing my account, others may consider my approach and understand how it can influence their approaches. This belief is grounded in my new
understanding of knowledge and knowledge creation and new forms of participatory working.
I also perceive links between my account, which explains my theorising of my practice, and my capacity to influence the education of social formations. Similar links have been made by McNiff (2006) and McNiff and Whitehead (2006). Examples of accounts that demonstrate the same capacity are O’Callaghan (1997), Abbey (2002), Delong and Knill-Griesser (2003), Rivers (2003) and Deery and Hughes (2004). Their accounts include descriptions of new forms of participatory working (O’Callaghan 1997); a teacher consultant’s role in developing and facilitating interdisciplinary studies (Abbey 2002); the integration of issues of power and ethics in valid explanations of educative influence (Delong and Knill-Griesser 2003); inclusive support for an autistic student (Rivers 2003); engagement with the politics of institutional knowledge (Deery and Hughes 2004). Although the contexts of these researchers differ widely – from school inspector to school of midwifery – they resonate with many issues in my research.
The significance of my research in relation to the education of social formations is that I have placed my account of new learning in the public domain to test the validity and legitimacy of my claims that I have influenced my learning, the learning of others in my workplace and wider groupings. By wider groupings I mean those who work with pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and who wish to learn how to act in ways that recognise others as able to think for themselves. I want to show how the new learning that I have claimed throughout can inform new practices that can influence sustainable forms of social growth and educational knowledge. I am linking the ideas of the education of social formations and the dissemination of research. When I discussed how I presented my research in three different public fora, my explanations have potential significance for others who wish to adopt a self-study action research approach to their practice.
The new knowledge that I am claiming evolved from within my practice. My understandings developed from critical reflections on my learning and my pupils’ developing understandings around specific learning disability. Pupils who participated in my research produced reports, documenting their personal
understandings of the affective domain of dyslexia and how they learned in different ways (see Chapter Eight and Chapter Nine). This new knowledge was not part of the normal, national curriculum for these children (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999b) nor had it appeared in any previous research known to me. I claim that the children’s personal embodied understandings became explicit in the process of making them public within a reciprocal learning activity with peers. This course of action also provided evidence that I was valuing the individual capabilities of my research participants.
By working together, in a spirit of openness, to make our personal understandings of learning for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia) explicit, the pupils participating in my research and I have confirmed each other as valuable individuals and also confirmed our capabilities within our relationships. The research episode of developing and presenting reports on pupils’ personal understanding of specific learning disability (dyslexia) was grounded in values of openness and fairness and of love and respect for the capabilities of the individual. Dialogue towards empowerment as spoken of by Freire (1994) is shown to be relational in my research processes. My research account has challenged conventional discourses about dyslexia that are rooted in the values of dominance and control (Chapter 3). I have also challenged how children have been devalued by being prevented from participating in their own process of learning and knowledge creation (Chapter 7).
My research has challenged my own self-perceptions of teacher power, and I have learned the power of encouraging the children to see themselves as powerful in creating knowledge (McDonagh 2003). I have helped pupils to come to know in their own way. The research episodes and analyses above have led me to understand the transformative nature of knowledge and that it is personal yet exists in reciprocal relationships. I claim this new understanding and its practical significance, and I am explaining its theoretical importance. In future, I wish further to explore its significance in the dissemination of self-study action research reports.
10.4 Summary
One of the more significant aspects of my research is that I have created a living theory of what I know and how I have come to know. Within this metacognitive approach I have developed a new epistemology of practice. I have also demonstrated how the development of new epistemologies can influence the way that particular groupings live and work together, and what kinds of discourses they can use to negotiate how they do this. Consequently, I suggest that my research has made a contribution towards the creation of a new social order that is grounded in the recognition and valuing of the other.
I make this claim because I believe that teaching colleagues, the participating pupils and I have been influenced to make changes. I am not claiming that I caused these changes but that I have influenced myself and others to make changes.
The living theory of learning to teach for social justice that I developed emerged in response to our needs and my wish to improve my practice. Together we have offered a form of educational research grounded in values of equality, freedom, caring and respect for the individual with specific learning disability (dyslexia). The importance of my research is that it has influenced both practice and theory in my context to move towards a more socially just form of teaching and learning for those with specific learning disability (dyslexia).
11.1 Introduction
I have titled this chapter ‘reflection’ because it is a look back on my research. I had set out to challenge injustice, as I perceived it, in the teaching of children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and it was some time into my research before I realised the necessity for a deep inner focus on myself in my practice. This was because, as Hartog (2004) also found, what I had to learn lay in the gaps between my espoused values and my practice prior to my research. I became aware that my practice was value-laden and I experienced myself as a living contradiction (Whitehead and McNiff 2006, p.32). My emergent awareness of my values (as I explained in Chapter Six) contributed to transforming my ontological commitments into an epistemological stance, which had a three-pronged influence: (1) on my new learning; (2) on the methodology by which I validated my claims; and (3) on the significance of my claims.
To describe my experience of this transformation, I return to the metaphor of the waves (Coehlo, 1992 and 1997). The metaphor positioned me as buffeted by waves of influence and as part of a tidal wave of learning. I have now gained a new understanding that I am not neutral in this fluid, water metaphor. I too have had an influence on others, on practices and on the social world.
I begin the chapter by asking myself, ‘Am I contributing to new forms of theory and will my thesis add to the existing body of knowledge?’ I check if I am contributing to new knowledge by
1. Evaluating what I have achieved in terms of the ontological and epistemological stance I adopted
2. Questioning what is the relevance of my research to other fields of practice
3. Scrutinising the living relevance of my key commitments to issues of freedom and respect for the capabilities of the individuals in my research
I address my questions at three levels and I use these levels to frame this chapter. First I consider the theoretical challenge of personal and social practices in teaching, which are informed and underpinned by specific ontological and epistemological commitments. I then consider teachers and pupils as co-creators of knowledge – a concept that I believe has not previously been researched in the field of pupils with specific learning disability. The two major claims to new living educational theory that I have made in this thesis are grounded in my ontological and epistemological values, in particular my respect for the capabilities of the individual. This grounding of my new living theory of social justice has the potential to be of significance for other marginalised areas in education – for areas of disability and disadvantage – and for educational policy and provision. In the second part in this chapter I tease out the potential implications of teacher and pupils co-creating knowledge for schooling where children are categorised and labelled. I have shown how the pupils and I have co-created knowledge. I came to understand myself as in relation with them, and they with me. This demonstrated a form of just practice because I was developing a dialogue of equals, which is a just practice in terms of human dignity. Finally I reflect on the importance of linking the idea of the value of the person with the idea that people must be free to realise and exercise their values. I relate this concept to the area of disadvantage in schools.
My living theory of learning to teach for social justice in relation to pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) also has potential relevance for future educational policy and provision because new legislation has been enacted which supports many of the values on which my research is based. My research offers both practical and theoretical insights for providers of appropriate provision for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). A whole-school approach to providing appropriate teaching for these pupils (Government of Ireland Education Act 1998 and Day 2003) is now necessary because resource teaching has been withdrawn from them (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a). Under the increased general allocation of support staff to schools in circular 02/05, class teachers now bear responsibility for pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). So I am suggesting that my research is both useful and timely.
11.2 I am contributing to new forms of theory and my thesis will add to the existing body of knowledge
I am claiming to be contributing to a new form of theory because my research has addressed the theoretical challenge where personal and social practices of teaching are informed and underpinned by specific ontological and epistemological practices. I have critiqued dominant forms of theory and practice on the grounds that they have led to further marginalisation and domination of those who are already oppressed; a category into which I have, at times, placed my pupils and myself.
I have shown the development of my living theory of learning to teach for social justice throughout this thesis and I invite the reader to judge if I have done so in ways that demonstrate the realisation of my underpinning ontological and epistemological values. I list these values below and have summarised how some of my research actions can be related to them.
- I have developed freedom for pupils to explain and demonstrate their abilities to learn and freedom for me to develop theory from within my practice. I have produced evidence of this in pupils’ presentations of their reports, such as ‘Explaining dyslexia to ourselves and others’, to peers and teachers; and in the changing roles for pupils and teachers. Examples of freedom in learning were Pupil B’s comment, ‘I’ve never had so much fun’, talking to teachers about his understanding of specific learning disability (a fuller transcript of this conversation is in Chapter Seven) and the teacher’s written comment in the previous chapter where he wrote ‘I learned more about dyslexia than I had ever known before – shame on me!’ following a pupil’s presentation in his class. Throughout my research I was theorising my practice, and the examples above show my practice as generating new knowledge within the real-life teaching and learning relationships of reciprocity and freedom.
- I have demonstrated empathy for how and why others learn as they do. By sharing research methods such as reflective journaling and doing action research projects alongside each other my pupils and I showed empathy towards each other. The pupils articulated their new awareness of others
when they said, ‘We all have different ways of learning.’ Their empathy led to a growth ‘in stature’ and ‘peer respect’ (teacher letter quoted in Chapter Seven). Throughout these processes the importance of personal knowledge was highlighted.
- Justice was evident in the ways in which the new knowledge, gained during my research, was disseminated throughout my school. I would describe this as a form of educative influence. The pictures, in the previous chapter, from the video of pupils sharing their reports ‘Explaining dyslexia to ourselves and others’ with classes, trainee-teacher, class and support teachers and school principal is an example of the development of knowledge through dialogue. My facilitation of this shows how changes can come about through educative influence, rather than restrictive curricula or timed targets. My educative influence encouraged others to engage in more socially just forms of teaching. These examples are of a practical justice where all contributed to developing new knowledge in a non-coercive way.
- I have encouraged equality in exploring the nature of relationships between people which foster knowledge creation within the kinds of relationships that avoid dominance or oppression. The reflective group discussions between research participants – the pupils and myself; between the pupils who participated in my research and other pupils in the school; between pupils and class teachers as detailed in Chapter Seven, demonstrated an atmosphere of equality. These reflective discussions were a core research method and were based in a conceptualisation of knowledge as both dialogical and personal. They brought an equality to the pupil teacher relationship which was not evident prior to my research as I showed in the artwork of Pupil B where a teacher is hated and in my original pupil profiles and teaching of commercially produced programmes for dyslexia.
- I have demonstrated forgiveness, which I explained in terms of making allowances for others and accepting that I don’t know the full story. This includes accepting that there is no one right way of knowing and the need for a constant search for fuller understandings, by constantly questioning my understandings. My questioning is written into the text of this thesis in thought bubbles. It is in the reflective journals I have kept and referenced.
Questioning has been a vital part of my validation process and has been the key to the reconceptualisation of metacognition and social-metacognition in my research. These reflections, though grounded in personal knowledge, are about interrogating all forms of knowledge.
- I have respected human dignity. I came to this research from a commitment to the dignity of every human. By celebrating the learning capacities of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) I have come to two new insights that have changed my teaching and I hope will influence others. How I achieved this was by making space in my work for each pupil. A teaching colleague stated (see Chapter Five) that I ‘made space for the voices of those not normally heard to be heard’. When I was confronted with pupils who were failing to achieve in literacy terms I did not see this as an indictment. Instead I confirmed their humanity as best I could by finding new forms of voice for them. The art, their taped discussion, the oral presentation all demonstrate that there are many forms of knowledge that are valid within a school setting.
- I have valued wholeness. I felt that the wholeness of pupils was denied by the form of pupil profiles that I compiled about them in the early part of my research, in that I focused only on the pupils’ minds and not on their bodies and spirits. I attributed this to the form of knowledge that my profiles were grounded in. During my research, especially in the pupils’ action research into learning spelling and through their journals, I came to understand and theorise that there are many ways of learning. My research methods had at their core (see diagram in Chapter Six) personal knowledge and dialogical knowledge and have led me to an acceptance of a commitment to the reconciliation of a plurality of approaches to life and knowledge. In devising and presenting their reports ‘Explaining dyslexia to ourselves and others’ my pupils became accepted as whole humans within a whole school setting. In my research I have engaged with issues of how I come to know and how my coming to know was informed by how I helped my children to come to know.
- I have demonstrated service. My decision to do this research came from a commitment to serve others. I wanted to take action to help my pupils but this meant more than doing something for them. To me service meant
working with others to help them to help themselves. In the diagram that I drew of my research methods (Chapter Six) the arrows that move to the sides of the page indicate that this work is continuous and will be even when my research finishes. An example of this can be seen in the Principal’s comments (on video, original in archive appendix 2.4g) following my pupils’ presentation of their report to a class when he cited pupils voicing a difficulty as a model to deal with educational difficulties and said,
And if you tell us what that difficulty is, someone will help. If you keep it all inside no one will know. And the problem will get bigger and bigger. So you have shown that the way to solve a problem is to share a problem.
(April 2003 video, original in archive Appendix 2.4g)
My conceptualisation of service was of action towards harmonising theory and practice for the good of others.
These eight values have developed from the embodied personal commitments that I explained in Part One as the Christian based commitments by which I attempt to live. The difficulties I experienced in harmonising my values and my practice initiated my research. I am claiming that I am now living towards achieving that aim of harmonising my values and my practice.
11.3 My research has potential implications for other fields of practice
A major theme of my research was the idea of pupils and I co-creating knowledge where children are categorised and labelled as having specific learning disability (dyslexia). My idea is premised on the concept of valuing the individual and has potential importance for other fields of practice. The other fields of practice that have relevance for resource teaching are other forms of disability. In this section I articulate the possible relevance and influence of my research on those labelled with disabilities within our education system in primary schools (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a).
The focus of my claims about the creativity of the individual and their capabilities for personalised and metacognitive learning can be seen to have relevance for all those labelled with a disability. This is because my claims are grounded in ideas of ability and positive self-concept rather than disability. My research has particular relevance because of a major shift in Government provision for those with disabilities in schools in 2005. The Special Education Circular 02/05 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a) categorises disabilities according to their rate of occurrence as low and high incidence disabilities within primary schools. The low incidence category includes physical and sensory disabilities; emotional disturbance and autistic spectrum disorders; speech and language disorder; moderate and severe learning disabilities; multiple disorders including assessed syndromes in conjunction with one other, low incidence disability (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a, pp.16-20). Resource teacher support has consequently been withdrawn from pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) and mild learning disability. They are now included in the high incidence category of disabilities along with pupils, whose achievements are at or below the tenth percentile in English and Mathematics; and along with pupils with mild or transient learning disabilities resulting from identified speech and language difficulties or social or emotional difficulties (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a, p. 2). Prior to the issuing of this circular the latter group of pupils were taught by resource teachers mainly on a two-and-a-half hour allocation per week, and generally on a withdrawal basis (see Chapters One and Two of this thesis and McGee 1990 and De Buitléir 2002) or in special units or schools (McGee 2004, Nugent 2006). The change of provision gives only those pupils with low incidence disabilities resource teaching provision. Under an extra general allocation of teachers, schools were required to provide appropriate teaching for high incidence pupils without any extra professional development for those additional teachers.
According to the Department of Education and Science (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a) the core rationale for this change is
1. to make possible the development of inclusive schools;
2. to deploy additional teaching resources in a flexible manner;
3. to ensure that additional teaching resources are provided in a timely manner;
4. to ensure that additional teaching resources are allocated differentially to pupils in accordance with their levels of need
5. to allow for in-class as well as out-of-class teaching support
6. to allow for the grouping of pupils with similar needs as appropriate
(Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a, p.1)
My research is at the cutting-edge of this new system of provision because the implications of Circular 02/05 are that since September 2005 all school staff and not only the extra 2,500 resource teachers employed since 1997 (Dáil Question 806, 2005) have responsibility for these pupils. So my study of my practice has relevance for other mainstream class teachers and teachers appointed under the extra general allocation model who have recently been given responsibility for pupils with low incidence disabilities in addition to pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). To demonstrate this I provide practical examples below from my school of the influence of my living theory during the course of my research on pupils from each of the low incidence categories mentioned in 02/05. I describe practical changes for pupils with low incidence disabilities such as (a) physical and sensory disabilities; (b) autistic spectrum including behavioural and emotional disorders; and for pupils with high incidence disabilities such as (c) speech and language disability, and (d) mild learning disability.
(a) Pupils with physical and sensory disability
My ideas about capability teaching focus on ways of identifying individuals’ learning abilities. Earlier in this thesis I described how I have implemented changes in my practice through a combination of reflections and dialogical methods of collaboration in the learning processes of the children participating in my research; I have told how I have generated a living theory of practice from within my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia). The learning relationship between my pupils and me was created within an ethic of sharing and respect for the capability of individual learners.
My contribution to my own professional development during my self-study action research has influenced other resource teachers in my school to adopt many of my changes in practice and to extend them to all resource pupils during the years 2003-2005. For example, a second resource teacher provided opportunities for a child with a hearing impairment to experience his abilities in art. These changes in practice
resulted in the hearing-impaired child receiving awards as well as national and local publicity for his artwork (Appendix 2.5f). Together the teacher and child also found ways to transfer his talents in visual perceptual skills to his ways of learning to read and write. Rather than being marginalised in a hearing world, this child was celebrated for his talents and enabled to learn literacy skills in easier ways. One of his paintings is framed and hangs alongside prints by Jack B. Yeats, Picasso, Renoir and other famous artists in our school corridor.
**Picture 11.1: Paintings on school corridor**
My research suggests that educative influence is an effective form of professional development. For example, based on the influence of my work around voice, capacity and individuality, a resource teacher encouraged a visually impaired child in his singing abilities [he had an accurate ear], which he has transferred to help his memory skills in the rote memorisation of facts such as tables (Appendix 2.5i). In the validation of my own claims teachers have offered descriptions such as this of their own practice, which show that by listening, trying out and expanding on my ideas, teachers have been influenced to make changes in their professional practice within my school.
*(b) Pupils with behavioural and emotional disorders*
The conceptual basis of my efforts to celebrate the capacities for learning of children with specific learning disability (dyslexia) has possible relevance for those within the autistic spectrum as defined by the circular 02/05 (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a). Those within this spectrum are believed to have a triad of impairments, which include challenges to social communication, social interaction and flexibility in thinking and behaviour. Treatments for these difficulties have
adopted a medical model of disability by prescribing medication and teaching within a strict behaviouristic approach. Structured Teaching is recommended for pupils with autistic spectrum disorders, but I agree with Howley and Arnold (2005) who argue that
this approach is misused with rigid adherence to structure that may limit progression in key areas of learning.
(Howley and Arnold 2005, p.94)
In contrast to these approaches my research is significant in that it offers the concepts of metacognition and the social construction of understanding for individuals who have a disability according to current education norms. The form of knowledge creation that I have developed cannot be achieved in settings which adopt medical or behaviouristic models only. But my findings are supported in the literature (Blackman 1999; and Hayden 2004 and 2005) where some individuals have written about overcoming autism by gaining a metacognitive understanding of their difficulties although they have not named it as such. An example of this is ‘Lucy’s Story’ (Blackman 1999), the story of a girl who rejected the treatments for autism and her selective mutism and made a personal commitment to understanding and controlling her autism and become a socially acceptable person. Her experiences involved a metacognitive approach; her new understandings were constructed by monitoring herself in social relationships with herself and others. As an outsider to Lucy’s world, I, like all who know her, including professionals and family, do not understand her world. We do not understand the world of those with autism spectrum disorders and I am suggesting that my reconceptualisation of metacognition has potential implications for those with autism to come to an understanding of their difficulties. I am saying this because I believe a key learning for me in my research was the need to search for appropriate forms of voice rather than acceptance of normative forms of communication within an educational context. The application of my approaches for those with behavioural and emotional disability was confirmed by the following comments from two resource teachers:
My practices are similar now to what you talked about. It is relevant for resource teachers but I think more needs to be done for class teachers. I think class teachers need to know a lot more, how to spot difficulties earlier so that children can get attention sooner.
It is very relevant for learning support and resource teachers. In an ideal 20:1 classroom too!
Teacher P acknowledged the benefits of my approach. However she is working out of a different epistemology when she talks of ‘more needs to be done for’ others whereas I suggest that self-study action research offers a methodology for teachers and pupils to act on their own behalf. The difference in what the teacher and I are saying is that I do not believe that ‘more needs to be done FOR class teachers’. I am suggesting that class teachers could learn from my self-study approach to take control of their own practice in order to improve and theorise those practices.
(c) *Pupils with speech and language disorder*
The artwork, annotated transcripts and reflective discussions produced during my research are some of the forms of communication I engaged in so as to enable the voices of the children who participated in my research to be heard. This has relevance for the teaching of pupils with speech and language disorder. Although speech and language therapists diagnose and use multisensory approaches to remediate perceived difficulties, they work within a medical model of disability and at times use compensatory approaches. When those with stammers, who are able to sing, are encouraged to use the slow pace of singing and the appropriate breathing techniques singing requires to help overcome their stammering difficulties, this I believe is a practical example of a compensatory approach. My theory offers a different approach where children could develop their capabilities in other areas to help them overcome their disability. The difference between the compensatory approach of some speech and language therapists and my approach is that I am not devising compensatory strategies; instead I am enabling pupils to develop awareness of their own capability and also to devise their own compensatory strategies. An example of this was the pupils’ self study action research project into their learning of spellings.
(d) Pupils with mild general learning disability
The categories of mild, moderate and severe general learning disability are assessed by psychologists and defined only by low levels of intelligence quotient scores (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 2005a). I have found that my approaches are least effective for this group of pupils because their reasoning and descriptive powers are not commensurate with their age (Scanlon and Mc Gilloway 2006). Metacognition, as I have redefined it, requires the ability to critique. Many pupils with mild, moderate and severe general learning disability may not be able to engage with my reconceptualisation of metacognition as personal and social critique of what and how one learns because of their limited IQ. Despite this, my research offers an epistemological and ontological approach that has relevance for these pupils. My living theory has been developed within a capability approach, which speaks to my values of human dignity, wholeness and service. Pupils with mild, moderate and severe general learning disability have innate survival instincts and capabilities and I believe that my freedom-for-development approach would encourage the building of learning on practical life skill needs (see Deirdre Walsh 2003). This is significant because a major focus of my research was to find a suitable and more just epistemological base for educational research and practice.
~An international perspective to my study
My research has highlighted the importance of linking the idea of the value of the person with the idea that people must be free to realise and exercise their values in schools. This has potential international implications for those placed at a disadvantage worldwide.
A constant theme throughout my research has been the creative relationship between my pupils and myself. Within this relationship I perceive my pupils as my equals and this is grounded in my ontological and Christian values. Similar to Arendt (1998), I see others as valuable simply because they are people. This ontological stance has allowed me to create links in my research between the value of the person and the idea that people must be free to build on their own capabilities. I believe that the methodology by which I arrived at my living theory of social justice in my teaching of pupils with specific learning disability (dyslexia) is of key relevance for
the education of others marginalised as a result of social disabilities and who fall under the label of disadvantage within our school system.
My living theory of learning to teach for social justice can make a contribution to combat the marginalisation of those at a disadvantage in education at two levels; first I have removed issues of power from the teacher and pupil learning relationship by providing opportunities for the voices of all participants to be heard; and second my emphasis on a capability approach has provided the freedom to the marginalised pupils to develop as learners. In McDonagh and Sullivan (2003), Sullivan and I focused on ‘themes of social justice and equality which developed from our separate research contexts’ (p.1) as primary school teachers of marginalised pupils – disadvantaged travellers and pupils with specific learning disabilities. During our research and in our joint paper, we claimed to be ‘Making the invisible visible – giving a voice to the marginalised’ (McDonagh and Sullivan 2003). The term ‘the marginalised’ raises issues around empowerment and the question of who were valid knowers within our specific contexts. This led us to engage with ideas around knowledge creation both in theory and practice. Our work with marginalised children aimed to find ways to secure educational entitlement and transform disadvantage into opportunity. Sullivan (2006) claims to have achieved this and I, using a similar form of self-study action research, claim in this thesis to have done so too.
The explanation of the significance of my research to others at a disadvantage within the education system such as travellers lies in my emphasis on providing opportunities for those at a disadvantage to have a voice that can be valued by themselves and the institution in which they are situated. This was achieved by providing opportunities for positive self-talk and reflection (see Chapter Seven). My research has shown that this can only be achieved when the epistemological basis of their disadvantage has been examined and, as Sen (1999) suggests, ‘constitutes participatory resolution of epistemological issues’ (p.142). In other words the marginalised require opportunities to join in a valuable personal decision making process. This does not require the undermining of the institution, culture or society that is the context of the marginalisation. Nor is it about financial input. It does
require a freedom to develop a personal understanding, as I have explained throughout this thesis.
11.4 An ending
Treasure is uncovered by the force of flowing water and it is buried by the same current.
(Coehlo 1992 p.25)
Throughout this thesis I have used metaphors of water and waves. In this section I return for a final time to the words of Coehlo (1992) above. For me the quotation above speaks about the idea that when treasure is uncovered one should seize it; if not seized and used, the treasure can slip beneath the current and disappear. This metaphor can represent my research at several levels.
At one level the treasure chest of my self-study action research methodology was filled with innovative ways to change practices and ways of thinking. This treasure held the key to the development of new forms of theory in which my practice as a teacher could be theorised and improved. The current represents forms of theory and logic. The waves that uncovered the chest were the personal insider forms of theory and fluid innovative logic that I chose. Propositional, outsider forms of theory would have provided ways to examine objectively what was happening in my context; however these forms of theory would not have facilitated changes in practice. They would have worked within a cause and effect form of logic. This would have stifled the innovative thinking that both my pupils and I engaged in. These traditional forms of theory and logic would have drowned my treasure.
At another level the treasure could represent my claims to my new living theory of learning to teach for social justice in relation to those with specific learning disability (dyslexia). The current represents forms of learning. The waves represent the influences of my learning and my pupils’ learning. The uncovering of the treasure of my living theory occurred in the interaction between the waves of our learning. My learning influenced my pupils’ critical learning and they influenced my critical learning. Together we tackled our learned helplessness which could have swamped our treasure and denied the development of our new living theories.
At the level of claiming to have generated new and original practical and theoretical knowledge the treasure can represent the significance of my study for myself and others. The current represents forms of knowledge. The waves that uncovered this treasure were the personalised learning and benefits derived from being involved with communities of learners. These waves included my openness to placing my methodology and findings firmly within my embodied ontological and epistemological values. I tested my new, original practical and theoretical knowledge against those practical and epistemological standards of judgement. The testing of my theory against living values maintained the living relevance of my research for the pupils who participated, for the wider educational community and for myself.
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Young, D. (2004) *Non-Reading Intelligence Test*, UK: Hodder Education.
Young, I. M. (1990) *Justice and the Politics of Difference*, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
Young, I. M. (2000) *Inclusion and Democracy*, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yuen, M., Westwood, P. and Wong, G. (2004) ‘Meeting the needs of students with specific learning difficulties in the mainstream’, *The International Journal of Special Education*, 20 (1), [online] available: www.internationaljournalofspecialeducation.com [accessed 20 January 2005].
Zeichner, K. (1999) ‘The new scholarship in teacher education’, *Educational Researcher*, 28 (9), 4-15.
Appendices
Appendix 1 Ethical statement and letters of permission 315
1.1: Ethics Statement ................................................................. 315
1.2: Sample letter to Principal / Chairperson of my school Board of Management requesting permission to do my research .................. 316
1.3a: Sample letter to parents of participating pupils requesting consent to the research ................................................................. 317
1.3b: Sample letter to participating pupils requesting their consent for my research ................................................................. 318
1.3c: Revised letter of consent to parents and participating pupils ........... 319
1.4: Consent from others ................................................................. 320
Appendix 2 Items in data archive mentioned in this thesis 321
Appendix 3: Transcripts from audio-tape recorded conversations 324
3.1a: Transcript from audio-tape recorded conversations between class Teacher D and Pupil K ................................................................. 324
3.1b: Sample of conversation by pupils on their personal view on how dyslexia affects them ................................................................. 325
3.1c: Sample of conversation by pupils comparing their own learning ...... 325
3.2a: Transcript of a discussion between one cohort of pupils about Pupil T’s drawing of his feelings about dyslexia ................................................................. 326
3.2b: Transcript of a discussion between one cohort of pupils about their learning journals ................................................................. 327
3.3: Discussion 1 after presentation of project to teachers ...................... 327
Appendix 4 Intervention programmes and alternative therapies mentioned in this thesis 329
4.1: Intervention programmes and alternative therapies ....................... 329
4.2: Sample pupil record sheets ......................................................... 330
Appendix 5: Sample lesson plans showing changes in my pedagogy during my research 332
5.1: Sample Lesson Plan 2001 demonstrating that I used a multisensory approach ................................................................. 332
5.2a: Sample Lesson Plan 2003 demonstrating that I used a metacognitive approach ................................................................. 334
5.2b: An observer of this lesson wrote, ............................................. 338
Appendix 6: Individual pupil profiles and individual educational plans showing changes in my understanding of theories of learning
6.1: Individual Pupil Profiles devised at the beginning of my research........... 339
6.2: Sample Individual Educational Plan 2001 .................................................. 340
6.3: Sample Individual Educational Plan 2003 .................................................. 341
Appendix 7: Sample questionnaires
7.1: Sample questionnaires to mainstream classes about specific learning disability (dyslexia)................................................................. 342
7.2: Sample questionnaires to teachers and mainstream class peers following the presentation by pupils who participated in my research of their reports explaining specific earning disability (dyslexia) to themselves and others. ................................................................. 342
7.3: Sample questionnaires to resource teachers and Dyslexia Association of Ireland Programme Co-ordinators and Workshop Directors ............... 343
1.1 Ethics Statement
Dear [name],
As part of my PhD research programme I am undertaking an action research into the learning experience for pupils, of primary school age, with specific learning difficulties in the context of individualised resource teaching in my own practice as a resource teacher in (Name) primary school. This ethics statement is to assure you that I will observe good ethical practice throughout the research. Ethical approval is also being sought from the University of Limerick.
This means that
- the permission of my Principal and Board of Management will be secured before the research commences;
- the permission of the children and their written consent will be secured before the research commences;
- confidentiality will be observed at all times, and no names will be revealed of the school, children or staff;
- participants will be kept informed of progress at all times;
- all participants have the right to withdraw from the research at any time and all data relating to them will be destroyed.
I aim to investigate;
- How I teach pupils with specific learning disabilities
- Improvements in my practice through changes in the content of lessons, teaching strategies, methods of assessing pupils' progress.
- Changes in professional practice that may occur because of the above activities.
- The influence of the project in the area of specific learning difficulties.
I plan to study the relationship between teaching style and learning capacity in my resource classroom, so I have chosen an action research methodology for this research. Pupils are co-researchers in this methodology. In this self-study project, I will engage with the living theory perspective of Whitehead (1993) and McNiff et al. (1992).
I enclose two copies of this ethics statement, one of which is a copy for my files and one of which is a copy for your files.
Yours sincerely,
Signature
Caitriona McDonagh
1.2 Sample letter to Principal / Chairperson of my school Board of Management requesting permission to do my research
My address
date
Name and address of Principal / Chairperson Board of Management
Dear (name),
Re: Permission to undertake research
As part of my PhD research programme, I am conducting a piece of action research into studying my work so that I can encourage children to improve their learning of English. I would be grateful if you would give your permission and support for this research.
My data collection methods will include audio and videotape recording the children and myself in conversation, photographs, diary recordings, field notes, reports. I guarantee that I will observe good ethical conduct throughout. I will negotiate permission to work with the children. I will secure permission from parents and children to involve them in the research. I guarantee confidentiality of information and promise that no names of the school, colleagues or children will be made public.
I promise that I will make my research report available to you for scrutiny before it is published, if you wish, and I will make a copy of the report available for your files on its publication. Ethical approval is also being sought from the University of Limerick.
I would be grateful if you would sign and return the slip below at your earliest convenience.
I enclose two copies of this letter, one of which is a copy for my files and one of which is a copy for your files.
Yours sincerely,
signature
Caitriona McDonagh
To whom it may concern
I, [name], Principal / Chairperson of the Board of Management of [name of school], give my permission for [your name] to undertake her/his research in her/his classroom and in the school.
Signed ..................................................
[Name]
1.3a: Original letter to parents of participating pupils requesting consent to the research
My address
date
Name and address of parent
Dear [name],
Re: Permission to undertake research
As part of my PhD research programme, I am conducting a piece of action research into studying my work so that I can encourage children to improve their learning of English. I would be grateful if you would give your permission for [name of child] to take part.
My data collection methods will include audio and videotape recording the children and myself in conversation, photographs, diary recordings, field notes, and reports. I guarantee that I will observe good ethical conduct throughout. I promise that I will not reveal the name of the school, colleagues, parents or children at any time. If you wish I would keep you informed of progress throughout. My research report will be available at school for scrutiny before it is published.
I would be grateful if you would sign and return the slip below at your earliest convenience.
I enclose two copies of this letter, one of which is a copy for my files and one of which is a copy for your files.
Yours sincerely,
Signature
Caitriona McDonagh
To Caitríona McDonagh,
I, [parent’s name], give my permission for [child’s name] to take part in your research.
Signed ...........................................
[Parent’s name]
Hi K,
I am trying to be a better teacher and I hope you will learn what is the best way for you to learn.
Can I use your ideas to make our lessons better?
Can I tell other children, teachers and other people about our work together?
Thank you
Mrs Mc Donagh
YES [ ] NO [ ]
FROM ____________________________________________
6 TH DECEMBER 2001
Dear Parent,
I am writing to ask for your help with some further study I am doing. As a student of the University of Limerick, I hope to write a dissertation during the coming years. In it I intend to reflect on my teaching.
I would be very grateful if you would give me permission to use some of your child’s class work – writing, taped conversations and comments. Any information I use will be handled in confidence. Your child’s name will not appear in any published documents. You may withdraw this permission at any time.
I would be grateful if you would sign and return the form below. I would welcome contact or suggestions from you at any time during my research.
Thank you,
Caitríona Mc Donagh.
---
Dear Mrs. McDonagh,
I, {name}, give my permission for [child’s name] to take part in your research.
Parent Signature
{Parent Name}
Pupil's name
[Pupil's signature]
Date
1.4: Consent from others
Letter to colleagues requesting their involvement as a critical audience.
Home address
Date
Dear B,
As part of my PhD research programme I am undertaking an action research project to study my own practice as a resource teacher of pupils with specific learning difficulties. The ethics statement below is to assure you that I will observe good ethical practice throughout the research.
This means that
- the permission of my Principal and Board of Management has been secured before the research commenced;
- the permission of the children and their written consent was secured before the research commenced;
- confidentiality will be observed at all times, and no names will be revealed of yourself, the school, children or staff;
- participants will be kept informed of progress at all times;
- participants will have access to the research report before it is published;
- all participants have the right to withdraw from the research at any time and all data relating to them will be destroyed.
I will require critical feedback from you on lesson plans, diaries, fieldnotes, photographs, videos, audio tape recordings and tape transcripts, standardised and diagnostic test results.
I enclose two copies of this ethics statement, one of which is a copy for my files and one of which is a copy for your files. Please sign and return the form below.
Yours sincerely,
[Signature]
Caitriona Mc Donagh
To Caitriona,
I, B, give you permission to use my feedback as part of your research.
Signed ........................................... [Participant’s signature]
[Participant’s name]
Appendix 2 Items in data archive mentioned in this thesis
1. Journals
a. My journal for 1996/7
b. My journal for 2001/2002
c. My journal for 2002/2003
d. My journal for 2003/2004
e. Pupils’ journals for 2001/2002
f. Pupils’ journals for 2002/2003
g. Pupils’ journals for 2003/2004
2. Correspondence from pupils
a. 20th June 2001 ‘Thank You’ card from pupil
b. 20th March 2002 Pupil correspondence about his feelings
c. Pupil L’s letter
3. Correspondence with supervisor, critical friends
a. Correspondence with supervisor 14 April 2002 and 30 February 2003
b. Correspondence with critical friend 9 October 2001
4. Tape and Video Recordings and Photographs
a. Tape 1: Individual pupils telling ‘How I learn spellings’
b. Tape 2: Group discussions about utilising their various strategies.
c. Tape 3: Preparatory discussions by pupils when designing their reports on specific leaning difficulties.
d. Tape 4: Discussions with pupils and their mainstream class teachers following the pupils’ presentation of their report on ‘Explaining dyslexia to ourselves and others’
e. Video recording of ‘Making the invisible visible – giving voice to the marginalised,’ paper presented at the Collaborative Action Research Network Conference, Manchester, 15 September 2003.
f. Video recording of ‘Presenting voice in action research’, paper presented at the Invitational Seminar ‘Critical Debates in Action Research’ University of Limerick, Limerick, 5 June 2003
g. Video tape recording oral presentation by pupils of their report ‘Explaining dyslexia to ourselves and others’ to class peers, teacher, student teacher, 2 resource teachers and school principal.
h. Photos of how pupils sat when writing
i. Photos of teacher and pupils at work
5. Validation correspondence and audio tape-recordings
a. Correspondence from teaching colleagues: 2 March 2002; 12 March 2002; 6 April 2002; 19 March 2004; 4 June 2004; 4 November 2004; December 2004 and 30 June 2005.
b. Correspondence from critical friend B: 20 January 2002; 28 February 2002
c. Correspondence from critical friend A: 5 April 2004; 24 November 2004
d. Correspondence from members of validation group: 12 August 2003; 14 November 2003; 12 July 2004; 21 November 2004; 21, 24 and 27 November 2004 and December 2004.
e From audience member at conference presentation; 12 June 2003
f From audience member at conference presentation; 22 June 2003 and 4 July 2003
g Tape recording and transcript of validation meetings on 12 February 2003; 6 November 2003; 4 November 2004.
h RTE 2 Dempsey’ Den announcement of 1st Prize in the Fingal Art Competition to Pupil G in my school.
i Audio-tape recording of Pupil S singing his multiplication tables to a Robbie Williams Song.
6. Pupils’ Reports and Artwork
a ‘Learning spellings: the best way for me’ 2002
b ‘Explaining dyslexia to ourselves and others’ 2002
c ‘Explaining our learning difficulties’ 2003
d ‘Explaining learning difficulties to myself and others’ 2004
e Pupils’ artwork and my paintings about dyslexia including audio-tape recordings and transcripts of our conversations about them.
7 Responses from mainstream classmates to questionnaires designed and administered by the pupils who participated in my research
8. Responses from mainstream class teachers to questionnaires designed and administered by the pupils who participated in my research
9. Responses from resource teachers, Dyslexia Association of Ireland Workshop Programme Co-ordinators and Directors to questionnaires designed and administered by me
10. Methods of learning spellings identified by children compared with learning strategies
11. Ethical statement about data
The following agreement was made with the Ethics Committee of the University of Limerick in December 2001 (prior to commencement of this research) with regards to this material.
In submitting this Application Form I hereby agree to be bound by Guideline 5(g) and will destroy all documentation/footage which may reveal the subjects identity e.g. video footage, auditory and visual documentation etc. once the thesis has been completed. Data in the form of lesson plans, diaries, fieldnotes, photographs, videos and transcripts and testing mentioned in section 4(d) are to be retained safely during the life of the research process in my data archive and to be destroyed within a two years after completion of the thesis.
12. Letter to work colleague to validate contents of data archive
Address,
3rd February 2002
Dear P,
I am writing to ask for your help with some further study I am doing. As a student of the University of Limerick, I hope to write a dissertation during the coming years. In it I intend to reflect on my teaching and learning theories.
During my research I will gather some data which is
(a) The property of the school, like copies, school reports and tests.
(b) The property of pupils, like copies, project work, recordings, photographs computer files and discs etc.
I would be very grateful if you would witness – using the form below – what is in my data archive when my work is completed. Your name will not appear in any published documents without your consent and prior viewing of the content. You may withdraw this permission at any time. I would welcome contact or suggestions from you at any time during my research.
Thank you,
Caitriona.
To whom it may concern,
I am aware of and have viewed all the items listed above in the data archive of Caitriona Mc Donagh.
Their representation in appendices is accurate
Signed (Name validation colleague) Deputy Principal of my school.
Dated 30 June 2005
| Conversations between class Teacher M, Pupil K and me |
|-----------------------------------------------------|
| **Actual words used in discussions** |
| Teacher D said, ‘K, You never told me that you could write easier if you sat at that angle.’ |
| Pupil K said, ‘Yea’ |
| Teacher D said, ‘What did I say to you this morning?’ |
| Pupil K said, ‘Sit up straight when you’re writing.’ |
| Teacher D said, ‘You could have told me. I would not have been insulted. Just put up your hand.’ |
| I said, ‘Do you often put up your hand in class?’ |
| Pupil K said, ‘Yes. When I don’t want to be asked a question.’ |
| Teacher D said, ‘You mean when you do want to be asked.’ |
| Pupil K said, ‘No. When you ask a question and I don’t know the answer I put up my hand. I avoid eye contact with you. I hold my hand and arm up straight. When my arm is up, you think that I know the answers. I don’t wave my arm. You think that I am confident that I know the answer. I don’t make eye contact. You look past me and pick on somebody else to answer.’ |
| Teacher D said, ‘Do I?’ |
| Pupil K said, ‘Yes’ |
| Teacher D said, ‘You have got a very good strategy then. Do I do the same for other pupils?’ |
| Pupil K said, ‘Don’t think so.’ |
| Teacher D said, ‘You learn something new every day. Thanks.’ |
3.1b: Sample of conversation by pupils on their personal view on how dyslexia affects them.
| Personal view on how dyslexia affects you. |
|-------------------------------------------|
| Actual words used in discussions | My comments | Triangulation comments |
| Br said, Well it doesn’t exactly affect you at home; cause you’re not doing any thin(g)s…like it… just at school. That’s where you see, that’s where you see that you have that specific learning difficulty. Cause when you’re outside playing sport or something, no, but when you're doing maths or spellings, that when you find that specific learning difficulty… a problem…you… J said, Sometimes I always have to ask for big words to spell. By said, In school it affects you because teacher is always going too fast. And you can't understand the reading. You'd just read a page and you can't understand it. |
3.1c: Conversation extract where pupil discusses his own learning
| Comparing own learning with others. |
|-------------------------------------|
| Actual words used in discussions | My comments | Triangulation comments |
| By said, I was watching the boy beside me. We were copying the news from the Board every week or something. It was the first time we were doing it. And I started at the sentence from the wrong side of the page. I wrote it all backwards And the boy beside me said 'you're writing it all backwards.' I said, Had you not noticed you were writing the wrong way? By said, No. I said, Did you think the boy was wrong? By said, No I said, How did you feel when he told you? By said, I was slow. |
3.2a: Transcript of a discussion between one cohort of pupils about Pupil T’s drawing of his feelings about dyslexia
Pupil T said, Do you want to see my picture? I was facing that way when I drew it.
Pupil By: I think that the eyes are for the teachers and all that. They are always looking down at you. And they’re always making you uncomfortable and all that.
Pupil K: It looks like a face there’s the two eyes and the mouth and all that. Oh yea the tongue. There’s the lips, there.
Pupil J said, I think it’s like a monster. With the eyes and the big nose. It has one massive eye and one little eye. And it has a kind of key rings. It has something beside the eyes.
Pupil K said, Lips.
Pupil J said, Yea. And the picture is kind of like lips and eyes.
Pupil K said, Yea and the nose.
Pupil B said, I think its like all the teachers, looking and saying and talking to you like and saying you’re not good and all that.
Pupil T said, I’ll tell you what I drew. Cause yea I tried to draw. Eyes. I tried to draw ears. Nobody recognised my ears.
Pupil J said, I thought they were key rings.
Pupil M said, I noticed your lips.
Pupil T said, And I tried to draw a crystal. You thought it was a nose. It was different. I used crayons for the rest and it was glitter. Will I tell you what I was thinkin’ about when I drew it. What I see is dyslexia affects eyes, ears and talking. That’s why I drew three things. And it jumbles them all up all over the place, looking like a monster – J was right. So sometimes eyes are getting messages. Sometimes ears are getting messages. Sometimes your eyes are seeing things that you hear differently. Sometimes ears are hearing things different from your eyes see them. That’s my bad drawing of an ear. That’s an ear in there. I wasn’t very good at it. And anybody who has all this jumble of all this – like with dyslexia - eyes and ears and lips -- can see things crystal clear.
All said, Aha.
Pupil T said, And think about things crystal clear and talk about things crystal clear. So does that mean that you were wrong in what you saw in the picture. Yes, no, yes.
Pupil Br said, Cause we seen things crystal clear on the picture.
Pupil J said, Wrong because I saw monster ears and mouth.
Pupil K said, If you draw scribbles. People just go, ‘Ah there is an eye. This is an ear.’ People see different things in their own head.
Pupil By said, You can explain stuff by just scribbles and all that. Just what you feel. I done it.
3.2b: Transcript of a discussion between one cohort of pupils about their learning journals
Pupil G said, ‘I like to do my journal because I get to think back over what I did in the last few days and write it down and it makes me feel happy that I have done all those things.’
Pupil L said, ‘I enjoy writing in my journal because everyday I learn something different and everyday means that I am learning more.’
Pupil Sh said, ‘It helped me with writing and spelling.’
Pupil D said, ‘More people would be able to know what I do everyday and the days of the week.’
Pupil C said, ‘I like writing in my journal because I learn new things everyday and I write them down so that I won’t forget them. And it’s a good way to help you with your writing and stuff like that.’
3.3: Discussion following a presentation of pupil reports to Learning Support teachers, (Teacher S and Teacher M).
Pupil B said, ‘I you don’t have it you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. Maybe you don’t have any of that but you might have it a slightly different way of having it.’
Teacher M said, ‘At the same time Not having had it, myself, I need any help I can, to help me to find out about it. Like I mean should somebody who helps a person who’s afraid of heights… should the psychiatrist be afraid themselves…be afraid of heights himself or herself? Does that need to be the case? You know, should somebody who is afraid of spiders be treated by somebody who is afraid of spiders.’
Pupil B said, ‘Well I think it would be handier. Because they could tell them what would help them and then if that didn’t help they could try something else.’
Teacher M said, ‘They’d probably trust that person more.’
Pupil B said, ‘If I was afraid of heights and someone who wasn’t afraid of heights told me to go and have a look over, I’d say, did you ever try to look down at some thing when you were afraid of heights.’
Teacher S said, ‘It’s the last thing you would ask someone to do if they were really afraid.’
Pupil B said, ‘Go face your fear that’s the worst, that’s the last thing I’d tell anybody.’
Teacher M said, ‘There is a section here that I wouldn’t even have thought of looking at. And it’s called numeracy. You had it there. It is just about confusion with number, with signs and a difficulty with maybe remembering the order of things; such as days of the week, months of the year. I know it comes into maths when you have a word problem. When you have a sum written down and you have to go and make up the problem that goes with it. Well I wouldn’t have realised that it came into the actual maths signs.’
Teacher S said, ‘I think too, that the teachers are trying to do their best too. There are so many people in the class. And even though they put stuff on the board that doesn’t suit you, they’ll understand that, they’ll make allowances for that.’
Pupil R said, ‘I think they should have different classes.’
Teacher S said, ‘By right in a way every pupil should have his or her own teacher.’
Pupil S said, ‘They don’t tell their teacher they are all stuck in their maths and then they go home with their homework and they get it all wrong. And the teacher goes, ‘What happened to you?’ The person next door to him can, and like, he’s stuck on his
spellings and maths. And he’d be better off telling teacher instead of keeping it a secret.
Pupil B said, But it’s no excuse. You can’t say I’ve got dyslexia and I’m not going to try as hard. You shouldn’t put it in the place of an excuse you should try and use it smartly. You shouldn’t go to the teacher saying I’m dyslexic give me easier work.
Teacher S said, We should make a handout so that parents and other teachers could learn about dyslexia from you.
Conversation continues……to .’What are we good at?
When the teacher left I asked how the pupils felt.
Pupil S said, I haven’t talked to teachers like that before. But I thought it would be a good idea ‘cos they would know what it was like to be dyslexic and they would know what to do if they had a dyslexic person in their class.’
Pupil B said, I’ve never had as much fun talking to a teacher. I thought that when Mr. [Teacher S] and Mr. [Teacher M] left, that they had actually learned something from the pupils not the other way round. They walked out agreeing with us for once.
4.1: Intervention programmes and alternative therapies
1. Hornsby, B., Shear, F., Pool, J. (1999) *Alpha to Omega: The A-Z of Teaching Reading, Writing and Spellings*, 5th ed., Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers. This is a phonetic linguistic approach to teaching reading, writing and spellings, which has been used since 1974. It is a structures programme in three stages with 5 levels of pupil activity books, Pelmanism cards and computer programmes.
2. Wordshark 2, 2L and 3 (1995 to 2006) 41 Mail Road, London W6 9DG: White Space Ltd. A computer programme based on Alpha to Omega 4.1 above.
3. Wilson, J. (1986 to 2003) *Phonological Awareness Training* (P.A.T.), London: Educational Psychological Service. This is a daily programme for reading, spelling and handwriting. It aims to develop phonological awareness; enables children to read and spell by making analogies; and provides strategies for word building and word segmentation skills. It can be used with individuals or groups and has 6 levels of pupil books.
4. Johnson, M., Phillips, S., Peer, L. (1999) *Multisensory Teaching System of Reading* (*MTSR*), Manchester: Didsbury School of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University. This programme was developed from Margaret Taylor Smith’s Multi-sensory Teaching System (MTS) and is based on synthetic phonics where letter-sound correspondences are taught directly and pupils are shown that they can build words from individual sounds. The pack contains 2 Teacher Handbooks, Demonstration video, MTSR Book 1 and Book 2, Picture card packs, Letter card packs, Reading concept cards, Suffix cards, irregular word cards and small mirrors.
5. Cowling, K. and Cowling, H. (1993) *Toe by Toe: A Highly Structured Multisensory, Phonetic Approach to Literacy*, West Yorkshire: Cowling and Cowling. This programme claims to provide a highly structured, methodical, gradual and measurable method of teaching reading. It works on the premise that a ‘barely formed image of a word, which is beginning to slip from the student’s memory is grasped at that point and forged by the struggle to recall it’ It teaching the reading of polysyllabic words through syllable division. Coaching the student through repetition, repetition and repetition carries this out.
6. The Dyslexia@bay™ system (email@example.com) involves a consultant screening a person with dyslexia for 41 individual thinking skills. A programme of mental exercises is compiled. The exercises involve visual processing skills to a level considered superior to the average student and skills of the non-language sections of the brain to help overcome deficient language skills, which are characteristic of dyslexic students.
4.2: Samples of pupil record sheets
1. There is no pupil record sheet in the Alpha to Omega programme, instead there is a list of contents that is tabulated so that it can be ticked when the teacher has completed teaching each topic.
2. Pupil record sheet from Wordshark
A printed pupil record is computer generated in the following format, giving game title and contents as well as date, scores and errors made.
```
WORDSHARK student record for Pupil J
page 1
Tues. Apr 16 14:38---------------------level speed errors peeps time
buckets:oa/ow/o-e Spelling Buckets 6 2 6:51
**********soak, nose loaf, note, coat, coal
Wed Apr 17 13:52---------------------level speed errors peeps time
buckets:oa/ow/o-e Spelling Buckets 3:53
Wed Apr 17 14:08---------------------level speed errors peeps time
buckets: long /short o Spelling Buckets 5 2:03
************rot, note, grow, show, wrote
Thurs Apr 18 13:48---------------------level speed errors peeps time
buckets: long /short o Spelling Buckets 2:03
*************
Fri Apr 19 13:33---------------------level speed errors peeps time
Find jigsaw: oa 2 1:58
Card Pairs: oa 2:02
Card snap: oa 0:45
Word search: oa 1:34
Shark:oa 2:32
```
3. Pupil record sheet from Phonological Awareness Training (P.A.T.)
Name of pupil:___________ Class:____ Teacher: _______
| Date | Worksheet Number | Worksheet Completed | Reading | Spelling | Dictation |
|------|------------------|---------------------|---------|----------|-----------|
| | 1 | Date | /20 | /20 | /5 |
| | 2 | Date | /20 | /20 | /5 |
| | 3 | Date | /20 | /20 | /5 |
| | 4 | Date | /20 | /20 | /5 |
| | 5 | Date | /20 | /20 | /5 |
4. Pupil record sheet from Multisensory Teaching System of Reading (MTSR)
MTSR (UK Edition) BOOK 1: Pupil Record Sheet
Pupil Name: ___________________________ Date of birth: _______
| Teaching point | Lesson No. | Date | Comment |
|----------------|------------|------|---------|
| | | Introduced | Revised | Removed from regular review | Checked for mastery | Pupil comment |
| Symbols | 1 | | | | | |
| Words | 2 | | | | | |
| Sounds | 3 | | | | | |
| Initial, middle, final | 4 | | | | | |
| i = (i) | 5 | | | | | |
| t = (t) | 6 | | | | | |
| blending | 7 | | | | | |
5. Pupil record sheet from Toe by Toe.
Coach or teacher mark a sheet similar to the one below. A slash is used to indicate a word, phoneme or syllable read correctly and a dot is used to indicate an error. Three slashes indicate that the student has mastered the target.
| Day Month | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Day Month | Day Month |
|-----------|----|----|----|----|-----------|-----------|
| | 04 | 04 | 04 | 04 | | |
| Prop | \ | \ | \ | | | |
| Prom | . | \ | \ | \ | | |
| Pram | \ | \ | \ | | | |
| Press | \ | \ | . | \ | | |
| Prod | \ | \ | \ | | | |
| Prim | . | . | \ | \ | | |
| Flab | \ | \ | \ | | | |
| Flax | . | \ | \ | \ | | |
| Flab | \ | \ | \ | | | |
| Flan | \ | \ | \ | | | |
| Flux | \ | \ | \ | | | |
| Flag | \ | \ | \ | | | |
| Girl | \ | \ | \ | | | |
Appendix 5: Sample lesson plans showing changes in my pedagogy during my research
5.1: Sample Lesson Plan 2001 demonstrating that I used a multisensory approach
Area of curriculum: English: Group Lesson in Oral Language and Literacy for 5th Class Resource Pupils (aged 11 years).
This lesson was part of the ongoing teaching of 3 pupils - grouped because of similar needs in literacy although they were from two separate mainstream classes. The length of lesson was 45 minutes. Another teacher observed the lesson.
Objectives/targets:
I hoped that the students would -
Summarise orally and answer lower and higher order questions on a text orally and then in writing.
Punctuate a short passage using full stops, commas, speech marks, capital letters, apostrophies, and question marks correctly when they re-write it in a section of text.
Using simultaneous oral spelling technique, learn 4 spelling set by class teacher at a lower level than the remainder of the class.
Read 10 words each containing the initial consonant blends bl, pl sp, cl and cr.
Using a story ladder, write the first paragraph of a five-paragraph story.
Teaching methods and strategies:
- Teacher and peer modelling
- Practice and repetition
- SOS method for learning spellings.
- Using a format for story writing.
Materials:
- Spellings set by class teacher.
- Copies pencils
- Story ladders.
- Alpha to Omega Activity Pack 2 (Hornsby and Pool 1989).
- Dyslexia Association of Ireland guidelines on SOS method of spellings.
Development of lesson as it occurred:
Introduction: I reminded pupils of story to date in the book she was reading (Guns of Easter).
Target 1
I read chapter five of Guns at Easter. Each pupil gave a summary of it. I pointed out and modelled the difference between a summary and a retelling of a story. They answered 4 questions on the chapter orally and then in writing.
Target 2
They punctuated as many sentences as they could in five minutes on p. 36 of Alpha to Omega 2.
Target 3
Using simultaneous oral spelling technique, pupils learned 4 new spellings which I tested them on and three other spellings from earlier in the week.
Target 4
Pupils read aloud and in turn 10 words each containing the initial consonant blends bl, pl sp, cl and cr
Target 5
Using the same story pupils discussed what they would write, by choosing a common title and composing 3 complete sentences each. I modelled a compound sentence and asked them to make one of their sentences a compound sentence. They then wrote their paragraphs.
Conclusion
Time permitting pupils rewrote any spellings, that they had spelt incorrectly, three times.
The lesson relates to the following strands of the mainstream curriculum (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999).
Strand 1. Receptiveness to language: Pupils will develop grapho/phonic strategies to enable the pupils to achieve greater proficiency in word identification
Strand 2. Competence and confidence in using language: The pupils will engage with books in a group setting. Pupils will engage in writing over a period through a process of drafting, revising editing and publishing. They will observe the conventions of punctuation.
5.2: Sample Plan and Lesson 2003 demonstrating that I used a metacognitive approach
**Area of curriculum:** English: Group Lesson in Oral Language and Literacy for 5th Class Resource Pupils. This lesson was part of the ongoing teaching of 3 pupils - grouped because of similar needs in literacy although they were from two separate mainstream classes. The length of lesson, which was observed by another teacher, was 45 minutes.
**Special Considerations:**
Pupil L had a resource teaching allocation of 2.5 hours weekly for Mild Learning Disability and needed clear simple instructions and direct rather than open-ended questions.
Pupil H had a resource teaching allocation of 2.5 hours weekly for specific learning disability. She had difficulty retrieving words so I supplied vocabulary when necessary.
Pupil G had a resource teaching allocation of 2.5 hours weekly for a specific learning disability. He also has a speech and language difficulty (receptive/hearing) so the other pupils and I faced him to aid lip-reading. I repeated answers from other pupils on occasion to ensure that he had heard them.
**Objectives/targets:**
I hoped that the students would -
1. Summarise, ask and answer literal and predictive questions orally in the context of individually chosen library book currently being read. To practice oral presentation, Pupil H would summarise and answer questions. Pupils L and G would be encouraged through visual cue cards (pictorial for pupil L) to ask predictive as well as literal questions.
2. Name, identify and place full stops, commas, speech marks, capital letters, apostrophes, question marks correctly in a section of text. This would be done in the context of group games.
3. Individually learn, test and check 3 pre-selected spellings using differentiated strategies.
4. Read consonant blends and nonsense words aloud and at speed in order to increase reading accuracy using visual rather than semantic and pragmatic cues.
Pupil L would read real words with consonant blends vowels and final single or double consonants (e.g. blot). Pupil H would read nonsense words with consonant blends vowels and final single or double consonants (e.g. flott). Pupil G would read three letter singular and plural words and syllables (e.g. pegs, cab)
5. Using a computer and dictaphone, pupils will plan, write or edit a story, which they would compose using story ladder, to improve paragraph formatting. Pupil L would prepare her edited text (in a Word document) for printing. Pupil H would edit and handwrite her teacher-transcribed story. Pupil G would tape-record ideas for future transcription.
**Teaching methods and strategies:**
- I encouraged attribution retraining through inviting pupils to engage in positive self-talk such as, "now I can do it" or "it is easy"
- In order to improve their reading, writing and comprehension during this lesson, the pupils engaged in reciprocal teaching where the pupils adopted questioning and critiquing roles, which have been modelled by me.
- Visualisation and verbalisation to aid comprehension.
- Individual learning strategies for spellings, which focus on metacognition.
- Co-operative learning and games.
- Timing the speed and recording the accuracy of reading.
**Materials:**
- Spellings set by class teacher - numbers, words from Dolch List and misspelt words from pupils' personal writing.
- Library books. Copies. Record sheets for library books, spellings, visualisation techniques and story ladders. Stories written by pupils previously.
- Ideas from commercial texts e.g. Toe By Toe, Visualization and Verbalization, Streets Ahead 3, Expert in English, Alpha to Omega Book 2.
- Cards containing initial consonant blends, nonsense and real words, punctuation marks, question cues.
- PC, tape-recorder and spellchecker
**Development of lesson as it occurred:**
**Introduction:** Recalling previous reading, pupils recorded any library books completed on a reading chart under the headings of title, author, date begun, return date and comments.
Target 1: I invited pupil H to compose 4 sentences about the library book she was reading. The other pupils formatted a selection of questions to check information (who? where? what might happen next?) and 2 higher order questions, which she answered orally. Each pupil prepared and read one sentence aloud with expression from their library book. They used a five point strategy which they had previously devised (1) learn to read difficult words, (2) find where to stop (3) make sense of the piece (4) highlight important words with the voice (5) read the piece through silently. Pupils evaluated each other’s ability to read aloud – using one complementary comment and then critique. I read a four-sentences story, which the pupils evaluated; then visualised and answered literal and imaginative questions about it. Pupils wrote a title for the story and answered, “what are you picturing for?” (by which I meant, state a personal use for the visualisation process)
Target 2: In a form of reciprocal teaching pupils worked together to punctuate a text written by teacher in the following way. Pupils identified and named punctuation marks (e.g. full stops, commas, speech marks, capital letters, apostrophes, speech and question marks) while playing snap with visual cue cards. As an application exercise, pupils worked together to complete the task of editing teacher’s text quicker than the teacher herself in the context of a “Beat the teacher” game.
Target 3: Having chosen three words, which they had written incorrectly in earlier written work, each pupil looked at the words and decided their personal most appropriate learning strategy, to spell them e.g.
1. Pupil L used syllabification and colour highlighting
2. Pupil H used look, cover, write and check.
3. Pupil G counted vowels or digraphs to establish number of syllables in the word. Then traced the words in syllables three times while saying the letters; covered the word and wrote it with eyes closed.
I tested the spellings learned and 7 additional spellings from previous days. Pupils corrected the spellings and recorded their successes.
Target 4: Initial consonant blends for Pupil G and nonsense words for the other pupils (written on card in large fonts) were placed on the floor. Pupil 1 stepped on 12 words or sounds as she read them aloud. Pupil 2 recorded the time taken and pupil 3 collected and counted those correctly read. The letter size and the physical processes involved in this activity helped pupils focus on blending sounds and phonemegrapheme relationships. In a form of co-operative learning the pupils rotated roles and repeated the exercise. Individual achievements were recorded in terms of number of correct words, date and time taken.
**Target 5:** I conferred with each pupil individually about their writing of the previous day, not only to praise and encourage but as a scaffold towards improvement in setting new targets for today. My modelling of a process of critique included descriptive praise, highlighting good points, detecting what was not clear, helping the generation of new ideas and polishing the final product. Pupils were encouraged to use this model and join in critique for each other's work. Using a story ladder in order to improve paragraph formatting, pupils continued with the planning, writing, editing and production of written stories using PCs and a tape-recorder. Differentiated activities outlined in Objective/Targets 5 were carried out. Pupils were asked to include words from their spelling tests in their stories.
**Conclusion:** Pupils recorded any words that they spelt incorrectly in their writing on their spelling sheets for use in the next lesson. Pupils tidied up their books and activities and orally answering my questions ‘What did you learn today?’ and ‘What do you want to do tomorrow?’
The lesson relates to the following strands of the mainstream curriculum (Ireland, Department of Education and Science 1999).
- **Strand 1. Receptiveness to language:**
Pupils will develop grapho/phonic strategies to enable the pupils to achieve greater proficiency in word identification
- **Strand 2. Competence and confidence in using language:**
The pupils will engage with books in a group setting. Pupils will engage in writing over a period though a process of drafting, revising editing and publishing. They will observe the conventions of punctuation.
- **Strand 3. Developing cognitive abilities through language:**
Pupils will use basic key questions and checking questions to extend their knowledge. Pupils will keep records of personal reading.
- **Strand 4. Emotional and imaginative development through language:**
Pupils will discuss personal reading and writing and ideas encountered in literature. Pupils will read aloud from a personal choice of text and develop individually as
readers by experiencing success and the enhancement of self-esteem through reading.
5.3: An observer of this lesson wrote,
You use a most impressive range of appropriate teaching methods and strategies. Your interest in and knowledge of the affective domain of teaching and learning informs your teaching. You made excellent use of techniques such as attribution retraining and reciprocal teaching by, for example modelling positive self-talk, questioning and critiquing. It is quite clear that the pupils are well used to working in this way and they are obviously enjoying and benefiting from this, For example the pupils were able to reflect on their use of cue card in reading aloud, comment on each others reading and work very co-operatively to edit a text written by you.. Throughout the lesson you focussed on metcognition, asking pupils to reflect on for example their use of problem solving strategies. The group teaching context was a most appropriate forum for the use of these techniques.
(4 June 2004 Correspondence in data archive Appendix 2)
### 6.1: Individual Pupil Profiles devised at the beginning of my research
| Name | M |
|------|---|
| **Date of Birth** | 18.08.90 |
| **Sex** | male |
| **Class** | 6th |
| **Educational Assessment by psychologist** | Test | Date | Results |
|------------------------------------------|------|------|---------|
| WISC | May 1997 | Upper limit of the low average range. Non-verbal ahead of verbal. |
| WORD | May 1997 | Reading 6 years |
| | | Spelling 6.6 years |
| | | Comprehension 6 years |
| WRAT | 16.09.98 | Word Recognition 10th percentile |
| | | Spelling 7th percentile |
| | | Arithmetic 16th percentile |
| **Standardised tests administered and marked by class teachers** | Test | Date | Results |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|------|------|---------|
| Drumcondra Primary Reading Test | 19.12.01 | Vocabulary 32nd percentile |
| | | Comprehension 16th percentile |
| | | Total Reading score 23rd percentile |
| Drumcondra Primary Maths Test | 23.05.02 | Total score 19th percentile |
| Drumcondra Primary Reading Test | 15.12.02 | Vocabulary 30th percentile |
| | | Comprehension 37th percentile |
| | | Total Reading score 35th percentile |
| **Family and educational history** | M is from a family with a history of specific learning difficulties. He has not repeated any class. He received learning support in a group of 4 to 6 pupils for 2 hours and 30 minutes weekly from Sept 1996 to Sept 2000. In Spring 2001 he followed the Phonological Awareness Training Programme by J Wilson (details in proposal) for 20 weeks. I believe this intervention programme caused his improvements on the Drumcondra Reading Test. I also have evidence of improvement on pre- and post-intervention testing on the Jackson Phonic Skills Tests. M attended speech therapy in 1998. I was his learning support teacher and I became his Resource Teacher in September 2001. He has no known hearing or visual problems. |
| Name: | Class: |
|-------|--------|
| Address: | Commencement date: September 2001 |
| Telephone: | Review date: January 2001 |
| Date of Birth: | |
**Summary of information available (formal and informal assessment.)**
National Educational Psychological Service report
| He/ she can | Skills Needed |
|-------------|---------------|
| Is a bright pupil | Doesn’t try hard enough |
| Scores at 60th percentile on standardised Maths Test (SIGMA) | Is capable of better results |
| | Has no phonological awareness skills |
| | Scores two years below class average on standardised English Test (MICRA) |
**Priority Learning Needs (curriculum area(s) and strands)**
ENGLSH: Sight words and Phonics
**PRIORITY LEARNING TARGETS:**
| Targets | Target Date | Date Achieved |
|---------|-------------|---------------|
| 1. Alpha to Omega workbook pages 1-19 | | |
| 2. Complete level 1 PAT | | |
| 3. Toe by toe page 6-30 | | |
| 4. Wordshark short vowel games | | |
| 5. Read 20 words from Dolche common word list. | | |
| 6. Pupil B will demonstrate that she knows letter sounds by indicating the letter when I say the sound on 10 occasions. | | |
**Teaching Strategies**
Modelling and practice
**Materials/Resource**
Alpha to Omega Book 1
P.A.T 1.
Toe By Toe
Wordshark 2L and Dolche common word list
**Home**
Follow class Home work
| Name: | School: |
|---|---|
| Address: | Class: |
| | Class teacher: |
| | People involved in constructing this IEP |
| | Class teacher, Special Ed. Teacher |
| | Parent, Pupil: |
| Telephone: | Commencement date: September 2003 |
| Date of Birth: | Review date: January 2004 |
**Contact Information:**
Parents: Minder: Family Doctor:
Reports on file from Psychologists (name):
**Additional Information/Concerns:**
Summary of information available (formal and informal assessment; summary information for example from parents, class teacher, psychologist, speech and language therapists, etc.)
**Summary of Strengths (including attainments, preferences, interests, learning style) and Needs**
| Strengths | Needs |
|---|---|
**Priority Learning (curriculum area(s))**
Language, Literacy or Maths etc.
**PRIORITy LEARNING:** Pupil retains a personal copy of this section
**Learning aims for the Period**
1. Pupil, having identified his personal learning style for spelling, will read and spell 20 words from the common list
**Date Achieved**
**Teaching Strategies**
Pupil composes higher and lower order questions on text, discussion of learning strategies, metacognition,
**Materials/Resource**
Class texts, common word list
**Pupil input:**
**Home input**
Appendix 7: Sample questionnaires
7.1: Sample questionnaires to mainstream classes about specific learning disability (dyslexia)
| Question | Response |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|
| What does it mean to be intelligent? | |
| Are students with learning difficulties dumb? | |
| Should boys and girls tell their friends about their learning difficulty?| |
| Can you tell if someone in your class is a lazy student and is struggling to learn? | |
| Whose responsibility is it to help a boy or girl is having difficulty learning in school? | |
7.2: Sample questionnaires to teachers and mainstream class peers following the presentation by pupils who participated in my research of their reports explaining specific earning disability (dyslexia) to themselves and others.
| Question | Response |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|
| What did you learn about dyslexia? | |
| What other questions do you have? | |
7.3: Sample questionnaires to resource teachers and to Dyslexia Association of Ireland Programme Co-ordinators and Workshop Directors.
Address
Date
Dear B,
Thanks for the opportunity to speak about my work at the resource teachers’ meeting in X on date. I was sorry that I didn’t stop speaking earlier and allow more time for discussion.
In the light of this I would be interested in your critical comments on the following in order to clarify whether my work is of value to others:
| 1. Was anything in the content new to you? |
|------------------------------------------|
| |
| 2. What did I omit that you think that I should have spoken about? |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| 3. What good practices, in similar lines, have you personally used? |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| 4. Do you think that the approach that I used in my work is relevant for resource teachers, for learning support teachers or for class teachers and why? |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
Please feel free to write more comments than the space here permits. If you would prefer, just let’s have a chat.
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Liberty Middle School Welcomes Bol Aweng: The Lost Boy of Sudan.
December 13, 2019
Colleen Fitzgerald, the 6th grade/ELA teacher, did an excellent job handling all the details for the visit. Bol was delighted to finally meet her.
Bol was very grateful to Principal Nichole Crothers and Assistant Principal Charles Moushey for the warm welcome and wonderful day for his visit. Students were engaged and asked interesting and thought-provoking questions.
Bol Aweng spent the day speaking to all the students at Liberty. Over a thousand students listened to his story of how he fled the civil war in Sudan in 1987 when he was six years old. He walked 1,500 miles to refugee camps where he spent 14 years before being relocated to the United States. He shared how he built the Buckeye Clinic in his village in South Sudan in 2011.
Bol spoke to all the students at Liberty in three presentations. Each session was packed.
After Bol’s last presentation, he was introduced to a student from Ethiopia. Bol discovered that he had gone through her village when the Lost Boys fled to Ethiopia for safety in a refugee camp.
Bol enjoyed looking at students’ artwork in the halls and meeting art teacher Rebecca Kardas.
Gallery Walk
Bol’s artwork was set up in the library. Various groups came in for a time to ask questions and then view his art.
Students formed lines to get Bol’s autograph. They saw his business cards on the tables and used them to remember the day. They thought his rock art was amazing and asked questions about how he learned to do his paintings and rock art. The teachers enjoyed getting a chance to see his art too.
Bol had a question and answer time after each presentation. He was delighted with many new questions that he had never been asked before. Here is a sample of some of their questions.
*Were there adults with you when you were fleeing the soldiers? *Did you pick up any weapons on the way to help kill the wild animals? *Did you ever think about just going on alone? *How did you feel about 9/11? *What were your most challenging obstacles on your journey?
On his 1500-mile journey, Bol told how an older boy kept promising him candy if he would walk a certain distance. He never did get the candy, but this ‘trick’ kept Bol walking. A student asked Bol what happened to the boy who promised him candy. Bol said it was a very sad story. This boy died in the refugee camp. Sadly, Bol helped to bury him. It was a very difficult time for him.
Teachers had done many integrated activities about refugees. The students had a wide variety of books to read about refugees from many time periods and places.
During lunch Bol enjoyed talking with teachers and telling them more about his story.
To learn more about Bol’s clinic in South Sudan check out these sites:
facebook.com/TheBuckeyeClinic
Buckeyeclinic.org
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PURPOSE
The vast majority of public middle and high schools in California and the United States begin at times that are contrary to the sleep-health needs and developmental norms of adolescence.
Too-early school hours routinely deprive students with the sleep that growing brains and bodies require. Sleep-deprivation is a national public health concern with consequences impacting children, families, and the community-at-large.
Restoring traditional school start times — as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Medical Association (AMA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other medical and education experts — is a practical and necessary solution with broad and immediate benefits for children of all ages.
BACKGROUND
Some middle and high schools start before 7 a.m. Most begin in the 7 a.m. hour. Such early school bells force students to wake and travel to school in the 5 or 6 a.m. hour. With dismissals around 2 p.m., sometimes even earlier, teens are often unsupervised for much of the afternoon.
Until the mid 1970s, students of all ages typically started school closer to 9 a.m. Due to factors including a recession, suburban sprawl, and the consolidation from smaller neighborhood schools to larger centralized ones, the start times of elementary, middle and high schools were staggered in order to save money by re-using the same buses and drivers for multiple runs.
Since then, significant social science and health research has shown that these schedules are out of sync with the biological clocks of adolescents and adults up to age 25, which is a demographic that even includes young teachers.
At the time of pubertal onset, adolescents begin to experience a sleep-wake phase delay (i.e. later sleep onset and wake times), which makes it difficult to fall asleep early enough to get the required 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep per night when schools start too early.
The resulting sleep deprivation, essentially a chronic "jet lag," has worrisome consequences. In addition to being the least effective time for learning, too-early start times are linked to increased school absences, tardiness and drowsiness in class, lower test scores and graduation rates. Sleep-deprived students are more likely than others to feel hopeless or depressed and have higher rates of suicide ideation and substance use. Teen athletes who get less than 8 hours of sleep per night have higher injury rates. Teens and young adults are involved in more than half of all drowsy driving crashes each year. Meanwhile, no research has shown any benefit to requiring any child, of any age, to start instruction before 8 or 8:30 a.m.
The larger public health and other concerns noted above prove that the status quo cannot stand. If necessary, bus schedules can be adjusted so that elementary school students, who naturally wake earlier in the morning, start school earlier. Afterschool sports and other extracurricular activities can shift as needed.
"To do nothing is to do harm," says Judith Owens, M.D., a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School, director of sleep medicine at Boston Children's Hospital and former director of sleep medicine at Children's National Medical Center.
SUMMARY
SB 328 (Portantino) addresses the need for California public schools to start the middle and high school day at safe, healthy and developmentally appropriate hours for all K-12 students by following the recommendations of the AAP, AMA, CDC and other medical and education experts that:
• No middle or high schools begin before 8:30 a.m.
- No middle or high school student is required to board a bus before 7:30 a.m.
- No elementary schools begin before 8:00 a.m.
- No elementary school student is required to board a bus before 7 a.m.
Returning to later, healthier, safer, evidence-based school hours is a reform that can improve the
health, safety, and academic achievement of students immediately and often at low or even no cost.
EXISTING LAW
While the State sets standards for many aspects of the public school system, including how many days/hours school must be in session annually, what tests must be administered, graduation requirements, etc., local school districts are provided no guidance about what school hours are most appropriate for student safety, health and learning.
When Bill 328 becomes law, California will be the first state in the nation to ensure that its public middle and high school students are being taught at times that allow them to wake at developmentally-appropriate times, not travel to or begin school in the darkness of night, have time to eat breakfast and arrive at school better equipped to learn. California can serve as a leader and model for other states and municipalities to follow.
Action at the state level is needed to mobilize local districts to implement change. As noted in a joint report by the Maryland State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Maryland State Department of Education: "In preserving the status quo whereby school start times are a matter for each local jurisdiction, the state risks letting local resistance trump a strong body of scientific evidence that sleep is critical to health and academic achievement."
SUPPORT
The following organizations and individuals have issued school start time position statements, resolutions, legislation or editorials in support of safe, healthy and developmentally-appropriate school hours:
State and National Organizations:
- Start School Later, Inc. (a nationwide, volunteer-run nonprofit organization of parents, teachers, students and health professionals)
- Start School Later California
- California State Department of Education [ck?]
- California Teachers Association [ck?]
- American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Medical Association
- American Psychological Association
- Education Commission of the States
- National Association of School Nurses/Society of Pediatric Nurses
- National Education Association
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Prominent Individuals and Experts from California:
- U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, 19th District, California
- U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, 17th District, California
- U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, former, 17th District, California
- Allison Chopel, director, California Adolescent Health Collaborative
- Ronald E. Dahl, M.D., professor of community health and human development, professor of joint medical program and school of public health, University of California, Berkeley
- William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D., ("the world's leading authority on sleep, sleep disorders and the dangers of sleep deprivation"), professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, director and founder of the Stanford University Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center
- Lisa Ehrlichman, RN, M.Ed., chair of adolescent health, California School Nurses Organization
- Allison Harvey, PhD., professor of clinical psychology, sleep and mood research clinic director, University of California, Berkeley
- Irena Keller, PhD., adjunct professor of child and adolescent development, San Jose State University
- Paul Kelley, MD, Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, University of Oxford (California native)
- Dennis Nolan, J.D., certified specialist, juvenile law and child welfare, Orange, California, founder schoolstarttime.org
- Kathy Ryan, MSN, PHN, FNP, president San Diego/Imperial Section, California School Nurses Organization
- Matthew P. Walker, director of sleep and neuroimaging laboratory, professor of psychology, University of California, Berkeley | 0c219530-6929-42a8-8c80-3292034ab5a2 | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://www.startschoollater.net/uploads/9/7/9/6/9796500/ca_bill_factsheet-start_the_school_day_later-ssl-2-13-17.pdf | 2021-06-18T14:16:51+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487637721.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20210618134943-20210618164943-00216.warc.gz | 930,686,399 | 1,518 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.987062 | eng_Latn | 0.995442 | [
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The majority of children will achieve these development milestones by the time they turn 9 months. All children develop at different rates. Some children are slower than others (developmentally delayed) but catch up with time. Other children, however, may have an underlying problem that causes their development to be delayed, and they may not catch up.
It is important for these children to get as much treatment (early intervention) as possible. So if you are concerned about any aspect of your child’s development, see your child health nurse or doctor for help as soon as you can. If in doubt, it is better to have your concerns checked than to ‘wait and see’.
| ✔️ | An average child can… | ❌ | Signs of possible problems include… |
|-----|------------------------|----|-----------------------------------|
| | **Gross motor** | | |
| | Sit without support | | Can’t sit alone |
| | Get into sitting position | | |
| | Crawl, or make crawling attempts | | No crawling motion |
| | Begin to stand holding on | | Unable to hold body weight or push up through legs in standing position |
| | | | Any differences between right and left sides of body (in strength, movement or muscle tone) |
| | **Fine motor** | | |
| | Point with index finger | | Unable to use index finger in isolation (ie to poke or point) |
| | Hold objects using thumb and fingers | | |
| | Bang objects together (one in each hand) | | |
| | **Talking and understanding** | | |
| | Babble (vowels and consonants together) | | Limited variety of sound |
| | Put two syllables together into babble words | | Limited or no babble |
| | Babble phrases of 3-4 syllables | | |
| | Perhaps say ‘mama’ or ‘dada’ | | |
| | Imitate speech sounds | | No attempts to imitate sound |
| | Respond to own name | | Doesn’t seem to know own name |
| | Show interest in listening to people talking to each other | | |
| | Listen to soft sounds | | |
| | **Social** | | |
| | Display fear or unease around strangers | | Does not behave differently between familiar people and strangers |
| | Feed self (eg a biscuit) | | |
| | Enjoy playing games with people, like peek-a-boo | | No interest in playing with people (or leave out) |
| | Try to get toys out of reach | | |
| | Play with cup or spoon | | |
| | React to self in mirror | | |
| | | | Prefers to play alone |
## Child Development Milestones – 9 months
### Intellectual
| | | |
|---|---|---|
| | Look at and feel objects in their hands | |
| | Put objects down and pick them up | |
| | Enjoy exploring and moving around | |
| | Search for objects after they have fallen | |
| | Cannot tell the difference between new experiences and familiar ones | |
| | No difference in responses to strangers and familiar people | |
Youthrive is providing this as general information only and it should not be relied upon as professional or medical advice. You should seek professional and medical advice for particular health concerns or manifestations. Our best efforts have been used to ensure this information is considered correct and current in accordance with accepted best practice in Queensland as at the date of production.
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On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake of unparalleled intensity, and the tsunami that resulted from the temblor caused tremendous damage and loss of life. However, thanks in part to the warm expressions of sympathy and the donations received from around the world, we have already started on the long path to recovery. Japan is a small country with many active volcanoes, and we have seen more than our fair share of natural disasters. Each time one occurs, we learn a new lesson, which we apply to the areas and fields affected. Continuing improvements and endless efforts have resulted in a nation that’s safe, worry-free, and beautiful. At the Japan Panorama, which is designed to show some of the more appealing aspects of our country, we are concentrating on the sciences, which are very much a part of our wellspring of strength, and sending information about studying in Japan and about some of the more interesting universities that have programs for international students. In addition, we offer an idea about our language and our culture, part of what will make your lives as international students in Japan so enjoyable.
“ARIGATO”
Our heartfelt gratitude
May we express our deepest appreciation for the support Japan has received from around the world after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Thank you so very much.
Again, we wish to thank those who sent expressions of condolence and a seemingly endless stream of help and assistance of every kind to the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. We were greatly encouraged and give strength through your prayers and your messages. Now, the whole country is rising to the challenge, and taking vital steps toward eventual total recovery.
Japan Center, Tokai University, Ritsumeikan University, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Yamaguchi University, Sophia University, Sendagaya Japanese Institute, Japan Panorama editorial staff.
Japan is justifiably proud of its technological prowess. However, much of it comes from our takumi no waza system of masters and apprentices, the foundation of our tradition and history of constant improvement and innovation. The “Five S” system of Sorting, Setting in order, Sweeping up, Standardizing, and Sustaining discipline is well known, as is kaizen, which is understood everywhere. But our technology is not only in manufacturing. In Japan, natural disasters have helped us develop excellent disaster-prevention technology. Let us now introduce the technologies that helped make the Japan of today: railways, robots, and disaster prevention.
On March 11, 2011, at 14:46, when the magnitude 9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake hit, 19 Shinkansen bullet trains of the Tohoku Shinkansen Line were on the tracks, and two were moving at some 240 km/h. Yet all 19 trains were able to slow and stop without a single injury. And for this reason, safety, Japan’s Shinkansen are once more the focus of international attention.
Director Noriyoshi Yamagami, General Manager of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Railway Bureau, International Strategy Office said, “We learned a lot from the Great Awaji-Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, which toppled bridges and elevated expressways, and we wrapped all the piers of our elevated Shinkansen tracks with steel for quake resistance. Then, in 2004, the Niigata-Chuetsu quake struck, and our measures were totally justified. We’ve built upon past experience to enable Shinkansen trains to withstand the effects of massive quakes.” Yamagami specifically praised the Earthquake Early Warning system: it sensed the very first small tremors of big quake and cut the power to the trains travelling at 270 km/h, and then engaged their emergency brakes, so when the big shake began some 70 seconds later, the trains had already slowed and accidents were completely avoided.
Japan was first to develop a high-speed train. The Shinkansen concept came in the 1950s, and the trains began running in 1964. Ten days later, people who had gathered in Tokyo for the Olympic Games, praised the “bullet” train. It first ran to Osaka, connecting Tokyo with western Japan and contributing to our economic growth. For 46 years now, Shinkansen trains have operated with no deaths and no late arrivals over one minute. Naturally, we are proud of our record of safety and reliability. Now, the Shinkansen network grows northward and southward and westward to connect the entire country with high-speed rail service. Yamagami says, “Railroads carry large numbers of people, arriving on time, regardless of the weather. The Shinkansen network does that at very high speeds with a superb safety record. This transportation network transformed our society, and it’s an excellent example of Japan’s technological prowess.”
Japan’s urban rail infrastructure carries high-density traffic, safely and accurately. For example, 76% of all passengers transported in Japan each year go by rail. That’s nearly four times the percentages of New York or London. Rail transport is vital to the lives and businesses of people in Tokyo. A good rail system emits little CO₂, uses little power, is gentle to the environment, and is safe for children and the elderly alike. Such systems help a city grow and support additional development, as well as information and business exchanges, and they connect people to people. Yamagami said, “Building a railroad system is like building towns and cities, and like building a dream.”
Japan is an island nation with an undulating topography that is prone to floods and landslides, yet technology has helped preserve and protect this beautiful country. Japan sends its knowledge abroad and works to build human and technological networks. And since Japan has been the victim of some terrible natural disasters, people look to us for answers in some cases and for assistance in others.
Robots are the amalgamation of the dreams of many sciences. For example, on the assembly line, robots can take the place of people where heavy lifting is necessary, and they can do inspections and repairs in dangerous environments. In advanced societies, where labor is scarce, robots can do the dirty, dangerous work instead of people. And in emerging economies, they can help ensure better and more stable quality.
Recently, development of robots to help enhance people’s quality of life and act as their partners has continued apace. Honda began working on a human-like robot in 1986, and announced Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO) in 2000. ASIMO proved that robots could walk on two legs, something that had proved elusive before. New improvements come every year as researchers seek produce a robot that looks human and acts human and has the intelligence to act on its own. As a global leader in robotics, Japan hopes to develop systems in which humans and robots can coexist and complement each other to bring about something new in the future.
Experience COOL JAPAN through Comics
Almost everyone in the world is aware of COOL JAPAN, whether via comics, anime, games, J-Pop, fashions, or food, and our pop culture sets global trends.
Tsuyoshi Shimizu, GM at Animight Akihabara, a popular anime shop in the middle of Akihabara, Japan’s generator of pop culture, had this to say: “Japan’s comics have their very own universes, and their worlds are tremendously varied. And part of their popularity also lies in the techniques used in positioning the frames and in setting up the characters.”
Many international students in Japan first became interested in Japanese through comics. In fact, you might say that comics are the first chance many people have to experience Japanese culture and real Japanese language. *Naruto* and *One Piece* are hits in Japan and abroad, for example. Shimizu says, “Neither of these works deal with the real world, which may be part of the reason for their popularity.” He suggests *Berserk*, a comic scheduled to be turned into a movie. “The creator, Kentaro Miura, does a marvelous job of detailing his universe. It’s much different than comics aimed at youth audiences, and is new and stimulating.”
Japanese culture, mentality, language, cityscapes, eras . . . you’ll find all of COOL JAPAN in Japanese comics.
An international student on Japanese anime
Miguel Jose Solano Romagosa (Costa Rica)
I was raised on anime like *Saint Seiya* and *Dragonball*, and older kids urged me to read comics so I started reading them at about 14. The great thing about *manga* comics are their story lines and careful setups for the characters. The drawings are also very well done. Also, I was able to learn about Japanese culture and food by reading *manga* comics. In Costa Rica, we have no place like Akihabara where stores that deal only in comics or games are all lined up one after the other. I was so excited the first time I went to Akihabara.
Working in Japan
Many of the non-Japanese who are planning to study in Japan also hope to work here. We asked Kaori Taguchi, an international consultant at DISCO Inc., a company that holds employment events for foreign students in Japan, to tell us what the employment situation for them is like.
In late June 2011, DISCO Inc. conducted a survey on employment activities at some 17,000 companies in Japan. We received answers to our questionnaire from more than 1,000 companies, and from the results of the survey, we concluded that the number of companies seeking to hire non-Japanese graduates is on the rise. In last year’s survey, 16.2% of responding companies indicated that would probably hire new non-Japanese graduates in fiscal 2011. In the current survey (for FY2012), that percentage jumped significantly, to 20.9%. Many companies are looking to establish businesses in emerging economies, especially in Asia, and are aggressively hiring students from Asia who have studied in Japan. A wide range of companies are expecting to hire non-Japanese graduates, including those in IT and software, marketing, research, development, and engineering.
The most important skill Japanese employers look for in new hires is communication ability. Taguchi says, “Rather than each individual’s skill level, Japanese companies look for individuals, both Japanese and non-Japanese, who can work well as a team and move forward to expand the business.” That said, if students can learn Japanese culture and Japanese values, ways of thinking, and business customs, they will have that a real advantage in their job search. Fully 99.5% of companies in Japan are small and medium-sized businesses, and a great many of them boast world-class technology, which is something non-Japanese students should be aware of. This is a very important point that can help students find the kind of job they really want to do.
In recent years, more and more companies have participated in DISCO Inc.’s Career Forum for Non-Japanese Students, while an increasing number of international students plan to pursue careers in Japan. Japanese companies are actively seeking to hire new non-Japanese graduates, so now is the time to seriously consider finding a career in Japan.
A message from Ibragimov Shohruhbek (Uzbekistan)
Yanmar Co., Ltd.
Graduated from the University of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU)
I went to work at Yanmar because a great many people in my country, Uzbekistan, make their living by farming, and I felt that by selling Yanmar’s agricultural machinery to them, I could help them achieve more prosperous lives. Also, I wanted to make a difference on a large scale.
Right now, I’m working in logistics services, but at Yanmar, I’m able to gain experience in many departments within a short time. Yanmar’s new employee training program is very good, and has taught me a great deal about being a member of society as well. As a student at APU, I was able to meet and get to know other students from many different countries, and that helped me gain a very broad point of view during my studies. At the same time, I gained a network of friends that now circles the globe, and I think that network will be invaluable in my future business.
Looking ahead, I want to be an executive who can be effective anywhere in the world, and I hope to expand Yanmar business to Central Asia, too.
Pursue Your Dreams: Study in Japan
Japan has produced Nobel Laureates in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and other fields. And most people are aware of world-leading Japanese technology in the form of Shinkansen bullet trains and automobiles, of anime and video games. Naturally, Japanese institutes of higher learning are the ideal places to master the latest technologies in these sectors and many others. Here, we’ll provide some information on choosing the right school as well as introducing university research groups that welcome non-Japanese students.
Important points to consider when choosing a university
As of May 1, 2010, there were 141,744 international students in Japan. The Japanese government has an aggressive program to attract international students, and expects to see aims to accept up to 300,000 international student by the year 2020. In 2008, the government designated 13 universities as specialists in curricula for international students. As a result, the number of universities that allow students to obtain academic degrees by studying only in English has increased, and foreign students now have a much broader choice.
Institutes of higher education that accept international students include universities, junior colleges, graduate schools, and colleges of technology and special training colleges—more than 1,000 in all. It might be advantageous to note that many international students enroll in Japanese language schools to learn the language before they pursue their long-term educational goals.
Toshio Yoshino of Japan Student Services Organization, which provides support for international students, says, “One of the most important points to consider when choosing an institute of higher education is to plan your period of study carefully. For example, if you plan to become a researcher, you’ll want to study at graduate school; if you want to become a technician, then a college of technology or a special training school would be best. So the best school to attend depends on your study objective and the kind of knowledge and skills you will need. That’s why I urge you to think carefully about what you want to achieve by studying in Japan.”
In addition, you might find it important to gather information from school Web sites. Many schools require Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Student (EJU) or a minimum score on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Some also conduct admission interviews for students or ask them to submit application essays; the requirements vary with the institution. You’ll also need to know about the curriculum, the school terms, admission requirements, tuition and fees, and so on. In recent years, more and more schools have sent teams abroad to interview prospective students. See if the school of your choice does that. Yoshino adds, “If a school accepts many students from your country, you can assume it understands your country’s customs and culture, and such schools should be among your top choices.”
Be sure to ask for assistance, as you can apply for some scholarships and grants before leaving your country. Talk to the professors at the school, gather information, and make the most of your learning experience.
Online Information on study in Japan
- Gateway to study in Japan: http://www.g-studyinjapan.jasso.go.jp/en/
- JUMP New study opportunities in Japan: http://www.uni.international.mext.go.jp/
- Study in Japan: http://www.studyjapan.go.jp/jp/index.html
- Scholarships for Study in Japan: http://www.jasso.go.jp/study_j/scholarships_e.html
Contact: Admissions Office
Tel: 81-3-3238-4018
Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
URL: http://www.sophia.ac.jp/eng/e_top/admissions
Sophia University
Science knows no borders
Educating world-class environmental scientists and engineers
Founded in 1913, Sophia, a private university, has a history of leading-edge study and research. Sophia’s programs to internationalize the curriculum led to its listing among “Global 30,” more effective international universities in Japan by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. New programs starting in 2012 include a BS in green science as well as one in green engineering, both taught in English.
Global warming and other environmental issues have made the development of eco-friendly technology an international concern, and environmental industries will soon be important markets. Sophia’s courses will prepare new environmental scientists and engineers to contribute to these emerging fields.
Bachelor candidates in the green science program learn environmental issues at the atomic and molecular levels and study the eco-friendly material properties. Bachelor candidates in the green engineering program learn electrical and mechanical engineering skills to help develop energy conservation technology, efficient power generation, and more effective distribution and transmission of power.
Professor Tomi Ohtsuki says, “In this major, students are expected to learn broad fields of science and technology related to environmental issues.” First, students learn the basics of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology, as well as information science. Then they move on to environmental issues, including technology, sociology, political science, and economics, to widen their view points. Courses are taught in English at Sophia’s Liberal Arts Faculty as well. Both the liberal arts and the science and technology faculties are conveniently located at the Yotsuya Campus.
Each major requires students to enhance their skills in specific subjects. Sophia’s Science and Engineering Departments have professors focusing on various fields of science and technology, offering highly specialized courses. Students are also encouraged to advance to the Graduate School programs, which are also taught in English.
Entrance is based on high school grades, SAT, ACT, or IB scores, letters of recommendation, essay, and TOEFL or IELTS scores. In addition to existing scholarships, a new scholarship for these programs will also start. Professor Ohsuki says, “We want to train experts with a good understanding of scientific basics, who can view the environmental issues from a broad perspective, and can lead future research and technology.”
Tokai University
Study the advanced technology needed to design and build long bridges
Learn Japan’s latest civil engineering technology and use it to help your country
Tokai University is a private institution that offers 90 disciplines, majors, and courses in 21 schools. Non-Japanese account for about 600 of our 30,000 students. They come from China and Korea, from Malaysia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations, and from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other Middle Eastern countries.
In April 2011, several of our graduate schools introduced majors that can be completed with courses taught only in English. We also offer a course in English called “Japanese Studies for Global Citizens” to help international students understand Japanese culture and society. This can be taken as part of a student’s minor.
In particular, we wish to introduce the research laboratory of Professor Shuichi Nakamura in the Civil Engineering Department of the Graduate School of Engineering. The laboratory’s study focuses on the design of large, long bridges, which are not only beautiful to the eye but also require some of the world’s most sophisticated engineering. Professor Nakamura was a member of the engineering teams that created the Akashi Straits Bridge and the Aqua Line Bridge, and he draws on these experiences in teaching his classes.
“Large, long bridges tend to flex in the wind,” Professor Nakamura says “In fact, some bridges have even been destroyed by wind. So they must be able to stand such flexing, and that will require a very high level of engineering. We’ll study ways to deal with flexing caused by wind or earthquakes. Ways to make bridges last longer are also part of our study.”
Courses cover topics such as theories of applied dynamics and theories of structural vibrational sciences, all in English.
Professor Nakamura continues: “In our research lab we’ll study methods of designing civil engineering structures, and students will learn the standards set by national and local authorities as well as academic theory. Japan’s latest construction technology can be used in any country, and if the country doesn’t have relevant regulations, Japanese standards may serve as a model. Come and join us. Learn what you need to help your own country.”
Yamaguchi University
Good governance is a global trend
Helping tomorrow’s public administrators gain top-quality skills
Yamaguchi University, a national university founded in 1815, has produced some of Japan’s greatest leaders, including those who conceived and implemented the nation’s modernization after the end of the feudal system in 1867.
The Graduate School of Economics offers a Public Administration Course entirely in English aimed at helping foreign students learn fundamental theories and advanced, practical skills in public administration, based on Japanese experience in policy development and administrative reform.
Central and local governments around the world are working to strengthen their ability to enact administrative reform and fight corruption – urgent issues in achieving good governance.
Yamaguchi is a regional prefecture that went through several administrative reforms in Japan’s decentralization strategy. During these processes, faculty members have gained unique skills in research and advisory roles to local governments. Yamaguchi University stands out among national universities with capability to provide solutions to local and regional governments.
The course curriculum is carefully designed to give students a solid foundation in the theory and practice of public administration and public economic policy as follows:
• To nurture an objective and logical capacity to evaluate practical administrative affairs through an understanding of major theories of public administration,
• To acquire expertise specific to government reform in local administration and decentralization,
• To develop practical ways to cope with corruption and evaluate administrative projects applying good governance.
Students also have the opportunity to do hands-on research with national and local government agencies in Japan, and get an inside look at the structure and institutions of Japanese public administration.
Graduates of the program are now back in their home countries applying traditional and modern theories of public administration, helping shape their nation’s futures while building their own leadership skills.
More than 320 international students from 32 countries are studying at Yamaguchi University. Japanese language courses are available free of charge to international students, along with up to one year of tutoring and a range of other scholarship and support programs.
Ritsumeikan is a century-old private university with its main campus in Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital. We aggressively promote internationalism, and are among the 30 universities chosen by the Ministry of Education for its internationalization program. Students can earn degrees through courses taught entirely in English, and we currently have more than 1,000 international students in bachelor and graduate courses. The Department of Robotics in the College of Science and Engineering is one that offers degree programs entirely in English. Here, we would like to introduce the Biomimetic Intelligent Mechatronics Laboratory in the Graduate School of Science and Engineering.
“We can learn from animals and the natural world,” says Professor Shugen Ma. “That will help us build robots that are based on very simple principles, yet can move quickly and flexibly in varied and difficult environments. We want to build robots to help society.” Consider, for example, the snake-like robot Professor Ma holds in the picture. It was developed after analyzing how snakes can move over mountainous terrain or through jungles with complete ease, and slip through very tight places. He is also thinking of using the robot in rescue situations, such as saving people who are buried beneath rubble.
Professor Ma says, “Students in my laboratory must be energetic self-starters.” When beginning a research project, the student must consider the project’s novelty, its theoretical practicality, and its likely impact on society. In the laboratory, probable movements can be simulated with the computer, and we can build actual robots if an idea looks promising. The laboratory concentrates on hands-on teaching and learning. Students are expected to present papers in school and to academic societies, and they will gain the real-world knowledge and skills researchers and engineers need. More than half of the laboratory members are non-Japanese.
The laboratory expects students to have an active intellectual curiosity. “We want our students constantly to ask ‘Why?’ They should think up their own research objectives, and thereby grow and learn the necessary skills to take part in decision-making in a corporate or research institution setting,” says Professor Ma. Graduates from our Department of Robotics now do leading-edge robotics work at world-class corporations such as Toyota, Fujitsu, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
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A comment from Ho Anh Van (Vietnam)
I decided to study here because my supervisor at Hanoi University of Technology, who holds a PhD in robotics from Ritsumeikan, praised the quality of the department and its unique, world-class faculty. State-of-the-art laboratory equipment and easy access to books and other resources really help me pursue research. My professor is always supportive and offers advice on my current research and future plans. I have interned at two major corporate research centers and hope to further my career in Japan – eventually, I would love to join the faculty here at Ritsumeikan.
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Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) is a private university with both undergraduate established in 2000 and graduate schools in 2003 with the ideal of “nurturing international people for a global age.” Our enrollment is about 6,000, with international students from more than 80 countries making up more than half of that total. More than half of the professors are also non-Japanese. APU is truly a global university.
We have two schools, the College of Asia Pacific Studies and the College of International Management. Most of the classes are taught in both English and Japanese. At the graduate school, however, all of the courses are in English, and students can earn MBAs and master’s degrees in Pacific and Asian Studies.
APU graduates have achieved a 95% hiring rate as some 400 companies from Japan and overseas come to APU to introduce their firms and interview future managers and executives.
Classes that emphasize logic and practical applications are an APU specialty. For example, in leadership and organizational theory, a seminar in international management taught by Professor Kanichiro Suzuki, students learn basic leadership theory and the structure and functions of corporate organizations while analyzing and comparing the management systems practiced by several different companies.
Professor Suzuki spent more than 20 years at one of Japan’s major research/consulting companies and then established a biotech venture company. He’s also done research and development work in China, the U.K. and the U.S. Now his storehouse of experience and knowledge can be accessed in his APU seminars. In particular, Professor Suzuki’s work in “knowledge creation” is at the leading edge in Japan, and many executives throughout the world are watching with great interest.
“What’s important in business is to think for yourself and to take action,” says Professor Suzuki. In addition to the curriculum, students get involved in business competitions, plan activities, and so forth. Every day during their studies at APU, they practice thinking logically and acting on their own initiative.
Learning Japanese
More and more people, both inside and outside Japan, are using Japanese in everyday life, for purposes ranging from school to employment and even the subculture of games and anime. We turned to the Sendagaya Japanese Institute, one of Japan’s most established language schools, to find out why Japanese has come to gain so much worldwide attention.
Set greetings contain the essence of Japanese culture
Mottainai (what a waste). This Japanese word is now used throughout the world when talking about protecting our environment. It encompasses not only the “reduce, reuse, and recycle” concepts of environmental conservation, but also respect, something we cannot do without if we expect to save our natural world. “There are many interesting and beautiful greetings in Japanese,” says Masanori Yoshikawa of the Sendagaya Japanese Institute. “For example, the expression we use before eating also contains the essence of thankfulness.”
Greetings, for want of a more precise word, are part of Japan’s traditional manners and a result of our culture. In Japan, before eating, we say Itadakimasu. Then, after we finish our meal, we say Gochiso-sama. The verb Itadaku is a polite term used when receiving something from someone or something who ranks above you. When partaking of the bounties of nature, and taking the precious lives of the plants and animals that provide our food, we use Itadaku, a “greeting” that includes thankfulness. The gochiso of gochiso-sama refers to all the trouble someone went to in gathering the ingredients and preparing the food. In Japan, such expressions of thankfulness are used many times each day.
Cushion words oil the cogs of human relations
Another peculiarity of Japanese is the large number of “cushion words” that show concern for others. For example, when making a telephone call to another person there are a number of cushion phrases that can be used. Asa hayaku kara moshiwake arimasen (I’m sorry for calling you so early in the morning) or Ibagashii tokoro ni moshiwake arimasen (I’m sorry for interrupting you when you are busy). Using these cushion phrases is part of good manners. Instead of blurting out whatever it is you want to talk about, you first use a cushion phrase to oil the relationship with the person you are calling, which links the conversation to the next step.
When giving a gift, you say tsumaranai mono desu ga (This is really nothing) before handing the gift to its recipient. This phrase expresses your caring for the person to whom you are giving the gift. In Japan, people are often pleased to receive a gift, but at the same time worry about what to give in return (one always gives a gift after receiving a gift). According to Haruhiko Kindaichi, a linguistic scholar of Japanese, use of the phrase tsumaranai mono desu ga is used to help lift the load of responsibility to give a return gift from the shoulders of the recipient. In Japanese, there are seven phrases used when giving or receiving gifts. Which of the seven phrases to use depends on whether the subject is the giver or the receiver, whether the other person is socially ranked above or below, and whether the gift-giving takes place between relatives or not. This is just one indication how seriously Japanese take gift-giving.
In the same manner, chotto (a little) can be a cushion word in an expression. Instead of using the bald expression ikenai (can’t go), we say chotto, ikenai (we-e-ell, I can’t go) or kyo wa chotto . . . (today is . . . ), and in that way, can gently refuse. Linguist Kindaichi says, “It resonates with the listener in a different way from just using negative phrases. It’s the same when asking someone for a favor. Chotto is an expression of amount or degree, but this chotto carries a different meaning, so I imagine many non-Japanese are confused by its use. In Japan, it’s another of those words used to lubricate human relations.”
Learning Japan is a shortcut to learning Japanese
Instead of seeing Japanese as being made up of words and sentences, why not learn to respect Japanese culture and learn the background of many of its sayings, and use that knowledge as a shortcut toward making the Japanese language your very own?
According to research conducted by the Japan Foundation, there were more than 3.65 million people studying Japanese overseas. What’s more, the numbers are increasing every year. And more than 1,600 educational institutions in Japan teach Japanese. The institutions vary from private language schools to universities, and they offer both short-term and long-term courses. Of course, learning Japanese gives you an advantage in going on to university, and truly learning Japanese culture, such as the cushion words and phrases mentioned earlier, will help when it comes time to seek employment at a Japanese company. If you are interested, please take up the challenge.
Comments of an exchange student
Pham Hong Thuy (Vietnam)
I am studying Japanese in preparation for study at a Japanese graduate school, because I think Japan leads the world in terms of international management. I became interested in Japanese and the Japanese ethos when Japanese companies started setting up operations in Vietnam, and I realized Japan was an advanced country and a tremendous economic power. Japanese is a language that becomes ever more interesting the longer a person studies it. For example, the word sumimasen sometimes means “I’m sorry,” and sometimes means “thank you.” Its meaning changes with the situation.
In the future, using the knowledge I gain in pursuing my graduate degree in international management, I hope to make use of the things I see and learn in Japan to contribute to the economic growth my own country, Vietnam.
Sendagaya Can Satisfy Your Ambition to Learn Japanese
- How many ways are there to learn Japanese?
At Sendagaya Japanese Institute, we set a specific course of study for you as soon as you decide what university you want to attend. In our college and grad school prep programs, you can choose any of the courses you need to get into the school of your choice, even in English, mathematics, sociology, or general education. We place special emphasis on the Japanese exchange student program and people who study at our institute regularly place high in exams.
Our standard Japanese courses include one designed for businesspeople seeking employment in Japan. In fact, we developed special materials and methods aimed at helping our students learn the language skills necessary to work in Japan as well as the unique features of the Japanese business scene.
- About admissions
Students are selected based upon written applications and personal interviews. The Institute will help prospective students prepare the necessary paperwork.
Sendagaya Japanese Institute
1-1-6, Shinjuku Ochiai, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 161-0033
TEL: 03-5337-7001/FAX: 03-5332-6696/ EMAIL: email@example.com
Web site: http://www.jp-gs.ac.jp
Quake and Disaster Information
The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
as seen by international students
The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, which was of unparalleled scale, occurred on March 11, 2011. The mammoth quake, which registered 9.0 on the Richter Scale, also caused a huge tsunami, which ravaged the eastern coast of Japan’s Tohoku region, taking away many precious lives. The scale of the quake and tsunami was such that experts say such an event happens only once in a thousand years, and the scars left by the tsunami and earthquake are still raw all across the stricken area. Still, recovery has begun. A great many international students have returned to Japan and are busily engaged in their courses of study. Here we would like to introduce some students who experienced the earthquake and watched the tsunami and are still pursuing their studies here in Japan.
Turganzhon Kasymov (Kazakhstan)
Tokai University
I decided to come to Japan because of the country’s well-known achievements in IT, the subject I’m majoring in. I also was interested in Japanese language and culture. Now I’m studying at Tokai University’s School of Engineering, and my student life is great. Most of my teachers have vast practical experience in the subjects they are teaching.
I learned about the earthquake on TV in Kazakhstan. I was so shocked and tried to call my friends in Japan to make sure they were OK. However, I know that Japan has great experience in rescue operations because of its frequent natural disasters, and I’m sure the nation will overcome this catastrophe.
Every day I heard awful news but I soon understood the news agencies always show the most sensational information that wasn’t fully correct. My parents worried about me and tried to talk me out of going, but, I explained the real situation that I’ve learned from my Japanese friends, and finally they agreed.
I strongly believe Japan is a very nice place to study because of its rich culture, well-preserved and interesting traditions, and kind and friendly people. I’m sure you’ll have some amazing memories of student life in Japan.
NGO Hong Vu (Vietnam)
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
I decided to study in Japan because I wanted to go explore an indigenous Eastern culture rather than studying abroad in the West.
Now I study at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU). Most of the students are from overseas, and the facility is well equipped so I can concentrate on research in an international environment.
The 3.11 earthquake and tsunami struck while I was in Japan. However, my university is quite a distance from the areas directly affected by the quake and nuclear breakdown, so I stayed here, and became convinced that it is safe. I saw with my own eyes how Japanese were dealing with the disaster and its aftermath. I deeply impressed with the Japanese people’s calmness, orderliness, sympathy, and mutual care. Those experiences captured the true situation of Japan more clearly and truthfully than reading the news at home.
If you worry about studying in Japan because of concerns about earthquakes, I urge you to come and see what it’s really like. Sitting passively at home is more dangerous than going out to explore the world for yourself.
Zhang Chunlong (China)
Sendagaya Japanese Institute
I remember March 11 very well. Shortly after 2:40 p.m., perhaps the biggest earthquake in Japan’s history struck. At the time, I was taking a test, and as I know a bit about architecture, I was not too alarmed at the time. I knew earthquakes often occurred in Japan, and that Japan’s buildings are the best in the world when it comes to withstanding quakes.
Later, I went to Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture as a volunteer. It was only for a day, but I was able to tell many victims that the prayers of people all over the world were with them, and I tried to be of a little help to them. The victims I met were very positive-minded about their lives, and I felt that the Japanese have a great strength of spirit. If I have the chance, I hope to be the first to represent my country in helping them.
GANBARE NIPPON. A better future awaits.
Useful Information on Disasters from Various Organizations
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
- Post-quake interview with an international student in Japan: http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/1307512.htm
- Regularly updated environment radioactivity data: http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/en/
- Ministry of Justice (Immigration Bureau of Japan)
- Information from the Immigration Bureau related to the Great East Japan Earthquake: http://www.moj.go.jp/nyuukokukanri/kouhou/nyuukokukanri/01_00017.html
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan: http://www.mfa.go.jp/jp_info/listofincidents/index.html
- Japan Meteorological Agency
- Earthquake Information: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/
- Tsunami Information: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/
- Others
- TUFS-Multilingual Disaster Information Service by the Center for Multilingual Multicultural Education and Research: http://www.tufs.ac.jp/biology/stu/ts_disaster_information/
- Osaka University multilingual mega earthquake information: http://nwl-disaster.info/
- Tokyo Fire Department
- 10 ways to prepare for an earthquake: http://www.tfd.metro.tokyo.jp/eng/119/119-05.html
- How to protect yourself: http://hip0.wordpress.com/
Japanese Expertise: Now Available Worldwide
Developing Human Resources and Promoting Exchanges with Japan
- Developing Human Resources
Japan Center offers training that focuses on management know-how and knowledge that are traditional strengths of Japanese business. To date, Japan Center has provided training to more than 50,000 individuals.
- A Hub for Diverse Exchanges with Japan
Japan Center offers introductions to the Japanese economy, society, culture, and traditions as well. In addition, the Center provides information on studying Japanese and attending school in Japan as an international student.
For more information, contact the Japan Center in your country
Vietnam: http://japan-vietco.vn/vt/
Ukraine: http://www.japan-center.org.ua/index.php/en
Cambodia: http://www.cjjc.edu.kh/
Kazakhstan: http://www.kjc.kz/pt/
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4-H PROJECT SELECTION GUIDE
In 4-H, young people learn about topics that interest them! These are referred to as a member’s “projects.” Exploring your interests through 4-H project work is an excellent way to discover new skills and potential careers. While projects can vary depending on your local program and availability, this guide offers a starting point for each of the official Kansas 4-H projects. Resources for each project can be ordered through your county or district K-State Research and Extension Office.
**Animal Science**
**Beef**
Learn about raising, caring for and managing beef cattle. You may start with a bucket calf and work toward building your own herd with breeding beef or learn more about feeding out cattle through the market beef project. You’ll learn about different breeds and anatomy of beef cattle; how to feed, groom and show your animal; how to judge beef cattle for market and/or breeding; how to produce high-quality beef; and how to use performance data and technology in an efficient beef-cattle operation.
**Beef Bucket Calf**
This project is open to 7- to 12-year-olds. Calves may be purchased or orphaned but are to be bottle/bucket fed.
**Learning by Doing**
Participate in Junior Beef Producer Day, exhibit at local beef shows, State 4-H Livestock Sweepstakes, (includes livestock judging, quiz bowl, Skillathon, and meats judging), Kansas State Fair State Beef Show, and the Kansas Junior Livestock Show.
**Dairy Cattle**
Learn about raising and managing dairy animals by selecting, grooming and showing a heifer calf or yearling heifer. Along the way, you’ll learn about dairy cattle breeds and anatomy, judging and presenting oral reasons, animal health and welfare, and safe practices for handling milk and milk products. Members with mature cows learn about animal feeds and nutrition, milk production, and careers in the dairy industry. Specific projects include dairy bucket calf, dairy heifer and dairy cow.
**Learning by Doing**
Participate in Kansas All-Breeds Junior Dairy Show, Judging Contest, Skillathon, and Dairy Quiz Bowl.
**Dairy Goats**
The dairy goat project is great for smaller properties since goats are typically easy to train and handle. Goat milk can be consumed by the family, fed to bucket calves or fed to other market animals. You might start with one doe, raise kids and eventually create your own dairy goat herd. Throughout the project, you can learn about breeds and anatomy of dairy goats, proper care and welfare of animals, record keeping and more.
**Learning by Doing**
Participate in local and state dairy goat shows or join a regional dairy goat organization.
**Dog**
Whether you have a dog or hope to own one, this project will help you learn more about your family’s best friend, from basic care and grooming to advanced training commands. Learn about different dog breeds and choose the best breeds for your family. Explore dog behavior, body language, and obedience training while learning about proper nutrition to keep your dog happy and healthy.
**Learning by Doing**
Show your dog at local shows and the Kansas State Fair 4-H Dog Show. Members without dogs may participate in quiz bowls and other activities that do not require dog ownership, such as the Kansas 4-H Dog Conference.
**Horse**
If you love horses and want to learn how to safely handle, care and ride a horse that you own or lease at least 75% of the time, the horse project is for you. In this project you will learn basic coat colors, breeds, and horse anatomy; study horse health; participate in judging contests, quiz bowl, and hippology; and give presentations. Achievement Levels allow 4-H Horse members to learn more about the project and advance through their skills and knowledge. Achievement Level I focuses on safe handling of horses. Then once completed Achievement Level I, Achievement Levels II, III, and IV can be taken to advance your educational knowledge of horses. 4-H Horse Identifications are due June 1 into the local Extension Office.
**Learning by Doing**
Visit a stable or farm; participate in the State Horse Judging Contest, State Horse Quiz Bowl, Horse Panorama, horse presentations, and hippology; and exhibit at local and state horse shows.
**Meat Goat**
The 4-H Meat Goat project is quickly growing as demand increases for meat products. You’ll learn how to select, raise, and care for a meat goat; study breeds and anatomy; learn how to fit and show meat goats; recognize diseases; keep records; select breeding stock; learn key components in developing a goat herd; and evaluate feed ingredients.
**Learning by Doing**
Participate in Junior Meat Goat Producer Day at K-State, Livestock Sweepstakes, Kansas Junior Livestock Show and the State Meat Goat Show at the Kansas State Fair.
**Pets**
Whether you love fish, hamsters, cats, or other pets, these projects can help you learn more about your household friends and what different pet species need to stay healthy.
**Learning by Doing**
Identify hazards for pets around your home, and learn about your pet’s feeding and care. Learn the symptoms and treatment of diseases as well as taxonomic classification.
Poultry
This project is designed to help you learn about chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, pigeons and other poultry. This is an excellent project to expose both rural or urban youth to basic animal husbandry skills. You will learn species, breeds and anatomy and how to care for and handle your birds. Learn how eggs are formed, how to select and judge broilers, make an egg candler, and understand pecking orders. Lead younger members in egg experiments, process chickens for food, and learn about biotechnology and poultry careers.
Learning by Doing
Participate in the Poultry Judging Contest at the Kansas State Fair.
Rabbit
The rabbit project will allow you to learn to raise and care for your rabbits. Identify main breeds of rabbits and their anatomy, learn feeding and watering practices, learn to groom and show a rabbit, and care for newborn rabbits. It is best to enroll in the fall to prepare for receiving your first rabbit.
Learning by Doing
Take part in rabbit shows, try rabbit judging, participate in showmanship, or start with a doe and grow your project.
Sheep
In the sheep project, you will learn to identify sheep breeds and anatomy, manage and train sheep for show, learn safety and management practices for maintaining a flock, identify symptoms and treatment of diseases, study nutritional requirements, study technology’s impact on sheep production, and explore career opportunities in the sheep industry.
Learning by Doing
Participate in Junior Sheep Producer Day, exhibit at a local sheep show, participate in the Kansas 4-H Livestock Sweepstakes, or Kansas Junior Livestock Show.
Swine
If you want to learn about raising, caring for, and managing a market or breeding hog, enroll in the swine project where you will study pork production from farrow to finish. Throughout the project you will identify different swine breeds and anatomy; types of feeds; identify symptoms, causes, and treatments of swine diseases; study breeding systems and performance data; and explore career opportunities in the swine industry.
Learning by Doing
Exhibit at a local swine show or participate in K-State’s Junior Swine Producer Day or Bob Hines Swine Classic; Kansas Junior Livestock Show; or the Kansas State Fair Swine Show.
Veterinary Science
The 4-H Veterinary Science project provides an excellent way for young people who care for animals and may want to follow a career in veterinary medicine to explore the topic. In this project, members will learn about animal health, behavior, and visit with veterinarians. You do not have to own an animal to be in this project.
Learning by Doing
Document your pet’s daily health, spend a day shadowing a local veterinarian, visit with a veterinary technician and learn what it takes to take care of the animals we love.
Communication & Expressive Arts
Communications
4-H is famous for helping youth improve their communication skills. Being a better speaker, writer, or record keeper will help you throughout your life. The communications project will help you interpret verbal and nonverbal information, develop effective public speaking skills, enhance written and spoken communication, defend a point, design a presentation, and more.
Learning by Doing
Discuss your other 4-H projects in an illustrated talk or demonstration to club members, write a thank-you note, run for a club office, complete a record book, or present a speech.
Performing Arts
Those who enjoy being in the spotlight on stage or being creative off stage may enjoy this project. Learn to express yourself in front of a crowd.
Learning by Doing
Express yourself by creating and presenting a theatrical play or musical performance; participate in camp’s talent show, create a puppet show; create costumes, sets and props; and enter your local Club Days or other contests.
Photography
Photography is a great way to create art, preserve memories, and have fun, all at the same time. Don’t have a camera? Cell phones work just fine for the photography project too! You will learn the basic functions of a camera and how those functions transfer to a cell phone. More importantly, you’ll learn how to use the elements of composition when capturing photos (depth of field, rule of thirds, leading lines, etc.) and then learn what photo judges look for in their favorite photos. Once you have mastered photography, you may be interested in taking it a step further with videography or other digital media.
Learning by Doing
Document your family or club activities through photos; volunteer as a sports photographer at school; take photos for the school yearbook; enter a photo contest or fair exhibit; enter the photography judging contest at the Kansas State Fair.
Visual Arts
Encourage your creative skills in learning how to draw, paint, and work with different media. Explore art techniques, study art history and culture, or challenge yourself to discover new artistic talents. The visual arts project teaches artistic skills and the elements and principles of design. Projects may vary depending on your local 4-H program.
Learning by Doing
Practice drawing, painting, and printing techniques in paint, pencil, chalk, charcoal, or mixed media; learn sculpture techniques; make something from wood, leather, paper, or clay; weave a basket or wall hanging; etch glass or metal; make jewelry and wire sculptures; create mosaics or nature crafts; discover new
media. Enter your best work in the fair and teach others the new skills you’ve learned.
**Consumer & Family Science**
**Sewing & Textile Design**
Learn to create and sew your own clothing and accessories while exploring the world of fashion in Sewing and Textile Design. This project will teach you the basics, such as sewing a pillowcase or shirt, learning different stitches or putting in a zipper. Learn to select appropriate fabrics, use patterns, sew quality seams, and care for your garments. In advanced units, you can learn how to take the design of your choice and customize it for the perfect look, color, and fit.
**Learning by Doing**
Design and/or create fair exhibits; make items for community service; participate in Fashion Revue to model constructed garments.
**Shopping in Style**
The Shopping in Style project will help you understand your wardrobe; plan a clothing budget; select colors and styles that complement your body shape, proportion, and balance; choose different shades of colors; compare fiber, care requirements, cost, brand, and style; and analyze clothing advertisements.
**Learning by Doing**
Complete a clothing inventory, organize a clothing drive, assemble outfit(s) for county fair; participate in Fashion Revue to model purchased outfits.
**Family Studies**
Learn about growing and maintaining a healthy family by learning about child development, building family strengths and managing a household. Learn how children grow and develop physically, socially, mentally, and emotionally. Study the effects of employment on family and lifestyle, and learn to use consensus and compromise. Learn to determine differences between needs and wants, develop a savings plan for a specific goal, practice comparison shopping, learn to manage a checking account, recognize target advertising, identify consumer rights and learn the value of employment.
**Learning by Doing**
Partner with a peer to explore and discover solutions to today’s consumer topics, create an intergenerational community-service project, and establish a baby-sitting service.
**Fiber Arts**
The Fiber Arts project is filled with different techniques, all based on manipulating fiber into an art piece. If you’ve ever wondered how to crochet a scarf, embroider a pillowcase or make a quilt, this project can help you learn these skills and more. Fiber Arts focuses on skills passed down through generations to provide basic family needs, such as apparel, home furnishings and decorations. Skills such as knitting, needle arts, quilting, weaving, macramé, and spinning are just as important today as they ever have been!
**Learning by Doing**
Create items for fair exhibits or to donate to hospitals, shelters or nursing homes.
**Foods and Nutrition**
In this project, you will have fun learning how to cook the basics and then advance to gourmet and international meals. Develop baking skills, learn about food preservation, explore the heritage of many foods, and understand consumer buying skills. Learn how to make healthy snacks and modify recipes to fit a healthy lifestyle.
**Learning by Doing**
Enter a foods exhibit in the fair, plan and prepare snacks and meals for your family, incorporate exercise into daily life, and learn about food safety through activities like working in a club concession stand.
**Health and Wellness**
Explore health and wellness in your personal life as well as in your club, community, country, and world. Health, exercise and recreation are vital parts of your daily lives. In these projects you can focus on physical activity, healthy eating, exercise, sports and recreation, or first aid.
**Learning by Doing**
Present ideas to community leaders for walking paths and bike trails in your town. Volunteer at a nursing home or hospital. Organize a project to assemble first aid kits in your community. Enter a project exhibit in your local county fair demonstrating what you have learned.
**Interior Design & Architecture**
This project gives you the opportunity to examine your environment, both inside and outside of the home. Designing a new layout for a room, refreshing your porch, refurbishing a family heirloom or even creating something brand new are all examples of ways to incorporate the design process in your living environment. Learning and experimenting with the elements of design (color, line, value, space, shape, form and texture) in all areas of a room or space or furniture piece are all part of this project. Being a designer (architect, furniture, product design or interior designer, etc.) is not only about how a space looks but also how it feels. The end goal is to create a space that feels inclusive, functional, and inviting to all.
**Learning by Doing**
Refurbish furniture or makeover a room in your home. Volunteer to redesign and rearrange a room at your school to make the area more functional. Organize a community day for the free disposal of paint, refinishing materials, and solvents. The home environment project will give you the opportunity to design, create and implement what you’ve learned by creating a notebook, project board or item.
**Engineering & Technology**
**Aerospace/Rocketry**
Discover how a model rocket works, study equipment and procedures for a safe launch, build and launch your own model rockets.
**Learning by Doing**
Build a rocket or educational displays. Take a field trip.
**Ag Mechanics Welding**
The Ag Mechanics project allows youth to explore areas of Ag mechanics and metallurgy from repairing or re-purposing items to the fabrication of new items. The intent is for this program start with foundational areas, some of which youth may already have, and allow them to continue to build on this knowledge, becoming more experienced.
**Learning by Doing**
In the project, you’ll identify welding equipment, learn about electrodes, learn basic arc welding skills, and demonstrate appropriate welding skills.
**Astronomy**
Study the different kinds and uses of telescopes, build a simple telescope, learn planet order by making a key ring bead system, build spectroscopes, distort light with lenses and prisms, and learn how to set up public viewings.
**Learning by Doing**
Have a star or space watch party, set up and educational displays, or take a field trip.
**Building Block Engineering**
The Building Block Engineering project is designed to help youth explore architectural design in a three-dimensional space. The project starts with foundational ideas of architecture, some of which youth may already have, and allows them to continue to build on this knowledge, becoming more and more experienced.
**Learning by Doing**
Youth demonstrate their architectural skill and knowledge through the creation of “Lego” construction projects.
**Computer Science**
Learn the basic components of a computer; identify the similarities and differences in office software applications; learn Internet safety. As you get older, learn to build, maintain, and repair computers. Learn programming languages and network security.
**Learning by Doing**
Explore careers in computer science. Teach your 4-H club coding or other elements of computer science.
**Electric & Renewable Energy**
Learn general electrical concepts as you experiment with making light switches and circuits, test voltages and even build motors. Study energy use, magnetism, electronics and transistors. Later, you can determine your family’s electrical usage; measure electric usage of appliances; test grounded outlets; explore electronics; build simple radios, microphones, computers, and other equipment; and explore careers in electronics and engineering. Learn how wind can be used for sailing, lifting, pumping water and creating electricity.
**Learning by Doing**
You can design and build a wind-powered boat and wind turbines; discover where and why the wind blows; and explore the wind in art and literature.
**Robotics**
Learn about robot arms, legs, wheels, or under-water propulsion; explore sensors, analog and digital systems; build basic circuits; design a robot; and program a robot to do a task.
**Learning by Doing**
Explore careers and companies that use robotics. Research medical uses of robotics. Design and build a robot that solves a problem.
**Small Engines**
Learn how small engines work as well as how to service them safely. You’ll start by learning the parts and cycles of engines and exploring the importance of clean air to an efficiently running engine. Later, you will learn to troubleshoot, repair, and rebuild an engine; understand rules and regulations for small engines; and explore starting a small engine business or career.
**Learning by Doing**
Teach other youth about small engines, start your own business, and exhibit at fair.
**Uncrewed Aircraft Systems**
Explore the world from above the trees and discover new frontiers with Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). This project provides the opportunity to safely expand your understanding of UAS and the world around them.
**Learning by Doing**
You can explore the uses and applications of UAS, including how they link to other projects such as geology, robotics, electronics, crop science, and more.
**Woodworking**
Whether you want to build a bookshelf or a whole house, you’ll need similar skills, tools, fasteners, and joints. In this project you’ll learn how to accurately measure and mark boards, use various tools, safety practices, identify types of lumber, and select wood based on grain. As you get older, you’ll learn to use power tools, discover technology in tools, and explore career opportunities.
**Learning by Doing**
Select and build an item to exhibit at the fair; use your new skills to volunteer or help a neighbor; and teach others something you learn in the woodworking project.
**Leadership & Personal Development**
**Civic Engagement**
Take an active role in your community, country and world while learning about yourself and those around you. This project will encourage you to meet people and work with groups while learning about local, state and national governments. You also can make new friends from other countries and cultures through exchange programs.
**Learning by Doing**
Volunteer in your community; take part in a community conversation; attend Citizenship in Action in Topeka; participate in
exchange trips or host youth from another country.
**Leadership**
Learn what it takes to be a leader through skills including understanding yourself, considering others’ feelings, encouraging others, being responsible, communicating, making decisions, and managing and working with groups.
**Learning by Doing**
Learn and practice new skills, volunteer for a committee, run for office in your 4-H Club or school group, share your knowledge with others, or attend a camp, event, or training focused on leadership skills.
**Reading Adventures**
This project encourages you to harness your love of reading to learn more about your 4-H projects, research new topics, or entertain yourself. As Dr. Seuss wrote, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
**Learning by Doing**
Get a library card for your local public library, tour your library to know what they offer, explore a new genre of books, share a book review with others, and read with younger kids at an elementary school or after-school program.
**Self-Determined**
The self-determined project is just that — you decide what you do or study. Is there something you have a passion for that is not listed? This is your opportunity to create your own project. Research a sport, hobby, or career. Find your spark!
**Learning by Doing**
Identify and pursue a personal passion or interest; set goals and evaluate the completion of your goals; and share your hobby, interest, or activity with others.
**Natural Resources**
**Environmental Science**
Our growing environmental science curriculum helps you not only learn about your environment, but also explore ecosystems; understand conservation; learn how water can be responsibly preserved, protected, used and reused; expand recycling efforts; and understand your ecological footprint.
**Learning by Doing**
Organize a park, highway, or waterway cleanup; research an environmental topic of your choice and make a video or do a project talk; locate credible research on climate change to decide what you believe and why.
**Geology**
If you enjoy learning about interesting rocks or fossils, then dig into this project. Discover the types of minerals, rocks, and fossils in your area and other geological formations across Kansas and in other states.
**Learning by Doing**
Participate in field trips to various Kansas locations and collect, identify, and display specimens. Lead other youth to an interest in geology with talks, demonstrations, and educational displays.
**Shooting Sports**
If you want to learn to shoot, you should check out the 4-H shooting sports projects. Safety is the first priority of these projects. After that, the firearm or bow is used as a tool for positive youth development including teaching responsibility, discipline, and a host of other life skills. These projects teach gun safety, care and safety of shooting sports equipment, hunting practices, and provide an opportunity to test your skills. To participate, youth must be 8 years of age as of January 1 of the current year.
Check with your county or district extension office about which projects are offered in your area as 4-H certified instructors are required, for each discipline (project). Counties/Districts will only offer Shooting Sports Projects for which they have a Certified Coordinator and Certified Discipline(project) Leader.
**BB Gun** – This is a great place for youth to start to learn firearm safety and responsibility.
**Air Rifle** – Air Rifle allows youth to learn to shoot safely and responsibly while shooting longer distances
**Small Bore Rifle** – Youth learn to be safe and responsible while learning the technical skills of shooting even longer distances.
**Air Pistol** – Youth learn target shooting and pistol safety.
**Small Bore Pistol** – Youth will learn safety, stance, and target shooting with a pistol.
**Archery** – The 4-H Archery Discipline covers the basics of archery. We give the beginning archer a broad, sound foundation for learning the sport and being able to enjoy it for a lifetime.
**Muzzleloading** – Find out about muzzleloading history as you get a chance to learn to safely fire a muzzleloader.
**Shotgun** – Whether it’s trap, skeet, or sporting clays, youth will learn the lifetime sports involved in the shotgun project.
**Hunting Skills** – this project is all about teaching youth to make responsible and ethical decisions while hunting. It also involves other opportunities such as wildlife identification, and orienteering.
**Western Heritage** – provides youth with a chance to study historical firearms, take on a persona, and get a taste of cowboy action shooting.
**Learning by Doing**
Demonstrate safe use of air rifle, shotgun, bow, etc., through practice, talks, demonstrations, and exhibits. Exhibit shooting sports skills at local and district events. State matches for the different disciplines are held in the fall and spring, or participate in the Instructors Junior Apprentice Training Program (ages 14 and older). Promote firearm safety with educational displays and make shooting accessories .
**Wildlife**
Kansas wildlife is an important part of the state’s heritage and environment, ranging from buffalo to birds and fish to deer. In this project you’ll learn about wildlife behavior, habitat requirements, how wildlife species fit into nature’s scheme, how they are managed and how they relate to humans. Some local units also offer sport fishing as an additional project.
**Learning by Doing**
Create wildlife habitat; participate in the Hunting, Fishing and Fur Harvesting School; and enter the Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Contest.
Plant Sciences
Agronomy
Experiment with soil testing, grow and harvest crops, plant a wheat variety test plot, and learn about herbicides and fertilizers. Agronomy and field crops gives 4-H members the opportunity to learn about one of Kansas’ most valuable industries—agriculture—and what it takes to feed the world.
Learning by Doing
Participate in the 4-H Wheat Variety Plot program, take part in an area or state Crops ID contest, attend the 4-H Wheat Expo to learn more about Kansas agriculture, visit a local co-op or feed mill, shadow a local grain producer or agronomist.
Entomology
If you’ve ever chased butterflies, caught a ladybug for a closer look, or started a bug collection, the entomology project may be a great fit. You’ll learn the anatomy of an insect; make an insect net; and collect, pin, label, and exhibit an insect collection. Later, you’ll study how insects move, learn about insecticides and explore insect behavior.
Learning by Doing
Plant a butterfly garden, catch and observe a spider in its web, conduct an insect survey, and start an insect collection for exhibit at the fair.
Forestry
Learn to identify trees, determine differences between trees and shrubs, learn about different trees and tree parts, graft a bud to a living tree, discover health benefits of trees, investigate forest changes and learn about forest health and learn forest conservation techniques.
Learning by Doing
Collect leaves for an exhibit, visit an arboretum, help plant trees in your community and research the best trees for Kansas.
Horticulture & Landscape Design
Learn when, where and what to plant; learn the difference between cool and warm-season vegetables; learn plant parts and how they are used; learn how to use basic garden tools; study seed varieties and starting seeds indoors; study preventative pest controls; learn about specialty harvests and selling your produce; study plant pollinations; study food industry careers; and learn about biotechnology.
Brand names appearing in this publication are for product identification purposes only. No endorsement is intended, nor is criticism implied of similar products not mentioned.
Publications from Kansas State University are available at bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu
Date shown is that of publication or last revision. Contents of this publication may be freely reproduced for educational purposes. All other rights reserved. In each case, credit Amy Sollock, 4-H Project Selection Guide, Kansas State University, October 2023.
Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service
4H1065 rev. October 2023
K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension Work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Director of K-State Research and Extension, Kansas State University, County Extension Councils, Extension Districts.
The HOPES program is designed to provide a safe, nurturing environment for children and youth in need. Our programs focus on building self-esteem, promoting healthy relationships, and fostering a sense of community. Through our various initiatives, we aim to empower young people with the skills and resources they need to succeed in life.
Our programs include:
- **Gardening**: Children learn about the importance of healthy eating and the value of hard work through hands-on gardening activities.
- **Nature Exploration**: We organize trips to local parks and nature reserves where children can connect with the natural world and develop a love for the outdoors.
- **Horseback Riding**: This activity helps build confidence and teaches responsibility while providing a fun and engaging way to spend time outdoors.
- **Chicken Keeping**: Children learn about animal care and the importance of compassion while interacting with our farm animals.
We believe that by investing in the well-being of our youth, we can create a brighter future for all. Join us in making a difference in the lives of children and youth today! | b2e56c6f-b0e5-45d7-be93-9a0becb1f90c | CC-MAIN-2024-42 | https://bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/4-h-project-selection-guide_4H1065.pdf | 2024-10-04T08:13:47+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-42/segments/1727944253296.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20241004072652-20241004102652-00850.warc.gz | 120,365,268 | 6,076 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.993625 | eng_Latn | 0.996227 | [
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Dear Educator,
My signature is proof that I have reviewed my scholar’s work and supported him to the best of my ability to complete all assignments.
_________________________ _______________________
(Parent Signature) (Date)
Parents please note that all academic packets are also available on our website at www.brighterchoice.org under the heading “Remote Learning.” All academic packet assignments are mandatory and must be completed by all scholars.
Insects: Ants and Termites
Aggressive: forceful or ready to **attack**.
Chambers: empty, **enclosed** spaces; rooms
Destructive: causing a **large** amount of damage or harm.
Emit: to **send** out or give off
Nurseries: places to breed and **care** for young animals and plants
**Guided Practice**
Directions: How do we compare and contrast ants and termites? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
An ant colony begins with the queen. A young queen is born in one colony but leaves that colony to start her own. Her wings carry
The termite society is a bit different as well. Both a king and a queen rule termite colonies. They start a colony together. The queen is the most important member of the colony, sometimes laying six or seven thousand eggs a day. She is so well protected
Ants and termites are
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Independent Practice
Directions: How do we compare and contrast ants and termites? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
The termite society is a bit different as well. Both a king and a queen rule termite colonies. They start a colony together. The queen is the most important member of the colony, sometimes laying six or seven thousand eggs a day. She is so well protected.
These guards, called soldier ants, have larger heads and jaws than the other ants, and they place their bodies across the entrance to the nest to defend the colony. All ants, including
Ants and termites are
Day 1 Exit Ticket
Name one thing ants and termites have in common.
Directions: Why are the queens important to the colony? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
When ant larvae hatch, the queen cares for the first brood herself, feeding them with her own saliva as they change from wormlike larvae into pupae and, finally, adults. The queen does not leave the nest this whole time, getting nutrition from her now-useless wing muscles in order to survive.
Queens are important to the colony
Insects: Insects That Glow and Sing
Bioluminescence: light given off by some plants and ______animals______.
Forelegs: The front legs of a _____four_____ legged animal.
Lanterns: lights that have a _____covering______.
Transparent: a _____clear_____ material that allows objects behind it to be seen.
Tymbals: thin ______skins_____ that help produce sounds in some insects.
Guided Practice
Directions: Why do some insects sing and glow? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
Grasshoppers, crickets, and cicadas all use sound to communicate in much the same way that fireflies use their lights. Males attract females for the purpose of mating, making sure that these winged insects will continue to survive.
Insects sing and glow because ___________________________
Independent Practice
Directions: Why do some insects sing and glow? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
In order for any animals to survive, they must reproduce, or have babies. That means we must all work hard to attract mates. Fireflies glow when they are seeking mates. The males fly through the dark, flashing very specific signals to females who sit patiently and wait for them. Our yellowish-green lights stand out against
Insects sing and glow
Day 2 Exit Ticket
Insects sing and glow to find a m______________.
Day 2 Homework
Directions: How do insects make sounds? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
Grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets all make sounds by rubbing body parts together, sometimes two wings and sometimes a leg and a wing.
To make sounds, I lift my wings and rub the front wings together. The vein composed of many tiny teeth on the bottom of one wing rubs against the sharp edge, or scraper, on the top of the other wing. It is a little like rubbing your fingers along the teeth of a comb. As the two parts rub together, the wings vibrate, moving back and forth rapidly to produce the sounds that you hear.
Insects make sounds
Insects: Armored Tanks of the Insect World
Adapt: change in order to ___adjust_____ to new conditions.
Armor: protective layer or shell of some __plants__ and animals.
Beetles: insects known for their ______tough____ outer coverings.
Elytra: harderned ______front_____ wings of beetles that cover and protect the back wings.
Mimicry: the ______close_______ resemblance of one plant or animal to another.
Guided Practice
Directions: How can beetles protect themselves? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
We clever beetles have many means of protection. For instance, look at the bombardier beetle. This ground-living beetle produces chemicals in its abdomen. When attacked by a predator, the chemicals combine to form a bad-smelling, boiling liquid. The bombardier beetle makes a loud popping noise as it sprays its enemies with the chemicals, sometimes causing a bad burn to the other insect, or causing pain to people.
Beetles protect themselves
_________________________________________________________
Independent Practice
Directions: How can beetles protect themselves? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
Mimicry, or animal look-alikes, is another way beetles protect themselves. Look at this beetle. What does it look like? It is called a wasp beetle because its long yellow and black body mimics, or copies, that of a wasp. How do you think this keeps predators away from the wasp beetle? Of course, they are afraid of being stung.
Beetles protect themselves
Day 3 Exit Ticket
What is one way beetles can protect themselves?
Day 3 Homework
Directions: Read the text and answer the following question.
Directions: What makes tiger beetles a fierce predator? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
Tiger beetles are fierce predators, chasing down almost any prey they can find, including other insects. Their fast legs and strong jaws make their job easy. Tiger beetles are the fastest runners in the insect world. Even the larvae of tiger beetles are predators who eat other insects. The larvae hide in burrows, popping partway out and snatching passing insects with their jaws.
Tiger beetles are fierce predators
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Insects: Friend or Foe?
Entomologist: one who studies ______insects______
Extinction: the _____dying_____ out of a species until it no longer exists
Foe: ______enemy______or opponent
Pesticides: substances used to _____substances____ insects that threaten the life or health of plants and animals.
Pollinators: insects that carry _______pollen_____ from one plant to another
Guided Practice
Directions: How are insect foes to humans? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
I thought you should know about bugs, but the real reason I’m here today is to talk to you about helpful and harmful insects. I’ll start with the bad news. You already know that some plant-eating insects cause major crop damage. Leafcutter ants can strip the leaves from an orange grove in one night. A swarm of locusts, or large grasshoppers, can strip large areas of grassland in just a few hours. Fruit flies are orchard pests as well. The larvae of many moths, flies, bugs, beetles, and weevils are pests. The Colorado potato beetle is another example of an insect that damages crops.
Insects are foe to humans
Independent Practice
Directions: How can insects be foes to humans? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
I thought you should know about bugs, but the real reason I’m here today is to talk to you about helpful and harmful insects. I’ll start with the bad news. You already know that some plant-eating insects cause major crop damage. Leafcutter ants can strip the leaves from an orange grove in one night. A swarm of locusts, or large grasshoppers, can strip large areas of grassland in just a few hours. Fruit flies are orchard pests as well. The larvae of many moths, flies, bugs, beetles, and weevils are pests. The Colorado potato beetle is another example of an insect that damages crops.
Insects are foe to humans
Day 4 Exit Ticket
How can insects be foes to humans?
Day 4 Homework
Directions: How can ladybugs help humans? Use the text to help you answer the question.
- Restate the question
- Answer the question
- Cite one piece of evidence
A better solution, and one that is being used by many farmers today, is to keep plant pests under control by introducing their natural enemies, one insect against the other. Ladybugs and lacewings are predators that catch and eat aphids. Wasps and ants eat insects harmful to crops as well. Doesn’t it make better
Ladybugs help humans
Butterflies and moths are insects. They both like flowers. But butterflies and moths are different in many ways.
A butterfly's wings are usually colorful. A moth's wings are usually dull. Moth wings may be white or brown.
A butterfly has a thin body. A moth has a fatter body.
A butterfly is active during the day. A moth usually flies around at night.
A butterfly folds its wings when it rests. A moth opens its wings when it rests.
If you happen to see an insect with colorful wings flying around during the day, which do you think it might be?
Directions: Use the text to answer the following questions.
1) What two insects are compared in this text?
____________________________ and ____________________________
2) What color might a moth’s wings be?
____________________________
3) What do butterflies and moths have in common?
a. Butterflies and moths have fat bodies and open their wings when resting.
b. Butterflies and moths are colorful and active during the day.
c. Butterflies and moths are insects that like flowers.
4) What is this passage mostly about?
a. This text is mostly about butterflies.
b. This text is mostly about butterflies and moths.
c. This text is mostly about moths.
5) Which insect would you see mostly at night?
____________________________
Day 5 Homework
Directions: Write a creative story to go along with the picture.
[Title]
Written by: [Your name]
Dear Educator,
My signature is proof that I have reviewed my scholar’s work and supported him to the best of my ability to complete all assignments.
_________________________ ____________________________
(Parent Signature) (Date)
Parents please note that all academic packets are also available on our website at www.brighterchoice.org under the heading “Remote Learning.” All academic packet assignments are mandatory and must be completed by all scholars.
RI 2.9 Independent Practice
Directions: If I was doing a research project, circle the appropriate text that would provide me with sufficient information.
Exit Ticket
The text circled above are?
Non-fiction or Fiction
Alligators have short, broad snouts. Crocodiles have narrower snouts than alligators. They also have two large teeth that stick out. The drawings on this page show what alligators and crocodiles look like.
Can I use this text to compare and contrast alligators and crocodiles? If so, provide one detail from this text as support.
Using the Table of Contents from each text, circle the most appropriate text that could help to answer the question: How do scientists use fossils to learn more about dinosaurs?
Explain your choice below:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Exit Ticket
Which page of the text helps you to answer the question above? ________________
Caimans live in Central and South America. The shape of their head is similar to that of a crocodile. Gharials are fish-eaters that live in India. They have long, narrow snouts. The drawings on this page show what caimans and gharials look like.
How do you compare Caimans and Gharials?
My teacher wants me to write about different types of instruments. Circle the appropriate text that will help me. Explain your choice below.
Instruments
Just as there are many types of music, there are also many types of instruments. Each instrument has its own special personality. Each one creates its own kind of sound and mood. The sounds can be soft, loud, gentle, harsh, wild, or soothing.
A Drum Is . . .
People all over the world have made and used drums. Drums are percussion instruments, instruments that must be hit in order to create rhythmic sounds and patterns. But what exactly is a drum?
Crocodilians are fierce hunters. They use strong jaws to capture their prey. They eat animals as big as deer and cattle, and as small as fish and birds. They also will attack people. They cannot chew their food. They either swallow it whole or tear it apart. Sometimes they drag an animal underwater to drown it.
How are crocodilians fierce hunters?
Crocodilians are fierce hunters.
A red apple can help keep your heart strong. Eat some slices of this fruit for a healthy snack.
This is broccoli.
This is corn.
An orange is filled with vitamins that can help keep you from catching a cold. Squeeze this fruit for some tangy juice with breakfast in the morning.
Scenario: My teacher wants me to write about different kinds of vegetables for homework. Circle the text (on the previous page) that will provide me with sufficient information for my topic.
Explain your choice below.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Exit Ticket
Provide 1 piece of information that I could use to complete my homework assignment.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Most crocodilians are endangered. In many parts of the world, people kill crocodilians for food and for their skins. Farmers destroy their homes to create land for growing crops and grazing animals. Crocodilians are also captured for use in wildlife parks. They are often killed when they grow too big.
Why are crocodilians endangered?
Crocodilians are endangered
Sight is one of your five senses. It helps you learn about the world around you.
You see things with your eyes. When you see something, light is bouncing off that thing and into your eyes. Your eyes take in lots of information from that light. They take in information about color, shape, and movement. Then they send that information to your brain. Your brain can tell you what you're looking at!
Eyes are very important. They help you spot danger so you can stay safe. They help you spot the things around you so you can move through the world. And they help you spot your friend on the school bus, too!
1. How many senses do you have?
a. 1
b. 5
c. 3
2. Which sense is this passage about? _______________________
3. Read this sentence about sight.
"Your eyes take in information from light and send it to your brain, which tells you what you are looking at."
What body part actually tells you what you are looking at?
a. Your eyes tell you what you are looking at
b. Your brain tells you what you are looking at
c. Your brain and eyes tell you what you are looking at.
4. This text explains how you see things with your eyes. What happens after light bounces off something.
a. The light goes into your eyes.
b. The light goes to your brain
c. The light disappears
5. Why are your eyes important?
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Day 5 Homework
Directions: Write a creative story to go along with the picture.
[title]
Written by: ____________________________
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Dear Educator,
My signature is proof that I have reviewed my scholar’s work and supported him to the best of my ability to complete all assignments.
_____________________________ ____________________________
(Parent Signature) (Date)
Parents please note that all academic packets are also available on our website at www.brighterchoice.org under the heading “Remote Learning.” All academic packet assignments are mandatory and must be completed by all scholars.
Homework
Directions: Read each word in the box. Write the word beneath the correct picture.
bud cup mud sun run tub
cut bus rug cub nun nut
| bud | bus | cup | cut |
|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| mud | rug | run | sun |
| tub | cub | nun | nut |
Seals
James saw a seal on vacation. They live in the ocean, and like to sit in the sun.
What animal did James see on vacation.
Where do seals live?
Directions: Read the sentences. Highlight the short vowels. Record.
My dog likes to dig and run.
I can see a big bug jump.
The little red hen has a pet cat.
The pot is on top of the stove.
- a - e - i - o - u
_________ _________ _________ dog ___________
Early World Civilizations Lesson 4 Exit Ticket
Directions: Read and answer each question about Babylon.
1. What did King Nebuchadnezzar have built around Babylon?
- The Hanging Gardens
- The Ishtar Gate
2. How is Babylon different from Mesopotamia?
- It’s a city
- It’s a desert
3. Write and draw about another way Babylon was different from Mesopotamia.
Babylon was different from Mesopotamia because
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________.
Homework
Directions: Read the sentences. Highlight the digraphs. Record.
I like to catch fish with my dad.
What time should we go watch the movie?
Where did you get your new dishes from?
Three whales swam by my boat.
Please chew your gum.
-ch -sh -th wh-
catch ________ ________ ________
________ ________ ________ ________
________ ________ ________ ________
Nat’s Map
Nat was looking for her map. She looked under her bed, but she did not find her map. She asked her dad if he had seen her map. He could not help. He was taking a long nap! Nat looked under her pile of caps. There was her map. Nat was happy to find her map!
Choose the best answer:
1. What was Nat looking for?
_______________________________________________________
2. Why didn’t Nat’s dad help her?
_______________________________________________________
Write the -ap words below.
Word Bank:
clap flap
map nap
Dear Educator,
My signature is proof that I have reviewed my scholar’s work and supported him to the best of my ability to complete all assignments.
_________________________ _______________________
(Parent Signature) (Date)
Parents please note that all academic packets are also available on our website at www.brighterchoice.org under the heading “Remote Learning.” All academic packet assignments are mandatory and must be completed by all scholars.
ELA SPA #2
Please take out your test booklet.
Circle all the -am words.
gap ham ram bag
tin lap dam
jam yam lap
pop Sam cut
Write the -am words you found.
1. ____________________ 3. ____________________ 5. ____________________
2. ____________________ 4. ____________________ 6. ____________________
Fill in the missing letters.
Trace and draw.
Early World Civilizations Lesson 5 Exit Ticket
Directions: Read and answer each question about Egypt.
1. What is the name of the river in Egypt?
- Nile River
- Euphrates River
2. What was the gift of the Nile?
- Mesopotamia
- Egypt
3. Write and draw about one reason Egypt was called the gift of the Nile.
Egypt was the gift of the Nile because
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________.
Thanksgiving Break
Turkeys
Turkeys are a kind of bird. Some are brown. They have tail feathers. Male turkeys are called Tom Turkeys. Girl turkeys are called hens. Hens lay eggs. Wild turkeys live in the woods. They have dark feathers. The feathers help them hide in the woods. Wild turkeys spend the day looking for food. They eat nuts, seeds, and small bugs. At night, turkeys sleep in trees.
1. Another meaning for the word kind is ____________.
a. nice b. type
2. Which type turkeys lay eggs?
a. Tom Turkeys b. Hens
3. Where do wild turkeys live?
a. In the woods b. On farms
4. When do turkeys eat?
Turkeys eat _________________________________________.
5. Where do wild turkeys sleep?
Turkeys sleep _________________________________________.
6. Which food do turkeys eat?
Turkeys eat _________________________________________.
22
Homework
Directions: Use the color code to color each sight word in the turkey correctly.
Color Code
you-orange they-brown with-red for-yellow like-yellow see-green
Thanksgiving Break
Turkeys Pt. 2
Turkeys are very large birds. Wild turkeys can fly short distances. They can also run and swim. Turkeys like many other birds make sounds. Male Turkeys gobble. The sound is loud. It can be heard one mile away. Female turkeys do not gobble. Instead, they cluck like a chicken.
1. Which sound do female turkeys make?
a. gobble
b. cluck
2. Which word best describes a gobble?
a. loud
b. quiet
3. How far away can a gobble be heard?
a. 10 miles
b. One mile
4. What are three things that turkeys can do?
Turkeys can _________________________________.
Homework
Directions: Read the words in the word bank. Find and circle each word in the crossword.
| Word Bank |
|-----------|
| turkey |
| pumpkin |
| corn |
| pilgrim |
| pie |
| Mayflower |
| a w t r e b p l e |
| n p u m p k i n o |
| h s r g c v e q i |
| l b k z a n o g c |
| t x e m f c u i o |
| m a y f l o w e r |
| d k m h j f c p n |
| y p i l g r i m a |
Thanksgiving Break
Thanksgiving with Family
Each Thanksgiving, Liza’s family drives to Grandma’s house. They spend time with their aunts, uncles, and cousins. Grandma cooks a big dinner. Sam’s favorite Thanksgiving food is pumpkin pie. His dad likes turkey. Mom likes both. At Thanksgiving, Ty’s family tells what they are thankful for. Ty is thankful for his family. He is also thankful for his new dog, Max. Thanksgiving is a special day for many families. Some families go to parades, and others watch football. Most families enjoy eating a special meal together.
1. Who cooks Thanksgiving dinner?
a. Liza’s mom
b. Liza’s grandmother
2. What is Sam’s favorite food at Thanksgiving?
a. Turkey
b. Pumpkin Pie
3. Who is Max?
a. Ty’s dog
b. Liza’s dog
4. What do some families like to do?
a. Watch football
b. Read new books
5. What are you thankful for?
I am thankful for _________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Homework
Directions: Write the letter that makes each beginning sound. Draw each word.
cat
snake, umbrella, hammer
jar, elephant, turtle
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The thought of spring cleaning may seem overwhelming. Especially when you think about all of the projects involved; cabinets, oven, cooktop, pantry, microwave, vent hood and backspashes. Don’t forget the refrigerator and freezer. And that’s just the kitchen! Cleaning and organizing the garage, closets, attic and basement storage areas are on the list, too. Ceiling fans, light fixtures and chandeliers also need cleaning.
Then there is finding the stuff you will need to get it done, as well as the time and motivation. When you have the time, you don’t have the motivation. When you feel motivated you don’t have the time. Eventually there comes a day when you say, “I really need to get this done.” Here are some suggestions on how to get motivated, accomplish more, and maybe even have a little fun in the process!
1. **Break each large task into a list of smaller ones.** For instance, divide “clean the garage” into “organize garage shelves”, “sweep garage floor”, “sort tools”, etc. Write them on a pad, and cross each off as you complete it. Writing them down and crossing them off gives you visual reinforcement and a feeling of accomplishment.
2. **Pick a small reward for yourself when you complete a project.** This can be something as simple as taking a little break to call a friend, read a chapter out of a book, or even some kind of sweet treat. Don’t underestimate the value of a short nap and don’t overdo the chocolate.
3. **Listen to your favorite music.** Up-tempo music is great while you are doing mundane activities like sorting through a “junk drawer” or cleaning out the closet. It’s okay to dance and sing while you work. In fact, you’ll enjoy working more if you move around! Remember the vacuuming scene from the movie Mrs. Doubtfire? Classic!
4. **If you feel overwhelmed by a big project, don’t commit yourself to finishing it.** Simply commit to work on it for 30 or even just 15 minutes. Then if you feel like it, keep going. Most often the momentum will be enough to keep you going. If not, quit and resolve to give it a go on another day.
---
**Spring Cleaning Tips**
**1. Break each large task into a list of smaller ones.** For instance, divide “clean the garage” into “organize garage shelves”, “sweep garage floor”, “sort tools”, etc. Write them on a pad, and cross each off as you complete it. Writing them down and crossing them off gives you visual reinforcement and a feeling of accomplishment.
**2. Pick a small reward for yourself when you complete a project.** This can be something as simple as taking a little break to call a friend, read a chapter out of a book, or even some kind of sweet treat. Don’t underestimate the value of a short nap and don’t overdo the chocolate.
**3. Listen to your favorite music.** Up-tempo music is great while you are doing mundane activities like sorting through a “junk drawer” or cleaning out the closet. It’s okay to dance and sing while you work. In fact, you’ll enjoy working more if you move around! Remember the vacuuming scene from the movie Mrs. Doubtfire? Classic!
**4. If you feel overwhelmed by a big project, don’t commit yourself to finishing it.** Simply commit to work on it for 30 or even just 15 minutes. Then if you feel like it, keep going. Most often the momentum will be enough to keep you going. If not, quit and resolve to give it a go on another day.
Spring Cleaning Tips (continued from cover)
5. Read your to-do list and prepare the necessary tools and supplies the night before. Your subconscious mind will work on the project while you sleep. Often you will wake up with ideas on how to do the job better. And, if you get the prep work out of the way, you will have a lot more momentum when you get started on your projects. Your attitude will be much better and you will be fired up and ready to go if much of the prep work is done beforehand.
6. Be ruthless with clutter! If you are cleaning out a closet or storage area, keep a large trash container nearby. Undecided as to whether you should keep something? Ask yourself, “When was the last time I used this? What’s the worst thing that could happen if I get rid of this and how hard would it be to replace?” Donate useful items to a charity. You’ll have less to score and you will feel really good about it!
7. Big projects like carpet and upholstery cleaning require expert help. Call The Clean Force Company today. Your home will look, feel and smell fresh. An added benefit? Just knowing that we are coming to clean will give you the incentive to start on other spring cleaning projects that you may be putting off.
Preventing Homework Headaches
Spring fever can affect people in many different ways, but for children of school age, it can mean more difficulty in completing homework each day. You may find yourself wondering if how your child more than before with homework, but it is important for children to learn how to complete this work independently. Here are some tips to help ease the difficulty for both you and your child.
» Take care of your child’s physical needs first. Offer a healthy snack and an opportunity for some physical activity before settling down to tackle homework.
» A regular schedule for homework will be beneficial, as your child will know what to expect and will not be tempted to put it off. Set a regular schedule and plan on sticking to it.
» Make sure your child has all of the materials and supplies he or she needs to complete each assignment. You may want to set up a designated area in your home in which to do homework, with plenty of school supplies, pens, pencils, paper, and other necessary items.
» Offer an incentive if your child is struggling to complete daily assignments. You may wish to have a sticker chart to track progress, with an outing or prize at the end of week given for a full week of completion.
» Finally, plan on taking breaks during homework time if your child is not able to concentrate for long periods of time. A kitchen timer will let your child know when to start homework and how long breaks will last.
Keeping Your Pets Safe this Easter
Easter is a fun and exciting holiday for children, but for your pets, it can be filled with danger. The treats in your children’s Easter baskets and the decorations around your home can be hazardous to your pet’s health.
Some plants, especially Easter lilies, are highly toxic to pets and can be fatal if eaten. All parts of the Easter lily, day lily, and tiger lily are toxic to cats. Eating even a small part of the plant can lead to kidney failure, which if left untreated, can cause death. Other spring plants that are concerning include daffodils, hydrangeas, wisteria, and ivy. Ingestion of these plants can cause stomach pain, vomiting, dehydrations, and difficulty breathing.
Also harmful if eaten is the plastic grass used in Easter baskets. It can become twisted within a pet’s intestines and can require surgery to remove. Foil candy wrappers are tempting to pets, but can cause intestinal blockages. Keep these items out of your children’s Easter baskets or up out of the way of your pets to be safe.
Finally, candy can be harmful to pets, with chocolate possibly fatal to cats, dogs, and ferrets. Dark chocolate is worse for pets than milk chocolate. Xylitol, an artificial sweetener found in some candies and gum, can be toxic too. All candy in your family’s Easter basket should be kept out of the reach of your animal companions.
What are some ways to treat your pets this Easter? Give them their own Easter basket filled with healthy treats, a new leash, and some fun chew toys.
Reduce Bedtime Stress
Falling asleep can be difficult when you are stressed. Try these tips to help make your bedtime more peaceful and relaxing.
1. Do something physical for a few minutes. Dance around your living room, take a short walk on your treadmill, or run in place for a minute or so. You will release some of your pent up tension and help to begin the relaxation process for your mind.
2. Enjoy a warm drink. Herbal tea (without caffeine) or warm milk will temporarily increase your body temperature and calm your nervous system. It is also a way to slow down your mental energy.
3. Massage your aching body parts. You can very easily give yourself a foot or scalp massage. This will cause your tensed up parts to release, allowing your whole body to feel more relaxed.
4. Take a warm bath. This will calm your entire body. Use your soaking time to relax your mind as well. Once you’ve spent this time relaxing, you will find that it is easier to fall asleep.
Clean Force Client Testimonial
“Just had our carpets cleaned!! House smells great!!! Thank you so much!!!! You guys are great!!!!! If you need anything cleaned PLEASE call this company!! They are awesome.”
~ Regina W. Easley, SC
Quick Tips
Home Tip
Want a quick and easy upgrade to your bathroom? Install a curved shower rod. Not only does this give you more room in a shower, but it also adds an elegant detail to the look of the space. To complete the upgrade, get a matching towel head. We carry one in a variety of styles that offer special features that improve both function and look.
Car Tip
If your wheels are looking particularly dirty, you may have a buildup of brake dust. It is best to remove this as soon as possible. If left on your vehicle, it can combine with road grime and moisture and get baked on by the heat from your wheels. A damp sponge and clean cold water is the best way to remove brake dust.
Food Tip
Crystallized honey is still good but may be hard to use in that state. To loosen it up, place the jar in a bowl of hot water for about five to ten minutes. Stir until it is smooth and more liquid. To keep crystals from developing, store honey in a cool and dry place. Do not place it in the refrigerator and keep moisture out of the jar. | <urn:uuid:f855fe9a-0cec-4522-b6a7-15041c76960a> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://0201.nccdn.net/4_2/000/000/056/7dc/ccnl_APR2017_Clean-Force_press.pdf | 2019-06-25T10:27:43Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999817.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20190625092324-20190625114324-00422.warc.gz | 320,747,062 | 2,139 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.998759 | eng_Latn | 0.999023 | [
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Clean Streams
A GUIDE TO RIPARIAN MANAGEMENT IN NORTHLAND
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Waikato Regional Council for sharing the Clean Streams Booklet concept. Thanks also to Angelina Legg for her contribution toward the writing of this booklet.
## Contents
Managed riparian margins ................................................................. 3
Riparian management basics ......................................................... 5
Finding the right approach .............................................................. 9
Animals out – fencing stock from water ........................................... 11
Coping with floods ........................................................................ 14
Fenced grass riparian margins ....................................................... 16
Stream crossing margins ............................................................... 19
Revegetating riparian margins ....................................................... 23
Planting guide ............................................................................... 27
Managing weeds and pests ............................................................ 34
Managing wetlands, seeps and swamps .......................................... 37
Managing drains for multiple benefits ............................................. 41
Pulling the threads together ............................................................ 45
Calculate the costs ........................................................................ 46
The Riparian Management Zone .................................................... 47
Reference list ............................................................................... 48
Contacts for more information ....................................................... IBC
**Disclaimer**
We have endeavoured to ensure that the information in this publication is accurate and current. However, we do not accept liability for any error or omission.
The information that appears in this publication is intended to provide the best possible land management practices, systems and advice that the above organisations have had access to. It may be subject to change at any time, without notice. The above organisations take no responsibility whatsoever for the currency and/or accuracy of this information, its completeness or fitness for purpose.
Please note all references to regional / district council legal requirements were correct at the time of printing.
This booklet is designed to help you maximise both economic and environmental performance
This booklet provides information about how to manage your riparian margins to improve water quality, freshwater life, bank stability and biodiversity values, as well as enhance your land. There is no single answer for clean streams, and the management of your riparian margins may change from paddock to paddock. Management can range from total exclusion of stock and revegetation to periodic grazing. There are many different approaches you can take, depending on your budget, the type of waterways on your land and your individual management and environmental goals.
What do we mean by waterways and riparian margins?
The term riparian includes the land beside waterways (rivers, streams, creeks, drains, ponds, wetlands, springs, estuaries and the coast) that go through or border your land (see Figure 1). It is also important to think about gullies, which often do not hold water but can be responsible for channeling runoff into main waterways during wet periods. To achieve clean streams it is important to combine riparian management with good land management practices.
Figure 1: Examples of waterways in a farming catchment.
Managed riparian margins
Keeping ahead of the play
If you are working with the land and your local environment is important to you, managing your waterways can have many benefits. Well-managed riparian margins will help you meet market demands, enhance your farm and stock management, and protect water quality and freshwater life into the future.
Water quality in rivers and lakes is a major issue in Northland. Water quality varies greatly from pristine in upper native forest catchments through to highly impacted in lowland catchments used for intensive farming. From water quality monitoring we know that most streams are unsafe for swimming at certain times, for example after heavy rain. In general, the more forest in the catchment, the higher the quality of the waterways.
What’s in it for me?
Landowners say that managing riparian margins has benefited their property by:
- Increasing land values including amenity and recreation values.
- Increased farm production from more accurate fertiliser application and better pasture management.
- Providing shade and shelter to reduce production losses.
- Reducing stock losses, saving money on replacements or vet bills.
- Saving time with stock management.
- Providing habitat for native species and pollinating and other beneficial insects.
- Reducing bank erosion and protecting valuable productive soil.
- Improving stock health through better quality stock water giving better production.
There are many good examples in Northland where profitable farming businesses have benefited from good environmental management practices.
Meeting the market
New Zealand’s internationally recognised clean, green image plays an important role in marketing our agricultural and horticultural products to overseas customers. Many industries now have environmental guidelines and quality assurance programmes in place that include aspects of waterway management.
Management is not always total exclusion
Where flooding is common, just putting up a temporary electric fence next to the waterway when the cows are in the paddock will make a difference. In other situations, a one or two-wire electric fence set back from a river, lake or wetland can allow grass to provide an excellent filter for runoff. If nitrogen in ground water is an issue then using wetlands and swamps as filters is an important action that can be taken to look after water quality. It does not need to happen all in one year – small changes over several years can make a big difference to water quality.
Help available
Northland Regional Council
The Northland Regional Council offers assistance to landowners wanting to protect and enhance their riparian margins. Land management staff members are able to give advice, work with communities interested in integrated catchment management and help run local workshops. The regional council also has limited funding available through the Environment Fund. This is a contestable fund to provide assistance to landowners undertaking environmental projects. Rates of assistance are variable. For more information contact the land management staff at the regional council.
Dairy NZ
If you need further advice or support regarding waterway management or would like to discuss how it impacts on the rest of your farm system, then please feel free to talk to Dairy NZ on 0800 4324 7969.
Managing riparian margins can help
The area beside waterways that forms the interface between water and land is called the riparian margin (Figure 2). This area is a crucial buffer between land use activities and the water. Well-managed riparian margins need to be free from stock damage, so they can perform a number of important roles.
Riparian margins can be managed for several different objectives
Well-managed riparian margins protect water quality by:
- Filtering surface runoff.
- Taking up nutrients (through plant roots).
- Removing nitrogen (bacteria in wet riparian soils can remove substantial quantities of nitrogen from water, releasing it to the atmosphere as nitrogen gas).
- Preventing stock access when they are fenced (reducing bank trampling and direct inputs to waterways of sediment, nutrients, and harmful faecal bacteria).
- Helping to keep banks stable.
Well-managed riparian margins can improve biodiversity and provide food and habitat for freshwater life by:
- Protecting fish spawning habitat – for example inanga spawn in areas of tall native grasses growing in or close to the water in the lower floodplains of rivers.
- Providing leaf litter, which is important food for aquatic animals.
- Shading the water – important for reducing water temperature for sensitive freshwater life. Shade also reduces the growth of nuisance plants in waterways.
- Providing for more diverse plant and animal communities.
- Providing important native wildlife corridors and habitat.
How land use practices affect water
One of the first steps towards cleaner water on your land is to understand more about how land use can affect water. Understanding the principles means you can adapt management to suit your situation.
What you do on your land will affect the water downstream and ultimately our beaches and coastal areas. The water passing through your land will eventually end up at the coast carrying everything extra with it. Northland generally has slow flowing rivers ending in shallow harbours, which are easily affected by pollutants.
What’s in it for me?
Managing riparian margins can also provide benefits by:
- Stabilising banks.
- Reducing stock losses (fencing them out of dangerous wet areas).
- Enhancing the farm landscape.
- Providing habitat for pollinating insects.
- Reducing the need to clear drains and streams of aquatic weeds and silt.
- Excluding stock from natural water (which can sometimes carry disease organisms).
- Making stock and grazing management easier.
There are four main pollutants coming from rural land – nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment and faecal matter (containing bacteria and viruses).
Table 1 shows why these things are a problem and how they get into water from your land.
Table 1: Sources of waterway pollutants
| Pollutant | Effects | Source of pollutant | How it gets to water |
|--------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
| Nitrogen | • Feeds nuisance plant and algae growth in waterways | • Urine from stock | • Moves down through soil (leaching) into ground water |
| | • Algae and nuisance plants affect stream life, block water intakes | • Nitrogen in fertiliser | and subsurface drains, which feed into streams |
| | and make water unpleasant for swimming and drinking | • Ammonia in farm dairy effluent | • Surface runoff |
| | • Ammonia can be toxic to fish | | • Stock in and crossing in streams |
| | | | • Discharges from oxidation ponds |
| Phosphorus | • Feeds nuisance plant and algae growth in waterways | • Dung from stock | • Soil and bank erosion (phosphorus binds to soil |
| | • Algae and nuisance plants affect stream life, block water intakes | • Phosphate in fertiliser | particles) |
| | and make water unpleasant for swimming and drinking | • Farm dairy effluent | • Surface runoff |
| | | • Soil sediment | • Discharges from oxidation ponds |
| | | | • Stock in streams |
| | | | • Subsurface drains |
| Sediment | • Makes water murky and affects stream life | • Slips | • Surface runoff |
| | • Poor water clarity makes water unsafe for swimming | • Recent drain cleanings | • Stream bank collapse |
| | • Builds up in estuaries and harbours leading to mangrove spread | • Stream bank erosion and trampling | • Slips |
| | and smothering of shellfish beds | • Roads tracks and races | |
| | • Makes water unpleasant and unsafe for drinking | • Surface of paddocks especially pugged and cultivated | |
| Faecal matter | • Human health risk from swimming and drinking | • Dung from stock | • Stock in streams |
| (bacteria, viruses)| • Can affect stock health if present in stock water | • Farm dairy effluent | • Subsurface drains |
| | | • Septic tank overflow | • Discharges from oxidation ponds |
| | | • Feral animals | • Surface runoff |
| | | | • Poorly managed effluent irrigation |
| | | | • Poorly managed septic systems |
The regional council has rules relating to works within the Riparian Management Zone (riparian margin) and these should be considered when undertaking any land disturbance or discharging concentrated animal effluent adjacent to a water body. Please contact regional council staff if you are considering work in this area (see inside back cover for more details).
Landowners and regional council staff measuring water quality.
Prevention is better than cure!
What happens on land affects water.
Well-managed riparian margins provide the last opportunity to keep pollutants out of waterways. However, adopting good management practices will help reduce pollution levels at their source, as well as enhancing your business.
Good land management practices include:
- Matching land uses to contour and soil types.
- Managing grazing to avoid concentrating animals near waterways during wet weather to reduce pugging, pasture damage and soil erosion.
- Avoiding overgrazing steep slopes and areas beside waterways.
- Providing shade, shelter and water troughs for stock, away from waterways.
- Choosing the appropriate fertiliser and applying in accordance with the “Fertiliser Code of Practice” to keep fertilisers and chemicals out of riparian margins.
- Managing your dairy effluent effectively including feed pads and stand-off areas.
- Minimising runoff from farm tracks and races by providing sediment traps or cut-offs into grassed areas.
- The retirement of steeper headwaters into a timber crop or native regeneration.
- Preventing silage leachate from reaching water.
- Retaining wet swampy areas as sponges and filters.
- Providing low impact crossing areas for stock and vehicles.
For more information about management practices to improve environmental outcomes on your land, ask your advisor or contact land management staff at the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004 or check out the website at www.nrc.govt.nz
Finding the right approach
Using research undertaken in New Zealand and overseas over the last decade, five key approaches to managing riparian margins on farms have been identified.
These approaches are based on the goals of:
- Improving water quality.
- Enhancing freshwater life.
- Improving native habitat.
- Maximising productivity.
- Increasing aesthetic, landscape and cultural values.
- Minimising flooding problems.
The way you decide to manage your riparian margins will ultimately depend on your individual goals.
Five key approaches
Here are five key approaches to managing riparian margins:
1. **Animals out**: Preventing stock access to rivers, streams, drains, wetlands, lakes estuaries and the coast.
2. **Fenced grass waterway margins**: Maintaining an ungrazed grass strip beside waterways of at least one metre wide on flat land and wider on sloping land.
3. **Vegetated margins**: Replanting vegetation beside waterways in a fenced, ungrazed strip.
4. **Managed wetlands**: Managing wetlands, seeps, swamps and gullies, to filter sediment and nutrients, and provide habitat.
5. **Managed floodways**: Managing riparian margins to maintain the ability of rivers and streams to carry floodwaters.
On some properties, a mix of all five approaches may be needed, while on others it may be appropriate to focus on one.
Figure 3 (page 10) shows the different approaches and how they can each achieve different benefits for your farm business, water quality, freshwater life and waterway banks. The success of each approach will depend on how you manage the riparian margin itself and the surrounding and upstream land.
Developing a plan for action
When considering how to manage riparian margins better, it is helpful to think about what you want to achieve and to set realistic goals. It might work best to do a little bit each year at critical places. That way you can learn what works best for you and it is easier to keep up with maintenance.
Here are some things to think about when planning:
- What do I value about the stream, drain, river, lake, wetland or estuary on my land?
- What, if anything, is wrong with the condition of the water and riparian margin? And where do I go to get more information?
- How is my land contributing to the condition of the water?
- What things are most important to me to protect or improve about the water and riparian margin? For example freshwater life, water quality and stable banks.
- What management approaches will help improve the riparian margin to meet my priority goals?
- What resources (incentives and advice from agencies, funding organisations, community groups and industry) are available to help with riparian management?
- What challenges am I likely to face in managing riparian margins on my land and how can I best plan to deal with those challenges? For example flooding, plant and animal pests.
- What are the costs and benefits to me of managing a riparian margin? Where are the areas on the land that will give the biggest benefit for the least cost?
- How does riparian management fit in with other priorities for the property?
- How will my management affect land and water quality downstream? For example effects on popular swimming areas or shellfish gathering areas.
- How will upstream activities affect me?
- What are my neighbours doing about riparian management? Is there scope to work together? For example, setting up or joining a landcare group.
- How much time and money have I got to maintain managed riparian margins?
1 Based on Ministry for the Environment, 2000.
Animals out – fencing stock from water
What will it achieve?
Fencing riparian margins to keep stock out of water can achieve:
- Better water quality by reducing the amount of faecal matter and sediment directly deposited into the waterway. You will also slightly reduce some of the nitrogen and phosphorous going into your waterways but additional management options will be needed if nutrient reduction is your main goal.
- Better aquatic habitat by preventing damage to the stream bed and reducing the amount of sediment reaching the waterway.
- More stable banks by preventing treading and erosion.
What’s in it for me?
Fencing stock out of waterways can:
- Reduce stock losses.
- Reduce bank erosion and drain maintenance costs.
- Conserve soil.
- Improve stock health by preventing access to unsafe water supplies.
- Improve stock management.
Excluding stock from riparian margins and water is regarded as the best “first step” to improve water quality in rural Northland.
Deciding where to put your fence
You may need to set your fence back if banks are unstable or prone to flooding. There are positives and negatives for either fencing to follow the bends of riparian margins or putting in a straight-line fence. A straighter fence needs less material and construction but might mean lost grazing and areas of potential weed problems. Consider it if access to the area is needed for weed control and gravel removal. Fenced banks are less likely to collapse but may still get damaged by floods.
Consider the overall layout of your property. Fencing waterways can be of more value if they are used to both improve subdivision for grazing management and as a stock control measure.
What sort of fence is best?
A riparian fence will depend on individual farm circumstances, but should be stock-proof. If you are running dairy cattle on flood-prone areas, a one or two-wire electric fence with permanent posts is usually the best option. For sheep, four electric wires are needed. It is essential to have a gate or another way of extracting stock if they get into the fenced area. A retractable gate made of two to four electrified tapes is a low-cost option.
Access
Occasionally you may need to use machinery to clear weeds, silt, gravel or debris out of a channel. An electric fence can be dropped using pin lock insulators or removed to allow machinery access. With a more substantial fence you might need to leave enough space between the bank edge and the fence for machinery to work. It may be sufficient to only do this on one side of the channel rather than both. Where the waterway forms a boundary between two properties, access from both sides will be needed so cleaning can alternate between properties.
Remember that you may need a resource consent from the Northland Regional Council to do work in the riparian margin – this is to ensure that damage to the stream bed and freshwater life is minimal. Give land management or consents staff a call on 0800 002 004 if you need more information.
Making temporary fencing work for you
To help avoid impacts on water, you can use temporary electric fences to protect sensitive areas at critical times. For example, run a tape around wet areas and seeps during winter when grazing particular paddocks. This will avoid pugging, which damages the soil and creates dirty runoff. Pugging also damages grass growth, affecting farm productivity. Fencing the area off while stock are in the paddock will provide a wider vegetative filter for runoff, reduce the chance of stock getting bogged and keep them away from the liver fluke host breeding areas.
A temporary electric fence can also be used on slopes to keep cattle out of springs and wet areas that drain towards a stream. This reduces pugging and allows the grass in the fenced area to filter any dirty runoff coming from pasture upslope, before it reaches the stream. When the soil is drier, the fence can be removed and the grass grazed.
Managing riparian margins without fences
In some situations, it is not practical to fence all the riparian margins on your land. While not optimal, there are some options for management without fencing:
- Provide troughs with clean water away from natural water.
- Provide shade and shelter away from natural water.
- Keep stock numbers lower in paddocks with water to minimise damage.
- Avoid grazing paddocks with unfenced riparian margins during wet periods.
- Graze sheep, young stock or lighter stock in paddocks with water access.
- Monitor grazing and move stock if they start to damage banks.
- Put in crossings in the areas where stock naturally cross water.
These options will help minimise the effects of stock on water in the areas that are difficult to manage or until you have more resources for fencing.
Stock watering options
Fencing off riparian margins may remove a valuable source of stock water. Putting in a reticulated stock water system (using water extracted from streams, dams or bores) can be expensive, but will improve stock health and productivity. Studies show that a large variety of bacteria and viruses can be transmitted to stock from drinking water contaminated by animals and their waste\(^2\). Putting in trough water also allows you to deliver animal remedies and supplements through your water system.
The Resource Management Act allows you to take as much water as you need from rivers, streams, lakes or ground water bores for reasonable stock watering, as long as it does not have an adverse effect on the environment.
*For more information, contact land management staff at the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004.*
---
\(^2\) Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council, Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand.
Coping with floods
Flooding is a major factor (and challenge) in the management of a riparian margin. When making decisions in these areas you will need to take into account height, frequency and duration of floods, flood control schemes and stopbanks.
Fencing
Flooding can be one of the biggest challenges for maintaining fences beside waterways. If a fence is frequently flooded, it needs to be flood-proofed to prevent it being broken by the force of the water or debris building up on the wires. Simple one to two-wire electric fences are less likely to collect flood debris and therefore be swept away in floods. They are also easier to stand back up after a flood event but will need a cut-off switch to prevent the entire circuit from shorting out when the water rises.
For dry-stock farmers who opt for seven to nine wires with posts and battens, flooding can cause expensive damage. Suggestions to reduce the damage and cost of repairs include:
- Try one or two-wire electric fencing along the most flood-prone sections.
- Construct separate “blow-out” sections across flood channels.
- Put fence wires on the downstream side of posts so the wire is able to lie flat providing less resistance to the water flow.
- Use un-barbed staples so wires can pop more easily.
- Avoid using battens in flood-prone sections to reduce snagging.
- Using hanging fences where the panels hinge upward as the water level rises.
Another option is to attach the fence wires to battens that are fastened to the top of the post with light wire loops. Under the pressure of floodwaters the loops break allowing the fence to collapse.
Where there is potential for flooding, it is best to put your fence further away from the waterway. This is especially important if stopbanks are present or on the outside bends of rivers where there is the greatest potential for erosion. When locating the fence, think about where the height of the bottom wire is in relation to expected flood levels. After large floods, it can be helpful to record the flood height to help with the placement of fences in the future.
Planting
Be careful to choose appropriate plants when planning any tree planting in an area that may be prone to flooding. Plants may impede flood flows by reducing the channel size, trap debris when bigger or be swept away with time and money wasted. Trees, shrubs, or long rank vegetation can trap sediment and debris from floodwaters.
Trees can impede flood flows to cause problems upstream. If planting close to the water choose smaller grasses and flaxes that will bend with the flows. Further back in flood-prone areas, trees will need maintaining and can be pruned to provide a single stem that will more easily allow water past. Maintenance is the key; if you are planting trees in flood prone areas you need to have the time to maintain them. Prunings and wind throw must be removed from areas that flood. If time is scarce, stick with low growing species such as flax or a grass sward.
Where planting is unadvisable the areas may need to be grazed periodically to prevent grass growing rank and weeds establishing (refer to page 16). Ensure you graze with a low stocking rate and right class of animals, for short periods only. Remember to fence the stream from stock access with temporary standards and tape.
Willows planted too close to a river – note flood debris.
Fenced grass riparian margins
For the purposes of this booklet, grass riparian margins are fenced, ungrazed or infrequently grazed strips on the edge of rivers, streams, drains, lakes, estuaries and the coast in areas where farm dairy effluent is not irrigated to land. (Refer to page 12 for more details.)
What can grass riparian margins achieve?
The main role of a grassed riparian margin is to improve water quality through sediment and nutrient removal, which also provides benefits for freshwater life. Grasses, native sedges and rushes are the most effective filter for removing sediment, bacteria and nutrients from surface runoff on relatively level ground.
A grassed riparian margin will filter runoff best when water flows through it in a sheet rather than in channels. The slower the water flow the better the filter will work.
A dense grass sward slows runoff so that sediment, phosphorus (which binds to soil particles) and faecal matter can settle out before the runoff reaches waterways. Studies show that up to 90 percent of sediment can be caught in an effectively constructed filter strip. Faecal bacteria that get trapped in a grass filter strip will die off in sunlight.
Although trees and shrubs can be planted, they should not shade the grass enough to reduce its density.
In addition to the benefits of keeping stock out of waterways, a well-managed grass riparian margin provides:
- Improved water quality by filtering sediment, phosphorus and faecal matter out of surface runoff.
- Improvement for freshwater life by reducing sediment entering waterways.
- Improvement in bank stability by having a protective groundcover of grasses.
Where is a fenced grass margin most important?
In Northland, grass riparian margins will be most effective at improving water quality\(^3\):
- Along drains and small headwater streams that feed into the floodplain rivers.
- In areas with significant surface runoff.
- Beside waterways that are strip-grazed in autumn and winter.
- In the hilly upper reaches of streams.
- Beside vegetated drains in areas with poor soil drainage or pugging and moderate slopes.
- Where paddocks are cultivated.
\(^3\) Quinn, 1999.
The effectiveness of a grass waterway margin will depend on:
- Keeping the grass healthy and vigorous to encourage dense, low growth and to allow it to filter effectively.
- The type of vegetation next to the watercourse – a dense grass sward makes the best filter.
- The porosity of the soil – water seeps rapidly through very porous soils, taking soluble nutrients into waterways.
- The width of the grass margin – within reason, the wider the better!
- The slope of the land beside the waterway – where adjacent land is steep, the grass margin will need to be wider, or may not be the most effective management option. You might need to consider alternative land uses to reduce erosion and adopt careful pasture, stock and farm track management.
In areas where tile and mole drains are widely used, a grass riparian margin will not be as effective. This is because excess nutrients are bypassing the margin by leaching through the soil, into the drains and flowing directly into waterways.
**Management to maximise nutrient and sediment removal from a grass riparian margin**
**How wide?**
In general, the steeper and longer the slope is that feeds into the waterway, the wider the grass riparian margin needs to be. New Zealand research recommends that for gently rolling land, widths of one to three metres per 100 metres of slope feeding into the waterway are ideal. In areas with steeper slopes and poorly draining soils, a grass margin of 10 to 15 metres per 100 metres of the adjacent slope is recommended.
For example, in a relatively flat area, where there is a 100-metre slope feeding into the waterway, a margin width of between one to three metres would be sufficient. However, in a steeper area, with the same length slope, a margin width of 10 to 15 metres would be desirable for maximum filtration. This is shown in Figure 4 (right).
Often runoff flows in defined channels across paddocks to reach waterways. Put in wider grass margins in areas where you know runoff is channelled into waterways during times of high rainfall and runoff, shown in Figure 5 (overleaf). On hill country farms with long slopes, wide margins are most effective across drainage channels. Plants such as flax can deflect water flows if planted across the channel.
Where a fence has been placed close to a waterway, the grass strip does not provide much filtering benefit. However, during wet periods a temporary fence will provide a wider strip for filtering. Any electric fence will need to be well maintained to ensure the grass and weeds do not short out the fuse.
---
4 Northland Regional Council.
5 Collier et al., 1995.
Grazing to maintain effectiveness and manage weeds
Weed growth and trapping of flood-borne sediment can be a problem in grass riparian margins and it is important to manage this early. Page 30 provides information on weed control but occasional grazing can also be a practical way to manage weeds and keep the grass healthy. Long, dry grass can also be a fire hazard.
Light grazing can be an acceptable management option on some sites where filtering of sediment and runoff is desired, providing:
- There is a temporary fence adjacent to the waterway to keep the cattle out while grazing.
- Grazing is in short bursts 1-2 times per year to minimise damage and runoff potential and maintain a thick grass sward.
- Tree and shrub planting or natural regeneration is not damaged.
- Stock have access to trough water.
- Avoid grazing margins during winter or wet periods to prevent pugging and runoff.
- Grass is given plenty of time to regrow before wet periods.
- Only sheep and lighter young stock are grazed, as they are less damaging to banks and soil than heavy cattle.
- The bank is reasonably stable.
- You are not within a whitebait/inanga spawning area between March and May. Any grazing beside waterways should stop in February so grass can grow enough to filter any runoff, prevent erosion and provide inanga habitat.
*For more information about weed control, refer to the planting guide of this booklet or contact your local biosecurity officer at the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004.*
What’s in it for me?
Fenced grass riparian margins can:
- Reduce stock losses.
- Reduce bank erosion and maintenance costs of drains.
- Conserve soil.
- Improve stock health by preventing access to unsafe water supplies.
- Improve water quality in farm waterways, providing cleaner water for house and farm uses and downstream water users.
Stream crossing options
What’s the problem?
If you have places on the farm where stock and vehicles regularly cross streams or rivers, it is time to start thinking about alternatives. Regular river crossings by stock have been highlighted as one of the main sources of water pollution in rural areas.
Studies indicate that stock directly depositing their waste into waterways has an equal or greater impact on water quality compared to runoff\(^6\). One study measured that a 246-cow herd deposited 37 kilograms of faecal matter during two crossings of a stream\(^7\). The study concluded that cows are 50 times more likely to deposit their waste in a stream than on a race.
Bacteria and sediment levels in waterways downstream of where stock cross through the waterway generally exceed water quality guidelines\(^8\). This poses a health risk to people swimming in streams and to stock where stream water is being used for stock drinking water supply. It also affects in-stream plants and animals.
Stock crossings are good for business
Good stream crossings also make a big difference to the stream environment by:
- Preventing stock damage to the stream bed.
- Protecting stream habitat for fish and insects.
- Improving water quality by reducing the amount of sediment and bacteria getting into the stream from stock movement.
Looking at the options
To keep stock and animal waste out of waterways, culverts and bridges are the best options for crossings.
Culverts are a good option for streams that do not carry too much sediment and do not flood too high. However, they need to be chosen carefully and installed well to make sure they do not cause erosion and restrict the movement of fish.
Bridges generally have less impact on stream banks, beds and water flow than culverts. They can be expensive but will often be a sound investment because they do not require as much maintenance and can provide farm benefits such as all weather access.
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\(^6\) Davies-Colley, Nagels, Donnison, Muirhead paper (2001)
\(^7\) Davies-Colley, RJ, Nagels, JW, Smith, R, Young, R, Phillips, C. 2002: Water quality impact of cows crossing an agricultural stream, the Sherry River, New Zealand. Poster presented at the 6th International Conference on Diffuse Pollution, Amsterdam, September/October 2002.
\(^8\) Environment Canterbury, unpublished report 2001: Notes on water quality analysis of Cust Main Drain stock crossing of Bradshaw dairy herd, October 2001. 3pp. Unpublished report by Adrian Meredith.
Getting culverts right
There are several things to consider when you are putting in a stream culvert. Getting your sizing and installation right will generally save you money in the long term by avoiding failure and the need for replacement, not to mention erosion and damage to the stream.
When you are building, replacing or upgrading a culvert, consider the following good management practices:
1. When it comes to choosing a culvert, bigger is generally better if you are concerned about blockages, erosion from over-topping or if high downstream water levels restrict water flow.
2. Make sure the width of the culvert is the same as or wider than the average width of the stream. This will help avoid bypassing or blow-outs in floods.
3. Position the culvert so that the gradient and alignment are the same as the stream.
4. Set the floor of the culvert below the streambed level to avoid vertical drops at the downstream end. Do not create a waterfall because this increases the chance of erosion and also means fish will not be able to swim upstream past it.
5. Use armouring materials such as rocks around the culvert and especially below the outlet to reduce erosion.
6. Check the culvert manufacturer’s recommendations about the depth of fill to put over your pipe to make sure it can withstand loads.
7. Consider building a spillway to cope with extreme floods. A spillway is an area to the side of a culvert where water can flow if the culvert overtops. It should be wide and level across the path of the flow and grassed to prevent scouring. Talk to the regional council or an agricultural engineer for advice about good design.
8. Allow natural streambed material to settle on the culvert floor along its length so that it is easier for fish to swim through.
It is important to make sure your stream culverts are not restricting fish movement upstream. Poorly installed culverts can affect our trout, whitebait and eel fishery and our rare native fish. The main thing is to make sure the culvert is not altering the natural gradient and bed of the stream.
---
9 Tasman District Council et al. Stream Crossings pamphlet; Cawthron Institute pamphlet; FEA booklet (2003).
If you have an existing culvert that drops down to the streambed preventing fish passage, consider building a simple rock ramp for fish. Use large rocks to form a zigzag staircase from the stream bed up to the downstream outlet of the culvert. This will slow down water flow and form small pockets for fish to rest. It will also reduce the energy of the water coming out of the culvert, but should not cause water to back up during floods.
If your culvert is large, it is a good idea to get advice from an agricultural engineer – check out www.envirodirect.co.nz for a local consultant who can help. It is advisable to talk to the Northland Regional Council before installing a new bridge or culvert, or greatly increasing the size of an existing culvert. Finally, the key to keeping your culverts in good working order is regular maintenance. Check your culverts for debris build-up at regular intervals, especially after heavy rain and flooding.
**Resource consent requirements**
Generally culverts are permitted activities and do not require consent. However where culverts are likely to restrict the free flow of water, cause damming of water, create adverse flooding or erosion problems or large amounts of fill are proposed, a consent from the regional council may be required. In such situations contact the consents staff at the regional council.
**Building sound bridges**
If you are thinking about putting in a bridge, work through the following steps to help you figure out what you need:
**Step 1:**
Think about what you will be using the bridge for. This will help determine your design specifications. For example, large dairy herds might benefit from a wider deck surface, while heavy vehicles will require stronger load-bearing design.
**Step 2:**
Contact both your local district council and the regional council to get advice on where to locate your bridge and about design and consent requirements. Your district council may require:
- A land use consent to prepare the site for the bridge.
- A building consent for the construction of the bridge.
The Northland Regional Council may require a consent if earthworks are required.
Step 3:
Contact your local bridge builder and engineer to discuss bridge designs to suit your situation – check out www.envirodirect.co.nz for a local consultant who can help. You will need to take into account:
- Stream bank material.
- Stream bed profile.
- Flood flows.
- Bridge use.
- Preferred construction materials.
Step 4:
Consider the following good management practices\(^{10}\):
- Use standardised plans and materials to reduce the time and cost of design. Any bridge design will need to comply with NZ Industry Standards.
- Construct your bridge high enough so as not to impede high stream flows, which would make floods worse and threaten your investment.
- If possible, minimise your bridge span to keep costs down.
- Raise the bridge above its approaches to reduce runoff on to the bridge, where it will pool and may overflow into the stream.
- Construct your bridge with raised lips on the edges of the deck to prevent runoff into the waterway.
- Channel runoff from the bridge out into grassy filter areas where possible, rather than straight down the bank to the stream.
Your local bridge builder will be able to estimate the cost of a suitable bridge. Using standard designs with precast abutments and deck slabs can reduce the time and cost of construction.
Once your bridge is up, do not forget to put up a sign stating the weight and speed restrictions.
Consent requirements
Single span bridges are generally permitted but consent is required for any bridge that has footings in the water. Contact the consents staff at the regional council for more details.
\(^{10}\)Environment Canterbury pamphlet (2003); Tasman District Council et al.
Revegetating riparian margins involves re-establishing native grasses, shrubs and trees for long-term protection. Exotic trees can also be used to stabilise eroding banks and provide initial shade and shelter. This may involve protecting native vegetation already present to allow natural regeneration, replanting with seedling trees, or a combination of the two.
**What are the benefits?**
The major benefit of having more trees in your riparian margins is the protection of freshwater life and improved local biodiversity.
**Ecosystem and biodiversity benefits:**
- Shade, habitat and cool water for freshwater life.
- Food for fish and insect life in the water.
- Habitat for native plants and animals on the banks.
- A corridor for native insects, animals, plants and birds.
**Water quality benefits:**
- Filters some faecal matter, sediment and nutrients out of surface runoff.
- Takes up some nitrogen and phosphorous in plant roots.
- Improves bank stability as long as grasses are not shaded out.
**What’s in it for me?**
Replanting riparian margins can provide:
- Shade and shelter for stock on the other side of the fence.
- The ability to manage edge trees for timber.
- Recreational opportunities such as duck-shooting and improved fishing.
- An attractive feature to look at (providing weeds are well-managed!)
- A uniquely New Zealand landscape.
- An increase in land values.
Plan well to meet your goals
One of the secrets of a successful riparian planting is to be clear about your goals and to plan your approach to achieve them. Protecting freshwater life and local biodiversity, maintaining or improving bank stability, improving water quality and enhancing your farm are all benefits of regeneration. It is important to incorporate these goals into a planting plan, as they will require different management.
How wide should I go?
For a project that provides maximum benefits for freshwater life while allowing some filtering and bank stability, it is best to retire between 5 to 10 metres of riparian margin. To create a self-sustaining piece of bush on the edge of a waterway where weed management is minimal, you will need at least 10 metres\(^{11}\). Local biodiversity will benefit the most where riparian margins are able to provide wildlife corridors and link existing pieces of bush.
Balancing shade and bank stability goals for streams and rivers
Providing shade is one of the most important ways to enhance stream life. Shade keeps water temperatures down for stream life and prevents nuisance water weeds and algae from growing. Leaf litter from native plants throughout the year also provides a food source for stream life. At least 200 metres of stream length must be shaded to achieve a reduction in stream temperature. It is worth considering sun angles before planning any planting, as it is easier to achieve shading on the north side and on smaller streams or rivers.
Research\(^{12}\) indicates that if you want to replant your stream bank with natives but keep your banks stable, it is important to maintain a good cover of grasses on the bank edge. Planting too densely can shade out the native grasses and sedges on the very edge of your bank that often do the most to hold them.
Under natural conditions, forest streams are wider and shallower than pasture streams. Restoring native vegetation with maximum shade for stream life is likely to result in the channel widening and becoming shallower over a period of up to 20 years. In practice, this means bank erosion will probably increase for a reasonable period of time, which is not good news for many farmers.
\(^{11}\) Parkyn et al., 2000.
\(^{12}\) Rutherford et al., 1999.
If bank erosion is an issue on your farm, here are some practical tips to help you achieve a balance between replanting and erosion control:
- Keep shade levels at between 50 to 70 percent to make sure the grasses and sedges on the bank are not shaded out. Scientists estimate that 50 to 70 percent shade occurs where your combined bank and vegetation height is about equal to the stream channel width\(^{13}\).
- Keep shade levels low in areas where erosion is a problem.
- On small narrow streams, plant long grass or sedge species (for example, native *Carex* species) that provide some stream shade, native habitat and bank stability.
- In a wide riparian margin, plant trees back from the stream and let grasses occupy the immediate bank.
If restoration is your top priority, and you want minimum weed control and maintenance, and you are prepared to accept some initial erosion, then plantings that provide up to 90 percent shade for the stream will create conditions that are close to native forest. Make sure you plant far enough back from the channel to allow for the erosion that is likely before your trees are well-established.
**Using trees to stabilise stream banks**
Prevention is better than cure. Where possible, retain existing native vegetation and protect the banks from stock trampling and vegetation removal.
Planting fast-growing vegetation such as shrub willows can be a good short-term option on an eroding stream bank. Shrub willows grow to approximately four metres and have a root system that can provide a protective root mat across the bare stream bank and bed.
Any shrub willows planted for erosion control near streams will need ongoing management such as thinning and pruning to keep the lower branches above flood levels.
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\(^{13}\) Davies-Coley, RJ and Rutherford, JC, 2001.
Make sure to keep tree willows and species such as crack willow, weeping willow and silver poplar away from riparian edges. Before planting it is wise to consider any long-term management needs, such as pruning of trees in flood-prone areas.
Avoid planting narrow channel reaches where trees might impede floodwaters.
Any large, dense growing trees should not be considered within five metres of the stream edges. They will suppress undergrowth by creating a dense canopy causing renewed bank erosion followed by entry of silt and other pollutants into the water. Large trees are more likely to cause erosion by wind throw when at their full height. However, larger trees further back than five metres may be suitable.
New research into the use of natives for bank stabilising shows that ribbonwood is deep-rooting and has a good root spread\(^{14}\). Planting ribbonwood (*Plagianthus regius*) alongside exotics will help maintain a mostly native planting on your banks. The native tree ferns, while slow growing, have a very good root system for stabilising stream banks close to the water.
*For more information about appropriate species, spacings and planting techniques, refer to page 29 or contact the land management staff at the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004. If you would like more information about erosion control advice, ask for a copy of Northland Regional Council’s ‘Trees for the Land’ booklet, available from all offices.*
**Improve water quality with an extra filter**
If you want to build a water quality filter into your revegetated margin to deal with surface runoff, you will need to include a grass or sedge strip of at least one metre wide on the paddock edge. Check page 17 for more information about how these areas need to be managed.
\(^{14}\)Phillips et al, 2001.
Planting guide
If you have decided to plant your riparian margin, this section provides you with practical advice on how to go about it, including when, how and what to plant.
Prepare a planting plan
If you have a large margin that you would like to replant over time, it could be helpful to prepare a planting plan:
- Have a good look at your site to check out the slope steepness and length beside the waterway and the areas that flood easily.
- Decide how wide an area you can afford to remove from grazing and replant, given your goals for the project and the constraints of the site. Think about where you might need access gates or walkways.
- Divide your riparian margin into the three plant zones (see Figure 6) and make a list of plants you can use in each zone. Work out roughly how many plants you will need – refer to Table 2 for details.
- Think about how much area you can afford to plant in any one year and do not forget to factor in the labour. You will need to keep the area free from pests and weeds, especially in the first three years, see page 34 for more information.
- Visit your local wholesale native plant nursery to find out what species they stock, costs, and how many plants you might be able to order. If you can, use plants sourced locally as they will be best adapted to local conditions. Some nurseries will raise seedlings from your own seed if you are able to collect it. Local seed stock also helps maintain the ecological integrity of your plantings.
- If possible get another opinion on your planting plan to ensure you have the right species in the right place, a knowledgeable local person is ideal.
- Order plants well in advance – six months to a year is ideal.
What to plant where
A riparian margin can generally be divided into three zones (A, B or C) for planting (Figure 6). The basic plant list in Table 2 gives an idea of the different plants that will suit your riparian margin. This list includes plants that should grow in most parts of Northland on exposed grass-covered riparian margins. It also includes plants for wetlands or seeps (zone D) – see page 34 for information about managing these areas. If you would like more information about other native plants that are specially suited to your local area, talk to the Northland Regional Council or your local Department of Conservation office. They can provide you with a copy of the handy booklet ‘A planters guide for Northland natives’.
When selecting the right plants for your site, it is important to choose:
- Species appropriate to each planting zone (A, B, C).
- Species that can tolerate local conditions on the site such as wind, soil moisture and frost.
- Only coastal species if you are in a coastal area.
- High quality plants grown from local stock that have been well-hardened to open conditions.
**Figure 6:** Riparian margin planting zones.
| Scientific name | Common name | Plant type | Suitable for | Tolerant of | Suitable for | Planting | Recommended plant spacings |
|---------------------------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|-------------|--------------|----------|---------------------------|
| **A. Primary plantings (suitable for planting on open, exposed sites)** | | | | | | | |
| Blechnum novae-zelandiae | Kikio | Fern | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Med |
| Carex secta | Pukio | Grass | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 0.4-0.6m |
| Cordyline splendens | Coastal toetoe| Grass | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Med/Fast |
| Cordyline fulvida | Toetoe | Grass | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 0.7-1.0m |
| Phormium tenax | Flax, Harakeke| Flax | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | MedFast |
| Aristotelia serrata | Wineberry | Shrub | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Fast |
| Coprosma propinqua | Mingimingi | Shrub | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 1.0-1.5m |
| Coprosma repens | Taupata | Shrub | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Med/Fast |
| Coprosma robusta | Karamu | Shrub | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 1.0-1.5m |
| Cordyline australis | Cabbage tree | Tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Fast |
| Doodonea viscosa | Akeake | Small tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 0.5-1.0m |
| Hebe stricta | Koromiko | Shrub | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Fast |
| Kunzea ericoides | Kanuka | Tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 1.0-1.5m |
| Leptospermum scoparium | Manuka | Small tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Medium |
| Melicytus ramiflorus | Mahoe | Shrub | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Fast |
| Pittosporum crassifolium | Karo | Small tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 1.0-1.5m |
| Pittosporum eugenioides | Lemonwood | Tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Fast |
| Pittosporum tenuifolium | Kohuhu | Small tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 1.0-1.5m |
| Plagianthus divaricatus | Saltmarsh ribbonwood | Small tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Medium |
| Plagianthus regius | Manatu/ribbonwood | Tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Slow |
| Pseudopanax arboreus | Five finger | Small tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Med/Fast |
| Sophora microphylla | Kowhai | Tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Fast |
| **B. Secondary plantings (these prefer shelter from existing plants, for a more comprehensive list refer to the booklet ‘A planters guide for Northland natives’.)** | | | | | | | |
| Agathis australis | Kauri | Tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Med/Slow |
| Canoepeltis serratus | Putaputaweta | Small tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Medium |
| Cyathea species | Tree ferns | Tree fern | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 1.0-1.5m |
| Dacrycarpus dacrydioides | Kahikatea | Tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Slow |
| Dacrydium cupressinum | Rimu | Tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 1.0-1.5m |
| Dicksonia squarrosa | Tree ferns | Tree fern | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Medium |
| Podocarpus totara | Totara | Tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Med/Fast |
| Schefflera digitata | Pate | Small tree | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 1.0-1.5m |
Good timing
Most native species should be planted between late April and early September. If soil moisture levels are high enough it can be better to plant in autumn (late April to early June). This allows plants to establish themselves in spring, before any summer dry spells. If you get harsh frosts, do your planting in spring.
Ideally plant the most hardy species first to establish initial cover – for example manuka/kanuka, cabbage trees and karamu (*Coprosma robusta*). After one to two years, plant the frost and wind tender or slower growing species (for example, tree ferns, rimu and kahikatea) at wider spacings.
Exotic trees can be purchased bare-rooted but native trees are usually bought in bags or root trainers. Make sure the plants you purchase have been hardened off in the open for at least two weeks before planting.
To reduce maintenance you can buy bigger trees (up to a metre tall). But when selecting plants check they are not root bound and that the root mass is big enough to support the height of the plant. If you plant smaller seedlings, you will need to release them regularly from weeds.
Getting the site ready
Fencing
All areas where you plan to plant natives or other trees should be fenced to exclude stock before you start. Fencing should be permanent, because areas planted with natives will not cope with grazing. Poplar poles should be fenced from cattle, but if they are planted in sheep paddocks, a plastic sleeve should be sufficient to protect the stem.
Weed control
Give your plants a head start, and reduce your future workload, by clearing planting areas of invasive weeds. Weeds such as kikuyu, climbing asparagus, moth plant and woolly nightshade need controlling beforehand – they grow quickly and will smother or out-compete young seedlings. Page 35 provides information about dealing with specific weeds.
Use either a herbicide or a spade to clear weeds and grass in circles of about 1 metre out from each plant. Glyphosate herbicides are good for removing many weeds in large areas and are generally accepted as the safest sprays to use beside water, but check the label first. You do not need to get a consent to spray beside waterways if you use herbicides approved by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). Make sure you follow the manufacturers’ instructions and take steps to avoid the herbicide getting into the water or affecting non-target species.
Native plants are very sensitive to herbicides, so it is best to spray well before you intend to plant. Make sure you use herbicides at the recommended rates and spray in an S-shaped pattern to avoid overlap. Use a spade to clear grass and weeds on smaller areas if you have the time.
Having mulch on hand can help avoid weed problems later. A thick layer of newspaper weighed down with clods of soil, or a large square of carpet or non-synthetic underlay split to place around the tree, makes effective mulch. Take care not to place any organic mulch up against the stems of native plants as it can damage them.
The most effective way to deal with unwanted tree species is to treat the stumps with herbicide immediately after cutting. A herbicide gel (Vigilant) is commercially available and easy to use. Alternatively, drill holes in the base of each tree at a 45° angle and inject 80ml of glyphosate (this method only works in summer).
The Regional Water and Soil Plan for Northland permits clearing of weeds from the very edge of waterways. It is important to make sure you minimise the amount of sediment and vegetation that ends up in the waterway because it can obstruct water flow and affect fish passage. It is also important to replant as soon as you can to help stabilise the banks. Any earthworks or other vegetation clearance in riparian zones may need a consent.
*For more information contact consents staff at the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004.*
**Pest control**
Possums, rabbits and hares will consume native seedlings on pasture land so it pays to do some control before you plant. If you know what the pests in your area prefer to consume, choose some of their less favourite species to plant densely along the fencelines. Using larger trees (with trunks thicker than a finger width) discourages hares from slicing them off. Commercial repellents can also be used to protect young trees from rabbits and possums – these are available from horticultural suppliers or stock and station agents. For more information about pest control, see page 36.
Pukeko will also eat native plantings and will be quick to nibble and uproot your flax and sedge plantings. Planting bigger seedlings (40cm high) can help keep them away.
*For information on plant and animal pest control contact the biosecurity officers at the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004.*
Getting your plants in the ground
- An overcast, wet and windless day is best for planting.
- Handle plants carefully to avoid root damage.
- Set out plants in their zones and correct spacings.
- Dig a good size hole and loosen the soil.
- Place a heaped tablespoon of 1-2 year slow release fertiliser in the hole, and mix a small amount of loose earth with the fertiliser to prevent it from burning the roots.
- Set the plant in the hole and fill three quarters full. Give the plant a very gentle lift to set the roots in a natural position and continue filling with soil, firming as you go.
- Water at the time of planting if possible. In dry areas, you may need to continue watering during summer for the first two to three years.
- Stake plants to help find them again at weeding time (bamboo stakes with the ends dipped in white acrylic paint are easy to find later).
- Take care that the seedling is not too deeply buried.
- Use mulch to help control weeds later and retain moisture.
- A variety of wholesale plant nurseries operate in Northland, who can supply good quality plants at a reasonable price.
*For more information about planting techniques contact the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004 for a copy of the ‘Trees for the Land’ booklet.*
Ongoing maintenance
Maintaining riparian fences may be regarded as a lower priority for maintenance compared with other farm fences. But remember that you are also protecting a planted asset behind those fences, which could quickly be devalued if your stock gain access.
Silviculture
Native shrubs and trees will need little tending once a canopy is established except where flood flows are a problem. Where trees have been planted for erosion control or timber production, silviculture and maintenance are essential to prevent problems such as blockage of flood flows. They will need some initial form pruning to maintain a good central leader and thinning within 5 years. This should be followed by some side pruning 5 to 10 years after planting to reduce shading of grasses and shrubs underneath. Ideally exotic erosion control trees should be treated as a temporary measure until native species become established.
Do not plant any large trees within 5 metres of steep bank edges to prevent toppling when mature. Refer to Figure 6 on page 28 for planting zones. For more information on commercial planting refer to the ‘Trees for the Land’ booklet available from all regional council offices.
**Additional planting**
You cannot expect 100 percent success with tree plantings, but if you plant good quality seedlings of the right species, at the right time of the year and protect them well, you can expect 70 to 80 percent to survive. It is helpful to replant in the spaces where you have lost trees, to reduce gaps for weeds to grow in the future. Most deaths will occur in the first few months, so keep an eye on your plantings and if you need to replant, do it as soon as you can to keep weeds out.
Once the hardy pioneer species are established, other native plants might start regenerating amongst your planting as birds spread seed. If you would like to speed up this process, plant additional trees and shrubs in the gaps between established plants. There are many slower growing species you can introduce under the shelter of the pioneer species – the plant list in Table 2 (page 29) gives some examples and an indication of good trees for attracting birds.
*For further information the booklet ‘A planters guide for Northland natives’ has good information – for a copy contact the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004.*
**What’s in it for me?**
- Increase in habitat for native plants and animals.
- Shade and shelter for stock and pastures.
- Increase in land value.
To successfully establish native plants it is important to make time to protect your plants from weeds and pests.
**Weed control**
Planted riparian margins are often criticised as being havens for weeds. There is no doubt, you will need to commit some time and resources to maintaining your planting if you want to keep the area weed-free. A weed problem is most likely to arise where trees and shrubs are planted too small, there are existing weeds present, there is poor preparation before planting, plants are poorly released or planted too far apart.
**Principles for keeping on top of weeds**
There are some general principles you can follow to keep weed control manageable along planted riparian margins, saving you time and money:
- Remove all weeds from the site before you fence or plant it.
- If you do not have much time for weed control, plant larger plants at close spacing (no more than 1.5 metres apart) to reduce weed competition. Planting closely may cost more upfront but will pay off in the long-term.
- Start by planting a smaller area and maintaining it well, moving on to other areas once the initial site does not need so much attention.
- Check on weed growth regularly in planted areas, especially during spring and summer. Controlling weeds in the early stages is generally much easier than dealing with mature infestations.
- Consider paying someone else to weed your planted areas during busy periods if you do not have time. It might save you the cost of replacing your plants the following winter.
- Release your plants regularly for the first few years to avoid high plant losses. Once seedlings start to shade the ground, you will not need to do so much.
- Keep on top of shade-tolerant weeds.
- Use stakes to mark the position of seedlings – this can help you to find them for releasing.
- Identify your weeds and get good advice about the most efficient and effective way to control them. Contact the regional council, local plant pest contractor or farm supply store for advice about specific control methods.
- Take care with herbicides around native plants because they are very sensitive. Avoid blanket spraying as this will open up gaps for invasive weeds and increase erosion potential.
Table 3: Methods and herbicides for controlling weeds
| Weed | Control methods | Suggested herbicides |
|-------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Buffalo Grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) | Limited physical control of small infestations by hand pulling can be effective. Spray the foliage with herbicide. | Glyphosate 10ml/litre plus penetrant. |
| Climbing Asparagus (Asparagus scandens) | Physical control by cutting the plant and digging out all of the tubers. All tubers must be destroyed to avoid regrowth, by burning or sun baking in a black plastic bag. Chemical control by cutting the vines back to approximately 60cm, and spraying existing foliage. Best results during growing season (Spring & Summer). | Glyphosate 20ml/litre plus penetrant. |
| Kikuyu Grass (Pennisetum clandestinum) | Physical control is limited. Digging will leave deep rhizomes, or small sections of these, which will regrow. Spray the foliage with herbicide. If the kikuyu is rank, an option is to cut or graze back and spray the regrowth. | Glyphosate 10ml/litre. |
| Moth Plant (Araujia sericifera) | Physical control by pulling, or digging out as much of the root system as possible. Leave the plant to compost (if growing on a tree, leave on the tree). Best done before the seed pods develop (early Autumn). Bury any seed pods in a deep hole, do not burn them. Chemical control by either: • Cutting large vines 20cm above ground. Paint or swab the cut area with herbicide. • Spray the foliage (best for small vines only). | For cut vines use either: • Vigilant gel; • 1 part Glyphosate to 5 parts water. For foliage use either: • Grazon 6ml/litre; • Escort 5gm/10 litres; • Versatill 10ml/litre plus penetrant. |
| Smilax (Asparagus asparagoides) | Physical control by cutting the plant and digging out all of the tubers. All tubers must be destroyed to avoid regrowth, by burning or sun baking in a black plastic bag. Chemical control by cutting the vines back to approximately 100cm, and spraying existing foliage. Best results during growing season (Spring & Summer). | Glyphosate 20ml/litre plus penetrant. |
| Wandering Jew (Tradescantia fluminensis) | Remove plants by hand or rake them up as a mat, do not spread fragments as they will grow. Compost on site in black plastic bags or bury the plants in a deep hole. Spray foliage with herbicide. | Grazon 6ml/litre plus penetrant. |
| Wild Ginger Kahili Ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum) | Physical control by digging up plant and rhizome. Stems and foliage will compost normally. Rhizomes must be destroyed by sun baking in a black plastic bag, or by crushing, drying and burying them in a deep hole. Chemical control by either: • Cut down the plant and treat the stump/rhizome with herbicide (stems and foliage left to compost); • Spray the foliage with herbicide. | For cut stems/rhizomes use either: • Escort 1gm/litre; • Vigilant gel. For foliage use: Escort 5g/10 litre plus penetrant. |
| Yellow Ginger (Hedychium flavescens) | Physical control by digging up plant and rhizome. Stems and foliage will compost normally. Rhizomes must be destroyed by sun baking in a black plastic bag, or by crushing, drying and burying them in a deep hole. Chemical control by either: • Cut down the plant and swab the stump with herbicide; • Make a cut in the stem and inject herbicide (make a ring (ringbark) of downward cuts around the stem and apply herbicide to the cut); • Spray the foliage with herbicide. | For stumps and cuts use either: • Vigilant gel; • 1 part Glyphosate to 5 parts water; • 1 part Tordon to 10 parts water; • 1 part Amitrole to 10 parts water. For foliage use either: • Tordon 10ml/litre • Amitrole 20ml/litre |
For detailed information about specific weeds, contact the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004 to talk to a biosecurity officer and get a fact sheet, or check out www.nrc.govt.nz/nasties
Control of common riparian weeds
The most common weeds growing along waterway margins in Northland are kikuyu, climbing asparagus, smilax, blackberry, Tradescantia (wandering jew), willow, woolly nightshade, black nightshade and inkweed. Table 3 (page 35) gives some basic information about control of some of these weeds.
Pest control
It is important to protect your riparian margins (and your investment in them) from animal pests too. The following is a brief description of some of the main pests and their control. The regional council biosecurity team can help with more detail on control methods.
Rabbits and hares
Planting larger trees will reduce the impact that rabbits and hares will have, but ongoing control is important for smaller plants. Rabbits and hares need to be controlled all year around until the diameter of the plant stems are fairly large to prevent them from being bitten through or ring-barked. A variety of control methods are available, including shooting, fumigant poisons, baits and exclusion fencing.
It may be useful to try animal repellents to deter rabbits and hares – these are available from horticultural suppliers or stock and station agents or you can make your own up.
Possums
In most areas, ongoing possum control will be necessary to protect your plantings. Possum control also has the added benefits of reducing the amount of pasture they eat and protecting your fruit trees and gardens. There are a variety of control methods available, each with their own positive and negative aspects. Bait stations for possums can be an effective low-input control method in waterway margins. Traps are higher maintenance, but once you have purchased them the only cost is your labour. Night shooting can also help in narrow waterway margins, but is not usually effective in larger bush areas.
Goats
Goats can make short work of lush young plantings and they will get through most fences. Not running goats on your property is the best way to reduce this risk. Feral goats should be eradicated.
Other pests
Controlling rats, mice, stoats, ferrets and cats will help keep your planting a healthy habitat for the native wildlife. Most of these pests can be targeted together with certain poisons, but each requires a different trapping method if poisons are not used.
Indigenous wetlands are unique and threatened features of the Northland landscape. Most of Northland’s wetlands have been destroyed or severely modified. Northland Regional Council encourages landowners with significant indigenous wetlands on their properties to consider protecting and restoring these areas as important natural habitats.
Smaller wet areas, seeps and swamps can also play a valuable role in filtering pollutants out of runoff and ground water. This section focuses on how to manage these areas to protect water quality. If you would like to know more about wetland restoration, the regional council has a booklet called ‘Looking after your wetland’ and land management staff are also able to help with advice. Another good resource is Waikato Regional Council’s Wetland Restoration fact sheets at www.waikatoregion.govt.nz
If you are protecting a wetland, you might be eligible for a grant from Northland Regional Council’s Environment Fund. The fund provides up to 50% percent of the total costs of environmental projects that meet its criteria – they must be of long-term benefit to the local environment and clearly show evidence of good resource management.
Contact the land management staff at the Northland Regional Council on 0800 002 004 to find out more.
What can managing wetlands achieve?
Think of wet areas as giant filtering sponges – sometimes described as the kidneys of the landscape. Wetland plants slow the flow of water off the land and in times of flood, water is absorbed into the organic wetland soils reducing flood peaks. In summer, stored water is released slowly to maintain water flows, providing better habitat for stream life.
Wetland plants trap waterborne sediment, cleaning up water before it gets to rivers and streams. This increases water quality and reduces the downstream effects of flooding and sediment build-up in streams and harbours. In the right conditions, bacteria living in damp wetland soils can convert up to 90 percent of the nitrogen in farm runoff into nitrogen gas, which is then released into the atmosphere. This helps prevent algal blooms and nuisance plant growth in our waterways.
In summary, managing wet areas, seeps and swamps on your farm can:
- Improve water quality by filtering sediment, faecal bacteria, nitrogen and phosphorous from runoff.
- Improve water quality by removing soluble nitrogen from runoff and re-surfacing ground water – in some soils managed wetlands are the most effective solution to reducing the amount of nitrogen reaching waterways.
- Provide habitat for eels, native fish, birds and insects, improving local biodiversity.
- Reduce stock losses from bogging and improve stock management.
- Help reduce flood peaks and maintain summer water flows.
**Where is wetland management most important?**
Managing wet areas, seeps and swamps will have the most impact on water quality in the headwaters of catchments. It is also a very important management approach in areas where waterways are particularly sensitive to nitrogen or where high nitrogen levels in ground water have been identified as a problem.
Water must remain in the wetland for as long as possible to gain the most benefit for water quality. A series of small wetlands may be a viable option down a catchment.
**What’s in it for me?**
Managing wet areas, seeps and swamps can:
- Increase stock production by removing access to liver fluke breeding areas.
- Improve pasture growth with fertiliser being applied on the most productive land.
- Help reduce flood peaks and maintain summer water flows.
- Improve recreational opportunities, such as duck shooting.
- Reduce stock losses from wet areas.
- Improve stock management.
- Reduce nitrogen levels in water passing through them.
To drain or not to drain…
On a purely economic basis, the capital outlay of draining wet areas might be cheaper than buying more land. Before draining an area, you will require a resource consent. There is also a risk that the drained area will remain wet, and you will have the ongoing cost of drain maintenance. When you take this into account it can sometimes be more profitable to put a fence up instead, concentrate on your better land and leave your wetland filters intact. Fencing out stock can also save you money in animal health and time spent on stock management.
Managing your natural filters
Once nitrogen has found its way into ground water, it can only be treated where the ground water reappears at the surface, for example, at springs, wetlands and seeps. Keeping these wet areas and plants is essential if you want nitrogen removed from emerging ground water. If there is plenty of suitable organic matter, low oxygen levels and reasonable water retention time, more than 90 percent of nitrogen can be removed\(^{15}\).
For wet areas to be effective as filters they:
- Must remain wet for all or most of the year. Many wet areas on farms have already been drained. If you want them to improve water quality, they will need to stay wet.
- Must be fenced off from stock. Most sedges, rushes and flax are palatable to stock. These plants need to be protected as they have an important role in slowing flow, filtering water, and providing a carbon source for the bacteria that remove nitrogen. Cattle trampling will also reduce the ability of wet areas to absorb water.
- May need some planting. Native sedges, raupo, rushes and flax grow well in these areas and are easy and cheap to get. They can all be split and the sections planted out. Trees can be counter-productive in or beside wetland areas as they dry the soil out and shade the smaller plants.
If you really want to make good use of wetlands, swamps and seeps to improve water quality on your farm, you can use them to filter runoff from a variety of sources. For example:
- Direct tile and mole drains into wetlands before they flow into streams.
- Divert race and track runoff into wetland areas but take care not to smother the area with sediment.
\(^{15}\)Ministry for the Environment, 2000.
Using temporary fencing as a management tool
If some of the wet areas on your farm are too difficult or inconvenient to fence permanently, you will still achieve some water quality benefits if you use a temporary electric fence during the wetter months. It might take a bit of extra time to put up a fence before you let the stock into paddocks in winter but it will keep the ground from getting pugged and make a difference to the amount of polluted runoff leaving your farm. As for the lost grazing, often the wet areas pug up quickly in winter and are of limited feed value anyway – it could be better to save them for summer grazing when feed is short.
The regional council has rules protecting indigenous wetlands. Indigenous wetlands are those that are permanently or seasonally wet, greater than 50m$^2$ in size and contain indigenous vegetation such as raupo, flax, sedges, kahikatea, cabbage tree or mangroves. Consent is required for any work undertaken within the wetland area.
Care needs to be taken when working around or upstream of an indigenous wetland to ensure that you do not impact on the water levels in the wetland. If the work around the wetland will divert or dam the water flowing into or through the wetland then consent is required. The land management staff at the regional council can help you with the identification of your wetland area and the impacts upon it.
Wetlands act as natural filters and provide habitat.
The many roles of a farm drain
Drains are essential for the development and improvement of many farm businesses. They can, depending on management:
- Reduce flooding.
- Lower water tables.
- Increase flooding downstream.
But there is more to farm drains than meets the eye. It is important to realise that farm drains:
- Are not isolated waterways. They almost always flow into natural streams that connect into rivers, wetlands, lakes and estuaries channelling surface runoff (and pollutants) from paddocks. This means they act as very efficient channels for nutrients and faecal bacteria to travel into larger waterways.
- Can be important habitats for some of our endangered wetland plants and animals such as eels, trout, whitebait and native water birds.
This section provides some ideas about how to manage your drains to meet your farm objectives as well as maintain water quality and habitat for native plants and animals.
Managing drains to reduce maintenance
Drains only need to be maintained if they are becoming blocked with silt or weeds. Maintaining drains is a cost to the farm business and, depending on how you do it, can also affect water quality and wildlife.
Prevention is always better than cure. Manage your drains to reduce the need for maintenance, keeping costs down.
Good management practices that can reduce the need for drain maintenance include:
- Fence all drains to reduce siltation from stock damage to drain banks. Where permanent fencing is not practical, use a single electric wire to stop cattle from crossing.
- Only spray the weeds in the bed of the drain, not those on the banks, because grassy banks are more stable than bare banks.
- Leave an ungrazed grass strip beside drains to filter nutrients and sediment from runoff. Make the strip wider at low points where runoff collects.
- If you are cultivating in paddocks with drains, make sure you stop far enough away from the drain bank to stop anything entering the water.
If you want to plant trees, plant taller trees on the north banks of drains to provide shade – this will reduce weed growth and water temperature. But remember to allow for access for cleaning equipment on the south bank. Grow lower plants that will not disrupt cleaning – for example, the native grass *Carex secta*.
Establish drains with a “V” shaped profile, rather than a U-shaped profile. This will concentrate flow and help provide a weed-free central channel that does not need much maintenance.
Ensure good access to drains so that they are easy to get to if you do need to clear them. This includes putting in gateways in drain fences. Poor access can make the job more time-consuming and difficult, increasing your costs.
**Water weeds have good points**
Weedy plants in drains can be a problem when they block channels, increasing water tables and flooding. But that is not always the case.
It is a good idea to decide whether the weeds in your drain really are a problem before you spend time and money to remove them. Water plants can provide many benefits:
- They stabilise banks and bed sediments, helping to reduce erosion. Removing them can cause the bank to slump and the drain to silt up.
- They provide habitat for fish, koura, insects and birds.
- They take up dissolved nutrients from the water, helping to lower the amount of nutrients flowing into downstream rivers and lakes where they can cause nuisance algal blooms.
There are plenty of reasons for leaving weedy water plants alone if they are not interfering with drainage or causing a flood risk. However, check their pest status with biosecurity staff at the regional council in case they need to be removed.
**Reducing the impact of mechanical drain clearing**
Mechanical drain clearing with a digger is one of the most common methods used by farmers. While this method can be quick and seem effective, mechanical clearing can:
- Change the shape of drains and the way water flows, reducing their long-term effectiveness.
- Disturb silt and make drain water dirty, affecting fish and insect life.
- Remove insects, fish, eels and crayfish from the drain alongside sediment and weeds.
- Distribute weed fragments downstream where they can regrow and cause further problems.
---
16 NIWA, 2003.
To reduce the impacts of mechanical drain clearing, consider the following good management practices\textsuperscript{17}:
- Use a digger with a weed-rake or a stream-cleaning bucket because this allows water and stream life to escape back into the drain.
- Inspect the drain with the digger driver beforehand. Identify any riffles or areas that should not be disturbed and mark these with aerosol paint or pegs.
- Clearing only part of your property in any one year, try and stagger the clearance over several years to minimise the effect on water downstream.
- Create V-shaped drain profiles rather than wide, flat bottomed ones with steep sides (U-shaped).
- Leave a buffer of weed at the lower end of the drain to trap silt. Clean this area last.
- Make sure that diggers are cleaned thoroughly to reduce the risk of weed being spread into new areas.
- When you are clearing smaller drains, put straw bales or filter fabrics downstream to reduce sediment flowing into other waterways.
- Avoid excavating during peak fish spawning and migration and bird nesting periods. Only clear tidal zone drains between October and January. Avoid disrupting the main whitebait spawning period from February to April. Clear drains in other areas between November and April.
**Creating a V-shaped channel\textsuperscript{18}**
Drains are typically cleared leaving steep vertical banks and wide, flat bottoms. This spreads out water flow, slowing it down and causing the build-up of sediment. Slower water becomes warmer, which in turn encourages weed and algae growth.
*Figure 7: A V-shaped drain.*
\textsuperscript{17} Ministry for the Environment, 2001; Environment Canterbury, unpublished draft (b).
\textsuperscript{18} Environment Canterbury, unpublished draft (b).
Ideally, the slopes of drain banks should be less than 1:2 – that is, one vertical unit to two horizontal units of distance (Figure 7). This maintains a faster water flow in the centre of the channel, reducing sediment build-up and weed growth. The gently-sloping edges will regrass quickly, making banks more stable.
**Effective chemical spraying**
Herbicide sprays are often used to control weeds in drains because sprays are cheaper than mechanical clearing. Spraying is effective but can have some damaging effects on stream life and water quality. Some sprays such as diquat and paraquat are toxic to freshwater life even at very low concentrations. Consent is required when spraying over water for any chemical that is not licensed for application over water. The licence information is available on the product label or from the supplier.
To reduce the impacts of spraying, consider the following good management practices\(^{19}\):
- Do not spray the whole length of the drain. Instead only spray stretches of 10-20 metres and leave the next 10-20 metres undisturbed to keep vegetation that can still trap silt and nutrients.
- Spray at minimum effective rates more often, rather than at high concentrations and less often.
- Only spray the centre of the drain where water flow is faster. This will leave the edges undisturbed to provide cover and habitat and bank stability.
- Do not spray during peak fish spawning and migration periods. In tidal areas, only spray between October and January. In non-tidal areas, only spray between November and April.
- Spray ephemeral drains (seasonally wet) when they are dry.
- Spray weeds when they are smaller to reduce the amount of dead vegetation that stays in the drain and reduce the risk of blockages.
- Use contact herbicides, which act directly on plant tissue.
- Contact Northland Regional Council to check whether you need a resource consent to spray in waterways or drains.
**Drainage districts**
If you have a district council drain running through your property, you will need to make sure you manage them following the guidelines set by your district council or drainage district.
\(^{19}\)Ministry for the Environment, 2001; Environment Canterbury, unpublished draft (b).
So what does all this mean for your property? It will depend on:
- Where you live in Northland – soil types and environmental issues will vary.
- Where your farm is located within your local catchment – management needs will differ if you are in the headwaters or on the edge of an estuary by the sea.
- What you want to achieve on your property and downstream from it.
- What resources you have access to – information, advice, plants, money and time.
Chances are that a combination of the five different approaches in this booklet will meet your needs. Innovation and adaptability are the hallmarks of New Zealand farmers so enjoy making the information in this booklet work to suit your corner of Northland.
Remember, you are not on your own. Farmers right across Northland and New Zealand are considering how to best manage their properties to maximise both economic and environmental performance to make sure they comply with regional council rules, the Sustainable Dairying Water Accord and overseas consumer demands. Talk to your neighbours and exchange ideas. Also attend local field days.
And do not forget to ask for help when you need it – contact the Northland Regional Council for site-specific advice and assistance about keeping streams clean.
Consider the catchment-wide approach. Gains in cleaner streams can be multiplied through working with your neighbours and other people in the catchment. Land management staff at the regional council can assist with technical information, maps and sourcing funding.
**Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit**
SHMAK kits are designed to allow farmers, schools and landcare groups to monitor the health of their stream. These simple kits can measure clarity, pH, temperature, velocity, insect life and conductivity, which is a gross measure of pollution.
*For further information about these kits, contact NIWA Instrument Systems, P.O. Box 8602, Christchurch, telephone 03 343 7890.*
## Calculate the costs
| Component | Quantity | Unit Price | Total |
|------------------------------------------------|----------|------------|-------|
| **Fencing** | | | |
| 1 or 2 wire electric | | | |
| 2.3 mm wire | | | |
| Posts | | | |
| Insulators etc… | | | |
| Labour | | | |
| Other | | | |
| **Sub-total** | | | |
| Standard 7 Wire | | | |
| 2.5 mm wire | | | |
| Posts | | | |
| Battens | | | |
| Staples etc… | | | |
| Labour | | | |
| Other | | | |
| **Sub-total** | | | |
| **Planting** | | | |
| Site preparation and maintenance | | | |
| Herbicide | | | |
| Type 1 | | | |
| Labour | | | |
| Mulch | | | |
| Other | | | |
| **Sub-total** | | | |
| **Plants** | | | |
| Slow release fertiliser (30gm per plant) | | | |
| Plants | | | |
| Size 1 | | | |
| Size 2 | | | |
| Size 3 | | | |
| Size 4 | | | |
| Other | | | |
| **Sub-total** | | | |
| **Additional costs you may need to consider** | | | |
| Gates | | | |
| Stock crossing (culverts & bridges) | | | |
| Earthworks for fences or stock crossings | | | |
| New stock water supply | | | |
| Extending an existing water supply | | | |
| Consent costs for appropriate activities | | | |
| Other | | | |
| **Sub-total** | | | |
| **TOTAL** | | | |
The regional council has rules relating to works within the Riparian Management Zone and these should be considered when undertaking any land disturbance or discharging concentrated animal effluent adjacent to a water body. These rules generally allow activities, except where extensive works are being undertaken within five metres of the bed of a river where the slope is less than 8 degrees. For example, clearing more than 200m$^2$ of vegetation unless it is a pest species, exposing more that 200m$^2$ of soil or disturbing more than 50m$^3$ of earth.
Steeper slopes of greater than 8 degrees are more restricted to ensure that erosion and sedimentation of the water body is limited.
The dominant slope is the slope over which more than 50% of the land disturbance will occur. The rules do not apply where the dominant slope falls away from the edge of a river or lake.
When undertaking land disturbance activities it is also advisable that you consider practices such as:
- Minimising the amount of vegetation, slash, soil and other debris entering into the water.
- Undertaking the works in a way which minimise erosion of the area where you are working.
- Revegetating exposed areas of soil.
- Avoiding mixing or storing fuels, agrichemicals, or other substances in this area.
- If archaeological remains or features are uncovered that the Northland Regional Council is informed.
The Riparian Management Zone setback which applies to spray irrigation is slightly different. You are able to discharge wastewater (liquid effluent) from animal effluent treatment and/or storage facilities into or onto land; and you are also able to discharge animal effluent (stormwater runoff and/or washdown water) from a stock yard, sale yard or wintering barn or other similar facilities into or onto land, but you must ensure that the wastewater is not applied within 20 metres of any river, stream, open drain, lake or wetland unless there is a planted and fenced riparian management zone. If you have any questions about whether or not what you are doing meets the rules in the Regional Water and Soil Plan, then contact the planning and policy team at the regional council.
Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council, and Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand, 2000: Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality. Volume 3 – Primary Industries – Rationale and Background Information.
Collier KJ, Cooper AB, Davies-Colley RJ, Rutherford JC, Smith CM and Williamson RB, 1995: Managing riparian zones: A contribution to protecting New Zealand’s rivers and streams. (2 volumes). Department of Conservation, Wellington.
Davies-Colley RJ and Rutherford JC, 2001: Some Approaches to Measuring and Modelling Riparian Shade. In Proceedings of the International Ecological Engineering Conference, 25-29 November 2001, Lincoln University.
Hill RB and Kelly J, 2002: Riparian Characteristics Survey Manual. Environment Waikato Technical Report 2002/07. Environment Waikato, Hamilton.
Land and Water Resources Australia Research and Development Corporation, 1996: River Management Issue Sheets. LWRRDC, National Riparian Lands Programme, Canberra.
Ministry for the Environment, 2001: Managing Waterways on Farms: A guide to sustainable water and riparian management in rural New Zealand. Ministry for the Environment, Wellington.
New Zealand Dairy Board, 2001. Dairy Industry Environmental and Animal Welfare Policies Pamphlet.
Northland Regional Council. Land Beside Water Factsheet Series. Northland Regional Council, Whangārei.
Parkyn SM, Shaw W and Eades P, 2000: Review of information on riparian buffer widths necessary to support sustainable vegetation and meet aquatic functions. NIWA Client Report ARC00262.
Phillips C, Marden M and Rowan D, 2001: Soil stabilising characteristics of native riparian vegetation in New Zealand. Paper presented to NZARM Conference 2001, Hamilton/ Landcare Research.
Quinn JM, 1999: Towards a riparian zone classification for the Piako and Waihou River catchments. Environment Waikato Technical Report TR99/16.
Rutherford JC, Davies-Colley RJ, Quinn JM, Stroud MJ and Cooper AB, 1999: Stream Shade – Towards a Restoration Strategy. NIWA and Department of Conservation.
Taranaki Regional Council: Riparian Management Guide. (Pamphlet). Taranaki Regional Council, Stratford.
Wright, David and Terence Jacobson, 2000: Managing Streamsides: Stock Control, Fencing and Watering Options. Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, Tasmania.
CONTACTS
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Northland Regional Council
36 Water Street, Private Bag 9021, Whangārei 0148;
Phone 09 470 1200, Freephone 0800 002 004, Fax 09 470 1202.
Environmental Hotline: 0800 504 639
Website: www.nrc.govt.nz
QEII National Trust
The QEII National Trust helps private landowners protect areas of bush and wetland on their property by using covenants. For more information, visit www.openspace.org.nz or phone 04 472 6626.
Fish and Game New Zealand, Northland Region
Fish and Game New Zealand provides specialist advice and support for landowners seeking to enhance wetlands or develop farm ponds for game bird habitat. Funding may be available and approved projects can receive up to 50 percent financial support. For more information, visit www.fishandgame.org.nz or phone 09 438 4135.
Department of Conservation
Department of Conservation staff can provide advice on how to identify, maintain, protect, and where necessary, enhance conservation values. Check out DOC’s website www.doc.govt.nz or phone the Northland Conservancy Office 09 470 3300.
New Zealand Landcare Trust
The New Zealand Landcare Trust helps with community group projects and may be able to provide funding. For more information, visit www.landcare.org.nz or phone 0800 526 322.
Your district council
Some councils offer help for landowners restoring and protecting wetlands. Check with your district council for more information. You may also need to contact your district council about resource consents.
Contact us…
**Main office:** 36 Water Street, Whangārei,
Private Bag 9021, Whangārei Mail Centre, Whangārei 0148
**Telephone:** 09 470 1200
**Facsimile:** 09 470 1202
**Freephone:** 0800 002 004
**24/7 Environmental Hotline:** 0800 504 639
**E-mail:** firstname.lastname@example.org
**Website:** www.nrc.govt.nz
**Facebook:** www.facebook.com/NorthlandRegionalCouncil
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THE VOICE OF MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN LIVING IN BELGIUM
This report was drafted by Maud Dominicy. Thanks to Cédric Vallet for his careful reading and the final rewrite. Thanks to Greet De Ridder, Nathalie San Gil and Philippe Henon for their precious help in proofreading and preparing the layout for this report. Thanks also to Dominique Ceuppens and Rudi Decort. Thanks to Sophie Berlamont, Marie D’Haese, Jean-Paul Françoey, Olivier Marquet, Ulrike Nackaerts, Julie Piette, Anne Catherine Rasson, Pascale Recht, Charlotte Van den Abeele and Anneleen Van Kelecom for their presence and their help throughout the process.
UNICEF Belgium would like to thank the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD) for the financial support provided for the elaboration of this report.
Any part of the report may be freely reproduced by using the following reference:
‘The voice of migrant and refugee children living in Belgium.’ ‘What do you think?’ Report, UNICEF Belgium, 2018.
The purpose of ‘What Do You Think? ’ is to give a voice to vulnerable children. In 1999, UNICEF Belgium launched this initiative with the goal of making the voice of the most vulnerable children and young people (migrant and refugee children, children with a disability, sick children, children in psychiatric care, children in conflict with the law, children affected by poverty) heard at the highest level and to ensure that they can be heard by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (the United Nations body that monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child).
Cover photo and illustration:
© UNICEFUN047914Herwig
© UNICEFUN058010anonymous
“Everyone’s voice can change people’s views, life, the way of seeing things. You just have to allow a person the right to express themselves as you express yourself. That’s all the problem is. You have to let people speak. Maybe we’ll find we have things in common. There’ll be things that I like and that you like. We’ll get to know each other. That’s how a friendship is created. That’s what creates love.”
- 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC -
# TABLE OF CONTENTS
| Section | Page |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|
| Preface | 5 |
| Summary | 7 |
| Introduction | 15 |
| Methodology | 18 |
| Experiences of children in their country of origin | 26 |
| We miss our country | 28 |
| War, insecurity and violence | 31 |
| Discrimination and inequalities | 36 |
| Poverty and corruption | 40 |
| Experiences of children on the road | 42 |
| Harrowing journeys | 43 |
| Child labour and exploitation in transit countries | 46 |
| Hoped-for safety | 49 |
| The family | 56 |
| The procedure | 60 |
| The large reception centres | 71 |
| Support for resilience: school, leisure activities and friends | 83 |
| Isolated teenage mothers | 92 |
| Children’s experiences in Belgium | 48 |
| Hopes and dreams of migrant and refugee children | 102 |
| Interpreting the priorities: children ask for more protection | 106 |
| Conclusion | 108 |
| Children’s recommendations | 111 |
| UNICEF’s recommendations | 116 |
| Annex: project partners | 118 |
“I’m making my voice heard and I hope that someone can hear me and say: okay, we can do something. We can help you. This way, we can envisage the future. And I’ll say it once more. And a thousand times more, I’ll say: simply look at other people as human beings. You shouldn’t say that I’m a Syrian girl. Or that I’m a refugee. Or that I’m a Shiite. Or a Sunni. I’m a human being. A human being. I have a heart. You have a heart. You have feelings. I have feelings. Please, look at me this way. I’m a human being”
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
THE VOICE OF MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN LIVING IN BELGIUM
They talk about their experience and their rights in Belgium, in their country of origin and on the road.
Half of all refugees are children. There are some nine million of them worldwide who are living far from home, fleeing from conflicts, violence and poverty. The vast majority of refugees find – often precarious – shelter in Asia (50%) and in Africa (32%). Europe only participates in the reception of the planet’s exiles to a very small extent: only 14% of them have found refuge here.
Since 2015, the ‘refugee crisis’ is everywhere. This ‘crisis’ – which is a reception crisis above all – lies at the heart of political and media debates. But in this flood of information, some voices are practically inaudible: those of the most vulnerable among the vulnerable: migrant and refugee children.
And yet, many of them have settled in Belgium. However, they are rarely invited to talk about their life in exile or the hardships they have endured along a road full of pitfalls. There are all too few occasions to listen to what they have to say about what pushed them to leave or about their reception in Belgium.
But when they are given the opportunity, it is clear that they are driven by a deep desire to share their life experiences and their story. They want to talk and hope that we, as responsible adults, are listening to them, without patronizing them.
By expressing their opinion, these children are not always aware of the fact that they are also expressing their rights. Rights that should always be in the decision-makers’ minds and that are written in black and white in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
These children want to participate. To explain the road and its obstacles, the drastic nature of fleeing, so that we can better understand them. These children would like this participation to be meaningful; it should lead to something and influence the decisions directly concerning them, if only a little; the decisions relating to the rights of children in migration.
We must never forget that migrant and refugee children are children, first and foremost, regardless of their migratory status. Listening to their opinions and finding out about their experiences is not some whim nor a gift to these children. It is a fundamental right from which they can benefit. Because children are best placed to describe their difficulties and find solutions to their problems. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child gives them the right to participate in the decisions concerning them.
This report offers the opportunity to read some of these children’s accounts; accounts that were collected over a two-year period. You can read the unfiltered opinions, experiences, joys and sadness of these refugee children in Belgium. This is what makes it an exceptional text.
We would like to warmly thank all the children and young people who participated in UNICEF Belgium’s ‘What Do You Think?’ project. This report would never have been published without them. We would also like to thank the educators, social workers and guardians who work alongside them every day and, without whom, this project would not have been possible. Through this report, we want to make the voices of migrant and refugee children living in Belgium heard. There is a lot we can learn from their stories.
These stories are sometimes violent and appalling. They are difficult to imagine and read. Sometimes, they are beyond comprehension. Many describe an extreme violence that no child should ever have to suffer. But as terrible as these stories may be, they are those of children and young people who survived. We didn’t hear the voices of the thousands of children who died in their country or on the road. Their silence should also remind us of our responsibilities.
Olivier Marquet
Executive Director
UNICEF Belgium
Maud Dominicny
Child Rights Officer
UNICEF Belgium
WARNINGS
This project involved the participation of 170 children. However, this study cannot be considered as representative of all the migrant and refugee children living in Belgium. This was not the objective of the ‘What Do You Think?’ project, which favours a qualitative approach, that will continue in time, over a quantitative approach.
The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the children’s points of view on the centres where they are currently living. Nearly all the children consulted had lived in several reception centres beforehand.
Considering the taking in charge of isolated teenage mothers, UNICEF Belgium wishes to stress the important work done in Belgium over the least ten years and thanks the authorities in charge for following up on certain recommendations that have been given by these young mothers.
DEFINITION
In this report, we refer to migrant and refugee children. This corresponds to the definition of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child:
*For the purposes of the Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.*
SUMMARY
Belgium or Syria, it wasn’t a choice. There were problems in Syria, insecurity, war. There was a chance we could die. We had to flee, have a new life, a future.
Fleeing, crossing borders, on foot, by boat, by truck. Dealing with violence. Arriving in Belgium, seeking asylum, breathing, living in a reception centre, playing, but also enduring loneliness, lack of privacy, a never-ending procedure.
All these experiences were encountered by this 17-year-old Syrian girl, the mother of a young baby. She talks about her exile, her fears and her difficulties, just like the other 169 migrant and refugee children who speak in this report.
170 children. 36 nationalities. 66 girls. All these children give their account and describe their unique journey, their experiences, but also their dreams. These children, robbed of their carefree childhood all too soon, were forced to leave their country. Sometimes alone, sometimes with their family; in some cases, it is the exile that separated them from their family. They are so young and yet, they have already lived a thousand lives.
Today, these children are living in Belgium.
‘What Do You Think?’ is a participatory initiative. These children’s words were collected over a two-year period by the UNICEF team in reception centres and schools. This report compiles their opinions and experiences in one document which focuses on what they have gone through, laid bare like a raw material.
These accounts don’t simply have a documentary purpose. No. This report is a transmission belt between the words of these young people, eager to participate, and the decision-makers, who are sometimes far removed from these realities. These words have resulted in very serious and precise recommendations aimed at improving the rights of migrant and refugee children.
Recommendations that will be sent to high places, to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva and to political decision-makers in Belgium.
The profiles of these young refugees and migrants were extremely varied. The children who agreed to participate in the ‘What Do You Think?’ project were between eight and twenty years old. In rare cases, the words of these young adults were taken into account, if they had fled their country as unaccompanied minors.
Proportion girls/boys: 66 girls / 104 boys
Some of these children had made the journey together with their family (33.5 %), while others arrived alone in Belgium (57.6 %). One characteristic concerning some of the young girls in exile was that they were already mother to young children. Isolated teenage mothers represent 8.8 % of our sample group and are given particular attention.
Finally, we should note the broad range of nationalities of origin among these children that form a kaleidoscope of migration. Forty-eight were Afghan, 25 Syrian and 21 Guinean. Eight came from the Democratic Republic of DRC.
A common thread runs through all these stories: these children’s migratory experience is recent. Some of them had only arrived in Belgium a few weeks before the interview. Others had been here for a few years. But the memory was very present; still very much alive and never far from the surface.
| TOTAL | |
|-------|--------|
| Afghanistan | 48 |
| Syria | 25 |
| Guinea | 21 |
| DRC | 8 |
| Eritrea | 5 |
| Morocco | 5 |
| Others | 58 |
| Total | 170 |
Nearly all the children and young people lived in reception centres for asylum seekers. Those who no longer lived in a centre had been through several of them. All the children and young people participated in the initiative through participatory tools.
The situation of uprooted children in the world and in Belgium
50 million children are uprooted in the world
396,740 children have requested asylum in Europe in 2016
4,960 children have requested asylum in Belgium in 2016
50% of all migrants are children
Needs to be met
‘What Do You Think?’ is a sharp reminder of what should be obvious: children need to be protected and they need to be with their families. This is what children say and repeat.
This document divides the children’s accounts into three main categories. Those concerning the country of origin, nostalgia and reasons for the exile.
Those describing the conditions of the flight, the migratory journey, the road.
And lastly, in a final part, the children describe their living conditions in their host society, here, in Belgium.
Here are a few salient features of these accounts:
In the countries of origin:
“I don’t like the violence of war. Children are always frightened to go to school because of the war.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
Many of the refugee children were exposed to war and insecurity. Others were faced with violence and discrimination; inequalities, poverty. In nearly every case, the exile is linked to a traumatic experience. The accounts of children who have fled war are chilling. They speak of death, forced exile, child labour, rape, forced labour, separation of families, hunger and ever-present fear. Many children also reveal discrimination linked to religion, ethnicity, gender or social status. Some girls tell of how they were circumcised or forced to marry. The majority of the children also speak of inequality and corruption. They address us directly because, in many countries, ‘a poor child is worth nothing!’
On the road to exile:
Beware, the journey is very dangerous. I’d tell them to watch out for smugglers who are violent and take money’.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
On the road to exile, children are exposed to abuse and exploitation. They speak of the violence of the human smugglers and traffickers, who sometimes mistreated them or forced them to work. They mention the dead bodies they saw along the way. It was during this journey that some children were separated from their parents, brothers and sisters. Unaccompanied children suffer from not seeing their family. They have often travelled alone for many weeks or months, crossing countries like Libya where insecurity and racketeering reign. They issue the following warning: the road sometimes means death, rape, imprisonment and exploitation of children. Some even go so far as to discourage other children from attempting it.
Arrival in Belgium:
There are many advantages in Belgium. We’re safe here, our future has been saved
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The children can breathe after their ordeals. When they arrive in Belgium, the young exiles feel relieved. They live in safety here. Belgium is often associated with freedom and protection. But, above all, their haven is one of hope; the hope of a better life. The hope of building a future, going to school. The possibility of a future becomes real. Some value the fact that Belgium is a country of laws and rights that apply to ALL children - including girls and minority groups. And all of them emphasise their joy at having the right to an education. Some highlight access to healthcare and protection against mistreatment. But, above all, they allow themselves the right to dream.
I can’t concentrate on my studies, it’s such a weight not knowing what will happen to me after the procedure.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, MOROCCO -
Of course, Belgium isn’t all happiness, tranquility and protection for these young migrants. Some express their discomfort faced with the uncertainty of the procedures, which sometimes go on forever, preventing them from looking forward and undermining this secure foundation that is nonetheless so fragile. Will they be able to stay? Will they have to return to their country of origin? This emotional burden reinforces the trauma linked to exile and what they experienced in their country of origin. For the unaccompanied children who were interviewed, it is clearly the never-ending nature of the procedure that destabilises them. It often prevents them from concentrating on the present and envisaging the future.
But the lack of prospects regarding the possibilities of staying in Belgium is not the only difficulty these young people encounter here. These refugee children highlight the lack of support from guardians or lawyers. They bemoan the interventions of interpreters, which are too limited or ill-intentioned. And in the reception centres, children would like more help and to be given better information, right from the beginning, so they can better understand what game they are playing.
The majority of the children participating in “What Do You Think?” were shunted from one reception centre to another. They feel that these changes aren’t helpful at all. On the contrary, they fragment their efforts to integrate. But what all these young people unanimously criticise is the large reception centres, which aren’t suitable for receiving children. They would all like it if Belgium were to favour care in small structures or host families. Children accompanied by their family who have spent many years in a centre express their preference for reception alternatives outside centres, in a house or in a flat.
Children like studying and going to school. They are enthusiastic and want to learn French and Dutch, and take part in activities or sports. However, outside the reception centres, it is often impossible for these children to practice a cultural or sports activity.
In our report, there is a special focus on the accounts of isolated teenage mothers. They are particularly insecure as they are subject to a range of vulnerabilities: they are minors, alone, young mothers, with no family and far from their country of origin.
Life in the large reception centres isn’t suitable for these young mothers. This type of reception causes stress, which prevents them from looking after their baby as they would like to. They all ask for accommodation (protection) in small structures, in a host family or in a flat. They are looking for a calm and protective environment. The lack of information and support is also a problem for these mothers. They would like to be helped on a regular basis (also outside the ONE visits!) so that they can confidently look after their child.
How can they deal with motherhood and school head on, with no real external aid? As the young mothers say: they need better school support so that they can combine their life as a mother and student. Some of them express very precise demands: help with homework in the evening, help to catch up during the holidays and closing the nursery at 6.00 p.m. All these mothers are concerned about the food given to the babies as well as set mealtimes. Many of them complain about the hypoallergenic milk that is given to the babies instead of normal milk, the water they have to buy to prepare the bottles, and the acute lack of means to acquire the essentials (water, food). They often have the impression of not being able to correctly fulfil their role as a mother and sometimes feel robbed of it.
Main recommendations
PROCEDURES THAT ARE TOO SLOW AND THE LACK OF PROTECTION HAVE DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES ON THE LIVES OF MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN. THEY RECOMMEND TAKING ACTION IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:
1. The procedure: have a procedure limited in time and benefit from better support from the guardian and the lawyer. Better information as soon as they arrive.
2. Family: be reunited with their family or have the possibility of remaining in contact with them. They would like to form links with people they can trust.
3. The reception centre: need for calm, rest, safety and support workers who listen. More small systems or host families for children who have arrived by themselves, alternatives for families.
4. School and leisure pursuits: more support for children who have dropped out of school and those who arrive at the end of the school year. The possibility of practising a sport or a leisure activity. Make Belgian friends.
5. Isolated teenage mothers: tailor-made support for young girls who are particularly vulnerable because they are mothers, teenagers, alone, with no family and in exile.
UNICEF BELGIUM RECOMMENDS BETTER PROTECTION FOR MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN BY WORKING ON SEVERAL FRONTS:
1. Listening to what migrant and refugee children have to say.
2. Protecting migrant and refugee children, especially when they are unaccompanied, from exploitation and violence.
3. Ending the detention of children that seek to obtain refugee status or wish to migrate further, by putting in place several practical solutions of substitution.
4. Preserving the integrity of families, the best option to protect children and giving them a legal status.
5. Continuing the education of all migrant and refugee children; giving them access to public health sand other quality services.
6. Requesting measures to combat the rootcauses of major migrations of refugees and migrants.
7. Combating xenophobia, discrimination and marginalisation in transit countries and countries of destination.
INTRODUCTION
‘What Do You Think?’ allows refugee and migrant children to have their say. In 2016 and 2017, accounts were collected from 170 youngsters in Belgium. These children expressed their opinions. They were able to talk about their experiences and tell us what they have undergone. This report provides an account of their words.
Today, these children are living in peace. They are all taken care of in Belgium. But the reasons that pushed them to flee, to take to the road, have marked them forever. Because they have all been subjected to harsh ordeals, either in their country of origin or on the road to exile. Two thirds of them made the journey alone, in hostile and sometimes very violent contexts. Some of the unaccompanied young girls that we met are already mothers.
All of these youngsters have endured physical or emotional suffering. They have been torn from their country, because of war, persecution or poverty. Their journey was paved with pain and brutality. The obstacles they had to overcome, at such a young age, are difficult to imagine, because their route was punctuated with death and extortion. These children emerge from it worn out, forever scarred, but also stronger. The majority of them display an unbelievable level of resilience.
Our discussions with these children weren’t all pain. Far from it. These young refugees and migrants enjoyed sharing with us a certain nostalgia of the smells and tastes of their countries of origin, but also what they like in Belgium, beginning with safety.
But while these children may not feel threatened here, it isn’t all a bed of roses. Some aspects of their reception here are not reassuring for them. Children spoke of their fears, their need to better define what is going to happen to them regarding their stay in Belgium. The unpredictability sometimes prevents them from looking forward and imagining a future, and dreaming.
Like the majority of children and young people, they want to live in safety, whether in Belgium or in their country of origin. They want to study and be protected. But these children haven’t simply expressed their opinions; they have gone further than that and are suggesting recommendations to political decision-makers.
This report relates the experiences of these young people. It describes their fears, but also their dreams and their expectations. These accounts, which were gathered directly from young refugees and migrants, should guide the policies to implement children’s rights. The right to live, the right to development, protection and—of course—participation. Because all children have the right to be heard in the procedures that concern them. And these few pages add an extra stone to this participatory building.
These children’s opinions are aimed at the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and political decision-makers. The goal is clear: to improve the situation of vulnerable children. To offer them care adapted to their age and their condition. Civil society organisations can use this study to inform local, national and international authorities about the application of migrant and refugee children’s rights.
NUMBER OF REFUGEE CHILDREN IN THE WORLD AND IN BELGIUM
50 million children are uprooted in the world
50% of all migrants are children
396,740 children have requested asylum in Europe in 2016
NUMBER OF CHILDREN REQUESTING ASYLUM IN EUROPE, INCLUDING NON-ACCOMPANIED CHILDREN IN 2016
| Country | Migrant children | Non-accompanied children |
|---------------|------------------|--------------------------|
| Germany | 261,380 | 35,935 |
| Austria | 17,125 | 4,451 |
| Greece | 16,900 | 2,424 |
| France | 12,945 | |
| Italy | 11,165 | |
| Sweden | 9,445 | 2,200 |
| United Kingdom| 9,200 | 3,175 |
| Switzerland | 8,930 | |
| Bulgaria | 6,447 | 2,768 |
| Belgium | 4,960 | 1,076 |
| Norway | 1,230 | 320 |
SOURCE: NUMBERS BASED ON THE AVAILABLE DATA EUROSTAT ON 3 MARCH 2017
METHODOLOGY
© UNICEF/UNI29001/Gilbertson VII Photo
During the various meetings with the children, we explored a series of difficulties with them through questions: What were the children’s experiences in their country of origin? What do they miss, what did they like, and what did they find difficult? What were their experiences on the road? What countries did they cross before reaching Belgium? What is their life like here? What do they like in their host country and what do they find difficult? What are their hopes and fears?
Getting children who have suffered trauma to participate, is a complex process that involves a tactful approach. The way the process is applied has a significant impact on the way the children will feel during and after the interviews. The children may not feel confident enough to express themselves. Some fear that their account might be used for other purposes. It is therefore essential to reassure them on these points. It is also necessary to be very clear with them: these accounts and recommendations won’t have a direct impact on their own situation; because there is a very real risk that such a process may raise false expectations among the children consulted.
Once all this has been understood, a project such as this offers many opportunities, not only for the children themselves, but also for the reception centres, frontline organisations and the schools that welcome these migrant and refugee children.
The children who talk about their experience and come up with recommendations gain in self-confidence. The professionals who listen to them and support them can set up more sustainable participatory initiatives and adapt their practices to the children’s needs.
The participatory methods used by UNICEF Belgium are based on a series of principles aimed at an ethical, respectful and sustainable participation of the children. During the ‘What Do You Think?’ process, we were attentive to several requirements:
**Ethical**
Considering the difficulties encountered by these refugee and migrant children during their lives, it is crucial to take precautions. First, the child has to be supported and reassured by excluding any risk of violence, exploitation, abuse or any other negative consequence that could be associated with them expressing themselves.
This might seem obvious to us, but it isn’t to them. Bonds must be created with the trusted persons surrounding the children. The keyword is reassurance, in order to inspire confidence in them.
The children must of course be informed of their right to be protected. They must know where to go to ask for help. It was very quickly agreed that the children would participate anonymously. Speaking freely and confidently is an essential condition. In the final report, only the young person’s gender (girl/boy), age and country of origin are mentioned. To guarantee the anonymity of the isolated teenage mothers, the age and country of origin of their baby was removed.
The children who were photographed or who took part in videos, signed a consent form with their guardian or parents. We removed any opinions from the accounts that could put them in danger, since they would be too easily recognisable.
**Voluntary**
The children’s participation is a right, not an obligation. Therefore, it must be voluntary. They must certainly not be forced to participate or speak on all the subjects. The children have the right to remain silent on certain subjects which are too painful or too personal for them to talk about. They must be informed that they can stop participating at any moment.
**Information**
The children must know what they are getting themselves into. Hence, they must receive information on their right to express their opinion and on the fact that their opinion will be taken into account. They must be informed on how their participation will play out and of its implications. The children must be informed that their opinions and recommendations will not change their personal situation but will be submitted anonymously to the highest level (to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and political decision-makers in Belgium) in order to improve the situation of all migrant and refugee children.
**Environment**
To be able to gather the words of children who have been subject to particularly difficult experiences, it is crucial to create a protective environment that inspires trust in the children. They must feel at ease so that they can speak openly, remain silent if they do not want to speak, or even withdraw from the process. The use of interpreters is also important to create this environment for children who don’t master the language of the host country.
Sustainability
The project was conducted over a two-year period (2016-2017), in reception centres for refugees or classes for new arrivals. We adapted to the capacities and rhythm of each centre while endeavouring to set up a sustainable process that lasts longer than just one day. Some of the centres were not able to consult the children themselves and asked external volunteers to lead the discussions. Others called on UNICEF staff. Other structures developed completely new methodologies to talk to the children and support them in expressing their experience. All this helped to strengthen the abilities of the professionals who work with these children as well as the children’s ability to express themselves and be more resilient.
Creative tools
Creative tools facilitate the exploration of the children’s problems. They enable group and individual work so that all the children, regardless of their age and their knowledge of the language, can express themselves. These tools help the children to share their stories, their experiences and their opinions. They also provide a starting point for a group discussion.
‘What Do You Think?’ proposed several creative tools, such as making maps (body map, map of Belgium, exile map) so that the child could explain the environment in which it is living and provide ideas on how to improve this living environment.
Other tools were used such as drawing, graffiti and photography, which allowed the children to share their feelings and to present their hopes for the future in a visual manner. All the proposed methodologies offer a space to reflect and facilitate expression without directing the children’s thoughts, in a stimulating environment that is sufficiently reassuring to create a fundamental discussion.
The body map
The body map is explained to the children and young people as being a symbolic space. The map represents their journey and their experience of migration. The children are first invited to create their own character on the floor and paint it. We then explain to them that a part of the body represents their country of origin, while another part represents Belgium. The moderator then sets out the different elements that each person has to add to the body (e.g. where the heart is: what do the children like most in Belgium? Where the arm is: what is the most difficult thing for them in Belgium? What support do they need? Where the head is: what are their dreams for the future?).
This tool was used with small groups to ensure that important information was gathered at individual level from each child.
The body map has an advantage when working on problems: the children can support each other to draw and can express themselves almost individually thanks to the help of a facilitator who is always at their side.
‘What Do You Think?’ organised 24 debates in the reception centres, frontline organisations and classes for new arrivals.
A national debate even took place in Brussels, bringing together children from different structures. The children were invited to speak because participation must be voluntary. The process was more laborious when a whole class was requested to be present during the debates.
Some groups of children were seen on several occasions. Others only once. But each time, the groups were invited to vote for their three priorities.
Every debate lasted at least three hours and included five to fifteen children accompanied by a facilitator, a rapporteur and, more often than not, a support person. Insofar as it was possible, the groups were divided into age ranges (young children, adolescents, young adults). Interpreters were present in some groups. Special attention was paid to the teenage mothers. They participated without the boys and without male interpreters, so that they had the space needed to express themselves.
Some participants asked to speak to us on an individual basis. Other children favoured a creative approach to express themselves, while others preferred to speak or write.
Summary of the debates:
ASBL CEMO/ DASPA* School class Filles De Marie in St Gilles
- 4 debates in class
El Paso Centre in Gembloux
- Participation in the national debate
- About 10 of the debates were organised in the centre
FEDASIL Centre in Kapellen
- 1 debate at the centre
- 1 debate at UNICEF headquarters
FEDASIL Centre in Bevingen
- Participation in the national debate
FEDASIL Centre in Poelkappellen
- Participation in the national debate
FEDASIL Centre in Pondrôme
- 1 debate at the reception centre
FEDASIL Centre in Rixensart
- 3 debates at the reception centre
Mentor Escale
- Participation in the national debate
- 1 debate at Mentor Escale headquarters
- Gathering individual accounts
OKAN* class Diest
- Participation in the national debate
- 1 debate in class
Vluchtenlingenwerk Vlaanderen
- 1 debate at WW headquarters
*OKAN-class: classes for newcomers
The children’s priorities
During each debate, the children gave an individual account, which is presented in this report. They were able to express a collective opinion. At every debate, the children were invited to choose three things which they thought were the most important things that needed improving. They had to stick three stickers on their three priorities.
When the children are asked to choose, it becomes apparent that what generates the most discussion - such as food - doesn’t necessarily reflect the subject’s level of importance. The vote is individual, which allows some children to make choices more independently from the rest of the group.
THE PRIORITIES CHILDREN VOTED FOR:
3 PRIORITIES FOR THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
- Put an end to war, insecurity and violence
- Put an end to discrimination and inequalities
- Put an end to poverty and corruption
© Ruud van der Graaf
3 PRIORITIES FOR BELGIUM
- Family: the difficulty of being alone and the difficulty of being reunited with their family.
- Procedure: a procedure that is not adapted to children.
- The reception centres: large centres are not adapted to children. Support for resilience: school, leisure activities and friends.
EXPERIENCES OF CHILDREN IN THEIR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
© UNICEF/UN048841/ERGEN
Celebrations, games, smells. Children often feel nostalgic about the country they have left. And then they remember their friends and their family. These loved ones they miss so much, especially those children who have travelled alone. But the young refugees and migrants know very well why they left. Their accounts are those of survivors. They fled war and rubbed shoulders with death and indiscriminate violence, even though they survived. Others suffered poverty, discrimination, forced marriage. All reasons which left them with no choice: they had to flee.
WE MISS OUR COUNTRY
This is the first thing children in exile miss: their loved ones. Their friends and family. It is even more true for children who have arrived in Belgium alone.
I miss my family, my friends and the life I had.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
I miss my family.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
I love Syria
I miss the comfort, having a family close to me.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I miss my family and my parents.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MALI -
I love Iraq
I miss my friends.
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
I miss family life and our mango tree
- 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC -
A lot of children feel nostalgia for their country of origin: they talk about the joy of life, the hospitality, the celebrations, the music, the food.
People are always smiling in the streets in Syria. They sing and eat in the street. In our country, everyone belongs to the same family. We are one. We share laughter and tears. We share everything. For every important moment in the life of a person, we hold a big celebration, where the whole neighbourhood is invited. We dance, we sing, we eat all together. We all live together. That was the Syria of my childhood.
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
I love my country. I live in Belgium, it’s good, it’s nice, for sure, but at the same time, I love my country. Over there, the food is so wonderful! And also, there is the fact that if you go to a town you don’t know, the people will welcome you and respect you, take you to their house, make you tea.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
What was great in Afghanistan were the Suger Feast, the Feast of Sacrifice and the New Year’s celebrations. All the Muslim feasts were celebrated as they should be. The celebrations were a source of joy.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
In my country of origin, I love my family a lot. I miss fruit, like oranges.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I love the people in my country a lot. They’re sociable and joyous people. I miss my town.
- 19-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
WE MISS OUR COUNTRY
Some children also talk about nature, the smells and the colours:
“I’m Syrian first and foremost, then a refugee, and I love my country. Over there, the smell is different. Syria smells of jasmine, the flower of Damascus. You can see this pretty white flower everywhere in Syrian streets. It covers the ground. This ground where every small stone is pretty, because it is the ground belonging to my country.”
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
“In Guinea, I used to like going to the end of the river, to the fair, to the goldmine in the village in the high plains.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
Many Afghan children also mention the game of cricket, which they particularly like.
“I liked going to school in Afghanistan. I also liked playing cricket.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I liked doing sport in Afghanistan, especially cricket.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
‘One day everything’s okay, the next day, you’ve lost everything’. Children from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan talk about war. They describe the violence that swoops down from one day to the next, without distinction, and destroys everything on its way. For these children, there are no words to truly describe the acts of violence they have experienced and witnessed. No one can understand the ordeals they have suffered, except for those who have experienced war. These young refugees have seen blood, death, fear and danger. They have seen schools close, if they hadn’t already been destroyed. And sometimes, it was even their teachers who were killed. They have known hunger and lost loved ones. This war is the death of childhood. Joy disappears, just like the desire to play. War leaves trauma in its wake. As they grow up, these children continue to be afraid of war.
Other children haven’t lived in countries at war but have been faced with different sorts of violence. Domestic violence, violence at school, organised crime, brutality in communities. The children’s accounts remind us that exile isn’t a choice, but a question of survival.
We didn’t choose to be refugees. It just happened like that and we had to make a choice. We had to escape the death and destruction that existed in the system governing the country. My message to the whole world is as follows: we are children like any others and we have the right to safety and education. We want to live with our family, just as every child wants to, everywhere in the world.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, IRAQ -
Belgium or Syria, it wasn’t a choice. There were problems in Syria, insecurity, war. There was a chance we would die. There was no more healthcare, no more school, nothing. We had to flee. We had to experience new things, have a new life, a future.
- MOTHER, 17 YEARS -
No one likes Syria anymore. You can’t imagine what we saw, the blood, the deaths, the life we used to have. I wanted a new life. I came to Belgium. I want a fresh start. I lost my country, but I’m not lost. I’m a lot stronger.
- MOTHER, 17 YEARS -
Two young Syrian girls describe how everything changed from one day to the next:
One day, everything changed. I went to bed one night and everything was all right. When I woke up in the morning, everything had gone. I didn’t imagine at that time that it was going to be that bad. Since the start of the war, our Syria has disappeared. The war has taken everything we had. It’s not only me that feels this pain. It’s the same for all Syrians. Little by little, I understood that if I wanted to live, I had to leave. So I took to the road. Everyone from my country was obliged to take refuge. We were forced to leave our beautiful country to find shelter. So that we could feel good, safe. This journey was very painful.
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
Syria has become a very dangerous country because of the war. I would like to explain to you what war does when it arrives in your country, but it is difficult to find the right words. War can arrive very suddenly. One day, everything’s okay, and the next day, you’ve lost everything you built for your life. When war arrives in your country, it brings hunger, fear and insecurity. People around you die, your parents, your friends and even your teachers.
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
Many Afghan and Syrian children spoke about the impact of war on children. They spoke of death, suffering, hunger and insecurity, but also about the loss of childhood, the fear of going to play outside or going to school.
“I don’t like the war in Syria. As children, we can feel it in our daily lives, we don’t have any food, no house, no safety.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“When there’s war, children can’t play anymore. They can’t be children anymore.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“War doesn’t recognise children: grown-ups, children, everyone dies. That’s why I’m going to tell everyone to get out of Syria. During the war, children can’t play anymore. There’s nothing for children. Children of six or seven years old pick up a Kalashnikov as though it’s a toy. In Syria, with the war, no one goes out or comes home. The schools are bombed. The war explodes every day. There are a lot of problems. People don’t like Syria. But not all Syrians are like that. Are children condemned to play with Kalashnikovs?”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“The children have no peace. The children are traumatised. There’s no joy for them.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I don’t like the violence of war. Children are always frightened to go to school because of the war.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
“War frightens children. War kills in a few minutes.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“War brings poverty. War offers children no future.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“People die, children don’t go to school. They’re wounded. The parents have no work. The children grow up and continue to think about the war. They’re scared of going to school because they’re scared of the war.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The violence of war isn’t the only type of violence children are faced with. Many talk about the violence they suffer within their family, at school and in the community.
Another Afghan boy mentions the kidnapping of children:
I don’t like the war. The Taliban kidnap children to integrate them into their army. Many children are obliged to stay indoors so they don’t get kidnapped. Children’s rights aren’t respected.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I don’t like the lack of safety or violence against children. You’re hit at school and at home. I would like it to stop because it isn’t good for children.
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
Violence is everywhere, in the family, at school, in the street, in public transport. The men beat the women, the girls are raped, the children are beaten up. Another problem is poverty, the lack of work, the meagre salaries. Neither the law nor the police are fair.
- 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL, NICARAGUA -
There are no rules. The violence is everywhere. I don’t like the burglaries or the injustice. Thieves aren’t punished, and the police are just as violent. The violence is also present in families and at school.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, BRAZIL -
I don’t like the violence, the law or the bandits in Brazil. People don’t respect the law, some have more rights than others. It’s not fair. There’s also a lot of crime.
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, BRAZIL -
I don’t like the violence or the burglaries in Brazil. I don’t like the fact that children are obliged to work.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, BRAZIL -
I don’t like the ethnic war and the family problems in Guinea. A lot of conflicts in families are due to polygamy. A father marries two women and they don’t get on. The co-wife mistreats the children of the other wife, which can force children to run away from home.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Muslims, Peuhls, Malinke. Belonging to a certain group is becoming a standard or a reason for persecution. The children clearly express this. For them, it is mistaken to believe that all humans are equal regardless of their religion, ethnicity, gender or social status. They have first-hand experience of discrimination and old hatreds between ethnic or religious groups. The divisions between Shiites and Sunnis, for instance, are at the basis of discrimination and violence. Many ethnic groups criticise, insult and fight each other. Some have the power and the others not. They don’t agree and they kill each other. These divisions catch up with them, even in their country of exile. In Belgium, the children are never really at ease or at peace. They live in fear that their loved ones will get killed. As for the girls, they have endured very harsh treatment, just for being girls. When they leave their country, they are fleeing forced and early marriages. Sometimes it is also female genital mutilation, rape or the brutality of a husband that they forever want to forget. It is the lack of protection that pushes them to leave in search of a freer life.
People never like each other after war. They’ll look at you: are you Christian, Muslim, Sunni, Shiite? Before the war, no one paid any attention to all that. But since the war, they do. If people continue to think like that, our problems will never be solved.
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
You can’t get married to someone from another ethnic group in Afghanistan.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I don’t like the ethnic wars, the ethnic discriminations and the poverty in Guinea. The ethnic wars between the Peuhls and the Malinke create inequalities. The important positions are given to the Malinke, who will always favour people from their ethnic group. Even when the police have to intervene, they aren’t neutral. And some are never punished, even when they commit offences. The law isn’t neutral. That’s because of the ethnic conflict.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
Before the war, there weren’t any differences between people. Shiites, Sunnis, Muslims and Christians. Everyone stuck together. Why is there war now? Why don’t Shiites speak to Sunnis anymore? Why don’t Christians speak to Muslims anymore? Why the racism? Why the war?
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
The politics between the Peuhls, Malinke, Susu, there’s too much racism. They shoot at each other. They don’t agree. Some are in power and the others aren’t. That’s what people are like. They criticise each other, they insult each other, they fight each other. That’s why I’m in Belgium.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
What hurts me is that, in the population, you have to say whether you’re Sunni or Shiite. And yet, everyone’s the same. Everyone is made the same way.
- 13-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
In many countries, these children describe how girls do not have the same rights as boys: they are forced into marriage, they undergo female genital mutilation, and they are obliged to wear a hijab. They can’t talk to boys or fall in love. If girls don’t listen, they could be killed!
I’m a Guinean refugee. I left Guinea following a forced marriage. I was subjected to physical violence and mistreatment by my husband. I fled my country after five months of marriage. I was helped by the mother of my best friend, who found a contact person for me in Belgium.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
If a girl has problems in Guinea, I will tell her to come here, because here, you have enough to eat and you don’t get beaten. In Belgium, girls are respected, they’re not forced to marry, there’s no forced marriage.
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
A young girl tells how her father forced her to marry an older man and how she was able to escape.
“I lost my mother, my father and my twin sister in a car accident at the age of two. I was brought up by my father’s half-brother, who is Muslim. I was made to become a Muslim without wanting to. I grew up in this family until the day my uncle decided to marry me off to a man older than me. And because Cameroon is a corrupt country, no one can complain to anyone. So, I left the family home for my husband’s house. Once over there, he abused me. But thanks to the help of the daughter of my husband’s third wife, I was put in contact with a smuggler who asked me for a precise sum, which I stole from my husband. That’s how I ended up in Belgium. Forced marriage is a bad thing, because it destroys your life and your choices and it makes you lose your family and friends. I had other plans, I wanted to continue my studies to become a mechanic, meet the man of my choice and build a nice family.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, CAMEROON -
A young mother tells how she fled to escape a forced marriage:
“Life is very difficult for girls in my country. We don’t go to school. When you’re young, you have to stay at home and work with mother. Afterwards, around 11-12 years old, you get married to a man about 30-40 years old. I want to study, become a doctor, do something with my life. My dad comes from Afghanistan. He’s very religious. My mum comes from Pakistan. She didn’t want me to go to school. Dad wanted me to. Mum wanted me to work in the house, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to leave. First, I went to Spain, but I wasn’t helped, so I came to Belgium.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
Several girls talk about female genital mutilation and the impossibility of escaping it if they stay in their country.
“Female genital mutilation is still practised in Guinea. It doesn’t end. I’ve been circumcised. If you don’t circumcise your daughter, you have problems, mothers are forced. If you don’t do it, you’re considered a prostitute, you’re not a woman. It still goes on, people don’t stop doing it.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“If you don’t undergo an excision, you’re mistreated, ridiculed, you won’t have a husband, you’re worthless and your life might even be in danger.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
Young girls speak of the sexual violence they were subjected to
“I didn’t choose Belgium, or Europe. In my province, where I was living, people get killed, raped, all those things happen. There was no safety. There’s a lot more of it in our country than in Europe. You leave your family, you’re all alone. You give yourself courage, you don’t look back.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
Boys are also concerned with the rights of girls. For young Afghans, the country’s future lies in the education of girls:
“If something should be improved in the future, then the young generation should have the chance to contribute to it. Girls and women who want to study should be given this right, because education is a right for boys and girls. It shouldn’t only be men who have the chance to study. Women too.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I’ve portrayed rape, not war, death, misery. If I were president, I would help the poor, I would sort the country out and I would make sure that everything was okay. I’ve drawn a tear to represent war. I’ve done two drawings with the face of a woman and a little girl to represent the rapes in DRC and to say that it isn’t just women who are raped, but also children.”
- 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC -
Inequalities and corruption. Nearly all the children consulted mentioned both. For them, the wealthy have all the rights. The poor have none at all: no right to go to school, no right to healthcare, no right to be protected against torture or ill-treatment. Even when they can go to school, poor children believe they have no future. In their opinion, money means immunity. Those who have money can pay for their diploma and even become a doctor. Those who don’t have money and who are sick can’t even get care. But what still plagues some of these children, even when they simply think about it, is hunger; the hunger that creeps into stomachs in the early morning. Finally, we should point out that a large majority of children draw attention to the need to improve healthcare and education in their country of origin. Having hospitals, good equipment and good doctors are all things that matter to them.
In my country, healthcare and medication aren’t as good. There are a lot of differences between the rich and the poor. Corruption has increased. You must have money or know someone to settle administrative issues. Access to electricity and water is reduced to a minimum.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I would like to give all the children in my country a school and food.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MALI -
Here, you go to school. You go to the hospital. You have medication. There’s none of that over there. Here, there’s work. Over there, there’s none. Here, there are studies. Not over there.
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
If I had a magic wand, I would build hospitals. They don’t look after sick people properly, the machines they have aren’t okay. The hospitals must be sorted out. Good doctors are needed! They arrive late, then they don’t look after patients properly, and afterwards, they die. The equipment needs sorting out.
- 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC -
I would like to build hospitals and give children an education without violence, stop the violence in families and at school.
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
Children have no future without education. The violence has repercussions in school and in the family. In Eritrea, children who live in the countryside can’t go to school.
- 18-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ERITREA -
We have to join the army at 16 to 17 years old. You can even join when you’re younger if you stop school earlier. Sometimes, you have to work for the army for a very long time. There is hardly any healthcare. If you’re sick, you have a problem. There are problems with the electricity. There is hardly any freedom of the press. We don’t really know what’s going on in our country. Soldiers give severe punishments and mistreat people.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, ERITREA -
According to this boy, poor children are worth nothing:
"If you’re sick, you can’t go to the hospital and you’re not taken care of. If you kill someone and you have money, they let you out of prison. Money is more important than people. Poor children are worth nothing. You also need money to go to school and to pass the year."
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
This girl talks about child labour and daily hunger, which poor children suffer from. A hunger that isn’t understood by rich people, in her opinion:
"Children mustn’t go in the mines or do this kind of thing. That’s what bothers me. Poverty is... Imagine you tell a rich person that there are poor people. They won’t believe it, because they’re rich, they have money. They won’t really know, they won’t have the same feeling as us, as the poor people have. They really suffer. In the morning, they wake up, they’re hungry. They have to go to work or ask for money to eat. Whereas a rich person always has food in front of him. The rich always have food in front of them."
- 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC -
Several children from European countries whose parents decided to come to Belgium to work, also spoke about increasing inequalities and poverty in Europe.
"In Greece, there’s no work, a lot of people have left."
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GREECE -
"In Italy, there are a lot of work problems, there isn’t a lot of money, shops are closing. There isn’t a lot of work on farms."
- 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MOROCCO, WHO LIVED IN ITALY -
"The crisis creates a lot of money problems, there aren’t many jobs... and that has an impact on us, the young ones."
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, PORTUGAL -
"I don’t like the injustice in Portugal. Some people have more rights than others. There isn’t a lot of work and the salaries are very low."
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, PORTUGAL -
"I don’t like poverty. Families that don’t have a lot of money don’t have many rights."
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ROMANIA -
EXPERIENCES OF CHILDREN ON THE ROAD
The journey to Belgium isn’t only perilous. It’s brutal. You can die. Some children even warn against it: ‘Don’t come over, the journey is too dangerous’. You have to cross deserts, mountains, oceans, piled into tiny boats. You have to ignore the borders. But, above all, you have to deal with smugglers.
The lack of legal migration routes pushes children into the arms of criminal networks, which organise people smuggling in dreadful conditions. These organisations hold people to ransom, threaten, abandon the weakest along the way and sometimes rape women, and sometimes kill or exploit children. There is nothing but danger on the journey. This young Afghan remembers his brother being captured in Iran before becoming a slave and running away. This 16-year-old Eritrean still vividly remembers the images of corpses left in the dessert. Others lost their parents on this hellish route through the central Mediterranean. Sometimes, the journey also means being separated from your family. These loved ones who are then so difficult to find again.
A large number of unaccompanied children from Afghanistan spoke of exploitation, abuse and the violence of the smugglers on the journey through the eastern Mediterranean. Some even go so far as to discourage other children from coming over.
I would tell them no! Don’t come over, the journey is too dangerous. The smugglers are violent. I would tell them we’re doing very well in Belgium, we can study, there’s no violence. But no, don’t come, because of the journey and the smugglers!
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The journey is very difficult, with a lot of deaths. It’s very difficult
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The smugglers steal your money, they force you to work.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I would tell them to come. But beware, the journey is very dangerous. I would tell them to be aware of the smugglers, who are violent and take your money.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
This boy speaks about the kidnapping of his younger brother who became a slave in Iran:
When you want to come to Europe, it’s very expensive and very difficult. You have to cross a lot of high mountains, the sea. I did the journey by car and on foot, I walked at night, because we had to hide all the time. I passed through Iran, Turkey, Greece, France and Belgium. I left, and a few days later, my mother and my younger brother left too. But my mother has a problem with her foot, so she couldn’t walk very well, she went back to the village. My brother was kidnapped in Iran. In the mountains over there, there are people who kidnap strangers when they see them. And then they ask for money: 20,000 dollars, 25,000 dollars. They took my brother. They forced him to work as a slave. If you can’t pay, they force you to work, otherwise, they hit you, beat you. They even attacked my brother with knives. He was 14 years old. They kept him for four years. We had no news, we didn’t know whether he was dead or alive. One day, he saw an opportunity and ran away. He’s in Turkey now, I was able to speak to him not so long ago. I hadn’t intended to come to Belgium. I left. I arrived in Greece, someone told me about Belgium, so I came here. I arrived here five years ago, I was 16 years old.
- 21-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Many other unaccompanied children who have taken the Central Mediterranean Route have been witness to extreme suffering. Some have seen corpses in the desert. Others have been witness to unspeakable violence in Libya.
I went from Eritrea to Ethiopia, then to Sudan, Egypt, Libya, and then, from Libya, I went to Italy, then France, and finally Belgium. Sometimes we travelled by car, sometimes on foot. There were several of us, some of them I knew, others I didn’t know. It was very difficult in Libya… The people who took us into the desert were armed, and if we said anything, they killed us. There were women with us, and they took them aside and did what they wanted with them. If anyone was too thirsty or couldn’t walk anymore, they left them. If anyone wanted to protest against it, they also left them in the desert. For the crossing to Italy, it wasn’t a boat, it was more like a kayak, I think. It was really small, but with 400 people on board, or maybe more. I wasn’t too scared, because from the moment I set off, I had the belief that I would be able to do this journey.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, ERITREA -
It’s dangerous to leave the country, and the route through the Sahara is very dangerous. You have to be careful during the journey, walk at night. I saw people die.
- 18-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ERITREA -
Some children also lost their family during the journey. Some parents died on the way. Other parents, brothers or sisters, are held up in other countries.
“I miss my family. I miss my mother. I waited for her here for two years, so that she could join me. But she’ll never come. Because she died in Slovenia. She was on her way here. That still hurts me. I’ll never forget that.”
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
“The serious problem in Syria is the war. Stop the war and everything will get sorted out. I’m happy here, but my sisters are held up in Turkey.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
Some of the children we met told us about the detention and exploitation they experienced in transit countries.
“I was incarcerated for 15 days in Turkey and seven days in Greece.”
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
A boy tells how he worked in Turkey for five years:
“When children haven’t got any money to go to school, they have to work. That’s the way it is. If you haven’t got any money, you have to work to eat. Even in Turkey, I had to work for five years (from 11 to 16 years old). My 15-year-old sister still works in Turkey for 200 euros a month. My little sister, who is eight, doesn’t go to school. She doesn’t know how to read or write, she doesn’t know how to do anything.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
Two girls explain that they had to work 12 hours a day in Turkey and that no one was concerned about it:
“In Turkey, when the country opened its doors to us, my sister and I were 10 and 11 years old. We were still little, but we had to work. Sometimes, we had to work 12 hours a day. We went to Turkey, but no one looked at us, no one did anything for us. If something had happened, no one would have noticed. We had to work. Even if you’re still little, you have to work to survive.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
These unaccompanied Syrian girls also worked in Turkey before giving birth to their baby in a refugee camp in Greece:
“I worked in Turkey to go to Greece. My baby was born in a refugee camp in Greece.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“I didn’t go to school for six months. My baby was born in a refugee camp in Greece.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The length of the journey to reach Belgium varies considerably from one child to another. It took some children three months to get here, others several years.
“I had to escape my country. I was alone, I was 14 years old. My exile lasted three months. I passed through Iran, Turkey, then Greece, before reaching Belgium.”
- 14-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I left Syria six years ago. I spent five years in Turkey before arriving in Belgium.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“I would like to thank Belgium. Thanks to Belgium, I don’t have to do heavy work. In Turkey, I had to work 12 hours a day over there, and because of that, I still have backache.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
CHILDREN’S EXPERIENCES IN BELGIUM
REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK?’ 48
HOPED-FOR SAFETY
Children feel safe and tranquil in Belgium. They cherish this newly acquired freedom. They are happy to go to school and to finally be able to hope to build a new life, and have a future. Some even speak of the fact that in Belgium, their rights are respected. The majority of children emphasised positive experiences.
Freedom means living how you want to. It means respecting everyone. All that is possible in Belgium, and that’s why I came here. I simply wanted to have a normal life. I may no longer be carefree, but I still have hope. I’m happy to be here, but I only dream of one thing: that peace will return and that I can go back home.
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
Belgium is the country of my dreams, because here, I can study. And I can go to school. And here, everyone respects the rules, and everyone respects each other.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I love everything in Belgium!
- 9-YEAR-OLD BOY, ANGOLA -
Since I came to Belgium, I feel safe with my son. I wasn’t safe, I fled to come here.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
Here, it’s always calm. School is good. Everything’s good here.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
There are many advantages in Belgium. Here, we’re safe, our future has been saved. We can do something good for our future, study.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Here, I like school and studies. I also like the future opportunities we have in Belgium.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, BRAZIL -
I like the food in Belgium. I like the fact that there is work and safety. It isn’t dangerous here.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, NICARAGUA -
It’s nice and safe in Belgium. Children here don’t have to work and they can study. Women are respected.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
Belgium also helps the poor, the disabled and refugees. It’s a very orderly country. It’s clean here. There’s no rubbish in the street.
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, PERU -
In Belgium, there are more rights for children and young people, there is more room for women in Belgian society.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, IRAN -
This young Syrian girl considers Belgium as a father who opened his arms to her when she needed protection:
Belgium is my second country. It’s a bit like Syria was my mother, and Belgium, my father. A father who opened his arms when I needed him, to protect me. I’ve got a future in Belgium, like a second life. I learnt how to be independent, to live alone. I don’t need anyone today. Before, I would fall a lot, I would hurt myself. But every day, I climb another step. Every day, I’m a bit better.
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
Many children have expressed their gratitude towards Belgians and Belgium. They feel respected and welcome. They can think freely. They are grateful that they have been so warmly welcomed. And, above all, they appreciate all the fun activities the country has to offer. Swimming pools, parks, games. In short, the burden is getting lighter.
Here, everything is good. Belgians are very respectful. The majority, in any case. It’s wonderful. There are many good things here. Back home, foreigners aren’t well-accepted. Here, I have the right to live like you. Back home, some people don’t accept foreigners. They aren’t open. Here, there is freedom of religion. Christian, Muslim, atheist, everything is respected here.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
People in Belgium help us; they’re like family for me.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANGOLA -
People here are respectful here, you’re well-treated.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
What’s good in Belgium, is that there are laws. And the people too. It’s not like back home, here, they don’t bother you. But at the same time, it’s strange here, for instance, neighbours don’t know each other, they don’t speak to each other.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, ERITREA -
Thank you, Belgium. Thank you to all the countries that have received us.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
I like everything in Belgium, the people are really nice!
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
People are kind in Belgium, I like school and my friends.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
I like the weather and the nice people in Belgium, I like the food, the chocolate and the tourist attractions.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ROMANIA -
During a debate in a reception centre, a group of children between eight and twelve years old drew up a list of things they liked in Belgium:
What we like in Belgium is Brussels, the Atomium, the zoo, the animals, manga, TV programmes like ‘The Voice’, the cinema, family, pretty girls, football, football stadiums, the swimming pool, bicycle rides, the beauty of the country (‘it’s beautiful’), the Foire du Midi in Brussels, bowling, the trainees at the centre (‘Mégane’), and because there are people we like!
Another group of children aged between 13 and 15 years old did the same exercise:
What we like about Belgium is the MENO centre, friends (‘soul brothers and sisters’), laughing, the teachers (‘my cookery teacher’), autumn, summer, pine cones, love, school, sport, football, the size of the country. Here, there’s no war, we have activities, we can spend time with friends, go out with girls.
Raising greater awareness among Belgians
While tranquility and freedom are precious assets that migrant and refugee children happily welcome, Belgium is no land of milk and honey either. Some children tell of negative experiences, linked to a lack of understanding about their realities. Some children have been faced with racism. Some young people complain of racially motivated identity checks. They recommend raising greater awareness among the Belgian population as well as among frontline professionals (the police, municipal employees) so that they have a better understanding of their reality.
"I would like to have the chance to meet you, talk with you one day! I would like you to learn to know me. When you speak to me, I would like you to talk to Z, to me as a person. And not just to a Syrian refugee. But what I would like above all, is that you understand that every person is different. You can’t just talk about ‘refugees’, we are all different people, with a different story. In my mother tongue, Arabic, there’s a proverb that says that: Look at your hand: every finger is attached to another one. And yet, every single one is different to the other ones. Well, in a group, it’s the same thing. Every person is different, even if they belong to the same group. Me, I’m Z."
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
"For me, the main problem is that Belgians don’t know refugees. A girl in my class thought I was someone from another country. She didn’t really understand. People don’t know where we come from and they think all sorts of nonsense about us."
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
"I went to school in a very small town. The people were really racist towards us. They had no contact with us."
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
"Racism is everywhere, throughout the country, and we should adapt. We have to learn to deal with it, because it’s everywhere, not only in Belgium, but worldwide. There is also racism between the young people at the centre. When they talk about Afghans, they say mean things. We must learn to communicate together."
- 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC -
"The police should defend children, but half of the police officers don’t. Fifty percent of police officers are nice and 50% are bad. I would like the police to get to know us. In Brussels, if you’re tanned and you’re wearing a cap, you get checked. A young white man with a cap will never get checked. That’s why young people snap."
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, MOROCCO -
"I often get arrested by the police. It’s happened twice at the train station in Gembloux. If I became prime minister tomorrow, I would tell people to be nice to North Africans and all foreigners. I would make sure there was less racism."
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, ALGERIA -
"You have to go to the town hall to change your orange card or to receive a stamp. The woman at the counter is really unpleasant. Once she said to me, ‘This card isn’t clean, come back another time’. Even though I speak Dutch as well, when she sees Fedasil on the card, she’s unpleasant."
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANGOLA -
UNICEF 55
A primary protection unit
Some children came here alone or were separated from their family on the way. Some parents have remained in other countries, such as Turkey. Others came to Belgium with their brother, their sister or their parents. The children who came with their parents highlighted the importance of being accompanied and supported by their family.
“We’re nothing without a family!
Several children who came with one of their parents regret having made the journey to Belgium. They would have liked to have been consulted about their parents’ plans for exile.
“I wasn’t asked for my opinion. I came with my mother. My father and my brother stayed in Morocco. If I had to write to the children in my country, I would tell them to stay there.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MOROCCO -
When you take the decision to migrate, the children must be consulted, otherwise they can become depressed. It’s not easy in the beginning when you arrive in Belgium, you really have to make an effort, the language is different, it’s difficult to make contact with other people. In the beginning, when I arrived in Belgium, I was scared of not making any friends.
- 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MOROCCO -
Challenges for unaccompanied children
Children who have come alone think a lot about their family. They miss their mum and dad. They would like to have someone who supports them, who listens to them, who takes care of them every day. Children who live independently particularly suffer from this situation. What they miss is a dad or a mum who is waiting for them at home when they come back from school, who asks them how their day was, who makes a nice meal for them. A parent who reassures them when they are down, who enables them not to be frightened the next day and helps to set limits and rules. They often feel alone and isolated, overcome by everyday tasks.
“The most difficult thing is being alone. When you’ve finished school, work, an activity, a trip, you hope that someone is waiting for you at home, you want to be able to tell someone about your day. But you have to keep everything in your head, the good and the bad things. Everything will explode one day. I miss my mother especially. Before, my mother was there when I came home. Sometimes here, I think ‘Oh, my mother will be there’, but no, no noise, nothing. She isn’t there. I stay all alone. You can’t do anything without your family.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
In the evening, mum told me to go to bed and woke me up to go to school the next day. I don’t have that anymore. I don’t have meals prepared by my mum anymore. It’s difficult for a lot of things.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
For a child, there’s a big difference between being with your family or without your family. With mum and dad, you don’t have to think about anything, but when you don’t have a family, you have to think about a lot of things. You’re all alone, you go home, you’re all alone and you don’t know what’s happening to your brother and your family. You don’t feel good, you’re worried.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
I work, I go to school. Before, my mother cooked. My father was a teacher. So I studied with my father. Here, a lot has changed, no one can help me.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
It’s very different with or without mum and dad. Mum and dad aren’t here. It’s difficult. Here, there’s just me, not my mother, not my father, not my brother. It’s very difficult for me because I’m not very old.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
Here in Belgium, young people want to live alone, but they don’t know what it is. Of course, three days alone, even a year, that can be good. But for a whole lifetime, it’s tiring.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Family can help us develop our real values. They help us progress faster than when you’re alone.
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, BURUNDI -
This Afghan boy who arrived alone in Belgium tells how in Afghanistan, you don’t live alone. Everything is done with the family:
In Afghanistan, you live with the family. Life is with the family. Here, you’re all alone. Mum and dad are very important. When you lose your mum or your dad, you’re very unhappy, you cry a lot. Here, you don’t have your mum. When you have your mum and dad, you’re not scared of anything. Here, you have very big problems. When you’re all together, you aren’t worried. When you’re young, you need help with everyday activities. But now, we have to do everything by ourselves.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Children who have arrived alone want to be reunited with their family. But the family reunification procedure is an administrative maze in which they get lost. According to the children, the documents they are asked for are impossible to find.
To feel less alone, it must be made easier for parents to come over.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
When we want our family to join us, we’re asked for documents that are impossible to find. I won’t be able to invite my family over here, because it’s impossible to get the requested documents. As for the documents, just think about it. If you flee your country, how are you supposed to have documents from your town’s police station? With the war, it’s impossible to get these documents. They asked me for my parents’ marriage certificate.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
Now, the majority of people from my country are refugees, scattered all over the world, like my grandmother. My grandmother took care of me throughout my whole life. Today, she’s in Turkey. I had to leave her behind because she was too sick and too elderly to continue the journey. I’m trying to bring her over to Belgium, but I can’t. I really miss her!
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
Alternative care
Even if it isn’t possible to replace a mum or a dad, many children who have come here alone emphasise the importance of having a mentor family, a mentor father or mentor mother, or an association that protects and supports them like a family. A few of the children talk about the essential role of associations like Mentor-Escale, which allow them to mix with trusted persons.
“Having mentor families helps. I have one, and thanks to them, I feel better and more confident.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Two months ago, they started a ‘Buddy’ project at the centre. It is a sort of mentoring scheme with people from the commune. A volunteer who lives in the neighbourhood offers to take care of a young person from the centre. My Buddy gave me a lot of information.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANGOLA -
Mentor-Escale is like a family. When I left the reception centre, I didn’t know anyone, and they were the ones that helped me get my papers in order and look for accommodation, so that I could integrate in Belgium. Mentor-Escale also helped me find a school. Mentor-Escale still plays an important role in my life today. When the school needs to talk to a parent, I ask them to call Mentor-Escale. When I don’t feel good psychologically or I feel down, when I want to speak to someone I trust, I always come to Mentor-Escale. And when I’m happy too.
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, CAMEROON -
This girl talks about the importance of being surrounded by trusted persons:
“When I have a problem or when I simply want to speak to someone, I go to Mentor-Escale. It is very important for me that there are people I can trust and with whom I can talk about very personal things. I’ve got no one else for that.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
A heavy burden
The uncertainty concerning their stay in Belgium has a considerable effect on the children. They do not know whether they will be authorised to remain here or whether they will have to return to their country of origin. The procedure is a recurring problem among all the children. The wait makes them feel insecure. Many children are subjected to permanent stress associated with waiting for a decision. Some deplore the fact that some children are treated differently. They don’t understand why some obtain an answer very quickly, while others have to wait for years.
The asylum procedure is difficult to understand. It’s a difficult issue. Some young people have been here for four or five months and others for much longer before receiving an answer: positive or negative. Why? Why do some people receive the decision more quickly? We would like there to be more clarity right from the start, as soon as we arrive. It would be clearer and we could start our lives.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANGOLA -
I don’t like the asylum procedure. I’ve no patience, I don’t like waiting.
- 11-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DJIBOUTI -
I don’t like having to wait for papers.
- 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
On the first day, I saw someone who had been here for four years, so I thought that if the same thing happened to me, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. Waiting for four years is far too long for me.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
It was very difficult for me to get the official papers. My father has been here for 16 years and he still doesn’t have them.
- 14-YEAR-OLD BOY, BRAZIL -
They say I must wait and be patient. Owing to the stress and bad circumstances, I’m in very low spirits.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I know someone who has been here for two years and who already speaks Dutch very well. All he does is wait, that causes a lot of stress.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
It’s really difficult! When you’re 18 years old, they tell you you have to leave. You’ve studied or you’re still studying, but you have to leave the centre and maybe return to a country you don’t know anymore! It’s very difficult. There are children who have spent their life in Belgium from the age of five to 18 and they’re told they won’t get their papers. We must be given an answer much more quickly, at 14 or 15 years old, so that we can envisage another future or begin another procedure.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
There are people who have been here for 12 years without having any papers.
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, BURUNDI -
‘The procedure is too long’. Many of the children complain about it, because they consider it to take far too long, which prevents them from living fully in the present, focusing on school and feeling confident about the future. The children would like to have more clarity concerning this procedure. How long can they stay and what will happen afterwards? What will happen if the decision is negative? For many children, it is very difficult to live with this uncertainty. It leads to stress and tensions. The children recommend a procedure limited in time.
The future is dismal for me. With the asylum procedure, I’m not sure about the future. I have no idea what will happen after my interview at the police station. What’s next? What’s going to happen? The person conducting the interview is in control. My future depends on one person, I think about that every day.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I don’t know what I’m going to do in life. I don’t know what I’m going to do in the future. I’ve been here for three years and I have no answer.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, MOROCCO -
I can’t concentrate on my studies; it’s such a weight not knowing what will happen to me after the procedure. What will happen to my family?
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The procedure is very difficult for children who are alone here in Belgium. The procedure is far too slow. Some of them wait four, five, six years before getting an answer. In our group, some young people have been here for three years and still haven’t got an answer. It’s impossible to imagine the future in these conditions. You don’t know where you’ll have to go afterwards, you’ve studied, but what’s the point in studying if you don’t know where you’re going to go? Everything is ruined. There should be a procedure limited to one or two years for unaccompanied children. There should also be less time between the second interview and the answer. If we get an answer faster, we can start another procedure. If that takes more time, we should at least be told why it’s taking so long. Children that have spent five years in Belgium and who arrived here when they were little, should receive papers, because they don’t know their country of origin anymore.
- GROUP OF YOUNG PEOPLE BETWEEN 8-17 YEARS OLD, FROM AFGHANISTAN, GUINEA, DRC, CAMEROON, BURUNDI, MOROCCO, BRAZIL, ALGERIA -
The future
Insecurity
Procedure
We would like to know more quickly what our future will be, to have a faster procedure. Some children have been here for two years already, sometimes even five years!
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANGOLA -
We’re here now, but when will that change? This uncertainty is very difficult to bear, we really have to live from day to day. In my opinion, it would be better if everyone knew how long it takes and if everyone had the same deadline, for instance, one year.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANGOLA -
We’re all happy to be here, but I agree: the procedure is the biggest problem.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The procedure is too long, set the same period for everyone. We’re human beings after all, not cows or pigs. We’re human beings. The only thing we do here is sleep and eat.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
The children consulted recommend clear and adapted information as soon as they arrive. Any written documents should be accompanied by oral information.
We’ve received a brochure with information. According to the brochure, the waiting time isn’t long, but in practice, you sometimes have to wait up to two years to get an interview.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
It’s good to receive information in the beginning. We received information in a brochure. But I can’t read the brochure and we weren’t given any oral information.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Guardians and lawyers offer inconsistent help
Children left to fend for themselves on the way to the Immigration Office. Others find themselves without a lawyer on the day of the interview for an asylum application. And others are surprised to receive such little information. And yet, children who arrive alone in Belgium are allocated a guardian and a lawyer who are supposed to help them out. According to the children who speak in this report, the involvement of these two ‘figures’ is variable. The children often have the impression of being alone during the various stages of their procedure. It is not very easy to go to the Immigration Office alone, because you do not know the way or the country’s language. Several children have even had to walk for a long time to find the Immigration Office or the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons.
It is not easy for them to take trains to go to a city they do not know. Their guardian or lawyer has not always prepared them. The children said that they were missing information on the procedure and that they are not always informed about the decisions taken.
They told me to go there alone. I got confused when I was there, close to the Office. There are a lot of entries, a lot of exits, I didn’t know what to do. I walked around with my child all day long. My guardian came to fetch me at the Gare du Nord, then, after the appointment, she left. I didn’t even know where to buy the tickets, where the platform was. It went very badly. To find the Gare du Nord, find the right platform, buy my ticket and go back to the centre, it took me more than three hours. I arrived here at 8:00 pm, even though my appointment was earlier, at 4:00 pm.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
I missed my first appointment at the Immigration Office. Now, I’m used to it. No one wakes you up here. Back home, it’s your family that wakes you up. Now, for the interview, I’ve decided not to go to sleep, because I have to get up early to go to the Office and I’m scared of not waking up. I went alone to the Office and I saw my guardian there.
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
If you have an appointment, you don’t know how to get there, take the train, how to go about it. Back home, it isn’t complicated. Here, it’s complicated. A lot of papers, you have to go to Brussels, you’re given papers. It’s difficult for me.
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
Apparently, minors must be accompanied, but it isn’t true. You should be better accompanied. You’re given the documents, but nothing is explained to you. If you don’t speak French very well, you don’t understand, for instance, what happens when you’re 18, where to go for the appointments and all that. They gave me a map, but I don’t speak French very well, so what am I supposed to do?
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
Guardians and lawyers offer inconsistent help
“I’d like to have more information, it’s not at all helpful not knowing. My lawyer is in Louvain-la-Neuve. But here, they can change your lawyer without you knowing. At the centre, they change the young people’s lawyer, just like that, it happened to a girl here. They at least need to give you the information.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“I received information through my lawyer. I said I would tell the truth. On the day of the interview, my lawyer wasn’t there. The guardian wasn’t there either, I went to the interview alone.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I’ve already had two interviews, but the lawyer wasn’t present, and he isn’t available for an appointment. I get the impression that neither the lawyer nor the interpreter listen to me. The lawyer must help me. There really isn’t enough information, that’s the problem. What are the different possibilities? I don’t know what the possible situations are, and I should know them. I would be prepared, I would like to know. I would like to have the information, be prepared and accompanied.”
- 19-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Half of the children seem to have a good relationship with their guardian.
“My guardian is nice.”
- 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
“My guardian accompanied me to Gare du Nord.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
“My guardian came here, took me to the interview and took me back.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
“The guardian is important. He often comes by.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The other half of the children don’t have a good relationship with their guardian. They are disappointed by the lack of trust and the fact that they don’t listen. The guardians are seldom there (some children have only seen them once) and they don’t inform them of the procedure. Some children would like to change guardian, but they don’t know how.
My guardian travels a lot. Every time I try to get in touch with her, she’s abroad, in Brazil, in Italy, in Bolivia, etc. I can’t reach her over there. It was the lawyer who replaced her at the interview. But other than that, everything’s okay. I have enough information.
- 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC -
I’ve changed guardian three times. I don’t know who I can trust anymore.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
My guardian never comes to the centre. One day, he was supposed to come, but he never came. He didn’t even apologise.
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MOROCCO -
I would like to change guardian, but it didn’t work. It’s difficult to change.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
My guardian makes me do things like going to eat at Quick, but I don’t like it. She forces me to talk. She talks too much. She always decides about my life. She says I’m too young. But it’s not true!
- 11-YEAR-OLD GIRL, CAMEROON -
The guardian I had before, I saw twice. Afterwards, he went to work in Switzerland. I was provided with another guardian. She never tells me anything. She doesn’t give me any information on the interviews or the procedure. The former guardian who left, kept me informed.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I’ve been here for a month and I’ve never seen them.
- 11-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The guardian doesn’t really support us. He passes by every three, five, six months for two hours.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The guardian should take on this role (of parent) more. They should pass by more often. Not just telephone. Not every three months. They should go and see the young people.
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, BURUNDI -
The guardians know nothing about our reality.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
It’s difficult to talk to the guardian. I’ve never said it, but I’m taking the opportunity to say it here.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
I was told that the guardian is like my mother, like my father. A mother or a father can’t do that and say, ‘Come and join me over there’.
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK’? 68
The interpreters are not (always) allies
During the interview with the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, children who do not speak French or Dutch can benefit from the help of an interpreter. The handful of children who spoke on this subject consider that the interpreter did not always understand their story or that they did not play their role. Some even find that the interpreter interferes in the procedure. One boy stressed the fact that an interpreter should be present at each meeting with the lawyer.
When we went to the appointment with the lawyer, there was an interpreter the first time, but not the second time. You have to tell your whole story to an interpreter, who often modifies the information I get the impression that the interpreters aren’t objective, or that they don’t always translate correctly. There should be an interpreter at every meeting with the lawyer. Otherwise, you have to do it yourself, I’m learning Dutch now. But it’s still difficult.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The interpreter didn’t come from the same country, they didn’t speak the right Portuguese. The information got mixed up and was misunderstood.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANGOLA -
At the Immigration Office, the interpreter does the commissioner’s job, but not his own job as an interpreter. They say to us, ‘It’s not true, you’re not 16 or 17 years old. You’re 18 years old.’ By doing that, they’re not interpreters anymore.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Age tests
In case of doubt concerning the age of a foreign minor - after verification of their documents or if the child does not have any - the child must undergo an age test. The handful of young people who talked about this subject had a very bad experience of this test. For some of them, this test is not fair and symbolises a sort of mistrust regarding their story. The young people find that this test isn’t reliable. It can be upsetting, because it sometimes modifies the perception of their own story and casts a doubt on their word. This test raises many tensions. Some children are therefore given an age that is older or younger than the age they stated upon arrival.
As regards age, it’s not a fair situation, no one knows, except our parents. I was 16 when I arrived, I’m sure of my age, they told me ‘you’re 18’ and it’s written 18 in the letter. I think this method isn’t fair, I find it difficult that someone else is telling you how old you are. The fact that we don’t receive any explanation about the results makes it all very difficult to understand.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
The age determination test isn’t fair. We’re not animals, but human beings like you. Why don’t you simply listen to us? In other countries, like France and Germany, they don’t do this test. That’s what I’ve heard. I went to the Office of the Commissioner General with my birth certificate, and they told me it was a false birth certificate, and they took it from me and never gave it back. The Immigration Office told me that they couldn’t give me back my certificate because I could sell it to someone else.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
I did the age test when I arrived. I was 16 at the time, I had to do the test. After four months at the centre, I did the test again. Everyone was 19 years old then and one of the young people who was 20, was estimated as being 16 years old.
- 19-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I’m 16, but the system said no, you’re 19. I can appeal, but I didn’t. They told me it was negative, and at the centre, they told me that it wouldn’t change anything. I know that I could make an appeal, but it’s too difficult to sort out with the lawyer, there’s not enough time.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
I’m 16, but according to the test, I’m 17. If everything is a lie, then people will say that I’m a ‘liar’ and everything will be slowed down, it’s not good for me. It’s inhuman: they say I’m lying, I’m not lying. I do the test, and they believe me, or not.
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANGOLA -
The majority of the children we met had been shunted from one reception centre to another. A young boy explained that he had been in four centres since his arrival in Belgium. This fragmented reception doesn’t encourage the children’s integration in their local environment. Especially when certain refugee children don’t feel sufficiently informed about how the centres work, which complicates their adaptation. Added to all that are the linguistic problems. Some French-speaking children were sent to Flanders, thus increasing their feeling of isolation. Others were moved from a French-speaking centre to a Dutch-speaking one (or vice versa). Each time, they had to relearn the language, find a new school, make new friends, deal with a new social environment and, sometimes, new rules. All these changes are very difficult for children to deal with:
“The people at my old centre weren’t nice to me. The boys were nasty. No one spoke French. They spoke Flemish. I was all alone there, it was difficult.”
- 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
“At the beginning, I found it difficult to understand how the centre worked. You come from another centre, you don’t know anyone, and no one is there to advise you. In the other place, they rang a bell when it was time to eat. Here, there are set mealtimes. But I didn’t know. I missed several meals and I didn’t eat for a day. Then I asked people and now I understand better.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
“I’ve been here for eight, nine months and in Belgium for two years. Before, I was in Mouscron. I left because the centre closed.”
- 12-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
THE LARGE RECEPTION CENTRES
Constant changes
“I’ve been in Belgium for nearly five years. I was in two centres and a social centre for one year.”
- 9-YEAR-OLD BOY, ANGOLA -
“I’ve been in the centre for three years and in Belgium for eight years. I’ve been in four centres, including one in Flanders. I was in a social centre for four years.”
- 12-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
“My first centre was in Germany. There were a lot of people there. I prefer the centre here.”
- 12-YEAR-OLD BOY, ALBANIA -
“I’ve been here three months. I spent a week in the emergency centre for the homeless in Brussels.”
- 11-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DJIBOUTI -
Some children who arrived alone do nevertheless appreciate going through a referral centre when they arrived in Belgium:
“I think it’s good to be in a centre in the beginning and to meet people with experience of living here, to start learning to speak French. If I had lived alone when I arrived, I wouldn’t have met anyone.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I was at the referral centre, it was good!”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
The food in the centre is ‘Belgian’. Someone who has just arrived has never eaten a dish like that and doesn’t know what it is. No one is here to explain to us, except the ones who’ve been at the centre for a long time, who’ve been here for two years, sometimes even five years. We’re obliged to eat, because it’s either that or nothing.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Food: the culinary shock
It’s a major subject of discussion among the children. The food at the reception centres is clearly a problem. Potatoes every day. And it is ‘either that or nothing’, says a young Afghan. For these children, food is the memory of family meals, smells from their country of origin. It is an emotional link with their history. In other words, the collective meals at the centres are not a success. Several children who have arrived alone would like it to be easier to cook for themselves, but that often seems to be very complicated; others would like to eat alone with their parents. However, while the children have a lot to say on this subject, it isn’t the theme at the top of their agenda. It is only a priority for the teenage mothers.
“People older than me, who are 50 or 60 years old, when they come from their country, they never go to eat. In the morning, they don’t eat. At midday, they don’t eat. In the evening, they just want to prepare a meal themselves.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“In my centre, I had to make sandwiches in the evening after the meal I received a packet. Sometimes, it wasn’t okay, so I ate in the morning and the evening, but not at lunchtime.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“When I was at the centre, I ate bread with chocolate every lunchtime.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
“There are potatoes every day.”
- 9-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ALBANIA -
“I miss not eating with my family. Here, anyone can come and sit next to you.”
- 12-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
“I don’t like it when the others eat with their hands next to me.”
- 9-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ALBANIA -
Pocket money
Pocket money is a source of concern for all teenagers, and all the more so for young exiles who feel isolated and receive no ‘extras’. The children speak freely about this subject. They receive 7.40 euros in pocket money a week and consider it to be very little. Some would like to buy food, sweet drinks, clothes, a telephone card, or even a public transport ticket or do sports outside the centre. But they can’t. 7.40 euros does not give them any room for manoeuvre. With such a small amount of money, they consider they can’t do anything.
When we need clothes, it’s not possible. We receive 7 euros, it’s enough to buy a Coke, not clothes. Here, we have the chance to receive clothes every three months. It’s on a set date, at a set time. If you’re not there, you don’t receive anything, and you have to wait three months. Often, the clothes don’t fit, they’re old and torn. Last week, my shoes were already broken, the sole had come off. And I have to wait three months before receiving new ones.
Some children receive 7 euros and, in general, they try not to eat outside the centre, so they can save up to buy clothes. There’s a very big difference between the centres in Belgium. People are received better in the smaller centres, you receive clothes every month there.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
7.40 euros a week for everything, that’s nothing!
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
We don’t receive money for clothes. We only have second-hand clothes. The clothes the Belgians give are ones they don’t wear.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
We should have more money. When we go to school and it’s cold, the clothes aren’t suitable.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
There’s a place with clothes in the centre. When you go there, you receive clothes, but they aren’t always the right size.
- 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, BURUNDI -
It’s only after one, two, three months that you can have a bit of money. Hard luck if your trousers rip. We need money for clothes.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
We need a bit of money to phone, for clothes, food.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
I ate nothing at school at lunchtime. Nor at 4.00 pm. I had to wait until 6.00 pm. If I got up late, I didn’t have my bread and butter and I had to wait until 6.00 pm. With a bit of money, I could have bought myself some food.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
We have no money for a ticket. If it’s not for an appointment, you don’t get any.
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
I had no tickets left to go to the gym and I was told to pay, it wasn’t possible.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
My problems are food and tickets when you want to get around. Otherwise, I think the centre is very good. I would like to do more of my own cooking.
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
For public transport tickets, you sometimes want to go and visit Brussels, buy things, but with 7 euros, you pay 3 euros for the outbound ticket, 3 euros for the return ticket, what have you got to buy something? What’s left? Nothing, you have to stay here.
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
Some young people would like to do a student job to earn a bit of money.
The adults sometimes work, but the children go to school. You can’t work, you only have 7 euros a week. You go to school every day, it’s difficult.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
For me, the most difficult thing is finding a student job. If you are an unaccompanied foreign minor, you can’t have a student job.
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MOROCCO -
In Belgium, I like my educator! She’s the person I like the most in Belgium.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Erratic support
According to the interviews conducted with the children, help given by the educators at the reception centres is very erratic. Some children are very grateful for the support that the staff at the centres give them every day. Others are not quite of the same opinion and complain of a real lack of support. They mention shortcomings in the information given to them. A group of young people emphasise the lack of respect towards them from authoritarian educators. One boy thinks that those who behave badly may get better support. A young girl says that she was completely left to her own devices. All these difficulties are exacerbated when they are experienced by unaccompanied minors.
“We would like the educators to stop giving us orders, to be polite, nice, respectful and understanding, that they listen more, that they support the young people with their plans. They should put more trust in the young people. We should be able to get advice when we need it and only when we need it, they should stop giving us orders. The adults should be more respectful to the children.”
- GROUP OF YOUNG PEOPLE BETWEEN 8 AND 17 YEARS OLD, FROM AFGHANISTAN, GUINEA, DRC, CAMEROON, BURUNDI, MOROCCO, BRAZIL, ALGERIA -
“Regarding the organisation of the centre, an educator gradually helped me. It was thanks to the social worker I explained to her and she spoke to the educators. Afterwards, an educator came to see me.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
“Lieve at Fedasil is nice. At least she helps me.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I find that the support at the centre is sometimes good, sometimes not. When I’m sick, I’m only given medicine. But I need help.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“When there are fights at the centre, those who behave the worst are favoured, they can go to a smaller centre with better support.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“In the centre where I was, there weren’t enough educators for the unaccompanied foreign minors, I had become completely independent.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, BURUNDI -
“The educators should come on the first day. Show us around, explain how things work. But they don’t explain.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The large centres: living environments and tensions
Refugee and migrant children are highly critical of the large reception centres. Many negative elements were expressed by the children. These large structures aren’t adapted to their age. These centres are considered as ‘depressing, violent and dirty’. Many children are unhappy about the resulting crowding in the centre, the violence, the fights and the fact that there are several people to a room, mixing with adults, putting up with the noise day and night. The children complain about not being able to sleep and, subsequently, not being able to concentrate at school. Unaccompanied children would like tailor-made support in small structures.
As for children accompanied by their parents, when they have spent many years in a reception centre, they express the simple desire for a ‘normal’ family life, in a flat or in small reception structures, far from the large centres.
A lot of residents
In the large centres, the difficulties of unaccompanied children are particularly glaring. They mix with a lot of people there, including adults. They share their room. They complain of the noise and the lack of sleep. They don’t like this sort of reception.
It’s an enormous centre here and things aren’t as good. For example, the children are a lot more emotional here. Some children suffer emotionally because it’s depressing.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
The first year was the most difficult. I slept in a big centre with four people in the same room.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
Many things were difficult in the centre where I was living: the food, four people in the room, being far from home, the racism. My centre was very far away. Everything was far. You had to walk for five kilometres to go to the shop. There were four people from different countries in the room. We were all very different. We didn’t eat the same thing, we didn’t speak the same language. I don’t speak English.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
Before, there weren’t as many refugees in Belgium, so the refugees quickly went into social housing. Now, there are too many refugees. There were far too many people in my centre. There were a lot of problems because there were so many people from different places. When people have been there for more than six months or more than a year, it would be better if they moved to accommodation outside the centre.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, IRAQ -
It was difficult in the centre (I was in two centres). There were four of us in the room, there was a lot of noise in the centre’s common room. It was difficult to study, sleep, go to school.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
In a large reception centre, there are unaccompanied minors and adults, with six in a room. In the evening, they listen to music and I can’t sleep. The centre is far away from everything, and after six in the evening, there aren’t any more buses, there’s no meal if I arrive late, even when I have to work. I would like a room to myself, so that I can sleep properly and study when I want to.
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Violence and hygiene
Violence, arguments, fights and the lack of hygiene are particularly unbearable for the children.
“It’s dirty in the centre. There are fights all the time here. The centre is crazy and dirty. Crazy because there are problems sometimes. The problems are the adults. They argue. I’d like to live in a flat.”
- 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL, CHECHNYA -
“The hygiene, here at the centre, it’s very dirty. Cockroaches in the room and fights.”
- 9-YEAR-OLD BOY, ANGOLA -
“The people aren’t okay here. I’ve had problems with people. There are arguments all the time.”
- 12-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
Alternatives
Unaccompanied children dream of a calm and well-defined environment. They would like tailor-made support or a host family.
“We need support. We have already experienced a lot of things and it’s good to live in a calmer environment where adults help and support us. Even if we don’t always like it, we need to be encouraged to go to school, go to bed on time and respect the rules.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“I would like to go to a host family.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
After having spent many years in reception centres with their family, the children would like some privacy. They would like to live in a house or flat, far away from the reception centres. However, those who manage to get to this stage are quickly faced with the difficulty of finding decent accommodation. A difficulty that is particularly acute for unaccompanied minors who have to leave the reception centre when they reach the age of 18.
“I live in a centre with my family. I sleep in a room with my mum, my sister and my older brother. It’s difficult, because my brother is already older. I don’t go out of the room much, because there are so many people in this centre. I would prefer to live in a house.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
“It’s difficult to find a house because of discrimination and prejudices.”
- 14-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“I live in Namur and I pay 600 euros for housing. Belgians don’t want.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“It’s very difficult to find housing. You’re asked a lot of questions about work, welfare.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
“I’ll be 18 in a few months’ time and I’ll have to leave the centre. I don’t want to, I’m not ready. I’ve been looking for housing for three months, but I can’t find any. What am I going to do?”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, BRAZIL -
It was very difficult to find housing. We had to wait for two months to move in somewhere.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK?’
School: stability and hope for the future
The children like school. They all want to learn French or Dutch, and all of them express the desire to start or continue their studies. This is actually what they are doing, because in Belgium, education is a right for all children, regardless of their migratory status. Children who speak one of the national languages and who haven’t dropped out of school, can directly attend a normal class. For the others, getting up to speed and learning the language are done in a class for new arrivals (DASPA/OKAN classes). Children who have suffered major trauma, or those who live in a large reception centre, find learning the language and returning to school difficult. The length of the school day, the lack of sleep and the pace of the lessons can cause adaptation problems.
It’s difficult because…
“It’s difficult to learn a new language.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ARGENTINA -
“The school day is too long”
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“It’s chaos at the centre. Many people do what they like and make noise late into the night. It’s very difficult, because I have to study and get up to go to school. I fall asleep late and I’m often tired in the morning.”
- 14-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“School is difficult, because I have a lot of problems and I can’t get to sleep and it’s difficult to go to school.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“War causes lifelong trauma. Children see their parents die. War is a shock. Some have become blind, others deaf, others handicapped. The children are destroyed inside when they see the being dearest to them killed or beaten. Young people who are the victims of war lack love, parents, friends, brothers who are attached to them. They’re alone in the playground. They have a bubble in their heart, sometimes they let go and get annoyed and violence erupts. It’s never too late to make up for it. Maybe people will get closer to each other to change that.”
- 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC -
School: stability and hope for the future
The children like school
Despite the difficulties, all these children like school and its reassuring environment! School helps them to overcome the traumas they have suffered and provides hope for the future.
“I get support from the support workers and teachers. They don’t hit you when you do something wrong, like in Afghanistan. They’re nice.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“People are kind in Belgium. I like school and my friends.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“I like school, speaking French.”
- 12-YEAR-OLD BOY, DRC -
“It’s a good school”
- 13-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“School is good.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
I like speaking French with my friends at school. I like school!
- 11-YEAR-OLD BOY, IRAN -
Here, I like school and studying. I also like the prospects for the future we have in Belgium.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, BRAZIL -
I do secretarial studies at a school in Zaventem. Sometimes, it’s difficult for me, because I’m a new student and I’ve only been studying Dutch for a year. I would like to succeed in my studies, work, have a family. I hope I’ll be able to go back and visit my country one day.
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
The children all appreciate the DASPA/OKAN* classes and willingly learn French or Dutch.
I think it’s a good idea to have DASPA classes in Belgium.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, BRAZIL -
It’s difficult to make new friends in the normal class. OKAN is easier, because everyone is in the same situation. It’s difficult to understand everything in class. When you’re in the normal class, there aren’t many people, either pupils or teachers, who speak to you. It’s also difficult to learn a new language.
- 18-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
We would really like to make Belgian friends so that we can learn the language better.
- 14-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
In the OKAN classes, we’re separated from the others. It doesn’t really matter. But it upsets my friend. During an OKAN course, another pupil said to her, “You’re an OKAN, you’re not at home here”. Why do we have to be separated in this way? In my school, the ‘normal’ pupils have a break between 11:15 am and us at 12:45 pm. I would like to have a break at the same time as them. I should be given the opportunity to learn Dutch. It’s not good to separate us.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ANGOLA -
I learn a lot of things at school; it’s really good! I know all the children in the OKAN class but not all the children in the other classes. It’s difficult when you leave the OKAN classes. You miss OKAN. They speak quickly in the other classes.
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
Not easy to make Belgian friends
The children would like more contact with young Belgians of their age. This would help them to learn the language and extend their network. However, the DASPA/OKAN classes mean that they are separated from the other classes. And some migrant or refugee children sometimes encounter hostility, or mistrust, from Belgian pupils.
During the course, all the young girls were very curious. They asked a lot of questions, but during break, they didn’t talk to us and we were left alone.
- 18-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
*OKAN-class: classes for newcomers
School: stability and hope for the future
What special needs are there?
Those children who haven’t been to school for many years, or those who arrive at the end of the school year, need more support after school or during the holidays.
This 14-year-old Syrian girl has never been to school. She would like help with her homework:
School is very difficult for me. I never went to school in my country. I would like someone to help me think about my future so that I can succeed. I would like help with my homework after school. It’s very difficult for me to make any plans for the future. I’m scared of not succeeding, of failing at school.
- 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
This young girl, who arrived at the end of the school year, didn’t want to sit doing nothing while she waited for the new school year to begin in September. She asked for remedial classes in French and maths, and she obtained this support. In her opinion, as soon as a young person arrives in Belgium, they should be offered classes such as these.
“I’ll be going to school I don’t know how it works here. I can’t say anything for the moment. When I arrived, I was simply told that I was going to be enrolled for the new school year in September, because it was currently the exam period. I asked to have lessons here and a volunteer gave me some. I wasn’t here in May, I was in another centre. I went to classes in the other centre. Here, I’ll be going to school. I told the volunteer I wanted to continue school, and she offered me maths and French lessons during the month of June. During the holidays, the volunteer was on vacation. There’s no chance to learn languages. I said I wanted to study and they said they would go and ask for a volunteer to come and help me. I didn’t want to stay here doing nothing. It’s me who asked for the lessons, because I didn’t want to be left by myself like that. Ideally,
“I’m going to ask the social worker. I haven’t asked yet. They haven’t explained to me. It would be better if the social worker asked the questions and explained herself. I would like to be given the information upon arrival. I’ve also heard that when you’re 18, you don’t go to school but to training. But how can you do training if you haven’t studied?”
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
Some young people regret not having received much information regarding the possibilities of studying or training for something. As they approach the age of 18, some young people would like to learn a profession or continue their studies. But they don’t know how to go about it or even if they can do a course or still go to school.
“When I came here, because this is my second centre, no one showed me anything. I arrived here in June and I don’t know if I’m going to school or if I’m doing a course, because I’ll be 18 soon. I still haven’t been enrolled at school. I don’t know anything. I didn’t ask my social worker, because I don’t know who to ask.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
Young mothers face particular difficulties to combine going to school themselves (getting up, going to school, doing their homework, studying) and taking their child to school or to the nursery (preparing their baby, taking them to the nursery or school, going to fetch them, taking care of them after school): See the dedicated chapter on isolated teenage mothers.
Leisure activities: a driver for resilience and integration
Just like all children around the world, migrant and refugee children like to play. Playing, doing a leisure activity or sport are marvellous ways for young people to develop. They are real tools to overcome hardships, regain interest in the joys of life and show resilience. It is also through leisure activities and sport that children form links with the country’s inhabitants and integrate with its social fabric. A few children have the chance to practice a sport or an activity. Unaccompanied minors particularly appreciate the support provided by associations who offer them activities on Wednesdays or at the weekend. However, the majority of children indicated that they didn’t have the opportunity to practice a sport or have fun outside the reception centres or school. Several boys were prevented from playing football in a club and bitterly regretted it.
We have activities in the centre.
- 9-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ALBANIA -
**Children like to play**
*Here, we live in security. After school, you can do activities, hobbies.*
- **16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN**
*In Belgium, I like the leisure activities, going to the cinema and the park.*
- **16-YEAR-OLD BOY, BRAZIL**
*There’s a lot to do in Belgium, you can do a lot of activities and visit lots of places.*
- **15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MOROCCO**
*People help. I can do volleyball in Belgium. I couldn’t do any sport in Afghanistan. I like playing the flute. In Afghanistan, I couldn’t play the flute and when I did, there were arguments with the neighbours. Here, there aren’t any arguments.*
- **17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN**
*There are games in the centre.*
- **12-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA**
*Football clubs, sport, it’s important.*
- **18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN**
---
**Difficult access to leisure activities**
These unaccompanied foreign minors who live independently (alone outside the reception centres) appreciate the associations that allow them to do activities on Wednesdays, at the weekend and during the holidays:
*Sometimes on Wednesdays, we go and cook at Mentor-Escale and we demonstrate how to prepare Afghan food. Sometimes, we also eat Belgian or African dishes there. There are often activities and celebrations at Mentor-Escale to which our friends are also invited.*
- **15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN**
*Mentor-Escale is also a place where I can take part in activities, such as singing, eating together, doing treasure hunts and going to camp in the summer. These are all the reasons why I say that Mentor-Escale is a family for me.*
- **16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, CAMEROON**
*I’ve been coming to Mentor-Escale for a long time, at least four years. Sometimes, I come for the cookery workshop or to play table football.*
- **16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN**
*For me, it’s also very difficult to have any leisure activities. I’d love to do sport, I’d like to play basketball or volleyball, but I can’t for the moment.*
- **13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, ROMANIA**
*We can’t go on school trips because we don’t have any papers.*
- **17-YEAR-OLD BOY, IRAN**
*Sometimes, you want to go and visit Brussels, buy things, but with 7 euros, you pay 3 euros for the outbound ticket, 3 euros for the return ticket, what have you got to buy anything? What’s left? Nothing, you have to stay here at the centre.*
- **16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA**
*When I was there, at the centre, I had no tickets left to do sport after a few weeks and I was told to pay, but I couldn’t. When I went to the Office of the Commissioner General for the interview, they asked me ‘Why don’t you go and do sports?’: I replied, ‘Because I haven’t got any money’. They told me it was good to do some.*
- **18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN**
Leisure activities: a driver for resilience and integration
The majority of boys would like to play football outside the reception centre. They would like to enrol in a club, take part in training and play matches, but they are prevented from doing so because they have no papers.
At the centre, I asked to be enrolled in a football team, but the educator didn’t do anything.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
I can’t play my sport. I’d like to play football, matches. Here, children can’t do any sport. We can only do sport here, among ourselves.
- 12-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
We can go to football training once a week for an hour or two. Now, it’s the holidays. It will start again in September. But we can’t go to all the training sessions, for us it’s just once a week. We would like to go to all the training sessions and matches.
- 12-YEAR-OLD BOY, GUINEA -
Young people need more support for their plans, find good football clubs, have budgets for targeted projects.
- GROUP OF YOUNG PEOPLE BETWEEN 9-17 YEARS OLD, FROM AFGHANISTAN, GUINEA, DRC, CAMEROON, BURUNDI, MOROCCO, BRAZIL, ALGERIA -
Social networks, looking for a good connection
The young people are disappointed that the Internet isn’t available in all the centres. Connection to the Internet would offer a window to the world, allow them to look for information but, especially, help them to remain in contact with their family.
There was no Wi-Fi at my centre. The computer wasn’t working. You couldn’t speak with your family and your parents, even if you wanted to speak to them.
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, SOMALIA -
There was Wi-Fi for minors at the centre. Wi-Fi is good, because it helps you to stay in contact with your family.
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
You have access to a computer for half an hour a week in the large centres, but the computer is so slow and freezes so often that it’s practically useless. Having better Internet access would be a positive thing. We could search on the Internet to find out what there is to do in the surroundings, but we could also contact our family or our friends, consult translation sites or look for information.
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
They are 16, 17, 18 years old. They come from Syria, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Cameroon. They are isolated minors and mothers. Some of them left their country with their baby. Others gave birth in a refugee camp in Greece or Belgium. They are all very vulnerable young women, because they have many issues. There is loneliness on top of the trauma of exile, the lack of family support and the difficulty of assuming the role of mother when they are so young themselves. Many of these mothers are angry. They feel dispossessed of their motherhood, their ability to take care of their child. They would like to make choices for their baby. Be able to buy them clothes, prepare the food of their choice for them. But the lack of money and lack of privacy that prevails in the reception centres causes deep anxiety, making them feel as though their every movement is restricted. These anxieties resurface when their child is sick and they ask for support. Added to this is a deep feeling of insecurity. Going to school under normal circumstances within this context is an impossible task. One young girl even has the impression of being a ‘prisoner’, of being ‘handcuffed’.
Considering the taking in charge of isolated teenage mothers, UNICEF Belgium wishes to stress the important work done in Belgium over the least ten years and thanks the authorities in charge for following up on certain recommendations that have been given by these young mothers.
Large reception centres: the loneliness of the mothers
The young mothers who live in large reception centres vent their anger. Some of them feel like prisoners, handcuffed. Others feel depressed. Their accounts, tinged with suffering, reveal the difficulty of living in a large reception centre when you are a mother, a minor, alone, without a family and in exile, all at the same time. All of them would like the chance to be more autonomous. They would like to be allowed to be mothers for their children.
“You’d die if you spent a day here. You can’t cook, you can’t treat illnesses, you can’t look after your baby. I can tell you, but there the difficulties are endless. We don’t choose this life. There are lots of people living here, full of viruses and germs for the babies. This worries me, and I can’t sleep. So I pray to my God, because I haven’t got anyone. The baby cries, for a long time. I’ve got no help. I’ve got no money. 7.40 euros per week for me and 3 euros for the baby. What can you do with 7 euros? My baby doesn’t want to eat, the food isn’t good. I can only breast-feed, but I haven’t got enough. I can’t give my child just anything. I’ve got no money for clothes for the baby. I can’t buy anything, because I haven’t got any money. We’re alone, with our babies, no one can help us. We have to do everything with nothing.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
I haven’t got any family I didn’t choose this life. I feel like a prisoner, handcuffed. We have to eat at set hours, 6:00 am, 12:00 noon, and if you don’t eat then, you don’t get any food. For instance, if I’m hungry at 9:00 am, there’s no food.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
It’s difficult not having a house with your baby. The centre isn’t adapted to children, like the bathrooms, the meals. It would be good to have my own flat, for me and my baby. I want to study the language, start a new life, find a job. But I have to wait, because it’s the summer and there are two months [without school]. In Turkey and Greece, I didn’t go to school for five years.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The environment at the centre isn’t adapted to mothers and babies. I want to bring up my daughter alone, not at the centre. I don’t want her to be brought up by others, with other children. I want to teach her the things that I want to teach her.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
My room is very small, small like this table here. My child can’t move. I have to go somewhere else to play with my daughter. I asked if I could change room, but they said no.
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
It’s difficult to be a mother. I wanted a host family, but I don’t know who to tell.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The main difficulty is the centre with a child. In other countries, you get a flat with your baby. Here, you’re in a big centre.
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
I don’t like living in a centre, in a structure. In my opinion, the best thing would be to put us in a centre for mothers, and not in a centre like this, because they can’t always take care of you, there are too many mothers. I want a small centre where there are only mothers and where I can get help. If I go to Clairs Vallons, I will be in a unit with mothers. It’s not for all mothers. It’s just for mothers from the centre who have problems, it’s like a hospital.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
For the young mothers who speak in this report, their baby’s food is a priority. They speak of the constraints concerning mealtimes (set times), the milk which isn’t adapted to their child, the cost of basic necessities such as water or powdered milk, and the difficulty of getting it. All of them dream of being able to cook for their child. All these stories show that these young mothers sometimes sink into despair faced with the powerlessness and lack of autonomy they suffer on a daily basis.
Here at the centre, the babies have something different, special food. They don’t eat the same food as the adults
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
They gave me a grater and fruit to make food for my baby
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
Feeding the children is difficult and stressful. She eats the food, she drinks the milk, but she doesn’t eat the vegetables at the restaurant.
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
I have dreams, I dream of cooking what I want for me and for my baby, at whatever time I want and not eating what I’m obliged to eat. I hope someone will hear me, listen to me, in Belgium.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The food isn’t good. For the babies, it isn’t good. My baby spits out what I give him. Here, we don’t have any money to cook. I’d like to have some money and cook for myself. I haven’t got enough money to buy food for the baby. We receive 3 euros a week for the baby and there are also clothes. I give the baby the food from here, but he has diarrhoea. So I don’t take what they give us here anymore, and I have to cook for him and prepare his meals. But it’s difficult without enough money.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The main problem is the food. There’s already the issue with the baby milk. Then the baby food. If we want jars, we have to buy them.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
These young mothers talk about the milk which isn’t suitable and the water they have to buy to prepare their child’s bottle:
They gave us some milk that was different to the other milk we received. But the babies were used to it, and so they refused the new milk. When we said something, we were told that the doctor said that it was all okay for the babies. But my baby drinks normal milk. Now its milk for allergies. I’ve tasted it, it’s bitter, my baby doesn’t want it.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
I experienced the same thing regarding the milk. And when I gave the milk to my baby, he didn’t want it. When we say something, they reply that that’s the way it is. Now, I have to give my baby milk no. 2 and I received the no. 3, which isn’t the right milk.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
In my other centre, you received bottles of water. Here, you have to buy the water for your baby or take it from the water fountain. A carton of water costs 6 euros. You get 11 euros with the baby, you buy food for the baby and afterwards, you have nothing left.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
They won’t give me powdered milk because my child is three years old. But the milk in the cartons doesn’t keep. I haven’t got a fridge in my room, so if I open a carton of milk, it goes off.
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
Health
If their children fall ill, the young refugee or migrant mothers are all alone. They have to manage everything, with very little help. They say that no one really listens to them, that there is no support, and that they are extremely tired when their sick babies cry during the night. Some of the young girls are saddened by the fact that they are not taken seriously and that they are even suspected of using their child as an excuse to miss school. All these factors cause stress and have a negative impact on the health of these young mothers. Their accounts reflect an alarming lack of support.
“I have to do everything I have to do everything by myself. I take care of everything. If my little girl is sick, I have to stay with her, no one helps me. For instance, she had spots the day before yesterday, like chickenpox. She was crying all night long; she was crying. I took her to see the doctor, and he said ‘It’s nothing serious, go back to your room.’”
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“It’s difficult being a mother here at the centre. You don’t feel good mentally, you’re stressed, and therefore, your child doesn’t feel good.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“The baby has something, he’s got something on his face and the medication isn’t doing anything. No one helps me. I get the impression that I’m not being taken seriously.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“Before, Madame Francoise looked after the babies, but she can’t look after all of them by herself. Now she’s in the nursery.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“You haven’t been able to sleep all night because of the baby. The educators know, but it’s me who has to inform the nursery. You get into trouble if you forget to say the child is sick.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“The doors are closed at night, so if the baby vomits, you can’t go out and wash it. There’s no hot water to wash it. You have to do everything by yourself, without water in the room.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“When we go to the doctor’s, they say it’s because we don’t want to go to school. There’s no family to help us.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“I had no support when I gave birth. It was a caesarean, it was very difficult. I feel like crying every day. I don’t sleep enough. There’s no one here to help us, we have no family.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The lack of hygiene in the toilets and bathrooms is also of concern to the young mothers.
The bathroom is very dirty. The toilets too. I told the person who cleans that it isn’t clean enough. But nobody checks whether the bathroom and the toilets are properly cleaned and if the work has been well-done. There’s still excrement sometimes. My baby had allergies because of the filth. The person only comes to clean once. Now, the bathroom is locked. Some people put dirty water in there and throw rubbish in there, even though it’s the bathroom for the babies. The bathroom is locked at night.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
Many of the young mothers criticise the lack of privacy in the reception centres. Their accounts indicate that these young women are frightened for their safety and that of their babies at night. A feeling that is expressed in their fear of leaving their baby during the night when they go to the toilet.
At night, when the educators go home, I have to take my baby with me. When I need to go to the toilet in the night, I take the baby with me.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
I’m scared to leave the baby alone in my room. He might wake up, be frightened and start crying. When you’ve got everything in the room, you do what you want. Even if the room is small, you can manage in there instead of going out.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
I’m too scared at night and I don’t dare to go out at night to go to the toilet. The toilet is close to the educators’ office, not in the corridor.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
It would be good if every girl had a key to the toilet. If you lose the key, you pay it back. That way, you open, make yourself comfortable, then you leave. There’s no key for the moment, it’s open.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The centre isn’t adapted to me. For instance, you’re in your room, you want to go to the toilet, no one can look after the baby, you’ve no one by your side. You have to leave your room to go to the toilet. If you have everything in the room, you can at least leave your child in the room. I put my baby on my back to go to the toilet, otherwise the baby cries at night.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
We don’t have any privacy here either. If I have to go to the toilet at night, I’m wearing shorts, I have to get dressed again and take my baby with me because I’m frightened of leaving it alone.
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
School
How can you combine life as a mother and life as a student when you are alone and far away from your country? It’s the same question every day for these young girls who tell us how difficult it is to get up, go to classes, study and take care of their baby. Their days are very long and exhausting. It is only when their child sleeps that they finally have a bit of time to work and take care of themselves. Their accounts reveal their loneliness and the need for help, which they talk about candidly.
I don’t go to school yet, but I’ve heard that it’s very difficult to go to school and leave your baby here in the nursery. The nursery closes at 5.00 p.m., and you have to hurry, run. Otherwise you have to ask someone else to come and fetch your baby, but we don’t have anyone here.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
It takes 10-15 minutes to get to the school, which closes at 4.20 p.m.. You have to run back, because the nursery closes at 5.00 p.m.
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
There isn’t a place in the nursery for my daughter, but I’d still like to study. It wasn’t possible to study in Africa, but here, you have the chance to. You have to give those who want to a chance, even if there’s no room in the nursery. What am I going to do if I don’t go to school? Because when you’re at school, you’re busy, you think about other things. When you’re with your child all the time, you’re a bit tired, and if they go to the nursery, it’s easier.
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The nursery at the centre should close at 6.00 p.m., because we don’t have time when it’s 5.00 p.m.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
The nursery isn’t a problem for me. But school finishes at 4.20 p.m. You get here at about 4.40 p.m. You quickly have to go and fetch your baby. When you get back from school, you have to go and take care of your child straight away, you have to feed it, wash it; and when it’s asleep, only then can you take care of yourself, you have homework to do.
- 18-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
There’s no tap in the rooms. You have to go out. There’s a bathroom for the babies in the corridor. You have to take everything with you.
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
HOPES AND DREAMS OF MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN
The hopes and dreams of the children are closely linked to security, stability and freedom, the possibility of receiving an education, working and improving the situation of children in their country of origin. They hope for a better future for all children and protection against abuse. The majority of them hope to remain in Belgium. Others dream of returning to their country, without war, and, above all, being reunited with their family.
“I dream that the war has ended so that all Syrians can stay in Syria.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“I dream of security in Afghanistan.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I dream of having more schools in Afghanistan and having more protection for children.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“If I had a magic wand, I would bring peace to the country, light, harmony, love in the hearts of others. That’s it.”
- 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC -
“I would like to build hospitals and give children an education without violence, stop the violence in families and at school.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
“I would like to give all the children in my country a school and food.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MALI -
“I would like to stop female genital mutilation because it isn’t good for children.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL, GUINEA -
Even if the large majority of children interviewed want to remain in Belgium, some dream of going back home.
“It’s very difficult here. I don’t like being here. I can’t have a new life. I was in a refugee camp in Greece for a year and a half. I’d like to go back home, to Syria, without the war, but I can’t. There’s too much insecurity.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
“I don’t only want to be negative. There are nice people here, but we don’t receive what we need. We need other things. I’ll stay here a bit longer, but I’m very tired and if it doesn’t get better, I’ll leave, I’ll even go back to Syria. I talk, I talk, I talk. I’ve told my story at least ten times. It’s Belgium that chose me [through the relocation programme] and I came, but I have to do everything, prepare everything, be interviewed. I’m starting all over again as well as possible, but that doesn’t change anything, I won’t have the courage to stay.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD MOTHER -
When we ask them what they want to become later, the children also talk about all the jobs they would like to do: doctor, nurse, vet, surgeon, primary school teacher, secondary school teacher, pilot, mechanic, police officer, lawyer. Some dream of starting a family and having children.
“I’d like to become a pilot.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“I dream of returning to my country!”
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, BRAZIL -
“I dream of becoming a vet.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, BRAZIL -
“I dream of becoming a police officer. First, I want to study law. I’m going to university next year.”
- 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, BRAZIL -
“I dream of becoming a surgeon.”
- 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL, MOROCCO -
“I dream of working in the health sector. I would like to become a nurse.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL, PORTUGAL / GUINEA -
“My dream is to have a family.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, ROMENIA -
“I dream of becoming a doctor in Belgium.”
- 15-YEAR-OLD BOY, SYRIA -
“I dream of finishing school and becoming a doctor.”
- 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
“I want to become a teacher.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I want to become a mechanic.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“Later on, I’d like to become a lawyer, I’d like to get married and have children. I would like my family to come to Belgium. I’d also like to buy a train (I’m scared of driving).”
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I want to become a police officer.”
- 17-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I dream of becoming a primary school teacher.”
- 16-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
“I want to become a doctor.”
- 19-YEAR-OLD BOY, AFGHANISTAN -
© Ruud van der Graaf
Migrant and refugee children ask to be protected. After having fled the war, discrimination or extreme poverty; after crossing part of the world by taking routes with potentially fatal dangers, they dream of calm and serenity. They would like to make plans for themselves in a reassuring future. This demand for protection also concerns children who have been exploited during their journey or those who have been the victims of all sorts of abuse. Note that the Belgian authorities are no exception; the children would like this protection to also cover their reception in Belgium, through care that is better adapted to their age.
The first protection system is the family. The first protection system is the family. The children feel safe with their family. They spoke about it a lot, especially the unaccompanied children. Being alone on the road or in Belgium is very difficult and very risky. All the children mention that they would like to be reunited with their family, but that the documents they are asked for are impossible to obtain. The young mothers who arrived alone in Belgium also say how difficult it is to be a mother, a minor, alone, in exile and without a family to count on.
The children feel secure when they are not forced to do things they do not like or they do not understand. Many children stated that they did not have anyone with whom to discuss their difficulties, their worries or their sadness. Even though they are supported by the staff in the reception centres and have friends, and a guardian is supposed to support them, many children feel alone and have difficulty in finding someone to confide in.
The procedure lies at the heart of the children’s worries. It is a recurring concern because its length causes a feeling of insecurity that is very difficult for the children questioned to live with. Will they have the right to stay? How long will they have to wait to receive a decision? The young refugees and migrants hear a lot of contradictory things and do not always understand the details of the different procedures concerning them. They consider that they lack suitable information and would like the authorities in charge of asylum and migration to provide them with this as soon as they arrive, and accelerate the process.
The children underlined the fact that the uncertainty of their stay in Belgium led to an increase in stress and anxiety, an extra burden that sometimes prevents them from concentrating on the present and envisaging the future. When they went to the interviews for their asylum application, many of the children said that they were not well-prepared or not always properly supported by their guardian or their lawyer. Some of them were completely alone.
The children spoke of very different experiences with their guardians. Almost half the children said that they had a good relationship with their guardians. The other half hardly ever saw them. The guardians didn’t inform them of the procedure.
Many of the children have stayed in several reception centres in Belgium or abroad. They have had to adapt to new structures, new rules, new schools, make new friends, and sometimes learn a new language. According to the vast majority of the children interviewed, these repeated changes and the large reception centres do not meet their needs in terms of protection.
The children stressed that life in a large reception centre was particularly difficult and stressful. They spoke a lot about the lack of privacy, the crowding, the constant violence, the lack of support as well as the noise making it difficult to study and rest. The children who had arrived alone and the teenage mothers recommend tailor-made support in a small structure or with a host family. For children accompanied by their family, the ideal situation would be to live outside a large centre.
In the reception centres, the children say they received very patchy support from the educators and social workers. Half of the children received all the support and accompaniment they needed. However, this was not the case for the others. Some unaccompanied children had the impression of being completely left to fend for themselves. This feeling is often shared by the young mothers.
The children also emphasised that the lack of information is an extra source of anxiety. They have many questions and do not always know how to ask them. On the other hand, when they do ask questions, they do not always get answers. They hear a lot of contradictory things, and the decisions that are taken sometimes leave them thinking that a person who behaves ‘badly’ will receive more support and better accompaniment.
Education, leisure activities, friends and support workers play a fundamental role in reinforcing resilience among migrant and refugee children. The children like school. They also want to do sport and play, become children again. Those who haven’t been to school for a long time and the young mothers would like more support. All the children also want to practice a sport or an activity outside the reception centres.
CONCLUSION
REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK?’ 108
Migrant and refugee children are survivors. Their stories, which we have collected and which UNICEF Belgium is presenting to you in this report, show to what extent it is painful for children to leave their country, sometimes without their parents, in order to escape war or poverty.
All these children had to take to the road. And the road is dangerous. Even more than you can imagine. It is interspersed with violence and traps, which a child is not ready to face.
Some children tell of the dangers they were exposed to. Others were detained or mistreated. Sometimes they were exploited by human traffickers on the road to exile.
Many young people had to work in the countries they passed through, sometimes remaining for many months, while waiting for the next departure. These abuses, of which they were the victims, have affected them and still affect them today. They arrived traumatised in Belgium, and ‘resilience’ will sometimes take a long time to achieve.
*Some children will suffer all their lives from these hardships which are engraved in their minds and in their flesh.* Some have only just escaped death. Others have seen their parents die on the way or in wars. Children who have arrived alone in Belgium were separated from their parents during their journey.
Of course, what these children dream of today is seeing their family again, feeling the presence of a mother and a father who protects them once again. Because, very often, these children exiled in Belgium feel alone and not well-supported.
Children should never have to experience such things. Many children have fled the war in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan. All children’s rights are disregarded during a conflict. It is the most devastating situation possible for a child, because war kills all traces of a carefree existence. War kills childhood.
The violence of war is not the only type of violence these children talk about. The latter mention domestic violence, community divisions, insecurity at school. This reality cannot be ignored. It underlines the responsibility of states to protect children in their country of origin, in transit countries or in destination countries, such as Belgium. *It is the children’s best interest that must guide all the decisions that are taken for them, regardless of their migratory status or their age, whether they are alone or accompanied by their family.*
**Countries should stop hiding behind each other, looking at us without doing anything. They shouldn’t pretend they can’t see, don’t hear, and keep silent. They must do something so that everything returns to how it was before. We have rights too.**
- 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA -
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified by nearly every country worldwide, including Belgium. The procedure is by far the biggest issue raised by the children questioned. They want a procedure that is adapted to their age, that meets their interests, as well as precise and adjusted information as soon as they arrive.
The accommodation is another major area of concern for these children. Many criticise the lack of humanity in the large reception centres where tensions, fights, noise and erratic support are all elements that add to the stress and anxiety. They would like to benefit from adapted accommodation and tailor-made support, in small structures or host families for unaccompanied children and isolated teenage mothers. For accompanied children, the possibility of living as a family outside a centre would be ideal.
Education, leisure, friends and people who provide support play an essential role in helping these young people to build their lives again and integrate. The children like school and would like to continue or start studying in Belgium. They also dream of making new friends by practising a sport or an activity.
Nearly all the children we met are worried about the uncertainty concerning their stay in Belgium. Will they be able to stay? Will they have to return to their country of origin? The procedure is experienced as a burden by all the children, whether they are accompanied or not by their parents. Unaccompanied children who have spent many years in Belgium, and isolated teenage mothers, find this lack of certainty even more difficult to deal with.
The length of the procedure and the stress of waiting affects their overall well-being, including their health and their ability to learn. For these children, the waiting is even worse than rejection. They recommend a procedure limited in time and better support. The insecurity linked to waiting shows a clear need for better protection. Efforts must be made to better inform the children and guide them in the search for a durable solution as soon as they arrive.
Finally, the majority of children would have preferred to remain in their country of origin, if security conditions, protection against abuses and access to basic services (health, education) had been sufficient to do so.
**CHILDREN’S RECOMMENDATIONS**
**The procedure: have a procedure limited in time and benefit from better support from the guardian and the lawyer. Better information upon arrival.**
- Have a procedure limited in time.
- If the procedure is longer, explain the reasons.
- A child who arrived here very young and has spent more time in Belgium than in his or her country of origin, should not be sent back to their country.
- Be better supported by the guardian, especially in preparation for the interview at the CGRS. Be accompanied by the guardian when they have to go somewhere in connection with the procedure. Be regularly informed by their guardian and see him/her more often. Have the chance to change guardian if the latter has no contact with the young person.
- Always be accompanied by the lawyer during the interview. Be informed of changes and reasons for changing lawyer.
- Receive more information upon arrival on the different types of procedure and be regularly informed about the decisions taken.
- Benefit from the help of a qualified social interpreter, during interviews and at the lawyer’s.
- Put an end to age tests.
- Provide better support for young people who are about to turn 18, because they often find themselves without a lawyer, a guardian or any protection from one day to the next.
**Family: be reunited with your family and have the possibility of remaining in contact with them. Have trusted people around you.**
- Favour family reunification upon arrival without asking us for documents that are impossible to obtain.
- Have the chance to remain in contact with our family (access to Wi-Fi and a computer in all the reception centres, greater means to buy a telephone card).
- Have people of trust around you. Reinforce good practices, such as family reception services, buddy service and mentoring, whereby migrant and refugee children are supported and their needs are met.
- The possibility of living with a host family outside the centre for unaccompanied children.
The referral centre is a good thing for children who arrive alone.
Avoid repeatedly changing centres, which is detrimental to the integration and well-being of the children. A child who speaks French should not be sent to a centre in Flanders.
When they arrive in a reception centre, the children should be supported so that they feel comfortable and safe. Inform the children, upon their arrival, how life in the centre is organised, meal times, waking up, going to bed, people they can contact if they have questions or a problem. Inform them of the possibilities concerning education and training. Ask them if they have specific needs (catching up with school work, plans, individual help, etc.).
A sufficient number of qualified support workers (educators, social workers, psychologists) who are available to listen, and who respect and support the children upon arrival and throughout their stay at the centre.
Ensure that the children are received in a calm, clean and protective environment which allows them to feel safe, to rest and to study. Do not put four children who do not speak the same language in the same room. Make sure that there is a quiet room for studying and that it is quiet during the night, so that they can rest.
Ensure that the children are protected against violence from adults living in the centres and that they know where to find help if they need it. Ensure that the children don’t argue among themselves and that they learn to get to know each other better, regardless of their mother tongue or country of origin.
Favour small structures or host families for unaccompanied children. Favour alternatives outside the reception centres with support (in a house, flat) for children who have already spent several years in a centre with their family.
Provide better support for young people who are about to turn 18, so that they can find accommodation when they leave the reception centre.
Give children the means to buy clothes, a bit of food, public transport tickets or do some sport. Allow them to have activities outside the centre or during the holidays with ‘Belgian’ children. Allow youngsters to get a student job.
Allow children to prepare a meal from their country of origin. Allow families to have the chance to eat together and cook.
School and leisure activities: more support for children who have dropped out of school and those who arrive at the end of the school year. The possibility of doing sport or an activity outside school or the centre.
Access to education:
- Allow all the children to go to school upon arrival and throughout their stay.
- Children who arrive at the end of the school year should benefit from remedial classes, so that they don’t spend three months doing nothing.
Quality of the education:
- DASPA/OKAN classes are a good thing for migrant and refugee children. However, more contact with children from other classes should be encouraged.
- Adapt teaching methods and specific support: a 14-year-old child who has never been to school and who does not speak the language, does not have the same needs as a 14-year-old child who just has to learn the language.
- Encourage learning the language outside class as well (through sport or other activities outside school or the centre).
- Limit the number of children per class.
- Provide help for homework and a quiet place to study.
- Give remedial and/or language learning classes after school and during the holidays.
Access to leisure activities:
- Enable access to leisure activities outside the reception centres or school.
- Encourage activities with other ‘Belgian’ children.
- Authorise the children to attend football training and play matches.
- Give the children greater means to do sport and activities outside the centres; and pay for public transport (bus, metro, train tickets).
- Give the children more information on the possibilities of doing activities in the municipality (scouts, activities organised by the commune, etc.).
- Have the chance to take part in courses during the holidays.
- Be able to take part in school trips.
Give more information on the possibilities of studying and training:
- Provide guidance regarding academic orientation.
- Help children to implement their plans.
Teenage mothers: tailor-made support for young girls who are particularly vulnerable because they are mothers, teenagers, alone, with no family and in exile.
- Favour alternative reception structures outside the large centres (in small adapted structures, with a host family, in a flat).
- Ensure that the young mothers are received in a calm and protective environment both day and night, allowing them to feel safe, rest, build up their confidence and study while looking after their baby.
- Inform the mothers upon arrival about how life inside and outside the centre is organised (at school, in the commune) and inform them about the people they can contact if they have questions or a problem. Inform them of the possibilities concerning education and training.
- As well as visits to the Office of Birth and Childhood (ONE), ensure regular support for the mothers during pregnancy, birth and after the birth, including information on care for the mother and child after the birth, how to dress the child in winter, taking care of small ailments, washing and feeding the child, as well as information on sleep and development in young children.
- Ensure that the mothers have sufficient privacy and can have a key to the toilets and bathrooms, so that they have access day and night. Allow the mothers to call a doctor in case of a problem during the night.
- Ensure that the mothers receive support which is adapted to their academic level (remedial support, help with homework in the evening, during the holidays). Provide advice and support regarding study programmes. See that the nursery closes at 6.00 p.m. so that the mothers have time to comfortably fetch their child after school.
- Provide young mothers with greater means, so that they can buy clothing or food for the baby and water for the bottle.
- Provide milk adapted to the babies (a baby who drinks normal milk shouldn’t be given hypoallergenic milk).
- Allow young mothers to prepare their babies’ food with adapted products and materials.
© UNICEF/UN0279208/Bartosik. VI Photo
UNICEF BELGIUM’S RECOMMENDATIONS
UNICEF is calling upon political decision-makers to elaborate a multidimensional strategy to deal with the interaction of factors that threaten migrant and refugee children, and to contribute to their protection.
- **Listen to the voices of migrant and refugee children:** facilitate the participation of migrant and refugee children in the elaboration and implementation of policies that concern them, including in the areas of asylum and migration, social integration, health, education and leisure activities. In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, migrant and refugee children have the right to be heard in all asylum and migration procedures.
As soon as they arrive, they should also receive all the relevant information, in their own language and in an adapted language, regarding their rights, the available services, the different procedures and be informed of the complaint systems and psychosocial services available. In the countries of origin, participation of children is essential to tackle the root causes of migration. Civil society organisations, including children’s associations, should be heard during discussions or processes that aim to respond to the migration crisis.
• **Protecting migrant and refugee children, especially unaccompanied children, from exploitation and violence**
Introducing measures to reinforce child protection systems, including training social workers and children; and working with non-governmental organisations (NGO) and professional groups. Counteracting child trafficking by improving the application of the law, but also providing better support for children through the systematic appointment of qualified guardians upon arrival; better access to information with regard to their own situation and management of their particular case; as well as real access to legal assistance. Governments should also develop clearer guidelines for the officers responsible for determining the migratory status of children - to prevent returning children and families to persecution, or dangerous situations or putting their lives in danger - and ensure that it is the ‘children’s best interest’ that guides all the decisions concerning them.
• **Putting an end to detaining children who are seeking to obtain the status of refugee or to migrate, by setting up various practical alternatives.**
Introduce practical alternatives to detention where children and their families are involved, considering the negative impact of detention on their development. Children are particularly vulnerable to the physical and psychological violence of detention. Alternative examples to detention include: handing in their passport and presenting themselves regularly at the police station, a bail guarantee that can be requested from the family or the community, supervision in private accommodation or the obligation to register with the authorities.
• **Keeping families together – the best way to protect children and given them a legal status.**
Draw up clear guidelines to prevent children from being separated from their parents during border controls and all the migration processes. Countries should accelerate family reunification procedures and ensure that it is easier for children to be reunited with their family. The children of migrant parents need a legal identity for their future well-being. Governments should provide a birth certificate or other identity document to allow children to access services and avoid statelessness.
• **Continuing the education of all migrant and refugee children and giving them access to health services and other quality services.**
Governments, communities and the private sector must make an increased effort to provide an education, healthcare, shelter, food and water, as well as legal and psychosocial support to migrant and refugee children. The migratory status of a child should never prevent him or her from accessing basic services.
• **Demanding measures to counteract the root causes of the widespread movements of refugees and migrants.**
Tackling the root causes of conflicts, violence and extreme poverty in the countries of origin. This should include an increase in access to education and social protection; an increase in the opportunities regarding income for families and jobs for young people; and favouring more responsible and transparent governance. Governments should facilitate community dialogue and commit to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, tolerance and more inclusive societies; measures to counteract gang violence should be taken.
• **Promoting measures to counteract xenophobia, discrimination and marginalisation in transit and destination countries.**
Coalitions between NGO, communities, the private sector, religious groups and political decision-makers should take responsibility for influencing public opinion to prevent the rise in xenophobia and discrimination towards migrants and refugees.
REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK?’ 118
UNICEF Belgium would not have been able to conduct this project without the help and co-operation of numerous partners. UNICEF Belgium obtained FEDASIL’s authorisation to contact all the reception centres. Six reception centres accepted to co-operate on ‘What Do You Think?’. UNICEF Belgium organised an information meeting with the children’s support workers at its headquarters and in several centres.
The support workers agreed to inform the children and invite them to participate in the project. They often carried out the consultations themselves. When it was not possible owing to resources or capacity, it was UNICEF Belgium who took responsibility for it.
UNICEF Belgium would not have been able to conduct its project without the DASPA/OKAN classes, which these children attend at school every day. Four DASPA/OKAN classes participated in the ‘What Do You Think?’ project.
UNICEF Belgium also joined forces with several frontline organisations that receive and support these children every day.
Finally, UNICEF Belgium could not have conducted this project without the help of a group of experts on participation and migration. This guidance group was able to help us define the methodologies and adapt them.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the partners with whom we conducted the consultations with the children and young people:
- CEMO/DASPA Class non-profit organisation at the Institut Filles De Marie in St Gilles
- El Paso Centre in Gembloux
- FEDASIL Centre Kapellen
- FEDASIL Centre in Bevingen
- FEDASIL Centre in Poelkappellen
- FEDASIL Centre in Pondrôme
- FEDASIL Centre in Rixensart
- Mentor-Escale
- OKAN class Diest
- Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen
We would also like to warmly thank the partners of the guidance group that helped us explore certain themes and sent us accounts:
- Ambrassade
- National Commission on the Rights of the Child
- NGO Coordinating Commission on the Rights of the Child
- Defence for Children International - Belgium
- ECPAT Belgium
- Exil non-profit organisation
- FEDASIL Lubbeek
- Jesuit Refugee Service
- Kinderrechtencoalitie Vlaanderen
- Kinderrechtencommissariaat
- KIYO
- Minor Ndako
- Child, Youth and Youth Care Observatory
- Plate-Forme Mineurs en Exil
- Rode Kruis Vlaanderen
- Service of the Delegate General for the Rights of the Child
- Service Droits des Jeunes
- Universiteit Gent (Ilse Derluyn)
- Vrij Universiteit Brussel (Minne Huysmans)
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So what if this is a small island. Its maritime networks allow Singapore to dream big: connecting it to the world, welcoming business from near and far, and promising a sea of opportunities.
Thousands of things we take for granted, including the zoo’s giraffes, arrived in Singapore by sea...
Air travel has the Singapore Girl. Singapore’s friendly waves have their own elegant icons. Lucy and Roni are slim and leggy, with long eyelashes that supermodels would envy. They are also very tall. Which is why, when the two Angolan giraffes needed a ride from Israel to Singapore, flying was out of the question. Instead, they took a 16-day voyage on a ship across the Indian Ocean.
Today, when you see Lucy and Roni at the Singapore Zoo, you probably wouldn’t stop to think about how they got here. But then that’s also true of thousands of things around you (like the cement in the walls of your home), on you (the clothes on your back) and in you (the rice you had for lunch). Chances are, they sailed here just like our giraffes.
With so much at stake, it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that Singapore has a huge team of professionals working to ensure that stuff goes where it’s supposed to – and arrives in shape. One of these individuals is Katty Teo, a senior sales executive with Pacific International Lines. Katty studied marketing at a university in Australia before choosing a career in the maritime industry.
“Customers do have challenging requests,” she says. She recalls the work that went into loading a 120-foot catamaran, which is a specialised type of boat, onto a container ship. Because of the unusual shape of the catamaran, her colleagues were worried that it would be damaged in the process. “It took more than a month’s study and preparation, but just 15 minutes to carry out the lifting,” she says. “But it’s a huge sense of satisfaction when you not only meet customers’ demands, you exceed their expectations.”
Such stories are like, well, a drop in the ocean, for a port that is one of the busiest in the world. Singapore receives over 120,000 vessel arrivals every year, from some 600 other ports in more than 120 countries.
All these visits to a country with just four and a half million people? That’s because Singapore’s maritime business doesn’t just serve Singapore. The Taiwanese noodle factory that needs wheat from Australia, the South African car showroom importing Nissans from Japan, and the family in New Zealand waiting for an Apple computer from Malaysia – all count on Singapore’s friendly waves in one way or another.
It’s a hub in the global network of sea trade.
Of course, this isn’t something new. As you know from your history books, Singapore has been an internationally important port since the early 1800s, when it was established as a leading British settlement and free port in the
continued on page 4
This unusual cargo arrived safely in Singapore after a 9,000-km voyage. The zoo’s Siberian tigers also arrived by ship. (Luckily for the giraffes, the tigers came separately!) Singapore depends on its sea links for an amazing variety of needs. As a leading hub port, Singapore also serves many other countries.
region. Back then, one big attraction for traders was the low taxes. Singapore’s convenient location, its deep-water harbour and calm seas were other important advantages.
But nowadays, it’s much more than that that keeps our sea lanes busy. Singapore’s maritime industry makes sure that customers’ every need is taken care of.
For Captain Ravi Somakumar, that means taking care of not just one vessel but 55 – including oil tankers, gas carriers and chemical tankers. With a masters degree in Maritime Studies from the Nanyang Technological University, he used to sail on ships, but – like most of the people who work in Singapore’s maritime industry – he’s now on firm land as an operations manager at Anglo-Eastern Ship Management. “I love being in the thick of the action,” he says.
Since time is money in modern business, millions of dollars are invested to make the port ever more efficient. PSA Singapore Terminals built an amazing software called Portnet that links the many different port users. It allows them to do various tasks online, such as tracking cargo and booking tugboats. Some 100 million transactions a year fly through Portnet. The Maritime and Port Authority and the Infocomm Development Authority have also launched WISEPORT, making the Port of Singapore the first in the world to offer wireless broadband internet access to ships within its waters.
Of course, not everything can be done by computer. The human touch is crucial, so the industry is always on the lookout for motivated and talented young people to join its workforce and keep Singapore’s reputation flying high. There are exciting educational and training opportunities for them. Just ask Lawrence Chan, who was picked for the prestigious Maersk International Shipping Education programme.
Lawrence is a member of Mensa, the club for high-IQ individuals. But he says, “The customers don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
That’s the kind of attitude that’s made Singapore a favourite hub for all sorts of maritime activities.
**IN and OUT**
Singapore is the world’s busiest transhipment hub. Transhipment refers to receiving stuff from one ship before sending it off to another, final destination. Sometimes, this is involves more than one mode of transport. For example, cargo could arrive by ship and then be flown out by air. Another method is to combine small shipments from different places into one larger shipment. This is a bit like the way different feeder buses meet at the terminal for people to board the MRT out of the estate. Transhipment is a big reason why the Port of Singapore is the world’s busiest in terms of shipping tonnage.
Sudoku, jigsaw puzzles and Rubik’s cubes are for wimps. When you grow up, try the 24/7 challenge of moving 70,000 colourful boxes a day.
The containers arrive at PSA Singapore Terminals on about 60 different ships daily. They have to be stacked in the yard in such a way that they can be moved out again in as few steps as possible the moment they’re needed. If it’s one container’s turn to leave, and it’s stuck beneath six others, it’s Game Over. Sure, it can be retrieved by shuffling the boxes around, but that wastes time, and the Port of Singapore didn’t get to the premier league of maritime hubs by wasting people’s time. Whether the boxes contain parts for a Nintendo Wii factory or medicines that people need to stay healthy, they’re all considered important cargo by their senders and receivers, and the port professionals in between never forget that.
The heavy lifting at the Port of Singapore’s terminals is done by 750 cranes. But, the puzzle solving is done by planners with computers that are loaded with advanced software.
Out of the Box
Containers are an efficient way to transport cargo, but not *all* cargo can fit in a container. That’s okay, because Singapore’s maritime professionals are used to thinking “out of the box”.
Over at Jurong Port, for example, there are huge silos ready to receive tonnes of powdery cement in unpackaged loads.
When Cars Need a Ride
When a family in Dubai needs a new car from Japan, chances are that it will come by ship – through Singapore.
It looks like a building, but this is actually a ship. Vehicles board through its giant ramp on the left of the picture. That’s why it’s called a roll-on/roll-off or RORO vessel.
The massive mother-ship is docked by the wharf. The ship’s ramp lies lowered to the ground, revealing an ominously huge cavern. At an unseen signal, cars and tractors drive into that yawning maw into the unknown depths.
It’s not an alien invasion or a scene from Transformers, just “K”-Line’s Baltic Highway taking on her cargo. The vehicles boarding arrived on another car-carrier ship from Thailand a few days ago. Earlier, the Baltic Highway unloaded a shipment from Japan. In a matter of hours, she’ll be heading off to the Persian Gulf.
Singapore is one of the biggest “transshipment” hubs in the world for cars and other vehicles, meaning that the vehicles are shipped here from factories before being shipped out again to customers.
They’re carried on specially-designed ships like the Baltic Highway, which measures 180m long and 43m in height, with 10 levels of “parking” inside.
The Baltic Highway can carry around 3,300 vehicles – that’s more than Suntec.
City’s humongous basement carpark! There are even bigger ships that can carry 8,000.
It’s no easy task, unloading and loading more than 8,000 vehicles in 12 hours. The workers have to be quick – but ultra-careful. They even avoid wearing watches, belts or any hard item that could accidentally scratch the precious cargo.
Singapore companies have gotten the process down to a highly efficient art-form, making it a favourite transhipment hub for those fussy car manufacturers.
The Baltic Highway has 10 levels of parking, with space for more vehicles than Suntec City’s basement carpark! Expert drivers park the cars with less than 10 cm between them.
Then, the vehicles are tied down securely. Just as passengers need to wear seat belts in a car, these vehicles need to belt up for their long journey across the ocean.
In the maritime world, a ship’s fuel is called “bunker”. Singapore is the world’s top bunkering port, starting back in the 19th century, when steamships crowded the waters demanding coal. Nowadays, the vessels use oil, but bunkering is still a big business for Singapore’s maritime industry, which prides itself on efficient and high quality service.
Steve Goh (picture), a bunker trader, works in this industry. With a diploma in marine engineering from Singapore Polytechnic and a degree in economics and banking finance from Australia, he now works for Bomin Bunker Oil.
A lot of bunkering takes place some distance from the shore. Otherwise, you’d see a massive traffic jam around the port. It’s like home delivery, except this meal is sold by the tonne and delivered by a 100-metre long ship called a bunker tanker.
The bunker tanker collects fuel from giant tanks in Jurong or the Southern Islands. It then sails to the “mother-ship” – the maritime jargon for the ship that’s waiting to be refueled.
The mother-ship is fed through a giant pipe. Bunker is highly flammable, so the process has to be done very carefully. This isn’t a meal that you want extra-spicy – though you’re welcome to upsize it.
May I serve you?
Singapore is famous as a foodie’s paradise, but it’s not just tourists on land who love to get their fill here. Big ships also drop by for a happy meal in Singapore. You could call it the neighbourhood’s bunker king.
When a Norwegian oil drilling company, Skeie, had about $600 million to spend on a new oil rig, it gave the contract to Singapore’s Keppel FELS. When Keppel finishes the job in 2010, the rig will be towed to the North Sea off Norway, to drill for oil as deep as 10 kilometres beneath the seabed. Skeie has also ordered three jack-up rigs from Sembcorp Marine, another Singapore firm.
These are massive engineering projects and big boosts for the Singapore economy. But, they don’t make it to page 1 of *The Straits Times* – because they’re nothing new. Companies like Keppel FELS and Sembcorp Marine have been winning such giant jobs for a long time. They have become such experts that, incredibly, Singapore now claims 70 percent of the worldwide business of building jack-up rigs (like the one in the main photo).
Singapore is also a makeover specialist. It takes old ships and converts them into floating factories for the oil industry called FPSO vessels. (FPSO stands for Floating Production, Storage and Offloading.) Singapore is the world leader in FPSO conversion – doing twice as much as all other countries combined.
**Ship Shoppers’ Paradise**
Forget Playstation 3s or fancy bling. Big boys and girls trade multi-million-dollar ships. And Singapore is the place to buy, sell or charter vessels.
Shipbrokers are specialists who help companies book vessels. They also handle the buying and selling of the ships themselves. It’s a big business, and Singapore is one of the top ten centres in the world for this enterprise.
A shipbroker must have a strong network of contacts, so that he or she can seek the right type of ship that the client needs – at any time, in any part of the world. Kaleena Kwan (above) joined this line after graduating with a business degree from the Singapore Management University. “I’m learning, earning and enjoying myself,” she says.
Singapore’s yards are such experts at building jack-up rigs that 70 percent of this worldwide business comes here.
Various other specialised vessels are made or upgraded in Singapore. For example, when an Australian company recently needed a special type of ship to lay miles of pipe on the sea floor, it came to Kim Heng Shipbuilding and Engineering to build one for them. The vessel needs to have special anchors all around it to keep it stable while it does its work of pipelaying.
Singapore also makes container ships, ice breakers, fire fighting vessels and high-speed catamarans for the world. The marine sector employs many professionals, including naval architects and highly skilled engineers from various disciplines.
**The flag with faraway fans**
In the farthest corners of Planet Earth, you can find ships flying Singapore colours – even though there’s not a single Singaporean on board. In fact, if you measured a country’s popularity by the number and size of ships carrying its flag, Singapore would be the sixth most popular country in the world.
However, inviting ships to carry the Singapore flag isn’t like some Facebook or Friendster contest to collect “friends”. It’s actually part of a serious service provided by the Singapore Registry of Ships.
Many countries operate registries. A ship owner can choose where to register his ship, which is a bit like getting an identity card or passport. When you register a ship, it means you agree to follow that registry’s rules. In some ways, the Singapore Registry of Ships’ rules are more open and welcoming than others – it doesn’t tax the companies’ profits, and it allows 100% foreign crew.
In other ways, though, its rules are pretty strict. That makes Singapore’s registry highly trusted – and trust is very important in the maritime business. It’s like when you fly to a foreign country such as Britain or the United States. You land at the airport and they let you in because they trust your red Singapore passport. The citizens of many other countries don’t get in so easily. They may have to apply for a visa in advance. Allowing a ship to enter is a bit like that. A country will check the ship’s records to keep out troublemakers. To be registered in Singapore, the ship has to pass many safety and environmental checks, making it trusted all over. So, being open to anyone doesn’t mean that anything goes. Thanks to this approach, Singapore’s colours are a favourite accessory for ships everywhere.
Ron Pereira is full of stories about life back in his seafaring days. Like the one about the cargo ship, the frozen mutton, and the South American cowboy and his dogs.
The veteran seaman describes how his ship carrying frozen mutton ran aground when it was entering Montevideo, the port city in Uruguay. “It was pitch black,” he recalls. “We didn’t know where we were. The ship listed 25 degrees.”
The crew worked together to get out of the sticky situation. Thanks to the happy ending, Mr Pereira can now laugh at the memory of how the ship, stuck on the ground, surprised the locals on shore. “When the sun came up, there was a gaucho, surrounded by his dogs, staring at us,” he says.
Most events at sea aren’t so dramatic, but everyone agrees that meeting its challenges requires teamwork. “You have to co-operate to make life easy,” says Mr Pereira. “On board the ship, it’s a small community, and you’re working together for at least two weeks. You have to get along – if you don’t, then life is hard.”
It’s not just at sea that you can get the enriching experience of working in a diverse team. Singapore is a global hub for the maritime industry. So, in offices on dry land, it is like a United Nations. At BW Shipping Managers’ Singapore office, for example, there are 15 different nationalities among its 120 staff.
“Working with people from so many different cultures and backgrounds helps me develop an understanding of the world,” says assistant manager Bree Fitzpatrick, an Australian. “This is really important in such a global industry because the company deals with clients from all over the world.”
It also makes life more interesting. “It’s really fun to be in such an energetic and international team,” says Miss Fitzpatrick.
Attracted by such opportunities, many able and motivated Singaporean youth are enrolling for polytechnic diplomas and university degrees in maritime-related fields. Even within other fields like law or business, Singaporeans are specialising in supporting the maritime industry.
Nanyang Technological University student Bay Lishan is one such person. Attracted to the business side of the industry, she’s pursuing a maritime studies degree. She did her internship at a foreign shipping company in Singapore with a large expatriate staff. “Initially, it was a bit of a culture shock,” she admits. “But they were very easy to talk to, very friendly, and willing to teach interns.”
Months before graduating, she has already secured a job: she’ll be managing chartered ships for an international mining company.
Her chosen profession has opened her eyes to faraway places. “At first, some places seem unreachable and impossible to get to know,” she says. “But in this course, we learn how to deal with places you might never even hear of otherwise. You really see that the world is getting smaller all the time.”
It’s also a small world on board the *Kota Karim*, a Pacific International Lines container ship. There are sailors from six different countries: Ghana, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, India, Indonesia and Singapore. Every time Captain G. P. Attah takes command of such a diverse crew, he calls them together for a pep talk. “We are going to live like one family,” he tells them.
Working with such an international crew is like a journey within a journey. “You get to know people’s countries and cultures even though you’ve never been near those places,” Captain Attah says.
His crew includes a female Singaporean
*Jimmy Lum, a Singaporean executive of BW Shipping Managers, says he feels “amazed and blessed” to be an industry with so much to learn and so many interesting people to work with.*
deck cadet, Zhang Shuzhen (below). “She is our mother, and our daughter too,” says Captain Attah affectionately. However, don’t imagine that Cadet Zhang wants to be looked after by men. She’s aiming to captain a ship one day. “I have a duty to fulfill my dream,” she says.
Over at Singapore Polytechnic’s Maritime Academy, Muhammad Aliff bin Saifudeen and Dorothy Sim (above) are also pursuing their goals. Aliff is on a SAIL Scholarship, which was set up to produce Masters or Chief Engineers of ocean-going merchant ships who’ll later take up high-level jobs on shore. Aliff has already had his attachment at sea, which he calls “life-changing”.
“I am more mature in the way I think,” he says. Dorothy agrees, calling her time at sea “confidence-boosting”. But, just like generations before them, these new recruits know that they can’t achieve anything alone. Whether at sea or in an office, the maritime industry is all about teamwork and cooperating with crew, colleagues and clients from all over the world.
One of Aliff’s favourite memories of his voyages was bonding with crew members from China and Myanmar. “We made dumplings together for special occasions,” he recalls. “Even I tried it out. They laughed at me because I was slow – but those guys were fantastic at it!”
With about a thousand ships in its waters at any one time, Singapore is one of the busiest ports in the world. Along with that traffic come risks to the environment. Fortunately, that’s something that the people in charge never forget.
Compared with land and air transport, shipping is already the least environmentally damaging and most energy efficient mode of commercial transportation. For example, a Boeing 747-400 on a 1,200 km flight produces 540 grams of carbon dioxide per tonne for each kilometre flown; a cargo ship of more than 8,000 deadweight tonnage produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide per tonne/km.
Of course, more can be done. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore keeps close tabs on ship emissions and overall pollution from ships, and cooperates with many others to keep the waters clean and safe.
| Issue | Strategy |
|-------|----------|
| **Oil spills** | Leaks of oil or chemicals from ships can harm the environment. Since oil is lighter than water, it doesn’t sink but stays on the surface, thus cutting off sunlight and reducing the level of oxygen in the water. This can kill the fish, and seabirds as well. In addition, an oil spill can hurt industries that depend on the sea, such as fishing, aquaculture and tourism, as well as the residents who enjoy beach activities. |
| | The MPA has developed an emergency action plan in case of oil spills and other crises. But prevention is better than cure, so the MPA uses technology to help ships navigate in and out of the port safely. The Vessel Traffic Information System can track the positions of up to 5,000 ships at one time. |
| **Ballast Water** | When a container ship or oil tanker is sailing without much cargo, some compartments are filled with seawater to help stabilise and balance the ship. This is known as ballast water. When the ship reaches its destination, the ballast water is pumped out. Sounds harmless? Not necessarily. The ballast water originally from ports thousands of miles away may contain tiny marine organisms that are alien to the place where the water is released. Sometimes, these alien invaders can multiply wildly, causing confusion to the local ecosystem. |
| | One solution is to get ships to expel ballast water in the big wide ocean, where the organisms would be overwhelmed and won’t cause much damage. New ballast water would be drawn from the ocean before heading to their destination. The new load of ballast water will also contain its own organisms, but organisms from the ocean probably wouldn’t thrive in different waters of a port. The MPA is also working with scientists to develop a water treatment system to remove organisms in the ballast water before it’s discharged. |
| **Waste** | A cruise ship may expel 210,000 gallons of sewage water and more than eight tonnes of solid waste. Air pollution is another issue – although shipping is still a relatively environmentally-friendly mode of transport compared with land transport and aviation. |
| | Together with the IMO, the MPA has been encouraging ships to reduce and control their emissions. They are also required to have adequate facilities to deal with sewage and other waste safely and cleanly. Singapore has signed an international agreement called the MARPOL Convention – MARPOL stands for marine pollution. |
For most people, a lot of what they think they know comes from television and film. But how close do screen depictions of maritime life get to the truth? We find out from real-life maritime professionals.
**The Peak provides a peek**
The Channel 8 TV drama *The Peak* showed viewers scenes of Singapore that many had never seen before, like the inside of a shipyard.
Actor Christopher Lee (main picture) played a project manager who has to coordinate operations, including the lifting and unloading of heavy cargo. He gets this done by shouting a few orders into his walkie-talkie.
When Ivan Lim saw this scene, he couldn’t help but laugh. Mr Lim (right) is a real-life project manager at Keppel Shipyard, so he knows what the job really demands. It takes real expertise: Mr Lim is a marine engineer with a diploma from Singapore Polytechnic and a Masters degree from Britain’s University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Before lifting massive cargo, he must do careful calculations and deal thoroughly with any possible safety risks. To show all that work on TV might have been pretty boring. But, that effort is what makes the job satisfying. Mr Lim has been rising to the challenge for more than six years.
In *The Peak*, Jeanette Aw acts as a team leader, while Cai Zhenya plays an assistant project manager. But, do women really work in shipyards? Surprisingly, a few do – like Frances Teh (inset picture) – and the number is growing.
This gigantic structure – like something from a sci-fi flick – must be a prop, right? Wrong. It really does exist, and so do many others just like it. It’s a semi-submersible oil rig, built in Singapore to drill for oil in faraway seas. The producers of *The Peak* shot at a real shipyard to capture these dramatic backdrops.
Next stop, World’s End
In *Pirates of the Caribbean III*, the heroes travel to Singapore in search of pirate chief Sao Feng. They need his help to complete their journey to World’s End. The Singapore shown in this blockbuster movie is made up – but it’s true that ships from everywhere use Singapore as a place from which to launch their voyages to the ends of the earth. Petya Blumbach (left) of Ambsbach Marine is one of the maritime professionals who keep international clients coming, supporting Singapore’s development into an international maritime centre. Serving companies’ diverse needs can be highly complex, but it’s also about “meeting people face-to-face, shaking hands, engaging and interacting with them on a personal level”. In other words, she is willing to help – even before her clients win a swordfight.
All Aboard - except that gorilla!
In the movie *King Kong*, Captain Englehorn makes extra cash by smuggling rare animals into the city on his cargo ship. That’s how the monster ape from Skull Island ends up wreaking havoc in New York City. Fortunately, terrorists of any species won’t find it so easy to enter the port of Singapore, thanks to strict customs and security checks.
Captain Capable
In films such as *Master and Commander*, ship captains are portrayed as rough-and-tumble men who shout and swear. Captain Jolyn Tay (right) doesn’t quite fit the stereotype. “People expect to see someone bulky, brusque and bronzed,” she says. “You don’t have to look like the Incredible Hulk – or even Wonder Woman,” adds Captain Tay, who now works onshore with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.
Ship Shape
Vessels of all shapes and sizes dot Singapore’s waters. Here’s a guide to some of the common ones.
**CONTAINER SHIP.** Carries containers filled with cargo. Packing things in boxes, which can also be carried by a truck, makes it easier to handle cargo.
**OIL TANKER.** Used to transport crude oil. This one, the Gemini Voyager, weighs 300,000 tonnes when fully loaded – more than the weight of Singapore’s entire population!
**LNG CARRIER.** Nicknamed “dinosaur egg carriers”, they transport Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in their giant spherical tanks, called “moss tanks”.
**FPSO VESSEL.** The Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel is like a floating refinery to process oil that’s just been pumped from the seabed.
**RORO SHIP.** These ships are designed with ramps to allow the cargo to be rolled on and rolled off, hence the name “roll-on/roll-off” or RORO.
**CRUISE SHIP.** More than 50 international cruise liners drop in at Singapore every year. These floating hotels are packed with restaurants and leisure facilities.
**BARGE.** A flat-bottomed boat used to transport heavy goods, like a crane as in this example. You can also see barges loaded with sand.
**TUGBOAT.** These small boats pull ships a hundred times larger. They help ships move in and out of harbours and ports safely. They also pull barges.
Interested in a maritime career? Visit [www.maritimecareers.com.sg](http://www.maritimecareers.com.sg) for a sea of opportunities.
FRIENDLY WAVES
Editorial Committee
**Project Leader:** Singapore Maritime Foundation
**Working Group Members:** Dorothy Ng, Singapore Maritime Foundation; Leong Ize Wei, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore; Marianne Eeboo, Singapore Shipping Association; Winnie Low, Association of Singapore Marine Industries
Special thanks to our maritime partners for their kind assistance and providing or arranging for photographs and interviews: BW Shipping Managers Pte Ltd, Crew of Kara Karm, Jurong Port, Keppel Corporation Limited, K-Line Pte Ltd, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Sembcorp Marine Ltd, Singapore Maritime Academy, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore Zoo, Pacific International Lines Pte Ltd, PSA Corporation Ltd, Nanyang Technological University.
Editorial Services
**What’s Up: News For Kids** [www.newforkids.com.sg](http://www.newforkids.com.sg)
**Editor:** Cherian George
**Writers:** Nicola Jahn, Shameen Iqbal
**Photographers:** Huaying Ong, Alphonsio Chan
**Design:** Booksmith Productions
**Printer:** KHL Printing
Published in 2008 by What’s Up and the Singapore Maritime Foundation.
This magazine is an initiative of MaritimeONE by its four partners:
- SMF Singapore Maritime Foundation
- ASMI Association of Singapore Marine Industries
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ENERGY IN SCHOOLS: PROMOTING GLOBAL CHANGE THROUGH SOCIO TECHNICAL DEPLOYMENTS
Kathy New\textsuperscript{1}, James Devine\textsuperscript{1}, Taylor Woodcock\textsuperscript{1}, Sophie Beck\textsuperscript{1}, Joe Finney\textsuperscript{1}, Mike Hazas\textsuperscript{1}, Nick Banks\textsuperscript{2}, Karen Smith\textsuperscript{2}, Tim Bailey\textsuperscript{3}
\textsuperscript{1}School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, Lancaster, U.K. \\
{k.new1, j.devine, t.woodcock, s.beck, j.finney, firstname.lastname@example.org
\textsuperscript{2}Centre for Sustainable Energy, Bristol, U.K. \\
{nick.banks, email@example.com
\textsuperscript{3}Samsung Research UK, Staines, U.K. \\
{firstname.lastname@example.org
Keywords: ENERGY CONSERVATION, IOT, BBC MICRO-BIT, SMART METERING, EDUCATION
Abstract
Reducing carbon emissions is a key priority across the globe, and in the UK, schools have been identified as the second largest users of non-domestic energy. In this paper, we present an IoT solution for schools that aims to unite senior leadership, teachers, and pupils in the goal of reducing or shifting their energy consumption and carbon emissions. We achieve this by prompting behavioural change through instrumenting schools with sensors, visual displays, and a variety of educational resources which use the BBC micro:bit to interact with the data produced by these sensors, enabling pupils to engage in educational activities to solve real world problems. By increasing the visibility, availability, and interactivity of data, we enable a new space for dialogue between facilities managers and building users. We summarise some of the challenges and lessons learned so far, with preliminary results indicating our approach is effective in raising the profile of energy management and shifting demand. Future monitoring and evaluation will provide more detail on the effectiveness of our IoT solution.
1. Introduction
Reducing carbon emissions for the benefit of ourselves and future generations is a well-recognised global challenge. There are many projects around the world attempting to address this, and the UK government has recently funded a number of such projects looking how best to achieve emissions savings across the domestic and non-domestic sectors [1]. Identifying energy use as a clear candidate for reductions, a rollout is underway to replace at least 80% of smart electricity meters and grids across domestic properties and SMEs. It is proposed that such a rollout could reduce emissions in the EU by up to 9% and annual household energy consumption by similar amounts [2].
Schools are estimated to be the second largest consumer of non-domestic energy, making them a lucrative candidate for energy savings [1]. However, in organisations such as schools consisting of many stakeholders with differing agency, it can be hard to enact change. It is easy to see why—to reduce energy consumption, behavioural change is required, which means all stakeholders (senior leadership, teachers, pupils) of the school must be aware of the energy consumed and actively reduce consumption. Previous studies have touched on the lack of communication, tensions and differing priorities that can exist between these stakeholder groups [3] [4]. This is where difficulties arise: awareness of consumption is driven by data, data provides information, and information supports change, but schools have neither the monetary resource nor expertise to instrument their buildings with the required IoT sensors and technological infrastructure.
In this paper, we present preliminary results of our IoT (Internet of Things) solution for schools that aims to unite senior leadership, teachers, and pupils in the goal of reducing (and shifting) their energy consumption and carbon emissions. We achieve this by prompting behavioural change through instrumenting each school with sensors, visual displays, and a variety of educational resources (including the use of the BBC micro:bit [5]) which interacts with the data produced by the sensors. In addition, by increasing the visibility, availability, and interactivity of data, we enable deep analysis and a new space for dialogue between facilities managers and building users. We contribute: (1) methodological detail on how we engage with every stakeholder of a school, from children and teachers (through learning resources), to senior leadership (providing equipment at no significant cost to the school) (Section 2); (2) an IoT platform designed for non-expert use (Section 3); and (3) a summary of the unique challenges that we faced (Section 4) and the lessons learned (Section 5) during a trial deployment of our solution to three schools in the UK\textsuperscript{1}.
2. Project Background and Methodology
The project is formed of three phases: (1) preliminary research, (2) initial deployments to a small number of schools, and (3) wider deployments to the whole of the UK; the functionality
\textsuperscript{1}This project is funded by the U.K. government as part of the BEIS NDSEMIC programme.
of the platform is emerging through a process of codesign. This paper documents phases 1 and 2.
Our preliminary research phase consisted of a participatory design programme involving a range of stakeholders in the design of interventions, and iterative trials. We recruited a pilot school to initially explore the issues facing schools with energy use, and to support a codesign approach to developing our solutions. Three schools took part in phase two of the project: two primary schools and one secondary school. Through a series of energy and behavioural audits, workshops, and interviews with stakeholders across the two phases, we identified the potential motivating factors and barriers to behaviour change.
We designed a platform featuring technological, educational, and behavioural interventions to support schools to not only shift their energy use from the peak times of 4-7pm, but also reduce overall consumption. The platform combines real time smart energy metering, modern IoT sensing, and curriculum aligned learning materials which use the BBC micro:bit to interact with data produced by sensors and smart meters. The combination of accurate smart energy metering and IoT sensors enable senior management to observe and realise actionable change within their school. Teachers and students are given agency through an engaging plug-and-play IoT learning experience that educates them on their energy consumption, with gamified school metrics garnering competition between schools generating further agency. To constantly remind the school of their united goal, a display is placed prominently in main thoroughfares displaying real-time, up-to-date statistics on school performance. For additional impact, we delivered training to groups of students turning them into “energy champions” for the school. To support the cost of such infrastructure, schools are moved onto a time of use tariff saving schools up to £1000 per annum, which is then used to fund the platform and its installation, and to give senior management additional motivation to promote change.
3. The Platform
3.1. Architecture
IoT solutions for energy reduction focus on the installation of energy monitors, and for good reason; they allow management to see the running costs of a building giving agency to act. But running cost often needs to be combined with other information to provide actionable change: adding a temperature sensor to a building immediately allows senior management to see if it is needlessly heated overnight. More importantly however, is that in a school setting senior management are not solely responsible for leaving doors and windows open or appliances and lights on, students and teachers are too. All stakeholders of the school needed to be engaged.
To this end, our platform (Figure 1) combines accurate energy monitoring, smart sensing, and an engaging, low-barrier curriculum aligned IoT experience. The platform is divided into three subsystems: Sensing, Education, and Energy Monitoring. Each subsystem can communicate bidirectionally to the EnergyInSchools server (EIS). All users access information through the User Portal where: accurate energy statistics for energy managers (Figure 2), lesson plans for teachers, and a customised block-based micro:bit programming editor for students (Figure 3) are made available. The education subsystem enables students and teachers to use the BBC micro:bit to react to changes in data, interact with building sensors, and investigate data stored in the EIS server. A school may feature one or more of each subsystem.
For the remainder of this section we discuss the educational aspect of the platform, followed by an evaluation.
3.2. An Engaging Educational Experience
The micro:bit has become known to teachers and students alike as an engaging, fun introduction to the concepts of computer science through simple programming via web based editors (Figure 3). As well as featuring a number of sensors, the micro:bit is equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), enabling communications with smartphones and computers, and thusly the wider Internet. Whilst BLE is an ideal communication solution for many industrial IoT infrastructures, there are user experience implications in its use within schools: (1) Pairing BLE devices is challenging, even more so for novices; (2) A BLE enabled (and compatible) laptop is required to connect to the Internet.
Instead, we developed a broadcast, plug and play, synchronous micro:bit mesh based on Glossy [6] (detail outside the scope of this paper) that enables reliable delivery of packets to all
proximal micro:bits, using the radio module normally reserved for BLE operation. Devices communicate condensed REST [16] requests over the mesh and other devices provide access to the Internet via a bridge to an Internet connected computer, running software that translates condensed REST requests to fully formed requests. REST requests can be made to any endpoint as long as a translation is provided for a condensed request. Given unrestricted access to the Internet through technology, children can enable scenarios that on the surface are safe, but can put children at risk. This concern is especially prevalent with technologies that enable new attack vectors through the use of IoT. [13]. This whitelisted approach safeguards our users by only allowing pre-approved endpoints.
![Fig. 3 A block-based programming experience based on Microsoft MakeCode [10]. Users piece blocks selected from the toolbox (B) together on the canvas (A) to build programs.](image)
To allow the micro:bit mesh to access the Internet, a teacher simply loads a WebApp (Figure 4) and packets are forwarded seamlessly to Internet endpoints. Other solutions may require an additional device (such as a Raspberry Pi) to perform bridging functionality, however by using a WebApp, only a computer with a WebUSB enabled version of Chrome installed is required. This approach also benefits from real time updates.
The micro:bit acting as a bridge provides authentication to the EIS REST APIs by executing a dynamically generated program (downloadable only via a teacher account in the User Portal) containing keys for a session. Keys are transferred from the bridged micro:bit to the WebApp and authentication keys are only injected into requests to EIS APIs. Using this architecture, the bridge provides an authenticated entry point to the EIS system for the entire mesh, allowing other micro:bits to consume data about the school and perform actions when data changes.
The platform also enables sensor data (such as temperature, light, door state, energy consumption) to be reported from the BBC micro:bit, allowing teachers and students to perform real IoT deployments.
### 3.3. Enabling Cross Curricular Learning
Traditional energy monitors measure the magnetic field emitted by the movement of electrons down a wire and normally require the isolation of the power line to operate. In a classroom, this would mean cutting into cables to isolate powerlines, an irresponsible and dangerous thing to suggest to school children.
The micro:bit features a magnetometer, used to sense changes in proximal magnetic fields. We found that the magnetometer can be used to quite accurately measure consumption if positioned on a power cable correctly (Figure 5).
When the micro:bit’s energy monitoring capability is combined with our IoT infrastructure, energy consumption data is reported to an EIS REST endpoint for display to senior management, teachers, and students, with an optional download for further analysis. Not only does this approach enable low-cost appliance energy monitoring at scale, but it empowers an entire class of children to measure, report, and investigate energy consumption anomalies as part of a scientific process.
### 3.4. Evaluation
**End-to-End Performance**: We measured the end to end delay of the micro:bit to a REST endpoint and back again, including transmission across the mesh, processing by the WebApp, and the HTTPS request to the server. Figures are captured using traces from a Logic analyser, with only two microbits in the mesh. The total time taken was 230 milliseconds (ms), with 32.5 ms spent communicating across the mesh to the bridge, 161 ms spent communicating the request to the WebApp, to the endpoint, and back again, and 36.5 ms communicating from the bridge via the mesh to the original transmitter.
**Security**: Currently no encryption is provided at the micro:bit mesh layer, so packets can be read by any micro:bit in the mesh. However, whilst most protocols place device (Media
Access Control) addresses in their packets, we place no uniquely identifiable information in micro:bit packets, providing security through anonymity.
Another attack vector is the bridged micro:bit which provides a trusted link to the EIS server. Only programs that contain correct keys for the current school can access EIS REST APIs, however, this does not prevent masquerading as a bridge micro:bit and serving manipulative responses.
Users are shielded from dangerous scenarios by constraining API parameters through carefully designed blocks, and restricting access to only a subset of APIs that we define. Implementing end to end encryption is future work (we plan to place symmetric keys in programs downloaded from the portal).
**Extensibility:** The system is designed with extensibility in mind. New translations for condensed REST requests can be added dynamically from the EIS server and updated by a simple page refresh in the WebApp; similarly new blocks can be added to the programming editor for use in the User Portal.
**Setup time:** Once the WebApp is loaded the user simply selects a micro:bit from a list of connected USB devices. If a micro:bit is connected with a valid set of keys for EIS REST APIs, the Web App begins forwarding packets to their requested destinations.
### 4. Challenges
The project encountered a range of challenges, some of which were anticipated and others becoming apparent as the project progressed. The themes of these challenges were identified through informal feedback from stakeholders throughout the project, as well as formal recorded interviews with pupils, teachers, senior management and IT staff. Quotes used are taken from these interviews.
#### 4.1. Finding Time
In theory, education is agile, iterative, and collaborative, with teachers encouraged to be reflective practitioners. However, in practice, the ‘hectic life of the school’ limits this development time. As a result, whilst curricula may vary from year to year due to Governmental or staffing changes, teaching is often broadly similar, and based on familiar work.
Teachers found that they struggled to find time to learn new technology and look over the provided lesson plans. One teacher said the project had taken more ‘homework’ for them than any other area of their work and another commented that they ‘don’t normally read plans in such detail because I’m just delivering something I’ve done ten times before’.
At the school level, teaching timetables and topics are usually planned a year in advance, and the relatively short time scale and lead time of the project proved difficult to fit into the already packed timetables as they ‘normally do things with enormous lead time’.
This problem is further exacerbated in secondary schools, where flexibility in the timetable is limited due to the impact on other teachers, room timetabling and curriculum areas. Lack of time prevented all of the sessions being tested, resulting in only three of the sessions being taught. Despite these issues, the reaction to the learning environment was extremely positive, engaging both the staff and students in energy saving and making them more energy conscious. One primary school teacher commented that: ‘This is the sort of thing children should be doing in primary school, fundamentally. There’s no doubt that this is what they need to be doing to me.’
#### 4.2. Engaging all stakeholders
Although the project was designed to capture a range of agents, the complexity of relationships both within and between schools, was not fully appreciated. Support staff and cleaners were not included in our stakeholder assessment, with one cleaner commenting: ‘I don’t know anything about the logistics of running a school, and people would get really angry if I stuck my nose in’. Some of the methods of introducing the project to the staff (e.g. staff meetings, assemblies) did not capture all stakeholders.
#### 4.3. Obtaining knowledge, skills and confidence
We found considerable skill, knowledge and confidence differences across our test schools, both with regard to energy efficiency and technology.
Secondary schools typically have a dedicated IT team: a head of IT with a degree in computing, and a number of IT teachers and support staff. Primary schools, on the other hand often have limited IT support (typically one day a week), bought in from a centralised organisation, with their time already committed to a backlog of other IT issues. The primary teachers we worked with had little or no experience of coding, and confidence was the main issue for them.
Business managers, caretakers, and head teachers have no formal energy management training, despite it being within their role and job descriptions. Knowledge and skills are either transferred from the domestic sector or acquired on the job. Heating and cooling systems and water heating were not clearly understood, and the timing and mechanism of automation of these systems was a mystery at some sites. However, having access to the energy data was a useful tool in helping schools to visualise and understand patterns of use, even when the school was unoccupied.
#### 4.4. Limited access to resources and the Internet
Schools restrict Internet access to safeguard children and we found that even where there is an IT team in place, they do not have control over their firewalls, outsourcing control and responsibility to the Internet service provider (ISP).
This created deployment challenges when installing the platform: we had to raise a formal request to the ISP to open up network ports via a ticketing system, sometimes taking up to three weeks to be resolved. Deployment issues were also encountered in a rural school where phone signal was limited.
With total school spending per pupil falling by 8% combined with a 55% cut to local authority spending on services, there is little capacity and resources to support non-essential training to help staff develop new knowledge and skills [17].
5 Lessons Learned
Greater Lead Times and Support. Equipment needs to be tested, installed, and configured weeks before its intended use date so that teachers can familiarise themselves with technology and infrastructure can be tested. More training and support for teachers is required to increase their confidence in using the technology. Increased lead times would also better inform the ideal locations for IoT infrastructure and identify any deployment issues beforehand.
Simplification of Terminology. Lesson plans for educators assumed familiarity with terms like “algorithms” and “variables” and even the term “IoT”; some stakeholders had no real understanding of any of these terms. In the next phase of the project we will work to provide a more gradual sequence of lesson plans that build fundamentals before IoT concepts are introduced. A wider aim will be to provide a simpler vocabulary of terms for use with the IoT.
Engaging all Stakeholders. There were stakeholder groups that were missed by the project, including support staff. As disparate stakeholders were responsible for different packages within the project (e.g. micro:bit teaching delivered by year 6/7 teachers, energy management activities delivered by business managers) there was a lack of cohesiveness in the schools’ execution of the project. In addition, IT staff in secondary schools potentially have a key role to play with regard to managing energy use, and were not included in the original training plans for the use of the portal. The training package needs broadening out more widely, and further mechanisms for engaging different stakeholders need to be considered.
Creating a Culture of Energy Saving. From behavioural and energy audits upon commencing phase two, it was clear none of the schools had a culture of energy saving or environmentalism. After, however, teachers fed back that the profile of energy conservation has been raised across the school, indicating that the project had begun to create an energy saving culture.
6 Conclusion
There are potentially great benefits to instrumenting schools with modern technologies and empowering all stakeholders, however there are considerable human, technological and sector-specific barriers to overcome in these environments. Early results indicate that our deployed IoT architecture works well in a school setting, although extra support and training is needed to enable schools to use the technology confidently and effectively, and to develop an effective culture of conservation.
Our new approach to stakeholder empowerment is effective in raising the profile of energy management. From analysing savings from conserving energy, preliminary results indicate that it has a positive effect on demand reduction with schools earning an average of £220 in 10 weeks by shifting some of their energy use from the expensive time slots. However, some key agents are currently being missed, and a more cohesive approach needs to be developed within schools.
7 Related Work
7.1 Social & Behaviour Change
In [14], a social practice approach is taken, using energy champions to prompt environmental behaviour change in a workplace setting. And in [15], the authors produce a best practice guide for behaviour change towards energy reduction in a non-domestic educational setting. They use a combination of the Capability, Opportunity and Motivation behavioural model (COM-B) and the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). The above informs the social aspect of our intervention.
There is little research in schools that details fine-grained energy use to support effective behaviour change.
7.2 IoT Architectures
A variety of solutions exist for IoT deployments [13, 14, 15, 16], but none are designed to be used in education. In a school setting, frustrating, expensive, and complex technical setups lead to lack of adoption [17], therefore a plug and play, low infrastructure approach is vital for a positive IoT experience. [13] presents an architecture for energy monitoring within a school setting. The authors offer a technology-rich solution to engage stakeholders, built on open source principles and fine-grained access to data. Data is accessed by students and teachers with supplementary gamified applications [7], providing analytical opportunities on the energy consumption of the school. We build on such concepts, but also seek to engage a wider range of stakeholders through curriculum aligned learning materials.
7.3 Educational Technology
The Arduino [8] and Raspberry Pi [9] are widely known technologies associated with education, but these devices have seen adoption by hobbyists and technologists, rather than educators. Instead, the BBC micro:bit [5] a small, programmable, physical computing device has become known to teachers and students alike as a fun, engaging introduction to the concepts of computer science, offering advances in the classroom through its visual appearance, use of integrated components, and simple block-based, no-installation programming environments [10] [11]. The micro:bit features an LED display, a compass, accelerometer, temperate and light sensors, and wireless communications. 800,000 micro:bits were given (for free) to students across the U.K. with a further 2 million devices sold [12].
8 References
[1] BEIS, “Non-domestic Smart Energy Management Innovation Competition,” [Online]. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-domestic-smart-energy-management-innovationcompetition.
[2] The European Commission, “Smart grids and meters,” [Online]. Available: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/market-and-consumers/smart-grids-and-meters.
[3] Clear, A., Finnigan, S., Olivier, P., & Comber, R., “‘I’d Want to Burn the Data or at Least Nobble the Numbers’: Towards Data-mediated Building Management for Comfort and Energy Use,” Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, pp. 2448-2461, 2017.
[4] Goulden, M., & Spence, A., “Caught in the middle: the role of the facilities manager in organisational energy use,” Energy Policy, pp. 280-287, 2015.
[5] The micro:bit Foundation, “Features | micro:bit,” [Online] Available: https://microbit.org/guide/features/.
[6] Ferrari, F., Zimmerling, M., Thiele, L., & Saukh, O., “Efficient network flooding and time synchronization with glossy,” Information Processing in Sensor Networks, 2011.
[7] R. Fielding, “Representational state transfer,” Architectural Styles and the Design of Netowork-based Software Architecture, pp. 76-85, 2000.
[8] Knowles, B., Finney, J., Beek, S., & Devine, J., “What children’s imagined uses of the BBC micro: bit tells us about designing for their IoT privacy, security and safety,” 2018.
[9] Devine, J., Finney, J., de Halleux, P., Moskal, M., Ball, T., & Hodges, S., “MakeCode and CODAL: intuitive and efficient embedded systems programming for education,” In Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGPLAN/SIGBED International Conference on Languages, Compilers, and Tools for Embedded Systems, 2018.
[10] The Institute for Fiscal Studies, “2018 annual report on education spending in England,” 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/13306.
[11] Hargreaves, T., Halkier, B., Katz-Gerro, T., & Martens, L., “Practice-ing Behaviour Change: Applying Social Practice Theory to Pro-environmental Behaviour Change,” Journal of Consumer Culture, pp. 79-99.
[12] International Alliance of Research Universities, “Behaviour Change Interventions for Reduced Energy Use: Best Practice for Universities,” 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.sustainabilityexchange.ac.uk/files/energy_behavior_case_study_v2_-_university_of_oxford.pdf.
[13] ARM mbed, “Pelion Device Management and Mbed OS,” [Online]. Available: https://www.mbed.com/en/platform/.
[14] Amazon, “AWS IoT,” [Online]. Available: https://aws.amazon.com/iot/.
[15] Microsoft, “Azure IoT Hub,” [Online]. Available: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/iot-hub/.
[16] particle.io, “Particle - Welcome to real IoT,” [Online]. Available: https://www.particle.io.
[17] BECTA, “What the research says about barriers to the use of ICT in teaching,” 2003.
[18] Amaxilatis, D., Akrivopoulos, O., Mylonas, G., & Chatzigiannakis, I., “An IoT-based solution for monitoring a fleet of educational buildings focusing on energy efficiency,” Sensors, 2017.
[19] Mylonas, G., Amaxilatis, D., Leligou, H., Zahariadis, T., Zacharioudakis, E., Hofstaetter, J., ... & Lerch, J., “Addressing behavioral change towards energy efficiency in european educational buildings,” Global Internet of Things Summit, 2017.
[20] Banzi, M., & Shiloh, M., “Getting started with Arduino: the open source electronics prototyping platform,” 2014.
[21] Upton, E., & Halfacree, G., “Raspberry Pi user guide.”.
[22] Sentance, S., Waite, J., Hodges, S., MacLeod, E., & Yeomans, L. E., “‘Creating Cool Stuff’ - Pupils’ experience of the BBC micro:bit,” In Proceedings of the 48th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education: SIGCSE, 2017.
[23] Rogers, Y., Shum, V., Marquardt, N., Lechelt, S., Johnson, R., Baker, H., & Davies, M., “From the BBC Micro to micro: bit and Beyond: A British Innovation,” Interactions, 2017.
[24] E. Cox, S. Royston and J. Selby, “The impacts of non-energy policies on the energy system: a scoping paper,” UKERC, London, 2016.
[25] Lechelt, Z., Rogers, Y., Marquardt, N., & Shum, V., “ConnectUs: A new toolkit for teaching about the Internet of Things,” In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 3711-3714, 2016.
[26] Pocero, L., Amaxilatis, D., Mylonas, G., & Chatzigiannakis, I., “Open source IoT meter devices for smart and energy-efficient school buildings,” HardwareX, pp. 54-67, 2017.
[27] Carbon Trust, “Schools: Learning to improve energy efficiency,” [Online]. Available: https://www.carbontrust.com/media/39232/ctw019_schools.pdf.
[28] The Royal Society, “Shutdown or Restart: The way forward for computing education in UK schools,” [Online]. Available: https://royalsociety.org/~/media/education/computing-inschools/2012-01-12-computing-in-schools.pdf.
[29] Department of Education, “National Curriculum in England Computing Programme of Study. Department of Education Statutory Guidance,” [Online]. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study.
[30] Schelly, C., Cross, J. E., Franzen, W., S., Hall, P., & Reeve, S., “Reducing Energy Consumption and Creating a Conservation Culture in Organizations: A Case Study of One Public School District,” Environment and Behavior, pp. 316-43.
[31] Schelly, C., Cross, J. E., Franzen, W., S., Hall, P., & Reeve, S., “How to Go Green: Creating a Conservation Culture in a Public High School Through Education, Modeling, and Communication,” The Journal of Environmental Education, pp. 143-161, 2012. | <urn:uuid:be66ae21-18f6-4490-993f-cbe94d56317d> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/133635/1/living_in_the_iot.pdf | 2019-09-19T07:17:04Z | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573444.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20190919060532-20190919082532-00354.warc.gz | 497,807,158 | 6,513 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.93447 | eng_Latn | 0.995171 | [
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Week 6 - Telling the Time
By the end of Year 3 the children need to know how to do the following objectives. Many children find telling the time difficult. You may find learning to tell the time takes longer than one week. It could be continued over the summer holiday at your child’s own pace.
1. Tell and write the time from an analogue and a digital clock using 12-hour and 24-hour clocks.
2. Tell and write the time from an analogue clock using Roman numerals from I to XII.
3. Estimate and read time with increasing accuracy to the nearest minute.
4. Record and compare time in terms of seconds, minutes and hours.
5. Use vocabulary such as o’clock, a.m./p.m., morning, afternoon, noon and midnight.
6. Know the number of seconds in a minute and the number of days in each month, year and leap year.
7. Compare durations of events [for example to calculate the time taken by particular events or tasks].
The following documents are scaffolds to help children learn how to tell the time. We have also included some online resources and key information that may be useful.
Videos
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkfycdm/articles/zcrmqty
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zhk82hv/articles/zcmdwxs
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkfycdm/resources/1
Games
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/116/telling-the-time
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=telling+time
https://www.education.com/games/time/
https://www.homeschoolmath.net/online/clock.php
https://www.easypeasyandfun.com/telling-time-games-and-activities/
Deeper Learning
https://nrich.maths.org/9027
1. Tell and write the time from an analogue and a digital clock using 12-hour and 24-hour clocks.
| 0:00 = 12:00 AM | 12:00 = 12:00 PM |
|-----------------|------------------|
| 1:00 = 1:00 AM | 13:00 = 1:00 PM |
| 2:00 = 2:00 AM | 14:00 = 2:00 PM |
| 3:00 = 3:00 AM | 15:00 = 3:00 PM |
| 4:00 = 4:00 AM | 16:00 = 4:00 PM |
| 5:00 = 5:00 AM | 17:00 = 5:00 PM |
| 6:00 = 6:00 AM | 18:00 = 6:00 PM |
| 7:00 = 7:00 AM | 19:00 = 7:00 PM |
| 8:00 = 8:00 AM | 20:00 = 8:00 PM |
| 9:00 = 9:00 AM | 21:00 = 9:00 PM |
| 10:00 = 10:00 AM | 22:00 = 10:00 PM |
| 11:00 = 11:00 AM | 23:00 = 11:00 PM |
Converting from 12 hour time to 24 hour time
2. Tell and write the time from an analogue clock using Roman numerals from I to XII.
Week 6 - Telling the Time
3. Estimate and read time with increasing accuracy to the nearest minute
Can you tell the time to the nearest five minutes?
4. Record and compare time in terms of seconds, minutes and hours
Week 6 - Telling the Time
5. Use vocabulary such as o'clock, a.m./p.m., morning, afternoon, noon, midnight.
6. Know the number of seconds in a minute and the number of days in each month, year and leap year
- 60 seconds = 1 minute
- 60 minutes = 1 hour
- 24 hours = 1 day
- 7 days = 1 week
- 52 weeks = 1 year
- 365 days = 1 year
- Decade = 10 years
- Century = 100 years
Days in a Month
30 days has September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have 31,
except February alone,
which has 28 days clear
and 29 days in each Leap Year.
Week 6 - Telling the Time
7. Compare durations of events
[for example to calculate the time taken by particular events or tasks]
Time how long it takes you to complete different activities!
You could...
- Do 20 star jumps
- Say the alphabet
- Write the long date
- Count to 100
- Throw and catch a ball 10 times
- Do 30 skips
- Or any of your own choice!
You could even time how long it takes for other of your daily activities.
(For example, baking a cake, going on a bike ride, watching a film...)
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THE VERMILION RIVER WATERSHED
RESTORATION & ENHANCEMENT PROJECT
The Vermilion River Watershed Alliance (VRWA) is comprised of local volunteers working side by side in the watershed. Members come from local towns and counties, federal and provincial governments, conservation groups, and the public. The VRWA also has a strong partnership with the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance (NSWA), who provides project management and administrative support.
In 2012, the VRWA created the Vermilion River Watershed Management Plan, which outlined 5 primary goals and priorities to:
• Develop capacity and knowledge in the watershed
• Improve reliability of surface water supply
• Improve and maintain surface water quality
• Improve and maintain water ecosystem health
• Protect and sustain groundwater quality and supply
From these 5 goals, 54 actions were determined.
Because surface water quality and ecosystem health were both priority goals, it followed that an important issue would be to restore and enhance wetlands and riparian areas.
Since 2016, the VRWA has partnered with the NSWA to restore and enhance wetlands and riparian areas in the Vermilion River Watershed as part of the Vermilion River Watershed Restoration & Enhancement Project (VRWREP). The Alliances have collaborated with local landowners and other non-profit organizations to complete three years of on-the-ground restoration and enhancement activities as well as accompanying outreach events and educational initiatives.
With NSWA-held funding from Environment & Climate Change Canada and the Government of Alberta’s Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Program (WRRP), activities as part of this multi-year initiative were collectively managed by the NSWA as the VRWREP.
The Vermilion River Watershed is part of the Parkland natural region found in east central Alberta. As one of twelve sub-watersheds in the North Saskatchewan River (NSR) watershed, it makes up 14% of the NSR’s total basin area and is home to 56,977 people (Statistics Canada, 2011).
Over the past century, the VRW has been modified to facilitate agricultural production, land development and to alleviate negative effects of flooding. Some of these large-scale changes include:
• Activities by Holden Drainage District (est. 1918)
• Channelization of the Vermilion River (est. 1974)
• Operation of the Morecambe Structure (est. 1976)
• Re-establishment of the Vermilion Dam (est. 1980)
Due in part to the modified hydrology of the basin, the Vermilion River Watershed was assessed and rated as “poor” by the NSWA in its 2005 *State of the North Saskatchewan Watershed Report*. This prompted the NSWA to apply for funding to tackle some of the report’s issues, in partnership with the local VRWA.
As a rural watershed, the VRW is dominated by agricultural crops and pasture lands. This means that streams, dugouts and wetlands on private land play a critical role in surface water quality and quantity.
| Legend |
|-----------------|
| Crop |
| Exposed land |
| Forest |
| Grassland |
| Pasture |
| Shrub |
| Urban |
| Water |
**How the watershed’s land use has changed**
- Agricultural: 77%
- Natural & Water: 20%
- Human Development: 3%
This project was undertaken with the financial support of:
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Environnement et Changement climatique Canada
Vermilion River Watershed Alliance
NSWA
NORTH SASKATCHEWAN WATERSHED ALLIANCE
What is a riparian area?
Riparian areas are the green zones of water-loving plants and saturated soils found between the upland and adjacent waterbody.
What is a wetland?
Whether you call it a slough, marsh, swamp or pond, these are all “wetlands,” and collectively make up about 20% of Alberta’s surface area. Like riparian areas, the soil is wet enough throughout the year to support water-loving plants. Wetlands also provide many of the same human and ecological benefits as riparian areas (see below). Unlike river or stream riparian areas, prairie wetlands often have standing water.
Wetlands serve as both a natural filter and a sponge, which is important in a prairie-fed (rain, snow, runoff and groundwater) watershed like the Vermilion River as they can store water in times of floods and slowly release it in times of drought.
Benefits of riparian and wetland areas
- **Improve water quality** by trapping sediments, filtering nutrients and pollutants, reducing enrichment that leads to increased aquatic plant and algal growth
- **Mitigate floods and droughts** by storing and slowing the release of water and reducing erosion
- **Improve biodiversity** by providing fish and wildlife habitat and cooling water temperatures
- **Provide aesthetically pleasing areas** for recreation or cultural activities
- **Add economic value** by increasing property values or providing areas for nature viewing
Project activity examples
- **Grass buffers** are areas of seeded permanent cover (whether native or tame, forage and hay species, etc.) planted between agricultural crop margins and an adjacent riparian zone. Grass buffers help to trap and filter excess sediment and nutrients, as well as slow water runoff.
- **Riparian Fences** are used to keep livestock away from waterbodies, protecting both water quality and the surrounding riparian area condition. Managing livestock access in riparian areas also prevents soil compaction as more sponge-like soil helps filter and store water. Riparian fences can also be used to create riparian pastures, as part of a strategically managed grazing plan.
- **Wetland restoration** repairs the natural function of a once-drained wetland. From earthen ditch plugs to engineered structures, restored wetlands provide wildlife habitat, water storage during times of drought, and mimic a sponge-effect in wetter seasons, alleviating overland-flooding.
- **Off-stream watering systems** use a pump to draw water from a dugout or waterbody and carry it to a trough or bowl some distance away. This allows livestock to consume water without contaminating it, and also reduces the animals’ physical impacts to sensitive riparian and aquatic ecosystems. Evidence suggests that livestock who use such systems gain weight more quickly than those who drink directly from the source, creating a win-win for both the ecosystem and livestock operations.
- **Revegetation** includes seeding bare patches along waterbodies with native grass seed or planting site-appropriate tree seedlings. This mitigates soil erosion as deep-binding root systems help to build and reinforce stream banks. Riparian trees also shade the water and thus regulate water temperature, and provide important bird and wildlife habitat.
Between 2016-2019, 16 riparian and 22 wetland projects were completed by over 30 landowners in the region. This resulted in the restoration and enhancement of riparian areas along approximately 20 kilometers of river and creeks and over 150 hectares of wetlands.
1| A Vermilion River win-win
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This Beaver County landowner recognizes that “Keeping cattle out of the river is a win-win deal,” for both his operation and the environment. Having had livestock get stuck in the mud before, he moved ahead with a fencing and off-stream watering project. Fencing not only prevents bank erosion and keeps the river from being contaminated, the landowner noted, but also, “cattle do better with fresh water access.”
2| Protecting the main stem
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
The Vermilion River runs through this beautiful stretch of Beaver County countryside, which provides habitat for many wildlife species. The landowner improved the river and its banks from years of livestock access and grazing pressure by installing riparian fencing and dispensing water through a home-welded off-stream watering system. The landowner noted that—thanks to the VRWRREP program—“projects which have long term environmental benefits to people wildlife, vegetation, and above all—water quality—become a positive reality.”
3| Beaver County buffer
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This Beaver County landowner wanted to do his part in contributing to a healthy, sustainable watershed. In addition to fencing around two wetlands on two different quarters and using off-stream watering practices, he also seeded a perennial grass buffer strip between his cropland and the wetland area to further enhance riparian function.
1| Rest and recovery
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
Improving the banks of the Vermilion River was priority number one for this landowner in the County of Minburn. By fencing off both sides of the river and having his herd of 100 cattle drink from an off-stream watering system, this landowner is providing an opportunity for the riparian area to recover from continued grazing, soil erosion and compaction, as well as water contamination from livestock waste.
2| Best practices on the Vermilion
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Revegetation
With much of his farmland adjacent to the Vermilion River in the County of Minburn, this landowner wanted to improve and protect the function and health of the riparian area. By planting a perennial grass buffer strip between his cropland and the river, he is enhancing the site’s ability to filter out excess nutrients before they reach the water. As well, grass buffer strips will increase the water storage potential of the soil and can even—depending on the types of species planted—boost soil nitrogen levels which is an added benefit for agricultural systems.
3| Re-engaging resilience
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Revegetation
Riparian vegetation filters sediment and reduces water speed. This allows for better nutrient uptake and water storage, which helps mitigate the negative effects of flood and drought. Years of cultivation and resulting bare soil on this County of Minburn site had resulted in eroded banks and washouts within this waterway that flowed seasonally through a cropfield. By stabilizing the soil and re-seeding the waterway with perennial grass species, the landowner was able to enhance the waterway’s natural ecosystem functions. Cattails waiting in the seedbank for the right conditions to come back also re-emerged.
4| Taking care of Birch Creek
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This County of Minburn site along Birch Creek is tucked within one of the few remaining tracts of unbroken native pasture in the area. The landowner recognized that the banks of the creek were being eroded and the riparian vegetation was not doing well due to continual livestock grazing and physical pressure. He saw riparian fencing and off-stream watering as beneficial for both his cattle and the creek’s riparian area.
5| Wetland enhancement
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
Over 4 hectares of wetland was enhanced on this County of Minburn site. The wetland had served as a water source for livestock for over a decade, but cattle access had resulted in physical degradation of the wetland banks and vegetation. A new riparian fence will remove livestock pressure from the wetland, allowing the site to naturally rehabilitate. The installation of an off-stream watering system ensures an uninterrupted and reliable water source.
6| One step at a time
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This County of Minburn half section is used as pasture to graze up to 80 cow-calf pairs. A central wetland complex as well as a creek have served as a water source for the livestock. Although one side of the creek was already fenced, the landowner wanted to combat the erosion and trampling on the other side, as well as in the wetland area which had been negatively impacted by compaction and hoof shear from livestock. Through the installation of a wildlife-friendly fence on both waterbodies as well as a solar-powered watering system, he is helping to enhance the ecosystem services of the riparian zones, as well as ensuring his livestock still have access to water outside of the wetland area.
7| The importance of water quality
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
Water-loving rushes, sedges, cattail and willow cover a centrally-located wetland complex on this County of Minburn quarter, which is used as pasture and a watering source for cattle. The landowners installed electric fencing and a watering system in order to restrict livestock access to the wetland areas during the extended grazing period and into winter. Their motivation? To “ensure water quality is improved in the riparian area and wetlands.”
“The landowners have been really pleased with the projects that they’ve been a part of. It really does become a win-win situation because not only are we protecting the riparian area or the wetlands, it helps them to recover. It’s actually best for the cattle too because they actually put a better weight gain when they don’t have to walk down through the wetland area.”
— Dave Berry, VRWA Chair and Vegreville Councillor
“It was pretty unique in that we had that many stakeholders involved… There were a number at the board level that were contributing to the technical side, and the outreach side and the social side.”
— Chris Elder, ALUS-CVR and VRWA board member [on the success of the VRWREP]
“I was raised on my family’s cow-calf farm and the Vermilion River went through quite a bit of our pastureland. We’d learned how to canoe on it and we’d take the horses to the river so it was always a very special place. My father was always very passionate about taking care of the river while utilizing it for our cow-calf farm. It just became very apparent the difference it can make, taking care of it.”
— VRWREP participant, County of Two Hills
As nature lovers and birders, these farmers said they wanted “to bring flora and fauna back to their original state.” They added, “Giving back to nature by healing a piece of land gives us great satisfaction.”
— VRWREP participants, Two Hills County
8| Reliable water for all seasons
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This site in the County of Minburn serves as late fall and early winter pasture for up to 75 head of cattle. The waterway that flows through the quarter section is the main water source for the herd, which has resulted in trampled banks, reduced riparian vegetation and poor water quality. In addition, cattle have frequently gotten stuck in the soft vegetated bottom of the wetland when water levels were low. Fencing off the waterway and installing a winter-proof off-stream watering system will help to restore the riparian vegetation, ensure fresh and reliable water for the cattle, and mitigate the risk of the cattle getting stuck in the wetland.
9| It’s all connected
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
A stream running through a cultivated area directly to the Vermilion River was in need of some help. Although the area was vegetated with various grass species and small willows, it had been trampled and heavily browsed from years of livestock grazing. To restore the site, the landowner fenced off the stream and provided an alternative water source. By implementing these practices and alleviating constant livestock pressure, the existing vegetation will have the chance to recover and perform its natural ecosystem services.
10| Watching over the willows
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This landowner from the County of Minburn found that his cattle were damaging willow trees in his quarter’s riparian areas while grazing during the winter. He was concerned about the impact this may have not only on the water quality on his own site, but also for other downstream users. Through funding assistance from the VRWRREP, he installed fencing around the wetland and adjacent willow stands to protect the surrounding vegetation. An off-stream watering system now serves as the water source for the cattle and portable windbreaks provide wind and sun protection in lieu of the fenced trees.
11| Wildlife habitat for the win!
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This Vegreville-area site is teeming with frogs, waterfowl, and other birds and wildlife. In the past, cattle had used the pasture’s wetland area during calving season. Installing wildlife-friendly fencing will keep cows out of the wetland and the riparian area until after bird breeding season is over—to protect nesting waterfowl. New windbreaks will provide cattle with shelter in lieu of the trees that are fenced off to allow them to regrow.
12| Thinking outside the box
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This wetland site in the County of Minburn has been in both crop and pasture (native and tame) and grazed by up to 150 cow-calf pairs on rotation. Cattle presence has created issues in the riparian area, however, through the trampling of banks and overgrazing of vegetation. A wildlife-friendly riparian fence was installed with a 30+ meter buffer to both keep cattle out for vegetation regrowth and then allow cattle in to provide vegetation management. The landowner noted that the VRWREP was an opportunity to “think outside the box” and see how these activities could benefit their operation while sustaining and protecting the environment.
13| Enhancing agricultural land
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
The 2.4 hectare wetland on this County of Minburn quarter section is surrounded by 25 acres of bush, pasture and 125 acres of cropland. Surface water is present almost year-round, which provides a constant source of water to livestock. Unfortunately, allowing cattle to have continual access to the area lowered the water source’s quality. A newly installed wildlife-friendly fence around the wetland will mitigate the negative effects of cattle pressure on the area, while still allowing wildlife to safely access the wetland.
14| Wetland restoration
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
- Wetland Restoration
Historically in the Vermilion River Watershed, wetland drainage has been a common practice in order to maximize agricultural yield. The wetland on this County of Minburn site was ditched and partially drained, which compromised its function. Livestock use created bare patches of ground and overgrazed vegetation in the riparian areas. To restore the wetland, the landowner first filled in the ditch and installed an earthen ditch plug. He then fenced around the wetland to restrict livestock access and allow the riparian vegetation to recover. Finally, an off-stream watering system drawing from the wetland ensures that the cattle still have access to a healthy water supply.
15| Improving the banks of Akasu Lake
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
Two separate wetlands on this site were fenced to protect their riparian areas from overgrazing by cattle and horses. By incorporating a wide enough buffer between the fence line and waterbody, the landowner will be able to use these areas as riparian pastures in order to 1) manage vegetation growth during the non-sensitive vegetative growing period, and 2) have a pasture to use during drier seasons as part of a rotational grazing system. This project is another example of how riparian fencing is used not just to protect the ecosystem, but as a tool within a larger grazing management plan.
“I want to work in harmony with the assortment of plants and animals, moose, bear, deer, pelicans, geese, ducks and migrating bald eagles that frequent this land, while making the environment cleaner, safer and healthier for all life concerned.”
— VRWREP participant, County of Minburn
“The dedication shown by [the program team] towards the Vermilion River Watershed Restoration & Enhancement Project was very influential for me becoming interested in being a partner and improving the water quality in the Vermilion River.”
— VRWREP participant, Minburn County
“We were able to go back a year later. We did see some pretty impressive recovery even in that first year. Seeing the effects of relieving the pressure on those riparian areas even in a year — several instances where we started to see things come back that hadn’t been there for awhile — willows and cattails that just recovered naturally.”
— Chris Elder, ALUS-CVR and VRWA board member
The VRWREP is “a very good program as it protects our waterways and helps us finance projects that otherwise we probably could not do.”
— VRWREP participant, County of Minburn
1| Family traditions
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
Carrying on her family’s legacy, this landowner knew that environmentally friendly agricultural practices were a win-win for both the environment and the business operation. Growing up, she witnessed positive ecological changes when her father used rotational grazing and off-stream watering systems, particularly during drought. She implemented similar practices on her own County of Two Hills quarter as well as riparian fencing to allow the shoreline vegetation to recover and also to create a riparian pasture that would strategically be grazed to manage invasive species. Through her example and experience with the VRWRREP, she hopes “to encourage neighbours and successors to do the same.”
2| The way it’s supposed to work
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
When applying to install riparian fencing on this 11-hectare County of Two Hills wetland site, the landowner had more in mind than just improving the water supply for his cattle. “I want to work in harmony with the assortment of plants and animals that frequent this land, while making the environment cleaner, safer and healthier for all life concerned...it’s important to have that symbiosis between all the different species; it’s just the way it’s supposed to work.” By limiting livestock access to the sensitive riparian area while still providing water through an off-site watering system, he is ensuring just that.
3| Riparian rejuvenation along Plain Lake
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Revegetation
Fluctuating water levels and recreational vehicle activity had impacted the riparian vegetation on this County of Two Hills shoreline site. The landowner seeded a moisture and shade-tolerant perennial grass seed mix on various bare patches of ground on this site in order to re-establish vegetation and enhance the riparian area’s natural ecosystem functions.
4| Ahead of the game
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This County of Two Hills property had been grazed in the past, and the current landowners wanted to protect the existing wetland and riparian area before re-introducing cattle to the site. Installing wildlife-friendly fencing ensures the sensitive wetland area is protected from negative effects of livestock presence, while an off-stream watering system will allow cattle to use the wetland as a water source without directly accessing its banks.
“Maintaining a healthy riparian and aquatic system must be the highest priority for any land and water use planning, management, and use. Vermilion Provincial Park, and local farmers and ranchers who utilize effective riparian protection management tools are some of the unique aspects of the Vermilion River watershed landscape.”
- Stuart Heard, former Vermilion River watershed resident
5| Giving back to nature
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Revegetation
This County of Two Hills quarter has been used for agricultural production and livestock grazing for over a century. Tilling had taken a toll on the soil, and the landowner wanted to restore the natural wetland areas “to bring flora and fauna back to their original state.” He said they are nature lovers and birders and adds, “Giving back to nature by healing a piece of land gives us great satisfaction.” Planting native tree seedlings including fruiting varieties around several small wetlands on the quarter section will increase habitat for wildlife, provide food for pollinators, and improve the deep-binding root mass of the riparian area which mitigates soil erosion.
“The return of small saplings and tall grasses along the river’s edge was already evident this fall. It’s very nice to see the results of the completed fencing project.”
— VRWREP participant, Beaver County
1| A case for revegetation
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Revegetation
In partnership with ALUS and AWES, this landowner decided to rehabilitate wetlands on his property in the County of Vermilion River. Five wetland locations across four quarter sections were selected for planting native trees and shrubs, to improve water quality and prevent soil erosion. On the largest wetland on the property, the family decided to re-establish the woody understory that had been trampled by cattle using a mix of buffaloberry, chokecherries, red osier dogwood and saskatoon shrubs. White spruce, lodgepole pine, balsam poplar and green alder were also planted to create long-term canopy cover and establish deep roots that help filter nutrients and contaminants before reaching the nearby wetland.
2| Stretton Creek stewardship
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
Rotationally grazed cattle spend about half of their summer in an area with creek access, according to this County of Vermilion River landowner. His herd has kept the willow growth stunted along the shoreline and compacted the soil in the sensitive riparian area. Installing riparian fencing on this particular quarter has reduced livestock pressure on the creek which allows woody vegetation to establish. This project is one of a handful along adjacent quarters that partners with different landowners and local non-profit groups. Each project is a piece of a larger puzzle to improve a continuous reach of Stretton Creek.
3| Cattle and horses and wetlands, oh my!
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
Cattle and horses use this County of Vermilion River pasture for spring and fall grazing, and used to have direct access to a large wetland on site for water. The wetland connects to Deer Creek which eventually flows into the Vermilion River. The landowner wanted to install wildlife-friendly fencing and use an off-stream watering system both to increase water reliability for livestock, and well as wanting “improved habitat for ducks and wildlife.”
4| It’s all part of the plan
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
This quarter section has been used as livestock pasture for many years and is bisected by a seasonal wetland in which water is present for most of the summer. Livestock pressure had limited woody vegetation growth and the landowner wanted to reverse this trend by managing grazing access to the wetland area. By installing a wildlife-friendly fence around the wetland, the cattle have ample pasture to graze during the wetter periods of the summer, and the landowner now has a riparian pasture to use during drier times within a rotational grazing plan.
5| Vermilion River protection
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
Steep banks on this Vermilion River site posed a danger for grazing cattle as well as for the ecological integrity of the riparian area since overgrazing can compromise the deep-binding vegetation’s ability to mitigate soil erosion. Curbing livestock access through the installation of a riparian fence means a safer pasture for the cattle, and the chance for the streambank vegetation to recover.
6| Wetland protection in Clandonald
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
Installing riparian fencing around this eight hectare County of Vermilion River wetland will restrict the once unfettered livestock access to the riparian area, and allow for natural rehabilitation of shoreline vegetation and enhancement of natural wetland functions such as water filtration and storage. After a period of livestock exclusion, carefully planned rotational grazing will manage riparian growth not only for the benefit of the livestock, but also wildlife like Sprague’s pipit — a provincially threatened bird species detected in this area.
7| A multitude of benefits
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
- Revegetation
The County of Vermilion River landowner wanted to protect two wetlands and a waterway that flows seasonally through the site. In the past, cattle grazed freely in both areas which resulted in stunted willow growth, bare ground patches, and compacted soil. Wildlife-friendly fencing controls cattle access out while allowing wildlife to safely access wetlands. An off-stream watering system ensures the cattle have a healthy water supply. The landowner noted that these changes will not only save on operational costs but put important nutrients back into the soil.
8| The power of partnership
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
- Revegetation
A positive aspect of the VRWREP is its ability to dovetail into other existing initiatives. The project on this County of Vermilion site is an example of such a partnership between the landowner, ALUS, AWES, the NSWA and the VRWA. The site had been used for a watering and wintering site for 125 head of cattle, which had damaged the wetland banks and killed trees over time. Through the expertise of the partners, the landowner planted appropriate tree species seedlings to re-establish the riparian vegetation, installed a wildlife-friendly fence around the wetland area, and installed an off-stream watering system for livestock.
9| Ecosystem enhancement
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Revegetation
In partnership with ALUS-CVR, this landowner wanted to restore and enhance the functionality of a creek and a seasonal vegetated marsh area on her property. In an effort to control foxtail barley (a less desirable species), the marsh area was seeded to a mix of perennial grass species which can be hayed. Electric fencing was installed along the creek in order to keep horses out of both the marsh itself and the creek’s riparian areas.
10| Fences make good neighbours
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
This wetland extends across two adjacent quarter sections, creating a partnership opportunity between two landowners in the County of Vermilion River. Through agreements with both, the VRWREP helped to fund wildlife-friendly fencing around the entirety of the wetland, as well as off-stream watering systems to ensure both landowners were able to provide fresh water to their livestock while preserving the ecological integrity of the wetland and its riparian areas.
11| Stewardship in action
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- Riparian fencing
- Off-stream watering system
Two adjacent landowners partnered to improve the riparian condition and water quality on their land. The half-section in the County of Vermilion River contains a creek that runs the length of the site and drains into the Vermilion River. Several springs feed the creek, and the landowners noted erosion where trees and grass had washed away, due in part to livestock activity. A wildlife-friendly fence was installed along both sides of the creek to manage livestock access, while a perennial grass buffer was seeded between the fence and cultivated area to restore and enhance riparian functionality.
Outcomes of the Project
DELIVERABLES
• Improved aquatic ecosystem health
• Improved riparian health
• 20+ kilometres enhanced or restored riparian areas
• 150+ hectares enhanced or restored wetlands
OPPORTUNITIES
• Stronger community partnerships
• Multi-year funding ensured a variety of projects were completed
• Watershed health awareness
CHALLENGES
• Creating visibility in the community
• Gaining community trust for a new and unknown program
• Wetland restoration buy-in
Thank you to the funders who made the Vermilion River Watershed Restoration & Enhancement Project a reality
This project was undertaken with the financial support of:
Ce projet a été réalisé avec l’appui financier de:
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Environnement et Changement climatique Canada
The NSWA and the VRWA are collaborative alliances made up of local municipalities, non-profit organizations, local landowners, provincial and federal governments, and other watershed stakeholders. Please visit nswa.ab.ca and vrwa.ca for a full list of our partners who were instrumental in making the VRWREP a success.
All photos by the NSWA unless otherwise credited.
Get in touch:
587.525.6820
Vermilion River Watershed Alliance
202, 9440-49 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T6B 2M9
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Gardening with a Purpose
While rain gardens may not be for everyone (or every yard), there are a lot of other great ways to beautify your landscape, reduce maintenance and costs, and put the rain to work in your yard! Bog gardens, rain barrels, amending your soil, filter strips, terraces, buffers, berms, splash blocks, layered plantings, permeable pathways . . . the list goes on.
Why bother with the rain?
Putting the rain to work on your property will lead to healthier, more beautiful plants and lawn, and a landscape that is easier to care for. Many practices encourage reducing or replacing your lawn, giving you more time to sit back and enjoy your yard.
By managing rain where it falls, you are also protecting our local streams and Puget Sound. When rain runoff leaves your property it makes its way to the nearest waterway.
This rain picks up pollutants along the way and carries them downstream, eventually to Puget Sound. Slowing the rainfall and putting it to use in your yard cuts pollution and mimics nature.
The top five tips
Here are our top five simple, relatively inexpensive ideas to help you and your yard, and protect our special Northwest environment:
1. Use Splash Blocks
Redirect your downspout to a splash block so the water runs downslope and away from your foundation. Make sure the block empties onto your lawn or into a planting bed, where rain water can best be absorbed and used. Don’t let water pool next to your foundation.
2. Collect Rain Water
Save rain water for the summer when we need it most! Rain barrels fill up quickly, so consider installing two or three, and be sure to direct the overflow away from your foundation. Better yet, get a cistern (shown below right) or tank – they come in all shapes and sizes. Have you seen our new brochure on rain water collection? Check it out at www.betterground.org.
3. Add Plant Buffers
Slow the rain down once it’s hit the ground, and put it to use before it runs down the storm drain, or down the road. Planting small shrubs and perennial plants along the edges of your yard will enhance your landscape, increase your property value and capture some of that rain, allowing it to soak into the ground.
*Photo: A colorful buffer borders this yard. Courtesy of Innovative Landscape Technology.*
4. Amend Your Soil
For better grass and less summer watering, add a layer of compost to your lawn (1/4 inch) and planted areas (1 - 2 inches). This will help your soil absorb and hold rainfall, leading to a healthier lawn and plantings, and reduce your water bill and need for fertilizers. Do this annually in the late spring/early summer (May) or as needed.
*Photo: Amended soil (left) and non-amended soil (right) along a walkway. Courtesy of Innovative Landscape Technology.*
5. Layer Your Plants
‘Layering’ your landscape means you put the tallest plants in the back of your planted area, the shortest in the front, and mix other heights in between. Besides creating interest in your garden, this provides great habitat for wildlife, and also catches rain drops so they don’t become runoff. The extra shade also helps your soil hold moisture during our dry summers.
*Photo: Layered plants in a natural setting help collect rainwater and protect soil from erosion. Courtesy of Innovative Landscape Technology.*
Questions?
Contact your local conservation district. Snohomish Conservation District can be reached at 425-335-5634 or firstname.lastname@example.org. | 97b554fd-3c4c-4941-a203-b649ea67fd8d | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.lynnwoodwa.gov/files/sharedassets/public/public-works/environmental-photos/environmental-docs/gardening-with-a-purpose.pdf | 2020-09-30T06:39:34+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600402118004.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20200930044533-20200930074533-00683.warc.gz | 840,606,867 | 740 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.997391 | eng_Latn | 0.997952 | [
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We all want to protect our kids, whether from falls or infections and disease, and to send them to school, clubs and social activities where possible.
Children are often in close physical contact in group settings, sharing toys, books and games, and may have not yet learned the importance of handwashing. It is important to support children’s immune systems to fend off infections wherever possible.
The immune system is the body’s defence against disease and infection, and a healthy, balanced diet with a variety of foods from the main food groups can help to keep it working properly. As well as nutrients such as protein and omega-3 fats, a number of vitamins and minerals have key roles in supporting our immune systems.
### Vitamin A
**Found in:**
Eggs, cheese, whole milk. The body can also make vitamin A from beta-carotene, found in dark green leafy vegetables (e.g. spinach), orange-coloured fruits and vegetables (e.g. carrots, cantaloupe melon).
**DID YOU KNOW?**
Carrots are rich in beta-carotene which can be converted to vitamin A in the body – 3 tablespoons will provide children with all they need for the day!
### Vitamin B6
**Found in:**
Poultry, fish, fortified breakfast cereals, chickpeas, soya beans, some fruit and vegetables (e.g. bananas, avocados, green peppers).
**DID YOU KNOW?**
A banana will provide around a third of the vitamin B6 needed for a 4-10 year old.
### Vitamin B12
**Found in:**
Meat, fish, milk, cheese, eggs, fortified yeast extract, fortified breakfast cereals, fortified milk alternatives (e.g. soya, oat, almond drinks – check labels).
**DID YOU KNOW?**
2 tablespoons of tuna in a sandwich can provide all the vitamin B12 a child needs for the day (use wholegrain bread and add salad for a super sandwich).
### Vitamin C
**Found in:**
Citrus fruits (e.g. easy peelers), berries, kiwi fruit, green vegetables (e.g. broccoli, cabbage), cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes.
**DID YOU KNOW?**
Broccoli is a good vitamin C provider – and is a popular vegetable with children. 5 small steamed florets will provide under 11s with the vitamin C they need for the day.
### Vitamin D
**Found in:**
Oily fish, eggs, some fortified breakfast cereals, some fortified dairy and dairy alternative products (check labels). Children 1-4 years old should be given a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D all year, with older children advised to take a supplement in autumn and winter.
**DID YOU KNOW?**
Oily fish are a good source of vitamin D – why not try a sardine Bolognese – great for children (and adults)?
### Copper
**Found in:**
Wholegrain breakfast cereals, wholewheat pasta, couscous, quinoa, shellfish, pulses (e.g. baked beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils), dried fruit.
**DID YOU KNOW?**
Baked beans are an easily prepared source of copper that children often enjoy.
### Folate
**Found in:**
Green vegetables (e.g. broccoli, cabbage, spinach), chickpeas, oranges, berries, cheese, wholemeal bread.
**DID YOU KNOW?**
Frozen green veg like spinach can be a good source of folate – it can also be cheaper than fresh spinach and save on waste.
### Iron
**Found in:**
Red meat, pulses (e.g. kidney beans, lentils), nut butters and seed pastes (e.g. peanut butter, tahini), fortified breakfast cereals, wholemeal bread, dried fruit (e.g. apricots).
**DID YOU KNOW?**
Vitamin C can help the body absorb iron – so why not try a small glass of orange juice with some fortified breakfast cereal?
### Selenium
**Found in:**
Nuts and seeds* (particularly Brazil nuts, cashews, sunflower seeds), eggs, poultry, fish, shellfish.
**DID YOU KNOW?**
Scrambled, boiled or fried – eggs are a source of selenium.
### Zinc
**Found in:**
Meat, cheese, nuts and seeds* (like pumpkin seeds, pine nuts), wholegrain breakfast cereals, wholegrain and seeded breads.
**DID YOU KNOW?**
Lean beef mince is a good source of zinc: so favourites like chilli, meatballs, koftes and cottage pie will all boost zinc intake. For vegetarians, nuts and seeds and mycoprotein are good sources of zinc.
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### Key Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| materials | The substance that something is made out of, e.g. wood, plastic, metal. |
| solids | One of the three states of matter. Solid particles are very close together, meaning solids, such as wood and glass, hold their shape. |
| liquids | This state of matter can flow and take the shape of the container because the particles are more loosely packed than solids and can move around each other. Examples of liquids include water and milk. |
| gases | One of the three states of matter. Gas particles are further apart than solid or liquid particles and they are free to move around. Examples of gases are oxygen and helium. |
| melting | The process of heating a solid until it changes into a liquid. |
| freezing | When a liquid cools and turns into a solid. |
| evaporating| When a liquid turns into a gas or vapour. |
| condensing | When a gas, such as water vapour, cools and turns into a liquid. |
### Key Knowledge
Different materials are used for particular jobs based on their properties: electrical conductivity, flexibility, hardness, insulators, magnetism, solubility, thermal conductivity, transparency.
For example, glass is used for windows because it is hard and transparent. Oven gloves are made from a thermal insulator to keep the heat from burning your hand.
#### Changes of State
- **solid**
- The solid melts.
- **liquid**
- The liquid freezes.
- **gas**
- The gas condenses.
- **liquid**
- The liquid evaporates.
Properties and Changes of Materials
Key Vocabulary
**conductor**
A **conductor** is a material that heat or electricity can easily travel through. Most metals are both thermal **conductors** (they conduct heat) and electrical **conductors** (they conduct electricity).
**insulator**
An **insulator** is a material that does not let heat or electricity travel through them. Wood and plastic are both thermal and electrical **insulators**.
**transparency**
A **transparent** object lets light through so the object can be looked through, for example glass or some plastics.
Key Knowledge
Reversible changes, such as mixing and dissolving **solids** and **liquids** together, can be reversed by:
- **Sieving**: Smaller materials are able to fall through the holes in the sieve, separating them from larger particles.
- **Filtering**: The **solid** particles will get caught in the filter paper but the **liquid** will be able to get through.
- **Evaporating**: The **liquid** changes into a **gas**, leaving the **solid** particles behind.
Dissolving
A solution is made when **solid** particles are mixed with **liquid** particles. **Materials** that will dissolve are known as soluble. **Materials** that won’t dissolve are known as insoluble. A suspension is when the particles don’t dissolve.
Sugar is a **soluble material**. Sand is an **insoluble material**.
Irreversible changes often result in a new product being made from the old **materials** (reactants). For example, burning wood produces ash. Mixing vinegar and milk produces casein plastic.
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The Cost of a Divided America: An Experimental Study Into Destructive Behavior
Wladislaw Mill \(^1\)
John Morgan \(^2\)
November 2020
\(^1\) University of Mannheim, Department of Economics, L7 3-5, 68131 Mannheim, Germany, Email: email@example.com, Telefon +49 621 181-1897
\(^2\) firstname.lastname@example.org; Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
Funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through CRC TR 224 is gratefully acknowledged.
The cost of a divided America: an experimental study into destructive behavior*
Wladislaw Mill† John Morgan‡
November 20, 2020
Does the polarization in the US lead to dysfunctional behavior? To study this question, we investigate the attitudes of supporters of Donald Trump and of Hillary Clinton towards each other and how these attitudes affect spiteful behavior. We find that both Trump and Clinton supporters have less positive attitudes towards the opposing supporters compared to coinciding supporters. More importantly, we show that significantly more wealth is destroyed if the opponent is an opposing voter. Surprisingly, this effect is mainly found for Clinton voters. This provides the first experimental evidence that the divide in the nation leads to destructive behavior.
Keywords: Spite; Voting; Experiment; Hillary Clinton; Donald Trump.
JEL: C91, D01, D62, D72, D74
*We thank Stefano DellaVigna, Noam Yuchtman, Ned Augenblick, Ori Weisel, Oliver Kirchkamp, Christoph Engel, Thomas Kessler, Rainer Rilke, Roi Zultan, Benedikt Werner, and participants at numerous conferences and seminars for helpful comments. We especially thank Michael Matthieu for logistic support. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Max-Planck-Society through the IMPRS-Uncertainty and the German Research Foundation (DFG) through CRC TR 224 (Project A1).
†University of Mannheim, Department of Economics, L7 3-5, 68131 Mannheim, Germany. Email: email@example.com, Telefon +49 621 181-1897.
‡firstname.lastname@example.org; Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.
1. Introduction
Fundamentally, people are tribal. While an individual person has many tribal identities, at particular times—certainly around the time of presidential elections—a person’s main identity is political. This was notably true during the 58th presidential election.
In addition to anecdotal evidence, recent papers show that the polarization of the Democratic and Republican Parties is increasing and is higher than at any other time since the Civil War (Hare and Poole, 2014). A current survey by the Pew Research center also shows that partisanship division increased in recent years and not only on the party level (Pew Research Center, 2017a). The Pew Research Center (2017a) show that in 1994 more than one-third of self-identified Republicans were more liberal than the median Democrat—compared to just 5% in 2017.\(^1\) The same trend can be seen for Republicans. The study also shows that “Republicans and Democrats both say their friend networks are predominantly made up of people who are like-minded politically” (Pew Research Center, 2017a) and most of Democrats and Republicans state that they have few or no friends in the opposing party.\(^2\) Further, due to social media, information bubbles are rising, which in turn might lead to an increasing polarization all around the world (Bakshy et al., 2015; Flaxman et al., 2016; Vicario et al., 2016).
This American divide manifests itself not only in opposing opinions and intellectual debates but also seem to result in aggressive behavior. Repeated reports of violence at rallies (Kite, 2016), increasing incidents of hate crime\(^3\), and mounting fights between protesters – especially after the election of Donald Trump (Kite, 2016; Reilly, 2016; Shallwani et al., 2016) – are just a few examples of the division signified.\(^4\)
Taken together, one might have the impression that the supporters of opposing parties were genuinely aggressive towards each other. However, the question is whether these reports are representative of the extremists of the parties or whether
---
\(^1\) Media coverage of this topic can be seen, for example, in [http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/05/politics/pew-poll-ideology](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/05/politics/pew-poll-ideology).
\(^2\) Media coverage of this topic can be seen, for example, in [http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/05/politics/friends-political-party](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/05/politics/friends-political-party).
\(^3\) A recent FBI report shows for example that the number of hate crimes rose in 2016, especially after the election of Donald Trump (see [http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/13/politics/hate-crimes-fbi-2016-rise](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/13/politics/hate-crimes-fbi-2016-rise)).
\(^4\) The Southern Poverty Law Center has kept track of hateful harassment and violence since the election of Donald Trump: [https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch](https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch). An interactive map with reported violence and hate speech after the election can be found here: (Manning, 2016) Further reports of attacks on both sides can be found here: Yan et al. (2016), here: Shallwani et al. (2016), here: Reilly (2016) and, here: Kite (2016).
negative attitudes also lead to aggressive actions for a broader part of society. We know that politically active people might behave aggressive and spiteful – such as parties ending up in gridlock – but what about the population at large? Have they also become two warring tribes willing to harm each other? And if so, do these two tribes differ in their aggressiveness?
Our research examines the degree to which tribalism reflects extremist views or occurs more generally in the population at large. In particular, we examine whether partisan preferences “spill over” into non-political, especially destructive behavior. To examine this, we recruit from the population of American online workers without revealing anything about our interest in partisan spillovers. We then compare individual choices, outside of the voting context but based on the (revealed) partisan preferences of the co-player. Our main question is whether partisanship produces spiteful decisions among the population at large outside of political contexts.
We, therefore, measured attitudes of supporters of Donald Trump and of supporters of Hillary Clinton towards coinciding voters and opposing voters. More importantly, we measured whether the participants were willing to harm their counterparts (by reducing their payoff). We do so by adopting a design where there is no trade-off between the own and the others’ payoffs; that is, a setting of pure spite. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study spite in a political context, and more importantly, we are the first to study the “spill over” of partisan preferences into destructive behavior.
Previous research has already focused on whether partisanship affects non-political behavior. For example, Fowler and Kam (2007) demonstrates that partisanship influences decisions in dictator games. They show ingroup favoritism among co-partisans, in the sense that dictators share more money with copartisan recipients than non-partisans. In a similar vein Carlin and Love (2013) investigate the effect of partisanship on trust behavior. They show that similar to the literature on ingroup favoritism, partisanship biases trust behavior in favor of co-partisans. While there is a trade-off between the own payoff and the other’s payoff in dictator and trust games, we use a game where there is no benefit for the decider in destroying the payoff of the other. Thus, we look at a systematically different situation. While e.g., Fowler and Kam (2007) can show that partisanship influences decisions in dictator games, it seems like this behavior is to benefit the ingroup without harming the out-group. Yet, the dictator game does not allow for a distinction between outgroup-hate and ingroup-love. We use a design that identifies the dysfunctional aspect of behavior. Hence, the difference between a dictator game and our game is comparable to the difference between omitting help and directly harming others. Thus, unlike Fowler and Kam (2007) and Carlin and Love (2013) the main goal of
our paper is to study dysfunctional behavior directly.
Investigating the effect of partisanship on non-political behavior is also closely linked to the literature on ingroup-outgroup bias.\footnote{For some literature reviews see e.g. Hewstone et al. (2002); Greenwald and Pettigrew (2014) and see Riek et al. (2006) for a meta-analytic review of threat and outgroup negativity.} This literature investigates whether group affiliation (either induced or existing) leads to discriminative behavior towards ingroup and/or outgroup members. One of the main findings in this strand of literature is that people discriminate positively towards the ingroup (ingroup favoritism). However, hostile discrimination against the outgroup (outgroup hate) is rarely found.\footnote{e.g. Abbink et al. (2010); Chen and Li (2009); Charness et al. (2007); Bernhard et al. (2006); Tajfel (1970); Mummendey and Schreiber (1984); Brewer (1999); Riek et al. (2006); Vignoles and Moncaster (2007); Halevy et al. (2008); Greenwald and Pettigrew (2014); Weisel and Böhm (2015); De Dreu et al. (2016); Weisel (2015); Filippin and Guala (2013); Margolis and Sances (2016); Fowler and Kam (2007); Loewen (2010); Carlin and Love (2013); Iyengar and Westwood (2015); Alabastro et al. (2013); Weisel and Zultan (2016).} One exception using natural groups is Weisel and Böhm (2015), who showed that findings of outgroup hate are actually more a form of help avoidance and less direct harm to the outgroup.
The ingroup-outgroup bias was also recently introduced into an economic setting by the seminal work of Chen and Li (2009).\footnote{Chen and Li (2009) can be considered part of the emerging field of identity economics (see the seminal paper by Akerlof and Kranton, 2000)} Chen and Li (2009) show that ingroup-bias transcends to economic decision making. More specifically they show that a match with an ingroup-member result in greater charity concerns and lower envy.\footnote{See also the work of Chen et al. (2014), Chen et al. (2010) and Chen and Chen (2011).} The most current advancements are made by Kranton and Sanders (2017) and Kranton et al. (2018). Kranton and Sanders (2017) show that people exhibit groupy and non-groupy preferences. More specifically, Kranton and Sanders (2017) use a minimal-group paradigm and political affiliation to investigate whether a person’s social preferences change dependant on the type of matched partner. They show that 40\% of participants exhibit no bias, i.e., the participants do not change their social preferences, while 60\% of participants switch from one social-preference classification to another (e.g., selfish to inequality-averse). Interestingly, the results in Kranton and Sanders (2017) indicate that ingroup-bias might result in a higher likelihood of being classified as dominance-seeking. Thus our work can be seen as complementary to Kranton and Sanders (2017) and provides even stronger support for the importance of partisanship of changes in social preferences. Thus, while the literature so far has mainly provided compelling evidence of the ingroup-bias, there has been no sole-focus on the destructive side of this bias. Different from the previous literature, we focus particularly on outgroup hate in the form of direct harm.
While the question at hand has not been answered so far, there has been some research on antisocial behavior. A prevalent theme in economic decision making is the study of prosocial behavior. It has been shown very compellingly that people have prosocial preferences (see De Dreu, 2010; Fischbacher and Gächter, 2010; Murphy et al., 2011, for example), behave as conditional cooperators (e.g. Fischbacher et al., 2001; Herrmann and Thöni, 2009; Kocher et al., 2008) and are willing to sacrifice their own payoff for the good of another person (altruism) (e.g. Bernhard et al., 2006; Fehr and Gächter, 2002; Levine, 1998). However, the dark side of economic decision making is emerging recently. This rather new literature shows comprehensively that a significant amount of participants in laboratory and field experiments are not behaving payoff-maximizing (egotistically) or prosocially but are punishing antisocially (Herrmann et al., 2008), are burning money of others (Prediger et al., 2014; Abbink and Sadrieh, 2009; Sadrieh and Schröder, 2017; Abbink and Herrmann, 2011), are behaving spitefully (Fehr et al., 2008; Saijo and Nakamura, 1995; Kimbrough and Reiss, 2012; Bartling and Netzer, 2016) and are even willing to pay for the antisocial behavior (Kirchkamp and Mill, 2019; Zizzo and Oswald, 2001; Abbink and Dogan, 2019). We relate particularly to these papers as we specifically focus on spiteful behavior as a form of dysfunctional behavior.
In line with previous literature on destructive behavior, we find that some participants are willing to destroy the resources of coinciding voters. More importantly, however, we show that participants behave significantly more spitefully towards their voting counterpart (i.e., opposing voters)—they increase the probability of destroying an opposing voter’s payoff by almost 17% relative to the probability of destroying a fellow voters’ payoff—which constitutes our main finding. We also see that participants significantly dislike their voting counterparts. Concerning heterogeneity effects, we find that Trump voters do not behave more spitefully towards opposing voters—there is no statistically significant effect of their opponents’ partisanship on their choices. By contrast, Clinton voters do behave increasingly more spitefully towards opposing voters—they increase the probability of destroying a Trump voters’ payoff by almost 30% relative to the probability of destroying a fellow Clinton voter’s payoff. The difference in behavior seems to arise from an asymmetry in the intensity of ingroup-outgroup bias. Clinton voters express strong antipathy toward Trump supporters, whereas Trump voters have a much weaker aversion towards Clinton voters. Thus, we offer three main results:
1. Participants report having more negative attitudes towards opposing voters.
2. Participants behave significantly more spitefully towards their voting counterparts.
3. Clinton and Trump voters differ substantially in their attitudes and behavior towards opposing voters.
Altogether, we provide the first evidence of spiteful behavior due to opposing political affiliation, and we find first empirical support for the destructive effects of political division.
The rest of this paper is structured as follows: In Section 2, we will explain the design of the experiment. Section 3 shows the results of the experiment. In Section 4, we conclude.
2. Design
In the following, we will present the recruitment, the procedure of the experiment, and the measures of interest.\footnote{This paper is part of a bigger research project in the field of partisanship and economics. The focus of the companion paper (Mill and Morgan, 2018) lies on auction behavior and builds on the same approach – using partisanship – as this paper and uses the same participants, however in Mill and Morgan (2018) we focus solely on auction-theory testing. Participants made the auction decisions in Mill and Morgan (2018) before the spite measure was introduced, and no feedback was given in between. The reason we do not combine both papers is threefold: 1) both papers are aimed at a different audience, 2) combining both papers would make the paper too long and most importantly 3) the paper would lose its focus as both papers are aimed at very different questions.} The experiment was implemented using Qualtrics. We conducted the experiment in four waves: before the 58th US presidential election in late November 2016, after the inauguration of the president-elect in late January 2017, before the midterms in late October 2018 and after the midterms in early November 2018. Participants did not take part in multiple waves, which is why we do not have a panel data structure.\footnote{As there are no relevant differences between the waves for neither measure (neither the behavioral nor the attitudinal measure), we postpone the discussion of wave differences and all questions related to the wave effects into appendix C. In the main part of the paper, we pool the data over all waves and present the aggregate results.}
2.1. Recruitment
Participants were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) which is an online labor market and frequently used by social scientists for conducting experiments.\footnote{For example : Jordan et al. (2016, 2017); Peyssakhovich et al. (2014); Rand et al. (2014); Suri and Watts (2011); Mao et al. (2017); Horton et al. (2011).} Workers in MTurk can choose from human intelligence tasks (HITs), and
they will be paid by the requester after performing the task. These tasks are relatively simple and quick. Common tasks are answering surveys, transcribing data, classifying images, transcribing audio clips, translation rating and so on. (Horton et al., 2011; Berinsky et al., 2012; Paolacci et al., 2010; Mason and Suri, 2012).
More importantly, MTurk samples tend to be more representative of the US population than typical student samples as MTurk samples are usually more diverse in age, ethnicity, education, and geographical location than student samples (Buhrmester et al., 2011; Berinsky et al., 2012; Paolacci et al., 2010). Most importantly, the data obtained in MTurk is at least as reliable as data obtained via traditional methods (Buhrmester et al., 2011; Horton et al., 2011; Berinsky et al., 2012; Paolacci et al., 2010). In particular, in a recent paper Arechar et al. (2018) show that even interactive experiments can be conducted very reliably online and that behavioral patterns observed in the lab can be replicated using an online experiment with an MTurk sample.
In addition to the more diverse sample, there are several advantages of using an online design for our experiment. First, participants’ anonymity can be sufficiently ensured, as we have only participants’ MTurk-ID, which might result in more reliable results concerning antisocial behavior. Secondly, reciprocity concerns can be minimized as participants have no way of meeting the other participants nor figuring out who was assigned as their partner (which might be possible in a laboratory setting, which might bias behavior in a more pro-social direction). Third, peer effects can be excluded for the reason mentioned above.
To ensure a qualitative sample (i.e., participants understanding the task and paying attention), we restrict eligibility criteria. We restrict recruitment – as common in practice – to US-based individuals with an approval rate of 97% or higher.\footnote{Participants’ location will be verified through their IP addresses. Requesters can review the work done by MTurkers and decide to approve or reject the work. Approved work is paid as indicated in the contract, and rejected work is not paid. Hence, higher approval rates of workers indicate a higher quality of work.} Moreover, we restrict recruiting to individuals with approved HITs of more than 500. Further, individuals have to pass an attention check to take part.
\subsection*{2.2. Procedure}
Participants willing to take part in the study were directed to the online survey tool Qualtrics, where they were asked about their vote in the 58th US presidential election. Only participants who indicated to vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton were directed towards the consent form. Undecided or independent voters were excluded from participation in the survey (as we do not have clear
predictions for them), and the survey ended for them. All of the remaining participants were directed, after reading the consent form, to answer socio-demographic questions (gender, age, income, education).\footnote{After answering the demographic questions, the participants first took part in an auction experiment without feedback, as reported in Mill and Morgan (2018).}
Thereafter, the participants were presented with the experimental manipulation. The manipulation of the experiment was to let the participants either interact with a coinciding voter or an opposing voter.
The participants were told that at the beginning of the experiment, Trump voters were assigned the group color red, while Clinton voters were assigned the color blue. The manipulation across participants was to tell them which color their matched opponent will have (either red or blue).
To test comprehension and attentiveness, we asked whether participants understand the elements that appear on her screen, as some recent studies indicate the use of bots on MTurk. These simple questionnaire-elements include choices, payoffs, as well as information of her coplayer, i.e., whether their matched competitor was assigned the color blue, red, or green (which was a filler). Inattentive participants, those not comprehending the task, as well as potential bots were filtered out, as we are only interested in participants who have a basic comprehension of the task. Thus, failing to answer these questions correctly led to the exclusion of the experiment and the payment.
One potential concern of asking – as a basic comprehension test – which color the competitor was assigned to, might make the manipulation salient. There are several responses to this concern. First, it is crucial for this study that participants have a basic comprehension of the task and the situation. Second, there have been several comprehension questions which would diffuse the focus on this particular manipulation question.\footnote{Note: even if experimenter demand is indeed induced, it is unlikely that the effect is very strong. de Quidt et al. (2018) estimate the demand effect for dictator games in case the experimenter explicitly tells participants what to do at less than one standard error. In case the experimenter just indicates his expectation, the demand effect is estimated at about .2 standard errors. In our experiment, participants \textit{might} expect the demand to be a change in behavior. However, the design allows for several ways of doing so, and thus a demand effect would be even more restricted.} Third, even if the question would result in a higher salience for the political position of the opponent, this would just result in a more realistic setting. Political attitudes and views are often presented and highlighted very saliently by real-world actors, as setting up yard signs, having political bumper stickers, wearing MAGA-hats, etc.\footnote{The motivation of people engaging in such behavior in real life is manifold, and some motives might raise concerns for the research question if participants could endogenously choose how}
Overall, we have a 2 (Own Vote ∈ {Clinton; Trump}) x 2 (Opponent’s Vote ∈ {Clinton; Trump}) design.
After answering the control question, we measured the spite behavior towards their interacting counterpart (either coinciding voter or opposing voter), which is explained in greater detail in section 2.3. After completing the incentivized tasks, the participants had to answer a set of post-experimental questions.
To measure the participant’s attitudes towards the opposing voters, we used an adjusted version of the social distance questionnaire (Crandall, 1991) and the feeling thermometer (Weisberg, 1980). We also elicited the general spite tendency by using a questionnaire (Marcus et al., 2014).\footnote{The spite questionnaire is explained and analyzed in more detail in Appendix E.}
At the end of the experiment, one of the items from the spite behavior was randomly selected to become payoff-relevant to ensure incentive compatibility.\footnote{Hence, only one random problem was selected to become payoff relevant, which is arguably the only incentive-compatible mechanism (for a detailed argument see Azrieli et al., 2015).} The participants were informed that they would be paid within one week after determining the payoff, depending on their and their opponent’s decision.\footnote{After finishing the collection, we matched the participants according to the instructions and paid them their bonus. The bonus payment was automated and implemented via AMS and R.} A graphical representation of the procedure can be seen in Figure 14.
\subsection*{2.3. Own Spite Measure}
Our main measurement was aimed to mimic basic market interactions where spite has been observed. More specifically, our measure reflects a simplified and condensed version of a second-price auction where one player can reduce the payoff of the opponent by increasing the own bid (see Kimbrough and Reiss, 2012, for exactly such a situation). This measure consists of three distribution-decisions upon money. These distributions are shown in Table 1. We call this our own spite measure. We asked the participants to decide three times among nine possible allocations, similar to the SVO-Slider measure by Murphy et al. (2011). The participants were told that either their decision or their opponent’s decision would be implemented, depending on a computerized random draw.
The first row resembles a situation in a second-price auction where the decision-maker will lose the auction but can increase the winning price, and thereby reduce the payoff of the opponent (a situation explicitly induced in Kimbrough and Reiss,
The second row resembles a situation in a second-price auction where the decision-maker might win the auction. In this situation, the decision-maker can increase the winning price, and thereby reduce the payoff of the opponent in case the opponent wins. However, at the same time, the decision-maker also increases the chance of overbidding and, therefore, reduces the own payoff. The third row resembles a situation as in the first row but with a different endowment. At the same time, the third row reflects a simple situation of spite, where the difference in payoffs is increasing in spite. The aggregated rows are essentially aimed at representing spite in an auction-like market setting.
Note, that the spite behavior in the first row coincides with inequality aversion (see Kimbrough and Reiss, 2012). The second row could potentially also be driven by inequality aversion; however, the corresponding parameters would exceed the typically observed inequality-aversion parameters ($\alpha > 1$), and thus, the second row is better characterized by the preference of spite. The third row can only be explained by spite.
In all sets, the allocation with the highest payoff for the other player also maximizes the own payoff. However, any deviation from this allocation reduces the payoff of the other player and never increases the own payoff. In contrast to a standard dictator game – where there is a trade-off between the own payoff and the payoff of the opponent – in this game, the participants who do not choose the Pareto-efficient outcome do this in order to harm the other player. Therefore, any deviation from the Pareto-efficient outcome resembles spiteful behavior in a market setting and can be interpreted as spite or joy-of-destruction.
**Table 1:** Spite measure.
| You receive | 70 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 70 |
|-------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o |
| Other receives | 100 | 98 | 96 | 94 | 92 | 91 | 89 | 87 | 85 | |
| You receive | 70 | 68 | 65 | 62 | 60 | 58 | 55 | 52 | 50 | |
|-------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | |
| Other receives | 100 | 96 | 92 | 89 | 85 | 81 | 78 | 74 | 70 | |
| You receive | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
|-------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | |
| Other receives | 100 | 98 | 96 | 94 | 92 | 91 | 89 | 87 | 85 | |
The table depicts the nine allocation choices in each of the three decisions of participants in our own spite measure. For each choice, the upper row denotes the payoff in experimental currency units for the deciding participants, while the bottom rows each denote the payoff for the other player.
In our measure, the *spite score* is the amount taken away relative to the maximally
possible amount. The amount taken away can range between 0 and 60 points (reducing the payoff of the opponent in all three distributions) and, therefore, the spite score ranges between 0 and 1.\footnote{Note that using only the third decision as the main measure of spite leads to the same (and even stronger) results as presented below.} As spite is arguably rather rare, we designed the task such that the incentive to behave spitefully is rather high. In particular, we decided to have low stakes (i.e., each point in the distribution represents 0.2 cents)\footnote{Hence, the payoff for this task ranged between 3 and 20 cents. Thus, this experiment can be seen as a low stake experiment. Note that Kirchkamp and Mill (2019) use the same measure (in a very different context and with a student sample in the lab) while paying 6 euro-cents per point (thus, the payoff for this task ranged between 90 and 600 euro-cents). The distribution of choices in Kirchkamp and Mill (2019) is very similar to the patterns observed in this paper, indicating that the stake-size does not affect behavior substantially. Interestingly, Forsythe et al. (1994) and Carpenter et al. (2005) provide further compelling evidence that mean allocations in dictator games with low stakes do not differ from allocations in dictator games with high stakes. Additionally, Camerer and Hogarth (1999) survey the experimental economics literature and shows that behavior is impacted mainly if tasks are incentivized. Thus, by making the experiment having low stakes, we do not distort the results but rather nudge behavior into the direction of spite to have sufficient variance in the data.} so that behaving spitefully is easily detected. This way, first, we potentially increase the chance of finding spiteful behavior, and second, any null-findings would have a greater bearing.
\subsection{Measures of Attitudes}
To measure the participant’s attitudes towards their opponent, we utilized the social distance questionnaire and the feeling thermometer.
\subsubsection{Social distance questionnaire}
The social distance questionnaire is designed "to measure social rejection and willingness to interact with an individual member of a social group" (Robinson et al., 1999, p. 341 ff). In our experiment, the respective social groups were Trump voters and Clinton voters. The questionnaire elicits the agreeableness upon seven items on a scale between one and seven. The participants were asked to rate how strongly they agree with statements about a person. For example, participants were asked to indicate how strongly they agree with the following statements made about a Trump voter: "This appears to be a likable person" or "I would like this person to move into my neighborhood." The social distance score is the mean of seven item answers.\footnote{Note: we use the mean as this is common practice for the social distance measure (Parrillo and Donoghue, 2005; Robinson et al., 1999). However, using the median as the main statistic} Higher scores indicate feeling closer to the individual member of the
2.4.2. Feeling Thermometer
The feeling thermometer is commonly used in polling (f.e. American national election studies), political sciences (Greene, 1999; Kaid et al., 1992; Miller and Wlezien, 1993) and also in medicine (Patrick et al., 1994; Jacobson et al., 1992; Schünemann et al., 2003). The feeling thermometer asks participants to imply how warm they feel towards a specific group or person. We asked participants to indicate their feeling towards Clinton voters, Trump voters, Republicans in general, and Democrats in general, on a scale between 0 and 10. Participants were told that if they had a positive feeling towards a group or feel favorably towards it, they should give it a score somewhere between 5 and 10, depending on their feeling. If they felt negatively, they should give a score between 0 and 5, and in case of no feeling, they should give a score of 5.
3. Results
3.1. Participants and Demographics
A total of 2616 participants (1428 females, 1188 males, 1621 Clinton voters, 995 Trump voters) finished the survey. The experiment was conducted with the online survey tool Qualtrics.\footnote{To see whether participants paid sufficient attention during our study and whether participants’ indicated vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton was sincere we controlled for coherence in Appendix A.1.}
As with most experimental studies, our sample does not perfectly represent the American population.\footnote{For comparison estimates see the census aggregates: \url{https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045216} and \url{https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p20-578.pdf}.}
The ages of our participants ranged from 18 to 88 years, with most participants in the age between 30 and 44 (48 %) and 24 %, 24 % of participants in the age between 18 and 29, 45 and 64, respectively (Median = 36). Hence, our sample is younger than the average American with a median age of 37.9 and with 15% of the population older than 65 years (compared to 4 % in our sample).
In addition, 55 % of our participants were female compared to 50.8% females in the US population.
Concerning the ethnicity in our sample: 83% of participants are White; 6% of participants are African American; 4% of participants are Hispanic, and 6% of participants are Asian compared to 61.3% Whites; 13.3% African Americans; 17.8% Hispanics and 5.7% Asians in the US population.
Moreover, our participants indicated to have higher education than the typical American. 69% of participants implied to have at least a Bachelor’s degree as the highest qualification compared to roughly 33% in the United States as a whole.
Hence, our sample is younger, more female, more white, and better educated than the average American.
In addition, looking at the location of the participants (see Figure 1), we find that the participants mainly come from populated and urban areas. This can also explain the discrepancy in the distribution of Trump and Clinton voters in our study (38% vs. 62%) compared to the distribution in the general election (46% vs. 48%).
**Figure 1:** Participants’ location by vote.
The figure depicts the location of our participants. Blue circles represent Clinton voters while red circles depict Trump voters.
Nevertheless, the participants in our study exhibit similar demographic voting patterns as reported in exit-pollings.\(^{24}\) Trump voters in our sample are significantly less educated and are on average older than Clinton voters. Significantly more men voted for Donald Trump and significantly more white people voted for Trump than for Clinton. Table 2 shows the demographic differences between Clinton and Trump voters in our sample.
\(^{24}\)See Alcantara et al. (2016) or Kirk and Patrick (2016).
Table 2: Demographics of participants.
| Test | Clinton voters | Trump voters | T | Df | p | 95% CI | Sign. |
|-----------------------|----------------|--------------|-----|-------|-------|--------------|-------|
| Female | 0.56 | 0.53 | 1.39| 2614.00| 0.17 | [-0.01, 0.07]| |
| Age | 37.72 | 40.18 | -5.14| 2614.00| 0.00 | [-3.39, -1.52]| *** |
| Race=White | 0.80 | 0.89 | -6.41| 2614.00| 0.00 | [-0.12, -0.07]| *** |
| College-Ed or Higher | 0.76 | 0.66 | 5.75 | 2614.00| 0.00 | [0.07, 0.14]| *** |
| Income > $70k | 0.43 | 0.47 | -1.80| 2614.00| 0.07 | [-0.08, 0] | . |
Notes: p<0.10; *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001;
The table depicts summary statistics on Clinton and Trump voters in our sample, and compare whether demographic characteristics differ between the two voter types. Female is a dummy with value one if the voting participant is a female and zero otherwise. Age is a continuous variable denoting the age of the voting participant. Race=White is a dummy with value one if the voting participant indicated to be white and zero otherwise. Similarly, College-Ed or Higher, Income > $70k is a dummy with value one if the voting participant has at least a college degree, annual income of more than $70k, respectively, and zero otherwise. We use two-sample t-tests to compare characteristics.
Even though our sample does not fully represent the typical American, we are able to show the same tendencies as in the American population. Accounting for our selected sample we see that Trump voters in our sample reflect Trump voters in the general election quite well, as do the Clinton voters in our sample compared to Clinton voters in the general election.
More specifically, an analysis of the voter data just after the election revealed that “in the 2016 election, a wide gap in presidential preferences emerged between those with and without a college degree. College graduates backed Clinton by a 9-point margin (52%-43%), while those without a college degree backed Trump 52%-44%” (Pew Research Center, 2016). In our data, college graduates voted for Clinton 51% of the time while they voted Trump 42%. People without a college degree in our data voted for Clinton 41% of the time compared to Trump with 57%.
Moreover, the analysis shows that “older voters (ages 65 and older) preferred Trump over Clinton 53%-45%.” (Pew Research Center, 2016). In our data, the numbers are 56%-42%.
In addition, women supported Clinton over Trump by 54% to 42% (Pew Research Center, 2016). In our data, the margin is 49%-45%.
Further, young adults (18-25) preferred Clinton over Trump by a wide 55%-37% margin (Pew Research Center, 2016). In our data, the margin is 52%-40%.
The analysis by the Pew Research Center (2016) also shows that “Trump won whites with a college degree 49% to 45%” and he won whites without a college
degree 67% to 28%. In our data, Trump won whites with a college degree 45% to 49%, and he won whites without a college degree 60% to 39%.
Thus, our selected sample shows a striking similarity to the general populations’ patterns and reflects the attitudes of general Clinton and Trump voters rather reliably.\footnote{To deal with potential selection effects, we reestimate all regressions by reweighting our sample to make it more representative in Appendix B.2. All results prevail.}
\subsection{Spite}
\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{spite_score.png}
\caption{Results of the spite-score. The figure on the left depicts how spitefully participants behave towards their friends (i.e., coinciding voter) and enemies (i.e., opposing voter). The left two red bars show the spite behavior of Trump voters while the right two blue bars show the spite behavior of Clinton voters. Bars with the label “Friend” denote the spite behavior towards friends (i.e., coinciding voters) while bars with the label “Enemy” denote the spite behavior towards enemies (i.e., opposing voters). Tie fighters depict 95\% confidence intervals. P-values are calculated using t-tests. The figure to the right depicts the distribution of the spite score by opponent. The red distribution denotes the spite behavior toward friends while the blue distribution denotes the spite behavior towards enemies.}
\end{figure}
In the following, we will refer to all those opponents who were assigned the same color as the deciding participant as "friends" (Trump voter vs. Trump voter; Clinton voter vs. Clinton voter), opponents who were assigned a non-matching color as "enemies" (Trump voter vs. Clinton voter and vice versa).
To see how participants are behaviorally influenced by their opponent, we examine the spite score in this section. A distribution of the spite score is shown in Figure 2b.\footnote{We also examine the properties of the spite score in Appendix A.3. It can be seen that participants with better attitudes towards their opponent behave less spitefully, and that participants with a higher score on the spite-personality measure also behaved more spitefully.} Figure 2a depicts the aggregated spite behavior by opponent and vote.
### 3.2.1. Estimation approach: zero-inflated beta regression
The spite score is a proportion between 0 and 1, and it represents how many points were taken away from the opponent relative to the maximally possible amount. A common approach for this kind of data is a beta regression.\footnote{See Jönsson and Thor (2012); Seow et al. (2012); Laliberté et al. (2012); Rogers et al. (2012) for applications of the beta regression. For theoretical papers, see: Smithson and Verkuilen (2006); Elgers et al. (1979); Cribari-Neto and Zeileis (2010); Grün et al. (2012); Schmid et al. (2013); Ospina and Ferrari (2012).} A beta regression assumes that the data is distributed by a beta distribution—in contrast to the standard approach for non-proportion data which assumes a normal distribution. In particular, the problem with estimating proportions with a Gaussian distribution is that the support of the Gaussian distribution is the whole set of real numbers, while a proportion is a number between 0 and 1. Hence, the beta distribution (with support between 0 and 1) is the better estimation choice on theoretical grounds. In addition, we also discuss further estimation possibilities in A.5 and show that the beta distribution performs best in estimating the spite-score. Hence, there are theoretical and practical reasons to explain why the beta regression is more appropriate than the normal distribution.
Another issue is that the spite score has an excessive amount of zeros, as can be seen in Figure 2b. To deal with this, we will use a zero-inflated beta model regression. The zero-inflated model estimates the decision to be spiteful in two parts: first, it estimates whether a participant decided to be spiteful or not (using a logistic regression); and second, it estimates conditionally on deciding to be spiteful, how spiteful participants decided to behave (using a beta regression). This allows us to use the data more efficiently and, more importantly, is less biased. The following example should clarify why a zero-inflated model gives a better picture than a model ignoring zero inflation. Imagine two very different groups, A and B. In group A, 80\% of participants never behave spitefully, but 20\% do, and these 20\% behave 100\% spitefully. In group B, 100\% of participants behave 20\% spitefully. If we would just use a simplistic approach and ignore the zero inflation, then we would find no significant difference between these two groups because both groups would show a spite score of .2 on average. However, this approach ignores
essential information and does not reflect the situation adequately. In contrast, a zero-inflated model would show that group A is significantly more likely not to behave spitefully compared to group B and that conditional on the spiteful behavior participants of group A are significantly more likely to be fully spiteful. Hence, taking zero inflation into account gives us a clearer picture of the spite behavior.
Therefore, we use a zero-inflated beta model regression to estimate our spite score. Nevertheless, we additionally include more ordinary estimation methods in Appendix B, where the main results can also be found together with the more common estimators, such as OLS and Tobit regressions. All results prevail if we use a standard linear regression or a Tobit regressions on the spite score. Thus, our results do not rely on the zero-inflated beta regression being used.
### 3.2.2. Estimation
We stipulate that our conditional spite score \((y)\) follows a beta distribution with mean \(\mu\) and precision \(\sigma\), i.e. \(y \sim \mathcal{B}(\mu, \sigma)\). Here, \(\mathbb{E}(y) = \mu\) and \(\mathbb{V}ar(y) = \mu(1 + \mu)/(1 + \phi)\). The beta density function is described by:
\[
f(y; \mu, \phi) = \frac{\Gamma(\phi)}{\Gamma(\mu\phi)\Gamma((1 - \mu)\phi)} y^{\mu\phi-1}(1 - y)^{(1-\mu)\phi-1}
\]
with \(0 < \mu < 1\), \(0 < y < 1^{28}\), and \(\phi > 0\).
Let \(y_1, ..., y_n\) be our observations of the conditional spite score, where every \(y_i \sim \mathcal{B}(\mu, \sigma), 1 = 1, ..., n\).
Hence, the econometric model we use is described by:
\[
g(\mu_i) = \sum_{j=1}^{k} x_{ij} \beta_j \\
g(v_i) = \sum_{j=1}^{k} x_{ij} \alpha_j \\
v_i^* = 1 \text{ if } v_i > 0 \\
\mu_i^* = \mu_i \cdot v_i^*
\]
\(^{28}\)Note: Because \(y\) is stipulated to be strictly smaller than 1, we change the spite score of 1 to \(1 - 10^{-5}\), as suggested in Smithson and Verkuilen (2006). Furthermore, because the conditional spite score is per definition bigger than 0, we do not need to adjust \(y\) at 0.
where $\beta = (\beta_1, ..., \beta_k)^T$ and $\alpha = (\alpha_1, ..., \alpha_k)^T$ are vectors with the unknown regression parameters ($\beta, \alpha \in \mathbb{R}^k$) and $x_{i1}, ..., x_{ik}$ are the observations. $g(\cdot): (0, 1) \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is the link function. We will use the logit link: $g(\mu) = \log(\mu/(1 - \mu))$, as this is easier to interpret. We will assume $x_{i1} = 1$ to be the intercept.
### 3.2.3. Estimation Results
Our main model, which we will denote by $\Psi$, estimates the Equation 1 with $x_{i1} = 1$ and $x_{i2} = \text{Enemy}$, where Enemy is a dummy variable with value one if the opponent is an enemy and zero if the opponent is a friend.\footnote{Several additional robustness checks, such as including sociodemographic controls or taking information about crime, poverty, and religion of the county of the participants into account, can be found in Appendix A.4. The results prevail in all models.} This model aims to directly answer the question of whether or not partisanship (more specifically, a divided nation) leads to dysfunctional behavior. The resulting estimation is reported in Table 3 in Columns 1 and 2.
We can see that spite behavior towards enemies is significantly more likely than spite behavior towards friends. Hence, the probability of a participant to behave spitefully towards an opposing voter ($\frac{e^{-0.4+0.3}}{(1+e^{-0.4+0.3})} = 0.47$) is significantly higher than the probability of a participant to behave spitefully towards a fellow voter ($\frac{e^{-0.4}}{(1+e^{-0.4})} = 0.4$). Thus, the probability of spiteful behavior increases by 17% if a participant is to interact with an opposing voter.
However, the intensity of spite, conditional on being spiteful, does not increase significantly if the deciding participant is interacting with an enemy compared to a friend. The probability of behaving fully spitefully conditional on being spiteful towards friends is $(\frac{e^{0.22}}{(1+e^{0.22})}) 0.56$ and it is $(\frac{e^{0.22+0.02}}{(1+e^{0.22+0.02})}) 0.56$ towards enemies.
Hence, the main result of this paper is:\footnote{Our results are split into two categories: behavioral and attitudinal. Thus, the first result is labeled B1 as we focus first on the behavioral results and discuss the attitudinal results thereafter.}
**Result B1 (Main Result)** Participants are significantly more likely to behave spitefully towards an opposing voter compared to a coinciding voter.
Thus, the key insight is that the participants are more likely to behave spitefully towards people who voted differently in a non-political situation.\footnote{Note: the results also allow for an alternative interpretation, namely that partisanship reduces spitefulness. While this interpretation is also valid, the key insight of this paper, i.e., parti-} Hence, partisanship spills over into the non-political realm.
To investigate whether there are differences between Trump and Clinton voters in their behavior towards enemies we estimate Equation 1 with $x_{i1} = 1$, $x_{i2} = \text{Enemy}$, $x_{i3} = \text{Trump voter}$ and $x_{i4} = \text{Enemy} \cdot \text{Trump voter}$. Here Trump voter is a dummy variable with one if the participant voted for Donald Trump and zero if she voted for Hillary Clinton. Similarly, Enemy is a dummy variable with value one if the opponent is an enemy and zero if the opponent is a friend. The results can be found in Table 3 in Column 3 and 4. Columns 5 & 6 report the main model ($\Psi$) for Trump voters and Columns 7 & 8 report the main model for Clinton voters separately.\footnote{The interaction of vote and enemy affects spite behavior, does not change. We prefer our interpretation as we typically expect no or little spite behavior to be observed. For example, Lange et al. (1997), and Murphy et al. (2011) show that only 7%, and 4% of participants have dominance seeking preferences, respectively. Furthermore, using the same measure as here Kirchkamp and Mill (2019) find only a spite score of 0.05 on average in a standard student sample. Thus, higher values on our spite score are more the exception than the norm.}
It can be seen from Table 3 Column 3 that the probability of a Clinton voter to behave spitefully towards a Trump voter is significantly higher (0.47) than the probability of a Clinton voter to behave spitefully towards a Clinton voter (0.36). Once decided to behave spitefully (Column 4), the probability of a Clinton voter to behave fully spitefully (taking away all points) towards a coinciding voter (0.57) did not differ significantly from the probability of a Clinton voter to behave fully spitefully towards a Trump voter (0.59). Concerning Trump voters, we see that they are significantly more likely to be spiteful towards a coinciding voter (0.48) compared to the Likelihood of a Clinton voter behaving spitefully to a coinciding voter (0.36). We can also see a significant interaction of vote and enemy on the decision to be spiteful. Thus, while Clinton voters increase the probability of spiteful behavior towards enemies significantly from 36 \% to 47 \%, i.e. a relative increase of 31 \%, Trump voters have no significant increase in their probability of spiteful behavior towards Clinton voters (0 \%). Conditional on behaving spitefully, the interaction of vote and enemy was not significant. Hence, the probability of a Trump voter to behave fully spitefully to a non-partisan (0.51) was not significantly smaller than the probability of Clinton voter to behave fully spitefully to a non-partisan (0.59).
Due to the significant interaction effect, we split the data with regard to the vote (as can be seen in Columns 5-8 in Table 3). It is evident that Clinton voters are more likely to behave spitefully towards enemies compared to friends. This pattern cannot be found for Trump voters. Trump voters do not significantly differentiate between Trump voters and Clinton voters neither in their decision to
Overall, Clinton voters were more likely to behave spitefully towards enemies relative to friends than were Trump voters. Trump voters differ substantially in their behavior from Clinton voters as they are do not differentiate between friends and enemies. This means that Clinton voters engaged in more dysfunctional behavior than Trump voters if paired with an enemy.
**Result B2** Clinton voters are more likely to behave spitefully towards Trump voters compared to fellow Clinton voters. Trump voters, on the other hand, do not differentiate in their behavior between Clinton and Trump voters.
### Table 3: Estimation of the spite behavior
| | Spite? Full sample | Spite Score | Spite? Full sample | Spite Score | Spite? Trump voters | Spite Score | Spite? Clinton voters | Spite Score |
|----------------------|--------------------|-------------|--------------------|-------------|---------------------|-------------|-----------------------|-------------|
| | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) |
| Constant | -0.40*** | 0.22*** | -0.59*** | 0.29*** | -0.07 | 0.15* | -0.59*** | 0.27*** |
| | (0.06) | (0.05) | (0.08) | (0.07) | (0.10) | (0.08) | (0.08) | (0.07) |
| Enemy | 0.30*** | 0.02 | 0.47*** | 0.09 | 0.01 | -0.11 | 0.47*** | 0.08 |
| | (0.08) | (0.07) | (0.10) | (0.09) | (0.13) | (0.10) | (0.10) | (0.09) |
| Trump voter | | | | 0.52*** | -0.15 | | | |
| | | | | (0.12) | (0.11) | | | |
| Enemy x Trump voter | | | | -0.46** | -0.19 | | | |
| | | | | (0.16) | (0.14) | | | |
| Model | Logistic | Beta | Logistic | Beta | Logistic | Beta | Logistic | Beta |
|----------------------|----------|--------|----------|--------|----------|--------|----------|--------|
| Observations | 2,616 | 1,156 | 2,616 | 1,156 | 995 | 480 | 1,621 | 676 |
| Log Likelihood | -1,788.64| 64.64 | -1,779.69| 72.56 | -689.06 | 2.33 | -1,090.62| 82.56 |
**Notes:** This table depicts a zero-inflated beta regression model of the spite behavior. Enemy denotes a dummy with value one if the opponent is an enemy (i.e., opposing voter) and zero otherwise. Trump voter denotes a dummy with value one if the deciding participant is a Trump voter and zero if the deciding participant is a Clinton voter. Models (1), (3), (5), and (7) denoted by “Spite?” estimate the decision to behave spitefully or not with a logistic regression. Models (2), (4), (6), and (8) denoted by “Spite Score” estimate the decision on how spitefully to behave conditionally on behaving spitefully using a beta regression. Model (1)-(4) display the full sample while Models (5)-(6) and (7)-(8) display the spite behavior of Trump and Clinton voters, respectively. Standard errors are in parenthesis.
3.3. Attitudes
(a) Social distance and opponent.
(b) Feeling of warmth and opponent.
Figure 3: Attitudes and opponent.
The figure shows the attitudes towards opponents. The figure on the left shows how close participants report to feel towards their friends and enemies. The figure on the right shows how warm participants report to feel towards their friends and enemies. The left two columns show the attitudes towards friends (i.e., coinciding voters) while the two right columns indicate the attitudes towards enemies (i.e., opposing voters). Red bars denote the attitudes of Trump voters, while blue bars denote the attitudes of Clinton voters. Tie fighters denote 95% confidence intervals. P-values are obtained using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for within comparisons and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney-Test for between comparisons.
To have a better understanding of the underlying reasoning for the observed behavior, we will now look at the reported attitudes. Thus, we will analyze the attitudes of Trump and Clinton voters towards coinciding and opposing voters. For that purpose, we first examine the results of the social distance questionnaire (as can be seen in Figure 3a). As the second measure of attitude, we compare how warm participants felt towards their enemies compared to their friends (as can be seen in Figure 3b) by using the feeling thermometer.\footnote{We discuss attitudes to democrats and republicans in general and compare it to other studies in Appendix A.2.} There are no substantial or systematic changes over time in attitudes or behavior,\footnote{See section C for a detailed discussion of wave effects.} which is why we pool the data and report on the results for each individual wave in the appendix C.2.
It can be seen that on average friends were considered much closer ($M = 5.04$, $SD = 0.97$) compared to enemies ($M = 2.8$, $SD = 1.24$), $t(2615)=67.5$, $p \leq 0.001$.
Hence, we find that there is indeed a divide in the nation, as there is a significant and substantial gap (2.24 point difference on a 7 point scale, or a relative decrease in closeness of 45%) in the participants’ attitudes towards fellow partisans and opposing voters. Concerning the feeling of warmth we see that on average friends are felt much warmer towards ($M = 6.7$, $SD = 2.28$) compared to enemies ($M = 1.52$, $SD = 1.83$), $t(2615) = 96.6$, $p \leq 0.001$. This again represents a significant and substantial difference (a 5.18 point difference on a 10 point scale, or a relative decrease in feeling of warmth of 77%), and provides again evidence for a divided nation.\footnote{Similar results are obtained using linear regressions on the differences in attitudes and mixed-effects regressions on the repeated measures of attitudes. The results for the social distance measure are reported in Table 14. The result for the feeling of warmth measure is reported in Table 13.}
\textbf{Result A1 (Divided nation)} Attitudes towards enemies are substantially worse compared to the attitudes towards friends.
Surprisingly, it can also be seen that the difference in social distance between friends and enemies was bigger for Clinton voters ($M_{\text{Diff}} = 2.59$, $SD_{\text{Diff}} = 1.61$) compared to Trump voters ($M_{\text{Diff}} = 1.81$, $SD_{\text{Diff}} = 1.55$), $t(2614) = -12.2$, $p \leq 0.001$.
In particular, this was due to Clinton voters’ attitudes towards enemies. Clinton voters felt less close towards their enemies than did Trump voters.\footnote{$M_{\text{Clinton}} = 2.49$, $SD_{\text{Clinton}} = 1.16$; $M_{\text{Trump}} = 3.29$, $SD_{\text{Trump}} = 1.22$, $t(2614) = 16.9$, $p \leq 0.001$.} At the same time Clinton and Trump voters did not differ significantly in their closeness towards friends.\footnote{$M_{\text{Clinton}} = 5.06$, $SD_{\text{Clinton}} = 0.98$; $M_{\text{Trump}} = 5.01$, $SD_{\text{Trump}} = 0.95$, $t(2614) = -1.4$, $p \geq 0.05$.}
Similar results are obtained concerning the second measure of attitudes. Considering the feeling of warmth towards friends there is again no difference between Clinton voters and Trump voters.\footnote{$M_{\text{Clinton}} = 6.72$, $SD_{\text{Clinton}} = 2.24$; $M_{\text{Trump}} = 6.67$, $SD_{\text{Trump}} = 2.34$, $t(2614) = -0.7$, $p \geq 0.05$.} However, we find again that Clinton voters show a stronger reaction towards their enemies than Trump voters in their second measure of attitudes.\footnote{$M_{\text{Clinton}} = 1.18$, $SD_{\text{Clinton}} = 1.6$; $M_{\text{Trump}} = 2.07$, $SD_{\text{Trump}} = 2.03$, $t(2614) = 14.2$, $p \leq 0.001$.}
Taken together: Trump voters’ closeness towards Clinton voters was only 66% of the closeness expressed towards fellow Trump voters (3.29 / 5.01). Similarly, Trump voters feeling of warmth towards Clinton voters was only 31% of the warmth expressed towards fellow Trump voters (2.07 / 6.67).
Clinton voters closeness towards Trump voters was, however, only 49% of the
closeness expressed towards fellow Clinton voters (2.49 / 5.06). A similar result is observed for the feeling of warmth: Clinton voters feeling of warmth towards Trump voters was only 18% of the warmth expressed towards fellow Clinton voters (1.18 / 6.72).
Thus, Clinton voters express almost 17%, 13% more antipathy toward Trump voters than the reverse in the measures of social distance and feeling of warmth, respectively.
**Result A2** Clinton voters show more negative attitudes towards their enemies than Trump voters do.
Thus, in conclusion, we find the same pattern in the attitudes as we have observed in the spite behavior. Enemies are considered as more distant/less warm, and the participants behaved more spitefully towards their enemies. Interestingly: Clinton voters behave more spitefully towards their enemies compared to their friends while Trump voters are indifferent. The same can be found in attitudes: Clinton and Trump voters have the same attitudes towards friends but Clinton voters have significantly worse attitudes towards their enemies than Trump voters do.\footnote{In Appendix D we further investigate how the attitudes mediate the decision to behave spitefully.}
## 4. Discussion
This paper investigates whether tribalism—understood as the self-identified party affiliation—leads to dysfunctional behavior. In particular, we studied which attitudes and, more importantly, which behavior voters showed towards voters casting the same or the opposite vote. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study spite in a political context. For this purpose, we collected decisions of self-reported Clinton and Trump voters online shortly before the 58th US presidential election, after the inauguration of the president-elect, before the midterms 2018 and after the midterms.
Most importantly, we were able to show that dysfunctional behavior—understood as the destruction of wealth—was significantly more likely if an opposing voter was impacted compared to a coinciding voter. Peculiarly, we found that Clinton voters were significantly more likely to behave spitefully towards Trump voters compared towards fellow Clinton voters. This effect was not found for Trump voters—they do not differentiate between Trump voters and Clinton voters in their behavior.
In addition, we were able to show that Trump voters were significantly less likely to behave spitefully towards enemies than Clinton voters were.
These effects are supported by the attitudes of the voters: attitudes towards opposing voters were substantially and significantly more negative than attitudes towards coinciding voters. Surprisingly, this effect was significantly stronger for Clinton voters. Further, the timing of the experiment did not substantially change attitudes, and it had no significant effect on dysfunctional behavior (discussed in detail in Appendix C).
While we believe the results to be robust, two possible limitations should be noted. First, our experiment might be prone to experimenter demand effects as the opponent’s political orientation is made salient. While this saliency is essential for the treatment to work, it might reveal the experiment’s purpose and, thus, lead participants to shift their behavior. However, we find in the results that Trump voters do not differentiate between Clinton voters and fellow Trump voters, which indicates that if a possible demand effect is at work, it is at least not straightforward. It might be the case that the demand effect affects Clinton voters and Trump voters differently. However, this seems rather unlikely as, to the best of our knowledge, no heterogeneous experimenter demand effects have been reported in the literature. And even if experimenter demand shifts Clinton and Trump voters’ behavior differently, these effects are expected to be relatively small. For example, de Quidt et al. (2018) show that if the experimenter indicates his expectation, the demand effect is estimated at .2 standard errors and more strikingly, Mummolo and Peterson (2018) show that even financial incentives to respond inline with researcher expectations fail to consistently induce demand effect. Still, a demand effect cannot be excluded, and future research might use methods suggested by, e.g., de Quidt et al. (2018) to account for this limitation. The second limitation of our experiment is the non-representativeness of our sample. While our sample is much more representative of the US population than typical student samples, it is still not representative of the US population, as discussed in detail in Section 3.1. Thus, such a selection might bias our results and reduce the generalizability of our findings. In Appendix B.2, we try to deal with this issue by adjusting the weights of our estimations to make our sample artificially representative. While our results remain robust, we cannot exclude the possibility that our findings would differ using a representative sample.
Several aspects of the results are worth elaborating on.
First, it is worth pointing out that we are not the first to show that there is a
divided nation (see Pew Research Center, 2017a), but we are the first to show that this division leads to significantly increased destructive behavior. This is the main point of the paper, and this presents a significant and important contribution. We are able to show that even in a low key situation, like an online experiment, people are more likely to behave spitefully if matched with opposing voters. Hence, it seems plausible that in more salient situations where partisanship is even easier to detect and of more importance (e.g., collaborative work), the effect would be even stronger. More importantly, we know now that an increasing division of the United States leads to increased social and economic costs. This in itself presents the importance of a unifying leadership and the potential harm of a divisive presidency.
Second, it is interesting that the timing of the experiment hardly influenced attitudes and behavior. In particular, because Donald Trump won unexpectedly, we would have hypothesized that the attitudes and behavior would change substantially, but this seems not to be the case. A possible explanation is that the division in the United States has been increasing for years (Pew Research Center, 2017a) and that the presidency of Donald Trump was not as crucial to the division as largely portrayed in the media.
Third, the differences between Clinton voters and Trump voters are worth elaborating on. On the one hand, it seems not too surprising that Trump voters did not differentiate between friends and enemies because this would be perfectly in line with most papers on outgroup-bias who show that outgroup-bias lead rarely to purely hostile behavior (Tajfel, 1970; Brewer, 1999; Riek et al., 2006; Halevy et al., 2008; Weisel and Böhm, 2015; De Dreu et al., 2016). It is also not too surprising that attitudes towards opposing voters are negative because this has also been shown in other papers (Weisel and Böhm, 2015; Margolis and Sances, 2016; Fowler and Kam, 2007; Loewen, 2010; Carlin and Love, 2013; Iyengar and Westwood, 2015; Michelitch, 2015).
However, it is surprising that Clinton voters have significantly less positive attitudes towards their enemies compared to Trump voters. More importantly, Clinton voters behave more spitefully towards enemies than Trump voters do.
One possible explanation for the asymmetry in behavior is that Trump voters are considered inferior or even morally wrong in supporting Donald Trump. In that case, Mummendey and Wenzel (1999) argue theoretically that inferior groups are more likely to experience discrimination and hostility. Similarly, Brewer (1999) argues that outgroup hate might be present if participants are fighting for political power. Further support is provided by Parker and Janoff-Bulman (2013), who
show that morality based groups lead to less positive emotions. More importantly, Weisel and Böhm (2015) show a significant increase in help avoidance if the group difference is morality-based: “When given the chance to benefit a strong-enmity outgroup, and even more so a morality-based outgroup, many group members decline to do so” (Weisel and Böhm, 2015, p. 118).
In case Clinton supporters really see a morality based difference between them and Trump supporters, while Trump supporters do not see the difference as morality based, we might explain the significant difference in attitudes and behavior towards enemies.
The question now is whether Clinton voters really see themselves as morally superior to Trump supporters, while Trump supporters do not see a morality based difference, and if so, then what is driving this perception.
It might be that constant reports of Donald Trump’s mishaps and especially presenting Trump supporters as racist, sexist, and/or homophobic might have manifested a selective picture of Trump supporters. The following quote from Hillary Clinton might represent the picture a Clinton supporter might have of a Trump supporter:
“To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables,’[…] The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that, and he [Donald Trump] has lifted them up.”(Chozick, 2016)
Similarly, recent polls indicate that a majority of Democrats indicate to feel angry going into the midterm elections of 2018 while only 30 percent of Republicans say the same.\footnote{See \url{https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/05/poll-generic-ballot-narrow-on-eve-of-midterms-960757}.} In Appendix F we also discuss whether and how morality differs between Clinton and Trump voters in our experiment.
However, these explanations are only stipulations, and future research has to provide empirical evidence and clarifications. It might be valuable for future research to take a closer look at the justifications and motivations of Clinton and Trump supporters for spite behavior.
Given the recent indications of a growing division in the US, it is essential to understand which further-reaching consequences it has. This question is particularly relevant with regard to destructive behavior as it might reduce our societal progress, threaten our democratic values, and potentially curtail economic growth.
Overall, the central message of this paper is: A divided America means a bruised America. The division of the United States not only manifests itself in differences in attitudes but also results in increased destructive behavior. The goal of future research has to be to figure out how to combat such destructive behavior and how to mitigate the political division.
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A. Robustness checks
A.1. Coherence
To ensure that participants are not randomly choosing a candidate and are really paying attention, we asked participants also for their preferred political party, and we included several attention checks.
A.1.1. Consistency
More specifically, we asked participants in the general demographics part “With which party do you normally identify yourself most with?” and later in the study, we asked “Which political party do you usually feel closest to”.
99.5% of those participants who indicated to identify most with Democrats also felt closest to Democrats, and similarly, 99.1% of those participants who indicated to identify most with Republicans also felt closest to Republicans.
Furthermore, 91.5% of those participants who indicated to have voted for Hillary Clinton also felt closest to Democrats, and similarly, 85.1% of those participants who indicated to have voted for Donald Trump also felt closest to the Republicans.
Additionally, 77.5% of those participants who indicated to have voted for Hillary Clinton usually are identifying themselves with Democrats (6.1% usually identify themselves with Independents), and similarly 69.4% of those participants who indicated to have voted for Donald Trump usually identify themselves with Republicans (24.4% usually identify themselves with Independents).
A.1.2. Attention Checks
In some of the questionnaires, we included additional attention checks by asking questions, for example, "Click on agree" or "This is another control. We ask you to select the second option." We included four of those attention checks (without having any impact on the participants). Only 2% of all participants failed one or more of those attention checks (some of the participants, however, reported to have misunderstood the meaning of "second option" as this might have been ambiguous in regard to the reference point).
Overall, participants seem to be attentive and consistent in their political attitudes in our study.
A.2. Feeling of warmth
In this section, we examine the properties of the feeling of warmth measure compared to results from the literature.
Notably, we asked participants for their feeling of warmth towards Trump and Clinton voters and additionally towards Republicans and Democrats. A recent study by the Pew Research Center also asked Republicans and Democrats for their feeling of warmth towards, among others, Republicans and Democrats. They also found a very similar gap. What is, however, striking is how close the estimations from our study are to the estimates of the study by the Pew Research Center (2017b).
Table 4 shows the estimates in our online study compared to the representative study by the Pew Research Center (2017b).
Even though our results are very similar to the results by the study of the Pew Research Center (2017b), our participants indicated to have, on average, lower feelings of warmth than participants in Pew Research Center (2017b). This might be partly explained by the fact that our experiment was conducted shortly before or after the election, and at that point, people were somewhat fed up with politics. Another explanation might be that we used a 10-point scale, and Pew Research Center (2017b) used a 100-point scale. Of course, it is also possible that our participants are particularly negative. However, the key observation from this comparison is that reported feelings of warmth in our online study are very similar to the representative study by the Pew Research Center (2017b).
Table 4: Comparing feelings of warmth towards Democrats and Republicans in our study to the study by Pew Research Center (2017b).
| | Attitudes towards | Our study | Pew study |
|------------------------|-------------------|-----------|-----------|
| Among Democrats | Democracts | 6.52 ± 0.11 | 7.10 |
| | Democrats | 1.49 ± 0.08 | 2.40 |
| Among Republicans | Republicans | 6.5 ± 0.15 | 7.00 |
| | Republicans | 2.29 ± 0.13 | 2.30 |
A.3. The spite score
In this section, we examine the properties of the spite score.
For that purpose, we investigate how the spite score, and the spite questionnaire, feeling of closeness and feeling of warmth relate and whether the Vote interacts
with those measures. For that purpose we estimate Equation 1 with $x_{i1} = 1$, $x_{i2} = \text{Trump voter}$, $x_{i3} = \text{Ind.Var}$ and $x_{i4} = \text{Ind.Var} \cdot \text{Trump voter}$ for each of the measures ($\text{Ind.Var} \in \{\text{Spite Questionnaire, Feeling of closeness, Feeling of Warmth}\}$). Here Trump voter is a dummy variable with 1 if the participant voted for Donald Trump and 0 if she voted for Hillary Clinton. The result of these estimations can be found in Table 5. It can be seen that log odds of being spiteful at all and also the log odds of behaving maximally spitefully increased with increasing scores in the spite questionnaire. Comparably, it can be seen that the log odds of behaving spitefully and also the log odds of behaving maximally spitefully decreased with the distance and the warmth participants felt towards their opponent. Thus, the nicer the attitude towards participants are the less spitefully is the behavior.
It is also interesting to see that none of the measures interact significantly at the 5% level with the indicated vote. Hence, an increase in e.g. feeling of warmth has the same effect for Trump voters as for Clinton voters. Thus, Clinton and Trump voters show the same reaction towards their opponents for a given level of attitudes.
Taken together, the results suggest that the spite score exhibits valuable properties such that spite increases with antisocial answers in a questionnaire and decreases with increasing sympathy for the opponent.
Table 5: Attitudes as predictors of spite behavior.
| | Spite? | Spite Score | Spite? | Spite Score | Spite? | Spite Score |
|----------------------|--------|-------------|--------|-------------|--------|-------------|
| | | Spite Questionnaire | | Social Distance | | Feeling Thermometer |
| | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) |
| Constant | −1.22*** | −0.05 | 0.13 | 0.57*** | −0.11 | 0.41*** |
| | (0.14) | (0.13) | (0.12) | (0.10) | (0.07) | (0.06) |
| Ind.Var | 0.38*** | 0.16*** | −0.13*** | −0.06* | −0.06*** | −0.02 |
| | (0.06) | (0.05) | (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.01) | (0.01) |
| Trump voter | 0.04 | 0.01 | 0.10 | −0.54** | 0.13 | −0.35*** |
| | (0.23) | (0.19) | (0.23) | (0.19) | (0.12) | (0.10) |
| Ind.Var x Trump voter| 0.09 | −0.11 | 0.05 | 0.08 | 0.04 | 0.02 |
| | (0.09) | (0.07) | (0.06) | (0.05) | (0.02) | (0.02) |
| Model | Logistic | Beta | Logistic | Beta | Logistic | Beta |
|----------------------|----------|------|----------|------|----------|------|
| Observations | 2,616 | 1,156| 2,616 | 1,156| 2,616 | 1,156|
| Log Likelihood | −1,742.56| 77.51| −1,780.25| 74.89| −1,780.66| 72.86|
Note:
p<0.10; *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001;
Trump voter denotes a dummy with value one if the deciding participant is a Trump voter and zero if the deciding participant is a Clinton voter. Ind.Var. indicates the independent variable with is either the spite questionnaire, the feeling of closeness or the feeling of warmth. Models (1), (3), and (5) estimate the decision to behave spitefully or not with a logistic regression. Models (2), (4), and (6) estimate the decision on how spitefully to behave conditionally on behaving spitefully using a beta regression. Models (1) and (2) estimate the spite behavior using the spite questionnaire as the independent variable. Models (3) and (4) estimate the spite behavior using the social distance questionnaire as the independent variable. Models (5) and (6) estimate the spite behavior using the feeling thermometer as the independent variable. Standard errors are in parenthesis.
A.4. Estimations with Controls
To ensure robustness of our results, we extend in this section the estimation of section 3.2 to further controls.
At first we also estimate the Equation 1 with $x_{i1} = 1$, $x_{i2} = \text{Enemy}$ (the main model); and $x_{i1} = 1$, $x_{i2} = \text{Enemy}$, $x_{i3} = \text{Trump voter}$ and $x_{i4} = \text{Opponent} \cdot \text{Trump voter}$, where Trump voter is a dummy variable with 1 if the participant voted for Donald Trump and 0 if she voted for Hillary Clinton. Similarly Enemy is a dummy variable with 1 if the opponent is an enemy and 0 if the opponent is a friend.
Additionally, we control for socio demographics and relevant information of the participants county/state. In the first three sets of models we include a control
of socio demographics of: gender ∈ { Male; Female }, Education ∈ {College-ed. or higher; below College }, Age ∈ {18, ..., 88}, and reported Income ∈ {< 70k, > 70k} with the control vector $X_m$, with $m = 5, ..., 8$. The result can be found in Table 6.
We also control for information about poverty, crime, and religion of the participants’ county. In the same table, we additionally include socio-demographics.
The crime data was obtained from the “Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data: County-Level Detailed Arrest and Offense Data, 2014” reported by the United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation\textsuperscript{42}. To control for crime in the county of the participating participant, we include the relative crime (amount of reported crimes relative to the population of the county) and the relative violent crime (amount of reported violent crimes relative to the population of the county).
The data on poverty on the county level was obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture\textsuperscript{43} and we also obtained data on the state level from the United States Census Bureau\textsuperscript{44}. To control for poverty on the state level, we included the poverty as reported in \cite{usda2017}. We also controlled for the percentage of people living below the poverty level on the state level from the Census Data.
The data on how religious the county was, was obtained from the Pew Research Center 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study.\textsuperscript{45} We controlled in two ways for how religious the county of the participant was. We included the percentage of participants answering yes on the question, whether they believe in god, and we secondly included the percentage of participants answering “very important” on the question: “How important is religion in your life”.
Table 6 replicates Table 3 from section 3.2.3 and additionally controls for socio demographics and other controls.
The resulting estimates show that the results are essentially robust to controls.
\textsuperscript{42}The data can be found here: \url{http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36399.v2} (Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice, 2016)
\textsuperscript{43}The data can be found here: \url{https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/county-level-data-sets/county-level-data-sets-download-data/} (United States Department of Agriculture, 2017). The poverty estimates reported in this data are model estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimate.
\textsuperscript{44}The data can be found here: \url{https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2016/demo/income-poverty/glassman-acs.html} Glassman and United States Census Bureau (2016).
\textsuperscript{45}The data can be found here: \url{http://www.pewforum.org/datasets/pew-research-center-2014-u-s-religious-landscape-study/} (Pew Research Center, 2014).
A.5. Model comparisons conditional spite
In this section, we compare further potential models to explain the spite score against the beta regression. As the spite score has an excessive amount of zeros, it seems plausible to assume a two-step process while the first step is the decision to be spiteful or not. This decision is a binary decision, and hence, a logistic regression was used for this step. However, for the conditional spite score, we argued for a beta regression as this is the common method for this kind of data. To further support our claim, we compare modeling the spite score conditional on behaving spitefully with a beta regression compared to other regressions. It can be seen from Table 7 that the beta regression outperforms the other regressions (standard Gaussian-, Gamma-, Weibul-, log-normal-, exponential and exponential Gaussian regression) on the conditional spite score.\footnote{It is also noteworthy that the main results of this paper do not change, if one would use a different kind of model.}
Table 7: Model fit of alternative models.
| Comparison | DF | $\chi^2_{\text{diff}}$ | P-value |
|-------------------------------------------------|----|------------------------|---------|
| Beta (LogLik=72.559) vs. Exp. (LogLik=-291.375) | 1.00 | 727.87 | $\leq 0.001^{***}$ |
| Beta (LogLik=72.559) vs. Log-Normal (LogLik=-31.065) | 0.00 | 207.25 | $\leq 0.001^{***}$ |
| Beta (LogLik=72.559) vs. Gaus (LogLik=-19.549) | 0.00 | 184.22 | $\leq 0.001^{***}$ |
| Beta (LogLik=72.559) vs. Exp.Gaus (LogLik=20.53) | -1.00 | 104.06 | $\leq 0.001^{***}$ |
| Beta (LogLik=72.559) vs. Gamma (LogLik=37.988) | 0.00 | 69.14 | $\leq 0.001^{***}$ |
| Beta (LogLik=72.559) vs. Weibul (LogLik=49.93) | 0.00 | 45.26 | $\leq 0.001^{***}$ |
This table compares the Log-likelihoods of different models estimating the conditional spite score. Beta denotes a beta regression. Exp. denotes an exponential regression. Log-Normal denotes a log-normal regression. Gaus denotes a standard Gaussian regression. Exp.Gaus denotes an exponential gaussian regression. Gamma denotes a gamma regression and Weibul denotes a weibul regression. $\chi^2_{\text{diff}}$ denotes the Chi-squared test statistic of the differences.
B. Alternative estimations
In this section, we will estimate the same models as in section 3.2.3. However, we will use rather ordinary tools to estimate the spite score. Hence, in this section, we will not use the zero-inflated beta regression, and therefore, we will ignore that the spite score is between 0 and 1.
If we do not account neither for the bounded outcome of the spite score nor for the zero inflation we could simply use a linear regression. The outcome is reported
in Table 8 in Models (1)-(4). It shows the same estimation as Table 3 of section 3.2.3.
However, as it seems very reasonable to account for the extensive amount of zeros in the spite score, we use also a standard Tobit regression. Table 8 shows in models (5)-(8) the same estimation as Table 3 of section 3.2.3.
It can be seen from the results, that all main results still prevail using the ordinary estimation approach. In particular, we see, on average, more spiteful behavior towards enemies than towards friends. Also, as before, we find that most of the spite behavior is driven by Clinton voters while Trump voters do not behave significantly more spitefully towards enemies.
**Table 8: Estimating spite with ordinary methods.**
| | Linear regressions | Tobit regressions |
|----------------------|--------------------|-------------------|
| | Full sample | Trump voters | Clinton voters | Full sample | Trump voters | Clinton voters |
| Constant | 0.19*** | 0.17*** | 0.22*** | 0.17*** | −0.10*** | −0.15*** |
| | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.03) |
| Enemy | 0.04** | 0.06*** | −0.01 | 0.06*** | 0.09*** | 0.15*** |
| | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.03) |
| Trump voter | 0.05** | | | | 0.15*** | |
| | (0.02) | | | | (0.04) | |
| Trump voter x Enemy | −0.07** | | | | −0.15** | |
| | (0.02) | | | | (0.05) | |
| Model | OLS | OLS | OLS | OLS | Tobit | Tobit | Tobit | Tobit |
|---------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| Observations | 2616 | 2616 | 995 | 1621 | 2616 | 2616 | 995 | 1621 |
| LogLik | -438.29 | -433.07 | -139.99 | -292.12 | -1914.36 | -1906.84 | -715.99 | -1186.4 |
**Notes:**
Enemy denotes a dummy with value one if the opponent is an enemy (i.e. opposing voter). Trump voter denotes a dummy with value one if the deciding participant is a Trump voter and zero if the deciding participant is a Clinton voter. Models (1), (2), and (5),(6) report on the full sample while Models (3),(7), and (4),(8) report on Trump and Clinton voters, respectively. Models (1)-(4) show the estimations obtained using a linear regression. Estimations in Models (5)-(8) are performed using a Tobit regression. Standard errors are in parenthesis.
B.1. Propensity score matching
Even though participants were assigned an opponent randomly, participants did select whether to be a Trump or a Clinton voter. Throughout most of the paper, we only compare the behavior towards an opponent within a group (either Trump or Clinton voters), but in Table 3, we also compare whether Clinton and Trump voters differ in their spite behavior.
To control for self-selection we use nearest neighbor propensity score matching to estimate Tables 3, and 8. Moreover, we reestimate Tables 14, and 13. More specifically, we match participants on the following demographic characteristics: Age, gender, education, ethnicity, and income. Table 9 shows the estimation using propensity score matching. It is evident from Table 9 that all results are qualitatively not influenced by participants self-selecting into Clinton and Trump voters.
Table 9: Reestimating results using propensity score matching.
| | Spite | Thermo | Distance |
|----------------|-------------|------------|------------|
| | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | (9) | (10) | (11) | (12) |
| Constant | -0.10*** | -0.14*** | 0.19*** | 0.16*** | -0.10*** | -0.07*** | 0.20*** | 0.20*** | 6.96*** | 6.91*** | 5.67*** | 5.10*** |
| | (0.02) | (0.03) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.06) | (0.08) | (0.05) | (0.07) | (0.04) | (0.05) | (0.02) | (0.03) |
| Enemy | 0.09*** | 0.16*** | 0.61*** | 0.07*** | 0.32*** | 0.51*** | 0.05 | 0.06 | -5.64*** | -6.03*** | -2.24*** | -2.57*** |
| | (0.02) | (0.03) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.08) | (0.10) | (0.07) | (0.09) | (0.05) | (0.07) | (0.03) | (0.04) |
| Trump voter | 0.15*** | 0.06*** | | 0.53*** | | -0.11 | | -0.06 | | | -0.10* | |
| | (0.04) | (0.02) | | (0.12) | | (0.11) | | (0.08) | | | (0.04) | |
| Enemy x Trump voter | -0.16*** | -0.07*** | | -0.50** | | -0.16 | | 1.02*** | | | 0.85*** | |
| | (0.05) | (0.02) | | (0.16) | | (0.14) | | (0.11) | | | (0.06) | |
Model Tobit Tobit OLS OLS Logistic Logistic Beta Beta Mixed effects Mixed effects Mixed effects Mixed effects
LogLik -1904.95 -1896.55 -830.41 -824.32 -1894.17 -1884.35 50.39 55.6 -11831.62 -11762.98 -8749.93 -8602.76
AIC 3815.89 3803.09 1660.83 1658.63 3792.33 3776.7 94.79 101.21 23671.24 23536.15 17507.86 17217.51
Observations 2,616 2,616 2,616 2,616 1,156 1,156 5,252 5,252 5,252 5,252 5,252 5,252
Notes
Enemy denotes a dummy with value one if the opponent is an enemy (i.e., opponent voted not the same candidate on election day) and zero otherwise. Trump voter denotes a dummy with value one if the deciding participant is a Trump voter and zero if the deciding participant is a Clinton voter. The first two columns reestimate the spite behavior reported in Table 8 using a Tobit regression. Models (3) and (4) reestimate the spite behavior reported in Table 8 using a linear regression. Models (5) and (6) reestimate the spite behavior reported in Table 3 using a logistic regression on the decision to be spiteful or not. Models (7) and (8) reestimate the spite behavior reported in Table 3 using a beta regression on the conditional spite behavior. Models (9), (10) and (11), (12) reestimate the feeling of warmth reported in Table 14 and the social distance reported in Table 13 using mixed-effects models. Standard errors are in parenthesis. All reestimations are performed using new weights obtained from nearest neighbor propensity score matching on the following demographics: Age, gender, education, ethnicity, and income.
B.2. Weighted sample
As pointed out in section 3.1, our sample is not representative. Even though the assignment of the opponent is random, and all results can be interpreted causally, the result might not be representative of the US population. Thus, we reweight our sample to make the results more representative. Specifically, we change the
weights of our sample by using the R `anesrake` method, which performs raking to obtain the weights such that our demographic variables coincide with the target demographic of the US population. The target demographic variables are: age, gender, ethnicity, and educational achievement.\footnote{Age and gender demographics can be found here: \url{https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-03.pdf}. Information on educational achievement can be found here: \url{https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2018/demo/education-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html}. The distribution of ethnicity can be found here: \url{https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045218}.}
Using the obtained weights we estimate spite behavior reported in Tables 3, and 8. Moreover, we reestimate the attitudes reported in Tables 14, and 13. Table 10 shows the estimation. It is evident from Table 10 that all results are qualitatively not influenced by our sample not being representative.
**Table 10:** Reestimating results using population weights.
| | Spite | Spite | Spite | Spite | Spite | Spite | Spite | Spite | Spite | Spite | Spite | Spite |
|----------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|
| Constant | -0.13*** | -0.22*** | 0.17*** | 0.1*** | -0.43*** | -0.76*** | 0.13* | 0.41 | 6.71*** | 6.58*** | 4.92*** | 4.81*** |
| | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.05) | (0.07) | (0.05) | (0.06) | (0.05) | (0.06) | (0.02) | (0.03) |
| Enemy | 0.08*** | 0.15*** | 0.04*** | 0.07*** | 0.21** | 0.37*** | 0.03 | 0.25** | -5.22*** | -5.24*** | -1.94*** | -2.07*** |
| | (0.02) | (0.03) | (0.01) | (0.08) | (0.10) | (0.07) | (0.05) | (0.06) | (0.05) | (0.06) | (0.02) | (0.05) |
| Trump voter | 0.30*** | 0.15*** | 1.18*** | 0.33** | 0.46*** | 0.15** |
| | (0.04) | (0.02) | (0.13) | (0.10) | (0.09) | (0.05) |
| Enemy x Trump voter | -0.24*** | -0.11*** | -0.67*** | -0.56*** | 0.08 | 0.44*** |
| | (0.05) | (0.02) | (0.18) | (0.15) | (0.10) | (0.05) |
| Model | Tobit | Tobit | OLS | OLS | Logistic | Logistic | Beta | Beta | Mixed effects | Mixed effects | Mixed effects | Mixed effects |
|----------------|-------|-------|-----|-----|----------|----------|------|------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|
| LogLik | -1853.4 | -1802.99 | -1707.97 | -1728.75 | -1571.04 | -1512.61 | 42.05 | 49.66 | -13375.26 | -13358.1 | -10404.6 | -9977.32 |
| AIC | 3712.81 | 3615.97 | 3545.4 | 3467.5 | 3146.09 | 3033.23 | -78.11 | -89.32 | 26758.53 | 26728.2 | 20140.2 | 19966.64 |
| Observations | 2,616 | 2,616 | 2,616 | 2,616 | 1,156 | 1,156 | 5,232 | 5,232 | 5,232 | 5,232 | 5,232 | 5,232 |
*Notes:* Enemy denotes a dummy with value one if the opponent is an enemy (i.e., opponent voted not the same candidate on election day) and zero otherwise. Trump voter denotes a dummy with value one if the deciding participant is a Trump voter and zero if the deciding participant is a Clinton voter. The first two columns reestimate the spite behavior reported in Table 8 using a Tobit regression. Models (3) and (4) reestimate the spite behavior reported in Table 8 using a linear regression. Models (5) and (6) reestimate the spite behavior reported in Table 3 using a logistic regression on the decision to be spiteful or not. Models (7) and (8) reestimate the spite behavior reported in Table 3 using a beta regression on the conditional spite behavior. Models (9), (10) and (11), (12) reestimate the feeling of warmth reported in Table 14 and the social distance reported in Table 13 using mixed-effects models. Standard errors are in parenthesis. All reestimations are performed using weights to make our sample more representative. The weights are obtained by using the R `anesrake` method, which performs raking to obtain the weights such that our demographic variables coincide with the target demographic of the US population (i.e., age, gender, ethnicity, and educational achievement).
### C. Wave effects
As mentioned in the design section, we conducted the experiment in four waves: in late November 2016 (before the 58th US presidential election), late January 2017 (after the inauguration), late October 2018 (before the midterms) and early...
November 2018 (after the midterms). As there are no relevant changes in our data over time, we pooled the data in the main paper. In this section, however, we direct our attention on the changes and differences in spite behavior and attitudes between the waves. Figure 4 shows the changes in spite behavior and attitudes between the waves. From Figure 4, we can already see that there are some changes over time, which, however, do not follow a clear pattern, nor are the changes substantial and really meaningful. Figure 5 shows the differences between two subsequent waves in spite behavior and attitudes. From Figure 5, we also see that for spite, no change is significantly greater than zero. A similar result is obtained for the social distance with the exception that Clinton voters changed to slightly more positive attitudes towards Trump voters from before the 58th US presidential election to after the inauguration – which however, represents a relative change of just 8.86%. For the feeling of warmth, we do indeed see some significant changes over time: from before the 58th US presidential election to after the inauguration Trump voters consider Clinton voters more positive (which reverses again from the inauguration to before the midterms) and similarly Clinton voters consider fellow Clinton voters more positive – which also represents a relative change of just 4.86%. It should also be taken into account that we compare multiple values against zero, with only three being significant. Taking any p-value adjustment method into account would render all significant differences void. Thus, we can see that for each subgroup, there are no substantial or relevant changes happening.
Figure 4: Attitudes and spite over time
The figure depicts the spite behavior and attitudes over time (i.e., for each of the four waves). The panel on top represents the reported feeling of warmth. The panel in the middle represents the reported social distance. The panel on the bottom depicts the spite behavior. Black dotted lines show the average behavior/attitudes for each measure. Blue lines denote the behavior and attitudes of Clinton voters, while red lines represent the behavior and attitudes of Trump voters. Solid lines depict the behavior and attitudes towards friends (i.e., coinciding voter) while dashed lines depict the behavior and attitudes towards enemies (i.e., opposing voter). The four waves were conducted: in late November 2016 (before the 58th US presidential election), late January 2017 (after the inauguration), late October 2018 (before the midterms), and early November 2018 (after the midterms).
Figure 5: Differences in attitudes and spite over time
The figure depicts the difference in spite behavior and attitudes between two subsequent waves over time. The panel on the bottom represents the reported feeling of warmth. The panel in the middle represents the reported social distance. The panel on top depicts the spite behavior. Black dotted lines show the average behavior/attitudes for each measure. Blue lines denote the behavior and attitudes of Clinton voters, while red lines represent the behavior and attitudes of Trump voters. Solid lines depict the behavior and attitudes towards friends (i.e., coinciding voter) while dashed lines depict the behavior and attitudes towards enemies (i.e., opposing voter). The differences between waves are: comparing the change from after the inauguration (late January 2017) to before the 58th US presidential election (late November 2016); comparing the change from before the midterms (late October 2018) to after the inauguration (late January 2017) and comparing the change from after the midterms (early November 2018) to before the midterms (late October 2018).
Even though neither spite nor attitudes change systematically over time, we account for the timing effects in the following subsections were we focus on each measure separately.
C.1. Time and Spite
In this subsection, we discuss how our results change if we take the timing into account and if we focus on the results for each wave individually.
Table 11 reports the estimation of a zero-inflated beta regression following Equation 1 while controlling for the wave specific effects. In addition, Table 12 reports the estimation of a linear model and a Tobit model of spite while controlling for the wave specific effects. We can see that all results prevail if accounting for wave specific effects.
Table 11: Zero-inflated beta regression model of spite behavior.
| | Spite? Full sample | Spite Score Full sample | Spite? Trump voters | Spite Score Trump voters | Spite? Clinton voters | Spite Score Clinton voters |
|----------------------|--------------------|-------------------------|---------------------|--------------------------|-----------------------|----------------------------|
| Constant | -0.39*** | 0.31*** | -0.58*** | 0.38*** | -0.06 | 0.22 |
| | (0.09) | (0.08) | (0.10) | (0.09) | (0.14) | (0.11) |
| Enemy | 0.29*** | 0.01 | 0.46*** | 0.08 | 0.01 | -0.12 |
| | (0.08) | (0.07) | (0.10) | (0.09) | (0.13) | (0.10) |
| Trump voter | | | 0.50*** | -0.16 | | |
| | | | (0.12) | (0.11) | | |
| Enemy x Trump voter | | | -0.45** | -0.19 | | |
| | | | (0.16) | (0.14) | | |
Model Logistic Beta Logistic Beta Logistic Beta Logistic Beta
Wave fixed effects ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Observations 2,616 1,156 2,616 1,156 995 480 1,621 676
Log Likelihood -1,784.84 66.50 -1,776.50 74.51 -688.61 3.36 -1,086.75 84.09
Notes:
Enemy denotes a dummy with value one if the opponent is an enemy (i.e., opposing voter). After election denotes a dummy with value one if the decision was made after the inauguration of Donald Trump. Models (1), (3), and (5) estimate the decision to behave spitefully or not with a logistic regression. Models (2), (4), and (6) estimate the decision on how spitefully to behave conditionally on behaving spitefully using a beta regression. All estimations account for wave specific effects. The omitted category is after the inauguration. Standard errors are in parenthesis.
Table 12: Ordinary regressions of the spite score
| | Linear regressions | Tobit regressions |
|----------------------|--------------------|-------------------|
| | Full sample | Trump voters | Clinton voters | Full sample | Trump voters | Clinton voters |
| | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) |
| Constant | 0.20*** | 0.18*** | 0.23*** | 0.18*** | -0.08** | -0.13*** |
| | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.03) | (0.03) |
| Enemy | 0.04** | 0.06*** | -0.005 | 0.06*** | 0.09*** | 0.15*** |
| | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.03) |
| Trump voter | 0.05** | | | | 0.14*** | |
| | (0.02) | | | | (0.04) | |
| Trump voter x Enemy | -0.07** | | | | -0.15** | |
| | (0.02) | | | | (0.05) | |
| Model | OLS | OLS | OLS | OLS | Tobit | Tobit | Tobit | Tobit |
|----------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Wave fixed effects | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Observations | 2616 | 2616 | 995 | 1621 | 2616 | 2616 | 995 | 1621 |
| LogLik | -434.84| -429.93| -139.37| -289.11| -1910.6| -1903.6| -715.39| -1182.95|
Notes:
Enemy denotes a dummy with value one if the opponent is an enemy (i.e. opposing voter). Trump voter denotes a dummy with value one if the deciding participant is a Trump voter and zero if the deciding participant is a Clinton voter. Models (1), (2), and (5),(6) report on the full sample while Models (3),(7), and (4),(8) report on Trump and Clinton voters, respectively. Models (1)-(4) show the estimations obtained using a linear regression. Estimations in Models (5)-(8) are performed using a Tobit regression. All estimations account for wave specific effects. The omitted category is after the inauguration. Standard errors are in parenthesis.
Moreover, Figure 6 depicts the spite behavior within each wave. It is evident that the patterns reported in section 3.2 can also be seen within each wave. Trump voters are seemingly indifferent between Clinton and Trump voters (with a small tendency towards more spite behavior towards Clinton voters, with the exception of the third wave); Clinton voters are less spiteful towards friends than are Trump voters and we see that Clinton voters significantly differentiate between friends and enemies.
Figure 6: Spite towards opponents
The figure depicts how spiteful participants behave towards their friends (i.e., coinciding voter) and enemies (i.e., opposing voter). The left two bars show the spite behavior of Trump voters while the right two bars show the spite behavior of Clinton voters. Red bars denote the spite behavior towards friends (i.e., coinciding voters) while blue bars denote the spite behavior towards enemies (i.e., opposing voters). Tie fighters depict standard errors. P-values are calculated using t-tests. The upper left panel shows attitudes before the election. The upper right panel shows attitudes after the inauguration. The lower left and right panel depict the attitudes before and after the midterms, respectively.
C.2. Time and Attitudes
In this subsection, we focus on the attitudes participants reported to have in each of the four waves.
C.2.1. Time and feeling of warmth
Concerning the feeling of warmth, Table 13 reports the attitudes indicated by participants accounting for wave specific effects. We can see that accounting for wave specific effects does not change the results substantially and that all main results prevail. In addition, Figure 7 depicts the feeling of warmth in each wave. We can also see that, as reported before, typically Clinton and Trump voters do not differ in their attitudes towards friends; that Clinton and Trump voters have substantially and significantly less positive attitudes towards their opposing voters and that Clinton voters are also substantially and significantly more negative towards their enemies than Trump voters are. We can see that the attitudes do vary slightly between waves, which, however, does not change the overall pattern nor any results.
Figure 7: Feeling of warmth and opponent.
The figure depicts how warm participants report to feel towards their friends (i.e., coinciding voter) and enemies (i.e., opposing voter). The left two columns show how warm participants felt towards their friends (i.e., coinciding voters) while the two right columns indicate how warm participants felt towards their enemies (i.e., opposing voters). Red bars denote the attitudes of Trump voters, while blue bars denote the attitudes of Clinton voters. Tie fighters denote 95% confidence intervals. P-values obtained using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for within comparisons and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney-Test for between comparisons. The upper left panel shows attitudes before the election. The upper right panel shows attitudes after the inauguration. The lower left and right panel depict the attitudes before and after the midterms, respectively.
Table 13: Regression of feeling of warmth.
| | Difference in feelings towards friend and enemy | Feeling of warmth |
|--------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|-------------------|
| | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) |
| Constant | 6.06*** (0.07) | 6.03*** (0.12) | 0.88*** (0.05) | 1.03*** (0.07) |
| Enemy | | | 6.03*** (0.07) | 6.03*** (0.07) |
| Trump voter | −0.98*** (0.11) | −0.97*** (0.12) | 0.97*** (0.08) | 0.96*** (0.08) |
| Trump voter x Enemy | | | −1.03*** (0.11) | −1.03*** (0.11) |
| Model | OLS | OLS | Mixed Effects | Mixed Effects |
| Wave fixed effects | × | ✓ | × | ✓ |
| Observations | 2,616 | 2,616 | 5,232 | 5,232 |
Notes:
Enemy denotes a dummy with value zero if the opponent is a friend and one if the opponent is an enemy. Trump voter denotes a dummy with value one if the deciding participant is a Trump voter and zero if the deciding participant is a Clinton voter. Models (1) and (2) regress (using OLS) on the difference in the feeling of warmth towards friends and enemies. Models (3) and (4) regress simply on the feeling of warmth towards the opponent using a mixed-effects model. Models (2) and (4) account for wave specific effects. The omitted category is after the inauguration. Standard errors are in parenthesis.
C.2.2. Time and Social distance
Concerning the social distance Table 14 reports the attitudes participants indicated to have accounting for wave specific effects. We can see that accounting for wave specific effects does not change the results substantially and that all main results prevail. In addition, Figure 8 depicts the reported social distance in each wave. We can also see that, as reported before, typically Clinton and Trump voters do not differ in their attitudes towards friends; that Clinton and Trump voters have substantially and significantly less positive attitudes towards their opposing voters and that Clinton voters are also substantially and significantly more negative towards their enemies than Trump voters are. We can see that the attitudes do vary slightly between waves, which, however, does not change the overall pattern nor any results.
Figure 8: Social distance and opponent.
The figure depicts how close participants report to feel towards their friends (i.e., coinciding voter) and enemies (i.e., opposing voter). The left two columns show how close participants felt towards their friends (i.e., coinciding voters) while the two right columns indicate how close participants felt towards their enemies (i.e., opposing voters). Red bars denote the attitudes of Trump voters, while blue bars denote the attitudes of Clinton voters. Tie fighters denote 95% confidence intervals. P-values obtained using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for within comparisons and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney-Test for between comparisons. The upper left panel shows attitudes before the election. The upper right panel shows attitudes after the inauguration. The lower left and right panel depict the attitudes before and after the midterms, respectively.
Table 14: Regression of the social distance.
| | Difference in social distance between friend and enemy | Social distance |
|----------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|-----------------|
| | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) |
| Constant | 2.59*** (0.04) | 2.47*** (0.06) | -2.49*** (0.03) | 2.51*** (0.04) |
| Enemy | | | 2.57*** (0.04) | 2.57*** (0.04) |
| Trump voter | -0.78*** (0.06) | -0.78*** (0.06) | 0.80*** (0.04) | 0.80*** (0.04) |
| Trump voter x Enemy | | | -0.86*** (0.06) | -0.86*** (0.06) |
| Model | OLS | OLS | Mixed Effects | Mixed Effects |
|----------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| Wave fixed effects | × | ✓ | × | ✓ |
| Observations | 2,616 | 2,616 | 5,232 | 5,232 |
Notes:
Enemy denotes a dummy with value zero if the opponent is a friend and one if the opponent is an enemy. Trump voter denotes a dummy with value one if the deciding participant is a Trump voter and zero if the deciding participant is a Clinton voter. Models (1) and (2) regress (using OLS) on the difference in the social distance towards friends and enemies. Models (3) and (4) regress simply on the social distance towards the opponent using a mixed-effects model. Models (2) and (4) account for wave specific effects. The omitted category is after the inauguration. Standard errors are in parenthesis.
D. Path analysis
We have seen that participants’ attitudes towards their opponent depend on whether the other is a friend or an enemy (result A1). We also have seen that Clinton voters, exhibit stronger emotions towards their enemies (result A2). Additionally, Clinton voters show more spite behavior towards enemies than do Trump voters (result B1). Hence, it seems plausible that attitudes might mediate the decision to be spiteful.
To estimate the indirect relationship of the opponent for Trump voters and Clinton voters (see Figure 10 for the path-diagram) on the spite behavior via the attitude towards the opponent, we use a structural equation model (SEM), a common approach, especially in psychology. However, this approach is not very common in political science and economics, and hence, we discuss the results and the method only in the appendix.
First, we will compare several structural equation models (SEMs) and use the best to derive insight about the indirect effect of partisanship on behavior.
D.1. Model comparisons SEM
Figure 9: Possible structural equation models on the effect of the binary decision to behave spitefully or not, via social distance.
In this section, we investigate which structural model performs best in describing the effect on spite via social distance and also via feeling of warmth. As we were not able to find a canned version in R of a SEM with a zero-inflated beta regression, we used only the binary decision to be spiteful. A SEM with a standard OLS of the spite score leads to substantially identical results.
For that purpose, we compare the basic structural equation shown in Figure 9 as the model with black edges with extended models, including further direct effects. Red edges are extensions of the basic model, including, for example, the edge 1 denotes the direct effect of vote on spite. Table 15 shows the relevant model comparisons for the SEM via social distance and Table 16 shows the relevant model comparisons for the SEM via feeling of warmth. It can be seen that the best model is the full model (i.e., the basic model plus all the direct effect on spite) for a structural equation model via social distance. The best model for a structural equation model via feeling of warmth is the basic model plus the direct effects of vote and the interaction on spite.
Hence, the structural equation model we use has a direct and indirect effect of
vote on the decision to behave spitefully at all and in addition, it has an indirect (and direct, for the social distance model) effect of the opponent and a direct and indirect effect of the interaction of opponent and vote on the decision to behave spitefully. The resulting model can be seen in Figure 10 for the social distance and Figure 11 for the feeling of warmth model.
**Table 15:** Comparing the possible structural equation models on the effect of spite via social distance.
| Comparison | DF | Chisq diff | P-value |
|-------------------------------------------------|----|------------|-----------|
| Model:Basic + 1 vs. Model:Basic | 1 | 16.91 | $\leq 0.001***$ |
| Model:Basic + 2 vs. Model:Basic | 1 | 5.07 | = 0.024* |
| Model:Basic + 3 vs. Model:Basic | 1 | 3.06 | = 0.08. |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 2 vs. Model:Basic | 2 | 18.59 | $\leq 0.001***$ |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 3 vs. Model:Basic | 2 | 20.38 | $\leq 0.001***$ |
| Model:Basic + 2 + 3 vs. Model:Basic | 2 | 8.10 | = 0.017* |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 2 + 3 vs. Model:Basic | 3 | 21.59 | $\leq 0.001***$ |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 3 vs. Model:Basic + 1 | 1 | 3.38 | = 0.066. |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 2 vs. Model:Basic + 1 | 1 | 5.11 | = 0.024* |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 2 +3 vs. Model:Basic + 1 + 2 | 1 | 4.07 | = 0.044* |
The basic model is a model with direct effects of vote, opponent, and the interaction of opponent and vote on the social distance plus a direct effect of social distance on spite. Model 'Basic + 1' is the basic model plus a direct effect of vote on spite etc.
Table 16: Comparing the possible structural equation models on the effect of spite via feeling of warmth.
| Comparison | DF | Chisq diff | P-value |
|-------------------------------------------------|----|------------|-----------|
| Model:Basic + 1 vs. Model:Basic | 1 | 17.39 | ≤0.001*** |
| Model:Basic + 2 vs. Model:Basic | 1 | 6.42 | = 0.011* |
| Model:Basic + 3 vs. Model:Basic | 1 | 2.20 | ≥0.10 |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 2 vs. Model:Basic | 2 | 19.80 | ≤0.001*** |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 3 vs. Model:Basic | 2 | 19.82 | ≤0.001*** |
| Model:Basic + 2 + 3 vs. Model:Basic | 2 | 8.54 | = 0.014* |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 2 + 3 vs. Model:Basic | 3 | 22.30 | ≤0.001*** |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 3 vs. Model:Basic + 1 | 1 | 2.30 | ≥0.10 |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 2 vs. Model:Basic + 1 | 1 | 6.42 | = 0.011* |
| Model:Basic + 1 + 2 +3 vs. Model:Basic + 1 + 2 | 1 | 2.88 | = 0.09 |
The basic model is a model with direct effects of vote, opponent, and the interaction of opponent and vote on the feeling of warmth plus a direct effect of the feeling of warmth on the decision to behave spitefully. Model "Basic + 1" is the basic model plus a direct effect of vote on spite etc.
D.2. Results of the SEM
D.2.1. SEM and social distance
Figure 10: SEM of spite via social distance.
Structural Equation Model on the effect on the binary decision to behave spitefully or not, via social distance. Numbers in brackets denote standard errors.
As Figure 10 shows and as seen before, the opponent and the interaction of Trump voters and opponent had a statistically significant influence on the social distance ($p_{\text{Opponent}} \leq 0.001$, $p_{\text{Interaction}} \leq 0.001$) while Trump voters did not show significantly different attitudes in the social distance towards friends compared to Clinton voters ($p_{\text{Vote}} \geq 0.05$).
Additionally, all direct effects statistically significantly influence the decision to behave spitefully ($p_{\text{Distance}} = 0.041$, $p_{\text{Vote.Direct}} \leq 0.001$, $p_{\text{Interaction.Direct}} = 0.018$, $p_{\text{Opponent.Direct}} = 0.043$).
Using 10,000 bootstrapped samples we obtain the 95% confidence intervals for the indirect effects of the opponent ([0.005, 0.230]), the vote ([-0.004, 0.012]) and the interaction of opponent and vote ([-0.079, -0.001]). As the confidence intervals for the indirect effects of Opponent and Interaction did not include the zero, we can reject the null hypothesis of no indirect effect. However, we cannot show
an indirect effect of Trump voters on spite via social distance. The total effects (combining both the indirect and direct effects) are statistically significant for the opponent ([0.166, 0.414]), the vote ([0.171, 0.471]), and the interaction of opponent and vote ([-0.486, -0.085]).
Thus, we have seen that Trump voters have a higher odd of behaving spitefully, that Clinton voters have a higher odd of behaving spitefully towards their enemies, that Trump voters have a lower odd of behaving spitefully towards their enemies than Clinton voters, and that an increased feeling of closeness leads to a decrease in the odds of behaving spitefully. We also have seen that the opponent strongly influences the feeling of closeness and that Clinton and Trump voters differ in their attitudes towards their opponents. We also have seen that this indirectly influences the decision to be spiteful. Overall, we can see that Trump voters have higher odd of behaving spitefully, which is not mediated through the social distance, and that Clinton voters have a higher odd of behaving spitefully towards their enemies which is mediated through social distance and that Trump voters have a lower odd of behaving spitefully towards their enemies than Clinton voters which also is mediated through social distance.
D.2.2. SEM and feeling of warmth
Figure 11: SEM of spite via feeling of warmth.
Structural Equation Model on the effect on the binary decision to behave spitefully or not, via the feeling of warmth. Numbers in brackets denote standard errors.
Using the same model for the indirect effect of feeling of warmth leads to similar results. The opponent and the interaction of Trump voters and opponent had a statistically significant influence on the social distance ($p_{\text{Opponent}} \leq 0.001$, $p_{\text{Interaction}} \leq 0.001$) while Trump voters did not show significantly different attitudes in the social distance towards friends compared to Clinton voters ($p_{\text{Vote}} \geq 0.05$).
Additionally, all direct effects statistically significantly influence the decision to behave spitefully ($p_{\text{Distance}} \leq 0.001$, $p_{\text{Vote, Direct}} \leq 0.001$, $p_{\text{Interaction, Direct}} = 0.011$).
Using again 10,000 bootstrapped samples we obtain the 95% confidence intervals for the indirect effects of the opponent ([0.126, 0.318]), the vote ([-0.006, 0.009]) and the interaction of opponent and vote ([-0.055, -0.017]). As the confidence intervals for the indirect effects of Opponent and Interaction did not include the zero, we can reject the null hypothesis of no indirect effect. As with the social distance model, we cannot reject the null hypothesis of no indirect effect of the vote. However, the total effects (combining both the indirect and direct effects) are statistically signifiThus, we have seen that Trump voters have a higher odd of behaving spitefully, that Trump voters have a lower odd of behaving spitefully towards their enemies than Clinton voters, and that an increased feeling of warmth leads to a decrease in the odds of behaving spitefully. We also have seen that the opponent strongly influences the feeling of warmth and that Clinton and Trump voters differ in their attitudes towards their opponents. We also have seen that this indirectly influences the decision to be spiteful. Overall, we can see that Trump voters have higher odd of behaving spitefully, which is not mediated through the social distance, and that Clinton voters have a higher odd of behaving spitefully towards their enemies which is mediated through social distance and that Trump voters have a lower odd of behaving spitefully towards their enemies than Clinton voters which also is mediated through social distance.
Thus, we obtain basically the same results if feeling of warmth is used as the measure of attitudes instead of the feeling of closeness.
E. Spite questionnaire
To have a better understanding of the general spite tendencies of participants, we elicited the spitefulness of participants by using the questionnaire by Marcus et al. (2014), which is based on 17 items. Examples of the 17 questions are the following:\footnote{All questions are shown in related materials.}
- If I am checking out at a store and I feel like the person in line behind me is rushing me, then I will sometimes slow down and take extra time to pay.
- I would rather no one get extra credit in a class if it meant that others would receive more credit than me.
Participants were asked to indicate their agreement on a scale between 1 and 5. Higher scores on the scale indicate higher spitefulness.
Figure 12 shows the classification of how spiteful participants are over time for Clinton and Trump voters. We can see that Clinton and Trump voters do not differ substantially\footnote{Trump voters seem to be classified as slightly more spiteful ($M = 2.36$, $SD = 1$) than Clinton voters($M = 2.31$, $SD = 0.91$), which, however, is not significant at the 5 \% level, $t(1948.3)=$.} and that there is no change over time in attitudes. As the
measure does not rate the spite towards others but rather the individual spite attitude there are no differences in spite attitudes between those participants who have been assigned an enemy as the opponent and those who have been assigned a friend.\footnote{Friends: $M = 2.34$, $SD = 0.93$; Enemies $M = 2.33$, $SD = 0.95$. The difference is not significant, $t(1948.3)=-1.2$, $p\geq0.05$.} Given that there are no differences between Clinton and Trump voters, the results are omitted to the appendix and are reported solely for reasons of transparency.
\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{spite_questionnaire.png}
\caption{Spite questionnaire}
The figure depicts how spiteful participants were classified following the spite questionnaire in each of the four waves. Red solid lines denote the general spite attitudes of Trump voters while blue dashed lines denote the general spite attitudes of Clinton voters. The black dotted line depicts the average spite attitude. Tie fighters represent standard errors.
\end{figure}
F. Moral attitudes
Figure 13: How moral participants report to consider different voters.
The figure depicts how moral participants consider Trump, Clinton, Johnson, Stein, McMullin, and Castle voters as well as people who did not vote during the presidential election of 2016. The scale goes from 1 (not moral at all) to 7 (very moral). Red bars denote the attitudes of Trump voters, while blue bars denote the attitudes of Clinton voters. Tie fighters denote 95% confidence intervals.
To further investigate whether the perception of morality might drive the difference between Clinton and Trump voters, we elicit their moral attitudes during the third and fourth wave of the experiment (late October 2018 and early November 2018). In particular, we asked participants how moral they consider a Trump, Clinton, Johnson, Stein, McMullin, and Castle voter as well as people who did not vote during the presidential election 2016. The results are shown in Figure 13.
The moral attitudes of both Clinton and Trump voters are very similar and rather neutral for Johnson, Stein, McMullin, and Castle voters. Both Clinton and Trump voters considered non-voters significantly less moral than Johnson, Stein, McMullin, and Castle voters.\footnote{In particular, non-voters were considered to be $M = 3.34$ points moral on a scale from one to seven while Johnson, Stein, McMullin, and Castle voters were considered on average to be $M = 4.13$ points moral on a scale from one to seven, a highly significant difference ($t(1353)=21.4$, $p \leq 0.001$).} Interestingly, Clinton voters considered Clinton voters as moral as Trump voters considered Trump voters\footnote{In particular, Clinton voters considered fellow Clinton voters to be $M = 5.05$ points moral on a scale from one to seven while Trump voters considered fellow Trump voters to be $M = 5.14$ points moral on a scale from one to seven, $t(1083.1)=-1.4$, $p \geq 0.05$.}, which was significantly better than Johnson, Stein, McMullin, and Castle voters ($t(1353) = -27.2$, $p \leq 0.001$).
More importantly, we can see that Trump voters considered Clinton voters significantly less moral than fellow Trump voters\textsuperscript{53}, than Johnson, Stein, McMullin, Castle voters\textsuperscript{54} and even less than non-voters\textsuperscript{55}.
The same pattern can be found for Clinton voters who considered Trump voters significantly less moral than fellow Clinton voters\textsuperscript{56}, than Johnson, Stein, McMullin, Castle voters\textsuperscript{57} and even less than non-voters\textsuperscript{58}. Even more interestingly, the difference in morality between friends and enemies is much more pronounced for Clinton voters, who considered Trump voters significantly less moral than Trump voters considered Clinton voters.\textsuperscript{59}
The results provide suggestive evidence that morality might, in fact, be driving the difference in attitudes of participants and, in turn, might influence spite behavior.
\textsuperscript{53}In particular, Trump voters considered fellow Trump voters to be $M = 5.14$ points moral on a scale from one to seven while Clintons voters were considered to be $M = 3.28$ points moral on a scale from one to seven, a highly significant difference $t(543) = 22.1$, $p \leq 0.001$.
\textsuperscript{54}In particular, Trump voters considered Johnson, Stein, McMullin, Castle on average to be $M = 4.17$ points moral on a scale from one to seven while Clintons voters were considered to be $M = 3.28$ points moral on a scale from one to seven, a highly significant difference $t(543) = 13.2$, $p \leq 0.001$.
\textsuperscript{55}In particular, Trump voters considered non-voters on average to be $M = 3.46$ points moral on a scale from one to seven while Clintons voters were considered to be $M = 3.28$ points moral on a scale from one to seven, a highly significant difference $t(543) = -2.7$, $p = 0.008$.
\textsuperscript{56}In particular, Clinton voters considered fellow Clinton voters to be $M = 5.05$ points moral on a scale from one to seven while Trump voters were considered to be $M = 2.55$ points moral on a scale from one to seven, a highly significant difference $t(809) = -36.9$, $p \leq 0.001$.
\textsuperscript{57}In particular, Clinton voters considered Johnson, Stein, McMullin, Castle on average to be $M = 4.10$ points moral on a scale from one to seven while Trump voters were considered to be $M = 2.55$ points moral on a scale from one to seven, a highly significant difference $t(809) = 29.1$, $p \leq 0.001$.
\textsuperscript{58}In particular, Clinton voters considered non-voters on average to be $M = 3.26$ points moral on a scale from one to seven while Clintons voters were considered to be $M = 2.55$ points moral on a scale from one to seven, a highly significant difference $t(809) = -13.8$, $p \leq 0.001$.
\textsuperscript{59}In particular, Clinton voters considered Trump voters to be $M = 2.55$ points moral on a scale from one to seven while Trump voters considered Clintons voters to be $M = 3.28$ points moral on a scale from one to seven, a highly significant difference $t(1165.1) = -9.7$, $p \leq 0.001$.
G. Instructions
In this section, we show the instructions for the own spite measure, the spite questionnaire, the feeling thermometer and the social distance questionnaire. Further, we show the manipulation and the attention check. The procedure of the experiment can be seen in Figure 14.
Figure 14: Procedure of the experiment.
The figure shows the procedure of the experiment.
G.1. Welcome
Welcome to this experiment in the economics of market decision making. If you follow these instructions carefully and make good decisions you will earn a considerable amount of money that will be paid to you within one week to your MTurk account. We ask that you pay close attention to the instructions.
Note that one of the main guidelines in the experimental economics is that we do NOT deceive participants (see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_economics). Hence, all rules and restrictions will indeed be implemented in the way we describe them. We go to great lengths to ensure that assignments, randomization of variables and rules are implemented exactly in the
way they are presented here to you!
In this experiment, you will be assigned an opponent. Your payoff will depend on his/her decisions and his/her payoff may depend on your decisions. Typically every person is assigned, one opponent.
To comply with the non-deception-rules of economics we also need to inform you about a technical issue: It may happen that more than one person is assigned to another person. In such a (rather rare) case it will be randomly decided whose decision will be payoff relevant to this other person. Thus, your payoff will always depend on the decision of somebody else. Your decision will influence the payoff of your assigned partner in most cases. It, however, may happen that your decision does not impact the payoff of your partner as somebody else’s choice has been determined payoff-relevant for your partner.
G.2. Own spite measure
In this task, you will be paired with another player, whom we will refer to as the opponent. All of your choices will be confidential. After you take your decisions this task will not be repeated and there is no further interaction with your opponent.
You will be making a series of decisions about allocating resources between you and your opponent. For each of the following questions, please indicate the distribution you prefer most by selecting the button below the payoff allocations. You can only make one selection for each question. Your decisions will yield money for both yourself and your opponent.
Each point shown is worth 0.2 cents (100 points = 20 cents).
In the example below, a person has chosen to distribute the payoff so that he/she receives 50 points (=10 cents), while his opponent receives 40 points (=8 cents).
There are no right or wrong answers, this is all about personal preferences. After you have made your decision, select the resulting distribution of money by clicking on the button below your choice. As you can see, your choices will influence both
the amount of money you receive as well as the amount of money your opponent receives.
At the end of the experiment, a computer program will randomly pick either you or your opponent as the payoff-relevant decision maker.
Only one of the following decisions will be payoff relevant. Which decision will be paid will be determined by a random process at the end of the experiment. Hence, you have to take all decisions seriously as any of those can be chosen by the random process with equal probability.
Please indicate your choice for each of the following distributions.
Note: These decisions are payoff relevant and will influence your payment!
[[Participants had to make choices as shown in figure 1]]
**G.3. Assignment**
[[Treatment 1:]]
Individuals who have indicated to vote for Donald Trump at the beginning of the experiment were assigned to a group called "red". Individuals who have indicated to vote for Hillary Clinton at the beginning of the experiment were assigned to a group called "blue".
Your assigned opponent indicated to vote for Hillary Clinton. Hence, your opponent was assigned to be a member of the group "blue".
[[Treatment 2:]]
Individuals who have indicated to vote for Donald Trump at the beginning of the experiment were assigned to a group called "red". Individuals who have indicated to vote for Hillary Clinton at the beginning of the experiment were assigned to a group called "blue".
Your assigned opponent indicated to vote for Donald Trump. Hence, your opponent was assigned to be a member of the group "red".
**G.4. Attention Check**
Which group does your opponent belong to?
- (a) 'Red'
- (b) 'Blue'
(c) 'Green'
G.5. Feeling thermometer
This measure is called a 'feeling thermometer' as it measures your feeling towards groups.
Here is how it works:
If you do not know too much about a group, or don’t feel particularly warm or cold toward them, then you should place them in the middle, at the 5-degree mark.
If you have a warm feeling toward a group or feel favorably toward it, you would give it a score somewhere between 5 and 10 depending on how warm your feeling is toward the group.
On the other hand, if you don’t feel very favorable toward some of these groups -if there are some you don’t care for too much- then you would place them somewhere between 0 and 5.
Please indicate below your feeling towards the named group of people.
Where would you put the [[republicans]][[democrats]][[people who will vote for Hillary Clinton]][[people who will vote for Donald Trump]] on the thermometer?
G.6. Social distance questionnaire
Please rate the following statements. The person in question is a person who has indicated to vote for [[Hillary Clinton]][[Donald Trump]].
| Statement | Strongly agree | Agree | Somewhat agree | Neither agree nor disagree | Somewhat disagree | Disagree | Strongly disagree |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------|-------|----------------|----------------------------|--------------------|----------|-------------------|
| This appears to be a likeable person. | | | | | | | |
| I would like this person to be a close personal friend. | | | | | | | |
| I would like this person to move into my neighborhood. | | | | | | | |
| I would like this person to live and work at the same place I do. | | | | | | | |
| This is a person who is similar to me. | | | | | | | |
| I would like to have this person marry into my family. | | | | | | | |
| This is the kind of person that I tend to avoid. | | | | | | | |
G.7. Spite questionnaire
The questions of the questionnaire according to Marcus et al. (2014) included the following questions:
- I would be willing to take a punch if it meant that someone I did not like would receive two punches.
- I would be willing to pay more for some goods and services if other people I did not like had to pay even more.
- If I was one of the last students in a classroom taking an exam and I noticed that the instructor looked impatient, I would be sure to take my time finishing the exam just to irritate him or her.
- If my neighbor complained about the appearance of my front yard, I would be tempted to make it look worse just to annoy him or her.
- It might be worth risking my reputation in order to spread gossip about someone I did not like.
- If I am going to my car in a crowded parking lot and it appears that another driver wants my parking space, then I will make sure to take my time pulling out of the parking space.
- I hope that elected officials are successful in their efforts to improve my community even if I opposed their election. (reverse scored)
- If my neighbor complained that I was playing my music too loud, then I might turn up the music even louder just to irritate him or her, even if meant I could get fined.
- I would be happy receiving extra credit in a class even if other students received more points than me. (reverse scored)
- Part of me enjoys seeing the people I do not like fail even if their failure hurts me in some way.
- If I am checking out at a store and I feel like the person in line behind me is rushing me, then I will sometimes slow down and take extra time to pay.
- It is sometimes worth a little suffering on my part to see others receive the punishment they deserve.
- I would take on extra work at my job if it meant that one of my coworkers who I did not like would also have to do extra work.
- If I had the opportunity, then I would gladly pay a small sum of money to see a classmate who I do not like fail his or her final exam.
- There have been times when I was willing to suffer some small harm so that I could punish someone else who deserved it.
- I would rather no one get extra
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2021 Remote - Learning Newsletter 2
The Winter Sun
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Send your Art Work / Photography to: firstname.lastname@example.org
Headteacher Update:
Hello Everyone,
I have been pleased to see a huge number of you attending our live weekly assemblies. This is a good opportunity to get together as a year group and give out important messages.
Thank you to Mrs Jenkins for her healthy eating guidance that can improve your mental health and well-being: a focus on rock 3. I am now eating more broccoli and trying adding more turmeric to food to improve my memory!
Remember the challenge is to be able to be doing all 12 rocks: they will help everyone with their mental health and well-being.
Thank you to all of you who are regularly submitting the work you are doing. We have been impressed with the effort you are making and being highly creative too. Your teachers are proud of the work you are submitting.
There are fantastic examples of Art work, delicious culinary delights, imaginative writing and detailed Geography notes within this week’s Newsletter: we have lots of talent within our school.
The live online year 11 lessons are progressing well and we are looking forward to seeing year 10 students live online from next week. The remaining year groups will have live lessons to compliment the recorded lessons, presentations and tasks in the following week.
We are so impressed with all of the acts of kindness you are doing, you are really helping others see their way through this national crisis. Please continue to send your acts of kindness to us, as it lifts all of our spirits.
Continue to keep safe and enjoy this week’s newsletter.
Darren Warner-Swann
Head of school
Y7 Parents Evening
We will be hosting our first parents evening of 2021 online on 28th January from 2.45-6.45pm.
This means there will be no online learning during lesson 5 and those students who attend our in-school learning provision will leave school at 2pm.
Home Learning
Year 10 live online lessons will start on Monday 25th January.
Reminder for year 10 and 11:
Please remember to check Google Classroom for meeting codes, to make sure you arrive at the lesson on time.
Do you have any questions about Home Learning?
Don’t forget to visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the School website.
Excellent Work
Our students have been busy engaging in their online learning both at home and in school.
Here is a collection of excellent work from the past week.
Kimberly G, Y8 - Art
Cherry B, Y9 - Geography (Above)
Jack & Marestfan, Y7 - 7A2 French recipe task.
Haute cuisine, Ms Turner has been particularly impressed with Jack who prepared a delicious Coq au Vin dish from scratch.
Marestfan also rose to the challenge and prepared a very tasty Gratin Dauphinois.
Lola G, Y8 - Food Preparation & Nutrition
Keegan M, Y8 - Food Preparation & Nutrition
Hand Sanitising Station
Libby E, Y10 - Art
A collection of her artwork
Lorenzo, Y9
Harry, Y9
Jimmie B, Y9
Daisy R, Y9 - English
An extract from her gothic horror lesson:
I climb along the roofs of the house's garage and dining room only to find a picture and a note from Drac…. The letter is damp and wet from the hail, so I can't read who it was from, but the picture looked familiar, like I've seen it before.
The wind was picking up by now and I almost lost my balance multiple times but every time I fell the mist and fog got higher and higher and higher.
The fear started to crawl into my mouth and made it hard to speak and it became painful but I know I should carry on, everyone needs to find out the truth.
I'm on top of the ledge to the doorway but I can't see the floor. I don't know how far the drop is......
Aaron W, Y9 - Geography
Explain how human activities can lead to global warming. (4 marks)
One human activity is agriculture, this releases greenhouse gases due to animals releasing methane gas therefore this traps heat in the atmosphere causing the temperature to rise.
Another human activity is energy production which leads to global warming because most electricity is still created by burning fossil fuels or gas and this releases carbon dioxide which prevents infrared radiation from escaping and this contributes to global warming.
Carlo L, Y9 - Geography
Explain how human activities can lead to global warming. (4 marks)
One human activity that can lead to global warming is burning fossil fuels in factories. This can have major changes in the climate as it releases a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Another human activity that can cause global warming is transportation. This releases greenhouse gases due to the burning of petrol so that it can keep the car going.
Using transport is one of the most important factors on what human activities can lead to global warming and so we have to find a way to stop them from releasing lots of carbon dioxide.
Darcie W, Y11 - Geography Revision notes
Shout Outs For Excellent Effort
Critical Worker School
Year 7
Evie B, Lilli H
Year 8
Brad S, Amelia A
Year 9
Harry C, Maddi H
Year 10
Leo C, Callum A-S
Online Learning
Year 7
Tayla G, Callum K, Briony B, Jayden M, Millie D, Kylah B, Joe M, Lucas S, Jack P, Izaac S
Year 8
Leona B, Ines B, Olivia D, Layla M, Mattia N, Alfie S, Savannah S, Brad B, Lukas S, Oscar W
Year 9
Cherry B, Damien G, Ollie H, Willow H, Rebecca J, Sophie J, Anna L, Ellie M
Year 10
James R 10T5, Aaron O 10T2, Grace S 10T4, Maria S 10T5, Charlie S 10T4, Anna W 10T5, Francesca T 10T3, Abigail T 10T7, Beth W 10T3, Samantha T 10T2
Year 11
Charlie D, Ryan G, Marta F, Danielle S,
Student President
"I know that things are confusing at the minute and there is a lot of work to manage but you can do it if you organize yourself effectively. I would recommend following a daily routine that you are comfortable with, getting enough sleep and not going to bed too late.
As well as this you should be working hard but don't push yourself too hard, always remember to take breaks and try to do an hour's worth of work per lesson but make sure you can make time to move onto the next subject.
I would also recommend drinking enough water; it's very important for your mental and physical health to drink enough water and it is suggested that you should try and drink about 2.2 litres a day.
Finally, if you are having any troubles with too much work or specific subjects or anything, you can email a range of people: your tutor, your HOY, your subject teachers, and me.
Don't be afraid to ask for help because we are all in the same boat and we will only get through this together."
Dan W - Student President
Acts of Kindness
During this pandemic, there are a lot of people doing a lot of good things. We want to celebrate these and inspire others to do the same. Please email email@example.com with any acts of kindness/good deeds and well done to Emily and Charlie for stepping up.
Emily W, Y7
During the last lockdown as my dad works for British Gas me, my sister and my dad volunteered to help out Trussell Trust Eastbourne Food Bank to deliver boxes of food and essentials to different families and homeless people all over Eastbourne.
We delivered approximately 30-40 boxes a few days a week for about a month. We did switch our gloves with every parcel we delivered and wore masks!
Charlie Y8
Charlie has been doing all the laundry whilst his Mum has poor health and he has also been reading to his little sister.
Poetry Corner
Thank you to everyone who sent in poems for Poetry Corner this week, I loved reading what you’ve written. The next theme will be ‘Reflections’. Please send all your poems on this theme to firstname.lastname@example.org
Here’s a selection of some of the great poems sent in last week – well done to the writers!
Winter Sun by Alyssa C, Y7
The sun slowly rises above the crisp winter air,
Frost lay like a blanket on the ground,
Condensation covers the windows,
White ice crystals cover the trees and bushes as far as we can see.
The sun shines brightly giving the day a little warmth,
Rising slowly,
Coming up to meet the cold winter frost,
The sun slowly rises above the crisp winter air.
Winter Sun by Reynard VZ, Y7
It was magnificent, truth be told,
Immersed in harsh, bitter cold,
Through a crack of blossoming mould,
Seeps the winter sun.
Far up, in the vivid blue sky,
Where it would be impossible for one to fly,
Laying idle, so very high,
Rests the winter sun.
A season, embedded in chill,
A season, known widely to kill,
A season, made joyful by the thrill;
Of the winter sun.
The Winter Sun - Anonymous
Sand at my feet belongs to September,
The warmest feeling I can remember,
Breeze in my hair belongs to October,
Back when the skies were ashen and sober,
Rain on my face belongs to November,
My past is now but a dying ember,
But they can all possess my yesterdays,
As I can’t see through the curtain of haze,
January can have my tomorrows,
A future place I can drown my sorrows,
For you are my now and that much is true,
And I don’t want a moment without you,
And when the winter sun melts my heart,
Tell me softly that we shall never part,
Shut off your mind and just hold me tight,
If not forever then just for tonight.
Core PE
Mr Burns is back with live workouts and is continuing to set loom workouts available in each year groups core PE google classrooms. They are uploaded at 11am every Monday for the entire week!
Mr Burns is setting three workouts in one loom providing all of you and your household members the opportunity to participate and stay active from home.
The workouts are split inline with the schools progress pathways Yellow, Red & Blue. What workout will you challenge yourself to compete!
NEW FEATURE
New teachers will be joining Mr Burns each week getting involved in the workouts so make sure to be in the core PE google classroom and see your favourite teachers staying active over this period. Who will be joining next week.
Maths Challenge
Using any letter only once, what are the largest and smallest numbers that you can write down in words?
Example: EIGHTY
But not NINETY as N is used twice
REMINDERS
Keeping Safe
Free Sanitary Products
The government provides schools with free sanitary products as part of its commitment to combating period poverty.
We have stocks of sanitary pads available in school and would be happy to supply a bag of products for any family in need.
Please email the school if you would like to receive these and we will arrange delivery or collection from school.
Careers
We know that many of you are in need of careers information. East Sussex have produced families’ resources packs which include a wealth of useful information:
Family Learning Careers Resources (careerseastsussex.co.uk)
(SEND) Family Learning Careers Resources (careerseastsussex.co.uk)
Mental health
Support for students and staff is being offered by Alison Allart who is an accredited Counsellor and CBT Therapist. She offers emotional support to students and staff and is available every Thursday to meet face to face, talks on the phone or email.
All meetings are strictly confidential and within therapeutic regulations. You can make initial contact with her via email: email@example.com
Andrew Wright wants to continue to support you all through this difficult time. On the next page you can find some links to useful resources including a video to support you during lockdown and tow action your potential images to help you think about making the most of each day.
Rock 2 – Exercise
We are built to move
• 300,000 years ago our ancestors were chasing down food, foraging or running away from danger.
• So our brains and bodies have been built with an expectation of a certain amount of exercise.
• Our cardio-vascular system relies on us moving about to keep blood flowing, including to our brains.
• Sitting still at desks for long periods of time is doing many of us real harm.
Well-Being Webinars letter - www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NBJxEnDXyA
12 Rocks Of Well-Being
Rock 1 – Sleep – 8-9 Hours a night
Rock 2 – Exercise – 20 mins per day
Rock 3 – Eat and Drink Healthily – complex carbs, protein, low sugar
Rock 4 – Mindfulness – be present without judgement 5-10 mins
Rock 5 – Mind Wandering – allow your mind to social problem solve
Rock 6 – Manage Emotions – notice, accept, share with trust
Rock 7 – Walk Outside in Nature
Rock 8 – Listen to Music – 20-30 minutes
Rock 9 – Connect meaningfully with friends and family
Rock 10 – Gratitude and Kindness- express both explicitly each day
Rock 11 – Engage in activities important to your life’s purpose
Rock 12 – Learn, Play, Create, Read
THE BLACK PROJECT
Food Parcels Initiative Information Pack.
What is The Black Project?
The BLACK Project is a community-led platform that aims to create a space for people of colour who may feel isolated or alone, or like they don’t fit in, as well as offering another space for people of colour that do have this elsewhere but are seeking another.
We also aim to educate across all ethnicities on Black life, art, culture and knowledge, sharing joy and celebration and love, as well as the hardships and injustices. Rightifying injustice is the backbone of what we do. We exist primarily on Instagram right now (@theblack.project), but once it is safe to do so, we hope to run some events in the real world.
What is the Food Parcels Initiative?
The Food Parcels Initiative is something that was launched in October 2020, in direct response to the Government’s vote not to extend free school meals.
This disgusted me quite frankly. So I came up with a way to help. A box of food that costs us £30 to pack and ship, but costs the recipient absolutely nothing. And we would ship it anywhere in the UK to families in need.
What is in the box?
The contents will vary slightly based on dietary requirements and the number of people in the family. But the standard box would contain:
- Dry pasta
- Rice
- Packs of sauce for pasta and rice
- Seasoning
- Tins of veg including carrots, peas, sweetcorn, baked beans and mixed beans.
- Pots of fruit
- Sugar-free squash for the children, and tea or coffee if requested for the parents
- Soup
- Tins of meat with a choice from chicken, meatballs, ham, beef, or Tuna. This would be substituted for a Vegetarian alternative if required
- Long-life milk
- Biscuits
- A family favourite snack to give them something they love
- Cereal
- Crisps
How do you fund this?
It is funded entirely through donations. Currently, as I type this, we have had over £3,700 donated in 24 hours.
People who are able can donate via PayPal @paypal.me/theblackproject, or by bank transfer to the following details.
Account Name: Brianna O’Reilly
Account Number: 93834979
Sort Code: 04-00-04
Who can have a box?
Absolutely anyone who is in need of one. It is not restricted in any way.
How do they request a box?
If they are Instagram users they can send a Direct Message to @theblack.project. If not, they can send an email to: firstname.lastname@example.org
What information do you need to fill the box?
I need 4 questions answered:
- How many people will the parcel need to feed?
- Are there any allergies?
- Is there a family favourite snack I can put in the box that will give everyone a pick me up?
- What name and address should I use for delivery?
How does it get delivered?
We use Hermes 3 day tracked delivery. I will send all recipients a tracking code so they can see exactly when their package should arrive with them. If it’s urgent, which I will ask, I can up to next day tracked delivery.
Any further questions you have, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!
The Black Project
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The charcoal value chain in Kenya
Actors, practices and trade flows in selected sites
Geoffrey Ndegwa
Phosiso Sola
Ignatius Siko
Moses Kirimi
Erick Otieno Wanjira
Grace Koech
Markus Ihalainen
Miyuki Iiyama
Jonathan Muriuki
Mary Njenga
The charcoal value chain in Kenya
Actors, practices and trade flows in selected sites
Geoffrey Ndegwa
Phosiso Sola
Ignatius Siko
Moses Kirimi
Erick Otieno Wanjira
Grace Koech
Markus Ihalainen
Miyuki Iiyama
Jonathan Muriuki
Mary Njenga
World Agroforestry
Content in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
ISBN: 978-9966-108-46-3
Published by World Agroforestry
United Nations Avenue
PO Box 30677, GPO 00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254(0)20 7224000, via USA +1 650 833 6645
Email: email@example.com
Website www.worldagroforestry.org
© World Agroforestry 2021
Ndegwa G, Sola P, Siko I, Kirimi M, Wanjira EO, Koech G, Ihalainen M, Iiyama M, Muriuki J, Njenga M. 2021. *The charcoal value chain in Kenya: Actors, practices and trade flows in selected sites*. Technical Report. Nairobi, Kenya: World Agroforestry.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of World Agroforestry. Any mistakes in the report is the responsibility of the contributors.
The information appearing in this publication may be quoted or reproduced without charge, provided the source is acknowledged. No use of this publication may be made for resale or other commercial purposes.
All images remain the sole property of their source and may not be used for any purpose without written permission of the source.
The information is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing. However, because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up-to-date and to check currency of the information with the appropriate agricultural or forest officer or an independent advisor.
Front cover photo: Graded charcoal for sale in a Nairobi market. Photo: CIFOR/Axel Fassio
# Contents
| Section | Page |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|
| List of abbreviations & acronyms | vi |
| Acknowledgement | vii |
| About the authors | viii |
| Executive summary | x |
| 1 Introduction | 1 |
| 2 Methods | 4 |
| 2.1 The value chain approach | 6 |
| 2.2 Study area | 6 |
| 2.3 Sampling | 7 |
| 2.4 Data collection | 8 |
| 2.5 Study limitation | 9 |
| 3 Results | 10 |
| 3.1 Baringo County charcoal value chains | 12 |
| 3.2 Kitui County charcoal value chains | 16 |
| 3.3 Kwale County charcoal value chains | 23 |
| 4 City charcoal trade flows | 28 |
| 4.1 Nairobi City trade | 30 |
| 4.2 Mombasa City trade | 37 |
| 5 Economics of the charcoal value chain | 42 |
| 5.1 Value chain actor income | 44 |
| 5.2 Effects of the charcoal ban | 49 |
| 6 Gender perspectives in the charcoal value chain | 52 |
| 6.1 The participation of women and men in the charcoal value chain | 54 |
| 6.2 Sources and ownership of trees | 55 |
| 6.3 Charcoal production | 55 |
| 6.4 Charcoal transportation | 56 |
| 6.5 Charcoal trade | 57 |
| 7 Conclusion and recommendations | 58 |
| References | 61 |
| Appendices | 63 |
# List of figures and tables
## Figures
1. The generic elements of a charcoal value chain 6
2. Study sites 7
3. Main sources of household income in Baringo County 12
4. Regulators known to value chain actors 13
5. Family member involved in charcoal production 13
6. Main trees species preferred for charcoal production in Baringo 14
7. Average rate of charcoal production and duration of involvement in Baringo 15
8. Reason for higher charcoal production during the dry season in Baringo 15
9. Charcoal producer prices in Baringo over 12 months prior to the survey 16
10. Main challenges faced by the charcoal producers in Baringo 17
11. Contribution of different sources of income to households in Kitui 17
12. Person responsible for actual charcoal production in family land in Kitui 18
13. Main sources of household income for charcoal producers in Kitui 18
14. Reasons for producer preference of certain tree species for charcoal in Kitui 19
15. Average rate of charcoal production and duration of involvement in Kitui 20
16. Reasons for higher engagement in charcoal production in Kitui 21
17. Charcoal producer prices in Kitui over a period of 12 months prior to the survey 21
18. Main challenges faced in the course of charcoal production in Kitui 23
19. Interventions to improve charcoal production business in Kitui 23
20. Contribution of different sources of income to households in Kwale 24
21. Household income contribution for charcoal producers 24
22. Persons responsible for charcoal production in family land in Kwale 25
23. Reasons for producer preference of certain tree species for charcoal in Kwale 25
24. Average rate of charcoal production and duration of involvement in Kwale 26
25. Charcoal producer prices in Kwale over 12 months prior to the survey 27
26. Main challenges faced in the course of charcoal production business in Kwale 27
27. Sources of charcoal for Nairobi traders 34
28. Challenges facing traders in Nairobi 35
29. Reasons for using charcoal as a primary energy source (left) and reasons for using LPG as a primary energy source (right) by consumers in Nairobi 36
30. Charcoal prices over a period of 12 months based on the unit of sale in Nairobi (left) and factors affecting charcoal prices (right) 36
31. Reason for buying charcoal from a particular supplier 37
32. Main reason for joining charcoal business in Mombasa 39
33. Challenges facing charcoal traders in Mombasa 39
34. Sources of charcoal in Mombasa 39
35. Reasons for using charcoal as a primary energy source by consumers (left) and reasons for using LPG as a primary energy source by consumers in Mombasa (right) 41
36. Factors affecting consumer charcoal prices over the last 12 months in Mombasa 41
37. Common charcoal market channels 47
38. Kitui-Nairobi charcoal supply chain 47
39. Baringo-Nairobi charcoal supply chain 48
40. Busia-Nairobi charcoal supply chain 48
41. Kwale-Mombasa charcoal supply chain 49
42. Pictorial representation of Kitui charcoal production trade flows during the ban 50
43. Kitui stakeholder perspectives of impacts of charcoal ban 51
44. Reasons for engaging in charcoal business by gender 54
45. Preferred tree species by gender 55
46. Charcoal production trends by gender 56
47. Average selling price per bag by gender 56
48. Means of charcoal transportation by gender 57
49. Main challenges in the charcoal business by gender 57
Tables
1. Specific study sites 7
2. Households sampled in each study site 7
3. Charcoal traders survey sites in Mombasa 8
4. Charcoal traders survey sites in Nairobi 8
5. Traders interviewed in Nairobi and Mombasa 9
6. Accessibility of the charcoal production sites in Baringo 14
7. Charcoal production statistics in Baringo 14
8. Current and future sources of trees for charcoal in Kitui 17
9. Reasons for joining the charcoal production business in Kitui 19
10. Main trees species preferred for charcoal production in Kitui 19
11. Charcoal production statistics in Kitui 20
12. Accessibility of charcoal production sites in Kitui 20
13. List of Charcoal Producers’ Associations in Kitui and some of the membership requirements 22
14. Main tree species preferred for charcoal production in Kwale 25
15. Accessibility of charcoal production sites in Kwale 26
16. Volumes and prices along various transportation routes 30
17. Key charcoal business statistics for Nairobi-based transporters 31
18. Reasons for involvement in charcoal trade in Nairobi 32
19. Associations reported by respondents in Dagoretti 33
20. Key charcoal trade statistics in Nairobi 33
21. Charcoal buying and selling prices in different measures 34
22. Traders expenses per bag/month 35
23. Key charcoal transporters business statistics for Mombasa/Kwale transporters 38
24. Key charcoal trade statistics in Mombasa 40
25. Charcoal buying and selling price in different measures 40
26. Monthly charcoal traders’ expenses in Mombasa 40
27. Charcoal producers’ expenses 44
28. Charcoal producers’ income 45
29. Charcoal transporters’ estimated expenses and income* 45
30. Charcoal vendors’ expenses and income 46
31. Harmonized prices for different actors 46
32. Participation in charcoal value chain by gender 54
33. Sources of trees by gender 55
| Abbreviation | Description |
|-------------|-------------|
| ASAL | Arid and Semi-Arid Land |
| CIFOR | Centre for International Forestry Research |
| CPA | Charcoal Producers’ Association |
| DRC | Democratic Republic of Congo |
| FHH | Female Heads-of-households |
| GM | Gross Margin |
| GOK | Government of Kenya |
| HH | Household |
| ICRAF | World Agroforestry |
| IDRC | International Development Research Centre |
| IEA | Institute of Economic Affairs |
| JIRCAS | Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences |
| KES | Kenya Shillings |
| KFS | Kenya Forest Service |
| KII | Key Informant Interview |
| LPG | Liquified Petroleum Gas |
| MENR | Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource |
| MHH | Male-headed Household |
| NGO | Non-Governmental Organization |
| NORCAP | Norwegian Capacity |
| REDD+ | Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation |
| SEI | Stockholm Environment Institute |
| SSA | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| USD | United States Dollar |
| WFP | World Food Program |
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by the European Union through the Governing Multifunctional Landscapes in Sub-Saharan Africa project, implemented by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in partnership with World Agroforestry (ICRAF), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, the Forest and Farm Facility, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and national and local organizations. We are also grateful for the support received from the CGIAR Programs on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), and Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the stakeholders that contributed to the data collection for this study and the reviewers that contributed their valuable comments to earlier versions of the paper. The content of this paper is the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.
Geoffrey Ndegwa is a consultant who specializes in renewable energy, environment and natural resource management. Currently, he works with the Norwegian Capacity (NORCAP) as an Energy for Food Security expert to support the World Food Program (WFP), Southern Africa region, on energy access initiatives for sustainable food systems. He has over 10 years of experience working/consulting, teaching and conducting research in the fields of renewable energy, forestry, environment, climate change and natural resource management. He holds a PhD in Geography, focusing on Environment and Natural Resource Management from the University of Passau in Germany. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Phosiso Sola\(^2\) is a scientist at the World Agroforestry (ICRAF) working on natural resource governance, bioenergy and development of sustainable agroforestry value chains. She has over 25 years’ work experience, most of which has been in action research, development and management of projects on natural resource management and value chain development in several African countries. She has also worked extensively on environmental management in displacement settings. Her current work focuses on governance of woodfuel, and aims at contributing to the development of sustainable charcoal value chains in Africa’s drylands. She obtained her PhD from the University of Wales, Bangor. Her research focused on the impacts of commercialization of non-timber forest products. Email: email@example.com.
Ignatius Siko is a research fellow at ICRAF, currently working on supporting woodfuel research focusing on governance of woodfuel value chains in Kenya. He holds an MA in Environmental Policy from the University of Nairobi. His areas of interest range from environmental planning, policy formulation and analysis, renewable energy access and sustainability, natural resource use/management and sustainable development. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Moses Kirimi is a research fellow at ICRAF and an MSc student at the Institute of Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Nairobi. His research focuses on climate impact of charcoal production and use systems. Key areas of interest include; Life Cycle Analysis and carbon footprinting, renewable energy and climate change. Email: email@example.com
Erick Otieno Wanjira is a research assistant at World Agroforestry (Kenya Country Office). His interests include agroforestry systems (food security and livelihood improvement), farmer participatory research, land restoration approaches, tree nursery enterprise development, community engagement, institutional mapping and partnership for scaling, as well as development of training and extension materials for farmers and development practitioners. He holds a BSc in Forestry from Moi University and a Masters in Environmental Science from Kenyatta University. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
\(^2\) Corresponding author
Grace Koech is a junior scientist working in both biophysical and social science research. She has implemented projects on tree-based value chains, nursery practices, seed sourcing and propagation, wood fuel production systems, controlled trials in the field and greenhouses. Grace has trained communities on diversifying livelihood options to ease pressure on biodiversity, tree-based value chain development, rainwater harvesting systems, regreening options, sustainable wood fuel production systems and food security. She is involved in project development and management, data handling and analysis, and documentation. Email: email@example.com
Markus Ihalainen is a senior research officer and gender co-ordinator at the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). His current work focuses on understanding gender dynamics across forest and tree-crop value chains, as well as supporting inclusive and equitable forest and landscape restoration. He holds an MA in Development Studies from Uppsala University, Sweden. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Miyuki Iiyama is the Research Strategy Director at the Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). She has extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative analysis of integrated farming system evolutions, technological adoption and sustainable livelihoods in rural Africa. She has spent almost 20 years in East and Southern Africa conducting research on the evaluation of socio-economic and environmental viability of sustainable agricultural intensification within smallholder systems. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Tokyo. Email: email@example.com
Jonathan Muriuki is the Kenya country representative and an associate scientist at ICRAF, specializing in agroforestry systems and enhancing tree establishment practices on farms. His current activities involve support to development partners in land restoration projects focusing on natural regeneration of trees and associated practices. He has over 15 years’ experience in research and development projects that span several countries in the East and Southern Africa region. He obtained his PhD from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BoKU), in Vienna, Austria. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Mary Njenga is a bioenergy research scientist at ICRAF and a visiting lecturer at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi. Her research focuses on sustainable and efficient biomass energy production and use systems, circular bioeconomy and their link to the environment including climate change, livelihoods and rural-urban linkages. She has over 20 years of experience in research and development on dryland natural resource management, sustainable bioenergy, circular bioeconomy for food, water, soil nutrients and energy and climate impact assessments. She holds a PhD from the University of Nairobi and has produced over 150 publications including journal papers, books and book chapters, policy and technical briefs. Email: email@example.com
The charcoal sub-sector is one of the most important sources of energy in Kenya, especially in urban areas. The sub-sector has been reported to be worth billions of dollars in market value. Between 40–75% of the charcoal is produced in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) using inefficient processing technologies and unsustainable tree harvesting practices. Given the critical role the sub-sector plays in energy provision and economic development, this study sought to assess the charcoal value chain to understand: i) actors and their motivation for engagement; ii) production technologies and processes; iii) the economics of product flow among different actors at different stages of the value chain; and iv) factors influencing performance in the value chain.
Questionnaire surveys were conducted with 447 respondents in September to November 2018. Tree and charcoal production data was collected from systematically-sampled landowners and charcoal producers in Kitui, Kwale and Baringo counties. These areas were purposively selected as they were either project sites and/or charcoal hotspots. Data on transportation and trade was collected from transporters, traders (wholesalers, retailers, brokers) and consumers in Nairobi and Mombasa, the two largest urban markets for charcoal in the country.
The study findings indicated that over 90% of charcoal producers sourced trees from their own farms. This means that they did not need to pay for the wood, thus, the value of wood is rarely captured in the final farmgate price of charcoal. Most charcoal producers incurred minimal production costs; utilizing trees from family land prepared using family labour or at a cost of less than KES 100\(^2\). All producers produced their charcoal in traditional, inefficient earth kilns.
In addition, less than 10% of the producers were members of Charcoal Producers’ Associations (CPAs). Most charcoal was sold to retailers and local brokers. Thus, in spite of the ban on charcoal trade outside the county that was in place at the time of the study, the product was being transported from production sites in rural areas to markets in urban centres. The Kitui-Nairobi transport route was the most lucrative for traders, owing to low expenses and the higher price of charcoal. Traders on the Busia-Nairobi route had lower returns due to the higher cost of charcoal sourced from Uganda. Wholesalers and retailers indicated that as much as 85% and 15% of the charcoal sold in Nairobi and Mombasa, respectively, was said to be from Uganda, DRC and/or South Sudan.
Generally, all value chain actors had competitive gross profit margins per bag of close to 20%, with over 45% for transporters. Retailers realized even higher gross margins when they sold charcoal in tins than in bags. Women accounted for 43% of the surveyed charcoal producers, though their participation varied along the whole value chain. Surprisingly, men also dominated charcoal retail (86.1%) which could have been a result of the ban and logging moratorium; this presented additional challenges for women.
Charcoal was a primary energy source for more than half of the respondent consumers with proportions of 57% in Nairobi and 67% in Mombasa. LPG was the next most used
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\(^2\) KES 100 = 1 USD
primary fuel in both cities as reported by 43% and 33% of the respondents in Nairobi and Mombasa, respectively. More than 60% of charcoal consumers bought the product in small quantities using tins, buckets and small bags, which reflects the low purchasing power of majority of the customers. Charcoal prices in both cities have been steadily increasing with the highest increase recorded from March/April 2018, the period when the national ban began.
We conclude therefore that: i) the charcoal value chain in Kenya is very resilient and adaptive, as there is an insatiable demand for cooking and heating energy sources in both urban and peri-urban areas; ii) income generation and employment is the main driver and motivation for value chain actors to engage in the charcoal business; iii) processes and technologies used are inefficient, leading to unnecessary tree cutting, and finally; iv) charcoal production and trade is a competitive business for all actors in the value chain. Thus, in the short- and medium-term there is need to invest in making woodfuel value chains green, sustainable and competitive, as transition to cleaner cooking is still a long way off in Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in general.
**Key words:** Charcoal value chain, sustainable charcoal, gender in the charcoal value chain, Kenya, energy source, charcoal ban
Photo by Axel Fassio/CIFOR
Introduction
The charcoal sub-sector in Kenya is one of the most important sources of employment, with reports showing that by the year 2000, the sub-sector employed about 0.5 million people as producers, traders and transporters (Cheboiwo, 2016; Iiyama et al., 2014; Mugo and Gathui, 2010). These beneficiaries further supported over 2 million people as dependents. In the same year, the sub-sector was reported to have a market value of KES 32 billion (USD 427 million), thus highlighting the important role it plays in the Kenyan economy (Mutimba and Barasa, 2005). By 2013, it was estimated that the number of people employed by the sub-sector was about 0.64 million, while the market value had increased to KES 135 billion (USD 1.6 billion), signifying a growth of 25% in jobs and 150–321% growth in the market value within a period of 13 years (MENR, 2013).
By 2000, it was estimated that about 1.6 million tonnes of charcoal was being consumed in the country annually (Cheboiwo, 2016; Mugo and Gathui, 2010). In 2013, the then Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources reported that the figure had grown to 2.5 million tonnes (MENR, 2013). Based on earth mound kilns with 10% efficiency, 25 million tonnes of wood would have been required to meet the demand (IEA, 2015; Mugo and Gathui, 2010).
About 40–75% of the charcoal consumed in Kenya is produced in natural woodlands of the arid and semi-arid lands (KFS, 2017; Iiyama et al., 2014; Burrow and Mogaka, 2007) and especially in the Eastern region (Tharaka Nithi, Kitui, Makueni and Machakos counties), Rift Valley region (Narok, Kajiado, Baringo, Laikipia, Turkana), Coastal region (Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta and Tana River) and North Eastern region (Marsabit and Garissa) (GOK, 2018; MENR, 2015; Burrow and Mogaka, 2007; GOK, 1997). Nairobi is the largest charcoal market in the country, accounting for 10% of all charcoal consumed (Njenga et al., 2013). The supply network of the capital city spreads across the Rift Valley, Eastern and North Eastern (Garissa) regions (Onekon and Kipchirchir, 2016; MENR, 2015). According to Onekon and Kipchirchir (2016), 35% of the charcoal sold in Nairobi comes from Narok, while 20% each comes from Kajiado and Ukambani regions.
The aim of the study was to contribute to the development of sustainable charcoal value chains in Kenya by mapping out and analysing their characteristics in selected sites including actors, technologies, profits, costs, benefits and challenges.
Photo by Annie Grindeau
Methods
Charcoal kiln under preparation in Ktui. Photo by Geoffrey Ndegwa
2.1 The value chain approach
The value chain approach improves the understanding of the direction of economic goods and services flow among different actors at different stages of engagement from production, through distribution/transportation, trading to consumption (Kaplinsky and Morris, 2002). According to Sepp (No date), the charcoal value chain has six generic stages and categories of actors as shown in Figure 1.
Not all these generic elements are found in all value chains. Indeed, MENR (2013) reported that the shorter the value chain, the higher the likelihood of the key actors getting more benefits. Introduction of agents into the value chain leads to sharing of the benefits even further among the actors, thus making the products more expensive for the final consumer (Ndegwa et al., 2011; Ndegwa, 2010). When the key elements and categories of actors have been mapped out in the value chain framework, quantifiable data on income and profit, prices and quantities of the goods handled by the different actors is then added (Ndegwa et al., 2020). Using this information, an economic analysis is conducted to ascertain the distribution of income and profit within and among the groups along the value chain. In the end, the analysis should help to:
1. Better understand the overall economic significance of charcoal;
2. Identify and gauge trends of development, of supply, demand, induced degradation, flow, financial benefits, etc. and,
3. Identify intervention priorities and opportunities for improvement.
2.2 Study area
Tree and charcoal production data was collected from three counties, namely, Kitui, Kwale and Baringo (Figure 2), which are known to supply charcoal to major urban centres in the Coastal, Eastern, Nairobi and Rift Valley regions. Baringo County was selected because it is one of the project study sites.
The specific sub-locations were selected randomly from a list of all the sub-locations in each county where production was highly prevalent as guided by the key informants. The final list of selected sub-locations is presented in Table 1.
Source: Sepp, no date.
Figure 1. The generic elements of a charcoal value chain
2.3 Sampling
**Tree/landowners and charcoal producers:** A list of all the households in each of the target sub-locations was compiled with the assistance of local administrators and village elders. From each sub-location, the study targeted a sample of 33 households which were selected through systematic random sampling. Since the study was conducted during the logging moratorium, only resident charcoal producers could participate. Of the 345 respondents, 307 were landowners and 252 were both landowners and charcoal producers as shown in Table 2.
| County | Sub-county | Ward | Sub-location |
|----------|------------|------------|-----------------------|
| Baringo | Marigat | Mukutani | Kiserian |
| | | | Ilchamus |
| | | | Salaban |
| | | | Mochongoi |
| | | | Mbechot |
| Kitui | Kitui East | Endau | Ndetani, Katumbi |
| | | Malalani | |
| | Mwingi Central | Nuu | Malawa, Nguuni |
| Kwale | Kinango | Puma | Puma, Vigurungani |
| | | | Ndavaya |
**Table 2. Households sampled in each study site**
| County | Total sampled | Tree/landowners | Charcoal producers |
|----------|---------------|-----------------|--------------------|
| Kitui | 150* | 150 | 99 |
| Baringo | 99 | 99 | 94 |
| Kwale | 96 | 58 | 59** |
| Total | 345 | 307 | 252 |
*Data was collected in four sub-locations while in the others it was collected in three.
**In Kwale, 38 households were interviewed as charcoal producers but not as tree/landowners.*
**Traders:** Data was collected from tree/landowners and charcoal producers who were also involved in charcoal trade, as well as from traders based in Nairobi and Mombasa. Both sites were stratified based on the living standards of most residents in each sub-county as presented in Tables 3 and 4.
The enumerators visited the charcoal vending sites in each of the sampled wards and interviewed the traders. A total of 92 traders, exclusive of transporters, were interviewed: 66 from Nairobi and 26 from Mombasa (Table 5).
**Transporters** were difficult to identify in the course of the study since transportation was largely done in secret due to the national ban on charcoal. As such, snowballing was used to identify them. Charcoal producers and traders were requested to assist in contacting the transporters after which they were requested to participate in the study. A total of 10 transporters were interviewed: five based in Mombasa/Kwale and five in Nairobi (Table 5).
**Consumers** were interviewed at the charcoal vending sites in Mombasa and Nairobi (as they came to buy charcoal) during the traders’ survey using a semi-structured questionnaire. A total of 14 consumers were interviewed in Nairobi and 12 in Mombasa.
### Table 3. Charcoal traders survey sites in Mombasa
| Sub-counties | Wards sampled | High-, middle- or low-income area |
|--------------|----------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
| Changamwe | Port Reitz, Kipevu, Airport, Miritini, Chaani | Middle |
| Jomvu | Jomvu Kuu, Magongo, Mikindani | Middle |
| Kisauni | Mjambere, Junda, Bamburi, Mwakirunge, Mtopanga, Magogoni, Shanzu | High |
| Nyali | Frere Town, Ziwa la Ng’ombe, Mkomani, Kongowea, Kadzandani | Middle/high |
| Likoni | Mtongwe, Shika Adabu, Bofu, Likoni, Timbwani | Low |
| Mvita | Mji wa Kale/Makadara, Tudor, Tononoka, Shimanzi/ Ganjoni, Majengo | Middle/low |
### Table 4. Charcoal traders survey sites in Nairobi
| Sub-county | Wards sampled | High-, middle-, or low-income area |
|--------------|----------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
| Westlands | Parklands, Highbridge, Kangemi | Middle/high |
| Dagoretti | Riruta, Dagoretti Corner, Kawangware | Middle/low |
| Lang’ata | Kilimani, Kibra | Middle/low |
| Embakasi | Utawala, Embakasi, Dandora Phase 2, Kayole, Mukuru Kwa Njenga | Middle/low |
| Njiru | Spring Valley, Njiru | Low |
| Kasarani | Roysambu, Kahawa, Mwiki | Middle |
| Kamukunji | Eastleigh North, Eastleigh South | Middle |
| Starehe | Ngara | Middle |
| Makadara | Maringo, Harambee | Low |
### 2.4 Data collection
Data was collected between September and November 2018 for a 12-month recall. The survey used a mixed methods research design which integrates both qualitative and quantitative research tools. A structured questionnaire (Appendix 1) was used to collect data from the value chain actors (tree/landowners, producers, traders and transporters) while a short semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from consumers (Appendix 2). The study also used a spring balance to measure the weight of the charcoal bags at production and vending sites. Qualitative methods used in the survey include: key informant interviews (KIs) which were conducted using an open interview schedule, and; direct observation (especially on charcoal production and trade processes) recorded either as field notes or photographs. Some of the key informants interviewed included forest officers, local administrators, leadership of the producers’ and traders’ associations and, county and national government officials.
Table 5. Traders interviewed in Nairobi and Mombasa
| County | No. of Respondents | Retailers | Wholesaler/Retailer Urban | Transporters |
|----------|--------------------|-----------|---------------------------|--------------|
| Mombasa | 31 | 24 | 14 | 5 |
| Nairobi | 71 | 62 | 34 | 5 |
| Total | 102 | 86 | 47 | 10 |
2.5 Study limitation
The main limitation of the study is that it was undertaken six months into the national Logging Moratorium and Kitui Charcoal Ban of 2018. This means that some of the responses were confounded and/or influenced by these circumstances as value chain actors were unwilling to divulge some information. Since charcoal movement was curtailed it was difficult to identify, let alone sample, transporters and traders. In addition, critical actors could have been left out of the sampling, specifically migrant charcoal producers and their labourers who often operate in state forests.
3 Results
A new kiln by the roadside in Kitui. Photo by Geoffrey Ndegwa
3.1 Baringo County charcoal value chains
Crop production was reported as the main source of household income by 96.8% of all households interviewed. This was followed by charcoal production and livestock keeping which were reported by 93.7% and 81.1% of households, respectively. Notably, 12.6% mentioned business entities such as kiosks, *boda-boda* and fruit vending as their main sources of income. Crop production was the most important income source, contributing to 46.1% of the households’ income. This was followed by charcoal production (26.4%) (Figure 3).
Landholding in Baringo study sites ranged from 0.5 to 70 acres with most households having approximately three\(^2\) acres. On average, respondents in the county have been producing charcoal from their own land for the last 5.2 years. However, some households had engaged in charcoal production for almost 20 years. In addition, about 54.5%, and 23.7% of the land was under crops and trees, respectively. Majority of trees harvested for charcoal were mainly on farmlands as reported by 65.3% of households.
3.1.1 Tree management and access
Majority of the landowners (65.3%) didn’t undertake any management practices to support tree regeneration after harvesting. One of the major reasons given was that *Prosopis juliflora*, which is the main tree species for charcoal production, is a self-propagated invasive species. Nevertheless, 34.7% reported undertaking different forms of management practices to support regeneration of indigenous trees such as watering to enhance growth, fencing the area to protect seedlings and saplings from animal destruction, and pruning to ensure faster growth.
Majority (96.8%) of landowners interviewed had at least one member of the household engaged in charcoal production. They also sold trees or gave to other producers (migrant producers) for a share of charcoal as reported by 35.5% and 8.4%, respectively. Trees were sold for KES 500 to KES 1500 depending on the size, species and status of the producer (local or migrant). Landowners who opted to barter their trees for a share of charcoal received about 20% to 30% of the quantity produced.
The study also suggested that, on average, 51.6 bags of charcoal were produced by each individual between October 2017 and September 2018, with minimum and maximum production amounting to eight and 210 bags per year, respectively. There was also a general perception that the preferred tree species for charcoal production were mostly scarce\(^3\) as reported by 71.6% of the respondents. However, a section of respondents (28.4%) felt that the preferred tree species were still in abundance.
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\(^2\) The median was used since the mean was skewed by the few individuals who had large parcels of land.
\(^3\) It was explained to the respondents that: **Abundant** meant there are plenty of trees of the preferred species and size; **Scarce** meant that there are only a few suitable trees of the preferred species and size left, while; **Completely depleted** meant there are hardly any trees of the preferred species and size.
Majority of the respondents (94.7%) reported that they were aware of the rules and regulations governing tree harvesting for charcoal production. These regulations were aimed at controlling harvesting, production and movement. Eighty percent (80%) of the respondents were also aware of regulations that required acquisition of a permit to harvest trees, produce and even transport charcoal. Another 7.8% were also aware of regulations that prohibit harvesting of trees along riverbanks, while 5.6% were aware of regulations prohibiting clear-felling of trees.
Other regulations mentioned by respondents include prohibition of harvesting of immature trees and the requirement to utilize only dead wood and stumps for woodfuel. Moreover, majority of the respondents reported that enforcement of these regulations was the responsibility of the chiefs (73.7%) and KFS officers (34.7%) (Figure 4).
Among the landowners interviewed, only 4% reported that they had received some support on tree growing activities. This would include provision of tree seedlings, sensitization on the need to plant trees after felling and the importance of using dead/windfall wood in charcoal production, training/information on agroforestry, intercropping and other environmental conservation practices, marketing, and training on pruning techniques.
### 3.1.2 Charcoal production
Most people started producing charcoal because they perceived that it was very profitable (58.5%) or was an easy business to get into due to the low level of skills required (55.3%). Moreover, 25% joined the charcoal business because of the low capital requirement compared to other activities. Although large tracts of land in the study sites were colonized by *Prosopis juliflora*, only 4.3% of the respondents started producing charcoal to control its spread. In 45.7% of these households, it was the husband who was responsible for making the charcoal, whilst wives were responsible in only 6.5% of the households (Figure 5).
Most producers (96.8%) in Baringo sourced trees for charcoal from their own farms, harvesting mostly *Prosopis juliflora* (84%) and *Acacia lahai* (67%) (Figure 6). Tree preference was mainly based on availability of species (72%) and customer preference (63%). Other influencing factors were that it produced the best charcoal and was easy to work with. However, 77% of producers indicated that the preferred trees were scarce, while others indicated they were abundant (23%).
**Figure 4.** Regulators known to value chain actors
**Figure 5.** Family member involved in charcoal production
The survey results indicated that none of the respondents belonged to any producers' association, even though this is a legal requirement. About 70% of the respondents stated that they had not joined any association because they were not aware of any that they could join, while 28% stated that they were not interested. The rest of the respondents gave diverse reasons for not joining CPAs such as lack of awareness of benefits, lack of capacity/facilitation to form an association, and misinformation by brokers who prefer to deal with individual producers who they can easily exploit. All the respondents reported that they used traditional earth mound kilns to produce charcoal. About 90% of them indicated that they were pre-drying their wood before carbonization to improve the overall yield. On average, pre-drying of wood took 5.3 days and a production run, from kiln establishment to offloading was four days. The kiln yield was about six bags per run (Table 7).
About 64% of the producers indicated that they produced charcoal between the months of January and March, while 20% produced in the other months. January-March is the agriculture off-season. The highest level of production of about 15 bags per producer was reported between October 2017 and March 2018 which was before the charcoal ban took effect in the country. The production then dropped slightly to about 11 bags per producer from March 2018, which may have been
**Figure 6.** Main trees species preferred for charcoal production in Baringo
Charcoal production sites were generally located within a mean distance of 1.5 km from a road. They were located about 3 km from a tarmacked road and 2.1 km from a charcoal collection centre where bags of charcoal were being aggregated for the transporters. There were 17 collection centres in the study sites, 10 of them located in Salabani sub-location. These centres were as far as 42 km and 22.9 km from Marigat town, which is the biggest urban centre in the area (Table 6).
**Table 6.** Accessibility of the charcoal production sites in Baringo
| | Distance from nearest motorable road (km) | Distance from nearest tarmac road (km) | Distance from nearest collection centre (km) | Distance to nearest rural centre (km) | Distance to nearest major town (km) |
|----------------|------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
| N | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 |
| Mean | 1.5 | 3.0 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 22.9 |
| Median | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 25.0 |
| Std. Deviation | 0.7 | 1.9 | 1.2 | .99 | 10.3 |
| Range | 0.5 - 4 | 1 - 12 | 0.5 - 7 | .5-6 | 1-42 |
**Table 7.** Charcoal production statistics in Baringo
| | Wood pre-drying days | Average charcoal yield of a kiln (90-kg recycled bag) | Production-run duration |
|------------------------|----------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------|
| N | 85 | 94 | 94 |
| Mean | 5.3 | 6 | 3.8 |
| Std. Deviation | 1.8 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
| Range | 1 - 14 | 2 - 15 | 2 - 14 |
caused by the national logging moratorium and charcoal ban. Based on actual field measurements, the average weight of a bag of charcoal in Baringo was estimated to be 38 kg. Using Equation 1 below and the parameters in Figure 7, the weighted annual production ($W_p$) per producer in Baringo was estimated at 49 bags.
**Equation 1**
$$WP = \left[ \left( \sum_{n=1}^{n=4} (Y * X) \right) \div 4 \right] 12$$
Where: $W_p$ is Weighted annual production per producer
$Y$ is the percentage of active producers in quarter n
$X$ is the number of bags produced in quarter n
4 is the number of quarters
12 is the number of months in one year
Charcoal production was undertaken during periods when there were no farming activities (36%), during seasons when the community was struggling to cope with drought (28%) and when there were no alternative sources of income (19%) (Figure 8). Low production in other months was due to commitment of labour in farming activities (81%); unfavourable weather conditions, especially rain that leads to destruction of kilns and makes access roads impassable (12%), as well as low charcoal demand leading to poor prices (9%).
### 3.1.3 Charcoal sales by producers
Over 95% of the charcoal produced in Baringo was sold to local brokers located in various centres in Kiserian, Mbechot and Salabani sub-locations. According to some brokers, charcoal was aggregated at collection points and sold to transporters who transferred it to various destinations including Nakuru, Nairobi and even
Mombasa. The highest producer prices for charcoal as reported over the four quarters in focus was between KES 440 and KES 447 per bag (Figure 9). Likewise, there was a negligible difference between the highest and the lowest price paid to the charcoal producers between the four quarters.
The price offered by brokers and transporters, and demand and supply for charcoal were key factors that influenced the selling price as mentioned by 50% of the producers. Distance to the market was also reported as another factor that had an impact on the selling price, with producers closer to urban centres attracting higher prices. Majority of producers (81%) reported that they sold charcoal at or near the production site. This was because most of the buyers were local brokers with good knowledge on the location of most sites. However, about 53% of producers reported that they transported their charcoal to common collection centres where it was sold to customers. In addition, 33% reported displaying charcoal by the roadside, especially along roads passing through Mosuro, Ipunyaki, Sokotei as well as those leading to Marigat town.
Majority of the traders transported charcoal either on foot (68%) or on motorbikes (19%) as they sold their charcoal at or around the production site. However, 14% reported that they transported the charcoal to clients using a truck or pick-up, signifying the long distance and/or the large quantity required. Of the people who transported the product to clients, 67% did not own the means, thus relied on hiring, while 33% owned the means of transport used.
### 3.1.4 Main challenges faced by the charcoal producers
The main challenges highlighted in the county included: poor road infrastructure (75%), price fluctuations (42%), and extreme weather conditions, especially floods which damage charcoal kilns and make roads impassable (31%) (Figure 10). All the respondents also reported that they had never received any support from either the government or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the course of their charcoal production activities. The top three suggestions by producers to improve the charcoal production business in Baringo were; i) improving access to training and extension services on improved charcoal production technologies and skills (48.9%), ii) improving the road infrastructure to ease transportation (46.8%) and iii) putting in place measures that will lead to improved and stable market prices (38.3%).
### 3.2 Kitui County charcoal value chains
#### 3.2.1 Land ownership and management
As many as 63% of landowners' households in Kitui County were male-headed. The mean age for the household head was 44 years, while mean household size was seven members.
In addition, 11% and 3% of landowners had attained secondary and post-secondary education respectively, whilst 49% and 12% had attained upper primary (Class 5-8) and lower primary (Class 1-4), respectively. However, almost a quarter (25%) had never attended any formal education system. The main source of household income was said to be crop production (89.9%), livestock rearing (70.5%) and charcoal production (40.9%). Moreover, crop production was the main income source for most landowners (39.3%), followed by livestock rearing (17%), and charcoal production (14.4%), as shown in Figure 11.
The median landholding in Kitui was about 20 acres. Approximately half (51%) of the land was reported to be under crops and 35% under trees. Most of the trees harvested for charcoal production often came from the land under trees (58%), grazing land (23.5%) and cropland (17%) (Table 8).
Majority of landowners (70%) did not engage in any management practice that supports tree regeneration after harvesting. Some of the reasons given were that: they were too old to engage in tree planting and management; they lacked tree planting and management skills; and, the indigenous trees regenerated naturally. However, about a third (30%) were undertaking some management practices to support regeneration, including fencing the harvested area to prevent destruction of saplings by livestock. Landowners were selling their trees to other charcoal producers at costs ranging from KES 100 to KES 3000. The cost of trees in the area was dependent on size, species and type of producer (local or migrant). Landowners also traded trees for a share of charcoal charged at the rate of 30-50% of the total quantity of charcoal produced.
3.2.2 Charcoal production
Most households interviewed (90%) had at least one member who engaged in charcoal production. In most cases it was the husband (38%), wife (26%) or son (17%) (Figure 12). Only in 1% of households was a daughter involved. Study results further indicated that producers in Kitui produced an average of 43.9 bags of charcoal between October 2017 and September 2018. About 64% of producers felt that their preferred tree species were scarce, with only 25% indicating they were still in abundance. Furthermore, 11% of the respondents reported that their preferred tree species had been completely depleted.
Majority of the respondents (90%) reported that they were aware of the regulations governing tree harvesting for charcoal in the study sites. These regulations included the ban on charcoal production (69%), seeking permits from chiefs to harvest mature trees (19%) and restricted use of power saws for mass harvesting of trees (13%). Among the landowners interviewed, only 3% reported receiving support on tree growing activities. The support included training on good tree management practices (planting, caring and pruning) and efficient charcoal production technologies.
Crop production was the main income source for many (88%), followed by livestock rearing (70%), and charcoal production (61%). In fact, crop production accounted for 41% of the charcoal producers’ household income, followed by charcoal and livestock production at 21% and 17%, respectively. Casual labour and running small businesses such as fruit vending, sale of handicrafts, retail shops, hotels and small kiosks were also significant contributors (Figure 13). Several of the respondents indicated that high profit margins (60%) and lack of alternative income sources (59%) were the main factors pushing people to the charcoal production business (Table 9). However, about 12% joined the charcoal trade as it was a common family business.
Table 9. Reasons for joining the charcoal production business in Kitui
| Reasons | % Respondents |
|----------------------------------------------|---------------|
| Manage invasive species | 2 |
| Common trade in the family | 12.1 |
| Little to no initial capital requirement | 14.1 |
| Easy to get into | 15.2 |
| Only income-generating option | 58.6 |
| Very profitable | 59.6 |
Majority of the charcoal producers in Kitui (92%) reported that they sourced trees from their own farms. In addition, 13% of respondents sourced trees from neighbouring farms either for free, at a fee or in exchange for charcoal with the landowner at the rate of 20% of charcoal produced. Only 3% said they sourced trees from private forests/ranches. For those who bought trees, a tree with wood that could produce about 10 bags of charcoal was sold for between KES 500 and KES 1000. The most preferred tree species for making charcoal were *Acacia tortilis* and *Terminalia prunioides* as indicated by 64% and 53% of producers, respectively. Other trees species used included *Acacia gerrardii*, *Delonix elata* and *Acacia elatior* (Table 10).
Tree preference was said to be influenced by quality of charcoal produced (74%), customer preference (52%) and availability (48%) (Figure 14). However, 64% of the respondents indicated that their preferred tree species were already scarce, while 19% reported that their preferred tree species had been depleted.
Table 10. Main trees species preferred for charcoal production in Kitui
| Species | % respondents |
|----------------------------------------------|---------------|
| Scientific name | Local name |
| Others | 5 |
| *Boscia coreacea* | Kisivu | 2 |
| *Terminalia Klimandscharica* | Kiyuuku | 3 |
| *Kituu* | 3 |
| *Manilkara machisa* | kinako | 4 |
| *Acacia melifera* | Kitha/muthia | 5 |
| *Commiphora africana* | Itula | 5 |
| *Newtonia hildebrandtii* | Mukame | 5 |
| *Albizia amara* | Kyunduo | 7 |
| *Strychnos spinosa* | Mwae/kyae | 10 |
| *Acacia nilotica* | Musemei | 13 |
| *Cassia abbreviata* | Mwathandathe | 14 |
| *Acacia elatior* | Munina | 19 |
| *Delonix elata* | Mwange | 24 |
| *Acacia gerrandii* | Musuisui | 25 |
| *Dombeya rotundifolia* | Mutoo/kitoo | 53 |
| *Acacia tortilis* | Mwaa | 64 |
Figure 14. Reasons for producer preference of certain tree species for charcoal in Kitui
All the respondents used traditional earth mound kilns. A majority (83%) were not pre-drying wood before carbonizing. On average, wood pre-drying took 6.7 days and a production run, 8.7 days. A charcoal kiln was said to yield about 12 bags of charcoal (Table 11).
Collection centres were located in Ndetani, Katumbi, Nguuni and Malawa sub-locations, which were about 4 km to 92 km from the nearest major towns such as Kitui, Mwingi, Thika and Nairobi.
About 88% of the respondents indicated that they often produced charcoal between the months of July and September (Figure 15). The highest rate of charcoal production in the 12 months preceding the survey was between October and December 2017 at 31 bags per producer per month. Very low volumes of production were reported from January 2018. This was attributed to the ban on charcoal by both the County of Kitui and national government which was stringently enforced. Based on actual field measurements, the average weight of a bag of charcoal in Kitui was 46 kg. The weighted production per producer calculated using Equation 1 was 33 bags per annum.
Producers engaged in charcoal production for various reasons including: i) when there was no farming (42%) especially between January
| Table 11. Charcoal production statistics in Kitui |
|-----------------------------------------------|
| Wood pre-drying days | Average charcoal yield of a kiln (sacks) | Production-run duration |
|----------------------|------------------------------------------|-------------------------|
| N | 17 | 99 |
| Mean | 6.7 | 11.9 |
| Std. Deviation | 3.3 | 8.3 |
| Range | 2-14 | 2-40 |
| | | 2-21 |
Charcoal production sites were located about 3 km from an all-weather road and 77 km from a tarmacked road. The average distance between production sites and collection centres was just over a kilometre (Table 12).
| Table 12. Accessibility of charcoal production sites in Kitui |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| Distance from nearest motorable road (km) | Distance from nearest tarmac road (km) | Distance from nearest collection centre (km) | Distance to nearest rural centre (km) | Distance to nearest major town (km) |
|-------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
| N | 99 | 99 | 13 | 99 |
| Mean | 3.3 | 76.7 | 2.2 | 3.5 |
| Std. Deviation | 4.5 | 34.8 | 1.4 | 4.0 |
| Minimum | <25 | 17-137 | 0.1 -5 | <25 |
| | | | | 55-137 |
Figure 15. Average rate of charcoal production and duration of involvement in Kitui
and March, and July and September; ii) as a coping mechanism during drought (37%); and, iii) as an income-generating activity (33%) (Figure 16). Conversely, there were some months with low production mainly due to: i) commitment of labour to farming activities, especially between the months of April and May (88%), or ii) unfavorable weather conditions especially during rainy days leading to destruction of kilns besides making access roads impassable. Other reasons for reduced production were adequate household food resources and lack of casual labourers to support production activities.
### 3.2.3 Charcoal transportation and sales
Majority of the producers (66%) in Kitui sold their charcoal to wholesalers while 24% sold to transporters. Only 5% and 3% sold their products directly to retailers and local brokers respectively, while a few (2%) sold to households within their neighbourhood. Charcoal brokers acted as a conduit for transporters or wholesalers. The average producer price was relatively stable at around KES 464, except in the months of January to March 2018 when it stood at KES 479 (Figure 17). However, the lowest price paid to
charcoal producers crossed the KES 400 mark in 2018 from KES 394 in the months of October to December 2017. The prices were said to be largely influenced by charcoal demand and supply dynamics (75%), and seasons (21%) with higher and lower prices reported during the wet and dry seasons, respectively. Other factors that affected producer prices were informal taxes (bribes), government ban and lack of transportation, a burden that is mostly passed on to consumers. Thus, the ban created scarcity and increased avenues for informal taxation, resulting in price increases.
About 74% of producers sold their charcoal to customers both within and around the production sites. Moreover, 27% displayed some of their products along the roadsides to attract customers who were then led to where charcoal was stocked. Some (less than 5%) transported their charcoal to common collection points, delivered to customers or supplied local markets. The main mode of transportation used by producers was by foot (73%), while others used motorcycles (12%), handcarts or donkey carts (9%). Many transported the charcoal on foot because majority of their customers, charcoal collection points or markets were close to the production sites. For those who used other means of transport, only 33% owned the means of transport, while the rest had to hire.
The survey indicated that only 10% of producers were members of charcoal associations. Most respondents indicated that there were no associations to join (82%) whilst others, (around 5%), reported lack of interest, feared demands and/or showed apathy due to poor performance of these groups. However, several associations were identified in the study sites. Joining fees were said to range from KES 100 to KES 500 (Table 13). Sometimes there were additional levies paid for every bag of charcoal produced through the association. Those who were members of associations indicated that they had not yet begun to produce charcoal through their groups.
### 3.2.4 Main challenges faced by charcoal producers
The two main challenges faced by charcoal producers in Kitui include: i) lack of proper equipment/tools (65%) especially power saws; and ii) price fluctuations (22%) (Figure 18). In addition, producers indicated that they were yet to receive any support from either the government or NGOs on charcoal production (97%). Only 3% of the producers interviewed noted that they had received some form of support from KFS – tree seedlings, plus training on tree harvesting and charcoal production using improved kilns.
Producers identified some key interventions to improve the industry including: i) increase charcoal prices (42%); ii) formation of CPAs (32%); iii) provision of support/extension services (23%) such as training on improved technologies, and promoting access to loans and tree seedlings (Figure 19).
**Table 13. List of Charcoal Producers’ Associations in Kitui and some of the membership requirements**
| Name of association | Year formed | No. of members | Registration fee | Other requirements |
|--------------------------------------|-------------|----------------|------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
| Ndetani Charcoal Production Association | 2015 | 150 | 300 | Resident of the village |
| Mitaani Charcoal Burners | 2016 | 20 | 100 | KES 100 deducted for every bag of charcoal produced |
| Engamba Charcoal Farmers | 2014 | 60 | 100 | None |
| Wakalwa Self-Help Group | 2014 | 80 | 300 | Be a charcoal producer |
| Mwalili Farmers’ Association | 2016 | 100 | 100 | None |
| Katwikila Coal Association | 2015 | 15 | 500 | Be a charcoal producer |
| Mwingi East CPA | 2012 | 150 | 200 | Be a charcoal producer |
3.3 Kwale County charcoal value chains
3.3.1 Land ownership and management
About 87% of households in the survey were male-headed. The average age of the household head was 44 years, while household size stood at nine members. Of those interviewed, 29% and 26% of respondents had attained upper and lower primary education, respectively, whilst less than 6% had attained secondary and post-secondary education. A number of respondents (36%) had never been through any kind of formal education.
Crop production, charcoal production and livestock rearing were the main sources of income for 97%, 74% and 48% of respondents, respectively. Other sources of income included small businesses (10%) and formal employment. Crop production contributed the largest share to total household income, followed by charcoal production and livestock rearing (Figure 20).
Results from the study showed that the mean landholding in Kwale was 17.1 acres per family with a minimum and maximum of two and 200 acres, respectively. On average, households had undertaken charcoal production in the study area for 8.8 years, with the longest duration reported being 30 years. Most of the land in the study site was under crop production (61%), while 26% and
13% was under trees and fallow, respectively. The study indicated that 74% of landowners did not undertake any management practices to support tree regeneration. The main reasons cited include lack of relevant skills, harsh weather conditions that do not support tree planting, water scarcity and competition with other crops. However, 26% reported that they were undertaking various management practices such as manure application, planting tree seedlings and pruning.
Most of the respondents (83%) reported that they were not aware of any regulations that governed cutting of trees for charcoal. However, 17% noted that they were aware of some regulations such as, “cut one tree and plant five trees”; “cut one tree and plant 10 trees”; ban on logging; and, the requirement to apply for licenses. Only 4% of respondents had received some form of support in tree growing either from the government or NGOs. Those who received support stated it was mostly in the form of tree seedlings.
### 3.3.2 Charcoal production
Almost all (97%) of charcoal producers were male. In these households, average age of the head was 45 years, and each family comprised about 10 members. About 36% and 34% of producers had attained lower primary (Class 1–4), and upper primary (Class 5–8) education, respectively. Approximately 7% had attained secondary education, whilst 24% had not undergone any form of formal education.
Main sources of income for households were: charcoal production (100%), crop production (98%) and livestock rearing (64%). Other sources of income reported by respondents were small businesses such as kiosks. Charcoal production, crop production and livestock rearing accounted for 48%, 39% and 12% of the total household income, respectively (Figure 21).
About 94% of the households had at least one member who was engaged in charcoal production. In these households, husbands (54%) and sons (28%) were the ones mainly responsible for charcoal production (Figure 22). Only in rare instances did households sell trees to locals and migrant producers. They produced an average of 54 bags per month between October 2017 and September 2018.
Majority of the charcoal producers (97%) were involved in the business because it was the only available income-generating activity in the area. In addition, 51% indicated that charcoal is a common trade practised by the family, while 31% reported that it required little or no capital.
Figure 22. Persons responsible for charcoal production in family land in Kwale
Figure 23. Reasons for producer preference of certain tree species for charcoal in Kwale
Table 14. Main tree species preferred for charcoal production in Kwale
| Tree species | Scientific name | Local name | % respondents |
|-----------------------|-----------------|--------------|---------------|
| Manikara mochis | Mnago | | 68 |
| Terminalia prunioides | Mwanga | | 56 |
| Acacia drepanolobrum | Mongololi | | 53 |
| Diospyros cornii | Mlozi | | 20 |
| Grewia bicolor | Mkulu | | 20 |
| | Mchirang’ombe | | 17 |
| Acacia senegal | Kikwata/Chikwata| | 7 |
| | Kinyerere | | 7 |
| Thespesia danis | Muhohe | | 5 |
| Tamarindus indica | Mkwaju | | 3 |
| Others | | | 3 |
Majority of the respondents (71%) reported that their preferred tree species had become scarce over the years with only a few left on farms. In addition, 22% reported that suitable tree species for charcoal had been depleted. Preference for species was mainly based on the quality (calorific value and burning characteristics) of charcoal produced (95%), preference by customers (61%) and market price (27%) (Figure 23). Factors such as availability of trees and ease of working with trees had little influence on the choices made by producers.
All the respondents used traditional earth mound kilns. In addition, most (96.6%) were not pre-drying their wood before carbonization. Those who were pre-drying wood, reported that the exercise usually took 6-14 days. Furthermore, the overall charcoal production process from establishment of kiln to final offloading took about seven days, with an average kiln producing approximately 15 bags of charcoal.
The proportion of producers involved in the trade rose steadily from October-December 2017 to April-June 2018, and declined in the third quarter – July-September 2018 (Figure 24). The rise in the number of producers was mainly influenced by: i) high prices of charcoal (54%); ii) it was a more reliable alternative income-generating activity than farming (31%); and, iii) coping strategy during seasons of drought (15%). Equally, some individuals did not produce any charcoal when prices were too low (51%) and when there was high labour demand for farming (47%).
### 3.3.3 Charcoal movement and sale
The average distance of charcoal production sites was about 5 km from a motorable road and 59 km from a tarmacked road (Table 15). The distance between production sites and charcoal collection centres, the nearest markets and major towns were 20 km, 17.5 km and 63.6 km, respectively.
Local brokers were the main buyers of charcoal as reported by 93% of respondents. A few (about 5%) of the transporters and wholesalers purchased from producers. Just like the production levels, charcoal prices rose steadily from the last quarter of 2017 (October-December) to the second quarter of 2018 (April-June), coinciding with the period when the national charcoal production ban took effect (Figure 25), and then declined slightly. The average producer prices for a bag of charcoal ranged from KES 382 to KES 445.
**Table 15. Accessibility of charcoal production sites in Kwale**
| | Distance from nearest motorable road | Distance from nearest tarmac road | Distance from nearest collection centre | Distance to nearest rural centre | Distance to nearest major town |
|------------------------|-------------------------------------|----------------------------------|----------------------------------------|---------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| N | 58 | 59 | 32 | 58 | 59 |
| Mean | 5.0 | 59.2 | 20.0 | 17.5 | 63.6 |
| Std. Deviation | 3.5 | 24.1 | 9.0 | 13.9 | 22.7 |
| Minimum | 0.1-15 | 0.2-105 | 5-40 | 0.5-70 | 30-105 |
According to some respondents, key factors influencing the price of charcoal in Kwale included type of trees used to produce charcoal (48%) and the dynamics of demand/supply (37%). Seasons, and availability of food in the locality also had some influence on the price. Almost all producers (98%) reported that they were selling charcoal at or close to production sites. A few others (2%) reported that they either displayed the product by the roadside or transported it to their customers’ premises. Out of those who transported charcoal to markets, most (83%) used motorcycles. However, 11% transported their charcoal on foot, as they did not own any means of transportation, while a very small proportion (2%) cycled or used trucks/pick-ups.
The main challenges faced by charcoal producers in Kwale were price fluctuations (73%), exploitation by middlemen (24%); and, lack of proper working tools and equipment (19%). Hunger and diseases, insecurity and the national charcoal ban were also mentioned as minor challenges (Figure 26). Despite all this, none of the respondents had received any support from either a governmental or non-governmental institution. Key suggestions to address the challenges were: i) enhancing access to and provision of training and support services (53%), and, ii) improving the entire market system and charcoal prices (49%). In addition, none of the producers interviewed were members of charcoal-related associations. The reason given was that there was no association to join (100%), and some lacked interest to join/form an association (31%).
Loading charcoal for transport in Kitui. Photo by Geoffrey Ndegwa
City charcoal trade flows
4.1 Nairobi City trade
4.1.1 Transportation to Nairobi
A total of five transporters based in Nairobi, all male, were interviewed during the study. Two of them were involved in charcoal transport from Baringo to Nairobi, two from Busia (Uganda/South Sudan) to Nairobi and one from Kitui to Nairobi. Results in Table 16 indicate that they were making between two and five trips per month and about one trip per week. Transporters from Kitui and Busia, shipped the highest volume of charcoal per trip (160–170 bags) while those from Baringo transported between 90–110 bags using a smaller truck. One transporter from Busia and another from Baringo used long-distance cargo trucks on their way to Mombasa to transport charcoal at a flat fee of KES 200 and KES 300 per bag transported, respectively. The study further revealed that one of the transporters on the Busia-Nairobi and another on the Baringo-Nairobi route owned the means of transport, while a third one mostly used hired transport. The main clients for all transporters were wholesalers and retailers, although they sometimes sold the product directly to institutions.
The Baringo-Nairobi route transporters had their own charcoal yards in the city where hundreds of bags of charcoal were offloaded before selling them at a wholesale price. However, the Busia-Nairobi and Kitui-Nairobi transporters didn’t have yards and preferred selling the product from the trucks. They do this by giving the truck to brokers who drive around the city selling the charcoal to wholesalers or retailers at a mark-up of 20–50% on the price demanded by the transporters. This was reported as one of the factors that had resulted in the overall high cost of charcoal in the city.
The respondent transporters from Busia were buying charcoal from other transporters who sourced the product from either Uganda or South Sudan. A bag of charcoal was bought at a cost of KES 900 and the transporter had to pay custom duty at the rate of KES 94 per bag to cross the border. A transporter would lodge in Busia for about two to three days as they bought the charcoal and organized for transport. The cost of lodging ranged from KES 4000 to KES 7000 depending on duration of stay and the facility providing accommodation. Other costs associated with procurement of charcoal were loading and offloading fees, cess and market fees as shown in Table 17. The transporters then offload the charcoal onto their vending sites from where they would sell to either wholesalers, retailers or businesses.
Table 16. Volumes and prices along various transportation routes
| Transporter | Route | No. of trips per month | No. of bags per trip | Own the means of transport | Mode of distribution/selling | Main clients |
|-------------|----------------|------------------------|----------------------|----------------------------|------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| 1 | Baringo-Nairobi| 4 | 110 | No | Offloads and sells from own yard | Wholesalers, institutions, retailers |
| 2 | Baringo-Nairobi| 5 | 90 | Yes | Offloads and sells from own yard | Wholesalers, businesses |
| 3 | Busia-Nairobi | 4 | 160 | No | Gives the truck to brokers to vend around city | Brokers who sell to wholesalers, retailers and institutions |
| 4 | Busia-Nairobi | 2 | 170 | Yes | Gives the truck to brokers to vend around city | Brokers who sell to wholesalers, retailers and institutions |
| 5 | Kitui-Nairobi | 4 | 170 | No | Gives the truck to brokers to vend around city | Wholesalers and retailers |
Table 17. Key charcoal business statistics for Nairobi-based transporters
| Cost item description | Transporter 1 | Transporter 2 | Transporter 3 | Transporter 4 | Transporter 5 |
|------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| **Charcoal source** | Transporters from Uganda/S. Sudan | Transporters from Uganda/S. Sudan | Producers or CPAs in Baringo | Producers or CPAs in Baringo | Producers in Kitui |
| Buying price (KES/bag) | 900 | 900 | 450 | 450 | 450 |
| Custom fee per bag (KES) | 94 | 94 | - | - | - |
| Cost of hiring truck/flat charge per bag* (KES) | 32,000 (200) | - | 27,000 (300) | - | 45,000*** (265) |
| Cost of driver per trip (KES) | - | 5000 (29) | - | 4000 (44) | - |
| Cost of driver assistant per trip (KES) | - | 3000 (18) | - | - | - |
| Loading labour (KES per bag) | 20 | 18 | 32 | 40 | 20 |
| Offloading labour (KES per bag) | 50 | 53 | - | - | - |
| Cost of fuel (KES) | - | 20,000 (118) | - | 15,000 (167) | - |
| Cost of servicing car per month (KES) | - | 4000 (12) | - | 8000 (18) | - |
| Accommodation per trip (KES) | 4000 (25) | 7000 (41) | 1500 (14) | 700 (8) | 1200 (7) |
| Cess per trip (KES) | 1000 (6) | 1000 (6) | - | - | - |
| Parking (KES) | - | 3000 (18) | - | - | 600 (4) |
| Market fee per day (KES) | - | 200 (1) | - | - | 1500 (9) |
| **Total expenses per bag (KES)** | 395 | 408 | 346 | 277 | 305 |
| **Total cost of charcoal (KES)** | 1295 | 1308 | 796 | 560 | 805 |
| Selling price (KES) | 1750 | 1750 | 1500** | 1500** | 1650** |
| Estimated informal payments per trip (KES) | 20,000 (125) | 20,000 (118) | 20,000 (182) | 20,000 (222) | 30,000 (176) |
| Net income per bag (KES) | 330 | 324 | 522 | 551 | 669 |
| Net income per month (KES) | 211,200 | 110,160 | 229,680 | 198,360 | 454,920 |
*Inclusive of driver and assistant driver expenses
**The price given to brokers who then sell at between KES 1,700-2,300 per bag
***Includes KES 20,000 cost of fuel paid by the vehicle owner
Note: figures in brackets represent associated cost per bag
Before importing charcoal from Uganda, a transporter is expected to apply for a “Letter of no objection to import charcoal from Uganda”, issued by the KFS and verified by the County Ecosystems Conservator, Busia County. When in possession of this letter, the transporter should be able to transport charcoal without any problems at roadblocks. However, there were reports of demands for bribes from the border crossing, at police roadblocks and from some KFS officials both in Busia and at the destination county, which was estimated to be as high as KES 20,000 per trip.
Transporters from Baringo were buying charcoal either from producers or CPAs. Each bag was bought at KES 450 and a fee of about KES 30 to KES 40 charged for loading onto the truck. Each charcoal consolidation trip often took two to three days and transporters spent KES 700–1500 on accommodation. Other costs include car fuel and servicing if one used personal means of transport. Transporters from Busia did not have a selling yard in Nairobi and therefore engaged the services of brokers. They handed over the entire consignment to brokers at an agreed price to sell around the city for a 20–50% mark-up (Table 17). For example, transporters reported that in 2018 they handed over the charcoal to brokers to sell at a price of KES 1500 per bag, and the brokers sold a bag at KES 1700 to KES 2300 which is a 13%–53% mark-up on the transporter price.
The transporter from Kitui had not been transporting charcoal since early 2018 when the national ban took effect. However, based on previous activities, charcoal was bought directly from producers at a cost of KES 500 per bag. The transporter hired a truck at KES 45,000 for a trip that lasted about three to four days. During each trip, the transporter would move an average of 170 bags. In addition, they would need to pay for loading, accommodation, parking and market fees per day. As was the case with the Baringo-Nairobi transporters, the Kitui-Nairobi transporter often left the charcoal with brokers to sell at a price of KES 1650 per bag. The broker would in turn sell each bag at KES 1800 to KES 2300 (Table 17).
Based on the estimates shown in Table 17, a transporter on the Busia-Nairobi route could make a profit of KES 324–330 per bag; this translates to a profit of about KES 207,360 to KES 211,200 per month if the transporter carries 160 bags per trip per week. Likewise, a transporter on the Baringo-Nairobi route could make a profit of KES 522–551 per bag which would translate to a profit of KES 198,000 to KES 230,000 per month for four trips in a month. A transporter on the Kitui-Nairobi route could make about KES 669 per bag which translates to KES 455,000 per month if the transporter carried 170 bags per trip for four trips a month.
### 4.1.2 Nairobi traders
All the traders interviewed engaged in retail; over half of them (55%) were also involved in wholesale trade. In addition, the survey results showed that 84% of the charcoal traders interviewed were male while the rest were female. The average age of those interviewed in Nairobi was 40.7 years. On average, the traders have been in the business for almost 10 years. The results further indicated that 48% and 27%, of traders interviewed had attended secondary and upper primary (Class 5-8), respectively. However, about 7% had never attended formal schools.
According to the study results, 88% of traders interviewed in Nairobi reported charcoal trade as their main source of income with crop production also contributing marginally to household earnings. About 76% of them had joined the trade mainly because it was very profitable, while 48% noted that it was the only income-generating opportunity at their disposal (Table 18).
#### Table 18. Reasons for involvement in charcoal trade in Nairobi
| Reasons for charcoal business | % respondents |
|------------------------------|---------------|
| Common practice in family | 3.2 |
| Little to no initial capital required | 4.8 |
| Easy to get into | 21 |
| Only income-generating option | 48.4 |
| Very profitable | 75.8 |
Only 5% of the traders interviewed belonged to a charcoal-related association, with majority (81%) indicating lack of associations to join in their locality as the main reason. About 11% indicated that they were not interested in joining any association while 3% noted that they were unable to meet the demands for membership. Traders who were members of a charcoal association were all from Dagoretti Sub-County and belonged to three groups namely: Dagoretti Charcoal Traders’ Association, Kawangware Digital Group, and Makaa Youth Group as presented in Table 19.
When the respondents were asked to state the benefits of joining an association, 42% reported financial support, especially access to loans at low interest rates, while 29% noted that the associations had been advocating for the welfare of the traders. In contrast, 34% believed that there were no benefits in joining an association, while 31% said they were not aware of any benefits.
### 4.1.3 Charcoal wholesaling and retailing
All traders in Nairobi were buying their charcoal stock in recycled 90-kg bags (polypropylene sacks) each containing about 54 kg of charcoal (Table 20). On average wholesale/retail traders and retailers bought 96 bags of charcoal per month at KES 2101 and 22 bags per month at KES 2096, respectively.
The main mode of charcoal delivery to the traders’ premises (wholesalers) in Nairobi was largely by truck (97%), with only 3% of retailers reporting that they collected charcoal directly from the sellers’ yards (wholesalers). The study indicated that most (86%) of the charcoal traded in Nairobi at the time originated from Uganda/South Sudan/DRC through the Busia border. This was attributed to the national charcoal ban that made it difficult to source the product locally. Other minor sources of charcoal reported include Tana River, Kitui, Garissa and Turkana counties (Figure 27).
Most of the charcoal (96%) sold by retailers was packaged in tins, while 4% used buckets. The traders who engaged in both wholesale and retail reported that they sold 76% of their charcoal in tins, 21% in bags and 3% in buckets.
As reported earlier, the median weight of a bag of charcoal was estimated at 54 kg. However, Mugo et al (2007) reported that between 10–15% of the content of a charcoal bag consists of charcoal dust. Therefore, using the average figure of 13%, the actual sellable content of a bag of charcoal was 47 kg. This was bought at an average price of KES 2100, which translates to KES 45 per kg (Table 21). Thus, a bag of charcoal was sold at KES 2314, which implies that a kilogram of charcoal costs about KES 49. Each tin of charcoal weighed 1.5 kg and was sold at KES 88, translating to KES 56 per kg. The results further demonstrated that when a trader sold charcoal in bags, their gross margin per bag was 9% compared to when they sold in buckets and tins in which case the gross margin rose to 24% and 31%, respectively.
### Table 20. Key charcoal trade statistics in Nairobi
| Value chain actors | Wholesale/retailers | Retailers |
|--------------------|---------------------|-----------|
| | Range | Mean | Range | Mean |
| Weight of charcoal (kg) | 48-59 | 54 | 48-59 | 54 |
| Buying price (KES) | 1700-3000 | 2101 | 1800-2500 | 2096 |
| Quantity sold per month per trader (bags) | 5-500 | 96 | 2-100 | 22 |
4.1.4 Nairobi customers
The main clients for both wholesalers and retailers were the consumers (households and businesses). Wholesalers/retailers sold 51% of their charcoal to households, 47% to businesses and the rest to fellow traders, while retailers only sold their charcoal to households (53%) and businesses (47%). The most common expenses incurred by the wholesale/retail traders in Nairobi were: rent and security (KES 56 per bag); transport (KES 19 per bag) and informal payments/bribes (KES 11 per bag) (Table 22). For retailers, the expenses incurred included: rentals amounting to KES 124 per bag; security costs of KES 27 per bag and business license fee. Based on these estimates, the total expenses, per bag, of charcoal sold by wholesalers and retailers amounted to KES 2243 and KES 2254, respectively. Charcoal traders in Nairobi reported that the main challenges they faced were high charcoal prices (40%); poor quality of charcoal (24%) and low charcoal supply (18%), among others, including competition from alternative fuels, especially LPG, and the charcoal ban (Figure 28).
4.1.5 Nairobi consumer households
The survey established that the average household size of charcoal consumers in the city ranged from three to 10 members. They further indicated that consumers who bought charcoal in tins prepared up to three meals per tin. When charcoal was used together with other forms of energy, a tin of charcoal could prepare up to six meals. Consumers who bought charcoal in bags prepared 42-66 meals. When supplemented with other forms of energy, an average of 81 meals could be prepared.
Table 21. Charcoal buying and selling prices in different measures
| Package (Weight of charcoal) | Buying price | Buying price (KES) per kg | Selling price (KES) | Selling price (KES) per kg | Gross margin (%) |
|-----------------------------|--------------|---------------------------|---------------------|---------------------------|------------------|
| 90-kg recycled bag (47 kg) | 2100 | 45* | 2314 | 49 | 4 (9%) |
| Bucket -10 kg cooking oil (4.5 kg) | 203 | 45 | 250 | 56 | 11 (24%) |
| Bucket -17 kg cooking oil (7.0 kg) | 315 | 45 | 400 | 57 | 12 (27%) |
| Tin (1.5 kg) | 68 | 45 | 88 | 59 | 14 (31%) |
*Based on 54 kg per bag and 12.5% charcoal fines per bag
Table 22. Traders expenses per bag/month
| Expense | Wholesale/retail | Retail |
|------------------|------------------|--------|
| | Cost (KES) * | Cost per bag* | Cost (KES) | Cost per bag (KES) ** |
| Cost of charcoal | 2100 | 2100 | 2100 | 2100 |
| Rent | 5385 | 56 | 2725 | 124 |
| License | 969 | 1 | 667 | 3 |
| Transport | 12,000 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| Security | 5410 | 56 | 583 | 27 |
| Informal payments| 500 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Total expenses | 2243 | | 2254 | |
*Based on 96 bags per month; **Based on 22 bags per month
Figure 28. Challenges facing traders in Nairobi
About 57% and 43% of respondents preferred charcoal and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as their primary source of energy, respectively. In addition, another 43% considered charcoal and LPG as their secondary source of energy. Consumers in Nairobi preferred charcoal as their primary source because of its high calorific value (63%), was readily available and efficient to use (25%), among other reasons. Similarly, the study showed that 67% of the respondents preferred LPG as a primary source of energy due to its availability and efficiency. Other reasons given for preference of LPG use were that it is clean, safe and lasts long (Figure 29).
Sixty-four percent (64%) of charcoal consumers in Nairobi bought the product in tins, whilst 36% bought it in bags. Comparatively, the price trend of charcoal using tins steadily rose from KES 66.7 to KES 92.2 over the 12-month period between October 2017 and October 2018. In contrast, the price trend using bags first decreased sharply, then increased at some point during the same period (Figure 30). For example, the cost of a bag of charcoal sharply declined in the month of April 2018 while that of a tin of charcoal increased during the same month. Factors that affected the prices included the ban on charcoal as indicated by 60% of consumers, and the politics around charcoal value chains (Figure 30).
The study established that up to 79% of respondents had no knowledge of tree species from which charcoal was produced; only 21% had some knowledge (they only mentioned *Acacia spp*). This was because the charcoal from *Acacia spp* is said to be of high quality in terms of burning for long periods compared to that from other sources. Consumers reported that they use weight (67%) and size (33%) to establish the quality of charcoal and tree species from which it was produced.
Majority (86%) of the consumers in Nairobi had one main supplier. Key reasons for preferring charcoal from their main supplier were that they were guaranteed good quality charcoal (57%), their suppliers were friendly (57%), better customer service (43%), and the charcoal was always available (36%) (Figure 31). In Nairobi County, the survey revealed that one could easily encounter about 10-19 charcoal vendors within a 10-minute walking distance, especially in Dagoretti, Kasarani and Lang’ata sub-counties. In other sub-counties such as Westlands, Embakasi, Eastleigh and Njiru, the number of vendors was about 10.
4.2 Mombasa City trade
4.2.1 Transportation to Mombasa
A total of five transporters operating between Mombasa and Kwale were interviewed to understand the operations and associated expenses in the coastal region. Most of them made two trips per month to allow producers to produce enough charcoal and also to be able to sell most of the product. Transporters bought charcoal from producers at a price of KES 400 per bag (Table 23). The charcoal was transported to various locations within Mombasa and Malindi and sold directly to wholesalers and retailers at KES 1700. Only one of the transporters used a personal truck; the rest used hired vehicles. Two of the transporters used lower capacity trucks that could carry 100 bags of charcoal per trip, while the others used trucks that could carry 150-160 bags per trip. The costs incurred by transporters include hiring or fuel cost, drivers’ expenses, accommodation, cess, loading and offloading costs (Table 23).
Based on the estimates, expenses associated with procurement of a bag of charcoal ranged from KES 616 to KES 777. Most of the transporters were making two trips a month, translating to an overall monthly income of between KES 200,000 and KES 217,000 for the lower capacity truck transporters, while for larger capacity trucks, monthly income estimates ranged from KES 297,000 to KES 326,000. Just like the Nairobi-based transporters, those from the coast reported prevalence of rent seekers along the transport routes and even at the destination markets. However, none was able to give an estimate of such payments per trip. As such, the absolute income for a transporter could be slightly lower than what is estimated in this study.
4.2.2 Mombasa traders
About 35% and 12% of charcoal traders interviewed in Mombasa exclusively engaged in retail and wholesale trade respectively, whilst slightly more than half of them (54%) engaged in both. In addition, charcoal traders interviewed were mostly male (85%). Furthermore, 69% and 15% of the traders had completed lower primary (Class 1-4) and upper primary (Class 5-8), respectively while 8% had undergone secondary education and tertiary education. The mean age of the charcoal traders was 32 years, while average household size was seven members. On average, the charcoal traders had been in the business for eight years. The charcoal business was the main household income source for most traders.
Table 23. Key charcoal transporters business statistics for Mombasa/Kwale transporters
| Cost item description | Cost per trip of a truck in KES (Per bag in brackets) |
|----------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|
| | Transporter 1 | Transporter 2 | Transporter 3 | Transporter 3 | Transporter 4 |
| Charcoal source | Kwale | Kwale | Kwale | Kwale | Kisauni |
| Truck load in bags per trip | 100 | 100 | 160 | 160 | 150 |
| Buying price (KES/bag) | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 |
| Cost of hiring truck per trip (KES) | - | 15,000 (150) | 40,000* (250) | 40,000* (250) | 30,000* (200) |
| Cost of driver per trip (KES) | 5000 (50) | - | - | - | - |
| Cost of fuel (KES) | 8000 (80) | 8000 (80) | - | - | - |
| Cost of assistant driver per trip (KES)| 3500 (35) | - | - | - | - |
| Loading labour (KES per bag) | 500 (5) | 2000 (20) | 6400 (40) | 2000 (13) | 7500 (50) |
| Offloading labour (KES per bag) | 600 (6) | 2000 (20) | 8000 (50) | 2000 (13) | 9000 (60) |
| Vehicle security per trip (KES) | 500 (5) | 1000 (10) | - | - | - |
| Cost of servicing car per month (KES) | 5000 (13) | - | - | - | - |
| Accommodation per trip (KES) | 1500 (15) | 1000 (10) | 1000 (6) | 1000 (6) | - |
| Cess per trip (KES) | - | - | - | 1000 (6) | - |
| Parking per night (KES) | 200 (2) | 500 (5) | - | - | - |
| Market fee per day (KES) | 500 (5) | 500 (5) | - | - | - |
| Total expenses per bag (KES) | 216 | 300 | 352 | 345 | 377 |
| Total cost of charcoal (KES) | 616 | 700 | 752 | 745 | 777 |
| Selling price (KES) | 1700 | 1700 | 1700 | 1700 | 1700 |
| Net income per bag (KES) | 1084 | 1000 | 948 | 1018 | 990 |
| Net income per month (KES) | 216,800 | 200,000 | 303,360 | 325,760 | 297,000 |
*Includes cost of fuel
Note: figures in brackets are cost per bag
(90%). Other activities included casual labour, small business enterprises, farming and livestock rearing. Reasons for engaging in the charcoal trade: it is the only available income-generating opportunity for many (92%); it is a very profitable venture (46%) and a traditional business for the family (12%) (Figure 32). The study indicated that none of the traders belonged to an association. Reasons given include: lack of charcoal traders’ associations to join in their locality (42%), requirements that are very difficult to meet (39%); and, lack of interest (19%). Challenges faced by the traders included high charcoal prices (31%), poor quality of charcoal (31%) and low supply (23%) (Figure 33).
4.2.3 Charcoal wholesaling and retailing
All traders in Mombasa bought their charcoal stock in recycled 90-kg and 50-kg polypropylene bags each containing about 47 kg and 22 kg of charcoal, respectively. The average buying price for the recycled 90-kg and 50-kg bag of charcoal was KES 1700 and KES 1250, respectively (Table 24). The charcoal traders reported that 54% of charcoal sold in Mombasa was from Malindi Sub-county in Kilifi County (Figure 34). The second most important source was Tanzania (through the Lunga Lunga border) reported by 27% of the respondents, followed by Kwale.
Figure 32. Main reason for joining charcoal business in Mombasa
Figure 33. Challenges facing charcoal traders in Mombasa
Figure 34. Sources of charcoal in Mombasa
Table 24. Key charcoal trade statistics in Mombasa
| Unit of sale | Statistic | Weight of charcoal (kg) | Buying price (KES) |
|-----------------------|-----------|-------------------------|--------------------|
| 90-kg recycled bag | Range | 40-50 | 1600-2000 |
| | Average | 47 | 1700 |
| 50-kg recycled bag | Range | 18-30 | 1000-1500 |
| | Average | 22 | 1250 |
County which was reported by 19% of the respondents. Uganda and South Sudan were also reported as a source of charcoal by 15% of the respondents. A wholesaler sold about 208 bags, whilst a retailer sold about 25 bags of charcoal per month.
Most wholesalers/retailers sold 71% of their charcoal in bags and the rest in tins, buckets and modified plastic bags. For the retailers, only 12% of their charcoal was sold in bags and the rest in smaller units. A bag of charcoal was sold at KES 2300 whilst tins and smaller bags containing about one kilogram of charcoal were sold at an average of KES 70 (Table 25).
4.2.4 Main customers and trade-related expenses
The main clients for both wholesalers/retailers and retailers were consumers (households and businesses). The main buyers from the wholesaler/retailers, were businesses (46%) and households (46%), with retailers and brokers accounting for only 8%. Likewise, retailers indicated that 47% and 45% of their clients were the households and businesses, respectively. Traders who were both wholesalers and retailers reported that they had four main monthly costs associated with their operations including rent, trade license, transport and security amounting to just over KES 1,786 per bag per month. Retailers, on the other hand, reported only two costs associated with their operations, namely, rent and trade licenses amounting to KES 1,776 per bag per month (Table 26).
4.2.5 Mombasa consumer households
The survey established that the average household size of charcoal consumers in Mombasa was seven, with a minimum and maximum size of four and 10 members, respectively. The study results further showed that consumers who bought charcoal in a recycled 2-kg cooking oil tin, dubbed kasuku, cooked about three meals. However, when supplemented with other forms of energy, a kasuku of charcoal cooked up to six meals. Consumers who bought charcoal in buckets of about 8 kg, managed to cook 21 meals. When supplemented with other forms of energy, the bucket of charcoal could be used to cook between 21 and 42 meals.
Table 25. Charcoal buying and selling price in different measures
| Package | Weight (kg) | Buying price | Buying price (KES) per kg | Selling price (KES) | Selling price (KES) per kg | Gross margin (%) |
|--------------------|-------------|--------------|---------------------------|---------------------|----------------------------|------------------|
| 90-kg recycled sack | 47 | 1,700 | 36 | 2,300 | 49 | 13 (36%) |
| Weighing or tins | 1 | 36 | 36 | 70 | 70 | 34 (94%) |
Table 26. Monthly charcoal traders’ expenses in Mombasa
| Expense | Wholesale/retailers | Retailers |
|---------------|----------------------|-----------|
| | Cost (KES) * | Cost per bag | Cost (KES)** | Cost per bag |
| Cost of charcoal | 353,349 | 1700 | 41,100 | 1700 |
| Rent | 2200 | 11 | 850 | 34 |
| License | 10,000 | 4 | 10,000 | 33 |
| Transport | 12,000 | 58 | 0 | 0 |
| Security | 2750 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Total expenses | | 1786 | | 1767 |
*Based on 208 bags sold per month; **Based on 25 bags sold per month
The study indicated that 67% and 33% of respondents preferred using charcoal and LPG as their primary source of energy, respectively. Furthermore, 33% and 25% of the consumers considered charcoal and LPG as their secondary sources of energy, respectively. However, 42% of consumers interviewed used either charcoal or LPG as the only source of energy for cooking. Results showed that majority (32%) of the charcoal consumers in Mombasa preferred charcoal as the primary source of energy mainly because it burns for longer, it is easy to use (25%) and is affordable (25%). Similarly, 43% and 29% of the respondents preferred LPG as a primary source of energy, citing its efficiency and consideration as a clean source of energy, respectively (Figure 35). About 60% of charcoal consumers stated that the ban on the product was the main cause of increase in prices. Furthermore, 20% attributed the price increase to politics around charcoal, while 15% attributed it to transports challenges (Figure 36).
The study results established that 75% of the respondents had knowledge of the tree species their preferred charcoal was produced from; while 25% were not aware. Consumers who had knowledge about their preferred charcoal tree species mentioned *Acacia spp*, *Markhamia lutea* and *Casuarina equisetifolia*, in that order. The consumer preference for charcoal produced from the three tree species was informed mostly by the quality produced (67%) and ability to burn longer (33%) compared to charcoal from other species.
Consumers identified the charcoal from the mentioned species by using their colour, texture, weight and size characteristics; darker, heavier and bigger pieces were reported to be of better quality. All consumers interviewed in Mombasa bought charcoal from one main supplier. Some of the reasons given included easy accessibility (75%), sold good quality charcoal (68%), friendly (42%) and charcoal was always available (33%). In Mombasa County, the survey suggested that there were up to nine charcoal vendors within a 10-minute walking distance.
Economics of the charcoal value chain
Charcoal displayed in tins in Nairobi. Photo by Moses Kariuki
5.1 Value chain actor income
Landowners
Landowners in the three counties indicated that they neither planted, managed, nor ever incurred any direct investment cost on trees for charcoal production. Over 90% of the trees were used by a member of the family to produce charcoal, hence they didn’t need to pay for the wood. Thus, the value of wood was rarely captured in the final farmgate price of charcoal. In the few cases where landowners sold trees for charcoal production, the average price paid for wood to produce one bag of the product was KES 100.
Producers
Most of the producers incurred minimal costs as charcoal production was done using trees from family land. In addition, they used family labour (Table 27). For the few individuals who bought wood, the cost was estimated at KES 100–220 per bag of charcoal. One expenditure item which cut across the counties was tree felling and chopping. This amounted to about KES 35 per bag of charcoal in Kwale, KES 45 in Baringo and KES 60 in Kitui. Transport cost and CPA levy fees were only reported in Baringo at KES 50 and KES 10 per bag, respectively. In Kitui, some respondents reported engaging casual labour to prepare the kilns at a cost of KES 300 per kiln, which produced approximately 10 bags of charcoal; this translates to KES 30 per bag. In summary, the total expenses incurred by charcoal producers in Baringo, Kitui and Kwale was estimated at KES 105, KES 200 and KES 135 per bag, respectively, when the cost of wood is factored in for Kitui and Kwale. When the cost of wood is not included, as people rarely buy wood for charcoal, the total cost of production in Kitui and Kwale reduces to KES 120 and KES 35 respectively.
Based on the expenses tabulated in Table 28 and the weighted annual production per producer, it is estimated that the annual net income of a producer is KES 14,259, KES 8,184 and KES 30,849 in Baringo, Kitui and Kwale, respectively. However, if the wood is free in Kitui and Baringo, the net income rises to KES 11,484 and KES 42,149, respectively.
| County | Expenses | Cost description | Cost per bag (KES) |
|--------|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------|
| | Cost of wood | Wood is never sold as there are plenty of Prosopis and other Acacia species. | 0 |
| | Tree felling (Power saw) | KES 600 per litre of fuel used by power saw to fell and chop the tree. This can produce 10-20 bags of charcoal. | 30-60 (Average 45) |
| | Transport | KES 50 to transport 1 sack to collection centre or KES 200 to transport 4 bags to roadside. | 50 |
| | CPA levy | KES 10 per bag (At collection centre) | 10 |
| | **Total** | | **105** |
| | Cost of wood | KES 100 per bag | 100 |
| | Labour | KES 300 for kiln preparation to produce 10 bags. | 30 |
| | Tree felling and chopping into logs with power saw | KES 500-700 to fell a tree that can produce 10 bags (Charged at KES 500 to fell and chop the tree or KES 700 for every litre of fuel used by the power saw during the work) | 50-70 (Average 60) |
| | Packaging material | Recycled polypropylene sack | 30 |
| | **Total** | | **220** |
| | Cost of wood | KES 2000 for a tree that can produce 20 bags | 100 |
| | Tree felling and chopping into logs with power saw | KES 700 for every litre of fuel used by the power saw during the work. This can produce about 20 bags of charcoal | 35 |
| | **Total** | | **135** |
Table 28. Charcoal producers’ income
| | Baringo | Kitui | Kwale |
|--------------------------------|---------|---------|-----------|
| Cost of producing a bag of charcoal (KES)* | 105 | 220 (120) | 135 (35) |
| Average number of bags produced per annum | 49 | 33 | 113 |
| Selling price per bag | 396 | 468 | 408 |
| Net profit per bag | 291 | 248 (348)| 273 (373) |
| Net income per annum | 14,259 | 8184 (11,484) | 30,849(42,149) |
*Item without the cost of wood shown into brackets
Table 29. Charcoal transporters’ estimated expenses and income*
| | Baringo-Nairobi | Busia-Nairobi | Kitui-Nairobi | Kwale-Mombasa |
|--------------------------------|-----------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
| Capacity of truck (bags) | 100 | 170 | 170 | 160 |
| Cost of charcoal (KES) | 450 | 900 | 450 | 400 |
| Average expenses (KES) | 262 | 411 | 305 | 318 |
| Informal payments (KES) | 202 | 122 | 176 | - |
| Total expenses (KES) | 914 | 1433 | 931 | 718 |
| Selling price (KES) | 1500 | 1750 | 1650 | 1700 |
| Net income per bag (KES) | 586 | 317 | 719 | 982 |
| Number of trips | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Net income per month (KES) | 234,400 | 215,560 | 488,920 | 314,240 |
* Might not capture all the expenses as it is based on a small sample and informal taxes were not included
Transporters
The income of a transporter was largely dependent on the capacity of the truck as well as frequency of trips made (Table 29). The Kitui-Nairobi route was the most lucrative, owing to minimal expenses and the higher price of charcoal compared to Baringo-Nairobi. The Busia-Nairobi route had low returns principally due to the high cost of charcoal from Uganda. The Baringo-Nairobi route also had relatively low returns mostly due to the low price of charcoal at designated market points in the city as dictated by “market barons”. The Kwale-Mombasa route was relatively lucrative, with transporters making two trips per month.
Vendors
In Nairobi, the study established that there were two categories of charcoal traders: those who sold in both retail and wholesale\(^4\), and those who only operated as retailers. Based on the reported sales and expenses, it is estimated that the net monthly income of a wholesaler/retailer in Nairobi was about KES 40,997, while that of a retailer was KES 11,277. In Mombasa, the net monthly income of a wholesaler was estimated at KES 141,112 while that of a retailer was estimated at KES 25,865 (Table 30).
Charcoal market channels
Due to spatial and temporal differences in locations where the data was collected, there were some slight differences between the prices reported by different actors.
For example, the average selling price of charcoal reported by producers in Kitui was KES 468, while the buying price reported by transporters was KES 450 (Table 31). To harmonize these figures, the average price was calculated from the two given prices, where applicable. Wholesale prices are the calculated prices per bag from specific areas, while retail prices are those calculated when charcoal was sold in smaller units such as tins or using weighing balances.
---
\(^4\) Wholesale traders mostly sell in bags, while retailers mostly sell in smaller units like tins, buckets or even use weighing scales.
Table 30. Charcoal vendors’ expenses and income
| Expenses | Nairobi Wholesaler/retailers | Nairobi Retailers | Mombasa Wholesaler/retailers | Mombasa Retailers |
|-----------------------------------------------|-----------------------------|-------------------|------------------------------|-------------------|
| Cost of charcoal (KES) | 2,100 | 2,100 | 1,700 | 1,700 |
| Other expenses (KES) | 143 | 154 | 86 | 67 |
| Quantity of charcoal sold (Bags) per month | 96 | 22 | 208 | 25 |
| Individual sales units breakdown (% in brackets) | Tins 73 (76%) | 21 (96%) | - | - |
| | Bags- 20 (21%) | - | 148 (71%) | 3 (12%) |
| | 10-kg oil bucket 3 (3%) | 1 (4%) | - | - |
| | Other units - | - | 60 (29%) | 22 (88%) |
| | Total bags 96 (100%) | 22 (96%) | 208 (100%) | 25 (100%) |
| Income from one bag based on units of sale | Tins 2773 | 2273 | - | - |
| | Bags- 2300 | 2300 | 2300 | 2300 |
| | 10-kg oil bucket 2632 | 2632 | - | - |
| | Other units - | - | 2870 | 2870 |
| Total revenue based on units sold (KES) | 256,325 | 60,865 | 512,600 | 70,040 |
| Total expenses based on bags sold | 215,328 | 49,588 | 371,488 | 44,175 |
| Net monthly income (KES) | 40,997 | 11,277 | 141,112 | 25,865 |
Table 31. Harmonized prices for different actors
| Route | Kitui-Nairobi | Kwale-Mombasa | Baringo-Nairobi | Busia-Nairobi |
|----------------|---------------|---------------|-----------------|---------------|
| Item | Average price reported | Calculated average | Average price reported | Calculated average | Average price reported | Calculated average |
| Producer selling price (KES) | 468 | 459 | 408 | 408 | 396 | 423 |
| Transporter buying price (KES) | 450 | 400 | 450 | 900 |
| Transporter selling price (KES) | 1650 | 1700 | 1500 | 1750 |
| Broker buying price (KES) | 1650 | - | 1500 | - |
| Broker selling price* (KES) | 2000 | 2050 | 2000 | 1925 |
| Vendor buying price (KES) | 2100 | 1700 | 2100 | 2100 |
| Wholesaler selling price (KES) | 2300 | 2300 | 2300 | 2300 |
| Retailer selling price (KES) | 2773 | 2870 | 2773 | 2773 |
*Average between KES 1700-2300
There were a number of charcoal marketing channels available to producers as shown in Figure 37. The shortest channel was from producers to consumers through rural market centres or roadside display. This was observed in Kitui and Baringo. Longer channels involved local brokers, CPAs, transporters, urban brokers, wholesalers and/or retailers. These were mostly for supplying cities like Nairobi which made charcoal quite expensive compared to other smaller centres. For example, transporters from Baringo reported that they shipped their charcoal to Nairobi and sold through brokers, whilst those from Busia had their own yards.
5.1.1 The Kitui-Nairobi supply chain
The Kitui-Nairobi supply chain is a long one that includes brokers in the city. The result is reduced returns for both vendors and transporters. The transporter’s margin accounts for the largest share of the final price of charcoal in the supply chain at 52% when the product is sold in bags or 43% when it is sold in tins (Figure 38). When retailers sell charcoal in tins, their margin as a proportion of the final price comes in second at 26%, but this reduces to only 11% if the charcoal is sold in bags. The brokers are third when charcoal is sold in bags with 17%, followed by producers with 16% of the share of the final price. For net income per bag, transporters take a large share of KES 710, followed by retailers (when they sell charcoal in tins) at KES 569. Brokers made a net income of KES 400 while producers made KES 239 per bag.
5.1.2 The Baringo-Nairobi value chain
The Baringo-Nairobi supply chain had brokers in Nairobi and sometimes CPAs at the production end, making it a long chain. The transporters’ gross margin accounted for the largest share of the final price of a bag: 47% when charcoal is sold in bags and 39% when it is sold in tins. Retailers were second with a share of 26% when the charcoal is sold in tins, followed by brokers at 24% and producers at 18%. The transporters also had the largest net income per bag of KES 613, followed by retailers when they sold charcoal in tins at KES 569. The brokers had a net income of KES 500 while producers made KES 318 per bag (Figure 39).
5.1.3 The Busia-Nairobi value chain
The Busia-Nairobi charcoal supply chain could only be traced from the Kenya-Uganda border at Busia. As such, all calculations were done based on the Ugandan charcoal transporters in Busia as the source. The study established that the Kenyan transporter’s gross margin accounts for the largest share of the final price of a bag at 45% (Figure 40). The Ugandan transporter’s margin is second at 39% of the final price share, while the share of retailers is third at 16% or 31% if the charcoal is sold in bags or tins, respectively. In terms of net income per bag, the retailer who sells charcoal in tins makes KES 781 per bag while a transporter makes KES 492.
Figure 39. Baringo-Nairobi charcoal supply chain
| | Buying price (KES) | Expenses (KES) | Gross margin (KES) | GM share percent | Net income (KES) |
|----------------|-------------------|----------------|--------------------|-----------------|------------------|
| Landowner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Charcoal maker | 0 | 105 | 423 | 18% (15%) | 0 |
| Transporter | 423 | 464 | 1077 | 47% (39%) | 318 |
| Brokers | 1500 | 0 | 550 | 24% (20%) | 613 |
| Wholesaler/retailer | 2050 | 143(154) | 250(723) | 11% (26%) | 550 |
| Consumer | 2300 (2773) * | | | | |
*value when charcoal is sold in tins presented in brackets
Figure 40. Busia-Nairobi charcoal supply chain
| | Buying price (KES) | Expenses (KES) | Gross margin (KES) | GM share percent | Net income (KES) |
|----------------|-------------------|----------------|--------------------|-----------------|------------------|
| Landowner | - | - | - | - | - |
| Charcoal maker | - | - | 900 | 39% (32%) | 0 |
| Transporter | - | - | 533 | 45% (37%) | 492 |
| Wholesaler/retailer | 900 | 1025 | 375(848) | 16% (31%) | 289 (781) |
| Consumer | 2300 (2773) * | | | | |
*value when charcoal is sold in tins presented in brackets
5.1.4 The Kwale-Mombasa supply chain
Charcoal transporters between Kwale and Mombasa sold directly to wholesalers, retailers and small businesses. The transporters’ margin accounted for the largest share of the final price (56%) when the charcoal was sold in bags (Figure 41). The retailer’s margin accounted for 41% of the final price when the charcoal is sold in tins, but only 26% when it is sold in bags. The charcoal producers’ margin accounted for only 13% of the price share, while the landowners’ share was only 5%. If retailers sell their charcoal in tins, they make the largest net income from a bag of charcoal at KES 1103. However, this reduces to KES 514 when charcoal is sold in bags. The transporters also make a net income of KES 941, while the producer and landowner make KES 173 and KES 100, respectively.
5.2 Effects of the charcoal ban
On 24th February 2018, the Government of Kenya imposed a moratorium on logging and timber harvesting in the country, which prohibited production or transportation of charcoal. Though this study did not dwell on the ban and its impact thereof, findings indicated that it had a direct impact on the sourcing, production and pricing of charcoal. Further interactions with communities in Kitui revealed that the charcoal trade had been driven underground as the “3-bag policy” allowed transporters and traders to make several trips. However, this had an impact on the operations of the Charcoal Producers’ Associations who were rendered redundant. Visibly empty were the CPA-run collection points and bulking centres (Figure 42). Yet, they are a key institution in the implementation of the Forest (Charcoal) Rules 2009 (revised 2012) which aims to promote sustainable production and trade of charcoal (GOK, 2009).
| | Landowner | Charcoal maker | Transporter | Wholesaler/retailer | Consumer |
|----------------|-----------|----------------|-------------|---------------------|----------|
| Buying price | 0 | 100 | 408 | 1700 | 2300 |
| Expenses | 0 | 135 | 351 | 86(67) | |
| Gross margin | 100 | 308 | 1292 | 600 (1,170) | |
| GM share percent | 5% (3%) | 13% (11%) | 56% (45%) | 26% (41%) | |
| Net income | 100 | 173 | 941 | 514 (1103) | |
*value when charcoal is sold in other units presented in brackets
Figure 41. Kwale-Mombasa charcoal supply chain
Significant amounts of charcoal was said to be sourced from the neighbouring countries of Uganda and South Sudan, both legally and illegally. This is a typical demonstration of leakage, where internal conservation challenges are transferred to neighbouring countries because parts of the charcoal value chain have been criminalized, and no alternative energy sources availed for the vast majority of the population. Moreover, charcoal is a key source of household income in the three study areas contributing 48%, 26% and 14% of the overall household income in Kwale, Baringo and Kitui, respectively. This dependence on charcoal explains why the proportion of producers did not change significantly during the ban, except in Kwale. However, the quantity produced per respondent dropped significantly especially in Kitui. The charcoal ban therefore had a significant negative impact on the livelihoods of producers, especially those with less diversified income sources (Figure 43).
Finally, although the charcoal ban resulted in minimal change in average producer selling price in the three study locations, it led to a substantial increase in consumer prices. For example, the price of a bag in Nairobi was reported to increase from KES 1575 in March 2018 to KES 2200 in October 2018, representing a 40% increase. Likewise, the price of a tin was reported to increase from KES 711 in March 2018 to KES 92.2 in October 2018, representing a 30% increase. This translated to a huge financial burden for most charcoal consumers who reside in urban centres.
Charcoal ban
- Increased cost of cooking
- Reduced number, types of meals
- Poor eating habits /Poor nutrition
- Increased prices of charcoal in Nairobi/cities
- Reduced county revenue
- Illegal production/trade in charcoal
- Poor charcoal quality/production methods
- Less hiring of motorbikes
- Fewer purchases of Goods and Services (reduced circulation of money)
- Household livelihood/domestic challenges
- Migration in search of employment
- Less income for small-scale producer
- Increased petty theft
- Children drop out of school
- Reduced remittance
Source: Sola et al, 2020
Figure 43. Kitui stakeholder perspectives of impacts of charcoal ban
Gender perspectives in the charcoal value chain
Informal charcoal collection point in Kitui. Photo by Geoffrey Ndegwa
6.1 The participation of women and men in the charcoal value chain
On an aggregate level, women accounted for 43% of the surveyed charcoal producers – a considerably high figure for a sector conventionally perceived as male-dominated (e.g., Zulu and Richardson, 2012). Women also accounted for nearly half (45.9%) of surveyed landowners. Only one of the 10 surveyed brokers was a woman, while women similarly accounted for 10% of the predominantly urban wholesalers surveyed for this study. Charcoal transport was found to be dominated by men, with women accounting for roughly a quarter of transporters\(^5\). Even more men dominated charcoal retail (86.1%) which could have been a result of the ban and logging moratorium presenting additional challenges for women (Table 32). This is in stark contrast to earlier studies, which have found charcoal retail in Kenya to be heavily female-dominated (e.g., Ndegwa et al. 2016).
There are stark differences between counties. In Baringo and Kitui, women accounted for around half of all producers (47% and 55% respectively), while only 17% of producers in Kwale were women. However, most female producers in Baringo lived in male-headed households (93%) while female heads-of-households (FHHs) constituted the majority of female producers in Kitui (65%). In Kitui, women – mainly FHHs – also accounted for more than half (57%) of all surveyed landowners, compared to 43% in Baringo and 33% in Kwale. A relatively higher share of resident women following a high incidence of male out-migration in Kitui is a plausible explanation for this difference.
This study was not able to assess any potential impact that the ongoing charcoal ban might have had on women and men’s participation. Profitability and lack of alternative income sources were the key reasons for engaging in the charcoal value chain for men as indicated by 27% and 28% of the respondents, respectively. Slightly higher proportions of female heads-of-households, 35% and 33%, gave these two reasons as well. Women in male-headed households, however, placed relatively more importance on ease of entry (33%) and limited capital requirements (Figure 44).
---
\(^5\) 20 out of 21 transporters were surveyed in Kwale
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**Table 32. Participation in charcoal value chain by gender**
| Value chain role | Gender (% proportion) | Sample |
|------------------|-----------------------|--------|
| | Male | Female | N |
| Landowners | 54.1 | 45.9 | 231 |
| Producers | 56.7 | 43.3 | 252 |
| Transporters | 72.4 | 27.6 | 29 |
| Brokers | 90 | 10 | 10 |
| Wholesalers | 89.7 | 10.3 | 58 |
| Retailers | 86.1 | 13.9 | 101 |
6.2 Sources and ownership of trees
Regarding the sourcing of trees, ‘own farm’ was by far the most common source for both women (87%) and men (84.5%). It was particularly common for women in MHHs (90%, compared to 81% of FHHs). Interestingly, however, no women sourced trees from government forests, while this was reported by one out of 10 men. At the same time, neighbourhood farms were the second most common source for FHHs (14.9%), in contrast to 3.2% for men. Comparing male and female landowners, men were slightly more likely to have a member of the household produce charcoal out of their trees at 65.5% and 52.8% respectively (Table 33). Interestingly, fewer female landowners sold or exchanged trees with 8.3% and 22.6% for women and men, respectively.
Table 33. Sources of trees by gender
| % Respondents | Women in FHH | Women in MHH | Men |
|---------------|--------------|--------------|-----|
| Own farm | 81 | 91 | 84 |
| Neighbour’s farm | 15 | 3 | 3 |
| Government forest | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Private forest | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Community land | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Other sources | 0 | 4 | 1 |
Regarding producers’ reasons for preferred charcoal tree species, availability of the resource was stressed by more women in male-headed households (44%) than men (27%) and women in female-headed households (24%). However, while more female-headed households (47.6%) preferred species that produce the best charcoal, fewer men (19%) valued that attribute. Instead, more of them (35.8%) favoured species preferred by their customers. This could be an indication of weaker links between female heads-of-households and their customers, as nearly three out of four FHHs reported selling their charcoal near the production site compared to their male counterparts (Figure 45).
6.3 Charcoal production
When asked about the months during which women and men produced the most and the least, the findings suggest a clear peak in production for women between late June and October, with limited activity during the rest of the year. At the same time, production volumes tended to peak towards the end of the year, suggesting a potential mismatch between producers’ preferred period of engagement and peak demand for charcoal. Interestingly, while the last quarter of the year was associated with the highest charcoal prices in Kitui, the same period correlated...
with low prices for producers in Kwale and Baringo. Price fluctuations across the year were found to be far higher in Kitui, where selling prices nearly doubled during the final quarter of the year.
Male producers reported producing more evenly throughout the year, although this is likely influenced to some extent by seasonal differences in production peaks between counties. Both FHHs and women in MHHs showed a similar production pattern, suggesting that women’s involvement may be more flexible and influenced by seasonal activities and expenses (Figure 46). While no differences were observed in production techniques, male producers produced between two and three times as much as female heads-of-households throughout the year. However, production volumes reported by women in male-headed households were similar to those of male producers, again suggesting some degree of collaboration and labour-sharing within the household.
At the same time, average earnings received by both female heads-of-households as well as women in male-headed households tended to be lower throughout the year in both Kitui and Baringo, where most of the surveyed female producers were located. Generally, across all sites, earnings received by men tended to be 11% higher than female heads-of-households and 24% higher than women in male-headed households. However, in all the sites, the logging moratorium and ban on movement of charcoal could have influenced pricing, more so in Kitui where there was a local ban (Figure 47).
### 6.4 Charcoal transportation
When quizzed about transport, 90% of interviewed FHHs either transported their charcoal by foot (40%) or didn’t transport it at all (50%). While no FHHs transported by motorcycle, 22% of women in MHHs did – potentially suggesting some degree...
of collaboration or coordination within the household. At the same time, more than a third of male charcoal producers reported using motorized transport. The observed gender segregation of transport means is in line with earlier studies in Kenya (e.g., Delahunty-Pike, 2012) and could suggest a greater involvement of women in more localized value chains.
However, this pattern became less evident among the interviewed transporters. While the study only identified seven female transporters – constituting roughly a quarter of all surveyed transporters – six of them reported using either a truck or motorcycle (Figure 48). Given the limited sample size and the targeted sampling of individuals, these results are inconclusive in terms of gender equity.
6.5 Charcoal trade
As demonstrated earlier, the survey suggests that the charcoal trade is dominated by men. A particularly surprising finding is the considerably low share of women among charcoal retailers (14%), a node identified as female-dominated by a number of earlier studies (e.g., Ndegwa et al, 2016; KFS, 2013). The considerable male dominance in both urban wholesale and retail could perhaps, to some extent, be explained by the fact that during the time of the survey, importation of charcoal into urban areas was inhibited by the ban and logging moratorium. When asked about key challenges in the charcoal business, findings indicated that female traders highlighted low quality, charcoal ban and harassment by law enforcement more often when compared to their male counterparts (Figure 49).
**Figure 48. Means of charcoal transportation by gender**
**Figure 49. Main challenges in the charcoal business by gender**
Conclusion and recommendations
Informal charcoal collection point in Kitui. Photo by Geoffrey Ndegwa
The last comprehensive charcoal value chain study in Kenya was conducted almost a decade ago by KFS (2013). Still, the findings confirm the trends reported in these studies. These trends have shown that the charcoal value chains in Kenya are very resilient and adaptive, as there is an insatiable demand for cooking and heating energy sources in urban and peri-urban areas, making charcoal an indispensable energy source for most urban households.
High dependence on woodfuel is driven by both lack of alternatives and preferences. A large proportion of the population uses both LPG and charcoal to manage expenditure and respond to diversity of cooking practices and dietary preferences. It is the urban poor who are more reliant on the charcoal as more than 60% of consumers bought the product in small quantities (tins, buckets and small packets) which reflects the low purchasing power of most of the consumers.
Thus, charcoal plays a critical role in the energy sector, providing fuel for more than half of the urban households and income for many rural households. It remains the second most important income source, an attractive economic venture after agriculture and a coping strategy for many. Income generation and employment are the main drivers and motivation for value chain actors to engage in the charcoal business. Thus, production and trade of this commodity is a viable business as all actors made more than 20% in gross profit margins, with transporters netting more than 45% per bag. In addition, producers realized 50% to 100% in net profits. However, there are critical issues like lack of valuation of wood used for charcoal production.
Although the charcoal value chain is dominated by men, women make up a significant proportion of up to 45% at the production-end, but just about 10% at the trade-end of the value chain. This could have been exacerbated by the logging moratorium and charcoal movement ban. Equally, there were very few women in the middle of the value chain as it requires some means of production, absence from home, and interacting with regulators, thus exposing them to rent-seeking officials (Ndegwa et al., 2020). In addition, this study showed that there were differences between women heads-of-households and women in male-headed households which should be taken into account when promoting gender equity along the charcoal value chain.
Improvements in the nature, processes and technologies employed during production cannot be over-emphasized if unnecessary tree-cutting is to be reduced. Value chain actors do not have access to adequate technical services which could catalyze improvements in technological efficiencies in tree-growing and wood carbonization. Charcoal production practices and technologies are still very traditional and wasteful; there is a lot of unnecessary tree cutting and most landowners are not involved in tree planting or any tree management practices that would promote tree regeneration and growth. Production is mostly done using earth mound kilns and producers rarely undertake wood pre-drying to improve the efficiency of their production process. Landowners, charcoal producers and traders require support to address various challenges, and improve operations and efficiency in the value chain in order to retain more trees in the landscape.
Legal provisions for formalizing and legalizing charcoal production were hardly complied with. Very few charcoal producers were members of associations, even though it is a legal requirement. The charcoal ban had an impact on the value chain; there was a significant reduction in production, changes in major supply basins, routes and mechanisms most of which resulted in price increases. Charcoal prices had been steadily increasing over time, but the highest increase was recorded in March–April 2018, the period just after the national logging moratorium was announced.
Therefore, in the short- and medium-term there is need to invest in making woodfuel value chains green, sustainable and competitive. Transition to clean cooking is still a long way off. Contrary to the long-standing assumptions of the energy ladder, people are falling back or stacking energy sources to manage expenditure, reliability, meal diversity and cultural preferences. Therefore, the solution is not just transition, but reducing the amount of charcoal consumed in the household energy-mix by providing appropriate, affordable and reliable alternatives, and ensuring efficient and sustainable sourcing and production of charcoal.
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Appendix 1. Questionnaire for value chain actors (tree/landowners, producers, traders and transporters)
Date..........................................
Name of interviewer...............................................................
County................................. Sub-county..............................
Name of town/market............................................................
Geographical location
Latitude: S [ ] [ ] [ ] . [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Longitude: E [ ] [ ] [ ] . [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Section 1.1 Personal / Socio Demographic and Economic characteristics
Q1. Name of respondent ...............................................................
Q2. Relationship with the household head ...........................................
Q3. Gender of respondent:
1. Male □
2. Female □
Q4. Level of education of VC actor
1. Lower primary school (class 1-4) □
2. Upper primary school (class 5-8) □
3. Secondary school □
4. Other □
4. Tertiary level □
5. University □
6. None □ Specify ......................
Q5. Age of VC actor ...............Years
Q6. Size of household (residing together and eating from same pot) ....................
Q7. What are the three main sources of household income and level of contribution (as %) to household income needs?
1. Main activity......................... % contribution to HH income income...........
2. Second activity..................... % contribution to HH income income...........
3. Third activity....................... % contribution to HH income income...........
Q8. Role in Charcoal value chain (Multiple responses accepted)
1. Producer □
2. Broker (Rural) □
3. Wholesaler (Rural) □
4. Wholesaler (Urban) □
5. Transporter □
6. Retailer □
7. Other □ Specify ..............
Q9. Number of years in charcoal production/trade...........................................
Q10. Location(s) of operation (forest/land, shop/yard; route etc) and sub-county and county
1. ...........................................................................................................
2. ...........................................................................................................
3. ...........................................................................................................
4. ...........................................................................................................
Section 1.2 Land owners/tree growers
Q11. Fill in the following table in relation to your land ownership.
| | Description | |
|---|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
| 1 | Total land size from all parcels (acres) | |
| 2 | Tenure (with/without title deed, group ranch etc) | |
| 3 | Percentage of land under crop cultivation | |
| 3 | Percentage of land left fallow | |
| 4 | Percentage of land under trees | |
Q12. What are the main tree species in your land?
| | Local Name | English name | Majority planted (P) or grew naturally (N)? | Estimated number of mature trees | Suitable for charcoal production? |
|---|------------|--------------|---------------------------------------------|---------------------------------|----------------------------------|
| 1 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
| 2 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
| 3 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
| 4 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
| 5 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
| 6 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
| 7 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
| 8 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
| 9 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
|10 | | | P ☐; N ☐ | | YES ☐; NO ☐ |
Q13. What are your main reason(s) for the choice of species mentioned for charcoal production?
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
Q14. For the **charcoal trees** that were planted, what were the costs of planting and how long do they take to reach a size suitable for charcoal production?
| | Species planted | Cost of planting and management (KES/tree) | Years to maturity | Estimated size (DBH) | Estimated quantity of charcoal from mature tree (bags) |
|---|-----------------|------------------------------------------|------------------|----------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | | 1. Seedlings ..................<br>2. Fertilization ..........<br>3. Management ..........<br>4. Others ..................... | | | |
| 2 | | 1. Seedlings ..................<br>2. Fertilization ..........<br>3. Management ..........<br>4. Others ..................... | | | |
| 3 | | 1. Seedlings ..................<br>2. Fertilization ..........<br>3. Management ..........<br>4. Others ..................... | | | |
| 4 | | 1. Seedlings ..................<br>2. Fertilization ..........<br>3. Management ..........<br>4. Others ..................... | | | |
| 5 | | 1. Seedlings ..................<br>2. Fertilization ..........<br>3. Management ..........<br>4. Others ..................... | | | |
Q15. What methods of biomass harvesting for charcoal do you use and reason for adopting them?
1. Clear felling □ Reason..........................
2. Selective harvesting □ Reason..........................
3. Pruning/pollarding □ Reason..........................
4. Collection of dead woods/stump □ Reason..........................
Q16. How do you avail trees to charcoal producers?
A member of the household makes charcoal □ State relationship ...............
Sold to local producers □ Price per tree (KES) ............
Sold to migrant producers □ Price per tree (KES) ............
Given to producers for a share of charcoal □ Percentage/amount .......
Given to producers in exchange for farm labour □ Explain ........................................
Given freely to the producers □ Explain ........................................
Other □ Explain .........................................
Q17. How much charcoal has been produced from your land over the last 12 months? ...... Bags.
Q18. What is the current level of availability of charcoal production tree species in the land?
Abundant (There are many trees of the preferred species and size)
□
Scarce (There are only a suitable few trees left in the farm)
□
Completely depleted (one can hardly find any trees of the preferred species and size
□
Q19. What is current and planned future landuse of the land where the trees were/are being harvested for charcoal production?
Current landuse...........................................................................................................
Planned future landuse..................................................................................................
Q20. After tree harvesting for charcoal, are there any management practices undertaken to support regeneration?
YES ☐ Explain...............................................................
NO ☐ Explain...............................................................
Q21. Are there any regulation governing tree cutting for charcoal in this area?
YES ☐ Explain...............................................................
NO ☐
Q22. If you answer is yes, who enforces these regulations? .........................................
Q23. Have you received any kind of support as tree growers/land owners? (for example, seedlings, training, financial support, marketing etc)
YES ☐ State ......................From:...............................
NO ☐
Section 1.3 Charcoal producers
Q24. Why did you get involved in the charcoal production business?
1. It is very profitable
2. It is easy to get into
3. It is a common trade practiced by the family
4. Requires little or no capital
6. It is the only income generating activity available
7. Other (Specify)..........................
Q25. What is your main source of trees
1. Own farm ☐ Location ..........................................
2. Neighborhood farms ☐ Location ..........................................
3. Government forest ☐ Location ..........................................
4. Private forest/ranch ☐ Location ..........................................
5. Other ☐ Specify .............................................
Q26. If NOT getting trees from own farm, what is the costs associated with sourcing trees?
1. Free ☐ Explain ..........................................
2. Buying ☐ Cost (KES) ..........................................
3. Exchange with portion of produced charcoal ☐ Percentage/quantity ........
4. Exchange with labor for farm clearance ☐ Explain..........................................
5. Other ☐ Specify .............................................
Q27. What is the amount of charcoal (bags) you have produced in the last 12 months?
| Charcoal produced | Quantity* | Highest price | Normal price | Lowest price |
|-------------------|-----------|---------------|--------------|-------------|
| Oct-Dec 2017 | | | | |
| Jan-Mar 2018 | | | | |
| April-Jun 2018 | | | | |
| Jul-Sep 2018 | | | | |
Estimated weight of bag ...............kg
Q28. What factors determine your final selling price?
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
Q29. Which months are you usually involved in charcoal production? _______________________
Q30. What are the main reasons for your involvement in these months?
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
Q31. Which months are you usually less/not involved in charcoal production? ___________________
Q32. What are the main reasons for less/lack of involvement in these months? ___________________
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
Q33. Name three tree species that you mostly produce charcoal from.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
Q34. Give reasons why you make charcoal from these tree species (multiple answers accepted)
1. They are readily available □
2. They are preferred by my customers □
3. They are easy to produce with □
4. They produce the best charcoal □
5. Charcoal from the trees fetches better market prices □
6. Others □ Specify________________________
Q35. List three tree species that customers prefer charcoal from
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
Q36. State the reasons why customers prefer charcoal from these tree species.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
Q37. Give an indication of the availability of the preferred tree species in your production locality?
1. Abundant (There are many trees of the preferred species and size) □
2. Scarce (There are only a suitable few trees left in the farm) □
3. Completely depleted (one can hardly find any trees of the preferred species and size) □
Q38. What production kilns do you use?
1. Earth-mound kiln □
2. Drum kiln □
3. Brick kiln □
4. Casamance kiln □
5. Other □ Specify ________________________________
Q39. If using other kilns apart from earth-mound kilns, how does wood get to the production site?
1. Transport wood to the kiln site
2. Transport kiln to the site where wood is harvested
3. Other (Specify __________________________)
Q40. How long does a normal production run last from kiln establishment/setting up to unloading? _______ Days
Q41. What is the average charcoal yield of such a kiln? ________ bags
Q42. Do you pre-dry your wood before producing charcoal?
YES □ How long____ days
NO □
Q43. In terms of percentage of charcoal you sold in the last 12 months, rank your main customer categories?
| Customer | Location (market/town) | Rank | % of charcoal bought |
|-------------------|------------------------|------|----------------------|
| 1 Local broker | | | |
| 2 Transporter | | | |
| 3 Wholesaler | | | |
| 4 Retailer | | | |
| 5 Consumers-household | | | |
| 6 Consumers-Institutions | | | |
Q44. How do your customers procure charcoal from you?
1. They come to/around the production site
2. I display the charcoal by the roadside
3. They come to my market/selling point
4. I transport to a common collection/selling point
5. I transport to their premises
6. Others
□ Specify _______________
Q45. If you transport, what means of transport do you use?
1. On foot
2. By truck/pick-up truck
3. By bicycle
4. By handcart/donkey cart
5. Others
□ Specify _______________________
Q46. If transportation is NOT on foot, do you own the means of transport you use? 1. YES □ 2. NO □
Q47. If you do not own the means, how much does it cost to transport one bag of charcoal (KES)? ...
Q48. How far is your charcoal production location from the nearest motorable earth road (km)? .........
Q49. How far is your charcoal production location from the nearest tarmac road (km)? ...................
Q50. a. How far is your charcoal production location from the nearest charcoal collection center (km)...
b. Name of the collection center ..................................................................
Q51. a. How far is your charcoal production location to the nearest rural center (km)? ...................
b. Name of the rural center ............................................................................
Q52. a. How far is your charcoal production location to the nearest major town (km)? ...................
b. Name of the major town ...........................................................................
Q53. Are you a member of a charcoal producer association?
1. YES □ 2. NO □
Q54. If YES, go to questions 55. If No, please answer question 63
Q55. What is the name of the association? ..................................................................
Q56. When was the association formed? ..................................................................
Q57. How many members does the association have? ................................................
Q58. Registration fee (KES) .....................................................................................
Q59. Other requirements to become a member of the association
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________
Q60. Do you produce all your charcoal through the association?
1. YES □ 2. NO □
Q61. If NO, what percentage do you produce as an individual? ..........................
Q62. What would you say are the benefits of belonging to the association?
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
Q63. Why have you not joined any association?
1. There are no associations to join □
2. I am not interested □
3. It is too expensive □
4. It is difficult to meet their demands □
5. Other □ Specify _______________________
Q64. List the main final destinations (towns and county) of the charcoal produced from this locality
1. ________________________________Percentage _________________
2. ________________________________Percentage _________________
3. ________________________________Percentage _________________
4. ________________________________Percentage _________________
5. ________________________________Percentage _________________
Q65. What are the main challenges that you face in the course of your charcoal production business?
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
Q66. Who regulates charcoal production in your area? ...........................................
Q67. Have you received any support as charcoal producers? (for example, training, financial support, technology/equipment etc)
1. YES □ State support & source ...............................................................
2. NO □
Q68. In your own opinion, what should be done to improve the charcoal production business?
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________
Section 1.4 Charcoal traders
Q69. Why did you get involved in charcoal trade?
1. It is very profitable
2. It is easy to get into
3. It is a common trade practiced by the family
4. Requires little or no capital
5. It is the only income generating activity available
6. Other (Specify)..................................
Q70. Category of trader
1. Rural broker
2. Rural wholesaler
3. Urban broker
4. Urban wholesaler
5. Retailer
6. Other
Q71. Who is your main charcoal supplier?
| Supplier | Operation county | Operation Subcounty |
|----------------|------------------|---------------------|
| Broker | | |
| Transporter | | |
| Wholesaler | | |
| Retailer | | |
| Other (specify)| | |
Q72. What is the main unit of charcoal that you buy and how much do you buy per month?
| Unit | Estimated weight (kg) | Price (KES) | Quantity bought per month |
|-----------|-----------------------|-------------|---------------------------|
| Bag | | | |
| Bucket | | | |
| Tin | | | |
| Kasuku | | | |
| Other (specify) | | | |
Q73. If you are aware, kindly list the places where your supplier(s) sources charcoal from.
| Name area | County | Sub-county |
|-----------|--------|------------|
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
Q74. How does the supplier deliver the charcoal to you?
1. On foot
2. By truck/pick-up truck
3. By bicycle
4. By handcart
5. I collect from his shop/yard
6. Others
Q75. What is the main unit of charcoal that you sell and what is the selling price?
| Unit of sale | Estimated weight (kg) | Price (KES) | Percentage of total sales |
|--------------|-----------------------|-------------|--------------------------|
| Bag | | | |
| Bucket | | | |
| Tin | | | |
| Kasuku | | | |
| Other (specify) | | | |
Q76. Who have been your main customers over the last 12 months?
1. Transporters
2. Wholesalers
3. Brokers
4. Retailers
5. Business (restaurants, kiosk etc.)
6. Institutions
7. Households
8. Others
Q77. Which are the main tree species the charcoal you sell is produced from?
| Tree species | Preference rank |
|--------------|-----------------|
| Local name | English/common name | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
Q78. What is reason why you sell charcoal from these tree species?
1. Easily available
2. Customer preference
3. Lower cost thus higher profit margin
4. Other
Specify:
Q79. What are the main expenses that you incur in KES per month/day/trip?
| Expenses | Specify month/day/trip | Paid to | Point of payment | Amount (KES) | Payment frequency (per day, month, trip, bag) | Description |
|----------------|------------------------|---------|------------------|--------------|-----------------------------------------------|-------------|
| Rent | | | | | | |
| Transport 1 | | | | | | |
| Transport 2 | | | | | | |
| Security | | | | | | |
| Cess 1 | | | | | | |
| Cess 2 | | | | | | |
| Cess 3 | | | | | | |
| Market fee 1 | | | | | | |
| Market fee 2 | | | | | | |
| License 1 | | | | | | |
| License 2 | | | | | | |
| License 3 | | | | | | |
| License 2 | | | | | | |
| Bribes 1 | | | | | | |
| Bribes 2 | | | | | | |
| Bribes 3 | | | | | | |
| Other | | | | | | |
| Other | | | | | | |
| Other | | | | | | |
Q80. Do you belong to any charcoal traders’ association? Yes □ No □
If YES continue with question 81. If Not go to question 87
Q81. Name of the Association _______________________________________________________
Q82. When was the Association formed? _____________________________________________
Q83. How many members does the association have? ________________________________
Q84. Registration fee (KES) ___________________________________________________
Q85. Other requirements to become a member of the association
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________
Q86. What would you say are the benefits of belonging to the association?
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________
Q87. Why have you not joined any association?
1. There are no associations to join
2. I am not interested
3. It is too expensive
4. It is difficult to meet their demands
5. Other
Q88. What are the main challenges that you face in the course of your business?
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________
Q89. Who are the main agencies controlling charcoal trade?
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
Q90. In your own opinion, what should be done to improve the charcoal business?
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________
Section 1.5 Charcoal transporters
Q91. Why did you get involved in charcoal transportation?
1. It is very profitable
2. It is easy to get into
3. It is a common trade practiced by the family
4. Requires little or no capital
5. It is the only income generating activity available around
6. Other (Specify) ____________________________________________________
Q92. Where do you mostly transport your charcoal from (multiple locations accepted)?
| Location | Subcounty | County |
|----------|-----------|--------|
| 1 | | |
| 2 | | |
| 3 | | |
| 4 | | |
Q93. Which are your most common final destinations for your charcoal?
| Location | Subcounty | County |
|----------|-----------|--------|
| 1 | | |
| 2 | | |
| 3 | | |
| 4 | | |
Q94. Who were your main charcoal transport clients in the last 12 months?
| Client | Location | Percentage of total transported |
|-------------------------|----------|---------------------------------|
| 1 Producers (individuals) | | |
| 2 Producer associations | | |
| 3 Brokers | | |
| 4 Wholesalers | | |
| 5 Registered company | | |
| 6 Retailers | | |
| 7 Other | Specify | |
Q95. What is the transport arrangement between you and the clients?
1. They procure/make the charcoal and hire me to transport
2. They place and order which I procure and deliver at an agreed price
3. I buy the charcoal and sell it to them from the truck on a need-basis
4. Other (Explain ........................................)
Q96. What means of transport do you use?
| Means of transport | Capacity (Tonnage) | Capacity (bags) |
|--------------------------|--------------------|-----------------|
| Truck | | |
| pick-up truck | | |
| Bicycle | | |
| Handcart/donkey cart | | |
| Other | Specify ............| |
Q97. Do you own the means of transport? Yes □ No □
Q98. How is the charcoal delivered to you?
1. On foot
2. By truck/pick-up truck
3. By bicycle
4. By handcart
5. I collect from collection center
6. I collect from production point
7. Others
□ Specify .........................................
Q99. Who were your main customers over the last 12 months?
| Customer | Location | Percentage of the total bought |
|-----------------------------------|----------|---------------------------------|
| Transporters | | |
| Wholesalers | | |
| Brokers | | |
| Retailers | | |
| Business (restaurants, kiosk etc.)| | |
| Institutions | | |
| Households | | |
| Others | Specify | |
Q100. What are the main tree species the charcoal you sell is produced from?
| Tree species | Rank |
|--------------|------|
| Local name | English/common name | |
Q101. What is reason dealing in charcoal from these tree species?
1. Easily available
2. Customer preference
3. Lower cost thus higher profit margin
4. Other
Q102. What are you’re the expenses you incur in the course of your transport business from different locations?
| Item | Location 1 | Location 2 | Location 3 | Location 4 |
|-------------------------------------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
| Estimated kilometers | | | | |
| Length of travel (Days) | | | | |
| Vehicle hire (if applicable) | | | | |
| Cost of fuel | | | | |
| Cost of driver | | | | |
| Cost of driver assistant | | | | |
| Cost of labour- rural | | | | |
| Cost of labour- urban | | | | |
| Cost of parking- rural | | | | |
| Cost of parking- urban | | | | |
| Security | | | | |
| Accommodation | | | | |
| Cess 1- Point paid | | | | |
| Cess 2- Point paid | | | | |
| Cess 3- Point paid | | | | |
| License 1- Point of payment | | | | |
| License 2- Point paid | | | | |
| License 3- Point paid | | | | |
| Informal tax 1- Point paid | | | | |
| Informal tax 2- Point paid | | | | |
Q102. Continued
| Item | Location 1 | Location 2 | Location 3 | Location 4 |
|-------------------------------------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
| Informal tax 2- Point paid | | | | |
| Vehicle servicing | | | | |
| Market fees | | | | |
| Other costs- Specify | | | | |
| Cost of charcoal (bags)- common price | | | | |
| Capacity of vehicle (Bags) | | | | |
| Number of trips per month | | | | |
Q103. Is there a difference in the buying price of charcoal between months? Yes □ No □
Q104. If the answer is YES, fill-in the following table
| Location | Description | Price/months | Reason for price variation between months |
|-------------------|-------------------|--------------|-------------------------------------------|
| | High price | | |
| | Months of high price | | |
| | Common price | | |
| | Months of common price | | |
| | Low price | | |
| | Months of low price | | |
| | High price | | |
| | Months of high price | | |
| | Common price | | |
| | Months of common price | | |
| | Low price | | |
| | Months of low price | | |
Q105. Do you belong to any charcoal related association? Yes □ No □
If YES continue with question 106. If Not go to question 112
Q106. Name of the Association………………………………………
Q107. When was the Association formed?……………………………
Q108. How many members does the association have?………………………
Q109. Registration fee (KES)……………………………………
Q110. Other requirements to become a member of the association
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________
Q111. What would you say are the benefits of belonging to the association?
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________
Q112. Why have you not joined any association?
1. There are no associations to join □
2. I am not interested □
3. It is too expensive □
4. It is difficult to meet their demands □
5. Other □ Specify _________________
Q113. What are the main challenges that you face in the course of your business?
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________
Q114. In your own opinion, what should be done to improve the charcoal business?
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________
Appendix 2. Charcoal Consumers Rapid data collection tool
(To be administered at charcoal selling sites)
SECTION 2.1 RESPONDENT INFORMATION
| Name: ................................................................. | Date of interview: ....................................................... |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| Sub-county: ..................................................................... | Location: ........................................................................... |
| Sub-location: .................................................................... | Village/town/estate: ....................................................... |
Relationship to the household head or position in business/institution: _______________________
SECTION 2.2 FOOD FLOW INFORMATION
1. State your primary and secondary cooking energy sources
Primary (Used for majority of household cooking activities): ...........................................
Secondary (Used to supplement the main primary source like to cook light meals, meals that take a long time to cook, cook in main house etc)......................................................
2. What is the reason for using these energy sources as primary and secondary respectively?
**Primary:** Affordable ☐; Readily available ☐; Less emissions ☐; Efficient/less fuel ☐; More heat intensity ☐; Clean ☐; Safe (fire risk) ☐; Easy to use ☐; Mobility(stove) ☐; Culture ☐; Lasts long ☐; Others ☐, Specify……………………………….
**Secondary:** Affordable ☐; Readily available ☐; Less emissions ☐; Efficient/less fuel ☐; More heat intensity ☐; Clean ☐; Safe (fire risk) ☐; Easy to use ☐; Mobility(stove) ☐; Culture ☐; Lasts long ☐; Others ☐, Specify……………………………….
3. What is the **MAIN** unit of charcoal that you buy?
1. Bag/Sack ☐; Estimated weight ...........................................
2. Bucket ☐; Estimated weight ..............................................
3. Kasuku ☐; Estimated weight ..............................................
4. Tin ☐; Estimated weight ....................................................
5. Others ☐; Specify.............................................................
Based on this unit, state the charcoal prices over the last 12 months and specify the unit of sale.
October 2017 ...............
January 2018 ...............
April 2018 .................. Unit of sale..........................................
July 2018 ....................
October 2018 ...............
What are the factors that have affected charcoal pricing over the last 12 months?
1. ___________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________
## SECTION 2.2 FOOD FLOW INFORMATION
| | |
|---|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| 4 | What is the size of your household/population you serve food? |
| | When using only charcoal for cooking, how many days does one unit last? |
| | When using charcoal with other sources of energy, how many days does one unit last? Quantity Units |
| 5 | What are the three main tree species that you prefer charcoal from? |
| | 1. ___________________________ Reason: ____________________________ |
| | 2. ___________________________ Reason: ____________________________ |
| | 3. ___________________________ Reason: ____________________________ |
| | How easy is it to identify charcoal from these species? |
| | 1. Easy (can easily and accurately identify) □ |
| | 2. Moderate (can only identify some of them depending on some key feature like size) □ |
| | 3. Difficult (cannot distinguish between charcoal from different species) □ |
| | Which characteristics enable you to identify charcoal from these species? |
| | 1. Size of charcoal pieces □; Explain .................................. |
| | 2. Weight of charcoal □; Explain ........................................ |
| | 3. Color of charcoal □; Explain ......................................... |
| | 4. Texture of charcoal □; Explain ....................................... |
| | 5. Smell of charcoal □; Explain ......................................... |
| 6 | Is this seller (point of interview) your main supplier of charcoal? |
| | 1. Yes □; |
| | 2. No □, State the main one ............................................ |
| | Why do you prefer buying charcoal from your main supplier? |
| | 1. Price is low compared to others □ |
| | 2. Sells good quality charcoal □ |
| | 3. Friendly □ |
| | 4. Accessibility □ |
| | 5. Customer service (transport, packaging) □ |
| | 6. Always available □ |
| | 7. Others □, Specify .................................................. |
| 7 | How many charcoal sellers are located within 10 minutes’ walk (about 500 meters) from your house? |
| | 1. 0-9 □ |
| | 2. 10-19 □ |
| | 3. 20-29 □ |
| | 4. 30-39 □ |
| | 5. 40-49 □ |
| | 6. 50 and above □ |
Kenya’s charcoal sector is worth billions of dollars in market value and is one of the most important sources of energy in urban and rural areas. This study sought to create greater understanding about the charcoal value chain to understand its structure, function and actors and their roles. The study was carried out through a questionnaire survey in Baringo, Kitui, and Kwale which are key sources of charcoal consumed in Nairobi and Mombasa. Findings indicated that less than 10% of the charcoal is sold through the Charcoal Producer Associations (CPAs), though this is a legal government requirement. About 85% and 15% of the charcoal sold in Nairobi and Mombasa respectively was imported from Uganda which could be due to the logging moratorium and charcoal ban in the country since the beginning of the year 2018. Women accounted for close to 50% of the charcoal producers but their participation was low in the transportation and vending stages of the value chain. The gross margin for landowners, charcoal producers and transporters was between 0-5%, 11-18%, 37-56 whilst that of vendors (wholesalers and retailers) was 11-26% when the charcoal is sold at wholesale price in sacks and 26-41% when sold in small quantities at retail price. From the study, we conclude that: i) the charcoal value chain in Kenya is very resilient and adaptive, as there is an insatiable demand for cooking and heating energy ii) income generation and employment is the main driver and motivation for value chain actors to engage in the charcoal business; iii) processes and technologies used are inefficient, leading to unnecessary tree cutting, and finally; iv) charcoal production and trade is a competitive business for all actors in the value chain. In the short- and medium-term there is need to invest in making woodfuel value chains green, sustainable and competitive.
World Agroforestry (ICRAF)
World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is a centre of science and development excellence that harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment. Leveraging the world’s largest repository of agroforestry science and information, we develop knowledge practices, from farmers’ fields to the global sphere, to ensure food security and environmental sustainability. ICRAF is a CGIAR research centre.
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### Recommended Protein sources
| FOOD | AMOUNT | PROTEIN (g) | CARB (g) | FAT (g) |
|--------------------|----------|-------------|----------|---------|
| Egg (white) | 1 white | 3.5 | 0 | 0 |
| Protein Powder (avg) | 1 scoop | 25 | 3 | 1 |
| Cod | 3 oz. | 18 | 0 | 1 |
| Halibut | 3 oz. | 21 | 0 | 2 |
| Turkey | 3 oz. | 21 | 0 | 3 |
| Chicken | 3 oz. | 21 | 0 | 3 |
| Buffalo | 3 oz. | 21 | 0 | 3 |
| Egg (whole) | 1 egg | 7 | 0 | 5 |
| Filet | 3 oz. | 21 | 0 | 9 |
| Sirloin | 3 oz. | 21 | 0 | 9 |
| Hamburger | 3 oz. | 21 | 0 | 9 |
| Salmon | 3 oz. | 21 | 0 | 12 |
| Lean Pork Loin | 3 oz. | 21 | 0 | 12 |
### Best Carbohydrate sources (70%+)
| FOOD | AMOUNT | PROTEIN (g) | CARB (g) | FAT (g) | FIBER (g) |
|-----------------------------|----------|-------------|----------|---------|-----------|
| Oatmeal | 1 cup | 6 | 57 | 2 | 8 |
| Brown Rice | 1 cup (cooked) | 4 | 45 | 1.5 | 3.5 |
| Sweet Potato | 1 med potato | 2 | 50 | 1 | 4 |
| Quinoa | 1 cup (cooked) | 8 | 40 | 6 | 5 |
### Better Carbohydrate sources (20%+)
- Whole Grain
- White/Red Potato
- White Rice / Jasmine Rice
- Ezekiel Bread
- Whole Grain Pasta
⚠️ **Note** – Best results are achieved by choosing the highest quality carbohydrates as often as possible, at least 70% of the time.
### Good Carbohydrate sources (<10%)
- Low sugar cereal
- Cheerios (original), Shredded Wheat, Grape Nuts Kashi brand cereal (some versions)
- Whole Grain Crackers
- Low sodium, low sugar, Wheat Thins, Low sodium Triscuits
- Regular Pasta / Spaghetti
- Regular Bread / Biscuits / Bagels
- “Other options – Look for items that have low sodium, low sugar and more natural based ingredients.”
*Consuming fibrous vegetables is a great way to get your fiber. At the same time, this will aid in getting valuable micronutrients and will make you feel “full” or satiated for a longer period of time. For more information, review the videos, Success Factor #4 - Eat 2.5 cups of vegetables each day and Success Factor #5 - Get your fiber.*
⚠️ **Note** - These recommendations are Registered Dietitian suggestions for clients utilizing the LifeBase platform whose goal is to optimize healthy fat loss and muscle gain. Consult your personal nutrition coach for more information.
### Recommended Fiber sources**
- Flax Seeds / Chia Seeds
- Vegetables
- Oatmeal
- Quinoa
- Whole Grain Breads
- Avocados
- Blackbeans
- Peanuts, Pistachios
- Blackberries, Raspberries, Blueberries
- Almonds, Cashews, Walnuts
### Recommended Fat sources**
- Avocado
- Salmon
- Olive Oil
- Tuna
- Grapeseed Oil
- Egg Yolks
- Coconut Oil
- Flax / Chia Seeds
### Vegetable recommendations**
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Onions
- Peppers
- Brussel Sprouts
- Celery
- Spinach
- Cucumbers
- Beets
- Cabbage
- Asparagus
- Carrots
### Serving Sizes
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As each of the contributors to this issue knows, if we did not have access to a stimulating landscape at our doorsteps, we might never be inspired to traverse some of the more genial horizons of our own mental terrain to discover clever musings, premium insights and original inventions which are later rendered as essays, art and engineered devices for learning, work and play.
As a society, we derive benefits from these imaginative explorations, such as the pleasure and insight we find in an illustration by Babette Kis, member of Wild Ones' Milwaukee-North Chapter, who has shared with us a vision of her world.
The land inspires artists, writers and engineers
Mary Lee Croatt
Milwaukee-North Chapter
An Aug. 16, 2000, email to friends:
It is August on the prairie. And the war on weeds continues. For those friends and family who think we just sit and stare at the flowers, here is an update.
Some of our friends jokingly talk about our prairie as our “fields of weeds.” They don’t “get it” that there is a huge difference between a weed and a native plant. A weed is an introduced species of plant brought in from a foreign land. Because it is exotic, it has no controls to stop it from spreading.
On our 80 acres of land we have a prairie remnant of approximately 15 acres. It is like a virgin piece of land that has never been tilled for agriculture and possibly not even grazed by animals. I consider it an ecological gem, an antique in the true sense. It has no weeds, except the woody shrubs of Sumac (*Rhus spp.*) or Prickly Ash (*Xanthoxylum americanum*) nearby that want to march in to cover it and ultimately create a forest.
Elsewhere soil has been disturbed for agriculture or development. There weeds inhabit some of that area. So why is a weed so bad? It is bad when it becomes too aggressive and overwhelms and takes over our native plants. For us land restorationists it is not a question to weed or not to weed. It is a question of what to weed, when to weed, and how to weed. We burn. We slash. We uproot. We resort to poison. We time our attacks. We think we conquer … until we look again.
If one has any tendency to be compulsive, like I am, weeds can make me crazy. Some calm self talk, instead of muttering and cursing helps. I remind myself of the good in weeds. Weeds actually can be nature’s band-aids. Where there is soil disturbance weeds erupt to hold down the Earth against erosion. Where some of our native plants have become endangered or extinct, some weeds may become host and nectar sources for insects, butterflies and moths, important creatures in our web of life.
With mega gardening this is a daunting task. I resort to prioritizing according to nastiness. Timing is of the essence. That is why I declare the weed of the week. For most, attacking the plant when it is in flower, right before it goes to seed, is the best time.
Nasty number one for me is Crown Vetch (*Coronilla varia*). I wage a war on vetch. The very name makes my blood curdle. It brings out the nastiness in me. It is the only weed I have had to resort to with poison, using Roundup (glyphosate) when the plant is in flower. I am trying new approaches as the old perimeter becomes a new cancer colony in next year’s vetch patch. I now intend to sow Annual Rye Grass (*Lolium multiflorum*) seed to the bare soil to prevent other weed infestation after my deadly deed is done.
Wild Parsnip (*Pastinaca sativa*) has responded well to our efforts of uprooting. After six years of work, we have decimated this aggressive weed to a fraction. We wear long sleeves, long pants and gloves as we work with it. It is always a hot and sweaty job. Its sap can get on your skin causing photosensitivity. These areas then blister and form dark skin spots which can last for a year. It is not always safe out there on the prairie!
White and Yellow Sweetclover (*Melilotus alba*, *M. officinalis*) are other weeds I watch for and pull when in flower, before they go to seed. Their seeds are known to live for 40 years!
Burdock (*Arctium spp.*) also has responded to our interventions of cutting its root when in flower, before it goes to seed. We pile these and the previously named ones on a brushpile to dry and be burned.
Some of our native good plants can be aggressive and take over. Like a naughty child that needs some discipline, we will give them a whack when needed. Canada Goldenrod (*Solidago canadensis*) is such a creature. When in flower we may mow stands of it to cut it back and allow other plants to get a chance.
As I write, this week’s weed will be thistle (*Cirsium spp.*). Nasty! Thistle implanted a very fine thorn which ultiFear of Fecundity
Chris was moved to write this poem after attending a natural landscaping conference at which keynote speaker Lorraine Johnson used the phrase “fear of fecundity.” Lorraine, who serves on our national board, certainly can demonstrate either meaning of fecundity—“prolific vegetation” or “intellectually productive or inventive to a marked degree.”
They’re so afraid—
of plants that are grown too tall,
too green, a bit too wide.
The clippers, chainsaw, mower come out,
making short work of the innocent offenders.
It’s not a fair fight.
The dust and fumes clear,
the plants looking stunted and sad,
in their proper place again.
No threat to anyone.
What a relief!
What is this preoccupation,
this bias against nature’s lushness?
Is it so dangerous, so threatening?
Can we not enjoy the myriad green shades
of untouched prairie or woodland
rather than yet another (yawn) lawn:
where nothing of interest
or substance grows?
—Christine L. Abresch
Menomonee River Area Chapter
“Man is the animal
that has made friends
with the fire.”
—Henry Van Dyke
1852-1933
A Nov. 8, 2000, followup email:
After writing about my “weed rage,” the response I received from my friends was amazing to me. My roommate from college clearly questioned my sanity. “Is work all that you do? And why?” I reiterated my passion for the Earth and my aim in preserving wild spaces for future generations.
Even though it is hard work, we do love it. We stop to take in the scenery, which is incredible. We have a 220-foot-steep wooded ridge, a flat valley with a river running through it (a premiere trout stream), a small oxbow pond, a very small vernal pond, two feeder streams and a peninsula-shaped bluff with woods, prairie and savanna. The spring ephemerals in the forested land make you think you have died and gone to heaven. It is located in western Wisconsin, 25 miles from the Mississippi River and La Crosse as the crow flies.
We do other things, like brush cutting, burns and seed collecting. We participate in the Coulee region chapter of the Prairie Enthusiasts, a group which saves and maintains prairies. We work together on land restoration. This week we will help on a burn in the Kickapoo Reserve and later brush burn on another member’s land. We also have interesting neighbors: Amish, artists, and the locals, many of Norwegian descent.
There are a lot of interesting activities always going on out there. For instance, Norskedalen is a nearby cul-
(continued on next page)
“Almost always the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better.”
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968
(continued from previous page)
tural and outdoor museum. Also, there is an international ski jumping competition in February five miles from us.
I love being outdoors in the wilderness. It restores my soul and makes my heart sing. Yes, there is really fresh air! We have the fun of watching wildlife: a pair of Great Blue Herons, the Kingfishers, Tree Swallows that stealthily patrol the river, hawks circling and catching their prey, a visiting eagle, an occasional Osprey, deer, Wild Turkeys, beavers, otters, bats. The stars are really bright. The fireflies and dragonflies are awesome. We don’t have mosquitoes. Amazing!
I do smell the clover and enjoy these pleasures of the Earth as I work. That’s especially what happens when I collect seeds from my prairie remnant and plantings throughout the summer and fall. Nothing is more heavenly than being outdoors on a beautiful day getting lost in the rhythm of seed collecting. In the background I hear crickets’ chorus, delightful birdsongs, the gurgling of the river. I feel the sun warm my shoulders and breezes caress my face and hair. Clouds float above me in a vivid blue sky. I am at one with the colors, textures, sounds and scents of my environment. Freeze this moment of serenity! Life doesn’t get much better than this.
In addition to the “weed of the week,” I have a “seed of the week.” When the seed is ripe, it’s time to pick. I carry a few medium-sized heavy plastic bags as I walk the land and pick seeds as I see they are mature. Such profusion! Nature is generous in her insurance that the species will continue, if we don’t intercept. I pick some seeds for my bag and spread some on the ground around the plant mother.
Nature’s packaging of seeds is efficiently devised. There are so many clever ways she creatively wraps seeds. Monarda and Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) shake seed out of their pods like a salt shakers. I collect the pods and shake out the seeds later. Rudbeckia seeds need to be rubbed off its core with thumb pressure. Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) has seeds like nits of fine hair. Aster and goldenrod seeds are like fur patches gathered into tight little bundles.
In autumn I wear a pair of textured, rubber-palmed gloves to strip the seeds off grasses: Big Bluestem, Indiangrass, Little Bluestem. I also wear these same gloves to clean seeds from their casings.
Each day when finished I transfer the collection of seeds into a brown paper bag which I label and date. When time allows I clean the seeds from their chaff and sort them into three groups for future planting. One is for planting on dry land, another for mesic or medium damp soil, and the last is for wetter habitat. I hang the bags on a couple of clotheslines inside my shed to keep them away from hungry rodents. Here they dry and wait until the first snowfall. Then I sprinkle them on the appropriate ground: dry, medium, or wet. Winter works her magic of freezing to crack seed shells and force them into the soil. Spring will warm our seeds into new life. It is indeed an amazing miracle, this circle of life!
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Milwaukee-North Chapter member Lloyd Croatt proselytized prairie salvation in New York City this past summer. Scavenging cardboard from his niece’s Manhattan condominium basement, he had his sign. With her only marking pen, he wrote in bold letters: “Prairies Need Saving.” Leaving his tour-exhausted wife, Mary Lee, in bed, he took the subway to join a crowd gathered outside ABC studios where anchors Charlie Gibson and Dianne Sawyer broadcast from the second floor above an outdoor audience. Lloyd held his sign proudly.
“Prairies need saving?” someone asked.
“Yes. Less than one-tenth of 1 percent of our original prairies exist today,” Lloyd informed them.
Substitute weather reporter Rebecca Coles is “into plants.” During her gardening segment, Lloyd got behind her and held up his sign. Rebecca gave him a thumbs-up gesture. The cameras scanned the scene and Lloyd saw himself on the TV monitor.
From ABC, Lloyd went to the NBC studios and he again raised his sign when the cameras panned the crowd.
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The Fox Valley Area Chapter has developed a creative way to promote Wild Ones. They offer a sign-up sheet at area events offering two complimentary issues of their chapter newsletter. It’s a friendly, soft-sell way to introduce potential new members to the true nature of our organization and a nice public-relations gesture as well. With minimum expense, the chapter can target their mailings to people who already have a spark of interest.
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The Foothills Chapter recently supported the second Highlands Biological Station Conference on Native Plants by donating framed artwork, a woodland collection of over 15 native plants, and two named fern collections grown from spores to their silent auction. These items sold for over $700, and several people asked about this young chapter and Wild Ones in general. Furthermore, chapter president and fern propagator Tom Goforth was invited to give a workshop at the prestigious Cullowhee conference on Native Plants in Western North Carolina—quite an honor, as this conference is well established, quickly fills up and draws people from many areas. If plans go through as hoped, it’s expected to be a good opportunity to introduce Wild Ones to the South.
Part of my property is bordered with a wooded ravine, while the western edge is a deer-ravaged deciduous woodland. Heavy, wet snowstorms in winter or strong, wind-driven thunderstorms in summer scatter branches throughout the area. One can think of all the tiny creatures thriving on such available food and shelter, but at my house I also think of the charming children who come to play there. Almost all of them see the branches and twigs as building materials. Such joy!
On this winter day (January 2000) I look over the landscape at the naked structures stripped of the leaves from shrubs, vines and prairie plantings which hid them in earlier seasons. There are the adult touches such as the Leopold bench adjacent to the flooded ephemeral pond, the sundial and the birdhouses with their predator guards, as well as the woodpile composed entirely of hollow logs (I ladle cracked corn into these protected spots for birds, especially during blizzards, and for Deer Mice at night). These are all knit together with paths.
One summer day the little boy from across the street approached me with his sparkling, mischievous eyes and exclaimed, “Oh, this is such a perfect place to play hide-and-seek. Do you mind?” Such a question tickled my 80-year-old heart. We laughed together as he admonished me not to tell his friends as he crawled under a shrub where a Catbird was scolding. However, it is the children’s architecture which I want to write about.
So often parents have approached me at conferences to say, “I’d really like to do this kind of landscaping after my children have grown, but for now they need a place to play.” (My expletive deleted!!)
About 10 years ago the neighbor on the other side of the ravine would pack a lunch for her six-year-old daughter (Claudia) and a friend. They would climb down the ravine, each with their lunches in bulging red handkerchiefs at the end of long sticks. On my side of the ravine there was an ancient hawthorn (Crataegus) with an extended lower branch. Here they would stop and lean their lunches against another tree. For the next half hour they would gather sticks and prop them in a line along the hawthorn until they had constructed quite a wonderful lean-to. Then they would sit under it, untie their big handkerchiefs and eat lunch while looking across the chasm at Claudia’s house. They did this so often that now I don’t want to give up that view, so I keep Claudia’s hut in good repair as a piece of sculpture in my yard. Several years ago the family moved to Chicago, but Claudia’s little lunch shed remains behind. On this snowy day I can see it from the dining room window.
A few yards to the south, behind a White Pine (Pinus strobus), there is a larger structure. Bob called it a tepee. George said that it was a wickiup. Whatever it is, it now stands in memory of a summer day when the boys gathered branches from a brushpile and assembled them as a shelter for imaginary Indians.
Another structure began as a sod house, but the garden center ran out of sod, so it became a sod fort. The children have hidden fossils, crystals and their favorite rocks between clumps of growing grass which hangs down on the north side like green hair. It’s an amazing fabrication with the sundial on one side and a young Leatherwood shrub (Dirca palustris) next to the entrance.
One warm summer afternoon an old, dead Red Maple (Acer rubrum) toppled down in the ravine leaving its branches pressing on the young trees near the fort. They needed to be rescued. A helpful neighbor arrived with a power saw intent on cutting up the entire tree. Fortunately I was there to redirect him to only free the two young Beech trees (Fagus grandifolia) and the Hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana). Now when friends come with small sons, they invariably leap out of the car and run down the path to climb the length of that mammoth old tree. Is it just instinct which compels a boy to want to climb a tree
(continued on next page)
(continued from previous page)
or build forts or shelters? They all seem to come so quickly to it!
Ryan made a wigwam. He learned to do this in eighth grade science class. The *Heritage Dictionary* describes it as a "North American Indian dwelling having an arched or conical framework overlaid with bark, hides or mats." Ryan's enchanting structure is woven with wild grape (*Vitis spp.*), and in summer a living plant hides the old vines and dried leaves. People come to my yard to photograph prairie flowers, but if they have children, they never leave before getting a photo of Ryan's wigwam.
**PLAYING ON**
In the winter, parents and children turn indoors and often build gingerbread houses. In 1979 Dick Koel designed a prairie plant house (11"x 11"x12") using Cupplant (*Silphium perfoliatum*) stems for the logs. The adjacent fluffy tree is a goldenrod, the bare one is Gray-headed Coneflower (*Ratibida pinnata*) without its seedhead. A butter churn, made from a Canada Goldenrod (*Solidago canadensis*) gall cut in half, sits near the front door. This was a gift for me from Dick from the Menomonee River Area Chapter of Wild Ones. It is easily one of the most wonderful presents I've ever received. And it came from a man who was once a little boy, and now as a parent he is still making houses for play!
—Lorrie Otto
Milwaukee North Chapter
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**New Wasowski Book Dedicated to Lorrie**
A long-anticipated book on prairie landscaping by Sally Wasowski will be available in December according to the publisher, University of Minnesota Press.
*Gardening with Prairie Plants: How to Create Beautiful Native Landscapes* is dedicated to Lorrie Otto and is already garnering praise from the native plant community. The late Floyd Swink (Morton Arboretum), who provided invaluable assistance to the author, said, "This book will be an anchor for prairie enthusiasts for years to come." Colston Burrell, award-winning author of *A Gardener's Encyclopedia of Wildflowers and Perennial Combinations*, remarked that "Sally Wasowski skillfully demonstrates that no yard is too small for a patch of native wildflowers. This lavish book takes us on a tour of native prairies and prairie gardens to show how easy it is to plant and maintain your own beautiful prairie garden."
Lavishly illustrated by photographs by Andy Wasowski, *Gardening with Prairie Plants* includes descriptions of plants native to most of North America—from New York to Colorado, and from Texas north to Minnesota and the central provinces of Canada.
Written for experienced gardeners and brown-thumb homeowners alike, the book contains practical information on every aspect of prairie gardening:
- **Getting started:** how to plan and install small and large landscapes
- **Working with your space:** how to adapt prairie landscapes to suburban neighborhoods and modest city lots
- **How to find the right plants for your yard,** with comprehensive listings for more than 300 species, charts addressing soil and light conditions, easy-to-use range maps and color photographs
- **How to select recommended flowers,** listed by season to ensure continuous bloom and to attract a variety of birds and butterflies.
Sally Wasowski is one of the country's leading authorities on landscaping with native plants, and has co-authored seven other books with her husband, Andy, including *Gardening with Native Plants of the South*, *The Landscaping Revolution*, and *Building Inside Nature's Envelope*. The Wasowskis are honorary directors of Wild Ones and have been honored for their work by the American Horticultural Society, the Native Plant Society of Texas, and the Canadian Wildflower Society.
I wasn’t sure what to do with the space between our semi-formal kitchen garden and our self-made wilderness. No contemplated planting seemed to complement both worlds. Then I noticed that Rainy regularly used the area as a watchdog’s surveillance post. It was she who suggested the site was the perfect place to sit and see all. So I built an observation deck … of Frankenstein-like composition.
Salvaged building materials included stone slabs, foundation rubble, massive stumps, wearied railroad ties and odd-sized landscape timbers. Working much as the builder-children described in Lorrie Otto’s article, I muscled the pieces around until they formed an exoskeleton of nondescript shape with three step-up entry points. Then my friendly public works crew delivered the core fill—a mound of woodchips.
After a few years, the foot-thick filling settled, and I topped it off with a couple cartloads of new chips to maintain the pleasant elevation. Some years from now I expect to rake back the top chips to mine rich humus and will then replenish this organic deck with fresh chips. So, you see, the structure also functions as a composting system. Do weeds invade it? Very rarely. The peripheral components form an almost impenetrable bastion.
No rock, brick or plank will ever be orphaned as long as I can landscape. A trail of recycled materials now flows around our pond from our first mongrel deck to a new second one (where Rainy sits below, watching a pigeon in the walkway). From here we can sweep our gaze to the farthest point of our wildest landscape.
I thank Rainy for teaching me that critters can be advisers in landscape design. —Joy Buslaff
Milwaukee SW-Wehr Chapter
To read about the installation of the pond pictured in the top photo, see the March/April 1999 issue, page 5.
Back issues and individual articles can be ordered from our national headquarters. See ad, back cover.
In 1983 I received a kite as a birthday present from the woman who, later that year, became my wife. With that gift, my wife ignited my interest in kiting and I began to build kites following diagrams that I found in library books and magazines. While my wife was working as a nurse on the p.m. shift, I stayed busy working on my kite projects. I could work away at the sewing machine late into the night without disturbing the sleep of our two young diapered kids. Prior to discovering my interest in kites, I might have spent my creative energies building furniture and other household objects out of wood. My kite projects circled overhead to see what this intrusion was into their domain when I flew my kites on the Willow Flowage in northern Wisconsin. Nature revealed its beauty and power to me as I flew in varied locations. I was learning about weather, wind, how to sew; how to tie a good knot; where to find ripstop nylon, Kevlar flying line, good bamboo and graphite tubing; and much about the fascinating 2,500-year history of kites.
One afternoon I realized that my newly completed kite, flying proudly and pulling hard on the line held in my left hand, was more than powerful enough to lift the weight of the camera I was holding up to my eye with my right hand. I remember that day back in 1987. With my kite flying high in the rays of the setting sun and me standing in a meadow already deep in shadow, I remember thinking “Wow, what if?” Can you imagine what the world looks like from where the kite is? Not just this place, but all the beautiful places that I take my kite. All
It’s fascinating to be able to see the extent of our obsession to work the Earth’s surface into selected patterns. Doing so does not have to mean destroying habitat, but traditionally that has been the case. The water feature above does not offer solid footing for birds, the garden at right is dominated by non-native species.
Our landscapes can be multi-purposed, but planning for birds, bugs and us requires understanding a diversity of needs. It always comes down to education.—Ed.
“Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.” —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
those incredible views that it is privileged to see—if only it had eyes and if only my kite could share that view.
Over the next few weeks I set in motion my dream of seeing what the kite sees. After a few evenings spent at the workbench in the garage thinking and tinkering, I had figured out how I thought it may be possible. I fashioned a way to attach a camera to the line of the kite out of some aluminum, a piece of broom handle, some eye hooks, and a variety of nuts and bolts that I culled from the many bins in the garage. However, I lacked a way to trip the shutter once the camera was airborne under the kite. I wasn’t exactly sure how it would work, but thought I needed a small timer, like the one I had read about in a model airplane magazine, to trip the shutter of the camera. I planned to epoxy that timer to the back of an old camera that I had decided I could live without, a camera that I figured surely I would ruin.
I ordered the de-thermalizing timer and waited several weeks for the hobby shop to call to say the miniature timer was in. A few days later I emerged from the garage successful. Combined with some rubber bands, a small piece of Sitka Spruce, wire, a small screw, part of a picture hanging hook, and a miniature dollhouse hinge, the camera shutter was tripped each time the timer expired.
Oh I was proud of myself. So proud of what I had built that now I wasn’t sure I wanted to attach this thing to a kite and risk dashing it to bits. I decided to wait until the conditions for kite flying were perfect before trying it out, and for several months my creation sat on a shelf like a trophy. Eventually I gave in to temptation and I gave it a whirl. I spent a good part of an afternoon repeating the process of lifting the camera with the kite and waiting for the timer to expire. I then pulled the camera back down to reset the timer, advance the film, and adjusted the angle on the connecting bolts which held the camera to the line and allowed me to change the viewing position of the camera. Then sent the whole works back up into the air to wait on the timer again and again until I had shot the entire roll of film.
The next day, I retrieved the film from the photo lab. The images on the film were out-of-focus, poorly exposed, blurred shots of what looked like me, or at least part of me, standing in my backyard. I found them gorgeous nonetheless. I was astonished by the perspective of the camera held beneath a kite. I could clearly see, in those blurry photos, that this was not an elevated view one would get from a tall ladder or from a nearby rooftop. The view, looking down at myself in my backyard, was clearly from a place somewhat higher than that, but not from a height that you might expect a camera in an airplane or helicopter to capture. This unusual view was more like I imagine a hovering gull, a dragonfly, or a songbird, flitting from tree to tree, might have.
Looking at those first photographs I felt I had stumbled onto something special; a view of the world that only birds and bugs can have. That view, from 150 feet up, captured on that first terrible roll of photographs ignited a passion in me to figure this out. All I needed was a better, faster camera, a better way to control the camera, a more stable way to attach the camera to the kite, a more interesting subject, practice and lots of film.
[Biomimicry is the pursuit of invention inspired by nature. Biomimics are those who study nature’s innovations, and imitate and adapt them for new applications.]
“The law locks up the hapless felon who steals the goose from off the common, but lets the greater felon loose who steals the common from the goose.”—Anonymous
TERMINOLOGY:
- **Jiffy Mix** is one of many brand-name “soilless” blends of peat moss and vermiculite.
- Native legumes, such as the examples that follow, germinate and grow more reliably when *mycorrhizae fungi* are present in the soil or when they are coated on the plants’ seeds. You can buy small quantities of this *inoculant* from many native plant nurseries. To learn more about inoculants, log on to [bio-organics.com/UseNursGrnse.html](http://bio-organics.com/UseNursGrnse.html). Examples: Leadplant (*Amorpha canescens*), Bush Clovers (*Lespedeza spp.*), Prairie Clovers (*Petalostemum spp.*), Indigos (*Baptisia spp.*), and Partridge Pea (*Cassia fasciculata*).
- **Rooting hormone** (most commonly *indolebutyric acid*) is the synthetic twin of a natural plant hormone that stimulates root growth. It can be purchased from most well-stocked garden centers.
- **Water-absorbing polymers** are gel bits that sponge up, then slowly release, water. Pre-moisten them (they expand) then add to mix if you can’t be around to water your plants daily.
Growers’ mixes vary, so feel free to experiment with proportions and ingredients. Some people substitute composted bark or rotted cow manure or humus for peat moss, or poultry grit for sand. You can also incorporate a slow-release fertilizer into your mix or water-absorbing polymers. The following mixes for forbs and grasses are recommended by Joyce Powers, CRM Ecosystems, Mt. Horeb, Wis.
**FORBS AND GRASSES**
- **Base Mix**
*This mix is appropriate for mesic (medium) conditions.*
4 parts potting soil + 1 part Jiffy Mix + ½ part sand.
- **Dry Mix**
*This mix is appropriate for species of dry prairies and meadows. Start with the base mix above and add 1 part sand + ½ part Jiffy Mix.*
- **Wet Mix**
*This mix is appropriate for species of wet prairies and meadows. Start with the base mix above and add 1 part wet peat.*
- **Woodland Mix**
*This mix is appropriate for most of the woodland species. Start with the base mix and add 1 part Jiffy Mix + ½ part sand + ½ part wet peat.*
**TREES & SHRUBS**
*Seeds or Nuts Collected Fall through Spring*
*For most species, the base or woodland mixes above will serve your needs.*
Richard Bir, University of North Carolina extension agent, uses this recipe:
3 parts (3 cubic feet) sifted Southern Pine bark + 1 part sphagnum peat + ¼ cup dolomitic limestone.
*Softwood Cuttings Taken in Spring or Semihardwood Cuttings Taken Early Summer through Fall*
*Dipping cuttings in rooting hormone improves root formation. Try either of these combinations: 1 part peat moss + 1 part perlite, or 1 part peat moss + 1 part sand.*
**PROPAGATION BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR LIBRARY:**
*Growing & Propagating Showy Native Woody Plants* by Richard E. Bir, University of North Carolina Press.
*Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the U.S. and Canada* by William Cullina, Houghton Mifflin.
*How to Grow Native Plants of Texas and The Southwest* by Jill Nokes, University of Texas Press.
*Landscaping with Native Trees* by Guy Sternberg and Jim Wilson, Chapters Publishers & Booksellers.
*Making More Plants* by Ken Druse, Clarkson Potter.
A NOTE FROM THE NATIONAL BOARD
Greetings, Wild Ones members! At this summer’s national board meeting in Kentucky I was elected president of Wild Ones. It is a great honor for me to be able to serve the membership in this role. It is my sincere hope to be able to respond to the challenge as well as our only one-and-only past national president Bret Rappaport did. Bret will continue serving on the Executive Officer Committee as past president to provide consistency and to undertake special projects. Mariette Nowak, from the Milwaukee Southwest-Wehr Chapter, has replaced Mandy Ploch as vice president, and Portia Brown of the Louisville Chapter has stepped into my former position as secretary. Klaus Wisiol remains our treasurer. A sincere and hearty thank you to Bret and Mandy for their years of service to the organization!
As president, it is my intent to continue the Wild Ones’ initiative of restructuring the organization from a localized “garden club” (excuse me, Lorrie) focusing on educating the public about the importance of utilizing native plants in our landscapes to a national organization with the same focus. The national initiative started in 1996 with Bret and Mandy taking on the primary leadership roles. Pat Brust (Wehr Chapter) was national secretary, and Dorothy Boyer (Milwaukee North) was treasurer. Since then, we have restructured the national board, initiated quarterly board meetings, hired an executive director (Donna VanBuecken), implemented recognized accounting principals, established the Seeds For Education Program, built a website and, in the last nine to 12 months, began to establish standing committees. We’ve done all of this in addition to maintaining the daily operation of the organization, publishing *Wild Ones Journal* and attending to numerous other activities required to serve and educate our membership and the public in general.
As a result of this restructuring, there are several new initiatives that the board, other officers and I plan to undertake. Two of these are:
1. **Establishing a corporate membership category.** Many businesses, institutions and governmental agencies have or are involved in establishing native plant settings on their properties. Currently, Wild Ones recognizes a family/residential membership level only, leaving a significant portion of the potential membership uncommitted.
2. **Establishing an annual capital campaign to raise extra funds for special projects.** Currently, we operate on a very tight budget (thus the reason for the recent dues increase) and have no extra funds for special needs, such as the improvement of our website. Through additional fund-raising efforts we can meet special needs without causing a deficit in our budget.
I look forward to the challenge of serving as your national president. Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions you might have or, if you feel you can, to volunteer to assist as we move forward with our restructuring and/or in the operation of our organization.
—Joe Powelka, Madison Chapter
Do you want to start a Wild Ones chapter? Let us post a notice for others to join you. The folks listed here are looking for others to form a nucleus around which a chapter can grow. If you are interested in starting a chapter, request a "Chapter Start-up Kit" from Executive Director Donna VanBuecken. To add your name to our list, send your contact information to the editor. See page 13 for their contact information.
CHAPTER WANNA-BE'S LOOKING FOR MEMBERS:
**ILLINOIS:** Margaret Ovitt, 107 W. Kelly St., Macomb, IL 61455-2925; (309) 836-6231. **Linda Stelle**, 269 Stonegate Rd., Cary, IL 60013; (847) 639-4940; firstname.lastname@example.org. **Linda Quiram**, Bradford (Peoria area), (309) 897-2333.
**INDIANA:** Mary H. Kraft, 5360 E. 161st St.; Noblesville, IN 46060; (317) 773-5361; email@example.com. **Dane Ryan**, RR#1 Box 76C, Cannelburg, IN 47519; (812) 644-7545; firstname.lastname@example.org.
**MICHIGAN:** East Lansing Chapter—Mark S. Ritzenhein, (517) 336-0320; email@example.com.
**NEW HAMPSHIRE:** Marilyn C. Wyzga, 267 Center Rd., Hillsborough, NH 03244; (603) 464-3530; firstname.lastname@example.org.
**NEW YORK:** Bridget Watts, Nature Study Guild Publishers, P.O. Box 10489, Rochester, NY 14610; (716) 482-6090; email@example.com.
**NORTH CAROLINA:** Jane Cornelius, 5429 Millrace Trail, Raleigh, NC 27606-9226; (919) 851-4644; firstname.lastname@example.org. Judith West, 339 Gregg St., Archdale, NC 27263-3303; (336) 431-9322; email@example.com.
**OHIO:** Kris Johnson, P.O. Box 355, (near Toledo) Williston, OH 43468; (419) 836-7637; firstname.lastname@example.org.
**SOUTH DAKOTA:** Peggy Lappe, Box 91, Harrold, SD 57536; (605) 875-3214.
**WISCONSIN:** Sarah Boles, HC73 Box 631, Cable, WI 54821; (715) 794-2548; email@example.com. Rolf Utegaard, P.O. Box 1092, Eau Claire, WI 54702; (715) 834-0065; firstname.lastname@example.org. Karen Isebrands-Brown, Nicolet College, Box 518, Rhinelander, WI 54501; (715) 365-4482. **Bob and Bev Hults**, Hartford, (262) 670-0445.
THESE CHAPTERS NEED MEMBERS FOR MOMENTUM:
**ILLINOIS:** Naturally Wild of LaGrange—Judi Ann Dore, 41 S. LaGrange Rd, LaGrange, IL 60525; (708) 387-1398.
**IOWA:** Wild Rose Chapter—Christine Taliga, (319) 339-9121.
**MICHIGAN:** Calhoun County Chapter—Marilyn Case, Calhoun County, (616) 781-8470; email@example.com. Southwest Michigan Chapter—Sue Stowell, (616) 468-7031.
**MINNESOTA:** Arrowhead Chapter—Carol A. Andrews, (218) 730-9954; firstname.lastname@example.org.
**MISSOURI:** Mid-Missouri Chapter—Lesa Beamer, Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211; (573) 499-3749; email@example.com.
**NEW YORK:** Chenango Valley Chapter—Holly Stegner, (315) 824-1178; firstname.lastname@example.org.
**WISCONSIN:** Door County Chapter—Mary Ann Crayton, (920) 854-6304; email@example.com. Root River Chapter—Carla Freeman, (414) 382-6415; firstname.lastname@example.org.
INDEX NOW ONLINE!
New members can catch up with Wild Ones' literature by ordering back issues and articles listed in our online index. Go to for-wild.org, click on "Journal & Handbook" link, then on "cumulative index" at bottom of next window.
Wild Ones Natural Landscapers is a non-profit organization with a mission to educate and share information with members and community at the plants-roots level and to promote biodiversity and environmentally sound practices. We are a diverse membership interested in natural landscaping using native species in developing plant communities.
NATIONAL OFFICE:
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
DONNA VANBUECKEN
PO. BOX 1274, APPLETON, WI 54912-1274
(877) FYI-WILD (394-9453)
(920) 730-3986
Fax: (920) 730-8654
Email: email@example.com
PRESIDENT
JOE POWELKA ¥ (608) 837-6308
VICE PRESIDENT & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MARIETTE NOWAK ¥ (262) 642-2352
SECRETARY
PORTIA BROWN ¥ (502) 454-4007
TREASURER
KLAUS WISIOL ¥ (847) 548-1649
SEEDS FOR EDUCATION DIRECTOR
STEVE MAASEN ¥ (920) 233-5914
WEBSITE COORDINATOR
MARK CHARLES ¥ (734) 997-8909
LIBRARIAN
ROBERT RYF ¥ (920) 426-2433
CALENDAR COORDINATOR
MARY PAQUETTE ¥ (920) 994-2505
BOARD MEMBERS
PATRICIA ARMSTRONG, Illinois
PORTIA BROWN, Kentucky
MARK CHARLES, Michigan
LORRAINE JOHNSON, Ontario
STEVE MAASEN, Wisconsin
MARIETTE NOWAK, Wisconsin
MANDY PLOCH, Wisconsin
DIANE POWELKA, Wisconsin
JOE POWELKA, Wisconsin
BRET RAPPAPORT, Illinois
LYNN SCHOENECKER, Wisconsin
CHRISTINE TALIGA, Iowa
CRAIG TUFTS, Virginia
LYNN WHITE, Wisconsin
KLAUS WISIOL, Illinois
HONORARY DIRECTORS
DARREL MORRISON, FASLA, Georgia
LORRIE OTTO, Wisconsin
SARA STEIN, New York
ANDY & SALLY WASOWSKI, New Mexico
Wild Ones Journal is published bimonthly by Wild Ones Natural Landscapers. Views expressed are the opinions of the authors. Journal content may be reproduced for non-profit educational purposes as long as the Journal is credited as the source. Individual articles that carry a copyright symbol are the property of the author and cannot be reproduced without the author's written permission. No artwork may be reproduced, except to accompany its original companion text, without written permission of the illustrator or photographer. Contact editor if in doubt about use rights. Manuscripts and illustrations are welcome; contact editor. ADVERTISERS: Contact national office for rates and schedule.
EDITOR: JOY BUSLAFF
Publishers Studio
S89 W22630 Milwaukee Ave.
Big Bend, WI 53103-9539
Voice/Fax: (262) 662-4600
Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Chapters, please send your chapter newsletters or events notices to:
Calendar Coordinator Mary Paquette
N2026 Cedar Rd., Adell, WI 53001
(920) 994-2505 • email@example.com
The meeting place
NATIONAL BOARD QUARTERLY MEETINGS
All members are encouraged to attend the quarterly meetings of the Wild Ones National Board. More details will be printed as they become available or can be obtained from your chapter officers. February 9, 2002 hosted by Milwaukee North Chapter; in conjunction with the Milwaukee Wildflower conference. ■ May 2002 Kalamazoo; date to be confirmed. ■ July 12-14, 2002 Columbus Ohio Chapter will host the 2002 Annual Meeting and Ohio Natural Landscaping Conference. ■ October 2002 St. Louis Chapter; date to be confirmed each chapter. Customary meeting information is given here, but you should always confirm dates and locations with chapter contacts.
ILLINOIS
GREATER DUPAGE CHAPTER
MESSAGE CENTER: (630) 415-IDIG
PAT CLANCY: (630) 964-0448
firstname.lastname@example.org
Chapter usually meets the third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at the College of DuPage, Building K, Room 161, unless otherwise noted.
Nov. 3 (Sat.): Seed Exchange, COD Building K, West Commons; 1-4 p.m.
Nov. 15: "A Burning Issue" a presentation on the ecology of fire, by ecological consultant Wayne Lampa. Leslie Berns, Natural Resource Supervisor for the
Wild Ones recommends that you patronize businesses that support our land ethic regarding species provenance and habitat preservation. The appearance of advertising in Wild Ones Journal does not constitute an endorsement by Wild Ones of any organization or product.
Services For The Landowner
Native Restoration
site analysis, species selection, design, installation, maintenance
Consulting
plant and animal surveys, wildlife habitat improvement, site-specific management plans
Management
prescribed burns, exotic species control, brush removal
Call or Write For A Free Brochure
BILOGIC
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING, LLC
2505 Richardson Street
Fitchburg, WI 53711
(608) 277-9960
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Wildflower has been publishing non-stop for almost 17 years! Join our botanical community.
Get news on wildflower gardening, ecosystem restoration, pollination biology, conservation of rare and common native plants, book reviews, new book listings, native plant societies, poetry, botanizing, travel accounts. Filled with botanical art, illustrations, black & white and color photography. Plug into current, relevant and scientifically accurate information about our Continent's wild flora.
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DuPage County Forest Preserve will talk about burning in the Forest Preserve; and a short video of the burning of Pat Armstrong's prairie yard will be shown.
LAKE-TO-PRARIE CHAPTER
KARIN WISIOL: (847)548-1650
Meetings are usually held on the second Monday of the month at 7:15 p.m. in the Byron Colby Community Barn at Prairie Crossing, Grayslake (Rt. 45, about 1/2 mile south of Ill. 120).
Nov. 12: Seed Exchange/Toast Wild Ones: Annual seed exchange and many short slide presentations of members' endeavors will be shown. Refreshments will be served. Donations would be appreciated. For seed exchange, please bring your native seed in small plastic bags, paper envelopes or vials labeled with the scientific name, common name and habitat preferences.
December: No meeting.
ROCK RIVER VALLEY CHAPTER
SHEILA STENGER: (815) 624-6076
Meetings are usually held the third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m., Jarrett Prairie Center, Byron Forest Preserve, 7993 N. River Road, Byron, unless otherwise noted. Call (815) 234-8535 for information. Public is welcome.
Nov. 15: Annual seed exchange and potluck dinner at Jarrett Prairie Center.
December: No meeting.
INDIANA
GIBSON WOODS CHAPTER
JOY BOWER: (219) 989-9679
email@example.com
Meetings are usually held the second Monday of the month, 7 p.m., at Gibson Woods, 6201 Parrish Ave., Hammond, Ind., unless otherwise noted.
November: Guest speaker, to be announced.
December: Wildlife decorations and social.
NATURALLY WILD OF LA GRANGE CHAPTER
MALIA ARNETT: (708) 354-3200
Meetings are held the first Thursday of the month, at The Natural Habitat Wildlife and Organic Garden Supply Store, 41 S. LaGrange Rd., LaGrange, at 7:30 p.m., unless otherwise noted.
Nov. 1: Regular meeting; topic to be announced.
Dec. 6: Seasonal celebration.
IOWA
WILD ROSE CHAPTER
CHRISTINE TALIGA: (319) 339-9121
Meetings are held the second Monday of every month, First Presbyterian Church, Iowa City, unless otherwise noted. Contact above for information.
KENTUCKY
FRANKFORT CHAPTER
KATIE CLARK: (502) 226-4766
firstname.lastname@example.org
Meetings are usually held on the second Monday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at the Salato Wildlife Education Center Greenhouse #1 Game Farm Rd., off US 60 W (Louisville Rd.), Frankfort, unless otherwise noted.
NATURAL LANDSCAPE CONTRACTOR
- Native landscaping
- Woodland, prairie habitat restoration
- Prairie seedlings
- Wildlife food plots
- Vegetation control
- Native grasses, forbs, trees, shrubs
- Consultation
Lake Shore Contractors, Inc.
920-784-0757 ■ Fax 920-830-2822 ■ 4623 N. Richmond St., Appleton, Wisconsin 54915
Contact Ron Wolff for more information
LOUISVILLE CHAPTER
PORTIA BROWN: (502) 454-4007
email@example.com
Meetings are usually held the fourth Tuesday of the month at the Louisville Nature Center, 3745 Illinois Avenue, unless otherwise noted.
November: Details of Thanksgiving meeting will be sent to local members and guests on mailing list. Call or email above to be put on chapter list.
4th Saturday Work Days: 9 a.m.-noon, weather permitting, at Wildflower Woods in Cherokee Park, at the wooded triangle behind the Daniel Boone statue.
MICHIGAN
ANN ARBOR CHAPTER
TRISH BECKJORD: (734) 669-2713
DAVE MINDELL: (734) 665-7168
firstname.lastname@example.org
BOB GRESE: (734)763-0645
email@example.com
Meetings are usually held the second Wednesday of the month. For meeting information see www.for-wild.org/annarbor/index.html#meetings or contact above.
CADILLAC CHAPTER
PAT RUTA: (231) 876-0378
firstname.lastname@example.org
Meetings are usually held the fourth Thursday of the month, 7-9 p.m. at Lincoln School, 125 Ayer St., Cadillac, unless otherwise noted.
CALHOUN COUNTY CHAPTER
MARILYN CASE: (616) 781-8470
email@example.com
Meetings are usually held on the fourth Tuesday of the month, 7 p.m., at Calhoun Intermediate School District building on G Drive N. and Old US27, unless otherwise noted.
Nov. 27: Program on "Grassland Songbirds," presented by Jim Burns.
December: No meeting scheduled.
CENTRAL UPPER PENINSULA CHAPTER
JAMES LEMPKE: (906)428-9580
firstname.lastname@example.org
Nov. 27 (Tues.): 6:30 p.m. Weed Ordinance Workshop. Location in Rapid River to be determined.
December: No meeting.
DETROIT METRO CHAPTER
CAROL WHEELER: (248) 547-7898
email@example.com
Meetings are usually held the third Wednesday of each month at Royal Oak Library, 7 p.m., unless otherwise noted. Public is welcome; $5 fee for non-members.
FLINT CHAPTER
VIRGINIA CHATFIELD: (810) 655-6580
firstname.lastname@example.org
Meetings are usually held on the second Thursday of each month at Woodside Church, 1509 E. Court St., Flint, 7 p.m., unless otherwise noted.
KALAMAZOO CHAPTER
THOMAS SMALL: (616) 381-4946
Meetings are held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, 7:30 p.m. at Christian Church, 2208 Winchell. Nov. 28: 7 p.m. Chapter annual meeting and second birthday celebration. Speaker to be announced.
December: No meeting.
OAKLAND COUNTY CHAPTER
MARYANN WHITMAN: (248)652-4004
email@example.com
Meetings are usually held the first Thursday of the month at Old Oakland Township Parks/Police Building, Rochester, at 7 p.m.
Nov. 1: Kim Herman of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources will speak on the importance of our natural areas.
Dec. 6: Julie Dingle will be leading members in a hands-on "Holiday Decor Workshop" to help us design outdoor holiday arrangements. Bring natural materials from your yard, pruning shears and a container or two.
SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN CHAPTER
SUE STOWELL: (616) 468-7031
ERIN JONES & NATE FULLER: (616) 926-4691
firstname.lastname@example.org
Meetings are held the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m., Saret Nature Center, unless otherwise noted. Check Chapter web page for updates: www.for-wild.org/swmich/index.html.
MINNESOTA
ARROWHEAD CHAPTER
CAROL ANDREWS: (218) 727-9340
email@example.com
Meetings are usually held the third Thursday of the month at 6:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Location will change each month. Check website for details: www.d.umn.edu/~wildones. Open to the public.
OTTER TAIL CHAPTER
KAREN TERRY: (218) 736-5520
firstname.lastname@example.org
Meetings are held the fourth Monday of the month, 7 p.m., at the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center, Fergus Falls. Visitors are always welcome.
ST. CLOUD CHAPTER
GREG SHIRLEY: (320) 259-0825
email@example.com
Meetings are usually held the fourth Monday of the month at the Heritage Nature Center, 6:30 p.m.
Nov. 26: Regular member meeting.
TWIN CITIES
MARTY RICE: (952) 927-6531
firstname.lastname@example.org
Meetings are usually held the third Tuesday of the month, 7 p.m., at the Nokomis Community Center, 2401 E. Minnehaha Pkwy, Minneapolis, unless otherwise noted.
Nov. 20: Meeting topic: Working with weed laws, regulations, and neighbors.
December: No meeting.
MISSOURI
MID-MISSOURI CHAPTER
LESA BEAMER: email@example.com
Meetings are usually held the second Saturday of the month, 1:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Location varies.
Nov. 10: 10 a.m. Unitarian Universalist Church, Columbia. Meeting to discuss current projects and plans for next year. Members will also tour the meadow on the church grounds. For directions call Lesa at 882-6072 or email.
December: No meeting.
ST. LOUIS CHAPTER
SCOTT WOODBURY: (636) 451-0850
firstname.lastname@example.org
Meetings are usually held the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted; call Shaw Nature Reserve for directions and info. Public welcome.
Nov. 7: Seed exchange and potluck dinner at Earthways House.
NEW YORK
CHENANGO VALLEY CHAPTER
HOLLY STEGNER: (315) 824-1178
email@example.com
For location, dates and times of meetings please contact above.
NEW YORK CITY METRO/LONG ISLAND CHAPTER
ROBERT SAFFER: (718) 768-5488
Meetings will be held in the Members Room, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, 1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn.
OHIO
GREATER CINCINNATI CHAPTER
KATHY McDONALD: (513) 941-6497 firstname.lastname@example.org
Nov. 17: (Sat.) - 10 a.m. Tour of Shaker trace Seed Nursery with Scott Peak. Meet at the Nursery; take I74 to Dry Fork Exit, Rt. to New Haven Rd. Rt. to Nursery.
Dec. 12: (Wed.) - 7:30 p.m. A Holiday Walk with Don Brannen; McKie Center 1644 Chase Ave., Northside.
COLUMBUS CHAPTER
MICHAEL HALL: (614) 939-9273
Meetings are usually held the second Saturday of the month (unless otherwise noted) at 10 a.m. at Innis House, Inniswood Metropolitan Park, 940 Hempstead Rd., Westerville. Meetings are free and open to the public.
Nov. 10: Leave at 10 a.m. from Inniswood Metropolitan Park parking lot to take a tour of Metro Park Wetlands. Tour led by Andrea Haslage, park naturalist.
Dec. 8: Annual election of officers, holiday potluck brunch, and seed exchange. Bring a plate, cup and tableware; coffee and tea provided.
SOUTH CAROLINA
FOOTHILLS CHAPTER, CLEMSON
KATHY KEGLEY: (864) 985-0505
Nov. 17: Planting rescued plants at the S.C. Botanical Garden. Meet at the Gwen Heusel trailhead at 10 a.m. Participants are requested to bring gloves and a shovel if possible. Refreshments served.
Dec. 15: Christmas party and plant/seed swap. Members are asked to bring plants or seeds to exchange and a potluck dish. Location and time to be announced.
WISCONSIN
CENTRAL WISCONSIN CHAPTER
PHYLLIS TUCHSCHER: (715) 384-8751
email@example.com
Meetings are usually held the fourth Tuesday of the month, 7 p.m., in Rooms 1&2, Portage County Extension Building, 1462 Strong's Ave., Stevens Point, unless otherwise noted.
Nov. 29 (Thurs.): "Native and Invasive Plants of Central Wisconsin Wetlands." 7 p.m. at the Fineries Room, Charles M. White Public Library in Stevens Point.
December: No meeting.
DOOR COUNTY CHAPTER
MARYANN CRAYTON: (920) 854-6304 (May-Oct)
firstname.lastname@example.org
November through April meetings are held on the first Monday of the month, 7-9 p.m. Location varies.
Nov. 5: "Pre-European Plant and Animal Communities of Wisconsin," presented by Terri Cooper, naturalist and assistant director of Door County Land Trust. Hear and see what Door County was like prior to settlement to learn what our landscape environment should include now. Location to be determined. Email above or call Nancy Rafal at (920) 839-2191 for information.
December: Watch your e-mail for details on social.
FOX VALLEY AREA CHAPTER
CAROL NIENDORF: (920) 233-4853
email@example.com
DONNA VANBUECKEN: (920) 730-3986
firstname.lastname@example.org
Indoor meetings are held at 7 p.m. at either Memorial Park Arboretum, 1313 E. Witzke Blvd., Appleton, or the Evergreen Retirement Community, 1130 N. Westfield St., Oshkosh.
Nov. 29 (Thurs.): "Shoreline Restoration for Water Quality and Wildlife," presented by Paul Hlina of Leaning Pine Natural Landscaping. Joint session with the Winnibago Audubon Society. 7 p.m., Evergreen Retirement Community, Oshkosh.
December: No meeting.
GREEN BAY CHAPTER
KATHIE TILOT: (920) 336-4992
Meetings are usually held at the Green Bay Botanical Garden, 2600 Larsen Rd., except in summer.
Nov. 14 (Wed.): 7 p.m. Election of officers. "Who's Winning: Aliens or Natives?" a presentation on invasives by Paul Hartman, Brown County UW-Extension horticulture agent. Learn about the latest strategies to manage "invaders."
December: No meeting.
MADISON CHAPTER
LAURIE YAHR: (608) 274-6539
email@example.com
Meetings will be held at Olbrich Botanical Garden, 3330 Atwood Ave., Madison, at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. The public is welcome.
Nov. 15: Potluck, seed exchange and photo contest with the theme: "Capturing the Interaction of Native Flora and Fauna."
December: No meeting.
MENOMONEE RIVER AREA CHAPTER
JAN KOEL: (262) 251-7175
JUDY CRANE: (262) 251-2185
Indoor meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. at The Ranch Communities Services, N84 W19100 Menomonee Ave., Menomonee Falls. Contact Judy Crane for meeting information.
Nov. 20: "Permaculture Around the Farm," presented by organic farmer Greg David, from Prairie Dock Farm, Watertown.
December: No meeting.
MILWAUKEE NORTH CHAPTER
MESSAGE CENTER: (414) 299-9888
Meetings are usually held the second Saturday of the month at the Schlitz Audubon Center, 1111 E. Brown Deer Rd., Bayside, at 9:30 a.m.
Nov. 10: "Easy Prairie Plants and Their Companions," slide presentation by Richard Barloga.
Dec. 8: "Telling Stories on Ourselves," an informal sharing of anecdotes by various members; seed swapping.
MILWAUKEE SOUTHWEST-WEHR CHAPTER
MESSAGE CENTER: (414) 299-9888
Meetings are usually held the second Saturday of the month at the Wehr Nature Center, 1:30 p.m.
Nov. 10: "Easy Prairie Plants and Their Companions," a slide presentation by Richard Barloga.
Dec. 8: A holiday gathering with a seed exchange, videos, a photo contest and treats.
ROOT RIVER AREA CHAPTER
CARLA FREEMAN: (414) 382-6415
firstname.lastname@example.org
All meetings are held from September through May, the first Saturday of the month, 1:30-3 p.m., at the Riverbend Nature Center in Racine, unless otherwise noted.
Nov. 3: Speaker on local weed ordinances.
Dec. 1: Seed exchange.
Members can contact Nan Calvert at email@example.com for fall/winter activity information.
REMOVE INVASIVE, NON-NATIVE TREES BY THE ROOT WITH THE ROOT TALON™
Major credit cards accepted, or send check or money order for $54.95 ($47 plus $7.95 shipping) to:
LAMPE DESIGN, LLC
262 South Griggs Street
St. Paul, MN 55105
Toll-free (866) 334-9964
Minn. residents add 6.5% sales tax
Visit our website: www.lampedesign.com
BEGIN WITH A SEED
The Riveredge Guide to Growing Wisconsin Prairie Plants
A UNIQUE NEW RESOURCE
* In-depth information on propagating 400+ prairie species native to Wisconsin & Upper Midwest; 111 pages
* Details for each species in compact, easy-to-use format
* Companion software disk w/ spreadsheet & database files from book; can sort to create custom lists, or add own data
$19.95/book
$29.95/set (book & disk)
plus shipping & handling of $2.75/book or set
WI residents add 5.6% sales tax
Available from:
Riveredge Nature Center
P.O. Box 26, Newburg, WI 53060-0026
Tel: 262-675-6888(local) 262-375-2715(metro)
Fax: 262-375-2714
WHAT’S A CONFERENCE?
If you’re new to Wild Ones, you may not know about the many valuable conferences held across the nation. We don’t have room to highlight every one, however, they are all generally similar. Let’s look at one our Fox Valley Area Chapter is hosting to show you what pleasures await you. Three topics (three different speakers in three different rooms) are offered each session. Speakers usually present a slide show and offer handouts. You may choose the session of greatest interest, or you may drift in and out of sessions to find one you like. You’re welcome to visit display booths and query staff about their services or products. Refreshments are available, but you may bring a bag lunch if you like. The keynote speaker is someone of renown, and she will address all attendees, putting the frosting on a memorable, life-changing day. Attend a conference—you’ll never stop learning or having fun (teachers can get DPI clock hours for attending this conference).
The Fox Valley Area Chapter of Wild Ones is pleased to announce its Sixth Annual Toward Harmony With Nature Conference to be held Jan. 19, 2002, at the Park Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, Oshkosh, Wis. Cost is $18 members/$25 non-members by pre-registration (by Jan. 15) or $25 members/$30 non-members at the door. A buffet lunch will be available. There will be vendor displays and a silent auction. Contact Jan Wissink at (920) 589-2602 for more info, or mail your registration to Marilyn Holmes, 1845 Indian Point Rd, Oshkosh, WI 54901.
FIRST SESSION: 8:30 A.M.
■ Randy Maurer, Prairie Nursery—“Prairie Planting and Management.”
■ Scott Craven, UW Department of Wildlife Biology—“Living With Wildlife.” ■ Cheryl Bauer and Todd Miller, UW-Madison Arboretum—“Habitat Restoration and School Nature Areas.”
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: 10:30
■ Joyce Powers, president CRM Ecosystems, “The Landscapes We Make.”
SECOND SESSION: 1 P.M.
■ Michael Sands, Prairie Crossing—“Prairie Crossing, A Conservation Community.” ■ Fred Clark, Clark Forestry, Inc. (Restoration Woodlands)—“Managing and Restoring Woodlands.” ■ Roger Bannerman, environmental specialist, Wisconsin DNR—“Rain Gardens.”
THIRD SESSION: 2:45 P.M.
■ Tom Aranow, conservationist, “The Lost Naturalist is Found.” ■ Wendy Walcott, land manager, Schlitz Audubon Center—“Restoring Native Plants in Your Backyard.” ■ Katherine Rill, UW-Oshkosh botanist—“Plants Have Families, Too.”
Wild Ones Membership
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Please check: □ new □ renewal □ new address
Paying for: □ 1 year □ 2 years □ ____ years
BASICALLY WILD ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP-$30
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Please check: □ new □ renewal □ new address
Paying for: □ 1 year □ 2 years □ ____ years
BASICALLY WILD ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP-$30
WILDER DONATION!-$50 WILDEST DONATION!!-$100+
Amount enclosed_________________________________
Chapter preference (chapters listed in “The Meeting Place”)
ENTIRE MEMBERSHIP FEE IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE
Don't get stung! If the imprint above is dated 12/1/01 or 1/1/02, your membership's about to expire.
YOUR TIMELY RENEWAL SAVES ON PAPER AND THE EXPENSE OF OUR SENDING OUT RENEWAL NOTICES.
USE FORM ON PREVIOUS PAGE TO RENEW. NOTIFY US IF YOU MOVE AS BULK MAIL IS NOT FORWARDED.
IN THIS ISSUE:
INSPIRED ........................................... 1
MARY LEE CROATT'S EMAIL ............ 2
FEAR OF FECUNDITY POEM ............. 3
EACH ONE REACH ONE ...................... 4
CHILDREN'S NATURAL ARCHITECTURE .......... 5
A MONGREL INVENTION ....................... 7
WHERE BIRDS AND BUGS GO ............... 8
HEY, BUD, YOU WANNA START SOMETHING? .... 10
THE AFTERLIFE ................................. 11
A NOTE FROM NATIONAL ..................... 11
THE MEETING PLACE .......................... 13
How can we help you?
- WILD ONES YARD SIGNS
Colorful aluminum sign proclaims this land is in harmony with nature. $25*
- WILD ONES JOURNAL
ARTICLE REPRINTS, BACK ISSUES
Shop from our online Periodical Index at www.for-wild.org. Click on link to Journal and Handbook and then Cumulative Index at bottom of next window.
- EARLY VERSION OF WILD ONES HANDBOOK
Created from the best of early Wild Ones literature, this handbook has especially useful information for Midwest residents. $5*
- TAPESTRY OF LEARNING VIDEO
A Wild Ones-produced video for parents, teachers and community groups, featuring Lorrie Otto. Introduce your neighbors to outdoor school natural areas. $10*
- WILD ABOUT WILDFLOWERS VIDEO OR CD-ROM
A showcase of Midwestern seasonal blooms, their identities and habitats. Includes how to advice. $25.**
- STEVE HAZELL'S "FOR THE WILD ONES" MUSICAL CD
Folk singer performs For The Wild Ones and nine other songs. $15*
*Includes S&H. **$5 S&H for first item, $2 for each additional.
For additional information, contact Donna by emailing firstname.lastname@example.org or calling (877) FYI-WILD (sorry, charge cards not accepted). Mail your check (payable to Wild Ones) to: Wild Ones Merchandise, P.O. Box 1274, Appleton, WI 54912-1274. Your chapter may offer these items and more at your regular meetings. | 3da10f44-b21f-405d-b3c6-d863ba66b9d9 | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://wildones.org/wp-content/images/2001Vol14No6Journal.pdf | 2021-10-17T09:44:26+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585171.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20211017082600-20211017112600-00606.warc.gz | 766,212,147 | 15,523 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.938786 | eng_Latn | 0.997426 | [
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Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm
Kenneth C. Laudon Jane P. Laudon
Twelfth Edition
Could you increase your knowledge—and raise your grade—if you...
...used an online tutorial that assisted you with Access and Excel skills mapped to this book?
...learned to use Microsoft’s SharePoint, the number one organizational tool for file sharing and collaboration?
...had flashcards and student PowerPoints to prepare for lectures?
Visit myMISlab, a valuable tool for your student success and your business career.
www.myMISlab.com
By completing the projects in this text, students will be able to demonstrate business knowledge, application software proficiency, and Internet skills. These projects can be used by instructors as learning assessment tools and by students as demonstrations of business, software, and problem-solving skills to future employers. Here are some of the skills and competencies students using this text will be able to demonstrate:
**Business Application skills:** Use of both business and software skills in real-world business applications. Demonstrates both business knowledge and proficiency in spreadsheet, database, and Web page/blog creation tools.
**Internet skills:** Ability to use Internet tools to access information, conduct research, or perform online calculations and analysis.
**Analytical, writing and presentation skills:** Ability to research a specific topic, analyze a problem, think creatively, suggest a solution, and prepare a clear written or oral presentation of the solution, working either individually or with others in a group.
### Business Application Skills
| BUSINESS SKILLS | SOFTWARE SKILLS | CHAPTER |
|------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|---------|
| **Finance and Accounting** | Spreadsheet charts | Chapter 2* |
| Financial statement analysis | Spreadsheet formulas | Chapter 10 |
| Pricing hardware and software | Spreadsheet formulas | Chapter 5 |
| Technology rent vs. buy decision | Spreadsheet formulas | Chapter 5* |
| Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis | Spreadsheet formulas | Chapter 7 |
| Analyzing telecommunications services and costs | Spreadsheet formulas | Chapter 8 |
| Risk assessment | Spreadsheet charts and formulas | Chapter 11 |
| Retirement planning | Spreadsheet formulas and logical functions | Chapter 14 |
| Capital budgeting | Spreadsheet formulas | Chapter 14* |
| **Human Resources** | Database design | Chapter 13* |
| Employee training and skills tracking | Database querying and reporting | Chapter 15 |
| Job posting database and Web page | Database design | |
| | Web page design and creation | |
| **Manufacturing and Production** | Spreadsheet date functions | Chapter 2 |
| Analyzing supplier performance and pricing | Database functions | |
| | Data filtering | |
| Inventory management | Importing data into a database | Chapter 6 |
| | Database querying and reporting | |
| Bill of materials cost sensitivity analysis | Spreadsheet data tables | Chapter 12* |
| | Spreadsheet formulas | |
| **Sales and Marketing** | Database querying and reporting | Chapter 1 |
| Sales trend analysis | | |
| Business Skills | Chapter |
|-----------------------------------------------------|---------|
| Customer reservation system | 3 |
| Improving marketing decisions | 12 |
| Customer profiling | 6* |
| Customer service analysis | 9 |
| Sales lead and customer analysis | 13 |
| Blog creation and design | 4 |
**Internet Skills**
| Skill Description | Chapter |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|
| Using online software tools to calculate shipping costs | 1 |
| Using online interactive mapping software to plan efficient transportation routes| 2 |
| Researching product information and evaluating Web sites for auto sales | 3 |
| Using Internet newsgroups for marketing | 4 |
| Researching travel costs using online travel sites | 5 |
| Searching online databases for products and services | 6 |
| Using Web search engines for business research | 7 |
| Researching and evaluating business outsourcing services | 8 |
| Researching and evaluating supply chain management services | 9 |
| Evaluating e-commerce hosting services | 10 |
| Using shopping bots to compare product price, features, and availability | 11 |
| Using online software tools for retirement planning | 12 |
| Redesigning business processes for Web procurement | 13 |
| Researching real estate prices | 14 |
| Researching international markets and pricing | 15 |
**Analytical, Writing and Presentation Skills**
**BUSINESS PROBLEM**
| Problem Description | Chapter |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|
| Management analysis of a business | 1 |
| Value chain and competitive forces analysis | 3 |
| Business strategy formulation | |
| Formulating a corporate privacy policy | 4 |
| Employee productivity analysis | 7 |
| Disaster recovery planning | 8 |
| Locating and evaluating suppliers | 9 |
| Developing an e-commerce strategy | 10 |
| Identifying knowledge management opportunities | 11 |
| Identifying international markets | 15 |
*Dirt Bikes Running Case on MyMISLab*
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Management Information Systems
MANAGING THE DIGITAL FIRM
TWELFTH EDITION
Kenneth C. Laudon
New York University
Jane P. Laudon
Azimuth Information Systems
Prentice Hall
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ISBN-13: 978-0-13-214285-4
ISBN-10: 0-13-214285-6
Kenneth C. Laudon is a Professor of Information Systems at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Stanford and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has authored twelve books dealing with electronic commerce, information systems, organizations, and society. Professor Laudon has also written over forty articles concerned with the social, organizational, and management impacts of information systems, privacy, ethics, and multimedia technology.
Professor Laudon’s current research is on the planning and management of large-scale information systems and multimedia information technology. He has received grants from the National Science Foundation to study the evolution of national information systems at the Social Security Administration, the IRS, and the FBI. Ken’s research focuses on enterprise system implementation, computer-related organizational and occupational changes in large organizations, changes in management ideology, changes in public policy, and understanding productivity change in the knowledge sector.
Ken Laudon has testified as an expert before the United States Congress. He has been a researcher and consultant to the Office of Technology Assessment (United States Congress), Department of Homeland Security, and to the Office of the President, several executive branch agencies, and Congressional Committees. Professor Laudon also acts as an in-house educator for several consulting firms and as a consultant on systems planning and strategy to several Fortune 500 firms.
At NYU’s Stern School of Business, Ken Laudon teaches courses on Managing the Digital Firm, Information Technology and Corporate Strategy, Professional Responsibility (Ethics), and Electronic Commerce and Digital Markets. Ken Laudon’s hobby is sailing.
Jane Price Laudon is a management consultant in the information systems area and the author of seven books. Her special interests include systems analysis, data management, MIS auditing, software evaluation, and teaching business professionals how to design and use information systems.
Jane received her Ph.D. from Columbia University, her M.A. from Harvard University, and her B.A. from Barnard College. She has taught at Columbia University and the New York University Graduate School of Business. She maintains a lifelong interest in Oriental languages and civilizations.
The Laudons have two daughters, Erica and Elisabeth, to whom this book is dedicated.
## Brief Contents
### Part One
Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise 1
- Chapter 1: Information Systems in Global Business Today 2
- Chapter 2: Global E-Business and Collaboration 40
- Chapter 3: Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy 78
- Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems 120
### Part Two
Information Technology Infrastructure 161
- Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies 162
- Chapter 6: Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management 206
- Chapter 7: Telecommunications, the Internet, and Wireless Technology 244
- Chapter 8: Securing Information Systems 290
### Part Three
Key System Applications for the Digital Age 333
- Chapter 9: Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications 334
- Chapter 10: E-Commerce: Digital Markets, Digital Goods 370
- Chapter 11: Managing Knowledge 414
- Chapter 12: Enhancing Decision Making 452
### Part Four
Building and Managing Systems 485
- Chapter 13: Building Information Systems 486
- Chapter 14: Managing Projects 526
- Chapter 15: Managing Global Systems 558
(available on the Web at www.pearsonhighered.com/laudon)
References R 1
Glossary G 1
Photo and Screen Shot Credits P 1
Indexes I 1
Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise 1
Chapter 1 Information Systems in Global Business Today 2
- **Opening Case:** The New Yankee Stadium Looks to the Future 3
- 1.1 The Role of Information Systems in Business Today 5
- How Information Systems Are Transforming Business 5
- What's New In Management Information Systems? 6
- Globalization Challenges and Opportunities: A Flattened World 8
- **Interactive Session: Management** MIS in Your Pocket 10
- The Emerging Digital Firm 11
- Strategic Business Objectives of Information Systems 12
- 1.2 Perspectives on Information Systems 15
- What is an Information System? 15
- Dimensions of Information Systems 17
- **Interactive Session: Technology** UPS Competes Globally with Information Technology 22
- It Isn't Just Technology: A Business Perspective on Information Systems 24
- Complementary Assets: Organizational Capital and the Right Business Model 26
- 1.3 Contemporary Approaches to Information Systems 28
- Technical Approach 29
- Behavioral Approach 29
- Approach of This Text: Sociotechnical Systems 29
- 1.4 Hands-on MIS Projects 31
- Management Decision Problems 31
- Improving Decision Making: Using Databases to Analyze Sales Trends 31
- Improving Decision Making: Using the Internet to Locate Jobs Requiring Information Systems Knowledge 32
- Learning Track Modules: How Much Does IT Matter?; Information Systems and Your Career, The Emerging Mobile Digital Platform 32
- Review Summary 33
- Key Terms 34
- Review Questions 34
- Discussion Questions 35
- Video Cases 35
- Collaboration and Teamwork: Creating a Web Site for Team Collaboration 35
- **Case Study:** What's the Buzz on Smart Grids? 36
Chapter 2 Global E-Business and Collaboration 40
- **Opening Case:** America's Cup 2010: USA Wins with Information Technology 41
- 2.1 Business Processes and Information Systems 43
- Business Processes 43
- How Information Technology Enhances Business Processes 44
2.2 Types of Business Information Systems 45
Systems for Different Management Groups 45 • Systems for Linking the Enterprise 51
♦ Interactive Session: Organizations Domino’s Sizzles with Pizza Tracker 52
E-business, E-commerce, and E-government 55
2.3 Systems for Collaboration and Teamwork 55
What is Collaboration? 56 • Business Benefits of Collaboration and Teamwork 57 • Building a Collaborative Culture and Business Processes 58 • Tools and Technologies for Collaboration and Teamwork 59
♦ Interactive Session: Management Virtual Meetings: Smart Management 62
2.4 The Information Systems Function in Business 68
The Information Systems Department 68 • Organizing the Information Systems Function 69
2.5 Hands-on MIS Projects 70
Management Decision Problems 70 • Improving Decision Making: Using a Spreadsheet to Select Suppliers 70 • Achieving Operational Excellence: Using Internet Software to Plan Efficient Transportation Routes 71
Learning Track Modules: Systems from a Functional Perspective; IT Enables Collaboration and Teamwork; Challenges of Using Business Information Systems; Organizing the Information Systems Function 72
Review Summary 72 • Key Terms 73 • Review Questions 73 • Discussion Questions 74 • Video Cases 74 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Describing Management Decisions and Systems 74
♦ Case Study: Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble 75
Chapter 3
Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy 78
♦ Opening Case: Verizon or AT&T—Which Company Has the Best Digital Strategy? 79
3.1 Organizations and Information Systems 81
What Is an Organization? 82 • Features of Organizations 84
3.2 How Information Systems Impact Organizations and Business Firms 89
Economic Impacts 89 • Organizational and Behavioral Impacts 91 • The Internet and Organizations 93 • Implications for the Design and Understanding of Information Systems 94
3.3 Using Information Systems to Achieve Competitive Advantage 94
Porter’s Competitive Forces Model 95
Information System Strategies for Dealing with Competitive Forces 96 • The Internet’s Impact on Competitive Advantage 99
♦ Interactive Session: Organizations How Much Do Credit Card Companies Know About You? 100
The Business Value Chain Model 102
♦ Interactive Session: Management Is the iPad a Disruptive Technology? 103
Synergies, Core Competencies, and Network-Based Strategies 106
3.4 Using Systems for Competitive Advantage: Management Issues 111
Sustaining Competitive Advantage 111 • Aligning IT with Business Objectives 111 • Managing Strategic Transitions 112
3.5 Hands-on MIS Projects 113
Management Decision Problems 113 • Improving Decision Making: Using a Database to Clarify Business Strategy 113 • Improving Decision Making: Using Web Tools to Configure and Price an Automobile 114
Learning Track Module: The Changing Business Environment for Information Technology 115
Review Summary 115 • Key Terms 116 • Review Questions 116 • Discussion Questions 117 • Video Cases 117 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Identifying Opportunities for Strategic Information Systems 117
Case Study: Will TV Succumb to the Internet? 118
Chapter 4
Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems 120
Opening Case: Behavioral Targeting And Your Privacy: You’re the Target 121
4.1 Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems 123
A Model for Thinking About Ethical, Social, and Political Issues 124 • Five Moral Dimensions of the Information Age 125 • Key Technology Trends That Raise Ethical Issues 126
4.2 Ethics in an Information Society 129
Basic Concepts: Responsibility, Accountability, and Liability 129 • Ethical Analysis 129 • Candidate Ethical Principles 130 • Professional Codes of Conduct 131 • Some Real-World Ethical Dilemmas 131
4.3 The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems 131
Information Rights: Privacy and Freedom in the Internet Age 131 • Property Rights: Intellectual Property 138 • Accountability, Liability, and Control 141 • System Quality: Data Quality and System Errors 143 • Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries 143
Interactive Session: Organizations The Perils of Texting 147
Interactive Session: Technology Too Much Technology 151
4.4 Hands-on MIS Projects 153
Management Decision Problems 153 • Achieving Operational Excellence: Creating a Simple Blog 154 • Improving Decision Making: Using Internet Newsgroups for Online Market Research 154
Learning Track Modules: Developing a Corporate Code of Ethics for Information Systems 155
Review Summary 155 • Key Terms 155 • Review Questions 156 • Discussion Questions 156 • Video Cases 156 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Developing a Corporate Ethics Code 156
Case Study: When Radiation Therapy Kills 157
Part Two Information Technology Infrastructure 161
Chapter 5 IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies 162
◆ Opening Case: BART Speeds Up with a New IT Infrastructure 163
5.1 IT Infrastructure 165
Defining IT Infrastructure 165 • Evolution of IT Infrastructure 166 • Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution 170
5.2 Infrastructure Components 175
Computer Hardware Platforms 175 • Operating System Platforms 177 • Enterprise Software Applications 177
◆ Interactive Session: Technology New to the Touch 178
Data Management and Storage 179 • Networking/Telecommunications Platforms 180 • Internet Platforms 180 • Consulting and System Integration Services 181
5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends 181
The Emerging Mobile Digital Platform 181 • Grid Computing 182 • Virtualization 182 • Cloud Computing 183 • Green Computing 184 • Autonomic Computing 185 • High-performance and Power-saving Processors 185
◆ Interactive Session: Organizations Is Green Computing Good for Business? 186
5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trends 187
Linux and Open Source Software 187 • Software for the Web: Java and Ajax 188 • Web Services and Service-Oriented Architecture 189 • Software Outsourcing and Cloud Services 191
5.5 Management Issues 194
Dealing with Platform and Infrastructure Change 194 • Management and Governance 194 • Making Wise Infrastructure Investments 195
5.6 Hands-on MIS Projects 198
Management Decision Problems 198 • Improving Decision Making: Using a Spreadsheet to Evaluate Hardware and Software Options 198 • Improving Decision Making: Using Web Research to Budget for a Sales Conference 199
Learning Track Modules: How Computer Hardware and Software Work; Service Level Agreements; The Open Source Software Initiative; Comparing Stages in IT Infrastructure Evolution 200
Review Summary 200 • Key Terms 201 • Review Questions 202 • Discussion Questions 202 • Video Cases 202 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Evaluating Server Operating Systems 202
◆ Case Study: Salesforce.com: Cloud Services Go Mainstream 203
Chapter 6 Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management 206
◆ Opening Case: RR Donnelley Tries to Master Its Data 207
6.1 Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment 209
File Organization Concepts 209 • Problems with the Traditional File Environment 210
6.2 The Database Approach to Data Management 212
Database Management Systems 212 • Capabilities of Database Management Systems 217 • Designing Databases 219
6.3 Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making 221 • Data Warehouses 222 • Tools for Business Intelligence: Multidimensional Data Analysis and Data Mining 224
♦ Interactive Session: Technology What Can Businesses Learn from Text Mining? 227
Databases and the Web 228
6.4 Managing Data Resources 230
Establishing an Information Policy 230 • Ensuring Data Quality 230
♦ Interactive Session: Organizations Credit Bureau Errors—Big People Problems 232
6.5 Hands-on MIS Projects 234
Management Decision Problems 234 • Achieving Operational Excellence: Building a Relational Database for Inventory Management 235 • Improving Decision Making: Searching Online Databases for Overseas Business Resources 236
Learning Track Modules: Database Design, Normalization, and Entity-Relationship Diagramming; Introduction to SQL; Hierarchical and Network Data Models 236
Review Summary 237 • Key Terms 238 • Review Questions 239 • Discussion Questions 239 • Video Cases 239 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Identifying Entities and Attributes in an Online Database 239
♦ Case Study: The Terror Watch List Database’s Troubles Continue 240
Chapter 7 Telecommunications, the Internet, and Wireless Technology 244
♦ Opening Case: Hyundai Heavy Industries Creates a Wireless Shipyard 245
7.1 Telecommunications and Networking in Today’s Business World 247
Networking and Communication Trends 247 • What Is a Computer Network? 247 • Key Digital Networking Technologies 250
7.2 Communications Networks 252
Signals: Digital vs. Analog 252 • Types of Networks 253 • Physical Transmission Media 255
7.3 The Global Internet 257
What Is the Internet? 257 • Internet Addressing and Architecture 258 • Internet Services and Communication Tools 261
♦ Interactive Session: Organizations The Battle Over Net Neutrality 262
♦ Interactive Session: Management Monitoring Employees on Networks: Unethical or Good Business? 266
The Web 268
7.4 The Wireless Revolution 275
Cellular Systems 276 • Wireless Computer Networks and Internet Access 276 • RFID and Wireless Sensor Networks 279
7.5 Hands-on MIS Projects 282
Management Decision Problems 282 • Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software to Evaluate Wireless Services 282 • Achieving Operational Excellence: Using Web Search Engines for Business Research 282
Learning Track Modules: Computing and Communications Services Provided by Commercial Communications Vendors; Broadband Network Services and Technologies; Cellular System Generations; Wireless Applications for CRM, SCM, and Healthcare; Web 2.0 283
Review Summary 284 • Key Terms 285 • Review Questions 286 • Discussion Questions 286 • Video Cases 286 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Evaluating Smartphones 286
Case Study: Google, Apple, and Microsoft Struggle for Your Internet Experience 287
Chapter 8
Securing Information Systems 290
Opening Case: You’re On Facebook? Watch Out! 291
8.1 System Vulnerability and Abuse 293
Why Systems Are Vulnerable 293 • Malicious Software: Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, and Spyware 296 • Hackers and Computer Crime 298 • Internal Threats: Employees 302 • Software Vulnerability 303
Interactive Session: Management When Antivirus Software Cripples Your Computers 304
8.2 Business Value of Security and Control 305
Legal and Regulatory Requirements for Electronic Records Management 306 • Electronic Evidence and Computer Forensics 307
8.3 Establishing a Framework for Security and Control 308
Information Systems Controls 308 • Risk Assessment 309 • Security Policy 310 • Disaster Recovery Planning and Business Continuity Planning 310 • The Role of Auditing 312
8.4 Technologies and Tools for Protecting Information Resources 312
Identity Management and Authentication 312 • Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, and Antivirus Software 314 • Securing Wireless Networks 316 • Encryption and Public Key Infrastructure 317 • Ensuring System Availability 318 • Security Issues for Cloud Computing and the Mobile Digital Platform 320 • Ensuring Software Quality 320
Interactive Session: Technology How Secure Is the Cloud? 321
8.5 Hands-on MIS Projects 323
Management Decision Problems 323 • Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software to Perform a Security Risk Assessment 324 • Improving Decision Making: Evaluating Security Outsourcing Services 325
Learning Track Modules: The Booming Job Market in IT Security; The Sarbanes-Oxley Act; Computer Forensics; General and Application Controls for Information Systems; Management Challenges of Security and Control 325
Review Summary 326 • Key Terms 326 • Review Questions 327 • Discussion Questions 328 • Video Cases 328 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Evaluating Security Software Tools 328
Case Study: Are We Ready for Cyberwarfare? 329
Part Three Key System Applications for the Digital Age 333
Chapter 9 Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications 334
- **Opening Case:** Cannondale Learns to Manage a Global Supply Chain 335
- **Interactive Session:** Organizations Southwest Airlines Takes Off with Better Supply Chain Management 345
- **Interactive Session:** Technology Enterprise Applications Move to the Cloud 358
- **Learning Track Modules:** SAP Business Process Map; Business Processes in Supply Chain Management and Supply Chain Metrics; Best Practice Business Processes in CRM Software 363
- **Case Study:** Border States Industries Fuels Rapid Growth with ERP 366
Chapter 10 E-Commerce: Digital Markets, Digital Goods 370
- **Opening Case:** 4Food: Burgers Go Social 371
- **Learning Track Modules:** E-commerce Today 373 • Why E-Commerce Is Different 374 • Key Concepts in E-Commerce: Digital Markets and Digital Goods in a Global Marketplace 378
- **Learning Track Modules:** Types of E-commerce 381 • E-commerce Business Models 382
Chapter 10
Managing E-Commerce 365
♦ Opening Case: Amazon.com: The World’s Largest Online Retailer 367
10.1 The E-Commerce Environment 369
E-Commerce and the Internet 369 • E-Commerce and the World Wide Web 370 • E-Commerce and the Intranet 372 • E-Commerce and the Extranet 374 • E-Commerce and the Internet of Things 375
10.2 E-Commerce Business Models 376
E-Commerce Revenue Models 387 • Web 2.0: Social Networking and the Wisdom of Crowds 389
♦ Interactive Session: Organizations Twitter Searches for a Business Model 385
E-commerce Revenue Models 387 • Web 2.0: Social Networking and the Wisdom of Crowds 389
♦ Interactive Session: Management Facebook: Managing Your Privacy for Their Profit 390
E-commerce Marketing 392 • B2B E-Commerce: New Efficiencies and Relationships 395
10.3 The Mobile Digital Platform and Mobile E-commerce 399
M-Commerce Services and Applications 399
10.4 Building an E-commerce Web Site 401
Pieces of the Site-building Puzzle 401 • Business Objectives, System Functionality, and Information Requirements 402 • Building the Web Site: In-house Versus Outsourcing 402
10.5 Hands-on MIS 405
Management Decision Problems 405 • Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software to Analyze a Dot-Com Business 406 • Achieving Operational Excellence: Evaluating E-Commerce Hosting Services 406
Learning Track Modules: Building a Web Page; E-Commerce Challenges: The Story of Online Groceries; Build an E-commerce Business Plan; Hot New Careers in E-commerce 407
Review Summary 407 • Key Terms 408 • Review Questions 408 • Discussion Questions 409 • Video Cases 409 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Performing a Competitive Analysis of E-Commerce Sites 409
♦ Case Study: Amazon vs. Walmart: Which Giant Will Dominate E-commerce? 410
Chapter 11
Managing Knowledge 414
♦ Opening Case: Canadian Tire Keeps the Wheels Rolling With Knowledge Management Systems 415
11.1 The Knowledge Management Landscape 417
Important Dimensions of Knowledge 417 • The Knowledge Management Value Chain 419 • Types of Knowledge Management Systems 421
11.2 Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems 422
Enterprise Content Management Systems 422 • Knowledge Network Systems 424 • Collaboration Tools and Learning Management Systems 424
11.3 Knowledge Work Systems 426
Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work 426 • Requirements of Knowledge Work Systems 426 • Examples of Knowledge Work Systems 427
♦ Interactive Session: Technology Augmented Reality: Reality Gets Better 429
11.4 Intelligent Techniques 431
Capturing Knowledge: Expert Systems 432 • Organizational Intelligence: Case-Based Reasoning 434 • Fuzzy Logic Systems 434 • Neural Networks 436 • Genetic Algorithms 438
♦ Interactive Session: Organizations The Flash Crash: Machines Gone Wild? 439
Hybrid AI Systems 441 • Intelligent Agents 441
11.5 Hands-on MIS Projects 443
Management Decision Problems 443 • Improving Decision Making: Building a Simple Expert System for Retirement Planning 443 • Improving Decision Making: Using Intelligent Agents for Comparison Shopping 444
**Learning Track Module:** Challenges of Knowledge Management Systems 444
Review Summary 445 • Key Terms 446 • Review Questions 446 • Discussion Questions 447 • Video Cases 447 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Rating Enterprise Content Management Systems 447
◆ **Case Study:** San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Preserves Expertise with Better Knowledge Management 448
## Chapter 12
### Enhancing Decision Making 452
◆ **Opening Case:** What to Sell? What Price to Charge? Ask the Data 453
12.1 Decision Making and Information Systems 455
Business Value of Improved Decision Making 455 • Types of Decisions 455 • The Decision-Making Process 457 • Managers and Decision Making in the Real World 458 • High-Velocity Automated Decision Making 461
12.2 Business Intelligence in the Enterprise 461
What Is Business Intelligence? 462 • The Business Intelligence Environment 463 • Business Intelligence and Analytics Capabilities 464 • Management Strategies for Developing BI and BA Capabilities 468
◆ **Interactive Session:** Organizations Data-Driven Schools 469
12.3 Business Intelligence Constituencies 471
Decision Support for Operational and Middle Management 471 • Decision Support for Senior Management: Balanced Scorecard and Enterprise Performance Management Methods 473 • Group Decision-Support Systems (GDSS) 475
◆ **Interactive Session:** Management Piloting Valero with Real-time Management 476
12.4 Hands-on MIS Projects 478
Management Decision Problems 478 • Improving Decision Making: Using PivotTables to Analyze Sales Data 478 • Improving Decision Making: Using a Web-Based DSS for Retirement Planning 479
**Learning Track Module:** Building and Using Pivot Tables 479
Review Summary 479 • Key Terms 480 • Review Questions 481 • Discussion Questions 481 • Video Cases 481 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Designing a University GDSS 481
◆ **Case Study:** Does CompStat Reduce Crime? 482
Part Four Building and Managing Systems 475
Chapter 13 Building Information Systems 486
◆ Opening Case: CIMB Group Redesigns Its Account Opening Process 487
13.1 Systems as Planned Organizational Change 489
Systems Development and Organizational Change 489 • Business Process Redesign 491
13.2 Overview of Systems Development 494
◆ Interactive Session: Organizations Can Business Process Management Make a Difference? 495
Systems Analysis 496 • Systems Design 498 • Completing the Systems Development Process 499 • Modeling and Designing Systems: Structured and Object-Oriented Methodologies 502
13.3 Alternative Systems-Building Approaches 506
Traditional Systems Life Cycle 506 • Prototyping 507 • End-User Development 508 • Application Software Packages and Outsourcing 510
◆ Interactive Session: Technology Zimbra Zooms Ahead with OneView 512
13.4 Application Development for the Digital Firm 513
Rapid Application Development (RAD) 514 • Component-Based Development and Web Services 515
13.5 Hands-on MIS Projects 516
Management Decision Problems 516 • Improving Decision Making: Using Database Software to Design a Customer System for Auto Sales 517 • Achieving Operational Excellence: Redesigning Business Processes for Web Procurement 518
Learning Track Modules: Unified Modeling Language (UML); A Primer on Business Process Design and Documentation 518
Review Summary 519 • Key Terms 520 • Review Questions 520 • Discussion Questions 521 • Video Cases 521 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Preparing Web Site Design Specifications 521
◆ Case Study: Are Electronic Medical Records a Cure for Health Care? 522
Chapter 14 Managing Projects 526
◆ Opening Case: Coca-Cola: “Opening Happiness” with a New Project Management System 527
14.1 The Importance of Project Management 529
Runaway Projects and System Failure 529 • Project Management Objectives 530
14.2 Selecting Projects 531
Management Structure for Information Systems Projects 531 • Linking Systems Projects to the Business Plan 532 • Critical Success Factors 532 • Portfolio Analysis 534 • Scoring Models 535
14.3 Establishing the Business Value of Information Systems 536
Information System Cost and Benefits 537 • Real Options Pricing Models 538 • Limitations of Financial Models 539
14.4 Managing Project Risk 539
Dimensions of Project Risk 539 • Change Management and the Concept of Implementation 540 • Controlling Risk Factors 542 • Designing for the Organization 546
♦ Interactive Session: Organizations DTS Systems Scores with Scrum and Application Lifecycle Management 547
Project Management Software Tools 548
♦ Interactive Session: Management Motorola Turns to Project Portfolio Management 550
14.5 Hands-on MIS Projects 552
Management Decision Problems 552 • Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software for Capital Budgeting for a New CAD System 552 • Improving Decision Making: Using Web Tools for Buying and Financing a Home 553
Learning Track Modules: Capital Budgeting Methods for Information System Investments; Information Technology Investments and Productivity; Enterprise Analysis (Business Systems Planning) 553
Review Summary 554 • Key Terms 554 • Review Questions 555 • Discussion Questions 555 • Video Cases 555 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Identifying Implementation Problems 555
♦ Case Study: JetBlue and WestJet: A Tale of Two IS Projects 556
Chapter 15
Managing Global Systems 558
(available on the Web at www.pearsonhighered.com/laudon)
♦ Opening Case: 3M: Sticky Film and Scratchy Things That Sell Around the World 559
15.1 The Growth of International Information Systems 561
Developing an International Information Systems Architecture 562 • The Global Environment: Business Drivers and Challenges 563 • State of the Art 566
15.2 Organizing International Information Systems 567
Global Strategies and Business Organization 567 • Global Systems to Fit the Strategy 568 • Reorganizing the Business 569
15.3 Managing Global Systems 570
A Typical Scenario: Disorganization on a Global Scale 570 • Global Systems Strategy 571 • The Management Solution: Implementation 573
♦ Interactive Session: Management Fonterra: Managing the World’s Milk Trade 575
15.4 Technology Issues and Opportunities for Global Value Chains 576
Computing Platforms and Systems Integration 577 • Connectivity 577 • Software Localization 579
♦ Interactive Session: Organizations How Cell Phones Support Economic Development 580
15.5 Hands-on MIS 582
Management Decision Problems 582 • Achieving Operational Excellence: Building a Job Database and Web Page for an International Consulting
Firm 583 • Improving Decision Making: Conducting International Marketing and Pricing Research 583
Review Summary 584 • Key Terms 584 • Review Questions 585 • Discussion Questions 585 • Video Cases 585 • Collaboration and Teamwork: Identifying Technologies for Global Business Strategies 585
Case Study: WR Grace Consolidates Its General Ledger System 586
References R 1
Glossary G 1
Photo and Screen Shot Credits P 1
Indexes I 1
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BUSINESS CASES AND INTERACTIVE SESSIONS
Here are some of the business firms you will find described in the cases and Interactive Sessions of this book:
Chapter 1: Information Systems in Global Business Today
The New Yankee Stadium Looks to the Future
MIS in Your Pocket
UPS Competes Globally with Information Technology
What’s the Buzz on Smart Grids?
Chapter 2: Global E-Business and Collaboration
America’s Cup 2010: USA Wins with Information Technology
Domino’s Sizzles with Pizza Tracker
Virtual Meetings: Smart Management
Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble
Chapter 3: Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy
Verizon or AT&T—Which Company Has the Best Digital Strategy?
How Much Do Credit Card Companies Know About You?
Is the iPad a Disruptive Technology?
Will TV Succumb to the Internet?
Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems
Behavioral Targeting And Your Privacy: You’re the Target
The Perils of Texting
Too Much Technology
When Radiation Therapy Kills
Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies
BART Speeds Up with a New IT Infrastructure
New to the Touch
Is Green Computing Good for Business?
Salesforce.com: Cloud Services Go Mainstream
Chapter 6: Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management
RR Donnelley Tries to Master Its Data
What Can Businesses Learn from Text Mining?
Credit Bureau Errors—Big People Problems
The Terror Watch List Database’s Troubles Continue
Chapter 7: Telecommunications, the Internet and Wireless Technology
Hyundai Heavy Industries Creates a Wireless Shipyard
The Battle Over Net Neutrality
Monitoring Employees on Networks: Unethical or Good Business?
Google, Apple, and Microsoft Struggle for Your Internet Experience
Chapter 8: Securing Information Systems
You're On Facebook? Watch Out!
When Antivirus Software Cripples Your Computers
How Secure Is the Cloud?
Are We Ready for Cyberwarfare?
Chapter 9: Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications
Cannondale Learns to Manage a Global Supply Chain
Southwest Airlines Takes Off with Better Supply Chain Management
Enterprise Applications Move to the Cloud
Border States Industries Fuels Rapid Growth with ERP
Chapter 10: E-Commerce: Digital Markets, Digital Goods
4Food: Burgers Go Social
Twitter Searches for a Business Model
Facebook: Managing Your Privacy for Their Profit
Amazon vs. Walmart: Which Giant Will Dominate E-commerce?
Chapter 11: Managing Knowledge
Canadian Tire Keeps the Wheels Rolling With Knowledge Management Systems
Augmented Reality: Reality Gets Better
The Flash Crash: Machines Gone Wild?
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Preserves Expertise with Better Knowledge Management
Chapter 12: Enhancing Decision Making
What to Sell? What Price to Charge? Ask the Data
Data-Driven Schools
Piloting Valero with Real-time Management
Does CompStat Reduce Crime?
Chapter 13: Building Information Systems
CIMB Group Redesigns Its Account Opening Process
Can Business Process Management Make a Difference?
Zimbra Zooms Ahead with OneView
Are Electronic Medical Records a Cure for Health Care?
Chapter 14: Managing Projects
Coca-Cola: "Opening Happiness" with a New Project Management System
DTS Systems Scores with Scrum and Application Lifecycle Management
Motorola Turns to Project Portfolio Management
JetBlue and WestJet: A Tale of Two IS Projects
Chapter 15: Managing Global Systems
3M: Sticky Film and Scratchy Things That Sell Around the World
Fonterra: Managing the World's Milk Trade
How Cell Phones Support Economic Development
WR Grace Consolidates Its General Ledger System
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We wrote this book for business school students who want an in-depth look at how today's business firms use information technologies and systems to achieve corporate objectives. Information systems are one of the major tools available to business managers for achieving operational excellence, developing new products and services, improving decision making, and achieving competitive advantage. Students will find here the most up-to-date and comprehensive overview of information systems used by business firms today.
When interviewing potential employees, business firms often look for new hires who know how to use information systems and technologies for achieving bottom-line business results. Regardless of whether a student is an accounting, finance, management, operations management, marketing, or information systems major, the knowledge and information found in this book will be valuable throughout a business career.
**WHAT’S NEW IN THIS EDITION**
**CURRENCY**
The 12th edition features all new opening, closing, and Interactive Session cases. The text, figures, tables, and cases have been updated through November 2010 with the latest sources from industry and MIS research.
**NEW FEATURES**
- Thirty video case studies (2 per chapter) and 15 instructional videos are available online.
- Additional discussion questions are provided in each chapter.
- Management checklists are found throughout the book; they are designed to help future managers make better decisions.
**NEW TOPICS**
- Expanded coverage of business intelligence and business analytics
- Collaboration systems and tools
- Cloud computing
- Cloud-based software services and tools
- Windows 7 and mobile operating systems
- Emerging mobile digital platform
- Office 2010 and Google Apps
- Green computing
- 4G networks
- Network neutrality
- Identity management
• Augmented reality
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Freemium pricing models in e-commerce
• Crowdsourcing and the wisdom of crowds
• E-commerce revenue models
• Building an e-commerce Web site
• Business process management
• Security issues for cloud and mobile platforms
What’s New in MIS
Plenty. A continuing stream of information technology innovations is transforming the traditional business world. What makes the MIS field the most exciting area of study in schools of business is this continuous change in technology, management, and business processes. (Chapter 1 describes these changes in more detail.)
Examples of transforming technologies include the emergence of cloud computing, the growth of a mobile digital business platform based on smartphones, netbook computers, and, not least, the use of social networks by managers to achieve business objectives. Most of these changes have occurred in the last few years. These innovations enable entrepreneurs and innovative traditional firms to create new products and services, develop new business models, and transform the day-to-day conduct of business. In the process, some old businesses, even entire industries, are being destroyed while new businesses are springing up.
For instance, the emergence of online music stores—driven by millions of consumers who prefer iPods and MP3 players—has forever changed the older business model of distributing music on physical devices, such as records and CDs, and then selling them in retail stores. Say goodbye to your local music store! Streaming Hollywood movies from Netflix is transforming the old model of distributing films through theaters and then through DVD rentals at physical stores. Say goodbye to Blockbuster! The growth of cloud computing, and huge data centers, along with high-speed broadband connections to the home support these business model changes.
E-commerce is back, generating over $255 billion in revenue in 2010 and estimated to grow to over $354 billion by 2014. Amazon’s revenue grew 39 percent in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2010, despite the recession, while offline retail grew by 5 percent. E-commerce is changing how firms design, produce, and deliver their products and services. E-commerce has reinvented itself again, disrupting the traditional marketing and advertising industry and putting major media and content firms in jeopardy. Facebook and other social networking sites such as YouTube, Twitter, and Second Life exemplify the new face of e-commerce in the twenty-first century. They sell services. When we think of e-commerce, we tend to think of selling physical products. While this iconic vision of e-commerce is still very powerful and the fastest growing form of retail in the U.S., cropping up alongside is a whole new value stream based on selling services, not goods. Information systems and technologies are the foundation of this new services-based e-commerce.
Likewise, the management of business firms has changed: With new mobile smartphones, high-speed Wi-Fi networks, and wireless laptop computers,
remote salespeople on the road are only seconds away from their managers' questions and oversight. Managers on the move are in direct, continuous contact with their employees. The growth of enterprise-wide information systems with extraordinarily rich data means that managers no longer operate in a fog of confusion, but instead have online, nearly instant access to the important information they need for accurate and timely decisions. In addition to their public uses on the Web, wikis and blogs are becoming important corporate tools for communication, collaboration, and information sharing.
**The 12th Edition: The Comprehensive Solution for the MIS Curriculum**
Since its inception, this text has helped to define the MIS course around the globe. This edition continues to be authoritative, but is also more customizable, flexible, and geared to meeting the needs of different colleges, universities, and individual instructors. This book is now part of a complete learning package that includes the core text and an extensive offering of supplemental materials on the Web.
The core text consists of 15 chapters with hands-on projects covering essential topics in MIS. An important part of the core text is the Video Case Study and Instructional Video package: 30 video case studies (2 video cases per chapter) plus 15 instructional videos that illustrate business uses of information systems, explain new technologies, and explore concepts. Video cases are keyed to the topics of each chapter.
In addition, for students and instructors who want to go deeper into selected topics, there are over 40 online Learning Tracks that cover a variety of MIS topics in greater depth.
myMISlab provides more in-depth coverage of chapter topics, career resources, additional case studies, supplementary chapter material, and data files for hands-on projects.
**THE CORE TEXT**
The core text provides an overview of fundamental MIS concepts using an integrated framework for describing and analyzing information systems. This framework shows information systems composed of management, organization, and technology elements and is reinforced in student projects and case studies.
A diagram accompanying each chapter-opening case graphically illustrates how management, organization, and technology elements work together to create an information system solution to the business challenges discussed in the case.
Chapter Organization
Each chapter contains the following elements:
- A chapter-opening case describing a real-world organization to establish the theme and importance of the chapter
- A diagram analyzing the opening case in terms of the management, organization, and technology model used throughout the text
- A series of learning objectives
- Two Interactive Sessions with case study questions and MIS in Action projects
- A Hands-on MIS Projects section featuring two management decision problems, a hands-on application software project, and a project to develop Internet skills
- A Learning Tracks section identifying supplementary material on myMISlab
- A Review Summary section keyed to the learning objectives
- A list of key terms that students can use to review concepts
- Review questions for students to test their comprehension of chapter material
- Discussion questions raised by the broader themes of the chapter
- A pointer to downloadable video cases
- A Collaboration and Teamwork project to develop teamwork and presentation skills, with options for using open source collaboration tools
- A chapter-ending case study for students to apply chapter concepts
KEY FEATURES
We have enhanced the text to make it more interactive, leading-edge, and appealing to both students and instructors. The features and learning tools are described in the following sections.
Business-Driven with Business Cases and Examples
The text helps students see the direct connection between information systems and business performance. It describes the main business objectives driving the use of information systems and technologies in corporations all over the world: operational excellence, new products and services, customer and supplier intimacy, improved decision making, competitive advantage, and survival. In-text examples and case studies show students how specific companies use information systems to achieve these objectives.
We use only current (2010) examples from business and public organizations throughout the text to illustrate the important concepts in each chapter. All the case studies describe companies or organizations that are familiar to students, such as Google, Facebook, the New York Yankees, Procter & Gamble, and Walmart.
Interactivity
There’s no better way to learn about MIS than by doing MIS. We provide different kinds of hands-on projects where students can work with real-world business scenarios and data, and learn first hand what MIS is all about. These projects heighten student involvement in this exciting subject.
- **New Online Video Case Package.** Students’ can watch short videos online, either in-class or at home or work, and then apply the concepts of the book to the analysis of the video. Every chapter contains at least two business video cases (30 videos in all) that explain how business firms and managers are using information systems, describe new management practices, and
explore concepts discussed in the chapter. Each video case consists of a video about a real-world company, a background text case, and case study questions. These video cases enhance students’ understanding of MIS topics and the relevance of MIS to the business world. In addition, there are 15 instructional videos that describe developments and concepts in MIS keyed to respective chapters.
- **Management Decision Problems.** Each chapter contains two management decision problems that teach students how to apply chapter concepts to real-world business scenarios requiring analysis and decision making.
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**Management Decision Problems**
1. Applebee’s is the largest casual dining chain in the world, with 1,970 locations throughout the United States and nearly 20 other countries worldwide. The menu features beef, chicken, and pork items, as well as burgers, pasta, and seafood. The Applebee’s CEO wants to make the restaurant more profitable by developing menus that are tastier and contain more items that customers want and are willing to pay for despite rising costs for gasoline and agricultural products. How might information systems help management implement this strategy? What pieces of data would Applebee’s need to collect? What kinds of reports would be useful to help management make decisions on how to improve menus and profitability?
Two real-world business scenarios per chapter provide opportunities for students to apply chapter concepts and practice management decision making.
---
- **Collaboration and Teamwork Projects.** Each chapter features a collaborative project that encourages students working in teams to use Google sites, Google Docs, and other open-source collaboration tools. The first team project in Chapter 1 asks students to build a collaborative Google site.
- **Hands-on MIS Projects.** Every chapter concludes with a Hands-on MIS Projects section containing three types of projects: two management decision problems; a hands-on application software exercise using Microsoft Excel Access, or Web page and blog-creation tools; and a project that develops Internet business skills. A Dirt Bikes USA running case in myMISlab provides additional hands-on projects for each chapter.
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**Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise**
| ID | Store No | Sales Region | Item No | Item Description | Unit Price | Units Sold | Week Ending |
|----|----------|--------------|---------|--------------------|------------|------------|-------------|
| 1 | 1 South | 2005 | 17" Monitor | $229.00 | 28 | 10/27/2010 |
| 2 | 1 South | 2005 | 17" Monitor | $229.00 | 30 | 11/24/2010 |
| 3 | 1 South | 2005 | 17" Monitor | $229.00 | 9 | 12/29/2010 |
| 4 | 1 South | 2006 | 101 Keyboard | $19.95 | 33 | 10/27/2010 |
| 5 | 1 South | 2006 | 101 Keyboard | $19.95 | 35 | 11/24/2010 |
| 6 | 1 South | 2006 | 101 Keyboard | $19.95 | 39 | 12/29/2010 |
| 7 | 1 South | 6050 | PC Mouse | $8.95 | 28 | 10/27/2010 |
| 8 | 1 South | 6050 | PC Mouse | $8.95 | 8 | 11/24/2010 |
| 9 | 1 South | 6050 | PC Mouse | $8.95 | 38 | 12/29/2010 |
| 10 | 1 South | 8500 | Desktop CPU | $649.95 | 25 | 10/27/2010 |
| 11 | 1 South | 8500 | Desktop CPU | $649.95 | 27 | 11/24/2010 |
| 12 | 1 South | 8500 | Desktop CPU | $649.95 | 33 | 12/29/2010 |
| 13 | 2 South | 2005 | 17" Monitor | $229.00 | 8 | 10/27/2010 |
| 14 | 2 South | 2005 | 17" Monitor | $229.00 | 8 | 11/24/2010 |
| 15 | 2 South | 2005 | 17" Monitor | $229.00 | 10 | 12/29/2010 |
Students practice using software in real-world settings for achieving operational excellence and enhancing decision making.
should be offered at full price, and which times of the year products should be discounted. Modify the database table, if necessary, to provide all of the information you require. Print your reports and results of queries.
Improving Decision Making: Using Intelligent Agents for Comparison Shopping
Software skills: Web browser and shopping bot software
Business skills: Product evaluation and selection
This project will give you experience using shopping bots to search online for products, find product information, and find the best prices and vendors.
You have decided to purchase a new digital camera. Select a digital camera you might want to purchase, such as the Canon Powershot S95 or the Olympus Stylus 7040. To purchase the camera as inexpensively as possible, try several of the shopping bot sites, which do the price comparisons for you. Visit My Simon (www.mysimon.com), BizRate.com (www.bizrate.com), and Google Product Search. Compare these shopping sites in terms of their ease of use, number of offerings, speed in obtaining information, thoroughness of information offered about the product and seller, and price selection. Which site or sites would you use and why? Which camera would you select and why? How helpful were these sites for making your decision?
- **Interactive Sessions.** Two short cases in each chapter have been redesigned as Interactive Sessions to be used in the classroom (or on Internet discussion boards) to stimulate student interest and active learning. Each case concludes with two types of activities: case study questions and MIS in Action. The case study questions provide topics for class discussion, Internet discussion, or written assignments. MIS in Action features hands-on Web activities for exploring issues discussed in the case more deeply.
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**INTERACTIVE SESSION: ORGANIZATIONS**
**CREDIT BUREAU ERRORS—BIG PEOPLE PROBLEMS**
You’ve found the car of your dreams. You have a good job and enough money for a down payment. All you need is an auto loan for $14,000. You have a few credit card bills, which you diligently pay off each month. But when you apply for the loan you’re turned down. When you ask why, you’re told you have an overdue loan from a bank you’ve never heard of. You’ve just become one of the millions of people who have been victimized by inaccurate or outdated data in credit bureaus’ information systems.
Most data on U.S. consumers’ credit histories are collected and maintained by three national credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. These organizations collect data from various sources to create a detailed dossier of an individual’s borrowing and bill paying habits. This information helps lenders assess a person’s credit worthiness, the ability to pay back a loan, and can affect the interest rate and other terms of a loan, including whether a loan will be granted in the first place. It can even affect the chances of finding or keeping a job: At least one-third of employers check credit reports when making hiring, firing, or promotion decisions.
U.S. credit bureaus collect personal information and financial data from a variety of sources, including creditors, lenders, utilities, debt collection agencies, and the courts. These data are aggregated and stored in massive databases maintained by the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus then sell this information to other companies to use for credit assessment.
The credit bureaus claim they know which credit cards are in each consumer’s wallet, how much is due on the mortgage, and whether the electric bill is paid on time. But if the wrong information gets into their systems, whether through identity theft or errors transmitted by creditors, watch out! Untangling the mess can be almost impossible.
The bureaus understand the importance of providing accurate information to both lenders and consumers. But they also recognize that their own
Assessment and AACSB Assessment Guidelines
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is a not-for-profit corporation of educational institutions, corporations, and other organizations that seeks to improve business education primarily by accrediting university business programs. As a part of its accreditation activities, the AACSB has developed an Assurance of Learning program designed to ensure that schools teach students what the schools promise. Schools are required to state a clear mission, develop a coherent business program, identify student learning objectives, and then prove that students achieve the objectives.
We have attempted in this book to support AACSB efforts to encourage assessment-based education. The front end papers of this edition identify student learning objectives and anticipated outcomes for our Hands-on MIS projects. In the Instructor Resource Center and myMISlab is a more inclusive and detailed assessment matrix that identifies the learning objectives of each chapter and points to all the available assessment tools that ensure students achieve the learning objectives. Because each school is different and may have different missions and learning objectives, no single document can satisfy all situations. Therefore, the authors will provide custom advice to instructors on how to use this text in their respective colleges. Instructors should e-mail the authors or contact their local Pearson Prentice Hall representative for contact information.
For more information on the AACSB Assurance of Learning program and how this text supports assessment-based learning, visit the Instructor Resource Center and myMISlab.
Customization and Flexibility: New Learning Track Modules
Our Learning Tracks feature gives instructors the flexibility to provide in-depth coverage of the topics they choose. There are over 40 Learning Tracks available to instructors and students. A Learning Tracks section at the end of each chapter directs students to short essays or additional chapters in myMISlab. This supplementary content takes students deeper into MIS topics, concepts, and debates; reviews basic technology concepts in hardware, software, database design, telecommunications, and other areas; and provides additional hands-on software instruction. The 12th edition includes new Learning Tracks on cloud computing, managing knowledge and collaboration, creating a pivot table with Microsoft Excel PowerPivot, the mobile digital platform, and business process management.
AUTHOR-CERTIFIED TEST BANK AND SUPPLEMENTS
• **Author-Certified Test Bank.** The authors have worked closely with skilled test item writers to ensure that higher level cognitive skills are tested. The test bank includes multiple-choice questions on content, but also includes many questions that require analysis, synthesis, and evaluation skills.
• **New Annotated Interactive PowerPoint Lecture Slides.** The authors have prepared a comprehensive collection of 500 PowerPoint slides to be used in lectures. Ken Laudon uses many of these slides in his MIS classes and executive education presentations. Each of the slides is annotated with teaching suggestions for asking students questions, developing in-class lists that illustrate key concepts, and recommending other firms as examples in addition to those provided in the text. The annotations are like an instructor’s manual built into the slides and make it easier to teach the course effectively.
STUDENT LEARNING-FOCUSED
Student learning objectives are organized around a set of study questions to focus student attention. Each chapter concludes with a review summary and review questions organized around these study questions.
MYMISLAB
MyMISLab is a Web-based assessment and tutorial tool that provides practice and testing while personalizing course content and providing student and class assessment and reporting. Your course is not the same as the course taught down the hall. Now, all the resources that instructors and students need for course success are in one place—flexible and easily organized and adapted for an individual course experience. Visit www.mymislab.com to see how you can teach, learn, and experience MIS.
CAREER RESOURCES
MyMISLab also provides extensive career resources, including job-hunting guides and instructions on how to build a digital portfolio demonstrating the business knowledge, application software proficiency, and Internet skills acquired from using the text. Students can use the portfolio in a resume or job application; instructors can use it as a learning assessment tool.
INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT MATERIALS
Instructor Resource Center
Most of the support materials described in the following sections are conveniently available for adopters on the online Instructor Resource Center (IRC). The IRC includes the Image Library (a very helpful lecture tool), Instructor’s Manual, Lecture Notes, Test Item File and TestGen, and PowerPoint slides.
Image Library
The Image Library is an impressive resource to help instructors create vibrant lecture presentations. Almost every figure and photo in the text is provided and
organized by chapter for convenience. These images and lecture notes can be imported easily into PowerPoint to create new presentations or to add to existing ones.
**Instructor’s Manual**
The Instructor's Manual features not only answers to review, discussion, case study, and group project questions, but also in-depth lecture outlines, teaching objectives, key terms, teaching suggestions, and Internet resources.
**Test Item File**
The Test Item File is a comprehensive collection of true-false, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and essay questions. The questions are rated by difficulty level and the answers are referenced by section. The Test Item File also contains questions tagged to the AACSB learning standards. An electronic version of the Test Item File is available in TestGen, and TestGen conversions are available for BlackBoard or WebCT course management systems. All TestGen files are available for download at the IRC.
**Annotated PowerPoint Slides**
Electronic color slides created by the authors are available in PowerPoint. The slides illuminate and build on key concepts in the text.
**Video Cases and Instructional Videos**
Instructors can download step-by-step instructions for accessing the video cases from the Instructor Resources page at www.pearsonhighered.com/laudon. The following page contains a list of video cases and instructional videos.
| Chapter | Video |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Chapter 1: Information Systems In Global Business Today | Case 1: UPS Global Operations with the DIAD IV
Case 2: IBM, Cisco, Google: Global Warming by Computer |
| Chapter 2: Global E-business and Collaboration | Case 1: How FedEx Works: Enterprise Systems
Case 2: Oracle’s Austin Data Center
Instructional Video 1: FedEx Improves Customer Experience with Integrated Mapping, Location Data |
| Chapter 3: Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy | Case 1: National Basketball Association: Competing on Global Delivery with Akamai OS Streaming
Case 2: Customer Relationship Management for San Francisco’s City Government |
| Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems | Case 1: Net Neutrality: Neutral Networks Work
Case 2: Data Mining for Terrorists and Innocents
Instructional Video 1: Big Brother Is Copying Everything on the Internet
Instructional Video 2: Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in a Digital Age |
| Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure: and Emerging Technologies | Case 1: Hudson’s Bay Company and IBM: Virtual Blade Platform
Case 2: Salesforce.com: SFA on the iPhone and iPod Touch
Instructional Video 1: Google and IBM Produce Cloud Computing
Instructional Video 2: IBM Blue Cloud Is Ready-to-Use Computing
Instructional Video 3: What the Hell Is Cloud Computing?
Instructional Video 4: What Is Ajax and How Does It Work?
Instructional Video 5: Yahoo’s FireEagle Geolocation Service |
| Chapter 6: Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management | Case 1: Maruti Suzuki Business Intelligence and Enterprise Databases
Case 2: Data Warehousing at REI: Understanding the Customer |
| Chapter 7: Telecommunications, the Internet, and Wireless Technology | Case 1: Cisco Telepresence: Meeting Without Traveling
Case 2: Unified Communications Systems with Virtual Collaboration: IBM and Forterra
Instructional Video 1: AT&T Launches Managed Cisco Telepresence Solution
Instructional Video 2: CNN Telepresence |
| Chapter 8: Securing Information Systems | Case 1: IBM Zone Trusted Information Channel (ZTIC)
Case 2: Open ID and Web Security
Instructional Video 1: The Quest for Identity 2.0
Instructional Video 2: Identity 2.0 |
| Chapter 9: Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications | Case 1: Sinosteel Strengthens Business Management with ERP Applications
Case 2: Ingram Micro and H&R Block Get Close to Their Customers
Instructional Video 1: Zara’s: Wearing Today’s Fashions with Supply Chain Management |
| Chapter 10: E-commerce: Digital Markets, Digital Goods | Case 1: M-commerce: The Past, Present, and Future
Case 2: Ford AutoXchange B2B Marketplace |
| Chapter 11: Managing Knowledge | Case 1: L’Oréal: Knowledge Management Using Microsoft SharePoint
Case 2: IdeaScale Crowdsourcing: Where Ideas Come to Life |
| Chapter 12: Enhancing Decision Making | Case 1: Antivia: Community-based Collaborative Business Intelligence
Case 2: IBM and Cognos: Business Intelligence and Analytics for Improved Decision Making |
| Chapter 13: Building Information Systems | Case 1: IBM: Business Process Management in a Service-Oriented Architecture
Case 2: Rapid Application Development With Appcelerator
Instructional Video 1: Salesforce and Google: Developing Sales Support Systems with Online Apps |
| Chapter 14: Managing Projects | Case 1: Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Adopt the Right Innovation at the Right Time
Case 2: NASA: Project Management Challenges
Instructional Video 1: Software Project Management in 15 Minutes |
| Chapter 15: Managing Global Systems | Case 1: Daum Runs Oracle Apps on Linux
Case 2: Monsanto Uses Cisco and Microsoft to Manage Globally |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The production of any book involves valued contributions from a number of persons. We would like to thank all of our editors for encouragement, insight, and strong support for many years. We thank Bob Horan for guiding the development of this edition and Kelly Loftus for her role in managing the project. We also praise Karalyn Holland for overseeing production for this project.
Our special thanks go to our supplement authors for their work. We are indebted to William Anderson for his assistance in the writing and production of the text and to Megan Miller for her help during production. We thank Diana R. Craig for her assistance with database and software topics.
Special thanks to colleagues at the Stern School of Business at New York University; to Professor Edward Stohr of Stevens Institute of Technology; to Professors Al Croker and Michael Palley of Baruch College and New York University; to Professor Lawrence Andrew of Western Illinois University; to Professor Detlef Schoder of the University of Cologne; to Professor Walter Brenner of the University of St. Gallen; to Professor Lutz Kolbe of the University of Gottingen; to Professor Donald Marchand of the International Institute for Management Development; and to Professor Daniel Botha of Stellenbosch University who provided additional suggestions for improvement. Thank you to Professor Ken Kraemer, University of California at Irvine, and Professor John King, University of Michigan, for more than a decade’s long discussion of information systems and organizations. And a special remembrance and dedication to Professor Rob Kling, University of Indiana, for being my friend and colleague over so many years.
We also want to especially thank all our reviewers whose suggestions helped improve our texts. Reviewers for this edition include the following:
Edward J. Cherian, *George Washington University*
Sherry L. Fowler, *North Carolina State University*
Richard Grenci, *John Carroll University*
Dorest Harvey, *University of Nebraska Omaha*
Shohreh Hashemi, *University of Houston—Downtown*
Duke Hutchings, *Elon University*
Ingyu Lee, *Troy University*
Jeffrey Livermore, *Walsh College*
Sue McDaniel, *Bellevue University*
Michelle Parker, *Indiana University—Purdue University Fort Wayne*
Peter A. Rosen, *University of Evansville*
Donna M. Schaeffer, *Marymount University*
Werner Schenk, *University of Rochester*
Jon C. Tomlinson, *University of Northwestern Ohio*
Marie A. Wright, *Western Connecticut State University*
James H. Yu, *Santa Clara University*
Fan Zhao, *Florida Gulf Coast University*
K.C.L.
J.P.L.
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Part One introduces the major themes of this book, raising a series of important questions: What is an information system and what are its management, organization, and technology dimensions? Why are information systems so essential in businesses today? Why are systems for collaboration and teamwork so important? How can information systems help businesses become more competitive? What broader ethical and social issues are raised by widespread use of information systems?
Chapter 1
Information Systems in Global Business Today
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. How are information systems transforming business and what is their relationship to globalization?
2. Why are information systems so essential for running and managing a business today?
3. What exactly is an information system? How does it work? What are its management, organization, and technology components?
4. What are complementary assets? Why are complementary assets essential for ensuring that information systems provide genuine value for an organization?
5. What academic disciplines are used to study information systems? How does each contribute to an understanding of information systems? What is a sociotechnical systems perspective?
Interactive Sessions:
MIS in Your Pocket
UPS Competes Globally with Information Technology
CHAPTER OUTLINE
1.1 THE ROLE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS TODAY
- How Information Systems Are Transforming Business
- What's New in Management Information Systems?
- Globalization Challenges and Opportunities: A Flattened World
- The Emerging Digital Firm
- Strategic Business Objectives of Information Systems
1.2 PERSPECTIVES ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS
- What Is an Information System?
- Dimensions of Information Systems
- It Isn't Just Technology: A Business Perspective on Information Systems
- Complementary Assets: Organizational Capital and the Right Business Model
1.3 CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO INFORMATION SYSTEMS
- Technical Approach
- Behavioral Approach
- Approach of This Text: Sociotechnical Systems
1.4 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
- Management Decision Problems
- Improving Decision Making: Using Databases to Analyze Sales Trends
- Improving Decision Making: Using the Internet to Locate Jobs Requiring Information Systems Knowledge
LEARNING TRACKS MODULES
- How Much Does IT Matter?
- Information Systems and Your Career
- The Emerging Mobile Digital Platform
Although baseball is a sport, it’s also big business, requiring revenue from tickets to games, television broadcasts, and other sources to pay for teams. Salaries for top players have ballooned, as have ticket prices. Many fans now watch games on television rather than attending them in person or choose other forms of entertainment, such as electronic games. One way to keep stadiums full of fans, and to keep fans at home happy as well, is to enrich the fan experience by offering more video and services based on technology. When the New York Yankees built the new Yankee Stadium, they did just that.
The new Yankee Stadium, which opened on April 2, 2009, isn’t just another ballpark: It’s the stadium of the future. It is the most wired, connected, and video-enabled stadium in all of baseball. Although the new stadium is similar in design to the original Yankee Stadium, built in 1923, the interior has more space and amenities, including more intensive use of video and computer technology. Baseball fans love video. According to Ron Ricci, co-chairman of Cisco Systems’ sports and entertainment division, “It’s what fans want to see, to see more angles and do it on their terms.” Cisco Systems supplied the computer and networking technology for the new stadium.
Throughout the stadium, including the Great Hall, the Yankees Museum, and in-stadium restaurants and concession areas, 1,200 flat-panel high-definition HDTV monitors display live game coverage, up-to-date sports scores, archival and highlight video, promotional messages, news, weather, and traffic updates. There is also a huge monitor in center field that is 101 feet wide and 59 feet high. At the conclusion of games, the monitors provide up-to-the moment traffic information and directions to the nearest stadium exits.
The monitors are designed to surround fans visually from the moment they enter the stadium, especially when they stray from a direct view of the ball field. The pervasiveness of this technology ensures that while fans are buying a hamburger or a soda, they will never miss a play. The Yankees team controls all the monitors centrally and is able to offer different content on each one. Monitors are located at concession stands, around restaurants and bars, in restrooms, and inside 59 luxury and party suites. If a Yankee player wants to review a game to see how he played, monitors in the team’s video room will display what he did from any angle. Each Yankee player also has a computer at his locker.
The luxury suites have special touch-screen phones for well-heeled fans to use when ordering food and merchandise. At the stadium business center, Cisco interactive videoconferencing technology will link to a library in the Bronx and to other New York City locations, such as hospitals. Players and executives will be able to videoconference and talk to fans before or after the games. Eventually data and video from the stadium will be delivered to fans’ home televisions and mobile devices. Inside the stadium, fans in each seat will be able to use their mobile phones to order from the concessions or view instant replays. If they have an iPhone, an application called Venuing lets them communicate with other fans at the game, find nearby facilities, obtain reviews of concessions, play pub-style trivia games, and check for news updates.
The Yankees also have their own Web site, Yankees.com, where fans can watch in-market Yankees games live online, check game scores, find out more about their favorite players, purchase tickets to games, and shop for caps, baseball cards and memorabilia. The site also features fantasy baseball games, where fans compete with each other by managing “fantasy teams” based on real players’ statistics.
Sources: www.mlb.com, accessed May 5, 2010; Rena Bhattacharyya, Courtney Munroe, and Melanie Posey, “Yankee Stadium Implements State-of-the-Art Technology from AT&T,” www.forbescustom.com, April 13, 2010; “Wenuing: An iPhone App Tailor-Made for Yankee Stadium Insiders,” NYY Stadium Insider, March 30, 2010; Dean Meminger, “Yankees’ New Stadium Is More than a Ballpark,” NY1.com, April 2, 2009.
The challenges facing the New York Yankees and other baseball teams show why information systems are so essential today. Major league baseball is a business as well as a sport, and teams such as the Yankees need to take in revenue from games in order to stay in business. Ticket prices have risen, stadium attendance is dwindling for some teams, and the sport must also compete with other forms of entertainment, including electronic games and the Internet.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. To increase stadium attendance and revenue, the New York Yankees chose to modernize Yankee Stadium and rely on information technology to provide new interactive services to fans inside and outside the stadium. These services include high-density television monitors displaying live game coverage; up-to-date sports scores, video, promotional messages, news, weather, and traffic information; touch screens for ordering food and merchandise; interactive videoconferencing technology for connecting to fans and the community; mobile social networking applications; and, eventually, data and video broadcast to fans’ home television sets and mobile handhelds. The Yankees’ Web site provides a new channel for interacting with fans, selling tickets to games, and selling other team-related products.
It is also important to note that these technologies changed the way the Yankees run their business. Yankee Stadium’s systems for delivering game coverage, information, and interactive services changed the flow of work for ticketing, seating, crowd management, and ordering food and other items from concessions. These changes had to be carefully planned to make sure they enhanced service, efficiency, and profitability.
1.1 THE ROLE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS TODAY
It’s not business as usual in America anymore, or the rest of the global economy. In 2010, American businesses will spend over $562 billion on information systems hardware, software, and telecommunications equipment. In addition, they will spend another $800 billion on business and management consulting and services—much of which involves redesigning firms’ business operations to take advantage of these new technologies. Figure 1-1 shows that between 1980 and 2009, private business investment in information technology consisting of hardware, software, and communications equipment grew from 32 percent to 52 percent of all invested capital.
As managers, most of you will work for firms that are intensively using information systems and making large investments in information technology. You will certainly want to know how to invest this money wisely. If you make wise choices, your firm can outperform competitors. If you make poor choices, you will be wasting valuable capital. This book is dedicated to helping you make wise decisions about information technology and information systems.
HOW INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARE TRANSFORMING BUSINESS
You can see the results of this massive spending around you every day by observing how people conduct business. More wireless cell phone accounts were opened in 2009 than telephone land lines installed. Cell phones, BlackBerrys, iPhones, e-mail, and online conferencing over the Internet have all become essential tools of business. Eighty-nine million people in the United States access the Internet using mobile devices in 2010, nearly half the total
**FIGURE 1-1 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CAPITAL INVESTMENT**
Information technology capital investment, defined as hardware, software, and communications equipment, grew from 32 percent to 52 percent of all invested capital between 1980 and 2009.
*Source: Based on data in U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, *National Income and Product Accounts*, 2009.*
Internet user population (eMarketer, 2010). There are 285 million cell phone subscribers in the United States, and nearly 5 billion worldwide (Dataxis, 2010).
By June 2010, more than 99 million businesses worldwide had dot-com Internet sites registered (Verisign, 2010). Today, 162 million Americans shop online, and 133 million have purchased online. Every day about 41 million Americans go online to research a product or service.
In 2009, FedEx moved over 3.4 million packages daily in the United States, mostly overnight, and the United Parcel Service (UPS) moved over 15 million packages daily worldwide. Businesses sought to sense and respond to rapidly changing customer demand, reduce inventories to the lowest possible levels, and achieve higher levels of operational efficiency. Supply chains have become more fast-paced, with companies of all sizes depending on just-in-time inventory to reduce their overhead costs and get to market faster.
As newspaper readership continues to decline, more than 78 million people receive their news online. About 39 million people watch a video online every day, 66 million read a blog, and 16 million post to blogs, creating an explosion of new writers and new forms of customer feedback that did not exist five years ago (Pew, 2010). Social networking site Facebook attracted 134 million monthly visitors in 2010 in the United States, and over 500 million worldwide. Businesses are starting to use social networking tools to connect their employees, customers, and managers worldwide. Many Fortune 500 companies now have Facebook pages.
Despite the recession, e-commerce and Internet advertising continue to expand. Google’s online ad revenues surpassed $25 billion in 2009, and Internet advertising continues to grow at more than 10 percent a year, reaching more than $25 billion in revenues in 2010.
New federal security and accounting laws, requiring many businesses to keep e-mail messages for five years, coupled with existing occupational and health laws requiring firms to store employee chemical exposure data for up to 60 years, are spurring the growth of digital information at the estimated rate of 5 exabytes annually, equivalent to 37,000 new Libraries of Congress.
**WHAT’S NEW IN MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS?**
Lots! What makes management information systems the most exciting topic in business is the continual change in technology, management use of the technology, and the impact on business success. New businesses and industries appear, old ones decline, and successful firms are those who learn how to use the new technologies. Table 1-1 summarizes the major new themes in business uses of information systems. These themes will appear throughout the book in all the chapters, so it might be a good idea to take some time now and discuss these with your professor and other students.
In the technology area there are three interrelated changes: (1) the emerging mobile digital platform, (2) the growth of online software as a service, and (3) the growth in “cloud computing” where more and more business software runs over the Internet.
IPhones, iPads, BlackBerrys, and Web-surfing netbooks are not just gadgets or entertainment outlets. They represent new emerging computing platforms based on an array of new hardware and software technologies. More and more business computing is moving from PCs and desktop machines to these mobile devices. Managers are increasingly using these devices to coordinate
| CHANGE | BUSINESS IMPACT |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **TECHNOLOGY** | |
| Cloud computing platform emerges as a major business area of innovation | A flexible collection of computers on the Internet begins to perform tasks traditionally performed on corporate computers. |
| Growth in software as a service (SaaS) | Major business applications are now delivered online as an Internet service rather than as boxed software or custom systems. |
| A mobile digital platform emerges to compete with the PC as a business system | Apple opens its iPhone software to developers, and then opens an Applications Store on iTunes where business users can download hundreds of applications to support collaboration, location-based services, and communication with colleagues. Small portable lightweight, low-cost, net-centric subnotebook computers are a major segment of the laptop marketplace. The iPad is the first successful tablet-sized computing device with tools for both entertainment and business productivity. |
| **MANAGEMENT** | |
| Managers adopt online collaboration and social networking software to improve coordination, collaboration, and knowledge sharing | Google Apps, Google Sites, Microsoft’s Windows SharePoint Services, and IBM’s Lotus Connections are used by over 100 million business professionals worldwide to support blogs, project management, online meetings, personal profiles, social bookmarks, and online communities. |
| Business intelligence applications accelerate | More powerful data analytics and interactive dashboards provide real-time performance information to managers to enhance decision making. |
| Virtual meetings proliferate | Managers adopt telepresence video conferencing and Web conferencing technologies to reduce travel time, and cost, while improving collaboration and decision making. |
| **ORGANIZATIONS** | |
| Web 2.0 applications are widely adopted by firms | Web-based services enable employees to interact as online communities using blogs, wikis, e-mail, and instant messaging services. Facebook and MySpace create new opportunities for business to collaborate with customers and vendors. |
| Telework gains momentum in the workplace | The Internet, netbooks, iPads, iPhones, and BlackBerrys make it possible for growing numbers of people to work away from the traditional office; 55 percent of U.S. businesses have some form of remote work program. |
| Co-creation of business value | Sources of business value shift from products to solutions and experiences and from internal sources to networks of suppliers and collaboration with customers. Supply chains and product development are more global and collaborative than in the past; customers help firms define new products and services. |
Managers routinely use so-called “Web 2.0” technologies like social networking, collaboration tools, and wikis in order to make better, faster decisions. As management behavior changes, how work gets organized, coordinated, and measured also changes. By connecting employees working on teams and projects, the social network is where works gets done, where plans are executed, and where managers manage. Collaboration spaces are
where employees meet one another—even when they are separated by continents and time zones.
The strength of cloud computing and the growth of the mobile digital platform allow organizations to rely more on telework, remote work, and distributed decision making. This same platform means firms can outsource more work, and rely on markets (rather than employees) to build value. It also means that firms can collaborate with suppliers and customers to create new products, or make existing products more efficiently.
You can see some of these trends at work in the Interactive Session on Management. Millions of managers rely heavily on the mobile digital platform to coordinate suppliers and shipments, satisfy customers, and manage their employees. A business day without these mobile devices or Internet access would be unthinkable. As you read this case, note how the emerging mobile platform greatly enhances the accuracy, speed, and richness of decision making.
GLOBALIZATION CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES: A FLATTENED WORLD
In 1492, Columbus reaffirmed what astronomers were long saying: the world was round and the seas could be safely sailed. As it turned out, the world was populated by peoples and languages living in isolation from one another, with great disparities in economic and scientific development. The world trade that ensued after Columbus’s voyages has brought these peoples and cultures closer. The “industrial revolution” was really a world-wide phenomenon energized by expansion of trade among nations.
In 2005, journalist Thomas Friedman wrote an influential book declaring the world was now “flat,” by which he meant that the Internet and global communications had greatly reduced the economic and cultural advantages of developed countries. Friedman argued that the U.S. and European countries were in a fight for their economic lives, competing for jobs, markets, resources, and even ideas with highly educated, motivated populations in low-wage areas in the less developed world (Friedman, 2007). This “globalization” presents both challenges and opportunities for business firms.
A growing percentage of the economy of the United States and other advanced industrial countries in Europe and Asia depends on imports and exports. In 2010, more than 33 percent of the U.S. economy resulted from foreign trade, both imports and exports. In Europe and Asia, the number exceeded 50 percent. Many Fortune 500 U.S. firms derive half their revenues from foreign operations. For instance, more than half of Intel’s revenues in 2010 came from overseas sales of its microprocessors. Eighty percent of the toys sold in the U.S. are manufactured in China, while about 90 percent of the PCs manufactured in China use American-made Intel or Advanced Micro Design (AMD) chips.
It’s not just goods that move across borders. So too do jobs, some of them high-level jobs that pay well and require a college degree. In the past decade, the United States lost several million manufacturing jobs to offshore, low-wage producers. But manufacturing is now a very small part of U.S. employment (less than 12 percent and declining). In a normal year, about 300,000 service jobs move offshore to lower wage countries, many of them in less-skilled information system occupations, but also including “tradable service” jobs in architecture, financial services, customer call centers, consulting, engineering, and even radiology.
MIS IN YOUR POCKET
Can you run your company out of your pocket? Perhaps not entirely, but there are many functions today that can be performed using an iPhone, BlackBerry, or other mobile handheld device. The smartphone has been called the “Swiss Army knife of the digital age.” A flick of the finger turns it into a Web browser, a telephone, a camera, a music or video player, an e-mail and messaging machine, and for some, a gateway into corporate systems. New software applications for social networking and salesforce management (CRM) make these devices even more versatile business tools.
The BlackBerry has been the favored mobile handheld for business because it was optimized for e-mail and messaging, with strong security and tools for accessing internal corporate systems. Now that’s changing. Companies large and small are starting to deploy Apple’s iPhone to conduct more of their work. For some, these handhelds have become necessities.
Doylestown Hospital, a community medical center near Philadelphia, has a mobile workforce of 360 independent physicians treating thousands of patients. The physicians use the iPhone 3G to stay connected around the clock to hospital staff, colleagues, and patient information. Doylestown doctors use iPhone features such as e-mail, calendar, and contacts from Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. The iPhone allows them to receive time-sensitive e-mail alerts from the hospital. Voice communication is important as well, and the iPhone allows the doctors to be on call wherever they are.
Doylestown Hospital customized the iPhone to provide doctors with secure mobile access from any location in the world to the hospital’s MEDITECH electronic medical records system. MEDITECH delivers information on vital signs, medications, lab results, allergies, nurses’ notes, therapy results, and even patient diets to the iPhone screen. “Every radiographic image a patient has had, every dictated report from a specialist is available on the iPhone,” notes Dr. Scott Levy, Doylestown Hospital’s vice president and chief medical officer. Doylestown doctors also use the iPhone at the patient’s bedside to access medical reference applications such as Epocrates Essentials to help them interpret lab results and obtain medication information.
Doylestown’s information systems department was able to establish the same high level of security for authenticating users of the system and tracking user activity as it maintains with all the hospital’s Web-based medical records applications. Information is stored securely on the hospital’s own server computer.
D.W. Morgan, headquartered in Pleasanton, California, serves as a supply chain consultant and transportation and logistics service provider to companies such as AT&T, Apple Computer, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, and Chevron. It has operations in more than 85 countries on four continents, moving critical inventory to factories that use a just-in-time (JIT) strategy. In JIT, retailers and manufacturers maintain almost no excess on-hand inventory, relying upon suppliers to deliver raw materials, components, or products shortly before they are needed.
In this type of production environment, it’s absolutely critical to know the exact moment when delivery trucks will arrive. In the past, it took many phone calls and a great deal of manual effort to provide customers with such precise up-to-the-minute information. The company was able to develop an application called ChainLinq Mobile for its 30 drivers that updates shipment information, collects signatures, and provides global positioning system (GPS) tracking on each box it delivers.
As Morgan’s drivers make their shipments, they use ChainLinq to record pickups and status updates. When they reach their destination, they collect a signature on the iPhone screen. Data collected at each point along the way, including a date- and time-stamped GPS location pinpointed on a Google map, are uploaded to the company’s servers. The servers make the data available to customers on the company’s Web site. Morgan’s competitors take about 20 minutes to half a day to provide proof of delivery; Morgan can do it immediately.
TCHO is a start-up that uses custom-developed machinery to create unique chocolate flavors. Owner Timothy Childs developed an iPhone app that enables him to remotely log into each chocolate-making machine, control time and temperature, turn the machines on and off, and receive alerts about when to make temperature changes. The iPhone app also enables him to remotely view several video cameras that show how the TCHO
FlavorLab is doing. TCHO employees also use the iPhone to exchange photos, e-mail, and text messages.
The Apple iPad is also emerging as a business tool for Web-based note-taking, file sharing, word processing, and number-crunching. Hundreds of business productivity applications are being developed, including tools for Web conferencing, word processing, spreadsheets, and electronic presentations. Properly configured, the iPad is able to connect to corporate networks to obtain e-mail messages, calendar events, and contacts securely over the air.
Sources: “Apple iPhone in Business Profiles,” www.apple.com, accessed May 10, 2010; Steve Lohr, Cisco Cheng, “The Ipad Has Business Potential,” PC World, April 26, 2010; and “Smartphone Rises Fast from Gadget to Necessity,” The New York Times, June 10, 2009.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What kinds of applications are described here? What business functions do they support? How do they improve operational efficiency and decision making?
2. Identify the problems that businesses in this case study solved by using mobile digital devices.
3. What kinds of businesses are most likely to benefit from equipping their employees with mobile digital devices such as iPhones, iPads, and BlackBerrys?
4. D.W. Morgan’s CEO has stated, “The iPhone is not a game changer, it’s an industry changer. It changes the way that you can interact with your customers and with your suppliers.” Discuss the implications of this statement.
MIS IN ACTION
Explore the Web site for the Apple iPhone, the Apple iPad, the BlackBerry, and the Motorola Droid, then answer the following questions:
1. List and describe the capabilities of each of these devices and give examples of how they could be used by businesses.
2. List and describe three downloadable business applications for each device and describe their business benefits.
Whether it’s attending an online meeting, checking orders, working with files and documents, or obtaining business intelligence, Apple’s iPhone and iPad offer unlimited possibilities for business users. Both devices have stunning multitouch display, full Internet browsing, capabilities for messaging, video and audio transmission, and document management. These features make each an all-purpose platform for mobile computing.
On the plus side, in a normal, non-recessionary year, the U.S. economy creates over 3.5 million new jobs. Employment in information systems and the other service occupations is expanding, and wages are stable. Outsourcing has actually accelerated the development of new systems in the United States and worldwide.
The challenge for you as a business student is to develop high-level skills through education and on-the-job experience that cannot be outsourced. The challenge for your business is to avoid markets for goods and services that can be produced offshore much less expensively. The opportunities are equally immense. You will find throughout this book examples of companies and individuals who either failed or succeeded in using information systems to adapt to this new global environment.
What does globalization have to do with management information systems? That’s simple: everything. The emergence of the Internet into a full-blown international communications system has drastically reduced the costs of operating and transacting on a global scale. Communication between a factory floor in Shanghai and a distribution center in Rapid Falls, South Dakota, is now instant and virtually free. Customers now can shop in a worldwide marketplace, obtaining price and quality information reliably 24 hours a day. Firms producing goods and services on a global scale achieve extraordinary cost reductions by finding low-cost suppliers and managing production facilities in other countries. Internet service firms, such as Google and eBay, are able to replicate their business models and services in multiple countries without having to redesign their expensive fixed-cost information systems infrastructure. Half of the revenue of eBay (as well as General Motors) in 2011 will originate outside the United States. Briefly, information systems enable globalization.
**THE EMERGING DIGITAL FIRM**
All of the changes we have just described, coupled with equally significant organizational redesign, have created the conditions for a fully digital firm. A digital firm can be defined along several dimensions. A **digital firm** is one in which nearly all of the organization’s *significant business relationships* with customers, suppliers, and employees are digitally enabled and mediated. *Core business processes* are accomplished through digital networks spanning the entire organization or linking multiple organizations.
**Business processes** refer to the set of logically related tasks and behaviors that organizations develop over time to produce specific business results and the unique manner in which these activities are organized and coordinated. Developing a new product, generating and fulfilling an order, creating a marketing plan, and hiring an employee are examples of business processes, and the ways organizations accomplish their business processes can be a source of competitive strength. (A detailed discussion of business processes can be found in Chapter 2.)
*Key corporate assets*—intellectual property, core competencies, and financial and human assets—are managed through digital means. In a digital firm, any piece of information required to support key business decisions is available at any time and anywhere in the firm.
Digital firms sense and respond to their environments far more rapidly than traditional firms, giving them more flexibility to survive in turbulent times. Digital firms offer extraordinary opportunities for more flexible global organization and management. In digital firms, both time shifting and space shifting are
the norm. *Time shifting* refers to business being conducted continuously, 24/7, rather than in narrow “work day” time bands of 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. *Space shifting* means that work takes place in a global workshop, as well as within national boundaries. Work is accomplished physically wherever in the world it is best accomplished.
Many firms, such as Cisco Systems, 3M, and IBM, are close to becoming digital firms, using the Internet to drive every aspect of their business. Most other companies are not fully digital, but they are moving toward close digital integration with suppliers, customers, and employees. Many firms, for example, are replacing traditional face-to-face meetings with “virtual” meetings using videoconferencing and Web conferencing technology. (See Chapter 2.)
**STRATEGIC BUSINESS OBJECTIVES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS**
What makes information systems so essential today? Why are businesses investing so much in information systems and technologies? In the United States, more than 23 million managers and 113 million workers in the labor force rely on information systems to conduct business. Information systems are essential for conducting day-to-day business in the United States and most other advanced countries, as well as achieving strategic business objectives.
Entire sectors of the economy are nearly inconceivable without substantial investments in information systems. E-commerce firms such as Amazon, eBay, Google, and E*Trade simply would not exist. Today’s service industries—finance, insurance, and real estate, as well as personal services such as travel, medicine, and education—could not operate without information systems. Similarly, retail firms such as Walmart and Sears and manufacturing firms such as General Motors and General Electric require information systems to survive and prosper. Just as offices, telephones, filing cabinets, and efficient tall buildings with elevators were once the foundations of business in the twentieth century, information technology is a foundation for business in the twenty-first century.
There is a growing interdependence between a firm’s ability to use information technology and its ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve corporate goals (see Figure 1-2). What a business would like to do in five years often depends on what its systems will be able to do. Increasing market share, becoming the high-quality or low-cost producer, developing new products, and increasing employee productivity depend more and more on the kinds and quality of information systems in the organization. The more you understand about this relationship, the more valuable you will be as a manager.
Specifically, business firms invest heavily in information systems to achieve six strategic business objectives: operational excellence; new products, services, and business models; customer and supplier intimacy; improved decision making; competitive advantage; and survival.
**Operational Excellence**
Businesses continuously seek to improve the efficiency of their operations in order to achieve higher profitability. Information systems and technologies are some of the most important tools available to managers for achieving higher levels of efficiency and productivity in business operations, especially when coupled with changes in business practices and management behavior.
Walmart, the largest retailer on earth, exemplifies the power of information systems coupled with brilliant business practices and supportive management
In contemporary systems there is a growing interdependence between a firm’s information systems and its business capabilities. Changes in strategy, rules, and business processes increasingly require changes in hardware, software, databases, and telecommunications. Often, what the organization would like to do depends on what its systems will permit it to do.
to achieve world-class operational efficiency. In fiscal year 2010, Walmart achieved $408 billion in sales—nearly one-tenth of retail sales in the United States—in large part because of its Retail Link system, which digitally links its suppliers to every one of Walmart’s stores. As soon as a customer purchases an item, the supplier monitoring the item knows to ship a replacement to the shelf. Walmart is the most efficient retail store in the industry, achieving sales of more than $28 per square foot, compared to its closest competitor, Target, at $23 a square foot, with other retail firms producing less than $12 a square foot.
**New Products, Services, and Business Models**
Information systems and technologies are a major enabling tool for firms to create new products and services, as well as entirely new business models. A **business model** describes how a company produces, delivers, and sells a product or service to create wealth.
Today’s music industry is vastly different from the industry a decade ago. Apple Inc. transformed an old business model of music distribution based on vinyl records, tapes, and CDs into an online, legal distribution model based on its own iPod technology platform. Apple has prospered from a continuing stream of iPod innovations, including the iPod, the iTunes music service, the iPad, and the iPhone.
**Customer and Supplier Intimacy**
When a business really knows its customers, and serves them well, the customers generally respond by returning and purchasing more. This raises revenues and profits. Likewise with suppliers: the more a business engages its suppliers, the better the suppliers can provide vital inputs. This lowers costs. How to really know your customers, or suppliers, is a central problem for businesses with millions of offline and online customers.
The Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan and other high-end hotels exemplify the use of information systems and technologies to achieve customer intimacy. These hotels use computers to keep track of guests’ preferences, such as their preferred
room temperature, check-in time, frequently dialed telephone numbers, and television programs, and store these data in a large data repository. Individual rooms in the hotels are networked to a central network server computer so that they can be remotely monitored or controlled. When a customer arrives at one of these hotels, the system automatically changes the room conditions, such as dimming the lights, setting the room temperature, or selecting appropriate music, based on the customer's digital profile. The hotels also analyze their customer data to identify their best customers and to develop individualized marketing campaigns based on customers' preferences.
JCPenney exemplifies the benefits of information systems-enabled supplier intimacy. Every time a dress shirt is bought at a JCPenney store in the United States, the record of the sale appears immediately on computers in Hong Kong at the TAL Apparel Ltd. supplier, a contract manufacturer that produces one in eight dress shirts sold in the United States. TAL runs the numbers through a computer model it developed and then decides how many replacement shirts to make, and in what styles, colors, and sizes. TAL then sends the shirts to each JCPenney store, bypassing completely the retailer's warehouses. In other words, JCPenney's shirt inventory is near zero, as is the cost of storing it.
**Improved Decision Making**
Many business managers operate in an information fog bank, never really having the right information at the right time to make an informed decision. Instead, managers rely on forecasts, best guesses, and luck. The result is over- or underproduction of goods and services, misallocation of resources, and poor response times. These poor outcomes raise costs and lose customers. In the past decade, information systems and technologies have made it possible for managers to use real-time data from the marketplace when making decisions.
For instance, Verizon Corporation, one of the largest telecommunication companies in the United States, uses a Web-based digital dashboard to provide managers with precise real-time information on customer complaints, network performance for each locality served, and line outages or storm-damaged lines. Using this information, managers can immediately allocate repair resources to affected areas, inform consumers of repair efforts, and restore service fast.
**Competitive Advantage**
When firms achieve one or more of these business objectives—operational excellence; new products, services, and business models; customer/supplier intimacy; and improved decision making—chances are they have already achieved a competitive advantage. Doing things better than your competitors, charging less for superior products, and responding to customers and suppliers in real time all add up to higher sales and higher profits that your competitors cannot match. Apple Inc., Walmart, and UPS, described later in this chapter, are industry leaders because they know how to use information systems for this purpose.
**Survival**
Business firms also invest in information systems and technologies because they are necessities of doing business. Sometimes these "necessities" are driven by industry-level changes. For instance, after Citibank introduced the first automated teller machines (ATMs) in the New York region in 1977 to attract customers through higher service levels, its competitors rushed to provide ATMs to their customers to keep up with Citibank. Today, virtually all banks in the United States have regional ATMs and link to national and international ATM
networks, such as CIRRUS. Providing ATM services to retail banking customers is simply a requirement of being in and surviving in the retail banking business.
There are many federal and state statutes and regulations that create a legal duty for companies and their employees to retain records, including digital records. For instance, the Toxic Substances Control Act (1976), which regulates the exposure of U.S. workers to more than 75,000 toxic chemicals, requires firms to retain records on employee exposure for 30 years. The Sarbanes–Oxley Act (2002), which was intended to improve the accountability of public firms and their auditors, requires certified public accounting firms that audit public companies to retain audit working papers and records, including all e-mails, for five years. Many other pieces of federal and state legislation in health care, financial services, education, and privacy protection impose significant information retention and reporting requirements on U.S. businesses. Firms turn to information systems and technologies to provide the capability to respond to these challenges.
### 1.2 PERSPECTIVES ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS
So far we've used *information systems* and *technologies* informally without defining the terms. **Information technology (IT)** consists of all the hardware and software that a firm needs to use in order to achieve its business objectives. This includes not only computer machines, storage devices, and handheld mobile devices, but also software, such as the Windows or Linux operating systems, the Microsoft Office desktop productivity suite, and the many thousands of computer programs that can be found in a typical large firm. “Information systems” are more complex and can be best be understood by looking at them from both a technology and a business perspective.
#### WHAT IS AN INFORMATION SYSTEM?
An **information system** can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. In addition to supporting decision making, coordination, and control, information systems may also help managers and workers analyze problems, visualize complex subjects, and create new products.
Information systems contain information about significant people, places, and things within the organization or in the environment surrounding it. By **information** we mean data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings. **Data**, in contrast, are streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the physical environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can understand and use.
A brief example contrasting information and data may prove useful. Supermarket checkout counters scan millions of pieces of data from bar codes, which describe each product. Such pieces of data can be totaled and analyzed to provide meaningful information, such as the total number of bottles of dish detergent sold at a particular store, which brands of dish detergent were selling the most rapidly at that store or sales territory, or the total amount spent on that brand of dish detergent at that store or sales region (see Figure 1-3).
Raw data from a supermarket checkout counter can be processed and organized to produce meaningful information, such as the total unit sales of dish detergent or the total sales revenue from dish detergent for a specific store or sales territory.
Three activities in an information system produce the information that organizations need to make decisions, control operations, analyze problems, and create new products or services. These activities are input, processing, and output (see Figure 1-4). **Input** captures or collects raw data from within the organization or from its external environment. **Processing** converts this raw input into a meaningful form. **Output** transfers the processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used. Information systems also require **feedback**, which is output that is returned to appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate or correct the input stage.
In the Yankees’ system for selling tickets through its Web site, the raw input consists of order data for tickets, such as the purchaser’s name, address, credit card number, number of tickets ordered, and the date of the game for which the ticket is being purchased. Computers store these data and process them to calculate order totals, to track ticket purchases, and to send requests for payment to credit card companies. The output consists of tickets to print out, receipts for orders, and reports on online ticket orders. The system provides meaningful information, such as the number of tickets sold for a particular game, the total number of tickets sold each year, and frequent customers.
Although computer-based information systems use computer technology to process raw data into meaningful information, there is a sharp distinction between a computer and a computer program on the one hand, and an information system on the other. Electronic computers and related software programs are the technical foundation, the tools and materials, of modern information systems. Computers provide the equipment for storing and processing information. Computer programs, or software, are sets of operating instructions that direct and control computer processing. Knowing how computers and computer programs work is important in designing solutions to organizational problems, but computers are only part of an information system.
An information system contains information about an organization and its surrounding environment. Three basic activities—input, processing, and output—produce the information organizations need. Feedback is output returned to appropriate people or activities in the organization to evaluate and refine the input. Environmental actors, such as customers, suppliers, competitors, stockholders, and regulatory agencies, interact with the organization and its information systems.
A house is an appropriate analogy. Houses are built with hammers, nails, and wood, but these do not make a house. The architecture, design, setting, landscaping, and all of the decisions that lead to the creation of these features are part of the house and are crucial for solving the problem of putting a roof over one’s head. Computers and programs are the hammers, nails, and lumber of computer-based information systems, but alone they cannot produce the information a particular organization needs. To understand information systems, you must understand the problems they are designed to solve, their architectural and design elements, and the organizational processes that lead to these solutions.
**DIMENSIONS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS**
To fully understand information systems, you must understand the broader organization, management, and information technology dimensions of systems (see Figure 1-5) and their power to provide solutions to challenges and problems in the business environment. We refer to this broader understanding of information systems, which encompasses an understanding of the management and organizational dimensions of systems as well as the technical dimensions of systems, as **information systems literacy**. **Computer literacy**, in contrast, focuses primarily on knowledge of information technology.
The field of **management information systems (MIS)** tries to achieve this broader information systems literacy. MIS deals with behavioral issues as well
Using information systems effectively requires an understanding of the organization, management, and information technology shaping the systems. An information system creates value for the firm as an organizational and management solution to challenges posed by the environment.
as technical issues surrounding the development, use, and impact of information systems used by managers and employees in the firm.
Let's examine each of the dimensions of information systems—organizations, management, and information technology.
**Organizations**
Information systems are an integral part of organizations. Indeed, for some companies, such as credit reporting firms, there would be no business without an information system. The key elements of an organization are its people, structure, business processes, politics, and culture. We introduce these components of organizations here and describe them in greater detail in Chapters 2 and 3.
Organizations have a structure that is composed of different levels and specialties. Their structures reveal a clear-cut division of labor. Authority and responsibility in a business firm are organized as a hierarchy, or a pyramid structure. The upper levels of the hierarchy consist of managerial, professional, and technical employees, whereas the lower levels consist of operational personnel.
**Senior management** makes long-range strategic decisions about products and services as well as ensures financial performance of the firm. **Middle management** carries out the programs and plans of senior management and **operational management** is responsible for monitoring the daily activities of the business. **Knowledge workers**, such as engineers, scientists, or architects, design products or services and create new knowledge for the firm, whereas **data workers**, such as secretaries or clerks, assist with scheduling and communications at all levels of the firm. **Production or service workers** actually produce the product and deliver the service (see Figure 1-6).
Experts are employed and trained for different business functions. The major **business functions**, or specialized tasks performed by business organizations, consist of sales and marketing, manufacturing and production,
Business organizations are hierarchies consisting of three principal levels: senior management, middle management, and operational management. Information systems serve each of these levels. Scientists and knowledge workers often work with middle management.
Finance and accounting, and human resources (see Table 1-2). Chapter 2 provides more detail on these business functions and the ways in which they are supported by information systems.
An organization coordinates work through its hierarchy and through its business processes, which are logically related tasks and behaviors for accomplishing work. Developing a new product, fulfilling an order, and hiring a new employee are examples of business processes.
Most organizations’ business processes include formal rules that have been developed over a long time for accomplishing tasks. These rules guide employees in a variety of procedures, from writing an invoice to responding to customer complaints. Some of these business processes have been written down, but others are informal work practices, such as a requirement to return telephone calls from co-workers or customers, that are not formally documented. Information systems automate many business processes. For instance, how a customer receives credit or how a customer is billed is often determined by an information system that incorporates a set of formal business processes.
**TABLE 1-2 MAJOR BUSINESS FUNCTIONS**
| FUNCTION | PURPOSE |
|---------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Sales and marketing | Selling the organization’s products and services |
| Manufacturing and production | Producing and delivering products and services |
| Finance and accounting | Managing the organization’s financial assets and maintaining the |
| | organization’s financial records |
| Human resources | Attracting, developing, and maintaining the organization’s labor force;|
| | maintaining employee records |
Each organization has a unique culture, or fundamental set of assumptions, values, and ways of doing things, that has been accepted by most of its members. You can see organizational culture at work by looking around your university or college. Some bedrock assumptions of university life are that professors know more than students, the reasons students attend college is to learn, and that classes follow a regular schedule.
Parts of an organization's culture can always be found embedded in its information systems. For instance, UPS's concern with placing service to the customer first is an aspect of its organizational culture that can be found in the company's package tracking systems, which we describe later in this section.
Different levels and specialties in an organization create different interests and points of view. These views often conflict over how the company should be run and how resources and rewards should be distributed. Conflict is the basis for organizational politics. Information systems come out of this cauldron of differing perspectives, conflicts, compromises, and agreements that are a natural part of all organizations. In Chapter 3, we examine these features of organizations and their role in the development of information systems in greater detail.
**Management**
Management's job is to make sense out of the many situations faced by organizations, make decisions, and formulate action plans to solve organizational problems. Managers perceive business challenges in the environment; they set the organizational strategy for responding to those challenges; and they allocate the human and financial resources to coordinate the work and achieve success. Throughout, they must exercise responsible leadership. The business information systems described in this book reflect the hopes, dreams, and realities of real-world managers.
But managers must do more than manage what already exists. They must also create new products and services and even re-create the organization from time to time. A substantial part of management responsibility is creative work driven by new knowledge and information. Information technology can play a powerful role in helping managers design and deliver new products and services and redirecting and redesigning their organizations. Chapter 12 treats management decision making in detail.
**Information Technology**
Information technology is one of many tools managers use to cope with change. **Computer hardware** is the physical equipment used for input, processing, and output activities in an information system. It consists of the following: computers of various sizes and shapes (including mobile handheld devices); various input, output, and storage devices; and telecommunications devices that link computers together.
**Computer software** consists of the detailed, preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardware components in an information system. Chapter 5 describes the contemporary software and hardware platforms used by firms today in greater detail.
**Data management technology** consists of the software governing the organization of data on physical storage media. More detail on data organization and access methods can be found in Chapter 6.
**Networking and telecommunications technology**, consisting of both physical devices and software, links the various pieces of hardware and transfers
data from one physical location to another. Computers and communications equipment can be connected in networks for sharing voice, data, images, sound, and video. A **network** links two or more computers to share data or resources, such as a printer.
The world's largest and most widely used network is the **Internet**. The Internet is a global "network of networks" that uses universal standards (described in Chapter 7) to connect millions of different networks with more than 1.4 billion users in over 230 countries around the world.
The Internet has created a new "universal" technology platform on which to build new products, services, strategies, and business models. This same technology platform has internal uses, providing the connectivity to link different systems and networks within the firm. Internal corporate networks based on Internet technology are called **intranets**. Private intranets extended to authorized users outside the organization are called **extranets**, and firms use such networks to coordinate their activities with other firms for making purchases, collaborating on design, and other interorganizational work. For most business firms today, using Internet technology is both a business necessity and a competitive advantage.
The **World Wide Web** is a service provided by the Internet that uses universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information in a page format on the Internet. Web pages contain text, graphics, animations, sound, and video and are linked to other Web pages. By clicking on highlighted words or buttons on a Web page, you can link to related pages to find additional information and links to other locations on the Web. The Web can serve as the foundation for new kinds of information systems such as UPS's Web-based package tracking system described in the following Interactive Session.
All of these technologies, along with the people required to run and manage them, represent resources that can be shared throughout the organization and constitute the firm's **information technology (IT) infrastructure**. The IT infrastructure provides the foundation, or *platform*, on which the firm can build its specific information systems. Each organization must carefully design and manage its IT infrastructure so that it has the set of technology services it needs for the work it wants to accomplish with information systems. Chapters 5 through 8 of this book examine each major technology component of information technology infrastructure and show how they all work together to create the technology platform for the organization.
The Interactive Session on Technology describes some of the typical technologies used in computer-based information systems today. UPS invests heavily in information systems technology to make its business more efficient and customer oriented. It uses an array of information technologies including bar code scanning systems, wireless networks, large mainframe computers, handheld computers, the Internet, and many different pieces of software for tracking packages, calculating fees, maintaining customer accounts, and managing logistics.
Let's identify the organization, management, and technology elements in the UPS package tracking system we have just described. The organization element anchors the package tracking system in UPS's sales and production functions (the main product of UPS is a service—package delivery). It specifies the required procedures for identifying packages with both sender and recipient information, taking inventory, tracking the packages en route, and providing package status reports for UPS customers and customer service representatives.
UPS COMPETES GLOBALLY WITH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
United Parcel Service (UPS) started out in 1907 in a closet-sized basement office. Jim Casey and Claude Ryan—two teenagers from Seattle with two bicycles and one phone—promised the “best service and lowest rates.” UPS has used this formula successfully for more than 100 years to become the world’s largest ground and air package delivery company. It’s a global enterprise with over 408,000 employees, 96,000 vehicles, and the world’s ninth largest airline.
Today, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages and documents each day in the United States and more than 200 other countries and territories. The firm has been able to maintain leadership in small-package delivery services despite stiff competition from FedEx and Airborne Express by investing heavily in advanced information technology. UPS spends more than $1 billion each year to maintain a high level of customer service while keeping costs low and streamlining its overall operations.
It all starts with the scannable bar-coded label attached to a package, which contains detailed information about the sender, the destination, and when the package should arrive. Customers can download and print their own labels using special software provided by UPS or by accessing the UPS Web site. Before the package is even picked up, information from the “smart” label is transmitted to one of UPS’s computer centers in Mahwah, New Jersey, or Alpharetta, Georgia, and sent to the distribution center nearest its final destination. Dispatchers at this center download the label data and use special software to create the most efficient delivery route for each driver that considers traffic, weather conditions, and the location of each stop. UPS estimates its delivery trucks save 28 million miles and burn 3 million fewer gallons of fuel each year as a result of using this technology. To further increase cost savings and safety, drivers are trained to use “340 Methods” developed by industrial engineers to optimize the performance of every task from lifting and loading boxes to selecting a package from a shelf in the truck.
The first thing a UPS driver picks up each day is a handheld computer called a Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD), which can access one of the wireless networks cell phones rely on. As soon as the driver logs on, his or her day’s route is downloaded onto the handheld. The DIAD also automatically captures customers’ signatures along with pickup and delivery information. Package tracking information is then transmitted to UPS’s computer network for storage and processing. From there, the information can be accessed worldwide to provide proof of delivery to customers or to respond to customer queries. It usually takes less than 60 seconds from the time a driver presses “complete” on a DIAD for the new information to be available on the Web.
Through its automated package tracking system, UPS can monitor and even re-route packages throughout the delivery process. At various points along the route from sender to receiver, bar code devices scan shipping information on the package label and feed data about the progress of the package into the central computer. Customer service representatives are able to check the status of any package from desktop computers linked to the central computers and respond immediately to inquiries from customers. UPS customers can also access this information from the company’s Web site using their own computers or mobile phones.
Anyone with a package to ship can access the UPS Web site to check delivery routes, calculate shipping rates, determine time in transit, print labels, schedule a pickup, and track packages. The data collected at the UPS Web site are transmitted to the UPS central computer and then back to the customer after processing. UPS also provides tools that enable customers, such Cisco Systems, to embed UPS functions, such as tracking and cost calculations, into their own Web sites so that they can track shipments without visiting the UPS site.
In June 2009, UPS launched a new Web-based Post-Sales Order Management System (OMS) that manages global service orders and inventory for critical parts fulfillment. The system enables high-tech electronics, aerospace, medical equipment, and other companies anywhere in the world that ship critical parts to quickly assess their critical parts inventory, determine the most optimal routing strategy to meet customer needs, place orders online, and track parts from the warehouse to the end user. An automated e-mail or fax feature keeps customers informed of each shipping milestone and can provide notification of any changes to flight schedules for commercial airlines carrying their parts. Once orders
are complete, companies can print documents such as labels and bills of lading in multiple languages.
UPS is now leveraging its decades of expertise managing its own global delivery network to manage logistics and supply chain activities for other companies. It created a UPS Supply Chain Solutions division that provides a complete bundle of standardized services to subscribing companies at a fraction of what it would cost to build their own systems and infrastructure. These services include supply chain design and management, freight forwarding, customs brokerage, mail services, multimodal transportation, and financial services, in addition to logistics services.
Servalite, an East Moline, Illinois, manufacturer of fasteners, sells 40,000 different products to hardware stores and larger home improvement stores. The company had used multiple warehouses to provide two-day delivery nationwide. UPS created a new logistics plan for the company that helped it reduce freight time in transit and consolidate inventory. Thanks to these improvements, Servalite has been able to keep its two-day delivery guarantee while lowering warehousing and inventory costs.
Sources: Jennifer Levitz, “UPS Thinks Out of the Box on Driver Training,” *The Wall Street Journal*, April 6, 2010; United Parcel Service, “In a Tighter Economy, a Manufacturer Fastens Down Its Logistics,” *UPS Compass*, accessed May 5, 2010; Agam Shah, “UPS Invests $1 Billion in Technology to Cut Costs,” *Bloomberg Businessweek*, March 25, 2010; UPS, “UPS Delivers New App for Google’s Android,” April 12, 2010; Chris Murphy, “In for the Long Haul,” *Information Week*, January 19, 2009; United Parcel Service, “UPS Unveils Global Technology for Critical Parts Fulfillment,” June 16, 2009; and www.ups.com, accessed May 5, 2010.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPS's package tracking system?
2. What technologies are used by UPS? How are these technologies related to UPS's business strategy?
3. What strategic business objectives do UPS's information systems address?
4. What would happen if UPS's information systems were not available?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Explore the UPS Web site (www.ups.com) and answer the following questions:
1. What kind of information and services does the Web site provide for individuals, small businesses, and large businesses? List these services.
2. Go to the Business Solutions portion of the UPS Web site. Browse the UPS Business Solutions by category (such as shipment delivery, returns, or international trade) and write a description of all the services UPS provides for one of these categories. Explain how a business would benefit from these services.
3. Explain how the Web site helps UPS achieve some or all of the strategic business objectives we described earlier in this chapter. What would be the impact on UPS's business if this Web site were not available?
The technology supporting this system consists of handheld computers, bar code scanners, wired and wireless communications networks, desktop computers, UPS’s data center, storage technology for the package delivery data, UPS in-house package tracking software, and software to access the World Wide Web. The result is an information system solution to the business challenge of providing a high level of service with low prices in the face of mounting competition.
**IT ISN’T JUST TECHNOLOGY: A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS**
Managers and business firms invest in information technology and systems because they provide real economic value to the business. The decision to build or maintain an information system assumes that the returns on this investment will be superior to other investments in buildings, machines, or other assets. These superior returns will be expressed as increases in productivity, as increases in revenues (which will increase the firm’s stock market value), or perhaps as superior long-term strategic positioning of the firm in certain markets (which produce superior revenues in the future).
We can see that from a business perspective, an information system is an important instrument for creating value for the firm. Information systems enable the firm to increase its revenue or decrease its costs by providing information that helps managers make better decisions or that improves the execution of business processes. For example, the information system for analyzing supermarket checkout data illustrated in Figure 1-3 can increase firm profitability by helping managers make better decisions on which products to stock and promote in retail supermarkets.
Every business has an information value chain, illustrated in Figure 1-7, in which raw information is systematically acquired and then transformed through various stages that add value to that information. The value of an information system to a business, as well as the decision to invest in any new information system, is, in large part, determined by the extent to which the system will lead to better management decisions, more efficient business
Using a handheld computer called a Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD), UPS drivers automatically capture customers’ signatures along with pickup, delivery, and time card information. UPS information systems use these data to track packages while they are being transported.
From a business perspective, information systems are part of a series of value-adding activities for acquiring, transforming, and distributing information that managers can use to improve decision making, enhance organizational performance, and, ultimately, increase firm profitability.
processes, and higher firm profitability. Although there are other reasons why systems are built, their primary purpose is to contribute to corporate value.
From a business perspective, information systems are part of a series of value-adding activities for acquiring, transforming, and distributing information that managers can use to improve decision making, enhance organizational performance, and, ultimately, increase firm profitability.
The business perspective calls attention to the organizational and managerial nature of information systems. An information system represents an organizational and management solution, based on information technology, to a challenge or problem posed by the environment. Every chapter in this book begins with a short case study that illustrates this concept. A diagram at the beginning of each chapter illustrates the relationship between a business challenge and resulting management and organizational decisions to use IT as a solution to challenges generated by the business environment. You can use this diagram as a starting point for analyzing any information system or information system problem you encounter.
Review the diagram at the beginning of this chapter. The diagram shows how the Yankees’ systems solved the business problem presented by declining interest in baseball games and competition from television and other media. These systems provide a solution that takes advantage of new interactive digital technology and opportunities created by the Internet. They opened up new channels for selling tickets and interacting with customers that improved business performance. The diagram also illustrates how
management, technology, and organizational elements work together to create the systems.
**COMPLEMENTARY ASSETS: ORGANIZATIONAL CAPITAL AND THE RIGHT BUSINESS MODEL**
Awareness of the organizational and managerial dimensions of information systems can help us understand why some firms achieve better results from their information systems than others. Studies of returns from information technology investments show that there is considerable variation in the returns firms receive (see Figure 1-8). Some firms invest a great deal and receive a great deal (quadrant 2); others invest an equal amount and receive few returns (quadrant 4). Still other firms invest little and receive much (quadrant 1), whereas others invest little and receive little (quadrant 3). This suggests that investing in information technology does not by itself guarantee good returns. What accounts for this variation among firms?
The answer lies in the concept of complementary assets. Information technology investments alone cannot make organizations and managers more effective unless they are accompanied by supportive values, structures, and behavior patterns in the organization and other complementary assets. Business firms need to change how they do business before they can really reap the advantages of new information technologies.
Some firms fail to adopt the right business model that suits the new technology, or seek to preserve an old business model that is doomed by new technology. For instance, recording label companies refused to change their old business model, which was based on physical music stores for distribution rather than adopt a new online distribution model. As a result, online legal
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**FIGURE 1-8** VARIATION IN RETURNS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT
Although, on average, investments in information technology produce returns far above those returned by other investments, there is considerable variation across firms.
*Source:* Based on Brynjolfsson and Hitt (2000).
music sales are dominated not by record companies but by a technology company called Apple Computer.
**Complementary assets** are those assets required to derive value from a primary investment (Teece, 1988). For instance, to realize value from automobiles requires substantial complementary investments in highways, roads, gasoline stations, repair facilities, and a legal regulatory structure to set standards and control drivers.
Research on business information technology investment indicates that firms that support their technology investments with investments in complementary assets, such as new business models, new business processes, management behavior, organizational culture, or training, receive superior returns, whereas those firms failing to make these complementary investments receive less or no returns on their information technology investments (Brynjolfsson, 2003; Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 2000; Davern and Kauffman, 2000; Laudon, 1974). These investments in organization and management are also known as **organizational and management capital**.
Table 1-3 lists the major complementary investments that firms need to make to realize value from their information technology investments. Some of this investment involves tangible assets, such as buildings, machinery, and tools. However, the value of investments in information technology depends to a large extent on complementary investments in management and organization.
Key organizational complementary investments are a supportive business culture that values efficiency and effectiveness, an appropriate business model, efficient business processes, decentralization of authority, highly distributed decision rights, and a strong information system (IS) development team.
Important managerial complementary assets are strong senior management support for change, incentive systems that monitor and reward individual innovation, an emphasis on teamwork and collaboration, training programs, and a management culture that values flexibility and knowledge.
**TABLE 1-3 COMPLEMENTARY SOCIAL, MANAGERIAL, AND ORGANIZATIONAL ASSETS REQUIRED TO OPTIMIZE RETURNS FROM INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS**
| Organizational assets | Supportive organizational culture that values efficiency and effectiveness
| | Appropriate business model
| | Efficient business processes
| | Decentralized authority
| | Distributed decision-making rights
| | Strong IS development team |
| Managerial assets | Strong senior management support for technology investment and change
| | Incentives for management innovation
| | Teamwork and collaborative work environments
| | Training programs to enhance management decision skills
| | Management culture that values flexibility and knowledge-based decision making. |
| Social assets | The Internet and telecommunications infrastructure
| | IT-enriched educational programs raising labor force computer literacy
| | Standards (both government and private sector)
| | Laws and regulations creating fair, stable market environments
| | Technology and service firms in adjacent markets to assist implementation |
Important social investments (not made by the firm but by the society at large, other firms, governments, and other key market actors) are the Internet and the supporting Internet culture, educational systems, network and computing standards, regulations and laws, and the presence of technology and service firms.
Throughout the book we emphasize a framework of analysis that considers technology, management, and organizational assets and their interactions. Perhaps the single most important theme in the book, reflected in case studies and exercises, is that managers need to consider the broader organization and management dimensions of information systems to understand current problems as well as to derive substantial above-average returns from their information technology investments. As you will see throughout the text, firms that can address these related dimensions of the IT investment are, on average, richly rewarded.
1.3 Contemporary Approaches to Information Systems
The study of information systems is a multidisciplinary field. No single theory or perspective dominates. Figure 1-9 illustrates the major disciplines that contribute problems, issues, and solutions in the study of information systems. In general, the field can be divided into technical and behavioral approaches. Information systems are sociotechnical systems. Though they are composed of machines, devices, and “hard” physical technology, they require substantial social, organizational, and intellectual investments to make them work properly.
Figure 1-9 Contemporary Approaches to Information Systems
The study of information systems deals with issues and insights contributed from technical and behavioral disciplines.
TECHNICAL APPROACH
The technical approach to information systems emphasizes mathematically based models to study information systems, as well as the physical technology and formal capabilities of these systems. The disciplines that contribute to the technical approach are computer science, management science, and operations research.
Computer science is concerned with establishing theories of computability, methods of computation, and methods of efficient data storage and access. Management science emphasizes the development of models for decision-making and management practices. Operations research focuses on mathematical techniques for optimizing selected parameters of organizations, such as transportation, inventory control, and transaction costs.
BEHAVIORAL APPROACH
An important part of the information systems field is concerned with behavioral issues that arise in the development and long-term maintenance of information systems. Issues such as strategic business integration, design, implementation, utilization, and management cannot be explored usefully with the models used in the technical approach. Other behavioral disciplines contribute important concepts and methods.
For instance, sociologists study information systems with an eye toward how groups and organizations shape the development of systems and also how systems affect individuals, groups, and organizations. Psychologists study information systems with an interest in how human decision makers perceive and use formal information. Economists study information systems with an interest in understanding the production of digital goods, the dynamics of digital markets, and how new information systems change the control and cost structures within the firm.
The behavioral approach does not ignore technology. Indeed, information systems technology is often the stimulus for a behavioral problem or issue. But the focus of this approach is generally not on technical solutions. Instead, it concentrates on changes in attitudes, management and organizational policy, and behavior.
APPROACH OF THIS TEXT: SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEMS
Throughout this book you will find a rich story with four main actors: suppliers of hardware and software (the technologists); business firms making investments and seeking to obtain value from the technology; managers and employees seeking to achieve business value (and other goals); and the contemporary legal, social, and cultural context (the firm’s environment). Together these actors produce what we call management information systems.
The study of management information systems (MIS) arose to focus on the use of computer-based information systems in business firms and government agencies. MIS combines the work of computer science, management science, and operations research with a practical orientation toward developing system solutions to real-world problems and managing information technology resources. It is also concerned with behavioral issues surrounding the development, use, and impact of information systems, which are typically discussed in the fields of sociology, economics, and psychology.
Our experience as academics and practitioners leads us to believe that no single approach effectively captures the reality of information systems. The successes and failures of information are rarely all technical or all behavioral. Our best advice to students is to understand the perspectives of many disciplines. Indeed, the challenge and excitement of the information systems field is that it requires an appreciation and tolerance of many different approaches.
The view we adopt in this book is best characterized as the sociotechnical view of systems. In this view, optimal organizational performance is achieved by jointly optimizing both the social and technical systems used in production.
Adopting a sociotechnical systems perspective helps to avoid a purely technological approach to information systems. For instance, the fact that information technology is rapidly declining in cost and growing in power does not necessarily or easily translate into productivity enhancement or bottom-line profits. The fact that a firm has recently installed an enterprise-wide financial reporting system does not necessarily mean that it will be used, or used effectively. Likewise, the fact that a firm has recently introduced new business procedures and processes does not necessarily mean employees will be more productive in the absence of investments in new information systems to enable those processes.
In this book, we stress the need to optimize the firm’s performance as a whole. Both the technical and behavioral components need attention. This means that technology must be changed and designed in such a way as to fit organizational and individual needs. Sometimes, the technology may have to be “de-optimized” to accomplish this fit. For instance, mobile phone users adapt this technology to their personal needs, and as a result manufacturers quickly seek to adjust the technology to conform with user expectations. Organizations and individuals must also be changed through training, learning, and planned organizational change to allow the technology to operate and prosper. Figure 1-10 illustrates this process of mutual adjustment in a sociotechnical system.
**FIGURE 1-10 A SOCIOTECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS**
In a sociotechnical perspective, the performance of a system is optimized when both the technology and the organization mutually adjust to one another until a satisfactory fit is obtained.
1.4 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience in analyzing financial reporting and inventory management problems, using data management software to improve management decision making about increasing sales, and using Internet software for developing shipping budgets.
Management Decision Problems
1. Snyder’s of Hanover, which sells more than 78 million bags of pretzels, snack chips, and organic snack items each year, had its financial department use spreadsheets and manual processes for much of its data gathering and reporting. Hanover’s financial analyst would spend the entire final week of every month collecting spreadsheets from the heads of more than 50 departments worldwide. She would then consolidate and re-enter all the data into another spreadsheet, which would serve as the company’s monthly profit-and-loss statement. If a department needed to update its data after submitting the spreadsheet to the main office, the analyst had to return the original spreadsheet and wait for the department to re-submit its data before finally submitting the updated data in the consolidated document. Assess the impact of this situation on business performance and management decision making.
2. Dollar General Corporation operates deep discount stores offering housewares, cleaning supplies, clothing, health and beauty aids, and packaged food, with most items selling for $1. Its business model calls for keeping costs as low as possible. Although the company uses information systems (such as a point-of-sale system to track sales at the register), it deploys them very sparingly to keep expenditures to the minimum. The company has no automated method for keeping track of inventory at each store. Managers know approximately how many cases of a particular product the store is supposed to receive when a delivery truck arrives, but the stores lack technology for scanning the cases or verifying the item count inside the cases. Merchandise losses from theft or other mishaps have been rising and now represent over 3 percent of total sales. What decisions have to be made before investing in an information system solution?
Improving Decision Making: Using Databases to Analyze Sales Trends
Software skills: Database querying and reporting
Business skills: Sales trend analysis
Effective information systems transform data into meaningful information for decisions that improve business performance. In MyMISLab, you can find a Store and Regional Sales Database with raw data on weekly store sales of computer equipment in various sales regions. A sample is shown below, but MyMISLab may have a more recent version of this database for this exercise. The database includes fields for store identification number, sales region number, item number, item description, unit price, units sold, and the weekly sales period when the sales were made. Develop some reports and queries to make this information more useful for running the business. Try to use the information in the database to support decisions on which products to restock, which stores and sales regions would benefit from additional marketing and promotional campaigns, which times of the year products
should be offered at full price, and which times of the year products should be discounted. Modify the database table, if necessary, to provide all of the information you require. Print your reports and results of queries.
**Improving Decision Making: Using the Internet to Locate Jobs Requiring Information Systems Knowledge**
*Software skills:* Internet-based software
*Business skills:* Job searching
Visit job-posting Web sites such as Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com. Spend some time at the sites examining jobs for accounting, finance, sales, marketing, and human resources. Find two or three descriptions of jobs that require some information systems knowledge. What information systems knowledge do these jobs require? What do you need to do to prepare for these jobs? Write a one- to two-page report summarizing your findings.
**Learning Track Modules**
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. How Much Does IT Matter?
2. Information Systems and Your Career
3. The Emerging Mobile Digital Platform
1. **How are information systems transforming business and what is their relationship to globalization?**
E-mail, online conferencing, and cell phones have become essential tools for conducting business. Information systems are the foundation of fast-paced supply chains. The Internet allows many businesses to buy, sell, advertise, and solicit customer feedback online. Organizations are trying to become more competitive and efficient by digitally enabling their core business processes and evolving into digital firms. The Internet has stimulated globalization by dramatically reducing the costs of producing, buying, and selling goods on a global scale. New information system trends include the emerging mobile digital platform, online software as a service, and cloud computing.
2. **Why are information systems so essential for running and managing a business today?**
Information systems are a foundation for conducting business today. In many industries, survival and the ability to achieve strategic business goals are difficult without extensive use of information technology. Businesses today use information systems to achieve six major objectives: operational excellence; new products, services, and business models; customer/supplier intimacy; improved decision making; competitive advantage; and day-to-day survival.
3. **What exactly is an information system? How does it work? What are its management, organization, and technology components?**
From a technical perspective, an information system collects, stores, and disseminates information from an organization’s environment and internal operations to support organizational functions and decision making, communication, coordination, control, analysis, and visualization. Information systems transform raw data into useful information through three basic activities: input, processing, and output.
From a business perspective, an information system provides a solution to a problem or challenge facing a firm and represents a combination of management, organization, and technology elements. The management dimension of information systems involves issues such as leadership, strategy, and management behavior. The technology dimension consists of computer hardware, software, data management technology, and networking/telecommunications technology (including the Internet). The organization dimension of information systems involves issues such as the organization’s hierarchy, functional specialties, business processes, culture, and political interest groups.
4. **What are complementary assets? Why are complementary assets essential for ensuring that information systems provide genuine value for an organization?**
In order to obtain meaningful value from information systems, organizations must support their technology investments with appropriate complementary investments in organizations and management. These complementary assets include new business models and business processes, supportive organizational culture and management behavior, appropriate technology standards, regulations, and laws. New information technology investments are unlikely to produce high returns unless businesses make the appropriate managerial and organizational changes to support the technology.
5. **What academic disciplines are used to study information systems? How does each contribute to an understanding of information systems? What is a sociotechnical systems perspective?**
The study of information systems deals with issues and insights contributed from technical and behavioral disciplines. The disciplines that contribute to the technical approach focusing on formal models and capabilities of systems are computer science, management science, and operations research. The disciplines contributing to the behavioral approach focusing on the design, implementation, management, and business impact of systems are psychology, sociology, and economics. A sociotechnical view of systems considers both technical and social features of systems and solutions that represent the best fit between them.
Key Terms
Business functions, 18
Business model, 13
Business processes, 11
Complementary assets, 27
Computer hardware, 20
Computer literacy, 17
Computer software, 20
Culture, 20
Data, 15
Data management technology, 20
Data workers, 18
Digital firm, 11
Extranets, 21
Feedback, 16
Information, 15
Information system, 15
Information systems literacy, 17
Information technology (IT), 15
Information technology (IT) infrastructure, 21
Input, 16
Internet, 21
Intranets, 21
Knowledge workers, 18
Management information systems (MIS), 17
Middle management, 18
Network, 21
Networking and telecommunications technology, 20
Operational management, 18
Organizational and management capital, 27
Output, 16
Processing, 16
Production or service workers, 18
Senior management, 18
Sociotechnical view, 30
World Wide Web, 21
Review Questions
1. How are information systems transforming business and what is their relationship to globalization?
- Describe how information systems have changed the way businesses operate and their products and services.
- Identify three major new information system trends.
- Describe the characteristics of a digital firm.
- Describe the challenges and opportunities of globalization in a “flattened” world.
2. Why are information systems so essential for running and managing a business today?
- List and describe six reasons why information systems are so important for business today.
3. What exactly is an information system? How does it work? What are its management, organization, and technology components?
- Define an information system and describe the activities it performs.
- List and describe the organizational, management, and technology dimensions of information systems.
- Distinguish between data and information and between information systems literacy and computer literacy.
- Explain how the Internet and the World Wide Web are related to the other technology components of information systems.
4. What are complementary assets? Why are complementary assets essential for ensuring that information systems provide genuine value for an organization?
- Define complementary assets and describe their relationship to information technology.
- Describe the complementary social, managerial, and organizational assets required to optimize returns from information technology investments.
5. What academic disciplines are used to study information systems? How does each contribute to an understanding of information systems? What is a sociotechnical systems perspective?
- List and describe each discipline that contributes to a technical approach to information systems.
- List and describe each discipline that contributes to a behavioral approach to information systems.
- Describe the sociotechnical perspective on information systems.
Discussion Questions
1. Information systems are too important to be left to computer specialists. Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. If you were setting up the Web site for another Major League Baseball team, what management, organization, and technology issues might you encounter?
3. What are some of the organizational, managerial, and social complementary assets that help make UPS’s information systems so successful?
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Creating a Web Site for Team Collaboration
Form a team with three or four classmates. Then use the tools at Google Sites to create a Web site for your team. You will need to create a Google account for the site and specify the collaborators (your team members) who are allowed to access the site and make contributions. Specify your professor as the viewer of the site so that person can evaluate your work. Assign a name to the site. Select a theme for the site and make any changes you wish to colors and fonts. Add features for project announcements and a repository for team documents, source materials, illustrations, electronic presentations, and Web pages of interest. You can add other features if you wish. Use Google to create a calendar for your team. After you complete this exercise, you can use this Web site and calendar for your other team projects.
The existing electricity infrastructure in the United States is outdated and inefficient. Energy companies provide power to consumers, but the grid provides no information about how the consumers are using that energy, making it difficult to develop more efficient approaches to distribution. Also, the current electricity grid offers few ways to handle power provided by alternative energy sources, which are critical components of most efforts to go “green.” Enter the smart grid.
A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce costs, and increase reliability and transparency. The smart grid enables information to flow back and forth between electric power providers and individual households to allow both consumers and energy companies to make more intelligent decisions regarding energy consumption and production. Information from smart grids would show utilities when to raise prices when demand is high and lower them when demand lessens. Smart grids would also help consumers program high-use electrical appliances like heating and air conditioning systems to reduce consumption during times of peak usage. If implemented nationwide, proponents believe, smart grids would lead to a 5 to 15 percent decrease in energy consumption. Electricity grids are sized to meet the maximum electricity need, so a drop in peak demand would enable utilities to operate with fewer expensive power plants, thereby lowering costs and pollution.
Another advantage of smart grids is their ability to detect sources of power outages more quickly and precisely at the individual household level. With such precise information, utilities will be able to respond to service problems more rapidly and efficiently.
Managing the information flowing in these smart grids requires technology: networks and switches for power management; sensor and monitoring devices to track energy usage and distribution trends; systems to provide energy suppliers and consumers with usage data; communications systems to relay data along the entire energy supply system; and systems linked to programmable appliances to run them when energy is least costly.
If consumers had in-home displays showing how much energy they are consuming at any moment and the price of that energy, they are more likely to curb their consumption to cut costs. Home thermostats and appliances could adjust on their own automatically, depending on the cost of power, and even obtain that power from nontraditional sources, such as a neighbor’s rooftop solar panel. Instead of power flowing from a small number of power plants, the smart grid will make it possible to have a distributed energy system. Electricity will flow from homes and businesses into the grid, and they will use power from local and faraway sources. Besides increasing energy efficiency, converting to smart grids along with other related energy initiatives could create up to 370,000 jobs.
That’s why pioneering smart grid projects such as SmartGridCity in Boulder, Colorado, are attracting attention. SmartGridCity represents a collaboration by Xcel Energy Inc. and residents of Boulder to test the viability of smart grids on a smaller scale. Participants can check their power consumption levels and costs online, and will soon be able to program home appliances over the Web. Customers access this information and set goals and guidelines for their home’s energy usage through a Web portal. They also have the option of allowing Xcel to remotely adjust their thermostats during periods of high demand.
SmartGridCity is also attempting to turn homes into “miniature power plants” using solar-powered battery packs that “TiVo electricity,” or stash it away to use at a later time. This serves as backup power for homes using the packs, but Xcel can also tap into that power during times of peak energy consumption to lessen the overall energy load. Xcel will be able to remotely adjust thermostats and water heaters and will have much better information about the power consumption of their consumers.
Bud Peterson, chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and his wife Val have worked with Xcel to turn their home into the prototype residence for the SmartGridCity project. Their house was supplied with a six-kilowatt photovoltaic system on two roofs, four thermostats controlled via the Web, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) Ford Escape, and other high-tech, smart grid-compatible features. Xcel employees are able to monitor periods
of high power consumption and how much energy the Petersons’ Escape is using on the road.
A digital dashboard in the Petersons’ house displays power usage information in dozens of different ways—live household consumption and production, stored backup power, and carbon emission reductions translated into gallons of gasoline and acres of trees saved each year. The dashboard also allows the Petersons to program their home thermostats to adjust the temperature by room, time of day, and season. Since the project began in the spring of 2008, the Petersons have been able to reduce their electricity use by one-third.
Xcel is not alone. Hundreds of technology companies and almost every major electric utility company see smart grids as the wave of the future. Heightening interest is $3.4 billion in federal economic recovery money for smart grid technology.
Duke Energy spent $35 million on smart grid initiatives, installing 80,000 smart meters as part of a pilot project in Charlotte, North Carolina, to provide business and residential customers with up-to-the-minute information on their energy use, as well as data on how much their appliances cost to operate. This helps them save money by curbing usage during peak times when rates are high or by replacing inefficient appliances. Duke now plans to spend $1 billion on sensors, intelligent meters, and other upgrades for a smart grid serving 700,000 customers in Cincinnati.
Florida Power and Light is budgeting $200 million for smart meters covering 1 million homes and businesses in the Miami area over the next two years. Center Point Energy, which services 2.2 million customers in the metropolitan Houston area, is planning to spend $1 billion over the next five years on a smart grid. Although residential customers’ monthly electric bills will be $3.24 higher, the company says this amount will be more than offset by energy savings. Pacific Gas & Electric, which distributes power to Northern and Central California, is in the process of installing 10 million smart meters by mid-2012.
Google has developed a free Web service called PowerMeter for tracking energy use online in houses or businesses as power is consumed. It expects other companies to build the devices that will supply data to PowerMeter.
There are a number of challenges facing the efforts to implement smart grids. Changing the infrastructure of our electricity grids is a daunting task. Two-way meters that allow information to flow both to and from homes need to be installed at any home or building that uses electric power—in other words, essentially everywhere. Another challenge is creating an intuitive end-user interface. Some SmartGridCity participants reported that the dashboard they used to manage their appliances was too confusing and high-tech. Even Val Peterson admitted that, at first, managing the information about her power usage supplied through the Xcel Web portal was an intimidating process.
The smart grid won’t be cheap, with estimated costs running as high as $75 billion. Meters run $250 to $500 each when they are accompanied by new utility billing systems. Who is going to pay the bill? Is the average consumer willing to pay the upfront costs for a smart grid system and then respond appropriately to price signals? Will consumers and utility companies get the promised payback if they buy into smart grid technology? Might “smart meters” be too intrusive? Would consumers really want to entrust energy companies with regulating the energy usage inside their homes? Would a highly computerized grid increase the risk of cyberattacks?
Jack Oliphant, a retiree living north of Houston in Spring, Texas, believes that the $444 he will pay Center Point for a smart meter won’t justify the expense. “There’s no mystery about how you save energy,” he says. “You turn down the air conditioner and shut off some lights. I don’t need an expensive meter to do that.” Others have pointed out other less-expensive methods of reducing energy consumption. Marcel Hawiger, an attorney for The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco consumer advocacy group, favors expanding existing air conditioner-cycling programs, where utilities are able to control air conditioners so they take turns coming on and off, thereby reducing demands on the electric system. He believes air conditioner controllers, which control temperature settings and compressors to reduce overall energy costs, provide much of the benefit of smart meters at a fraction of their cost.
Consumer advocates have vowed to fight smart grids if they boost rates for customers who are unable or unwilling to use Web portals and allow energy companies to control aspects of their appliances. Advocates also argue that smart grids represent an Orwellian intrusion of people’s right to use their appliances as they see fit without disclosing facts about their usage to others. A proposal by officials in California to require all new homes to have remotely adjustable thermostats was soundly defeated after critics worried about the privacy implications.
Energy companies stand to lose money as individuals conserve more electricity, creating a disincentive for them to cooperate with conservation efforts like smart grids. Patience will be critical as energy companies and local communities work to set up new technologies and pricing plans.
Sources: Rebecca Smith, “What Utilities Have Learned from Smart-Meter Tests,” *The Wall Street Journal*, February 22, 2010; “Smart Grid: & Reasons Why IT Matters,” *CIO Insight*, March 24, 2010; Yuliya Chernova, “Getting Smart About Smart Meters,” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 10, 2010; Bob Evans, “It’s Dark-Side Potential Seen in SmartGridCity Project,” *Information Week*, March 24, 2009; Bob Violino, “No More Grid-Lock,” *Information Week*, November 16, 2009; K.C. Jones, “Smart Grids to Get Jolt from IT,” *Information Week*, March 23, 2009; Rebecca Smith, “Smart Meter, Dumb Idea?” *The Wall Street Journal*, April 27, 2009; Stephanie Simon, “The More Your Know...” *The Wall Street Journal*, February 9, 2009; and Matthew Wald and Miguel Helft, “Google Taking a Step into Power Metering,” *The New York Times*, February 10, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. How do smart grids differ from the current electricity infrastructure in the United States?
2. What management, organization, and technology issues should be considered when developing a smart grid?
3. What challenge to the development of smart grids do you think is most likely to hamper their development?
4. What other areas of our infrastructure could benefit from “smart” technologies? Describe one example not listed in the case.
5. Would you like your home and your community to be part of a smart grid? Why or why not? Explain.
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Chapter 2
Global E-business and Collaboration
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?
2. How do systems serve the different management groups in a business?
3. How do systems that link the enterprise improve organizational performance?
4. Why are systems for collaboration and teamwork so important and what technologies do they use?
5. What is the role of the information systems function in a business?
Interactive Sessions:
Domino’s Sizzles with Pizza Tracker
Virtual Meetings: Smart Management
CHAPTER OUTLINE
2.1 BUSINESS PROCESSES AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Business Processes
How Information Technology Improves Business Processes
2.2 TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Systems for Different Management Groups
Systems for Linking the Enterprise
E-business, E-commerce, and E-government
2.3 SYSTEMS FOR COLLABORATION AND TEAMWORK
What Is Collaboration?
Business Benefits of Collaboration and Teamwork
Building a Collaborative Culture and Business Processes
Tools and Technologies for Collaboration and Teamwork
2.4 THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS FUNCTION IN BUSINESS
The Information Systems Department
Organizing the Information Systems Function
2.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Improving Decision Making: Using a Spreadsheet to Select Suppliers
Achieving Operational Excellence: Using Internet Software to Plan Efficient Transportation Routes
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
Systems from a Functional Perspective
IT Enables Collaboration and Teamwork
Challenges of Using Business Information Systems
Organizing the Information Systems Function
The BMW Oracle Racing organization won the 33rd America’s Cup yacht race in Valencia, Spain on February 18, 2010. The BMW Oracle boat USA, backed by software billionaire Larry Ellison, beat Alinghi, the Swiss boat backed by Ernesto Bertarelli, a Swiss billionaire. It’s always a spectacle when two billionaires go head to head for the prize. Lots and lots of money, world-class talent, and in this case, the best technologies and information systems in the world. In the end, the 114-foot USA won handily the first two races of a best-of-three series, reaching speeds over 35 miles an hour, three times faster than the wind. As far as experts can figure, USA is the fastest sailboat in history.
So what kind of technology can you get for a $300 million sailboat? Start with the physical structure: a three hulled trimaran, 114 feet long, fashioned from carbon fiber shaped into a form descended from Polynesian outrigger boats over a thousand years old. The hull is so light it only extends six inches into the water. Forget about a traditional mast (that’s the pole that holds up the sails) and forget about sails too. Think about a 233-foot airplane wing also made from carbon fiber that sticks up from the boat deck 20 stories high. Instead of cloth sails, think about a stretchy aeronautical fabric over a carbon fiber frame that is hydraulically controlled to assume any shape you want, sort of like a stretchy garment hugs the body’s bones. The result is a wing, not a sail, whose shape can be changed from pretty near flat to quite curved just like an aircraft wing.
Controlling this wickedly sleek sailboat requires a lightning-fast collection of massive amounts of data, powerful data management, rapid real-time data analysis, quick decision making, and immediate measurement of the results. In short, all the information technologies needed by a modern business firm. When you can perform all these tasks thousands of times in an hour, you can incrementally improve your performance and have an overwhelming advantage over less IT-savvy opponents on race day.
For USA, this meant using 250 sensors on the wing, hull, and rudder to gather real-time data on pressure, angles, loads, and strains to monitor the effectiveness of each adjustment. The sensors track 4,000 variables, 10 times a second, producing 90 million data points an hour.
Managing all these data is Oracle Database 11g data management software. The data are wirelessly transferred to a tender ship running Oracle 11g for near real-time analysis using a family of formulas (called velocity prediction formulas) geared to understanding what makes the boat go fast. Oracle’s Application Express presentation graphics summarize the millions of data points and present the boat managers with charts that make sense of the information. The data are also sent to Oracle’s Austin data center for more in-depth analysis. Using powerful data analysis tools, USA managers were able to find relationships they had never thought about before. Over several years of practice, from day one to the day before the race, the crew of USA could chart a steady improvement in performance.
All this meant “sailing” had changed, perhaps been transformed by IT. Each crew member wore a small mobile handheld computer on his wrist to display data on the key performance variables customized for that person’s responsibilities, such as the load balance on a specific rope or the current aerodynamic performance of the wing sail. Rather than stare at the sails or the sea, the crew had to be trained to sail like pilots looking at instruments. The helmsman turned into a pilot looking at data displayed on his sunglasses with an occasional glance at the deck crew, sea state, and competitors.
Professional and amateur sailors across the world wondered if the technology had transformed sailing into something else. The billionaire winner Larry Ellison sets the rules for the next race, and the blogs are speculating that he will seek a return to simpler more traditional boats that need to be sailed, not flown like airplanes. Yet few really believe Ellison will give up a key IT advantage in data collection, analysis, presentation, and performance-based decision making.
Sources: Jeff Erickson, “Sailing Home with the Prize,” Oracle Magazine, May/June 2010; www.americas.cup.com, accessed May 21, 2010; and www.bmworacleracing.com, accessed May 21, 2010.
The experience of BMW Oracle’s USA in the 2010 America’s Cup competition illustrates how much organizations today, even those in traditional sports such as sailing, rely on information systems to improve their performance and remain competitive. It also shows how much information systems make a difference in an organization’s ability to innovate, execute, and in the case of business firms, grow profits.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. The America’s Cup contenders were confronted with both a challenge and opportunity. Both were locked in the world’s most competitive sailing race. They staffed their crews with the best sailors in the world. But sailing ability was not enough. There were opportunities for improving sailing performance by changing and refining the design of the competing vessels using information systems intensively for this purpose.
Because Oracle is one of the world’s leading information technology providers, the company was a natural for using the most advanced information technology to continually improve USA’s design and performance. But information technology alone would not have produced a winning boat. The Oracle team had to revise many of the processes and procedures used in sailing to take advantage of the technology, including training experienced sailors to work more like pilots with high-tech instruments and sensors. Oracle won the America’s Cup because it had learned how to apply new technology to improve the processes of designing and sailing a competitive sailboat.
2.1 BUSINESS PROCESSES AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
In order to operate, businesses must deal with many different pieces of information about suppliers, customers, employees, invoices and payments, and of course their products and services. They must organize work activities that use this information to operate efficiently and enhance the overall performance of the firm. Information systems make it possible for firms to manage all their information, make better decisions, and improve the execution of their business processes.
BUSINESS PROCESSES
Business processes, which we introduced in Chapter 1, refer to the manner in which work is organized, coordinated, and focused to produce a valuable product or service. Business processes are the collection of activities required to produce a product or service. These activities are supported by flows of material, information, and knowledge among the participants in business processes. Business processes also refer to the unique ways in which organizations coordinate work, information, and knowledge, and the ways in which management chooses to coordinate work.
To a large extent, the performance of a business firm depends on how well its business processes are designed and coordinated. A company's business processes can be a source of competitive strength if they enable the company to innovate or to execute better than its rivals. Business processes can also be liabilities if they are based on outdated ways of working that impede organizational responsiveness and efficiency. The chapter-opening case describing the processes used to sail the 2010 winning America's Cup boat clearly illustrates these points, as do many of the other cases in this text.
Every business can be seen as a collection of business processes, some of which are part of larger encompassing processes. For instance, designing a new sailboat model, manufacturing components, assembling the finished boat, and revising the design and construction are all part of the overall production process. Many business processes are tied to a specific functional area. For example, the sales and marketing function is responsible for identifying customers, and the human resources function is responsible for hiring employees. Table 2-1 describes some typical business processes for each of the functional areas of business.
TABLE 2-1 EXAMPLES OF FUNCTIONAL BUSINESS PROCESSES
| FUNCTIONAL AREA | BUSINESS PROCESS |
|--------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
| Manufacturing and production | Assembling the product |
| | Checking for quality |
| | Producing bills of materials |
| Sales and marketing | Identifying customers |
| | Making customers aware of the product |
| | Selling the product |
| Finance and accounting | Paying creditors |
| | Creating financial statements |
| | Managing cash accounts |
| Human resources | Hiring employees |
| | Evaluating employees' job performance |
| | Enrolling employees in benefits plans |
Other business processes cross many different functional areas and require coordination across departments. For instance, consider the seemingly simple business process of fulfilling a customer order (see Figure 2-1). Initially, the sales department receives a sales order. The order passes first to accounting to ensure the customer can pay for the order either by a credit verification or request for immediate payment prior to shipping. Once the customer credit is established, the production department pulls the product from inventory or produces the product. Then the product is shipped (and this may require working with a logistics firm, such as UPS or FedEx). A bill or invoice is generated by the accounting department, and a notice is sent to the customer indicating that the product has shipped. The sales department is notified of the shipment and prepares to support the customer by answering calls or fulfilling warranty claims.
What at first appears to be a simple process, fulfilling an order, turns out to be a very complicated series of business processes that require the close coordination of major functional groups in a firm. Moreover, to efficiently perform all these steps in the order fulfillment process requires a great deal of information. The required information must flow rapidly both within the firm from one decision maker to another; with business partners, such as delivery firms; and with the customer. Computer-based information systems make this possible.
**HOW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES BUSINESS PROCESSES**
Exactly how do information systems improve business processes? Information systems automate many steps in business processes that were formerly performed manually, such as checking a client's credit, or generating an invoice and shipping order. But today, information technology can do much more. New technology can actually change the flow of information, making it possible for many more people to access and share information, replacing sequential steps.
**FIGURE 2-1 THE ORDER FULFILLMENT PROCESS**
Fulfilling a customer order involves a complex set of steps that requires the close coordination of the sales, accounting, and manufacturing functions.
with tasks that can be performed simultaneously, and eliminating delays in decision making. New information technology frequently changes the way a business works and supports entirely new business models. Downloading a Kindle e-book from Amazon, buying a computer online at Best Buy, and downloading a music track from iTunes are entirely new business processes based on new business models that would be inconceivable without today’s information technology.
That's why it's so important to pay close attention to business processes, both in your information systems course and in your future career. By analyzing business processes, you can achieve a very clear understanding of how a business actually works. Moreover, by conducting a business process analysis, you will also begin to understand how to change the business by improving its processes to make it more efficient or effective. Throughout this book, we examine business processes with a view to understanding how they might be improved by using information technology to achieve greater efficiency, innovation, and customer service.
2.2 TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Now that you understand business processes, it is time to look more closely at how information systems support the business processes of a firm. Because there are different interests, specialties, and levels in an organization, there are different kinds of systems. No single system can provide all the information an organization needs.
A typical business organization has systems supporting processes for each of the major business functions—systems for sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, and human resources. You can find examples of systems for each of these business functions in the Learning Tracks for this chapter. Functional systems that operate independently of each other are becoming a thing of the past because they cannot easily share information to support cross-functional business processes. Many have been replaced with large-scale cross-functional systems that integrate the activities of related business processes and organizational units. We describe these integrated cross-functional applications later in this section.
A typical firm also has different systems supporting the decision-making needs of each of the main management groups we described in Chapter 1. Operational management, middle management, and senior management each use systems to support the decisions they must make to run the company. Let's look at these systems and the types of decisions they support.
SYSTEMS FOR DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT GROUPS
A business firm has systems to support different groups or levels of management. These systems include transaction processing systems, management information systems, decision-support systems, and systems for business intelligence.
Transaction Processing Systems
Operational managers need systems that keep track of the elementary activities and transactions of the organization, such as sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions, and the flow of materials in a factory. Transaction
Transaction processing systems (TPS) provide this kind of information. A transaction processing system is a computerized system that performs and records the daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business, such as sales order entry, hotel reservations, payroll, employee record keeping, and shipping.
The principal purpose of systems at this level is to answer routine questions and to track the flow of transactions through the organization. How many parts are in inventory? What happened to Mr. Smith's payment? To answer these kinds of questions, information generally must be easily available, current, and accurate.
At the operational level, tasks, resources, and goals are predefined and highly structured. The decision to grant credit to a customer, for instance, is made by a lower-level supervisor according to predefined criteria. All that must be determined is whether the customer meets the criteria.
Figure 2-2 illustrates a TPS for payroll processing. A payroll system keeps track of money paid to employees. An employee time sheet with the employee’s name, social security number, and number of hours worked per week represents a single transaction for this system. Once this transaction is input into the system, it updates the system’s master file (or database—see Chapter 6) that permanently maintains employee information for the organization. The data in the system are combined in different ways to create reports of interest to management and government agencies and to send paychecks to employees.
Managers need TPS to monitor the status of internal operations and the firm’s relations with the external environment. TPS are also major producers of information for the other systems and business functions. For example, the payroll system illustrated in Figure 2-2, along with other accounting TPS,
**FIGURE 2-2 A PAYROLL TPS**
A TPS for payroll processing captures employee payment transaction data (such as a time card). System outputs include online and hard-copy reports for management and employee paychecks.
supplies data to the company's general ledger system, which is responsible for maintaining records of the firm's income and expenses and for producing reports such as income statements and balance sheets. It also supplies employee payment history data for insurance, pension, and other benefits calculations to the firm's human resources function and employee payment data to government agencies such as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration.
Transaction processing systems are often so central to a business that TPS failure for a few hours can lead to a firm's demise and perhaps that of other firms linked to it. Imagine what would happen to UPS if its package tracking system were not working! What would the airlines do without their computerized reservation systems?
**Business Intelligence Systems for Decision Support**
Middle management needs systems to help with monitoring, controlling, decision-making, and administrative activities. The principal question addressed by such systems is this: Are things working well?
In Chapter 1, we define management information systems as the study of information systems in business and management. The term **management information systems (MIS)** also designates a specific category of information systems serving middle management. MIS provide middle managers with reports on the organization's current performance. This information is used to monitor and control the business and predict future performance.
MIS summarize and report on the company's basic operations using data supplied by transaction processing systems. The basic transaction data from TPS are compressed and usually presented in reports that are produced on a regular schedule. Today, many of these reports are delivered online. Figure 2-3 shows how a typical MIS transforms transaction-level data from order process-
---
**FIGURE 2-3 HOW MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS OBTAIN THEIR DATA FROM THE ORGANIZATION'S TPS**
In the system illustrated by this diagram, three TPS supply summarized transaction data to the MIS reporting system at the end of the time period. Managers gain access to the organizational data through the MIS, which provides them with the appropriate reports.
ing, production, and accounting into MIS files that are used to provide managers with reports. Figure 2-4 shows a sample report from this system.
MIS serve managers primarily interested in weekly, monthly, and yearly results. These systems typically provide answers to routine questions that have been specified in advance and have a predefined procedure for answering them. For instance, MIS reports might list the total pounds of lettuce used this quarter by a fast-food chain or, as illustrated in Figure 2-4, compare total annual sales figures for specific products to planned targets. These systems generally are not flexible and have little analytical capability. Most MIS use simple routines, such as summaries and comparisons, as opposed to sophisticated mathematical models or statistical techniques.
In contrast, **decision-support systems (DSS)** support more non-routine decision making. They focus on problems that are unique and rapidly changing, for which the procedure for arriving at a solution may not be fully predefined in advance. They try to answer questions such as these: What would be the impact on production schedules if we were to double sales in the month of December? What would happen to our return on investment if a factory schedule were delayed for six months?
Although DSS use internal information from TPS and MIS, they often bring in information from external sources, such as current stock prices or product prices of competitors. These systems use a variety of models to analyze the data and are designed so that users can work with them directly.
An interesting, small, but powerful, DSS is the voyage-estimating system of a subsidiary of a large American metals company that exists primarily to carry bulk cargoes of coal, oil, ores, and finished products for its parent company. The firm owns some vessels, charters others, and bids for shipping contracts in the open market to carry general cargo. A voyage-estimating system calculates financial and technical voyage details. Financial calculations include ship/time costs (fuel, labor, capital), freight rates for various types of cargo, and port expenses. Technical details include a myriad of factors, such as ship cargo capacity, speed, port distances, fuel and water consumption, and loading patterns (location of cargo for different ports).
**FIGURE 2-4 SAMPLE MIS REPORT**
| PRODUCT CODE | PRODUCT DESCRIPTION | SALES REGION | ACTUAL SALES | PLANNED | ACTUAL versus PLANNED |
|--------------|-----------------------|--------------|--------------|-------------|-----------------------|
| 4469 | Carpet Cleaner | Northeast | 4,066,700 | 4,800,000 | 0.85 |
| | | South | 3,778,112 | 3,750,000 | 1.01 |
| | | Midwest | 4,867,001 | 4,600,000 | 1.06 |
| | | West | 4,003,440 | 4,400,000 | 0.91 |
| | **TOTAL** | | **16,715,253** | **17,550,000** | **0.95** |
| 5674 | Room Freshener | Northeast | 3,676,700 | 3,900,000 | 0.94 |
| | | South | 5,608,112 | 4,700,000 | 1.19 |
| | | Midwest | 4,711,001 | 4,200,000 | 1.12 |
| | | West | 4,563,440 | 4,900,000 | 0.93 |
| | **TOTAL** | | **18,559,253** | **17,700,000** | **1.05** |
This report, showing summarized annual sales data, was produced by the MIS in Figure 2-3.
The system can answer questions such as the following: Given a customer delivery schedule and an offered freight rate, which vessel should be assigned at what rate to maximize profits? What is the optimal speed at which a particular vessel can maximize its profit and still meet its delivery schedule? What is the optimal loading pattern for a ship bound for the U.S. West Coast from Malaysia? Figure 2-5 illustrates the DSS built for this company. The system operates on a desktop personal computer, providing a system of menus that makes it easy for users to enter data or obtain information.
The voyage-estimating DSS we have just described draws heavily on models. Other systems supporting non-routine decision making are more data-driven, focusing instead on extracting useful information from large quantities of data. For example, Intrawest—the largest ski operator in North America—collects and stores large amounts of customer data from its Web site, call center, lodging reservations, ski schools, and ski equipment rental stores. It uses special software to analyze these data to determine the value, revenue potential, and loyalty of each customer so managers can make better decisions on how to target their marketing programs. The system segments customers into seven categories based on needs, attitudes, and behaviors, ranging from “passionate experts” to “value-minded family vacationers.” The company then e-mails video clips that would appeal to each segment to encourage more visits to its resorts.
All of the management systems we have just described are systems for business intelligence. **Business intelligence** is a contemporary term for data and software tools for organizing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help managers and other enterprise users make more informed decisions. You’ll learn more about business intelligence in Chapters 6 and 12.
Business intelligence applications are not limited to middle managers, and can be found at all levels of the organization, including systems for senior management. Senior managers need systems that address strategic issues and long-term trends, both in the firm and in the external environment. They are
**FIGURE 2-5** VOYAGE-ESTIMATING DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEM
This DSS operates on a powerful PC. It is used daily by managers who must develop bids on shipping contracts.
concerned with questions such as these: What will employment levels be in five years? What are the long-term industry cost trends, and where does our firm fit in? What products should we be making in five years? What new acquisitions would protect us from cyclical business swings?
**Executive support systems (ESS)** help senior management make these decisions. They address non-routine decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight because there is no agreed-on procedure for arriving at a solution. ESS present graphs and data from many sources through an interface that is easy for senior managers to use. Often the information is delivered to senior executives through a **portal**, which uses a Web interface to present integrated personalized business content. You will learn more about other applications of portals in Chapter 11.
ESS are designed to incorporate data about external events, such as new tax laws or competitors, but they also draw summarized information from internal MIS and DSS. They filter, compress, and track critical data, displaying the data of greatest importance to senior managers. Increasingly, such systems include business intelligence analytics for analyzing trends, forecasting, and “drilling down” to data at greater levels of detail.
For example, the CEO of Leiner Health Products, one of the largest manufacturers of private-label vitamins and supplements in the United States, has an ESS that provides on his desktop a minute-to-minute view of the firm’s financial performance as measured by working capital, accounts receivable, accounts payable, cash flow, and inventory. The information is presented in the form of a **digital dashboard**, which displays on a single screen graphs and charts of key performance indicators for managing a company. Digital dashboards are becoming an increasingly popular tool for management decision makers.
Dundas Data Visualization’s digital dashboard delivers comprehensive and accurate information for decision making. The graphical overview of key performance indicators helps managers quickly spot areas that need attention.
The Interactive Session on Organizations describes real-world examples of several types of systems we have just described that are used by a successful fast-food chain. Note the types of systems illustrated in this case and the role they play in improving business performance and competitiveness.
**SYSTEMS FOR LINKING THE ENTERPRISE**
Reviewing all the different types of systems we have just described, you might wonder how a business can manage all the information in these different systems. You might also wonder how costly it is to maintain so many different systems. And you might wonder how all these different systems can share information and how managers and employees are able to coordinate their work. In fact, these are all important questions for businesses today.
**Enterprise Applications**
Getting all the different kinds of systems in a company to work together has proven a major challenge. Typically, corporations are put together both through normal “organic” growth and through acquisition of smaller firms. Over a period of time, corporations end up with a collection of systems, most of them older, and face the challenge of getting them all to “talk” with one another and work together as one corporate system. There are several solutions to this problem.
One solution is to implement **enterprise applications**, which are systems that span functional areas, focus on executing business processes across the business firm, and include all levels of management. Enterprise applications help businesses become more flexible and productive by coordinating their business processes more closely and integrating groups of processes so they focus on efficient management of resources and customer service.
There are four major enterprise applications: enterprise systems, supply chain management systems, customer relationship management systems, and knowledge management systems. Each of these enterprise applications integrates a related set of functions and business processes to enhance the performance of the organization as a whole. Figure 2-6 shows that the architecture for these enterprise applications encompasses processes spanning the entire organization and, in some cases, extending beyond the organization to customers, suppliers, and other key business partners.
**Enterprise Systems** Firms use **enterprise systems**, also known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, to integrate business processes in manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and human resources into a single software system. Information that was previously fragmented in many different systems is stored in a single comprehensive data repository where it can be used by many different parts of the business.
For example, when a customer places an order, the order data flow automatically to other parts of the company that are affected by them. The order transaction triggers the warehouse to pick the ordered products and schedule shipment. The warehouse informs the factory to replenish whatever has been depleted. The accounting department is notified to send the customer an invoice. Customer service representatives track the progress of the order through every step to inform customers about the status of their orders. Managers are able to use firm-wide information to make more precise and timely decisions about daily operations and longer-term planning.
When it comes to pizza, everyone has an opinion. Some of us think that our current pizza is just fine the way it is. Others have a favorite pizza joint that makes it like no one else. And many pizza lovers in America agreed up until recently that Domino’s home-delivered pizza was among the worst. The home-delivery market for pizza chains in the United States is approximately $15 billion per year.
Domino’s, which owns the largest home-delivery market share of any U.S. pizza chain, is finding ways to innovate by overhauling its in-store transaction processing systems and by providing other useful services to customers, such as its Pizza Tracker. And more important, Domino’s is trying very hard to overcome its reputation for poor quality by radically improving ingredients and freshness. Critics believe the company significantly improved the quality of its pizza and customer service in 2010.
Domino’s was founded in 1960 by Tom Monaghan and his brother James when they purchased a single pizza store in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The company slowly began to grow, and by 1978, Domino’s had 200 stores. Today, the company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and operates almost 9,000 stores located in all 50 U.S. states and across the world in 60 international markets. In 2009, Domino’s had $1.5 billion in sales and earned $80 million in profit.
Domino’s is part of a heated battle among prominent pizza chains, including Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, and Little Caesar. Pizza Hut is the only chain larger than Domino’s in the U.S., but each of the four has significant market share. Domino’s also competes with local pizza stores throughout the U.S. To gain a competitive advantage Domino’s needs to deliver excellent customer service, and most importantly, good pizza. But it also benefits from highly effective information systems.
Domino’s proprietary point-of-sale system, Pulse, is an important asset in maintaining consistent and efficient management functions in each of its restaurants. A point-of-sale system captures purchase and payment data at a physical location where goods or services are bought and sold using computers, automated cash registers, scanners, or other digital devices.
In 2003, Domino’s implemented Pulse in a large portion of its stores, and those stores reported improved customer service, reduced mistakes, and shorter training times. Since then, Pulse has become a staple of all Domino’s franchises. Some of the functions Pulse performs at Domino’s franchises are taking and customizing orders using a touch-screen interface, maintaining sales figures, and compiling customer information. Domino’s prefers not to disclose the specific dollar amounts that it has saved from Pulse, but it’s clear from industry analysts that the technology is working to cut costs and increase customer satisfaction.
More recently, Domino’s released a new hardware and software platform called Pulse Evolution, which is now in use in a majority of Domino’s more than 5,000 U.S. branches. Pulse Evolution improves on the older technology in several ways. First, the older software used a ‘thick-client’ model, which required all machines using the software to be fully equipped personal computers running Windows. Pulse Evolution, on the other hand, uses ‘thin-client’ architecture in which networked workstations with little independent processing power collect data and send them over the Internet to powerful Lenovo PCs for processing. These workstations lack hard drives, fans, and other moving parts, making them less expensive and easier to maintain. Also, Pulse Evolution is easier to update and more secure, since there’s only one machine in the store which needs to be updated.
Along with Pulse Evolution, Domino’s rolled out its state-of-the-art online ordering system, which includes Pizza Tracker. The system allows customers to watch a simulated photographic version of their pizza as they customize its size, sauces, and toppings. The image changes with each change a customer makes. Then, once customers place an order, they are able to view its progress online with Pizza Tracker. Pizza Tracker displays a horizontal bar that tracks an order’s progress graphically. As a Domino’s store completes each step of the order fulfillment process, a section of the bar becomes red. Even customers that place their orders via telephone can monitor their progress on the Web using Pizza Tracker at stores using Pulse Evolution. In 2010, Domino’s introduced an online polling system to continuously upload information from local stores.
As with most instances of organizational change of this magnitude, Domino’s experienced some resistance. Domino’s originally wanted its franchises to
select Pulse to comply with its requirements for data security, but some franchises have resisted switching to Pulse and sought alternative systems. After Domino’s tried to compel those franchises to use Pulse, the U.S. District Court for Minnesota sided with franchisees who claimed that Domino’s could not force them to use this system. Now, Domino’s continues to make improvements to Pulse in an effort to make it overwhelmingly appealing to all franchisees.
Pizza Hut and Papa John’s also have online ordering capability, but lack the Pizza Tracker and the simulated pizza features that Domino’s has successfully implemented. Today, online orders account for almost 20 percent of all of Domino’s orders, which is up from less than 15 percent in 2008. But the battle to sell pizza with technology rages on. Pizza Hut customers can now use their iPhones to place orders, and Papa John’s customers can place orders by texting. With many billions of dollars at stake, all the large national pizza chains will be developing innovative new ways of ordering pizza and participating in its creation.
Sources: PRN Newswire, “Servant Systems Releases Domino’s Store Polling Software,” PRN Newswire, April 14, 2010; Julie Jargon, “Domino’s IT Staff Delivers Slick Site, Ordering System,” The Wall Street Journal, November 24, 2009; www.dominosbiz.com, accessed May 17, 2010; Paul McDougall, “Interop: Domino’s Eyes Microsoft Cloud,” Information Week, April 26, 2010; “Domino’s Builds New Foundation Under Proprietary Store Tech,” Nation’s Restaurant News, February 25, 2009; “and “Inside Domino’s ‘Pizza Tracker’: What It Does, Why, and How,” Nation’s Restaurant News, February 27, 2008.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What kinds of systems are described in this case? Identify and describe the business processes each supports. Describe the inputs, processes, and outputs of these systems.
2. How do these systems help Domino’s improve its business performance?
3. How did the online pizza ordering system improve the process of ordering a Domino’s pizza?
4. How effective are these systems in giving Domino’s a competitive edge? Explain your answer.
MIS IN ACTION
Visit Domino’s Web site and examine the order placement and Pizza Tracker features. Then answer the following questions:
1. What steps does Pizza Tracker display for the user? How does the Pizza Tracker improve the customer experience?
2. Would the Pizza Tracker service influence you to order pizza from Domino’s instead of a competing chain? Why or why not?
3. What improvements would you make to the order placement feature?
Supply Chain Management Systems Firms use supply chain management (SCM) systems to help manage relationships with their suppliers. These systems help suppliers, purchasing firms, distributors, and logistics companies share information about orders, production, inventory levels, and delivery of products and services so that they can source, produce, and deliver goods and services efficiently. The ultimate objective is to get the right amount of their products from their source to their point of consumption in the least amount of time and at the lowest cost. These systems increase firm profitability by lowering the costs of moving and making products and by enabling managers to make better decisions about how to organize and schedule sourcing, production, and distribution.
Supply chain management systems are one type of interorganizational system because they automate the flow of information across organizational boundaries. You will find examples of other types of interorganizational information systems throughout this text because such systems make it possible for firms to link electronically to customers and to outsource their work to other companies.
Customer Relationship Management Systems Firms use customer relationship management (CRM) systems to help manage their relationships with their customers. CRM systems provide information to coordinate all of the business processes that deal with customers in sales, marketing, and service to optimize revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. This information helps firms identify, attract, and retain the most profitable customers; provide better service to existing customers; and increase sales.
Enterprise applications automate processes that span multiple business functions and organizational levels and may extend outside the organization.
**Knowledge Management Systems** Some firms perform better than others because they have better knowledge about how to create, produce, and deliver products and services. This firm knowledge is difficult to imitate, unique, and can be leveraged into long-term strategic benefits. **Knowledge management systems (KMS)** enable organizations to better manage processes for capturing and applying knowledge and expertise. These systems collect all relevant knowledge and experience in the firm, and make it available wherever and whenever it is needed to improve business processes and management decisions. They also link the firm to external sources of knowledge.
We examine enterprise systems and systems for supply chain management and customer relationship management in greater detail in Chapter 9. We discuss collaboration systems that support knowledge management in this chapter and cover other types of knowledge management applications in Chapter 11.
**Intranets and Extranets**
Enterprise applications create deep-seated changes in the way the firm conducts its business, offering many opportunities to integrate important business data into a single system. They are often costly and difficult to implement. Intranets and extranets deserve mention here as alternative tools for increasing integration and expediting the flow of information within the firm, and with customers ad suppliers.
Intranets are simply internal company Web sites that are accessible only by employees. The term “intranet” refers to the fact that it is an internal network, in contrast to the Internet, which is a public network linking organizations and
other external networks. Intranets use the same technologies and techniques as the larger Internet, and they often are simply a private access area in a larger company Web site. Likewise with extranets. Extranets are company Web sites that are accessible to authorized vendors and suppliers, and often used to coordinate the movement of supplies to the firm’s production apparatus.
For example, Six Flags, which operates 19 theme parks throughout North America, maintains an intranet for its 2,500 full-time employees that provides company-related news and information on each park’s day-to-day operations, including weather forecasts, performance schedules, and details about groups and celebrities visiting the parks. The company also uses an extranet to broadcast information about schedule changes and park events to its 30,000 seasonal employees. We describe the technology for intranets and extranets in more detail in Chapter 7.
**E-BUSINESS, E-COMMERCE, AND E-GOVERNMENT**
The systems and technologies we have just described are transforming firms’ relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, and logistic partners into digital relationships using networks and the Internet. So much business is now enabled by or based upon digital networks that we use the terms “electronic business” and “electronic commerce” frequently throughout this text.
**Electronic business**, or **e-business**, refers to the use of digital technology and the Internet to execute the major business processes in the enterprise. E-business includes activities for the internal management of the firm and for coordination with suppliers and other business partners. It also includes **electronic commerce**, or **e-commerce**.
E-commerce is the part of e-business that deals with the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet. It also encompasses activities supporting those market transactions, such as advertising, marketing, customer support, security, delivery, and payment.
The technologies associated with e-business have also brought about similar changes in the public sector. Governments on all levels are using Internet technology to deliver information and services to citizens, employees, and businesses with which they work. **E-government** refers to the application of the Internet and networking technologies to digitally enable government and public sector agencies’ relationships with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.
In addition to improving delivery of government services, e-government makes government operations more efficient and also empowers citizens by giving them easier access to information and the ability to network electronically with other citizens. For example, citizens in some states can renew their driver’s licenses or apply for unemployment benefits online, and the Internet has become a powerful tool for instantly mobilizing interest groups for political action and fund-raising.
### 2.3 Systems for Collaboration and Teamwork
With all these systems and information, you might wonder how is it possible to make sense out of them? How do people working in firms pull it all together, work towards common goals, and coordinate plans and actions? Information systems can’t make decisions, hire or fire people, sign contracts, agree on deals,
or adjust the price of goods to the marketplace. In addition to the types of systems we have just described, businesses need special systems to support collaboration and teamwork.
**WHAT IS COLLABORATION?**
Collaboration is working with others to achieve shared and explicit goals. Collaboration focuses on task or mission accomplishment and usually takes place in a business, or other organization, and between businesses. You collaborate with a colleague in Tokyo having expertise on a topic about which you know nothing. You collaborate with many colleagues in publishing a company blog. If you’re in a law firm, you collaborate with accountants in an accounting firm in servicing the needs of a client with tax problems.
Collaboration can be short-lived, lasting a few minutes, or longer term, depending on the nature of the task and the relationship among participants. Collaboration can be one-to-one or many-to-many.
Employees may collaborate in informal groups that are not a formal part of the business firm’s organizational structure or they may be organized into formal teams. Teams are part of the organization’s business structure for getting things done. Teams have a specific mission that someone in the business assigned to them. They have a job to complete. The members of the team need to collaborate on the accomplishment of specific tasks and collectively achieve the team mission. The team mission might be to “win the game,” or “increase online sales by 10%,” or “prevent insulating foam from falling off a space shuttle.” Teams are often short-lived, depending on the problems they tackle and the length of time needed to find a solution and accomplish the mission.
Collaboration and teamwork are more important today than ever for a variety of reasons.
- **Changing nature of work.** The nature of work has changed from factory manufacturing and pre-computer office work where each stage in the production process occurred independently of one another, and was coordinated by supervisors. Work was organized into silos. Within a silo, work passed from one machine tool station to another, from one desktop to another, until the finished product was completed. Today, the kinds of jobs we have require much closer coordination and interaction among the parties involved in producing the service or product. A recent report from the consulting firm McKinsey and Company argued that 41 percent of the U.S. labor force is now composed of jobs where interaction (talking, e-mailing, presenting, and persuading) is the primary value-adding activity. Even in factories, workers today often work in production groups, or pods.
- **Growth of professional work.** “Interaction” jobs tend to be professional jobs in the service sector that require close coordination, and collaboration. Professional jobs require substantial education, and the sharing of information and opinions to get work done. Each actor on the job brings specialized expertise to the problem, and all the actors need to take one another into account in order to accomplish the job.
- **Changing organization of the firm.** For most of the industrial age, managers organized work in a hierarchical fashion. Orders came down the hierarchy, and responses moved back up the hierarchy. Today, work is organized into groups and teams, who are expected to develop their own methods for accomplishing the task. Senior managers observe and measure results, but are much less likely to issue detailed orders or operating procedures. In part
this is because expertise has been pushed down in the organization, as have decision-making powers.
- **Changing scope of the firm.** The work of the firm has changed from a single location to multiple locations—offices or factories throughout a region, a nation, or even around the globe. For instance, Henry Ford developed the first mass-production automobile plant at a single Dearborn, Michigan factory. In 2010, Ford expected to produce about 3 million automobiles and employ over 200,000 employees at 90 plants and facilities worldwide. With this kind of global presence, the need for close coordination of design, production, marketing, distribution, and service obviously takes on new importance and scale. Large global companies need to have teams working on a global basis.
- **Emphasis on innovation.** Although we tend to attribute innovations in business and science to great individuals, these great individuals are most likely working with a team of brilliant colleagues, and all have been preceded by a long line of earlier innovators and innovations. Think of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (founders of Microsoft and Apple), both of whom are highly regarded innovators, and both of whom built strong collaborative teams to nurture and support innovation in their firms. Their initial innovations derived from close collaboration with colleagues and partners. Innovation, in other words, is a group and social process, and most innovations derive from collaboration among individuals in a lab, a business, or government agencies. Strong collaborative practices and technologies are believed to increase the rate and quality of innovation.
- **Changing culture of work and business.** Most research on collaboration supports the notion that diverse teams produce better outputs, faster, than individuals working on their own. Popular notions of the crowd (“crowdsourcing,” and the “wisdom of crowds”) also provide cultural support for collaboration and teamwork.
**BUSINESS BENEFITS OF COLLABORATION AND TEAMWORK**
There are many articles and books that have been written about collaboration, some of them by business executives and consultants, and a great many by academic researchers in a variety of businesses. Nearly all of this research is anecdotal. Nevertheless, among both business and academic communities there is a general belief that the more a business firm is “collaborative,” the more successful it will be, and that collaboration within and among firms is more essential than in the past.
A recent global survey of business and information systems managers found that investments in collaboration technology produced organizational improvements that returned over four times the amount of the investment, with the greatest benefits for sales, marketing, and research and development functions (Frost and White, 2009). Another study of the value of collaboration also found that the overall economic benefit of collaboration was significant: for every word seen by an employee in e-mails from others, $70 of additional revenue was generated (Aral, Brynjolfsson, and Van Alstyne, 2007).
Table 2-2 summarizes some of the benefits of collaboration identified by previous writers and scholars. Figure 2-7 graphically illustrates how collaboration is believed to impact business performance.
While there are many presumed benefits to collaboration, you really need a supportive business firm culture and the right business processes before you can achieve meaningful collaboration. You also need a healthy investment in collaborative technologies. We now examine these requirements.
### Table 2-2 Business Benefits of Collaboration
| Benefit | Rationale |
|--------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Productivity | People working together can complete a complex task faster than the same number of people working in isolation from one another. There will be fewer errors. |
| Quality | People working collaboratively can communicate errors, and correct actions faster, when they work together than if they work in isolation. Can lead to a reduction in buffers and time delay among production units. |
| Innovation | People working collaboratively in groups can come up with more innovative ideas for products, services, and administration than the same number working in isolation from one another. |
| Customer service | People working together in teams can solve customer complaints and issues faster and more effectively than if they were working in isolation from one another. |
| Financial performance (profitability, sales, and sales growth) | As a result of all of the above, collaborative firms have superior sales growth and financial performance. |
### Figure 2-7 Requirements for Collaboration
Successful collaboration requires an appropriate organizational structure and culture, along with appropriate collaboration technology.
### Building a Collaborative Culture and Business Processes
Collaboration won’t take place spontaneously in a business firm, especially if there is no supportive culture or business processes. Business firms, especially large firms, had in the past a reputation for being “command and control”
organizations where the top leaders thought up all the really important matters, and then ordered lower-level employees to execute senior management plans. The job of middle management supposedly was to pass messages back and forth, up and down the hierarchy.
Command and control firms required lower-level employees to carry out orders without asking too many questions, with no responsibility to improve processes, and with no rewards for teamwork or team performance. If your workgroup needed help from another work group, that was something for the bosses to figure out. You never communicated horizontally, always vertically, so management could control the process. As long as employees showed up for work, and performed the job satisfactorily, that’s all that was required. Together, the expectations of management and employees formed a culture, a set of assumptions about common goals and how people should behave. Many business firms still operate this way.
A collaborative business culture and business processes are very different. Senior managers are responsible for achieving results but rely on teams of employees to achieve and implement the results. Policies, products, designs, processes, and systems are much more dependent on teams at all levels of the organization to devise, to create, and to build products and services. Teams are rewarded for their performance, and individuals are rewarded for their performance in a team. The function of middle managers is to build the teams, coordinate their work, and monitor their performance. In a collaborative culture, senior management establishes collaboration and teamwork as vital to the organization, and it actually implements collaboration for the senior ranks of the business as well.
**TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR COLLABORATION AND TEAMWORK**
A collaborative, team-oriented culture won’t produce benefits if there are no information systems in place to enable collaboration. Currently there are hundreds of tools designed to deal with the fact that, in order to succeed in our jobs, we are all dependent on one another, our fellow employees, customers, suppliers, and managers. Table 2-3 lists the most important types of collaboration software tools. Some high-end tools like IBM Lotus Notes are expensive, but powerful enough for global firms. Others are available online for free (or with premium versions for a modest fee) and are suitable for small businesses. Let’s look more closely at some of these tools.
**TABLE 2-3 FIFTEEN CATEGORIES OF COLLABORATIVE SOFTWARE TOOLS**
| E-mail and instant messaging | White boarding |
|-------------------------------|----------------|
| Collaborative writing | Web presenting |
| Collaborative reviewing/editing | Work scheduling |
| Event scheduling | Document sharing (including wikis) |
| File sharing | Mind mapping |
| Screen sharing | Large audience Webinars |
| Audio conferencing | Co-browsing |
| Video conferencing | |
*Source: mindmeister.com, 2009.*
E-mail and Instant Messaging (IM)
E-mail and instant messaging have been embraced by corporations as a major communication and collaboration tool supporting interaction jobs. Their software operates on computers, cell phones, and other wireless handheld devices and includes features for sharing files as well as transmitting messages. Many instant messaging systems allow users to engage in real-time conversations with multiple participants simultaneously. Gartner technology consultants predict that within a few years, instant messaging will be the “de facto tool” for voice, video, and text chat for 95 percent of employees in big companies.
Social Networking
We’ve all visited social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, which feature tools to help people share their interests and interact. Social networking tools are quickly becoming a corporate tool for sharing ideas and collaborating among interaction-based jobs in the firm. Social networking sites such as LinkedIn.com provide networking services to business professionals, while other niche sites have sprung up to serve lawyers, doctors, engineers, and even dentists. IBM built a Community Tools component into its Lotus Notes collaboration software to add social networking features. Users are able to submit questions to others in the company and receive answers via instant messaging.
Wikis
Wikis are a type of Web site that makes it easy for users to contribute and edit text content and graphics without any knowledge of Web page development or programming techniques. The most well-known wiki is Wikipedia, the largest collaboratively edited reference project in the world. It relies on volunteers, makes no money, and accepts no advertising. Wikis are ideal tools for storing and sharing company knowledge and insights. Enterprise software vendor SAP AG has a wiki that acts as a base of information for people outside the company, such as customers and software developers who build programs that interact with SAP software. In the past, those people asked and sometimes answered questions in an informal way on SAP online forums, but that was an inefficient system, with people asking and answering the same questions over and over.
At Intel Corporation, employees built their own internal wiki, and it has been edited over 100,000 times and viewed more than 27 million times by Intel employees. The most common search is for the meaning of Intel acronyms such as EASE for “employee access support environment” and POR for “plan of record.” Other popular resources include a page about software engineering processes at the company. Wikis are destined to become the major repository for unstructured corporate knowledge in the next five years in part because they are so much less costly than formal knowledge management systems and they can be much more dynamic and current.
Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds, such as Second Life, are online 3-D environments populated by “residents” who have built graphical representations of themselves known as avatars. Organizations such as IBM and INSEAD, an international business school with campuses in France and Singapore, are using this virtual world to house online meetings, training sessions, and “lounges.” Real-world people represented by avatars meet, interact, and exchange ideas at these virtual locations. Communication takes place in the form of text messages similar to instant messages.
Internet-Based Collaboration Environments
There are now suites of software products providing multi-function platforms for workgroup collaboration among teams of employees who work together from many different locations. Numerous collaboration tools are available, but the most widely used are Internet-based audio conferencing and video conferencing systems, online software services such as Google Apps/Google Sites, and corporate collaboration systems such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft SharePoint.
Virtual Meeting Systems
For many businesses, including investment banking, accounting, law, technology services, and management consulting, extensive travel is a fact of life. The expenses incurred by business travel have been steadily rising in recent years, primarily due to increasing energy costs. In an effort to reduce travel expenses, many companies, both large and small, are adopting videoconferencing and Web conferencing technologies.
Companies such as Heinz, General Electric, Pepsico, and Wachovia are using virtual meeting systems for product briefings, training courses, strategy sessions, and even inspirational chats.
An important feature of leading-edge high-end videoconferencing systems is telepresence technology, an integrated audio and visual environment that allows a person to give the appearance of being present at a location other than his or her true physical location. The Interactive Session on Management describes telepresence and other technologies for hosting these “virtual” meetings. You can also find video cases on this topic.
Google Apps/Google Sites
One of the most widely used “free” online services for collaboration is Google Apps/Google Sites. Google Sites allows users to quickly create online, group-editable Web sites. Google Sites is one part of the larger Google Apps suite of tools. Google Sites users can design and populate Web sites in minutes and, without any advanced technical skills, post a variety of files including calendars, text, spreadsheets, and videos for private, group, or public viewing and editing.
Google Apps works with Google Sites and includes the typical desktop productivity office software tools (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, contact management, messaging, and mail). A Premier edition charging businesses $50 per year for each user offers 25 gigabytes of mail storage, a 99.9-percent uptime guarantee for e-mail, tools to integrate with the firm’s existing infrastructure, and 24/7 phone support. Table 2-4 describes some of the capabilities of Google Apps/Google Sites.
| GOOGLE APPS/GOOGLE SITES CAPABILITY | DESCRIPTION |
|-------------------------------------|-------------|
| Google Calendar | Private and shared calendars; multiple calendars |
| Google Gmail | Google’s free online e-mail service, with mobile access capabilities |
| Google Talk | Instant messaging, text and voice chat |
| Google Docs | Online word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, and drawing software; online editing and sharing |
| Google Sites | Team collaboration sites for sharing documents, schedules, calendars; searching documents and creating group wikis |
| Google Video | Private hosted video sharing |
| Google Groups | User-created groups with mailing lists, shared calendars, documents, sites, and video; searchable archives |
VIRTUAL MEETINGS: SMART MANAGEMENT
Instead of taking that 6:30 A.M. plane to make a round of meetings in Dallas, wouldn’t it be great if you could attend these events without leaving your desktop? Today you can, thanks to technologies for videoconferencing and for hosting online meetings over the Web. A June 2008 report issued by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative and the Climate Group estimated that up to 20 percent of business travel could be replaced by virtual meeting technology.
A videoconference allows individuals at two or more locations to communicate simultaneously through two-way video and audio transmissions. The critical feature of videoconferencing is the digital compression of audio and video streams by a device called a codec. Those streams are then divided into packets and transmitted over a network or the Internet. Until recently, the technology was plagued by poor audio and video performance, and its cost was prohibitively high for all but the largest and most powerful corporations. Most companies deemed videoconferencing a poor substitute for face-to-face meetings.
However, vast improvements in videoconferencing and associated technologies have renewed interest in this way of working. Videoconferencing is now growing at an annual rate of 30 percent. Proponents of the technology claim that it does more than simply reduce costs. It allows for “better” meetings as well: it’s easier to meet with partners, suppliers, subsidiaries, and colleagues from within the office or around the world on a more frequent basis, which in most cases simply cannot be reasonably accomplished through travel. You can also meet with contacts that you wouldn’t be able to meet at all without videoconferencing technology.
For example, Rip Curl, a Costa Mesa, California, producer of surfing equipment, uses videoconferencing to help its designers, marketers, and manufacturers collaborate on new products. Executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International uses video interviews to screen potential candidates before presenting them to clients.
Today’s state-of-the-art videoconferencing systems display sharp high-definition TV images. The top-of-the-line videoconferencing technology is known as telepresence. Telepresence strives to make users feel as if they are actually present in a location different from their own. You can sit across a table from a large screen showing someone who looks quite real and life-size, but may be in Brussels or Hong Kong. Only the handshake and exchange of business cards are missing. Telepresence products provide the highest-quality videoconferencing available on the market to date. Cisco Systems has installed telepresence systems in more than 500 organizations around the world. Prices for fully equipped telepresence rooms can run to $500,000.
Companies able to afford this technology report large savings. For example, technology consulting firm Accenture reports that it eliminated expenditures for 240 international trips and 120 domestic flights in a single month. The ability to reach customers and partners is also dramatically increased. Other business travelers report tenfold increases in the number of customers and partners they are able to reach for a fraction of the previous price per person. MetLife, which installed Cisco Telepresence in three dedicated conference rooms in Chicago, New York, and New Jersey, claims that the technology not only saved time and expense but also helped the company meet its “green” environmental goals of reducing carbon emissions by 20 percent in 2010.
Videoconferencing products have not traditionally been feasible for small businesses, but another company, LifeSize, has introduced an affordable line of products as low as $5,000. Overall, the product is easy to use and will allow many smaller companies to use a high-quality videoconferencing product.
There are even some free Internet-based options like Skype videoconferencing and ooVoo. These products are of lower quality than traditional videoconferencing products, and they are proprietary, meaning they can only talk to others using that very same system. Most videoconferencing and telepresence products are able to interact with a variety of other devices. Higher-end systems include features like multi-party conferencing, video mail with unlimited storage, no long-distance fees, and a detailed call history.
Companies of all sizes are finding Web-based online meeting tools such as WebEx, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and Adobe Acrobat Connect especially helpful for training and sales presentations. These products enable participants to share
documents and presentations in conjunction with audioconferencing and live video via Webcam. Cornerstone Information Systems, a Bloomington, Indiana, business software company with 60 employees, cut its travel costs by 60 percent and the average time to close a new sale by 30 percent by performing many product demonstrations online.
Before setting up videoconferencing or telepresence, it’s important for a company to make sure it really needs the technology to ensure that it will be a profitable venture. Companies should determine how their employees conduct meetings, how they communicate and with what technologies, how much travel they do, and their network’s capabilities. There are still plenty of times when face-to-face interaction is more desirable, and often traveling to meet a client is essential for cultivating clients and closing sales.
Videoconferencing figures to have an impact on the business world in other ways, as well. More employees may be able to work closer to home and balance their work and personal lives more efficiently; traditional office environments and corporate headquarters may shrink or disappear; and freelancers, contractors, and workers from other countries will become a larger portion of the global economy.
Sources: Joe Sharkey, “Setbacks in the Air Add to Lure of Virtual Meetings, The New York Times, April 26, 2010; Bob Evans, “Pepsi Picks Cisco for Huge TelePresence Deal,” February 2, 2010; Esther Schein, “Telepresence Catching On, But Hold On to Your Wallet,” Computerworld, January 22, 2010; Christopher Musico, “Web Conferencing: Calling Your Conference to Order,” Customer Relationship Management, February 2009; and Brian Nadel, “3 Videoconferencing Services Pick Up Where Your Travel Budget Leaves Off,” Computerworld, January 6, 2009; Johna Till Johnson, “Videoconferencing Hits the Big Times… For Real,” Computerworld, May 28, 2009.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. One consulting firm has predicted that video and Web conferencing will make business travel extinct. Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. What is the distinction between videoconferencing and telepresence?
3. What are the ways in which videoconferencing provides value to a business? Would you consider it smart management? Explain your answer.
4. If you were in charge of a small business, would you choose to implement videoconferencing? What factors would you consider in your decision?
MIS IN ACTION
Explore the WebEx Web site (www.webex.com) and answer the following questions:
1. List and describe its capabilities for small-medium and large businesses. How useful is WebEx? How can it help companies save time and money?
2. Compare WebEx video capabilities with the videoconferencing capabilities described in this case.
3. Describe the steps you would take to prepare for a Web conference as opposed to a face-to-face conference.
Google has developed an additional Web-based platform for real-time collaboration and communication called Google Wave. “Waves” are “equal parts conversation and document,” in which any participant of a wave can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content, and add or remove participants at any point in the process. Users are able to see responses from other participants on their “wave” while typing occurs, accelerating the pace of discussion.
For example, Clear Channel Radio in Greensboro, North Carolina, used Google Wave for an on air and online promotion that required input from sales people, the sales manager, the station program director, the station promotions director, the online content coordinator, and the Web manager. Without Google Wave, these people would have used numerous back and forth e-mails, sent graphics files to each other for approval, and spent large amounts of time tracking people down by phone. Wave helped them complete the entire project in just a fraction of time it would normally have taken (Boulton, 2010).
Microsoft SharePoint Microsoft SharePoint is the most widely adopted collaboration system for small and medium-sized firms that use Microsoft server and networking products. Some larger firms have adopted it as well. SharePoint is a browser-based collaboration and document management platform, combined with a powerful search engine that is installed on corporate servers.
SharePoint has a Web-based interface and close integration with everyday tools such as Microsoft Office desktop software products. Microsoft’s strategy is to take advantage of its “ownership” of the desktop through its Microsoft Office and Windows products. For Microsoft, the path towards enterprise-wide collaboration starts with the Office desktop and Microsoft network servers. SharePoint software makes it possible for employees to share their Office documents and collaborate on projects using Office documents as the foundation.
SharePoint products and technologies provide a platform for Web-based collaboration at the enterprise level. SharePoint can be used to host Web sites that organize and store information in one central location to enable teams to coordinate work activities, collaborate on and publish documents, maintain task lists, implement workflows, and share information via wikis, blogs, and Twitter-style status updates. Because SharePoint stores and organizes information in one place, users can find relevant information quickly and efficiently while working together closely on tasks, projects, and documents.
Here is a list of SharePoint's major capabilities:
- Provides a single workspace for teams to coordinate schedules, organize documents, and participate in discussions, within the organization or over an extranet.
- Facilitates creation and management of documents with the ability to control versions, view past revisions, enforce document-specific security, and maintain document libraries.
- Provides announcements, alerts, and discussion boards to inform users when actions are required or changes are made to existing documentation or information.
- Supports personalized content and both personal and public views of documents and applications.
- Provides templates for blogs and wikis to help teams share information and brainstorm.
- Provides tools to manage document libraries, lists, calendars, tasks, and discussion boards offline, and to synchronize changes when reconnected to the network.
- Provides enterprise search tools for locating people, expertise, and content.
Sony Electronics, a leading provider of consumer and professional electronics products with more 170,000 employees around the world, uses Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010 to improve information access, enhance collaboration, and make better use of experts inside the company. Sony uses SharePoint's wiki tools to capture and organize employees' insights and comments into a company-wide body of knowledge, and its people search feature to identify employees with expertise about specific projects and research areas. The company also used SharePoint to create a central file-sharing repository. This helps employees collaboratively write, edit, and exchange documents and eliminates the need to e-mail documents back and forth. All of these improvements have cut development time on key projects from three to six months to three to six weeks. (Microsoft, 2010).
Lotus Notes For very large firms (Fortune 1000 and Russell 2000 firms), the most widely used collaboration tool is IBM’s Lotus Notes. Lotus Notes was an early example of groupware, a collaborative software system with capabilities for sharing calendars, collective writing and editing, shared database access, and electronic meetings, with each participant able to see and display information from others and other activities. Notes is now Web-enabled with enhancements for social networking (Lotus Connections) and a scripting and application development environment so that users can build custom applications to suit their unique needs.
IBM Software Group defines Lotus Notes as an “integrated desktop client option for accessing business e-mail, calendars, and applications on an IBM Lotus Domino server.” The Notes software installed on the user’s client computer allows the machine to be used as a platform for e-mail, instant messaging (working with Lotus Sametime), Web browsing, and calendar/resource reservation work, as well as for interacting with collaborative applications. Today, Notes also provides blogs, wikis, RSS aggregators, CRM, and help desk systems.
Thousands of employees at hundreds of large firms such as Toshiba, Air France, and Global Hyatt Corporation use IBM Lotus Notes as their primary collaboration and teamwork tools. Firmwide installations of Lotus Notes at a large Fortune 1000 firm may cost millions of dollars a year and require extensive support from the corporate information systems department. Although online tools like the Google collaboration services described earlier do not require installation on corporate servers or much support from the corporate IS staff, they are not as powerful as those found in Lotus Notes. It is unclear whether they could scale to the size of a global firm (at least for now). Very large firms adopt IBM Lotus Notes because Notes promises higher levels of security and reliability, and the ability to retain control over sensitive corporate information.
For example, EuroChem, the largest agrochemical company in Russia and one of Europe’s top three fertilizer producers, used Lotus Notes to create a single standard platform for collaboration and document management. The software facilitates cooperation and collaboration among geographically dispersed regional production centers and provides a secure automated platform for document exchange. With Lotus Notes, EuroChem is able to register and control all documents, to establish routing paths for document approval, and to maintain a full history of all movements and changes. Security features allow the company to create a personalized work environment for each user and to prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive information (IBM, 2009).
Large firms in general do not feel secure using popular online software services for “strategic” applications because of the implicit security concerns. However, most experts believe that these concerns will diminish as experience with online tools grows, and the sophistication of online software service suppliers increases to protect security and reduce vulnerability. Table 2-5 describes additional online collaboration tools.
**Checklist for Managers: Evaluating and Selecting Collaboration Software Tools**
With so many collaboration tools and services available, how do you choose the right collaboration technology for your firm? To answer this question, you need a framework for understanding just what problems these tools are designed to solve. One framework that has been helpful for us to talk about collaboration tools is the time/space collaboration matrix developed in the early 1990s by a number of collaborative work scholars (Figure 2-8).
### Table 2-5 Other Popular Online Collaboration Tools
| Tool | Description |
|------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Socialtext | An enterprise server-based collaboration environment which provides social networking, Twitter-like micro-blogging, wiki workspaces, with integrated weblogs, distributed spreadsheets, and a personal home page for every user. Delivered in a variety of hosted cloud services, as well as on-site appliances to provide enterprise customers with flexible deployment options that meet their security requirements. |
| Zoho | Collecting and collaborating on text, line drawings, images, Web pages, video, RSS feeds. Project management (includes task management, workflow, reports, time tracking, forums, and file sharing). Free or monthly charge for premium service. |
| BlueTie | Online collaboration with e-mail, scheduling, to-do lists, contact management, file sharing. $4.99 per user per month. |
| Basecamp | Sharing to-do lists, files, message boards, milestone tracking. Free for a single project, $24/month for 15 projects with 5 gigabytes of storage. |
| Onehub | Sharing documents, calendars, Web bookmarks; e-mail integration and IM. Manage hub resources; bulletin board. |
| WorkZone | Collaboration with file sharing; project management; customization; security. |
Socialtext's enterprise social networking products—including microblogging, blogs, wikis, profiles and social spreadsheets—enable employees to share vital information and work together in real-time. Built on a flexible, Web-oriented architecture, Socialtext integrates with virtually any traditional system of record, such as CRM and ERP, enabling companies to discuss, collaborate, and take action on key business processes.
Collaboration technologies can be classified in terms of whether they support interactions at the same or different time or place, and whether these interactions are remote or co-located.
The time/space matrix focuses on two dimensions of the collaboration problem: time and space. For instance, you need to collaborate with people in different time zones and you cannot all meet at the same time. Midnight in New York is noon in Bombay, so this makes it difficult to have a video-conference (the people in New York are too tired). Time is clearly an obstacle to collaboration on a global scale.
Place (location) also inhibits collaboration in large global or even national and regional firms. Assembling people for a physical meeting is made difficult by the physical dispersion of distributed firms (firms with more than one location), the cost of travel, and the time limitations of managers.
The collaboration technologies we have just described are ways of overcoming the limitations of time and space. Using this time/space framework will help you to choose the most appropriate collaboration and teamwork tools for your firm. Note that some tools are applicable in more than one time/place scenario. For example, Internet collaboration suites such as Lotus Notes have capabilities for both synchronous (instant messaging, electronic meeting tools) and asynchronous (e-mail, wikis, document editing) interactions.
Here’s a “to-do” list to get started. If you follow these six steps, you should be led to investing in the correct collaboration software for your firm at a price you can afford, and within your risk tolerance.
1. What are the collaboration challenges facing the firm in terms of time and space? Locate your firm in the time/space matrix. Your firm can occupy more than one cell in the matrix. Different collaboration tools will be needed for each situation.
2. Within each cell of the matrix where your firm faces challenges, exactly what kinds of solutions are available? Make a list of vendor products.
3. Analyze each of the products in terms of their cost and benefits to your firm. Be sure to include the costs of training in your cost estimates, and the costs of involving the information systems department if needed.
4. Identify the risks to security and vulnerability involved with each of the products. Is your firm willing to put proprietary information into the hands of external service providers over the Internet? Is your firm willing to risk its important operations to systems controlled by other firms? What are the financial risks facing your vendors? Will they be here in three to five years? What would be the cost of making a switch to another vendor in the event the vendor firm fails?
5. Seek the help of potential users to identify implementation and training issues. Some of these tools are easier to use than others.
6. Make your selection of candidate tools, and invite the vendors to make presentations.
2.4 THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS FUNCTION IN BUSINESS
We’ve seen that businesses need information systems to operate today and that they use many different kinds of systems. But who is responsible for running these systems? Who is responsible for making sure the hardware, software, and other technologies used by these systems are running properly and are up to date? End users manage their systems from a business standpoint, but managing the technology requires a special information systems function.
In all but the smallest of firms, the **information systems department** is the formal organizational unit responsible for information technology services. The information systems department is responsible for maintaining the hardware, software, data storage, and networks that comprise the firm’s IT infrastructure. We describe IT infrastructure in detail in Chapter 5.
THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEPARTMENT
The information systems department consists of specialists, such as programmers, systems analysts, project leaders, and information systems managers. **Programmers** are highly trained technical specialists who write the software instructions for computers. **Systems analysts** constitute the principal liaisons between the information systems groups and the rest of the organization. It is the systems analyst’s job to translate business problems and requirements into information requirements and systems. **Information systems managers** are leaders of teams of programmers and analysts, project managers, physical facility managers, telecommunications managers, or database specialists. They are also managers of computer operations and data entry staff. Also, external specialists, such as hardware vendors and manufacturers, software firms, and consultants, frequently participate in the day-to-day operations and long-term planning of information systems.
In many companies, the **information systems department** is headed by a **chief information officer (CIO)**. The CIO is a senior manager who oversees the use of information technology in the firm. Today’s CIOs are expected to have a strong business background as well as information systems expertise and to play a leadership role in integrating technology into the firm’s business strategy. Large firms today also have positions for a chief security officer, chief knowledge officer, and chief privacy officer, all of whom work closely with the CIO.
The **chief security officer (CSO)** is in charge of information systems security for the firm and is responsible for enforcing the firm’s information security
policy (see Chapter 8). (Sometimes this position is called the chief information security officer [CISO] where information systems security is separated from physical security.) The CSO is responsible for educating and training users and information systems specialists about security, keeping management aware of security threats and breakdowns, and maintaining the tools and policies chosen to implement security.
Information systems security and the need to safeguard personal data have become so important that corporations collecting vast quantities of personal data have established positions for a **chief privacy officer (CPO)**. The CPO is responsible for ensuring that the company complies with existing data privacy laws.
The **chief knowledge officer (CKO)** is responsible for the firm’s knowledge management program. The CKO helps design programs and systems to find new sources of knowledge or to make better use of existing knowledge in organizational and management processes.
**End users** are representatives of departments outside of the information systems group for whom applications are developed. These users are playing an increasingly large role in the design and development of information systems.
In the early years of computing, the information systems group was composed mostly of programmers who performed highly specialized but limited technical functions. Today, a growing proportion of staff members are systems analysts and network specialists, with the information systems department acting as a powerful change agent in the organization. The information systems department suggests new business strategies and new information-based products and services, and coordinates both the development of the technology and the planned changes in the organization.
### ORGANIZING THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS FUNCTION
There are many types of business firms, and there are many ways in which the IT function is organized within the firm. A very small company will not have a formal information systems group. It might have one employee who is responsible for keeping its networks and applications running, or it might use consultants for these services. Larger companies will have a separate information systems department, which may be organized along several different lines, depending on the nature and interests of the firm. Our Learning Track describes alternative ways of organizing the information systems function within the business.
The question of how the information systems department should be organized is part of the larger issue of IT governance. **IT governance** includes the strategy and policies for using information technology within an organization. It specifies the decision rights and framework for accountability to ensure that the use of information technology supports the organization’s strategies and objectives. How much should the information systems function be centralized? What decisions must be made to ensure effective management and use of information technology, including the return on IT investments? Who should make these decisions? How will these decisions be made and monitored? Firms with superior IT governance will have clearly thought out the answers (Weill and Ross, 2004).
2.5 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience analyzing opportunities to improve business processes with new information system applications, using a spreadsheet to improve decision making about suppliers, and using Internet software to plan efficient transportation routes.
Management Decision Problems
1. Don’s Lumber Company on the Hudson River is one of the oldest retail lumberyards in New York State. It features a large selection of materials for flooring, decks, moldings, windows, siding, and roofing. The prices of lumber and other building materials are constantly changing. When a customer inquires about the price on pre-finished wood flooring, sales representatives consult a manual price sheet and then call the supplier for the most recent price. The supplier in turn uses a manual price sheet, which has been updated each day. Often the supplier must call back Don’s sales reps because the company does not have the newest pricing information immediately on hand. Assess the business impact of this situation, describe how this process could be improved with information technology, and identify the decisions that would have to be made to implement a solution. Who would make those decisions?
2. Henry’s Hardware is a small family business in Sacramento, California. The owners must use every square foot of store space as profitably as possible. They have never kept detailed inventory or sales records. As soon as a shipment of goods arrives, the items are immediately placed on store shelves. Invoices from suppliers are only kept for tax purposes. When an item is sold, the item number and price are rung up at the cash register. The owners use their own judgment in identifying items that need to be reordered. What is the business impact of this situation? How could information systems help the owners run their business? What data should these systems capture? What decisions could the systems improve?
Improving Decision Making: Using a Spreadsheet to Select Suppliers
Software skills: Spreadsheet date functions, data filtering, DAVERAGE function
Business skills: Analyzing supplier performance and pricing
In this exercise, you will learn how to use spreadsheet software to improve management decisions about selecting suppliers. You will start with raw transactional data about suppliers organized as a large spreadsheet list. You will use the spreadsheet software to filter the data based on several different criteria to select the best suppliers for your company.
You run a company that manufactures aircraft components. You have many competitors who are trying to offer lower prices and better service to customers, and you are trying to determine whether you can benefit from better supply chain management. In myMISlab, you will find a spreadsheet file that contains a list of all of the items that your firm has ordered from its suppliers during the past three months. A sample is shown below, but the Web site may have a more recent version of this spreadsheet for this exercise. The fields in the spreadsheet file include vendor name, vendor identification number, purchaser’s order number, item identification number and item description (for each item ordered from the vendor), cost per item, number of units of the item ordered (quantity), total cost of each
order, vendor’s accounts payable terms, order date, and actual arrival date for each order.
Prepare a recommendation of how you can use the data in this spreadsheet database to improve your decisions about selecting suppliers. Some criteria to consider for identifying preferred suppliers include the supplier’s track record for on-time deliveries, suppliers offering the best accounts payable terms, and suppliers offering lower pricing when the same item can be provided by multiple suppliers. Use your spreadsheet software to prepare reports to support your recommendations.
**Achieving Operational Excellence: Using Internet Software to Plan Efficient Transportation Routes**
In this exercise, you will use the same online software tool that businesses use to map out their transportation routes and select the most efficient route. The MapQuest (www.mapquest.com) Web site includes interactive capabilities for planning a trip. The software on this Web site can calculate the distance between two points and provide itemized driving directions to any location.
You have just started working as a dispatcher for Cross-Country Transport, a new trucking and delivery service based in Cleveland, Ohio. Your first assignment is to plan a delivery of office equipment and furniture from Elkhart, Indiana (at the corner of E. Indiana Ave. and Prairie Street) to Hagerstown, Maryland (corner of Eastern Blvd. N. and Potomac Ave.). To guide your trucker, you need to know the most efficient route between the two cities. Use MapQuest to find the route that is the shortest distance between the two cities. Use MapQuest again to find the route that takes the least time. Compare the results. Which route should Cross-Country use?
Learning Track Modules
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. Systems from a Functional Perspective
2. IT Enables Collaboration and Teamwork
3. Challenges of Using Business Information Systems
4. Organizing the Information Systems Function
Review Summary
1. What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?
A business process is a logically related set of activities that defines how specific business tasks are performed, and it represents a unique way in which an organization coordinates work, information, and knowledge. Managers need to pay attention to business processes because they determine how well the organization can execute its business, and they may be a source of strategic advantage. There are business processes specific to each of the major business functions, but many business processes are cross-functional. Information systems automate parts of business processes, and they can help organizations redesign and streamline these processes.
2. How do systems serve the different management groups in a business?
Systems serving operational management are transaction processing systems (TPS), such as payroll or order processing, that track the flow of the daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business. Management information systems (MIS) produce reports serving middle management by condensing information from TPS, and these are not highly analytical. Decision-support systems (DSS) support management decisions that are unique and rapidly changing using advanced analytical models. All of these types of systems provide business intelligence that helps managers and enterprise employees make more informed decisions. These systems for business intelligence serve multiple levels of management, and include executive support systems (ESS) for senior management that provide data in the form of graphs, charts, and dashboards delivered via portals using many sources of internal and external information.
3. How do systems that link the enterprise improve organizational performance?
Enterprise applications are designed to coordinate multiple functions and business processes. Enterprise systems integrate the key internal business processes of a firm into a single software system to improve coordination and decision making. Supply chain management systems help the firm manage its relationship with suppliers to optimize the planning, sourcing, manufacturing, and delivery of products and services. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems coordinate the business processes surrounding the firm’s customers. Knowledge management systems enable firms to optimize the creation, sharing, and distribution of knowledge. Intranets and extranets are private corporate networks based on Internet technology that assemble information from disparate systems. Extranets make portions of private corporate intranets available to outsiders.
4. Why are systems for collaboration and teamwork so important and what technologies do they use?
Collaboration is working with others to achieve shared and explicit goals. Collaboration and teamwork have become increasingly important in business because of globalization, the decentralization of decision making, and growth in jobs where interaction is the primary value-adding activity. Collaboration is believed to enhance innovation, productivity, quality, and customer service. Effective collaboration today requires a supportive organizational culture as well as information
systems and tools for collaborative work. Collaboration tools include e-mail and instant messaging, wikis, videoconferencing systems, virtual worlds, social networking systems, cell phones, and Internet collaboration platforms such as Google Apps/Sites, Microsoft SharePoint, and Lotus Notes.
5. **What is the role of the information systems function in a business?**
The information systems department is the formal organizational unit responsible for information technology services. It is responsible for maintaining the hardware, software, data storage, and networks that comprise the firm’s IT infrastructure. The department consists of specialists, such as programmers, systems analysts, project leaders, and information systems managers, and is often headed by a CIO.
**Key Terms**
- **Business intelligence**, 49
- **Chief information officer (CIO)**, 68
- **Chief knowledge officer (CKO)**, 69
- **Chief privacy officer (CPO)**, 69
- **Chief security officer (CSO)**, 68
- **Collaboration**, 56
- **Customer relationship management (CRM) systems**, 53
- **Decision-support systems (DSS)**, 48
- **Digital dashboard**, 50
- **Electronic business (e-business)**, 55
- **Electronic commerce (e-commerce)**, 55
- **E-government**, 55
- **End users**, 69
- **Enterprise applications**, 51
- **Enterprise systems**, 51
- **Executive support systems (ESS)**, 50
- **Information systems department**, 68
- **Information systems managers**, 68
- **Interorganizational system**, 53
- **IT governance**, 69
- **Knowledge management systems (KMS)**, 54
- **Management information systems (MIS)**, 47
- **Portal**, 50
- **Programmers**, 68
- **Supply chain management (SCM) systems**, 53
- **Systems analysts**, 68
- **Teams**, 56
- **Telepresence**, 61
- **Transaction processing systems (TPS)**, 45
**Review Questions**
1. What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?
- Define business processes and describe the role they play in organizations.
- Describe the relationship between information systems and business processes.
2. How do systems serve the various levels of management in a business?
- Describe the characteristics of transaction processing systems (TPS) and the roles they play in a business.
- Describe the characteristics of management information systems (MIS) and explain how MIS differ from TPS and from DSS.
- Describe the characteristics of decision-support systems (DSS) and how they benefit businesses.
3. How do systems that link the enterprise improve organizational performance?
- Explain how enterprise applications improve organizational performance.
- Define enterprise systems, supply chain management systems, customer relationship management systems, and knowledge management systems and describe their business benefits.
- Explain how intranets and extranets help firms integrate information and business processes.
4. Why are systems for collaboration and teamwork so important and what technologies do they use?
• Define collaboration and teamwork and explain why they have become so important in business today.
• List and describe the business benefits of collaboration.
• Describe a supportive organizational culture and business processes for collaboration.
• List and describe the various types of collaboration and communication systems.
5. What is the role of the information systems function in a business?
• Describe how the information systems function supports a business.
• Compare the roles played by programmers, systems analysts, information systems managers, the chief information officer (CIO), chief security officer (CSO), and chief knowledge officer (CKO).
Discussion Questions
1. How could information systems be used to support the order fulfillment process illustrated in Figure 2-1? What are the most important pieces of information these systems should capture? Explain your answer.
2. Identify the steps that are performed in the process of selecting and checking out a book from your college library and the information that flows among these activities. Diagram the process. Are there any ways this process could be improved to improve the performance of your library or your school? Diagram the improved process.
3. How might the BMW Oracle team have used collaboration systems to improve the design and performance of the America’s Cup sailboat USA? Which system features would be the most important for these tasks?
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Describing Management Decisions and Systems
With a team of three or four other students, find a description of a manager in a corporation in *BusinessWeek*, *Fortune*, *The Wall Street Journal*, or another business publication or do your research on the Web. Gather information about what the manager's company does and the role he or she plays in the company. Identify the organizational level and business function where this manager works. Make a list of the kinds of decisions this manager has to make and the kind of information the manager would need for those decisions. Suggest how information systems could supply this information. If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
Look in your medicine cabinet. No matter where you live in the world, odds are that you’ll find many Procter & Gamble products that you use every day. P&G is the largest manufacturer of consumer products in the world, and one of the top 10 largest companies in the world by market capitalization. The company is known for its successful brands, as well as its ability to develop new brands and maintain its brands’ popularity with unique business innovations. Popular P&G brands include Pampers, Tide, Bounty, Folgers, Pringles, Charmin, Swiffer, Crest, and many more. The company has approximately 140,000 employees in more than 80 countries, and its leading competitor is Britain-based Unilever. Founded in 1837 and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, P&G has been a mainstay in the American business landscape for well over 150 years. In 2009, it had $79 billion in revenue and earned a $13.2 billion profit.
P&G’s business operations are divided into three main units: Beauty Care, Household Care, and Health and Well-Being, each of which are further subdivided into more specific units. In each of these divisions, P&G has three main focuses as a business. It needs to maintain the popularity of its existing brands, via advertising and marketing; it must extend its brands to related products by developing new products under those brands; and it must innovate and create new brands entirely from scratch. Because so much of P&G’s business is built around brand creation and management, it’s critical that the company facilitate collaboration between researchers, marketers, and managers. And because P&G is such a big company, and makes such a wide array of products, achieving these goals is a daunting task.
P&G spends 3.4 percent of revenue on innovation, which is more than twice the industry average of 1.6 percent. Its research and development teams consist of 8,000 scientists spread across 30 sites globally. Though the company has an 80 percent “hit” rate on ideas that lead to products, making truly innovative and groundbreaking new products is very difficult in an extremely competitive field like consumer products. What’s more, the creativity of bigger companies like P&G has been on the decline, with the top consumer goods companies accounting for only 5 percent of patents filed on home care products in the early 2000s.
Finding better ways to innovate and develop new ideas is critical in a marketplace like consumer goods, and for any company as large as P&G, finding methods of collaboration that are effective across the enterprise can be difficult. That’s why P&G has been active in implementing information systems that foster effective collaboration and innovation. The social networking and collaborative tools popularized by Web 2.0 have been especially attractive to P&G management, starting at the top with former CEO A.G. Lafley. Lafley was succeeded by Robert McDonald in 2010, but has been a major force in revitalizing the company.
When Lafley became P&G’s CEO in 2000, he immediately asserted that by the end of the decade, the company would generate half of its new product ideas using sources from outside the company, both as a way to develop groundbreaking innovations more quickly and to reduce research and development costs. At the time, Lafley’s proclamation was considered to be visionary, but in the past 10 years, P&G has made good on his promise.
The first order of business for P&G was to develop alternatives to business practices that were not sufficiently collaborative. The biggest culprit, says Joe Schueller, Innovation Manager for P&G’s Global Business Services division, was perhaps an unlikely one: e-mail. Though it’s ostensibly a tool for communication, e-mail is not a sufficiently collaborative way to share information; senders control the flow of information, but may fail to send mail to colleagues who most need to see it, and colleagues that don’t need to see certain e-mails will receive mailings long after they’ve lost interest. Blogs and other collaborative tools, on the other hand, are open to anyone interested in their content, and attract comments from interested users.
However, getting P&G employees to actually use these newer products in place of e-mail has been a struggle for Schueller. Employees have resisted the changes, insisting that newer collaborative tools represent more work on top of e-mail, as opposed to a better alternative. People are accustomed to e-mail, and there’s significant organizational inertia against switching to a new way of doing things. Some P&G
processes for sharing knowledge were notoriously inefficient. For instance, some researchers used to write up their experiments using Microsoft Office applications, then print them out and glue them page by page into notebooks. P&G was determined to implement more efficient and collaborative methods of communication to supplant some of these outdated processes.
To that end, P&G launched a total overhaul of its collaboration systems, led by a suite of Microsoft products. The services provided include unified communications (which integrates services for voice transmission, data transmission, instant messaging, e-mail, and electronic conferencing), Microsoft Live Communications Server functionality, Web conferencing with Live Meeting, and content management with SharePoint. According to P&G, over 80,000 employees use instant messaging, and 20,000 use Microsoft Outlook, which provides tools for e-mail, calendaring, task management, contact management, note taking, and Web browsing. Outlook works with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to support multiple users with shared mailboxes and calendars, SharePoint lists, and meeting schedules.
The presence of these tools suggests more collaborative approaches are taking hold. Researchers use the tools to share the data they’ve collected on various brands; marketers can more effectively access the data they need to create more highly targeted ad campaigns; and managers are more easily able to find the people and data they need to make critical business decisions.
Companies like P&G are finding that one vendor simply isn’t enough to satisfy their diverse needs. That introduces a new challenge: managing information and applications across multiple platforms. For example, P&G found that Google search was inadequate because it doesn’t always link information from within the company, and its reliance on keywords for its searches isn’t ideal for all of the topics for which employees might search. P&G decided to implement a new search product from start-up Connectbeam, which allows employees to share bookmarks and tag content with descriptive words that appear in future searches, and facilitates social networks of coworkers to help them find and share information more effectively.
The results of the initiative have been immediate. For example, when P&G executives traveled to meet with regional managers, there was no way to integrate all the reports and discussions into a single document. One executive glued the results of experiments into Word documents and passed them out at a conference. Another executive manually entered his data and speech into PowerPoint slides, and then e-mailed the file to his colleagues. One result was that the same file ended up in countless individual mailboxes. Now, P&G’s IT department can create a Microsoft SharePoint page where that executive can post all of his presentations. Using SharePoint, the presentations are stored in a single location, but are still accessible to employees and colleagues in other parts of the company. Another collaborative tool, InnovationNet, contains over 5 million research-related documents in digital format accessible via a browser-based portal. That’s a far cry from experiments glued in notebooks.
One concern P&G had when implementing these collaborative tools was that if enough employees didn’t use them, the tools would be much less useful for those that did use them. Collaboration tools are like business and social networks—the more people connect to the network, the greater the value to all participants. Collaborative tools grow in usefulness as more and more workers contribute their information and insights. They also allow employees quicker access to the experts within the company that have needed information and knowledge. But these benefits are contingent on the lion’s share of company employees using the tools.
Another major innovation for P&G was its large-scale adoption of Cisco TelePresence conference rooms at many locations across the globe. For a company as large as P&G, telepresence is an excellent way to foster collaboration between employees across not just countries, but continents. In the past, telepresence technologies were prohibitively expensive and overly prone to malfunction. Today, the technology makes it possible to hold high-definition meetings over long distances. P&G boasts the world’s largest rollout of Cisco TelePresence technology.
P&G’s biggest challenge in adopting the technology was to ensure that the studios were built to particular specifications in each of the geographically diverse locations where they were installed. Cisco accomplished this, and now P&G’s estimates that 35 percent of its employees use telepresence regularly. In some locations, usage is as high as 70 percent. Benefits of telepresence include significant travel savings, more efficient flow of ideas, and quicker decision making. Decisions that once took days now take minutes.
Laurie Heltsley, P&G’s director of global business services, noted that the company has saved $4 for every $1 invested in the 70 high-end telepresence systems it has installed over the past few years.
These high-definition systems are used four times as often as the company’s earlier versions of videoconferencing systems.
Sources: Joe Sharkey, “Setbacks in the Air Add to Lure of Virtual Meetings,” *The New York Times*, April 26, 2010; Matt Hamblen, “Firms Use Collaboration Tools to Tap the Ultimate IP-Worker Ideas,” *Computerworld*, September 2, 2009; “Computerworld Honors Program: P&G”, 2008; www.pg.com, accessed May 18, 2010; “Procter & Gamble Revolutionizes Collaboration with Cisco TelePresence,” www.cisco.com, accessed May 18, 2010; “IT’s Role in Collaboration at Procter & Gamble,” *Information Week*, February 1, 2007.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What is Procter & Gamble’s business strategy? What is the relationship of collaboration and innovation to that business strategy?
2. How is P&G using collaboration systems to execute its business model and business strategy? List and describe the collaboration systems and technologies it is using and the benefits of each.
3. Why were some collaborative technologies slow to catch on at P&G?
4. Compare P&G’s old and new processes for writing up and distributing the results of a research experiment.
5. Why is telepresence such a useful collaborative tool for a company like P&G?
6. Can you think of other ways P&G could use collaboration to foster innovation?
Chapter 3
Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? What is the impact of information systems on organizations?
2. How does Porter’s competitive forces model help companies develop competitive strategies using information systems?
3. How do the value chain and value web models help businesses identify opportunities for strategic information system applications?
4. How do information systems help businesses use synergies, core competencies, and network-based strategies to achieve competitive advantage?
5. What are the challenges posed by strategic information systems and how should they be addressed?
Interactive Sessions:
How Much Do Credit Card Companies Know About You?
Is the iPad a Disruptive Technology?
CHAPTER OUTLINE
3.1 ORGANIZATIONS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
What Is an Organization?
Features of Organizations
3.2 HOW INFORMATION SYSTEMS IMPACT ORGANIZATIONS AND BUSINESS FIRMS
Economic Impacts
Organizational and Behavioral Impacts
The Internet and Organizations
Implications for the Design and Understanding of Information Systems
3.3 USING INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO ACHIEVE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Porter’s Competitive Forces Model
Information System Strategies for Dealing with Competitive Forces
The Internet’s Impact on Competitive Advantage
The Business Value Chain Model
Synergies, Core Competencies, and Network-Based Strategies
3.4 USING SYSTEMS FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: MANAGEMENT ISSUES
Sustaining Competitive Advantage
Aligning IT with Business Objectives
Managing Strategic Transitions
3.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Improving Decision Making: Using a Database to Clarify Business Strategy
Improving Decision Making: Using Web Tools to Configure and Price an Automobile
LEARNING TRACK MODULE
The Changing Business Environment for Information Technology
Verizon and AT&T are the two largest telecommunications companies in the United States. In addition to voice communication, their customers use their networks to surf the Internet; send e-mail, text, and video messages; share photos; watch videos and high-definition TV; and conduct videoconferences around the globe. All of these products and services are digital.
Competition in this industry is exceptionally intense and fast-changing. Both companies are trying to outflank one another by refining their wireless, landline, and high-speed Internet networks and expanding the range of products, applications, and services available to customers. Wireless services are the most profitable. AT&T is staking its growth on the wireless market by aggressively marketing leading-edge high-end devices such as the iPhone. Verizon has bet on the reliability, power, and range of its wireless and landline networks and its renowned customer service.
For a number of years, Verizon has tried to blunt competition by making heavy technology investments in both its landline and wireless networks. Its wireless network is considered the most far-reaching and reliable in the United States. Verizon is now pouring billions of dollars into a rollout of fourth-generation (4G) cellular technology capable of supporting highly data-intensive applications such as downloading large streams of video and music through smart phones and other network appliances. Returns from Verizon’s 4G investment are still uncertain.
Verizon’s moves appear more risky financially than AT&T’s, because its up-front costs are so high. AT&T’s strategy is more conservative. Why not partner with other companies to capitalize on their technology innovations? That was the rationale for AT&T contracting with Apple Computer to be the exclusive network for its iPhone. Even though AT&T subsidizes some of the iPhone’s cost to consumers, the iPhone’s streamlined design, touch screen, exclusive access to the iTunes music service, and over 250,000 downloadable applications have made it an instant hit. AT&T has also sought to provide cellular services for other network appliances such as Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader and netbooks.
The iPhone has been AT&T’s primary growth engine, and the Apple relationship made the carrier the U.S. leader in the smartphone carrier marketspace. AT&T has over 43 percent of U.S. smartphone customers, compared with 23 percent for Verizon. Smart-phone customers are highly desirable because they typically pay higher monthly rates for wireless data service plans.
The iPhone became so wildly popular that users overstrained AT&T’s networks, leaving many in dense urban areas such as New York and San Francisco with sluggish service or dropped calls. To handle the surging demand, AT&T could upgrade its wireless network, but that would cripple profits. Experts contend that AT&T would have to spend $5 billion to $7 billion to bring its network up to
Verizon’s quality. To curb excessive use, AT&T moved to a tiered pricing model for new iPhone users, with data charges based on how much data customers actually use.
Adding to AT&T’s woes, its monopoly on the iPhone may be ending. Apple reached an agreement with Verizon in 2010 to make an iPhone that is compatible with Verizon’s network. Allowing Verizon to offer iPhone service will more than double Apple’s market for this device, but will undoubtedly drive some AT&T iPhone customers to Verizon in the hope of finding better network service. Verizon is further hedging its bets by offering leading-edge smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system that compete well against the iPhone. With or without the iPhone, if Verizon’s Android phone sales continue to accelerate, the competitive balance will shift again.
Sources: Roger Cheng, “For Telecom Firms, Smartphones Rule,” The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2010; Brad Stone and Jenna Wortham, “Even Without iPhone, Verizon Is Gaining,” The New York Times, July 15, 2010; Roben Farzad, “AT&T’s iPhone Mess,” Bloomberg Businessweek, April 25, 2010; Niraj Sheth, “AT&T Prepares Network for Battle,” The Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2010; and Amol Sharma, “AT&T, Verizon Make Different Calls,” The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2009.
The story of Verizon and AT&T illustrates some of the ways that information systems help businesses compete—and also the challenges of sustaining a competitive advantage. The telecommunications industry in which both companies operate is extremely crowded and competitive, with telecommunications companies vying with cable companies, new upstarts, and each other to provide a wide array of digital services as well as voice transmission. To meet the challenges of surviving and prospering in this environment, each of these companies focused on a different competitive strategy using information technology.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Both companies identified opportunities to use information technology to offer new products and services. AT&T offered enhanced wireless services for the iPhone, while Verizon initially focused on high-capacity, high-quality network services. AT&T’s strategy emphasized keeping costs low while capitalizing on innovations from other technology vendors. Verizon’s strategy involved high up-front costs to build a high-capacity network infrastructure, and it also focused on providing a high level of network reliability and customer service.
This case study clearly shows how difficult it is to sustain a competitive advantage. Exclusive rights to use the highly popular iPhone on its network brought AT&T millions of new customers and enhanced its competitive position. But its competitive advantage is likely to erode if it is forced to invest heavily to upgrade its networks, if Apple allows Verizon to offer a version of the iPhone, or if Verizon smartphones are competitive with the iPhone. Changes in service pricing plans may also affect the competitive balance among the various wireless carriers.
3.1 Organizations and Information Systems
Information systems and organizations influence one another. Information systems are built by managers to serve the interests of the business firm. At the same time, the organization must be aware of and open to the influences of information systems to benefit from new technologies.
The interaction between information technology and organizations is complex and is influenced by many mediating factors, including the organization’s structure, business processes, politics, culture, surrounding environment, and management decisions (see Figure 3-1). You will need to understand how information systems can change social and work life in your firm. You will not be able to design new systems successfully or understand existing systems without understanding your own business organization.
**FIGURE 3-1 THE TWO-WAY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY**
This complex two-way relationship is mediated by many factors, not the least of which are the decisions made—or not made—by managers. Other factors mediating the relationship include the organizational culture, structure, politics, business processes, and environment.
In the microeconomic definition of organizations, capital and labor (the primary production factors provided by the environment) are transformed by the firm through the production process into products and services (outputs to the environment). The products and services are consumed by the environment, which supplies additional capital and labor as inputs in the feedback loop.
As a manager, you will be the one to decide which systems will be built, what they will do, and how they will be implemented. You may not be able to anticipate all of the consequences of these decisions. Some of the changes that occur in business firms because of new information technology (IT) investments cannot be foreseen and have results that may or may not meet your expectations. Who would have imagined fifteen years ago, for instance, that e-mail and instant messaging would become a dominant form of business communication and that many managers would be inundated with more than 200 e-mail messages each day?
**WHAT IS AN ORGANIZATION?**
An **organization** is a stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs. This technical definition focuses on three elements of an organization. Capital and labor are primary production factors provided by the environment. The organization (the firm) transforms these inputs into products and services in a production function. The products and services are consumed by environments in return for supply inputs (see Figure 3-2).
An organization is more stable than an informal group (such as a group of friends that meets every Friday for lunch) in terms of longevity and routineness. Organizations are formal legal entities with internal rules and procedures that must abide by laws. Organizations are also social structures because they are a collection of social elements, much as a machine has a structure—a particular arrangement of valves, cams, shafts, and other parts.
This definition of organizations is powerful and simple, but it is not very descriptive or even predictive of real-world organizations. A more realistic behavioral definition of an organization is that it is a collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that is delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution (see Figure 3-3).
In this behavioral view of the firm, people who work in organizations develop customary ways of working; they gain attachments to existing relationships; and they make arrangements with subordinates and superiors about how work will be done, the amount of work that will be done, and under
The behavioral view of organizations emphasizes group relationships, values, and structures.
what conditions work will be done. Most of these arrangements and feelings are not discussed in any formal rulebook.
How do these definitions of organizations relate to information systems technology? A technical view of organizations encourages us to focus on how inputs are combined to create outputs when technology changes are introduced into the company. The firm is seen as infinitely malleable, with capital and labor substituting for each other quite easily. But the more realistic behavioral definition of an organization suggests that building new information systems, or rebuilding old ones, involves much more than a technical rearrangement of machines or workers—that some information systems change the organizational balance of rights, privileges, obligations, responsibilities, and feelings that have been established over a long period of time.
Changing these elements can take a long time, be very disruptive, and requires more resources to support training and learning. For instance, the length of time required to implement effectively a new information system is much longer than usually anticipated simply because there is a lag between implementing a technical system and teaching employees and managers how to use the system.
Technological change requires changes in who owns and controls information, who has the right to access and update that information, and who makes decisions about whom, when, and how. This more complex view forces us to look at the way work is designed and the procedures used to achieve outputs.
The technical and behavioral definitions of organizations are not contradictory. Indeed, they complement each other: The technical definition tells us how thousands of firms in competitive markets combine capital, labor, and information technology, whereas the behavioral model takes us inside the individual firm to see how that technology affects the organization’s inner workings. Section 3.2 describes how each of these definitions of organizations can help explain the relationships between information systems and organizations.
FEATURES OF ORGANIZATIONS
All modern organizations have certain characteristics. They are bureaucracies with clear-cut divisions of labor and specialization. Organizations arrange specialists in a hierarchy of authority in which everyone is accountable to someone and authority is limited to specific actions governed by abstract rules or procedures. These rules create a system of impartial and universal decision making. Organizations try to hire and promote employees on the basis of technical qualifications and professionalism (not personal connections). The organization is devoted to the principle of efficiency: maximizing output using limited inputs. Other features of organizations include their business processes, organizational culture, organizational politics, surrounding environments, structure, goals, constituencies, and leadership styles. All of these features affect the kinds of information systems used by organizations.
Routines and Business Processes
All organizations, including business firms, become very efficient over time because individuals in the firm develop routines for producing goods and services. Routines—sometimes called standard operating procedures—are precise rules, procedures, and practices that have been developed to cope with virtually all expected situations. As employees learn these routines, they become highly productive and efficient, and the firm is able to reduce its costs over time as efficiency increases. For instance, when you visit a doctor’s office, receptionists have a well-developed set of routines for gathering basic information from you; nurses have a different set of routines for preparing you for an interview with a doctor; and the doctor has a well-developed set of routines for diagnosing you. Business processes, which we introduced in Chapters 1 and 2, are collections of such routines. A business firm in turn is a collection of business processes (Figure 3-4).
Organizational Politics
People in organizations occupy different positions with different specialties, concerns, and perspectives. As a result, they naturally have divergent viewpoints about how resources, rewards, and punishments should be distributed. These differences matter to both managers and employees, and they result in political struggle for resources, competition, and conflict within every organization. Political resistance is one of the great difficulties of bringing about organizational change—especially the development of new information systems. Virtually all large information systems investments by a firm that bring about significant changes in strategy, business objectives, business processes, and procedures become politically charged events. Managers that know how to work with the politics of an organization will be more successful than less-skilled managers in implementing new information systems. Throughout this book, you will find many examples of where internal politics defeated the best-laid plans for an information system.
Organizational Culture
All organizations have bedrock, unassailable, unquestioned (by the members) assumptions that define their goals and products. Organizational culture encompasses this set of assumptions about what products the organization should produce, how it should produce them, where, and for whom. Generally, these cultural assumptions are taken totally for granted.
All organizations are composed of individual routines and behaviors, a collection of which make up a business process. A collection of business processes make up the business firm. New information system applications require that individual routines and business processes change to achieve high levels of organizational performance.
and are rarely publicly announced or spoken about. Business processes—the actual way business firms produce value—are usually ensconced in the organization’s culture.
You can see organizational culture at work by looking around your university or college. Some bedrock assumptions of university life are that professors know more than students, the reason students attend college is to learn, and classes follow a regular schedule. Organizational culture is a powerful unifying force that restrains political conflict and promotes common understanding, agreement on procedures, and common practices. If we all share the same basic cultural assumptions, agreement on other matters is more likely.
At the same time, organizational culture is a powerful restraint on change, especially technological change. Most organizations will do almost anything to avoid making changes in basic assumptions. Any technological change that threatens commonly held cultural assumptions usually meets a great deal of resistance. However, there are times when the only sensible way for a firm to move forward is to employ a new technology that directly opposes an existing organizational culture. When this occurs, the technology is often stalled while the culture slowly adjusts.
Organizational Environments
Organizations reside in environments from which they draw resources and to which they supply goods and services. Organizations and environments have a reciprocal relationship. On the one hand, organizations are open to, and dependent on, the social and physical environment that surrounds them. Without financial and human resources—people willing to work reliably and consistently for a set wage or revenue from customers—organizations could not exist. Organizations must respond to legislative and other requirements imposed by government, as well as the actions of customers and competitors. On the other hand, organizations can influence their environments. For example, business firms form alliances with other businesses to influence the political process; they advertise to influence customer acceptance of their products.
Figure 3-5 illustrates the role of information systems in helping organizations perceive changes in their environments and also in helping organizations act on their environments. Information systems are key instruments for environmental scanning, helping managers identify external changes that might require an organizational response.
Environments generally change much faster than organizations. New technologies, new products, and changing public tastes and values (many of which result in new government regulations) put strains on any organization’s culture, politics, and people. Most organizations are unable to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Inertia built into an organization’s standard operating procedures, the political conflict raised by changes to the existing order, and the threat to closely held cultural values inhibit organizations from making significant changes. Young firms typically lack resources to sustain even short periods of troubled times. It is not surprising that only 10 percent of the Fortune 500 companies in 1919 still exist today.
**FIGURE 3-5** ENVIRONMENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS HAVE A RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP
Environments shape what organizations can do, but organizations can influence their environments and decide to change environments altogether. Information technology plays a critical role in helping organizations perceive environmental change and in helping organizations act on their environment.
Disruptive Technologies: Riding the Wave. Sometimes a technology and resulting business innovation comes along to radically change the business landscape and environment. These innovations are loosely called “disruptive.” (Christensen, 2003). What makes a technology disruptive? In some cases, **disruptive technologies** are substitute products that perform as well or better (often much better) than anything currently produced. The car substituted for the horse-drawn carriage; the word processor for typewriters; the Apple iPod for portable CD players; digital photography for process film photography.
In these cases, entire industries are put out of business. In other cases, disruptive technologies simply extend the market, usually with less functionality and much less cost, than existing products. Eventually they turn into low-cost competitors for whatever was sold before. Disk drives are an example: small hard disk drives used in PCs extended the market for disk drives by offering cheap digital storage for small files. Eventually, small PC hard disk drives became the largest segment of the disk drive marketplace.
Some firms are able to create these technologies and ride the wave to profits; others learn quickly and adapt their business; still others are obliterated because their products, services, and business models become obsolete. They may be very efficient at doing what no longer needs to be done! There are also cases where no firms benefit, and all the gains go to consumers (firms fail to capture any profits). Table 3-1 describes just a few disruptive technologies from the past.
Disruptive technologies are tricky. Firms that invent disruptive technologies as “first movers” do not always benefit if they lack the resources to exploit the
### TABLE 3-1 DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES: WINNERS AND LOSERS
| TECHNOLOGY | DESCRIPTION | WINNERS AND LOSERS |
|-----------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Microprocessor chips (1971) | Thousands and eventually millions of transistors on a silicon chip | Microprocessor firms win (Intel, Texas Instruments) while transistor firms (GE) decline. |
| Personal computers (1975) | Small, inexpensive, but fully functional desktop computers | PC manufacturers (HP, Apple, IBM), and chip manufacturers prosper (Intel), while mainframe (IBM) and minicomputer (DEC) firms lose. |
| PC word processing software (1979)| Inexpensive, limited but functional text editing and formatting for personal computers | PC and software manufacturers (Microsoft, HP, Apple) prosper, while the typewriter industry disappears. |
| World Wide Web (1989) | A global database of digital files and “pages” instantly available | Owners of online content and news benefit, while traditional publishers (newspapers, magazines, broadcast television) lose. |
| Internet music services (1998) | Repositories of downloadable music on the Web with acceptable fidelity | Owners of online music collections (MP3.com, iTunes), telecommunications providers who own Internet backbone (AT&T, Verizon), local Internet service providers win, while record label firms and music retailers lose (Tower Records). |
| PageRank algorithm | A method for ranking Web pages in terms of their popularity to supplement Web search by key terms | Google is the winner (they own the patent), while traditional key word search engines (Alta Vista) lose. |
| Software as Web service | Using the Internet to provide remote access to online software | Online software services companies (Salesforce.com) win, while traditional “boxed” software companies (Microsoft, SAP, Oracle) lose. |
technology or fail to see the opportunity. The MITS Altair 8800 is widely regarded as the first PC, but its inventors did not take advantage of their first-mover status. Second movers, so-called “fast followers” such as IBM and Microsoft, reaped the rewards. Citibank’s ATMs revolutionized retail banking, but they were copied by other banks. Now all banks use ATMs, with the benefits going mostly to the consumers. Google was not a first mover in search, but an innovative follower that was able to maintain rights to a powerful new search algorithm called PageRank. So far it has been able to hold onto its lead while most other search engines have faded down to small market shares.
**Organizational Structure**
Organizations all have a structure or shape. Mintzberg’s classification, described in Table 3-2, identifies five basic kinds of organizational structure (Mintzberg, 1979).
The kind of information systems you find in a business firm—and the nature of problems with these systems—often reflects the type of organizational structure. For instance, in a professional bureaucracy such as a hospital it is not unusual to find parallel patient record systems operated by the administration, another by doctors, and another by other professional staff such as nurses and social workers. In small entrepreneurial firms you will often find poorly designed systems developed in a rush that often outgrow their usefulness quickly. In huge multidivisional firms operating in hundreds of locations you will often find there is not a single integrating information system, but instead each locale or each division has its set of information systems.
**Other Organizational Features**
Organizations have goals and use different means to achieve them. Some organizations have coercive goals (e.g., prisons); others have utilitarian goals (e.g., businesses). Still others have normative goals (universities, religious
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**TABLE 3-2 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES**
| ORGANIZATIONAL TYPE | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLES |
|-----------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
| Entrepreneurial structure | Young, small firm in a fast-changing environment. It has a simple structure and is managed by an entrepreneur serving as its single chief executive officer. | Small start-up business |
| Machine bureaucracy | Large bureaucracy existing in a slowly changing environment, producing standard products. It is dominated by a centralized management team and centralized decision making. | Midsize manufacturing firm |
| Divisionalized bureaucracy | Combination of multiple machine bureaucracies, each producing a different product or service, all topped by one central headquarters. | Fortune 500 firms, such as General Motors |
| Professional bureaucracy | Knowledge-based organization where goods and services depend on the expertise and knowledge of professionals. Dominated by department heads with weak centralized authority. | Law firms, school systems, hospitals |
| Adhocracy | Task force organization that must respond to rapidly changing environments. Consists of large groups of specialists organized into short-lived multidisciplinary teams and has weak central management. | Consulting firms, such as the Rand Corporation |
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groups). Organizations also serve different groups or have different constituencies, some primarily benefiting their members, others benefiting clients, stockholders, or the public. The nature of leadership differs greatly from one organization to another—some organizations may be more democratic or authoritarian than others. Another way organizations differ is by the tasks they perform and the technology they use. Some organizations perform primarily routine tasks that can be reduced to formal rules that require little judgment (such as manufacturing auto parts), whereas others (such as consulting firms) work primarily with nonroutine tasks.
3.2 How Information Systems Impact Organizations and Business Firms
Information systems have become integral, online, interactive tools deeply involved in the minute-to-minute operations and decision making of large organizations. Over the last decade, information systems have fundamentally altered the economics of organizations and greatly increased the possibilities for organizing work. Theories and concepts from economics and sociology help us understand the changes brought about by IT.
ECONOMIC IMPACTS
From the point of view of economics, IT changes both the relative costs of capital and the costs of information. Information systems technology can be viewed as a factor of production that can be substituted for traditional capital and labor. As the cost of information technology decreases, it is substituted for labor, which historically has been a rising cost. Hence, information technology should result in a decline in the number of middle managers and clerical workers as information technology substitutes for their labor (Laudon, 1990).
As the cost of information technology decreases, it also substitutes for other forms of capital such as buildings and machinery, which remain relatively expensive. Hence, over time we should expect managers to increase their investments in IT because of its declining cost relative to other capital investments.
IT also obviously affects the cost and quality of information and changes the economics of information. Information technology helps firms contract in size because it can reduce transaction costs—the costs incurred when a firm buys on the marketplace what it cannot make itself. According to **transaction cost theory**, firms and individuals seek to economize on transaction costs, much as they do on production costs. Using markets is expensive because of costs such as locating and communicating with distant suppliers, monitoring contract compliance, buying insurance, obtaining information on products, and so forth (Coase, 1937; Williamson, 1985). Traditionally, firms have tried to reduce transaction costs through vertical integration, by getting bigger, hiring more employees, and buying their own suppliers and distributors, as both General Motors and Ford used to do.
Information technology, especially the use of networks, can help firms lower the cost of market participation (transaction costs), making it worthwhile for firms to contract with external suppliers instead of using internal sources. As a result, firms can shrink in size (numbers of employees) because it is far less expensive to outsource work to a competitive marketplace rather than hire employees.
For instance, by using computer links to external suppliers, the Chrysler Corporation can achieve economies by obtaining more than 70 percent of its parts from the outside. Information systems make it possible for companies such as Cisco Systems and Dell Inc. to outsource their production to contract manufacturers such as Flextronics instead of making their products themselves.
Figure 3-6 shows that as transaction costs decrease, firm size (the number of employees) should shrink because it becomes easier and cheaper for the firm to contract for the purchase of goods and services in the marketplace rather than to make the product or offer the service itself. Firm size can stay constant or contract even as the company increases its revenues. For example, when Eastman Chemical Company split off from Kodak in 1994, it had $3.3 billion in revenue and 24,000 full-time employees. In 2009, it generated over $5 billion in revenue with only 10,000 employees.
Information technology also can reduce internal management costs. According to agency theory, the firm is viewed as a “nexus of contracts” among self-interested individuals rather than as a unified, profit-maximizing entity (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). A principal (owner) employs “agents” (employees) to perform work on his or her behalf. However, agents need constant supervision and management; otherwise, they will tend to pursue their own interests rather than those of the owners. As firms grow in size and scope, agency costs or coordination costs rise because owners must expend more and more effort supervising and managing employees.
Information technology, by reducing the costs of acquiring and analyzing information, permits organizations to reduce agency costs because it becomes easier for managers to oversee a greater number of employees. Figure 3-7 shows that by reducing overall management costs, information technology enables firms to increase revenues while shrinking the number of middle managers and clerical workers. We have seen examples in earlier chapters where information technology expanded the power and scope of small organizations by enabling them to perform coordinating activities such as processing orders or keeping track of inventory with very few clerks and managers.
**FIGURE 3-6** THE TRANSACTION COST THEORY OF THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON THE ORGANIZATION
When the costs of participating in markets (transaction costs) were high, it made sense to build large firms and do everything inside the firm. But IT reduces the firm’s market transaction costs. This means firms can outsource work using the market, reduce their employee head count, and still grow revenues, relying more on outsourcing firms and external contractors.
Agency costs are the costs of managing a firm’s employees. IT reduces agency costs making management more efficient. Fewer managers are needed to manage employees. IT makes it possible to build very large global firms and to run them efficiently without greatly expanding management. Without IT, very large global firms would be difficult to operate because they would be very expensive to manage.
Because IT reduces both agency and transaction costs for firms, we should expect firm size to shrink over time as more capital is invested in IT. Firms should have fewer managers, and we expect to see revenue per employee increase over time.
**ORGANIZATIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL IMPACTS**
Theories based in the sociology of complex organizations also provide some understanding about how and why firms change with the implementation of new IT applications.
**IT Flattens Organizations**
Large, bureaucratic organizations, which primarily developed before the computer age, are often inefficient, slow to change, and less competitive than newly created organizations. Some of these large organizations have downsized, reducing the number of employees and the number of levels in their organizational hierarchies.
Behavioral researchers have theorized that information technology facilitates flattening of hierarchies by broadening the distribution of information to empower lower-level employees and increase management efficiency (see Figure 3-8). IT pushes decision-making rights lower in the organization because lower-level employees receive the information they need to make decisions without supervision. (This empowerment is also possible because of higher educational levels among the workforce, which give employees the capabilities to make intelligent decisions.) Because managers now receive so much more accurate information on time, they become much faster at making decisions, so fewer managers are required. Management costs decline as a percentage of revenues, and the hierarchy becomes much more efficient.
These changes mean that the management span of control has also been broadened, enabling high-level managers to manage and control more workers
Information systems can reduce the number of levels in an organization by providing managers with information to supervise larger numbers of workers and by giving lower-level employees more decision-making authority.
Postindustrial Organizations
Postindustrial theories based more on history and sociology than economics also support the notion that IT should flatten hierarchies. In postindustrial societies, authority increasingly relies on knowledge and competence, and not merely on formal positions. Hence, the shape of organizations flattens because professional workers tend to be self-managing, and decision making should become more decentralized as knowledge and information become more widespread throughout the firm (Drucker, 1988).
Information technology may encourage task force-networked organizations in which groups of professionals come together—face to face or electronically—for short periods of time to accomplish a specific task (e.g., designing a new automobile); once the task is accomplished, the individuals join other task forces. The global consulting service Accenture is an example. It has no operational headquarters and no formal branches. Many of its 190,000 employees move from location to location to work on projects at client locations in 49 different countries.
Who makes sure that self-managed teams do not head off in the wrong direction? Who decides which person works on which team and for how long? How can managers evaluate the performance of someone who is constantly rotating from team to team? How do people know where their careers are headed? New approaches for evaluating, organizing, and informing workers are required, and not all companies can make virtual work effective.
Understanding Organizational Resistance to Change
Information systems inevitably become bound up in organizational politics because they influence access to a key resource—namely, information. Information systems can affect who does what to whom, when, where, and how in an organization. Many new information systems require changes in personal, individual routines that can be painful for those involved and require retraining and additional effort that may or may not be compensated. Because information systems potentially change an organization’s structure, culture, business processes, and strategy, there is often considerable resistance to them when they are introduced.
There are several ways to visualize organizational resistance. Leavitt (1965) used a diamond shape to illustrate the interrelated and mutually adjusting character of technology and organization (see Figure 3-9). Here, changes in technology are absorbed, deflected, and defeated by organizational task arrangements, structures, and people. In this model, the only way to bring about change is to change the technology, tasks, structure, and people simultaneously. Other authors have spoken about the need to “unfreeze” organizations before introducing an innovation, quickly implementing it, and “refreezing” or institutionalizing the change (Alter and Ginzberg, 1978; Kolb, 1970).
Because organizational resistance to change is so powerful, many information technology investments flounder and do not increase productivity. Indeed, research on project implementation failures demonstrates that the most common reason for failure of large projects to reach their objectives is not the failure of the technology, but organizational and political resistance to change. Chapter 14 treats this issue in detail. Therefore, as a manager involved in future IT investments, your ability to work with people and organizations is just as important as your technical awareness and knowledge.
THE INTERNET AND ORGANIZATIONS
The Internet, especially the World Wide Web, has an important impact on the relationships between many firms and external entities, and even on the
FIGURE 3-9 ORGANIZATIONAL RESISTANCE AND THE MUTUALLY ADJUSTING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND THE ORGANIZATION
Implementing information systems has consequences for task arrangements, structures, and people. According to this model, to implement change, all four components must be changed simultaneously.
Source: Leavitt (1965).
organization of business processes inside a firm. The Internet increases the accessibility, storage, and distribution of information and knowledge for organizations. In essence, the Internet is capable of dramatically lowering the transaction and agency costs facing most organizations. For instance, brokerage firms and banks in New York can now deliver their internal operating procedures manuals to their employees at distant locations by posting them on the corporate Web site, saving millions of dollars in distribution costs. A global sales force can receive nearly instant product price information updates using the Web or instructions from management sent by e-mail. Vendors of some large retailers can access retailers' internal Web sites directly to find up-to-the-minute sales information and to initiate replenishment orders instantly.
Businesses are rapidly rebuilding some of their key business processes based on Internet technology and making this technology a key component of their IT infrastructures. If prior networking is any guide, one result will be simpler business processes, fewer employees, and much flatter organizations than in the past.
**IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DESIGN AND UNDERSTANDING OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS**
To deliver genuine benefits, information systems must be built with a clear understanding of the organization in which they will be used. In our experience, the central organizational factors to consider when planning a new system are the following:
- The environment in which the organization must function
- The structure of the organization: hierarchy, specialization, routines, and business processes
- The organization's culture and politics
- The type of organization and its style of leadership
- The principal interest groups affected by the system and the attitudes of workers who will be using the system
- The kinds of tasks, decisions, and business processes that the information system is designed to assist
### 3.3 Using Information Systems to Achieve Competitive Advantage
In almost every industry you examine, you will find that some firms do better than most others. There's almost always a stand-out firm. In the automotive industry, Toyota is considered a superior performer. In pure online retail, Amazon is the leader, in off-line retail Walmart, the largest retailer on earth, is the leader. In online music, Apple's iTunes is considered the leader with more than 75 percent of the downloaded music market, and in the related industry of digital music players, the iPod is the leader. In Web search, Google is considered the leader.
Firms that "do better" than others are said to have a competitive advantage over others: They either have access to special resources that others do not, or they are able to use commonly available resources more efficiently—usually
because of superior knowledge and information assets. In any event, they do better in terms of revenue growth, profitability, or productivity growth (efficiency), all of which ultimately in the long run translate into higher stock market valuations than their competitors.
But why do some firms do better than others and how do they achieve competitive advantage? How can you analyze a business and identify its strategic advantages? How can you develop a strategic advantage for your own business? And how do information systems contribute to strategic advantages? One answer to that question is Michael Porter's competitive forces model.
**PORTER'S COMPETITIVE FORCES MODEL**
Arguably, the most widely used model for understanding competitive advantage is Michael Porter's **competitive forces model** (see Figure 3-10). This model provides a general view of the firm, its competitors, and the firm's environment. Earlier in this chapter, we described the importance of a firm's environment and the dependence of firms on environments. Porter's model is all about the firm's general business environment. In this model, five competitive forces shape the fate of the firm.
**Traditional Competitors**
All firms share market space with other competitors who are continuously devising new, more efficient ways to produce by introducing new products and services, and attempting to attract customers by developing their brands and imposing switching costs on their customers.
**New Market Entrants**
In a free economy with mobile labor and financial resources, new companies are always entering the marketplace. In some industries, there are very low barriers to entry, whereas in other industries, entry is very difficult. For instance, it is fairly easy to start a pizza business or just about any small retail business, but it is much more expensive and difficult to enter the computer chip business, which has very high capital costs and requires significant expertise and knowledge that is hard to obtain. New companies have several possible
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**FIGURE 3-10 PORTER'S COMPETITIVE FORCES MODEL**
In Porter's competitive forces model, the strategic position of the firm and its strategies are determined not only by competition with its traditional direct competitors but also by four other forces in the industry's environment: new market entrants, substitute products, customers, and suppliers.
advantages: They are not locked into old plants and equipment, they often hire younger workers who are less expensive and perhaps more innovative, they are not encumbered by old worn-out brand names, and they are “more hungry” (more highly motivated) than traditional occupants of an industry. These advantages are also their weakness: They depend on outside financing for new plants and equipment, which can be expensive; they have a less-experienced workforce; and they have little brand recognition.
**Substitute Products and Services**
In just about every industry, there are substitutes that your customers might use if your prices become too high. New technologies create new substitutes all the time. Even oil has substitutes: Ethanol can substitute for gasoline in cars; vegetable oil for diesel fuel in trucks; and wind, solar, coal, and hydro power for industrial electricity generation. Likewise, the Internet telephone service can substitute for traditional telephone service, and fiber-optic telephone lines to the home can substitute for cable TV lines. And, of course, an Internet music service that allows you to download music tracks to an iPod is a substitute for CD-based music stores. The more substitute products and services in your industry, the less you can control pricing and the lower your profit margins.
**Customers**
A profitable company depends in large measure on its ability to attract and retain customers (while denying them to competitors), and charge high prices. The power of customers grows if they can easily switch to a competitor’s products and services, or if they can force a business and its competitors to compete on price alone in a transparent marketplace where there is little product differentiation, and all prices are known instantly (such as on the Internet). For instance, in the used college textbook market on the Internet, students (customers) can find multiple suppliers of just about any current college textbook. In this case, online customers have extraordinary power over used-book firms.
**Suppliers**
The market power of suppliers can have a significant impact on firm profits, especially when the firm cannot raise prices as fast as can suppliers. The more different suppliers a firm has, the greater control it can exercise over suppliers in terms of price, quality, and delivery schedules. For instance, manufacturers of laptop PCs almost always have multiple competing suppliers of key components, such as keyboards, hard drives, and display screens.
**INFORMATION SYSTEM STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH COMPETITIVE FORCES**
What is a firm to do when it is faced with all these competitive forces? And how can the firm use information systems to counteract some of these forces? How do you prevent substitutes and inhibit new market entrants? There are four generic strategies, each of which often is enabled by using information technology and systems: low-cost leadership, product differentiation, focus on market niche, and strengthening customer and supplier intimacy.
**Low-Cost Leadership**
Use information systems to achieve the lowest operational costs and the lowest prices. The classic example is Walmart. By keeping prices low and shelves well
stocked using a legendary inventory replenishment system, Walmart became the leading retail business in the United States. Walmart's continuous replenishment system sends orders for new merchandise directly to suppliers as soon as consumers pay for their purchases at the cash register. Point-of-sale terminals record the bar code of each item passing the checkout counter and send a purchase transaction directly to a central computer at Walmart headquarters. The computer collects the orders from all Walmart stores and transmits them to suppliers. Suppliers can also access Walmart's sales and inventory data using Web technology.
Because the system replenishes inventory with lightning speed, Walmart does not need to spend much money on maintaining large inventories of goods in its own warehouses. The system also enables Walmart to adjust purchases of store items to meet customer demands. Competitors, such as Sears, have been spending 24.9 percent of sales on overhead. But by using systems to keep operating costs low, Walmart pays only 16.6 percent of sales revenue for overhead. (Operating costs average 20.7 percent of sales in the retail industry.)
Walmart's continuous replenishment system is also an example of an efficient customer response system. An efficient customer response system directly links consumer behavior to distribution and production and supply chains. Walmart's continuous replenishment system provides such an efficient customer response.
**Product Differentiation**
Use information systems to enable new products and services, or greatly change the customer convenience in using your existing products and services. For instance, Google continuously introduces new and unique search services on its Web site, such as Google Maps. By purchasing PayPal, an electronic payment system, in 2003, eBay made it much easier for customers to pay sellers and expanded use of its auction marketplace. Apple created the iPod, a unique portable digital music player, plus a unique online Web music service where songs can be purchased for $0.69 to $1.29 each. Apple has continued to
innovate with its multimedia iPhone, iPad tablet computer, and iPod video player. The chapter-opening case describes how AT&T’s business strategy is trying to piggyback off such digital innovations.
Manufacturers and retailers are using information systems to create products and services that are customized and personalized to fit the precise specifications of individual customers. For example, Nike sells customized sneakers through its NIKEiD program on its Web site. Customers are able to select the type of shoe, colors, material, outsoles, and even a logo of up to 8 characters. Nike transmits the orders via computers to specially-equipped plants in China and Korea. The sneakers cost only $10 extra and take about three weeks to reach the customer. This ability to offer individually tailored products or services using the same production resources as mass production is called **mass customization**.
Table 3-3 lists a number of companies that have developed IT-based products and services that other firms have found difficult to copy, or at least a long time to copy.
**Focus on Market Niche**
Use information systems to enable a specific market focus, and serve this narrow target market better than competitors. Information systems support this strategy by producing and analyzing data for finely tuned sales and marketing techniques. Information systems enable companies to analyze customer buying patterns, tastes, and preferences closely so that they efficiently pitch advertising and marketing campaigns to smaller and smaller target markets.
The data come from a range of sources—credit card transactions, demographic data, purchase data from checkout counter scanners at supermarkets and retail stores, and data collected when people access and interact with Web sites. Sophisticated software tools find patterns in these large pools of data and infer rules from them to guide decision making. Analysis of such data drives one-to-one marketing that creates personal messages based on individualized preferences. For example, Hilton Hotels’ OnQ system analyzes detailed data collected on active guests in all of its properties to determine the preferences of each guest and each guest’s profitability. Hilton uses this information to give its most profitable customers additional privileges, such as late check-outs. Contemporary customer relationship management (CRM) systems feature analytical capabilities for this type of intensive data analysis (see Chapters 2 and 9).
**TABLE 3-3 IT-ENABLED NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES PROVIDING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE**
| Amazon: One-click shopping | Amazon holds a patent on one-click shopping that it licenses to other online retailers. |
|----------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Online music: Apple iPod and iTunes | The iPod is an integrated handheld player backed up with an online library of over 13 million songs |
| Golf club customization: Ping | Customers can select from more than 1 million different golf club options; a build-to-order system ships their customized clubs within 48 hours. |
| Online bill payment: CheckFree.com | Fifty-two million households pay bills online in 2010. |
| Online person-to-person payment: PayPal.com | PayPal enables the transfer of money between individual bank accounts and between bank accounts and credit card accounts. |
The Interactive Session on Organizations describes how skillfully credit card companies are able to use this strategy to predict their most profitable cardholders. The companies gather vast quantities of data about consumer purchases and other behaviors and mine these data to construct detailed profiles that identify cardholders who might be good or bad credit risks. These practices have enhanced credit card companies’ profitability, but are they in consumers’ best interests?
**Strengthen Customer and Supplier Intimacy**
Use information systems to tighten linkages with suppliers and develop intimacy with customers. Chrysler Corporation uses information systems to facilitate direct access by suppliers to production schedules, and even permits suppliers to decide how and when to ship supplies to Chrysler factories. This allows suppliers more lead time in producing goods. On the customer side, Amazon.com keeps track of user preferences for book and CD purchases, and can recommend titles purchased by others to its customers. Strong linkages to customers and suppliers increase **switching costs** (the cost of switching from one product to a competing product), and loyalty to your firm.
Table 3-4 summarizes the competitive strategies we have just described. Some companies focus on one of these strategies, but you will often see companies pursuing several of them simultaneously. For example, Dell tries to emphasize low cost as well as the ability to customize its personal computers.
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**THE INTERNET’S IMPACT ON COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE**
Because of the Internet, the traditional competitive forces are still at work, but competitive rivalry has become much more intense (Porter, 2001). Internet technology is based on universal standards that any company can use, making it easy for rivals to compete on price alone and for new competitors to enter the market. Because information is available to everyone, the Internet raises the bargaining power of customers, who can quickly find the lowest-cost provider on the Web. Profits have been dampened. Table 3-5 summarizes some of the potentially negative impacts of the Internet on business firms identified by Porter.
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**TABLE 3-4 FOUR BASIC COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES**
| STRATEGY | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLE |
|---------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------|
| Low-cost leadership | Use information systems to produce products and services at a lower price than competitors while enhancing quality and level of service | Walmart |
| Product differentiation | Use information systems to differentiate products, and enable new services and products | Google, eBay, Apple, Lands’ End |
| Focus on market niche | Use information systems to enable a focused strategy on a single market niche; specialize | Hilton Hotels, Harrah’s |
| Customer and supplier intimacy | Use information systems to develop strong ties and loyalty with customers and suppliers | Chrysler Corporation |
| | | Amazon.com |
When Kevin Johnson returned from his honeymoon, a letter from American Express was waiting for him. The letter informed Johnson that AmEx was slashing his credit limit by 60 percent. Why? Not because Johnson missed a payment or had bad credit. The letter stated: “Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped, have a poor repayment history with American Express.” Johnson had started shopping at Walmart. Welcome to the new era of credit card profiling.
Every time you make a purchase with a credit card, a record of that sale is logged into a massive data repository maintained by the card issuer. Each purchase is assigned a four-digit category code that describes the type of purchase that was made. There are separate codes for grocery stores, fast food restaurants, doctors, bars, bail and bond payments, and dating and escort services. Taken together, these codes allow credit card companies to learn a great deal about each of its customers at a glance.
Credit card companies use these data for multiple purposes. First, they use them to target future promotions for additional products more accurately. Users that purchase airline tickets might receive promotions for frequent flyer miles, for example. The data help card issuers guard against credit card fraud by identifying purchases that appear unusual compared to a cardholder’s normal purchase history. The card companies also flag users who frequently charge more than their credit limit or demonstrate erratic spending habits. Lastly, these records are used by law enforcement agencies to track down criminals.
Credit card holders with debt, the ones who never fully pay off their balances entirely and thus have to pay monthly interest charges and other fees, have been a major source of profit for credit card issuers. However, the recent financial crisis and credit crunch have turned them into a mounting liability because so many people are defaulting on their payments and even filing for bankruptcy. So the credit card companies are now focusing on mining credit card data to predict cardholders posing the highest risk.
Using mathematical formulas and insights from behavioral science, these companies are developing more fine-grained profiles to help them get inside the heads of their customers. The data provide new insights about the relationship of certain types of purchases to a customer’s ability or inability to pay off credit card balances and other debt. The card-issuing companies now use this information to deny credit card applications or shrink the amount of credit available to high-risk customers.
These companies are generalizing based on certain types of purchases that may unfairly characterize responsible cardholders as risky. Purchases of secondhand clothing, bail bond services, massages, or gambling might cause card issuers to identify you as a risk, even if you maintain your balance responsibly from month to month. Other behaviors that raise suspicion: using your credit card to get your tires re-treaded, to pay for drinks at a bar, to pay for marriage counseling, or to obtain a cash advance. Charged speeding tickets raise suspicion because they may indicate an irrational or impulsive personality. In light of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, credit card companies have even begun to consider individuals from Florida, Nevada, California, and other states hardest hit by foreclosures to be risks simply by virtue of their state of residence.
The same fine-grained profiling also identifies the most reliable credit-worthy cardholders. For example, the credit card companies found that people who buy high-quality bird seed and snow rakes to sweep snow off of their roofs are very likely to pay their debts and never miss payments. Credit card companies are even using their detailed knowledge of cardholder behavior to establish personal connections with the clients that owe them money and convince them to pay off their balances.
One 49-year old woman from Missouri in the throes of a divorce owed $40,000 to various credit card companies at one point, including $28,000 to Bank of America. A Bank of America customer service representative studied the woman’s profile and spoke to her numerous times, even pointing out one instance where she was erroneously charged twice. The representative forged a bond with the cardholder, and as a result she paid back the entire $28,000 she owed, (even though she failed to repay much of the remainder that she owed to other credit card companies.)
This example illustrates something the credit card companies now know: when cardholders feel more comfortable with companies, as a result of a good
relationship with a customer service rep or for any other reason, they’re more likely to pay their debts.
It’s common practice for credit card companies to use this information to get a better idea of consumer trends, but should they be able to use it to preemptively deny credit or adjust terms of agreements? Law enforcement is not permitted to profile individuals, but it appears that credit card companies are doing just that.
In June 2008, the FTC filed a lawsuit against CompuCredit, a sub-prime credit card marketer. CompuCredit had been using a sophisticated behavioral scoring model to identify customers who they considered to have risky purchasing behaviors and lower these customers’ credit limits. CompuCredit settled the suit by crediting $114 million to the accounts of these supposedly risky customers and paid a $2.5 million penalty.
Congress is investigating the extent to which credit card companies use profiling to determine interest rates and policies for their cardholders. The new credit card reform law signed by President Barack Obama in May 2009 requires federal regulators to investigate this. Regulators must also determine whether minority cardholders were adversely profiled by these criteria. The new legislation also bars card companies from raising interest rates at any time and for any reason on their customers.
Going forward, you’re likely to receive far fewer credit card solicitations in the mail and fewer offers of interest-free cards with rates that skyrocket after an initial grace period. You’ll also see fewer policies intended to trick or deceive customers, like cash-back rewards for unpaid balances, which actually encourage cardholders not to pay what they owe. But the credit card companies say that to compensate for these changes, they’ll need to raise rates across the board, even for good customers.
Sources: Betty Schiffman, “Who Knows You Better? Your Credit Card Company or Your Spouse?” Daily Finance, April 13, 2010; Charles Duhigg, “What Does Your Credit-Card Company Know about You?” The New York Times, June 17, 2009; and CreditCards.com, “Can Your Lifestyle Hurt Your Credit?” MSN Money, June 30, 2009.Boudette.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What competitive strategy are the credit card companies pursuing? How do information systems support that strategy?
2. What are the business benefits of analyzing customer purchase data and constructing behavioral profiles?
3. Are these practices by credit card companies ethical? Are they an invasion of privacy? Why or why not?
MIS IN ACTION
1. If you have a credit card, make a detailed list of all of your purchases for the past six months. Then write a paragraph describing what credit card companies learned about your interests and behavior from these purchases.
2. How would this information benefit the credit card companies? What other companies would be interested?
TABLE 3-5 IMPACT OF THE INTERNET ON COMPETITIVE FORCES AND INDUSTRY STRUCTURE
| COMPETITIVE FORCE | IMPACT OF THE INTERNET |
|------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Substitute products or services | Enables new substitutes to emerge with new approaches to meeting needs and performing functions |
| Customers’ bargaining power | Availability of global price and product information shifts bargaining power to customers |
| Suppliers’ bargaining power | Procurement over the Internet tends to raise bargaining power over suppliers; suppliers can also benefit from reduced barriers to entry and from the elimination of distributors and other intermediaries standing between them and their users |
| Threat of new entrants | The Internet reduces barriers to entry, such as the need for a sales force, access to channels, and physical assets; it provides a technology for driving business processes that makes other things easier to do |
| Positioning and rivalry among existing competitors | Widens the geographic market, increasing the number of competitors, and reducing differences among competitors; makes it more difficult to sustain operational advantages; puts pressure to compete on price |
The Internet has nearly destroyed some industries and has severely threatened more. For instance, the printed encyclopedia industry and the travel agency industry have been nearly decimated by the availability of substitutes over the Internet. Likewise, the Internet has had a significant impact on the retail, music, book, retail brokerage, software, telecommunications, and newspaper industries.
However, the Internet has also created entirely new markets, formed the basis for thousands of new products, services, and business models, and provided new opportunities for building brands with very large and loyal customer bases. Amazon, eBay, iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, Travelocity, and Google are examples. In this sense, the Internet is “transforming” entire industries, forcing firms to change how they do business.
The Interactive Session on Technology provides more detail on the transformation of the content and media industries. For most forms of media, the Internet has posed a threat to business models and profitability. Growth in book sales other than textbooks and professional publications has been sluggish, as new forms of entertainment continue to compete for consumers’ time. Newspapers and magazines have been hit even harder, as their readerships diminish, their advertisers shrink, and more people get their news for free online. The television and film industries have been forced to deal with pirates who are robbing them of some of their profits.
When Apple announced the launch of its new iPad tablet computer, leaders in all of these media saw not only a threat but also a significant opportunity. In fact, the iPad and similar mobile devices may be the savior—if traditional media can strike the right deal with technology providers like Apple and Google. And the iPad may be a threat for companies that fail to adjust their business models to a new method of providing content to users.
**THE BUSINESS VALUE CHAIN MODEL**
Although the Porter model is very helpful for identifying competitive forces and suggesting generic strategies, it is not very specific about what exactly to do, and it does not provide a methodology to follow for achieving competitive advantages. If your goal is to achieve operational excellence, where do you start? Here’s where the business value chain model is helpful.
The **value chain model** highlights specific activities in the business where competitive strategies can best be applied (Porter, 1985) and where information systems are most likely to have a strategic impact. This model identifies specific, critical leverage points where a firm can use information technology most effectively to enhance its competitive position. The value chain model views the firm as a series or chain of basic activities that add a margin of value to a firm’s products or services. These activities can be categorized as either primary activities or support activities (see Figure 3-11 on p. 105).
**Primary activities** are most directly related to the production and distribution of the firm’s products and services, which create value for the customer. Primary activities include inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing, and service. Inbound logistics includes receiving and storing materials for distribution to production. Operations transforms inputs into finished products. Outbound logistics entails storing and distributing finished products. Sales and marketing includes promoting and selling the firm’s products. The service activity includes maintenance and repair of the firm’s goods and services.
IS THE IPAD A DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY?
Tablet computers have come and gone several times before, but the iPad looks like it will be different. It has a gorgeous 10-inch color display, a persistent Wi-Fi Internet connection, potential use of high-speed cellular networks, functionality from over 250,000 applications available on Apple’s App Store, and the ability to deliver video, music, text, social networking applications, and video games. Its entry-level price is just $499. The challenge for Apple is to convince potential users that they need a new, expensive gadget with the functionality that the iPad provides. This is the same challenge faced by the iPhone when it was first announced. As it turned out, the iPhone was a smashing success that decimated the sales of traditional cell phones throughout the world. Will the iPad do likewise as a disruptive technology for the media and content industries? It looks like it is on its way.
The iPad has some appeal to mobile business users, but most experts believe it will not supplant laptops or netbooks. It is in the publishing and media industries where its disruptive impact will first be felt.
The iPad and similar devices (including the Kindle Reader) will force many existing media businesses to change their business models significantly. These companies may need to stop investing in their traditional delivery platforms (like newsprint) and increase their investments in the new digital platform. The iPad will spur people to watch TV on the go, rather than their television set at home, and to read their books, newspapers, and magazines online rather than in print.
Publishers are increasingly interested in e-books as a way to revitalize stagnant sales and attract new readers. The success of Amazon’s Kindle has spurred growth in e-book sales to over $91 million wholesale in the first quarter of 2010. Eventually, e-books could account for 25 to 50 percent of all books sold. Amazon, the technology platform provider and the largest distributor of books in the world, has exercised its new power by forcing publishers to sell e-books at $9.95, a price too low for publishers to profit. Publishers are now refusing to supply new books to Amazon unless it raises prices, and Amazon is starting to comply.
The iPad enters this marketplace ready to compete with Amazon over e-book pricing and distribution. Amazon has committed itself to offering the lowest possible prices, but Apple has appealed to publishers by announcing its intention to offer a tiered pricing system, giving publishers the opportunity to participate more actively in the pricing of their books. Apple has agreed with publishers to charge $12 to $14 for e-books, and to act as an agent selling books (with a 30% fee on all e-book sales) rather than a book distributor. Publishers like this arrangement, but worry about long-term pricing expectations, hoping to avoid a scenario where readers come to expect $9.99 e-books as the standard.
Textbook publishers are also eager to establish themselves on the iPad. Many of the largest textbook publishers have struck deals with software firms like ScrollMotion, Inc. to adapt their books for e-book readers. In fact, Apple CEO Steve Jobs designed the iPad with use in schools in mind, and interest on the part of schools in technology like the iPad has been strong. ScrollMotion already has experience using the Apple application platform for the iPhone, so the company is uniquely qualified to convert existing files provided by publishers into a format readable by the iPad and to add additional features, like a dictionary, glossary, quizzes, page numbers, a search function, and high-quality images.
Newspapers are also excited about the iPad, which represents a way for them to continue charging for all of the content that they have been forced to make available online. If the iPad becomes as popular as other hit products from Apple, consumers are more likely to pay for content using that device. The successes of the App Store on the iPhone and of the iTunes music store attest to this. But the experience of the music industry with iTunes also gives all print media reason to worry. The iTunes music store changed the consumer perception of albums and music bundles. Music labels used to make more money selling 12 songs on an album than they did selling popular singles. Now consumers have drastically reduced their consumption of albums, preferring to purchase and download one song at a time. A similar fate may await print newspapers, which are bundles of news articles, many of which are unread.
Apple has also approached TV networks and movie studios about offering access to some of their top shows and movies for a monthly fee, but as of yet the
bigger media companies have not responded to Apple’s overture. Of course, if the iPad becomes sufficiently popular, that will change, but currently media networks would prefer not to endanger their strong and lucrative partnerships with cable and satellite TV providers. (See the chapter-ending case study.)
And what about Apple’s own business model? Apple previously believed content was less important than the popularity of its devices. Now, Apple understands that it needs high-quality content from all the types of media it offers on its devices to be truly successful. The company’s new goal is to make deals with each media industry to distribute the content that users want to watch at a price agreed to by the content owners and the platform owners (Apple). The old attitudes of Apple (“Rip, burn, distribute”), which were designed to sell devices are a thing of the past. In this case of disruptive technology, even the disruptors have been forced to change their behaviors.
Sources: Ken Auletta, “Publish or Perish,” *The New Yorker*, April 26, 2010; Yukari Iwatani Kane and Sam Schechner, “Apple Races to Strike Content Deals Ahead of iPad Release,” *The Wall Street Journal*, March 18, 2010; Motoko Rich, “Books on iPad Offer Publishers a Pricing Edge,” *The New York Times*, January 28, 2010; Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg and Yukari Iwatani Kane, “Textbook Firms Ink Deals for iPad,” *The Wall Street Journal*, February 2, 2010; Nick Bilton, “Three Reasons Why the iPad Will Kill Amazon’s Kindle,” *The New York Times*, January 27, 2010; Jeffrey A Trachtenberg, “Apple Tablet Portends Rewrite for Publishers,” *The Wall Street Journal*, January 26, 2010; Brad Stone and Stephanie Clifford, “With Apple Tablet, Print Media Hope for a Payday,” *The New York Times*, January 26, 2010; Yukari Iwatani Kane, “Apple Takes Big Gamble on New iPad,” *The Wall Street Journal*, January 25, 2010; and Anne Eisenberg, “Devices to Take Textbooks Beyond Text,” *The New York Times*, December 6, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. Evaluate the impact of the iPad using Porter's competitive forces model.
2. What makes the iPad a disruptive technology? Who are likely to be the winners and losers if the iPad becomes a hit? Why?
3. Describe the effects that the iPad is likely to have on the business models of Apple, content creators, and distributors.
**MIS IN ACTION**
Visit Apple’s site for the iPad and the Amazon.com site for the Kindle. Review the features and specifications of each device. Then answer the following questions:
1. How powerful is the iPad? How useful is it for reading books, newspapers or magazines, for surfing the Web, and for watching video? Can you identify any shortcomings of the device?
2. Compare the capabilities of the Kindle to the iPad. Which is a better device for reading books? Explain your answer.
3. Would you like to use an iPad or Kindle for the books you use in your college courses or read for pleasure instead of traditional print publications? Why or why not?
**Support activities** make the delivery of the primary activities possible and consist of organization infrastructure (administration and management), human resources (employee recruiting, hiring, and training), technology (improving products and the production process), and procurement (purchasing input).
Now you can ask at each stage of the value chain, “How can we use information systems to improve operational efficiency, and improve customer and supplier intimacy?” This will force you to critically examine how you perform value-adding activities at each stage and how the business processes might be improved. You can also begin to ask how information systems can be used to improve the relationship with customers and with suppliers who lie outside the firm’s value chain but belong to the firm’s extended value chain where they are absolutely critical to your success. Here, supply chain management systems
This figure provides examples of systems for both primary and support activities of a firm and of its value partners that can add a margin of value to a firm’s products or services.
that coordinate the flow of resources into your firm, and customer relationship management systems that coordinate your sales and support employees with customers, are two of the most common system applications that result from a business value chain analysis. We discuss these enterprise applications in detail later in Chapter 9.
Using the business value chain model will also cause you to consider benchmarking your business processes against your competitors or others in related industries, and identifying industry best practices. **Benchmarking** involves comparing the efficiency and effectiveness of your business processes against strict standards and then measuring performance against those standards. Industry **best practices** are usually identified by consulting companies, research organizations, government agencies, and industry associations as the most successful solutions or problem-solving methods for consistently and effectively achieving a business objective.
Once you have analyzed the various stages in the value chain at your business, you can come up with candidate applications of information systems. Then, once you have a list of candidate applications, you can decide which to develop first. By making improvements in your own business value chain that your competitors might miss, you can achieve competitive advantage by attaining operational excellence, lowering costs, improving profit margins, and forging a closer relationship with customers and suppliers. If your competitors are making similar improvements, then at least you will not be at a competitive disadvantage—the worst of all cases!
Extending the Value Chain: The Value Web
Figure 3-11 shows that a firm’s value chain is linked to the value chains of its suppliers, distributors, and customers. After all, the performance of most firms depends not only on what goes on inside a firm but also on how well the firm coordinates with direct and indirect suppliers, delivery firms (logistics partners, such as FedEx or UPS), and, of course, customers.
How can information systems be used to achieve strategic advantage at the industry level? By working with other firms, industry participants can use information technology to develop industry-wide standards for exchanging information or business transactions electronically, which force all market participants to subscribe to similar standards. Such efforts increase efficiency, making product substitution less likely and perhaps raising entry costs—thus discouraging new entrants. Also, industry members can build industry-wide, IT-supported consortia, symposia, and communications networks to coordinate activities concerning government agencies, foreign competition, and competing industries.
Looking at the industry value chain encourages you to think about how to use information systems to link up more efficiently with your suppliers, strategic partners, and customers. Strategic advantage derives from your ability to relate your value chain to the value chains of other partners in the process. For instance, if you are Amazon.com, you want to build systems that:
- Make it easy for suppliers to display goods and open stores on the Amazon site
- Make it easy for customers to pay for goods
- Develop systems that coordinate the shipment of goods to customers
- Develop shipment tracking systems for customers
Internet technology has made it possible to create highly synchronized industry value chains called value webs. A **value web** is a collection of independent firms that use information technology to coordinate their value chains to produce a product or service for a market collectively. It is more customer driven and operates in a less linear fashion than the traditional value chain.
Figure 3-12 shows that this value web synchronizes the business processes of customers, suppliers, and trading partners among different companies in an industry or in related industries. These value webs are flexible and adaptive to changes in supply and demand. Relationships can be bundled or unbundled in response to changing market conditions. Firms will accelerate time to market and to customers by optimizing their value web relationships to make quick decisions on who can deliver the required products or services at the right price and location.
SYNERGIES, CORE COMPETENCIES, AND NETWORK-BASED STRATEGIES
A large corporation is typically a collection of businesses. Often, the firm is organized financially as a collection of strategic business units and the returns to the firm are directly tied to the performance of all the strategic business units. Information systems can improve the overall performance of these business units by promoting synergies and core competencies.
The value web is a networked system that can synchronize the value chains of business partners within an industry to respond rapidly to changes in supply and demand.
**Synergies**
The idea of synergies is that when the output of some units can be used as inputs to other units, or two organizations pool markets and expertise, these relationships lower costs and generate profits. Recent bank and financial firm mergers, such as the merger of JP Morgan Chase and Bank of New York as well as Bank of America and Countrywide Financial Corporation occurred precisely for this purpose.
One use of information technology in these synergy situations is to tie together the operations of disparate business units so that they can act as a whole. For example, acquiring Countrywide Financial enabled Bank of America to extend its mortgage lending business and to tap into a large pool of new customers who might be interested in its credit card, consumer banking, and other financial products. Information systems would help the merged companies consolidate operations, lower retailing costs, and increase cross-marketing of financial products.
**Enhancing Core Competencies**
Yet another way to use information systems for competitive advantage is to think about ways that systems can enhance core competencies. The argument is that the performance of all business units will increase insofar as these business units develop, or create, a central core of competencies. A **core competency** is an activity for which a firm is a world-class leader. Core competencies may involve being the world's best miniature parts designer, the best package delivery service, or the best thin-film manufacturer. In general, a core competency relies on knowledge that is gained over many years of practical
field experience with a technology. This practical knowledge is typically supplemented with a long-term research effort and committed employees.
Any information system that encourages the sharing of knowledge across business units enhances competency. Such systems might encourage or enhance existing competencies and help employees become aware of new external knowledge; such systems might also help a business leverage existing competencies to related markets.
For example, Procter & Gamble, a world leader in brand management and consumer product innovation, uses a series of systems to enhance its core competencies. Some of these systems for collaboration were introduced in the Chapter 2 ending case study. An intranet called InnovationNet helps people working on similar problems share ideas and expertise. InnovationNet connects those working in research and development (R&D), engineering, purchasing, marketing, legal affairs, and business information systems around the world, using a portal to provide browser-based access to documents, reports, charts, videos, and other data from various sources. It includes a directory of subject matter experts who can be tapped to give advice or collaborate on problem solving and product development, and links to outside research scientists and entrepreneurs who are searching for new, innovative products worldwide.
**Network-Based Strategies**
The availability of Internet and networking technology have inspired strategies that take advantage of firms' abilities to create networks or network with each other. Network-based strategies include the use of network economics, a virtual company model, and business ecosystems.
**Network Economics.** Business models based on a network may help firms strategically by taking advantage of **network economics**. In traditional economics—the economics of factories and agriculture—production experiences diminishing returns. The more any given resource is applied to production, the lower the marginal gain in output, until a point is reached where the additional inputs produce no additional outputs. This is the law of diminishing returns, and it is the foundation for most of modern economics.
In some situations, the law of diminishing returns does not work. For instance, in a network, the marginal costs of adding another participant are about zero, whereas the marginal gain is much larger. The larger the number of subscribers in a telephone system or the Internet, the greater the value to all participants because each user can interact with more people. It is not much more expensive to operate a television station with 1,000 subscribers than with 10 million subscribers. The value of a community of people grows with size, whereas the cost of adding new members is inconsequential.
From this network economics perspective, information technology can be strategically useful. Internet sites can be used by firms to build communities of users—like-minded customers who want to share their experiences. This builds customer loyalty and enjoyment, and builds unique ties to customers. EBay, the giant online auction site, and iVillage, an online community for women, are examples. Both businesses are based on networks of millions of users, and both companies have used the Web and Internet communication tools to build communities. The more people offering products on eBay, the more valuable the eBay site is to everyone because more products are listed, and more competition among suppliers lowers prices. Network economics also provides strategic benefits to commercial software vendors. The value of their software and complementary software products increases as more people use them, and
there is a larger installed base to justify continued use of the product and vendor support.
**Virtual Company Model.** Another network-based strategy uses the model of a virtual company to create a competitive business. A **virtual company**, also known as a virtual organization, uses networks to link people, assets, and ideas, enabling it to ally with other companies to create and distribute products and services without being limited by traditional organizational boundaries or physical locations. One company can use the capabilities of another company without being physically tied to that company. The virtual company model is useful when a company finds it cheaper to acquire products, services, or capabilities from an external vendor or when it needs to move quickly to exploit new market opportunities and lacks the time and resources to respond on its own.
Fashion companies, such as GUESS, Ann Taylor, Levi Strauss, and Reebok, enlist Hong Kong-based Li & Fung to manage production and shipment of their garments. Li & Fung handles product development, raw material sourcing, production planning, quality assurance, and shipping. Li & Fung does not own any fabric, factories, or machines, outsourcing all of its work to a network of more than 7,500 suppliers in 37 countries all over the world. Customers place orders to Li & Fung over its private extranet. Li & Fung then sends instructions to appropriate raw material suppliers and factories where the clothing is produced. The Li & Fung extranet tracks the entire production process for each order.
Working as a virtual company keeps Li & Fung flexible and adaptable so that it can design and produce the products ordered by its clients in short order to keep pace with rapidly changing fashion trends.
**Business Ecosystems: Keystone and Niche Firms.** The Internet and the emergence of digital firms call for some modification of the industry competitive forces model. The traditional Porter model assumes a relatively static industry environment; relatively clear-cut industry boundaries; and a relatively stable set of suppliers, substitutes, and customers, with the focus on industry players in a market environment. Instead of participating in a single industry, some of today's firms are much more aware that they participate in industry sets—collections of industries that provide related services and products (see Figure 3-13). **Business ecosystem** is another term for these loosely coupled but interdependent networks of suppliers, distributors, outsourcing firms, transportation service firms, and technology manufacturers (Iansiti and Levien, 2004).
The concept of a business ecosystem builds on the idea of the value web described earlier, the main difference being that cooperation takes place across many industries rather than many firms. For instance, both Microsoft and Walmart provide platforms composed of information systems, technologies, and services that thousands of other firms in different industries use to enhance their own capabilities. Microsoft has estimated that more than 40,000 firms use its Windows platform to deliver their own products, support Microsoft products, and extend the value of Microsoft's own firm. Walmart's order entry and inventory management system is a platform used by thousands of suppliers to obtain real-time access to customer demand, track shipments, and control inventories.
Business ecosystems can be characterized as having one or a few keystone firms that dominate the ecosystem and create the platforms used by other niche firms. Keystone firms in the Microsoft ecosystem include Microsoft and technology producers such as Intel and IBM. Niche firms include thousands of software
The digital firm era requires a more dynamic view of the boundaries among industries, firms, customers, and suppliers, with competition occurring among industry sets in a business ecosystem. In the ecosystem model, multiple industries work together to deliver value to the customer. IT plays an important role in enabling a dense network of interactions among the participating firms.
application firms, software developers, service firms, networking firms, and consulting firms that both support and rely on the Microsoft products.
Information technology plays a powerful role in establishing business ecosystems. Obviously, many firms use information systems to develop into keystone firms by building IT-based platforms that other firms can use. In the digital firm era, we can expect greater emphasis on the use of IT to build industry ecosystems because the costs of participating in such ecosystems will fall and the benefits to all firms will increase rapidly as the platform grows.
Individual firms should consider how their information systems will enable them to become profitable niche players in larger ecosystems created by keystone firms. For instance, in making decisions about which products to build or which services to offer, a firm should consider the existing business ecosystems related to these products and how it might use IT to enable participation in these larger ecosystems.
A powerful, current example of a rapidly expanding ecosystem is the mobile Internet platform. In this ecosystem there are four industries: device makers (Apple iPhone, RIM BlackBerry, Motorola, LG, and others), wireless telecommunication firms (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and others), independent software applications providers (generally small firms selling games, applications, and ring tones), and Internet service providers (who participate as providers of Internet service to the mobile platform).
Each of these industries has its own history, interests, and driving forces. But these elements come together in a sometimes cooperative, and sometimes competitive, new industry we refer to as the mobile digital platform ecosystem. More than other firms, Apple has managed to combine these industries into a system. It is Apple’s mission to sell physical devices (iPhones) that are nearly as powerful as today’s personal computers. These devices work only with a high-speed broadband network supplied by the wireless phone carriers. In order to attract a large customer base, the iPhone had to be more than just a cell phone. Apple differentiated this product by making it a “smart phone,” one
capable of running thousands of different, useful applications. Apple could not develop all these applications itself. Instead it relies on generally small, independent software developers to provide these applications, which can be purchased at the iTunes store. In the background is the Internet service provider industry, which makes money whenever iPhone users connect to the Internet.
3.4 Using Systems for Competitive Advantage: Management Issues
Strategic information systems often change the organization as well as its products, services, and operating procedures, driving the organization into new behavioral patterns. Successfully using information systems to achieve a competitive advantage is challenging and requires precise coordination of technology, organizations, and management.
SUSTAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
The competitive advantages that strategic systems confer do not necessarily last long enough to ensure long-term profitability. Because competitors can retaliate and copy strategic systems, competitive advantage is not always sustainable. Markets, customer expectations, and technology change; globalization has made these changes even more rapid and unpredictable. The Internet can make competitive advantage disappear very quickly because virtually all companies can use this technology. Classic strategic systems, such as American Airlines’s SABRE computerized reservation system, Citibank’s ATM system, and FedEx’s package tracking system, benefited by being the first in their industries. Then rival systems emerged. Amazon.com was an e-commerce leader but now faces competition from eBay, Yahoo, and Google. Information systems alone cannot provide an enduring business advantage. Systems originally intended to be strategic frequently become tools for survival, required by every firm to stay in business, or they may inhibit organizations from making the strategic changes essential for future success.
ALIGNING IT WITH BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
The research on IT and business performance has found that (a) the more successfully a firm can align information technology with its business goals, the more profitable it will be, and (b) only one-quarter of firms achieve alignment of IT with the business. About half of a business firm’s profits can be explained by alignment of IT with business (Luftman, 2003).
Most businesses get it wrong: Information technology takes on a life of its own and does not serve management and shareholder interests very well. Instead of business people taking an active role in shaping IT to the enterprise, they ignore it, claim not to understand IT, and tolerate failure in the IT area as just a nuisance to work around. Such firms pay a hefty price in poor performance. Successful firms and managers understand what IT can do and how it works, take an active role in shaping its use, and measure its impact on revenues and profits.
Management Checklist: Performing a Strategic Systems Analysis
To align IT with the business and use information systems effectively for competitive advantage, managers need to perform a strategic systems analysis. To identify the types of systems that provide a strategic advantage to their firms, managers should ask the following questions:
1. What is the structure of the industry in which the firm is located?
- What are some of the competitive forces at work in the industry? Are there new entrants to the industry? What is the relative power of suppliers, customers, and substitute products and services over prices?
- Is the basis of competition quality, price, or brand?
- What are the direction and nature of change within the industry? From where are the momentum and change coming?
- How is the industry currently using information technology? Is the organization behind or ahead of the industry in its application of information systems?
2. What are the business, firm, and industry value chains for this particular firm?
- How is the company creating value for the customer—through lower prices and transaction costs or higher quality? Are there any places in the value chain where the business could create more value for the customer and additional profit for the company?
- Does the firm understand and manage its business processes using the best practices available? Is it taking maximum advantage of supply chain management, customer relationship management, and enterprise systems?
- Does the firm leverage its core competencies?
- Is the industry supply chain and customer base changing in ways that benefit or harm the firm?
- Can the firm benefit from strategic partnerships and value webs?
- Where in the value chain will information systems provide the greatest value to the firm?
3. Have we aligned IT with our business strategy and goals?
- Have we correctly articulated our business strategy and goals?
- Is IT improving the right business processes and activities to promote this strategy?
- Are we using the right metrics to measure progress toward those goals?
MANAGING STRATEGIC TRANSITIONS
Adopting the kinds of strategic systems described in this chapter generally requires changes in business goals, relationships with customers and suppliers, and business processes. These sociotechnical changes, affecting both social and technical elements of the organization, can be considered **strategic transitions**—a movement between levels of sociotechnical systems.
Such changes often entail blurring of organizational boundaries, both external and internal. Suppliers and customers must become intimately linked and may share each other's responsibilities. Managers will need to devise new business processes for coordinating their firms' activities with those of customers, suppliers, and other organizations. The organizational change requirements surrounding new information systems are so important that they merit attention throughout this text. Chapter 14 examines organizational change issues in more detail.
3.5 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience identifying information systems to support a business strategy, analyzing organizational factors affecting the information systems of merging companies, using a database to improve decision making about business strategy, and using Web tools to configure and price an automobile.
Management Decision Problems
1. Macy's, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates approximately 800 department stores in the United States. Its retail stores sell a range of merchandise, including adult and children's apparel, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings, and housewares. Senior management has decided that Macy's needs to tailor merchandise more to local tastes, that the colors, sizes, brands, and styles of clothing and other merchandise should be based on the sales patterns in each individual Macy's store. For example, stores in Texas might stock clothing in larger sizes and brighter colors than those in New York, or the Macy's on Chicago's State Street might include a greater variety of makeup shades to attract trendier shoppers. How could information systems help Macy's management implement this new strategy? What pieces of data should these systems collect to help management make merchandising decisions that support this strategy?
2. Today's US Airways is the result of a merger between US Airways and America West Airlines. Before the merger, US Airways dated back to 1939 and had very traditional business processes, a lumbering bureaucracy, and a rigid information systems function that had been outsourced to Electronic Data Systems. America West was formed in 1981 and had a younger workforce, a more freewheeling entrepreneurial culture, and managed its own information systems. The merger was designed to create synergies from US Airways' experience and strong network on the east coast of the United States with America West's low-cost structure, information systems, and routes in the western United States. What features of organizations should management have considered as it merged the two companies and their information systems? What decisions need to be made to make sure the strategy works?
Improving Decision Making: Using a Database to Clarify Business Strategy
Software skills: Database querying and reporting; database design
Business skills: Reservation systems; customer analysis
In this exercise, you'll use database software to analyze the reservation transactions for a hotel and use that information to fine-tune the hotel's business strategy and marketing activities.
The Presidents' Inn is a small three-story hotel on the Atlantic Ocean in Cape May, New Jersey, a popular northeastern U.S. resort. Ten rooms overlook side streets, 10 rooms have bay windows that offer limited views of the ocean, and the remaining 10 rooms in the front of the hotel face the ocean. Room rates are based on room choice, length of stay, and number of guests per room. Room rates are the same for one to four guests. Fifth and sixth guests must pay an additional $20 charge each per day. Guests staying for seven days or more receive a 10-percent discount on their daily room rates.
Business has grown steadily during the past 10 years. Now totally renovated, the inn uses a romantic weekend package to attract couples, a vacation package
to attract young families, and a weekday discount package to attract business travelers. The owners currently use a manual reservation and bookkeeping system, which has caused many problems. Sometimes two families have been booked in the same room at the same time. Management does not have immediate data about the hotel’s daily operations and income.
In MyMISLab, you will find a database for hotel reservation transactions developed in Microsoft Access. A sample is shown below, but the Web site may have a more recent version of this database for this exercise.
Develop some reports that provide information to help management make the business more competitive and profitable. Your reports should answer the following questions:
- What is the average length of stay per room type?
- What is the average number of visitors per room type?
- What is the base income per room (i.e., length of visit multiplied by the daily rate) during a specified period of time?
- What is the strongest customer base?
After answering these questions, write a brief report describing what the database information reveals about the current business situation. Which specific business strategies might be pursued to increase room occupancy and revenue? How could the database be improved to provide better information for strategic decisions?
**Improving Decision Making: Using Web Tools to Configure and Price an Automobile**
*Software skills:* Internet-based software
*Business skills:* Researching product information and pricing
In this exercise, you’ll use software at Web sites for selling cars to find product information about a car of your choice and use that information to make an important purchase decision. You’ll also evaluate two of these sites as selling tools.
You are interested in purchasing a new Ford Focus. (If you are personally interested in another car, domestic or foreign, investigate that one instead.) Go to the Web site of CarsDirect (www.carsdirect.com) and begin your investigation. Locate the Ford Focus. Research the various specific automobiles available in that model and determine which you prefer. Explore the full details about the specific car, including pricing, standard features, and options. Locate and read at least two reviews if possible. Investigate the safety of that model.
based on the U.S. government crash tests performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration if those test results are available. Explore the features for locating a vehicle in inventory and purchasing directly. Finally, explore the other capabilities of the CarsDirect site for financing.
Having recorded or printed the information you need from CarsDirect for your purchase decision, surf the Web site of the manufacturer, in this case Ford (www.ford.com). Compare the information available on Ford's Web site with that of CarsDirect for the Ford Focus. Be sure to check the price and any incentives being offered (which may not agree with what you found at CarsDirect). Next, find a local dealer on the Ford site so that you can view the car before making your purchase decision. Explore the other features of Ford's Web site.
Try to locate the lowest price for the car you want in a local dealer's inventory. Which site would you use to purchase your car? Why? Suggest improvements for the sites of CarsDirect and Ford.
**Learning Track Module**
The following Learning Track provides content relevant to topics covered in this chapter.
1. The Changing Business Environment for Information Technology
**Review Summary**
1. **Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? What is the impact of information systems on organizations?**
All modern organizations are hierarchical, specialized, and impartial, using explicit routines to maximize efficiency. All organizations have their own cultures and politics arising from differences in interest groups, and they are affected by their surrounding environment. Organizations differ in goals, groups served, social roles, leadership styles, incentives, types of tasks performed, and type of structure. These features help explain differences in organizations' use of information systems.
Information systems and the organizations in which they are used interact with and influence each other. The introduction of a new information system will affect organizational structure, goals, work design, values, competition between interest groups, decision making, and day-to-day behavior. At the same time, information systems must be designed to serve the needs of important organizational groups and will be shaped by the organization's structure, business processes, goals, culture, politics, and management. Information technology can reduce transaction and agency costs, and such changes have been accentuated in organizations using the Internet. New systems disrupt established patterns of work and power relationships, so there is often considerable resistance to them when they are introduced.
2. **How does Porter’s competitive forces model help companies develop competitive strategies using information systems?**
In Porter's competitive forces model, the strategic position of the firm, and its strategies, are determined by competition with its traditional direct competitors, but they are also greatly affected by new market entrants, substitute products and services, suppliers, and customers. Information systems help companies compete by maintaining low costs, differentiating products or services, focusing on market niche, strengthening ties with customers and suppliers, and increasing barriers to market entry with high levels of operational excellence.
3. How do the value chain and value web models help businesses identify opportunities for strategic information system applications?
The value chain model highlights specific activities in the business where competitive strategies and information systems will have the greatest impact. The model views the firm as a series of primary and support activities that add value to a firm’s products or services. Primary activities are directly related to production and distribution, whereas support activities make the delivery of primary activities possible. A firm’s value chain can be linked to the value chains of its suppliers, distributors, and customers. A value web consists of information systems that enhance competitiveness at the industry level by promoting the use of standards and industry-wide consortia, and by enabling businesses to work more efficiently with their value partners.
4. How do information systems help businesses use synergies, core competencies, and network-based strategies to achieve competitive advantage?
Because firms consist of multiple business units, information systems achieve additional efficiencies or enhance services by tying together the operations of disparate business units. Information systems help businesses leverage their core competencies by promoting the sharing of knowledge across business units. Information systems facilitate business models based on large networks of users or subscribers that take advantage of network economics. A virtual company strategy uses networks to link to other firms so that a company can use the capabilities of other companies to build, market, and distribute products and services. In business ecosystems, multiple industries work together to deliver value to the customer. Information systems support a dense network of interactions among the participating firms.
5. What are the challenges posed by strategic information systems and how should they be addressed?
Implementing strategic systems often requires extensive organizational change and a transition from one sociotechnical level to another. Such changes are called strategic transitions and are often difficult and painful to achieve. Moreover, not all strategic systems are profitable, and they can be expensive to build. Many strategic information systems are easily copied by other firms so that strategic advantage is not always sustainable.
Key Terms
Agency theory, 90
Benchmarking, 105
Best practices, 105
Business ecosystem, 109
Competitive forces model, 95
Core competency, 107
Disruptive technologies, 87
Efficient customer response system, 97
Mass customization, 98
Network economics, 108
Organization, 82
Primary activities, 102
Product differentiation, 96
Routines, 84
Strategic transitions, 112
Support activities, 104
Switching costs, 99
Transaction cost theory, 89
Value chain model, 102
Value web, 106
Virtual company, 109
Review Questions
1. Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? What is the impact of information systems on organizations?
- Define an organization and compare the technical definition of organizations with the behavioral definition.
- Identify and describe the features of organizations that help explain differences in organizations’ use of information systems.
- Describe the major economic theories that help explain how information systems affect organizations.
- Describe the major behavioral theories that help explain how information systems affect organizations.
- Explain why there is considerable organizational resistance to the introduction of information systems.
• Describe the impact of the Internet and disruptive technologies on organizations.
2. How does Porter’s competitive forces model help companies develop competitive strategies using information systems?
• Define Porter’s competitive forces model and explain how it works.
• Describe what the competitive forces model explains about competitive advantage.
• List and describe four competitive strategies enabled by information systems that firms can pursue.
• Describe how information systems can support each of these competitive strategies and give examples.
• Explain why aligning IT with business objectives is essential for strategic use of systems.
3. How do the value chain and value web models help businesses identify opportunities for strategic information system applications?
• Define and describe the value chain model.
• Explain how the value chain model can be used to identify opportunities for information systems.
• Define the value web and show how it is related to the value chain.
4. How do information systems help businesses use synergies, core competences, and network-based strategies to achieve competitive advantage?
• Explain how information systems promote synergies and core competencies.
• Describe how promoting synergies and core competencies enhances competitive advantage.
• Explain how businesses benefit by using network economics.
• Define and describe a virtual company and the benefits of pursuing a virtual company strategy.
5. What are the challenges posed by strategic information systems and how should they be addressed?
• List and describe the management challenges posed by strategic information systems.
• Explain how to perform a strategic systems analysis.
Discussion Questions
1. It has been said that there is no such thing as a sustainable strategic advantage. Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. It has been said that the advantage that leading-edge retailers such as Dell and Walmart have over their competition isn’t technology; it’s their management. Do you agree? Why or why not?
3. What are some of the issues to consider in determining whether the Internet would provide your business with a competitive advantage?
Collaboration and Teamwork: Identifying Opportunities for Strategic Information Systems
With your team of three or four students, select a company described in *The Wall Street Journal*, *Fortune*, *Forbes*, or another business publication. Visit the company’s Web site to find additional information about that company and to see how the firm is using the Web. On the basis of this information, analyze the business. Include a description of the organization’s features, such as important business processes, culture, structure, and environment, as well as its business strategy. Suggest strategic information systems appropriate for that particular business, including those based on Internet technology, if appropriate. If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
The Internet has transformed the music industry. Sales of CDs in retail music stores have been steadily declining while sales of songs downloaded through the Internet to iPods and other portable music players are skyrocketing. Moreover, the music industry is still contending with millions of people illegally downloading songs for free. Will the television industry experience a similar fate?
Widespread use of high-speed Internet access, powerful PCs with high-resolution display screens, iPhones, iPads, other mobile handhelds, and leading-edge file-sharing services have made downloading of video content from movies and television shows faster and easier than ever. Free and often illegal downloads of some TV shows are abundant. But the Internet is also providing new ways for television studios to distribute and sell their content, and they are trying to take advantage of that opportunity.
YouTube, which started up in February 2005, quickly became the most popular video-sharing Web site in the world. Even though YouTube’s original mission was to provide an outlet for amateur filmmakers, clips of copyrighted Hollywood movies and television shows soon proliferated on the YouTube Web site. It is difficult to gauge how much proprietary content from TV shows winds up on YouTube without the studios’ permission. Viacom claimed in a 2008 lawsuit that over 150,000 unauthorized clips of its copyrighted television programs had appeared on YouTube.
YouTube tries to discourage its users from posting illegal clips by limiting the length of videos to 10 minutes each and by removing videos when requested by their copyright owner. YouTube has also implemented Video ID filtering and digital fingerprinting technology that allows copyright owners to compare the digital fingerprints of their videos with material on YouTube and then flag infringing material. Using this technology, it is able to filter many unauthorized videos before they appear on the YouTube Web site. If infringing videos do make it online, they can be tracked using Video ID.
The television industry is also striking back by embracing the Internet as another delivery system for its content. Television broadcast networks such as NBC Universal, Fox, and CNN have put television shows on their own Web sites. In March 2007, NBC Universal, News Corp (the owner of Fox Broadcasting), and ABC Inc. formed Hulu.com, a Web site offering streaming video of television shows and movies from NBC, Fox, ABC, Comedy Central, PBS, USA Network, Bravo, FX, Speed, Sundance, Oxygen, Onion News Network, and other networks. Hulu also syndicates its hosting to other sites, including AOL, MSN, Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo!, and Fancast.com, and allows users to embed Hulu clips in their Web site. The site is supported by advertising commercials, and much of its content is free to viewers. CBS’s TV.com and Joost are other popular Web television sites.
Content from all of these sites is viewable over iPhones. Hulu has blocked services such as Boxee that try to bring Hulu to TV screens, because that would draw subscribers away from cable and satellite companies, diminishing their revenue.
According to Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, Hulu has successfully brought online TV into the mainstream. It dominates the market for online full-episode TV viewing, with more than 44 million monthly visitors, according to the online measurement firm comScore. Monthly video streams more than tripled in 2009, reaching over 900 million by January 2010.
What if there are so many TV shows available for free on the Web that “Hulu households” cancel their cable subscriptions to watch free TV online? Cable service operators have begun worrying, especially when the cable networks posted some of their programming on the Web. By 2010, nearly 800,000 U.S. households had “cut the cord,” dumping their cable, satellite, or high-speed television services from telecom companies such as Verizon’s FiOS or AT&T’s U-verse. In their place, they turned to Web-based videos from services such as Hulu, downloadable shows from iTunes, by-mail video subscription services such as Netflix, or even old-style over-the-air broadcast programming. Although the “cord cutters” represent less than 1 percent of the 100 million U.S. households subscribing to a cable/satellite/telco television service, the number of cord-cutting U.S. households is predicted to double to about 1.6 million. What if this trend continues?
In July 2009, cable TV operator Comcast Corporation began a trial program to bring some of Time Warner’s network shows, including TBS’s *My Boys* and TNT’s *The Closer*, to the Web. Other cable networks, including A&E and the History Channel, participated in the Comcast test.
By making more television shows available online, but only for cable subscribers, the cable networks hope to preserve and possibly expand the cable TV subscription model in an increasingly digital world. “The vision is you can watch your favorite network’s programming on any screen,” noted Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes. The system used in the Comcast-Time Warner trial is interoperable with cable service providers’ systems to authenticate subscribers.
The same technology might also allow cable firms to provide demographic data for more targeted ads and perhaps more sophisticated advertising down the road. Cable programmers stand to earn more advertising revenue from their online content because viewers can’t skip ads on TV programs streamed from the Web as they do with traditional TV. Web versions of some television shows in the Comcast-Time Warner trial program, including TNT’s *The Closer*, will carry the same number of ads as seen on traditional TV, which amounts to more than four times the ad load on many Internet sites, including Hulu. Many hour-long shows available online are able to accommodate five or six commercial breaks, each with a single 30-second ad. NBC Universal Digital Entertainment has even streamed episodes of series, including *The Office*, with two ads per break. According to research firm eMarketer, these Web-video ads will generate $1.5 billion in ad revenue in 2010 and $2.1 billion in 2011.
For all its early success, Hulu is experiencing growing pains. Although it had generated more than $100 million in advertising revenue within two years, it is still unprofitable. Hulu’s content suppliers receive 50 to 70 percent of the advertising revenue Hulu generates from their videos. Some of these media companies have complained that this revenue is very meager, even though use of Hulu has skyrocketed. One major supplier, Viacom, withdrew its programming from Hulu after failing to reach a satisfactory agreement on revenue-sharing, depriving Hulu viewers of such popular shows as *The Daily Show with Jon Stewart* and *The Colbert Report*.
Other companies supplying Hulu’s content have pressured the company to earn even more advertising dollars and to set up a subscription service requiring consumers to pay a monthly fee to watch at least some of the shows on the site. On June 29, 2010, Hulu launched such a service, called HuluPlus. For $9.99 per month, paid subscribers get the entire current season of *Glee*, *The Office*, *House* and other shows from broadcasters ABC, Fox, and NBC, as well as all the past seasons of several series. Hulu will continue to show a few recent episodes for free online. Paying subscribers will get the same number of ads as users of the free Web site in order to keep the subscription cost low. Paying subscribers are also able to watch shows in high definition and on multiple devices, including mobile phones and videogame consoles as well as television screens.
Will all of this work out for the cable industry? It’s still too early to tell. Although the cable programming companies want an online presence to extend their brands, they don’t want to cannibalize TV subscriptions or viewership ratings that generate advertising revenue. Customers accustomed to YouTube and Hulu may rebel if too many ads are shown online. According to Oppenheimer analyst Tim Horan, cable companies will start feeling the impact of customers canceling subscriptions to view online video and TV by 2012. Edward Woo, an Internet and digital media analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, predicts that in a few years, “it should get extremely interesting.” Hulu and other Web TV and video sites will have much deeper content, and the technology to deliver that content to home viewers will be more advanced.
**Sources:** Ryan Nakashima, “Hulu Launches $10 Video Subscription Service,” Associated Press, June 29, 2010; Ben Patterson, “Nearly 800,000 U.S. TV Households ‘Cut the Cord,’ Report Says,” Yahoo! News, April 13, 2010; Brian Stelter and Brad Stone, “Successes (and Some Growing Pains) at Hulu,” *The New York Times*, March 31, 2010; Brian Stelter, “Viacom and Hulu Part Ways,” *The New York Times*, March 2, 2010; Reinhardt Krause, “Cable TV Leaders Plot Strategy Vs. Free Programs on the Web,” *Investors Business Daily*, August 18, 2009; Sam Schechner and Vishesh Kumar, “TV Shows Bring Ads Online,” *The Wall Street Journal*, July 16, 2009; and Kevin Hunt, “The Coming TV-Delivery War: Cable vs. Internet,” *The Montana Standard*, July 18, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What competitive forces have challenged the television industry? What problems have these forces created?
2. Describe the impact of disruptive technology on the companies discussed in this case.
3. How have the cable programming and delivery companies responded to the Internet?
4. What management, organization, and technology issues must be addressed to solve the cable industry’s problems?
5. Have the cable companies found a successful new business model to compete with the Internet? Why or why not?
6. If more television programs were available online, would you cancel your cable subscription? Why or why not?
Chapter 4
Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What ethical, social, and political issues are raised by information systems?
2. What specific principles for conduct can be used to guide ethical decisions?
3. Why do contemporary information systems technology and the Internet pose challenges to the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property?
4. How have information systems affected everyday life?
Interactive Sessions:
The Perils of Texting
Too Much Technology?
CHAPTER OUTLINE
4.1 UNDERSTANDING ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES RELATED TO SYSTEMS
A Model for Thinking About Ethical, Social, and Political Issues
Five Moral Dimensions of the Information Age
Key Technology Trends that Raise Ethical Issues
4.2 ETHICS IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY
Basic Concepts: Responsibility, Accountability, and Liability
Ethical Analysis
Candidate Ethical Principles
Professional Codes of Conduct
Some Real-World Ethical Dilemmas
4.3 THE MORAL DIMENSIONS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Information Rights: Privacy and Freedom in the Internet Age
Property Rights: Intellectual Property
Accountability, Liability, and Control
System Quality: Data Quality and System Errors
Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries
4.4 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Achieving Operational Excellence: Creating a Simple Blog
Improving Decision Making: Using Internet Newsgroups for Online Market Research
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
Developing a Corporate Code of Ethics for Information Systems
Creating a Web Page
Ever get the feeling somebody is trailing you on the Web, watching your every click? Wonder why you start seeing display ads and pop-ups just after you’ve been scouring the Web for a car, a dress, or cosmetic product? Well, you’re right: your behavior is being tracked, and you are being targeted on the Web so that you are exposed to certain ads and not others. The Web sites you visit track the search engine queries you enter, pages visited, Web content viewed, ads clicked, videos watched, content shared, and the products you purchase. Google is the largest Web tracker, monitoring thousands of Web sites. As one wag noted, Google knows more about you than your mother does. In March 2009, Google began displaying ads on thousands of Google-related Web sites based on their previous online activities. To parry a growing public resentment of behavioral targeting, Google said it would give users the ability to see and edit the information that it has compiled about their interests for the purposes of behavioral targeting.
Behavioral targeting seeks to increase the efficiency of online ads by using information that Web visitors reveal about themselves online, and if possible, combine this with offline identity and consumption information gathered by companies such as Acxiom. One of the original promises of the Web was that it can deliver a marketing message tailored to each consumer based on this data, and then measure the results in terms of click-throughs and purchases. The technology used to implement online tracking is a combination of cookies, Flash cookies, and Web beacons (also called Web bugs). Web beacons are small programs placed on your computer when you visit any of thousands of Web sites. They report back to servers operated by the beacon owners the domains and Web pages you visited, what ads you clicked on, and other online behaviors. A recent study of 20 million Web pages published by 2 million domains found Google, Yahoo, Amazon, YouTube, Photobucket, and Flickr among the top 10 Web-bugging sites. Google alone accounts for 20% of all Web bugs. The average home landing page at the top 100 Web domains has over 50 tracking cookies and bugs. And you thought you were surfing alone?
Firms are experimenting with more precise targeting methods. Snapple used behavioral targeting methods (with the help of an online ad firm Tacoda) to identify the types of people attracted to Snapple Green Tea. Answer: people who like the arts and literature, travel internationally, and visit health sites. Microsoft offers MSN advertisers access to personal data derived from 270 million worldwide Windows Live users. The goal of Web beacons and bugs is even more granular: these tools can be used to identify your personal interests and behaviors so precisely targeted ads can be shown to you.
The growth in the power, reach, and scope of behavioral targeting has drawn the attention of privacy groups and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Currently, Web tracking is unregulated. In November 2007, the FTC opened hearings to consider proposals from privacy advocates to develop a “do not track list,” to develop visual online cues to alert people to tracking, and to allow people to opt out. In the Senate, hearings on behavioral targeting were held throughout 2009 and the first half of 2010 with attention shifting to the privacy of personal location information. While Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo pleaded for legislation to protect them
from consumer lawsuits, the FTC refused to consider new legislation to protect the privacy of Internet users. Instead, the FTC proposed industry self-regulation. In 2009, a consortium of advertising firms (the Network Advertising Initiative) responded positively to FTC-proposed principles to regulate online behavioral advertising. In 2010, Congressional committees pressed leading Internet firms to allow users more opportunities to turn off tracking tools, and to make users aware on entry to a page that they are being tracked. In June 2010, the FTC announced it is examining Facebook Inc.’s efforts to protect user privacy.
All of these regulatory efforts emphasize transparency, user control over their information, security, and the temporal stability of privacy promises (unannounced and sudden changes in information privacy may not be allowed).
Perhaps the central ethical and moral question is understanding what rights individuals have in their own personally identifiable Internet profiles. Are these “ownership” rights, or merely an “interest” in an underlying asset? How much privacy are we willing to give up in order to receive more relevant ads? Surveys suggest that over 70 percent of Americans do not want to receive targeted ads.
Sources: “Web Bug Report,” SecuritySpace, July, 2010; Miguel Helft, “Technology Coalition Seeks Stronger Privacy Laws,” New York Times, March 30, 2010; “Study Finds Behaviorally-Targeted Ads More Than Twice As Valuable, Twice as Effective As Non-targeted Online Ads,” Network Advertising Initiative, March 24, 2010; Steve Lohr, “Redrawing the Route to Online Privacy,” New York Times, February 28, 2010; “The Collection and Use of Location Information for Commercial Purposes Hearings,” U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, February 24, 2010; Tom Krazit, “Groups Call for New Checks on Behavioral Ad Data,” CNET News, September 1, 2009; Robert Mitchell, “What Google Knows About You,” Computerworld, May 11, 2009; Stephanie Clifford, “Many See Privacy on Web as Big Issue, Survey Says,” The New York Times, March 16, 2009; Miguel Helft, “Google to Offer Ads Based on Interests,” The New York Times, March 11, 2009; and David Hallerman, “Behavioral Targeting: Marketing Trends,” eMarketer, June 2008.
The growing use of behavioral targeting techniques described in the chapter-opening case shows that technology can be a double-edged sword. It can be the source of many benefits (by showing you ads relevant to your interests) but it can also create new opportunities for invading your privacy, and enabling the reckless use of that information in a variety of decisions about you.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Online advertising titans like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are all looking for ways to monetize their huge collections of online behavioral data. While search engine marketing is arguably the most effective form of advertising in history, banner display ad marketing is highly inefficient because it displays ads to everyone regardless of their interests. Hence the search engine marketers cannot charge much for display ad space. However, by tracking the online movements of 200 million U.S. Internet users, they can develop a very clear picture of who you are, and use that information to show you ads that might be of interest to you. This would make the marketing process more efficient, and more profitable for all the parties involved.
But this solution also creates an ethical dilemma, pitting the monetary interests of the online advertisers and search engines against the interests of individuals to maintain a sense of control over their personal information and their privacy. Two closely held values are in conflict here. As a manager, you will need to be sensitive to both the negative and positive impacts of information systems for your firm, employees, and customers. You will need to learn how to resolve ethical dilemmas involving information systems.
In the past 10 years, we have witnessed, arguably, one of the most ethically challenging periods for U.S. and global business. Table 4-1 provides a small sample of recent cases demonstrating failed ethical judgment by senior and middle managers. These lapses in management ethical and business judgment occurred across a broad spectrum of industries.
In today's new legal environment, managers who violate the law and are convicted will most likely spend time in prison. U.S. federal sentencing guidelines adopted in 1987 mandate that federal judges impose stiff sentences on business
### TABLE 4-1 RECENT EXAMPLES OF FAILED ETHICAL JUDGMENT BY SENIOR MANAGERS
| Case Description | Details |
|------------------|---------|
| Lehman Brothers (2008–2010) | One of the oldest American investment banks collapses in 2008. Lehman used information systems and accounting sleight of hand to conceal its bad investments. Lehman also engaged in deceptive tactics to shift investments off its books. |
| WG Trading Co. (2010) | Paul Greenwood, hedge fund manager and general partner at WG Trading, pled guilty to defrauding investors of $554 million over 13 years; Greenwood has forfeited $331 million to the government and faces up to 85 years in prison. |
| Minerals Management Service (U.S. Department of the Interior) (2010) | Managers accused of accepting gifts and other favors from oil companies, letting oil company rig employees write up inspection reports, and failing to enforce existing regulations on offshore Gulf drilling rigs. Employees systematically falsified information record systems. |
| Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and AstraZeneca (2009) | Major pharmaceutical firms paid billions of dollars to settle U.S. federal charges that executives fixed clinical trials for antipsychotic and pain killer drugs, marketed them inappropriately to children, and claimed unsubstantiated benefits while covering up negative outcomes. Firms falsified information in reports and systems. |
| Galleon Group (2009) | Founder of the Galleon Group criminally charged with trading on insider information, paying $250 million to Wall Street banks, and in return received market information that other investors did not get. |
| Siemens (2009) | The world’s largest engineering firm paid over $4 billion to German and U.S. authorities for a decades-long, world-wide bribery scheme approved by corporate executives to influence potential customers and governments. Payments concealed from normal reporting accounting systems. |
executives based on the monetary value of the crime, the presence of a conspiracy to prevent discovery of the crime, the use of structured financial transactions to hide the crime, and failure to cooperate with prosecutors (U.S. Sentencing Commission, 2004).
Although in the past business firms would often pay for the legal defense of their employees enmeshed in civil charges and criminal investigations, now firms are encouraged to cooperate with prosecutors to reduce charges against the entire firm for obstructing investigations. These developments mean that, more than ever, as a manager or an employee, you will have to decide for yourself what constitutes proper legal and ethical conduct.
Although these major instances of failed ethical and legal judgment were not masterminded by information systems departments, information systems were instrumental in many of these frauds. In many cases, the perpetrators of these crimes artfully used financial reporting information systems to bury their decisions from public scrutiny in the vain hope they would never be caught. We deal with the issue of control in information systems in Chapter 8. In this chapter, we talk about the ethical dimensions of these and other actions based on the use of information systems.
**Ethics** refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors. Information systems raise new ethical questions for both individuals and societies because they create opportunities for intense social change, and thus threaten existing distributions of power, money, rights, and obligations. Like other technologies, such as steam engines, electricity, the telephone, and the radio, information technology can be used to achieve social progress, but it can also be used to commit crimes and threaten cherished social values. The development of information technology will produce benefits for many and costs for others.
Ethical issues in information systems have been given new urgency by the rise of the Internet and electronic commerce. Internet and digital firm technologies make it easier than ever to assemble, integrate, and distribute information, unleashing new concerns about the appropriate use of customer information, the protection of personal privacy, and the protection of intellectual property.
Other pressing ethical issues raised by information systems include establishing accountability for the consequences of information systems, setting standards to safeguard system quality that protects the safety of the individual and society, and preserving values and institutions considered essential to the quality of life in an information society. When using information systems, it is essential to ask, “What is the ethical and socially responsible course of action?”
### A MODEL FOR THINKING ABOUT ETHICAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL ISSUES
Ethical, social, and political issues are closely linked. The ethical dilemma you may face as a manager of information systems typically is reflected in social and political debate. One way to think about these relationships is given in Figure 4-1. Imagine society as a more or less calm pond on a summer day, a delicate ecosystem in partial equilibrium with individuals and with social and political institutions. Individuals know how to act in this pond because social institutions (family, education, organizations) have developed well-honed rules of behavior, and these are supported by laws developed in the political sector that prescribe behavior and promise sanctions for violations. Now toss a rock into the center of the pond. What happens? Ripples, of course.
The introduction of new information technology has a ripple effect, raising new ethical, social, and political issues that must be dealt with on the individual, social, and political levels. These issues have five moral dimensions: information rights and obligations, property rights and obligations, system quality, quality of life, and accountability and control.
Imagine instead that the disturbing force is a powerful shock of new information technology and systems hitting a society more or less at rest. Suddenly, individual actors are confronted with new situations often not covered by the old rules. Social institutions cannot respond overnight to these ripples—it may take years to develop etiquette, expectations, social responsibility, politically correct attitudes, or approved rules. Political institutions also require time before developing new laws and often require the demonstration of real harm before they act. In the meantime, you may have to act. You may be forced to act in a legal gray area.
We can use this model to illustrate the dynamics that connect ethical, social, and political issues. This model is also useful for identifying the main moral dimensions of the information society, which cut across various levels of action—individual, social, and political.
**FIVE MORAL DIMENSIONS OF THE INFORMATION AGE**
The major ethical, social, and political issues raised by information systems include the following moral dimensions:
*Information rights and obligations:* What **information rights** do individuals and organizations possess with respect to themselves? What can they protect?
Property rights and obligations. How will traditional intellectual property rights be protected in a digital society in which tracing and accounting for ownership are difficult and ignoring such property rights is so easy?
Accountability and control. Who can and will be held accountable and liable for the harm done to individual and collective information and property rights?
System quality. What standards of data and system quality should we demand to protect individual rights and the safety of society?
Quality of life. What values should be preserved in an information- and knowledge-based society? Which institutions should we protect from violation? Which cultural values and practices are supported by the new information technology?
We explore these moral dimensions in detail in Section 4.3.
KEY TECHNOLOGY TRENDS THAT RAISE ETHICAL ISSUES
Ethical issues long preceded information technology. Nevertheless, information technology has heightened ethical concerns, taxed existing social arrangements, and made some laws obsolete or severely crippled. There are four key technological trends responsible for these ethical stresses and they are summarized in Table 4-2.
The doubling of computing power every 18 months has made it possible for most organizations to use information systems for their core production processes. As a result, our dependence on systems and our vulnerability to system errors and poor data quality have increased. Social rules and laws have not yet adjusted to this dependence. Standards for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of information systems (see Chapter 8) are not universally accepted or enforced.
Advances in data storage techniques and rapidly declining storage costs have been responsible for the multiplying databases on individuals—employees, customers, and potential customers—maintained by private and public organizations. These advances in data storage have made the routine violation of individual privacy both cheap and effective. Massive data storage systems are inexpensive enough for regional and even local retailing firms to use in identifying customers.
Advances in data analysis techniques for large pools of data are another technological trend that heightens ethical concerns because companies and government agencies are able to find out highly detailed personal information.
| TREND | IMPACT |
|--------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Computing power doubles every 18 months | More organizations depend on computer systems for critical operations. |
| Data storage costs rapidly declining | Organizations can easily maintain detailed databases on individuals. |
| Data analysis advances | Companies can analyze vast quantities of data gathered on individuals to develop detailed profiles of individual behavior. |
| Networking advances | Copying data from one location to another and accessing personal data from remote locations are much easier. |
about individuals. With contemporary data management tools (see Chapter 5), companies can assemble and combine the myriad pieces of information about you stored on computers much more easily than in the past.
Think of all the ways you generate computer information about yourself—credit card purchases, telephone calls, magazine subscriptions, video rentals, mail-order purchases, banking records, local, state, and federal government records (including court and police records), and visits to Web sites. Put together and mined properly, this information could reveal not only your credit information but also your driving habits, your tastes, your associations, and your political interests.
Companies with products to sell purchase relevant information from these sources to help them more finely target their marketing campaigns. Chapters 3 and 6 describe how companies can analyze large pools of data from multiple sources to rapidly identify buying patterns of customers and suggest individual responses. The use of computers to combine data from multiple sources and create electronic dossiers of detailed information on individuals is called profiling.
For example, several thousand of the most popular Web sites allow DoubleClick (owned by Google), an Internet advertising broker, to track the activities of their visitors in exchange for revenue from advertisements based on visitor information DoubleClick gathers. DoubleClick uses this information to create a profile of each online visitor, adding more detail to the profile as the visitor accesses an associated DoubleClick site. Over time, DoubleClick can create a detailed dossier of a person’s spending and computing habits on the Web that is sold to companies to help them target their Web ads more precisely.
ChoicePoint gathers data from police, criminal, and motor vehicle records; credit and employment histories; current and previous addresses; professional licenses; and insurance claims to assemble and maintain electronic dossiers on almost every adult in the United States. The company sells this personal
information to businesses and government agencies. Demand for personal data is so enormous that data broker businesses such as ChoicePoint are flourishing.
A new data analysis technology called **nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA)** has given both the government and the private sector even more powerful profiling capabilities. NORA can take information about people from many disparate sources, such as employment applications, telephone records, customer listings, and “wanted” lists, and correlate relationships to find obscure hidden connections that might help identify criminals or terrorists (see Figure 4-2).
NORA technology scans data and extracts information as the data are being generated so that it could, for example, instantly discover a man at an airline ticket counter who shares a phone number with a known terrorist before that person boards an airplane. The technology is considered a valuable tool for homeland security but does have privacy implications because it can provide such a detailed picture of the activities and associations of a single individual.
Finally, advances in networking, including the Internet, promise to greatly reduce the costs of moving and accessing large quantities of data and open the possibility of mining large pools of data remotely using small desktop machines, permitting an invasion of privacy on a scale and with a precision heretofore unimaginable.
**FIGURE 4-2** NONOBlVIOUS RELATIONSHIP AWARENESS (NORA)
NORA technology can take information about people from disparate sources and find obscure, nonobvious relationships. It might discover, for example, that an applicant for a job at a casino shares a telephone number with a known criminal and issue an alert to the hiring manager.
4.2 ETHICS IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY
Ethics is a concern of humans who have freedom of choice. Ethics is about individual choice: When faced with alternative courses of action, what is the correct moral choice? What are the main features of ethical choice?
BASIC CONCEPTS: RESPONSIBILITY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND LIABILITY
Ethical choices are decisions made by individuals who are responsible for the consequences of their actions. **Responsibility** is a key element of ethical action. Responsibility means that you accept the potential costs, duties, and obligations for the decisions you make. **Accountability** is a feature of systems and social institutions: It means that mechanisms are in place to determine who took responsible action, and who is responsible. Systems and institutions in which it is impossible to find out who took what action are inherently incapable of ethical analysis or ethical action. **Liability** extends the concept of responsibility further to the area of laws. Liability is a feature of political systems in which a body of laws is in place that permits individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems, or organizations. **Due process** is a related feature of law-governed societies and is a process in which laws are known and understood, and there is an ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that the laws are applied correctly.
These basic concepts form the underpinning of an ethical analysis of information systems and those who manage them. First, information technologies are filtered through social institutions, organizations, and individuals. Systems do not have impacts by themselves. Whatever information system impacts exist are products of institutional, organizational, and individual actions and behaviors. Second, responsibility for the consequences of technology falls clearly on the institutions, organizations, and individual managers who choose to use the technology. Using information technology in a socially responsible manner means that you can and will be held accountable for the consequences of your actions. Third, in an ethical, political society, individuals and others can recover damages done to them through a set of laws characterized by due process.
ETHICAL ANALYSIS
When confronted with a situation that seems to present ethical issues, how should you analyze it? The following five-step process should help:
1. **Identify and describe clearly the facts.** Find out who did what to whom, and where, when, and how. In many instances, you will be surprised at the errors in the initially reported facts, and often you will find that simply getting the facts straight helps define the solution. It also helps to get the opposing parties involved in an ethical dilemma to agree on the facts.
2. **Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved.** Ethical, social, and political issues always reference higher values. The parties to a dispute all claim to be pursuing higher values (e.g., freedom, privacy, protection of property, and the free enterprise system). Typically, an ethical issue involves a dilemma: two diametrically opposed courses of action that support worthwhile values. For example, the chapter-ending case study illustrates two competing values: the need to improve health care record keeping and the need to protect individual privacy.
3. **Identify the stakeholders.** Every ethical, social, and political issue has stakeholders: players in the game who have an interest in the outcome, who have invested in the situation, and usually who have vocal opinions. Find out the identity of these groups and what they want. This will be useful later when designing a solution.
4. **Identify the options that you can reasonably take.** You may find that none of the options satisfy all the interests involved, but that some options do a better job than others. Sometimes arriving at a good or ethical solution may not always be a balancing of consequences to stakeholders.
5. **Identify the potential consequences of your options.** Some options may be ethically correct but disastrous from other points of view. Other options may work in one instance but not in other similar instances. Always ask yourself, “What if I choose this option consistently over time?”
### CANDIDATE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
Once your analysis is complete, what ethical principles or rules should you use to make a decision? What higher-order values should inform your judgment? Although you are the only one who can decide which among many ethical principles you will follow, and how you will prioritize them, it is helpful to consider some ethical principles with deep roots in many cultures that have survived throughout recorded history:
1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (the **Golden Rule**). Putting yourself into the place of others, and thinking of yourself as the object of the decision, can help you think about fairness in decision making.
2. If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for anyone (**Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative**). Ask yourself, “If everyone did this, could the organization, or society, survive?”
3. If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all (**Descartes’ rule of change**). This is the slippery-slope rule: An action may bring about a small change now that is acceptable, but if it is repeated, it would bring unacceptable changes in the long run. In the vernacular, it might be stated as “once started down a slippery path, you may not be able to stop.”
4. Take the action that achieves the higher or greater value (**Utilitarian Principle**). This rule assumes you can prioritize values in a rank order and understand the consequences of various courses of action.
5. Take the action that produces the least harm or the least potential cost (**Risk Aversion Principle**). Some actions have extremely high failure costs of very low probability (e.g., building a nuclear generating facility in an urban area) or extremely high failure costs of moderate probability (speeding and automobile accidents). Avoid these high-failure-cost actions, paying greater attention to high-failure-cost potential of moderate to high probability.
6. Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else unless there is a specific declaration otherwise. (This is the **ethical “no free lunch” rule**.) If something someone else has created is useful to you, it has value, and you should assume the creator wants compensation for this work.
Actions that do not easily pass these rules deserve close attention and a great deal of caution. The appearance of unethical behavior may do as much harm to you and your company as actual unethical behavior.
PROFESSIONAL CODES OF CONDUCT
When groups of people claim to be professionals, they take on special rights and obligations because of their special claims to knowledge, wisdom, and respect. Professional codes of conduct are promulgated by associations of professionals, such as the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Bar Association (ABA), the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). These professional groups take responsibility for the partial regulation of their professions by determining entrance qualifications and competence. Codes of ethics are promises by professions to regulate themselves in the general interest of society. For example, avoiding harm to others, honoring property rights (including intellectual property), and respecting privacy are among the General Moral Imperatives of the ACM’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
SOME REAL-WORLD ETHICAL DILEMMAS
Information systems have created new ethical dilemmas in which one set of interests is pitted against another. For example, many of the large telephone companies in the United States are using information technology to reduce the sizes of their workforces. Voice recognition software reduces the need for human operators by enabling computers to recognize a customer’s responses to a series of computerized questions. Many companies monitor what their employees are doing on the Internet to prevent them from wasting company resources on non-business activities.
In each instance, you can find competing values at work, with groups lined up on either side of a debate. A company may argue, for example, that it has a right to use information systems to increase productivity and reduce the size of its workforce to lower costs and stay in business. Employees displaced by information systems may argue that employers have some responsibility for their welfare. Business owners might feel obligated to monitor employee e-mail and Internet use to minimize drains on productivity. Employees might believe they should be able to use the Internet for short personal tasks in place of the telephone. A close analysis of the facts can sometimes produce compromised solutions that give each side “half a loaf.” Try to apply some of the principles of ethical analysis described to each of these cases. What is the right thing to do?
4.3 The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
In this section, we take a closer look at the five moral dimensions of information systems first described in Figure 4-1. In each dimension, we identify the ethical, social, and political levels of analysis and use real-world examples to illustrate the values involved, the stakeholders, and the options chosen.
INFORMATION RIGHTS: PRIVACY AND FREEDOM IN THE INTERNET AGE
Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations, including the state. Claims to privacy are also involved at the workplace: Millions of employees are
subject to electronic and other forms of high-tech surveillance (Ball, 2001). Information technology and systems threaten individual claims to privacy by making the invasion of privacy cheap, profitable, and effective.
The claim to privacy is protected in the U.S., Canadian, and German constitutions in a variety of different ways and in other countries through various statutes. In the United States, the claim to privacy is protected primarily by the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and association, the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure of one's personal documents or home, and the guarantee of due process.
Table 4-3 describes the major U.S. federal statutes that set forth the conditions for handling information about individuals in such areas as credit reporting, education, financial records, newspaper records, and electronic communications. The Privacy Act of 1974 has been the most important of these laws, regulating the federal government's collection, use, and disclosure of information. At present, most U.S. federal privacy laws apply only to the federal government and regulate very few areas of the private sector.
Most American and European privacy law is based on a regime called Fair Information Practices (FIP) first set forth in a report written in 1973 by a federal government advisory committee (U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1973). FIP is a set of principles governing the collection and use of information about individuals. FIP principles are based on the notion of a mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual. The individual has an interest in engaging in a transaction, and the record keeper—usually a business or government agency—requires information about the individual to support the transaction. Once information is gathered, the individual maintains an interest in the record, and the record may not be used to support other activities without the individual's consent. In 1998, the FTC restated and extended the original FIP to provide guidelines for protecting online privacy. Table 4-4 describes the FTC's Fair Information Practice principles.
The FTC's FIP principles are being used as guidelines to drive changes in privacy legislation. In July 1998, the U.S. Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), requiring Web sites to obtain parental permission before collecting information on children under the age of 13. (This law is
### TABLE 4-3 FEDERAL PRIVACY LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES
| GENERAL FEDERAL PRIVACY LAWS | PRIVACY LAWS AFFECTING PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS |
|------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
| Freedom of Information Act of 1966 as Amended (5 USC 552) | Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970 |
| Privacy Act of 1974 as Amended (5 USC 552a) | Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 |
| Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 | Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 |
| Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988 | Privacy Protection Act of 1980 |
| Computer Security Act of 1987 | Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 |
| Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act of 1982 | Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 |
| Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994 | Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 |
| E-Government Act of 2002 | The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) |
| | Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998 |
| | Financial Modernization Act (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) of 1999 |
in danger of being overturned.) The FTC has recommended additional legislation to protect online consumer privacy in advertising networks that collect records of consumer Web activity to develop detailed profiles, which are then used by other companies to target online ads. Other proposed Internet privacy legislation focuses on protecting the online use of personal identification numbers, such as social security numbers; protecting personal information collected on the Internet that deals with individuals not covered by COPPA; and limiting the use of data mining for homeland security.
In February 2009, the FTC began the process of extending its fair information practices doctrine to behavioral targeting. The FTC held hearings to discuss its program for voluntary industry principles for regulating behavioral targeting. The online advertising trade group Network Advertising Initiative (discussed later in this section), published its own self-regulatory principles that largely agreed with the FTC. Nevertheless, the government, privacy groups, and the online ad industry are still at loggerheads over two issues. Privacy advocates want both an opt-in policy at all sites and a national Do Not Track list. The industry opposes these moves and continues to insist on an opt-out capability being the only way to avoid tracking (Federal Trade Commission, 2009). Nevertheless, there is an emerging consensus among all parties that greater transparency and user control (especially making opt-out of tracking the default option) is required to deal with behavioral tracking.
Privacy protections have also been added to recent laws deregulating financial services and safeguarding the maintenance and transmission of health information about individuals. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, which repeals earlier restrictions on affiliations among banks, securities firms, and insurance companies, includes some privacy protection for consumers of financial services. All financial institutions are required to disclose their policies and practices for protecting the privacy of nonpublic personal information and to allow customers to opt out of information-sharing arrangements with nonaffiliated third parties.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, which took effect on April 14, 2003, includes privacy protection for medical records. The law gives patients access to their personal medical records maintained by health care providers, hospitals, and health insurers, and the right to authorize how protected information about themselves can be used or disclosed. Doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers must limit the disclosure of personal information about patients to the minimum amount necessary to achieve a given purpose.
The European Directive on Data Protection
In Europe, privacy protection is much more stringent than in the United States. Unlike the United States, European countries do not allow businesses to use personally identifiable information without consumers’ prior consent. On October 25, 1998, the European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection went into effect, broadening privacy protection in the European Union (EU) nations. The directive requires companies to inform people when they collect information about them and disclose how it will be stored and used. Customers must provide their informed consent before any company can legally use data about them, and they have the right to access that information, correct it, and request that no further data be collected. **Informed consent** can be defined as consent given with knowledge of all the facts needed to make a rational decision. EU member nations must translate these principles into their own laws and cannot transfer personal data to countries, such as the United States, that do not have similar privacy protection regulations.
Working with the European Commission, the U.S. Department of Commerce developed a safe harbor framework for U.S. firms. A **safe harbor** is a private, self-regulating policy and enforcement mechanism that meets the objectives of government regulators and legislation but does not involve government regulation or enforcement. U.S. businesses would be allowed to use personal data from EU countries if they develop privacy protection policies that meet EU standards. Enforcement would occur in the United States using self-policing, regulation, and government enforcement of fair trade statutes.
Internet Challenges to Privacy
Internet technology has posed new challenges for the protection of individual privacy. Information sent over this vast network of networks may pass through many different computer systems before it reaches its final destination. Each of these systems is capable of monitoring, capturing, and storing communications that pass through it.
It is possible to record many online activities, including what searches have been conducted, which Web sites and Web pages have been visited, the online content a person has accessed, and what items that person has inspected or purchased over the Web. Much of this monitoring and tracking of Web site visitors occurs in the background without the visitor’s knowledge. It is conducted not just by individual Web sites but by advertising networks such as Microsoft Advertising, Yahoo, and DoubleClick that are capable of tracking all browsing behavior at thousands of Web sites. Tools to monitor visits to the World Wide Web have become popular because they help businesses determine who is visiting their Web sites and how to better target their offerings. (Some firms also monitor the Internet usage of their employees to see how they are using company network resources.) The commercial demand for this personal information is virtually insatiable.
Web sites can learn the identities of their visitors if the visitors voluntarily register at the site to purchase a product or service or to obtain a free service, such as information. Web sites can also capture information about visitors without their knowledge using cookie technology.
**Cookies** are small text files deposited on a computer hard drive when a user visits Web sites. Cookies identify the visitor’s Web browser software and track visits to the Web site. When the visitor returns to a site that has stored a cookie, the Web site software will search the visitor’s computer, find the cookie, and know what that person has done in the past. It may also update the cookie, depending on the activity during the visit. In this way, the site can customize
its contents for each visitor’s interests. For example, if you purchase a book on Amazon.com and return later from the same browser, the site will welcome you by name and recommend other books of interest based on your past purchases. DoubleClick, described earlier in this chapter, uses cookies to build its dossiers with details of online purchases and to examine the behavior of Web site visitors. Figure 4-3 illustrates how cookies work.
Web sites using cookie technology cannot directly obtain visitors’ names and addresses. However, if a person has registered at a site, that information can be combined with cookie data to identify the visitor. Web site owners can also combine the data they have gathered from cookies and other Web site monitoring tools with personal data from other sources, such as offline data collected from surveys or paper catalog purchases, to develop very detailed profiles of their visitors.
There are now even more subtle and surreptitious tools for surveillance of Internet users. Marketers use Web beacons as another tool to monitor online behavior. **Web beacons**, also called *Web bugs*, are tiny objects invisibly embedded in e-mail messages and Web pages that are designed to monitor the behavior of the user visiting a Web site or sending e-mail. The Web beacon captures and transmits information such as the IP address of the user’s computer, the time a Web page was viewed and for how long, the type of Web browser that retrieved the beacon, and previously set cookie values. Web beacons are placed on popular Web sites by “third party” firms who pay the Web sites a fee for access to their audience. Typical popular Web sites contain 25–35 Web beacons.
Other **spyware** can secretly install itself on an Internet user’s computer by piggybacking on larger applications. Once installed, the spyware calls out to Web sites to send banner ads and other unsolicited material to the user, and it can also report the user’s movements on the Internet to other computers. More information is available about intrusive software in Chapter 8.
About 75 percent of global Internet users use Google search and other services, making Google the world’s largest collector of online user data. Whatever Google does with its data has an enormous impact on online privacy. Most experts
**FIGURE 4-3 HOW COOKIES IDENTIFY WEB VISITORS**
1. The Web server reads the user’s Web browser and determines the operating system, browser name, version number, Internet address, and other information.
2. The server transmits a tiny text file with user identification information called a cookie, which the user’s browser receives and stores on the user’s computer hard drive.
3. When the user returns to the Web site, the server requests the contents of any cookie it deposited previously in the user’s computer.
4. The Web server reads the cookie, identifies the visitor, and calls up data on the user.
Cookies are written by a Web site on a visitor’s hard drive. When the visitor returns to that Web site, the Web server requests the ID number from the cookie and uses it to access the data stored by that server on that visitor. The Web site can then use these data to display personalized information.
believe that Google possesses the largest collection of personal information in the world—more data on more people than any government agency. Table 4-5 lists the major Google services that collect user data and how Google uses these data.
For a number of years, Google has been using behavioral targeting to help it display more relevant ads based on users’ search activities. One of its programs enables advertisers to target ads based on the search histories of Google users, along with any other information the user submits to Google that Google can obtain, such as age, demographics, region, and other Web activities (such as blogging). An additional program allows Google to help advertisers select keywords and design ads for various market segments based on search histories, such as helping a clothing Web site create and test ads targeted at teenage females.
Google has also been scanning the contents of messages received by users of its free Web-based e-mail service called Gmail. Ads that users see when they read their e-mail are related to the subjects of these messages. Profiles are developed on individual users based on the content in their e-mail. Google now displays targeted ads on YouTube and on Google mobile applications, and its DoubleClick ad network serves up targeted banner ads.
In the past, Google refrained from capitalizing too much on the data it collected, considered the best source of data about user interests on the Internet. But with the emergence of rivals such as Facebook who are aggressively tracking and selling online user data, Google has decided to do more to profit from its user data.
The United States has allowed businesses to gather transaction information generated in the marketplace and then use that information for other marketing purposes without obtaining the informed consent of the individual whose information is being used. U.S. e-commerce sites are largely content to publish statements on their Web sites informing visitors about how their information will be used. Some have added opt-out selection boxes to these information policy statements. An **opt-out** model of informed consent permits the collection of personal information until the consumer specifically requests that the
### TABLE 4-5 HOW GOOGLE USES THE DATA IT COLLECTS
| GOOGLE FEATURE | DATA COLLECTED | USE |
|-------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Google Search | Google search topics<br>Users’ Internet addresses | Targeting text ads placed in search results |
| Gmail | Contents of e-mail messages | Targeting text ads placed next to the e-mail messages |
| DoubleClick | Data about Web sites visited on Google’s ad network | Targeting banner ads |
| YouTube | Data about videos uploaded and downloaded; some profile data | Targeting ads for Google display-ad network |
| Mobile Maps with My Location | User’s actual or approximate location | Targeting mobile ads based on user’s ZIP code |
| Google Toolbar | Web-browsing data and search history | No ad use at present |
| Google Buzz | Users’ Google profile data and connections | No ad use at present |
| Google Chrome | Sample of address-bar entries when Google is the default search engine | No ad use at present |
| Google Checkout | User’s name, address, transaction details | No ad use at present |
| Google Analytics | Traffic data from Web sites using Google’s Analytics service | No ad use at present |
data not be collected. Privacy advocates would like to see wider use of an **opt-in** model of informed consent in which a business is prohibited from collecting any personal information unless the consumer specifically takes action to approve information collection and use.
The online industry has preferred self-regulation to privacy legislation for protecting consumers. In 1998, the online industry formed the Online Privacy Alliance to encourage self-regulation to develop a set of privacy guidelines for its members. The group promotes the use of online seals, such as that of TRUSTe, certifying Web sites adhering to certain privacy principles. Members of the advertising network industry, including Google’s DoubleClick, have created an additional industry association called the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) to develop its own privacy policies to help consumers opt out of advertising network programs and provide consumers redress from abuses.
Individual firms like AOL, Yahoo!, and Google have recently adopted policies on their own in an effort to address public concern about tracking people online. AOL established an opt-out policy that allows users of its site to not be tracked. Yahoo follows NAI guidelines and also allows opt-out for tracking and Web beacons (Web bugs). Google has reduced retention time for tracking data.
In general, most Internet businesses do little to protect the privacy of their customers, and consumers do not do as much as they should to protect themselves. Many companies with Web sites do not have privacy policies. Of the companies that do post privacy polices on their Web sites, about half do not monitor their sites to ensure they adhere to these policies. The vast majority of online customers claim they are concerned about online privacy, but less than half read the privacy statements on Web sites (Laudon and Traver, 2010).
In one of the more insightful studies of consumer attitudes towards Internet privacy, a group of Berkeley students conducted surveys of online users, and of complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission involving privacy issues. Here are some of their results. User concerns: people feel they have no control over the information collected about them, and they don’t know who to complain to. Web site practices: Web sites collect all this information, but do not let users have access; the policies are unclear; they share data with “affiliates” but never identify who the affiliates are and how many there are. (MySpace, owned by NewsCorp, has over 1,500 affiliates with whom it shares online information.) Web bug trackers: they are ubiquitous and we are not informed they are on the pages we visit. The results of this study and others suggest that consumers are not saying “Take my privacy, I don’t care, send me the service for free.” They are saying “We want access to the information, we want some controls on what can be collected, what is done with the information, the ability to opt out of the entire tracking enterprise, and some clarity on what the policies really are, and we don’t want those policies changed without our participation and permission.” (The full report is available at knowprivacy.org.)
**Technical Solutions**
In addition to legislation, new technologies are available to protect user privacy during interactions with Web sites. Many of these tools are used for encrypting e-mail, for making e-mail or surfing activities appear anonymous, for preventing client computers from accepting cookies, or for detecting and eliminating spyware.
There are now tools to help users determine the kind of personal data that can be extracted by Web sites. The Platform for Privacy Preferences, known as P3P, enables automatic communication of privacy policies between an e-commerce site and its visitors. **P3P** provides a standard for communicating a Web site’s
Web sites are posting their privacy policies for visitors to review. The TRUSTe seal designates Web sites that have agreed to adhere to TRUSTe’s established privacy principles of disclosure, choice, access, and security.
privacy policy to Internet users and for comparing that policy to the user’s preferences or to other standards, such as the FTC’s FIP guidelines or the European Directive on Data Protection. Users can use P3P to select the level of privacy they wish to maintain when interacting with the Web site.
The P3P standard allows Web sites to publish privacy policies in a form that computers can understand. Once it is codified according to P3P rules, the privacy policy becomes part of the software for individual Web pages (see Figure 4-4). Users of Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browsing software can access and read the P3P site’s privacy policy and a list of all cookies coming from the site. Internet Explorer enables users to adjust their computers to screen out all cookies or let in selected cookies based on specific levels of privacy. For example, the “Medium” level accepts cookies from first-party host sites that have opt-in or opt-out policies but rejects third-party cookies that use personally identifiable information without an opt-in policy.
However, P3P only works with Web sites of members of the World Wide Web Consortium who have translated their Web site privacy policies into P3P format. The technology will display cookies from Web sites that are not part of the consortium, but users will not be able to obtain sender information or privacy statements. Many users may also need to be educated about interpreting company privacy statements and P3P levels of privacy. Critics point out that only a small percentage of the most popular Web sites use P3P, most users do not understand their browser’s privacy settings, and there is no enforcement of P3P standards—companies can claim anything about their privacy policies.
PROPERTY RIGHTS: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Contemporary information systems have severely challenged existing laws and social practices that protect private intellectual property. Intellectual property is considered to be intangible property created by individuals or
1. The user with P3P Web browsing software requests a Web page.
2. The Web server returns the Web page along with a compact version of the Web site’s policy and a pointer to the full P3P policy. If the Web site is not P3P compliant, no P3P data are returned.
3. The user’s Web browsing software compares the response from the Web site with the user’s privacy preferences. If the Web site does not have a P3P policy or the policy does not match the privacy levels established by the user, it warns the user or rejects the cookies from the Web site. Otherwise, the Web page loads normally.
P3P enables Web sites to translate their privacy policies into a standard format that can be read by the user’s Web browser software. The browser software evaluates the Web site’s privacy policy to determine whether it is compatible with the user’s privacy preferences.
corporations. Information technology has made it difficult to protect intellectual property because computerized information can be so easily copied or distributed on networks. Intellectual property is subject to a variety of protections under three different legal traditions: trade secrets, copyright, and patent law.
**Trade Secrets**
Any intellectual work product—a formula, device, pattern, or compilation of data—used for a business purpose can be classified as a **trade secret**, provided it is not based on information in the public domain. Protections for trade secrets vary from state to state. In general, trade secret laws grant a monopoly on the ideas behind a work product, but it can be a very tenuous monopoly.
Software that contains novel or unique elements, procedures, or compilations can be included as a trade secret. Trade secret law protects the actual ideas in a work product, not only their manifestation. To make this claim, the creator or owner must take care to bind employees and customers with nondisclosure agreements and to prevent the secret from falling into the public domain.
The limitation of trade secret protection is that, although virtually all software programs of any complexity contain unique elements of some sort, it is difficult to prevent the ideas in the work from falling into the public domain when the software is widely distributed.
**Copyright**
Copyright is a statutory grant that protects creators of intellectual property from having their work copied by others for any purpose during the life of the author plus an additional 70 years after the author’s death. For corporate-owned works, copyright protection lasts for 95 years after their initial creation. Congress has extended copyright protection to books, periodicals, lectures, dramas, musical compositions, maps, drawings, artwork of any kind, and
motion pictures. The intent behind copyright laws has been to encourage creativity and authorship by ensuring that creative people receive the financial and other benefits of their work. Most industrial nations have their own copyright laws, and there are several international conventions and bilateral agreements through which nations coordinate and enforce their laws.
In the mid-1960s, the Copyright Office began registering software programs, and in 1980, Congress passed the Computer Software Copyright Act, which clearly provides protection for software program code and for copies of the original sold in commerce, and sets forth the rights of the purchaser to use the software while the creator retains legal title.
Copyright protects against copying of entire programs or their parts. Damages and relief are readily obtained for infringement. The drawback to copyright protection is that the underlying ideas behind a work are not protected, only their manifestation in a work. A competitor can use your software, understand how it works, and build new software that follows the same concepts without infringing on a copyright.
“Look and feel” copyright infringement lawsuits are precisely about the distinction between an idea and its expression. For instance, in the early 1990s, Apple Computer sued Microsoft Corporation and Hewlett-Packard for infringement of the expression of Apple’s Macintosh interface, claiming that the defendants copied the expression of overlapping windows. The defendants countered that the idea of overlapping windows can be expressed only in a single way and, therefore, was not protectable under the merger doctrine of copyright law. When ideas and their expression merge, the expression cannot be copyrighted.
In general, courts appear to be following the reasoning of a 1989 case—*Brown Bag Software vs. Symantec Corp.*—in which the court dissected the elements of software alleged to be infringing. The court found that similar concept, function, general functional features (e.g., drop-down menus), and colors are not protectable by copyright law (*Brown Bag Software vs. Symantec Corp.*, 1992).
**Patents**
A **patent** grants the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for 20 years. The congressional intent behind patent law was to ensure that inventors of new machines, devices, or methods receive the full financial and other rewards of their labor and yet make widespread use of the invention possible by providing detailed diagrams for those wishing to use the idea under license from the patent’s owner. The granting of a patent is determined by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and relies on court rulings.
The key concepts in patent law are originality, novelty, and invention. The Patent Office did not accept applications for software patents routinely until a 1981 Supreme Court decision that held that computer programs could be a part of a patentable process. Since that time, hundreds of patents have been granted and thousands await consideration.
The strength of patent protection is that it grants a monopoly on the underlying concepts and ideas of software. The difficulty is passing stringent criteria of nonobviousness (e.g., the work must reflect some special understanding and contribution), originality, and novelty, as well as years of waiting to receive protection.
**Challenges to Intellectual Property Rights**
Contemporary information technologies, especially software, pose severe challenges to existing intellectual property regimes and, therefore, create
significant ethical, social, and political issues. Digital media differ from books, periodicals, and other media in terms of ease of replication; ease of transmission; ease of alteration; difficulty in classifying a software work as a program, book, or even music; compactness—making theft easy; and difficulties in establishing uniqueness.
The proliferation of electronic networks, including the Internet, has made it even more difficult to protect intellectual property. Before widespread use of networks, copies of software, books, magazine articles, or films had to be stored on physical media, such as paper, computer disks, or videotape, creating some hurdles to distribution. Using networks, information can be more widely reproduced and distributed. The Seventh Annual Global Software Piracy Study conducted by the International Data Corporation and the Business Software Alliance reported that the rate of global software piracy climbed to 43 percent in 2009, representing $51 billion in global losses from software piracy. Worldwide, for every $100 worth of legitimate software sold that year, an additional $75 worth was obtained illegally (Business Software Alliance, 2010).
The Internet was designed to transmit information freely around the world, including copyrighted information. With the World Wide Web in particular, you can easily copy and distribute virtually anything to thousands and even millions of people around the world, even if they are using different types of computer systems. Information can be illicitly copied from one place and distributed through other systems and networks even though these parties do not willingly participate in the infringement.
Individuals have been illegally copying and distributing digitized MP3 music files on the Internet for a number of years. File-sharing services such as Napster, and later Grokster, Kazaa, and Morpheus, sprung up to help users locate and swap digital music files, including those protected by copyright. Illegal file sharing became so widespread that it threatened the viability of the music recording industry. The recording industry won some legal battles for shutting these services down, but has not been able to halt illegal file sharing entirely. As more and more homes adopt high-speed Internet access, illegal file sharing of videos will pose similar threats to the motion picture industry.
Mechanisms are being developed to sell and distribute books, articles, and other intellectual property legally on the Internet, and the **Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)** of 1998 is providing some copyright protection. The DMCA implemented a World Intellectual Property Organization Treaty that makes it illegal to circumvent technology-based protections of copyrighted materials. Internet service providers (ISPs) are required to take down sites of copyright infringers that they are hosting once they are notified of the problem.
Microsoft and other major software and information content firms are represented by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), which lobbies for new laws and enforcement of existing laws to protect intellectual property around the world. The SIIA runs an antipiracy hotline for individuals to report piracy activities, offers educational programs to help organizations combat software piracy, and has published guidelines for employee use of software.
**ACCOUNTABILITY, LIABILITY, AND CONTROL**
Along with privacy and property laws, new information technologies are challenging existing liability laws and social practices for holding individuals and institutions accountable. If a person is injured by a machine controlled, in part, by software, who should be held accountable and, therefore, held liable? Should a public bulletin board or an electronic service, such as America Online,
permit the transmission of pornographic or offensive material (as broadcasters), or should they be held harmless against any liability for what users transmit (as is true of common carriers, such as the telephone system)? What about the Internet? If you outsource your information processing, can you hold the external vendor liable for injuries done to your customers? Some real-world examples may shed light on these questions.
**Computer-Related Liability Problems**
During the last week of September 2009, thousands of customers of TD Bank, one of the largest banks in North America, scrambled to find their payroll checks, social security checks, and savings and checking account balances. The bank’s 6.5 million customers were temporarily out of funds because of a computer glitch. The problems were caused by a failed effort to integrate systems of TD Bank and Commerce Bank. A spokesperson for TD Bank, said that “while the overall integration of the systems went well, there have been some speed-bumps in the final stages, as you might expect with a project of this size and complexity.” (Vijayan, 2009). Who is liable for any economic harm caused to individuals or businesses that could not access their full account balances in this period?
This case reveals the difficulties faced by information systems executives who ultimately are responsible for any harm done by systems developed by their staffs. In general, insofar as computer software is part of a machine, and the machine injures someone physically or economically, the producer of the software and the operator can be held liable for damages. Insofar as the software acts like a book, storing and displaying information, courts have been reluctant to hold authors, publishers, and booksellers liable for contents (the exception being instances of fraud or defamation), and hence courts have been wary of holding software authors liable for booklike software.
In general, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to hold software producers liable for their software products that are considered to be like books, regardless of the physical or economic harm that results. Historically, print publishers, books, and periodicals have not been held liable because of fears that liability claims would interfere with First Amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of expression.
What about software as a service? ATM machines are a service provided to bank customers. Should this service fail, customers will be inconvenienced and perhaps harmed economically if they cannot access their funds in a timely manner. Should liability protections be extended to software publishers and operators of defective financial, accounting, simulation, or marketing systems?
Software is very different from books. Software users may develop expectations of infallibility about software; software is less easily inspected than a book, and it is more difficult to compare with other software products for quality; software claims actually to perform a task rather than describe a task, as a book does; and people come to depend on services essentially based on software. Given the centrality of software to everyday life, the chances are excellent that liability law will extend its reach to include software even when the software merely provides an information service.
Telephone systems have not been held liable for the messages transmitted because they are regulated common carriers. In return for their right to provide telephone service, they must provide access to all, at reasonable rates, and achieve acceptable reliability. But broadcasters and cable television stations are subject to a wide variety of federal and local constraints on content and facilities. Organizations can be held liable for offensive content on their Web sites, and online services, such as America Online, might be held liable for postings by their
users. Although U.S. courts have increasingly exonerated Web sites and ISPs for posting material by third parties, the threat of legal action still has a chilling effect on small companies or individuals who cannot afford to take their cases to trial.
**SYSTEM QUALITY: DATA QUALITY AND SYSTEM ERRORS**
The debate over liability and accountability for unintentional consequences of system use raises a related but independent moral dimension: What is an acceptable, technologically feasible level of system quality? At what point should system managers say, “Stop testing, we’ve done all we can to perfect this software. Ship it!” Individuals and organizations may be held responsible for avoidable and foreseeable consequences, which they have a duty to perceive and correct. And the gray area is that some system errors are foreseeable and correctable only at very great expense, an expense so great that pursuing this level of perfection is not feasible economically—no one could afford the product.
For example, although software companies try to debug their products before releasing them to the marketplace, they knowingly ship buggy products because the time and cost of fixing all minor errors would prevent these products from ever being released. What if the product was not offered on the marketplace, would social welfare as a whole not advance and perhaps even decline? Carrying this further, just what is the responsibility of a producer of computer services—should it withdraw the product that can never be perfect, warn the user, or forget about the risk (let the buyer beware)?
Three principal sources of poor system performance are (1) software bugs and errors, (2) hardware or facility failures caused by natural or other causes, and (3) poor input data quality. A Chapter 8 Learning Track discusses why zero defects in software code of any complexity cannot be achieved and why the seriousness of remaining bugs cannot be estimated. Hence, there is a technological barrier to perfect software, and users must be aware of the potential for catastrophic failure. The software industry has not yet arrived at testing standards for producing software of acceptable but not perfect performance.
Although software bugs and facility catastrophes are likely to be widely reported in the press, by far the most common source of business system failure is data quality. Few companies routinely measure the quality of their data, but individual organizations report data error rates ranging from 0.5 to 30 percent.
**QUALITY OF LIFE: EQUITY, ACCESS, AND BOUNDARIES**
The negative social costs of introducing information technologies and systems are beginning to mount along with the power of the technology. Many of these negative social consequences are not violations of individual rights or property crimes. Nevertheless, these negative consequences can be extremely harmful to individuals, societies, and political institutions. Computers and information technologies potentially can destroy valuable elements of our culture and society even while they bring us benefits. If there is a balance of good and bad consequences of using information systems, who do we hold responsible for the bad consequences? Next, we briefly examine some of the negative social consequences of systems, considering individual, social, and political responses.
Balancing Power: Center Versus Periphery
An early fear of the computer age was that huge, centralized mainframe computers would centralize power at corporate headquarters and in the nation’s capital, resulting in a Big Brother society, as was suggested in George Orwell’s novel *1984*. The shift toward highly decentralized computing, coupled with an ideology of empowerment of thousands of workers, and the decentralization of decision making to lower organizational levels, have reduced the fears of power centralization in institutions. Yet much of the empowerment described in popular business magazines is trivial. Lower-level employees may be empowered to make minor decisions, but the key policy decisions may be as centralized as in the past.
Rapidity of Change: Reduced Response Time to Competition
Information systems have helped to create much more efficient national and international markets. The now-more-efficient global marketplace has reduced the normal social buffers that permitted businesses many years to adjust to competition. Time-based competition has an ugly side: The business you work for may not have enough time to respond to global competitors and may be wiped out in a year, along with your job. We stand the risk of developing a “just-in-time society” with “just-in-time jobs” and “just-in-time” workplaces, families, and vacations.
Maintaining Boundaries: Family, Work, and Leisure
Parts of this book were produced on trains and planes, as well as on vacations and during what otherwise might have been “family” time. The danger to ubiquitous computing, telecommuting, nomad computing, and the “do anything anywhere” computing environment is that it is actually coming true. The traditional boundaries that separate work from family and just plain leisure have been weakened.
Although authors have traditionally worked just about anywhere (typewriters have been portable for nearly a century), the advent of information technology has made it possible to work almost anywhere.
systems, coupled with the growth of knowledge-work occupations, means that more and more people are working when traditionally they would have been playing or communicating with family and friends. The work umbrella now extends far beyond the eight-hour day.
Even leisure time spent on the computer threatens these close social relationships. Extensive Internet use, even for entertainment or recreational purposes, takes people away from their family and friends. Among middle school and teenage children, it can lead to harmful anti-social behavior, such as the recent upsurge in cyberbullying.
Weakening these institutions poses clear-cut risks. Family and friends historically have provided powerful support mechanisms for individuals, and they act as balance points in a society by preserving private life, providing a place for people to collect their thoughts, allowing people to think in ways contrary to their employer, and dream.
**Dependence and Vulnerability**
Today, our businesses, governments, schools, and private associations, such as churches, are incredibly dependent on information systems and are, therefore, highly vulnerable if these systems fail. With systems now as ubiquitous as the telephone system, it is startling to remember that there are no regulatory or standard-setting forces in place that are similar to telephone, electrical, radio, television, or other public utility technologies. The absence of standards and the criticality of some system applications will probably call forth demands for national standards and perhaps regulatory oversight.
**Computer Crime and Abuse**
New technologies, including computers, create new opportunities for committing crime by creating new valuable items to steal, new ways to steal them, and new ways to harm others. **Computer crime** is the commission of illegal acts through the use of a computer or against a computer system. Computers or computer systems can be the object of the crime (destroying a company's computer center or a company's computer files), as well as the instrument of a crime (stealing computer lists by illegally gaining access to a computer system using a home computer). Simply accessing a computer system without authorization or with intent to do harm, even by accident, is now a federal crime.
**Computer abuse** is the commission of acts involving a computer that may not be illegal but that are considered unethical. The popularity of the Internet and e-mail has turned one form of computer abuse—spamming—into a serious problem for both individuals and businesses. **Spam** is junk e-mail sent by an organization or individual to a mass audience of Internet users who have expressed no interest in the product or service being marketed. Spammers tend to market pornography, fraudulent deals and services, outright scams, and other products not widely approved in most civilized societies. Some countries have passed laws to outlaw spamming or to restrict its use. In the United States, it is still legal if it does not involve fraud and the sender and subject of the e-mail are properly identified.
Spamming has mushroomed because it only costs a few cents to send thousands of messages advertising wares to Internet users. According to Sophos, a leading vendor of security software, spam accounted for 97 percent of all business e-mail during the second quarter of 2010 (Schwartz, 2010). Spam costs for businesses are very high (estimated at over $50 billion per year) because of the computing and network resources consumed by billions of unwanted e-mail messages and the time required to deal with them.
Internet service providers and individuals can combat spam by using spam filtering software to block suspicious e-mail before it enters a recipient's e-mail inbox. However, spam filters may block legitimate messages. Spammers know how to skirt around filters by continually changing their e-mail accounts, by incorporating spam messages in images, by embedding spam in e-mail attachments and electronic greeting cards, and by using other people's computers that have been hijacked by botnets (see Chapter 7). Many spam messages are sent from one country while another country hosts the spam Web site.
Spamming is more tightly regulated in Europe than in the United States. On May 30, 2002, the European Parliament passed a ban on unsolicited commercial messaging. Electronic marketing can be targeted only to people who have given prior consent.
The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which went into effect on January 1, 2004, does not outlaw spamming but does ban deceptive e-mail practices by requiring commercial e-mail messages to display accurate subject lines, identify the true senders, and offer recipients an easy way to remove their names from e-mail lists. It also prohibits the use of fake return addresses. A few people have been prosecuted under the law, but it has had a negligible impact on spamming. Although Facebook and MySpace have won judgments against spammers, most critics argue the law has too many loopholes and is not effectively enforced (Associated Press, 2009).
Another negative impact of computer technology is the rising danger from people using cell phones to send text messages while driving. Many states have outlawed this behavior, but it has been difficult to eradicate. The Interactive Session on Organizations explores this topic.
**Employment: Trickle-Down Technology and Reengineering Job Loss**
Reengineering work is typically hailed in the information systems community as a major benefit of new information technology. It is much less frequently noted that redesigning business processes could potentially cause millions of mid-level managers and clerical workers to lose their jobs. One economist has raised the possibility that we will create a society run by a small "high tech elite of corporate professionals . . . in a nation of the permanently unemployed" (Rifkin, 1993).
Other economists are much more sanguine about the potential job losses. They believe relieving bright, educated workers from reengineered jobs will result in these workers moving to better jobs in fast-growth industries. Missing from this equation are unskilled, blue-collar workers and older, less well-educated middle managers. It is not clear that these groups can be retrained easily for high-quality (high-paying) jobs. Careful planning and sensitivity to employee needs can help companies redesign work to minimize job losses.
**Equity and Access: Increasing Racial and Social Class Cleavages**
Does everyone have an equal opportunity to participate in the digital age? Will the social, economic, and cultural gaps that exist in the United States and other societies be reduced by information systems technology? Or will the cleavages be increased, permitting the better off to become even more better off relative to others?
These questions have not yet been fully answered because the impact of systems technology on various groups in society has not been thoroughly studied. What is known is that information, knowledge, computers, and access
THE PERILS OF TEXTING
Cell phones have become a staple of modern society. Nearly everyone has them, and people carry and use them at all hours of the day. For the most part, this is a good thing: the benefits of staying connected at any time and at any location are considerable. But if you’re like most Americans, you may regularly talk on the phone or even text while at the wheel of a car. This dangerous behavior has resulted in increasing numbers of accidents and fatalities caused by cell phone usage. The trend shows no sign of slowing down.
In 2003, a federal study of 10,000 drivers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) set out to determine the effects of using cell phones behind the wheel. The results were conclusive: talking on the phone is equivalent to a 10-point reduction in IQ and a .08 blood alcohol level, which law enforcement considers intoxicated. Hands-free sets were ineffective in eliminating risk, the study found, because the conversation itself is what distracts drivers, not holding the phone. Cell phone use caused 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents in 2002. Related studies indicated that drivers that talked on the phone while driving increased their crash risk fourfold, and drivers that texted while driving increased their crash risk by a whopping 23 times.
Since that study, mobile device usage has grown by an order of magnitude, worsening this already dangerous situation. The number of wireless subscribers in America has increased by around 1,000 percent since 1995 to nearly 300 million overall in 2010, and Americans’ usage of wireless minutes increased by approximately 6,000 percent. This increase in cell phone usage has been accompanied by an upsurge in phone-related fatalities and accidents: In 2010, it’s estimated that texting caused 5,870 fatalities and 515,000 accidents, up considerably from prior years. These figures are roughly half of equivalent statistics for drunk driving. Studies show that drivers know that using the phone while driving is one of the most dangerous things you can do on the road, but refuse to admit that it’s dangerous when they themselves do it.
Of users that text while driving, the more youthful demographic groups, such as the 18–29 age group, are by far the most frequent texters. About three quarters of Americans in this age group regularly text, compared to just 22 percent of the 35–44 age group. Correspondingly, the majority of accidents involving mobile device use behind the wheel involve young adults. Among this age group, texting behind the wheel is just one of a litany of problems raised by frequent texting: anxiety, distraction, failing grades, repetitive stress injuries, and sleep deprivation are just some of the other problems brought about by excessive use of mobile devices. Teenagers are particularly prone to using cell phones to text because they want to know what’s happening to their friends and are anxious about being socially isolated.
Analysts predict that over 800 billion text messages will be sent in 2010. Texting is clearly here to stay, and in fact has supplanted phone calls as the most commonly used method of mobile communication. People are unwilling to give up their mobile devices because of the pressures of staying connected. Neurologists have found that the neural response to multitasking by texting while driving suggests that people develop addictions to the digital devices they use most, getting quick bursts of adrenaline, without which driving becomes boring.
There are interests opposed to legislation prohibiting cell phone use in cars. A number of legislators believe that it’s not state or federal government’s role to prohibit poor decision making. Auto makers, and some safety researchers, are arguing that with the proper technology and under appropriate conditions, communicating from a moving vehicle is a manageable risk. Louis Tijerina, a veteran of the NHTSA and Ford Motor Co. researcher, notes that even as mobile phone subscriptions have surged to over 250 million during the past decade, the death rate from accidents on the highways has fallen.
Nevertheless, lawmakers are increasingly recognizing the need for more powerful legislation barring drivers from texting behind the wheel. Many states have made inroads with laws prohibiting texting while operating vehicles. In Utah, drivers crashing while texting can receive 15 years in prison, by far the toughest sentence for texting while driving in the nation when the legislation was enacted. Utah’s law assumes that drivers understand the risks of texting while driving, whereas in other states, prosecutors must prove that the driver knew about the risks of texting while driving before doing so.
Utah’s tough law was the result of a horrifying accident in which a speeding college student, texting at the wheel, rear-ended a car in front. The car lost control, entered the opposite side of the road, and was hit head-on by a pickup truck hauling a trailer, killing the driver instantly. In September 2008, a train engineer in California was texting within a minute prior to the most fatal train accident in almost two decades. Californian authorities responded by banning the use of cell phones by train workers while on duty.
In total, 31 states have banned texting while driving in some form, and most of those states have a full ban for phone users of all ages. The remaining states are likely to follow suit in coming years as well. President Obama also banned texting while driving for all federal government employees in October 2009. Still, there’s more work to be done to combat this dangerous and life-threatening practice.
Sources: Paulo Salazar, “Banning Texting While Driving,” WCBI.com, August 7, 2010; Jerry Hirsch, “Teen Drivers Dangerously Divide Their Attention,” Los Angeles Times, August 3, 2010; www.drivinglaws.org, accessed July 2010; www.drivinglaws.org, accessed July 7, 2010; Matt Richtel, “Driver Texting Now an Issue in the Back Seat,” The New York Times, September 9, 2009; Matt Richtel, “Utah Gets Tough With Texting Drivers,” The New York Times, August 29, 2009; Matt Richtel, “In Study, Texting Lifts Crash Risk by Large Margin,” The New York Times, July 28, 2009; Matt Richtel, “Drivers and Legislators Dismiss Cellphone Risks,” The New York Times, July 19, 2009; Tom Regan, “Some Sobering Stats on Texting While Driving,” The Christian Science Monitor, May 28, 2009; Katie Hafner, “Texting May be Taking a Toll on Teenagers,” The New York Times, May 26, 2009; and Tara Parker-Pope, “Texting Until Their Thumbs Hurt,” The New York Times, May 26, 2009.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Which of the five moral dimensions of information systems identified in this text is involved in this case?
2. What are the ethical, social, and political issues raised by this case?
3. Which of the ethical principles described in the text are useful for decision making about texting while driving?
MIS IN ACTION
1. Many people at state and local levels are calling for a federal law against texting while driving. Use a search engine to explore what steps the federal government has taken to discourage texting while driving.
2. Most people are not aware of the widespread impact of texting while driving across the United States. Do a search on “texting while driving.” Examine all the search results for the first two pages. Enter the information into a two-column table. In the left column put the locality of the report and year. In the right column give a brief description of the search result, e.g., accident, report, court judgment, etc. What can you conclude from these search results and table?
and unskilled. Public interest groups want to narrow this digital divide by making digital information services—including the Internet—available to virtually everyone, just as basic telephone service is now.
**Health Risks: RSI, CVS, and Technostress**
The most common occupational disease today is **repetitive stress injury (RSI)**. RSI occurs when muscle groups are forced through repetitive actions often with high-impact loads (such as tennis) or tens of thousands of repetitions under low-impact loads (such as working at a computer keyboard).
The single largest source of RSI is computer keyboards. The most common kind of computer-related RSI is **carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS)**, in which pressure on the median nerve through the wrist’s bony structure, called a carpal tunnel, produces pain. The pressure is caused by constant repetition of keystrokes: in a single shift, a word processor may perform 23,000 keystrokes. Symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome include numbness, shooting pain, inability to grasp objects, and tingling. Millions of workers have been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome.
RSI is avoidable. Designing workstations for a neutral wrist position (using a wrist rest to support the wrist), proper monitor stands, and footrests all contribute to proper posture and reduced RSI. Ergonomically correct keyboards are also an option. These measures should be supported by frequent rest breaks and rotation of employees to different jobs.
RSI is not the only occupational illness computers cause. Back and neck pain, leg stress, and foot pain also result from poor ergonomic designs of workstations. **Computer vision syndrome (CVS)** refers to any eyestrain condition related to display screen use in desktop computers, laptops, e-readers, smartphones, and hand-held video games. CVS affects about 90 percent of people who spend three hours or more per day at a computer (Beck, 2010). Its symptoms, which are usually temporary, include headaches, blurred vision, and dry and irritated eyes.
The newest computer-related malady is **technostress**, which is stress induced by computer use. Its symptoms include aggravation, hostility toward humans, impatience, and fatigue. According to experts, humans working continuously with computers come to expect other humans and human institutions to behave like computers, providing instant responses, attentiveness, and
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Repetitive stress injury (RSI) is the leading occupational disease today. The single largest cause of RSI is computer keyboard work.
an absence of emotion. Technostress is thought to be related to high levels of job turnover in the computer industry, high levels of early retirement from computer-intense occupations, and elevated levels of drug and alcohol abuse.
The incidence of technostress is not known but is thought to be in the millions and growing rapidly in the United States. Computer-related jobs now top the list of stressful occupations based on health statistics in several industrialized countries.
To date, the role of radiation from computer display screens in occupational disease has not been proved. Video display terminals (VDTs) emit nonionizing electric and magnetic fields at low frequencies. These rays enter the body and have unknown effects on enzymes, molecules, chromosomes, and cell membranes. Long-term studies are investigating low-level electromagnetic fields and birth defects, stress, low birth weight, and other diseases. All manufacturers have reduced display screen emissions since the early 1980s, and European countries, such as Sweden, have adopted stiff radiation emission standards.
In addition to these maladies, computer technology may be harming our cognitive functions. Although the Internet has made it much easier for people to access, create, and use information, some experts believe that it is also preventing people from focusing and thinking clearly. The Interactive Session on Technology highlights the debate that has emerged about this problem.
The computer has become a part of our lives—personally as well as socially, culturally, and politically. It is unlikely that the issues and our choices will become easier as information technology continues to transform our world. The growth of the Internet and the information economy suggests that all the ethical and social issues we have described will be heightened further as we move into the first digital century.
TOO MUCH TECHNOLOGY?
Do you think that the more information managers receive, the better their decisions? Well, think again. Most of us can no longer imagine the world without the Internet and without our favorite gadgets, whether they’re iPads, smartphones, laptops, or cell phones. However, although these devices have brought about a new era of collaboration and communication, they also have introduced new concerns about our relationship with technology. Some researchers suggest that the Internet and other digital technologies are fundamentally changing the way we think—and not for the better. Is the Internet actually making us “dumber,” and have we reached a point where we have too much technology? Or does the Internet offer so many new opportunities to discover information that it’s actually making us “smarter.” And, by the way, how do we define “dumber” and “smarter” in an Internet age?
Wait a second, you’re saying. How could this be? The Internet is an unprecedented source for acquiring and sharing all types of information. Creating and disseminating media has never been easier. Resources like Wikipedia and Google have helped to organize knowledge and make that knowledge accessible to the world, and they would not have been possible without the Internet. And other digital media technologies have become indispensable parts of our lives. At first glance, it’s not clear how such advancements could do anything but make us smarter.
In response to this argument, several authorities claim that making it possible for millions of people to create media—written blogs, photos, videos—has understandably lowered the quality of media. Bloggers very rarely do original reporting or research but instead copy it from professional resources. YouTube videos contributed by newbies to video come nowhere near the quality of professional videos. Newspapers struggle to stay in business while bloggers provide free content of inconsistent quality.
But similar warnings were issued in response to the development of the printing press. As Gutenberg’s invention spread throughout Europe, contemporary literature exploded in popularity, and much of it was considered mediocre by intellectuals of the era. But rather than being destroyed, it was simply in the early stages of fundamental change. As people came to grips with the new technology and the new norms governing it, literature, newspapers, scientific journals, fiction, and non-fiction all began to contribute to the intellectual climate instead of detracting from it. Today, we can’t imagine a world without print media.
Advocates of digital media argue that history is bound to repeat itself as we gain familiarity with the Internet and other newer technologies. The scientific revolution was galvanized by peer review and collaboration enabled by the printing press. According to many digital media supporters, the Internet will usher in a similar revolution in publishing capability and collaboration, and it will be a resounding success for society as a whole.
This may all be true, but from a cognitive standpoint, the effects of the Internet and other digital devices might not be so positive. New studies suggest that digital technologies are damaging our ability to think clearly and focus. Digital technology users develop an inevitable desire to multitask, doing several things at once while using their devices.
Although TV, the Internet, and video games are effective at developing our visual processing ability, research suggests that they detract from our ability to think deeply and retain information. It’s true that the Internet grants users easy access to the world’s information, but the medium through which that information is delivered is hurting our ability to think deeply and critically about what we read and hear. You’d be “smarter” (in the sense of being able to give an account of the content) by reading a book rather than viewing a video on the same topic while texting with your friends.
Using the Internet lends itself to multitasking. Pages are littered with hyperlinks to other sites; tabbed browsing allows us to switch rapidly between two windows; and we can surf the Web while watching TV, instant messaging friends, or talking on the phone. But the constant distractions and disruptions that are central to online experiences prevent our brains from creating the neural connections that constitute full understanding of a topic. Traditional print media, by contrast, makes it easier to fully concentrate on the content with fewer interruptions.
A recent study conducted by a team of researchers at Stanford found that multitaskers are not only more easily distracted, but were also surprisingly poor at...
multitasking compared to people who rarely do so themselves. The team also found that multitaskers receive a jolt of excitement when confronted with a new piece of information or a new call, message, or e-mail.
The cellular structure of the brain is highly adaptable and adjusts to the tools we use, so multitaskers quickly become dependent on the excitement they experience when confronted with something new. This means that multitaskers continue to be easily distracted, even if they’re totally unplugged from the devices they most often use.
Eyal Ophir, a cognitive scientist on the research team at Stanford, devised a test to measure this phenomenon. Subjects self-identifying as multitaskers were asked to keep track of red rectangles in series of images. When blue rectangles were introduced, multitaskers struggled to recognize whether or not the red rectangles had changed position from image to image. Normal testers significantly outperformed the multitaskers. Less than three percent of multitaskers (called “supertaskers”) are able to manage multiple information streams at once; for the vast majority of us, multitasking does not result in greater productivity.
Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich argues that our brains are being ‘massively remodeled’ by our constant and ever-growing usage of the Web. And it’s not just the Web that’s contributing to this trend. Our ability to focus is also being undermined by the constant distractions provided by smart phones and other digital technology. Television and video games are no exception. Another study showed that when presented with two identical TV shows, one of which had a news crawl at the bottom, viewers retained much more information about the show without the news crawl. The impact of these technologies on children may be even greater than the impact on adults, because their brains are still developing, and they already struggle to set proper priorities and resist impulses.
The implications of recent research on the impact of Web 2.0 “social” technologies for management decision making are significant. As it turns out, the “always-connected” harried executive scurrying through airports and train stations, holding multiple voice and text conversations with clients and co-workers on sometimes several mobile devices, might not be a very good decision maker. In fact, the quality of decision making most likely falls as the quantity of digital information increases through multiple channels, and managers lose their critical thinking capabilities. Likewise, in terms of management productivity, studies of Internet use in the workplace suggest that Web 2.0 social technologies offer managers new opportunities to waste time rather than focus on their responsibilities. Checked your Facebook page today? Clearly we need to find out more about the impacts of mobile and social technologies on management work.
Sources: Randall Stross, “Computers at Home: Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality,” *The New York Times*, July 9, 2010; Matt Richtel, “Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price,” *The New York Times*, June 6, 2010; Clay Shirky, “Does the Internet Make you Smarter?” *The Wall Street Journal*, June 4, 2010; Nicholas Carr, “Does the Internet Make you Dumber?” *The Wall Street Journal*, June 5, 2010; Ofer Malamud and Christian Pop-Echeles, “Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital,” January 2010; and “Is Technology Producing a Decline in Critical Thinking and Analysis?” Science Daily, January 29, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What are some of the arguments for and against the use of digital media?
2. How might the brain affected by constant digital media usage?
3. Do you think these arguments outweigh the positives of digital media usage? Why or why not?
4. What additional concerns are there for children using digital media? Should children under 8 use computers and cellphones? Why or why not?
**MIS IN ACTION**
1. Make a daily log for 1 week of all the activities you perform each day using digital technology (such as cell phones, computers, television, etc.) and the amount of time you spend on each. Note the occasions when you are multitasking. On average, how much time each day do you spend using digital technology? How much of this time do you spend multitasking? Do you think your life is too technology-intense? Justify your response.
4.4 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience in analyzing the privacy implications of using online data brokers, developing a corporate policy for employee Web usage, using blog creation tools to create a simple blog, and using Internet newsgroups for market research.
Management Decision Problems
1. USAData’s Web site is linked to massive databases that consolidate personal data on millions of people. Anyone with a credit card can purchase marketing lists of consumers broken down by location, age, income level, and interests. If you click on Consumer Leads to order a consumer mailing list, you can find the names, addresses, and sometimes phone numbers of potential sales leads residing in a specific location and purchase the list of those names. One could use this capability to obtain a list, for example, of everyone in Peekskill, New York, making $150,000 or more per year. Do data brokers such as USAData raise privacy issues? Why or why not? If your name and other personal information were in this database, what limitations on access would you want in order to preserve your privacy? Consider the following data users: government agencies, your employer, private business firms, other individuals.
2. As the head of a small insurance company with six employees, you are concerned about how effectively your company is using its networking and human resources. Budgets are tight, and you are struggling to meet payrolls because employees are reporting many overtime hours. You do not believe that the employees have a sufficiently heavy work load to warrant working longer hours and are looking into the amount of time they spend on the Internet.
WEB USAGE REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING JANUARY 9, 2010.
| USER NAME | MINUTES ONLINE | WEB SITE VISITED |
|--------------------|----------------|--------------------------|
| Kelleher, Claire | 45 | www.doubleclick.net |
| Kelleher, Claire | 107 | www.yahoo.com |
| Kelleher, Claire | 96 | www.insweb.com |
| McMahon, Patricia | 83 | www.itunes.com |
| McMahon, Patricia | 44 | www.insweb.com |
| Milligan, Robert | 112 | www.youtube.com |
| Milligan, Robert | 43 | www.travelocity.com |
| Olivera, Ernesto | 40 | www.CNN.com |
| Talbot, Helen | 125 | www.etrade.com |
| Talbot, Helen | 27 | www.nordstrom.com |
| Talbot, Helen | 35 | www.yahoo.com |
| Talbot, Helen | 73 | www.ebay.com |
| Wright, Steven | 23 | www.facebook.com |
| Wright, Steven | 15 | www.autobytel.com |
Each employee uses a computer with Internet access on the job. You requested the preceding weekly report of employee Web usage from your information systems department.
- Calculate the total amount of time each employee spent on the Web for the week and the total amount of time that company computers were used for this purpose. Rank the employees in the order of the amount of time each spent online.
• Do your findings and the contents of the report indicate any ethical problems employees are creating? Is the company creating an ethical problem by monitoring its employees’ use of the Internet?
• Use the guidelines for ethical analysis presented in this chapter to develop a solution to the problems you have identified.
**Achieving Operational Excellence: Creating a Simple Blog**
*Software skills:* Blog creation
*Business skills:* Blog and Web page design
In this project, you’ll learn how to build a simple blog of your own design using the online blog creation software available at Blogger.com. Pick a sport, hobby, or topic of interest as the theme for your blog. Name the blog, give it a title, and choose a template for the blog. Post at least four entries to the blog, adding a label for each posting. Edit your posts, if necessary. Upload an image, such as a photo from your hard drive or the Web to your blog. (Google recommends Open Photo, Flickr: Creative Commons, or Creative Commons Search as sources for photos. Be sure to credit the source for your image.) Add capabilities for other registered users, such as team members, to comment on your blog. Briefly describe how your blog could be useful to a company selling products or services related to the theme of your blog. List the tools available to Blogger (including Gadgets) that would make your blog more useful for business and describe the business uses of each. Save your blog and show it to your instructor.
**Improving Decision Making: Using Internet Newsgroups for Online Market Research**
*Software Skills:* Web browser software and Internet newsgroups
*Business Skills:* Using Internet newsgroups to identify potential customers
This project will help develop your Internet skills in using newsgroups for marketing. It will also ask you to think about the ethical implications of using information in online discussion groups for business purposes.
You are producing hiking boots that you sell through a few stores at this time. You think your boots are more comfortable than those of your competition. You believe you can undersell many of your competitors if you can significantly increase your production and sales. You would like to use Internet discussion groups interested in hiking, climbing, and camping both to sell your boots and to make them well known. Visit groups.google.com, which stores discussion postings from many thousands of newsgroups. Through this site you can locate all relevant newsgroups and search them by keyword, author’s name, forum, date, and subject. Choose a message and examine it carefully, noting all the information you can obtain, including information about the author.
• How could you use these newsgroups to market your boots?
• What ethical principles might you be violating if you use these messages to sell your boots? Do you think there are ethical problems in using newsgroups this way? Explain your answer.
• Next use Google or Yahoo.com to search the hiking boots industry and locate sites that will help you develop other new ideas for contacting potential customers.
• Given what you have learned in this and previous chapters, prepare a plan to use newsgroups and other alternative methods to begin attracting visitors to your site.
Learning Track Modules
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to the topics covered in this chapter:
1. Developing a Corporate Code of Ethics for Information Systems
2. Creating a Web Page
Review Summary
1. **What ethical, social, and political issues are raised by information systems?**
Information technology is introducing changes for which laws and rules of acceptable conduct have not yet been developed. Increasing computing power, storage, and networking capabilities—including the Internet—expand the reach of individual and organizational actions and magnify their impacts. The ease and anonymity with which information is now communicated, copied, and manipulated in online environments pose new challenges to the protection of privacy and intellectual property. The main ethical, social, and political issues raised by information systems center around information rights and obligations, property rights and obligations, accountability and control, system quality, and quality of life.
2. **What specific principles for conduct can be used to guide ethical decisions?**
Six ethical principles for judging conduct include the Golden Rule, Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative, Descartes’ rule of change, the Utilitarian Principle, the Risk Aversion Principle, and the ethical “no free lunch” rule. These principles should be used in conjunction with an ethical analysis.
3. **Why do contemporary information systems technology and the Internet pose challenges to the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property?**
Contemporary data storage and data analysis technology enables companies to easily gather personal data about individuals from many different sources and analyze these data to create detailed electronic profiles about individuals and their behaviors. Data flowing over the Internet can be monitored at many points. Cookies and other Web monitoring tools closely track the activities of Web site visitors. Not all Web sites have strong privacy protection policies, and they do not always allow for informed consent regarding the use of personal information. Traditional copyright laws are insufficient to protect against software piracy because digital material can be copied so easily and transmitted to many different locations simultaneously over the Internet.
4. **How have information systems affected everyday life?**
Although computer systems have been sources of efficiency and wealth, they have some negative impacts. Computer errors can cause serious harm to individuals and organizations. Poor data quality is also responsible for disruptions and losses for businesses. Jobs can be lost when computers replace workers or tasks become unnecessary in reengineered business processes. The ability to own and use a computer may be exacerbating socioeconomic disparities among different racial groups and social classes. Widespread use of computers increases opportunities for computer crime and computer abuse. Computers can also create health problems, such as RSI, computer vision syndrome, and technostress.
Key Terms
- Accountability, 129
- Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), 149
- Computer abuse, 145
- Computer crime, 145
- Computer vision syndrome (CVS), 149
- Cookies, 134
- Copyright, 139
- Descartes’ rule of change, 130
- Digital divide, 148
- Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 141
- Due process, 129
- Ethical “no free lunch” rule, 130
- Ethics, 124
- Fair Information Practices (FIP), 132
- Golden Rule, 130
- Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative, 130
- Information rights, 125
- Informed consent, 134
- Intellectual property, 138
- Liability, 129
- Nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA), 128
- Opt-in, 137
- Opt-out, 136
Review Questions
1. What ethical, social, and political issues are raised by information systems?
- Explain how ethical, social, and political issues are connected and give some examples.
- List and describe the key technological trends that heighten ethical concerns.
- Differentiate between responsibility, accountability, and liability.
2. What specific principles for conduct can be used to guide ethical decisions?
- List and describe the five steps in an ethical analysis.
- Identify and describe six ethical principles.
3. Why do contemporary information systems technology and the Internet pose challenges to the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property?
Discussion Questions
1. Should producers of software-based services, such as ATMs, be held liable for economic injuries suffered when their systems fail?
2. Should companies be responsible for unemployment caused by their information systems? Why or why not?
3. Discuss the pros and cons of allowing companies to amass personal data for behavioral targeting.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Developing a Corporate Ethics Code
With three or four of your classmates, develop a corporate ethics code that addresses both employee privacy and the privacy of customers and users of the corporate Web site. Be sure to consider e-mail privacy and employer monitoring of worksites, as well as corporate use of information about employees concerning their off-the-job behavior (e.g., lifestyle, marital arrangements, and so forth). If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop your solution and presentation for the class.
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
When new expensive medical therapies come along, promising to cure people of illness, one would think that the manufacturers, doctors, and technicians, along with the hospitals and state oversight agencies, would take extreme caution in their application and use. Often this is not the case. Contemporary radiation therapy offers a good example of society failing to anticipate and control the negative impacts of a technology powerful enough to kill people.
For individuals and their families suffering through a battle with cancer, technical advancements in radiation treatment represent hope and a chance for a healthy, cancer-free life. But when these highly complex machines used to treat cancers go awry or when medical technicians and doctors fail to follow proper safety procedures, it results in suffering worse than the ailments radiation aims to cure. A litany of horror stories underscores the consequences when hospitals fail to provide safe radiation treatment to cancer patients. In many of these horror stories, poor software design, poor human-machine interfaces, and lack of proper training are root causes of the problems.
The deaths of Scott Jerome-Parks and Alexandra Jn-Charles, both patients of New York City hospitals, are prime examples of radiation treatments going awry. Jerome-Parks worked in southern Manhattan near the site of the World Trade Center attacks, and suspected that the tongue cancer he developed later was related to toxic dust that he came in contact with after the attacks. His prognosis was uncertain at first, but he had some reason to be optimistic, given the quality of the treatment provided by state-of-the-art linear accelerators at St. Vincent’s Hospital, which he selected for his treatment. But after receiving erroneous dosages of radiation several times, his condition drastically worsened.
For the most part, state-of-the-art linear accelerators do in fact provide effective and safe care for cancer patients, and Americans safely receive an increasing amount of medical radiation each year. Radiation helps to diagnose and treat all sorts of cancers, saving many patients’ lives in the process, and is administered safely to over half of all cancer patients. Whereas older machines were only capable of imaging a tumor in two dimensions and projecting straight beams of radiation, newer linear accelerators are capable of modeling cancerous tumors in three dimensions and shaping beams of radiation to conform to those shapes.
One of the most common issues with radiation therapy is finding ways to destroy cancerous cells while preserving healthy cells. Using this beam-shaping technique, radiation doesn’t pass through as much healthy tissue to reach the cancerous areas. Hospitals advertised their new accelerators as being able to treat previously untreatable cancers because of the precision of the beam-shaping method. Using older machinery, cancers that were too close to important bodily structures were considered too dangerous to treat with radiation due to the imprecision of the equipment.
How, then, are radiation-related accidents increasing in frequency, given the advances in linear acceleration technology? In the cases of Jerome-Parks and Jn-Charles, a combination of machine malfunctions and user error led to these frightening mistakes. Jerome-Parks’s brain stem and neck were exposed to excessive dosages of radiation on three separate occasions because of a computer error. The linear accelerator used to treat Jerome-Parks is known as a multi-leaf collimator, a newer, more powerful model that uses over a hundred metal “leaves” to adjust the shape and strength of the beam. The St. Vincent’s hospital collimator was made by Varian Medical Systems, a leading supplier of radiation equipment.
Dr. Anthony M. Berson, St. Vincent’s chief radiation oncologist, reworked Mr. Jerome Parks’s radiation treatment plan to give more protection to his teeth. Nina Kalach, the medical physicist in charge of implementing Jerome-Parks’s radiation treatment plan, used Varian software to revise the plan. State records show that as Ms. Kalach was trying to save her work, the computer began seizing up, displaying an error message. The error message asked if Ms. Kalach wanted to save her changes before the program aborted and she responded that she did. Dr. Berson approved the plan.
Six minutes after another computer crash, the first of several radioactive beams was turned on, followed by several additional rounds of radiation the next few days. After the third treatment, Ms. Kalach ran a test to verify that the treatment plan was carried out as prescribed, and found that the multileaf collimator,
which was supposed to focus the beam precisely on Mr. Jerome Parks's tumor, was wide open. The patient's entire neck had been exposed and Mr. Jerome-Parks had seven times the prescribed dose of radiation.
As a result of the radiation overdose, Mr. Jerome-Parks's experienced deafness and near-blindness, ulcers in his mouth and throat, persistent nausea, and severe pain. His teeth were falling out, he couldn't swallow, and he was eventually unable to breathe. He died soon after, at the age of 43.
Jn-Charles's case was similarly tragic. A 32-year old mother of two from Brooklyn, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, but her outlook seemed good after breast surgery and chemotherapy, with only 28 days of radiation treatments left to perform. However, the linear accelerator used at the Brooklyn hospital where Jn-Charles was treated was not a multi-leaf collimator, but instead a slightly older model, which uses a device known as a "wedge" to prevent radiation from reaching unintended areas of the body.
On the day of her 28th and final session, technicians realized that something had gone wrong. Jn-Charles's skin had slowly begun to peel and seemed to resist healing. When the hospital looked into the treatment to see why this could have happened, they discovered that the linear accelerator lacked the crucial command to insert the wedge, which must be programmed by the user. Technicians had failed to notice error messages on their screens indicating the missing wedge during each of the 27 sessions. This meant that Jn-Charles had been exposed to almost quadruple the normal amount of radiation during each of those 27 visits.
Ms. Jn-Charles's radiation overdose created a wound that would not heal despite numerous sessions in a hyperbaric chamber and multiple surgeries. Although the wound closed up over a year later, she died shortly afterwards.
It might seem that the carelessness or laziness of the medical technicians who administered treatment is primarily to blame in these cases, but other factors have contributed just as much. The complexity of new linear accelerator technology has not been accompanied with appropriate updates in software, training, safety procedures, and staffing. St. Vincent's hospital stated that system crashes similar to those involved in the improper therapy for Mr. Jerome-Parks "are not uncommon with the Varian software, and these issues have been communicated to Varian on numerous occasions."
Manufacturers of these machines boast that they can safely administer radiation treatment to more and more patients each day, but hospitals are rarely able to adjust their staffing to handle those workloads or increase the amount of training technicians receive before using newer machines. Medical technicians incorrectly assume that the new systems and software are going to work correctly, but in reality they have not been tested over long periods of time.
Many of these errors could have been detected if the machine operators were paying attention. In fact, many of the reported errors involve mistakes as simple and as egregious as treating patients for the wrong cancers; in one example, a brain cancer patient received radiation intended for breast cancer. Today's linear accelerators also lack some of the necessary safeguards given the amounts of radiation that they can deliver. For example, many linear accelerators are unable to alert users when a dosage of radiation far exceeds the necessary amount to effectively damage a cancerous tumor. Though responsibility ultimately rests with the technician, software programmers may not have designed their product with the technician's needs in mind.
Though the complexity of newer machines has exposed the inadequacy of the safety procedures hospitals employ for radiation treatments, the increasing number of patients receiving radiation due to the speed and increased capability of these machines has created other problems. Technicians at many of the hospitals reporting radiation-related errors reported being chronically overworked, often dealing with over a hundred patients per day. These already swamped medical technicians are not forced to check over the settings of the linear accelerators that they are handling, and errors that are introduced to the computer systems early on are difficult to detect. As a result, the same erroneous treatment may be administered repeatedly, until the technicians and doctors have a reason to check it. Often, the reason is a seriously injured patient.
Further complicating the issue is the fact that the total number of radiation-related accidents each year is essentially unknown. No single agency exists to collect data across the country on these accidents, and many states don't even require that accidents be reported. Even in states that do, hospitals are often reluctant to report errors that they've made, fearful that it will scare potential patients away, affecting their bottom lines. Some instances of hospital error are difficult to detect, since radiation-related cancer may appear a long while after the faulty treatment,
and under-radiation doesn’t result in any observable injury. Even in New York, which has one of the strictest accident reporting requirements in place and keeps reporting hospitals anonymous to encourage them to share their data, a significant portion of errors go unreported—perhaps even a majority of errors.
The problem is certainly not unique to New York. In New Jersey, 36 patients were over-radiated at a single hospital by an inexperienced team of technicians, and the mistakes continued for months in the absence of a system that detected treatment errors. Patients in Louisiana, Texas, and California repeatedly received incorrect dosages that led to other crippling ailments. Nor is the issue unique to the United States. In Panama, 28 patients at the National Cancer Institute received overdoses of radiation for various types of cancers. Doctors had ordered medical physicists to add a fifth “block,” or metal sheet similar to the “leaves” in a multi-leaf collimator, to their linear accelerators, which were only designed to support four blocks. When the staff attempted to get the machine software to work with the extra block, the results were miscalculated dosages and over-radiated patients.
The lack of a central U.S. reporting and regulatory agency for radiation therapy means that in the event of a radiation-related mistake, all of the groups involved are able to avoid ultimate responsibility. Medical machinery and software manufacturers claim that it’s the doctors and medical technicians’ responsibility to properly use the machines, and the hospitals’ responsibility to properly budget time and resources for training. Technicians claim that they are understaffed and overworked, and that there are no procedures in place to check their work and no time to do so even if there were. Hospitals claim that the newer machinery lacks the proper fail-safe mechanisms and that there is no room on already limited budgets for the training that equipment manufacturers claim is required.
Currently, the responsibility for regulating these incidents falls upon the states, which vary widely in their enforcement of reporting. Many states require no reporting at all, but even in a state like Ohio, which requires reporting of medical mistakes within 15 days of the incident, these rules are routinely broken. Moreover, radiation technicians do not require a license in Ohio, as they do in many other states.
Dr. Fred A. Mettler, Jr., a radiation expert who has investigated radiation accidents worldwide, notes that “while there are accidents, you wouldn’t want to scare people to death where they don’t get needed radiation therapy.” And it bears repeating that the vast majority of the time, radiation works, and saves some people from terminal cancer. But technicians, hospitals, equipment and software manufacturers, and regulators all need to collaborate to create a common set of safety procedures, software features, reporting standards, and certification requirements for technicians in order to reduce the number of radiation accidents.
Sources: Walt Bogdanich, “Medical Group Urges New Rules on Radiation,” *The New York Times*, February 4, 2010; “As Technology Surges, Radiation Safeguards Lag,” *The New York Times*, January 27, 2010; “Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm,” *The New York Times*, January 24, 2010; and “Case Studies: When Medical Radiation Goes Awry,” *The New York Times*, January 21, 2010.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What concepts in the chapter are illustrated in this case? What ethical issues are raised by radiation technology?
2. What management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for the problems detailed in this case? Explain the role of each.
3. Do you feel that any of the groups involved with this issue (hospital administrators, technicians, medical equipment and software manufacturers) should accept the majority of the blame for these incidents? Why or why not?
4. How would a central reporting agency that gathered data on radiation-related accidents help reduce the number of radiation therapy errors in the future?
5. If you were in charge of designing electronic software for a linear accelerator, what are some features you would include? Are there any features you would avoid?
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Part Two provides the technical foundation for understanding information systems by examining hardware, software, database, and networking technologies along with tools and techniques for security and control. This part answers questions such as: What technologies do businesses today need to accomplish their work? What do I need to know about these technologies to make sure they enhance the performance of the firm? How are these technologies likely to change in the future? What technologies and procedures are required to ensure that systems are reliable and secure?
Chapter 5
IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What is IT infrastructure and what are its components?
2. What are the stages and technology drivers of IT infrastructure evolution?
3. What are the current trends in computer hardware platforms?
4. What are the current trends in software platforms?
5. What are the challenges of managing IT infrastructure and management solutions?
Interactive Sessions:
New to the Touch
Is Green Computing Good for Business?
CHAPTER OUTLINE
5.1 IT INFRASTRUCTURE
Defining IT Infrastructure
Evolution of IT Infrastructure
Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
5.2 INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS
Computer Hardware Platforms
Operating System Platforms
Enterprise Software Applications
Data Management and Storage
Networking/Telecommunications Platforms
Internet Platforms
Consulting and System Integration Services
5.3 CONTEMPORARY HARDWARE PLATFORM TRENDS
The Emerging Mobile Digital Platform
Grid Computing
Virtualization
Cloud Computing
Green Computing
Autonomic Computing
High-Performance and Power-Saving Processors
5.4 CONTEMPORARY SOFTWARE PLATFORM TRENDS
Linux and Open Source Software
Software for the Web: Java and Ajax
Web Services and Service-Oriented Architecture
Software Outsourcing and Cloud Services
5.5 MANAGEMENT ISSUES
Dealing with Platform and Infrastructure Change
Management and Governance
Making Wise Infrastructure Investments
5.6 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Improving Decision Making: Using a Spreadsheet to Evaluate Hardware and Software Options
Improving Decision Making: Using Web Research to Budget for a Sales Conference
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
How Computer Hardware and Software Work
Service Level Agreements
The Open Source Software Initiative
Comparing Stages in IT Infrastructure Evolution
Cloud Computing
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a heavy-rail public transit system that connects San Francisco to Oakland, California, and other neighboring cities to the east and south. BART has provided fast, reliable transportation for more than 35 years and now carries more than 346,000 passengers each day over 104 miles of track and 43 stations. It provides an alternative to driving on bridges and highways, decreasing travel time and the number of cars on the Bay Area's congested roads. It is the fifth busiest rapid transit system in the United States.
BART recently embarked on an ambitious modernization effort to overhaul stations, deploy new rail cars, and extend routes. This modernization effort also encompassed BART's information technology infrastructure. BART's information systems were no longer state-of-the art, and they were starting to affect its ability to provide good service. Aging homegrown financial and human resources systems could no longer provide information rapidly enough for making timely decisions, and they were too unreliable to support its 24/7 operations.
BART upgraded both its hardware and software. It replaced old legacy mainframe applications with Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise applications running on HP Integrity blade servers and the Oracle Enterprise Linux operating system. This configuration provides more flexibility and room to grow because BART is able to run the PeopleSoft software in conjunction with new applications it could not previously run.
BART wanted to create a high-availability IT infrastructure using grid computing where it could match computing and storage capacity more closely to actual demand. BART chose to run its applications on a cluster of servers using a grid architecture. Multiple operating environments share capacity and computing resources that can be provisioned, distributed, and redistributed as needed over the grid.
In most data centers, a distinct server is deployed for each application, and each server typically uses only a fraction of its capacity. BART uses virtualization to run multiple applications on the same server, increasing server capacity utilization to 50 percent or higher. This means fewer servers can be used to accomplish the same amount of work.
With blade servers, if BART needs more capacity, it can add another server to the main system. Energy usage is minimized because BART does not have to purchase computing capacity it doesn't need and the blade servers' stripped down modular design minimizes the use of physical space and energy.
By using less hardware and using existing computing resources more efficiently, BART's grid environment saves power and cooling costs. Consolidating applications onto a shared grid of server capacity is expected to reduce energy usage by about 20 percent.
BART has been widely praised as a successful modern rapid transit system, but its operations and ability to grow where needed were hampered by an outdated IT infrastructure. BART’s management felt the best solution was to invest in new hardware and software technologies that were more cost-effective, efficient, and energy-saving.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Management realized that in order to keep providing the level of service expected by Bay Area residents, it had to modernize its operations, including the hardware and software used for running the organization. The IT infrastructure investments it made had to support BART’s business goals and contribute to improving its performance. Other goals included reducing costs and also “green” goals of reducing power and materials consumption.
By replacing its legacy software and computers with blade servers on a grid and more modern business software, BART was able to reduce wasted computer resources not used for processing, use existing resources more efficiently, and cut costs and power consumption. New software tools make it much easier to develop new applications and services. BART’s IT infrastructure is easier to manage and capable of scaling to accommodate growing processing loads and new business opportunities. This case shows that the right hardware and software investments not only improve business performance but can also contribute to important social goals, such as conservation of power and materials.
5.1 IT INFRASTRUCTURE
In Chapter 1, we defined *information technology (IT) infrastructure* as the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific information system applications. IT infrastructure includes investment in hardware, software, and services—such as consulting, education, and training—that are shared across the entire firm or across entire business units in the firm. A firm’s IT infrastructure provides the foundation for serving customers, working with vendors, and managing internal firm business processes (see Figure 5-1).
Supplying U.S. firms with IT infrastructure (hardware and software) in 2010 is estimated to be a $1 trillion industry when telecommunications, networking equipment, and telecommunications services (Internet, telephone, and data transmission) are included. This does not include IT and related business process consulting services, which would add another $800 billion. Investments in infrastructure account for between 25 and 50 percent of information technology expenditures in large firms, led by financial services firms where IT investment is well over half of all capital investment (Weill et al., 2002).
**DEFINING IT INFRASTRUCTURE**
IT infrastructure consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate the entire enterprise. But IT infrastructure is also a set of firmwide services budgeted by management and comprising both human and technical capabilities. These services include the following:
**FIGURE 5-1 CONNECTION BETWEEN THE FIRM, IT INFRASTRUCTURE, AND BUSINESS CAPABILITIES**
The services a firm is capable of providing to its customers, suppliers, and employees are a direct function of its IT infrastructure. Ideally, this infrastructure should support the firm’s business and information systems strategy. New information technologies have a powerful impact on business and IT strategies, as well as the services that can be provided to customers.
• Computing platforms used to provide computing services that connect employees, customers, and suppliers into a coherent digital environment, including large mainframes, midrange computers, desktop and laptop computers, and mobile handheld devices.
• Telecommunications services that provide data, voice, and video connectivity to employees, customers, and suppliers.
• Data management services that store and manage corporate data and provide capabilities for analyzing the data.
• Application software services that provide enterprise-wide capabilities such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and knowledge management systems that are shared by all business units.
• Physical facilities management services that develop and manage the physical installations required for computing, telecommunications, and data management services.
• IT management services that plan and develop the infrastructure, coordinate with the business units for IT services, manage accounting for the IT expenditure, and provide project management services.
• IT standards services that provide the firm and its business units with policies that determine which information technology will be used, when, and how.
• IT education services that provide training in system use to employees and offer managers training in how to plan for and manage IT investments.
• IT research and development services that provide the firm with research on potential future IT projects and investments that could help the firm differentiate itself in the marketplace.
This “service platform” perspective makes it easier to understand the business value provided by infrastructure investments. For instance, the real business value of a fully loaded personal computer operating at 3 gigahertz that costs about $1,000 or a high-speed Internet connection is hard to understand without knowing who will use it and how it will be used. When we look at the services provided by these tools, however, their value becomes more apparent: The new PC makes it possible for a high-cost employee making $100,000 a year to connect to all the company’s major systems and the public Internet. The high-speed Internet service saves this employee about one hour per day in reduced wait time for Internet information. Without this PC and Internet connection, the value of this one employee to the firm might be cut in half.
**EVOLUTION OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE**
The IT infrastructure in organizations today is an outgrowth of over 50 years of evolution in computing platforms. There have been five stages in this evolution, each representing a different configuration of computing power and infrastructure elements (see Figure 5-2). The five eras are general-purpose mainframe and minicomputer computing, personal computers, client/server networks, enterprise computing, and cloud and mobile computing.
Technologies that characterize one era may also be used in another time period for other purposes. For example, some companies still run traditional mainframe systems or use mainframe computers as massive servers supporting large Web sites and corporate enterprise applications.
Illustrated here are the typical computing configurations characterizing each of the five eras of IT infrastructure evolution.
General-Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer Era: (1959 to Present)
The introduction of the IBM 1401 and 7090 transistorized machines in 1959 marked the beginning of widespread commercial use of **mainframe** computers. In 1965, the mainframe computer truly came into its own with the introduction of the IBM 360 series. The 360 was the first commercial computer with a powerful operating system that could provide time sharing, multitasking, and virtual memory in more advanced models. IBM has dominated mainframe computing from this point on. Mainframe computers became powerful enough to support thousands of online remote terminals connected to the centralized mainframe using proprietary communication protocols and proprietary data lines.
The mainframe era was a period of highly centralized computing under the control of professional programmers and systems operators (usually in a corporate data center), with most elements of infrastructure provided by a single vendor, the manufacturer of the hardware and the software.
This pattern began to change with the introduction of **minicomputers** produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1965. DEC minicomputers (PDP-11 and later the VAX machines) offered powerful machines at far lower prices than IBM mainframes, making possible decentralized computing, customized to the specific needs of individual departments or business units rather than time sharing on a single huge mainframe. In recent years, the minicomputer has evolved into a midrange computer or midrange server and is part of a network.
Personal Computer Era: (1981 to Present)
Although the first truly personal computers (PCs) appeared in the 1970s (the Xerox Alto, the MITS Altair 8800, and the Apple I and II, to name a few), these machines had only limited distribution to computer enthusiasts. The appearance of the IBM PC in 1981 is usually considered the beginning of the PC era because this machine was the first to be widely adopted by American businesses. At first using the DOS operating system, a text-based command language, and later the Microsoft Windows operating system, the **Wintel PC** computer (Windows operating system software on a computer with an Intel microprocessor) became the standard desktop personal computer. Today, 95 percent of the world’s estimated 1.5 billion computers use the Wintel standard.
Proliferation of PCs in the 1980s and early 1990s launched a spate of personal desktop productivity software tools—word processors, spreadsheets, electronic presentation software, and small data management programs—that were very valuable to both home and corporate users. These PCs were standalone systems until PC operating system software in the 1990s made it possible to link them into networks.
Client/Server Era (1983 to Present)
In **client/server computing**, desktop or laptop computers called **clients** are networked to powerful **server** computers that provide the client computers with a variety of services and capabilities. Computer processing work is split between these two types of machines. The client is the user point of entry, whereas the server typically processes and stores shared data, serves up Web pages, or manages network activities. The term “server” refers to both the software application and the physical computer on which the network software runs. The server could be a mainframe, but today, server computers typically are more powerful versions of personal computers, based on inexpensive chips and often using multiple processors in a single computer box.
The simplest client/server network consists of a client computer networked to a server computer, with processing split between the two types of machines. This is called a *two-tiered client/server architecture*. Whereas simple client/server networks can be found in small businesses, most corporations have more complex, **multitiered** (often called **N-tier**) **client/server architectures** in which the work of the entire network is balanced over several different levels of servers, depending on the kind of service being requested (see Figure 5-3).
For instance, at the first level, a **Web server** will serve a Web page to a client in response to a request for service. Web server software is responsible for locating and managing stored Web pages. If the client requests access to a corporate system (a product list or price information, for instance), the request is passed along to an **application server**. Application server software handles all application operations between a user and an organization's back-end business systems. The application server may reside on the same computer as the Web server or on its own dedicated computer. Chapters 6 and 7 provide more detail on other pieces of software that are used in multitiered client/server architectures for e-commerce and e-business.
Client/server computing enables businesses to distribute computing work across a series of smaller, inexpensive machines that cost much less than minicomputers or centralized mainframe systems. The result is an explosion in computing power and applications throughout the firm.
Novell NetWare was the leading technology for client/server networking at the beginning of the client/server era. Today, Microsoft is the market leader with its **Windows** operating systems (Windows Server, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP).
**Enterprise Computing Era (1992 to Present)**
In the early 1990s, firms turned to networking standards and software tools that could integrate disparate networks and applications throughout the firm into an enterprise-wide infrastructure. As the Internet developed into a trusted communications environment after 1995, business firms began seriously using the *Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol* (*TCP/IP*) networking.
**FIGURE 5-3 A MULTITIERED CLIENT/SERVER NETWORK (N-TIER)**
In a multitiered client/server network, client requests for service are handled by different levels of servers.
standard to tie their disparate networks together. We discuss TCP/IP in detail in Chapter 7.
The resulting IT infrastructure links different pieces of computer hardware and smaller networks into an enterprise-wide network so that information can flow freely across the organization and between the firm and other organizations. It can link different types of computer hardware, including mainframes, servers, PCs, mobile phones, and other handheld devices, and it includes public infrastructures such as the telephone system, the Internet, and public network services. The enterprise infrastructure also requires software to link disparate applications and enable data to flow freely among different parts of the business, such as enterprise applications (see Chapters 2 and 9) and Web services (discussed in Section 5.4).
**Cloud and Mobile Computing Era (2000 to Present)**
The growing bandwidth power of the Internet has pushed the client/server model one step further, towards what is called the “Cloud Computing Model.” **Cloud computing** refers to a model of computing that provides access to a shared pool of computing resources (computers, storage, applications, and services), over a network, often the Internet. These “clouds” of computing resources can be accessed on an as-needed basis from any connected device and location. Currently, cloud computing is the fastest growing form of computing, with global revenue expected to reach close to $89 billion in 2011 and nearly $149 billion by 2014 according to Gartner Inc. technology consultants (Cheng and Borzo, 2010; Veverka, 2010).
Thousands or even hundreds of thousands computers are located in cloud data centers, where they can be accessed by desktop computers, laptop computers, netbooks, entertainment centers, mobile devices, and other client machines linked to the Internet, with both personal and corporate computing increasingly moving to mobile platforms. IBM, HP, Dell, and Amazon operate huge, scalable cloud computing centers that provide computing power, data storage, and high-speed Internet connections to firms that want to maintain their IT infrastructures remotely. Software firms such as Google, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce.com sell software applications as services delivered over the Internet.
We discuss cloud computing in more detail in Section 5.3. The Learning Tracks include a table on Stages in IT Infrastructure Evolution, which compares each era on the infrastructure dimensions introduced.
**TECHNOLOGY DRIVERS OF INFRASTRUCTURE EVOLUTION**
The changes in IT infrastructure we have just described have resulted from developments in computer processing, memory chips, storage devices, telecommunications and networking hardware and software, and software design that have exponentially increased computing power while exponentially reducing costs. Let’s look at the most important developments.
**Moore’s Law and Microprocessing Power**
In 1965, Gordon Moore, the directory of Fairchild Semiconductor’s Research and Development Laboratories, an early manufacturer of integrated circuits, wrote in *Electronics* magazine that since the first microprocessor chip was introduced in 1959, the number of components on a chip with the smallest
manufacturing costs per component (generally transistors) had doubled each year. This assertion became the foundation of Moore’s Law. Moore later reduced the rate of growth to a doubling every two years.
This law would later be interpreted in multiple ways. There are at least three variations of Moore’s Law, none of which Moore ever stated: (1) the power of microprocessors doubles every 18 months; (2) computing power doubles every 18 months; and (3) the price of computing falls by half every 18 months.
Figure 5-4 illustrates the relationship between number of transistors on a microprocessor and millions of instructions per second (MIPS), a common measure of processor power. Figure 5-5 shows the exponential decline in the cost of transistors and rise in computing power. In 2010 for instance, and Intel 8-Core Xeon processor contains 2.3 billion transistors.
Exponential growth in the number of transistors and the power of processors coupled with an exponential decline in computing costs is likely to continue. Chip manufacturers continue to miniaturize components. Today’s transistors should no longer be compared to the size of a human hair but rather to the size of a virus.
By using nanotechnology, chip manufacturers can even shrink the size of transistors down to the width of several atoms. Nanotechnology uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other devices that are thousands of times smaller than current technologies permit. Chip manufacturers are trying to develop a manufacturing process that could produce nanotube processors economically (Figure 5-6). IBM has just started making microprocessors in a production setting using this technology.
**The Law of Mass Digital Storage**
A second technology driver of IT infrastructure change is the Law of Mass Digital Storage. The world produces as much as 5 exabytes of unique information per year (an exabyte is a billion gigabytes, or $10^{18}$ bytes). The amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year (Lyman and Varian, 2003). Fortunately, the cost of storing digital information is falling at an exponential
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**FIGURE 5-4 MOORE’S LAW AND MICROPROCESSOR PERFORMANCE**
Packing over 2 billion transistors into a tiny microprocessor has exponentially increased processing power. Processing power has increased to over 500,000 MIPS (millions of instructions per second).
Sources: Intel, 2010; authors’ estimate.
Packing more transistors into less space has driven down transistor cost dramatically as well as the cost of the products in which they are used.
Source: Intel, 2010; authors’ estimates.
Nanotubes are tiny tubes about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. They consist of rolled up sheets of carbon hexagons and have the potential uses as minuscule wires or in ultrasmall electronic devices and are very powerful conductors of electrical current.
rate of 100 percent a year. Figure 5-7 shows that the number of kilobytes that can be stored on magnetic media for $1 from 1950 to the present roughly doubled every 15 months.
**Metcalfe’s Law and Network Economics**
Moore’s Law and the Law of Mass Storage help us understand why computing resources are now so readily available. But why do people want more computing and storage power? The economics of networks and the growth of the Internet provide some answers.
Robert Metcalfe—inventor of Ethernet local area network technology—claimed in 1970 that the value or power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the number of network members. Metcalfe and others point to the *increasing returns to scale* that network members receive as more and more people join the network. As the number of members in a network grows linearly, the value of the entire system grows exponentially and continues to grow forever as members increase. Demand for information technology has been driven by the social and business value of digital networks, which rapidly multiply the number of actual and potential links among network members.
**Declining Communications Costs and the Internet**
A fourth technology driver transforming IT infrastructure is the rapid decline in the costs of communication and the exponential growth in the size of the
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**FIGURE 5-7 THE COST OF STORING DATA DECLINES EXPONENTIALLY 1950–2010**
Since the first magnetic storage device was used in 1955, the cost of storing a kilobyte of data has fallen exponentially, doubling the amount of digital storage for each dollar expended every 15 months on average.
Sources: Kurzweil 2003; authors’ estimates.
Internet. An estimated 1.8 billion people worldwide now have Internet access (Internet World Stats, 2010). Figure 5-8 illustrates the exponentially declining cost of communication both over the Internet and over telephone networks (which increasingly are based on the Internet). As communication costs fall toward a very small number and approach 0, utilization of communication and computing facilities explodes.
To take advantage of the business value associated with the Internet, firms must greatly expand their Internet connections, including wireless connectivity, and greatly expand the power of their client/server networks, desktop clients, and mobile computing devices. There is every reason to believe these trends will continue.
**Standards and Network Effects**
Today’s enterprise infrastructure and Internet computing would be impossible—both now and in the future—without agreements among manufacturers and widespread consumer acceptance of **technology standards**. Technology standards are specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network (Stango, 2004).
Technology standards unleash powerful economies of scale and result in price declines as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standard. Without these economies of scale, computing of any sort would be far more expensive than is currently the case. Table 5-1 describes important standards that have shaped IT infrastructure.
Beginning in the 1990s, corporations started moving toward standard computing and communications platforms. The Wintel PC with the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office desktop productivity applications became the standard desktop and mobile client computing platform. Widespread adoption of Unix as the enterprise server operating system of choice made possible the replacement of proprietary and expensive mainframe infrastructures. In telecommunications, the Ethernet standard enabled PCs to connect together in small local area networks (LANs; see Chapter 7), and the TCP/IP standard enabled these LANs to be connected into firm-wide networks, and ultimately, to the Internet.
**FIGURE 5-8** **EXPONENTIAL DECLINES IN INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS COSTS**
One reason for the growth in the Internet population is the rapid decline in Internet connection and overall communication costs. The cost per kilobit of Internet access has fallen exponentially since 1995. Digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modems now deliver a kilobit of communication for a retail price of around 2 cents.
*Source: Authors.*
### Table 5-1 Some Important Standards in Computing
| STANDARD | SIGNIFICANCE |
|-----------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) (1958) | Made it possible for computer machines from different manufacturers to exchange data; later used as the universal language linking input and output devices such as keyboards and mice to computers. Adopted by the American National Standards Institute in 1963. |
| Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) (1959) | An easy-to-use software language that greatly expanded the ability of programmers to write business-related programs and reduced the cost of software. Sponsored by the Defense Department in 1959. |
| Unix (1969–1975) | A powerful multitasking, multiuser, portable operating system initially developed at Bell Labs (1969) and later released for use by others (1975). It operates on a wide variety of computers from different manufacturers. Adopted by Sun, IBM, HP, and others in the 1980s, it became the most widely used enterprise-level operating system. |
| Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) (1974) | Suite of communications protocols and a common addressing scheme that enables millions of computers to connect together in one giant global network (the Internet). Later, it was used as the default networking protocol suite for local area networks and intranets. Developed in the early 1970s for the U.S. Department of Defense. |
| Ethernet (1973) | A network standard for connecting desktop computers into local area networks that enabled the widespread adoption of client/server computing and local area networks, and further stimulated the adoption of personal computers. |
| IBM/Microsoft/Intel Personal Computer (1981) | The standard Wintel design for personal desktop computing based on standard Intel processors and other standard devices, Microsoft DOS, and later Windows software. The emergence of this standard, low-cost product laid the foundation for a 25-year period of explosive growth in computing throughout all organizations around the globe. Today, more than 1 billion PCs power business and government activities every day. |
| World Wide Web (1989–1993) | Standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information as a worldwide web of electronic pages incorporating text, graphics, audio, and video enables creation of a global repository of billions of Web pages. |
### 5.2 Infrastructure Components
IT infrastructure today is composed of seven major components. Figure 5-9 illustrates these infrastructure components and the major vendors within each component category. These components constitute investments that must be coordinated with one another to provide the firm with a coherent infrastructure.
In the past, technology vendors supplying these components were often in competition with one another, offering purchasing firms a mixture of incompatible, proprietary, partial solutions. But increasingly the vendor firms have been forced by large customers to cooperate in strategic partnerships with one another. For instance, a hardware and services provider such as IBM cooperates with all the major enterprise software providers, has strategic relationships with system integrators, and promises to work with whichever database products its client firms wish to use (even though it sells its own database management software called DB2).
### Computer Hardware Platforms
U.S. firms will spend about $109 billion in 2010 on computer hardware. This component includes client machines (desktop PCs, mobile computing devices such as netbooks and laptops but not including iPhones or BlackBerrys) and
There are seven major components that must be coordinated to provide the firm with a coherent IT infrastructure. Listed here are major technologies and suppliers for each component.
server machines. The client machines use primarily Intel or AMD microprocessors. In 2010, there will be about 90 million PCs sold to U.S. customers (400 million worldwide) (Gartner, 2010).
The server market uses mostly Intel or AMD processors in the form of blade servers in racks, but also includes Sun SPARC microprocessors and IBM POWER chips specially designed for server use. **Blade servers**, which we discussed in the chapter-opening case, are ultrathin computers consisting of a circuit board with processors, memory, and network connections that are stored in racks. They take up less space than traditional box-based servers. Secondary storage may be provided by a hard drive in each blade server or by external mass-storage drives.
The marketplace for computer hardware has increasingly become concentrated in top firms such as IBM, HP, Dell, and Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle), and three chip producers: Intel, AMD, and IBM. The industry has collectively settled on Intel as the standard processor, with major exceptions in the server market for Unix and Linux machines, which might use Sun or IBM Unix processors.
Mainframes have not disappeared. The mainframe market has actually grown steadily over the last decade, although the number of providers has dwindled to one: IBM. IBM has also repurposed its mainframe systems so they can be used as giant servers for massive enterprise networks and corporate Web sites. A single IBM mainframe can run up to 17,000 instances of Linux or Windows server software and is capable of replacing thousands of smaller blade servers (see the discussion of virtualization in Section 5.3).
**OPERATING SYSTEM PLATFORMS**
In 2010, Microsoft Windows comprises about 75 percent of the server operating system market, with 25 percent of corporate servers using some form of the Unix operating system or Linux, an inexpensive and robust open source relative of Unix. Microsoft Windows Server is capable of providing enterprise-wide operating system and network services, and appeals to organizations seeking Windows-based IT infrastructures (IDC, 2010).
Unix and Linux are scalable, reliable, and much less expensive than mainframe operating systems. They can also run on many different types of processors. The major providers of Unix operating systems are IBM, HP, and Sun, each with slightly different and partially incompatible versions.
At the client level, 90 percent of PCs use some form of Microsoft Windows operating system (such as Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP) to manage the resources and activities of the computer. However, there is now a much greater variety of operating systems than in the past, with new operating systems for computing on handheld mobile digital devices or cloud-connected computers.
Google’s Chrome OS provides a lightweight operating system for cloud computing using netbooks. Programs are not stored on the user’s PC but are used over the Internet and accessed through the Chrome Web browser. User data resides on servers across the Internet. Microsoft has introduced the Windows Azure operating system for its cloud services and platform. Android is a mobile operating system developed by Android, Inc. (purchased by Google) and later the Open Handset Alliance as a flexible, upgradeable mobile device platform.
Conventional client operating system software is designed around the mouse and keyboard, but increasingly becoming more natural and intuitive by using touch technology. iPhone OS, the operating system for the phenomenally popular Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, features a multitouch interface, where users use their fingers to manipulate objects on the screen. The Interactive Session on Technology explores the implications of using multitouch to interact with the computer.
**ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS**
In addition to software for applications used by specific groups or business units, U.S. firms will spend about $165 billion in 2010 on software for enterprise applications that are treated as components of IT infrastructure. We introduced the various types of enterprise applications in Chapter 2, and Chapter 9 provides a more detailed discussion of each.
The largest providers of enterprise application software are SAP and Oracle (which acquired PeopleSoft). Also included in this category is middleware software supplied by vendors such as BEA for achieving firmwide integration by linking the firm’s existing application systems. Microsoft is attempting to move into the lower ends of this market by focusing on small and medium-sized businesses that have not yet implemented enterprise applications.
NEW TO THE TOUCH
When Steve Jobs first demonstrated “the pinch”—the two-finger gesture for zooming in and out of photos and Web pages on the iPhone, he not only shook up the mobile phone industry—the entire digital world took notice. The Apple iPhone’s multitouch features dramatized new ways of using touch to interact with software and devices.
Touch interfaces are not new. People use them every day to get money from ATMs or to check into flights at airport kiosks. Academic and commercial researchers have been working on multitouch technology for years. What Apple did was to make multitouch more exciting and relevant, popularizing it just as it did in the 1980s with the mouse and the graphical user interface. (These had also been invented elsewhere.)
Multitouch interfaces are potentially more versatile than single-touch interfaces. They allow you to use one or more fingers to perform special gestures that manipulate lists or objects on a screen without moving a mouse, pressing buttons, turning scroll wheels, or striking keys. They take different actions depending on how many fingers they detect and which gestures a user performs. Multitouch gestures are easier to remember than commands because they are based on ingrained human movements that do not have to be learned, scientists say.
The iPhone’s Multi-Touch display and software lets you control everything using only your fingers. A panel underneath the display’s glass cover senses your touch using electrical fields. It then transmits that information to a LCD screen below it. Special software recognizes multiple simultaneous touch points, (as opposed to the single-touch screen, which recognizes only one touch point.) You can quickly move back and forth through a series of Web pages or photos by “swiping,” or placing three fingers on the screen and moving them rapidly sideways. By pinching the image, you can shrink or expand a photo.
Apple has made a concerted effort to provide multitouch features in all of its product categories, but many other consumer technology companies have adopted multitouch for some of their products. Synaptics, a leading supplier of touchpads for laptop makers who compete with Apple, has announced that it is incorporating several multitouch features into its touchpads.
Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system sports multitouch features: When you pair Windows 7 with a touch-screen PC, you can browse online newspapers, flick through photo albums, and shuffle files and folders using nothing but your fingers. To zoom in on something on the screen of a multitouch-compatible PC, you would place two fingers on the screen and spread them apart. To right-click a file, touch it with one finger and tap the screen with a second.
A number of Microsoft Windows PCs have touch screens, with a few Windows laptops emulating some of the multitouch features of Apple computers and handhelds. Microsoft’s Surface computer runs on Windows 7 and lets its business customers use multitouch in a table-top display. Customers of hotels, casinos, and retail stores will be able to use multitouch finger gestures to move around digital objects such as photos, to play games, and to browse through product options. The Dell Latitude XT tablet PC uses multitouch, which is helpful to people who can’t grasp a mouse and want the functionality of a traditional PC. They can use a finger or a stylus instead. The Android operating system for smartphones has native support for multi-touch, and handsets such as the HTC Desire, Nexus One, and the Motorola Droid have this capability.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) now has laptops and desktops that use touch technology. Its TouchSmart computer lets you use two fingers at once to manipulate images on the screen or to make on-screen gestures designating specific commands without using cursors or scroll bars. To move an object, you touch it with a finger and drag it to its new location. Sliding your finger up and down or sideways smoothly scrolls the display.
The TouchSmart makes it possible for home users to engage in a new type of casual computing—putting on music while preparing dinner, quickly searching for directions before leaving the house, or leaving written, video, or audio memos for family members. Both consumers and businesses have found other uses as well. According to Alan Reed, HP’s vice president and general manager for Business Desktops, “There is untapped potential for touch technology in the business marketplace to engage users in a way that has never been done before.”
Chicago’s O’Hare Airport integrated a group of TouchSmart PCs into “Explore Chicago” tourist kiosks, allowing visitors to check out a virtual Visitor’s Center. TouchSmart computing helped an autistic student to speak to and communicate with others for the first time in the 14 years of his life. Without using the TouchSmart PC’s wireless keyboard and mouse, users can hold video chats with remote workers through a built-in Webcam and microphone, access e-mail and the Internet, and manage contacts, calendar items, and photos.
Touch-enabled PCs could also appeal to elementary schools seeking an easy-to-use computer for students in early grades, or a wall-mountable information kiosk-type device for parents and visitors. Customers might use touch to place orders with a retailer, conduct virtual video service calls, or to teach or utilize social networking for business.
It’s too early to know if the new multitouch interface will ever be as popular as the mouse-driven graphical user interface. Although putting ones fingers on the screen is the ultimate measure of “cool” in the cell phone market, a “killer application” for touch on the PC has not yet emerged. But it’s already evident that touch has real advantages on devices where a mouse isn’t possible or convenient to use, or the decades-old interface of menus and folders is too cumbersome.
Sources: Claire Cain Miller, “To Win Over Today’s Users, Gadgets Have to be Touchable,” *The New York Times*, September 1, 2010; Katherine Boehret, “Apple Adds Touches to Its Mac Desktops,” *The Wall Street Journal*, August 4, 2010; Ashlee Vance, “Tech Industry Catches Its Breath,” *The New York Times*, February 17, 2010; Kathy Sandler, “The Future of Touch,” *The Wall Street Journal*, June 2, 2009; Suzanne Robitaille, “Multitouch to the Rescue?” Suite101.com, January 22, 2009; and Eric Lai, “HP Aims TouchSmart Desktop PC at Businesses,” *Computerworld*, August 1, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What problems does multitouch technology solve?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a multitouch interface? How useful is it? Explain.
3. Describe three business applications that would benefit from a multitouch interface.
4. What management, organization, and technology issues must be addressed if you or your business was considering systems and computers with multitouch interfaces?
**MIS IN ACTION**
1. Describe what you would do differently on your PC if it had multitouch capabilities. How much difference would multitouch make in the way you use your computer?
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**DATA MANAGEMENT AND STORAGE**
Enterprise database management software is responsible for organizing and managing the firm’s data so that they can be efficiently accessed and used. Chapter 6 describes this software in detail. The leading database software providers are IBM (DB2), Oracle, Microsoft (SQL Server), and Sybase (Adaptive Server Enterprise), which supply more than 90 percent of the U.S. database software marketplace. MySQL is a Linux open source relational database product now owned by Oracle Corporation.
The physical data storage market is dominated by EMC Corporation for large-scale systems, and a small number of PC hard disk manufacturers led by Seagate, Maxtor, and Western Digital.
Digital information is estimated to be growing at 1.2 zettabytes a year. All the tweets, blogs, videos, e-mails, and Facebook postings as well as traditional corporate data add up in 2010 to several thousand Libraries of Congress (EMC Corporation, 2010).
With the amount of new digital information in the world growing so rapidly, the market for digital data storage devices has been growing at more than 15 percent annually over the last five years. In addition to traditional
disk arrays and tape libraries, large firms are turning to network-based storage technologies. **Storage area networks (SANs)** connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed network dedicated to storage. The SAN creates a large central pool of storage that can be rapidly accessed and shared by multiple servers.
**NETWORKING/TELECOMMUNICATIONS PLATFORMS**
U.S. firms spend $100 billion a year on networking and telecommunications hardware and a huge $700 billion on networking services (consisting mainly of telecommunications and telephone company charges for voice lines and Internet access; these are not included in this discussion). Chapter 7 is devoted to an in-depth description of the enterprise networking environment, including the Internet. Windows Server is predominantly used as a local area network operating system, followed by Linux and Unix. Large enterprise wide area networks primarily use some variant of Unix. Most local area networks, as well as wide area enterprise networks, use the TCP/IP protocol suite as a standard (see Chapter 7).
The leading networking hardware providers are Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, and Juniper Networks. Telecommunications platforms are typically provided by telecommunications/telephone services companies that offer voice and data connectivity, wide area networking, wireless services, and Internet access. Leading telecommunications service vendors include AT&T and Verizon (see the Chapter 3 opening case). This market is exploding with new providers of cellular wireless, high-speed Internet, and Internet telephone services.
**INTERNET PLATFORMS**
Internet platforms overlap with, and must relate to, the firm's general networking infrastructure and hardware and software platforms. U.S. firms spent an estimated $40 billion annually on Internet-related infrastructure. These expenditures were for hardware, software, and management services to support a firm's Web site, including Web hosting services, routers, and cabling or wireless equipment. A **Web hosting service** maintains a large Web server, or series of servers, and provides fee-paying subscribers with space to maintain their Web sites.
The Internet revolution created a veritable explosion in server computers, with many firms collecting thousands of small servers to run their Internet operations. Since then there has been a steady push toward server consolidation, reducing the number of server computers by increasing the size and power of each. The Internet hardware server market has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of IBM, Dell, and HP/Compaq, as prices have fallen dramatically.
The major Web software application development tools and suites are supplied by Microsoft (Microsoft Expression Web, SharePoint Designer, and the Microsoft .NET family of development tools); Oracle-Sun (Sun's Java is the most widely used tool for developing interactive Web applications on both the server and client sides); and a host of independent software developers, including Adobe (Flash and text tools like Acrobat), and Real Media (media software). Chapter 7 describes the components of the firm's Internet platform in greater detail.
CONSULTING AND SYSTEM INTEGRATION SERVICES
Today, even a large firm does not have the staff, the skills, the budget, or the necessary experience to deploy and maintain its entire IT infrastructure. Implementing a new infrastructure requires (as noted in Chapters 3 and 14) significant changes in business processes and procedures, training and education, and software integration. Leading consulting firms providing this expertise include Accenture, IBM Global Services, HP Enterprise Services, Infosys, and Wipro Technologies.
Software integration means ensuring the new infrastructure works with the firm’s older, so-called legacy systems and ensuring the new elements of the infrastructure work with one another. **Legacy systems** are generally older transaction processing systems created for mainframe computers that continue to be used to avoid the high cost of replacing or redesigning them. Replacing these systems is cost prohibitive and generally not necessary if these older systems can be integrated into a contemporary infrastructure.
5.3 CONTEMPORARY HARDWARE PLATFORM TRENDS
The exploding power of computer hardware and networking technology has dramatically changed how businesses organize their computing power, putting more of this power on networks and mobile handheld devices. We look at seven hardware trends: the emerging mobile digital platform, grid computing, virtualization, cloud computing, green computing, high-performance/power-saving processors, and autonomic computing.
THE EMERGING MOBILE DIGITAL PLATFORM
Chapter 1 pointed out that new mobile digital computing platforms have emerged as alternatives to PCs and larger computers. Cell phones and smartphones such as the BlackBerry and iPhone have taken on many functions of handheld computers, including transmission of data, surfing the Web, transmitting e-mail and instant messages, displaying digital content, and exchanging data with internal corporate systems. The new mobile platform also includes small low-cost lightweight subnotebooks called **netbooks** optimized for wireless communication and Internet access, with core computing functions such as word processing; tablet computers such as the iPad; and digital e-book readers such as Amazon's Kindle with some Web access capabilities.
In a few years, smartphones, netbooks, and tablet computers will be the primary means of accessing the Internet, with business computing moving increasingly from PCs and desktop machines to these mobile devices. For example, senior executives at General Motors are using smartphone applications that drill down into vehicle sales information, financial performance, manufacturing metrics, and project management status. At medical device maker Astra Tech, sales reps use their smartphones to access Salesforce.com customer relationship management (CRM) applications and sales data, checking data on sold and returned products and overall revenue trends before meeting with customers.
GRID COMPUTING
Grid computing involves connecting geographically remote computers into a single network to create a virtual supercomputer by combining the computational power of all computers on the grid. Grid computing takes advantage of the fact that most computers use their central processing units on average only 25 percent of the time for the work they have been assigned, leaving these idle resources available for other processing tasks. Grid computing was impossible until high-speed Internet connections enabled firms to connect remote machines economically and move enormous quantities of data.
Grid computing requires software programs to control and allocate resources on the grid. Client software communicates with a server software application. The server software breaks data and application code into chunks that are then parceled out to the grid’s machines. The client machines perform their traditional tasks while running grid applications in the background.
The business case for using grid computing involves cost savings, speed of computation, and agility, as noted in the chapter-opening case. The chapter-opening case shows that by running its applications on clustered servers on a grid, BART eliminated unused computer resources, used existing resources more efficiently, and reduced costs and power consumption.
VIRTUALIZATION
Virtualization is the process of presenting a set of computing resources (such as computing power or data storage) so that they can all be accessed in ways that are not restricted by physical configuration or geographic location. Virtualization enables a single physical resource (such as a server or a storage device) to appear to the user as multiple logical resources. For example, a server or mainframe can be configured to run many instances of an operating system so that it acts like many different machines. Virtualization also enables multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) to appear as a single logical resource, as would be the case with storage area networks or grid computing. Virtualization makes it possible for a company to handle its computer processing and storage using computing resources housed in remote locations. VMware is the leading virtualization software vendor for Windows and Linux servers. Microsoft offers its own Virtual Server product and has built virtualization capabilities into the newest version of Windows Server.
Business Benefits of Virtualization
By providing the ability to host multiple systems on a single physical machine, virtualization helps organizations increase equipment utilization rates, conserving data center space and energy usage. Most servers run at just 15-20 percent of capacity, and virtualization can boost server utilization rates to 70 percent or higher. Higher utilization rates translate into fewer computers required to process the same amount of work, as illustrated by BART’s experience with virtualization in the chapter-opening case.
In addition to reducing hardware and power expenditures, virtualization allows businesses to run their legacy applications on older versions of an operating system on the same server as newer applications. Virtualization also facilitates centralization and consolidation of hardware administration. It is now possible for companies and individuals to perform all of their computing work using a virtualized IT infrastructure, as is the case with cloud computing. We now turn to this topic.
CLOUD COMPUTING
Earlier in this chapter, we introduced cloud computing, in which firms and individuals obtain computer processing, storage, software, and other services as a pool of virtualized resources over a network, primarily the Internet. These resources are made available to users, based on their needs, irrespective of their physical location or the location of the users themselves. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as having the following essential characteristics (Mell and Grance, 2009):
- **On-demand self-service:** Individuals can obtain computing capabilities such as server time or network storage on their own.
- **Ubiquitous network access:** Individuals can use standard network and Internet devices, including mobile platforms, to access cloud resources.
- **Location independent resource pooling:** Computing resources are pooled to serve multiple users, with different virtual resources dynamically assigned according to user demand. The user generally does not know where the computing resources are located.
- **Rapid elasticity:** Computing resources can be rapidly provisioned, increased, or decreased to meet changing user demand.
- **Measured service:** Charges for cloud resources are based on amount of resources actually used.
Cloud computing consists of three different types of services:
- **Cloud infrastructure as a service:** Customers use processing, storage, networking, and other computing resources from cloud service providers to run their information systems. For example, Amazon uses the spare capacity of its IT infrastructure to provide a broadly based cloud environment selling IT infrastructure services. These include its Simple Storage Service (S3) for storing customers’ data and its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service for running their applications. Users pay only for the amount of computing and storage capacity they actually use.
- **Cloud platform as a service:** Customers use infrastructure and programming tools hosted by the service provider to develop their own applications. For example, IBM offers a Smart Business Application Development & Test service for software development and testing on the IBM Cloud. Another example is Salesforce.com’s Force.com, described in the chapter-ending case study, which allows developers to build applications that are hosted on its servers as a service.
- **Cloud software as a service:** Customers use software hosted by the vendor on the vendor’s hardware and delivered over a network. Leading examples are Google Apps, which provides common business applications online and Salesforce.com, which also leases CRM and related software services over the Internet. Both charge users an annual subscription fee, although Google Apps also has a pared-down free version. Users access these applications from a Web browser, and the data and software are maintained on the providers’ remote servers.
A cloud can be private or public. A **public cloud** is maintained by an external service provider, such as Amazon Web Services, accessed through the Internet, and available to the general public. A **private cloud** is a proprietary network or a data center that ties together servers, storage, networks, data, and applications as a set of virtualized services that are shared by users inside a company. Like public clouds, private clouds are able to allocate storage, computing power, or other resources seamlessly to provide computing resources on an as-needed basis. Financial institutions and health care
providers are likely to gravitate toward private clouds because these organizations handle so much sensitive financial and personal data. We discuss cloud security issues in Chapter 8.
Since organizations using cloud computing generally do not own the infrastructure, they do not have to make large investments in their own hardware and software. Instead, they purchase their computing services from remote providers and pay only for the amount of computing power they actually use (utility computing) or are billed on a monthly or annual subscription basis. The term on-demand computing has also been used to describe such services.
For example, Envoy Media Group, a direct-marketing firm that offers highly-targeted media campaigns across multiple channels, including TV, radio, and Internet, hosts its entire Web presence on Azimuth Web Services. The “pay as you go” pricing structure allows the company to quickly and painlessly add servers where they are needed without large investments in hardware. Cloud computing reduced costs about 20 percent because Envoy no longer had to maintain its own hardware or IT personnel.
Cloud computing has some drawbacks. Unless users make provisions for storing their data locally, the responsibility for data storage and control is in the hands of the provider. Some companies worry about the security risks related to entrusting their critical data and systems to an outside vendor that also works with other companies. There are also questions of system reliability. Companies expect their systems to be available 24/7 and do not want to suffer any loss of business capability if their IT infrastructures malfunction. When Amazon’s cloud went down in December 2009, subscribers on the U.S. east coast were unable to use their systems for several hours. Another limitation of cloud computing is the possibility of making users dependent on the cloud computing provider.
There are some who believe that cloud computing represents a sea change in the way computing will be performed by corporations as business computing shifts out of private data centers into cloud services (Carr, 2008). This remains a matter of debate. Cloud computing is more immediately appealing to small and medium-sized businesses that lack resources to purchase and own their own hardware and software. However, large corporations have huge investments in complex proprietary systems supporting unique business processes, some of which give them strategic advantages. For them, the most likely scenario is a hybrid computing model where firms use their own infrastructure for their most essential core activities and adopt public cloud computing for less-critical systems or for additional processing capacity during peak business periods. Cloud computing will gradually shift firms from having a fixed infrastructure capacity toward a more flexible infrastructure, some of it owned by the firm, and some of it rented from giant computer centers owned by computer hardware vendors.
**GREEN COMPUTING**
By curbing hardware proliferation and power consumption, virtualization has become one of the principal technologies for promoting green computing. Green computing or green IT, refers to practices and technologies for designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated devices such as monitors, printers, storage devices,
and networking and communications systems to minimize impact on the environment.
Reducing computer power consumption has been a very high “green” priority. As companies deploy hundreds or thousands of servers, many are spending almost as much on electricity to power and cool their systems as they did on purchasing the hardware. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that data centers will use more than 2 percent of all U.S. electrical power by 2011. Information technology is believed to contribute about 2 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. Cutting power consumption in data centers has become both a serious business and environmental challenge. The Interactive Session on Organizations examines this problem.
**AUTONOMIC COMPUTING**
With large systems encompassing many thousands of networked devices, computer systems have become so complex today that some experts believe they may not be manageable in the future. One approach to dealing with this problem is to employ autonomic computing. **Autonomic computing** is an industry-wide effort to develop systems that can configure themselves, optimize and tune themselves, heal themselves when broken, and protect themselves from outside intruders and self-destruction.
You can glimpse a few of these capabilities in desktop systems. For instance, virus and firewall protection software are able to detect viruses on PCs, automatically defeat the viruses, and alert operators. These programs can be updated automatically as the need arises by connecting to an online virus protection service such as McAfee. IBM and other vendors are starting to build autonomic features into products for large systems.
**HIGH-PERFORMANCE AND POWER-SAVING PROCESSORS**
Another way to reduce power requirements and hardware sprawl is to use more efficient and power-saving processors. Contemporary microprocessors now feature multiple processor cores (which perform the reading and execution of computer instructions) on a single chip. A **multicore processor** is an integrated circuit to which two or more processor cores have been attached for enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, and more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks. This technology enables two or more processing engines with reduced power requirements and heat dissipation to perform tasks faster than a resource-hungry chip with a single processing core. Today you’ll find dual-core and quad-core processors in PCs and servers with 8-, 10-, 12-, and 16-core processors.
Intel and other chip manufacturers have also developed microprocessors that minimize power consumption. Low power consumption is essential for prolonging battery life in smartphones, netbooks, and other mobile digital devices. You will now find highly power-efficient microprocessors, such as ARM, Apple’s A4 processor, and Intel’s Atom in netbooks, digital media players, and smartphones. The A4 processor used in the latest version of the iPhone and the iPad consumes approximately 500–800 milliwatts of power, about 1/50 to 1/30 the power consumption of a laptop dual-core processor.
Computer rooms are becoming too hot to handle. Data-hungry tasks such as video on demand, downloading music, exchanging photos, and maintaining Web sites require more and more power-hungry machines. Power and cooling costs for data centers have skyrocketed by more than 800 percent since 1996, with U.S. enterprise data centers predicted to spend twice as much on energy costs as on hardware over the next five years.
The heat generated from rooms full of servers is causing equipment to fail. Some organizations spend more money to keep their data centers cool than they spend to lease the property itself. It’s a vicious cycle, as companies must pay to power their servers, and then pay again to keep them cool and operational. Cooling a server requires roughly the same number of kilowatts of energy as running one. All this additional power consumption has a negative impact on the environment and as well as corporate operating costs.
Some of the world’s most prominent firms are tackling their power consumption issues with one eye toward saving the environment and the other toward saving dollars. Google and Microsoft are building data centers that take advantage of hydroelectric power. Hewlett-Packard is working on a series of technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of data centers by 75 percent and, with new software and services, to measure energy use and carbon emissions. It reduced its power costs by 20 to 25 percent through consolidation of servers and data centers.
Microsoft’s San Antonio data center deploys sensors that measure nearly all power consumption, recycles water used in cooling, and uses internally-developed power management software. Microsoft is also trying to encourage energy-saving software practices by charging business units by the amount of power they consume in the data enter rather than the space they take up on the floor.
None of these companies claim that their efforts will save the world, but they do demonstrate recognition of a growing problem and the commencement of the green computing era. And since these companies’ technology and processes are more efficient than most other companies, using their online software services in place of in-house software may also count as a green investment.
PCs typically stay on more than twice the amount of time they are actually being used each day. According to a report by the Alliance to Save Energy, a company with 10,000 personal computer desktops will spend more than $165,000 per year in electricity bills if these machines are left on all night. The group estimates that this practice is wasting around $1.7 billion each year in the United States alone.
Although many companies establish default PC power management settings, about 70 percent of employees turn these settings off. PC power management software from BigFix, 1E NightWatchman, and Verdiem locks PC power settings and automatically powers PCs up right before employees arrive for work in the morning.
Miami-Dade County public schools cut the time its PCs were on from 21 hours to 10.3 hours daily by using BigFix to centrally control PC power settings. City University of New York adopted Verdiem’s Surveyor software to turn off its 20,000 PCs when they are inactive at night. Surveyor has trimmed 10 percent from CUNY’s power bills, creating an annual savings of around $320,000.
Virtualization is a highly effective tool for cost-effective green computing because it reduces the number of servers and storage resources in the firm’s IT infrastructure. Fulton County, Georgia, which provides services for 988,000 citizens, scrutinizes energy usage when purchasing new information technology. It used VMWare virtualization software and a new Fujitsu blade server platform to consolidate underutilized legacy servers so that one machine performs the work that was formerly performed by eight, saving $44,000 per year in power costs. These efforts also created a more up-to-date IT infrastructure.
Experts note that it’s important for companies to measure their energy use and inventory and track their information technology assets both before and after they start their green initiatives. Commonly used metrics used by Microsoft and other companies include Power Usage Effectiveness, Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency, and Average Data Efficiency.
It isn’t always necessary to purchase new technologies to achieve “green” goals. Organizations can achieve sizable efficiencies by better managing the computing resources they already have.
Health insurer Highmark initially wanted to increase its CPU utilization by 10 percent while reducing power use by 5 percent and eventually by 10 percent. When the company inventoried all of its information technology assets, it found that its information systems staff was hanging onto “dead” servers that served no function but continued to consume power. Unfortunately, many information systems departments still aren’t deploying their existing technology resources efficiently or using green measurement tools.
Programs to educate employees in energy conservation may also be necessary. In addition to using energy-monitoring tools, Honda Motor Corporation trains its data center administrators how to be more energy efficient. For example, it taught them to decommission unused equipment quickly and to use management tools to ensure servers are being optimized.
Sources: Kathleen Lao, “The Green Issue,” *Computerworld Canada*, April 2010; Matthew Sarrell, “Greening Your Data Center: The Real Deal,” *eWeek*, January 15, 2010; Robert L. Mitchell, “Data Center Density Hits the Wall,” *Computerworld*, January 21, 2010; Jim Carlton, “The PC Goes on an Energy Diet,” *The Wall Street Journal*, September 8, 2009; and Ronan Kavanagh, “IT Virtualization Helps to Go Green,” *Information Management Magazine*, March 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What business and social problems does data center power consumption cause?
2. What solutions are available for these problems? Which are environment-friendly?
3. What are the business benefits and costs of these solutions?
4. Should all firms move toward green computing? Why or why not?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Perform an Internet search on the phrase “green computing” and then answer the following questions:
1. Who are some of the leaders of the green computing movement? Which corporations are leading the way? Which environmental organizations are playing an important role?
2. What are the latest trends in green computing? What kind of impact are they having?
3. What can individuals do to contribute to the green computing movement? Is the movement worthwhile?
**5.4 CONTEMPORARY SOFTWARE PLATFORM TRENDS**
There are four major themes in contemporary software platform evolution:
- Linux and open source software
- Java and Ajax
- Web services and service-oriented architecture
- Software outsourcing and cloud services
**LINUX AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE**
*Open source software* is software produced by a community of several hundred thousand programmers around the world. According to the leading open source professional association, OpenSource.org, open source software is free and can be modified by users. Works derived from the original code must also be free, and the software can be redistributed by the user without additional licensing. Open source software is by definition not restricted to any
specific operating system or hardware technology, although most open source software is currently based on a Linux or Unix operating system.
The open source movement has been evolving for more than 30 years and has demonstrated that it can produce commercially acceptable, high-quality software. Popular open source software tools include the Linux operating system, the Apache HTTP Web server, the Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Oracle Open Office desktop productivity suite. Open source tools are being used on netbooks as inexpensive alternatives to Microsoft Office. Major hardware and software vendors, including IBM, HP, Dell, Oracle, and SAP, now offer Linux-compatible versions of their products. You can find out more about the Open Source Definition from the Open Source Initiative and the history of open source software at the Learning Tracks for this chapter.
**Linux**
Perhaps the most well known open source software is Linux, an operating system related to Unix. Linux was created by the Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds and first posted on the Internet in August 1991. Linux applications are embedded in cell phones, smartphones, netbooks, and consumer electronics. Linux is available in free versions downloadable from the Internet or in low-cost commercial versions that include tools and support from vendors such as Red Hat.
Although Linux is not used in many desktop systems, it is a major force in local area networks, Web servers, and high-performance computing work, with over 20 percent of the server operating system market. IBM, HP, Intel, Dell, and Oracle-Sun have made Linux a central part of their offerings to corporations.
The rise of open source software, particularly Linux and the applications it supports, has profound implications for corporate software platforms: cost reduction, reliability and resilience, and integration, because Linux works on all the major hardware platforms from mainframes to servers to clients.
**SOFTWARE FOR THE WEB: JAVA AND AJAX**
**Java** is an operating system-independent, processor-independent, object-oriented programming language that has become the leading interactive environment for the Web. Java was created by James Gosling and the Green Team at Sun Microsystems in 1992. In November 13, 2006, Sun released much of Java as open source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), completing the process on May 8, 2007.
The Java platform has migrated into cellular phones, smartphones, automobiles, music players, game machines, and finally, into set-top cable television systems serving interactive content and pay-per-view services. Java software is designed to run on any computer or computing device, regardless of the specific microprocessor or operating system the device uses. For each of the computing environments in which Java is used, Sun created a Java Virtual Machine that interprets Java programming code for that machine. In this manner, the code is written once and can be used on any machine for which there exists a Java Virtual Machine.
Java developers can create small applet programs that can be embedded in Web pages and downloaded to run on a Web browser. A **Web browser** is an easy-to-use software tool with a graphical user interface for displaying Web pages and for accessing the Web and other Internet resources. Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome browser are examples. At the enterprise level, Java is being used for more complex e-commerce and
e-business applications that require communication with an organization’s back-end transaction processing systems.
**Ajax**
Have you ever filled out a Web order form, made a mistake, and then had to start all over again after a long wait for a new order form page to appear on your computer screen? Or visited a map site, clicked the North arrow once, and waited some time for an entire new page to load? **Ajax** (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is another Web development technique for creating interactive Web applications that prevents all of this inconvenience.
Ajax allows a client and server to exchange small pieces of data behind the scene so that an entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. So if you click North on a map site, such as Google Maps, the server downloads just that part of the application that changes with no wait for an entirely new map. You can also grab maps in map applications and move the map in any direction without forcing a reload of the entire page. Ajax uses JavaScript programs downloaded to your client to maintain a near-continuous conversation with the server you are using, making the user experience more seamless.
**WEB SERVICES AND SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE**
**Web services** refer to a set of loosely coupled software components that exchange information with each other using universal Web communication standards and languages. They can exchange information between two different systems regardless of the operating systems or programming languages on which the systems are based. They can be used to build open standard Web-based applications linking systems of two different organizations, and they can also be used to create applications that link disparate systems within a single company. Web services are not tied to any one operating system or programming language, and different applications can use them to communicate with each other in a standard way without time-consuming custom coding.
The foundation technology for Web services is **XML**, which stands for **Extensible Markup Language**. This language was developed in 1996 by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C, the international body that oversees the development of the Web) as a more powerful and flexible markup language than hypertext markup language (HTML) for Web pages. **Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)** is a page description language for specifying how text, graphics, video, and sound are placed on a Web page document. Whereas HTML is limited to describing how data should be presented in the form of Web pages, XML can perform presentation, communication, and storage of data. In XML, a number is not simply a number; the XML tag specifies whether the number represents a price, a date, or a ZIP code. Table 5-2 illustrates some sample XML statements.
**TABLE 5-2 EXAMPLES OF XML**
| PLAIN ENGLISH | XML |
|---------------|-----|
| Subcompact | `<AUTOMOBILETYPE="Subcompact">` |
| 4 passenger | `<PASSENGERUNIT="PASS">4</PASSENGER>` |
| $16,800 | `<PRICE CURRENCY="USD">$16,800</PRICE>` |
By tagging selected elements of the content of documents for their meanings, XML makes it possible for computers to manipulate and interpret their data automatically and perform operations on the data without human intervention. Web browsers and computer programs, such as order processing or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, can follow programmed rules for applying and displaying the data. XML provides a standard format for data exchange, enabling Web services to pass data from one process to another.
Web services communicate through XML messages over standard Web protocols. SOAP, which stands for *Simple Object Access Protocol*, is a set of rules for structuring messages that enables applications to pass data and instructions to one another. WSDL stands for *Web Services Description Language*; it is a common framework for describing the tasks performed by a Web service and the commands and data it will accept so that it can be used by other applications. UDDI, which stands for *Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration*, enables a Web service to be listed in a directory of Web services so that it can be easily located. Companies discover and locate Web services through this directory much as they would locate services in the yellow pages of a telephone book. Using these protocols, a software application can connect freely to other applications without custom programming for each different application with which it wants to communicate. Everyone shares the same standards.
The collection of Web services that are used to build a firm’s software systems constitutes what is known as a service-oriented architecture. A **service-oriented architecture (SOA)** is set of self-contained services that communicate with each other to create a working software application. Business tasks are accomplished by executing a series of these services. Software developers reuse these services in other combinations to assemble other applications as needed.
Virtually all major software vendors provide tools and entire platforms for building and integrating software applications using Web services. IBM includes Web service tools in its WebSphere e-business software platform, and Microsoft has incorporated Web services tools in its Microsoft .NET platform.
Dollar Rent A Car’s systems use Web services for its online booking system with Southwest Airlines’ Web site. Although both companies’ systems are based on different technology platforms, a person booking a flight on Southwest.com can reserve a car from Dollar without leaving the airline’s Web site. Instead of struggling to get Dollar’s reservation system to share data with Southwest’s information systems, Dollar used Microsoft .NET Web services technology as an intermediary. Reservations from Southwest are translated into Web services protocols, which are then translated into formats that can be understood by Dollar’s computers.
Other car rental companies have linked their information systems to airline companies’ Web sites before. But without Web services, these connections had to be built one at a time. Web services provide a standard way for Dollar’s computers to “talk” to other companies’ information systems without having to build special links to each one. Dollar is now expanding its use of Web services to link directly to the systems of a small tour operator and a large travel reservation system as well as a wireless Web site for cell phones and smartphones. It does not have to write new software code for each new partner’s information systems or each new wireless device (see Figure 5-10).
Dollar Rent A Car uses Web services to provide a standard intermediate layer of software to “talk” to other companies’ information systems. Dollar Rent A Car can use this set of Web services to link to other companies’ information systems without having to build a separate link to each firm’s systems.
**SOFTWARE OUTSOURCING AND CLOUD SERVICES**
Today many business firms continue to operate legacy systems that continue to meet a business need and that would be extremely costly to replace. But they will purchase or rent most of their new software applications from external sources. Figure 5-11 illustrates the rapid growth in external sources of software for U.S. firms.
There are three external sources for software: software packages from a commercial software vendor, outsourcing custom application development to an external vendor, and cloud-based software services and tools.
**Software Packages and Enterprise Software**
We have already described software packages for enterprise applications as one of the major types of software components in contemporary IT infrastructures. A **software package** is a prewritten commercially available set of software programs that eliminates the need for a firm to write its own software programs for certain functions, such as payroll processing or order handling.
Enterprise application software vendors such as SAP and Oracle-PeopleSoft have developed powerful software packages that can support the primary business processes of a firm worldwide from warehousing, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and finance to human resources. These large-scale enterprise software systems provide a single, integrated, worldwide software system for firms at a cost much less than they would pay if they developed it themselves. Chapter 9 discusses enterprise systems in detail.
In 2010, U.S. firms will spend over $291 billion on software. About 40 percent of that ($116 billion) will originate outside the firm, either from enterprise software vendors selling firmwide applications or individual application service providers leasing or selling software modules. Another 10 percent ($29 billion) will be provided by SaaS vendors as an online cloud-based service.
Sources: BEA National Income and Product Accounts, 2010; Gartner Group, 2010; author estimates.
**Software Outsourcing**
Software **outsourcing** enables a firm to contract custom software development or maintenance of existing legacy programs to outside firms, which often operate offshore in low-wage areas of the world. According to the industry analysts, 2010 offshore outsourcing revenues in the United States will be approximately $50 billion, and domestic outsourcing revenues will be $106 billion (Lohr, 2009). The largest expenditure here is paid to domestic U.S. firms providing middleware, integration services, and other software support that are often required to operate larger enterprise systems.
For example, in March 2008, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the world’s third largest oil producer, signed a five-year, $4 billion outsourcing deal with T-Systems International GmbH, AT&T, and Electronic Data Systems (EDS). The agreement assigned AT&T responsibility for networking and telecommunications, TSystems for hosting and storage, and EDS for end-user computing services and for integration of the infrastructure services. Outsourcing this work has helped Shell cut costs and focus on systems that improve its competitive position in the oil and gas market.
Offshore outsourcing firms have primarily provided lower-level maintenance, data entry, and call center operations. However, with the growing sophistication and experience of offshore firms, particularly in India, more and more new-program development is taking place offshore. Chapter 13 discusses offshore software outsourcing in greater detail.
Cloud-Based Software Services and Tools
In the past, software such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Illustrator came in a box and was designed to operate on a single machine. Today, you’re more likely to download the software from the vendor’s Web site, or to use the software as a cloud service delivered over the Internet.
Cloud-based software and the data it uses are hosted on powerful servers in massive data centers, and can be accessed with an Internet connection and standard Web browser. In addition to free or low-cost tools for individuals and small businesses provided by Google or Yahoo!, enterprise software and other complex business functions are available as services from the major commercial software vendors. Instead of buying and installing software programs, subscribing companies rent the same functions from these services, with users paying either on a subscription or per-transaction basis. Services for delivering and providing access to software remotely as a Web-based service are now referred to as **software as a service (SaaS)**. A leading example is Salesforce.com, described in the chapter-ending case study, which provides on-demand software services for customer relationship management.
In order to manage their relationship with an outsourcer or technology service provider, firms need a contract that includes a **service level agreement (SLA)**. The SLA is a formal contract between customers and their service providers that defines the specific responsibilities of the service provider and the level of service expected by the customer. SLAs typically specify the nature and level of services provided, criteria for performance measurement, support options, provisions for security and disaster recovery, hardware and software ownership and upgrades, customer support, billing, and conditions for terminating the agreement. We provide a Learning Track on this topic.
**Mashups and Apps**
The software you use for both personal and business tasks may consist of large self-contained programs, or it may be composed of interchangeable components that integrate freely with other applications on the Internet. Individual users and entire companies mix and match these software components to create their own customized applications and to share information with others. The resulting software applications are called **mashups**. The idea is to take different sources and produce a new work that is “greater than” the sum of its parts. You have performed a mashup if you’ve ever personalized your Facebook profile or your blog with a capability to display videos or slide shows.
Web mashups combine the capabilities of two or more online applications to create a kind of hybrid that provides more customer value than the original sources alone. For instance, EveryBlock Chicago combines Google Maps with crime data for the city of Chicago. Users can search by location, police beat, or type of crime, and the results are displayed as color-coded map points on a Google Map. Amazon uses mashup technologies to aggregate product descriptions with partner sites and user profiles.
**Apps** are small pieces of software that run on the Internet, on your computer, or on your cell phone and are generally delivered over the Internet. Google refers to its online services as apps, including the Google Apps suite of desktop productivity tools. But when we talk about apps today, most of the attention goes to the apps that have been developed for the mobile digital platform. It is these apps that turn smartphones and other mobile handheld devices into general-purpose computing tools.
Most of these apps are for the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry operating system platforms. Many are free or purchased for a small charge, much less
than conventional software. There are already over 250,000 apps for the Apple iPhone and iPad platform and over 80,000 that run on smartphones using Google’s Android operating system. The success of these mobile platforms depends in large part on the quantity and the quality of the apps they provide. Apps tie the customer to a specific hardware platform: As the user adds more and more apps to his or her mobile phone, the cost of switching to a competing mobile platform rises.
At the moment, the most commonly downloaded apps are games (65%), followed by news and weather (56%), maps/navigation (55%), social networking (54%), music (46%), and video/movies (25%). But there are also serious apps for business users that make it possible to create and edit documents, connect to corporate systems, schedule and participate in meetings, track shipments, and dictate voice messages (see the Chapter 1 Interactive Session on Management). There are also a huge number of e-commerce apps for researching and buying goods and services online.
### 5.5 Management Issues
Creating and managing a coherent IT infrastructure raises multiple challenges: dealing with platform and technology change (including cloud and mobile computing), management and governance, and making wise infrastructure investments.
#### Dealing with Platform and Infrastructure Change
As firms grow, they often quickly outgrow their infrastructure. As firms shrink, they can get stuck with excessive infrastructure purchased in better times. How can a firm remain flexible when most of the investments in IT infrastructure are fixed-cost purchases and licenses? How well does the infrastructure scale?
**Scalability** refers to the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve a large number of users without breaking down. New applications, mergers and acquisitions, and changes in business volume all impact computer workload and must be considered when planning hardware capacity.
Firms using mobile computing and cloud computing platforms will require new policies and procedures for managing these platforms. They will need to inventory all of their mobile devices in business use and develop policies and tools for tracking, updating, and securing them and for controlling the data and applications that run on them. Firms using cloud computing and SaaS will need to fashion new contractual arrangements with remote vendors to make sure that the hardware and software for critical applications are always available when needed and that they meet corporate standards for information security. It is up to business management to determine acceptable levels of computer response time and availability for the firm’s mission-critical systems to maintain the level of business performance they expect.
#### Management and Governance
A long-standing issue among information system managers and CEOs has been the question of who will control and manage the firm’s IT infrastructure. Chapter 2 introduced the concept of IT governance and described some issues
it addresses. Other important questions about IT governance are: Should departments and divisions have the responsibility of making their own information technology decisions or should IT infrastructure be centrally controlled and managed? What is the relationship between central information systems management and business unit information systems management? How will infrastructure costs be allocated among business units? Each organization will need to arrive at answers based on its own needs.
**MAKING WISE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS**
IT infrastructure is a major investment for the firm. If too much is spent on infrastructure, it lies idle and constitutes a drag on firm financial performance. If too little is spent, important business services cannot be delivered and the firm’s competitors (who spent just the right amount) will outperform the under-investing firm. How much should the firm spend on infrastructure? This question is not easy to answer.
A related question is whether a firm should purchase and maintain its own IT infrastructure components or rent them from external suppliers, including those offering cloud services. The decision either to purchase your own IT assets or rent them from external providers is typically called the *rent-versus-buy* decision.
Cloud computing may be a low-cost way to increase scalability and flexibility, but firms should evaluate this option carefully in light of security requirements and impact on business processes and workflows. In some instances, the cost of renting software adds up to more than purchasing and maintaining an application in-house. Yet there may be benefits to using SaaS if it allows the company to focus on core business issues instead of technology challenges.
**Total Cost of Ownership of Technology Assets**
The actual cost of owning technology resources includes the original cost of acquiring and installing hardware and software, as well as ongoing administration costs for hardware and software upgrades, maintenance, technical support, training, and even utility and real estate costs for running and housing the technology. The **total cost of ownership (TCO)** model can be used to analyze these direct and indirect costs to help firms determine the actual cost of specific technology implementations. Table 5-3 describes the most important TCO components to consider in a TCO analysis.
When all these cost components are considered, the TCO for a PC might run up to three times the original purchase price of the equipment. Although the purchase price of a wireless handheld for a corporate employee may run several hundred dollars, the TCO for each device is much higher, ranging from $1,000 to $3,000, according to various consultant estimates. Gains in productivity and efficiency from equipping employees with mobile computing devices must be balanced against increased costs from integrating these devices into the firm’s IT infrastructure and from providing technical support. Other cost components include fees for wireless airtime, end-user training, help desk support, and software for special applications. Costs are higher if the mobile devices run many different applications or need to be integrated into back-end systems such as enterprise applications.
Hardware and software acquisition costs account for only about 20 percent of TCO, so managers must pay close attention to administration costs to understand the full cost of the firm’s hardware and software. It is possible to reduce some of these administration costs through better management. Many large firms are
saddled with redundant, incompatible hardware and software because their departments and divisions have been allowed to make their own technology purchases.
In addition to switching to cloud services, these firms could reduce their TCO through greater centralization and standardization of their hardware and software resources. Companies could reduce the size of the information systems staff required to support their infrastructure if the firm minimizes the number of different computer models and pieces of software that employees are allowed to use. In a centralized infrastructure, systems can be administered from a central location and troubleshooting can be performed from that location.
**Competitive Forces Model for IT Infrastructure Investment**
Figure 5-12 illustrates a competitive forces model you can use to address the question of how much your firm should spend on IT infrastructure.
**Market demand for your firm’s services.** Make an inventory of the services you currently provide to customers, suppliers, and employees. Survey each group, or hold focus groups to find out if the services you currently offer are meeting the needs of each group. For example, are customers complaining of slow responses to their queries about price and availability? Are employees complaining about the difficulty of finding the right information for their jobs? Are suppliers complaining about the difficulties of discovering your production requirements?
**Your firm’s business strategy.** Analyze your firm’s five-year business strategy and try to assess what new services and capabilities will be required to achieve strategic goals.
**Your firm’s IT strategy, infrastructure, and cost.** Examine your firm’s information technology plans for the next five years and assess its alignment with the firm’s business plans. Determine the total IT infrastructure costs. You will want to perform a TCO analysis. If your firm has no IT strategy, you will need to devise one that takes into account the firm’s five-year strategic plan.
**Information technology assessment.** Is your firm behind the technology curve or at the bleeding edge of information technology? Both situations are to be avoided. It is usually not desirable to spend resources on advanced technoloThere are six factors you can use to answer the question, “How much should our firm spend on IT infrastructure?”
Technologies that are still experimental, often expensive, and sometimes unreliable. You want to spend on technologies for which standards have been established and IT vendors are competing on cost, not design, and where there are multiple suppliers. However, you do not want to put off investment in new technologies or allow competitors to develop new business models and capabilities based on the new technologies.
**Competitor firm services.** Try to assess what technology services competitors offer to customers, suppliers, and employees. Establish quantitative and qualitative measures to compare them to those of your firm. If your firm’s service levels fall short, your company is at a competitive disadvantage. Look for ways your firm can excel at service levels.
**Competitor firm IT infrastructure investments.** Benchmark your expenditures for IT infrastructure against your competitors. Many companies are quite public about their innovative expenditures on IT. If competing firms try to keep IT expenditures secret, you may be able to find IT investment information in public companies’ SEC Form 10-K annual reports to the federal government when those expenditures impact a firm’s financial results.
Your firm does not necessarily need to spend as much as, or more than, your competitors. Perhaps it has discovered much less-expensive ways of providing services, and this can lead to a cost advantage. Alternatively, your firm may be spending far less than competitors and experiencing commensurate poor performance and losing market share.
5.6 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience in developing solutions for managing IT infrastructures and IT outsourcing, using spreadsheet software to evaluate alternative desktop systems, and using Web research to budget for a sales conference.
Management Decision Problems
1. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) relies on information systems to operate 19 hospitals, a network of other care sites, and international and commercial ventures. Demand for additional servers and storage technology was growing by 20 percent each year. UPMC was setting up a separate server for every application, and its servers and other computers were running a number of different operating systems, including several versions of Unix and Windows. UPMC had to manage technologies from many different vendors, including HP, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, and IBM. Assess the impact of this situation on business performance. What factors and management decisions must be considered when developing a solution to this problem?
2. Qantas Airways, Australia’s leading airline, faces cost pressures from high fuel prices and lower levels of global airline traffic. To remain competitive, the airline must find ways to keep costs low while providing a high level of customer service. Qantas had a 30-year-old data center. Management had to decide whether to replace its IT infrastructure with newer technology or outsource it. Should Qantas outsource to a cloud computing vendor? What factors should be considered by Qantas management when deciding whether to outsource? If Qantas decides to outsource, list and describe points that should be addressed in a service level agreement.
Improving Decision Making: Using a Spreadsheet to Evaluate Hardware and Software Options
Software skills: Spreadsheet formulas
Business skills: Technology pricing
In this exercise, you will use spreadsheet software to calculate the cost of desktop systems, printers, and software.
You have been asked to obtain pricing information on hardware and software for an office of 30 people. Using the Internet, get pricing for 30 PC desktop systems (monitors, computers, and keyboards) manufactured by Lenovo, Dell, and HP/Compaq as listed at their respective corporate Web sites. (For the purposes of this exercise, ignore the fact that desktop systems usually come with preloaded software packages.) Also obtain pricing on 15 desktop printers manufactured by HP, Canon, and Dell. Each desktop system must satisfy the minimum specifications shown in the following table:
| MINIMUM DESKTOP SPECIFICATIONS |
|--------------------------------|
| Processor speed | 3 GHz |
| Hard drive | 350 GB |
| RAM | 3 GB |
| DVD-ROM drive | 16 x |
| Monitor (diagonal measurement) | 18 inches |
Each desktop printer must satisfy the minimum specifications shown in the following table:
Minimum Monochrome Printer Specifications
| Specification | Details |
|--------------------------------|------------------|
| Print speed (black and white) | 20 pages per minute |
| Print resolution | 600 × 600 |
| Network ready? | Yes |
| Maximum price/unit | $700 |
After pricing the desktop systems and printers, obtain pricing on 30 copies of the most recent versions of Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite, and Oracle Open Office desktop productivity packages, and on 30 copies of Microsoft Windows 7 Professional. The application software suite packages come in various versions, so be sure that each package contains programs for word processing, spreadsheets, database, and presentations.
Prepare a spreadsheet showing your research results for the desktop systems, for the printers, and for the software. Use your spreadsheet software to determine the desktop system, printer, and software combination that will offer both the best performance and pricing per worker. Because every two workers will share one printer (15 printers/30 systems), assume only half a printer cost per worker in the spreadsheet. Assume that your company will take the standard warranty and service contract offered by each product's manufacturer.
**Improving Decision Making: Using Web Research to Budget for a Sales Conference**
Software skills: Internet-based software
Business skills: Researching transportation and lodging costs
The Foremost Composite Materials Company is planning a two-day sales conference for October 15–16, starting with a reception on the evening of October 14. The conference consists of all-day meetings that the entire sales force, numbering 125 sales representatives and their 16 managers, must attend. Each sales representative requires his or her own room, and the company needs two common meeting rooms, one large enough to hold the entire sales force plus visitors (200 total) and the other able to hold half the force. Management has set a budget of $120,000 for the representatives' room rentals. The hotel must also have such services as overhead and computer projectors as well as business center and banquet facilities. It also should have facilities for the company reps to be able to work in their rooms and to enjoy themselves in a swimming pool or gym facility. The company would like to hold the conference in either Miami or Marco Island, Florida.
Foremost usually likes to hold such meetings in Hilton- or Marriott-owned hotels. Use the Hilton and Marriott Web sites to select a hotel in whichever of these cities that would enable the company to hold its sales conference within its budget.
Visit the two sites' homepages, and search them to find a hotel that meets Foremost's sales conference requirements. Once you have selected the hotel, locate flights arriving the afternoon prior to the conference because the attendees will need to check in the day before and attend your reception the evening prior to the conference. Your attendees will be coming from Los Angeles (54), San Francisco (32), Seattle (22), Chicago (19), and Pittsburgh (14). Determine costs of each airline ticket from these cities. When you are finished, create a budget for the conference. The budget will include the cost of each airline ticket, the room cost, and $60 per attendee per day for food.
- What was your final budget?
- Which did you select as the best hotel for the sales conference and why?
Learning Track Modules
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. How Computer Hardware and Software Work
2. Service Level Agreements
3. The Open Source Software Initiative
4. Comparing Stages in IT Infrastructure Evolution
5. Cloud Computing
Review Summary
1. **What is IT infrastructure and what are its components?**
IT infrastructure is the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific information system applications. IT infrastructure includes hardware, software, and services that are shared across the entire firm. Major IT infrastructure components include computer hardware platforms, operating system platforms, enterprise software platforms, networking and telecommunications platforms, database management software, Internet platforms, and consulting services and systems integrators.
2. **What are the stages and technology drivers of IT infrastructure evolution?**
The five stages of IT infrastructure evolution are: the mainframe era, the personal computer era, the client/server era, the enterprise computing era, and the cloud and mobile computing era. Moore’s Law deals with the exponential increase in processing power and decline in the cost of computer technology, stating that every 18 months the power of microprocessors doubles and the price of computing falls in half. The Law of Mass Digital Storage deals with the exponential decrease in the cost of storing data, stating that the number of kilobytes of data that can be stored on magnetic media for $1 roughly doubles every 15 months. Metcalfe’s Law helps shows that a network’s value to participants grows exponentially as the network takes on more members. Also driving exploding computer use is the rapid decline in costs of communication and growing agreement in the technology industry to use computing and communications standards.
3. **What are the current trends in computer hardware platforms?**
Increasingly, computing is taking place on a mobile digital platform. Grid computing involves connecting geographically remote computers into a single network to create a computational grid that combines the computing power of all the computers on the network. Virtualization organizes computing resources so that their use is not restricted by physical configuration or geographic location. In cloud computing, firms and individuals obtain computing power and software as services over a network, including the Internet, rather than purchasing and installing the hardware and software on their own computers. A multicore processor is a microprocessor to which two or more processing cores have been attached for enhanced performance. Green computing includes practices and technologies for producing, using, and disposing of information technology hardware to minimize negative impact on the environment. In autonomic computing, computer systems have capabilities for automatically configuring and repairing themselves. Power-saving processors dramatically reduce power consumption in mobile digital devices.
4. **What are the current trends in software platforms?**
Open source software is produced and maintained by a global community of programmers and is often downloadable for free. Linux is a powerful, resilient open source operating system that can run on multiple hardware platforms and is used widely to run Web servers. Java is an operating-system- and hardware-independent programming language that is the leading interactive programming environment for the Web. Web services are loosely coupled software components based on open Web
standards that work with any application software and operating system. They can be used as components of Web-based applications linking the systems of two different organizations or to link disparate systems of a single company. Companies are purchasing their new software applications from outside sources, including software packages, by outsourcing custom application development to an external vendor (that may be offshore), or by renting online software services (SaaS). Mashups combine two different software services to create new software applications and services. Apps are small pieces of software that run on the Internet, on a computer, or on a mobile phone and are generally delivered over the Internet.
5. **What are the challenges of managing IT infrastructure and management solutions?**
Major challenges include dealing with platform and infrastructure change, infrastructure management and governance, and making wise infrastructure investments. Solution guidelines include using a competitive forces model to determine how much to spend on IT infrastructure and where to make strategic infrastructure investments, and establishing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of information technology assets. The total cost of owning technology resources includes not only the original cost of computer hardware and software but also costs for hardware and software upgrades, maintenance, technical support, and training.
### Key Terms
- **Ajax**, 189
- **Android**, 177
- **Application server**, 169
- **Apps**, 193
- **Autonomic computing**, 185
- **Blade servers**, 176
- **Chrome OS**, 177
- **Clients**, 168
- **Client/server computing**, 168
- **Cloud computing**, 170
- **Extensible Markup Language (XML)**, 189
- **Green computing**, 184
- **Grid computing**, 182
- **Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)**, 189
- **Java**, 188
- **Legacy systems**, 181
- **Linux**, 177
- **Mainframe**, 168
- **Mashup**, 193
- **Minicomputers**, 168
- **Moore’s Law**, 171
- **Multicore processor**, 185
- **Multitiered (N-tier) client/server architecture**, 169
- **Multitouch**, 177
- **Nanotechnology**, 171
- **Netbook**, 181
- **On-demand computing**, 184
- **Open source software**, 187
- **Operating system**, 177
- **Outsourcing**, 192
- **Private cloud**, 183
- **Public cloud**, 183
- **SaaS (Software as a Service)**, 193
- **Scalability**, 194
- **Service level agreement (SLA)**, 193
- **Server**, 168
- **Service-oriented architecture (SOA)**, 190
- **Software package**, 191
- **Storage area network (SAN)**, 180
- **Technology standards**, 174
- **Total cost of ownership (TCO)**, 195
- **Unix**, 177
- **Utility computing**, 184
- **Virtualization**, 182
- **Web browser**, 188
- **Web hosting service**, 180
- **Web server**, 169
- **Web services**, 189
- **Windows**, 169
- **Wintel PC**, 168
Review Questions
1. What is IT infrastructure and what are its components?
- Define IT infrastructure from both a technology and a services perspective.
- List and describe the components of IT infrastructure that firms need to manage.
2. What are the stages and technology drivers of IT infrastructure evolution?
- List each of the eras in IT infrastructure evolution and describe its distinguishing characteristics.
- Define and describe the following: Web server, application server, multitiered client/server architecture.
- Describe Moore’s Law and the Law of Mass Digital Storage.
- Describe how network economics, declining communications costs, and technology standards affect IT infrastructure.
3. What are the current trends in computer hardware platforms?
- Describe the evolving mobile platform, grid computing, and cloud computing.
4. What are the current trends in software platforms?
- Define and describe open source software and Linux and explain their business benefits.
- Define Java and Ajax and explain why they are important.
- Define and describe Web services and the role played by XML.
- Name and describe the three external sources for software.
- Define and describe software mashups and apps.
5. What are the challenges of managing IT infrastructure and management solutions?
- Name and describe the management challenges posed by IT infrastructure.
- Explain how using a competitive forces model and calculating the TCO of technology assets help firms make good infrastructure investments.
Discussion Questions
1. Why is selecting computer hardware and software for the organization an important management decision? What management, organization, and technology issues should be considered when selecting computer hardware and software?
2. Should organizations use software service providers for all their software needs? Why or why not? What management, organization, and technology factors should be considered when making this decision?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing?
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Evaluating Server and Mobile Operating Systems
Form a group with three or four of your classmates. Choose server or mobile operating systems to evaluate. You might research and compare the capabilities and costs of Linux versus the most recent version of the Windows operating system or Unix. Alternatively, you could compare the capabilities of the Android mobile operating system with the most recent version of the iPhone operating system (iOS). If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
Salesforce.com, one of the most disruptive technology companies of the past few years, has single-handedly shaken up the software industry with its innovative business model and resounding success. Salesforce provides customer relationship management (CRM) and other application software solutions in the form of software as a service leased over the Internet, as opposed to software bought and installed on machines locally.
The company was founded in 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, and has since grown to over 3,900 employees, 82,400 corporate customers, and 2.1 million subscribers. It earned $1.3 billion in revenue in 2009, making it one of the top 50 software companies in the world. Salesforce attributes its success to the many benefits of its on-demand model of software distribution.
The on-demand model eliminates the need for large up-front hardware and software investments in systems and lengthy implementations on corporate computers. Subscriptions start as low as $9 per user per month for the pared-down Group version for small sales and marketing teams, with monthly subscriptions for more advanced versions for large enterprises starting around $65 per user.
For example, the Minneapolis-based Haagen-Dazs Shoppe owned by Nestle USA calculated it would have had to spend $65,000 for a custom-designed database to help management stay in contact with the company’s retail franchises. The company only had to pay $20,000 to establish service with Salesforce, plus a monthly charge of $125 per month for 20 users to use wireless handhelds or the Web to remotely monitor all the Haagen-Dazs franchises across the United States.
Salesforce.com implementations take three months at the longest, and usually less than a month. There is no hardware for subscribers to purchase, scale, and maintain. There are no operating systems, database servers, or application servers to install, no consultants and staff, and no expensive licensing and maintenance fees. The system is accessible via a standard Web browser, with some functions accessible by mobile handheld devices. Salesforce.com continually updates its software behind the scenes. There are tools for customizing some features of the software to support a company’s unique business processes. Subscribers can leave if business turns sour or a better system comes along. If they lay people off, they can cut down on the number of Salesforce subscriptions they buy.
Salesforce faces significant challenges as it continues to grow and refine its business. The first challenge comes from increased competition, both from traditional industry leaders and new challengers hoping to replicate Salesforce’s success. Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle have rolled out subscription-based versions of their CRM products in response to Salesforce. Smaller competitors like NetSuite, Salesboom.com, and RightNow also have made some inroads against Salesforce’s market share.
Salesforce still has plenty of catching up to do to reach the size and market share of its larger competitors. As recently as 2007, SAP’s market share was nearly four times as large as Salesforce’s, and IBM’s customer base includes 9,000 software companies that run their applications on their software and that are likelier to choose a solution offered by IBM over Salesforce.
Salesforce needs to continually prove to customers that it is reliable and secure enough to remotely handle their corporate data and applications. The company has experienced a number of service outages. For example, on January 6, 2009, a core network device failed and prevented data in Europe, Japan, and North America from being processed for 38 minutes. Over 177 million transactions were affected. While most of Salesforce’s customers accept that IT services provided through the cloud are going to be available slightly less than full time, some customers and critics used the outage as an opportunity to question the soundness of the entire concept of cloud computing. In February 2009, a similar outage occurred, affecting Europe and as well as North America a few hours later.
Thus far, Salesforce has experienced only one security breach. In November 2007, a Salesforce employee was tricked into divulging his corporate password to scammers, exposing Salesforce’s customer list. Salesforce clients were subjected to a barrage of highly targeted scams and hacking attempts that appeared authentic. Although this incident raised a red flag, many customers reported that Salesforce’s handling of the situation was satisfactory. All of Salesforce’s major customers
regularly send auditors to Salesforce to check security.
Another challenge for Salesforce is to expand its business model into other areas. Salesforce is currently used mostly by sales staff needing to keep track of leads and customer lists. One way the company is trying to provide additional functionality is through a partnership with Google and more specifically Google Apps. Salesforce is combining its services with Gmail, Google Docs, Google Talk, and Google Calendar to allow its customers to accomplish more tasks via the Web. Salesforce and Google both hope that their Salesforce.com for Google Apps initiative will galvanize further growth in on-demand software.
Salesforce has also partnered with Apple to distribute its applications for use on the iPhone. The company hopes that it can tap into the large market of iPhone users, pitching the ability to use Salesforce applications any time, anywhere. And Salesforce introduced a development tool for integrating with Facebook's social network to enable customers to build applications that call functions at the Facebook site. (In early 2010, Salesforce introduced its own social networking application called Chatter, which enables employees to create profiles and make status updates that appear in colleagues' news feeds, similar to Facebook and Twitter.)
In order to grow its revenues to the levels that industry observers and Wall Street eventually expects Salesforce is changing its focus from selling a suite of software applications to providing a broader cloud computing "platform" on which many software companies deliver applications. As CEO Marc Benioff put it, over the past decade, "we focused on software as a service...In the next decade, Salesforce.com will really be focused on the platform as a service."
The company has intensified its efforts to provide cloud computing offerings to its customers. The new Salesforce.com Web site places much more emphasis on cloud computing, grouping products into three types of clouds: the Sales Cloud, the Service Cloud, and the Custom Cloud. The Sales and Service clouds consist of applications meant to improve sales and customer service, respectively, but the Custom Cloud is another name for the Force.com application development platform, where customers can develop their own applications for use within the broader Salesforce network.
Force.com provides a set of development tools and IT services that enable users to customize their Salesforce customer relationship management applications or to build entirely new applications and run them "in the cloud" on Salesforce's data center infrastructure. Salesforce opened up Force.com to other independent software developers and listed their programs on its AppExchange.
Using AppExchange, small businesses can go online and easily download over 950 software applications, some add-ons to Salesforce.com and others that are unrelated, even in non-customer-facing functions such as human resources. Force.com Sites, based on the Force.com development environment, enables users to develop Web pages and register domain names. Pricing is based on site traffic.
Salesforce's cloud infrastructure includes two data centers in the United States and a third in Singapore, with others in Europe and Japan planned for the future. Salesforce has additionally partnered with Amazon to enable Force.com customers to tap into Amazon's cloud computing services (Elastic Compute Cloud and Simple Storage Service.) Amazon's services would handle the "cloudburst computing" tasks of Force.com applications that require extra processing power or storage capacity.
An International Data Center (IDC) report estimated that the Force.com platform enables users to build and run business applications and Web sites five times faster and at half the cost of non-cloud alternatives. For instance, RehabCare, a national provider of medical rehabilitation services, used Force.com to build a mobile iPhone patient admission application for clinicians. RehabCare's information systems team built a prototype application within four days that runs on the Force.com platform. It would have taken six months to build a similar mobile application using Microsoft development tools. About 400 clinicians now use the app.
Author Solutions, a self-publishing company based in Bloomington, Minnesota, uses the Force.com platform to host the applications driving its operations. It reports saving up to 75 percent from not having to maintain and manage its own data center, e-commerce, and workflow applications, and the ability to scale as it business mushroomed. Workflow modifications that once took 30 to 120 hours are accomplished in one-fourth the time. The time and cost for adding a new product, which used to take 120 to 240 hours (and cost $6,000 to $12,000) has been reduced by 75 percent. The new platform is able to handle 30 percent more work volume than the old systems with the same number of employees.
The question is whether the audience for Salesforce's AppExchange and Force.com platforms will prove large enough to deliver the level of growth Salesforce wants. It still isn't clear whether the
company will generate the revenue it needs to provide cloud computing services on the same scale as Google or Amazon and also make its cloud computing investments pay off.
Some analysts believe the platform may not be attractive to larger companies for their application needs. Yet another challenge is providing constant availability. Salesforce.com subscribers depend on the service being available 24/7. But thanks to the previously described outages, many companies have rethought their dependency on software as a service. Salesforce.com provides tools to assure customers about its system reliability and also offers PC applications that tie into their services so users can work offline.
Still, a number of companies are reluctant to jump on the SaaS and cloud computing bandwagon. Moreover, it is still not clear whether software delivered over the Web will cost less in the long run. According to Gartner consultants analyst Rob DiSisto, it may be cheaper to subscribe to Salesforce.com’s software services for the first few years, but what happens after that? Will the expense of upgrading and managing on-demand software become higher than the fees companies are paying to own and host their own software?
Sources: “How Salesforce.com Brings Success to the Cloud,” *IT BusinessEdge.com*, accessed June 10, 2010; Lauren McKay, “Salesforce.com Extends Chatter Across the Cloud,” *CRM Magazine*, April 14, 2010; Jeff Cogswell, “Salesforce.com Assembles an Array of Development Tools for Force.com,” *eWeek*, February 15, 2010; Mary Hayes Weier, “Why Force.com Is Important to Cloud Computing,” *Information Week*, November 23, 2009; Jessi Hempel, “Salesforce Hits Stride,” *CNN Money.com*, March 2, 2009; Clint Boulton, “Salesforce.com Network Device Failure Shuts Thousands Out of SaaS Apps,” *eWeek*, January 7, 2009; J. Nicholas Hoover, “Service Outages Force Cloud Adopters to Rethink Tactics,” *Information Week*, August 18/25, 2008; and Charles Babcock, “Salesforce Ascends Beyond Software As Service,” *Information Week*, November 10, 2008.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. How does Salesforce.com use cloud computing?
2. What are some of the challenges facing Salesforce as it continues its growth? How well will it be able to meet those challenges?
3. What kinds of businesses could benefit from switching to Salesforce and why?
4. What factors would you take into account in deciding whether to use Salesforce.com for your business?
5. Could a company run its entire business using Salesforce.com, Force.com, and App Exchange? Explain your answer.
Chapter 6
Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What are the problems of managing data resources in a traditional file environment and how are they solved by a database management system?
2. What are the major capabilities of database management systems (DBMS) and why is a relational DBMS so powerful?
3. What are some important principles of database design?
4. What are the principal tools and technologies for accessing information from databases to improve business performance and decision making?
5. Why are information policy, data administration, and data quality assurance essential for managing the firm’s data resources?
Interactive Sessions:
What Can Businesses Learn from Text Mining?
Credit Bureau Errors—Big People Problems
CHAPTER OUTLINE
6.1 ORGANIZING DATA IN A TRADITIONAL FILE ENVIRONMENT
File Organization Terms and Concepts
Problems with the Traditional File Environment
6.2 THE DATABASE APPROACH TO DATA MANAGEMENT
Database Management Systems
Capabilities of Database Management Systems
Designing Databases
6.3 USING DATABASES TO IMPROVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE AND DECISION MAKING
Data Warehouses
Tools for Business Intelligence: Multidimensional Data Analysis and Data Mining
Databases and the Web
6.4 MANAGING DATA RESOURCES
Establishing an Information Policy
Ensuring Data Quality
6.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Achieving Operational Excellence: Building a Relational Database for Inventory Management
Improving Decision Making: Searching Online Databases for Overseas Business Resources
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
Database Design, Normalization, and Entity-Relationship Diagramming
Introduction to SQL
Hierarchical and Network Data Models
Right now you are most likely using an RR Donnelley product. Chicago-based RR Donnelley is a giant commercial printing and service company providing printing services, forms and labels, direct mail, and other services. This textbook probably came off its presses. The company’s recent expansion has been fueled by a series of acquisitions, including commercial printer Moore Wallace in 2005 and printing and supply chain management company Banta in January 2007. RR Donnelley’s revenue has jumped from $2.4 billion in 2003 to over $9.8 billion today.
However, all that growth created information management challenges. Each acquired company had its own systems and its own set of customer, vendor, and product data. Coming from so many different sources, the data were often inconsistent, duplicated, or incomplete. For example, different units of the business might each have a different meaning for the entity “customer.” One might define “customer” as a specific billing location, while another might define “customer” as the legal parent entity of a company. Donnelley had to use time-consuming manual processes to reconcile the data stored in multiple systems in order to get a clear enterprise-wide picture of each of its customers, since they might be doing business with several different units of the company. These conditions heightened inefficiencies and costs.
RR Donnelley had become so big that it was impractical to store the information from all of its units in a single system. But Donnelley still needed a clear single set of data that was accurate and consistent for the entire enterprise. To solve this problem, RR Donnelley turned to master data management (MDM). MDM seeks to ensure that an organization does not use multiple versions of the same piece of data in different parts of its operations by merging disparate records into a single authenticated master file. Once the master file is in place, employees and applications access a single consolidated view of the company’s data. It is especially useful for companies such as Donnelley that have data integration problems as a result of mergers and acquisitions.
Implementing MDM is a multi-step process that includes business process analysis, data cleansing, data consolidation and reconciliation, and data migration into a master file of all the company’s data. Companies must identify what group in the company “owns” each piece of data and is responsible for resolving inconsistent definitions of data and other discrepancies. Donnelley launched its MDM program in late 2005 and began creating a single set of identifiers for its customer and vendor data. The company opted for a registry model using Purisma’s Data Hub in which customer data continue to reside in the system where they originate but are registered in a master “hub” and cross-referenced so applications can find the data. The data in their source system are not touched.
Nearly a year later, Donnelley brought up its
Customer Master Data Store, which integrates the data from numerous systems from Donnelley acquisitions. Data that are outdated, incomplete, or incorrectly formatted are corrected or eliminated. A registry points to where the source data are stored. By having a single consistent enterprise-wide set of data with common definitions and standards, management is able to easily find out what kind of business and how much business it has with a particular customer to identify top customers and sales opportunities. And when Donnelley acquires a company, it can quickly see a list of overlapping customers.
Sources: John McCormick, “Mastering Data at R.R. Donnelley,” Information Management Magazine, March 2009; www.rrdonnelley.com, accessed June 10, 2010; and www.purisma.com, accessed June 10, 2010.
RR Donnelley’s experience illustrates the importance of data management for businesses. Donnelley has experienced phenomenal growth, primarily through acquisitions. But its business performance depends on what it can or cannot do with its data. How businesses store, organize, and manage their data has a tremendous impact on organizational effectiveness.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Management decided that the company needed to centralize the management of the company’s data. Data about customers, vendors, products, and other important entities had been stored in a number of different systems and files where they could not be easily retrieved and analyzed. They were often redundant and inconsistent, limiting their usefulness. Management was unable to obtain an enterprise-wide view of all of its customers at all of its acquisitions to market its products and services and provide better service and support.
In the past, RR Donnelley had used heavily manual paper processes to reconcile its inconsistent and redundant data and manage its information from an enterprise-wide perspective. This solution was no longer viable as the organization grew larger. A more appropriate solution was to identify, consolidate, cleanse, and standardize customer and other data in a single master data management registry. In addition to using appropriate technology, Donnelley had to correct and reorganize the data into a standard format and establish rules, responsibilities, and procedures for updating and using the data.
A master data management system helps RR Donnelley boost profitability by making it easier to identify customers and sales opportunities. It also improves operational efficiency and decision making by having more accurate and complete customer data available and reducing the time required to reconcile redundant and inconsistent data.
6.1 ORGANIZING DATA IN A TRADITIONAL FILE ENVIRONMENT
An effective information system provides users with accurate, timely, and relevant information. Accurate information is free of errors. Information is timely when it is available to decision makers when it is needed. Information is relevant when it is useful and appropriate for the types of work and decisions that require it.
You might be surprised to learn that many businesses don’t have timely, accurate, or relevant information because the data in their information systems have been poorly organized and maintained. That’s why data management is so essential. To understand the problem, let’s look at how information systems arrange data in computer files and traditional methods of file management.
FILE ORGANIZATION TERMS AND CONCEPTS
A computer system organizes data in a hierarchy that starts with bits and bytes and progresses to fields, records, files, and databases (see Figure 6-1). A bit represents the smallest unit of data a computer can handle. A group of bits, called a byte, represents a single character, which can be a letter, a
FIGURE 6-1 THE DATA HIERARCHY
A computer system organizes data in a hierarchy that starts with the bit, which represents either a 0 or a 1. Bits can be grouped to form a byte to represent one character, number, or symbol. Bytes can be grouped to form a field, and related fields can be grouped to form a record. Related records can be collected to form a file, and related files can be organized into a database.
number, or another symbol. A grouping of characters into a word, a group of words, or a complete number (such as a person’s name or age) is called a field. A group of related fields, such as the student’s name, the course taken, the date, and the grade, comprises a record; a group of records of the same type is called a file.
For example, the records in Figure 6-1 could constitute a student course file. A group of related files makes up a database. The student course file illustrated in Figure 6-1 could be grouped with files on students’ personal histories and financial backgrounds to create a student database.
A record describes an entity. An entity is a person, place, thing, or event on which we store and maintain information. Each characteristic or quality describing a particular entity is called an attribute. For example, Student_ID, Course, Date, and Grade are attributes of the entity COURSE. The specific values that these attributes can have are found in the fields of the record describing the entity COURSE.
**PROBLEMS WITH THE TRADITIONAL FILE ENVIRONMENT**
In most organizations, systems tended to grow independently without a company-wide plan. Accounting, finance, manufacturing, human resources, and sales and marketing all developed their own systems and data files. Figure 6-2 illustrates the traditional approach to information processing.
**FIGURE 6-2** **TRADITIONAL FILE PROCESSING**
The use of a traditional approach to file processing encourages each functional area in a corporation to develop specialized applications. Each application requires a unique data file that is likely to be a subset of the master file. These subsets of the master file lead to data redundancy and inconsistency, processing inflexibility, and wasted storage resources.
Each application, of course, required its own files and its own computer program to operate. For example, the human resources functional area might have a personnel master file, a payroll file, a medical insurance file, a pension file, a mailing list file, and so forth until tens, perhaps hundreds, of files and programs existed. In the company as a whole, this process led to multiple master files created, maintained, and operated by separate divisions or departments. As this process goes on for 5 or 10 years, the organization is saddled with hundreds of programs and applications that are very difficult to maintain and manage. The resulting problems are data redundancy and inconsistency, program-data dependence, inflexibility, poor data security, and an inability to share data among applications.
**Data Redundancy and Inconsistency**
*Data redundancy* is the presence of duplicate data in multiple data files so that the same data are stored in more than place or location. Data redundancy occurs when different groups in an organization independently collect the same piece of data and store it independently of each other. Data redundancy wastes storage resources and also leads to *data inconsistency*, where the same attribute may have different values. For example, in instances of the entity COURSE illustrated in Figure 6-1, the Date may be updated in some systems but not in others. The same attribute, Student_ID, may also have different names in different systems throughout the organization. Some systems might use Student_ID and others might use ID, for example.
Additional confusion might result from using different coding systems to represent values for an attribute. For instance, the sales, inventory, and manufacturing systems of a clothing retailer might use different codes to represent clothing size. One system might represent clothing size as “extra large,” whereas another might use the code “XL” for the same purpose. The resulting confusion would make it difficult for companies to create customer relationship management, supply chain management, or enterprise systems that integrate data from different sources.
**Program-Data Dependence**
*Program-data dependence* refers to the coupling of data stored in files and the specific programs required to update and maintain those files such that changes in programs require changes to the data. Every traditional computer program has to describe the location and nature of the data with which it works. In a traditional file environment, any change in a software program could require a change in the data accessed by that program. One program might be modified from a five-digit to a nine-digit ZIP code. If the original data file were changed from five-digit to nine-digit ZIP codes, then other programs that required the five-digit ZIP code would no longer work properly. Such changes could cost millions of dollars to implement properly.
**Lack of Flexibility**
A traditional file system can deliver routine scheduled reports after extensive programming efforts, but it cannot deliver ad hoc reports or respond to unanticipated information requirements in a timely fashion. The information required by ad hoc requests is somewhere in the system but may be too expensive to retrieve. Several programmers might have to work for weeks to put together the required data items in a new file.
Poor Security
Because there is little control or management of data, access to and dissemination of information may be out of control. Management may have no way of knowing who is accessing or even making changes to the organization’s data.
Lack of Data Sharing and Availability
Because pieces of information in different files and different parts of the organization cannot be related to one another, it is virtually impossible for information to be shared or accessed in a timely manner. Information cannot flow freely across different functional areas or different parts of the organization. If users find different values of the same piece of information in two different systems, they may not want to use these systems because they cannot trust the accuracy of their data.
6.2 The Database Approach to Data Management
Database technology cuts through many of the problems of traditional file organization. A more rigorous definition of a database is a collection of data organized to serve many applications efficiently by centralizing the data and controlling redundant data. Rather than storing data in separate files for each application, data are stored so as to appear to users as being stored in only one location. A single database services multiple applications. For example, instead of a corporation storing employee data in separate information systems and separate files for personnel, payroll, and benefits, the corporation could create a single common human resources database.
DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
A database management system (DBMS) is software that permits an organization to centralize data, manage them efficiently, and provide access to the stored data by application programs. The DBMS acts as an interface between application programs and the physical data files. When the application program calls for a data item, such as gross pay, the DBMS finds this item in the database and presents it to the application program. Using traditional data files, the programmer would have to specify the size and format of each data element used in the program and then tell the computer where they were located.
The DBMS relieves the programmer or end user from the task of understanding where and how the data are actually stored by separating the logical and physical views of the data. The *logical view* presents data as they would be perceived by end users or business specialists, whereas the *physical view* shows how data are actually organized and structured on physical storage media.
The database management software makes the physical database available for different logical views required by users. For example, for the human resources database illustrated in Figure 6-3, a benefits specialist might require a view consisting of the employee’s name, social security number, and health insurance coverage. A payroll department member might need data such as the employee’s name, social security number, gross pay, and net pay. The data for
A single human resources database provides many different views of data, depending on the information requirements of the user. Illustrated here are two possible views, one of interest to a benefits specialist and one of interest to a member of the company’s payroll department.
all these views are stored in a single database, where they can be more easily managed by the organization.
**How a DBMS Solves the Problems of the Traditional File Environment**
A DBMS reduces data redundancy and inconsistency by minimizing isolated files in which the same data are repeated. The DBMS may not enable the organization to eliminate data redundancy entirely, but it can help control redundancy. Even if the organization maintains some redundant data, using a DBMS eliminates data inconsistency because the DBMS can help the organization ensure that every occurrence of redundant data has the same values. The DBMS uncouples programs and data, enabling data to stand on their own. Access and availability of information will be increased and program development and maintenance costs reduced because users and programmers can perform ad hoc queries of data in the database. The DBMS enables the organization to centrally manage data, their use, and security.
**Relational DBMS**
Contemporary DBMS use different database models to keep track of entities, attributes, and relationships. The most popular type of DBMS today for PCs as well as for larger computers and mainframes is the **relational DBMS**. Relational databases represent data as two-dimensional tables (called relations). Tables may be referred to as files. Each table contains data on an entity and its attributes. Microsoft Access is a relational DBMS for desktop systems, whereas DB2, Oracle Database, and Microsoft SQL Server are relational DBMS for large mainframes and midrange computers. MySQL is a popular open-source DBMS, and Oracle Database Lite is a DBMS for small handheld computing devices.
Let's look at how a relational database organizes data about suppliers and parts (see Figure 6-4). The database has a separate table for the entity SUPPLIER and a table for the entity PART. Each table consists of a grid of columns and rows of data. Each individual element of data for each entity is stored as a separate field, and each field represents an attribute for that entity. Fields in a relational database are also called columns. For the entity SUPPLIER, the supplier identification number, name, street, city, state, and ZIP code are stored as separate fields within the SUPPLIER table and each field represents an attribute for the entity SUPPLIER.
The actual information about a single supplier that resides in a table is called a row. Rows are commonly referred to as records, or in very technical terms, as tuples. Data for the entity PART have their own separate table.
The field for Supplier_Number in the SUPPLIER table uniquely identifies each record so that the record can be retrieved, updated, or sorted and it is called a key field. Each table in a relational database has one field that is designated as its primary key. This key field is the unique identifier for all the information in any row of the table and this primary key cannot be duplicated.
A relational database organizes data in the form of two-dimensional tables. Illustrated here are tables for the entities SUPPLIER and PART showing how they represent each entity and its attributes. Supplier_Number is a primary key for the SUPPLIER table and a foreign key for the PART table.
Supplier_Number is the primary key for the SUPPLIER table and Part_Number is the primary key for the PART table. Note that Supplier_Number appears in both the SUPPLIER and PART tables. In the SUPPLIER table, Supplier_Number is the primary key. When the field Supplier_Number appears in the PART table it is called a **foreign key** and is essentially a lookup field to look up data about the supplier of a specific part.
**Operations of a Relational DBMS**
Relational database tables can be combined easily to deliver data required by users, provided that any two tables share a common data element. Suppose we wanted to find in this database the names of suppliers who could provide us with part number 137 or part number 150. We would need information from two tables: the SUPPLIER table and the PART table. Note that these two files have a shared data element: Supplier_Number.
In a relational database, three basic operations, as shown in Figure 6-5, are used to develop useful sets of data: select, join, and project. The *select* operation creates a subset consisting of all records in the file that meet stated criteria. Select creates, in other words, a subset of rows that meet certain criteria. In our example, we want to select records (rows) from the PART table where the Part_Number equals 137 or 150. The *join* operation combines relational tables to provide the user with more information than is available in individual tables. In our example, we want to join the now-shortened PART table (only parts 137 or 150 will be presented) and the SUPPLIER table into a single new table.
The *project* operation creates a subset consisting of columns in a table, permitting the user to create new tables that contain only the information required. In our example, we want to extract from the new table only the following columns: Part_Number, Part_Name, Supplier_Number, and Supplier_Name.
**Object-Oriented DBMS**
Many applications today and in the future require databases that can store and retrieve not only structured numbers and characters but also drawings, images, photographs, voice, and full-motion video. DBMS designed for organizing structured data into rows and columns are not well suited to handling graphics-based or multimedia applications. Object-oriented databases are better suited for this purpose.
An **object-oriented DBMS** stores the data and procedures that act on those data as objects that can be automatically retrieved and shared. Object-oriented database management systems (OODBMS) are becoming popular because they can be used to manage the various multimedia components or Java applets used in Web applications, which typically integrate pieces of information from a variety of sources.
Although object-oriented databases can store more complex types of information than relational DBMS, they are relatively slow compared with relational DBMS for processing large numbers of transactions. Hybrid **object-relational DBMS** systems are now available to provide capabilities of both object-oriented and relational DBMS.
**Databases in the Cloud**
Suppose your company wants to use cloud computing services. Is there a way to manage data in the cloud? The answer is a qualified “Yes.” Cloud computing providers offer database management services, but these services typically have less functionality than their on-premises counterparts. At the moment,
The three basic operations of a relational DBMS
**PART**
| Part_Number | Part_Name | Unit_Price | Supplier_Number |
|-------------|---------------|------------|-----------------|
| 137 | Door latch | 22.00 | 8259 |
| 145 | Side mirror | 12.00 | 8444 |
| 150 | Door molding | 6.00 | 8263 |
| 152 | Door lock | 31.00 | 8259 |
| 155 | Compressor | 54.00 | 8261 |
| 178 | Door handle | 10.00 | 8259 |
**SUPPLIER**
| Supplier_Number | Supplier_Name | Supplier_Street | Supplier_City | Supplier_State | Supplier_Zip |
|-----------------|----------------------|--------------------------|---------------|----------------|--------------|
| 8259 | CBM Inc. | 74 5th Avenue | Dayton | OH | 45220 |
| 8261 | B. R. Molds | 1277 Gandolly Street | Cleveland | OH | 49345 |
| 8263 | Jackson Components | 8233 Micklin Street | Lexington | KY | 56723 |
| 8444 | Bryant Corporation | 4315 Mill Drive | Rochester | NY | 11344 |
Join by Supplier_Number
Select Part_Number = 137 or 150
Project selected columns
The select, join, and project operations enable data from two different tables to be combined and only selected attributes to be displayed.
the primary customer base for cloud-based data management consists of Web-focused start-ups or small to medium-sized businesses looking for database capabilities at a lower price than a standard relational DBMS.
Amazon Web Services has both a simple non-relational database called SimpleDB and a Relational Database Service, which is based on an online implementation of the MySQL open source DBMS. Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) offers the full range of capabilities of MySQL. Pricing is based on usage. (Charges run from 11 cents per hour for a small database using 1.7 GB of server memory to $3.10 per hour for a large database using 68 GB of server memory.) There are also charges for the volume of data stored, the number of input-output requests, the amount of data written to the database, and the amount of data read from the database.
Amazon Web Services additionally offers Oracle customers the option to license Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Enterprise Manager, and Oracle Fusion Middleware to run on the Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute) platform.
Microsoft SQL Azure Database is a cloud-based relational database service based on Microsoft's SQL Server DBMS. It provides a highly available, scalable database service hosted by Microsoft in the cloud. SQL Azure Database helps reduce costs by integrating with existing software tools and providing symmetry with on-premises and cloud databases.
TicketDirect, which sells tickets to concerts, sporting events, theater performances, and movies in Australia and New Zealand, adopted the SQL Azure Database cloud platform in order to improve management of peak system loads during major ticket sales. It migrated its data to the SQL Azure database. By moving to a cloud solution, TicketDirect is able to scale its computing resources in response to real-time demand while keeping costs low.
**CAPABILITIES OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS**
A DBMS includes capabilities and tools for organizing, managing, and accessing the data in the database. The most important are its data definition language, data dictionary, and data manipulation language.
DBMS have a **data definition** capability to specify the structure of the content of the database. It would be used to create database tables and to define the characteristics of the fields in each table. This information about the database would be documented in a data dictionary. A **data dictionary** is an automated or manual file that stores definitions of data elements and their characteristics.
Microsoft Access has a rudimentary data dictionary capability that displays information about the name, description, size, type, format, and other properties of each field in a table (see Figure 6-6). Data dictionaries for large corporate databases may capture additional information, such as usage, ownership (who in the organization is responsible for maintaining the data), authorization; security, and the individuals, business functions, programs, and reports that use each data element.
**Querying and Reporting**
DBMS includes tools for accessing and manipulating information in databases. Most DBMS have a specialized language called a **data manipulation language** that is used to add, change, delete, and retrieve the data in the database. This language contains commands that permit end users and programming specialists to extract data from the database to satisfy information requests and develop applications. The most prominent data manipulation language today is **Structured Query Language**, or **SQL**. Figure 6-7 illustrates the SQL query that
Microsoft Access has a rudimentary data dictionary capability that displays information about the size, format, and other characteristics of each field in a database. Displayed here is the information maintained in the SUPPLIER table. The small key icon to the left of Supplier_Number indicates that it is a key field.
would produce the new resultant table in Figure 6-5. You can find out more about how to perform SQL queries in our Learning Tracks for this chapter.
Users of DBMS for large and midrange computers, such as DB2, Oracle, or SQL Server, would employ SQL to retrieve information they needed from the database. Microsoft Access also uses SQL, but it provides its own set of user-friendly tools for querying databases and for organizing data from databases into more polished reports.
In Microsoft Access, you will find features that enable users to create queries by identifying the tables and fields they want and the results, and then selecting the rows from the database that meet particular criteria. These actions in turn are translated into SQL commands. Figure 6-8 illustrates how
**FIGURE 6-7 EXAMPLE OF AN SQL QUERY**
```
SELECT PART.Part_Number, PART.Part_Name, SUPPLIER.Supplier_Number,
SUPPLIER.Supplier_Name
FROM PART, SUPPLIER
WHERE PART.Supplier_Number = SUPPLIER.Supplier_Number AND
Part_Number = 137 OR Part_Number = 150;
```
Illustrated here are the SQL statements for a query to select suppliers for parts 137 or 150. They produce a list with the same results as Figure 6-5.
Illustrated here is how the query in Figure 6-7 would be constructed using Microsoft Access query-building tools. It shows the tables, fields, and selection criteria used for the query.
the same query as the SQL query to select parts and suppliers would be constructed using the Microsoft query-building tools.
Microsoft Access and other DBMS include capabilities for report generation so that the data of interest can be displayed in a more structured and polished format than would be possible just by querying. Crystal Reports is a popular report generator for large corporate DBMS, although it can also be used with Access. Access also has capabilities for developing desktop system applications. These include tools for creating data entry screens, reports, and developing the logic for processing transactions.
**DESIGNING DATABASES**
To create a database, you must understand the relationships among the data, the type of data that will be maintained in the database, how the data will be used, and how the organization will need to change to manage data from a company-wide perspective. The database requires both a conceptual design and a physical design. The conceptual, or logical, design of a database is an abstract model of the database from a business perspective, whereas the physical design shows how the database is actually arranged on direct-access storage devices.
**Normalization and Entity-Relationship Diagrams**
The conceptual database design describes how the data elements in the database are to be grouped. The design process identifies relationships among data elements and the most efficient way of grouping data elements together to meet business information requirements. The process also identifies redundant data elements and the groupings of data elements required for specific
An unnormalized relation contains repeating groups. For example, there can be many parts and suppliers for each order. There is only a one-to-one correspondence between Order_Number and Order_Date.
application programs. Groups of data are organized, refined, and streamlined until an overall logical view of the relationships among all the data in the database emerges.
To use a relational database model effectively, complex groupings of data must be streamlined to minimize redundant data elements and awkward many-to-many relationships. The process of creating small, stable, yet flexible and adaptive data structures from complex groups of data is called normalization. Figures 6-9 and 6-10 illustrate this process.
In the particular business modeled here, an order can have more than one part but each part is provided by only one supplier. If we build a relation called ORDER with all the fields included here, we would have to repeat the name and address of the supplier for every part on the order, even though the order is for parts from a single supplier. This relationship contains what are called repeating data groups because there can be many parts on a single order to a given supplier. A more efficient way to arrange the data is to break down ORDER into smaller relations, each of which describes a single entity. If we go step by step and normalize the relation ORDER, we emerge with the relations illustrated in Figure 6-10. You can find out more about normalization, entity-relationship diagramming, and database design in the Learning Tracks for this chapter.
Relational database systems try to enforce referential integrity rules to ensure that relationships between coupled tables remain consistent. When one table has a foreign key that points to another table, you may not add a record to the table with the foreign key unless there is a corresponding record in the linked table. In the database we examined earlier in this chapter, the foreign key
After normalization, the original relation ORDER has been broken down into four smaller relations. The relation ORDER is left with only two attributes and the relation LINE_ITEM has a combined, or concatenated, key consisting of Order_Number and Part_Number.
Supplier_Number links the PART table to the SUPPLIER table. We may not add a new record to the PART table for a part with Supplier_Number 8266 unless there is a corresponding record in the SUPPLIER table for Supplier_Number 8266. We must also delete the corresponding record in the PART table if we delete the record in the SUPPLIER table for Supplier_Number 8266. In other words, we shouldn’t have parts from nonexistent suppliers!
Database designers document their data model with an **entity-relationship diagram**, illustrated in Figure 6-11. This diagram illustrates the relationship between the entities SUPPLIER, PART, LINE_ITEM, and ORDER. The boxes represent entities. The lines connecting the boxes represent relationships. A line connecting two entities that ends in two short marks designates a one-to-one relationship. A line connecting two entities that ends with a crow’s foot topped by a short mark indicates a one-to-many relationship. Figure 6-11 shows that one ORDER can contain many LINE_ITEMS. (A PART can be ordered many times and appear many times as a line item in a single order.) Each PART can have only one SUPPLIER, but many PARTs can be provided by the same SUPPLIER.
It can’t be emphasized enough: If the business doesn’t get its data model right, the system won’t be able to serve the business well. The company’s systems will not be as effective as they could be because they’ll have to work with data that may be inaccurate, incomplete, or difficult to retrieve. Understanding the organization’s data and how they should be represented in a database is perhaps the most important lesson you can learn from this course.
For example, Famous Footwear, a shoe store chain with more than 800 locations in 49 states, could not achieve its goal of having “the right style of shoe in the right store for sale at the right price” because its database was not properly designed for rapidly adjusting store inventory. The company had an Oracle relational database running on an IBM AS/400 midrange computer, but the database was designed primarily for producing standard reports for management rather than for reacting to marketplace changes. Management could not obtain precise data on specific items in inventory in each of its stores. The company had to work around this problem by building a new database where the sales and inventory data could be better organized for analysis and inventory management.
### 6.3 Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making
Businesses use their databases to keep track of basic transactions, such as paying suppliers, processing orders, keeping track of customers, and paying employees. But they also need databases to provide information that will help the company.
**FIGURE 6-11 AN ENTITY-RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM**
This diagram shows the relationships between the entities SUPPLIER, PART, LINE_ITEM, and ORDER that might be used to model the database in Figure 6-10.
run the business more efficiently, and help managers and employees make better decisions. If a company wants to know which product is the most popular or who is its most profitable customer, the answer lies in the data.
For example, by analyzing data from customer credit card purchases, Louise’s Trattoria, a Los Angeles restaurant chain, learned that quality was more important than price for most of its customers, who were college-educated and liked fine wine. Acting on this information, the chain introduced vegetarian dishes, more seafood selections, and more expensive wines, raising sales by more than 10 percent.
In a large company, with large databases or large systems for separate functions, such as manufacturing, sales, and accounting, special capabilities and tools are required for analyzing vast quantities of data and for accessing data from multiple systems. These capabilities include data warehousing, data mining, and tools for accessing internal databases through the Web.
**DATA WAREHOUSES**
Suppose you want concise, reliable information about current operations, trends, and changes across the entire company. If you worked in a large company, obtaining this might be difficult because data are often maintained in separate systems, such as sales, manufacturing, or accounting. Some of the data you need might be found in the sales system, and other pieces in the manufacturing system. Many of these systems are older legacy systems that use outdated data management technologies or file systems where information is difficult for users to access.
You might have to spend an inordinate amount of time locating and gathering the data you need, or you would be forced to make your decision based on incomplete knowledge. If you want information about trends, you might also have trouble finding data about past events because most firms only make their current data immediately available. Data warehousing addresses these problems.
**What Is a Data Warehouse?**
A **data warehouse** is a database that stores current and historical data of potential interest to decision makers throughout the company. The data originate in many core operational transaction systems, such as systems for sales, customer accounts, and manufacturing, and may include data from Web site transactions. The data warehouse consolidates and standardizes information from different operational databases so that the information can be used across the enterprise for management analysis and decision making.
Figure 6-12 illustrates how a data warehouse works. The data warehouse makes the data available for anyone to access as needed, but it cannot be altered. A data warehouse system also provides a range of ad hoc and standardized query tools, analytical tools, and graphical reporting facilities. Many firms use intranet portals to make the data warehouse information widely available throughout the firm.
Catalina Marketing, a global marketing firm for major consumer packaged goods companies and retailers, operates a gigantic data warehouse that includes three years of purchase history for 195 million U.S. customer loyalty program members at supermarkets, pharmacies, and other retailers. It is the largest loyalty database in the world. Catalina’s retail store customers analyze this database of customer purchase histories to determine individual customers’ buying preferences. When a shopper checks out at the cash register of one of
The data warehouse extracts current and historical data from multiple operational systems inside the organization. These data are combined with data from external sources and reorganized into a central database designed for management reporting and analysis. The information directory provides users with information about the data available in the warehouse.
Catalina’s retail customers, the purchase is instantly analyzed along with that customer’s buying history in the data warehouse to determine what coupons that customer will receive at checkout along with a receipt.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) maintains a Compliance Data Warehouse that consolidates taxpayer data that had been fragmented among many different legacy systems, including personal information about taxpayers and archived tax returns. These systems had been designed to process tax return forms efficiently but their data were very difficult to query and analyze. The Compliance Data Warehouse integrates taxpayer data from many disparate sources into a relational structure, which makes querying and analysis much easier. With a complete and comprehensive picture of taxpayers, the warehouse helps IRS analysts and staff identify people who are most likely to cheat on their income tax payments and respond rapidly to taxpayer queries.
**Data Marts**
Companies often build enterprise-wide data warehouses, where a central data warehouse serves the entire organization, or they create smaller, decentralized warehouses called data marts. A **data mart** is a subset of a data warehouse in which a summarized or highly focused portion of the organization’s data is placed in a separate database for a specific population of users. For example, a company might develop marketing and sales data marts to deal with customer information. Before implementing an enterprise-wide data warehouse, bookseller Barnes & Noble maintained a series of data marts—one for point-of-sale data in retail stores, another for college bookstore sales, and a third for online sales. A data mart typically focuses on a single subject area or line of business, so it usually can be constructed more rapidly and at lower cost than an enterprise-wide data warehouse.
TOOLS FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: MULTIDIMENSIONAL DATA ANALYSIS AND DATA MINING
Once data have been captured and organized in data warehouses and data marts, they are available for further analysis using tools for business intelligence, which we introduced briefly in Chapter 2. Business intelligence tools enable users to analyze data to see new patterns, relationships, and insights that are useful for guiding decision making.
Principal tools for business intelligence include software for database querying and reporting, tools for multidimensional data analysis (online analytical processing), and tools for data mining. This section will introduce you to these tools, with more detail about business intelligence analytics and applications in the Chapter 12 discussion of decision making.
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
Suppose your company sells four different products—nuts, bolts, washers, and screws—in the East, West, and Central regions. If you wanted to ask a fairly straightforward question, such as how many washers were sold during the past quarter, you could easily find the answer by querying your sales database. But what if you wanted to know how many washers sold in each of your sales regions and compare actual results with projected sales?
To obtain the answer, you would need online analytical processing (OLAP). OLAP supports multidimensional data analysis, enabling users to view the same data in different ways using multiple dimensions. Each aspect of information—product, pricing, cost, region, or time period—represents a different dimension. So, a product manager could use a multidimensional data analysis tool to learn how many washers were sold in the East in June, how that compares with the previous month and the previous June, and how it compares with the sales forecast. OLAP enables users to obtain online answers to ad hoc questions such as these in a fairly rapid amount of time, even when the data are stored in very large databases, such as sales figures for multiple years.
Figure 6-13 shows a multidimensional model that could be created to represent products, regions, actual sales, and projected sales. A matrix of actual sales can be stacked on top of a matrix of projected sales to form a cube with six faces. If you rotate the cube 90 degrees one way, the face showing will be product versus actual and projected sales. If you rotate the cube 90 degrees again, you will see region versus actual and projected sales. If you rotate 180 degrees from the original view, you will see projected sales and product versus region. Cubes can be nested within cubes to build complex views of data. A company would use either a specialized multidimensional database or a tool that creates multidimensional views of data in relational databases.
Data Mining
Traditional database queries answer such questions as, “How many units of product number 403 were shipped in February 2010?” OLAP, or multidimensional analysis, supports much more complex requests for information, such as “Compare sales of product 403 relative to plan by quarter and sales region for the past two years.” With OLAP and query-oriented data analysis, users need to have a good idea about the information for which they are looking.
Data mining is more discovery-driven. Data mining provides insights into corporate data that cannot be obtained with OLAP by finding hidden patterns and
The view that is showing is product versus region. If you rotate the cube 90 degrees, the face will show product versus actual and projected sales. If you rotate the cube 90 degrees again, you will see region versus actual and projected sales. Other views are possible.
relationships in large databases and inferring rules from them to predict future behavior. The patterns and rules are used to guide decision making and forecast the effect of those decisions. The types of information obtainable from data mining include associations, sequences, classifications, clusters, and forecasts.
- *Associations* are occurrences linked to a single event. For instance, a study of supermarket purchasing patterns might reveal that, when corn chips are purchased, a cola drink is purchased 65 percent of the time, but when there is a promotion, cola is purchased 85 percent of the time. This information helps managers make better decisions because they have learned the profitability of a promotion.
- In *sequences*, events are linked over time. We might find, for example, that if a house is purchased, a new refrigerator will be purchased within two weeks 65 percent of the time, and an oven will be bought within one month of the home purchase 45 percent of the time.
- *Classification* recognizes patterns that describe the group to which an item belongs by examining existing items that have been classified and by inferring a set of rules. For example, businesses such as credit card or telephone companies worry about the loss of steady customers. Classification helps discover the characteristics of customers who are likely to leave and can provide a model to help managers predict who those customers are so that the managers can devise special campaigns to retain such customers.
- *Clustering* works in a manner similar to classification when no groups have yet been defined. A data mining tool can discover different groupings within data, such as finding affinity groups for bank cards or partitioning a database into groups of customers based on demographics and types of personal investments.
- Although these applications involve predictions, *forecasting* uses predictions in a different way. It uses a series of existing values to forecast what other values will be. For example, forecasting might find patterns in data to help managers estimate the future value of continuous variables, such as sales figures.
These systems perform high-level analyses of patterns or trends, but they can also drill down to provide more detail when needed. There are data mining
applications for all the functional areas of business, and for government and scientific work. One popular use for data mining is to provide detailed analyses of patterns in customer data for one-to-one marketing campaigns or for identifying profitable customers.
For example, Harrah's Entertainment, the second-largest gambling company in its industry, uses data mining to identify its most profitable customers and generate more revenue from them. The company continually analyzes data about its customers gathered when people play its slot machines or use Harrah's casinos and hotels. Harrah's marketing department uses this information to build a detailed gambling profile, based on a particular customer's ongoing value to the company. For instance, data mining lets Harrah's know the favorite gaming experience of a regular customer at one of its Midwest riverboat casinos, along with that person's preferences for room accommodations, restaurants, and entertainment. This information guides management decisions about how to cultivate the most profitable customers, encourage those customers to spend more, and attract more customers with high revenue-generating potential. Business intelligence has improved Harrah's profits so much that it has become the centerpiece of the firm's business strategy.
**Predictive analytics** use data mining techniques, historical data, and assumptions about future conditions to predict outcomes of events, such as the probability a customer will respond to an offer or purchase a specific product. For example, the U.S. division of The Body Shop International plc used predictive analytics with its database of catalog, Web, and retail store customers to identify customers who were more likely to make catalog purchases. That information helped the company build a more precise and targeted mailing list for its catalogs, improving the response rate for catalog mailings and catalog revenues.
**Text Mining and Web Mining**
Business intelligence tools deal primarily with data that have been structured in databases and files. However, unstructured data, most in the form of text files, is believed to account for over 80 percent of an organization's useful information. E-mail, memos, call center transcripts, survey responses, legal cases, patent descriptions, and service reports are all valuable for finding patterns and trends that will help employees make better business decisions. **Text mining** tools are now available to help businesses analyze these data. These tools are able to extract key elements from large unstructured data sets, discover patterns and relationships, and summarize the information. Businesses might turn to text mining to analyze transcripts of calls to customer service centers to identify major service and repair issues.
Text mining is a relatively new technology, but what's really new are the myriad ways in which unstructured data are being generated by consumers and the business uses for these data. The Interactive Session on Technology explores some of these business applications of text mining.
The Web is another rich source of valuable information, some of which can now be mined for patterns, trends, and insights into customer behavior. The discovery and analysis of useful patterns and information from the World Wide Web is called **Web mining**. Businesses might turn to Web mining to help them understand customer behavior, evaluate the effectiveness of a particular Web site, or quantify the success of a marketing campaign. For instance, marketers use Google Trends and Google Insights for Search services, which track the popularity of various words and phrases used in Google search queries, to learn what people are interested in and what they are interested in buying.
WHAT CAN BUSINESSES LEARN FROM TEXT MINING?
Text mining is the discovery of patterns and relationships from large sets of unstructured data—the kind of data we generate in e-mails, phone conversations, blog postings, online customer surveys, and tweets. The mobile digital platform has amplified the explosion in digital information, with hundreds of millions of people calling, texting, searching, “apping” (using applications), buying goods, and writing billions of e-mails on the go.
Consumers today are more than just consumers: they have more ways to collaborate, share information, and influence the opinions of their friends and peers, and the data they create in doing so have significant value to businesses. Unlike structured data, which are generated from events such as completing a purchase transaction, unstructured data have no distinct form. Nevertheless, managers believe such data may offer unique insights into customer behavior and attitudes that were much more difficult to determine years ago.
For example, in 2007, JetBlue experienced unprecedented levels of customer discontent in the wake of a February ice storm that resulted in widespread flight cancellations and planes stranded on Kennedy Airport runways. The airline received 15,000 e-mails per day from customers during the storm and immediately afterwards, up from its usual daily volume of 400. The volume was so much larger than usual that JetBlue had no simple way to read everything its customers were saying.
Fortunately, the company had recently contracted with Attensity, a leading vendor of text analytics software, and was able to use the software to analyze all of the e-mail it had received within two days. According to JetBlue research analyst Bryan Jeppsen, Attensity Analyze for Voice of the Customer (VoC) enabled JetBlue to rapidly extract customer sentiments, preferences, and requests it couldn’t find any other way. This tool uses a proprietary technology to automatically identify facts, opinions, requests, trends, and trouble spots from the unstructured text of survey responses, service notes, e-mail messages, Web forums, blog entries, news articles, and other customer communications. The technology is able to accurately and automatically identify the many different “voices” customers use to express their feedback (such as a negative voice, positive voice, or conditional voice), which helps organizations pinpoint key events and relationships, such as intent to buy, intent to leave, or customer “wish” events. It can reveal specific product and service issues, reactions to marketing and public relations efforts, and even buying signals.
Attensity’s software integrated with JetBlue’s other customer analysis tools, such as Satmetrix’s Net Promoter metrics, which classifies customers into groups that are generating positive, negative, or no feedback about the company. Using Attensity’s text analytics in tandem with these tools, JetBlue developed a customer bill of rights that addressed the major issues customers had with the company.
Hotel chains like Gaylord Hotels and Choice Hotels are using text mining software to glean insights from thousands of customer satisfaction surveys provided by their guests. Gaylord Hotels is using Clarabridge’s text analytics solution delivered via the Internet as a hosted software service to gather and analyze customer feedback from surveys, e-mail, chat messaging, staffed call centers, and online forums associated with guests’ and meeting planners’ experiences at the company’s convention resorts. The Clarabridge software sorts through the hotel chain’s customer surveys and gathers positive and negative comments, organizing them into a variety of categories to reveal less obvious insights. For example, guests complained about many things more frequently than noisy rooms, but complaints of noisy rooms were most frequently correlated with surveys indicating an unwillingness to return to the hotel for another stay.
Analyzing customer surveys used to take weeks, but now takes only days, thanks to the Clarabridge software. Location managers and corporate executives have also used findings from text mining to influence decisions on building improvements.
Wendy’s International adopted Clarabridge software to analyze nearly 500,000 messages it collects each year from its Web-based feedback forum, call center notes, e-mail messages, receipt-based surveys, and social media. The chain’s customer satisfaction team had previously used spreadsheets and keyword searches to review customer comments, a very slow manual approach. Wendy’s management was looking for a better tool to speed analysis, detect emerging issues, and pinpoint troubled areas of the business at the store, regional, or corporate level.
The Clarabridge technology enables Wendy’s to track customer experiences down to the store level within minutes. This timely information helps store, regional, and corporate managers spot and address problems related to meal quality, cleanliness, and speed of service.
Text analytics software caught on first with government agencies and larger companies with information systems departments that had the means to properly use the complicated software, but Clarabridge is now offering a version of its product geared towards small businesses. The technology has already caught on with law enforcement, search tool interfaces, and “listening platforms” like Nielsen Online. Listening platforms are text mining tools that focus on brand management, allowing companies to determine how consumers feel about their brand and take steps to respond to negative sentiment.
Structured data analysis won’t be rendered obsolete by text analytics, but companies that are able to use both methods to develop a clearer picture of their customers’ attitudes will have an easier time establishing and building their brand and gleaning insights that will enhance profitability.
Sources: Doug Henschen, “Wendy’s Taps Text Analytics to Mine Customer Feedback,” *Information Week*, March 23, 2010; David Stodder, “How Text Analytics Drive Customer Insight” *Information Week*, February 1, 2010; Nancy David Kho, “Customer Experience and Sentiment Analysis,” *KMWorld*, February 1, 2010; Siobhan Gorman, “Details of Einstein Cyber-Shield Disclosed by White House,” *The Wall Street Journal*, March 2, 2010; www.attensity.com, accessed June 16, 2010; and www.clarabridge.com, accessed June 17, 2010.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What challenges does the increase in unstructured data present for businesses?
2. How does text-mining improve decision-making?
3. What kinds of companies are most likely to benefit from text mining software? Explain your answer.
4. In what ways could text mining potentially lead to the erosion of personal information privacy? Explain.
**MIS IN ACTION**
Visit a Web site such as QVC.com or TripAdvisor.com detailing products or services that have customer reviews. Pick a product, hotel, or other service with at least 15 customer reviews and read those reviews, both positive and negative. How could Web content mining help the offering company improve or better market this product or service? What pieces of information should highlighted?
Web mining looks for patterns in data through content mining, structure mining, and usage mining. Web content mining is the process of extracting knowledge from the content of Web pages, which may include text, image, audio, and video data. Web structure mining extracts useful information from the links embedded in Web documents. For example, links pointing to a document indicate the popularity of the document, while links coming out of a document indicate the richness or perhaps the variety of topics covered in the document. Web usage mining examines user interaction data recorded by a Web server whenever requests for a Web site’s resources are received. The usage data records the user’s behavior when the user browses or makes transactions on the Web site and collects the data in a server log. Analyzing such data can help companies determine the value of particular customers, cross marketing strategies across products, and the effectiveness of promotional campaigns.
**DATABASES AND THE WEB**
Have you ever tried to use the Web to place an order or view a product catalog? If so, you were probably using a Web site linked to an internal corporate database. Many companies now use the Web to make some of the information in their internal databases available to customers and business partners.
Suppose, for example, a customer with a Web browser wants to search an online retailer’s database for pricing information. Figure 6-14 illustrates how that customer might access the retailer’s internal database over the Web. The user accesses the retailer’s Web site over the Internet using Web browser software on his or her client PC. The user’s Web browser software requests data from the organization’s database, using HTML commands to communicate with the Web server.
Because many back-end databases cannot interpret commands written in HTML, the Web server passes these requests for data to software that translates HTML commands into SQL so that they can be processed by the DBMS working with the database. In a client/server environment, the DBMS resides on a dedicated computer called a **database server**. The DBMS receives the SQL requests and provides the required data. The middleware transfers information from the organization’s internal database back to the Web server for delivery in the form of a Web page to the user.
Figure 6-14 shows that the middleware working between the Web server and the DBMS is an application server running on its own dedicated computer (see Chapter 5). The application server software handles all application operations, including transaction processing and data access, between browser-based computers and a company’s back-end business applications or databases. The application server takes requests from the Web server, runs the business logic to process transactions based on those requests, and provides connectivity to the organization’s back-end systems or databases. Alternatively, the software for handling these operations could be a custom program or a CGI script. A CGI script is a compact program using the *Common Gateway Interface* (*CGI*) specification for processing data on a Web server.
There are a number of advantages to using the Web to access an organization’s internal databases. First, Web browser software is much easier to use than proprietary query tools. Second, the Web interface requires few or no changes to the internal database. It costs much less to add a Web interface in front of a legacy system than to redesign and rebuild the system to improve user access.
Accessing corporate databases through the Web is creating new efficiencies, opportunities, and business models. ThomasNet.com provides an up-to-date online directory of more than 600,000 suppliers of industrial products, such as chemicals, metals, plastics, rubber, and automotive equipment. Formerly called Thomas Register, the company used to send out huge paper catalogs with this information. Now it provides this information to users online via its Web site and has become a smaller, leaner company.
Other companies have created entirely new businesses based on access to large databases through the Web. One is the social networking site MySpace, which helps users stay connected with each other or meet new people.
**FIGURE 6-14** LINKING INTERNAL DATABASES TO THE WEB
Users access an organization’s internal database through the Web using their desktop PCs and Web browser software.
MySpace features music, comedy, videos, and “profiles” with information supplied by 122 million users about their age, hometown, dating preferences, marital status, and interests. It maintains a massive database to house and manage all of this content. Facebook uses a similar database.
6.4 Managing Data Resources
Setting up a database is only a start. In order to make sure that the data for your business remain accurate, reliable, and readily available to those who need it, your business will need special policies and procedures for data management.
ESTABLISHING AN INFORMATION POLICY
Every business, large and small, needs an information policy. Your firm’s data are an important resource, and you don’t want people doing whatever they want with them. You need to have rules on how the data are to be organized and maintained, and who is allowed to view the data or change them.
An information policy specifies the organization’s rules for sharing, disseminating, acquiring, standardizing, classifying, and inventorying information. Information policy lays out specific procedures and accountabilities, identifying which users and organizational units can share information, where information can be distributed, and who is responsible for updating and maintaining the information. For example, a typical information policy would specify that only selected members of the payroll and human resources department would have the right to change and view sensitive employee data, such as an employee’s salary or social security number, and that these departments are responsible for making sure that such employee data are accurate.
If you are in a small business, the information policy would be established and implemented by the owners or managers. In a large organization, managing and planning for information as a corporate resource often requires a formal data administration function. Data administration is responsible for the specific policies and procedures through which data can be managed as an organizational resource. These responsibilities include developing information policy, planning for data, overseeing logical database design and data dictionary development, and monitoring how information systems specialists and end-user groups use data.
You may hear the term data governance used to describe many of these activities. Promoted by IBM, data governance deals with the policies and processes for managing the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data employed in an enterprise, with special emphasis on promoting privacy, security, data quality, and compliance with government regulations.
A large organization will also have a database design and management group within the corporate information systems division that is responsible for defining and organizing the structure and content of the database, and maintaining the database. In close cooperation with users, the design group establishes the physical database, the logical relations among elements, and the access rules and security procedures. The functions it performs are called database administration.
ENSURING DATA QUALITY
A well-designed database and information policy will go a long way toward ensuring that the business has the information it needs. However, additional
steps must be taken to ensure that the data in organizational databases are accurate and remain reliable.
What would happen if a customer's telephone number or account balance were incorrect? What would be the impact if the database had the wrong price for the product you sold or your sales system and inventory system showed different prices for the same product? Data that are inaccurate, untimely, or inconsistent with other sources of information lead to incorrect decisions, product recalls, and financial losses. Inaccurate data in criminal justice and national security databases might even subject you to unnecessarily surveillance or detention, as described in the chapter-ending case study.
According to Forrester Research, 20 percent of U.S. mail and commercial package deliveries were returned because of incorrect names or addresses. Gartner Inc. reported that more than 25 percent of the critical data in large Fortune 1000 companies' databases is inaccurate or incomplete, including bad product codes and product descriptions, faulty inventory descriptions, erroneous financial data, incorrect supplier information, and incorrect employee data. (Gartner, 2007).
Think of all the times you've received several pieces of the same direct mail advertising on the same day. This is very likely the result of having your name maintained multiple times in a database. Your name may have been misspelled or you used your middle initial on one occasion and not on another or the information was initially entered onto a paper form and not scanned properly into the system. Because of these inconsistencies, the database would treat you as different people! We often receive redundant mail addressed to Laudon, Lavdon, Lauden, or Landon.
If a database is properly designed and enterprise-wide data standards established, duplicate or inconsistent data elements should be minimal. Most data quality problems, however, such as misspelled names, transposed numbers, or incorrect or missing codes, stem from errors during data input. The incidence of such errors is rising as companies move their businesses to the Web and allow customers and suppliers to enter data into their Web sites that directly update internal systems.
Before a new database is in place, organizations need to identify and correct their faulty data and establish better routines for editing data once their database is in operation. Analysis of data quality often begins with a **data quality audit**, which is a structured survey of the accuracy and level of completeness of the data in an information system. Data quality audits can be performed by surveying entire data files, surveying samples from data files, or surveying end users for their perceptions of data quality.
**Data cleansing**, also known as *data scrubbing*, consists of activities for detecting and correcting data in a database that are incorrect, incomplete, improperly formatted, or redundant. Data cleansing not only corrects errors but also enforces consistency among different sets of data that originated in separate information systems. Specialized data-cleansing software is available to automatically survey data files, correct errors in the data, and integrate the data in a consistent company-wide format.
Data quality problems are not just business problems. They also pose serious problems for individuals, affecting their financial condition and even their jobs. The Interactive Session on Organizations describes some of these impacts, as it details the data quality problems found in the companies that collect and report consumer credit data. As you read this case, look for the management, organization, and technology factors behind this problem, and whether existing solutions are adequate.
CREDIT BUREAU ERRORS—BIG PEOPLE PROBLEMS
You’ve found the car of your dreams. You have a good job and enough money for a down payment. All you need is an auto loan for $14,000. You have a few credit card bills, which you diligently pay off each month. But when you apply for the loan you’re turned down. When you ask why, you’re told you have an overdue loan from a bank you’ve never heard of. You’ve just become one of the millions of people who have been victimized by inaccurate or outdated data in credit bureaus’ information systems.
Most data on U.S. consumers’ credit histories are collected and maintained by three national credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. These organizations collect data from various sources to create a detailed dossier of an individual’s borrowing and bill paying habits. This information helps lenders assess a person’s credit worthiness, the ability to pay back a loan, and can affect the interest rate and other terms of a loan, including whether a loan will be granted in the first place. It can even affect the chances of finding or keeping a job: At least one-third of employers check credit reports when making hiring, firing, or promotion decisions.
U.S. credit bureaus collect personal information and financial data from a variety of sources, including creditors, lenders, utilities, debt collection agencies, and the courts. These data are aggregated and stored in massive databases maintained by the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus then sell this information to other companies to use for credit assessment.
The credit bureaus claim they know which credit cards are in each consumer’s wallet, how much is due on the mortgage, and whether the electric bill is paid on time. But if the wrong information gets into their systems, whether through identity theft or errors transmitted by creditors, watch out! Untangling the mess can be almost impossible.
The bureaus understand the importance of providing accurate information to both lenders and consumers. But they also recognize that their own systems are responsible for many credit-report errors. Some mistakes occur because of the procedures for matching loans to individual credit reports.
The sheer volume of information being transmitted from creditors to credit bureaus increases the likelihood of mistakes. Experian, for example, updates 30 million credit reports each day and roughly 2 billion credit reports each month. It matches the identifying personal information in a credit application or credit account with the identifying personal information in a consumer credit file. Identifying personal information includes items such as name (first name, last name and middle initial), full current address and ZIP code, full previous address and ZIP code, and social security number. The new credit information goes into the consumer credit file that it best matches.
The credit bureaus rarely receive information that matches in all the fields in credit files, so they have to determine how much variation to allow and still call it a match. Imperfect data lead to imperfect matches. A consumer might provide incomplete or inaccurate information on a credit application. A creditor might submit incomplete or inaccurate information to the credit bureaus. If the wrong person matches better than anyone else, the data could unfortunately go into the wrong account.
Perhaps the consumer didn’t write clearly on the account application. Name variations on different credit accounts can also result in less-than-perfect matches. Take the name Edward Jeffrey Johnson. One account may say Edward Johnson. Another may say Ed Johnson. Another might say Edward J. Johnson. Suppose the last two digits of Edward’s social security number get transposed—more chance for mismatches.
If the name or social security number on another person’s account partially matches the data in your file, the computer might attach that person’s data to your record. Your record might likewise be corrupted if workers in companies supplying tax and bankruptcy data from court and government records accidentally transpose a digit or misread a document.
The credit bureaus claim it is impossible for them to monitor the accuracy of the 3.5 billion pieces of credit account information they receive each month. They must continually contend with bogus claims from consumers who falsify lender
information or use shady credit-repair companies that challenge all the negative information on a credit report regardless of its validity. To separate the good from the bad, the credit bureaus use an automated e-OSCAR (Electronic Online Solution for Complete and Accurate Reporting) system to forward consumer disputes to lenders for verification.
If your credit report showed an error, the bureaus usually do not contact the lender directly to correct the information. To save money, the bureaus send consumer protests and evidence to a data processing center run by a third-party contractor. These contractors rapidly summarize every complaint with a short comment and 2-digit code from a menu of 26 options. For example, the code A3 designates “belongs to another individual with a similar name.” These summaries are often too brief to include the background banks need to understand a complaint.
Although this system fixes large numbers of errors (data are updated or corrected for 72 percent of disputes), consumers have few options if the system fails. Consumers who file a second dispute without providing new information might have their dispute dismissed as “frivolous.” If the consumer tries to contact the lender that made the error on their own, banks have no obligation to investigate the dispute—unless it’s sent by a credit bureau.
Sources: Dennis McCafferty, “Bad Credit Could Cost You a Job,” Baseline, June 7, 2010; Kristen McNamara, “Bad Credit Derails Job Seekers,” The Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2010; Anne Kader, Lucy Lazarony, “Your Name Can Mess Up Your Credit Report, Bankrate.com, accessed July 1, 2009; “Credit Report Fix a Headache,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 14, 2009; and “Why Credit Bureaus Can’t Get It Right,” Smart Money, March 2009.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Assess the business impact of credit bureaus’ data quality problems for the credit bureaus, for lenders, for individuals.
2. Are any ethical issues raised by credit bureaus’ data quality problems? Explain your answer.
3. Analyze the management, organization, and technology factors responsible for credit bureaus’ data quality problems.
4. What can be done to solve these problems?
MIS IN ACTION
Go to the Experian Web site (www.experian.com) and explore the site, with special attention to its services for businesses and small businesses. Then answer the following questions:
1. List and describe five services for businesses and explain how each uses consumer data. Describe the kinds of businesses that would use these services.
2. Explain how each of these services is affected by inaccurate consumer data.
6.5 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience in analyzing data quality problems, establishing company-wide data standards, creating a database for inventory management, and using the Web to search online databases for overseas business resources.
Management Decision Problems
1. Emerson Process Management, a global supplier of measurement, analytical, and monitoring instruments and services based in Austin, Texas, had a new data warehouse designed for analyzing customer activity to improve service and marketing that was full of inaccurate and redundant data. The data in the warehouse came from numerous transaction processing systems in Europe, Asia, and other locations around the world. The team that designed the warehouse had assumed that sales groups in all these areas would enter customer names and addresses the same way, regardless of their location. In fact, cultural differences combined with complications from absorbing companies that Emerson had acquired led to multiple ways of entering quotes, billing, shipping, and other data. Assess the potential business impact of these data quality problems. What decisions have to be made and steps taken to reach a solution?
2. Your industrial supply company wants to create a data warehouse where management can obtain a single corporate-wide view of critical sales information to identify best-selling products in specific geographic areas, key customers, and sales trends. Your sales and product information are stored in several different systems: a divisional sales system running on a Unix server and a corporate sales system running on an IBM mainframe. You would like to create a single standard format that consolidates these data from both systems. The following format has been proposed.
| PRODUCT_ID | PRODUCT_DESCRIPTION | COST_PER_UNIT | UNITS_SOLD | SALES_REGION | DIVISION | CUSTOMER_ID |
|------------|---------------------|---------------|------------|--------------|----------|-------------|
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
The following are sample files from the two systems that would supply the data for the data warehouse:
CORPORATE SALES SYSTEM
| PRODUCT_ID | PRODUCT_DESCRIPTION | UNIT_COST | UNITS_SOLD | SALES_TERRITORY | DIVISION |
|------------|-----------------------|-----------|------------|-----------------|----------|
| 60231 | Bearing, 4" | 5.28 | 900,245 | Northeast | Parts |
| 85773 | SS assembly unit | 12.45 | 992,111 | Midwest | Parts |
MECHANICAL PARTS DIVISION SALES SYSTEM
| PROD_NO | PRODUCT_DESCRIPTION | COST_PER_UNIT | UNITS_SOLD | SALES_REGION | CUSTOMER_ID |
|------------|-----------------------|---------------|------------|--------------|-------------|
| 60231 | 4" Steel bearing | 5.28 | 900,245 | N.E. | Anderson |
| 85773 | SS assembly unit | 12.45 | 992,111 | M.W. | Kelly Industries |
• What business problems are created by not having these data in a single standard format?
• How easy would it be to create a database with a single standard format that could store the data from both systems? Identify the problems that would have to be addressed.
• Should the problems be solved by database specialists or general business managers? Explain.
• Who should have the authority to finalize a single company-wide format for this information in the data warehouse?
**Achieving Operational Excellence: Building a Relational Database for Inventory Management**
Software skills: Database design, querying, and reporting
Business skills: Inventory management
Businesses today depend on databases to provide reliable information about items in inventory, items that need restocking, and inventory costs. In this exercise, you’ll use database software to design a database for managing inventory for a small business.
Sylvester’s Bike Shop, located in San Francisco, California, sells road, mountain, hybrid, leisure, and children’s bicycles. Currently, Sylvester’s purchases bikes from three suppliers but plans to add new suppliers in the near future. This rapidly growing business needs a database system to manage this information.
Initially, the database should house information about suppliers and products. The database will contain two tables: a supplier table and a product table. The reorder level refers to the number of items in inventory that triggers a decision to order more items to prevent a stockout. (In other words, if the number of units of a particular item in inventory falls below the reorder level, the item should be reordered.) The user should be able to perform several queries and produce several managerial reports based on the data contained in the two tables.
Using the information found in the tables in MyMISLab, build a simple relational database for Sylvester’s. Once you have built the database, perform the following activities:
- Prepare a report that identifies the five most expensive bicycles. The report should list the bicycles in descending order from most expensive to least expensive, the quantity on hand for each, and the markup percentage for each.
- Prepare a report that lists each supplier, its products, the quantities on hand, and associated reorder levels. The report should be sorted alphabetically by supplier. Within each supplier category, the products should be sorted alphabetically.
- Prepare a report listing only the bicycles that are low in stock and need to be reordered. The report should provide supplier information for the items identified.
- Write a brief description of how the database could be enhanced to further improve management of the business. What tables or fields should be added? What additional reports would be useful?
Improving Decision Making: Searching Online Databases for Overseas Business Resources
Software skills: Online databases
Business skills: Researching services for overseas operations
Internet users have access to many thousands of Web-enabled databases with information on services and products in faraway locations. This project develops skills in searching these online databases.
Your company is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, and manufactures office furniture of various types. You have recently acquired several new customers in Australia, and a study you commissioned indicates that, with a presence there, you could greatly increase your sales. Moreover, your study indicates that you could do even better if you actually manufactured many of your products locally (in Australia). First, you need to set up an office in Melbourne to establish a presence, and then you need to begin importing from the United States. You then can plan to start producing locally.
You will soon be traveling to the area to make plans to actually set up an office, and you want to meet with organizations that can help you with your operation. You will need to engage people or organizations that offer many services necessary for you to open your office, including lawyers, accountants, import-export experts, telecommunications equipment and support, and even trainers who can help you to prepare your future employees to work for you. Start by searching for U.S. Department of Commerce advice on doing business in Australia. Then try the following online databases to locate companies that you would like to meet with during your coming trip: Australian Business Register (abr.business.gov.au/), Australia Trade Now (australiatradenow.com/), and the Nationwide Business Directory of Australia (www.nationwide.com.au). If necessary, you could also try search engines such as Yahoo and Google. Then perform the following activities:
- List the companies you would contact to interview on your trip to determine whether they can help you with these and any other functions you think vital to establishing your office.
- Rate the databases you used for accuracy of name, completeness, ease of use, and general helpfulness.
- What does this exercise tell you about the design of databases?
Learning Track Modules
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. Database Design, Normalization, and Entity-Relationship Diagramming
2. Introduction to SQL
3. Hierarchical and Network Data Models
1. **What are the problems of managing data resources in a traditional file environment and how are they solved by a database management system?**
Traditional file management techniques make it difficult for organizations to keep track of all of the pieces of data they use in a systematic way and to organize these data so that they can be easily accessed. Different functional areas and groups were allowed to develop their own files independently. Over time, this traditional file management environment creates problems such as data redundancy and inconsistency, program-data dependence, inflexibility, poor security, and lack of data sharing and availability. A database management system (DBMS) solves these problems with software that permits centralization of data and data management so that businesses have a single consistent source for all their data needs. Using a DBMS minimizes redundant and inconsistent files.
2. **What are the major capabilities of DBMS and why is a relational DBMS so powerful?**
The principal capabilities of a DBMS include a data definition capability, a data dictionary capability, and a data manipulation language. The data definition capability specifies the structure and content of the database. The data dictionary is an automated or manual file that stores information about the data in the database, including names, definitions, formats, and descriptions of data elements. The data manipulation language, such as SQL, is a specialized language for accessing and manipulating the data in the database.
The relational database is the primary method for organizing and maintaining data today in information systems because it is so flexible and accessible. It organizes data in two-dimensional tables called relations with rows and columns. Each table contains data about an entity and its attributes. Each row represents a record and each column represents an attribute or field. Each table also contains a key field to uniquely identify each record for retrieval or manipulation. Relational database tables can be combined easily to deliver data required by users, provided that any two tables share a common data element.
3. **What are some important database design principles?**
Designing a database requires both a logical design and a physical design. The logical design models the database from a business perspective. The organization's data model should reflect its key business processes and decision-making requirements. The process of creating small, stable, flexible, and adaptive data structures from complex groups of data when designing a relational database is termed normalization. A well-designed relational database will not have many-to-many relationships, and all attributes for a specific entity will only apply to that entity. It will try to enforce referential integrity rules to ensure that relationships between coupled tables remain consistent. An entity-relationship diagram graphically depicts the relationship between entities (tables) in a relational database.
4. **What are the principal tools and technologies for accessing information from databases to improve business performance and decision making?**
Powerful tools are available to analyze and access the information in databases. A data warehouse consolidates current and historical data from many different operational systems in a central database designed for reporting and analysis. Data warehouses support multidimensional data analysis, also known as online analytical processing (OLAP). OLAP represents relationships among data as a multidimensional structure, which can be visualized as cubes of data and cubes within cubes of data, enabling more sophisticated data analysis. Data mining analyzes large pools of data, including the contents of data warehouses, to find patterns and rules that can be used to predict future behavior and guide decision making. Text mining tools help businesses analyze large unstructured data sets consisting of text. Web mining tools focus on analysis of useful patterns and information from the World Wide Web, examining the structure of Web sites and activities of Web site users as well as the contents of Web pages. Conventional databases can be linked via middleware to the Web or a Web interface to facilitate user access to an organization's internal data.
5. Why are information policy, data administration, and data quality assurance essential for managing the firm’s data resources?
Developing a database environment requires policies and procedures for managing organizational data as well as a good data model and database technology. A formal information policy governs the maintenance, distribution, and use of information in the organization. In large corporations, a formal data administration function is responsible for information policy, as well as for data planning, data dictionary development, and monitoring data usage in the firm.
Data that are inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent create serious operational and financial problems for businesses because they may create inaccuracies in product pricing, customer accounts, and inventory data, and lead to inaccurate decisions about the actions that should be taken by the firm. Firms must take special steps to make sure they have a high level of data quality. These include using enterprise-wide data standards, databases designed to minimize inconsistent and redundant data, data quality audits, and data cleansing software.
Key Terms
Attribute, 210
Data administration, 230
Data cleansing, 231
Data definition, 217
Data dictionary, 217
Data governance, 230
Data inconsistency, 211
Data manipulation language, 217
Data mart, 223
Data mining, 224
Data quality audit, 231
Data redundancy, 211
Data warehouse, 222
Database, 210
Database (rigorous definition), 212
Database administration, 230
Database management system (DBMS), 212
Database server, 229
Entity, 210
Entity-relationship diagram, 221
Field, 210
File, 210
Foreign key, 215
Information policy, 230
Key field, 214
Normalization, 219
Object-oriented DBMS, 215
Object-relational DBMS, 215
Online analytical processing (OLAP), 224
Predictive analytics, 226
Primary key, 210
Program-data dependence, 211
Record, 214
Referential integrity, 220
Relational DBMS, 213
Structured Query Language (SQL), 217
Text mining, 226
Tuple, 214
Web mining, 226
Review Questions
1. What are the problems of managing data resources in a traditional file environment and how are they solved by a database management system?
- List and describe each of the components in the data hierarchy.
- Define and explain the significance of entities, attributes, and key fields.
- List and describe the problems of the traditional file environment.
- Define a database and a database management system and describe how it solves the problems of a traditional file environment.
2. What are the major capabilities of DBMS and why is a relational DBMS so powerful?
- Name and briefly describe the capabilities of a DBMS.
- Define a relational DBMS and explain how it organizes data.
- List and describe the three operations of a relational DBMS.
3. What are some important database design principles?
- Define and describe normalization and referential integrity and explain how they contribute to a well-designed relational database.
- Define and describe an entity-relationship diagram and explain its role in database design.
4. What are the principal tools and technologies for accessing information from databases to improve business performance and decision making?
- Define a data warehouse, explaining how it works and how it benefits organizations.
- Define business intelligence and explain how it is related to database technology.
- Describe the capabilities of online analytical processing (OLAP).
- Define data mining, describing how it differs from OLAP and the types of information it provides.
- Explain how text mining and Web mining differ from conventional data mining.
- Describe how users can access information from a company’s internal databases through the Web.
5. Why are information policy, data administration, and data quality assurance essential for managing the firm’s data resources?
- Describe the roles of information policy and data administration in information management.
- Explain why data quality audits and data cleansing are essential.
Discussion Questions
1. It has been said that you do not need database management software to create a database environment. Discuss.
2. To what extent should end users be involved in the selection of a database management system and database design?
3. What are the consequences of an organization not having an information policy?
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Identifying Entities and Attributes in an Online Database
With your team of three or four students, select an online database to explore, such as AOL Music, iGo.com, or the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Explore one of these Web sites to see what information it provides. Then list the entities and attributes that the company running the Web site must keep track of in its databases. Diagram the relationship between the entities you have identified. If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
In the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, or TSC, was established to consolidate information about suspected terrorists from multiple government agencies into a single list to enhance inter-agency communication. A database of suspected terrorists known as the terrorist watch list was created. Multiple U.S. government agencies had been maintaining separate lists and these agencies lacked a consistent process to share relevant information.
Records in the TSC database contain sensitive but unclassified information on terrorist identities, such as name and date of birth, that can be shared with other screening agencies. Classified information about the people in the watch list is maintained in other law enforcement and intelligence agency databases. Records for the watchlist database are provided by two sources: The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) managed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence provides identifying information on individuals with ties to international terrorism. The FBI provides identifying information on individuals with ties to purely domestic terrorism.
These agencies collect and maintain terrorist information and nominate individuals for inclusion in the TSC’s consolidated watch list. They are required to follow strict procedures established by the head of the agency concerned and approved by the U.S. Attorney General. TSC staff must review each record submitted before it is added to the database. An individual will remain on the watch list until the respective department or agency that nominated that person to the list determines that the person should be removed from the list and deleted from the database.
The TSC watch list database is updated daily with new nominations, modifications to existing records, and deletions. Since its creation, the list has ballooned to 400,000 people, recorded as 1.1 million names and aliases, and is continuing to grow at a rate of 200,000 records each year. Information on the list is distributed to a wide range of government agency systems for use in efforts to deter or detect the movements of known or suspected terrorists.
Recipient agencies include the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Service, and the White House. Airlines use data supplied by the TSA system in their NoFly and Selectee lists for prescreening passengers, while the U.S. Customs and Border Protection system uses the watchlist data to help screen travelers entering the United States. The State Department system screens applicants for visas to enter the United States and U.S. residents applying for passports, while state and local law enforcement agencies use the FBI system to help with arrests, detentions, and other criminal justice activities. Each of these agencies receives the subset of data in the watch list that pertains to its specific mission.
When an individual makes an airline reservation, arrives at a U.S. port of entry, applies for a U.S. visa, or is stopped by state or local police within the United States, the frontline screening agency or airline conducts a name-based search of the individual against the records from the terrorist watch list database. When the computerized name-matching system generates a “hit” (a potential name match) against a watch list record, the airline or agency will review each potential match. Matches that are clearly positive or exact matches that are inconclusive (uncertain or difficult to verify) are referred to the applicable screening agency’s intelligence or operations center and to the TSC for closer examination. In turn, TSC checks its databases and other sources, including classified databases maintained by the NCTC and FBI to confirm whether the individual is a positive, negative, or inconclusive match to the watch list record. TSC creates a daily report summarizing all positive matches to the watch list and distributes them to numerous federal agencies.
The process of consolidating information from disparate agencies has been a slow and painstaking one, requiring the integration of at least 12 different databases. Two years after the process of integration took place, 10 of the 12 databases had been processed. The remaining two databases (the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Automatic Biometric Identification System and the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System) are both fingerprint databases. There is still more work to be done to optimize the list's usefulness.
Reports from both the Government Accountability Office and the Office of the Inspector General assert
that the list contains inaccuracies and that government departmental policies for nomination and removal from the lists are not uniform. There has also been public outcry resulting from the size of the list and well-publicized incidents of obvious non-terrorists finding that they are included on the list.
Information about the process for inclusion on the list must necessarily be carefully protected if the list is to be effective against terrorists. The specific criteria for inclusion are not public knowledge. We do know, however, that government agencies populate their watch lists by performing wide sweeps of information gathered on travelers, using many misspellings and alternate variations of the names of suspected terrorists. This often leads to the inclusion of people who do not belong on watch lists, known as “false positives.” It also results in some people being listed multiple times under different spellings of their names.
While these selection criteria may be effective for tracking as many potential terrorists as possible, they also lead to many more erroneous entries on the list than if the process required more finely tuned information to add new entries. Notable examples of ‘false positives’ include Michael Hicks, an 8-year-old New Jersey Cub Scout who is continually stopped at the airport for additional screening and the late senator Ted Kennedy, who had been repeatedly delayed in the past because his name resembles an alias once used by a suspected terrorist. Like Kennedy, Hicks may have been added because his name is the same or similar to a different suspected terrorist.
These incidents call attention to the quality and accuracy of the data in the TSC consolidated terrorist watch list. In June 2005, a report by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General found inconsistent record counts, duplicate records, and records that lacked data fields or had unclear sources for their data. Although TSC subsequently enhanced its efforts to identify and correct incomplete or inaccurate watch list records, the Inspector General noted in September 2007 that TSC management of the watch list still showed some weaknesses.
Given the option between a list that tracks every potential terrorist at the cost of unnecessarily tracking some innocents, and a list that fails to track many terrorists in an effort to avoid tracking innocents, many would choose the list that tracked every terrorist despite the drawbacks. But to make matters worse for those already inconvenienced by wrongful inclusion on the list, there is currently no simple and quick redress process for innocents that hope to remove themselves from it.
The number of requests for removal from the watch list continues to mount, with over 24,000 requests recorded (about 2,000 each month) and only 54 percent of them resolved. The average time to process a request in 2008 was 40 days, which was not (and still is not) fast enough to keep pace with the number of requests for removal coming in. As a result, law-abiding travelers that inexplicably find themselves on the watch list are left with no easy way to remove themselves from it.
In February 2007, the Department of Homeland Security instituted its Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP) to help people that have been erroneously added to terrorist watch lists remove themselves and avoid extra screening and questioning. John Anderson’s mother claimed that despite her best efforts, she was unable to remove her son from the watch lists. Senator Kennedy reportedly was only able to remove himself from the list by personally bringing up the matter to Tom Ridge, then the Director of the Department of Homeland Security.
Security officials say that mistakes such as the one that led to Anderson and Kennedy’s inclusion on no-fly and consolidated watch lists occur due to the matching of imperfect data in airline reservation systems with imperfect data on the watch lists. Many airlines don’t include gender, middle name, or date of birth in their reservations records, which increases the likelihood of false matches.
One way to improve screening and help reduce the number of people erroneously marked for additional investigation would be to use a more sophisticated system involving more personal data about individuals on the list. The TSA is developing just such a system, called “Secure Flight,” but it has been continually delayed due to privacy concerns regarding the sensitivity and safety of the data it would collect. Other similar surveillance programs and watch lists, such as the NSA’s attempts to gather information about suspected terrorists, have drawn criticism for potential privacy violations.
Additionally, the watch list has drawn criticism because of its potential to promote racial profiling and discrimination. Some allege that they were included by virtue of their race and ethnic descent, such as David Fathi, an attorney for the ACLU of Iranian descent, and Asif Iqbal, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani decent with the same name as a Guantanamo detainee. Outspoken critics of U.S. foreign policy, such as some elected officials and
university professors, have also found themselves on the list.
A report released in May 2009 by Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that the FBI had incorrectly kept nearly 24,000 people on its own watch list that supplies data to the terrorist watch list on the basis of outdated or irrelevant information. Examining nearly 69,000 referrals to the FBI list, the report found that 35 percent of those people remained on the list despite inadequate justification. Even more worrisome, the list did not contain the names of people who should have been listed because of their terrorist ties.
FBI officials claim that the bureau has made improvements, including better training, faster processing of referrals, and requiring field office supervisors to review watch-list nominations for accuracy and completeness. But this watch list and the others remain imperfect tools. In early 2008, it was revealed that 20 known terrorists were not correctly listed on the consolidated watch list. (Whether these individuals were able to enter the U.S. as a result is unclear.)
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who unsuccessfully tried to detonate plastic explosives on the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, had not made it onto the no-fly list. Although Abdulmutallab’s father had reported concern over his son’s radicalization to the U.S. State Department, the Department did not revoke Abdulmutallab’s visa because his name was misspelled in the visa database, so he was allowed to enter the United States. Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square car bomber, was apprehended on May 3, 2010, only moments before his Emirates airline flight to Dubai and Pakistan was about to take off. The airline had failed to check a last-minute update to the no-fly list that had added Shahzad’s name.
Sources: Scott Shane, “Lapses Allowed Suspect to Board Plane,” *The New York Times*, May 4, 2010; Mike McIntire, “Ensnared by Error on Growing U.S. Watch List,” *The New York Times*, April 6, 2010; Eric Lipton, Eric Schmitt, and Mark Mazzetti, “Review of Jet Bomb Plot Shows More Missed Clues,” *The New York Times*, January 18, 2010; Lizette Alvarez, “Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List,” *The New York Times*, January 14, 2010; Eric Lichtblau, “Justice Dept. Finds Flaws in F.B.I. Terror List,” *The New York Times*, May 7, 2009; Bob Egelko, “Watch-list Name Confusion Causes Hardship,” *San Francisco Chronicle*, March 20, 2008; “Reports Cite Lack of Uniform Policy for Terrorist Watch List,” *The Washington Post*, March 18, 2008; Siobhan Gorman, “NSA’s Domestic Spying Grows as Agency Sweeps Up Data,” *The Wall Street Journal*, March 10, 2008; Ellen Nakashima, and Scott McCartney, “When Your Name is Mud at the Airport,” *The Wall Street Journal*, January 29, 2008.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What concepts in this chapter are illustrated in this case?
2. Why was the consolidated terror watch list created? What are the benefits of the list?
3. Describe some of the weaknesses of the watch list. What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for these weaknesses?
4. How effective is the system of watch lists described in this case study? Explain your answer.
5. If you were responsible for the management of the TSC watch list database, what steps would you take to correct some of these weaknesses?
6. Do you believe that the terror watch list represents a significant threat to individuals’ privacy or Constitutional rights? Why or why not?
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Chapter 7
Telecommunications, the Internet, and Wireless Technology
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What are the principal components of telecommunications networks and key networking technologies?
2. What are the main telecommunications transmission media and types of networks?
3. How do the Internet and Internet technology work and how do they support communication and e-business?
4. What are the principal technologies and standards for wireless networking, communication, and Internet access?
5. Why are radio frequency identification (RFID) and wireless sensor networks valuable for business?
Interactive Sessions:
The Battle Over Net Neutrality
Monitoring Employees on Networks: Unethical or Good Business?
CHAPTER OUTLINE
7.1 TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING IN TODAY’S BUSINESS WORLD
Networking and Communication Trends
What Is a Computer Network?
Key Digital Networking Technologies
7.2 COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS
Signals: Digital vs. Analog
Types of Networks
Physical Transmission Media
7.3 THE GLOBAL INTERNET
What Is the Internet?
Internet Addressing and Architecture
Internet Services and Communications Tools
The Web
7.4 THE WIRELESS REVOLUTION
Cellular Systems
Wireless Computer Networks and Internet Access
RFID and Wireless Sensor Networks
7.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software to Evaluate Wireless Services
Achieving Operational Excellence: Using Web Search Engines for Business Research
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
Computing and Communications Services Provided by Commercial Communications Vendors
Broadband Network Services and Technologies
Cellular System Generations
WAP and I-Mode: Wireless Cellular Standards for Web Access
Wireless Applications for Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, and Health care
Web 2.0
What’s it like to be the world’s largest shipbuilder? Ask Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), headquartered in Ulsan, South Korea, which produces 10 percent of the world’s ships. HHI produces tankers, bulk carriers, containerships, gas and chemical carriers, ship engines, offshore oil and gas drilling platforms, and undersea pipelines.
Coordinating and optimizing the production of so many different products, is obviously a daunting task. The company has already invested nearly $50 million in factory planning software to help manage this effort. But HHI’s “factory” encompasses 11 square kilometers (4.2 square miles) stretching over land and sea, including nine drydocks, the largest of which spans more than seven football fields to support construction of four vessels simultaneously. Over 12,000 workers build up to 30 ships at one time, using millions of parts ranging in size from small rivets to five-story buildings.
This production environment proved too large and complex to easily track the movement of parts and inventory in real time as these events were taking place. Without up-to-the-minute data, the efficiencies from enterprise resource planning software are very limited. To make matters worse, the recent economic downturn hit HHI especially hard, as world trading and shipping plummeted. Orders for new ships in 2009 plunged to 7.9 million compensated gross tons (CGT, a measurement of vessel size), down from 150 million CGT the previous year. In this economic environment, Hyundai Heavy was looking for new ways to reduce expenses and streamline production.
HHI’s solution was a high-speed wireless network across the entire shipyard, which was built by KT Corp., South Korea’s largest telecommunications firm. It is able to transmit data at a rate of 4 megabits per second, about four times faster than the typical cable modem delivering high-speed Internet service to U.S. households. The company uses radio sensors to track the movement of parts as they move from fabrication shop to the side of a drydock and then onto a ship under construction. Workers on the ship use notebook computers or handheld mobile phones to access plans and engage in two-way video conversations with ship designers in the office, more than a mile away.
In the past, workers who were inside a vessel below ground or below sea level had to climb topside to use a phone or walkie-talkie when they had to talk to someone about a problem. The new wireless network is connected to the electric lines in the ship, which convey digital data to Wi-Fi wireless transmitters placed around the hull during construction. Workers’ Internet phones, webcams, and PCs are linked to the Wi-Fi system, so workers can use Skype VoIP to call their colleagues on the surface. Designers in an office building a mile from the construction site use the webcams to investigate problems. On the shipyard roads, 30 transporter trucks fitted to receivers connected to the wireless network update their location every 20 seconds to a control room. This helps dispatchers...
match the location of transporters with orders for parts, shortening the trips each truck makes. All of the day’s movements are finished by 6 P.M. instead of 8 P.M. By making operations more efficient and reducing labor costs, the wireless technology is expected to save Hyundai Heavy $40 million annually.
Sources: Evan Ramstad, “High-Speed Wireless Transforms a Shipyard,” The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2010 and “Hyundai Heavy Plans Wireless Shipyard,” The Korea Herald, March 30, 2010.
Hyundai Heavy Industries’s experience illustrates some of the powerful capabilities and opportunities provided by contemporary networking technology. The company used wireless networking technology to connect designers, laborers, ships under construction, and transportation vehicles to accelerate communication and coordination, and cut down on the time, distance, or number of steps required to perform a task.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Hyundai Heavy Industries produces ships and other products that are very labor-intensive and sensitive to changes in global economic conditions. Its production environment is large, complex, and extremely difficult to coordinate and manage. The company needs to keep operating costs as low as possible. HHI’s shipyard extends over a vast area, and it was extremely difficult to monitor and coordinate different projects and work teams.
Management decided that wireless technology provided a solution and arranged for the deployment of a wireless network throughout the entire shipyard. The network also links the yard to designers in HHI’s office a mile away. The network made it much easier to track parts and production activities and to optimize the movements of transporter trucks. HHI had to redesign its production and other work processes to take advantage of the new technology.
7.1 TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING IN TODAY’S BUSINESS WORLD
If you run or work in a business, you can’t do without networks. You need to communicate rapidly with your customers, suppliers, and employees. Until about 1990, businesses used the postal system or telephone system with voice or fax for communication. Today, however, you and your employees use computers and e-mail, the Internet, cell phones, and mobile computers connected to wireless networks for this purpose. Networking and the Internet are now nearly synonymous with doing business.
NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATION TRENDS
Firms in the past used two fundamentally different types of networks: telephone networks and computer networks. Telephone networks historically handled voice communication, and computer networks handled data traffic. Telephone networks were built by telephone companies throughout the twentieth century using voice transmission technologies (hardware and software), and these companies almost always operated as regulated monopolies throughout the world. Computer networks were originally built by computer companies seeking to transmit data between computers in different locations.
Thanks to continuing telecommunications deregulation and information technology innovation, telephone and computer networks are converging into a single digital network using shared Internet-based standards and equipment. Telecommunications providers today, such as AT&T and Verizon, offer data transmission, Internet access, cellular telephone service, and television programming as well as voice service. (See the Chapter 3 opening case.) Cable companies, such as Cablevision and Comcast, now offer voice service and Internet access. Computer networks have expanded to include Internet telephone and limited video services. Increasingly, all of these voice, video, and data communications are based on Internet technology.
Both voice and data communication networks have also become more powerful (faster), more portable (smaller and mobile), and less expensive. For instance, the typical Internet connection speed in 2000 was 56 kilobits per second, but today more than 60 percent of U.S. Internet users have high-speed broadband connections provided by telephone and cable TV companies running at 1 to 15 million bits per second. The cost for this service has fallen exponentially, from 25 cents per kilobit in 2000 to a tiny fraction of a cent today.
Increasingly, voice and data communication, as well as Internet access, are taking place over broadband wireless platforms, such as cell phones, mobile handheld devices, and PCs in wireless networks. In a few years, more than half the Internet users in the United States will use smartphones and mobile netbooks to access the Internet. In 2010, 84 million Americans accessed the Internet through mobile devices, and this number is expected to double by 2014 (eMarketer, 2010).
WHAT IS A COMPUTER NETWORK?
If you had to connect the computers for two or more employees together in the same office, you would need a computer network. Exactly what is a network? In its simplest form, a network consists of two or more connected computers.
Figure 7-1 illustrates the major hardware, software, and transmission components used in a simple network: a client computer and a dedicated server computer, network interfaces, a connection medium, network operating system software, and either a hub or a switch.
Each computer on the network contains a network interface device called a **network interface card (NIC)**. Most personal computers today have this card built into the motherboard. The connection medium for linking network components can be a telephone wire, coaxial cable, or radio signal in the case of cell phone and wireless local area networks (Wi-Fi networks).
The **network operating system (NOS)** routes and manages communications on the network and coordinates network resources. It can reside on every computer in the network, or it can reside primarily on a dedicated server computer for all the applications on the network. A server computer is a computer on a network that performs important network functions for client computers, such as serving up Web pages, storing data, and storing the network operating system (and hence controlling the network). Server software such as Microsoft Windows Server, Linux, and Novell Open Enterprise Server are the most widely used network operating systems.
Most networks also contain a switch or a hub acting as a connection point between the computers. **Hubs** are very simple devices that connect network components, sending a packet of data to all other connected devices. A **switch** has more intelligence than a hub and can filter and forward data to a specified destination on the network.
What if you want to communicate with another network, such as the Internet? You would need a router. A **router** is a communications processor used to route packets of data through different networks, ensuring that the data sent gets to the correct address.
**FIGURE 7-1** COMPONENTS OF A SIMPLE COMPUTER NETWORK
Illustrated here is a very simple computer network, consisting of computers, a network operating system residing on a dedicated server computer, cable (wiring) connecting the devices, network interface cards (NICs), switches, and a router.
Networks in Large Companies
The network we’ve just described might be suitable for a small business. But what about large companies with many different locations and thousands of employees? As a firm grows, and collects hundreds of small local area networks, these networks can be tied together into a corporate-wide networking infrastructure. The network infrastructure for a large corporation consists of a large number of these small local area networks linked to other local area networks and to firmwide corporate networks. A number of powerful servers support a corporate Web site, a corporate intranet, and perhaps an extranet. Some of these servers link to other large computers supporting back-end systems.
Figure 7-2 provides an illustration of these more complex, larger scale corporate-wide networks. Here you can see that the corporate network infrastructure supports a mobile sales force using cell phones and smartphones, mobile employees linking to the company Web site, internal company networks using mobile wireless local area networks (Wi-Fi networks), and a videoconferencing system to support managers across the world. In addition to these computer networks, the firm’s infrastructure usually includes a separate telephone network that handles most voice data. Many firms are dispensing with their traditional telephone networks and using Internet telephones that run on their existing data networks (described later).
As you can see from this figure, a large corporate network infrastructure uses a wide variety of technologies—everything from ordinary telephone service and corporate data networks to Internet service, wireless Internet, and cell phones.
Today’s corporate network infrastructure is a collection of many different networks from the public switched telephone network, to the Internet, to corporate local area networks linking workgroups, departments, or office floors.
One of the major problems facing corporations today is how to integrate all the different communication networks and channels into a coherent system that enables information to flow from one part of the corporation to another, and from one system to another. As more and more communication networks become digital, and based on Internet technologies, it will become easier to integrate them.
**KEY DIGITAL NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES**
Contemporary digital networks and the Internet are based on three key technologies: client/server computing, the use of packet switching, and the development of widely used communications standards (the most important of which is Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP) for linking disparate networks and computers.
**Client/Server Computing**
We introduced client/server computing in Chapter 5. Client/server computing is a distributed computing model in which some of the processing power is located within small, inexpensive client computers, and resides literally on desktops, laptops, or in handheld devices. These powerful clients are linked to one another through a network that is controlled by a network server computer. The server sets the rules of communication for the network and provides every client with an address so others can find it on the network.
Client/server computing has largely replaced centralized mainframe computing in which nearly all of the processing takes place on a central large mainframe computer. Client/server computing has extended computing to departments, workgroups, factory floors, and other parts of the business that could not be served by a centralized architecture. The Internet is the largest implementation of client/server computing.
**Packet Switching**
*Packet switching* is a method of slicing digital messages into parcels called packets, sending the packets along different communication paths as they become available, and then reassembling the packets once they arrive at their destinations (see Figure 7-3). Prior to the development of packet switching, computer networks used leased, dedicated telephone circuits to communicate with other computers in remote locations. In circuit-switched networks, such as the telephone system, a complete point-to-point circuit is assembled, and then communication can proceed. These dedicated circuit-switching techniques were expensive and wasted available communications capacity—the circuit was maintained regardless of whether any data were being sent.
Packet switching makes much more efficient use of the communications capacity of a network. In packet-switched networks, messages are first broken down into small fixed bundles of data called packets. The packets include information for directing the packet to the right address and for checking transmission errors along with the data. The packets are transmitted over various communications channels using routers, each packet traveling independently. Packets of data originating at one source will be routed through many different paths and networks before being reassembled into the original message when they reach their destinations.
**TCP/IP and Connectivity**
In a typical telecommunications network, diverse hardware and software components need to work together to transmit information. Different comData are grouped into small packets, which are transmitted independently over various communications channels and reassembled at their final destination.
Components in a network communicate with each other only by adhering to a common set of rules called protocols. A protocol is a set of rules and procedures governing transmission of information between two points in a network.
In the past, many diverse proprietary and incompatible protocols often forced business firms to purchase computing and communications equipment from a single vendor. But today, corporate networks are increasingly using a single, common, worldwide standard called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). TCP/IP was developed during the early 1970s to support U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) efforts to help scientists transmit data among different types of computers over long distances.
TCP/IP uses a suite of protocols, the main ones being TCP and IP. TCP refers to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which handles the movement of data between computers. TCP establishes a connection between the computers, sequences the transfer of packets, and acknowledges the packets sent. IP refers to the Internet Protocol (IP), which is responsible for the delivery of packets and includes the disassembling and reassembling of packets during transmission. Figure 7-4 illustrates the four-layered Department of Defense reference model for TCP/IP.
1. **Application layer**: The Application layer enables client application programs to access the other layers and defines the protocols that applications use to exchange data. One of these application protocols is the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is used to transfer Web page files.
2. **Transport layer**: The Transport layer is responsible for providing the Application layer with communication and packet services. This layer includes TCP and other protocols.
3. **Internet layer**: The Internet layer is responsible for addressing, routing, and packaging data packets called IP datagrams. The Internet Protocol is one of the protocols used in this layer.
4. Network Interface layer. At the bottom of the reference model, the Network Interface layer is responsible for placing packets on and receiving them from the network medium, which could be any networking technology.
Two computers using TCP/IP are able to communicate even if they are based on different hardware and software platforms. Data sent from one computer to the other passes downward through all four layers, starting with the sending computer’s Application layer and passing through the Network Interface layer. After the data reach the recipient host computer, they travel up the layers and are reassembled into a format the receiving computer can use. If the receiving computer finds a damaged packet, it asks the sending computer to retransmit it. This process is reversed when the receiving computer responds.
7.2 Communications Networks
Let’s look more closely at alternative networking technologies available to businesses.
**Signals: Digital vs. Analog**
There are two ways to communicate a message in a network: either using an analog signal or a digital signal. An *analog signal* is represented by a continuous waveform that passes through a communications medium and has been used for voice communication. The most common analog devices are the telephone handset, the speaker on your computer, or your iPod earphone, all of which create analog wave forms that your ear can hear.
A *digital signal* is a discrete, binary waveform, rather than a continuous waveform. Digital signals communicate information as strings of two discrete states: one bit and zero bits, which are represented as on-off electrical pulses. Computers use digital signals and require a modem to convert these digital signals into analog signals that can be sent over (or received from) telephone lines, cable lines, or wireless media that use analog signals (see Figure 7-5). Modem stands for...
A modem is a device that translates digital signals into analog form (and vice versa) so that computers can transmit data over analog networks such as telephone and cable networks.
modulator-demodulator. Cable modems connect your computer to the Internet using a cable network. DSL modems connect your computer to the Internet using a telephone company’s land line network. Wireless modems perform the same function as traditional modems, connecting your computer to a wireless network that could be a cell phone network, or a Wi-Fi network. Without modems, computers could not communicate with one another using analog networks (which include the telephone system and cable networks).
**TYPES OF NETWORKS**
There are many different kinds of networks and ways of classifying them. One way of looking at networks is in terms of their geographic scope (see Table 7-1).
**Local Area Networks**
If you work in a business that uses networking, you are probably connecting to other employees and groups via a local area network. A **local area network (LAN)** is designed to connect personal computers and other digital devices within a half-mile or 500-meter radius. LANs typically connect a few computers in a small office, all the computers in one building, or all the computers in several buildings in close proximity. LANs also are used to link to long-distance wide area networks (WANs, described later in this section) and other networks around the world using the Internet.
Review Figure 7-1, which could serve as a model for a small LAN that might be used in an office. One computer is a dedicated network file server, providing users with access to shared computing resources in the network, including software programs and data files.
The server determines who gets access to what and in which sequence. The router connects the LAN to other networks, which could be the Internet or another corporate network, so that the LAN can exchange information with networks external to it. The most common LAN operating systems are Windows, Linux, and Novell. Each of these network operating systems supports TCP/IP as their default networking protocol.
**TABLE 7-1 TYPES OF NETWORKS**
| TYPE | AREA |
|-----------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Local area network (LAN) | Up to 500 meters (half a mile); an office or floor of a building |
| Campus area network (CAN) | Up to 1,000 meters (a mile); a college campus or corporate facility |
| Metropolitan area network (MAN) | A city or metropolitan area |
| Wide area network (WAN) | A transcontinental or global area |
Ethernet is the dominant LAN standard at the physical network level, specifying the physical medium to carry signals between computers, access control rules, and a standardized set of bits used to carry data over the system. Originally, Ethernet supported a data transfer rate of 10 megabits per second (Mbps). Newer versions, such as Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet, support data transfer rates of 100 Mbps and 1 gigabit per second (Gbps), respectively, and are used in network backbones.
The LAN illustrated in Figure 7-1 uses a client/server architecture where the network operating system resides primarily on a single file server, and the server provides much of the control and resources for the network. Alternatively, LANs may use a peer-to-peer architecture. A **peer-to-peer** network treats all processors equally and is used primarily in small networks with 10 or fewer users. The various computers on the network can exchange data by direct access and can share peripheral devices without going through a separate server.
In LANs using the Windows Server family of operating systems, the peer-to-peer architecture is called the *workgroup network model*, in which a small group of computers can share resources, such as files, folders, and printers, over the network without a dedicated server. The Windows *domain network model*, in contrast, uses a dedicated server to manage the computers in the network.
Larger LANs have many clients and multiple servers, with separate servers for specific services, such as storing and managing files and databases (file servers or database servers), managing printers (print servers), storing and managing e-mail (mail servers), or storing and managing Web pages (Web servers).
Sometimes LANs are described in terms of the way their components are connected together, or their **topology**. There are three major LAN topologies: star, bus, and ring (see Figure 7-6).
In a **star topology**, all devices on the network connect to a single hub. Figure 7-6 illustrates a simple star topology in which all network traffic flows through the hub. In an *extended star network*, multiple layers of hubs are organized into a hierarchy.
In a **bus topology**, one station transmits signals, which travel in both directions along a single transmission segment. All of the signals are broadcast in both directions to the entire network. All machines on the network receive the same signals, and software installed on the client computers enables each client to listen for messages addressed specifically to it. The bus topology is the most common Ethernet topology.
A **ring topology** connects network components in a closed loop. Messages pass from computer to computer in only one direction around the loop, and only one station at a time may transmit. The ring topology is primarily found in older LANs using Token Ring networking software.
**Metropolitan and Wide Area Networks**
*Wide area networks (WANs)* span broad geographical distances—entire regions, states, continents, or the entire globe. The most universal and powerful WAN is the Internet. Computers connect to a WAN through public networks, such as the telephone system or private cable systems, or through leased lines or satellites. A **metropolitan area network (MAN)** is a network that spans a metropolitan area, usually a city and its major suburbs. Its geographic scope falls between a WAN and a LAN.
The three basic network topologies are the star, bus, and ring.
**PHYSICAL TRANSMISSION MEDIA**
Networks use different kinds of physical transmission media, including twisted wire, coaxial cable, fiber optics, and media for wireless transmission. Each has advantages and limitations. A wide range of speeds is possible for any given medium depending on the software and hardware configuration.
**Twisted Wire**
*Twisted wire* consists of strands of copper wire twisted in pairs and is an older type of transmission medium. Many of the telephone systems in buildings had twisted wires installed for analog communication, but they can be used for digital communication as well. Although an older physical transmission medium, the twisted wires used in today’s LANs, such as CAT5, can obtain speeds up to 1 Gbps. Twisted-pair cabling is limited to a maximum recommended run of 100 meters (328 feet).
**Coaxial Cable**
*Coaxial cable*, similar to that used for cable television, consists of thickly insulated copper wire that can transmit a larger volume of data than twisted wire. Cable was used in early LANs and is still used today for longer (more than 100 meters) runs in large buildings. Coaxial has speeds up to 1 Gbps.
**Fiber Optics and Optical Networks**
*Fiber-optic cable* consists of bound strands of clear glass fiber, each the thickness of a human hair. Data are transformed into pulses of light, which are sent through the fiber-optic cable by a laser device at rates varying from 500 kilobits to several trillion bits per second in experimental settings. Fiber-optic cable is considerably faster, lighter, and more durable than wire media, and is well suited to systems requiring transfers of large volumes of data. However, fiber-optic cable is more expensive than other physical transmission media and harder to install.
Until recently, fiber-optic cable had been used primarily for the high-speed network backbone, which handles the major traffic. Now cellular phone companies such as Verizon are starting to bring fiber lines into the home for new types of services, such as Verizon’s Fiber Optic Services (FiOS) Internet service that provides up 50 Mbps download speeds.
**Wireless Transmission Media**
Wireless transmission is based on radio signals of various frequencies. There are three kinds of wireless networks used by computers: microwave, cellular, and Wi-Fi. **Microwave** systems, both terrestrial and celestial, transmit high-frequency radio signals through the atmosphere and are widely used for high-volume, long-distance, point-to-point communication. Microwave signals follow a straight line and do not bend with the curvature of the earth. Therefore, long-distance terrestrial transmission systems require that transmission stations be positioned about 37 miles apart. Long-distance transmission is also possible by using communication satellites as relay stations for microwave signals transmitted from terrestrial stations.
Communication satellites use microwave transmission and are typically used for transmission in large, geographically dispersed organizations that would be difficult to network using cabling media or terrestrial microwave, as well as for home Internet service, especially in rural areas. For instance, the global energy company BP p.l.c. uses satellites for real-time data transfer of oil field exploration data gathered from searches of the ocean floor. Using geosynchronous satellites, exploration ships transfer these data to central computing centers in the United States for use by researchers in Houston, Tulsa, and suburban Chicago. Figure 7-7 illustrates how this system works. Satellites are also used for home television and Internet service. The two major satellite Internet providers (Dish Network and DirectTV) have about 30 million subscribers, and about 17 percent of all U.S. households access the Internet using satellite services (eMarketer, 2010).
**FIGURE 7-7** BP’S SATELLITE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
Communication satellites help BP transfer seismic data between oil exploration ships and research centers in the United States.
Cellular systems also use radio waves and a variety of different protocols to communicate with radio antennas (towers) placed within adjacent geographic areas called cells. Communications transmitted from a cell phone to a local cell pass from antenna to antenna—cell to cell—until they reach their final destination.
Wireless networks are supplanting traditional wired networks for many applications and creating new applications, services, and business models. In Section 7.4, we provide a detailed description of the applications and technology standards driving the “wireless revolution.”
**Transmission Speed**
The total amount of digital information that can be transmitted through any telecommunications medium is measured in bits per second (bps). One signal change, or cycle, is required to transmit one or several bits; therefore, the transmission capacity of each type of telecommunications medium is a function of its frequency. The number of cycles per second that can be sent through that medium is measured in hertz—one hertz is equal to one cycle of the medium.
The range of frequencies that can be accommodated on a particular telecommunications channel is called its bandwidth. The bandwidth is the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies that can be accommodated on a single channel. The greater the range of frequencies, the greater the bandwidth and the greater the channel's transmission capacity.
### 7.3 The Global Internet
We all use the Internet, and many of us can't do without it. It's become an indispensable personal and business tool. But what exactly is the Internet? How does it work, and what does Internet technology have to offer for business? Let's look at the most important Internet features.
#### WHAT IS THE INTERNET?
The Internet has become the world's most extensive, public communication system that now rivals the global telephone system in reach and range. It's also the world's largest implementation of client/server computing and internet-working, linking millions of individual networks all over the world. This global network of networks began in the early 1970s as a U.S. Department of Defense network to link scientists and university professors around the world.
Most homes and small businesses connect to the Internet by subscribing to an Internet service provider. An **Internet service provider (ISP)** is a commercial organization with a permanent connection to the Internet that sells temporary connections to retail subscribers. EarthLink, NetZero, AT&T, and Time Warner are ISPs. Individuals also connect to the Internet through their business firms, universities, or research centers that have designated Internet domains.
There are a variety of services for ISP Internet connections. Connecting via a traditional telephone line and modem, at a speed of 56.6 kilobits per second (Kbps) used to be the most common form of connection worldwide, but it has been largely replaced by broadband connections. Digital subscriber line (DSL), cable, satellite Internet connections, and T lines provide these broadband services.
Digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies operate over existing telephone lines to carry voice, data, and video at transmission rates ranging from 385 Kbps all the way up to 9 Mbps. Cable Internet connections provided by cable television vendors use digital cable coaxial lines to deliver high-speed Internet access to homes and businesses. They can provide high-speed access to the Internet of up to 15 Mbps. In areas where DSL and cable services are unavailable, it is possible to access the Internet via satellite, although some satellite Internet connections have slower upload speeds than other broadband services.
T1 and T3 are international telephone standards for digital communication. They are leased, dedicated lines suitable for businesses or government agencies requiring high-speed guaranteed service levels. T1 lines offer guaranteed delivery at 1.54 Mbps, and T3 lines offer delivery at 45 Mbps. The Internet does not provide similar guaranteed service levels, but simply “best effort.”
INTERNET ADDRESSING AND ARCHITECTURE
The Internet is based on the TCP/IP networking protocol suite described earlier in this chapter. Every computer on the Internet is assigned a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address, which currently is a 32-bit number represented by four strings of numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by periods. For instance, the IP address of www.microsoft.com is 126.96.36.199.
When a user sends a message to another user on the Internet, the message is first decomposed into packets using the TCP protocol. Each packet contains its destination address. The packets are then sent from the client to the network server and from there on to as many other servers as necessary to arrive at a specific computer with a known address. At the destination address, the packets are reassembled into the original message.
The Domain Name System
Because it would be incredibly difficult for Internet users to remember strings of 12 numbers, the Domain Name System (DNS) converts domain names to IP addresses. The domain name is the English-like name that corresponds to the unique 32-bit numeric IP address for each computer connected to the Internet. DNS servers maintain a database containing IP addresses mapped to their corresponding domain names. To access a computer on the Internet, users need only specify its domain name.
DNS has a hierarchical structure (see Figure 7-8). At the top of the DNS hierarchy is the root domain. The child domain of the root is called a top-level domain, and the child domain of a top-level domain is called a second-level domain. Top-level domains are two- and three-character names you are familiar with from surfing the Web, for example, .com, .edu, .gov, and the various country codes such as .ca for Canada or .it for Italy. Second-level domains have two parts, designating a top-level name and a second-level name—such as buy.com, nyu.edu, or amazon.ca. A host name at the bottom of the hierarchy designates a specific computer on either the Internet or a private network.
The most common domain extensions currently available and officially approved are shown in the following list. Countries also have domain names such as .uk, .au, and .fr (United Kingdom, Australia, and France, respectively), and there is a new class of “internationalized” top level domains that use non-English characters (ICANN, 2010). In the future, this list will expand to include many more types of organizations and industries.
Domain Name System is a hierarchical system with a root domain, top-level domains, second-level domains, and host computers at the third level.
.com Commercial organizations/businesses
.edu Educational institutions
.gov U.S. government agencies
.mil U.S. military
.net Network computers
.org Nonprofit organizations and foundations
.biz Business firms
.info Information providers
**Internet Architecture and Governance**
Internet data traffic is carried over transcontinental high-speed backbone networks that generally operate today in the range of 45 Mbps to 2.5 Gbps (see Figure 7-9). These trunk lines are typically owned by long-distance telephone companies (called *network service providers*) or by national governments. Local connection lines are owned by regional telephone and cable television companies in the United States that connect retail users in homes and businesses to the Internet. The regional networks lease access to ISPs, private companies, and government institutions.
Each organization pays for its own networks and its own local Internet connection services, a part of which is paid to the long-distance trunk line owners. Individual Internet users pay ISPs for using their service, and they generally pay a flat subscription fee, no matter how much or how little they use the Internet. A debate is now raging on whether this arrangement should continue or whether heavy Internet users who download large video and music files should pay more for the bandwidth they consume. The Interactive Session on Organizations explores this topic, as it examines the pros and cons of network neutrality.
The Internet backbone connects to regional networks, which in turn provide access to Internet service providers, large firms, and government institutions. Network access points (NAPs) and metropolitan-area exchanges (MAEs) are hubs where the backbone intersects regional and local networks and where backbone owners connect with one another.
No one “owns” the Internet, and it has no formal management. However, worldwide Internet policies are established by a number of professional organizations and government bodies, including the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), which helps define the overall structure of the Internet; the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which assigns IP addresses; and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which sets Hypertext Markup Language and other programming standards for the Web.
These organizations influence government agencies, network owners, ISPs, and software developers with the goal of keeping the Internet operating as efficiently as possible. The Internet must also conform to the laws of the sovereign nation-states in which it operates, as well as the technical infrastructures that exist within the nation-states. Although in the early years of the Internet and the Web there was very little legislative or executive interference, this situation is changing as the Internet plays a growing role in the distribution of information and knowledge, including content that some find objectionable.
**The Future Internet: IPv6 and Internet2**
The Internet was not originally designed to handle the transmission of massive quantities of data and billions of users. Because many corporations and governments have been given large blocks of millions of IP addresses to accommodate current and future workforces, and because of sheer Internet population growth, the world will run out of available IP addresses using the existing
addressing convention by 2012 or 2013. Under development is a new version of the IP addressing schema called *Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)*, which contains 128-bit addresses (2 to the power of 128), or more than a quadrillion possible unique addresses.
**Internet2** and Next-Generation Internet (NGI) are consortia representing 200 universities, private businesses, and government agencies in the United States that are working on a new, robust, high-bandwidth version of the Internet. They have established several new high-performance backbone networks with bandwidths reaching as much as 100 Gbps. Internet2 research groups are developing and implementing new technologies for more effective routing practices; different levels of service, depending on the type and importance of the data being transmitted; and advanced applications for distributed computation, virtual laboratories, digital libraries, distributed learning, and tele-immersion. These networks do not replace the public Internet, but they do provide test beds for leading-edge technology that may eventually migrate to the public Internet.
### INTERNET SERVICES AND COMMUNICATION TOOLS
The Internet is based on client/server technology. Individuals using the Internet control what they do through client applications on their computers, such as Web browser software. The data, including e-mail messages and Web pages, are stored on servers. A client uses the Internet to request information from a particular Web server on a distant computer, and the server sends the requested information back to the client over the Internet. Chapters 5 and 6 describe how Web servers work with application servers and database servers to access information from an organization's internal information systems applications and their associated databases. Client platforms today include not only PCs and other computers but also cell phones, small handheld digital devices, and other information appliances.
#### Internet Services
A client computer connecting to the Internet has access to a variety of services. These services include e-mail, electronic discussion groups, chatting and instant messaging, **Telnet**, **File Transfer Protocol (FTP)**, and the Web. Table 7-2 provides a brief description of these services.
Each Internet service is implemented by one or more software programs. All of the services may run on a single server computer, or different services may
| CAPABILITY | FUNCTIONS SUPPORTED |
|-----------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| E-mail | Person-to-person messaging; document sharing |
| Chatting and instant messaging | Interactive conversations |
| Newsgroups | Discussion groups on electronic bulletin boards |
| Telnet | Logging on to one computer system and doing work on another |
| File Transfer Protocol (FTP)| Transferring files from computer to computer |
| World Wide Web | Retrieving, formatting, and displaying information (including text, audio, graphics, and video) using hypertext links |
THE BATTLE OVER NET NEUTRALITY
What kind of Internet user are you? Do you primarily use the Net to do a little e-mail and look up phone numbers? Or are you online all day, watching YouTube videos, downloading music files, or playing massively multiplayer online games? If you’re the latter, you are consuming a great deal of bandwidth, and hundreds of millions of people like you might start to slow the Internet down. YouTube consumed as much bandwidth in 2007 as the entire Internet did in 2000. That’s one of the arguments being made today for charging Internet users based on the amount of transmission capacity they use.
If user demand for the Internet overwhelms network capacity, the Internet might not come to a screeching halt, but users would be faced with very sluggish download speeds and slow performance of YouTube, Facebook, and other data-heavy services. (Heavy use of iPhones in urban areas such as New York and San Francisco has already degraded service on the AT&T wireless network. AT&T reports that 3 percent of its subscriber base accounts for 40 percent of its data traffic.)
Other researchers believe that as digital traffic on the Internet grows, even at a rate of 50 percent per year, the technology for handling all this traffic is advancing at an equally rapid pace.
In addition to these technical issues, the debate about metering Internet use centers around the concept of network neutrality. Network neutrality is the idea that Internet service providers must allow customers equal access to content and applications, regardless of the source or nature of the content. Presently, the Internet is indeed neutral: all Internet traffic is treated equally on a first-come, first-served basis by Internet backbone owners.
However, telecommunications and cable companies are unhappy with this arrangement. They want to be able to charge differentiated prices based on the amount of bandwidth consumed by content being delivered over the Internet. These companies believe that differentiated pricing is “the fairest way” to finance necessary investments in their network infrastructures.
Internet service providers point to the upsurge in piracy of copyrighted materials over the Internet. Comcast, the second largest Internet service provider in the United States, reported that illegal file sharing of copyrighted material was consuming 50 percent of its network capacity. In 2008, the company slowed down transmission of BitTorrent files, used extensively for piracy and illegal sharing of copyrighted materials, including video. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that Comcast had to stop slowing peer-to-peer traffic in the name of network management. Comcast then filed a lawsuit challenging the FCC’s authority to enforce network neutrality. In April 2010, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Comcast that the FCC did not have the authority to regulate how an Internet provider manages its network.
Advocates of net neutrality are pushing Congress to find ways to regulate the industry to prevent network providers from adopting Comcast-like practices. The strange alliance of net neutrality advocates includes MoveOn.org, the Christian Coalition, the American Library Association, every major consumer group, many bloggers and small businesses, and some large Internet companies like Google and Amazon.
Net neutrality advocates argue that the risk of censorship increases when network operators can selectively block or slow access to certain content such as Hulu videos or access to competing low-cost services such as Skype and Vonage. There are already many examples of Internet providers restricting access to sensitive materials (such as Pakistan’s government blocking access to anti-Muslim sites and YouTube as a whole in response to content it deemed defamatory to Islam.)
Proponents of net neutrality also argue that a neutral Internet encourages everyone to innovate without permission from the phone and cable companies or other authorities, and this level playing field has spawned countless new businesses. Allowing unrestricted information flow becomes essential to free markets and democracy as commerce and society increasingly move online.
Network owners believe regulation to enforce net neutrality will impede U.S. competitiveness by stifling innovation, discouraging capital expenditures for new networks, and curbing their networks’ ability to cope with the exploding demand for Internet and wireless traffic. U.S. Internet service lags behind many other nations in overall speed, cost, and quality of service, adding credibility to this argument.
And with enough options for Internet access, regulation would not be essential for promoting net neutrality. Dissatisfied consumers could simply switch to providers who enforce net neutrality and allow unlimited Internet use.
Since the Comcast ruling was overturned, FCC efforts to support net neutrality have been in a holding pattern as it searches for some means of regulating broadband Internet service within the constraints of current law and current court rulings. One proposal is to reclassify broadband Internet transmission as a telecommunications service so the FCC could apply decades-old regulations for traditional telephone networks.
In August 2010, Verizon and Google issued a policy statement proposing that regulators enforce net neutrality on wired connections, but not on wireless networks, which are becoming the dominant Internet platform. The proposal was an effort to define some sort of middle ground that would safeguard net neutrality while giving carriers the flexibility they needed to manage their networks and generate revenue from them. None of the major players in the net neutrality debate showed support and both sides remain dug in.
Sources: Joe Nocera, “The Struggle for What We Already Have,” *The New York Times*, September 4, 2010; Claire Cain Miller, “Web Plan is Dividing Companies,” *The New York Times*, August 11, 2010; Wayne Rash, “Net Neutrality Looks Dead in the Clutches of Congress,” *eWeek*, June 13 2010; Amy Schatz and Spencer E. Ante, “FCC Web Rules Create Pushback,” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 6, 2010; Amy Schatz, “New U.S. Push to Regulate Internet Access,” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 5, 2010; and Joanie Wexler: “Net Neutrality: Can We Find Common Ground?” *Network World*, April 1, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What is network neutrality? Why has the Internet operated under net neutrality up to this point in time?
2. Who’s in favor of net neutrality? Who’s opposed? Why?
3. What would be the impact on individual users, businesses, and government if Internet providers switched to a tiered service model?
4. Are you in favor of legislation enforcing network neutrality? Why or why not?
**MIS IN ACTION**
1. Visit the Web site of the Open Internet Coalition and select five member organizations. Then visit the Web site of each of these organizations or surf the Web to find out more information about each. Write a short essay explaining why each organization is in favor of network neutrality.
2. Calculate how much bandwidth you consume when using the Internet every day. How many e-mails do you send daily and what is the size of each? (Your e-mail program may have e-mail file size information.) How many music and video clips do you download daily and what is the size of each? If you view YouTube often, surf the Web to find out the size of a typical YouTube file. Add up the number of e-mail, audio, and video files you transmit or receive on a typical day.
be allocated to different machines. Figure 7-10 illustrates one way that these services can be arranged in a multilayered client/server architecture.
**E-mail** enables messages to be exchanged from computer to computer, with capabilities for routing messages to multiple recipients, forwarding messages, and attaching text documents or multimedia files to messages. Although some organizations operate their own internal electronic mail systems, most e-mail today is sent through the Internet. The costs of e-mail is far lower than equivalent voice, postal, or overnight delivery costs, making the Internet a very inexpensive and rapid communications medium. Most e-mail messages arrive anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds.
Nearly 90 percent of U.S. workplaces have employees communicating interactively using **chat** or instant messaging tools. Chatting enables two or
Client computers running Web browser and other software can access an array of services on servers over the Internet. These services may all run on a single server or on multiple specialized servers.
more people who are simultaneously connected to the Internet to hold live, interactive conversations. Chat systems now support voice and video chat as well as written conversations. Many online retail businesses offer chat services on their Web sites to attract visitors, to encourage repeat purchases, and to improve customer service.
**Instant messaging** is a type of chat service that enables participants to create their own private chat channels. The instant messaging system alerts the user whenever someone on his or her private list is online so that the user can initiate a chat session with other individuals. Instant messaging systems for consumers include Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, and Windows Live Messenger. Companies concerned with security use proprietary instant messaging systems such as Lotus Sametime.
Newsgroups are worldwide discussion groups posted on Internet electronic bulletin boards on which people share information and ideas on a defined topic, such as radiology or rock bands. Anyone can post messages on these bulletin boards for others to read. Many thousands of groups exist that discuss almost all conceivable topics.
Employee use of e-mail, instant messaging, and the Internet is supposed to increase worker productivity, but the accompanying Interactive Session on Management shows that this may not always be the case. Many company managers now believe they need to monitor and even regulate their employees' online activity. But is this ethical? Although there are some strong business reasons why companies may need to monitor their employees' e-mail and Web activities, what does this mean for employee privacy?
**Voice over IP**
The Internet has also become a popular platform for voice transmission and corporate networking. **Voice over IP (VoIP)** technology delivers voice information in digital form using packet switching, avoiding the tolls charged
by local and long-distance telephone networks (see Figure 7-11). Calls that would ordinarily be transmitted over public telephone networks travel over the corporate network based on the Internet Protocol, or the public Internet. Voice calls can be made and received with a computer equipped with a microphone and speakers or with a VoIP-enabled telephone.
Cable firms such as Time Warner and Cablevision provide VoIP service bundled with their high-speed Internet and cable offerings. Skype offers free VoIP worldwide using a peer-to-peer network, and Google has its own free VoIP service.
Although there are up-front investments required for an IP phone system, VoIP can reduce communication and network management costs by 20 to 30 percent. For example, VoIP saves Virgin Entertainment Group $700,000 per year in long-distance bills. In addition to lowering long-distance costs and eliminating monthly fees for private lines, an IP network provides a single voice-data infrastructure for both telecommunications and computing services. Companies no longer have to maintain separate networks or provide support services and personnel for each different type of network.
Another advantage of VoIP is its flexibility. Unlike the traditional telephone network, phones can be added or moved to different offices without rewiring or reconfiguring the network. With VoIP, a conference call is arranged by a simple click-and-drag operation on the computer screen to select the names of the conferees. Voice mail and e-mail can be combined into a single directory.
**Unified Communications**
In the past, each of the firm’s networks for wired and wireless data, voice communications, and videoconferencing operated independently of each other and had to be managed separately by the information systems department. Now, however, firms are able to merge disparate communications modes into a single universally accessible service using unified communications technology. **Unified communications** integrates disparate channels for voice communications, data communications, instant messaging, e-mail, and electronic conferencing into a single experience where users can seamlessly switch back and forth between different communication modes. Presence technology shows whether a person is available to receive a call. Companies will need to examine
**FIGURE 7-11 HOW VOICE OVER IP WORKS**
An VoIP phone call digitizes and breaks up a voice message into data packets that may travel along different routes before being reassembled at the final destination. A processor nearest the call’s destination, called a gateway, arranges the packets in the proper order and directs them to the telephone number of the receiver or the IP address of the receiving computer.
MONITORING EMPLOYEES ON NETWORKS: UNEETHICAL OR GOOD BUSINESS?
When you were at work, how many minutes (or hours) did you spend on Facebook today? Did you send personal e-mail or visit some sports Web sites? If so, you’re not alone. According to a Nucleus Research study, 77 percent of workers with Facebook accounts use them during work hours. An IDC Research study shows that as much as 40 percent of Internet surfing occurring during work hours is personal, while other studies report as many as 90 percent of employees receive or send personal e-mail at work.
This behavior creates serious business problems. Checking e-mail, responding to instant messages, and sneaking in a brief YouTube video create a series of nonstop interruptions that divert employee attention from the job tasks they are supposed to be performing. According to Basex, a New York City business research company, these distractions take up as much as 28 percent of the average U.S. worker’s day and result in $650 billion in lost productivity each year!
Many companies have begun monitoring their employee use of e-mail, blogs, and the Internet, sometimes without their knowledge. A recent American Management Association (AMA) survey of 304 U.S. companies of all sizes found that 66 percent of these companies monitor employee e-mail messages and Web connections. Although U.S. companies have the legal right to monitor employee Internet and e-mail activity while they are at work, is such monitoring unethical, or is it simply good business?
Managers worry about the loss of time and employee productivity when employees are focusing on personal rather than company business. Too much time on personal business, on the Internet or not, can mean lost revenue. Some employees may even be billing time they spend pursuing personal interests online to clients, thus overcharging them.
If personal traffic on company networks is too high, it can also clog the company’s network so that legitimate business work cannot be performed. Schemmer Associates, an architecture firm in Omaha, Nebraska, and Potomac Hospital in Woodridge, Virginia, found that computing resources were limited by a lack of bandwidth caused by employees using corporate Internet connections to watch and download video files.
When employees use e-mail or the Web (including social networks) at employer facilities or with employer equipment, anything they do, including anything illegal, carries the company’s name. Therefore, the employer can be traced and held liable. Management in many firms fear that racist, sexually explicit, or other potentially offensive material accessed or traded by their employees could result in adverse publicity and even lawsuits for the firm. Even if the company is found not to be liable, responding to lawsuits could cost the company tens of thousands of dollars.
Companies also fear leakage of confidential information and trade secrets through e-mail or blogs. A recent survey conducted by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute found that 14 percent of the employees polled admitted they had sent confidential or potentially embarrassing company e-mails to outsiders.
U.S. companies have the legal right to monitor what employees are doing with company equipment during business hours. The question is whether electronic surveillance is an appropriate tool for maintaining an efficient and positive workplace. Some companies try to ban all personal activities on corporate networks—zero tolerance. Others block employee access to specific Web sites or social sites or limit personal time on the Web.
For example, Enterprise Rent-A-Car blocks employee access to certain social sites and monitors the Web for employees’ online postings about the company. Ajax Boiler in Santa Ana, California, uses software from SpectorSoft Corporation that records all the Web sites employees visit, time spent at each site, and all e-mails sent. Flushing Financial Corporation installed software that prevents employees from sending e-mail to specified addresses and scans e-mail attachments for sensitive information. Schemmer Associates uses OpenDNS to categorize and filter Web content and block unwanted video.
Some firms have fired employees who have stepped out of bounds. One-third of the companies surveyed in the AMA study had fired workers for misusing the Internet on the job. Among managers who fired employees for Internet misuse, 64 percent did so because the employees’ e-mail contained inappropriate or offensive language, and more than 25
percent fired workers for excessive personal use of e-mail.
No solution is problem free, but many consultants believe companies should write corporate policies on employee e-mail and Internet use. The policies should include explicit ground rules that state, by position or level, under what circumstances employees can use company facilities for e-mail, blogging, or Web surfing. The policies should also inform employees whether these activities are monitored and explain why.
IBM now has “social computing guidelines” that cover employee activity on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The guidelines urge employees not to conceal their identities, to remember that they are personally responsible for what they publish, and to refrain from discussing controversial topics that are not related to their IBM role.
The rules should be tailored to specific business needs and organizational cultures. For example, although some companies may exclude all employees from visiting sites that have explicit sexual material, law firm or hospital employees may require access to these sites. Investment firms will need to allow many of their employees access to other investment sites. A company dependent on widespread information sharing, innovation, and independence could very well find that monitoring creates more problems than it solves.
Sources: Joan Goodchild, “Not Safe for Work: What’s Acceptable for Office Computer Use,” *CIO Australia*, June 17, 2010; Sarah E. Needleman, “Monitoring the Monitors,” *The Wall Street Journal*, August 16, 2010; Michelle Conline and Douglas MacMillan, “Web 2.0: Managing Corporate Reputations,” *Business Week*, May 20, 2009; James Wong, “Drafting Trouble-Free Social Media Policies,” Law.com, June 15, 2009; and Maggie Jackson, “May We Have Your Attention, Please?” *Business Week*, June 23, 2008.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. Should managers monitor employee e-mail and Internet usage? Why or why not?
2. Describe an effective e-mail and Web use policy for a company.
3. Should managers inform employees that their Web behavior is being monitored? Or should managers monitor secretly? Why or why not?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Explore the Web site of online employee monitoring software such as Websense, Barracuda Networks, MessageLabs, or SpectorSoft, and answer the following questions:
1. What employee activities does this software track? What can an employer learn about an employee by using this software?
2. How can businesses benefit from using this software?
3. How would you feel if your employer used this software where you work to monitor what you are doing on the job? Explain your response.
how work flows and business processes will be altered by this technology in order to gauge its value.
CenterPoint Properties, a major Chicago area industrial real estate company, used unified communications technology to create collaborative Web sites for each of its real estate deals. Each Web site provides a single point for accessing structured and unstructured data. Integrated presence technology lets team members e-mail, instant message, call, or videoconference with one click.
**Virtual Private Networks**
What if you had a marketing group charged with developing new products and services for your firm with members spread across the United States? You would want to be able to e-mail each other and communicate with the home office without any chance that outsiders could intercept the communications. In the past, one answer to this problem was to work with large private networking firms who offered secure, private, dedicated networks to customers. But this was an expensive solution. A much less-expensive solution is to create a virtual private network within the public Internet.
A **virtual private network (VPN)** is a secure, encrypted, private network that has been configured within a public network to take advantage of the economies of scale and management facilities of large networks, such as the Internet (see Figure 7-12). A VPN provides your firm with secure, encrypted communications at a much lower cost than the same capabilities offered by traditional non-Internet providers who use their private networks to secure communications. VPNs also provide a network infrastructure for combining voice and data networks.
Several competing protocols are used to protect data transmitted over the public Internet, including *Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)*. In a process called tunneling, packets of data are encrypted and wrapped inside IP packets. By adding this wrapper around a network message to hide its content, business firms create a private connection that travels through the public Internet.
**THE WEB**
You’ve probably used the Web to download music, to find information for a term paper, or to obtain news and weather reports. The Web is the most popular Internet service. It’s a system with universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information using a client/server architecture. Web pages are formatted using hypertext with embedded links that connect documents to one another and that also link pages to other objects, such as sound, video, or animation files. When you click a graphic and a video clip plays, you have clicked a hyperlink. A typical **Web site** is a collection of Web pages linked to a home page.
**Hypertext**
Web pages are based on a standard Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which formats documents and incorporates dynamic links to other documents and pictures stored in the same or remote computers (see Chapter 5).
**FIGURE 7-12** A VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK USING THE INTERNET
This VPN is a private network of computers linked using a secure “tunnel” connection over the Internet. It protects data transmitted over the public Internet by encoding the data and “wrapping” them within the Internet Protocol (IP). By adding a wrapper around a network message to hide its content, organizations can create a private connection that travels through the public Internet.
pages are accessible through the Internet because Web browser software operating your computer can request Web pages stored on an Internet host server using the **Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)**. HTTP is the communications standard used to transfer pages on the Web. For example, when you type a Web address in your browser, such as www.sec.gov, your browser sends an HTTP request to the sec.gov server requesting the home page of sec.gov.
HTTP is the first set of letters at the start of every Web address, followed by the domain name, which specifies the organization’s server computer that is storing the document. Most companies have a domain name that is the same as or closely related to their official corporate name. The directory path and document name are two more pieces of information within the Web address that help the browser track down the requested page. Together, the address is called a **uniform resource locator (URL)**. When typed into a browser, a URL tells the browser software exactly where to look for the information. For example, in the URL `http://www.megacorp.com/content/features/082610.html`, `http` names the protocol used to display Web pages, `www.megacorp.com` is the domain name, `content/features` is the directory path that identifies where on the domain Web server the page is stored, and `082610.html` is the document name and the name of the format it is in (it is an HTML page).
**Web Servers**
A Web server is software for locating and managing stored Web pages. It locates the Web pages requested by a user on the computer where they are stored and delivers the Web pages to the user’s computer. Server applications usually run on dedicated computers, although they can all reside on a single computer in small organizations.
The most common Web server in use today is Apache HTTP Server, which controls 54 percent of the market. Apache is an open source product that is free of charge and can be downloaded from the Web. Microsoft Internet Information Services is the second most commonly used Web server, with a 25 percent market share.
**Searching for Information on the Web**
No one knows for sure how many Web pages there really are. The surface Web is the part of the Web that search engines visit and about which information is recorded. For instance, Google visited about 100 billion pages in 2010, and this reflects a large portion of the publicly accessible Web page population. But there is a “deep Web” that contains an estimated 900 billion additional pages, many of them proprietary (such as the pages of *The Wall Street Journal Online*, which cannot be visited without an access code) or that are stored in protected corporate databases.
**Search Engines**
Obviously, with so many Web pages, finding specific Web pages that can help you or your business, nearly instantly, is an important problem. The question is, how can you find the one or two pages you really want and need out of billions of indexed Web pages? **Search engines** attempt to solve the problem of finding useful information on the Web nearly instantly, and, arguably, they are the “killer app” of the Internet era. Today’s search engines can sift through HTML files, files of Microsoft Office applications, PDF files, as well as audio, video, and image files. There are hundreds of different
search engines in the world, but the vast majority of search results are supplied by three top providers: Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Web search engines started out in the early 1990s as relatively simple software programs that roamed the nascent Web, visiting pages and gathering information about the content of each page. The first search engines were simple keyword indexes of all the pages they visited, leaving the user with lists of pages that may not have been truly relevant to their search.
In 1994, Stanford University computer science students David Filo and Jerry Yang created a hand-selected list of their favorite Web pages and called it “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” or Yahoo!. Yahoo! was not initially a search engine but rather an edited selection of Web sites organized by categories the editors found useful, but it has since developed its own search engine capabilities.
In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two other Stanford computer science students, released their first version of Google. This search engine was different: Not only did it index each Web page’s words but it also ranked search results based on the relevance of each page. Page patented the idea of a page ranking system (PageRank System), which essentially measures the popularity of a Web page by calculating the number of sites that link to that page as well as the number of pages which it links to. Brin contributed a unique Web crawler program that indexed not only keywords on a page but also combinations of words (such as authors and the titles of their articles). These two ideas became the foundation for the Google search engine. Figure 7-13 illustrates how Google works.
Search engine Web sites are so popular that many people use them as their home page, the page where they start surfing the Web (see Chapter 10). As useful as they are, no one expected search engines to be big money makers. Today, however, search engines are the foundation for the fastest growing form of marketing and advertising, search engine marketing.
Search engines have become major shopping tools by offering what is now called **search engine marketing**. When users enter a search term at Google, Bing, Yahoo!, or any of the other sites serviced by these search engines, they receive two types of listings: sponsored links, for which advertisers have paid to be listed (usually at the top of the search results page), and unsponsored “organic” search results. In addition, advertisers can purchase small text boxes on the side of search results pages. The paid, sponsored advertisements are the fastest growing form of Internet advertising and are powerful new marketing tools that precisely match consumer interests with advertising messages at the right moment. Search engine marketing monetizes the value of the search process. In 2010, search engine marketing generated $12.3 billion in revenue, half of all online advertising ($25.6 billion). Ninety seven percent of Google’s annual revenue of $23.6 billion comes from search engine marketing (eMarketer, 2010).
Because search engine marketing is so effective, companies are starting to optimize their Web sites for search engine recognition. The better optimized the page is, the higher a ranking it will achieve in search engine result listings. **Search engine optimization (SEO)** is the process of improving the quality and volume of Web traffic to a Web site by employing a series of techniques that help a Web site achieve a higher ranking with the major search engines when certain keywords and phrases are put in the search field. One technique is to make sure that the keywords used in the Web site description match the keywords likely to be used as search terms by prospective customers. For example, your Web site is more likely to be among the first ranked by search engines
The Google search engine is continuously crawling the Web, indexing the content of each page, calculating its popularity, and storing the pages so that it can respond quickly to user requests to see a page. The entire process takes about one-half second.
if it uses the keyword “lighting” rather than “lamps” if most prospective customers are searching for “lighting.” It is also advantageous to link your Web site to as many other Web sites as possible because search engines evaluate such links to determine the popularity of a Web page and how it is linked to other content on the Web. The assumption is the more links there are to a Web site, the more useful the Web site must be.
In 2010, about 110 million people each day in the United States alone used a search engine, producing over 17 billion searches a month. There are hundreds of search engines, but the top three (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) account for over 90 percent of all searches (see Figure 7-14).
Although search engines were originally built to search text documents, the explosion in online video and images has created a demand for search engines that can quickly find specific videos. The words “dance,” “love,” “music,” and “girl” are all exceedingly popular in titles of YouTube videos, and searching on these keywords produces a flood of responses even though the actual contents of the video may have nothing to do with the search term. Searching videos is challenging because computers are not very good or quick at recognizing digital images. Some search engines have started indexing movie scripts so it will be possible to search on dialogue to find a movie. Blinkx.com is a popular video search service and Google has added video search capabilities.
**Intelligent Agent Shopping Bots** Chapter 11 describes the capabilities of software agents with built-in intelligence that can gather or filter information and perform other tasks to assist users. **Shopping bots** use intelligent agent
Google is the most popular search engine on the Web, handling 72 percent of all Web searches.
Sources: Based on data from SeoConsultants.com, August 28, 2010.
software for searching the Internet for shopping information. Shopping bots such as MySimon or Google Product Search can help people interested in making a purchase filter and retrieve information about products of interest, evaluate competing products according to criteria the users have established, and negotiate with vendors for price and delivery terms. Many of these shopping agents search the Web for pricing and availability of products specified by the user and return a list of sites that sell the item along with pricing information and a purchase link.
**Web 2.0**
Today's Web sites don't just contain static content—they enable people to collaborate, share information, and create new services and content online. These second-generation interactive Internet-based services are referred to as **Web 2.0**. If you have shared photos over the Internet at Flickr or another photo site, posted a video to YouTube, created a blog, used Wikipedia, or added a widget to your Facebook page, you've used some of these Web 2.0 services.
Web 2.0 has four defining features: interactivity, real-time user control, social participation (sharing), and user-generated content. The technologies and services behind these features include cloud computing, software mashups and widgets, blogs, RSS, wikis, and social networks.
Mashups and widgets, which we introduced in Chapter 5, are software services that enable users and system developers to mix and match content or software components to create something entirely new. For example, Yahoo's photo storage and sharing site Flickr combines photos with other information about the images provided by users and tools to make it usable within other programming environments.
These software applications run on the Web itself instead of the desktop. With Web 2.0, the Web is not just a collection of destination sites, but a source of data and services that can be combined to create applications users need. Web 2.0 tools and services have fueled the creation of social networks and other online communities where people can interact with one another in the manner of their choosing.
A **blog**, the popular term for a Weblog, is a personal Web site that typically contains a series of chronological entries (newest to oldest) by its author, and links to related Web pages. The blog may include a *blogroll* (a collection of links to other blogs) and *trackbacks* (a list of entries in other blogs that refer to a post on the first blog). Most blogs allow readers to post comments on the blog entries as well. The act of creating a blog is often referred to as “blogging.” Blogs are either hosted by a third-party site such as Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, TypePad.com, and Xanga.com, or prospective bloggers can download software such as Movable Type to create a blog that is housed by the user's ISP.
Blog pages are usually variations on templates provided by the blogging service or software. Therefore, millions of people without HTML skills of any kind can post their own Web pages and share content with others. The totality of blog-related Web sites is often referred to as the **blogosphere**. Although blogs have become popular personal publishing tools, they also have business uses (see Chapters 9 and 10).
If you're an avid blog reader, you might use RSS to keep up with your favorite blogs without constantly checking them for updates. **RSS**, which stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, syndicates Web site content so that it can be used in another setting. RSS technology pulls specified content from Web sites and feeds it automatically to users' computers, where it can be stored for later viewing.
To receive an RSS information feed, you need to install aggregator or news reader software that can be downloaded from the Web. (Most current Web browsers include RSS reading capabilities.) Alternatively, you can establish an account with an aggregator Web site. You tell the aggregator to collect all updates from a given Web page, or list of pages, or gather information on a given subject by conducting Web searches at regular intervals. Once subscribed, you automatically receive new content as it is posted to the specified Web site.
A number of businesses use RSS internally to distribute updated corporate information. Wells Fargo uses RSS to deliver news feeds that employees can customize to see the business news of greatest relevance to their jobs. RSS feeds are so popular that online publishers are developing ways to present advertising along with content.
Blogs allow visitors to add comments to the original content, but they do not allow visitors to change the original posted material. **Wikis**, in contrast, are collaborative Web sites where visitors can add, delete, or modify content on the site, including the work of previous authors. Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word for “quick.”
Wiki software typically provides a template that defines layout and elements common to all pages, displays user-editable software program code, and then renders the content into an HTML-based page for display in a Web browser. Some wiki software allows only basic text formatting, whereas other tools allow the use of tables, images, or even interactive elements, such as polls or games. Most wikis provide capabilities for monitoring the work of other users and correcting mistakes.
Because wikis make information sharing so easy, they have many business uses. For example, Motorola sales representatives use wikis for sharing sales information. Instead of developing a different pitch for every client, reps reuse the information posted on the wiki. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Center deployed a wiki to facilitate collaboration among federal agencies on cybersecurity. NCSC and other agencies use the wiki for real-time information sharing on threats, attacks, and responses and as a repository for technical and standards information.
Social networking sites enable users to build communities of friends and professional colleagues. Members each typically create a “profile,” a Web page for posting photos, videos, MP3 files, and text, and then share these profiles with others on the service identified as their “friends” or contacts. Social networking sites are highly interactive, offer real-time user control, rely on user-generated content, and are broadly based on social participation and sharing of content and opinions. Leading social networking sites include Facebook, MySpace (with 500 million and 180 million global members respectively in 2010), and LinkedIn (for professional contacts).
For many, social networking sites are the defining Web 2.0 application, and one that will radically change how people spend their time online; how people communicate and with whom; how business people stay in touch with customers, suppliers, and employees; how providers of goods and services learn about their customers; and how advertisers reach potential customers. The large social networking sites are also morphing into application development platforms where members can create and sell software applications to other members of the community. Facebook alone had over 1 million developers who created over 550,000 applications for gaming, video sharing, and communicating with friends and family. We talk more about business applications of social networking in Chapters 2 and 10, and you can find social networking discussions in many other chapters of the text. You can also find a more detailed discussion of Web 2.0 in our Learning Tracks.
Web 3.0: The Future Web
Every day about 110 million Americans enter 500 million queries search engines. How many of these 500 million queries produce a meaningful result (a useful answer in the first three listings)? Arguably, fewer than half. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Amazon are all trying to increase the odds of people finding meaningful answers to search engine queries. But with over 100 billion Web pages indexed, the means available for finding the information you really want are quite primitive, based on the words used on the pages, and the relative popularity of the page among people who use those same search terms. In other words, it’s hit and miss.
To a large extent, the future of the Web involves developing techniques to make searching the 100 billion public Web pages more productive and meaningful for ordinary people. Web 1.0 solved the problem of obtaining access to information. Web 2.0 solved the problem of sharing that information with others, and building new Web experiences. Web 3.0 is the promise of a future Web where all this digital information, all these contacts, can be woven together into a single meaningful experience.
Sometimes this is referred to as the Semantic Web. “Semantic” refers to meaning. Most of the Web’s content today is designed for humans to read and for computers to display, not for computer programs to analyze and manipulate. Search engines can discover when a particular term or keyword appears in a Web document, but they do not really understand its meaning or how it relates to other information on the Web. You can check this out on Google by entering two searches. First, enter “Paris Hilton”. Next, enter “Hilton in Paris”. Because Google does not understand ordinary English, it has no idea that you are interested in the Hilton Hotel in Paris in the second search. Because it cannot understand the meaning of pages it has indexed, Google’s search engine returns the most popular pages for those queries where “Hilton” and “Paris” appear on the pages.
First described in a 2001 *Scientific American* article, the Semantic Web is a collaborative effort led by the World Wide Web Consortium to add a layer of meaning atop the existing Web to reduce the amount of human involvement in searching for and processing Web information (Berners-Lee et al., 2001).
Views on the future of the Web vary, but they generally focus on ways to make the Web more “intelligent,” with machine-facilitated understanding of information promoting a more intuitive and effective user experience. For instance, let’s say you want to set up a party with your tennis buddies at a local restaurant Friday night after work. One problem is that you had earlier scheduled to go to a movie with another friend. In a Semantic Web 3.0 environment, you would be able to coordinate this change in plans with the schedules of your tennis buddies, the schedule of your movie friend, and make a reservation at the restaurant all with a single set of commands issued as text or voice to your handheld smartphone. Right now, this capability is beyond our grasp.
Work proceeds slowly on making the Web a more intelligent experience, in large part because it is difficult to make machines, including software programs, that are truly intelligent like humans. But there are other views of the future Web. Some see a 3-D Web where you can walk through pages in a 3-D environment. Others point to the idea of a pervasive Web that controls everything from the lights in your living room, to your car’s rear view mirror, not to mention managing your calendar and appointments.
Other complementary trends leading toward a future Web 3.0 include more widespread use of cloud computing and SaaS business models, ubiquitous connectivity among mobile platforms and Internet access devices, and the transformation of the Web from a network of separate siloed applications and content into a more seamless and interoperable whole. These more modest visions of the future Web 3.0 are more likely to be realized in the near term.
### 7.4 The Wireless Revolution
If you have a cell phone, do you use it for taking and sending photos, sending text messages, or downloading music clips? Do you take your laptop to class or to the library to link up to the Internet? If so, you’re part of the wireless revolution! Cell phones, laptops, and small handheld devices have morphed into portable computing platforms that let you perform some of the computing tasks you used to do at your desk.
Wireless communication helps businesses more easily stay in touch with customers, suppliers, and employees and provides more flexible arrangements for organizing work. Wireless technology has also created new products, services, and sales channels, which we discuss in Chapter 10.
If you require mobile communication and computing power or remote access to corporate systems, you can work with an array of wireless devices, including cell phones, **smartphones**, and wireless-enabled personal computers. We introduced smartphones in our discussions of the mobile digital platform in Chapters 1 and 5. In addition to voice transmission, they feature capabilities for e-mail, messaging, wireless Internet access, digital photography, and personal information management. The features of the iPhone and BlackBerry illustrate the extent to which cellphones have evolved into small mobile computers.
CELLULAR SYSTEMS
Digital cellular service uses several competing standards. In Europe and much of the rest of the world outside the United States, the standard is Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). GSM's strength is its international roaming capability. There are GSM cell phone systems in the United States, including T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless.
The major standard in the United States is Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), which is the system used by Verizon and Sprint. CDMA was developed by the military during World War II. It transmits over several frequencies, occupies the entire spectrum, and randomly assigns users to a range of frequencies over time.
Earlier generations of cellular systems were designed primarily for voice and limited data transmission in the form of short text messages. Wireless carriers now offer more powerful cellular networks called third-generation or 3G networks, with transmission speeds ranging from 144 Kbps for mobile users in, say, a car, to more than 2 Mbps for stationary users. This is sufficient transmission capacity for video, graphics, and other rich media, in addition to voice, making 3G networks suitable for wireless broadband Internet access. Many of the cellular handsets available today are 3G-enabled.
High-speed cellular networks are widely used in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and parts of northern Europe. In U.S. locations without full 3G coverage, U.S. cellular carriers have upgraded their networks to support higher-speed transmission, enabling cell phones to be used for Web access, music downloads, and other broadband services. PCs equipped with a special card can use these broadband cellular services for anytime, anywhere wireless Internet access.
The next evolution in wireless communication, called 4G networks, is entirely packet switched and capable of 100 Mbps transmission speed (which can reach 1 Gbps under optimal conditions), with premium quality and high security. Voice, data, and high-quality streaming video will be available to users anywhere, anytime. Pre-4G technologies currently include Long Term Evolution (LTE) and the mobile WiMax. (See the discussion of WiMax in the following section.) You can find out more about cellular generations in the Learning Tracks for this chapter.
WIRELESS COMPUTER NETWORKS AND INTERNET ACCESS
If you have a laptop computer, you might be able to use it to access the Internet as you move from room to room in your dorm, or table to table in your university library. An array of technologies provide high-speed wireless access to the Internet for PCs and other wireless handheld devices as well as for cell phones. These new high-speed services have extended Internet access to numerous locations that could not be covered by traditional wired Internet services.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is the popular name for the 802.15 wireless networking standard, which is useful for creating small personal area networks (PANs). It links up to eight devices within a 10-meter area using low-power, radio-based communication and can transmit up to 722 Kbps in the 2.4-GHz band.
Wireless phones, pagers, computers, printers, and computing devices using Bluetooth communicate with each other and even operate each other without direct user intervention (see Figure 7-15). For example, a person could direct a notebook computer to send a document file wirelessly to a printer. Bluetooth connects wireless keyboards and mice to PCs or cell phones to earpieces without wires. Bluetooth has low-power requirements, making it appropriate for battery-powered handheld computers, cell phones, or PDAs.
Although Bluetooth lends itself to personal networking, it has uses in large corporations. For example, FedEx drivers use Bluetooth to transmit the delivery data captured by their handheld PowerPad computers to cellular transmitters, which forward the data to corporate computers. Drivers no longer need to spend time docking their handheld units physically in the transmitters, and Bluetooth has saved FedEx $20 million per year.
**Wi-Fi and Wireless Internet Access**
The 802.11 set of standards for wireless LANs and wireless Internet access is also known as **Wi-Fi**. The first of these standards to be widely adopted was 802.11b, which can transmit up to 11 Mbps in the unlicensed 2.4-GHz band and has an effective distance of 30 to 50 meters. The 802.11g standard can transmit up to 54 Mbps in the 2.4-GHz range. 802.11n is capable of transmitting over 100 Mbps. Today’s PCs and netbooks have built-in support for Wi-Fi, as do the iPhone, iPad, and other smartphones.
In most Wi-Fi communication, wireless devices communicate with a wired LAN using access points. An access point is a box consisting of a radio receiver/transmitter and antennas that links to a wired network, router, or hub. Mobile access points such as Virgin Mobile’s MiFi use the existing cellular network to create Wi-Fi connections.
**FIGURE 7-15 A BLUETOOTH NETWORK (PAN)**
Bluetooth enables a variety of devices, including cell phones, smartphones, wireless keyboards and mice, PCs, and printers, to interact wirelessly with each other within a small 30-foot (10-meter) area. In addition to the links shown, Bluetooth can be used to network similar devices to send data from one PC to another, for example.
Figure 7-16 illustrates an 802.11 wireless LAN that connects a small number of mobile devices to a larger wired LAN and to the Internet. Most wireless devices are client machines. The servers that the mobile client stations need to use are on the wired LAN. The access point controls the wireless stations and acts as a bridge between the main wired LAN and the wireless LAN. (A bridge connects two LANs based on different technologies.) The access point also controls the wireless stations.
The most popular use for Wi-Fi today is for high-speed wireless Internet service. In this instance, the access point plugs into an Internet connection, which could come from a cable TV line or DSL telephone service. Computers within range of the access point use it to link wirelessly to the Internet.
Hotspots typically consist of one or more access points providing wireless Internet access in a public place. Some hotspots are free or do not require any additional software to use; others may require activation and the establishment of a user account by providing a credit card number over the Web.
Businesses of all sizes are using Wi-Fi networks to provide low-cost wireless LANs and Internet access. Wi-Fi hotspots can be found in hotels, airport lounges, libraries, cafes, and college campuses to provide mobile access to the Internet. Dartmouth College is one of many campuses where students now use Wi-Fi for research, course work, and entertainment.
Wi-Fi technology poses several challenges, however. One is Wi-Fi’s security features, which make these wireless networks vulnerable to intruders. We provide more detail about Wi-Fi security issues in Chapter 8.
Mobile laptop computers equipped with network interface cards link to the wired LAN by communicating with the access point. The access point uses radio waves to transmit network signals from the wired network to the client adapters, which convert them into data that the mobile device can understand. The client adapter then transmits the data from the mobile device back to the access point, which forwards the data to the wired network.
Another drawback of Wi-Fi networks is susceptibility to interference from nearby systems operating in the same spectrum, such as wireless phones, microwave ovens, or other wireless LANs. However, wireless networks based on the 802.11n standard are able to solve this problem by using multiple wireless antennas in tandem to transmit and receive data and technology called MIMO (multiple input multiple output) to coordinate multiple simultaneous radio signals.
**WiMax**
A surprisingly large number of areas in the United States and throughout the world do not have access to Wi-Fi or fixed broadband connectivity. The range of Wi-Fi systems is no more than 300 feet from the base station, making it difficult for rural groups that don’t have cable or DSL service to find wireless access to the Internet.
The IEEE developed a new family of standards known as WiMax to deal with these problems. **WiMax**, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is the popular term for IEEE Standard 802.16. It has a wireless access range of up to 31 miles and transmission speed of up to 75 Mbps.
WiMax antennas are powerful enough to beam high-speed Internet connections to rooftop antennas of homes and businesses that are miles away. Cellular handsets and laptops with WiMax capabilities are appearing in the marketplace. Mobile WiMax is one of the pre-4G network technologies we discussed earlier in this chapter. Clearwire, which is owned by Sprint-Nextel, is using WiMax technology as the foundation for the 4G networks it is deploying throughout the United States.
**RFID AND WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS**
Mobile technologies are creating new efficiencies and ways of working throughout the enterprise. In addition to the wireless systems we have just described, radio frequency identification systems and wireless sensor networks are having a major impact.
**Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)**
**Radio frequency identification (RFID)** systems provide a powerful technology for tracking the movement of goods throughout the supply chain. RFID systems use tiny tags with embedded microchips containing data about an item and its location to transmit radio signals over a short distance to RFID readers. The RFID readers then pass the data over a network to a computer for processing. Unlike bar codes, RFID tags do not need line-of-sight contact to be read.
The RFID tag is electronically programmed with information that can uniquely identify an item plus other information about the item, such as its location, where and when it was made, or its status during production. Embedded in the tag is a microchip for storing the data. The rest of the tag is an antenna that transmits data to the reader.
The reader unit consists of an antenna and radio transmitter with a decoding capability attached to a stationary or handheld device. The reader emits radio waves in ranges anywhere from 1 inch to 100 feet, depending on its power output, the radio frequency employed, and surrounding environmental conditions. When an RFID tag comes within the range of the reader, the tag is activated and starts sending data. The reader captures these data, decodes them, and sends them back over a wired or wireless network to a host computer for further processing (see Figure 7-17). Both RFID tags and antennas come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
Active RFID tags are powered by an internal battery and typically enable data to be rewritten and modified. Active tags can transmit for hundreds of feet but may cost several dollars per tag. Automated toll-collection systems such as New York’s E-ZPass use active RFID tags.
Passive RFID tags do not have their own power source and obtain their operating power from the radio frequency energy transmitted by the RFID reader. They are smaller, lighter, and less expensive than active tags, but only have a range of several feet.
In inventory control and supply chain management, RFID systems capture and manage more detailed information about items in warehouses or in production than bar coding systems. If a large number of items are shipped together, RFID systems track each pallet, lot, or even unit item in the shipment. This technology may help companies such as Walmart improve receiving and storage operations by improving their ability to “see” exactly what stock is stored in warehouses or on retail store shelves.
Walmart has installed RFID readers at store receiving docks to record the arrival of pallets and cases of goods shipped with RFID tags. The RFID reader reads the tags a second time just as the cases are brought onto the sales floor from backroom storage areas. Software combines sales data from Walmart’s point-of-sale systems and the RFID data regarding the number of cases brought out to the sales floor. The program determines which items will soon be depleted and automatically generates a list of items to pick in the warehouse to replenish store shelves before they run out. This information helps Walmart reduce out-of-stock items, increase sales, and further shrink its costs.
The cost of RFID tags used to be too high for widespread use, but now it is less than 10 cents per passive tag in the United States. As the price decreases, RFID is starting to become cost-effective for some applications.
In addition to installing RFID readers and tagging systems, companies may need to upgrade their hardware and software to process the massive amounts of data produced by RFID systems—transactions that could add up to tens or hundreds of terabytes.
**FIGURE 7-17 HOW RFID WORKS**
A microchip holds data including an identification number. The rest of the tag is an antenna that transmits data to a reader.
Has an antenna that constantly transmits. When it senses a tag, it wakes it up, interrogates it, and decodes the data. Then it transmits the data to a host system over wired or wireless connections.
Processes the data from the tag that have been transmitted by the reader.
RFID uses low-powered radio transmitters to read data stored in a tag at distances ranging from 1 inch to 100 feet. The reader captures the data from the tag and sends them over a network to a host computer for processing.
Software is used to filter, aggregate, and prevent RFID data from overloading business networks and system applications. Applications often need to be redesigned to accept large volumes of frequently generated RFID data and to share those data with other applications. Major enterprise software vendors, including SAP and Oracle-PeopleSoft, now offer RFID-ready versions of their supply chain management applications.
**Wireless Sensor Networks**
If your company wanted state-of-the-art technology to monitor building security or detect hazardous substances in the air, it might deploy a wireless sensor network. **Wireless sensor networks (WSNs)** are networks of interconnected wireless devices that are embedded into the physical environment to provide measurements of many points over large spaces. These devices have built-in processing, storage, and radio frequency sensors and antennas. They are linked into an interconnected network that routes the data they capture to a computer for analysis.
These networks range from hundreds to thousands of nodes. Because wireless sensor devices are placed in the field for years at a time without any maintenance or human intervention, they must have very low power requirements and batteries capable of lasting for years.
Figure 7-18 illustrates one type of wireless sensor network, with data from individual nodes flowing across the network to a server with greater processing power. The server acts as a gateway to a network based on Internet technology.
Wireless sensor networks are valuable in areas such as monitoring environmental changes, monitoring traffic or military activity, protecting property, efficiently operating and managing machinery and vehicles, establishing security perimeters, monitoring supply chain management, or detecting chemical, biological, or radiological material.
**FIGURE 7-18 A WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK**
The small circles represent lower-level nodes and the larger circles represent high-end nodes. Lower-level nodes forward data to each other or to higher-level nodes, which transmit data more rapidly and speed up network performance.
7.5 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience evaluating and selecting communications technology, using spreadsheet software to improve selection of telecommunications services, and using Web search engines for business research.
Management Decision Problems
1. Your company supplies ceramic floor tiles to Home Depot, Lowe’s, and other home improvement stores. You have been asked to start using radio frequency identification tags on each case of tiles you ship to help your customers improve the management of your products and those of other suppliers in their warehouses. Use the Web to identify the cost of hardware, software, and networking components for an RFID system for your company. What factors should be considered? What are the key decisions that have to be made in determining whether your firm should adopt this technology?
2. BestMed Medical Supplies Corporation sells medical and surgical products and equipment from over 700 different manufacturers to hospitals, health clinics, and medical offices. The company employs 500 people at seven different locations in western and midwestern states, including account managers, customer service and support representatives, and warehouse staff. Employees communicate via traditional telephone voice services, e-mail, instant messaging, and cell phones. Management is inquiring about whether the company should adopt a system for unified communications. What factors should be considered? What are the key decisions that have to be made in determining whether to adopt this technology? Use the Web, if necessary, to find out more about unified communications and its costs.
Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software to Evaluate Wireless Services
Software skills: Spreadsheet formulas, formatting
Business skills: Analyzing telecommunications services and costs
In this project, you’ll use the Web to research alternative wireless services and use spreadsheet software to calculate wireless service costs for a sales force.
You would like to equip your sales force of 35 based in Cincinnati, Ohio, with mobile phones that have capabilities for voice transmission, text messaging, and taking and sending photos. Use the Web to select a wireless service provider that provides nationwide service as well as good service in your home area. Examine the features of the mobile handsets offered by each of these vendors. Assume that each of the 35 salespeople will need to spend three hours per day during business hours (8 a.m. to 6 p.m.) on mobile voice communication, send 30 text messages per day, and five photos per week. Use your spreadsheet software to determine the wireless service and handset that will offer the best pricing per user over a two-year period. For the purposes of this exercise, you do not need to consider corporate discounts.
Achieving Operational Excellence: Using Web Search Engines for Business Research
Software skills: Web search tools
Business skills: Researching new technologies
This project will help develop your Internet skills in using Web search engines for business research.
You want to learn more about ethanol as an alternative fuel for motor vehicles. Use the following search engines to obtain that information: Yahoo!, Google, and Bing. If you wish, try some other search engines as well. Compare the volume and quality of information you find with each search tool. Which tool is the easiest to use? Which produced the best results for your research? Why?
**Learning Track Modules**
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. Computing and Communications Services Provided by Commercial Communications Vendors
2. Broadband Network Services and Technologies
3. Cellular System Generations
4. WAP and I-Mode: Wireless Cellular Standards for Web Access
5. Wireless Applications for Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, and Health care
6. Web 2.0
1. **What are the principal components of telecommunications networks and key networking technologies?**
A simple network consists of two or more connected computers. Basic network components include computers, network interfaces, a connection medium, network operating system software, and either a hub or a switch. The networking infrastructure for a large company includes the traditional telephone system, mobile cellular communication, wireless local area networks, videoconferencing systems, a corporate Web site, intranets, extranets, and an array of local and wide area networks, including the Internet.
Contemporary networks have been shaped by the rise of client/server computing, the use of packet switching, and the adoption of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) as a universal communications standard for linking disparate networks and computers, including the Internet. Protocols provide a common set of rules that enable communication among diverse components in a telecommunications network.
2. **What are the main telecommunications transmission media and types of networks?**
The principal physical transmission media are twisted copper telephone wire, coaxial copper cable, fiber-optic cable, and wireless transmission. Twisted wire enables companies to use existing wiring for telephone systems for digital communication, although it is relatively slow. Fiber-optic and coaxial cable are used for high-volume transmission but are expensive to install. Microwave and communications satellites are used for wireless communication over long distances.
Local area networks (LANs) connect PCs and other digital devices together within a 500-meter radius and are used today for many corporate computing tasks. Network components may be connected together using a star, bus, or ring topology. Wide area networks (WANs) span broad geographical distances, ranging from several miles to continents, and are private networks that are independently managed. Metropolitan area networks (MANs) span a single urban area.
Digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies, cable Internet connections, and T1 lines are often used for high-capacity Internet connections.
Cable Internet connections provide high-speed access to the Web or corporate intranets at speeds of up to 10 Mbps. A T1 line supports a data transmission rate of 1.544 Mbps.
3. **How do the Internet and Internet technology work, and how do they support communication and e-business?**
The Internet is a worldwide network of networks that uses the client/server model of computing and the TCP/IP network reference model. Every computer on the Internet is assigned a unique numeric IP address. The Domain Name System (DNS) converts IP addresses to more user-friendly domain names. Worldwide Internet policies are established by organizations and government bodies, such as the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Major Internet services include e-mail, newsgroups, chatting, instant messaging, Telnet, FTP, and the Web. Web pages are based on Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and can display text, graphics, video, and audio. Web site directories, search engines, and RSS technology help users locate the information they need on the Web. RSS, blogs, social networking, and wikis are features of Web 2.0.
Firms are also starting to realize economies by using VoIP technology for voice transmission and by using virtual private networks (VPNs) as low-cost alternatives to private WANs.
4. **What are the principal technologies and standards for wireless networking, communication, and Internet access?**
Cellular networks are evolving toward high-speed, high-bandwidth, digital packet-switched transmission. Broadband 3G networks are capable of transmitting data at speeds ranging from 144 Kbps to more than 2 Mbps. 4G networks capable of transmission speeds that could reach 1 Gbps are starting to be rolled out.
Major cellular standards include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), which is used primarily in the United States, and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), which is the standard in Europe and much of the rest of the world.
Standards for wireless computer networks include Bluetooth (802.15) for small personal area networks (PANs), Wi-Fi (802.11) for local area networks (LANs), and WiMax (802.16) for metropolitan area networks (MANs).
5. **Why are radio frequency identification (RFID) and wireless sensor networks valuable for business?**
Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems provide a powerful technology for tracking the movement of goods by using tiny tags with embedded data about an item and its location. RFID readers read the radio signals transmitted by these tags and pass the data over a network to a computer for processing. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are networks of interconnected wireless sensing and transmitting devices that are embedded into the physical environment to provide measurements of many points over large spaces.
### Key Terms
| Term | Page |
|-------------------------------------------|------|
| 3G networks | 276 |
| 4G networks | 276 |
| Bandwidth | 257 |
| Blog | 273 |
| Blogosphere | 273 |
| Bluetooth | 276 |
| Broadband | 247 |
| Bus topology | 254 |
| Cable Internet connections | 258 |
| Cell phone | 257 |
| Chat | 263 |
| Coaxial cable | 255 |
| Digital subscriber line (DSL) | 258 |
| Domain name | 258 |
| Domain Name System (DNS) | 258 |
| E-mail | 263 |
| Fiber-optic cable | 255 |
| File Transfer Protocol (FTP) | 261 |
| Hertz | 257 |
| Hotspots | 278 |
| Hubs | 248 |
| HypertextTransfer Protocol (HTTP) | 269 |
| Instant messaging | 264 |
| Internet Protocol (IP) address | 258 |
| Internet service provider (ISP) | 257 |
| Internet2 | 261 |
| local area network (LAN) | 253 |
| Metropolitan-area network (MAN) | 200 |
| Microwave | 256 |
| Modem | 252 |
| Network interface card (NIC) | 248 |
| Network operating system (NOS) | 248 |
| Packet switching | 250 |
| Peer-to-peer | 254 |
| Personal-area networks (PANs) | 276 |
| Protocol | 251 |
| Radio frequency identification (RFID) | 279 |
| Ring topology | 254 |
| Router | 248 |
| RSS | 273 |
| Search engines | 270 |
| Search engine marketing | 270 |
| Search engine optimization (SEO) | 270 |
| Semantic Web | 274 |
| Shopping bots | 272 |
| Smartphones | 276 |
| Social networking | 274 |
| Star topology | 254 |
| Switch | 248 |
| T1 lines | 258 |
| Telnet | 261 |
| Topology | 254 |
| Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) | 251 |
| Twisted wire | 255 |
| Unified communications | 265 |
| Uniform resource locator (URL) | 269 |
| Virtual private network (VPN) | 268 |
| Voice over IP (VoIP) | 264 |
| Web 2.0 | 272 |
| Web 3.0 | 274 |
| Web site | 268 |
| Wide-area networks (WANs) | 254 |
| Wi-Fi | 277 |
| Wiki | 273 |
| WiMax | 279 |
| Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) | 281 |
Review Questions
1. What are the principal components of telecommunications networks and key networking technologies?
- Describe the features of a simple network and the network infrastructure for a large company.
- Name and describe the principal technologies and trends that have shaped contemporary telecommunications systems.
2. What are the main telecommunications transmission media and types of networks?
- Name the different types of physical transmission media and compare them in terms of speed and cost.
- Define a LAN, and describe its components and the functions of each component.
- Name and describe the principal network topologies.
3. How do the Internet and Internet technology work, and how do they support communication and e-business?
- Define the Internet, describe how it works, and explain how it provides business value.
- Explain how the Domain Name System (DNS) and IP addressing system work.
4. What are the principal technologies and standards for wireless networking, communications, and Internet access?
- Define Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMax, 3G and 4G networks.
- Describe the capabilities of each and for which types of applications each is best suited.
5. Why are RFID and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) valuable for business?
- Define RFID, explain how it works, and describe how it provides value to businesses.
- Define WSNs, explain how they work, and describe the kinds of applications that use them.
Discussion Questions
1. It has been said that within the next few years, smartphones will become the single most important digital device we own. Discuss the implications of this statement.
2. Should all major retailing and manufacturing companies switch to RFID? Why or why not?
3. Compare Wi-Fi and high-speed cellular systems for accessing the Internet. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Collaboration and Teamwork: Evaluating Smartphones
Form a group with three or four of your classmates. Compare the capabilities of Apple’s iPhone with a smartphone handset from another vendor with similar features. Your analysis should consider the purchase cost of each device, the wireless networks where each device can operate, service plan and handset costs, and the services available for each device.
You should also consider other capabilities of each device, including the ability to integrate with existing corporate or PC applications. Which device would you select? What criteria would you use to guide your selection? If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
In what looks like a college food fight, the three Internet titans—Google, Microsoft, and Apple—are in an epic struggle to dominate your Internet experience. What’s at stake is where you search, buy, find your music and videos, and what device you will use to do all these things. The prize is a projected 2015 $400 billion e-commerce marketplace where the major access device will be a mobile smartphone or tablet computer. Each firm generates extraordinary amounts of cash based on different business models. Each firm brings billions of dollars of spare cash to the fight.
In this triangular fight, at one point or another, each firm has befriended one of the other firms to combat the other firm. Two of the firms—Google and Apple—are determined to prevent Microsoft from expanding its dominance beyond the PC desktop. So Google and Apple are friends. But when it comes to mobile phones and apps, Goggle and Apple are enemies: each want to dominate the mobile market. Apple and Microsoft are determined to prevent Google from extending beyond its dominance in search and advertising. So Apple and Microsoft are friends. But when it comes to the mobile marketplace for devices and apps, Apple and Microsoft are enemies. Google and Microsoft are just plain enemies in a variety of battles. Google is trying to weaken Microsoft’s PC software dominance, and Microsoft is trying to break into the search advertising market with Bing.
Today the Internet, along with hardware devices and software applications, is going through a major expansion. Mobile devices with advanced functionality and ubiquitous Internet access are rapidly gaining on traditional desktop computing as the most popular form of computing, changing the basis for competition throughout the industry. Research firm Gartner predicts that by 2013, mobile phones will surpass PCs as the way most people access the Internet. Today, mobile devices account for 5 percent of all searches performed on the Internet; in 2016, they are expected to account for 23.5% of searches.
These mobile Internet devices are made possible by a growing cloud of computing capacity available to anyone with a smartphone and Internet connectivity. Who needs a desktop PC anymore when you can listen to music and watch videos 24/7? It’s no surprise, then, that today’s tech titans are so aggressively battling for control of this brave new mobile world.
Apple, Google, and Microsoft already compete in an assortment of fields. Google has a huge edge in advertising, thanks to its dominance in Internet search. Microsoft’s offering, Bing, has grown to about 10 percent of the search market, and the rest essentially belongs to Google. Apple is the leader in mobile software applications, thanks to the popularity of the App Store for its iPhones. Google and Microsoft have less popular app offerings on the Web.
Microsoft is still the leader in PC operating systems and desktop productivity software, but has failed miserably with smartphone hardware and software, mobile computing, cloud-based software apps, its Internet portal, and even its game machines and software. All contribute less than 5 percent to Microsoft’s revenue (the rest comes from Windows, Office, and network software). While Windows is still the operating system on 95 percent of the world’s 2 billion PCs, Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS are the dominant players in the mobile computing market. The companies also compete in music, Internet browsers, online video, and social networking.
For both Apple and Google, the most critical battleground is mobile computing. Apple has several advantages that will serve it well in the battle for mobile supremacy. It’s no coincidence that since the Internet exploded in size and popularity, so too did the company’s revenue, which totaled well over $40 billion in 2009. The iMac, iPod, and iPhone have all contributed to the company’s enormous success in the Internet era, and the company hopes that the iPad will follow the trend of profitability set by these products. Apple has a loyal user base that has steadily grown and is very likely to buy future product offerings. Apple is hopeful that the iPad will be as successful as the iPhone, which already accounts for over 30 percent of Apple’s revenue. So far, the iPad appears to be living up to this expectation.
Part of the reason for the popularity of the Apple iPhone, and for the optimism surrounding Internetequipped smartphones in general, has been the success of the App Store. A vibrant selection of applications (apps) distinguishes Apple’s offerings from its competitors’, and gives the company a measurable head start in this marketplace. Apple already offers over 250,000 apps for its devices, and Apple takes a 30% cut of all app sales. Apps greatly enrich the experience of using a mobile device, and without them, the predictions for the future of mobile Internet would not be nearly as bright. Whoever creates the most appealing set of devices and applications will derive a significant competitive advantage over rival companies. Right now, that company is Apple.
But the development of smartphones and mobile Internet is still in its infancy. Google has acted swiftly to enter the battle for mobile supremacy while it can still ‘win’, irreparably damaging its relationship with Apple, its former ally, in the process. As more people switch to mobile computing as their primary method for accessing the Internet, Google is aggressively following the eyeballs. Google is as strong as the size of its advertising network. With the impending shift towards mobile computing looming, it’s no certainty that it will be able to maintain its dominant position in search. That’s why the dominant online search company began developing a mobile operating system and its Nexus One entry into the smartphone marketplace. Google hopes to control its own destiny in an increasingly mobile world.
Google’s efforts to take on Apple began when it acquired Android, Inc., the developer of the mobile operating system of the same name. Google’s original goal was to counter Microsoft’s attempts to enter the mobile device market, but Microsoft was largely unsuccessful. Instead, Apple and Research In Motion, makers of the popular BlackBerry series of smartphones, filled the void. Google continued to develop Android, adding features that Apple’s offerings lacked, such as the ability to run multiple apps at once. After an initial series of blocky, unappealing prototypes, there are now Android-equipped phones that are functionally and aesthetically competitive with the iPhone. For example, the Motorola Droid was heavily advertised, using the slogan “Everything iDon’t…Droid Does.”
Google has been particularly aggressive with its entry into the mobile computing market because it is concerned about Apple’s preference for ‘closed’, proprietary standards on its phones. It would like smartphones to have open nonproprietary platforms where users can freely roam the Web and pull in apps that work on many different devices.
Apple believes devices such as smartphones and tablets should have proprietary standards and be tightly controlled, with customers using applications on these devices that have been downloaded from the its App Store. Thus Apple retains the final say over whether or not its mobile users can access various services on the Web, and that includes services provided by Google. Google doesn’t want Apple to be able to block it from providing its services on iPhones, or any other smartphone. A high-profile example of Apple’s desire to fend off Google occurred after Google attempted to place its voice mail management program, Google Voice, onto the iPhone. Apple cited privacy concerns in preventing Google’s effort.
Soon after, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from his post on Apple’s board of directors. Since Schmidt’s departure from Apple’s board, the two companies have been in an all-out war. They’ve battled over high-profile acquisitions, including mobile advertising firm AdMob, which was highly sought after by both companies. AdMob sells banner ads that appear inside mobile applications, and the company is on the cutting edge of developing new methods of mobile advertising. Apple was close to a deal with the start-up when Google swooped in and bought AdMob for $750 million in stock. Google doesn’t expect to earn anything close to that in returns from the deal, but it was willing to pay a premium to disrupt Apple’s mobile advertising effort.
Undeterred, Apple bought top competitor Quattro Wireless for $275 million in January 2010. It then shuttered the service in September of that year in favor of its own iAd advertising platform. iAd allows developers of the programs in Apple’s App Store for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch to embed ads in their software. Apple will sell the ads and give the app developers 60 percent of the ad revenue.
Apple has been more than willing to use similarly combative tactics to slow its competition down. Apple sued HTC, the Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer of Android-equipped phones, citing patent infringement. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has consistently bashed Google in the press, characterizing the company as a bully and questioning its ethics. Many analysts speculate that Apple may take a shot at Google by teaming up with a partner that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: Microsoft. News reports
suggest that Apple is considering striking a deal with Microsoft to make Bing its default search engine on both the iPhone and Apple’s Web browser. This would be a blow to Google, and a boon to Microsoft, which would receive a much needed boost to its fledgling search service.
The struggle between Apple and Google wouldn’t matter much if there wasn’t so much potential money at stake. Billions of dollars hang in the balance, and the majority of that money will come from advertising. App sales are another important component, especially for Apple. Apple has the edge in selection and quality of apps, but while sales have been brisk, developers have complained that making money is too difficult. A quarter of the 250,000 apps available in early 2010 were free, which makes no money for developers or for Apple but it does bring consumers to the Apple marketplace where they can be sold other apps or entertainment services.
Google in the meantime is moving aggressively to support manufacturers of handsets that run its Android operating system and can access its services online. Apple relies on sales of its devices to remain profitable. It has had no problems with this so far, but Google only needs to spread its advertising networks onto these devices to make a profit. In fact, some analysts speculate that Google envisions a future where mobile phones cost a fraction of what they do today, or are even free, requiring only the advertising revenue generated by the devices to turn a profit. Apple would struggle to remain competitive in this environment. Jobs has kept the Apple garden closed for a simple reason: you need an Apple device to play there.
The three-way struggle between Microsoft, Apple, and Google really has no precedent in the history of computing platforms. In early contests it was typically a single firm that rode the crest of a new technology to become the dominant player. Examples include IBM’s dominance of the mainframe market, Digital Equipment’s dominance of minicomputers, Microsoft’s dominance of PC operating systems and productivity applications, and Cisco Systems’ dominance of the Internet router market. In the current struggle are three firms trying to dominate the customer experience on the Internet. Each firm brings certain strengths and weaknesses to the fray. Will a single firm “win,” or will all three survive the contest for the consumer Internet experience? It’s still too early to tell.
**Sources:** Jennifer LeClaire, “Quattro Wireless to be Closed as Apple Focuses on iPad,” *Top Tech News*, August 20, 2010; Yukari Iwatani Kane and Emily Steel, “Apple Fights Rival Google on New Turf,” *The Wall Street Journal*, April 8, 2010; Brad Stone and Miguel Helft, “Apple’s Spat with Google Is Getting Personal,” *The New York Times*, March 12, 2010; Peter Burrows, “Apple vs. Google,” *BusinessWeek*, January 14, 2010; Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., “The Microsotting of Apple?”, *The Wall Street Journal*, February 10, 2010; Jessica E. Vascellaro and Ethan Smith, “Google and Microsoft Crank Up Rivalry,” *The Wall Street Journal*, October 21, 2009; Jessica E. Vascellaro and Don Clark, “Google Targets Microsoft’s Turf,” *The Wall Street Journal*, July 9, 2009; Miguel Helft, “Google Set to Acquire AdMob for $750 Million,” *The New York Times*, November 10, 2009; Jessica E. Vascellaro, “Google Rolls Out New Tools as it Battles Rival,” *The Wall Street Journal*, December 8, 2009; and Jessica E. Vascellaro and Yukari Iwatani Kane, “Apple, Google Rivalry Heats Up,” *The Wall Street Journal*, December 10, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. Compare the business models and areas of strength of Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
2. Why is mobile computing so important to these three firms? Evaluate the mobile platform offerings of each firm.
3. What is the significance of applications and app stores to the success or failure of mobile computing?
4. Which company and business model do you think will prevail in this epic struggle? Explain your answer.
5. What difference would it make to you as a manager or individual consumer if Apple, Google, or Microsoft dominated the Internet experience? Explain your answer.
Chapter 8
Securing Information Systems
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. Why are information systems vulnerable to destruction, error, and abuse?
2. What is the business value of security and control?
3. What are the components of an organizational framework for security and control?
4. What are the most important tools and technologies for safeguarding information resources?
Interactive Sessions:
When Antivirus Software Cripples Your Computers
How Secure Is the Cloud?
CHAPTER OUTLINE
8.1 SYSTEM VULNERABILITY AND ABUSE
Why Systems Are Vulnerable
Malicious Software: Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, and Spyware
Hackers and Computer Crime
Internal Threats: Employees
Software Vulnerability
8.2 BUSINESS VALUE OF SECURITY AND CONTROL
Legal and Regulatory Requirements for Electronic Records Management
Electronic Evidence and Computer Forensics
8.3 ESTABLISHING A FRAMEWORK FOR SECURITY AND CONTROL
Information Systems Controls
Risk Assessment
Security Policy
Disaster Recovery Planning and Business Continuity Planning
The Role of Auditing
8.4 TECHNOLOGIES AND TOOLS FOR PROTECTING INFORMATION RESOURCES
Identity Management and Authentication
Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, and Antivirus Software
Securing Wireless Networks
Encryption and Public Key Infrastructure
Ensuring System Availability
Security Issues for Cloud Computing and the Mobile Digital Platform
Ensuring Software Quality
8.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software to Perform a Security Risk Assessment
Improving Decision Making: Evaluating Security Outsourcing Services
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
The Booming Job Market in IT Security
The Sarbanes Oxley Act
Computer Forensics
General and Application Controls for Information Systems
Management Challenges of Security and Control
Facebook is the world’s largest online social network, and increasingly, the destination of choice for messaging friends, sharing photos and videos, and collecting “eyeballs” for business advertising and market research. But, watch out! It’s also a great place for losing your identity or being attacked by malicious software.
How could that be? Facebook has a security team that works hard to counter threats on that site. It uses up-to-date security technology to protect its Web site. But with 500 million users, it can’t police everyone and everything. And Facebook makes an extraordinarily tempting target for both mischief-makers and criminals.
Facebook has a huge worldwide user base, an easy-to-use Web site, and a community of users linked to their friends. Its members are more likely to trust messages they receive from friends, even if this communication is not legitimate. Perhaps for these reasons, research from the Kaspersky Labs security firm shows malicious software on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace is 10 times more successful at infecting users than e-mail-based attacks. Moreover, IT security firm Sophos reported on February 1, 2010, that Facebook poses the greatest security risk of all the social networking sites.
Here are some examples of what can go wrong:
According to a February 2010 report from Internet security company NetWitness, Facebook served as the primary delivery method for an 18-month-long hacker attack in which Facebook users were tricked into revealing their passwords and downloading a rogue program that steals financial data. A legitimate-looking Facebook e-mail notice asked users to provide information to help the social network update its login system. When the user clicked the “update” button in the e-mail, that person was directed to a bogus Facebook login screen where the user’s name was filled in and that person was prompted to provide his or her password. Once the user supplied that information, an “Update Tool,” installed the Zeus “Trojan horse” rogue software program designed to steal financial and personal data by surreptitiously tracking users’ keystrokes as they enter information into their computers. The hackers, most likely an Eastern European criminal group, stole as many as 68,000 login credentials from 2,400 companies and government agencies for online banking, social networking sites, and e-mail.
The Koobface worm targets Microsoft Windows users of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking Web sites in order to gather sensitive information from the victims such as credit card numbers. Koobface was first detected in December 2008. It spreads by delivering bogus Facebook messages to people who are “friends” of a Facebook user whose computer has already been infected. Upon receipt, the message directs the recipients to a third-party Web site, where they are prompted to download what is purported to be an update of the Adobe Flash player. If they download and execute the file, Koobface is able to infect their system and use the computer for more malicious work.
For much of May 2010, Facebook members and their
friends were victims of a spam campaign that tries to e-mail unsolicited advertisements and steal Facebook users’ login credentials. The attack starts with a message containing a link to a bogus Web page sent by infected users to all of their friends. The message addresses each friend by name and invites that person to click on a link to “the most hilarious video ever.” The link transports the user to a rogue Web site mimicking the Facebook login form. When users try to log in, the page redirects back to a Facebook application page that installs illicit adware software, which bombards their computers with all sorts of unwanted ads.
Recovering from these attacks is time-consuming and costly, especially for business firms. A September 2010 study by Panda Security found that one-third of small and medium businesses it surveyed had been hit by malicious software from social networks, and more than a third of these suffered more than $5,000 in losses. Of course, for large businesses, losses from Facebook are much greater.
Sources: Lance Whitney, “Social-Media Malware Hurting Small Businesses,” CNET News, September 15, 2010; Raj Dash, “Report: Facebook Served as Primary Distribution Channel for Botnet Army,” allfacebook.com, February 18, 2010; Sam Diaz, “Report: Bad Guys Go Social: Facebook Tops Security Risk List,” ZDNet, February 1, 2010; Lucian Constantin, “Weekend Adware Scam Returns to Facebook,” Softpedia, May 29, 2010; Brad Stone, “Viruses that Leave Victims Red in the Facebook,” The New York Times, December 14, 2009; and Brian Prince, “Social Networks 10 Times as Effective for Hackers, Malware,” eWeek, May 13, 2009.
The problems created by malicious software on Facebook illustrate some of the reasons why businesses need to pay special attention to information system security. Facebook provides a plethora of benefits to both individuals and businesses. But from a security standpoint, using Facebook is one of the easiest ways to expose a computer system to malicious software—your computer, your friends’ computers, and even the computers of Facebook-participating businesses.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Although Facebook’s management has a security policy and security team in place, Facebook has been plagued with many security problems that affect both individuals and businesses. The “social” nature of this site and large number of users make it unusually attractive for criminals and hackers intent on stealing valuable personal and financial information and propagating malicious software. Even though Facebook and its users deploy security technology, they are still vulnerable to new kinds of malicious software attacks and criminal scams. In addition to losses from theft of financial data, the difficulties of eradicating the malicious software or repairing damage caused by identity theft add to operational costs and make both individuals and businesses less effective.
8.1 SYSTEM VULNERABILITY AND ABUSE
Can you imagine what would happen if you tried to link to the Internet without a firewall or antivirus software? Your computer would be disabled in a few seconds, and it might take you many days to recover. If you used the computer to run your business, you might not be able to sell to your customers or place orders with your suppliers while it was down. And you might find that your computer system had been penetrated by outsiders, who perhaps stole or destroyed valuable data, including confidential payment data from your customers. If too much data were destroyed or divulged, your business might never be able to operate!
In short, if you operate a business today, you need to make security and control a top priority. **Security** refers to the policies, procedures, and technical measures used to prevent unauthorized access, alteration, theft, or physical damage to information systems. **Controls** are methods, policies, and organizational procedures that ensure the safety of the organization’s assets; the accuracy and reliability of its records; and operational adherence to management standards.
**WHY SYSTEMS ARE VULNERABLE**
When large amounts of data are stored in electronic form, they are vulnerable to many more kinds of threats than when they existed in manual form. Through communications networks, information systems in different locations are interconnected. The potential for unauthorized access, abuse, or fraud is not limited to a single location but can occur at any access point in the network. Figure 8-1 illustrates the most common threats against contemporary information systems. They can stem from technical, organizational, and environmental factors compounded by poor management decisions. In the multi-tier client/server computing environment illustrated here, vulnerabilities exist at each layer and in the communications between the layers. Users at the client layer can cause harm by introducing errors or by accessing systems without
**FIGURE 8-1 CONTEMPORARY SECURITY CHALLENGES AND VULNERABILITIES**
The architecture of a Web-based application typically includes a Web client, a server, and corporate information systems linked to databases. Each of these components presents security challenges and vulnerabilities. Floods, fires, power failures, and other electrical problems can cause disruptions at any point in the network.
authorization. It is possible to access data flowing over networks, steal valuable data during transmission, or alter messages without authorization. Radiation may disrupt a network at various points as well. Intruders can launch denial-of-service attacks or malicious software to disrupt the operation of Web sites. Those capable of penetrating corporate systems can destroy or alter corporate data stored in databases or files.
Systems malfunction if computer hardware breaks down, is not configured properly, or is damaged by improper use or criminal acts. Errors in programming, improper installation, or unauthorized changes cause computer software to fail. Power failures, floods, fires, or other natural disasters can also disrupt computer systems.
Domestic or offshore partnering with another company adds to system vulnerability if valuable information resides on networks and computers outside the organization’s control. Without strong safeguards, valuable data could be lost, destroyed, or could fall into the wrong hands, revealing important trade secrets or information that violates personal privacy.
The popularity of handheld mobile devices for business computing adds to these woes. Portability makes cell phones, smartphones, and tablet computers easy to lose or steal. Smartphones share the same security weaknesses as other Internet devices, and are vulnerable to malicious software and penetration from outsiders. In 2009, security experts identified 30 security flaws in software and operating systems of smartphones made by Apple, Nokia, and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.
Even the apps that have been custom-developed for mobile devices are capable of turning into rogue software. For example, in December 2009, Google pulled dozens of mobile banking apps from its Android Market because they could have been updated to capture customers’ banking credentials. Smartphones used by corporate executives may contain sensitive data such as sales figures, customer names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. Intruders may be able to access internal corporate networks through these devices.
**Internet Vulnerabilities**
Large public networks, such as the Internet, are more vulnerable than internal networks because they are virtually open to anyone. The Internet is so huge that when abuses do occur, they can have an enormously widespread impact. When the Internet becomes part of the corporate network, the organization’s information systems are even more vulnerable to actions from outsiders.
Computers that are constantly connected to the Internet by cable modems or digital subscriber line (DSL) lines are more open to penetration by outsiders because they use fixed Internet addresses where they can be easily identified. (With dial-up service, a temporary Internet address is assigned for each session.) A fixed Internet address creates a fixed target for hackers.
Telephone service based on Internet technology (see Chapter 7) is more vulnerable than the switched voice network if it does not run over a secure private network. Most Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic over the public Internet is not encrypted, so anyone with a network can listen in on conversations. Hackers can intercept conversations or shut down voice service by flooding servers supporting VoIP with bogus traffic.
Vulnerability has also increased from widespread use of e-mail, instant messaging (IM), and peer-to-peer file-sharing programs. E-mail may contain attachments that serve as springboards for malicious software or unauthorized access to internal corporate systems. Employees may use e-mail messages to transmit valuable trade secrets, financial data, or confidential customer information to unauthorized recipients. Popular IM applications for consumers do not use a secure layer for text messages, so they can be intercepted and read by outsiders during transmission over the public Internet. Instant messaging activity over the Internet can in some cases be used as a back door to an otherwise secure network. Sharing files over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, such as those for illegal music sharing, may also transmit malicious software or expose information on either individual or corporate computers to outsiders.
**Wireless Security Challenges**
Is it safe to log onto a wireless network at an airport, library, or other public location? It depends on how vigilant you are. Even the wireless network in your home is vulnerable because radio frequency bands are easy to scan. Both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks are susceptible to hacking by eavesdroppers. Although the range of Wi-Fi networks is only several hundred feet, it can be extended up to one-fourth of a mile using external antennae. Local area networks (LANs) using the 802.11 standard can be easily penetrated by outsiders armed with laptops, wireless cards, external antennae, and hacking software. Hackers use these tools to detect unprotected networks, monitor network traffic, and, in some cases, gain access to the Internet or to corporate networks.
Wi-Fi transmission technology was designed to make it easy for stations to find and hear one another. The *service set identifiers* (SSIDs) identifying the access points in a Wi-Fi network are broadcast multiple times and can be picked up fairly easily by intruders' sniffer programs (see Figure 8-2). Wireless networks in many locations do not have basic protections against **war driving**,
in which eavesdroppers drive by buildings or park outside and try to intercept wireless network traffic.
A hacker can employ an 802.11 analysis tool to identify the SSID. (Windows XP, Vista, and 7 have capabilities for detecting the SSID used in a network and automatically configuring the radio NIC within the user's device.) An intruder that has associated with an access point by using the correct SSID is capable of accessing other resources on the network, using the Windows operating system to determine which other users are connected to the network, access their computer hard drives, and open or copy their files.
Intruders also use the information they have gleaned to set up rogue access points on a different radio channel in physical locations close to users to force a user's radio NIC to associate with the rogue access point. Once this association occurs, hackers using the rogue access point can capture the names and passwords of unsuspecting users.
The initial security standard developed for Wi-Fi, called Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), is not very effective. WEP is built into all standard 802.11 products, but its use is optional. Many users neglect to use WEP security features, leaving them unprotected. The basic WEP specification calls for an access point and all of its users to share the same 40-bit encrypted password, which can be easily decrypted by hackers from a small amount of traffic. Stronger encryption and authentication systems are now available, such as Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2), but users must be willing to install them.
**MALICIOUS SOFTWARE: VIRUSES, WORMS, TROJAN HORSES, AND SPYWARE**
Malicious software programs are referred to as **malware** and include a variety of threats, such as computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. A **computer virus** is a rogue software program that attaches itself to other software programs or data files in order to be executed, usually without user knowledge or permission. Most computer viruses deliver a “payload.” The payload may be relatively benign, such as the instructions to display a message or image, or it may be highly destructive—destroying programs or data, clogging computer memory, reformatting a computer’s hard drive, or causing programs to run improperly. Viruses typically spread from computer to computer when humans take an action, such as sending an e-mail attachment or copying an infected file.
Most recent attacks have come from **worms**, which are independent computer programs that copy themselves from one computer to other computers over a network. (Unlike viruses, they can operate on their own without attaching to other computer program files and rely less on human behavior in order to spread from computer to computer. This explains why computer worms spread much more rapidly than computer viruses.) Worms destroy data and programs as well as disrupt or even halt the operation of computer networks.
Worms and viruses are often spread over the Internet from files of downloaded software, from files attached to e-mail transmissions, or from compromised e-mail messages or instant messaging. Viruses have also invaded computerized information systems from “infected” disks or infected machines. E-mail worms are currently the most problematic.
Malware targeting mobile devices is not as extensive as that targeting computers, but is spreading nonetheless using e-mail, text messages, Bluetooth,
and file downloads from the Web via Wi-Fi or cellular networks. There are now more than 200 viruses and worms targeting mobile phones, such as Cabir, Commwarrior, Frontal.A, and Ikee.B. Frontal.A installs a corrupted file that causes phone failure and prevents the user from rebooting, while Ikee.B turns jailbroken iPhones into botnet-controlled devices. Mobile device viruses pose serious threats to enterprise computing because so many wireless devices are now linked to corporate information systems.
Web 2.0 applications, such as blogs, wikis, and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, have emerged as new conduits for malware or spyware. These applications allow users to post software code as part of the permissible content, and such code can be launched automatically as soon as a Web page is viewed. The chapter-opening case study describes other channels for malware targeting Facebook. In September 2010, hackers exploited a Twitter security flaw to send users to Japanese pornographic sites and automatically generated messages from other accounts (Coopees, 2010).
Table 8-1 describes the characteristics of some of the most harmful worms and viruses that have appeared to date.
Over the past decade, worms and viruses have caused billions of dollars of damage to corporate networks, e-mail systems, and data. According to Consumer Reports' State of the Net 2010 survey, U.S. consumers lost $3.5 billion
### Table 8-1 Examples of Malicious Code
| Name | Type | Description |
|-----------------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Conficker (aka Downadup, | Worm | First detected in November 2008. Uses flaws in Windows software to take over machines and link them into a virtual computer that can be commanded remotely. Has more than 5 million computers worldwide under its control. Difficult to eradicate. |
| Downup) | | |
| Storm | Worm/Trojan horse | First identified in January 2007. Spreads via e-mail spam with a fake attachment. Infected up to 10 million computers, causing them to join its zombie network of computers engaged in criminal activity. |
| Sasser.ftp | Worm | First appeared in May 2004. Spread over the Internet by attacking random IP addresses. Causes computers to continually crash and reboot, and infected computers to search for more victims. Affected millions of computers worldwide, disrupting British Airways flight check-ins, operations of British coast guard stations, Hong Kong hospitals, Taiwan post office branches, and Australia’s Westpac Bank. Sasser and its variants caused an estimated $14.8 billion to $18.6 billion in damages worldwide. |
| MyDoom.A | Worm | First appeared on January 26, 2004. Spreads as an e-mail attachment. Sends e-mail to addresses harvested from infected machines, forging the sender’s address. At its peak this worm lowered global Internet performance by 10 percent and Web page loading times by as much as 50 percent. Was programmed to stop spreading after February 12, 2004. |
| Sobig.F | Worm | First detected on August 19, 2003. Spreads via e-mail attachments and sends massive amounts of mail with forged sender information. Deactivated itself on September 10, 2003, after infecting more than 1 million PCs and doing $5 to $10 billion in damage. |
| ILOVEYOU | Virus | First detected on May 3, 2000. Script virus written in Visual Basic script and transmitted as an attachment to e-mail with the subject line ILOVEYOU. Overwrites music, image, and other files with a copy of itself and did an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion in damage. |
| Melissa | Macro virus/worm | First appeared in March 1999. Word macro script mailing infected Word file to first 50 entries in user’s Microsoft Outlook address book. Infected 15 to 29 percent of all business PCs, causing $300 million to $600 million in damage. |
because of malware and online scams, and the majority of these losses came from malware (Consumer Reports, 2010).
A **Trojan horse** is a software program that appears to be benign but then does something other than expected, such as the Zeus Trojan described in the chapter-opening case. The Trojan horse is not itself a virus because it does not replicate, but it is often a way for viruses or other malicious code to be introduced into a computer system. The term *Trojan horse* is based on the huge wooden horse used by the Greeks to trick the Trojans into opening the gates to their fortified city during the *Trojan War*. Once inside the city walls, Greek soldiers hidden in the horse revealed themselves and captured the city.
At the moment, **SQL injection attacks** are the largest malware threat. SQL injection attacks take advantage of vulnerabilities in poorly coded Web application software to introduce malicious program code into a company's systems and networks. These vulnerabilities occur when a Web application fails to properly validate or filter data entered by a user on a Web page, which might occur when ordering something online. An attacker uses this input validation error to send a rogue SQL query to the underlying database to access the database, plant malicious code, or access other systems on the network. Large Web applications have hundreds of places for inputting user data, each of which creates an opportunity for an SQL injection attack.
A large number of Web-facing applications are believed to have SQL injection vulnerabilities, and tools are available for hackers to check Web applications for these vulnerabilities. Such tools are able to locate a data entry field on a Web page form, enter data into it, and check the response to see if shows vulnerability to a SQL injection.
Some types of spyware also act as malicious software. These small programs install themselves surreptitiously on computers to monitor user Web surfing activity and serve up advertising. Thousands of forms of spyware have been documented.
Many users find such **spyware** annoying and some critics worry about its infringement on computer users' privacy. Some forms of spyware are especially nefarious. **Keyloggers** record every keystroke made on a computer to steal serial numbers for software, to launch Internet attacks, to gain access to e-mail accounts, to obtain passwords to protected computer systems, or to pick up personal information such as credit card numbers. Other spyware programs reset Web browser home pages, redirect search requests, or slow performance by taking up too much memory. The Zeus Trojan described in the chapter-opening case uses keylogging to steal financial information.
### Hackers and Computer Crime
A **hacker** is an individual who intends to gain unauthorized access to a computer system. Within the hacking community, the term *cracker* is typically used to denote a hacker with criminal intent, although in the public press, the terms hacker and cracker are used interchangeably. Hackers and crackers gain unauthorized access by finding weaknesses in the security protections employed by Web sites and computer systems, often taking advantage of various features of the Internet that make it an open system that is easy to use.
Hacker activities have broadened beyond mere system intrusion to include theft of goods and information, as well as system damage and **cybervandalism**, the intentional disruption, defacement, or even destruction of a Web site or corporate information system. For example, cybervandals have turned many of the MySpace “group” sites, which are dedicated to interests such as home beer
brewing or animal welfare, into cyber-graffiti walls, filled with offensive comments and photographs.
**Spoofing and Sniffing**
Hackers attempting to hide their true identities often spoof, or misrepresent, themselves by using fake e-mail addresses or masquerading as someone else. **Spoofing** also may involve redirecting a Web link to an address different from the intended one, with the site masquerading as the intended destination. For example, if hackers redirect customers to a fake Web site that looks almost exactly like the true site, they can then collect and process orders, effectively stealing business as well as sensitive customer information from the true site. We provide more detail on other forms of spoofing in our discussion of computer crime.
A **sniffer** is a type of eavesdropping program that monitors information traveling over a network. When used legitimately, sniffers help identify potential network trouble spots or criminal activity on networks, but when used for criminal purposes, they can be damaging and very difficult to detect. Sniffers enable hackers to steal proprietary information from anywhere on a network, including e-mail messages, company files, and confidential reports.
**Denial-of-Service Attacks**
In a **denial-of-service (DoS) attack**, hackers flood a network server or Web server with many thousands of false communications or requests for services to crash the network. The network receives so many queries that it cannot keep up with them and is thus unavailable to service legitimate requests. A **distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)** attack uses numerous computers to inundate and overwhelm the network from numerous launch points.
For example, during the 2009 Iranian election protests, foreign activists trying to help the opposition engaged in DDoS attacks against Iran's government. The official Web site of the Iranian government (ahmadinejad.ir) was rendered inaccessible on several occasions.
Although DoS attacks do not destroy information or access restricted areas of a company's information systems, they often cause a Web site to shut down, making it impossible for legitimate users to access the site. For busy e-commerce sites, these attacks are costly; while the site is shut down, customers cannot make purchases. Especially vulnerable are small and midsize businesses whose networks tend to be less protected than those of large corporations.
Perpetrators of DoS attacks often use thousands of "zombie" PCs infected with malicious software without their owners' knowledge and organized into a **botnet**. Hackers create these botnets by infecting other people's computers with bot malware that opens a back door through which an attacker can give instructions. The infected computer then becomes a slave, or zombie, serving a master computer belonging to someone else. Once a hacker infects enough computers, her or she can use the amassed resources of the botnet to launch DDos attacks, phishing campaigns, or unsolicited "spam" e-mail.
The number of computers that are part of botnets is variously estimated to be from 6 to 24 million, with thousands of botnets operating worldwide. The largest botnet attack in 2010 was the Mariposa botnet, which started in Spain and spread across the world. Mariposa had infected and controlled about 12.7 million computers in its efforts to steal credit card numbers and online banking passwords. More than half the Fortune 1000 companies, 40 major banks, and numerous government agencies were infected—and did not know it.
The chapter-ending case study describes multiple waves of DDoS attacks targeting a number of Web sites of government agencies and other organizations in South Korea and the United States in July 2009. The attacker used a botnet controlling over 65,000 computers, and was able to cripple some of these sites for several days. Most of the botnet originated from China, and North Korea. Botnet attacks thought to have originated in Russia were responsible for crippling the Web sites of the Estonian government in April 2007 and the Georgian government in July 2008.
**Computer Crime**
Most hacker activities are criminal offenses, and the vulnerabilities of systems we have just described make them targets for other types of **computer crime** as well. For example, in early July 2009, U.S. federal agents arrested Sergey Aleynikov, a computer programmer at investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, for stealing proprietary computer programs used in making lucrative rapid-fire trades in the financial markets. The software brought Goldman many millions of dollars of profits per year and, in the wrong hands, could have been used to manipulate financial markets in unfair ways. Computer crime is defined by the U.S. Department of Justice as “any violations of criminal law that involve a knowledge of computer technology for their perpetration, investigation, or prosecution.” Table 8-2 provides examples of the computer as a target of crime and as an instrument of crime.
No one knows the magnitude of the computer crime problem—how many systems are invaded, how many people engage in the practice, or the total economic damage. According to the 2009 CSI Computer Crime and Security Survey of 500 companies, participants’ average annual loss from computer crime and security attacks was close to $234,000 (Computer Security Institute, 2009). Many companies are reluctant to report computer crimes because the crimes may involve employees, or the company fears that publicizing its vulnerability will hurt its reputation. The most economically damaging kinds of computer crime are
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**TABLE 8-2 EXAMPLES OF COMPUTER CRIME**
**COMPUTERS AS TARGETS OF CRIME**
- Breaching the confidentiality of protected computerized data
- Accessing a computer system without authority
- Knowingly accessing a protected computer to commit fraud
- Intentionally accessing a protected computer and causing damage, negligently or deliberately
- Knowingly transmitting a program, program code, or command that intentionally causes damage to a protected computer
- Threatening to cause damage to a protected computer
**COMPUTERS AS INSTRUMENTS OF CRIME**
- Theft of trade secrets
- Unauthorized copying of software or copyrighted intellectual property, such as articles, books, music, and video
- Schemes to defraud
- Using e-mail for threats or harassment
- Intentionally attempting to intercept electronic communication
- Illegally accessing stored electronic communications, including e-mail and voice mail
- Transmitting or possessing child pornography using a computer
DoS attacks, introducing viruses, theft of services, and disruption of computer systems.
**Identity Theft**
With the growth of the Internet and electronic commerce, identity theft has become especially troubling. **Identity theft** is a crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of personal information, such as social security identification numbers, driver’s license numbers, or credit card numbers, to impersonate someone else. The information may be used to obtain credit, merchandise, or services in the name of the victim or to provide the thief with false credentials. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, losses from identity theft rose to $54 billion in 2009, and over 11 million U.S. adults were victims of identity fraud (Javelin Strategy & Research, 2010).
Identity theft has flourished on the Internet, with credit card files a major target of Web site hackers. Moreover, e-commerce sites are wonderful sources of customer personal information—name, address, and phone number. Armed with this information, criminals are able to assume new identities and establish new credit for their own purposes.
One increasingly popular tactic is a form of spoofing called **phishing**. Phishing involves setting up fake Web sites or sending e-mail or text messages that look like those of legitimate businesses to ask users for confidential personal data. The message instructs recipients to update or confirm records by providing social security numbers, bank and credit card information, and other confidential data either by responding to the e-mail message, by entering the information at a bogus Web site, or by calling a telephone number. EBay, PayPal, Amazon.com, Walmart, and a variety of banks, are among the top spoofed companies.
New phishing techniques called evil twins and pharming are harder to detect. **Evil twins** are wireless networks that pretend to offer trustworthy Wi-Fi connections to the Internet, such as those in airport lounges, hotels, or coffee shops. The bogus network looks identical to a legitimate public network. Fraudsters try to capture passwords or credit card numbers of unwitting users who log on to the network.
**Pharming** redirects users to a bogus Web page, even when the individual types the correct Web page address into his or her browser. This is possible if pharming perpetrators gain access to the Internet address information stored by Internet service providers to speed up Web browsing and the ISP companies have flawed software on their servers that allows the fraudsters to hack in and change those addresses.
In the largest instance of identity theft to date, Alberto Gonzalez of Miami and two Russian co-conspirators penetrated the corporate systems of TJX Corporation, Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven, and other major retailers, stealing over 160 million credit and debit card numbers between 2005 and 2008. The group initially planted “sniffer” programs in these companies’ computer networks that captured card data as they were being transmitted between computer systems. They later switched to SQL injection attacks, which we introduced earlier in this chapter, to penetrate corporate databases. In March 2010, Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years in prison. TJX alone spent over $200 million to deal with its data theft, including legal settlements.
The U.S. Congress addressed the threat of computer crime in 1986 with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This act makes it illegal to access a computer system without authorization. Most states have similar laws, and nations in Europe have comparable legislation. Congress also passed the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act in 1996 to make virus distribution
and hacker attacks that disable Web sites federal crimes. U.S. legislation, such as the Wiretap Act, Wire Fraud Act, Economic Espionage Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, E-mail Threats and Harassment Act, and Child Pornography Act, covers computer crimes involving intercepting electronic communication, using electronic communication to defraud, stealing trade secrets, illegally accessing stored electronic communications, using e-mail for threats or harassment, and transmitting or possessing child pornography.
**Click Fraud**
When you click on an ad displayed by a search engine, the advertiser typically pays a fee for each click, which is supposed to direct potential buyers to its products. **Click fraud** occurs when an individual or computer program fraudulently clicks on an online ad without any intention of learning more about the advertiser or making a purchase. Click fraud has become a serious problem at Google and other Web sites that feature pay-per-click online advertising.
Some companies hire third parties (typically from low-wage countries) to fraudulently click on a competitor’s ads to weaken them by driving up their marketing costs. Click fraud can also be perpetrated with software programs doing the clicking, and botnets are often used for this purpose. Search engines such as Google attempt to monitor click fraud but have been reluctant to publicize their efforts to deal with the problem.
**Global Threats: Cyberterrorism and Cyberwarfare**
The cybercriminal activities we have described—launching malware, denial-of-service attacks, and phishing probes—are borderless. Computer security firm Sophos reported that 42 percent of the malware it identified in early 2010 originated in the United States, while 11 percent came from China, and 6 percent from Russia (Sophos, 2010). The global nature of the Internet makes it possible for cybercriminals to operate—and to do harm—anywhere in the world.
Concern is mounting that the vulnerabilities of the Internet or other networks make digital networks easy targets for digital attacks by terrorists, foreign intelligence services, or other groups seeking to create widespread disruption and harm. Such cyberattacks might target the software that runs electrical power grids, air traffic control systems, or networks of major banks and financial institutions. At least 20 countries, including China, are believed to be developing offensive and defensive cyberwarfare capabilities. The chapter-ending case study discusses this problem in greater detail.
**INTERNAL THREATS: EMPLOYEES**
We tend to think the security threats to a business originate outside the organization. In fact, company insiders pose serious security problems. Employees have access to privileged information, and in the presence of sloppy internal security procedures, they are often able to roam throughout an organization’s systems without leaving a trace.
Studies have found that user lack of knowledge is the single greatest cause of network security breaches. Many employees forget their passwords to access computer systems or allow co-workers to use them, which compromises the system. Malicious intruders seeking system access sometimes trick employees into revealing their passwords by pretending to be legitimate members of the company in need of information. This practice is called **social engineering**.
Both end users and information systems specialists are also a major source of errors introduced into information systems. End users introduce errors by
entering faulty data or by not following the proper instructions for processing data and using computer equipment. Information systems specialists may create software errors as they design and develop new software or maintain existing programs.
**SOFTWARE VULNERABILITY**
Software errors pose a constant threat to information systems, causing untold losses in productivity. Growing complexity and size of software programs, coupled with demands for timely delivery to markets, have contributed to an increase in software flaws or vulnerabilities. For example, a database-related software error prevented millions of JP Morgan Chase retail and small-business customers from accessing their online bank accounts for two days in September 2010 (Dash, 2010).
A major problem with software is the presence of hidden **bugs** or program code defects. Studies have shown that it is virtually impossible to eliminate all bugs from large programs. The main source of bugs is the complexity of decision-making code. A relatively small program of several hundred lines will contain tens of decisions leading to hundreds or even thousands of different paths. Important programs within most corporations are usually much larger, containing tens of thousands or even millions of lines of code, each with many times the choices and paths of the smaller programs.
Zero defects cannot be achieved in larger programs. Complete testing simply is not possible. Fully testing programs that contain thousands of choices and millions of paths would require thousands of years. Even with rigorous testing, you would not know for sure that a piece of software was dependable until the product proved itself after much operational use.
Flaws in commercial software not only impede performance but also create security vulnerabilities that open networks to intruders. Each year security firms identify thousands of software vulnerabilities in Internet and PC software. For instance, in 2009, Symantec identified 384 browser vulnerabilities: 169 in Firefox, 94 in Safari, 45 in Internet Explorer, 41 in Chrome, and 25 in Opera. Some of these vulnerabilities were critical (Symantec, 2010).
To correct software flaws once they are identified, the software vendor creates small pieces of software called **patches** to repair the flaws without disturbing the proper operation of the software. An example is Microsoft’s Windows Vista Service Pack 2, released in April 2009, which includes some security enhancements to counter malware and hackers. It is up to users of the software to track these vulnerabilities, test, and apply all patches. This process is called **patch management**.
Because a company’s IT infrastructure is typically laden with multiple business applications, operating system installations, and other system services, maintaining patches on all devices and services used by a company is often time-consuming and costly. Malware is being created so rapidly that companies have very little time to respond between the time a vulnerability and a patch are announced and the time malicious software appears to exploit the vulnerability.
The need to respond so rapidly to the torrent of security vulnerabilities even creates defects in the software meant to combat them, including popular antivirus products. What happened in the spring of 2010 to McAfee, a leading vendor of commercial antivirus software is an example, as discussed in the Interactive Session on Management.
McAfee is a prominent antivirus software and computer security company based in Santa Clara, California. Its popular VirusScan product (now named AntiVirus Plus) is used by companies and individual consumers across the world, driving its revenues of $1.93 billion in 2009.
A truly global company, McAfee has over 6,000 employees across North America, Europe, and Asia. VirusScan and other McAfee security products address endpoint security, network security, and risk and compliance. The company has worked to compile a long track record of good customer service and strong quality assurance.
At 6 a.m. PDT April 21, 2010, McAfee made a blunder that threatened to destroy that track record and prompted the possible departure of hundreds of valued customers. McAfee released what should have been a routine update for its flagship VirusScan product that was intended to deal with a powerful new virus known as ‘W32/wecorl.a’. Instead, McAfee’s update caused potentially hundreds of thousands of McAfee-equipped machines running Windows XP to crash and fail to reboot. How could McAfee, a company whose focus is saving and preserving computers, commit a gaffe that accomplished the opposite for a significant portion of its client base?
That was the question McAfee’s angry clients were asking on the morning of April 21, when their computers were crippled or totally non-functional. The updates mistakenly targeted a critical Windows file, svchost.exe, which hosts other services used by various programs on PCs. Usually, more than one instance of the process is running at any given time, and eliminating them all would cripple any system. Though many viruses, including W32/wecorl.a, disguise themselves using the name svchost.exe to avoid detection, McAfee had never had problems with viruses using that technique before.
To make matters worse, without svchost.exe, Windows computers can’t boot properly. VirusScan users applied the update, tried rebooting their systems, and were powerless to act as their systems went haywire, repeatedly rebooting, losing their network capabilities and, worst of all, their ability to detect USB drives, which is the only way of fixing affected computers. Companies using McAfee and that relied heavily on Windows XP computers struggled to cope with the majority of their machines suddenly failing.
Angry network administrators turned to McAfee for answers, and the company was initially just as confused as its clients regarding how such a monumental slipup could occur. Soon, McAfee determined that the majority of affected machines were using Windows XP Service Pack 3 combined with McAfee VirusScan version 8.7. They also noted that the “Scan Processes on enable” option of VirusScan, off by default in most VirusScan installations, was turned on in the majority of affected computers.
McAfee conducted a more thorough investigation into its mistake and published a FAQ sheet that explained more completely why they had made such a big mistake and which customers were affected. The two most prominent points of failure were as follows: first, users should have received a warning that svchost.exe was going to be quarantined or deleted, instead of automatically disposing of the file. Next, McAfee’s automated quality assurance testing failed to detect such a critical error because of what the company called “inadequate coverage of product and operating systems in the test systems used.”
The only way tech support staffs working in organizations could fix the problem was to go from computer to computer manually. McAfee released a utility called “SuperDAT Remediation Tool,” which had to be downloaded to an unaffected machine, placed on a flash drive, and run in Windows Safe Mode on affected machines. Because affected computers lacked network access, this had to be done one computer at a time until all affected machines were repaired. The total number of machines impacted is not known but it doubtless involved tens of thousands of corporate computers. Needless to say, network administrators and corporate tech support divisions were incensed.
Regarding the flaws in McAfee’s quality assurance processes, the company explained in the FAQ that they had not included Windows XP Service Pack 3 with VirusScan version 8.7 in the test configuration of operating systems and McAfee product versions. This explanation flabbergasted many of McAfee’s clients and other industry analysts, since XP SP3 is the most widely used desktop PC configuration.
Vista and Windows 7 generally ship with new computers and are rarely installed on functioning XP computers.
Another reason that the problem spread so quickly without detection was the increasing demand for faster antivirus updates. Most companies aggressively deploy their updates to ensure that machines spend as little time exposed to new viruses as possible. McAfee’s update reached a large number of machines so quickly without detection because most companies trust their antivirus provider to get it right.
Unfortunately for McAfee, it only takes a single slipup or oversight to cause significant damage to an antivirus company’s reputation. McAfee was criticized for its slow response to the crisis and for its initial attempts to downplay the issue’s impact on its customers. The company released a statement claiming that only a small fraction of its customers were affected, but this was soon shown to be false. Two days after the update was released, McAfee executive Barry McPherson finally apologized to customers on the company’s blog. Soon after, CEO David DeWalt recorded a video for customers, still available via McAfee’s Web site, in which he apologized for and explained the incident.
Sources: Peter Svensson, “McAfee Antivirus Program Goes Berserk, Freezes PCs,” Associated Press, April 21, 2010; Gregg Keizer, “McAfee Apologizes for Crippling PCs with Bad Update,” Computerworld, April 23, 2010 and “McAfee Update Mess Explained,” Computerworld, April 22, 2010; Ed Bott, “McAfee Admits ‘Inadequate’ Quality Control Caused PC Meltdown,” ZDNet, April 22, 2010; and Barry McPherson, “An Update on False Positive Remediation,” http://siblog.mcafee.com/support/an-update-on-false-positive-remediation, April 22, 2010.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for McAfee’s software problem?
2. What was the business impact of this software problem, both for McAfee and for its customers?
3. If you were a McAfee enterprise customer, would you consider McAfee’s response to the problem be acceptable? Why or why not?
4. What should McAfee do in the future to avoid similar problems?
MIS IN ACTION
Search online for the apology by Barry McPherson (“Barry McPherson apology”) and read the reaction of customers. Do you think McPherson’s apology helped or inflamed the situation? What is a “false positive remediation”?
8.2 BUSINESS VALUE OF SECURITY AND CONTROL
Many firms are reluctant to spend heavily on security because it is not directly related to sales revenue. However, protecting information systems is so critical to the operation of the business that it deserves a second look.
Companies have very valuable information assets to protect. Systems often house confidential information about individuals’ taxes, financial assets, medical records, and job performance reviews. They also can contain information on corporate operations, including trade secrets, new product development plans, and marketing strategies. Government systems may store information on weapons systems, intelligence operations, and military targets. These information assets have tremendous value, and the repercussions can be devastating if they are lost, destroyed, or placed in the wrong hands. One study estimated that when the security of a large firm is compromised, the company loses approximately 2.1 percent of its market value within two days of the security breach, which translates into an average loss of $1.65 billion in stock market value per incident (Cavusoglu, Mishra, and Raghunathan, 2004).
Inadequate security and control may result in serious legal liability. Businesses must protect not only their own information assets but also those of customers, employees, and business partners. Failure to do so may open the firm to costly litigation for data exposure or theft. An organization can be held liable for needless risk and harm created if the organization fails to take appropriate protective action to prevent loss of confidential information, data corruption, or breach of privacy. For example, BJ's Wholesale Club was sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for allowing hackers to access its systems and steal credit and debit card data for fraudulent purchases. Banks that issued the cards with the stolen data sought $13 million from BJ's to compensate them for reimbursing card holders for the fraudulent purchases. A sound security and control framework that protects business information assets can thus produce a high return on investment. Strong security and control also increase employee productivity and lower operational costs.
**LEGAL AND REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRONIC RECORDS MANAGEMENT**
Recent U.S. government regulations are forcing companies to take security and control more seriously by mandating the protection of data from abuse, exposure, and unauthorized access. Firms face new legal obligations for the retention and storage of electronic records as well as for privacy protection.
If you work in the health care industry, your firm will need to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. **HIPAA** outlines medical security and privacy rules and procedures for simplifying the administration of health care billing and automating the transfer of health care data between health care providers, payers, and plans. It requires members of the health care industry to retain patient information for six years and ensure the confidentiality of those records. It specifies privacy, security, and electronic transaction standards for health care providers handling patient information, providing penalties for breaches of medical privacy, disclosure of patient records by e-mail, or unauthorized network access.
If you work in a firm providing financial services, your firm will need to comply with the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, better known as the **Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act** after its congressional sponsors. This act requires financial institutions to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer data. Data must be stored on a secure medium, and special security measures must be enforced to protect such data on storage media and during transmittal.
If you work in a publicly traded company, your company will need to comply with the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, better known as the **Sarbanes-Oxley Act** after its sponsors Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland and Representative Michael Oxley of Ohio. This Act was designed to protect investors after the financial scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and other public companies. It imposes responsibility on companies and their management to safeguard the accuracy and integrity of financial information that is used internally and released externally. One of the Learning Tracks for this chapter discusses Sarbanes-Oxley in detail.
Sarbanes-Oxley is fundamentally about ensuring that internal controls are in place to govern the creation and documentation of information in financial
statements. Because information systems are used to generate, store, and transport such data, the legislation requires firms to consider information systems security and other controls required to ensure the integrity, confidentiality, and accuracy of their data. Each system application that deals with critical financial reporting data requires controls to make sure the data are accurate. Controls to secure the corporate network, prevent unauthorized access to systems and data, and ensure data integrity and availability in the event of disaster or other disruption of service are essential as well.
**ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE AND COMPUTER FORENSICS**
Security, control, and electronic records management have become essential for responding to legal actions. Much of the evidence today for stock fraud, embezzlement, theft of company trade secrets, computer crime, and many civil cases is in digital form. In addition to information from printed or typewritten pages, legal cases today increasingly rely on evidence represented as digital data stored on portable floppy disks, CDs, and computer hard disk drives, as well as in e-mail, instant messages, and e-commerce transactions over the Internet. E-mail is currently the most common type of electronic evidence.
In a legal action, a firm is obligated to respond to a discovery request for access to information that may be used as evidence, and the company is required by law to produce those data. The cost of responding to a discovery request can be enormous if the company has trouble assembling the required data or the data have been corrupted or destroyed. Courts now impose severe financial and even criminal penalties for improper destruction of electronic documents.
An effective electronic document retention policy ensures that electronic documents, e-mail, and other records are well organized, accessible, and neither retained too long nor discarded too soon. It also reflects an awareness of how to preserve potential evidence for computer forensics. **Computer forensics** is the scientific collection, examination, authentication, preservation, and analysis of data held on or retrieved from computer storage media in such a way that the information can be used as evidence in a court of law. It deals with the following problems:
- Recovering data from computers while preserving evidential integrity
- Securely storing and handling recovered electronic data
- Finding significant information in a large volume of electronic data
- Presenting the information to a court of law
Electronic evidence may reside on computer storage media in the form of computer files and as *ambient data*, which are not visible to the average user. An example might be a file that has been deleted on a PC hard drive. Data that a computer user may have deleted on computer storage media can be recovered through various techniques. Computer forensics experts try to recover such hidden data for presentation as evidence.
An awareness of computer forensics should be incorporated into a firm’s contingency planning process. The CIO, security specialists, information systems staff, and corporate legal counsel should all work together to have a plan in place that can be executed if a legal need arises. You can find out more about computer forensics in the Learning Tracks for this chapter.
8.3 Establishing a Framework for Security and Control
Even with the best security tools, your information systems won’t be reliable and secure unless you know how and where to deploy them. You’ll need to know where your company is at risk and what controls you must have in place to protect your information systems. You’ll also need to develop a security policy and plans for keeping your business running if your information systems aren’t operational.
INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONTROLS
Information systems controls are both manual and automated and consist of both general controls and application controls. **General controls** govern the design, security, and use of computer programs and the security of data files in general throughout the organization’s information technology infrastructure. On the whole, general controls apply to all computerized applications and consist of a combination of hardware, software, and manual procedures that create an overall control environment.
General controls include software controls, physical hardware controls, computer operations controls, data security controls, controls over implementation of system processes, and administrative controls. Table 8-3 describes the functions of each of these controls.
**Application controls** are specific controls unique to each computerized application, such as payroll or order processing. They include both automated and manual procedures that ensure that only authorized data are completely and accurately processed by that application. Application controls can be classified as (1) input controls, (2) processing controls, and (3) output controls.
*Input controls* check data for accuracy and completeness when they enter the system. There are specific input controls for input authorization, data conversion, data editing, and error handling. *Processing controls* establish that data are complete and accurate during updating. *Output controls* ensure that
| TYPE OF GENERAL CONTROL | DESCRIPTION |
|-------------------------|-------------|
| Software controls | Monitor the use of system software and prevent unauthorized access of software programs, system software, and computer programs. |
| Hardware controls | Ensure that computer hardware is physically secure, and check for equipment malfunction. Organizations that are critically dependent on their computers also must make provisions for backup or continued operation to maintain constant service. |
| Computer operations controls | Oversee the work of the computer department to ensure that programmed procedures are consistently and correctly applied to the storage and processing of data. They include controls over the setup of computer processing jobs and backup and recovery procedures for processing that ends abnormally. |
| Data security controls | Ensure that valuable business data files on either disk or tape are not subject to unauthorized access, change, or destruction while they are in use or in storage. |
| Implementation controls | Audit the systems development process at various points to ensure that the process is properly controlled and managed. |
| Administrative controls | Formalize standards, rules, procedures, and control disciplines to ensure that the organization’s general and application controls are properly executed and enforced. |
the results of computer processing are accurate, complete, and properly distributed. You can find more detail about application and general controls in our Learning Tracks.
**RISK ASSESSMENT**
Before your company commits resources to security and information systems controls, it must know which assets require protection and the extent to which these assets are vulnerable. A risk assessment helps answer these questions and determine the most cost-effective set of controls for protecting assets.
A **risk assessment** determines the level of risk to the firm if a specific activity or process is not properly controlled. Not all risks can be anticipated and measured, but most businesses will be able to acquire some understanding of the risks they face. Business managers working with information systems specialists should try to determine the value of information assets, points of vulnerability, the likely frequency of a problem, and the potential for damage. For example, if an event is likely to occur no more than once a year, with a maximum of a $1,000 loss to the organization, it is not be wise to spend $20,000 on the design and maintenance of a control to protect against that event. However, if that same event could occur at least once a day, with a potential loss of more than $300,000 a year, $100,000 spent on a control might be entirely appropriate.
Table 8-4 illustrates sample results of a risk assessment for an online order processing system that processes 30,000 orders per day. The likelihood of each exposure occurring over a one-year period is expressed as a percentage. The next column shows the highest and lowest possible loss that could be expected each time the exposure occurred and an average loss calculated by adding the highest and lowest figures together and dividing by two. The expected annual loss for each exposure can be determined by multiplying the average loss by its probability of occurrence.
This risk assessment shows that the probability of a power failure occurring in a one-year period is 30 percent. Loss of order transactions while power is down could range from $5,000 to $200,000 (averaging $102,500) for each occurrence, depending on how long processing is halted. The probability of embezzlement occurring over a yearly period is about 5 percent, with potential losses ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 (and averaging $25,500) for each occurrence. User errors have a 98 percent chance of occurring over a yearly period, with losses ranging from $200 to $40,000 (and averaging $20,100) for each occurrence.
Once the risks have been assessed, system builders will concentrate on the control points with the greatest vulnerability and potential for loss. In this case, controls should focus on ways to minimize the risk of power failures and user errors because anticipated annual losses are highest for these areas.
**TABLE 8-4 ONLINE ORDER PROCESSING RISK ASSESSMENT**
| EXPOSURE | PROBABILITY OF OCCURRENCE (%) | LOSS RANGE/AVERAGE ($) | EXPECTED ANNUAL LOSS ($) |
|--------------|-------------------------------|------------------------|--------------------------|
| Power failure| 30% | $5,000–$200,000 ($102,500) | $30,750 |
| Embezzlement | 5% | $1,000–$50,000 ($25,500) | $1,275 |
| User error | 98% | $200–$40,000 ($20,100) | $19,698 |
SECURITY POLICY
Once you’ve identified the main risks to your systems, your company will need to develop a security policy for protecting the company’s assets. A **security policy** consists of statements ranking information risks, identifying acceptable security goals, and identifying the mechanisms for achieving these goals. What are the firm’s most important information assets? Who generates and controls this information in the firm? What existing security policies are in place to protect the information? What level of risk is management willing to accept for each of these assets? Is it willing, for instance, to lose customer credit data once every 10 years? Or will it build a security system for credit card data that can withstand the once-in-a-hundred-year disaster? Management must estimate how much it will cost to achieve this level of acceptable risk.
The security policy drives policies determining acceptable use of the firm’s information resources and which members of the company have access to its information assets. An **acceptable use policy (AUP)** defines acceptable uses of the firm’s information resources and computing equipment, including desktop and laptop computers, wireless devices, telephones, and the Internet. The policy should clarify company policy regarding privacy, user responsibility, and personal use of company equipment and networks. A good AUP defines unacceptable and acceptable actions for every user and specifies consequences for non-compliance. For example, security policy at Unilever, the giant multinational consumer goods company, requires every employee equipped with a laptop or mobile handheld device to use a company-specified device and employ a password or other method of identification when logging onto the corporate network.
Security policy also includes provisions for identity management. **Identity management** consists of business processes and software tools for identifying the valid users of a system and controlling their access to system resources. It includes policies for identifying and authorizing different categories of system users, specifying what systems or portions of systems each user is allowed to access, and the processes and technologies for authenticating users and protecting their identities.
Figure 8-3 is one example of how an identity management system might capture the access rules for different levels of users in the human resources function. It specifies what portions of a human resource database each user is permitted to access, based on the information required to perform that person’s job. The database contains sensitive personal information such as employees’ salaries, benefits, and medical histories.
The access rules illustrated here are for two sets of users. One set of users consists of all employees who perform clerical functions, such as inputting employee data into the system. All individuals with this type of profile can update the system but can neither read nor update sensitive fields, such as salary, medical history, or earnings data. Another profile applies to a divisional manager, who cannot update the system but who can read all employee data fields for his or her division, including medical history and salary. We provide more detail on the technologies for user authentication later on in this chapter.
DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
If you run a business, you need to plan for events, such as power outages, floods, earthquakes, or terrorist attacks that will prevent your information systems and your business from operating. **Disaster recovery planning** devises
These two examples represent two security profiles or data security patterns that might be found in a personnel system. Depending on the access rules, a user would have certain restrictions on access to various systems, locations, or data in an organization.
plans for the restoration of computing and communications services after they have been disrupted. Disaster recovery plans focus primarily on the technical issues involved in keeping systems up and running, such as which files to back up and the maintenance of backup computer systems or disaster recovery services.
For example, MasterCard maintains a duplicate computer center in Kansas City, Missouri, to serve as an emergency backup to its primary computer center in St. Louis. Rather than build their own backup facilities, many firms contract with disaster recovery firms, such as Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services in Rosemont, Illinois, and SunGard Availability Services, headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania. These disaster recovery firms provide hot sites housing spare computers at locations around the country where subscribing firms can run their critical applications in an emergency. For example, Champion Technologies, which supplies chemicals used in oil and gas operations, is able to switch its enterprise systems from Houston to a SunGard hot site in Scottsdale, Arizona, in two hours.
Business continuity planning focuses on how the company can restore business operations after a disaster strikes. The business continuity plan identifies critical business processes and determines action plans for handling mission-critical functions if systems go down. For example, Deutsche Bank, which provides investment banking and asset management services in 74 different countries, has a well-developed business continuity plan that it continually updates and refines. It maintains full-time teams in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, India, and Australia.
to coordinate plans addressing loss of facilities, personnel, or critical systems so that the company can continue to operate when a catastrophic event occurs. Deutsche Bank’s plan distinguishes between processes critical for business survival and those critical to crisis support and is coordinated with the company’s disaster recovery planning for its computer centers.
Business managers and information technology specialists need to work together on both types of plans to determine which systems and business processes are most critical to the company. They must conduct a business impact analysis to identify the firm’s most critical systems and the impact a systems outage would have on the business. Management must determine the maximum amount of time the business can survive with its systems down and which parts of the business must be restored first.
**THE ROLE OF AUDITING**
How does management know that information systems security and controls are effective? To answer this question, organizations must conduct comprehensive and systematic audits. An **MIS audit** examines the firm’s overall security environment as well as controls governing individual information systems. The auditor should trace the flow of sample transactions through the system and perform tests, using, if appropriate, automated audit software. The MIS audit may also examine data quality.
Security audits review technologies, procedures, documentation, training, and personnel. A thorough audit will even simulate an attack or disaster to test the response of the technology, information systems staff, and business employees.
The audit lists and ranks all control weaknesses and estimates the probability of their occurrence. It then assesses the financial and organizational impact of each threat. Figure 8-4 is a sample auditor’s listing of control weaknesses for a loan system. It includes a section for notifying management of such weaknesses and for management’s response. Management is expected to devise a plan for countering significant weaknesses in controls.
### 8.4 Technologies and Tools for Protecting Information Resources
Businesses have an array of technologies for protecting their information resources. They include tools for managing user identities, preventing unauthorized access to systems and data, ensuring system availability, and ensuring software quality.
**IDENTITY MANAGEMENT AND AUTHENTICATION**
Large and midsize companies have complex IT infrastructures and many different systems, each with its own set of users. Identity management software automates the process of keeping track of all these users and their system privileges, assigning each user a unique digital identity for accessing each system. It also includes tools for authenticating users, protecting user identities, and controlling access to system resources.
To gain access to a system, a user must be authorized and authenticated. **Authentication** refers to the ability to know that a person is who he or she
This chart is a sample page from a list of control weaknesses that an auditor might find in a loan system in a local commercial bank. This form helps auditors record and evaluate control weaknesses and shows the results of discussing those weaknesses with management, as well as any corrective actions taken by management.
claims to be. Authentication is often established by using passwords known only to authorized users. An end user uses a password to log on to a computer system and may also use passwords for accessing specific systems and files. However, users often forget passwords, share them, or choose poor passwords that are easy to guess, which compromises security. Password systems that are too rigorous hinder employee productivity. When employees must change complex passwords frequently, they often take shortcuts, such as choosing passwords that are easy to guess or writing down their passwords at their workstations in plain view. Passwords can also be “sniffed” if transmitted over a network or stolen through social engineering.
New authentication technologies, such as tokens, smart cards, and biometric authentication, overcome some of these problems. A token is a physical device, similar to an identification card, that is designed to prove the identity of a single user. Tokens are small gadgets that typically fit on key rings and display passcodes that change frequently. A smart card is a device about the size of a credit card that contains a chip formatted with access permission and other data. (Smart cards are also used in electronic payment systems.) A reader device interprets the data on the smart card and allows or denies access.
Biometric authentication uses systems that read and interpret individual human traits, such as fingerprints, irises, and voices, in order to grant or deny access. Biometric authentication is based on the measurement of a physical or behavioral trait that makes each individual unique. It compares a person’s unique characteristics, such as the fingerprints, face, or retinal image, against a
This PC has a biometric fingerprint reader for fast yet secure access to files and networks. New models of PCs are starting to use biometric identification to authenticate users.
stored profile of these characteristics to determine whether there are any differences between these characteristics and the stored profile. If the two profiles match, access is granted. Fingerprint and facial recognition technologies are just beginning to be used for security applications, with many PC laptops equipped with fingerprint identification devices and several models with built-in webcams and face recognition software.
**FIREWALLS, INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEMS, AND ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE**
Without protection against malware and intruders, connecting to the Internet would be very dangerous. Firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus software have become essential business tools.
**Firewalls**
*Firewalls* prevent unauthorized users from accessing private networks. A firewall is a combination of hardware and software that controls the flow of incoming and outgoing network traffic. It is generally placed between the organization’s private internal networks and distrusted external networks, such as the Internet, although firewalls can also be used to protect one part of a company’s network from the rest of the network (see Figure 8-5).
The firewall acts like a gatekeeper who examines each user’s credentials before access is granted to a network. The firewall identifies names, IP addresses, applications, and other characteristics of incoming traffic. It checks this information against the access rules that have been programmed into the system by the network administrator. The firewall prevents unauthorized communication into and out of the network.
In large organizations, the firewall often resides on a specially designated computer separate from the rest of the network, so no incoming request directly accesses private network resources. There are a number of firewall screening technologies, including static packet filtering, stateful inspection, Network Address Translation, and application proxy filtering. They are frequently used in combination to provide firewall protection.
The firewall is placed between the firm’s private network and the public Internet or another distrusted network to protect against unauthorized traffic.
Packet filtering examines selected fields in the headers of data packets flowing back and forth between the trusted network and the Internet, examining individual packets in isolation. This filtering technology can miss many types of attacks. Stateful inspection provides additional security by determining whether packets are part of an ongoing dialogue between a sender and a receiver. It sets up state tables to track information over multiple packets. Packets are accepted or rejected based on whether they are part of an approved conversation or whether they are attempting to establish a legitimate connection.
Network Address Translation (NAT) can provide another layer of protection when static packet filtering and stateful inspection are employed. NAT conceals the IP addresses of the organization’s internal host computer(s) to prevent sniffer programs outside the firewall from ascertaining them and using that information to penetrate internal systems.
Application proxy filtering examines the application content of packets. A proxy server stops data packets originating outside the organization, inspects them, and passes a proxy to the other side of the firewall. If a user outside the company wants to communicate with a user inside the organization, the outside user first “talks” to the proxy application and the proxy application communicates with the firm’s internal computer. Likewise, a computer user inside the organization goes through the proxy to talk with computers on the outside.
To create a good firewall, an administrator must maintain detailed internal rules identifying the people, applications, or addresses that are allowed or rejected. Firewalls can deter, but not completely prevent, network penetration by outsiders and should be viewed as one element in an overall security plan.
Intrusion Detection Systems
In addition to firewalls, commercial security vendors now provide intrusion detection tools and services to protect against suspicious network traffic and attempts to access files and databases. **Intrusion detection systems** feature full-time monitoring tools placed at the most vulnerable points or “hot spots” of corporate networks to detect and deter intruders continually. The system generates an alarm if it finds a suspicious or anomalous event. Scanning software looks for patterns indicative of known methods of computer attacks, such as bad passwords, checks to see if important files have been removed or modified, and sends warnings of vandalism or system administration errors. Monitoring software examines events as they are happening to discover security attacks in progress. The intrusion detection tool can also be customized to shut down a particularly sensitive part of a network if it receives unauthorized traffic.
Antivirus and Antispyware Software
Defensive technology plans for both individuals and businesses must include antivirus protection for every computer. **Antivirus software** is designed to check computer systems and drives for the presence of computer viruses. Often the software eliminates the virus from the infected area. However, most antivirus software is effective only against viruses already known when the software was written. To remain effective, the antivirus software must be continually updated. Antivirus products are available for many different types of mobile and handheld devices in addition to servers, workstations, and desktop PCs.
Leading antivirus software vendors, such as McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro, have enhanced their products to include protection against spyware. Antispyware software tools such as Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, and Spyware Doctor are also very helpful.
Unified Threat Management Systems
To help businesses reduce costs and improve manageability, security vendors have combined into a single appliance various security tools, including firewalls, virtual private networks, intrusion detection systems, and Web content filtering and antispam software. These comprehensive security management products are called **unified threat management (UTM)** systems. Although initially aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, UTM products are available for all sizes of networks. Leading UTM vendors include Crossbeam, Fortinent, and Check Point, and networking vendors such as Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks provide some UTM capabilities in their equipment.
SECURING WIRELESS NETWORKS
Despite its flaws, WEP provides some margin of security if Wi-Fi users remember to activate it. A simple first step to thwart hackers is to assign a unique name to your network’s SSID and instruct your router not to broadcast it. Corporations can further improve Wi-Fi security by using it in conjunction with virtual private network (VPN) technology when accessing internal corporate data.
In June 2004, the Wi-Fi Alliance industry trade group finalized the 802.11i specification (also referred to as Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 or WPA2) that replaces WEP with stronger security standards. Instead of the static encryption keys used in WEP, the new standard uses much longer keys that continually change, making them harder to crack. It also employs an encrypted authentication system with a central authentication server to ensure that only authorized users access the network.
**ENCRYPTION AND PUBLIC KEY INFRASTRUCTURE**
Many businesses use encryption to protect digital information that they store, physically transfer, or send over the Internet. **Encryption** is the process of transforming plain text or data into cipher text that cannot be read by anyone other than the sender and the intended receiver. Data are encrypted by using a secret numerical code, called an encryption key, that transforms plain data into cipher text. The message must be decrypted by the receiver.
Two methods for encrypting network traffic on the Web are SSL and S-HTTP. **Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)** and its successor Transport Layer Security (TLS) enable client and server computers to manage encryption and decryption activities as they communicate with each other during a secure Web session. **Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP)** is another protocol used for encrypting data flowing over the Internet, but it is limited to individual messages, whereas SSL and TLS are designed to establish a secure connection between two computers.
The capability to generate secure sessions is built into Internet client browser software and servers. The client and the server negotiate what key and what level of security to use. Once a secure session is established between the client and the server, all messages in that session are encrypted.
There are two alternative methods of encryption: symmetric key encryption and public key encryption. In symmetric key encryption, the sender and receiver establish a secure Internet session by creating a single encryption key and sending it to the receiver so both the sender and receiver share the same key. The strength of the encryption key is measured by its bit length. Today, a typical key will be 128 bits long (a string of 128 binary digits).
The problem with all symmetric encryption schemes is that the key itself must be shared somehow among the senders and receivers, which exposes the key to outsiders who might just be able to intercept and decrypt the key. A more secure form of encryption called **public key encryption** uses two keys: one shared (or public) and one totally private as shown in Figure 8-6. The keys are mathematically related so that data encrypted with one key can be decrypted using only the other key. To send and receive messages, communi-
**FIGURE 8-6** **PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION**
A public key encryption system can be viewed as a series of public and private keys that lock data when they are transmitted and unlock the data when they are received. The sender locates the recipient’s public key in a directory and uses it to encrypt a message. The message is sent in encrypted form over the Internet or a private network. When the encrypted message arrives, the recipient uses his or her private key to decrypt the data and read the message.
cators first create separate pairs of private and public keys. The public key is kept in a directory and the private key must be kept secret. The sender encrypts a message with the recipient's public key. On receiving the message, the recipient uses his or her private key to decrypt it.
Digital certificates are data files used to establish the identity of users and electronic assets for protection of online transactions (see Figure 8-7). A digital certificate system uses a trusted third party, known as a certificate authority (CA, or certification authority), to validate a user's identity. There are many CAs in the United States and around the world, including VeriSign, IdenTrust, and Australia's KeyPost.
The CA verifies a digital certificate user's identity offline. This information is put into a CA server, which generates an encrypted digital certificate containing owner identification information and a copy of the owner's public key. The certificate authenticates that the public key belongs to the designated owner. The CA makes its own public key available publicly either in print or perhaps on the Internet. The recipient of an encrypted message uses the CA's public key to decode the digital certificate attached to the message, verifies it was issued by the CA, and then obtains the sender's public key and identification information contained in the certificate. Using this information, the recipient can send an encrypted reply. The digital certificate system would enable, for example, a credit card user and a merchant to validate that their digital certificates were issued by an authorized and trusted third party before they exchange data. Public key infrastructure (PKI), the use of public key cryptography working with a CA, is now widely used in e-commerce.
ENSURING SYSTEM AVAILABILITY
As companies increasingly rely on digital networks for revenue and operations, they need to take additional steps to ensure that their systems and applications...
are always available. Firms such as those in the airline and financial services industries with critical applications requiring online transaction processing have traditionally used fault-tolerant computer systems for many years to ensure 100-percent availability. In **online transaction processing**, transactions entered online are immediately processed by the computer. Multitudinous changes to databases, reporting, and requests for information occur each instant.
**Fault-tolerant computer systems** contain redundant hardware, software, and power supply components that create an environment that provides continuous, uninterrupted service. Fault-tolerant computers use special software routines or self-checking logic built into their circuitry to detect hardware failures and automatically switch to a backup device. Parts from these computers can be removed and repaired without disruption to the computer system.
Fault tolerance should be distinguished from **high-availability computing**. Both fault tolerance and high-availability computing try to minimize downtime. **Downtime** refers to periods of time in which a system is not operational. However, high-availability computing helps firms recover quickly from a system crash, whereas fault tolerance promises continuous availability and the elimination of recovery time altogether.
High-availability computing environments are a minimum requirement for firms with heavy e-commerce processing or for firms that depend on digital networks for their internal operations. High-availability computing requires backup servers, distribution of processing across multiple servers, high-capacity storage, and good disaster recovery and business continuity plans. The firm’s computing platform must be extremely robust with scalable processing power, storage, and bandwidth.
Researchers are exploring ways to make computing systems recover even more rapidly when mishaps occur, an approach called **recovery-oriented computing**. This work includes designing systems that recover quickly, and implementing capabilities and tools to help operators pinpoint the sources of faults in multi-component systems and easily correct their mistakes.
**Controlling Network Traffic: Deep Packet Inspection**
Have you ever tried to use your campus network and found it was very slow? It may be because your fellow students are using the network to download music or watch YouTube. Bandwidth-consuming applications such as file-sharing programs, Internet phone service, and online video are able to clog and slow down corporate networks, degrading performance. For example, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, found its network had slowed because a small minority of students were using peer-to-peer file-sharing programs to download movies and music.
A technology called **deep packet inspection (DPI)** helps solve this problem. DPI examines data files and sorts out low-priority online material while assigning higher priority to business-critical files. Based on the priorities established by a network’s operators, it decides whether a specific data packet can continue to its destination or should be blocked or delayed while more important traffic proceeds. Using a DPI system from Allot Communications, Ball State was able to cap the amount of file-sharing traffic and assign it a much lower priority. Ball State’s preferred network traffic speeded up.
**Security Outsourcing**
Many companies, especially small businesses, lack the resources or expertise to provide a secure high-availability computing environment on their own. They can outsource many security functions to **managed security service**
providers (MSSPs) that monitor network activity and perform vulnerability testing and intrusion detection. SecureWorks, BT Managed Security Solutions Group, and Symantec are leading providers of MSSP services.
**SECURITY ISSUES FOR CLOUD COMPUTING AND THE MOBILE DIGITAL PLATFORM**
Although cloud computing and the emerging mobile digital platform have the potential to deliver powerful benefits, they pose new challenges to system security and reliability. We now describe some of these challenges and how they should be addressed.
**Security in the Cloud**
When processing takes place in the cloud, accountability and responsibility for protection of sensitive data still reside with the company owning that data. Understanding how the cloud computing provider organizes its services and manages the data is critical. The Interactive Session on Technology details some of the cloud security issues that should be addressed.
Cloud users need to confirm that regardless of where their data are stored or transferred, they are protected at a level that meets their corporate requirements. They should stipulate that the cloud provider store and process data in specific jurisdictions according to the privacy rules of those jurisdictions. Cloud clients should find how the cloud provider segregates their corporate data from those of other companies and ask for proof that encryption mechanisms are sound. It’s also important to know how the cloud provider will respond if a disaster strikes, whether the provider will be able to completely restore your data, and how long this should take. Cloud users should also ask whether cloud providers will submit to external audits and security certifications. These kinds of controls can be written into the service level agreement (SLA) before signing with a cloud provider.
**Securing Mobile Platforms**
If mobile devices are performing many of the functions of computers, they need to be secured like desktops and laptops against malware, theft, accidental loss, unauthorized access, and hacking attempts. Mobile devices accessing corporate systems and data require special protection.
Companies should make sure that their corporate security policy includes mobile devices, with additional details on how mobile devices should be supported, protected, and used. They will need tools to authorize all devices in use; to maintain accurate inventory records on all mobile devices, users, and applications; to control updates to applications; and to lock down lost devices so they can’t be compromised. Firms should develop guidelines stipulating approved mobile platforms and software applications as well as the required software and procedures for remote access of corporate systems. Companies will need to ensure that all smartphones are up to date with the latest security patches and antivirus/antispam software, and they should encrypt communication whenever possible.
**ENSURING SOFTWARE QUALITY**
In addition to implementing effective security and controls, organizations can improve system quality and reliability by employing software metrics and rigorous software testing. Software metrics are objective assessments of the system in the form of quantified measurements. Ongoing use of metrics allows
HOW SECURE IS THE CLOUD?
New York-based investment banking and financial services firm Cowen and Co. has moved its global sales systems to the cloud using Salesforce.com. So far, Cowen’s CIO Daniel Flax is pleased. Using cloud services has helped the company lower upfront technology costs, decrease downtime and support additional services. But he’s trying to come to grips with cloud security issues. Cloud computing is indeed cloudy, and this lack of transparency is troubling to many.
One of the biggest risks of cloud computing is that it is highly distributed. Cloud applications and application mash-ups reside in virtual libraries in large remote data centers and server farms that supply business services and data management for multiple corporate clients. To save money and keep costs low, cloud computing providers often distribute work to data centers around the globe where work can be accomplished most efficiently. When you use the cloud, you may not know precisely where your data are being hosted, and you might not even know the country where they are being stored.
The dispersed nature of cloud computing makes it difficult to track unauthorized activity. Virtually all cloud providers use encryption, such as Secure Sockets Layer, to secure the data they handle while the data are being transmitted. But if the data are stored on devices that also store other companies’ data, it’s important to ensure these stored data are encrypted as well.
Indian Harvest Specialtifoods, a Bemidji, Minnesota-based company that distributes rice, grains, and legumes to restaurants worldwide, relies on cloud software provider NetSuite to ensure that its data sent to the cloud are fully protected. Mike Mullin, Indian Harvest’s IT director, feels that using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt the data gives him some level of confidence that the data are secure. He also points out that his company and other users of cloud services need to pay attention to their own security practices, especially access controls. “Your side of the infrastructure is just as vulnerable, if not more vulnerable, than the provider’s side,” he observes.
One way to deal with these problems is to use a cloud vendor that is a public company, which is required by law to disclose how it manages information. Salesforce.com meets this requirement, with strict processes and guidelines for managing its data centers. “We know our data are in the U.S. and we have a report on the very data centers that we’re talking about,” says Flax.
Another alternative is to use a cloud provider that give subscribers the option to choose where their cloud computing work takes place. For example, Terremark Worldwide Inc. is giving its subscriber Agora Games the option to choose where its applications run. Terremark has a Miami facility but is adding other locations. In the past, Agora had no say over where Terremark hosted its applications and data.
Even if your data are totally secure in the cloud, you may not be able to prove it. Some cloud providers don’t meet current compliance requirements regarding security, and some of those providers, such as Amazon, have asserted that they don’t intend to meet those rules and won’t allow compliance auditors on-site.
There are laws restricting where companies can send and store some types of information—personally identifiable information in the European Union (EU), government work in the United States or applications that employ certain encryption algorithms. Companies required to meet these regulations involving protected data either in the United States or the EU won’t be able to use public cloud providers.
Some of these regulations call for proof that systems are securely managed, which may require confirmation from an independent audit. Large providers are unlikely to allow another company’s auditors to inspect their data centers. Microsoft found a way to deal with this problem that may be helpful. The company reduced 26 different types of audits to a list of 200 necessary controls for meeting compliance standards that were applied to its data center environments and services. Microsoft does not give every customer or auditor access to its data centers, but its compliance framework allows auditors to order from a menu of tests and receive the results.
Companies expect their systems to be running 24/7, but cloud providers haven’t always been able to provide this level of service. Millions of customers of Salesforce.com suffered a 38-minute outage in early January 2009 and others several years earlier. The January 2009 outage locked more than 900,000 subscribers out of crucial applications and data.
needed to transact business with customers. More than 300,000 customers using Intuit’s online network of small business applications were unable to access these services for two days in June 2010 following a power outage.
Agreements for services such as Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure state that these companies are not going to be held liable for data losses or fines or other legal penalties when companies use their services. Both vendors offer guidance on how to use their cloud platforms securely, and they may still be able to protect data better than some companies’ home-grown facilities.
Salesforce.com had been building up and redesigning its infrastructure to ensure better service. The company invested $50 million in Mirrorforce technology, a mirroring system that creates a duplicate database in a separate location and synchronizes the data instantaneously. If one database is disabled, the other takes over. Salesforce.com added two data centers on the East and West coasts in addition to its Silicon Valley facility. The company distributed processing for its larger customers among these centers to balance its database load.
Sources: Seth Fineberg, “A Shadow on the Cloud?” *Information Management*, August, 2010; Ellen Messmer, “Secrecy of Cloud Computing Providers Raises IT Security Risks,” *IT World*, July 13, 2010; John Edwards, “Cutting Through the Fog of Cloud Security,” *Computerworld*, February 23, 2009; Wayne Rash, “Is Cloud Computing Secure? Prove It,” *eWeek*, September 21, 2009; Robert Lemos, “Five Lessons from Microsoft on Cloud Security,” *Computerworld*, August 25, 2009; and Mike Fratto, “Cloud Control,” *Information Week*, January 26, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What security and control problems are described in this case?
2. What people, organization, and technology factors contribute to these problems?
3. How secure is cloud computing? Explain your answer.
4. If you were in charge of your company’s information systems department, what issues would you want to clarify with prospective vendors?
5. Would you entrust your corporate systems to a cloud computing provider? Why or why not?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Go to www.trust.salesforce.com, then answer the following questions:
1. Click on Security and describe Salesforce.com’s security provisions. How helpful are these?
2. Click on Best Practices and describe what subscribing companies can do to tighten security. How helpful are these guidelines?
3. If you ran a business, would you feel confident about using Salesforce.com’s on-demand service? Why or why not?
the information systems department and end users to jointly measure the performance of the system and identify problems as they occur. Examples of software metrics include the number of transactions that can be processed in a specified unit of time, online response time, the number of payroll checks printed per hour, and the number of known bugs per hundred lines of program code. For metrics to be successful, they must be carefully designed, formal, objective, and used consistently.
Early, regular, and thorough testing will contribute significantly to system quality. Many view testing as a way to prove the correctness of work they have done. In fact, we know that all sizable software is riddled with errors, and we must test to uncover these errors.
Good testing begins before a software program is even written by using a walkthrough—a review of a specification or design document by a small group of people carefully selected based on the skills needed for the particular objectives being tested. Once developers start writing software programs, coding walkthroughs also can be used to review program code. However, code must
be tested by computer runs. When errors are discovered, the source is found and eliminated through a process called debugging. You can find out more about the various stages of testing required to put an information system into operation in Chapter 13. Our Learning Tracks also contain descriptions of methodologies for developing software programs that also contribute to software quality.
8.5 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience analyzing security vulnerabilities, using spreadsheet software for risk analysis, and using Web tools to research security outsourcing services.
Management Decision Problems
1. K2 Network operates online game sites used by about 16 million people in over 100 countries. Players are allowed to enter a game for free, but must buy digital “assets” from K2, such as swords to fight dragons, if they want to be deeply involved. The games can accommodate millions of players at once and are played simultaneously by people all over the world. Prepare a security analysis for this Internet-based business. What kinds of threats should it anticipate? What would be their impact on the business? What steps can it take to prevent damage to its Web sites and continuing operations?
2. A survey of your firm’s information technology infrastructure has produced the following security analysis statistics:
| PLATFORM | NUMBER OF COMPUTERS | HIGH RISK | MEDIUM RISK | LOW RISK | TOTAL VULNERABILITIES |
|-----------------------------------------------|---------------------|-----------|-------------|----------|-----------------------|
| Windows Server (corporate applications) | 1 | 11 | 37 | 19 | |
| Windows 7 Enterprise (high-level administrators)| 3 | 56 | 242 | 87 | |
| Linux (e-mail and printing services) | 1 | 3 | 154 | 98 | |
| Sun Solaris (Unix) (E-commerce and Web servers)| 2 | 12 | 299 | 78 | |
| Windows 7 Enterprise user desktops and laptops with office productivity tools that can also be linked to the corporate network running corporate applications and intranet | 195 | 14 | 16 | 1,237 | |
High risk vulnerabilities include non-authorized users accessing applications, guessable passwords, user names matching the password, active user accounts with missing passwords, and the existence of unauthorized programs in application systems.
Medium risk vulnerabilities include the ability of users to shut down the system without being logged on, passwords and screen saver settings that were
not established for PCs, and outdated versions of software still being stored on hard drives.
Low risk vulnerabilities include the inability of users to change their passwords, user passwords that have not been changed periodically, and passwords that were smaller than the minimum size specified by the company.
- Calculate the total number of vulnerabilities for each platform. What is the potential impact of the security problems for each computing platform on the organization?
- If you only have one information systems specialist in charge of security, which platforms should you address first in trying to eliminate these vulnerabilities? Second? Third? Last? Why?
- Identify the types of control problems illustrated by these vulnerabilities and explain the measures that should be taken to solve them.
- What does your firm risk by ignoring the security vulnerabilities identified?
**Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software to Perform a Security Risk Assessment**
Software skills: Spreadsheet formulas and charts
Business skills: Risk assessment
This project uses spreadsheet software to calculate anticipated annual losses from various security threats identified for a small company.
Mercer Paints is a small but highly regarded paint manufacturing company located in Alabama. The company has a network in place linking many of its business operations. Although the firm believes that its security is adequate, the recent addition of a Web site has become an open invitation to hackers. Management requested a risk assessment. The risk assessment identified a number of potential exposures. These exposures, their associated probabilities, and average losses are summarized in the following table.
| EXPOSURE | PROBABILITY OF OCCURRENCE | AVERAGE LOSS |
|---------------------------|---------------------------|--------------|
| Malware attack | 60% | $75,000 |
| Data loss | 12% | $70,000 |
| Embezzlement | 3% | $30,000 |
| User errors | 95% | $25,000 |
| Threats from hackers | 95% | $90,000 |
| Improper use by employees | 5% | $5,000 |
| Power failure | 15% | $300,000 |
- In addition to the potential exposures listed, you should identify at least three other potential threats to Mercer Paints, assign probabilities, and estimate a loss range.
- Use spreadsheet software and the risk assessment data to calculate the expected annual loss for each exposure.
- Present your findings in the form of a chart. Which control points have the greatest vulnerability? What recommendations would you make to Mercer Paints? Prepare a written report that summarizes your findings and recommendations.
Improving Decision Making: Evaluating Security Outsourcing Services
Software skills: Web browser and presentation software
Business skills: Evaluating business outsourcing services
Businesses today have a choice of whether to outsource the security function or maintain their own internal staff for this purpose. This project will help develop your Internet skills in using the Web to research and evaluate security outsourcing services.
As an information systems expert in your firm, you have been asked to help management decide whether to outsource security or keep the security function within the firm. Search the Web to find information to help you decide whether to outsource security and to locate security outsourcing services.
- Present a brief summary of the arguments for and against outsourcing computer security for your company.
- Select two firms that offer computer security outsourcing services, and compare them and their services.
- Prepare an electronic presentation for management summarizing your findings. Your presentation should make the case on whether or not your company should outsource computer security. If you believe your company should outsource, the presentation should identify which security outsourcing service should be selected and justify your selection.
Learning Track Modules
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. The Booming Job Market in IT Security
2. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act
3. Computer Forensics
4. General and Application Controls for Information Systems
5. Management Challenges of Security and Control
6. Software Vulnerability and Reliability
1. **Why are information systems vulnerable to destruction, error, and abuse?**
Digital data are vulnerable to destruction, misuse, error, fraud, and hardware or software failures. The Internet is designed to be an open system and makes internal corporate systems more vulnerable to actions from outsiders. Hackers can unleash denial-of-service (DoS) attacks or penetrate corporate networks, causing serious system disruptions. Wi-Fi networks can easily be penetrated by intruders using sniffer programs to obtain an address to access the resources of the network. Computer viruses and worms can disable systems and Web sites. The dispersed nature of cloud computing makes it difficult to track unauthorized activity or to apply controls from afar. Software presents problems because software bugs may be impossible to eliminate and because software vulnerabilities can be exploited by hackers and malicious software. End users often introduce errors.
2. **What is the business value of security and control?**
Lack of sound security and control can cause firms relying on computer systems for their core business functions to lose sales and productivity. Information assets, such as confidential employee records, trade secrets, or business plans, lose much of their value if they are revealed to outsiders or if they expose the firm to legal liability. New laws, such as HIPAA, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, require companies to practice stringent electronic records management and adhere to strict standards for security, privacy, and control. Legal actions requiring electronic evidence and computer forensics also require firms to pay more attention to security and electronic records management.
3. **What are the components of an organizational framework for security and control?**
Firms need to establish a good set of both general and application controls for their information systems. A risk assessment evaluates information assets, identifies control points and control weaknesses, and determines the most cost-effective set of controls. Firms must also develop a coherent corporate security policy and plans for continuing business operations in the event of disaster or disruption. The security policy includes policies for acceptable use and identity management. Comprehensive and systematic MIS auditing helps organizations determine the effectiveness of security and controls for their information systems.
4. **What are the most important tools and technologies for safeguarding information resources?**
Firewalls prevent unauthorized users from accessing a private network when it is linked to the Internet. Intrusion detection systems monitor private networks from suspicious network traffic and attempts to access corporate systems. Passwords, tokens, smart cards, and biometric authentication are used to authenticate system users. Antivirus software checks computer systems for infections by viruses and worms and often eliminates the malicious software, while antispyware software combats intrusive and harmful spyware programs. Encryption, the coding and scrambling of messages, is a widely used technology for securing electronic transmissions over unprotected networks. Digital certificates combined with public key encryption provide further protection of electronic transactions by authenticating a user's identity. Companies can use fault-tolerant computer systems or create high-availability computing environments to make sure that their information systems are always available. Use of software metrics and rigorous software testing help improve software quality and reliability.
**Key Terms**
- Acceptable use policy (AUP), 310
- Antivirus software, 316
- Application controls, 308
- Authentication, 312
- Biometric authentication, 313
- Botnet, 299
- Bugs, 303
- Business continuity planning, 311
- Click fraud, 302
- Computer crime, 300
- Computer forensics, 307
- Computer virus, 296
- Controls, 293
- Cybervandalism, 298
- Deep packet inspection (DPI), 319
- Denial-of-service (DoS) attack, 299
Digital certificates, 318
Disaster recovery planning, 310
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, 299
Downtime, 319
Encryption, 317
Evil twin, 301
Fault-tolerant computer systems, 319
Firewall, 314
General controls, 308
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, 306
Hacker, 298
High-availability computing, 319
HIPAA, 306
Identity management, 310
Identity theft, 301
Intrusion detection systems, 316
Keyloggers, 298
Malware, 296
Managed security service providers (MSSPs), 319
MIS audit, 312
Online transaction processing, 319
Password, 313
Patches, 303
Pharming, 301
Phishing, 301
Public key encryption, 317
Public key infrastructure (PKI), 318
Recovery-oriented computing, 319
Risk assessment, 309
Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 306
Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP), 317
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), 317
Security, 293
Security policy, 310
SQL injection attack, 298
Smart card, 313
Sniffer, 299
Social engineering, 302
Spoofing, 299
Spyware, 298
Token, 313
Trojan horse, 298
Unified threat management (UTM), 316
War driving, 295
Worms, 296
Review Questions
1. Why are information systems vulnerable to destruction, error, and abuse?
- List and describe the most common threats against contemporary information systems.
- Define malware and distinguish among a virus, a worm, and a Trojan horse.
- Define a hacker and explain how hackers create security problems and damage systems.
- Define computer crime. Provide two examples of crime in which computers are targets and two examples in which computers are used as instruments of crime.
- Define identity theft and phishing and explain why identity theft is such a big problem today.
- Describe the security and system reliability problems created by employees.
- Explain how software defects affect system reliability and security.
2. What is the business value of security and control?
- Explain how security and control provide value for businesses.
- Describe the relationship between security and control and recent U.S. government regulatory requirements and computer forensics.
3. What are the components of an organizational framework for security and control?
- Define general controls and describe each type of general control.
- Define application controls and describe each type of application control.
- Describe the function of risk assessment and explain how it is conducted for information systems.
- Define and describe the following: security policy, acceptable use policy, and identity management.
- Explain how MIS auditing promotes security and control.
4. What are the most important tools and technologies for safeguarding information resources?
- Name and describe three authentication methods.
- Describe the roles of firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus software in promoting security.
• Explain how encryption protects information.
• Describe the role of encryption and digital certificates in a public key infrastructure.
• Distinguish between fault-tolerant and high-availability computing, and between disaster recovery planning and business continuity planning.
• Identify and describe the security problems posed by cloud computing.
• Describe measures for improving software quality and reliability.
Discussion Questions
1. Security isn’t simply a technology issue, it’s a business issue. Discuss.
2. If you were developing a business continuity plan for your company, where would you start? What aspects of the business would the plan address?
3. Suppose your business had an e-commerce Web site where it sold goods and accepted credit card payments. Discuss the major security threats to this Web site and their potential impact. What can be done to minimize these threats?
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Evaluating Security Software Tools
With a group of three or four students, use the Web to research and evaluate security products from two competing vendors, such as antivirus software, firewalls, or antispyware software. For each product, describe its capabilities, for what types of businesses it is best suited, and its cost to purchase and install. Which is the best product? Why? If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
For most of us, the Internet is a tool we use for e-mail, news, entertainment, socializing, and shopping. But for computer security experts affiliated with government agencies and private contractors, as well as their hacker counterparts from across the globe, the Internet has become a battlefield—a war zone where cyberwarfare is becoming more frequent and hacking techniques are becoming more advanced. Cyberwarfare poses a unique and daunting set of challenges for security experts, not only in detecting and preventing intrusions but also in tracking down perpetrators and bringing them to justice.
Cyberwarfare can take many forms. Often, hackers use botnets, massive networks of computers that they control thanks to spyware and other malware, to launch large-scale DDoS attacks on their target’s servers. Other methods allow intruders to access secure computers remotely and copy or delete e-mail and files from the machine, or even to remotely monitor users of a machine using more sophisticated software. For cybercriminals, the benefit of cyberwarfare is that they can compete with traditional superpowers for a fraction of the cost of, for example, building up a nuclear arsenal. Because more and more modern technological infrastructure will rely on the Internet to function, cyberwarriors will have no shortage of targets at which to take aim.
Cyberwarfare also involves defending against these types of attacks. That’s a major focus of U.S. intelligence agencies. While the U.S. is currently at the forefront of cyberwarfare technologies, it’s unlikely to maintain technological dominance because of the relatively low cost of the technologies needed to mount these types of attacks.
In fact, hackers worldwide have already begun doing so in earnest. In July 2009, 27 American and South Korean government agencies and other organizations were hit by a DDoS attack. An estimated 65,000 computers belonging to foreign botnets flooded the Web sites with access requests. Affected sites included those of the White House, the Treasury, the Federal Trade Commission, the Defense Department, the Secret Service, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Washington Post, in addition to the Korean Defense Ministry, National Assembly, the presidential Blue House, and several others.
The attacks were not sophisticated, but were widespread and prolonged, succeeding in slowing down most of the U.S. sites and forcing several South Korean sites to stop operating. North Korea or pro-North Korean groups were suspected to be behind the attacks, but the Pyongyang government denied any involvement.
The lone positive from the attacks was that only the Web sites of these agencies were affected. However, other intrusions suggest that hackers already have the potential for much more damaging acts of cyberwarfare. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversees the airline activity of the United States, has already been subject to successful attacks on its systems, including one in 2006 that partially shut down air-traffic data systems in Alaska.
In 2007 and 2008, computer spies broke into the Pentagon’s $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project. Intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, potentially making it easier to defend against the fighter when it’s eventually produced. The intruders entered through vulnerabilities of two or three contractors working on the fighter jet project. Fortunately, computers containing the most sensitive data were not connected to the Internet, and were therefore inaccessible to the intruders. Former U.S. officials say that this attack originated in China, and that China had been making steady progress in developing online-warfare techniques. China rebutted these claims, stating that the U.S. media was subscribing to outdated, Cold War-era thinking in blaming them, and that Chinese hackers were not skilled enough to perpetrate an attack of that magnitude.
In December 2009, hackers reportedly stole a classified PowerPoint slide file detailing U.S. and South Korean strategy for fighting a war against North Korea. In Iraq, insurgents intercepted Predator drone feeds using software they had downloaded from the Internet.
Earlier that year, in April, cyberspies infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid, using weak points where computers on the grid are connected to the Internet, and left behind software programs whose purpose is unclear, but which presumably could be used to disrupt the system. Reports indicated that the spies
originated in computer networks in China and Russia. Again, both nations denied the charges.
In response to these and other intrusions, the federal government launched a program called “Perfect Citizen” to detect cyberassaults on private companies running critical infrastructure. The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) plans to install sensors in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be activated by unusual activity signalling an impending cyberattack. The initial focus will be older large computer control systems that have since been linked to the Internet, making them more vulnerable to cyber attack. NSA will likely start with electric, nuclear, and air-traffic control systems with the greatest impact on national security.
As of this writing, most federal agencies get passing marks for meeting the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act, the most recent set of standards passed into law. But as cyberwarfare technologies develop and become more advanced, the standards imposed by this legislation will likely be insufficient to defend against attacks.
In each incident of cyberwarfare, the governments of the countries suspected to be responsible have roundly denied the charges with no repercussions. How could this be possible? The major reason is that tracing identities of specific attackers through cyberspace is next to impossible, making deniability simple.
The real worry for security experts and government officials is an act of cyberwar against a critical resource, such as the electric grid, financial system, or communications systems. First of all, the U.S. has no clear policy about how the country would respond to that level of a cyberattack. Although the electric grid was accessed by hackers, it hasn’t yet actually been attacked. A three-year study of U.S. cybersecurity recommended that such a policy be created and made public. It also suggested that the U.S. attempt to find common ground with other nations to join forces in preventing these attacks.
Secondly, the effects of such an attack would likely be devastating. Mike McConnell, the former director of national intelligence, stated that if even a single large American bank were successfully attacked, “it would have an order-of-magnitude greater impact on the global economy” than the World Trade Center attacks, and that “the ability to threaten the U.S. money supply is the equivalent of today’s nuclear weapon.” Such an attack would have a catastrophic effect on the U.S. financial system, and by extension, the world economy.
Lastly, many industry analysts are concerned that the organization of our cybersecurity is messy, with no clear leader among our intelligence agencies. Several different agencies, including the Pentagon and the NSA, have their sights on being the leading agency in the ongoing efforts to combat cyberwarfare. In June 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ordered the creation of the first headquarters designed to coordinate government cybersecurity efforts, called Cybercom. Cybercom was activated in May 2010 with the goal of coordinating the operation and protection of military and Pentagon computer networks in the hopes of resolving this organizational tangle.
In confronting this problem, one critical question has arisen: how much control over enforcing cybersecurity should be given to American spy agencies, since they are prohibited from acting on American soil? Cyberattacks know no borders, so distinguishing between American soil and foreign soil means domestic agencies will be unnecessarily inhibited in their ability to fight cybercrime. For example, if the NSA was investigating the source of a cyberattack on government Web sites, and determined that the attack originated from American servers, under our current laws, it would not be able to investigate further.
Some experts believe that there is no effective way for a domestic agency to conduct computer operations without entering prohibited networks within the United States, or even conducting investigations in countries that are American allies. The NSA has already come under heavy fire for its surveillance actions after 9-11, and this has the potential to raise similar privacy concerns. Preventing terrorist or cyberwar attacks may require examining some e-mail messages from other countries or giving intelligence agencies more access to networks or Internet service providers. There is a need for an open debate about what constitutes a violation of privacy and what is acceptable during ‘cyber-wartime’, which is essentially all the time. The law may need to be changed to accommodate effective cybersecurity techniques, but it’s unclear that this can be done without eroding some privacy rights that we consider essential.
As for these offensive measures, it’s unclear as to how strong the United States’ offensive capabilities for cyberwarfare are. The government closely guards this information, almost all of which is classified. But former military and intelligence officials indicate that our cyberwarfare capabilities have dramatically increased in sophistication in the past year or two.
And because tracking cybercriminals has proven so difficult, it may be that the best defense is a strong offense.
Sources: “Cyber Task Force Passes Mission to Cyber Command,” Defence Professionals, September 8, 2010; Siobhan Gorman, “U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies,” The Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2010 and “U.S. Hampered in Fighting Cyber Attacks, Report Says,” The Wall Street Journal, June, 16, 2010; Siobhan Gorman, Yochi Dreazen and August Cole, “Drone Breach Stirs Calls to Fill Cyber Post,” The Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2009; Sean Gallagher, “New Threats Compel DOD to Rethink Cyber Strategy,” Defense Knowledge Technologies and Net-Enabled Warfare, January 22, 2010; Lance Whitney, Cyber Command Chief Details Threat to U.S., Military Tech, August 5, 2010; Hoover, J. Nicholas, “Cybersecurity Balancing Act,” Information Week, April 27, 2009; David E. Sanger, John Markoff, and Thom Shanker, “U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses,” The New York Times, April 28, 2009; John Markoff and Thom Shanker, “Panel Advises Clarifying U.S. Plans on Cyberwar,” The New York Times, April 30, 2009; Siobhan Gorman and Evan Ramstad, “Cyber Blitz Hits U.S., Korea,” The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2009; Lolita C. Baldor, “White House Among Targets of Sweeping Cyber Attack,” Associated Press, July 8, 2009; Choe Sang-Hun, “Cyberattacks Hit U.S. and South Korean Web Sites,” The New York Times, July 9, 2009; Siobhan Gorman, “FAA’s Air-Traffic Networks Breached by Hackers,” The Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2009; Thom Shanker, “New Military Command for Cyberspace,” The New York Times, June 24, 2009; David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, “Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Wars in Cyberspace,” The New York Times, May 29, 2009; Siobhan Gorman, August Cole, and Yochi Dreazen, “Computer Spies Breach Fighter-Jet Project,” The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2009; Siobhan Gorman, “Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated by Spies,” The Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2009; “Has Power Grid Been Hacked? U.S. Won’t Say,” Reuters, April 8, 2009; Markoff, John, “Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries,” The New York Times, March 29, 2009; Markoff, John, “Tracking Cyberspies Through the Web Wilderness,” The New York Times, May 12, 2009.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Is cyberwarfare a serious problem? Why or why not?
2. Assess the management, organization, and technology factors that have created this problem.
3. What solutions have been proposed? Do you think they will be effective? Why or why not?
4. Are there other solutions for this problem that should be pursued? What are they?
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Part Three examines the core information system applications businesses are using today to improve operational excellence and decision making. These applications include enterprise systems; systems for supply chain management, customer relationship management, collaboration, and knowledge management; e-commerce applications; and decision-support systems. This part answers questions such as: How can enterprise applications improve business performance? How do firms use e-commerce to extend the reach of their businesses? How can systems improve collaboration and decision making and help companies make better use of their knowledge assets?
Chapter 9
Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. How do enterprise systems help businesses achieve operational excellence?
2. How do supply chain management systems coordinate planning, production, and logistics with suppliers?
3. How do customer relationship management systems help firms achieve customer intimacy?
4. What are the challenges posed by enterprise applications?
5. How are enterprise applications used in platforms for new cross-functional services?
Interactive Sessions:
Southwest Airlines Takes Off with Better Supply Chain Management
Enterprise Applications Move to the Cloud
CHAPTER OUTLINE
9.1 ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS
What Are Enterprise Systems?
Enterprise Software
Business Value of Enterprise Systems
9.2 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
The Supply Chain
Information Systems and Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management Applications
Global Supply Chains and the Internet
Business Value of Supply Chain Management Systems
9.3 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
What Is Customer Relationship Management?
Customer Relationship Management Software
Operational and Analytical CRM
Business Value of Customer Relationship Management Systems
9.4 ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS: NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Enterprise Application Challenges
Next-Generation Enterprise Applications
9.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Improving Decision Making: Using Database Software to Manage Customer Service Requests
Improving Operational Excellence: Evaluating Supply Chain Management Services
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
SAP Business Process Map
Business Processes in Supply Chain Management and Supply Chain Metrics
Best-Practices Business Processes in CRM Software
If you enjoy cycling, you may very well be using a Cannondale bicycle. Cannondale, headquartered in Bethel, Connecticut, is the world-leading manufacturer of high-end bicycles, apparel, footwear, and accessories, with dealers and distributors in more than 66 countries. Cannondale’s supply and distribution chains span the globe, and the company must coordinate manufacturing, assembly, and sales/distribution sites in many different countries. Cannondale produces more than 100 different bicycle models each year; 60 percent of these are newly introduced to meet ever-changing customer preferences.
Cannondale offers both make-to-stock and make-to-order models. A typical bicycle requires a 150-day lead time and a four-week manufacturing window, and some models have bills of materials with over 150 parts. (A bill of materials specifies the raw materials, assemblies, components, parts, and quantities of each needed to manufacture a final product.) Cannondale must manage more than 1 million of these bills of materials and more than 200,000 individual parts. Some of these parts come from specialty vendors with even longer lead times and limited production capacity.
Obviously, managing parts availability in a constantly changing product line impacted by volatile customer demand requires a great deal of manufacturing flexibility. Until recently, that flexibility was missing. Cannondale had an antiquated legacy material requirements planning system for planning production, controlling inventory, and managing manufacturing processes that could only produce reports on a weekly basis. By Tuesday afternoon, Monday’s reports were already out of date. The company was forced to substitute parts in order to meet demand, and sometimes it lost sales. Cannondale needed a solution that could track the flow of parts more accurately, support its need for flexibility, and work with its existing business systems, all within a restricted budget.
Cannondale selected the Kinaxis RapidResponse on-demand software service as a solution. RapidResponse furnishes accurate and detailed supply chain information via an easy-to-use spreadsheet interface, using data supplied automatically from Cannondale’s existing manufacturing systems. Data from operations at multiple sites are assembled in a single place for analysis and decision making. Supply chain participants from different locations are able to model manufacturing and inventory data in “what-if” scenarios to see the impact of alternative actions across the entire supply chain. Old forecasts can be compared to new ones, and the system can evaluate the constraints of a new plan.
Cannondale buyers, planners, master schedulers, sourcers, product managers, customer service, and finance personnel, use RapidResponse for sales reporting, forecasting, monitoring daily inventory availability, and feeding production schedule information to Cannondale’s manufacturing and order processing systems. Users are able to see up-to-date information for all sites. Management uses the system daily to examine areas where there are backlogs.
The improved supply chain information from RapidResponse enables Cannondale to respond to customer orders much more rapidly with lower levels of inventory and safety stock. Cycle times and lead times for producing products have also been reduced. The company’s dates for promising deliveries are more reliable and accurate.
Sources: Kinaxis Corp., “Cannondale Improves Customer Response Times While Reducing Inventory Using RapidResponse,” 2010; www.kinaxis.com, accessed June 21, 2010; and www.cannondale.com, accessed June 21, 2010.
Cannondale’s problems with its supply chain illustrate the critical role of supply chain management (SCM) systems in business. Cannondale’s business performance was impeded because it could not coordinate its sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution processes. Costs were unnecessarily high because the company was unable to accurately determine the exact amount of each product it needed to fulfill orders and hold just that amount in inventory. Instead, the company resorted to keeping extra “safety stock” on hand “just in case.” When products were not available when the customer wanted them, Cannondale lost sales.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Like many other firms, Cannondale had a complex supply chain and manufacturing processes to coordinate in many different locations. The company had to deal with hundreds and perhaps thousands of suppliers of parts and raw materials. It was not always possible to have just the right amount of each part or component available when it was needed because the company lacked accurate, up-to-date information about parts in inventory and what manufacturing processes needed those parts.
An on-demand supply chain management software service from Kinaxis helped solve this problem. The Kinaxis RapidResponse software takes in data from Cannondale’s existing manufacturing systems and assembles data from multiple sites to furnish a single view of Cannondale’s supply chain based on up-to-date information. Cannondale staff are able to see exactly what parts are available or on order as well as the status of bikes in production. With better tools for planning, users are able to see the impact of changes in supply and demand so that they can make better decisions about how to respond to these changes. The system has greatly enhanced operational efficiency and decision making.
9.1 ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS
Around the globe, companies are increasingly becoming more connected, both internally and with other companies. If you run a business, you’ll want to be able to react instantaneously when a customer places a large order or when a shipment from a supplier is delayed. You may also want to know the impact of these events on every part of the business and how the business is performing at any point in time, especially if you’re running a large company. Enterprise systems provide the integration to make this possible. Let’s look at how they work and what they can do for the firm.
WHAT ARE ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS?
Imagine that you had to run a business based on information from tens or even hundreds of different databases and systems, none of which could speak to one another? Imagine your company had 10 different major product lines, each produced in separate factories, and each with separate and incompatible sets of systems controlling production, warehousing, and distribution.
At the very least, your decision making would often be based on manual hardcopy reports, often out of date, and it would be difficult to really understand what is happening in the business as a whole. Sales personnel might not be able to tell at the time they place an order whether the ordered items are in inventory, and manufacturing could not easily use sales data to plan for new production. You now have a good idea of why firms need a special enterprise system to integrate information.
Chapter 2 introduced enterprise systems, also known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, which are based on a suite of integrated software modules and a common central database. The database collects data from many different divisions and departments in a firm, and from a large number of key business processes in manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and human resources, making the data available for applications that support nearly all of an organization’s internal business activities. When new information is entered by one process, the information is made immediately available to other business processes (see Figure 9-1).
If a sales representative places an order for tire rims, for example, the system verifies the customer’s credit limit, schedules the shipment, identifies the best shipping route, and reserves the necessary items from inventory. If inventory stock were insufficient to fill the order, the system schedules the manufacture of more rims, ordering the needed materials and components from suppliers. Sales and production forecasts are immediately updated. General ledger and corporate cash levels are automatically updated with the revenue and cost information from the order. Users could tap into the system and find out where that particular order was at any minute. Management could obtain information at any point in time about how the business was operating. The system could also generate enterprise-wide data for management analyses of product cost and profitability.
Enterprise systems feature a set of integrated software modules and a central database that enables data to be shared by many different business processes and functional areas throughout the enterprise.
**ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE**
*Enterprise software* is built around thousands of predefined business processes that reflect best practices. Table 9-1 describes some of the major business processes supported by enterprise software.
Companies implementing this software must first select the functions of the system they wish to use and then map their business processes to the predefined business processes in the software. (One of our Learning Tracks shows how SAP enterprise software handles the procurement process for a new piece of equipment.) Identifying the organization’s business processes to be included in the system and then mapping them to the processes in the enterprise software is often a major effort. A firm would use configuration tables provided by the software to tailor a particular aspect of the system to the way it does business. For example, the firm could use these tables to select whether it wants to track revenue by product line, geographical unit, or distribution channel.
**TABLE 9-1 BUSINESS PROCESSES SUPPORTED BY ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS**
*Financial and accounting processes*, including general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, cash management and forecasting, product-cost accounting, cost-center accounting, asset accounting, tax accounting, credit management, and financial reporting.
*Human resources processes*, including personnel administration, time accounting, payroll, personnel planning and development, benefits accounting, applicant tracking, time management, compensation, workforce planning, performance management, and travel expense reporting.
*Manufacturing and production processes*, including procurement, inventory management, purchasing, shipping, production planning, production scheduling, material requirements planning, quality control, distribution, transportation execution, and plant and equipment maintenance.
*Sales and marketing processes*, including order processing, quotations, contracts, product configuration, pricing, billing, credit checking, incentive and commission management, and sales planning.
If the enterprise software does not support the way the organization does business, companies can rewrite some of the software to support the way their business processes work. However, enterprise software is unusually complex, and extensive customization may degrade system performance, compromising the information and process integration that are the main benefits of the system. If companies want to reap the maximum benefits from enterprise software, they must change the way they work to conform to the business processes in the software. To implement a new enterprise system, Tasty Baking Company identified its existing business processes and then translated them into the business processes built into the SAP ERP software it had selected. To ensure it obtained the maximum benefits from the enterprise software, Tasty Baking Company deliberately planned for customizing less than 5 percent of the system and made very few changes to the SAP software itself. It used as many tools and features that were already built into the SAP software as it could. SAP has more than 3,000 configuration tables for its enterprise software.
Leading enterprise software vendors include SAP, Oracle (with its acquisition PeopleSoft) Infor Global Solutions, and Microsoft. There are versions of enterprise software packages designed for small businesses and on-demand versions, including software services delivered over the Web (see the Interactive Session on Technology in Section 9.4). Although initially designed to automate the firm's internal "back-office" business processes, enterprise systems have become more externally-oriented and capable of communicating with customers, suppliers, and other entities.
**BUSINESS VALUE OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS**
Enterprise systems provide value both by increasing operational efficiency and by providing firm-wide information to help managers make better decisions. Large companies with many operating units in different locations have used enterprise systems to enforce standard practices and data so that everyone does business the same way worldwide.
Coca Cola, for instance, implemented a SAP enterprise system to standardize and coordinate important business processes in 200 countries. Lack of standard, company-wide business processes prevented the company from leveraging its worldwide buying power to obtain lower prices for raw materials and from reacting rapidly to market changes.
Enterprise systems help firms respond rapidly to customer requests for information or products. Because the system integrates order, manufacturing, and delivery data, manufacturing is better informed about producing only what customers have ordered, procuring exactly the right amount of components or raw materials to fill actual orders, staging production, and minimizing the time that components or finished products are in inventory.
Alcoa, the world's leading producer of aluminum and aluminum products with operations spanning 41 countries and 500 locations, had initially been organized around lines of business, each of which had its own set of information systems. Many of these systems were redundant and inefficient. Alcoa's costs for executing requisition-to-pay and financial processes were much higher and its cycle times were longer than those of other companies in its industry. (Cycle time refers to the total elapsed time from the beginning to the end of a process.) The company could not operate as a single worldwide entity.
After implementing enterprise software from Oracle, Alcoa eliminated many redundant processes and systems. The enterprise system helped Alcoa reduce requisition-to-pay cycle time by verifying receipt of goods and automatically
generating receipts for payment. Alcoa’s accounts payable transaction processing dropped 89 percent. Alcoa was able to centralize financial and procurement activities, which helped the company reduce nearly 20 percent of its worldwide costs.
Enterprise systems provide much valuable information for improving management decision making. Corporate headquarters has access to up-to-the-minute data on sales, inventory, and production and uses this information to create more accurate sales and production forecasts. Enterprise software includes analytical tools for using data captured by the system to evaluate overall organizational performance. Enterprise system data have common standardized definitions and formats that are accepted by the entire organization. Performance figures mean the same thing across the company. Enterprise systems allow senior management to easily find out at any moment how a particular organizational unit is performing, determine which products are most or least profitable, and calculate costs for the company as a whole.
For example, Alcoa’s enterprise system includes functionality for global human resources management that shows correlations between investment in employee training and quality, measures the company-wide costs of delivering services to employees, and measures the effectiveness of employee recruitment, compensation, and training.
### 9.2 Supply Chain Management Systems
If you manage a small firm that makes a few products or sells a few services, chances are you will have a small number of suppliers. You could coordinate your supplier orders and deliveries using a telephone and fax machine. But if you manage a firm that produces more complex products and services, then you will have hundreds of suppliers, and your suppliers will each have their own set of suppliers. Suddenly, you are in a situation where you will need to coordinate the activities of hundreds or even thousands of other firms in order to produce your products and services. Supply chain management systems, which we introduced in Chapter 2, are an answer to these problems of supply chain complexity and scale.
#### The Supply Chain
A firm’s **supply chain** is a network of organizations and business processes for procuring raw materials, transforming these materials into intermediate and finished products, and distributing the finished products to customers. It links suppliers, manufacturing plants, distribution centers, retail outlets, and customers to supply goods and services from source through consumption. Materials, information, and payments flow through the supply chain in both directions.
Goods start out as raw materials and, as they move through the supply chain, are transformed into intermediate products (also referred to as components or parts), and finally, into finished products. The finished products are shipped to distribution centers and from there to retailers and customers. Returned items flow in the reverse direction from the buyer back to the seller.
Let’s look at the supply chain for Nike sneakers as an example. Nike designs, markets, and sells sneakers, socks, athletic clothing, and accessories throughout the world. Its primary suppliers are contract manufacturers with factories in China, Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, and other countries. These companies fashion Nike’s finished products.
Nike’s contract suppliers do not manufacture sneakers from scratch. They obtain components for the sneakers—the laces, eyelets, uppers, and soles—from other suppliers and then assemble them into finished sneakers. These suppliers in turn have their own suppliers. For example, the suppliers of soles have suppliers for synthetic rubber, suppliers for chemicals used to melt the rubber for molding, and suppliers for the molds into which to pour the rubber. Suppliers of laces would have suppliers for their thread, for dyes, and for the plastic lace tips.
Figure 9-2 provides a simplified illustration of Nike’s supply chain for sneakers; it shows the flow of information and materials among suppliers, Nike, and Nike’s distributors, retailers, and customers. Nike’s contract manufacturers are its primary suppliers. The suppliers of soles, eyelets, uppers, and laces are the secondary (Tier 2) suppliers. Suppliers to these suppliers are the tertiary (Tier 3) suppliers.
The upstream portion of the supply chain includes the company’s suppliers, the suppliers’ suppliers, and the processes for managing relationships with them. The downstream portion consists of the organizations and processes for distributing and delivering products to the final customers. Companies doing manufacturing, such as Nike’s contract suppliers of sneakers, also manage their own internal supply chain processes for transforming materials, components, and services furnished by their suppliers into finished products or intermediate products (components or parts) for their customers and for managing materials and inventory.
**FIGURE 9-2** NIKE’S SUPPLY CHAIN
This figure illustrates the major entities in Nike’s supply chain and the flow of information upstream and downstream to coordinate the activities involved in buying, making, and moving a product. Shown here is a simplified supply chain, with the upstream portion focusing only on the suppliers for sneakers and sneaker soles.
The supply chain illustrated in Figure 9-2 only shows two contract manufacturers for sneakers and only the upstream supply chain for sneaker soles. Nike has hundreds of contract manufacturers turning out finished sneakers, socks, and athletic clothing, each with its own set of suppliers. The upstream portion of Nike’s supply chain would actually comprise thousands of entities. Nike also has numerous distributors and many thousands of retail stores where its shoes are sold, so the downstream portion of its supply chain is also large and complex.
INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Inefficiencies in the supply chain, such as parts shortages, underutilized plant capacity, excessive finished goods inventory, or high transportation costs, are caused by inaccurate or untimely information. For example, manufacturers may keep too many parts in inventory because they do not know exactly when they will receive their next shipments from their suppliers. Suppliers may order too few raw materials because they do not have precise information on demand. These supply chain inefficiencies waste as much as 25 percent of a company’s operating costs.
If a manufacturer had perfect information about exactly how many units of product customers wanted, when they wanted them, and when they could be produced, it would be possible to implement a highly efficient just-in-time strategy. Components would arrive exactly at the moment they were needed and finished goods would be shipped as they left the assembly line.
In a supply chain, however, uncertainties arise because many events cannot be foreseen—uncertain product demand, late shipments from suppliers, defective parts or raw materials, or production process breakdowns. To satisfy customers, manufacturers often deal with such uncertainties and unforeseen events by keeping more material or products in inventory than what they think they may actually need. The safety stock acts as a buffer for the lack of flexibility in the supply chain. Although excess inventory is expensive, low fill rates are also costly because business may be lost from canceled orders.
One recurring problem in supply chain management is the bullwhip effect, in which information about the demand for a product gets distorted as it passes from one entity to the next across the supply chain. A slight rise in demand for an item might cause different members in the supply chain—distributors, manufacturers, suppliers, secondary suppliers (suppliers’ suppliers), and tertiary suppliers (suppliers’ suppliers’ suppliers)—to stockpile inventory so each has enough “just in case.” These changes ripple throughout the supply chain, magnifying what started out as a small change from planned orders, creating excess inventory, production, warehousing, and shipping costs (see Figure 9-3).
For example, Procter & Gamble (P&G) found it had excessively high inventories of its Pampers disposable diapers at various points along its supply chain because of such distorted information. Although customer purchases in stores were fairly stable, orders from distributors would spike when P&G offered aggressive price promotions. Pampers and Pampers’ components accumulated in warehouses along the supply chain to meet demand that did not actually exist. To eliminate this problem, P&G revised its marketing, sales, and supply chain processes and used more accurate demand forecasting.
The bullwhip is tamed by reducing uncertainties about demand and supply when all members of the supply chain have accurate and up-to-date information. If all supply chain members share dynamic information about inventory
Inaccurate information can cause minor fluctuations in demand for a product to be amplified as one moves further back in the supply chain. Minor fluctuations in retail sales for a product can create excess inventory for distributors, manufacturers, and suppliers.
levels, schedules, forecasts, and shipments, they have more precise knowledge about how to adjust their sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution plans. Supply chain management systems provide the kind of information that helps members of the supply chain make better purchasing and scheduling decisions. Table 9-2 describes how firms benefit from these systems.
### Table 9-2 How Information Systems Facilitate Supply Chain Management
**Information from Supply Chain Management Systems Helps Firms**
- Decide when and what to produce, store, and move
- Rapidly communicate orders
- Track the status of orders
- Check inventory availability and monitor inventory levels
- Reduce inventory, transportation, and warehousing costs
- Track shipments
- Plan production based on actual customer demand
- Rapidly communicate changes in product design
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Supply chain software is classified as either software to help businesses plan their supply chains (supply chain planning) or software to help them execute the supply chain steps (supply chain execution). **Supply chain planning systems** enable the firm to model its existing supply chain, generate demand forecasts for products, and develop optimal sourcing and manufacturing plans. Such systems help companies make better decisions such as determining how much of a specific product to manufacture in a given time period; establishing inventory levels for raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods; determining where to store finished goods; and identifying the transportation mode to use for product delivery.
For example, if a large customer places a larger order than usual or changes that order on short notice, it can have a widespread impact throughout the supply chain. Additional raw materials or a different mix of raw materials may need to be ordered from suppliers. Manufacturing may have to change job scheduling. A transportation carrier may have to reschedule deliveries. Supply chain planning software makes the necessary adjustments to production and distribution plans. Information about changes is shared among the relevant supply chain members so that their work can be coordinated. One of the most important—and complex—supply chain planning functions is **demand planning**, which determines how much product a business needs to make to satisfy all of its customers’ demands. Manugistics and i2 Technologies (both acquired by JDA Software) are major supply chain management software vendors, and enterprise software vendors SAP and Oracle-PeopleSoft offer supply chain management modules.
Whirlpool Corporation, which produces washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, ovens, and other home appliances, uses supply chain planning systems to make sure what it produces matches customer demand. The company uses supply chain planning software from i2 Technologies, which includes modules for master scheduling, deployment planning, and inventory planning. Whirlpool also installed i2’s Web-based tool for Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) for sharing and combining its sales forecasts with those of its major sales partners. Improvements in supply chain planning combined with new state-of-the-art distribution centers helped Whirlpool increase availability of products in stock when customers needed them to 97 percent, while reducing the number of excess finished goods in inventory by 20 percent and forecasting errors by 50 percent (Barrett, 2009).
**Supply chain execution systems** manage the flow of products through distribution centers and warehouses to ensure that products are delivered to the right locations in the most efficient manner. They track the physical status of goods, the management of materials, warehouse and transportation operations, and financial information involving all parties. Haworth Incorporated’s Warehouse Management System (WMS) is an example. Haworth is a world-leading manufacturer and designer of office furniture, with distribution centers in four different states. The WMS tracks and controls the flow of finished goods from Haworth’s distribution centers to its customers. Acting on shipping plans for customer orders, the WMS directs the movement of goods based on immediate conditions for space, equipment, inventory, and personnel.
The Interactive Session on Organizations describes how supply chain management software improved decision making and operational performance at Southwest Airlines. This company maintains a competitive edge by combining superb customer service with low costs. Effectively managing its parts inventory is crucial to achieving these goals.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES TAKES OFF WITH BETTER SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
“Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but they’ll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you or your money more than Southwest Airlines.”
Crew humor at 30,000 feet? Must be Southwest Airlines. The company is the largest low-fare, high-frequency, point-to-point airline in the world, and largest overall measured by number of passengers per year. Founded in 1971 with four planes serving three cities, the company now operates over 500 aircraft in 68 cities, and has revenues of $10.1 billion. Southwest has the best customer service record among major airlines, the lowest cost structure, and the lowest and simplest fares. The stock symbol is LUV (for Dallas’s Love Field where the company is headquartered), but love is the major theme of Southwest’s employee and customer relationships. The company has made a profit every year since 1973, one of the few airlines that can make that claim.
Despite a freewheeling, innovative corporate culture, even Southwest needs to get serious about its information systems to maintain profitability. Southwest is just like any other company that needs to manage its supply chain and inventory efficiently. The airline’s success has led to continued expansion, and as the company has grown, its legacy information systems have been unable to keep up with the increasingly large amount of data being generated.
One of the biggest problems with Southwest’s legacy systems was lack of information visibility. Often, the data that Southwest’s managers needed were safely stored on their systems but weren’t “visible”, or readily available for viewing or use in other systems. Information about what replacement parts were available at a given time was difficult or impossible to acquire, and that affected response times for everything from mechanical problems to part fulfillment.
For Southwest, which prides itself on its excellent customer service, getting passengers from one location to another with minimal delay is critically important. Repairing aircraft quickly is an important part of accomplishing that goal. The company had $325 million in service parts inventory, so any solution that more efficiently handled that inventory and reduced aircraft groundings would have a strong impact on the airline’s bottom line. Richard Zimmerman, Southwest’s manager of inventory management, stated that “there’s a significant cost when we have to ground aircraft because we ran out of a part. The long-term, cost-effective way to solve that problem was to increase productivity and to ensure that our maintenance crews were supported with the right spare parts, through the right software application.”
Southwest’s management started looking for a better inventory management solution, and a vendor that was capable of working within the airline’s unique corporate culture. After an extensive search, Southwest eventually chose i2 Technologies, a leading supply chain management software and services company that was recently purchased by JDA Software. Southwest implemented the i2 Demand Planner, i2 Service Parts Planner, and i2 Service Budget Optimizer to overhaul its supply chain management and improve data visibility.
i2 Demand Planner improves Southwest’s forecasts for all of the part location combinations in its system, and provides better visibility into demand for each part. Planners are able to differentiate among individual parts based on criticality and other dimensions such as demand volume, demand variability, and dollar usage. i2 Service Parts Planner helps Southwest replenish its store of parts and ensures that “the right parts are in the right location at the right time.” The software can recommend the best mix of parts for each location that will satisfy the customer service requirements of that location at the lowest cost. If excess inventory builds up in certain service locations, the software will recommend the most cost-efficient way to transfer that excess inventory to locations with parts deficits. i2 Service Budget Optimizer helps Southwest use its historical data of parts usage to generate forecasts of future parts usage.
Together, these solutions gather data from Southwest’s legacy systems and provide useful information to Southwest’s managers. Most importantly, Southwest can recognize demand shortages before they become problems, thanks to the visibility provided by i2’s solutions. Southwest’s managers
now have a clear and unobstructed view of all of the data up and down the company’s supply chain.
By using what-if analysis, planners can quantify the cost to the company of operating at different levels of service. Zimmerman added that i2 “will help us lower inventory costs and keep our cost per air seat mile down to the lowest in the industry. Also, the solutions will help us ensure that the maintenance team can quickly repair the aircraft so that our customers experience minimal delays.” The results of the i2 implementation were increased availability of parts, increased speed and intelligence of decision making, reduced parts inventory by 15 percent, saving the company over $30 million, and increased service levels from 92 percent prior to the implementation to over 95 percent afterwards.
Sources: Chris Lauer, Southwest Airlines: Corporations That Changed the World, Greenwood Press, May 2010; www.i2.com, “Ensuring Optimal Parts Inventory at Southwest Airlines,” and “Service Parts Management,” accessed April 25, 2010; and www.southwest.com, accessed July 1, 2010.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Why is parts inventory management so important at Southwest Airlines? What business processes are affected by the airline’s ability or inability to have required parts on hand?
2. Why management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for Southwest’s problems with inventory management?
3. How did implementing the i2 software change the way Southwest ran its business?
4. Describe two decisions that were improved by implementing the i2 system.
MIS IN ACTION
Visit i2’s site (www.i2.com) and learn more about some of the other companies using its software. Pick one of these companies, then answer the following questions:
1. What problem did the company need to address with i2’s software?
2. Why did the company select i2 as its software vendor?
3. What were the gains that the company realized as a result of the software implementation?
GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS AND THE INTERNET
Before the Internet, supply chain coordination was hampered by the difficulties of making information flow smoothly among disparate internal supply chain systems for purchasing, materials management, manufacturing, and distribution. It was also difficult to share information with external supply chain partners because the systems of suppliers, distributors, or logistics providers were based on incompatible technology platforms and standards. Enterprise and supply chain management systems enhanced with Internet technology supply some of this integration.
A manager will use a Web interface to tap into suppliers’ systems to determine whether inventory and production capabilities match demand for the firm’s products. Business partners will use Web-based supply chain management tools to collaborate online on forecasts. Sales representatives will access suppliers’ production schedules and logistics information to monitor customers’ order status.
Global Supply Chain Issues
More and more companies are entering international markets, outsourcing manufacturing operations, and obtaining supplies from other countries as well as selling abroad. Their supply chains extend across multiple countries and regions. There are additional complexities and challenges to managing a global supply chain.
Global supply chains typically span greater geographic distances and time differences than domestic supply chains and have participants from a number of different countries. Although the purchase price of many goods might be lower abroad, there are often additional costs for transportation, inventory (the need for a larger buffer of safety stock), and local taxes or fees. Performance standards may vary from region to region or from nation to nation. Supply chain management may need to reflect foreign government regulations and cultural differences. All of these factors impact how a company takes orders, plans distribution, sizes warehousing, and manages inbound and outbound logistics throughout the global markets it services.
The Internet helps companies manage many aspects of their global supply chains, including sourcing, transportation, communications, and international finance. Today's apparel industry, for example, relies heavily on outsourcing to contract manufacturers in China and other low-wage countries. Apparel companies are starting to use the Web to manage their global supply chain and production issues.
For example, Koret of California, a subsidiary of apparel maker Kellwood Co., uses e-SPS Web-based software to gain end-to-end visibility into its entire global supply chain. E-SPS features Web-based software for sourcing, work-in-progress tracking, production routing, product-development tracking, problem identification and collaboration, delivery-date projections, and production-related inquiries and reports.
As goods are being sourced, produced, and shipped, communication is required among retailers, manufacturers, contractors, agents, and logistics providers. Many, especially smaller companies, still share product information over the phone, via e-mail, or through faxes. These methods slow down the supply chain and also increase errors and uncertainty. With e-SPS, all supply chain members communicate through a Web-based system. If one of Koret's vendors makes a change in the status of a product, everyone in the supply chain sees the change.
In addition to contract manufacturing, globalization has encouraged outsourcing warehouse management, transportation management, and related operations to third-party logistics providers, such as UPS Supply Chain Solutions and Schneider Logistics Services. These logistics services offer Web-based software to give their customers a better view of their global supply chains. Customers are able to check a secure Web site to monitor inventory and shipments, helping them run their global supply chains more efficiently.
**Demand-Driven Supply Chains: From Push to Pull Manufacturing and Efficient Customer Response**
In addition to reducing costs, supply chain management systems facilitate efficient customer response, enabling the workings of the business to be driven more by customer demand. (We introduced efficient customer response systems in Chapter 3.)
Earlier supply chain management systems were driven by a push-based model (also known as build-to-stock). In a **push-based model**, production master schedules are based on forecasts or best guesses of demand for products, and products are "pushed" to customers. With new flows of information made possible by Web-based tools, supply chain management more easily follows a pull-based model. In a **pull-based model**, also known as a demand-driven model or build-to-order, actual customer orders or purchases trigger events in the supply chain. Transactions to produce and deliver only what customers have ordered move up the supply chain from retailers to distributors.
to manufacturers and eventually to suppliers. Only products to fulfill these orders move back down the supply chain to the retailer. Manufacturers use only actual order demand information to drive their production schedules and the procurement of components or raw materials, as illustrated in Figure 9-4. Walmart’s continuous replenishment system described in Chapter 3 is an example of the pull-based model.
The Internet and Internet technology make it possible to move from sequential supply chains, where information and materials flow sequentially from company to company, to concurrent supply chains, where information flows in many directions simultaneously among members of a supply chain network. Complex supply networks of manufacturers, logistics suppliers, outsourced manufacturers, retailers, and distributors are able to adjust immediately to changes in schedules or orders. Ultimately, the Internet could create a “digital logistics nervous system” throughout the supply chain (see Figure 9-5).
**BUSINESS VALUE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS**
You have just seen how supply chain management systems enable firms to streamline both their internal and external supply chain processes and provide management with more accurate information about what to produce, store, and move. By implementing a networked and integrated supply chain management system, companies match supply to demand, reduce inventory levels, improve delivery service, speed product time to market, and use assets more effectively.
Total supply chain costs represent the majority of operating expenses for many businesses and in some industries approach 75 percent of the total operating budget. Reducing supply chain costs may have a major impact on firm profitability.
In addition to reducing costs, supply chain management systems help increase sales. If a product is not available when a customer wants it, customers often try to purchase it from someone else. More precise control of the supply chain enhances the firm’s ability to have the right product available for customer purchases at the right time.
**FIGURE 9-4** PUSH- VERSUS PULL-BASED SUPPLY CHAIN MODELS
*The difference between push- and pull-based models is summarized by the slogan “Make what we sell, not sell what we make.”*
The future Internet-driven supply chain operates like a digital logistics nervous system. It provides multidirectional communication among firms, networks of firms, and e-marketplaces so that entire networks of supply chain partners can immediately adjust inventories, orders, and capacities.
### 9.3 Customer Relationship Management Systems
You’ve probably heard phrases such as “the customer is always right” or “the customer comes first.” Today these words ring more true than ever. Because competitive advantage based on an innovative new product or service is often very short lived, companies are realizing that their only enduring competitive strength may be their relationships with their customers. Some say that the basis of competition has switched from who sells the most products and services to who “owns” the customer, and that customer relationships represent a firm’s most valuable asset.
### What Is Customer Relationship Management?
What kinds of information would you need to build and nurture strong, long-lasting relationships with customers? You’d want to know exactly who your customers are, how to contact them, whether they are costly to service and sell to, what kinds of products and services they are interested in, and how much money they spend on your company. If you could, you’d want to make sure you knew each of your customers well, as if you were running a small-town store. And you’d want to make your good customers feel special.
In a small business operating in a neighborhood, it is possible for business owners and managers to really know their customers on a personal, face-to-face basis. But in a large business operating on a metropolitan, regional, national, or even global basis, it is impossible to “know your customer” in this intimate way. In these kinds of businesses there are too many customers and too many different ways that customers interact with the firm (over the Web, the phone,
fax, and in person). It becomes especially difficult to integrate information from all these sources and to deal with the large numbers of customers.
A large business's processes for sales, service, and marketing tend to be highly compartmentalized, and these departments do not share much essential customer information. Some information on a specific customer might be stored and organized in terms of that person's account with the company. Other pieces of information about the same customer might be organized by products that were purchased. There is no way to consolidate all of this information to provide a unified view of a customer across the company.
This is where customer relationship management systems help. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems, which we introduced in Chapter 2, capture and integrate customer data from all over the organization, consolidate the data, analyze the data, and then distribute the results to various systems and customer touch points across the enterprise. A **touch point** (also known as a contact point) is a method of interaction with the customer, such as telephone, e-mail, customer service desk, conventional mail, Web site, wireless device, or retail store.
Well-designed CRM systems provide a single enterprise view of customers that is useful for improving both sales and customer service. Such systems likewise provide customers with a single view of the company regardless of what touch point the customer uses (see Figure 9-6).
Good CRM systems provide data and analytical tools for answering questions such as these: "What is the value of a particular customer to the firm over his or her lifetime?" "Who are our most loyal customers?" (It can cost six times more to sell to a new customer than to an existing customer.) "Who are our most profitable customers?" and "What do these profitable customers want to buy?" Firms use the answers to these questions to acquire new customers, provide better service and support to existing customers, customize their offerings more precisely to customer preferences, and provide ongoing value to retain profitable customers.
**FIGURE 9-6 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)**
CRM systems examine customers from a multifaceted perspective. These systems use a set of integrated applications to address all aspects of the customer relationship, including customer service, sales, and marketing.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Commercial CRM software packages range from niche tools that perform limited functions, such as personalizing Web sites for specific customers, to large-scale enterprise applications that capture myriad interactions with customers, analyze them with sophisticated reporting tools, and link to other major enterprise applications, such as supply chain management and enterprise systems. The more comprehensive CRM packages contain modules for **partner relationship management (PRM)** and **employee relationship management (ERM)**.
PRM uses many of the same data, tools, and systems as customer relationship management to enhance collaboration between a company and its selling partners. If a company does not sell directly to customers but rather works through distributors or retailers, PRM helps these channels sell to customers directly. It provides a company and its selling partners with the ability to trade information and distribute leads and data about customers, integrating lead generation, pricing, promotions, order configurations, and availability. It also provides a firm with tools to assess its partners’ performances so it can make sure its best partners receive the support they need to close more business.
ERM software deals with employee issues that are closely related to CRM, such as setting objectives, employee performance management, performance-based compensation, and employee training. Major CRM application software vendors include Oracle-owned Siebel Systems and PeopleSoft, SAP, Salesforce.com, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Customer relationship management systems typically provide software and online tools for sales, customer service, and marketing. We briefly describe some of these capabilities.
**Sales Force Automation (SFA)**
Sales force automation modules in CRM systems help sales staff increase their productivity by focusing sales efforts on the most profitable customers, those who are good candidates for sales and services. CRM systems provide sales prospect and contact information, product information, product configuration capabilities, and sales quote generation capabilities. Such software can assemble information about a particular customer’s past purchases to help the salesperson make personalized recommendations. CRM software enables sales, marketing, and delivery departments to easily share customer and prospect information. It increases each salesperson’s efficiency in reducing the cost per sale as well as the cost of acquiring new customers and retaining old ones. CRM software also has capabilities for sales forecasting, territory management, and team selling.
**Customer Service**
Customer service modules in CRM systems provide information and tools to increase the efficiency of call centers, help desks, and customer support staff. They have capabilities for assigning and managing customer service requests.
One such capability is an appointment or advice telephone line: When a customer calls a standard phone number, the system routes the call to the correct service person, who inputs information about that customer into the system only once. Once the customer’s data are in the system, any service representative can handle the customer relationship. Improved access to consistent and accurate customer information help call centers handle more calls per day and decrease the duration of each call. Thus, call centers and customer service groups achieve greater productivity, reduced transaction
time, and higher quality of service at lower cost. The customer is happier because he or she spends less time on the phone restating his or her problem to customer service representatives.
CRM systems may also include Web-based self-service capabilities: The company Web site can be set up to provide inquiring customers personalized support information as well as the option to contact customer service staff by phone for additional assistance.
**Marketing**
CRM systems support direct-marketing campaigns by providing capabilities for capturing prospect and customer data, for providing product and service information, for qualifying leads for targeted marketing, and for scheduling and tracking direct-marketing mailings or e-mail (see Figure 9-7). Marketing modules also include tools for analyzing marketing and customer data, identifying profitable and unprofitable customers, designing products and services to satisfy specific customer needs and interests, and identifying opportunities for cross-selling.
**Cross-selling** is the marketing of complementary products to customers. (For example, in financial services, a customer with a checking account might be sold a money market account or a home improvement loan.) CRM tools also help firms manage and execute marketing campaigns at all stages, from planning to determining the rate of success for each campaign.
Figure 9-8 illustrates the most important capabilities for sales, service, and marketing processes that would be found in major CRM software products. Like enterprise software, this software is business-process driven, incorporating hundreds of business processes thought to represent best practices in each of these areas. To achieve maximum benefit, companies need to revise and model their business processes to conform to the best-practice business processes in the CRM software.
Figure 9-9 illustrates how a best practice for increasing customer loyalty through customer service might be modeled by CRM software. Directly
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**FIGURE 9-7 HOW CRM SYSTEMS SUPPORT MARKETING**
Responses by Channel for January 2011 Promotional Campaign
- **Direct Mail**: 29.2%
- **Telephone**: 30.8%
- **Web**: 16.0%
- **E-mail**: 17.3%
- **Cell Phone Text Message**: 6.7%
Customer relationship management software provides a single point for users to manage and evaluate marketing campaigns across multiple channels, including e-mail, direct mail, telephone, the Web, and wireless messages.
The major CRM software products support business processes in sales, service, and marketing, integrating customer information from many different sources. Included are support for both the operational and analytical aspects of CRM.
This process map shows how a best practice for promoting customer loyalty through customer service would be modeled by customer relationship management software. The CRM software helps firms identify high-value customers for preferential treatment.
servicing customers provides firms with opportunities to increase customer retention by singling out profitable long-term customers for preferential treatment. CRM software can assign each customer a score based on that person's value and loyalty to the company and provide that information to help call centers route each customer's service request to agents who can best handle that customer's needs. The system would automatically provide the service agent with a detailed profile of that customer that includes his or her score for value and loyalty. The service agent would use this information to present special offers or additional service to the customer to encourage the customer to keep transacting business with the company. You will find more information on other best-practice business processes in CRM systems in our Learning Tracks.
**OPERATIONAL AND ANALYTICAL CRM**
All of the applications we have just described support either the operational or analytical aspects of customer relationship management. **Operational CRM** includes customer-facing applications, such as tools for sales force automation, call center and customer service support, and marketing automation. **Analytical CRM** includes applications that analyze customer data generated by operational CRM applications to provide information for improving business performance.
Analytical CRM applications are based on data warehouses that consolidate the data from operational CRM systems and customer touch points for use with online analytical processing (OLAP), data mining, and other data analysis techniques (see Chapter 6). Customer data collected by the organization might be combined with data from other sources, such as customer lists for direct-marketing campaigns purchased from other companies or demographic data. Such data are analyzed to identify buying patterns, to create segments for targeted marketing, and to pinpoint profitable and unprofitable customers (see Figure 9-10).
**FIGURE 9-10** **ANALYTICAL CRM DATA WAREHOUSE**
Analytical CRM uses a customer data warehouse and tools to analyze customer data collected from the firm’s customer touch points and from other sources.
Another important output of analytical CRM is the customer’s lifetime value to the firm. **Customer lifetime value (CLTV)** is based on the relationship between the revenue produced by a specific customer, the expenses incurred in acquiring and servicing that customer, and the expected life of the relationship between the customer and the company.
**BUSINESS VALUE OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS**
Companies with effective customer relationship management systems realize many benefits, including increased customer satisfaction, reduced direct-marketing costs, more effective marketing, and lower costs for customer acquisition and retention. Information from CRM systems increases sales revenue by identifying the most profitable customers and segments for focused marketing and cross-selling.
Customer churn is reduced as sales, service, and marketing better respond to customer needs. The **churn rate** measures the number of customers who stop using or purchasing products or services from a company. It is an important indicator of the growth or decline of a firm’s customer base.
### 9.4 ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS: NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Many firms have implemented enterprise systems and systems for supply chain management and customer relationship because they are such powerful instruments for achieving operational excellence and enhancing decision making. But precisely because they are so powerful in changing the way the organization works, they are challenging to implement. Let’s briefly examine some of these challenges, as well as new ways of obtaining value from these systems.
**ENTERPRISE APPLICATION CHALLENGES**
Promises of dramatic reductions in inventory costs, order-to-delivery time, as well as more efficient customer response and higher product and customer profitability make enterprise systems and systems for supply chain management and customer relationship management very alluring. But to obtain this value, you must clearly understand how your business has to change to use these systems effectively.
Enterprise applications involve complex pieces of software that are very expensive to purchase and implement. It might take a large Fortune 500 company several years to complete a large-scale implementation of an enterprise system or a system for SCM or CRM. The total cost for an average large system implementation based on SAP or Oracle software, including software, database tools, consulting fees, personnel costs, training, and perhaps hardware costs, runs over $12 million. The implementation cost of a enterprise system for a small or mid-sized company based on software from a “Tier II” vendor such as Epicor or Lawson averages $3.5 million. (Wailgum, 2009).
Enterprise applications require not only deep-seated technological changes but also fundamental changes in the way the business operates. Companies
must make sweeping changes to their business processes to work with the software. Employees must accept new job functions and responsibilities. They must learn how to perform a new set of work activities and understand how the information they enter into the system can affect other parts of the company. This requires new organizational learning.
Supply chain management systems require multiple organizations to share information and business processes. Each participant in the system may have to change some of its processes and the way it uses information to create a system that best serves the supply chain as a whole.
Some firms experienced enormous operating problems and losses when they first implemented enterprise applications because they didn’t understand how much organizational change was required. For example, Kmart had trouble getting products to store shelves when it first implemented i2 Technologies supply chain management software in July 2000. The i2 software did not work well with Kmart’s promotion-driven business model, which created sharp spikes in drops in demand for products. Overstock.com’s order tracking system went down for a full week in October 2005 when the company replaced a home-grown system with an Oracle enterprise system. The company rushed to implement the software, and did not properly synchronize the Oracle software’s process for recording customer refunds with its accounts receivable system. These problems contributed to a third-quarter loss of $14.5 million that year.
Enterprise applications also introduce “switching costs.” Once you adopt an enterprise application from a single vendor, such as SAP, Oracle, or others, it is very costly to switch vendors, and your firm becomes dependent on the vendor to upgrade its product and maintain your installation.
Enterprise applications are based on organization-wide definitions of data. You’ll need to understand exactly how your business uses its data and how the data would be organized in a customer relationship management, supply chain management, or enterprise system. CRM systems typically require some data cleansing work.
Enterprise software vendors are addressing these problems by offering pared-down versions of their software and “fast-start” programs for small and medium-sized businesses and best-practice guidelines for larger companies. Our Interactive Session on Technology describes how on-demand and cloud-based tools deal with this problem as well.
Companies adopting enterprise applications can also save time and money by keeping customizations to the minimum. For example, Kennametal, a $2 billion metal-cutting tools company in Pennsylvania, had spent $10 million over 13 years maintaining an ERP system with over 6,400 customizations. The company is now replacing it with a “plain vanilla,” non-customized-version of SAP enterprise software and changing its business processes to conform to the software (Johnson, 2010).
**NEXT-GENERATION ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS**
Today, enterprise application vendors are delivering more value by becoming more flexible, Web-enabled, and capable of integration with other systems. Standalone enterprise systems, customer relationship systems, and supply chain management systems are becoming a thing of the past.
The major enterprise software vendors have created what they call *enterprise solutions*, *enterprise suites*, or *e-business suites* to make their customer relationship management, supply chain management, and enterprise systems work closely with each other, and link to systems of customers and suppliers. SAP Business Suite, Oracle’s e-Business Suite, and Microsoft’s Dynamics suite (aimed at mid-sized companies) are examples, and they now utilize Web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA, see Chapter 5).
SAP’s next-generation enterprise applications are based on its enterprise service-oriented architecture. It incorporates service-oriented architecture (SOA) standards and uses its NetWeaver tool as an integration platform linking SAP’s own applications and Web services developed by independent software vendors. The goal is to make enterprise applications easier to implement and manage.
For example, the current version of SAP enterprise software combines key applications in finance, logistics and procurement, and human resources administration into a core ERP component. Businesses then extend these applications by linking to function-specific Web services such as employee recruiting or collections management provided by SAP and other vendors. SAP provides over 500 Web services through its Web site.
Oracle also has included SOA and business process management capabilities into its Fusion middleware products. Businesses can use Oracle tools to customize Oracle’s applications without breaking the entire application.
Next-generation enterprise applications also include open source and on-demand solutions. Compared to commercial enterprise application software, open source products such as Compiere, Apache Open for Business (OFBiz), and Openbravo are not as mature, nor do they include as much support. However, companies such as small manufacturers are choosing this option because there are no software licensing fees and fees are based on usage. (Support and customization for open source products cost extra.)
SAP now offers an on-demand enterprise software solution called Business ByDesign for small and medium-sized businesses in select countries. For large businesses, SAP’s on-site software is the only version available. SAP is, however, hosting function-specific applications (such as e-sourcing and expense management) available by subscription that integrate with customers’ on-site SAP Business Suite systems.
The most explosive growth in software as a service (SaaS) offerings has been for customer relationship management. Salesforce.com has been the leader in hosted CRM solutions, but Oracle and SAP have also developed SaaS capabilities. SaaS and cloud-based versions of enterprise systems are starting to be offered by vendors such as NetSuite and Plex Online. Compiere sells both cloud and on-premise versions of its ERP systems. Use of cloud-based enterprise applications is starting to take off, as discussed in the Interactive Session on Technology.
The major enterprise application vendors also offer portions of their products that work on mobile handhelds. You can find out more about this topic in our Learning Track on Wireless Applications for Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, and Healthcare.
Salesforce.com and Oracle have added Web 2.0 capabilities that enable organizations to identify new ideas more rapidly, improve team productivity, and deepen interactions with customers. For example, Salesforce Ideas enables subscribers to harness the “wisdom of crowds” by allowing their customers to submit and discuss new ideas. Dell Computer deployed this technology as Dell IdeaStorm (dellideastorm.com) to encourage its customers to suggest and vote on new concepts and feature changes in Dell products.
ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS MOVE TO THE CLOUD
You've already read about Salesforce.com in this book. It's the most successful enterprise-scale software as a service (SaaS). Until recently, there were few other SaaS enterprise software applications available on the Internet. Today, that's changed, as a growing number of cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) application providers enter this marketplace. While traditional enterprise software vendors like Oracle are using their well-established position to grab a share of the cloud-based application market, newcomers like RightNow, Compiere, and SugarCRM have found success using some different tactics.
Most companies interested in cloud computing are small to midsize and lack the know-how or financial resources to successfully build and maintain ERP and CRM applications in-house. Others are simply looking to cut costs by moving their applications to the cloud. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), about 3.2 percent of U.S. small businesses, or about 230,000 businesses, use cloud services. Small-business spending on cloud services increased by 36.2 percent in 2010 to $2.4 billion.
Even larger companies have made the switch to the cloud. For example, camera manufacturer Nikon decided to go with a cloud-based solution as it attempted to merge customer data from 25 disparate sources and applications into a single system. Company officials were hoping to eliminate maintenance and administrative costs, but not at the expense of a storage system that met their requirements, was never out of service, and worked perfectly.
Nikon found its solution with RightNow, a cloud-based CRM provider located in Bozeman, Montana. The company was founded in 1997 and has attracted firms intrigued by its customizable applications, impeccable customer service, and robust infrastructure. Prices start at $110 per user per month and the average deployment time is 45 days.
Nikon had been using several different systems to perform business functions, and was struggling to merge customer data located in a variety of legacy systems. While looking for vendors to help implement a Web-based FAQ system to answer customer questions and provide support on the basis of these data, the company came across RightNow. Nikon found that not only did RightNow have the capability to implement that system, but it also had an array of other useful services. When Nikon discovered that it could combine outbound e-mail, contact management, and customer records into a single system in RightNow's cloud, it made the move, expecting to receive a solid return on the investment.
What Nikon got was far more than expected: an astonishing 3,200 percent return on investment (ROI), equivalent to a savings of $14 million after three years! The FAQ system reduced the number of incoming calls to Nikon's customer service staff. More customers found the information they needed on the Web, call response times dropped by 50 percent, and incoming e-mail dropped by 70 percent. While Nikon still hosts its SAP ERP system internally due to its complexity, Nikon switched its entire CRM system to RightNow.
Not all companies experience gains of that magnitude, and cloud computing does have drawbacks. Many companies are concerned about maintaining control of their data and security. Although cloud computing companies are prepared to handle these issues, availability assurances and service-level agreements are uncommon. Companies that manage their CRM apps with a cloud infrastructure have no guarantees that their data will be available at all times, or even that the provider will still exist in the future.
Many smaller companies have taken advantage of a new type of cloud computing known as open source cloud computing. Under this model, cloud vendors make the source code of their applications available to their customers and allow them to make any changes they want on their own. This differs from the traditional model, where cloud vendors offer applications which are customizable, but not at the source code level.
For example, Jerry Skaare, president of O-So-Pure (OSP), a manufacturer of ultraviolet water purification systems, selected the Compiere Cloud Edition versions of ERP software hosted on the Amazon EC2 Cloud virtual environment. OSP had long outgrown its existing ERP system and was held back by inefficient, outdated processes in accounting, inventory, manufacturing, and e-commerce. Compiere ERP provides a complete end-to-end ERP solution that automates processes from accounting
to purchasing, order fulfillment, manufacturing, and warehousing.
Compiere uses a model-driven platform that stores business logic in an applications dictionary rather than being hard-coded into software programs. Firms using Compiere are able to customize their applications by creating, modifying, or deleting business logic in the applications dictionary without extensive programming. In contrast to traditional ERP systems that encourage subscribers to modify their business processes to conform to the software, Compiere encourages its subscribers to customize its system to match their unique business needs.
The fact that the Compiere software is open source also makes it easier for users to modify. OSP was attracted to this feature, along with the robust functionality, scalability, and low cost, of the Compiere ERP Cloud Edition. Skaare said that he was comfortable that “the little idiosyncrasies of my company” could be handled by the software. Though Skaare is unlikely to make any changes himself, it’s important for him to know that his staff has the option to tweak OSP’s ERP applications. Open source cloud computing provides companies that flexibility.
Not to be outdone, established CRM companies like Oracle have moved into SaaS. Pricing starts at $70 per month per user. Oracle may have an edge because its CRM system has so many capabilities and includes embedded tools for forecasting and analytics, including interactive dashboards. Subscribers are able to use these tools to answer questions such as “How efficient is your sales effort?” or “How much are your customers spending?”
Bryant & Stratton College, a pioneer in career education, used Oracle CRM On Demand to create more successful marketing campaigns. Bryant & Stratton analyzed past campaigns for tech-savvy recent high school graduates, as well as older, non-traditional students returning to school later in life. Oracle CRM On Demand tracked advertising to prospective students and determined accurate costs for each lead, admissions application, and registered attending student. This information helped the school determine the true value of each type of marketing program.
Sources: Marta Bright, “Know Who. Know How.” *Oracle Magazine*, January/February 2010; Brad Stone, “Companies Slowly Join Cloud-Computing,” *The New York Times*, April 28, 2010; and Esther Shein, “Open-source CRM and ERP: New Kids on the Cloud,” *Computerworld*, October 30, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What types of companies are most likely to adopt cloud-based ERP and CRM software services? Why? What companies might not be well-suited for this type of software?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using cloud-based enterprise applications?
3. What management, organization, and technology issues should be addressed in deciding whether to use a conventional ERP or CRM system versus a cloud-based version?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Visit the Web site of RightNow, Compiere, or another competing company offering a cloud-based version of ERP or CRM. Then answer the following questions:
1. What kinds of open source offerings does the company have, if any? Describe some of the features.
2. Toward what types of companies is the company marketing its services?
3. What other services does the company offer?
Enterprise application vendors have also beefed up their business intelligence features to help managers obtain more meaningful information from the massive amounts of data generated by these systems. Rather than requiring users to leave an application and launch separate reporting and analytics tools, the vendors are starting to embed analytics within the context of the application itself. They are also offering complementary analytics products, such as SAP Business Objects and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. We discuss business intelligence analytics in greater detail in Chapter 12.
Service Platforms
Another way of extending enterprise applications is to use them to create service platforms for new or improved business processes that integrate information from multiple functional areas. These enterprise-wide service platforms provide a greater degree of cross-functional integration than the traditional enterprise applications. A **service platform** integrates multiple applications from multiple business functions, business units, or business partners to deliver a seamless experience for the customer, employee, manager, or business partner.
For instance, the order-to-cash process involves receiving an order and seeing it all the way through obtaining payment for the order. This process begins with lead generation, marketing campaigns, and order entry, which are typically supported by CRM systems. Once the order is received, manufacturing is scheduled and parts availability is verified—processes that are usually supported by enterprise software. The order then is handled by processes for distribution planning, warehousing, order fulfillment, and shipping, which are usually supported by supply chain management systems. Finally, the order is billed to the customer, which is handled by either enterprise financial applications or accounts receivable. If the purchase at some point required customer service, customer relationship management systems would again be invoked.
A service such as order-to-cash requires data from enterprise applications and financial systems to be further integrated into an enterprise-wide composite process. To accomplish this, firms need software tools that use existing applications as building blocks for new cross-enterprise processes (see Figure 9-11). Enterprise application vendors provide middleware and tools that use XML and Web services for integrating enterprise applications with older legacy applications and systems from other vendors.
**FIGURE 9-11 ORDER-TO-CASH SERVICE**
Order-to-cash is a composite process that integrates data from individual enterprise systems and legacy financial applications. The process must be modeled and translated into a software system using application integration tools.
Increasingly, these new services will be delivered through portals. Portal software can integrate information from enterprise applications and disparate in-house legacy systems, presenting it to users through a Web interface so that the information appears to be coming from a single source. For example, Valero Energy, North America's largest refiner, used SAP NetWeaver Portal to create a service for wholesale clients to view their account information all at once. SAP NetWeaver Portal provides an interface to clients' invoice, price, electronic funds, and credit card transaction data stored in SAP's customer relationship management system data warehouse as well as in non-SAP systems.
9.5 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience analyzing business process integration, suggesting supply chain management and customer relationship management applications, using database software to manage customer service requests, and evaluating supply chain management business services.
Management Decision Problems
1. Toronto-based Mercedes-Benz Canada, with a network of 55 dealers, did not know enough about its customers. Dealers provided customer data to the company on an ad hoc basis. Mercedes did not force dealers to report this information, and its process for tracking dealers that failed to report was cumbersome. There was no real incentive for dealers to share information with the company. How could CRM and partner relationship management (PRM) systems help solve this problem?
2. Office Depot sells a wide range of office products and services in the United States and internationally, including general office supplies, computer supplies, business machines (and related supplies), and office furniture. The company tries to offer a wider range of office supplies at lower cost than other retailers by using just-in-time replenishment and tight inventory control systems. It uses information from a demand forecasting system and point-of-sale data to replenish its inventory in its 1,600 retail stores. Explain how these systems help Office Depot minimize costs and any other benefits they provide. Identify and describe other supply chain management applications that would be especially helpful to Office Depot.
Improving Decision Making: Using Database Software to Manage Customer Service Requests
Software skills: Database design; querying and reporting
Business skills: Customer service analysis
In this exercise, you'll use database software to develop an application that tracks customer service requests and analyzes customer data to identify customers meriting priority treatment.
Prime Service is a large service company that provides maintenance and repair services for close to 1,200 commercial businesses in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Its customers include businesses of all sizes. Customers with service needs call into its customer service department with requests for repairing heating ducts, broken windows, leaky roofs, broken water pipes, and other problems. The company assigns each request a number and
writes down the service request number, identification number of the customer account, the date of the request, the type of equipment requiring repair, and a brief description of the problem. The service requests are handled on a first-come-first-served basis. After the service work has been completed, Prime calculates the cost of the work, enters the price on the service request form, and bills the client.
Management is not happy with this arrangement because the most important and profitable clients—those with accounts of more than $70,000—are treated no differently from its clients with small accounts. It would like to find a way to provide its best customers with better service. Management would also like to know which types of service problems occur most frequently so that it can make sure it has adequate resources to address them.
Prime Service has a small database with client account information, which can be found in MyMISLab. A sample is shown above, but the Web site may have a more recent version of this database for this exercise. The database table includes fields for the account ID, company (account) name, street address, city, state, ZIP code, account size (in dollars), contact last name, contact first name, and contact telephone number. The contact is the name of the person in each company who is responsible for contacting Prime about maintenance and repair work.
Use your database software to design a solution that would enable Prime’s customer service representatives to identify the most important customers so that they could receive priority service. Your solution will require more than one table. Populate your database with at least 15 service requests. Create several reports that would be of interest to management, such as a list of the highest—and lowest—priority accounts or a report showing the most frequently occurring service problems. Create a report listing service calls that customer service representatives should respond to first on a specific date.
**Achieving Operational Excellence: Evaluating Supply Chain Management Services**
*Software skills:* Web browser and presentation software
*Business skills:* Evaluating supply chain management services
Trucking companies no longer merely carry goods from one place to another. Some also provide supply chain management services to their customers and help them manage their information. In this project, you’ll use the Web to research and evaluate two of these business services.
Investigate the Web sites of two companies, UPS Logistics and Schneider Logistics, to see how these companies’ services can be used for supply chain management. Then respond to the following questions:
- What supply chain processes can each of these companies support for their clients?
• How can customers use the Web sites of each company to help them with supply chain management?
• Compare the supply chain management services provided by these companies. Which company would you select to help your firm manage its supply chain? Why?
**Learning Track Modules**
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. SAP Business Process Map
2. Business Processes in Supply Chain Management and Supply Chain Metrics
3. Best-Practice Business Processes in CRM Software
**Review Summary**
1. **How do enterprise systems help businesses achieve operational excellence?**
Enterprise software is based on a suite of integrated software modules and a common central database. The database collects data from and feeds the data into numerous applications that can support nearly all of an organization’s internal business activities. When new information is entered by one process, the information is made available immediately to other business processes.
Enterprise systems support organizational centralization by enforcing uniform data standards and business processes throughout the company and a single unified technology platform. The firmwide data generated by enterprise systems helps managers evaluate organizational performance.
2. **How do supply chain management systems coordinate planning, production, and logistics with suppliers?**
Supply chain management systems automate the flow of information among members of the supply chain so they can use it to make better decisions about when and how much to purchase, produce, or ship. More accurate information from supply chain management systems reduces uncertainty and the impact of the bullwhip effect.
Supply chain management software includes software for supply chain planning and for supply chain execution. Internet technology facilitates the management of global supply chains by providing the connectivity for organizations in different countries to share supply chain information. Improved communication among supply chain members also facilitates efficient customer response and movement toward a demand-driven model.
3. **How do customer relationship management systems help firms achieve customer intimacy?**
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems integrate and automate customer-facing processes in sales, marketing, and customer service, providing an enterprise-wide view of customers. Companies can use this knowledge when they interact with customers to provide them with better service or to sell
new products and services. These systems also identify profitable or nonpro-
fitable customers or opportunities to reduce the churn rate.
The major customer relationship management software packages provide
capabilities for both operational CRM and analytical CRM. They often include
modules for managing relationships with selling partners (partner relationship
management) and for employee relationship management.
4. **What are the challenges posed by enterprise applications?**
Enterprise applications are difficult to implement. They require extensive
organizational change, large new software investments, and careful assessment
of how these systems will enhance organizational performance. Enterprise
applications cannot provide value if they are implemented atop flawed
processes or if firms do not know how to use these systems to measure perfor-
mance improvements. Employees require training to prepare for new proce-
dures and roles. Attention to data management is essential.
5. **How are enterprise applications used in platforms for new cross-functional
services?**
Service platforms integrate data and processes from the various enterprise
applications (customer relationship management, supply chain manage-
ment, and enterprise systems), as well as from disparate legacy applications
to create new composite business processes. Web services tie various
systems together. The new services are delivered through enterprise portals,
which can integrate disparate applications so that information appears to be
coming from a single source. Open source, mobile, and cloud versions of
some of these products are becoming available.
**Key Terms**
- **Analytical CRM**, 354
- **Bullwhip effect**, 342
- **Churn rate**, 355
- **Cross-selling**, 352
- **Customer lifetime value (CLTV)**, 355
- **Demand planning**, 344
- **Employee relationship management (ERM)**, 351
- **Enterprise software**, 338
- **Just-in-time strategy**, 342
- **Operational CRM**, 354
- **Partner relationship management (PRM)**, 351
- **Pull-based model**, 347
- **Push-based model**, 347
- **Service platform**, 360
- **Supply chain**, 340
- **Supply chain execution systems**, 344
- **Supply chain planning systems**, 344
- **Touch point**, 350
**Review Questions**
1. How do enterprise systems help businesses achieve operational excellence?
- Define an enterprise system and explain how enterprise software works.
- Describe how enterprise systems provide value for a business.
2. How do supply chain management systems coordinate planning, production, and logistics with suppliers?
- Define a supply chain and identify each of its components.
- Explain how supply chain management systems help reduce the bullwhip effect and how they provide value for a business.
- Define and compare supply chain planning systems and supply chain execution systems.
- Describe the challenges of global supply chains and how Internet technology can help companies manage them better.
• Distinguish between a push-based and pull-based model of supply chain management and explain how contemporary supply chain management systems facilitate a pull-based model.
3. How do customer relationship management systems help firms achieve customer intimacy?
• Define customer relationship management and explain why customer relationships are so important today.
• Describe how partner relationship management (PRM) and employee relationship management (ERM) are related to customer relationship management (CRM).
• Describe the tools and capabilities of customer relationship management software for sales, marketing, and customer service.
4. What are the challenges posed by enterprise applications?
• List and describe the challenges posed by enterprise applications.
• Explain how these challenges can be addressed.
5. How are enterprise applications used in platforms for new cross-functional services?
• Define a service platform and describe the tools for integrating data from enterprise applications.
• How are enterprise applications taking advantage of cloud computing, wireless technology, Web 2.0, and open source technology?
Discussion Questions
1. Supply chain management is less about managing the physical movement of goods and more about managing information. Discuss the implications of this statement.
2. If a company wants to implement an enterprise application, it had better do its homework. Discuss the implications of this statement.
3. Which enterprise application should a business install first: ERP, SCM, or CRM? Explain your answer.
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Analyzing Enterprise Application Vendors
With a group of three or four students, use the Web to research and evaluate the products of two vendors of enterprise application software. You could compare, for example, the SAP and Oracle enterprise systems, the supply chain management systems from i2 and SAP, or the customer relationship management systems of Oracle’s Siebel CRM and Salesforce.com. Use what you have learned from these companies’ Web sites to compare the software packages you have selected in terms of business functions supported, technology platforms, cost, and ease of use. Which vendor would you select? Why? Would you select the same vendor for a small business as well as a large one? If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
Border States Industries Inc., also known as Border States Electric (BSE), is a wholesale distributor for the construction, industrial, utility, and data communications markets. The company is headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, and has 57 sales offices in states along the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico as well as in South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri. BSE has 1,400 employees and is wholly employee-owned through its employee stock ownership plan. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, BSE earned revenues of over US $880 million.
BSE’s goal is to provide customers with what they need whenever they need it, including providing custom services beyond delivery of products. Thus, the company is not only a wholesale distributor but also a provider of supply chain solutions, with extensive service operations such as logistics, job-site trailers, and kitting (packaging individually separate but related items together as one unit). BSE has distribution agreements with more than 9,000 product vendors.
BSE had relied on its own legacy ERP system called Rigel since 1988 to support its core business processes. However, Rigel had been designed exclusively for electrical wholesalers, and by the mid-1990s, the system could not support BSE’s new lines of business and extensive growth.
At that point, BSE’s management decided to implement a new ERP system and selected the enterprise software from SAP AG. The ERP solution included SAP’s modules for sales and distribution, materials management, financials and controlling, and human resources.
BSE initially budgeted $6 million for the new system, with a start date of November 1, 1998. Senior management worked with IBM and SAP consulting to implement the system. Although close involvement of management was one key ingredient in the systems’ success, day-to-day operations suffered while managers were working on the project.
BSE also decided to customize the system extensively. It wrote its own software to enable the ERP system to interface automatically with systems from other vendors, including Taxware Systems, Inc., Innovis Inc., and TOPCALL International GmbH. The Taxware system enabled BSE to comply with the sales tax requirements of all the states and municipalities where it conducts business. The Innovis system supported electronic data interchange (EDI) so that BSE could electronically exchange purchase and payment transactions with its suppliers. The TOPCALL system enabled BSE to fax customers and vendors directly from the SAP system.
At the time of this implementation, BSE had no experience with SAP software, and few consultants familiar with the version of the SAP software that BSE was using. Instead of adopting the best-practice business processes embedded in the SAP software, BSE hired consultants to further customize the SAP software to make its new SAP system look like its old Rigel system in certain areas. For example, it tried to make customer invoices resemble the invoices produced by the old Rigel system.
Implementing these changes required so much customization of the SAP software that BSE had to delay the launch date for the new ERP system until February 1, 1999. By that time, continued customization and tuning raised total implementation costs to $9 million (an increase of 50 percent).
Converting and cleansing data from BSE’s legacy system took far longer than management had anticipated. The first group of “expert users” were trained too early in the project and had to be retrained when the new system finally went live. BSE never fully tested the system as it would be used in a working production environment before the system actually went live.
For the next five years, BSE continued to use its SAP ERP system successfully as it acquired several small companies and expanded its branch office infrastructure to 24 states. As the business grew further, profits and inventory turns increased. However, the Internet brought about the need for additional changes, as customers sought to transact business with BSE through an e-commerce storefront. BSE automated online credit card processing and special pricing agreements (SPAs) with designated customers. Unfortunately, the existing SAP software did not support these changes, so the company had to process thousands of SPAs manually.
To process a credit card transaction in a branch office, BSE employees had to leave their desks, walk over to a dedicated credit card processing system in the back office, manually enter the credit card numbers, wait for transaction approval, and then
return to their workstations to continue processing sales transactions.
In 2004, BSE began upgrading its ERP system to a more recent version of the SAP software. The software included new support for bills of material and kitting, which were not available in the old system. This functionality enabled BSE to provide better support to utility customers because it could prepare kits that could be delivered directly to a site.
This time the company kept customization to a minimum and used the SAP best practices for wholesale distribution embedded in the software. It also replaced TOPCALL with software from Esker for faxing and emailing outbound invoices, order acknowledgments, and purchase orders and added capabilities from Vistex Inc. to automate SPA rebate claims processing. BSE processes over 360,000 SPA claims each year, and the Vistex software enabled BSE to reduce rebate fulfillment time to 72 hours and transaction processing time by 63 percent. In the past, it took 15 to 30 days for BSE to receive rebates from vendors.
BSE budgeted $1.6 million and 4.5 months for implementation, which management believed was sufficient for a project of this magnitude. This time there were no problems. The new system went live on its target date and cost only $1.4 million to implement—14 percent below budget.
In late 2006, BSE acquired a large company that was anticipated to increase sales volume by 20 percent each year. This acquisition added 19 new branches to BSE. These new branches were able to run BSE’s SAP software within a day after the acquisition had been completed. BSE now tracks 1.5 million unique items with the software.
Since BSE first deployed SAP software in 1998, sales have increased 300 percent, profits have climbed more than 500 percent, 60 percent of accounts payable transactions take place electronically using EDI, and SPA processing has been reduced by 63 percent. The company turns over its inventory more than four times per year. Instead of waiting 15 to 20 days for monthly financial statements, monthly and year-to-date financial results are available within a day after closing the books. Manual work for handling incoming mail, preparing bank deposits, and taking checks physically to the bank has been significantly reduced. Over 60 percent of vendor invoices arrive electronically, which has reduced staff size in accounts payable and the number of transaction errors. Transaction costs are lower.
The number of full-time BSE employees did increase in the information systems area to support the SAP software. BSE had initially expected to have 3 IT staff supporting the system, but needed 8 people when the first ERP implementation went live in 1999 and 11 by 2006 to support additional SAP software and the new acquisition. BSE’s information technology (IT) costs rose by approximately $3 million per year after the first SAP implementation. However, sales expanded during the same period, so the increased overhead for the system produced a cost increase of only .5 percent of total sales.
BSE management has pointed out that much of the work that was automated by the ERP systems has been in the accounting department and involved activities that were purely transactional. This has freed up resources for adding more employees who work directly with customers trying to reduce costs and increase sales.
In the past, BSE had maintained much of its data outside its major corporate systems using PC-based Microsoft Access database and Excel spreadsheet software. Management lacked a single company-wide version of corporate data because the data were fragmented into so many different systems. Now the company is standardized on one common platform and the information is always current and available to management. Management can obtain a picture of how the entire business is performing at any moment in time. Since the SAP system makes all of BSE’s planning and budgeting data available online, management is able to make better and quicker decisions.
In 2006, Gartner Group Consultants performed an independent evaluation of BSE’s ERP implementation. Gartner interviewed top executives and analyzed BSE data on the impact of the ERP system on BSE’s business process costs, using costs as a percentage of sales as its final metric for assessing the financial impact of SAP software. Cost categories analyzed included costs of goods sold, overhead and administration, warehousing costs, IT support, and delivery.
Gartner’s analysis validated that the SAP software implementation cost from 1998 to 2001 did indeed total $9 million and that this investment was paid back by savings from the new ERP system within 2.5 years. Between 1998 and 2006, the SAP software implemented by BSE produced total savings of $30 million, approximately one-third of BSE’s cumulative earnings during the same period. As a percentage of sales, warehouse costs went down 1 percent, delivery costs decreased by .5 percent, and total overhead costs declined by 1.5 percent. Gartner calculated the total return on investment (ROI) for the project between 1998 and 2006 was $3.3 million per year, or 37 percent of the original investment.
BSE is now focusing on providing more support for Internet sales, including online ordering, inventory, order status, and invoice review, all within a SAP software environment. The company implemented SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management to provide tools to manage and maintain catalog data and prepare the data for publication online and in traditional print media. The company is using SAP’s Web Dynpro development environment to enable wireless warehouse and inventory management activities to interact with the SAP software. And it is using SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence software to learn more about customers, their buying habits, and opportunities to cross-sell and upsell products.
Sources: Border States Industries, “Operating System-SAP Software,” 2010; Jim Shepherd and Aurelie Cordier, “Wholesale Distributor Uses ERP Solution to Fuel Rapid Growth,” AMR Research, 2009; SAP AG, “Border States Industries: SAP Software Empowers Wholesale Distributor,” 2008; www.borderstateselectric.com, accessed July 7, 2009; and “Border States (BSE),” 2008 ASUG Impact Award.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What problems was Border States Industries encountering as it expanded? What management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for these problems?
2. How easy was it to develop a solution using SAP ERP software? Explain your answer.
3. List and describe the benefits from the SAP software.
4. How much did the new system solution transform the business? Explain your answer.
5. How successful was this solution for BSE? Identify and describe the metrics used to measure the success of the solution.
6. If you had been in charge of SAP’s ERP implementations, what would you have done differently?
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Chapter 10
E-commerce: Digital Markets, Digital Goods
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What are the unique features of e-commerce, digital markets, and digital goods?
2. What are the principal e-commerce business and revenue models?
3. How has e-commerce transformed marketing?
4. How has e-commerce affected business-to-business transactions?
5. What is the role of mobile commerce in business and what are the most important m-commerce applications?
6. What issues must be addressed when building an e-commerce Web site?
Interactive Sessions:
- Twitter Searches for a Business Model
- Facebook: Managing Your Privacy for Their Profit
CHAPTER OUTLINE
10.1 E-COMMERCE AND THE INTERNET
- E-commerce Today
- Why E-commerce is Different
- Key Concepts in E-commerce: Digital Markets and Digital Goods in a Global Marketplace
10.2 E-COMMERCE: BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
- Types of E-commerce
- E-commerce Business Models
- E-commerce Revenue Models
- Web 2.0: Social Networking and the Wisdom of Crowds
- E-commerce Marketing
- B2B E-commerce: New Efficiencies and Relationships
10.3 THE MOBILE DIGITAL PLATFORM AND MOBILE E-COMMERCE
- Mobile commerce Services and Applications
10.4 BUILDING AN E-COMMERCE WEB SITE
- Pieces of the Site-Building Puzzle
- Business Objectives, System Functionality, and Information Requirements
- Building the Web Site: In-House Vs. Outsourcing
10.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
- Management Decision Problems
- Improving Decision Making: Using a Spreadsheet to Analyze a Dot-Com Business
- Achieving Operational Excellence: Evaluating E-commerce Hosting Services
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
- Creating a Web Page
- E-commerce Challenges: The Story of Online Groceries
- Build an E-commerce Business Plan
- Hot New Careers in E-commerce
4Food, a new organic burger restaurant in Manhattan, opened its doors with a promise of delicious food. But what’s equally delicious are its plans to drive the business using social networking. This restaurant wants to be much more than a place to dine. It wants to be a vast social networking experience.
Inside the restaurant, located at the corner of Madison Avenue and 40th Street, a 240-square-foot monitor constantly streams Twitter tweets, restaurant information, and Foursquare check-ins. Foursquare is a Web and mobile application that allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location information. Points are awarded for “checking in” at selected restaurants, bars, and other sites. Customers see tweets and status updates and reply to them or add their own messages with their cell phones or other mobile devices using 4Food’s free Wi-Fi wireless Internet connection.
This restaurant has multiple options for placing an order. You can give your order to a restaurant employee using an iPad, or you can place the order online yourself. Naturally, 4Food has its own Facebook page, which it uses for social marketing. Tagging its Facebook wall makes you eligible to win an iPad. 4Food offered $20 worth of food to whoever was the first to tweet a picture of himself or herself in front of the restaurant’s “tag wall”—a wall in the front of the restaurant inviting people to write “tweets” using a Magic Marker. 4Food also uses social networks for hiring and to promote its “De-Junk NYC” campaign to promote innovative ideas for improving the city.
But what makes 4Food really stand out is its use of crowdsourcing for both marketing and menu development. This restaurant has an online tool for customers to invent their own sandwiches and other dishes and to give their inventions clever names. Every time someone orders an item invented by another customer, the inventor receives a $.25 in-store credit. With 4Food’s list of ingredients, millions of combinations are possible.
Some customers will no doubt use their extensive social networks to promote the burgers they invented. Those with hundreds of thousands of followers on social networks could conceivably earn free burgers for the rest of their lives if they constantly promote 4Food. All of these measures create very low-cost incentives for large numbers of customers to actively promote the restaurant. They also generate word-of-mouth “buzz” with minimal expenditure. All it takes is establishing a presence on social networks and rolling out promotions.
Will 4Food be successful? Competing with 20,000 other New York City restaurants won’t be easy. But by using social networking technology to forge ties with customers and giving those customers a stake in the success of products, 4Food hopes to have the recipe for a successful business.
Sources: Mike Elgan, “New York Burger Joint Goes Social, Mobile,” Computerworld, May 31, 2010 and www.4food.com, accessed October 22, 2010.
4Food exemplifies the new face of e-commerce. Selling physical goods on the Internet is still important, but much of the excitement and interest now centers around services and social experiences—connecting with friends and family through social networking; sharing photos, video, and music, and ideas; and using social networking to attract customers and design new products and services. 4Food’s business model relies on mobile technology and social networking tools to attract customers, take orders, promote its brand, and use customer feedback to improve its menu offerings.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. The business challenge facing 4Food is that it needs a way to stand out amid 20,000 other restaurants in New York City. E-commerce and social networking technology introduced new opportunities for linking to customers and for distinguishing products and services. 4Food’s management decided to base its business model around social technology, and make social networking part of the dining experience. 4Food uses social networking and mobile technology—including Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook—to attract customers, to process reservations, to promote its brand image, and to solicit customer feedback for improving its menu offerings. By taking advantage of social networking tools, 4Food is able to differentiate itself from other restaurants and promote the business at a very low cost.
10.1 E-COMMERCE AND THE INTERNET
Have you ever purchased music over the Web or streamed a movie? Have you ever used the Web to search for information about your sneakers before you bought them in a retail store? If so, you’ve participated in e-commerce. In 2010, 133 million adult Americans bought something online, as did millions of others worldwide. And although most purchases still take place through traditional channels, e-commerce continues to grow rapidly and to transform the way many companies do business. In 2010, e-commerce represents about 6 percent of all retail sales in the United States, and is growing at 12 percent annually (eMarketer, 2010a).
E-COMMERCE TODAY
E-commerce refers to the use of the Internet and the Web to transact business. More formally, e-commerce is about digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals. For the most part, this means transactions that occur over the Internet and the Web. Commercial transactions involve the exchange of value (e.g., money) across organizational or individual boundaries in return for products and services.
E-commerce began in 1995 when one of the first Internet portals, Netscape.com, accepted the first ads from major corporations and popularized the idea that the Web could be used as a new medium for advertising and sales. No one envisioned at the time what would turn out to be an exponential growth curve for e-commerce retail sales, which doubled and tripled in the early years. E-commerce grew at double-digit rates until the recession of 2008–2009 when growth slowed to a crawl. In 2009, e-commerce revenues were flat (Figure 10-1), not bad considering that traditional retail sales were shrinking by 5 percent annually. In fact, e-commerce during the recession was the only stable segment in retail. Some online retailers forged ahead at a record pace: Amazon’s 2009 revenues were up 25 percent over 2008 sales. Despite the recession, in 2010, the
**FIGURE 10-1 THE GROWTH OF E-COMMERCE**
Retail e-commerce revenues grew 15–25 percent per year until the recession of 2008–2009, when they slowed measurably. In 2010, e-commerce revenues are growing again at an estimated 12 percent annually.
number of online buyers increased by 6 percent to 133 million, and the average annual purchase is up 5 percent to $1,139. Amazon’s sales grew by 28 percent in the year.
Mirroring the history of many technological innovations, such as the telephone, radio, and television, the very rapid growth in e-commerce in the early years created a market bubble in e-commerce stocks. Like all bubbles, the “dot-com” bubble burst (in March 2001). A large number of e-commerce companies failed during this process. Yet for many others, such as Amazon, eBay, Expedia, and Google, the results have been more positive: soaring revenues, fine-tuned business models that produce profits, and rising stock prices. By 2006, e-commerce revenues returned to solid growth, and have continued to be the fastest growing form of retail trade in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
- Online consumer sales grew to an estimated $225 billion in 2010, an increase of more than 12 percent over 2009 (including travel services and digital downloads), with 133 million people purchasing online and 162 million shopping and gathering information but not necessarily purchasing (eMarketer, 2010a).
- The number of individuals of all ages online in the United States expanded to 221 million in 2010, up from 147 million in 2004. In the world, over 1.9 billion people are now connected to the Internet. Growth in the overall Internet population has spurred growth in e-commerce (eMarketer, 2010b).
- Approximately 80 million households have broadband access to the Internet in 2010, representing about 68 percent of all households.
- About 83 million Americans now access the Internet using a smartphone such as an iPhone, Droid, or BlackBerry. Mobile e-commerce has begun a rapid growth based on apps, ring tones, downloaded entertainment, and location-based services. In a few years, mobile phones will be the most common Internet access device.
- On an average day, an estimated 128 million adult U.S. Internet users go online. About 102 million send e-mail, 81 million use a search engine, and 71 million get news. Around 63 million use a social network, 43 million do online banking, 38 million watch an online video, and 28 million look for information on Wikipedia (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2010).
- B2B e-commerce—use of the Internet for business-to-business commerce and collaboration among business partners expanded to more than $3.6 trillion.
The e-commerce revolution is still unfolding. Individuals and businesses will increasingly use the Internet to conduct commerce as more products and services come online and households switch to broadband telecommunications. More industries will be transformed by e-commerce, including travel reservations, music and entertainment, news, software, education, and finance. Table 10-1 highlights these new e-commerce developments.
**WHY E-COMMERCE IS DIFFERENT**
Why has e-commerce grown so rapidly? The answer lies in the unique nature of the Internet and the Web. Simply put, the Internet and e-commerce technologies are much more rich and powerful than previous technology revolutions like radio, television, and the telephone. Table 10-2 describes the unique features of the Internet and Web as a commercial medium. Let's explore each of these unique features in more detail.
**Ubiquity**
In traditional commerce, a marketplace is a physical place, such as a retail store, that you visit to transact business. E-commerce is ubiquitous, meaning
that is it available just about everywhere, at all times. It makes it possible to shop from your desktop, at home, at work, or even from your car, using mobile commerce. The result is called a **marketspace**—a marketplace extended beyond traditional boundaries and removed from a temporal and geographic location.
### Table 10-1: The Growth of E-commerce
#### Business Transformation
- E-commerce remains the fastest growing form of commerce when compared to physical retail stores, services, and entertainment.
- The first wave of e-commerce transformed the business world of books, music, and air travel. In the second wave, nine new industries are facing a similar transformation scenario: marketing and advertising, telecommunications, movies, television, jewelry and luxury goods, real estate, online travel, bill payments, and software.
- The breadth of e-commerce offerings grows, especially in the services economy of social networking, travel, information clearinghouses, entertainment, retail apparel, appliances, and home furnishings.
- The online demographics of shoppers broaden to match that of ordinary shoppers.
- Pure e-commerce business models are refined further to achieve higher levels of profitability, whereas traditional retail brands, such as Sears, JCPenney, L.L.Bean, and Walmart, use e-commerce to retain their dominant retail positions.
- Small businesses and entrepreneurs continue to flood the e-commerce marketplace, often riding on the infrastructures created by industry giants, such as Amazon, Apple, and Google, and increasingly taking advantage of cloud-based computing resources.
- Mobile e-commerce begins to take off in the United States with location-based services and entertainment downloads including e-books.
#### Technology Foundations
- Wireless Internet connections (Wi-Fi, WiMax, and 3G/4G smart phones) grow rapidly.
- Powerful handheld mobile devices support music, Web surfing, and entertainment as well as voice communication. Podcasting and streaming take off as mediums for distribution of video, radio, and user-generated content.
- The Internet broadband foundation becomes stronger in households and businesses as transmission prices fall. More than 80 million households had broadband cable or DSL access to the Internet in 2010, about 68 percent of all households in the United States (eMarketer, 2010a).
- Social networking software and sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and thousands of others become a major new platform for e-commerce, marketing, and advertising. Facebook hits 500 million users worldwide, and 180 million in the United States (comScore, 2010).
- New Internet-based models of computing, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), and Web 2.0 software greatly reduce the cost of e-commerce Web sites.
#### New Business Models Emerge
- More than half the Internet user population have joined an online social network, contribute to social bookmarking sites, create blogs, and share photos. Together these sites create a massive online audience as large as television that is attractive to marketers.
- The traditional advertising business model is severely disrupted as Google and other technology players such as Microsoft and Yahoo! seek to dominate online advertising, and expand into offline ad brokerage for television and newspapers.
- Newspapers and other traditional media adopt online, interactive models but are losing advertising revenues to the online players despite gaining online readers.
- Online entertainment business models offering television, movies, music, sports, and e-books surge, with cooperation among the major copyright owners in Hollywood and New York with the Internet distributors like Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Microsoft.
### Table 10-2 Eight Unique Features of E-commerce Technology
| E-commerce Technology Dimension | Business Significance |
|----------------------------------|-----------------------|
| **Ubiquity.** Internet/Web technology is available everywhere: at work, at home, and elsewhere via mobile devices. | The marketplace is extended beyond traditional boundaries and is removed from a temporal and geographic location. “Marketspace” anytime, is created; shopping can take place anywhere. Customer convenience is enhanced, and shopping costs are reduced. |
| **Global reach.** The technology reaches across national boundaries, around the Earth. | Commerce is enabled across cultural and national boundaries seamlessly and without modification. The marketspace includes, potentially, billions of consumers and millions of businesses worldwide. |
| **Universal standards.** There is one set of technology standards, namely Internet standards. | With one set of technical standards across the globe, disparate computer systems can easily communicate with each other. |
| **Richness.** Video, audio, and text messages are possible. | Video, audio, and text marketing messages are integrated into a single marketing message and consumer experience. |
| **Interactivity.** The technology works through interaction with the user. | Consumers are engaged in a dialog that dynamically adjusts the experience to the individual, and makes the consumer a co-participant in the process of delivering goods to the market. |
| **Information Density.** The technology reduces information costs and raises quality. | Information processing, storage, and communication costs drop dramatically, whereas currency, accuracy, and timeliness improve greatly. Information becomes plentiful, cheap, and more accurate. |
| **Personalization/Customization.** The technology allows personalized messages to be delivered to individuals as well as groups. | Personalization of marketing messages and customization of products and services are based on individual characteristics. |
| **Social technology.** User content generation and social networking. | New Internet social and business models enable user content creation and distribution, and support social networks. |
From a consumer point of view, ubiquity reduces **transaction costs**—the costs of participating in a market. To transact business, it is no longer necessary that you spend time or money traveling to a market, and much less mental effort is required to make a purchase.
### Global Reach
E-commerce technology permits commercial transactions to cross cultural and national boundaries far more conveniently and cost effectively than is true in traditional commerce. As a result, the potential market size for e-commerce merchants is roughly equal to the size of the world’s online population (estimated to be more than 1.9 billion, and growing rapidly) (Internetworldstats.com, 2010).
In contrast, most traditional commerce is local or regional—it involves local merchants or national merchants with local outlets. Television and radio stations and newspapers, for instance, are primarily local and regional institutions with limited, but powerful, national networks that can attract a national audience but not easily cross national boundaries to a global audience.
Universal Standards
One strikingly unusual feature of e-commerce technologies is that the technical standards of the Internet and, therefore, the technical standards for conducting e-commerce are universal standards. They are shared by all nations around the world and enable any computer to link with any other computer regardless of the technology platform each is using. In contrast, most traditional commerce technologies differ from one nation to the next. For instance, television and radio standards differ around the world, as does cell telephone technology.
The universal technical standards of the Internet and e-commerce greatly lower market entry costs—the cost merchants must pay simply to bring their goods to market. At the same time, for consumers, universal standards reduce search costs—the effort required to find suitable products.
Richness
Information richness refers to the complexity and content of a message. Traditional markets, national sales forces, and small retail stores have great richness: They are able to provide personal, face-to-face service using aural and visual cues when making a sale. The richness of traditional markets makes them powerful selling or commercial environments. Prior to the development of the Web, there was a trade-off between richness and reach: The larger the audience reached, the less rich the message. The Web makes it possible to deliver rich messages with text, audio, and video simultaneously to large numbers of people.
Interactivity
Unlike any of the commercial technologies of the twentieth century, with the possible exception of the telephone, e-commerce technologies are interactive, meaning they allow for two-way communication between merchant and consumer. Television, for instance, cannot ask viewers any questions or enter into conversations with them, and it cannot request that customer information be entered into a form. In contrast, all of these activities are possible on an e-commerce Web site. Interactivity allows an online merchant to engage a consumer in ways similar to a face-to-face experience but on a massive, global scale.
Information Density
The Internet and the Web vastly increase information density—the total amount and quality of information available to all market participants, consumers, and merchants alike. E-commerce technologies reduce information collection, storage, processing, and communication costs while greatly increasing the currency, accuracy, and timeliness of information.
Information density in e-commerce markets make prices and costs more transparent. Price transparency refers to the ease with which consumers can find out the variety of prices in a market; cost transparency refers to the ability of consumers to discover the actual costs merchants pay for products.
There are advantages for merchants as well. Online merchants can discover much more about consumers than in the past. This allows merchants to segment the market into groups that are willing to pay different prices and permits the merchants to engage in price discrimination—selling the same goods, or nearly the same goods, to different targeted groups at different prices. For instance, an online merchant can discover a consumer's avid interest in expensive, exotic vacations and then pitch high-end vacation plans to that consumer at a premium price, knowing this person is willing to pay extra for
such a vacation. At the same time, the online merchant can pitch the same vacation plan at a lower price to a more price-sensitive consumer. Information density also helps merchants differentiate their products in terms of cost, brand, and quality.
**Personalization/Customization**
E-commerce technologies permit **personalization**: Merchants can target their marketing messages to specific individuals by adjusting the message to a person's name, interests, and past purchases. The technology also permits **customization**—changing the delivered product or service based on a user's preferences or prior behavior. Given the interactive nature of e-commerce technology, much information about the consumer can be gathered in the marketplace at the moment of purchase. With the increase in information density, a great deal of information about the consumer's past purchases and behavior can be stored and used by online merchants.
The result is a level of personalization and customization unthinkable with traditional commerce technologies. For instance, you may be able to shape what you see on television by selecting a channel, but you cannot change the content of the channel you have chosen. In contrast, the *Wall Street Journal* Online allows you to select the type of news stories you want to see first and gives you the opportunity to be alerted when certain events happen.
**Social Technology: User Content Generation and Social Networking**
In contrast to previous technologies, the Internet and e-commerce technologies have evolved to be much more social by allowing users to create and share with their personal friends (and a larger worldwide community) content in the form of text, videos, music, or photos. Using these forms of communication, users are able to create new social networks and strengthen existing ones.
All previous mass media in modern history, including the printing press, use a broadcast model (one-to-many) where content is created in a central location by experts (professional writers, editors, directors, and producers) and audiences are concentrated in huge numbers to consume a standardized product. The new Internet and e-commerce empower users to create and distribute content on a large scale, and permit users to program their own content consumption. The Internet provides a unique many-to-many model of mass communications.
**KEY CONCEPTS IN E-COMMERCE: DIGITAL MARKETS AND DIGITAL GOODS IN A GLOBAL MARKETPLACE**
The location, timing, and revenue models of business are based in some part on the cost and distribution of information. The Internet has created a digital marketplace where millions of people all over the world are able to exchange massive amounts of information directly, instantly, and for free. As a result, the Internet has changed the way companies conduct business and increased their global reach.
The Internet reduces information asymmetry. An **information asymmetry** exists when one party in a transaction has more information that is important for the transaction than the other party. That information helps determine their relative bargaining power. In digital markets, consumers and suppliers can "see" the prices being charged for goods, and in that sense digital markets are said to be more "transparent" than traditional markets.
For example, before auto retailing sites appeared on the Web, there was a significant information asymmetry between auto dealers and customers. Only the auto dealers knew the manufacturers' prices, and it was difficult for consumers to shop around for the best price. Auto dealers' profit margins depended on this asymmetry of information. Today's consumers have access to a legion of Web sites providing competitive pricing information, and three-fourths of U.S. auto buyers use the Internet to shop around for the best deal. Thus, the Web has reduced the information asymmetry surrounding an auto purchase. The Internet has also helped businesses seeking to purchase from other businesses reduce information asymmetries and locate better prices and terms.
Digital markets are very flexible and efficient because they operate with reduced search and transaction costs, lower menu costs (merchants' costs of changing prices), greater price discrimination, and the ability to change prices dynamically based on market conditions. In dynamic pricing, the price of a product varies depending on the demand characteristics of the customer or the supply situation of the seller.
These new digital markets may either reduce or increase switching costs, depending on the nature of the product or service being sold, and they may cause some extra delay in gratification. Unlike a physical market, you can't immediately consume a product such as clothing purchased over the Web (although immediate consumption is possible with digital music downloads and other digital products.)
Digital markets provide many opportunities to sell directly to the consumer, bypassing intermediaries, such as distributors or retail outlets. Eliminating intermediaries in the distribution channel can significantly lower purchase transaction costs. To pay for all the steps in a traditional distribution channel, a product may have to be priced as high as 135 percent of its original cost to manufacture.
Figure 10-2 illustrates how much savings result from eliminating each of these layers in the distribution process. By selling directly to consumers or reducing the number of intermediaries, companies are able to raise profits while charging lower prices. The removal of organizations or business process layers responsible for intermediary steps in a value chain is called disintermediation.
**FIGURE 10-2 THE BENEFITS OF DISINTERMEDIATION TO THE CONSUMER**
The typical distribution channel has several intermediary layers, each of which adds to the final cost of a product, such as a sweater. Removing layers lowers the final cost to the consumer.
Disintermediation is affecting the market for services. Airlines and hotels operating their own reservation sites online earn more per ticket because they have eliminated travel agents as intermediaries. Table 10-3 summarizes the differences between digital markets and traditional markets.
**Digital Goods**
The Internet digital marketplace has greatly expanded sales of digital goods. **Digital goods** are goods that can be delivered over a digital network. Music tracks, video, Hollywood movies, software, newspapers, magazines, and books can all be expressed, stored, delivered, and sold as purely digital products. Currently, most of these products are sold as physical goods, for example, CDs, DVDs, newspapers, and hard-copy books. But the Internet offers the possibility of delivering all these products on demand as digital products.
In general, for digital goods, the marginal cost of producing another unit is about zero (it costs nothing to make a copy of a music file). However, the cost of producing the original first unit is relatively high—in fact, it is nearly the total cost of the product because there are few other costs of inventory and distribution. Costs of delivery over the Internet are very low, marketing costs remain the same, and pricing can be highly variable. (On the Internet, the merchant can change prices as often as desired because of low menu costs.)
The impact of the Internet on the market for these kinds of digital goods is nothing short of revolutionary, and we see the results around us every day. Businesses dependent on physical products for sales—such as bookstores, book publishers, music labels, and film studios—face the possibility of declining sales and even destruction of their businesses. Newspapers and magazines are losing readers to the Internet, and losing advertisers even as online newspaper readership soars. Record label companies are losing sales to music download sites and Internet piracy, and music stores are going out of business. Video rental firms, such as Blockbuster (now in bankruptcy), based on a physical DVD market and physical stores, lost sales to Netflix using an Internet catalog and streaming video model. Hollywood studios as well face the prospect that Internet pirates will distribute their product as a digital stream, bypassing Hollywood’s monopoly on DVD rentals and sales, which
---
**TABLE 10-3 DIGITAL MARKETS COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL MARKETS**
| | DIGITAL MARKETS | TRADITIONAL MARKETS |
|------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|
| Information asymmetry | Asymmetry reduced | Asymmetry high |
| Search costs | Low | High |
| Transaction costs | Low (sometimes virtually nothing) | High (time, travel) |
| Delayed gratification | High (or lower in the case of a digital good) | Lower: purchase now |
| Menu costs | Low | High |
| Dynamic pricing | Low cost, instant | High cost, delayed |
| Price discrimination | Low cost, instant | High cost, delayed |
| Market segmentation | Low cost, moderate precision | High cost, less precision |
| Switching costs | Higher/lower (depending on product characteristics) | High |
| Network effects | Strong | Weaker |
| Disintermediation | More possible/likely | Less possible/unlikely |
now accounts for more than half of industry film revenues. To date, pirated movies have not seriously threatened Hollywood revenues in part because the major film studios and Internet distributors like YouTube, Amazon, and Apple are learning how to cooperate. Table 10.4 describes digital goods and how they differ from traditional physical goods.
### 10.2 E-COMMERCE: BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
E-commerce has grown from a few advertisements on early Web portals in 1995, to over 6 percent of all retail sales in 2010 (an estimated $255 billion), surpassing the mail order catalog business. E-commerce is a fascinating combination of business models and new information technologies. Let's start with a basic understanding of the types of e-commerce, and then describe e-commerce business and revenue models. We'll also cover new technologies that help companies reach over 221 million online consumers in the United States, and an estimated 800 million more worldwide.
#### TYPES OF E-COMMERCE
There are many ways to classify electronic commerce transactions. One is by looking at the nature of the participants in the electronic commerce transaction. The three major electronic commerce categories are business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce.
- **Business-to-consumer (B2C)** electronic commerce involves retailing products and services to individual shoppers. BarnesandNoble.com, which sells books, software, and music to individual consumers, is an example of B2C e-commerce.
- **Business-to-business (B2B)** electronic commerce involves sales of goods and services among businesses. ChemConnect's Web site for buying and selling chemicals and plastics is an example of B2B e-commerce.
- **Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)** electronic commerce involves consumers selling directly to consumers. For example, eBay, the giant Web auction site, enables people to sell their goods to other consumers by auctioning their merchandise off to the highest bidder, or for a fixed price. Craigslist is the most widely used platform used by consumers to buy from and sell directly to others.
#### TABLE 10-4 HOW THE INTERNET CHANGES THE MARKETS FOR DIGITAL GOODS
| | DIGITAL GOODS | TRADITIONAL GOODS |
|------------------------|--------------------------------|---------------------------------|
| Marginal cost/unit | Zero | Greater than zero, high |
| Cost of production | High (most of the cost) | Variable |
| Copying cost | Approximately 0 | Greater than zero, high |
| Distributed delivery cost | Low | High |
| Inventory cost | Low | High |
| Marketing cost | Variable | Variable |
| Pricing | More variable (bundling, random pricing games) | Fixed, based on unit costs |
Another way of classifying electronic commerce transactions is in terms of the platforms used by participants in a transaction. Until recently, most e-commerce transactions took place using a personal computer connected to the Internet over wired networks. Two wireless mobile alternatives have emerged: smartphones and dedicated e-readers like the Kindle using cellular networks, and smartphones and small tablet computers using Wi-Fi wireless networks. The use of handheld wireless devices for purchasing goods and services from any location is termed **mobile commerce** or **m-commerce**. Both business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce transactions can take place using m-commerce technology, which we discuss in detail in Section 10.3.
### E-COMMERCE BUSINESS MODELS
Changes in the economics of information described earlier have created the conditions for entirely new business models to appear, while destroying older business models. Table 10-5 describes some of the most important Internet business models that have emerged. All, in one way or another, use the Internet to add extra value to existing products and services or to provide the foundation for new products and services.
#### Portal
Portals such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL offer powerful Web search tools as well as an integrated package of content and services, such as news, e-mail, instant messaging, maps, calendars, shopping, music downloads, video streaming, and more, all in one place. Initially, portals were primarily “gateways” to the Internet. Today, however, the portal business model provides a destination site where users start their Web searching and linger to read news, find entertainment, and meet other people, and be exposed to advertising. Portals generate revenue primarily by attracting very large audiences, charging advertisers for ad placement, collecting referral fees for steering customers to other sites, and charging for premium services. In 2010, portals generated an estimated $13.5 billion in revenues. Although there are hundreds of portal/search engine sites, the top five sites (Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing, AOL, and Ask.com) gather more than 95 percent of the Internet traffic because of their superior brand recognition (eMarketer, 2010e).
#### E-tailer
Online retail stores, often called **e-tailers**, come in all sizes, from giant Amazon with 2010 revenues of more than $24 billion, to tiny local stores that have Web sites. An e-tailer is similar to the typical bricks-and-mortar storefront, except that customers only need to connect to the Internet to check their inventory and place an order. Altogether, online retail generated about $152 billion in revenues for 2010. The value proposition of e-tailers is to provide convenient, low-cost shopping 24/7, offering large selections and consumer choice. Some e-tailers, such as Walmart.com or Staples.com, referred to as “bricks-and-clicks,” are subsidiaries or divisions of existing physical stores and carry the same products. Others, however, operate only in the virtual world, without any ties to physical locations. Amazon, BlueNile.com, and Drugstore.com are examples of this type of e-tailer. Several other variations of e-tailers—such as online versions of direct mail catalogs, online malls, and manufacturer-direct online sales—also exist.
### Table 10-5 Internet Business Models
| CATEGORY | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLES |
|-------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------|
| E-tailer | Sells physical products directly to consumers or to individual businesses. | Amazon |
| | | RedEnvelope.com |
| Transaction broker| Saves users money and time by processing online sales transactions and | ETrade.com |
| | generating a fee each time a transaction occurs. | Expedia |
| Market creator | Provides a digital environment where buyers and sellers can meet, search | eBay |
| | for products, display products, and establish prices for those products. | Priceline.com |
| | Can serve consumers or B2B e-commerce, generating revenue from | ChemConnect.com |
| | transaction fees. | |
| Content provider | Creates revenue by providing digital content, such as news, music, photos, | WSJ.com |
| | or video, over the Web. The customer may pay to access the content, or | GettyImages.com |
| | revenue may be generated by selling advertising space. | iTunes.com |
| | | Games.com |
| Community provider| Provides an online meeting place where people with similar interests can | Facebook |
| | communicate and find useful information. | MySpace |
| | | iVillage, Twitter |
| Portal | Provides initial point of entry to the Web along with specialized content | Yahoo |
| | and other services. | Bing |
| | | Google |
| Service provider | Provides Web 2.0 applications such as photo sharing, video sharing, and | Google Apps |
| | user-generated content as services. Provides other services such as online | Photobucket.com |
| | data storage and backup. | Xdrive.com |
### Content Provider
While e-commerce began as a retail product channel, it has increasingly turned into a global content channel. “Content” is defined broadly to include all forms of intellectual property. **Intellectual property** refers to all forms of human expression that can be put into a tangible medium such as text, CDs, DVDs, or stored on any digital (or other) media, including the Web. Content providers distribute information content, such as digital video, music, photos, text, and artwork, over the Web. The value proposition of online content providers is that consumers can find a wide range of content online, conveniently, and purchase this content inexpensively, to be played, or viewed, on multiple computer devices or smartphones.
Providers do not have to be the creators of the content (although sometimes they are, like Disney.com), and are more likely to be Internet-based distributors of content produced and created by others. For example, Apple sells music tracks at its iTunes Store, but it does not create or commission new music.
The phenomenal popularity of the iTunes Store, and Apple’s Internet-connected devices like the iPhone, iPod, and iPad, have enabled new forms of digital content delivery from podcasting to mobile streaming. **Podcasting** is a method of publishing audio or video broadcasts via the Internet, allowing subscribing users to download audio or video files onto their personal computers or portable music players. **Streaming** is a publishing method for...
music and video files that flows a continuous stream of content to a user’s device without being stored locally on the device.
Estimates vary, but total download and subscription media revenues for 2010 are somewhere between $8 billion and $10 billion annually. They are the fastest growing segment within e-commerce, growing at an estimated 20 percent annual rate (eMarketer, 2010b).
**Transaction Broker**
Sites that process transactions for consumers normally handled in person, by phone, or by mail are transaction brokers. The largest industries using this model are financial services and travel services. The online transaction broker’s primary value propositions are savings of money and time, as well as providing an extraordinary inventory of financial products and travel packages, in a single location. Online stock brokers and travel booking services charge fees that are considerably less than traditional versions of these services.
**Market Creator**
*Market creators* build a digital environment in which buyers and sellers can meet, display products, search for products, and establish prices. The value proposition of online market creators is that they provide a platform where sellers can easily display their wares and where purchasers can buy directly from sellers. Online auction markets like eBay and Priceline are good examples of the market creator business model. Another example is Amazon’s Merchants platform (and similar programs at eBay) where merchants are allowed to set up stores on Amazon’s Web site and sell goods at fixed prices to consumers. This is reminiscent of open air markets where the market creator operates a facility (a town square) where merchants and consumers meet. Online market creators will generate about $12 billion in revenues for 2010.
**Service Provider**
While e-tailers sell products online, service providers offer services online. There’s been an explosion in online services. Web 2.0 applications, photo sharing, and online sites for data backup and storage all use a service provider business model. Software is no longer a physical product with a CD in a box, but increasingly software as a service (SaaS) that you subscribe to online rather than purchase from a retailer (see Chapter 5). Google has led the way in developing online software service applications such as Google Apps, Gmail, and online data storage services.
**Community Provider**
*Community providers* are sites that create a digital online environment where people with similar interests can transact (buy and sell goods); share interests, photos, videos; communicate with like-minded people; receive interest-related information; and even play out fantasies by adopting online personalities called avatars. The social networking sites Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter; online communities such as iVillage; and hundreds of other smaller, niche sites such as Doostang and Sportsvite all offer users community-building tools and services. Social networking sites have been the fastest growing Web sites in recent years, often doubling their audience size in a year. However, they are struggling to achieve profitability. The Interactive Session on Organizations explores this topic.
INTERACTIVE SESSION: ORGANIZATIONS
TWITTER SEARCHES FOR A BUSINESS MODEL
Twitter, the social networking site based on 140-character text messages, is the buzz social networking phenomenon of the year. Like all social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and others, Twitter provides a platform for users to express themselves by creating content and sharing it with their “followers,” who sign up to receive someone’s “tweets.” And like most social networking sites, Twitter faces the problem of how to make money. As of October 2010, Twitter has failed to generate earnings as its management ponders how best to exploit the buzz and user base it has created.
Twitter began as a Web-based version of popular text messaging services provided by cell phone carriers. Executives in a podcasting company called Odeo were searching for a new revenue-producing product or service. In March 2006, they created a stand-alone, private company called Twitter.
The basic idea was to marry short text messaging on cell phones with the Web and its ability to create social groups. You start by establishing a Twitter account online, and identifying the friends that you would like to receive your messages. By sending a text message called a “tweet” to a short code on your cell phone (40404), you can tell your friends what you are doing, your location, and whatever else you might want to say. You are limited to 140 characters, but there is no installation and no charge. This social network messaging service to keep buddies informed is a smash success.
Coming up with solid numbers for Twitter is not easy because the firm is not releasing any “official” figures. By September 2010, Twitter, according to comScore, had around 30 million unique monthly users in the United States, and perhaps 96 million worldwide, displacing MySpace as the number three global social network (behind Facebook and Microsoft’s Live Profile).
The number of individual tweets is also known only by the company. According to the company, by early 2007, Twitter had transmitted 20,000 tweets, which jumped to 60,000 tweets in a few months. During the Iranian rebellion in June 2009, there were reported to be over 200,000 tweets per hour worldwide. In October 2010, Twitter was recording over 1.2 million tweets a month. On the other hand, experts believe that 80 percent of tweets are generated by only 10 percent of users, and that the median number of tweet readers per tweet is 1 (most tweeters tweet to one follower). Even more disturbing is that Twitter has a 60 percent churn rate: only 40 percent of users remain more than one month. Obviously, many users lose interest in learning about their friends’ breakfast menu, and many feel “too connected” to their “friends,” who in fact may only be distant acquaintances, if that. On the other hand, celebrities such as Britney Spears have hundreds of thousands of “friends” who follow their activities, making Twitter a marvelous, free public relations tool. Twitter unfortunately does not make a cent on these activities.
The answer to these questions about unique users, numbers of tweets, and churn rate are critical to understanding the business value of Twitter as a firm. To date, Twitter has generated losses and has unknown revenues, but in February 2009, it raised $35 million in a deal that valued the company at $255 million. The following September, Twitter announced it had raised $100 million in additional funding, from private equity firms, previous investors, and mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price, based on a company valuation of a staggering $1 billion!
So how can Twitter make money from its users and their tweets? What’s its business model and how might it evolve over time? To start, consider the company’s assets and customer value proposition. The main asset is user attention and audience size (eyeballs per day). The value proposition is “get it now” or real-time news on just about anything from the mundane to the monumental. An equally important asset is the database of tweets that contains the comments, observations, and opinions of the audience, and the search engine that mines those tweets for patterns. These are real-time and spontaneous observations.
Yet another asset has emerged in the last year: Twitter is a powerful alternative media platform for the distribution of news, videos, and pictures. Once again, no one predicted that Twitter would be the first to report on terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the landing of a passenger jet in the Hudson River, the Iranian rebellion in June 2009, or the political violence in Bangkok and Kenya in May 2010.
How can these assets be monetized? Advertising, what else! In April 2010, Twitter announced it’s first
foray into the big-time ad marketplace with Promoted Tweets. Think Twitter search engine: in response to a user’s query to Twitter’s search function for, say netbooks, a Best Buy ad for netbooks will be displayed. The company claims Promoted Tweets are not really ads because they look like all other tweets, just a part of the tweet stream of messages. These so-called “organic tweets” differ therefore from traditional search engine text ads, or social network ads which are far from organic. So far, Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony, Starbucks, and Virgin American have signed up. If this actually works, thousands of companies might sign up to blast messages to millions of subscribers in response to related queries.
A second Twitter monetization effort announced in June 2010 is called Promoted Trends. Trends is a section of the Twitter home page that lets users know what’s hot, what a lot of people are talking about. The company claims this is “organic,” and a true reflection of what people are tweeting about. Promoted Trends are trends that companies would like to initiate. A company can place a Promoted Trends banner on the bottom of the page and when users click on the banner, they are taken to the follower page for that movie or product. Disney bought Promoted Trends for its film *Toy Story 3*, according to Twitter.
In July 2010, Twitter announced its third initiative of the year: @earlybird accounts, which users can follow to receive special offers. Walt Disney Pictures has used the service to promote *The Sorcerer’s Apprentice* by offering twofers (buy one ticket, get another one free). The service could work nicely with so-called real-time or “flash” marketing campaigns in entertainment, fashion, luxury goods, technology, and beauty products. So far, Twitter has over 50,000 @earlybird followers and hopes to reach “influentials,” people who shape the purchasing decisions of many others.
Another monetizing service is temporal real-time search. If there’s one thing Twitter has uniquely among all the social network sites, it’s real-time information. In 2010, Twitter entered into agreements with Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo to permit these search engines to index tweets and make them available to the entire Internet. This service will give free real-time content to the search engines as opposed to archival content. It is unclear who’s doing who a service here, and the financial arrangements are not public.
Other large players are experimenting. Dell created a Twitter outlet account, @DellOutlet, and is using it to sell open-box and discontinued computers. Dell also maintains several customer service accounts. Twitter could charge such accounts a commission on sales because Twitter is acting like an e-commerce sales platform similar to Amazon. Other firms have used their Twitter followers’ fan base to market discount air tickets (Jet Blue) and greeting cards (Somecards).
Freemium is another possibility: ask users to pay a subscription fee for premium services such as videos and music downloads. However, it may be too late for this idea because users have come to expect the service to be free. Twitter could charge service providers such as doctors, dentists, lawyers, and hair salons for providing their customers with unexpected appointment availabilities. But Twitter’s most likely steady revenue source might be its database of hundreds of millions of real-time tweets. Major firms such as Starbucks, Amazon, Intuit (QuickBooks and Mint.com), and Dell have used Twitter to understand how their customers are reacting to products, services, and Web sites, and then making corrections or changes in those services and products. Twitter is a fabulous listening post on the Internet frontier.
The possibilities are endless, and just about any of the above scenarios offers some solution to the company’s problem, which is a lack of revenue (forget about profits). The company is coy about announcing its business model, what one pundit described as hiding behind a “Silicon Valley Mona Lisa smile.” These Wall Street pundits are thought to be party poopers in the Valley. In a nod to Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s merchant services, Twitter has turned over its messaging capabilities and software platform to others, one of which is CoTweet.com, a company that organizes multiple Twitter exchanges for customers so they can be tracked more easily. Google is selling ad units based around a company’s last five tweets (ads are displayed to users who have created or viewed tweets about a company). Twitter is not charging for this service. In the meantime, observers wonder if Twitter is twittering away its assets and may not ever show a profit for its $160 million investment.
Sources: Matthew Shaer, “Twitter Hits 145 Million User Mark, Sees Rise in Mobile Use,” *Christian Science Monitor*, September 3, 2010; Jason Lipshutz, “Lady Gaga to Steal Britney Spears’ Twitter Crown,” *Reuters*, August 19, 2010; Emir Afrati, “Twitter’s Early Bird Ad Ploy Takes Flight,” *Wall Street Journal*, July 14, 2010; Jessica Guynn, “Twitter Tests New Promoted Trends Feature with ‘Toy Story 3’ from Disney’s Pixar,” *Los Angeles Times*, June 16, 2010; Erica Naone, “Will Twitter’s Ad Strategy Work,” *Technology Review*, April 15, 2010; Jessica Vascellaro and Emily Steel, “Twitter Rolls Out Ads,” *Wall Street Journal*, April 14, 2010; Brad Stone, “Twitter’s Latest Valuation: $1 Billion,” *New York Times*, September 24, 2009; Jon Fine, “Twitter Makes a Racket. But Revenues?” *Business Week*, April 9, 2009.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Based on your reading in this chapter, how would you characterize Twitter’s business model?
2. If Twitter is to have a revenue model, which of the revenue models described in this chapter would work?
3. What is the most important asset that Twitter has, and how could it monetize this asset?
4. What impact will a high customer churn rate have on Twitter’s potential advertising revenue?
MIS IN ACTION
1. Go to Twitter.com and enter a search on your favorite (or least favorite) car. Can you find the company’s official site? What else do you find? Describe the results and characterize the potential risks and rewards for companies that would like to advertise to Twitter’s audience.
2. How would you improve Twitter’s Web site to make it more friendly for large advertisers?
3. Teenagers are infrequent users of Twitter because they use their cell phones for texting, and most users are adults 18–34 years of age. Find five users of Twitter and ask them how long they have used the service, are they likely to continue using the service, and how would they feel about banner ads appearing on their Twitter Web screen and phone screens. Are loyal users of Twitter less likely (or more likely) to tolerate advertising on Twitter?
E-COMMERCE REVENUE MODELS
A firm’s **revenue model** describes how the firm will earn revenue, generate profits, and produce a superior return on investment. Although there are many different e-commerce revenue models that have been developed, most companies rely on one, or some combination, of the following six revenue models: advertising, sales, subscription, free/freemium, transaction fee, and affiliate.
**Advertising Revenue Model**
In the **advertising revenue model**, a Web site generates revenue by attracting a large audience of visitors who can then be exposed to advertisements. The advertising model is the most widely used revenue model in e-commerce, and arguably, without advertising revenues, the Web would be a vastly different experience from what it is now. Content on the Web—everything from news to videos and opinions—is “free” to visitors because advertisers pay the production and distribution costs in return for the right to expose visitors to ads. Companies will spend an estimated $240 billion on advertising in 2010, and an estimated $25 billion of that amount on online advertising (in the form of a paid message on a Web site, paid search listing, video, widget, game, or other online medium, such as instant messaging). In the last five years, advertisers have increased online spending and cut outlays on traditional channels such as radio and newspapers. Television advertising has expanded along with online advertising revenues.
Web sites with the largest viewership or that attract a highly specialized, differentiated viewership and are able to retain user attention (“stickiness”) are able to charge higher advertising rates. Yahoo, for instance, derives nearly all its revenue from display ads (banner ads) and to a lesser extent search engine text ads. Ninety-eight percent of Google’s revenue derives from selling keywords to
advertisers in an auction-like market (the AdSense program). The average Facebook user spends over five hours a week on the site, far longer than other portal sites.
**Sales Revenue Model**
In the **sales revenue model**, companies derive revenue by selling goods, information, or services to customers. Companies such as Amazon (which sells books, music, and other products), LLBean.com, and Gap.com, all have sales revenue models. Content providers make money by charging for downloads of entire files such as music tracks (iTunes Store) or books or for downloading music and/or video streams (Hulu.com TV shows—see Chapter 3). Apple has pioneered and strengthened the acceptance of micropayments. **Micropayment systems** provide content providers with a cost-effective method for processing high volumes of very small monetary transactions (anywhere from $0.25 to $5.00 per transaction). MyMISlab has a Learning Track with more detail on micropayment and other e-commerce payment systems.
**Subscription Revenue Model**
In the **subscription revenue model**, a Web site offering content or services charges a subscription fee for access to some or all of its offerings on an ongoing basis. Content providers often use this revenue model. For instance, the online version of *Consumer Reports* provides access to premium content, such as detailed ratings, reviews, and recommendations, only to subscribers, who have a choice of paying a $5.95 monthly subscription fee or a $26.00 annual fee. Netflix is one of the most successful subscriber sites with more that 15 million subscribers in September 2010. The Wall Street Journal has the largest online subscription newspaper with more than 1 million online subscribers. To be successful, the subscription model requires that the content be perceived as a having high added value, differentiated, and not readily available elsewhere nor easily replicated. Companies successfully offering content or services online on a subscription basis include Match.com and eHarmony (dating services), Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com (genealogy research), Microsoft’s Xboxlive.com (video games), and Rhapsody.com (music).
**Free/Freemium Revenue Model**
In the **free/freemium revenue model**, firms offer basic services or content for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features. For example, Google offers free applications, but charges for premium services. Pandora, the subscription radio service, offers a free service with limited play time, and a premium service with unlimited play. The Flickr photo-sharing service offers free basic services for sharing photos with friends and family, and also sells a $24.95 “premium” package that provides users unlimited storage, high-definition video storage and playback, and freedom from display advertising. The idea is to attract very large audiences with free services, and then to convert some of this audience to pay a subscription for premium services. One problem with this model is converting people from being “free loaders” into paying customers. “Free” can be a powerful model for losing money.
**Transaction Fee Revenue Model**
In the **transaction fee revenue model**, a company receives a fee for enabling or executing a transaction. For example, eBay provides an online auction marketplace and receives a small transaction fee from a seller if the seller is successful in selling an item. E*Trade, an online stockbroker, receives transaction fees each time it executes a stock transaction on behalf of a customer. The transaction revenue model enjoys wide acceptance in part because the true cost of using the platform is not immediately apparent to the user.
**Affiliate Revenue Model**
In the **affiliate revenue model**, Web sites (called “affiliate Web sites”) send visitors to other Web sites in return for a referral fee or percentage of the revenue from any resulting sales. For example, MyPoints makes money by connecting companies to potential customers by offering special deals to its members. When members take advantage of an offer and make a purchase, they earn “points” they can redeem for free products and services, and MyPoints receives a referral fee. Community feedback sites such as Epinions and Yelp receive much of their revenue from steering potential customers to Web sites where they make a purchase. Amazon uses affiliates who steer business to the Amazon Web site by placing the Amazon logo on their blogs. Personal blogs may be involved in affiliate marketing. Some bloggers are paid directly by manufacturers, or receive free products, for speaking highly of products and providing links to sales channels.
**WEB 2.0: SOCIAL NETWORKING AND THE WISDOM OF CROWDS**
One of the fastest growing areas of e-commerce revenues are Web 2.0 online services, which we described in Chapter 7. The most popular Web 2.0 service is social networking, online meeting places where people can meet their friends and their friends’ friends. Every day over 60 million Internet users in the United States visit a social networking site like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and hundreds of others.
Social networking sites link people through their mutual business or personal connections, enabling them to mine their friends (and their friends’ friends) for sales leads, job-hunting tips, or new friends. MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster appeal to people who are primarily interested in extending their friendships, while LinkedIn focuses on job networking for professionals.
Social networking sites and online communities offer new possibilities for e-commerce. Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace sell banner, video, and text ads; sell user preference information to marketers; and sell products such as music, videos, and e-books. Corporations set up their own Facebook and MySpace profiles to interact with potential customers. For example, Procter & Gamble set up a MySpace profile page for Crest toothpaste soliciting “friends” for a fictional character called “Miss Irresistable.” Business firms can also “listen” to what social networkers are saying about their products, and obtain valuable feedback from consumers. At user-generated content sites like YouTube, high-quality video content is used to display advertising, and Hollywood studios have set up their own channels to market their products. The Interactive Session on Management looks more closely at social networking on Facebook, focusing on its impact on privacy.
At **social shopping** sites like Kaboodle, ThisNext, and Stylehive you can swap shopping ideas with friends. Facebook offers this same service on a voluntary basis. Online communities are also ideal venues to employ viral marketing techniques. Online viral marketing is like traditional word-of-mouth marketing except that the word can spread across an online commuFacebook is the largest social networking site in the world. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, the site had over 500 million worldwide users as of October 2010, and has long since surpassed all of its social networking peers. Facebook allows users to create a profile and join various types of self-contained networks, including college-wide, workplace, and regional networks. The site includes a wide array of tools that allow users to connect and interact with other users, including messaging, groups, photo-sharing, and user-created applications.
Although the site is the leader in social networking, it has waged a constant struggle to develop viable methods of generating revenue. Though many investors are still optimistic regarding Facebook’s future profitability, it still needs to adjust its business model to monetize the site traffic and personal information it has accumulated.
Like many businesses of its kind, Facebook makes its money through advertising. Facebook represents a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach highly targeted audiences based on their demographic information, hobbies and personal preferences, geographical regions, and other narrowly specified criteria in a comfortable and engaging environment. Businesses both large and small can place advertisements that are fully integrated into primary features of the site or create Facebook pages where users can learn more about and interact with them.
However, many individuals on Facebook aren’t interested in sharing their personal information with anyone other than a select group of their friends on the site. This is a difficult issue for Facebook. The company needs to provide a level of privacy that makes their users comfortable, but it’s that very privacy that prevents it from gathering as much information as it would like, and the more information Facebook has, the more money it earns. Facebook’s goal is to persuade its users to be comfortable sharing information willingly by providing an environment that becomes richer and more entertaining as the amount of information shared increases. In trying to achieve this goal, the site has made a number of missteps, but is improving its handling of users’ privacy rights.
The launch of Facebook’s Beacon advertising service in 2007 was a lightning rod for criticism of Facebook’s handling of its private information. Beacon was intended to inform users about what their friends were purchasing and what sites they were visiting away from Facebook. Users were angry that Beacon continued to communicate private information even after a user opted out of the service. After significant public backlash and the threat of a class-action lawsuit, Facebook shut down Beacon in September 2009.
Facebook has also drawn criticism for preserving the personal information of people who attempted to remove their profiles from the site. In early 2009, it adjusted its terms of service to assign it ownership rights over the information contained in deleted profiles. In many countries, this practice is illegal, and the user backlash against the move was swift.
In response, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly, presided over a total overhaul of Facebook’s privacy policy, which took the form of an open collaboration with some of the most vocal critics of the old policies, including the previously mentioned protest group’s founders. In February, Facebook went forward with the new terms after holding a vote open to all Facebook users, 75 percent of whom approved. The site now allows users either to deactivate or to delete their account entirely, and only saves information after deactivation.
In late 2009, tensions between Facebook and its users came to a head when the site rolled out new privacy controls for users, but had adjusted those settings to be public by default. Even users that had previously set their privacy to be “friends-only” for photos and profile information had their content exposed, including the profile of Zuckerberg himself. When asked about the change, Zuckerberg explained that the moves were in response to a shift in social norms towards openness and away from privacy, saying “we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.”
The fallout from the change and is still ongoing, and more privacy problems keep cropping up. In October 2010, Facebook unveiled new features giving users more control over how they share personal information on the site with other users and third-party applications. These include a groups feature allowing users to distinguish specific circles of “friends” and choose what information they want to share with each group and whether the groups are public or private.
Shortly thereafter, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that some of the most popular Facebook applications (apps) had been transmitting user IDs—identifying information which could provide access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies. Sharing user IDs is in violation of Facebook’s privacy policies.
All these privacy flaps have not diminished advertiser interest. Facebook serves ads on each user’s home page and on the sidebars of user profiles. In addition to an image and headline from the advertiser, Facebook ads include the names of any user’s friends who have clicked on a button indicating they like the brand or ad. A Nielsen Co. study found that including information about individuals a person knows in an ad boosted recall of the ad by 68 percent and doubled awareness of a brand’s message. To determine what ads to serve to particular people, Facebook abstracts profile information into keywords, and advertisers match ads to those keywords. No individual data is shared with any advertiser.
However, it’s still unclear how much money is there to be made from advertising on Facebook. The site insists that it doesn’t plan to charge its users any kind of fee for site access. Facebook’s 2010 revenue was expected to approach $1 billion, which is a far cry from a $33 billion private market valuation. But the site has already become a critical component of the Web’s social fabric, and Facebook management insists that it’s unworried about profitability in 2010 or the immediate future.
Sources: Emily Steel and Geoffrey A. Fowler, “Facebook in Privacy Breach,” *The Wall Street Journal*, October 18, 2010; Jessica E. Vascellaro, “Facebook Makes Gains in Web Ads,” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 12, 2010 and “Facebook Grapples with Privacy Issues,” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 19, 2010; Geoffrey A. Fowler, “Facebook Fights Privacy Concerns,” *The Wall Street Journal*, August 21, 2010 and “Facebook Tweaks Allow Friends to Sort Who They Really ‘Like,’” *The Wall Street Journal*, October 5, 2010; Emily Steel and Geoffrey A. Fowler, “Facebook Touts Selling Power of Friendship,” *The Wall Street Journal*, July 7, 2010; Brad Stone, “Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast?” *The New York Times*, March 29, 2009; and CG Lynch, “Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer: Balancing Needs of Users with the Business of Social Networks”, *CIO.com*, April 1 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What concepts in the chapter are illustrated in this case?
2. Describe the weaknesses of Facebook’s privacy policies and features. What management, organization, and technology factors have contributed to those weaknesses?
3. List and describe some of the options that Facebook managers have in balancing privacy and profitability. How can Facebook better safeguard user privacy? What would be the impact on its profitability and business model?
4. Do you anticipate that Facebook will be successful in developing a business model that monetizes their site traffic? Why or why not?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Visit Facebook’s Web site and review the site’s privacy policy. Then answer the following questions:
1. To what user information does Facebook retain the rights?
2. What is Facebook’s stance regarding information shared via third-party applications developed for the Facebook platform?
3. Did you find the privacy policy to be clear and reasonable? What would you change, if anything?
**The Wisdom of Crowds**
Creating sites where thousands, even millions, of people can interact offers business firms new ways to market and advertise, to discover who likes (or hates) their products. In a phenomenon called **“the wisdom of crowds,”** some
argue that large numbers of people can make better decisions about a wide range of topics or products than a single person or even a small committee of experts (Surowiecki, 2004).
Obviously this is not always the case, but it can happen in interesting ways. In marketing, the wisdom of crowds concept suggests that firms should consult with thousands of their customers first as a way of establishing a relationship with them, and second, to better understand how their products and services are used and appreciated (or rejected). Actively soliciting the comments of your customers builds trust and sends the message to your customers that you care what they are thinking, and that you need their advice.
Beyond merely soliciting advice, firms can be actively helped in solving some business problems using what is called **crowdsourcing**. For instance, in 2006, Netflix announced a contest in which it offered to pay $1 million to the person or team who comes up with a method for improving by 10 percent Netflix's prediction of what movies customers would like as measured against their actual choices. By 2009, Netflix received 44,014 entries from 5,169 teams in 186 countries. The winning team improved a key part of Netflix's business: a recommender system that recommends to its customers what new movies to order based on their personal past movie choices and the choices of millions of other customers who are like them (Howe, 2008; Resnick and Varian, 1997).
Firms can also use the wisdom of crowds in the form of prediction markets. **Prediction markets** are established as peer-to-peer betting markets where participants make bets on specific outcomes of, say, quarterly sales of a new product, designs for new products, or political elections. The world's largest commercial prediction market is Betfair, founded in 2000, where you bet for or against specific outcomes on football games, horse races, and whether or not the Dow Jones will go up or down in a single day. Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM) is an academic market focused on elections. You can place bets on the outcome of local and national elections.
### E-COMMERCE MARKETING
While e-commerce and the Internet have changed entire industries and enable new business models, no industry has been more affected than marketing and marketing communications. The Internet provides marketers with new ways of identifying and communicating with millions of potential customers at costs far lower than traditional media, including search engine marketing, data mining, recommender systems, and targeted e-mail. The Internet enables **long tail marketing**. Before the Internet, reaching a large audience was very expensive, and marketers had to focus on attracting the largest number of consumers with popular hit products, whether music, Hollywood movies, books, or cars. In contrast, the Internet allows marketers to inexpensively find potential customers for which demand is very low, people on the far ends of the bell (normal) curve. For instance, the Internet makes it possible to sell independent music profitably to very small audiences. There's always some demand for almost any product. Put a string of such long tail sales together and you have a profitable business.
The Internet also provides new ways—often instantaneous and spontaneous—to gather information from customers, adjust product offerings, and increase customer value. Table 10-6 describes the leading marketing and advertising formats used in e-commerce.
Many e-commerce marketing firms use behavioral targeting techniques to increase the effectiveness of banner, rich media, and video ads. **Behavioral**
**TABLE 10-6 ONLINE MARKETING AND ADVERTISING FORMATS (BILLIONS)**
| MARKETING FORMAT | 2010 REVENUE | DESCRIPTION |
|---------------------------|--------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Search engine | $12.3 | Text ads targeted at precisely what the customer is looking for at the moment of shopping and purchasing. Sales oriented. |
| Display ads | $5.8 | Banner ads (pop-ups and leave-behinds) with interactive features; increasingly behaviorally targeted to individual Web activity. Brand development and sales. |
| Classified | $1.9 | Job, real estate, and services ads; interactive, rich media, and personalized to user searches. Sales and branding. |
| Rich media | $1.57 | Animations, games, and puzzles. Interactive, targeted, and entertaining. Branding orientation. |
| Affiliate and blog marketing | $1.5 | Blog and Web site marketing steers customers to parent sites; interactive, personal, and often with video. Sales orientation. |
| Video | $1.5 | Fastest growing format, engaging and entertaining; behaviorally targeted, interactive. Branding and sales. |
| Sponsorships | $.4 | Online games, puzzle, contests, and coupon sites sponsored by firms to promote products. Sales orientation. |
| E-mail | $.27 | Effective, targeted marketing tool with interactive and rich media potential. Sales oriented. |
**targeting** refers to tracking the click-streams (history of clicking behavior) of individuals on thousands of Web sites for the purpose of understanding their interests and intentions, and exposing them to advertisements that are uniquely suited to their behavior. Proponents believe this more precise understanding of the customer leads to more efficient marketing (the firm pays for ads only to those shoppers who are most interested in their products) and larger sales and revenues. Unfortunately, behavioral targeting of millions of Web users also leads to the invasion of personal privacy without user consent (see our discussion in Chapter 4). When consumers lose trust in their Web experience, they tend not to purchase anything.
Behavioral targeting takes place at two levels: at individual Web sites and on various advertising networks that track users across thousands of Web sites. All Web sites collect data on visitor browser activity and store it in a database. They have tools to record the site that users visited prior to coming to the Web site, where these users go when they leave that site, the type of operating system they use, browser information, and even some location data. They also record the specific pages visited on the particular site, the time spent on each page of the site, the types of pages visited, and what the visitors purchased (see Figure 10-3). Firms analyze this information about customer interests and behavior to develop precise profiles of existing and potential customers.
This information enables firms to understand how well their Web site is working, create unique personalized Web pages that display content or ads for products or services of special interest to each user, improve the customer's experience, and create additional value through a better understanding of the shopper (see Figure 10-4). By using personalization technology to modify the Web pages presented to each customer, marketers achieve some of the benefits of using individual salespeople at dramatically lower costs. For instance,
The shopper clicks on the home page. The store can tell that the shopper arrived from the Yahoo! portal at 2:30 PM (which might help determine staffing for customer service centers) and how long she lingered on the home page (which might indicate trouble navigating the site).
The shopper clicks on blouses, clicks to select a woman’s white blouse, then clicks to view the same item in pink. The shopper clicks to select this item in a size 10 in pink and clicks to place it in her shopping cart. This information can help the store determine which sizes and colors are most popular.
From the shopping cart page, the shopper clicks to close the browser to leave the Web site without purchasing the blouse. This action could indicate the shopper changed her mind or that she had a problem with the Web site’s checkout and payment process. Such behavior might signal that the Web site was not well designed.
E-commerce Web sites have tools to track a shopper’s every step through an online store. Close examination of customer behavior at a Web site selling women’s clothing shows what the store might learn at each step and what actions it could take to increase sales.
General Motors will show a Chevrolet banner ad to women emphasizing safety and utility, while men will receive different ads emphasizing power and ruggedness.
Firms can create unique personalized Web pages that display content or ads for products or services of special interest to individual users, improving the customer experience and creating additional value.
What if you are a large national advertising company with many different clients trying to reach millions of consumers? What if you were a large global manufacturer trying to reach potential consumers for your products? With millions of Web sites, working with each one would be impractical. Advertising networks solve this problem by creating a network of several thousand of the most popular Web sites visited by millions of people, tracking the behavior of these users across the entire network, building profiles of each user, and then selling these profiles to advertisers. Popular Web sites download dozens of Web tracking cookies, bugs, and beacons, which report user online behavior to remote servers without the users’ knowledge. Looking for young, single consumers, with college degrees, living in the Northeast, in the 18–34 age range who are interested purchasing a European car? Not a problem. Advertising networks can identify and deliver hundreds of thousands of people who fit this profile and expose them to ads for European cars as they move from one Web site to another. Estimates vary, but behaviorally targeted ads are 10 times more likely to produce a consumer response than a randomly chosen banner or video ad (see Figure 10-5). So-called advertising exchanges use this same technology to auction access to people with very specific profiles to advertisers in a few milliseconds.
**B2B E-COMMERCE: NEW EFFICIENCIES AND RELATIONSHIPS**
The trade between business firms (business-to-business commerce or B2B) represents a huge marketplace. The total amount of B2B trade in the United States in 2009 was about $12.2 trillion, with B2B e-commerce (online B2B) contributing about $3.6 trillion of that amount (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010; authors’ estimates). By 2014, B2B e-commerce should grow to about $5.1 trillion in the United States, assuming an average growth rate of about 7 percent. The process of conducting trade among business firms is complex and requires significant human interven-
**FIGURE 10-5 HOW AN ADVERTISING NETWORK SUCH AS DOUBLECLICK WORKS**
Advertising networks have become controversial among privacy advocates because of their ability to track individual consumers across the Internet. We discuss privacy issues further in Chapter 4.
tion, and therefore, it consumes significant resources. Some firms estimate that each corporate purchase order for support products costs them, on average, at least $100 in administrative overhead. Administrative overhead includes processing paper, approving purchase decisions, spending time using the telephone and fax machines to search for products and arrange for purchases, arranging for shipping, and receiving the goods. Across the economy, this adds up to trillions of dollars annually being spent for procurement processes that could potentially be automated. If even just a portion of inter-firm trade were automated, and parts of the entire procurement process assisted by the Internet, literally trillions of dollars might be released for more productive uses, consumer prices potentially would fall, productivity would increase, and the economic wealth of the nation would expand. This is the promise of B2B e-commerce. The challenge of B2B e-commerce is changing existing patterns and systems of procurement, and designing and implementing new Internet-based B2B solutions.
Business-to-business e-commerce refers to the commercial transactions that occur among business firms. Increasingly, these transactions are flowing through a variety of different Internet-enabled mechanisms. About 80 percent of online B2B e-commerce is still based on proprietary systems for electronic data interchange (EDI). Electronic data interchange enables the computer-to-computer exchange between two organizations of standard transactions such as invoices, bills of lading, shipment schedules, or purchase orders. Transactions are automatically transmitted from one information system to another through a network, eliminating the printing and handling of paper at one end and the inputting of data at the other. Each major industry in the United States and much of the rest of the world has EDI standards that define the structure and information fields of electronic documents for that industry.
EDI originally automated the exchange of documents such as purchase orders, invoices, and shipping notices. Although some companies still use EDI for document automation, firms engaged in just-in-time inventory replenishment and continuous production use EDI as a system for continuous replenishment. Suppliers have online access to selected parts of the purchasing firm's production and delivery schedules and automatically ship materials and goods to meet prespecified targets without intervention by firm purchasing agents (see Figure 10-6).
Although many organizations still use private networks for EDI, they are increasingly Web-enabled because Internet technology provides a much more flexible and low-cost platform for linking to other firms. Businesses are able to extend digital technology to a wider range of activities and broaden their circle of trading partners.
**FIGURE 10-6** ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI)
Companies use EDI to automate transactions for B2B e-commerce and continuous inventory replenishment. Suppliers can automatically send data about shipments to purchasing firms. The purchasing firms can use EDI to provide production and inventory requirements and payment data to suppliers.
Take procurement, for example. Procurement involves not only purchasing goods and materials but also sourcing, negotiating with suppliers, paying for goods, and making delivery arrangements. Businesses can now use the Internet to locate the lowest-cost supplier, search online catalogs of supplier products, negotiate with suppliers, place orders, make payments, and arrange transportation. They are not limited to partners linked by traditional EDI networks.
The Internet and Web technology enable businesses to create new electronic storefronts for selling to other businesses with multimedia graphic displays and interactive features similar to those for B2C commerce. Alternatively, businesses can use Internet technology to create extranets or electronic marketplaces for linking to other businesses for purchase and sale transactions.
**Private industrial networks** typically consist of a large firm using an extranet to link to its suppliers and other key business partners (see Figure 10-7). The network is owned by the buyer, and it permits the firm and designated suppliers, distributors, and other business partners to share product design and development, marketing, production scheduling, inventory management, and unstructured communication, including graphics and e-mail. Another term for a private industrial network is a **private exchange**.
An example is VW Group Supply, which links the Volkswagen Group and its suppliers. VW Group Supply handles 90 percent of all global purchasing for Volkswagen, including all automotive and parts components.
**Net marketplaces**, which are sometimes called e-hubs, provide a single, digital marketplace based on Internet technology for many different buyers and sellers (see Figure 10-8). They are industry owned or operate as independent intermediaries between buyers and sellers. Net marketplaces generate revenue from purchase and sale transactions and other services provided to clients. Participants in Net marketplaces can establish prices through online negotiations, auctions, or requests for quotations, or they can use fixed prices.
**FIGURE 10-7 A PRIVATE INDUSTRIAL NETWORK**
A private industrial network, also known as a private exchange, links a firm to its suppliers, distributors, and other key business partners for efficient supply chain management and other collaborative commerce activities.
Net marketplaces are online marketplaces where multiple buyers can purchase from multiple sellers.
There are many different types of Net marketplaces and ways of classifying them. Some Net marketplaces sell direct goods and some sell indirect goods. *Direct goods* are goods used in a production process, such as sheet steel for auto body production. *Indirect goods* are all other goods not directly involved in the production process, such as office supplies or products for maintenance and repair. Some Net marketplaces support contractual purchasing based on long-term relationships with designated suppliers, and others support short-term spot purchasing, where goods are purchased based on immediate needs, often from many different suppliers.
Some Net marketplaces serve vertical markets for specific industries, such as automobiles, telecommunications, or machine tools, whereas others serve horizontal markets for goods and services that can be found in many different industries, such as office equipment or transportation.
Exostar is an example of an industry-owned Net marketplace, focusing on long-term contract purchasing relationships and on providing common networks and computing platforms for reducing supply chain inefficiencies. This aerospace and defense industry-sponsored Net marketplace was founded jointly by BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Rolls-Royce plc to connect these companies to their suppliers and facilitate collaboration. More than 16,000 trading partners in the commercial, military, and government sectors use Exostar’s sourcing, e-procurement, and collaboration tools for both direct and indirect goods. Elemica is another example of a Net marketplace serving the chemical industry.
*Exchanges* are independently owned third-party Net marketplaces that connect thousands of suppliers and buyers for spot purchasing. Many exchanges provide vertical markets for a single industry, such as food, electronics, or industrial equipment, and they primarily deal with direct inputs. For example, Go2paper enables a spot market for paper, board, and kraft among buyers and sellers in the paper industries from over 75 countries.
Exchanges proliferated during the early years of e-commerce but many have failed. Suppliers were reluctant to participate because the exchanges encouraged competitive bidding that drove prices down and did not offer any long-term relationships with buyers or services to make lowering prices worthwhile. Many essential direct purchases are not conducted on a spot basis because they require contracts and consideration of issues such as delivery timing, customization, and quality of products.
10.3 THE MOBILE DIGITAL PLATFORM AND MOBILE E-COMMERCE
Walk down the street in any major metropolitan area and count how many people are pecking away at their iPhones or BlackBerrys. Ride the trains, fly the planes, and you’ll see your fellow travelers reading an online newspaper, watching a video on their phone, or reading a novel on their Kindle. In five years, the majority of Internet users in the United States will rely on mobile devices as their primary device for accessing the Internet. M-commerce has taken off.
In 2010, m-commerce represented less than 10 percent of all e-commerce, with about $5 billion in annual revenues generated by selling music, videos, ring tones, applications, movies, television, and location-based services like local restaurant locators and traffic updates. However, m-commerce is the fastest growing form of e-commerce, with some areas expanding at a rate of 50 percent or more per year, and is estimated to grow to $19 billion in 2014 (see Figure 10-9). In 2010, there were an estimated 5 billion cell phone subscribers worldwide, with over 855 million in China and 300 million in the United States (eMarketer, 2010d).
M-COMMERCE SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS
The main areas of growth in mobile e-commerce are location-based services, about $215 million in revenue in 2010; software application sales at stores such as iTunes (about $1.8 billion); entertainment downloads of ring tones, music, video, and TV shows (about $1 billion); mobile display advertising ($784 million); direct shopping services such as Slifter ($200 million); and e-book sales ($338 million).
FIGURE 10-9 CONSOLIDATED MOBILE COMMERCE REVENUES
Mobile e-commerce is the fastest growing type of B2C e-commerce although it represents only a small part of all e-commerce in 2010.
M-commerce applications have taken off for services that are time-critical, that appeal to people on the move, or that accomplish a task more efficiently than other methods. They are especially popular in Europe, Japan, South Korea, and other countries with strong wireless broadband infrastructures. The following sections describe some examples.
**Location-Based Services**
Wikitude.me provides a special kind of browser for smart phones equipped with a built-in global positioning system (GPS) and compass that can identify your precise location and where the phone is pointed. Using information from over 800,000 points of interest available on Wikipedia, plus thousands of other local sites, the browser overlays information about points of interest you are viewing, and displays that information on your smartphone screen, superimposed on a map or photograph that you just snapped. For example, users can point their smart phone cameras towards mountains from a tour bus and see the names and heights of the mountains displayed on the screen. Lost in a European medieval city, or downtown Los Angeles? Open up the Wikitude browser, point your camera at a building, and then find the address and other interesting details. Wikitude.me also allows users to geo-tag the world around them, and then submit the tags to Wikitude in order to share content with other users. In 2010, both Facebook and Twitter launched a Places feature that allows users to let their friends know where they are. These services compete with Foursquare and Gowalla, which allow users to check in at places and broadcast their location to friends.
Loopt is a free social networking application that allows you to share your status and track the location of friends via smartphones such as the iPhone, BlackBerry, and over 100 other mobile devices. Users also have the ability to integrate Loopt with other social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. Loopt has 4 million users. The service doesn't sell information to advertisers, but does post ads based on user location. Loopt's target is to deal with advertisers at the walking level (within 200 to 250 meters).
Foursquare provides a similar service to 4 million registered users, who are able to connect with friends and update their location. Points are awarded for "checking in" at designated venues. Users choose to have their check-ins posted on their accounts on Twitter, Facebook, or both. Users also earn badges by checking in at locations with certain tags, for check-in frequency, or for the time of check-in. More than 3,000 restaurants, bars, and other businesses (including 4Food, described in the chapter-opening case) use Foursquare to attract customers with promotions.
**Banking and Financial Services**
Banks and credit card companies are rolling out services that let customers manage their accounts from their mobile devices. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America customers can use their cell phones to check account balances, transfer funds, and pay bills.
**Wireless Advertising and Retailing**
Although the mobile advertising market is currently small ($784 million), it is rapidly growing (up 17 percent from last year and expected to grow to over $6.2 billion by 2014), as more and more companies seek ways to exploit new databases of location-specific information. Alcatel-Lucent offers a new service to be managed by 1020 Placecast that will identify cell phone users within a specified distance of an advertiser's nearest outlet and notify them about the
outlet’s address and phone number, perhaps including a link to a coupon or other promotion. 1020 Placecast’s clients include Hyatt, FedEx, and Avis Rent A Car.
Yahoo displays ads on its mobile home page for companies such as Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Hilton, Nissan, and Intel. Google is displaying ads linked to cell phone searches by users of the mobile version of its search engine, while Microsoft offers banner and text advertising on its MSN Mobile portal in the United States. Ads are embedded in games, videos, and other mobile applications.
Shopkick is a mobile application that enables retailers such as Best Buy, Sports Authority, and Macy’s to offer coupons to people when they walk into their stores. The shopkick app automatically recognizes when the user has entered a partner retail store, and offers a new virtual currency called “kickbucks,” which can be redeemed for Facebook credits, iTunes Gift Cards, travel vouchers, DVD’s, or immediate cash-back rewards at any of the partner stores.
In 2010, shoppers ordered about $2.2 billion in physical goods from Web sites via smartphones (over 1 billion of that at Amazon alone). Thirty percent of retailers have m-commerce Web sites—simplified versions of their Web sites that make it possible for shoppers to use cell phones to place orders. Clothing retailers Lilly Pulitzer and Armani Exchange, Home Depot, and 1–800 Flowers are among those companies with specialized apps for m-commerce sales.
**Games and Entertainment**
Cell phones have developed into portable entertainment platforms. Smartphones like the iPhone and Droid offer downloadable and streaming digital games, movies, TV shows, music, and ringtones.
Users of broadband services from the major wireless vendors can stream on-demand video clips, news clips, and weather reports. MobiTV, offered by Sprint and AT&T Wireless, features live TV programs, including MSNBC and Fox Sports. Film companies are starting to produce short films explicitly designed to play on mobile phones. User-generated content is also appearing in mobile form. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and other social networking sites have versions for mobile devices. In 2010, the top 10 most popular apps on Facebook are games, led by Farmville with over 16 million daily users.
### 10.4 Building an E-commerce Web Site
Building a successful e-commerce site requires a keen understanding of business, technology, and social issues, as well as a systematic approach. A complete treatment of the topic is beyond the scope of this text, and students should consult books devoted to just this topic (Laudon and Traver, 2011). The two most important management challenges in building a successful e-commerce site are (1) developing a clear understanding of your business objectives and (2) knowing how to choose the right technology to achieve those objectives.
#### Pieces of the Site-Building Puzzle
Let’s assume you are a manager for a medium-sized, industrial parts firm of around 10,000 employees worldwide, operating in eight countries in Europe, Asia, and North America. Senior management has given you a budget of $1
million to build an e-commerce site within one year. The purpose of this site will be to sell and service the firm’s 20,000 customers, who are mostly small machine and metal fabricating shops around the world. Where do you start?
First, you must be aware of the main areas where you will need to make decisions. On the organizational and human resources fronts, you will have to bring together a team of individuals who possess the skill sets needed to build and manage a successful e-commerce site. This team will make the key decisions about technology, site design, and social and information policies that will be applied at your site. The entire site development effort must be closely managed if you hope to avoid the disasters that have occurred at some firms.
You will also need to make decisions about your site’s hardware, software, and telecommunications infrastructure. The demands of your customers should drive your choices of technology. Your customers will want technology that enables them to find what they want easily, view the product, purchase the product, and then receive the product from your warehouses quickly. You will also have to carefully consider your site’s design. Once you have identified the key decision areas, you will need to think about a plan for the project.
**BUSINESS OBJECTIVES, SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY, AND INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS**
In planning your Web site you need to answer the question, “What do we want the e-commerce site to do for our business?” The key lesson to be learned here is to let the business decisions drive the technology, not the reverse. This will ensure that your technology platform is aligned with your business. We will assume here that you have identified a business strategy and chosen a business model to achieve your strategic objectives. (Review Chapter 3.) But how do you translate your strategies, business models, and ideas into a working e-commerce site?
Your planning should identify the specific business objectives for your site, and then develop a list of system functionalities and information requirements. Business objectives are simply capabilities you want your site to have. System functionalities are types of information systems capabilities you will need to achieve your business objectives. The information requirements for a system are the information elements that the system must produce in order to achieve the business objectives.
Table 10-7 describes some basic business objectives, system functionalities, and information requirements for a typical e-commerce site. The objectives must be translated into a description of system functionalities and ultimately into a set of precise information requirements. The specific information requirements for a system typically are defined in much greater detail than Table 10-7 indicates (see Chapter 13). The business objectives of an e-commerce site are similar to those of a physical retail store, but they must be provided entirely in digital form, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
**BUILDING THE WEB SITE: IN-HOUSE VERSUS OUTSOURCING**
There are many choices for building and maintaining Web sites. Much depends on how much money you are willing to spend. Choices range from outsourcing the entire Web site development to an external vendor to building everything yourself (in-house). You also have a second decision to make: will you host
| BUSINESS OBJECTIVE | SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY | INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS |
|--------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Display goods | Digital catalog | Dynamic text and graphics catalog |
| Provide product information (content) | Product database | Product description, stocking numbers, inventory levels |
| Personalize/customize product | Customer on-site tracking | Site log for every customer visit; data mining capability to identify common customer paths and appropriate responses |
| Execute a transaction payment | Shopping cart/payment system | Secure credit card clearing; multiple options |
| Accumulate customer information | Customer database | Name, address, phone, and e-mail for all customers; online customer registration |
| Provide after-sale customer support | Sales database and customer relationship management system (CRM) | Customer ID, product, date, payment, shipment date |
| Coordinate marketing/advertising | Ad server, e-mail server, e-mail, campaign manager, ad banner manager | Site behavior log of prospects and customers linked to e-mail and banner ad campaigns |
| Understand marketing effectiveness | Site tracking and reporting system | Number of unique visitors, pages visited, products purchased, identified by marketing campaign |
| Provide production and supplier links | Inventory management system | Product and inventory levels, supplier ID and contact, order quantity data by product |
(operate) the site on your firm’s own servers or will you outsource the hosting to a Web host provider? There are some vendors who will design, build, and host your site, while others will either build or host (but not both). Figure 10-10 illustrates the alternatives.
**FIGURE 10-10** CHOICES IN BUILDING AND HOSTING WEB SITES
You have a number of alternatives to consider when building and hosting an e-commerce site.
The Building Decision
If you elect to build your own site, there are a range of options. Unless you are fairly skilled, you should use a pre-built template to create the Web site. For example, Yahoo Merchant Solutions, Amazon Stores, and eBay all provide templates that merely require you to input text, graphics, and other data, as well as the infrastructure to run the Web site once it has been created. This is the least costly and simplest solution, but you will be limited to the “look and feel” and functionality provided by the template and infrastructure.
If you have some experience with computers, you might decide to build the site yourself. There is a broad variety of tools, ranging from those that help you build everything truly “from scratch,” such as Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe InDesign, and Microsoft Expression, to top-of-the-line prepackaged site-building tools that can create sophisticated sites customized to your needs.
The decision to build a Web site on your own has a number of risks. Given the complexity of features such as shopping carts, credit card authentication and processing, inventory management, and order processing, development costs are high, as are the risks of doing a poor job. You will be reinventing what other specialized firms have already built, and your staff may face a long, difficult learning curve, delaying your entry to market. Your efforts could fail. On the positive side, you may able to build a site that does exactly what you want, and develop the in-house knowledge to revise the site rapidly if necessitated by a changing business environment.
If you choose more expensive site-building packages, you will be purchasing state-of-the-art software that is well tested. You could get to market sooner. However, to make a sound decision, you will have to evaluate many different software packages and this can take a long time. You may have to modify the packages to fit your business needs and perhaps hire additional outside consultants to do the modifications. Costs rise rapidly as modifications mount. (We discuss this problem in greater detail in Chapter 13.) A $4,000 package can easily become a $40,000 to $60,000 development project.
In the past, bricks-and-mortar retailers typically designed their e-commerce sites themselves (because they already had the skilled staff and IT infrastructure in place to do this). Today, however, larger retailers rely heavily on external vendors to provide sophisticated Web site capabilities, while also maintaining a substantial internal staff. Medium-size start-ups will often purchase a sophisticated package and then modify it to suit their needs. Very small mom-and-pop firms seeking simple storefronts will use templates.
The Hosting Decision
Now let’s look at the hosting decision. Most businesses choose to outsource hosting and pay a company to host their Web site, which means that the hosting company is responsible for ensuring the site is “live” or accessible, 24 hours a day. By agreeing to a monthly fee, the business need not concern itself with technical aspects of setting up and maintaining a Web server, telecommunications links, or specialized staffing.
With a co-location agreement, your firm purchases or leases a Web server (and has total control over its operation) but locates the server in a vendor’s physical facility. The vendor maintains the facility, communications lines, and the machinery. In the age of cloud computing, it is much less expensive to host your Web site in virtualized computing facilities. In this case, you do not purchase the server, but rent the capabilities of a cloud computing center. There is an extraordinary range of prices for cloud hosting, ranging from $4.95 a month, to several hundred thousands of dollars per month depending on the
size of the Web site, bandwidth, storage, and support requirements. Very large providers (such as IBM, HP, and Oracle) achieve large economies of scale by establishing huge “server farms” located strategically around the country and the globe. What this means is that the cost of pure hosting has fallen as fast as the fall in server prices, dropping about 50 percent every year.
**Web Site Budgets**
Simple Web sites can be built and hosted with a first-year cost of $5,000 or less. The Web sites of large firms with high levels of interactivity and linkage to corporate systems cost several million dollars a year to create and operate. For instance, in September 2006, Bluefly, which sells discounted women’s and men’s designer clothes online, embarked on the process of developing an improved version of its Web site based on software from Art Technology Group (ATG). It launched the new site in August 2008. To date, it has invested over $5.3 million in connection with the redevelopment of the Web site. In 2010, Bluefly had online sales of $81 million, and is growing at 7.5 percent a year. It’s e-commerce technology budget is over $8 million a year, roughly 10 percent of its total revenues (Bluefly, Inc., 2010).
Figure 10-11 provides some idea of the relative size of various Web site cost components. In general, the cost of hardware, software, and telecommunications for building and operating a Web site has fallen dramatically (by over 50 percent) since 2000, making it possible for very small entrepreneurs to create fairly sophisticated sites. At the same time, the costs of system maintenance and content creation have risen to make up more than half of typical Web site budgets. Providing content and smooth 24/7 operations are both very labor-intensive.
**FIGURE 10-11 COMPONENTS OF A WEB SITE BUDGET**
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience developing e-commerce strategies for businesses, using spreadsheet software to research the profitability of an e-commerce company, and using Web tools to research and evaluate e-commerce hosting services.
**Management Decision Problems**
1. Columbiana is a small, independent island in the Caribbean. It wants to develop its tourist industry and attract more visitors. The island has many
historical buildings, forts, and other sites, along with rain forests and striking mountains. A few first-class hotels and several dozen less-expensive accommodations can be found along its beautiful white sand beaches. The major airlines have regular flights to Columbiana, as do several small airlines. Columbiana’s government wants to increase tourism and develop new markets for the country’s tropical agricultural products. How can a Web presence help? What Internet business model would be appropriate? What functions should the Web site perform?
2. Explore the Web sites of the following companies: Blue Nile, J.Crew, Circuit City, Black&Decker, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, and Priceline. Determine which of these Web sites would benefit most from adding a company-sponsored blog to the Web site. List the business benefits of the blog. Specify the intended audience for the blog. Decide who in the company should author the blog, and select some topics for the blog.
**Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software to Analyze a Dot-Com Business**
*Software skills:* Spreadsheet downloading, formatting, and formulas
*Business skills:* Financial statement analysis
Publicly traded companies, including those specializing in e-commerce, are required to file financial data with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. By analyzing this information, you can determine the profitability of an e-commerce company and the viability of its business model.
Pick one e-commerce company on the Internet, for example, Ashford, Buy.com, Yahoo, or Priceline. Study the Web pages that describe the company and explain its purpose and structure. Use the Web to find articles that comment on the company. Then visit the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Web site at www.sec.gov and select Filings & Forms to access the company’s 10-K (annual report) form showing income statements and balance sheets. Select only the sections of the 10-K form containing the desired portions of financial statements that you need to examine, and download them into your spreadsheet. (MyMISLab provides more detailed instructions on how to download this 10-K data into a spreadsheet.) Create simplified spreadsheets of the company’s balance sheets and income statements for the past three years.
- Is the company a dot-com success, borderline business, or failure? What information dictates the basis of your decision? Why? When answering these questions, pay special attention to the company’s three-year trends in revenues, costs of sales, gross margins, operating expenses, and net margins.
- Prepare an overhead presentation (with a minimum of five slides), including appropriate spreadsheets or charts, and present your work to your professor and classmates.
**Achieving Operational Excellence: Evaluating E-Commerce Hosting Services**
*Software skills:* Web browser software
*Business skills:* Evaluating e-commerce hosting services
This project will help develop your Internet skills in commercial services for hosting an e-commerce site for a small start-up company.
You would like to set up a Web site to sell towels, linens, pottery, and tableware from Portugal and are examining services for hosting small business
Internet storefronts. Your Web site should be able to take secure credit card payments and to calculate shipping costs and taxes. Initially, you would like to display photos and descriptions of 40 different products. Visit Yahoo! Small Business, GoDaddy, and Volusion and compare the range of e-commerce hosting services they offer to small businesses, their capabilities, and costs. Also examine the tools they provide for creating an e-commerce site. Compare these services and decide which you would use if you were actually establishing a Web store. Write a brief report indicating your choice and explaining the strengths and weaknesses of each.
**Learning Track Modules**
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. Building a Web Page
2. E-commerce Challenges: The Story of Online Groceries
3. Build an E-commerce Business Plan
4. Hot New Careers in E-commerce
**Review Summary**
1. **What are the unique features of e-commerce, digital markets, and digital goods?**
E-commerce involves digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals. Unique features of e-commerce technology include ubiquity, global reach, universal technology standards, richness, interactivity, information density, capabilities for personalization and customization, and social technology.
Digital markets are said to be more “transparent” than traditional markets, with reduced information asymmetry, search costs, transaction costs, and menu costs, along with the ability to change prices dynamically based on market conditions. Digital goods, such as music, video, software, and books, can be delivered over a digital network. Once a digital product has been produced, the cost of delivering that product digitally is extremely low.
2. **What are the principal e-commerce business and revenue models?**
E-commerce business models are e-tailers, transaction brokers, market creators, content providers, community providers, service providers, and portals. The principal e-commerce revenue models are advertising, sales, subscription, free/freemium, transaction fee, and affiliate.
3. **How has e-commerce transformed marketing?**
The Internet provides marketers with new ways of identifying and communicating with millions of potential customers at costs far lower than traditional media. Crowdsourcing utilizing the “wisdom of crowds” helps companies learn from customers in order to improve product offerings and increase customer value. Behavioral targeting techniques increase the effectiveness of banner, rich media, and video ads.
4. **How has e-commerce affected business-to-business transactions?**
B2B e-commerce generates efficiencies by enabling companies to locate suppliers, solicit bids, place orders, and track shipments in transit electronically. Net marketplaces provide a single, digital marketplace for many buyers and sellers. Private industrial networks link a firm with its suppliers and other strategic business partners to develop highly efficient and responsive supply chains.
5. What is the role of m-commerce in business, and what are the most important m-commerce applications?
M-commerce is especially well-suited for location-based applications, such as finding local hotels and restaurants, monitoring local traffic and weather, and providing personalized location-based marketing. Mobile phones and handhelds are being used for mobile bill payment, banking, securities trading, transportation schedule updates, and downloads of digital content, such as music, games, and video clips. M-commerce requires wireless portals and special digital payment systems that can handle micropayments.
6. What issues must be addressed when building an e-commerce Web site?
Building a successful e-commerce site requires a clear understanding of the business objectives to be achieved by the site and selection of the right technology to achieve those objectives. E-commerce sites can be built and hosted in-house or partially or fully outsourced to external service providers.
Key Terms
Advertising revenue model, 387
Affiliate revenue model, 389
Behavioral marketing, 392
Business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce, 381
Business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce, 381
Co-location, 404
Community providers, 384
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) electronic commerce, 381
Cost Transparency, 377
Crowdsourcing, 392
Customization, 378
Digital goods, 380
Disintermediation, 379
Dynamic pricing, 379
Electronic data interchange (EDI), 396
E-tailer, 382
Exchanges, 398
Free/freemium revenue model, 388
Information asymmetry, 378
Information density, 377
Intellectual property, 383
Long tail marketing, 392
Market creator, 384
Market entry costs, 377
Marketspace, 375
Menu costs, 379
Micropayment systems, 388
Mobile commerce (m-commerce), 382
Net marketplaces, 397
Personalization, 378
Podcasting, 383
Prediction market, 392
Price discrimination, 377
Price transparency, 377
Private exchange, 397
Private industrial networks, 397
Revenue model, 387
Richness, 377
Sales revenue model, 388
Search costs, 377
Social shopping, 389
Streaming, 383
Subscription revenue model, 388
Transaction costs, 376
Transaction fee revenue model, 388
Wisdom of crowds, 391
Review Questions
1. What are the unique features of e-commerce, digital markets, and digital goods?
- Name and describe four business trends and three technology trends shaping e-commerce today.
- List and describe the eight unique features of e-commerce.
- Define a digital market and digital goods and describe their distinguishing features.
2. What are the principal e-commerce business and revenue models?
- Name and describe the principal e-commerce business models.
- Name and describe the e-commerce revenue models.
3. How has e-commerce transformed marketing?
- Explain how social networking and the “wisdom of crowds” help companies improve their marketing.
- Define behavioral targeting and explain how it works at individual Web sites and on advertising networks.
4. How has e-commerce affected business-to-business transactions?
- Explain how Internet technology supports business-to-business electronic commerce.
• Define and describe Net marketplaces and explain how they differ from private industrial networks (private exchanges).
5. What is the role of m-commerce in business, and what are the most important m-commerce applications?
• List and describe important types of m-commerce services and applications.
• Describe some of the barriers to m-commerce.
6. What issues must be addressed when building an e-commerce Web site?
• List and describe each of the factors that go into the building of an e-commerce Web site.
• List and describe four business objectives, four system functionalities, and four information requirements of a typical e-commerce Web site.
• List and describe each of the options for building and hosting e-commerce Web sites.
Discussion Questions
1. How does the Internet change consumer and supplier relationships?
2. The Internet may not make corporations obsolete, but the corporations will have to change their business models. Do you agree? Why or why not?
3. How have social technologies changed e-commerce?
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Performing a Competitive Analysis of E-commerce Sites
Form a group with three or four of your classmates. Select two businesses that are competitors in the same industry and that use their Web sites for electronic commerce. Visit these Web sites. You might compare, for example, the Web sites for iTunes and Napster, Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com, or E*Trade and Scottrade. Prepare an evaluation of each business’s Web site in terms of its functions, user friendliness, and ability to support the company’s business strategy. Which Web site does a better job? Why? Can you make some recommendations to improve these Web sites? If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
Since arriving on the dot-com scene in 1995, Amazon.com has grown from a small online bookseller to one of the largest retailing companies in the world, and easily the largest e-commerce retailer. The company has come a long way from its roots as a small Internet start-up selling books online. In addition to books, Amazon now sells millions of new, used, and collectible items in categories such as apparel and accessories, electronics, computers, kitchen and housewares, music, DVDs, videos, cameras, office products, toys and baby items, computers, software, travel services, sporting goods, jewelry, and watches. In 2010, sales of electronics and general merchandise comprised the majority of Amazon's sales for the first time.
Amazon.com would like to be "The Walmart of the Web," and it is indeed the Internet's top retailer. But in 2010, another firm emerged as a serious challenger for the title of 'Walmart of the Web': Walmart. Though Walmart is a latecomer to the world of e-commerce, the world's largest retailer appears to have its sights set on Amazon and is ready to battle it out for online e-tailing supremacy.
In contrast with Amazon, Walmart was founded as a traditional, off-line, physical store in 1962, and has grown from a single general store managed by founder Sam Walton to the largest retailer in the world with nearly 8,000 stores worldwide.
Based in Bentonville, Arkansas, Walmart made $405 billion in sales last year, which is about 20 times as much as Amazon. In fact, based on current size alone, the battle between Walmart and Amazon is far from a clash of two similarly powerful titans. Walmart is clearly the bigger and stronger of the two, and for the time being, Amazon is not a big threat to Walmart as a whole.
Amazon, however, is not an easy target. The company has created a recognizable and highly successful brand in online retailing as a mass-market, low-price, high-volume online superstore. It has developed extensive warehousing facilities and an extremely efficient distribution network specifically designed for Web shopping. Its premium shipping service, Amazon Prime, provides "free" two-day shipping at an affordable price (currently only $79 per year), often considered to be a weak point for online retailers. Even without Amazon Prime, designated Super Saver items totaling at least $25.00 ship for free.
Amazon's technology platform is massive and powerful enough to support not only sales of its own items but also those of third-party small and large businesses, which integrate their products into Amazon's Web site and use its order entry and payment systems to process their own sales. (Amazon does not own these products, and shipping is handled by the third party, with Amazon collecting 10-20 percent on the sale). This enables Amazon to offer an even wider array of products than it could carry on its own while keeping inventory costs low and increasing revenue. Amazon has further expanded its product selection via acquisitions such as the 2009 purchase of online shoe shopping site Zappos.com, which earned $1 billion in retail sales in 2008 and gave the company an edge in footwear.
In the third quarter of 2009, when retail sales dipped 4 percent across the board, Amazon's sales increased by 24 percent. Its sales of electronics and general merchandise, which is the most prominent area of competition between Amazon and Walmart, were up 44 percent. And e-commerce is expected to become an increasingly large portion of total retail sales. Some estimates indicate that e-commerce could account for 15 to 20 percent of total retail in the United States within the next decade, as more and more shoppers opt to avoid the hassle of shopping at a physical location in favor of shopping online. If this happens, Amazon is in the best position to benefit. In the meantime, e-commerce has not suffered as much from the recession and is recovering more quickly than traditional retail, giving Walmart more reason for concern.
However, Walmart also brings a strong hand to the table. It is an even larger and more recognizable brand than Amazon. Consumers associate Walmart with the lowest price, which Walmart has the flexibility to offer on any given item because of its size and ability to keep overhead costs to a minimum. Walmart can lose money selling a hot product at extremely low margins and expect to make money on the strength of the large quantities of other items it sells. It also has a legendary continuous inventory replenishment system that
starts restocking merchandise as soon as an item reaches the checkout counter. Walmart's efficiency, flexibility, and ability to fine-tune its inventory to carry exactly what customers want have been enduring sources of competitive advantage. Walmart also has a significant physical presence, with stores all across the United States and in many other countries, and its stores provide the instant gratification of shopping, buying an item, and taking it home immediately, as opposed to waiting when ordering from Amazon.
Walmart believes Amazon's Achilles' heel is the costs and delays of shipping online purchases to buyers. Customers who buy some of the more than 1.5 million products on Walmart.com can have them shipped free to a local Walmart, and pick up their purchases at these stores. Internet shoppers may be tempted to pick up other items once they are inside the store. New service desks at the front of some stores make it even easier for shoppers to retrieve their purchases. A Walmart on the outskirts of Chicago is testing a drive-through window, similar to those found at pharmacies and fast-food restaurants, where shoppers can pick up their Internet orders.
In late 2009, Walmart.com began aggressively lowering prices on a wide variety of popular items, making sure in each instance to undercut Amazon's price. The types of items Walmart discounted included books, DVDs, other electronics, and toys. The message was clear: Walmart is not going down without a fight in e-commerce. And Walmart.com executive Raul Vazquez echoed the same thought, saying that Walmart will adjust its prices "as low as we need to" to be the "low-cost leader" on the Web. In other words, the two companies are now locked in a price war, and both sites are determined to win.
The most high profile area where the two companies have done battle is in online book sales. Amazon's Kindle e-book reader may have started the conflict by offering the most popular books in e-book format for just $9.99. Though many publishers have since balked at allowing their books to be sold in the e-book format for that price, the battle has raged on in traditional formats. Several high-profile book releases, such as Stephen King's newest novel, *Under the Dome*, illustrated just how low both companies are willing to go. Walmart lowered its price for the novel to just $10, claiming that it wasn't in response to the $9.99 e-book price. Amazon matched that price shortly thereafter. In response, Walmart dropped the price to $9.00 a few days later. The book's retail cover price is $35 dollars, and its wholesale price is about $17. This means that both retailers are losing at least $7 on every copy of *Under the Dome* that they sell at that price.
Walmart sees its massive price cuts as a way to gain market share quickly as they enter the online bookselling marketplace at a time when e-book readers and Apple iPhones and iPads make the e-book format popular. Amazon has demonstrated that in the short term it is more than capable of competing with Walmart on price. As of this case's writing, Amazon had raised its price on the *Under the Dome* back up to $17. Walmart's price, of course, was $16.99. The two sites have had similar clashes over many high-profile books, like J.K. Rowling's *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince* and James Patterson's *I, Alex Cross*, the latter selling for $13.00 on Amazon and $12.99 on Walmart.com as of this writing.
The feud between the two sites has spilled over into other types of merchandise. Amazon and Walmart.com have competed over Xbox 360 consoles, popular DVD releases, and other big-ticket electronics. Even popular toys like the perennial top seller Easy-Bake Oven have been caught up in the fray. With the 2009 holiday shopping season in full swing, Walmart dropped its price for the toy from $28 to just $17. Amazon slashed its price to $18 on the very same day.
Amazon claims it doesn't see shipping as a weakness. According to Amazon spokesperson Craig Berman, "Shopping on Amazon means you don't have to fight the crowds. We bring the items to your doorstep. You don't have to fight through traffic or find a parking space." Moreover, Amazon has taken steps recently to speed delivery times. In October, it began offering same-day delivery in seven U.S. cities, at an extra cost to shoppers. By working with carriers and improving its own internal systems, Amazon also started offering second-day deliveries on Saturdays, shaving two days off some orders. And Amazon continues to expand its selection of goods to be as exhaustive as Walmart's. In November 2010, Walmart introduced free shipping for all online orders.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is fond of describing the U.S. retail market as having "room for many winners." Will this hold true for Walmart and Amazon going forward? Walmart remains unchallenged among traditional physical retailers, but will it topple Amazon on the Web? Or will Amazon continue to be the "Walmart" of online retailers? Alternatively, will Walmart end up enlarging the online retail market space, helping Amazon grow in the process?
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What concepts in the chapter are illustrated in this case?
2. Analyze Amazon and Walmart.com using the value chain and competitive forces models.
3. What are the management, organization, and technology factors that have contributed to the success of both Wal-Mart and Amazon?
4. Compare Wal-Mart’s and Amazon’s e-commerce business models. Which is stronger? Explain your answer.
5. Where would you prefer to make your Internet purchases? Amazon or Walmart.com? Why?
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Chapter 11
Managing Knowledge
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What is the role of knowledge management and knowledge management programs in business?
2. What types of systems are used for enterprise-wide knowledge management and how do they provide value for businesses?
3. What are the major types of knowledge work systems and how do they provide value for firms?
4. What are the business benefits of using intelligent techniques for knowledge management?
Interactive Sessions:
Augmented Reality: Reality Gets Better
The Flash Crash: Machines Gone Wild?
CHAPTER OUTLINE
11.1 THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT LANDSCAPE
Important Dimensions of Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Value Chain
Types of Knowledge Management Systems
11.2 ENTERPRISE-WIDE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Enterprise Content Management Systems
Knowledge Network Systems
Collaboration Tools and Learning Management Systems
11.3 KNOWLEDGE WORK SYSTEMS
Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work
Requirements of Knowledge Work Systems
Examples of Knowledge Work Systems
11.4 INTELLIGENT TECHNIQUES
Capturing Knowledge: Expert Systems
Organizational Intelligence: Case-Based Reasoning
Fuzzy Logic Systems
Neural Networks
Genetic Algorithms
Hybrid AI Systems
Intelligent Agents
11.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Improving Decision Making: Building a Simple Expert System for Retirement Planning
Improving Decision Making: Using Intelligent Agents for Comparison Shopping
LEARNING TRACK MODULE
Challenges of Knowledge Management Systems
Don’t be fooled by its modest name: Canadian Tire sells a lot more than tires. This company is actually five interrelated companies consisting of petroleum outlets, financial services, and retail outlets selling automotive, sports, leisure, home products, and apparel. It is also one of Canada’s largest companies and most-shopped retailers, with 57,000 employees, and 1,200 stores and gas stations across Canada. The retail outlets are independently owned and operated and are spread across Canada. Canadian Tire also sells merchandise online.
Obviously, a company this big needs efficient and effective ways of communicating with its workforce and dealers, and arming them with up-to-date information to run the business. The company created two different systems for this purpose, a dealer portal and an employee information intranet.
The dealer portal was based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, and provided a central online source for merchandise setup information, alerts, best practices, product ordering, and problem resolution. The money saved from reducing daily and weekly mailings to dealers saved the company $1–2 million annually. Customer service improved because the dealers no longer had to wade through thick paper product binders. Now product manuals are all online, and dealers are able to automatically find accurate up-to-date information.
The employee intranet called TIREnet was initially more problematic. It was based on Lotus Notes Domino software and had been poorly designed. Employees complained that the site was disorganized, brimming with outdated and redundant material, and lacked effective search features. People spent more time than necessary searching for administrative and human resource-related documents.
Canadian Tire upgraded TIREnet with a new interface that was more streamlined and intuitive. The foundation for the new TIREnet was Microsoft SharePoint Server, and the company reorganized the internal Web site so that it was easier to use and find information. SharePoint provides an option to freeze specific content, such as human resources documents, so only staff with appropriate clearance can post changes.
Canadian Tire catalogued more than 30,000 documents from the old system and transferred them to the new system. Employees no longer have to browse through TIREnet to locate a document. SharePoint’s Enterprise Search technology lets employees search for documents by typing their queries into a search box, instantly providing more up-to-date information for decision making.
It is also much easier to keep documents current. Employees and managers archived up to 50 percent of old TIREnet content that was irrelevant and outdated. Documents are now automatically updated according to who has reviewed each, and the last date each was accessed. This information helps Canadian Tire management identify and remove outdated and time-sensitive material, further reducing the time required to find information.
Canadian Tire’s experience shows how business performance can benefit by making organizational knowledge more easily available. Facilitating access to knowledge, improving the quality and currency of knowledge, and using that knowledge to improve business processes are vital to success and survival.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Canadian Tire is a very large and far-flung company with multiple lines of business. It has many different business units and retail dealers with which to communicate knowledge about the operation of the business. Delays in accessing product information impaired dealer efficiency and customer service, while cumbersome processes and tools for accessing information used by employees similarly hampered internal operations.
Canadian Tire developed a successful information-sharing platform for its dealers using Microsoft SharePoint Server, improving dealer operations and customer service. But the knowledge it provided internally to employees was disorganized and out of date. Canadian Tire revamped its TIREnet employee intranet based on Lotus Notes Domino software by switching its technology platform to Microsoft SharePoint Server and by streamlining and simplifying the user interface. It improved its business processes for classifying and storing documents to make them easier to locate using SharePoint search technology. SharePoint has tools for automatically tracking the time and authorship of document updates, which also helps Canadian Tire keep its information up to date. Thanks to better knowledge management, Canadian Tire is operating much more efficiently and effectively.
11.1 THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT LANDSCAPE
Knowledge management and collaboration systems are among the fastest growing areas of corporate and government software investment. The past decade has shown an explosive growth in research on knowledge and knowledge management in the economics, management, and information systems fields.
Knowledge management and collaboration are closely related. Knowledge that cannot be communicated and shared with others is nearly useless. Knowledge becomes useful and actionable when shared throughout the firm. As we described in Chapter 2, collaboration systems include Internet-based collaboration environments like Google Sites and IBM's Lotus Notes, social networking, e-mail and instant messaging, virtual meeting systems, wikis, and virtual worlds. In this chapter, we will be focusing on knowledge management systems, always mindful of the fact that communicating and sharing knowledge are becoming increasingly important.
We live in an information economy in which the major source of wealth and prosperity is the production and distribution of information and knowledge. About 55 percent of the U.S. labor force consists of knowledge and information workers, and 60 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States comes from the knowledge and information sectors, such as finance and publishing.
Knowledge management has become an important theme at many large business firms as managers realize that much of their firm's value depends on the firm's ability to create and manage knowledge. Studies have found that a substantial part of a firm's stock market value is related to its intangible assets, of which knowledge is one important component, along with brands, reputations, and unique business processes. Well-executed knowledge-based projects have been known to produce extraordinary returns on investment, although the impacts of knowledge-based investments are difficult to measure (Gu and Lev, 2001; Blair and Wallman, 2001).
IMPORTANT DIMENSIONS OF KNOWLEDGE
There is an important distinction between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. Chapter 1 defines data as a flow of events or transactions captured by an organization's systems that, by itself, is useful for transacting but little else. To turn data into useful information, a firm must expend resources to organize data into categories of understanding, such as monthly, daily, regional, or store-based reports of total sales. To transform information into knowledge, a firm must expend additional resources to discover patterns, rules, and contexts where the knowledge works. Finally, wisdom is thought to be the collective and individual experience of applying knowledge to the solution of problems. Wisdom involves where, when, and how to apply knowledge.
Knowledge is both an individual attribute and a collective attribute of the firm. Knowledge is a cognitive, even a physiological, event that takes place inside peoples' heads. It is also stored in libraries and records, shared in lectures, and stored by firms in the form of business processes and employee know-how. Knowledge residing in the minds of employees that has not been documented is called tacit knowledge, whereas knowledge that has been documented is called explicit knowledge. Knowledge can reside in e-mail, voice mail, graphics, and unstructured documents as well as structured
documents. Knowledge is generally believed to have a location, either in the minds of humans or in specific business processes. Knowledge is “sticky” and not universally applicable or easily moved. Finally, knowledge is thought to be situational and contextual. For example, you must know when to perform a procedure as well as how to perform it. Table 11-1 reviews these dimensions of knowledge.
We can see that knowledge is a different kind of firm asset from, say, buildings and financial assets; that knowledge is a complex phenomenon; and that there are many aspects to the process of managing knowledge. We can also recognize that knowledge-based core competencies of firms—the two or three things that an organization does best—are key organizational assets. Knowing how to do things effectively and efficiently in ways that other organizations cannot duplicate is a primary source of profit and competitive advantage that cannot be purchased easily by competitors in the marketplace.
For instance, having a unique build-to-order production system constitutes a form of knowledge and perhaps a unique asset that other firms cannot copy easily. With knowledge, firms become more efficient and effective in their use of scarce resources. Without knowledge, firms become less efficient and less effective in their use of resources and ultimately fail.
**Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management**
Like humans, organizations create and gather knowledge using a variety of organizational learning mechanisms. Through collection of data, careful measurement of planned activities, trial and error (experiment), and feedback from customers and the environment in general, organizations gain experience. Organizations that learn adjust their behavior to reflect that learning by creating new business processes and by changing patterns of management decision making.
### TABLE 11-1 IMPORTANT DIMENSIONS OF KNOWLEDGE
| **KNOWLEDGE IS A FIRM ASSET** |
|-------------------------------|
| Knowledge is an intangible asset. |
| The transformation of data into useful information and knowledge requires organizational resources. |
| Knowledge is not subject to the law of diminishing returns as are physical assets, but instead experiences network effects as its value increases as more people share it. |
| **KNOWLEDGE HAS DIFFERENT FORMS** |
|----------------------------------|
| Knowledge can be either tacit or explicit (codified). |
| Knowledge involves know-how, craft, and skill. |
| Knowledge involves knowing how to follow procedures. |
| Knowledge involves knowing why, not simply when, things happen (causality). |
| **KNOWLEDGE HAS A LOCATION** |
|-----------------------------|
| Knowledge is a cognitive event involving mental models and maps of individuals. |
| There is both a social and an individual basis of knowledge. |
| Knowledge is “sticky” (hard to move), situated (enmeshed in a firm’s culture), and contextual (works only in certain situations). |
| **KNOWLEDGE IS SITUATIONAL** |
|-----------------------------|
| Knowledge is conditional: Knowing when to apply a procedure is just as important as knowing the procedure (conditional). |
| Knowledge is related to context: You must know how to use a certain tool and under what circumstances. |
making. This process of change is called **organizational learning**. Arguably, organizations that can sense and respond to their environments rapidly will survive longer than organizations that have poor learning mechanisms.
**THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT VALUE CHAIN**
**Knowledge management** refers to the set of business processes developed in an organization to create, store, transfer, and apply knowledge. Knowledge management increases the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes. Figure 11-1 illustrates the five value-adding steps in the knowledge management value chain. Each stage in the value chain adds value to raw data and information as they are transformed into usable knowledge.
In Figure 11-1, information systems activities are separated from related management and organizational activities, with information systems activities on the top of the graphic and organizational and management activities below. One apt slogan of the knowledge management field is, “Effective knowledge management is 80 percent managerial and organizational, and 20 percent technology.”
In Chapter 1, we define *organizational and management capital* as the set of business processes, culture, and behavior required to obtain value from investments in information systems. In the case of knowledge management, as with other information systems investments, supportive values, structures, and behavior patterns must be built to maximize the return on investment in knowledge management projects. In Figure 11-1, the management and organizational activities in the lower half of the diagram represent the investment in organizational capital required to obtain substantial returns on the information technology (IT) investments and systems shown in the top half of the diagram.
**FIGURE 11-1 THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT VALUE CHAIN**
Knowledge management today involves both information systems activities and a host of enabling management and organizational activities.
Knowledge Acquisition
Organizations acquire knowledge in a number of ways, depending on the type of knowledge they seek. The first knowledge management systems sought to build corporate repositories of documents, reports, presentations, and best practices. These efforts have been extended to include unstructured documents (such as e-mail). In other cases, organizations acquire knowledge by developing online expert networks so that employees can “find the expert” in the company who has the knowledge in his or her head.
In still other cases, firms must create new knowledge by discovering patterns in corporate data or by using knowledge workstations where engineers can discover new knowledge. These various efforts are described throughout this chapter. A coherent and organized knowledge system also requires systematic data from the firm’s transaction processing systems that track sales, payments, inventory, customers, and other vital data, as well as data from external sources such as news feeds, industry reports, legal opinions, scientific research, and government statistics.
Knowledge Storage
Once they are discovered, documents, patterns, and expert rules must be stored so they can be retrieved and used by employees. Knowledge storage generally involves the creation of a database. Document management systems that digitize, index, and tag documents according to a coherent framework are large databases adept at storing collections of documents. Expert systems also help corporations preserve the knowledge that is acquired by incorporating that knowledge into organizational processes and culture. Each of these is discussed later in this chapter and in the following chapter.
Management must support the development of planned knowledge storage systems, encourage the development of corporate-wide schemas for indexing documents, and reward employees for taking the time to update and store documents properly. For instance, it would reward the sales force for submitting names of prospects to a shared corporate database of prospects where all sales personnel can identify each prospect and review the stored knowledge.
Knowledge Dissemination
Portals, e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, social networks, and search engines technology have added to an existing array of collaboration technologies and office systems for sharing calendars, documents, data, and graphics (see Chapter 7). Contemporary technology seems to have created a deluge of information and knowledge. How can managers and employees discover, in a sea of information and knowledge, that which is really important for their decisions and their work? Here, training programs, informal networks, and shared management experience communicated through a supportive culture help managers focus their attention on the important knowledge and information.
Knowledge Application
Regardless of what type of knowledge management system is involved, knowledge that is not shared and applied to the practical problems facing firms and managers does not add business value. To provide a return on investment, organizational knowledge must become a systematic part of management decision making and become situated in decision-support systems (described in Chapter 12). Ultimately, new knowledge must be built into a firm’s business processes and key application systems, including enterprise applications for managing key internal business processes and relationships with customers.
and suppliers. Management supports this process by creating—based on new knowledge—new business practices, new products and services, and new markets for the firm.
**Building Organizational and Management Capital: Collaboration, Communities of Practice, and Office Environments**
In addition to the activities we have just described, managers can help by developing new organizational roles and responsibilities for the acquisition of knowledge, including the creation of chief knowledge officer executive positions, dedicated staff positions (knowledge managers), and communities of practice. **Communities of practice (COPs)** are informal social networks of professionals and employees within and outside the firm who have similar work-related activities and interests. The activities of these communities include self- and group education, conferences, online newsletters, and day-to-day sharing of experiences and techniques to solve specific work problems. Many organizations, such as IBM, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, and the World Bank have encouraged the development of thousands of online communities of practice. These communities of practice depend greatly on software environments that enable collaboration and communication.
COPs can make it easier for people to reuse knowledge by pointing community members to useful documents, creating document repositories, and filtering information for newcomers. COPs members act as facilitators, encouraging contributions and discussion. COPs can also reduce the learning curve for new employees by providing contacts with subject matter experts and access to a community’s established methods and tools. Finally, COPs can act as a spawning ground for new ideas, techniques, and decision-making behavior.
**TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS**
There are essentially three major types of knowledge management systems: enterprise-wide knowledge management systems, knowledge work systems, and intelligent techniques. Figure 11-2 shows the knowledge management system applications for each of these major categories.
**Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems** are general-purpose firmwide efforts to collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and knowledge. These systems include capabilities for searching for information, storing both structured and unstructured data, and locating employee expertise within the firm. They also include supporting technologies such as portals, search engines, collaboration tools (e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, blogs, and social bookmarking), and learning management systems.
The development of powerful networked workstations and software for assisting engineers and scientists in the discovery of new knowledge has led to the creation of knowledge work systems such as computer-aided design (CAD), visualization, simulation, and virtual reality systems. **Knowledge work systems (KWS)** are specialized systems built for engineers, scientists, and other knowledge workers charged with discovering and creating new knowledge for a company. We discuss knowledge work applications in detail in Section 11.3.
Knowledge management also includes a diverse group of **intelligent techniques**, such as data mining, expert systems, neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, and intelligent agents. These techniques have different
There are three major categories of knowledge management systems, and each can be broken down further into more specialized types of knowledge management systems.
Objectives, from a focus on discovering knowledge (data mining and neural networks), to distilling knowledge in the form of rules for a computer program (expert systems and fuzzy logic), to discovering optimal solutions for problems (genetic algorithms). Section 11.4 provides more detail about these intelligent techniques.
11.2 Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems
Firms must deal with at least three kinds of knowledge. Some knowledge exists within the firm in the form of structured text documents (reports and presentations). Decision makers also need knowledge that is semistructured, such as e-mail, voice mail, chat room exchanges, videos, digital pictures, brochures, or bulletin board postings. In still other cases, there is no formal or digital information of any kind, and the knowledge resides in the heads of employees. Much of this knowledge is tacit knowledge that is rarely written down. Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems deal with all three types of knowledge.
Enterprise Content Management Systems
Businesses today need to organize and manage both structured and semistructured knowledge assets. **Structured knowledge** is explicit knowledge that exists in formal documents, as well as in formal rules that organizations derive by observing experts and their decision-making behaviors. But, according to experts, at least 80 percent of an organization’s business content is semistructured or unstructured—information in folders, messages, memos, proposals,
e-mails, graphics, electronic slide presentations, and even videos created in different formats and stored in many locations.
**Enterprise content management systems** help organizations manage both types of information. They have capabilities for knowledge capture, storage, retrieval, distribution, and preservation to help firms improve their business processes and decisions. Such systems include corporate repositories of documents, reports, presentations, and best practices, as well as capabilities for collecting and organizing semistructured knowledge such as e-mail (see Figure 11-3). Major enterprise content management systems also enable users to access external sources of information, such as news feeds and research, and to communicate via e-mail, chat/instant messaging, discussion groups, and videoconferencing. Open Text Corporation, EMC (Documentum), IBM, and Oracle Corporation are leading vendors of enterprise content management software.
Barrick Gold, the world’s leading gold producer, uses Open Text LiveLink Enterprise Content Management tools to manage the massive amounts of information required for building mines. The system organizes and stores both structured and unstructured content, including CAD drawings, contracts, engineering data, and production reports. If an operational team needs to refer back to the original document, that document is in a single digital repository as opposed to being scattered over multiple systems. Barrick’s electronic content management system reduces the amount of time required to search for documents, shortening project schedules, improving the quality of decisions, and minimizing rework (Open Text, 2010).
A key problem in managing knowledge is the creation of an appropriate classification scheme, or **taxonomy**, to organize information into meaningful categories so that it can be easily accessed. Once the categories for classifying knowledge have been created, each knowledge object needs to be “tagged,” or classified, so that it can be easily retrieved. Enterprise content management systems have capabilities for tagging, interfacing with corporate databases where the documents are stored, and creating an enterprise portal environment for employees to use when searching for corporate knowledge.
**FIGURE 11-3 AN ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM**
An enterprise content management system has capabilities for classifying, organizing, and managing structured and semistructured knowledge and making it available throughout the enterprise.
Firms in publishing, advertising, broadcasting, and entertainment have special needs for storing and managing unstructured digital data such as photographs, graphic images, video, and audio content. For example, Coca-Cola must keep track of all the images of the Coca-Cola brand that have been created in the past at all of the company’s worldwide offices, to prevent both redundant work and variation from a standard brand image. **Digital asset management systems** help companies classify, store, and distribute these digital objects.
**KNOWLEDGE NETWORK SYSTEMS**
*Knowledge network systems*, also known as *expertise location and management systems*, address the problem that arises when the appropriate knowledge is not in the form of a digital document but instead resides in the memory of expert individuals in the firm. Knowledge network systems provide an online directory of corporate experts in well-defined knowledge domains and use communication technologies to make it easy for employees to find the appropriate expert in a company. Some knowledge network systems go further by systematizing the solutions developed by experts and then storing the solutions in a knowledge database as a best practices or frequently asked questions (FAQ) repository (see Figure 11-4). AskMe provides stand-alone knowledge network software, and some knowledge networking capabilities can be found in the leading collaboration software suites.
**COLLABORATION TOOLS AND LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS**
The major enterprise content management systems include powerful portal and collaboration technologies. Enterprise knowledge portals can provide access to external sources of information, such as news feeds and research, as well as to internal knowledge resources along with capabilities for e-mail, chat/instant messaging, discussion groups, and videoconferencing.
Companies are starting to use consumer Web technologies such as blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking for internal use to foster collaboration and information exchange between individuals and teams. Blogs and wikis help capture, consolidate, and centralize this knowledge for the firm. Collaboration tools from commercial software vendors, such as Microsoft SharePoint and Lotus Connections, also offer these capabilities along with secure online collaborative workspaces.
Wikis, which we introduced in Chapters 2 and 7, are inexpensive and easy to implement. Wikis provide a central repository for all types of corporate data that can be displayed in a Web browser, including electronic pages of documents, spreadsheets, and electronic slides, and can embed e-mail and instant messages. Although users are able to modify wiki content contributed by others, wikis have capabilities for tracking these changes and tools for reverting to earlier versions. A wiki is most appropriate for information that is revised frequently but must remain available perpetually as it changes.
**Social bookmarking** makes it easier to search for and share information by allowing users to save their bookmarks to Web pages on a public Web site and tag these bookmarks with keywords. These tags can be used to organize and search for the documents. Lists of tags can be shared with other people to help them find information of interest. The user-created taxonomies created for
A knowledge network maintains a database of firm experts, as well as accepted solutions to known problems, and then facilitates the communication between employees looking for knowledge and experts who have that knowledge. Solutions created in this communication are then added to a database of solutions in the form of FAQs, best practices, or other documents.
Shared bookmarks are called **folksonomies**. Delicious and Digg are two popular social bookmarking sites.
Suppose, for example, that you’re on a corporate team researching wind power. If you did a Web search and found relevant Web pages on wind power, you’d click on a bookmarking button on a social bookmarking site and create a tag identifying each Web document you found to link it to wind power. By clicking on the “tags” button at the social networking site, you’d be able to see a list of all the tags you created and select the documents you need.
Companies need ways to keep track of and manage employee learning and to integrate it more fully into their knowledge management and other corporate systems. A **learning management system (LMS)** provides tools for the management, delivery, tracking, and assessment of various types of employee learning and training.
Contemporary LMS support multiple modes of learning, including CD-ROM, downloadable videos, Web-based classes, live instruction in classes or online, and group learning in online forums and chat sessions. The LMS consolidates mixed-media training, automates the selection and administration of courses, assembles and delivers learning content, and measures learning effectiveness.
For example, the Whirlpool Corporation uses CERTPOINT’s learning management system to manage the registration, scheduling, reporting, and content for its training programs for 3,500 salespeople. The system helps Whirlpool tailor course content to the right audience, track the people who took courses and their scores, and compile metrics on employee performance.
11.3 Knowledge Work Systems
The enterprise-wide knowledge systems we have just described provide a wide range of capabilities that can be used by many if not all the workers and groups in an organization. Firms also have specialized systems for knowledge workers to help them create new knowledge and to ensure that this knowledge is properly integrated into the business.
Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work
*Knowledge workers*, which we introduced in Chapter 1, include researchers, designers, architects, scientists, and engineers who primarily create knowledge and information for the organization. Knowledge workers usually have high levels of education and memberships in professional organizations and are often asked to exercise independent judgment as a routine aspect of their work. For example, knowledge workers create new products or find ways of improving existing ones. Knowledge workers perform three key roles that are critical to the organization and to the managers who work within the organization:
- Keeping the organization current in knowledge as it develops in the external world—in technology, science, social thought, and the arts
- Serving as internal consultants regarding the areas of their knowledge, the changes taking place, and opportunities
- Acting as change agents, evaluating, initiating, and promoting change projects
Requirements of Knowledge Work Systems
Most knowledge workers rely on office systems, such as word processors, voice mail, e-mail, videoconferencing, and scheduling systems, which are designed to increase worker productivity in the office. However, knowledge workers also require highly specialized knowledge work systems with powerful graphics, analytical tools, and communications and document management capabilities.
These systems require sufficient computing power to handle the sophisticated graphics or complex calculations necessary for such knowledge workers as scientific researchers, product designers, and financial analysts. Because knowledge workers are so focused on knowledge in the external world, these systems also must give the worker quick and easy access to external databases. They typically feature user-friendly interfaces that enable users to perform
needed tasks without having to spend a great deal of time learning how to use the system. Knowledge workers are highly paid—wasting a knowledge worker’s time is simply too expensive. Figure 11-5 summarizes the requirements of knowledge work systems.
Knowledge workstations often are designed and optimized for the specific tasks to be performed; so, for example, a design engineer requires a different workstation setup than a financial analyst. Design engineers need graphics with enough power to handle three-dimensional (3-D) CAD systems. However, financial analysts are more interested in access to a myriad number of external databases and large databases for efficiently storing and accessing massive amounts of financial data.
**EXAMPLES OF KNOWLEDGE WORK SYSTEMS**
Major knowledge work applications include CAD systems, virtual reality systems for simulation and modeling, and financial workstations. **Computer-aided design (CAD)** automates the creation and revision of designs, using computers and sophisticated graphics software. Using a more traditional physical design methodology, each design modification requires a mold to be made and a prototype to be tested physically. That process must be repeated many times, which is a very expensive and time-consuming process. Using a CAD workstation, the designer need only make a physical prototype toward the end of the design process because the design can be easily tested and changed on the computer. The ability of CAD software to provide design specifications for the tooling and manufacturing processes also saves a great deal of time and money while producing a manufacturing process with far fewer problems.
Troy Lee Designs, which makes sports helmets, recently invested in CAD design software that could create the helmets in 3-D. The technology defined the shapes better than traditional methods, which involved sketching an idea.
**FIGURE 11-5 REQUIREMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE WORK SYSTEMS**
Knowledge work systems require strong links to external knowledge bases in addition to specialized hardware and software.
on paper, hand-molding a clay model, and shipping the model to Asian factories to create a plastic prototype. Production is now about six months faster and about 35 percent cheaper, with Asian factories about to produce an exact replica after receiving the digital design via e-mail (Maltby, 2010).
**Virtual reality systems** have visualization, rendering, and simulation capabilities that go far beyond those of conventional CAD systems. They use interactive graphics software to create computer-generated simulations that are so close to reality that users almost believe they are participating in a real-world situation. In many virtual reality systems, the user dons special clothing, headgear, and equipment, depending on the application. The clothing contains sensors that record the user's movements and immediately transmit that information back to the computer. For instance, to walk through a virtual reality simulation of a house, you would need garb that monitors the movement of your feet, hands, and head. You also would need goggles containing video screens and sometimes audio attachments and feeling gloves so that you can be immersed in the computer feedback.
A virtual reality system helps mechanics in Boeing Co.'s 25-day training course for its 787 Dreamliner learn to fix all kinds of problems, from broken lights in the cabin to major glitches with flight controls. Using both laptop and desktop computers inside a classroom with huge wall-mounted diagrams, Boeing airline mechanics train on a system that displays an interactive Boeing 787 cockpit, as well as a 3-D exterior of the plane. The mechanics "walk" around the jet by clicking a mouse, open virtual maintenance access panels, and go inside the plane to repair and replace parts (Sanders, 2010).
**Augmented reality (AR)** is a related technology for enhancing visualization. AR provides a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are *augmented* by virtual computer-generated imagery. The user is grounded in the real physical world, and the virtual images are merged with the real view to create the augmented display. The digital technology provides additional information to enhance the perception of reality and
AUGMENTED REALITY: REALITY GETS BETTER
Many of us are familiar with the concept of virtual reality, either from films like *Avatar* and *The Matrix*, or from science fiction novels and video games. Virtual reality is a computer-generated, interactive, three-dimensional environment in which people become immersed. But in the past few years, a new spin on virtual reality known as augmented reality has emerged as a major focus of many companies’ marketing efforts. More than just science fiction, augmented reality is an exciting new way of creating richer, more interactive experiences with users and future customers.
Augmented reality differs from traditional virtual reality because users of augmented reality (also called AR) tools maintain a presence in the real world. In virtual reality, users are completely immersed in a computer-generated environment, and often use head-mounted displays that facilitate the immersion and eliminate any interference from the real world. Augmented reality mixes real-life images with graphics or other effects and can use any of three major display techniques—head-mounted displays, just as with virtual reality, spatial displays, which display graphical information on physical objects, and handheld displays.
Almost everyone has already encountered some form of AR technology. Sports fans are familiar with the yellow first-down markers shown on televised football games, or the special markings denoting the location and direction of hockey pucks in hockey games. These are examples of augmented reality. Other common usages of AR include medical procedures like image-guided surgery, where data acquired from computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans or from ultrasound imaging are superimposed on the patient in the operating room. Other industries where AR has caught on include military training, engineering design, robotics, and consumer design.
As companies get more comfortable with augmented reality, marketers are developing creative new ways to use the technology. Print media companies see AR as a way to generate excitement about their products in an entirely new way. *Esquire* magazine used AR extensively in its December 2009 issue, adding several stickers with designs that, when held up to a Web camera, triggered interactive video segments featuring cover subject Robert Downey Jr. Turning the magazine in different directions yielded different images. A fashion spread describing dressing in layers showed actor Jeremy Renner adding more layers as the seasons changed. The orientation of the magazine as held up to a Web camera determined the season.
Lexus placed an advertisement in the magazine that displayed “radar waves” bouncing off of nearby objects on the page. Again, adjusting the angle of the magazine affected the content of the ad. Lexus Vice President of Marketing David Nordstrom stated that AR was attractive to him because “our job as marketers is to be able to communicate to people in interesting ways that are relevant to them and also entertaining.” User response to the magazine was positive, suggesting that AR accomplished this goal. Other companies that have pursued AR as a way to attract and entertain their customers include Papa John’s, which added AR tags to their pizza boxes. These tags display images of the company’s founder driving a car when triggered using a Web camera. That company’s president believes AR is “a great way to get customers involved in a promotion in a more interactive way than just reading or seeing an ad.”
Mobile phone application developers are also excited about the growing demand for AR technologies. Most mobile phones have camera, global positioning system (GPS), Internet, and compass functionalities, which make smartphones ideal candidates for handheld AR displays. One of the major new markets for AR is in real estate, where applications that help users access real estate listings and information on the go have already taken off. An Amsterdam-based start-up, application developer Layar, has created an app for French real estate agency MeilleursAgents.com where users can point their phones at any building in Paris and within seconds the phone displays the property’s value per square meter and a small photo of the property, along with a live image of the building streamed through the phone’s camera.
Over 30 similar applications have been developed in other countries, including American real estate company ZipRealty, whose HomeScan application has met with early success. While the technology is still new and will take some time to develop, users can already stand in front of some houses for sale
and point their phones at the property to display details superimposed on their screen. If the house is too far away, users can switch to the phone’s interactive map and locate the house and other nearby houses for sale. ZipRealty is so encouraged by the early response to HomeScan that it plans to add data on restaurants, coffee shops, and other neighborhood features to the app. Another well-known application, Wikitude, allows users to view user-contributed Web-based information about their surroundings using their mobile phones.
Skeptics believe that the technology is more of a gimmick than a useful tool, but Layar’s application has been downloaded over 1,000 times per week since its launch. Being able to access information on properties is more than just a gimmick—it is a legitimately useful tool to help buyers on the go.
Marketers are finding that users increasingly want their phones to have all of the functionality of desktop computers, and more AR mash-ups have been released that display information on tourist sites, chart subway stops, and restaurants, and allow interior designers to superimpose new furniture schemes onto a room so that potential customers can more easily choose what they like best. Analysts believe that AR is here to stay, predicting that the mobile AR market will grow to $732 million by 2014.
Sources: R. Scott MacIntosh, “Portable Real Estate Listings—with a Difference,” *The New York Times*, March 25, 2010; Alex Viega, “Augmented Reality for Real Estate Search,” Associated Press, April 16, 2010; “Augmented Reality – 5 More Examples of This 3D Virtual Experience,” http://www.nickburcher.com/2009/05/augmented-reality-5-more-examples-of.html, May 30, 2009; Shira Ovide, “Esquire Flirts with Digital Reality,” *The Wall Street Journal*, October 29, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What is the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality?
2. Why is augmented reality so appealing to marketers?
3. What makes augmented reality useful for real estate shopping applications?
4. Suggest some other knowledge work applications for augmented reality
**MIS IN ACTION**
Find example videos of augmented reality in action (use Nick Burcher’s blog if you’re stuck: http://www.nickburcher.com/2009/05/augmented-reality-5-more-examples-of.html), and use them to answer the following questions:
1. Why is the example shown in the video an instance of AR?
2. Do you think it is an effective marketing tool or application? Why or why not?
3. Can you think of other products or services that would be well suited to AR?
---
make the surrounding real world of the user more interactive and meaningful. The Interactive Session on Technology provides more detail about AR and its applications.
Virtual reality applications developed for the Web use a standard called **Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)**. VRML is a set of specifications for interactive, 3-D modeling on the World Wide Web that can organize multiple media types, including animation, images, and audio to put users in a simulated real-world environment. VRML is platform independent, operates over a desktop computer, and requires little bandwidth.
DuPont, the Wilmington, Delaware, chemical company, created a VRML application called HyperPlant, which enables users to access 3-D data over the Internet using Web browser software. Engineers can go through 3-D models as if they were physically walking through a plant, viewing objects at eye level. This level of detail reduces the number of mistakes they make during construction of oil rigs, oil plants, and other structures.
The financial industry is using specialized **investment workstations** to leverage the knowledge and time of its brokers, traders, and portfolio managers. Firms such as Merrill Lynch and UBS Financial Services have installed investment workstations that integrate a wide range of data from both internal and external sources, including contact management data, real-time and historical market data, and research reports. Previously, financial professionals had to spend considerable time accessing data from separate systems and piecing together the information they needed. By providing one-stop information faster and with fewer errors, the workstations streamline the entire investment process from stock selection to updating client records. Table 11-2 summarizes the major types of knowledge work systems.
### 11.4 Intelligent Techniques
Artificial intelligence and database technology provide a number of intelligent techniques that organizations can use to capture individual and collective knowledge and to extend their knowledge base. Expert systems, case-based reasoning, and fuzzy logic are used for capturing tacit knowledge. Neural networks and data mining are used for **knowledge discovery**. They can discover underlying patterns, categories, and behaviors in large data sets that could not be discovered by managers alone or simply through experience. Genetic algorithms are used for generating solutions to problems that are too large and complex for human beings to analyze on their own. Intelligent agents can automate routine tasks to help firms search for and filter information for use in electronic commerce, supply chain management, and other activities.
Data mining, which we introduced in Chapter 6, helps organizations capture undiscovered knowledge residing in large databases, providing managers with new insight for improving business performance. It has become an important tool for management decision making, and we provide a detailed discussion of data mining for management decision support in Chapter 12.
The other intelligent techniques discussed in this section are based on **artificial intelligence (AI)** technology, which consists of computer-based systems (both hardware and software) that attempt to emulate human behavior. Such systems would be able to learn languages, accomplish physical tasks, use a perceptual apparatus, and emulate human expertise and decision making. Although AI applications do not exhibit the breadth, complexity, originality, and generality of human intelligence, they play an important role in contemporary knowledge management.
#### TABLE 11-2 EXAMPLES OF KNOWLEDGE WORK SYSTEMS
| KNOWLEDGE WORK SYSTEM | FUNCTION IN ORGANIZATION |
|----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| CAD/CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) | Provides engineers, designers, and factory managers with precise control over industrial design and manufacturing |
| Virtual reality systems | Provide drug designers, architects, engineers, and medical workers with precise, photorealistic simulations of objects |
| Investment workstations | High-end PCs used in the financial sector to analyze trading situations instantaneously and facilitate portfolio management |
CAPTURING KNOWLEDGE: EXPERT SYSTEMS
Expert systems are an intelligent technique for capturing tacit knowledge in a very specific and limited domain of human expertise. These systems capture the knowledge of skilled employees in the form of a set of rules in a software system that can be used by others in the organization. The set of rules in the expert system adds to the memory, or stored learning, of the firm.
Expert systems lack the breadth of knowledge and the understanding of fundamental principles of a human expert. They typically perform very limited tasks that can be performed by professionals in a few minutes or hours, such as diagnosing a malfunctioning machine or determining whether to grant credit for a loan. Problems that cannot be solved by human experts in the same short period of time are far too difficult for an expert system. However, by capturing human expertise in limited areas, expert systems can provide benefits, helping organizations make high-quality decisions with fewer people. Today, expert systems are widely used in business in discrete, highly structured decision-making situations.
How Expert Systems Work
Human knowledge must be modeled or represented in a way that a computer can process. Expert systems model human knowledge as a set of rules that collectively are called the knowledge base. Expert systems have from 200 to many thousands of these rules, depending on the complexity of the problem. These rules are much more interconnected and nested than in a traditional software program (see Figure 11-6).
The strategy used to search through the knowledge base is called the inference engine. Two strategies are commonly used: forward chaining and backward chaining (see Figure 11-7).
In forward chaining, the inference engine begins with the information entered by the user and searches the rule base to arrive at a conclusion. The strategy is to fire, or carry out, the action of the rule when a condition is true. In Figure 11-7, beginning on the left, if the user enters a client’s name with income greater than $100,000, the engine will fire all rules in sequence from left to right. If the user then enters information indicating that the same client owns real estate, another pass of the rule base will occur and more rules will fire. Processing continues until no more rules can be fired.
In backward chaining, the strategy for searching the rule base starts with a hypothesis and proceeds by asking the user questions about selected facts until the hypothesis is either confirmed or disproved. In our example, in Figure 11-7, ask the question, “Should we add this person to the prospect database?” Begin on the right of the diagram and work toward the left. You can see that the person should be added to the database if a sales representative is sent, term insurance is granted, or a financial adviser visits the client.
Examples of Successful Expert Systems
Expert systems provide businesses with an array of benefits including improved decisions, reduced errors, reduced costs, reduced training time, and higher levels of quality and service. Con-Way Transportation built an expert system called Line-haul to automate and optimize planning of overnight shipment routes for its nationwide freight-trucking business. The expert system captures the business rules that dispatchers follow when assigning drivers, trucks, and trailers to transport 50,000 shipments of heavy freight each night across 25 states and Canada and when plotting their routes. Line-haul runs on a
An expert system contains a number of rules to be followed. The rules are interconnected; the number of outcomes is known in advance and is limited; there are multiple paths to the same outcome; and the system can consider multiple rules at a single time. The rules illustrated are for simple credit-granting expert systems.
An inference engine works by searching through the rules and “firing” those rules that are triggered by facts gathered and entered by the user. Basically, a collection of rules is similar to a series of nested IF statements in a traditional software program; however, the magnitude of the statements and degree of nesting are much greater in an expert system.
Sun computer platform and uses data on daily customer shipment requests, available drivers, trucks, trailer space, and weight stored in an Oracle database. The expert system uses thousands of rules and 100,000 lines of program code written in C++ to crunch the numbers and create optimum routing plans for 95 percent of daily freight shipments. Con-Way dispatchers tweak the routing plan provided by the expert system and relay final routing specifications to field personnel responsible for packing the trailers for their nighttime runs. Con-Way recouped its $3 million investment in the system within two years by reducing the number of drivers, packing more freight per trailer, and reducing damage from rehandling. The system also reduces dispatchers’ arduous nightly tasks.
Although expert systems lack the robust and general intelligence of human beings, they can provide benefits to organizations if their limitations are well understood. Only certain classes of problems can be solved using expert systems. Virtually all successful expert systems deal with problems of classification in limited domains of knowledge where there are relatively few alternative outcomes and these possible outcomes are all known in advance. Expert systems are much less useful for dealing with unstructured problems typically encountered by managers.
Many expert systems require large, lengthy, and expensive development efforts. Hiring or training more experts may be less expensive than building an expert system. Typically, the environment in which an expert system operates is continually changing so that the expert system must also continually change. Some expert systems, especially large ones, are so complex that in a few years the maintenance costs equal the development costs.
**ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: CASE-BASED REASONING**
Expert systems primarily capture the tacit knowledge of individual experts, but organizations also have collective knowledge and expertise that they have built up over the years. This organizational knowledge can be captured and stored using case-based reasoning. In **case-based reasoning (CBR)**, descriptions of past experiences of human specialists, represented as cases, are stored in a database for later retrieval when the user encounters a new case with similar parameters. The system searches for stored cases with problem characteristics similar to the new one, finds the closest fit, and applies the solutions of the old case to the new case. Successful solutions are tagged to the new case and both are stored together with the other cases in the knowledge base. Unsuccessful solutions also are appended to the case database along with explanations as to why the solutions did not work (see Figure 11-8).
Expert systems work by applying a set of IF-THEN-ELSE rules extracted from human experts. Case-based reasoning, in contrast, represents knowledge as a series of cases, and this knowledge base is continuously expanded and refined by users. You’ll find case-based reasoning in diagnostic systems in medicine or customer support where users can retrieve past cases whose characteristics are similar to the new case. The system suggests a solution or diagnosis based on the best-matching retrieved case.
**FUZZY LOGIC SYSTEMS**
Most people do not think in terms of traditional IF-THEN rules or precise numbers. Humans tend to categorize things imprecisely using rules for making
Case-based reasoning represents knowledge as a database of past cases and their solutions. The system uses a six-step process to generate solutions to new problems encountered by the user.
decisions that may have many shades of meaning. For example, a man or a woman can be *strong* or *intelligent*. A company can be *large*, *medium*, or *small* in size. Temperature can be *hot*, *cold*, *cool*, or *warm*. These categories represent a range of values.
**Fuzzy logic** is a rule-based technology that can represent such imprecision by creating rules that use approximate or subjective values. It can describe a particular phenomenon or process linguistically and then represent that description in a small number of flexible rules. Organizations can use fuzzy logic to create software systems that capture tacit knowledge where there is linguistic ambiguity.
Let’s look at the way fuzzy logic would represent various temperatures in a computer application to control room temperature automatically. The terms (known as *membership functions*) are imprecisely defined so that, for example, in Figure 11-9, cool is between 45 degrees and 70 degrees, although the temperature is most clearly cool between about 60 degrees and 67 degrees. Note that *cool* is overlapped by *cold* or *warm*. To control the room environment using this logic, the programmer would develop similarly imprecise definitions for humidity and other factors, such as outdoor wind and temperature. The rules might include one that says: “If the temperature is *cool* or *cold* and the humidity is low while the outdoor wind is high and the
The membership functions for the input called temperature are in the logic of the thermostat to control the room temperature. Membership functions help translate linguistic expressions such as *warm* into numbers that the computer can manipulate.
If the outdoor temperature is low, raise the heat and humidity in the room.” The computer would combine the membership function readings in a weighted manner and, using all the rules, raise and lower the temperature and humidity.
Fuzzy logic provides solutions to problems requiring expertise that is difficult to represent in the form of crisp IF-THEN rules. In Japan, Sendai’s subway system uses fuzzy logic controls to accelerate so smoothly that standing passengers need not hold on. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Tokyo has been able to reduce the power consumption of its air conditioners by 20 percent by implementing control programs in fuzzy logic. The autofocus device in cameras is only possible because of fuzzy logic. In these instances, fuzzy logic allows incremental changes in inputs to produce smooth changes in outputs instead of discontinuous ones, making it useful for consumer electronics and engineering applications.
Management also has found fuzzy logic useful for decision making and organizational control. A Wall Street firm created a system that selects companies for potential acquisition, using the language stock traders understand. A fuzzy logic system has been developed to detect possible fraud in medical claims submitted by health care providers anywhere in the United States.
**NEURAL NETWORKS**
Neural networks are used for solving complex, poorly understood problems for which large amounts of data have been collected. They find patterns and relationships in massive amounts of data that would be too complicated and difficult for a human being to analyze. Neural networks discover this knowledge by using hardware and software that parallel the processing patterns of the biological or human brain. Neural networks “learn” patterns from large quantities of data by sifting through data, searching for relationships, building models, and correcting over and over again the model’s own mistakes.
A neural network has a large number of sensing and processing nodes that continuously interact with each other. Figure 11-10 represents one type of neural network comprising an input layer, an output layer, and a hidden processing layer. Humans “train” the network by feeding it a set of training data for which the inputs produce a known set of outputs or conclusions. This helps the computer learn the correct solution by example. As the computer is fed more data, each case is compared with the known outcome. If it differs, a correction is calculated and applied to the nodes in the hidden processing layer. These steps are repeated until a condition, such as corrections being less than a certain amount, is reached. The neural network in Figure 11-10 has learned how to identify a fraudulent credit card purchase. Also, self-organizing neural networks can be trained by exposing them to large amounts of data and allowing them to discover the patterns and relationships in the data.
Whereas expert systems seek to emulate or model a human expert’s way of solving problems, neural network builders claim that they do not program solutions and do not aim to solve specific problems. Instead, neural network designers seek to put intelligence into the hardware in the form of a generalized capability to learn. In contrast, the expert system is highly specific to a given problem and cannot be retrained easily.
Neural network applications in medicine, science, and business address problems in pattern classification, prediction, financial analysis, and control and optimization. In medicine, neural network applications are used for screening patients for coronary artery disease, for diagnosing patients with epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease, and for performing pattern recognition of pathology images. The financial industry uses neural networks to discern patterns in vast pools of data that might help predict the performance of equities, corporate bond ratings, or corporate bankruptcies. Visa International uses a neural network to help detect credit card fraud by monitoring all Visa transactions for sudden changes in the buying patterns of cardholders.
There are many puzzling aspects of neural networks. Unlike expert systems, which typically provide explanations for their solutions, neural
**FIGURE 11-10 HOW A NEURAL NETWORK WORKS**
| Input Layer | Hidden Layer | Output Layer |
|-------------|--------------|--------------|
| **Data** | | **Results** |
| • Age | | Valid |
| • Income | | purchase |
| • Purchase history | | Fraudulent |
| • Frequency of purchases | | purchase |
| • Average purchase size | | |
A neural network uses rules it “learns” from patterns in data to construct a hidden layer of logic. The hidden layer then processes inputs, classifying them based on the experience of the model. In this example, the neural network has been trained to distinguish between valid and fraudulent credit card purchases.
networks cannot always explain why they arrived at a particular solution. Moreover, they cannot always guarantee a completely certain solution, arrive at the same solution again with the same input data, or always guarantee the best solution. They are very sensitive and may not perform well if their training covers too little or too much data. In most current applications, neural networks are best used as aids to human decision makers instead of substitutes for them.
The Interactive Session on Organizations describes computerized stock trading applications based on a related AI technology called machine learning. Machine learning focuses on algorithms and statistical methods that allow computers to “learn” by extracting rules and patterns from massive data sets and make predictions about the future. Both neural networks and machine learning techniques are used in data mining. As the Interactive Session points out, the use of machine learning in the financial industry for securities trading decisions has had mixed results.
**GENETIC ALGORITHMS**
*Genetic algorithms* are useful for finding the optimal solution for a specific problem by examining a very large number of possible solutions for that problem. They are based on techniques inspired by evolutionary biology, such as inheritance, mutation, selection, and crossover (recombination).
A genetic algorithm works by representing information as a string of 0s and 1s. The genetic algorithm searches a population of randomly generated strings of binary digits to identify the right string representing the best possible solution for the problem. As solutions alter and combine, the worst ones are discarded and the better ones survive to go on to produce even better solutions.
In Figure 11-11, each string corresponds to one of the variables in the problem. One applies a test for fitness, ranking the strings in the population.
**FIGURE 11-11 THE COMPONENTS OF A GENETIC ALGORITHM**
| Length | Width | Weight | Fitness |
|--------|---------|-----------|---------|
| 1 | Long | Wide | Light | 55 |
| 2 | Short | Narrow | Heavy | 49 |
| 3 | Long | Narrow | Heavy | 36 |
| 4 | Short | Medium | Light | 61 |
| 5 | Long | Medium | Very light | 74 |
*A population of chromosomes*
*Decoding of chromosomes*
*Evaluation of chromosomes*
This example illustrates an initial population of “chromosomes,” each representing a different solution. The genetic algorithm uses an iterative process to refine the initial solutions so that the better ones, those with the higher fitness, are more likely to emerge as the best solution.
THE FLASH CRASH: MACHINES GONE WILD?
On May 6, 2010, the U.S. stock markets were already down and trending even lower. Concerns about European debt, primarily the possibility of Greece defaulting, added to existing investor uncertainties about the markets and the economy at that time. But at 2:42 PM, in a flash, the equity market took a plunge so fast and so deep that it could not have been motivated by investor uncertainty alone.
Before the plunge, the market was already down 300 points on the day. In less than five minutes after 2:42, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 600 points, representing a loss of $1 trillion in market value. At its lowest point, the Dow was down a whopping 998.50 points to 9869.62, a 9.2 percent drop from the day’s opening. This represented the biggest intraday decline in Dow history. Fortunately, this loss was temporary, vanishing nearly as quickly as it appeared. By 3:07 PM, the market had already regained nearly all of the points it had lost, and eventually closed down just 347.80 points that day at 10,520.32. The hefty loss was still its worst Dow percentage decline in over a year, but it certainly could have been worse.
How could this “flash crash” have happened? It now appears that the abrupt selling activities of a single mutual fund company touched off a chain reaction. A confluence of forces was unleashed by the structural and organizational features of the electronic trading systems that execute the majority of trades on the Dow and the rest of the world’s major stock exchanges. Electronic trading systems offer considerable advantages over human brokers, including speed, reduced cost, and more liquid markets. High-frequency traders (HFTs) have taken over many of the responsibilities once filled by stock exchange specialists and market makers whose job was to match buyers and sellers efficiently.
Many trading systems today, such as those used by HFTs, are automated, using algorithms to place their nearly instant trades. A number of the HFT trading firms and hedge funds now use machine learning to help their computer systems trade in and out of stocks efficiently. Machine learning programs are able to crunch vast amounts of data in short periods, “learn” what works, and adjust their stock trading strategies on the fly, based on shifting dynamics in the market and broader economy. This method is far beyond human capability: As Michael Kearns, computer science professor at University of Pennsylvania and expert in AI investing, stated, “No human could do this. Your head would blow off.” It would appear, however, in situations like the flash crash, where a computer algorithm is insufficient to handle the complexity of the event in progress, electronic trading systems have the potential to make a bad situation much worse.
At 2:32 P.M. on May 6, Waddell & Reed Financial of Overland Park, Kansas started to sell $4.1 billion of futures contracts using a computer selling algorithm that dumped 75,000 contracts onto the market over the next 20 minutes. Normally, a sale of that size would take as much as five hours, but on that day, it was executed in 20 minutes. The algorithm instructed computers to execute the trade without regard to price or time, and thus continued to sell as prices sharply dropped.
After Waddell & Reed started to sell, many of the futures contracts were bought by HFTs. As the HFTs realized prices were continuing to fall, they began to sell what they had just bought very aggressively, which caused the mutual fund’s algorithm in turn to accelerate its selling. The HFT computers traded contracts back and forth, creating a “hot potato” effect. The selling pressure was then transferred from the futures market to the stock market. Frightened buyers pulled to the sidelines. The markets were overwhelmed by sell orders with no legitimate buyers available to meet those orders.
The only buy orders available at all originated from automated systems, which were submitting orders known as “stub quotes.” Stub quotes are offers to buy stocks at prices so low that they are unlikely to ever be the sole buyers of that stock available; during the unique conditions of the flash crash, they were. When the only offer to buy available is a penny-priced stub quote, a market order, by its terms, will execute against the stub quote. In this respect, automated trading systems will follow their coded logic regardless of outcome, while human involvement would likely have prevented these orders from executing at absurd prices.
In the midst of the crisis, the New York Stock Exchange activated circuit breakers, measures
intended to slow trading on stocks that have lost a tenth or more of their value in a short time, and routed all of their trading traffic to human brokers in an effort to stop the downward spiral. (NYSE is the only major exchange with the ability to execute trades both via computers and via human brokers.) But because of the enormous volume of orders, and because other fully electronic exchanges lacked similar circuit breakers, it may have had the reverse effect in the short term. While computerized systems simply continued to push the market lower, humans were unable to react fast enough to the situation.
Regulators are considering several different approaches to preventing future flash crashes, but it may be that there is no satisfactory solution. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may attempt to standardize circuit breakers across all financial markets, limit high-frequency trading, overhaul the stub quoting system, or stipulate that all buy and sell orders be limit orders, which places upper and lower limits on the prices at which stocks can be bought and sold. But it may be that events like the flash crash are what author and hedge fund adviser Nassim Taleb called “Black Swans” in his book of the same name—unpredictable and uncontrollable events under which we only have “the illusion of control.”
After ‘Black Monday’ in 1987, the last crash of similar size, it was thought that computer trading prevented sudden drops in the market, but the flash crash indicates that electronic trading simply allows them to occur over a shorter time period, and may even magnify these sudden market moves in either direction because they can happen faster with less chance of intervention. But, as the flash crash has proven, if we rely solely on these automated methods of electronic trading, we’ll still need to worry about machines gone wild.
Sources: Graham Bowley, “Lone $4.1 Billion Sale Led to ‘Flash Crash’ in May,” *The New York Times*, October 1, 2010; Aaron Lucchetti, “Exchanges Point Fingers Over Human Hands,” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 9, 2010; Scott Patterson, “Letting the Machines Decide,” *The Wall Street Journal*, July 13, 2010; Scott Patterson and Tom Lauricella, “Did a Big Bet Help Trigger ‘Black Swan’ Stock Swoon?” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 10, 2010; Edward Wyatt, “Regulators Vow to Find Way to Stop Rapid Dives,” *The New York Times*, May 10, 2010; Kara Scannell and Fawn Johnson, “Schapiro: Web of Rules Aided Fall,” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 12, 2010; Larry Harris, “How to Prevent Another Trading Panic,” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 12, 2010; Scott Patterson, “How the ‘Flash Crash’ Echoed Black Monday,” *The Wall Street Journal*, May 17, 2010.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. Describe the conditions that preceded the flash crash.
2. What are some of the benefits of electronic trading?
3. What features of electronic trading and automated trading programs contributed to the crash?
4. Could this crash have been prevented? Why or why not?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Use the Web to search for information on the Black Monday crash of 1987. Then answer the following questions:
1. What features of the Black Monday crash are different from the 2010 flash crash?
2. How are the two crashes similar?
3. What measures did regulators take to ensure that no future crashes would happen again?
4. How has the advent of electronic trading affected those regulatory measures?
problem must be one where the range of possible solutions can be represented genetically and criteria can be established for evaluating fitness. Genetic algorithms expedite the solution because they are able to evaluate many solution alternatives quickly to find the best one. For example, General Electric engineers used genetic algorithms to help optimize the design for jet turbine aircraft engines, where each design change required changes in up to 100 variables. The supply chain management software from i2 Technologies uses genetic algorithms to optimize production-scheduling models incorporating hundreds of thousands of details about customer orders, material and resource availability, manufacturing and distribution capability, and delivery dates.
**HYBRID AI SYSTEMS**
Genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and expert systems can be integrated into a single application to take advantage of the best features of these technologies. Such systems are called **hybrid AI systems**. Hybrid applications in business are growing. In Japan, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Ricoh, Sanyo, and others are starting to incorporate hybrid AI in products such as home appliances, factory machinery, and office equipment. Matsushita has developed a “neurofuzzy” washing machine that combines fuzzy logic with neural networks. Nikko Securities has been working on a neurofuzzy system to forecast convertible-bond ratings.
**INTELLIGENT AGENTS**
Intelligent agent technology helps businesses navigate through large amounts of data to locate and act on information that is considered important. **Intelligent agents** are software programs that work in the background without direct human intervention to carry out specific, repetitive, and predictable tasks for an individual user, business process, or software application. The agent uses a limited built-in or learned knowledge base to accomplish tasks or make decisions on the user’s behalf, such as deleting junk e-mail, scheduling appointments, or traveling over interconnected networks to find the cheapest airfare to California.
There are many intelligent agent applications today in operating systems, application software, e-mail systems, mobile computing software, and network tools. For example, the wizards found in Microsoft Office software tools have built-in capabilities to show users how to accomplish various tasks, such as formatting documents or creating graphs, and to anticipate when users need assistance.
Of special interest to business are intelligent agents for cruising networks, including the Internet, in search of information. Chapter 7 describes how shopping bots can help consumers find products they want and assist them in comparing prices and other features.
Many complex phenomena can be modeled as systems of autonomous agents that follow relatively simple rules for interaction. **Agent-based modeling** applications have been developed to model the behavior of consumers, stock markets, and supply chains and to predict the spread of epidemics (Samuelson and Macal, 2006).
Procter & Gamble (P&G) used agent-based modeling to improve coordination among different members of its supply chain in response to changing business conditions (see Figure 11-12). It modeled a complex supply chain as a group of semiautonomous “agents” representing individual supply chain components, such as trucks, production facilities, distributors, and retail stores. The
Intelligent agents are helping P&G shorten the replenishment cycles for products such as a box of Tide.
The behavior of each agent is programmed to follow rules that mimic actual behavior, such as “order an item when it is out of stock.” Simulations using the agents enable the company to perform what-if analyses on inventory levels, in-store stockouts, and transportation costs.
Using intelligent agent models, P&G discovered that trucks should often be dispatched before being fully loaded. Although transportation costs would be higher using partially loaded trucks, the simulation showed that retail store stockouts would occur less often, thus reducing the amount of lost sales, which would more than make up for the higher distribution costs. Agent-based modeling has saved P&G $300 million annually on an investment of less than 1 percent of that amount.
11.5 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience designing a knowledge portal, applying collaboration tools to solve a customer retention problem, using an expert system or spreadsheet tools to create a simple expert system, and using intelligent agents to research products for sale on the Web.
Management Decision Problems
1. U.S. Pharma Corporation is headquartered in New Jersey but has research sites in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Australia. Research and development of new pharmaceuticals is the key to ongoing profits, and U.S. Pharma researches and tests thousands of possible drugs. The company’s researchers need to share information with others within and outside the company, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization, and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations. Also critical is access to health information sites, such as the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and to industry conferences and professional journals. Design a knowledge portal for U.S. Pharma’s researchers. Include in your design specifications relevant internal systems and databases, external sources of information, and internal and external communication and collaboration tools. Design a home page for your portal.
2. Sprint Nextel has the highest rate of customer churn (the number of customers who discontinue a service) in the cell phone industry, amounting to 2.45 percent. Over the past two years, Sprint has lost 7 million subscribers. Management wants to know why so many customers are leaving Sprint and what can be done to woo them back. Are customers deserting because of poor customer service, uneven network coverage, or the cost of Sprint cell phone plans? How can the company use tools for online collaboration and communication to help find the answer? What management decisions could be made using information from these sources?
Improving Decision Making: Building a Simple Expert System for Retirement Planning
Software skills: Spreadsheet formulas and IF function or expert system tool
Business skills: Benefits eligibility determination
Expert systems typically use a large number of rules. This project has been simplified to reduce the number of rules, but it will give you experience working with a series of rules to develop an application.
When employees at your company retire, they are given cash bonuses. These cash bonuses are based on the length of employment and the retiree’s age. To receive a bonus, an employee must be at least 50 years of age and have worked for the company for five years. The following table summarizes the criteria for determining bonuses.
| LENGTH OF EMPLOYMENT | BONUS |
|----------------------|------------------------|
| <5 years | No bonus |
| 5–10 years | 20 percent of current annual salary |
| 11–15 years | 30 percent of current annual salary |
| 16–20 years | 40 percent of current annual salary |
| 20–25 years | 50 percent of current annual salary |
| 26 or more years | 100 percent of current annual salary |
Using the information provided, build a simple expert system. Find a demonstration copy of an expert system software tool on the Web that you can download. Alternatively, use your spreadsheet software to build the expert system. (If you are using spreadsheet software, we suggest using the IF function so you can see how rules are created.)
**Improving Decision Making: Using Intelligent Agents for Comparison Shopping**
Software skills: Web browser and shopping bot software
Business skills: Product evaluation and selection
This project will give you experience using shopping bots to search online for products, find product information, and find the best prices and vendors.
You have decided to purchase a new digital camera. Select a digital camera you might want to purchase, such as the Canon PowerShot S95 or the Olympus Stylus 7040. To purchase the camera as inexpensively as possible, try several of the shopping bot sites, which do the price comparisons for you. Visit My Simon (www.mysimon.com), BizRate.com (www.bizrate.com), and Google Product Search. Compare these shopping sites in terms of their ease of use, number of offerings, speed in obtaining information, thoroughness of information offered about the product and seller, and price selection. Which site or sites would you use and why? Which camera would you select and why? How helpful were these sites for making your decision?
**Learning Track Module**
The following Learning Track provides content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. Challenges of Knowledge Management Systems
1. **What is the role of knowledge management and knowledge management programs in business?**
Knowledge management is a set of processes to create, store, transfer, and apply knowledge in the organization. Much of a firm’s value depends on its ability to create and manage knowledge. Knowledge management promotes organizational learning by increasing the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes. There are three major types of knowledge management systems: enterprise-wide knowledge management systems, knowledge work systems, and intelligent techniques.
2. **What types of systems are used for enterprise-wide knowledge management and how do they provide value for businesses?**
Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems are firmwide efforts to collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and knowledge. Enterprise content management systems provide databases and tools for organizing and storing structured documents and tools for organizing and storing semistructured knowledge, such as e-mail or rich media. Knowledge network systems provide directories and tools for locating firm employees with special expertise who are important sources of tacit knowledge. Often these systems include group collaboration tools (including wikis and social bookmarking), portals to simplify information access, search tools, and tools for classifying information based on a taxonomy that is appropriate for the organization. Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems can provide considerable value if they are well designed and enable employees to locate, share, and use knowledge more efficiently.
3. **What are the major types of knowledge work systems and how do they provide value for firms?**
Knowledge work systems (KWS) support the creation of new knowledge and its integration into the organization. KWS require easy access to an external knowledge base; powerful computer hardware that can support software with intensive graphics, analysis, document management, and communications capabilities; and a user-friendly interface. Computer-aided design (CAD) systems, augmented reality applications, and virtual reality systems, which create interactive simulations that behave like the real world, require graphics and powerful modeling capabilities. KWS for financial professionals provide access to external databases and the ability to analyze massive amounts of financial data very quickly.
4. **What are the business benefits of using intelligent techniques for knowledge management?**
Artificial intelligence lacks the flexibility, breadth, and generality of human intelligence, but it can be used to capture, codify, and extend organizational knowledge. Expert systems capture tacit knowledge from a limited domain of human expertise and express that knowledge in the form of rules. Expert systems are most useful for problems of classification or diagnosis. Case-based reasoning represents organizational knowledge as a database of cases that can be continually expanded and refined.
Fuzzy logic is a software technology for expressing knowledge in the form of rules that use approximate or subjective values. Fuzzy logic has been used for controlling physical devices and is starting to be used for limited decision-making applications.
Neural networks consist of hardware and software that attempt to mimic the thought processes of the human brain. Neural networks are notable for their ability to learn without programming and to recognize patterns that cannot be easily described by humans. They are being used in science, medicine, and business to discriminate patterns in massive amounts of data.
Genetic algorithms develop solutions to particular problems using genetically based processes such as fitness, crossover, and mutation. Genetic algorithms are beginning to be applied to problems involving optimization, product design, and monitoring industrial systems where many alternatives or variables must be evaluated to generate an optimal solution.
Intelligent agents are software programs with built-in or learned knowledge bases that carry out specific, repetitive, and predictable tasks for an individual user, business process, or software application. Intelligent agents can be programmed to navigate through large amounts of data to locate useful information and in some cases act on that information on behalf of the user.
Key Terms
Agent-based modeling, 441
Augmented reality (AR), 428
Artificial intelligence (AI), 431
Backward chaining, 432
Case-based reasoning (CBR), 434
Communities of practice (COPs), 421
Computer-aided design (CAD), 427
Data, 417
Digital asset management systems, 424
Enterprise content management systems, 423
Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems, 421
Expert systems, 432
Explicit knowledge, 417
Folksonomies, 425
Forward chaining, 432
Fuzzy logic, 435
Genetic algorithms, 438
Hybrid AI systems, 441
Inference engine, 432
Intelligent agents, 441
Intelligent techniques, 422
Investment workstations, 431
Knowledge, 417
Knowledge base, 432
Knowledge discovery, 431
Knowledge management, 419
Knowledge network systems, 424
Knowledge work systems (KWS), 421
Learning Management System (LMS), 425
Machine learning, 438
Neural networks, 436
Organizational learning, 419
Social bookmarking, 424
Structured knowledge, 422
Tacit knowledge, 417
Taxonomy, 423
Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), 430
Virtual reality systems, 428
Wisdom, 417
Review Questions
1. What is the role of knowledge management and knowledge management programs in business?
- Define knowledge management and explain its value to businesses.
- Describe the important dimensions of knowledge.
- Distinguish between data, knowledge, and wisdom and between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge.
- Describe the stages in the knowledge management value chain.
2. What types of systems are used for enterprise-wide knowledge management and how do they provide value for businesses?
- Define and describe the various types of enterprise-wide knowledge management systems and explain how they provide value for businesses.
- Describe the role of the following in facilitating knowledge management: portals, wikis, social bookmarking, and learning management systems.
3. What are the major types of knowledge work systems and how do they provide value for firms?
- Define knowledge work systems and describe the generic requirements of knowledge work systems.
- Describe how the following systems support knowledge work: CAD, virtual reality, augmented reality, and investment workstations.
4. What are the business benefits of using intelligent techniques for knowledge management?
- Define an expert system, describe how it works, and explain its value to business.
- Define case-based reasoning and explain how it differs from an expert system.
- Define a neural network, and describe how it works and how it benefits businesses.
- Define and describe fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, and intelligent agents. Explain how each works and the kinds of problems for which each is suited.
Discussion Questions
1. Knowledge management is a business process, not a technology. Discuss.
2. Describe various ways that knowledge management systems could help firms with sales and marketing or with manufacturing and production.
3. Your company wants to do more with knowledge management. Describe the steps it should take to develop a knowledge management program and select knowledge management applications.
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Rating Enterprise Content Management Systems
With a group of classmates, select two enterprise content management products, such as those from Open Text, IBM, EMC, or Oracle. Compare their features and capabilities. To prepare your analysis, use articles from computer magazines and the Web sites for the enterprise content management software vendors. If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
A major challenge facing many companies and organizations is the imminent retirement of baby boomers. For certain organizations, this challenge is more daunting than usual, not only because of a larger spike in employee retirements, but also because of the business process change that must accompany significant shifts in any workforce. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) was one such organization.
SFPUC is a department of the city and county of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and municipal power services to the city. SFPUC has four major divisions: Regional Water, Local Water, Power, and Wastewater (collection, treatment, and disposal of water). The organization has over 2,000 employees and serves 2.4 million customers in San Francisco and the Bay Area. It is the third largest municipal utility in California.
SFPUC’s Power division provides electricity to the city and county of San Francisco, including power used to operate electric streetcars and buses; the Regional and Local Water departments supply some of the purest drinking water in the world to San Francisco and neighboring Santa Clara and San Mateo counties; and the Wastewater division handles flushed and drained water to significantly reduce pollution in the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean. The mission of this organization is to provide San Francisco and its Bay Area customers with reliable, high-quality, affordable water and wastewater treatment while efficiently and responsibly managing human, physical, and natural resources.
SFPUC expected that a significant portion of its employees—about 20 percent—would retire in 2009. To make matters worse, the majority of these positions were technical, which meant that the training of new employees would be more complicated, and maintaining knowledge of the retiring workers would be critical to all areas of SFPUC’s business processes.
To deal with this trend, companies and organizations like SFPUC must rearrange their operations so that the generational swap doesn’t adversely affect their operational capability in the upcoming decades. In particular, the organization needed a way to capture the knowledge of its retiring employees of “baby boom” age in an efficient and cost-effective manner, and then communicate this knowledge successfully to the next generation of employees. The two major challenges SFPUC faced were successfully capturing, managing, and transferring this knowledge, and maintaining reliability and accountability despite a large influx of new workers.
SFPUC met these challenges by implementing a business process management (BPM) and workflow solution from Interfacing Technologies Corporation to drive change efforts across the organization. The system, called Enterprise Process Center, or EPC, manages knowledge retention and establishes new ways of collaborating, sharing information, and defining roles and responsibilities. SFPUC saw the retirement of its baby boomers as an opportunity to implement a structure that would alleviate similar problems in the future. With EPC, SFPUC would be able to maintain continuity from older to newer employees more easily. SFPUC was impressed that the system would span all four of its major divisions, helping to standardize common processes across multiple departments, and that it would be easy to use and train employees.
EPC sought to identify common processes, called “work crossovers,” by mapping business processes across each department. EPC is unique among BPM software providers in its visual representation of these processes. Using flow charts accessible via a Web portal to clearly depict the functions performed by each department, SFPUC was able to identify redundant and inefficient tasks performed by multiple departments. This visually oriented solution for optimizing business processes catered to both technology-savvy new employees and older baby boomers.
Prior to the BPM overhaul, SFPUC employees had little incentive to share business process information. New environmental regulations were difficult to communicate. Certain inspection processes were conducted on an irregular basis, sometimes as infrequently as every 5 to 15 years. The knowledge required to execute these processes was especially valuable, because newer employees would have no
way of completing these tasks without proper documentation and process knowledge. SFPUC needed ways to easily find knowledge about processes that were performed daily, as well as every 15 years, and what’s more, that knowledge had to be up to date so that employees didn’t stumble across obsolete information.
EPC solved that problem by creating work order flows for all tasks performed within the organization, defining the employee roles and responsibilities for each. For example, the work order flow for SFPUC’s wastewater enterprise displayed each step in the process visually, with links to manuals describing how to complete the task and the documents required to complete it. EPC also identified obsolete processes that were well suited to automation or totally superfluous. Automating and eliminating outdated tasks alleviated some of SFPUC’s budget and workload concerns, allowing the organization to divert extra resources to training and human resources.
SFPUC management had anticipated that eliminating outdated tasks would have the added effect of keeping employees happy, which would help SFPUC’s performance by delaying retirement of older employees and increasing the likelihood that newer hires stayed at the company. EPC allowed employees to provide feedback on various tasks, helping to identify tasks that were most widely disliked. For example, the process for reimbursement of travel expenses was described as lengthy, highly labor-intensive, and valueless to the citizens of San Francisco. To be reimbursed for travel expenses, employees had to print a form, complete it by hand, attach travel receipts, and walk the documents over to their supervisors, who then had to manually review and approve each item and remit expenses for three additional levels of approval. Only then could the division controller issue the reimbursement.
To address this need for sharing information and making documents available across the organization, SFPUC started by using a wiki, but the documents lacked different levels of relevance. Critical information pertaining to everyday tasks took the same amount of time to find as information pertaining to an inspection performed every 15 years. EPC allowed users to assign levels of relevance to tasks and identify critical information so that critical information displays when employees search for certain items. For example, SFPUC employees must comply with various regulatory permits for water and air quality standards. Lack of awareness of these standards often leads to unintentional violations. The BPM tool helped users assign risks to various tasks so that when employees queried information, the relevant regulations displayed along with the requested documents.
Identifying the experts on particular subjects for mission-critical processes is often challenging when compiling information on business processes across the enterprise. SFPUC anticipated this, using EPC to break down large-scale process knowledge into more manageable pieces, which allowed more users to contribute information. Users were reluctant to buy in to the BPM implementation at first, but management characterized the upgrade in a way that invited employees to share their thoughts about their least favorite processes and contribute their knowledge.
The final product of the knowledge management overhaul took the form of a “centralized electronic knowledge base,” which graphically displays critical steps of each task and uses videos to gather information and show work being done. New employees quickly became confident that they could perform certain tasks because of these videos. The overall results of the project were overwhelmingly positive. EPC helped SFPUC take its baby boomers’ individual data and knowledge and turn them into usable and actionable information that was easily shared throughout the firm. SFPUC stayed much further under budget than other comparable governmental organizations.
SFPUC’s new knowledge processes made many activities more paperless, reducing printing costs, time to distribute documents, and space required for document retention. Going paperless also supported the organization’s mission to become more environmentally responsible. The addition of video technology to the process maps helped employees see how they could reduce energy consumption practices and electrical costs. By automating and redesigning the unwieldy travel reimbursement process described earlier, SFPUC reduced the time to process employee reimbursement requests by as much as 50 percent.
Sources: “San Francisco Tackles Baby Boom Retirement Effect and is Selected as a Finalist for the Global Awards for Excellence in BPM-Workflow,” *International Business Times*, January 12, 2010; Interfacing Technologies, Canada, “San Francisco Public Utilities Commission USA,” Catherine Curtis, “SFPUC Delivers Workforce Development Presentation at WEFTEC Conference,” *Wastewater Enterprise*, October 2009; “SFPUC Water Enterprise Environmental Stewardship Policy,” San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, June 27, 2006.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What are the business goals of SFPUC? How is knowledge management related to those goals?
2. What were some of the challenges faced by SFPUC? What management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for those challenges?
3. Describe how implementing EPC improved knowledge management and operational effectiveness at SFPUC.
4. How effective was EPC as a solution for SFPUC?
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Chapter 12
Enhancing Decision Making
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What are the different types of decisions and how does the decision-making process work?
2. How do information systems support the activities of managers and management decision making?
3. How do business intelligence and business analytics support decision making?
4. How do different decision-making constituencies in an organization use business intelligence?
5. What is the role of information systems in helping people working in a group make decisions more efficiently?
Interactive Sessions:
Data-Driven Schools
Piloting Valero with Real Time Management
CHAPTER OUTLINE
12.1 DECISION MAKING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Business Value of Improved Decision Making
Types of Decisions
The Decision-Making Process
Managers and Decision Making in the Real World
High-Velocity Automated Decision Making
12.2 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN THE ENTERPRISE
What Is Business Intelligence?
The Business Intelligence Environment
Business Intelligence and Analytics Capabilities
Management Strategies for Developing BI and BA Capabilities
12.3 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE CONSTITUENCIES
Decision Support for Operational and Middle Management
Decision Support for Senior Management: The Balanced Scorecard and Enterprise Performance Management Methods
Group Decision-Support Systems (GDSS)
12.4 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Improving Decision Making: Using Pivot Tables to Analyze Sales Data
Improving Decision Making: Using a Web-Based DSS for Retirement Planning
LEARNING TRACK MODULE
Building and Using Pivot Tables
What’s the best way to get a discount on your morning coffee at Starbucks? Well, if you live in Manhattan, you could get up an hour early and take the subway downtown to Brooklyn. A single espresso is 10 cents cheaper than in your neighborhood, as are a caffè latte and slice of lemon pound cake. But a muffin runs 10 cents more uptown in Marble Hill, and a tall Pike’s Place Roast costs $1.70 no matter where you live.
Starbucks is one of many retailers using sophisticated software to analyze, store by store and item by item, how demand responds to changes in price. What customers are willing to pay for certain items depends very much on the neighborhood or even the region of the country where they live. Shoppers in certain locations are willing to pay more.
The Duane Reade drugstore chain, recently purchased by Walgreens, is also adept at adjusting prices. Software analyzing sales patterns found that parents of newborn babies are not as price-sensitive as those with toddlers, so the company was able to raise prices on diapers for newborn infants without losing sales. The chain’s information systems also showed how to adjust pricing based on location. Shoppers at the Duane Reade store near 86th Street and Lexington Avenue pay 20 cents more for a box of Kleenex and 50 cents more for a bottle of Pepto-Bismol than customers in Harlem.
Business analytics software such as that used by Duane Reade typically analyzes patterns in sales data to create a “pricing profile.” A store near a big commuting hub might discount convenience items to present a low-cost image while one in a family neighborhood with many young children might discount baby items to get more people through the door.
Analyzing large troves of digital sales and customer information from both online and physical stores also helps retailers decide what to sell as well. Fashion Web site HauteLook confirmed that Southerners buy more white, green, and pink than people from other regions, while ShopItToMe learned that the average woman spends less on fashion in Dallas than in Washington D.C. and that women are thinner on both coasts than in the U.S. heartland and wear more petite clothing and shoe sizes meant for smaller women.
How much of a difference does this knowledge make? Lots. 1-800-Flowers, which sells flowers and gift baskets online, has used analytics software from SAS Inc. to tweak its online storefront and marketing activities. The software helped the company quickly record and analyze buyer profiles to help improve targeting of its product, determine what “specials” to offer, and plan sales and marketing strategies based on an understanding of real customer needs. The company is able to quickly change prices and offerings on its Web site—often every hour. In the first half of 2010, 1-800-Flowers used more finely targeted Web pages and e-mail promotions to improve the conversion rate of Web site browsers to buyers by 20 percent.
The experiences of Starbucks, Duane Reade, and 1-800-Flowers are powerful illustrations of how information systems improve decision making. Managers at these retail chains were unable to make good decisions about what prices to charge to improve profitability and what items to sell in stores to maximize sales at different locations and different time periods. They had access to customer purchase data, but they were unable to analyze millions of pieces of data on their own. Bad decisions about how much to charge and how to stock stores lowered sales revenue and prevented these companies from responding quickly to customer needs.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Starbucks, Duane Reade, and 1-800-Flowers started using business intelligence software, which is able to find patterns and trends in massive quantities of data. Information from these business intelligence systems helps managers at these companies make better decisions about pricing, shelf stocking, and product offerings. They are able to see where they can charge a higher price or where they must lower prices to maximize sales revenue, as well as what items to stock and when to change their merchandise mix. Better decision making using business intelligence has made all of these companies more profitable.
12.1 Decision Making and Information Systems
Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower-level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. But what do we mean by better decision making? How does decision making take place in businesses and other organizations? Let's take a closer look.
**Business Value of Improved Decision Making**
What does it mean to the business to make better decisions? What is the monetary value of improved decision making? Table 12-1 attempts to measure the monetary value of improved decision making for a small U.S. manufacturing firm with $280 million in annual revenue and 140 employees. The firm has identified a number of key decisions where new system investments might improve the quality of decision making. The table provides selected estimates of annual value (in the form of cost savings or increased revenue) from improved decision making in selected areas of the business.
We can see from Table 12-1 that decisions are made at all levels of the firm and that some of these decisions are common, routine, and numerous. Although the value of improving any single decision may be small, improving hundreds of thousands of "small" decisions adds up to a large annual value for the business.
**Types of Decisions**
Chapters 1 and 2 showed that there are different levels in an organization. Each of these levels has different information requirements for decision support and responsibility for different types of decisions (see Figure 12-1). Decisions are classified as structured, semistructured, and unstructured.
| Example Decision | Decision Maker | Number of Annual Decisions | Estimated Value to Firm of a Single Improved Decision | Annual Value |
|-------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------|----------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|--------------|
| Allocate support to most valuable customers | Accounts manager | 12 | $100,000 | $1,200,000 |
| Predict call center daily demand | Call center management | 4 | 150,000 | 600,000 |
| Decide parts inventory levels daily | Inventory manager | 365 | 5,000 | 1,825,000 |
| Identify competitive bids from major suppliers | Senior management | 1 | 2,000,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Schedule production to fill orders | Manufacturing manager | 150 | 10,000 | 1,500,000 |
| Allocate labor to complete a job | Production floor manager | 100 | 4,000 | 400,000 |
Senior managers, middle managers, operational managers, and employees have different types of decisions and information requirements.
**Unstructured decisions** are those in which the decision maker must provide judgment, evaluation, and insight to solve the problem. Each of these decisions is novel, important, and nonroutine, and there is no well-understood or agreed-on procedure for making them.
**Structured decisions**, by contrast, are repetitive and routine, and they involve a definite procedure for handling them so that they do not have to be treated each time as if they were new. Many decisions have elements of both types of decisions and are **semistructured**, where only part of the problem has a clear-cut answer provided by an accepted procedure. In general, structured decisions are more prevalent at lower organizational levels, whereas unstructured problems are more common at higher levels of the firm.
Senior executives face many unstructured decision situations, such as establishing the firm’s five- or ten-year goals or deciding new markets to enter. Answering the question “Should we enter a new market?” would require access to news, government reports, and industry views as well as high-level summaries of firm performance. However, the answer would also require senior managers to use their own best judgment and poll other managers for their opinions.
Middle management faces more structured decision scenarios but their decisions may include unstructured components. A typical middle-level management decision might be “Why is the reported order fulfillment report showing a decline over the past six months at a distribution center in Minneapolis?” This middle manager will obtain a report from the firm’s enterprise system or distribution management system on order activity and operational efficiency at the Minneapolis distribution center. This is the structured part of the decision. But before arriving at an answer, this middle manager will have to interview employees and gather more unstructured information from external sources about local economic conditions or sales trends.
Operational management and rank-and-file employees tend to make more structured decisions. For example, a supervisor on an assembly line has to decide whether an hourly paid worker is entitled to overtime pay. If the employee worked more than eight hours on a particular day, the supervisor would routinely grant overtime pay for any time beyond eight hours that was clocked on that day.
A sales account representative often has to make decisions about extending credit to customers by consulting the firm’s customer database that contains credit information. If the customer met the firm’s prespecified criteria for granting credit, the account representative would grant that customer credit to make a purchase. In both instances, the decisions are highly structured and are routinely made thousands of times each day in most large firms. The answer has been preprogrammed into the firm’s payroll and accounts receivable systems.
**THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS**
Making a decision is a multistep process. Simon (1960) described four different stages in decision making: intelligence, design, choice, and implementation (see Figure 12-2).
**FIGURE 12-2 STAGES IN DECISION MAKING**
The decision-making process is broken down into four stages.
Intelligence consists of discovering, identifying, and understanding the problems occurring in the organization—why a problem exists, where, and what effects it is having on the firm.
Design involves identifying and exploring various solutions to the problem.
Choice consists of choosing among solution alternatives.
Implementation involves making the chosen alternative work and continuing to monitor how well the solution is working.
What happens if the solution you have chosen doesn’t work? Figure 12-2 shows that you can return to an earlier stage in the decision-making process and repeat it if necessary. For instance, in the face of declining sales, a sales management team may decide to pay the sales force a higher commission for making more sales to spur on the sales effort. If this does not produce sales increases, managers would need to investigate whether the problem stems from poor product design, inadequate customer support, or a host of other causes that call for a different solution.
MANAGERS AND DECISION MAKING IN THE REAL WORLD
The premise of this book and this chapter is that systems to support decision making produce better decision making by managers and employees, above average returns on investment for the firm, and ultimately higher profitability. However, information systems cannot improve all the different kinds of decisions taking place in an organization. Let’s examine the role of managers and decision making in organizations to see why this is so.
Managerial Roles
Managers play key roles in organizations. Their responsibilities range from making decisions, to writing reports, to attending meetings, to arranging birthday parties. We are able to better understand managerial functions and roles by examining classical and contemporary models of managerial behavior.
The classical model of management, which describes what managers do, was largely unquestioned for the more than 70 years since the 1920s. Henri Fayol and other early writers first described the five classical functions of managers as planning, organizing, coordinating, deciding, and controlling. This description of management activities dominated management thought for a long time, and it is still popular today.
The classical model describes formal managerial functions but does not address what exactly managers do when they plan, decide things, and control the work of others. For this, we must turn to the work of contemporary behavioral scientists who have studied managers in daily action. Behavioral models state that the actual behavior of managers appears to be less systematic, more informal, less reflective, more reactive, and less well organized than the classical model would have us believe.
Observers find that managerial behavior actually has five attributes that differ greatly from the classical description. First, managers perform a great deal of work at an unrelenting pace—studies have found that managers engage in more than 600 different activities each day, with no break in their pace. Second, managerial activities are fragmented; most activities last for less than nine minutes, and only 10 percent of the activities exceed one hour in duration. Third, managers prefer current, specific, and ad hoc information (printed information often will be too old). Fourth, they prefer oral forms of
communication to written forms because oral media provide greater flexibility, require less effort, and bring a faster response. Fifth, managers give high priority to maintaining a diverse and complex web of contacts that acts as an informal information system and helps them execute their personal agendas and short- and long-term goals.
Analyzing managers’ day-to-day behavior, Mintzberg found that it could be classified into 10 managerial roles. **Managerial roles** are expectations of the activities that managers should perform in an organization. Mintzberg found that these managerial roles fell into three categories: interpersonal, informational, and decisional.
**Interpersonal Roles.** Managers act as figureheads for the organization when they represent their companies to the outside world and perform symbolic duties, such as giving out employee awards, in their **interpersonal role**. Managers act as leaders, attempting to motivate, counsel, and support subordinates. Managers also act as liaisons between various organizational levels; within each of these levels, they serve as liaisons among the members of the management team. Managers provide time and favors, which they expect to be returned.
**Informational Roles.** In their **informational role**, managers act as the nerve centers of their organizations, receiving the most concrete, up-to-date information and redistributing it to those who need to be aware of it. Managers are therefore information disseminators and spokespersons for their organizations.
**Decisional Roles.** Managers make decisions. In their **decisional role**, they act as entrepreneurs by initiating new kinds of activities; they handle disturbances arising in the organization; they allocate resources to staff members who need them; and they negotiate conflicts and mediate between conflicting groups.
Table 12-2, based on Mintzberg’s role classifications, is one look at where systems can and cannot help managers. The table shows that information systems are now capable of supporting most, but not all, areas of management life.
### Table 12-2 Managerial Roles and Supporting Information Systems
| ROLE | BEHAVIOR | SUPPORT SYSTEMS |
|-----------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------|
| Interpersonal Roles | | |
| Figurehead | | Telepresence systems |
| Leader | Interpersonal | Telepresence, social networks, Twitter |
| Liaison | | Smartphones, social networks |
| Informational Roles | | |
| Nerve center | | Management information systems, ESS |
| Disseminator | Information | E-mail, social networks |
| Spokesperson | processing | Webinars, telepresence |
| Decisional Roles | | |
| Entrepreneur | Decision | None exist |
| Disturbance handler | making | None exist |
| Resource allocator | | Business intelligence, DSS systems |
| Negotiator | | None exist |
Sources: Kenneth C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon; and Mintzberg, 1971.
Real-World Decision Making
We now see that information systems are not helpful for all managerial roles. And in those managerial roles where information systems might improve decisions, investments in information technology do not always produce positive results. There are three main reasons: information quality, management filters, and organizational culture (see Chapter 3).
Information Quality. High-quality decisions require high-quality information. Table 12-3 describes information quality dimensions that affect the quality of decisions.
If the output of information systems does not meet these quality criteria, decision-making will suffer. Chapter 6 has shown that corporate databases and files have varying levels of inaccuracy and incompleteness, which in turn will degrade the quality of decision making.
Management Filters. Even with timely, accurate information, some managers make bad decisions. Managers (like all human beings) absorb information through a series of filters to make sense of the world around them. Managers have selective attention, focus on certain kinds of problems and solutions, and have a variety of biases that reject information that does not conform to their prior conceptions.
For instance, Wall Street firms such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers imploded in 2008 because they underestimated the risk of their investments in complex mortgage securities, many of which were based on subprime loans that were more likely to default. The computer models they and other financial institutions used to manage risk were based on overly optimistic assumptions and overly simplistic data about what might go wrong. Management wanted to make sure that their firms’ capital was not all tied up as a cushion against defaults from risky investments, preventing them from investing it to generate profits. So the designers of these risk management systems were encouraged to measure risks in a way that minimized their importance. Some trading desks also oversimplified the information maintained about the mortgage securities to make them appear as simple bonds with higher ratings than were warranted by their underlying components (Hansell, 2008).
Organizational Inertia and Politics. Organizations are bureaucracies with limited capabilities and competencies for acting decisively. When environments change and businesses need to adopt new business models to survive,
| QUALITY DIMENSION | DESCRIPTION |
|-------------------|-------------|
| Accuracy | Do the data represent reality? |
| Integrity | Are the structure of data and relationships among the entities and attributes consistent? |
| Consistency | Are data elements consistently defined? |
| Completeness | Are all the necessary data present? |
| Validity | Do data values fall within defined ranges? |
| Timeliness | Are data available when needed? |
| Accessibility | Are the data accessible, comprehensible, and usable? |
strong forces within organizations resist making decisions calling for major change. Decisions taken by a firm often represent a balancing of the firm’s various interest groups rather than the best solution to the problem.
Studies of business restructuring find that firms tend to ignore poor performance until threatened by outside takeovers, and they systematically blame poor performance on external forces beyond their control such as economic conditions (the economy), foreign competition, and rising prices, rather than blaming senior or middle management for poor business judgment (John, Lang, Netter, et al., 1992).
**HIGH-VELOCITY AUTOMATED DECISION MAKING**
Today, many decisions made by organizations are not made by managers, or any humans. For instance, when you enter a query into Google’s search engine, Google has to decide which URLs to display in about half a second on average (500 milliseconds). Google indexes over 50 billion Web pages, although it does not search the entire index for every query it receives. The same is true of other search engines. The New York Stock Exchange is spending over $450 million in 2010–2011 to build a trading platform that can execute incoming orders in less than 50 milliseconds. High frequency traders at electronic stock exchanges execute their trades in under 30 milliseconds.
The class of decisions that are highly structured and automated is growing rapidly. What makes this kind of automated high-speed decision making possible are computer algorithms that precisely define the steps to be followed to produce a decision, very large databases, very high-speed processors, and software optimized to the task. In these situations, humans (including managers) are eliminated from the decision chain because they are too slow.
This also means organizations in these areas are making decisions faster than what managers can monitor or control. Inability to control automated decisions was a major factor in the “Flash Crash” experienced by U.S. stock markets on May 6, 2010, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 600 points in a matter of minutes before rebounding later that day. The stock market was overwhelmed by a huge wave of sell orders triggered primarily by high-speed computerized trading programs within a few seconds, causing shares of some companies like Proctor & Gamble to sell for pennies.
How does the Simon framework of intelligence-design-choice-implementation work in high-velocity decision environments? Essentially, the intelligence, design, choice, and implementation parts of the decision-making process are captured by the software’s algorithms. The humans who wrote the software have already identified the problem, designed a method for finding a solution, defined a range of acceptable solutions, and implemented the solution. Obviously, with humans out of the loop, great care needs to be taken to ensure the proper operation of these systems lest they do significant harm to organizations and humans. And even then additional safeguards are wise to observe the behavior of these systems, regulate their performance, and if necessary, turn them off.
**12.2 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN THE ENTERPRISE**
Chapter 2 introduced you to the different types of systems used for supporting management decision making. At the foundation of all of these decision support systems are business intelligence and business analytics infrastructure.
that supplies the data and the analytic tools for supporting decision making. In this section, we want to answer the following questions:
- What are business intelligence (BI) and business analytics (BA)
- Who makes business intelligence and business analytics hardware and software?
- Who are the users of business intelligence?
- What kinds of analytical tools come with a BI/BA suite?
- How do managers use these tools?
- What are some examples of firms who have used these tools?
- What management strategies are used for developing BI/BA capabilities?
**WHAT IS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE?**
When we think of humans as intelligent beings we often refer to their ability to take in data from their environment, understand the meaning and significance of the information, and then act appropriately. Can the same be said of business firms? The answer appears to be a qualified “yes.” All organizations, including business firms, do indeed take in information from their environments, attempt to understand the meaning of the information, and then attempt to act on the information. Just like human beings, some business firms do this well, and others poorly.
“Business intelligence” is a term used by hardware and software vendors and information technology consultants to describe the infrastructure for warehousing, integrating, reporting, and analyzing data that comes from the business environment. The foundation infrastructure collects, stores, cleans, and makes relevant information available to managers. Think databases, data warehouses, and data marts described in Chapter 6. “Business analytics” is also a vendor-defined term that focuses more on tools and techniques for analyzing and understanding data. Think online analytical processing (OLAP), statistics, models, and data mining, which we also introduced in Chapter 6.
So, stripped to its essentials, business intelligence and analytics are about integrating all the information streams produced by a firm into a single, coherent enterprise-wide set of data, and then, using modeling, statistical analysis tools (like normal distributions, correlation and regression analysis, Chi square analysis, forecasting, and cluster analysis), and data mining tools (pattern discovery and machine learning), to make sense out of all these data so managers can make better decisions and better plans, or at least know quickly when their firms are failing to meet planned targets.
One company that uses business intelligence is Hallmark Cards. The company uses SAS Analytics software to improve its understanding of buying patterns that could lead to increased sales at more than 3,000 Hallmark Gold Crown stores in the United States. Hallmark wanted to strengthen its relationship with frequent buyers. Using data mining and predictive modeling, the company determined how to market to various consumer segments during holidays and special occasions as well as adjust promotions on the fly. Hallmark is able to determine which customer segments are most influenced by direct mail, which should be approached through e-mail, and what specific messages to send each group. Business intelligence has helped boost Hallmark sales to its loyalty program members by 5 to 10 percent.
Business Intelligence Vendors
It is important to remember that business intelligence and analytics are products defined by technology vendors and consulting firms. They consist of hardware and software suites sold primarily by large system vendors to very large Fortune 500 firms. The largest five providers of these products are SAP, Oracle, IBM, SAS Institute, and Microsoft (see Table 12-4). Microsoft’s products are aimed at small to medium size firms, and they are based on desktop tools familiar to employees (such as Excel spreadsheet software), Microsoft Sharepoint collaboration tools, and Microsoft SQL Server database software. The size of the American BI and BA marketplace in 2010 is estimated to be $10.5 billion and growing at over 20% annually (Gartner, 2010). This makes business intelligence and business analytics one of the fastest-growing and largest segments in the U.S. software market.
THE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ENVIRONMENT
Figure 12-3 gives an overview of a business intelligence environment, highlighting the kinds of hardware, software, and management capabilities that the major vendors offer and that firms develop over time. There are six elements in this business intelligence environment:
- **Data from the business environment**: Businesses must deal with both structured and unstructured data from many different sources, including mobile devices and the Internet. The data need to be integrated and organized so that they can be analyzed and used by human decision makers.
- **Business intelligence infrastructure**: The underlying foundation of business intelligence is a powerful database system that captures all the relevant data to operate the business. The data may be stored in transactional databases or combined and integrated into an enterprise-data warehouse or series of interrelated data marts.
- **Business analytics toolset**: A set of software tools are used to analyze data and produce reports, respond to questions posed by managers, and track the progress of the business using key indicators of performance.
- **Managerial users and methods**: Business intelligence hardware and software are only as intelligent as the human beings who use them. Managers impose order on the analysis of data using a variety of managerial methods that define strategic business goals and specify how progress will be measured. These include business performance management and balanced scorecard approaches focusing on key performance indicators and industry strategic analyses focusing on changes in the general business environment, with special attention to competitors. Without strong senior management over-
### TABLE 12-4 MARKET LEADERS AND SHARE FOR THE TOP BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE VENDORS
| VENDOR | MARKET SHARE | BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARE |
|-----------------|--------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| SAP | 25% | SAP BusinessObjects EPM Solutions |
| SAS Institute | 15% | SAS Activity Based Management; financial, human capital, profitability, and strategy management |
| Oracle | 14% | Enterprise Performance Management System |
| IBM | 11% | IBM Cognos |
| Microsoft | 7% | SQL Server with PowerPivot |
Business intelligence and analytics requires a strong database foundation, a set of analytic tools, and an involved management team that can ask intelligent questions and analyze data.
Sight, business analytics can produce a great deal of information, reports, and online screens that focus on the wrong matters and divert attention from the real issues. You need to remember that, so far, only humans can ask intelligent questions.
- **Delivery platform—MIS, DSS, ESS.** The results from business intelligence and analytics are delivered to managers and employees in a variety of ways, depending on what they need to know to perform their jobs. MIS, DSS, and ESS, which we introduced in Chapter 2, deliver information and knowledge to different people and levels in the firm—operational employees, middle managers, and senior executives. In the past, these systems could not share data and operated as independent systems. Today, one suite of hardware and software tools in the form of a business intelligence and analytics package is able to integrate all this information and bring it to managers’ desktop or mobile platforms.
- **User interface:** Business people are no longer tied to their desks and desktops. They often learn quicker from a visual representation of data than from a dry report with columns and rows of information. Today’s business analytics software suites emphasize visual techniques such as dashboards and scorecards. They also are able to deliver reports on Blackberrys, iPhones, and other mobile handhelds as well as on the firm’s Web portal. BA software is adding capabilities to post information on Twitter, Facebook, or internal social media to support decision making in an online group setting rather than in a face-to-face meeting.
**BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND ANALYTICS CAPABILITIES**
Business intelligence and analytics promise to deliver correct, nearly real-time information to decision makers, and the analytic tools help them quickly
understand the information and take action. There are 5 analytic functionalities that BI systems deliver to achieve these ends:
- **Production reports**: These are predefined reports based on industry-specific requirements (see Table 12-5).
- **Parameterized reports**. Users enter several parameters as in a pivot table to filter data and isolate impacts of parameters. For instance, you might want to enter region and time of day to understand how sales of a product vary by region and time. If you were Starbucks, you might find that customers in the East buy most of their coffee in the morning, whereas in the Northwest customers buy coffee throughout the day. This finding might lead to different marketing and ad campaigns in each region. (See the discussion of pivot tables in Section 12.3).
- **Dashboards/scorecards**: These are visual tools for presenting performance data defined by users.
- **Ad hoc query/search/report creation**: These allow users to create their own reports based on queries and searches.
- **Drill down**: This is the ability to move from a high-level summary to a more detailed view.
- **Forecasts, scenarios, models**: These include the ability to perform linear forecasting, what-if scenario analysis, and analyze data using standard statistical tools.
### Who Uses Business Intelligence and Business Analytics?
In previous chapters, we have described the different information constituencies in business firms—from senior managers to middle managers, analysts, and operational employees. This also holds true for BI and BA systems (see Figure 12-4). Over 80 percent of the audience for BI consists of casual users who rely largely on production reports. Senior executives tend use BI to monitor firm activities using visual interfaces like dashboards and scorecards. Middle managers and analysts are much more likely to be immersed in the data and software, entering queries and slicing and dicing the data along different dimensions.
**FIGURE 12-4 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE USERS**
| Power Users: Producers (20% of employees) | Capabilities |
|------------------------------------------|--------------|
| IT developers | Production Reports |
| Super users | Parameterized Reports |
| Business analysts | Dashboards/Scorecards |
| Analytical modelers | Ad hoc queries; Drill down Search/OLAP |
| | Forecasts; What if Analysis; statistical models |
Casual users are consumers of BI output, while intense power users are the producers of reports, new analyses, models, and forecasts.
dimensions. Operational employees will, along with customers and suppliers, be looking mostly at prepackaged reports.
**Examples of Business Intelligence Applications**
The most widely used output of a BI suite of tools are pre-packaged production reports. Table 12-5 illustrates some common pre-defined reports from Oracle's BI suite of tools.
**Predictive Analytics**
Predictive analytics, which we introduced in Chapter 6, are being built into mainstream applications for everyday decision making by all types of employees, especially in finance and marketing. For example, Capital One conducts more than 30,000 experiments each year using different interest rates, incentives, direct mail packaging, and other variables to identify the best potential customers for targeting its credit card offers. These people are most likely to sign up for credit cards and to pay back Capital One for the balances they ring up in their credit card accounts. Predictive analytics have also worked especially well in the credit card industry to identify customers who are at risk for leaving.
Dealer Services, which offers inventory financing for used-car dealers, is trying to use predictive analytics to screen potential customers. Thousands of used-car dealers, who were formerly franchisees for General Motors and Chrysler, are seeking financing from companies such as Dealer Services so that they can go into business on their own. Using WebFOCUS software from Information Builders, the company is building a model that will predict the best loan prospects and eliminate up to 10 of the 15 hours required to review a financing application. The model reviews data including dealer size and type, number of locations, payment patterns, histories of bounced checks, and inventory practices and is revalidated and updated as conditions change.
FedEx is using SAS Institute’s Enterprise Miner and predictive analytic tools to develop models that predict how customers will respond to price changes and new services, which customers are most at risk of switching to competitors, and how much revenue will be generated by new storefront or drop-box locations. The accuracy rate of the predictive analysis system ranges from 65 to 90 percent. FedEx is now starting to use predictive analytics in call centers to help
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**TABLE 12-5 EXAMPLES OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE PRE-DEFINED PRODUCTION REPORTS**
| BUSINESS FUNCTIONAL AREA | PRODUCTION REPORTS |
|--------------------------|--------------------|
| Sales | Forecast sales; sales team performance; cross selling; sales cycle times |
| Service/Call Center | Customer satisfaction; service cost; resolution rates; churn rates |
| Marketing | Campaign effectiveness; loyalty and attrition; market basket analysis |
| Procurement and Support | Direct and indirect spending; off-contract purchases; supplier performance |
| Supply Chain | Backlog; fulfillment status; order cycle time; bill of materials analysis |
| Financials | General ledger; accounts receivable and payable; cash flow; profitability |
| Human Resources | Employee productivity; compensation; workforce demographics; retention |
customer service representatives identify customers with the highest levels of dissatisfaction and take the necessary steps to make them happy.
**Data Visualization and Geographic Information Systems**
By presenting data in visual form, **data visualization** tools help users see patterns and relationships in large amounts of data that would be difficult to discern if the data were presented as traditional lists of text. For example, managers and employees of Day & Zimmermann, an industrial, defense, and workforce solutions provider, have detailed, real-time visibility into the company’s inventory of contractors and workers through a set of dashboards populated with real-time data from a SAP ERP Human Capital Management system. The dashboards make it much easier to understand the organization’s staffing levels than static paper reports. The real-time data indicate exactly what type of worker is available in what location and when a project is due to be completed. If a project is ahead of schedule, information from the dashboards helps decision makers rapidly determine when and where to reassign its workers.
**Geographic information systems (GIS)** help decision makers visualize problems requiring knowledge about the geographic distribution of people or other resources. Their software ties location data to points, lines, and areas on a map. Some GIS have modeling capabilities for changing the data and automatically revising business scenarios. GIS might be used to help state and local governments calculate response times to natural disasters and other emergencies or to help banks identify the best location for installing new branches or ATM terminals.
For example, Columbia, South Carolina-based First Citizens Bank uses GIS software from MapInfo to determine which markets to focus on for retaining customers and which to focus on for acquiring new customers. MapInfo also lets the bank drill down into details at the individual branch level and individualize
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Somerset County, New Jersey, developed a GIS based on ESRI software to provide Web access to geospatial data about flood conditions. The system provides information that helps emergency responders and county residents prepare for floods and enables emergency managers to make decisions more quickly.
goals for each branch. Each branch is able to see whether the greatest revenue opportunities are from mining their database of existing customers or from finding new customers. With clearer branch segmentation and more focused service goals, the bank has moved from making cold sales calls to calls that are more service- and courtesy-oriented.
**Business Intelligence in the Public Sector**
Business intelligence systems are also used in the public sector. The Interactive Session on Organizations describes a school district’s move to quantify and analyze student performance data to make better decisions about how to allocate resources to enhance student and teacher performance.
**MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING BI AND BA CAPABILITIES**
There are two different strategies for adopting BI and BA capabilities for the organization: one-stop integrated solutions versus multiple best-of-breed vendor solutions. The hardware firms (IBM, HP, and now Oracle, which owns Sun Microsystems) want to sell your firm integrated hardware/software solutions that tend to run only on their hardware (the totally integrated solution). It’s called “one stop shopping.” The software firms (SAP, SAS, and Microsoft) encourage firms to adopt the “best of breed” software and that runs on any machine they want. In this strategy, you adopt the best database and data warehouse solution, and select the best business intelligence and analytics package from whatever vendor you believe is best.
The first solution carries the risk that a single vendor provides your firm’s total hardware and software solution, making your firm dependent on its pricing power. It also offers the advantage of dealing with a single vendor who can deliver on a global scale. The second solution offers greater flexibility and independence, but with the risk of potential difficulties integrating the software to the hardware platform, as well as to other software. Vendors always claim their software is “compatible” with other software, but the reality is that it can be very difficult to integrate software from different vendors. Microsoft in particular emphasizes building on its desktop interface and operating system (Windows), which are familiar to many users, and developing server applications that run on Microsoft local area networks. But data from hardware and software produced by different vendors will have to flow seamlessly into Microsoft workstations to make this strategy work. This may not be adequate for Fortune 500 firms needing a global networking solution.
Regardless of which strategy your firm adopts, all BI and BA systems lock the firm into a set of vendors and switching is very costly. Once you train thousands of employees across the world on using a particular set of tools, it is extremely difficult to switch. When you adopt these systems, you are in essence taking in a new partner.
The marketplace is very competitive and given to hyperbole. One BI vendor claims “[Our tools] bring together a portfolio of services, software, hardware and partner technologies to create business intelligence solutions. By connecting intelligence across your company, you gain a competitive advantage for creating new business opportunities.” As a manager, you will have to critically evaluate such claims, understand exactly how these systems could improve your business, and determine whether the expenditures are worth the benefits.
DATA-DRIVEN SCHOOLS
As more and more reports suggest that American schoolchildren are falling behind those from other countries, improving our schools has become an increasingly urgent mission for the nation. Actually achieving that improvement is a difficult task. One approach gaining sway is more intensive use of information systems to measure educational performance at the individual and school district level and identify problem areas requiring additional resources and intervention.
The 139,000-student Montgomery County public school system in Rockville, Maryland, is at the forefront of the push for data-driven DSS in schools. Forty employees at the school district’s Office of Shared Accountability generate reports on how many students take algebra in middle school or read below grade level. The district’s Edline and M-Stat systems alert principals to individuals with patterns of failing so they can receive extra resources, such as after-school tutoring, study sessions, and special meetings with parents.
Earlier this decade, Montgomery County school superintendent Jerry Weast predicted that the increasing stratification between students in what he called the “green zone” (white and wealthy students) and students in the “red zone” (poor and minority students) would weigh down the school district as a whole. Having exhausted other options, administrators initiated a plan to create a data collection system for test scores, grades, and other data useful for identifying students with problems and speeding up interventions to improve their learning and educational performance.
Principals access and analyze student performance data to help make instructional decisions over the course of the year, as opposed to only when annual standardized test data arrives. This way, teachers can meet the needs of students who require additional instruction or other types of intervention before they fall behind. Test scores, grades, and other data are entered into the system in real time, and can be accessed in real time. In the past, school data were disorganized, and trends in individual student performance as well as overall student body performance were difficult to diagnose.
Kindergarten teachers are now able to monitor their students’ success in reading words, noting which words each student struggles with on a handheld device like a Palm Pilot. The device calculates the accuracy with which the student reads each passage and, over time, provides information about what sorts of problems the student consistently encounters. Also, when students begin to deviate from their normal academic patterns, like getting a rash of poor grades, the system sends alerts to parents and school administrators. In many cases, this quicker response is enough to help the student reverse course before failing.
Many parents in Montgomery County have expressed concern that the new systems are an excessive and unnecessary expenditure. In the short term, President Obama’s stimulus plan provides increased funding to schools over the next two years. Projects like these are likely to become more popular as it becomes clearer that a data-driven approach yields quantifiable results. But will they become the standard in American schools? The long-term sustainability of these systems is still unclear.
In Montgomery County, one of the primary goals of the implementation of data-driven systems was to close the achievement gap between white and minority students in the lower grades. Teachers and administrators would use different types of information organized by the DSS to identify gifted students earlier and challenge them with a more appropriate course load of more advanced placement (AP) classes. Data collected on each child would offer teachers insight into what methods worked best for each individual.
The results are very impressive. In Montgomery, 90 percent of kindergartners were able to read at the level required by standardized testing, with minimal differences among racial and socioeconomic groups. These numbers are up from 52 percent of African-Americans, 42 percent of Latinos, and 44 percent of low-income students just seven years ago. Also, the system has effectively identified students with abilities at an earlier age. The number of African-American students who passed at least one AP test at Montgomery has risen from 199 earlier this decade to 1,152 this year; the number of Latino students went from 218 to 1,336.
Some critics claim that the emphasis on closing the achievement gap between different student populations is shortchanging gifted students and those with disabilities. “Green zone” parents question whether their children are receiving enough attention
and resources with so much emphasis being placed on improving the red zone. Green zone districts in Montgomery County receive $13,000 per student, compared with $15,000 in the red zone. Red zone classes have only 15 students in kindergarten and 17 in the first and second grades, compared with 25 and 26 in the green zone. School administrators counter that the system not only provides appropriate help for underperforming students, but also that it provides the additional challenges that are vital to a gifted child’s development.
Other evidence suggests that the gains in reducing the achievement gap earlier in childhood erode as children get older. Among eighth graders in Montgomery County, approximately 90 percent of white and Asian eighth graders tested proficient or advanced in math on state tests, compared with only half of African-Americans and Hispanics. African-American and Hispanic SAT scores were over 300 points below those of whites and Asians. Still, the data-driven implementation has been responsible for some large improvements over past statistics. Some of the red zone schools have seen the most dramatic improvement in test scores and graduation rates.
In many ways, the data-driven systems build from the wealth of standardized testing information created by the No Child Left Behind Act passed during the Bush presidency. Some parents and educators complain about the amount and frequency of standardized testing, suggesting that children should be spending more time on projects and creative tasks. But viable alternative strategies to foster improvement in struggling school districts are difficult to develop.
It’s not just students that are subject to this data-driven approach. Montgomery County teachers have been enrolled in a similar program that identifies struggling teachers and supplies data to help them improve. In many cases, contracts and tenure make it difficult to dismiss less-effective teachers. To try and solve this problem, teachers unions and administrators have teamed up to develop a peer review program that pairs underperforming teachers with a mentor who provides guidance and support.
After two years, teachers who fail to achieve results appear before a larger panel of teachers and principals that makes a decision regarding their potential termination or extension of another year of peer review. But teachers are rarely terminated in the program—instead, they’re given tangible evidence of things they’re doing well and things they can improve based on data that’s been collected on their day-to-day performance, student achievement rates, and many other metrics.
Not all teachers have embraced the data-driven approach. The Montgomery Education Association, the county’s main teachers’ union, estimates that keeping a “running record” of student results on reading assessments and other testing adds about three to four hours to teachers’ weekly workloads. According to Raymond Myrtle, principal of Highland Elementary in Silver Spring, “this is a lot of hard work. A lot of teachers don’t want to do it. For those who don’t like it we suggested they do something else.” To date, 11 of 33 teachers at Highland have left the district or are teaching at other Montgomery schools.
Sources: www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org, accessed October 15, 2010; www.datadrivenclassroom.com, accessed October 15, 2010; John Hechinger, “Data-Driven Schools See Rising Scores,” *The Wall Street Journal*, June 12, 2009; and Daniel de Vise, “Throwing a Lifeline to Struggling Teachers,” *Washington Post*, June 29, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. Identify and describe the problem discussed in the case.
2. How do business intelligence systems provide a solution to this problem? What are the inputs and outputs of these systems?
3. What management, organization, and technology issues must be addressed by this solution?
4. How successful is this solution? Explain your answer.
5. Should all school districts use such a data-driven approach to education? Why or why not?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Explore the Web site of the Montgomery County, Maryland School District and then answer the following questions:
1. Select one of the district’s elementary, middle, or high schools and describe the data available on that particular school. What kinds of decisions do these data support? How do these data help school officials improve educational performance?
2. Select one of the district’s schools and then the School Survey Results. How do these surveys help decision makers improve educational quality?
12.3 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE CONSTITUENCIES
There are many different constituencies that make up a modern business firm. Earlier in this text and in this chapter we identified three levels of management: lower supervisory (operational) management, middle management, and senior management (vice president and above, including executive or “C level” management, e.g. chief executive officer, chief financial officers, and chief operational officer.) Each of these management groups has different responsibilities and different needs for information and business intelligence, with decisions becoming less structured among higher levels of management (review Figure 12-1).
DECISION SUPPORT FOR OPERATIONAL AND MIDDLE MANAGEMENT
Operational and middle management are generally charged with monitoring the performance of key aspects of the business, ranging from the down-time of machines on a factory floor, to the daily or even hourly sales at franchise food stores, to the daily traffic at a company’s Web site. Most of the decisions they make are fairly structured. Management information systems (MIS) are typically used by middle managers to support this type of decision making, and their primary output is a set of routine production reports based on data extracted and summarized from the firm’s underlying transaction processing systems (TPS). Increasingly, middle managers receive these reports online on the company portal, and are able to interactively query the data to find out why events are happening. To save even more analysis time, managers turn to exception reports, which highlight only exceptional conditions, such as when the sales quotas for a specific territory fall below an anticipated level or employees have exceeded their spending limits in a dental care plan. Table 12-6 provides some examples of MIS applications.
Support for Semistructured Decisions
Some managers are “super users” and keen business analysts who want to create their own reports, and use more sophisticated analytics and models to find patterns in data, to model alternative business scenarios, or to test specific
| COMPANY | MIS APPLICATION |
|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| California Pizza Kitchen | Inventory Express application “remembers” each restaurant’s ordering patterns and compares the amount of ingredients used per menu item to predefined portion measurements established by management. The system identifies restaurants with out-of-line portions and notifies their managers so that corrective actions will be taken. |
| PharMark | Extranet MIS identifies patients with drug-use patterns that place them at risk for adverse outcomes. |
| Black & Veatch | Intranet MIS tracks construction costs for various projects across the United States. |
| Taco Bell | Total Automation of Company Operations (TACO) system provides information on food, labor, and period-to-date costs for each restaurant. |
hypotheses. Decision support systems (DSS) are the BI delivery platform for this category of users, with the ability to support semi-structured decision making.
DSS rely more heavily on modeling than MIS, using mathematical or analytical models to perform what-if or other kinds of analysis. “What-if” analysis, working forward from known or assumed conditions, allows the user to vary certain values to test results to predict outcomes if changes occur in those values. What happens if we raise product prices by 5 percent or increase the advertising budget by $1 million? **Sensitivity analysis** models ask what-if questions repeatedly to predict a range of outcomes when one or more variables are changed multiple times (see Figure 12-5). Backward sensitivity analysis helps decision makers with goal seeking: If I want to sell 1 million product units next year, how much must I reduce the price of the product?
Chapter 6 described multidimensional data analysis and OLAP as one of the key business intelligence technologies. Spreadsheets have a similar feature for multidimensional analysis called a **pivot table**, which managers “super users” and analysts employ to identify and understand patterns in business information that may be useful for semistructured decision making.
Figure 12-6 illustrates a Microsoft Excel pivot table that examines a large list of order transactions for a company selling online management training videos and books. It shows the relationship between two dimensions: the sales region and the source of contact (Web banner ad or e-mail) for each customer order. It answers the question: does the source of the customer make a difference in addition to region? The pivot table in this figure shows that most customers come from the West and that banner advertising produces most of the customers in all the regions.
One of the Hands-on MIS projects for this chapter asks you to use a pivot table to find answers to a number of other questions using the same list of transactions for the online training company as we used in this discussion. The complete Excel file for these transactions is available in MyMISLab. We have also added a Learning Track on creating pivot tables using Excel 2010.
In the past, much of this modeling was done with spreadsheets and small stand-alone databases. Today these capabilities are incorporated into large
**FIGURE 12-5** SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
| Total fixed costs | 19000 |
|------------------|-------|
| Variable cost per unit | 3 |
| Average sales price | 17 |
| Contribution margin | 14 |
| Break-even point | 1357 |
| Sales Price | 1357 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|-------------|------|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 1583 | 1727 | 1900 | 2111 | 2375 |
| 15 | 1462 | 1583 | 1727 | 1900 | 2111 |
| 16 | 1357 | 1462 | 1583 | 1727 | 1900 |
| 17 | 1267 | 1357 | 1462 | 1583 | 1727 |
| 18 | 1188 | 1267 | 1357 | 1462 | 1583 |
This table displays the results of a sensitivity analysis of the effect of changing the sales price of a necktie and the cost per unit on the product’s break-even point. It answers the question, “What happens to the break-even point if the sales price and the cost to make each unit increase or decrease?”
In this pivot table, we are able to examine where an online training company’s customers come from in terms of region and advertising source.
enterprise BI systems where they are able to analyze data from large corporate databases. BI analytics include tools for intensive modeling, some of which we described earlier. Such capabilities help Progressive Insurance identify the best customers for its products. Using widely available insurance industry data, Progressive defines small groups of customers, or “cells,” such as motorcycle riders aged 30 or above with college educations, credit scores over a certain level, and no accidents. For each “cell,” Progressive performs a regression analysis to identify factors most closely correlated with the insurance losses that are typical for this group. It then sets prices for each cell, and uses simulation software to test whether this pricing arrangement will enable the company to make a profit. These analytic techniques, make it possible for Progressive to profitably insure customers in traditionally high-risk categories that other insurers would have rejected.
**DECISION SUPPORT FOR SENIOR MANAGEMENT: BALANCED SCORECARD AND ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT METHODS**
The purpose of executive support systems (ESS), introduced in Chapter 2, is to help C-level executive managers focus on the really important performance information that affect the overall profitability and success of the firm. There are two parts to developing ESS. First, you will need a methodology for understanding exactly what is “the really important performance information” for a specific
firm that executives need, and second, you will need to develop systems capable of delivering this information to the right people in a timely fashion.
Currently, the leading methodology for understanding the really important information needed by a firm’s executives is called the **balanced scorecard method** (Kaplan and Norton, 2004; Kaplan and Norton, 1992). The balanced score card is a framework for operationalizing a firm’s strategic plan by focusing on measurable outcomes on four dimensions of firm performance: financial, business process, customer, and learning and growth (Figure 12-7). Performance on each dimension is measured using **key performance indicators (KPIs)**, which are the measures proposed by senior management for understanding how well the firm is performing along any given dimension. For instance, one key indicator of how well an online retail firm is meeting its customer performance objectives is the average length of time required to deliver a package to a consumer. If your firm is a bank, one KPI of business process performance is the length of time required to perform a basic function like creating a new customer account.
The balanced scorecard framework is thought to be “balanced” because it causes managers to focus on more than just financial performance. In this view, financial performance is past history—the result of past actions—and managers should focus on the things they are able to influence today, such as business process efficiency, customer satisfaction, and employee training. Once a scorecard is developed by consultants and senior executives, the next step is automating a flow of information to executives and other managers for each of the key performance indicators. There are literally hundreds of consulting and
**FIGURE 12-7 THE BALANCED SCORECARD FRAMEWORK**
In the balanced scorecard framework, the firm’s strategic objectives are operationalized along four dimensions: financial, business process, customer, and learning and growth. Each dimension is measured using several KPIs.
software firms that offer these capabilities, which are described below. Once these systems are implemented, they are often referred to as ESS.
Another closely related popular management methodology is **business performance management (BPM)**. Originally defined by an industry group in 2004 (led by the same companies that sell enterprise and database systems like Oracle, SAP, and IBM), BPM attempts to systematically translate a firm’s strategies (e.g., differentiation, low-cost producer, market share growth, and scope of operation) into operational targets. Once the strategies and targets are identified, a set of KPIs are developed that measure progress towards the targets. The firm’s performance is then measured with information drawn from the firm’s enterprise database systems. BPM uses the same ideas as balanced scorecard but with a stronger strategy flavor (BPM Working Group, 2004).
Corporate data for contemporary ESS are supplied by the firm’s existing enterprise applications (enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, and customer relationship management). ESS also provide access to news services, financial market databases, economic information, and whatever other external data senior executives require. ESS also have significant **drill-down** capabilities if managers need more detailed views of data.
Well-designed ESS enhance management effectiveness by helping senior executives monitor organizational performance, track activities of competitors, recognize changing market conditions, and identify problems and opportunities. Immediate access to data increases executives’ ability to monitor activities of lower units reporting to them. That very monitoring ability enables decision making to be decentralized and to take place at lower operating levels, increasing management’s span of control.
Contemporary business intelligence and analytics technology has enabled a whole new style and culture of management called “information driven management” or “management by facts.” Here, information is captured at the factory floor (or sales floor) level, and immediately entered into enterprise systems and databases, and then to corporate headquarters executive dashboards for analysis—not in a matter of months, days, weeks, but in hours and seconds. It’s real time management. You can see real-time management at work in hundreds of corporations in 2010, and many more are building this new decision support environment. Valero provides a good example in the Interactive Session on Management.
**GROUP DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEMS (GDSS)**
The DSS we have just described focus primarily on individual decision making. However, so much work is accomplished in groups within firms that a special category of systems called **group decision-support systems (GDSS)** has been developed to support group and organizational decision making.
A GDSS is an interactive computer-based system for facilitating the solution of unstructured problems by a set of decision makers working together as a group in the same location or in different locations. Collaboration systems and Web-based tools for videoconferencing and electronic meetings described earlier in this text support some group decision processes, but their focus is primarily on communication. GDSS, however, provide tools and technologies geared explicitly toward group decision making.
GDSS-guided meetings take place in conference rooms with special hardware and software tools to facilitate group decision making. The hardware includes computer and networking equipment, overhead projectors, and display screens. Special electronic meeting software collects, documents, ranks, edits,
PILOTING VALERO WITH REAL-TIME MANAGEMENT
If you haven’t heard of Valero, don’t worry. It’s largely unknown to the public although investors recognize it as one of the largest oil refiners in the United States. Valero Energy is a top-fifty Fortune 500 company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, with annual revenues of $70 billion. Valero owns 16 refineries in the United States, Canada, and Aruba that produce gasoline, distillates, jet fuel, asphalt, petrochemicals, and other refined products. The company also owns 10 ethanol plants located in the Midwest with a combined ethanol production capacity of about 1.1 billion gallons per year.
In 2008, Valero’s chief operating officer (COO) called for the development of a Refining Dashboard that would display real-time data related to plant and equipment reliability, inventory management, safety, and energy consumption. Using a series of monitors on the walls of the headquarters operations center room, with a huge central monitor screen showing a live display of the company’s Refining Dashboard, the COO and other plant managers can review the performance of the firm’s 16 major refineries in the United States and Canada.
The COO and his team review the performance of each refinery in terms of how each plant is performing compared to the production plan of the firm. For any deviation from plan, up or down, the plant manager is expected to provide the group an explanation, and a description of corrective actions. The headquarters group can drill down from executive level to refinery level and individual system-operator level displays of performance.
Valero’s Refining Dashboard is available on the Web to plant managers in remote locations. The data are refreshed every five minutes. The dashboard taps directly into the firm’s SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence application where each plant’s history of production and current production data is stored. Valero’s management estimates that the dashboards are saving $230 million per year at the 16 refineries where they are in use.
Valero’s Refining Dashboard has been so successful that the firm is developing separate dashboards that show detailed statistics on power consumption for each unit of the firm, and each plant. Using the shared data, managers will be able to share best practices with one another, and make changes in equipment to reduce energy consumption while maintaining production targets. The dashboard system has the unintended consequence of helping managers learn more about how their company actually operates, and how to improve it.
But how much do Valero’s executive dashboards really make a difference? One of the dangers of real time management is not measuring the right things. Dashboards that display information unrelated to the firm’s strategic goals might be largely irrelevant, although pretty to look at. Valero’s goals and measures of performance were inspired by Solomon benchmark performance studies used in the oil and gas industry. How helpful were they?
Valero’s stock price fell from a high of $80 in June 2008, to about $20 in November 2010. As it turns out, Valero’s profits are not strongly related to small changes in its refining efficiency. Instead, its profitability is largely determined by the spread between the price of refined products and the price of crude oil, referred to as the “refined product margin.” The global economic slowdown beginning in 2008 and extending through 2010 weakened demand for refined petroleum products, which put pressure on refined product margins throughout 2009 and 2010. This reduced demand, combined with increased inventory levels, caused a significant decline in diesel and jet fuel profit margins.
The price of crude and aggregate petroleum demand are largely beyond the control of Valero management. The cost of refining crude varies within a very narrow range over time, and there are no technological breakthroughs expected in refining technology. Although Valero’s dashboard focuses on one of the things management can control within a narrow range (namely refining costs), the dashboard does not display a number of strategic factors beyond its control, which nevertheless powerfully impact company performance. Bottom line: a powerful dashboard system does not turn an unprofitable operation into a profitable one.
Another limitation of real-time management is that it is most appropriate for process industries such as oil refining where the process is relatively unchanging, well known and understood, and central to the revenues of a firm. Dashboard systems say nothing about innovation in products, marketing, sales, or any other area of the firm where innovation is important. Apple Corporation did not invent the
Apple iPhone using a performance dashboard, although it might have such a dashboard today to monitor iPhone manufacturing and sales. Managers have to be sensitive to, and reflect upon, all the factors that shape the success of their business even if they are not reflected in the firm’s dashboards.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What management, organization, and technology issues had to be addressed when developing Valero’s dashboard?
2. What measures of performance do the dashboards display? Give examples of several management decisions that would benefit from the information provided by Valero’s dashboards.
3. What kinds of information systems are required by Valero to maintain and operate its refining dashboard?
4. How effective are Valero’s dashboards in helping management pilot the company? Explain your answer.
5. Should Valero develop a dashboard to measure the many factors in its environment that it does not control? Why or why not?
**MIS IN ACTION**
1. Visit Valero.com and click on its annual report in the Investor Relations section. On page 2 of the annual report you will find Valero’s corporate vision statement. Read its corporate vision statement of strategic objectives (especially vision statement #2). Based on the firm’s vision, what other corporate dashboards might be appropriate for senior management?
2. Read the annual report and develop a list of factors mentioned in the report that explain the company’s poor performance over the last two years. Devise a method for measuring these profitability factors, and then using electronic presentation software create a corporate profitability dashboard for senior managers.
and stores the ideas offered in a decision-making meeting. The more elaborate GDSS use a professional facilitator and support staff. The facilitator selects the software tools and helps organize and run the meeting.
A sophisticated GDSS provides each attendee with a dedicated desktop computer under that person’s individual control. No one will be able to see what individuals do on their computers until those participants are ready to share information. Their input is transmitted over a network to a central server that stores information generated by the meeting and makes it available to all on the meeting network. Data can also be projected on a large screen in the meeting room.
GDSS make it possible to increase meeting size while at the same time increasing productivity because individuals contribute simultaneously rather than one at a time. A GDSS promotes a collaborative atmosphere by guaranteeing contributors’ anonymity so that attendees focus on evaluating the ideas themselves without fear of personally being criticized or of having their ideas rejected based on the contributor. GDSS software tools follow structured methods for organizing and evaluating ideas and for preserving the results of meetings, enabling nonattendees to locate needed information after the meeting. GDSS effectiveness depends on the nature of the problem and the group and on how well a meeting is planned and conducted.
12.4 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience analyzing opportunities for DSS, using a spreadsheet pivot table to analyze sales data, and using online retirement planning tools for financial planning.
Management Decision Problems
1. Applebee’s is the largest casual dining chain in the world, with 1,970 locations throughout the United States and nearly 20 other countries worldwide. The menu features beef, chicken, and pork items, as well as burgers, pasta, and seafood. The Applebee’s CEO wants to make the restaurant more profitable by developing menus that are tastier and contain more items that customers want and are willing to pay for despite rising costs for gasoline and agricultural products. How might information systems help management implement this strategy? What pieces of data would Applebee’s need to collect? What kinds of reports would be useful to help management make decisions on how to improve menus and profitability?
2. During the 1990s, the Canadian Pacific Railway used a tonnage-based operating model in which freight trains ran only when there was sufficient traffic to justify the expense. This model focused on minimizing the total number of freight trains in service and maximizing the size of each train. However, it did not necessarily use crews, locomotives, and equipment efficiently, and it resulted in inconsistent transit times and delivery schedules. Canadian Pacific and other railroads were losing business to trucking firms, which offered more flexible deliveries that could be scheduled at the times most convenient for customers. How could a DSS help Canadian Pacific and other railroads compete with trucking firms more effectively?
Improving Decision Making: Using Pivot Tables to Analyze Sales Data
Software skills: Pivot tables
Business skills: Analyzing sales data
This project gives you an opportunity to learn how to use Excel’s PivotTable functionality to analyze a database or data list.
Use the data list for Online Management Training Inc. (OMT) described earlier in the chapter. This is a list of the sales transactions at OMT for one day. You can find this spreadsheet file MyMISLab.
Use Excel’s PivotTable to help you answer the following questions:
- Where are the average purchases higher? The answer might tell managers where to focus marketing and sales resources, or pitch different messages to different regions.
- What form of payment is the most common? The answer might be used to emphasize in advertising the most preferred means of payment.
- Are there any times of day when purchases are most common? Do people buy products while at work (likely during the day) or at home (likely in the evening)?
- What’s the relationship between region, type of product purchased, and average sales price?
Improving Decision Making: Using a Web-Based DSS for Retirement Planning
Software skills: Internet-based software
Business skills: Financial planning
This project will help develop your skills in using Web-based DSS for financial planning.
The Web sites for CNN Money and MSN Money Magazine feature Web-based DSS for financial planning and decision making. Select either site to plan for retirement. Use your chosen site to determine how much you need to save to have enough income for your retirement. Assume that you are 50 years old and plan to retire in 16 years. You have one dependant and $100,000 in savings. Your current annual income is $85,000. Your goal is to be able to generate an annual retirement income of $60,000, including Social Security benefit payments.
- To calculate your estimated Social Security benefit, search for and use the Quick Calculator at the Social Security Administration Web site.
- Use the Web site you have selected to determine how much money you need to save to help you achieve your retirement goal.
- Critique the site—its ease of use, its clarity, the value of any conclusions reached, and the extent to which the site helps investors understand their financial needs and the financial markets.
Learning Track Module
The following Learning Track provides content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. Building and Using Pivot Tables
Review Summary
1. **What are the different types of decisions and how does the decision-making process work?**
The different levels in an organization (strategic, management, operational) have different decision-making requirements. Decisions can be structured, semistructured, or unstructured, with structured decisions clustering at the operational level of the organization and unstructured decisions at the strategic level. Decision making can be performed by individuals or groups and includes employees as well as operational, middle, and senior managers. There are four stages in decision making: intelligence, design, choice, and implementation. Systems to support decision making do not always produce better manager and employee decisions that improve firm performance because of problems with information quality, management filters, and organizational culture.
2. **How do information systems support the activities of managers and management decision making?**
Early classical models of managerial activities stress the functions of planning, organizing, coordinating, deciding, and controlling. Contemporary research looking at the actual behavior of managers has found that managers' real activities are highly fragmented, variegated, and brief in duration and that managers shy away from making grand, sweeping policy decisions.
Information technology provides new tools for managers to carry out both their traditional and newer roles, enabling them to monitor, plan, and forecast with more precision and speed than ever before and to respond more rapidly to the changing business environment. Information systems have been most helpful to managers by providing support for their roles in disseminating information, providing liaisons between organizational levels, and allocating resources. However, information systems are less successful at supporting unstructured decisions. Where information systems are useful, information quality, management filters, and organizational culture can degrade decision-making.
3. **How do business intelligence and business analytics support decision making?**
Business intelligence and analytics promise to deliver correct, nearly real-time information to decision makers, and the analytic tools help them quickly understand the information and take action. A business intelligence environment consists of data from the business environment, the BI infrastructure, a BA toolset, managerial users and methods, a BI delivery platform (MIS, DSS, or ESS), and the user interface. There are six analytic functionalities that BI systems deliver to achieve these ends: pre-defined production reports, parameterized reports, dashboards and scorecards, ad hoc queries and searches, the ability to drill down to detailed views of data, and the ability to model scenarios and create forecasts.
4. **How do different decision-making constituencies in an organization use business intelligence?**
Operational and middle management are generally charged with monitoring the performance of their firm. Most of the decisions they make are fairly structured. Management information systems (MIS) producing routine production reports are typically used to support this type of decision making. For making unstructured decisions, middle managers and analysts will use decision-support systems (DSS) with powerful analytics and modeling tools, including spreadsheets and pivot tables. Senior executives making unstructured decisions use dashboards and visual interfaces displaying key performance information affecting the overall profitability, success, and strategy of the firm. The balanced scorecard and business performance management are two methodologies used in designing executive support systems (ESS).
5. **What is the role of information systems in helping people working in a group make decisions more efficiently?**
Group decision-support systems (GDSS) help people working together in a group arrive at decisions more efficiently. GDSS feature special conference room facilities where participants contribute their ideas using networked computers and software tools for organizing ideas, gathering information, making and setting priorities, and documenting meeting sessions.
**Key Terms**
- Balanced scorecard method, 474
- Behavioral models, 458
- Business performance management (BPM), 475
- Choice, 458
- Classical model of management, 458
- Data visualization, 467
- Decisional role, 459
- Design, 458
- Drill down, 475
- Geographic information systems (GIS), 467
- Group decision-support systems (GDSS), 475
- Implementation, 458
- Informational role, 459
- Intelligence, 458
- Interpersonal role, 459
- Key performance indicators (KPIs), 474
- Managerial roles, 454
- Pivot table, 472
- Sensitivity analysis, 472
- Semistructured decisions, 456
- Structured decisions, 456
- Unstructured decisions, 456
Review Questions
1. What are the different types of decisions and how does the decision-making process work?
- List and describe the different levels of decision making and decision-making constituencies in organizations. Explain how their decision-making requirements differ.
- Distinguish between an unstructured, semistructured, and structured decision.
- List and describe the stages in decision making.
2. How do information systems support the activities of managers and management decision making?
- Compare the descriptions of managerial behavior in the classical and behavioral models.
- Identify the specific managerial roles that can be supported by information systems.
3. How do business intelligence and business analytics support decision making?
- Define and describe business intelligence and business analytics.
- List and describe the elements of a business intelligence environment.
- List and describe the analytic functionalities provided by BI systems.
- Compare two different management strategies for developing BI and BA capabilities.
4. How do different decision-making constituencies in an organization use business intelligence?
- List each of the major decision-making constituencies in an organization and describe the types of decisions each makes.
- Describe how MIS, DSS, or ESS provide decision support for each of these groups.
- Define and describe the balanced scorecard method and business performance management.
5. What is the role of information systems in helping people working in a group make decisions more efficiently?
- Define a group decision-support system (GDSS) and explain how it differs from a DSS.
- Explain how a GDSS works and how it provides value for a business.
Discussion Questions
1. As a manager or user of information systems, what would you need to know to participate in the design and use of a DSS or an ESS? Why?
2. If businesses used DSS, GDSS, and ESS more widely, would managers and employees make better decisions? Why or why not?
3. How much can business intelligence and business analytics help companies refine their business strategy? Explain your answer.
Video Cases
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Designing a University GDSS
With three or four of your classmates, identify several groups in your university that might benefit from a GDSS. Design a GDSS for one of those groups, describing its hardware, software, and people elements. If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
CompStat (short for COMPuter STATistics or COMParative STATistics) originated in the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in 1994 when William Bratton was police commissioner. CompStat is a comprehensive, city-wide database that records all reported crimes or complaints, arrests, and summonses issued in each of the city’s 76 precincts. City officials had previously believed that crime could not be prevented by better information and analytical tools but instead by using more foot patrols in neighborhoods along with the concept of “community policing” in which efforts were made to strengthen the involvement of community groups. In contrast, Bratton and Rudy Giuliani, then the mayor of New York City, believed that police could be more effective in reducing crime if operational decisions took place at the precinct level and if decision makers had better information. Precinct commanders were in a better position than police headquarters to understand the specific needs of the communities they served and to direct the work of the 200 to 400 police officers they managed. CompStat gave precinct commanders more authority and responsibility, but also more accountability.
At weekly meetings, representatives from each of the NYPD’s precincts, service areas, and transit districts are put on the “hot seat” at police headquarters and required to provide a statistical summary of the week’s crime complaint, arrest, and summons activity, as well as significant cases, crime patterns, and police activities. Commanders must explain what has been done to reduce crime in the districts under their command, and if crime has gone up, they must explain why. Commanders are held directly accountable for reducing crime in their area of command. In the past, they were evaluated primarily on the basis of their administrative skills, such as staying within budget and deploying resources efficiently.
The data these commanders provide, including specific times and locations of crimes and enforcement activities, are forwarded to the NYPD’s CompStat Unit where they are loaded into a city-wide database. The system analyzes the data and produces a weekly CompStat report on crime complaint and arrest activity at the precinct, patrol borough, and city wide levels. The data are summarized by week, prior 30 days, and year-to-date for comparison with the previous year’s activity and for establishing trends. The CompStat Unit also issues weekly commander profile reports to measure the performance of precinct commanders.
The weekly commander profile reports include information on the commander’s date of appointment, years in rank, education and specialized training, most recent performance evaluation rating, the units that person previously commanded, the amount of overtime generated by police under that commander, absence rates, community demographics, and civilian complaints.
Using MapInfo geographic information system (GIS) software, the CompStat data can be displayed on maps showing crime and arrest locations, crime “hot spots,” and other relevant information. Comparative charts, tables, and graphs can also be projected simultaneously. These visual presentations help precinct commanders and members of the NYPD’s executive staff to quickly identify patterns and trends. Depending on the intelligence gleaned from the system, police chiefs and captains develop a targeted strategy for fighting crime, such as dispatching more foot patrols to high-crime neighborhoods, or issuing warnings to the public when a particular model of vehicle is susceptible to theft.
During Bratton’s 27-month tenure, serious crime in New York dropped by 25 percent and homicides went down by 44 percent. Crime in New York City has dropped by 69 percent in the last 12 years. Skeptics do not believe that CompStat was responsible for these results. They point to the decline in the number of young, poor men, an improved economy, programs that reduced welfare rolls while giving poor people access to better housing, increasing the size of the NYC police force, and giving precinct commanders more decision-making responsibility and accountability.
Nevertheless, Bratton, convinced that CompStat was the catalyst for New York’s drop in crime, implemented the system in Los Angeles to further prove its worth. Since the introduction of CompStat, combined violent and property crimes in Los Angeles dropped for six consecutive years. Yet the ratio of police officers to residents is only half that of New York and Chicago. CompStat has
also been adopted in Philadelphia, Austin, San Francisco, Baltimore, and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Skeptics point out that crime has fallen in all urban areas in the United States since 1990 regardless of whether the cities used CompStat. In fact, a critical study of CompStat by the Police Foundation found that CompStat encouraged police to be only reactive rather than pro-active in fighting crime. Sending police to where crime has become a problem is, in other words, too late. CompStat encouraged what the Police Foundation called “whack-a-mole” theory of policing, similar to the game played in amusement parks. Rather than change police departments into nimble crime fighters, the Foundation found that a database had been attached to traditional organizations, which themselves remained unchanged.
Because of the emphasis placed on reducing crime and because of the newfound importance of crime statistics to officers’ careers, CompStat has created pressure on some precinct commanders to manipulate crime statistics to produce favorable results. Officers must continue to improve their crime statistics, despite shrinking budgets and dwindling numbers of officers. A study conducted in 2009 via a questionnaire given to 1,200 retired police captains and more senior officers concluded that nearly a third of respondents were aware of unethical manipulation of crime data.
More than 100 survey respondents said that intense pressure to produce annual crime reductions led some supervisors and precinct commanders to manipulate crime statistics. For example, officers were known to check catalogs, eBay, and other sites for items similar to those reported stolen, looking for lower prices they could use to reduce the values of the stolen goods for record-keeping purposes. Grand larceny, a felony, is considered to be theft of goods valued at $1,000 or more, whereas theft of goods valued at less than $1,000 is only a misdemeanor. Using this method, precincts could reduce the number of felony thefts, considered an “index crime” and tracked by CompStat. Surveys and anecdotal evidence also indicated a lack of receptiveness on the part of police in some areas, possibly motivated by a desire to reduce the number of crime incidents reported.
Some survey respondents stated that precinct commanders or aides dispatched to crime scenes sometimes tried to persuade victims not to file complaints or urged them to change their accounts of what happened in ways that could downgrade offenses to lesser crimes.
Previous studies of CompStat encountered an unwillingness by the NYPD to disclose their data reporting methods. A professor performing a study that ultimately praised CompStat’s influence on crime in New York City was given full access to NYPD crime data, but the NYPD did not cooperate with the Commission to Combat Police Corruption (CCPC), an independent board that monitors police corruption. The commission sought subpoena power to demand the NYPD turn over its data and data collection procedures to uncover potential wrong doing by the police. Unfortunately, the commission was denied access to this data after strong police department opposition.
On the other hand, versions of CompStat have been adopted by hundreds of other police departments across the United States, and the CompStat approach has been credited with improving police work in many cities. In New York City itself, much of the public believes that crime is down, and that the city has become a safer and more pleasant place to live.
Sources: William K. Rashbaum, “Retired Officers Raise Questions on Crime Data,” *The New York Times*, February 6, 2010; A.G. Sulzberger and Karen Zraick, “Forget Police Data, New Yorkers Rely on Own Eyes,” *The New York Times*, February 7, 2010; Luis Garicano, “How Does Information Technology Help Police Reduce Crime?” TNIT Newsletter 3 (December, 2009); and New York City Police Department, “COMPSTAT Process,” www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html, accessed October 9, 2006.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What management, organization, and technology factors make CompStat effective?
2. Can police departments effectively combat crime without the CompStat system? Is community policing incompatible with CompStat? Explain your answer.
3. Why would officers misreport certain data to CompStat? What should be done about the misreporting of data? How can it be detected?
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Part Four focuses on building and managing systems in organizations. This part answers questions such as: What activities are required to build a new information system? What alternative approaches are available for building system solutions? How should information systems projects be managed to ensure that new systems provide genuine business benefits and work successfully in the organization? What issues must be addressed when building and managing global systems?
Chapter 13
Building Information Systems
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. How does building new systems produce organizational change?
2. What are the core activities in the systems development process?
3. What are the principal methodologies for modeling and designing systems?
4. What are the alternative methods for building information systems?
5. What are new approaches for system building in the digital firm era?
Interactive Sessions:
Can Business Process Management Make a Difference?
Zimbra Zooms Ahead with OneView
CHAPTER OUTLINE
13.1 SYSTEMS AS PLANNED ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Systems Development and Organizational Change
Business Process Redesign
13.2 OVERVIEW OF SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
Systems Analysis
Systems Design
Completing the Systems Development Process
Modeling and Designing Systems: Structured and Object-Oriented Methodologies
13.3 ALTERNATIVE SYSTEMS-BUILDING APPROACHES
Traditional Systems Life Cycle
Prototyping
End-User Development
Application Software Packages and Outsourcing
13.4 APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT FOR THE DIGITAL FIRM
Rapid Application Development (RAD)
Component-Based Development and Web Services
13.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Improving Decision Making: Using Database Software to Design a Customer System for Auto Sales
Achieving Operational Excellence: Redesigning Business Processes for Web Procurement
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
Unified Modeling Language (UML)
A Primer on Business Process Design and Documentation
A Primer on Business Process Management
CIMB Group, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, is Malaysia’s second largest financial services provider and the third largest company on the Malaysian stock exchange. It offers a full range of financial products and services, including consumer banking, corporate and investment banking, insurance, and asset management, and its retail banking network of over 1,100 branches is the largest in Southeast Asia.
What’s wrong with this? Not much, except management wants to do even better. The company launched a five-year information technology transformation initiative in January 2008 to align its information technology investments more closely with its resources. It used the ARIS business process management (BPM) tool from IDS Scheer to identify 25 different areas for improving technology, people, and processes. The ARIS software helped identify gaps and inefficiencies in existing processes.
The process of opening an account at a retail branch was singled out as needing improvement. Improving this process was given high priority because it provided customers with their first impression of CIMB Group’s service and customer experience.
The old account-opening process was cumbersome and time-consuming, requiring filling out four separate data entry screens for customer information, account details, name and address details, and details concerning the automated teller machine (ATM) card. New technology created opportunities for a short-cut. Malaysia has a compulsory identity card for its citizens and permanent residents known as the Government Multipurpose Card, or MyKad. It is the world’s first smart identity card, incorporating a microchip with identification data (such as name, address, gender, and religion) and capabilities for user authentication, government services, electronic payments, education, loyalty programs, mobile applications, and other conveniences.
CIMB Group’s systems-building team modified the front end of the customer account system to reduce the number of data entry screens and to accept customer data obtained from scanning a MyKad card. By automatically extracting most of the identification data required to open an account from a MyKad card, CIMB only needs to use a single data entry screen to set up a new account. CIMB Group was thus able to streamline the account-opening process, reducing the time required to open a bank account by 56 percent. The experience became more personal and engaging for both the bank officer and the customer. Productivity has increased, lowering CIMB Group’s cost by 8 to 9 percent annually.
Sources: Avanti Kumar, “Reaching for the Skies,” MIS Asia, April 16, 2010; www.ids-scheer.com, accessed October 5, 2010; and www.cimb.com, accessed October 5, 2010.
The experience of CIMB Group illustrates some of the steps required to design and build new information systems. Building the new system entailed analyzing the organization’s problems with existing information systems, assessing people’s information requirements, selecting appropriate technology, and redesigning business processes and jobs. Management had to monitor the system-building effort and evaluate its benefits and costs. The new information system represented a process of planned organizational change.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. CIMB Group’s process for setting up a new account was excessively manual and inefficient, dragging down business operations and raising costs. It also detracted from the brand image the company wanted to project as a company with high-quality customer service. Management had an opportunity to use information technology and the information stored in MyKad smart cards to streamline and redesign this process.
CIMB’s system-building team evaluated alternative system solutions. It selected a solution that replaces the process of entering customer and account data manually into a series of four data entry screens with one that obtains most of the same data by swiping a MyKad smart card. This solution did not replace CIMB’s existing banking system entirely, but enhanced it with a more efficient and streamlined user interface. These enhancements improved business operations by reducing the amount of time to open a new account with CIMB Group and making the customer experience more pleasant.
13.1 Systems as Planned Organizational Change
Building a new information system is one kind of planned organizational change. The introduction of a new information system involves much more than new hardware and software. It also includes changes in jobs, skills, management, and organization. When we design a new information system, we are redesigning the organization. System builders must understand how a system will affect specific business processes and the organization as a whole.
Systems Development and Organizational Change
Information technology can promote various degrees of organizational change, ranging from incremental to far-reaching. Figure 13-1 shows four kinds of structural organizational change that are enabled by information technology: (1) automation, (2) rationalization, (3) business process redesign, and (4) paradigm shifts. Each carries different risks and rewards.
The most common form of IT-enabled organizational change is **automation**. The first applications of information technology involved assisting employees with performing their tasks more efficiently and effectively. Calculating paychecks and payroll registers, giving bank tellers instant access to customer deposit records, and developing a nationwide reservation network for airline ticket agents are all examples of early automation.
**Figure 13-1** Organizational Change Carries Risks and Rewards
The most common forms of organizational change are automation and rationalization. These relatively slow-moving and slow-changing strategies present modest returns but little risk. Faster and more comprehensive change—such as redesign and paradigm shifts—carries high rewards but offers substantial chances of failure.
A deeper form of organizational change—one that follows quickly from early automation—is **rationalization of procedures**. Automation frequently reveals new bottlenecks in production and makes the existing arrangement of procedures and structures painfully cumbersome. Rationalization of procedures is the streamlining of standard operating procedures. For example, CIMB Bank’s system for handling retail banking accounts is effective not only because it uses computer technology but also because the company simplified the business process for opening a customer account. CIMB streamlined its workflow to take advantage of the system’s new user interface and software for importing personal data from MyKad.
Rationalization of procedures is often found in programs for making a series of continuous quality improvements in products, services, and operations, such as total quality management (TQM) and six sigma. **Total quality management (TQM)** makes achieving quality an end in itself and the responsibility of all people and functions within an organization. TQM derives from concepts developed by American quality experts such as W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran, but it was popularized by the Japanese. **Six sigma** is a specific measure of quality, representing 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Most companies cannot achieve this level of quality, but use six sigma as a goal for driving ongoing quality improvement programs.
A more powerful type of organizational change is **business process redesign**, in which business processes are analyzed, simplified, and redesigned. Business process redesign reorganizes workflows, combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive tasks. (Sometimes the new design eliminates jobs as well.) It is much more ambitious than rationalization of procedures, requiring a new vision of how the process is to be organized.
A widely cited example of business process redesign is Ford Motor Company’s invoiceless processing, which reduced headcount in Ford’s North American Accounts Payable organization of 500 people by 75 percent. Accounts payable clerks used to spend most of their time resolving discrepancies between purchase orders, receiving documents, and invoices. Ford redesigned its accounts payable process so that the purchasing department enters a purchase order into an online database that can be checked by the receiving department when the ordered items arrive. If the received goods match the purchase order, the system automatically generates a check for accounts payable to send to the vendor. There is no need for vendors to send invoices.
Rationalizing procedures and redesigning business processes are limited to specific parts of a business. New information systems can ultimately affect the design of the entire organization by transforming how the organization carries out its business or even the nature of the business. For instance, the long-haul trucking and transportation firm Schneider National used new information systems to change its business model. Schneider created a new business managing logistics for other companies. This more radical form of business change is called a **paradigm shift**. A paradigm shift involves rethinking the nature of the business and the nature of the organization.
Paradigm shifts and reengineering often fail because extensive organizational change is so difficult to orchestrate (see Chapter 14). Why, then, do so many corporations contemplate such radical change? Because the rewards are equally high (see Figure 13-1). In many instances, firms seeking paradigm shifts and pursuing reengineering strategies achieve stunning, order-of-magnitude increases in their returns on investment (or productivity). Some of these success stories, and some failure stories, are included throughout this book.
BUSINESS PROCESS REDESIGN
Like CIMB Group, described in the chapter-opening case, many businesses today are trying to use information technology to improve their business processes. Some of these systems entail incremental process change, but others require more far-reaching redesign of business processes. To deal with these changes, organizations are turning to business process management. **Business process management** provides a variety of tools and methodologies to analyze existing processes, design new processes, and optimize those processes. BPM is never concluded because process improvement requires continual change. Companies practicing business process management go through the following steps:
1. **Identify processes for change:** One of the most important strategic decisions that a firm can make is not deciding how to use computers to improve business processes, but understanding what business processes need improvement. When systems are used to strengthen the wrong business model or business processes, the business can become more efficient at doing what it should not do. As a result, the firm becomes vulnerable to competitors who may have discovered the right business model. Considerable time and cost may also be spent improving business processes that have little impact on overall firm performance and revenue. Managers need to determine what business processes are the most important and how improving these processes will help business performance.
2. **Analyze existing processes:** Existing business processes should be modeled and documented, noting inputs, outputs, resources, and the sequence of activities. The process design team identifies redundant steps, paper-intensive tasks, bottlenecks, and other inefficiencies.
Figure 13-2 illustrates the “as-is” process for purchasing a book from a physical bookstore. Consider what happens when a customer visits a physical book-
**FIGURE 13-2 AS-IS BUSINESS PROCESS FOR PURCHASING A BOOK FROM A PHYSICAL BOOKSTORE**
Purchasing a book from a physical bookstore requires many steps to be performed by both the seller and the customer.
store and searches its shelves for a book. If he or she finds the book, that person takes it to the checkout counter and pays for it via credit card, cash, or check. If the customer is unable to locate the book, he or she must ask a bookstore clerk to search the shelves or check the bookstore’s inventory records to see if it is in stock. If the clerk finds the book, the customer purchases it and leaves. If the book is not available locally, the clerk inquires about ordering it for the customer, from the bookstore’s warehouse or from the book’s distributor or publisher. Once the ordered book arrives at the bookstore, a bookstore employee telephones the customer with this information. The customer would have to go to the bookstore again to pick up the book and pay for it. If the bookstore is unable to order the book for the customer, the customer would have to try another bookstore. You can see that this process has many steps and might require the customer to make multiple trips to the bookstore.
3. **Design the new process:** Once the existing process is mapped and measured in terms of time and cost, the process design team will try to improve the process by designing a new one. A new streamlined “to-be” process will be documented and modeled for comparison with the old process.
Figure 13-3 illustrates how the book-purchasing process can be redesigned by taking advantage of the Internet. The customer accesses an online bookstore over the Internet from his or her computer. He or she searches the bookstore’s online catalog for the book he or she wants. If the book is available, the customer orders the book online, supplying credit card and shipping address information, and the book is delivered to the customer’s home. If the online bookstore does not carry the book, the customer selects another online bookstore and searches for the book again. This process has far fewer steps than that for purchasing the book in a physical bookstore, requires much less effort on the part of the customer, and requires less sales staff for customer service. The new process is therefore much more efficient and time-saving.
The new process design needs to be justified by showing how much it reduces time and cost or enhances customer service and value. Management first measures the time and cost of the existing process as a baseline. In our example, the time required for purchasing a book from a physical bookstore might range from 15 minutes (if the customer immediately finds what he or she wants) to 30 minutes if the book is in stock but has to be located by sales staff.
**FIGURE 13-3** REDESIGNED PROCESS FOR PURCHASING A BOOK ONLINE
Using Internet technology makes it possible to redesign the process for purchasing a book so that it requires fewer steps and consumes fewer resources.
If the book has to be ordered from another source, the process might take one or two weeks and another trip to the bookstore for the customer. If the customer lives far away from the bookstore, the time to travel to the bookstore would have to be factored in. The bookstore will have to pay the costs for maintaining a physical store and keeping the book in stock, for sales staff on site, and for shipment costs if the book has to be obtained from another location.
The new process for purchasing a book online might only take several minutes, although the customer might have to wait several days or a week to receive the book in the mail and will have to pay a shipping charge. But the customer saves time and money by not having to travel to the bookstore or make additional visits to pick up the book. Booksellers’ costs are lower because they do not have to pay for a physical store location or for local inventory.
4. **Implement the new process:** Once the new process has been thoroughly modeled and analyzed, it must be translated into a new set of procedures and work rules. New information systems or enhancements to existing systems may have to be implemented to support the redesigned process. The new process and supporting systems are rolled out into the business organization. As the business starts using this process, problems are uncovered and addressed. Employees working with the process may recommend improvements.
5. **Continuous measurement:** Once a process has been implemented and optimized, it needs to be continually measured. Why? Processes may deteriorate over time as employees fall back on old methods, or they may lose their effectiveness if the business experiences other changes.
Although many business process improvements are incremental and ongoing, there are occasions when more radical change must take place. Our example of a physical bookstore redesigning the book-purchasing process so that it can be carried out online is an example of this type of radical, far-reaching change. When properly implemented, business process redesign produces dramatic gains in productivity and efficiency, and may even change the way the business is run. In some instances, it drives a “paradigm shift” that transforms the nature of the business itself.
This actually happened in book retailing when Amazon challenged traditional physical bookstores with its online retail model. By radically rethinking the way a book can be purchased and sold, Amazon and other online bookstores have achieved remarkable efficiencies, cost reductions, and a whole new way of doing business.
BPM poses challenges. Executives report that the largest single barrier to successful business process change is organizational culture. Employees do not like unfamiliar routines and often try to resist change. This is especially true of projects where organizational changes are very ambitious and far-reaching. Managing change is neither simple nor intuitive, and companies committed to extensive process improvement need a good change management strategy (see Chapter 14).
**Tools for Business Process Management**
Over 100 software firms provide tools for various aspects of BPM, including IBM, Oracle, and TIBCO. These tools help businesses identify and document processes requiring improvement, create models of improved processes, capture and enforce business rules for performing processes, and integrate existing systems to support new or redesigned processes. BPM software tools also provide analytics for verifying that process performance has been
improved and for measuring the impact of process changes on key business performance indicators.
Some BPM tools document and monitor business processes to help firms identify inefficiencies, using software to connect with each of the systems a company uses for a particular process to identify trouble spots. Canadian mutual fund company AIC used Sajus BPM monitoring software to check inconsistencies in its process for updating accounts after each client transaction. Sajus specializes in “goal-based” process management, which focuses on finding the causes of organizational problems through process monitoring before applying tools to address those problems.
Another category of tools automate some parts of a business process and enforce business rules so that employees perform that process more consistently and efficiently.
For example, American National Insurance Company (ANCO), which offers life insurance, medical insurance, property casualty insurance, and investment services, used Pegasystems BPM workflow software to streamline customer service processes across four business groups. The software built rules to guide customer service representatives through a single view of a customer’s information that was maintained in multiple systems. By eliminating the need to juggle multiple applications simultaneously to handle customer and agent requests, the improved process increased customer service representative workload capacity by 192 percent.
A third category of tools helps businesses integrate their existing systems to support process improvements. They automatically manage processes across the business, extract data from various sources and databases, and generate transactions in multiple related systems. For example, the Star Alliance of 15 airlines, including United and Lufthansa, used BPM to create common processes shared by all of its members by integrating their existing systems. One project created a new service for frequent fliers on member airlines by consolidating 90 separate business processes across nine airlines and 27 legacy systems. The BPM software documented how each airline processed frequent flier information to help airline managers model a new business process that showed how to share data among the various systems.
The Interactive Session on Organizations describes how several companies used similar tools for their business process management programs. As you read this case, think about the kinds of changes the companies using these BPM tools were able to make in the way they ran their businesses.
### 13.2 Overview of Systems Development
New information systems are an outgrowth of a process of organizational problem solving. A new information system is built as a solution to some type of problem or set of problems the organization perceives it is facing. The problem may be one in which managers and employees realize that the organization is not performing as well as expected, or that the organization should take advantage of new opportunities to perform more successfully.
The activities that go into producing an information system solution to an organizational problem or opportunity are called **systems development**. Systems development is a structured kind of problem solved with distinct activities. These activities consist of systems analysis, systems design, programming, testing, conversion, and production and maintenance.
If you’re a large successful company, business process management might be just what you’re looking for. AmerisourceBergen and Diebold Inc. are two examples. AmerisourceBergen is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical services companies and a member of the Fortune 25, with $70 billion in revenue in 2009. It provides drug distribution and related services designed to reduce costs and improve patient outcomes, servicing both pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare providers.
Because it is so large, AmerisourceBergen has numerous and complicated relationships with manufacturers, pharmacies, and hospitals. Frequently changing business conditions cause contract prices to fluctuate. When they do, both the distributor and manufacturer need to analyze these changes and make sure they comply with their business rules and federal regulations. Managing these contract and pricing details associated with each of these relationships had been very time-consuming and paper-intensive, relying heavily on e-mail, telephone, fax, and postal mail. Many of these processes were redundant.
AmerisourceBergen’s management believed the company had many old and inefficient business processes. After an extensive BPM vendor analysis, the company selected Metastorm BPM software. Metastorm BPM provides a complete set of tools for analyzing, managing, and redesigning business processes. Business professionals, managers, and information systems specialists are able to create rich graphical models of business processes as well as new user interfaces and business rules. Metastorm has an engine for deploying redesigned processes along with capabilities for integrating the processes it manages with external systems.
For its first BPM project, AmerisourceBergen decided to automate and implement an online collaborative contract and chargeback process, which is responsible for a $10 billion annual cash flow. This process drives the establishment of pricing and terms with each of the company’s manufacturers and also controls compliance with pricing terms and the payment of rebates from the manufacturer if the company is forced to sell at a lower price to compete. Any disputes or inaccurate pricing data create costly delays in obtaining the refunds the company is owed.
Metasource BPM makes it possible for all contract changes to be recorded into the system and validated against internal business rules, and also enables AmerisourceBergen to link with its trading partners for collaborative BPM. All contract information is housed in a single repository, making it much easier to investigate chargebacks and communicate contract and pricing information with trading partners and among internal departments.
The BPM project was successful and resulted in lower headcount, fewer disputes, more accurate pricing information, and a high return on investment. This early success encouraged the company to expand BPM to other areas of the business and use it to support a broader business transformation program. AmerisourceBergen used Metastorm BPM to create six new specialized processes for managing and automating high-volume, highly specialized supplier credits which interface with its SAP enterprise system.
To meet federal and industry-specific regulations, AmerisourceBergen must carefully track and match all direct, indirect, and third-party credits with the appropriate product inflows and outflows. The company used Metastorm BPM to create specialized processes that interface with SAP, including the ability to receive, track, reconcile, and expedite all credit variances, such as discrepancies in invoices and purchase orders. After the SAP system identifies the variances, it passes credits to Metastorm BPM for exception handling, resolution, and reconciliation with master credit data. Reconciled credits are then returned to the SAP system. More than 1.2 million credit/debit adjustment documents and paper-based credits are seamlessly passed between Metastorm and SAP this way.
To date, AmerisourceBergen has automated nearly 300 processes, benefiting from more efficient and accurate record tracking, faster turnaround times, greater management into key performance indicators, and an online audit trail of all activities. AmerisourceBergen’s BPM projects had such positive outcomes that the company won a Global Excellence in BPM and Workflow award in 2009.
Diebold, Inc. is another recent convert to business process management. Diebold is a global leader in integrated self-service delivery and security systems
and services, with 17,000 associates across 90 countries. The company makes, installs, and services ATMs, vaults, currency-processing systems, and other security equipment used in financial, retail, and government markets. Diebold hoped to use business process management to understand and improve its order fulfillment process. The company selected Progress Savvion’s BusinessManager BPM solution for this task.
BusinessManager provides a platform for defining an organization’s business processes and deploying those processes as Web-accessible applications. The platform gives managers real-time visibility to monitor, analyze, control, and improve the execution of those processes and can integrate these processes with existing operational systems. BusinessManager receives and organizes data from multiple sources to provide a more complete view of the Diebold order process. Diebold managers are able to track orders in real time at any step in the process and also predict future performance based on past data. Since the tool enables managers to learn how long each step of the process usually takes, they can forecast where orders ought to be and compare that with where the system says the orders actually are. BusinessManager can detect whether production of an item is complete and where specific items are located.
Pleased with these capabilities, Diebold immediately used BusinessManager for other processes, such as issue resolution. The system aggregates input from various sources, such as workers in the field and in factories. Diebold is now able to quickly identify issues raised by employees and customers and determine how long it takes to resolve them.
Sources: Judith Lamont, “BPM, Enterprisewide and Beyond,” KMWorld, February 1, 2010; “Customer Success Story: AmerisourceBergen,” www.metastorm.com, accessed November 4, 2010; and www.progress.com, accessed November 4, 2010.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Why are large companies such as AmerisourceBergen and Diebold good candidates for business process management?
2. What were the business benefits for each company from redesigning and managing their business processes?
3. How did BPM change the way these companies ran their businesses?
4. What might be some of the problems with extending BPM software across a large number of business processes?
5. What companies stand to gain the most by implementing BPM?
MIS IN ACTION
Search online for “BPM software provider” or “enterprise-wide BPM” and visit the Web site of a major BPM vendor not mentioned in this case. Then answer the following questions:
1. What types of companies have benefited from this software?
2. What are some of the important functionalities of the BPM products offered?
3. Would this company have been a better fit than Savvion or Metastorm for Diebold or AmerisourceBergen, respectively? Why or why not?
Figure 13-4 illustrates the systems development process. The systems development activities depicted usually take place in sequential order. But some of the activities may need to be repeated or some may take place simultaneously, depending on the approach to system building that is being employed (see Section 13.4).
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
Systems analysis is the analysis of a problem that a firm tries to solve with an information system. It consists of defining the problem, identifying its causes,
Building a system can be broken down into six core activities.
specifying the solution, and identifying the information requirements that must be met by a system solution.
The systems analyst creates a road map of the existing organization and systems, identifying the primary owners and users of data along with existing hardware and software. The systems analyst then details the problems of existing systems. By examining documents, work papers, and procedures; observing system operations; and interviewing key users of the systems, the analyst can identify the problem areas and objectives a solution would achieve. Often the solution requires building a new information system or improving an existing one.
The systems analysis also includes a feasibility study to determine whether that solution is feasible, or achievable, from a financial, technical, and organizational standpoint. The feasibility study determines whether the proposed system is expected to be a good investment, whether the technology needed for the system is available and can be handled by the firm's information systems specialists, and whether the organization can handle the changes introduced by the system.
Normally, the systems analysis process identifies several alternative solutions that the organization can pursue and assess the feasibility of each. A written systems proposal report describes the costs and benefits, and the advantages and disadvantages, of each alternative. It is up to management to determine which mix of costs, benefits, technical features, and organizational impacts represents the most desirable alternative.
**Establishing Information Requirements**
Perhaps the most challenging task of the systems analyst is to define the specific information requirements that must be met by the chosen system solution. At the most basic level, the information requirements of a new system involve identifying who needs what information, where, when, and how. Requirements analysis carefully defines the objectives of the new or modified system and develops a detailed description of the functions that the new system must perform. Faulty requirements analysis is a leading cause of systems failure and high systems development costs (see Chapter 14). A system
designed around the wrong set of requirements will either have to be discarded because of poor performance or will need to undergo major modifications. Section 13.3 describes alternative approaches to eliciting requirements that help minimize this problem.
Some problems do not require an information system solution but instead need an adjustment in management, additional training, or refinement of existing organizational procedures. If the problem is information related, systems analysis still may be required to diagnose the problem and arrive at the proper solution.
**SYSTEMS DESIGN**
Systems analysis describes what a system should do to meet information requirements, and **systems design** shows how the system will fulfill this objective. The design of an information system is the overall plan or model for that system. Like the blueprint of a building or house, it consists of all the specifications that give the system its form and structure.
The systems designer details the system specifications that will deliver the functions identified during systems analysis. These specifications should address all of the managerial, organizational, and technological components of the system solution. Table 13-1 lists the types of specifications that would be produced during systems design.
Like houses or buildings, information systems may have many possible designs. Each design represents a unique blend of all technical and organizational components. What makes one design superior to others is the ease and efficiency with which it fulfills user requirements within a specific set of technical, organizational, financial, and time constraints.
**TABLE 13-1 DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS**
| OUTPUT | PROCESSING | DOCUMENTATION |
|-------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| Medium | Computations | Operations documentation |
| Content | Program modules | Systems documentation |
| Timing | Required reports | User documentation |
| | Timing of outputs | |
| INPUT | MANUAL PROCEDURES | CONVERSION |
|-------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| Origins | What activities | Transfer files |
| Flow | Who performs them | Initiate new procedures |
| Data entry | When | Select testing method |
| | How | Cut over to new system |
| | Where | |
| USER INTERFACE | CONTROLS | TRAINING |
|-------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| Simplicity | Input controls (characters, limit, reasonableness) | Select training techniques |
| Efficiency | Processing controls (consistency, record counts)| Develop training modules |
| Logic | Output controls (totals, samples of output) | Identify training facilities |
| Feedback | Procedural controls (passwords, special forms) | |
| Errors | | |
| DATABASE DESIGN | SECURITY | ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES |
|-------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| Logical data model | Access controls | Task redesign |
| Volume and speed | Catastrophe plans | Job design |
| requirements | Audit trails | Process design |
| File organization and | | Organization structure design |
| design | | Reporting relationships |
| Record specifications | | |
The Role of End Users
User information requirements drive the entire system-building effort. Users must have sufficient control over the design process to ensure that the system reflects their business priorities and information needs, not the biases of the technical staff. Working on design increases users' understanding and acceptance of the system. As we describe in Chapter 14, insufficient user involvement in the design effort is a major cause of system failure. However, some systems require more user participation in design than others, and Section 13.3 shows how alternative systems development methods address the user participation issue.
COMPLETING THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
The remaining steps in the systems development process translate the solution specifications established during systems analysis and design into a fully operational information system. These concluding steps consist of programming, testing, conversion, production, and maintenance.
Programming
During the programming stage, system specifications that were prepared during the design stage are translated into software program code. Today, many organizations no longer do their own programming for new systems. Instead, they purchase the software that meets the requirements for a new system from external sources such as software packages from a commercial software vendor, software services from an application service provider, or outsourcing firms that develop custom application software for their clients (see Section 13.3).
Testing
Exhaustive and thorough testing must be conducted to ascertain whether the system produces the right results. Testing answers the question, "Will the system produce the desired results under known conditions?" As Chapter 5 noted, some companies are starting to use cloud computing services for this work.
The amount of time needed to answer this question has been traditionally underrated in systems project planning (see Chapter 14). Testing is time-consuming: Test data must be carefully prepared, results reviewed, and corrections made in the system. In some instances, parts of the system may have to be redesigned. The risks resulting from glossing over this step are enormous.
Testing an information system can be broken down into three types of activities: unit testing, system testing, and acceptance testing. Unit testing, or program testing, consists of testing each program separately in the system. It is widely believed that the purpose of such testing is to guarantee that programs are error-free, but this goal is realistically impossible. Testing should be viewed instead as a means of locating errors in programs, focusing on finding all the ways to make a program fail. Once they are pinpointed, problems can be corrected.
System testing tests the functioning of the information system as a whole. It tries to determine whether discrete modules will function together as planned and whether discrepancies exist between the way the system actually works and the way it was conceived. Among the areas examined are performance time, capacity for file storage and handling peak loads, recovery and restart capabilities, and manual procedures.
Acceptance testing provides the final certification that the system is ready to be used in a production setting. Systems tests are evaluated by users and
reviewed by management. When all parties are satisfied that the new system meets their standards, the system is formally accepted for installation.
The systems development team works with users to devise a systematic test plan. The **test plan** includes all of the preparations for the series of tests we have just described.
Figure 13-5 shows an example of a test plan. The general condition being tested is a record change. The documentation consists of a series of test plan screens maintained on a database (perhaps a PC database) that is ideally suited to this kind of application.
**Conversion** is the process of changing from the old system to the new system. Four main conversion strategies can be employed: the parallel strategy, the direct cutover strategy, the pilot study strategy, and the phased approach strategy.
In a **parallel strategy**, both the old system and its potential replacement are run together for a time until everyone is assured that the new one functions correctly. This is the safest conversion approach because, in the event of errors or processing disruptions, the old system can still be used as a backup. However, this approach is very expensive, and additional staff or resources may be required to run the extra system.
The **direct cutover strategy** replaces the old system entirely with the new system on an appointed day. It is a very risky approach that can potentially be more costly than running two systems in parallel if serious problems with the new system are found. There is no other system to fall back on. Dislocations, disruptions, and the cost of corrections may be enormous.
The **pilot study strategy** introduces the new system to only a limited area of the organization, such as a single department or operating unit. When this pilot version is complete and working smoothly, it is installed throughout the rest of the organization, either simultaneously or in stages.
The **phased approach strategy** introduces the new system in stages, either by functions or by organizational units. If, for example, the system is
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**FIGURE 13-5 A SAMPLE TEST PLAN TO TEST A RECORD CHANGE**
| Procedure | Address and Maintenance "Record Change Series" | Test Series 2 |
|-----------|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|
| Prepared By: | Date: | Version: |
| Test Ref. | Condition Tested | Special Requirements | Expected Results | Output On | Next Screen |
| 2.0 | Change records | | Not allowed | | |
| 2.1 | Change existing record | Key field | | | |
| 2.2 | Change nonexistent record | Other fields | “Invalid key” message | | |
| 2.3 | Change deleted record | Deleted record must be available | “Deleted” message | | |
| 2.4 | Make second record | Change 2.1 above | OK if valid | Transaction file | V45 |
| 2.5 | Insert record | | OK if valid | Transaction file | V45 |
| 2.6 | Abort during change | Abort 2.5 | No change | Transaction file | V45 |
When developing a test plan, it is imperative to include the various conditions to be tested, the requirements for each condition tested, and the expected results. Test plans require input from both end users and information systems specialists.
introduced by function, a new payroll system might begin with hourly workers who are paid weekly, followed six months later by adding salaried employees (who are paid monthly) to the system. If the system is introduced by organizational unit, corporate headquarters might be converted first, followed by outlying operating units four months later.
Moving from an old system to a new one requires that end users be trained to use the new system. Detailed documentation showing how the system works from both a technical and end-user standpoint is finalized during conversion time for use in training and everyday operations. Lack of proper training and documentation contributes to system failure, so this portion of the systems development process is very important.
**Production and Maintenance**
After the new system is installed and conversion is complete, the system is said to be in **production**. During this stage, the system will be reviewed by both users and technical specialists to determine how well it has met its original objectives and to decide whether any revisions or modifications are in order. In some instances, a formal **postimplementation audit** document is prepared. After the system has been fine-tuned, it must be maintained while it is in production to correct errors, meet requirements, or improve processing efficiency. Changes in hardware, software, documentation, or procedures to a production system to correct errors, meet new requirements, or improve processing efficiency are termed **maintenance**.
Approximately 20 percent of the time devoted to maintenance is used for debugging or correcting emergency production problems. Another 20 percent is concerned with changes in data, files, reports, hardware, or system software. But 60 percent of all maintenance work consists of making user enhancements, improving documentation, and recoding system components for greater processing efficiency. The amount of work in the third category of maintenance problems could be reduced significantly through better systems analysis and design practices. Table 13-2 summarizes the systems development activities.
**TABLE 13-2 SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT**
| CORE ACTIVITY | DESCRIPTION |
|------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Systems analysis | Identify problem(s) |
| | Specify solutions |
| | Establish information requirements |
| Systems design | Create design specifications |
| Programming | Translate design specifications into program code |
| Testing | Perform unit testing |
| | Perform systems testing |
| | Perform testing |
| Conversion | Plan conversion |
| | Prepare documentation |
| | Train users and technical staff |
| Production and maintenance | Operate the system |
| | Evaluate the system |
| | Modify the system |
MODELING AND DESIGNING SYSTEMS: STRUCTURED AND OBJECT-ORIENTED METHODOLOGIES
There are alternative methodologies for modeling and designing systems. Structured methodologies and object-oriented development are the most prominent.
Structured Methodologies
Structured methodologies have been used to document, analyze, and design information systems since the 1970s. **Structured** refers to the fact that the techniques are step by step, with each step building on the previous one. Structured methodologies are top-down, progressing from the highest, most abstract level to the lowest level of detail—from the general to the specific.
Structured development methods are process-oriented, focusing primarily on modeling the processes, or actions that capture, store, manipulate, and distribute data as the data flow through a system. These methods separate data from processes. A separate programming procedure must be written every time someone wants to take an action on a particular piece of data. The procedures act on data that the program passes to them.
The primary tool for representing a system’s component processes and the flow of data between them is the **data flow diagram (DFD)**. The data flow diagram offers a logical graphic model of information flow, partitioning a system into modules that show manageable levels of detail. It rigorously specifies the processes or transformations that occur within each module and the interfaces that exist between them.
Figure 13-6 shows a simple data flow diagram for a mail-in university course registration system. The rounded boxes represent processes, which portray the
---
**FIGURE 13-6 DATA FLOW DIAGRAM FOR MAIL-IN UNIVERSITY REGISTRATION SYSTEM**
The system has three processes: Verify availability (1.0), Enroll student (2.0), and Confirm registration (3.0). The name and content of each of the data flows appear adjacent to each arrow. There is one external entity in this system: the student. There are two data stores: the student master file and the course file.
transformation of data. The square box represents an external entity, which is an originator or receiver of information located outside the boundaries of the system being modeled. The open rectangles represent data stores, which are either manual or automated inventories of data. The arrows represent data flows, which show the movement between processes, external entities, and data stores. They contain packets of data with the name or content of each data flow listed beside the arrow.
This data flow diagram shows that students submit registration forms with their name, identification number, and the numbers of the courses they wish to take. In process 1.0, the system verifies that each course selected is still open by referencing the university's course file. The file distinguishes courses that are open from those that have been canceled or filled. Process 1.0 then determines which of the student's selections can be accepted or rejected. Process 2.0 enrolls the student in the courses for which he or she has been accepted. It updates the university's course file with the student's name and identification number and recalculates the class size. If maximum enrollment has been reached, the course number is flagged as closed. Process 2.0 also updates the university's student master file with information about new students or changes in address. Process 3.0 then sends each student applicant a confirmation-of-registration letter listing the courses for which he or she is registered and noting the course selections that could not be fulfilled.
The diagrams can be used to depict higher-level processes as well as lower-level details. Through leveled data flow diagrams, a complex process can be broken down into successive levels of detail. An entire system can be divided into subsystems with a high-level data flow diagram. Each subsystem, in turn, can be divided into additional subsystems with second-level data flow diagrams, and the lower-level subsystems can be broken down again until the lowest level of detail has been reached.
Another tool for structured analysis is a data dictionary, which contains information about individual pieces of data and data groupings within a system (see Chapter 6). The data dictionary defines the contents of data flows and data stores so that systems builders understand exactly what pieces of data they contain. **Process specifications** describe the transformation occurring within the lowest level of the data flow diagrams. They express the logic for each process.
In structured methodology, software design is modeled using hierarchical structure charts. The **structure chart** is a top-down chart, showing each level of design, its relationship to other levels, and its place in the overall design structure. The design first considers the main function of a program or system, then breaks this function into subfunctions, and decomposes each subfunction until the lowest level of detail has been reached. Figure 13-7 shows a high-level structure chart for a payroll system. If a design has too many levels to fit onto one structure chart, it can be broken down further on more detailed structure charts. A structure chart may document one program, one system (a set of programs), or part of one program.
**Object-Oriented Development**
Structured methods are useful for modeling processes, but do not handle the modeling of data well. They also treat data and processes as logically separate entities, whereas in the real world such separation seems unnatural. Different modeling conventions are used for analysis (the data flow diagram) and for design (the structure chart).
Object-oriented development addresses these issues. Object-oriented development uses the object as the basic unit of systems analysis and design. An object combines data and the specific processes that operate on those data. Data encapsulated in an object can be accessed and modified only by the operations, or methods, associated with that object. Instead of passing data to procedures, programs send a message for an object to perform an operation that is already embedded in it. The system is modeled as a collection of objects and the relationships among them. Because processing logic resides within objects rather than in separate software programs, objects must collaborate with each other to make the system work.
Object-oriented modeling is based on the concepts of class and inheritance. Objects belonging to a certain class, or general categories of similar objects, have the features of that class. Classes of objects in turn can inherit all the structure and behaviors of a more general class and then add variables and behaviors unique to each object. New classes of objects are created by choosing an existing class and specifying how the new class differs from the existing class, instead of starting from scratch each time.
We can see how class and inheritance work in Figure 13-8, which illustrates the relationships among classes concerning employees and how they are paid. Employee is the common ancestor, or superclass, for the other three classes. Salaried, Hourly, and Temporary are subclasses of Employee. The class name is in the top compartment, the attributes for each class are in the middle portion of each box, and the list of operations is in the bottom portion of each box. The features that are shared by all employees (id, name, address, date hired, position, and pay) are stored in the Employee superclass, whereas each subclass stores features that are specific to that particular type of employee. Specific to hourly employees, for example, are their hourly rates and overtime rates. A solid line from the subclass to the superclass is a generalization path showing that the subclasses Salaried, Hourly, and Temporary have common features that can be generalized into the superclass Employee.
Object-oriented development is more iterative and incremental than traditional structured development. During analysis, systems builders document the functional requirements of the system, specifying its most important properties and what the proposed system must do. Interactions between the system and its users are analyzed to identify objects, which include both data and processes. The object-oriented design phase describes how the objects will
This figure illustrates how classes inherit the common features of their superclass.
behave and how they will interact with one other. Similar objects are grouped together to form a class, and classes are grouped into hierarchies in which a subclass inherits the attributes and methods from its superclass.
The information system is implemented by translating the design into program code, reusing classes that are already available in a library of reusable software objects and adding new ones created during the object-oriented design phase. Implementation may also involve the creation of an object-oriented database. The resulting system must be thoroughly tested and evaluated.
Because objects are reusable, object-oriented development could potentially reduce the time and cost of writing software because organizations can reuse software objects that have already been created as building blocks for other applications. New systems can be created by using some existing objects, changing others, and adding a few new objects. Object-oriented frameworks have been developed to provide reusable, semicomplete applications that the organization can further customize into finished applications.
**Computer-Aided Software Engineering**
*Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)—sometimes called computer-aided systems engineering—provides software tools to automate the methodologies we have just described to reduce the amount of repetitive work the developer needs to do.* CASE tools also facilitate the creation of clear documentation and the coordination of team development efforts. Team members can share their work easily by accessing each other's files to review or modify what has been done. Modest productivity benefits can also be achieved if the tools are used properly.
CASE tools provide automated graphics facilities for producing charts and diagrams, screen and report generators, data dictionaries, extensive reporting facilities, analysis and checking tools, code generators, and documentation generators. In general, CASE tools try to increase productivity and quality by:
• Enforcing a standard development methodology and design discipline
• Improving communication between users and technical specialists
• Organizing and correlating design components and providing rapid access to them using a design repository
• Automating tedious and error-prone portions of analysis and design
• Automating code generation and testing and control rollout
CASE tools contain features for validating design diagrams and specifications. CASE tools thus support iterative design by automating revisions and changes and providing prototyping facilities. A CASE information repository stores all the information defined by the analysts during the project. The repository includes data flow diagrams, structure charts, entity-relationship diagrams, data definitions, process specifications, screen and report formats, notes and comments, and test results.
To be used effectively, CASE tools require organizational discipline. Every member of a development project must adhere to a common set of naming conventions and standards as well as to a development methodology. The best CASE tools enforce common methods and standards, which may discourage their use in situations where organizational discipline is lacking.
13.3 ALTERNATIVE SYSTEMS-BUILDING APPROACHES
Systems differ in terms of their size and technological complexity and in terms of the organizational problems they are meant to solve. A number of systems-building approaches have been developed to deal with these differences. This section describes these alternative methods: the traditional systems life cycle, prototyping, application software packages, end-user development, and outsourcing.
TRADITIONAL SYSTEMS LIFE CYCLE
The **systems life cycle** is the oldest method for building information systems. The life cycle methodology is a phased approach to building a system, dividing systems development into formal stages. Systems development specialists have different opinions on how to partition the systems-building stages, but they roughly correspond to the stages of systems development that we have just described.
The systems life cycle methodology maintains a very formal division of labor between end users and information systems specialists. Technical specialists, such as system analysts and programmers, are responsible for much of the systems analysis, design, and implementation work; end users are limited to providing information requirements and reviewing the technical staff’s work. The life cycle also emphasizes formal specifications and paperwork, so many documents are generated during the course of a systems project.
The systems life cycle is still used for building large complex systems that require a rigorous and formal requirements analysis, predefined specifications, and tight controls over the system-building process. However, the systems life cycle approach can be costly, time-consuming, and inflexible. Although systems builders can go back and forth among stages in the life cycle, the systems life cycle is predominantly a “waterfall” approach.
in which tasks in one stage are completed before work for the next stage begins. Activities can be repeated, but volumes of new documents must be generated and steps retraced if requirements and specifications need to be revised. This encourages freezing of specifications relatively early in the development process. The life cycle approach is also not suitable for many small desktop systems, which tend to be less structured and more individualized.
**PROTOTYPING**
*Prototyping* consists of building an experimental system rapidly and inexpensively for end users to evaluate. By interacting with the prototype, users can get a better idea of their information requirements. The prototype endorsed by the users can be used as a template to create the final system.
The *prototype* is a working version of an information system or part of the system, but it is meant to be only a preliminary model. Once operational, the prototype will be further refined until it conforms precisely to users' requirements. Once the design has been finalized, the prototype can be converted to a polished production system.
The process of building a preliminary design, trying it out, refining it, and trying again has been called an *iterative* process of systems development because the steps required to build a system can be repeated over and over again. Prototyping is more explicitly iterative than the conventional life cycle, and it actively promotes system design changes. It has been said that prototyping replaces unplanned rework with planned iteration, with each version more accurately reflecting users' requirements.
**Steps in Prototyping**
Figure 13-9 shows a four-step model of the prototyping process, which consists of the following:
*Step 1:* Identify the user's basic requirements. The system designer (usually an information systems specialist) works with the user only long enough to capture the user's basic information needs.
*Step 2:* Develop an initial prototype. The system designer creates a working prototype quickly, using tools for rapidly generating software.
*Step 3:* Use the prototype. The user is encouraged to work with the system to determine how well the prototype meets his or her needs and to make suggestions for improving the prototype.
*Step 4:* Revise and enhance the prototype. The system builder notes all changes the user requests and refines the prototype accordingly. After the prototype has been revised, the cycle returns to Step 3. Steps 3 and 4 are repeated until the user is satisfied.
When no more iterations are required, the approved prototype then becomes an operational prototype that furnishes the final specifications for the application. Sometimes the prototype is adopted as the production version of the system.
**Advantages and Disadvantages of Prototyping**
Prototyping is most useful when there is some uncertainty about requirements or design solutions and often used for designing an information system's *end-user interface* (the part of the system with which end users interact, such as online display and data entry screens, reports, or Web pages). Because prototyping encourages intense end-user involvement throughout the systems
The process of developing a prototype can be broken down into four steps. Because a prototype can be developed quickly and inexpensively, systems builders can go through several iterations, repeating steps 3 and 4, to refine and enhance the prototype before arriving at the final operational one.
However, rapid prototyping can gloss over essential steps in systems development. If the completed prototype works reasonably well, management may not see the need for reprogramming, redesign, or full documentation and testing to build a polished production system. Some of these hastily constructed systems may not easily accommodate large quantities of data or a large number of users in a production environment.
**END-USER DEVELOPMENT**
Some types of information systems can be developed by end users with little or no formal assistance from technical specialists. This phenomenon is called **end-user development**. A series of software tools categorized as fourth-generation languages makes this possible. **Fourth-generation languages** are software tools that enable end users to create reports or develop software applications with minimal or no technical assistance. Some of these fourth-generation tools also enhance professional programmers' productivity.
Fourth-generation languages tend to be nonprocedural, or less procedural, than conventional programming languages. Procedural languages require specification of the sequence of steps, or procedures, that tell the computer what to do and how to do it. Nonprocedural languages need only specify what has to be accomplished rather than provide details about how to carry out the task.
Table 13-3 shows that there are seven categories of fourth-generation languages: PC software tools, query languages, report generators, graphics languages, application generators, application software packages, and very high-level programming languages. The table shows the tools ordered in terms of ease of use by nonprogramming end users. End users are most likely to work with PC software tools and query languages. **Query languages** are software tools that provide immediate online answers to requests for information that are not predefined, such as “Who are the highest-performing sales representatives?” Query languages are often tied to data management software and to database management systems (see Chapter 6).
On the whole, end-user-developed systems can be completed more rapidly than those developed through the conventional systems life cycle. Allowing users to specify their own business needs improves requirements gathering and often leads to a higher level of user involvement and satisfaction with the system. However, fourth-generation tools still cannot replace conventional tools for some business applications because they cannot easily handle the processing of large numbers of transactions or applications with extensive procedural logic and updating requirements.
### TABLE 13-3 CATEGORIES OF FOURTH-GENERATION LANGUAGES
| FOURTH-GENERATION TOOL | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLE |
|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------|
| PC software tools | General-purpose application software packages for PCs. | WordPerfect |
| | | Microsoft Access |
| Query language | Languages for retrieving data stored in databases or files. Capable of | SQL |
| | supporting requests for information that are not predefined. | |
| Report generator | Extract data from files or databases to create customized reports in a wide | Crystal Reports |
| | range of formats not routinely produced by an information system. Generally | |
| | provide more control over the way data are formatted, organized, and | |
| | displayed than query languages. | |
| Graphics language | Retrieve data from files or databases and display them in graphic format. | SAS/GRAPH |
| | Some graphics software can perform arithmetic or logical operations on data | Systat |
| | as well. | |
| Application generator | Contain preprogrammed modules that can generate entire applications, | WebFOCUS |
| | including Web sites, greatly speeding development. A user can specify what | QuickBase |
| | needs to be done, and the application generator will create the appropriate | |
| | program code for input, validation, update, processing, and reporting. | |
| Application software package | Software programs sold or leased by commercial vendors that eliminate the | Oracle PeopleSoft HCM |
| | need for custom-written, in-house software. | mySAP ERP |
| Very high-level programming language | Generate program code with fewer instructions than conventional languages, | APL |
| | such as COBOL or FORTRAN. Designed primarily as productivity tools for | Nomad2 |
| | professional programmers. | |
End-user computing also poses organizational risks because it occurs outside of traditional mechanisms for information systems management and control. When systems are created rapidly, without a formal development methodology, testing and documentation may be inadequate. Control over data can be lost in systems outside the traditional information systems department. To help organizations maximize the benefits of end-user applications development, management should control the development of end-user applications by requiring cost justification of end-user information system projects and by establishing hardware, software, and quality standards for user-developed applications.
**APPLICATION SOFTWARE PACKAGES AND OUTSOURCING**
Chapter 5 points out that much of today's software is not developed in-house but is purchased from external sources. Firms can rent the software from a software service provider, they can purchase a software package from a commercial vendor, or they can have a custom application developed by an outside outsourcing firm.
**Application Software Packages**
During the past several decades, many systems have been built on an application software package foundation. Many applications are common to all business organizations—for example, payroll, accounts receivable, general ledger, or inventory control. For such universal functions with standard processes that do not change a great deal over time, a generalized system will fulfill the requirements of many organizations.
If a software package can fulfill most of an organization's requirements, the company does not have to write its own software. The company can save time and money by using the prewritten, predesigned, pretested software programs from the package. Package vendors supply much of the ongoing maintenance and support for the system, including enhancements to keep the system in line with ongoing technical and business developments.
If an organization has unique requirements that the package does not address, many packages include capabilities for customization. **Customization** features allow a software package to be modified to meet an organization's unique requirements without destroying the integrity of the packaged software. If a great deal of customization is required, additional programming and customization work may become so expensive and time-consuming that they negate many of the advantages of software packages.
When a system is developed using an application software package, systems analysis will include a package evaluation effort. The most important evaluation criteria are the functions provided by the package, flexibility, user friendliness, hardware and software resources, database requirements, installation and maintenance efforts, documentation, vendor quality, and cost. The package evaluation process often is based on a **Request for Proposal (RFP)**, which is a detailed list of questions submitted to packaged-software vendors.
When a software package is selected, the organization no longer has total control over the system design process. Instead of tailoring the system design specifications directly to user requirements, the design effort will consist of trying to mold user requirements to conform to the features of the package. If the organization's requirements conflict with the way the package works and the
package cannot be customized, the organization will have to adapt to the package and change its procedures.
The Interactive Session on Technology describes the experience of Zimbra, a software company that selected a software package solution for its new marketing automation system. As you read this case, be aware of the management, technology, and organization issues that had to be addressed when the company selected a new software package solution.
**Outsourcing**
If a firm does not want to use its internal resources to build or operate information systems, it can outsource the work to an external organization that specializes in providing these services. Cloud computing and SaaS providers, which we described in Chapter 5, are one form of outsourcing. Subscribing companies would use the software and computer hardware provided by the service as the technical platform for their systems. In another form of outsourcing, a company could hire an external vendor to design and create the software for its system, but that company would operate the system on its own computers. The outsourcing vendor might be domestic or in another country.
Domestic outsourcing is driven primarily by the fact that outsourcing firms possess skills, resources, and assets that their clients do not have. Installing a new supply chain management system in a very large company might require hiring an additional 30 to 50 people with specific expertise in supply chain management software, licensed from a vendor. Rather than hire permanent new employees, most of whom would need extensive training in the software package, and then release them after the new system is built, it makes more sense, and is often less expensive, to outsource this work for a 12-month period.
In the case of **offshore outsourcing**, the decision tends to be much more cost-driven. A skilled programmer in India or Russia earns about USD $9,000 per year, compared to $65,000 per year for a comparable programmer in the United States. The Internet and low-cost communications technology have drastically reduced the expense and difficulty of coordinating the work of global teams in faraway locations. In addition to cost savings, many offshore outsourcing firms offer world-class technology assets and skills. Wage inflation outside the United States has recently eroded some of these advantages, and some jobs have moved back to the United States.
Nevertheless, there is a very strong chance that at some point in your career, you’ll be working with offshore outsourcers or global teams. Your firm is most likely to benefit from outsourcing if it takes the time to evaluate all the risks and to make sure outsourcing is appropriate for its particular needs. Any company that outsources its applications must thoroughly understand the project, including its requirements, method of implementation, anticipated benefits, cost components, and metrics for measuring performance.
Many firms underestimate costs for identifying and evaluating vendors of information technology services, for transitioning to a new vendor, for improving internal software development methods to match those of outsourcing vendors, and for monitoring vendors to make sure they are fulfilling their contractual obligations. Companies will need to allocate resources for documenting requirements, sending out RFPs, travel expenses, negotiating contracts, and project management. Experts claim it takes from three months to a full year to fully transfer work to an offshore partner and make sure the vendor thoroughly understands your business.
ZIMBRA ZOOMS AHEAD WITH ONEVIEW
Zimbra is a software company whose flagship product is its Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS), an open source messaging and communications software package, that relies heavily on Ajax to provide a variety of business functions. Purchased by Yahoo in 2007, the company now has accumulated 50 million paid mailboxes. In addition to e-mail, ZCS combines contact lists, a shared calendar, instant messaging, hosted documents, search, and VoIP into one package, and can be used from any mobile Web browser.
As an open source software company, Zimbra uses viral marketing models, word-of-mouth marketing, and open standards to grow its business. Customers are free to criticize Zimbra and ZCS as they are to praise the company and its flagship offering. For the most part, this strategy has proven very successful for the company thus far.
Zimbra makes sales via its Web site and offers both free and commercial versions. Zimbra’s business model hinges on driving large numbers of visitors to its Web site, allowing them to try the most basic version of the software for free, and then persuading them to purchase one of its more full-featured commercial versions. Zimbra has over 200,000 visitors to its Web site each week.
Zimbra’s sales process begins when one of these 200,000 weekly visitors downloads a 60-day trial version. Salespeople try to identify which people using the trial version are most likely to upgrade to one of its commercial versions and then contact them via e-mail and telephone to try to close the sale. To make this work, Zimbra’s sales team needs to be able to weed out the interested buyers from its huge volume of Web visitors. As Greg Armanini, Zimbra’s director of marketing, pointed out, the sales team will be overwhelmed with a large number of unqualified leads unless sales and marketing automation tools are able to focus sales reps only on the leads that will generate revenue.
Zimbra uses its Web site to track visitor activity and tie it to sales lead information in its Salesforce.com customer relationship management (CRM) system. Identifying sales prospects that visit the Web site regularly and alerting sales reps when those prospects are visiting the site helps the sales team select which prospects to contact by telephone and when to call them.
Zimbra initially used marketing automation software from Eloqua, which had a large number of features but was too complicated for both marketing and sales staff to use. For example, the Eloqua system required salespeople to code conditional logic for any data field containing data they wanted to collect. Though doable, this task was a poor use of Zimbra’s sales staff time. Eloqua only worked with the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser, while two-thirds of Zimbra’s sales department used Mozilla Firefox. And Eloqua was expensive. Zimbra could only afford its entry-level package, which provided access to only five salespeople and one marketing person.
Zimbra did not need many of Eloqua’s features, but it did need a more streamlined solution that focused on the core areas of its marketing strategy: lead generation, e-mail marketing, and Web analytics. The new marketing automation system had to be easy to install and maintain. Many available options required several well-trained administrators, and Zimbra could not afford to allocate even one employee for this purpose.
After examining several software products, Zimbra chose OneView, an on-demand marketing automation solution from LoopFuse, a Georgia-based software company that specializes in sales and marketing automation. OneView was more highly targeted than the Eloqua software. Not only that, but much of OneView consists of automated processes that allowed Zimbra to quickly implement the solution and to maintain it without dedicating someone to the task full-time. The core functions of OneView include Web site visitor tracking, automated marketing program communication, customer activity alerts, and CRM integration.
Zimbra was also pleased with LoopFuse’s convenient pricing options, including its “unlimited seating” and “pay-per-use” options, which allowed Zimbra to pay for only the services it needed for as many users as it required. Because of these options, Zimbra was able to deploy LoopFuse across almost its entire 30-person sales force.
Other benefits of OneView include easy integration with Salesforce.com, Zimbra’s preferred CRM solution, simplified reporting processes, and the ability to manage a larger number of leads thanks to having more salespeople and time to devote to
demand generation. OneView works with multiple Web browsers, including Firefox. The old solution offered so many ways to handle and organize data that generating data reports could take a long time. With OneView’s simplified reporting processes, the sales staff can generate reports in a fraction of the time.
Has OneView improved Zimbra’s bottom line? OneView reduced the amount of time Zimbra spent using and maintaining its marketing system by 50 percent. Zimbra reports that since changing vendors, it has witnessed a jump in its close rate on qualified sales leads from 10 to 15 percent, a huge increase. The answer appears to be a resounding “yes.”
Sources: Jessica Tsai, “Less is More,” Customer Relationship Management, August 2009, www.destinationCRM.com; and “LoopFuse OneView helps Zimbra Raise Sales and Marketing Efficiency by 50 Percent,” www.loopfuse.com, May 2009.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Describe the steps in Zimbra’s sales process. How well did its old marketing automation system support that process? What problems did it create? What was the business impact of these problems?
2. List and describe Zimbra’s requirements for a new marketing software package. If you were preparing the RFP for Zimbra’s new system, what questions would you ask?
3. How did the new marketing system change the way Zimbra ran its business? How successful was it?
MIS IN ACTION
Visit the LoopFuse Web site and then answer the following questions:
1. List and describe each of the major features of LoopFuse OneView.
2. Select two of these features and describe how they would help Zimbra’s sales team.
Outsourcing offshore incurs additional costs for coping with cultural differences that drain productivity and dealing with human resources issues, such as terminating or relocating domestic employees. All of these hidden costs undercut some of the anticipated benefits from outsourcing. Firms should be especially cautious when using an outsourcer to develop or to operate applications that give it some type of competitive advantage.
Figure 13-10 shows best- and worst-case scenarios for the total cost of an offshore outsourcing project. It shows how much hidden costs affect the total project cost. The best case reflects the lowest estimates for additional costs, and the worst case reflects the highest estimates for these costs. As you can see, hidden costs increase the total cost of an offshore outsourcing project by an extra 15 to 57 percent. Even with these extra costs, many firms will benefit from offshore outsourcing if they manage the work well. Under the worst-case scenario, a firm would still save about 15 percent.
13.4 APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT FOR THE DIGITAL FIRM
In the digital firm environment, organizations need to be able to add, change, and retire their technology capabilities very rapidly to respond to new opportuIf a firm spends $10 million on offshore outsourcing contracts, that company will actually spend 15.2 percent in extra costs even under the best-case scenario. In the worst-case scenario, where there is a dramatic drop in productivity along with exceptionally high transition and layoff costs, a firm can expect to pay up to 57 percent in extra costs on top of the $10 million outlay for an offshore contract.
**RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT (RAD)**
Object-oriented software tools, reusable software, prototyping, and fourth-generation language tools are helping systems builders create working systems much more rapidly than they could using traditional systems-building methods and software tools. The term **rapid application development (RAD)** is used to describe this process of creating workable systems in a very short period of time. RAD can include the use of visual programming and other tools for building graphical user interfaces, iterative prototyping of key system elements, the automation of program code generation, and close teamwork among end users and information systems specialists. Simple systems often can be assembled from prebuilt components. The process does not have to be sequential, and key parts of development can occur simultaneously.
Sometimes a technique called **joint application design (JAD)** is used to accelerate the generation of information requirements and to develop the initial systems design. JAD brings end users and information systems specialists together in an interactive session to discuss the system's design. Properly prepared and facilitated, JAD sessions can significantly speed up the design phase and involve users at an intense level.
**Agile development** focuses on rapid delivery of working software by breaking a large project into a series of small subprojects that are completed in short periods of time using iteration and continuous feedback. Each
mini-project is worked on by a team as if it were a complete project, including planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, testing, and documentation. Improvement or addition of new functionality takes place within the next iteration as developers clarify requirements. This helps to minimize the overall risk, and allows the project to adapt to changes more quickly. Agile methods emphasize face-to-face communication over written documents, encouraging people to collaborate and make decisions quickly and effectively.
**COMPONENT-BASED DEVELOPMENT AND WEB SERVICES**
We have already described some of the benefits of object-oriented development for building systems that can respond to rapidly changing business environments, including Web applications. To further expedite software creation, groups of objects have been assembled to provide software components for common functions such as a graphical user interface or online ordering capability that can be combined to create large-scale business applications. This approach to software development is called **component-based development**, and it enables a system to be built by assembling and integrating existing software components. Increasingly, these software components are coming from cloud services. Businesses are using component-based development to create their e-commerce applications by combining commercially available components for shopping carts, user authentication, search engines, and catalogs with pieces of software for their own unique business requirements.
**Web Services and Service-Oriented Computing**
Chapter 5 introduced *Web services* as loosely coupled, reusable software components delivered using Extensible Markup Language (XML) and other open protocols and standards that enable one application to communicate with another with no custom programming required to share data and services. In addition to supporting internal and external integration of systems, Web services can be used as tools for building new information system applications or enhancing existing systems. Because these software services use a universal set of standards, they promise to be less expensive and less difficult to weave together than proprietary components.
Web services can perform certain functions on their own, and they can also engage other Web services to complete more complex transactions, such as checking credit, procurement, or ordering products. By creating software components that can communicate and share data regardless of the operating system, programming language, or client device, Web services can provide significant cost savings in systems building while opening up new opportunities for collaboration with other companies.
13.5 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience analyzing business process problems, designing and building a customer system for auto sales, and redesigning business processes for a company that wants to purchase goods over the Web.
Management Decision Problems
1. A customer purchasing a Sears Roebuck appliance, such as a washing machine, can also purchase a three-year service contract for an additional fee. The contract provides free repair service and parts for the specified appliance using an authorized Sears service provider. When a person with a Sears service contract needs an appliance repaired, such as a washing machine, he or she calls the Sears Repairs & Parts department to schedule an appointment. The department makes the appointment and gives the caller the date and approximate time of the appointment. The repair technician arrives during the designated time frame and diagnoses the problem. If the problem is caused by a faulty part, the technician either replaces the part if he is carrying the part with him or orders the replacement part from Sears. If the part is not in stock at Sears, Sears orders the part and gives the customer an approximate time when the part will arrive. The part is shipped directly to the customer. After the part has arrived, the customer must call Sears to schedule a second appointment for a repair technician to replace the ordered part. This process is very lengthy.
It may take two weeks for the first repair visit to occur, another two weeks to receive the ordered part, and another week for the second repair visit to occur in which the ordered part is installed.
- Diagram the existing process.
- What is the impact of the existing process on Sears’ operational efficiency and customer relationships?
- What changes could be made to make this process more efficient? How could information systems support these changes? Diagram the new improved process.
2. Management at your agricultural chemicals corporation has been dissatisfied with production planning. Production plans are created using best guesses of demand for each product, which are based on how much of each product has been ordered in the past. If a customer places an unexpected order or requests a change to an existing order after it has been placed, there is no way to adjust production plans. The company may have to tell customers it can’t fill their orders, or it may run up extra costs maintaining additional inventory to prevent stock-outs.
At the end of each month, orders are totaled and manually keyed into the company’s production planning system. Data from the past month’s production and inventory systems are manually entered into the firm’s order management system. Analysts from the sales department and from the production department analyze the data from their respective systems to determine what the sales targets and production targets should be for the next month. These estimates are usually different. The analysts then get together at a high-level planning meeting to revise the production and sales targets to take into account senior management’s goals for market share, revenues, and profits. The outcome of the meeting is a finalized production master schedule.
The entire production planning process takes 17 business days to complete. Nine of these days are required to enter and validate the data. The remaining
days are spent developing and reconciling the production and sales targets and finalizing the production master schedule.
- Draw a diagram of the existing production planning process.
- Analyze the problems this process creates for the company.
- How could an enterprise system solve these problems? In what ways could it lower costs? Diagram what the production planning process might look like if the company implemented enterprise software.
**Improving Decision Making: Using Database Software to Design a Customer System for Auto Sales**
*Software skills:* Database design, querying, reporting, and forms
*Business skills:* Sales lead and customer analysis
This project requires you to perform a systems analysis and then design a system solution using database software.
Ace Auto Dealers specializes in selling new vehicles from Subaru. The company advertises in local newspapers and is also listed as an authorized dealer on the Subaru Web site and other major auto-buyer Web sites. The company benefits from a good local word-of-mouth reputation and name recognition and is a leading source of information for Subaru vehicles in the Portland, Oregon, area.
When a prospective customer enters the showroom, he or she is greeted by an Ace sales representative. The sales representative manually fills out a form with information such as the prospective customer's name, address, telephone number, date of visit, and make and model of the vehicle in which the customer is interested. The representative also asks where the prospect heard about Ace—whether it was from a newspaper ad, the Web, or word of mouth—and this information is noted on the form also. If the customer decides to purchase an auto, the dealer fills out a bill of sale form.
Ace does not believe it has enough information about its customers. It cannot easily determine which prospects have made auto purchases, nor can it identify which customer touch points have produced the greatest number of sales leads or actual sales so it can focus advertising and marketing more on the channels that generate the most revenue. Are purchasers discovering Ace from newspaper ads, from word of mouth, or from the Web?
Prepare a systems analysis report detailing Ace's problem and a system solution that can be implemented using PC database management software. The company has a PC with Internet access and the full suite of Microsoft Office desktop productivity tools. Then use database software to develop a simple system solution. Your systems analysis report should include the following:
- Description of the problem and its organizational and business impact
- Proposed solution, solution objectives, and solution feasibility
- Costs and benefits of the solution you have selected
- Information requirements to be addressed by the solution
- Management, organization, and technology issues to be addressed by the solution, including changes in business processes
On the basis of the requirements you have identified, design the database and populate it with at least 10 records per table. Consider whether you can use or modify Ace's existing customer database in your design. You can find this
database on the myMISlab. Print out the database design. Then use the system you have created to generate queries and reports that would be most useful to management. Create several prototype data input forms for the system and review them with your instructor. Then revise the prototypes.
**Achieving Operational Excellence: Redesigning Business Processes for Web Procurement**
*Software skills:* Web browser software
*Business skills:* Procurement
This project requires you to rethink how a business should be redesigned when it moves to the Web.
You are in charge of purchasing for your firm and would like to use the Grainger (www.grainger.com) B2B e-commerce site for this purpose. Find out how to place an order for painting supplies by exploring the Catalog, Order Form, and Repair Parts Order capabilities of this site. Do not register at the site. Describe all the steps your firm would need to take to use this system to place orders online for 30 gallons of paint thinner. Include a diagram of what you think your firm’s business process for purchasing should be and the pieces of information required by this process.
In a traditional purchase process, whoever is responsible for making the purchase fills out a requisition form and submits it for approval based on the company’s business rules. When the requisition is approved, a purchase order with a unique purchase order identification number is sent to the supplier. The purchaser might want to browse supplier catalogs to compare prices and features before placing the order. The purchaser might also want to determine whether the items to be purchased are available. If the purchasing firm were an approved customer, that company would be granted credit to make the purchase and would be billed for the total cost of the items purchased and shipped after the order was shipped. Alternatively, the purchasing company might have to pay for the order in advance or pay for the order using a credit card. Multiple payment options might be possible. How might this process have to change to make purchases electronically from the Grainger site?
**Learning Track Modules**
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. Unified Modeling Language (UML)
2. A Primer on Business Process Design and Documentation
3. A Primer on Business Process Management
1. **How does building new systems produce organizational change?**
Building a new information system is a form of planned organizational change. Four kinds of technology-enabled change are (a) automation, (b) rationalization of procedures, (c) business process redesign, and (d) paradigm shift, with far-reaching changes carrying the greatest risks and rewards. Many organizations are using business process management to redesign work flows and business processes in the hope of achieving dramatic productivity breakthroughs. Business process management is also useful for promoting, total quality management (TQM), six sigma, and other initiatives for incremental process improvement.
2. **What are the core activities in the systems development process?**
The core activities in systems development are systems analysis, systems design, programming, testing, conversion, production, and maintenance. Systems analysis is the study and analysis of problems of existing systems and the identification of requirements for their solutions. Systems design provides the specifications for an information system solution, showing how its technical and organizational components fit together.
3. **What are the principal methodologies for modeling and designing systems?**
The two principal methodologies for modeling and designing information systems are structured methodologies and object-oriented development. Structured methodologies focus on modeling processes and data separately. The data flow diagram is the principal tool for structured analysis, and the structure chart is the principal tool for representing structured software design. Object-oriented development models a system as a collection of objects that combine processes and data. Object-oriented modeling is based on the concepts of class and inheritance.
4. **What are the alternative methods for building information systems?**
The oldest method for building systems is the systems life cycle, which requires that information systems be developed in formal stages. The stages must proceed sequentially and have defined outputs; each requires formal approval before the next stage can commence. The systems life cycle is useful for large projects that need formal specifications and tight management control over each stage of systems building, but it is very rigid and costly.
Prototyping consists of building an experimental system rapidly and inexpensively for end users to interact with and evaluate. Prototyping encourages end-user involvement in systems development and iteration of design until specifications are captured accurately. The rapid creation of prototypes can result in systems that have not been completely tested or documented or that are technically inadequate for a production environment.
Using a software package reduces the amount of design, programming, testing, installation, and maintenance work required to build a system. Application software packages are helpful if a firm does not have the internal information systems staff or financial resources to custom develop a system. To meet an organization’s unique requirements, packages may require extensive modifications that can substantially raise development costs.
End-user development is the development of information systems by end users, either alone or with minimal assistance from information systems specialists. End-user-developed systems can be created rapidly and informally using fourth-generation software tools. However, end-user development may
create information systems that do not necessarily meet quality assurance standards and that are not easily controlled by traditional means.
Outsourcing consists of using an external vendor to build (or operate) a firm’s information systems instead of the organization’s internal information systems staff. Outsourcing can save application development costs or enable firms to develop applications without an internal information systems staff. However, firms risk losing control over their information systems and becoming too dependent on external vendors. Outsourcing also entails “hidden” costs, especially when the work is sent offshore.
5. **What are new approaches for system building in the digital firm era?**
Companies are turning to rapid application design, joint application design (JAD), agile development, and reusable software components to accelerate the systems development process. Rapid application development (RAD) uses object-oriented software, visual programming, prototyping, and fourth-generation tools for very rapid creation of systems. Agile development breaks a large project into a series of small subprojects that are completed in short periods of time using iteration and continuous feedback. Component-based development expedites application development by grouping objects into suites of software components that can be combined to create large-scale business applications. Web services provide a common set of standards that enable organizations to link their systems regardless of their technology platform through standard plug-and-play architecture.
**Key Terms**
- Acceptance testing, 499
- Agile development, 514
- Automation, 489
- Business process management, 491
- Business process redesign, 490
- Component-based development, 515
- Computer-aided software engineering (CASE), 505
- Conversion, 500
- Customization, 510
- Data flow diagram (DFD), 502
- Direct cutover strategy, 500
- Documentation, 501
- End-user development, 508
- End-user interface, 507
- Feasibility study, 497
- Fourth-generation languages, 508
- Information requirements, 497
- Iterative, 507
- Joint application design (JAD), 514
- Maintenance, 501
- Object, 504
- Object-oriented development, 504
- Offshore outsourcing, 511
- Paradigm shift, 490
- Parallel strategy, 500
- Phased approach strategy, 500
- Pilot study strategy, 500
- Postimplementation audit, 501
- Process specifications, 503
- Production, 501
- Programming, 499
- Prototype, 507
- Prototyping, 507
- Query languages, 509
- Rapid application development (RAD), 514
- Rationalization of procedures, 490
- Request for Proposal (RFP), 510
- Six sigma, 490
- Structure chart, 503
- Structured, 502
- Systems analysis, 496
- Systems design, 498
- Systems development, 494
- Systems life cycle, 506
- System testing, 499
- Test plan, 500
- Testing, 499
- Total quality management (TQM), 490
- Unit testing, 499
**Review Questions**
1. How does building new systems produce organizational change?
- Describe each of the four kinds of organizational change that can be promoted with information technology.
- Define business process management and describe the steps required to carry it out.
- Explain how information systems support process changes that promote quality in an organization.
2. What are the core activities in the systems development process?
- Distinguish between systems analysis and systems design. Describe the activities for each.
- Define information requirements and explain why they are difficult to determine correctly.
- Explain why the testing stage of systems development is so important. Name and describe the three stages of testing for an information system.
- Describe the role of programming, conversion, production, and maintenance in systems development.
3. What are the principal methodologies for modeling and designing systems?
- Compare object-oriented and traditional structured approaches for modeling and designing systems.
4. What are the alternative methods for building information systems?
- Define the traditional systems life cycle. Describe each of its steps and its advantages and disadvantages for systems building.
- Define information system prototyping. Describe its benefits and limitations. List and describe the steps in the prototyping process.
- Define an application software package. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of developing information systems based on software packages.
- Define end-user development and describe its advantages and disadvantages. Name some policies and procedures for managing end-user development.
- Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using outsourcing for building information systems.
5. What are new approaches for system building in the digital firm era?
- Define rapid application development (RAD) and agile development and explain how they can speed up system-building.
- Explain how component-based development and Web services help firms build and enhance their information systems.
**Discussion Questions**
1. Why is selecting a systems development approach an important business decision? Who should participate in the selection process?
2. Some have said that the best way to reduce systems development costs is to use application software packages or fourth-generation tools. Do you agree? Why or why not?
3. Why is it so important to understand how a business process works when trying to develop a new information system?
**Video Cases**
Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your instructor to access these videos.
**Collaboration and Teamwork: Preparing Web Site Design Specifications**
With three or four of your classmates, select a system described in this text that uses the Web. Review the Web site for the system you select. Use what you have learned from the Web site and the description in this book to prepare a report describing some of the design specifications for the system you select. If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
Creating more efficient health care systems in the United States has been a pressing medical, social, and political issue for decades. Despite the fact that 15 percent of Americans are uninsured and another 20 percent on top of that are underinsured, or unable to pay for necessary health care, the U.S. spends more money per person on health care than any other country in the world. In 2009, the United States spent $2.5 trillion on health care, which was 17.6 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). Approximately 12 percent of that figure was spent on administrative costs, most of which involve the upkeep of medical records.
The astronomical health care spending figures in the United States are inflated by inefficiency, errors, and fraud. The good news is that information technology may present an opportunity for health care providers to save money and provide better care. Health care providers have begun to create electronic medical record (EMR) systems at the urging of the government in an effort to eliminate much of the inefficiency inherent in paper-based record-keeping. Many insurance companies are also lending their support to the development of EMR systems.
An electronic medical record system contains all of a person’s vital medical data, including personal information, a full medical history, test results, diagnoses, treatments, prescription medications, and the effect of those treatments. A physician would be able to immediately and directly access needed information from the EMR without having to pore through paper files. If the record holder went to the hospital, the records and results of any tests performed at that point would be immediately available online.
Many experts believe that electronic records will reduce medical errors and improve care, create less paperwork, and provide quicker service, all of which will lead to dramatic savings in the future: an estimated $77.8 billion per year. The government’s short-term goal is for all health care providers in the United States to have functional EMR systems in place that meet a set of basic functional criteria by the year 2015. Its long-term goal is to have a fully functional nationwide electronic medical recordkeeping network.
Evidence of EMR systems in use today suggests that these benefits are possible for doctors and hospitals, but the challenges of setting up individual systems, let alone a nationwide system, are daunting. Even with stimulus money, many smaller practices are finding it difficult to afford the costs and time commitment for upgrading their recordkeeping systems. In 2010, 80 percent of physicians and 90 percent of hospitals in the United States are still using paper medical records.
It’s also unclear whether the systems being developed and implemented in 2010 will be compatible with one another in 2015 and beyond, jeopardizing the goal of a national system where all health care providers can share information. And there are many other smaller obstacles that health care providers, health IT developers, and insurance companies need to overcome for electronic health records to catch on nationally, including patients’ privacy concerns, data quality issues, and resistance from health care workers.
The government plans to pay out the stimulus money provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to health care providers in two ways. First, $2 billion will be provided up front to hospitals and physicians to help set up electronic records. Another $17 billion will also be available as a reward for providers that successfully implement electronic records by 2015. The stimulus specifies that to qualify for these rewards, providers must demonstrate “meaningful use” of electronic health record systems. The bill defines this as the successful implementation of certified e-record products, the ability to write at least 40 percent of their total prescriptions electronically, and the ability to exchange and report data to government health agencies. Individual practices can receive up to $64,000 for successful implementations, and hospitals can make as much as $11.5 million.
But in addition to the reward of stimulus money, the government will also assess penalties on practices that fail to comply with the new electronic recordkeeping standards. Providers that cannot meet the standards by 2015 will have their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements reduced by 1 percent per year until 2018, with further, more stringent penalties coming beyond that time if a sufficiently
low number of providers are using electronic health records.
Electronic medical recordkeeping systems typically cost around $30,000 to $50,000 per doctor. While the stimulus money should eventually be enough to cover that cost, only a small amount of it is available up front. For many providers, especially medical practices with fewer than four doctors and hospitals with fewer than 50 beds, this creates a significant problem. The expenditure of overhauling recordkeeping systems represents a significant increase in the short-term budgets and workloads of smaller health care providers. Smaller providers are also less likely to have started digitizing their records compared to their larger counterparts.
Many smaller practices and hospitals have balked at the transition to EMR systems for these reasons, but the evidence of these systems in action suggests that the move may be well worth the effort. The most prominent example of electronic medical records in use today is the Veterans Affairs (VA) system of doctors and hospitals. The VA system switched to digital records years ago, and far exceeds the private sector and Medicare in quality of preventive services and chronic care. The 1,400 VA facilities use VistA, record-sharing software developed by the government that allows doctors and nurses to share patient histories. A typical VistA record lists a patient's health problems, weight and blood pressure since beginning treatment at the VA, images of the patient's X-rays, lab results, and other test results, lists of medications, and reminders about upcoming appointments.
But VistA is more than a database; it also has many features that improve quality of care. For example, nurses scan tags for patients and medications to ensure that the correct dosages of medicines are going to the correct patients. This feature reduces medication errors, which is one of the most common and costly types of medical errors, and speeds up treatment as well. The system also generates automatic warnings based on specified criteria. It can notify providers if a patient's blood pressure goes over a certain level or if a patient is overdue for a regularly scheduled procedure like a flu shot or a cancer screening. Devices that measure patients' vital signs can automatically transmit their results into the VistA system, which automatically updates doctors at the first sign of trouble.
The results suggest that electronic records offer significant advantages to hospitals and patients alike. The 40,000 patients in the VA's in-home monitoring program reduced their hospital admissions by 25 percent and the length of their hospital stays by 20 percent. More patients receive necessary periodic treatments under VistA (from 27 percent to 83 percent for flu vaccines and from 34 percent to 84 percent for colon cancer screenings).
Patients also report that the process of being treated at the VA is effortless compared to paper-based providers. That's because instant processing of claims and payments are among the benefits of EMR systems. Insurance companies traditionally pay claims about two weeks after receiving them, despite quickly processing them soon after they are received. Additionally, today's paper-based health care providers must assign the appropriate diagnostic codes and procedure codes to claims. Because there are thousands of these codes, the process is even slower, and most providers employ someone solely to perform this task. Electronic systems hold the promise of immediate processing, or real-time claims adjudication, just like when you pay using a credit card—claim data would be sent immediately, and diagnostic and procedure code information are automatically entered.
VistA is far from the only option for doctors and hospitals starting the process of updating their records. Many health IT companies are eagerly awaiting the coming spike in demand for their EMR products and have developed a variety of different health record structures. Humana, Aetna, and other health insurance companies are helping to defray the cost of setting up EMR systems for some doctors and hospitals. Humana has teamed up with health IT company Athenahealth to subsidize EMR systems for approximately 100 primary care practices within Humana's network. Humana pays most of the bill and offers further rewards to practices that meet governmental performance standards. Aetna and IBM, on the other hand, have launched a cloud-based system that pools patient records and is licensed to doctors both inside and outside of Aetna.
There are two problems with the plethora of options available to health care providers. First, there are likely to be many issues with the sharing of medical data between different systems. While the majority of EMR systems are likely to satisfy the specified criteria of reporting data electronically to governmental agencies, they may not be able to report the same data to one another, a key requirement for a nation-wide system. Many fledgling systems are designed using VistA as a guide, but many are not. Even if medical data are easily shared, it's another problem altogether for doctors to actually locate the information they need quickly and easily.
Many EMR systems have no capacity to drill down for more specific data, forcing doctors to wade through large repositories of information to find the one piece of data they need. EMR vendors are developing search engine technology intended for use in medical records. Only after EMR systems become more widespread will the extent of the problems with data sharing and accessibility become clearer.
The second problem is that there is a potential conflict of interest for the insurance companies involved in the creation of health record systems. Insurers are often accused of seeking ways to avoid providing care for sick people. While most insurers are adamant that only doctors and patients will be able to access data in these systems, many prospective patients are skeptical. In 2009, a poll conducted for National Public Radio found that 59 percent of respondents said they doubted the confidentiality of online medical records; even if the systems are secure, the perception of poor privacy could affect the success of the system and quality of care provided. One in eight Americans have skipped doctor visits or regular tests, asked a doctor to change a test result, or paid privately for a test, motivated mostly by privacy concerns. A poorly designed EMR network would amplify these concerns.
Sources: Katherine Gammon, “Connecting Electronic Medical Records,” *Technology Review*, August 9, 2010; Avery Johnson, “Doctors Get Dose of Technology From Insurers,” *The Wall Street Journal*, August 8, 2010; David Talbot, “The Doctor Will Record Your Data Now,” *Technology Review*, July 23, 2010; Tony Fisher and Joyce Norris-Montanari, “The Current State of Data in Health Care,” Information-Management.com, June 15, 2010; Laura Landro, “Breaking Down the Barriers,” *The Wall Street Journal*, April 13, 2010; Jacob Goldstein, “Can Technology Cure Health Care?”, *The Wall Street Journal*, April 13, 2010; Deborah C. Peel, “Your Medical Records Aren’t Secure,” *The Wall Street Journal*, March 23, 2010; Jane E. Brody, “Medical Paper Trail Takes Electronic Turn,” *The New York Times*, February 23, 2010; and Laura Landro, “An Affordable Fix for Modernizing Medical Records,” *The Wall Street Journal*, April 30, 2009.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for the difficulties in building electronic medical record systems? Explain your answer.
2. What stages of system building will be the most difficult when creating electronic medical record systems? Explain your answer.
3. What is the business and social impact of not digitizing medical records (to individual physicians, hospitals, insurers, patients)?
4. What are the business and social benefits of digitizing medical recordkeeping?
5. Name two important information requirements for physicians, two for patients, and two for hospitals that should be addressed by electronic medical records systems.
6. Diagram the “as-is” and “to-be” processes for prescribing a medication for a patient before and after an EMR system is implemented.
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Chapter 14
Managing Projects
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What are the objectives of project management and why is it so essential in developing information systems?
2. What methods can be used for selecting and evaluating information systems projects and aligning them with the firm's business goals?
3. How can firms assess the business value of information systems projects?
4. What are the principal risk factors in information systems projects?
5. What strategies are useful for managing project risk and system implementation?
Interactive Sessions:
- DST Systems Scores with Scrum and Application Life Cycle Management
- Motorola Turns to Project Portfolio Management
CHAPTER OUTLINE
14.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- Runaway Projects and System Failure
- Project Management Objectives
14.2 SELECTING PROJECTS
- Management Structure for Information Systems Projects
- Linking Systems Projects to the Business Plan
- Critical Success Factors
- Portfolio Analysis
- Scoring Models
14.3 ESTABLISHING THE BUSINESS VALUE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
- Information System Costs and Benefits
- Real Options Pricing Models
- Limitations of Financial Models
14.4 MANAGING PROJECT RISK
- Dimensions of Project Risk
- Change Management and the Concept of Implementation
- Controlling Risk Factors
- Designing for the Organization
- Project Management Software Tools
14.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
- Management Decision Problems
- Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software for Capital Budgeting for a New CAD System
- Improving Decision Making: Using Web Tools for Buying and Financing a Home
LEARNING TRACK MODULES
- Capital Budgeting Methods for Information System Investments
- Information Technology Investments and Productivity
- Enterprise Analysis (Business Systems Planning)
The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s leading owner and marketer of nonalcoholic beverage brands and the world’s largest manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of concentrates and syrups used to produce nonalcoholic beverages. Coke sells its concentrates to independent bottlers in 200 countries. Arguably, Coke is the most valuable brand in the world. In fact, Coke owns 12 brands that sell more than $1 billion a year. It’s corporate branding handle in 2010 is “Open happiness.” Coke revenues were $30.9 billion in 2009.
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (“Coke Bottling”) is the second largest Coca-Cola bottler in the United States. The company operates in 11 states in the Southeast and has revenues of $1.5 billion. The company has hundreds of projects under management at any point in time. Coke Bottling had been using an older project management software tool to coordinate these projects, but by 2010 it lacked many of the features that good project managers want. Not all projects in the company used the system, and information about these projects was spread across many legacy systems. The software could not track cost elements, such as labor and material cost, in one repository. Senior management wanted cost details and capital requirements for projects that could not be delivered. Project teams would typically need to go back and ask senior management for more money because projects routinely exceeded their budgets. Time and money were wasted gathering data from several locations and performing ad hoc analyses on spreadsheets. The software was unable to report on compliance of projects with various federal laws, including Sarbanes-Oxley.
Management wanted a new project management tool that could track all projects in the firm, utilize existing SAP databases and reporting tools, and integrate with its Microsoft Server environment. Coke Bottling chose the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution, which includes Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, and Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007. The hope was to simplify the firm’s software footprint to consist primarily of SAP and Microsoft products and thereby reduce maintenance costs.
The EPM is integrated with Windows SharePoint Services so that users can update project information, manage documents, and track risks and issues using common SharePoint sites, known as project workspaces. For training employees and help implementing the system, Coke Bottling hired Project Solutions Group, a consulting and training firm in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
A number of benefits have flowed from this choice of project management software. For the first time, the company has a centralized repository of the cash flow and capital requirements of projects. This helps reduce its financing costs. With the EPM solution, managers can request the amount of capital they need with a high degree of accuracy from the start of a project. The firm can manage its human resources and schedules more effectively because it now knows who is working on which projects. Based on the
number of hours people spend on tasks, resource managers can see whether they have the right spread of resources, and they can take decisive and informed action by seeing where people are spending their time.
The firm also implemented a Project Gate methodology that consists of five gates: qualify need, define, design, build/test, and deploy/measure. In the past, managers just used checklists to manage projects, and there was no consistency across projects or managers. The gate methodology ensures all projects go through the same management process. To ensure enterprise-wide implementation of its new EPM solution, Coke Bottling created a new project management office to bring consistency and structure to all the firm’s projects.
Sources: Microsoft Corporation, “Microsoft Case Studies. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Improves Project Cost Reporting,” August 2009, www.microsoft.com/casestudies, accessed November 5, 2010; Microsoft Corporation, “Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution.” www.microsoft.com/project/, accessed November 5, 2010; and The Coca-Cola Company, Form 10K for the Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 2009, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, February 26, 2010.
One of the principal challenges posed by information systems is ensuring they deliver genuine business benefits. Many information systems projects don’t succeed because organizations incorrectly assess their business value or because firms fail to manage the organizational change surrounding the introduction of new technology.
Coke Bottling’s management knew this when it implemented its enterprise project management system. The new system involved an enterprise-wide change in management and organizational behavior, in addition to careful introduction of an entire set of software tools. Coke Bottling succeeded in this project because it took a balanced view of the management, organizational, and technical changes needed.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Coke Bottling manages several hundred projects each year. The existing software was unable to account for costs, predict financial needs, comply with federal regulations and due diligence requests, and allocate resources efficiently. This increased the likelihood of project failure, and raised the costs of company operations. The company was able to improve project inventory management by implementing an enterprise-wide project management software tool that was tightly integrated with its existing enterprise database environment and its desktop software. Management was wise enough to also change the organization by creating a Project Management Office, and develop a new set of management practices to ensure the software performed up to expectations.
14.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
There is a very high failure rate among information systems projects. In nearly every organization, information systems projects take much more time and money to implement than originally anticipated or the completed system does not work properly. When an information system does not meet expectations or costs too much to develop, companies may not realize any benefit from their information system investment, and the system may not be able to solve the problems for which it was intended. The development of a new system must be carefully managed and orchestrated, and the way a project is executed is likely to be the most important factor influencing its outcome. That's why it's essential to have some knowledge about managing information systems projects and the reasons why they succeed or fail.
RUNAWAY PROJECTS AND SYSTEM FAILURE
How badly are projects managed? On average, private sector projects are underestimated by one-half in terms of budget and time required to deliver the complete system promised in the system plan. Many projects are delivered with missing functionality (promised for delivery in later versions). The Standish Group consultancy, which monitors IT project success rates, found that only 29 percent of all technology investments were completed on time, on budget, and with all features and functions originally specified (Levinson, 2006). A 2007 Tata Consultancy Services study of IT effectiveness reported similar findings (Blair, 2010). Between 30 and 40 percent of all software projects are "runaway" projects that far exceed the original schedule and budget projections and fail to perform as originally specified.
As illustrated in Figure 14-1, a systems development project without proper management will most likely suffer these consequences:
- Costs that vastly exceed budgets
- Unexpected time slippage
- Technical performance that is less than expected
- Failure to obtain anticipated benefits
The systems produced by failed information projects are often not used in the way they were intended, or they are not used at all. Users often have to develop parallel manual systems to make these systems work.
The actual design of the system may fail to capture essential business requirements or improve organizational performance. Information may not be provided quickly enough to be helpful, it may be in a format that is impossible to digest and use, or it may represent the wrong pieces of data.
FIGURE 14-1 CONSEQUENCES OF POOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Without proper management, a systems development project takes longer to complete and most often exceeds the allocated budget. The resulting information system most likely is technically inferior and may not be able to demonstrate any benefits to the organization.
The way in which nontechnical business users must interact with the system may be excessively complicated and discouraging. A system may be designed with a poor user interface. The user interface is the part of the system with which end users interact. For example, an online input form or data entry screen may be so poorly arranged that no one wants to submit data or request information. System outputs may be displayed in a format that is too difficult to comprehend.
Web sites may discourage visitors from exploring further if the Web pages are cluttered and poorly arranged, if users cannot easily find the information they are seeking, or if it takes too long to access and display the Web page on the user's computer.
Additionally, the data in the system may have a high level of inaccuracy or inconsistency. The information in certain fields may be erroneous or ambiguous, or it may not be organized properly for business purposes. Information required for a specific business function may be inaccessible because the data are incomplete.
**PROJECT MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES**
A **project** is a planned series of related activities for achieving a specific business objective. Information systems projects include the development of new information systems, enhancement of existing systems, or upgrade or replacement of the firm's information technology (IT) infrastructure.
**Project management** refers to the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve specific targets within specified budget and time constraints. Project management activities include planning the work, assessing risk, estimating resources required to accomplish the work, organizing the work, acquiring human and material resources, assigning tasks, directing activities, controlling project execution, reporting progress, and analyzing the results. As in other areas of business, project management for information systems must deal with five major variables: scope, time, cost, quality, and risk.
**Scope** defines what work is or is not included in a project. For example, the scope of project for a new order processing system might be to include new modules for inputting orders and transmitting them to production and accounting but not any changes to related accounts receivable, manufacturing, distribution, or inventory control systems. Project management defines all the work required to complete a project successfully, and should ensure that the scope of a project does not expand beyond what was originally intended.
**Time** is the amount of time required to complete the project. Project management typically establishes the amount of time required to complete major components of a project. Each of these components is further broken down into activities and tasks. Project management tries to determine the time required to complete each task and establish a schedule for completing the work.
**Cost** is based on the time to complete a project multiplied by the cost of human resources required to complete the project. Information systems project costs also include the cost of hardware, software, and work space. Project management develops a budget for the project and monitors ongoing project expenses.
**Quality** is an indicator of how well the end result of a project satisfies the objectives specified by management. The quality of information systems projects usually boils down to improved organizational performance and decision making. Quality also considers the accuracy and timeliness of information produced by the new system and ease of use.
Risk refers to potential problems that would threaten the success of a project. These potential problems might prevent a project from achieving its objectives by increasing time and cost, lowering the quality of project outputs, or preventing the project from being completed altogether. Section 14.3 describes the most important risk factors for information systems.
14.2 SELECTING PROJECTS
Companies typically are presented with many different projects for solving problems and improving performance. There are far more ideas for systems projects than there are resources. Firms will need to select from this group the projects that promise the greatest benefit to the business. Obviously, the firm’s overall business strategy should drive project selection.
MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS PROJECTS
Figure 14-2 shows the elements of a management structure for information systems projects in a large corporation. It helps ensure that the most important projects are given priority.
At the apex of this structure is the corporate strategic planning group and the information system steering committee. The corporate strategic planning group is responsible for developing the firm’s strategic plan, which may require the development of new systems.
The information systems steering committee is the senior management group with responsibility for systems development and operation. It is composed of
FIGURE 14-2 MANAGEMENT CONTROL OF SYSTEMS PROJECTS
Each level of management in the hierarchy is responsible for specific aspects of systems projects, and this structure helps give priority to the most important systems projects for the organization.
department heads from both end-user and information systems areas. The steering committee reviews and approves plans for systems in all divisions, seeks to coordinate and integrate systems, and occasionally becomes involved in selecting specific information systems projects.
The project team is supervised by a project management group composed of information systems managers and end-user managers responsible for overseeing several specific information systems projects. The project team is directly responsible for the individual systems project. It consists of systems analysts, specialists from the relevant end-user business areas, application programmers, and perhaps database specialists. The mix of skills and the size of the project team depend on the specific nature of the system solution.
**LINKING SYSTEMS PROJECTS TO THE BUSINESS PLAN**
In order to identify the information systems projects that will deliver the most business value, organizations need to develop an **information systems plan** that supports their overall business plan and in which strategic systems are incorporated into top-level planning. The plan serves as a road map indicating the direction of systems development (the purpose of the plan), the rationale, the current systems/situation, new developments to consider, the management strategy, the implementation plan, and the budget (see Table 14-1).
The plan contains a statement of corporate goals and specifies how information technology will support the attainment of those goals. The report shows how general goals will be achieved by specific systems projects. It identifies specific target dates and milestones that can be used later to evaluate the plan’s progress in terms of how many objectives were actually attained in the time frame specified in the plan. The plan indicates the key management decisions concerning hardware acquisition; telecommunications; centralization/decentralization of authority, data, and hardware; and required organizational change. Organizational changes are also usually described, including management and employee training requirements, recruiting efforts, changes in business processes, and changes in authority, structure, or management practice.
In order to plan effectively, firms will need to inventory and document all of their information system applications and IT infrastructure components. For projects in which benefits involve improved decision making, managers should try to identify the decision improvements that would provide the greatest additional value to the firm. They should then develop a set of metrics to quantify the value of more timely and precise information on the outcome of the decision (see Chapter 12 for more detail on this topic).
**CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS**
To develop an effective information systems plan, the organization must have a clear understanding of both its long- and short-term information requirements. The strategic analysis, or critical success factors, approach argues that an organization’s information requirements are determined by a small number of **critical success factors (CSFs)** of managers. If these goals can be attained, success of the firm or organization is assured (Rockart, 1979; Rockart and Treacy, 1982). CSFs are shaped by the industry, the firm, the manager, and the broader environment. For example, CSFs for the automobile industry might include styling, quality, and cost to meet the goals of increasing market share and raising profits. New information systems should focus on providing information that helps the firm meet these goals.
| 1. Purpose of the Plan |
|------------------------|
| Overview of plan contents |
| Current business organization and future organization |
| Key business processes |
| Management strategy |
| 2. Strategic Business Plan Rationale |
|-------------------------------------|
| Current situation |
| Current business organization |
| Changing environments |
| Major goals of the business plan |
| Firm’s strategic plan |
| 3. Current Systems |
|-------------------|
| Major systems supporting business functions and processes |
| Current infrastructure capabilities |
| Hardware |
| Software |
| Database |
| Telecommunications and Internet |
| Difficulties meeting business requirements |
| Anticipated future demands |
| 4. New Developments |
|---------------------|
| New system projects |
| Project descriptions |
| Business rationale |
| Applications’ role in strategy |
| New infrastructure capabilities required |
| Hardware |
| Software |
| Database |
| Telecommunications and Internet |
| 5. Management Strategy |
|-----------------------|
| Acquisition plans |
| Milestones and timing |
| Organizational realignment |
| Internal reorganization |
| Management controls |
| Major training initiatives |
| Personnel strategy |
| 6. Implementation Plan |
|-----------------------|
| Anticipated difficulties in implementation |
| Progress reports |
| 7. Budget Requirements |
|------------------------|
| Requirements |
| Potential savings |
| Financing |
| Acquisition cycle |
The principal method used in CSF analysis is personal interviews—three or four—with a number of top managers identifying their goals and the resulting CSFs. These personal CSFs are aggregated to develop a picture of the firm’s CSFs. Then systems are built to deliver information on these CSFs. (For the method of developing CSFs in an organization, see Figure 14-3.)
Only top managers are interviewed, and the questions focus on a small number of CSFs rather than requiring a broad inquiry into what information is used in the organization. It is especially suitable for top management and for the development of decision-support systems (DSS) and executive support systems (ESS). The CSF method focuses organizational attention on how information should be handled.
The method’s primary weakness is that there is no particularly rigorous way in which individual CSFs can be aggregated into a clear company pattern. In addition, interviewees (and interviewers) often become confused when distinguishing between *individual* and *organizational* CSFs. These types of CSFs are not necessarily the same. What may be considered critical to a manager may not be important for the organization as a whole. This method is clearly biased toward top managers, although it could be extended to elicit ideas for promising new systems from lower-level members of the organization (Peffers and Gengler, 2003).
**PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS**
Once strategic analyses have determined the overall direction of systems development, **portfolio analysis** can be used to evaluate alternative system projects. Portfolio analysis inventories all of the organization’s information systems projects and assets, including infrastructure, outsourcing contracts,
---
**FIGURE 14-3 USING CSFs TO DEVELOP SYSTEMS**
The CSF approach relies on interviews with key managers to identify their CSFs. Individual CSFs are aggregated to develop CSFs for the entire firm. Systems can then be built to deliver information on these CSFs.
and licenses. This portfolio of information systems investments can be described as having a certain profile of risk and benefit to the firm (see Figure 14-4) similar to a financial portfolio.
Each information systems project carries its own set of risks and benefits. (Section 14-4 describes the factors that increase the risks of systems projects.) Firms would try to improve the return on their portfolios of IT assets by balancing the risk and return from their systems investments. Although there is no ideal profile for all firms, information-intensive industries (e.g., finance) should have a few high-risk, high-benefit projects to ensure that they stay current with technology. Firms in non-information-intensive industries should focus on high-benefit, low-risk projects.
Most desirable, of course, are systems with high benefit and low risk. These promise early returns and low risks. Second, high-benefit, high-risk systems should be examined; low-benefit, high-risk systems should be totally avoided; and low-benefit, low-risk systems should be reexamined for the possibility of rebuilding and replacing them with more desirable systems having higher benefits. By using portfolio analysis, management can determine the optimal mix of investment risk and reward for their firms, balancing riskier high-reward projects with safer lower-reward ones. Firms where portfolio analysis is aligned with business strategy have been found to have a superior return on their IT assets, better alignment of IT investments with business objectives, and better organization-wide coordination of IT investments (Jeffrey and Leliveld, 2004).
**SCORING MODELS**
A **scoring model** is useful for selecting projects where many criteria must be considered. It assigns weights to various features of a system and then calculates the weighted totals. Using Table 14-2, the firm must decide among two alternative enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The first column lists the criteria that decision makers will use to evaluate the systems. These criteria are usually the result of lengthy discussions among the decision-making group. Often the most important outcome of a scoring model is not the score but agreement on the criteria used to judge a system.
Table 14-2 shows that this particular company attaches the most importance to capabilities for sales order processing, inventory management, and warehousing. The second column in Table 14-2 lists the weights that decision
---
**FIGURE 14-4 A SYSTEM PORTFOLIO**
Companies should examine their portfolio of projects in terms of potential benefits and likely risks. Certain kinds of projects should be avoided altogether and others developed rapidly. There is no ideal mix. Companies in different industries have different profiles.
### Table 14-2 Example of a Scoring Model for an ERP System
| CRITERIA | WEIGHT | ERP SYSTEM A % | ERP SYSTEM A SCORE | ERP SYSTEM B % | ERP SYSTEM B SCORE |
|---------------------------|--------|----------------|--------------------|----------------|--------------------|
| **1.0 Order Processing** | | | | | |
| 1.1 Online order entry | 4 | 67 | 268 | 73 | 292 |
| 1.2 Online pricing | 4 | 81 | 324 | 87 | 348 |
| 1.3 Inventory check | 4 | 72 | 288 | 81 | 324 |
| 1.4 Customer credit check | 3 | 66 | 198 | 59 | 177 |
| 1.5 Invoicing | 4 | 73 | 292 | 82 | 328 |
| **Total Order Processing**| | | **1,370** | | **1,469** |
| **2.0 Inventory Management** | | | | | |
| 2.1 Production forecasting| 3 | 72 | 216 | 76 | 228 |
| 2.2 Production planning | 4 | 79 | 316 | 81 | 324 |
| 2.3 Inventory control | 4 | 68 | 272 | 80 | 320 |
| 2.4 Reports | 3 | 71 | 213 | 69 | 207 |
| **Total Inventory Management** | | | **1,017** | | **1,079** |
| **3.0 Warehousing** | | | | | |
| 3.1 Receiving | 2 | 71 | 142 | 75 | 150 |
| 3.2 Picking/packing | 3 | 77 | 231 | 82 | 246 |
| 3.3 Shipping | 4 | 92 | 368 | 89 | 356 |
| **Total Warehousing** | | | **741** | | **752** |
| **Grand Total** | | | **3,128** | | **3,300** |
Makers attached to the decision criteria. Columns 3 and 5 show the percentage of requirements for each function that each alternative ERP system can provide. Each vendor’s score can be calculated by multiplying the percentage of requirements met for each function by the weight attached to that function. ERP System B has the highest total score.
As with all “objective” techniques, there are many qualitative judgments involved in using the scoring model. This model requires experts who understand the issues and the technology. It is appropriate to cycle through the scoring model several times, changing the criteria and weights, to see how sensitive the outcome is to reasonable changes in criteria. Scoring models are used most commonly to confirm, to rationalize, and to support decisions, rather than as the final arbiters of system selection.
### 14.3 Establishing the Business Value of Information Systems
Even if a system project supports a firm’s strategic goals and meets user information requirements, it needs to be a good investment for the firm. The
value of systems from a financial perspective essentially revolves around the issue of return on invested capital. Does a particular information system investment produce sufficient returns to justify its costs?
**INFORMATION SYSTEM COSTS AND BENEFITS**
Table 14-3 lists some of the more common costs and benefits of systems. **Tangible benefits** can be quantified and assigned a monetary value. **Intangible benefits**, such as more efficient customer service or enhanced decision making, cannot be immediately quantified but may lead to quantifiable gains in the long run. Transaction and clerical systems that displace labor and save space always produce more measurable, tangible benefits than management information systems, decision-support systems, and computer-supported collaborative work systems (see Chapters 2 and 11).
**TABLE 14-3 COSTS AND BENEFITS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS**
| COSTS |
|--------------------------------------------|
| Hardware |
| Telecommunications |
| Software |
| Services |
| Personnel |
**TANGIBLE BENEFITS (COST SAVINGS)**
- Increased productivity
- Lower operational costs
- Reduced workforce
- Lower computer expenses
- Lower outside vendor costs
- Lower clerical and professional costs
- Reduced rate of growth in expenses
- Reduced facility costs
**INTANGIBLE BENEFITS**
- Improved asset utilization
- Improved resource control
- Improved organizational planning
- Increased organizational flexibility
- More timely information
- More information
- Increased organizational learning
- Legal requirements attained
- Enhanced employee goodwill
- Increased job satisfaction
- Improved decision making
- Improved operations
- Higher client satisfaction
- Better corporate image
Chapter 5 introduced the concept of total cost of ownership (TCO), which is designed to identify and measure the components of information technology expenditures beyond the initial cost of purchasing and installing hardware and software. However, TCO analysis provides only part of the information needed to evaluate an information technology investment because it does not typically deal with benefits, cost categories such as complexity costs, and “soft” and strategic factors discussed later in this section.
**Capital Budgeting for Information Systems**
To determine the benefits of a particular project, you’ll need to calculate all of its costs and all of its benefits. Obviously, a project where costs exceed benefits should be rejected. But even if the benefits outweigh the costs, additional financial analysis is required to determine whether the project represents a good return on the firm’s invested capital. **Capital budgeting** models are one of several techniques used to measure the value of investing in long-term capital investment projects.
Capital budgeting methods rely on measures of cash flows into and out of the firm; capital projects generate those cash flows. The investment cost for information systems projects is an immediate cash outflow caused by expenditures for hardware, software, and labor. In subsequent years, the investment may cause additional cash outflows that will be balanced by cash inflows resulting from the investment. Cash inflows take the form of increased sales of more products (for reasons such as new products, higher quality, or increasing market share) or reduced costs in production and operations. The difference between cash outflows and cash inflows is used for calculating the financial worth of an investment. Once the cash flows have been established, several alternative methods are available for comparing different projects and deciding about the investment.
The principal capital budgeting models for evaluating IT projects are: the payback method, the accounting rate of return on investment (ROI), net present value, and the internal rate of return (IRR). You can find out more about how these capital budgeting models are used to justify information system investments in the Learning Tracks for this chapter.
**REAL OPTIONS PRICING MODELS**
Some information systems projects are highly uncertain, especially investments in IT infrastructure. Their future revenue streams are unclear and their up-front costs are high. Suppose, for instance, that a firm is considering a $20 million investment to upgrade its IT infrastructure—its hardware, software, data management tools, and networking technology. If this upgraded infrastructure were available, the organization would have the technology capabilities to respond more easily to future problems and opportunities. Although the costs of this investment can be calculated, not all of the benefits of making this investment can be established in advance. But if the firm waits a few years until the revenue potential becomes more obvious, it might be too late to make the infrastructure investment. In such cases, managers might benefit from using real options pricing models to evaluate information technology investments.
**Real options pricing models (ROPMs)** use the concept of options valuation borrowed from the financial industry. An *option* is essentially the right, but not the obligation, to act at some future date. A typical *call option*, for instance, is a financial option in which a person buys the right (but not the obligation) to purchase an underlying asset (usually a stock) at a fixed price (strike price) on or before a given date.
For instance, let’s assume that on October 15, 2010, you could purchase a call option for $14.25 that would give you the right to buy a share of P&G common stock for $50 per share on a certain date. Options expire over time, and this call option has a maturity date in December. If the price of P&G stock does not rise above $50 per share by the end of December, you would not exercise the option, and the value of the option would fall to zero on the strike date. If, however, the price of P&G common stock rose to, say, $100 per share, you could purchase the stock for the strike price of $50 and retain the profit of $50 per share minus the cost of the option. (Because the option is sold as a 100-share contract, the cost of the contract would be $1,425 before commissions, or $1,425, and you would be purchasing and obtaining a profit from 100 shares of Procter & Gamble.) The stock option enables the owner to benefit from the upside potential of an opportunity while limiting the downside risk.
ROPMs value information systems projects similar to stock options, where an initial expenditure on technology creates the right, but not the obligation, to obtain the benefits associated with further development and deployment of the technology as long as management has the freedom to cancel, defer, restart, or expand the project. ROPMs give managers the flexibility to stage their IT investment or test the waters with small pilot projects or prototypes to gain more knowledge about the risks of a project before investing in the entire implementation. The disadvantages of this model are primarily in estimating all the key variables affecting option value, including anticipated cash flows from the underlying asset and changes in the cost of implementation. Models for determining option value of information technology platforms are being developed (Fichman, 2004; McGrath and MacMillan, 2000).
**LIMITATIONS OF FINANCIAL MODELS**
The traditional focus on the financial and technical aspects of an information system tends to overlook the social and organizational dimensions of information systems that may affect the true costs and benefits of the investment. Many companies’ information systems investment decisions do not adequately consider costs from organizational disruptions created by a new system, such as the cost to train end users, the impact that users’ learning curves for a new system have on productivity, or the time managers need to spend overseeing new system-related changes. Benefits, such as more timely decisions from a new system or enhanced employee learning and expertise, may also be overlooked in a traditional financial analysis (Ryan, Harrison, and Schkade, 2002).
### 14.4 Managing Project Risk
We have already introduced the topic of information system risks and risk assessment in Chapter 8. In this chapter, we describe the specific risks to information systems projects and show what can be done to manage them effectively.
**DIMENSIONS OF PROJECT RISK**
Systems differ dramatically in their size, scope, level of complexity, and organizational and technical components. Some systems development projects are
more likely to create the problems we have described earlier or to suffer delays because they carry a much higher level of risk than others. The level of project risk is influenced by project size, project structure, and the level of technical expertise of the information systems staff and project team.
- **Project size.** The larger the project—as indicated by the dollars spent, the size of the implementation staff, the time allocated for implementation, and the number of organizational units affected—the greater the risk. Very large-scale systems projects have a failure rate that is 50 to 75 percent higher than that for other projects because such projects are complex and difficult to control. The organizational complexity of the system—how many units and groups use it and how much it influences business processes—contribute to the complexity of large-scale systems projects just as much as technical characteristics, such as the number of lines of program code, length of project, and budget (Xia and Lee, 2004; Concours Group, 2000; Laudon, 1989). In addition, there are few reliable techniques for estimating the time and cost to develop large-scale information systems.
- **Project structure.** Some projects are more highly structured than others. Their requirements are clear and straightforward so outputs and processes can be easily defined. Users know exactly what they want and what the system should do; there is almost no possibility of the users changing their minds. Such projects run a much lower risk than those with relatively undefined, fluid, and constantly changing requirements; with outputs that cannot be fixed easily because they are subject to users’ changing ideas; or with users who cannot agree on what they want.
- **Experience with technology.** The project risk rises if the project team and the information system staff lack the required technical expertise. If the team is unfamiliar with the hardware, system software, application software, or database management system proposed for the project, it is highly likely that the project will experience technical problems or take more time to complete because of the need to master new skills.
Although the difficulty of the technology is one risk factor in information systems projects, the other factors are primarily organizational, dealing with the complexity of information requirements, the scope of the project, and how many parts of the organization will be affected by a new information system.
### CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND THE CONCEPT OF IMPLEMENTATION
The introduction or alteration of an information system has a powerful behavioral and organizational impact. Changes in the way that information is defined, accessed, and used to manage the organization’s resources often lead to new distributions of authority and power. This internal organizational change breeds resistance and opposition and can lead to the demise of an otherwise good system.
A very large percentage of information systems projects stumble because the process of organizational change surrounding system building was not properly addressed. Successful system building requires careful **change management**.
### The Concept of Implementation
To manage the organizational change surrounding the introduction of a new information system effectively, you must examine the process of implementation. **Implementation** refers to all organizational activities working toward the adoption, management, and routinization of an innovation, such as a new
information system. In the implementation process, the systems analyst is a change agent. The analyst not only develops technical solutions but also redefines the configurations, interactions, job activities, and power relationships of various organizational groups. The analyst is the catalyst for the entire change process and is responsible for ensuring that all parties involved accept the changes created by a new system. The change agent communicates with users, mediates between competing interest groups, and ensures that the organizational adjustment to such changes is complete.
**The Role of End Users**
System implementation generally benefits from high levels of user involvement and management support. User participation in the design and operation of information systems has several positive results. First, if users are heavily involved in systems design, they have more opportunities to mold the system according to their priorities and business requirements, and more opportunities to control the outcome. Second, they are more likely to react positively to the completed system because they have been active participants in the change process. Incorporating user knowledge and expertise leads to better solutions.
The relationship between users and information systems specialists has traditionally been a problem area for information systems implementation efforts. Users and information systems specialists tend to have different backgrounds, interests, and priorities. This is referred to as the **user-designer communications gap**. These differences lead to divergent organizational loyalties, approaches to problem solving, and vocabularies.
Information systems specialists, for example, often have a highly technical, or machine, orientation to problem solving. They look for elegant and sophisticated technical solutions in which hardware and software efficiency is optimized at the expense of ease of use or organizational effectiveness. Users prefer systems that are oriented toward solving business problems or facilitating organizational tasks. Often the orientations of both groups are so at odds that they appear to speak in different tongues.
These differences are illustrated in Table 14-4, which depicts the typical concerns of end users and technical specialists (information systems designers) regarding the development of a new information system. Communication problems between end users and designers are a major reason why user requirements are not properly incorporated into information systems and why users are driven out of the implementation process.
Systems development projects run a very high risk of failure when there is a pronounced gap between users and technical specialists and when these groups continue to pursue different goals. Under such conditions, users are often
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**TABLE 14-4 THE USER-DESIGNER COMMUNICATIONS GAP**
| USER CONCERNS | DESIGNER CONCERNS |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Will the system deliver the information I need for my work? | How much disk storage space will the master file consume? |
| How quickly can I access the data? | How many lines of program code will it take to perform this function? |
| How easily can I retrieve the data? | How can we cut down on CPU time when we run the system? |
| How much clerical support will I need to enter data into the system? | What is the most efficient way of storing these data? |
| How will the operation of the system fit into my daily business schedule? | What database management system should we use? |
driven away from the project. Because they cannot comprehend what the technicians are saying, users conclude that the entire project is best left in the hands of the information specialists alone.
**Management Support and Commitment**
If an information systems project has the backing and commitment of management at various levels, it is more likely to be perceived positively by both users and the technical information services staff. Both groups will believe that their participation in the development process will receive higher-level attention and priority. They will be recognized and rewarded for the time and effort they devote to implementation. Management backing also ensures that a systems project receives sufficient funding and resources to be successful. Furthermore, to be enforced effectively, all the changes in work habits and procedures and any organizational realignments associated with a new system depend on management backing. If a manager considers a new system a priority, the system will more likely be treated that way by his or her subordinates.
**Change Management Challenges for Business Process Reengineering, Enterprise Applications, and Mergers and Acquisitions**
Given the challenges of innovation and implementation, it is not surprising to find a very high failure rate among enterprise application and business process reengineering (BPR) projects, which typically require extensive organizational change and which may require replacing old technologies and legacy systems that are deeply rooted in many interrelated business processes. A number of studies have indicated that 70 percent of all business process reengineering projects fail to deliver promised benefits. Likewise, a high percentage of enterprise applications fail to be fully implemented or to meet the goals of their users even after three years of work.
Many enterprise application and reengineering projects have been undermined by poor implementation and change management practices that failed to address employees' concerns about change. Dealing with fear and anxiety throughout the organization, overcoming resistance by key managers, changing job functions, career paths, and recruitment practices have posed greater threats to reengineering than the difficulties companies faced visualizing and designing breakthrough changes to business processes. All of the enterprise applications require tighter coordination among different functional groups as well as extensive business process change (see Chapter 9).
Projects related to mergers and acquisitions have a similar failure rate. Mergers and acquisitions are deeply affected by the organizational characteristics of the merging companies as well as by their IT infrastructures. Combining the information systems of two different companies usually requires considerable organizational change and complex systems projects to manage. If the integration is not properly managed, firms can emerge with a tangled hodgepodge of inherited legacy systems built by aggregating the systems of one firm after another. Without a successful systems integration, the benefits anticipated from the merger cannot be realized, or, worse, the merged entity cannot execute its business processes effectively.
**CONTROLLING RISK FACTORS**
Various project management, requirements gathering, and planning methodologies have been developed for specific categories of implementation
problems. Strategies have also been devised for ensuring that users play appropriate roles throughout the implementation period and for managing the organizational change process. Not all aspects of the implementation process can be easily controlled or planned. However, anticipating potential implementation problems and applying appropriate corrective strategies can increase the chances for system success.
The first step in managing project risk involves identifying the nature and level of risk confronting the project (Schmidt et al., 2001). Implementers can then handle each project with the tools and risk-management approaches geared to its level of risk (Iversen, Mathiassen, and Nielsen, 2004; Barki, Rivard, and Talbot, 2001; McFarlan, 1981).
**Managing Technical Complexity**
Projects with challenging and complex technology for users to master benefit from **internal integration tools**. The success of such projects depends on how well their technical complexity can be managed. Project leaders need both heavy technical and administrative experience. They must be able to anticipate problems and develop smooth working relationships among a predominantly technical team. The team should be under the leadership of a manager with a strong technical and project management background, and team members should be highly experienced. Team meetings should take place frequently. Essential technical skills or expertise not available internally should be secured from outside the organization.
**Formal Planning and Control Tools**
Large projects benefit from appropriate use of **formal planning tools** and **formal control tools** for documenting and monitoring project plans. The two most commonly used methods for documenting project plans are Gantt charts and PERT charts. A **Gantt chart** lists project activities and their corresponding start and completion dates. The Gantt chart visually represents the timing and duration of different tasks in a development project as well as their human resource requirements (see Figure 14-5). It shows each task as a horizontal bar whose length is proportional to the time required to complete it.
Although Gantt charts show when project activities begin and end, they don’t depict task dependencies, how one task is affected if another is behind schedule, or how tasks should be ordered. That is where **PERT charts** are useful. PERT stands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique, a methodology developed by the U.S. Navy during the 1950s to manage the Polaris submarine missile program. A PERT chart graphically depicts project tasks and their interrelationships. The PERT chart lists the specific activities that make up a project and the activities that must be completed before a specific activity can start, as illustrated in Figure 14-6.
The PERT chart portrays a project as a network diagram consisting of numbered nodes (either circles or rectangles) representing project tasks. Each node is numbered and shows the task, its duration, the starting date, and the completion date. The direction of the arrows on the lines indicates the sequence of tasks and shows which activities must be completed before the commencement of another activity. In Figure 14-6, the tasks in nodes 2, 3, and 4 are not dependent on each other and can be undertaken simultaneously, but each is dependent on completion of the first task. PERT charts for complex projects can be difficult to interpret, and project managers often use both techniques.
These project management techniques can help managers identify bottlenecks and determine the impact that problems will have on project compleThe Gantt chart in this figure shows the task, person-days, and initials of each responsible person, as well as the start and finish dates for each task. The resource summary provides a good manager with the total person-days for each month and for each person working on the project to manage the project successfully. The project described here is a data administration project.
This is a simplified PERT chart for creating a small Web site. It shows the ordering of project tasks and the relationship of a task with preceding and succeeding tasks.
Increasing User Involvement and Overcoming User Resistance
Projects with relatively little structure and many undefined requirements must involve users fully at all stages. Users must be mobilized to support one of many possible design options and to remain committed to a single design. External integration tools consist of ways to link the work of the implementation team to users at all organizational levels. For instance, users can become active members of the project team, take on leadership roles, and take charge of installation and training. The implementation team can demonstrate its responsiveness to users, promptly answering questions, incorporating user feedback, and showing their willingness to help (Gefen and Ridings, 2002).
Participation in implementation activities may not be enough to overcome the problem of user resistance to organizational change. Different users may be affected by the system in different ways. Whereas some users may welcome a new system because it brings changes they perceive as beneficial to them,
others may resist these changes because they believe the shifts are detrimental to their interests.
If the use of a system is voluntary, users may choose to avoid it; if use is mandatory, resistance will take the form of increased error rates, disruptions, turnover, and even sabotage. Therefore, the implementation strategy must not only encourage user participation and involvement, but it must also address the issue of counterimplementation (Keen, 1981). **Counterimplementation** is a deliberate strategy to thwart the implementation of an information system or an innovation in an organization.
Strategies to overcome user resistance include user participation (to elicit commitment as well as to improve design), user education and training, management edicts and policies, and better incentives for users who cooperate. The new system can be made more user friendly by improving the end-user interface. Users will be more cooperative if organizational problems are solved prior to introducing the new system.
The Interactive Session on Organizations illustrates some of these issues at work. Software firm DST Systems had trouble managing its projects because it had a high level of technical complexity and needed more powerful tools for planning and control. DST also needed buy-in from end users. As you read this case, try to determine how DST’s selection of software development methods addressed these problems.
**DESIGNING FOR THE ORGANIZATION**
Because the purpose of a new system is to improve the organization’s performance, information systems projects must explicitly address the ways in which the organization will change when the new system is installed, including installation of intranets, extranets, and Web applications. In addition to procedural changes, transformations in job functions, organizational structure, power relationships, and the work environment should be carefully planned.
Areas where users interface with the system require special attention, with sensitivity to ergonomics issues. **Ergonomics** refers to the interaction of people and machines in the work environment. It considers the design of jobs, health issues, and the end-user interface of information systems. Table 14-5 lists the organizational dimensions that must be addressed when planning and implementing information systems.
Although systems analysis and design activities are supposed to include an organizational impact analysis, this area has traditionally been neglected. An **organizational impact analysis** explains how a proposed system will
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**TABLE 14-5 ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS IN SYSTEMS PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION**
| Employee participation and involvement |
|----------------------------------------|
| Job design |
| Standards and performance monitoring |
| Ergonomics (including equipment, user interfaces, and the work environment) |
| Employee grievance resolution procedures |
| Health and safety |
| Government regulatory compliance |
Companies like DST Systems have recognized the value in Scrum development to their bottom lines, but making the transition from traditional developmental methods to Scrum development can be challenging. DST Systems is a software development company whose flagship product, Automated Work Distributor (AWD), increases back-office efficiency and helps offices become paperless. DST was founded in 1969 and its headquarters are in Kansas City, Missouri. The company has approximately 10,000 employees, 1,200 of whom are software developers.
This development group had used a mixture of tools, processes, and source code control systems without any unified repository for code or a standardized developer tool set. Different groups within the organization used very different tools for software development, like Serena PVCS, Eclipse, or other source code software packages. Processes were often manual and time-consuming. Managers were unable to easily determine how resources were being allocated, which of their employees were working on certain projects, and the status of specific assets.
All of this meant that DST struggled to update its most important product, AWD, in a timely fashion. Its typical development schedule was to release a new version once every two years, but competitors were releasing versions faster. DST knew that it needed a better method than the traditional “waterfall” method for designing, coding, testing, and integrating its products. In the waterfall model of software development, progression flows sequentially from one step to the next like a waterfall, with each step unable to start until the previous step has been completed. While DST had used this method with great success previously, DST began searching for viable alternatives.
The development group started exploring Scrum, a framework for agile software development in which projects progress via a series of iterations called sprints. Scrum projects make progress in a series of sprints, which are timeboxed iterations no more than a month long. At the start of a sprint, team members commit to delivering some number of features that were listed on a project's product backlog. These features are supposed to be completed by the end of the sprint—coded, tested, and integrated into the evolving product or system. At the end of the sprint, a sprint review allows the team to demonstrate the new functionality to the product owner and other interested stakeholders who provide feedback that could influence the next sprint.
Scrum relies on self-organizing, cross-functional teams supported by a ScrumMaster and a product owner. The ScrumMaster acts as a coach for the team, while the product owner represents the business, customers, or users in guiding the team toward building the right product.
DST tried Scrum with its existing software development tools and experienced strong results. The company accelerated its software development cycle from 24 to 6 months and developer productivity increased 20 percent, but Scrum didn’t work as well as DST had hoped with its existing tools. Processes broke down and the lack of standardization among the tools and processes used by DST prevented Scrum from providing its maximum benefit to the company. DST needed an application life cycle management (ALM) product that would unify its software development environment.
DST set up a project evaluation team to identify the right development environment for them. Key factors included cost-effectiveness, ease of adoption, and feature-effectiveness. DST wanted the ability to use the new software without significant training and software they could quickly adopt without jeopardizing AWD’s development cycle. After considering several ALM products and running test projects with each one, DST settled on CollabNet’s offering, TeamForge, for its ALM platform.
CollabNet specializes in software designed to work well with agile software development methods such as Scrum. Its core product is TeamForge, an integrated suite of Web-based development and collaboration tools for agile software development that centralizes management of users, projects, processes, and assets. DST also adopted CollabNet’s Subversion product to help with the management and control of changes to project documents, programs, and other information stored as computer
files. DST’s adoption of CollabNet’s products was fast, requiring only 10 weeks, and DST developers now do all of their work within this ALM platform. TeamForge was not forced on developers, but the ALM platform was so appealing compared to DST’s previous environment that developers adopted the product virally.
Jerry Tubbs, the systems development manager at DST Systems, says that DST was successful in its attempts to revamp its software group because of a few factors. First, it looked for simplicity rather than complicated, do-everything offerings. Simpler wasn’t just better for DST—it was also less expensive than some of the alternatives. DST also involved developers in the decision-making process to ensure that changes would be greeted enthusiastically. Last, by allowing developers to adopt ALM software on their own, DST avoided the resentment associated with mandating unwelcome change. DST’s move from waterfall to Scrum development was a success because the company selected the right development framework as well as the right software to make that change a reality and skillfully managed the change process.
Sources: Jerry Tubbs, “Team Building Goes Viral,” *Information Week*, February 22, 2010; www.collab.net, accessed August 2010; Mountain Goat Software, “Introduction to Scrum – An Agile Process,” www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/topics/scrum, accessed August 2010.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. What were some of the problems with DST Systems’ old software development environment?
2. How did Scrum development help solve some of those problems?
3. What other adjustments did DST make to be able to use Scrum more effectively in its software projects? What management, organization, and technology issues had to be addressed?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Search the Internet for videos or Web sites explaining Scrum or agile development. Then answer the following questions:
1. Describe some of the benefits and drawbacks of Scrum development.
2. How does Scrum differ from other software development methodologies?
3. What are the potential benefits to companies using Scrum development?
**Sociotechnical Design**
One way of addressing human and organizational issues is to incorporate sociotechnical design practices into information systems projects. Designers set forth separate sets of technical and social design solutions. The social design plans explore different workgroup structures, allocation of tasks, and the design of individual jobs. The proposed technical solutions are compared with the proposed social solutions. The solution that best meets both social and technical objectives is selected for the final design. The resulting sociotechnical design is expected to produce an information system that blends technical efficiency with sensitivity to organizational and human needs, leading to higher job satisfaction and productivity.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE TOOLS
Commercial software tools that automate many aspects of project management facilitate the project management process. Project management software typically features capabilities for defining and ordering tasks, assigning resources to tasks, establishing starting and ending dates to tasks, tracking progress, and facilitating modifications to tasks and resources. Many automate the creation of Gantt and PERT charts.
Some of these tools are large sophisticated programs for managing very large projects, dispersed work groups, and enterprise functions. These high-end tools can manage very large numbers of tasks and activities and complex relationships.
Microsoft Office Project 2010 has become the most widely used project management software today. It is PC-based, with capabilities for producing PERT and Gantt charts and for supporting critical path analysis, resource allocation, project tracking, and status reporting. Project also tracks the way changes in one aspect of a project affect others. Project Professional 2010 provides collaborative project management capabilities when used with Microsoft Office Project Server 2010. Project Server stores project data in a central SQL Server database, enabling authorized users to access and update the data over the Internet. Project Server 2010 is tightly integrated with the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services collaborative workspace platform. These features help large enterprises manage projects in many different locations. Products such as EasyProjects .NET and Vertabase are also useful for firms that want Web-based project management tools.
Going forward, delivery of project management software as a software service (SaaS) will make this technology accessible to more organizations, especially smaller ones. Open source versions of project management software such as Project Workbench and OpenProj will further reduce the total cost of ownership and attract new users. Thanks to the popularity of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, project management software is also likely to become more flexible, collaborative, and user-friendly.
While project management software helps organizations track individual projects, the resources allocated to them, and their costs, project portfolio management software helps organizations manage portfolios of projects and dependencies among them. The Interactive Session on Management describes how Hewlett-Packard’s project portfolio management software helped Motorola Inc. coordinate projects and determine the right mix of projects and resources to accomplish its strategic goals.
Motorola Inc. is a large multinational technology company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, specializing in broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility, public safety solutions, high-definition video, mobile devices, and a wide variety of other mobile technologies. Motorola earned $22 billion in revenue in 2009, with 53,000 employees worldwide. Motorola has grown organically through mergers and acquisitions, and consequently has thousands of systems performing various functions throughout the business. Motorola knew that if it could better manage its systems and its projects, it could drastically lower its operating costs. In today’s weakened economic climate, saving money and increasing efficiency have become more important than ever.
Motorola is organized into three major segments. The Mobile Devices segment of the business designs, manufactures, sells, and services wireless handsets, including smartphones. Motorola expects to face increasingly intense competition in this segment from a growing number of challengers hoping to cash in on the smartphone craze. Motorola’s Home and Networks segment develops infrastructure and equipment used by cable television operators, wireless service providers, and other communications providers, and its Enterprise Mobility Solutions segment develops and markets voice and data communications products, wireless broadband systems, and a host of applications and devices to a variety of enterprise customers.
Weak economic conditions had driven Motorola’s numbers down across all major segments of the business. The company used the downturn to review its business in depth to locate areas where it could become more efficient. Motorola first analyzed each of its business functions in terms of its importance and value to the business. Then, it analyzed the complexity and cost of that function. For example, engineering at Motorola is very important to the company’s success, and differentiates it from its competitors. Engineering is also one of Motorola’s most complicated and costly business functions.
Motorola repeated this analysis for all of its business functions, and then determined which areas required adjustment. Processes that were not as critical to the company’s success, but were still highly complex and costly became candidates to be scaled down. Processes that were critical to the company but poorly funded were candidates for better support. After performing this exercise, Motorola hoped to automate many of the management tasks that it had classified as less complex, but the sheer size of the company made automation challenging.
Motorola has 1,800 information systems and 1,500 information systems employees who are responsible for 1,000 projects per year. The company also outsources much of its IT work to outside contractors, further increasing the number of regular users of its systems. Managing that many workers is difficult and often leads to inefficiency. Many of the company’s employees were working on similar projects or compiling the same data sets, unaware that other groups within the company were doing the same work. Motorola hoped to identify and eliminate these groups, also known as “redundant silos” of activity within the company, both to cut costs and increase productivity. Management also hoped to prioritize resource usage so that projects that were most valuable to the company received the resources they needed to be successful first.
Motorola’s managers hoped to achieve their goals of automating processes and lowering operating costs by adopting HP’s Project and Portfolio Management Center software, or HP PPM. This software helps managers compare proposals, projects, and operational activities against budgets and resource capacity levels. All of the information Motorola gathered from its process analysis is located in a central location with HP PPM, which also serves as the centralized source of other critical information such as the amount of investment dollars used by a process and the priorities of business requests coming through Motorola’s systems. HP PPM allows Motorola’s IT employees and managers quick and easy access to any and all data pertaining to the company’s business processes.
HP PPM allows Motorola to govern its entire IT portfolio using a broad array of tools, including objective prioritization; multiple levels of input, review, and approval; and real-time visibility into all areas of the business. HP PPM users have up-to-the-minute data on resources, budgets, forecasts, costs, programs, projects, and overall IT demand. HP PPM
can be accessed by Motorola employees on the premises or as software as a service (SaaS). Motorola used the on-site version, but converted to SaaS with no effect on usability. Motorola employees rave that HP has been responsive and reliable with its service and customer support. Using SaaS reduces Motorola’s support costs by approximately 50 percent.
HP PPM uses a series of graphical displays and highly targeted data to effectively capture real-time IT program and project status. It also features what-if scenario planning that automatically creates an optimal mix of projects, proposals, and assets. This means that users can use HP PPM to perform a similar analysis of business processes that Motorola initially made by hand to begin its IT overhaul and to generate recommendations based on that analysis. Users can also use the what-if scenario planning tools to predict the value and usefulness of new projects.
The results have been just what Motorola had hoped for. In two years, the company reduced its cost structure by 40 percent, and on larger projects using HP PPM, Motorola has achieved an average of 150 percent ROI. Motorola’s IT support costs decreased by 25 percent. The redundant silos of workers performing the same tasks were all but eliminated, removing 25 percent of the company’s “wasted work.” Motorola also hopes to use HP PPM for resource management and application support.
Sources: HP, “Motorola: Excellence in Cost Optimization” (2010) and “HP Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Portfolio Management Module Data Sheet,” www.hp.com, accessed November 9, 2010; Dana Gardner, “Motorola Shows Dramatic Savings in IT Operations Costs with ‘ERP for IT’ Tools,” ZD Net, June 18, 2010; “Motorola Inc. Form 10-K”, for the fiscal year ended Dec 31, 2009, accessed via www.sec.gov.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What are some of the challenges Motorola faces as a business? Why is project management so critical at this company?
2. What features of HP PPM were most useful to Motorola?
3. What management, organization, and technology factors had to be addressed before Motorola could implement and successfully use HP PPM?
4. Evaluate the business impact of adopting HP PPM at Motorola.
MIS IN ACTION
Use a search engine to search for “IT portfolio management software” or “IT project management software” and find a competing offering to HP PPM. Then answer the following questions:
1. What makes this solution different from HP PPM?
2. What types of companies is this solution best geared towards?
3. Find a case study of this solution in action. Did the company described in the case realize similar benefits to Motorola?
14.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience evaluating information systems projects, using spreadsheet software to perform capital budgeting analyses for new information systems investments, and using Web tools to analyze the financing for a new home.
Management Decision Problems
1. In 2001, McDonald’s Restaurants undertook a project called Innovate to create an intranet connecting headquarters with its 30,000 restaurants in 120 countries to provide detailed operational information in real time. The new system would, for instance, inform a manager at the company’s Oak Brook, Illinois, headquarters immediately if sales were slowing at a franchise in London, or if the grill temperature in a Rochester, Minnesota, restaurant wasn’t hot enough. The idea was to create a global ERP application touching the workings of every McDonald’s restaurant. Some of these restaurants were in countries that lacked network infrastructures. After spending over $1 billion over several years, including $170 million on consultants and initial implementation planning, McDonalds terminated the project. What should management have known or done at the outset to prevent this outcome?
2. Caterpillar is the world’s leading maker of earthmoving machinery and supplier of agricultural equipment. Caterpillar wants to end its support for its Dealer Business System (DBS), which it licenses to its dealers to help them run their businesses. The software in this system is becoming out of date, and senior management wants to transfer support for the hosted version of the software to Accenture Consultants so it can concentrate on its core business. Caterpillar never required its dealers to use DBS, but the system had become a de facto standard for doing business with the company. The majority of the 50 Cat dealers in North America use some version of DBS, as do about half of the 200 or so Cat dealers in the rest of the world. Before Caterpillar turns the product over to Accenture, what factors and issues should it consider? What questions should it ask? What questions should its dealers ask?
Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software for Capital Budgeting for a New CAD System
Software skills: Spreadsheet formulas and functions
Business skills: Capital budgeting
This project provides you with an opportunity to use spreadsheet software to use the capital budgeting models discussed in this chapter to analyze the return on an investment for a new CAD system.
Your company would like to invest in a new CAD system that requires purchasing hardware, software, and networking technology, as well as expenditures for installation, training, and support. MyMISlab contains tables showing each cost component for the new system as well as annual maintenance costs over a five-year period. It also features a Learning Track on capital budgeting models. You believe the new system will produce annual savings by reducing the amount of labor required to generate designs and design specifications, thus increasing your firm's annual cash flow.
- Using the data provided in these tables, create a worksheet that calculates the costs and benefits of the investment over a five-year period and analyzes
the investment using the capital budgeting models presented in this chapter’s Learning Track.
- Is this investment worthwhile? Why or why not?
**Improving Decision Making: Using Web Tools for Buying and Financing a Home**
*Software skills:* Internet-based software
*Business skills:* Financial planning
This project will develop your skills using Web-based software for searching for a home and calculating mortgage financing for that home.
You have found a new job in Denver, Colorado, and would like to purchase a home in that area. Ideally, you would like to find a single-family house with at least three bedrooms and one bathroom that costs between $150,000 and $225,000 and finance it with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. You can afford a down payment that is 20 percent of the value of the house. Before you purchase a house, you would like to find out what homes are available in your price range, find a mortgage, and determine the amount of your monthly payment. You would also like to see how much of your mortgage payment represents principal and how much represents interest. Use the Yahoo! Real Estate Web site to help you with the following tasks:
- Locate homes in your price range in Denver, Colorado. Find out as much information as you can about the houses, including the real estate listing agent, condition of the house, number of rooms, and school district.
- Find a mortgage for 80 percent of the list price of the home. Compare rates from at least three sites (use search engines to find sites other than Yahoo!).
- After selecting a mortgage, calculate your closing costs.
- Calculate the monthly payment for the mortgage you select.
- Calculate how much of your monthly mortgage payment represents principal and how much represents interest, assuming you do not plan to make any extra payments on the mortgage.
When you are finished, evaluate the whole process. For example, assess the ease of use of the site and your ability to find information about houses and mortgages, the accuracy of the information you found, the breadth of choice of homes and mortgages, and how helpful the whole process would have been for you if you were actually in the situation described in this project.
**Learning Track Modules**
The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter:
1. Capital Budgeting Methods for Information System Investments
2. Information Technology Investments and Productivity
3. Enterprise Analysis (Business Systems Planning)
1. **What are the objectives of project management and why is it so essential in developing information systems?**
Good project management is essential for ensuring that systems are delivered on time, on budget, and provide genuine business benefits. Project management activities include planning the work, assessing the risk, estimating and acquiring resources required to accomplish the work, organizing the work, directing execution, and analyzing the results. Project management must deal with five major variables: scope, time, cost, quality, and risk.
2. **What methods can be used for selecting and evaluating information systems projects and aligning them with the firm’s business goals?**
Organizations need an information systems plan that describes how information technology supports the attainment of their business goals and documents all their system applications and IT infrastructure components. Large corporations will have a management structure to ensure the most important systems projects receive priority. Critical success factors, portfolio analysis, and scoring models can be used to identify and evaluate alternative information systems projects.
3. **How can firms assess the business value of information systems projects?**
To determine whether an information systems project is a good investment, one must calculate its costs and benefits. Tangible benefits are quantifiable, and intangible benefits that cannot be immediately quantified may provide quantifiable benefits in the future. Benefits that exceed costs should be analyzed using capital budgeting methods to make sure a project represents a good return on the firm’s invested capital. Real options pricing models, which apply the same techniques for valuing financial options to systems investments, can be useful when considering highly uncertain IT investments.
4. **What are the principal risk factors in information systems projects?**
The level of risk in a systems development project is determined by (1) project size, (2) project structure, and (3) experience with technology. IS projects are more likely to fail when there is insufficient or improper user participation in the systems development process, lack of management support, and poor management of the implementation process. There is a very high failure rate among projects involving business process reengineering, enterprise applications, and mergers and acquisitions because they require extensive organizational change.
5. **What strategies are useful for managing project risk and system implementation?**
Implementation refers to the entire process of organizational change surrounding the introduction of a new information system. User support and involvement and management support and control of the implementation process are essential, as are mechanisms for dealing with the level of risk in each new systems project. Project risk factors can be brought under some control by a contingency approach to project management. The risk level of each project determines the appropriate mix of external integration tools, internal integration tools, formal planning tools, and formal control tools to be applied.
**Key Terms**
- Capital budgeting, 538
- Change agent, 541
- Change management, 540
- Counterimplementation, 546
- Critical success factors (CSFs), 533
- Ergonomics, 546
- External integration tools, 545
- Formal control tools, 543
- Formal planning tools, 543
- Gantt chart, 543
- Implementation, 540
- Information systems plan, 532
- Intangible benefits, 537
- Internal integration tools, 543
- Organizational impact analysis, 546
- PERT chart, 543
- Portfolio analysis, 534
- Project, 530
- Project management, 530
- Real options pricing models (ROPMs), 538
- Scope, 530
- Scoring model, 535
- Sociotechnical design, 548
- Tangible benefits, 537
- User-designer communications gap, 541
- User interface, 530
Review Questions
1. What are the objectives of project management and why is it so essential in developing information systems?
- Describe information system problems resulting from poor project management.
- Define project management. List and describe the project management activities and variables addressed by project management.
2. What methods can be used for selecting and evaluating information systems projects and aligning them with the firm’s business goals?
- Name and describe the groups responsible for the management of information systems projects.
- Describe the purpose of an information systems plan and list the major categories in the plan.
- Explain how critical success factors, portfolio analysis, and scoring models can be used to select information systems projects.
3. How can firms assess the business value of information systems projects?
- List and describe the major costs and benefits of information systems.
- Distinguish between tangible and intangible benefits.
4. What are the principal risk factors in information systems projects?
- Identify and describe each of the principal risk factors in information systems projects.
- Explain why builders of new information systems need to address implementation and change management.
- Explain why eliciting support of management and end users is so essential for successful implementation of information systems projects.
- Explain why there is such a high failure rate for implementations involving enterprise applications, business process reengineering, and mergers and acquisitions.
5. What strategies are useful for managing project risk and system implementation?
- Identify and describe the strategies for controlling project risk.
- Identify the organizational considerations that should be addressed by project planning and implementation.
- Explain how project management software tools contribute to successful project management.
Discussion Questions
1. How much does project management impact the success of a new information system?
2. It has been said that most systems fail because systems builders ignore organizational behavior problems. Why might this be so?
3. What is the role of end users in information systems project management?
Collaboration and Teamwork: Identifying Implementation Problems
Form a group with two or three other students. Write a description of the implementation problems you might expect to encounter in one of the systems described in the Interactive Sessions or chapter-ending cases in this text. Write an analysis of the steps you would take to solve or prevent these problems. If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
In recent years, the airline industry has seen several low-cost, high-efficiency carriers rise to prominence using a recipe of extremely competitive fares and outstanding customer service. Two examples of this business model in action are JetBlue and WestJet. Both companies were founded within the past two decades and have quickly grown into industry powerhouses. But when these companies need to make sweeping IT upgrades, their relationships with customers and their brands can be tarnished if things go awry. In 2009, both airlines upgraded their airline reservation systems, and one of the two learned this lesson the hard way.
JetBlue was incorporated in 1998 and founded in 1999 by David Neeleman. The company is headquartered in Queens, New York. Its goal is to provide low-cost travel along with unique amenities like TV in every seat, and its development of state-of-the-art IT throughout the business was a critical factor in achieving that goal. JetBlue met with early success, and the airline was one of the few that remained profitable in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. JetBlue continued to grow at a rapid pace, remaining profitable throughout, until 2005, when the company lost money in a quarter for the first time since going public. Undaunted, the airline quickly returned to profitability in the next year after implementing its “Return to Profitability” plan, and consistently ranks at the top of customer satisfaction surveys and rankings for U.S. airlines.
Headquartered in Calgary, Canada, WestJet was founded by a group of airline industry veterans in 1996, including Neeleman, who left to start JetBlue shortly thereafter. The company began with approximately 40 employees and three aircraft. Today, the company has 7,700 employees and operates 380 flights per day. Earlier in this decade, WestJet underwent rapid expansion spurred by its early success and began adding more Canadian destinations and then U.S. cities to its flight schedule. By 2010, WestJet held nearly 40 percent of the Canadian airline market, with Air Canada dropping to 55 percent.
JetBlue is slightly bigger, with 151 aircraft in use compared to WestJet’s 88, but both have used the same low-cost, good-service formula to achieve profitability in the notoriously treacherous airline marketplace. The rapid growth of each airline rendered their existing information systems obsolete, including their airline reservation systems.
Upgrading a reservation system carries special risks. From a customer perspective, only one of two things can happen: Either the airline successfully completes its overhaul and the customer notices no difference in the ability to book flights, or the implementation is botched, angering customers and damaging the airline’s brand.
The time had come for both JetBlue and WestJet to upgrade their reservation systems. Each carrier had started out using a system designed for smaller start-up airlines, and both needed more processing power to deal with a far greater volume of customers. They also needed features like the ability to link prices and seat inventories to other airlines with whom they cooperated.
Both JetBlue and WestJet contracted with Sabre Holdings, one of the most widely used airline IT providers, to upgrade their airline reservation systems. The difference between WestJet and JetBlue’s implementation of Sabre’s SabreSonic CSS reservation system illustrates the dangers inherent in any large-scale IT overhaul. It also serves as yet another reminder of how successfully planning for and implementing new technology is just as valuable as the technology itself.
SabreSonic CSS performs a broad array of services for any airline. It sells seats, collects payments, allows customers to shop for flights on the airline’s Web site, and provides an interface for communication with reservation agents. Customers can use it to access airport kiosks, select specific seats, check their bags, board, rebook, and receive refunds for flight cancellations. All of the data generated by these transactions are stored centrally within the system. JetBlue selected SabreSonic CSS over its legacy system developed by Sabre rival Navitaire, and WestJet was upgrading from an older Sabre reservation system of its own.
The first of the two airlines to implement SabreSonic CSS was WestJet. When WestJet went live with the new system in October 2009, customers struggled to place reservations, and the WestJet Web site crashed repeatedly. WestJet’s call centers were also overwhelmed, and customers experienced slowdowns at airports. For a company that built its business on the strength of good customer service, this was a nightmare. How did WestJet allow this to happen?
The critical issue was the transfer of WestJet’s 840,000 files containing data on transactions for past WestJet customers who had already purchased flights, from WestJet’s old reservation system servers in Calgary to Sabre servers in Oklahoma. The migration required WestJet agents to go through complex steps to process the data. WestJet had not anticipated the transfer time required to move the files and failed to reduce its passenger loads on flights operating immediately after the changeover. Hundreds of thousands of bookings for future flights that were made before the changeover were inaccessible during the file transfer and for a period of time thereafter, because Sabre had to adjust the flights using the new system.
This delay provoked a deluge of customer dissatisfaction, a rarity for WestJet. In addition to the increase in customer complaint calls, customers also took to the Internet to express their displeasure. Angry flyers expressed outrage on Facebook and flooded WestJet’s site, causing the repeated crashes. WestJet quickly offered an apology to customers on its site once it went back up, explaining why the errors had occurred. WestJet employees had trained with the new system for a combined 150,000 hours prior to the upgrade, but WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer explained that the company “encounter(ed) some problems in the live environment that simply did not appear in the test environment,” foremost among them the issues surrounding the massive file transfer.
WestJet’s latest earnings reports show that the company weathered the storm successfully and remained profitable, but the incident forced the airline to scale back its growth plans. WestJet has put its frequent flyer program and co-branded credit card, the RBC WestJet MasterCard, on hold, in addition to code-sharing plans with other airlines including Southwest, KLM, and British Airways. These plans would allow one airline to sell flights under its own name on aircraft operated by other airlines. For the time being, WestJet is hoping to return to growth before pursuing these measures.
In contrast, JetBlue had the advantage of seeing WestJet begin its implementation months before, so it was able to avoid many of the pitfalls that WestJet endured. For example, they built a backup Web site to prepare for the worst-case scenario. The company also hired 500 temporary call center workers to manage potential spikes in customer service calls. (WestJet also ended up hiring temporary offshore call center workers, but only after the problem had gotten out of hand.) JetBlue made sure to switch its files over to Sabre’s servers on a Friday night, because Saturday flight traffic is typically very low. JetBlue also sold smaller numbers of seats on the flights that did take off that day.
JetBlue experienced a few glitches—call wait times increased, and not all airport kiosks and ticket printers came online right away. In addition, JetBlue needed to add some booking functions. But compared to what WestJet endured, the company was extremely well prepared to handle these problems. JetBlue ended up using its backup site several times.
However, JetBlue had also experienced its own customer service debacles in the past. In February 2007, JetBlue tried to operate flights during a blizzard when all other major airlines had already canceled their flights. This turned out to be a poor decision, as the weather conditions prevented the flights from taking off and passengers were stranded for as long as 10 hours. JetBlue had to continue canceling flights for days afterwards, reaching a total of 1,100 flights canceled and a loss of $30 million. JetBlue management realized in the wake of the crisis that the airline’s IT infrastructure, although sufficient to deal with normal day-to-day conditions, was not robust enough to handle a crisis of this magnitude. This experience, coupled with the observation of WestJet’s struggles when implementing its new system, motivated JetBlue’s cautious approach to its own IT implementation.
Sources: Susan Carey, “Two Paths to Software Upgrade,” *The Wall Street Journal*, April 13, 2010; Aaron Karp, “WestJet Offers Heartfelt Apologies” on Res System Snafu; Posts CS$31 Million Profit, *Air Transport World*, November 5, 2009; Ellen Roseman, “WestJet Reservation Change Frustrates,” thestar.com, December 2, 2009; Calgary Herald, “WestJet Reservation-System Problems Affecting Sales,” Kelowna.com; “JetBlue Selects SabreSonic CSS for Revenue and Operational Systems,” Shepard.com, February 17, 2009; “Jilted by JetBlue for Sabre,” Tnooz.com, February 5, 2010.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. How important is the reservation system at airlines such as WestJet and JetBlue? How does it impact operational activities and decision making?
2. Evaluate the key risk factors of the projects to upgrade the reservation systems of WestJet and JetBlue.
3. Classify and describe the problems each airline faced in implementing its new reservation system. What management, organization, and technology factors caused those problems?
4. Describe the steps you would have taken to control the risk in these projects.
Chapter 15
Managing Global Systems
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:
1. What major factors are driving the internationalization of business?
2. What are the alternative strategies for developing global businesses?
3. How can information systems support different global business strategies?
4. What are the challenges posed by global information systems and management solutions for these challenges?
5. What are the issues and technical alternatives to be considered when developing international information systems?
Interactive Sessions:
Fonterra: Managing the World’s Milk Trade
How Cell Phones Support Economic Development
CHAPTER OUTLINE
15.1 THE GROWTH OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Developing an International Information Systems Architecture
The Global Environment: Business Drivers and Challenges
State of the Art
15.2 ORGANIZING INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Global Strategies and Business Organization
Global Systems to Fit the Strategy
Reorganizing the Business
15.3 MANAGING GLOBAL SYSTEMS
A Typical Scenario: Disorganization on a Global Scale
Global Systems Strategy
The Management Solution: Implementation
15.4 TECHNOLOGY ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS
Computing Platforms and Systems Integration
Connectivity
Software Localization
15.5 HANDS-ON MIS PROJECTS
Management Decision Problems
Achieving Operational Excellence: Building a Job Database and Web Page for an International Consulting Firm
Improving Decision Making: Conducting International Marketing and Pricing Research
3M is a diversified technology company with a global presence. Its products are available in 200 countries, it has operations in 62 counties, and it produces over 55,000 products. In 2009, the company generated $23.1 billion in revenue, down from $25.6 billion (8 percent) in 2008 as the global recession slowed business activity. The company employs 76,000 people. 3M, headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, is the poster-child for global American firms: 63 percent of its revenue comes from offshore sales (14.6 billion), and 58 percent of its employees are international.
3M's core competencies historically have been sticky films and scratchy papers (sandpaper), and, since its founding in 1902, has continuously demonstrated through new products just how much the world depends on these competencies. 3M is organized into six largely independent divisions: Industrial and Transportation (tapes, abrasives, and adhesives); Health Care (surgical tapes to dental inserts); Consumer and Office (furnace filters to Post-it notes and Scotchbrite pads); Safety, Security, and Protection Services (respirators to Thinsulite insulation and RFD equipment); Display and Graphics (LCD monitors to highway reflective tape); and Electro and Communications (insulating materials to disk drive lubricants). 3M is among the leading manufacturers of products for many of the markets it serves.
With such a large global presence, with many of its foreign operations the results of purchases, the company was until recently a collection of legacy applications spread across the globe. 3M inherited the hardware and software of acquired companies, from the shop floor, to supply chain, sales, office, and reporting systems. Even where 3M expanded organically by moving into new countries, each of the six divisions, and thousands of their smaller operations, developed their own information and reporting systems with very little corporate, global oversight. As one manager noted, if 3M continued to operate its business with an accumulation of disaggregated solutions, the company would not be able to efficiently operate in the current recession, or support future growth.
In 2008, 3M began a series of restructurings of its operations, including a review of its global systems. In 2010, 3M adopted SAP's Business Suite Applications to replace all of its legacy software around the world. The intent is to transform its business processes on a global scale, and force independent divisions to adopt common software tools and, more importantly, common business processes. The price tag is also global: licensing fees paid to SAP are reported as somewhere between $35 million to $75 million.
Business Suite 7 is SAP's brand of enterprise systems. It consists of five integrated modules that can be run on a wide variety of hardware platforms, and which work well with software from other vendors. The core business process and software modules are customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), product lifecycle management, supply chain...
management (SCM), and supplier relationship management. Each module has pre-defined business processes, and the software needed to support these processes. Firms adapt their own business processes to these “industry best-practice modules,” or make changes in the SAP software to fit their business models. Business Suite is built on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), which means it can work well with data from legacy database systems and offers lower implementation costs.
In implementing SAP’s Business Suite, 3M is not following in the footsteps of some ill-fated global system initiatives by other Fortune 500 companies. Rather than do a “rip, burn, replace” of all its old software, 3M is rolling out the SAP enterprise software in phased and modular stages. Following a piecemeal approach, it is rolling out a demand forecasting and supply planning module in Europe first, and then once the concept is validated, additional rollouts will follow around the world. In Asia-Pacific, 3M is implementing its ERP system over the next several years. In the past, executive managers in the United States did not have timely, accurate, or consistent information on how all the firms business units, regions, and products were performing. To a large extent, 3M was not manageable or governable prior to the current effort to rationalize its systems. One solution will be SAP’s business intelligence (BI) software which will enable 3M’s management to access accurate and timely data on business performance across its divisions to support informed decision making. The SAP software agreement enables 3M to integrate the best practices it has gained with its existing BI deployments from the SAP BusinessObject portfolio in the United States and in other regions into the global rollout template. One advantage of having integrated global systems is the ability to transfer what you learn in one region to another region. In a further sign that 3M management has a keen understanding of corporate structure and strategy, the firm plans to maintain a large measure of independence among the six divisions because their histories and products are so different. It will not force the divisions to adopt a single instance of the SAP products but instead will allow substantial variation among divisions, what one wag called “virtual instances” of the software that reflect the needs of customers served by the various divisions.
Sources: Chris Chiappinelli, “3M Selects SAP Business Suite in Effort to Unify Its Core Processes,” *Managing Automation*, April 4, 2010; Doug Henschen, “SAP ERP Software Tapped by 3M,” *Information Week*, March 1, 2010; “SAP Gains 3M as New Customer,” www.sap.com, March 1, 2010; 3M, Form 10K For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2009, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission February 16, 2010.
3M’s efforts to create a global IT infrastructure identifies some of the issues that truly global organizations need to consider if they want to operate across the globe. Like many large, multinational firms, 3M grew rapidly by purchasing other businesses in foreign countries, as well as through expanding domestic operations to foreign countries. In the process, 3M inherited hundreds of legacy software systems, and developed new systems, few of which could share information with one another, or report consistent information to corporate headquarters. 3M’s legacy information systems simply could not support timely management decision making on a global scale.
The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. To solve its global management and business challenges, 3M adopted an integrated suite of software applications from SAP, one of the world’s largest software firms. 3M had to devise a flexible, modular implementation strategy that integrated both the existing legacy systems, and preserved some measure of autonomy for the six divisions that are the basis of the company. 3M is now able to respond to changes in business conditions around the globe and around the clock.
15.1 THE GROWTH OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
In earlier chapters, we describe the emergence of a global economic system and global world order driven by advanced networks and information systems. The new world order is sweeping away many national corporations, national industries, and national economies controlled by domestic politicians. Many localized firms will be replaced by fast-moving networked corporations that transcend national boundaries. The growth of international trade has radically altered domestic economies around the globe.
Today, the production and design of many electronic products are parceled out to a number of different countries. Consider the path to market for a Hewlett-Packard (HP) laptop computer, which is illustrated in Figure 15-1.
**FIGURE 15-1 AN HP LAPTOP’S PATH TO MARKET**
HP and other electronics companies assign distribution and production of their products to a number of different countries.
The idea for the product and initial design came from HP’s Laptop Design Team in the United States. HP headquarters in Houston approved the concept. Graphics processors were designed in Canada and manufactured in Taiwan. Taiwan and South Korea provided the liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens and many of the memory chips. The laptop’s hard disk drive came from Japan. Sources in China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States supplied other components. Laptop assembly took place in China. Contractors in Taiwan did the machine’s engineering design and collaborated with the Chinese manufacturers.
**DEVELOPING AN INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE**
This chapter describes how to go about building an international information systems architecture suitable for your international strategy. An **international information systems architecture** consists of the basic information systems required by organizations to coordinate worldwide trade and other activities. Figure 15-2 illustrates the reasoning we follow throughout the chapter and depicts the major dimensions of an international information systems architecture.
The basic strategy to follow when building an international system is to understand the global environment in which your firm is operating. This means understanding the overall market forces, or business drivers, that are pushing your industry toward global competition. A **business driver** is a force in the environment to which businesses must respond and that influences the direction of the business. Likewise, examine carefully the inhibitors or negative factors that create *management challenges*—factors that could scuttle the development of a global business. Once you have examined the global environment, you will need to consider a corporate strategy for competing in that environ-
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**FIGURE 15-2** INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE
The major dimensions for developing an international information systems architecture are the global environment, the corporate global strategies, the structure of the organization, the management and business processes, and the technology platform.
ment. How will your firm respond? You could ignore the global market and focus on domestic competition only, sell to the globe from a domestic base, or organize production and distribution around the globe. There are many in-between choices.
After you have developed a strategy, it is time to consider how to structure your organization so it can pursue the strategy. How will you accomplish a division of labor across a global environment? Where will production, administration, accounting, marketing, and human resource functions be located? Who will handle the systems function?
Next, you must consider the management issues in implementing your strategy and making the organization design come alive. Key here will be the design of business processes. How can you discover and manage user requirements? How can you induce change in local units to conform to international requirements? How can you reengineer on a global scale, and how can you coordinate systems development?
The last issue to consider is the technology platform. Although changing technology is a key driving factor leading toward global markets, you need to have a corporate strategy and structure before you can rationally choose the right technology.
After you have completed this process of reasoning, you will be well on your way toward an appropriate international information systems portfolio capable of achieving your corporate goals. Let's begin by looking at the overall global environment.
**THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT: BUSINESS DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES**
Table 15-1 lists the business drivers in the global environment that are leading all industries toward global markets and competition.
The global business drivers can be divided into two groups: general cultural factors and specific business factors. Easily recognized general cultural factors have driven internationalization since World War II. Information, communication, and transportation technologies have created a *global village* in which communication (by telephone, television, radio, or computer network) around the globe is no more difficult and not much more expensive than communication down the block. The cost of moving goods and services to and from geographically dispersed locations has fallen dramatically.
The development of global communications has created a global village in a second sense: A *global culture* created by television, the Internet, and other
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**TABLE 15-1 THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT: BUSINESS DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES**
| GENERAL CULTURAL FACTORS | SPECIFIC BUSINESS FACTORS |
|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| Global communication and transportation technologies | Global markets |
| Development of global culture | Global production and operations |
| Emergence of global social norms | Global coordination |
| Political stability | Global workforce |
| Global knowledge base | Global economies of scale |
globally shared media such as movies now permits different cultures and peoples to develop common expectations about right and wrong, desirable and undesirable, heroic and cowardly. The collapse of the Eastern bloc has speeded the growth of a world culture enormously, increased support for capitalism and business, and reduced the level of cultural conflict considerably.
A last factor to consider is the growth of a global knowledge base. At the end of World War II, knowledge, education, science, and industrial skills were highly concentrated in North America, western Europe, and Japan, with the rest of the world euphemistically called the *Third World*. This is no longer true. Latin America, China, India, southern Asia, and eastern Europe have developed powerful educational, industrial, and scientific centers, resulting in a much more democratically and widely dispersed knowledge base.
These general cultural factors leading toward internationalization result in specific business globalization factors that affect most industries. The growth of powerful communications technologies and the emergence of world cultures lay the groundwork for *global markets*—global consumers interested in consuming similar products that are culturally approved. Coca-Cola, American sneakers (made in Korea but designed in Los Angeles), and Cable News Network (CNN) programming can now be sold in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Responding to this demand, global production and operations have emerged with precise online coordination between far-flung production facilities and central headquarters thousands of miles away. At Sealand Transportation, a major global shipping company based in Newark, New Jersey, shipping managers in Newark can watch the loading of ships in Rotterdam online, check trim and ballast, and trace packages to specific ship locations as the activity proceeds. This is all possible through an international satellite link.
The new global markets and pressure toward global production and operation have called forth whole new capabilities for global coordination. Production, accounting, marketing and sales, human resources, and systems development (all the major business functions) can be coordinated on a global scale.
Frito Lay, for instance, can develop a marketing sales force automation system in the United States and, once provided, may try the same techniques and technologies in Spain. Micromarketing—marketing to very small geographic and social units—no longer means marketing to neighborhoods in the United States, but to neighborhoods throughout the world! These new levels of global coordination permit for the first time in history the location of business activity according to comparative advantage. Design should be located where it is best accomplished, as should marketing, production, and finance.
Finally, global markets, production, and administration create the conditions for powerful, sustained global economies of scale. Production driven by worldwide global demand can be concentrated where it can best be accomplished, fixed resources can be allocated over larger production runs, and production runs in larger plants can be scheduled more efficiently and precisely estimated. Lower cost factors of production can be exploited wherever they emerge. The result is a powerful strategic advantage to firms that can organize globally. These general and specific business drivers have greatly enlarged world trade and commerce.
Not all industries are similarly affected by these trends. Clearly, manufacturing has been much more affected than services that still tend to be domestic
and highly inefficient. However, the localism of services is breaking down in telecommunications, entertainment, transportation, finance, law, and general business. Clearly, those firms within an industry that can understand the internationalization of the industry and respond appropriately will reap enormous gains in productivity and stability.
**Business Challenges**
Although the possibilities of globalization for business success are significant, fundamental forces are operating to inhibit a global economy and to disrupt international business. Table 15-2 lists the most common and powerful challenges to the development of global systems.
At a cultural level, **particularism**, making judgments and taking action on the basis of narrow or personal characteristics, in all its forms (religious, nationalistic, ethnic, regionalism, geopolitical position) rejects the very concept of a shared global culture and rejects the penetration of domestic markets by foreign goods and services. Differences among cultures produce differences in social expectations, politics, and ultimately legal rules. In certain countries, such as the United States, consumers expect domestic name-brand products to be built domestically and are disappointed to learn that much of what they thought of as domestically produced is in fact foreign made.
Different cultures produce different political regimes. Among the many different countries of the world are different laws governing the movement of information, information privacy of their citizens, origins of software and hardware in systems, and radio and satellite telecommunications. Even the hours of business and the terms of business trade vary greatly across political cultures. These different legal regimes complicate global business and must be considered when building global systems.
For instance, European countries have very strict laws concerning transborder data flow and privacy. **Transborder data flow** is defined as the movement of information across international boundaries in any form. Some European countries prohibit the processing of financial information outside their boundaries or the movement of personal information to foreign countries. The European Union Data Protection Directive, which went into effect in October 1998, restricts the flow of any information to countries (such as the United States) that do not meet strict European information laws on personal information. Financial services, travel, and health care companies are often directly affected. In response, most multinational firms develop information systems within each European country to avoid the cost and uncertainty of moving information across national boundaries.
**TABLE 15-2 CHALLENGES AND OBSTACLES TO GLOBAL BUSINESS SYSTEMS**
| GLOBAL | SPECIFIC |
|--------|----------|
| Cultural particularism: Regionalism, nationalism, language differences | Standards: Different Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), e-mail, telecommunications standards |
| Social expectations: Brand-name expectations, work hours | Reliability: Phone networks not uniformly reliable |
| Political laws: Transborder data and privacy laws, commercial regulations | Speed: Different data transfer speeds, many slower than United States |
| | Personnel: Shortages of skilled consultants |
Cultural and political differences profoundly affect organizations' business processes and applications of information technology. A host of specific barriers arise from the general cultural differences, everything from different reliability of phone networks to the shortage of skilled consultants.
National laws and traditions have created disparate accounting practices in various countries, which impact the ways profits and losses are analyzed. German companies generally do not recognize the profit from a venture until the project is completely finished and they have been paid. Conversely, British firms begin posting profits before a project is completed, when they are reasonably certain they will get the money.
These accounting practices are tightly intertwined with each country's legal system, business philosophy, and tax code. British, U.S., and Dutch firms share a predominantly Anglo-Saxon outlook that separates tax calculations from reports to shareholders to focus on showing shareholders how fast profits are growing. Continental European accounting practices are less oriented toward impressing investors, focusing rather on demonstrating compliance with strict rules and minimizing tax liabilities. These diverging accounting practices make it difficult for large international companies with units in different countries to evaluate their performance.
Language remains a significant barrier. Although English has become a kind of standard business language, this is truer at higher levels of companies and not throughout the middle and lower ranks. Software may have to be built with local language interfaces before a new information system can be successfully implemented.
Currency fluctuations can play havoc with planning models and projections. A product that appears profitable in Mexico or Japan may actually produce a loss because of changes in foreign exchange rates.
These inhibiting factors must be taken into account when you are designing and building international systems for your business. For example, companies trying to implement "lean production" systems spanning national boundaries typically underestimate the time, expense, and logistical difficulties of making goods and information flow freely across different countries.
**STATE OF THE ART**
One might think, given the opportunities for achieving competitive advantages as outlined previously and the interest in future applications, that most international companies have rationally developed marvelous international systems architectures. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most companies have inherited patchwork international systems from the distant past, often based on concepts of information processing developed in the 1960s—batch-oriented reporting from independent foreign divisions to corporate headquarters, manual entry of data from one legacy system to another, with little online control and communication. Corporations in this situation increasingly face powerful competitive challenges in the marketplace from firms that have rationally designed truly international systems. Still other companies have recently built technology platforms for international systems but have nowhere to go because they lack global strategy.
As it turns out, there are significant difficulties in building appropriate international architectures. The difficulties involve planning a system appropriate to the firm's global strategy, structuring the organization of systems and business units, solving implementation issues, and choosing the right technical platform. Let's examine these problems in greater detail.
15.2 ORGANIZING INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Three organizational issues face corporations seeking a global position: choosing a strategy, organizing the business, and organizing the systems management area. The first two are closely connected, so we discuss them together.
GLOBAL STRATEGIES AND BUSINESS ORGANIZATION
Four main global strategies form the basis for global firms’ organizational structure. These are domestic exporter, multinational, franchiser, and transnational. Each of these strategies is pursued with a specific business organizational structure (see Table 15-3). For simplicity’s sake, we describe three kinds of organizational structure or governance: centralized (in the home country), decentralized (to local foreign units), and coordinated (all units participate as equals). Other types of governance patterns can be observed in specific companies (e.g., authoritarian dominance by one unit, a confederacy of equals, a federal structure balancing power among strategic units, and so forth).
The **domestic exporter** strategy is characterized by heavy centralization of corporate activities in the home country of origin. Nearly all international companies begin this way, and some move on to other forms. Production, finance/accounting, sales/marketing, human resources, and strategic management are set up to optimize resources in the home country. International sales are sometimes dispersed using agency agreements or subsidiaries, but even here, foreign marketing relies on the domestic home base for marketing themes and strategies. Caterpillar Corporation and other heavy capital-equipment manufacturers fall into this category of firm.
The **multinational** strategy concentrates financial management and control out of a central home base while decentralizing production, sales, and marketing operations to units in other countries. The products and services on sale in different countries are adapted to suit local market conditions. The organization becomes a far-flung confederation of production and marketing facilities in different countries. Many financial service firms, along with a host of manufacturers, such as General Motors, Chrysler, and Intel, fit this pattern.
**Franchisers** are an interesting mix of old and new. On the one hand, the product is created, designed, financed, and initially produced in the home country, but for product-specific reasons must rely heavily on foreign personnel for further production, marketing, and human resources. Food franchisers such
| BUSINESS FUNCTION | DOMESTIC EXPORTER | MULTINATIONAL | FRANCHISER | TRANSNATIONAL |
|-------------------|-------------------|---------------|------------|---------------|
| Production | Centralized | Dispersed | Coordinated| Coordinated |
| Finance/Accounting| Centralized | Centralized | Centralized| Coordinated |
| Sales/Marketing | Mixed | Dispersed | Coordinated| Coordinated |
| Human Resources | Centralized | Centralized | Coordinated| Coordinated |
| Strategic Management | Centralized | Centralized | Centralized| Coordinated |
as McDonald’s, Mrs. Fields Cookies, and KFC fit this pattern. McDonald’s created a new form of fast-food chain in the United States and continues to rely largely on the United States for inspiration of new products, strategic management, and financing. Nevertheless, because the product must be produced locally—it is perishable—extensive coordination and dispersal of production, local marketing, and local recruitment of personnel are required.
Generally, foreign franchisees are clones of the mother country units, but fully coordinated worldwide production that could optimize factors of production is not possible. For instance, potatoes and beef can generally not be bought where they are cheapest on world markets but must be produced reasonably close to the area of consumption.
Transnational firms are the stateless, truly globally managed firms that may represent a larger part of international business in the future. Transnational firms have no single national headquarters but instead have many regional headquarters and perhaps a world headquarters. In a transnational strategy, nearly all the value-adding activities are managed from a global perspective without reference to national borders, optimizing sources of supply and demand wherever they appear, and taking advantage of any local competitive advantages. Transnational firms take the globe, not the home country, as their management frame of reference. The governance of these firms has been likened to a federal structure in which there is a strong central management core of decision making, but considerable dispersal of power and financial muscle throughout the global divisions. Few companies have actually attained transnational status, but Citicorp, Sony, Ford, and others are attempting this transition.
Information technology and improvements in global telecommunications are giving international firms more flexibility to shape their global strategies. Protectionism and a need to serve local markets better encourage companies to disperse production facilities and at least become multinational. At the same time, the drive to achieve economies of scale and take advantage of short-term local advantage moves transnationals toward a global management perspective and a concentration of power and authority. Hence, there are forces of decentralization and dispersal, as well as forces of centralization and global coordination.
**GLOBAL SYSTEMS TO FIT THE STRATEGY**
Information technology and improvements in global telecommunications are giving international firms more flexibility to shape their global strategies. The configuration, management, and development of systems tend to follow the global strategy chosen. Figure 15-3 depicts the typical arrangements. By *systems* we mean the full range of activities involved in building and operating information systems: conception and alignment with the strategic business plan, systems development, and ongoing operation and maintenance. For the sake of simplicity, we consider four types of systems configuration. *Centralized systems* are those in which systems development and operation occur totally at the domestic home base. *Duplicated systems* are those in which development occurs at the home base but operations are handed over to autonomous units in foreign locations. *Decentralized systems* are those in which each foreign unit designs its own unique solutions and systems. *Networked systems* are those in which systems development and operations occur in an integrated and coordinated fashion across all units.
The large Xs show the dominant patterns, and the small Xs show the emerging patterns. For instance, domestic exporters rely predominantly on centralized systems, but there is continual pressure and some development of decentralized systems in local marketing regions.
As can be seen in Figure 15-3, domestic exporters tend to have highly centralized systems in which a single domestic systems development staff develops worldwide applications. Multinationals offer a direct and striking contrast: Here, foreign units devise their own systems solutions based on local needs with few if any applications in common with headquarters (the exceptions being financial reporting and some telecommunications applications). Franchisers have the simplest systems structure: Like the products they sell, franchisers develop a single system usually at the home base and then replicate it around the world. Each unit, no matter where it is located, has identical applications. Last, the most ambitious form of systems development is found in transnational firms: Networked systems are those in which there is a solid, singular global environment for developing and operating systems. This usually presupposes a powerful telecommunications backbone, a culture of shared applications development, and a shared management culture that crosses cultural barriers. The networked systems structure is the most visible in financial services where the homogeneity of the product—money and money instruments—seems to overcome cultural barriers.
**REORGANIZING THE BUSINESS**
How should a firm organize itself for doing business on an international scale? To develop a global company and information systems support structure, a firm needs to follow these principles:
1. Organize value-adding activities along lines of comparative advantage.
For instance, marketing/sales functions should be located where they can best be performed, for least cost and maximum impact; likewise with production, finance, human resources, and information systems.
2. Develop and operate systems units at each level of corporate activity—regional, national, and international. To serve local needs, there should be *host country systems units* of some magnitude. *Regional systems units* should handle telecommunications and systems development across national boundaries that take place within major geographic regions (European, Asian, American). *Transnational systems units* should be established to create the linkages across major regional areas and coordinate the development and operation of international telecommunications and systems development (Roche, 1992).
3. Establish at world headquarters a single office responsible for development of international systems—a global chief information officer (CIO) position.
Many successful companies have devised organizational systems structures along these principles. The success of these companies relies not only on the proper organization of activities, but also on a key ingredient—a management team that can understand the risks and benefits of international systems and that can devise strategies for overcoming the risks. We turn to these management topics next.
### 15.3 Managing Global Systems
Table 15-4 lists the principal management problems posed by developing international systems. It is interesting to note that these problems are the chief difficulties managers experience in developing ordinary domestic systems as well. But these are enormously complicated in the international environment.
#### A Typical Scenario: Disorganization on a Global Scale
Let's look at a common scenario. A traditional multinational consumer-goods company based in the United States and operating in Europe would like to expand into Asian markets and knows that it must develop a transnational strategy and a supportive information systems structure. Like most multinationals, it has dispersed production and marketing to regional and national centers while maintaining a world headquarters and strategic management in the United States. Historically, it has allowed each of the subsidiary foreign divisions to develop its own systems. The only centrally coordinated system is financial controls and reporting. The central systems group in the United States focuses only on domestic functions and production.
The result is a hodgepodge of hardware, software, and telecommunications. The e-mail systems between Europe and the United States are incompatible. Each production facility uses a different manufacturing resources planning system (or a different version of the same ERP system), and different marketing, sales, and human resource systems. Hardware and database platforms are wildly different. Communications between different sites are poor, given the high cost of European intercountry communications. The central systems group at headquarters in the United States recently was decimated and dis-
| Table 15-4 Management Challenges in Developing Global Systems |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| Agreeing on common user requirements |
| Introducing changes in business processes |
| Coordinating applications development |
| Coordinating software releases |
| Encouraging local users to support global systems. |
persed to the U.S. local sites in the hope of serving local needs better and reducing costs.
What do you recommend to the senior management leaders of this company, who now want to pursue a transnational strategy and develop an information systems architecture to support a highly coordinated global systems environment? Consider the problems you face by reexamining Table 15-4. The foreign divisions will resist efforts to agree on common user requirements; they have never thought about much other than their own units' needs. The systems groups in American local sites, which have been enlarged recently and told to focus on local needs, will not easily accept guidance from anyone recommending a transnational strategy. It will be difficult to convince local managers anywhere in the world that they should change their business procedures to align with other units in the world, especially if this might interfere with their local performance. After all, local managers are rewarded in this company for meeting local objectives of their division or plant. Finally, it will be difficult to coordinate development of projects around the world in the absence of a powerful telecommunications network and, therefore, difficult to encourage local users to take on ownership in the systems developed.
**GLOBAL SYSTEMS STRATEGY**
Figure 15-4 lays out the main dimensions of a solution. First, consider that not all systems should be coordinated on a transnational basis; only some core
---
**FIGURE 15-4 LOCAL, REGIONAL, AND GLOBAL SYSTEMS**
Agency and other coordination costs increase as the firm moves from local option systems toward regional and global systems. However, transaction costs of participating in global markets probably decrease as firms develop global systems. A sensible strategy is to reduce agency costs by developing only a few core global systems that are vital for global operations, leaving other systems in the hands of regional and local units.
*Source:* From *Managing Information Technology in Multinational Corporations* by Edward M. Roche, © 1993. Adapted by permission of Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.
systems are truly worth sharing from a cost and feasibility point of view. **Core systems** support functions that are absolutely critical to the organization. Other systems should be partially coordinated because they share key elements, but they do not have to be totally common across national boundaries. For such systems, a good deal of local variation is possible and desirable. A final group of systems is peripheral, truly provincial, and needed to suit local requirements only.
**Define the Core Business Processes**
How do you identify core systems? The first step is to define a short list of critical core business processes. Business processes are defined and described in Chapter 2, which you should review. Briefly, business processes are sets of logically related tasks to produce specific business results, such as shipping out correct orders to customers or delivering innovative products to the market. Each business process typically involves many functional areas, communicating and coordinating work, information, and knowledge.
The way to identify these core business processes is to conduct a business process analysis. How are customer orders taken, what happens to them once they are taken, who fills the orders, how are they shipped to the customers? What about suppliers? Do they have access to manufacturing resource planning systems so that supply is automatic? You should be able to identify and set priorities in a short list of 10 business processes that are absolutely critical for the firm.
Next, can you identify centers of excellence for these processes? Is the customer order fulfillment superior in the United States, manufacturing process control superior in Germany, and human resources superior in Asia? You should be able to identify some areas of the company, for some lines of business, where a division or unit stands out in the performance of one or several business functions.
When you understand the business processes of a firm, you can rank-order them. You then can decide which processes should be core applications, centrally coordinated, designed, and implemented around the globe, and which should be regional and local. At the same time, by identifying the critical business processes, the really important ones, you have gone a long way to defining a vision of the future that you should be working toward.
**Identify the Core Systems to Coordinate Centrally**
By identifying the critical core business processes, you begin to see opportunities for transnational systems. The second strategic step is to conquer the core systems and define these systems as truly transnational. The financial and political costs of defining and implementing transnational systems are extremely high. Therefore, keep the list to an absolute minimum, letting experience be the guide and erring on the side of minimalism. By dividing off a small group of systems as absolutely critical, you divide opposition to a transnational strategy. At the same time, you can appease those who oppose the central worldwide coordination implied by transnational systems by permitting peripheral systems development to progress unabated, with the exception of some technical platform requirements.
**Choose an Approach: Incremental, Grand Design, Evolutionary**
A third step is to choose an approach. Avoid piecemeal approaches. These surely will fail for lack of visibility, opposition from all who stand to lose from
transnational development, and lack of power to convince senior management that the transnational systems are worth it. Likewise, avoid grand design approaches that try to do everything at once. These also tend to fail, because of an inability to focus resources. Nothing gets done properly, and opposition to organizational change is needlessly strengthened because the effort requires huge resources. An alternative approach is to evolve transnational applications incrementally from existing applications with a precise and clear vision of the transnational capabilities the organization should have in five years. This is sometimes referred to as the “salami strategy,” or one slice at a time.
**Make the Benefits Clear**
What is in it for the company? One of the worst situations to avoid is to build global systems for the sake of building global systems. From the beginning, it is crucial that senior management at headquarters and foreign division managers clearly understand the benefits that will come to the company as well as to individual units. Although each system offers unique benefits to a particular budget, the overall contribution of global systems lies in four areas.
Global systems—truly integrated, distributed, and transnational systems—contribute to superior management and coordination. A simple price tag cannot be put on the value of this contribution, and the benefit will not show up in any capital budgeting model. It is the ability to switch suppliers on a moment’s notice from one region to another in a crisis, the ability to move production in response to natural disasters, and the ability to use excess capacity in one region to meet raging demand in another.
A second major contribution is vast improvement in production, operation, and supply and distribution. Imagine a global value chain, with global suppliers and a global distribution network. For the first time, senior managers can locate value-adding activities in regions where they are most economically performed.
Third, global systems mean global customers and global marketing. Fixed costs around the world can be amortized over a much larger customer base. This will unleash new economies of scale at production facilities.
Last, global systems mean the ability to optimize the use of corporate funds over a much larger capital base. This means, for instance, that capital in a surplus region can be moved efficiently to expand production of capital-starved regions; that cash can be managed more effectively within the company and put to use more effectively.
These strategies will not by themselves create global systems. You will have to implement what you strategize.
**THE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION: IMPLEMENTATION**
We now can reconsider how to handle the most vexing problems facing managers developing the global information systems architectures that were described in Table 15-4.
**Agreeing on Common User Requirements**
Establishing a short list of the core business processes and core support systems will begin a process of rational comparison across the many divisions of the company, develop a common language for discussing the business, and naturally lead to an understanding of common elements (as well as the unique qualities that must remain local).
Introducing Changes in Business Processes
Your success as a change agent will depend on your legitimacy, your authority, and your ability to involve users in the change design process. **Legitimacy** is defined as the extent to which your authority is accepted on grounds of competence, vision, or other qualities. The selection of a viable change strategy, which we have defined as evolutionary but with a vision, should assist you in convincing others that change is feasible and desirable. Involving people in change, assuring them that change is in the best interests of the company and their local units, is a key tactic.
Coordinating Applications Development
Choice of change strategy is critical for this problem. At the global level there is far too much complexity to attempt a grand design strategy of change. It is far easier to coordinate change by making small incremental steps toward a larger vision. Imagine a five-year plan of action rather than a two-year plan of action, and reduce the set of transnational systems to a bare minimum to reduce coordination costs.
Coordinating Software Releases
Firms can institute procedures to ensure that all operating units convert to new software updates at the same time so that everyone’s software is compatible.
Encouraging Local Users to Support Global Systems
The key to this problem is to involve users in the creation of the design without giving up control over the development of the project to parochial interests. The overall tactic for dealing with resistant local units in a transnational company is cooptation. **Cooptation** is defined as bringing the opposition into the process of designing and implementing the solution without giving up control over the direction and nature of the change. As much as possible, raw power should be avoided. Minimally, however, local units must agree on a short list of transnational systems, and raw power may be required to solidify the idea that transnational systems of some sort are truly required.
How should cooptation proceed? Several alternatives are possible. One alternative is to permit each country unit the opportunity to develop one transnational application first in its home territory, and then throughout the world. In this manner, each major country systems group is given a piece of the action in developing a transnational system, and local units feel a sense of ownership in the transnational effort. On the downside, this assumes the ability to develop high-quality systems is widely distributed, and that, a German team, for example, can successfully implement systems in France and Italy. This will not always be the case.
A second tactic is to develop new transnational centers of excellence, or a single center of excellence. There may be several centers around the globe that focus on specific business processes. These centers draw heavily from local national units, are based on multinational teams, and must report to worldwide management. Centers of excellence perform the initial identification and specification of business processes, define the information requirements, perform the business and systems analysis, and accomplish all design and testing. Implementation, however, and pilot testing are rolled out to other parts of the globe. Recruiting a wide range of local groups to transnational centers of excellence helps send the message that all significant groups are involved in the design and will have an influence.
FONterra: Managing the World’s Milk Trade
While global trade has expanded at over 9 percent a year in the last 20 years, many international companies still rely on outdated manual processes and paperwork for conducting their international trade business. In 2010, global trade of goods and services will amount to a staggering $15 trillion. That’s a little bigger than the entire United States economy ($14 trillion). There are many complex challenges that managers face when conducting business on an international scale. Chief among these challenges is managing the import and export business process. Managing an import/export business involves managing three processes: compliance with foreign and domestic laws, customs clearance procedures, and risk management. Each country you export to has different laws governing imported products and different customs procedures. Trading across boundaries raises financial and contractual risks. What if you export to a foreign company and it doesn’t pay you? What kinds of credit assessments can you perform in various countries? What if your goods are stalled at a foreign port for lack of proper documents? What are the proper documents? The potential pitfalls are numerous.
In the past, time-consuming and error-prone manual methods were incapable of handling the complex challenges of global trade. To conduct business in other countries, your company must comply with local laws, satisfy trade security measures, meet documentation requirements, understand complicated tariffs and duties, and coordinate the involvement of all parties. Handling these responsibilities manually increases the risk of errors. According to a United Nations study, the inefficient administration of customs regulations and documents accounts for 7 percent of the cost of international trade. That’s $1 trillion lost annually on a global basis to inefficient handling of customs documents. Poor management of compliance and risk accounts for even more losses.
Increasingly, international firms are turning to enterprise software and business intelligence applications to manage their import/export business processes on a global scale. One world, one business, one set of software tools with pre-defined business processes that are the same the world over. That’s the dream. Fonterra provides an example of a firm (actually a cooperative) that is implementing an import/export process control system.
Fonterra is the world’s leading exporter of dairy products. Owned by 11,000 New Zealand dairy farmers, Fonterra is a cooperative that exports 95 percent of its products to 140 countries—of all the dairy goods it manufactures, only 5 percent are consumed within its domestic market. Fonterra is primarily an exporting firm. Fonterra has $10 billion in assets, annual revenues of $12.1 billion, and produces 3.6 billion gallons of milk each year. If you wonder how that’s possible, the answer is Fonterra relies on the contributions of 4.3 million New Zealand cows, and over 15,000 employees. Fonterra accounts for over 25 percent of New Zealand’s export trade, and about 30 percent of all global trade in milk and milk products.
Fonterra’s operations generate a substantial amount of transactional data. “The volume going through this platform is quite significant in both dollar and transactional terms,” says Clyde Fletcher, Documentation Center Manager at Fonterra. “But we don’t just rely on New Zealand. We procure our products from multiple countries to try to spread the risk. We also export out of Australia, the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.” This data needs to be captured in an enterprise database, then moved into a data warehouse so management can monitor the firm’s operations. To handle more complex import/export processes, Fonterra turned to the SAP BusinessObjects Global Trade Services solution.
SAP Global Trade Services (SAP GTS) automates import/export processes, while ensuring that transactions comply with all customs and security regulations. SAP GTS helps companies standardize and streamline trade processes across their entire enterprise and business units. And it fosters use of shared data and shared collaboration knowledge, replacing high-maintenance manual processes.
With SAP GTS, Fonterra has been able to lower the cost, and reduce the risk, of doing business internationally. To date, SAP GTS has helped Fonterra standardize and streamline trade processes across its entire enterprise and business units. And it has fostered the sharing of data, greater collaboration, and sharing of knowledge throughout the firm. SAP GTS manages the complexities of global trade and ensures
full regulatory compliance. The solution helps reduce buffer stock by improving transparency throughout the supply chain—sharing cross-border trade information will all partners, including freight forwarders, insurance agencies, banks, and regulatory entities. SAP GTS has helped Fonterra avoid supply chain bottlenecks, costly production downtime, and errors that can result in expensive penalties—and even revoked import/export privileges.
Sources: David Barboza, “Supply Chain for iPhone Highlights Costs in China,” *New York Times*, July 5, 2010; Lauren Bonneau, “Mastering Global Trade at Fonterra,” CustomProfiles, SAP.com, July 1, 2010; Kevin Keller, “iPhone Carries Bill of Materials of $187.51,” iSuppli.com/Teardowns, June 28, 2010.
**CASE STUDY QUESTIONS**
1. Describe the various capabilities of SAP GTS. How does using this software help Fonterra manage its export trade? What quantifiable benefits does this system provide?
2. How would you characterize Fonterra’s global business strategy and structure (review Table 15-3). What kind of a global business is it? Has Fonterra’s structure and strategy shaped its uses of SAP GTS? Would a transnational company choose a different solution?
3. What influence does the global business environment have on firms like Fonterra, and how does that influence their choice of systems?
**MIS IN ACTION**
Explore Fonterra’s Web site (Fonterra.com) and then answer the following questions:
1. Go the Web site SAP.com and search on “GTS.” Click on the article entitled “SAP GRC Global Trade Services: Streamline and Secure Your Global Supply Chain.” What benefits does SAP promise to deliver for global trading companies? Create a summary table for your class.
2. Visit SAP’s largest competitor, Oracle.com, and identify similar applications provided by Oracle. What do you think are the most important management and business considerations in deciding between Oracle and SAP solutions for global projects? Discover one global firm that uses Oracle’s global trade offerings, and compare that firm to Fonterra.
Even with the proper organizational structure and appropriate management choices, it is still possible to stumble over technology issues. Choices of technology platforms, networks, hardware, and software are the final element in building transnational information systems architectures.
**15.4 Technology Issues and Opportunities for Global Value Chains**
Once firms have defined a global business model and systems strategy, they must select hardware, software, and networking standards along with key system applications to support global business processes. Hardware, software, and networking pose special technical challenges in an international setting.
One major challenge is finding some way to standardize a global computing platform when there is so much variation from operating unit to operating unit and from country to country. Another major challenge is finding specific software applications that are user friendly and that truly enhance the productivity of international work teams. The universal acceptance of the Internet around the globe has greatly reduced networking problems. But the mere presence of the Internet does not guarantee that information will flow seamlessly throughout the global organization because not all business units use the same applications, and the quality of Internet service can be highly variable (just as with the telephone service). For instance, German business units may use an open source collaboration tool to share documents and communicate, which is incompatible with American headquarters teams, which use Lotus Notes. Overcoming these challenges requires systems integration and connectivity on a global basis.
**COMPUTING PLATFORMS AND SYSTEMS INTEGRATION**
The development of a transnational information systems architecture based on the concept of core systems raises questions about how the new core systems will fit in with the existing suite of applications developed around the globe by different divisions, different people, and for different kinds of computing hardware. The goal is to develop global, distributed, and integrated systems to support digital business processes spanning national boundaries. Briefly, these are the same problems faced by any large domestic systems development effort. However, the problems are magnified in an international environment. Just imagine the challenge of integrating systems based on the Windows, Linux, Unix, or proprietary operating systems running on IBM, Sun, HP, and other hardware in many different operating units in many different countries!
Moreover, having all sites use the same hardware and operating system does not guarantee integration. Some central authority in the firm must establish data standards, as well as other technical standards with which sites are to comply. For instance, technical accounting terms such as the beginning and end of the fiscal year must be standardized (review the earlier discussion of the cultural challenges to building global businesses), as well as the acceptable interfaces between systems, communication speeds and architectures, and network software.
**CONNECTIVITY**
Truly integrated global systems must have connectivity—the ability to link together the systems and people of a global firm into a single integrated network just like the phone system but capable of voice, data, and image transmissions. The Internet has provided an enormously powerful foundation for providing connectivity among the dispersed units of global firms. However, many issues remain. The public Internet does not guarantee any level of service (even in the U.S.). Few global corporations trust the security of the Internet and generally use private networks to communicate sensitive data, and Internet virtual private networks (VPNs) for communications that require less security. Not all countries support even basic Internet service that requires obtaining reliable circuits, coordinating among different carriers and the regional telecommunications authority, and obtaining standard agreements for the level of telecommunications service provided. Table 15-5 lists the major challenges posed by international networks.
While private networks have guaranteed service levels and better security than the Internet, the Internet is the primary foundation for global corporate networks when lower security and service levels are acceptable. Companies can create global intranets for internal communication or extranets to exchange
information more rapidly with business partners in their supply chains. They can use the public Internet to create global networks using VPNs from Internet service providers, which provide many features of a private network using the public Internet (see Chapter 7). However, VPNs may not provide the same level of quick and predictable response as private networks, especially during times of the day when Internet traffic is very congested, and they may not be able to support large numbers of remote users.
The high cost of PCs, and low incomes, limit access to Internet service in many developing countries (see Figure 15-5). Where an Internet infrastructure exists in less-developed countries, it often lacks bandwidth capacity, and is unreliable in part due to power grid issues. The purchasing power of most people in developing countries makes access to Internet services very expensive in local currencies. In addition, many countries monitor transmis-
**FIGURE 15-5** INTERNET PENETRATION BY REGION
The percentage of the total population using the Internet in developing countries is much smaller than in the United States and Europe, but the fastest growth is in Asia.
*Source: Internetworldstats.com, 2010.*
sions. Governments in China, Singapore, Iran, and Saudi Arabia monitor Internet traffic and block access to Web sites considered morally or politically offensive. On the other hand, the rate of growth in the Internet population is far faster in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East than in North America and Europe, where the Internet population is growing slowly if at all. In 2010, China, for instance, has more than 420 million Internet users compared to the United States with about 221 million. Therefore, in the future, Internet connectivity will be much more widely available and reliable in less-developed regions of the world, and it will play a significant role in integrating these economies with the world economy.
The Interactive Session on Organizations describes how cell phones provide a partial solution to this problem. Their use is mushrooming in developing countries, and they are starting to become engines for economic development.
**SOFTWARE LOCALIZATION**
The development of core systems poses unique challenges for application software: How will the old systems interface with the new? Entirely new interfaces must be built and tested if old systems are kept in local areas (which is common). These interfaces can be costly and messy to build. If new software must be created, another challenge is to build software that can be realistically used by multiple business units from different countries given that business units are accustomed to their unique business processes and definitions of data.
Aside from integrating the new with the old systems, there are problems of human interface design and functionality of systems. For instance, to be truly useful for enhancing productivity of a global workforce, software interfaces must be easily understood and mastered quickly. Graphical user interfaces are
This page from the Pearson Prentice Hall Web site was translated into Japanese. Web sites and software interfaces for global systems may have to be translated into multiple languages to accommodate users in other parts of the world.
HOW CELL PHONES SUPPORT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
As cell phones, the Internet, high-speed Internet connections, and other information and communication technologies become increasingly widespread, more and more people are experiencing the benefits each technology has to offer. Many of these technologies have not yet closed the “digital divide” separating the world’s well-developed and underdeveloped nations. Some countries, like the United States, have access to most new technologies, but most residents of poorer countries still struggle with challenges like obtaining reliable electricity and abject poverty. Recent trends in cell phone design and consumer research indicate that cellular phones are crossing the digital divide and are becoming a truly ubiquitous technology (far more so than personal computers), enhancing the quality of life for millions of people while also increasing the strength of the global economy. As in the United States, by 2015, cell phones will be the primary means of access to the Internet in the developing world.
For instance, mobile phone use in Africa is booming. Despite their high costs (the price of a phone in Niger is equal to five days of income), mobile phone subscriptions in Africa have risen from 16 million in 2000, to 376 million in 2008. Sixty-eight percent of the world’s mobile phone subscriptions are in developing countries, compared with 20 percent of the world’s Internet users. Because cell phones combine features of watches, alarm clocks, cameras and video cameras, stereos, televisions, and perhaps even wallets soon due to the growing popularity of mobile banking, they are growing in usefulness even as they decrease in price. Most importantly, cell phones are increasingly becoming the most convenient and affordable way to connect to the Internet and perform other tasks traditionally associated with computers. And cell phones are much less costly than personal computers.
The possession of a cell phone greatly increases efficiency and quality of life, so the global economy would stand to benefit on a proportionally large scale. Many economists believe that widespread cell phone usage in developing countries is having a profound and revolutionary effect on their economic well-being in a way that traditional methods of foreign aid have failed to achieve.
Cellular phone companies such as Nokia are sending what they call “human-behavior researchers” or “user anthropologists” to gather as much useful information as they can about consumer habits and the lives of potential cell phone buyers. They pass on that information to cell phone designers and technology architects. This process represents a new approach to designing phones known as “human-centered design”. Human-centered design is important to high-tech companies trying to build products that people find appealing and easy to use, and are thus more likely to be bought.
Nokia and other companies face significant challenges in marketing their phones to the poorest segment of Africa and Asia’s populations. Barriers include lack of electricity in many areas, incomes too low to afford a cell phone, and potential lack of service in non-urban areas. India currently leads the way in cell phone subscriptions, with an astounding 756 million (63 percent of its total population), but many other countries lag far behind both in cell phone usage and rates of Internet access. For example, Morocco, one of Africa’s leaders in cell phone and Internet usage, boasts 20 million Internet users, or 58 percent of its total population. By comparison, the United States, has over 221 million Internet users of all ages, or 79 percent of its total population.
The World Resources Institute published a report detailing how the poor in developing countries allocate their money. Even the poorest families dedicated significant portions of their small budgets to communication technologies such as cell phones. Having a cell phone is a tremendous advantage for members of populations that are constantly on the move due to war, drought, natural disasters, or extreme poverty, primarily because it allows people to remain reachable under practically any circumstances. Cell phones also have implications for medicine in these countries: patients can more easily reach doctors, and doctors can more easily acquire information pertaining to diseases and ailments they may need to treat.
In addition to the benefit of being able to stay in touch with others, cell phones are also useful as a business tool. Evidence suggests that possession of a cell phone increases profits on an individual level,
allowing people to more easily identify and take advantage of business opportunities. A recent study by the Centre for Economic Policy Research also showed that for every additional 10 cellular phones per 100 people a country acquires, that country’s gross domestic product (GDP) rises 0.5 percent.
In Niger, millet is a household staple sold in traditional village markets across thousands of square miles. According to economists, the growth of mobile phone coverage reduced grain price differences across markets by 15 percent between 2001 and 2007, with a greater impact on markets isolated by distance and poor-quality roads. Traders could respond to surpluses and shortages in the market, making better decisions about price and delivery. As a result, trader profits rose and prices fell.
Harvard economist Robert Jensen discovered that the introduction of mobile phones in the Indian coastal state of Kerala reduced price differences across fish markets by almost 60 percent between 1997 and 2001, providing an almost-perfect example of the “Law of One Price”: when markets work efficiently, identical goods have the same price. In addition, mobile phones almost completely eliminated waste—the catch left unsold at the end of the day—by allowing fishermen to call around to different markets while at sea, choose the market with the best price, and sell accordingly. Mobile phones resulted in financial improvements for both fishermen and consumers: fishermen’s profits increased by 8 percent, and consumer prices declined by 4 percent.
Economists and others who believe that poor countries need to radically change their economic structure in order to develop, and who also discourage reliance on international aid given to failing economies, are enthusiastic about the positive impact that cell phones and other information technologies can have on underdeveloped countries. Access to the Internet via cell phones also promises to bring about societal and political change in developing countries in which repressive governments exert control over all forms of media.
Sources: Worldwide Worx, “Businesses Across Africa Are Expecting a Revolution in Internet Access, Technology and Costs as a Result of the Rush of New Undersea Cables Connecting the Continent,” Telecom Trends in Africa Report 2010, September 16, 2010; Jenny C. Aker and Isaac M. Mbiti, “Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa,” Center for Global Development, June 1, 2010; Jenny Aker and Isaac Mbiti, “Africa Calling: Can Mobile Phones Make a Miracle,” Boston Review, March/April 2010; “Top 20 Countries—Internet Usage,” Internetworldstats.com, November 2010.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What strategies are cell phone companies using to ‘close the digital divide’ and market phones to the poorest segment of the world’s population?
2. Why do economists predict that widespread cell phone usage in developing countries would have an unprecedented effect on the growth of those countries?
3. What are some examples of how cell phones might increase quality of life for residents of developing countries?
4. Do you believe that cell phones will proliferate widely through Africa and Asia? Why or why not?
MIS IN ACTION
Explore the Web site for One Laptop Per Child (www.laptop.org) and then answer the following questions:
1. What are the capabilities of the XO laptop (especially the latest version, XO-3)? How well-suited is this machine for developing countries?
2. How would use of the XO laptop narrow the global digital divide? Compare the potential impact of this machine to that of cell phones in developing nations.
What are the most important software applications? Many international systems focus on basic transaction and management reporting systems. Increasingly, firms are turning to supply chain management and enterprise systems to standardize their business processes on a global basis and to create coordinated global supply chains. However, these cross-functional systems are not always compatible with differences in languages, cultural heritages, and business processes in other countries (Martinons, 2004; Liang et al., 2004; Davison, 2002). Company units in countries that are not technically sophisticated may also encounter problems trying to manage the technical complexities of enterprise applications.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems and supply chain management systems are widely used by manufacturing and distribution firms to connect to suppliers on a global basis. Collaboration systems, e-mail, and videoconferencing are especially important worldwide collaboration tools for knowledge- and data-based firms, such as advertising firms, research-based firms in medicine and engineering, and graphics and publishing firms. Internet-based tools will be increasingly employed for such purposes.
15.5 Hands-on MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience analyzing international systems issues for an expanding business, conducting international market research, and building a job posting database and Web page for an international company.
Management Decision Problems
1. United Parcel Service (UPS) has been expanding its package delivery and logistics services in China, serving both multinational companies and local businesses. UPS drivers in China need to use UPS systems and tools such as its handheld Driver Information Acquisition Device for capturing package delivery data. UPS wants to make its WorldShip, CampusShip, and other shipping management services accessible to Chinese and multinational customers via the Web. What are some of the international systems issues UPS must consider in order to operate successfully in China?
2. Your company manufactures and sells tennis rackets and would like to start selling outside the United States. You are in charge of developing a global Web strategy, and the first countries you are thinking of targeting are Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Using the statistics in the CIA World Factbook, which of these countries would you target first? What criteria would you use? What other considerations should you address in your Web strategy? What features would you put on your Web site to attract buyers from the countries you target?
Achieving Operational Excellence: Building a Job Database and Web Page for an International Consulting Firm
Software skills: Database and Web page design
Business skills: Human resources internal job postings
Companies with many overseas locations need a way to inform employees about available job openings in these locations. In this project, you'll use database software to design a database for posting internal job openings and a Web page for displaying this information.
KTP Consulting operates in various locations around the world. KTP specializes in designing, developing, and implementing enterprise systems for medium- to large-size companies. KTP offers its employees opportunities to travel, live, and work in various locations throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. The firm's human resources department has a simple database that enables its staff to track job vacancies. When an employee is interested in relocating, he or she contacts the human resources department for a list of KTP job vacancies. KTP also posts its employment opportunities on the company Web site.
What type of data should be included in the KTP job vacancies database? What information should not be included in this database? Based on your answers to these questions, build a job vacancies database for KTP. Populate the database with at least 20 records. You should also build a simple Web page that incorporates job vacancy data from your newly created database. Send a copy of the KTP database and Web page to your professor.
Improving Decision Making: Conducting International Marketing and Pricing Research
Software skills: Internet-based software
Business skills: International pricing and marketing
When companies sell overseas, it's important to determine whether their products are priced properly for non-domestic markets. In this project, you'll use the Web to research overseas distributors and customs regulations and use Internet-based software to calculate prices in foreign currencies.
You are in charge of marketing for a U.S. manufacturer of office furniture that has decided to enter the international market. You have been given the name of Sorin SRL, a major Italian office furniture retailer, but your source had no other information. You want to test the market by contacting this firm to offer it a specific desk chair that you have to sell at about $125. Using the Web, locate the information needed to contact this firm and to find out how many European euros you would need to get for the chair in the current market. One source for locating European companies is the Europages Business Directory (www.europages.com). In addition, consider using the Universal Currency Converter Web site (www.xe.net/ucc/), which determines the value of one currency expressed in other currencies. Obtain both the information needed to contact the firm and the price of your chair in their local currency. Then locate and obtain customs and legal restrictions on the products you will export from the United States and import into Italy. Finally, locate a company that will represent you as a customs agent and gather information on shipping costs.
1. **What major factors are driving the internationalization of business?**
The growth of inexpensive international communication and transportation has created a world culture with stable expectations or norms. Political stability and a growing global knowledge base that is widely shared also contribute to the world culture. These general factors create the conditions for global markets, global production, coordination, distribution, and global economies of scale.
2. **What are the alternative strategies for developing global businesses?**
There are four basic international strategies: domestic exporter, multinational, franchiser, and transnational. In a transnational strategy, all factors of production are coordinated on a global scale. However, the choice of strategy is a function of the type of business and product.
3. **How can information systems support different global business strategies?**
There is a connection between firm strategy and information systems design. Transnational firms must develop networked system configurations and permit considerable decentralization of development and operations. Franchisers almost always duplicate systems across many countries and use centralized financial controls. Multinationals typically rely on decentralized independence among foreign units with some movement toward development of networks. Domestic exporters typically are centralized in domestic headquarters with some decentralized operations permitted.
4. **What are the challenges posed by global information systems and management solutions for these challenges?**
Global information systems pose challenges because cultural, political, and language diversity magnifies differences in organizational culture and business processes and encourages proliferation of disparate local information systems that are difficult to integrate. Typically, international systems have evolved without a conscious plan. The remedy is to define a small subset of core business processes and focus on building systems to support these processes. Tactically, managers will have to coopt widely dispersed foreign units to participate in the development and operation of these systems, being careful to maintain overall control.
5. **What are the issues and technical alternatives to be considered when developing international information systems?**
Implementing a global system requires an implementation strategy that considers both business design and technology platforms. The main hardware and telecommunications issues are systems integration and connectivity. The choices for integration are to go either with a proprietary architecture or with open systems technology. Global networks are extremely difficult to build and operate. Firms can build their own global networks or they can create global networks based on the Internet (intranets or virtual private networks). The main software issues concern building interfaces to existing systems and selecting applications that can work with multiple cultural, language, and organizational frameworks.
**Key Terms**
- Business driver, 562
- Cooptation, 574
- Core systems, 572
- Domestic exporter, 567
- Franchisers, 567
- Global culture, 563
- International information systems architecture, 562
- Legitimacy, 574
- Multinational, 567
- Particularism, 565
- Software localization, 581
- Transborder data flow, 565
- Transnational, 568
Review Questions
1. What major factors are driving the internationalization of business?
- List and describe the five major dimensions for developing an international information systems architecture.
- Describe the five general cultural factors leading toward growth in global business and the four specific business factors. Describe the interconnection among these factors.
- List and describe the major challenges to the development of global systems.
- Explain why some firms have not planned for the development of international systems.
2. What are the alternative strategies for developing global businesses?
- Describe the four main strategies for global business and organizational structure.
3. How can information systems support different global business strategies?
- Describe the four different system configurations that can be used to support different global strategies.
4. What are the challenges posed by global information systems and management solutions for these challenges?
- List and describe the major management issues in developing international systems.
- Identify and describe three principles to follow when organizing the firm for global business.
- Identify and describe three steps of a management strategy for developing and implementing global systems.
- Define cooptation and explain how it can be used in building global systems.
5. What are the issues and technical alternatives to be considered when developing international information systems?
- Describe the main technical issues facing global systems.
- Identify some technologies that will help firms develop global systems.
Discussion Questions
1. If you were a manager in a company that operates in many countries, what criteria would you use to determine whether an application should be developed as a global application or as a local application?
2. Describe ways the Internet can be used in international information systems.
Video Cases
You will find Video Cases illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter on the Laudon Web site along with questions to help you analyze the cases.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Identifying Technologies for Global Business Strategies
With a group of students, identify an area of information technology and explore how this technology might be useful for supporting global business strategies. For instance, you might choose an area such as digital telecommunications (e.g., e-mail, wireless communications, virtual private networks), enterprise systems, collaboration software, or the Web. It will be necessary to choose a business scenario to discuss the technology. You might choose an automobile parts franchise or a clothing franchise, such as Express, as example businesses. Which applications would you make global, which core business processes would you choose, and how would the technology be helpful? If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages, team communication announcements, and work assignments; to brainstorm; and to work collaboratively on project documents. Try to use Google Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
WR Grace is a chemical manufacturer headquartered in Columbia, Maryland. Founded in 1854, the company develops and sells specialty chemicals and construction products and has been a worldwide leader in those fields. Grace has over 6,300 employees and earned $2.8 billion in revenues in 2009. The company has two operating segments: Grace Davison, which focuses on specialty chemicals and formulation technologies, and Grace Construction Products, which focuses on specialty construction materials, systems, and services. Between these two divisions, there are over 200 separate subsidiaries and several different legal entities that comprise the full company. Grace has operations in 45 countries around the world.
Though Grace is a strong and successful company, global companies with separate divisions often struggle to unify their information systems. Grace is not a single, cohesive business unit—it’s an amalgam of many operating divisions, subsidiaries, and business units, all of which use different financial data, reports, and reconciliation methods. Though this “fractured” structure is common to most global companies, it created problems for the company’s general ledger. The general ledger of a business is its main accounting record. General ledgers use double-entry bookkeeping, which means that all of the transactions made by a company are entered into two different accounts, debits and credits. General ledgers include accounts for current assets, fixed assets, liabilities, revenues and expense items, gains, and losses.
It’s no surprise that a global company that earns several billion dollars in revenues would have a complicated ledger system, but Grace’s general ledger setup was more than just complicated. It was a disorganized tangle of multiple ledgers, redundant data, and inefficiency processes. The company had three separate ledger systems from SAP: one for its legal reporting requirements team, and two more for each of its two major operating segments, Grace Davison and Grace Construction Products. But each of the three implementations for these systems occurred several years apart, so the differences between the ledgers were substantial. All three ledgers had different configurations and different levels of granularity within the reporting functionality, and all three of the ledgers were driven by separate data sources.
The “classic” general ledger is used for reporting revenues and expenditures for all subsidiaries, accounts, and business areas. The Grace Davison ledger stored information on company codes (subsidiary ID numbers), accounts, profit centers, plants, and trading partners. The Grace Construction Products management ledger stored information on company codes, accounts, business areas, profit centers, trading partners, and destination countries. Grace Davison used profit-center accounting for its management reporting, and Grace Construction Products used special-purpose ledgers to gather the same financial information. If this sounds like a confusing arrangement, that’s because it was.
Consolidating this data across the two divisions and across its many subdivisions proved difficult, and compiling company financial reports was a painstaking and time-consuming task. Reconciling the financial data from each of the three reporting sources resulted in lengthy financial close cycles and consumed excessive amounts of employee time and resources. Michael Brown, director of finance productivity at Grace, said that “from a financials point of view, we were basically three different companies.” Grace management decided that the company needed to eliminate the financial reporting ‘silos’ and create a system that served all parts of Grace’s business.
WR Grace hoped to create a global financial standard for its financial reporting system, using the slogan “one Grace” to rally the company to work towards that standard. SAP General Ledger was the most important factor in Grace’s ability to accomplish its goal. SAP General Ledger was attractive to Grace because of its many unique and useful features. It has the ability to automatically and simultaneously post all sub-ledger items in the appropriate general accounts, simultaneously update general ledger and cost accounting areas, and evaluate and report on current accounting data in real time. Grace also liked SAP’s centralized approach to general ledger, up-to-date references for the rendering of accounts across all of its divisions.
Consolidating multiple ledgers is a difficult task. SAP General Ledger helped Grace to simplify the
process. SAP Consulting and an SAP General Ledger migration team assisted the company along the way. SAP implementations feature an SAP team leader and project manager as well as a migration cockpit. The migration cockpit is a feature of SAP implementations that offers a graphical representation and overview of the general ledger migration process. The cockpit displays steps of the migration in sequence and manages logs, attachments, and other materials important to the general ledger. The migration cockpit helps to ensure that sufficient planning goes into the general ledger consolidation process, and that the necessary business process changes accompany the technical changes of implementing a unified general ledger.
SAP and Grace split the project into two main components: General Ledger Data Migration, and Business Process Testing. General Ledger Data Migration involved acquiring all of the relevant data from Grace’s three separate ledgers, combining it and eliminating redundancies, and supplying it to the SAP General Ledger. A small team executed this half of the project. Grace decided to standardize its reporting processes around profit-center accounting and built its general ledger design with that standard in mind. Business Process Testing was completed by a global SAP team performing multiple full-cycle tests. In other words, SAP testers accessed the system remotely and tested all of the functions of SAP General Ledger to ensure that the system would work as planned. The SAP General Ledger project manager oversaw both components of the project.
During the testing process, SAP testers used a technique called “unit testing,” common to many system upgrades of this type. The testers set up a “dummy” system with a prototype version of the general ledger and used it to test different types of accounting documents. Grace wanted to modify the configuration of the general ledger to conform to the company’s unique needs and circumstances, and made sure that the people who knew what was needed were building the system and designing its specifications. Because of these adjustments, unit testing was critical to ensure that configuration changes had not affected the overall integrity of the system.
SAP testers also performed basic scenario tests, complex scenario tests, and tests on special accounting document types in an effort to ensure that the general ledger was equipped to handle all of the tasks Grace expected it to perform. They also tested inbound finance interfaces, such as the HR interface, bank statements, and upload programs, as well as special document types used by those interfaces. SAP and Grace both knew that a significant effort would be required to properly test the general ledger, and SAP’s experience with similar upgrades in the past was helpful in ensuring that SAP performed the proper amount of tests.
After the data migration was completed, Grace still had to decommission its old ledgers, which were still pivotal sources for many of the custom reports that the company was generating on a regular basis. For example, reports are automatically generated from the special-purpose ledger, or reports that group all the transactions that took place within a particular country in the past year, and so on. To decommission its old ledgers, Grace had to eliminate as many of those custom reports as it could, and move the essential ones over to the new general ledger. Grace recruited employees from all areas of their financial division to identify the most critical reports.
With the general ledger migration completed, all of WR Grace shares a common accounting infrastructure, management can quickly develop an overall picture of the company’s financial status, and most of the ledger can be accessed or updated in real time. The financial reconciliation processes at the end of each reporting period were totally eliminated, allowing Grace to devote less energy on managing its ledgers and more on actually running its business. The eventual savings in all areas of the business figure to pay for the installation in short order. Grace’s accountants and financial planners will be much more efficient. Managers will spend less time getting the information they need. IT costs for maintaining a single ledger will total far less than the costs for maintaining three, and fewer errors will make their way into the general ledger system. Best of all for Grace, the implementation was completed on time and under budget.
Grace hopes to use the General Ledger platform to continue making other improvements with SAP. Grace plans to upgrade its consolidation systems, financial planning, and analytics functions to SAP systems. Grace already had a strong relationship with SAP. In 1997, Grace installed SAP software for the first time, and prior to the general ledger migration, Grace was already using SAP Business Information Warehouse and NetWeaver Portal globally. This pre-existing relationship made the process of implementing SAP General Ledger much easier. It’s also the reason why Grace is so optimistic that it will achieve similar gains in other areas of its business by switching to SAP solutions.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Why did WR Grace’s general ledger system need an overhaul?
2. What made SAP a logical partner for Grace’s upgrade?
3. What obstacles did SAP and Grace face in their attempts to consolidate Grace’s ledgers?
4. How successful was the general ledger migration? What are some of the risks of adopting a single general ledger system from a single vendor to run a global business?
CHAPTER 1
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CHAPTER 2
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CHAPTER 4
Angst, Corey M. and Ritu Agarwal. "Adoption of Electronic Health Records in the Presence of Privacy Concerns: The Elaboration Likelihood Model and Individual Persuasion." MIS Quarterly 33, No. 2 (June 2009).
Baumstein, Avi. "New Tools Close Holes in Cam-Spam." Information Week (February 23, 2009).
Beck, Melinda. "Becoming a Squinter Nation." The Wall Street Journal (August 17, 2010).
Bhattacharjee, Sudip, Ram D. Gopal, and G. Lawrence Sanders. "Digital Music and Online Sharing: Software Piracy 2.0?" Communications of the ACM 46, no.7 (July 2003).
Bowen, Jonathan. "The Ethics of Safety-Critical Systems." Communications of the ACM 43, no. 3 (April 2000).
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Carr, Nicholas. "Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty, with Real Dangers." The Wall Street Journal (August 7, 2010).
Chellappa, Ramnath K. and Shivendu Shivendu. "An Economic Model of Privacy: A Property Rights Approach to Regulatory Choices for Online Personalization." Journal of Management Information Systems 24, no. 3 (Winter 2008).
Clifford, Stephanie. "Web Coupons Know Lots About You, and They Tell." The New York Times (April 16, 2010)
Culnan, Mary J. and Cynthia Clark Williams. "How Ethics Can Enhance Organizational Privacy." MIS Quarterly 33, No. 4 (December 2009).
Farmer, Dan and Charles C. Mann. "Surveillance Nation." Part I Technology Review (April 2003) and Part II (Technology Review (May 2003)).
Goodman, Joshua, Gordon V. Cormack, and David Heckerman. "Spam and the Ongoing Battle for the Inbox." Communications of the ACM 50, No. 2 (February 2007).
Grimes, Galen A. "Compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003." Communications of the ACM 50, No. 2 (February 2007).
Harper, Jim. "It's Modern Trade: Web Users Get as Much as They Give." The Wall Street Journal (August 7, 2010).
Hsieh, J.J. Po-An, Arun Rai, and Mark Keil. "Understanding Digital Inequality: Comparing Continued Use Behavioral Models of the Socio-Economically Advantaged and Disadvantaged." MIS Quarterly 32, no. 1 (March 2008).
Jackson, Linda A., Alexander von Eye, Gretchen Barbatsis, Frank Biocca, Hiram E. Fitzgerald, and Yong Zhao. "The Impact of Internet Use on the Other Side of the Digital Divide." Communications of the ACM 47, no. 7 (July 2004).
Jackson, Thomas W., Ray Dawson, and Darren Wilson. "Understanding Email Interaction Increases Organizational Productivity." Communications of the ACM 46, no. 8 (August 2003).
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Matt Richtel, "Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price," The New York Times, June 7, 2010.
Nord, G. Daryl, Tipton F. McCubbins, and Jeretta Horn Nord. "E-Monitoring in the Workplace: Privacy, Legislation, and Surveillance Software. Communications of the ACM 49, No. 8 (August 2006).
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Payton, Fay Cobb."Rethinking the Digital Divide." Communications of the ACM 46, no. 6 (June 2003)
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Gerlach, James, Bruce Neumann, Edwin Moldauer, Martha Argo, and Daniel Frisby. "Determining the Cost of IT Services." Communications of the ACM 45, no. 9 (September 2002).
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CHAPTER 6
Cappiello, Cinzia, Chiara Francalanci, and Barbara Pernici. "Time-Related Factors of Data Quality in Multichannel Information Systems." Journal of Management Information Systems 20, no. 3 (Winter 2004).
Chen, Andrew N. K., Paulo B. Goes, and James R. Marsden. "A Query-Driven Approach to the Design and Management of Flexible Database Systems." Journal of Management Information Systems 19, no. 3 (Winter 2002-2003).
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Eckerson, Wayne W. "Data Quality and the Bottom Line." The Data Warehousing Institute (2002).
Fayyad, Usama, Ramasamy Ramakrishnan, and Ramakrishnan Srikant. "Evolving Data Mining into Solutions for Insights." Communications of the ACM 45, no.8 (August 2002).
Foshay, Neil, Avinandan Mukherjee and Andrew Taylor. "Does Data Warehouse End-User Metadata Add Value?" Communications of the ACM 50, no. 11 (November 2007).
Gartner Inc. "Dirty Data' is a Business Problem, not an IT Problem, Says Gartner." Sydney, Australia (March 2, 2007).
Henschen, Doug. "Text Mining for Customer Insight." Information Week (November 30, 2009).
Henschen, Doug. "Big and Fast." Information Week (August 9, 2010).
Henschen, Doug. "The Data Warehouse Revised." Information Week (May 26, 2008).
Henschen, Doug. "Wendy's Taps Text Analytics to Mine Customer Feedback," Information Week (March 23, 2010).
Hoffer, Jeffrey A., Mary Prescott, and Heikki Toppi. Modern Database Management, 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall (2011).
Jinesh Radadia. "Breaking the Bad Data Bottlenecks." Information Management (May/June 2010).
Kim, Yong Jin, Rajiv Kishore, and G. Lawrence Sanders. "From DQ to EQ: Understanding Data Quality in the Context of E-Business System" Communications of the ACM 48, no. 10 (October 2005).
Klau, Rick. "Data Quality and CRM." Line56.com, accessed March 4, 2003.
Kroenke, David M. and David Auer. *Database Processing 11e*. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall (2010).
Lee, Yang W., and Diane M. Strong. "Knowing-Why about Data Processes and Data Quality." *Journal of Management Information Systems* 20, no. 3 (Winter 2004).
Loveman, Gary. "Diamonds in the Datamine." *Harvard Business Review* (May 2003).
McKnight, William. "Seven Sources of Poor Data Quality." *Information Management* (April 2009).
Pierce, Elizabeth M. "Assessing Data Quality with Control Matrices." *Communications of the ACM* 47, no. 2 (February 2004).
Redman, Thomas. *Data Driven: Profiting from Your Most Important Business Asset*. Boston: Harvard Business Press (2008).
Stodder, David. "Customer Insights." *Information Week* (February 1, 2010)
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**CHAPTER 7**
Borland, John. "A Smarter Web." *Technology Review* (March/April 2007).
Bustillo, Maguel. "Wal-Mart Radio Tags to Track Clothing." *The Wall Street Journal* (July 23, 2010).
Cheng, Roger. "Verizon Readies 4G Launch." *The Wall Street Journal* (October 7, 2010).
Dekleva, Sasha, J.P. Shim, Upkar Varshney, and Geoffrey Knoerzer. "Evolution and Emerging Issues in Mobile Wireless Networks." *Communications of the ACM* 50, No. 6 (June 2007).
eMarketer. "US Ad Spending." (June 2010)
Fish, Lynn A. and Wayne C. Forrest. "A Worldwide Look at RFID." *Supply Chain Management Review* (April 1, 2007).
Furchgott, Roy. "That's a Nice Phone, But How's the Network?" *The New York Times* (June 30, 2010).
Helft, Miguel. "Google Makes a Case That It Isn't So Big." *The New York Times* (June 29, 2009)
Housel, Tom, and Eric Skopek. *Global Telecommunication Revolution: The Business Perspective*. New York: McGraw-Hill (2001).
ICANN. "ICANN Policy Update." 10, No. 9 (September 2010).
Kocas, Cenk. "Evolution of Prices in Electronic Markets under Diffusion of Price-Comparison Shopping." *Journal of Management Information Systems* 19, no. 3 (Winter 2002-2003).
Nicolopolidis, Petros, Georgios Papademitriou, Mohammad S. Obaidat, and Andreas S. Pomportsis. "The Economics of Wireless Networks." *Communications of the ACM* 47, no. 4 (April 2004).
Panko, Raymond. *Business Data Networks and Telecommunications 8e*. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall (2011).
Papazoglou, Mike P. "Agent-Oriented Technology in Support of E-Business." *Communications of the ACM* 44, no. 4 (April 2001).
Phillips, Lisa E. "US Internet Users, 2010." eMarketer (April 2010).
Pottie, G. J., and W.J Kaiser. "Wireless Integrated Network Sensors." *Communications of the ACM* 43, no. 5 (May 2000).
St. Clair, Scott and Keefe Bailey. "Prognosis: Opportunity." *Information Week* (March 8, 2010).
"The Internet of Things." *McKinsey Quarterly* (March 2010).
Varshney, Upkar, Andy Snow, Matt McGivern, and Christi Howard. "Voice Over IP." *Communications of the ACM* 45, no. 1 (January 2002).
Wingfield, Nick and Amir Efrati. "Google Rekindles the Browser War." *The Wall Street Journal* (July 7, 2010).
Xiao, Bo and Izak Benbasat. "E-Commerce Product Recommendation Agents: Use, Characteristics, and Impact." *MIS Quarterly* 31, no. 1 (March 2007).
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**CHAPTER 8**
Ante, Spencer E. "Dark Side Arises for Phone Apps." *The Wall Street Journal* (June 6, 2010).
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Bernstein, Corinne. "The Cost of Data Breaches." *Baseline* (April 2009).
Bray, Chad. "Global Cyber Scheme Hits Bank Accounts." *The Wall Street Journal* (October 1, 2010.)
Brenner, Susan W. "U.S. Cybercrime Law: Defining Offenses." *Information Systems Frontiers* 6, no. 2 (June 2004).
Cavusoglu, Huseyin, Birendra Mishra, and Srinivasan Raghunathan. "A Model for Evaluating IT Security Investments." *Communications of the ACM* 47, no. 7 (July 2004).
Chickowski, Ericka. "Is Your Information Really Safe?" *Baseline* (April 2009).
Choe Sang-Hun, "Cyberattacks Hit U.S. and South Korean Web Sites," *The New York Times*, July 9, 2009.
Computer Security Institute. "2009 CSI Computer Crime and Security Survey" (2009).
Consumer Reports. "State of the Net 2010." (June 2010).
Coopes, Amy. "Australian 17-Year-Old Takes Blame for Twitter Chaos." AFP (September 22, 2010).
D'Arcy, John and Anat Hovav. "Deterring Internal Information Systems Use." *Communications of the ACM* 50, no. 10 (October 2007).
Danchev, Dancho. "Malware Watch: Rogue Facebook Apps, Fake Amazon Orders, and Bogus Adobe Updates." ZD Net (May 19, 2010).
Dash, Eric. "Online Woes Plague Chase for 2nd Day." *The New York Times* (September 15, 2010).
Ely, Adam. "Browser as Attack Vector." *Information Week* (August 9, 2010).
Feretic, Eileen. "Security Lapses More Costly." baselinemag.com, January 26, 2010
Foley, John. "P2P Peril." *Information Week* (March 17, 2008).
Fratto, Mike. "What's Your Appetite for Risk?" *Information Week* (June 22, 2009).
Giordano, Scott M. "Electronic Evidence and the Law." *Information Systems Frontiers* 6, No. 2 (June 2004).
Galbreth, Michael R. and Mikhael Shor. "The Impact of Malicious Agents on the Enterprise Software Industry." *MIS Quarterly* 34, no. 3 (September 2010).
Gorman, Siobhan. "Broad New Hacking Attack Detected." *The Wall Street Journal* (February 18, 2010).
Housley, Russ, and William Arbaugh. "Security Problems in 802.11b Networks." *Communications of the ACM* 46, no. 5 (May 2003).
IBM. "Secure By Design: Building Identity-Based Security into Today's Information Systems." (March 2010).
Ives, Blake, Kenneth R. Walsh, and Helmut Schneider. "The Domino Effect of Password Reuse." *Communications of the ACM* 47, no.4 (April 2004).
Jagatic Tom, Nathaniel Johnson, Markus Jakobsson, and Filippo Menczer. "Social Phishing." *Communications of the ACM* 50, no. 10 (October 2007).
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McDougall, Paul. "High Cost of Data Loss." *Information Week* (March 20, 2006).
McGraw, Gary. "Real-World Software Security." *Information Week* (August 9, 2010).
Meckbach, Greg. "MasterCard's Robust Data Centre: Priceless." *Computerworld Canada* (March 26, 2008).
Mercuri, Rebecca T. "Analyzing Security Costs." *Communications of the ACM* 46, no. 6 (June 2003).
Mills, Elinor. "Facebook Disables Rogue Data-Stealing, Spamming Apps." *CNET News* (August 20, 2009).
Mitchell, Dan. "It's Here: It's There; It's Spyware." *The New York Times* (May 20, 2006).
Null, Christopher. "WPA Cracked in 1 Minute." *Yahoo! Tech* (August 27, 2009).
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Prince, Brian. "The Growing E-Mail Security Challenge." *eWeek* (April 21, 2008).
Pug, Ivan P.L. and Qiu-Hong Wang. "Information Security: Facilitating User Precautions Vis a Vis Enforcement Against Attackers." *Journal of Management Information Systems* 26, No. 2 (Fall 2009).
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Albert, Terri C., Paulo B. Goes, and Alok Gupta. "GIST: A Model for Design and Management of Content and Interactivity of Customer-Centric Web Sites." MIS Quarterly 28, no. 2 (June 2004).
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Armstrong, Deborah J. and Bill C. Hardgrove. "Understanding Mindshift Learning: The Transition to Object-Oriented Development." MIS Quarterly 31, no. 3 (September 2007).
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Lee, Jae Nam, Shaila M. Miranda, and Yong-Mi Kim. "IT Outsourcing Strategies: Universalistic, Contingency, and Configurational Explanations of Success." *Information Systems Research* 15, no. 2 (June 2004).
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Limayem, Moez, Mohamed Khalifa, and Wynne W. Chin. "Case Tools Usage and Impact on System Development Performance." *Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce* 14, no. 3 (2004).
Majchrzak, Ann, Cynthia M. Beath, and Ricardo A. Lim. "Managing Client Dialogues during Information Systems Design to Facilitate Client Learning." *MIS Quarterly* 29, no. 4 (December 2005).
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**CHAPTER 14**
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3G networks Cellular networks based on packet-switched technology with speeds ranging from 144 Kbps for mobile users to over 2 Mbps for stationary users, enabling users to transmit video, graphics, and other rich media, in addition to voice.
4G networks The next evolution in wireless communication is entirely packet switched and capable of providing between 1 Mbps and 1 Gbps speeds; up to ten times faster than 3G networks. Not widely deployed in 2010.
acceptable use policy (AUP) Defines acceptable uses of the firm’s information resources and computing equipment, including desktop and laptop computers, wireless devices, telephones, and the Internet, and specifies consequences for noncompliance.
acceptance testing Provides the final certification that the system is ready to be used in a production setting.
accountability The mechanisms for assessing responsibility for decisions made and actions taken.
accumulated balance digital payment systems Systems enabling users to make micropayments and purchases on the Web, accumulating a debit balance on their credit card or telephone bills.
affiliate revenue model An e-commerce revenue model in which Web sites are paid as “affiliates” for sending their visitors to other sites in return for a referral fee.
agent-based modeling Modeling complex phenomena as systems of autonomous agents that follow relatively simple rules for interaction.
agency theory Economic theory that views the firm as a nexus of contracts among self-interested individuals who must be supervised and managed.
agile development Rapid delivery of working software by breaking a large project into a series of small sub-projects that are completed in short periods of time using iteration and continuous feedback.
Ajax Development technique for creating interactive Web applications capable of updating the user interface without reloading the entire browser page.
analog signal A continuous waveform that passes through a communications medium; used for voice communications.
analytical CRM Customer relationship management applications dealing with the analysis of customer data to provide information for improving business performance.
Android A mobile operating system developed by Android, Inc. (purchased by Google) and later the Open Handset Alliance as a flexible, upgradeable mobile device platform.
antivirus software Software designed to detect, and often eliminate, computer viruses from an information system.
application controls: Specific controls unique to each computerized application that ensure that only authorized data are completely and accurately processed by that application.
application server Software that handles all application operations between browser-based computers and a company’s back-end business applications or databases.
application software package A set of prewritten, precoded application software programs that are commercially available for sale or lease.
application software Programs written for a specific application to perform functions specified by end users.
apps Small pieces of software that run on the Internet, on your computer, or on your cell phone and are generally delivered over the Internet.
artificial intelligence (AI) The effort to develop computer-based systems that can behave like humans, with the ability to learn languages, accomplish physical tasks, use a perceptual apparatus, and emulate human expertise and decision making.
attribute A piece of information describing a particular entity.
augmented reality A technology for enhancing visualization. Provides a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery.
authentication The ability of each party in a transaction to ascertain the identity of the other party.
authorization management systems Systems for allowing each user access only to those portions of a system or the Web that person is permitted to enter, based on information established by a set of access rules.
authorization policies Determine differing levels of access to information assets for different levels of users in an organization.
automation Using the computer to speed up the performance of existing tasks.
autonomic computing Effort to develop systems that can manage themselves without user intervention.
backward chaining A strategy for searching the rule base in an expert system that acts like a problem solver by beginning with a hypothesis and seeking out more information until the hypothesis is either proved or disproved.
balanced scorecard method Framework for operationalizing a firm’s strategic plan by focusing on measurable financial, business process, customer, and learning and growth outcomes of firm performance.
bandwidth The capacity of a communications channel as measured by the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies that can be transmitted by that channel.
banner ad A graphic display on a Web page used for advertising. The banner is linked to the advertiser’s Web site so that a person clicking on it will be transported to the advertiser’s Web site.
batch processing A method of collecting and processing data in which transactions are accumulated and stored until a specified time when it is convenient or necessary to process them as a group.
baud A change in signal from positive to negative or vice versa that is used as a measure of transmission speed.
behavioral models Descriptions of management based on behavioral scientists’ observations of what managers actually do in their jobs.
behavioral targeting Tracking the click-streams (history of clicking behavior) of individuals across multiple Web sites for the purpose of understanding their interests and intentions, and exposing them to advertisements which are uniquely suited to their interests.
benchmarking Setting strict standards for products, services, or activities and measuring organizational performance against those standards.
best practices The most successful solutions or problem-solving methods that have been developed by a specific organization or industry.
biometric authentication Technology for authenticating system users that compares a person’s unique characteristics such as fingerprints, face, or retinal image, against a stored set profile of these characteristics.
bit A binary digit representing the smallest unit of data in a computer system. It can only have one of two states, representing 0 or 1.
blade server Entire computer that fits on a single, thin card (or blade) and that is plugged into a single chassis to save space, power and complexity.
blog Popular term for Weblog, designating an informal yet structured Web site where individuals can publish stories, opinions, and links to other Web sites of interest.
blogosphere Totality of blog-related Web sites.
Bluetooth Standard for wireless personal area networks that can transmit up to 722 Kbps within a 10-meter area.
botnet A group of computers that have been infected with bot malware without users’ knowledge, enabling a hacker to use the amassed resources of the computers to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks, phishing campaigns or spam.
broadband High-speed transmission technology. Also designates a single communications medium that can transmit multiple channels of data simultaneously.
bugs Software program code defects.
bullwhip effect Distortion of information about the demand for a product as it passes from one entity to the next across the supply chain.
bus topology Network topology linking a number of computers by a single circuit with all messages broadcast to the entire network.
business continuity planning Planning that focuses on how the company can restore business operations after a disaster strikes.
business driver A force in the environment to which businesses must respond and that influences the direction of business.
business ecosystem Loosely coupled but interdependent networks of suppliers, distributors, outsourcing firms, transportation service firms, and technology manufacturers.
business functions Specialized tasks performed in a business organization, including manufacturing and production, sales and marketing, finance and accounting, and human resources.
business intelligence Applications and technologies to help users make better business decisions.
business model An abstraction of what an enterprise is and how the enterprise delivers a product or service, showing how the enterprise creates wealth.
business performance management Attempts to systematically translate a firm’s strategies (e.g., differentiation, low-cost producer, market share growth, and scope of operation) into operational targets.
business process management Business process management (BPM) is an approach to business which aims to continuously improve and manage business processes.
business process redesign Type of organizational change in which business processes are analyzed, simplified, and redesigned.
business processes The unique ways in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities, information, and knowledge to produce a product or service.
business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce Electronic sales of goods and services among businesses.
business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce Electronic retailing of products and services directly to individual consumers.
byte A string of bits, usually eight, used to store one number or character in a computer system.
cable Internet connections Internet connections that use digital cable lines to deliver high-speed Internet access to homes and businesses.
call center An organizational department responsible for handling customer service issues by telephone and other channels.
capacity planning The process of predicting when a computer hardware system becomes saturated to ensure that adequate computing resources are available for work of different priorities and that the firm has enough computing power for its current and future needs.
capital budgeting The process of analyzing and selecting various proposals for capital expenditures.
carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) Type of RSI in which pressure on the median nerve through the wrist's bony carpal tunnel structure produces pain.
case-based reasoning (CBR) Artificial intelligence technology that represents knowledge as a database of cases and solutions.
cell phone A device that transmits voice or data, using radio waves to communicate with radio antennas placed within adjacent geographic areas called cells.
centralized processing Processing that is accomplished by one large central computer.
change agent In the context of implementation, the individual acting as the catalyst during the change process to ensure successful organizational adaptation to a new system or innovation.
change management Managing the impact of organizational change associated with an innovation, such as a new information system.
channel conflict Competition between two or more different distribution chains used to sell the products or services of the same company.
channel The link by which data or voice are transmitted between sending and receiving devices in a network.
chat Live, interactive conversations over a public network.
chief information officer (CIO) Senior manager in charge of the information systems function in the firm.
chief knowledge officer (CKO) Senior executive in charge of the organization’s knowledge management program.
chief privacy officer (CPO) Responsible for ensuring the company complies with existing data privacy laws.
chief security officer (CSO) Heads a formal security function for the organization and is responsible for enforcing the firm’s security policy.
choice Simon’s third stage of decision making, when the individual selects among the various solution alternatives.
Chrome OS Google’s lightweight computer operating system for users who do most of their computing on the Internet; runs on computers ranging from netbooks to desktop computers.
churn rate Measurement of the number of customers who stop using or purchasing products or services from a company. Used as an indicator of the growth or decline of a firm’s customer base.
classical model of management Traditional description of management that focused on its formal functions of planning, organizing, coordinating, deciding, and controlling.
click fraud Fraudulently clicking on an online ad in pay per click advertising to generate an improper charge per click.
clicks-and-mortar Business model where the Web site is an extension of a traditional bricks-and-mortar business.
clickstream tracking Tracking data about customer activities at Web sites and storing them in a log.
client The user point-of-entry for the required function in client/server computing. Normally a desktop computer, workstation, or laptop computer.
client/server computing A model for computing that splits processing between clients and servers on a network, assigning functions to the machine most able to perform the function.
cloud computing Web-based applications that are stored on remote servers and accessed via the “cloud” of the Internet using a standard Web browser.
coaxial cable A transmission medium consisting of thickly insulated copper wire; can transmit large volumes of data quickly.
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) Major cellular transmission standard in the United States that transmits over...
several frequencies, occupies the entire spectrum, and randomly assigns users to a range of frequencies over time.
**collaboration** Working with others to achieve shared and explicit goals.
**collaborative commerce** The use of digital technologies to enable multiple organizations to collaboratively design, develop, build and manage products through their life cycles.
**collaborative filtering** Tracking users’ movements on a Web site, comparing the information gleaned about a user’s behavior against data about other customers with similar interests to predict what the user would like to see next.
**collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR)** Firms collaborating with their suppliers and buyers to formulate demand forecasts, develop production plans, and coordinate shipping, warehousing, and stocking activities.
**co-location** A kind of Web site hosting in which firm purchase or rent a physical server computer at a hosting company’s location in order to operate a Web site.
**community provider** A Web site business model that creates a digital online environment where people with similar interests can transact (buy and sell goods); share interests, photos, videos; communicate with like-minded people; receive interest-related information; and even play out fantasies by adopting online personalities called avatars.
**competitive forces model** Model used to describe the interaction of external influences, specifically threats and opportunities, that affect an organization’s strategy and ability to compete.
**complementary assets** Additional assets required to derive value from a primary investment.
**component-based development** Building large software systems by combining pre-existing software components.
**computer** Physical device that takes data as an input, transforms the data by executing stored instructions, and outputs information to a number of devices.
**computer abuse** The commission of acts involving a computer that may not be illegal but are considered unethical.
**computer crime** The commission of illegal acts through the use of a computer or against a computer system.
**computer forensics** The scientific collection, examination, authentication, preservation, and analysis of data held on or retrieved from computer storage media in such a way that the information can be used as evidence in a court of law.
**computer hardware** Physical equipment used for input, processing, and output activities in an information system.
**computer literacy** Knowledge about information technology, focusing on understanding of how computer-based technologies work.
**computer software** Detailed, preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate the work of computer hardware components in an information system.
**computer virus** Rogue software program that attaches itself to other software programs or data files in order to be executed, often causing hardware and software malfunctions.
**computer vision syndrome (CVS)** Eyestrain condition related to computer display screen use; symptoms include headaches, blurred vision, and dry and irritated eyes.
**computer-aided design (CAD)** Information system that automates the creation and revision of designs using sophisticated graphics software.
**computer-aided software engineering (CASE)** Automation of step-by-step methodologies for software and systems development to reduce the amounts of repetitive work the developer needs to do.
**computer-based information systems (CBIS)** Information systems that rely on computer hardware and software for processing and disseminating information.
**connectivity** The ability of computers and computer-based devices to communicate with each other and share information in a meaningful way without human intervention.
**consumer-to-consumer (C2C)** Electronic commerce Consumers selling goods and services electronically to other consumers.
**controls** All of the methods, policies, and procedures that ensure protection of the organization’s assets, accuracy and reliability of its records, and operational adherence to management standards.
**conversion** The process of changing from the old system to the new system.
**cookies** Tiny file deposited on a computer hard drive when an individual visits certain Web sites. Used to identify the visitor and track visits to the Web site.
**cooptation** Bringing the opposition into the process of designing and implementing a solution without giving up control of the direction and nature of the change.
**copyright** A statutory grant that protects creators of intellectual property against copying by others for any purpose for a minimum of 70 years.
**core competency** Activity at which a firm excels as a world-class leader.
**core systems** Systems that support functions that are absolutely critical to the organization.
**cost transparency** The ability of consumers to discover the actual costs merchants pay for products.
**counterimplementation** A deliberate strategy to thwart the implementation of an information system or an innovation in an organization.
**critical success factors (CSFs)** A small number of easily identifiable operational goals shaped by the industry, the firm, the manager, and the broader environment that are believed to assure the success of an organization. Used to determine the information requirements of an organization.
**cross-selling** Marketing complementary products to customers.
**crowdsourcing** Using large Internet audiences for advice, market feedback, new ideas and solutions to business problems. Related to the ‘wisdom of crowds’ theory.
**culture** The set of fundamental assumptions about what products the organization should produce, how and where it should produce them, and for whom they should be produced.
**customer lifetime value (CLTV)** Difference between revenues produced by a specific customer and the expenses for acquiring and servicing that customer minus the cost of promotional marketing over the lifetime of the customer relationship, expressed in today’s dollars.
**customer relationship management (CRM)** Business and technology discipline that uses information systems to coordinate all of the business processes surrounding the firm’s interactions with its customers in sales, marketing, and service.
**customer relationship management systems** Information systems that track all the ways in which a company interacts with its customers and analyze these interactions to optimize revenue, profitability, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.
**customization** The modification of a software package to meet an organization’s unique requirements without destroying the package software’s integrity.
**cybervandalism** Intentional disruption, defacement, or destruction of a Web site or corporate information system.
**data** Streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the physical environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can understand and use.
**data administration** A special organizational function for managing the organization’s data resources, concerned with information policy, data planning, maintenance of data dictionaries, and data quality standards.
**data cleansing** Activities for detecting and correcting data in a database or file that are incorrect, incomplete, improperly formatted, or redundant. Also known as data scrubbing.
**data definition** DBMS capability that specifies the structure and content of the database.
**data dictionary** An automated or manual tool for storing and organizing information about the data maintained in a database.
**data-driven DSS** A system that supports decision making by allowing users to extract and analyze useful information that was previously buried in large databases.
**data element** A field.
**data flow diagram (DFD)** Primary tool for structured analysis that graphically illustrates a system’s component process and the flow of data between them.
**data governance** Policies and processes for managing the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the firm’s data.
**data inconsistency** The presence of different values for same attribute when the same data are stored in multiple locations.
**data management software** Software used for creating and manipulating lists, creating files and databases to store data, and combining information for reports.
**data manipulation language** A language associated with a database management system that end users and programmers use to manipulate data in the database.
**data mart** A small data warehouse containing only a portion of the organization’s data for a specified function or population of users.
**data mining** Analysis of large pools of data to find patterns and rules that can be used to guide decision making and predict future behavior.
**data quality audit** A survey and/or sample of files to determine accuracy and completeness of data in an information system.
**data redundancy** The presence of duplicate data in multiple data files.
**data visualization** Technology for helping users see patterns and relationships in large amounts of data by presenting the data in graphical form.
**data warehouse**: A database, with reporting and query tools, that stores current and historical data extracted from various operational systems and consolidated for management reporting and analysis.
**data workers** People such as secretaries or bookkeepers who process the organization’s paperwork.
**database** A group of related files.
**database (rigorous definition)** A collection of data organized to service many applications at the same time by storing and managing data so that they appear to be in one location.
**database administration** Refers to the more technical and operational aspects of managing data, including physical database design and maintenance.
**database management system (DBMS)** Special software to create and maintain a database and enable individual business applications to extract the data they need without having to create separate files or data definitions in their computer programs.
**database server** A computer in a client/server environment that is responsible for running a DBMS to process SQL statements and perform database management tasks.
**dataconferencing** Teleconferencing in which two or more users are able to edit and modify data files simultaneously.
**decisional roles** Mintzberg’s classification for managerial roles where managers initiate activities, handle disturbances, allocate resources, and negotiate conflicts.
**decision-support systems (DSS)** Information systems at the organization’s management level that combine data and sophisticated analytical models or data analysis tools to support semistructured and unstructured decision making.
**dedicated lines** Telephone lines that are continuously available for transmission by a lessee. Typically conditioned to transmit data at high speeds for high-volume applications.
**deep packet inspection (DPI)** Technology for managing network traffic by examining data packets, sorting out low-priority data from higher priority business-critical data, and sending packets in order of priority.
**demand planning** Determining how much product a business needs to make to satisfy all its customers’ demands.
**denial of service (DoS) attack** Flooding a network server or Web server with false communications or requests for services in order to crash the network.
**Descartes’ rule of change** A principle that states that if an action cannot be taken repeatedly, then it is not right to be taken at any time.
**design** Simon’s second stage of decision making, when the individual conceives of possible alternative solutions to a problem.
**digital asset management systems** Classify, store, and distribute digital objects such as photographs, graphic images, video, and audio content.
**digital certificate** An attachment to an electronic message to verify the identity of the sender and to provide the receiver with the means to encode a reply.
**digital checking** Systems that extend the functionality of existing checking accounts so they can be used for online shopping payments.
**digital credit card payment system** Secure services for credit card payments on the Internet that protect information transmitted among users, merchant sites, and processing banks.
**digital dashboard** Displays all of a firm’s key performance indicators as graphs and charts on a single screen to provide one-page overview of all the critical measurements necessary to make key executive decisions.
**digital divide** Large disparities in access to computers and the Internet among different social groups and different locations.
**digital firm** Organization where nearly all significant business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, and employees are digitally enabled, and key corporate assets are managed through digital means.
**digital goods** Goods that can be delivered over a digital network.
**digital market** A marketplace that is created by computer and communication technologies that link many buyers and sellers.
**Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)** Adjusts copyright laws to the Internet Age by making it illegal to make, distribute, or use devices that circumvent technology-based protections of copyrighted materials.
**digital signal** A discrete waveform that transmits data coded into two discrete states as 1-bits and 0-bits, which are represented as on-off electrical pulses; used for data communications.
**digital subscriber line (DSL)** A group of technologies providing high-capacity transmission over existing copper telephone lines.
**digital wallet** Software that stores credit card, electronic cash, owner identification, and address information and provides this data automatically during electronic commerce purchase transactions.
**direct cutover** A risky conversion approach where the new system completely replaces the old one on an appointed day.
**disaster recovery planning** Planning for the restoration of computing and communications services after they have been disrupted.
**disintermediation** The removal of organizations or business process layers responsible for certain intermediary steps in a value chain.
**disruptive technologies** Technologies with disruptive impact on industries and businesses, rendering existing products, services and business models obsolete.
**distance learning** Education or training delivered over a distance to individuals in one or more locations.
**distributed database** A database that is stored in more than one physical location. Parts or copies of the database are physically stored in one location, and other parts or copies are stored and maintained in other locations.
**distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack** Numerous computers inundating and overwhelming a network from numerous launch points.
distributed processing The distribution of computer processing work among multiple computers linked by a communications network.
documentation Descriptions of how an information system works from either a technical or end-user standpoint.
domain name English-like name that corresponds to the unique 32-bit numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address for each computer connected to the Internet.
Domain Name System (DNS) A hierarchical system of servers maintaining a database enabling the conversion of domain names to their numeric IP addresses.
domestic exporter Form of business organization characterized by heavy centralization of corporate activities in the home county of origin.
downsizing The process of transferring applications from large computers to smaller ones.
downtime Period of time in which an information system is not operational.
drill down The ability to move from summary data to lower and lower levels of detail.
due process A process in which laws are well-known and understood and there is an ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that laws are applied correctly.
dynamic pricing Pricing of items based on real-time interactions between buyers and sellers that determine what a item is worth at any particular moment.
e-government Use of the Internet and related technologies to digitally enable government and public sector agencies’ relationships with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.
e-learning Instruction delivered through purely digital technology, such as CD-ROMs, the Internet, or private networks.
efficient customer response system System that directly links consumer behavior back to distribution, production, and supply chains.
electronic billing and payment presentation system Systems used for paying routine monthly bills that allow users to view their bills electronically and pay them through electronic funds transfers from banks or credit card accounts.
electronic business (e-business) The use of the Internet and digital technology to execute all the business processes in the enterprise. Includes e-commerce as well as processes for the internal management of the firm and for coordination with suppliers and other business partners.
electronic commerce The process of buying and selling goods and services electronically involving transactions using the Internet, networks, and other digital technologies.
electronic data interchange (EDI) The direct computer-to-computer exchange between two organizations of standard business transactions, such as orders, shipment instructions, or payments.
electronic payment system The use of digital technologies, such as credit cards, smart cards and Internet-based payment systems, to pay for products and services electronically.
e-mail The computer-to-computer exchange of messages.
employee relationship management (ERM) Software dealing with employee issues that are closely related to CRM, such as setting objectives, employee performance management, performance-based compensation, and employee training.
encryption The coding and scrambling of messages to prevent their being read or accessed without authorization.
end-user development The development of information systems by end users with little or no formal assistance from technical specialists.
end-user interface The part of an information system through which the end user interacts with the system, such as on-line screens and commands.
end users Representatives of departments outside the information systems group for whom applications are developed.
enterprise applications Systems that can coordinate activities, decisions, and knowledge across many different functions, levels, and business units in a firm. Include enterprise systems, supply chain management systems, and knowledge management systems.
enterprise content management systems Help organizations manage structured and semistructured knowledge, providing corporate repositories of documents, reports, presentations, and best practices and capabilities for collecting and organizing e-mail and graphic objects.
enterprise portal Web interface providing a single entry point for accessing organizational information and services, including information from various enterprise applications and in-house legacy systems so that information appears to be coming from a single source.
enterprise software Set of integrated modules for applications such as sales and distribution, financial accounting, investment management, materials management, production planning, plant maintenance, and human resources that allow data to be used by multiple functions and business processes.
enterprise systems Integrated enterprise-wide information systems that coordinate key internal processes of the firm.
enterprise-wide knowledge management systems General-purpose, firmwide systems that collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and knowledge.
entity A person, place, thing, or event about which information must be kept.
entity-relationship diagram A methodology for documenting databases illustrating the relationship between various entities in the database.
ergonomics The interaction of people and machines in the work environment, including the design of jobs, health issues, and the end-user interface of information systems.
e-tailer Online retail stores from the giant Amazon to tiny local stores that have Web sites where retail goods are sold.
ethical “no free lunch” rule Assumption that all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else, unless there is a specific declaration otherwise, and that the creator wants compensation for this work.
ethics Principles of right and wrong that can be used by individuals acting as free moral agents to make choices to guide their behavior.
evil twins Wireless networks that pretend to be legitimate to entice participants to log on and reveal passwords or credit card numbers.
exchange Third-party Net marketplace that is primarily transaction oriented and that connects many buyers and suppliers for spot purchasing.
executive support systems (ESS) Information systems at the organization’s strategic level designed to address unstructured decision making through advanced graphics and communications.
expert system Knowledge-intensive computer program that captures the expertise of a human in limited domains of knowledge.
explicit knowledge Knowledge that has been documented.
external integration tools Project management technique that links the work of the implementation team to that of users at all organizational levels.
extranet Private intranet that is accessible to authorized outsiders.
Fair Information Practices (FIP) A set of principles originally set forth in 1973 that governs the collection and use of information about individuals and forms the basis of most U.S. and European privacy laws.
**fault-tolerant computer systems** Systems that contain extra hardware, software, and power supply components that can back a system up and keep it running to prevent system failure.
**feasibility study** As part of the systems analysis process, the way to determine whether the solution is achievable, given the organization’s resources and constraints.
**feedback** Output that is returned to the appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate or correct input.
**fiber-optic cable** A fast, light, and durable transmission medium consisting of thin strands of clear glass fiber bound into cables. Data are transmitted as light pulses.
**field** A grouping of characters into a word, a group of words, or a complete number, such as a person’s name or age.
**file transfer protocol (FTP)** Tool for retrieving and transferring files from a remote computer.
**file** A group of records of the same type.
**firewall** Hardware and software placed between an organization’s internal network and an external network to prevent outsiders from invading private networks.
**focused differentiation** Competitive strategy for developing new market niches for specialized products or services where a business can compete in the target area better than its competitors.
**folksonomies** User-created taxonomies for classifying and sharing information.
**foreign key** Field in a database table that enables users find related information in another database table.
**formal control tools** Project management technique that helps monitor the progress toward completion of a task and fulfillment of goals.
**formal planning tools** Project management technique that structures and sequences tasks, budgeting time, money, and technical resources required to complete the tasks.
**forward chaining** A strategy for searching the rule base in an expert system that begins with the information entered by the user and searches the rule base to arrive at a conclusion.
**fourth-generation language** A programming language that can be employed directly by end users or less-skilled programmers to develop computer applications more rapidly than conventional programming languages.
**franchiser** Form of business organization in which a product is created, designed, financed, and initially produced in the home country, but for product-specific reasons relies heavily on foreign personnel for further production, marketing, and human resources.
**free/freemium revenue model** An e-commerce revenue model in which a firm offers basic services or content for free, while charging a premium for advanced or high value features.
**fuzzy logic** Rule-based AI that tolerates imprecision by using nonspecific terms called membership functions to solve problems.
**Gantt chart** Visually represents the timing, duration, and resource requirements of project tasks.
**general controls** Overall control environment governing the design, security, and use of computer programs and the security of data files in general throughout the organization’s information technology infrastructure.
**genetic algorithms** Problem-solving methods that promote the evolution of solutions to specified problems using the model of living organisms adapting to their environment.
**geographic information system (GIS)** System with software that can analyze and display data using digitized maps to enhance planning and decision-making.
**global culture** The development of common expectations, shared artifacts, and social norms among different cultures and peoples.
**global positioning system (GPS)** Worldwide satellite navigational system.
**graphical user interface (GUI)** The part of an operating system users interact with that uses graphic icons and the computer mouse to issue commands and make selections.
**Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act** Requires financial institutions to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer data.
**green computing** Refers to practices and technologies for designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated devices such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems to minimize impact on the environment.
**grid computing** Applying the resources of many computers in a network to a single problem.
**group decision-support system (GDSS)** An interactive computer-based system to facilitate the solution to unstructured problems by a set of decision makers working together as a group.
**hacker** A person who gains unauthorized access to a computer network for profit, criminal mischief, or personal pleasure.
**hertz** Measure of frequency of electrical impulses per second, with 1 Hertz equivalent to 1 cycle per second.
**high-availability computing** Tools and technologies, including backup hardware resources, to enable a system to recover quickly from a crash.
**HIPAA** Law outlining rules for medical security, privacy, and the management of health care records.
**hotspot** A specific geographic location in which an access point provides public Wi-Fi network service.
**hubs** Very simple devices that connect network components, sending a packet of data to all other connected devices.
**hybrid AI systems** Integration of multiple AI technologies into a single application to take advantage of the best features of these technologies.
**hypertext markup language (HTML)** Page description language for creating Web pages and other hypermedia documents.
**hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)** The communications standard used to transfer pages on the Web. Defines how messages are formatted and transmitted.
**identity management** Business processes and software tools for identifying the valid users of a system and controlling their access to system resources.
**identity theft** Theft of key pieces of personal information, such as credit card or Social Security numbers, in order to obtain merchandise and services in the name of the victim or to obtain false credentials.
**Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative** A principle that states that if an action is not right for everyone to take it is not right for anyone.
**implementation** Simon’s final stage of decision-making, when the individual puts the decision into effect and reports on the progress of the solution.
**industry structure** The nature of participants in an industry and their relative bargaining power. Derives from the competitive forces and establishes the general business environment in an industry and the overall profitability of doing business in that environment.
**inference engine** The strategy used to search through the rule base in an expert system; can be forward or backward chaining.
**information** Data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings.
**information asymmetry** Situation where the relative bargaining power of two parties in a transaction is determined by one party in the transaction possessing more information essential to the transaction than the other party.
**information density** The total amount and quality of information available to all market participants, consumers, and merchants.
**information policy** Formal rules governing the maintenance, distribution, and use of information in an organization.
**information requirements** A detailed statement of the information needs that a new system must satisfy; identifies who needs what information, and when, where, and how the information is needed.
**information rights** The rights that individuals and organizations have with respect to information that pertains to themselves.
**information system** Interrelated components working together to collect, process, store, and disseminate information to support decision making, coordination, control, analysis, and visualization in an organization.
**information systems department** The formal organizational unit that is responsible for the information systems function in the organization.
**information systems literacy** Broad-based understanding of information systems that includes behavioral knowledge about organizations and individuals using information systems as well as technical knowledge about computers.
**information systems managers** Leaders of the various specialists in the information systems department.
**information systems plan** A road map indicating the direction of systems development: the rationale, the current situation, the management strategy, the implementation plan, and the budget.
**information technology (IT)** All the hardware and software technologies a firm needs to achieve its business objectives.
**information technology (IT) infrastructure** Computer hardware, software, data, storage technology, and networks providing a portfolio of shared IT resources for the organization.
**informational roles** Mintzberg’s classification for managerial roles where managers act as the nerve centers of their organizations, receiving and disseminating critical information.
**informed consent** Consent given with knowledge of all the facts needed to make a rational decision.
**input** The capture or collection of raw data from within the organization or from its external environment for processing in an information system.
**instant messaging** Chat service that allows participants to create their own private chat channels so that a person can be alerted whenever someone on his or her private list is on-line to initiate a chat session with that particular individual.
**intangible benefits** Benefits that are not easily quantified; they include more efficient customer service or enhanced decision making.
**intellectual property** Intangible property created by individuals or corporations that is subject to protections under trade secret, copyright, and patent law.
**intelligence** The first of Simon’s four stages of decision making, when the individual collects information to identify problems occurring in the organization.
**intelligent agent** Software program that uses a built-in or learned knowledge base to carry out specific, repetitive, and predictable tasks for an individual user, business process, or software application.
**internal integration tools** Project management technique that ensures that the implementation team operates as a cohesive unit.
**international information systems architecture** The basic information systems required by organizations to coordinate worldwide trade and other activities.
**Internet** Global network of networks using universal standards to connect millions of different networks.
**Internet Protocol (IP) address** Four-part numeric address indicating a unique computer location on the Internet.
**Internet Service Provider (ISP)** A commercial organization with a permanent connection to the Internet that sells temporary connections to subscribers.
**Internet telephony** Technologies that use the Internet Protocol’s packet-switched connections for voice service.
**Internet2** Research network with new protocols and transmission speeds that provides an infrastructure for supporting high-bandwidth Internet applications.
**interorganizational systems** Information systems that automate the flow of information across organizational boundaries and link a company to its customers, distributors, or suppliers.
**interpersonal roles** Mintzberg’s classification for managerial roles where managers act as figureheads and leaders for the organization.
**intranet** An internal network based on Internet and World Wide Web technology and standards.
**intrusion detection system** Tools to monitor the most vulnerable points in a network to detect and deter unauthorized intruders.
**investment workstation** Powerful desktop computer for financial specialists, which is optimized to access and manipulate massive amounts of financial data.
**IT governance** Strategy and policies for using information technology within an organization, specifying the decision rights and accountabilities to ensure that information technology supports the organization’s strategies and objectives.
**iterative** A process of repeating over and over again the steps to build a system.
**Java** Programming language that can deliver only the software functionality needed for a particular task, such as a small applet downloaded from a network, can run on any computer and operating system.
**Joint Application Design (JAD)** Process to accelerate the generation of information requirements by having end users and information systems specialists work together in intensive interactive design sessions.
**just-in-time** Scheduling system for minimizing inventory by having components arrive exactly at the moment they are needed and finished goods shipped as soon as they leave the assembly line.
**key field** A field in a record that uniquely identifies instances of that record so that it can be retrieved, updated, or sorted.
**key performance indicators** Measures proposed by senior management for understanding how well the firm is performing along specified dimensions.
**keylogger** Spyware that records every keystroke made on a computer to steal personal information or passwords or to launch Internet attacks.
**knowledge** Concepts, experience, and insight that provide a framework for creating, evaluating, and using information.
**knowledge-and information-intense products** Products that require a great deal of learning and knowledge to produce.
**knowledge base** Model of human knowledge that is used by expert systems.
**knowledge discovery** Identification of novel and valuable patterns in large databases.
**knowledge management** The set of processes developed in an organization to create, gather, store, maintain, and disseminate the firm’s knowledge.
**knowledge management systems** Systems that support the creation, capture, storage, and dissemination of firm expertise and knowledge.
**knowledge network system** Online directory for locating corporate experts in well-defined knowledge domains.
**knowledge workers** People such as engineers or architects who design products or services and create knowledge for the organization.
**learning management system (LMS)** Tools for the management, delivery, tracking, and assessment of various types of employee learning.
**legacy system** A system that has been in existence for a long time and that continues to be used to avoid the high cost of replacing or redesigning it.
**legitimacy** The extent to which one’s authority is accepted on grounds of competence, vision, or other qualities. Making judgments and taking actions on the basis of narrow or personal characteristics.
**liability** The existence of laws that permit individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems, or organizations.
**Linux** Reliable and compactly designed operating system that is an offshoot of UNIX and that can run on many different hardware platforms and is available free or at very low cost. Used as alternative to UNIX and Windows NT.
**local area network (LAN)** A telecommunications network that requires its own dedicated channels and that encompasses a limited distance, usually one building or several buildings in close proximity.
**long tail marketing** Refers to the ability of firms to profitably market goods to very small online audiences, largely because of the lower costs of reaching very small market segments (people who fall into the long tail ends of a Bell curve).
**mainframe** Largest category of computer, used for major business processing.
**maintenance** Changes in hardware, software, documentation, or procedures to a production system to correct errors, meet new requirements, or improve processing efficiency.
**malware** Malicious software programs such as computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.
**managed security service provider (MSSP)** Company that provides security management services for subscribing clients.
**management information systems (MIS)** The study of information systems focusing on their use in business and management.
**management-level systems** Information systems that support the monitoring, controlling, decision-making, and administrative activities of middle managers.
**managerial roles** Expectations of the activities that managers should perform in an organization.
**man-month** The traditional unit of measurement used by systems designers to estimate the length of time to complete a project. Refers to the amount of work a person can be expected to complete in a month.
**market creator** An e-commerce business model in which firms provide a digital online environment where buyers and sellers can meet, search for products, and engage in transactions.
**marketspace** A marketplace extended beyond traditional boundaries and removed from a temporal and geographic location.
**mashups** Composite software applications that depend on high-speed networks, universal communication standards, and open-source code.
**mass customization** The capacity to offer individually tailored products or services using mass production resources.
**megahertz** A measure of cycle speed, or the pacing of events in a computer; one megahertz equals one million cycles per second.
**menu costs** Merchants’ costs of changing prices.
**metric** A standard measurement of performance.
**metropolitan area network (MAN)** Network that spans a metropolitan area, usually a city and its major suburbs. Its geographic scope falls between a WAN and a LAN.
**microbrowser** Web browser software with a small file size that can work with low-memory constraints, tiny screens of handheld wireless devices, and low bandwidth of wireless networks.
**micropayment** Payment for a very small sum of money, often less than $10.
**microprocessor** Very large scale integrated circuit technology that integrates the computer’s memory, logic, and control on a single chip.
**microwave** A high-volume, long-distance, point-to-point transmission in which high-frequency radio signals are transmitted through the atmosphere from one terrestrial transmission station to another.
**middle management** People in the middle of the organizational hierarchy who are responsible for carrying out the plans and goals of senior management.
**midrange computer** Middle-size computer that is capable of supporting the computing needs of smaller organizations or of managing networks of other computers.
**minicomputer** Middle-range computer used in systems for universities, factories, or research laboratories.
**MIS audit** Identifies all the controls that govern individual information systems and assesses their effectiveness.
**mobile commerce (m-commerce)** The use of wireless devices, such as cell phones or handheld digital information appliances, to conduct both business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce transactions over the Internet.
**mobile wallets (m-wallets)** Store m-commerce shoppers’ personal information and credit card numbers to expedite the purchase process.
**moblog** Specialized blog featuring photos with captions posted from mobile phones.
**model** An abstract representation that illustrates the components or relationships of a phenomenon.
**model-driven DSS** Primarily stand-alone system that uses some type of model to perform “what-if” and other kinds of analyses.
**modem** A device for translating a computer’s digital signals into analog form for transmission over ordinary telephone lines, or for translating analog signals back into digital form for reception by a computer.
**module** A logical unit of a program that performs one or several functions.
**Moore’s Law** Assertion that the number of components on a chip doubles each year.
**MP3 (MPEG3)** Compression standard that can compress audio files for transfer over the Internet with virtually no loss in quality.
**multicore processor** Integrated circuit to which two or more processors have been attached for enhanced performance, reduced power consumption and more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks.
**multimedia** The integration of two or more types of media such as text, graphics, sound, voice, full-motion video, or animation into a computer-based application.
**multinational** Form of business organization that concentrates financial management and control out of a central home base while decentralizing.
**multiplexing** Ability of a single communications channel to carry data transmissions from multiple sources simultaneously.
**multitiered (N-tier) client/server architecture** Client/server network which the work of the entire network is balanced over several different levels of servers.
**nanotechnology** Technology that builds structures and processes based on the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules.
**natural language** Nonprocedural language that enables users to communicate with the computer using conversational commands resembling human speech.
**net marketplace** A single digital marketplace based on Internet technology linking many buyers to many sellers.
**netbook** Small low-cost, lightweight subnotebook optimized for wireless communication and Internet access.
**network** The linking of two or more computers to share data or resources, such as a printer.
**network economics** Model of strategic systems at the industry level based on the concept of a network where adding another participant entails zero marginal costs but can create much larger marginal gains.
**network interface card (NIC)** Expansion card inserted into a computer to enable it to connect to a network.
**network operating system (NOS)** Special software that routes and manages communications on the network and coordinates network resources.
**networking and telecommunications technology** Physical devices and software that link various computer hardware components and transfer data from one physical location to another.
**neural network** Hardware or software that attempts to emulate the processing patterns of the biological brain.
**nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA)** Technology that can find obscure hidden connections between people or other entities by analyzing information from many different sources to correlate relationships.
**normalization** The process of creating small stable data structures from complex groups of data when designing a relational database.
**object** Software building block that combines data and the procedures acting on the data.
**object-oriented DBMS** An approach to data management that stores both data and the procedures acting on the data as objects that can be automatically retrieved and shared; the objects can contain multimedia.
**object-oriented development** Approach to systems development that uses the object as the basic unit of systems analysis and design. The system is modeled as a collection of objects and the relationship between them.
**object-oriented programming** An approach to software development that combines data and procedures into a single object.
**object-relational DBMS** A database management system that combines the capabilities of a relational DBMS for storing traditional information and the capabilities of an object-oriented DBMS for storing graphics and multimedia.
**Office 2010** The latest version of Microsoft desktop software suite with capabilities for supporting collaborative work on the Web or incorporating information from the Web into documents.
**offshore outsourcing** Outsourcing systems development work or maintenance of existing systems to external vendors in another country.
**on-demand computing** Firms off-loading peak demand for computing power to remote, large-scale data processing centers, investing just enough to handle average processing loads and paying for only as much additional computing power as the market demands. Also called utility computing.
**on-line analytical processing (OLAP)** Capability for manipulating and analyzing large volumes of data from multiple perspectives.
**online processing** A method of collecting and processing data in which transactions are entered directly into the computer system and processed immediately.
**online transaction processing** Transaction processing mode in which transactions entered on-line are immediately processed by the computer.
**open-source software** Software that provides free access to its program code, allowing users to modify the program code to make improvements or fix errors.
**operating system** Software that manages the resources and activities of the computer.
**operational CRM** Customer-facing applications, such as sales force automation, call center and customer service support, and marketing automation.
**operational management** People who monitor the day-to-day activities of the organization.
**operational-level systems** Information systems that monitor the elementary activities and transactions of the organization.
**opt-in** Model of informed consent permitting prohibiting an organization from collecting any personal information unless the individual specifically takes action to approve information collection and use.
**opt-out** Model of informed consent permitting the collection of personal information until the consumer specifically requests that the data not be collected.
**organization (behavioral definition)** A collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that are delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution.
**organization (technical definition)** A stable, formal, social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs.
**organizational and management capital** Investments in organization and management such as new business processes, management behavior, organizational culture, or training.
**organizational impact analysis** Study of the way a proposed system will affect organizational structure, attitudes, decision making, and operations.
**organizational learning** Creation of new standard operating procedures and business processes that reflect organizations’ experience.
**output** The distribution of processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used.
**outsourcing** The practice of contracting computer center operations, telecommunications networks, or applications development to external vendors.
**P3P** Industry standard designed to give users more control over personal information gathered on Web sites they visit. Stands for Platform for Privacy Preferences Project.
**packet switching** Technology that breaks messages into small, fixed bundles of data and routes them in the most economical way through any available communications channel.
**paradigm shift** Radical reconceptualization of the nature of the business and the nature of the organization.
**parallel strategy** A safe and conservative conversion approach where both the old system and its potential replacement are run together for a time until everyone is assured that the new one functions correctly.
**particularism** Making judgments and taking action on the basis of narrow or personal characteristics, in all its forms (religious, nationalistic, ethnic, regionalism, geopolitical position).
**partner relationship management (PRM)** Automation of the firm’s relationships with its selling partners using customer data and analytical tools to improve coordination and customer sales.
**patch** Small pieces of software to repair the software flaws without disturbing the proper operation of the software.
**patent** A legal document that grants the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for 17 years, designed to ensure that inventors of new machines or methods are rewarded for their labor while making widespread use of their inventions.
**peer-to-peer** Network architecture that gives equal power to all computers on the network; used primarily in small networks.
**personal area network (PAN)** Computer network used for communication among digital devices (including telephones and PDAs) that are close to one person.
**personal digital assistant (PDA)** Small, pen-based, handheld computer with built-in wireless telecommunications capable of entirely digital communications transmission.
**personalization** Ability of merchants to target marketing messages to specific individuals by adjusting the message for a person’s name, interests, and past purchases.
**PERT chart** Network diagram depicting project tasks and their interrelationships.
**pharming** Phishing technique that redirects users to a bogus Web page, even when an individual enters the correct Web page address.
**phased approach** Introduces the new system in stages either by functions or by organizational units.
**phishing** Form of spoofing involving setting up fake Web sites or sending e-mail messages that resemble those of legitimate businesses that ask users for confidential personal data.
**pilot study** A strategy to introduce the new system to a limited area of the organization until it is proven to be fully functional; only then can the conversion to the new system across the entire organization take place.
**pivot table** Spreadsheet tool for reorganizing and summarizing two or more dimensions of data in a tabular format.
**podcasting** Publishing audio broadcasts via the Internet so that subscribing users can download audio files onto their personal computers or portable music players.
**pop-up ad** Ad that opens automatically and does not disappear until the user clicks on it.
**portal** Web interface for presenting integrated personalized content from a variety of sources. Also refers to a Web site service that provides an initial point of entry to the Web.
**portfolio analysis** An analysis of the portfolio of potential applications within a firm to determine the risks and benefits, and to select among alternatives for information systems.
**post-implementation audit** Formal review process conducted after a system has been placed in production to determine how well the system has met its original objectives.
**prediction markets** An analysis of the portfolio of potential applications within a firm to determine the risks and benefits, and to select among alternatives for information systems.
**predictive analytics** The use of data mining techniques, historical data, and assumptions about future conditions to predict outcomes of events, such as the probability a customer will respond to an offer or purchase a specific product.
**price discrimination** Selling the same goods, or nearly the same goods, to different targeted groups at different prices.
**price transparency** The ease with which consumers can find out the variety of prices in a market.
**primary activities** Activities most directly related to the production and distribution of a firm's products or services.
**primary key** Unique identifier for all the information in any row of a database table.
**privacy** The claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals, organizations, or the state.
**private cloud** A proprietary network or a data center that ties together servers, storage, networks, data, and applications as a set of virtualized services that are shared by users inside a company.
**private exchange** Another term for a private industrial network.
**private industrial networks** Web-enabled networks linking systems of multiple firms in an industry for the coordination of trans-organizational business processes.
**process specifications** Describe the logic of the processes occurring within the lowest levels of a data flow diagram.
**processing** The conversion, manipulation, and analysis of raw input into a form that is more meaningful to humans.
**procurement** Sourcing goods and materials, negotiating with suppliers, paying for goods, and making delivery arrangements.
**product differentiation** Competitive strategy for creating brand loyalty by developing new and unique products and services that are not easily duplicated by competitors.
**production** The stage after the new system is installed and the conversion is complete; during this time the system is reviewed by users and technical specialists to determine how well it has met its original goals.
**production or service workers** People who actually produce the products or services of the organization.
**profiling** The use of computers to combine data from multiple sources and create electronic dossiers of detailed information on individuals.
**program-data dependence** The close relationship between data stored in files and the software programs that update and maintain those files. Any change in data organization or format requires a change in all the programs associated with those files.
**programmers** Highly trained technical specialists who write computer software instructions.
**programming** The process of translating the system specifications prepared during the design stage into program code.
**project** Planned series of related activities for achieving a specific business objective.
**project management** Application of knowledge, tools, and techniques to achieve specific targets within a specified budget and time period.
**protocol** A set of rules and procedures that govern transmission between the components in a network.
**prototype** The preliminary working version of an information system for demonstration and evaluation purposes.
**prototyping** The process of building an experimental system quickly and inexpensively for demonstration and evaluation so that users can better determine information requirements.
**public cloud** A cloud maintained by an external service provider, accessed through the Internet, and available to the general public.
**public key encryption** Uses two keys: one shared (or public) and one private.
**public key infrastructure(PKI)** System for creating public and private keys using a certificate authority (CA) and digital certificates for authentication.
**pull-based model** Supply chain driven by actual customer orders or purchases so that members of the supply chain produce and deliver only what customers have ordered.
**pure-play** Business models based purely on the Internet.
**push-based model** Supply chain driven by production master schedules based on forecasts or best guesses of demand for products, and products are "pushed" to customers.
**query language** Software tool that provides immediate online answers to requests for information that are not predefined.
**radio-frequency identification (RFID)** Technology using tiny tags with embedded microchips containing data about an item and its location to transmit short-distance radio signals to special RFID readers that then pass the data on to a computer for processing.
**Rapid Application Development (RAD)** Process for developing systems in a very short time period by using prototyping, fourth-generation tools, and close teamwork among users and systems specialists.
**rational model** Model of human behavior based on the belief that people, organizations, and nations engage in basically consistent, value-maximizing calculations.
**rationalization of procedures** The streamlining of standard operating procedures, eliminating obvious bottlenecks, so that automation makes operating procedures more efficient.
**real options pricing models** Models for evaluating information technology investments with uncertain returns by using techniques for valuing financial options.
**record** A group of related fields.
**recovery-oriented computing** Computer systems designed to recover rapidly when mishaps occur.
**referential integrity** Rules to ensure that relationships between coupled database tables remain consistent.
**relational DBMS** A type of logical database model that treats data as if they were stored in two-dimensional tables. It can relate data stored in one table to data in another as long as the two tables share a common data element.
**Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI)** Occupational disease that occurs when muscle groups are forced through repetitive actions with high-impact loads or thousands of repetitions with low-impact loads.
**Request for Proposal (RFP)** A detailed list of questions submitted to vendors of software or other services to determine how well the vendor’s product can meet the organization’s specific requirements.
**resource allocation** The determination of how costs, time, and personnel are assigned to different phases of a systems development project.
**responsibility** Accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations for the decisions one makes.
**revenue model** A description of how a firm will earn revenue, generate profits, and produce a return on investment.
**richness** Measurement of the depth and detail of information that a business can supply to the customer as well as information the business collects about the customer.
**ring topology** A network topology in which all computers are linked by a closed loop in a manner that passes data in one direction from one computer to another.
**risk assessment** Determining the potential frequency of the occurrence of a problem and the potential damage if the problem were to occur. Used to determine the cost/benefit of a control.
**Risk Aversion Principle** Principle that one should take the action that produces the least harm or incurs the least cost.
**router** Specialized communications processor that forwards packets of data from one network to another network.
**routines** Precise rules, procedures and practices that have been developed to cope with expected situations.
**RSS** Technology using aggregator software to pull content from Web sites and feed it automatically to subscribers’ computers.
**SaaS (Software as a Service)** Services for delivering and providing access to software remotely as a Web-based service.
**safe harbor** Private self-regulating policy and enforcement mechanism that meets the objectives of government regulations but does not involve government regulation or enforcement.
**Sarbanes-Oxley Act** Law passed in 2002 that imposes responsibility on companies and their management to protect investors by safeguarding the accuracy and integrity of financial information that is used internally and released externally.
**scalability** The ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve a larger number of users without breaking down.
**scope** Defines what work is and is not included in a project.
**scoring model** A quick method for deciding among alternative systems based on a system of ratings for selected objectives.
**search costs** The time and money spent locating a suitable product and determining the best price for that product.
**search engine** A tool for locating specific sites or information on the Internet.
**search engine marketing** Use of search engines to deliver in their results sponsored links, for which advertisers have paid.
**search engine optimization (SEO)** The process of changing a Web site’s content, layout, and format in order to increase the ranking of the site on popular search engines, and to generate more site visitors.
**Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP)** Protocol used for encrypting data flowing over the Internet; limited to individual messages.
**Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)** Enables client and server computers to manage encryption and decryption activities as they communicate with each other during a secure Web session.
**security** Policies, procedures, and technical measures used to prevent unauthorized access, alteration, theft, or physical damage to information systems.
**security policy** Statements ranking information risks, identifying acceptable security goals, and identifying the mechanisms for achieving these goals.
**Semantic Web** Ways of making the Web more “intelligent,” with machine-facilitated understanding of information so that searches can be more intuitive, effective, and executed using intelligent software agents.
**semistructured decisions** Decisions in which only part of the problem has a clear-cut answer provided by an accepted procedure.
**senior management** People occupying the topmost hierarchy in an organization who are responsible for making long-range decisions.
**sensitivity analysis** Models that ask “what-if” questions repeatedly to determine the impact of changes in one or more factors on the outcomes.
**server** Computer specifically optimized to provide software and other resources to other computers over a network.
**server farm** Large group of servers maintained by a commercial vendor and made available to subscribers for electronic commerce and other activities requiring heavy use of servers.
**service level agreement (SLA)** Formal contract between customers and their service providers that defines the specific responsibilities of the service provider and the level of service expected by the customer.
**service platform** Integration of multiple applications from multiple business functions, business units, or business partners to deliver a seamless experience for the customer, employee, manager, or business partner.
**service-oriented architecture** Software architecture of a firm built on a collection of software programs that communicate with each other to perform assigned tasks to create a working software application.
**shopping bot** Software with varying levels of built-in intelligence to help electronic commerce shoppers locate and evaluate products or service they might wish to purchase.
**Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)** Set of rules that allows Web services applications to pass data and instructions to one another.
**six sigma** A specific measure of quality, representing 3.4 defects per million opportunities; used to designate a set of methodologies and techniques for improving quality and reducing costs.
**smart card** A credit-card-size plastic card that stores digital information and that can be used for electronic payments in place of cash.
**smartphone** Wireless phone with voice, text, and Internet capabilities.
**sniffer** Type of eavesdropping program that monitors information traveling over a network.
**social bookmarking** Capability for users to save their bookmarks to Web pages on a public Web site and tag these bookmarks with keywords to organize documents and share information with others.
**social engineering** Tricking people into revealing their passwords by pretending to be legitimate users or members of a company in need of information.
**social networking sites** Online community for expanding users’ business or social contacts by making connections through their mutual business or personal connections.
**social shopping** Use of Web sites featuring user-created Web pages to share knowledge about items of interest to other shoppers.
**sociotechnical design** Design to produce information systems that blend technical efficiency with sensitivity to organizational and human needs.
**sociotechnical view** Seeing systems as composed of both technical and social elements.
**software localization** Process of converting software to operate in a second language.
software package A prewritten, precoded, commercially available set of programs that eliminates the need to write software programs for certain functions.
spam Unsolicited commercial e-mail.
spamming Form of abuse in which thousands and even hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail and electronic messages are sent out, creating a nuisance for both businesses and individual users.
spyware Technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge.
SQL injection attack Attacks against a Web site that take advantage of vulnerabilities in poorly coded SQL (a standard and common database software application) applications in order to introduce malicious program code into a company’s systems and networks.
star topology A network topology in which all computers and other devices are connected to a central host computer. All communications between network devices must pass through the host computer.
storage area network (SAN) A high-speed network dedicated to storage that connects different kinds of storage devices, such as tape libraries and disk arrays so they can be shared by multiple servers.
storage technology Physical media and software governing the storage and organization of data for use in an information system.
stored value payment systems Systems enabling consumers to make instant on-line payments to merchants and other individuals based on value stored in a digital account.
strategic information systems Computer systems at any level of the organization that change goals, operations, products, services, or environmental relationships to help the organization gain a competitive advantage.
strategic transitions A movement from one level of sociotechnical system to another. Often required when adopting strategic systems that demand changes in the social and technical elements of an organization.
streaming A publishing method for music and video files that flows a continuous stream of content to a user’s device without being stored locally on the device.
structure chart System documentation showing each level of design, the relationship among the levels, and the overall place in the design structure; can document one program, one system, or part of one program.
structured Refers to the fact that techniques are carefully drawn up, step by step, with each step building on a previous one.
structured decisions Decisions that are repetitive, routine, and have a definite procedure for handling them.
structured knowledge Knowledge in the form of structured documents and reports.
Structured Query Language (SQL) The standard data manipulation language for relational database management systems.
supply chain Network of organizations and business processes for procuring materials, transforming raw materials into intermediate and finished products, and distributing the finished products to customers.
supply chain execution systems Systems to manage the flow of products through distribution centers and warehouses to ensure that products are delivered to the right locations in the most efficient manner.
supply chain management Integration of supplier, distributor, and customer logistics requirements into one cohesive process.
supply chain management systems Information systems that automate the flow of information between a firm and its suppliers in order to optimize the planning, sourcing, manufacturing, and delivery of products and services.
supply chain planning systems Systems that enable a firm to generate demand forecasts for a product and to develop sourcing and manufacturing plans for that product.
support activities Activities that make the delivery of a firm’s primary activities possible. Consist of the organization’s infrastructure, human resources, technology, and procurement.
switch Device to connect network components that has more intelligence than a hub and can filter and forward data to a specified destination.
switching costs The expense a customer or company incurs in lost time and expenditure of resources when changing from one supplier or system to a competing supplier or system.
syndicator Business aggregating content or applications from multiple sources, packaging them for distribution, and reselling them to third-party Web sites.
system testing Tests the functioning of the information system as a whole in order to determine if discrete modules will function together as planned.
systems analysis The analysis of a problem that the organization will try to solve with an information system.
systems analysts Specialists who translate business problems and requirements into information requirements and systems, acting as liaison between the information systems department and the rest of the organization.
systems design Details how a system will meet the information requirements as determined by the systems analysis.
systems development The activities that go into producing an information systems solution to an organizational problem or opportunity.
systems life cycle A traditional methodology for developing an information system that partitions the systems development process into formal stages that must be completed sequentially with a very formal division of labor between end users and information systems specialists.
T lines High-speed data lines leased from communications providers, such as T-1 lines (with a transmission capacity of 1.544 Mbps).
tacit knowledge Expertise and experience of organizational members that has not been formally documented.
tangible benefits Benefits that can be quantified and assigned a monetary value; they include lower operational costs and increased cash flows.
taxonomy Method of classifying things according to a predetermined system.
teams Teams are formal groups whose members collaborate to achieve specific goals.
teamware Group collaboration software that is customized for teamwork.
technology standards Specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network.
technostress Stress induced by computer use; symptoms include aggravation, hostility toward humans, impatience, and enervation.
telecommunications system A collection of compatible hardware and software arranged to communicate information from one location to another.
teleconferencing The ability to confer with a group of people simultaneously using the telephone or electronic-mail group communication software.
telepresence Telepresence is a technology that allows a person to give the appearance of being present at a location other than his or her true physical location.
Telnet Network tool that allows someone to log on to one computer system while doing work on another.
test plan Prepared by the development team in conjunction with the users; it includes all of the preparations for the series of tests to be performed on the system.
testing The exhaustive and thorough process that determines whether the system produces the desired results under known conditions.
text mining Discovery of patterns and relationships from large sets of unstructured data.
token Physical device similar to an identification card that is designed to prove the identity of a single user.
touch point Method of firm interaction with a customer, such as telephone, e-mail, customer service desk, conventional mail, or point-of-purchase.
topology The way in which the components of a network are connected.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Designates the total cost of owning technology resources, including initial purchase costs, the cost of hardware and software upgrades, maintenance, technical support, and training.
Total Quality Management (TQM) A concept that makes quality control a responsibility to be shared by all people in an organization.
trade secret Any intellectual work or product used for a business purpose that can be classified as belonging to that business, provided it is not based on information in the public domain.
transaction costs Costs incurred when a firm buys on the marketplace what it cannot make itself.
transaction cost theory Economic theory stating that firms grow larger because they can conduct marketplace transactions internally more cheaply than they can with external firms in the marketplace.
transaction fee revenue model An online e-commerce revenue model where the firm receives a fee for enabling or executing transactions.
transaction processing systems (TPS) Computerized systems that perform and record the daily routine transactions necessary to conduct the business; they serve the organization’s operational level.
transborder data flow The movement of information across international boundaries in any form.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Dominant model for achieving connectivity among different networks. Provides a universally agree-on method for breaking up digital messages into packets, routing them to the proper addresses, and then reassembling them into coherent messages.
transnational Truly global form of business organization with no national headquarters; value-added activities are managed from a global perspective without reference to national borders, optimizing sources of supply and demand and local competitive advantage.
Trojan horse A software program that appears legitimate but contains a second hidden function that may cause damage.
tuple A row or record in a relational database.
twisted wire A transmission medium consisting of pairs of twisted copper wires; used to transmit analog phone conversations but can be used for data transmission.
Unified communications Integrates disparate channels for voice communications, data communications, instant messaging, e-mail, and electronic conferencing into a single experience where users can seamlessly switch back and forth between different communication modes.
Unified Modeling Language (UML) Industry standard methodology for analysis and design of an object-oriented software system.
unified threat management (UTM) Comprehensive security management tool that combines multiple security tools, including firewalls, virtual private networks, intrusion detection systems, and Web content filtering and anti-spam software.
uniform resource locator (URL) The address of a specific resource on the Internet.
unit testing The process of testing each program separately in the system. Sometimes called program testing.
UNIX Operating system for all types of computers, which is machine independent and supports multiuser processing, multitasking, and networking. Used in high-end workstations and servers.
unstructured decisions Nonroutine decisions in which the decision maker must provide judgment, evaluation, and insights into the problem definition; there is no agreed-upon procedure for making such decisions.
Usenet Forums in which people share information and ideas on a defined topic through large electronic bulletin boards where anyone can post messages on the topic for others to see and to which others can respond.
user interface The part of the information system through which the end user interacts with the system; type of hardware and the series of on-screen commands and responses required for a user to work with the system.
user-designer communications gap The difference in backgrounds, interests, and priorities that impede communication and problem solving among end users and information systems specialists.
Utilitarian Principle Principle that assumes one can put values in rank order and understand the consequences of various courses of action.
utility computing Model of computing in which companies pay only for the information technology resources they actually use during a specified time period. Also called on-demand computing or usage-based pricing.
value chain model Model that highlights the primary or support activities that add a margin of value to a firm’s products or services where information systems can best be applied to achieve a competitive advantage.
value web Customer-driven network of independent firms who use information technology to coordinate their value chains to collectively produce a product or service for a market.
Value-Added Network (VAN) Private, multipath, data-only, third-party-managed network that multiple organizations use on a subscription basis.
videoconferencing Teleconferencing in which participants see each other over video screens.
virtual company Organization using networks to link people, assets and ideas to create and distribute products and services without being limited to traditional organizational boundaries or physical location.
Virtual Private Network (VPN) A secure connection between two points across the Internet to transmit corporate data. Provides a low-cost alternative to a private network.
Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) A set of specifications for interactive three-dimensional modeling on the World Wide Web.
virtual reality systems Interactive graphics software and hardware that create computer-generated simulations that provide sensations that emulate real-world activities.
virtual world Computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via graphical representations called avatars.
virtualization Presenting a set of computing resources so that they can all be accessed in ways that are not restricted by physical configuration or geographic location.
Voice over IP (VoIP) Facilities for managing the delivery of voice information using the Internet Protocol (IP).
war driving Technique in which eavesdroppers drive by buildings or park outside and try to intercept wireless network traffic.
Web 2.0 Second-generation, interactive Internet-based services that enable people to collaborate, share information, and create new services online, including mashups, blogs, RSS, and wikis.
Web 3.0 Future vision of the Web where all digital information is woven together with intelligent search capabilities.
Web beacons Tiny objects invisibly embedded in e-mail messages and Web pages that are designed to monitor the behavior of the user visiting a Web site or sending e-mail.
Web browser An easy-to-use software tool for accessing the World Wide Web and the Internet.
Web bugs Tiny graphic files embedded in e-mail messages and Web pages that are designed to monitor online Internet user behavior.
Web hosting service Company with large Web server computers to maintain the Web sites of fee-paying subscribers.
Web mining Discovery and analysis of useful patterns and information from the World Wide Web.
Web server Software that manages requests for Web pages on the computer where they are stored and that delivers the page to the user’s computer.
Web services Set of universal standards using Internet technology for integrating different applications from different sources without time-consuming custom coding. Used for linking systems of different organizations or for linking disparate systems within the same organization.
Web site All of the World Wide Web pages maintained by an organization or an individual.
Wi-Fi Standards for Wireless Fidelity and refers to the 802.11 family of wireless networking standards.
Wide Area Network (WAN) Telecommunications network that spans a large geographical distance. May consist of a variety of cable, satellite, and microwave technologies.
wiki Collaborative Web site where visitors can add, delete, or modify content, including the work of previous authors.
WiMax Popular term for IEEE Standard 802.16 for wireless networking over a range of up to 31 miles with a data transfer rate of up to 75 Mbps. Stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access.
Windows Microsoft family of operating systems for both network servers and client computers. The most recent version is Windows Vista.
Windows 7 The successor to Microsoft Windows Vista operating system released in 2009.
Wintel PC Any computer that uses Intel microprocessors (or compatible processors) and a Windows operating system.
wireless portals Portals with content and services optimized for mobile devices to steer users to the information they are most likely to need.
wireless sensor networks (WSNs) Networks of interconnected wireless devices with built-in processing, storage, and radio frequency sensors and antennas that are embedded into the physical environment to provide measurements of many points over large spaces.
wisdom The collective and individual experience of applying knowledge to the solution of problems.
wisdom of crowds The belief that large numbers of people can make better decisions about a wide range of topics or products than a single person or even a small committee of experts (first proposed in a book by James Surowiecki).
WML (Wireless Markup Language) Markup language for Wireless Web sites; based on XML and optimized for tiny displays.
workflow management The process of streamlining business procedures so that documents can be moved easily and efficiently from one location to another.
World Wide Web A system with universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information in a networked environment.
worms Independent software programs that propagate themselves to disrupt the operation of computer networks or destroy data and other programs.
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) General-purpose language that describes the structure of a document and supports links to multiple documents, allowing data to be manipulated by the computer. Used for both Web and non-Web applications.
| Page | Photographer/Source |
|------|---------------------|
| 3 | Public domain |
| 10 | Courtesy of Apple, Inc. |
| 24 | Peter Marlow/ Magnum Photos, Inc. |
| 41 | Gilles Martin-Raget/BMW ORACLE Racing |
| 50 | Dundas Data Visualization, Inc. |
| 58 | Courtesy of Socialtext |
| 79 | iStockphoto.com 2010 |
| 97 | iStockphoto.com 2010 |
| 121 | iStockphoto.com 2010 |
| 127 | iStockphoto.com 2010 |
| 138 | InterContinental Hotels |
| 144 | iStockphoto.com 2010 |
| 149 | iStockphoto.com 2010 |
| 163 | iStockphoto.com 2010 |
| 171 | Intel Inc. 2004 |
| 172 | Intel Inc. 2004 |
| 172 | IBM |
| 173 | Raymond Kurzweil |
| 207 | iStockphoto 2010 |
| 245 | iStockphoto 2010 |
| 291 | iStockphoto 2010 |
| 314 | iStockphoto 2010 |
| 335 | iStockphoto 2010 |
| 371 | 4Food.com 2010 |
| 411 | iStockphoto 2010 |
| 428 | iStockphoto 2010 |
| 453 | iStockphoto 2010 |
| 467 | Public domain |
| 487 | Corbis 2010 |
| 527 | iStockphoto 2010 |
| 559 | iStockphoto 2010 |
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## Name Index
### A
- Abdulmutallab, Umar Farouk, 242
- Aleynikov, Sergey, 300
- Anderson, John, 241
### B
- Benioff, Marc, 203, 204
- Berman, Craig, 411
- Berson, Anthony M., 157
- Bertarelli, Ignacio, 41
- Bewkes, Jeff, 119
- Bezos, Jeff, 411
- Bratton, William, 482
- Brin, Sergey, 270
### C
- Casey, Jim, 22
- Childs, Timothy, 9
- Columbus, Christopher, 8
### D
- Deming, W. Edwards, 490
- DeWalt, David, 305
- DiSisto, Rob, 205
### E
- Ellison, Larry, 41, 42
### F
- Fathi, David, 241
- Fayol, Henri, 458
- Filo, David, 270
- Fine, Glenn A., 242
- Flax, Daniel, 321
- Fletcher, Clyde, 575
- Ford, Henry, 57
- Friedman, Thomas, 8
### G
- Gates, Bill, 57
- Gates, Robert, 330
- Gonzalez, Alberto, 301
- Gosling, James, 188
### H
- Hawiger, Marcel, 37
- Helisley, Laurie, 76
- Hicks, Michael, 241
- Horan, Tim, 119
### I
- Iqbal, Asif, 241
### J
- Jensen, Robert, 581
- Jeppsen, Bryan, 227
- Jerome-Parks, Scott, 157, 158
- Jn-Charles, Alexandra, 157, 158
- Jobs, Steve, 57, 103, 178, 288
- Juran, Joseph, 490
### K
- Kalach, Nina, 157
- Kant, Immanuel, 130
- Kearns, Michael, 439
- Kelly, Chris, 390
- Kennedy, Ted, 241
- Kilar, Jason, 118
- King, Stephen, 411
### L
- Lafley, A.G., 75
- Leavitt, 93
- Levy, Scott, 9
### M
- McConnell, Mike, 330
- McDonald, Robert, 75
- McPherson, Barry, 305
- Merzenich, Michael, 152
- Mettler, Fred A., Jr., 159
- Mintzberg, 88, 459
- Monaghan, Tom, 52
- Moore, Gordon, 170
- Mullin, Mike, 321
- Myrtle, Raymond, 470
### N
- Neeleman, David, 556
- Nordstrom, David, 429
### O
- Obama, Barack, 469
- Oliphant, Jack, 37
- Ophir, Eyal, 152
- Orwell, George, 144
- Oxley, Michael, 306
### P
- Page, Larry, 270
- Peterson, Bud, 36–37
- Peterson, Val, 36–37
- Porter, Michael, 95, 115
### R
- Reed, Alan, 178
- Ricci, Ron, 3
- Ryan, Claude, 22
### S
- Sarbanes, Paul, 306
- Schueller, Joe, 75
- Shahzad, Faisal, 242
- Skaare, Jerry, 358, 359
### T
- Taleb, Nassim, 440
- Tijerina, Louis, 147
- Tubbs, Jerry, 548
### V
- Vazquez, Raul, 411
### W
- Weast, Jerry, 469
- Woo, Edward, 119
### Y
- Yang, Jerry, 270
### Z
- Zimmerman, Richard, 345, 346
- Zuckerberg, Mark, 390
## Organizations Index
### A
- A&E, 118
- ABC Inc., 118
- Accenture, 62, 92, 181
- Accxiom, 121
- Adobe, 180, 404
- Advanced Micro Design, 8
- Aetna, 523
- Agora Games, 321
- AIC, 494
- Air France, 65
- Airborne Express, 22
- Ajax Boiler, 266
- Alcatel-Lucent, 180, 400, 401
- Alcoa, 339–340
- Allot Communications, 319
- Alta Vista, 87
- Amazon, 12, 45, 94, 98, 102, 103, 106, 111, 135, 170, 183, 184, 204, 262, 301, 321, 374, 383, 384, 386, 388, 389, 401, 404, 410, 411
- AMD, 176
- America Online (AOL), 118, 137, 382
- America West, 113
- American Airlines, 111
- American Express, 13, 100
- American Library Association, 262
- American National Insurance Co. (ANCO), 494
- AmerisourceBergen, 495
- Android, Inc., 288
- Ann Taylor, 109
- Apple, 7, 9, 13, 14, 57, 79, 87, 94, 97, 103–104, 110, 111, 140, 168, 178, 185, 204, 287–289, 295, 388
- Applebee’s, 478
- Armani Exchange, 401
- Art Technology Group, 405
- AstraTech, 181
- AstraZeneca, 123
- AT&T, 9, 79–80, 87, 110, 118, 180, 262, 276, 401
Attensity, 227
Author Solutions, 204
Avis Rent A Car, 401
B
BAE Systems, 398
Ball State University, 319
Bank of America, 100, 107, 400
Banta, 207
Barnes & Noble, 223
Barrick Gold, 423
Bear Stearns, 123, 460
Bell Labs, 175
BestBuy, 45
BigFix, 186
BJ’s Wholesale Club, 306
Black & Veatch, 471
BMW Oracle Racing, 41–42
The Body Shop International plc, 226
Boeing, 398
Border State Industries Inc. (BSE), 366–368
BP p.l.c., 256
British Airways, 557
Bryant & Stratton College, 359
C
Cablevision, 247, 265
California Pizza Kitchen, 471
Canadian Pacific Railway, 478
Canadian Tire, 415, 416
Cannondale, 335–336
Capital One, 466
Catalina Marketing, 222–223
Caterpillar, 551
CBS, 118
Center Point Energy, 37
CenterPoint Properties, 267
Champion Technologies, 311
Check Point, 316
ChemConnect.com, 383
Chevron, 9
Choice Hotels, 227
Christian Coalition, 262
Chrysler Corp., 90, 99, 466, 567
CIMB Group, 487, 488, 490
Cisco Systems, 3, 12, 22, 62, 76, 90, 180, 289, 316
Citibank, 14, 111
Citicorp, 568
City University of New York, 186
Clarabridge, 227
Clear Channel Radio, 63
CNN, 118
Coca-Cola Company, 339, 527–528
Comcast Corp., 118, 247, 262
Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services, 311
Comedy Central, 118
Compiere, 357, 358, 359
CompuCredit, 101
Con-Way Transportation, 432, 434
Connectbeam, 76
Cornerstone Information Systems, 63
Countrywide Financial, 107
Cowen and Co., 321
Cross-Country Transport, 71
Crossbeam, 316
D
Dartmouth College, 278
Dell Computer Corp., 12, 90, 99, 170, 176, 178, 180, 188, 357, 386
Deutsche Bank, 311
Diebold, Inc., 495, 496
Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), 87, 168, 289
DirecTV, 256
Dish Network, 256
Disney.com, 383
Dollar Rent-A-Car, 190–191
Domino’s, 52–53
Don’s Lumber Company, 70
Doylestown Hospital, 9
DST Systems, 547–548
Duane Reade, 453, 454
Duke Energy, 37
Dundas Data Visualization, 50
DuPont, 430
D.W. Morgan, 9
E
E*Trade, 12, 383, 388–389
Eastman Chemical Co., 90
eBay, 11, 12, 102, 108, 109, 111, 301, 374, 383, 384, 388, 404
Electronic Data Systems (EDS), 192
Eli Lilly, 123
Eloqua, 512
EMC (Documentum), 423
EMCorp., 179
Emerson Process Management, 234
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, 266
Envoy Media Group, 184
Equifax, 232
Esker, 367
estMed Medical Supplies Corp., 282
EuroChem, 65
Expedia, 383
Experian, 232
F
Fairchild Semiconductor, 170
Famous Footwear, 221
FBI, 240
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 329
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 132–133
FedEx, 6, 22, 44, 111, 277, 401, 466–467
First Citizens Bank, 467
Flextronics, 90
Florida Power and Light, 37
Flushing Financial Corp., 266
Ford Motor Co., 57, 89, 490, 568
Foremost Composite Materials Co., 199
Fortinent, 316
4Food, 371, 372
Fox Broadcasting, 118
Fox Sports, 401
Frito Lay, 564
Frontera, 575–576
FX, 118
G
Galleon Group, 123
Games.com, 383
Gartner Group, 60, 231
Gaylord Hotels, 227
General Electric, 12, 61, 87, 441
General Motors, 11, 12, 89, 181, 394, 466, 567
Getty Images, 383
Global e-Sustainability Initiative and the Climate Group, 62
Global Hyatt Corp., 65
Google, 7, 11, 12, 37, 61, 80, 87, 94, 111, 121, 122, 127, 137, 170, 177, 186, 188, 193, 226, 262, 265, 287–289, 382, 387–388
H
Hallmark Cards, 462
Hannaford Bros., 301
Harrah’s Entertainment, 226
Haworth Inc., 344
Heinz, 61
Henry’s Hardware, 70
Hewlett-Packard (HP), 62, 87, 140, 170, 175, 178, 180, 186, 188, 468, 561–562
Highmark, 187
Hilton Hotels, 98, 401
History Channel, 118
Hitachi, 441
Home Depot, 401
HP Enterprise Services, 181
Hyatt, 401
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), 245–246
I
i2, 345, 346, 441
i2Technologies, 344, 356
IBM, 7, 60, 87, 109, 170, 171, 175, 176, 179, 180, 183, 185, 188, 230, 267, 289, 421, 423, 463, 468, 493, 523
IBM Global Services, 181
IBM Software Group, 65
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Named and Numbers), 260
Indian Harvest Spealtifoods, 321
Infosys, 181
Insead, 60
Intel Corp., 8, 60, 87, 109, 176, 185, 188, 401, 567
Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 223
Intrawest, 49
Intuit, 386
iTunes.com, 383
iVillage, 108
J
JCPenney, 14
JDA Software, 344
JetBlue, 227, 556, 557
Johnson and Johnson, 9
JPMorgan Chase, 107, 303, 400
Juniper Networks, 180, 316
K
K2 Network, 323
Kazaa, 141
Kellwood Co., 347
Kennametal, 356
KFC, 568
KLM, 557
Kmart, 356
Kodak, 90
Koret of California, 347
Korn/Ferry International, 62
KT Corp., 245
L
Layar, 429
Lehman Brothers, 123, 460
Leiner Health Products, 50
Levi Strauss, 109
Lexus, 429
LG, 110
Li & Fung, 109
LifeSize, 62
Lilly Pulitzer, 401
Little Ceasars, 52
Lockheed Martin, 9, 398
LoopFuse, 512
Louise’s Trattoria, 222
Lufthansa, 494
M
Macromedia, 180
Macy’s, Inc., 113
Mandarin Oriental, 13–14
Manugistics, 344
MapInfo, 467
MasterCard, 311
Matsushita, 441
Maxtor, 179
McAfee, 185, 304–305, 316
McDonald’s, 549–550, 568
McKinsey and Company, 56
Mercedes-Benz Canada, 361
Merrill Lynch, 431
Metcalfe, Robert, 173
MetLife, 62
Microsoft, 7, 9, 57, 64, 76, 87, 109, 121, 122,
140, 169, 170, 177, 178, 179, 180, 186, 188,
203, 213, 217, 218, 219, 284, 287–289, 303,
321, 322, 339, 389, 404, 463, 472
Microsoft Dynamics CRM, 351
Minerals Management Service, 123
Mitsubishi, 441
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, 436
Montgomery County (MD) Public School
System, 469–470
Moore Wallace, 207
Morpheus, 141
Motorola, 110, 178, 273, 550–551
MoveOn.org, 262
Mozilla, 188, 303
Mrs. Fields Cookies, 568
MSN, 118, 121
MSNBC, 401
MyPoints, 389
N
Napster, 141
National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), 240
NBC Universal, 118, 119
Nestle USA, 203
New York Yankees, 3–4, 5, 16, 25
NewsCorp., 118, 137
Nike, 98, 340–342
Nikko Securities, 441
Nikon, 358
Nissan, 401
Nokia, 295, 580
Nortel, 180
Novell Netware, 169
O
O-So-Pure (OSP), 358
Office Depot, 361
O’Hare Airport, 178–179
1E NightWatchman, 186
1-800-Flowers, 401, 453
Onion News Network, 118
Open Text Corp., 423
Oracle Corp., 87, 170, 177, 179, 180, 188, 191,
203, 339, 351, 355, 356, 357, 359, 423, 463,
468, 493
Oracle PeopleSoft, 339
Oxygen, 118
P
Pacific Gas & Electric, 37
Papa John’s, 52, 53, 429
PayPal, 97, 98, 301
PBS, 118
Pearson Prentice Hall, 579
PeopleSoft, 177, 191, 351
PepsiCo, 60, 61, 401
Pfizer, 123
PharMark, 471
Ping, 98
Pizza Hut, 52, 53
Polycom, 62
Potomac Hospital (Virginia), 266
The Presidents’ Inn, 113
Priceline.com, 383, 384
Prime Service, 361
Procter & Gamble (P&G), 75, 108, 109, 342,
401, 441–442
Progressive Insurance, 473
Pulse Evolution, 52
Purisma, 207
Q
Quantas Airways, 198
Quattro Wireless, 288
R
Raytheon, 398
Real Media, 180
RedEnvelope.com, 383
Reebok, 109
RehabCare, 204
Research in Motion, 295
Ricoh, 441
RightNow, 203, 358
RIM, 110
Rip Curl, 62
Rolls-Royce plc, 398
Royal Dutch Shell PLC, 192
R.R. Donnelly, 207–208
S
Salesboom.com, 203
Salesforce.com, 87, 170, 181, 183, 193, 203–205,
321, 351, 357, 512
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
(SFPUC), 445
Sanyo, 441
SAP AG, 60, 87, 170, 177, 191, 203, 339, 351,
355, 357, 359, 366, 366–368, 463
SAS Analytics, 462
SAS Inc., 453
SAS Institute, 463, 466
Schemmer Associates, 266
Schneider Logistics Services, 347
Schneider National, 490
ScrollMotion, Inc., 103
Seagate, 179
Sealand Transportation, 564
Sears, 12, 97
Sears Roebuck, 516
Servalite, 24
7–Eleven, 301
Siebel Systems, 351
Siemens, 123
Six Flags, 55
Skype Technologies, 62, 265
Snapple, 121
Snyders of Hanover, 31
Sony, 64, 568
Sophos, 145
Southwest Airlines, 345, 557
SpectorSoft Corp., 266
Speed, 118
Sprint Nextel, 110, 401, 443
Starbucks, 386, 453
SugarCRM, 358
Sun Microsystems, 175, 176, 180, 188, 468
Sundance, 118
SunCard Availability Services, 311
Sybase, 179
Sylvester’s Bike Shop, 235
Symantec, 316
Synaptics, 178
T
T-Mobile, 110, 276
T-Systems International GmbH, 192
Taco Bell, 471
Tacoda, 121
TAL Apparel Ltd., 14
Tasty Baking Company, 339
Taxware Systems, Inc., 366
TBS, 118
TCHO Chocolate, 9–10
TD Bank, 142
1020 Placecast, 400
Terremark Worldwide Inc., 31
Texas Instruments, 87
Thomas Register, 229
3M, 559–560
Tibco, 493
TicketDirect, 217
Time Warner, 118
Time Warner Cable, 265
TJX Cos., 301
TNT, 118, 119
TOPCALL International GmbH, 366
Toshiba, 65
Tower Records, 87
Toyota, 94
Transportation Security Administration (TSA),
241
TransUnion, 232
Trend Micro, 316
Troy Lee Designs, 427–428
TV.com, 118
U
UBS Financial Services, 431
United Airlines, 494
United Parcel Service (UPS), 6, 14, 20, 21,
22–24, 44, 582
Universal Digital Entertainment, 118
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
(UPMC), 198
UPS Supply Chain Solutions, 347
US Airways, 113
U.S. Federal Highway Administration, 421
U.S. Pharma Corp., 443
USA Network, 118
USAData, 150
Utility Reform Network, 37
V
Valero Energy, 361, 476
Varian Medical Systems, 157, 158
Verdiem, 186
Verizon Corp., 14, 79–80, 87, 110, 180, 256
Veterans Affairs (VA), 523
Viacom, 118, 119
Index
Virgin Entertainment Group, 265
Virgin Mobile, 277
Vistex Inc., 367
VW Group Supply, 397
W
Wachovia, 61
Waddell & Reed Financial, 439
Wal-Mart, 12, 13, 14, 94, 96–97, 100, 109, 280, 301, 348, 382, 410–411
Walgreens, 453
Wedbush Morgan Securities, 119
Wells Fargo, 273
Wendy’s International, 227–228
Western Digital, 179
WestJet, 556–558
Whirlpool Corp., 344, 426
Wi-Fi Alliance, 316
Wipro Technologies, 181
World Bank, 421
WR Grace, 586–587
WSJ.com, 383
X
Xcel Energy Inc., 36–37
Xerox, 168
Y
Yahoo!, 111, 121, 122, 134, 137, 193, 270, 382, 387, 401
Yahoo Merchant Solutions, 404
Yankee Stadium, 3–4, 16
Z
Zimbra, 512–513
Zip Realty, 429–430
Subject Index
A
A4 processor, 185
acceptable use policy (AUP), 310
acceptance testing, 499
access control, 310
Access (Microsoft), 213, 218, 219
accountability, 126, 129, 141–142
accounting, business processes, 43, 44
Acrobat (Adobe), 180
Acrobat Connect (Adobe), 62
active RFID tags, 280
Ad-Aware (software), 316
Adaptive Server Enterprise (Sybase), 179
adhocracy, 88
administrative controls, 308
administrative overhead, 396
Adobe Acrobat, 180
Adobe Acrobat Connect, 62
Adobe Dreamweaver, 404
Adobe InDesign, 404
advertising
banner display ads, 122
mobile advertising, 400–401
online advertising, 122, 375
wireless advertising, 400–401
advertising exchanges, 395
advertising networks, 392–395, 395
advertising revenue model, 387–388
affiliate fee revenue model, 389, 393
agency theory, 90, 91
agent-based modeling, 441–442
aggregator software, 273
agile development, 514–515
AI. See artificial intelligence
airline industry, terrorist watch-list database, 240–241
Ajax (software), 189
ALM. See application lifecycle management
Altair computer, 168
Alto computer, 168
Amazon Relational Database, 217
Amazon Web Services, 217
Amazon.com, 44, 98, 102, 121, 193, 321, 374, 388, 389, 410, 411
ambient data, 307
America Online (AOL), 118, 137, 141–142
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 522
America’s Cup, 41–42
analog signals, 252
analytical customer relationship management (CRM), 354–355, 364
Analyze for Voice of the Customer (VoC) (Attensity), 227
Ancestry.com, 388
Android, 80, 177, 193, 194, 294, 295
anti-virus software, problems with, 304–305
antispware software, 316
antivirus software, 316, 326
Apache HTTP Server (software), 269
Apache HTTP Web server, 188
Apache Open for Business (OFBiz), 357
App Store, 103
AppExchange (software), 204
Apple I and II computers, 168
applets, 188
application controls, 308
Application Express (Oracle), 41
application generator, 509
application layer, 251
application lifecycle management (ALM), 547–548
application proxy filtering, 315
application server, 169
application server software, 169, 229
application software, 166
application software packages, 166, 509, 510–511, 519
apps, 193–194
aQuantive, 134
AR. See augmented reality
ARM (processor), 185
artificial intelligence (AI), 431, 445
hybrid AI systems, 441
Ask.com, 382
associations (data analysis), 225
ATMs. See automatic teller machines
attributes, 210
auditing, 312
augmented reality (AR), 428–430, 445
AUP. See acceptable use policy
authentication, 252–253, 312–313, 326
authorization policies, 310
Authors.com, 204
automated high-speed decision making, 461
automatic teller machines (ATMs), 14–15, 111, 142, 178
automation, 489, 490, 519
autonomic computing, 185
avatars, 60
Average Data Efficiency, 186
Azure (Microsoft), 177, 217, 322
B
B2B e-commerce. See business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce
B2C e-commerce. See business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce
backward chaining, 432
balanced scorecard method, 474
bandwidth, 257, 262
banking services, m-commerce, 400
banner ads, 122
Basecamp (software), 66
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), 163–164, 182
Beacon Program (Facebook), 390
behavioral models of management, 458
behavioral targeting, 121, 133, 136, 392–393
benchmarking, 105
best practices, 105
BI. See business intelligence
Bing (Microsoft), 270, 271, 284, 289, 382, 383
biometric authentication, 313–314, 326
bit, 209
Black Swans (Taleb), 440
BlackBerry, 5, 6, 9, 181, 193, 288, 295, 374, 399, 400, 464
blade servers, 163, 176, 177, 186
Blinkx.com, 271
Blogger.com, 153, 273
blogging, 273
blogsphere, 273
blogroll, 272
blogs, 7, 272
affiliate marketing and, 389, 393
as collaborative tool, 75
malware and, 297
Bluefly, 405
BlueNile.com, 382
Bluetie (software), 66
Bluetooth, 276–277, 285, 295
book sales, 102
botnets, 299, 300
Boulder (Colorado), 36
BPM. See business process management
bricks-and-clicks, 382
broadband connections, 247, 284, 374
Brown Bag Software vs. Symantec Corp., 140
browsers. See Web browsers
bugs (in software), 135, 143, 303, 326
build-to-order, 347
build-to-stock, 347
bullwhip effect, 342–343
bureaucracies
flattening of hierarchies, 91–92
organizational structure, 88
bus topology, 254, 255
business
business functions, 18–19
business processes, 19, 43–45
collaboration and teamwork, 55–58, 72
competitive forces, 94–96, 102, 115
disruptive technologies, 103–104
information systems department, 68–69, 73
information value chain, 24–25
innovation, 57, 75, 76
internationalization, 564, 584
levels in a firm, 56
management hierarchy, 56
value chain, 102, 116
value web, 106, 107, 116
See also business analytics; business information systems; business
intelligence; business models; business processes; e-commerce; global business
business analytics, 453, 461
capabilities, 464–465
constituencies for, 465–466
defined, 462
delivery platform, 464
developments strategies, 468
toolset, 453, 463, 473
user interface, 464
business analytics software, 453, 463, 473
Business ByDesign (SAP), 357
business continuity planning, 311–312
business drivers, 562, 563
business ecosystem, 109–111
business firm, 84
business functions, 18–19
business information systems
decision-support systems (DSS), 48–49, 475, 477, 479, 480
e-business, 55
e-commerce, 55
e-government, 55
enterprise applications, 51, 53–55
executive support systems (ESS), 50, 72, 473–475, 480
intranets and extranets, 54–55, 72
management information systems (MIS), 17–18, 47–48, 72, 480
transaction processing systems (TPS), 45–47
business intelligence (BI)
about, 49–50
business analytics, 453, 461
business performance management, 475
capabilities, 464–465
constituencies for, 465–466, 471
data mining, 224–226, 237, 422, 431, 462
data visualization, 467
decision making and, 480
defined, 462
delivery platform, 464
developments strategies, 468
environment, 463–464
geographic information systems (GIS), 467–468, 482
infrastructure, 463
predictive analytics, 226, 466–467
in public sector, 468
vendors of, 463
Business Intelligence (Oracle), 359
business intelligence infrastructure, 463
business models
about, 13
e-commerce, 375, 382–384, 407
information systems, 26
online entertainment, 375
Business Objects (SAP), 359
business performance, databases to improve, 221–222, 237
business performance management (BPM), 475
business plan, linking systems projects to, 532
business process management (BPM),
448, 491
business process redesign, 489, 490, 491–493, 519
case study, 495–496
tools for, 493–494
business process redesign, 489, 490, 491–493, 500, 519
cooptation, 574
critical success factors (CSFs), 532, 534
linking systems projects to business plan, 532
scoring models, 535–536
See also project management; systems development
business processes, 11, 19, 43–45, 72
automation, 489, 519
core systems, 571, 572
defined, 84, 85
functional areas, 43–44
information technology to enhance, 44–45
Internet technology and, 94
paradigm shifts, 489, 490, 519
rationalization, 489, 490, 519
redesign, 489, 490, 491–493, 500, 519
routines and, 84, 85
See also business process management; business process redesign
Business Suite (SAP), 357
business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, 374, 381, 395–399, 407
business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, 381
business value
co-creation of, 7
of information systems projects, 536–539
business value chain model, 102, 104, 116
byte, 209–210
C
C2C e-commerce. See consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce
CA. See certificate authority
Cabir (malware), 297
cable Internet connections, 258, 284
cable modems, 253
cable television, 118
CAD. See computer-aided design
California, 37, 148
call option, 538
cameras; autofocus device, 436
campus-area networks. See CANs
CANs (campus-area networks), 253
capacity planning, 194
capital budgeting, for systems development, 538
carbon footprint, 186
careers. See jobs
carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), 149
CASE. See computer-aided software engineering
case-based reasoning (CBR), 434, 445
Categorical Imperative, 130
CBR. See case-based reasoning
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), 276, 284
CDSS. See customer decision-support systems
CDW. See Compliance Data Warehouse
cell phones, 5, 181, 188, 257, 401
economic development and, 580–581
text messages, 60, 146, 147
usage statistics, 147
usage while driving, 147–148
See alsoalso smartphones
cellular standards, 284
cellular systems, 257, 276, 284
centers of excellence, 574
centralized processing, 168
centralized systems, 568
certificate authority (CA), 318
CERTPOINT, 426
CGI script, 229
ChainLinq Mobile application, 9
change
change management, 540–542
cooptation, 574
in global businesses, 574
organizational resistance to, 93, 115, 493
rapidity of, 144
social change, 144–145
technologically motivated, 144–145
See also organizational change
change agent, 541
change management, 540–542
chat, 263–264
CheckFree.com, 98
chief information officer (CIO), 68
chief knowledge officer (CKO), 69
chief privacy officer (CPO), 69
chief security officer (CSO), 68
child domain, 258
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998, 133
China, cyberwarfare by, 329, 330
choice, in decision making, 457, 458
ChoicePoint (software), 127–128
Christmas Day bomber, 242
Chrome operating system (Google), 136, 177, 188, 303
churn rate, 355
CIO. See chief information officer
circuit-switched networks, 250
CIRRUS, 15
Cisco Telepresence, 62, 76
CKO. See chief knowledge officer
class, 504, 505
classical model of management, 458
classification (data analysis), 225
classified ads, 393
click fraud, 302
client, 168
client operating system software, 177
client/server computing, 167, 168–169, 250, 254
cloud-based software, 183, 193, 203–205
cloud computing, 170, 200
case study, 203–205
co-location agreements and, 404
contractual arrangements, 194
data storage in, 184
databases, 215, 217
defined, 183
described, 6, 7, 167, 170, 375
drawbacks, 184
enterprise systems, 357, 358–359
growth of, 358
hardware, 183–184
infrastructure investment and, 195
for IT infrastructure, 183–184
private cloud, 183–184
Salesforce.com, 183, 203
security, 320, 321, 326
types of services, 183
cloud software as a service, 183
CLTV. See customer lifetime value
clustering (data analysis), 225
co-location agreement, 404
coaxial cable, 255, 284
COBOL, 175
Code Division Multiple Access. See CDMA
codes of conduct, 131
CollabNet (software), 547–548
collaboration, 55–58, 72–73
building a collaborative culture, 58–59
business benefits of, 58–59, 75
defined, 56–57
importance of, 55–57
self-managed teams, 92
tools for, 59–68, 417
collaboration tools
described, 7, 8, 59–68, 75, 76, 445
evaluating and selecting, 67–68
Google Apps/Google sites, 61
Internet-based, 61–68
knowledge management systems (KMS), 424
Lotus Notes, 59, 61, 65, 417, 577
Microsoft SharePoint, 7, 61, 64, 76, 424, 463
telepresence technology, 61, 62
time/space collaboration tool matrix, 67
virtual meeting systems, 61–62
See also e-mail; instant messaging; social networking; virtual worlds; wikis
collaborative culture, 58–59
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR), 344
command and control firms, 59
Common Gateway Interface (CGI), 229
Commonwarrior (malware), 297
communication, 11
declining costs of, 173–174, 200
text messaging, 60, 146, 147
trends in, 247
unified communications, 265, 267
See also e-mail
communication satellites, 256, 284
communications networks, 252
signals, 252–253
See also networks and networking
communities of practice (COPs), 421
community providers, 383, 384
competition, information systems and, 79–80, 94–101
competitive advantage
as business objective, 14
Internet impact on, 101
competitive advantages strategic systems, 111
competitive forces, 94–96, 104, 116
business value chain model, 102, 104–105, 116
Porter’s competitive forces model, 95–96, 102, 109, 115, 196–197
strategies for dealing with, 96–99
competitive forces model, 95–96, 102, 109, 115, 196–197
competitors, 95
Compiere Cloud Edition, 358
Compiere ERP Cloud Edition, 359
complementary assets, 26–28, 33
Compliance Data Warehouse (CDW), 223
component-based development, 515
CompStat, 482–483
computer abuse, 145–146
computer-aided design (CAD), 427, 428, 431, 445
computer-aided software engineering (CASE), 505–506
computer crime, 145, 300–301
See also cybercrime
computer forensics, 307, 326
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986!, 301
computer hardware. See hardware
computer literacy, 17
computer networks, 247–248
See also networks and networking
computer operations controls, 308
computer software. See software
Computer Software Copyright Act of 1980!, 140
computer vision syndrome (CVS), 149
computers
about, 16
carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), 149
computer vision syndrome (CVS), 149
computing power, 126
as disruptive technology, 87, 103
equity and access, 146, 148
ethical issues, 126, 155
for global business, 578
health risks of, 149–150
high-availability computing, 319
history of, 166–169
laptops, 276, 314
mainframes, 167, 168, 177
malware, 291–292, 296–297, 303, 320, 326
microprocessors, 87, 171, 185, 200
minicomputers, 167, 168
netbooks, 6, 7, 181, 185, 188, 277
power consumption, 185, 186
profiling by, 127
radiation from computer display screens, 150
repetitive stress injury (RSI), 149
subnotebooks, 7, 76, 181
supercomputers, 182
tablet computers, 103, 181
technostress, 149–150
touch interface, 177, 178
touchscreens, 177, 178
types, 166–168
viruses and worms, 296, 326
wireless Internet access, 277–279
See also computer crime; computer networks; hardware; mobile devices; networks and networking; platforms; software
computing
autonomic computing, 185
centralized computing, 168
client/server computing, 167, 168–169, 250, 254
decentralized computing, 144, 168
enterprise computing, 144, 168, 169–170
green computing (green IT), 184–185, 186–187, 200
grid computing, 163, 182, 200
high-availability computing, 319
on-demand computing, 184
recovery-oriented computing, 319
service-oriented computing, 515
See also cloud computing; computers; hardware; information systems; information technology; platforms; software
Conficker (malware), 297
conflict, 20
connectivity, international information systems, 577–579
consolidated watch lists, 241
Consumer Reports, 388
consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce, 381
contact point, 349
content and media industries, 102
content management systems
enterprise content management systems, 421–422, 422–424, 445
expertise location and management systems, 424
knowledge network systems, 424, 445
content mining, 228
content providers, 383–384
continuous replenishment system, 97
controls, 293
conversion, systems development, 500
cookies, 121, 134–135, 155
cooptation, 574
COPPA. See Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998!
COPs. See communities of practice
copyright, 139–140
copyrighted material, piracy of, 262
core business processes, 11
core competencies, 107–108, 116
core systems, 571, 572
corporate databases, Web access to, 229, 237
corporate network infrastructure, 249
cost, project management, 530
cost transparency, 377
counterimplementation, 546
CPFR. See Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment
CPO. See chief privacy officer
cracker, 298
Creative Commons, 153
Creative Commons Search, 153–154
credit bureaus, errors in data, 232–233
credit card profiling, 100
credit card reform, 101
credit cards, data mining, 100
credit history, 232
critical success factors (CSFs), 532, 534
CRM on Demand (Oracle), 359
CRM systems. See customer relationship management (CRM) systems
cross-functional business processes, 45
cross-selling, 352
crowdsourcing, 57, 371, 392
Crystal Reports (software), 219
CSFs. See critical success factors
CSO. See chief security officer
CTS. See carpal tunnel syndrome
cultural particularism, 565
culture, 20
collaborative culture, 58–59
global culture, 563–564
organizational culture, 84–85
customer buying patterns, 98
customer decision-support systems (CDSS), 479
customer feedback, 6
customer intimacy, 13, 90
customer lifetime value (CLTV), 355
customer loyalty, 352
customer loyalty management process map, 351
customer preferences, 98
customer relationship management (CRM), 181, 203, 349–350
customer relationship management (CRM) systems, 51, 53–54, 72, 98, 181, 350, 363–364
business value of, 355
employee relationship management (ERM), 351
operational and analytical CRM, 354–355, 364
partner relationship management (PRM), 351
sales force automation (SFA), 288, 351
software for, 351–352, 512
customer service
business benefits of collaboration, 58
CRM modules for, 351–352
customers, 96
customization
of software package, 510
of Web pages, 376, 378
CVS. See computer vision syndrome
Cybercom, 330
cybercrime, 145
data theft, 301
global threats, 302
hackers, 295, 296, 298, 329
identity theft, 301–302
malware, 291–292, 296, 296–297, 303, 320, 326
recent prosecutions, 301
See also computer crime
cyberterrorism, 302
cybervandalism, 298
cyberwarfare, 302, 329–331
cycle time, 337
cycling, 335
D
DARPA (U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), 251
dashboard. See digital dashboard
data
defined, 15, 217, 417
online analytical processing (OLAP), 224, 237
See also data resources; databases
data administration, 230, 238
data analysis, ethical issues, 126–127, 127
Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency, 186
data cleansing, 231
data communication networks, 247
See also networks and networking
data definition, 217
data dictionary, 217
data-driven DSS, 469
data flow diagram (DFD), 502–503
data governance, 230
Data Hub (Purisma), 207
data inconsistency, 211, 213, 237
data management and storage, 20, 166, 176, 179–180, 207–208
data manipulation language, 217, 237
data marts, 223
data mining, 224–226, 237, 422, 431, 462
data quality, 142, 143, 230–231, 238
data quality audit, 231
data redundancy, 211, 213, 237
data resources
business intelligence (BI), 49, 224
data marts, 223
data quality, 230–231, 238
data warehouses, 222–223
information policy, 230, 238
managing, 230–231
online analytical processing (OLAP), 224, 237
predictive analysis, 226
See also database management systems (DBMS); databases
data scrubbing, 231
data security
encryption, 317–318, 326
public key encryption, 317–318
public key infrastructure, 326
data security controls, 308
data storage, 126, 179
in cloud computing, 184
data theft, 301
data visualization, 467
data warehouses, 222–223
data workers, 18
database administration, 230
Database Lite (Oracle), 213
database management systems (DBMS), 212–219, 229, 237
data manipulation language, 217
querying and reporting, 217–218
database server, 229
database servers, 254
database software, 179
databases, 209–212
accessing through the Web, 226, 228, 237
business uses of, 221–230
in cloud computing, 215, 217
data cleansing, 231
data quality, 230–231, 238
database management systems (DBMS), 212–219, 229, 237
for decision making, 221–222, 237
defined, 210, 212
designing, 219–221
entities and attributes, 210
entity-relationship diagrams, 220, 221, 237
to improve business performance, 222, 237
normalization, 220
object-oriented databases, 215
relational database, 213–215, 237
for sales trends, 31–32
the Web and, 226, 228–229
See also database management systems
DB2 (IBM), 179, 213, 218
DBMS. See database management systems
DDoS attacks. See distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks
Dealer Services (software), 466
debugging, 143, 323
decentralized computing, 144, 168
decentralized systems, 568, 584
decision making, 453–483, 479
as business objective, 14
business value of, 455, 479
databases for sales trends, 31
databases to improve, 221–222, 237
decentralization of, 2, 144
flattening of hierarchies, 91
fuzzy logic for, 436
high velocity automated decision making, 461
information quality and, 460
management filters, 460
managerial roles in, 458–459, 479
mobile digital platform and, 8
organizational inertia and politics, 460–461
process of, 457–458, 479
types of decisions, 455–457, 479
See also decision support; decisions
decision support
balanced scorecard method, 474
business analytics, 453, 461
customer decision-support systems (CDSS), 479
decision-support systems (DSS), 48–49, 72
executive support systems (ESS), 50, 72, 473–475, 480
group decision-support systems (GDSS), 475, 477
key performance indicators, 474
management information systems (MIS), 17–18, 47–48, 72, 480
for operational and middle management, 471–473
pivot tables, 472, 473
for senior management, 473–475, 477
sensitivity analysis, 472
Web-based customer decision-support systems (CDSS), 479
decision-support systems (DSS), 48–49, 72, 475, 477, 479, 480
decisions
semistructured decisions, 456, 471–473, 479
structured decisions, 456, 479
types, 455–457, 479
unstructured decisions, 456, 479
See also decision support; decision-support systems
deep packet inspection (DPI), 319
‘deep Web,’ 269
Delicious (Web site), 425
Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD), 24
Dell IdeaStorm (software), 357
demand-driven model, 347
demand-driven supply chains, 347–348
demand planning, 344
denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, 299
Descartes’ rule of change, 130, 155
design
business process redesign, 489, 490, 491–493, 500, 519
in decision making, 457, 458
systems design, 498–499
DFD. See data flow diagram
DIAD. See Delivery Information Acquisition Device
Digg (Web site), 425
digital asset management systems, 424
digital certificates, 318
digital dashboard, 14, 37, 50
digital databases, See also databases
digital divide, 148
digital fingerprinting, 118
digital firm, 9
digital goods, 380, 381, 407
digital information, growth of, 6, 179–180
digital markets, 378, 379, 407
digital media
effects on thinking and information retention, 151
intellectual property rights, 141, 155
digital media players, 185
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998; 141
digital networks, 247, 250
See also networks and networking
digital records, retention of, 6, 15
digital signal, 252–253
digital subscriber line. *See* DSL
direct cutover, business process redesign, 500
direct goods, 398
direct marketing, 352
Directive on Data Protection (European Commission), 134
disaster recovery planning, 310–312
disintermediation, 379, 380
display ads, 393
disruptive technologies, 87–88, 103–104
distributed decision making, 8
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, 299, 329
divisionalized bureaucracy, 88
DMCA. *See* Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998!
DNS (domain name system), 258–259, 284
Do Not Track list, 121, 133
Dollar General Corp., 31
domain extensions, 258
domain name system. *See* DNS
domain network model, 254
domestic exporter strategy, 567, 584
Doostang, 384
DoS attacks. *See* denial-of-service (DoS) attacks
“dot-com” bubble, 374
Doubleclick (software), 127, 134, 135, 136, 395
Downadup (malware), 297
downtime, 319
Downup (malware), 297
DPI. *See* deep packet inspection
Dreamweaver (Adobe), 404
Droid, 178, 288, 374, 401
Drugstore.com, 382
DSL (digital subscriber line), 257, 258, 284, 294
DSL modems, 253
DSS. *See* decision-support systems
due process, 129
duplicated systems, 568
dynamic pricing, 379
Dynamics suite (Microsoft), 357
E
e-book readers, 103, 181, 375, 382, 411
e-books, 103, 399
e-business, 55
e-Business Suite (Oracle), 357
e-business suites, 356
e-commerce, 55, 373–412
building a Web site for, 401–405, 408
business models, 375, 382–384, 407
defined, 55
digital goods, 380, 381, 407
disintermediation, 379, 380
DoS attacks, 299
dynamic pricing, 379
electronic payments systems for, 393
features, 374–378
global reach, 376, 377
growth of, 6, 373, 375, 395
history, 373
information asymmetry reduction in, 378–379, 380
information richness, 376, 377
marketing, 390, 392–395, 407
privacy and, 136
revenue growth in, 373–374
revenue models, 387–389, 407
social networking and, 375, 376, 378, 379, 389
social technology, 376, 378
types, 381
unique nature of, 374–378, 407
universal standards, 376, 377, 378
*See also* business-to-business e-commerce; business-to-consumer e-commerce; consumer-to-consumer e-commerce; m-commerce
e-commerce Web site
budgeting for, 405
building, 401–405, 408
planning, 401–402
systems analysis for, 403
e-government, 55
e-mail
about, 5, 261, 263
as collaboration tool, 60, 75
employer surveillance of, 134, 264, 266–267
marketing, 393
security threats to, 294
spam, 145–146
e-OSCAR, 233
e-readers *See* e-book readers
e-SPS (software), 347
e-tailers, 382, 383
E-ZPass system, 280
EC2. *See* Elastic Compute Cloud
economic development, cell phones and, 580–581
economics, 108
Metcalfe’s law, 173, 200
network economics, 173
EDI. *See* electronic data interchange
efficient customer response system, 97
eHarmony, 388
Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) (Amazon), 183, 204, 358
electrical grid, cyberwarfare against, 329–330
electricity infrastructure, 36–38
electronic business. *See* e-business
electronic commerce. *See* e-commerce
electronic data interchange (EDI), 396, 582
electronic evidence, 307, 326
electronic government. *See* e-government
electronic health records, 9
electronic payment system, 97, 393
electronic records management (EMR), 9, 306–307, 522–524
electronic surveillance
of employee Internet activity, 134, 264, 266–267
*See also* privacy
electronic trading systems, 439–440
Elemica, 398
employee relationship management (ERM), 351
employees
electronic surveillance of employee Internet activity, 134, 264, 266–267
employee records, 15
employee relationship management (ERM), 351
internal cybercrime threats, 302–303
employers, electronic surveillance of employee Internet activity by, 134, 264, 266–267
employment. *See* jobs
EMR. *See* electronic records management
encryption, 317–318, 326
encryption key, 317
end-user development, 508–510, 519
end-user interface, 507, 530
end users, 69, 541
enterprise applications, 51, 53–55, 72, 355–356
enterprise computing, 144, 168, 169–170
enterprise content management systems, 421–422, 422–424, 445
Enterprise Linux (Oracle), 163
Enterprise Miner (SAS), 466
enterprise networking, 180
Enterprise Process Center (EPC), 448–449
enterprise project management system, 528
enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, 51, 53, 337
enterprise software, 177, 191, 338–339
enterprise solutions, 356
enterprise suites, 356
enterprise systems, 191, 337–339, 364
about, 355
business value of, 339–340
case study, 366–368
challenges of, 355–356, 364
cloud-based versions, 357, 358–359
future trends, 356–357
service platforms and, 360–361, 364
enterprise-wide knowledge management systems, 421, 422, 445
entertainment, 401
new business models for, 375
entities, 210
entity-relationship diagrams, 220, 221, 237
entrepreneurial structure, 88
environmental scanning, 86
environments, of organizations, 86–88
EPC. *See* Enterprise Process Center
Epinions, 389
EPM Solution (Microsoft Office EPM Solution), 527
Epocrates Essentials, 9
ergonomics, 546
ERM. *See* employee relationship management
ERP Cloud Edition (Compiere), 359
ERP systems. *See* enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
ESS. *See* executive support systems
Ethernet, 173, 174, 175, 254
ethical analysis, 129–130, 155
ethical and social issues, 121–159, 155
examples of failed ethical judgment by manager, 123
nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA), 128
privacy of personal information, 122
profiling, 100, 127
real-world dilemmas, 131
technology trends raising issues, 126–128
Web tracking, 127, 134, 137, 155, 390, 393
*See also* accountability; information rights; moral issues; property rights; quality of life
ethical principles, 130, 155
ethics
basic concepts, 129
defined, 124, 129
electronic surveillance of employee Internet activity, 134, 264, 266–267
ethical analysis, 129–130
ethical principles, 130, 408
professional codes of conduct, 131
*See also* ethical and social issues
Europe, spamming in, 146
European Commission Directive on Data Protection, 134
European Union Data Protection Directive, 565
EveryBlock Chicago (Web site), 193
evil twins, 301
Excel PivotTable (Microsoft), 472
Exchange ActiveSync (Microsoft), 9
exchanges, 395, 397, 398–399
executive support systems (ESS), 50, 72,
473–475, 480
Exostar, 398
expert systems, 422, 432–434, 441, 445
expertise location and management systems,
424
explicit knowledge, 417
exports, globalization and, 8
Expression Web (Microsoft), 180
extended star networks, 254
extensible markup language. See XML
external integration tools, 545
extranets, about, 21, 55, 72
F
Facebook, 6, 7, 60, 102, 118, 136, 146, 179, 204,
262, 274, 291–292, 297, 371, 372, 373, 384,
389, 390–391, 400
facial recognition technology, 314
Fair Information Practices (FIP), 132
family, changed by technology, 144
Fancast.com, 118
Fast Ethernet, 254
fault-tolerant computer systems, 318
feasibility study, 497
Federal Information Security Management Act,
330
feedback, 17
fiber-optic cable, 255–256, 284
fields, 210
file processing
traditional, 210–212, 237
See also databases
file servers, 254
file sharing services, 141
File Transfer Protocol. See FTP
finance and accounting, business processes, 43,
44
financial analysis, information systems
projects, 538–539
financial models, limitations of, 539
financial performance, business benefits of
collaboration, 58
financial services
legislation regulating, 133
m-commerce, 400
Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999!.
See Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999!
financial systems, electronic trading systems,
439–440
fingerprint databases, 240, 314
fingerprint recognition technology, 314
FiOS Internet service, 118, 256
FIP. See Fair Information Practices
Firefox (Mozilla), 188, 303
firewalls, 185, 314–315, 326
Flash (Macromedia), 180
Flash cookies, 121
"flash crash," 439, 461
Flickr, 121, 153, 272, 388
folksonomies, 425
Force.com, 183, 204
foreign trade, globalization and, 8
formal control tools, 543
formal planning tools, 543
forward chaining, 432
4 G networks, 276, 284
Foursquare, 372, 400
fourth-generation languages, 508–510
franchising, 567–568, 584
free/freemium revenue model, 386, 388
Frontal A (malware), 297
FTP (File Transfer Protocol), 261
Fusion (Oracle), 357
fuzzy logic, 422, 434–436, 441, 445
G
games, 401
Gantt chart, 543, 544
Gap.com, 388
GDSS. See decision support, group decision-
support systems
Genealogy.com, 388
general controls, 308
genetic algorithms, 422, 438, 440–441, 445
geo-tagging, 400
GeoCities, 121
geographic information systems (GIS),
467–468, 482
geosynchronous satellites, 256
Gigabit Ethernet, 254
GIS. See geographic information systems
global business
business challenges, 565–566, 584
business drivers, 562, 564
computing platforms, 577
connectivity, 577–579
domestic exporter, 567, 584
franchising, 567–568, 584
global supply chains, 346–347
global value chains, 576–577
implementation, 573–574, 576, 584
internationalization, 564, 584
managing, 570–576
multinational strategy, 567, 584
organizing, 567–570
particularism, 565
software localization, 579, 581–582
state of the art, 566
systems integration, 577
transborder data flow, 565
See also international information systems
global business strategies, 567–568
global culture, 563–564
global markets, 564
global positioning systems. See GPS
global reach, 376, 377
Global System for Mobile Communication
(GSM), 276, 284
global systems, managing, 559–587
global value chain, 576–577
global village, 563
globalization, 8, 11, 144
Gmail, 61, 136, 184, 204
Golden Rule, 130
Google, 6, 7, 11, 37, 61, 76, 87, 102, 121,
135–136, 137, 151, 153, 184, 204, 269, 270,
271, 287–289, 374, 382, 383, 401, 461
Google Analytics, 136
Google Apps, 7, 61, 183, 184, 193, 204, 383
Google Buzz, 136
Google Calendar, 61, 184, 204
Google Checkout, 136
Google Chrome, 136, 177, 188, 303
Google Docs, 61, 184, 204
Google Gmail, 61, 184
Google Groups, 61
Google Insights, 226
Google Maps, 97, 189, 193
Google Product Search, 272
Google Search, 136
Google Sites, 7, 61, 417
Google Talk, 61, 184, 204, 264
Google Toolbar, 136
Google Trends, 226
Google Video, 61
Google Wave, 63
Gotopaper.com, 398
governance
of data, 230
of information systems, 69, 194–195
of Internet, 260, 284
of transnational firms, 568
Government Multipurpose Smart Card
(Malaysia), 487
Gowalla, 400
GPS (global positioning systems), 400
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999!, 133, 306
graphics language, 509
green computing (green IT), 184–185, 186–187,
200
grid computing, 163, 182, 200
group decision-support systems (GDSS), 475,
477
groupware, 65
GSM. See Global System for Mobile
Communication
H
hackers, 295, 296, 298, 330
handheld mobile devices. See mobile devices
hard disks, 179
hardware, 20, 165, 181–187, 308
capacity planning, 193
cloud computing, 183–184
computer hardware platforms, 175–177,
181
green computing (green IT), 184–185,
186–187, 200
grid computing, 163, 182, 200
mobile digital platforms, 6, 7, 8, 10, 110,
170, 181, 279
for networking and telecommunications,
180
power-saving processors, 185, 200
scalability, 193
servers, 163, 168, 180
touchscreens, 177, 178
virtualization, 182, 184, 186, 200
See also computers
HauteLook, 453
Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996!. See HIPAA
health records, HIPAA, 133, 306
hertz (unit), 257
HFTs. See high-frequency traders
high-availability computing, 319
high-frequency traders (HFTs), 439
high velocity automated decision making, 461
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996), 133, 306
home delivery, 52
HomeScan application, 429–430
host country systems units, 569
host name, 258
hotjobs.com, 32
hotspots, 278
HP Project and Portfolio Management Center software (HP PPM), 550
HTC, 288
HTC Desire, 178
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), 189, 268
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), 251, 269
hubs, 248
Hulu.com, 118, 119, 388
HuluPlus, 119
human resources, business processes, 43
hybrid AI systems, 441
HyperPlant (software), 430
hypertext, 268–269
Hypertext Markup Language. See HTML
Hypertext Transfer Protocol. See HTTP
I
i2 Demand Planner (software), 345
i2 Service Budget Optimizer (software), 345
i2 Service Parts Planner (software), 345
IAB (Internet Architecture Board), 259, 284
iAd (Quattro), 288
IBM 1401, 168
IBM 7090J, 168
IBM Cloud, 183
IBM DB2, 179, 213, 218
IBM Lotus Connections, 7, 65
IBM Lotus Notes, 59, 61, 65, 417, 577
IBM Lotus Sametime, 65
IBM Smart Business Application Development & Test, 183
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), 260
identity management systems, 310, 312–314
identity theft, 301–302
IEM. See Iowa Electronic Markets
Ike4e.B (malware), 297
ILOVEYOU (malware), 297
IM. See instant messaging
iMac, 287
implementation
in decision making, 457, 458
in global business systems, 573–574, 576, 584
in project management, 540–541, 553
implementation controls, 308
imports, globalization and, 8
InDesign (Adobe), 404
indirect goods, 398
individual CSFs, 534
inference engine, 432, 433
Infor Global Solutions (Oracle), 339
information
defined, 13, 16, 33, 417
quality dimensions of, 460
See also information systems; information technology
information asymmetry, 378–379, 380
information density, 376, 377–378
information policy, 230, 238
information retention, trends in, 6–8, 15
information richness, 376, 377
information rights, 125
See also privacy; property rights
information systems (IS)
about, 5–6, 16, 33
behavioral approach, 28, 29
behavioral impact, 93
business models, 26
business objectives achieved through, 12–18, 111–112, 530–531, 553
business perspective, 24–26
business value of, 536–539
competition and, 79–80, 94–101
complementary assets, 26–28, 33
contemporary approaches to, 28–30
decision making, 453–483
defined, 15
economic impacts, 89–91
ethical and social issues, 121–159, 155
ethical dilemmas created by, 131
financial analysis, 538–539
functions of, 17
global strategy, 571–573
globalization and, 8, 11
IT governance, 69, 194–195
knowledge management, 69, 415–448, 416–418
linking systems projects to business plan, 532
literacy, 17
management structure for IS projects, 531–532, 553
managing global systems, 559–587
moral issues, 125–126, 131–150
offshoring, 8, 192, 511, 513, 514
organizational impact, 91–92
organizations and, 12, 18, 81–89, 115
organizing information systems department, 69
planning, 95
portfolio analysis, 534–535
professional codes of conduct, 131
project management, 527–556
real options pricing models (ROPMs), 538–539
security of, 68–69, 291–326
sociotechnical systems, 29–30, 33
supply chain management, 51, 53, 72, 340–344, 356, 363
systems analysis, 68, 496–499
systems design, 498–499
systems development, 494, 496–506, 519
technical approach, 28, 29
technology and, 20–21, 23–24
trends in, 6–8
See also ethical and social issues;
information systems controls; information systems security; information technology (IT); information technology (IT) infrastructure; moral issues; systems design; systems development
information systems controls, 308
See also information systems security
information systems department, 68–69, 73, 488, 489–524
information systems literacy, 18
information systems managers, 68
information systems plan, 532, 533
information systems projects. See business process redesign, project management; systems design
information systems security, 68–69, 291–326
access control, 310
antivirus and antispyware software, 316, 326
biometric authentication, 313–314, 326
business continuity planning, 311–312
business value of, 305–306, 326
cloud computing, 320, 321
computer forensics, 307
data security, 317–318, 326
denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, 299
disaster recovery planning, 310–312
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, 299, 329
electronic evidence, 307
electronic records management, 9, 306–307, 522–524
encryption, 317–318, 326
firewalls, 185, 314–315, 326
global threats, 302
hackers, 295, 296, 298, 330
identity management and authentication, 312–314
identity theft, 301–302
information systems controls, 308
internal threats from employees, 302–303
intrusion detection systems, 316, 326
legislation, 301–302
MIS audit, 312, 326
outsourcing, 8, 11, 192, 201, 319
public key encryption, 317–318
public key infrastructure, 326
risk assessment, 309, 326, 539–540, 553
security policy, 310, 326
smart card, 313, 326
technologies and tools for protecting information resources, 312–320, 326
threats and vulnerability, 293–303, 323
tokens, 313, 326
unified threat management (UTM) systems, 316
for wireless networks, 295–296, 316–317
See also cybercrime; Internet security threats
information technology (IT)
aligning with business objectives, 111–112, 530–531, 553
autonomic computing, 185
behavioral impact, 93
capital investment, 5, 553
defined, 15, 20
economic impacts, 89–91
organizational change and, 489–490
organizational impact, 91–92
organizations and, 81
standards, 174–175
information technology (IT) infrastructure, 21, 22, 164, 165
capacity planning, 194
cloud computing, 6, 7, 167, 170
competitive forces model, 95–96, 102, 109, 115, 196–197
components, 165–167, 175–181, 200
computer hardware platforms, 175–177, 181
consulting and system integration services, 181
data management and storage, 20, 166, 176, 179–180
declining communication costs and, 173–174, 200
defining, 165–166
enterprise software applications, 176, 177, 338–339
evolution of, 166–170, 200
global systems, 556–587
hardware platforms, 181–187
Internet platforms, 176, 180
investment in, 5, 195–197, 201, 553
law of mass digital storage, 171–172, 200
legacy systems, 167, 181, 182, 191
management issues, 194–197
Metcalfe’s law, 173, 200
mobile platforms, 6, 7, 9, 170
Moore’s law, 170–171, 200
networking/telecommunications platforms, 176, 180
operating system platforms, 176, 177
rent vs. buy decision, 195
scalability, 194
“service platform” perspective, 166
total cost of ownership (TCO), 195–196, 201, 538
Web services, 189–190, 200–201
See also hardware; information technology; software
information value chain, 24–25
informational role, of managers in decision making, 459, 479
informed consent, 134
infrastructure. See information technology (IT)
infrastructure
inheritance, 504, 505
innovation, 57, 75, 76
InnovationNet (software), 76
input, 16
input controls, 308
instant messaging, 264, 294
instant messaging (IM), as collaboration tool, 60
intangible benefits, 537
intellectual property, 138–139, 383
intellectual property rights, 138–141, 155
intelligence, in decision making, 457, 458
intelligent agent shopping bots, 271–272
intelligent agents, 422, 441–442, 445
intelligent techniques, 422, 431–442, 445
agent-based modeling, 441–442
artificial intelligence, 431, 441, 445
case-based reasoning, 434, 445
data mining, 224–226, 237, 422, 431
expert systems, 422, 432–434, 441, 445
fuzzy logic, 422, 434–436, 441, 445
genetic algorithms, 422, 438, 440–441, 445
hybrid AI systems, 441
intelligent agents, 422, 441–442, 445
knowledge discovery, 431
machine learning, 439, 440–441
neural networks, 422, 436–438, 441, 445
neurofuzzy system, 441
“interaction” jobs, 56
interactivity, 376, 377, 379
internal database, Web access to, 229, 237
internal integration tools, 543
internal supply chain, 341
international information systems, 556–587
business challenges, 565–566, 584
business drivers, 562, 563
case study, 559–560
computing platforms, 577
connectivity, 577–579
developing an international IS architecture, 562–563
domestic exporter strategy, 567, 584
franchising, 567–568, 584
global value chains, 576–577
globalization, 564
growth of, 561–562
implementation, 573–574, 576, 584
managing, 570–576
multinational strategy, 567, 584
organizing, 567–570
particularism, 565
software localization, 579, 581–582
state of the art, 566
systems integration, 577
transborder data flow, 565
internationalization, 564, 584
See also global business; international information systems
Internet, 21, 257–275, 284
about, 257, 260
challenges to privacy, 134–137, 155
cognitive effects of, 151
connection speed, 248
connectivity for global business, 577–579
customization, 376, 378
databases and, 226, 228
described, 21
domain name system (DNS), 258–259, 284
future of, 260–261
global reach, 376, 377
global supply chain and, 346–347
governance of, 260, 284
growth of, 260, 262
information density, 376, 377–378
information richness, 376, 377
intellectual property rights and, 140–141
interactivity, 376, 377
for marketing, 392–393
metered pricing of, 262
music industry and, 118
network neutrality, 262–263
organizations and, 93–94
personalization, 376, 378, 390, 392, 393, 394, 395
privacy and, 131–138
social change caused by Internet use, 144
social technology, 378
television and, 118–119
threats and vulnerabilities, 294–295, 323
ubiquity of, 374–376
unique nature of, 374–378, 407
universal standards, 376, 377, 378
usage, 5–6
VoIP, 264–265, 284, 294
VPNs, 267–268, 284, 316, 577
Web tracking, 127, 134, 137, 390, 392, 393, 394
wireless access, 277–279
See also Internet security threats
Internet access
equity and access, 146–148
for global business, 577–579
statistics, 174
wireless access, 277–279
Internet advertising, 6
Internet architecture, 259
Internet Architecture Board. See IAB
Internet-based collaboration environments, 61–68
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. See ICANN
Internet Explorer (Microsoft), 188, 303
Internet layer, 251
Internet music services, as disruptive technology, 87
Internet Protocol, 251
Internet protocol address. See IP address
Internet Protocol version 6. See IPv6
Internet security threats, 134–137, 295–296
about, 323
bombers, 299, 300
bugs, 121, 135, 137, 303, 326
click fraud, 302
computer crime, 300–301
cookies, 134–135, 155
cyberterrorism and cyberwarfare, 302, 329–331
denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, 299
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, 299, 329
evil twins, 301
global threats, 302
hackers, 295, 296, 298, 330
identity theft, 301–302
malware, 291–292, 296–297, 303, 320, 326
pharming, 301
phishing, 301
sniffing, 299, 313, 326
spoofing, 299
spyware, 135, 298
SQL injection attacks, 298, 301
Trojan horses, 291, 296, 298
viruses and worms, 296–297, 326
See also cybercrime; information systems controls; information systems security
Internet service providers (ISPs), 110, 141, 206, 257
Internet services, 261, 263–264, 284
See also chat; e-mail; FTP; instant messaging; Internet; Internet access; Internet security threats; TelNet; unified communications; Web
Internet2, 261
interorganizational information systems, 53
interpersonal roles, of managers in decision making, 459, 479
intranets
about, 21, 54–55, 72
for knowledge management, 415, 416
intrusion detection systems, 316, 326
inventory management, 345
inventory optimization systems, 345
inventory replenishment system, 96–97
investment workstations, 431
Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM), 392
IP address (Internet protocol address), 258, 260, 294
IP datagrams, 251
IP phone systems, 265
iPad, 6, 7, 10, 98, 102, 103, 118, 177, 181, 185, 194, 277, 288, 371, 383
iPhone, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 79, 80, 98, 103, 110, 118, 177, 178, 181, 185, 193, 194, 262, 276, 277, 287, 288, 289, 297, 374, 383, 399, 400, 401, 464
iPod, 13, 94, 95, 97, 98, 287, 383
iPod Touch, 177, 288
IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), 261
IS. See information systems
ISPs. See Internet service providers
IT. See information technology
iterative process, 507
iTunes, 7, 45, 87, 94, 98, 102, 103, 383, 388, 399
iVillage, 109, 383
J
JAD. See joint application design
Java (software), 180, 188–189, 200
Java Virtual Machine, 188
JIT strategy. See just-in-time strategy
jobs
offshoring, 8, 192, 511, 513, 514
outsourcing, 8, 11, 192, 201, 319
reengineering job loss, 146
join operation, 215, 216
join table, 216
joint application design (JAD), 514, 519
Joint Strike Fighter project, 329
JotSpot (software), 61
just-in-time (JIT) strategy, 9, 342
K
Kaboodle, 389
key corporate assets, 11
key fields, 214
key performance indicators (KPIs), 474
keyloggers, 298
keystone firms, 109
keywords, 270
Kinaxis RapidResponse, 335, 336
Kindle (Amazon), 103, 181, 382, 411
KMS. See knowledge management systems
knowledge, 417
acquisition, 420
application of, 420–421
dimensions of, 418
dissemination of, 420
global knowledge base, 564
storage of, 420
tacit knowledge, 417, 432
knowledge acquisition, 420
knowledge application, 420–421
knowledge base, 432, 564
knowledge-based organization, 88
knowledge discovery, 431
knowledge dissemination, 420
knowledge management, 445
about, 69, 416–418
case study, 415
communities of practice (COPs), 421
defined, 419
knowledge acquisition, 420
knowledge application, 420–421
knowledge dissemination, 420
knowledge storage, 420
knowledge management systems (KMS)
about, 51, 54, 72, 421–422, 445
collaboration tools, 424
enterprise content management systems, 421–422, 422–425, 445
enterprise-wide knowledge management systems, 421, 422, 445
intelligent techniques, 422, 431–442, 445
knowledge network systems, 424, 445
knowledge work systems (KWS), 421, 427, 428, 445
learning management systems, 425–426
social bookmarking, 424–425, 445
knowledge management value chain, 419–421
knowledge network systems, 424, 445
knowledge storage, 420
knowledge work systems (KWS), 421, 427, 428, 445
augmented reality, 428–430, 445
investment workstations, 431
knowledge workstations, 427
virtual reality systems, 428, 429, 431, 445
knowledge workers, 18, 426
knowledge workstations, 427
managed security service providers (MSSPs), 319–320
management
of global systems, 570–576
knowledge management and, 42–421
legitimacy, 574
levels of, 56
platform and infrastructure, 194–196
management challenges, 562, 584
management costs, flattening of hierarchies, 91
management filters, 460
management hierarchy, 56, 91
management information systems (MIS), 47–48, 72
about, 29, 480
defined, 17–18
See also information systems
management issues, information technology
infrastructure, 194–197
management models, 458
managerial complementary assets, 27
managers
business analytics, 463
decision making and, 458–459, 479
job of, 18–19
managing
global systems, 559–587
projects. See project management
MANs (metropolitan-area networks), 253, 254, 284
manufacturing and production, business processes, 43
MapInfo (software), 467
Mariposa botnet, 299
market creators, 383, 384
market entry costs, 377
market niche, 98–99
marketing
affiliate and blog marketing, 393
behavioral targeting, 121, 132, 136, 392–393
business processes, 43
classified ads, 393
CRM systems, 352–353
display ads, 393
e-commerce, 390, 392–395, 407
e-mail, 393
long tail marketing, 392
micromarketing, 564
online viral marketing, 389–390
rich media, 393
search engine marketing, 122, 270, 393
social networking for, 371
sponsorships, 393
video, 393
marketspace, 375
mashups, 193, 201, 272
mass customization, 98
master data management (MDM), 207, 208
Match.com, 388
MDM. See master data management
media
new business models for, 375
transformation of industry, 102
medical records, HIPAA, 133, 306
MEDITECH electronic medical records system, 9
MeilleursAgents.com, 429
Melissa (malware), 297
membership functions, 435
menu costs, 379
Metastorm BPM software, 495
Metcalfe’s law, 173, 200
metropolitan-area networks. *See* MANs
micromarketing, 564
micropayment systems, 388
microprocessors, 87, 171, 185, 200
Microsoft Access, 213, 218, 219
Microsoft Azure, 177, 217, 322
Microsoft DOS, 175
Microsoft Dynamics suite, 357
Microsoft Excel PivotTable, 472
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, 9
Microsoft Expression Web, 180
Microsoft Expressions, 404
Microsoft Internet Explorer, 188, 303
Microsoft Live Communications Server, 76
Microsoft Live Meeting, 76
Microsoft .NET family, 180, 190
Microsoft Office, 76, 188, 441
Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution, 527
Microsoft Office Live Meeting, 62
Microsoft Office Project 2010, 549
Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, 527
Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007, 527
Microsoft Office Project Professional 2010, 549
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, 527
Microsoft Office Project Server 2010, 549
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, 415
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, 76, 415, 416
Microsoft Office Web Apps, 193–194
Microsoft Outlook, 76, 297
Microsoft Server, 527
Microsoft SharePoint, 7, 61, 64, 76, 424, 463
Microsoft SharePoint Designer, 180
Microsoft SQL Server, 179, 213, 218
Microsoft SQLAzure Database, 217
Microsoft Virtual Server, 182
Microsoft Windows OS, 168, 169, 174
Microsoft Windows Server, 177, 180, 182, 248, 254
Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2, 303
Microsoft Xboxlive.com, 388
microwave systems, 256, 264
middle management, 18
about, 59
business information systems for, 46–48, 72
decision support for, 471–473
MiFi (Virgin Mobile), 277
MIMO (multiple input multiple output), 279
minicomputers, 167, 168
Mint.com, 386
Mintzberg’s role of classifications, 459
MIPS (millions of instructions per second), 171
Mirrorforce, 322
MIS. *See* management information systems
MIS audit, 312, 326
mobile advertising, 400
mobile computing, 170
mobile devices
about, 6, 375, 464
e-book readers, 103, 181, 375, 382, 411
economic development and, 580–581
malware for, 296–297, 320
netbooks, 6, 7, 181, 185, 188, 277
securing, 320
mobile digital platforms
about, 6, 7, 110, 181, 279
apps, 429
case study, 10
decision making and, 8
described, 170
RFID, 279–281, 285
mobile e-commerce. *See* m-commerce
Mobile Maps, 136
mobile WiMax, 276
MobiTV, 401
modeling, object-oriented modeling, 504
modems, 252–253
Monster.com, 32
Moore's law, 170–171, 200
moral issues, 125–126, 131–150
*See also* accountability; information rights; moral issues; property rights; quality of life
Motorola Droid, 288
Movable Type (software), 273
movies scripts, indexing by search engines, 271
Mozilla Firefox, 188, 303
MP3 music files, intellectual property rights, 141
MP3.com, 87
MSN, 382
MSSPs. *See* managed security service providers
multi-tiered client/server architecture, 169
multicore processor, 185, 200
multidimensional data analysis, 224, 225
multinational firms, 568
*See also* global business; international information systems
multinational strategy, international information systems, 567, 584
multiple input multiple output. *See* MIMO
multitouch interface. *See* touch interface
music industry, 13, 118
My Location, 136
MyDoom (malware), 297, 300
MyKad, 482
MyPoints, 389
MySimon, 272
MySpace, 7, 60, 137, 146, 229–230, 274, 291, 297, 298–299, 383, 384, 389
MySQL (software), 213, 217
N
N-tiered client/server architecture, 169
NAI. *See* Network Advertising Initiative
nanotechnology, 171
nanotubes, 172
NAT. *See* Network Address Translation
National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), 273
national Do Not Track list, 121, 133
National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996, 301–302
National Security Agency (NSA), 330
net marketplaces, 397, 398, 407
net neutrality, 262–263
Net Promoter (Satmetrix), 227
netbooks, 6, 7, 181, 185, 188, 277
Netflix, 392
Netscape.com, 373
NetSuite, 203, 321
NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP), 368
NetWeaver Master Data Management (SAP), 368
NetWeaver Portal (SAP), 361
Network Address Translation (NAT), 315
Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), 122, 133, 137
network-based strategies, 108–109, 116
network economics, 108, 173
network infrastructure, 249
network interface card (NIC), 248
network interface layer, 252
network neutrality, 262–263
network operating system (NOS), 248
network service providers, 259
network topologies, 254–255
networked systems, 568
networking services, 180
networking technology, 20, 250–252
networks and networking
about, 284
advertising networks, 392–395, 395
CANs (campus-area networks), 253
controlling network traffic, 319
defined, 20–21, 248
extended star networks, 254
firewalls, 315–316, 326
global business, 577–579
hardware, 180
LANs (local-area networks), 173, 174, 180, 185, 249, 253–254, 278, 285, 295
in large companies, 249–250
MANs (metropolitan-area networks), 253, 254, 284
P2P networks, 254, 295
PANs (personal-area networks), 276, 285
physical transmission media, 255–257, 284
private industrial networks, 397, 407
topologies, 254–255
transmission, 256–257
transmission speed, 257
trends in, 247
VPNs (virtual private networks), 267–268, 284, 316, 577
WANs (wide-area networks), 180, 253, 254, 284
wireless networks, 276, 295, 316–317
WSNs (wireless sensor networks), 281, 285
*See also* information systems security; Internet security threats
neural networks, 422, 436–438, 441, 445
neurofuzzy system, 441
New York Stock Exchange, 439, 461
news reader software, 273
newsgroups, 154, 264
newspapers
iPad and, 103
new business models for, 375
readership, 6
Next Generation Internet (NGI), 261
Nexus One, 178
NGI. *See* Next Generation Internet
NIC. *See* network interface card
niche firms, 109–110
No Child Left Behind Act, 470
"no-fly" list, 240
"no free lunch" rule, 130, 155
nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA), 128
nonprocedural languages, 508–509
normalization, 220
NOS. *See* network operating system
Novell Open Enterprise Server, 248
NSA. *See* National Security Agency
O
object, 504
object-oriented database management systems (OODBMS), 215
object-oriented databases, 215
object-oriented development, 503–505
object-oriented modeling, 504
object-relational DBMS system, 215
Office Live Meeting (Microsoft), 62
Office (Microsoft), 76
Office SharePoint Server (Microsoft), 76, 415, 416
Office Web Apps (Microsoft), 193–194
offshore outsourcing, 8, 11, 192, 511, 513, 514
OLAP. See online analytical processing
on-demand computing, 184
one-click shopping, 98
OneHub (software), 66
OneView (software), 512
online advertising, 122, 375
online analytical processing (OLAP), 224, 237, 354
online banner ads, 122
online bill payment, 98
online chat, 263–264
online collaboration tools, 61–68
online conferencing, 5, 7, 60
online entertainment, business models, 375
online ordering systems, 52
Online Privacy Alliance, 137
online transaction processing, 319
online video, 271
online viral marketing, 389–390
OnQ system, 98
OODBMS. See object-oriented database management systems
ooVoo (software), 62
Open for Business (OFBiz) (Apache), 357
Open Office (Oracle), 188
Open Photo, 153
open source software, 187–188, 200, 357
Open Text LiveLink Enterprise Content Management, 423
Openbravo (software), 357
OpenOffice (Sun Microsystems), 188
Opera (browser), 303
operating systems, 176, 177
operational customer relationship management (CRM), 354, 364
operational excellence, as business objective, 12–13
operational management, 18, 46
opt-in policy, 137
opt-out policy, 136, 137
option, 538
Oracle Application Express, 41
Oracle Business Intelligence, 359
Oracle CRM on Demand, 359
Oracle Database, 41, 213
Oracle Database Lite, 213
Oracle e-Business Suite, 357
Oracle Enterprise Linux, 163
Oracle Enterprise Manager, 217
Oracle Fusion Middleware, 217, 357
Oracle Infor Global Solutions, 339
Oracle Open Office, 188
Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, 163
order fulfillment process, 44, 52
order-to-cash process, 360
organizational and management capital, 27, 419
organizational assets, 27
organizational change, IT-enabled, 489–490
automation, 489, 519
business process redesign, 489, 490, 491–493, 500, 519
paradigm shifts, 489, 490, 519
rationalization, 489, 490, 519
resistance to, 493
organizational CSFs, 534
organizational culture, 84–85
organizational environments, 86–88
organizational impact analysis, 546–547
organizational intelligence, case-based reasoning, 434, 445
organizational learning, 419
organizational politics, 84, 93
organizational structure, 88
organizations
behavioral view of, 82–83
described, 28–33
disruptive technologies, 87–88
features of, 84–89
flattening, 91–92
information systems and, 12, 18, 81–89, 115
Internet and, 93–94
microeconomic definition of, 82
organizational culture, 84–85
organizational environments, 86–88
organizational politics, 84, 93
organizational structure, 88
postindustrial organizations, 92
resistance to change, 93, 115, 493
strategic transitions, 112
technical definition of, 83
technological change and, 83
technology and, 93
Outlook (Microsoft), 76, 297
output, 16
output controls, 308–309
outsourcing, 8, 11, 192, 201, 319, 511, 513, 519
Overstock.com, 356
P
P2P networks. See peer-to-peer networks
P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences), 137–138, 139
packet filtering, 315
packet switching, 250
packets, 250, 258
PageRank algorithm, 87, 270
Pandora, 388
PANs (personal-area networks), 276, 285
paradigm shift, 489, 490, 519
parallel strategy, business process redesign, 500
particularism, 565
partner relationship management (PRM), 351
passive RFID tags, 280
passwords, 313
patch management, 303
patches (for software), 303, 304
patents, 140
payment systems
electronic payments systems, 393
micropayment systems, 388
online bill payment, 98
PayPal, 97
payroll processing, transaction processing systems (TPS) for, 46
PDP-11, 168
peer-to-peer networks (P2P networks), 254, 295
Pegasystems BPM workflow software, 494
PeopleSoft Enterprise (Oracle), 163
personal-area networks. See PANs
personal computers (PCs). See computers
personal information, privacy of, 127, 155, 390
personalization, 376, 378, 392, 393, 394, 395
PERT charts, 543, 545
pharming, 301
phased approach, business process redesign, 500–501
phishing, 301
phones. See cell phones; iPhone; telephone networks; telephone systems
PhotoBucket, 121, 383
physical view, 212
pilot study, business process redesign, 500
piracy, 262–263
pirated software, 141
pivot tables, 472, 473
pizza chains, 52
Pizza Tracker (software), 52
PKI. See public key infrastructure
planning
business continuity planning, 311–312
capacity planning, 194
demand planning, 344
disaster recovery planning, 310–312
e-commerce Web site, 401–402
EPR systems, 51, 53, 337
information systems, 95
supply chain planning systems, 342, 344
Platform for Privacy Preferences. See P3P
platforms, 21, 166
computer hardware platforms, 175–177, 181
enterprise systems, 360–361, 364
international information systems, 577
management and, 194–196
P3P 137–138, 139
service platforms, 360–361, 364
wireless platforms, 248
See also information technology (IT)
infrastructure; mobile digital platforms
podcasting, 383
Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol. See PPTP
policies and procedures, 194
portals, 50, 382, 445
Porter’s competitive forces model, 95–96, 102, 109, 115, 196–197
portfolio analysis, information systems, 534–535
Post Sales Order Management System (OMS), 22
postimplementation audit, 501
postindustrial organizations, 92
power consumption, 185, 186
power grids, 36–38
power management software, 186
power-saving processors, 185, 200
Power Usage Effectiveness, 186
PowerMeter (Google), 37
PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol), 268
prediction markets, 392
predictive analytics, 226, 466–467
predictive modeling, 462
price discrimination, 377
price transparency, 377
pricing profile, 453
primary activities, business value chain model, 101
primary key, 214
privacy, 155
behavioral targeting, 121, 133, 136, 392–393
chief privacy officer (CPO), 69
defined, 131
electronic surveillance of employee Internet activity, 134, 264, 266–267
European legislation, 134
Facebook, 390–391
Internet and, 131–138
nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA), 128
of personal information, 127, 390
U.S. legislation, 122, 132–133
Web tracking, 127, 134, 137, 390, 393
Privacy Act of 1974, 132
private cloud, 183–184
private exchange, 397
private industrial networks, 397, 407
PRM. See partner relationship management
problem solving. See decision-making; decision support
process specifications, 503
processing, 16
processing controls, 308
procurement, 396
product differentiation, 96, 97–98
production workers, 18
productivity, 58
professional bureaucracy, 88
professional codes of conduct, 131
profiling
about, 100, 127
nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA), 128
program-data dependence, 211
programmers, 68
programming, systems development, 499
Progress Savvion BusinessManager PBM software, 496
Project Gate methodology, 528
project management, 527–556
change management, 540–542
critical success factors (CSFs), 532, 534
defined, 530
end users and, 541
Gantt charts, 543, 544
implementation, 540–541, 553
importance of, 529–531
increasing user involvement, 545
IS costs and benefits, 537–538
management structure for IS projects, 531–532, 553
managing risk, 539–549
objectives of, 111–112, 530–531, 553
overcoming user resistance, 545
PERT charts, 543, 545
portfolio analysis, 534–535
runaway projects, 529–530
scope of work, 530
software tools, 527–528, 548–549
system failure, 529–530
project management software, 527–528, 548–549
project operation, 215, 216
project risk
controlling risk factors, 542–545
dimensions of, 539–540, 553
implementation and, 540–541, 553
project size, project risk and, 540, 553
project structure, project risk and, 540, 553
Promoted Trends, 386
property rights, 126, 138–141
protocol, 251
prototype, 506
prototyping, 507–508, 519
proxy servers, 315
public cloud, 183
Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002!. See Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002!
public key encryption, 317–318
public key infrastructure (PKI), 326
pull-based model, 347, 348
Pulse (Domino’s), 52
Purisma Data Hub, 207
push-based model, 347, 348
Q
quality
business benefits of collaboration, 58
data quality, 230–231, 238
project management, 530
quality of life, 126, 144–145
query language, 509
QuickBooks, 386
R
racial equity, computer usage and Internet access, 148
RAD. See rapid application development
radiation, from computer display screens, 150
radiation therapy, liability and regulation, 157–159
radio frequency identification. See RFID
rapid application development (RAD), 514–515, 519
RapidResponse (Kinaxis), 335, 336
rationalization of procedures, 489, 490, 519
reading
e-book readers, 103, 181, 375, 382, 411
new business models for, 375
real options pricing models (ROPMs), 538–539
records, 210, 214
records management
computer forensics, 307, 326
electronic, 306–307
electronic evidence, 307
electronic records management, 9, 306–307, 522–524
employee records, 326
health records and HIPAA, 133, 306
retention of digital records, 6, 15
security, 326
trends in, 6, 15
recovery-oriented computing, 319
reengineering job loss, 146
referential integrity, 220
"refreezing," 93
regional systems units, 569
regulation, radiation-related accidents, 157–159
relational database
described, 213, 237
entity-relationship diagram, 237
normalization, 220
organizing data in, 214–215, 237
referential integrity, 220
tables, 214–215, 216, 237
remote work, 8
repetitive stress injury (RSI), 149
report generator, 509
Request for Proposal (RFP), 510
requirements analysis, 497–498, 499, 573–574
responsibility, 129
revenue models
e-commerce, 387–389, 407
Facebook, 390
RFID (radio frequency identification), 279–281, 285
RFP. See Request for Proposal
rich media, marketing, 393
Rigel (software), 366
ring topology, 254, 255
risk
project management, 531, 539
See also project risk
risk assessment, information systems security, 309, 326, 539–540, 553
Risk Aversion Principle, 130, 155
root domain, 258
ROPMs. See real options pricing models
routers, 248
routines, 84, 85
RSI. See repetitive stress injury
RSS, 273
Russia, cyberwarfare by, 330
S
S-HTTP (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol), 317
S3. See Simple Storage Service
SaaS. See software as a service
SABRE reservation system, 111, 556
SabreSonic CSS, 556
Safari (browser), 303
safe harbor, 134
safety stock, 342
sailboats, 41–42, 43
Sajus BPM monitoring software, 494
sales and marketing, 43, 44
See also marketing
sales force automation (SFA), 288, 351
sales revenue model, 388
Salesboom.com, 203
Salesforce.com, 87, 322, 357
SANs (storage area networks), 180
SAP Business ByDesign, 357
SAP Business Information Warehouse, 587
SAP Business Objects, 359
SAP Business Process Testing, 587
SAP Business Suite, 357
SAP Business Suite Applications, 559–560
SAP ERP Human Capital Management system, 467
SAP General Ledger, 586–587
SAP General Ledger Data Migration, 587
SAP Global Trade Services, 57/5
SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence, 368
SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management, 368
SAP NetWeaver Portal, 361, 587
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002!, 15, 306–307
SAS Enterprise Miner, 466
Sasser.ftp (malware), 297
Satmetrix Net Promoter, 227
scalability, 194
SCM systems. See supply chain management (SCM) systems
scope of work, project management, 530
scoring models, business process redesign, 535–536
Scrum (software), 547
search engine marketing, 122, 270, 393
search engine optimization (SEO), 270
search engines, 269–271, 393
Second Life, 60
Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol. See S-
HTTP
Secure Sockets Layer. See SSL
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 440
security
cloud computing, 320, 321, 326
defined, 293
legal liability, 306–307
of telephone systems, 294
outsourcing, 319
security breaches, 203
security policy, 310, 326
Wi-Fi, 279, 323
of Wi-Fi networks, 295–296, 316–317, 326
of wireless networks, 295–296, 316–317
See also cybercrime; data security; information systems security; Internet security threats
security breaches, 203
security policy, 310, 326
select operation, 215, 216
self-managed teams, 92
semantic Web, 274–275
semistructured decisions, 456, 471–473, 479
senior management, 18, 56, 59
decision support for, 473–475, 477
sensitivity analysis, 472
SEO. See Search engine optimization
sequences (data analysis), 225
server computer, 248
server software, 248
servers, 163, 168, 180
blade servers, 163, 176, 177, 186
proxy servers, 315
service level agreement (SLA), 193, 320
service-oriented architecture (SOA), 190
service-oriented computing, 515
service platforms, 360–361, 364
service providers, 383, 384
service set identifiers. See SSIDs
service workers, 18
SFA. See sales force automation
SharePoint (Microsoft), 7, 61, 64, 76, 424, 463
SharePoint Designer (Microsoft), 180
SharePoint Enterprise Search, 415
ShopItToMe, 453
shopping bots, 271–272
signals, digital vs. analog, 252–253
SIIA. See Software and Information Industry Association
Simon framework, 461
Simple Object Access Protocol. See SOAP
Simple Storage Service (S3) (Amazon), 183, 204
SimpleDB (Amazon), 217
six sigma, 490, 519
Skype, 62, 245, 265
SLA. See service level agreement
Slifter, 399
Smart Business Application Development & Test (IBM), 183
smart card, 313, 326
smart grid, 36–38
SmartGridCity Project (Boulder, CO), 36
smartphones, 9, 79, 111, 177, 178, 181, 185, 188, 194, 247, 275, 277, 294, 374, 382, 400, 401
See also Android; BlackBerry; Droid; iPhone
sniffing, 299, 313, 326
SOA. See service-oriented architecture
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), 190
Sobig.F (malware), 297
social assets, 27, 28
social bookmarking, 424–425, 445
social change, technology and, 144–145
social class equity, computer usage and
Internet access, 146, 148
social engineering, 302, 313
social networking
about, 6, 7, 274, 371, 375
business models, 384
as collaboration tool, 60
community-building tools, 384
e-commerce and, 375, 376, 378, 379, 389
malware and, 291, 297
for marketing, 371
for mobile devices, 400–401
See also Facebook; LinkedIn; MySpace; Twitter
social relationships, computer threats to, 144–145
social shopping, 389
Socialtext (software), 66
sociotechnical design, 548
sociotechnical systems, 29–30, 33
software, 16, 20, 165, 200
Ajax (software), 189
antivirus and antispyware software, 316, 326
application server software, 229
application software, 166
application software packages, 509, 510–511, 519
apps, 193–194
bugs, 135, 143, 303, 326
business analytics software, 453, 463, 473
for business process management, 493–494
capacity planning, 194
client operating system software, 177
cloud-based software, 183, 193, 203–205
cloud software as a service, 183
coordinating software releases, 574
copyright protection of, 139–140
for customer relationship management (CRM) systems, 351–352, 512
database software, 179
debugging, 143, 323
enterprise software, 177, 191, 338–339
external sources for, 191
financial investment in, 195
in global business, 574
liability and, 142, 143
localization, 579, 581–582
malware, 296
mashups, 193, 201, 272
metrics, 322, 326
for networking and telecommunications, 180
on-demand model, 203
open source software, 187–188, 200, 357
outsourcing, 192
patches, 303, 304
patent protection, 140
pirated, 141
power management software, 186
project management tools, 527–528, 548–549
quality of, 143, 320, 322–323
scalability, 194
securing quality, 320, 322–323
server software, 248
service level agreement (SLA), 320
site-building packages, 404
spam filtering software, 146
for supply chain management, 344
testing, 322
as trade secret, 139
virtualization software, 182, 184, 186, 200
virus and firewall software, 185
vulnerability to threats from, 303–304, 323
walkthrough, 322
Web services, 189–191, 200–201
Web software, 180
See also collaboration tools
Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), 141
software as a service (SaaS), 7, 87, 142, 193, 194, 195, 203, 205, 357
software controls, 308
software integration, 181
software localization, 579, 581–582
software metrics, 322, 326
software packages, 191
solar power, 36
space shifting, 12
spam, 145–146
spam filtering software, 146
sponsorships, marketing, 393
spoofing, 299
Sportsvite, 384
Spybot S&D (software), 316
spyware, 135, 298
Spyware Doctor (software), 316
SQL (software), 217–218
SQL injection attacks, 298, 301
SQL Server (Microsoft), 179, 213, 218
SQLAzure Database (Microsoft), 217
SSIDs (service set identifiers), 295–296, 316
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), 317
standard operating procedures, 84
Staples.com, 382
Star Alliance, 494
star topology, 254, 255
stateful inspection, 315
"stickiness," 387
storage area networks. See SANs
Storefinder (application), 400
Storm (malware), 297
strategic information systems, 116
strategic systems, 111, 115
strategic systems analysis, 112
strategic transitions, 112
streaming, 383–384
structure chart, 503, 504
structure mining, 228
structured decisions, 456, 471–473
structured knowledge, 422–423
structured methodologies, 502–503
Structured Query Language. See SQL
"stub quotes," 439
Stylehive, 389
subnotebooks, 7, 181
subscription revenue model, 388
substitute products and services, 96, 101
Sun Java, 180
Sun Microsystems OpenOffice, 188
Sun Solaris, 323
supercomputers, 182
SuperDAT Remediation Tool (McAfee), 304
supplier intimacy, 14, 99
suppliers, 96
supply chain, 340
demand-driven supply chains, 347–348
execution systems, 344
global supply chains, 346–347
planning systems, 342, 344
supply chain execution systems, 344
supply chain management (SCM) systems, 51, 53, 72, 335–336, 340–344, 356, 363
bullwhip effect, 342–343
business value of, 348
demand planning, 344
just-in-time (JIT) strategy, 9, 342
software for, 344
supply chain planning systems, 342, 344
support activities, 104
surface Web, 269
surveillance. See privacy
Surveyor (software) (Verdiem), 186
survival, as business objective, 14–15
switches, 248
switching costs, 99, 356
Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise, 179
symmetric key encryption, 317
synergies, 107, 116
system errors, 142, 143
system quality, 126, 142, 143
system testing, 499
systems analysis, 68, 496–499, 501
feasibility study, 497
requirements analysis, 497, 499, 573–574
systems analysts, 68
systems design, 498–499, 501, 546, 548
cooptation, 574
structured methodologies, 502–503
systems development, 496–506, 519
about, 494, 496
agile development, 514–515
application software packages, 166, 509, 510–511, 519
capital budgeting for, 538
component-based development, 515
computer-aided software engineering (CASE), 505–506
conversion, 500, 501
core activities, 497–501
critical success factors (CSFs), 532, 534
defined, 494
documentation, 501
end-user development, 508–510, 519
feasibility study, 497
fourth-generation languages, 508–510
IS costs and benefits, 537–538
joint application design (JAD), 514, 519
linking systems projects to business plan, 532
maintenance, 501
object-oriented development, 503–505
outsourcing, 511, 513, 519
portfolio analysis, 534–535
production, 501
programming, 499, 501
prototyping, 507–508, 519
rapid application development (RAD), 514–515, 519
real options pricing models (ROPMs), 538–539
requirements analysis, 497–498, 499, 573–574
scoring models, 535–536
service-oriented computing, 515
structured methodologies, 502–503
systems analysis, 68, 496–499
systems design, 498–499
systems life cycle, 506–507, 519
testing, 499, 501
Web services, 189–191, 200–201, 515
See also business process redesign; project management
systems life cycle, 506–507, 519
T
T1 lines, 258
T3 lines, 258
tablet computers, 103, 181
tacit knowledge, 417, 432
tangible benefits, 537
task force-networked organizations, 92
task force organization, 88
taxonomy, 423
TCO. See total cost of ownership
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), 251, 258
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), 169–170, 174, 175, 180, 251, 258
teams, 56, 59
teamwork. See collaboration; collaboration tools
technology
ethical issues arising from, 122, 126–128, 155
information systems and, 20–21, 23–24
intellectual property rights, 141, 155
organization and, 93
quality of life issues and, 143–144
reengineering job loss from use of, 146
social change and, 144
See also information technology
technology services, 166
technology standards, 174
technostress, 149–150
telecommunications industry, competition in, 79–80
telecommunications technology, 20, 166
telephone networks, 247
telephone systems, 252
IP phone systems, 265
liability and, 142
security, 294
telepresence, 61, 62, 76
television, cognitive effects of, 151
television industry, Internet and, 118–119
telework, 7, 8
TelNet, 261
terrorist watch-list database, 240–241
test plan, 500
testing
of software, 322
systems development, 499
text messaging, 60, 146, 147
text mining, 226–228, 237
textbooks, 102, 103
"thick client" model, 52
Third World countries, 564
ThisNext, 389
ThomasNet.com, 229
3 G networks, 276, 284
tiered service, 262
time, project management, 530
time shifting, 11–12
time/space collaboration tool matrix, 67
Times Square bomber, 242
token, 326
Token Ring networking software, 254
tokens, 313
top-level domain, 258
topology, 254, 255
total cost of ownership (TCO), 195–196, 201, 538
total quality management (TQM), 490, 519
touch interface, 177
touch point, 350
touchpads, 178
TouchSmart computer (HP), 178
Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, 15
TPS. See transaction processing systems
TQM. See total quality management
trackbacks, 273
"tradable service" jobs, 8
trade secrets, 139
transaction brokers, 383, 384
transaction cost theory, 89–90
transaction costs, 376
transaction fee revenue model, 388–389
transaction processing systems (TPS), 45–47, 72, 471
transborder data flow, 565
transistors
as disruptive technology, 87
nanotechnology, 171
Transmission Control Protocol. See TCP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. See TCP/IP
transmission speed, 257
transnational firms, 568, 584
See also global business; international information systems
transnational systems units, 569
transport layer, 251
travel industry, terrorist watch-list database, 240–241
Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP), 241
Travelocity, 102
TRIP. See Traveler Redress Inquiry Program
Trojan horses, 291, 296, 298
TRUSTe, 137
tuples, 214
TV.com, 118
"tweets," 385
twisted wire, 255, 284
Twitter, 204, 291, 297, 372, 383, 384, 385–386, 400
two-tiered client/server architecture, 169
Typepad.com, 216
U
U-verse (AT&T), 118
ubiquity, of e-commerce, 374–376
UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration), 190
Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), 276
"unfreezing," 93
unified communications, 265, 267
unified threat management (UTM) systems, 316
uniform resource locator. See URL
unit testing, 499, 587
United States
cyberwarfare against, 329–331
globalization and employment, 8, 11
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration. See UDDI
Unix (operating system), 174, 175, 176, 177, 180, 188, 323
unstructured decisions, 456, 479
URL (uniform resource locator), 269
U.S. CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, 146
U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. *See* DARPA
U.S. stock market, 439, 461
usage mining, 228
user-designer communications gap, 541–542
user interface, 507, 530
user requirements, 573
Utah, texting while driving legislation, 147, 148
Utilitarian Principle, 130, 155
UTM systems. *See* unified threat management (UTM) systems
V
value chain, 102, 116
global value chain, 576–577
value chain model, 102, 104–105, 116
value web, 106, 107, 116
VAX computers, 168
VDTs. *See* video display terminals
Venueing (app), 3
Verdiem Surveyor (software), 186
video, marketing, 393
video display terminals (VDTs), 150
video games, cognitive effects of, 151
video ID filtering, 118
videoconferencing, 7, 12, 61, 62, 62–63
viral marketing, 389–390
virtual company (virtual organization), 109
virtual meeting systems, 7, 12, 61–62
virtual private networks. *See* VPNs
Virtual Reality Modeling Language. *See* VRML
virtual reality systems, 428, 429, 431, 445
Virtual Server (Microsoft), 182
virtual worlds, as collaboration tool, 61
virtualization, 182, 184, 186, 200
virus protection, 185
Virus Scan (software), 304
viruses (malware), 296, 326
visitor tracking (of Web sites), 127, 134, 137, 390, 392, 393, 394
Vista (software), 523
VMware (software), 182, 186
voice networks, 247
VoIP (Voice over IP), 264–265, 284, 294, 295
VPNs (virtual private networks), 267–268, 284, 316, 577
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), 430
W
W3C. *See* World Wide Web Consortium
walkthrough, 322
*Wall Street Journal*, 388
WANs (wide-area networks), 180, 253, 254, 284
war driving, 295–296
Warehouse Management System (WMS), 344
Web, 268–275
about, 268
customization, 376, 378
"deep Web," 269
employer surveillance of, 134, 264, 266–267
global reach, 376, 377
information density, 376, 377–378
information richness, 376, 377
interactivity, 376, 377
personalization, 376, 378, 390, 392, 393, 394, 395
search engines, 269–271
semantic Web, 274–275
social technology, 376, 378
surface Web, 269
trends in, 274–275
ubiquity of, 374–376
unique nature of, 374–378, 407
universal standards, 376, 377
Web 2.0, 7, 272–273, 297, 357
Web 3.0, 274, 275
*See also* Internet
Web 2.0, 7, 272–273, 297, 357
Web 3.0, 274, 275
Web-based collaboration environments, 61–68
Web beacons, 121, 135, 137
Web browsers, 188
Web bugs, 121, 135, 137, 303, 326
Web conferencing, 7, 12, 61
Web mashups, 193, 272, 291
Web mining, 226, 228, 237
Web servers, 169, 254, 269
Web services, 189–191, 200–201, 515
Web services description language. *See* WSDL
Web sites
budgeting for, 405
building an e-commerce site, 401–405, 408
building in-house vs. outsourcing, 403–405
defined, 268
hosting, 404–405
personalization, 376, 378, 390, 392, 393, 394, 395
visitor tracking, 127, 134, 137, 390, 392, 393, 394
Web structure mining, 228
Web tracking, 121, 127, 134, 137, 390, 393
WebEx (software), 62
WebFocus (software), 466
WEP (wired equivalent privacy), 296, 316
Wi-Fi networks, 249, 253, 277
case study, 245
hotspots, 278
security challenges to, 295–296, 326
security measures for, 316–317
standards, 277, 285, 316
Wi-Fi Protected Access 2. *See* WPA2
Wi-Fi standards, 277, 285
802.11b standard, 277
802.11g standard, 277
802.11i specification, 316
802.11n standard, 277, 279
wide-area networks. *See* WANs
wiki software, 273
Wikipedia, 60, 151
wikis
about, 7, 273
as collaboration tool, 60, 445
malware and, 297
Wikiitude, 400
WiMax, 279, 285
Windows Live Messenger, 264
Windows Server (Microsoft), 177, 180, 182, 248, 254, 323
Windows Vista (Microsoft), 323
Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (Microsoft), 303
Windows Vista Ultimate (Microsoft), 323
Wintel standard, 168, 174, 175
wired equivalent privacy. *See* WEP
wireless advertising, 400–401
wireless handheld devices, 245
wireless Internet access, 277–279, 284
wireless modems, 253
wireless networks
about, 276
security challenges to, 295–296, 316–317
security measures for, 316–317
wireless platforms, 248
wireless sensor networks. *See* WSNs
wireless technology, 9, 37, 245, 275–281
wireless transmission media, 256–257, 284
wisdom, 417
"wisdom of crowds," 57, 391–392
WMS. *See* Warehouse Management System
word processing software, as disruptive technology, 87
work
changed by technology, 144
changing nature of, 56
*See also* jobs
work crossovers, 448
workgroup collaboration, 61
workgroup network model, 254
WorkZone (software), 66
World Intellectual Property Organization Treaty, 141
World Wide Web, 21, 87, 175, 261
*See also* Web
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), 189, 260, 284
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. *See* WiMax
worms (malware), 296, 326
WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2), 316
WSDL (Web services description language), 190
WSNs (wireless sensor networks), 281, 285
X
Xanga.com, 273
Xbox 360!, 411
Xboxlive.com, 388
Xdrive.com, 383
XML (extensible markup language), 189–190
Y
Yahoo!, 118, 121, 134, 137, 270, 278, 287–289, 382, 383, 401
Yahoo! Messenger, 264
YouTube, 102, 118, 119, 136, 262, 271, 272, 389
Z
ZCS. *See* Zimbra Collaboration Suite
Zeus (trojan horse), 291, 298
Zillow.com, 141
Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS), 512
Zoho Notebook Project, 66
## REVIEWERS AND CONSULTANTS
### CONSULTANTS
#### AUSTRALIA
Robert MacGregor, University of Wollongong
Alan Underwood, Queensland University of Technology
#### CANADA
Wynne W. Chin, University of Calgary
Len Fertuck, University of Toronto
Robert C. Goldstein, University of British Columbia
Rebecca Grant, University of Victoria
Kevin Leonard, Wilfrid Laurier University
Anne B. Pidduck, University of Waterloo
#### GERMANY
Lutz M. Kolbe, University of Göttingen
Detlef Schoder, University of Cologne
#### GREECE
Anastasios V. Katos, University of Macedonia
#### HONG KONG
Enoch Tse, Hong Kong Baptist University
#### INDIA
Sanjiv D. Vaidya, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
#### ISRAEL
Phillip Ein-Dor, Tel-Aviv University
Peretz Shoval, Ben Gurion University
#### MEXICO
Noe Urzua Bustamante, Universidad Tecnológica de México
#### NETHERLANDS
E.O. de Brock, University of Groningen
Theo Thiadens, University of Twente
Charles Van Der Mast, Delft University of Technology
#### PUERTO RICO, Commonwealth of the United States
Brunilda Marrero, University of Puerto Rico
#### SOUTH AFRICA
Daniel Botha, University of Stellenbosch
#### SWEDEN
Mats Daniels, Uppsala University
#### SWITZERLAND
Andrew C. Boynton, International Institute for Management Development
Walter Brenner, University of St. Gallen
Donald A. Marchand, International Institute for Management Development
#### UNITED KINGDOM
##### ENGLAND
G.R. Hidderley, University of Central England, Birmingham
Christopher Kimble, University of York
Jonathan Liebenau, London School of Economics and Political Science
Kecheng Liu, Staffordshire University
##### SCOTLAND
William N. Dyer, Falkirk College of Technology
#### UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Tom Abraham, Kean University
Evans Adams, Fort Lewis College
Kamal Nayan Agarwal, Howard University
Roy Alvarez, Cornell University
Chandra S. Amaravadi, Western Illinois University
Beverly Amer, Northern Arizona University
John Anderson, Northeastern State University
Arben Asllani, Fayetteville State University
David Bahn, Metropolitan State University of Minnesota
Rahul C. Basole, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jon W. Beard, University of Richmond
Patrick Becka, Indiana University Southeast
Michel Benaroch, Syracuse University
Cynthia Bennett, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
David Bradbard, Winthrop University
Nancy Brome, Southern NH University
Kimberly Cass, University of Redlands
Jason Chen, Gonzaga University
P. C. Chu, Ohio State University, Columbus
Kungwen Chu, Purdue University, Calumet
Richard Clemens, West Virginia Wesleyan College
Lynn Collen, St. Cloud State University
Daniel Connolly, University of Denver
Jakov Crnkovic, SUNY Albany
Albert Cruz, National University
John Dalphin, SUNY Potsdam
Marica Deeb, Waynesburg College
William DeLone, American University
Vasant Dhar, New York University
Cindy Drexel, Western State College of Colorado
Warren W. Fisher, Stephen F. Austin State University
William B. Fredenberg, Valdosta State University
Bob Fulkerth, Golden Gate University
Mark A. Fuller, Baylor University
Minnie Ghent, Florida Atlantic University
Amita Goyal, Virginia Commonwealth University
Bobby Granville, Florida A&M University
Jeet Gupta, Ball State University
Vijay Gurbaxani, University of California, Irvine
Rassule Hadidi, University of Illinois, Springfield
Jeff Harper, Indiana State University
William L. Harrison, Oregon State University
Joe Harrison, Union University
Albert M. Hayashi, Loyola Marymount University
Anthony Hendrickson, Iowa State University
Michelle Hepner, University of Central Oklahoma
Rick Hicks, Florida Atlantic University
Marianne Hill, Furman University
Bart Hodge, Virginia Commonwealth University
Jack Hogue, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Rui Huang, Binghamton University, SUNY
George Jacobson, California State University, Los Angeles
Carolyn Jacobson, Marymount University
Murray Jennex, University of Phoenix
Rob Kauffman, University of Minnesota
Timothy Kayworth, Baylor University
Robert W. Key, University of Phoenix
Stephen Klein, Ramapo College
Virginia Kleist, West Virginia State University
Cenk Kocas, Michigan State University
Brian Kovar, Kansas State University
Al Lederer, University of Kentucky
Robert Lee, Chapman University
Roger Letts, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Stanley Lewis, The University of Southern Mississippi
Teresita Leyell, Washburn University
Susan K. Lippert, George Washington University
Bruce Lo, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Carl Longnecker, Loyola University
Treise Lynn, Wingate University
Jane Mackay, Texas Christian University
Efrem G. Mallach, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Gary Margot, Ashland University
Kipp Martin, University of Chicago
Richard O. Mason, Southern Methodist University
Khris McAlister, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Ronald E. McGaughey, Arkansas Tech University
Roger McHaney, Kansas State University
Patricia McQuaid, California Polytechnic State Institute
Charles Menifield, University of Memphis
Lisa Miller, University of Central Oklahoma
Cindi Nadelman, New England College
Peter J. Natale, Regent University
Denise Nitterhouse, DePaul University
Alan Graham Peace, West Virginia University
Leah R. Pietron, University of Nebraska
Jack Powell, University of South Dakota
Leonard Presby, William Patterson University
Sheizaf Rafaeli, University of Michigan
Sasan Rahmatian, California State University, Fresno
Mary Reed, Jamestown College
Brian Reithel, University of Mississippi
Eliot Rich, University at Albany, SUNY
Leasa Richards-Mealy, Columbia College
James Riha, Northern Illinois University
Stephanie Robbins, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Marcel Robelis, University of North Dakota
Juan Robertson, Central Washington University
Ian Robinson, University of San Francisco
Alan Roper, Golden Gate University
Paula Ruby, Arkansas State University
Naveed Saleem, University of Houston, Clear Lake
Joko W. Saputro, University of Wisconsin, Madison
David Scanlan, California State University, Sacramento
Werner Schenk, University of Rochester
Kala Chand Seal, Loyola Marymount University
Richard S. Segall, Arkansas State University
Sherri Shade, Kennesaw State University
Ivan J. Singer, University of Hartford
Rod Sink, Northern Illinois University
Jill Y. Smith, University of Denver
Guy Smith, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Kathy Stevens, Merrimack College
Troy Strader, Drake University
Dennis Strouble, Bowling Green State University
Michael JD Sutton, Kent State University
E. Burton Swanson, University of California, Los Angeles
Gladys Swindler, Fort Hays State University
Bernadette Szajna, Texas Christian University
John Tarjan, California State University, Bakersfield
Pam Taylor, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
David Teneyuca, Schreiner University
Claire Theriault-Perkins, University of Maine at Augusta
Jennifer Thomas, Pace University
Kranti Toraskar, Penn State University
Goran Trajkovski, Towson University
Duane Truex, Georgia State University
Douglas Turner, State University of West Georgia
B.S. Vijayaraman, University of Akron
Patrick J. Walsh, State University of New York, Binghamton
Diane Walz, University of Texas, San Antonio
Peter Weill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Frederick Wheeler, University of Maryland, University College
Lanny Wilke, Montana State University-Northern
Karen L. Williams, University of Texas at San Antonio
Jennifer Williams, University of Southern Indiana
Paul Witman, California Lutheran University
Erma Wood, University of Arkansas, Little Rock
Kathie Wright, Purdue University | d4588496-73ae-4021-909c-cb1a0627e30e | CC-MAIN-2024-33 | http://repo.darmajaya.ac.id/5160/1/Management%20Information%20Systems%20MANAGING%20THE%20DIGITAL%20FIRM%20%28%20PDFDrive%20%29.pdf | 2024-08-09T15:11:29+00:00 | crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-33/segments/1722640767846.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20240809142005-20240809172005-00856.warc.gz | 23,095,721 | 419,336 | eng_Latn | eng_Latn | 0.957429 | eng_Latn | 0.831024 | [
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